Well, that is the opinion of Max Mosley. Perhaps he read some comments on this site and replied them through The Guardian .

So here are few latest gems courtesy of Max Mosley:

On the 2007 F1 Champion Kimi Raikkonen and whether he pleased Kimi has won it:

“Relieved because, if it had been either of the two McLaren drivers, there would always have been a question mark. I’m not sure how big a question mark but it would have been there. And that puts you in an incredibly difficult position. I think we’ve been very lucky.”

On the Ferrari McLaren thingy:

“People are interested in the human aspect and the whole human aspect of the Ferrari-McLaren thing fascinated a lot of people outside Formula One. The publicity actually increases interest. So I don’t think it does any harm to Formula One as long as the sponsors and so on feel the sport is honestly run and honestly governed.”

What does he exactly mean by the “human aspect” ? Tearful Ron Dennis or enterprising duo Coughlan/Stepney or the not exactly smart act by Mrs. Coughlan or the childish Fernando Alonso ?

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F1Wolf

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The Meet The Motorsport Bloggers series is back. After venturing into the motorbike world in part 2 it is time to meet another Formula 1 blogger. F1Wolf introduces a great F1 blog - Sidepodcast. This blog is somehow special - besides the great writing it brings cool video and audio shows that are really worth watching and listening to. You can sample the F1Minute daily show on F1Wolf as well (on the left sidebar). Also the Sidepodcast’s video previews were regular features in Race Previews on the F1Wolf during the past Formula 1 season. And here is how Sidepodcast describes Sidepodcast:

Sidepodcast began because the coverage provided by FOM (Formula One Management) left, and still leaves, a lot to be desired. For a technologically advanced sport, online broadcasting appears to be essentially non-existent. We craved better coverage and the only way was to create for ourselves what we wanted to see.

So thanks to IT competence of Bernie Ecclestone we can enjoy Sidepocast shows !!!

The Q&A session comes with a F1Wolf exclusive this time ! Read on !

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F1Wolf

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I appreciate a lot every single comment on F1Wolf. I decided to honour the most active monthly commentators who leave more than 20 comments on this blog with a spot on the Friends of F1Wolf wall for the next month. I have space for 5 Friends of F1Wolf on the right sidebar and the first one just went to Shaun of The Biker Place.

Before you try - spam does not count

F1Wolf

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Ferrari and Honda teams announced their 2008 Formula 1 car launch date today. This is an opportunity to sum up the available 2008 F1 new car launch date information from all the teams.

Ferrari
January 6, 2008 - Fiorano, Italy

McLaren
January 7, 2008 - Stuttgart, Germany

That is change of mind, McLaren’s original plans were different:
“There are currently no plans for a launch presentation but the team will provide the media with photographs and further details about the car when it runs.
The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-23 is scheduled to commence its on-track testing programme at an exclusive test at the Jerez circuit in Spain during the second week of January 2008.”

Toyota
January 10, 2008 - Cologne, Germany

BMW
January 14, 2008 - Munich, Germany

Red Bull
January 16, 2008 - Jerez, Spain

Honda
January 29, 2008 - Brackley, UK

Renault
January 31, 2008 - Paris, France

Williams
February 2, 2008 - Grove, UK Williams decided not to hold official launch

Toro Rosso
Toro Rosso will begin the 2008 season with the year-old ‘STR2′ single seater. The team’s principal Franz Tost revealed that the old car, practically identical to parent team Red Bull Racing’s RB3, will be used by Toro Rosso for at least “the first four races” of 2008.

Super Aguri
February 19, 2008 - Barcelona, Spain

Force India
TBA

F1Wolf

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The neighbours at the Sidepodcast had their Sidepoddie Awards ceremony. After all the prizes were given both the Sidepoddie people spoke of their best bits of the 2007 season. Rascasse Ferrari moment no 2 made it to the list . A year on after The Great One (Mr. Michael Schumacher) famously parked his Ferrari in the La Rascasse during qualifying for 2006 Monaco GP, Kimi’s car came to stop at the same place in the qualifying for 2007 Monaco GP. Here is how F1 Wolf has seen one of the Sidepoddie best bits of 2007:

F1Wolf

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I was cleaning up my computer and I found some sounds that I picked up during 2004 Shanghai Grand Prix - the sound of the V10 engine… You can hear the short clip here.

If you want to have the Formula 1 V10 engine sound as a ringtone on your mobile you can get it from here:

Formula 1 V10 as a ringtone

Before you play the file, for the sake of your ears please check the sound level of your computer…

F1Wolf

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It took FIA some time but the transcript from the Renault hearing is now available. You can download the whole 77 pages from the FIA site or if you are lazy to look for it, just get it from here:

Renault Hearing Transcript

As in McLaren’s case there are some blackened censored areas, but this time the copy/paste technique does not help in decrypting them

F1Wolf

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Vijay Mallya said he will make his decision on the drivers before Christmas, there were even suggestions that the announcement may come this week. And AutoMoto365.com already came up with an exclusive one:

“Automoto365.com can exclusively reveal to its loyal readers this morning that the second seat at Force India has finally been secured by none other than former Renault racer, Giancarlo Fisichella.”

According to GrandPrix dot Com owner of the AutoMoto356 is NTZC, company founded by Nicholas Todt. There is an obvious connection to Ferrari - the engine supplier of Force India F1 team. So it looks like there may be some credibility to the story. While this move for Fisichella would not surprise me, the way the information got out does. Why would this news be published first by a French website and not by Force India team ? Let’s see what Force India will have to say about this.

The last news item on Force India official website is “Force India progress review with Dr. Vijay Mallya”, published on December 13, 2007.

F1Wolf

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I have been trying to digest all the Ron Dennis stuff that came out in the past few days. And something does not add up here …

First there is the stunning turnaround by McLaren team with the admission and apology and all that. But the name under it is not Ron Dennis but the heir apparent Martin Whitmarsh. And in that apology, there is also a passge:

“Apart from the morale-sapping consequences within the team, its ability to continue its task of generating investment has been made virtually impossible. Consequently, the long-term damage to the team’s previously outstanding record and commercial capability is significantly greater than that potentially envisaged by the fiscal penalty imposed.”

It somehow suggests, that the USD100 million fine hurts more than Ron Dennis has ever admitted.

And as if that fine was not enough, the team will also have to pay £1m bill for the FIA’s investigation into the legality of McLaren’s 2008 car.

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F1Wolf

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The first Meet The Motorsport Bloggers interview went quite well so I do not want to wait with the second one for too long. And as this “column” is about motorsport, and not all the motorsport is F1 it is time for some serious biking. I am casual follower of MotoGP and 250cc and 125cc but not much beyond that. However few weeks back I started to read The Biker Place and since than I can actually join the conversation with friends who talk about motorbikes and understand what they are talking about . The Biker Place site is neatly set up and provides information on all sorts of competitive motorbike racing including MotoGP, Superbikes and even races like Isle of Man Tourist Trophy. And talk about blogs being interactive - when I made a wish for post topic in one of my comments, the wish was granted within a day or two! Here is your chance to hear from the guy behind The Biker Place about The Biker Place:

The Biker Place website is a pretty new website launched with the intention of providing information on recent news, motorcycle sports and new products available for bikers. We will hopefully be launching some new features and competitions in 2008 and are looking at getting a few guest bloggers on board to provide fresh information. We are also building a business directory for anything motorcycle related.

And now the Q&A session, questions by F1Wolf, answers by… read on and you will see:

1) Where are you blogging from
From the North East of England, UK

2) Your name or nickname
Shaun

Now you know…

3) When did you start blogging
In October this year (i think!)

Well, this is impressive. I would not have guessed the site is almost brand new !

4) Why do you blog
Something i was always interested in doing but never got round to it, finally took the plunge as i wanted to build a community type site for bikers.

5) Your favourite F1 team and driver (both current and all time)

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F1Wolf

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