Australian Grand Prix posts another $40 million loss in 2009. The 2008 Grand Prix also suffered a record $40 million loss, funded by the Victorian Government.
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I have raced karts since I was three years old. In the last 24 years I have been fine with all of my teams, except for one. It was the same team that had problems with Senna, Prost, Raikkonen and Montoya. Perhaps the problem is with the team rather than with the driver.
Alonso in reference to his disastrous spell at McLaren last season.
∞∞I admit that one day I would very much like to be with Ferrari. It’s the best team in the history of Formula One, and it is clear that those who go with them, are part of history.
Out of the car he is a little bit arrogant.
I think he has slightly too high an opinion of himself and that irritates the other drivers.
Ecclestone on championship leader Hamilton.
∞Hamilton and Kovalainen were penalized five grid places. Following several hours of deliberation by the stewards about whether or not the McLaren pair had done anything wrong, it was eventually decided that the duo should be punished. Hamilton was penalised for blocking Heidfeld, while Kovalainen got his penalty for blocking both the German and Alonso. It means Kovalainen will now start from eighth place on the grid, with Hamilton one place behind him. A McLaren spokesman confirmed that the team would not appeal the decision.
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Ferrari lock out the front row at Sepang
The rain threatened to be a factor this afternoon in qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix but never materialised as expected allowing Ferrari to show its raw speed around the 5.543km Sepang circuit. Felipe Massa claimed pole position, the tenth of his career, with a lap almost half a second clear of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen. The F2008 has run flawlessly today and the team dominated qualifying leaving Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton very much second best on the second row of the grid.#.
Ross Brawn joins Honda F1
Ross Brawn has been the brains behind Michael Schumacher’s domination of Formula One. Brawn has played a leading role in all of Schumacher’s seven world titles, the first two with Benetton in 1994 and 1995, and then the five in a row with Ferrari from 2000. Now he is taking up the new challenge with Honda where he will take up the position of Team Principal with full responsibility for designing, manufacturing, engineering and racing Honda’s Formula One car.
Ross spent ten years with the Ferrari team where, in the position of Technical Director, he helped them regain glory in the form of six consecutive constructors’ championship titles from 1999. Prior to joining Ferrari, Ross held the position of Technical Director with the Benetton F1 Team, helping them win back-to-back World Drivers Championships in 1994 and 1995 with Michael Schumacher and take the Constructors’ Championship in 1995. In the course of his 30 year career in motorsport he has worked with a number of Formula One teams and in sports car racing.#.
Impressive. What else he can achieve in F1 in his latest position..
Against all odds Kimi Raikkonen won the Brazillian Grand Prix and his first 2007 F1 Drivers Championship. Congrats Kimi. More on how Lewis Hamilton blew his chances laters.
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Spectacular crash
I have been watching Formula one only from the end of the 1999 season when Micheal Schumacher came back from a leg injury of his high speed crash at Silverstone. After watching almost every race from then, I have started collecting videos of previous years races which I missed. Recently I found this video of spectacular crash at 1998 Belgian Grand Prix where 16 cars crashed. The Formula one archives says only 14 people retired though. But still its a must watch video. Njoy.
Disaster for Schumacher as Raikkonen snatches Pole
Raikkonen snatched his second straight Pole position for tommorow’s Hungary Grand Prix with a stunning last minute lap. It was heartbreak for Massa as he was the fastest driver all day behind Michael Schumacher. Meanwhile Schumacher was given an identical penalty as Alonso for overtaking two cars after the red flags had been deployed to halt the final practice session. Jenson Button’s Honda engine had expired, putting oil down on the circuit. That means that both Alonso and Schumacher came into qualifying with two sec time penalties to be added to their best lap times. As a result Michael and Alonso were out of the final shootout lying in 12th and 15th place respectively. But as Button drops 10 places down from 4th to 14th, Schumacher starts from 11th while Alonso will be pushed back to 16th and his team mate Fisichella will start from 7th place.
Michael Schumacher will have to do everything he can to get the maximum points from 11th on the grid, but it is worth noting that Nigel Mansell started one place lower in 1989 in his Ferrari and won the race. Well Schumi, I cant think of anyone else who can do that as the Ferrari dominated all the weekend so far. As usual I will be posting the complete review of tommorow’s race, which should be an interesting one.