#DriverExcuses

"I had a big shunt"

Was the radio call from Sauber's Felipe Nasr after crashing his car on Casino Straight in Montreal during Saturday's practice session.

"The tires were way too cold"

Crashing while warming your tires happened more often than you'd think (just ask CG! ) and Nasr followed the prescribed procedure for all racing drivers: Always blame the car first.

...until you get busted that is which, in Felipe's case, was about 12 seconds later when everyone realized he was warming tires at speed with the DRS open.

Clearly, the tires were way too cold!

Baghdad Giedo

"I had a very good relationship with the team and I still have a very good relationship with the team. I’m looking forward to racing this weekend. I’m happy we won the case and now I’m looking forward to getting back to business."

I spit my coffee when I read that this morning.   OK Giedo, that's why you had to sue for your drive.

Before blaming Sauber it's important to know the background:  Sauber was to run Bianchi for his Ferrari engine dowry and van der Garde to pay for tires and catering with his father in law's money.

You all know what happened to poor Bianchi so Sauber had to scramble for funding.   Now one hates to be harsh but if you're a pay driver, the only reason you're driving is because of the size of your sponsorship wallet,  not because they like you or they think you're good.    Van der Garde is not Fernando Alonso, he's a 29 year old driver with a nondescript minor formula record and a billionaire father in law.   Ericsson raised a bigger bundle and Nasr raised a bundle,  the correct way to get the seat back in this sorry situation would be for van der Garde to raise an even bigger bundle.

In any case, it would not be F1 without some sort of ridiculous drama now, would it?

Ferrari paid Hulkenberg's salary to prevent him racing with Lotus

Hulkenberg got a call from his bank...

This is the revelation, or perhaps, the allegation made by Italy's BlogF1 about the reason why Nico Hulkenberg will not race for Lotus in Austin and Interlagos.

The article goes on to  describe how, up to very recently, Hulkenberg had not been paid by Sauber  invalidating his contract with the Swiss team, a situation which allowed him to not only talk with Lotus but got to Enstone for a session in that team's simulator.

Right in the middle of that simulator session, BlogF1 continues, his bank account balance was replenished.  Where did Sauber find the money?   Ferrari supposedly came to an arrangement with Monisha Kaltenborn's team.

Why would Maranello do that?  Of all drivers available to fill Kimi's vacant seat at Lotus, Hulkenberg is without a doubt the strongest and Ferrari is in a fight with Mercedes and Lotus for the second spot in the constructor championship and the additional revenues it would bring.

True, not true, certainly a strategic move if it was.  There is much strategy in F1.

From Russia with Cash.

Sauber rescue:  a new low for F1?

Sergey Sirotkin

Let's agree that, as  fans of the sport, having a team like Sauber saved from extinction is a good thing.   Sauber may not be Williams but it has a heck of a lot more history than Marussia Caterham or even, Red Bull.

But at what price? Financially a steep one.  Sauber had huge debts, not least of which a reported 15 M Euro bill for Ferrari engines,  part of an over 100 M Euro debt overall.

More troubling is the image cost of an announced race seat in Formula 1, the pinnacle of motorsport, for the 17 year old son of the head of one of the companies bailing out the Swiss team.   If you object to Pastor Maldonado's fat suitcase, or Max Chilton's seat bought by his dad at Marussia,  then you will not be happy about Sergey Sirotkin.

Felipe Massa and Nicolas Todt

Sirotkin does not meet the requirements for an FIA Superlicense.  No matter,  the man behind this deal is FIA president Jean Todt's son Nicolas.  Todt jr. manager to Felipe Massa and Jules Bianchi and an owner of the ART GP2 team, has ambitions to step up as team manager in F1.   There is little doubt once things are smoothed out with current minority owner Monisha Kaltenborn,  Todt will step in.  

Todt's close ties with Ferrari will assure an engine deal and probably a seat back at Sauber for Felipe Massa should the Scuderia drop him, while his close ties to the FIA will guarantee the "KIMI Clause" is invoked in granting the young russian permission to take the grid in 2014.

Perhaps Sirotkin will prove to have  Kimi levels of talent but I don't know many holding their breaths.

Sauber X-Ray

For the last two years the Sauber F1 Team mechanics have been using their downtime to slice a Formula One racing car lengthwise down the middle with the precision of true craftsmen. Chief Designer Matt Morris quite literally gets underneath the skin of the F1 car, pointing out where and how the individual components are located within the chassis. Everything is packed in pretty tightly. Sergio Pérez is also on hand to demonstrate the driver's seating position.

2012 Malaysian GP: A race won by men

It was not technology that made the 2012 Malaysian GP one of the best races in recent memory, it was not clever aero or smart engine tricks, it was the skill of men, behind the wheel and behind pit wall.

Alonso's win was by any standard, epic.  With an uncompetitive car, one that barely made it into Q3 on Saturday, he managed to make all the right calls, take risks at the right time, save tires as much as he could and have the skill to take advantage of his opponent's mistakes. It was masterful.

And while the three harpies on SpeedTV were busy ridiculing Ferrari for not raising an Easy-Up canopy over the cars during the rain delay ("how many Ferrari mechanics does it take to raise..." really Hobbs?), the guys in red were fastest on every pit stop and nailed strategy perfectly, unlike their beloved Mclaren. 
For Mclaren, a shocking debacle, blown pit stops, silly driver errors, a mess.

Not much better for Red Bull and what about Mercedes? Wow. It's almost as if they were cursed for Aldo Costa's comments Saturday.  Costa, who was fired abruptly as technical director from Maranello last year and now works at Mercedes, had said  how he was enjoying watching Ferrari struggle to get into Q3.... Sometimes it's best not to miss opportunities to keep quiet.

Button simply blew it, Hamilton tried to put a positive spin on it but he cannot be happy to start on pole and end up third again. Maybe he should avoid going for pole in China.

But what about Sauber, how amazing to have them on the podium.  After the brilliant call diving into the pits for full wets after the first lap, it's likely only the mistake not to have shadowed Alonso in the finale pit stop cost Checo Perez a victory. Fantastic result for the Swiss team, led by the way by a woman, Monisha Kaltenborn, the first ever to run an F1 team.

Sergio Perez will now be incessantly mentioned as Massa's replacement at Ferrari. Honestly, if I were Perez and I had a choice, I would not be so eager to go mid season: Massa is, justifiably given his performance, being used as a guinea pig for the team. But when Ferrari calls, do you say no?

Also, as Alonso and Domanicali rightly stated, it's not like Ferrari is suddenly different.  In terms of outright pace it's still severely lacking especially on a light fuel load. Still, they have Saint Fernando and miracles always help.

HEROES:

Alonso: Saint Fernando made a miracle
Ferrari pit and strategy crews: Spot on
Sergio Perez: Pedro Rodriguez is smiling
Sauber: Gets more cowbell
Bruno Senna: No way Ayrton likes that other yellow and green helmet better.
Kimi Raikkonen: this guy has been away for 2 seasons? maybe he was just napping.


Zeros

Jenson Button: Oy Jens
Mclaren pit crews: LOL
The complete Mercedes F1 organization: Heroes on Saturday, Zeros on Sunday
Felipe Massa: Alonso P1 Massa P15 'nuff said.
Narain Karthikayan: He would be a moving chicane even in a Mclaren
Sebastian Vettel:  You know he's a chicane, how can you hit him?

Very Cool, Sauber!

Some excellent promo footage released by BMW Sauber (yes, that's the official name even though a Ferrari engine powers the car). There are a number of not seen before camera angles including the very cool, what can we call it...."Shark Fin Cam" and a great overhead shot at about 5:15 in the first clip. The use of super wide angle lenses in some of these shots makes the already long 2010 car look like an angry dachshund with wings (and shark fin...). Recent rumor has the Sauber as being the best new car on tire wear, a crucial factor this year. I guess we'll see this week end in Bahrain, if Kamui makes it past the first corner!






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Diffuser-Gate 2010, the revenge....

Like we and some of our commenters have mentioned, rear diffusers are likely to be an issue yet again this year. Ferrari is already grumbling about Mclaren's.
Of course, rule interpretation has been a part of racing forever but still, after all the chaos in court in the last couple of seasons you would have thought teams and the FIA might have worked to avoid this potential issue.

Any aerodynamicist care to comment on these pictures from today's testing? (gallery courtesy theF1.com/sutton)




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2010 Sauber C29....

Remember last year's BMW Sauber launch? At the time is was the most...ahem, low key presentation ever. Sauber has gone pushed it up (or is it down? ) a notch when they showed their 201 car today in Valencia.

No sponsors, a Ferrari engine in the back but BMW paint scheme on the car (Actually it's the red and black of Bridgestone) and the BMW name still officially on the official roster, I'm glad they are back but what a mess!







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F1 news: Sauber chooses De La Rosa

The average age on the Formula 1 grid will increase dramatically in 2010: after the return of 41 year old Michael Schumacher, Sauber has chosen 37 year old Pedro De La Rosa to partner Kamui Kobayashi.

De La Rosa's debut came in 1999 with Arrows followed by two seasons at Jaguar. He then became Mclaren's test driver, occasionally filling in for Juan Pablo Montoya. His best result was a second place in Hungary in 2006.

De La Rosa's engagement leaves four free seats available, most notably the one at Renault alongside Robert Kubica. Campos need one driver and USF1 needs to fill both seats.



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Kamui Gets a Ride!

Kamui Kobayashi gets a 2010 seat with Sauber-Ferrari, cool!





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Kimi 's Kool as Ever

How many other F1 drivers would happily go to a Jr. team ? And the pairing of Red Bull and Raikkonen seems perfect. I hope he wins in the WRC and maybe he'll do the 24hr du Mans next (...ok that may requirre an extra dose of ice cream or two!)

Great news about Sauber too!...

(still on the road)


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Was BMW Scammed?

"The sale of the racing team will burst because the wealthy investor behind the buyer Qadbak not exist." Switzerland's SonnentagZeitung concludes after an investigation of BMW's sale of its racing team to the mysterious "Swiss Foundation".

Soon after the sale was announced by BMW there were questions raised about the involvement of one Russell King (the portly man in the photo), a shady figure convicted of fraud in the UK in the 1990's. There were denials from BMW that Mr.King was involved in the Quabak deal . Now, according to the Swiss paper's investigation, this is not in fact the case and it turns out Quabak, rather than a "Swiss-Based foundation promoting the investment interests of Middle Eastern and European families" is more like a shady network of shell companies that all somehow lead back to King.

What's more, the bank that was the guarantor for the sale, Bahrain Capital International apparently has a fancy London address which tuns out to be shared with a number of other businesses and not to even its own phone! BCI was supposed to have the backing of the Bahrain royal family but that a'int happening leaving just.... a scam.

What's the scam? Well, if you can convince the FIA to let you in and if Sauber can come in as an existing team, you would then have access to a sizable slice of the Formula 1 revenue stream, about 40 million Euros.

Question I have about this story: is it so easy to scam some world class sharks? Was this BMW or Peter Sauber who in an effort to save the team might have been a bit too optimistic? Ferrari really agreed to an engine supply over such questions? Someone in the Middle East must have vouched for these guys at some point or did this Mr. King pull the same scam as Raffaello Follieri trading Cardinal costumes for sheik ones?

(SonntagZeitung) (Motorsport-Total)





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BMW: 10 years in Formula 1

I'm curious to hear what you think of this video. I'll save my comments for the... comments section.





More BMW on Axis

Sauber Crime Solved!

"Sauber Crime" is how Swiss newspapers have been referring to BMW sudden and never properly explained dumping of it Formula 1 program and the 400 some employees in Hinwil.

Today Sauber announced it had found backing from Swiss based Qudbak Investments Ltd. and the sale contract signed by BMW.

It is now up to the other teams to agree to expand the field to 28 cars/14 teams. The last official entry was just announced, a new team Lotus with backing from the Malaysian government and Air Asia and run by ex-RedBull and Ferrari PR person Dany Bahar and with Mike Gascoyne .

No word yet as to the futures of Mario Theissen and Peter Sauber or the full details of the deal with BMW The deal is reported to be for around 80 million Euros, the cars would run Ferrari engines and transmissions (Ferrari must have called on some of its Middle Eastern friends, Qudbak represents M.E. and Swiss investors). Hilwil has a full scale wind tunnel which can probably be worth the buying price alone.

More on Sauber

Dr. Mario Theissen to leave BMW?

Interesting rumor, that BMW's head of Motorsport may leave the company at the end of the season. This would be well in advance of plans and might be plausible in light of the reported internal conflict which led up to the German manufacturer's decision to abandon its Formula 1 challenge.

The first clue was a vague article on an Italian web site which claimed Theissen has been canned by BMW. I could not find any corroboration of that anywhere but today at the a press conference in Valencia, some more indications of possible future beyond BMW emerged.

Theissen confirmed at a press conference he is working closely with Peter Sauber in finding a solution to ensure a future for the Swiss based team and hinted that his own future at BMW is uncertain.

"The first priority is to secure the future of the team in my current role with the team and then after the season we can see what will happen to me,"

Theissen, who previously had revealed he only found out about BMW's decision to leave F1 the day before it was announced, was asked if he was disillusioned with BMW: "You best ask me this question again a few months from now. It all depends on what we are able to pull off."

Theissen is in charge of all BMW's motorsport, beyond just F1 so this would be quite a development but kudos to him for sticking by the Sauber team to the end or, perhaps, a new beginning.

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Unable to Win, BMW quits F1

Is that's what it boils down to? The dominant faction within BMW felt that, having spent what the company has spent in past years, it should be entitled to more success so they are turning out the lights on their Formula 1 operation.

The announcement leaves more questions than answers. The company had, up until very recently, asserted its commitment to Formula 1 and the series, still the single most watched motorsport series on the planet, is on track to become a profit center for all teams by 2011 when the agreed to budget cap of $40 million will be below team's minimums revenue share from rights and venues.

So what's going on? An immediate need for cost cutting? A revolt against Mario Theissen, the head of BMW Motorsport who has been instrumental in BMW expanding from a Formula 1 engine supplier to a full fledged constructor team?

Was it a reaction to FOTA's decision to abandon K.E.R.S. which BMW had been the strongest proponent of before the start of the season and which fit the company's "Efficient Dynamics" marketing focus? Was BMW upset because it did not get rule changes that would advantage them?

The danger for BMW is that it could be seen as wanting to be the big fish in the small pond of ALMS and WTCC now that it failed to reach its goals in the world's top series. Costs in minor series are a fraction of those in F1 and it will be argued that sedan racing is more relevant to BMW's core business. BMW has had a tough go in ALMS and WTCC as well this past year and I'm sure the prospect of some of the ex- F1 money will be welcome news to those teams.

This all played perfectly into Max Mosley's hands, the FIA has already issued an "I told you so" memo while FOTA, which BMW seemed to be a reluctant member of, responded with vague promises of help and non sequitur utterances about fan participation in decision making. Just when we thought we were out...

We feel especially bad for the people in Hinwil, Sauber deserves better than to be dropped in the scrap heap from one day to the next. We hope they find a way back to the track soon. Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld's career's are now also up in the air.

Finally I'm not sure how hardcore BMW fans will react to the announcement that BMW is viewing its future in terms of "premium" rather than pure performance.

"...a resolute step in view of our company's strategic realignment. Premium will increasingly be defined in terms of sustainability and environmental compatibility. This is an area in which we want to remain in the lead. In line with our Strategy Number One, we are continually reviewing all projects and initiatives to check them for future viability and sustainability."

That was Norbert Reithofer Chairman of the Board of BMW. While performance can be "premium" and could certainly be measured in "green-ness", I'm sure many worry Strategy Number One will turn into Number Two for the "M" for motorsport brand.

Leave your comments.

And here is the rest of it.

Bmw-Sauber F1.09 Presentation

We should do a "caption this" contest for this picture of Nick Heidfeld looking over his 2009 ride at the Valencia circuit in Spain today.

Robert Kubica also looks a tad puzzled, perhaps he's wondering if the car was built to fit him or his two pocket sized team mates. BMW obviously spent big bucks for those two banners on the side of the family picture but, perhaps afraid to be labeled as big spenders, went for the no tie look for its directors.

The car has the same fat and flat nose as the Renault, not the prettiest but we'll see how it goes soon enough.

More pictures after the jump.

Hamilton loudly boo'd and Kubika-mania in Montreal

So reports Axis reader Max "the Hounder". Max set us a few shots and this report from the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve:

"Our seats were in the #1 grandstand across from the BMW pits, which was great. Little did we know that the race changing incident with Hamilton would be directly in our line of sight.

After the race the crowd rushed the track and after the podium ceremony, a very large contigentcy of Poles, BMW fans, and Poles who are BMW fans gathered across from the BMW garage stalls shouting "Robert (handclap- wait for it) Kubica", singing the Polish national anthem and even shouting for Dr. Mario Thiesen, shouts for Nick Heidfeld were noticeably absent.

I expected the BMW mechanics would have been shooing them away, but instead they encouraged the fans to shout louder, and after about 45 minutes, they started bringing out bottles of water to these overserved but still thirsty fans.

At the hour mark mechanics threw a hat and some work gloves off to the fans, continuing to stoke the fire.

After about 1 and a quarter hours, Robert came out with his trophy, followed by Nick and Mario. They stayed out for about twenty minutes taking pictures, with the mechanics sharing beers and bottles of champagne.

All in all it was a pretty good race, but it was amazing how fast the crowd turned on LewHam after he hit Kimi. There was a long and loud round of boos coming from the crowd as Lewis walked back from the incident to the McLaren garage."

Thanks Max the Hounder!

Firsts in Montreal.

Forget Hamilton's sideshow, we had a historic series of firsts at this Sunday's Canadian GP:

First win by Robert Kubica.

First win by a Polish driver.

First win by BMW as a manufacturer.

First win for Sauber.

First GP win for a Swiss team.

First Polish driver to lead WDC.

did I miss any?

Oh yes,

First time Coulthard does not hit anything!