After suffering serious head injuries due to a rogue spring that came off of fellow Brazilian Rubens Barichello’s Brawn GP racecar during qualifying, it appears that Felipe Massa will be back in time for the most important race on Ferrari’s calendar, September 13, the Italian Grand Prix. Back at the Hungaroring, Massa suffered a fracture at the base of his skull and was immediately airlifted to a nearby hospital to undergo surgery and then put into an induced coma in order to speed up the healing process, and it looks like it worked.
This news comes right after the Maestro, Michael Schumacher announced that he will not be stepping back behind the wheel. This report has not yet been confirmed by the Scuderia, but team members have said that Massa is making remarkable progress with his recovery and should he make a return in Italy. Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali visited the Brazilian last week: "Felipe is in excellent form and his recovery is going very well!... I’m very happy about Felipe’s state,... The medical checks which have been carried out over the last two weeks continue to be very encouraging...Now it’s important to be patient and take one step at a time, without any hurry."
If Massa does return, Formula One’s governing body would require him to undergo a full examination by the sport’s doctors before he can compete at speed once again. Ferrari’s test driver Luca Badoer will stand in for Massa in next weekend’s European Grand Prix at Valencia after the sad news from the Maestro being forced to cancel his comeback due to the lingering neck injury.
Hold on to your horses; Michael Schumacher’s return to Formula One is still not set in stone – at least not yet.
While the entire sporting world is waiting in breathless anticipation for the 7-time World Champion’s return to Formula One, there’s one thing that could potentially derail all of that: Schumi’s neck.
Not a lot of people know that before the German decided to fill the seat vacated by the injured Felipe Massa, he sustained an injured neck while testing a German Superbike last February.
As a result of the accident, Schumacher had to be hospitalized for a few days and it was more than three months later before he saddled back up on a racing bike. While it seems like the injury occurred ages ago, Schumacher still has to get clearance from a group of doctors that will perform a series of intense training and medical checks.
Troy Corser left his S1000RR Superbike in favor of Nick Heidfeld’s F1 car, for a test run on the Nürburgring track. The swap was found interesting by both BMW pilots, but we understand that Corser had a 500bhp advantage, which is nothing to be neglected.
Although the BMW Sauber F1 car puts down 700bhp and the BMW S1000RR Superbike disposes of 200bhp, the bike is still the one catching the most of our attention simply because Superbike racing is much more spectacular than F1 racing.
See the video and what the pilots have to say about this interesting swap after the break.
Formula 1 drivers live a fast paced life filled with exotic race cars beautiful women and the finest luxuries, especially in Monaco. So it is very surprising to hear that a model was causing such a distraction for the men behind the wheel at this year’s Grand Prix, but maybe you would too if you were coming out of the slowest corner in F1 only to look up and see the face of an angel staring back at you with a five foot wide smile. The race’s winner, Jensen Button, said that "every time you passed her, it was as though she was looking right at you."
It was the San Francisco native, and face of Martini’s advertising campaign, Jessiqa Pace, whose image was strung up in the air just after the Lowes hairpin, promoting the Italian winemaker’s iconic vermouth. Last year’s champion Lewis Hamilton had an incident around the banner during the Saturday qualifying session that left the mechanics rebuilding the Mercedes chassis all night and the youngest F1 Champion of all time starting from the back of the grid on Sunday.
Pace happened to be in Monaco for the race weekend, and when she learned of the unfortunate incident told reporters that "obviously it’s very flattering that I’m distracting the drivers so much, but I’d feel terrible if someone got hurt." This just goes to show, the 2009 Formula 1 season has turned the sport on its head. First Button starts winning races for Brawn GP the major manufacturers can’t find the podium and now beautiful women will have to be removed from the racetrack. At least Ferrari showed they has a little more pep in their step, coming in third and fourth at the grand prix.
You would think that an oil company would be all for gas-guzzlers and oil burners, vehicles that would keep the cash flowing and allow those companies to maximize profits. However there is one member of the crude retailing community that is more focused on getting the most out of every drop, as opposed to selling every last one.
The Hague based operation, Shell Oil, is committed to making the most out of the limited fossil fuel, that is why they have partnered with the Scuderia Ferrari in order to push the boundaries of both performance and efficiency. The pair work together to develop fuels that burn more proficiently on the racetrack and lubricants that allow the rotating parts of the highly sophisticated Formula 1 car to move with less friction and be less of a (parasitic) drag on the machine, allowing it t to be even more fuel efficient.
Shell’s efforts at conservation are not limited to the F1 circuit.
The oil company is also the title sponsor for the Shell Eco-Marathon, a competition whose record holders have achieved the equivalent of over 7800 MPG from their fuel-efficient forward thinking machine. The Shell Eco-Marathon is held in various locations around the globe, and invites students to design, build, and test their unique vehicles, all with the same goal, use the least amount of fuel to travel the farthest distance possible. The student design teams develop vehicles that run on conventional fuels like gasoline, ethanol and diesel, as well as futuristic concepts like solar power, hydrogen and other bio-fuels.
If you are a fan of Formula 1 and you desperately want a car of your own and can’t afford to achieve one, there always a solution: you can go, buy some Lego pieces and try to build your own Ferrari Formula 1 car. You can get inspired by the car shown in the photos which was build using 80,000 Lego pieces! Of course it will take some time…ok, it will take a long, long time until you assembly it but one thing is for sure, the car you will build can be driven. Don’t think now you can drive it at speeds over 200 mph, no! But you can drive it using your friends in order to push you, and reach an “astonishing” 1 or 2 mph!
Phil Hill, the only US-born driver to ever win the Formula One title, has passed away at 81 years of age. Hill died at Community Hospital in Monterey, California, on Thursday from complications of Parkinson’s disease. Hill won the 1961 Formula One title for Ferrari, as well as the first American to win the 24-hour at Le Mans—a three time winner in all. He also won the Sebring 12-hour race three times. “I had an amazing amount of luck to race for 22 years and not a drop of blood or a broken bone,” Hill once said. “Maybe I wasn’t trying hard enough.”
“Phil was a very special guy and had a love for the automotive age,” said Dan Gurney, a teammate with Ferrari. “He was always a potential winner when he sat in a race car. He was both a competitor and a close friend and a fellow I could look up to.”
The major benefit of KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) is it can produce more electricity than other regenerative braking techniques. That also seems to be a major drawback for a crew member who got zapped when an F1 car went into the pits. Maybe BMW should wait until the system is perfected before it starts putting it into production cars, eh?
Pressure on Max Mosley to resign as president of the FIA mounted during the week-end, building on the decision by the royal prince of Bahrain, Shaikh Salman Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, earlier in the week to uninvited Mosley from this week-end’s Formula One race in that country.
Three time world champion and Formula One elder, Sir Jackie Stewart - pictured here - told the press in Bahrain (where he is a guest of the crown prince) that it was time for Mosley to go.
Referring to the crown prince’s actions, Stewart said: "I think that policy will be picked up, whether it is in Spain, where King Juan Carlos will almost certainly be in attendance at their grand prix in two weeks’ time, or in other countries on other continents where the culture, religion or moral standing would not allow Mosley’s presence.
His position is clearly untenable. He has to step down."
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