Raikkonen wants to keep on rallying

F1 Fanatic round-up

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Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus, Barcelona, 2012
In the round-up: Kimi Raikkonen admits he’d like to keep rallying during his F1 comeback.

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Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

Raikkonen: I won’t change (The Telegraph)

“I still love [rallying]. If I could do it this year at the same time as Formula One I would. I think it’s good practice and it’s good fun.”

Mercedes: F-Duct Front Wing operated by the Rear Wing DRS (Scarbs F1)

“The DRS rules are quite clear that the flap must not be shaped to allow other aerodynamic benefits. In fact this wording affects only a portion of the flap and additionally the endplate is excluded from this wording. If the team could find a way to blow into the front wing a duct when DRS is activated, then the [F-duct front wing] could work synchronously with the DRS.”

Domenicali: “A new challenge begins” (Ferrari)

“I wish to repeat what I said before, we still need to wait a few days before knowing where we stand in relation to the others. I’m convinced that we will be in the fight and we will be there right to the end.”

Webber: Red Bull is in good shape (Autosport)

“We believe it is going in the right direction, but it only takes two or three tenths of a second and we need to do more. Let’s see when the gloves are off over the weekend, and then still we need to go to Malaysia to see a slightly different track as well because Melbourne is a specific place.”

Poor relations still live the dream (The Times, subscription required)

Graeme Lowdon: “In terms of a challenge, we never shy away. It is what it is all about, the competitive DNA that makes you get involved in the first place. But it is a huge test of patience when some of the bigger issues facing the sport are ignored.”

Motor racing-Aussie Ricciardo wants points in home race debut (Reuters)

“To finish in the points is the real goal that I’m after. I guess we’ll see where our performance is on Saturday in qualifying.”

Comment of the day

Not many of you were happy to see the FIA add a second DRS zone in Melbourne. Mads said:

In my opinion it worked best in Melbourne last year.

No free overtakes but it closed the cars up so they could fight for the rest of the lap, or at least the driver behind would have to make a serious effort to get close enough to overtake by the help of the DRS.

So now its ruined by two DRS zones and on top of that only a single detection zone.
Mads

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On this day in F1

The F1 community sent messages of support to Japan following the earthquake and tsunami which had recently devastated parts of the country this time last year:

Image © Lotus F1 Team/LAT

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80 comments on “Raikkonen wants to keep on rallying”

  1. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, president of Argentina, has (supposedly) just announced that Formula 1 will return to Argentina in November/December 2013, with a street circuit planned for Mar del Plata (which was Bernie’s preferred location when he said he wanted a race in Argentina a few years ago). According to Fernandez, the three-year contract has not been signed yet, but it is “almost complete”.

    1. And here’s an article in support, courtesy of Google Translate:

      To the surprise of many, the President’s Office, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, announced that Formula 1 could return to the country next year. “God willing, we will have the Formula 1 in Argentina,” said the first president in a ceremony at Government House.

      Of unexpected, as it was not scheduled by agenda, the president made the announcement at the ceremony in which the pilots received the Dakar 2012, rally competition that was held in Argentina earlier this year. In the words of Cristina, is not yet closed the deal, but Formula 1 in the country would in principle for three years (2013, 2014 and 2015).

      Full article here.

    2. Unfortunately, as much as I’d like to be thrilled to hear this news, I’m slightly prejudiced against Argentina for certain personal views of mine.

      But I’d hope other people will celebrate the news on my behalf. There’s plenty of F1 history tied up in Argentina.

      1. Gotta say that the current political situation means I don’t have a lot of good will for Argentina, but it is good to see a historic F1 nation getting a race back (as long as the circuit is up to scratch).

        1. I’m sorry, what? You’re implying Argentina shouldn’t have a race because of a diplomatic dispute over the Falklands Islands? I can understand objections to the Bahrain Grand Prix – even if I don’t necessarily agree with some of the viewpoints – but not this. Since when does Great Britain control Formula 1? Why should the calendar reflect British public and/or political opinion before any other nation’s?

          1. I quite implicitly implied that I was, in-fact, glad for F1 that Argentina may be getting a race.

            I also quite implicitly outlined that my personal views stop me from being happy for Argentina itself, and that my views are a bit stupid in that regard, because I’m happy enough to recognised I’m being unreasonable that my own personal views are impinging on common reason.

            I think you’ll find you’re searching for a debate that isn’t really here. So your bait is, unfortunately, not taken.

          2. They did not say that, nor did they overtly imply anything – they just expressed their personal prejudice or lack of goodwill about a political situation with specific country….they did not say “a race should not go there”…..do not put words in other people’s mouths to create an argument – thank you

          3. I don’t think you read my post. I said I don’t have good will for the country. Then I said it is good to see the country get a race despite that. And I never equated my personal opinion of a place to being the deciding factor of whether it gets a race, nor that the calender should reflect the UK’s political standing. I think you’re searching for a debate that isn’t there.

    3. If the race were to go ahead at Mar del Plata, it would no doubt have the obligatory waterfront section. Which isn’t nearly as bad as it sounds in this case, because there’s some great stuff that could be used. With the positive receptions that India, Austin and Port Imperial have all received, Tilke – or whoever designs the circuit – would be mad not to use this stuff.

      Although the section along Paseo Jesus de Gallindez would probably need to be widened. Still, that could easily be done in the space of eighteen months.

    4. Remember when I told you the Velociudad proyect was just a rip off? here’s the proof.

      to be honest, this is terrible news for us argentineans, taking aside the face that i’d more than enjoy a race in my country.

      To spend 50 million dollars in a F1 race, plus the costs of building a racetrack out of no where, in a major city like Mar del Plata, it’s just ridiculous. We had a train crash disaster 3 weeks ago, 50 people died, and instead of investing in public transport, with all the corruption that goes along that, and the whole public transport system, plus the rubbish situation we currently have, we have a F1 race?

      It’s just idiotic in every way. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner hails herself as being “the queen of the people”, and criticizes Menem, the President in the 90’s that virtually killed the country, and now she’s doing exactly the same thing: bringing back F1 to the country.

      I’m sorry, there’s much more in need before that.

      1. Bernie has been accused of many things, but to the best of my knowledge, he’s never been accused of being irresponsible with money. His entire business model only works if host nations can consistently afford a race. Do you honestly think he would enter into an arrangement with potential host nation if he was not confident they could pay for their event? And if so, when was the last time he forced a host country to hold and pay for a Grand Prix, even when he knew they could not afford it?

        1. I didn’t read him mention Bernie, did you?

          1. If Fernandez is trying to get a Grand Prix in Argentina, who else is she going to deal with? Who would the money be paid to? Whose name and signature would appear on the contract?

            If Fernandez wants a race, she has to deal with Bernie. And, like I said, when was the last time Bernie dealt with potential host nation who clearly couldn’t afford a race?

          2. But Fer No.65 didn’t criticize Bernie. He was criticizing Argentina’s leaders attempted to get a race in the first place.

            Argentina can afford a race… But the money would be better spent elsewhere…

          3. Argentina can afford a race… But the money would be better spent elsewhere…

            So could every other race on the calendar. Like I said, the money spent on the Australian Grand Prix could be better-spent on dealing with illegal asylum seekers. The money spent on the Spanish and European Grands Prix could be used to fix the country’s 25% unemployment rate. The money spent on the Japanese Grand Prix could be better-spent cleaning up the Fukushima power plant.

            So why is it any different in Argentina?

        2. What’s Bernie got to do with the Argentine Govt. Better think Nero, if you can’t win a war settle for a circus.

          1. *facepalm*

            What does Bernie have to do with Argentina?

            Everything.

            Bernie controls the calendar. Anyone wanting a Grand Prix has to go through him. Even the Argentine government. Bernie will want to know where the money is coming from, and if he doesn’t think it’s feasible, then he’s not going to grant them a race.

        3. Bernie is never irresponsible with his own money. He dropped many GPs that could not afford to pay the fees or were asking for lower fees. He wouldnt care if Argentina puled out after 3 years because they could no longer afford the race. He would find another country to replace them. I’m surprised you are so naive PM.

          1. If Bernie is as greedy as everyone makes him out to be (which I personally doubt to be the case – put in his shoes, I think everyone would do exactly what he already does), then it is in his interests to deal with people who can sustain a race for an extended period of time. If he has all these races falling apart for financial reasons after two or three years, new events aren’t going to want to commit. Therefore, it’s in Bernie’s interests to only work with people who (at the very least) can see out their first contract. He wouldn’t be in the position he is in today if he simply took the money and ran at the earliest opportunity.

          2. the deal he signed with Valencia is for 7 years but when they cant afford the race all of a sudden “we dont need two races in Spain, they can alternate”. Bernie is prone to change his mind pretty quickly. What mnakes you think that wont happen with Argentina?

          3. The deal with Valencia was signed before the European soverign debt crisis emerged. If it weren’t for the recession and the subsequent failing Euro, Valencia would still be able to afford its race. When the contract was first signed, Valencia was both willing and able to meet all of its obligations to FOM.

        4. Mate, sometimes I feel you don’t care about other’s comments.

          Your post has nothing to do with mine, hence it’s not a response, it just grabs something out of no where.

          I didn’t say anything about Bernie. What I’m saying is that this is just ridiculous to have a race here.

          1. I didn’t say anything about Bernie. What I’m saying is that this is just ridiculous to have a race here.

            Your issue is the money being spent on the race. That money would be paid to Bernie. What I want to know is whether you think Bernie would knowingly enter into a contract with someone that he knows cannot afford to pay, because based on your criticisms of Fernandez for agreeing to this, you clearly think that the money earmarked for a race is money that the country cannot afford to spend on a Grand Prix. That’s why I’m bringing up Bernie: I want to know if you think Bernie would agree to a race if he felt the same way about Argentina’s economic situation as you do.

            I am bemused that I have to explain this to you. It has been fairly clear that this is what I have been asking from the beginning.

          2. @prisioner-monkeys Seriously, mate.

            you clearly think that the money earmarked for a race is money that the country cannot afford to spend on a Grand Prix.

            Do I? really? Do you live in my head to say such thing? Stop putting words in my mouth that don’t belong there. I never said such thing, I don’t even think that way. I never said the country wouldn’t be able to pay the fees imposed by Bernie.

            You’re asking something out of no-where, mate. NO WHERE. And you always do, really.

            I’m sure the country is and will be able to pay Bernie. They’ll be able to build the circuit, pay Herman Tilke for the design and construction, and we’ll even full the grandstands all three days. That’s totally out of the question.

            What I’m saying, what I said right from the beginning, is that it’s just stupid to spend all that money on something we really don’t need, with all the uncertainity surrounding our country, and the pathetic situation we’re living.

          3. PM – he never said that Arg couldn’t afford it, he said that there were much better things to spend the money on that should prioritise over spending 50 million on an F1 race. Stop trolling.

      2. I guess this blog gives arguments (http://www.f1katewalker.com/1/post/2012/03/dont-shy-from-me-argentina.html) to support your view as an outside viewer as well @fer-no65

        1. @bascb that’s been happening for quite a while and no one cares about the inflation numbers anymore since 2007.

          It’s a massive contradiction too. Supermarkets raise the price more and more, and the inflation numbers are tiny!

          1. I guess most people make their own conclusions from what they see around them instead of watching for statistics then.

          2. @bascb it’d be better if the numbers had something to do with reality. But it’s something they do to be competitive in the international market, “hiding” the real situation from everyone but us.

          3. I don’t know anything about the situation in Argentina, although I’ve started to get an education on it from the above comments. Just a thought…here in Canada, even though BE gets his cut, he also had to back down on his exhorbitant demands due to him being pressured by the teams that really really wanted to come to Montreal, and felt they really really needed to be in North America. But my point being, I have heard that the race is worth about 100 mill to the city of Montreal and the province of Quebec when you factor in the world’s F1 fans attending and watching Montreal for a weekend. Hotels, restaurants, etc all benefitting.

            ie. Are we sure that a race in Argentina would result in a cost of 50 mill? Or will there not be a badly needed injection of money coming in to the community from Argentina being an F1 stage for a weekend? Tourism, F1 fans from around the world encroaching on the area. Could it not be a positive thing in the end? Sounds to me like external sources of revenue are badly needed, unless of course said revenues will be squandered by corruption.

          4. Are we sure that a race in Argentina would result in a cost of 50 mill?

            Nope. Istanbul lost their race when the Turkish government balked at the asking price of $26 million for a renewed contract because it was double what they were already paying.

  2. I thought James Allen’s Australian GP preview was pretty interesting. Something I didn’t know- Pirelli designed this season’s tires to degrade quickly if abused right off the bat. Does this mean an end to Vettel’s seemingly inhuman ability to gain a 3 second advantage every freaking race after the first lap? I certainly hope so.

    1. Someone needs to tell Hamilton about those tyres as well!

  3. Don’t mean to stir up bad blood or re-hash old arguments but I found a press release from
    our Canadian F1 broadcaster stating they’d be televising all 20 races live with the BBC feed.
    http://ctvmedia.ca/tsn/releases/release.asp?id=14906&yyyy=2012
    I think it’s absolutely ridiculous that the BBC is recording EVERY race live but is only broadcasting
    half the races to the UK audience while Canada is getting all of them. They’re spending the money to create the program anyway!! How does that make sense!!

    1. cos sky have paid the ££££ to have the uk market.

      bbc will always record the feed live and then trim it down for the highlights show. if they recorded the commentary after the event it would sound false and dull.

    2. The BBC is not recording every race. They have signed on as a terrestrial broadcaster. Sky have the exclusive rights to Formula 1. They record every race. The terrestrial broadcasters – like the BBC, ONE HD, and so on – acquire the world feed, which is the recording from Sky. By purchasing the terrestrial rights, the BBC automatically get every race sent to them. They don’t go to any extra effort to record them; it’s part and parcel of what they signed up for.

      1. @prisoner-monkeys
        You wouldn’t happen to know what commentary we are getting here in Australia would you?
        I’m really hoping it will get the Sky fellas

        1. As far as I know, the plan is for Sky.

          1. Excellent.
            Guess we will find out tomorrow, if not Saturday

          2. Well, they only have a choice between Sky or doing it themselves. They can’t get the BBC commentary; they’re not allowed to use it. And since most of what the ONE HD commentators say is utter drivel, Sky’s commentary should be the logical alternative. Ten was smart enough to recognise this when the BBC and ITV were broadcasting the races, so I don’t see what would change.

          3. @prisoner-monkeys there was the year channel ten decided to do the commentary of the Australian GP, 2005 I believe. I spent the whole of the warm-up lap waiting for them to hand over to the ITV guys, then when the lights came on it dawned on me they were going to do the commentary.
            It was a sad sad day, but happily it is yet to be repeated since.

          4. @johnson102

            It was a sad sad day, but happily it is yet to be repeated since.

            There is probably a reason for that – Channel Ten’s commentators aren’t very good. They only ever describe what it happening on-screen at any given moment, and offer no insight (like Coulthard and DC describing how to make the tyes work). They have no access to the pit lane the way Ted Kravitz does, and no access to the drivers the way Lee McKenzie did/Natalie Pinkham will. And their “expert” commentary was laden with errors – mis-calling the action, factual innaccuracies, and an out-of-context and over-emphasised focus on Mark Webber (for example, Webber pitted for new tyres two laps before Hamilton, and promptly caught him on the circuit before Hamilton pitted; the commentators made a big fuss over this when anyone watching the race knew it wasn’t a straight overtake).

            There was also a definite tonal shift between 2010 and 2011. In 2010, the commentators often gave their thoughts about the race to date on either side of an ad break instead of cutting back to the BBC (most notoriously at Valencia in 2010 with the safety car incident). But in 2011, they would only stay around long enough to re-introduce the action – there was no punditry, no analysis; nothing. I suspect someone at Channel Ten told them that they are to cut straight back to the world feed as soon as the commercials are over. Which was only ever a good thing.

          5. Simply put, I could do a far better job on commentating on F1 simply because I have a base interest in the subject.

            When the 10 commentators tackle V8 Supercars instead, they are actually not bad, but for F1, they are neither interested nor talented.

          6. Are you sure that the BBC commentary will be unavailable for those buying their footage through them @prisoner-monkeys (Please provide confirmation of that)? Offering commentary for others who pay them for it might be the real reason of why the BBC said they would send people out to each race and do live commentary on it before then making an edit to be shown for the races that are not broad-casted live by them in the UK.

          7. @bascb – It is my understanding that the broadcast rights are structured with one primary broadcaster (Sky) and multiple terrestrial broadcasters (the BBC, ONE HD, and so on). The telecast can only be purchased from the primary broadcaster. A terrestrial broadcaster is free to modify the telecast as they like – ie edit it down, add their own commentary, and so on – but they cannot sell any part of it on to any other broadcaster. This is to stop terrestrial broadcasters from purchasing the rights to broadcast the races, and then selling them on to other broadcasters for a profit, and the reason for this is that television rights make up the end-of-season pay-out that is given to the top ten teams in the World Constructors’ Championship. Any money that is being paid to a terrestrial broadcaster for the footage they had already purchased from the primary broadcaster is not going to the teams, and the teams will not like that at all.

            So to the best of my knowledge, the BBC is not supplying footage to anyone. So TSN should not be allowed to purchase anything from the BBC.

          8. Hm, well as the BBC were the ones who bought the rights from FOM in the first place, and now only agreed a deal where Sky “shares” part of that – i.e. live coverage of all events for the UK, it might well be that the subject being as you call the “primary broadcaster” is still the BBC.

            I can understand a lot as well, but unless we get more on this from someone who actually knows, that is all we can do @prisoner-monkeys

            At least we will probably learn more about that this weekend as well, as multiple stations worldwide will be either showing footage from one of these two, or mixed or whatever.

          9. Ten have confirmed SKY, they had the choice apparently, (and chose wisely I think)

      2. i meant recording their commentary live.

    3. That is ridiculous. Then again, I guess the only thing this means is that Canada gets BBC commentary, which was obviously going to be recorded live to make a decent highlights show.

      1. Maybe there will be a pirate feed of the Canadian broadcast.

    4. the simple answer is that the costs of making the program is negligible compared to the fees they have to pay to FOM. The cost cutting from the BBC point of view was to reduce those fees (having SKy pay most of it), not the costs of making the actual program.

    5. Ummmm…I’ve read the article Cacarella refers to, and I don’t see where it says all 20 races are BBC ones, but it does mention BBC’s Ben Edwards and DC doing the commentary of all 20 races…ie. I thought this meant that TSN had bought those races they needed to from Sky, and the others from BBC, but perhaps it makes more sense and is as Prisoner Monkeys has suggested, that BBC will still have coverage of all the races, them having gotten the feed from Sky where needed and adding their own commentary, and so in that sense perhaps TSN here in Canada can if fact say all 20 races they will show are BBC one’s. Anyway, bottom line is I am thrilled that we will be getting all the races but we actually didn’t get that confirmed by TSN until about 6 weeks ago, so I spent the off-season wondering how it would work, and not getting any answers back from my emails to TSN. Just as a note of interest TSN is The Sports Network which is available on even the most basic cable or satellite packages…that said, we spend over $100 bucks a month for our TV package overall. Is Sky different in that it is only available as an extra expense? We have a ‘bundle’ of sports channels we can subscribe to and in general to get TSN you get some other sports networks with it in a group or a ‘theme’ as they call it. Another example of a theme would be some movie channels that could be selected as one of the themes you could pick among for example 7 themes for $90 plus tax.

      1. @Robbie LOL, I spent the off season scared and confused as well!!!
        Last year or the year before they showed a few of the Qualifying sessions (I don’t remember if there were races) on TSN2 which basic cable just didn’t get you. I forked out the extra money to Rogers in fear that they might show more races regularly on the channel and then they never used the TSN2 for F1 again. Damn you to hell CRTC and TSN!!!

  4. Update from construction in Austin: work on the main grandstand is about to begin, with the arrival of the ‘mother of all cranes’ yesterday.

    1. Thanks for the updates PM – useful to keep tabs on this circuit.

  5. I have mixed feelings about Raikkonen, but his return to F1 is certainly bringing some extra excitement and anticipation to this year’s grid. His Lotus shows good potential, and I’m pulling for him and his team to add a bit of spice to the mix up near the pointy end.

  6. I some how doubt Lotus would let Raikkonen rally given the bad experiences (ie. Kubica).

    1. That’s exactly what I was thinking

    2. Snap. It’s not worked well for them in the past. But hey, lightening can’t strike twice… surely?

      1. Really? They let Kimi go snowmobile and break his wrist (which he admitted on Top Gear recently). Lotus covered the fact up, probably not be ridiculed over the matter, but it seems they learned nothing.

        1. Cyclops. That wrist injury was glossed over at the time, but the scar looked pretty nasty when he showed it on Top Gear.

    3. The Telegraph article linked to in this round-up has a quote from Kimi confirming that he is not allowed to go rallying under the current terms of his contract.

  7. Lol, didn’t take Kimi long to get bored!

  8. Those jokes about Lotus and Microsoft are the funniest things I’ve ever seen… At least.

  9. That’s worrying sign for Lotus.

  10. Stop writing off the BBC coverage before it has even had a chance! Who really knows what it’ll be like, as with the true pace of the cars, until Melbourne Qualy.

  11. “I wish to repeat what I said before, we still need to wait a few days before knowing where we stand in relation to the others. I’m convinced that we will be in the fight and we will be there right to the end.”

    Does anybody else get the feeling that the left hand and the right hand don’t know what the other is doing at Ferrari? Pat Fry says early podiums are out of the question. Luca di Montezemolo deines there is a problem. Stefano Domenicali is refusing to commit one way or the other. And Fernando Alonso remains hopeful. It doesn’t bode well for their season.

    1. Pat Fry is saying it like he see’s it, Stefano is in the firing line so won’t say anything and Luca is an idiot.

      Alonso, rightly wants a car that can compare to his talent.

      1. That’s how I see it anyway.

        Actually, to be fair to Luca, He NEEDS Ferrari to do well, not only for his position in F1 and Ferrari, but to back up any attempt he makes that Italian politics.

        1. I keep forgetting he wants to go into Italian politics. His comments about allowing a team to run a Ferrari customer chassis and forcing them to field an Italian driver suddenly make so much more sense.

    2. Except when they had Brawn it was ever thus.

      1. I’m not sure the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing…I get the impression they all know they need more time with the car, and that’s about all they know, and thus still have outstanding knowledge that they can’t speak to right now. I think Fry may be assuming that since they need to learn more about the car they won’t likely podium this weekend ie. any team that needs to understand their car more might inherently be starting on their hind foot vs. teams that know more what they have.

        LdM might be denying any problem because as far as he may be concerned they have a fast car but just haven’t found it’s sweet spot…just need a little more time, that being their only problem, not necessarily that this all means the car will be slow all season.

        SD may be refusing to commit, again, because they just don’t entirely know right now what they have. There is no reason right now to assume they are slow and will remain so. Not when they haven’t yet found the cars optimum settings…and when they do that they will know whether they are slow or not.

        And it is all relative…they have to see how fast the other teams are before they know how fast or slow they themselves are.

        And FA being hopeful? Why wouldn’t he…he too doesn’t yet know what they have and is no doubt chomping at the bit to get behind the wheel and find their way and for now is best advised to remain positive while they still have outstanding questions.

        What would be the point in painting themselves the darkest picture possible? Anything can happen in F1 and usually does. Red Bull may have to withdraw their EBD type funneling/tunneling of exhaust gases…etc etc. Some tracks may naturally come to the Ferrari rather than the other way around.

        It’s a long season…let’s give Ferrari some room to breath and get it sorted out. They couldn’t have expected to simply tweak last year’s car and start beating this year’s Red Bulls. They had to do something and they haven’t intentionally put themselves in a bad spot…it has just worked out that they didn’t nail their new effort straight out of the box. I think that is more normal in F1 than to heavily revise a car and have it immediately be magic. If that were the case F1 would be far easier and would have a far different face to it.

  12. what if Kimi has a major crash while rallying? That would make 2 top class drivers in the same team. Surely, Lotus will stop Kimi from rallying given their past experience with Kubica.

  13. He is good at bending rally cars though.

  14. Can’t say I blame Raikkonen for wanting to get behind a rally car again. I’m sure he will do in the future when he’s definitely finished with F1. I think he had a pretty good experience in the WRC so I’ll be keen to see him go there again.

  15. Autosport is reporting the Mercedes W03 rear wing is legal. All other teams to no doubt make a similar system

    1. Judging by the Scarbs article, that’s going to take some time – it’s an immensely complex system, and if the speculated design is anything to go by, it will be very difficult to replicate simply because teams cannot alter their survival cells once they are homologated, and the W03’s channel passes stright through its cell.

  16. The FDFW is definitely some food for thought going into the weekend, and will no doubt be a big talking point throughout. It’ll be very interesting to see how much of an advantage it can give Mercedes, and whether or not they have made more significant progress than I and certainly a lot of other people originally thought.

    At the very least, it should sort out some of the handling issues that they experienced last season, which is definitely a positive.

  17. Petrov has said that Alonso is a pay-driver recently due to Santander sponsoring , and I really admire him for saying that. But it does make me think, did Ferrari sign Alonso for that reason and that reason only? A huge part of me says no, because Ferrari have been around since the start, and did they even need more money? I suppose not, I even go as far as to think many Italians would give Ferrari money of their own to see them do well. Whereas Renault and Caterham, are not doing well financially, which is why they will do anything for more money, signing Petrov who brings in Russian sponsorship, is doing just that. I am not saying Vitaly is bad, he is an exceptional driver, but teams won’t sign him for that reason only, whereas any team would even prepare to go into financial difficulty to get a top driver, example – Marussia Virgin for 2011 were prepared to go without extra sponsorship by not signing JDA to di Grassi’s seat by signing the Hulk. Teams will do anything to sign Alonso, Hamilton, Button, Vettel etc. Whereas top teams like Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull won’t need extra sponsorship, but if they can have it, they have it, but the teams like Marussia, HRT, Williams etc. may really need it, so Petrov could go there, but through having sponsorship. See what I mean? Luca :)

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