Wednesday, August 15, 2012

McLaren “closer” to new Hamilton deal | F1 Fanatic round-up

McLaren “closer” to new Hamilton deal is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.

Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, Hungaroring, 2012In the round-up: McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale expects to get a new deal with Lewis Hamilton signed soon.

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

Neale: Hamilton deal close (Sky)

“We are closer and of course we are in dialogue. For obvious reasons I can’t speculate more at the moment. We are working very hard to find a common ground.”

Bottas wants ‘long career’ with Williams (Autosport)

“It’s a team with a great history and it’s already my third year with the team and I feel like it’s home here so the ideal would be to stay here and I would hope for a long career with Williams.”

F1 – 2014: Mercedes se désengage (Auto Hebdo, French)

This article in Auto Hebdo, suggesting Mercedes may downscale their F1 operation in 2014 and rename their team, did the rounds of a few websites yesterday. Looking at the original with my less than perfect French it doesn’t seem to cite any sources – anonymous or otherwise – for these claims.

Defendant in F1 land lawsuit files counterclaim (Austin-American Statesman)

“A defendant in a lawsuit over the sale of a 78-acre tract of land near a racetrack under construction in southeastern Travis County [the Circuit of the Americas] has filed a response and counterclaim, denying the accusations and saying his accuser reneged on a contract.”

F1 Race Stars (Game Trailers)

An early look at Codemasters’ cartoon-style F1 game.

In memory of Enzo Ferrari (Ferrari)

Stefano Domenicali: “I am sure he would be proud of those who represent Ferrari in the twenty first century, a major force in industry and motor racing which produces dream cars and is still at the pinnacle of motor sport, bringing joy to millions of fans of the marque, in all four corners of the world.”

Tweets

Comment of the day

Vjanik doesn’t think F1 should court the interest of car manufacturers:

I think the intention to attract the likes of Honda, Toyota and BMW back into formula one by introducing these V6s will fail. I think formula 1 has to face the fact that its no longer as road relevant as before. In its early years, F1 innovations used to trickle down to road cars all the time (seat belts, ABS, traction control, etc…)

Nowadays with most of the innovation happening with aerodynamics, the relevance to everyday road cars is next to nothing. Its much more attractive and cost efficient for car manufacturers to invest in Touring cars, rallying or GT racing to develop their ideas and promote their brands with racing pedigree. Why spend ten times more on F1 to do the same thing?

I don’t believe this is necessarily a bad thing though. The important thing is for the FIA to recognize that and promote F1 as a high performance sport with the best drivers and the most competitive formula in motor racing (rather than road-relevant environmentally-friendly cars). People are not watching F1 for its relevance to their Honda Civic or Mercedes E-Class.

Some people say that this would be a disaster because if F1 loses its touch with everyday cars, manufacturers will leave and F1 will decline. But in the last three years we had excellent racing, and viewership in F1 is at its peak (despite BBC losing ten races) so i don’t really miss the manufacturers that left. I don’t understand the expensive experiment with the V6s to bring them back.
Vjanik

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On this day in F1

Elio de Angelis and Keke Rosberg crossed the finishing line side-by-side at the end of the 1982 Austrian Grand Prix.

The Lotus driver hung on to claim his first win by just 0.05s. Second place for Rosberg moved him up to second in the world championship – but points leader Didier Pironi has been gravely injured following his crash in Hockenheim.

Here are highlights from the race. Keep an eye out for Riccardo Patrese making one of the first refuelling stops of this era at the 2’07 mark:

Image © McLaren/Hoch Zwei

McLaren “closer” to new Hamilton deal is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.


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Masao Azuma Jan Bäckstrom

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