Drop out no 1 - The looser

Jacques Villeneuve - Has been dropped by the Bill Davis Racing NASCAR team after hitting a wall and causing a multi-car accident during a qualifying for the Daytona 500. (reported by grandprix.com)

Drop out no 2 - The winner

Ralf Schumacher - After 11 years in the Formula 1 World Championship, Ralf Schumacher (32) will race this year with the Trilux AMG Mercedes C-Class in the DTM, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport announced today. Ralf Schumacher’s DTM debut will take place at the season opener in Hockenheim on 13th April 2008. (Daimler Media)

F1Wolf

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It is official - for the first time since 1991 the Schumacher name will be missing from Formula 1 grid. After retirement of Michael Schumacher the curtain falls on the F1 career of his younger brother Ralf as well. He finally admitted the obvious to the German site motorsport-total.com (external link, German). Ralf Schumacher will miss out the 2008 Formula 1 season.

He may still have a return to F1 on his mind, but that may not be easy and with so many young F1 wannabies in line I would say impossible. This is what Ralf thinks:

“Theoretically that may be possible, but practically you have to wait and see what happens. Formula One waits for nothing and no-one.”

Ralf Schumacher a realist ! That is a novelty !

He also gave some hints on his racing future, but only by stating what he is not going to do:

“Until now it has been my life, and motor sport is certainly a big part of my future. In which form, remains to be seen. No matter what car, an oval will never see me, and I will never go to Le Mans, or Dakar.”

In the meantime, Rupert Stadler, Audi Chief Executive made it clear what Audi thinks about signing up Ralf for DTM:

“There is absolutely no need for us to do that. It’s our goal to get young and ambitious drivers and let them grow within our team. Martin Tomczyk, Mattias Ekstrom and even Tom Kristensen came to us as ‘nobodies’. And now they are very popular and famous.”

Good sign for Ralf though, in Audi they do not consider him as “nobody”…

Will you miss Ralf Schumacher in F1 ?

F1Wolf

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The contest for the Force India race drive is getting hotter. Not that drivers can now do much about the selection (or do they ?) but nevertheless they all talk a lot. Here is the summary of what the leading contenders for the Force India seat Ralf Schumacher, Giancarlo Fisichella, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Christian Klien and Roldan Rodriguez had to say:

Ralf Schumacher:

“I’m testing today because Vijay Mallya asked me to try the car. This way I can give the team some feedback and tell them what might need to be changed. I don’t see myself as a candidate though to race with the team next season. To be honest, I don’t exactly know what I will be doing next season. Maybe I will quit racing, or maybe I will just join another racing series. I just want to do what’s best for me. This week might have been the final outing for me in a Formula 1 car.”

Giancarlo Fisichella

“I can bring a lot of experience and ideas of how we can go in the right direction. I think I did a good job with the team in the couple of days testing. We were working in a few areas and we made a step forward, especially in the car balance and the set up. The team was quite impressed with the job I did so far. I am impressed about the team, which is still a small one, but they have a good potential. I still know a few mechanics from when I drove here in 1997, 2002 and 2003 (as Jordan). I feel a good atmosphere and it was good to be back with them. Force India is working on a nice project, with a better budget then last year and they can go up very quickly, so we’ll see. We’ll see if we’re both happy to work together in the future.”

and…

“My objective is to race with Force India. I wouldn’t have gone through a shoot-out otherwise, because it’s always something very tense. All the drivers at Jerez were there for that, let’s not kid ourselves. Even Ralf Schumacher arrived two days earlier, went often around the track to see the trajectories and he was in contact with the pits. He never did that at Toyota. No one came to Jerez to be a tourist of for a stroll in F1.”

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Ralf Schumacher is not a bad driver. But even the best ones should know when to go…

The departure of Ralf Schumacher from Toyota was long expected. He was reportedly within a race of being fired during the summer but he managed to hold on to his seat till the end of the season. The expected announcement came in Shanghai, between the Japanese and Chinese GPs. What was unexpected was Ralf’s decision to leave instead of Toyota’s decision to let him go. Well, there are only few who believe that is how it happened…

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F1Wolf

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What has been rumoured has been confirmed. Giancarlo Fisichella and Ralf Schumacher will test with Force India next week.

What does this mean ?

a) Fisichella has very likely been shipped out of Renault
b) McLaren did not answer Ralf’s calls

Liuzzi and Klien have extra competition, it remains to be seen if Vijay Mallya is looking for some experience he may use during car development or for young aggressive drivers.

Fisichella, Ralf Schumacher, Liuzzi and Klien will also share the Force India cars with Franck Montagny, Roldan Rodriguez and Giedo van der Garde.

Adrian Sutil can continue his holidays

F1Wolf

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During the past month I published series of posts with the high resolution photos of all the teams and all the drivers (well almost, one driver is missing) of 2007 Formula 1 season for download.

For those who missed it, here are all the links:

Kimi Raikkonen
Lewis Hamilton
Fernando Alonso
Felipe Massa
Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica
Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen
Nico Rosberg, Alex Wurz, Kazuki Nakajima
Mark Webber, David Coulthard
Jarno Trulli, Ralf Schumacher
Sebastian Vettel, Scott Speed, Vitantonio Liuzzi
Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello
Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson
Adrian Sutil, Christijan Albers, Sakon Yamamoto

Screensavers are also on the way. If you do not want to miss out, subscribe to F1 Wolf via RSS Feed or E-mail

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The 2007 season is over, at least the on track action, and after some short relatively quiet period, the rumour mill is picking up the speed again.

As it has been the case since pretty much the Hungarian GP, Fernando Alonso is in center of everything. The Ferrari connection is pretty much over for a time being at least. If he plans to race next year there seem to be only 3 options left for him - remain at McLaren, return to Renault or grab a seat at Toyota. The McLaren option seems to be out of a question but who knows. Pedro de la Rosa has been giving some hints that this is exactly what may happen in the end. But still there are not too many people that would bet on Alonso to stay put. (But there were not too many people whou would a week ago bet on Kimi to win the title.) The widely expected return to Renault has been downplayed by Alonso himself. When asked by Spanish radio station Cadena Ser whether Renault would be his first choice if he were to leave McLaren, he replied - “Right now I’d say no”. This may be also be the reason for some weird words from Flavio Briatore. Looking around the paddock the only decent (not a top) team with seats and money is Toyota. Why would he want to go to a team where everyone else failed ? Challenge to be the first one to succeed ? Why not, Michael Schumacher also went to Ferrari at the time the team was nowhere near the top…

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I did not not plan to get back to driver rumours topic so soon after the last post, but the rumour mill is gathering speed.

Mr. Mallya seems to be taking his job seriously and plans to use the brain instead of heart. This however may not be a good news for both - the possible Indian candidates for the race seat and for Ralf Schumacher’s chances:

“I know Ralf well from my role as a sponsor of the Toyota team and I personally hold him in high regard, but a driver line-up is not something that should be decided by the heart but by the brain.

“I want drivers that can raise the standards in the team. I always get asked if we will have an Indian driver and my response is - if I can find one who is ready, yes. But only under the parameters just said.

“Drivers are a crucial part of the team so the driver line-up is a serious matter and not a sympathy contest.”

Oh Ralf, this must hurt …
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Or did Toyota drop him ?

Who knows, the fact is, the speculations are over and there is now officially empty race seat in Toyota for the next season. There are several candidates. Timo Glock, the fresh GP2 champion may be one of the hottest.

Ralf made the announcement today in Shanghai and also published it on his website:

“Having been a Toyota driver in the past three years, I opted for looking for a new challenge. I joined Toyota with high expectations. On the one hand, I regarded it as a major and exciting challenge to be involved in the development of a new racing car. On the other hand, I also learned to like the Japanese style of living, during my long stay in Japan before entering Formula 1. And I still get on well with the Japanese mentality. But I am waiting for years for a competitive car.

Toyota also was a nice and interesting experience - particularly the cooperation with the team, engineers and mechanics. Still, it’s time now to look for a new challenge.
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F1Wolf

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Without any doubt, Ralf Schumacher’s season is not good at all so far. He scored a single point but his team mate scored 4 already in pretty much the same car. While Trulli does qualify or races near the point scoring places most of the time, Ralf fights it at the back with Spykers. … So where did it all go wrong for Ralf? Or was it ever good? For sure it was before he joined F1. He finished 2nd in German Formula 3 Championship in 1995 and went on to win the Macau GP Formula 3 street race the same year. At that race he beat Pedro de la Rosa and Jarno Trulli. In 1996 he moved to Formula Nippon and won it, making his way to F1. Pretty impressive resume that deservedly brought him F1 drive.

The best way to see his F1 performances is to compare his with those of his team mates.
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