F1 Fanatic round-up: 13/3/2010
13 Mar 2010
Final practice and qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix are coming up soon but before then make sure you’ve sent in your F1 Fanatic Predictions Championship entry.
Here’s the round-up for Saturday:
Links
Steve Matchett explains McLaren’s ‘F-Duct’. And, er, rabbits…
Ferrari boss on racing Schumacher, tyre and money problems (James Allen)
Stefano Domenicali: “The financial situation is difficult, it’s a real problem. There are no big brands that have invested in F1, we are one of the only teams who have good brands that work with us, because they feel loyal to our brand and see a future. It’s a big concern that we need to address. We need to address the show and the model as a business.”
A message from Stirling following his accident (Youtube)
What a class act. Get well soon, Sir Stirling:
Todt in favour of 107 per cent rule (Autosport)
“We are very in favour of reintroducing the 107 percent limit. The reason why it was abandoned was because of the change in qualifying which was happening with fuel to start the race in the car. Now to change that for 2010 you need to have the unanimous agreement of the teams, and to get the unanimous agreement of the teams the FIA will be supporting this solution. I don’t think it will happen so we have to wait until 2011 to introduce it.”
Heikki Kovalainen official site
Heikki Kovalainen has a new official site.
Comment of the day
Lee is full of praise for the F-duct:
I can’t understand the problem that people seem to have with McLaren’s F-duct. To me F1 is half about the technology and half about the racing and it is this that makes it stand out above most other motorsports. Unfortunately the days of radical concepts like the fan car and six-wheelers are long gone it is heartening to see engineers pushing the envelope with ingenious designs like the F-duct.
The whole point of having teams develop their own cars is surely to let engineers get around the rules otherwise they might as well have one car for all. I thought the double diffusers were fine last year and the F-duct is fine this year. It seems to me that the other teams are just infuriated that they did not think of it themselves.
Lee
Happy birthday!
Today’s birthday trio is Starosta, Armen and Pabs – happy birthday to you all!
On this day in F1
Nelson Piquet stood on the top step of the podium after the Brazilian Grand Prix on this day in 1983. Just as he had done the year before – the difference this time was he’d won the race…
Piquet and second-placed finisher Keke Rosberg were disqualified from the results of the 1982 Brazilian Grand Prix because of the water-cooled brakes used by their two teams to get around the minimum weight rules.
However the governing body chose not to disqualify other cars which broke the rules in the same way – such as John Watson’s McLaren, which finished fourth originally and was promoted to second by the disqualification.
In 1983 Piquet finished first in his home Grand Prix for the second time in his career – but this time he was allowed to keep the win. Rosberg, meanwhile, was disqualified from the runner-up spot for the second year in a row, this time following a fire during his pit stop.