Official F1/Motorsport thread

[Richard.John]

Career suicide though in my opinion if FA goes to Honda. They can promise him the world but I doubt if they can deliver. Alonso as ever is key to the drive re-shuffle.

[Roddie]

Yeah and he already turned down BMW so I really don't see him going to Honda. I only mentioned it in my post because Brawn talking about it means they're not definitely set to keep both their current drivers.

Also, a good point di Grassi made: if Alonso were to move somewhere else next year (fingers crossed for some sort of miracle letting him go to Ferrari), would Renault then risk 2 rookie drivers? They'd either keep Piquet (heaven forbid...) and run him alongside one of the test drivers from the GP2 series or just ditch Piquet and pair up both di Grassi and Grosjean?

[Bort]

AUSTRALIAN MOTOGP
Date: Sunday 5 October
Coverage:

125cc & 250cc races 0245-0515 BST, BBC Red Button and BBC Sport website

Race live: 0545-0700, BBC ONE and BBC Sport website
Race repeat: 1605-1710, BBC ONE and BBC Sport website

[Roddie]

Anyone watch the MotoGP qualifying? Rossi crashed with 13 minutes to go so he's starting from 12th on the grid and Toseland's looking good in 5th.

[TheForce]

again a good MotoGP race, Toseland did an great race, giving Rossi quite a hard time for a few laps, too bad Hayden couldn't keep up with Stoner for a fight for the victory, byt still it's an amazing Podium, the world champs of 2006, 2007 and 2008 on the podium !

[Richard.John]

Went to the Motorsports Japan 2008 festival today in Tokyo. A marketing extravaganza for Toyota and Honda in the run up to the race next weekend basically but it aims to show the best that Japan has to offer to the world. Yuji Ide turned up and was marshalling kiddies kart races. The fall from F1 is steep it seems.

Both Toyota and Honda had their F1 cars on show with little known drivers, Jenson Button and Timo Glock on hand to cook lots of Potenzas whilst wooing the crowd with smoke filled doughnuts. Great stuff and the sound of an F1 car, even at idle, is mesmerising.

That brings me to a question! Does anyone know what kind of rpm they idle at?

And a quote I read from Bernie made me laugh. On the subject of di Montezemolo's views about Singapore.

"If the Ferrari president is right about the Singapore Grand Prix being a circus then we have to be grateful to him for providing the clowns."

Classic.

[Alastair]

That brings me to a question! Does anyone know what kind of rpm they idle at?

And a quote I read from Bernie made me laugh. On the subject of di Montezemolo's views about Singapore.

"If the Ferrari president is right about the Singapore Grand Prix being a circus then we have to be grateful to him for providing the clowns."

Classic.

A quick google suggests that they are anywhere between 2500 and 8000 but the only halfway official seems to be BMW who suggest 4000rpm.

That event sounds good, where did they hold it? At a track or in a centre?

[Richard.John]

Yes, Google is our friend. The event was great. It was held outdoors in Odaiba, Tokyo. Toyota were amazing actually, very friendly. Allowing fans to have photos taken by the car. Kids could even sit in the car. Lost on them of course, but most never even get the chance to approach a live F1 car, let alone sit in one.

[Alastair]

I sat in a Footworks real F1 car when I was about 12. I think that's where the whole car obsession began.

[Roddie]

That's so weird you mention that; I was just looking up the Footworks page on Wikipedia because I don't remember them at all.

[Richard.John]

Footwork Arrows. I think I have actually seen a van/lorry here decked out in the famous red and white colour scheme.

[Alastair]

It was this schemed one that I sat in:



Ahhh, memories!

[Richard.John]

My guess from looking at it it must be from '95 or so? Middle 90s anyway.

EDIT: no driver head protection must mean no later than '95! Slender rear slicks equal post '92. I know I can check on Google but...I am such a geek.

[Alastair]

You're bang on, it was '94 that I was in it so I would have been 14 or 15, not 12!

[Richard.John]

Just noticed the fuel port, another clue. Sad, I know, but I used to be able to tell a circuit from a single pic, just by recognising the colour of the rumble strips or other circuit features. Amazed my wife at the time.