![]() © Daily Telegraph |
“Here, after all, is a young man, already dubbed ‘Baby Schumi’ by Germany’s tabloid press, winning the first of what will presumably be multiple world championships, and all at the tender age of 23. Plenty of time yet to match Schumacher's incredible haul of seven world titles. And yet, their phenomenal ability to drive racing cars apart, there is little similarity between the two men. “There are still lingering doubts over his racing ability but with such blistering qualifying pace he is nearly always leading from the front anyway. Vettel is set for multiple world championships. Just don’t call him Baby Schumi.”The Guardian’s Paul Weaver says it was difficult to begrudge Vettel his moment of glory after he won the first of what will be many world titles. He also looks back at some of the season’s highlights.
“An amazing Formula One season produced its final twist here on Sunday when Sebastian Vettel, who had never led the title race, won his first world championship. It is difficult to begrudge him his glory, for he had more poles (10) than any other driver and shared the most wins (five) with Fernando Alonso. There will be red faces as well as red cars and overalls at Ferrari, though, for deciding to bring their man in when they did, only to see him re-emerge into heavy traffic. “Among the highlights, and every race felt like a highlight after the bore-start in Bahrain, there was that wonderful beginning to his McLaren career by Jenson Button, who won two of his first four races, even though he couldn't keep up the pace, especially in qualifying. “Hamilton once again drove his heart out, and outperformed a car that looked a little too ordinary at times. He was superb in Montreal. Then there was Webber, the Anglophile Aussie who was the favourite among most neutrals to win the title. There was that spectacular crash when he ran into the back of Heikki Kovalainen and the most famous of his four wins, at Silverstone, when he said to his team at the end of the race: 'Not bad for a No2 driver.' “But in the end there was only one German who mattered. It was the remarkable Vettel. This will be the first of a clutch of championships for him.”The Independent’s David Tremayne focuses on the plight of the other title contenders, writing it is easier to feel more sorry for one than the other.
“It was impossible not to feel for both Webber and Alonso. Yet while a frustrated Alonso gestured at Petrov after the race, the Australian, predictably, refused to complain about his pitstop timing. “A world championship seemed an inevitable part of Sebastian Vettel's future, but it came a little sooner than most expected, after his recent tribulations. You wouldn't bet against several more, and if that record-breaking streak continues, perhaps even Schumacher's achievements will be overshadowed.”And the Mirror’s Byron Young elaborates further on the petulant behaviour of Fernando Alonso on his slowing down lap after his title dreams ended behind the Renault of Vitaly Petrov.
“Fernando Alonso was hurled into more controversy last night for a wild gesture at the former Lada racer who cost him the title. But the Spaniard brushed off accusations he gave Russian Vitaly Petrov the finger for ruining his title hopes by blocking him for 40 laps as they duelled over sixth place. "The Ferrari ace was caught on television cruising alongside the Renault driver on the slowing down lap and gesticulating from the cockpit. Petrov was unrepentant: "What was I supposed to do? Just get out of his way, pull to the side? I don't think that is how we race. It was important for the team for me to get points."
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/11/vettel_set_for_titles_aplenty_1.php
Pedro Diniz Duke Dinsmore Frank Dochnal Jose Dolhem Martin Donnelly
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/01/11/williams-calls-on-olympic-hero-michael-johnson/
Joie Chitwood Bob Christie Johnny Claes David Clapham Jim ClarkÜ

| Chassis | Moulded carbon fibre and aluminium honeycomb composite monocoque, with engine incorporated as a fully-stressed member |
| Suspension (front) | Carbon fibre double wishbone, operating inboard torsion bar and damper units via a pushrod system |
| Suspension (rear) | As front except via a pullrod system |
| Engine | Renault RS27-2011 2,400 cc (146.5 cu in) 90° V8, limited to 18,000 RPM with KERS naturally aspirated mid-mounted |
| Transmission | Seven-speed semi-automatic titanium gearbox with reverse gear "Quickshift" system |
| Weight | 640 kg (1,411 lb) (including driver) |
| Fuel | Total |
| Tyres | Pirelli P Zero |
| OZ Wheels (front and rear): 13" |
"What was formerly the Renault F1 Team and now Lotus Renault GP (I’ll use the term LRGP for this article) have unveiled their new car the R31. It seems some critical details are not fitted to the car for its unveiling, indeed the car was shown only briefly to the press before it was covered back up and returned to the garage. Despite the mystery surrounding the cars exhaust exit location, its clear this is a very new design for the team. In creating this the team were given a mandate to take risks, which probably explains the very different front and rear end treatments."Renault R31 Front Exit Exhausts (FEE) – Explained (Scarbsf1's Blog)
"Renault have found a new solution to the blown diffuser concept. In fact they’ve turned it on its head. With an exhaust that exits at the front of the sidepods.Last years teams reintroduced the blown diffuser concept, either by blowing exhaust gasses over the top of the diffuser, or by creating an opening into the diffuser to blow inside the diffuser. Both solutions created more downforce. With the latter solution now banned, it seemed the less effective over-blown solutions are all that’s left to race."Renault R31 launch picturesJorge Daponte Anthony Davidson Jimmy Davies Colin Davis Jimmy Daywalt
Giulio Cabianca Phil Cade Alex Caffi John CampbellJones Adri·n Campos
Formula 1 always goes a little quiet over Christmas, but one team that has been making waves - both publicly and behind the scenes - are Williams.
The team that dominated F1 for much of the 1980s and 1990s are one of only two outfits still with an obvious vacancy in their driver line-up - the other being back-of-the-grid HRT.
And it seems that Rubens Barrichello, the veteran who has driven for the team for the last two seasons, is back in with a chance of staying with them for 2012.

Rubens Barrichello had been tipped to vacate his Williams seat. Photo: Getty
Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado is staying on in one of the cars after an up-and-down rookie season in 2011 - his position in the team is secure thanks to a multi-million sponsorship deal with his country's national oil company.
But the second seat is still up for grabs, and while Williams are not the attractive proposition they were in their glory days, they are the only decent choice for a whole host of drivers wishing to continue their F1 careers.
These include Barrichello, German Adrian Sutil, Brazilian Bruno Senna, Toro Rosso rejects Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi and Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi.
Sutil, who had an impressive second half of the season for Force India, has been the favourite for some time, but the situation appears to have shifted recently.
My sources tell me that Barrichello, who appeared to be out of the running as his 19th season in F1 drew to a close in November, has come back into the frame and now has a reasonable chance of a Williams drive in 2012.
Barrichello has been arguing for some time that, with the huge ructions going on at Williams through 2011 and over the winter, it would make sense to have a known reference in the drivers.
"With all the changes for next year on the engine side and engineers," he said at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix, "it would be clever from the team to keep the drivers and keep on going. I'm not pushing them, I'm just trying to show them that is the way to do it."
You can see his point. The team are changing engine suppliers, replacing Cosworth with Renault, and have undergone a wholesale restructure of the design department, with a new technical director, head of aerodynamics and head of engineering.
New tech boss Mike Coughlan is admired as being very clever, but his last role as a technical director was with the now-defunct Arrows team, who collapsed in 2002. As chief designer of McLaren after that, he was involved in the spy-gate scandal that engulfed the team in 2007 and for which he was sacked.
The technical changes at Williams were made even more seismic when it emerged on New Year's Eve that not only was co-founder Patrick Head stepping down as director of engineering, he was also resigning his position on the F1 team's board, thereby cutting all his ties with the sport.
It had long been known that Head, one of the most respected engineers in the history of the sport, would no longer have an active role in the day-to-day F1 operation, but it was a surprise to hear he was not going to be on the board of directors.
Head has insisted that his decision to end his day-to-day F1 role was based on feeling his relevance in F1 was diminishing.
In Brazil, he said: "I certainly didn't have an ambition to stop my involvement in Formula One with a season like this last one we've had behind us.
"But when I have a look at what specifically I can do to assist Mike Coughlan and (chief operations officer) Mark Gillan and (head of aerodynamics) Jason Somerville, I came to the conclusion that it isn't really enough to justify me carrying on doing the same thing."
He will still be involved at Williams through their subsidiary company Williams Hybrid Power and remains close to team boss Sir Frank Williams, who will doubtless be turning to him for advice on a regular basis.
All the same, many will consider it unwise that a team in such flux, and with such a grave need to improve, will not have on their board the guidance and wisdom of a man who not only co-founded the company but who was directly responsible for seven drivers' championships and nine constructors' titles.
Why will he not be there? Williams and Head were both unavailable for comment on Monday. I'm told, though, that his difficult relationship with chief executive officer Adam Parr was a part of Head's decision to step down.
Ironically, Head's departure may ease Barrichello's path to a return.
Head is forthright character and I'm told he had grown tired of the Brazilian's complaints about the team's difficulties.
With the 65-year-old no longer involved, that on the face of it is one less barrier to Barrichello being in the car again.
It seems, though, that all the driver hopefuls will have to wait. Williams are in the process of sponsorship negotiations with the Gulf state of Qatar, and they take primacy over a final decision on drivers.
With more than a month until the start of pre-season testing on 7 February, there is plenty of time to sort out drivers. After all, it's not as if Williams are struggling for choice.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/01/barrichello_back_in_williams_f.html
Philippe Adams Walt Ader Kurt Adolff Fred Agabashian Kurt Ahrens Jr
Have just spent some time comparing the Revell and AMT (yeah, I know it's supposedly a '72, but it's the same basic car) bodies with some good photos of real cars.
The wheel openings on the Revell kit have bothered me since this kit was introduced. So much so that I was considering grafting the wheel openings from the AMT body into the Revell body, which would be a buttload of work.
The problem with the Revell wheel openings are that they are straight-flat across the top (or nearly so), and they shouldn't be. The opening shape is curved all the way around. The rears are worse than the fronts, but the fronts have the problem too.
The AMT rear wheel openings are too rounded--the left side especially, the right side is much better and almost correct. The AMT front wheel openings are darn near right on the money.
The Revell body wheel openings look much bigger than the AMT's (front to back), but they're actually almost identical in size to the AMT's.
At this point, I THINK that the easiest/simplest way to get an acceptable appearance (not necessarily 100% accurate) on the wheel openings is to carefully sand a little bit of a curve into the top edge of the opening. It looks like there is just enough "meat" in the flare to accomodate this, and it looks like it won't take much of a change of this contour to effect a notable improvement in appearance.
Elsewhere: The Revell body has a semi-sharp crease or ridge running down the body sides at midline. The AMT's ridge here is much softer and less distinct. The Revell crease might be just a hair too sharp but it's much closer to correct than AMT's.
Then, of course, the whole rear taillight panel of the Revell kit is wrong, sitting vertically as it does instead of having the correct "undercut" or "backslant" as does the AMT body. I was originally thinking of chopping off the whole rear 1/2 inch or so of the AMT body and grafting it onto the Revell body, but the Revell body is so much wider than the AMT that this isn't a good solution to the problem. I'm now looking at seeing if I can just fit the whole AMT rear panel and bumper into the Revell body. This won't be 100% accurate either but will still look much better than the stock Revell parts.
More to come....
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/995916.aspx
Alberto Colombo Erik Comas Franco Comotti George Connor George Constantine