The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-24 Formula One car wears a set of very special wheels from the Japanese rim manufacturer Enkei. By the very nature of the sport, components must be extremely lightweight and resilient in order to give the teams every competitive edge possible while standing up to spinning at 200 MPH and hitting FIA curbs at triple digit speeds. The wonderful thing about the SEMA show in Las Vegas is that you have a chance to get up close and personal with these types of items, as well as the wide assortment of their everyday offerings. As the Enkei representatives turned their backs, we took the opportunity to lift the wheel from its stand, and because of its size and shape considered playing a game of football with it. The wheel was so surprisingly light, and being significantly wider than it is tall makes for a rare sight to see. To get this kind of contact with a piece of a Formula One race car you would have to risk being shot in the paddock by a mechanic, however in SEMA up close and friendly atmosphere, anything goes.
The Formula One off-season is barely a day old and we already some major news on that front. Bridgestone, F1’s sole tire supplier has decided that 2010 would be its last season in Formula One.
The news was announced by the Bridgestone Corporation in Japan after the tire manufacturer decided not to extend its contract past 2010. Bridgestone has been the exclusive tire supplier of Formula One after its chief rival, Michelin, decided to leave the sport in 2007.
According to Hiroshi Yasukawa, Bridgestone’s chief decision-maker in the company’s motor racing division, the decision to leave Formula One stemmed from Bridgestone’s intention in re-directing its “resources towards the further intensive development of innovative technologies and strategic products".
Loosely translated, the company would rather spend some of its allocated budget for F1 development on other more important endeavors.
Bridgestone’s apparent exit after the 2010 season marks the end of a 13-year partnership with Formula One, which began in 1997 when the Japanese tire company entered the sport to go head-to-head with Goodyear.
As the final curtain of the 2009 season comes down, BMW closes its paddocks one last time and bids goodbye to a sport that it has been an integral part of for a decade.
Despite not winning the World Championship since it re-entered Formula One in 1999, BMW – which returned as the BMW Williams F1 Team - closes the latest chapter in their storied F1 history with a resume that includes ten wins, 17 pole positions, and 45 podium finishes from 2001-2005.
After 2005, the team became BMW Sauber F1 and since then has accumulated over 300 World Championship points, including the team’s first-ever win at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix. This year – the team’s final season in Formula One – BMW Sauber F1 finished a disappointing sixth in the Constructor’s Championship after an off-season that saw the team as one of the upstart challengers to the supposed Ferrari-McLaren tug-of-war.
Now that the season has come to end, BMW’s tenure in Formula One closes along with it. It’s been a great ten-year run, to say the least. And while we won’t be seeing BMW in the pit lanes in the foreseeable future, we’re not closing our doors to the day when BMW makes another comeback in Formula One.
In the F1 world, Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen is also known by a nickname that seems to suit his personality and driving style. Dubbed as the ‘Iceman’ by his peers, Raikkonen’s calculated and unflappable demeanor on and off the track
At this year’s Brazilian Grand Prix, Raikkonen gave new meaning to his nickname, after an overzealous Heiki Kovaleinen drove off his scheduled pitstop prematurely and taking part of the fuel rig with him along for the ride.
With gasoline pouring all over the pitlane, Raikkonen – which was behind Kovaleinen as they were exiting the pits – drove into the fuel and, for a split second, engulfing his Ferrari into a ball of fire. While other drivers would surely have panicked under similar circumstances, Raikkonen merely shrugged off the episode and, as soon as the flames disappeared, went about his merry way back on track.
If that doesn’t define Kimi as one cool customer, we don’t know what will.
Far from the circus that is Formula One, retired-F1 driver David Coulthard recently made the news after he was given a speeding ticket worth over $33,000 for driving a Red Bull F1 car along the streets of India.
Sounds insane, right?
The thing is the whole shindig was part of an F1 demonstration on a closed-off part of a busy road. Apparently, organizers of the event were given strict directives by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation for DC not to exceed the 62 mph speed limit at the Rajiv Ghandi Sea Link. Either DC forgot about the whole arrangement or he was too busy delighting the crowd, but the Scot ended up going 162 mph at the area and, as a result, was unceremoniously flagged for ‘super-duper’ over speeding.
We can’t blame Coulthard for the sudden lapse in judgment. After all, F1 drivers are wired to be faster than fast. But unfortunately, the MSRDC was none too pleased about their warnings going by the wayside.
As a result, the MSRDC will not return the organizer’s deposit of around $30,000 as payment for the super-duper speeding infraction DC incurred.
According to an MSRDC official, "We respect David for helping put the Link on the global map. But he crossed the speed limit and we will have to recover the penalty. We will not return the organisers’ deposit”.
There really aren’t a lot of F1 games available for the iPhone – actually, with the exception of this one, there’s none – so when one becomes available, you take them any way you can get them.
And for just $2, we think the new BMW Sauber F1 game for the iPhone is as good a two-dollar investment as you can find anywhere.
Let’s face it, a lot of people in America aren’t very familiar with Formula One. But it doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy it, even if it comes to us as an iPhone game. The game, by all accounts, caters to a lot of different racing game nuts. Those who want instant gratification can choose to play the quick-race mode in the game while the championship-starved fellows can opt to give the championship mode a shot. There’s also a professional mode, which gives you control of the pit crew and once you’ve gotten deeper into the game, the engineering mode will become available, which, eventually makes you the principal of your team where you will be tasked to make all the decisions for your drivers and cars.
All those talks surrounding Kimi Raikkonen’s move to rally car racing have been extinguished after reports came out that the former World Champion has signed an outline agreement to return to McLaren next year.
Citing ‘paddock sources’, the Mirror was the first to report about Raikkonen’s apparent return to the silver and black after spending three years in Ferrari, including a World Championship in 2007.
Despite being under contract to Ferrari for one more year at around $50 million, whispers are being made that Raikkonen is prepared to vacate his seat in Ferrari if Scuderia will pay him his entire 2010 salary down to the last penny.
In the event that Ferrari does give-in to the Finn’s request, we can all consider it a formality that another former World Champion will replace Kimi at Ferrari for 2010. That ex-champ being Fernando Alonso.
In the event that all of this plays out as anticipated, would we expect nothing less than a return to form from Ferrari and McLaren next year?
At the very least, an Alonso-Massa pairing and a Raikkonen-Hamilton team is pretty much worth watching.
The verdict is out and as can be expected, the World Motor Sport Council wasted little time in banishing deposed Renault Managing Director, Flavio Briatore.
For masterminding the ‘Crash-gate of 2008’, the WMSC banned Briatore indefinitely from the sport, meaning that we probably have seen the last of the stout Italian in any racing league of any format in the world.
In addition to his indefinite ban, the WMSC also noted that anyone who does business with Briatore from now on will not be issued a superlicense, which if you’re curious to know is the license needed to participate in Formula One
Meanwhile, the other implicated individual in ‘Crash-gate’, Pat Symonds – the ex-Renault executive director of engineering – received a ‘shorter’ 5-year ban, thanks in large part to his admittance that he did play a part in the race-fix of Singapore.
In a world where sketchy characters seem to be the rule rather than the exception, we still find it unfathomable how Flavio Briatore can stoop to that level of indignity just so his team can win a race – even at the expense of the safety of all the drivers who raced in Singapore last year.
That being said, a lifetime ban seems reasonably justified.
Felipe Massa is set to make a return to the tracks sometime in December, although it won’t be in a Ferrari F1 car as a lot of people would have hoped. Massa’s first race back from his career-threatening injury at Hungary earlier this year will be in a go-kart.
It’s not exactly the most resounding of comebacks, is it?
Nevertheless, Massa will be making his racing comeback at the Brazilian Granja Viana endurance kart race in his native Brazil. The race, which will be held in Sao Paulo sometime in December, figures to get a huge boost in publicity in the event Massa - one of the country’s most popular race car drivers – does get the ‘go’ signal from his doctors.
In the meantime, the Brazilian continues to recuperate from the crash that almost ended his life but has made it clear that he’s itching to return to racing, saying that “I wish I could be on the track tomorrow because I’m bored."
We’re all rooting for Felipe Massa to have as fast a recovery as possible because we’d love to see him back where he belongs: on a race track.
Whether it’s behind the wheel of a Ferrari F1 car or a go-kart is inconsequential to us; we just want him back to doing what he does best.
Ex-Renault bosses, Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds could end up in bigger trouble than they had anticipated in light of their involvement in staging a deliberate crash at the Singapore GP last year.
The meeting to determine what kind of punishment the pair will receive from the World Motor Sports Council will take place on Monday, September 21, and speculation is wild that the two could be meted lifetime bans from Formula One.
But apparently, that should be the least of their problems.
In the event that the two are found guilty, they could end up being extradited to Singapore where they will be charged with a criminal act of ordering a dangerous stunt to benefit their own fortunes.
Not only that, the Daily Telegraph also said that Briatore and Symonds could be facing lawsuits left and right from a host of other groups affected by their actions, including their former team Renault.
And to add any more salt to this growing wound, Briatore’s other tie-ups outside Formula One, including the football club Queen Park Rangers where he is a co-owner, could also impose some sanctions on the beleaguered ex F1 chief.
According to a source from the league, “The Football League did not comment specifically, but the competition does not allow the involvement of "anyone subject to a ban from the involvement in the administration of a sport by a sport’s governing body".
We’re reserving our judgments here until the WMSC decides on the fate of both Briatore and Symonds but if we’re to base it on how everything has transpired since this news broke out, then we’re not liking the two’s chances of being acquitted of their misdeeds.
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