Source: http://www.metrof1.com/blogs/metrof1/2011/07/danger-for-breakfast.html
Oscar González Aldo Gordini Horace Gould JeanMarc Gounon Emmanuel de Graffenried
Friday, October 31, 2014
Hungarian Grand Prix Preview ? The Soap Opera Lands Again
Next stop for the Formula One soap opera carries on this weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Nico Rosberg overtook Lewis Hamilton in the drivers’ Championship on his home patch at the German Grand Prix. The star, who was born and raised in Monaco, was not allowed to wear his racing helmet he created especially [...]
Roelof Wunderink Alexander Wurz Sakon Yamamoto Alex Yoong Alex Zanardi
Ferrari Launch Their 2011 Car The F150
Ferrari have become the first team to launch their 2011 Formula One car – named the F150. Thw F150 name comes from the fact it is 150 years since Italian unification, the flag bearer for the nation decided it was important to increase exposure of the major event in the country’s long history. �The cars […]
Source: http://f1fanatics.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/ferrari-launch-their-2011-car-the-f150/
Chris Irwin JeanPierre Jabouille Jimmy Jackson Joe James John James
Porsche 991 Targa gets matte wrap from Print Tech
Print Tech has applied a sinister matte black wrap on a brand new Porsche 911 Targa (991).Kamui Kobayashi Helmuth Koinigg Heikki Kovalainen Mikko Kozarowitzky Willi Krakau
Audi creates tasty 2015 TT by applying 27,000 pieces of chocolate [video]
Audi in collaboration with chocolate confectioner Joost Arijs have applied no less than 27,000 pieces of chocolate on a third generation TT Coupe.Roberto Mieres Francois Migault John Miles Ken Miles Andre Milhoux
Top FIVE Drivers ? Hungary 2014
What a difference rain can make to a Grand Prix! After an age without a damp track on a race day, we were treated to rain showers prior to lights going out at the Hungaroring, which made the opening exchanges perilous for the drivers around a tight and twisty circuit. Safety cars and changeable track [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/bIp73AWxu3M/top-five-drivers-hungary-2014
Ronnie Peterson Vitaly Petrov* Alfredo Piàn Francois Picard Ernie Pieterse
Family denies Bianchi to leave Japan
Jules Bianchi's family has denied reports the French driver could soon be transferred from the hospital in Japan. This Sunday will mark four weeks since the Marussia driver's life-threatening Suzuka...Michel Leclere Neville Lederle Geoff Lees Gijs van Lennep Arthur Legat
Never forget how great Michael Schumacher was
Michael Schumacher was given a round of applause by the assembled media after he finished the prepared statement with which he announced his second retirement from Formula 1 at the Japanese Grand Prix on Thursday.
It was a mark of the respect still held for Schumacher and a reflection of the appreciation for what was clearly an emotional moment for the man whose seven world titles re-wrote the sport's history books.
Schumacher stumbled a couple of times as he read off the paper in front of him and once, as he mentioned the support of his wife Corinna, his voice almost cracked.
Once through the statement and on to a question-and-answer session with the journalists, he was more comfortable, relaxed in a way he has so often been since his comeback, and so rarely was in the first stint of his career.
Schumacher's retirement from the Singapore Grand Prix had a familiar look to it. Photo: Getty
The Schumacher who returned to Formula 1 in 2010 with Mercedes was quite different from the one who finished his first career with Ferrari in 2006.
The new Schumacher was more human, more open and more likeable.
As he put it himself on Thursday: "In the past six years I have learned a lot about myself, for example that you can open yourself without losing focus, that losing can be both more difficult and more instructive than winning. Sometimes I lost this out of sight in the earlier years."
Most importantly, though, the new Schumacher was nowhere near as good.
In every way possible, there is no other way to view his return to F1 than as a failure.
When he announced his comeback back in December 2009, he talked about winning the world title. Instead, he has scored one podium in three years, and in that period as a whole he has been trounced by team-mate Nico Rosberg in terms of raw pace. In their 52 races together, Schumacher has out-qualified his younger compatriot only 15 times.
It is ironic, then, that there have been marked signs of improvement from Schumacher this season. In 14 races so far, he has actually out-qualified Rosberg eight-six.
And although Rosberg has taken the team's only win - in China earlier this year, when he was demonstrably superior all weekend - arguably Schumacher has been the better Mercedes driver this year.
Schumacher has suffered by far the worst of the team's frankly unacceptable reliability record and would almost certainly have been ahead of Rosberg in the championship had that not been the case. And he might even have won in Monaco had not a five-place grid penalty demoted him from pole position.
That penalty, though, was given to Schumacher for an accident he caused at the previous race in Spain, when he rammed into the back of Williams driver Bruno Senna having misjudged his rival's actions.
That was only one of four similar incidents in the last 18 months that have crystallised the impression that the time was approaching where Schumacher should call it a day.
It is unfortunate timing, to say the least, that the last of those incidents happened less than two weeks ago in Singapore, almost as if it was the straw that broke the camel's back.
That was not the case, of course. Schumacher has been vacillating on his future for months and in the end his hand was forced. Mercedes signed Lewis Hamilton and Schumacher was left with the decision of trying to get a drive with a lesser team or quitting. He made the right call.
His struggles since his return have had an unfortunate effect on Schumacher's legacy. People within F1 - people with the highest regard for his achievements - have begun to question what went before.
There have always been question marks over his first title with Benetton in 1994, given the highly controversial nature of that year. Illegal driver aids were found in the car, but Benetton were not punished because governing body the FIA said they could find no proof they had been used.
But since 2010 people have begun to look back at the dominant Ferrari era of the early 2000s, when Schumacher won five titles in a row, and begun to wonder aloud just how much of an advantage he had.
It was the richest team, they had unlimited testing and bespoke tyres. Did this, people have said, mean Schumacher was not as good as he had looked?
If you watched him during his first career, though, you know how ridiculous an assertion this is. Schumacher in his pomp was undoubtedly one of the very greatest racing drivers there has ever been, a man who was routinely, on every lap, able to dance on a limit accessible to almost no-one else.
Sure, the competition in his heyday was not as deep as it is now, but Schumacher performed miracles with a racing car that stands comparison with the greatest drives of any era.
Victories such as his wet-weather domination of Spain in 1996, his incredible fightback in Hungary in 1998, his on-the-limit battle with Mika Hakkinen at Suzuka that clinched his first title in 2000 were tours de force. And there were many more among that astonishing total of 91 victories.
So too, as has been well documented, was there a dark side to Schumacher, and it was never far away through his first career.
Most notoriously, he won his first world title after driving Damon Hill off the road. He failed to pull off a similar stunt in 1997 with Jacques Villeneuve. And perhaps most pernicious of all, he deliberately parked his car in Monaco qualifying in 2006 to stop Fernando Alonso taking pole position from him.
Those were just the most extreme examples of a modus operandi in which Schumacher seemed often to act without morals, a man who was prepared to do literally anything to win, the sporting personification of Machiavelli's prince, for whom the ends justified the means.
Those acts continue to haunt Schumacher today, and even now he still refuses to discuss them, won't entertain the prospect of saying sorry.
"We are all humans and we all make mistakes," he said at Suzuka on Thursday. "And with hindsight you would probably do it differently if you had a second opportunity, but that's life."
He was given a second opportunity at F1, and he took it because in three years he had found nothing to replace it in his life.
His self-belief persuaded him that he could come back as good as he had been when he went away, but he learnt that time stands still for no man.
He has finally been washed aside by the tide of youth that with the arrival of Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen towards the end of his first career already seemed to be replacing one generation with the next.
It seems appropriate in many ways that the agent for that was Hamilton, the man who many regard as the fastest driver of his generation.
That, after all, is what Schumacher was, as well as one of the very greatest there has ever been. And nothing that has happened in the last three years can take that away.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/10/never_forget_how_great_schumac.html
Kevin Cogan Peter Collins Bernard Collomb Alberto Colombo Erik Comas
Pause for a moment?
I’m sitting in the Admirals Club in Chicago, waiting for a flight to Austin and, while everyone is agonising about F1’s financial models (none of which will happen) unless some of the people round the sport change, I think we should spare a thought for the hundreds of people who are now without jobs because […]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2014/10/28/pause-for-a-moment/
Ricardo Rosset Huub Rothengatter Basil van Rooyen Lloyd Ruby JeanClaude Rudaz
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Vettel's younger brother starts racing career
Sebastian Vettel's younger brother is kicking off his own motor racing career. Fabian Vettel, once photographed as a child playing with a remote control car in the F1 paddock, is now 15 and embarkin...Teddy Pilette Luigi Piotti David Piper Nelson Piquet† Nelson Piquet Jr
Ford showcases three Expeditions for SEMA
Ford has announced plans to introduce three customized 2015 Expeditions at SEMA.Cristiano da Matta Michael May Timmy Mayer Francois Mazet Gastón Mazzacane
Ford previews five customized Transits for SEMA
Ford has announced plans to introduce five customized Transit vans at SEMA.Tom Jones Juan Jover Oswald Karch Narain Karthikeyan Ukyo Katayama
Stewards confirm qualifying changes for Austin | 2014 United States Grand Prix
The stewards of the United States Grand Prix have confirmed details of revisions to the qualifying procedure due to the reduced field of 18 teams. 
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/W31woZKLUVI/
Ben Pon Dennis Poore Alfonso de Portago Sam Posey Charles Pozzi
Ferrari Launch Their 2011 Car The F150
Ferrari have become the first team to launch their 2011 Formula One car – named the F150. Thw F150 name comes from the fact it is 150 years since Italian unification, the flag bearer for the nation decided it was important to increase exposure of the major event in the country’s long history. �The cars […]
Source: http://f1fanatics.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/ferrari-launch-their-2011-car-the-f150/
Henry Taylor John Taylor Mike Taylor Trevor Taylor Marshall Teague
Hungarian Grand Prix ? The Top FIVE
Situated just outside of the Hungarian capital, Budapest, the Hungaroring has played host to a race every year since 1986 when it became the first race to take place behind the Iron Curtain. Tight and twisty, the track has never been renowned as an overtaking haven, often heavily favouring drivers who start on the front [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/w7Jcsv58_6k/hungarian-grand-prix-the-top-five-2
Kurt Ahrens Jr Christijan Albers Michele Alboreto Jean Alesi Jaime Alguersuari
James Corden Interviews Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes!
Here’s James Corden interviewing F1 star Lewis Hamilton… at full speed around a race track! Q: How does the Championship battle you?re having this year with Nico compare to the previous competitions you had in 2007 and 2008 for example? A: The battle does feel a lot more intense this year. When I was racing [...]
Martin Donnelly Mark Donohue Robert Doornbos Ken Downing Bob Drake
Team Lotus Launch Their 2011 Machine The T128
Team Lotus (the one who raced last year) have become the second team to officially pull the covers off their new 2011 car. The green and yellow liveried machine will start be raced by Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen this season under the name of Team Lotus as the management’s row with Group Lotus, now […]
Source: http://f1fanatics.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/team-lotus-launch-their-2011-machine-the-t128/
John Rhodes Alex Ribeiro Ken Richardson Fritz Riess Jim Rigsby
Why customer cars and third cars are wrong
The current debacle going on in Formula 1 has raised the question of whether there should be customer cars. �I have written about this before, but I think it bears repeating. Customer cars was where F1 came from and it should not be where it is going to. If one analyses the sport and asks […]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2014/10/27/why-customer-cars-and-third-cars-are-are-wrong/
Alessandro Nannini Emanuele Naspetti Massimo Natili Brian Naylor Mike Nazaruk
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Lewis Hamilton move would not be a huge surprise
If Lewis Hamilton does move to Mercedes from McLaren for next season, as Eddie Jordan believes he will, it would be a massive shock but not a huge surprise.
There has appeared no urgency from either Hamilton or McLaren to sort out a new contract for 2013 and at the same time there have been signs of unease in the relationship.
The 27-year-old's management team have approached all the big teams this summer and they got short shrift from Red Bull and Ferrari.
Mercedes's reaction has been warmer, and negotiations are known to have taken place, but the issue is complicated by Michael Schumacher's situation.
Lewis Hamilton is on the verge of leaving Mclaren to drive for Mercedes next season. Photo: Getty
Schumacher has not exactly been setting the world on fire this season, with the notable exception of qualifying fastest in Monaco, but at the same time Mercedes cannot be seen to be sacking him because of his status, particularly in Germany.
The German legend is of huge promotional value to Mercedes but the company is split on whether he should continue.
From a marketing point of view, he is a dream - and as he is considered untouchable in Germany any decision to move aside must appear to have come from him.
But those who see the F1 programme from a performance point of view would rather Schumacher stepped down and made way for someone younger and faster.
If they can replace him with someone of the highest calibre - someone such as Hamilton, for example - then that helps, too, as the decision is more easily understandable.
And it is clear after an increasingly uncompetitive season that the team could benefit from employing Hamilton, who is one of F1's 'big three' alongside Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, neither of whom are available.
The attraction Mercedes might have to Hamilton is less clear, given their current struggles, but perhaps the continuing frustrations of his time at McLaren have convinced him it is time for a change.
McLaren struggled by their own high standards in 2009-11, during which time Hamilton did not have a car competitive enough to mount a full-on title challenge.
They came closest in 2010, but it was always a battle against the generally faster Red Bull and Ferrari.
And although McLaren started this season with the fastest car - and have it again after a brief mid-season dip in form - operational errors earlier in the season hit Hamilton's title bid.
Money may well also be an important factor. Hamilton made some cryptic comments in Belgium last weekend about his future move being a "business decision".
Equally, there have been signs of friction between him and McLaren.
In certain quarters of the team, they are uncomfortable about Hamilton's approach to his job and his mindset. And the disconnect was made public this weekend with his ill-advised behaviour on the social networking site Twitter, on which he posted a picture of confidential team telemetry.
Where does that all leave McLaren, Mercedes and Hamilton? Time will tell.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/09/lewis_hamilton_move_would_not.html
Olivier Panis Giorgio Pantano Massimiliano Papis Mike Parkes Reg Parnell
2016 Opel Karl / Vauxhall Viva spied with less disguise
The 2016 Opel Karl / Vauxhall Viva has been spied wearing less disguise than ever before.Pierre Levegh Bayliss Levrett Jackie Lewis Stuart LewisEvans Guy Ligier
Austin says Vettel qualifying absence 'unfortunate'
Organisers of the US grand prix say world champion Sebastian Vettel's absence from qualifying this weekend is "unfortunate". The Red Bull driver will sit out Saturday's decisive session and start th...Kenneth McAlpine Perry McCarthy Ernie McCoy Johnny McDowell Jack McGrath
Marussia confirmed to miss United States GP after entering administration | 2014 F1 season
Marussia will not compete in this weekend?s United States Grand Prix, administrators representing the team have confirmed.� 
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/nITXytAVqAU/
Moises Solana Alex SolerRoig Raymond Sommer Vincenzo Sospiri Stephen South
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