If you find yourself with some downtime on Christmas day we hope you have the chance to reflect back on the 2011 F1 season with this handy reference to our F1 in pictures galleries.
It was clearly a great year for Sebastian Vettel who comfortably defended his 2010 world championship, winning 11 out of 19 races. Let’s hope he has a tougher fight on his hands in 2012.
A new track development called Velocidad Speedcity, 80km outside of Beunos Aires, wants to bring Formula One back to Argentina. The $100m project was launched on Friday and is being managed by Populous, the designers behind the recent Silverstone redevelopment.
Organisers say the new 4.7km circuit would be ready to host a Grand Prix in 2014. If successful it would be the first F1 Grand Prix in Argentina since Michael Schumacher’s win in 1998.
Speaking via his company’s website John Rhodes, Associate Principal of Populous, said “We are really proud to contribute with our design to create a new destination for F1, which always means an economic catalyst for the area and produces global exposure.
“During the last five years we have developed technology, software, and design techniques through the use of simulation to physically test the design of a circuit. These pioneering techniques have enabled the creation of a topographically exciting and challenging medium-speed circuit on what was a relatively square and flat 63ha site.â€
You can check out a video preview of the proposed circuit after the break.
Sahara Force India has just confirmed Paul Di Resta will continue racing with the team and will be joined by Nico Hulkenberg. They say that gives them “one of the most exciting pairings on the grid.”
Team Principal, Vijay Mallya explains, “I think Paul caught the eye of everybody in the pit lane during his rookie season. His speed, maturity and racecraft confirmed that we were right to believe in him and we look forward to working with him again next year.
“As for Nico, we identified him as a rising star at the end of 2010 and chose to evaluate him during the course of this season. Despite having only limited time in the car, he convinced us that he deserved a race seat for 2012.”
You can read Force India’s full statement after the break, including comments from Paul and Nico.
Daniel Ricciardo, the kid with the biggest smile in F1, has answered a few questions following yesterday’s shock announcement that he has secured a full-time drive with Toro Rosso in 2012.
You can read the full Q&A interview, released by Toro Rosso, after the break, but we quite liked this answer to the question about his relationship with new teammate Jean-Eric Vergne.
“We were signed up as part of the Red Bull Junior team on the same day and we were team-mates back then, in the Renault 2.0 series. I spent some time with him at his house in France, going karting together. We had a pretty good relationship by the standard of racing driver team-mates. As we progressed, the rivalry got stronger between us, but the important thing is that we respect one another. We both want to beat each other more than anyone else and it’s been like that since we first raced together.”
Australia has a new motorsport hero; it appears we may also have a new villain!
In something of a surprise move Daniel Ricciardo will drive for Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2012. Joining the young Aussie will be 21-year-old French rookie Jean-Eric Vergne. The general consensus until this announcement was that Toro Rosso would not be making any changes to their driver lineup.
Of course, this decision, made in partnership with Red Bull, now means former drivers Sebastian Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari are without a drive. There’s not too many seats left, either, and their prospects of securing a full-time F1 seat for next year are slim.
“I am pleased that we have been able to reach an early decision on our drivers for next year, because it means we can all give our full attention to 2012, without any distractions,” said STR Team Principal Franz Tost.
“Over the past year, both Daniel and Jean-Eric have proved their worth and I expect them to make a significant contribution to the team’s performance next year. Daniel has the benefit of having actually raced in Grands Prix for much of this year, while Jean-Eric proved he could adapt quickly to the demands of driving a Formula 1 car.”
“I must also thank Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari for all their hard work over the past three seasons,” added Tost.
“However, one has to remember that when Scuderia Toro Rosso was established in 2005, it was done so with the intention of providing a first step into Formula 1 for the youngsters in the Red Bull Junior Driver programme.
“It is therefore part of the team’s culture to change its driver line-up from time to time in order to achieve this goal.”
The Team Lotus journey has reached a symbolic end today with the launch of the new CaterhamF1 brand.
Speaking in the final Lotus Notes newsletter Tony Fernandes says it’s now time to move on, “With Team Lotus, I would have battled to the end if I felt it was the right thing to do, but when you take a dispassionate look at where we were it made absolute sense to start with a clean sheet, and Caterham has given us that chance.
“I think back to when I decided to start a Formula One team and I chose to start a team from scratch so that we could control our own destiny. It’s definitely not been the easiest path, but now it is our time – time to take control and make our own history.”
Fernandes also says he plans to take the Caterham Group on a similar pathway to McLaren, where road cars will be the backbone allowing the F1 team to prosper. “McLaren has made great strides in diversifying its business and I feel we should do the same,” he said.
“It just makes sense. You spend all this time, energy, money and brainpower developing incredible technology, what’s the point in restricting it to the race track.
“We want to bring this technology to the people. We democratised air travel with AirAsia and we want to the do the same in sports cars with Caterham.”
A vintage F1 car, claimed to be Niki Lauda’s 1974 Ferrari 312B3, has just failed to sell on eBay. The car had a US$1.25m reserve and attracted no bids.
According to the listing the car offered for sale by racershop is chassis #15 and was used by Lauda to win the Spanish GP and Dutch GP.
The best part about the listing is the comprehensive image gallery. We’ve been a bit naughty and nicked a few of the pics to share with you all.
[Source: eBay | Thanks to Wes for the tip]
Mark Webber reckons the revitalised USGP will be a success and has given his seal of approval to the track layout.
“I think Austin will be a good addition,” Mark said. “The track looks sensational, they have done a good job with the layout, a lot of undulation and sweeping, quick corners which is always challenging for us.”
Although, he understands truly converting the US market to Formula One will be a tough gig. “It’s not a market that has been completely cracked but I think they will enthusiastic and they will be keen to have us there.
“Formula One needs to work a bit on softening and working a bit harder on education with a new audience.”
Respected photographic agency Sutton Images brings us this five minute YouTube clip reflecting back on the 2011 Formula One season. Think of it as a condensed version of our F1 in pictures series.
Romain Grosjean will return to the driver’s seat with Lotus Renault GP in 2012. The 25-year-old Frenchman won the GP2 series this year and will join Kimi Raikkonen at the newly branded Lotus team. He’s pretty happy about that too.
“I am thrilled to be one of the team’s race drivers in 2012. There’s a big grin on my face at the prospect of getting behind the wheel of next year’s car, and I feel very privileged to be given this opportunity,” said Grosjean.
“To be racing alongside a former world champion and someone who is hungry and returning to Formula 1 will be a great experience, and I’m sure will help raise my level of performance too. I feel that my successful season in GP2 Series has helped me mature a lot, and I am a much more complete driver than I was last time I was competing in this sport.â€
Grosjean’s boss, Eric Boullier, is also making the right noises, “Romain has shown a lot of maturity in the past twelve months both through his GP2 Series victory and his development as third driver with us. We were impressed when he drove for us in the first practice sessions in Abu Dhabi and Brazil.”
Boullier also made this heartfelt comment about his former drivers, “I would like to thank Vitaly Petrov and Bruno Senna for their contribution to the team’s performance this year and I wish them all the best for the future.â€
More after the break, including a video interview with Grosjean.
The World Motor Sport Council met overnight and confirmed the 2012 F1 calendar will remain unchanged. That means, of course, that Austin is back on track to host its first ever GP in mid-November.
So what happened? Last time we spoke the Texas race was looking doomed after organisers attempted to put Bernie in his place as both parties squabbled over a measly $25 million.
Well, we’re unlikely to ever find out the full story and all we’re getting from USGP organisers are matter of fact statement like this: “Mr. Ecclestone received his check today. We want to thank the fans supporting us, the local officials and businesses that have encouraged us, the State of Texas, Circuit of The Americas’ staff and Bernie himself. I want to thank and commend Bobby Epstein for getting us across the finish line. Bobby’s perseverance and leadership kept the project on track despite unfair and unfounded criticism,†stated Red McCombs, chairman of McCombs Enterprises and founding partner of Circuit of The Americas.
Building work will resume immediately after being suspended around three weeks ago. The Austin track does look like it might be a good one, so let’s hope everything runs smoothly from here.
Sky Sports has just announced its roster of talent that will be bringing Formula One to British, and perhaps Australian, screens in 2012.
Heading the team is former long-time BBC F1 commentator Martin Brundle. He’ll be joined by fellow ex-BBC TV staffers including Ted Kravitz and Steve Rider. The former BBC 5 Live radio trio of David Croft, Anthony Davidson and Natalie Pinkham will also be switching to the pay TV channel. Completing the comprehensive line-up are Georgie Thompson and Simon Lazenby.
Brundle and Croft will call the racing and qualifying action, with pitlane support from Kravitz and Pinkham. Davidson and Croft will handle commentary duties during practice sessions.
Kravitz and Thompson will host a regular F1 magazine style program, while Lazenby will anchor the F1 coverage on race weekends. Rider will be used in a senior interviewer role, speaking to former F1 greats throughout the year.
Australian broadcaster Channel Ten has confirmed all races and qualifying sessions in 2012 will be broadcast live on One. They are yet to announce which network they will source their feed from. We suspect it will be Sky.
[Source: Sky Sports F1]