We were out and about yesterday, and missed out on a lot of the action, so today we will have to study the testing action in Barcelona to make up for it. There's plenty going on out there, though:
- Ross Brawn has confirmed that Nick Fry will continue with the team and retain his role as CEO. At least this clears up the last bit of speculation we had regarding who is where within the new Brawn GP. Ross also said that they had no choice but to follow the management buyout through to the end, otherwise the team would have had no future. What happened to those dozens of genuinely interested parties then?
- The new STR4 had some serious problems yesterday, and only saw a total of 20 laps, most of which recorded no time. Both Bourdais and Buemi had a go in the car, but the front suspension wasn't right, and new parts have to be brought in from the factory. Not really a good start, is it?
- And if you discount Toro Rosso from the times, then McLaren were the slowest car around the track yesterday. Kovi was at the wheel as Hamilton picked up his MBE from the Queen, and now we're all starting to get suspicious at what the team are playing at.
That should keep us going for now, I'm sure there will be more news emerging today. Don't forget you can catch the last episode of the Races to Remember mini series released yesterday. While you do, I'll see you in the comments.
Latest times from today:
1. J. Button Brawn GP BGP 001 1:20.313 40 pit
2. T. Glock Toyota TF109 1:21.046 +0.733 34 pit
3. F. Alonso Renault R29 1:21.100 +0.787 27 pit
4. R. Kubica BMW Sauber F1.09 1:21.201 +0.888 29
5. S. Vettel Red Bull Racing RB5 1:21.242 +0.929 32
6. N. Rosberg Williams FW31 1:21.482 +1.169 22 pit
7. S. Buemi Toro Rosso STR4 1:21.955 +1.642 29 pit
8. F. Massa Ferrari F60 1:22.326 +2.013 8 pit
9. L. Hamilton McLaren MP4-24 1:22.669 +2.356 20
10. G. Fisichella Force India VJM-02 1:22.817 +2.504 16 pit
Button fast straight out of the box this morning. Ferrari hit by a technical glitch which left Massa stranded on track.
If Brawn is doing this well after everything that happened in the last 4 months, what more if they actually had stability then, instead?
If Brawn can even get this team into midfield this year, he will become legendary. Benetton and Ferrari were great, but to do it with a cash-strapped team? That's unbelievable!
the talk from Brawn did not sound like the team is exaclty cash strapped at the moment. They are not dirty rich but seem to be comfortable for this season. And do not forget that they have been working on this car for more than a year
still, very very impressive
Apple will take delivery of 10" Touchscreens in Q3 2009
I laughed when I saw this because it's the first part of the 'Apple Product Cycle' joke that Andy Taylor told us about the other night. I'll try and fish out a link later...
I see ad for F1Minute among google ads on this site :-)
F1's Big Picture
Catch up with the latest F1 news delivered in large photo format.
www.F1Minute.com
Does anyone know why Fisichella had done so few laps up to 10am? I don't have access to the test live timing sites today :(
been running them for a long time. pretty much since big picture started. we can afford to buy google ads during the off-season because the price of keywords drops to almost nothing. once the season gets into full swing, the sun / other newspapers usually price us out of the market :)
yes, but it is funny to see the ad showing up on your own site :-)
phew i thought break would never get here.
i'm as happy as anyone that they are looking good and on form for the new season, but i really don't want to get my hopes up, we have no idea what kinda testing the other teams are doing, it could be that Brawn GP are one of the slowest. although we only have about 16days till we find out for sure :)
not sure how inserting images works in this comments box so here is the link to image, you may help me to embed it here instead of showing the link. this is how Google handles translation from Dutch to English. Look out for Felipe Massa:
http://www.f1wolf.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/f-bulk.jpg
same here but it's great seeing them so on form practise wise and at the top :)
i guess. depends really.
we could exclude spc from the list of targeted sites. but in reality the ads cost so little, it's probably handy just having them displayed everywhere.
by far the easiest thing is to go here:
http://www.sidepodcast.com/realtime/
click "reply" then "share image" buttons, and upload the jpeg. the comments box will be populated with a link which when clicked displays the image.
i've really got to make a video tutorial of this, so bad at explaining things, sorry!
Sorry to parachute in in the middle of something, but what did you guys make of that Joe Seward "I got a paddock pass and you don't" rant?
here
http://drop.io/sidepodcast/asset/f-bulk-jpg
loved it and wished he did it sooner.
i think i might have been the only one though. judging by comments here and on joe's blog. what did you make of it?
yay!
I must say that I preferred and liked this post of his much much more:
http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/how-to-be-a-modern-f1-journalist/
going back to your original point, f1wolf... f. bulk??
yep, that is how Google translates Massa :-) I translated the live timing page from F1Today.nl and that is what came up :-)
that i can agree with.
i think the problem with the first post, was an attempt to tie it to the honda stories, whereas he should've just come out and said what he meant. the second was much, much better.
i am very tempted to leave a comment with the initials "GMM" in it, just to see if it ever gets past moderation :)
maybe google knows what he ate for lunch? :)
Massa up to 4th just before lunch.
Lewis looks rather lonely at the bottom. Only Buemi to keep him company. McLaren's issue seems to be even bigger than the one BMW encountered in last year's pre-season testing.
'Hamilton MBE' now features on his MP4-24
Oh please..
Oooh. Let's not get too cheeky, now... :)
http://drop.io/sidepodcast/asset/deh0911ma56-jpg
Photographic evidence would be handy :-)
wait a second, i haven't finished throwing up over the vodafone video yet. this is too much, too soon.
:D
morning all
morning :)
I'm still mad at the Vodafone billboard that features Ham and the phrase "Equally hard to beat" or something.
I may have been watching the wrong championship, but it's not like it was a walkover.
Good morning! Interesting day of testing again. :)
l
I'm curious to whom he's referring specifically. I agree with the objective but I find defensiveness on the part of seasoned pros disturbing.
I don't think I visited one F1 related website without that appearing!
Matt Bishop's comments were very (corporate) cringe-worthy indeed:
Vodafone tech is pretty mega. I wouldn't say it replaces the need for Lewis Hamilton, because he's pretty mega too.
Yeah... 'mega'...
aye, I see McLaren are keeping us guessing again
one would guess: http://www.gmmf1.net/
but don't quote me on that :)
Guessing, yes. Some are starting to worry, though.
The 'Hamilton MBE' sticker was pretty odd, too...
Ah, it would have been brilliant if he'd said "wicked" :)
super wicked mega cool....dope
I just did. :-)
Hehe.
what he wanted to say of course, was:
"Vodafone tech is pretty megablastic. I wouldn’t say it replaces the need for Lewis Hamilton, because he’s pretty megablastic too."
gah! :D
Is it me or is Lewis Hamilton 'managed' and 'publicised' in the worst way possible? Such a fantastic driver and yet so hated because of this and other examples where he is viewed as arrogant because someone placed him on a pedestal?
So, that's what MBE stands for! :-p
yes.
Will today get any better?!!!
Lame day at work so far
Band's just broke up today (no more practing in Brackley)
To top it off McLaren looking really bad
Wish i'd stayed in bed
'Mega' is the Bish's favourite word - often used in the old F1Racing. I must say things have much improved since Hans Seeberg took over...
Hey, Michael Schumacher was just as fantastic, maybe even more so, and yet was viewed as very arrogant, especially in the early days of his F1 career.
Max Mosley says that he'll never be able to regain the dignity that he lost after his visit to Helga's House of Pain last year.
Great Max, thanks for that. We'll never be able to regain our lost innocence about you getting your jollies in such a way.
did you see the l'oreal advertisments?
:D
But in Germany he was not hated as much as Lewis is in GB...
did matt ever work on GPX magazine per chance?
It's the done thing in Britain. Build them up and then knock them down.
Because he's worth it, apparently. ;)
Ah, yes, good point there. Lewis is a take-it-or-leave-it type of guy. Love him or hate him, you sure can't ignore him.
But that's not unique to Britain - it happens in most places.
Even then, consider that of past British champions, Damon and Nigel were liked very much - in Nigel's case, even loved!
James Allen is on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Jamesallenonf1
Seems to be the real one. He likes Jimmy Eat World by the looks of things!
Yup. It can't be long now before Andy Murray starts getting the Tim Henman treatment.
*follows*
God knows how with Mansell...
Couldn't stand him
Unless he wins Wimbledon, of course. Then the crowds will adore him.
It's hard to find a reason to hate a guy with so little personality though!
I think he already does. I know a lot of people think he's a big grump.
So fickle.
Not the opinion of the British majority, of course. :)
The media turned on him a while ago? Calling him arrogant and launched into him following comments that he would never class himself as 'British' but 'Scottish'?
You mean Lewis? Well, perhaps that's why some people hate him - his lack of a personality!
That's why I like him, Tim was far too clean cut. I like a dark side to my sports stars. I'm sure Lewis has one behind the layers of publicity, one day they'll break.....
Yeah he whinged ... but by God he could drive. Nige is a legend and such a courageous character. He never gave up and he reached his goal and for that I forgive any flaws of character.
Is winning not enough anymore?
Delayed reaction, but this 'doohickey' thingy is mega!
No, Nigel aka Captain Monotone
Being Mega is 'mega'!
hypermendous?
superific.
It is most cowabunga, yes.
I don't think Nigel was monotone - if anything, he was the absolute opposite! He often brought out his emotions onto the public stage - sometimes, a bit too often.
like, totally
:D
I know, I only jest. I love him really.
That's Kimi isn't it?
Me and the g/f have a bet to see how many times Massa says 'FOR SURE' in every interview. He averages about 2 per interview
It's catching on though, all the drivers are doing it now
I had never even heard of that... He should have been more direct because his rant came across as " them darn whippersnappers on the internets....you aint never gonna git a pitpass, you hear? neeeeveeer!"
Foreign sports people speaking English all seem to do it, someone must be teaching it them?!
if you've read f1-live.com, you've read GMM. here's one from today:
http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/090311110512.shtml
last three letters at the base of the post are the give away. plenty of other sites do the same.
we get the impression that GMM / anyone who pays GMM, are beginning to get up the noses of those who do any form of credible f1 reporting. joe's post was almost entirely predictable, i'm amazed it took so long to be honest.
you should probably read this post and associated comments, if it's something you're interested in:
http://www.sidepodcast.com/2009/02/03/f1-websites-you-can-trust/
Oh here we go again. Vettel's day stopped by... another mechanical failure!
All together now ..FFFF..For...SSS...Sure
Well done Felipe, now lets work on that WDC winning speech......
Red Bull are the 'New Lotus' - fast and fragile!
I wouldn't bother if I were him :p
Maybe he should - he takes P1, a bit over a tenth ahead of Button.
How's my man Heidfeld doing today? Is he ontrack?
right, i'm off to try to do something productive with my day (fat chance really).
speak to y'all soon
cheers chris.
GMM is never gonna git a pit pass though. They just take stories from foreign F1 sources... except... has anyone ever actually found the original foreign language source they're referring to?
These are testing times (see what I did there?)
1. F. Massa Ferrari F60 1:20.168 21 pit
2. J. Button Brawn GP BGP 001 1:20.313 +0.145 86 pit
3. F. Alonso Renault R29 1:20.863 +0.695 64 pit
4. T. Glock Toyota TF109 1:21.046 +0.878 69 pit
5. S. Vettel Red Bull Racing RB5 1:21.165 +0.997 49 pit
6. R. Kubica BMW Sauber F1.09 1:21.201 +1.033 52 pit
7. N. Rosberg Williams FW31 1:21.482 +1.314 30 pit
8. G. Fisichella Force India VJM-02 1:21.545 +1.377 51 pit
9. S. Buemi Toro Rosso STR4 1:21.569 +1.401 59 pit
10. L. Hamilton McLaren MP4-24 1:21.657 +1.489 49 pit
I've just seen the picture - my God, that is so incredibly arrogant and self-indulgent! Who greenlit that one?
there is one mistake in Saward's post. GMM is offering their feed for EUR40/month, not USD200 :-) , at least that is the offer I found in my mailbox
http://cdn.picapp.com/ftp/Images/6/b/2/9/PicImg_F1_Testing_8898.jpg
ooh, they've gotten cheaper ;)
i think our offer was more like £50, but not sure.
given how close the sticker is to the vodafone branding, and given the mounting evidence that said company are willing to make a certain driver look like an utter twonk at every opportunity...
Wow that's a little OTT
Technically he's allowed to display the MBE characters in his name at his disgression but with the F1 Paddock and public jumping at every chance to slate him this will only backfire...
Dare I say i've noticed he's not hugely liked by Sidepodcast (or at least the perception!)...Is this so?
who's up fro some translation?
http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/formel1/die-fia-polizei-prueft-toyota-williams-und-bmw-nicht-regelkonform-1016858.html
i think...
"charlie wants too peek at toyota's rear end, williams' skate fins and bmw's cockpit"
actually i got most of that from the pictures :)
Video of Nick answering some of last week's questions
BMW'f fins at the cockpit sides will disappear before the season starts. Williams fins may be declared a safety risk and will disappear as well.
*BMW's
cheers.
the bmw fins look tiny. i guess they count as flip-ups and such?
They are very much on the limit between legal and illegal so the FIA asked BMW 'to make that problem disappear'. The area under the fins will be filled.
ahh, the power :)
button has put in a 1:19.127. that's over one second faster than massa in second.
Oh yes please!
My. goodness.
Not necessarily - he has fans here too. But sometimes, his PR is just so... astoundingly... imbecilic.
:)
Toyota: It is about the diffuser extension beneath the tail lights. They put an additional channel above the permitted 175-mm. According to the rules this is legal, because you cn not see the additional area from below. It is shielded by the diffuser roof [?]
The question however is how Toyota brings air in this area. This happens through two holes in the floor. There is nothing wrong with that either. But now it gets exciting. How does the air get from there to the additional diffuser channel??
Whiting wanted to take a closer look at that mechanism. The question whether the idea is legal or not, depends on how the engineers have solved the problem. The second diffuser roof [??] may be interpreted as lower rearwing element.
Keywords
This [element] would then either be outside the allowed window, which is 200 to 400 mm above the reference level, or it would be an additional element to the actual rear wing. But in the above window only a thing that directs air is allowed.
very free translation :)
blimey. gonna need to dig out some pictures. thank you kathi.
Does he?...fans on here? I thought we all had to be avid backmarker fans to be taken serious.....okay i'm only joking with that.....
His PR is shocking though at times, how can it be so bad??!!
I was listening back through old sidepodcast 'podcasts' and i thought it was funny Christine says in Monaco GP debrief (2007) her best bit of the race was Hamilton not winning!!
What's the kid done to be disliked that early in his career?!
What's wrong with him using the MBE? it's an honour to be given it
Ask his dad. He might have an answer for us. ;)
Perhaps it's the 'silver spoon' image of his - that he got to drive a McLaren in his 1st year in F1?
I actually liked him in 07. Preferred him over Alonso, too. But then, he started saying and doing the oddest things... Mind you, I don't hate Lewis - not by any means, but I'm not so impressed with him now.
in that race, lewis hamilton acted like an arse. in fact, i think this was written in response:
http://www.sidepodcast.com/2007/05/28/lewis-hamilton-petulant-child/
we have nothing against the man, but itv's coverage of him was suffocating. we try to offer an antidote to that overbearing approach.
if you wish to refer to that as "...avid backmarker fans", so be it.
He was joking, you know. :)
hmmm.
Yeah I suspect Hamilton Senior could do with a few PR training courses!!
What is it with Dad's in F1 though?!! Getting sick of seeing a camera cut to them after the slighest of driving move their son might make
James Allen no his site was going on about how Webber's dad lives in the Red bull motorhome every race
They did invest much in their sons' careers. Famous dads in F1 include those of Hamilton, Button, Alonso, Massa, Nakajima, Piquet, and Rosberg.
That's totally cool etc...but why give them so much airtime?
A little here and there ain't so bad but the dad show's gotta end..
Saying that though i did enjoy the Massa's celebrations in Brazil...Oh justice
That was brutal! Besides, we just swapped Felipe's dad for Lewis', so I'd rather have seen Massa's dad happy. :)
this is likely rubbish, and keep in mind before i copied it, it went through x2 forums and google translate!
"Apparently a photographer who came too close to the pitbox received a punch from a Mclaren mechanic."
they really have issues with lenses don't they?
Surely the MBE thing is just to mark the occasion (and to generate some news print)? No worse than Williams covering its winter livery with its numerical achievements. I'd be surprised if it is still there next week, never mind in Australia.
Now if it does make it to Melbourne...
fair point.
;)
From bad to worse for Hamilton - he goes off at the Repsol curve. Red flag.
It was brutal I totally agree, in all fairness I've got no probs with the Massa's, it was that podgy bearded Ferrari mechanic (know the one I mean??) going nuts thinking Massa had won that I loved seeing get humbled.
He's the one always cheering when any misfortune befalls Lewis etc...for instance when Massa punted Lewis off the road in Fuji the camera cuts straight to him in the garage punching the air with a clenched fist. I loved seeing him get humbled........
He's a Canadian... Chris something is his name, and no, he's not a mechanic. He's one of their security personnel. I like him to be honest - he sold everything he had in Canada just to move to Maranello and try and get a job with Ferrari - and it worked!
ouch. from planetf1 forum:
"Gravitational pull on the right front quarter increased the loading of the left quadrant of the car, which resulted in Lewis' car coming off the track and smashing into the wall....again."
don't know where they got that quote from, or what it mean?
Chris something... forgot his last name. :D
Something went down on the right front, perhaps? Mechanical failure somewhere?
these rear wheel covers are new aren't they?
http://drop.io/sidepodcast/asset/f1-new-rear-wheel-blanking-covers-for-mclaren-jpg
I think that means he's let the jeering Alonso fans get to him.
He's Canadian...arrgh I might be forced to like him now....I like Canadian's, never met a bad one......
Fair play to him though for selling his stuff in pursuit of his dream. That takes bottle, I never noticed him until the 2008 season and after going back through old FIA reviews he always there somewhere in the background..
Security? why's he always in the garage during the race then?
He's not the security per se... he's the guy that arranges them.
He comes back to Canada every off-season, I hear - he likes supporting his local hockey team - forgot which one, though.
I bet James Allen would know about him, he seems to know Ferrari very well and all it's personnel
I'm sure most people in the paddock know him - have seen some pictures of him talking to other non-Ferrari drivers and personnel.
I swear he was on the F1 ITV montage video (The one from Brazil 2008 where they're all singing 'The Black Parade')
He's only semi lame now in my eyes! lol
Going up in my estimations lol
According to Babelfish translation from Spainish...
I hate it when you make a rectum and it leaves!
Yes, he was! :)
Does that mean he made a complete arse of it?
Damn, I'd just about forgotten about that. Possibly the most cringe-worthy piece of television in history.
I thought his English lip syncing was good! now i know otherwise....
cheers for the info
Nooo, that was brilliant.
I liked it, actually! F1 folks making fun of themselves. :)
I loved Steve Rider's self parody of his Hamilton interviews. That, and how some of the guys really got into singing the song.
Really.....? I think that more than anything else made me glad i wouldn't have to watch ITV again!
Though saying that, have you seen the 2008 review on the BBC F1 site? Nothing says motorsport like The Killers!
I wish I could, but I'm not in the UK... :(
"Briatore claims F1 teams exploiting rules"
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/motor-racing/briatore-claims-f1-teams-exploiting-rules-1642610.html
No? Really? Who would have thought? Briatore would never do anything like that! Etc.
(ahem, fuel filter, ahem)
Defo agree Christine, it was great
The only bit I winced at was watching DC hang out behind from Louise Goodman....OMG that was cheesey!
I loved the Ted Kravitz punching the Michelin figure and his little 1-1 with Dr Mario Thieesen (if that's how you spell it)
You aren't missing much. The videos on F1.com are far better.
It's Theissen. But yeah, ITV took the concept and ran with it - nothing to lose after all!
looks like I'm in the minority here then!
"It's not fair that we start some cars at Australia that have KERS and others that don't have KERS," Briatore said.
gimmie a frickin' break. wasn't it the renault team that ditched x2 employees, who then went on to set up the hybrid energy storage device company - flybrid?
"...Renault was faced with reducing its overheads and, in a round of redundancies, both Hilton and Cross were laid off, despite already being deep into the concept of energy recovery, and knowing that in 2009 F1 teams would need to have this technology fully developed and racing. "
oh yeah!!
more: http://www.racecar-engineering.com/articles/f1/182014/f1-kers-flybrid.html
"Dennis not worried by McLaren test form"
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73672
Apparently the McLaren has been slow in testing because "Testing is about a disciplined approach to making the car go faster".
So in other words, they are slow because they are trying to go faster. Nice one, Ron.
Could be, but knowing McLaren, they would've had at least a go at finishing a day or two on top. No such luck.
It's not fair Macca got hammered with a fine in 2007 and Renault were let off scott free even though it was proved they had used some of the intellectual property they had in their possession.
My heart really bleeds for Flav
Despite wrecking just an hour ago, Lewis is back out on track. First lap back out (probably a re-installation lap) is a 1:23.7.
Good man
Really hasn't gone well for him so far this year at all....
Continuing the Hamilton personality topic, here's a fellow British champion who had personality by the bucketload - James Hunt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppL7R4TtrXk&feature=channel_page
The team that designed and built the car was anything but cash-strapped. They may not be among the richest teams now but the research and development was done when Honda was throwing money at it.
3 wind tunnels at once wasn't it??
Honda had almost definitely reduced the budget by 08 - in addition to their lack of sponsorship. Add to that the fact that they've missed so many days of running post-Brazil means that they had surely fallen way behind the rest again.
I agree. Fan's sites and blogs that share opinions even if they are based on bias or some irrelevant scrap of information are fine. Sites that purport to be news sites when they have no real source for the 'news' are only cashing in on our hunger for information and adding to the confusion. Any one of us could 'produce' 20 news stories a day and sell them to anyone who is prepared to by them.
As an example today you could put out a story based on the test data saying McLaren must be sandbagging because no real problem would cost them all that time. In a few days based on the same data you could post a story saying they definitely have a problem. In the end neither the person posting the story or anyone reading it knows any more than they did before they read it as the story is based on nothing. But afterwards the person responsible can claim he was 50% right depending how the McLaren performs in Melbourne. 50% correct is a higher percentage than Mr gmm claimed when he was on this site a few weeks ago.
That always happens the first time a driver is in a car after getting an award.
Really? Did it happen with the other drivers?
BTW, today's session is over. Button P1 by a whole second. Wow. But I'm even more puzzled at how far behind McLaren are - 2.5 seconds. It looks like they won't get any sleep until Jerez next week.
Dignity was always the first word I thought of when Max's name was mentioned. He keeps going on about how much it upsets his wife and family. Surely someone is going to point out to him that his wife has lived in a different country for decades.
Well, TBH, his wife would still be upset. She is carrying Mosley's name now, after all.
at some point, someone might even ask her?
Funny thing is I used to hate Mansell and was never a Hill fan. Damon must be the luckiest guy ever to get a championship.
more than jacques?
really? wow.
still looks over the top though.
Hmmm... good point. You can also make an argument here for Lewis - or even for Kimi.
Hey guys, how are you keeping an eye on the testing times?
Can't seem to find anything online...
And speaking of people hating the Brits:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/7937029.stm
i'm with steven, damon was lucky. but i'd put jacques ahead of even damon on that score.
i'd call kimi a lot of things, but "lucky" wouldn't be one of them :)
http://www.f1today.nl/live-update/2009/03/11/circuit-de-catalunya/
Heh. But seriously, Kimi shouldn't have had any business winning the title in 07... right? Sure, he fought for it tooth and nail, but he needed Lady Luck to give him a chance.
And it's done for today. :)
Pot...Kettle...Black
I don't believe anything till the flag drops in Q1 in Australia
i guess you could say he was lucky the movable floor used in australia wasn't banned until after he won the race, yeah :)
I managed. It was the drama queen thing that bugged me. The guy was extraordinarily brave. He broke his neck in FFord. In his first race in F1 they were topping the fuel up on the grid. Unbelievable as it sounds now a funnel ws put in just around the area of the engine air inlet above the driver's head and fuel was poured in from a can. F1 has always been a technology leader. The mechanic overfilled the tank and Mansell got a load of petrol down his back. He drove 44 laps of the Oesterreichring soaked in petrol and got pretty serious chemical burns on his back but kept going. It anoyed me that such a brave guy would resort to all the drama queen stuff.
One of my favourite quotes from Sid Watkins autobiography was about Mansell. I think it was at Spa and Mansell had spun shortly after the start. He sat motionless in his car with his head on the wheel. Sid got out of the medical car and sprinted up hill to get to him and snapped a tendon in his leg. Despite the pain he carried on and when he got there he stuck his head in next to Mansell's. He asked what was wrong and Mansell said he was just sitting there with his foot on the brake so that they would have to re-start the race. 'There is nothing wrong with me.' To which the prof replied 'Yes there is. You are a ********* idiot.'
few people in this world deserve to be booed...
david beckham however is the exception ;)
oh, come on - that was race 1! by race 16, he was nowhere! or so it seemed before everything broke loose.
true enough. he didn't have a massive car advantage after race 1 though, he worked the title in spite of the car.
damon drove within himself, whilst sitting in a dominant machine.
Emerson Fittipaldi started saying for sure in the early 70s. It is not as prevalent now as it used to be when a lot of the drivers only spoke a few words of English.
You could say the same thing about Lewis. If the Ferrari didn't blow up so many times this season, Massa and Kimi would mounted a more serious challange. If Alonso hadn't been in the purgitory known as Renault. If BMW stuck with Kubica... ect. ect. ect.
True, the FIA stewarts nailed Lewis (unfairly) at two races, but he had a lot of help last year.
I didn't realise it was the same guy. I am going to enjoy that footage every time I see it now.
McLaren are generating gravity? That would prove F1 is at the forefront of technology. I wonder if they have finally cracked Burhard Heim's theories.
"Bernie Ecclestone and his wife Slavica have today divorced after almost 25 years of marriage, following what has been described as a 'quickie' 58-second court hearing – but the Formula 1 supremo could now be forced to pay out up to £1 billion to the statuesque, Croatian-born former Armani model in terms of a settlement, what would make it the world's most expensive separation."
http://www.crash.net/formula+one/news/143892/1/quickie_divorce_to_cost_ecclestone_1_billion.html
I bet some of them in the past left traction control hidden in their menus just to use at tests :D
He sounds confident. Kinda reminds me to when Prost went to Williams. Williams had been used to Mansell who insisted at the end of every test day that they put a qualifying set up on the car and let him set a time. When Prost arrived he would test at 90% day after day. The team kept asking him if he wanted to set a time and kept teling them everything was fine and there was nothing to worry about. Eventually after several weeks of this the team decided he had to set a time. He went out blew and everyone and when he came in he told them that he always knew the car was fast. It seems a ridiculous thing to say about someone who was a triple world champion at that time but I remember a comment by Patrick Head that he was amazed that Prost was really fast. The guy was so smooth and always in control that he couldn't believe despite his record that he was also quick.
I couldn't agree more. How can that man possibly make comments like that with his record?
Do we really need to go into all the 'incidents' that benefitted Kimi in 07!! I think China was the best bit of luck he was gifted..those pesky gravel traps and rookies eh?
Kimi deserved a championship after the his torrid time with Mclaren but 07 i'm sorry to say should've gone to the silver cars. But hey that's racing and the lad done well!
Really hope he ups his game this year
At one point last year a story appeared saying that they were running at the same time in 4 different wind tunnels including one in Japan.
They are short of testing but the R&D that went into the car was very expensive. Honda didn't ramp down towards closing the team they went from all out to zero. We still don't know how much money they are pouring into it.
Love it Mr Roy
I now know his name is Chris! and he's Canadian
Yes. I have seen it quite a few times. I have seen it happen with football players as well where their name on their shirt has the letters after it.
She is apparently very camera shy. So there is no chance of her appearing in public. I don't think you can trust camera shy people.
I liked Jacques. I think if he had stuck with a leading team he cold have racked up a few titles and been a pain in Schumacher's side.
One of my favourite arguments used to be the number of drivers who should have been challenging Schumacher but for vasrious reasons they never did or only did for a short time.
Jacques took himself out of the picture. Herbert never recovered from his F3000 accident. Martin Donnelly never raced again after his Lotus accident. McNish was never given an F1 drive when his career momentum was on the up. And those are only the tip of the iceberg. It is quite incredible how many drivers who were good enough to win races who were some how removed from challenging Schumacher.
Jacques won CART when it was a serious championship. What did Damon win?
I am saying nothing about that.
I thought she only moved out because the builders were making too much noise. I understood she owned many of his shares because she is not an EU citizen and can avoid certain taxes. It will be interesting to see how this pans out.
true, but damon made a better first of poor cars (post williams) than jacques did. much, much better in fact.
Hello all, feeling lazy, so hi.
My english teacher is quite bad 'Homework in for this Friday, for sure' that sort of stuff.
A lot of drivers who go from good to bad cars struggle. Some of them need to be in with a chance of winning to deliver their best performance. I guess after the first couple of seasons at BAR he felt trapped and his performance dropped after that.
In reality it doesn't matter what drivers do in bad cars it is whether they can deliver when the pressure is really on that matters and both of them did that. If I ever got my hands on a time machine I would go back to the days when Damon was doing F3 or F3000 and bet people he would become world champion. I would make so much money Bernie would be jealous. Especially if I bet them that he would win a championship before McNish started an F1 race. Although I may end up in a straight jacket if I go back and say that.
I think the daylight savings time changes must have kicked in in the States already as there only seems to be 4 hours between Eastern time and UK time.
The good thing about that for us is that the space shuttle launch is at 1:20 am and not 2:20 so more people can see it.
Oh good.
:D
Sup all, how is everyone today?
I've spent the day in Oxford, very nice, love that city, very tired though.
What have i missed?
For me, it seems Jacques brought it back into the modern F1 lexicon
DD feedback:
There's no ctrl/cmd 'F' search function :(
Now you mention it he was a bit prone to it.
The good thing abou Kimi is that at least he introduced his own phrase. I thinkso he did.
That's what Bernie said he thought :-)
Up to 7 % of Formula 1 shares is potentially up in the air now between Bernie and Slavica
BBC quiz has F1 question shock horror
From Eggheads
Was Niki Lauda Australian, Argentinian or Austrian?
I thought he was Albanian. Or possibly Algerian. Or was he Armenian?
Is his name Mr. F. Bulk by any chance? :P
I've started unconsiously doing in the past few months
Algerian, or even Aztec perhaps?
For starters, its a she ;)
I like testing. :D
Trust have launched a range of mega RBR related mouses (or 'mice' I guess): http://is.gd/mVbc
My poor eyes. :-(
THAT IS SO COOL!!!!!!!!!!
Eeek!
I believe the correct term to be 'meeses'!
silly question but who is johnathon palmer? and what does he have to do with f1? cause apparently he is on bbc radio 2 in a moment talking about it... well so mum says.
Oddly, I'm pretty sure the correct term is actually mouses.
British F1 driver from the 80's
thats an amusing question....
owns Motorsport Vision, (brands, oulton, cadwell park etc) owns F2, owns FPA
holy crap, I didn't realise palmer owned all them! I knew he had become a bit of an entreprenuer after f1 but wow.
I could swear it was mice.
ooooh ok. :) thanks
See I thought it was 'mouses'. Much like we say 'viruses' rather than 'virii'?
No, definitely meeses
many mice.
:D
I say radius instead of radii though.
I haven';t noticed this mentioned yet, lee McKenzie tweeted this not long ago:
Very pleasing news! :D
aww yay! brawn GP = awesome! :D
Wouldn't get to full of yourself just yet ;)
i've had such a tiring day and it's so nice to come home to a warm house. I forgot how nice it was to have hot water :D
they could be having engine and machanical failures every single run, and be bottom of the time sheets and in my eyes they would still be awesome :P
did you read allen's speculation they have as much as €145m to spend this year?
http://allenonf1.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/brawn-in-better-shape-than-you-might-think/
True.
Must have some big sponsers.
apparently they do... honda!
ooo nope, have only just got in.
woah! Did not expect that and didn't know about the entry by james. thanks :D
are they gonna have 'honda' painted all over their car then?
Will Merc be happy with that?
no. just their money in the bank.
Honda Brawn Mercedes?
*mind explodes*
"The team formerly known as..."
Oh fair enough. You got my suspicious rays up.
so what exactly is the difference between last year and this year? except that honda arent running it?!
surely they pulled out for money reasons?
He commentated with Murray for the last few years of the beeb's coverage too.
Hawdes?
Brondes?
goooood. that would be too confusing... if they are still associated with honda i wonder if my dad can still get hold of his friends.... hm.....
i would imagine they signed a big cheque and ran in the opposite direction. yell if you hear different though.
It'd be more expensive for them to shut down the factory and lay off all the staff. This is the cheaper option.
yep will do. i've just told dad and he is gonna see if he can do some digging. i doubt he will find anything else out though.
I still believe Honda haven't been sold and were never in trouble, in fact have built a secret test track somewhere in the country so have been testing all this while (hence the good times) have put the team as Brawn GP to respect Ross Brawn who helped them lots, really they are supplying the cars with Marcades which are a secret underground organisation of Honda engines with a similar logo to Mercedes. They have no sponsors like the last two years and will turn up with a big image of the moon on the car.
My mind is going all cranky.
Who's doing the quiz?
It's probably worth mentioning that Keith seems to have dropped GMM from his site now.
Eek, I'm so nervous... Champions League soon...
me.
What? Never heard of it.
not sure... this history essay wont get itself done :(
What is it about this time?
cool.
has he announced it, or is he just quietly pretending he never did run them gmm stories... no way... never?
Oh yeah, I'm supposed to be meeting a friend in the pub to watch it.
I dunno, if you're not getting up at 5.00am and committing 2 hours of your life to a sport, what's the point?
Didn't see any announcement.
In addition to all the other info Jonathan Palmer qualified as a doctor before he started racing in F1 and he was Murray's commentary partner between Hunt and Brundle.
fair enough. personally (and predictably, you might say), i'll not be re-subscribing. i do wonder though, if joe's post will hit a nerve with other f1 sites, who've also being helping fund a certain agencies syndication business?
And INCREDIBLY Boring! The exact opposite of Murray!
:D
I still don't understand what you have against F1Fanatic?
The difference is instead of supplying the full budget and copping the bad press they are providing a fraction of the budget and won't get blamed for any failure but will no doubt pick up some credit if things go well.
oh speaking of doctors, my friend's (emily - the gilr i was at goodwood with) uncle (or someone in her family) is the offical f1 doctor... not sure if there is just one or are many. interesting peice of trivia there :P
good random link! i like
OOPS forgot it was quiz night. Must eat before then.
last time i complained here, i got an earful! but buy me enough pints and maybe i'll list the reasons one day. less said the better methinks.
noooo, do it on an empty stomach. i heard it helps concentration... or something ;)
He has that reputation. I think he arrived in F1 too early for his own good. I remember reading something by a Tyrrell engineer after Palmer had retired saying that Palmer was best known within the team for his verbosity and note taking. He was designed to race in the days of stupefying amounts of data but he was born a decade or so too early.
There are at least two I believe. Dr Gary Hartstein (Chief Medical Officer) Dr Jacques Tropenat
The Bruno Mantovani Collection
God I love this guy ... he's so talented and his cartoons are very funny!
Probably me.
I think you need more details. There are all sorts of official doctors from the FIA doc (Sid's replacement to the circuit medical officer to other doctors at the track.
oh don't know what I did there to cut off my comment (my fault methinks), Tropenat is also the medical car driver and there are two medical assistants
OK you have convinced me
when i see her tomorrow i will ask :)
i despise all youtube slideshows...
...except that one, that one was ace :)
Great article here in the IHT by Gary Hartstein on his role http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/07/sports/SRDOCTOR.php
Hear hear...
...but this is actually a very good 'collection' of his best comics - it would have taken a lot longer to trawl through his site to find them all in this case.
It's good to see him write something. I kinda miss the profile Sid Watkins had and someone on the safety side needs to fill that void. However I am fed up reading that safety began in 1994. We had not had a death at a GP in 12 years before that. Max and co did not start making F1 safe. I hate FIA political spin.
http://www.f1bigpicture.com/
...yeah, she bought another one.
I may be late with this:
BBC are pushing F1 everywhere I go or look. Last night in the cinema, the first 2 minutes of the adverts were a BBC advert for "The Greatest Chase on the Planet!"
I hope their coverage is half as good as their advertising!
sidepodspace update
Everyone can go to bed early tonight. The launch has been postponed due to a hydrogen leak in a vent between the shuttle and the external fuel tank.
The launch will now take place at 8:54 Eastern tomorrow which should be just before 1am UK time.
The domain name or the pictures?
The domain. It's too easy to buy them, I can't help it.
Ah OK :-)
Do you have to pay to use those pictures, or can you borrow them for the site if they are properly credited?
i think we've only bought two or three pictures on f1 minute, thus far.
we're not adverse to paying for them, but our budget only stretches so far at the moment. they're more expensive on f1m too because you normally pay by the size, and those are pretty large. don't ask us how much though!
teams will often give out press images free, and the majority come from there. annoyingly the best team for pictures was honda :(
each picture is duly credited, if you're interested in where they came from.
Thanks for the info ;-)
yeah honda team pics were amazing, i'd have a different pic as my desktop pic each week, sadly brawn gp pics are not as big and not of the same quality. there is still time though :)
It's worth saying you still have to credit them if you pay for them, too.
i admire your optimism, but i honestly don't see bgp making it onto the big pic until they sort that livery :)
im sure they'll come back, its the same team essentially...the pr department must be insanely busy at the moment, give them a while, im sure they'll provide :)
the big meanies.
I was just thinking the same ... first things first, and that means 100% into getting two working cars with test mileage onto the Melbourne grid. Then we can have the pretty pictures!
ii'd like to think that they would revamp their website too ;) i mean it looks like it was quickly put together. haha yeah the livery does need a little work :P
Is that why you keep saying no to all the Renault ones I suggest? :)
How much usually, in a range anyway?
The whole team was quickly put together ;-)
:D
really? i was under the impression that pretty much everything within the team was the same, except honda don't own it, brawn does.
not saying.
Okay.
Yeah but... you get the impression they have been 'dormant' in many areas until the announcement last week - then there was a whole lot of action!
More than 5 pints? :-D
depends what they're pints of?
We don't know who owns what in that team yet.
I left that one up to you ;-)
well it's called Brawn GP so i assume Brawn owns at least some of it.... i'm sure i read it was a 100% Brawn takeover...
Can't be true - Honda put some money in, Nick Fry is the CEO, Bernie gave them some TV money and there's talk of a sponsor.
If the deal was done like in Dragon's Den, because Brawn didn't put all the money in he can't be a 100% shareholder ;-)
So why is the full management still in place? Brawn was the highest profile Honda employee and had the best reputation. They could hardly call it after the lawyer woman.
One day the truth will come out and I would bet Brawn doesn't own all of it.
The very first thing Brawn said was:
"Quite simply, I have purchased the team from Honda. As the owner I will continue to be supported by the incumbent management team, who have worked closely with me throughout the sale process and will continue to do so in the future."
Make of that what you will!!
Yeah but... what does he mean by purchasing the team and how do those who have funded the team this year sit within the structure? Surely the backers will want a return of some sort ?
At the moment, we only know what he wants to tell us.
The management team are bound to have negotiated some kind of share deal.
I guess that is the root of the problem. So many false news stories combined with the team saying nothing just leads to speculation.
I suspect even Gonda still have some sort of stake in the team - they can't surely have just handed over all that money???
This is the same company that decide to forfeit sponsorship for two seasons.
...and endless GMM stories ;-)
Ah yes. If it wasn't for the fact that they made decent cars that people actually buy I would have said that Gonda had wasted money in epic GM proportions!
Quiz starting soon everyone, just a little reminder.
It's quiet in here on quiz night!
Join in the fun then
am still around. quizzing and working on new sidepodstuff at the same time.
Am also doing two things at once, running my other website and the quiz, multitasking rules
I'm watching:
-Last night's CL highlights
-Tonight's CL ticker on the BBC
-Facebook
Oh, and the Doohickey ;-)
I've been looking at you tube n other footage thats about from Barcelona, Why do they keep running Hamilton with the 08 rear wing?
oooh, is there new one? have you a link pls?
We don't know
Maybe his dad won't let him yet!!!!!!
I think Jolly has a link.. I'll go look
Turun Sanomat made my life a lot easier and published their test report in English.
http://images.gpupdate.net/large/119597.jpg
havent we all missed this sight?!
aww man im glad their back
yesterdays testing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ebK1njx1IM and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDuBIMs-Mv4
ace... why?
fanx you :)
http://images.gpupdate.net/large/119588.jpg
dosent this kinda spoil the wing? :P blocks the aero lol
:)
Would that give it more downforce?
could be the answer to mclaren's issues?
"boys, look, we've made a mistake...."
I'd love to see that roll out at Melbourne :D
Does my wing look big in this?
A few days ago they wrote that because of sick-leave of their reporter (Heikki Kulta) there wouldn't be any updates for a bit. Seems the is still ill and they didn't find anybody who could translate the guest writer's (Luis Vasconcelos) report. I googled Luis and found this: http://www.sidepodcast.com/2008/06/28/there-are-cars-out-there-too/ :)
got ya. hope heikki is ok.
!?
http://www.sidepodcast.com/2008/06/28/there-are-cars-out-there-too/#comment-80994
ha! small world :)
Quick game of Spot the difference anyone? .. both pictures are on todays drop http://drop.io/sidepodcast
:D ♥
:D
the quiz is hard today.... well whenever i flick over it seems to be a nasty question ;)
Am determined to get all 5 today.
why do you think I'm here? gonna be last again!
No harder than normal. ;)
aww i'll submit some of my answers to make you feel better ;)
It's information overload for me, there's just too much stuff going on in those photo's
have just mentioned this in the quiz, but....
http://babypandathursday.com/
I think that may be Steven's fault?
:D
:D
The question is was she upset because she found out what he had been doing or upset because it was in the news?
And every ****ing race he'd drone on about pit stops and tyre strategies. :(
good point.
she's on a url binge at the moment isnt she?
rather, yes!
:D
url OCD, definition: the compulsion to buy domain names
Absolutely not. Nothing to do with me.
Move along now, nothing to see ;)
I know what I didn't mention about Jonathan Palmer. He won the Jim Clark trophy the only year they had it.
Got that one. :)
Ah ha .. got that one wrong then
Have you got a new guest post tomorrow Steven?
Last one in the series. It is about how F1 has not always had the best technology and how the US at one time was years ahead. It's called Jim Who?
Excellent :D
Excellent that it is the last one?
Oii .. no excellent that you have a new post!
It is soooo nice to know I am not the only person who has URL splurges...
One day I may even *do* something with them (redface)
Christine - do you buy things just because they are the title of something you are working on as well, or is that just me?
Spill the beans LPG .. bought anything exciting?
I have a name in mind to buy but I can't see me doing anything with it
Yea, I only buy things that relate to stuff I'm working on. There are only a couple of URLs I own that wouldn't work being forwarded to an existing page.
Not that exciting Jackie... I bought a load that a local 'group' had left to expire because to not have the one on a load of local authority leaflets actually point to the right place is just silly, but I don't consider I really own those, I'm just making sure that they don't end up pointing somewhere nefarious...
But in terms of my own 'real' things, they tend to be titles (well, at least working titles) for writing/lifestyle type projects (green or vegan generally, lol), or possible future company ideas .... (very boring company ideas like things for children, or goths, or both rofl. Hmmm - 'nice' (as in not white and boring) F1 related t-shirts with an alt. edge anyone?
Although sometimes I'm 'sensible' and get DP to buy things instead, then it doesn't look quite so, um, splurgy...
This weeks Questions and Answers
http://www.pitlanefanatic.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=694&p=5135#p5135
Well done to everyone - especially Mr C who came top in reverse order :-)
Yossidlr's updated his youtube channel with TODAY'S testing :D
http://www.youtube.com/user/yossidlr
moderation... oooo moderation.... moderations what you (don't) need....
:-D Thanks
:D
sorted.
sidepodspace update
It looks like the problem that caused today's launch to be cancelled caused more damage than first thought. THe launch will now not be before Sunday.
LPG is now having problems with Adobe Air, she's unable to install it on XP :(
what are you two like!
Hey, mine works now.
thank the lord. you'd have thought it was a conspiracy if neither of ya could connect.
kimi from the quiz, just asked christine on facebook if i get the answers wrong on purpose!!
Ha!
He has little to do with this computer... I'm stuck with XP until I have funds for a Mac something or another...
Anyway - I'm having issues getting any of the updates from adobe this evening, so its as likely to be an issue there as anywhere (unless service pack 3 screwed my machine earlier...??)
Andy said he was putting the kettle on again about 15minutes ago.. I'm still waiting on that cup of tea as well....
white no sugar, cheers andy.
Oh arse, now yahoogroups is sodding me around as well...
maybe I should give up and just watch dodgy TV instead
(or actually do some 'work' - which atm means ploughing through a large selection of govt. written claptrap wrt the inability of the eijits to just sod off and let us get on with educating our children rather than putting time and effort into dragging us down to the same pitiful levels that they expect everyone else to be happy with...)
argh!!!!
wow. that was like an uber-tremanyne.
Good to see Brawn GP going for the headlines with the test times. If they're even the 8th best team at Melbourne I'll be impressed. Nevermind the oodles of money they had for the car, oodles of time they did not have.
McLaren are being a strange one, I want to see proper times from them : (
sorry....
no worries. sounds like you're dealing with a lot of rubbish people :(
what a difference a ron makes, eh?
Time to link again...
In case Me fancies a change...
http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/2009/03/14/energy-drink-roundup/1
Something works....
Anyone else buffering?
A little
Completely unlistenable for me at the moment... get a fraction of a second of audio then a fraction of a second of gap...
Slick. :D
Dre...
...
dfu...
...
lly bad
Same. :(
Yup. Stopping now - will come back later. Someone shout on here when the sidepodpanel is over
Ditto
Hang on... IT LIVES!
Video on
Ooooh. Thats true. :D
How many dead?
Don't need to see the video to hate Naffcar
Left again - buffering got much worse. :(
Why are my comments appearing in the 11th March daily post?
Cause you'r special :D
Cos you're replying there?