Famous Hunt car set for Silverstone sale

James Hunt's Hesketh F1 car to go up for sale at Silverstone Classic

The car in which James Hunt secured his maiden F1 victory is to be sold at auction later this year at Silverstone.

Hunt, who went on to win the 1976 title with McLaren, secured his maiden F1 victory the previous year at the wheel of Hesketh Racing's 308/2 chassis, which ran in a white livery with red and blue stripes and a famous teddy bear logo.

It was to be the only victory for the Hesketh team, which competed in F1 with its own cars from 1974 to 1978 – its debut having come in 1973 with a car purchased from March.

The 308/2, designed by Harvey Postlethwaite, carried Hunt to victory in the 1975 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, while he also finished on the podium in both France and Austria.

The car had been part of Lord Hesketh's private collection until 2007 but will now be sold at Silverstone Auctions' sale during the Silverstone Classic weekend, on Saturday, July 23.

“This is an incredibly exciting car, that carried one of the most well-known and loved British Formula 1 drivers to his first victory,” Silverstone Auctions' managing director Nick Whale told the Northampton Chronicle. “It is a very important part of Formula 1 history that continues to be successfully raced.

“We are very proud to offer it for sale during the Silverstone Classic. It seems fitting a car developed so nearby to Silverstone, at Lord Hesketh's Northamptonshire estate, should be returning here to be sold with Silverstone Auctions.”

The car has been used in recent years by Hunt's son James for a number of events, such as the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Silverstone Classic.

Source: Crash.net

Harsh critic in Italy over Ferrari's anemic car

Italian Auto Sprint put thoroughly down all Maranello's accomplishments in their issue on Tuesday.

According to the paper 150 Italia -car's anemic aerodynamics is of such class that Ferrari only has two choices out of which one is hidious and the other one is horrible.

The hidious option is to try and catch up with the car's three months belated car project and develop it into more competitive. They say that Ferrari still only analyses their mistakes while their competitors are working fulltime making new updates to their cars.

The horrible option again would be to do what they did two years ago: stop the current car's development work and invest everything into next year. According to the paper this would be horrible for both the drivers as for the sponsors who have invested so much especially in Fernando Alonso.

– Although Red Bull would retire in the next races McLaren is also too far away to be reached by Ferrari. Ferrari has to battle with Mercedes and pray that Renault won't come cruising past them from behind, the verdict says about the current car.

Their attempt to improve their competitiveness in China didn't bring any results. Auto Sprint describes Ferrari as the red crab going backwards while the lead is improving.

As basis they compared the China-qualification from last year: Red Bull was now 0,85 and McLaren 0,55 seconds faster while the 'red crab' was 0,2 seconds slower than last year.

The magazine accuses Ferrari of making two basic mistakes. One is failing in estimation and the other one is arrogance.

The estimation went wrong when Ferrari abandoned the elastic front wing they had developed. Technical Manager Aldo Costa had admitted that they had worked with a front wing that bended more closer to the track but they gave it up because they didn't think it would have passed FIA's strictest test.

Now they are working long days in Maranello so that they could get as soon as possible a front wing that works the same way Red Bull's wing works. Yet it requires a lot of time to get it to function in a similar way because the wing changes all air flows in the car, which again requires in practice re-development of the whole chassis.

The accusation of arrogance again comes from Ferrari's decision to continue with the traditional suspension while seven other teams followed Red Bull's suspension-idea. Auto Sprint lists that the only teams who are in the same camp with Ferrari when it comes to their thinking are Hispania, Virgin and Sauber, who has to use the rear end inherited from Ferrari.

– When has some other team used Ferrari's development work the last time? It was in 2008 when Ferrari had the hole in the nose. After that nobody has even tried to copy Ferrari's ideas, Auto Sprint shoots.

According to the paper Ferrari sank down in the problems starting from year 2009 when testing was limited with a harsh hand and banned altogether during the season.

Also the problems in the windtunnel from 1988 are only highlighted. According to the paper Maranello's windtunnel is too short and everytime they test a car there they have to make artificial corrections to their calculations.

However KERS worked well in Ferrari. The paper reminds that it was KERS, which put Ferrari back in the winning strike when Räikkönen made the victoriuos pass with additional powers in Spa in 2009.

Turun Sanomat, Rooma

PERTTI LEPISTÖ

Courtesy: Nicole

Alonso: Car is just too slow

Fernando Alonso insists he wasn't undone by his strategy in China. Rather, he was undone by his slow car

The Spaniard started the Chinese GP fifth on the grid but lost out to his team-mate Felipe Massa off the line. And by the end of the 56 laps, during which Ferrari deployed a two-stop strategy for both drivers, he was down in P7, one place behind his team-mate.

However, the Spaniard says it wasn't Ferrari's decision to go with a two-stopper, when a three-stop proved to be the better option, that cost him.

"We'll see now which one was the best," he told Autosport.

"It's very easy to choose the strategy when you have the fastest car and it's very hard when you are slow. (Mark) Webber today showed qualifying is not very important.

"The most important thing is to have a good tyre degradation and a good strategy, and this year we can overtake. As I say, the easiest thing is to have a quick car, like Red Bull, you pit three, two, one times and you end up on the podium.

"We need to improve the car above everything. I don't think it would have changed much. We were much slower than the cars we had in front so we would ended up with a similar result."

The double World Champ also denied that he had a problem with his car in the closing stages of the race, saying once again the only problem is that the car is too slow.

"No, we didn't have any particular problems. We just weren't fast at any point during the race and we kept on losing positions little by little.

"Then we opted to go for two stops so it looked like we were in a good position during some points of the race and others where they were flying like bullets from behind. We had to try to hold on and finish the race in whatever position."

Source: Planet-F1

Alonso: Best car, not strategy, will win

Fernando Alonso is adamant that the "quickest or best car" will win this year's Championship and not the best thinkers on the pit wall

Strategy looks set to play a huge role in this year's Championship as the new Pirelli tyres, which have high wear, could see drivers needing three or even four pit stops during a grand prix.

But despite this, Alonso is confident the best car will be the one that emerges victorious at the end of the season.

"As usual in F1, the quickest or best car will win the Championship in the end," the Ferrari driver told Autosport.

"Strategy is important, maybe one or two races will be decided by a very good strategy or someone very quick can have a mistake in a strategy point of view and lose that victory.

"But over 20 races or 19 races you can make mistakes one time in strategy or you can do a very good strategy one time but not every race, so in the end the most important thing will be to have the quickest car and we are working for that."

Added to that the Spaniard, who lost out on last year's World title due to a botched call from his pit wall in the season finale in Abu Dhabi, says teams will need to be flexible in their strategies.

"There are many possibilities this year. It is not like last year so that will be the most important thing.

"Sometimes it is better to sacrifice some laps that you know you are very slow at the end of the run, but maybe you make one stop less.

"It is a difficult call and a difficult judgement that we will need to make. We will need to be very open and very flexible in every race."

Source: Planet-F1

Ferrari with most reliable 2011 car so far

Ferrari’s new car has been the most reliable of the 2011 pre-season, according to an analysis by Auto Motor und Sport.

The German report said that the F150 already has 800 more kilometres on its odometer than its nearest competitor, Red Bull’s RB7.

"From what we have seen so far, we are in a good position," admitted Fernando Alonso, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport.

But Red Bull is also happy. "We have never had such a trouble-free testing season," said team boss Christian Horner.

Just 100 kilometres behind Red Bull in the pre-season reliability stakes is Mercedes, followed by Sauber and Williams.

With 1,500kms fewer than Ferrari’s 5,200km is Renault, but Nick Heidfeld is impressed with the innovative R31, particularly the KERS system.

"It’s better than with BMW," said the German, referring to his former team, "particularly with regard to the impact during braking."

Also with quite an impressive winter behind it is the Red Bull ’B’ team, Toro Rosso, ranking just seventh in the reliability ranking but crucially ahead of McLaren.

"Considering that we are still a young team, we have done a very good job with reliability," agreed Sebastien Buemi. "We have had only minor problems, and quite often it was just stoppages to be on the safe side."

In ninth place out of F1’s 12 teams is Virgin. "Compared to 2010, there is no comparison," said a satisfied Timo Glock, before joking: "We can’t have any problems with KERS because we haven’t got one!"

Force India is just tenth, ahead of Team Lotus, whose reliability was better only than the unranked HRT, who have not yet launched a 2011 car.

Lotus has switched since 2010 to Renault power and a Red Bull rear end, but Heikki Kovalainen said the biggest problem has been the diffuser.

"When you first have a blown diffuser, you pay dearly," said the Finn. "Even the bigger teams found this out last year."

Source: Nextgen

Massa: “Pleased with the reliability of the car”

Sunshine, warmth and a lot of tyres were the main items on the menu during the first two days of testing here at Jerez de la Frontera, all in the capable hands of our “chef” Felipe Massa. Last year’s Jerez test was affected by rain but this year, February in Andalusia is positively spring-like, with a nice tepid sun getting temperatures up to around the 20 degree C mark.

The Brazilian driver made the most of these conditions, putting in over the two days around nine hundred kilometres which pushed the F150th Italia over the two thousand kilometre total since it first took to the track. “On both days, I was always able to complete the programme we had planned,” said Felipe when he spoke to the media. “Today, we tried all four types of tyre that Pirelli brought here and were able to acquire a lot of data. There is a lot of work to do before understanding the behaviour of the tyres and then to find the right set-up on the car. The times? It is always better to perform well, even if it does not mean much. From here to the first race, a lot will change, on our car and on those of the others. After just a few days of testing it really is impossible to say where we are compared to the others. We are trying to concentrate on our own job, without worrying about what our rivals are up to. The important thing is to understand in which direction we must go and how to solve our problems. The first race in Bahrain is still a very long way off. Michael fastest today? Well…it’s not exactly a novelty for him to be in that position, given everything he has won in his career.”

There is a great deal of interest in all the new items introduced this year, such as the moveable rear wing and the KERS, the latter not actually something new for the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers. “We have to try and understand the handling of the car as well as possible, but clearly, when it comes to the rear wing, we still don’t know how it will work in an overtaking situation,” said Felipe. “So, it is important to have a reliable car to make the most of the time available.”

Felipe left Jerez this evening and he will be back on Sunday as he is involved in a day of promotional activity at this very same track on Monday. Keeping him company will be Fernando Alonso, who replaces him at the wheel of the F150th Italia for the next two days.

Source: Ferrari.com

First look of Kimi's ICE 1 Racing Car

First look of Kimi's ICE 1 DS3 Car

Courtesy: Claudie

Coming soon... The RB7

Source: RED BULL RACING

Team Lotus unveils 2011 car

Team Lotus on Monday revealed its 2011 car.

In an edition of its online magazine Team Lotus Notes, the team published the first photographs of the new green and gold T128 featuring a Mercedes-style unconventional airbox shape.

The new livery features more yellow and prominent Renault signage, reflecting its new engine partnership with the French marque.

The car itself, with a rear end supplied by Red Bull, has a high and straight nose similar to the other designs seen so far including the Ferrari and Mercedes.

The special launch edition of the team’s magazine has a number of first-see images of the 2011 car and insights from key players within Team Lotus into the design and build process of the new car, including people from the Aero, R&D and Vehicle Dynamics, Design and Senior Management Teams.

Here are a few selected highlights, but click on this link to the launch edition on the homepage of Teamlotus.co.uk for the whole story.

Marianne Hinson, Head of Aerodynamics: "In aero we started thinking about the new car around Spring last year, a bit before any of the other departments. The start of the process is a really fun period, when you’re looking through the new rules, thrashing out ideas and trying to find loopholes."

Lewis Butler, Chief Designer: "The biggest design challenge was trying to package everything a bit smaller. We were trying to get that area around the driver really tight so the aerodynamicists were happy with it."

Elliot Dason-Barber, Head of R&D and Vehicle Dynamics: "We’re definitely going to take a step forward with this car. Quite how much we’ll close the gap to the teams in front of us we’ll see, but my hope is we’ll be competing with the teams that were a second or two ahead of us last season."

Keith Saunt, Chief Operating Officer: "You can just see that this car will be faster than last year’s. It’s got the right sweeps and curves on it - it’s the very latest iteration of what an F1 car should be."

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: "I think that basically this car looks like a front-running car in every area. We said very clearly that we want to start challenging the established teams and I think that’s very achievable."

Riad Asmat, Chief Executive Officer: "T128 takes Team Lotus in exactly the right direction. We have said since day one of the Team Lotus dream that the plan for our second year was to take the fight to the midfield, and with this car we are all confident that is what we will be able to do."

Team Principal Tony Fernandes: "There has been so much focus off-track it’s a thrill to be able to get back to talking about racing. The launch of the T128 is a big step forward for Team Lotus and I want to thank the whole team for the amount of hard work that has already gone into the car, and I want to thank Renault and Red Bull Technology for their tremendous support in helping us make this step forward and for being such great team partners."

Source: Nextgen

F150 launch : Ferrari unveils its 2011 car

The F150 is the fifty-seventh single-seater built by Ferrari specifically to compete in the Formula 1 World Championship. The Maranello marque chose the name as a tribute and celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Unification of Italy.

The project, which goes by the internal code name of 662, represents the Scuderia’s interpretation of the technical and sporting regulations that apply this year. Various factors influenced the design of the car, especially on the aerodynamic front, to the extent that the F150 can be seen as severing ties with the recent past. The innovative aspects are in part dictated by changes to the regulations and partly down to original thinking from our designers. As far as the rule changes from 2010 are concerned, the double diffuser and the blown rear wing are banned, as is the use of apertures in the front part of the floor, while the use of an hydraulically controlled adjustable rear wing has been introduced. After an unofficial agreement saw its use banned for 2010, KERS is back this year, thanks partly to the increase in the car’s minimum weight and stricter controls on weight distribution figures. The Scuderia has decided to incorporate this technology on the F150 and this has had a significant impact on the design, also taking into account that the dimensions of the fuel cell are very different to what they were in 2009. Also significant are changes dictated by the introduction of stricter safety requirements in terms of crash-tests, cockpit area protection and wheel-retaining cables for use in accidents.

At first glance, the front part of the F150 monocoque appears to be higher than that of the F10. The openings for the side air intakes are reduced in size, while the layout of the dynamic one above the driver’s head has been modified. The rear suspension features a new design, while that at the front has been modified, following changes to the front part of the chassis. The exhaust system layout is similar to that adopted for the second half of last season and the cooling system has had to take into account the return of KERS and the new air exit ducts. The braking system has been completely redesigned in collaboration with Brembo.

However, the aerodynamic package sported by the car at the presentation is very different to the one which will be seen for the first race in Bahrain: for the early stages of testing, the decision was taken to concentrate on development aspects linked to the mechanical components and on developing an understanding of the Pirelli tyres, while continuing to push on the development of aerodynamic performance in the wind tunnel. Indeed, the tyres will be another significant new element this season: after a thirteen year relationship with Bridgestone, this year it is Pirelli who take up the baton as sole supplier to Formula 1 for the next three years and thus provide the tyres for the cars from Maranello. Given that the teams have so far only managed two days of testing with the new tyres back in November, clearly the fifteen days of testing prior to the start of the season will be very important when it comes to adapting the handling of the car to the tyres.

As the freeze on engine performance development is still ongoing, there have been no actual modifications to the 056 engine, but that does not mean Ferrari’s engine specialists have been idle. Work has gone into improving reliability, working especially on the pneumatic front, as well as on reducing costs. Furthermore, the reintroduction of KERS has led to a substantial change in the architecture of the front end of the engine, with modifications to the drive shaft system of the KERS itself and the crankshaft and this has led to changes to the cooling and lubrication systems. The kinetic energy recovery system, designed by Ferrari, has been produced in conjunction with MTS and Magneti Marelli and was fine tuned based on experience acquired in 2009, with the aim of reducing its size and weight, while maintaining, in accordance with the regulations, the maximum useable power and its useage cycle over one lap. This is another area where great attention has been paid to cost reduction, both in terms of its development and the way it is run, so as to make the system equally viable for our customer teams, Sauber and Toro Rosso. The positioning of the KERS within the fuel cell was a further impetus to look at solutions aimed at reducing fuel consumption: in this area, the contribution from a key partner in the form of Shell was vital and will continue to be so throughout the season.

The number of testing days available to the teams remains the same, with 15 prior to the start of the season, therefore preparatory work on the test beds, prior to taking to the track has been ever more important, both on the chassis side and for areas such as the gearbox, engine and KERS. As is always the case at Ferrari, great attention has been paid to the performance and optimisation of all materials used, in the design stages and when going through quality control, striving to maximise performance levels and reliability, while delivering the highest possible safety standards.

Source: Nextgen

Hamilton excited by 2011 car

Lewis Hamilton admits that his initial impressions of the MP4-26 are very positive, despite the fact that he hasn't actually driven it yet

Hamilton spent the day at the team's Woking headquarters working on a simulator and reveals that the car appears to be in good shape for next season even at this early stage.

"Lots of neat ideas and improvements," Hamilton said on his Twitter page.

"First time driving the new car and I was happy. KERS and rear wing is trick but felt right at home with it."

The Kers (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) system was put on the backburner for 2010 after making its debut in 2009 in an effort to cut costs, but the system is set to be re-introduced next season.

While Hamilton has experience using KERS in 2009, his team-mate Jenson Button does not as Button's team last year, Brawn GP, did not make use of the technology.

Despite this, Button is confident that McLaren will have a big advantage next season, in a large part due to their Mercedes engines.

"I've never driven with KERS before but this team used KERS last year and used it well. I know because they kept coming by me at the start," said Button.

"They have so much experience in that area that I think we'll have an advantage, as will Mercedes and Force India who use Mercedes engines. We'll have an advantage on Red Bull and Ferrari I think," added the 2009 World Champion.

Hamilton for one has no doubt the team will be well placed due to their KERS system.

"Our KERS is the best. It shud (should) deliver," he declared.

Source: Planet-F1

Show Car Run Berlin - Sebastian Vettel - Clip

Source: motorstelevision

Kimi saved his car for Catalonia

Kimi Räikkönen was 40 minutes behind the lead after Saturday's off and he didn't continue the rally on Sunday. Räikkönen was in fact already home in Switzerland on Sunday

Citroen's Junior team reported that Räikkönen had suffered from some grip-problems from the beginning after the front-cars had made the tarmac roads muddy. Some parts reminded Räikkönen of a mud wrestling arena.

According to the announcement the grip was as unexpected as a chimp holding a machine gun.

Räikkönen and his team decided not to continue on Sunday with the super rally regulation. This way the team avoided the risk of damaging the Citroën WRC C4 -car before the rally in Catalonia.

– Stupid mistakes. We didn't have any difficulties in any fast corner in this rally but they really came in the real slow corners. There was so much mud and so little grip that it didn't feel like a normal tarmac-rally at all.

– The car didn't suffer but I have to admit that when driving so much behind the others the motivation isn't the best and that's when it becomes difficult.

– We learned a lot again and it's really good to have one experience more. I don't think that we could have learned anything on Sunday under these conditions and that's why the wisest thing was to save the car for Catalonia, Räikkönen said.

Turun Sanomat, Strasbourgh

Courtesy: Nicole

Facebook vs Hamilton

Join the car now: http://apps.facebook.com/facebookvshamilton/

Source: j0hn4l1v3

Belgian GP - Massa: “A competitive car”

“I am very happy to be back racing at this track, having been forced to miss it last year: I love driving here. From what we could understand on a day like this, the car seems reasonably competitive and that was particularly true on the rain tyres. However, it is only Friday, so we will have to wait to see how the Red Bulls go, given that so far they have proved to be the quickest cars, as demonstrated in qualifying.

We had so many things to test today, which explains a few slow laps this afternoon. On the intermediate tyres I immediately had good grip, but even on slicks the situation was not that bad. On the final lap, the only one on the soft tyres, I made a mistake, but the car felt good: obviously there is room for improvement and that is what we will try and achieve tomorrow.”

Source: Ferrari.com

Kimi had a lousy morning

Kimi Räikkönen seemed frustrated when leaning on his car during the early service break.

– We missed a couple of junctions. You don't really see them. So that's that, Räikkönen said explaining his sour expression.

Matthew Wilson drove clean and climbed past Räikkönen to 6th after the two first stages. The Brit is now 6,9 seconds ahead of Räikkönen before the last stage.

Citroen's Junior Team gave Räikkönen a car with too soft setups when they believed it would be raining in the morning stages.

– In splits we were already 10 seconds after Wilson when that tough junction came, it goes backwards and continues to another junction. When Kimi turned to the first junction he burned time. When the left one came a little later I think his helmet was still filled with swearing over the earlier blunder so the left one went wide too, Kaj Lindström described the events.

Latvala can only secure at this point

Jari-Matti Latvala lost to Ogier on both opening stages so now he concentrates on securing his 4th position and the 12 points.

– We keep the 4th position and see what happens in front of us. If Ogier would make a mistake I have to be ready to take advantage of it, Latvala told.

– I came well on both morning stages and the times where okay excluding Ogier. I'm still too careful in junctions and lost too much time in them.

Source: Turun Sanomat
Courtesy: Nicole

Rosberg: This is a disaster

It is going from bad to worse for Mercedes GP as Nico Rosberg has labelled the team's 2010 car a "disaster."

Switching from Williams to Mercedes GP at the end of last season, many expected Rosberg to be up there fighting for pole positions and even his first race victory.

But it was not to be.

Although he achieved two podium results in Malaysia and China, the German's results have subsequently slumped, although by no means as badly as his team-mate Michael Schumacher's.

With just 25 points in the last five grands prix, Rosberg has fallen to seventh in the Drivers' standings and there is little sign that things are coming right as the team suffered their race the last time out in Europe.

And Mercedes GP's fall from the top - the team having won the World titles under the Brawn GP banner in 2009 - has left Rosberg rather frustrated with his W01.

"This is a disaster," he told the Cologne Express.

"The problem with the tyres is well known within the team. For weeks, we have said we would move forward but nothing happened - in fact it we're going backwards."

Adding insult to injury, Rosberg also found himself trailing his former team Williams in the Europe GP.

"If you start in twelfth behind both Williams, who were nowhere weeks ago, what can you expect from there? I went from Williams to Mercedes because I thought I'd have a car capable of winning."

Meanwhile, team boss Ross Brawn admitted that time is running out for the team to salvage this year's Championship.

"We have not done our job well enough," admitted Brawn.

"First we have to bring our new aero package up to scratch. Depending on how the results look, we will then decide if we will focus early on next season."

Source: Planet F1

Mark Webber pit stops Red Bull Formula 1 car in London

Source: NextgenAutoVideos

Our heroes, past and present - Button, Hamilton and Senna's MP4-4

Our two world champions make a surprise visit to the world's greatest garage. Amongst the hundreds of historic cars, they are stopped in their tracks by Senna's legendary '88 car.

Source: OfficialMcLarenVids

Seb's new car is called 'Randy Mandy'!

Hello!

It's official: My new car is called "Randy Mandy". This is the brand new name we have given her this morning. "Randy Mandy" has fallen to us all at once - a real role model for good, however there is not;)

Here in Istanbul the route is up and down and also it is driven clockwise. It is certainly one of the difficult routes, we've got our hands full ..

The new F-duct system is certainly an advantage, we think that it may take two to four tenths per lap. Whether it works, we can confirm only after the next day.

They have asked me today who will be world champions: Of course Germany! Michael Ballack is well known, although he is injured, but he will give the team moral support. And if we survive the group stage, we can come quite far.

See you soon,
yours Sebastian

Source: sebastianvettel.de