Teams agree to cover ugly noses next year

It's an odd little story which has been brewing for the last couple of weeks since it was mentioned, as an aside, in an interview with one of the Team Principals.  I'd been looking around to see if it was mentioned again and saw today that ESPN had a story about it.

The upshot is that the 10 teams who use the step nose to conform with the F1 rules have agreed to regulations which will allow them to cover up the step because it got such bad publicity at the beginning of the year.

I have to admit that I'm not a fan of the original look but, on the whole I thought that the majority of stepped solutions have been altered to the less ugly end of the scale.

What we're talking about, really, is an F1 nose job for purely cosmetic purposes.

ESPN quotes Paddy Lowe, McLaren Tech Director says that the way the "modesty" panel is

"managed is that the laminate and size of that panel is limited so that you can't create an aero [advantage] out of it and also so that it plays no part in the forward impact"

Simply put it's for the look of the thing rather than for any worthwhile purpose.

I love to quote Murray Walker at these times but on this particular occasion I think it's Enzo Ferrari who said that "race cars are neither beautiful nor ugly. they become beautiful when they win".

It's a truism which was echoed by Ken Tyrell years later when he, the master of little innovations, installed his side aero wings beside the cockpits.  These X wings which provided extra downforce were - as per usual - copied by everyone until they were - as per usual - banned (in that case on safety grounds after Alesi's got tangled up at his pitstop).

Beautiful or ugly the primary purpose of the F1 car is to beat all of the others, while conforming to the regulations.

Another funny thing about the story is that it comes from Paddy Lowe of McLaren, the team that don't have a step in their nose.

Link to Feature Story on Prof Sid Watkins

I thought this had been published, apologies.

It is the sad task of journalists to write obituaries and, when I was a young journalist the job of researching the history and background of those who had died.

In the case of Professor Sid Watkins there is a wealth of information out there and, no doubt, the newspapers this morning, tomorrow and on the weekend will be comprehensive in telling the story of his life in a few short paragraphs.

While I would love to set out the incredible achievements of this man, whom I knew only from Formula 1 television coverage, his tale is best told in his own words and HERE IS A LINK which will introduce you to his work on safety in Motorsport and to his life's history in working at the coalface of F1 from its years of tragedy culminating in the death of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenburg at Imola in 1994 to the introduction of improved safety measures in cars.

The man revolutionised the sport and saved many lives.

Instead of pointing you to one of the many obituaries I'm going to give you a link to a 2002 article by Car and Driver which may serve to provide a fitting introduction to the Professor's life and work.

RIP: Professor Sid Watkins 1928 - 2012

Sad news about the passing of Professor Sid Watkins.

What to say about the man.  He was an institution in F1 by the time I began watching the sport in '89.

His legacy is the quality and speed of medical treatment for which the sport is now renowned. Without him the sport would not be anywhere near as safe as it is now.

Those who knew him will be able to say it better than I.

All I know is that the world has lost a great man who spent his life saving other people's lives.  Some of the many F1 drivers who would not be here without him include Gerhard Berger (Imola '89), Rubens Barrichello (Imola '94) and Mika Hakkinen (Australia '95).

Legend of the sport. Rest in Peace.

F1 Teams provide F1 2012 with Media Centre access

Having looked at a number of F1 sites where it is patently obvious that the authors, like me, are not F1 Journalists, it seemed that many of them were either taking copyright content from other sites or, had access to the media centres of F1 teams and F1 team suppliers.

I had two options available to me, either to put up with it and wallow in a certain amount of self-pity and anger, or to apply to the Media Centres for access to their material and photographs.

I decided to do the latter, and approached Renault Sport F1 for permission to use their material.  I was surprised and delighted when they provided media access to my Blog.

Thank you Renault.

Emboldened by that success, I approached all of the F1 teams and have so far been granted access by six of the twelve teams.

In order of their permitting me access I would like to thank:

Williams F1 Team
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
Mercedes AMG Petronas
Sauber F1 Team
Caterham F1 Team
HRT Formula 1 Team

I have not been refused permission by any team to date but neither have I heard back with regard to clarification from any team but Lotus, who are assessing my request.

I have put up tabbed pages for each of the teams and will bring you their press releases on those pages as they are issued.

I'm pretty certain that this Blog has never breached copyright in the past and my delight at being granted media access by the foregoing Teams and Engine Supplier is based on the fact that, not only do I gain access to Renault's assessment of each track as regards its engine's probable performance (alternator's aside) I also get to illustrate my Blog posts with photographs from the teams sites, which provides some nice relief from plain text.

On foot of all of these exciting changes I'll be playing with the existing Blog format over the coming days and weeks in order to best accommodate all of this new data and I hope you'll be patient with me.  Hopefully, what comes out of this will be a better, prettier end product which will incorporate the best of the old with some great new material.

Update: Pirelli F1 have provided access to the Media Centre list, Thank you to them.  While I know that I have been somewhat scathing of their influence in the early part of the season I'm hopeful that the teams have gotten on top of the tyre issue as evidenced over the past three races. Fingers crossed this continues for the rest of the season.

Interesting posts on the future of Lewis Hamilton

Looking through the F1 Web, obviously the top stories all include some reference to Lewis Hamilton's future.  F1 Elvis, ex McLaren Engineer, would appear to have discussed the matter with a few of his mates and I find the following short excerpt particularly telling:

...stories of wearing huge dark glasses inside MTC or pulling out a mobile phone when walking down corridors, rather than becoming engaged with factory staff coming the other way, are sadly believable.

The article is well worth reading, discussing as it does the future of one of the stars of the sport.

The question of whether or not the Mercedes link is a ploy by Lewis's management to increase their client's bottom dollar at McLaren is becoming increasingly irrelevant at this stage; I think that we, the fans, just want this matter sorted out once and for all, regardless of the number of column inches it still has the power to generate.

The second interesting story comes from Formula 1 Blog, posted by Negative Camber, and scrutinises a quote of Lewis from a Reuters story:

"I'm not really focusing on next year, I want to focus on this year. This is one race at a time and I'm trying to take this team to the top,

"I'm trying to help them as they are trying to help me to win both championships. It is an incredible team and I have a great relationship with them so I'm really looking forward to the future..."

Negative Camber saw something in the above quote that nobody else picked up: Lewis is making a distinction between himself and the team.  He talks about "them" and "me" rather than "us".  In the past it has all been about the team, now it's about him helping "this team".

This language would mean nothing in isolation, however in the context of the current negotiations it my be telling.

Certainly James Allen and Eddie Jordan (EJ) are convinced that Mercedes will be Hamilton's new home. With JA stating that:

some signs were there from McLaren’s side that there was not only a reluctance to meet the financial terms, but also a weariness with the whole pantomime of ‘Life with Lewis.’ The tweeting of the set up sheet in Spa was a symbolic watershed in a relationship which has veered off track since the wide eyed enthusiasm of 2007

If that is the case then it's time for Lewis to come out and say so, in order to give the team that has given him everything he has achieved an opportunity to find a suitable replacement.  regardless of the final outcome McLaren are not going to jeopardise their good chance of winning the Constructor's Championship and, being one of the most professional outfits in the Pits, will not interfere with Lewis's opportunity to win the Driver's Championship.

Do you have a super-licence?

A couple of readers have gone back through the archives to this link, which, funnily enough, raises the spectre of a certain driver leaving a certain front-running team.

The post reads as follows and is pretty foresighted - even if I do say so myself.

Are you up to the challenge?  Do you have what it takes?

Successful F1 Team looking to hire a driver on a fixed term contract with the ability to extend it for the right candidate

Do you have the proven ability to bring the car home in the top 4 places?
Are you a driver whose form suggests that you can win a race given the opportunity?
Do you have the consistency to ensure that you're there or thereabouts come the end of the race and can push all the way to try to steal victory?
Can you build a gap at the start, extend it, and drive the lonely miles to an unchallenged win?
Are you young enough that you'll give the team continuity when your team-mate retires?
Are you old enough that you can fight for the mantle of No.1 from the moment you arrive?

Send CV's only - No Agents - to

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