Monaco Grand Prix is a special event. If I ever doubted it I do not any more after going to see the race last year (my pictures are here). The special GP needs some special treatment also here, so I beging the Monaco GP countdown with some videos. Here is one, Ayrton Senna’s pole position lap in 1991:

To see more Monaco F1 videos visit the F1Wolf Club and feel free to ad your favourite Monaco F1 videos.

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

I know that all the teams are driven by the desire to get those few tenths that make the difference between F1 heroes and F1 zeros. But this is what happens when the teams continue fine tuning the ugly additions to their bodyworks, the ugly Dumbo wings get even uglier…

Yesterday I watched few videos from older Monaco races. Here is a clip from 1996, the famous wet race win for Olivier Panis in Ligier. How much nicer the cars were then, 12 years ago …

Even the new A1GP car looks better than the current F1 cars … The only light at the end of the tunnels is the fact, that what we see now is the end of the line for the current F1 cars and 2009 will put an end to these ugly winglets and wings and ears and all this. Season 2009 can’t come soon enough …

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

This will be a very short post. I checked what is new at the F1Wolf Club and found a nice contribution to the discussion in the Singapore GP Fan Group - few videos from race simulator. If you want to see how the Singapore F1 lap will look, check the videos here, especially the last one !

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

After watching this video I am not surprised Lewis Hamilton regrets doing the “flying Apollo” stunt for Vodafone …

“I thought ‘that really was not cool’. I just turned up and got on with what I’ve been told to do. Now I’ve seen the footage and it’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. At the end of the day I have a cool image, and things like that don’t help.”

He is probably right, not cool

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

Now I really hope he has been misquoted or this story was made up or something. This is what Bernie Ecclestone is said to have said on demise of Super Aguri according to PA Sports:

“More room. It means we have a lot more room now because the teams are expanding like crazy with their hospitality units and their trucks and everything. We’re always running out of room. We’re not looking for 12 teams, we’re looking for ten.“

So the space for hospitality is what F1 is about, not the action on track … Hm, that explains a lot then …

The later part of the story on potential Super Aguri bail out by Bernie himself makes a bit more sense:

“I didn’t want to put in 100 million, which is what was needed. For somebody else it might have been okay, but it wasn’t for me.”

For those who do miss the Super Aguri, here is a video:

Read the rest of this entry »

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

I am going to be Bernie friendly for a while but only for a while. I totally forgot that the official F1 site has some videos now. Only after I received the email reminder that the video edit from Spanish GP is ready I went to check it out. The video is not too bad if all you expect is a quick 2 minutes sum up of all the incidents with few F1 babes and Nelson Piquet sr. added to the mix. But I think that FOM or whoever is in charge of keeping the official F1 site up could and should do better. They are still far behind the level of Sidepodcast people unfortunately for us Sidepodcast does not have an access to the FOM TV feed .

What would you want F1.com to include or ad to their video edits from races ?

You can see the official F1 video edits here.

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

I found this ITV video today and what has been said there is pretty much how I felt when I walked the track back in December (check the Part 1 and Part 2 post on my walk around Singapore track).

It is going to be great, can’t wait .

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

Kotenok, the F1Wolf reader and one of the competitors in our Prediction Game sent me a link to the website of Spanish Telecinco TV. All the videos are with Spanish narration but even without understanding the commentary, some are quite interesting.

The link I was sent points to the video studying the steering wheel action without traction control. There is interesting side by side comparison between 2004 and 2008 Australian GP.

The video also analyzes the “wrong button” error by Heikki Kovalainen in Melbourne.

To watch the video, follow this link to Telecinco. There are several other videos available (besides Max Mosley), like a take on Malaysian Grand Prix and shots of totally exhausted drivers on the podium … Their video gallery is worth browsing through. Thanks again to Kotenok !

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

Yesterday (Saturday) the tests of the lighting system for the Formula 1 night race began in Singapore. There is an interesting video available, you can follow this link to watch.

Singapore lighting test video

I am not sure how long will this link be live, so better watch it now…

Thanks to fatfish for the alert and the link !

Mika Hakkinen is expected to run in McLaren car on the streets of Singapore today, but I in the daylight .

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

The strong showing of Williams cars during the tests were for me the highlight of the F1 winter. And then they revealed the classy livery Williams style … I am becoming Williams fan . Let’s look at their drivers Rosberg and Nakajima, both of them sons of former Formula 1 drivers (Keke Rosberg and Satoru Nakajima):

Nico Rosberg - Germany
Born: 27 Jun 1985
In F1 since 2006 - Williams (testing with Williams since 2003)
Best Result: 9th in 2007
Career wins: 0
Pole positions: 0
Podium Finishes: 0
Fastest Laps: 1 (on his race debut)

Nico Rosberg started his F1 career with impressive fastest lap and 2 points on his race debut in 2006. He only went on to score 2 more for the rest of the season, season that was one of the worst ever for the Williams team. Last year was very different. Impressive in qualifying, regular in Q3, string of point finishes. And all in a car that probably should not be that high. No wonder he became the prime target for McLaren as replacement for Fernando Alonso. He however decided to stick with Williams for next 2 years. With what looks like a decent car in hand he can realisticaly think about few podiums this year. One of the things I am really looking forward to in 2008 is seeing Rosberg and Alonso in pretty much equal cars fighting it out on the track …

Kazuki Nakajima - Japan
Born: 11 January 1985
In F1 since 2007 - Williams - 1 race only Brazilian GP
Best Result: 10th place in his only race so far
Career wins: 0
Pole positions: 0
Podium Finishes: 0

Kazuki Nakajima jumped into the Williams F1 race seat after Alex Wurz decided to retire with one race to go last year. The team probably knew about this earlier. Perhaps because of that they placed Nakajima in one of Williams cars for the the free practice in China already (check my Shanghai 2007 photo gallery). Nakajima did pretty well on his race debut in Brazil. After qualifying on P17 only he climbed up the grid and finished the race 10th. Unfortunatelly for him, most people will remember his first F1 race for the famous pitlane incident (see the video below the post). He definitely has something in common with Sato . The fact that Williams selected him as race driver for 2008 season took many by surprise. The Toyota connection is thought to be the main reason and Williams are not exactly denying that. His winter form however shows that he is not that much slower than Rosberg. Whether he can keep his cool during the race that is another question.

F1Wolf’s prediction for Williams drivers in 2008:
No. 1 - Nico Rosberg, natural leader of the team with a chance of a podium finish
No. 2 - Kazuki Nakajima - will eventually emerge as number 2 driver, but he will give Rosberg run for his money. If he keeps cool head and has a bit of luck, who knows, we may see him on the podium. Alex Wurz made it last year in less competitive car …

2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - Ferrari
2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - McLaren
2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - BMW Sauber
2008 F1 Season Team Mates - Renault

Check the rest of this post for Nakajima’s pit lane incident video

Read the rest of this entry »

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here