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.
It’s Friday and my thoughts are of doing what this person is doing, grabbing a handful of opposite lock as I slide through a turn. I might have to do just that in the Healey, if the weather gods permit.
This car is probably very often mistaken for a v12 engined beast since it looks more than a bit like a 250 Testa Rossa. This car is powered by a 2.4 liter v6, the Dino v6. This engine was named after Enzo’s son Afredo (“Dino” comes from “Alfredino”, which is how a person name Alfredo’s parents or friends would call him, it means “little Alfredo”). In the mid 50s, Alfredo Ferrari lead the development of the v6 for use in Formula 2, and later Forumla 1. Sadly Alfredo died before he ever got to see his engine (actually designed by Ferrari engineer Vittorio Jano) race.
More information and pictures of this car, chassis 0784, can be found at Ultimate Car Page’s very thorough article about this car.
If anyone can identify the photographer who captured this excellent image, please let me know so I can give proper credit.
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.
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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.
During the off-season, it’s always important to find someway to sharpen your racing skills for when the spring time returns. So over the weekend, I played some RFactor on a friend’s computer.
In my opinion, quality simulation games are a good way to improve your mental programming while racing on a budget.
We spent the afternoon practicing with classic Formula 1 cars, on tracks that we’d never driven before. It gave us some time to re-learn some of our old skills, and also create a list of new habits to start working on for the upcoming season.
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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!
Follow Alonso on Twitter- @alo_oficial. You know you want to. His introduction to Twitter has been completely awesome. I wish more people engaged with their fans like he does.
So having taken a look at some of the replay footage of the Bahrain GP this weekend, this particular incident with Nico Rosberg and Alonso got my attention. It’s clear that when Rosberg comes off the corner, he cuts back across the track in order to squeeze Alonso off the track.
However at the same time, Alonso isn’t alongside the Mercedes when Nico makes the move. So you could argue that although Rosberg was blocking him, that Ferrari driver should have known better than to go there.
What are your thoughts? Was Rosberg being unfair, or was Alonso just not paying attention?
The sound alone makes this video worth it…
Normally these BBCs interviews go down pretty quick. Despite a terrible car, nearly zero points, and a contract with Williams F1 running out, Rubens is still a sunny light in the darkest storm.
This man is a legend, and I’m wishing him the best in 2012.
I love these documentaries by Formula 1 sponsors. They provide a unique insight into the technical aspects of Formula 1 development. It’s amazing how these companies push for the victory, on the track and off.
This video is by Shell, which details how the company develops race fuels for Scuderia Ferrari. Current drivers like Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa make cameos, as well
Interesting Fact: During the era of refueling, new fuel was used to cool the car when the tank was being filled during the pitstop.
Those of you following Formula 1 will know the Singapore GP is this weekend. Although Sebastian Vettel has built up a runaway lead to the championship, the battle for second place is still heated up until the end of the season.
Ferrari has been a team that I’ve been following closely this year, as they have struggled to develop a strong car for the third year running. They aren’t one of my favorite GP teams, but the development of the car has been a key point of this season.
I’ve been posting Scuderia Ferrari videos for a while now, just to track the development of the team over the season.
With Formula 1 heading to Monza, the sport enters the holy ground of Scuderia Ferrari. I’ve been following the ‘Scuderia Ferrari Racing News’ for the later-half of this season, and I’ve found these videos to help give Formula 1 fans something to think about prior to each race.
Also it’s nice to see Scuderia Ferrari prepare some sort of media for their fans, since they don’t allow their drivers to engage in social media directly.
With the Italian GP coming up, Ferrari is redoubling their efforts to bring the F150th Italia to another surprise win, much like in 2010.
After catching an image of it yesterday, I couldn’t get this car out of my mind. I had to do some more research on it. The body armor is a Koenig Special kit, and the car is being tuned and maintained by Nakamura Engineering in Japan. I haven’t found any performance specifications on it yet, but when I do I’ll update this thread.
I’m also taking a moment to try out a new ‘Gallery’ function on the image posts. How do you guys like it? Would you rather have image posts displayed this way from now on, or displayed throughout the text as before? Let me know, and I’ll be trying out the new setting for a few posts.
I’ve featured the last few Scuderia Ferrari Racing news videos, as I’ve been keeping a close eye on Ferrari this season. As usual, Ferrari F1 found itself struggling at the beginning of the year, as they built an overly-conservative machine for 2011.
Ferrari say that next year’s car will be more ‘aggressive’ and ‘competitive’ than this years car. (They always say that though, so we’ll see if Pat Fry can actually contribute to developing a better car)
As one of Ferrari’s primary sponsors, Shell loves to create marketing materials which highlight their commitment to Formula 1 and Scuderia Ferrari.
This piece is a very interesting segment of 1964 World Champion John Surtees having a face to face conversation with current Ferrari driver, and two-time world champion, Fernando Alonso. I think that it’s special how the two drivers really talk about the differences between Formula 1 now and then.
Sidenote: One thing that I wish that marketeers would pay attention to when creating these adverts, is how they interject the branding, so that it is not awkward when they are mentioned. When Fernando starts talking about Shell lubricants, you shudder slightly as it’s not part of the natural flow of conversation.
Honestly, I found this to be pretty interesting. Ferrari has a strong joint relationship with Shell, in the development of it’s racing fuels in Formula 1. It was interesting to learn that there are some similarities between the race fuels, and the fuel that I put in my own car. (Marketing song and dance aside)…
However, what this tells me is that I need to get working on figuring out how to do a road legal Formula 1 car. (Anyone have a Lotus T125 Exos that I can borrow?) So I can do this…
With the British Grand Prix approaching, things are interesting under the banner of Scuderia Ferrari. As a constructor, the team is 166 points behind championship leaders Red Bull. The leading Ferrari driver, Fernando Alonso, is 99 points (which is almost four race wins apart) of championship leader Sebastian Vettel. To say that Ferrari have mentally given up on the 2011 season is all but an understatement.
Still the team must press on, and continue to develop the car. Times like this provide good opportunity to test and develop small new design changes for the 2012 car. Also, there may be some chance for the Scuderia to grab some glory during the season, and pick up at a least one race win. For next year, the Scuderia have to be more aggressive in design. Hopefully something that Pat Fry, Ferrari’s new “technical director” should be able to help focus the direction.
Regardless this weekend in 2011, the teams have to manage a ban on blown diffusers. Talk around the paddock of whether these changes by the FIA will shake up the established order have been running rampant. Below is a Scuderia Ferrari News video as a preview of the British Grand Prix, which talks to some of the situations that the team will have to face this weekend.
Championship or not, they still have a season to run…
Ferrari’s 2011 Formula 1 campaign has been less than stellar. The F150th Italia has been lacking downforce, doing poorly on low-fuel and lacking pace on harder compound tires. Ferrari has been discussing the point of throwing away the chase of the 2011 title and put the attention onto 2012.
Scuderia Ferrari has released an interview with Ferrari technical staff, discussing what perspective will be for the next few races.
Ferrari has been having a real drought of luck in Formula 1 as of recently. The Scuderia has developed a car (the 150th Italia) that really seems to struggle with aerodynamic downforce. It doesn’t work well on harder compound tires. It doesn’t work well on low fuel loads. It just doesn’t work well!
Ferrari has gone through two reorganizations of the technical structure to attempt to figure out what’s wrong with the car, but yet to no avail. You wonder if Ferrari can ever turn things around.
Yet, there is one man who seems to bring some inspiration in the Prancing Horse. That man is Fernando Alonso. (Click to read more after the bump)
Ferrari F1 News-leading into Turkey. Check out the other links that we found here.
Ferrari has created pre-season news bulletins for the 2011 season that are just interesting to watch. Here are some of the videos that we could find, so far.
Most people following F1 will know most of this information already, but it is interesting to watch if you haven’t seen any of these. We’ll build this post out as we find more. (Check out the videos after the jump)
We’ve got our focus on the Australian Grand Prix this weekend, planning to put together a post for you in the coming days. So in the meantime we wanted to give you a grabbag of pictures, just so you know that we haven’t forgotten about you.
Enjoy the weekend, and watch the F1 race live if you can!
As the first official race weekend of the 2011 Formula 1 season starts tomorrow. We at the “Starting Grid” thought it proper to provide you with a quick summary of what happened in 2010.
I know that today was supposed to be mostly about GT Cars, but it’s nice to have passing thoughts. Enjoy.
The Ferrari 458 Italia is a magnificent car. No one can argue that here. However, the 458 GT racer is another car that is cranked up to 11…maybe even 12.
These images were found on Jon Sibal’s website, and I respect this guy too much not to link to this site. Check out it out here. However, here is a teaser from us.
When did it happen that a racing driver was managed more by his PR group, than his own emotions? Do you remember the interviews of Nigel Mansell, James Hunt or Aryton Senna? Those men spoke what they felt, and they made sure that everyone knew it. The classic greats had flair, style and more importantly were more honest than drivers of current.
Look at the interviews of Vettel, Hamilton and even Alonso. They seem pre-written, manufactured and just fake. Sometimes it’s important to measure your response, on behalf of the team or to keep moral high. Other times though, you just need to just speak up and let the world know what you think! Especially when someone has put your life at risk with a stupid move, or a serious mistake has been made.
Maybe it’s because fast racing drivers have become more common, so it’s easy to be replaced. Maybe some people are scared to defend what they actually think. However, we at the “StartingGrid” think that it’s more important for a driver to speak what is on their mind.
Speak honest, and drive honest. We know it’s easier said than done, but we wish it was more common in motorsport, versus the cookiecutter responses that we get now.
At the end of the day, they are the ones who are putting themselves at risk.
Here are some pictures and videos of some classic interviewers and drivers. Just think, when the mike is put in your face, what would you say?
A hard-parked Ferrari doesn’t sit well with us around here. This is more how we like our stallions. Nicely used. It’s been a point of discussion around here, whether this is a 308 or a 328. This author is putting his bucks on the 328, but if one of our readers knows for 100%, let us know.
With the 2011 Pre-Season test sessions in the books, the time for real racing is upon us. The Australian Grand Prix is right around the corner now, and at the time of this writing, only 12 days away. Going into the new season, the question seems to be which team will be able to utilize the new Pirelli tires to the maximum? The teams have been working hard trying to make up for the lost aerodynamic downforce produced by 2010′s cars. The cars no longer have the Double Decked Diffuser, an added weight penalty, a set weight distribution, and KERS/Active Rear Wing to deal with. The drivers are sure to be busy in the cockpits, having already had a multitude of buttons and adjustments to make, but now sorting the new ARW with KERS will add an extra degree of difficulty.
The top teams have wracked up a massive amount of time with Ferrari constantly putting in 100+ lap days save for one incident with Felipe Massa’s prancing horse having it’s arse go up in flames. The team’s Ferrari 150* Italia features seemingly small cooling margins for aerodynamic gain and a re-worked rear suspension arrangement that still uses the pushrod cleverly sorted into a very small and compact package. Meanwhile the sidepods, bargeboards, and floor have been revised to clean up the airflow around the sides of the car.
Ferrari 150* Italia
Red Bull look again to be the favorites for the season, despite Mark Webber believing the Fezza are the team to beat, putting in consistent fast laps and blistering pace during long run simulations. Their RB7 chassis looks to retool some of the ideas used on the clever RB5 that was able to keep up with and beat the championship winning BrawnGP car of 2008. Again, like it’s predecessors, the RB7 is very clean cut, with very sleek and slender rear body lines to maximize the usage of their exhaust blown floor along with a very neatly packaged pullrod rear suspension. The team have decided to tighten up the rear body work to take full advantage of the air available to the rear diffuser and wings.
RedBull RB7
Mercedes looked to have set their mark with the fastest overall time in Barcelona at a 1.21.249 done by the reborn Michael Schumacher in the W02. The team have introduced a rehash of the Brawn001′s front wing element and sleeker side pods that have helped the team find a good chunk of time and have helped to put them right back in the thick of things. Ross Brawn has stated that:
“The car is more consistent now, we are able to make changes to it that have an effect. Everything is moving in the right direction.”
Read the interview here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/9422249.stm
It will be interesting to see if they can turn their 2010 struggles into 2011 championship points.
MercedesGP W02
McLaren have had a bit of a struggle this pre-season, juggling the radical concepts of their heavily undercut floor along with their L-shaped cooling inlets. Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton have both admitted that their new MP4-26 contender may not be quite the contender they had hoped for. The reliability of the car has been shaky at best and the drivers have said that the balance of the car is not quite right. Although they may be struggling now, McLaren have always had a good reputation for being able to develop a car throughout the season from a zero to a hero.
McLaren MP4-26
Grading the pre-season thus far and how the top 4 teams have managed, I’d say that the Red Bull is still the favorite with Ferrari just behind. Meanwhile, Mercedes’ upgraded body work have seemingly put them ahead of McLaren. There is still some work to do for the Woking team and it will undoubtedly be an uphill battle as the other contenders will be developing as fast as they can.
Tomorrow, I will go through the midfield to review the Lotus Renault, Sauber Ferrari, Williams, Force India, and Scuderia Toro Rosso and see what they have done to bring them closer to the top.
