F1 Madness

Latest

  • Red Bull to confirm Daniel Ricciardo at Spa

    Red Bull to confirm Daniel Ricciardo at Spa

    Daniel Ricciardo is set to partner Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull according to a report in Germany’s, Sport Bild.

    The tabloid’s correspondents Bianca Garloff and Ralf Bach said that the news will be announced at next weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix. The paper quoted Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko as saying, “Unfortunately, I cannot say any more than that we will make an announcement at Spa.”

    There has been no further official confirmation from Red Bull, Toro Rosso or any of the drivers.

    Daniel Ricciardo told Sport Bild that he expects to get along with the reigning world champion should he be selected to race for the Red Bull team, “I know Seb quite well,” he said, “as I was the reserve driver in 2010. I was out for dinner with him a few times and we get on really well.”

    Both Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso have also been linked to Mark Webber’s Red Bull seat, so we’ll only really know once an official announcement has been made.

    If Alonso does move to Red Bull, Kimi Raikkonen’s rumoured move back to the Ferrari team does seem a little more likely than the Finn joining the team to play second fiddle to Alonso.

    Photo by Red Bull Racing Twitter Team.

  • F1 2013 Mid-Season Highlights

    F1 2013 Mid-Season Highlights

    The 2013 F1 season has offered really exciting racing so far and this F1 2013 Mid-Season Highlights package really does the first half of the season justice. Thanks to @Formula1extra for sharing.

  • All about Kimi Raikkonen moving to Ferrari

    All about Kimi Raikkonen moving to Ferrari

    If you’ve been paying attention to the F1 Silly Season rumours, you’ve probably heard by now that Kimi Raikkonen has been linked to a move back to the Maranello based Scuderia Ferrari team.

    This is according to a single report published by Finnish tabloid newspaper Ilta-Sanomat who say that the report is based on information from their “sources”.

    Not much to go on to be honest.

    There have been no official reports of such a move from either Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari or the Lotus team. Ferrari dismissed rumours earlier in August that a lucrative offer was made to lure the Finn back to the team. They have now again stated that the rumours of Raikkonen moving to the team are completely unfounded. If Ferrari were to take Raikkonen back they would effectively be admitting that they made a mistake by letting him go in 2009.

    Lotus team principal Eric Boullier is still confident that he can keep Kimi Raikkonen in the Lotus camp despite the fact that Raikkonen is reportedly still waiting for his latest pay cheque and the team is rumoured to be struggling financially.

    Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus F1 TeamIf Kimi Raikkonen moves to Ferrari, he would have to play second fiddle to Fernando Alonso, which seems very unlikely. He would however join James Allison who served as Lotus’ Technical Director before moving to Ferrari earlier this year. Alonso has been rumoured to be in the sights of Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz despite Alonso’s long term contract with Ferrari.

    Earlier, Kimi Raikkonen and Daniel Ricciardo were named as the top candidates for the Red Bull team but the silly season rumour mill is indeed working over time. And this whole game of F1 musical chairs was started by Mark Webber who announced his retirement from Formula One earlier this year.

    Only time will tell and we will keep you updated on who will be moving where as soon as official announcements are made.

    Where do you think Kimi Raikkonen should race in 2014? Should he stay with Lotus? Move to Red Bull, or re-fit his red overhauls for Ferrari? Let us know in the comments section below!

     

  • F1 2013: Lotus’ Lopez talking the talk

    Gerard LopezLotus chairman Gerard Lopez has scoffed at rumours that his Formula 1 team is in financial trouble.

    Lopez purchased the Renault team in 2009 and is adamant that the reported 120 million Euro debt is being misunderstood. “On the €120 million debt, anybody half-smart can find out that number by going to Companies House records and will see that out of that, over 90 million is not ‘real’ debt but shareholder loans made to the company,” said Lopez.

    He laughed off suggestions that staff had not been paid and denied any rumours of employees threatening a strike at the Enstone based factory. While Lopez has denied the lack of payment Lotus team principal Eric Boullier confirmed on a previous occasion that Kimi Raikkonen had been payed ‘a few days late’ by the team.

    While vehemently denying these Lopez emphasised that the team has enough resources to keep up with the development of the E21 in the second half of the season. Despite the fact that the time for major upgrades have gone the team is believed to be bringing a new front wing to the Belgian GP. Lopez is adamant that the development will not end there.

    “We are actually bringing a number of new developments throughout the season,” said Lopez. What is true is that, just like everyone else, a lot of the big stuff like the double DRS has already been developed but is going to be put on the car for the upcoming races.”

    Lopez, the co-owner of Genii Capital, stressed the investments that have been made to the Formula 1 team since taking over.

    “It had a 50 per cent windtunnel, now it’s 60 per cent. The team didn’t have a driver-in-the-loop simulator, it does now. It didn’t have a gearbox dyno, now it has. So it has a bunch of things that it didn’t have even as a works team. As they say in other sports, you do your talking on the field and I guess we do our talking on the track.”

  • F1 2013: McLaren’s Button optimistic for Belgium GP

    F1 2013: McLaren’s Button optimistic for Belgium GP

    McLaren have said that they believe their 2012 car ‘overperformed’ towards the end of last season.

    Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh said that the the 2012 McLaren out delivered what the team expected from data compiled through its wind tunnel model. Meaning that the 2012 car was better than its smaller scale wind tunnel counterpart. A slight difference in correlation between the full scale wind tunnel model and CFD (computational fluid dynamics) is not unusual.

    In 2013 McLaren, by their own standards, has woefully underperformed. This, Whitmarsh said, was just a case of luck not going the Woking based teams way.

    “Sometimes you’re lucky in life and you stick all the elements together and they add up. Sometimes they just don’t. There were times when it’s come good and we don’t really know why,” said Whitmarsh.

    However, despite McLaren’s struggles in 2013 Jenson Button believes that the Belgian grand prix could be the turning point for his team. The 2009 champion believes that although the results have not been spectacular that the team has improved since the first race of the season in Australia. Button finished seventh at the Hungarian grand prix and is optimistic that the team is moving in the right direction.

    “I think we’ve done a good job, and I think we’ll really show that at Spa. It’s a different type of circuit, and a circuit that should suit what we put on the car for this race. It [Hungary] was probably our best race of the year. That’s not saying much, but it’s been a tough season. There is progress there, and I think we should be happy,” said Button.

    JB believes that the layout of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit will allow his team to show the progress that has been made. “I think the next race you’ll see us a lot closer to the top teams, and fighting with them. I’m looking forward to Spa already.”

    The Belgian grand prix is sure to be a welcome return to racing after a month long break for Formula 1. Will McLaren welcome back some much needed pace?

     

     

     

  • 1969 Australian F1 Grand Prix at Lakeside – Full race

    1969 Australian F1 Grand Prix at Lakeside – Full race

    1969 Australian F1 Grand Prix at Lakeside featuring great drivers such as Chris Amon, Piers Courage, Jochen Rindt, Frank Gardner, Alfredo Costanzo, Graham Hill, Max Stewart and Derek Bell.

  • Gary Hartstein, Former F1 Doc Interview – I was just a Doctor

    Gary Hartstein, Former F1 Doc Interview – I was just a Doctor

    Dr Gary Hartstein, M.D. is the former FIA Medical Delegate for the Formula One World Championship. Gary has been key in developing some of the FIA’s new approaches and policies in terms of medical safety.

    In 1997 Gary joined Professor Sid Watkins in the Formula 1 Medical Car and in 2005 he became the “Formula 1 Doctor” when Sid retired. At the end of 2012 Gary did not have his contract renewed as Formula One Medical Delegate.

    Mario Muth sat down with Gary at his home in Liège to talk about his life in Formula 1 and how it ended in this brilliant interview, WELL worth watching!

  • Russian GP misses FIA application deadline

    Russian GP misses FIA application deadline

    Russian GP organisers have missed the deadline set by the FIA to apply to host a Formula One race next season, according to the Russian Automobile Federation (RAF).

    Although construction work is still underway at the Sochi International Circuit, private email correspondence between the FIA and the RAF stated that the Russian GP organisers had until the 31st of July to submit their application.

    The email read: “We kindly ask you to submit your requests for all events as soon as possible, and no later than 31 July 2013, except in the case of force majeure.”

    In order for the Russian GP race to now go ahead, they will have to prove that exceptional circumstances are to blame for their missing the deadline.

    It seems that a dispute exists between the RAF and Russian GP promoters over who will be liable to pay for certain costs such as the training of the 700-800 track marshals and circuit staff that are required to host the race.

    The RAF said in a statement that as soon as the dispute is resolved, they will submit their application under force majeure as has been made provision for by the FIA.

    The issue is likely to be resolved and the Russian Grand Pix is likely to go ahead as planned – especially considering the very public signing of the contract by President Vladimir Putin and Bernie Ecclestone.

     

  • Sound of the new Mercedes-Benz V6 turbo engine – around Monza

    Sound of the new Mercedes-Benz V6 turbo engine – around Monza

    Mercedes have released this video with the sound of an F1 car lapping Monza using a 2014 V6 turbo engine. Enjoy!

  • Humbled by F1 headlines – by @Reynardg

    Humbled by F1 headlines – by @Reynardg

    I hate to lose and I hate it even more if I lose and people can put me in my place about it.

    To top it all off – I’m actually the one who started this. With this being my usual post-race F1 column, everything expressed here is my own opinion. This however started on my personal Facebook profile on Thursday night where after three weeks of no F1, I was very much looking forward to the race and a win for Sebastian Vettel.

    It was probably a good thing that I didn’t bet any money on the race, however it would’ve been a safe bet if I predicted which of my colleagues and friends would be the first to remind me of how over-optimistic I was. However, while sitting and licking my wounds, I did indeed start thinking of how interesting this current F1 season still can become.

    Here are the facts: Red Bull has looked fairly indestructible in recent times. Between them and Lotus they made the tyre issues look like a little niggle.

    Remember however, at Silverstone the Gearbox on Vettel’s car packed up and at Budapest it was KERS.

    Meanwhile Pirelli brought along some new tyres and teams now had their fair share of legal and illegal tyre tests.

    Now let’s add the drivers here. No one really knows what goes on in the mind of Iceman Kimi Raikkonen although I’ll bet his mind is set on winning races rather than crying over a salary.

    Ever since he announced his retirement Mark Webber has been looking like a new man and one on a mission to leave a legacy. Looking past his penalty, Romain Grosjean has started living up to the potential we always knew he had. Nico Rosberg secured two wins in the first part of the season and has really become a driver that just looks more like believing that he can win a title. Then there’s Lewis Hamilton, newly single and just looking all that more motivated.

    Vettel is still in the lead of the championship, but the road to winning four consecutive titles is not an easy one and it’s not a sure bet. At the end of the race we all heard him saying “Sorry guys, I did all I could” and in all honesty… he did.

    Hungary 2013 was a GP in which all the key contenders did all they could. There’s still a lot that can happen this year and the championship may well again carry on until the last lap at Interlagos.

    Hungary taught Vettel to be humble, it taught me not to pre-write headlines, but more so – I hope it taught all the those who constantly write off F1 as a boring sport that there’s nothing like a foregone conclusion in the fastest sport in the world.

     

    Reynard Gelderblom is the motorsport editor for Street Motion.

    Keep up to date with the latest local motorsport news by following Street Motion on Twitter.

    streetmotion