Ferrari poached internet forum?

This is more for fun than anything else...but it is, after all, that three week break between having actual news to talk about.

Anyway, when Autosprint came out with drawings for Ferrari's latest front end "innovation" there was a minor rumbling from Maranello who immediately sent out a circular to it's world wide chain of Kinko copy stores looking for clues.

Poking around he internet we were amused to find this thread posted last year on F1Technical.net... did Ferrari knick the idea from the internet?

Nose Cone Idea by "manchild", it goes on for 31 pages if you have the stomach!

Mystery Gas

So racers everywhere following the F1 spy scandal have been wondering what the special gas Ferrari used to inflate their Bridgestone might be, certainly Fernando Alonso was curious about it... Well, now that the .pdf of the hearings, complete with blacked out sections that can be easily cut and pasted, has turned up on the internet, I guess the gas has escaped....it's CO2.

Now the questions for you clever ones out there, what property would make CO2 a better choice than nitrogen for inflating race tires? I know they make CO2 inflaters for bicycles but I believe that is strictly for practical reasons....


The Axis STFU3000 has so far come up short on this question, no satisfactory answer was arrived at....surprising since the STFU3000 is almost always infallible!


UPDATE: a few motorsport sites have caught up to the FIA's .pdf OOPS though word of this was was out almost immediately after the document's release. I found the blacked out portions to be rather underwhelming, the brake systems on both cars try to achieve the same trick of delaying the application of the rear brakes compared to the front. The blacked out parts just reveal the method of control of these similar systems, Ferrari mechanical and Mclaren hydraulic, hardly detailed drawings of the devices.
One has to admit it's quite a clever system to avoid rear brake lock up and stabilize the car at maximum braking while still allowing for trailbraking in the turn in phase of the corner. Less risk of rear brake lockup would also allow the teams to run less rear wing in some situations.

• F1-Live
• Racingworld

Since the Axis STFU3000 has burned out a couple of tubes trying to figure out the question about CO2 in the tires, won't any of you readers offer a theory?

Nigel Stepney hired by Aston Martin???

File under "things that make you go hmm": Nigel Stepney apparently hired as a consultant to Aston Martin.

Aston->Prodrive->Mercedes->Mclaren.... hmmm indeed!

Seems outrageous, expect a disclaimer soon.

In a related item, the newly released transcripts from the FIA hearings on the Mclaren scandal make for some illuminating reading.

July 26th
September 13th

McLaren Scandal explained in Lego characters

Sometime it's better to laugh... from AS.com


if you have a problem with the animation above try here

The Hammer Falls.

You all know the deal by now, $100 million fine and McLaren erased from the 2007 World Championship.

Without knowing the substance of the evidence the only comment that can be made as fans is to accept the compromise of not taking Alonso and Hamilton's points away. Their championship season will always be followed by an asterisk and will be argued that drivers should not be allowed to to keep points won with cars deemed illegal. With this compromise, but at least we'll have racing this week end. The FIA took care it's own interests and the huge commercial interests tied to the remaning races and the future perception of Formula 1.

All and all though, a dark day for fans.

PS: Interesting comments about the financial impact of the fine in this Q&A with Dennis and Whitmarsh on Autosport.com


UPDATE: Read the FIA's findings on the case

Six race penalty for McLaren?

This is completely unconfirmed but the first indiscretions from Paris speak of a possible 6 race suspension for the Woking team. The penalty might start already this week end at Spa and continue though the first two races of 2008!

If true, this is terrible news for the sport.

Sloppy journalism.

This is what happens when people don't think and/or choose to be sloppy about their reporting. The big pre-Italian GP hoopla was based partly around the widely publicized revelations of not just the existence but the content of an email exchange between Alonso and De la Rosa.

Now it turns out the content of those emails was "speculation" by Gazzetta dello Sport writer Pino Allievi. I have searched for the article on the online edition but I cannot find the original text but in an interview with the AP, Allievi claims "I made a free interpretation of what might have been said in the e-mail."

Whether the UK press who, perhaps self-servingly, picked up the story misunderstood the tone of the article or not, Signor Allievi should have known better than to toss an unsubstantiated fiction bomb into a highly flammable situation "..in order to make the article more credible". Oh the irony, poof goes the Gazzetta's credibility.

Of course certain media outlets had a field day blaming Alonso for being a "rat" along with his buddy Pedro.....the two Spanish meanies keeping data away from poor Lewis Hamilton... One even pointed to the absence of these imaginary emails from Hamilton's computer as proof of this plot...

Pffffft.

(Pino Allievi is next to Jean Alesi in the above photo. No, not the one with the skirt.)

Mclaren's screwed

As we hinted yesterday, the source of the latest "evidence" in the Mclaren-Ferrari spy case has is now widely speculated to involve Fernando Alonso. The issue involves an email exchange between Alonso and Pedro De la Rosa regarding Ferrari tire setup and performance. Question is, how did the FIA even know about these emails?...





This article, (in Italian) broke the story and claims that the FIA threatened to pull Alonso and De la Rosa's superlicences if they did not fully cooperate. Faced with that prospect Alonso apparently decided to simply tell the truth and revealed the existence of the emails in exchange for immunity.

the rumor is picked up b UK sites. Naturally, all involved deny everything with Alonso especially denying the immunity clause.

Now imagine the back room politics regarding the driver's market with Alonso and perhaps Hamilton potentially becoming free agents next year (if Mclaren is disqualified). Maybe Prodrive's role as the rumored Mclaren "B" team will become extremely important...and Briatore?

Oh yeah,.... there is also a GP going on this week end. How about a nice lap with Mr. Formula Juan, Pablo Montoya accompanied by the mellifluous sound of Québécois commentary? Enjoy the V10 sound.