Max Verstappen caption contest

Max Verstappen will debut this friday in the first free practice for the Japanese GP in a Toro Rosso.

Today is his 17th birthday.

Do your best/worst

Poisoned letter for Red Bull.

Here's a new one for F1, anonymous letters!

There is a bit of mystery this morning about reposts of an anonymous letter mailed from Switzerland to the FIA, Mercedes, Ferrari and Sauber alleging Red Bull and Renault conducted illegal tests.

The letter, according to Germany's AutoBild and MotorsportTotal, alleges that "a Red Bull Team" conducted six days of testing on a rolling road dyno at the AVL facilities in Graz, Austria between the last pre season test in Bahrain and the Australian GP.   AVL is an independent engine development, simulation and testing facility.

As you remember Red Bull and Renault had disastrous results in pre season testing yet were competitive enough for Daniel Ricciardo to come in second (on track anyway).  

The crux of the issue  is that you can't really test an engine on a rolling road in anything but a 1:1 car and that for F1 cars to work they need to have air blowing through them.     Blowing air over a 1:1 F1 car is restricted.

We can confirm a Toro Rosso was indeed tested but it had no front or rear wings and no air was blown over it.   The rules do allow for testing for the purposes of developing cooling components with the caveat that absolutely no direct or indirect measurements be taken for anything relating to aero load.

The car was tested with hoses attached directly to the the engine air inlets,  something which is specifically allowed (F1 Sporting Regulations appendix 8, 1.2 )

"...The only allowable exceptions from this definition are as follows : 
a) Wind tunnel testing which aims to develop components associated with cooling, or the running of the engine from a boundary commencing at the engine air intake duct, passing through the engine and finishing at the exit of the exhaust tailpipes, provided that there is no direct or indirect measurement of aerodynamic force during the test. In this context, pressure and flow measurements within a duct shall not be considered to be measurements of aerodynamic force. ..."

So if this is not anything illegal, the more interesting question is, who and why would someone mail this letter (or invent that such a letter was sent)?

Speaking of bull, is this what got Alguersauri canned?

From a Sant'Agata bull to an entirely different type of Bull.

I'm sure there was more than one reason why Red Bull decided to can Jaime Aguersauri from Scuderia Toro Rosso and replace him, along with Sebastian Buemi, with Daniel Ricciardo and Jean Eric Vergne but some are saying this episode was the final straw.

Red Bull is brilliant at marketing itself as the alternative, care free and rebellious upstart but reality may not exactly reflect the sunny image. At some point during free practice for the Korean GP, Jaime Alguersauri held up top Bull Sebastian Vettel for a lap or so. Mind you, this was not during the race or even qualifying, it was practice. At that point Vettel had already sealed his drivers championship but Red Bull had yet to mathematically win the constructor's trophy.

Vettel shows his displeasure on the track but that's nothing compared to the dressing down Alguersauri receives at the hands of Red Bull general Helmut Marko. Marko ends the tirade with a dry "we don't accept this" and the faces of others in the garage left little doubt as to what happens if you get in Vettel, Marko or Red Bull's way.



.

Formula 1 in hyper slow motion

F1 cars are so fast there is almost no chance to see how they actually move. Check out a great video provided by Toro Rosso: it's raw footage with no sound but recommend going full screen and enabling 1080P mode.

You can see slip angle, wheel spin, every drop of water kicked up off the Misano track by those Pirelli intermediates clawing for traction....even a lucky butterfly that somehow survived getting run over. Awesome, check out a second clip after the jump.


(ToroRosso via Next-Gen Auto)




Bonus video, a tour of the Toro Rosso factory in Faenza, Italy. Faenza is just south of Bologna, in Emilia Romagna, the land of Ferrari, Lamborghini, Ducati and of course Minardi, which is what Toro Rosso used to be.

More on Buemi's crash.

Some isolated shots and more super slow motion video of the incredible Toro Rosso double suspension failure. The right side upright failed but the force was immediately transferred to the other side of the suspension, the stills are one frame apart so within 1/30th of a second and you can clearly see both sides have collapsed.

Not sure why this incredible transfer of energy would occur, that will be up to those more familiar with the specific suspension design. I would venture to say though is that a design which allows this to happen cannot be deemed safe.

Another thing you might notice is in the very last onboard replay. You can hear the car was scraping and skipping on the pavement well before the failure occurred, listen for the sound.

Again, the failure of the tethering is most troubling (remember what happened to Henry Surtees). In one of these replays you can clearly see the cameramen likely ducked for his life as the right side wheel slams into the camera position.












end of post

Insane Suspension Failure

This was Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi just a few laps into the first practice session in Shanghai.
I can't recall ever seeing anything like this. Maybe Kimi Raikkonen's suspension failure with Mclaren, but that was just one side and after running many laps with a square wheel. This was just incredible, Buemi is very lucky.

Another thing to add is...what happened to the wheel tethers? the right wheel looks like it end up nailing one of the the cameras.

Toto Rosso says it's the upright that failed. From the video it looks like it was the carbon fiber arms that failed and the failure of two "aluminum" upright/hubs at the same time seems impossible. Readers need to help me out here, I remember F1 teams were running or at least experimenting with a front axle system that distributed braking torque between the wheels. Might that explain why both sides failed simultaneously?





end of post

2010 Formula 1 Testing Starts.

Mercedes shows their new car (bad livery, interesting front end solutions) along with Toro Rosso and the 2010 testing season starts. Massa ended up with the fastest time but Schumacher shows he has lost nothing and is already faster than Rosberg. Score one for grandpa. Nice to see Sauber-Ferrari looking racy.

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time      Laps
 1.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:12.574  102              
 2.  de la Rosa    BMW Sauber-Ferrari   (B)  1:12.784   74                
 3.  M.Schumacher  Mercedes GP          (B)  1:12.947   40                
 4.  Rosberg       Mercedes GP          (B)  1:13.543   39                
 5.  Paffett       McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:13.846   86                
 6.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:14.449   75                
 7.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:14.762   18                
 8.  Kubica        Renault              (B)  1:15.000   69                 

All Timing Completely Irrelevant to Actual Race Pace

end of post

Red Bull RB5 vs Toro Rosso STR4

Different cars by different designers? Really?

In our comments, Andre added this composite...

Home

Brawn GP first video

and the Toro Rosso STR4 testing in Barcellona from March 6th.
Brawn GP, Toro Rosso, Toyota, Renault, Ferrari, Mclaren





Home

Forza Minardi!

It didn't take a genius but we nailed it today when we said that the top guys were going to have a tough day and there would be a surprise on pole.

What Formula 1 fan is not delighted to have  Minardi, I mean Toro Rosso, on pole today? 

Monza is the perfect place, most of the team is Italian, the engine is Italian and Sebastian Vettel always thanks his team in their language first, endearing him to a whole country.  He may be the youngest driver in F1 but he is certainly one of the smartest.

He said, after qualifying, that he concentrated on steady quick laps rather than shooting for one fast lap.  That way he did not risk tripping over his balls like some did.   In a recent interview with Autosprint, Ross Brawn said good strategy is no secret,  you just drive the condition you face not the ones you think you will have to.   For some reason known only to himself Hamilton thought he could drive in driving rain on intermediate wets,  he tripped on that one.

Honestly I was surprised because Hamilton looked fantastic on track,  he attacked the curbs like no other.  In fact if you drop all partisan consideration you will have to agree that all drivers earned their pay today.

Tomorrow will be a hell of a race.

A high light video for you.  before you complain about the music, the song fits perfectly and there nat.sound sucked so...  address all complaints to fearlessfreep@stfu.com!

Forza Minardi! from Axis Video on Vimeo.

And here is the rest of it.

Running of the... Red Bulls.

Ever the PR masters, Red Bull had their own San Firmin festival in Pamplona Saturday. While a future endorsement tie with the movie "Death Race 2000" is not out of the question, for this event drivers David Coulthard and Sebastian Bourdais were explicitly told NOT to gore any of the hired help...

more pictures and video after the jump.












Pictures: EFE/Josu Santesteban