Unwell Hamilton misses Thursday at the track

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round-up: Lewis Hamilton missed the media day ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix with a suspected allergy.

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Hamilton illness scare ahead of Chinese GP

“The 2008 world champion missed his scheduled press engagements as Mercedes confirmed he was experiencing eye and nose problems.”

Damon Hill challenges FIA president Jean Todt to clarify Bahrain stance (The Guardian)

“Jean Todt’s approach has been to say nothing, because otherwise you’re being critical, and I think that is a mistake. Because he’s being used, or the sport is being perceived as being used, by its engagement in the economy and the reputation of the country.”

Toro Rosso addresses exhaust burning (Autosport)

“Toro Rosso will introduce a modified exhaust at the Chinese Grand Prix to prevent a repeat of the overheating problems that forced Daniel Ricciardo to retire from the opening two races of the season.”

Williams’ daughter takes the driving seat (FT, registration required)

Claire Williams: “Personally, I just want to see if I can do the job. I am deputy team principal. I might take over, but I might not.”

Q&A with Force India’s Adrian Sutil (F1)

“Yes, looking at it from the outside Shanghai should play to our advantage and with the Malaysia hiccups solved we should be able to fight for a good result and to bag some good points.”

F1 remains a tough sell in China (Japan Today)

“The race, which takes place this weekend in Shanghai, has struggled to fill the stands in recent years, and F1 found that Chinese viewership fell steeply last year. Sponsors also have been slow to sign on to the series with only a handful of Chinese companies endorsing any of the 11 teams.”

Schumacher becomes Mercedes ambassador (Reuters)

“Mercedes announced a long-term agreement with Michael Schumacher on Thursday for the retired seven times Formula One champion to become an ambassador for their brand focusing on future technology and road safety.”

The early days of timed qualifying (MotorSport)

“They had been doing it at the Indianapolis 500 since 1915 – over one lap initially, then four (from 1920), then 10 (from 1933), and then back to four (from 1939) – but this was the first occasion that a grid for a major European race was arranged according to lap times set during its practice sessions: fastest first.”

Red Bull raging (Sky)

Martin Brundle: “You could add in Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna – all the great champions were selfish winning machines and they really didn’t care too much about their reputations in that respect. I think there is a sporting line which you don’t cross – it is honour amongst thieves in many respects, but then I didn’t win three world championships and Sebastian Vettel already has at 25-years-old.”

Tweets

Comment of the day

@Craig-O on Fernando Alonso saying he can tolerate retiring from a few races per year:

Can Alonso afford “two or three” retirements to challenge for the title though? We’ve seen seasons where the winning driver have had zero or one retirement and only just won the title.

If we look back over recent years it’s more and more clear that picking up points is vital. Lewis Hamilton had six non-finishes last year in what was the quickest car and finished fourth in the championship, yet Kimi Raikkonen had the fourth quickest car yet finished third with only one non-points finish (despite running second for much of that race).

Over the last ten seasons (2003-2012) the champion has had only one or two retirements except for 2010, which was a very close season. In addition to this each driver who goes on to be champion only have a few non-points finishes: 2010 again was the highest with four.

A retirement early on in the season could prove very costly for Alonso, if the field is as close as we think (and hope).
@Craig-O

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On this day in F1

F1’s last race in Argentina was held 15 years ago today. Michael Schumacher won after a controversial collision with David Coulthard.

Mika Hakkinen claimed second ahead of Eddie Irvine.

Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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15 comments on “Unwell Hamilton misses Thursday at the track”

  1. Martin Brundle: “You could add in Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna – all the great champions were selfish winning machines and they really didn’t care too much about their reputations in that respect. I think there is a sporting line which you don’t cross – it is honour amongst thieves in many respects, but then I didn’t win three world championships and Sebastian Vettel already has at 25-years-old.”

    Good quote by Brundle that gets down to the heart of the matter in regards to team orders or just being sporting towards your teammate. But, then you look at Jim Clark and wonder why he never had a reputation as a “selfish winning machine”. One more reason to appreciate what he accomplished. Love them or hate them, the different personalities are part of what makes F1 so fascinating.

  2. Is it just me, or did the Japan Today article get pulled by them, the link goes on 404 and when searching for F1 the only recent article is about Red Bull inner team struggles @keithcollantine.

    1. Just read it now, I agree that F1 has to do far more to promote itself. That is very much true in China, but certainly not less so in Korea and in the USA.

      1. @bascb, Bernie is not going to spend any money on promotion, he leaves that to the track management and the TV rights holders to do, after all they are the ones that need to get a return on their investment, Bernie already has his.

        1. Yes, to the detriment of the sport sadly its only too true @hohum

  3. Re COTD: I don’t think the fact Alonso has had a retirementin itself is of primary concern (as of course the champion has had at least one retirement in the last 10 seasons) but it was the nature in which he retired that is of concern. It was a completely avoidable incident and indeed if it had been avoided he would still have been within a shout of a strong points finish.

    He mentions the law of averages, but that law is quite frankly mythical: each weekend the chance of a retirement due to mechanical problems and collisions remains almost constant. So the chances are is he could still very well have as many retirements from now as Vettel or the other predicted title contenders, so he may then grow to rue the decision to stay out which was frankly suicidal.

    To summarise, everyone has retirements but not everyone has avoidable retirements. That’s what I think will cost him.

    1. @Vettel1

      You are right it was a big gamble from Alonso and Ferrari to stay on the track rather than coming in … and it was totally avoidable… I am sure Ferrari and Alonso know that as much as we do… Alonso is just trying to downplay the significance of that decision and also try to sound optimistic at the same time … It may very well cost him at the end… But What happened has happened .. they cant change that decision now… so I think he is doing the right thing by sticking with his team and trying to sound optimistic…

    2. Becca Blue (@)
      12th April 2013, 18:23

      @vettel1 The thing that most surprised me was when Alonso said (on his website, I believe) that they would only have got 9th or 10th if they’d managed to change the wing, so it wasn’t a big loss.
      I get that it’s done and you have to remain positive and whatnot, but still, that’s a significant thing to say when you lost the last championship by 3 points…

      1. @beshoreblue – if we looked at Massa’s pace though and presumed that Alonso would be clearly faster, then I think he could very well have scored more than that. Indeed though, a 9th place could win him the championship, you never know!

        As @puneethvb correctly said though, what’s done is done – best to just get on with it. I was surprised by the way in which he almost tried to justify the decision though in this interview.

        1. Becca Blue (@)
          12th April 2013, 18:51

          @vettel1 I agree with all of the above. Now you’ll have to excuse me, I have an urgent need to pick an argument with someone :P

          1. @beshoreblue – I know that feeling! :P

  4. I really liked reading that interview with Sutil. It really seems as if he has matured a lot as a person. His answers feel like coming from someone who does have a mind of his own, knows where he stands and how he goes about his job.

    Great to see that, it shows how humans change over time, and with setbacks, and how they develop into a more complete person and driver with experience. Gives me hope of seeing Vettel and Hamilton develop more too :-)

  5. Lovely account of how motor racing embraced a timed practice to determine starting positions. I had never thought about it, but with this in mind suddenly the crazies ideas I have seen for determining a grid, including championship position, one lap qualifying, reversed grids etc, seen less counter-intuitive when one realizes that some of the greatest early races were started according to registration number or just randomly

  6. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    12th April 2013, 14:39

    Was that crash (Schum vs Coul) considered as a race incident. I see in the video how Coulthard closes the line so much, but Shcum’s ad already had some crashing rival’s profile

  7. “The 2008 world champion missed his scheduled press engagements as Mercedes confirmed he was experiencing eye and nose problems.”

    Apparently, Lewis poked himself in the eye with some chopsticks whilst attempting to eat pork fried rice. As a result, he detached his retina and thus couldn’t see a rogue chunk o’ pork on his philtrum. In the ensuing struggle to regain his sight and dignity (Sutil was sat at an adjacent table eating beef chow mein), he took a deep breath and inadvertently hoovered the stray pork piece up his freshly shaven nostrils. The pork was laced with reggae reggae sauce which irritated a small cut in Lewis’ left nostril (a cut sustained earlier that day when Lewis sneakily picked his nose when no-one was looking), the cut flared up and caused him sufficient breathing problems and as a result, he had to miss various media appointments…At least that’s what my mate Dave tells me.

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