Kamis, 13 September 2012

Mallya determined to keep Force India duo | F1 Fanatic round-up

As today's round-up was being finished reports began to emerge that former F1 medical delegate Professor Sid Watkins had passed away.

The reports about Watkins, who turned 84 last week, are yet to be officially confirmed. Many of those who knew him and were treated by him have paid tribute to one of the sport's most respected figures whose work undoubtedly saved lives:

Vijay Mallya, Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 2012In the round-up: Force India owner Vijay Mallya wants to keep Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg for 2013.

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

Mallya Says Force India To Keep Di Resta, Hulkenberg (Speed)

'I've not been approached by anybody, contrary to all the speculation. The fact that their names are mentioned only shows that my trust and faith in them is not misplaced.'

Webber on F1 safety and Zanardi inspiration (BBC)

'Should you shut off that option somehow by enclosing the wheels but leave the cockpit open? Or leave the wheels open and create more cockpit protection? Personally, I feel stopping cars launching is a bigger priority, if only because I think that happens more often.'

  • Why covered cockpits and wheels may be F1's future

F1 safety starts in the junior ranks, says Wurz (Reuters)

'Looking at GP2 races, which is the feeder series, the driver standards there are appalling ' bad, very bad ' and they are coming in to F1.'

Montezemolo: 2013 'too early' for Perez (Sky)

'Next season is too early. I'm very pleased for him because first of all it showed that our choice when we picked up him as a young driver was good. Then it is thanks to Sauber, thanks to the Ferrari Academy, he grow up.'

  • Hamilton becomes focus of 2013 F1 driver market

Why F1 still needs Robert Kubica (Autosport, subscription required)

'Kubica is not anywhere near close to getting back to racing in F1 ' and his ongoing absence leaves a big hole.'

Formula One Betting: It's Advantage Alonso in Driver's Championship Now (Unibet)

My latest article for Unibet.

Tweets

Comment of the day

@MazdaChris on controlling costs in Formula One:

I just think that budget caps approach the problem from the wrong direction. It doesn't make sense that you have a formula with technical regulations which, by their nature, make it very expensive to make even midfield level cars, then you try to tell people not to spend too much money.

Surely a better approach would involve a little more blue-sky thinking. Start with a blank sheet of paper and try to thrash out some regulations which could result in cars which are broadly as fast as they are now, but which are significantly cheaper to make.

Look at engine regulations as they currently stand. On what planet is a small displacement, normally aspirated V8 revving to 18,000rpm a good, cheap solution?

F1 engines make between 7-800bhp. There are supercars on the road with engines which make that power reliably for 50,000 miles plus, and cost a fraction of the amount an F1 engine does. Of course these are large, heavy engines which aren't hugely sophisticated.

And yet look at other racing series. Le Mans prototypes make that power, and their engines are high-tech and complex, stressed components, with more road relevance than F1 engines, yet they're comparatively very cheap and even more reliable. So what's all that money spent in F1 actually achieving? A nice noise?

If you sat down with a group of very good F1 engineers, and set them a goal of coming up with a formula which gave you cars which could get round a circuit as quickly as they do now, but cost half the money to develop and build, I bet they could do it. I bet they'd be even more reliable than they are now.

This is what annoys me about budget caps; the sport is unnecessarily expensive in the first place. The change in engines in 2014 is going to make it even more expensive than it is now. And that's with no appreciable improvement in the aesthetics or the nature of competition.

Why start with a formula which is fundamentally hugely expensive, and then tell teams off for spending lots of money on competing, when surely the sensible thing is to look at how you can make the sport much cheaper in the first place.
@MazdaChris

From the forum

  • Check out @simonfouracre's excellent pictures from the Italian Grand Prix
  • How many championships will Hamilton, Alonso and Vettel win?
  • New Formula 4 championship from BRDC and MSV in 2013

Happy birthday!

No F1 Fanatic birthdays today.

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

However it is Kamui Kobayashi's birthday ' he turns 26 today!

It's also 20 years since the 1992 Italian Grand Prix. Ayrton Senna took his third and final win of a year which had been dominated by Williams.

Nigel Mansell led early on before handing the lead to team mate Riccardo Patrese. But both Williams drivers suffered hydraulic problems ' Mansell retiring and Patrese limping across the line in fifth.

Martin Brundle took second place ahead of Benetton team mate Michael Schumacher ' here they are on the podium with Senna.

This clip from the race shows the Williams pair hitting trouble:

Image © Sahara Force India F1 Team



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