This day in 1990 the Belgian GP was held in Spa-Francorchamps. Total of 33 drivers took part in qualifying to get one of the 26 starting grid places. Same as this weekend in Turkey, there was a Brazilian on pole - Ayrton Senna. First and second race start resulted in accidents, only the 3rd start got the race going. Senna went on to win the race in his McLaren-Honda.
Read the rest of this entry »

f1wolf

labels: plugin code here

Felipe Massa will start from pole position in Turkey and with a chance to repeat his last year win. Hamilton qualified 2nd. Raikkonen after slight mistake in his final run will be on P3 and Alonso on P4. Kubica got better of Heidfeld this time after clocking identical times in Q2.
Read the rest of this entry »

f1wolf

labels: plugin code here

Ferraris and McLarens seem to be quite evenly matched on this track. Hamilton was again fastest but only few hundreds of second ahead of Massa. Nico Rosberg shows his usual quick practice pace, just ahead of both BMWs. They seem to have found their set up for this track finally. Toyota’s did not repeat 2nd practice results and ended up way down.

Saturday Practice Times Here

f1wolf

labels: plugin code here

No surprises with the fastest laps in first session (Raikkonen) and in the second session (Hamilton). What is a bit unexpected is the strong performance of Toyotas in the second practice. BMWs were a bit off the pace on Friday. But as always, these Friday times may not mean much.
David Coulthard set his Red Bull on fire at the end the first practice causing some extra excitment.

Practice 1 Times Here, Practice 2 Times Here

f1wolf

labels: plugin code here

Both Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld were confirmed as BMW Sauber race drivers for 2008.

Mario Theissen said:

“Both Nick and Robert have delivered very strong performances in the course of this season.
They have played a decisive role in enabling the BMW Sauber F1 Team to firmly establish itself as the third best team in Formula One.
Read the rest of this entry »

f1wolf

labels: plugin code here

As the season entered its final third, the scramble for race seats in 2008 is in full swing. And that means new rumours appearing almost every day. The one quite unexepcted is Sato related. F1 Racing printed a tiny little note “Taku to switch to Williams-Toyota?”. Apparently they heard some rumours about Sato-san escaping from Honda camp to Toyota. This is sure something we haven’t heard before. But this is not all for Williams-Toyota.
Read the rest of this entry »

f1wolf

labels: plugin code here

The summer holiday break is over now and the F1 circus is moving to Istanbul Park. This is one of the great new tracks (one great new track).

It is a home to the extremely challenging Turn 8. This is a long bumpy corner where drivers are exposed to 5Gs for around 7 seconds. It is this corner that makes the set up for race complicated. The long straights and smooth track require low downforce and low height set up of the car. But then the bumpy long Turn 8 comes and cars are prone to bottoming up. Once that happens the driver can turn into a passenger in no time.
Read the rest of this entry »

f1wolf

labels: plugin code here

The latest F1 Racing magazine runs an article called “Hamilton’s World Title Road Map”. Four British F1 Champs (Surtees, Stewart, Mansell and D.Hill) are trying to tell Hamilton how to do it. Here are some smart words from Jackie Stewart on Lewis Hamilton:
“He is intelligent enough to realize that you don’t win a grand prix on a first lap of a race”
It looks like it has been long time since Jackie Stewart last checked the race stats:

This is a brief review of the 2007 races so far:
Read the rest of this entry »

f1wolf

labels: plugin code here

What would you guess? 5,6,7,8?

Well, the magic number is 7.

Alain Prost in 1984(champion Lauda) and 1988(champion Senna) won 7 races without winning a title.
Kimi Raikkonen in 2005 (champion Alonso) won 7 races without winning a title.
Michael Schumacher in 2006 (champion Alonso) won 7 races without winning a title.

f1wolf

labels: plugin code here

Yet again I refer to the f1fanatic website and his article “More street tracks good for F1?” and a bit to another article “Ten… Jobs for Ecclestone to do“.
One of the best street races is without doubt the Macau GP. There is no F1 race there, but the Formula 3 race on this track is one of the must for the racing fans to see. The current F1 cars would probably offer only a procession raceof Monaco style on this punishing track, but the F3 race is a different story.
Read the rest of this entry »

f1wolf

labels: plugin code here