Formula One 2012

[Berk]

So ... Orchard Towers? Its funny. I was only thinking on the weekend that perhaps a move back to Singapore is on the cards. But I quikcly remembered how an NA Impreza cost 4k a month and my apartment was 4.5k a month. It should not be a surprise that Singapore has the most millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the worlds

They should hand that shit out to us, given the number of Australians who died or were captured and tortured trying to defend the place.

[Granthem]

Wow some people already into engine 7 with what, 6 races to go? Could make for an interesting end to the season

[wolverine]

Many teams have taken new engines for Belgium and for Italy so most teams have the engine situation well in hand when they get a second race out of those engines plus handpick the best of the rest to finish the season.

[Luke_ENR34]

i was also in Singapore for the F1. First one ive seen since the good old Adelaide Race. The atmosphere was crazy, people everywhere, lots of aussies. There was 6 of us from Adelaide that went over for a week.

Brought a Red bull polo top and the next day walking around, kept getting asked if i was F1 driver. Shame it was only blokes asking and not some sexy girls

[sh@un]

Could you imagine driving in F1, living that life AND getting paid 11.5 million pounds?

plus bonuses and personal endorsement contracts

[tweety bird]

Thailand has moved a step closer hosting its first Formula 1 race after agreeing a deal in principle for a 2014 event.

"It will be a city race like in Singapore and Monaco. It will be a night race like the Singapore Grand Prix," he was quoted as saying by the Bangkok Post.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/102873

Four-time Formula 1 world champion Alain Prost will return to the wheel of a grand prix car when he drives Red Bull's RB6 at Paul Ricard this weekend.

The Frenchman will be in action in the 2010 title-winning car as part of the exhibitions organised for the World Series by Renault event at the circuit.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/102874

Formula 1 teams will be able to hide stepped noses in 2013

Formula 1 teams will have the option of fitting a special panel to their cars next year to help hide stepped noses, the FIA has confirmed.

Following discussions between teams to come up with a solution to the ugly designs that would not entail a big redesign for next year, motor racing's governing body has rubber stamped new rules that will allow a special 'modesty panel' to be fitted.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/102883

[djr81]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/lewishamilton/9572696/Lewis-Hamilton-to-join-Mercedes-in-100m-move-from-McLaren.html

[tweety bird]

..

kimi to mclaren ftw!!!

[ctjet]

Well its a Nando v Vettel 2013 thats for damn sure

this is like when alonso went to Renault for a couple years and was buried in the pack wasting his time each fortnight, such a waste of talent

Perez to mclaren are now the headlines, which is a waste of money

[wolverine]

Karthekeyan won't be at McLaren.

Would they be silly enough to pick up Massa?

[ctjet]

nobody would be that silly

come on

[tweety bird]

orly?

Just a few months ago Felipe Massa was a dead man walking at Ferrari, but now he appears to be edging towards a new contract.

The Brazilian's contract at the Italian marque runs out at the end of the current season and his disappointing form at the start of the 2012 campaign coupled with his below par displays in 2011 left him in danger of losing his seat.

Although his form has picked up in recent months, he has only scored 51 points compared to the 194 of his team-mate Fernando Alonso, who is leading the Drivers' Championship.

Alonso, though, has had plenty of positive things to say about Massa in recent weeks while Swiss newspaper Blick claims the Ferrari bosses are ready to hand the 31-year-old a new deal.

Massa, meanwhile, told lancenet that is "very close" to securing a new contract but admitted he cannot make any announcement until a deal has been signed adding "it should not take long for me to have a clear understanding of the situation".

Team principal Stefano Domenicali, though, admits Ferrari are in no rush to make a decision.

"I don't know, I'll leave you with this question mark," he said when asked about a timeframe for resolving Massa's future," he is quoted as saying by Autosport.

"There are no limits in the regulations, as you know. This is the fundamental thing for me: management of drivers - like players - is done internally.

"It's not important to communicate outside. So, we'll communicate to you as soon as there are things to say, but not before then."

http://www.planetf1.com/news/3213/8111459/Massa-Very-Close-To-New-Deal

[ctjet]

the fact they want a loser in seat number two so as not to impede el toreador speaks volumes about his true usefulness

[ctjet]

Know when to fold 'em

26th September 2012

Traffic. Traffic. Right turn ahead. Right turn ahead. Brake. Brake. BRAKE!

Poor old Michael is at it again. Smashing and crashing his way to his second – and surely final – F1 retirement.

His Singapore Grand Prix shunt into the Toro Rosso of Jean-Éric Vergne is the latest incident in the German’s sorry decline to F1 also-ran.

Far be it for me to suggest how to run an F1 team but perhaps, come the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka next week, the Mercedes mechanics would do well to fit one of the GPS navigation devices now being advertised by Michael Schumacher as part of his £5.5 million deal with a Chinese company.

It really is getting beyond a joke now, something that surely even the most blinkered Schumacher fan must admit.

Very soon reality will bite and the penny – if it hasn’t already – will drop. It’s time for the 43-year old to step out of an F1 cockpit for the very last time.

Sporting comebacks rarely meet with any real success and Schumacher’s three-year second F1 career will not work the statisticians overly hard.

One podium and one pole position in almost three years of racing for a factory team is a poor show.

Third place at this year’s European Grand Prix is the highlight; Monaco’s pole position was certainly a good lap, but all in vain since a five-place grid penalty then took effect as punishment for Schumacher’s rear-end assault on Bruno Senna’s Williams in the previous race.

For as long as he’s been racing in F1 Schumacher, perhaps like no one before or since, splits opinion in so many ways – some love him, some loathe him.

In the F1 paddock it’s a fact that – rightly or wrongly – many believe that Schumacher has rarely raced in a ‘legal’ F1 car.

One could put this down to a number of factors, but it’s hardly surprising given the amount of controversy surrounding so many of the cars he’s driven. Benetton’s alleged launch and traction control, and the not-thick-enough undercar ‘plank’; Ferrari’s bespoke Bridgestone tyres (suspected of having grip and endurance levels way beyond those of Schumacher’s rivals, and of being wider than ‘allowed’ at the front), the infamous 5mm bargeboard tolerance case at Malaysia in 1999… the list goes on and on.

Forgetting for one moment the ‘legality’ of Schumacher’s cars, one could focus on his driving record. An unrivalled level of achievement with untold wins, podiums, pole positions, etc, etc. But with that success comes a bucket load of trouble: driving into Damon Hill at Adelaide in 1994; side-swiping Jacques Villeneuve at Jerez in 1997; barging Heinz-Harald Frentzen off the track during the 1998 Canadian race; parking his car on the racing line at Rascasse (so as to ruin Fernando Alonso’s likely pole-winning time) during qualifying at Monaco in 2006; and forcing his erstwhile Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello almost into the pit wall during the 2010 Hungarian Grand Prix. I could go on.

And now in 2012 two novice-like shunts where the German has simply failed to judge the speed of his own car relative to those ahead of him, on this latest occasion resulting in a 10-place grid drop for Suzuka.

Of course, all around the world Schumacher is worshipped as a sporting great and his marketing power is the main reason Mercedes employs him. But just as the world is waking up to the mountain of evidence against seven-times Tour de France ‘winner’ Lance Armstrong, the seven-times F1 world champion cannot be surprised by those who doubt the legality of what went before.

His legion of fans will not hear any of it, of course, insisting that all is fair in the sporting arena and that Schumacher simply possessed more skill, hunger and derring-do than his rivals. Many still blindly insist he still does…

Current favourite excuse for the wretched performances is that Schumacher is suffering a run of extreme bad luck in his Mercedes racer. Unlucky? No-one said he was lucky when, back in the day, he enjoyed an unrivalled run of reliability. So don’t tell me the opposite is now the case.

The facts are plain to see: with every race his statistics and legacy get weaker while the doubts about his ability during his heyday grow stronger.

Like a gambler stumbling from table to table, Schumacher is chasing a losing streak desperately hoping the dice will roll his way. The shame – for him – is that the losses are mounting up fast with no signs of a change in fortune anytime soon.

It’s time – high time – to cash in his few remaining chips, announce a dignified exit and leave the F1 casino.

For good…

its nice when people actually speak their mind

we dont get a lot of that

Edited September 28, 2012 by ctjet

[tweety bird]

if only james hunt was still alive and commentating.

la sigh.

[hrd-hr30]

If Ferrari re-sign Massa again, they deserve to continue to loose Constructor's Championships.

Very surprised Hamilton is actually going to Mercedes!

As for Schumacher - he's been out-performing Rosberg for some time now! Never let the facts get in the way of a good rant, eh?

Edited September 28, 2012 by hrd-hr30

[25GTT]

Just on that article, To be honest i have only been watching formula 1 tightly over the last say 4 years, so whilst i dont think i have the knowledge nor no where near the experience of some of yourselves in F1 nor the writer of that article, I would say thats not a bad track record of accidents over 18 years.

Whilst what happened last race was definately a brain fade, the issues and accidents the writer mentions surely cant be a surprise when driving a car 300km/h over 18 years.

After watching the Senna movie witch i thought was amazing, it gave me insight into the concentration levels they endure over the 2 hour period not to mention the physical force.

I am by no means a Schumi fan but i dont think bringing up accidents from the past (in approx the 8th or 9th paragraph) should validate any points the writer is making, otherwise the amount of crashes i have seen Hamilton involved in over the past 4 years would warrant him out of F1 if the article is anything to go by.

Sorry for the rant guys

[PHaT MR30]

Its easy for him to say that sitting at his desk with nothing more than a pen and paper to worry about.

[Roy]

Lets see if the story pans out. But good on Hamo if he moves. I will respect him more for it. If he does go, given Schueys pace I would lvoe to see him on a 1 year contract at Ferrari for Perez to jump in for 2014. Schuey has got his head around the car this season and has been quicker than Rosberg. He has binned it, and had some reliability problems...but you would expect a rookie to bin it from time to time as well so why not take a pensioner for a year...who is quick and woudl be amazing for marketing "Michaels heart has always been at Ferrari" type nonsense from the Italians

[ctjet]

Sorry for the rant guys

have you watched this video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee2PrLNbvKo

schumacher basically did the F1 version of this at monaco

this is what a 7 times world champ is prepared to do to further his own cause