MotoGP News
Date: 30/April/2012
Sunday’s Spanish MotoGP marked a day of firsts for Casey Stoner, who claimed his first victory in the new 1000cc era and his first ever at Jerez, in over ten years of trying.
But it wasn’t all smiles for the reigning double world champion, as the arm pump problems that cost him victory in Qatar came back to haunt him.
After Losail the Repsol Honda rider announced he would seek the same ‘secret’ treatment for the forearm numbness that worked so perfectly in 2010.
However this time there was to be no quick fix, Stoner struggling for control in the closing stages of the Jerez race as he held off Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo by less than a second.
“It was nowhere near as bad as in Qatar, but it was the same problem again,” confirmed Stoner. “I was struggling to grip the bike on the exit of corners. I had no power to change direction.
“It was tricky to deal with and I was making some silly mistakes. In America they call it ‘whiskey throttle’ when you’re just holding on for dear life really. Just getting on the brakes into corners I’d run wide. I just wasn’t in perfect control of the throttle.
“I need to improve that a lot. It won’t necessarily change our speed, but it will get us a little more control.
“Jorge and I both made a few mistakes during the race so the gap between us was about even, then towards the end I made an even bigger mistake and from that Jorge was on my rear wheel to the end. I was just hanging on.”
Unfortunately for Stoner he now has just five days before being back on track for free practice at Estoril in Portugal.
“We’re going to work hard to try and improve the arm situation between now and then,” he said. “Portugal will be hard again with a lot of acceleration points and changes of direction.”
After two rounds, Lorenzo leads the championship by four points from Stoner.
Rossi: I cannot understand this bike
MotoGP News
Date: 28/April/2012
Valentino Rossi’s hopes of quickly rebuilding his confidence with the 2012 Ducati, after a woeful opening round, evaporated in the sunshine of Saturday’s qualifying session at Jerez.
Rossi had been a fighting second fastest in Friday afternoon’s wet session, continuing last year’s curious trend of competitiveness in slippery conditions.
But on a dry track in qualifying Rossi sunk to 13th place, last of the manufacturer bikes and behind even the privateer ‘CRT’ Aprilia of Randy de Puniet. To run salt into his wounds, team-mate Nicky Hayden will start on the front row.
Rossi tenth place at the Qatar season opener, from twelfth on the grid, had prompted his first public salvo of criticism of Ducati.
Speaking after Jerez qualifying the seven time MotoGP champion, who has taken just one podium since leaving Yamaha at the end of 2010, avoided the kind of harsh comments he made to Italian TV at Losail, but the implications of his words was just as worrying.
Rossi, it seems, is close to admitting he will never be able to adapt to the Desmosedici, despite the huge changes made to the machine since his arrival.
Rossi, 33, said: "I cannot understand how to ride this bike. In the past, when I changed brands, I changed my riding style, but not by much. This time it was not enough.
“I’m very slow into the corners and it takes me too long to achieve maximum lean angle.
“All the tricks my crew [which moved with Rossi to Ducati] have learnt in the last 30 years do not work,” he added.
Rossi, who holds the all-time record for premier-class wins (79), was a massive 3.4sec from pole position.
"I think our real deficit is close to one second, but the only hope is that it will rain tomorrow,” he said.
Rossi rose from twelfth on the grid to third in wet conditions at last year’s Jerez race, before falling and bringing down rival Casey Stoner.
Date: 28/April/2012
Valentino Rossi’s hopes of quickly rebuilding his confidence with the 2012 Ducati, after a woeful opening round, evaporated in the sunshine of Saturday’s qualifying session at Jerez.
Rossi had been a fighting second fastest in Friday afternoon’s wet session, continuing last year’s curious trend of competitiveness in slippery conditions.
But on a dry track in qualifying Rossi sunk to 13th place, last of the manufacturer bikes and behind even the privateer ‘CRT’ Aprilia of Randy de Puniet. To run salt into his wounds, team-mate Nicky Hayden will start on the front row.
Rossi tenth place at the Qatar season opener, from twelfth on the grid, had prompted his first public salvo of criticism of Ducati.
Speaking after Jerez qualifying the seven time MotoGP champion, who has taken just one podium since leaving Yamaha at the end of 2010, avoided the kind of harsh comments he made to Italian TV at Losail, but the implications of his words was just as worrying.
Rossi, it seems, is close to admitting he will never be able to adapt to the Desmosedici, despite the huge changes made to the machine since his arrival.
Rossi, 33, said: "I cannot understand how to ride this bike. In the past, when I changed brands, I changed my riding style, but not by much. This time it was not enough.
“I’m very slow into the corners and it takes me too long to achieve maximum lean angle.
“All the tricks my crew [which moved with Rossi to Ducati] have learnt in the last 30 years do not work,” he added.
Rossi, who holds the all-time record for premier-class wins (79), was a massive 3.4sec from pole position.
"I think our real deficit is close to one second, but the only hope is that it will rain tomorrow,” he said.
Rossi rose from twelfth on the grid to third in wet conditions at last year’s Jerez race, before falling and bringing down rival Casey Stoner.
Stoner: Two new tyres ‘hilarious’
MotoGP News
Date: 27/April/2012
Reigning MotoGP double champion Casey Stoner has branded the decision to allocate just two of the new Bridgestone front tyres to each rider at Jerez as ‘hilarious’.
Due to the ‘positive appraisal’ by riders during testing, Bridgestone has agreed to replace the current front tyre from Silverstone (round six) onwards.
But as an interim measure, riders will be allocated two of the new specification fronts in the events prior to Silverstone, starting at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
That is in addition to the nine front tyres they already receive at each race weekend.
However Repsol Honda star Stoner said two tyres would not allow anywhere near enough track time to find a set-up.
"It seems like a ridiculous number to me,” he said. “There's no point having just one to test and one to race with. You're going to need more than that.
“The new front is definitely not going to help our chatter [vibration] issues anyway, we've already tested this tyre and it doesn't help at all. In fact, we found out it was less stable on braking and corner entry so we don't really know what to do with this tyre."
Stoner is third in the 2012 championship after one round, finishing behind Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo and his Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa in Qatar.
Date: 27/April/2012
Reigning MotoGP double champion Casey Stoner has branded the decision to allocate just two of the new Bridgestone front tyres to each rider at Jerez as ‘hilarious’.
Due to the ‘positive appraisal’ by riders during testing, Bridgestone has agreed to replace the current front tyre from Silverstone (round six) onwards.
But as an interim measure, riders will be allocated two of the new specification fronts in the events prior to Silverstone, starting at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
That is in addition to the nine front tyres they already receive at each race weekend.
However Repsol Honda star Stoner said two tyres would not allow anywhere near enough track time to find a set-up.
"It seems like a ridiculous number to me,” he said. “There's no point having just one to test and one to race with. You're going to need more than that.
“The new front is definitely not going to help our chatter [vibration] issues anyway, we've already tested this tyre and it doesn't help at all. In fact, we found out it was less stable on braking and corner entry so we don't really know what to do with this tyre."
Stoner is third in the 2012 championship after one round, finishing behind Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo and his Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa in Qatar.
Vettel wins, Raikkonen steals the show
F1 News
Date: 23/April/2012
Reigning F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel got his and Red Bull’s 2012 campaign back on track with his first victory of the season at Bahrain on Sunday.
But it was the performance of returning former champion Kimi Raikkonen, 32, that stole much of the limelight.
While fellow former Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher is still without a podium since returning to the sport in 2010, Raikkonen has taken just four races to get back on the rostrum.
A typically calm Raikkonen reflected: “A podium could have come in the first three races. We know from the winter that we have a very good car and just have to make the right decisions. This weekend it worked, last weekend [in China, 14th place] it didn’t.”
The Finn, who spent two years rallying after turning his back on F1 at the end of 2009, pushed Vettel for victory throughout the Bahrain event and crossed the line just three-seconds behind the German.
Raikkonen’s podium was the first for Lotus (formerly known as Renault) in over a year and the team’s celebrations were completed by third place for rookie Romain Grosjean.
Speaking after his 63rd rostrum finish, Raikkonen refused to get carried away with bold claims for the rest of the season - but did admit to being disappointment at not taking victory.
“It’s a bit disappointing that I didn’t manage to win it,” he said. “But I made a small mistake at the beginning and lost one place to Ferrari. I had to re-overtake him and it took a little time. I got past the people quite easily but if you look in the end I think we still took too long and we couldn’t win the race.
“It’s always easy to say afterwards ‘if we had done that’ but in the end we were not fast enough to win and we have to take the second. I got one chance on Sebastian but I chose the wrong side under braking, so that was it really. It’s disappointing to finish second but after the last race [14th in China] we have to take it and be pretty happy.”
F1 2012 has now seen four different winners from four different races, Vettel joining Jenson Button (McLaren), Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) and Nico Rosberg (Mercedes).
Vettel now leads the standings by four points from McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, with team-mate Mark Webber a single point further back.
Date: 23/April/2012
Reigning F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel got his and Red Bull’s 2012 campaign back on track with his first victory of the season at Bahrain on Sunday.
But it was the performance of returning former champion Kimi Raikkonen, 32, that stole much of the limelight.
While fellow former Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher is still without a podium since returning to the sport in 2010, Raikkonen has taken just four races to get back on the rostrum.
A typically calm Raikkonen reflected: “A podium could have come in the first three races. We know from the winter that we have a very good car and just have to make the right decisions. This weekend it worked, last weekend [in China, 14th place] it didn’t.”
The Finn, who spent two years rallying after turning his back on F1 at the end of 2009, pushed Vettel for victory throughout the Bahrain event and crossed the line just three-seconds behind the German.
Raikkonen’s podium was the first for Lotus (formerly known as Renault) in over a year and the team’s celebrations were completed by third place for rookie Romain Grosjean.
Speaking after his 63rd rostrum finish, Raikkonen refused to get carried away with bold claims for the rest of the season - but did admit to being disappointment at not taking victory.
“It’s a bit disappointing that I didn’t manage to win it,” he said. “But I made a small mistake at the beginning and lost one place to Ferrari. I had to re-overtake him and it took a little time. I got past the people quite easily but if you look in the end I think we still took too long and we couldn’t win the race.
“It’s always easy to say afterwards ‘if we had done that’ but in the end we were not fast enough to win and we have to take the second. I got one chance on Sebastian but I chose the wrong side under braking, so that was it really. It’s disappointing to finish second but after the last race [14th in China] we have to take it and be pretty happy.”
F1 2012 has now seen four different winners from four different races, Vettel joining Jenson Button (McLaren), Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) and Nico Rosberg (Mercedes).
Vettel now leads the standings by four points from McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, with team-mate Mark Webber a single point further back.
Red Bull ‘back’ as Vettel takes Bahrain pole
F1 News
Date: 21/April/2012
The Bahrain F1 Grand Prix finally got a story to take some attention away from the controversy surrounding the event, as reigning champion Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull returned to the top with pole position in Saturday’s qualifying session.
One of the surprises of the season so far has been the drop in relative form of the previously dominate Vettel/Red Bull combination, the young German managing just one podium and qualifying no higher than fifth during the opening three rounds.
That all changed on Saturday when Vettel claimed his 31st pole by a tenth of a second over McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, the world championship leader. Mark Webber completed Red Bull’s qualifying revival with third on the grid, also his best performance of the season.
“I think we had no reason to panic and equally now [we have pole] it’s not as if we are living in a different world,” said Vettel of his qualifying breakthrough. “We still know that we have a lot of work ahead of us.”
But Vettel did admit pole was a welcome reward after such a difficult start to 2012.
“It gives you a lot of energy knowing that if you work hard, you also get the rewards. Especially for the guys in the garage, working day and night, I think it’s good to be back on top. But we have a race tomorrow. That’s when we score points and not before.”
Reflecting on the year so far, Vettel added: “We didn’t have the start that maybe we expected and people probably expected of us.
“But since day one - where we realised that maybe we weren’t as strong as we wanted to be - we’ve worked very, very hard and this is step one towards the right direction.
“So we keep fighting and keep working hard to make sure that the results similar to today come more often again.
“I still think that for tomorrow other people are probably the favourites, but it’s a long race and a lot of things can happen.”
The issue of the anti-government protests continues to dominate this year’s event and Vettel also found himself being asked to comment upon the death of a protester, found dead following clashes with riot police on Friday night.
“It’s the first time that I’ve heard about it,” replied Vettel. “It’s always dreadful if someone dies, but I don’t know what happened so it’s difficult to comment.”
Most drivers have refused to comment on the protests.
Date: 21/April/2012
The Bahrain F1 Grand Prix finally got a story to take some attention away from the controversy surrounding the event, as reigning champion Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull returned to the top with pole position in Saturday’s qualifying session.
One of the surprises of the season so far has been the drop in relative form of the previously dominate Vettel/Red Bull combination, the young German managing just one podium and qualifying no higher than fifth during the opening three rounds.
That all changed on Saturday when Vettel claimed his 31st pole by a tenth of a second over McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, the world championship leader. Mark Webber completed Red Bull’s qualifying revival with third on the grid, also his best performance of the season.
“I think we had no reason to panic and equally now [we have pole] it’s not as if we are living in a different world,” said Vettel of his qualifying breakthrough. “We still know that we have a lot of work ahead of us.”
But Vettel did admit pole was a welcome reward after such a difficult start to 2012.
“It gives you a lot of energy knowing that if you work hard, you also get the rewards. Especially for the guys in the garage, working day and night, I think it’s good to be back on top. But we have a race tomorrow. That’s when we score points and not before.”
Reflecting on the year so far, Vettel added: “We didn’t have the start that maybe we expected and people probably expected of us.
“But since day one - where we realised that maybe we weren’t as strong as we wanted to be - we’ve worked very, very hard and this is step one towards the right direction.
“So we keep fighting and keep working hard to make sure that the results similar to today come more often again.
“I still think that for tomorrow other people are probably the favourites, but it’s a long race and a lot of things can happen.”
The issue of the anti-government protests continues to dominate this year’s event and Vettel also found himself being asked to comment upon the death of a protester, found dead following clashes with riot police on Friday night.
“It’s the first time that I’ve heard about it,” replied Vettel. “It’s always dreadful if someone dies, but I don’t know what happened so it’s difficult to comment.”
Most drivers have refused to comment on the protests.
Bahrain GP begins, but politics dominate
F1 News
Date: 20/April/2012
Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) and then Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) set the pace during Friday's pair of practice sessions for the Bahrain Grand Prix, as off-track issues continue to overshadow the event.
Last year’s Bahrain round was cancelled due to anti-government protests, which are still ongoing. As a result, F1 has received a huge amount of criticism for its willingness to return, while the Bahraini government insists the event can help provide ‘unity’.
The risk of F1 personnel being directly targeted by protesters seems slim, but team members from Force India and Sauber have already witnessed violent clashes between protesters and police while travelling from the circuit.
Two members of the Force India team have subsequently left Bahrain and the team then withdrew from this afternoon’s second practice session. It seemed the team wanted to get back to its hotel before nightfall and even a personal visit from Bernie Ecclestone couldn’t persuade them to stay.
However the official explanation cited “Logistical reasons… which will result in the team missing second practice to ensure the most competitive performance in FP3, qualifying and the race.”
When facing the press, deputy team principal Bob Fernley struggled to provide a clear explanation.
“On Wednesday evening there was a very unfortunate incident for members of Force India, and there is no question, it de-stabilised the emotional element of our team,” he began.
“Yesterday evening we put a programme together which addressed all the issues from the team, we sat down with them all, and that meant a slight re-structuring of the programme in order that we could make sure that there was comfort within the team and that we delivered a very strong qualifying and race programme.
“It’s not a slight at all on the event, it’s just about an internal structure of Force India.”
The politics surrounded this weekend’s event unsurprisingly dominated the team principals’ press conference on Friday, much to their obvious frustration.
“The calendar has been set for some time, we are the competitors, it’s a race in the calendar, we are here to race. Period,” said McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh.
Teams insist they have no say in the hosting of events, although a grey area has emerged in that teams do have so form of input when the racing calendar is over 17 rounds. The 2012 season consists of 20 events.
Whitmarsh insisted this ‘input’ was not related to deciding on individual races.
“In theory we [have an input] but as you know, the commercial rights holder… he has to get the races into the calendar and typically we’re not consulted individually on each race.”
Ecclestone and the Bahraini officials insist the issue of protest is being blown out of proportion by the media. Most drivers are refusing to comment on anything other than the track action.
Date: 20/April/2012
Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) and then Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) set the pace during Friday's pair of practice sessions for the Bahrain Grand Prix, as off-track issues continue to overshadow the event.
Last year’s Bahrain round was cancelled due to anti-government protests, which are still ongoing. As a result, F1 has received a huge amount of criticism for its willingness to return, while the Bahraini government insists the event can help provide ‘unity’.
The risk of F1 personnel being directly targeted by protesters seems slim, but team members from Force India and Sauber have already witnessed violent clashes between protesters and police while travelling from the circuit.
Two members of the Force India team have subsequently left Bahrain and the team then withdrew from this afternoon’s second practice session. It seemed the team wanted to get back to its hotel before nightfall and even a personal visit from Bernie Ecclestone couldn’t persuade them to stay.
However the official explanation cited “Logistical reasons… which will result in the team missing second practice to ensure the most competitive performance in FP3, qualifying and the race.”
When facing the press, deputy team principal Bob Fernley struggled to provide a clear explanation.
“On Wednesday evening there was a very unfortunate incident for members of Force India, and there is no question, it de-stabilised the emotional element of our team,” he began.
“Yesterday evening we put a programme together which addressed all the issues from the team, we sat down with them all, and that meant a slight re-structuring of the programme in order that we could make sure that there was comfort within the team and that we delivered a very strong qualifying and race programme.
“It’s not a slight at all on the event, it’s just about an internal structure of Force India.”
The politics surrounded this weekend’s event unsurprisingly dominated the team principals’ press conference on Friday, much to their obvious frustration.
“The calendar has been set for some time, we are the competitors, it’s a race in the calendar, we are here to race. Period,” said McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh.
Teams insist they have no say in the hosting of events, although a grey area has emerged in that teams do have so form of input when the racing calendar is over 17 rounds. The 2012 season consists of 20 events.
Whitmarsh insisted this ‘input’ was not related to deciding on individual races.
“In theory we [have an input] but as you know, the commercial rights holder… he has to get the races into the calendar and typically we’re not consulted individually on each race.”
Ecclestone and the Bahraini officials insist the issue of protest is being blown out of proportion by the media. Most drivers are refusing to comment on anything other than the track action.
Tension as F1 arrives in Bahrain
F1 News
Date: 19/April/2012
The most controversial event in recent F1 memory will get underway at the Bahrain International Circuit on Friday.
The grand prix circus, used to being the biggest story in town, is being openly touted by the Bahraini government as a way to ‘unify’ the country following a year of protests.
Many have expressed surprise that F1, which prides itself on being above politics, has allowed itself to be presented in such a way - the event even has an official slogan 'UniF1ed - One Nation in Celebration'.
Fears that F1 could get caught up in the ongoing protests looked well founded when a Molotov cocktail landed near the car of some Force India team members, travelling back to their hotel from the circuit on Wednesday night.
Yet officials from F1, the FIA and teams insist all precautions are being taken and that ‘the show must go on’.
The drivers are also steering clear of commenting on the situation outside of the racetrack, sticking - rather naively - to talk of tyres, set-up and form for the weekend ahead.
Indeed, the five drivers present for Thursday’s pre-event press conference all appeared to take pride in not having been ‘distracted’ by the issues currently dividing the country.
“It hasn’t had the slightest influence on my preparation,” declared Caterham’s Heikki Kovalainen. “I’ve prepared for the Grand Prix, physically and mentally, the same way that I do any other race.”
“No [distraction] we have made the same preparation as all the other races,” concurred Marussia’s Timo Glock.
McLaren’s former world champion Lewis Hamilton also insisted it was business as usual. “They’ve said it all. The team has just been focusing on preparing ourselves for the best way of trying to get some wins.”
Last weekend’s debut winner Nico Rosberg offered: “No, we have been preparing to the best of my possibilities and the team’s also.”
“Yeah, the same preparation as always. We came here for the sport, that’s the best thing to do, it’s a sport,” insisted Ferrari’s Felipe Massa.
The only real acknowledgement that this is not a normal grand prix weekend came from rookie Romain Grosjean.
“We can’t ignore the situation but in another way, I hope the race may make a clear vision and helps the situation and I think the Grand Prix will be nice,” said the Lotus driver.
Track action begins at Bahrain on Friday - minus two Force India team members, who have decided to leave Bahrain following Wednesday’s incident.
Date: 19/April/2012
The most controversial event in recent F1 memory will get underway at the Bahrain International Circuit on Friday.
The grand prix circus, used to being the biggest story in town, is being openly touted by the Bahraini government as a way to ‘unify’ the country following a year of protests.
Many have expressed surprise that F1, which prides itself on being above politics, has allowed itself to be presented in such a way - the event even has an official slogan 'UniF1ed - One Nation in Celebration'.
Fears that F1 could get caught up in the ongoing protests looked well founded when a Molotov cocktail landed near the car of some Force India team members, travelling back to their hotel from the circuit on Wednesday night.
Yet officials from F1, the FIA and teams insist all precautions are being taken and that ‘the show must go on’.
The drivers are also steering clear of commenting on the situation outside of the racetrack, sticking - rather naively - to talk of tyres, set-up and form for the weekend ahead.
Indeed, the five drivers present for Thursday’s pre-event press conference all appeared to take pride in not having been ‘distracted’ by the issues currently dividing the country.
“It hasn’t had the slightest influence on my preparation,” declared Caterham’s Heikki Kovalainen. “I’ve prepared for the Grand Prix, physically and mentally, the same way that I do any other race.”
“No [distraction] we have made the same preparation as all the other races,” concurred Marussia’s Timo Glock.
McLaren’s former world champion Lewis Hamilton also insisted it was business as usual. “They’ve said it all. The team has just been focusing on preparing ourselves for the best way of trying to get some wins.”
Last weekend’s debut winner Nico Rosberg offered: “No, we have been preparing to the best of my possibilities and the team’s also.”
“Yeah, the same preparation as always. We came here for the sport, that’s the best thing to do, it’s a sport,” insisted Ferrari’s Felipe Massa.
The only real acknowledgement that this is not a normal grand prix weekend came from rookie Romain Grosjean.
“We can’t ignore the situation but in another way, I hope the race may make a clear vision and helps the situation and I think the Grand Prix will be nice,” said the Lotus driver.
Track action begins at Bahrain on Friday - minus two Force India team members, who have decided to leave Bahrain following Wednesday’s incident.
Rosberg hands Mercedes first F1 victory since 1955!
F1 News
Date: 15/April/2012
Nico Rosberg - son of 1982 F1 world champion Keke Rosberg - made history when he drove to his first ever F1 victory in Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai.
The 26-year-old, who holds dual Finnish-German nationality, made a perfect start from his first F1 pole and only lost the lead briefly during tyre changes.
Team-mate and nearest rival Michael Schumacher retired after a botched pit-stop and Rosberg kept comfortably clear of his remaining pursuers to record a resounding 20-second victory over McLaren’s Jenson Button.
It was the first F1 victory for Mercedes since 1955, while Rosberg - racing in his seventh season - joins only world champions Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve as the son of a grand prix winner to also stand on the top step of the podium.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling: very, very cool,” smiled Rosberg. “It’s been a long time coming for me, and for the team as well over the past two years and a bit. Now, it’s finally here.
“It’s been the perfect weekend. Everything’s gone [well]. It couldn’t be better. It was a great race. It was impressive to see really how we’ve managed to progress so quickly. We’ve really had some difficult times in the races, the first two, but we’ve made a lot of changes, worked hard at it and all of a sudden it’s come good.”
Rosberg had finished just 12th and 13th in the previous rounds.
“We’ve seen good qualifying performances all along this year and we’ve had more difficulties on high fuel in the race, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect – but fantastic outcome!”
Although focussed on his own driving, Rosberg got a hint of the thrilling battle for the remaining podium places. “Every lap the name of the person behind me changed - I thought ‘what’s going on back there?’”
Button, who dropped to fifth after his final pit stop, snatched the runner-up spot from reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel with six laps remaining.
Team-mate Lewis Hamilton then demoted the Red Bull driver from the podium with three to go, while Vettel’s own team-mate Mark Webber also moved ahead before the chequered flag was waved.
“What an incredible race with so many World Champions and so many of the great drivers all in a train, just fighting each other,” said Hamilton. “It’s great to see racing like that and to see cars so close in pace.”
Mercedes withdrew from motorsport at the end of 1955 following a disastrous accident at the Le Mans 24 Hours, when Mercedes driver Pierre Levegh and over 80 spectators were killed.
Having since won the F1 title as an engine supplier for McLaren and then Brawn, Mercedes purchased the Brawn team for a full ‘Silver Arrows’ return in 2010.
Date: 15/April/2012
Nico Rosberg - son of 1982 F1 world champion Keke Rosberg - made history when he drove to his first ever F1 victory in Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai.
The 26-year-old, who holds dual Finnish-German nationality, made a perfect start from his first F1 pole and only lost the lead briefly during tyre changes.
Team-mate and nearest rival Michael Schumacher retired after a botched pit-stop and Rosberg kept comfortably clear of his remaining pursuers to record a resounding 20-second victory over McLaren’s Jenson Button.
It was the first F1 victory for Mercedes since 1955, while Rosberg - racing in his seventh season - joins only world champions Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve as the son of a grand prix winner to also stand on the top step of the podium.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling: very, very cool,” smiled Rosberg. “It’s been a long time coming for me, and for the team as well over the past two years and a bit. Now, it’s finally here.
“It’s been the perfect weekend. Everything’s gone [well]. It couldn’t be better. It was a great race. It was impressive to see really how we’ve managed to progress so quickly. We’ve really had some difficult times in the races, the first two, but we’ve made a lot of changes, worked hard at it and all of a sudden it’s come good.”
Rosberg had finished just 12th and 13th in the previous rounds.
“We’ve seen good qualifying performances all along this year and we’ve had more difficulties on high fuel in the race, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect – but fantastic outcome!”
Although focussed on his own driving, Rosberg got a hint of the thrilling battle for the remaining podium places. “Every lap the name of the person behind me changed - I thought ‘what’s going on back there?’”
Button, who dropped to fifth after his final pit stop, snatched the runner-up spot from reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel with six laps remaining.
Team-mate Lewis Hamilton then demoted the Red Bull driver from the podium with three to go, while Vettel’s own team-mate Mark Webber also moved ahead before the chequered flag was waved.
“What an incredible race with so many World Champions and so many of the great drivers all in a train, just fighting each other,” said Hamilton. “It’s great to see racing like that and to see cars so close in pace.”
Mercedes withdrew from motorsport at the end of 1955 following a disastrous accident at the Le Mans 24 Hours, when Mercedes driver Pierre Levegh and over 80 spectators were killed.
Having since won the F1 title as an engine supplier for McLaren and then Brawn, Mercedes purchased the Brawn team for a full ‘Silver Arrows’ return in 2010.
Lotus ‘die like a man’ then move on, after FIA ruling
F1 News
Date: 13/April/2012
Its protest against the Mercedes rear wing rejected, Lotus F1 technical director James Allison said the British-based squad will ‘die like a man’ over the issue - and promptly look at the possibilities created by the ruling.
Discontent among some teams over the Mercedes F-duct style ‘system’ has been ongoing since before the start of the new season. Lotus finally made such opposition official on the eve of this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.
The Mercedes system uses movement of the DRS overtaking device in the rear wing to expose a small duct, which - when open to the airflow - pipes high pressure air to crucial parts of the front wing, increasing the top speed boost.
When DRS is not engaged the duct is covered and therefore inert. The main controversy has been over whether the system is a ‘driver operated aerodynamic device’.
The FIA dismissed the protest, with part of a lengthy explanation stating: “The Mercedes design is not activated by driver movement. It is a consequence of a change of position of the driver adjustable bodywork”.
The judgement also backed up earlier ‘clarification’ provided by the FIA to Mercedes, regarding the legality of the system.
Allison - whose design team were in the process of developing an innovative ‘reactive ride height’ system, only for it to be banned by the FIA before the start of the season - explained:
“It’s been no secret that our team has had some disagreements with what we saw Mercedes to be running. We thought there were strong arguments against such a thing. That’s been rumbling along gently in the background, as everyone knows.
“We made what we hoped were strong arguments both to Mercedes and to the FIA [before filing a protest] but didn’t prevail and so with some regret we decided it was worth bringing it before the stewards to settle the matter one way or the other.”
Asked for how Lotus will react to the FIA ruling, Allison replied: “Just die like a man! Get on with looking at what possibilities are open, having accepted that this is a perfectly OK system to put on the car.”
The difficulty rivals teams face is that they cannot simply ‘bolt on’ their own version of the Mercedes design due to the amount of modifications needed.
Designs chiefs from Ferrari and McLaren admitted they will already considering if they could and should incorporate such a system.
“We’ve been looking at it for a while,” said Fry. “We know what it’s worth in terms of lap time and now we need to weigh it up in terms of cost-performance and the effort needed. We also need to look at what is the ultimate potential of the device.”
McLaren’s Paddy Lowe agreed, adding that the device is only of real benefit during qualifying (when DRS use is unrestricted). In race situations, DRS can only be used at certain predetermined zone(s), and if a car is within one-second of the vehicle in front.
“In these days of really very limited capacity - whether that’s people or time in wind tunnels - to develop aerodynamics, you do have to carefully select where you put your effort to make the most profit in performance,” he said.
“This will fall into that camp. We have to decide how much we can get from it, how it ranks compared to other areas we may work on. It does have the immediate downside that it really is only a qualifying benefit as far as we can see, so immediately it has to earn quite a lot to make that worthwhile.”
Despite that warning, Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher was fastest in Friday practice for the Chinese Grand Prix.
Date: 13/April/2012
Its protest against the Mercedes rear wing rejected, Lotus F1 technical director James Allison said the British-based squad will ‘die like a man’ over the issue - and promptly look at the possibilities created by the ruling.
Discontent among some teams over the Mercedes F-duct style ‘system’ has been ongoing since before the start of the new season. Lotus finally made such opposition official on the eve of this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.
The Mercedes system uses movement of the DRS overtaking device in the rear wing to expose a small duct, which - when open to the airflow - pipes high pressure air to crucial parts of the front wing, increasing the top speed boost.
When DRS is not engaged the duct is covered and therefore inert. The main controversy has been over whether the system is a ‘driver operated aerodynamic device’.
The FIA dismissed the protest, with part of a lengthy explanation stating: “The Mercedes design is not activated by driver movement. It is a consequence of a change of position of the driver adjustable bodywork”.
The judgement also backed up earlier ‘clarification’ provided by the FIA to Mercedes, regarding the legality of the system.
Allison - whose design team were in the process of developing an innovative ‘reactive ride height’ system, only for it to be banned by the FIA before the start of the season - explained:
“It’s been no secret that our team has had some disagreements with what we saw Mercedes to be running. We thought there were strong arguments against such a thing. That’s been rumbling along gently in the background, as everyone knows.
“We made what we hoped were strong arguments both to Mercedes and to the FIA [before filing a protest] but didn’t prevail and so with some regret we decided it was worth bringing it before the stewards to settle the matter one way or the other.”
Asked for how Lotus will react to the FIA ruling, Allison replied: “Just die like a man! Get on with looking at what possibilities are open, having accepted that this is a perfectly OK system to put on the car.”
The difficulty rivals teams face is that they cannot simply ‘bolt on’ their own version of the Mercedes design due to the amount of modifications needed.
Designs chiefs from Ferrari and McLaren admitted they will already considering if they could and should incorporate such a system.
“We’ve been looking at it for a while,” said Fry. “We know what it’s worth in terms of lap time and now we need to weigh it up in terms of cost-performance and the effort needed. We also need to look at what is the ultimate potential of the device.”
McLaren’s Paddy Lowe agreed, adding that the device is only of real benefit during qualifying (when DRS use is unrestricted). In race situations, DRS can only be used at certain predetermined zone(s), and if a car is within one-second of the vehicle in front.
“In these days of really very limited capacity - whether that’s people or time in wind tunnels - to develop aerodynamics, you do have to carefully select where you put your effort to make the most profit in performance,” he said.
“This will fall into that camp. We have to decide how much we can get from it, how it ranks compared to other areas we may work on. It does have the immediate downside that it really is only a qualifying benefit as far as we can see, so immediately it has to earn quite a lot to make that worthwhile.”
Despite that warning, Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher was fastest in Friday practice for the Chinese Grand Prix.
Cracks appear in Rossi, Ducati relationship
MotoGP News
Date: 11/April/2012
Unless there is a sudden turnaround in fortunes, the dream Valentino Rossi-Ducati partnership could be heading for a messy divorce.
Having endured a humbling debut 2011 season at Ducati with remarkable humour, Rossi’s patience snapped after a miserable weekend on the ‘all new’ 2012 bike at the opening round in Qatar.
The first complete Ducati to be built with input from Rossi and his mechanics, and featuring the same kind of aluminium frame used on the Japanese bikes, hopes were high that the seven-time MotoGP champion would be back to winning ways in 2012.
Instead, Rossi performed even worse than last year at Losail, when he rode from ninth on the grid to seventh.
Twelfth and last of the manufacturer bikes in 2012 qualifying, Rossi finished just tenth in the race. The stopwatch was equally harsh - 16 seconds from victory last season, ballooning to 34 seconds.
Afterwards, a dejected Rossi told the Italian media:
"I'm not able to ride the bike as I like and I'm faster on old tyres than on new. I have no confidence, and I can't even get ahead of [team-mate] Hayden, who gave everything to finish 28 seconds behind the leader."
And then came the words that will have been most painful for Ducati.
"The problems with the bike haven't changed, and neither have my requests,” stated Rossi. “It's unrideable, and it doesn't make much difference what track we are on.”
Ducati is yet to react to Rossi’s stinging criticism.
Rossi, a winner of 79 premier-class grand prix races, finished seventh in the 2011 championship with just a single podium. The Doctor will be racing a Ferrari sportscar at Monza in Italy this weekend.
Date: 11/April/2012
Unless there is a sudden turnaround in fortunes, the dream Valentino Rossi-Ducati partnership could be heading for a messy divorce.
Having endured a humbling debut 2011 season at Ducati with remarkable humour, Rossi’s patience snapped after a miserable weekend on the ‘all new’ 2012 bike at the opening round in Qatar.
The first complete Ducati to be built with input from Rossi and his mechanics, and featuring the same kind of aluminium frame used on the Japanese bikes, hopes were high that the seven-time MotoGP champion would be back to winning ways in 2012.
Instead, Rossi performed even worse than last year at Losail, when he rode from ninth on the grid to seventh.
Twelfth and last of the manufacturer bikes in 2012 qualifying, Rossi finished just tenth in the race. The stopwatch was equally harsh - 16 seconds from victory last season, ballooning to 34 seconds.
Afterwards, a dejected Rossi told the Italian media:
"I'm not able to ride the bike as I like and I'm faster on old tyres than on new. I have no confidence, and I can't even get ahead of [team-mate] Hayden, who gave everything to finish 28 seconds behind the leader."
And then came the words that will have been most painful for Ducati.
"The problems with the bike haven't changed, and neither have my requests,” stated Rossi. “It's unrideable, and it doesn't make much difference what track we are on.”
Ducati is yet to react to Rossi’s stinging criticism.
Rossi, a winner of 79 premier-class grand prix races, finished seventh in the 2011 championship with just a single podium. The Doctor will be racing a Ferrari sportscar at Monza in Italy this weekend.
Edwards: We’re shovelling s**t uphill at times
MotoGP News
Date: 10/April/2012
Former double World Superbike champion Colin Edwards begins his tenth expletive ridden season of MotoGP with a brand new challenge at Qatar this weekend.
“I don’t know where the time had gone!” smiled Edwards. “It’s been great though, especially seeing the likes of Lorenzo and Casey [Stoner] grow up here in the paddock. I remember playing on the PlayStation with Casey when he was a kid.”
Texan Edwards is the biggest name to sign up for MotoGP’s new ‘Claiming Rule Team’ class for 2012, which will see budget Superbike-powered machines allowed onto the premier-class grid alongside the official manufacturer bikes.
“Does anyone know the Claiming Rules? I’m still trying to figure that out,” he joked, referring to the complicated and strangely named privateer class which will form nine of the 21 MotoGP entries this season.
Edwards will be racing a BMW-powered Suter chassis, run by Forward Racing, which is stepping up from the intermediate Moto2 World Championship.
The switch from an exotic Yamaha prototype to a small-scale project, still very rough around the edges, has been tough at times. Indeed, Edwards is still facing ’fundamental’ issues such as problems with the location of the engine mounting points on the S1000RR road-bike engine.
“In Texas we’d say it’s been like shovelling s**t uphill some times,” said Edwards. “That’s what it felt like in testing. We have fundamental issues that we need to sort.
“We’ll also be showing up to each race this year with no gearing, no suspension settings, no data. Nothing. We’ll be starting from scratch at every round. But we’ve just got to go step-by-step.”
Despite his often coarse comments, fan favourite Edwards - who has twelve MotoGP podiums to his name - is highly regarded for his development skills and admits he was the ideal candidate to lead the CRT revolution.
“If there’s one guy in this paddock who had to do it was me, with the experience and knowledge riding the Aprilia, Honda and Yamaha,” said the 38-year-old. “It’s going to be a long project, but if they do decide to make MotoGP all-CRT at some point in the future it will make things interesting.”
Edwards will start his first race as a CRT rider at Qatar on Sunday evening. It will also be his first grand prix since being injured in the tragic accident that claimed the life of Marco Simoncelli at Sepang last October.
Date: 10/April/2012
Former double World Superbike champion Colin Edwards begins his tenth expletive ridden season of MotoGP with a brand new challenge at Qatar this weekend.
“I don’t know where the time had gone!” smiled Edwards. “It’s been great though, especially seeing the likes of Lorenzo and Casey [Stoner] grow up here in the paddock. I remember playing on the PlayStation with Casey when he was a kid.”
Texan Edwards is the biggest name to sign up for MotoGP’s new ‘Claiming Rule Team’ class for 2012, which will see budget Superbike-powered machines allowed onto the premier-class grid alongside the official manufacturer bikes.
“Does anyone know the Claiming Rules? I’m still trying to figure that out,” he joked, referring to the complicated and strangely named privateer class which will form nine of the 21 MotoGP entries this season.
Edwards will be racing a BMW-powered Suter chassis, run by Forward Racing, which is stepping up from the intermediate Moto2 World Championship.
The switch from an exotic Yamaha prototype to a small-scale project, still very rough around the edges, has been tough at times. Indeed, Edwards is still facing ’fundamental’ issues such as problems with the location of the engine mounting points on the S1000RR road-bike engine.
“In Texas we’d say it’s been like shovelling s**t uphill some times,” said Edwards. “That’s what it felt like in testing. We have fundamental issues that we need to sort.
“We’ll also be showing up to each race this year with no gearing, no suspension settings, no data. Nothing. We’ll be starting from scratch at every round. But we’ve just got to go step-by-step.”
Despite his often coarse comments, fan favourite Edwards - who has twelve MotoGP podiums to his name - is highly regarded for his development skills and admits he was the ideal candidate to lead the CRT revolution.
“If there’s one guy in this paddock who had to do it was me, with the experience and knowledge riding the Aprilia, Honda and Yamaha,” said the 38-year-old. “It’s going to be a long project, but if they do decide to make MotoGP all-CRT at some point in the future it will make things interesting.”
Edwards will start his first race as a CRT rider at Qatar on Sunday evening. It will also be his first grand prix since being injured in the tragic accident that claimed the life of Marco Simoncelli at Sepang last October.
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