The recent launch of Ferrari’s F150 challenger marks the unofficial beginning of the 2011 Formula One season. So, for a quick reminder of the immediate season past, take the jump to watch an excellent highlights clip which celebrates the sport’s 60th anniversary year.
It’s a very entertaining piece of footage and is the perfect complement to our 2010 pictorial season review.
Adrian Newey is shown here talking about his Red Bull X1. It’s an imaginary racer created for Sony Playstation hero game Gran Turismo 5. The brief to Newey was build the fastest car you possibly can, with only the laws of physics to provide the boundaries. No limits on downforce, no limits on engine type or any other rules to follow.
Of course, Newey came up with 3.0 litre V6 engine. Boosted by two turbos and with a 15,000 redline, the X1’s alleged power is over 1100kW (1483hp). It’s allegedly bloody quick, too. How does 0-200km/h in around 3 seconds sound? Or a 450km/h top speed.
In theory the X1 would only exist in the virtual world. However, for promotional purposes the Red Bull team created a life-size version of the car.
Check out the clip after the break. And, to prove how absurd this whole made up this thing really is you can also watch a clip from GT5 showing the X1 doing a sub 3:30 lap of the Nürburgring Nordschleife.
Mark Webber, by any measure, had a great season in Formula One this year. He led the championship for the majority of the year and won four races—Spain, Monaco, Britain and Hungary—but there were also some lowlights, as well. In a typically candid interview with BBC 5 Live Webber opened up about all manner of subjects, including Ricky Ponting’s captaincy, the health of his pet chooks and, of course F1, too.
No topic was left untouched and Mark discussed openly about the procedure the team went through following the crash with Sebastian Vettel in Turkey. He praised Red Bull Racing’s chief designer Adrian Newey. Webber also explained in more detail about his late season shoulder injury and the reasons why he kept it quiet. And he also discussed that spectacular crash at Valencia, where he pressed the brake pedal so hard he snapped the pedal!
It’s a fascinating insight and rare opportunity to hear an F1 driver speak his mind. It was also a rare chance for the public to be involved with most of the topics discussed in direct response to questions from callers.
The good news is you can still listen to the interview via the BBC website. Just follow the link below for the full 60 minutes of audio. It seems the link will only be active for a few more days, so make sure you tune in soon.
[Source: BBC 5 Live Formula 1]
You’ve all probably heard the news that Mark Webber drove the last four races of the 2010 F1 season with a busted shoulder following yet another mountain bike accident. Now, his boss, Christian Horner says he should keep away from bikes altogether.
Webber sustained a broken leg and fractured shoulder in late 2008 after he collided with a car while competing in the Mark Webber Challenge in Tasmania. While Mark competed stoically during 2009, notching up two race wins, it took him at least half the season to regain full fitness.
Fast forward to October this year—just before the Japanese Grand Prix—and Webber made a quick trip home to Australia for some R&R to get refreshed for the last few races of the year. At least, that was the plan. For the first time since his 2008 accident, Mark climbed aboard a mountain bike. And crashed again. Another injured shoulder was the result. Webber kept the injury pretty much to himself and took a series of pain killing injections to see out the season.
News of Webber’s injury only emerged following the release of a new book from the Australian titled Up Front – 2010, A Season To Remember. Christian Horner has spoken to the UK’s Telegraph and expressed his ire at being kept in the dark, “I didn’t even know about the book, let alone the shoulder.
“It is obviously disappointing that Mark said nothing. It was an injury that did not appear to have any effect on his performance but all the same it would have been nice to know about it.”
Horner was asked if Red Bull Racing would insist Mark sticks to racing cars in 2011 and replied, “Our drivers have an obligation to make sure they are fit. It seems bikes don’t agree with Mark so maybe it would be better if he stayed away from them.”
Perhaps it’s good that Mark kept quiet about the injury; it would have only strengthened the mental belief of his closest competitors after all. However, you can’t help but think the ultimate result in the 2010 championship race could have been different if Mark was 100% fit.
On the weekend, some 13,500kms apart, the greatest assets of Red Bull Racing were at “home” spreading the word of Formula One. In German capital of Berlin the 2010 F1 World Champion, Sebastien Vettel, was living it large in front of the Brandenburg Gate. While, in sunny Australia, our F1 high priest Mark Webber and his young protege, Daniel Ricciardo, were burning rubber just outside of Perth at the Australian Festival of Speed.
You can see photos along with a mixture of professional and amateur video after the break. At times like these, the life of an F1 driver looks even more appealing than usual.
[Pics: Red Bull/Getty Images]
This weekend will see the inaugural Australian Festival of Speed at Perth’s Barbagallo Raceway. In town for the event will be Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo. Red Bull Racing has also been kind enough to bring along a Formula One car for Mark to play with. He’ll be doing a few laps in this four year-old demo car to please the crowd.
Festival of Speed boss, Terry Mader, reckons Mark should be right to set a new lap record at Barbagallo with the 2005 mark of 52.261 seconds under serious threat, “Mark’s said he can get it up to 280km per hour on the long track. It’s a very short track (compared to an F1 circuit), but he knows it well because he used to drive around it in a Formula Ford a long time ago.”
[Source: perthnow.com.au via motorcentral | Pic: Alf Sorbello]
On the second and final day of young driver testing Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo, driving for Red Bull Racing, stayed on top of the time sheets by setting a fastest lap time of 1:38.340 – a blistering effort that bettered Sebastian Vettel’s pole position time from the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix by 1.3 seconds.
Ricciardo was driving Mark Webber’s chassis which won the Hungarian Grand Prix and the 21-year-old used it to his best advantage by setting the quickest times in both the morning and afternoon session. A full list of times can be seen after the break.
The F1 teams will have a rest day before commencing testing with new Pirelli tyres on Friday.
[via Autosport]
UPDATE: A new statement from the Ricciardo stable has been added below.
Here’s a brief video of Sebastian Vettel talking about his Formula One World Championship success. He starts by talking about his relationship with Mark Webber, before discussing his emotional response to discovering he had just won F1’s biggest prize.
[Thanks to Wes for the tip]
Last December young Western Australian Daniel Ricciardo made a name for himself by topping the time sheets at the Formula One end of season testing held in Jerez. That was enough to earn him a spot as the Red Bull reserve driver for the 2010 season. Now, Daniel is back behind the wheel of an F1 car taking part in the Young Driver Testing taking place at Abu Dhabi. Daniel was expected to do well, given his access to the title winning RB6, and he has met expectations by returning to the top of the time sheets.
Ricciardo says it’s great to be back, “I’m really happy to be back in the car after such a great experience last year. 12 months may be a long time ago, but it felt good to be out there again and I was surprised at how quickly I felt comfortable. We still have a few sets of tyres to work through which is nice and means I will be able to have another good run tomorrow.”
Impressively, Ricciardo’s best time of 1:39.616 would have qualified him in third place for last week’s Abu Dhabi GP and was just a quarter of a second off Sebastian Vettel’s pole position time. But that’s not enough for the young Aussie, “The car feels amazing and to be given the opportunity to test the car that has just clinched two championship titles is a real honour. I’m happy with the progress I made today and can’t wait to get back in the car. I’m still a little bit off Seb’s time so hopefully I can find a bit more tomorrow.”
Speaking to Autosport, Ricciardo says he is ready for a full-time role in Formula One, “I think I’m ready and tomorrow we’ll try and do a few more long runs, maybe prepare more for a race situation to see how the body holds up, but I think I’m probably as ready as I can be.”
More pics after the break, as well as a brief statement from the Ricciardo stable. A full report from the first day of testing is available at Formula1.com.
[Pics: Red Bull/Getty Images]
Here is our last image gallery from the 2010 Formula One season. Bringing you these pics has been a fun, albeit labour intensive, addition to the AUSmotive routine and we look forward to bringing you more great pics in 2011.
For now, though, here are 101 photos from the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It is Sebastian Vettel’s time to shine; Mark Webber fans – you may want to look away now.
Unfortunately for Mark Webber fans, and Ferrari fans too, the decision to pit early for fresh tyres at last night’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has not become any wiser. Seventh for Alonso, and eighth for Webber, left those two in places that are darker than they could have imagined before the race began. However, it’s nothing but sunshine for Sebastian Vettel.
At 23 years, 4 months, 12 days, Vettel’s victory on the Yas Marina circuit saw him become the sport’s youngest ever World Champion. On balance the young German has been the quickest driver across the season, his 10 pole positions and five race wins attest to that.
It seems a long time ago now, but poor fortune through mechanical failure robbed him of victory in the first two races at Bahrain and Australia. Then, the recent engine failure in Korea stole another race win from his grasp. Add 75 points to his tally of 256 points and take 50 points away from Alonso, who was the man to benefit with a win in two of those three races, and all of a sudden you can see how the 2010 season may well have been a procession, much like last night’s race.
Sadly, this means it wasn’t to be for Mark Webber, who must be congratulated for running Vettel right down to the wire. Webber wasn’t given much chance at the start of the year and his five pole positions and four race wins certainly made quite a few people stand up and take notice. Especially those in his own garage. Here’s hoping Webber proves to be solid nuisance value again in 2011.
For now, you can read the post-race press conference including Vettel’s comments and those of the McLaren pair of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. Perhaps, a nice sight to see the two most recent World Champions on the podium to crown the sport’s newest king.
Sebastian Vettel is the 2010 Formula One World Champion. He is the youngest man to reach the summit of motorsport’s highest peak. Vettel claimed his crown by winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It was Vettel’s fifth race win of the year and he had never led the Championship until this race.
While his nearest rivals, Red Bull Racing team-mate Mark Webber (8th) and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso (7th) faltered due to poor pit strategy, Vettel drove a masterful race. Simply, the least experienced driver in the hunt for the title was the most controlled diver all weekend.
Red Bull Racing won the Constructors’ Championship last weekend in Brazil, and Vettel’s success has capped off a phenomenal year for the team.
Post-race press conference and image gallery from Abu Dhabi to follow later today.
[Pics: via OneHD]