Wednesday, October 25, 2006

F1: 2006 Interlagos Finale

I’ve just finished watching SPEED’S coverage of the penultimate round of the 2006 Formula One season held in San Paulo, Brazil. As always I found the insights of SPEED’S “4 Musketeer’s” enlightening…

BMW-Sauber confirmed it’s 2007 Driver line-up, which doesn’t seem too surprising as the team’s current trio will stay intact. Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica will remain race drivers, while 19 year old German sensation Sebastian Vettel will return as test driver…

Williams has begun testing a Toyota powered hybrid chassis with mixed results. Apparently the engine is reliable, but the chassis is slow. Williams has also announced that AT & T will become the team’s new title sponsor for 2007…

Renault chose to play it ultra-conservative with Fernando Alonso’s engine choice for the season finale. Renault decided to preclude Alonso from any on-track participation Friday in order to keep mileage to a minimum. Renault also decided to replace Alonso’s primary “E” spec engine with the spare cars “D” spec “lump.” Renault elected for Giancarlo Fisichella to utilize their latest specification “lump” (The E-spec) while Alonso ran the older-spec engine with proven reliability to maximize Renault’s championship efforts…

Frank Montagny has been confirmed as test driver for Toyota in 2007…

Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button sported special “one-off” helmet designs for the weekend prior to being auctioned off for charity…

Jenson Button suffered a rear tire sensor failure during the Q-2 qualifying session. This caused “Jense” to lose his use of traction control. While Jenson falterd to 14th place, “Rubinoe” wound up with an 8th place grid spot upon making the final Q3 qualifying period…

Felipe Massa’s Ferrari was clocked at 189mph through the speed trap during qualifying…

Upon hearing that Michael Schumacher stated that Mika Hakkinen was his fiercest rival, Mika flew over to Brazil to witness Michael’s final race. It was nice to hear Mika’s voice again as SPEED’S Peter Winsor interviewed the Finn during the start of Saturday’s qualifying…

Audi has offered Michael Schumacher $12.5 million to drive either its sportscar or DTM challenger next season. Could we see Michael vs. Mika again?

Michael Schumacher suffered a broken fuel pump shaft at the beginning of Q3, netting NO time during the final qualifying session. The failure relegated Michael to a tenth place starting grid position for his final Grand Prix….

Massa wore a unique “home flag colours” driver’s suit while clinching pole position and his 2nd race victory. Massa becomes the first native driver to win the Brazilian Grand Prix since Ayrton Senna’s 1993 victory…