It has been a while since the last Spotted by Wolf post. Travelling and following the first 2 races of the season caused few weeks gap, but now the 7th edition is here.

Malaysian Grand Prix organizers managed to keep the rain away, but the storm hit from somewhere else. The official Malaysian GP website was hacked only few days before the race.

The 2008 driver helmets preview is a popular feature of this web. Daniel at F1Bloggen went a step further and compiled photos of team overalls. Nice one !

F1 Pitlane is nice new project of several F1 enthusiasts and I am glad F1Wolf got mentioned there . They were not the only site that featured F1Wolf last week - Sidepodcast selected F1Wolf as the featured site of the week in their F1 Rewind episode #2.

David Coulthard’s RB3 was sold on eBay for a neat amount.

In Singapore the F1 track lighting system tests have began. Also in Singapore … well, just listen to the podcast .

Over here at F1Wolf the engine and gearbox statistics proved to be extremely popular. To make it easy to find them I moved all the 2008 statisctics to one place. Simply click on the 2008 Season tab just below the header of this site, or follow this link. I am also placing a button on the left sidebar for easier navigation.

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I thought I won’t be able to get this edition of Spotted by the Wolf together due to my travels, but here it is:

We complain about official Formula 1 site not realizing we have been living in 21st for quite a while. Well, they do have mobile services you can subscribe to now. But as usual, the pricing is out of touch with the reality. People over at FOM, wake up, think of your regular fans, not the guys with yachts …

Mercedes Benz introduced the 2008 Formula 1 safety cars, Car Zi has the pictures and story.

F1Fanatic celebrated 3rd birthday, and did that with a redesign.

The Automoblog has pictures from Geneva - two Honda F1 cars side by side - 2008 (RA108) and 1967 (RA300)

And Singapore GP organizers mean business when it comes to promoting the race. The ads are all over the web, you can’t miss them. But the promo is not limited to online media. Yesterday I took the express train from Hong Kong airport to the city, and here is how it looks. It is over 6 months to go and Hong Kong is 3 1/2 hours flying time away from Singapore. There was never such promo for Chinese GP around here… I apologize for this not F1Wolf like quality of photos, but all I had with me was my Nokia phone.

(more photos in the article) Read the rest of this entry »

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The season start is getting closer and it looks like we are going to start from where we finished last season - with McLaren making the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The spy affair just does not want to go away and in McLaren they are clearly upset with the claims Italian police is making.

The rumours surrounding Ron Dennis seem to be just that. I still wonder why it took McLaren several days to come out and dismiss what the Spanish paper Marca has started. However the reasoning that Ron Dennis simply can’t be fired is not convincing. In the corporate world people can be fired from their posts even if they are shareholders. This has happened before and this will keep happening…

The street tracks keep making headlines. Bernie Ecclestone wants Formula 1 GP in Paris from 2009. Williams may be bringing their test car to Singapore during summer, ahead of this year’s Singapore GP.

Further testing of slick tyres is planned ahead of their expected F1 return in 2009. Please, bring them back !

Super Aguri finally made some announcements. No surprise that their future was again a topic for Formula 1 blogs.

F1 Minute celebrate their 100th edition. You can listen to F1 Minute podcast here at F1 Wolf as well, and you could do so from pretty much their day 1, just look at the sidebar and play.

With Australian GP being just around a corner it is a good time to remind everybody to join some of the great Formula1 blog contests. It does not get any better than taking part of our own F1 Wolf 2008 Prediction Game. Do not be afraid to loose, join in !

There is great prize to be won at F1-TOGO too, head over there to see how to win Kimi’s die cast Ferrari model. And if this all is not enough you can try your luck in this fantasy game where some serious, very serious, names already built their teams ! Register there and join the Sidepodcast private league.The February is over, March is here, it is time to reward the regular commentators from February. I am not going to strictly enforce the 20 comment rule yet, I will wait for the season to start with that .

There are 4 commentators with more than 10 comments last month on the Top Commentators list who also have their own blogs - Stew, Black Zedd, Sidepodcast and Shaun. If you want to appear on the Friends of the Wolf wall for the whole month of March, just mail me your 125 x 125 jpg button to f1wolf at f1wolf dot com and you are set. The sooner you mail me, the longer you stay .

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Another week has passed, it is time again to look at what was it like on the F1 blogs and webs.

Michael Schumacher will test again for Ferrari next week, this time alongside Kimi Raikkonen. You will definitelly look at this differently after reading this article that brings some light on all the behind scenes moves that lead to Schumacher’s retirement, Alonso’s signing for McLaren and Raikkonen’s for Ferrari. This article seems to be quite old, but for some reason it appeared few days ago among the “latest features” on F1i dot com. Very interesting (and long) reading - Michael Schumacher - The strange story of his retirement.

NASCAR made it to F1Wolf thanks to Jacques Villeneuve. And thanks to comment from regular reader and commentator “zblkhwk” we have some more insight to what actually happened there. Check the comments below the Tale Of Two Formula 1 Drop Outs post.

Singapore continues its preparations for the F1 race and sends a group of people to Adelaide to get some experience. Let’s hope the ticketing fiasco will remain the only serious glitch …

Organizers in Valencia released more information on their track and grandstands - check and see where would you like to watch the European GP from.

We are supposed to be aware of the brands that flash in front of our eyes during the Formula 1 coverage. Are we watching the F1 the way we should be ?

And to stay with the brands - check out how some of the car manufacturers’ logo evolved including some those involved in Formula 1.

See you again a in week with Spotted by Wolf.

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The latest round of Wolf’s selection from the webs and blogs is here.

The season start is getting closer and all sorts of predictions for the season are appearing on F1 blogs. Williams are pleasant surprise and here is a sum of some reasons why they are perhaps the best of the rest.

News that McLaren will take a their place in the pit lane between Williams and BMW and not at end (after finishing last on the constructors table last year) circulated the web. There has been nothing official yet, but the rumours were that the deal was brokered by Bernie Ecclestone. But did he actually had to broker a deal ? How are the garages in the pit lane actually alocated to the teams ? F1 To Go asks this question and tries to find some answers.

The 24 Le Mans will feature several F1 names this year with Peugeot fielding several big names.

Roy Scheider, probably best known for his role in Jaws, passed away last week. The AutomoBlog found a great car chase video from a movie featuring Roy Scheider.

Ferrari seem to be early favourites going into 2008 season. They are however doing well off the track too the F1 financial report reveals.

Force India will pursue the arbitration against Toro Rosso and Super Aguri, the customer cars issue is still on the table …

Join F1 Wolf on Facebook !

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The Wolf is back with the articles and posts from the webs and blogs.

Force India launched their VJM01 in grand ceremony in Mumbai. F1 Chronicles feels there were too many actresses and too few fans present. I think that Mr Mallya could have shown a bit more respect to his drivers by learning how to pronounce their names. You may watch the launch video on Force India web, it is still there. Mallya also revealed that EADS and Airbus help with Force India car development. Let’s hope they do not forget that the wings on F1 car serve different purpose than the aircraft wings .

The Singapore night race has its fans and its opposition. Here is a view from a blogger from Singapore, himself a regular F1Wolf reader and commentator.

The “Barcelona Hamilton Affair” continues to be discussed. Bloggers keep expressing their views, while one of the monkey dressed people explains he is not a racist.

Luca Baldisserri, Ferrari’s sporting director thinks that Lewis Hamilton is a bit heavy and hard on the rear tyres without the driving aids. I am not sure if that is the case, but this video (after the Alonso chants early on ) shows Lewis sliding quite a bit.

Super Aguri made it to the news again. Their car passed the crash test and received the OK from FIA. And it would not be a proper F1 week without a new speculation on Super Aguri buyers / investors.

In the US the Champ Car and Indy Racing League seem to be headed for a merger. What implications it may have on F1 in the USA ?

And an idea of MustCommentMonday came from Sidepodast. So if you never ever comment on blogs, try to make our days, make it a habit and do comment on Mondays at least .

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Welcome to the new regular weekend feature - Spotted by Wolf. Selection of interesting articles from F1 and other racing websites and blogs.

The possible purchase of a part or whole of Super Aguri created quite a buzz. Grand Prix dot Com offered different view than most of the other media.

Honda launched their new car and one their drivers, Rubens Barrichello is on course to become the most experienced F1 driver ever. He is only few races short of Patrese’s all time record 256 F1 starts. But how many races exactly is he short ? is the question Ollie of BlogF1 asks.

It looks like the team mate rivalries are not limited to F1 only, MotoGPs Dani Pedrosa had some nice things to say about his team mate Nicky Hayden.

The Facebook mania reached the F1 blogs too. Sidepodcast started a Facebook group, F1Wolf followed . I am not exactly sure of the benefits, but let’s try and see. By the way, feel free to join F1Wolf on Facebook.

Besides Renault and Honda new Williams livery has been revealed by mistake. Jef, a F1Wolf reader, emailed me photos of what might be the 2008 Williams racing livery, with the new sponsor logos. Check the photos here, here and here.

If you wonder, why the 2008 European GP will not use the existing track in Valencia (often used for testing) but a brand new street track, this blog post brings an interesting insight and comparison.

The award for the weirdest thing I read this week goes to the Pat Symonds (Renault) and one his answers to F1 Racing magazine:

“Overall, F1 should be a constructors’ formula and therefore I fall on that side.I don’t really like the idea of only six teams running four cars. All sorts of things can happen; for example when Fernando was talking to Red Bull we advised him that his Renault engines wouldn’t be as reliable as ours.”

Is he serious ? Would Renault be really ready to punish Red Bull for signing Alonso with less reliable engines ?

And the final note. As I spent bigger part of January travelling around the globe, my post frequency was not exactly regular. Therefore all the commentators with 10 and more comments during last month can go on the Friends of F1Wolf wall. For January that would be Shaun, Paris and zblkhwk. So if you want to appear, send me a 125 x 125 button that you want to feature during January, sorry I meant February .

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