On this day 40 years go Jochen Rindt (pictured with Jackie Stewart) lost his life in an accident during qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

The Austrian driver went into the race with a 20-point lead in the world championship. As none of his rivals were able to exceed his total of 45 points by the end of the season, he became the sport’s first and only posthumous champion.

The 1970 season was a bleak chapter in the history of Formula 1. June saw the death of McLaren team founder Bruce McLaren while testing a Can-Am car at Goodwood.

Later that same month Piers Courage perished when his De Tomaso, run by Frank Williams, crashed and caught fire during the Dutch Grand Prix.

After the death of Courage the drivers became especially vocal in their criticism of the safety standards at some tracks – particularly the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

Although Stewart has rightly been lauded for his tireless efforts to improve safety, Rindt was heavily involved in the effort to cancel that year’s race at the Nürburgring. The race was moved to the Hockenheimring while efforts were made to improve safety facilities at the other track.

Driving for Lotus, Rindt had already won a memorable race at Monaco early in the year, chasing down Jack Brabham and passing the Australian who went off at the final corner on the final lap.

Rindt claimed that win in a 49C, then took a quartet of wins in Colin Chapman’s revolutionary new 72C. The first was a joyless win at Zanvoort in the aftermath of Courage’s death, then three more at Clermont-Ferrand, Silverstone and Hockenheim.

That year’s Italian Grand Prix was the penultimate F1 race held on the chicane-less version of the track. It had only five corners worthy of the name – the fast Curva Grande sending the cars up to Lesmos one and two, then a long left at Ascari leading on to Parabolica.

These were the early days of wings in Formula 1 and teams often removed them at Monza to ensure maximum straight-line speed. Rindt was running his 72 in such a configuration when he crashed at Parabolica.

Denny Hulme, who was following close behind Rindt at the time, saw the car swerve right, then left – an investigation later showed a brake shaft had failed. The Lotus 72 ploughed into a barrier which gave way, driving the car partially underneath the barrier, violently tearing its nose off. Rindt had left the crotch straps in his harness undone, as was his habit, and slid down into the cockpit on impact, suffering terrible neck injuries.

The Lotus team left the track immediately and stayed away from the next race at Mont-Termblant in Canada too. They returned for the following Grand Prix at Watkins Glen.

There Emerson Fittipaldi, driving in only his fourth Grand Prix, won the race. In doing so he prevented Ferrari’s Jacky Ickx from being able to score enough points to overhaul Rindt in the championship – not that Ickx wanted to take the crown from a dead man.

Rindt’s championship trophy was presented to his widow, Nina.

Thanks to Red Bulletin for permitting the reproduction of the images above. See their latest issue for an article on Rindt.

Links

Korea GP venue ‘in need of work’ (BBC)

“Formula One’s governing body says “a lot of work remains to be completed” before the Yeongam venue is ready for the inaugural Korean Grand Prix.”

Sakon Yamamoto Super Aguri SA06 F1 car for sale (eBay)

The car – based on a 2002-spec Arrows – Yamamoto raced four years ago.

Force India F1 car being prepared for Aero test (Youtube)

Possibly from the team’s straight-line aerodynamics test at Kemble on Thursday.

Formula One diary: Belgian Grand Prix (The Daily Telegraph)

“One of the day’s two F1 sessions is briefly interrupted because two lads have been spotted climbing a trackside fence: I have to do likewise in the afternoon, because someone has locked the access gate at Eau Rouge. It’s not unknown for the Belgian police to set dogs on photographers who fail to adhere to the sometimes pedantic local protocol, but my disobedience goes unsavaged.”

Peter Sauber Q&A: Team funding well set for 2011 (F1)

“I only can say that I am confident, or rather I am convinced, that the team will have proper financing next season to give us the chance to race on the level that we want to.”

Comment of the day

RobR thinks the aesthetic appeal of F1 cars has been undermined by the rules:

The visual appeal of F1 has always been a big attraction. And we live in such a shallow age, so it’s more important than ever. Surely you would think the F1 teams would realise this and say something.

And another silly thing about it of course, is that there are far more accidents because the wings extend so far out, it’s far too easy to knock your wing off on someone else’s front wheel.

The reason given for the changes was to improve overtaking, we can see the changes haven’t done that much in that regard, so I don’t understand why the regulations haven’t been reverted.

Watching F1 has been a less enjoyable experience for me in these last two seasons because of these regulations. I don’t admire these cars the way I used to. Only the Red Bulls have been anything like good-looking.

Thinking about it, I’m really just stunned that they haven’t changed the wings back yet. Sadly, at this point it’s already far too late to change the regulations for next year because the teams will already have their designs well-advanced, or completed.
RobR

From the forum

Steph has rounded-up some videos of F1 drivers racing in other series.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Maciek!

On this day in F1

Jochen Rindt was killed in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix on this day 40 years ago. A separate article about the Austrian driver, who won the world championship posthumously in 1970, will be on the site later today.

The layout for the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix race track is set to be revealed Wednesday morning near the Four Seasons Hotel.

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Karun Chandhok has driven the first lap of the Korean International Circuit in a Red Bull demonstration car.

The Indian driver, on loan to the team from HRT for the event, said he thinks their car will be well-suited to the twisty track.

Chandhok said:

It’s a really interesting layout. The track’s got a good mix of corners and I think we’ll see a lot of overtaking in the first sector – there are long straights into slow hairpins. The straight after turn one and two is really long, so we may see some good slip streaming there, like in Shanghai. From turn seven onwards, there’s a fast section of flowing corners all the way back to the start-finish line – so I think the Red Bull Racing guys will be happy in sectors two and three. It’s an interesting layout.

Looking at the facilities, the garages and team buildings look pretty much finished and they’re big! I think teams will need to bring around 30% more furniture to fill them! The grandstands also look reasonably finished. The track itself needs a bit more work on the asphalt and the kerbs, but the organisers think it’s all within their time-lines and are confident that it will be ready on time. And the locations nice, we’re overlooking the sea.

There’s certainly some enthusiasm for F1 here. There are a lot of people at the event today, which wasn’t heavily publicised, and there’s a lot of media, which shows an interest. The organisers say they have sold a significant amount of tickets, so it should be a good race. It’s been great to drive the Red Bull car again and thanks to my team, HRT F1, for letting me complete this demonstration run.
Karun Chandhok

Chandhok has also written about the event on his Twitter account.

Red Bull in Korea – pictures

Image (C) Red Bull/Getty images

Here’s today’s round-up:

Links

The Secret Life of Jarno Trulli (F1)

“I’m a bit afraid of flying because I feel like once they shut the door you’re a dead person, and when they open it again you’re alive.”

Comment of the day

Decisions about which drivers go where are often made by more practical considerations than how quick they are – here’s James’s take on who’ll end up partnering Robert Kubica next year:

It largely depends on money. There are rumours that Renault are interested in buying back the team from the Genii Capital Group. If this is the case, I would expect someone like Sutil, Kovalainen or Trulli to take the second seat.

If the above does not happen, then I would say that Petrov will retain his seat due to the amount of sponsership he attracts. However, I would say that Petrov has done enough to retain his seat just on merit. He’s had some solid drives this year despite making a couple of rookie mistakes, as well as a bit of bad luck. If I was Eric Boulier I would keep Petrov for next season. Consistency will help move this team forward. Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren are not changing and should benefit from this. Renault would be fools not to follow suit.
James

From the forum

Answer the same questions as Jarno Trulli here: The secret life of… you

Site updates

Some minor technical tweaks yesterday which shouldn’t have caused any problems but as ever if you see something weird please let me know.

Happy birthday!

No F1 Fanatic birthdays today. If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

Phil Hill scored his first F1 win at his 19th attempt on this day 50 years ago. He won from pole position at Monza and set fastest lap – he also set fastest lap on his first two visits to the circuit.

It was a popular win for Ferrari at their home track and Hill’s team mates Richie Ginther and Willy Mairesse filled the rest of the podium.

But although Hill would go on to win the world championship for Ferrari the following year, in the last race of 1960 he drove a Cooper, as Ferrari didn’t send a car for Hill’s home race at Sebring in America.

If you’ve got the stamina, we each do a 3 lap race of Monza. This video is probably our last one playing the F106 CE game. We have played it longer than expected, but it has served us well! Thanks for watching.

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The two technologies, which were hallmarks of F1 racing in the late seventies and eighties, will be revived in an effort to make F1 racing more exciting for fans and more relevant for car manufacturers.

The use of ground effect could allow designers to maintain current cornering speeds while reducing the turbulent wake which develops behind a car, making it difficult for a chasing car to stay close.

However the turbo engines being considered are likely to be smaller and much less powerful than the 1.5-litre V6s last used in the sport. They are expected to have less power than the current normally-aspirated V8 engines, but will make greater use of energy recovery systems.

Turbo power was last seen in F1 in 1988. The era of ground effect aerodynamics came to an end when flat-bottomed cars were mandated from the beginning of 1983:

Turbos and ground effect

• Banned! Turbos
• Banned! Ground effect

With the top seats at Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes already taken for 2011, the most coveted place left to fill on next year’s grid is the second Renault alongside Robert Kubica.

The team have been clear about their expectations for Vitaly Petrov, who had a mixed weekend in Spa with a points finish despite a crash in qualifying.

Has he done enough to keep his place in the team – or should Renault look elsewhere for a 2011 driver?

The disappearance of BMW and Toyota at the end of last season left some big-name drivers in small teams this year, including the likes of Jarno Trulli (Lotus) and Timo Glock (Virgin).

Unsurprisingly there have already been rumours one of these drivers might move to the increasingly competitive Renault next year as the team enjoy a resurgence in form.

Then there are the newer drivers who have come into the sport recently such as Kamui Kobayashi, Bruno Senna, Lucas di Grassi. Have any of these done enough to merit a drive with what could be a race-winning car next year?

And what of Kubica’s former BMW team mate Nick Heidfeld? His time spent tyre testing for Pirelli will surely make him an attractive pick for the team, along with his decade of F1 race experience.

It’s not easy being an F1 rookie these days as testing opportunities are so limited. Petrov’s best chance of keeping his seat is if he keeps bringing the car home in the points, potentially helping Renault beat Mercedes in the constructors’ championship.

Should they keep their faith in him for next year, or look elsewhere? Should they look beyond the pool of current F1 drivers? Cast your vote below and have your say in the comments.

Read more: 2011 F1 drivers and teams

Image (C) Renault/LAT

The Sauber driver said:

This track is a classic, it has a lot of personality and is different to any other we race on. This is what I like a lot about Monza, because with all the modern circuits nowadays it is exceptional to find one that is unique.

You also have to drive it differently to any other race track. Obviously the speeds are very high, you run low downforce, have very hard braking and need to cut the chicanes. This all together makes it very demanding, especially for the engines, brakes and suspension.

It is definitely not going to be an easy weekend for us, as it is not somewhere that should suit our car too well. But we have proven, for example in Budapest, that we can also do well at places which theoretically should be difficult for us.
Pedro de la Rosa

Team mate Kamui Kobayashi added he thinks Monza, “will be difficult for our car”. Technical director James Key explained the set-up demands of the circuit:

All the teams run the minimum drag levels, because the very long straights and few corners make it beneficial to run far less drag.

We will run an aero package on our car which is designed specifically for there. It consists of different rear wing options, as well as front wing versions to match them.

The important part of the set-up of the car will be to tune the downforce levels correctly to find a good compromise for some of the more tricky areas like the Lesmo corners, the Ascari chicane and the Parabolica, but at the same time also giving high braking stability, which has significant influence on the lap time.

Also important is the performance over the kerbs, particularly in the first two chicanes with probably the biggest kerbs of the year. You can find a good lap time there if the car is working well.

For us it’s difficult to pin expectations because it’s such a unique event. It’s possibly not a circuit best suited to our car, so we will work hard to make sure we can do the best possible job.
James Key

2010 Italian Grand Prix

• Monza "not going to be easy" - de la Rosa
• Schumacher expects tough race in Monza

Browse all 2010 Italian Grand Prix articles

]]> http://formula1-web.info/?feed=rss2&p=21249 http://formula1-web.info/?p=21238 http://formula1-web.info/?p=21238#comments Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:13:42 +0000 Keith Collantine http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/?p=36594 Michael Schumacher is expecting a difficult race at Monza next weekend as he believes his W01 will not be well-suited to the track.

The next race in Monza might well be entertaining in a very different way as I expect it to be a real challenge for our team. We have seen already several times this year that circuits with characteristics like those of Monza do not really play in our hands.

Of course, we will go there prepared to try hard to achieve the maximum we can from our package and we will see to what extent we can achieve that and fight our way through.

On a personal level, I am very much looking forward to returning to Monza where I have been supported so warmly over so many years.
Michael Schumacher

Mercedes is believed to have the most powerful engine in F1, which should be a benefit at Monza where top speed is very important. But Mercedes haven’t been as quick in a straight line as customer teams McLaren and Force India have.

They have had a blown rear wing (a.k.a. F-duct) on their car for several races. But as the W01 does not have a shark fin the ducting for the wing is not as straight as it is on their rivals’ cars and therefore probably less efficient.

2010 Italian Grand Prix

• Monza "not going to be easy" - de la Rosa
• Schumacher expects tough race in Monza

Browse all 2010 Italian Grand Prix articles

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