Amazing news about Mark Webber and the last 4 races!! Apparently, he has had a fractured collar bone for the last 4 races!!! No wonder why he crashed in Korea! I find that amazing, I also feel sorry for him. If he was all well, then maybe he could’ve won the championship! And even more amazing, he didn’t use it as an excuse! The man deserves an award!
i will not be updateing my news section on my website any more, i will not be updating it because i am currently in the middle of desinging a new f1 spy website, which will be realised after the end of this f1 seasonQ!
Today BMW Sauber has announced that Nick Heidfeld will replace Pedro De La Rosa at the Singapore Grand Prix! The German will replace Pedro for the remainder of the season and will race along side the Japanese driver Kamui Koboyashi.
Nick announced “I’m looking forward like crazy to having the opportunity to go racing again in a good car in Formula One from the Singapore Grand Prix onwards,” said the German. “After the last few months I’m even more motivated than ever. For me it is like coming home, as I raced for seven years in total for the team. Without doubt I will feel at home straight away and this should help me to familiarize myself as soon as possible with the car. I want to thank Peter Sauber for the faith he has put in me.”
The German left BMW Sauber at the end of last season and agreed with Mercedes that he would be their test driver. But in August he left Mercedes to become the Pirelli (the new tire supplier) test driver, but he has recently completed his two test’s for the Italian tire maker company.
Today the FIA announced the provisional 2011 race calendar. It is a 20 race calendar with the all races from this year with the new addition of the Indian Grand Prix. The calendar is -
13/03 Bahrain
27/03 Australia
10/04 Malaysia
17/04 China
08/05 Turkey
22/05 Spain
29/05 Monaco
12/06 Canada
26/06 Europe
10/07 Great Britain
24/07 Germany
31/07 Hungary
28/08 Belgium
11/09 Italy
25/09 Singapore
09/10 Japan
16/10 Korea
30/10 India
13/11 Abu Dhabi
27/11 Brazil
Today was the day that all us f1 fans were waiting for!!!! It was the day of the World Motor Sport Councils meeting about the Ferrari team orders fiasco!! But it seems the day we have been waiting for is bit of an anti-climax, with Ferrari seeming to have no punishment. Although the 100,000 dollar fine is still being imposed, it doesn’t seem like such a big punishment for breaking one of the sports major rules.
But the World Motor Sport Council did say that it will take a look at the rule and consider removing the rule from the rule book.
Red Bull and McLaren are both saying it is too early to back their leading drivers in the championship, even though Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton breaking clear of the rest of the field in the championship hopes after this weekend form the Belgium GP.
Webber and Hamilton are now more than a race win ahead of third place Vettel and fourth place Button. Due to them being ahead, it has prompted talk that it is time for their teams to start backing them for the championship instead of their team mates.
Despite the points difference, Ferrari’s main contender Fernando Alonso failed to score any points, due to his spin on the last few laps of the race. Many think that Alonso is now out of the title race but Alonso thinks he can still win it!
Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner said: "There are 150 points still available and the two guys have broken away a little bit from the rest of the pack - with the other three title protagonists not scoring today. But I think it is still too early to be contemplating supporting just one of our drivers"
McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh was just as sure that Hamilton would still be treated on completely equal terms to Jenson Button.
"I've been with both drivers tonight – and Jenson was saying to Lewis: 'I'm 35 points behind but I still have to nail you'," said Whitmarsh. "And that is how it should be."It does fluctuate, but Jenson was very, very unlucky today in my opinion. I think that he should have scored points and he should have been right up there. It can change very quickly in the next few races."
Timo Glock has announced that driver error was the reason for his crash in the early stages of Belgium’s second free practice session today. Having touched the white line while entering the Liège corner, the German’s car sideswiped the tyre barriers.
Despite the accident, which happened just after Vitantonio Liuzzi also touched a white line and spun his Force India one corner earlier, Glock is pleased with the progress which Virgin Racing is making.
"A good morning,” the German began. “I would say the first free practice was pretty good, we had no problems and the car felt quite okay in wet conditions."
"Then I unfortunately made a mistake in Free Practice 2 – I touched the white line, lost the car, hit the tyre barrier quite badly and the session was over quite quickly for me."
“But in general it didn’t look too bad and I hope it will stay wet for the whole weekend, as the car felt good in the wet. I was happy with it, so let’s see how it goes tomorrow.”
The Bahrain circet, home of the Bahrain Grand Prix, plans to return to its original Formula One track configuration for 2011. It follows the use of an extended layout for this year’s season-opening race.
That extended layout, dubbed the ‘endurance track’ by organisers, was used as part of Bahrain’s festivities to mark 60 years of the Formula One world championship. It lengthened the lap from 5.412km to 6.299km with an additional complex of nine corners, starting at Turn Four.
“As the inaugural round of the Formula One world championship’s 60th anniversary season, it was important for us to celebrate this momentous occasion by doing something very unique and different,” said Shaikh Salman Bin Isa Al Khalifa, the circuit’s acting CEO.
“It was an enormous task given the time frame we had to implement it, but one that demonstrated Bahrain’s characteristics as a race promoter prepared to continually make changes designed to heighten the awareness and increase the levels of presentation associated with the sport of Formula One.”
Bahrain joined the F1 calendar in 2004 and now has three track layouts approved by the FIA for Formula One use
Hispania Racing driver Bruno Senna expects to continue racing in Formula 1 in 2011. The Brazilian is currently in his first season in f1 and admits there is an opportunity to continue at HRT but there are also options at other teams.
Speaking about the advantages of entering Formula 1 with a small team Bruno Senna told the gathered media at a Brazilian press conference: “I am learning to work with a small number of people. When you have less people working around you you learn to participate a lot more within the team. When there's a group of 500 people around you there are just a couple of people you know well.”
After half a year of Formula 1 Bruno Senna is hoping to extend his career with a number of years in the sport. He is confident to continue his career at the highest level. “There's a good chance to stay here at HRT, but there are also some other options that we are currently looking at.”
Bruno Senna furthermore admitted that there's nothing but Formula 1 on his radar for 2011. “I rather sell coconuts on the beach,” Senna joked when asked if he would mind race in a different series other than Formula 1.
Michael Schumacher has been given a 10-place grid penalty for the Belgian Grand Prix for his blocking move on Rubens Barrichello in The Hungarian GP earlier.
With the Williams driving, having caught the slower Mercedes after a late pit-stop, Schumacher squeezed his old Ferrari team-mate into the concrete pit wall before the Williams finally made it through at Turn 1.
But following an investigation by the FIA race stewards including former driver Derek Warwick, the 7-time World Champion will start 10 grid places (5 rows) further back from where he qualifies at Spa at the end of this month.
BMW-Sauber driver Kamui Koboyashi has been issued a 5 place grid penalty for tomorrows Hungarian Grand Prix by the Budapest race stewards, after he failed to enter the FIA garage to have his car weighed during qualifying on today. The Japanese went past the red light at the end of Q1 after he failed to make it through to Q2. He now drops from 18th place on the grid down to 23(1 position form last) During practice and Qualifying cars are called in at random to be weighed to ensure that they comply with minimum weight requirements (620kg).
"I obviously went past a red light in the pit lane and missed going to the FIA scales," Kobayashi told reporters following today’s qualifying session at the Hungaroring. “I just didn't see it."
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel led the way in the first Hungarian Grand Prix practice session this morning. In a dry and acident-session period, team-mate Mark Webber, Polish driver Robert Kubica and World Champion Jenson Button completed the top four with Hockenheim winner Fernando Alonso seventh for Ferrari.
Following the controversy of the German Grand Prix only five days ago, Felipe Massa returned to the Budapest track yestarday – scene of his near-fatal crash 12 months ago and which still shows the infamous skid marks at Turn 4.
Air temperatures ranged between 22 and 24°C as the 90-minute session took place this morning, with a very durty track still needing to be cleaned as the cars drove round. Reserve driver Paul di Resta was back in the Force India cockpit having replaced Liuzzi for the this session, although only team-mate Adrian Sutil was using the team’s blown diffuser, which was trialled for the first time.
With the threatening Red Bulls a full second quicker than anybody, Button made third spot after remaining in the garage in the opening stages, with McLaren making several changes to his rear suspension. Team-mate Lewis Hamilton featured less, though, as the two-time Hungary winner ended up just 18th quickest.
On the race that marked a year since Felipe Massa’s horrendous crash at hungry last year, there has been huge controversy. The controversy has been caused by Ferrari telling Felipe Massa that his team mate Fernando Alonso is faster than him. The team then asked Felipe Massa to confirm what they meant, this rang alarm bells. A lap later Felipe Massa came out of turn 6 very slow and let Alonso past.
Rob Smedley (Felipe Massa’s race engineer) then came on the radio and apologized, this rang more alarm bells. After the race there were many questions being asked and in the press conference and when Felipe Massa was asked what happened at turn 6 he replied “I think you understand what happened” he was then asked what the team radio meant, he replied “ I think you understand that to” .
Later on in the press conference the questions got quite nasty. Sebastian Vettel asked half way through if he could leave because it seemed no one was going to ask him a question, every one said fine and he actually left. After the press conference had finished the team where summoned to the stewards for investigation. After the team principal Steffano Domenicali had been released be the stewards Ferrari had their own press conference and during that
conference the drivers and Rob Smedley were summoned to the stewards for investigation. After they were released the stewards took a lot of time considering what they were going to do about Ferrari obviously breaking the Rules.
The steward have now announced Ferrari has been fined $100,000 (£65,000) by Formula 1 governing body the FIA for the use of team orders and bringing the sport into disrepute at Hockenheim this afternoon. At present, the results of the race remain unchanged although the matter has now been referred to the World Motorsport Council (WMSC).
In formula 1 team orders are BANNED. They have been banned since 2003 when there was huge out cry when Rubes Barichelo let his team mate Michel Schmacher past in the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton experienced an eventfull day at Hockenheim today, crashing in this morning's practice before missing all but ten minutes of the second session as a result. Delighted with his team’s work, Lewis admits that the famous blown diffuser is yet to be good enough for exeptonal race pace. With the championship leader having batterd the Turn 4 tyre barriers, McLaren was left with alot of work to do between sessions before Hamilton returned to the track for just over ten minutes of dry running time in Germany.
“Obviously, I damaged the car quite heavily this morning,” he began. “It was very slippery and I hit the limiter coming out of Turn 3, shifted gear, which spun the wheels, and had an oversteer moment. I tried to correct it and that put me onto the grass, where I was just a passenger.
This weekend in Germany is significant as Bridgestone will be, for the only time this year, using the widest possible difference between tyre compounds at Hockenheim. With the Hard, Medium, Soft and Super Soft types making up the full variety, the Japanese company will be using its Hard and Super Soft sets. As Hockenheim marks Round 11 of 19 in 2010, Bridgestone has just nine Grands Prix to run before Pirelli steps in as Formula 1’s sole tyre supplier next season. However, looking ahead to the upcoming weekend, Hirohide Hamashima is excited about the prospect of a wide tyre disparity.
It has emerged that Lewis Hamilton left Silverstone, having finished second in the British Grand Prix, in the passenger seat of a road-going Mercedes driven by McLaren team-mate and fellow World Champion Jenson Button.
With Hamilton having extended his run of consecutive podium finishes to four, Button climbed to fourth from 14th on the grid in Britain before escorting his team-mate.
“He gave me a lift home from Silverstone last week and I would do the same for him,” Hamilton told Reuters, as he now looks ahead to Germany.
HRT race driver Karun Chandhok will be replaced by test driver Sakon Yamamoto at next weekend’s German Grand Prix, the team revealed on Friday. Yamamoto took the place of Bruno Senna for the Spanish squad at the last round at Silverstone and finished the British event in 20th.
“After Sakon Yamamoto gave a very positive performance in Silverstone, the team has decided to give the Japanese driver another opportunity to drive the car alongside Bruno Senna,” HRT explained in a statement. “Karun Chandhok is still part of the HRT family and is likely to be in the car at some later races this season.”
Following his Silverstone outing for the Spanish team, Yamamoto is now a veteran of 15 Grand Prix starts. He has made previous F1 race appearances with Spyker (now Force India) and Super Aguri, after starting his single-seater career back in 2001 in Japanese Formula Three, in which he finished fourth overall in his debut season
Mark Webber is looking to have talks with his Red Bull bosses after his amazing win at the British grand prix weekend this weekend.
Although the Australian won the Silverstone race, he had been extreamly angree on Saturday when the new specification nose fitted to his RB6 f1 car was handed to Sebastian Vettel. He told a reporter after winning on Sunday that if all his days in formula one were like that, he would leave the team.
And in a reporters' scrum in the Silverstone paddock, the 33-year-old added: "I would never have signed a contract for next year if I believed that was the way going forward." Webber said on his victorious slowing-down lap on Sunday that the performance was "not bad for a number two driver".
"Yesterday I wasn't happy, clearly, and I am sure we will have some pretty decent chats tomorrow," he told the press.
Webber and Vettel briefly shook hands ahead of a team photo on Sunday evening, but the German furrowed his brow when a reporter asked about the atmosphere behind closed doors.
"You get to know people probably a bit better and see their true faces. I think I learned my lesson, and I focus on myself," said the 23-year-old.
Mark Webber believes he has a fair shot at victory in this weekend’s British Grand Prix. The event marks the seventh time the Australian has competed in a Formula 1 race at Silverstone and this year’s encounter comes off the back of his terrifying accident in the European Grand Prix. Having clouted the back of Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus at speeds in the region of 200 miles per hour, Webber was more than fortunate to escape serious injury after his Red Bull somersaulted into the air and through an advertising hoarding before hurriedly making its way into the tyre barriers.
“I like Silverstone a lot and I do fancy my chances,” Mark told BBC Sport whilst looking ahead to Round 10 of 19. “I'm looking forward to getting back on the horse after a non-finish in Valencia. Silverstone's been a good track to me in the past; I've won there in most categories, except Formula 1, so I'm looking forward to trying to add a Formula 1 victory to my other victories there.”
