It’s off to Austria today, on the longest road trip of the year. I’m heading for Germany and will spent the evening eating schnitzel (no doubt) and then motor on tomorrow to Austria. The Vettel business is now fading and we will have to see whether Vettel has learned his lesson or whether he will do something daft again when next the red mists descend. As for the rest of the teams they will be noting the decision and filing it away for future reference if their drivers get into trouble. The FIA may in future get rather tired of the “Vettel Defence”, but sympathy will be hard to find in the F1 world. Very few movers and shakers in F1 respect the soft touch. To control them it is often only rough justice that works.
Elsewhere, there is still no team principal at Sauber after two weeks of hiatus, which underlines the point about Sauber being a team that is different to all the others and difficult to recruit for. The only way it can be done is if there is a leader with sufficient passion and drive to convince people to move. Money is not enough. The other key, of course, is stability so it would be wise for the team to get some really quickly. It strikes me that the situation at Hinwil will be watched very closely at Ingolstadt, where the big cheeses of Audi know the value of Sauber (the two parties work together a lot with DTM development) so if one day they are considering an F1 assault, the idea of buying Sauber is not such a stupid one (as BMW found out). There would be a certain amount of irony if that were to happen, of course, because Sauber was established in F1 with Mercedes money, was used by BMW and could one day end up in the hands of Audi. But the Audi folk are clever. They will wait until the team’s value has shrunk sufficiently before jumping in to buy it.
We will see how things develop now, but as a fan of architecture I do know that when the keystone of a building is removed, the roof tends to fall in.
Elsewhere, I’m watching McLaren to see if we are going to get a new Dennis-level boss. The wait to sort out the settlement made this impossible but that hurdle is now out of the way.
So what next? F1’s endless soap opera rolls onwards. I guess the British GP will be the big talking point in the next 10 days. I also expect more chatter about Copenhagen, as this is clearly a serious project for the future.
To the autoroute!
joeblogsf1 
Speaking of Austria: do you think that Austria/Hungary double-header could be a good idea? Would promoters be against? And do you believe that promoters are happy with dates of their races?
Have a good journey!
Probably too close together.
Seemed to work OK in 1986 & 1987
What seemed to work?
Having Hungary and Austria as back-to-back races. The tracks are only 450km apart by road.
But in 1986&87 you couldn’t get over the Border quickly. The Iron Curtain was still a thing back then.
But they opened it up for Bernie!
Love reading these articles Joe. Whats your honest take on what McLaren should do for ’18 if the Honda updates don’t work this weekend?…
They will switch to Mercedes. Better a second Mercedes than a poor Honda. No choice in my book.
What do you think will happen to Alonso?
I have no idea
Looks like he will go to Ferrari. Mercedes want Vettel to partner Hamilton. We know Hamilton is faster than Alonso, but is he also faster than Vettel? It will be interesting.
Banteamorders, why do you think that Mercedes is keen to sign Vettel to partner Hamilton? I have seen nothing at all pointing to that.
They might be doing a lot to see if they can get Max in their car for the future, but Vettel? Why upset Hamiton who is just as good, I see no reason for them not to want him to stay.
And they already have a solid driver for the other car in Bottas, who is doing the job of stepping up as well as anyone could want right now, so there is really no need to hurry things right now.
A striking difference between the action taken by the cycling authorities against Sagan and the F1 rapping of knuckles!
Rap my knuckles with a feather!!
Ive been reading lots of cycling news over this story and while they did act decisively I would say that the weight of opinion was that the DQ was too harsh and that a penalty would have sufficed. You’re dammed if you do and dammed if you don’t!
This difference is the ‘steward’s’ (or whoever) decision was not referred to a ‘greater’ authority based in Paris and didn’t take more than a week to be actioned. In my view it was not the actual punishment but the lack trust in stewards’ decision.
Hi Joe,
Any thoughts on the chances of Robert Kubica making a return in the future? There was an article on the BBC website yesterday saying he is to test with Renault again. It would be nice to see him back, especially if he can be as quick as he used to be!
The blog has been on fire the last few days, I’ve really enjoyed your articles and I have to say I think you’re spot on with how you have reported things. Let’s see how long we have to wait before all the Vettel stuff comes back to bite the FIA on the backside….
Enjoy your road trip!
I don’t see it. But I’d love it to happen.
/Any thoughts on the chances of Robert Kubica making a return in the future?/
Just be patient. If it’s to happen, it will happen.
But it would be good to get the opinions of experts like Joe in the meantime Bart, right?
/But it would be good to get the opinions of experts like Joe/
I was just trying to be positive, not to argue with Joe’s opinion.
It seems he’s been in the Renault (or more accurate the older Enstone car) testing at Paul Ricard. I can see the team (and the Manufacturer) having a try at getting him there, however unlikely I had thought that to be only a few weeks ago!
He was driving for them at Goodwood Festival of Speed on Sunday too.
The crowd trying to selfies and autographs with him was huge!
*trying to get
Safe travels Joe. Always enjoy reading your blog. The debate on the Vettel affair has made for very interesting reading, and your informed commenters have further enlivened the debate.
Looking forward to the Austrian GP this weekend.
Cheers,
John
When I read the headline I got the song Radar Love by Golden Earring in my head, then when I read To the autoroute got Motorheads Ace of Spades in my head because of the episode of the Young One’s where they had a guest appearance.
Hope you are enjoying the drive and the tunes. Cheers
Copenhagen? Now that sounds very agreeable. I’m so glad that the new owners are looking into Europe, though I guess the compromise will be more back to back races where there is a (relatively) short journey time. Copenhagen + Germany or Spa as back to back.
It’s one I’d consider going to; short flights, beautiful city, lovely people and high accommodation standards.
I’m uncertain, but one would have to to think the probability of Copenhagen was down to interpretation?
At the risk of being a Bohr and recycling an old joke: Wouldn’t the problem of a Copenhagen circuit be that if you knew where a car was on the circuit, you wouldn’t know how fast it was going?
And yes, I am aware that I may have just set a new record for obscurity of comment.
It takes a feyn man to come up with that comment.
Not at all; I laughed.
Ooh, a particle physics joke. If I was cleverer I’d come up with something about determining Jochen’s Mass, but then I’d be a bit of a Planck.
LOVE THIS SUB-THREAD!
excellent – especially if you have been watching ‘Genius’ so that the non scientists can get your very clever riposte
The FIA have made a rod for their own back through VettelGate. You can’t have such weak enforcement of bad sporting conduct.
On Mclaren, do they really need another big chief? Aren’t all the big roles covered off now? And surely they’ll need to tighten their belts for at least a couple of years to weather the lean times between ditching Honda and being able to do better sponsorship deals off the back off a (hoped for) resurgence in performance?
Drive safely and geniss das Schnitzel!
Will Vettel learn his lesson.
I doubt it. It’ll be business as usual for the lucky German and his Italian team.
The apple in the eyes of the FIA and Toddy.
The lesson was learned. A mild slap on the wrist, an insincere apology, and it is business as usual. All of F1 now knows this.
No but I think we have learned something about Vettel. I thought last years tirade was just frustration, seems like he is driving under a lot of stress and the “red mist” can descend at any minute. Thats a key weakness in my book.
I’m sure all the other drivers have noticed this chink in his armour
It’s not unnoticed, surely, that it doesn’t take too much to put a kink in Hamilton’s knickers?
Actually in recent times I find him much calmer and less easily upset
Yep, his attitude in the race and after, was professional and supportive of his team. Mature but unequivocal about what needed to happen, which he reiterated in the presser today.
His rivalry with Rosberg was more akin to sibling rivalry than team mates and it got messy at times as it often does in “family” arguments.
Having a perpetually front running car during this time probably helped.
Bon Voyage, Joe! I didn’t say it auf Deutsch because some non-German speakers might think I’m using a vulgar word. Anyway… last year Button was third in qualifying and sixth in the race. A bit of precipitation both days. This year Honda has a sexed up engine. And this year, there is some precipitation forecast for both days.
Just saying… 😉
@Gary I’m not a betting man, but a quick google of the odds for Alonso or Vandoorne winning are between 750/1 and 3000/1, if you fancy putting a tenner on it 🙂
Not a chance…however I would bet a pint they will get more points on the board…the big question is whether Vandoorne will show up for this Race…I hope he does…
It’s not often that one looks to cycling as an example of sporting behaviour – but last night they did have the courage to throw out a world champion going for a record in the major race of the year.
The Sauber situation must be so frustrating for Peter Sauber. The one thing Sauber didn’t have was money, and now he and Monisha ensured that it seems that everything the did have is in danger of being thrown away.
I agree with your cycling example. It’s sad that Mark Cavendish (and perhaps Peter Sagan) have been subjected to online vitriol similar to the levels on display last week.
Re. Sauber: as with Ron, the previous owner has no say once the shares are sold. I remember reading that Giancarlo Minardi regretted allowing the team to use his name once he’d sold. I’m glad BAT re-branded Tyrrell, and the various Lotuses have disappeared.
Interesting that an Indian news outlet, DNA, reported that Force India was a recipient of the funds at the centre of VJM’s money laundering investigation.
What do you think of Renault’s short notice replacement of Hulkenberg with Sirotken for FP1? Not too subtle or nothing more to it?
Nothing to read into it
Considering he’s scored all of their points this year, I think he’s safe.
I think that Sirotken took Hulk’s car for a session at a previous race. My guess is that Palmer’s contract specifically says that he will do all practice sessions while Hulkenbergs does not. They may at some point want terminate Palmer’s contract but until they do my guess is that they will not replace him for any sessions. Anyway if they believe in Palmer (which I am not sure about) he needs all the miles he can get!
Safe Travels Joe and enjoy the German food.
Do you GrandPrix guys travel together or is it a solo trip most fo the time?
Steve
It depends. If it is planes to afar I travel with DT. In Europe I travel alone.
Have a good journey Joe. I look forward to reading your next intallment of news & incites.
Spelling deliberate, Alastair?
I’d doubt it Peter, just my illiteracy showing through!
Dear Joe, if you ´re going via Munich you better try a “Schweinshaxn” at the “Haxenbauer” or go to the “Franziskaner” an try some other Bavarian specialities, as there are “Bauernenten mit Knödel” aka farmers duck with dumplings, before you dive into Austria, the true land of the Schnitzel´s. Styria, the federal state where the Red Bull Ring is, has also different kinds of culinarian highlights, like the “Reindl”. Basically a fried pan, with all the leftovers from the kitchen of the last week, if you´re lucky 😉
Back to business. Stopping Vettel, or all other F 1 drivers, of doing weird things, when the level of Adrenalin is at its peak, would be like teaching a cow how to fly. Who ever stopped Senna doing this ? When the visor is closed, the brain stops.
The McLaren cause will not be solved by a one-man show. These times are over. Management, even in F1, is a team effort nowadays, not a patriarchs game.
At least, Sauber will not be bought by Audi at the moment or in the nearby future. From an automotive industry point of view, F 1 is gambling. You can only loose. Will you sell more cars because of your engagement. Nope. Is there a certain ROI on your investment. Nope. F 1 is good for FMCG brands, as an automotive facturer you can only loose, unless you win. Which will cost you more than a fortune. We´ll see what happens after 2020. ——–best ragrds from the Kitbuehel Alps.
I shall be going around Munich.
I believe it’s a scenic trip from the Paris environs to Austria. Hope the green notebook receives some entries about your travels thereabouts, whether to or fro…
And do not forget to taste the Munich Weißbier refreshments like Weihenstephaner or Schneider Weisse!
Joe, in my book case I have you circuit guide written over 20 years ago. Last night on Lupert’s channel I watched the 2000 German GP from Hockenheim.
It was a different circuit, but a classic in its own way. Why was it butchered to make way for the silly track that is now there? Has the capital cost of this been part of the reason (together with mad sanctioning fees and no German fans favourite to fill the stands) for there being no GP?
It was deemed to be too fast
Actually it was shortened to create more overtaking at the hairpin (which you only get in the DTM by the way) and also increase the number of laps from 45 to 67.
Of course, you know best.
Seeing as I asked this same question to the track manager last year and got this reply then I guess I do.
A shorter lap and more overtaking may have been incidental (perceived) benefits, but the key factor was that the circuit in its previous configuration was no longer fit for modern F1. A number of long straights with chicanes at the end, way out in the forest with no options for increasing run-off areas, very poor access for emergency services and nowhere to land a helicopter in the eventuality (one might say inevitability) of a major accident.
Argument by appeal to authority, especially when undocumented, doesn’t stand up well against self-evident and easily verified fact and logic.
Lack of access and run-off was indeed another reason for cutting the track in two, as the forest around the circuit is protected and can’t be cut down. In fact the old tarmac has been removed and grassed over.
Sadly what started out as a coherent argument has been completely undone by that crass and childish final sentence. Pity about that…
Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses.
Proper logic is crass and childish? And “si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses” isn’t? You’re delusional.
And yet Monza was faster surely? Did it not have something to do with the shape of the circuit meaning there were huge amounts of perimeter fence to guard and maintain?
I would like to know. What is too fast ?
Geeze not like they race on the old Spa track.
Times change…
Interesting and clearly Joe’s response was the one that is the reason.
The perimeter fence may have been secondary as 2000 was the year the nutter walked down the circuit and turned the race on its head.
The passing comment does not wash as there were 4 passing places. (5 if you were brave and the other driver cut you some slack).
It’s such a pity though because it was a unique circuit and has now been turned into a boredrom. Some will call it progress. Not me.
I would love to see F1 on the old Spa!! Imagine breaking for Le Source and probably Stavelot. In modern cars the rest of the lap would be flat with maybe a lift at Masta. To be fast there you would need a big pair.
Oh it’s complicated. I can think of several reasons behind “too fast”…..
What’s to fast depends on how much room there is to slow an out of control car before it hits something solid.
In the days before engines became the ultra-reliable lumps of today, the cars used to disappear into the woods (where there were few spectators except at the Ost-Kurve) at full throttle and blow themselves to bits.
Joe, the Audi scenario is promising, but how much time do you think they *could* wait for the value to fall, considering the Honda engine contract?
Suppose the Honda 2018 engine turns out to be a beast, wouldn’t that bring the value up? So isn’t there a risk in waiting to buy Sauber?
Or maybe Sauber is not the only team on their radar?
Maybe someone could innocently ask Domenicali if he prefers skiing in Switzerland or cycling in Northamptonshire?
Don’t Audi tend to do their motorsport programs in house at Ingolstadt? Their Le Mans program was part of the R&D Department rather than marketing however, and I think Dominicalli has said that any project would only be for marketing reasons and not to forward technology.
The Sauber route does have a logical link to it though.
They do tend to do things in-house. But if you have the equipment somehere else you would obviously use it – as BMW did.
Was not their entire program operated by Joest?
“I think Dominicalli has said that any project would only be for marketing reasons and not to forward technology. ”
Did he? That’s very interesting. Technology wise F1 is coming around to the idea that road relevance is a dead end they may not be able to reverse out of if they allow manufacturers to dictate its direction. The future is electric and that is not Formula 1’s future, it’s formula e’s future. So F1 will have to move to a purely promotional series, basically NASCAR does similar, as the cars they use have zero road relevance and yet it is still very popular and profitable.
Audi and other manufacturers may want simpler and a lot cheaper engines, so they can compete with out the gargantuan technology bills that come with cutting edge engine designs. These hybrids are absurdly expensive, so small factor ICE with a standard ERS system would encourage manufacturers to stick around for a few years longer, at least. Longer term, you have to wonder just what car companies are going to get out of F1 that they cannot in Formula e. The garagistas may once again inherit Formula 1. It will be Red Bull/Coca-Cola/McDonalds Formula 1 by then, because someone has to pick up the tab, but still.
We can’t race full distance on electric, but what about qualifying?
How close are the ICE and fuel masses now? They’re not far of 100Kg each.
Formula E battery mass… Oooh that’s 200Kg…
See where I’m going with this?
Yes and don’t. Nightmare scenario is the manufacturers dragging Formula 1 into a Formula e merger, so that E = 1 and we lose Formula 1 forever to the electric motor..blerh!! It’s the ideal solution for the major car companies. They get to promote their latest technologies in the premier race series and all they have to do is MURDER the internal combustion engine in plain view of the entire world. Well, not on my watch, Jean, you hear me?
Help us, Obi-Ross-Kenobi, you’re our only hope.
Joe
There are brave Frenchmen out there if not at the FIA. Ejection of the great Peter Sagan from le Tour for his clumsy contact with Mark Cavendish, breaking Mark’s shoulder blade in the process required political courage. Every Frenchman knows his bike protocol and would support that, Surrende does not raise its ugly head. Poor M Todt.
As I inderstand it only Sean Kelly reckons they were right to throw Sagan off the Tour, though, TV’s Chris Boardman, Super Dave Millar and Bethany* (aged 7) all reckoned it to be too harsh.
* She had her letter read out on ITV4’s live coverage.
I would love to see Audi in F1. But why do you think they would rather have a team then start out as or be an engine supplier?
It seems more expensive – however controlling the PR when things don’t go well might be a reason?
AUDI’s e-Tron is either a good reason to think they won’t or a possible link to this sport : it was a tiny Wankel ICE supporting the battery technology.
I’m informed that it is rarely necessary to recharge the BMW i8 if you drive it in “sports mode” daily.
Both these factors can come in handy..
Consider Ross’s idea of multiple sprint races on Saturday.
I’m not waiting for a battery to even be swapped out.
Nobody is going to swap cars in F1.
AUDI’s is a appealing one for anyone who is looking for the solution to show the capabilities that F1 can encompass.
I know no reason to think F1 cannot be used for displaying everything in automobile technology equally and to the utmost expression of the avant-garde.
I’m tempted to think about qualifying for a more adventurous exploration of technology capabilities than this: why not allow demonstration cars to showcase development technologies?
I haven’t a perfection, but I have a germ of a idea how to get the job done with the scoring and quali and enable teams to play with the options freely.
I’m prevaricating over different ideas including a rapid handicapping which would encourage developments to be tried seriously but any leapfrog gains discounted until the tech is either in a race spec car or something available for testing purposes to all.
This way, testing is accelerated not inhibited, and yet the introduction of significant or runaway advantages in the qualifying process cannot be hoarded or skewer grid orders.
After the new tech has been run for races the handicapped points would be given as bonus points in the constructor championship and I’d like to get a both a innovation constructors competition and allow handicapped points to be traded in for normal constructor points at a discount to enable innovative teams to secure the place advantage in the same way as present.
I much prefer to be able to play with additional features than a wholesale upheaval.
The present system anticipated the existence of more teams and better economy than transpired, as far as I can see the circumstances of origin and regardless of stated aims, the expectations were just different then.
I get excited by ways to get the best out of the formula we have, and really the last thing I want to see is a root and branch workout which only invites heavy political issues. Punch and Judy is a show of a status quo, in which the simulated violence of puppets is a release of the audience’s tensions in intractable daily life. After all the enduring image of Punch and Judy shows, is that of there being a lack of alternative distraction. I think that says enough about the Bernard and Max era, though… which covers the point I meant to make about leaving the most in place as possible to avoid legacy political problems.
The current and still new formula is excellent, which caught me by surprise when it did, but I reckon it is running much below potential.
It’s qualifying and the accessibility of F1, where I see need of work.
Accessibility is about the chances of new technologies and teams as well as the fans and consumption. It would be the wrong signal to uproot the sport so soon after the new game has settled.
After all, my first avowed love demands I see F1 as the ultimate in motorsports, and the possibilities are endless even if we sometimes have a lot of subtle restraint self imposed by our own minds because of the rule system in F1 being so strong.
Just one need not see any rules as restrictive in any way. The fact that you or i have put a great deal of effort into the process of appreciating rules in F1 only confirms the value that they are.
By using the same rules and systems that serve the needs of a sport so many times bigger than the other comparable series, but introducing the advances that are accommodated at present elsewhere, F1 serves the wider economy and sport by providing a massive amount of room for growth.
There’s a glass ceiling with all secondary sports series, companies, countries, any living system in fact, and the reasons are as much economic and social as they are circumstantial, say by newness, and so there is nothing at all negative about the expansion of the F1 platform to include the whole smorgasbord of auto tech.
After all this has been a revolutionary era in which the oldest technologies have found renewed interest and applications, and that widest all inclusive exploration of human propulsion is the defining characteristic of our era. Make F1 relevant to the way the world is thinking, not only tinkering.
F1 is the destination for auto innovation and the fact that the ways in which this might be continued are controversial is as well explained by the fact that success is often safer left unchanged than by other reasons of any kind. Barbarians at the gate is a unlikely event, but it is a focus of our fears possibly encouraged by the octagenarian barbarian of our own. I got to personally understand what the forces feel like and how they influence think about risk, through a utterly minor and marginal story of business, which is why now dozens of storied small manufacturers have been stripped of their power to price and maintain margins, as they were preoccupied by the presence of a third party dealer facto reseller monopoly which was run by a true vulgarian of Basil Fawlty temperament of the class now as a whole long unwilling to assume that class is a entitlement for life. I have yet to properly assemble the rushed jumble of thoughts on F1 which I have spilled with little style lately and carelessly at that, but I am no longer uncertain that the sport has capacity to be augmented and is in no need of root change, in the pursuit of a secure, relevant, future. Looking new does not mean new, or as Graham Greene put it, one cannot follow St. Paul’s technique of being all things to all people, without the occasional change of suit. Or suit dress.
Joe: I know this will be an odd question, but……. What sort of car do you drive to the races? Surely not a tiny, cramped little Euro-fuel sipper. Inquiring minds from the USA want to know.
Sadly it’s a nice Japanese fuel-sipper.
It’s unlikely to be a free Ferrari after Joe’s recent blog’s 😉
“It’s unlikely to be a free Ferrari after Joe’s recent blog” – Actually the only instance that I recall Joe writing about a free loan car was in a Ferrari. Can’t recall of the top of my head if it was on the blog or GP+.
Yes it was. No one else has ever offered me anything and I don’t ask.
Hopefully not a Honda… Just kidding ..
You must have missed that the F1 Honda donk is a known guzzler…..
I bet you if it didn’t vibrate so much, it would be a sipper, though.
Obviously vibration is generally a bad thing, it’s energy loss and it’s a possible structural problem.
But it is a input to the system and I have to say I’ve no knowledge of any actual data, but vibration can increase the friction of cylinders and moving components throughout a entire car, depending on the frequency and speed of transmission and many more factors such as the imputed of vibration from wheels and tires and aero components counteracting and interacting.
I’m probably going to now find a credible source that will take the specific confidence out of my claim. But I’m correct if I can disclaim ceteris paribus.
In AUDI’s own film of the e-Tron LM campaign, their head engineer has spoken about noise as his enemy.
Vibration is obviously inseparable from noise emission but I wonder if he is not aghast at our obsession to tune the race soundtrack. I think the effort is a risk. If I was writing a geek plot twist for a vainglorious character, I would like to see his engine in papal enclave, because of his obsession with his own audio accompaniment.
I hope that we can get to learn more about the game of engineering simulation in F1, soon. I think it would be a easier display to persuade teams to make, if we had a variety of new variables, in quali eg that the public would appreciate as part of the challenge and why such tech is so important to model.
The behavior you get is the behavior you reward (or, in this case, not punish). Until someone gets hurt.
Sad that in a week where rugby and cycling have shown the balls to apply severe penalties for not playing the game fairly, the FIA have chosen to ignore the same at their highest level.
As others have said, if Mr Vettel finds himself on the podium at Silverstone he’ll be struggling to be heard in his interview above the boos from the crowd.
Rugby showing it has balls. What a joke. One sending off in 50 years for New Zealand. More like a referee decided for once to do the right thing instead of always worrying what the New Zealand dominated referee’s body would do.
Spear tackle on Brenda o’Driscoll? No action. McCaw spent his entire career infringing the laws. No action.
Get real. Vettell got a penalty. It was just not near enough
Big difference rugby is a contact sport the other two F1 and Tour de France are not………………
Wonder how much the struggles and embarrassment of the Honda project might put off other potential manufacturers. Though of course Audi have a more well established pedigree, particularly with hybrid technology.
The Copenhagen chatter interesting too. Perhaps spurred on by the presence of Kevin Magnussen. That aside it doesn’t instantly strike as a location crying out for F1.
Any race there would pretty much need a July slot, or ensure temperatures in the mid teens! Mind you it would be a popular race if you had the current Scandinavian crop on the grid to attract fans, and is in easy reach for UK and German fans. I suppose in terms of sheer influence to F1, there would be more of a case for a race in Finland, though the logistics, funding issues and climate put paid to that.
If Liberty take a different approach altogether to Ecclestone, it would be good to have these sporadic ‘cult’ races cropping up. I’ve always liked the idea of calendar rotation, but i suppose from a business stand point, in terms of running the racing venues and breaking even etc, as well as for financial security, then it doesn’t pay to have a race once every two or three years.
Audi have REPEATEDLY stated that F1 hold no interest for them. In fact, they have stopped developing combustion engines for their road cars and are concentrating on all-electric propulsion. Hence the Formula E team with Abt.
I am terribly sorry to pop your balloon, but Stefano Domenicali appeared for the VW group at the recent F1 engine meeting. He did a study for Audi about what it would take to enter F1 before taking on his current job as CEO of Lamborghini. They are certianly considering entering F1 and while we can argue over the brand that they might use, Audi is the one that makes the most sense.
My balloon isn’t popped. VW group has bigger things to worry about than F1 I’m afraid.
If you want to get rid diesel heritage, what’s the best way to tell the world….
Problem is that the diesel engine lies expense stands at $22BLN in the USA alone, just for VW. My own back of envelope calculation was for VW 100BLN, really just a guess at first reaction. I guessed high because I figured it was not sales of one type but the entire viability of private cars that was sold by promoting diesel. Take the never believable cleanliness away, you could never convince anyone like me living by a intersection that a speck less pollution was created, I was spending thousands per room on air filtration from the beginning of the new century onwards and constantly upgrading…
Without the bogus diesel proposition actual car ownership is not possible for the majority of customers. Realistically pollution taxes should be putting the automobile beyond all but the top tenth of a percent. Bluntly mommy can’t afford any wheels for the school run. We can’t afford to have those vehicles on the road at the real pollutant rates. So sales will have to be reduced by two thirds to reflect that. And that about wipes out VWs equity.
I have been predicting since the first news, that the diesel scandal will mothball half the manufacturer companies. Just political concerns ensure the news takes a decade to filter out.
John (other John) – while it is true that the bill for the lies they admitted to in the US is quite big, I don’t think it will hit the company that bad if they get out of it well.
More important than a penalty are the questions what effect it will have on their image with buyers and whether it will mean other limitations for the company (legal ones, maybe having to go through more hoops to prove their future solutions etc).
I think that with the whole world being aware now that many automotive companies (most even? Dutch authorities have now officially started investigating Suzuki/Jeep this week) do some trickery to fulfill all the limits and lower prices at the same time, the PR part does not look to be too bad. Provided the company can now move on towards something new and appealing. A push towards electric is one part of that. But hybrid, promoted by F1 could well be another.
As for the bill – if you know the car industry, you will know that the ones to feel most of the pain for that one, are the suppliers. The US-fine works great as an opening statement for purchasing departments of VW companies to make clear that they really DO expect a 5-10% price cut to “make ends meet” if you want to sell them your parts.
I would have to go over my working but believe me I did when I got sight of the original data, but my life is likely half a decade shorter just from the two decades living in spot I do. I have at times felt like it was being called in early… Roadside pollution is frightening and the public health bill is of a order akin to a generational unfunded pension. The scope of misery is incredible.
And yet here under everyone’s nose all the time has been F1 cutting back fuel consumption by 50% in the same time. Sorry 50% efficiency of output is close, but that’s not far from the same improvement.
Only we have to scrap almost every vehicle made in the past 20 years and this isn’t enough to avert the economic impact.
I’m tempted to think about F1s lack of time for selling its virtues could look one day like a crime against humanity.
I’m exaggerating for effect not hyperbole’s sake. Because problems mankind creates by deception always seem to have multiplied effects.
Really? Audi have just stopped all development on internal combustion engines?
Yep, it was announced in the motor industry press (Autombilwoche) at the end of last year, IIRC.
The surfing word tour used to have a kind of wildcard event that was at a different location every year. it definitely was a favorite among fans. no one can work out why this stopped. i don’t see it as priority number 1 for LM, but maybe something like that, one off races, would be viable should race contracts become a little more tenable.
Yeah, well surfing’s a bit cheaper than setting up than an F1 track, as the ocean provides and all you have to do is show up with a surf board. And there’s not a $25 million fee to do it.
Reading that McLaren has to raise the money to buy out RDennis, I wondered who would buy half a billion dollars worth of McLaren debt? Acknowledged that they earn some money from engineering contracts and the car production side, the halo operation, the F1 team, is in shambles.
The Bond that McLaren is raising to pay off Ron and also to pay down some debt. This looks like the way forward to some form of possible IPO in the near future. I have had a look at the figures, and it is very interesting to where they make or have their revenue streams from.
It does cost a lot to produce new models of the road car, even though they have this great Tub, which I understand BMW is keen to use for one of their new “Super Cars” project.
Most car companies swap around their platforms to different models. It saves costs in R&D
One line of interest here, given the possible IPO of McLaren, maybe Audi (VW) would make a play for the group.
It’s a basic axiom of management that you should only fire a leader when you already have someone lined up to replace them. The Sauber decision-makers either failed to even consider the need for an immediate replacement or failed to secure an on-the-dotted-line agreement for a replacement to start.
Either way, they failed. A leaderless team, especially one so mired in difficulty, will not last long.
Safe travels, Joe. Enjoy the schnitzel!
Safe travels, Audi in at Sauber ……
Our “wager” lives on! I still believe Audi won’t enter F1 in the near / medium future. No large scale “vanity / halo” projects will happen until Diesel gate is done…in my opinion
Will a Ron-level boss ever re-appear at McLaren? Will an Enzo level boss ever reappear at Ferrari? Or a Frank level boss at Williams? Or (I am well aware of your views on him, but you have to give him some dues) a Flav level boss at Renault? No one has yet at these other teams, so perhaps it seems the days of the single leading personality at F1 teams are behind us? F1 will never see the likes of Ron again, and it will be the poorer for it.
Do you ever get a loaner AMG for your trips & if you do who pays for fuel & is it worth it for the extra expense.
No, I don’t
Safe journey. I really envy you!
卐 卐 卐 Hᴇʟʟᴏ ᴊᴏᴇ , ᴛʜɪs ɪs Hɪᴛʟᴇʀ ᴡʀɪᴛɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ғʀᴏᴍ ʙᴇʏᴏɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ɢʀᴀᴠᴇ. I ᴊᴜsᴛ ᴡᴀɴᴛᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ʟᴇᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀɴᴅ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴍᴏᴅs ᴅᴏ ᴀ ɢᴏᴏᴅ ᴊᴏʙ ᴏғ ᴄᴀʀʀʏɪɴɢ ᴏɴ ᴍʏ ʙᴇʟɪᴇғs. 卐 卐 卐
This, dear readers, is the sort of thing one has to put up with when running a blog…
Outrageous and cowardly, clearly somebody who needs help
Anyone who knows how to find a swastika symbol on a keyboard has obviously used it before!
Hope you have your sleuths out chasing down this a-hole.
I’m afraid I bet you can Google it in seconds.
What disgusts me, is that the symbol is a part of the standard font which is either in the machine we read on, or delivered in the website typography. What on earth is the need for it?
I realise that it is also a symbol of religious origin and the fasces is appropriated in history by the national socialist party.
This explosion of symbols is thanks to Unicode font standards, which accommodate all the major scripts and applications for type in the enormous tables they are able to contain.
Used properly, the capability is a bonus for the non English speaking world and who needs to type scientific or mathematical figures.
But the thing that stuck in my craw, is that the chance of the symbol being available for use only in a non commercial font distribution is high. Typography is expensive and it does cost to license the typefaces websites use.
Therefore the likelihood is that this is enabled by a open process that makes contributions to the community possible, and is fundamental to so much good.
But I suspect that this is the result of a surreptitious usurping of a good system by a heel.
I don’t do the same work as I did, so I’m rusty enough to defer to the current and correct, but it is a low possibility for the malintent to have found a typography library in use for making this site, and target the underlying typeface in use specifically by this or any other site, and plant the offending symbol in the typeface through open public (and anonymous) contribution, just to tap out the right hexadecimal code to invoke the provocative display in your pages.
Theory but y viable theory. Hate is too inventive where no normal human will ever think about looking.
Sorry that you receive such vile stuff like this. Glad you continue to blog despite stuff like this. Keep up the good work Joe.
This, Joe, is what is known as an edge-lord. They are a cancer of the internet. Their purpose is to be as offensive as possible for the sheer sense of danger they feel from being anonymous. It’s a low stakes game of cowardly behaviour that somehow fills their empty lives with meaning. It truly is pathetic. CNN just discovered one and like lifting a rock it scurried away like a cockroach and begged for forgiveness. Pity them, Joe. I’m serous, they are damaged people.
Fascinating terminology thanks!
I am lucky enough to be able to avoid the unpleasant parts of the Internet, but I am professionally interested in the language of the underbelly of culture and this has prompted me to take a look at a few things afresh.
I have forgotten my link from your comment to my plan to protect independent journalists websites from the destruction of amateur computer people who are often in the most professional environment imaginable and the people who are good are still liable to errors and the cost of a messed up website is unspeakable to a journalist.
I had to cut out a thousand words I reflexively output in a blizzard of concern about the whole problem faced by journalists and the sheer difficulty of using the Internet infrastructure without mistake in any of the daily tasks that are increasingly unavoidable by any website publisher.
I cannot guess what number of voices we have lost to the complexity of the Internet or incompetence of professionals or general indifference… The industry of Web design and development unfortunately rather than worrying about working with journalists and the real specialist needs journalists have when managing their Web presence, instead behave themselves as if they are the same community as the journalists from whom they are frequently receiving reflection of imaginary glory.
People are just not even insured for their liability in website development etc. And they would be lost trying to negotiate with a broker. If they could get a broker who could offer such cover as they really need. I would probably have to pay the market price at Lloyd’s now, but before I could buy on the documentation and record keeping the style of which I originally leaned from a Lloyd’s principal. Without which no chance of a policy.
I absolutely want to be counted in any number who will address this problem in earnest. I’ve still available time, health preventing full-time return to work, and I have full folders to turn into case studies in the event of anyone being interested. If you have any desire to further the cause and could make use of about a good MBA level term project that needs to be tamed and decorated by the selection of study or choice of data sources, so long as you are passionate about the problem you are welcome to any assistance I may be able to be. I’m geographically a walk from Cass, where I have a few good pals.
There’s problem is generic, but if it applied here, it would follow from the point of Joe concluding that he is faced with either necessary technical reaction and prevention or else is subject to the risk of injury to his Internet presence, by means irrelevant to the example.
But he is not in his experience of being a customer, happy to use existing service providers he has previously, so must try to evaluate the market.
I’m concerned about how to deal with this problem and this is the best place to deal with the issues.
Why not try and make a difference elsewhere?
Because independent journalists are not yet known to be able to afford a selection of the best It consultancy and service providers. Until they are, they are forced to shop around, or limit their engagement with their websites technically, or even accept the risk of being unable to make a start over if they are targeted for example.
I want to remove the risk of being lost in the eyes of Google.
I think that they should work with a body for specialist IT pros offering pro nono to independent journalists, so that Google can rewind their own knowledge of any recognised independent journalists website, to erase the adverse effects of malicious hacking or maintenance mistakes.
This is not the easiest thing to do. I will soon try to get a friend to help me drum up some attention, seeing as his record of success is notable and moreover I know no better non technical business entrepreneurs for understanding technology in every aspect. But meanwhile I exhort anyone who has a moment, to just suggest this idea to the very next journalist they speak to spread the idea as much as possible. REWIND FOR GOOGLE FOR HACKED JOURNALISTS WEBSITES!
Because of the complexity of the way Google or bing is seeing the Web, it is a significant endeavour to reestablish even a small website which is victim of malicious damage, this is a project not a matter of fulfilling a request that only needs to get the approval of the right person.
I’m not interested in any part of helping website managers sell their talents to journalists who have no interest in the distinctions of that profession. That’s not a professional arrogance and I worked with Web designers and developers for over twenty five years now and understand and sympathise, but the cacophony of self importance even amongst the most experienced and professional communities is very difficult to tolerate. I’m not exaggerating to say that the Web design community is more likely to think they’re the same as journalists in social importance than they are to care for what a journalist client is looking to assuage or has at risk through their work on their website..
For so many if not most, it takes a single error to irreversibly damage a Internet presence and associated business and more.
But guys like Joe are facing problems with accelerating frequency.
This means that the choice of support difficulties is multiplied and everything is multiplied and it’s rolling dice.
I would not want to be messing around with my own website without a pairing of the highest recently verifiable self confidence in my work and the minimum of a constant observer of my work and my actions entirely recorded. This was for my own use and I was not even working with the live system but on the exact copy of the live system that I had mirrored from the beginning. I was not prepared to take any risk of my own actions to a expendable copy and even then I would have a remote observation of my work to keep me from rashness or emotion and check the whole procedure was being properly recorded in reproducible fashion. Believe me I have learned very expensively just about the way you find you can’t do the same thing again exactly even with all that precaution. On a customer system literally every discrete interaction would be a individually snapshot test of repeating the same thing as before before the next little thing. I’m not done, but I will pass on the fun of recording the interfaces in use to establish determinism systems.
Basically the same way that you debug a computer system which eluding your best people to yield a bug you can’t even know how to get to see again, is the only way you make any changes to any website that I have responsibility for. That is also how you can get insurance for telephone number sums that are pure compensation for the worst imaginable of your nightmares. Pity you are not going to be able to sleep well again in the event of a accident. Because truly eliminating human error is just the hardest thing to do… and then you can forget that fat policy you bragged about to land the customer whose broken website is the death knell of your business.. (in fact the chances of getting a pay out for compensation are not good enough for even the most certain acts outside your control, because of the likelihood your insurer will sue to claim that as a professional you should been aware that freak accident might be happening just that precise moment and you are not going to be paid because they allege you defrauded them by withholding the disclosure of assessments you signed and because they just don’t believe that anyone walked into their office to buy a multi million pound policy, arguing that the risk of catastrophe is hardly measurable, see your own data, and yet behold the very next day the impossible happens to be liable to make your customer very rich. Now prove that it was a cosmic raw flipping that ECC memory beyond the power of recovery…
I can be unforgiving with a unforgiving stereotype and of course the stereotype is not universal, but I would rely on the accuracy and have so relied in trying to find a commercial opportunity in this area. That I concluded that the need of journalist can only be fulfilled by pro bono offers and the ability to work with the clients sufficiently prestigious to create competition from highly motivated and experienced staff, well I’m saying that the commercial market is not good enough for the same industry let alone to be a reliable source of consistent quality work for the layperson client as sole trader
I think persuading Google to provide a service to independent journalists who are facing the ongoing problems of their website maintenance and run real risk of losing their entire existence by the mishaps of a notoriously variable profession who nonetheless have been the kingmaker of Google and this is why it is a low distinction market and will remain the most technically shady business ever. I feel that it is a bit of paying a debt to the untold number of journalists who have been unable to find the means to stay writing for a public who still feeds Google its daily bread.
Anyway to anyone who has a possible interest in offer whatever they may have need for help with understanding the issues involved. I have been just not fit enough to be self starting, but whoever is willing to take steps to make the skills necessary to maintain journalism websites pro bono, please include me. I’m willing to help you commercially provided you help this problem charitably. What matters here, to a standard sufficient to be scrutinised by the media itself and Google, I have a quite comprehensive repertoire of insights and skills that are transferable also potentially. Commercially if you are a professional consultant, a small business or a business student I am able to trade time with anyone who is keen to work to solve the online risks of journalism website management. Certainly to be a catalyst I’m sure you can treat me as cheap
Sometimes I would despair.
I’ve since learned that it is nice to stop banging my head against the wall.
It only took a few years to realise that this meant that it was nice to start banging my head against the wall, too.
Anticipation is everything.
Sanity shall prevail!
Crass and cowardly.
Real men use their own names.
How ironic. In your post the other day when the subject was gravitating towards people’s respect/attitude when commenting, I was going to drop in a mention of “Godwin’s Law” which can be summarized thusly: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Hitler approaches.” but then I thought the better of it as I’ve never actually seen a discussion on this blog descend to that point, and then lo and behold a couple of days later his ghost only goes and bloody well posts here.
I don’t believe in ghosts… it is an onanist of some sort. But at least he managed to spell Hitler correctly. Must do it quite often too (the Hitler thing and/or onanism) because he knows how to find a Swastika symbol on his keyboard…
Well that does make sense… He’d have to do it twice as much as normal, since half his means of production is by all accounts in the Albert Hall.
Godwin’s law has been a double edged sword recently. As we are having discussions with actual Nazis. No joke, white supremacist, anti-Semitics who espouse the beliefs of The Nazis. So, trying to tell them their beliefs are abhorrent is getting really difficult without tripping up on Godwin’s law. It’s like chess. They lead you down a certain path and if you call them Nazis or say their beliefs are similar, they invoke that law and the discussion ends. I’m sure Godwin never thought we’d be living in an age where right wing extremism was gaining a foothold around the world, again.
Unfortunately Godwin’s Law seemed to limit the political debates much lately. I surmise this is due to the supplanting of language by emotive homochromes * as led by emoticons and text speech and the encroaching advance of grammatical implosions indecipherable to me but which seem to be origin errors found situationally comical, even upon formal essays. I have found a motherlode in a website parodying McMansions, where the clearly highly articulate young architecture graduate writes series essays between the direct humor exceptionally. Only her illustrations are entirely annotated by the indecipherable and presumably funny random Latin characters. The problem is that they contain meaning to which she seems to refer. I have seen similar stories in in computing presentations even recently.
Language is being displaced by emotive and cautious and therefore ambiguous hence frequently logically meaningless similies to references circulated among undergraduate Facebook accounts or if you’re luck, 4chan where at least you can inquire about your problem communication and be mercilessly mocked with the canonical etymology.
* because you have to rely on color coding whenever in doubt. It being fairly safe that I’m the only owner of the book dedicated to the artistic provenance of the pigment, I may safely inquire about your mood and if you feel blue… Oh, er, I see you have another idea about what I just said… I just forget the Greek for round block, square block…
Rollerball 😂, now you are showing your age.
That is so true
Kind Regards
Robert Mugabe
The last time I chose to not speak a white lie to authority, out of date information and not of any other consequence, although I have been told by the final judge, “we should never have been in this court… This [civil order] do not exist. It never existed…” I had upon no powers conveyed to anyone who arrested me, been imprisoned for the equivalent to a guilty person who obtained a discount for the admission, a five year sentence, spent half a year in fever from a infection following my arm snapping after it was fractured in a arrest in which I had entered shock seeing as I was being arrested hours only after release by court which found no power to arrest me and this was a.. I forget the number of that arrest, anyhow my physical build is Victoria’s Secret, literally, I seized, cuffs were daisy chained and four twenty something officers played tug of war, my hands locked up in my fear, and they called for backup and good those came and spoke my name, this was read out in court and I was I think then entering a full psychotic break, unable to process the sheer extent of the situation, anyhow my arm simply fell off at the merest provocation two weeks later in the prison gym shooting hoops and I had a massive reaction to antibiotics and was left in high fever, until I lost basic speech, surely messing up my defence which never was more than pointing out the problem was the lack of lawful means of my arrest, per the books, but solicitor after solicitors contrived to be accomplices in sabotage… One senior judge simply said that I should forget about trial or bail. Really, those words. I figured that I would embarrass the whole system, knowing that the origin of this overtly forged high court order was the social worker defrauding my elderly mother in my absence, 35,000 or so was dispensed to him under a local authority scheme which he had my mom sign up for the loan to ostensibly make her safe from falls, but apart from that, surviving the assault of a maniac put in my cell against every operational manual ever written, who was incited by someone certainly to believe in the appropriate action of trying to slash my throat with razors clenched between his fingers (scar just 2cm shy my jugular, took 7hrs for help to come, the entire friendly wing raising hell)… I wanted to be sure that my mom was safe. She was writing she couldn’t live without me. They stopped her letters. (thank you for ever, green marker pen, Amsterdam on the reception side, next to the top office I was, you gave me my mum’s letter knowing that I was framed and it was about 3am I remember it falling in the cell, knowing that I had to wait for you to be safely out of my possible sight before I could get up and read it) and I could sort it out later the epic delay was just shock, self neglect over years and a stupid bug kind always going about on the inside… Well I found the reason behind my family being so messed up and it was my fault but I didn’t know I’d been taken off my mom at birth and the longest case ever happened, but it explained the missing years of my memory and why my mom couldn’t bear to be separated from me at all, I lived in the next street when married… And like a fool I wrote to my dad’s first born son, to say I understood the truth and I only can forgive and cry as I finally knew what I only felt was do wrong around me, but must be the day that reached him my mum side was made to move somewhere “so she would be safe from falling” and immediately did fall, again and again left the night and then she collapsed and lost physically control and speech and hair, but not for months my screaming did I hear oh she’s better than ever just recovering from a infection. They killed her all but technically. She was fine. She was being blackmailed to go along with things so I’d never know what my real story was. Rather than a witness… Until I found by fluke a sweet solicitor who just admitted that she knew the law less than me (stunning that I read defense barristers frequently can’t afford the Blackstone references I had bought the year before this mess started. I had better references than my professional defense council. But they frequently only appeared because of my citing the procedure rules sanctions… Some of the gift of the social worker was to try to claim that the vast fraudulent claim for “emergency works” * was somehow me defrauding my mom, they classically Gaslighted her. Same as the infamous play and film. She was brainwashed by a dozen, twelve agencies imposing many times daily demanding she sign statements… They gave up that effort after 9 months of using the resources of the Organised Crime agency to try to pin anything on me… Poor people probably never seen a working office network before… Apparently my photocopier was a object of great interest. Or red stapler jealousy… They brainwashed my mom, took her only relative away, meanwhile the social worker had tried twice to just fake allegations with statements of his subordinates and a neighbour reported that he was calmly rifling through moms correspondence with her late husband and perusing her will and my trust papers that paid for the flat I had to get kicked out of Westminster school to get her, away from my dad’s violence, and step family provided for the impression of being above board for moms care but she never accepted visitors and I was her only companion after dad took his own life certainly in his guilt (I think my dad treated you worse than my mother, said brother whose own mother also suicide) and she only eat what I prepared (sudden effusive gratitude from neighbours who loathe me and see below part why, how instantly mums I put back weight and looked well, they thanked me for returning thinking I had been abandoning her… Mom was left to waste to 4 stone imperial no pounds in a care home before she was treated like a human being…) anyhow step family kept up appearances while coordinating the local volunteers in the citizens advice substitute that tower hamlets switches on the public, in their letter writing campaign to all the people who were writing to me or my business, how I was serving bird for fraud and I don’t know what besides… But the instant my mom sent a letter to my step brother telling him to stop interfering in her life and harassing her, he was on the doorstep, well in office with the social worker and accomplices claiming I was bashing my moms head and they could supposedly see from the window… My chronology is not good, but I am only now regaining memories, I was freed and I was arrested regardless of the absolute obvious impossibility of the lawfulness, dent before judges having been charged for the judge to be confused and release me, except when they did not, or tried to hold me in contempt for speaking from behind the sound proof glass prohibiting communication in our local court where I witnessed at best randomness and the alternative is not bearable to rational minds…
I’m not going through the whole thing because it gets far worse and too long.
But had I simply willing to give a correct but I thought it less correct reply to the sergeant one morning, none of that would have happened, and I can substantiate the directly causal sequence.
I’m still in shock. Music is still captive of these people and unable to see me despite continuing pleas to neighbours. I can’t get any solicitor to deal with it, they’re all scared off. What I just said. It started in 2013.
What started long before however, was the fraud and theft of the flat building freehold I was trying to get rid of. We had a flat in a former estate high rise, one thankfully they stole too much money to clad like Grenfell. And then my luck uncovered a Privy Councillor who was profiting from the fraud. Indirectly but profiting. And in 2009 it was one of his flats, into which a young Italian girl was moving 8 beds and a sofa bed, the month before, which went up in a electrical fire which was the first major incident of the new chiefs tenure. We’re opposite, Iwe were opposite the fire station. All engines. A byproduct of the fraud was the dry riser was left broken completely by management for at least 8 years. This is also the building of the last of the prototypes used to make the nooks cook good again to cover up the The guide, OM Group Pete also Solitaire mass property fraud. It was so blatant that the chairwoman of the illegally formed controlling residents association kept casually calling it “her” building to the decades delayed contractors. She probably was feeling confident of successful completion of control not only because underlying the non disclosure agreements and bullying that keeps today my old neighbour in fear, all others ousted by the deliberate dilapidation of their property and the illegal demand for the sudden emergency repair, if that was not enough to have sold every share of the freehold as not anything but I interest free loans to her bogus incorporation not even party to our lease but suing for money and bullying my mother first opportunity I was away, loans repayable in 2015 and the missing money just now enough if buying in 2 bed flats at 200,000 in a 600,000 neighbourhood for far less nice properties… If that was insufficient to make her get away, then having implicated in 6fraud the man who bullied Tony Blair when he was ostensibly in office, really should be. I certainly have felt the long reach of this actually suspended to state of emergency law, I can tell you. I’m amazed at my survival, the threats are unending. But so is the fact of the most foul corruption that I couldn’t ever tell you I would have believed were it not all on the public records.
So to answer the question, it is necessary in a corrupt state, to have personal freedom and it is not enough to make excuses saying that you have nothing to hide so that it does not matter what the truth of ridiculous breach of rights may be. This is why I give a damn about the independence of journalism.
Adolf, still too early for you to get any kind of traction, stay down there. According to a poll last year Adolf is still the least popular name for newborn males in the USA , not sure about the motherland – so probably too soon. Enjoy your dirt nap until the next time Humanity has a collective brain fart.
He seems to have achieved exactly what he wanted judging by the responses above. Will people never learn?
Just can’t get scary vibes from Adolph, I just can’t. I have always had a vision of Mama Shekelgruber so dulcet intoning, ” there, Adolph, don’t you worry about papa and me, I say your picture is adorable and we’re sure to be saved once you get to Vienna to sell your paintings, now sit back at the table, dear, I made your favourite cabbage”.
He was a quiet boy, really normal kind of lad, loved his mother’s cabbage their Adolph did, and Mrs Shekelgruber was so proud of him coming home alive in 1918 nobody was so lucky from this town, got a medal he did, I saw it, so he can’t have been all bad. Then I heard something about him and his cousin or aunt removed, and another thing about a painting, and how the cousin or whoever she was that doesn’t matter where we’re from, we’ll she just didn’t like the same things, we supposed, someone said she refused to eat his favourite cabbage and then we never saw him again, not like we did, such a pity, everyone was always trying to be nice to him…
(wasn’t he raised by grandparents… Anyhow I always thought that his family name was so close to a Hoffman name I have missed spelled it ever since..)
My (German) ex brother-in-law has Adolf for a middle name but that comes from his grandfather, not Herr Schickelgruber.
Gute und staufreie Fahrt nach Österreich,
‘. . . when the keystone of a building is removed, the roof tends to fall in.’
Sadly, in modern architecture many of those keystones are decorative and fortunately removal will only result in localised defects. Even London’s Tower Bridge (1894) is of steel-frame construction and the stone-work used purely as protective skin and for aesthetics – its style anticipating Disney World by a half-century or so.
Hopefully modern team principals have value above and beyond their architectural equivalents!
I think you understand the point I was making
But… Isn’t a keystone defective, if you remove it and the building does not fall down? I’m strangely disappointed with this information and it is sure that I will now be unable to pass the city streets without a sneaking suspicion of being short changed by false, pretending, non load bearing, imposter, keystones, and suspiciously shooting glances upwards of the buildings for signs of fracture stress. Just now that I realise this is a opportunity to get important work done on the Dunning Kreuger therapy strategies for important neo classical facades, after all these years of experience in treating the same masonry as being afflicted by the emasculation of lateral structural discrimination from their own buildings, I’ve serious issues myself with what I have been doing and what if I have a unknown resentment harboured by my masonry patients and all this time at any moment they could have reaped revenge for not seeing them as they truly are handicapped. I mean at any second one could have gone and fallen in on my head, cackling, “see, its nothing to do with my mother and my inadequacy just because of being there for decoration, see what you can never know with all of your mumbo jumbo pseudo science, so smug with that false smile of sympathy.. Look at me, I am free and squishy you thought I could never have any freedom because you imagined I couldn’t let the museum fall down!! ”
One day I’ll analyse myself into seeing pa clue for a funny comment to do with F1 hitting me in the face…
(apologies to xkcd comic strip and fans)
I know the Vettel incident is old news, I wanted comment on the two previous blog but decided not to, way too emotional. In my opinion too many comments without proper thought or respect.
There were three of us long time F1/Ferrari fans discussing the incident and here are our comments:
1) He should loose all his points in Baku
2) He should be suspended for the following race
3) He should receive two penalties 1- rear ending Hamilton 2- intensionally driving into Hamilton when he pullled up beside him.
We are three fans who want to see nothing more than the red cars win the championship, but can look at things objectively and see the punishment did not fit the crime.
My feeling is that a driver should never be suspended from a race. Perhaps he can not score points in that race, but should still be present.
An F1 ticket is a very expensive item, and for many it may only be a once in a lifetime experience, especially if you need to travel interstate or even internationally to get to your closest race. I wouldn’t bench someones hero lightly, as it may be the only chance a young fan ever gets to see them race.
So, let me get this straight, you are arguing that there should be no rules because the spectators might miss their favourite driver? I guess the age of Rollerball has truly arrived…
Rollerball… visions of “F1 Rollerball”.. thats going to stay in my mind all day.
Did anyone ask Vettel if thats what he thought is was playing 2 weeks ago??
did you truly watch rollerball? nice movie, did you like it?
When I was younger
In which case you’re saying that F1’s an entertainment rather than a sport. A perfectly valid viewpoint, but not one to which I subscribe.
That young fan who doesn’t get to see their hero should not be protected from the realities of life, namely that in this case said hero isn’t allowed to compete because they refuse to play by their rules of their sport.
I felt a electrical shock when I read a comment in the FIA penalty comments section earlier : the setup was being described by wrestling terminology, how the face must overcome disadvantages to beat a newly established heel, who stole a unfair lead. The electricity I felt coursed through me, because it was a perfect observation and too good a fit. My apologies for forgetting the contributor of that insight. I have say it’s both excellent in just so far as I won’t knock any getting any new fans, and appalling beyond belief. Because it’s too true.
My childhood was blessed by the presence of wrestling on Saturday and the race on Sunday and I forever had a fixed association in my mind how because of this schedule I learned Sunday was a serious day… But I can’t abide the thought of being a reversal. It’s too recently since I was struggling to take things seriously because of the red team again, no matter how rabid I and my co-devotionist were at the time. It took a year of reading GP+ and this blog, to begin to undo the pain. I’ve vivid memories of it all now, and I think that I can almost recall the first time I discovered Joe’s website, it’s there and not lost, I lost sight much wholesale memory it’s good to have just a impression of the moments like that… I know I didn’t get out of my apartment for about a week or nine… Oh dear yes she did leave me that year, pretty sure it was that year… Wow, so it wasn’t the yellow leotard my solicitor bought her… oh, ouch, yep, that was a sad year, my friend and I were quite long estranged and I never knew how much happened to her at the time, and to my shame I had let races get in the way of too much, only why isn’t it logical to book the meeting weekend if that is half way to your long distance love? I’m recalling suddenly and I don’t know I was a heel though, I was cancelled plenty of times when girlfriends of hers wanted to meet. But I know even then, 20 years ago, I couldn’t believe the state of accommodation and my biz partner was convinced that F1 needed couples therapy for the similar reasons… I only mention because that’s a pretty decent amount of time in which to pull together something better for fans. I think it is a possibility that aside from amazement at the elder brother, it really could go down as historically the worst two consecutive decades in F1. I feel that time was lost and we’re just getting going again, quite independently from my own experience of time warp effects from health. Hold it right there: this also means that the new erase is for real reviving my love otherwise unbroken since I was barely at my first school… That’s made me feel better now quite some.
I also had a dad determined to raise me with a view other than Irish Catholicism and who let me play hooky from Church. Our new vicar however was on the case. He moved noon mass to eleven and conveniently I observed how efficiently my mom’s after service meetings were wrapped up with good time to spare for the start of the broadcast… Mumsies last volunteer job was the switchboard at the cathedral and loved to be there at Christmas time. “When is Midnight Mass?” “Well that depends on where you live, you see, because Monsignor… gave his midnight mass at 2300 hrs, but I have, you must mean for the service +here+!!?? …”
This completes a sweet vignette, because although my pop loathed churches, his adulation of individual preachers was unbounded and I learned more about religion from him than any Sunday school mom tried to make me attend. And many many years later, I suddenly found that since mums I no longer got about so much, there she was sitting next to me as the race was coalescing on the grid, opining the nice boys all smiling looked much younger and happier than she remembered drivers when I was a lad… Regular readers will guess why I still have a look on my face of utter disbelief, whenever I ponder the coincidences of my life and F1. GP+ on a tablet is still referred to as “that bright picture book from Formula One”… Mumsie I hope may be forgiven for assuming the official connection. It actually makes sense if you only imagine the scene of me handing it over to her so she can picture the faces and places… I even think it is a aspect of cynicism really to be prevented from assuming the powers that be, wouldn’t provide such a guide to such a busy sport to follow.. Mothers perpetually logical about practical things, eh!
If a driver can’t score points in a race then making sure his main rival can’t either would be very difficult to resist…
I know it would sort of defeat the points on the license system but I’m quite surprised Vettel wasn’t given a suspended (multi)race ban for this. As it stands, fairly soon points will drop off his license so he can engage in such stunts again. I’m not personally of the mind that this alone warranted a ban but it does warrant a threat of significant punishment should a repeat occur.
I want both of non championship and optional championship races to happen. So if it comes down to the wire, our contender with a deficit to bridge, might have to head off to America for a few oval turns, or even a 6hrs endurance race, which latter could demonstrate the efficiency of the formula in proper setting at last. And I wanted to give points for absolute speed in qualifying trim again, only with a format of twenty minute sprints topped off with a compact strategy qualifying match in which the order gets shaken up with much more potential to run the strategy quali on heavy fuel or different tires for race conditions starting but with far less overall sacrifice of absolute grid position. Even Ross Brown has talked about his quite similar ideas in some respects, but I’ve been hankering for a real show that I could take a very young lad or family to see where I can get satisfaction from just Saturday. I have a distinct memory of feeling that if I missed the race due to commitments that I never felt as left out as I have felt since. A really good qualifying game over in say 80 minutes would be perfect for the youngest enthusiasts in my lot, and I would love to feel sated by the experience of affordable and above all compact experiences of the tracks that are in easy reach of me, because the whole battle is always getting lost in traffic going home and frankly you can’t do four hours each way for the current quali, not with kids in tow and not with my back up on less than a good day either. Liberty want more races, I say there’s twenty more possible on Saturday, and then I can see half a dozen of additional optional races where testing is possible and the teams building up their entries can compete will rapidly become a fixture, remember the capital finance tsunami rocking the globe for any home, and the audience will be no less dedicated in the same way I never eat less when there’s a buffet. Maybe liberty is set on a third reel expose like Jaws, we’re in for the long awaited thrill but we know the way a shark looks but I the thrill a lot can get pushed out of the doldrums otherwise left to tack forever in slack breezes.
He already got a penalty in the Race. If the Stewards thought it was dangerous Driving they could Black Flag him.
Monisha to McLaren?! ;-p
I’ve seen a peanut stand. I’ve heard a rubber band. I’ve seen a needle that blinks its eye. I’ll be hearing a diamond ring and a fireside chat next…
and I’ve seen an elephant fly.
If Manfred Mann wrote your signature tune, maybe?? {;~>
Joe, I’m hearing on the fake news wire that Vettel’s Ferrari has a new red button on the steering wheel this weekend labelled “De-mist”.
I heard the same thing, it injects Valium into his water bottle.
and Lewis has one labelled RAD – rope-a-dope to be used when Vettel is in close proximity!
I thought the RBR button was more dramatic, and I heard it even played a ditty, but nobody got to listen to it until he left it looping with his USB drive dangling with a strange guitar shape doodle over a little Chevvy keyring SV secretly kept rubbing like a talisman since Austin that year..
“I never wanted to be your weekend lover
” I only wanted to be some kind of friend
“Baby, I could never steal you from another
” It’s such a shame our friendship had to end
I Think Vettel did Nothing wrong in Baku. It was just some non-verbal Banter between him and Hamilton
Hi joe, last year there was talk of opening up the old loop at the red bull ring; is that still talked about at all? That would be mega..
Not so far
Hi Joe, I was looking at the Red Bull Ring on google maps and found the circuit was blurred out. What sort of man would blur his own circuit?
Maybe you are just on a slow connection? The track is crystal clear on my google maps and I can even street view my way around it (I did not know that I could!).
Fun listening to you on the Missed Apex podcast, Joe. Keep doing them!
Joe, I’m starting to think that the Scuderia lent their own toga praetextus and its been quite scuffed up and casually let fall about carelessly.
I’m recalling another Austria of horror in my opinion that I would say might be thought about the lesser of scandals before long.
Because the team doesn’t seem to me to possess the resilience of the past in any way I recognise. I obviously have no ability to see through the media omerta. But I have doubts about whether I should be able to find the people who are willing to take decisions that at the least I only hope were considered. I commented that the act of suspension would have been a significant part of recouping the process from the train of apparently bitter controversy around the FIA oversight. They even had chance to take no loss beyond the FIA decision itself. I worry that essential spirits are being eroded and Ferrari just don’t look like they have the depth to wear well much more adversity. I think they placed at risk the very cachet of the marque, but only time and not this alone will prove.
I commented on the epic and horrible discussion of the penalty as a matter of personal solidarity and the length of my comment was possibly too much, but I have been alerted by long consternation at particular reaction to your thoughts to a new impression of the way media is being engaged with by a increasingly large proportion of the public. If there is opportunity ill try to better rejoin my observations, but I think it is the worst of times for anyone to cut the media free. I think Ferrari improperly blame the media whereas the new difficulty is the way readers interact with the media, not interact in interactive multimedia terms but interact with the devaluation and distortion of the inherent virtues of journalism. I have become quite disturbed in fact. Unpleasant reactions to you adhominem which have perplexed me for years, crystallised and I have begun to appreciate that you must be subject to a wider affect on the way public understands journalism. In any event I’m sure Ferrari will rue the predicament and their passivity and I cannot find anything but unhappiness from such a conclusion.
There’s far too many financial managers in the world. The oceans of capital desperately seeking out ever more complex business possibilities to make any return, is afflicting industries quite broadly. I have a impression of the shallowest imitators of dramatis personae of The Predators Ball rushed from graduation via rapid stints in the big consultancies and poured out into the world with a mission they cannot conceive possibly could fail: when the capital is nigh free and the ability to borrow a subsidy equal to the real rate of inflation and massive whatever you calculate, how can new mint managers lose?
I never got any normal opportunity to collect the full appreciation which I habitually seek when at the last difficult time I was side swiped by family concerns and I was silent a long while, but I regularly expressed my highest regard for MK and I presently cannot understand why the management has been excused some very serious explanation of their justification for the state of the team upon their action. I have been quietly committed to pushing the idea of a regulatory system to ensure the stability of teams. No doubt there is no need to advertise if the desire is experienced executives to report on perceived risks. I say that the start is made from tomorrow and the first recruit for such a important role is the lady chairman who can bring the greatest value to the board and sport without any delay. I have to see the circumstances as opportunity. We must bring new blood and the world awash with capital seeking ever more unusual homes only means that when not if we see that financial tsunami, we have a desperate need for independent oversight, not only to vet and avert the hopelessly optimistic but to advise the committed and know that commitment in their hearts.
Appoint MK chair of the F1 Industry Group and give her sweeping powers to help as well as investigate, even in advance of the legal plumbing process that will bing the Industry Group in the fold of Formula One for our futures. Who better to be understanding what the practical limits of this bodies reach should be, and who else can make the legal plumbing work for both teams and the sport?
This is what I want Liberty sticking their neck out to get done.
Such a group requires a serious budget. It must be able to hire top forsensic accountants or engineering consultants at will, taking pick of the available talents. It should be funded through the bonding schemes and I would start it with a minimum of fifty million pounds per year rising to twice that in full compliment.
After it’s established and F1 Industry Group is up to working compliment,( the money is not for empire building but there is no fear whatsoever of that kind of nonsense under MK,) the F1IG should be the first point of contact for potential investors sponsors, teams and circuits.
F1IG can be self financing within less than a decade I’m quite certain. I would insist that high budget is in place, because there is so much to do in F1 now. The returns are there even using expensive short term talent and support. I can’t believe that MK could physically preside over waste, but I am adamant that budget is realistic and affordable and will be a profitable investment in short order.
And no messing with the contracts of the key personnel. Five years with ten open to the election of the chair to take up not option for the removal of the right person you rely on for continuity and delicate building of new business. If there is a rota that gets appointed to the board by teams of the FIA or even Liberty, I want their jobs at the mercy of the chair, not poison pill defences creating stagnation and intrigue. The chair must be empowered with full authority. If for any reason there ever arose any problems I can’t imagine anyone holding on to the position given the prominence in the public and business eye they occupy. You have to give power to enable progress. Remember the F1IG won’t be fully plumbed in to the sport right away and it makes sense to use the organic process of those negotiations to establish surrounding checks and balances. Just don’t take that power away from my proposed chair, it would not work out if you compromised like that. Put a rational mind in the seat of absolute power and providing they have real enough constraints to get success they are fine always. It’s putting the irrational into a position where they need to obtain power to survive that causes grief…
You hardly need to define the job or business of the IG under MK. Let her grow it as she needs without interference from whining stakeholders vying to influence. If you still think that the IG is under weight in two years say in advertising, promote someone else to help. But the IG must be independent and not pleading for budgets. Liberty needs to have a right hand woman who is talking to the industry surrounding F1, and capable of talking shop with the industries not merely sponsorship deals. We’ve never had a chance of getting this kind of support and research resources accessible to all teams and serious hopefuls alike. The cost will offset as R&D and marketing and be negligible. If you are a material specialist and you want to sell novel manufacturing to teams but worry about the chance of getting your exotica banned, then you can get the F1IG to rule how the IRS give binding views on tax treatment. Just never in perpetuity. F1IG is where engineers go during gardening leave and a springboard to which both established professionals and graduates can apply to become exposed to F1 most broadly without a team. One third of budget for the people (and spare reserve by rules to snap up chances) one third for research and development and the remaining third is split between facilities and external consultancy work, the latter on a slow plan to build up the internal capacity but outside work will be needed for arms length and any investigatory role.
Liberty need to work their world into this sport.
The F1IG is exactly what they need to be fully functioning and fully supported. Ross and team continue the roles they have, which need no interference at all. Clear definition of the real business of F1 racing and the series and broadcast and fanbase is LM. For all other opportunities, F1IG and MK all the way.
I won’t start on how resounding a signal this would be. F1 can yet be surrounded by untoward forces, not only the wall of capital seeking new bodies like a zombie apocalypse. F1IG provides the capability to protect as well as grow. Do this one thing, and my outlook for the future of F1 is pinned to the highest mark of all time. Real, serious, observers undoubtedly will not react very differently.
Joe, I’m heartbroken by your revelation that you denied us the joy of Ron Dennis on twitter. Though of course he’d never, ever, have coped with the character limit…
Anyway, given your recent travails I thought you’d be interested in list I’ve compiled of journalists with an internet presence who’ve never been the target of basement dwelling inadequates. This is it, here:
Do you like it?
“That young fan who doesn’t get to see their hero should not be protected from the realities of life, namely that in this case said hero isn’t allowed to compete because they refuse to play by their rules of their sport.”
But with a bit of prompting will get an invite to the Ferrari garage 😉
Any plans for an aside with joe podcast in the near future?
Look at missed apex podcasts. Don’t work with sidepodcast now. Their choice.
Joe, when the supplier of engine gets a reprimand from the glorious FIA for rules infringement, do the customer teams get into any sort of trouble at all as well? Nowadays can teams on their own change the mapping or something in the engines or the thing can have only the hands of supplier in them? I.e. Ferrari having its ears pulled for the oil burning and Haas being penalized too for a now slightly less efficient power unit. Or was it the case that only Ferrari was rigging its own engines and not passing that along to its other customer[s]?
I don’t think the customers had the same
I’ve heard that Vettel has been known to pull wings off flys. The horror, please don’t hurt Lewis’s feelings anymore Seb.
I have heard nothing about that but “the German press” is a rather vague. I’d need to know more. I doubt Honda would do that because it could leave them out of F1… and they don’t want that.