If you’d like to help out running the live blogs for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, please get in touch either by emailling me, using Twitter or leave a comment below.
Here’s today’s round-up:
Links
Martin Brundle answers your questions (BBC)
“I matched the three great drivers of my generation – Senna, Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen – in the same cars on the same day, it is clear I underperformed my potential as an F1 driver. There are a few reasons. Smashing my legs up in 1984 derailed my career progress, fundamentally compromised my fitness training programme and, most importantly, prevented me from left-foot braking when it was virtually essential in F1.”
Colin Kolles: “We want to be the best new team!” (GrandPrix)
“I’m not here to finish races in last place – I’m here to make this team the best of the new teams in 2010 and then move on to bigger and more ambitious goals. Maybe for people that have been in Formula One for 20 years or more just finishing the races is a great success for a new team, but in these days everyone finishes the races – that’s the norm in Formula One. What I want is to finish them ahead of my competition!”
Features a Sebastian Vettel interview – you have to use the rather clumsy e-zine version to read the full thing.
Comment of the day
A good point from Beneboy on Moto GP’s smart feeder series system.
Also, for anyone hoping to win a Comment of the Day soon, having a cool South Park avatar does you no harm…
In Moto GP where you get the same support races at every event with concurrent championships it allows the fans to follow all three series at once and the lower formulae get a good bit of kudos by association.
A lot of people I know think of Moto GP as being the whole three series with the 800cc bikes just being the premier event, admittedly this is helped by the fact that in lots of countries the broadcaster shows all three series each weekend. While the BBC don’t do this Eurosport do and in effect their entire schedule is given over to motoGP for a good six or seven hours each day of a Moto GP weekend.
This means that when you go to a GP weekend you know all of the teams and riders in the lower formulae and you find that the stands are almost as full for the 125cc race as it is for the 800cc race and this gives you two extra events taking place over the weekend that have a really good atmosphere.
With all due respect to the Porsches and BMWs, they’re just random support events and have nothing to do with F1. You may get the odd retired F1 driver taking part for a laugh but they’re not feeder series.
This means that most people have no idea about their championships, teams or drivers. They still produce some good racing but they don’t have the same sort of atmosphere or excitement that you get when everyone knows more about it and has a preferred driver or team.
Beneboy
Happy birthday!
It’s a birthday hat-trick today – many happy returns to three4three, Jack Sargeant and Martin Stanley!
On this day in F1
Didier Pironi scored his first F1 win on this day 30 years ago at Zolder in Belgium. He led from start to finish in his Ligier, leading home the Williams duo Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann.
Icthyes
4th May 2010, 0:10
Another good COTD. It’s a shame that GP2 wasn’t picked up by the BBC and shown on the Red Button, like the 125cc and 250cc motorcycle races were (is it the same now with the new Moto2 series?) If International F3 could be made to follow F1 races too, that would be even better.
It’s like football, though they’re usually shown at the same time (imagine trying to stagger the timing of football matches!). The similarity is that fans see that the different leagues are all part of the same structure, whereas that’s not so evident to the casual F1 fan.
Icthyes
4th May 2010, 0:12
By the way, talk about deja vu: Brundle and Allen together again! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMKc2hGcJCI&feature=player_embedded
BasCB
4th May 2010, 14:25
I like their little walk around to discuss the circuit.
SciF1Droid
4th May 2010, 23:07
Yep, for me they just work very well together as a team, but then I guess they would after all those years.
Lets hope Brundle & Legard find that soon.
Michael Griffin
4th May 2010, 0:24
The simple way to solve the support races malarky is have GP2 and GP3 travel with F1 to every race. Therefore the drivers always get maximum exposure, more time on track and racing and not having to learn a track when they turn up there for the first time in F1.
Would cost more money, yes, but wouldn’t sponsor be happy if the team was going to be seen in 18 different countries around the world? All we need now is Bernie to give GP2 and GP3 proper tv deals, not Eurosport ones i.e who knows when the heel it’ll be on, if ever.
I’d love to see GP2 and GP3 run straight after F1 or right before F1, similar to what we get with Moto 2 and Moto 3. They have great fanbases because they follow the pack around, and they are all slightly mad, which makes for great racing.
Ned Flanders
4th May 2010, 0:44
I think the BBC are doing a decent job with F1, but surely their biggest mistake has been not picking up the GP2 license. If they showed it on BBC2 I bet it’d get a decent audience
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
4th May 2010, 9:29
Hear, hear. I’m not impressed Eurosport aren’t showing the first GP2 race live this weekend.
TommyB
4th May 2010, 22:27
It’s a good job it isn’t live on Eurosport, they’ll probably miss the first 10 laps with a skiing advert. I bet any money the showing is replaced with some tennis or something. They never show what is says in the guide.
Karan
4th May 2010, 5:11
But then the debate would be which feeder series should follow the F1 circus? Why GP2 and GP3? Why not Formula 2 and Formula 3? Or for something a little more entertaining, the FIA GT Championship or Carrera Cup?
Mark Hitchcock
4th May 2010, 12:19
Because GP2 and GP3 are officially the rungs directly below F1 aren’t they?
Macca
4th May 2010, 6:33
And repackage GP2 and GP3 as F2 and F3 so the casual viewer doesn’t get confussed.
DGR-F1
4th May 2010, 13:03
I think the Porsches are an entire league all of their own, with their own supporters as the series which normally goes with F1 is above all the national Porsche races, but below ALMS and Le Mans.
The best collection of support races I have seen are those which go with BTCC, as it includes young drivers just out of karting in Ginettas, ex-BTCC drivers in bigger Ginettas and the Porsches, and usually some young superstars in Formula Renault.
All of these series have their own supporters, but most of the drivers are there to be in front of the BTCC teams.
I am surprised there is not more of a tie-in between the F1 teams and the support races. Shouldn’t there be somewhere for McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari etc to have ‘Junior’ teams to try out new drivers?
Ned Flanders
4th May 2010, 0:42
Come on Keith, Simpsons avatars are way better than South Park ones! But I agree with Beneboy, F1 needs a better support structure. GP2 is OK, although I still find it ridiculous that F2- which most casual fans would think is the most prestigous series bar F1- is little better than Formula Ford, and doesn’t even support the F1 calender.
If I were in charge of F1- and we all know I should be- then I’d keep the GP2 Europe series unchanged, and I’d set up a GP2 and GP3 Asia series starting at Singapore 2010 and through every race (even Brazil and Australia) to China 2011.
I’d also get the best national series from each country to stage a race earlier in the weekend- eg Formula Nippon at Suzuka, V8 Supercars at Melbourne, Brazilian Stock Cars at Interlagos. That way, spectators would have plenty to keep them occupied prior to the GP, and a few more local fans might be interested in turning up.
Simple!
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
4th May 2010, 8:05
I’m more of a South Park person – there hasn’t been a good new episode of The Simpsons in years. But I do like devil Flanders :-)
Patrickl
4th May 2010, 8:55
And Hulk Homer?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
4th May 2010, 9:06
Is that what yours is? Sorry I couldn’t tell!
sato113
4th May 2010, 17:24
what about family guy? do you like it?
Patrickl
4th May 2010, 22:36
Yeah, why are the avatars so incredible small here?
Scribe
4th May 2010, 10:11
Wow, I’ve wondered what that was for a while, whoda thunk it was an angry green hommer simpson.
James_mc
4th May 2010, 10:18
I always thought it was Yoshi! Hahaha!
Ned Flanders
4th May 2010, 10:27
Oh yeah, I agree, all the new Simpsons episodes are crap, and so was the Simpsons Movie. I only watch the ones from the 90’s which are great. South Park’s pretty good, too
Bigbadderboom
4th May 2010, 11:23
Ahem, Family guy and my Darth Stewie is the way forward…..:)
f1yankee
4th May 2010, 11:33
unfortunately, the dvd releases of the simpsons are heavily edited from their original form. they ruined my favorite bit, from “bart the daredevil” where homer falls down the canyon. the ambulance crash and second fall down the canyon (present in the original airing and early repeats) were edited out for more commercial time and that’s what’s on the dvds.
Spud
5th May 2010, 17:53
“If I were in charge of F1- and we all know I should be- then I’d keep the GP2 Europe series unchanged, and I’d set up a GP2 and GP3 Asia series starting at Singapore 2010 and through every race (even Brazil and Australia) to China 2011.”
Totally agree. Great idea there Ned. And give the coverage to the BBC aswell. That would keep us ticking over nicely for the winter months.
Speakin of South Park avatars, you can have you’re own personalised one. Just follow this link:
http://www.sp-studio.de/
I South Parked myself. I think it looks cool, but then I would wouldn’t I? :P
Hallard
6th May 2010, 21:12
Really? You dont strike me as a south park fan, Keith…
Family guy is way better thatn both south park and the simpsons, but the Venture Brothers is definitely the best cartoon show out there.
Joey-Poey
4th May 2010, 0:50
How do we upload an avatar for ourselves, btw?
sato113
4th May 2010, 2:44
gravatar.com
register ur email address u use for F1F and it’ll appear here!
Prisoner Monkeys
4th May 2010, 1:38
The SPEED Report in America has claimed that thirteen new teams have applied for the 2011 grid position. Although most of them go un-named, it apparently confirmed the existence of the Cypher Group, which is not the remains of USF1 as prviously suspected because rumour has it that Ken Anderson is looking to field his own team for 2011 to be named Anderson F1.
Icthyes
4th May 2010, 1:47
Why do you persist Mr Anderson, why, why!?
Prisoner Monkeys
4th May 2010, 4:09
Because, like Nicolae Ceaucescu before him, Ken Anderson has cmpletely lost touch with reality (assuming the rumour is true). But it’s not like he’s guaranteed a place on te grid – the USF1 debacle is going to be fresh in everyone’s mind. Even Max Mosley would have the sense to give the grid position to myf1dream.com before Anderson.
SamS
4th May 2010, 9:29
I dont know if anyone has read the jarge article in this month’s F1 Racing magazine but it gives you a great insite into how USF1 failed, from not only the complete mis management of the team, aka, Anderson appointing his son as technical director with absolutely no qualifications to do so, through to picking the worst time to ask US companies to invest.
The article went on to discuss how employees couldnt just get on with it because Anderson would question everything down to the size of bolts they used on assembling the monocoque. What made me laugh about this was the fact that they bought $17million of equipment such as a autocave, etc when on their doorstep where already established racing teams that were offering their equipment to them. It was lunacy for Anderson to bury his head an basically say i want it myself.
I was really looking forward to a full US team, but with Anderson at the helm it just wasnt and probably wont happen, he doesnt have the necessary qualifications to do it!
Scribe
4th May 2010, 10:13
I’d like to know what Peter Windsors role was, because if it was just to get money, he did a damn fine job.
SamS
4th May 2010, 11:22
I think Windsor was team manager, i think.
Prisoner Monkeys
4th May 2010, 14:01
Yes, Windsor’s job was to get money. But don’t go criticising him absolutely – without a car or any finalised design to show potential sponsors, his job was made infinitely more difficult.
Scribe
4th May 2010, 16:17
I wasn’t critisising him, I ment that he did an intensley difficult job, very well. TBH, if was a team looking for sponsership i’d sign the man.
He got two talented pay drivers, Chad Hurley, a few other medium sized sponsers, that man did excellent work.
steph
4th May 2010, 10:19
I read it. It made me feel deeply sympathetic to the employees. There’s always two sides to the story but it is clear the way it was run and how everything was handled was deeply flawed.
I did find it a fascinating read esp when there was also a piece on HRT and how they made it.
Steven
4th May 2010, 1:41
How do you get avatars? I just see fields for Name, Mail and Website plus the text box for your comment obviously.
sato113
4th May 2010, 2:45
see above comment!
MPJ1994
4th May 2010, 2:53
Haha you beat me too it :)
MPJ1994
4th May 2010, 2:52
Sign up to gravatar.com
And then upload a picture with the same email that you use to post.
M
4th May 2010, 1:41
Worth to mention, Kubica had some great rally performances this weekend (winning his class) :)
wasiF1
4th May 2010, 2:07
Very few people do mention Mika Hakkinen as one of the great driver of all time. I do rate him highly next to Michael Schumacher when they were racing for 11 years together.Even Schumacher do says anywhere he goes that Mika is the driver he feared the most.I do felt bad when he left the sports in 2001 he was sorely missed by many people around the world.
BasCB
4th May 2010, 6:44
nice interview with Brundle. Is it possible, that Lewis and especially McLaren told Anthony Hamilton to stay away, to avoid Alonso-Hamilton rivalry between Lewis and Jenson? Lewis did say, that he handled that badly and made some wrong judgement of the situation there, so maybe a precaution of too much ambition.
DC
4th May 2010, 6:55
Off topic, but interesting:
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2010/05/friends_of_liberty_state_park_3.html
A fight has broken out in New Jersey about hosting a Grand Prix.
kapow
4th May 2010, 7:36
Joe Saward’s account (with proposed track layout):
http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2010/05/04/so-now-we-know-jersey-city/
maciek
4th May 2010, 8:15
That layout is truly awful – and so is the idea of running a GP through a flat urban park that, as a quick look on Google Maps shows, is pretty much the only peaceful green space the residents of the city have. From a racing point of view – if this is where Bernie is considering a GP, then F1 is still being taken down the road of venues instead of racetracks. I don’t think Bernie got much mention in the “Making F1 Better” discussions, though I may have missed it, but he is obviously not interested in making F1 better, just blindly looking to make it seem attractive, rather than providing the drivers and cars with courses that show fans what they’re truly capable of. I’m starting to think that he looked at Monaco and said to himself: “the racing is boring 4 times out of 5, at least, but it’s F1’s marquee event, so obviously the solution is to have only Monacos on the calendar.”
Anyhoo, sorry if I’m repeating stuff that’s been said in the recent discussions.
BasCB
4th May 2010, 7:54
You spotted this first! An interesting read is the proposal was included in the comments to the article. Especially the bit about what Jersey City provides and what is the responsibility “Formula 1” – FOM or promotor.
Sounds a long way away from them paying FOM for the GP.
http://www.folsp.org/Proposal_for_Jersey_City_Grand_Prix_Auto_Race2%5B.pdf
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
4th May 2010, 8:55
Thanks for the tip DC – write-up here: https://www.racefans.net/2010/05/04/new-york-f1-track-plans-revealed-jersey-city-bids-for-new-night-race-in-2012/
f1yankee
4th May 2010, 11:54
“However, the circuits can end up all looking very similar, especially with identical kerbing and those awful supermarket car-park run offs.”
i like brundle and i hope he continues his broadcasting career for a long time, but i’m calling him on this. i just happen to be watching the 2009 chinese gp today:
mb: that’s the good thing about these new style race tracks, you can always get back on and live for another day…nice bit of run off area there, a get of jail free card. they make it easy for these boys now, don’t they?
jl: are you a fan of that, particularly?
mb: yeah, because he’s still in the motor race, isn’t he? he’s still going and we can enjoy whatever else gets up to now.
jl: i’m not saying straw bales, but…
mb: no, i’ve hit enough catch fence poles and barriers in my time to be very jealous of the run-off areas they’ve built…
Mark Hitchcock
4th May 2010, 12:30
I think he can hold both views…I know I do.
The run-off around the re profiled Club corner at Silverstone for example is terrible. Flat kerb onto fast tarmac run-off= every car using the run-off as track.
All you need is a small bit of gravel or grass before the tarmac, running wide would be punished without being too dangerous.
But I wouldn’t want a crash like Buemi’s to result in injury so banning tarmac run-offs altogether would be stupid.
f1yankee
4th May 2010, 12:42
i think you’re right on with the flat kerbs. kerbing was originally intended as a safety measure where the dirt and edge of the pavement was being annihilated. but after demanding them in the name of safety, drivers proceeded to drive over them as part of the racing surface. i think kerbs should be pretty aggressive, protecting the edge of the pavement but penalizing cars that drive over them business as usual.
Prisoner Monkeys
4th May 2010, 14:06
Best. Headline. Ever:
BRIATORE SAYS F1 NEEDS TO BE FIXED.
I’m not kidding, either: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/83317
It’s right up there with SOUTH AFRICAN BODY SLAMS TODT in tems of sheer unintended hilarity.
Wait, why are the press even giving Briatore the time of day?
BasCB
4th May 2010, 14:29
Well, they looked for somebody who is great at “fixing” a race to get some ideas on the subject :D
His numbers are wrong (60-70 million for the new teams to spend), but hey this is Flav, so not to much of exact science into it.
Mark Hitchcock
4th May 2010, 19:16
haha yeah I noticed that as well, brilliant.
Icthyes
4th May 2010, 20:11
They’ve changed it now!
Mark Hitchcock
4th May 2010, 20:13
ohh, spoilsports.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
4th May 2010, 20:42
You guys would’ve given me hell if I’d put a story up with that headline :-)
Scribe
4th May 2010, 23:01
Briatore says F1 needs to solve issues sounds like someone’s boss’s phone has connected with a forehead
Chaz
5th May 2010, 15:43
I enjoyed the Brundle Q&A…
awnings los angeles
2nd February 2011, 13:05
Good ideas. I visited school for Home design, so I have a ton of style magazines, but I still have a very tough period opening them up and actually having something out of them!