Red Bull Racing unveiled the team’s 2007 challenger at the Circuit de Catalunya last week. The RB3 is the first totally new Adrian Newey design for the team, which he’s focused on since last summer…
Mark Webber gave the RB3 its initial shakedown test while Formula 1’s new senior driver “DC” (David Coulthard) was also on hand for the unveiling...
Now opposing Formula 1 Constructors will be watching for the junior teams (Scuderia Toro Rosso) launch in regards to chassis cloning…
To read about Honda Racing's 2007 Launch, see: Honda RA107
Monday, January 29, 2007
Honda RA107
Honda unveiled its newest creation, the RA107 at Barcelona last week. And to keep the suspense going Honda unveiled the chassis in their winter’s testing scheme of black with a separate February launch to unveil the teams new racing colors…
Rubeins Barrichello gave the RA107 its initial shakedown test while Jenson “Crash” Button was on hand and seems to have healed from his cracked ribs…
To read about Renault's 2007 Launch, see: Renault R27
Rubeins Barrichello gave the RA107 its initial shakedown test while Jenson “Crash” Button was on hand and seems to have healed from his cracked ribs…
To read about Renault's 2007 Launch, see: Renault R27
Renault R27
Last week saw the second installment of new F1 car launches with Renault leading the triumbrent of Constructors showing off their new race cars…
Renault launched its R27 in Amsterdam in deference to its new title sponsor AIG who replaces Mild Seven. The 2007 “Reggie” sports a striking new colour scheme along with new racing driver Heikki Kovalanen…
To read about BMW-Sauber's 2007 Launch, see: BMW Sauber F1.07
Renault launched its R27 in Amsterdam in deference to its new title sponsor AIG who replaces Mild Seven. The 2007 “Reggie” sports a striking new colour scheme along with new racing driver Heikki Kovalanen…
To read about BMW-Sauber's 2007 Launch, see: BMW Sauber F1.07
Little Al’s All Night Bender
For some reason the Unser’s seem to be continually stirring up negative publicity for the famous racing family of Albuquerque , New Mexico…
First Al Unser Sr. and bobby Unser were arrested outside their property during a police roadblock set up during a SWAT team stand off…
Now “Little Al” (Al Unser Jr.) Has been arrested in his hometown of Henderson, Nevada on charges of DUI after sideswiping a Mazda sedan in his Ford Excursion “$UV” on his way home from the Black Mountain Night Club in the early morning hours of last Thursday…
Unser Jr. hit the vehicle on the Las Vegas Beltway and proceeded to continue driving home without stopping before being arrested by Nevada police…
First Al Unser Sr. and bobby Unser were arrested outside their property during a police roadblock set up during a SWAT team stand off…
Now “Little Al” (Al Unser Jr.) Has been arrested in his hometown of Henderson, Nevada on charges of DUI after sideswiping a Mazda sedan in his Ford Excursion “$UV” on his way home from the Black Mountain Night Club in the early morning hours of last Thursday…
Unser Jr. hit the vehicle on the Las Vegas Beltway and proceeded to continue driving home without stopping before being arrested by Nevada police…
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Forsythe’s Red Wings
Perhaps as a parting gift or smoothing the way for AJ Almendinger’s DEFECTION to “RASSCAR,” Red Bull will sponsor Gerry Forsythe’s Champ Cars Atlantic team in 2007…
The news came prior to Forsythe’s vote of no confidence towards Champ Cars by publicly stating that his team will only campaign a single car in 2007 unless he finds a driver bringing sponsorship of $5 million along with him…
Since the Champ Car season finale, Forsythe has reduced his payroll by keeping only a skeleton staff intact over the winter. And even though Red Bull will partner with Forsythe in Atlantics, Forsythe has reduced his entry from four cars to only two for the upcoming season…
As Robin Miller recently stated; what bad timing for Champ Cars… There doesn’t get any bigger backer of the series then Gerry Forsythe who’s thrown millions of his own towards Champ Cars since starting in 1983…
Yet Forsythe has been unable to find a legitimate sponsor for the past three years since Players was forced out when the Tobacco sponsorship ban was enacted. The only money Forsythe found was from Corona beer to sponsor Rodolfo Lavin for a single season…
So is it just the typical “scare tactics” prattle of an owner trying to “stop the bleeding?” Forsythe as all team owners is keen to spend somebody else’s money instead of watching his fortune slip away…
Or could Forsythe simply be trying to stir up some much needed off season controversy to keep Champ Cars in the media spotlight…
And speaking of fortunes… Formula 1’s Red Bull Racing’s current test driver Robert Doornbos is rumoured to be flush with cash, as in $5-10 million from a Dutch sponsor. What better way to promote the expected 2007 inaugural Netherlands Champ Car race, which is expected to be announced shortly…
The news came prior to Forsythe’s vote of no confidence towards Champ Cars by publicly stating that his team will only campaign a single car in 2007 unless he finds a driver bringing sponsorship of $5 million along with him…
Since the Champ Car season finale, Forsythe has reduced his payroll by keeping only a skeleton staff intact over the winter. And even though Red Bull will partner with Forsythe in Atlantics, Forsythe has reduced his entry from four cars to only two for the upcoming season…
As Robin Miller recently stated; what bad timing for Champ Cars… There doesn’t get any bigger backer of the series then Gerry Forsythe who’s thrown millions of his own towards Champ Cars since starting in 1983…
Yet Forsythe has been unable to find a legitimate sponsor for the past three years since Players was forced out when the Tobacco sponsorship ban was enacted. The only money Forsythe found was from Corona beer to sponsor Rodolfo Lavin for a single season…
So is it just the typical “scare tactics” prattle of an owner trying to “stop the bleeding?” Forsythe as all team owners is keen to spend somebody else’s money instead of watching his fortune slip away…
Or could Forsythe simply be trying to stir up some much needed off season controversy to keep Champ Cars in the media spotlight…
And speaking of fortunes… Formula 1’s Red Bull Racing’s current test driver Robert Doornbos is rumoured to be flush with cash, as in $5-10 million from a Dutch sponsor. What better way to promote the expected 2007 inaugural Netherlands Champ Car race, which is expected to be announced shortly…
F1 Cloning Controversy Continues
As previously noted the Formula 1 Team Bosses met in Monaco late last year to discuss the still smoldering issue of teams planning to use “cloned” copies of their big brother’s racing cars…
The team with the most to loose is naturally Spyker, whom as one of or perhaps the only privateer team left is currently forced to produce its own chassis since it doesn’t have any links to manufacturer’s or rich team owners…
After the meeting Spyker asked all of the Constructors to sign a letter of intent to uphold the current Concorde agreement which doesn’t expire until the end of the 2007 season. This in turn decrees that each Constructor will produce its own chassis that isn’t a watered down version of another team’s leftover rolling stock which both Scuderia Toro Rosso and Super Aguri plan to campaign in 2007…
Both teams have arrived at different methods to utilize
Existing variants of their major supporters while using different loopholes to circumvent the Concorde agreement. While super Aguri has gone to the trouble of setting up a third party design firm Toro Rosso seems intent on denying any wrong doing…
Interestingly Mario Theissen has recently spoken out against the subject of chassis “Platform engineering” in F1. Theissen makes a valid point towards this rule change leading towards the possibility of an all manufacturer’s championship. In the future Formula 1 could end up with just the current six manufacturer’s each campaigning squads of 4 “cloned” chassis and the death of true independent “Privateers.” Will we see “B” Teams blocking for their corporate backer’s designated numero uno driver?
Although it has long been a time honored tradition for Auto manufacturer’s to simply buy Formula 1 teams and rebrand them instead of creating a team from scratch, is this just the next evolutional step of Formula 1?
Meanwhile adding “Fuel to the Fire,” was Anthony Davidson who posted the fasted day’s time in testing at Valencia last week…
Yes, I had to do a double take as all of the headlines shouted Super Aguri FASTEST… When has a “Super Best Friends” ever lead anything except the race for the final row on the grid? And yet “ANT” posted a time ahead of the two brand new Renault R27’s…
The team with the most to loose is naturally Spyker, whom as one of or perhaps the only privateer team left is currently forced to produce its own chassis since it doesn’t have any links to manufacturer’s or rich team owners…
After the meeting Spyker asked all of the Constructors to sign a letter of intent to uphold the current Concorde agreement which doesn’t expire until the end of the 2007 season. This in turn decrees that each Constructor will produce its own chassis that isn’t a watered down version of another team’s leftover rolling stock which both Scuderia Toro Rosso and Super Aguri plan to campaign in 2007…
Both teams have arrived at different methods to utilize
Existing variants of their major supporters while using different loopholes to circumvent the Concorde agreement. While super Aguri has gone to the trouble of setting up a third party design firm Toro Rosso seems intent on denying any wrong doing…
Interestingly Mario Theissen has recently spoken out against the subject of chassis “Platform engineering” in F1. Theissen makes a valid point towards this rule change leading towards the possibility of an all manufacturer’s championship. In the future Formula 1 could end up with just the current six manufacturer’s each campaigning squads of 4 “cloned” chassis and the death of true independent “Privateers.” Will we see “B” Teams blocking for their corporate backer’s designated numero uno driver?
Although it has long been a time honored tradition for Auto manufacturer’s to simply buy Formula 1 teams and rebrand them instead of creating a team from scratch, is this just the next evolutional step of Formula 1?
Meanwhile adding “Fuel to the Fire,” was Anthony Davidson who posted the fasted day’s time in testing at Valencia last week…
Yes, I had to do a double take as all of the headlines shouted Super Aguri FASTEST… When has a “Super Best Friends” ever lead anything except the race for the final row on the grid? And yet “ANT” posted a time ahead of the two brand new Renault R27’s…
Monday, January 22, 2007
2006 Champ Car Review (Part 3)
Mi-Jack:
(Ranger: 10th; Zwolsman: 13th)
Mi-Jack/Conquest soldiered on through another mostly mundane season. The team did however win the Benjamin Says Your Sponsors Name sweepstakes…
As apparently WALLMART du Canada must have given him a years free shopping? Mr. Benjamin would call out the #27 WALLMART/Tide entry of Andrew Ranger during every broadcast, on average 7 times per event…
Rookie Charles Zwolsman meanwhile had a fairly quiet year with occasional flashes of brilliance. Yet as the state of Champ Cars remains dollar orientated, I suspect Zwolsman’s ride will most likely go to another newcomer…
PKV:
(Servia: 11th; Legge: 16th)
Can it really already be a year since perennial Champ Car star Jimmy Vasser made his final race in Open Wheels at Long Beach…?
And yet the team’s chemistry continues to shift every season. This year saw Junqueira’s stand-in the previous year at Newman/Haas, Oriol Servia signed to a full year ride as team leader at PKV. Servia had mixed results along with dubiously writing “OFF” two $440k Lola chassis during the Portland weekend…
Meanwhile Champ Car Female Rookie Katherine Legge had a fairly adventurous season… Legge had multiple run-ins with fellow rookie competitors, but also led several laps on the Milwaukee oval. (Which appears to be Champ Cars final oval track race for the foreseeable future…?)
Legge made the most miraculous recovery when her rear wing disintegrated at somewhere between 160-180mph at Road America. This horrific looking accident saw Legge’s car barrel rolling down the track. The rear half of the Lola chassis broke away and passed her. Yet Legge not only escaped uninjured, she walked out of the medical center before the end of the race, smiled and waived to the crowd…
After winning Portland in 2005 with Cristiano da Matta, the team seemed to be off stride the entire season. It will be interesting to see how the team performs this year as another change of team chemistry is expected…
Dale Coyne:
(Heylen: 14th)
Wouldn’t it be nice to see this ever struggling team claim its very first victory? If effort counted the perpetually under funded “little team that could” would have scored multiple victories by now…
The team started the season with Cristiano da Matta and Rookie Jan “Van Haggar” Heylen. Da Matta then jumped ship in a 3-way driver swap which saw fired Forsythe driver Mario Dominguez as his replacement, while Da Matta went to RuSPORT…
Dominguez actually put in some good drives for the ever trying race team. I believe Dominguez was enroute to Coyne’s first podium when Servia dive bombed Dominguez on the final lap taking both drivers out…
“Van Haggar” soldiered on through countless bouts of banging wheels with Legge along with having a few new teammates. Uruguay’s Juan Caceres did a “one-off” before Forsythe Atlantics star Andreas Wirth contested the final two rounds in his maiden Champ Car season. Coyne has always been willing to give any aspiring driver a chance. Of course cash doesn’t hurt either…
And now the teams should be well on their way towards Sebring for the first Champ Car test of 2007. “Let’s get ready to Rumble…”
(Ranger: 10th; Zwolsman: 13th)
Mi-Jack/Conquest soldiered on through another mostly mundane season. The team did however win the Benjamin Says Your Sponsors Name sweepstakes…
As apparently WALLMART du Canada must have given him a years free shopping? Mr. Benjamin would call out the #27 WALLMART/Tide entry of Andrew Ranger during every broadcast, on average 7 times per event…
Rookie Charles Zwolsman meanwhile had a fairly quiet year with occasional flashes of brilliance. Yet as the state of Champ Cars remains dollar orientated, I suspect Zwolsman’s ride will most likely go to another newcomer…
PKV:
(Servia: 11th; Legge: 16th)
Can it really already be a year since perennial Champ Car star Jimmy Vasser made his final race in Open Wheels at Long Beach…?
And yet the team’s chemistry continues to shift every season. This year saw Junqueira’s stand-in the previous year at Newman/Haas, Oriol Servia signed to a full year ride as team leader at PKV. Servia had mixed results along with dubiously writing “OFF” two $440k Lola chassis during the Portland weekend…
Meanwhile Champ Car Female Rookie Katherine Legge had a fairly adventurous season… Legge had multiple run-ins with fellow rookie competitors, but also led several laps on the Milwaukee oval. (Which appears to be Champ Cars final oval track race for the foreseeable future…?)
Legge made the most miraculous recovery when her rear wing disintegrated at somewhere between 160-180mph at Road America. This horrific looking accident saw Legge’s car barrel rolling down the track. The rear half of the Lola chassis broke away and passed her. Yet Legge not only escaped uninjured, she walked out of the medical center before the end of the race, smiled and waived to the crowd…
After winning Portland in 2005 with Cristiano da Matta, the team seemed to be off stride the entire season. It will be interesting to see how the team performs this year as another change of team chemistry is expected…
Dale Coyne:
(Heylen: 14th)
Wouldn’t it be nice to see this ever struggling team claim its very first victory? If effort counted the perpetually under funded “little team that could” would have scored multiple victories by now…
The team started the season with Cristiano da Matta and Rookie Jan “Van Haggar” Heylen. Da Matta then jumped ship in a 3-way driver swap which saw fired Forsythe driver Mario Dominguez as his replacement, while Da Matta went to RuSPORT…
Dominguez actually put in some good drives for the ever trying race team. I believe Dominguez was enroute to Coyne’s first podium when Servia dive bombed Dominguez on the final lap taking both drivers out…
“Van Haggar” soldiered on through countless bouts of banging wheels with Legge along with having a few new teammates. Uruguay’s Juan Caceres did a “one-off” before Forsythe Atlantics star Andreas Wirth contested the final two rounds in his maiden Champ Car season. Coyne has always been willing to give any aspiring driver a chance. Of course cash doesn’t hurt either…
And now the teams should be well on their way towards Sebring for the first Champ Car test of 2007. “Let’s get ready to Rumble…”
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