Well, whaddya know, time flies when you’re having fun and Rally Mexico is almost upon us. By the barest of margins here’s your chance to check out the ice cool pics from Rally Sweden, which was one of the most exciting WRC events we’ve ever seen.
Let’s hope Rally Mexico provides as much entertainment and another chance to look at those silly hats!
Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle was asked by his producers to come up with his ultimate Formula 1 circuit. When he handed in his dream race track the producers went off to Scalextric and had the thing built in a 45 metre long slot car track.
The track features sections from Silverstone, Monaco and Albert Park. In fact, at least one corner from all 20 tracks on the 2015 calendar is included in the 44-corner layout.
You can see the full layout below along with a brief video showing Brundle explaining the track as well as his thoughts on the 2015 F1 season.
[Source: Scalextric | Thanks to Paul for the tip]
McLaren has confirmed Fernando Alonso will miss the Australian Grand Prix as he continues to recover from his testing accident in Barcelona last month.
According to a team statement (available in full after the break) Alonso’s doctors say, “that they see no evidence whatsoever of any injury; and that they therefore describe him as entirely healthy from neurological and cardiac perspectives alike.”
However, as a precautionary measure. “Fernando’s doctors have recommended to him that … for the time being he should seek to limit as far as is possible any environmental risk factors that could potentially result in his sustaining another concussion so soon after his previous one.
“In order to limit those environmental risk factors, specifically, his doctors have advised that he should not compete in the imminent Australian Grand Prix.”
Alonso has recommenced full physical training and is expected to be declared fit to race in time for the Malaysian Grand Prix (27–29 March). His car will be driven by reserve driver Kevin Magnussen in Melbourne.
When Red Bull first revealed their RB11 in its eye catching camouflage testing livery they told us the final look for 2015 would be just as awesome. Yeah, not really chaps, you’ve just moved a few bits around from the 2014 car, taken some stripes away and made the purple a bit brighter.
Anyway, here’s what the 2015 Red Bull Racing F1 car will look like. Let’s hope Daniel Ricciardo can get across the line first a few more times this year too.
Formula 1 pre-season testing is all done and the post-rationalising from the teams telling us what a great job they were able to do is well underway. As the saying goes, when the flag drops the bullshit stops and we’ve got less than two weeks until the Australian Grand Prix.
After the break is a list of times for the final four days of testing in Barcelona. Mercedes AMG and Williams shared the spoils with their drivers setting the fastest times across the week.
Nico Rosberg claims the title of fastest man in pre-season with his 1:22.792 lap on day two, a full 1.2 seconds faster than his nearest challenger on the day.
It’s no surprise, then, that reigning constructors’ champions Mercedes AMG look to be the team to beat once again this season.
Fernando Alonso has been released from hospital following his testing accident on Sunday and will continue his recovery at his home in Spain.
McLaren has confirmed Alonso will be absent from the final four days of pre-season testing, which start in Barcelona later today. Reserve driver Kevin Magnussen will step into Alonso’s role.
An earlier statement, which can be read in full after the break, said Alonso’s accident was “caused by the unpredictably gusty winds at that part of the circuit [Turn 3] at that time”.
The statement continues: “We can categorically state that there is no evidence that indicates that Fernando’s car suffered mechanical failure of any kind. We can also confirm that absolutely no loss of aerodynamic pressure was recorded, which fact indicates that the car did not suffer any aerodynamic loss, despite the fact that it was subjected to a significant level of g-force. Finally, we can also disclose that no electrical discharge or irregularity of any kind occurred in the car’s ERS system, either before, during or after the incident.”
Mercedes-AMG will launch its new GT3 racecar at the Geneva Motor Show (5–15 March). Based on the AMG GT road car, the new customer GT3 machine will replace the successful SLS AMG GT3. The new AMG GT3 will be ready for competition in 2016.
For now we’ve got the image above and a couple of sketches for you to admire.
Fernando Alonso crashed his McLaren-Honda MP4-30 during Formula 1 testing in Barcelona overnight. He was taken to the on-course medical centre and where he conscious and speaking to doctors.
He was airlifted to hospital for precautionary scans and despite suffering no serious injury he remained in care overnight.
“Fernando’s accident was just one of those things that happens in testing,” said Eric Boullier, McLaren Racing director. “Fortunately, he’s fine, but was concussed during the accident, which therefore required an overnight stay in hospital as a precaution. That’s normal practice after a concussion.
“Inevitably, some media reports have sought to exaggerate the severity of the incident—it was just a normal testing accident.”
Statements from McLaren can be read below.
Lotus can leave the first Barcelona test with bragging rights after Romain Grosjean (1:24.067) set the fastest time of the week overnight. He comfortably outpaced Nico Rosberg (1:24.321) and Daniil Kvyat (1:24.941).
On Saturday Lotus was again the team on top, this time in the hands of Pastor Maldonado (1:24.348), who was also quickest on day 1 in Barcelona. Young punk Max Verstappen (1:24.739) showed the Toro Rosso day care centre that he’s got genuine pace, with a gap over one second back to Lewis Hamilton (1:26.076).
Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo (1:24.574) set the best lap on Friday, narrowly edging out the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen (1:24.584). A touch further back was Felipe Massa (1:24.672).
A full list of times and total laps covered by each driver from the previous three days of testing can be seen below.
Pastor Maldonado has topped the time sheets (1:25.011) on the opening day of testing in Barcelona overnight.
The Lotus driver made good use of his new Mercedes power unit and some fresh soft tyres to set his best lap late in what was quite an exciting day, as far as pre-season testing goes.
Kimi Raikkonen (1:25.167) again kept Ferrari near the pointy end, while Daniel Ricciardo was the third fastest (1:25.547). The top three had a full second clear back to the remaining pack.
“The car felt good today, we got a bit of running done on a few different [tyre] compounds, which was interesting and we got a lot of data, which is always good,” said Daniel. “I think we’re chipping away. We’re definitely making progress but it takes time. However, I think come Melbourne we’ll be there.”
The excitement came from a minor coming together with Felipe Nasr (Sauber) and Susie Wolff (Williams). In the morning session Nasr had shown good pace, heading the field, but that all came undone after he ran into the back of Wolff’s car. The damage was minor and both drivers were able to get back on track later in the day.
Lewis Hamilton set the slowest time of the day and ended his running early due to illness. The world champion completed only 11 laps and his departure meant that reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein was quickly recalled from his loan spell with Force India. Wehrlein was able to complete 48 laps in the W06, after putting in 32 laps for Force India earlier in the day.
This is the 1995 McLaren F1 GTR, chassis #06R, and it is the inspiration for the livery of the just revealed P1 GTR. Driven by a team of Derek Bell, his son Justin Bell and Andy Wallace car #51 finished third in the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans.
McLaren gave us these pics as part of the press release for the P1 GTR and we thought the mighty F1 GTR deserved a post all to itself. So here you are, don’t forget to click on each photo to load its 2560px mega image.
This very cool looking creation is a concept Formula 1 car produced by Ferrari’s in-house design team. They did it for no other reason than to make an F1 car that looks good. So, what do you reckon, have they succeeded?
Let us know what you think below and Ferrari would like to hear from you too.