F1 Fanatic round-up: 29/7/2010

Posted on

| Written by

Yesterday’s round-up hit the 100 comments mark which is unusual for the daily post – glad you all enjoyed it!

Here’s hoping today’s is as popular:

Links

Hungarian GP preview (ITV-F1)

My race preview for ITV. The usual F1 Fanatic preview will be here later today.

McCombs invests, F1 site revealed – 6 pm News (Youtube)

Not much we haven’t already heard in this local news report but it’s interesting to get the local perspective on the next United States Grand Prix:

Austin and F1? Believe it when you see it (ESPN)

“There were also New York City plans 1, 2, 3, and 12, which spanned from Staten Island to the Meadowlands. There were plans for Ohio, Denver, Seattle, Tacoma, Portland and Vancouver. Overseas, there were big roll-outs of future globe-trotting CART/Champ Car events to be held at new facilities in Korea and China.”

Comment of the day

Robert McKay sticks up for the much-maligned Hungaroring:

It’s mostly because the newer tracks have less character and are more identi-kit, even if you can pass at them. Valencia is dreadful, Abu Dhabi is dull, Bahrain is soulless, and Shanghai is just a big car park of vast emptiness (but at least it rains there a lot).

Somehow the act of not being a Tilke track is instantly worth something to the Hungaroring.

Shanghai excepted, I probably put Hungary ahead of the others as "places I’m looking forward to on the F1 calendar". I’d also rather watch Hungary than Barcelona, which has become extremely tedious too especially with the final corner neutered.

But partly it’s because the tweaks in 2003 have actually made a bit of an improvement and allowed at least a smidge of overtaking. The last few races there have been reasonable. And I still have 2006 in my memory, which was a great race.
Robert McKay

From the forum

Enigma asks who you would sign for your F1 team.

Happy birthday!

No F1 Fanatic birthdays today. 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

Happy birthday to Fernando Alonso! And wasn’t it nice of Massa to give him his present four days early?

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.

49 comments on “F1 Fanatic round-up: 29/7/2010”

  1. Seattle, Tacoma, Portland and Vancouver.

    Wish one of those had worked out! It would be nice to have a local GP.

    1. Absolutely! It would be terrific to have them in the Northwest. Indycars had some great, close races at PIR – I’d love to see F1 in that first corner and the back straight, turns 7-9. It would make for great TV too, with Mt. Hood in the background. If not there, Elkhart Lake would be nice (but no doubt too rural), Watkins Glen or Laguna Seca. Can’t see it though. It seems as if Bernie is looking for more of a circus-like atmosphere, and I think he’d be fine with a car park. Who can forget Las Vegas or Phoenix?

    2. Sadly McGee is absolutely right in saying it’s not all that sure they will make it (look at that link of his report on the announced High Rock track, sound eerily familiar).

      But i am sure all fans are and will be very supportive and hope Tavo and Red succeed, so they can visit a great USGP 2012 in Austin.

    3. I was just thinking the same thing! A pacific northwest GP would have been the best thing ever for me, as I live in seattle. Plus the race would get rain frequently :)

  2. thought i’d repost here so people could check it out.

    check out darren heath’s blog.

    http://www.darrenheath.com/season/2010/germany-2010/blog/flexible-friends

    ‘busy tracking the F1 cars careening around the flat-out Turn 3, registered similar entry speeds for the MGP W01 and the RB6.

    A few seconds later, at the corner’s exit, things had changed. The Red Bull was pulling away with a 12kph advantage.’

    1. The 2010 F1 arms race just went to Defcon 1.

      It certainly seems so after RBR and Ferrari got up and walked away from McLaren last weekend.

      1. what does he mean by that? what’s defcon 1?

        1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEFCON

          The defense readiness condition (DEFCON) is a measure of the activation and readiness level of the United States armed forces. It describes progressive postures for use between the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the commanders of unified commands. DEFCONs are matched to the situations of military severity. Standard peacetime protocol is DEFCON 5, descending in increasingly severe situations. DEFCON 1 represents expectation of actual imminent attack, and is not known to have ever been declared.

  3. LOL, nice to see they used 2004 footage… and the only up to date footage shows a lame spin and a badly done pit stop xD

  4. bostonians sound nothing like texans, but everyone sounds the same on the news.

  5. happy birthday to everyone’s favorite lusty spaniard!

    1. Speak for yourself! Jaime Alguersuari’s a dreamboat!

  6. ‘And wasn’t it nice of Massa to give him his present four days early’

    I think it was more about Ferrari who force Massa to buy it for his teammate.

    1. Happy Birthday Fernando!

      from your comment, i just found out, why Ferrari did the switch in Hockenheim. Only a race earlier, they had seen HRT give it’s star sponsor a birthdaygift ride in the car. As they already had Fernando driving the car, Ferrari arranged for Massa to hand him his birthday win nicely giftwrapped.
      Surely the FIA WMS must understand that and will overturn that unfair fine, right.

      It would be nice, if Massa won Hungary on his own, but if not, Alonso will possibly want to return the favour :-D

      1. I don’t think Alonso is the type of guy won wants to return favour, so Massa have fight for his life in this race in order to win in Hungary.

  7. Nice preview,

    So, last time at Indy, F1 attracted “the wrong crowd” so sayeth Lord Bernie.
    Will it be any different next time?

    1. I believe he was referring to the people he was doing business with at Indy, not the actual crowd…

      1. anyone with empty pockets is the wrong crowd

  8. For everyone not having a iPhone but wanting to follow live timing through their telephone, there is some good news.

    It seems th F1 live timing app has been updated to work with Android as well.
    http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=41609

    1. I asked on Twitter if it was worth having and reaction seemed to be generally negative. I can’t imagine why anyone would pay £15 to get the same info you can get for free on F1.com.

      1. They ask that much for it? I rather save that for another T-shirt :-D

      2. There’s a free version of the app which I have on my touch. Works fine and works well..

        http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/formula1-com-2010-application/id359469064?mt=8

  9. I just read on several dutch F1 sites, that German papers Sport got good support for Schumacher from Button.

    In an interview Button proclaimed what a lot of us here have been taling about in the pre-season, as the Mercedes car was ment to be for him, it is cleary far to understeery for Schumi’s liking.

    1. Here’s the link, translated by Google: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&tl=en&u=http://www.sport.de/cms/formel-1/news-und-saisoninfos/news/ungarn-gp-vorschau.html%3F%26startid%3D398244

      It didn’t translate particularly well, but like you said, Button’s taking responsibility for Schumacher not having a car he likes, stating that the car was designed for him, and he likes an understeering car. The article ends with him saying that it’s only a matter of time before Schumacher is fighting for wins, and that it’ll happen next year at the latest.

      1. Thanks for that, i had not found the original yet. Seems Button wants to give Mercedes something to hope for for next year.
        Nice guy

  10. Saw an article yesterday (I must learn how to give you the links) on Heidfeld possibly being the test driver for Pirelli as they develop the tyres for F1, maybe using the old Toyota cars. There was concern about whether Heidfeld was a good choice, since he is the test driver for Mercedes and might give them an advantage.
    But this got me thinking. In these enlightened and ‘transparent’ times, surely all the teams (or at least the top 4 or 5) could each send their test drivers to Pirelli for a set amount of time, and even provide the cars to do it on, now and during the racing season, and that way no team could be seen to gain an advantage, and Pirelli would have to share its data with them all anyway.
    This again is something I think Todt and the FIA should be looking into and controlling, to ensure equality all the way through the motorsport they are in charge of, especially since Pirelli has already gained the rights to supply GP2, GP3 and WRC.

  11. Nathan Bradley
    29th July 2010, 10:38

    Hi Keith,

    I tried registering for the forum yesterday, but I never got my conformation email. I waited a few minutes then clicked on ‘lost password’ but I didn’t get that email either.

    I tried to register with exactly the same details as I use here.

    Can you help please?

    Thanks,

    Nathan

    P.S. I did send you an email yesterday, but I don’t know if it got through, so sorry if this is a duplicate!

    1. I replied to your email asking if you’d checked your spam filter.

      1. Nathan Bradley
        29th July 2010, 10:50

        Yes, I’ve just checked all available filters, including spam and I have no emails, which is odd, because I added your email address to my contact list.

        Nathan

        1. Have just sent you another test email – any joy?

          1. Nathan Bradley
            29th July 2010, 21:42

            No Keith, nothing I’m afraid. I don’t know what the problem is. I know my email account is working, as I can send and receive, it seems very strange!

            Nathan

  12. Sir Stirling Moss is interviewed by BBC News for a discussion on “has Formula 1 lost its soul”. Airs today and tomorrow:

    http://www.stirlingmoss.com/articles/news/bbc-hardtalk-has-formula-1-lost-its-soul-29th-july

    1. Well, the question there is, what actually is the soul of Formula One?
      Ferrari and their apparent use of team orders are bound to come up, I feel, but it’s worth bearing in mind that they’ve always been a part of Formula One, to the extent that drivers shared cars and even gave them up to their team-mates in the event of a failure on the sister car…

    2. Someone reminded me of the backlash that came from when Pironi didn’t obey the Ferrari team orders to stay behind Villeneuve at Imola 1982.

      They told their drivers two thirds of the way through the race to slow down. Which also meant to stop racing and let Villeneuve take the win. Up till then the drivers had been switching the lead almost twice a lap.

      In the last lap Pironi decided that he’d like to take the win anyway and went past Villeneuve.

      Team orders have always been an integral part of the Ferrari philosophy.

      1. This wasn’t just a Ferrari thing, Moss talks of it in the Mercedes days on his blog for espn-f1. It made sense to race to a certain point before preserving what were then very fragile cars.

        Pironi was clearly in the wrong that year in Imola, but what unfolded afterwords for both drivers was tragic. Pironi will always be blamed by some, probably unfairly, for being partly responsible for Villeneuve’s death. And unfortunately its for Imola 82 that Pironi will be most remembered as his career was ended that year too.

  13. apparaently the redbull has been playing with flexible wings since 2007 , they scraped it for monaco 07 . check this link below

    http://www.totalf1.com/full_story/view/207341/Monaco_Red_Bull_to_use_different_nonflexing_wing/

    1. Yeah, I really don’t understand why these flexible front wings are such a big item all of a sudden.

      At the time of the ride height people were checking the Red Bull cars for movement and it was pretty obvious that the wings were flexing.

      I even remember a discussion I had around the time of the China GP.

      I just checked the Spain 2010 pole lap from Webber on the Formula 1 video gallery and it also shows massive flex in the wing.

      I made an animation of a low speed (110 km/h) and high speed frame. Obviously you can see the whole car move down due to the downforce, but the wing shoudl remain fixed relative to the camera. Just like the mirrors.

      http://www.laweb.nl/galaga/F1/WebberSpain2010_WingFlex.gif

    2. I found the origin of the China wing flex debate:
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A66719037

      it shows an animation of wing flex at the Chine 2010 GP during Vettel’s pole lap.

      http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/381/rb6china.gif

    1. i hated those ‘towers’, they were like a punch in the eye!

  14. Bad news from Zandvoort Circuit a driver died today after a crash with a other driver. more news to followup they didn’t gave the names free yet.

    1. Single car accident during free riding so no race at that moment. The driver was not a professional driver so he went off hard in the Rob Slotemaker Bocht and the car caught fire.
      Sad moment.

  15. UneedAFinn2Win
    29th July 2010, 16:31

    Kimi Raikkonen has said to Finnish press that his chances of going back to F1 are “miniscule, a few percent chance”

    http://www.mtv3.fi/urheilu/f1/uutiset.shtml/arkistot/f1/2010/07/1163697

    but with Kimi, and especially his management, a pinch of salt is always recommended…

  16. A belated birthday shout-out to Mandev and Kevin!

    1. Happy birthday Mandev and happy birthday Kevin!

    2. Happy Birthday to Mandev, Kevin and Fernando who I’m sure like all F1 drivers is an avid follower of this blog

  17. In JA’s review of “key desicions” in Germany (http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2010/07/german-grand-prix-the-key-decisions/) he mentions a possible agreement within Ferrari about who is faster and race positions/letting the faster one by.

    It seems that there was an agreement in place about the size of lead and a mechanism for showing who is faster, as a basis for Ferrari to make a decision. This may be a legacy of incidents earlier in the season, such as Australia, where Alonso was held up by Massa and the team took no action.
    … it seems that the notion of a three second lead was important …
    But Alonso soon ate into that lead, getting it down to below a second, which was his way of proving that he was faster. Faced with Massa’s inability to match the pace and having lost the three second lead, the team had the evidence it needed to tell Massa that Alonso was faster than him

    I know this was mentioned by someone yesterday (probably with the discussions about drivers or team orders), Keith.
    But at the time it got pretty sceptical reactions, i saw it that way as well. Maybe now i should give that commenter some credit as this theory is going more mainstream.

    If they did agree like this, it does explain both Alonso and Massa talking about being fast all weekend. and it will be at the core of Ferrari’s defence.
    And it gives Massa a very good motivaton to beat the cr*p out of Alonso all weekend in Hungary so he can keep this win 8-D

    1. Sounds possible but I can’t see how Ferrari could use it as a defence. It would be tantamount to admitting they didn’t let the race run its course and, to quote the regulations “interfered with the result”.

      I expect Ferrari’s defence at the WMSC will stick to the line they pushed after the race: Massa chose to give up the position after they told him Alonso was faster.

      1. Hm, that sounds logical, Keith.

        If it’s true, at least it will rather fire Massa up to fight for being fastest instead of making him depressed.

Comments are closed.