In the round-up: Martin Whitmarsh gives the strongest indication yet that Lewis Hamilton will remain at McLaren.
Links
Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:
Hamilton 'wants McLaren contract' (BBC)
Martin Whitmarsh: 'If Lewis wants to stay in the team, which he has told me he does, then he should do'.
Alonso happy to ignore critics (ESPN)
'When you're fighting other drivers from that country, it's normal that this sort of thing would happen. It happened in Germany, too. Everything was fine until I was competitive and fighting Michael [Schumacher].'
Nico Hulkenberg Q&A: Happy but not satisfied (F1)
'I made some small mistakes in the first few races and felt occasionally that a little more could have been possible. This was especially the case in qualifying, when Paul (di Resta) finished ahead of me several times. But now that's changed and I am fully comfortable. Of course I am not perfect. But I would say that I have definitely improved my personal performance when I compare now to the first few races.'
Brawn: F1 must not become 'random' (Autosport)
'What we cannot have in motorsport is a randomness where you don't know who is going to win, and that you could work really hard to improve the car but your car doesn't suit the conditions and you are not competitive. That is not where we want to be.'
James Allison on the 2012 F1 World Championship Race (Lotus via YouTube)
City of Austin again moving to annex Circuit of the Americas (Austin-American Statesman)
'Annexation extends the city's regulatory authority on the site and will add the track to its tax rolls.'
Hewland Engineering founder dies aged 89 (Maidenhead Advertiser)
'The business continued to grow and moved from North Town Road to Boyn Valley Road, where Hewland Engineering had well over 100 employees in the 1970s. In the 60s, 70s and 80s, Hewland gearboxes became synonymous with motorsport and Formula One.'
Fun Clip: Tit-for-Tat ' Sauber F1 Team (Sauber via YouTube)
Govt to decide on demo drive today (The Times of India)
'The revised proposal submitted by the organizers will make the event cheaper by Rs30 lakh and will involve two lower calibre cars instead of one F1 car. Arjun Balu will drive MRF's Formula 1600cc Ford car and Narain [Karthikeyan] will be behind the wheels of MRF's brand-new Formula 2000cc car with a Renault engine and Dallara chassis, which is likely to be unveiled in Chennai on August 25.'
Comment of the day
Yesterday's piece on closed cockpits and covered wheels provoked strongly-held and well-argued views from both sides of the safety debate. Here's two of them:
The right to be safe can only be extended so far. Up to a certain point you have to decide if you're comfortable taking part, be it crossing the road on your way to work or driving a Formula 1 car.
The drivers may not want to race in these cars but the public want to see them race these cars. They have a choice to make, and it should be a choice. I don't demand to be wrapped in cotton wool everywhere I go, neither should they. There simply has to be risk or it's not sport and it's definitely not life.
@Spawinte
I don't think you can ever say that they are 'safe enough'. Henry Surtees, Felipe Massa, Dan Wheldon, and Maria de Villota are all examples from the fast few years of drivers being seriously injured or killed because of their exposed heads. Two deaths and one near fatal injury don't constitute 'rare' or 'safe enough' to me.
Of course it would be impossible to pre-empt every single dangerous situation and take action against it, but when there is a glaringly obvious safety problem which is causing injuries on a fairly regular basis, I think that common sense suggests that it needs addressing. We haven't seen a fatality in a long time in F1, but it's clear that the danger remains.
Chris Goldsmith (@mazdachris)
From the forum
- Read this fascinating post from a reader who was at the last DTM race at the Nurburgring Nordschleife
- Ec-F1 driver Lucas di Grassi joins Audi for Brazil in the World Endurance Championship
- What do you expect from F1 in 2014?
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Innim and Tomas!
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On this day in F1
Didier Pironi died in a powerboat accident 25 years ago today.
The three-times Grand Prix winner had been forced to quit the sport in 1982 after suffering serious leg injuries in a crash at the Hockenheimring.
Image © McLaren/Hoch Zwei
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