Ecclestone: F1 put money into New Jersey race

F1 Fanatic round-up

Posted on

| Written by

In the round-up: Bernie Ecclestone says F1’s planned race in New Jersey should go ahead and that F1 has invested in it.

Links

Your daily digest of F1 news, views, features and more.

F1 has invested in New Jersey race, says Ecclestone (Reuters)

“There’s no reason why it shouldn’t happen. We’ve put money behind it to pay a lot of the things off, a lot of their debts. So I’m hoping now we are going to get it together.”

Ecclestone calls time on F1 feud with Daimler (The Telegraph)

“Bernie Ecclestone has put the brakes on a long-running feud with German car manufacturer Daimler by giving its chief financial officer a seat on the board of Formula One.”

German banker pulls appeal in F1 bribe case (Bloomberg Businessweek)

“A German court says a banker has withdrawn his appeal against his conviction last year for taking an illegal payment worth $44 million [£28.66m] in connection with the sale of his bank’s stake in the Formula One racing series.”

Martin Whitmarsh stays at McLaren despite more F1 pain in Spain (The Guardian)

“I don’t believe it’s is being considered at board level at the moment. I believe in the team, I believe we’re going to power through this, so I’m not considering anything other than getting this team back to where it belongs.”

McLaren are a hell of a long way off, says Jenson Button (BBC)

“Everyone is improving so you need to make a bigger step than them and I don’t think we’ve done that.”

Lotus E21 – ‘FRIC’ suspension system (F1)

“Hidden inside the E21’s left sidepod is the hydraulic actuator (lower arrow) that controls the car’s much-talked-about ‘FRIC’ (Front and Rear Inter-Connected) suspension system, which is understood to link the front and rear suspension hydraulically and can be adjusted in a similar way to the brake fluid.”

Montezemolo’s flying visit to Montmelo (Ferrari)

“I can only repeat what I have maintained for so long: this sport must remain a true laboratory of cutting edge technology and advanced research and must serve as a training ground for our engineers. I think there will be some interesting changes in the near future and I will do my utmost to ensure we go in that direction.”

Paul Di Resta: “We should be in the fight at some point” (Force India)

“We raced [Mercedes] at the last Grand Prix and they were on the front row, and we beat them by a comfortable margin. That might be more difficult here. I think you’ve got to be very open, it can change so much.”

2013 Spanish Grand Prix – Post-Qualifying Press Conference (FIA)

“I haven’t had the best of weekends up until now. Obviously this is still great for us today, to be one and two on the grid but I’ve just been struggling all weekend generally. Even my long runs have been pretty poor but on one lap pace, the car doesn’t seem to be too bad but I’ve just been a little bit lost generally, not really knowing what things to change and which direction to go, so I kind of didn’t really make many changes into P3 and into qualifying, I just left the car the same.”

Tweets

Comment of the day

Two drivers got penalties for impeding, one didn’t:

Penalties should be applied when it has a direct affect on the results. Of course Gutierrez and Massa were in the wrong and it does act as a deterrent for other drivers but its not liked their actions had any affect on the results.

What’s even funnier is that Maldonado was told to get out of the way by his team and failed to do so yet he somehow got away with it. What’s the difference between Maldonado blocking Button and the Gutierrez/Massa incidents?
@DaveF1

From the forum

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Steven!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

Stefano Modena, who turns 50 today, was the last driver to score a podium finish for Brabham with third place at Monaco in 1989. He was also the penultimate driver to claim a podium for another once-great team that collapsed in the nineties – Tyrrell – with second in Canada two years later.

The following year marked his final F1 campaign with Jordan, but his only points score in a season plagued with unreliability came at his last race.

Here he is having a dramatic high-speed crash at Silverstone’s Stowe corner while driving for Brabham in 1990:

Image © Red Bull/Getty

Author information

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

42 comments on “Ecclestone: F1 put money into New Jersey race”

  1. Disagree with COTD: it doesn’t matter whether it makes a difference to the standings in retrospect or not, the drivers still impeded someone on a flying lap which is against the rules and they were justifiably punished.

    As for Maldonado, he couldn’t really do much more to get out of the way: he was starting his own flying lap and Jenson just happened to meet him at the wrong time. I’m sure if he’d meg him two corners earlier Maldonado would’ve got out of the way but in that instance I don’t believe there was much else he could’ve done and the stewards seem to agree with me on that one.

    1. What’s the difference between Maldonado blocking Button and the Gutierrez/Massa incidents?

      The difference is Maldonado didn’t block Button, his car was never physically in the way, in fact it was pretty far ahead.

      1. I actually thought Button was totally unaffected by Maldonado. The replays showed him to be no where near him mid corner and Maldonado actually pulls away on the exit. I also didn’t like Button jumping and asking for someone to get a penalty, to me that’s not sporting at all.

        1. Indeed. It’s like the footballer waving his hand to the ref to get a player booked. Not classy at all.

      2. Maybe talk to Fernando about Monza ’06 then…

        1. What’s even funnier is that Maldonado was told to get out of the way by his team and failed to do so yet he somehow got away with it. What’s the difference between Maldonado blocking Button and the Gutierrez/Massa incidents?

          Maldonado was on a fast lap, for starters.

          1. Exactly – it’s been made clear in the driver briefings that a competitor should not get in the way of another driver when he is either on an outlap or returning to the pits. If, by contrast, the driver in question is on a fast lap himself, as Maldonado was at the time, then generally there is a bit more flexibility and it is up to the driver behind to negotiate that traffic to the best of his own abilities.

            That is why, when you read the notices given by the stewards, they note that Gutierrez and Massa “unnecessarily impeded” the drivers behind them – they were going much slower than they were capable of doing and could have done more to avoid the incident, whereas Maldonado was going as fast as he could.

    2. Disagree with COTD: it doesn’t matter whether it makes a difference to the standings in retrospect or not, the drivers still impeded someone on a flying lap which is against the rules and they were justifiably punished.

      +1

    3. he couldn’t really do much more to get out of the way: he was starting his own flying lap and Jenson just happened to meet him at the wrong time

      – where’s the logic in that @vettel1?

      Wasn’t Massa preparing for his own fast lap too, and Guttierez mistake was also about concentrating on getting enough room from the Marussia in front instead of minding what was behind him, no difference then for Maldonado. Except that we know for certain his team DID tell him to move away.

      I do agree with you on the part where the difference should not be in the results of it, but in the act itself though

      1. @bascb because Massa obstructed Webber at turn 12, well before the start of the lap and Gutierrez on the run down to turn 14, also a good deal before the start of the lap. Neither of them checked their mirrors and both significantly impeded the respective drivers on their flying laps.

        Maldonado didn’t significantly impede Button and was a good deal ahead initially, going at full racing speed at the point where Button closed in on him. Hence the stewards didn’t see it as blocking because both drivers were at racing speed.

        1. I agree that Gutierrez did not seem to even notice there was something going on, but I fail to see much difference with Maldonado really. He was not full speed either, and his team clearly thought he should have moved

    4. In this era, if a driver is impeded and has to do another qualifying lap, then that severely takes life from that set of tyres or requires starting a whole new set. So punishment does seem just.

  2. Interesting to see Bernie capitulating to Daimler Benz and advancing money to a race organiser, is he going soft, is he actually spending money to help F1 ? . I don’t think so, I think he has his eye on the $1.5 BILLION that will be his share of a successful flotation of F1 on the Singapore stock exchange.

    1. Yeah it could be so.

      Although what I found really interesting is the co relation between the 2 articles in the round up. One says a Daimler exec gets on the board of F1, and the next article shows a german banker taking the fall in Bernie’s bribe case.

      Conspiracy theories anyone?

  3. I have a feeling that this article is going to feature a lot of people having a go at Button for the comments he made in that BBC article, just as they have done in previous F1 fanatic articles. I’m starting to get annoyed that Jenson is becoming the subject of so much hate not just in these forums but elsewhere (such as the BBC comments).

    Make no mistake, if Alonso, Vettel or Hamilton were provided with a car as flawed as the MP4-28 we wouldn’t hear the end of it. Indeed Alonso was very critical of his car last season as was Hamilton in 2009. Drivers who have experienced success naturally find it incredibly frustrating when they are given a car that is incapable of delivering them with a victory. And they often make their feelings very clear to their team. Ind addition, Button is a world champion and a top British driver which means that he naturally gets a lot of media exposure. But of course all the interviewers are interested in is why Button is doing so bad! Of course he’s going to give a negative answer, what do people expect? He’s hardly going to be happy with the way things are.

    I dunno, I just feel that Jenson is being treated pretty unfairly at the moment.

    1. Wow, Considering Hamilton statements are were some of the most analyised and criticised in the whole paddock when he was at Mclaren. Not unfair, its to be expected.

      Chico destroyed him today.

    2. I’m starting to get annoyed that Jenson is becoming the subject of so much hate not just in these forums but elsewhere (such as the BBC comments).

      . . .

      I dunno, I just feel that Jenson is being treated pretty unfairly at the moment.

      Welcome to the Vettel fan’s world!

      1. The difference between the criticism being directed at Button and the criticism being directed at Vettel is that the criticism being directed at Vettel is justified. Even if you believe Vettel was well within his rights to ignore team orders in Malaysia, you have to admit that he deserves some criticism for breaking his word.

        1. @prisoner-monkeys

          Yet there is no such criticism being directed at someone like Webber when he complains about another driver (mostly with colourful words) or ignores team orders.
          Isn’t that applying a double standard?
          And the criticism directed at Vettel is mostly unrelated to his one time ignoring team orders.

        2. @prisoner-monkeys I only care for racing, not morals or team orders. @baron-2 raises an excellent point also.

    3. @aka_robyn – yes you’re right, I think Vettel gets the short end of the stick a lot as well. And Hamilton faced a lot of criticism at McLaren as @theoddkiwi points out. It’s just irritating at the moment that Button is getting a lot of hassle for saying what other drivers have said in the past and have got away with it. If Alonso said that Ferrari had some improvement to do or if Vettel said that he just couldn’t get the balance of the car right, I think most people here would regard these statements as honest. But when Button does it its regarded as ‘whining’. I don’t think people like him for some reason so you get people attacking him as a driver and as a person for reasons which are pretty unfair.

      Also people seem to think that because Perez is suddenly experiencing a surge in form that Button has been decisively revealed as a poor driver; confirming their suspicions that he only won in 2009 because of his car. Which is ridiculous of course; even the best drivers are beaten by their teammates from time to time. We don’t call Alonso, Hamilton or Vettel rubbish when they are beaten by their teammates on occasion but with Button it’s somehow different. Weird.

      1. but with Button it’s somehow different

        I think its a reaction to the “calm him down comments” that sounded a little patronising to Perez. It will pass in a couple of races if he lets his driving do the talking.

    4. Well said Adam. Jenson seems to be getting hell of a lot of bashing at the moment. So he complains how many of you saints out there NEVER moan and your driving is so brilliant that your all racing cars for a living? Have any of you actually tried driving a fast car on a race track? Well i have and it takes nerve to go through corners and chicanes at high speed and by the way i was the Only female to drive the Lamborghini Gallardo LP540 atthe track

    5. @kibblesworth And yet, Button is the most popular driver on F1 Fanatic at the moment.

      All the best-known drivers have ardent supporters and vehement detractors and Button is no different. It’s not as if there haven’t been occasions where Vettel, Hamilton or Alonso have been criticised.

    6. You can’t control other people’s comments and opinions. As a Hamilton fan, believe me you sometimes get frustrated when your driver gets bashed, but that’s just the way it is.

      I think people are just a bored of Button always having no grip to be honest.

  4. Penalties should be applied when it has a direct affect on the results. Of course Gutierrez and Massa were in the wrong and it does act as a deterrent for other drivers but its not liked their actions had any affect on the results.

    I agree. Gutierrez in particular didn’t deserve his penalty.

    When Raikkonen encountered him, Gutierrez was going into the chicane, which is narrow and deliberately designed to hurt the drivers going into the final corner and the main straight if they make a mistake. So while Gutierrez could have moved aside for Raikkonen, doing so would have affected his entire flying lap. I understand the demand for slower drivers having to move aside so that drivers on flying laps can set a representative time, but it’s completely unfair when the rules expect a slower driver to compromise his own flying lap for the sake of a driver setting their own time – and all the moreso when the driver on the flying lap doesn’t actually suffer from being impeded the way Raikkonen was not affected by it.

    1. I disagree, Gutierrez shouldn’t have been there in the first place. If he had watched his mirrows, he would’ve seen a fast car comming at him from behind. Smart thing to do is to slow down and put the car of the line before the chicane. That way Raikkonen would’ve gotten a reasonable S3, and Guttierez himself could have started a clean flying lap.

      1. To an extent, I agree with @prisoner-monkeys – I really don’t see where Gutierrez could have gone in the chicane. On the other hand, its likely that his team did tell him there was someone closing up, and he really did not even try to give Kimi a place because he was only focussed on his own car instead of seeing what was happening, so I guess that is why he got the penalty

      2. @me4me

        Gutierrez shouldn’t have been there in the first place. If he had watched his mirrows, he would’ve seen a fast car comming at him from behind

        The closing speeds were so great that Gutierrez would have had all of two seconds to react. Especially considering that the preceding corner is off-camber, downhill and has a blind apex. Even with a wanring from his team, Gutierrez would have had no way of knowing where Raikkonen was until Raikkonen was right on top of him.

        And like I said, he was already committed to that chicane. There was nowhere he could have moved to without compromising his own flying lap.

        That way Raikkonen would’ve gotten a reasonable S3

        Raikkonen had already done enough to make it through to Q2. He lost nothing when he got held up behind Gutierrez. Now, if the block had meant Raikkonen was eliminated at the end of Q1, then I could understand the penalty, but even then, I would still be questioning it because there was simply nowhere for Gutierrez to go that would have allowed him to set a representative lap time of his own.

  5. One important thing to note is that by 2nd race of the season, the discussion whether Hamilton’s decision to move to Mercedes was wise or not was over and put to rest. All those who predicted doom for hamilton outside Mclaren are simmering with joy when a Mclaren finishes ahead of Force India an Torro Rosso. Hamilton must be thinking “Good Riddence….”

  6. silverfan (@somerfield1561)
    12th May 2013, 7:45

    Well said to those of you speaking up in support of Jenson, I think he is being treated shockingly by the media and the armchair experts at the moment, he’s entitled to be hugely frustrated, he was expecting a front running car in which to lead himself and Checo into a good fight for the titles, and what does he get . . . a shopping trolley !!

    There are even people blaming him for the actual design of the car, which is ridiculous, I don’t think the drivers have anywhere near the influence on the design of the car as many seem to believe, I don’t think Jenson has spent many hours slaving over his drawing board on this one . . . and what’s this current fallacy that he is lost without being able to use Lewis’s set up each week, come on people, Lewis has never been famed for his great technical abilities, Mercedes have even commented upon it this week, I do think the team are missing Lewis, that was inevitable, but what Jenson has done to deserve the slating he is getting at the moment, I just don’t know.

    1. Silverfan well said. I was lucky enough to go to the MTC twice last year and spoke to a lot of technical personal for both drivers. Most of the comments were that the engineers did most of Lewis’ set ups and he wasn’t too popular with the men or women. Comments about him being too far up his own backside and i sort of agree after meeting him
      .

  7. I totally agree with COTD, this is what I thought straight away after the penalties were pronounced.

    1. @jeff1s The difference for Maldonado was that if he had backed off at the point he actually got in Kimi’s way he would, to let him through, he would have totally ruined his own timed lap as he would have exited the final turn at a lower speed. Why should he have to sacrifice his own lap to help another team. Sod that.

      1. Sorry, I meant Button not Kimi. But the point remains the same.

  8. Shreyas Mohanty (@)
    12th May 2013, 8:52

    I don’t exactly see the point of yet another US race. Anybody who would be kind enough to enlighten me?

    1. @shreyasf1fan
      California, Texas and New York have a higher GDP and population than many other countries, including several that host F1 GP’s. The US is the single biggest market for companies involved with F1 as manufacturers, suppliers and sponsors.
      The United States also has far more of a motorsport tradition than many other nations.

  9. Wow. I loved Stefano Modena. Always wanted him in a decent team but went to Jordan and the wrong tiime

  10. Well looks like my first COTD has triggered some interesting debates though I still stand by what I said. ;)

    1. :-) good effort then!

Comments are closed.