'The point of no confidence is quite near'


The wreckage of Jochen Rindt's car at Barcelona © Getty Images
An excellent insight into the world of F1 as it used to be can be found on the regularly-interesting Letters of Note website. It publishes a hitherto unseen letter from Jochen Rindt to Lotus boss Colin Chapman written shortly after Rindt’s crash at Barcelona which was a result of the wing system on Lotus 49 collapsing at speed.
“Colin. I have been racing F1 for 5 years and I have made one mistake (I rammed Chris Amon in Clermont Ferrand) and I had one accident in Zandvoort due to gear selection failure otherwise I managed to stay out of trouble. This situation changed rapidly since I joined your team. “Honestly your cars are so quick that we would still be competitive with a few extra pounds used to make the weakest parts stronger, on top of that I think you ought to spend some time checking what your different employes are doing, I sure the wishbones on the F2 car would have looked different. Please give my suggestions some thought, I can only drive a car in which I have some confidence, and I feel the point of no confidence is quite near.”
A little more than a year later Rindt's Lotus suffered mechanical breakdown just before braking into one of the corners. He swerved violently to the left and crashed into a poorly-installed barrier, killing him instantly.

Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/09/the_point_of_no_confidence_is.php

Tony Bettenhausen Mike Beuttler Birabongse Bhanubandh Lucien Bianchi Gino Bianco

Toyota Supra W.I.P...

Hey gang.. wanted to step away from muscle cars for a bit after I completed my '79 Camaro. I've always been a big fan of Tamiya kits so I picked this one up from my local hobby shop and started about 3 weeks ago.. haven't had alot of progress since I got my kiddos for the month, but its getting there, lol!

 

Nothing special, just the basic kit, but it does have a engine, which is better then the very basic curbside kits.. I started on the chassis after decided on a color combo.. nothing crazy.. found a nice gloss white that I like, and decided to do some small accents in a lime green, just to be wacky and different.

 

Interior is going to be done in a soft almond.. I am going to kind of model it on the style the cars were in Japan back when I lived there in the late 90's.. basicaly clean, street legal, semi-race type.. weekend drifter I guess we can call it!

I'll keep posting as I get more and more stuff done.. any comments and suggestions are welcome!

Cheers Beer

Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/1020439.aspx

Adri·n Campos John Cannon Eitel Cantoni Bill Cantrell Ivan Capelli

Engine dispute threatens F1 schism

Seven different winners from the first seven grands prix, an intensely competitive and wide-open championship battle, unpredictable races. On the surface, all is well with Formula 1. Behind the scenes, though, there is ferment.

At its heart is the planned introduction in 2014 of new rules, including new, energy-efficient, turbo-charged engines. The debate about whether this is wise or even possible in the current global financial climate has the potential to tear Formula 1 apart.

The new engines are being pushed strongly by governing body the FIA and have the support of the key manufacturers in Formula 1. But there are fears they will be much more expensive than the current 2.4-litre V8s and that the teams - the engine manufacturers' customers to a large degree - will not be able to afford them.

The engines have a powerful enemy - F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has been against them from the start. He describes the arguments behind adopting them - which can be read in detail here - as "PR" and thinks they should be dropped.

He lost the first battle - they were formally adopted last year as part of the 2014 technical regulations, which also feature major chassis changes - but is still fighting to kill them off.

In that context, the recent formation of a group representing the interests of the F1 circuits should be seen as a transparent attempt by Ecclestone to bring more weight to the argument to scrap the engines.

What has developed is a classic impasse.

Bernie Ecclestone is working away behind the scenes to stop the new engines. Photo: Getty

F1 is in theory committed to the new engines. Renault and Mercedes want them to happen, and Ferrari dismiss rumours they would prefer them to be dropped by saying they will happen. Whether independent Cosworth, which supplies lowly Marussia and HRT, will be able to afford to build one is unclear.

But the teams not directly supported by engine manufacturers have not yet been told how much the new engines will cost, and fear it will be much more than the five million euros they currently pay annually.

Meanwhile, Ecclestone is working away behind the scenes to stop them. He has got former Renault team boss Flavio Briatore to come up with a 'GP1' set of rules, which include - among other things - continuing with the current engines.

The threat, clearly, is that he will take the commercial rights holders and the circuits with him (and possibly many of the teams), giving the FIA the choice to drop the engines or lose the substance of its championship.

But if that happened, Renault, for one, would almost certainly drop F1, and so might well Mercedes. So who would supply the engines to the new championship? And it would take a brave team to join any breakaway series.

On the other hand, if the FIA presses ahead and the teams cannot afford the new engines - there are rumours they could be as much as four times the price of the current V8s - where will all the cars come from in the FIA F1 world championship?

As the chief executive of the Sauber team, Monisha Kaltenborn, puts it: "If we go back to the days when engines were so much more expensive, I wonder how many teams could afford that. And F1 with four teams wouldn't be very exciting."

The manufacturers, though, believe dropping the new engines would be a mistake - as would delaying them by a further year (their introduction was already pushed back from 2013 as part of negotiations last year).

For them - and particularly for Mercedes and Renault - the new small-capacity turbos with significant energy recovery systems are in line with the way the road-car business is going. Without them, there would be no justification for a continued involvement in F1.

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn says: "We're committed to a new engine programme, it's progressing, we've been able to justify the budgets to our board and we don't want to see a deferment or a delay in that new engine.

"It sends a very bad message back if Formula 1 keeps changing its direction on things that are so fundamental, which need so much investment to make work. I think the new engine is very exciting."

Brawn adds that the future sustainability of the sport depends on moving with the times.

"We're going to be running around on two-thirds of the fuel that we're running on now with, we think, comparable power outputs," he says.

"We've got to change the engine at some stage. We will become irrelevant with the engine if we don't look to change.

"The world's changing and I think the new engine is a far more relevant engine for F1 for the future.

"If we're going to get new manufacturers into F1, which I think is a good thing, then why will they come in to build an antique V8 engine? They won't.

"They will only come in with this new engine, so we want to attract manufacturers back into F1 and this new engine is very important (in doing that)."

But the sustainability argument has a counter-point, as detailed by Marussia chief executive officer Graeme Lowdon.

"The teams do understand the direction the FIA is going with the new engines and people do generally support it," he says.

"We're happy to see technology go in that direction, but that has to be secondary to the sustainability of the sport."

The backdrop to that statement is that times are tough for all but the very biggest teams in F1. While the top four are all pretty much financially secure, there are concerns to one degree or another for the other eight.

The latest development in the saga came at last weekend's Canadian GP, when Mercedes vice-president of motorsport Norbert Haug said: "It's absolutely clear if you introduce a new engine that it will cost more in the beginning but I think we can achieve comparable spending over a five-year period and that has to be the target."

This was news to most customer teams - but even that might not be enough to end the argument. As Lowdon puts it: "The challenge for most businesses is cash-flow." In other words, many teams don't have the money to pay higher up-front costs, even if they come down later.

Talks are continuing behind the scenes, but as for what the solution to the conundrum might be, Lowdon voices the current situation best: "I have absolutely no idea."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/06/engine_dispute_threatens_f1_sc.html

Jorge Daponte Anthony Davidson Jimmy Davies Colin Davis Jimmy Daywalt

Rosberg answers critics in emphatic style

Nico Rosberg looks every inch the archetypal image of a grand prix driver - blonde, good looking, perfect smile, the lot. And in Shanghai on Sunday, at the 111th attempt, he finally delivered the most important part of the package - the perfect win.

It has been a long time coming.

This is the 26-year-old German's seventh season of F1 and while Lewis Hamilton, who was his team-mate when they were teenage karters 12 years ago, was a winner almost from the start of his Formula 1 career, Rosberg's route to the top step of the podium has been somewhat more torturous.

So torturous, in fact, that there have been times when some wondered whether he would ever follow his father Keke in becoming a race winner.

Nico Rosberg's dominant victory in China ensured he has become the first son of a living grand prix winner to follow in his father's footsteps - and only the third ever. The fathers of Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve were killed when their son were children.

Keke Rosberg also had to wait a long time to stand on the top step of the podium - his first victory came in his fifth season.

Like Nico, that was Keke's first year in a competitive car, and he ended it as world champion. It seems unlikely at this stage that Nico will follow his father in that sense, too, but after such a dominant win it certainly cannot be completely ruled out.

Nico Rosberg led from pole position to score Mercedes' first victory since the 1955 Italian Grand Prix. Photo: Getty

Watching Rosberg's assured driving as he drove away from team-mate Michael Schumacher in the early laps, and then proceeded to control the race, it seems strange to think that there have long been questions about his ultimate standing as a true world-class grand prix driver. But there have, and to some extent they remain still.

There is no doubt about the calibre of Rosberg's win on Sunday, but it remains difficult to be absolutely sure of his ultimate potential.

He is clearly very fast - but just how fast is not completely clear. Likewise, it remains to be seen whether he possesses all the other qualities that make up a great grand prix driver.

So far, for example, he has appeared to be the sort of driver who will deliver to the potential of his car - but not one who is able to transcend it occasionally, in the manner of Hamilton or Fernando Alonso.

In his debut year, he was generally marginally out-paced by Mark Webber, his team-mate at Williams at the time. And for the rest of Rosberg's career there before joining Mercedes in 2010 he was partnered with journeymen drivers and in uncompetitive cars.

Rosberg has dominated his Mercedes team-mate Michael Schumacher in qualifying since then, but it is clear to most that the seven-time champion is not the same driver he was before he retired in 2006 and spent three years on the sidelines. And until Sunday, Schumacher had generally matched Rosberg for race pace since last season.

The improved performance of Mercedes this year will finally give Rosberg the chance to go wheel-to-wheel with the top drivers on a consistent basis for the first time, so a clearer picture may well emerge.

A first win, especially one so impressive, will do wonders for his confidence, although he has never lacked for that.

Rosberg is a highly intelligent man, who was planning on a degree in engineering had he not become a Formula 1 driver. He is an individual character, and can be a prickly interviewee.

It may be that will change now he will no longer be faced with endless questions about whether he believes he can be a winner.

He could not have answered them in more emphatic style.

If Schumacher had thought Rosberg's 0.5 seconds a lap advantage in qualifying was a one-off based on a unique set of circumstances, he was soon disabused of that belief in the race as the younger German sprinted off into the distance, building a five-second lead in the first 10 laps.

That margin was the foundation for his win, but it was not as if Rosberg then spent the rest of the afternoon hanging on in front of faster cars.

After the first pit stops, Jenson Button was up into a de facto second place and in clear air, but Rosberg continued to pull away, although he was on the faster tyre. Button came back at him before the McLaren driver made his second stop, but only marginally.

Had the mechanic fitting Button's left rear tyre not suffered a problem with a cross-threaded wheel nut at his final stop, the Englishman would have rejoined about 14 seconds behind Rosberg with 19 laps to go.

Button's pace on the slower tyre suggests that he would have closed on Rosberg at that stage, but whether it would have been quickly enough is a moot point.

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh admitted: "I think it would have been very difficult to beat him."

Where have a team who have gone backwards in the first two races found that pace from? Both Rosberg and Mercedes sports boss Norbert Haug had a simple explanation - set-up changes allowing better use of the tyres.

They had used them too much in the first race in Australia and not worked them enough in the second in Malaysia. Here in Shanghai they found a middle way.

Behind Rosberg was a fantastic scrap for second place, what Haug described as "one of the best races I have ever seen".

Recounting the story of Red Bull's race from ninth and 14th places on the first lap to fourth and fifth at the flag, team boss Christian Horner said he sounded "like a horse racing commentator".

The championship is clearly going to be very close and it is setting up what look set to be a superb season.

"We've had three very different races," Whitmarsh said, "and I think this is going to be a season where potentially we have 20 very different races.

"It's fascinating, really. I enjoy it and I'm sure people watching it enjoy it. Who's going to predict who's going to win in Bahrain?"

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/04/rosberg_answers_critics_in_emp.html

Adri·n Campos John Cannon Eitel Cantoni Bill Cantrell Ivan Capelli

2002 to 2012: Ten ways F1 has improved in ten years | Comment

2002 to 2012: Ten ways F1 has improved in ten years is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.

Bin those rose-tinted glasses: Ten years ago we had a one-sided championship, dreary races and a shrinking grid. Here's how F1 has improved since then.

2002 to 2012: Ten ways F1 has improved in ten years is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/ks7HdjGXgbc/

Carlo Abate George Abecassis Kenny Acheson Andrea de Adamich Philippe Adams

Karthikeyan Makes Surprise F1 Return With HRT

Narain Karthikeyan has made a surprise return to Formula One after being announced as one of Hispania HRT’s drivers for the 2011 season. The Indian driver was unveiled as the first racer to be working with the Spanish based squad, who look likely to enter into a second season of racing despite on-going financial concerns. [...]

Source: http://f1fanatics.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/karthikeyan-makes-surprise-f1-return-with-hrt/

Michele Alboreto Jean Alesi Jaime Alguersuari Philippe Alliot Cliff Allison