Sebastien Bourdais Thierry Boutsen Johnny Boyd David Brabham Gary Brabham
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Red Bull reveal interactive 360-degree video of their F1 car in action | F1 video
Red Bull reveal interactive 360-degree video of their F1 car in action is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Red Bull and Norwegian company Making View have produced a remarkable new interactive onboard video of an F1 car in action.
The video above features an interactive camera which can be moved in real-time while it is playing.
It shows Sebastien Buemi lapping Norway’s Rudskogen Motorsenter in their show car in August.
Note that due to the large amount of data in the video it may take a while to load depending on the speed of your internet connection.
Thanks to Making View for granting permission for F1 Fanatic to reproduce their video.
Pictures: Sebastien Buemi at Rudskogen Motorsenter
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Images © Red Bull/Daniel Tengs
Red Bull reveal interactive 360-degree video of their F1 car in action 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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Louis Chiron Joie Chitwood Bob Christie Johnny Claes David Clapham
Force India Wish Hulkenberg Well At Sauber
Force India Team Principle Vijay Mallya has wished Nico Hulkenberg well following his agreement to join Sauber next season.
The German racer will replace Sergio Perez who will join McLaren with lewis Hamilton moving to Mercedes.
The announcement finishes weeks of speculation surrounding his future and brings to an end two years with the team.
Mallya was not bitter following the news and hopes Hulkenberg will be happy with his new employers:
“It has been a pleasure to have Nico with us for the last couple of years,” he said.
“At the end of 2010 we identified him as a star of the future and it has been rewarding to watch him develop his racing skills.
“Together with Paul (di Resta) he has done a brilliant job for us, helping the team score more points than ever before and giving 100 per cent commitment every weekend.
“We would like to thank him for all his hard work and wish him well for the future.
“With three races remaining this season, we know Nico will remain totally committed and continue to deliver his best performances for the team.”
Mallya also believes his team can beat Sauber in the Constructors’ Championship:
“We have 93 points in the bag, but we are still 23 short of Sauber,”
“It’s a big task to catch them, but anything can happen. We’ve finished fourth twice and we were very close to a podium in both of those races.
“If we get a bit of luck in the last three races we might be able to make it up. 23 points is not uncatchable.”
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Kurt Ahrens Jr Christijan Albers Michele Alboreto Jean Alesi Jaime Alguersuari
Ferrari Ready To Give 120%
Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo has declared that his team will be working overtime to help Fernando Alonso beat Sebastian Vettel in the World Drivers’ Championship.
The Red Bull racer’s win in India put him 13 points clear at the top of the standings, with Alonso occupying second spot.
The Spaniard hasn’t won since the German Grand Prix and di Montezemolo says that the team will be working hard to help their man get back on top of the podium:
“Drivers and team have never been more united to give 120%.” He told ESPN.
“We’re more united than ever, and the team is working on further improvements with the last three races in sight.
“We’re ready to give it 120%, just like Alonso. We’ll fight for the championship to the last kilometre. I’m very confident.
“Alonso was exceptional in India. Felipe (Massa) brought home some very important points for the Constructors’ Championship, and the team was perfect in the strategy and reliability.
“I don’t wish bad luck to anyone, but I think with two collisions at starts in the second part of the season, we’ve paid a very high price.”
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Duane Carter Eugenio Castellotti Johnny Cecotto Andrea de Cesaris Francois Cevert
Raikkonen: Qualifying improvement needed in 2013 | 2012 F1 season
Raikkonen: Qualifying improvement needed in 2013 is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Kimi Raikkonen says qualifying will be a key area for improvement in his second season with Lotus next year.
In a Q&A released by the team Raikkonen said: “This season has shown that you have to be on first two rows to be able to win every time.
“It’s important to improve our grid positions for 2013. That’s one of main targets for me.”
Raikkonen believes he has defied the doubters on his return to Formula One this year: “I think there were a few people who had doubts about how I would perform after being away for a while.
“Personally, I didn’t feel I stopped racing at all. I may have been doing something different with rallying, but after coming back to Formula One I immediately felt fit enough – and fast enough – to start racing again.
“My hunger for winning is exactly the same as always and I think I’ve shown that I’m capable of fighting for victories. Obviously there have been none so far this year, but we have come close a few times and for sure we’ll keep on trying for as long as it takes to start winning again.”
Earlier today Lotus confirmed Raikkonen will see out the second year of his contract with them in 2013. Raikkonen is third in the championship at present and believes he can do better next year:
“I have been very happy with the team; how they work, how they approach the races and how they invest in developing the car. I think with the progress behind the scenes at Enstone we could be fighting for the podium even more often next year and also be able to make a stronger challenge for the championship.”
“This season has shown me that I still love racing as much as I ever did,” he added. “Obviously, I would have not come back to the sport if I did not feel like this. Driving a Formula 1 car still gives me the same inspiration and I feel the same passion for it.”
2012 Indian Grand Prix
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Image © Lotus F1 Team/LAT
Raikkonen: Qualifying improvement needed in 2013 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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George Amick Red Amick Chris Amon Bob Anderson Conny Andersson
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Raikkonen favourite to taste victory in Belgium
At Spa-Francorchamps
In this remarkable season of unpredictability and uncertainty, of seven winners in 11 races, of the most open title battle in years, Formula 1 is still waiting for one big result.
A victory for the revived Lotus team has looked inevitable since the start of the year. And as the world championship re-starts in Belgium this weekend following a month-long summer break, the expectation is that this could be their race.
The car, from the team formerly known as Renault that won two world championships with Fernando Alonso in 2005-6, has been fast all season. Its best result has been four second places. But the momentum seems to be with them.
Kimi Raikkonen's Lotus pushed Lewis Hamilton's winning McLaren all the way in Hungary five weeks ago. The Finn has a stunning record at the stunning Spa-Francorchamps track that hosts this race and Lotus have been working on a technical trick that could give them a key advantage on the demanding track that swoops and twists around the contours of the Ardennes mountains.
Kimi Raikkonen has won the Belgian Grand Prix four times. Photo: Getty
The 32-year-old Finn seems to have a special affinity with the circuit regarded as arguably the biggest test for a racing driver anywhere in the world. He has taken four victories here - and either won or retired from every single race he has competed at Spa since 2004.
Raikkonen's all-action style, based on fast corner entry in a car with good front-end bite, seems perfectly suited to Spa's cascade of long, fast corners.
Two of his wins - for McLaren in 2004 and Ferrari in 2009 - came in years when his machinery was otherwise uncompetitive. The other two were dominant victories from the front in 2005 and 2007.
But Raikkonen's position as arguably the favourite for victory this weekend is not founded just on his renowned Spa specialism. He is widely expected to have the car to do the job.
Lotus have come agonisingly close to victory twice already this year - in Bahrain in April and at the last race, in Hungary at the end of July.
Both times it was Raikkonen who challenged only to just fall short, behind Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel in Bahrain and Hamilton in Hungary. But the Finn, who returned to F1 this season after two unproductive years in world rallying, has actually been Lotus's weaker driver for most of the year.
His team-mate, the Franco-Swiss Romain Grosjean, who is in his first full season, has generally had a marginal advantage - to the point that around the European Grand Prix in Valencia at the end of June there were murmurings of dissatisfaction with the Finn, who won the world championship for Ferrari in 2007.
Raikkonen ultimately finished second to Alonso in Valencia, but had been off the pace of Grosjean all weekend - indeed the younger man was pushing the Ferrari hard when his alternator failed late in the race.
When, following the race, Raikkonen expressed his frustration at it taking so long for Lotus to win, one team member privately expressed the view that he would be better focused on beating Grosjean before moaning about not winning yet.
Since then, though, Raikkonen has upped his game and in the race in Hungary he was fantastic, the middle stint there that lifted him from fifth place to potential victor one of the most impressive pieces of driving all season.
Had Raikkonen not made a mess of qualifying, and taken the front row slot he should have earned rather than the fifth place he did, he might well have won. The same can be said of Bahrain, where a decision to save tyres for the race left him down in 11th place on the grid and with too much to do.
Grosjean, too, must be considered a potential Spa winner. Despite making too many errors, he has been all confidence and commitment this year.
He has looked a different driver on his return to F1 in 2012 from the haunted figure who was demoralised by Alonso during his first half-season at Renault in 2009, after which he was dropped.
The high expectations for Lotus at Spa are partly based on the car's inherent qualifies - a factor in its general competitiveness this year has been strong performance in fast corners, and Spa is full of them.
As well as that, though, is that innovation mentioned earlier. In Hungary, and in Germany the week before, Lotus trialled a clever system aimed at boosting the team's straight-line speed without compromising its performance in other areas.
Like the DRS overtaking aid featured on all the cars, the Lotus system affects the rear wing to reduce drag.
It works by channelling air from scoops behind the driver's head to the rear wing, which this extra air then 'stalls', reducing the downforce the wing creates and therefore its drag, boosting straight-line speed.
What is not clear is when exactly the Lotus system comes into play.
Is it independent of the DRS, as some believe, and therefore active above a pre-set car velocity and usable at all times, including in the race when DRS use is restricted to a specific zone?
Or is it, as BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson believes, linked to the DRS and simply an extra boost to the car's speed when that system is employed, like the system Mercedes have been using but without the inherent compromises that team have discovered?
Either way, it could be a significant boost to Lotus's chances in Spa. Lotus have yet to use the system outside free practice, and this weekend they will again try it out on Friday before making a decision whether to race it.
For all the talk of Lotus, though, a win for them is a very long way from a foregone conclusion. Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren will be as strong as ever on a track that should suit all their cars.
In fact, it will be a particularly interesting weekend all round.
Which teams have made best use of the mid-season break to develop their cars?
Have Ferrari made the step forward in performance they seemed in Hungary to need if Alonso - unquestionably the stand-out driver of the season so far - is to hang on to his championship lead?
Can McLaren maintain the upward momentum they showed in Germany and Hungary after a brief slump?
Will Red Bull finally unlock the potential of what has looked, on balance, overall the fastest car?
The climax of one of the sport's greatest seasons, a hyper-intense period of nine races in three months, starts here.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/08/raikkonen_favourite_to_taste_v.html
Pedro Diniz Duke Dinsmore Frank Dochnal Jose Dolhem Martin Donnelly
Can I buy a £5 Secret Santa gift for an F1 fan? | Your Questions Answered
Can I buy a £5 Secret Santa gift for an F1 fan? is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Trish wrote in with an early festive shopping question and I felt I should try to help:
Hello my name is Trish and I am seeking your help. I know this is a strange email, but any kind of response would be fabulous.
I have a Secret Santa at my work called Amy. She is Formula One mad and I need to purchase something for her to the value of £5.
I am not that clever at this kind of stuff, and would not have a clue where to look, someone gave me your address and told me to contact you. Please can you help, or suggest something for me to give a F1 fan?
F1 merchandise isn’t cheap so finding something for less than a fiver may prove a little tricky. But here’s a few ideas – good luck, Trish!
Season review videos
Recent F1 season videos are available cheaply and offer hours of F1 entertainment. And if they’re got your friend’s favourite driver or team on the cover you’re definitely onto a winner.
Last year’s video doesn’t quite fall under the £5 barrier but the previous four do. The two-disc review of the thrilling, down-to-the-wire 2010 championship is my pick of these:
- 2010 F1 season review DVD – Sebastian’s coming of age (£4.59): Read the review | Buy from Amazon
- 2009 F1 season review DVD – Not in a hurry (£3.00): Read the review | Buy from Amazon
- 2008 F1 season review DVD – Luck does not come into it… (£4.72): Read the review | Buy from Amazon
- 2007 F1 season review DVD – Kimi made it at last! (£4.59): Read the review | Buy from Amazon
Senna
I was surprised to discover the excellent documentary Senna, which was in cinemas last year, can also be picked up for less than a fiver. If Amy hasn’t seen this yet it’s a sure-fire winner for Trish:
- Senna (£4.75): Read the review | Buy from Amazon
Books
There are several Formula One books recommended by F1 Fanatic which can be had for well under five quid.
Alan Henry’s Top 100 F1 Drivers of All Time is an accessible read on the top F1 drivers to have taken to the track.
- The Top 100 F1 Drivers of All Time (£1.43): Read the review | Buy from Amazon
Cars at Speed may have an uninspiring title but Robert Daley’s book is an essential read for all F1 fans on the perilous early days of Grand Prix racing. The 2007 reprint is ridiculously cheap – grab it.
- Cars at Speed (£2.60): Read the review | Buy from Amazon
Former Top Gear presenter and two-time F1 driver Tiff Needell produced his entertaining autobiography last year:
- Tiff Gear (£3.85): Read the review | Buy from Amazon
Two new books on F1 titan Bernie Ecclestone have appeared recently but this earlier book is the one I refer to most.
- Bernie’s Game (£4.99): Read the review | Buy from Amazon
There are stacks more F1 books out there. If you come across one which looks like a bargain and want to know if it’s any good refer to F1 Fanatic’s extensive reviews.
F1 merchandise
Finding decent, official F1 gear for less than a fiver may be tricky. The search facility on the official F1 shop offers a lowest price of £5.
But you can get unofficial and characterful F1-style merchandise from Unlap such as these Ferrari keyrings and gym bags.
And while you’re there, be sure to pick an official F1 Fanatic mug. Yes, they cost a budget-busting £8, but they represent the pinnacle of hot drink vessel technology.
More ideas
Need more F1 gift ideas? Check our last year’s gift guide:
F1 shops
Here’s one last tip for Trish: have a look for shops in your area which sell F1 memorabilia or books. I’m based in London so here are a few examples near me, although the team’s shops are unlikely to have much on offer for five pounds:
- Motor Books on Cecil Court near Leicester Square (also a racing car model shop next door)
- Ferrari Store on Regent Street
- Inside Track McLaren store at Westfield shopping centre
- Lotus Originals on Regent Street
Over to you
Can any F1 Fanatic readers help Trish out with her Secret Santa quest?
Please post your suggestions for sub-£5 F1 gifts in the comments.
Prices quoted from Amazon where not specified. They are correct at the time of publication but may not include other charges such as postage. F1 Fanatic earns a commission on products sold via the links to our affiliate partners above, however you are not charged any extra. See here for more information.
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Your questions answered
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Can I buy a £5 Secret Santa gift for an F1 fan? 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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Fernando Alonso Giovanna Amati George Amick Red Amick Chris Amon
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