Category: Motorsports

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Formula 1

F1 teams ready to go radio ga ga

2014 Belgian Grand Prix

As we head into the Singapore Grand Prix the FIA has decided it will crack down on pit to driver radio communication. Charlie Whiting, Formula 1 Race Director, has reminded teams that “the driver must drive the car alone and unaided” as outlined in Article 20.1 of the sporting regulations.

“No radio conversation from pit to driver may include any information that is related to the performance of the car or driver,” Whiting added in his letter to the teams. “We should also remind you that data transmission from pit to car is specifically prohibited by Article 8.5.2 of the F1 Technical Regulations.”

Adam Cooper has seen further correspondence and has a comprehensive list of what can and can’t be said. We’ve included a limited selection of samples below and recommend you follow the source link below for more detail.

What can be said

  • Lap or sector time detail.
  • Gaps to a competitor during a practice session or race.
  • “Push hard,” “push now,” “you will be racing xx,” or similar.
  • Number of laps a competitor has done on a set of tyres during a race.
  • Information concerning a competitors likely race strategy.
  • Dealing with a DRS system failure.
  • Driver instructions from the team to swap position with other drivers.

What can’t be said

  • Adjustment of power unit settings.
  • Adjustment of gearbox settings.
  • Information on level of fuel saving needed.
  • Start maps related to clutch position, for race start and pit stops.
  • Burn-outs prior to race starts.
  • Answering a direct question from a driver, eg “Am I using the right torque map?”
  • Any message that appears to be coded.

Further topics of prohibited communication will be added to the banned list in time for the Japanese Grand Prix as well. You can certainly expect this new enforcement will be a major talking point over the next couple of races.

[Source: Adam Cooper | Pic: Mercedes AMG]

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Motorsports Video Volkswagen

Tanner goes bananas

Volkswagen Andretti GRC Beetle

Rallycross is a fast emerging category of motorsport. Volkswagen is taking it very seriously and will soon be competing with this 540hp+ GRC Beetle in the Red Bull Global Rallycross series. It has been developed in conjunction with Andretti Motorsport.

As you can see, we’re not talking about back yard operations here. These are some of the biggest players in world motorsport.

In this teaser video drift king Tanner Foust puts his skills to work, while the numbers do the talking. And they are impressive numbers too. Take a look at the clip and let us know what you think.

[Thanks to Adam for the tip]

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Volkswagen WRC

Sebastien Ogier wins 2014 Rally Australia

2014 Rally Australia

Sebastien Ogier led a dominant Volkswagen team to victory at Rally Australia on the weekend. Volkswagen drivers filled all three podium steps in order of seniority, with Jari-Matti Latvala finishing just 6.8 seconds behind Ogier and Andreas Mikkelsen a bit over a minute further behind.

With that Volkswagen successfully defended its manufacturers championship and in record time too. There’s three rallies left in the season and with a 50 point lead Ogier is favourite to claim his second world championship, ahead of teammate Latvala.

On the forest tracks around Coffs Harbour Citroën driver Kris Meeke showed good early pace fighting for a podium position until a 61 second penalty was handed to him for cutting a corner illegally. That left him back in fifth battling with Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen, a three time winner down under.

Meeke’s pace was still strong and he was able to claim one position back by the end of the rally, finishing over eight seconds ahead of Hirvonen.

Kiwi driver Hayden Paddon continued his good efforts with Hyundai coming home in sixth place, his best WRC finish to date and one place ahead of team leader Thierry Neuville.

Australia’s Chris Atkinson finished tenth for Hyundai after finding conditions difficult on the first day.

“It’s not been the easiest of weekends as I struggled to get into a rhythm early on in the rally,” Atkinson said. “That has had a knock-on effect for the remaining days, as I was first on the road. That has dictated the extent I have been able to push so instead we just focused on finishing the rally. It’s nice we’ve been able to get all three cars inside the top ten.”

Volkswagen’s press release is available after the break and we’ll have a photo gallery for you later in the week.

Continue reading “Sebastien Ogier wins 2014 Rally Australia”
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WRC

Remembering Bjorn Waldegard

Bjorn Waldegard, 1973 RAC Rally

While Rally Australia is in full swing its timely to remember the passing of Bjorn Waldegard, who in 1979 became the first official WRC champion.

Waldegard died on 29 August at the age of 70. Judging by the number of tributes following Waldegard’s death he was a much loved member of the international motorsport community.

Over at Motorsport Retro a wonderful gallery encompassing Waldegard’s career has been compiled. We recommend you take the time to have a look and learn a bit more about the likeable Swede.

We especially liked the image of Bjorn in a very mangled BMW 2002, caputred during a liaison stage of the 1973 RAC Rally.

[Source: Motorsport Retro]

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Formula 1 Video

2014 Italian GP: 30 mins of onboard footage

Daniel Ricciardo shows Sebastian Vettel how to drive

19:45 – Ricciardo pwns Raikkonen
26:00 – Ricciardo pwns Vettel

Oh yeah, there’s other awesome action to watch in this 30 minute clip from the 2014 Italian Grand Prix, too, thanks to Canal+ but we know you just want to see Daniel show those world chumps who’s boss!

[via WTF1 | Thanks to Tom for the tip]

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Caterham F1 in pictures Ferrari Lotus McLaren Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing Toro Rosso

2014 Italian Grand Prix in pictures

2014 Italian Grand Prix

We’re a little bit later in the week than usual with our Formula 1 photo smorgasbord, but here we are ready to help you relive Lewis Hamilton’s win at the 2014 Italian Grand Prix. How good is that lead image?!

Hopefully you will forgive our lateness, the 120-plus images for you after the break should help with that. And they’re in new 2560x1690px mega sizing too. Oh yeah!

Even more beautiful.

Thanks to Marussia for images of the famed Monza banking right at the end as well.

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Formula 1

No changes at Williams

2014 Austrian Grand Prix

While Ferrari is making heads roll off the track Williams will go into 2015 with the same driver pairing doing the business this year.

It’s great timing for Felipe Massa who stood atop a Formula 1 podium at Monza for the first time in over a year. While Valtteri Bottas who has collected four podium finishes so far this season looks every bit a grand prix winner in waiting.

You can read the team’s official statement after the break.

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Ferrari Formula 1

Big changes at Ferrari

Luca di Montezemolo

Ferrari is having a bad year in Formula 1. Mind, in living memory, they’ve probably had worse years. But with the total dominance of Schumacher era still in recent memory the big wigs demand success and they aren’t happy with what they’re seeing. And by big wigs, we mean, big wigs.

There’s not too many people higher than Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo, but Sergio Marchionne, boss of parent company Fiat, is one of those men. And he has spoken.

The pair have had a public spat in the wake of a terrible Italian Grand Prix. As a result Luca di Montezemolo is leaving Ferrari. The legacy he has left for the road and racing cars from Maranello cannot be underestimated and this is a massive day for the company.

“Ferrari is the most wonderful company in the world,” di Montezemolo said. “It has been a great privilege and honour to have been its leader. I devoted all of my enthusiasm and commitment to it over the years. Together with my family, it was, and continues to be, the most important thing in my life.”

Sergio Marchionne will step in as the boss of the F1 team after di Montezemolo departs in mid-October. This change follows the removal of Stefano Domenicali earlier this year.

Marchionne has put his money where his mouth is, his reputation is at stake here, and he’d better hope he can deliver the results he demands.

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Formula 1 Honda McLaren

McLaren could test with Honda engine this year

Eric Boullier, McLaren

The McLaren-Honda reunification could make its track-based return this year, just days after the end of the 2014 season, according to Eric Boullier.

“The safe side is that we’ll obviously be in Jerez with a McLaren-Honda car,” said Boullier, McLaren Racing Director. “But it keeps open to maybe the possibility that if everything is matching in our schedules to run it earlier.”

The only earlier opportunity for McLaren to run with its new Honda power unit would be the post-season Abu Dhabi test which is scheduled for 25–26 November.

“We won’t give a definite answer now because we actually don’t know yet exactly. It’s very likely to be before Jerez. We’ll see,” Boullier added.

Only last week Honda’s Yasuhisa Arai said the company was on track with the development of its V6 power unit and that its debut was expected in the first pre-season test at Jerez in 2015.

[Source: Sky Sports F1 | Pic: McLaren]

Categories
Formula 1

Formula 1 expecting 20 races in 2015

2014 Australian Grand Prix

Australia will once again kick off the Formula 1 season after a provisional 2015 calendar was sent to teams during the Italian Grand Prix weekend. The maximum number of 20 races have been pencilled in for the F1 calendar, with the Mexican Grand Prix back to rejoin the fun after a 20 year hiatus.

2015 Provisional F1 calendar

  1. March 15 – Australia (Melbourne)
  2. March 29 – Malaysia (Sepang)
  3. April 5 – Bahrain (Sakhir)
  4. April 19 – China (Shanghai)
  5. May 10 – Spain (Barcelona)
  6. May 24 – Monaco (Monte Carlo)
  7. June 7 – Canada (Montreal)
  8. June 21 – Austria (Red Bull Ring)
  9. July 5 – Britain (Silverstone)
  10. July 19 – Germany (Nurburgring)
  11. July 26 – Hungary (Budapest)
  12. August 23 – Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps)
  13. September 6 – Italy (Monza)
  14. September 20 – Singapore (Singapore)
  15. September 27/October 4 – Japan (Suzuka)
  16. October 11 – Russia (Sochi)
  17. October 25 – Mexico (Mexico City)
  18. November 1 – United States (Austin)
  19. November 15 – Brazil (Interlagos)
  20. November 22/November 29 – Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina)

[Source: Planet F1]

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz

2014 Italian GP: Post-race press conference

2014 Italian Grand Prix

Formula 1’s biggest soap opera continued in Monza where Lewis Hamilton won the Italian Grand Prix overnight. Lewis took the lead after Nico Rosberg made a repeat error at the first corner, allowing Hamilton to take the lead unopposed.

It was a bad error from Rosberg, this is true. However, suggestions Rosberg ran wide on purpose are a little hard to believe, we think and more inline with the overhyped fantasy land some journalists or their editors want to create.

Elsewhere Daniel Ricciardo’s late charge earned him unofficial drive of the day plaudits but in the end all that mattered were the 10 points he got for finishing fifth.

“The strategy helped today, it kept the tyres fresh enough to go those extra few laps at the end,” Ricciardo said after the race. “I saw the cars in front of me pit and the pace was still good enough, so seeing that we didn’t have great pace when we were out of position then we thought we would try something different and that’s why we went long, which helped towards the end of the race.

“The start wasn’t ideal, it’s one of the longest runs up to Turn One here from the start line and it’s not a place where you want to have a bad one, but I dropped the clutch and didn’t get the traction, so we will have to look at that, but we kept a cool head and picked our way back through the field. I think fifth, even with a good start, was the best we could do.”

You can read the thoughts of the first three drivers after the race and you’ll see that’s where the Rosberg conspiracy theories began, albeit with a subtle question from Peter Farkas.

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz

Lewis Hamilton wins 2014 Italian GP

Lewis Hamilton wins 2014 Italian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton has overcome a fortnight of hyperbole and poor start from pole position to win the Italain Grand Prix. He’s now within striking distance of the world championship lead, 22 points behind Nico Rosberg.

Mercedes AMG also enjoyed maximum points with Rosberg coming home in a comfortable second place. The German made an excellent start from P2 leaving Hamilton in his wake. However, an error going into the first chicane after the start-finish line allowed Hamilton to take the lead.

Lewis dropped down to P4 on the opening lap but fought back to increase pressure on Rosberg. When Rosberg went straight on at the chicane Hamilton took control of the race, built a steady margin and was never troubled.

As expected the Williams duo of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas were the next best, filling places P3 and P4. Massa’s podium is his first for Williams and his first taste of champagne since last year’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Daniel Ricciardo’s race started badly, too. Starting from P9 he was soon out of the points in the early stages after he was forced off track through the first corner. Although, his day was salvaged thanks to his ability to run a long first stint in a one-stop race. With fresher tyres as the race drew to a close Daniel was carving through the field. His move to claim P5 from teammate Sebastian Vettel combined superb awareness, race craft and even some cheekiness.

Close behind Vettel were Sergio Perez and Jenson Button, who had a great scrap late in the race swapping positions a few times. Rounding out the top 10 in an otherwise drama free grand prix were Kimi Raikkonen and Kevin Magnussen. The latter copping a five second penalty for forcing Bottas off track.

The visit to Monza represents Formula 1’s final European race for the year as the teams head to Singapore for the next grand prix. While we may not like it the season is sure to stay alive until the final race in Abu Dhabi which will have that controversial double points policy in place.

Continue reading “Lewis Hamilton wins 2014 Italian GP”