Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blogvasion/FormulaOne/~3/bykcywd6VtQ/bmw-vs-ferrari.html
Tim Parnell Johnnie Parsons Riccardo Patrese Al Pease Roger Penske
Friday, January 31, 2014
Nissan GT-R: Driven
The 2014 Nissan GT-R is the flagship of the Nissan brand and represents one of the greatest price-to-performance bargains of all time. Thanks to a 545 horsepower engine, a quick-shifting dual-clutch transmission and an advanced all-wheel drive system, the GT-R has set multiple track records for production cars around the world.
Despite its ability to blitz most Ferraris and Lamborghinis around a track, the GT-R carries a price that is less than half those competitors.
Nissan has even tried to infuse a large dose of day-to day livability by giving the GT-R four seats and a large trunk.
But where did Nissan sacrifice to keep the price down? Can it match the more expensive competitors in refinement, comfort or technology? I spent 10 days and more than 1,600 miles behind the wheel to figure out if the newest version of Nissan?s ultimate sports car is everything it seems to be.
Nissan GT-R: Driven originally appeared on topspeed.com on Friday, 31 January 2014 11:00 EST.
Source: http://www.topspeed.com/cars/nissan/2014-nissan-gt-r-driven-ar162199.html
Bob Anderson Conny Andersson Mario Andretti Michael Andretti Keith Andrews
Spring Training 2011: Michael Waltrip, NASCAR team visit Chicago White Sox
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Two days before the green flag drops on the Cactus League schedule, NASCAR driver Michael Waltrip brought his racing team into the Chicago White Sox clubhouse.The former Daytona 500 winner, in town this weekend for Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup races, found there was plenty of NASCAR love emanating from the room. ESPNChicago.com White Sox blog The latest news and notes on the White Sox. Related posts:- VAR team hit with $25,000 fine after Michael Waltrip win CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- NASCAR has penalized the Truck Series team...
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Source: http://doxcar.com/spring-training-2011-michael-waltrip-nascar-team-visit-chicago-white-sox/
Peter Walker Lee Wallard Heini Walter Rodger Ward Derek Warwick
F1: Renault: Heidfeld already leading team
Renault: Heidfeld already leading team By Dieter Rencken and Matt Beer Sunday, February 27th 2011, 10:59 GMT Renault team boss Eric Boullier says it was obvious from Nick Heidfeld's first few laps in the car that he was the man the squad needed to lead its 2011 charge in the absence of the injured Robert Kubica. Heidfeld will fill in alongside Vitaly Petrov at Renault until Kubica recovers from the multiple injuries he suffered in a rally crash three weeks ago. The German had a test audition for Renault before being snapped up, and Boullier said he was very impressed by the way Heidfeld immediately took charge. Related posts:- F1: Renault ‘very positive’ about Heidfeld Renault 'very positive' about Heidfeld By Matt Beer Saturday, February...
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Source: http://doxcar.com/f1-renault-heidfeld-already-leading-team/
Ecclestone slams Jerez testing 'farce'
F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone has slammed the sport's brave new era, saying the Jerez test this week proves the radical 2014 rules have produced "a total farce". "Look at the last few days. ...Bob Scott Archie Scott Brown Piero Scotti Wolfgang Seidel Gunther Seiffert
F1 row brewing over new nose designs
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Hamilton looks for long-term success at Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton's move to Mercedes is the biggest development in the Formula 1 driver market for three years.
Ahead of the 2010 season, Fernando Alonso moved to Ferrari, world champion Jenson Button switched from world champions Brawn (soon to become Mercedes) to McLaren and Michael Schumacher came out of retirement to replace Button.
Now, the man who most consider to be the fastest driver in the world has taken a huge gamble by switching from McLaren, who have the best car this year and have won five races this season alone, to Mercedes, who have won one race in three years.
To make way for Hamilton, Mercedes have ditched the most successful racing driver of all time.
Schumacher's return at the wheel of a Mercedes 'Silver Arrow' was billed as a dream for all concerned, but with one podium finish in three years the German marque have abandoned the project.
Hamilton leaves a team that has won more races in the last 30 years than anyone else. Photo: Getty
That the announcement was made just five days after the latest in a series of collisions in which Schumacher rammed into the back of another driver after misjudging his closing speed simply rubs salt into the wound.
Hamilton will be replaced at McLaren by one of F1's most promising rising stars - Sauber's Mexican driver Sergio Perez, who has taken three excellent podium finishes this year.
That's quite a shake-up, and it raises any number of fascinating questions, the first and most obvious of which is why Hamilton would leave a team that has won more races in the last 30 years than anyone else - even Ferrari - for one that has won one in the last three.
The explanation for that lies both at his new and current teams.
Mercedes sold the drive to Hamilton on the basis that they were in the best position to deliver him long-term success. In this, there are echoes of Schumacher's move to Ferrari in 1996.
Back then, the Italian team were in the doldrums, having won just one race the previous year. But Schumacher fancied a project, and saw potential. It took time, but by 1997 he was competing for the title, and from 2000 he won five in a row.
The architect of that success was Ross Brawn, then Ferrari's technical director and now Mercedes' team boss. Brawn is one of the most respected figures in F1, and Hamilton is banking on him being able to transform Mercedes in the same way as he did Ferrari.
Undoubtedly, Brawn will have made a convincing case to Hamilton; he is a very persuasive and credible man. It is also worth pointing out that Mercedes - in their former guise of Brawn - have won the world title more recently than McLaren. Button succeeded Hamilton as world champion in 2009.
Mercedes believe that the new regulations for 2014, when both the cars and engines will be significantly changed, will play into their hands.
They are devoting a lot of resources towards that year, and are optimistic they will be in good shape - just as Brawn were, in fact, when the last big rule change happened for 2009.
And Mercedes have a technical team that, on paper, is immensely strong. In Bob Bell, Aldo Costa and Geoff Willis, they have three men who have been technical directors in their own right at other top teams all working under Brawn.
Part of this argument is predicated on the fact that new engine regulations always favour teams run or directly supported by engine manufacturers, on the basis that they are best placed to benefit from developments, and to integrate the car with the engine.
But this is where that argument falls down a little - McLaren may be a mere 'customer' of Mercedes for the first time next year, but they are still going to be using Mercedes engines in 2014, and on the basis of parity of performance.
The love affair with McLaren, who took him on as a 13-year-old karting prodigy, ended some time ago.
Since 2010, Hamilton has been complaining from time to time about the McLaren's lack of aerodynamic downforce compared to the best car of the time.
Through 2009-11, he grew increasingly frustrated at his team's apparent inability to challenge Red Bull. Hamilton is well aware of how good he is, and it hurt to watch Sebastian Vettel win two titles on the trot and not be able to challenge him.
That explains his ill-advised - and dangerously public - approach to Red Bull team boss Christian Horner at the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix.
This year, McLaren started the season with the fastest car for the first time since, arguably, 2005. But again they could not get out of their own way.
Pit-stop blunders affected Hamilton's races in Malaysia and China early in the season, and then a terrible mistake in not putting enough fuel in Hamilton's car in qualifying in Spain turned an almost certain win into a battle for minor points.
These errors badly affected his title charge and in early summer his management started approaching other teams.
His favoured choice was almost certainly Red Bull, but they weren't interested. They also approached Ferrari, where Alonso vetoed Hamilton. That left Mercedes.
It is ironic that his decision to move teams has been announced on the back of four races that McLaren have dominated.
Meanwhile, Hamilton's relationship with McLaren Group chairman Ron Dennis, the man who signed him up and who promoted him to the F1 team in 2007, has collapsed.
It was noticeable that after Hamilton's win in Italy earlier this month Dennis stood, arms-folded and stoney-faced, beneath the podium, not applauding once. Nor did Dennis don one of McLaren's 'rocket-red' victory T-shirts, or join in the champagne celebrations with the team once Hamilton had completed his media duties.
In Singapore last weekend, it seemed that McLaren still believed they had a chance of keeping Hamilton; at least that was the impression from talking to the team.
But did Dennis already know in Monza of Hamilton's decision to defect? Was Hamilton's sombre mood after that win a reflection of his wondering whether he had made the right decision?
Was Hamilton's ill-advised decision to post a picture of confidential McLaren telemetry on the social networking site Twitter on the morning of the Belgian Grand Prix, the weekend before Italy, the action of a man who had had enough and didn't care any more because he knew he was leaving?
When was the Mercedes deal actually finally signed?
Was it done before BBC Sport broke the story of it being imminent in the week leading up to the Italian race?
Or was it not inked, finally, until this week, on the basis that only now has the Mercedes board committed to new commercial terms with F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone?
In which case, was the gearbox failure that cost Hamilton a certain victory in Singapore, and effectively extinguished his title hopes for good, the straw that broke the camel's back?
In short, was Hamilton's decision based on cold, hard logic, rooted primarily in performance, in making more money, or founded on emotion as much as calculation. Or was it a combination of all those factors?
All these questions will be answered in time. Whatever led to Hamilton's decision, it is fair to say that it is an enormous gamble, one on which the next phase of his career hangs.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/09/hamilton_looks_for_long-term_s.html
Robin Widdows Eppie Wietzes Mike Wilds Jonathan Williams Roger Williamson
F1 row brewing over new nose designs
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F1: Alonso: 2011 tyres will hurt top teams
Alonso: 2011 tyres will hurt top teams By Matt Beer Monday, February 28th 2011, 19:07 GMT Fernando Alonso says he is not in favour of the move towards less durable tyres for 2011, as he fears this will end up penalising faster cars. Related posts:- F1: Teams expect 2011 tyres test in summer Teams expect 2011 tyres test in summer By Jonathan Noble...
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Source: http://doxcar.com/f1-alonso-2011-tyres-will-hurt-top-teams/
Vic Wilson Joachim Winkelhock Manfred Winkelhock Markus Winkelhock Reine Wisell
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Could 2014 Be Their Last?
With Tony Fernandes? threat still ringing in their ears, score a point or he will walk, everyone at Caterham faces a bigger race this year to keep the team together. An ultimatum still may not be enough to save the team though, their long term future in F1 could be in jeopardy. After their introduction [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/5cEg9Cukg0I/could-2014-be-their-last
Hans Stuck Hans Joachim Stuck Otto Stuppacher Danny Sullivan Marc Surer
Jeff Gordon wins at Phoenix to snap 66-race drought
Jeff Gordon Ends Drought Jeff Gordon snaps 66-race winless streak by taking the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at PhoenixJeff Gordon Ends Drought AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Just before peeling off what he called a lame burnout near the finish line, Jeff Gordon screamed into his radio, the emotion pouring out with his voice. [+] Enlarge Jared C. Related posts:- Jeff Gordon wins the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway Jeff Gordon Ends Drought Jeff Gordon snaps 66-race winless...
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Source: http://doxcar.com/jeff-gordon-wins-at-phoenix-to-snap-66-race-drought/
Len Sutton Aguri Suzuki Toshio Suzuki Jacques Swaters Bob Sweikert
UK wants to ban smoking in cars carrying children
The House of Lords is supporting a plan to introduce a smoking ban in cars carrying kids.Takuma Sato Carl Scarborough Ludovico Scarfiotti Giorgio Scarlatti Ian Scheckter
Volkswagen Amarok Canyon special edition announced (UK)
Volkswagen has introduced a special edition of the Amarok in the UK called "Canyon" which starts at 28,990 GBP (excluding VAT).Romain Grosjean Olivier Grouillard Brian Gubby Andre Guelfi Miguel Ángel Guerra
Would Vettel or Alonso be more deserving champion?
On the surface, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso seem very different. Alonso is all dark, brooding intensity; charismatic but distant.
Vettel is much sunnier - chatty, long answers, always ready with a joke and, as the Abu Dhabi podium ceremony proved, a salty English phrase.
Underneath, though, they share more than might at first be apparent. Both are highly intelligent, intensely dedicated to their profession, and totally ruthless in their own way.
Equally, although Alonso’s wit may be less obvious than Vettel’s, it is highly developed, bone dry, effective, and often used to tactical ends.
Sebastian Vettel (right) leads Fernando Alonso in the Championship going into the penultimate race of the season. Photo: Reuters
And they are both, of course, utterly fantastic racing drivers.
These two all-time greats head into the final two races of a marathon and topsy-turvey 2012 Formula 1 season separated by a tiny margin. Ten points is the same as a fifth place - or the margin between finishing first and third.
Vettel, on account of being ahead and having comfortably the faster car, is favourite. But within F1 there is a feeling that Alonso would be the more deserving champion, so well has he performed in a car that is not the best.
But is that a fair and accurate point of view? Let's look at their seasons, and you can make your own judgement.
THE GOOD
Vettel
It seems strange now, in the wake of Red Bull's recent pulverising form, but at the start of this season the world champions were struggling.
The car always had very good race pace - it was right up with the quickest from Melbourne on - but qualifying was a different matter.
In China, Vettel did not make it into the top 10 shoot-out in qualifying; in Monaco he did – just - but then did not run because he didn’t feel he had the pace to make it worthwhile.
In both races, though, he was competitive, taking a fifth place in China and fourth in Monaco, where he nearly won.
That was the story of the first two-thirds of Vettel’s season. He kept plugging away, delivering the points and keeping himself in contention in the championship.
He took only one win – in Bahrain, from pole – and he should have had another in Valencia, when he was as dominant as he ever was in 2011 only to retire with alternator failure.
Then, when Red Bull finally hit the sweet spot with their car, he delivered four consecutive wins (one of them inherited following Lewis Hamilton’s retirement in Singapore), the last three from the front row of the grid, including two pole positions.
And in Abu Dhabi there was an impressive comeback drive to third after being demoted to the back of the grid, albeit with the help of a significant dose of luck.
Alonso
It is hard to think of a race in which, assuming he got around the first corner, Alonso has not been on world-class form.
In Australia, when Ferrari were really struggling with their car at the start of the season, he fought up from 12th on the grid to finish fifth (including getting up to eighth on the first lap).
His three victories have been among the best all year –in the wet in Malaysia from ninth on the grid; in Valencia from 11th, including some stunning, clinical and brave overtaking manoeuvres; and a superbly controlled defensive drive in Germany, holding off the faster cars of Vettel and Jenson Button for the entire race, by going flat out only where he needed to, lap after lap after lap.
Then, to pick out some other highlights, there was beating the Red Bulls to pole in the wet at both Silverstone and Hockenheim; his rise from 10th on the grid to third in Monza, including a courageous pass on Vettel a couple of laps after being forced on to the grass at nearly 200mph; and splitting the Red Bulls to finish second in India.
THE BAD
Vettel
Impressive Vettel has been this year, flawless he has not.
In Malaysia, he cost himself a fourth place by sweeping too early across the front of Narain Karthikeyan’s HRT while lapping it. There was a hint of frustration and a sense of entitlement about the move – as there was in his post-race comments in which he called Karthikeyan an “idiot”.
In Spain, he was penalised for ignoring yellow caution flags.
In Hockenheim he overtook Jenson Button’s McLaren off the circuit, earning himself a demotion from second to fifth place, despite the drivers being warned only a month or so before that they could not benefit by going off the track.
In Monza, he earned a drive-through penalty for pushing Alonso on to the grass at nearly 200mph, in presumed retaliation for a similar move the Spaniard had pulled on Vettel in the same place the previous year. Again, this was despite the drivers being warned that they had to leave room for a rival who had any part of his car alongside any part of theirs.
In qualifying in Japan, he got away with blocking Alonso at the chicane, despite Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne being penalised for doing the same thing to Williams’s Bruno Senna earlier in the session.
And in India he appeared to break guidelines about having all four wheels off the track at one of the chicanes on his only top-10 qualifying lap, but kept his time because the only available footage was from outside the car, and showed only the front wheels. So the FIA had to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Alonso
Er… Has Alonso made any errors at all this year?
Well, he did cost himself a couple of points in China when he ran off the road attempting to pass Williams’s Pastor Maldonado around the outside of Turn Seven – a move that Vettel did pull off against Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen.
He spun in a downpour in second qualifying at Silverstone, just before the session was red-flagged because it was too dangerous.
And some argue that, defending a championship lead, he should not have put himself in the position he did at the start in Japan, where his rear wheel was tagged by Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus on the run to the first corner, putting Alonso out of the race.
The claim is that Alonso had everything to lose and that, while he did nothing wrong, trying to intimidate Raikkonen into backing off, and squeezing him twice, was too big a risk.
The opposing view of that incident is that Raikkonen, who was behind Alonso, had a better view of the situation and should have realised he wasn’t going anywhere from where he was and backed off.
THE MISFORTUNE
Vettel has lost points from two alternator failures, one in Valencia when he was leading and one in Italy when he was running sixth. And third became fourth in Canada when a planned one-stop strategy had to he aborted. That’s 36 points lost.
Alonso was taken out twice at the start – once definitely not his fault (Belgium, when Romain Grosjean’s flying Lotus narrowly missed his head); and once arguably not (Japan).
He lost a possible win in Monaco because Ferrari didn’t realise that if they left him out a bit longer before his pit stop he could have overtaken leader Mark Webber and second-placed Nico Rosberg as well as third-placed Lewis Hamilton.
He should have finished second in Canada and probably won in Silverstone - rather than being fifth and second - but for errant tyre strategies, and he would have been on the front row and finished at least second in Monza had his rear anti-roll bar not failed in qualifying.
That’s 60-odd points lost.
A POST SCRIPT
While we’re analysing Vettel and Alonso, spare a thought for Lewis Hamilton.
The McLaren driver finally lost any mathematical chance of the title after his retirement from the lead in Abu Dhabi. He is 90 points behind Vettel.
Hamilton has said that he has driven at his absolute best this season, and it’s hard to disagree – he has not made a single mistake worth the name.
But his year has been a story of operational and technical failures by his team.
At least three wins have been lost (Spain, Singapore and Abu Dhabi), as well as a series of other big points finishes, as detailed by BBC Radio 5 live commentator James Allen in his blog.
Without that misfortune, Hamilton would be right up with Vettel and Alonso, if not ahead of them.
So, if you’re thinking about ‘deserving’ world champions, if such a thing exists, spare a thought for him too.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/11/benson.html
Mike Nazaruk Tiff Needell Jac Nelleman Patrick Neve John Nicholson
Chevrolet's Super Bowl commercial tells the story of a "very eligible bachelor" [video]
Chevrolet has unveiled their Super Bowl commercial called ?Romance." It features the 2015 Silverado HD.Myron Fohr Gregor Foitek George Follmer George Fonder Norberto Fontana
Top TEN Asian F1 Drivers Ever
With Kamui Kobayashi coming back to the grid, F1 will once again have an Asian driver in the paddock. From Abu Dhabi to Japan and Malaysia to Bahrain, the region has been swept up by the sport in recent years, with new venues and events popping up almost every season. Despite their presence in terms [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/iVxMZL5EsuY/top-ten-asian-f1-drivers-ever-3
Tony Trimmer Maurice Trintignant Wolfgang von Trips Jarno Trulli Esteban Tuero
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
The Top TEN Drivers Of The Modern Era
As Formula One fans we have all had the debate of who is the greatest driver. There are always disagreements, but ordinarily the same names occur time and time again. In the modern era of Formula One levels of speed and have increased, making drivers who have taken part in the sport since the turn [...]
Harry Schell Tim Schenken Albert Scherrer Domenico Schiattarella Heinz Schiller
Smooth Button masters F1's greatest test
At the circuit widely regarded as the greatest test of a racing driver in the world, Jenson Button took a victory in the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday that was probably the most dominant this season.
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, who finished second to Button after an impressive performance of his own, had an even bigger margin of superiority in Valencia but he was unable to make it count because his car failed.
Button had no such trouble. He stamped his authority on the weekend from the start of qualifying and never looked back, as all hell broke loose behind his McLaren.
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The frightening first-corner pile-up helped him in that it took out a potential threat in world championship leader Fernando Alonso's Ferrari. The Spaniard was up to third place from fifth on the grid before being assaulted by the flying Lotus of Romain Grosjean, who had collided with the other McLaren of Lewis Hamilton.
But before the race Alonso had entertained no prospect of battling for victory, and while he would almost certainly have finished on the podium, there is no reason to believe he would have troubled Button.
The Englishman also comfortably saw off in the opening laps the challenge of Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen, hotly tipped before the weekend.
Raikkonen was left to battle entertainingly with rivals including Vettel and Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher, on whom the Finn pulled an astoundingly brave pass into the 180mph swerves of Eau Rouge which was almost a carbon copy of Red Bull driver Mark Webber's move on Alonso last year.
Button, meanwhile, was serene out front, never looking under the remotest threat.
For Button, this was a far cry from the struggles he has encountered in what has not overall been one of his better seasons.
A strong start included a dominant victory in the opening race in Australia and second place in China.
But after that he tailed off badly, struggling with this year's big Formula 1 quandary - getting the temperamental Pirelli tyres into the right operating window.
The 32-year-old had a sequence of weak races and even at other times has generally been firmly in Hamilton's shade.
Those struggles were ultimately solved by some head-scratching on set-up at McLaren, but they were undoubtedly influenced by Button's smooth, unflustered driving style.
Button's weakness - one of which he is well aware - is that he struggles when the car is not to his liking. Unlike Alonso and Hamilton, he finds it difficult to adapt his style to different circumstances.
The flip side of that is that when he gets the car's balance right, he is close to unbeatable. It is a similar situation to that of two former McLaren drivers - Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.
Senna, like Hamilton, was usually faster, but when Prost, whose style was similar to Button's, got his car in the sweet spot he was matchless.
"I obviously have a style where it's quite difficult to find a car that works for me in qualifying," Button said on Saturday, "but when it does we can get pole position."
Perhaps an elegant style that does not upset the car or over-work the tyres was exactly what was needed through the demanding corners of Spa's challenging middle sector.
That was McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe's view, certainly.
"It could well be," Lowe said, "because it's made up of these longer flowing corners rather than the short, stop-start ones. So that may well be something he can work with well, just tucking it all up and smooth lines."
Was this the secret to Button's performance in qualifying, when he was a remarkable 0.8 seconds quicker than team-mate Lewis Hamilton?
In a well-publicised series of tweets after qualifying, Hamilton blamed this on the team's collective decision - with which he agreed when it was made - to run his car on a set-up with higher downforce.
This is a perfectly valid decision at Spa -it was a route that Raikkonen also took - and in pure lap time the two differing approaches should balance themselves out. But for them to do so, the driver with the higher downforce set-up has to make up in the middle sector the time he has lost on the straights.
As the McLaren telemetry of which Hamilton so unwisely tweeted a picture on race morning proved, however, that was not the case. Hamilton was not fast enough through sector two - indeed his time through there on his final qualifying lap was 0.3secs slower than his best in the session.
Hamilton tweeted a photo of the McLaren telemetry, prompting a rebuke from his team.
That was the real reason why he was slower than Button in Spa qualifying - not the fact he was down on straight-line speed, which was always going to be the case once he went with the set-up he did.
It's worth pointing out in this context that Hamilton was also significantly slower than Button in final practice - a fact that led him to take the gamble on the different set-up.
How Hamilton would have fared in the race will never be known, because of the accident with Grosjean.
It was a scary moment - Grosjean's flying Lotus narrowly missed Alonso's head - and the incident underlined once again why F1 bosses are so keen to introduce some kind of more effective driver head protection in the future.
From the point of view of a disinterested observer, the only plus point of the accident, which also took out the two impressive Saubers, was that it has narrowed Alonso's lead in the championship. Vettel is now within a race victory of the Spaniard.
Despite this, to his immense credit, Alonso was a picture of measured calm after the race.
Invited to criticise Grosjean, he refused. Although, being the wise owl he is, he not only had at his fingertips the statistics of Grosjean's first-lap crashes this season, but slipped them into his answer.
"I am not angry [at Grosjean]," he said. "No-one did this on purpose, they were fighting, two aggressive drivers on the start, Lewis and Romain and this time it was us in the wrong place at the wrong time and we were hit.
"It's true also that in 12 races, Romain had seven crashes at the start, so..."
It was, Alonso pointed out, a good opportunity for governing body the FIA to make a point about driving standards this season, which Williams's Pastor Maldonado has also seemed to be waging a campaign to lower.
It was an opportunity the stewards did not decline.
Grosjean will now watch next weekend's Italian Grand Prix from the sidelines after being given a one-race suspension, the first time a driver has been banned since Michael Schumacher in 1994. Maldonado has a 10-place grid penalty for jumping the start and causing his own, independent, accident.
Earlier this year, triple world champion Jackie Stewart, who is an advisor to Lotus, offered to sit down with Grosjean and give him some advice about the way he approached his races.
Stewart is famous not only for his campaign for safety in F1 but also for his impeccable driving standards during his career. He has helped many drivers in his time, but Grosjean turned him down.
On Sunday evening, I was contacted by an old friend, the two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500 and former IndyCar champion Gil de Ferran, who was involved in F1 a few years ago as a senior figure in the Honda team.
That coaching, De Ferran said, "seems like a great idea".
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/09/smooth_button_masters_f1_great.html
Dave Morgan Silvio Moser Bill Moss Stirling Moss Gino Munaron
Raikkonen favourite to taste victory in Belgium
At Spa-Francorchamps
In this remarkable season of unpredictability and uncertainty, of seven winners in 11 races, of the most open title battle in years, Formula 1 is still waiting for one big result.
A victory for the revived Lotus team has looked inevitable since the start of the year. And as the world championship re-starts in Belgium this weekend following a month-long summer break, the expectation is that this could be their race.
The car, from the team formerly known as Renault that won two world championships with Fernando Alonso in 2005-6, has been fast all season. Its best result has been four second places. But the momentum seems to be with them.
Kimi Raikkonen's Lotus pushed Lewis Hamilton's winning McLaren all the way in Hungary five weeks ago. The Finn has a stunning record at the stunning Spa-Francorchamps track that hosts this race and Lotus have been working on a technical trick that could give them a key advantage on the demanding track that swoops and twists around the contours of the Ardennes mountains.
Kimi Raikkonen has won the Belgian Grand Prix four times. Photo: Getty
The 32-year-old Finn seems to have a special affinity with the circuit regarded as arguably the biggest test for a racing driver anywhere in the world. He has taken four victories here - and either won or retired from every single race he has competed at Spa since 2004.
Raikkonen's all-action style, based on fast corner entry in a car with good front-end bite, seems perfectly suited to Spa's cascade of long, fast corners.
Two of his wins - for McLaren in 2004 and Ferrari in 2009 - came in years when his machinery was otherwise uncompetitive. The other two were dominant victories from the front in 2005 and 2007.
But Raikkonen's position as arguably the favourite for victory this weekend is not founded just on his renowned Spa specialism. He is widely expected to have the car to do the job.
Lotus have come agonisingly close to victory twice already this year - in Bahrain in April and at the last race, in Hungary at the end of July.
Both times it was Raikkonen who challenged only to just fall short, behind Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel in Bahrain and Hamilton in Hungary. But the Finn, who returned to F1 this season after two unproductive years in world rallying, has actually been Lotus's weaker driver for most of the year.
His team-mate, the Franco-Swiss Romain Grosjean, who is in his first full season, has generally had a marginal advantage - to the point that around the European Grand Prix in Valencia at the end of June there were murmurings of dissatisfaction with the Finn, who won the world championship for Ferrari in 2007.
Raikkonen ultimately finished second to Alonso in Valencia, but had been off the pace of Grosjean all weekend - indeed the younger man was pushing the Ferrari hard when his alternator failed late in the race.
When, following the race, Raikkonen expressed his frustration at it taking so long for Lotus to win, one team member privately expressed the view that he would be better focused on beating Grosjean before moaning about not winning yet.
Since then, though, Raikkonen has upped his game and in the race in Hungary he was fantastic, the middle stint there that lifted him from fifth place to potential victor one of the most impressive pieces of driving all season.
Had Raikkonen not made a mess of qualifying, and taken the front row slot he should have earned rather than the fifth place he did, he might well have won. The same can be said of Bahrain, where a decision to save tyres for the race left him down in 11th place on the grid and with too much to do.
Grosjean, too, must be considered a potential Spa winner. Despite making too many errors, he has been all confidence and commitment this year.
He has looked a different driver on his return to F1 in 2012 from the haunted figure who was demoralised by Alonso during his first half-season at Renault in 2009, after which he was dropped.
The high expectations for Lotus at Spa are partly based on the car's inherent qualifies - a factor in its general competitiveness this year has been strong performance in fast corners, and Spa is full of them.
As well as that, though, is that innovation mentioned earlier. In Hungary, and in Germany the week before, Lotus trialled a clever system aimed at boosting the team's straight-line speed without compromising its performance in other areas.
Like the DRS overtaking aid featured on all the cars, the Lotus system affects the rear wing to reduce drag.
It works by channelling air from scoops behind the driver's head to the rear wing, which this extra air then 'stalls', reducing the downforce the wing creates and therefore its drag, boosting straight-line speed.
What is not clear is when exactly the Lotus system comes into play.
Is it independent of the DRS, as some believe, and therefore active above a pre-set car velocity and usable at all times, including in the race when DRS use is restricted to a specific zone?
Or is it, as BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson believes, linked to the DRS and simply an extra boost to the car's speed when that system is employed, like the system Mercedes have been using but without the inherent compromises that team have discovered?
Either way, it could be a significant boost to Lotus's chances in Spa. Lotus have yet to use the system outside free practice, and this weekend they will again try it out on Friday before making a decision whether to race it.
For all the talk of Lotus, though, a win for them is a very long way from a foregone conclusion. Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren will be as strong as ever on a track that should suit all their cars.
In fact, it will be a particularly interesting weekend all round.
Which teams have made best use of the mid-season break to develop their cars?
Have Ferrari made the step forward in performance they seemed in Hungary to need if Alonso - unquestionably the stand-out driver of the season so far - is to hang on to his championship lead?
Can McLaren maintain the upward momentum they showed in Germany and Hungary after a brief slump?
Will Red Bull finally unlock the potential of what has looked, on balance, overall the fastest car?
The climax of one of the sport's greatest seasons, a hyper-intense period of nine races in three months, starts here.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/08/raikkonen_favourite_to_taste_v.html
Ricardo Zunino Carlo Abate George Abecassis Kenny Acheson Andrea de Adamich
Proton Savvy replacement spied in northern Sweden
Proton's all-new Global Small Car has been spied undergoing winter testing in northern Sweden.Jack Brabham† Bill Brack Ernesto Brambilla Vittorio Brambilla Toni Branca
Pirelli opts to use today for wet tyre running
Pirelli has decided that today will be the mandatory day of wet running for all the F1 teams. The 2014 rules call for one of the pre-season test days to be given over to wet tyres. Pirelli has originally planned … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2014/01/29/pirelli-opts-to-use-today-for-wet-tyre-running/
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F1 WAG: Yuu Abiru
Like many, we’re thrilled to see Kamui Kobayashi come back to F1. Not only is he an entertaining driver, but he also brings his stunning partner Yuu Abiru along to race weekends. Kamui has been dating the stunning Japanese model/actress for quite some time, and it?s easy to see just why he is so taken [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/2G1jl4DQPNU/f1-wag-yuu-abiru-5
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Citroen Cactus production version spied cold weather testing, debuts a week from today
The Citro�n Cactus production version was spied one last time ahead of next Wednesday's official reveal.Pedro de la Rosa Keke Rosberg† Nico Rosberg Mauri Rose Louis Rosier
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