The 2014 Formula One Thread
05-17-14, 10:57 AM
#109
Lauda irked at Red Bull for dropping circuit corner that bore his name
Austria hasn't hosted a Formula One grand prix since the 2003 race at the old A1 Ring. Since then Red Bull bought the track, renovated it and returned it to the calendar this year as the Red Bull Ring for a race on June 22. We could look at this as a quaint story of a historic F1 track finally returning to the series after a long delay. However, there is a very angry Austrian who is not happy about how things are going – namely, three-time F1 World Driver's Champion Niki Lauda.
According to Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung, as part of its renovation of the track, Red Bull sold off the naming rights of the corners to sponsors. The former Niki Lauda Kurve is now the Pirelli Kurve. Fellow Austrian F1 driver Gerhard Berger also lost his turn, and it's now the Würth Kurve. Only famous racer Jochen Rindt has retained his name on the track.
Lauda was furious when he found out about the change and demanded to know who made the decision. He told the paper that he suspects that the renaming has to do with his current position at the Mercedes-Benz F1 team, which is beating the Red Bull squad soundly this year. Lauda already has plans to get back for the perceived slight. He said that Mercedes would be celebrating a 1-2 victory for this year's return of the grand prix to Austria. Given Lauda's past and his team's season, that might not be too big of a boast.
According to Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung, as part of its renovation of the track, Red Bull sold off the naming rights of the corners to sponsors. The former Niki Lauda Kurve is now the Pirelli Kurve. Fellow Austrian F1 driver Gerhard Berger also lost his turn, and it's now the Würth Kurve. Only famous racer Jochen Rindt has retained his name on the track.
Lauda was furious when he found out about the change and demanded to know who made the decision. He told the paper that he suspects that the renaming has to do with his current position at the Mercedes-Benz F1 team, which is beating the Red Bull squad soundly this year. Lauda already has plans to get back for the perceived slight. He said that Mercedes would be celebrating a 1-2 victory for this year's return of the grand prix to Austria. Given Lauda's past and his team's season, that might not be too big of a boast.
05-19-14, 04:25 PM
#110
F1 legend Sir Jack Brabham passes away at 88
There have only been about a dozen people who have won multiple Formula One World Championships. Thankfully the lion's share of them are still among us – names like Vettel, Alonso, Hakkinen, Lauda, Prost, Piquet, Fittipaldi and Stewart. Michael Schumacher is hanging on, but Senna, Fangio, Ascari and Graham Hill have all since departed this Earth. And we're bereaved to report that they'll have company as Jack Brabham has passed away.
The Australian driver started his career in midget racing and hillclimb events, working his way up to his F1 debut at the British Grand Prix in 1955. By 1958, after a few years in Formula 2, he was a permanent fixture on the F1 grid, winning the Monaco Grand Prix the next year en route to his first world title. He won a second with Cooper the following year, but after a fruitless 1961 he returned with his own team. In 1966 he won his third and final championship, putting him on equal footing in the history books with Lauda, Piquet, Senna and Stewart, but setting him apart by one notable metric: he was and remains still the only driver to win the championship in his own car.
Sir Jack won another handful of grands prix before retiring in 1970, selling his team (which went on to win another few championships with Denny Hulme and Nelson Piquet) initially to his collaborator Ron Tauranac, who in turn sold it to Bernie Ecclestone. Several of Jack's sons and grandsons have since gone on to race professionally. Jack Brabham died peacefully on Monday at his home on Australia's Gold Coast at the age of 88.
The Australian driver started his career in midget racing and hillclimb events, working his way up to his F1 debut at the British Grand Prix in 1955. By 1958, after a few years in Formula 2, he was a permanent fixture on the F1 grid, winning the Monaco Grand Prix the next year en route to his first world title. He won a second with Cooper the following year, but after a fruitless 1961 he returned with his own team. In 1966 he won his third and final championship, putting him on equal footing in the history books with Lauda, Piquet, Senna and Stewart, but setting him apart by one notable metric: he was and remains still the only driver to win the championship in his own car.
Sir Jack won another handful of grands prix before retiring in 1970, selling his team (which went on to win another few championships with Denny Hulme and Nelson Piquet) initially to his collaborator Ron Tauranac, who in turn sold it to Bernie Ecclestone. Several of Jack's sons and grandsons have since gone on to race professionally. Jack Brabham died peacefully on Monday at his home on Australia's Gold Coast at the age of 88.
05-19-14, 04:42 PM
#111
Lexus Fanatic
RIP. He was a great driver. I remember him at his peak, back in the 1960s, when he was out on the Grand Prix circuits with other great drivers such as Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, Dan Gurney, Graham Hill, Jimmy Stewart, Phil Hill, Juan Manuel Fangio, and others.
Brabham was also one of the fortunate drivers who survived in an age of poor safety in racing and conditions that killed off a LOT of drivers. Much of the safety we have today in Formula 1 is due to the tireless, crusading work of Jim Clark to develop better tracks and cars.
Brabham was also one of the fortunate drivers who survived in an age of poor safety in racing and conditions that killed off a LOT of drivers. Much of the safety we have today in Formula 1 is due to the tireless, crusading work of Jim Clark to develop better tracks and cars.
Last edited by mmarshall; 05-19-14 at 04:48 PM.
05-26-14, 08:17 PM
#112
Race Recap: Monaco Grand Prix makes the kettle boil
Gallery:
http://www.autoblog.com/photos/2014-...photo-2636450/
It's not hard to believe that 80 percent of the action at the Monaco Formula One Grand Prix happened didn't have to do with straight-up racing. Mercedes AMG Petronas wasn't expected to maintain its obscene advantage over the field with Monaco being a short track that rewards corner speed over top speed, but they still ruled two of the three Free Practice sessions.
Off the track, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton said he thought it should be easier to beat his teammate and that he was hungrier than his teammate. Then came qualifying and Mirabeau, when Nico Rosberg had set the pole lap in the dying moments of Q3, and as the final few drivers tried to best it on their last chance – including Hamilton, who said he was on the lap that would have got him pole position – Rosberg overcooked it into Mirabeau and brought out a local yellow, killing everyone's chance to better his time. Although the sun was shining in Monaco, the paddock got cold as ice; Rosberg and Hamilton didn't look at one another, speak to one another or touch one another. Rosberg said, "It was an honest mistake." After the race, a disbelieving Hamilton said to the press, "I wish you could have seen the data."
They still lined up first on the grid, though, Rosberg ahead of Hamilton, followed by Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel for Infiniti Red Bull Racing, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen for Ferrari, Jean-Eric Vergne in the first Toro Rosso and Daniel Kvyat in the second in ninth, split by McLaren rookie Kevin Magnussen in eighth, and Sergio Perez in the Force India in tenth.
At the end of the race, there was only one driver who hadn't found something to complain about.
A few weeks ago during the Barcelona test, Hamilton tried out new hardware and software that would help Rosberg get better starts. It worked: Rosberg had a new clutch for this race and got a brilliant run into the first turn at Ste. Devote, Hamilton right behind. Ricciardo mushed it all up and fell back to fifth, with Vettel taking third and Räikkönen zooming up the outside to take fourth, Magnussen climbing three places into fifth.
But the Safety Car had to come out on the first lap when Perez turned into Jenson Button through Mirabeau, parking his Force India in the wall in the racing line. While everyone bunched up and paraded around, Vettel radioed his team to tell them he had no power, followed that up with, "Come on, guys, I mean," then seemed to remember he was broadcasting to the world and said, "I'm sure you've tried everything." When he re-entered the track, he was stuck in first gear. When racing resumed, Vettel was still going so slowly that his engineer told him to bring it in for retirement on Lap 7 because he was slowing down cars behind him. Sky commentator Martin Brundle said of the RB10, "They'll pull it into the garage or push it into the harbor." It's only the engine they need to ditch, though; turns out his turbocharger had failed.
Kvyat was the next man out of business, the impressive Russian rookie slowing down on Lap 11, retiring a lap later with engine trouble. His teammate Vergne would do the same thing on Lap 52.
Nothing changed in the order for the next fourteen laps – Monaco is on the calendar because it's historic and glamorous, not exciting – and the gaps stayed even: Hamilton kept stalking Rosberg in front, Räikkönen had inherited third place after Vettel's retirement and Ricciardo was stalking him, Alonso was further back having another quiet race on his own. Then Adrian Sutil in the Sauber lost it coming out of the tunnel on Lap 25, bashed the wall and slid to a stop just ahead of the barriers inside the chicane. That brought the Safety Car out on Lap 26.
During this Safety Car period, Rosberg and Hamilton pitted, but Hamilton thought he should have been brought in the lap before the Safety Car came out. How do we know this? Because he spent something like five laps asking his race engineer why he wasn't brought in, telling him that he knew he should have been called in, that he knew he wasn't going to be called in, and telling the press afterward that McLaren has two strategists – one for each driver – and would have done it differently, but Mercedes only has one, whose focus is the team.
The Silver Arrows team took the victory, their drivers in the same positions at the finish as at the start. At one point Rosberg's engineer had told him to conserve fuel, but Hamilton couldn't make enough of the opportunity to pass. Then, about 15 laps from the end, Hamilton started dropping way back when something got lodged in his left eye. From that point on Rosberg was safe, but Hamilton had to defend from a charging Ricciardo for the final five laps. Ricciardo, also unable to find a way around the man in front, took another third place.
He was followed home by Alonso, who probably got no more than 27 seconds of airtime the entire race. His teammate's race was also ruined during the second Safety Car stint. Fighting with his Ferrari F14T the entire season, Räikkönen was in third place on Lap 26, ahead of his teammate and looking good. After pitting for new tires during the slow march, when the backmarkers were allowed to pass the field to unlap themselves the Finn got a puncture from the front wing of Max Chilton in a Marussia. That dropped Räikkönen to 14th. He'd eventually finish 12th after a bad pass on Magnussen four laps from the end sent him to the pits once again for a new nose.
Force India driver Nico Hülkenberg followed him in fifth, the German having arguably pulled off the pass of the race, slotting underneath Magnussen on Lap 26 to take the inside line around Poitier before entering the tunnel.
Jenson Button got McLaren some points after a stretch of three races without, nabbing sixth place. Felipe Massa overcame a strange pit strategy, opting not to come in during the first safety car period, then doing so during the action on Lap 47, to take seventh, followed by Romain Grosjean in the long-suffering Lotus in eighth, promoted after a time penalty was applied to Jules Bianchi in front of him. Grosjean's teammate, Pastor Maldonado, didn't even start the race, having suffered an engine issue before the parade lap. In total, four Renault Energy Units died on their own at Monaco – all the other retirements were due to crashes.
Even after a five-second penalty was added to his time for, ironically, trying to take a five-second penalty during the Safety Car period, and after starting from the back of the grid after a gearbox change, an incredible drive from Bianchi scored that ninth-place finish for Marussia, its highest finish ever. The two points earned put Marussia in ninth place in the Constructor's Standings, ahead of both Sauber and Caterham and just six points behind Toro Rosso.
Tenth went to Magnussen, who recovered from Räikkönen's bad pass better than the Ferrari driver.
And Rosberg has recovered at his home race from losing his lead in the Driver's Championship at the last race: his win takes him to 122 points, ahead of Hamilton's 118 points. We'll find out as soon as the next race if their tough-but-fair on-track rivalry will recover, but the podium ceremony was even colder than it had been after qualifying. Even though it's a bit soon, Prost vs. Senna is already being brought up, there's talk of forbidden engine modes having been used by both drivers in previous races, and team principal Toto Wolff has said there'll be no more "little fouls." Good luck with that.
Mercedes takes another maximum points haul home from Monaco to lead the Constructor's Championship with 240, followed by Infiniti Red Bull Racing with 99 and Ferrari with 78.
http://www.autoblog.com/2014/05/26/r...and-prix-2014/
05-26-14, 09:31 PM
#114
Lexus Champion
FYI Alphonso is *****ing at the Pirelli tires for being too hard (wears fast)
Either way, at least Ferrari is gaining points......and fortunately, Raikkonen was able to finish the race (amidst his car having gearbox problems during FREE PRACTICE)
P.S.
On another note:
I think I should start a new thread for GP2
The action is more intense there, drivers are more aggressive and some don't even care about the well-being of their cars........or other cars for that matter
06-07-14, 09:44 AM
#115
Haas delays F1 entry until 2016, Romanian team likely to join
American fans of Formula One racing have been eagerly anticipating the return of an American team to what is largely regarded to be the pinnacle of motor racing. But it's been a long, long time. The last time we saw an American team on the grid was in the 1970s when teams like Penkse, Parnelli and Shadow competed. The USF1 project never got off the ground, but good news arrived when NASCAR team owner Gene Haas was granted a license from the FIA to start a new F1 entry.
That team was originally scheduled to get its start next season, but now reports are indicating that Haas is pushing back its entry until 2016. Part of the decision reportedly comes down to a delay in setting up its European base of operations. Haas is apparently committed to basing his team in the United States – specifically at his expanding NASCAR operation in Kannapolis, North Carolina – but needs a secondary European base to use in between the European races that still account for the lion's share of grands prix on the schedule. That facility was originally earmarked for Milan, Italy, but after tax considerations ruled that out, Haas is looking at alternatives that will likely see the team set up shop in the UK, where eight out of the eleven teams currently on the grid are based.
Assuming Haas is ready to join the grid by 2016, it's looking increasingly likely that the Romanian entry that was also seeking approval from the FIA will also get in on the action. That would be the operation being jointly established by Colin Kolles and Ion Bazac. Kolles formerly ran the Midland/Spyker/Force India team and was then put in charge of HRT, and has been focusing lately on getting the Lotus LMP1 project onto the WEC grid. Bazac, meanwhile, was once health minister in the Romanian government and now runs the country's Ferrari importer, Forza Rossa. Rumor has it that the team could use that name and Ferrari engines in an arrangement that might not be far off from Luigi Chinetti's North American Racing Team that campaigned Ferraris in sports car racing on both sides of the Atlantic as Maranello's de facto proxy team.
That team was originally scheduled to get its start next season, but now reports are indicating that Haas is pushing back its entry until 2016. Part of the decision reportedly comes down to a delay in setting up its European base of operations. Haas is apparently committed to basing his team in the United States – specifically at his expanding NASCAR operation in Kannapolis, North Carolina – but needs a secondary European base to use in between the European races that still account for the lion's share of grands prix on the schedule. That facility was originally earmarked for Milan, Italy, but after tax considerations ruled that out, Haas is looking at alternatives that will likely see the team set up shop in the UK, where eight out of the eleven teams currently on the grid are based.
Assuming Haas is ready to join the grid by 2016, it's looking increasingly likely that the Romanian entry that was also seeking approval from the FIA will also get in on the action. That would be the operation being jointly established by Colin Kolles and Ion Bazac. Kolles formerly ran the Midland/Spyker/Force India team and was then put in charge of HRT, and has been focusing lately on getting the Lotus LMP1 project onto the WEC grid. Bazac, meanwhile, was once health minister in the Romanian government and now runs the country's Ferrari importer, Forza Rossa. Rumor has it that the team could use that name and Ferrari engines in an arrangement that might not be far off from Luigi Chinetti's North American Racing Team that campaigned Ferraris in sports car racing on both sides of the Atlantic as Maranello's de facto proxy team.
06-09-14, 06:34 PM
#120
Race Recap: 2014 Canadian Grand Prix
Gallery:
http://www.autoblog.com/photos/2014-...photo-2691041/
Momentum. That was the word of the weekend at the last race in Monaco – Nico Rosberg retaking it, Williams getting reacquainted with it and Marussia tasting it for the first time, among other examples. That same, weighted term flew to Canada with the money circus known as Formula One, took all weekend to build and then walloped the front end of the field and the season on Sunday afternoon.
Rosberg carried his Monaco triumph into qualifying, putting his Mercedes AMG Petronas on pole ahead of teammate and reconciled friend Lewis Hamilton. Reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel finally got the better of Daniel Ricciardo, lining up for Infiniti Red Bull Racing in third ahead of his teammate in sixth, split up by Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa in the Williams. Ferrari, having brought numerous aero updates for this race, didn't get the push it was really looking for, Fernando Alonso happy to get seventh ahead of Kimi Räikkönen, still troubled by his F14T, in tenth. Jean-Eric Vergne secured eighth for Toro Rosso, Jenson Button lining up ninth for a still-struggling McLaren.
When the lights went out, Mercedes, Williams and Marussia would all find out how quickly momentum can short circuit or disappear in a sparkly ball of high-speed contact, spilled fluids and tire barriers.
When the lights went green, Hamilton got a brilliant start, pulling alongside Rosberg into Turn 1, but Rosberg still had the line. The German held the inside and used the whole track for the exit, sending Hamilton into the runoff area, which allowed Vettel to steal second place ahead of the Brit.
The racing only last four corners, though, because Max Chilton lost his Marussia going through the right-handed Turn 4, his back end swinging across the track and clouting the car of teammate and Monaco hero Jules Bianchi as they headed into the dogleg left of Turn 5. Bianchi ended up in the wall with a car broken beyond the apparent speed they were carrying through two hard turns. Chilton had to retire as well for the first time in his 26-race career.
The crash location and oil on the track brought out the safety car for seven laps. When it returned to the pits and racing resumed, the scene was familiar: the two Mercedes' in front, the rest fighting for third and beyond. That scrap got interesting when Force India driver Sergio Perez, who qualified 13th, stayed out on a one-stop strategy and ended up in third, followed by teammate Nico Hülkenberg who had qualified 11th. They led a train, keeping the quicker cars of Vettel, Bottas and Ricciardo falling further behind the Mercedes duo, while up front, Hamilton closed in on Rosberg.
Other than a few passes like Vettel and Bottas getting around Hülkenberg and Massa passing Alonso, the middle stint stayed pretty quiet until just before the second round of pit stops. On Lap 37, Hamilton radioed to say he had no power, and the pit wall confirmed that Rosberg had the same problem. The MGU-K unit, the regenerative braking system for the back brakes that helps slow the car and also provides an energy boost, had gone kaput on both Mercedes. That dropped their top speed down the back straight by 20 miles per hour. They'd built up a huge gap by this point, but the cars behind started reeling them in to the tune of up to three seconds per lap. When Rosberg ducked into the pits on Lap 44, Massa took the lead, putting a non-Mercedes car at the front of a race for the first time all season.
The two Mercs still scrapped it out, Hamilton shadowing Rosberg and trying to get around him at the hairpin on Lap 45, running wide and taking the escape road, then losing his rear brakes entirely and limping around the track back to the pits. The theory was that his brakes overheated because of all the extra work they had to do minus the MGU-K system, and being in hot air behind Rosberg for so long. It's Hamilton's second DNF of the season, after a six-cent washer took him out of the first race in Australia.
Rosberg took the lead again after Massa pitted on Lap 48, but only had a 3.8-second advantage and 22 laps to try and defend it with an ailing car. The order on Lap 52 was Rosberg, the one-stopping Perez, Ricciardo – who emerged from his pit stop just ahead of teammate Vettel, Hülkenberg, Bottas and Massa.
Williams went back to its team orders cookbook, but the right way this time, and told Bottas to move aside for the quicker Massa. The Brazilian shot past the Finn, then quickly scalped Hülkenberg, then chased down the lead four. He tailed Vettel for a number of laps but couldn't get past the German, for some reason letting his best chance go when he didn't open his DRS down the back straight on Lap 66 after Vettel had made a mistake through the hairpin.
Meanwhile, Perez began dropping back with brake problems of his own, letting Ricciardo get by, after which Ricciardo ate into Rosberg's lead by up to half a second per lap. With just two laps to go, Ricciardo snuck up to Rosberg through the final chicane, lined up him into Turn 1 and made the pass to take the lead.
On Lap 69, Perez ran wide and that let Vettel get by, then Massa rocked up on Perez' gearbox down the front straight on the last lap of the race as the two headed for Turn 1 at almost 190 miles per hour. Massa slotted left to take the inside line, then Perez moved left as he hit the brakes and Massa plowed into him, sending both cars sliding around Vettel and hard into the tire barriers. It wasn't exactly clear what went down from the ground shots, but the helicopter footage shows Perez moving over in the braking zone. The stewards blamed him for the crash and assessed a five-spot grid penalty for the next race in Austria.
The full-course yellow gave Ricciardo a chance to savor his victory as he drove the final lap. The Aussie, who's been a sensation all year, took his first win ever, ahead of Rosberg, Vettel, Button, Hülkenberg, Alonso, Bottas, Vergne, McLaren's Kevin Magnussen, and Räikkönen.
Rosberg's 18-point haul for second place put him even further in front of Lewis Hamilton, 140 points to 118. Ricciardo's win gets him up to third place with 79 points, followed by Alonso with 69 and Vettel with 60.
Mercedes' standings in the Constructor's Championship barely took a hit, the Silver Arrows on 238 points compared to Infiniti Red Bull Racing with 139. The next four teams, Ferrari, Force India, McLaren and Williams, however, are only 29 points apart. Force India and Williams are probably the two most disappointed about that chart right now: whether or not Massa had made the pass on Perez, as long as they both finished in either fourth or fifth, Force India would be ahead of Ferrari and Williams would be ahead of McLaren. Lacking the development budgets of the big boys, those smaller teams know they can't let any opportunity get away.
We'll find out what momentum has planned for its next act at the Red Bull Ring in Austria on June 22, where Rosberg and Hamilton will be racing for the win and Niki Lauda's honor.