F1 insight: A view inside the BRDC July 11, 2010
Posted by richard in : Motorsport , add a comment
BRDC members have a prime spot to watch the Silverstone Grand Prix each year.
The famed building, right next to the pits entry, is a Silverstone landmark and THE place to be if you’ve earned the right to be one of Britain’s motor racing elite.
Today, Damon Hill will preside over a cast of hundreds – including Sir Jackie Stewart, Nigel Mansell, Derek Warwick and umpteen other fan’s favourites.
I was able to have a peek on Friday night, too, as the BRDC hosted members of the press, including GOMW members. So, to see from where they’ll be watching, check out the gallery below.
It shows the three-storey building’s smart chairs, live-feed TVs and panoramic roof balcony from where most will be packed come 1pm today.
There are more images on my Facebook Page too. Oh, to be a Brit motor racing star and earn the right to apply for membership…
How BRDC links F1 to GOMW July 9, 2010
Posted by richard in : History, Motorsport , 2comments
1966 was a good year for World Cup football but also a good year for F1-loving members of the Guild of Motoring Writers.
Ford, amazingly, built a chalet at Silverstone, for motorsport-nut F1 journos to drink tea and smoke pipes in. Yup, that’s how motor racing was, back in the day. Impossible to imagine it today – particularly on the chosen prime location, next to the Silverstone pit entry.
It was a sister hut to the Guild Chalet at Goodwood, where the annual GOMW Motor Show Test Day had ran since 1948.
If all this history sounds a bit bonkers, bear in mind some of the esteemed members the Guild’s had. Indeed, it was no less than the late 9th Duke of Richmond who, as GOMW President, set up the Silverstone hut. As a founder member of the British Racing Drivers’ Club (busy guy), he also established the practice of inviting BRDC pals along, too.
The following year, the Guild Test Day was moved to Silverstone, and based at said hut. It continued there for years, before moving to Donington Park. (Incidentally, why is it not run today? Well, it is: aka SMMT Test Day…)
Today, the hut is history – nowadays, the BRDC base is situated there. A press barbecue hosted by the BRDC on the eve of the British GP gave me the chance to see how the site has been tranformed.
The BRDC building is a genuine landmark, way beyond anything the Guild had there back in the day. As I found on Friday, though, you can still get a cracking cup of tea there…
Look out soon for some views from the night!
Hyundai i20 outdoes F1 car surprise May 11, 2010
Posted by richard in : Minutiae of cars, Motorsport, Technology , add a comment
F1 is stuck in the dark ages in one incredibly road-car-relevant area.
It still uses 13-inch wheels!
This is a surprise detailed in Autosport’s news pages a few weeks ago. Debate has been stirred up because Michelin is musing on returning to F1 – but only with a rule change that would see wheels grow.
This is a few decades behind road cars: take the Hyundai i20 on test recently. That’s an £11k supermini hatch with a 1.2-litre engine – and even this comes with 15-inch alloys as standard.
You’re not a hot hatch of any credibility if you don’t have 18-inches, while 19”s and 20”s are de rigueur for sportscars.
That’s why Michelin’s proposing that F1 grows up. Introduces 18-inches, as are already fitted to sportscars: this would let the company use Le Mans prototype tyre tech as a base for a new set of F1 boots. (Tantalisingly, Autosport also says there’s talk of a non-control-tyre rule: that’ll further spice things up.)
Williams F1 tech man Sam Michael reckons it’s a goer, reports Autosport. ‘It would bring Formula 1 into the modern world.’ 13-inches are now specific only to F1 and micro-engined city cars. Introduce 18”s and you’re suddenly far closer to a road car.
They also, dammit, look far better. Which designer would seriously sketch a car with the rim size and tyre sidewall profile of an F1 car? Other than one from the 1960s? Today, big wheels and liquorice profiles is where it’s at – and it’s making ride quality still decent that’s preoccupying thousands of chassis engineers right now.
How to buy the World Cup of motorsport
Lewis Hamilton and Gilles Villeneuve
Richard Branson’s Virgin F1 (Teenage) Fanclub
How to buy the World Cup of motorsport April 10, 2010
Posted by richard in : Motorsport , 2comments
WORLD Cup fever kicks off this summer but you can get in right now – even if you’re not a football fan.
Up for auction is, well, ‘the A1 GP series’.
Yes, really – you can bid for:
• 20 A1 GP cars
• 14 Lola Formula single-seaters
• Spare engines
• Spare body parts
• 25 team shacks
• Pit perches
• Flight cases
• Ferrari 599GTB safety car
• Maserati Quattroporte Sport GT medical car
Amazing, aye? This is not just buying an old racing car – it’s buying an entire racing operation. As raced by current F1 drivers Toni Liuzzi and Sebastian Buemi, and former Renault/now-infamous crashgate driver Nelson Piquet Jr. New Williams F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg actually won the championship in 2006; HRT cult star Karun Chandhok and Force India Malaysia star Adrian Sutil also ran in it.
You may not know this, either: the A1 GP car is not only Ferrari-engined, but also based on THE 2004 Ferrari F1 racer that Schumacher used for one of his many World Championship title wins. Heritage at this level comes little higher.
What’s all this World Cup stuff, though? Well, that was the unique part of A1 GP. Instead of driving for teams, drivers were run by nationality. Robbie Kerr often represented the UK, for instance, though Adam Carroll also drove for ‘us’. It was launched in 2004 and ran until last year, when the set-up running it, err, ran into difficulties.
Even so, it was still an FIA-accredited ‘world’ championship, that has a decent heritage and served as feeder school for more than a few handy pilots. You can see the whole auction stock down at a site in Surrey, with more information through the auctioneer’s website.
Anything stopping a rich benefactor buying the whole lot and laying on another summer World Cup for car fans, then? Plenty, probably, but seeing as the eventual buyer will get all the IP rights including A1 GP trademarks and the A1 GP domain name, this journo sees it as all quite straightforward…
Updates will follow!
Lewis Hamilton and Gilles Villeneuve
Richard Branson’s F1 (Teenage) Fanclub
Lewis Hamilton and Gilles Villeneuve March 27, 2010
Posted by richard in : Motorsport , 2comments
LEWIS Hamilton is getting a bit of a hard time at the hands of the Oz Police.
OK, he was hooning. It was, as he said, a little silly. But…. He’s a Grand Prix driver. The best in the world. Surely, although rules iz rules, a teeny leniency could have overridden the need to make quite such an example of him?
The fact a motorcyclist was killed on a nearby road did LH no favours. But, at the same time, I think of the Italian mindset. Where such abandon is, well, not encouraged exactly (certainly not if it’s dangerous), but not frowned upon either.
Then, I think back to Gilles Villeneuve, to Gerald Donaldson’s magisterial book, to the tails of how one of my favourite drivers ever used to set a challenge to his team-mates.
Such as? Well, the drive back from Modena to home in Switzerland.? Let’s see, went the challenge, who can bomb our road-going Ferraris for the furthest, without lifting our foot from the floored accelerator…
OK. It’s a bit foolhardy. But tell me there’s not a part of you that also doesn’t think it’s quite cool…
Mind you, Donaldson also tells us of something else the Australian Police wouldn’t like: Villeneuve’s tendency to enter said Ferrari, floor throttle, start it up, dump the clutch and spin-turn away from a standing, well, park.
Just like Hamilton, a total hero. And if you want to know why I used the above image, of the 1979 French Grand Prix, check this out:
Richard Branson’s Virgin F1 (Teenage) Fanclub
Motorsport and Twitter aim for Groundswell
McLaren F1 dashboard on the cheap March 13, 2010
Posted by richard in : Motorsport, Technology , 3commentsF1 cars round Silverstone are being replaced for one weekend, by a few thousand bats people.
Among the throngs will be yours truly: yep, I’m entering the Silverstone Half Marathon.
Inconvenient, this, in so many ways – such as, for example, the fact I will probably fall apart by the end of it. Chief inconvenience, though, is the start time of the race. 12 noon.
Yes! Not only is it on the same day as the 1st F1 race of 2010, it is on at the same time. Groan. My only vain hope is that the good men of the BRDC pipe out the race through the race commentator speakers.
Here’s something, though: thanks to McLaren’s brilliant race dashboard, F1 has gone all ubertech for 2010. It’s now possible to track JB and Lewis in Real Time – see where they are, how fast they’re going, all sorts of stuff. This got me thinking…
… who fancies tracking my pained progress tomorrow? If you’ve got the computer up for the F1, maybe you could also pop open a window to check I don’t keel over en route?
Via the magic of Runkeeper, you’ll (hopefully) be able to do this.
I’ll be strapping the iPhone to my arm and, as the lights go out bloke with an air horn honks, I’ll press ‘go’. For, my lo-fi version of the McLaren F1 dashboard, on foot!
May work, may not… just in case, I’ll be posting updates on my blog while I’m not in action, checking on via Foursquare and Tweeting on the canny #f1silverstonerun.
About a billion people entered this last year, so I am in a small way looking forward to it. Mostly though, I’m dreading it. Share in my pain tomorrow, if you fancy a giggle…
View Silverstone from up on high!
I’m not the only one running – and so far, DealDrivers’ John has raised £750!
Citroen DS3 Racing past March 11, 2010
Posted by richard in : History, Minutiae of cars, Motorsport , 1 comment so farWHY only 1000 Citroen DS3 Racings, I asked the Citroen man at the Geneva Motor Show.
Surely you could make it a permanent addition to the range, underlining its MINI John Cooper Works-challenging status?
The reason why, he revealed, was a blast from the past. It’s a mainstream maker’s homologation special. Like the Ford Escort RS 1600i, like the Alfa Romeo 155 Silverstone, like the Mercedes 190 Evolution. And thus, for me, cool.
It’s even diverted off the production line for final finishing: Citroen Racing (for it is they) send the instructions to the production line men, who add on a ‘parts kit’ of bits that turn a standard DSport into a DS3 Racing.
Changes include:
• Stiffer springs, lowered by 15mm
• New-spec front and rear dampers
• 30mm wider track front and rear
• 4-piston brake calipers
• Drilled rear brake discs
• 18-inch alloys
• Wing extensions
• Carbon-fibre air diffuser
• Remapping software for EPAS and ESP (including ‘off’ button)
Chuck in an interior makeover and STRICT limitations to 1000 units, and you have something that won’t be cheap but will be exceedingly collectable.
It’s quick, too. The 1.6 THP turbo has, at 200hp, 30 percent more power, plus 15 percent more torque. Thank uprated components, tuned turbo and remapped ECU for this. Rortiness is provided by a special exhaust back box.
But what is it homologation for? Next year’s new WRC rules, that’s what. These stipulate more real world cars with front-drive chassis. Kimi Raikkonen will be driving one of these next year. We’ll be able to buy one before that.
Citroen, you’ve sold me: add my name to the press fleet booking list now, please..!
Save BBC 6Music and the Ford Zephyr
Renaultsport past to inspire turbo future?
Why RenaultSports don’t have rear spoilers
Richard Branson’s Virgin F1 (Teenage) Fanclub March 5, 2010
Posted by richard in : History, Motorsport , 3commentsVirgin boss Richard Branson takes to the F1 grid for the first time this year with his own racing team.
But it’s not the first time ‘his’ cars have been ‘in’ F1.
This, as you may suspect, is slightly tenuous. But for Indie/F1/car geeks such as, well, me, it’s curiously neat. And goes like this:
• Teenage Fanclub released a 1994 album called Grand Prix
• On the cover was a shot of a contemporary 1994 F1 racer
• That car was a Simtek
• Boss of the Simtek F1 team was Nick Wirth
• Nick Wirth now runs Wirth Research
• Wirth Research designed the new Virgin F1 racer
It may be a new team, but there’s heritage in that there Virgin setup, not to mention a good dose of jangly guitar musical brilliance. Sort of.
Question is, can you come up with a more brilliantly tenuous link between something random and F1 racing?
Motorsport and Twitter aim for Groundswell
Another most amazing save of 2009
Motorsport and Twitter aim for Groundswell February 7, 2010
Posted by richard in : Motorsport, What I learned today , 4commentsTWITTER as a networking tool is developing fast. Once again, I found out how useful it can be this week.
Trusty ol’ twhirl lit up green one morning: an @ reply to a Tweet! Exciting – particularly as it was from someone I didn’t know.
@JoshBensonGV picked up on some random price list musing I was Tweeting – that Volvo only fits heated seats as standard to the sportlich R-Design variant of XC60 compact SUV – with a smiley ribbing.
Smiley back from me: but who was this chap? Turns out, he’s a Brit FFord racer, who’s using social media in some very canny ways.
Typically, being British, he has little money to go racing. Typically, too, he’s pretty good. Just as Anthony Davidson should be in an F1 seat*, Benson’s stats show a fair turn of speed when he’s actually able to race.
So, he’s solving his cash quandary by being innovative. With the aid of Lesley at oneplusonemarketing, he wants to do for motorsport what the Arctic Monkeys and MySpace did for music.
Namely, create a Groundswell. Become the people’s driver. Gain a following, a community – level the playing field, ensure that talent gets you the seat, rather than the plain power of the corporate dollar.
‘The control of what we hear is over,’ reckons Lesley. The motorsport intent here is similar: to enable the good guys, who just so happen to be pretty good, get their chance.
Things hopefully kick off for Benson on 1 April up at God’s own motorsport garden, Oulton Park. I’ll try to be there – but, even if I’m not, Twitter will mean I’m as good as.
It’s certainly one for us social media devotees to follow. Now, who’s going to be the first to develop a motorsport section for MySpace?
* Little Ant may not be in an F1 seat, but if we’re being selfish, we can say he’s doing something even better: once again pairing up with Crofty on 5Live. They cover pretty much all the track action of F1 throughout the weekend, for the commentary pairing of your dreams. Tune in, stream it, podcast it, Tweet it, do anything to listen when the racing kicks off in Bahrain. It’s brilliant.
Another most amazing save of 2009 December 28, 2009
Posted by richard in : Motorsport , 1 comment so farGRAHAM Rahal proved that you can be Plato-esque in an IndyCar single seater too.
This really is quite incredible: how sideways IS the boy? Given the dynamics of FWD v RWD, which do YOU reckon is the more impressive?
