Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/architects-and-engineers-step-forward/
Skip Barber Paolo Barilla Rubens Barrichello Michael Bartels Edgar Barth
Friday, August 31, 2012
Architects and engineers step forward
Infiniti has sent out a teaser of something that Sebastian Vettel has been getting up to on its behalf. It would be fascinated to know if anyone can tell what it was from the following photos. This is not a quiz, as I do not know the answer, but perhaps someone out there does… The [...]
Cool, canny Alonso seems to have all the answers
The remarkable story of Fernando Alonso and Ferrari's incredible season continued at the German Grand Prix as the Spaniard became the first man to win three races in 2012 and moved into an imposing lead in the world championship.
Those three victories have all been very different, but equally impressive. And each has demonstrated specific aspects of the formidable army of Alonso's talents.
In Malaysia in the second race of the season, at a time when the Ferrari was not competitive in the dry, he grabbed the opportunity provided by rain to take a most unexpected first win.
In Valencia last month, it was Alonso's opportunism and clinical overtaking abilities that were to the fore.
Other drivers may wonder how to stop Alonso's relentless drive to a third title. Photo: Getty
And in Germany on Sunday his victory was founded on his relentlessness, canniness and virtual imperviousness to pressure.
Ferrari, lest we forget, started the season with a car that was the best part of a second and a half off the pace. Their progress since then has been hugely impressive.
But vastly improved though the car is, it was not, as Alonso himself, his team boss Stefano Domenicali and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel all pointed out after the race on Sunday, the fastest car in Germany.
Vettel's Red Bull - which finished second but was demoted to fifth for passing Jenson Button by going off the track - and the McLaren appeared to have a slight pace advantage over the Ferrari, given their ability to stay within a second of it for lap after lap.
But Alonso cleverly managed his race so he was always just out of reach of them when it mattered.
He pushed hard in the first sector every lap so he was always far enough ahead at the start of the DRS overtaking zone to ensure his pursuers were not quite close enough to try to pass him into the Turn 6 hairpin.
After that, he could afford to back off through the middle sector of the lap, taking the stress out of his tyres, before doing it all over again the next time around.
Managing the delicate Pirelli tyres in this way also meant he could push that bit harder in the laps immediately preceding his two pit stops and ensure he kept his lead through them.
Equally, he showed the presence of mind to realise when Lewis Hamilton unlapped himself on Vettel shortly before the second stops that if he could, unlike the Red Bull driver, keep Hamilton behind, it would give him a crucial advantage at the stop.
It was not quite "67 qualifying laps", as Domenicali described it after the race, but it was certainly a masterful demonstration of control and intelligence.
And there was no arguing with another of the Italian's post-race verdicts. "(Alonso) is at the peak of his personal performance, no doubt about it," Domenicali said.
It was the 30th victory of Alonso's career, and he is now only one behind Nigel Mansell in the all-time winners' list. The way he is driving, he will surely move ahead of the Englishman into fourth place behind Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna before the end of the year.
At the halfway point of the season, Alonso now looks down on his pursuers in the championship from the lofty vantage point of a 34-point advantage.
That is not, as Red Bull team principal Christian Horner correctly pointed out in Germany, "insurmountable" with 10 races still to go and 250 points up for grabs. But catching him when he is driving as well as this will take some doing.
Alonso is clearly enjoying the situation, and is taking opportunities to rub his rivals' noses in it a little.
He is not the only driver to have been wound up by the index-finger salute Vettel employed every time he took one of his 11 wins and 15 pole positions on the way to the title last year.
So it was amusing to see Alonso do the same thing after he had beaten the German to pole position at Vettel's home race on Saturday.
The exchange between Alonso, Button and Vettel as they climbed out of their cars immediately after the race was also illuminating.
After standing on his Ferrari's nose to milk the applause, Alonso turned to Button and said: "You couldn't beat me?" He then pointed to Vettel and said: "He couldn't either."
All part of the game, but a little reminder to both men of what a formidable job Alonso is doing this season.
The race underlined how close the performance is between the top three teams this year.
Red Bull had a shaky start to the season by their standards - although to nowhere near the extent of Ferrari - but have had on balance the fastest car in the dry since the Bahrain Grand Prix back in April.
And while McLaren have had a shaky couple of races in Valencia and Silverstone, they showed potential race-winning pace in Germany following the introduction of a major upgrade.
Despite a car damaged when he suffered an early puncture on debris left from a first-corner shunt ironically involving Alonso's team-mate Felipe Massa, Hamilton was able to run with the leaders before his retirement with gearbox damage.
And Button impressively fought his way up to second place from sixth on the grid, closing a five-second gap on Alonso and Vettel once he was into third place.
This has not been Button's greatest season, as he would be the first to admit.
Germany was the first race at which he has outqualified Hamilton in 2012 and even that may well have been down to the different tyre strategies they ran in qualifying.
Nevertheless, he remains a world-class grand prix driver and Germany proved the folly of those who had written him off after his recent struggles.
And despite Alonso's lead in the championship, the season is finely poised.
Germany was a low-key race for Mark Webber, who was unhappy with his car on the harder of the two tyres but remains second in the championship. And Red Bull's two drivers clearly have the equipment to make life difficult for Alonso.
The McLaren drivers are determined to make something of their season still and Lotus are quick enough to cause the three big teams some serious concern.
Mercedes, meanwhile, have a bit of work to do to turn around their tendency to qualify reasonably well and then go backwards in the race.
"It's going to be a great, great season," said McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh on Sunday. "It already has been a great season."
And the next instalment is already less than seven days away in Hungary next weekend.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/07/cool_canny_alonso_looks_diffic.html
David Clapham Jim ClarkÜ Kevin Cogan Peter Collins Bernard Collomb
Stolen Ford GT found chopped up [video]
A stolen Ford GT was found dismantled in a warehouse located in Vista, while some of the components were in a San Marcos stoarge unit.
Pedro Matos Chaves Bill Cheesbourg Eddie Cheever Andrea Chiesa Ettore Chimeri
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Fernando Alonso: ?We did something better than the others?
Fernando Alonso was in upbeat mood after finishing fifth in Hungary, and he made it clear that he was delighted to have scored a good helping of points on a track which did not suit Ferrari. Although he lost ground … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/07/29/fernando-alonso-we-did-something-better-than-the-others/
Chuck Arnold Rene Arnoux Peter Arundell Alberto Ascari Peter Ashdown
2012 Belgian Grand Prix Thursday pictures | F1 pictures
2012 Belgian Grand Prix Thursday pictures is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Pictures from Thursday in the paddock at Spa-Francorchamps ahead of the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix.
2012 Belgian Grand Prix Thursday pictures is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/36G7g3RNAGo/
Giancarlo Baghetti Julian Bailey Mauro Baldi Bobby Ball Marcel Balsa
MOTOGP: Where To Ben?
Ben Spies' 2012 MotoGP campaign has been a mystery, and so too are his plans for 2013 and beyond.
Source: http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/motogp-where-to-ben/
Alberto Crespo Antonio Creus Larry Crockett Tony Crook Art Cross
BIKES: 2012 Suzuki GSX-R1000 Comes To SPEED
I would venture to say the 2012 GSX-R 1000 is probably the best bang for your buck in the liter bike category.
Source: http://motorcycling.speedtv.com/article/bikes-2012-suzuki-gsxr1000-comes-to-speed/
Tony Bettenhausen Mike Beuttler Birabongse Bhanubandh Lucien Bianchi Gino Bianco
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Speculation starts early over Hamilton's future
Lewis Hamilton's future was the subject of fevered discussion at the Monaco Grand Prix last weekend as the driver market 'silly season' began in earnest.
Hamilton is out of contract with McLaren at the end of this season and, at 27, his career is at a crossroads, with arguably the most important decision of his life looming.
Hamilton is heading into his prime as a grand prix driver. With good reason, he regards himself as the fastest in the world and it pains him that he has won only one world title so far.
That came in 2008 and it has not escaped Hamilton's attention that since then, at least until the start of this year, McLaren had not provided him with a car that was truly competitive enough.
This season started promisingly, with McLaren locking out the front row at the first two races and Hamilton on pole in both. But since then their form has dipped, particularly in the last three races.
Lewis Hamilton was fifth in the Monaco GP, behind Sebastian Vettel who was fourth. Photo: Getty
Hamilton is still very much in the title race, but he left no-one under any illusions about his feelings after his fifth place in Monaco on Sunday.
It used to be the case that discussions about drivers' futures did not start until July and August. No longer. Teams and drivers will say publicly that it is far too early to discuss it. What they mean is that it is too early to talk about it to the media; behind the scenes a lot is going on.
Hamilton's future is tied up with that of Red Bull's Mark Webber and Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher and also, to some extent, Webber's team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
It is widely believed that all four top teams are interested in Hamilton - at least to the point of holding talks with his management.
McLaren definitely want to keep him and have made that clear to both Hamilton himself and his management team - but no substantive negotiations have taken place and no financial offers made yet, despite reports to the contrary. Mercedes are known to have him seriously on their radar as a potential replacement for Schumacher. The picture at Ferrari and Red Bull is slightly less clear.
There was a rumour going around in Monaco that Ferrari were keen on signing Hamilton for next season in place of Felipe Massa, whose time at the team is expected to end this season.
That seems unlikely for one obvious reason - Fernando Alonso is contracted to Ferrari until the end of 2016. There is huge mutual respect between the two - each regards the other as their biggest rival - but that's very different from wanting to be team-mates again.
When they were at McLaren in Hamilton's debut year in 2007, it did not go well, to put it mildly, and Alonso ended up leaving at the end of the season - just one year into what had been a three-year contract.
Alonso's problem was far more with McLaren boss Ron Dennis than it was with Hamilton. Nevertheless, it is unlikely he would want Hamilton to be his team-mate again - and Ferrari is very much his team these days.
Equally, Hamilton would have to think carefully about moving to a team where he does not speak the language - even if the debriefs are conducted in English and there is an English ex-McLaren technical director - and where a man as clever, cunning and political as Alonso has been ensconced for three years.
Nevertheless, Hamilton would be highly attractive to Ferrari's main sponsors, the cigarette company Philip Morris and Spanish bank Santander, who could drop McLaren if they had an English driver at Ferrari. Together, they could basically afford to pay him whatever he wanted.
The problem with this is that a normally impeccable source close to Ferrari says the team only want a one-year driver in 2013, as they have a pre-contract with Vettel for 2014.
This pre-contract, the source says, is two-way - ie, either party can exercise it - and is performance-related. Ferrari need to be at least third in the constructors' championship at a specific stage of next season to bring it into effect.
However, a senior Red Bull insider says this is "nonsense", that they have Vettel under contract to the end of 2014.
The favourite for the expected vacancy at Ferrari is Webber, who is coming towards the end of his career and may well be interested in a year or two at Ferrari to finish it off.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner asked rhetorically in Monaco: "Why would he want to leave?" But there are several potential reasons.
It would vastly increase Webber's post-F1 earnings potential and he would relish the chance to test himself against Alonso, a friend whom Webber regards as the best driver in the world.
Webber would not expect to beat him - in fact, he would almost certainly have to go to Ferrari on the understanding that Alonso was number one - but he would enjoy ruffling the Spaniard's feathers from time to time, as he almost certainly would.
If Webber were to leave Red Bull, that would leave a vacancy Hamilton could potentially fill.
Horner has always sounded lukewarm about taking on Hamilton, pointing out that it would raise the tension in the team as he and Vettel went toe to toe.
But ultimately it's not his decision - it's that of Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz, and the marketing value of pitting Hamilton against Vettel would be enormous.
And if Webber did leave, who else would Red Bull get? Even if Vettel is under a firm contract to the end of 2014, that's still only two years away - at which point they would still need a guaranteed top-line driver if he left.
Theoretically, Red Bull are committed to progressing their junior drivers, but Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne do not look ready for that sort of promotion yet.
Then there is Mercedes, whose decision is complicated by Schumacher.
Team boss Ross Brawn said in Monaco that he would like the seven-time champion to stay on as long as he is competitive, but there have been internal questions about whether - and how long - he will remain so.
Schumacher's commercial value to Mercedes is huge. But they have to ask themselves whether they are potentially harming their competitive position with their driver line-up - few in F1 would argue they would not improve it by recruiting Hamilton, Alonso or Vettel, who is also of long-term interest to the team.
Hamilton's decision is not just about driving, either. Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes would all almost certainly be able to pay him more than McLaren can afford to offer. And McLaren's portfolio of sponsors makes it almost impossible for Hamilton's team at Simon Fuller's XIX Management to raise money from private deals.
Ultimately, though, Hamilton will surely base his decision on competitiveness.
The best way to guarantee that in the last 20 years has been to drive wherever Adrian Newey is designer, which is Red Bull. Or does Hamilton bank on Mercedes continuing to raise their competitiveness (and, for that matter, staying in F1, which is far from a foregone conclusion at the moment)? Or take a risk on joining Alonso at Ferrari, should a seat be available?
Or does he stick with what he knows and trust the team with which he has been associated since he was 11-years-old to finally get it right, but potentially reduce his earnings potential?
Hamilton has some tough decisions to make in the next few weeks.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/05/will_hamilton_stay_at_mclaren.html
David Brabham Gary Brabham Jack BrabhamÜ Bill Brack Ernesto Brambilla
McLaren To Use Double-DRS At Spa
McLaren are set to utilise a double-DRS system at this weekend?s Belgian Grand Prix. Both Mercedes and Lotus have been developing the technology, with the German team frequently using it during the opening months of the campaign. Now McLaren are set to use their own take on the system which should improve the straight line [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/5EfeiQ2HtSc/mclaren-to-use-double-drs-at-spa
Red Amick Chris Amon Bob Anderson Conny Andersson Mario Andretti
Lewis Hamilton: ?The car?s been feeling really good?
Lewis Hamilton bounced back from his disappointing race in Germany to top the times in both sessions in Hungary for McLaren. The car has clearly been improved by the upgrades that were introduced in Hockenheim, although the bad weather there … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/07/27/lewis-hamilton-the-cars-been-feeling-really-good/
Karl Gunther Bechem Jean Behra Derek Bell Stefan Bellof Paul Belmondo
Mercedes V50S by V�TH
V�TH has introduced an updated V50S tuning program for the Mercedes E500 (aka E550). Full coverage inside 
Source: http://feeds.worldcarfans.com/~r/worldcarfans/Jxfz/~3/GvsthLeaMvU/mercedes-v50s-by-vth
Gianmaria Bruni Jimmy Bryan Clemar Bucci Ronnie Bucknum Ivor Bueb
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Lamborghini Gallardo successor to have simplified lineup - report
Lamborghini of America COO Michael Lock has revealed the 2014 Gallardo successor will have a simplified product lineup. 
Ian Burgess Luciano Burti Roberto Bussinello Jenson Button Tommy Byrne
Spyker & Youngman create joint-venture to build D8 Peking-to-Paris
Spyker and Zhejiang Youngman have signed an agreement to create two new joint ventures. They will produce the D8 Peking-to-Paris and models based on the Saab-designed Phoenix platform. 
Jaime Alguersuari Philippe Alliot Cliff Allison Fernando Alonso Giovanna Amati
Monday, August 27, 2012
Why Michael Schumacher Could Win The 2011 World Championship
Michael Schumacher?s 2010 comeback was somewhat abortive.� The results, the driving standard and the overtakes were well below par for the former champion.� He even let his team mate beat him for the first time in his career.� So why can Schumacher, the fallen Ferrari hero, win the world championship for an 8th time? It?s [...]
Red Amick Chris Amon Bob Anderson Conny Andersson Mario Andretti
Sunday, August 26, 2012
All great drivers need luck, but Alonso makes his own
It's not often Fernando Alonso is overcome with emotion, but he only just managed to hold it together as he stood on the podium after a quite stunning victory in the European Grand Prix.
His voice had already cracked as he giggled his delight on the team radio on his slowing-down lap - and in the pits Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali was in the same state as he praised a "fantastic" drive by the Spaniard.
But listening to the Spanish and Italian national anthems, the magnitude of the moment almost got the better of Alonso. He choked a bit, grinned, almost cried, gritted his teeth and then collected himself.
No wonder he was so emotional - in the previous half an hour or so, it had all come together to create a perfect weekend for him.
Fernando Alonso (centre) celebrates winning the European GP with second place Kimi Raikkonen (left) and third place Michael Schumacher (right). Photo: Getty
Alonso has driven some outstanding races in his career - he is generally regarded within F1 as the finest driver in the world - but this one has to be right up there with the very best.
Fighting up from 11th place on the grid, he pulled off some quite brilliant overtaking moves to make his way up into contention, the opportunism and skill never better than when he separated Lotus's Romain Grosjean from second place immediately after a restart following a safety car period.
That move meant Alonso inherited the lead when Sebastian Vettel's dominant Red Bull retired further around the same lap. Then, as he completed a spectacular victory, his day was made perfect when the man he regards as his main title rival, Lewis Hamilton, retired with two laps to go.
Both his main rivals out of the race, a momentous win in his home grand prix and less than 24 hours after Spain's football team made it into the semi-finals of Euro 2012. No wonder he was close to tears.
Of course, luck was involved in Alonso's win. He was not going to beat Vettel before the German's retirement - no one was - and he would not have been in a position to challenge Grosjean at the re-start had it not been for yet another pit-stop problem for McLaren.
But Alonso put himself in the position to gain from others' misfortune, and all the other positions he gained he worked for and won in a style befitting one of the greatest racing drivers the world has seen.
Ferrari's superbly quick pit crew played a part, too - one rival engineer said this weekend that they had moved the goalposts for pit stops this year.
But the fact remains that Alonso would not have had to do what he did had Ferrari's strategists not made the error that left him down in 11th on the grid - a decision for which the driver must share some blame.
Ferrari failed to realise that Alonso would need to fit a second set of the 'soft' tyres in second qualifying to be sure of progressing into the top 10 shoot-out.
Lotus had also planned to follow Ferrari's strategy of running a set of 'medium' tyres in Q2 followed by a set of 'softs'.
But when the English team saw how close it was in Q1, they realised they could not afford to take the risk, and switched to running two sets of 'softs' in Q2 and only one in the top 10 shoot-out.
It's impossible to know where Alonso would have ended up on the grid had he made it through.
Fortunately for Ferrari, their blushes were spared by his stellar performance on Sunday - on a track where it had previously been almost impossible to overtake but which came alive this year with the combination of degrading tyres and a DRS overtaking zone judged exactly right.
Ferrari took a fair bit of stick for the decision - and rightly so. It would be dangerous of them not to learn from it for this is not the first time this season that their strategy has been found wanting.
Alonso might have won in Barcelona had Ferrari not allowed Williams to get Pastor Maldonado ahead of him by making their second stop earlier.
As Alonso admitted himself, a win was also on the cards in Monaco had Ferrari reacted more quickly to his blistering pace on his in-lap and left him out to do a couple more.
And in Canada, where he fell back to fifth, he should have finished at least second - and could possibly have won - but the team failed to react to his tyres losing grip dramatically in the closing stages.
Had Ferrari got those calls right, Alonso could have been heading into the Valencia weekend on the back of two wins and a second place, rather than a second, a third and a fifth.
That's 27 points thrown away even before the error in qualifying this weekend. In a season as close as this, even if Alonso wins the title it is unlikely to be by that much.
In each case, the error has been a result of apparently not being reactive enough - being either too fixed on a specific, pre-ordained strategy, and/or too focused on one specific rival and not looking at the bigger picture.
That was exactly what happened in Abu Dhabi in 2010, when another strategy error handed the title on a plate to Vettel.
Ferrari have now got back many of those points thanks to the problems suffered by Vettel and Hamilton.
Despite Vettel's retirement, the Red Bull showed frightening pace in Valencia following the introduction of a major upgrade, as BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson detailed on Friday.
Vettel would have walked the race had his alternator not failed on lap 34 and the pace shown by Red Bull this weekend will have set alarm bells ringing in Maranello and McLaren's factory in Woking.
At McLaren, though, they have other things to worry about after yet another pit-stop problem for Hamilton.
This time it was a failure of one of the new Ferrari-style angled jacks the team designed as part of a wholesale restructure of their pit-stop operation following problems in Malaysia, China and Bahrain earlier this year.
It lost Hamilton a place to Alonso when the leaders pitted during the mid-race safety-car period - and that of course would have meant he was leading following the retirements of Vettel and Lotus's Grosjean.
Given the tyre problems Hamilton found himself in during the closing laps, it seems unlikely that he would have been able to hold off Alonso for the victory, but it would have meant he was clear of Pastor Maldonado, and therefore the incident that took him out of the race, for which Hamilton was blameless.
Interestingly, if you look back at how many points Hamilton had lost to various operational issues at McLaren this year before Valencia, it was 27 - exactly the same number as Alonso.
Add the 18 or 15 he would have got for either second or third place in Valencia (depending on whether Kimi Raikkonen would have caught him) and that is more than 40.
After Valencia, he is now 23 points behind Alonso. The McLaren has been on balance the fastest car this year, but Ferrari's form is getting better and better and, after Valencia, Red Bull look more formidable than at any time this year.
There are still 12 races to go in an already extraordinary season that clearly has many more twists and turns to come. But Hamilton should be comfortably leading the championship. Have McLaren already thrown it away?
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/06/alonso.html
Felice Bonetto Jo Bonnier Roberto Bonomi Juan Manuel Bordeu Slim Borgudd
LE MANS: WEC Silverstone Notebook
News and notes on the eve of the FIA WEC Six Hours of Silverstone...
Source: http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/le-mans-wec-silverstone-notebook/
Walt Brown Warwick Brown Adolf Brudes Martin Brundle Gianmaria Bruni
2013 Opel / Vauxhall Astra hits the Nurburgring
The 2013 Opel / Vauxhall Cabrio has been spied undergoing testing on the N�rburgring. 
Key heading to Italy
James Key, the former technical director of Sauber, will be starting work at Scuderia Toro Rosso on September 1, which probably explains why Giorgio Ascanelli departed back in July. Key left Sauber in February, which suggests that he may have had six months of gardening leave from Sauber, which meant that he could not work [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/08/22/key-heading-to-italy/
Johnny Cecotto Andrea de Cesaris Francois Cevert Eugene Chaboud Jay Chamberlain
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Could a London Grand Prix ever take place?
Few things in sport are guaranteed to generate publicity like someone high-profile in Formula 1 talking about running a grand prix around the world-famous sites of central London.
After all, what's not to like? Who doesn't think it would make one of the most spectacular sporting events the world had ever seen?
That's clearly what the PR agency which represents one of McLaren's biggest sponsors was thinking when they invited the media to a lavish event at London's RAC Club on Thursday to hear Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button talking about what it might be like to race around such a track.
An expensively produced video was played. Hamilton and Button said all the right things - while being careful not to be seen in any way to diminish the importance of Silverstone as the home of the British Grand Prix.
And a virtual race was staged around the track with teams led by the McLaren drivers featuring Rio Ferdinand, Melanie Sykes, Olympic gold medal winner Amy Williams and Radio One DJ Sarah-Jane Crawford.
All in all, an effective way to generate a bit of extra media coverage ahead of next weekend's ninth round of the world championship at, yes, Silverstone.
In what will doubtless have been fantastic news for the PR agency and sponsor in question, though, the story developed a life of its own even before the event was held, when F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone was quoted in a newspaper saying "maybe we would front it and put the money up for it".
A London race would see the drivers go past a number of iconic monuments.
Within F1, the idea of a race in London in such circumstances has been greeted with intense scepticism. "Of course it's not going to happen," one senior figure said on Thursday. "You know that, and so do I. But it makes a great story, doesn't it?"
On the back of it, there was an inevitable media whirlwind.
The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, was asked about it, and said he was "broadly positive providing we can satisfy the air quality and noise issues".
Which, of course, they never could. So, apart from the fact that it's a PR stunt on which Ecclestone has chosen to offer an opinion, that's the first reason why it is unlikely ever to happen. There are many more.
Before we get into those, however, it is worth mentioning that Ecclestone has tried to make a London Grand Prix work before.
In the mid-noughties, he discussed it with Johnson's predecessor Ken Livingstone and the Live Aid promoter Harvey Goldsmith, focusing on the two biggest hurdles - money and logistics.
Holding such a race would mean closing off part of central London for at least three days and disruption for much longer as preparations were made. There is an inherent cost in that.
Then there was Ecclestone's fee, setting up and securing the circuit, sorting out infrastructure, policing and so on.
On the plus side, a grand prix would showcase London and boost the city's profile, and probably - all things taken into account - bring in more money than it cost. Not that London, as one of the three biggest tourist attractions in the world, needs any extra publicity.
Five years ago almost to the day, I asked Ecclestone about these very plans. "I spoke about it with the mayor a couple of years ago, I think," he said. "He was very supportive. But we came to the conclusion that it would be too expensive."
A source close to Ecclestone expanded on that. "Bernie put a lot of effort into it," he said. "He said they looked long and hard at it and they couldn't make it work.
"There was very little money forthcoming from Livingstone, so it had to be self-supporting and they needed a way of getting people in.
"But there was only room for 30,000 people and, with the money they needed to pay to put it on, that would have meant charging �500 a ticket."
Damon Hill, then the president of the British Racing Drivers' Club which owns Silverstone, added that he had spoken "to Harvey Goldsmith about it a while back. I think it's dead. Logistically, it's a non-starter."
Which brings us back to the hurdles. The first being the idea that Ecclestone would put up the money for it. That's not how it works - venues pay a huge fee to the commercial arm of the sport, which Ecclestone runs, for the privilege of hosting F1.
That's not to say that F1 stumping up the money to host a race is a bad idea. Quite the contrary - some senior figures in the sport believe that's exactly what it should do to establish itself in America.
There is no market F1 wants to crack more than the US but last autumn Ecclestone played a game of brinksmanship with this season's new race in Austin, Texas, saying it would not be put on the calendar unless it paid its fee.
A similar situation seems to be developing with the proposed race in New Jersey overlooking Manhattan - an event F1 needs much more than one in London.
Then there's the fact that Britain already has a very popular grand prix at Silverstone, which has a contract until 2027, with a break clause either side can exercise in 2020.
With countries apparently queuing up for races - Russia is due in 2014, Mexico is also said to be imminent, Thailand is keen - the idea of holding two races in one country is seen very much as a thing of the past.
Equally, this is the second idea for a London Grand Prix that has come up in the past six days - on Friday another newspaper reported plans for a race around the Olympic Stadium.
Asked about this by BBC Sport at last weekend's European Grand Prix, Ecclestone said: "We're talking."
Hardly a surprise, is it, that F1 is so full of cynics?
In F1 - especially where Ecclestone is involved - one learns to never say never. But in a nutshell, what of the London Grand Prix?
Great PR coup? Yes. Likely to happen? Don't hold your breath.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/06/could_a_london_grand_prix_ever.html
Clemente Biondetti Pablo Birger Art Bisch Harry Blanchard Michael Bleekemolen
Formula One Goes High Definition
This week FOM, the Formula One Management company run by Bernie Ecclestone, has announced it will be providing native High Definition Formula One coverage for the very first time. �This heralds the entrance of the sport into the super clear broadcast territory. High Definition television has been available for some time now in the United [...]
Source: http://f1fanatics.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/formula-one-goes-high-definition/
George Connor George Constantine John Cordts David Coulthard Piers Courage
Engine dispute threatens F1 schism
Seven different winners from the first seven grands prix, an intensely competitive and wide-open championship battle, unpredictable races. On the surface, all is well with Formula 1. Behind the scenes, though, there is ferment.
At its heart is the planned introduction in 2014 of new rules, including new, energy-efficient, turbo-charged engines. The debate about whether this is wise or even possible in the current global financial climate has the potential to tear Formula 1 apart.
The new engines are being pushed strongly by governing body the FIA and have the support of the key manufacturers in Formula 1. But there are fears they will be much more expensive than the current 2.4-litre V8s and that the teams - the engine manufacturers' customers to a large degree - will not be able to afford them.
The engines have a powerful enemy - F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has been against them from the start. He describes the arguments behind adopting them - which can be read in detail here - as "PR" and thinks they should be dropped.
He lost the first battle - they were formally adopted last year as part of the 2014 technical regulations, which also feature major chassis changes - but is still fighting to kill them off.
In that context, the recent formation of a group representing the interests of the F1 circuits should be seen as a transparent attempt by Ecclestone to bring more weight to the argument to scrap the engines.
What has developed is a classic impasse.
Bernie Ecclestone is working away behind the scenes to stop the new engines. Photo: Getty
F1 is in theory committed to the new engines. Renault and Mercedes want them to happen, and Ferrari dismiss rumours they would prefer them to be dropped by saying they will happen. Whether independent Cosworth, which supplies lowly Marussia and HRT, will be able to afford to build one is unclear.
But the teams not directly supported by engine manufacturers have not yet been told how much the new engines will cost, and fear it will be much more than the five million euros they currently pay annually.
Meanwhile, Ecclestone is working away behind the scenes to stop them. He has got former Renault team boss Flavio Briatore to come up with a 'GP1' set of rules, which include - among other things - continuing with the current engines.
The threat, clearly, is that he will take the commercial rights holders and the circuits with him (and possibly many of the teams), giving the FIA the choice to drop the engines or lose the substance of its championship.
But if that happened, Renault, for one, would almost certainly drop F1, and so might well Mercedes. So who would supply the engines to the new championship? And it would take a brave team to join any breakaway series.
On the other hand, if the FIA presses ahead and the teams cannot afford the new engines - there are rumours they could be as much as four times the price of the current V8s - where will all the cars come from in the FIA F1 world championship?
As the chief executive of the Sauber team, Monisha Kaltenborn, puts it: "If we go back to the days when engines were so much more expensive, I wonder how many teams could afford that. And F1 with four teams wouldn't be very exciting."
The manufacturers, though, believe dropping the new engines would be a mistake - as would delaying them by a further year (their introduction was already pushed back from 2013 as part of negotiations last year).
For them - and particularly for Mercedes and Renault - the new small-capacity turbos with significant energy recovery systems are in line with the way the road-car business is going. Without them, there would be no justification for a continued involvement in F1.
Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn says: "We're committed to a new engine programme, it's progressing, we've been able to justify the budgets to our board and we don't want to see a deferment or a delay in that new engine.
"It sends a very bad message back if Formula 1 keeps changing its direction on things that are so fundamental, which need so much investment to make work. I think the new engine is very exciting."
Brawn adds that the future sustainability of the sport depends on moving with the times.
"We're going to be running around on two-thirds of the fuel that we're running on now with, we think, comparable power outputs," he says.
"We've got to change the engine at some stage. We will become irrelevant with the engine if we don't look to change.
"The world's changing and I think the new engine is a far more relevant engine for F1 for the future.
"If we're going to get new manufacturers into F1, which I think is a good thing, then why will they come in to build an antique V8 engine? They won't.
"They will only come in with this new engine, so we want to attract manufacturers back into F1 and this new engine is very important (in doing that)."
But the sustainability argument has a counter-point, as detailed by Marussia chief executive officer Graeme Lowdon.
"The teams do understand the direction the FIA is going with the new engines and people do generally support it," he says.
"We're happy to see technology go in that direction, but that has to be secondary to the sustainability of the sport."
The backdrop to that statement is that times are tough for all but the very biggest teams in F1. While the top four are all pretty much financially secure, there are concerns to one degree or another for the other eight.
The latest development in the saga came at last weekend's Canadian GP, when Mercedes vice-president of motorsport Norbert Haug said: "It's absolutely clear if you introduce a new engine that it will cost more in the beginning but I think we can achieve comparable spending over a five-year period and that has to be the target."
This was news to most customer teams - but even that might not be enough to end the argument. As Lowdon puts it: "The challenge for most businesses is cash-flow." In other words, many teams don't have the money to pay higher up-front costs, even if they come down later.
Talks are continuing behind the scenes, but as for what the solution to the conundrum might be, Lowdon voices the current situation best: "I have absolutely no idea."
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/06/engine_dispute_threatens_f1_sc.html
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Ferrari, Mercedes and Force India confirmed for Magny-Cours test is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Three F1 teams will hold a Young Drivers' Test at the Magny-Cours circuit next month, the track has confirmed.
Ferrari, Mercedes and Force India confirmed for Magny-Cours test is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/t72PExARM7w/
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Life in the pit lane
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These are not select millionaires but up to 16 ordinary, yet gifted, guys; team mechanics who have worked their way up the system and often migrate from team to team, are paid real-world wages of between �30,000 and �50,000 a year, are drilled to perfection ? and whose split-second synchronisation brings their teams huge rewards.
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/09/life_in_the_pit_lane.php
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F1?s brushes with disaster: Top ten lucky escapes | Top ten
F1′s brushes with disaster: Top ten lucky escapes is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Exploding cars, "halfwits" on the track and some astonishing crashes. Here are ten of the luckiest escapes ever experienced by F1 drivers.
F1′s brushes with disaster: Top ten lucky escapes is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/KVUTlbMwVfM/
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Team order rule needs a re-think
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?Whether you are for or against team orders, if the FIA could not back up its own rules and nail a competitor in a blatant case such as this the rule really does need reviewing. Perhaps Ferrari?s thinly-veiled threat to take the matter to the civil courts if they were punished too harshly scared the governing body, who as much as admitted the flimsiness of its rule."Paul Weaver, reporting for the Guardian in Monza, was in favour of the ruling which keeps alive Ferrari?s slim chances in an enthralling championship.
?The World Motor Sport Council was right not to ruin a compelling Formula One season by taking away the 25 points Alonso collected in Germany. That would have put him out of the five-man title race. But the council was widely expected to increase the fine and possibly deduct points from the team, as opposed to the individual. In the end, it could be argued that common sense prevailed. But the decision will dismay those who were upset by the way Ferrari handled the situation as much as anything else.?The Daily Mail's Jonathan McEvoy expressed outrage at the FIA tearing up its own rule book by allowing Ferrari to escape unpunished.
"Although the race stewards fined them �65,000 for giving team orders in July, the FIA World Motor Sport Council, to whom the matter was referred, decided not to impose any further punishment. It leaves the sport's rulers open to derision. It was, after all, their rule they undermined. In a statement, the WMSC said the regulation banning team orders 'should be reviewed'."
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/09/team_order_rule_needs_a_rethin_1.php
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