Flavio will be ecstatic... he'll get a nice bit of commission from whichever team signs Alonso, and he's lined himself up a good job at Toyota.
I was going to say on reflection of todays annoucement that Flavio is probably leaving, has played his part to put Alonso into McLaren and maybe trying to get Kovalinen into FA's old Renault seat.
He wont need a good job at Toyota if he's this good at being a manager!
I was going to say on reflection of todays annoucement that Flavio is probably leaving, has played his part to put Alonso into McLaren and maybe trying to get Kovalinen into FA's old Renault seat.
Flav was due to leave in July this year, but extended his contract until the end of 2006. With Alonso leaving, Flav leaving, Fisi out of contract, and Michelin going too, maybe that will be the time for Renault to pull out too. If not, then Kovalienen is almost certainly the replacement for Fernando.
all of this makes me think that there are too many drivers and not enough teams.. Renault, McLaren, BAR, Red Bull and Toyota all have driver programs with several drivers but apart from Midland where can these drivers go.. only to CART or the IRL it seems.. this is one of the problems with F1 at the moment except no one realises it.. we need to get more drivers and teams in
So good day for Gary Paffett, finally making it to F1 as an test driver (because lets face it, if you were Alex Wurz, would you be staying at Mclaren now)
Sad Day for Alonso, I don't think he find the environment at Mclaren really to his liking the same has he did in an team such as Renault. That might effect is performances
What I'm more confused about is the prospect of having two driver, if Alonso lines up with JPM at Mclaren with Personalities, surely Personalities don't fit in with Ron Mclaren Vision of an Bland Organisation
Flav was due to leave in July this year, but extended his contract until the end of 2006. With Alonso leaving, Flav leaving, Fisi out of contract, and Michelin going too, maybe that will be the time for Renault to pull out too. If not, then Kovalienen is almost certainly the replacement for Fernando.
Just heard that Renault may be pulling their team out of F1, and they will return to being an engine-only maker.
Anyone else read THIS statement from Geoff Willis. It has to be one of the most realistic, totally sensible truths about F1 past, present and future ever uttered.
And the reasons why may be found in this article at F1i.com, the site founded by Bertrand Gachot, and run from an office adjacent to a certain magazine.
Would also be quite handy to use during the new Stupid Qualifying system, providing its still in place by Bahrain as i've heard that at least 18 drivers will be meeting with the FIA in Janurary to discuss staying with single lap qualifying next year. It seems this new knockout system is quite unpopular with most teh drivers & teams.
Was disappointed to read this if it's true. Personally, I think the current qualifying system is a poor waste of TV time. I won't watch it, apart from perhaps the last 10 mins, because I have no interest in watching cars pootling around a track on their own without the merest threat of overtaking. Oh hang on....that's on Sundays isnt it.
the manufacturers keep goin on about they have to have the technology in f1 and that's why they are there etc and won't go back to loosing some of this to increase the show
the problem is the manufacturers won't say what technology they have on the cars.. it's so secretive that there is very little point to it being there
to the average man in the street all Honda, BMW, etc do is make the engine and that is who they are trying to target .. unless they are more open then the technology is unlikely to help them sell any more cars
we may know they design more on the car but being more hardcore fans we are unlikely to buy a car based on that anyway
Anyone else read THIS statement from Geoff Willis. It has to be one of the most realistic, totally sensible truths about F1 past, present and future ever uttered.
Nicey and Smashy are you listening?
It seems people have different opinions of IF costs have/are been cut.
I know that Paul Stoddard said earlier in teh year that because costs had been cut he had a guaranteed budget for Minardi in 2006 & that was teh 1st time the team had a guaranteed budget since 1998.
Also for the 1st time in years we have new teams willing to enter F1 because costs have been cut, we all know about Super Aguri but it seems David Richards wants to bring Prodrive to F1 in 2008, i've heard that GP2 teams ARD, DAMS & Hitech are intrested in entering F1 & all of these teams have said they are only intrested because costs are now affordable for them.
The bigger teams will always see cost cutting as pointless as they have the money to switch development to another area, however the smmaler teams won't so the costs will be reduced for them.
Also this week Ferrari seem to have joined the Cost Cutting crusade:
Ferrari has called for a radical cut in F1 budgets.
After a long period in which it was the best financed team in pitlane, the Maranello outfit is enduring a decline. Mother backer Fiat is in dire straits, big sponsor Vodafone is about to leave for McLaren, and the Italian team's worst year in the Schumacher era struck in 2005.
Technical director Ross Brawn said Toyota's budget is around the $500m mark, and it was recently revealed that Honda spent even more than that during the year.
'We need to make sure $100m is a more than adequate budget to compete and win in F1,' the Briton told Autosprint.
Nonetheless, Brawn reckons work at Ferrari this winter has never been as fever-pitched. Work is not only going into the car, tyre and engine, but 'improving the organisation of the team'.
He added: 'The lesson we've learned from 2005 is that we need to have a more aggressive approach.'
cust cutting and a more level playing field would be one of the great to see.. too often money is wasted developing parts and then as soon as the teams test them in the public domain the other teams complain because it's something they haven't developed and it gets banned.. total waste of money
tyre testing should be done by the tyre companies and not the teams themselves
would love to see more teams in F1.. as i said earlier all the teams have several drivers under contract and driver development programs but the only team they can get in is Midland
Was disappointed to read this if it's true. Personally, I think the current qualifying system is a poor waste of TV time. I won't watch it, apart from perhaps the last 10 mins, because I have no interest in watching cars pootling around a track on their own without the merest threat of overtaking. Oh hang on....that's on Sundays isnt it.
Disgusting.....the drivers just want to zoom around on their own without the threat of doing something interesting for the viewers....selfish is what it is.
I will watch Qualifying under the new rules......I won't watch boring single car qualy. It's that simple, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
Nope I'm the same, I Sky+ the whole of Qualifying and then just zoom through the whole thing unless there's an off or something, catch the post race press con (if ITV deem it so) and then bugger off for the rest of the day. Where as A1GP qualifying, even though they only have 1 lap each session, seeing them all trying to get around each other keeps me stuck to the set for the two hours.
I'm not sure if the getting rid of the slowest ones every 15 minutes is a good idea, I'd prefer the full hour all out qualifying we all knew and loved, but it's a start and a whole lot better than one car followed by another, followed by another, followed by zzzzzzzzzz.
Watched the Autosport Awards Ceremony tonight on Sky's World Motor Sport. Steve Rider seemed a bit out of sorts, especially trying to talk to the Drag Racing chap, who seemed in another world anyway. At least he looked more comfortable with Kimi, so fingers crossed for his new ITV gig. Wasn't sure about the Katherine Legge segment, first thing they showed whilst talking about the award she won was her running straight into the path of another car and watching it launch into the air. Mmmmm. Oh and one last thing, does Bernie charge money if he's interviewed or makes an acceptance speech? He won an award but no acceptance speech was shown. Jeez he's so short!
Haven't really watched F1 in a while. I enjoyed it when Eddie Irvine raced. Yea not the greatest driver but he was local and drove for Ferrari which is a acheivement in itself. The A1GP is awesome and really competitive. Plus anyone catch the new Helicopter that lifts the stranded race cars????
Champ Cars is also brill. one of my fav seris and NASCAR is really good, used to have no intrest in the ovals but their really is alot of competition and alot more to it.
Before I got Sky I got a leaflet from Sky which showed Indy Racing League on Sky Sports. Will it be on next year????
Watched the Autosport Awards Ceremony tonight on Sky's World Motor Sport. Steve Rider seemed a bit out of sorts, especially trying to talk to the Drag Racing chap, who seemed in another world anyway. At least he looked more comfortable with Kimi, so fingers crossed for his new ITV gig. Wasn't sure about the Katherine Legge segment, first thing they showed whilst talking about the award she won was her running straight into the path of another car and watching it launch into the air. Mmmmm.
Oh and one last thing, does Bernie charge money if he's interviewed or makes an acceptance speech? He won an award but no acceptance speech was shown. Jeez he's so short!
He definitely did a speech on the night. Can't remember what he said... don't think it was very interesting.
Haven't seen the Sky programme, so don't know what else was cut: I don't remember Katherine getting an award though.
Steve has spent the last decade using the awards to criticise F1, and ITV, so had to start this year's awards saying he had seen the error of his ways...
Katherine's award was actually given to her I think they said a week before the Autosport event, it was presented by Sir Sterling Moss, as usual I suppose, it was some corporation award which I've promptly forgotten, damn my aging brain. So Mr.Rider has seen the error of his ways eh? I hope he injects something into ITV's coverage next season, it needs a bit of a shakeup, especially in the commentatin.... no it's the 'goodwill to all' kind of season right now so I'll leave that there
He definitely did a speech on the night. Can't remember what he said... don't think it was very interesting.
Haven't seen the Sky programme, so don't know what else was cut: I don't remember Katherine getting an award though.
Steve has spent the last decade using the awards to criticise F1, and ITV, so had to start this year's awards saying he had seen the error of his ways...
Will Steve be doing the season review, or will it be another airing of the Farewell to Jim montage clip?
(I'm still annoyed Jim got a better and longer farewell to Murray.....but I guess Murray sealed his fate when he decided to say goodbye with Coronation street looming! )
Murray got two documentaries, a special paddock pass from BCE, and a six month farewell tour which would rival the Rolling Stones, so far more than Jim.
And both got more than a certain someone else who I can't mention yet.
Murray got two documentaries, a special paddock pass from BCE, and a six month farewell tour which would rival the Rolling Stones, so far more than Jim.
And both got more than a certain someone else who I can't mention yet.
I don't even dare speculate for fear of disappointment when I hear that first GOOOOOOO!! of the season!
Comments
I was going to say on reflection of todays annoucement that Flavio is probably leaving, has played his part to put Alonso into McLaren and maybe trying to get Kovalinen into FA's old Renault seat.
He wont need a good job at Toyota if he's this good at being a manager!
Flav was due to leave in July this year, but extended his contract until the end of 2006. With Alonso leaving, Flav leaving, Fisi out of contract, and Michelin going too, maybe that will be the time for Renault to pull out too. If not, then Kovalienen is almost certainly the replacement for Fernando.
Sad Day for Alonso, I don't think he find the environment at Mclaren really to his liking the same has he did in an team such as Renault. That might effect is performances
What I'm more confused about is the prospect of having two driver, if Alonso lines up with JPM at Mclaren with Personalities, surely Personalities don't fit in with Ron Mclaren Vision of an Bland Organisation
Just heard that Renault may be pulling their team out of F1, and they will return to being an engine-only maker.
Cyclical, isn't it...
Nicey and Smashy are you listening?
Interesting site.
Is that the same BG that thumped at 'few' people?
I believe it was only the one person.
Quote from Autosport.com:
"Keith Duckworth, one of the joint founders of Cosworth, died last night at the age of 72."
End quote.
There have been very few genius' in F1 but Keith was one of them.
My condolences to his family.
the manufacturers keep goin on about they have to have the technology in f1 and that's why they are there etc and won't go back to loosing some of this to increase the show
the problem is the manufacturers won't say what technology they have on the cars.. it's so secretive that there is very little point to it being there
to the average man in the street all Honda, BMW, etc do is make the engine and that is who they are trying to target .. unless they are more open then the technology is unlikely to help them sell any more cars
we may know they design more on the car but being more hardcore fans we are unlikely to buy a car based on that anyway
It seems people have different opinions of IF costs have/are been cut.
I know that Paul Stoddard said earlier in teh year that because costs had been cut he had a guaranteed budget for Minardi in 2006 & that was teh 1st time the team had a guaranteed budget since 1998.
Also for the 1st time in years we have new teams willing to enter F1 because costs have been cut, we all know about Super Aguri but it seems David Richards wants to bring Prodrive to F1 in 2008, i've heard that GP2 teams ARD, DAMS & Hitech are intrested in entering F1 & all of these teams have said they are only intrested because costs are now affordable for them.
The bigger teams will always see cost cutting as pointless as they have the money to switch development to another area, however the smmaler teams won't so the costs will be reduced for them.
Also this week Ferrari seem to have joined the Cost Cutting crusade:
tyre testing should be done by the tyre companies and not the teams themselves
would love to see more teams in F1.. as i said earlier all the teams have several drivers under contract and driver development programs but the only team they can get in is Midland
Disgusting.....the drivers just want to zoom around on their own without the threat of doing something interesting for the viewers....selfish is what it is.
I will watch Qualifying under the new rules......I won't watch boring single car qualy. It's that simple, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
I'm not sure if the getting rid of the slowest ones every 15 minutes is a good idea, I'd prefer the full hour all out qualifying we all knew and loved, but it's a start and a whole lot better than one car followed by another, followed by another, followed by zzzzzzzzzz.
Watched the Autosport Awards Ceremony tonight on Sky's World Motor Sport. Steve Rider seemed a bit out of sorts, especially trying to talk to the Drag Racing chap, who seemed in another world anyway. At least he looked more comfortable with Kimi, so fingers crossed for his new ITV gig. Wasn't sure about the Katherine Legge segment, first thing they showed whilst talking about the award she won was her running straight into the path of another car and watching it launch into the air. Mmmmm. Oh and one last thing, does Bernie charge money if he's interviewed or makes an acceptance speech? He won an award but no acceptance speech was shown. Jeez he's so short!
Champ Cars is also brill. one of my fav seris and NASCAR is really good, used to have no intrest in the ovals but their really is alot of competition and alot more to it.
Before I got Sky I got a leaflet from Sky which showed Indy Racing League on Sky Sports. Will it be on next year????
He definitely did a speech on the night. Can't remember what he said... don't think it was very interesting.
Haven't seen the Sky programme, so don't know what else was cut: I don't remember Katherine getting an award though.
Steve has spent the last decade using the awards to criticise F1, and ITV, so had to start this year's awards saying he had seen the error of his ways...
Will Steve be doing the season review, or will it be another airing of the Farewell to Jim montage clip?
(I'm still annoyed Jim got a better and longer farewell to Murray.....but I guess Murray sealed his fate when he decided to say goodbye with Coronation street looming!
And both got more than a certain someone else who I can't mention yet.
I don't even dare speculate for fear of disappointment when I hear that first GOOOOOOO!! of the season!
I am guessing he knew Newey had gone before he signed.