In today’s round-up: Sergio Perez aims for points in 2011.
Links
Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:
Q&A: Perez on acclimatising to F1 (Autosport)
“I think it’s achievable. I think we can achieve a top 10. This is our aim, to be in the points, and this is something we are aiming at.”
“Malaysia GP organisers say they’re planning a night race before contract up in 2015 to reverse trend of falling crowds.”
Via the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app
Max Mosley: My wife thought sex story ‘a joke’ (BBC)
“Max Mosley is now taking a case to the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to ensure public figures are warned in advance of stories about them. ”
Firestone confirms IndyCar withdrawal (MotorSport)
“Bridgestone is the world’s largest tyre company and has spent plenty of money in recent years in both Formula 1 and IndyCar. Its resources and technical capabilities are second to none and the company will be hard to replace, particularly in the short time available.”
On the fast track (The Korea Herald)
“In early 2010, Choi was selected by the KAVO, the operating body of F1 Korean GP, for the F1 driver development program. So with a promise of a job in the bag, Choi came here and was ready to seize his golden opportunity. But the 25-year-old’s dream of becoming the first Korea-born F1 driver is now in tatters after Chung Young-cho, the former CEO of KAVO, was forced to leave his post due to allegations of lax management.”
Follow F1 news as it breaks using the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app.
Comment of the day
Should the FIA have gone further with the revised safety car rules? ed24f1 thinks so:
I can hardly believe that the FIA decided it was necessary to amend the safety car rules, but didn’t ban pit stops as soon as the safety car comes out.
This is a dangerous rule, as we saw at Valencia 2010 that cars will still race back to the pits regardless of penalties or the rules. If there was no pitting, there would be no need to rush back to the pits. This potentially means drivers speed past marshalls on the track or the scene of an accident.
We also have seen at Singapore 2008 and Hungary 2010 there are potential dangers of everyone pitting at the same time (added pressure leading to mistakes, wheels bouncing down the pit lane and crashes). With more stops expected in 2011, as soon as the SC is called, the whole field will probably file into the pits.
And apart from the safety aspects, leaving the pit lane open creates artificial results, like at Valencia 2010 for example.
ed24f1
From the forum
Calling all WRC Fanatics.
Site updates
F1 Fanatic Live ran for the first time yesterday throughout the Barcelona test and it will be running again today.
Already we’ve taken note of some bugs and some potential improvements and Jamie has worked them into the new version.
If you have any suggestions on how else we can improve it, please post them in the comments.
But please be aware that rights restrictions prevent us from adding live video or live times.
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Alpinestar and Venturi Effect!
On this day in F1
And it’s a happy birthday as well for new Williams driver Pastor Maldonado – he’s 26 today.
Image © Sauber F1 Team
Joey-Poey
9th March 2011, 0:15
Dear Max,
Go talk to Bill Clinton. Then get over it.
Yours,
Joe
SparkyJ23 (@sparkyj23)
9th March 2011, 0:30
One and done.
Nice work fella.
F1 Fanatic Live was a really nice piece of work by the code monkey(s). (As a part-time code-monkey myself this is NOT a term of disrespect)
Incorporate F1Fanatic logins and Avatars and it will be nearly perfect I think; or do you intend to go the other way and use the twitter,facebook,google or openid logins instead? techcrunch have done it and it seems to work – would probably calm down some of the rabid fanbois
Ned Flanders (@ned-flanders)
9th March 2011, 0:39
Some very good points there from Ed, if this was Facebook I’d have clicked the like button on that comment.
Interesting to hear from Legard again too. Has he announced his plans for this season yet? I heard him reporting on a football match for BBC Radio a few weeks ago and he was surprisingly good. The voice that had irked me for two years was surprisingly authoritative. He seemed far better suited to discussing things in the past tense rather than commentating on live events, which seemed to frazzle his brain a bit
damonsmedley (@damonsmedley)
9th March 2011, 4:57
I, along with my grandmother, have always thought he’d be better suited to football! I haven’t heard him, but I can imagine him being a reasonably good football commentator. He’s obviously reasonably talented, he just wasn’t suited to F1, which is a shame. Do’t get me wrong, I didn’t enjoy his commentary one bit for the last two years – and that’s nothing against him. I’d be bad at it – and if people were saying I was bad, I’d be happy to move on too.
Calum
9th March 2011, 7:44
I knew it – it didn’t sound like him reporting on football on the radio but there’s only one Johnathon Legard!!
ed24f1 (@ed24f1)
9th March 2011, 8:25
Thanks Ned!
mike
9th March 2011, 20:20
last weekend he was commentating on a live football match for the BBC’s football league show – he was actually rather good
sato113 (@sato113)
9th March 2011, 0:42
yes but drivers aren’t that oblivious. usually there are marshals waving double yellow flags frantically before the acident scene anyway.
if the pitlane were closed, i think we’d have way too many drivers pitting at the same time.
OEL
9th March 2011, 8:02
“if the pitlane were closed, i think we’d have way too many drivers pitting at the same time.”
I don’t think they would, because when it would open again, it would be after the safety car would’ve come back in, so if anyone would pit immediately after the safety car period, he would be passed by basicly everyone else. So instead everyone would have to keep going until the tyres drop off. The downside with the closed pit lane is that drivers who already pitted will have an advantage over those still on track, but I still think it is a better compromise than having evetyone racing back to the pits immediately after an incident, with some of the leading drivers in a massive disadvantage (as seen with Felipe Massa in Valencia last year, who not only had to drive a full lap behind the safety car but then also had to wait for his teammate to pit).
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
9th March 2011, 1:53
I don’t think having a night race in Malaysia will do any good to the Singapore GP, as many people who love to attend the night race will choose Malaysia rather then Singapore which may be cheap.They should leave Malaysia & Singapore as they are instead of changing them.I personally think that a good number of people attend the Malaysian GP each year.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
9th March 2011, 3:30
I keep saying this, but Singapore should be a twilight race. In the purple haze we see in Saturday Practice, the place looks gorgeous. It looks so dull at night. At least in Malaysia there’s nothing to see anyway.
damonsmedley (@damonsmedley)
9th March 2011, 5:02
Nothing to see? I love all the greenery and tropical shrubbery around the place! And I’m also quite surprised to hear that crowd numbers have been dwindling, because on TV it looks like it is packed! If you hover over Malaysia under the big banner on formula1.com, it looks like there isn’t a free seat.
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
9th March 2011, 5:57
@ damonsmedley
I agree with you, in TV it don’t look like that they are struggling to attract crowd into the track then why are they saying this I don’t know. As Malaysia have the cheapest of tickets. I think may be they don’t get enough PR as Singapore do so they are thinking this much.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
9th March 2011, 12:44
Plenty of tracks have nice greenery. Singapore’s architecture is unique.
Calum
9th March 2011, 7:46
I think it’s been officialy changed to ‘Malysia GP’ rather than Malaysian?
damonsmedley (@damonsmedley)
9th March 2011, 8:11
No, I think there’s actually another a in Malysia (sic)… :P
sato113 (@sato113)
9th March 2011, 2:36
this video made me very confused by lotus renault/renault lotus and sponsorship, technical partnerships etc.
http://www.crash.net/f1/video/167228/1/the_day_a_renault_clio_outpaced_a_f1_car.html
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
9th March 2011, 4:11
It’s not Lotus Renault GP that is supplying the Clio. It’s Renault the car manufacturer. Do you honestly think Tony Fernandes would agree to a car advertisement where a Clio provided by LRGP stuck it to his team?
sato113 (@sato113)
9th March 2011, 9:19
yes I know, but you know what i mean. lotus renault gp have prominent Renault branding yet team lotus have none. so the advert seems a bit funny. it’s just a bit ‘lol, omg, ***?!’. :D
BasCB (@bascb)
9th March 2011, 7:03
As PM writes, the car is provided by Renault. To me it shows, how much Renault is not involved in the Renault team anymore. Instead making use of its engine deals with 3 teams to increase its standing.
ajokay (@)
9th March 2011, 9:39
I prefer this Team Lotus-Renault hookup:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/ajokay/forza/T1281small.jpg
Icthyes (@icthyes)
9th March 2011, 3:33
As much as I dislike him, Max does have a point. The media can basically say what they want, the money they make from selling papers is greater than the court settlements they have to pay afterwards. Remember the original suspect of the Jo Yeates murder, having his face plastered all over the news, then it turned out he was innocent? We supposedly live in a society of “innocent until proven guilty” yet somehow the media are above all this?
Mike
9th March 2011, 9:50
Yeah but is equally scary to live in a world of censorship where people who should be held to account can hide behind the law.
I agree that what has happened to Mosley is grossly wrong, but I’m horrified to see him being almost completely bind to the results his initiative could possibly have.
Media can and WILL do stupid things just to make a profit, but I think this in this case is the lesser of two evils.
pluk (@peteleeuk)
9th March 2011, 10:51
I criminal terms people should only be held to account once it is proven they deserve to be, ie once found guilty of an offence at court – not charged or arrested for it which happens only on suspision or belief.
I don’t care what the guy has been up to and no one can justify saying they need to know these intimate details of peoples lives. I know it’s been proven to be untrue, but even if it was true there is no law against shagging a nazi if thats what floats your turnips.
xtophe (@xtophe)
9th March 2011, 12:45
Actually, when it comes to larger companies or entities, there are so called gag laws (I believe the correct term is “super-injunction”) in countries as the UK. That’s a severe limitation of the freedom of the press.
Not to say that Mosley’s endeavours are of the same magnitude or importance to the general public.
Scalextric
9th March 2011, 4:52
Cosworth to have the fastest F1 engine? By a long chalk.
http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2011/03/07/the-car-faster-than-a-speeding-bullet/
The way it’s used is quite mind-boggling.
Burnout
9th March 2011, 7:06
I thought they were going to use the Menard V12 that’s used in Superleague Formula. Bet the Cossie’s slightly more powerful and a lot lighter though.
I found that bit about beating the low altitude air speed record really interesting :)
ajokay (@)
9th March 2011, 9:45
That is insane… using an F1 engine as a fuel pump.
Lord Stig (@lord-stig)
9th March 2011, 4:58
I thought the new “live blog” was quite good. It really resolves many of the complaints that people had with the CoverItLive system and its rather poor twitter integration. As SparkyJ23 said it might be nice to have more login methods ie, openid, facebook, twitter, etc. Hopefully the admin console for moderating (is it necessary anymore?) is better, and does not need to be refreshed as it gets behind in loading comments.
BasCB (@bascb)
9th March 2011, 7:07
One other thing to look into for the new live blog is the closing of the commments. I had the impression it never really closed, so I trie3d it about 20 minutes ago.
Even when saying “comments closed” it allowed me to post a comment and a reaction to that comment.
But this is a great effort and looks like a real improvement on the “old” system. It ran smouthly yesterday at the first live test, with only more improvements to work out. Thanks Jamie and Keith so far and looking forward to it again.
BasCB (@bascb)
9th March 2011, 7:22
Interesting to see Bridgestone now pulling out of the next open wheel racing category. Seems IndyCars will have even a tighter period of time to get a new manufacturer. Maybe Michelin will want to prove its reliable tyres especially for the Indy 500 race?
But the series does have the advantage of a one make series. If they get some tyres out soon enough, there is no limit on testing km with the newest car.
Get tyres to Dallara ASAP to make them integral to the car. Will make it hard to find the right direction with development a bit though.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
9th March 2011, 7:57
I really liked F1 Fanatic Live, fantastic! I do sympathise with Max Mosley, hilarious though it is
BasCB (@bascb)
9th March 2011, 8:24
Happy birthday to Alpinestar and Venturi Effect and surely Pastor is looking forward to his birhtday ride in the repainted Williams!
ed24f1 (@ed24f1)
9th March 2011, 8:26
Thanks for CotD Keith!
Mike
9th March 2011, 10:19
I think the quality of your comment guaranteed that one. :D
karan01 (@karan01)
9th March 2011, 10:05
in response to ed24f1, adding pressure to the pit crew is what makes it so fun to watch.
BasCB (@bascb)
9th March 2011, 13:02
Nice account of first time experience of an EV kart for an experienced karter. http://www.racecar-engineering.com/news/what-are-electric-karts-really-like/
BasCB (@bascb)
9th March 2011, 16:33
Finally some good new for McLaren. Pedro is coming back, he must have taken pity on them in their dire need!
http://mclaren.com/news/2011/03/09/pedro-de-la-rosa-rejoins-vodafone-mclaren-mercedes-1
teeb123
9th March 2011, 17:04
Hey Keith,
I’ve found an interesting video on the BBC F1 website about the new Silverstone Pit Straight for the 2011 race. Here’s the link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12499373