Check out this video, which compares the differences between Lewis Hamilton’s steering wheel and his teammate Nico Rosberg.
It’s super interesting to learn how many small differences are created for the driver, just due to preference. Especially once you see how many controls are on an F1 steering wheel! (link)
We do have some new stickers, so I will show you those. 
So as you guys have probably seen, we haven’t been super active on the blog in the last few days. That’s because we’re been SUPER active in the real world, trying to get some big events lined up for the summer.
Continue reading
Normally, I wouldn’t want to post a 45 minute video of just a guy talking.
However when the person is Gary Hartstein, the former FIA Medical Delegate for the Formula One World Championship, it’s worth taking the time to listen. He’s got an interesting backstory.
I’m going to be honest. It’s a long one, so I’m not expecting people to get to commenting on it right away. However, I’d love to get people’s opinions on how safety in motorsports has changed over the last thirty years. The sport has seriously changed for the better thanks to people like Gary.
Continue reading
Any F1 fans know Caterham F1 is having a hell of a time with the development of it’s CT03. From what I’ve read, because of the upcoming regulation changes in 2014, the plan has been to develop a “hybrid” car, which integrates some of next year’s design methodology into this year’s car. The end result is that…well, it’s slow.
Continue reading
Ayrton Senna died 19 years ago today. We are big fans of Senna here at StartingGrid and have featured articles about him before. Senna was an amazing talent dripping with focus and pure joy of competition. If he were still with us, what would he be doing now? My bet is he’d still be racing; not Formula 1, perhaps rally or Australian V8 Supercars.
This image shows all of Senna’s formula cars. It was created by Paul Laguette who has an amazing portfolio of racing and car themed work.
Check out his Coroflot site: Paul Laguette’s Coroflot page
Check out his website: Studio P Design
Marussia Winter – F1 Car Building Tilt Shift Time-Lapse from Kai Clear on Vimeo.
Constructing a Formula 1 car is not an easy task. It takes hundreds of man-hours to construct and deliver two cars to races at around the world. Marussia F1 team provided this awesome time-lapse video building one of their cars prior to winter testing. It’s a bit long, but still very interesting.
I always love these time lapse videos though. Pretty crazy to see all of these people running around.
The world has been missing a good racing movie. I mean, an actual good racing movie that shows the thrills and possible horrors of the sport. Ron Howard has brought together some amazing talent to make a film that’s less in a lesser talked about era of Grand Prix racing.
Lauda vs Hunt. I mean, Thor is now James Hunt! I cannot wait to see this movie. This is going to be amazing. What about you guys? Let us know in the comments.
Three ingredients to get through a long Thursday afternoon.
You know, it’s always nice to just listen to something cool. Just turn the speakers up and enjoy. 
I’ve had some friends who wanted to know more about the history of Formula 1. This is an a detailed documentary of the history of the sport, that I wanted to post up, just for people who ask in the future.
Take a watch, if you have some time.
I feel that Sauber F1 create some of the best Formula 1 demonstration videos around. The team does a stellar job providing awesome drama around the build-up to the 2013 season and to the new Sauber C32.
I think that Sauber is going to be one of the surprise dark horses in the 2013 season. Just look at those sidepods! (#nerdgasm) I cannot wait for the racing to start this weekend!
Check out the difference comparing a F1 single-seater (Alonso) vs a two-seater F1 car (Bruno Senna) that are used to take guests of demonstration runs. Granted, its doubtful that the two-seater is going on a banzai qualifying lap, but it still pretty interesting to see the acceleration differences between the two.
*Note: I know that I’ve been a bit slow on updating some of our detailed category, but I’ve just been running around crazy. I’ll be updating more frequently soon!
Something about this video stands out for me, but I’m not sure what it is.
Maybe it’s how the camera is placed on track. Maybe it’s because the driver isn’t pushing the car to the limit like F1 drivers do during the races. Whatever it is, for some reason this video seems to show better movement of a Formula 1 car from a track-side camera than most videos that I’ve seen.
Whatever. It really doesn’t matter. Just listen to this noise! Amazing!
Williams F1 have finally launched the FW35 at the Barcelona test today. I posted launch videos of all of the other 11 teams earlier in the month, so it wouldn’t be fair to exclude Williams. Check it out.
Lewis Hamilton’s opening days with Mercedes have not been the smoothest. Due to a brake failure, Hamilton crashed his W04 after only 15 laps of testing. Between the two days, the Mercedes has only achieved 29 laps in the pre-season test, compared to the hundred plus of some of their immediate competitors.
It’s better to have these problems now, than during the season, but it doesn’t help the team.
Check out the video after the jump.
This post will only have just pictures with launch videos today, as I don’t have too much time. Plus there are giga-quads of Formula 1 videos to go through that I’m still trying to find some cool stuff for this blog.
Check out the launch videos for the CT03 and the MR02 after the jump.
Continue reading
I don’t have very much to say about the Toro Rosso. The team had a terrible year in 2012, scoring a paltry 26 points and a 9th place in the World Championship. Pretty shocking when their parent team won both championships.
The hope is that Toro Rosso raises its game in 2013 to help raise the value of the team. The one nice thing is that James Key has come from Sauber to work there as technical director. The other thing is that the team has chosen to run with a straight nose, which makes this entire year ripe for parody (STR-8).
Anyhow, check out the launch video after the jump.
Continue reading
After a frustrating server crash foiled the teaser launch promotion on the Mercedes website this weekend, it’s nice to finally see real pictures of the car. Again this is just my opinion, but if looks could win races then the Mercedes W04 would be miles ahead of everyone else.
As always, you can find pictures of the car all over the web, but click to see the launch video after the jump.
Normally when a team does a bad launch, I can let it go. However, in my opinion, Red Bull Racing’s has been the most disappointing.
The Twitter-verse has been alight with complaints from people attending the launch that the team would not allow media to take live photographs during the event, and because they had the presentation in a dark lair that made the venue look a lot like the Batcave.
However, my biggest gripe is about the hideous livery of the RB9. (Seeing that’s all I have to look at right now.) I know that Infiniti has become a title sponsor for the team, but I can’t stand the overt Infiniti branding all over the car mixed with those insane purple streaks.
At least they attempted to give us a nice launch video to try and distract me. Check it out after the jump.
Last season, Sauber had their most competitive season in Formula 1. Scoring four podiums, the team is hoping that the team’s new contender will be able to do one better.
What I personally love about the new car has nothing to do with the performance changes of the car. It’s the new livery. I’m loving the grey throwback, which reminds me a bit of the older Sauber cars from ’93 and 94′.
Will this be the car that brings Nico Hulkenburg closer to a Ferrari drive? Will this be the first Sauber car to score a Formula 1 victory? I hope so, on both fronts. I’m probably more excited about this car, than any other car this year.
Of course, check out the launch presentation after the jump.
Continue reading
Today, Sahara Force India and Ferrari both launched their cars for the 2013 Season. Force India launched their car at Silverstone, combined with a private demonstration of the car. Ferrari launched their car via an online webcast.
As always, anyone can find pictures of the new cars all over the web, but I like to provide videos of the car launches. Check them both out after the jump.
Well keeping with my interest in Formula 1 new car launches, today Mclaren released the MP4-28 as the Woking team’s contender for the 2013 season.
Although it looks much like the MP4-27 from 2012, there are some key differences that really stand out. The easiest to point out off the cuff is the higher nose, new pull-rod suspension (see video) and redesigned side-pods to emulate Ferrari’s 2012 design.
I’m keeping this post short as you can find pictures of the new car all over the net. Plus this is the launch version of the car, so things will always changes before the first test and race. Anyway, see the launch video for the MP4-28 after the jump.
Next to my birthday and Christmas, this is one of my favorite times of the year. The time has finally arrived for Formula 1 teams to begin revealing their cars for the 2013 race season.
Lotus F1 hit the ground running first by releasing the E21. Last year’s car brought the Kimi to third overall in the driver’s championship, so the team is looking to do better in the coming season.
Click the jump below to see a replay of the live launch of the car. (Skip to 8:19, if you just want to see the car unveiled.)
Continue reading
Formula 1 is a fairly secretive world. But when you’re asked to seal your iPhone and anything that can take a picture in a lockable bag, and requested not to use a Dictaphone because you’ll be hearing something that nobody outside the factory walls has been privy to, you know you’re in for something very special.
Such was the fashion in which today started, as Mercedes AMG welcomed a select gathering of Formula 1 journalists to its Brixworth base, on the outskirts of Northampton, England.
—
Romain Grosjean has had an eventful second coming in his return to Formula 1. Flashes of speed and podium finishes have been overshadowed by eight first lap accidents and the first driver ban from a Grand Prix in over ten years.
As much as he’s blotted his copybook, at least Romain has the support of his team principal, right? Eric Boullier has Romain’s back, right?
Something tells me that Romain might be left off the Christmas list…
Thanks to WTF1.co.uk for the gif.
Rrrrright…Eric doesn’t look pleased. Rumors are abound that Heikki Kovalainen and Kamui Kobayashi are in the hunt for his seat. Stay tuned, the cards may be a-shuffling…
What do you think? Should Romain stay in Formula 1?
—–
I know, I know. I’ve been posting a lot of Formula 1 content lately, However with the end of the season just passing by, these things are just top of mind lately.
With Micheal Schumacher deciding to make his second and final retirement from Formula 1 this year, I thought that it would be nice to review his driving technique when he was at his peak.
Personally, I’ve always questioned if Micheal Schumacher could hold his own during the 2010- 2012 seasons. However, it’s been really enlightening to see the rise and fall of the hubris of Schumacher as he spent time racing in an uncompetitive car, while others were winning races.
However, when he was at his best, he was quite the peddler. Take a look at this video.
*****
Twitter just reminded me that I had posted this video on another site that I was running a while back, and then I realized ‘facepalm’, that fellow |StartingGrid| readers who are interested in Formula 1 would be interested in this too.
As a Formula 1 fan, it sometimes becomes hard to explain all of the technical details to new fans. However, this new BBC video compilation details some of the major elements, which can get people treading water, in a Formula 1 sense.
I don’t think that they missed much for the general fan, which makes a good general intro video. It was clearly made before the era of DRS and KERS, since those sections are left out, but still added some nice tidbits..
Today, Lewis Hamilton finished his last race for Mclaren-Mercedes, moving to the Mercedes AMG F1 team for 2013. (Take a look at our post of his career move here.) His career has been filled full of success, with chapters of ‘what might have been’ where a combination of team and driver were not living up their potential at times.
The 2008 world champion and the sport’s first black competitor, Lewis’ career has not been without controversy. However, his flashes of sheer-speed have shown the world that he’s one of the world’s fastest talents.
Continue reading
“…I get lost, and have to turn around! Does anyone know how to get back to the racetrack?!”
Kimi go home, you’re drunk. Hilarious! I won’t ruin the result for anyone who hasn’t seen it, but I’ll give you a tease from what was an EPIC race! The best race of the year in my opinion.
It’s not often that a Formula 1 chief designer gets to drive the same cars that he’s designed. Aerodynamic genius for Red Bull Racing’s Formula 1 team, Adrian Newey got a change to experience two of them. The 1990 Leyton House March, and the 2010 Red Bull RB6.
It’s awesome to see how these cars have evolved over the years. If you want to see an infographic of Formula 1 car design, check this out.
Even though Caterham F1 have not scored a point yet in their three years in Formula 1, they are one of my favorite teams because how they provide these social media nuggets to their fans.
One of the benefits to us fans is, because Caterham is running at the back of the field, they aren’t as concerned that rival teams will be trying to steal their technical ideas so they can share these things with us.
This one is a great technical video, which explains how a Formula 1 suspension system basically works. Take a look at the Caterham F1 Youtube Playlist when you get a chance. It’s filled with awesome videos like this.
This weekend, Lotus held an event at the newly opened Circuit of the Americas in Austin, TX to celebrate the sport’s return to the United States this November. Up until now, the only images that we were able to see of the track were from the Codemaster’s F1 2012 game.
Thankfully, Jerome D’ambrosio was nice enough to show everyone around. I’m so looking forward to the November race. It’s going to be mega.
I’m not kidding! With a mix of drum and bass and testing footage, my work day has sounded like I’m in the Red Bull Racing pits all day!
Imagination at work. Play them, or another drum and bass mix, both at the same time and see what you get.
…the most exciting thing was the Safety Car and Medical Car racing each other! Too bad for the lockup on the Safety Car, I was rooting for him.
A few days ago, I was watching a replay of the 2004 Italian Grand Prix on YouTube. The race was long enough that the video needed to be broken into six parts. I was moving through the parts, minding my own business when suddenly I encountered this…
WTF! This race happened EIGHT years ago!
Seriously Youtube? Seriously, Formula One Management Group? What could you possibly be thinking? This race happened eight years ago, yet Formula 1 lawyers still won’t let me watch it. This constriction of online media is the exact reason, in my opinion, that Formula 1 is having trouble adopting younger fans.
You can see this problem in our ‘Formula 1′ section on the blog. Since FOM sweep through YouTube and continue to block videos we have alot of articles with dead multimedia associated. So yet another reason for me to gripe…
It seems that Formula One in general is continuously losing touch with the fans that are trying to support the sport. Ticket prices are higher than ever before, preventing fans to attend the races in person. Buying a Red Bull hoodie can cost over 150 dollars, and you can’t watch races online without paying more egregious fees. Meanwhile the FOM are wondering why people have decided to watch other sports?
Seriously?! Talk about shooting yourself in the foot by basically shoving new fans out the door, before they even get there.
In the last ten years, media had started to evolve into the digital format. Social media interaction have exploded. Users are demanding higher levels of engagement and interaction with content and the players involved. The fans want more. Yet here is Formula 1, going out of their way to block users from seeing the sport and making supporting it prohibitively expensive while complaining that they’re watching their user base decrease and remain older.
Well, no duh! If you go out of your way to block me from watching the races, why would I keep trying to watch it? Why would I advocate that other people watch it? People don’t watch as much on television. The internet is the new primary source of media consumption, and Formula One just seems to ignore it as if it doesn’t exist. I’m sure if a new person was searching on Formula 1, and got the blocker prompt that I did on Youtube, most would simply just search on something else and turn away.
In the modern era, how are you expected to teach new fans about the history of Formula 1 when the sport itself goes out of it way to make sure that young people can’t view it easily?(In an era where more young people don’t even find CARS to be as interesting we used to, this is a worry.)
Ironically I can watch full feeder series races like GP2, because the sport doesn’t market itself well and therefore is generally ignored by the sporting community. (Lucky for me? ) However unless I’m willing to pay for it, or pirate the feed illegally, I’m not allowed to watch the top flight of motorsport. I’m not even allowed to watch the recent race edit without logging into the Formula 1 website.
When I brought the situation to my friend David, (whose not even a Formula 1 fan) he instantly brought up the idea of how easy would it be to create an official channel on YouTube which showed replays of Grand Prix? It’s not like it wouldn’t be popular! FOM has to go out of it’s way to block users from uploading content already! If FOM offered content themselves, then it would make sense to ACTUALLY block people so you went to their channel instead! (It also counts as free advertising for related merchandise. which is probably worth much more than Youtube.)
Seriously FOM. This isn’t rocket science. Get your act together. Loosen up your wallets. Offer free online feeds. Offer new ways to entice engagement via online media. The money that you’ll gain finding new adopters into the sport will far supersede the money that you think that you’re losing through copyright infringements via Youtube. In a sport where racing teams are spending hundreds of millions of dollar to find tenth of a second, you’re just leaving money on the floor by being stingy and not letting people enjoy the experience.
Maybe I should just watch more IndyCar. They offer full race feeds on Youtube. I can never miss a race.
I only wanted to bring this video to your attention, so that you enjoy the glorious sound of a Formula 1 V10 engine, echoing around Monaco.
That’s all. I’ve listened to it at least five times today.
I love this little robot. ^^^
I’ve really enjoyed the Mclaren’s Tooned cartoons. I’ve heard that they have a few more being released to the end of the year, which is nice. Since Hamilton is moving to Mercedes next year, I wonder if Perez is going to be in Season 2… if there is one.
Not so long ago, I was invited to drive 15 laps of Ricard in a Toyota V10 F1 car. Here's a brief look at what transpired...
http://youtu.be/z7OM5Jg08RE
For those of you who follow Formula 1, you know that the ink is drying on Lewis Hamilton’s highly publicized move to Mercedes GP. Hamilton, who has been supported by Mclaren’s young driver development program since he was 13 years old is moving to the German works team for a three-year 100 million dollar contract. Since entering the sport in 2010, Mercedes have under-whelmed the competition by only scoring one race win. Mclaren, on the other hand, has been a staple in the championship title hunts in Formula 1 for the last forty years.
People have been saying that Lewis is only interested in moving to Mercedes, due to the extra sponsorship money that he will be receiving in his new contract. Signing for Mercedes provides him with the access to his own image rights back, giving him the ability to make personal sponsorship deals that he was unable to make at Mclaren.
Those in F1’s inner circles have been commenting on how Hamilton’s move signals his loss of focus as a racer, and one of the single greatest mistakes in the 2008 World Champion’s career.
But is it really? I’ve had some time to think about it and if we take a look back in Formula 1 history, we can reflect over a similar situation with a young Michael Schumacher in the early 1990s.
***
In 1996, Schumacher made the move from championship winning team, Benetton, to a faltering Scuderia Ferrari. Having won the title twice in the last two years with Benetton, Schumacher was enticed over to the scarlet red cars, in the hopes of molding the struggling team into series champions.
It wasn’t a smooth progression for the driver or the team. Through 1996 and 1999, although Schumacher was constantly in the hunt for the title, he did not win a Driver’s Championship during that time. The main cause was a car that wasn’t up to the task. Ferrari would constantly let him down through technical retirements through a lack of development or rookie mistakes determining race strategy.
However, with each mistake, the team learned how to improve. Ferrari used that time to go through through a massive internal reorganization. Through Schumacher’s recommendation, they hired Ross Brawn as technical director and Rory Byrne as chief designer. Byrne, Brawn and Schumacher revolutionized the car’s development path year over year. From the production side, Ferrari also centralized their car development operations under one roof in Maranello, formerly having production challenges by having engines developed in the UK, while their chassis were being developed in Italy.
Once they got their house in order in 2000, Ferrari’s championship run really took off. We all know how Schumacher and Ferrari dominated over Formula 1 for the next five years, giving Michael a total tally of seven driver’s titles.
***
Coming back to the present, ironically Hamilton is replacing Michael Schumacher is his move to Mercedes GP. A team that has Ross Brawn as technical director and other genius minds such as Bob Bell and Aldo Costa. The team is still developing, but with the minds that they have backing the car’s development, mixed with Hamilton’s natural driving talent, Mercedes may turn into a force to be reckoned with in the coming years.
I’m not sure how Hamilton’s skills are when it comes to providing the right feedback which helps to develop a car. However, he can drive the wheels off of whatever he’s given and that’s a huge help to get an understanding of the underlying baseline performance.
It definitely will not be an easy or quick project, but evolving from mid-pack to top team has happened before in Formula 1. One only needs to look at the rapid progress of Red Bull Racing as a proper case-study of a team that’s climbed from being mediocre to meteoric. However, in racing is never a sure thing that a team will become successful. How that success is determined is based on the caliber of the driver line up and the level of financial investment put into the team. For Mercedes, nothing less than being champions will do. So the climb will be steep, even with drivers like Hamilton and Rosberg carrying them.
Whenever a top driver changes teams, it causes a massive shakeup among the fans so people are likely to put alot of un-needed back press on Hamilton over the next few weeks. (Remember, how Jenson Button moving to Mclaren was supposed to be a big mistake for the Frome man in 2009? Glad I didn’t make a bet on that being a bad fit for him.)
Hamilton will just need to be patient, and grow with the team as they learn to work with each other. His move from Mclaren also shows that Lewis is wanting to break free of the shadow of the team that has fostered his development from the age of 13. At some point, children do just want to leave the nest, and in my opinion this contract move is Hamilton’s way of putting the final stamp on his need to be independent.
So give it time, and we’ll see who’ll be laughing in the end.
(Plus the idea of a Alonso, Vettel, Button and Hamilton four way battle will be EPIC. Bring on 2013!)
One thing that isn’t really captured well when we watch Formula One on television is the sheer volume of noise that a F1 car can put out. I’ve heard one F1 car up close, and the noise was earth-shattering. I can’t help but wonder what twenty-four of them together sound like.
However, this guy just traveled to Singapore to watch the F1 Grand Prix. Problem is…he might not get any sleep before the actual race starts.
In recent days, it was discovered that the Ferrari F2012′s DRS wing was activated by the driver in a different way than a majority of the other cars in the current Formula 1 field.
Unlike most cars, whose wings are activated by a button on the steering wheel, the switch to activate the drag reduction system in the Ferrari is on the side of the drivers foot by the brake pedal.
After speaking to another friend who is a fan of F1 this morning, I wanted to share this video in case anyone else was curious to how the system worked for the Scuderia.
You all by now may have heard about the atrocious start to this past weekend’s F1 race held at Spa. Here is Fernando Alonso’s replay of the event, as his entire life flashes before his eyes.
Image credit: Hooniverse via Dan Sabol. Excellent work Dan!
Yeah. So the Formula 1 summer break is coming to an end tomorrow, and obviously I’m super excited. Hence the flood of F1 content on the blog from me over the last few days.
This year, Formula 1 is returning to America by hosting a race in Texas at the Circuit of the Americas. Next year, we’re getting another race which will be hosted on the streets of New Jersey.
Red Bull Racing flew DC and two RB7s out to New York to create a promotional video, and they didn’t disappoint.
Enjoy.
…and that’s ok. (smiles) Really it is!
As much as I want professional racing drivers to put their full attention on driving the wheels of a race car, it is important for them to let their hair down and have some fun. At least Sebastian chose to involve himself with a video with a bit more class than some of his recent exploits.
Also we don’t have to hear Sebastian sing…(unlike a certain seven-time world champion doing karaoke.)
A few days ago, I was speaking to a friend about a video when Jaime Alguersuari was caught ‘drifting’ an F1 car in 2010.
I figured that this video was awesome enough to share with everyone, because it’s not something that you see very often in Formula 1.
What were you doing when you were 18 years old? Well, Mark Webber was racing Formula Brabhams.(As if Mark Webber would be doing anything else other than racing…)
Check out this ‘classic’ video of the driver who is now working for Red Bull Racing in F1.
Love to see that Mark still had that Aussie Grit personality as a young man.
Check out this video done by F1 driver turned broadcaster, Martin Brundle.
Have you ever wanted to know what a Formula 1 driver is doing on that opening lap before the start of a Grand Prix? It’s amazing how much activity is done on the single lap.
Here are some detail photographs of the "half-Sauber" (F108) we featured recently in video form on The Flying Lap:
It’s pretty good timing that Codemasters released this trailer for F1 2012, as I just finished winning the WDC in F1 2011.
On of the ‘highlights’ of the real F1 2012 season, has been that the field has six drivers who have won the drivers championship. Codemasters has taken advantage of this by creating a special game mode, where the player can take on each champion driver in ‘unique’ race scenarios.
To be honest, I’m not sure how it’s going to exactly play-out since you’re always racing these drivers during the regular season. Although, since the Codemasters series is one of my current favorites, I still wanted to highlight the video.
As a motor-racing fan, it’s always good to know that our grand-prix racing role models are always providing examples of sportsmanship and class.
Oh wait… Well at least they show the top-flight driving standards of true pros, right?
Really?! Sigh…
