Archive for May, 2009
May 30th, 2009 at 04:12am
Under Racing
The FOTA teams have offered to compete in F1 until at least 2012
The news that the nine remaining FOTA-aligned teams (Williams excluded) have submitted applications to contest the 2010 F1 championship ahead of the May 29th deadline has been given a warm reception.
But this is not a white flag from FOTA. They are demanding that their teams can compete “on an identical regulatory basis” in 2010 (i.e. not under a ‘two-tier’ rules system), want a new Concorde (commercial) Agreement signed by June 12th and, most significantly, have not accepted the FIA’s demands on budget capping.
This appears to be an attempt to call Mosley’s bluff and dare him to exclude them from the championship. At the same time a small number of new entrants have publicly confirmed they will enter in 2010. So what will happen next?
Among the teams which have declared they will compete under the FIA rules in 2010 are USF1, Lola, Prodrive (later to become Aston Martin) and Campos. Plus, of course, FOTA renegades Williams.
Other racing outfits previously linked with future F1 entries under the new rules, which have not publicly confirmed their plans for next year, include Racing Engineering, Ray Mallock Limited, Formtech, iSport, Epsilon Euskadi, Litespeed and Nick Wirth’s team.
FOTA’s opposition to the FIA’s proposals and, as much as anything else, its method of governance, gets a lot of symnpathy from me. Here’s how Toyota’s John Howett explains it:
We’re all looking to working collaboratively and proactively with the FIA and to really stop all of this political positioning and focusing on improving the sport. That’s what FOTA is really proven to do this year, with more availability of drivers, trying to improve TV coverage, more telemetry data.
We just want to compete on an even playing field, we are all capable of managing our businesses constructively, we’re all open to discuss on how we can integrate new entrants in a professional and correct way. The one thing that’s always missed is that we need to grow the cake and we need to understand how much of the remainder of the revenue is re-invested in the sport.
There are a lot of rumours at the moment that manufacturer teams such as Toyota and Renault will be forced to give up their F1 teams by their boards as the pressures of the recession continue to mount. FOTA’s offer of a commitment from its teams to participate for the next three seasons (until 2012) appears to undermine those rumours.
Viewed at its most pessimistic, this is a situation where the fault lines between two warring factions have cracked further apart. The likelihood of a destructive split in F1 is arguably greater than ever.
But if Mosley thinks FOTA have gone far enough to meet his demands of a long-term commitment to the sport, an easing of F1’s political tensions is in sight.
Either way, now the ball is in Mosley’s court. What will he do?
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By Mikel
May 29th, 2009 at 04:56pm
Under Computers
Ever since the appearance of consoles, the platform games have been loved by people of any age. Why? The answer is simple: they are easy to play, lots of fun, and, from time to time, they give a little challenge to the player by facing them with terrifying level bosses. One of the best examples in this sense is Donkey Kong, developed by Nintendo in the early 90’s, which pu… (read more)
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By Moris
May 29th, 2009 at 04:56pm
Under Computers
Keeping files and folders organized seems like an impossible mission for most users. There is too little time and too many files to store to be able to categorize them fast and easy. Needless to mention that your work will have a slow start simply because you will first have to find the necessary files to begin with. Having them all in the same place will give you a kick-sta… (read more)
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By Moris
May 29th, 2009 at 04:56pm
Under Motorbikes
MCN editor Marc Potter will be riding with Valentino Rossi when the 8-time world champion does a historic parade lap at the TT next week. Valentino Rossi to ride at TT Naturally Potter wanted to make sure everyone knew MCN…
By admin
May 29th, 2009 at 04:55pm
Under Motorbikes
Riding up the dual carriage A24, 5 miles from my home, the speed limit drops to 60mph due to a right turn into a garden center. The carriageway also becomes 3 lane for waiting vehicles at this point. I am…
By admin
May 29th, 2009 at 04:55pm
Under Motorbikes
I’m on the road (again). Gone to The Netherlands…
Back Tuesday afternoon. News will continue as usual, so come back…
…
By admin
May 29th, 2009 at 04:55pm
Under Racing
Aston Martin has confirmed it will enter Formula 1, Autocar magazine claims this morning.
It intends to defer its entry until 2012 but its team will begin competing from 2010 as Prodrive.
David Richards’ team has been tipped to enter F1 on two occasions in recent years. It planned an entry for 2008 using customer car regulations, but withdrew after the FIA failed to get the rules approved. Richards was also linked to a takeover of the Honda team, but backed away from a deal saying F1 was ’still too expensive’.
The team is expected to enter under the FIA budget capping rules - though those rules are expected to be modified from Max Mosley’s original proposed limit of £40m, following the initiative put forward by Mercedes.
By Mikel
May 29th, 2009 at 04:55pm
Under Racing
Cristiano da Matta and Olivier Panis led the British GP for Toyota in 2003
With the first signs of the silly season getting started for 2010, I thought it would be a good time to start a new series of Friday debates on the subject of team driver pairings.
Starting today, we’ll look at each of the teams and ask at which point in their history did they have their strongest driver line-up?
First up, one of Formula 1’s youngest teams: Toyota.
Toyota’s driver line-ups, 2002-2009
These are the drivers Toyota had at the start of each season they contested:
2002 – Mika Salo, Allan McNish
2003-2004 – Olivier Panis, Cristiano da Matta
2005-2007 – Ralf Schumacher, Jarno Trulli
2008-2009 – Jarno Trulli, Timo Glock
Toyota also changed its line-up late in 2004, when Ricardo Zonta briefly joined the team and Jarno Trulli arrived early ahead of his 2005 signing.
But when did they have their strongest driver pairing?
Which was the best?
There was widespread surprise late in 2002 when Toyota ditched the partnership of long-time F1 driver Mika Salo and sportscar ace Allan McNish. Both have continued to have successful careers in sportscars.
Their replacements, Olivier Panis and CART champion Cristiano da Matta, achieved little besides briefly leading the 2003 British Grand Prix. The team paid huge money to partner Jarno Trulli with Ralf Schumacher – prompting some to jokingly asked if they’d realised which Schumacher they were getting for their money.
However it did prove their most enduring partnership and – on paper at least – their most successful. But how much was that down to Toyota producing one of their race decent F1 cars in 2005?
Trulli is now in his fifth season with the team and paired with the ever-improving Timo Glock. It’s been a strange season for the pair: locking out the front row at Bahrain, bringing up the rear at Monaco.
My pick
I thought the Salo-McNish pairing had great potential and was disappointed to see them dropped. Trulli and Ralf Schumacher were both somewhat mercurial talents and neither consistently had the upper hand over the other season to season or, often, race to race.
Toyota’s current line-up has potential to be even better. Glock has potential – he shone in the wet at Sepang this year and took an excellent second at the Hungaroring in 2008.
Right now, I’d plump for Trulli-Schumacher as my top pick, but in a few races’ time I might have a very different opinion.
Which do you think was Toyota’s best driver line-up?
By Mikel
May 29th, 2009 at 04:49pm
Under Motorbikes
In the May 27 issue of MCN the sporty group test winners go head to head to see which sports bike is the best of the best in 2009. The KTM RC8R, Yamaha R1, Aprilia RSV4 and Triumph Daytona 675…
By admin
May 29th, 2009 at 04:13pm
Under Racing
FOTA teams may have arrived at an agreement in principle with Max Mosley that will find them all submitting an entry application for the 2010 championship according to GMM. It is suggested that a Proviso may be attached to Ferrari’s application regarding the governance of the sport as it is…
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By Mikel
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