Formula One, abbreviated to F1 and also known as Grand Prix racing, is the highest class of single-seat open-wheel formula auto racing. It consists of a series of races, known as Grands Prix, held on purpose-built circuits or closed city streets, whose results determine two annual World Championships, one for drivers and one for constructors. The cars race at speeds often in excess of 300 km/h (185 mph) with engines that produce, as of 2005, around 950 bhp at just over 19000 rpm.
McLaren’s Jenson Button feels like his title hopes are all but gone, after he finished 12th in the Korean Grand Prix.
Button is now 42 points behind the leader, Fernando Alonso, with only 50 points still on the table. Despite this, Button has vowed to keep fighting, despite his belief that everyone will need to have failures in order to get back into title contention.
His teammate, Lewis Hamilton, remains confident in his chances and feels that the new updates that are going for his car will help McLaren remain competitive with the Ferrari and Red Bull machines.
"We can still do this," said Hamilton to the BBC. "We have some stuff coming on the car which should enable us to fight with Red Bull in Brazil and Abu Dhabi."
Hamilton is currently 21 points behind Alonso, but drivers now get 25 points for winning a race. If Hamilton can take the last two races, he might have a great shot at taking his second career championship.
Mark Webber ran a simulation drive of the Korean Grand Prix about a week ago. Now, it’s his teammate’s turn to give us a closer look at the track that’s hosting its inaugural grand prix this weekend.
In the latest of a season-long simulator drive previewing the next Formula One round, Sebastian Vettel takes us for a ride the newly-built track. There’s not much driver experience in this racetrack compared to a lot of other circuits in the world so you can expect a slobber-knocker of a race this weekend.
And given the stakes involved in the race, you can expect that all the front-runners, including teammates Webber and Vettel, to be at their absolute best come race time, which means that you better expect fireworks to happen at the Korean Grand Prix.
You wouldn’t expect anything less for the closest finish in Formula One since that dramatic 2007 season.
Fans of Volkswagen that are excitedly waiting for the decision on whether the company will enter the world of Formula One may not have to wait too long for that decision to come.
According to Motorsport, the German auto conglomerate has set a meeting for November to discuss the possibility of the brand to stamp its ticket to Formula One in the future.
The November meeting was revealed by no less than Hans-Joachim Stuck, a former racer that now serves as a motor sport representative for Volkswagen.
The rumors surrounding Volkswagen’s entry into Formula One have been attributed to changes in engine regulations that will be enforced in 2013. In the event that new regulations are implemented to make the competitive playing field a little more drawn out, Volkswagen or any of its subsidiary auto companies –Audi and Porsche come to mind – could be finding its way into the Formula One grid by then.
Whatever happens during this meeting in November – it’s widely assumed that Volkswagen will have a serious discussion regarding Formula One in this meeting – this developing news should bode well for fans of VW that have waited ages for their favorite brand to go wheel-to-wheel with some of the finest automakers in the planet in the wild and crazy world of Formula One.
Formula One and high-end timepieces share a long history of collaborations, so it wasn’t really groundbreaking news when we found out that Audemars Piguet, a brand that has had its share of Formula endorsers including Rubens Barrichello, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Jarno Trulli, had teamed up with Formula One once again.
This time around, Audemars Piguet has decided to build an exclusive watch for one of its endorsers, the Italian Trulli. Although not exactly a world champion, Trulli is one of those old F1 veterans that teams can rely on to get positive results. Sure, this year hasn’t exactly been cupcakes for the Italian as he has yet to score a single championship point for Lotus Racing, but still, the veteran has proven in his career that if you give him a competitive car, he’ll give you the points.
Despite his rather sub-par year, Audemars Piguet nevertheless saw that it was a good time to honor Trulli with his own timepiece called the Royal Oak Offshore Jarno Trulli Chronograph. Made from a forged carbon-fiber case, the watch comes with some pretty expensive materials including titanium fixtures, a ceramic bezel, and a 22-carat gold oscillating weight covered in anthracite. In addition to these parts, the timepiece also boasts of a 59-jewel automatic movement with over 365 individual parts synchronized to work together in intricate detail.
No word yet on how much the watch is going to cost, but we do know that it’s going to be released in a limited quantity: only 500 units of this watch will be made.
Have you ever imagined a car that defied any form of technical rules? A car that, if seriously made, would annihilate any other four-wheeled vehicle on the planet?
For one reason or another, the real world isn’t ready for such a car. But in the world of Gran Turismo 5 where anything and everything is possible, you just might find that unicorn of a car that only resides in your dreams.
This is the Red Bull X1 Prototype, the brainchild of legendary race car designer Adrian Newey. Looking like a crossbreed between a Formula One car and an LMP1 racer, the X1 Prototype is powered by a gas turbine that produces a staggering 1,483 horsepower and 527 lb/ft of torque. Wrap your heads around those numbers for a second.
Done?
Just to illustrate how unbelievable the X1 Prototype is, Red Bull F1 driver Sebastian Vettel gave it a simulated run around the Suzuka race circuit and the super beast of a car clocked in a time of 1:11.540, over 20 seconds faster than Vettel’s time on board a Red Bull F1 race car during the 2009 Japanese GP.
20 seconds faster than a Formula One race car. 20 seconds.
This is the Red Bull X1 Prototype, folks. And as much as we’d like to see this car come to life, we’re afraid that we’re all not ready for it so it’s probably for the best that we can only get our hands on it in GT5.
