What would Colin Chapman (founder of Group Lotus and Team Lotus) have made of today, with the presentation of two Formula 1 teams both of which want to be called Lotus? Not that it matters much. People tend to glorify the departed and all too often gloss over some pretty glaring faults. If you read [...]
Archive for January, 2011
What a strange day
Posted in F1 Teams on January 31, 2011 | 82 Comments »
Why F1 on Staten Island is such a good idea…
Posted in Circuits on January 31, 2011 | 60 Comments »
Before I launch into why Staten Island should embrace Grand Prix racing, I think it is important to take a step back and look at Formula 1 from a strategic point of view. There are 20 Grands Prix these days and the geographical distribution is still skewed. To gain the maximum number of global TV [...]
…back to the future
Posted in F1 Drivers on January 31, 2011 | 3 Comments »
While the Formula 1 teams are launching their various cars and the two Lotus-branded teams are fighting over history, the FIA Institute is moving in the other direction with the announcement that it is pushing ahead with its environmental activities in order to develop sustainable motor sport programmes, in addition to its work in safety [...]
Black to the future?
Posted in F1 Drivers on January 31, 2011 | 105 Comments »
The Lotus Renault GP team has unveiled the Renault R31 at the Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo. The team has announced various new drivers including Bruno Senna and Romain Grosjean, along with Jan Charouz, Ho-Pin Tung and Fairuz Fauzy. The team also unveiled new sponsorships from solar power company SunCore and Sibur, the [...]
And here’s the Sauber
Posted in F1 Teams on January 31, 2011 | 12 Comments »
Peter Sauber has launched his team’s 19th season in Formula 1, with the unveiling of the Sauber-Ferrari C30 in Valencia. The Swiss team had a tough year in 2010 after BMW’s decision to quit the sport and its failure to find a buyer to keep the team alive. Sauber stepped in at the 11th hour [...]
Meanwhile in Florida…
Posted in F1 people on January 31, 2011 | 12 Comments »
The annual Daytona 24 Hours took place over the weekend at the Daytona International Speedway with Chip Ganassi Racing in dominant form with Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas, Joey Hand and Graham Rahal driving the team’s Telmex/Target-sponsored Riley-BMW to victory, edging out team-mates Scott Dixon, Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti and Jamie McMurray in the Target/Telmex [...]
Grosjean is Lotus Renault GP reserve
Posted in F1 Drivers, F1 Teams on January 31, 2011 | 21 Comments »
Romain Grosjean will be confirmed later today as the test and reserve driver of the Lotus Renault GP team. Grosjean drove for Renault briefly in 2009 and failed to impress and was dropped last season when the team was taken over by GenII. The return of Grosjean is probably more to do with his experience [...]
It’s New Car Day
Posted in F1 Drivers on January 31, 2011 | 34 Comments »
There are going to be a strong of car launches in the next 48 hours before pre-season testing begins in Spain. Ferrari has already been out shaking down its car at Fiorano and today we have already seen the new Lotus-Renault (as opposed to the new Renault-masqerading-as-Lotus, which will come later today). Sauber is also [...]
“Senna” wins Sundance prize
Posted in F1 Drivers on January 30, 2011 | 8 Comments »
Senna, the feature length documentary about the racing life of Ayrton Senna has won the award for the best documentary film at the Sundance Film Festival, the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. This year there were no fewer than 10,279 films submitted for the festival, of which only 118 were screened. The [...]
A Mercedes teaser
Posted in F1 Drivers on January 30, 2011 | 10 Comments »
This is a teaser for the launch of the new Mercedes MGP W02 on Tuesday. The image is computer generated and the press release is clearly designed to create a little more publicity, giving the team two bites of the PR cherry. As one has to jump to follow the crowd in this respect, here [...]
