I’m away today so the Singapore practice and qualifying coverage will be handled by Cari.
The post-qualifying analysis articles will be published on Sunday ahead of the race.
Here’s today’s round-up:
Links
Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:
Tyre care crucial in Singapore, Hamilton says (Reuters)
“We felt we were doing pretty well but we are struggling with the rear tyres through the long runs, they drop off really, really quickly. So that’s something we can improve on.”
Kerbs to be improved overnight (Autosport)
“The current plan is for the kerbs at Turn 3 and Turn 7 to be removed and painted – with drivers instructed that they will not be allowed to cross the white line that designates the side of the track. At Turn 14, the kerb on the entry to the corner will be removed entirely, while efforts will be made at Turn 10 and Turn 13 to ensure that there are no further issues.”
Muted fanfare for Sebastian Vettel fails to subdue F1’s roaring season (The Guardian)
Ross Brawn: “We will look at DRS in the winter. If it’s not achieving its objectives we can tone it down. We’ve got to look how we can improve things further but the sport’s in very good health.”
Jenson Button hits back at Eddie Irvine criticism (The Independent)
“Why is Eddie still taking about Formula One? Is he missing it?”
More about Sutil… (Joe Saward)
“Sutil went to Williams a little while ago and even had some measurements taken to make sure that the car that is being built at Grove will be big enough for him in 2012, in the event (unlikely or otherwise) that the German is hired to drive for the team.”
Postcard from Singapore (Force India)
“The organisers spare no effort to keep fans entertained. The whole area is turned into a sort of street festival. It’s more like a rock event, with music on a live stage and several dance floors. There are bars and food outlets all around, and even a Hard Rock cafe tent!”
Exclusive Q&A with Red Bull’s Christian Horner (F1)
“The last two races were a huge result for us: getting a one-two in Spa, where the track, especially the first and third sectors, haven’t historically played to our advantage and our key strength; and the same goes for Monza – we’ve never been on the podium there previously. To go to these two races – where our rivals expected us to ruffle up a bit – and dominate, that again was testimony to how far the team has come and the level that we are delivering at.”
World Motor Sport Council (FIA)
“The regulations for the use of the double waved yellow flag have been reinforced to include marshals working on or beside the track also warranting such a signal of danger.”
Bahrain ‘fires tear gas’ on protesters (Al Jazeera)
“Reports from Bahrain claim protesters were proceeding to the central area from villages outside the capital city when they were pushed back by tear gas and rubber bullets.”
Touring car racer Rob Austin set for film debut (The Sun)
“He is combining his Audi driving duties in the British Touring Car Championship with a cameo appearance in the Hollywood drama being made about the epic and near-tragic struggle between James Hunt and Niki Lauda for Formula One’s 1976 world crown.”
Korea gears up to host 2nd F1 Grand Prix (The Korea Times)
“As of Friday, about 40,000 of the 100,000 available tickets had been sold, according to a committee official who asked to remain anonymous. He added that the statistics do not suggest the sales are worse than for the country’s first Grand Prix.”
Free F1 and supercar photo exhibition in London (Who Are You, Anyway)
“If you’re in London next weekend (October 1/2, 2011) then head to Plough Studios in Clapham, where you can see James Mann’s latest exhibition for free as part of the Lambeth Open Arts Festival.”
Follow F1 news as it breaks using the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app.
Comment of the day
BinarySlave on F1 2011:
According to Steam I spent 270 hours in F1 2010! Played it to death, did a seven-year career with no aids and legend AI. Brilliant fun.
I was really looking forward to F1 2011 and so far have not been disappointed at all. Handling is vastly improved although after avoiding the big kerbs for so long it is really hard to change your driving style to ‘monster’ them as Montoya would have once done! The application of DRS/KERS is also quite tricky to get to grips with, but I like a challenge. It certainly helped when I realised I didn’t have to deactivate the DRS every time, applying the brakes did it for me.
I have also experienced the safety car, and made up three places at the first corner once it had returned to the pits.
Only slight worry – I did a wet weather practice session (Melbourne) and was very competitive when it was very very wet, but as the track dried I could not match the AI cars (on Legend). In fact, I was nine seconds off the pace on the damp track and nothing I did made much difference. Am hoping this was a one off as drying races will not be fun if the AI can seemingly find mega grip on a very slippery track.
Overall though – a big thumbs up from me! Am looking forward to starting a Co-op championship with a friend tonight.
BinarySlave
Read the review here:
From the forum
Share your F1 2011 progress here
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Christian Mateus and Selidor!
On this day in F1
It’s that time of year when everyone is calculating what each driver needs to do to win the title.
Thankfully today’s points system isn’t as complicated as it was in the fifties. Then dropped scores and fastest laps featured in the calculations, as shown by this quote from Rodney Walkerley writing in The Motor, published on this day in 1958:
If our calculations are correct [Stirling] Moss must win at Casablanca to be in the picture, and add fastest lap to make 41 points.
If Mike [Hawthorn] wins, he will have 44 points (45 with fastest lap), because although he would gain eight points for a win, he would drop four (third place in the Argentine Grand Prix, which would become the most inferior performance out of the six best): second place would give him 42, third place 40 – and Stirling must win to equal that and take the fastest lap to beat it.
If Mike were to finish anywhere below second, or retire (even with fastest lap in his pocket) his marks would remain at 40 because these placings would not rank among his six best performances.
Now, if there is a tie, Moss winning, Mike third or worse, and someone else taking the fastest lap from them the seventh best performance will be added to the score, in which case Mike must win, Stirling has no more races to add.
Read more about past F1 points systems:
Ben Needham (@ben-n)
24th September 2011, 0:03
I really get fed up with Eddie Irvine’s nonsense. Well done Jenson with his response, if I was him i’d be even more pointed with it. Eddie is welcome to voice opinions when he wins a World Championship.
snowman (@snowman)
24th September 2011, 0:41
I agree he is getting a bit hard to listen to of late.
But he used to liven things up a bit when he was about. What other driver would throw a jug of water at Mika Hakkinen in a press conference.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GUxcizPCQs
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
24th September 2011, 2:45
That is funny? I guess Button & Vettel are the two drivers have surprised me very much this season.He became a complete different animal since his victory in Canada which I believe has to be one of the best race F1 have ever seen.I don’t think Button is number two he is more cooler & driving better currently then his team mate,many people think that Button don’t deserve his WC in 2009 well for them there are some answer in 2011.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
24th September 2011, 10:39
Well said. Himself and Vettel have easily been the best drivers this season. A pleasure to watch them both.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
24th September 2011, 10:38
Quite good that!
snowman (@snowman)
24th September 2011, 0:49
Here’s something interesting from the Friday press conference.
Norbert Haug talking about the BBC/Sky deal
“I think pay TV…this channel in England is completely different, for example, to Germany. I heard that they have ten million or whatever subscribers so basically you can have a lot of viewers.”
If Norbert thinks 10 million people are going to be watching on Sky sports next year he could have a shock!
Makes you wonder what some of the teams have been told to let this deal happen.
David-A (@david-a)
24th September 2011, 0:56
The same could be said for the other 9 years of your career, Jacques. You too, Eddie.
Fixy (@)
24th September 2011, 10:39
I don’t get why these two continue blaming everyone.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
24th September 2011, 1:20
Well, I’ve decided to return F1 2011 to the store I bought it from.
Don’t get me wrong – it was plenty of fun. But it was hamstrung by constant drops in framerate whenever I raced, even when I was running the lowest graphical settings and had some of them (crowds, skidmarks and cloth) turned off. I realised that even if I resolved the framerate issues, I’d still only be playing half a game. I’m massively disappointed, but I just couldn’t justify spending $80 for a racing game that I could only play time trials in.
Mark Hitchcock (@mark-hitchcock)
24th September 2011, 8:03
Sounds like it could be more of a hardware issue than an issue with the game.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
24th September 2011, 8:18
Nope, my computer should have been able to handle it. I checked my system specs against the required hardware, and the only thing different was the video card; F1 2011 required a Radeon 6570, but I only had the 6550, one model down, so essentially the next-best alternative. Besides, my computer can easily handle DIRT 3, which was also built with the EGO Engine.
I’m hearing a lot of complaints about the frome rate on the PS3 and the 360, so it’s a known issue. Even with optimal settings, drops in frame rate would have continued to be an issue.
xtophe (@xtophe)
24th September 2011, 9:21
I’m on a 6770, which is by all means no beast of a GPU. F1 2011 is very playable, but I had to tune down my DIRT 3 settings aswell. I guess it has something do with the amount of cars that are on track in F1 compared to DIRT 3.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
24th September 2011, 10:41
That’s a shame, but understandable.
You even took the time to organise the competition in the forum :(
RumFRESH (@rumfresh)
24th September 2011, 4:40
Eddie Irvine and Jacques Villeneuve need to stop acting like children and keep their mouths shut. Neither of them have earned the right to address the current field of drivers the way they do.
Oh and in response to BinarySlave, I am experiencing the same pace issues on a wet/drying track. It’s impossible to do the kind of times that the legend AI are doing. In the dry I can occasionally outpace my immediate competition but in the wet or on a drying track, forget it. In a Force India I struggle to get within two seconds of a lap time set by the HRTs!
BasCB (@bascb)
25th September 2011, 20:26
Liked that comment from Button, something like Eddie who, ah yeah the guy that lost the ’99 championship by just not beeing good enough.
Bleu (@bleu)
24th September 2011, 8:11
Talking about double yellows:
I have a feeling that drivers look more on the big light signals around every circuit nowadays, instead of marshal posts. Is there any difference in those signs when there are single and double yellows? Like splashing faster when there’s two. In Singapore it may affect especially if there’s something behind the corner.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
24th September 2011, 8:31
If a situation demands double-waved yellows, it’s serious. The drivers will be informed by the teams; they don’t solely rely on the lights and flags.
Harvs (@harvs)
24th September 2011, 12:31
I recently attended the South Africa vs. Namibia match for the rugby world cup. The crowd was 26,000 out if a maximum 36,000 but the atmosphere was so authentic, and so passionate, that it didn’t matter how many people were there, but what mattered was, that the people who were there where the people who cared about the game and the Springboks.
The same goes for the Korean GP, it doesn’t matter how many people are there, at least you know that the 40,000 who are there want to be there, for the sport, not because they got free tickets to be there to fill the stands.
Oh, and I was on international TV for 3 seconds in one of the intervals.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
24th September 2011, 13:01
Yes, but people want to see full stands at the races on the television.
Not necessarily. When Australia hosted the World Cup, Georgia played Namibia in Launceston. Because there weren’t too many Georgian or Namibian fans in Tasmania, the organisers decided that everyone born on an odd date would support one side, and everyone born on an even date would support the other. Apparently it was one of the best games of the tournament.
BasCB (@bascb)
25th September 2011, 20:29
One part I found pretty significant in that piece about how the season is great for race fans, even though Vettel is running away with the title, is what Ross Brawn says about DRS:
Do I get that right, is there a chance the teams will cut down on DRS? So we will not see things like Turkey,Spa, Monza and Singapore (+Malaysia) where DRS made for far to many zip past passes. That would be a great improvement.
Tyres
26th September 2011, 13:27
The guy who played the game for 270 hours or something was really dedicated!