Author Topic: Official Racing Thread (Read 137352 times)

JFC · « **Reply #680 on:** November 12, 2008, 05:49:00 AM »

^
I have to say, I'm on the fence with this one. I can agree with the Ferrari dude's assertions about how the competition in F1 being largely based on the technical advances/progress each team makes and how ridiculous it is to expect teams owned by car companies to allow a different companies product to power their cars.

On the other side of the coin, having a single engine supplier (like how Champ Car had before they merged with the IRL) would help to even the playing field between the teams. No longer would victory be guaranteed by the fact that one team's car can simply power it's way past the others. It would come down more to the aerodynamic design of the chassis of the car, and more importantly, the skills of the individual drivers to be able to use that engine/tranny to it's maximum potential.

RatBastich · « **Reply #681 on:** November 12, 2008, 10:30:11 PM »

Barrichello says he'll either continue racing in F1 or not at all

SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Rubens Barrichello says he'll retire if he fails to find a ride in Formula One next year. The 36-year-old Brazilian driver dismissed the possibility of a move to the Indy Racing League or any other series.

"Either I stay in F1 or I won't race," Barrichello said late Tuesday.

Barrichello has competed in the most grands prix (271) of any Formula One driver. He was with Honda this season, but his contract has not been renewed and the team is testing other drivers. Lucas di Grassi and Bruno Senna, the nephew of three-time world champion Ayrton Senna, are to test next week.

"If they are good they will keep the position," Barrichello said. "But if an empty seat is left, I'll take it."

Hoping to race in his 17th season, Barrichello also has a chance of driving for Toro Rosso.

Barrichello won nine F1 races during six seasons at Ferrari before leaving the Italian team in 2005. This year, his best finish was third at the British Grand Prix.

RatBastich · « **Reply #682 on:** November 13, 2008, 07:20:45 PM »

Judge sets March 2 trial date for Castroneves on tax evasion charges

MIAMI -- Race car driver Helio Castroneves will stand trial in March in Miami federal court on tax evasion charges.

U.S. District Judge Donald Graham on Monday set the March 2 trial date for Castroneves, his sister and a Michigan lawyer. Prosecutors say Castroneves and the others tried to hide $5.5 million in income from the IRS.

Castroneves is a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and gained more fame as the 2007 winner of TV's "Dancing With The Stars" competition. He has pleaded not guilty and is free on $10 million bail.

Monday also marked the first appearance in the case of high-powered Washington lawyer Robert Bennett, who is representing co-defendant Alan Miller. Bennett represented former President Clinton in the Paula Jones scandal.

RatBastich · « **Reply #683 on:** November 14, 2008, 11:58:33 PM »

Castroneves' request to delay tax evasion trial refused by judge

MIAMI -- A federal judge in Miami has rejected requests to delay the tax evasion trial of race car driver Helio Castroneves.

U.S. District Judge Donald Graham on Friday said the March 2 trial date will stand. Lawyers for Castroneves and Penske Racing Inc. had sought a delay until November to ensure he could drive in the 2009 IndyCar Series that runs from April to October.

Castroneves is a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner who also won TV's "Dancing With The Stars" competition in 2007.

He has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy and tax evasion involving about $5.5 million in income stashed in offshore accounts.

His sister and business manager, along with his attorney, also are charged in the case.

Saburo · « **Reply #684 on:** November 15, 2008, 03:00:57 AM »

Joe Posnanski, one of my fave bloggers and now a columnist for SI.com, wrote an interesting profile on Jimmie Johnson, contrasting his rise to the top of NASCAR with two other racing legends.

Interesting how aggressive Jimmie was at making the contacts needed to break into the big time arena.

RatBastich · « **Reply #685 on:** November 18, 2008, 06:46:40 PM »

Ecclestone says proposed system would encourage drivers to go all out

LONDON -- Formula One race winners should receive gold medals next season, with the world championship going to whomever wins the most, F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone said on Tuesday.

"Everybody is happy with the idea, they are all very supportive," Ecclestone told Reuters when asked whether the teams supported his suggestion. "I'm absolutely 100 percent sure it's the right way to go, it'll get them [the drivers] overtaking."

The idea, however, has yet to be presented to the International Automobile Federation (FIA), the world governing body for motor sport, with the next council meeting scheduled for Monaco on Dec. 12.

The Formula One Teams Association (FOTA), representing all 10 teams, also is expected to discuss the plan at its next gathering.

Ecclestone wants to drop the existing points format to make races more exciting and ensure drivers go all out for victory, rather than drive strategically to bank points and secure the title.

McLaren's 23-year-old Lewis Hamilton became the sport's youngest champion by a single point this season after finishing fifth in a nail-biting final race in Brazil this month.

However, Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who won his home race in Brazil, would have been champion under a medals system -- he had six victories, and Hamilton had five.

Under Ecclestone's proposed Olympic-style system, the top three drivers in every grand prix would get gold, silver and bronze medals instead of 10, eight and six points.

Those who finished fourth and below would not get points towards the drivers' championship, but their placings would count for the overall rankings.

Points would still be awarded for the constructors' championship.

reina's eyes · « **Reply #686 on:** November 18, 2008, 07:23:02 PM »

^ What always set f1 apart was how brutal it is. Go off course and get stuck, you're out. For a long time, finishing out of the top six meant no points. When the points were restructured to go down to eighth it was disappointing. Something like this suggestion might have merit.

They also need to deal better with the reality of team orders. How about going the opposite way from now: They have to be totally public, announced over the loudspeakers and posted on the screens around the track? :-)

RatBastich · « **Reply #687 on:** November 18, 2008, 09:50:59 PM »

Three-time champ Johnson tops list of Blount's Blitz Awards and Razzies

A dynasty and domination.

It's a good way to sum up a couple of championship performers in the 2008 season of auto racing.

Jimmie Johnson earned a historic third consecutive Sprint Cup championship, joining NASCAR legend Cale Yarborough as the only men to accomplish the feat.

Now everyone will start asking whether Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus can take the No. 48 Chevrolet team to a fourth straight title in 2009, securing their place as a NASCAR team dynasty for the ages.

JDAckers · « **Reply #688 on:** November 19, 2008, 03:56:47 PM »

Quote from: reina's eyes on November 18, 2008, 07:23:02 PM

^ What always set f1 apart was how brutal it is. Go off course and get stuck, you're out. For a long time, finishing out of the top six meant no points. When the points were restructured to go down to eighth it was disappointing. Something like this suggestion might have merit.

They also need to deal better with the reality of team orders. How about going the opposite way from now: They have to be totally public, announced over the loudspeakers and posted on the screens around the track? :-)

It would be quite interesting to use this format. Although Kubica finished 2nd/3rd in a lot of races, so this format would be bad for him because he would be ranked behind someone that wins one GP. Although he may make an extra effort to go for the win, which would be great.

I definitely agree with the team tactics part, last season, only about 4 teams opened up their radios - I reckon everyone should - it would make it more interested - but then you would know what they are going to do, so you lose the element of surprise (like random pit-stops etc ??

ctz · « **Reply #689 on:** November 20, 2008, 07:15:43 AM »

I don't think any medals are needed to F1 being interesting. This year the championship was decided on the last corner of the last race. I'd rather give more points to winner and forget the medals.

JDAckers · « **Reply #690 on:** November 20, 2008, 03:08:45 PM »

Quote from: ctz on November 20, 2008, 07:15:43 AM

I don't think any medals are needed to F1 being interesting. This year the championship was decided on the last corner of the last race. I'd rather give more points to winner and forget the medals.

Thats true, but that was just the last race. For most of the races this season, nothing happened in the last 25% of the laps. If they were 10seconds behind the leader, (with 10-15 laps to go) they usually accepted 2nd place and saved the engine if they needed to. This could encourage them to go for it??

RatBastich · « **Reply #691 on:** November 20, 2008, 05:07:10 PM »

http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?categoryId=2755879&brand=null&videoId=3700918&n8pe6c=2

JDAckers · « **Reply #692 on:** November 23, 2008, 05:54:21 PM »

Mark Webber broke his leg

I want to know who was driving the car that hit him

JFC · « **Reply #693 on:** November 24, 2008, 09:19:12 PM »

^
At least it happened during the off-season. With any luck he'll have recovered in time to race again.

JFC · « **Reply #694 on:** December 05, 2008, 07:46:38 PM »

You know that the automotive industry is being hit HARD by the recent economic downturn when this happens:

Honda threatens to pull out of Formula One
(Mainichi Japan) December 5, 2008

TENERIFE, Canary Islands (AP) -- Honda will pull out of Formula One unless a new buyer can be found within three months, The Associated Press has learned.

The Japanese car manufacturer has the operating budget to keep the team running into early 2009, but escalating operational costs amid the worldwide financial crisis have the Brackley-based outfit in danger of shutting down if a new sponsor is not found quickly.

Takeo Fukui, CEO of Honda Motors, was due to hold a news conference regarding the F1 team in Tokyo at 1:30 p.m. local time (0430 GMT) Friday. A person familiar with the decision told The AP that team bosses Ross Brawn and Nick Fry informed the near 700-member team late Thursday.

"Their intention is to pull out entirely -- as an engine supplier and sponsor," the Honda team member said on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss it. "It's a shock. I think this came as a total surprise to everyone. No one in the UK was aware of this decision before Thursday night."

Full Article - http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/archive/news/2008/12/05/20081205p2g00m0dm001000c.html

reina's eyes · « **Reply #695 on:** December 05, 2008, 08:37:15 PM »

^ It quickly turned out to be more than a threat.

JFC · « **Reply #696 on:** February 01, 2009, 08:27:38 AM »

New car designs are out for the 2009 season. In the following link most of them can be seen side by side with their 2008 predecessors.

LINK - 2009 F1 cars and 2008 cars compared

Most prominent changes are seen in the front and rear wing designs.

RatBastich · « **Reply #697 on:** February 23, 2009, 04:48:11 AM »

Branson interested, but wants change

Associated Press

LONDON -- Virgin may be ready to take over Formula One team Honda but only if the sport is ready to make major changes, boss Richard Branson said on Saturday.

The British businessman told BBC radio that although he loves Formula One, a lack of environmentally friendly technology and the high running costs could keep Virgin from entering the sport.

"Formula One should be championing new, cleaner technology and if we were to get involved we want to be sure that we could run our cars in a very short period of time on clean fuels, which would set an example to normal cars on the road," Branson said.

Honda pulled out of F1 in December because of the high cost of running the team amid the global economic downturn. It is in negotiations with several potential buyers to sell the team in time for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on March 29, with Virgin reportedly one of the interested parties.

Branson would not confirm whether Virgin had entered into negotiations, but did lay out conditions.

"I think they need to organize Formula One so that the teams can actually make money instead of losing a lot of money, especially the smaller teams," Branson said. "[F1 boss] Bernie Ecclestone recognizes that."

F1 has introduced sweeping regulation and cost-cutting changes for this season and governing body FIA wants to go even further in 2010 by introducing a team budget cap that would not exceed $64 million.

Such measures could appeal to Branson who said the sport needs to be "less cash-hungry going forward" with rule changes necessary "to make it economically viable in these tough times."

The global appeal of the sport would also appeal to Virgin, a worldwide brand involved in telecommunications and travel. Virgin previously sponsored F1 team Jordan in 2002.

"I love F1," Branson said. "One day, you never know, we might see a Virgin car on the circuit."

JFC · « **Reply #698 on:** February 24, 2009, 04:57:12 AM »

^
Just to play devil's advocate, couldn't Branson give us some actual examples of ways he thinks it could improve? Just saying "it should be more environmentally friendly" and what not is nice and all, but yeah...try and be more than just talk. And pulling the "if you do this, this, and this, we might invest" doesn't really make it sound like he's honestly eager to join up.

RatBastich · « **Reply #699 on:** February 24, 2009, 07:32:47 PM »

McLaren-Ferrari spy scandal closes

Associated Press

WOKING, England -- Italian authorities have closed all legal action against McLaren for its part in a spy scandal with Ferrari, McLaren said Monday.

Charges against former McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan and three senior engineers were dropped, but the British team did not say whether it would pay each of the three engineers' $192,000 fine. Coughlan was fined $230,000.

"The proceedings in Italy were merely the officializing of what had been proposed long before, namely the [no contest] agreement," McLaren said. "A line has finally been drawn under this matter."

McLaren was fined a record $100 million by governing body FIA in 2007 and kicked out of the manufacturers' championship after Ferrari mechanic Nigel Stepney leaked a 780-page technical dossier on the Italian team's cars to Coughlan.