2253 replies to this topic

[DrDickAction]

It is also hard to define testing. What if Ferrari said no data would be logged during the 'practice' sessions and Schumacher was only driving the car. Hardly see that as any benefit or within the definition of testing.

Or if they couldn't use any new aero pieces...only ones used in previous races.

[vietlol]

Speaking out on his ideas for the Belgian Grand Prix at the historic venue of Spa-Francorchamps, Ecclestone said: "We would alternatively race at Spa-Francorchamps and Nürburgring. The two are practically neighbours."

At the moment, Nürburgring and Hockenheimring split the organisation for the German Grand Prix. However, Ecclestone wants to shift this procedure to Spa-Francorchamps and Nürburgring as he wants Hockenheim to get a more prominent spot on the F1 calendar.

In the interview Ecclestone speaks about his future plans for F1. He announced the return of the Canadian GP on the calendar in 2010, but stated that for now there will be no new American race. The Briton also said that from 2011 India will have a GP and that he has Korea on his wish list. Russia however does not have to count on a race any day soon.

http://www.f1technic...d06ec5416688910


what the fuck get out of here

[Shi]

How about stop going to places in the middle of the desert

[_R_]

Michael Schumacher's return to Formula 1 in Valencia later this month remains subject to a medical clearance after his spokeswoman Sabine Kehm revealed that concerns linger over the strength of his neck.

The seven-time world champion was injured in a motorcycle testing accident earlier this year, and Kehm admitted that until he had been given the all-clear there was still a possibility that he may not race in the European Grand Prix on August 23.

"It is not sure yet the neck will hold and the comeback can be started," Kehm said on Wednesday.

"It depends on medical investigations. Only after those will it be clear whether he will be able to drive."

Schumacher has already spent a day testing a two-year-old F2007 Ferrari F1 car at Mugello, using GP2 slicks, and claims to have lost 3kg in training as he prepares to stand in for the injured Felipe Massa in Spain.

The 40-year-old continued his build up today by going karting with Ferrari's regular test driver Luca Badoer.

"Karting has a very good training effect, that is why today I just jumped into a testing day of the Tony Kart Team in Lonato," he told his website. "There is nothing better for my preparations at the moment - in terms of steering wheel forces for example Karting is even more difficult than F1.

"And the fact that it has been boiling hot here is simulating the temparatures expected for Valencia. Luca is with me, and together we found again today that karting is just an awful lot of fun."

Kehm added that it was always going to be the case that Schumacher would only race if he was deemed fit enough to do so: "From the very beginning it was made clear Michael would require medical checks. It is normal.

"Michael is fully geared up, and fully on it. He has been for a week now. But he is a human being, and we have to make sure everything is fine."

I wonder if Shumi doesn't make it back who would drive...
and karting to get ready for F1

[MrHahn]

http://www.f1technic...d06ec5416688910


what the fuck get out of here

FAAARRRKK!!

They've let go of Spa before and everyone told him how gay it was. Don't gay it up again.


Also bring back old Hockenheim you poof

[mads]

YouTube Founder Chad Hurley Invests In U.S. Formula 1 Racing Team
91 Comments
by Michael Arrington on August 6, 2009

Yesterday I had an informal meeting with Best Buy executives at the Fuse Capital offices in Palo Alto (Fuse is running a new Best Buy venture fund) to discuss the CrunchPad. Best Buy and Fuze have been big supporters of the project, and we had a good discussion of our plans going forward.

I also ran into YouTube founder Chad Hurley at the Fuze offices, who was meeting with the Best Buy team along with the execs from the new U.S. Formula 1 Racing team USGPE (previously US F1).

Hurley is “the big investor” in USGPE said Best Buy Chief Marketing Officer Barry Judge, and it looks like Best Buy is also looking for ways to get involved in the project. There are also rumors that YouTube will sponsor the car.

USPGE, which was founded by Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor, has 20 employees, is slated to make its Grand Prix debut in 2010. The car is being produced in Charlotte, North Carolina and may be finished by October 2009.

[Dr. Jimmmah!]

YouTube Founder Chad Hurley Invests In U.S. Formula 1 Racing Team
91 Comments
by Michael Arrington on August 6, 2009

Yesterday I had an informal meeting with Best Buy executives at the Fuse Capital offices in Palo Alto (Fuse is running a new Best Buy venture fund) to discuss the CrunchPad. Best Buy and Fuze have been big supporters of the project, and we had a good discussion of our plans going forward.

I also ran into YouTube founder Chad Hurley at the Fuze offices, who was meeting with the Best Buy team along with the execs from the new U.S. Formula 1 Racing team USGPE (previously US F1).

Hurley is “the big investor” in USGPE said Best Buy Chief Marketing Officer Barry Judge, and it looks like Best Buy is also looking for ways to get involved in the project. There are also rumors that YouTube will sponsor the car.

USPGE, which was founded by Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor, has 20 employees, is slated to make its Grand Prix debut in 2010. The car is being produced in Charlotte, North Carolina and may be finished by October 2009.

Maybe we'll get some F1 vids on youtube that don't get taken down by FOM for a change

[DrDickAction]

hell yes...

[_R_]

i forgot where i read it, but it was a while ago, something about google or youtube wanting to sponsor BrawnGP? I think i read that rumor way back in the beginning of the season when Brawn was dominating... i guess with the new teams coming in, they can be a title sponsor for cheap...

[MrHahn]

Maybe we'll get some F1 vids on youtube that don't get taken down by FOM for a change

[Redliner]

I gotta admit - I'm liking what I see with USF1 First YouBoob and now NOT taking pay drivers? new underdog to cheer for. hopefully they'll have talent that I like too...

US F1 has turned down the opportunity to sign lucrative deals with pay-drivers for its Formula One championship debut next year.
"We've been offered well over three quarters of our racing budget by two drivers already, neither of whom have raced in Formula One but both have won races in GP2," said the American team's co-principal Peter Windsor.

"Both of them have massive sponsorship they can bring us from their home country," Windsor, also revealing that neither of the pay-drivers are American, said in an interview with Sports Illustrated. He said the pay-drivers were turned down.

"Ken (Anderson) and I have got to be very strong, look one another in the eye and say, 'no, we're not gong to accept that money, we're not going to hire those guys because we're going to remain true to our convictions'," said Windsor.

Windsor said it is US F1's aim to give both cockpits to young American hopefuls. In 2010, however, one of the seats could go to an experienced non-American veteran, for instance Austrian Alex Wurz.

Mentioned by the specialist press as among the favourites for the second seat are Americans including Jonathan Summerton, Graham Rahal and Ryan Hunter-Reay.



Another oft-mentioned candidate is the female IndyCar star Danica Patrick, but she recently played down her interest and revealed that US F1 has not made an approach.

"A lot of people are saying to us 'are you interested in Danica?' and my reply is in some respects, Danica is too big for us now. She'll probably go to NASCAR and she'll probably do very well there and she'll probably make a fortune," said Windsor.

"For her to do Formula One, it's a huge commitment at this stage of her career and her expectation level would be very high. We're not going to be fighting for the world championship in year one," he said.

Windsor also revealed that US F1 has signed the new Concorde Agreement.

[DrDickAction]

Starting to sound all but official:

Santander, Alonso and Ferrari


One of the enduring rumours of recent months has been that Fernando Alonso will move to Ferrari next year with sponsorship coming from the Spanish financial services company Grupo Santander. It is expected that there will be an official announcement of the deal at the Italian Grand Prix in September. The intention was for Alonso to come in to Ferrari and partner Felipe Massa and this may still happen, depending on the fitness of the Brazilian. Kimi Raikkonen seems to be out of the picture. The fact that Ferrari is willing to allow one of its major assets to take part in a World Rally Championship event - from which he exited rolling twice into a forest - suggests that the team is not really bothered about him in the future. One cannot imagine any major F1 team allowing such a thing these days given the investmentthat has to be made in the drivers.

Alonso wants only to race a truly competitive car. After two World Championships at Renault he moved to McLaren hoping for great things. Santander joined him. The deal was for three years with an option to extend two more. This was a good move at the time as the Spanish bank could use Lewis Hamilton to promote the rebranding of its British subsidiaries while Alonso could be used for promotions in the Spanish-speaking world. The troubles at McLaren in 2007 led to the early departure of Fernando and caused Santander to have a rethink about the sponsorship. It was agreed that the bank would stay for the three years as agreed, but would not take up its option for 2010 and 2011.

Alonso wanted to go to Ferrari in 2008 but the team had no space for him so he settled for Renault, unconvinced by the other options available. It is believed that Alonso signed a pre-contract with Ferrari at the end of last year to join the team in 2010. Ferrari then turned around and used this to bid for the Santander money. Ferrari's problem was that Santander wanted primary sponsorship but could not have it because Ferrari had previously agreed a deal with tobacco company Philip Morris International (PMI), the owners of the Marlboro brand, to continue until the end of 2011. Originally PMI had wanted to stop funding Ferrari at the end of this year, despite a deal that ran to 2011. PMI has long owned the entire sponsorship space on the Ferrari and sells it on to other sponsors, at a premium of around 30% on top of the price it paid. In order to keep the Marlboro money Ferrari promised to significantly increase the money that PMI made from the sponsorship. Santander was keen to join the party with Alonso and so a deal was agreed that will begin in 2010 and will provide Santander with significant badging on the car and an option to become title sponsor in 2011, PMI with a much better return on its investment, Alonso with the hope that he might be able to win another World Championship while Ferrari has the budget it needs - a win-win situation for all concerned.

http://www.grandprix...ns/ns21709.html

[mads]

this was known over a year ago

[DrDickAction]

this was known over a year ago

I guess I didn't realize the Santander sponsorship lined up so conveniently.

[_R_]

Repsol, MoviStar, Santandar, Telefonica... they're always happy to toss money behind a spaniard...

[chiuey]

Repsol, MoviStar, Santandar, Telefonica... they're always happy to toss money behind a spaniard...

I remember when telefonica was the title sponsor to minardi when alonso was there, their livery was ugly as sin

[_R_]

Among the first transporters to arrive in Valencia ahead of the European Grand Prix are the ones belonging to Renault.

The Spanish newspaper AS is carrying photos of the white and yellow trucks being parked behind the pits of the nearby Ricardo Tormo permanent circuit, while the urban layout about a half-hour's drive away is completed.

Renault's appeal against its suspension from the European Grand Prix will be heard in Paris next Monday, with the decision to be announced the following afternoon.

The UK-based team must therefore prepare as per usual for Valencia, because if the ban is overturned on August 18, there would not then be time to dispatch the trucks and cars to Spain.

these guys are 2 weeks early for a race they might not participate in...
jesus

[_R_]

The F1 helmet manufacturer Schuberth has reacted to the injury sustained by Felipe Massa with a revised model.

Michael Schumacher will debut the updated version, revealed in the pages of the German newspaper Bild, when he makes his return to Formula One at the forthcoming European Grand Prix.

Although Massa's carbon fibre Schuberth withstood the force of the 800 gram steel spring that struck at more than 265kph, the left visor mounting was knocked off.

Bild reports that Schuberth has reacted by adding a titanium disc to the mounting point.

"Felipe's visor only came off when the doctors pulled on it," said Oliver Schimpf, "but we have inserted a titanium disc at the transition from the visor to the helmet where previously there was only plastic.

"It is a reaction to the accident," he confirmed, explaining that the mounting is now twice as strong.

Bild said Schumacher's Schuberth RF1, with a slightly modified livery for his F1 comeback, costs €12,000.

$12K for a helmet, and I complain about spending a couple hundred...
also, adding titanium only makes the mounting point twice as strong? that's some seriously strong plastic

[yonson]

$12K for a helmet, and I complain about spending a couple hundred...
also, adding titanium only makes the mounting point twice as strong? that's some seriously strong plastic

uhhh no, that's 12,000 EURO which is 16,937.42 in USD...

[kngrsll]

along the lines of the previous article, no mention of kimi... the highest paid athlete per year on the planet

[_R_]

uhhh no, that's 12,000 EURO which is 16,937.42 in USD...

that's what I meant
and he probably has a 1/2 dozen of these at every race

[Redliner]

Geezus that's an expensive helmet. The Arai GP-6 RC is "only" £2590.91...

[MrHahn]

Geezus that's an expensive helmet. The Arai GP-6 RC is "only" £2590.91...

You need to remember, Schuey's needs to be custom made to fit his chin.

[vietlol]

Breaking news: Schumi wont be racing, neck injury still bad

[MrHahn]

Yeah so, Valencia is going to be the biggest failfest this side of Bourdais F1 career.

Need a :hugeugh: in here