Plucking strings

Interestingly I ran across an article about the new way of doing business in the Pit lane, with a String Quartet being hired to Perform during a Formula Nippon event held at Mount Fuji earlier this season.

Funny thing, I didn’t notice this quartet serenading any of the F1 circus during their recent visit to Mount Fuji…

And why all the “hub-bub” about Honda and Japanese F1 drivers? Well I’ll let you try and guess where I’m off to spend another Holiday…

while having my capable blogmeister fill in for me.

(You may wish to also check out his site: Sporty Blog)

Japan and Formula 1 (Part 2)

Following Nakajima’s lead, several more Japanese drivers competed in F1, beginning in the late 1980’s thru the  next two decades and beyond, with Aguri Suzuki becoming the second full time Formula 1 driver in 1988.

Ironically, I had the pleasure of witnessing Aguri-san (Aguri Suzuki) walking into the paddock at Phoenix in 1989. Suzuki was accompanying some “dude” named “A-Ayrton” (Senna) and was totally ignored by the fans present. Little did I know that Suzuki was to become the first Japanese driver to ever stand upon the podium one year later in Suzuka.

While Nakajima soldiered on with the fleeting Lotus team before finishing his career with a two year stint at Tyrrell, Suzuki spent the majority of his F1 career with the “Privateer” Larrousse outfit, followed by stints at Zakspeed, Ligier, Footwork and Jordan before retiring in 1995.

Japanese driver involvement in Formula 1 reached it’s zenith in 1994 with four drivers contesting the championship. Newcomers Ukyo Katayama, Taki Inoue and Hideki Noda joined Suzuki on the grid.

Katayama had actually joined the F1 circus as Suzuki’s replacement at Larrousse in 1992 and reportedly was one of Japan’s most eccentric drivers, having gone to Paris to compete in European racing! As well as breaking his neck and both legs in a junior formula.

Nevertheless Katayama planned his comeback immediately and ultimately found his way into Formula 1. After his brief stint at Larrouse, Katayama enjoyed another four seasons in Formula 1 with the fading Tyrrell team.

Inoue and Noda both broke into F1 with the Simtek Grand Prix team, which unfortunately faded from the grid at the end of 1994 largely due to the tragic loss of Roland Ratzenberger a day prior to “Black Sunday.” (Imola; May 1, 1994)

In its struggles to operate the new team, paying drivers were taken on in the later half of the 1994 season, hence Inoue and Noda’s appearances.

After making a single start for Simtek in 1994, Takachiho (Taki) spend the full ’95 season with the Footwork team. But Inoue is best known for his bizarre accidents, first being run over by a course car at Monaco while being towed back to the pits. Then he was struck by an errant recovery vehicle being sent to retrieve his broken down car in Hungary and was sent flying!

Meanwhile Noda was a pleasant “chap” who made three starts for Simtek at the end of the 1994 season with intentions of returning the following season before the team went into receivership with debts of $10 million.

Joining the revolving door of aspiring Japanese Grand Prix drivers was Shinji Nakano in 1997, who spent two season’s at Tyrrell.

Nakano was followed by the next great hopeToranosuke “Tiger” Takagi who spent his first season in F1 as Shinji’s replacement at Tyrrell (1988) before joining Jos “The BOSS” Verstappen for his second and final season at the faltering Arrows Grand Prix team

After a brief respite, while Nakano and Takagi plied their trades stateside in Champ Car and the IRL, Japan’s next rising star burst onto the scene in 2002 with Eddie Jordan. As Takuma Sato capped off his rookie campaign with a fifth place points paying finish in Japan before being dropped from Jordan Grand Prix.

Sato then took up refuge as BAR Honda’s test driver in 2003 before replacing Jacques Villeneuve for that year’s Japanese Grand Prix.

Taku-san ran two full seasons alongside Jenson Button for BAR Honda before it was announced that he’d be jettisoned from the squad in 2006. This move created such uproar in Japan that Honda effectively enticed Aguri Suzuki into creating his Super Aguri F1 team as a satellite operation in order for Sato to continue his Formula 1 career.

Takuma has done little to dampen his adoring country’s admiration with solid performances aboard the ever improving “Super Best Friends” chassis over the past two seasons.

With the launch of the Super Aguri F1 team, largely backed by Honda, it was sought to run an all Japanese driver line-up for the teams debut season. This saw relative unknown Yuji Ide as Sato’s teammate, as Ide had raced for Suzuki’s Autobacs Racing Team Aguri (ARTA) in a Nissan Silvia in 1999.

Yet after a spectacular shunt with Cristijan Albers, the FIA demanded that Ide step down in favour of test driver Frank Montagny. Thus effectively ending his brief Formula 1 career after only four starts, as the FIA has also revoked his Super License

After a brief racing stint Montagny was subsequently replaced by Sakon Yamamoto for the remainder of the 2006 season before being relegated to test driver status for the beginning of this year’s championship.

But the tenuous financial outlook of the Spyker F1 team saw Yamamoto’s suitcases full of Yen eagerly appreciated when the Japanese driver was inserted as Albers replacement mid-season.

For the 2008 season Taku-san appears to be the only Japanese F1 pilote with a secure future at "Super Best Friends," aka Super Aguri F1, as Yamamoto most likely will be replaced after the just completed sale of Spyker F1.

Meanwhile Williams Toyota currently has Kazuki Nakajima under contract as its test driver. Kazuki is the son of Satoru Nakajima and currently competes for the DAMS team in GP2…

Japan says Sayonara to Motorsports

(This page was Updated on: February 20, 2016)

Japan and Formula 1

Have you ever wondered why no Japanese drivers have truly succeeded in Formula 1? And while Japan still awaits a maiden Grand Prix victory from one of its driver’s, Honda has thus far carried the torch while the verdict is still out over its rival Toyota…

Although this season’s results have been horrific for Honda and its “Planet Earth” theme, nevertheless Honda’s storied history in Formula 1 now spans over four decades. With Japan’s first success coming during Honda’s original foray into F1 in the early 1960’s.

The burgeoning team began life with a relative unknown American driver by the name of Ronnie Bucknum after Honda was unable to acquire the services of Phil Hill.

Bucknum debuted the Honda RA271 1.5 liter V-12 in the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring in 1963, with Honda’s single car effort wallowing about the rear of the grid during 1964 before Honda decided to add a second American pilot to its line-up in 1965.

This driver was fellow Californian Richie Ginther who was known as a very good development driver, which Honda was looking for. Ginther scored Honda’s very first Formula 1 World Championship point with a sixth place finish at Spa. Then in the very last race of the 1.5 liter engine era held in Mexico City, Ginther scored Honda’s maiden F1 victory with Bucknum finishing fifth.

From 1966-68, Honda struggled to come to grips with the new 3.0 liter engine formula as both Bucknum and Ginther left the team at the end of 1966. They were replaced by 1964 World Champion John Surtees for the ‘67 season. Surtees would give Honda it’s second F1 victory at Monza, Italy in the RA 300’s racing debut before falling out of favour withSoichiro Honda over the portly RA 302 not being ready to race.

Thus in the summer of 1968 the unwieldy RA 302 magnesium chassis, air cooled V-12 race car was given to Frenchman Jo Schlesser to race in the French GP instead. Unfortunately Schlesser lost control of the vehicle, rolled and burst into flames before loosing his life, thus effectively ending Honda’s first foray into Formula 1 at the end of the 1968 season.

Interestingly when the movie Grand Prix was made in 1966, I suspect it was viewed as preposterous that a Japanese entry would ever win the World Championship. But in 1983 Honda began development of a new style racing engine, a 1.5 liter twin turbocharged V-6 running in the back of the minnow-esc Spirit Racing team before jumping to Williams for the 1984 season.

Honda’s World Championship winning ways began in 1987 with their mighty engine propelling Williams Nelson Piquet to his third and final driver’s crown. This began a streak of five consecutive championships with Williams and McLaren, as the two rival British teams wrestled for Honda “Works” status during this time period.

Three Japanese drivers participated in the inaugural Japanese Grand Prix at Mount Fuji (1976-77) with a fourth joining the following year before switching venues to Suzuka owned by Honda in 1987. The fabulous Suzuka circuito was originally built as a test track in 1962 near by Honda’s immense factory.

Suzuka saw many fierce battles between championship rivals Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. It was also here where Senna had his famous punch-up with rookie Eddie “Irv the Swerve” Irvine.

Although Suzuka hosted the Japanese Grand Prix from 1987-2006, ironically this year’s event will revert back to Mount Fuji which has been owned by Toyota since 2000 and heavily updated.

Yet with Honda’s return to Grand Prix racing in the early 1980’s, the resurgence of this Rising Sun manufacturer as a championship winning engine supplier allowed Honda to flex its powerful influence upon Formula 1. Thus triggering a new influx of Japanese drivers with Satoru Nakajima spearheading the charge.

Nakajima’s close ties with Honda helped him land the second Lotus seat alongside Ayrton Senna in 1987, after testing a Williams “mule” chassis with Honda power prior to becoming the very first full time Japanese driver in F1. He also became the first Japanese driver to score World Championship points in only his second race outing…

To continue reading, see; Japan and Formula 1 (Part 2)

(This page was Updated on: February 20, 2016)

F1: Shanghai Shuffle - China, 2007 edition

Well I just finished watching the Chinese Grand Prix and it certainly was an entertaining race! As I was absolutely thrilled to see “Kimster the Iceman” WIN!!! And he did it in quite typical fashion with another Bonsai move around World Championship and at that moment race leader Lewis Hamilton.

And what can you say about Louise? I mean that must have been heartbreak? Err heartburn to throw your race away on completely destroyed Bridgestone rubber.

And what about those Scuderia Toro Rosso drivers, eh? Sebastian Vettel continues to impress with a superb fourth place, the first time a Toro Rosso/Minardi has finished that high since Kyalami, 1993! And Vitantonnio Luzzi finished sixth ahead of Nick Heidfeld’s BMW Sauber to give STR their very first two car point’s finish… And with the 8 points scored, Toro Rosso leapfrogs past both Honda teams and Spyker in the Constructor’s point’s standings.

And I noticed that Maranello didn’t buckle to the EU’s pressure to not run their “Bad Habit’s” livery this weekend as I spotted both Ferrari pilot’s with Marlboro adorning their driver’s caps during the interview sessions. And speaking of scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, with Kimi Raikkonen scoring his fifth victory of the season, he netted Ferrari its 200th Career victory!

So with one race left in a fortnight at San Paolo, Brazil, will Louise “Jaguar” Hamilton make history as the very first Rookie World Champion ever in Formula 1? Hamilton definitely holds the advantage, being 7 points clear of Raikkonen and 4 points ahead of Alonso…

Red Mist

You may have heard that ex-Ferrari employee Nigel Stepney was to publish a book chronology of his years at Ferrari titled Red Mist. Yet Stepney now claims that original publisher of this book has been manipulated into not publishing Stepney’s manifesto.

And instead of trying to write something clever about this story, I’ll defer to the lengthy article recently published, as it also contains a copy of a letter that Nigel wrote to current FISA mouthpiece Max Mosley detailing various issues involving the “Flexi-gate” issue which was the start of “Stepney-Gate…”

To read the story, see: Stepney says publisher pulled out because of pressure

Alonso toys with Team managers

Geez! Perhaps it’s just me? But I’m getting a bit tired of all of the bleepin’ salivating over where Alonso will land next season, as the War of Words continues between “Ferdi the Putz and Louise Jaguar Hamilton on” whom should stay and who should go.

And I can tell yuh that the Ronster is firmly in favour of prodigy Hamilton staying, which means either Alonso will stomach out the rest of his contract or depart for another team prior to the 2008 Season.

And I just CANNOT believe all the speculation over Alonso going to Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, replacing Felipe Massa and becoming Kimi Raikkonen’s teammate… Do you really think Alonso would wish to go to Maranello where currently both drivers have “EQUAL” status.

Nope, to me the most logical seat for Ferdi will be back with his ‘ol lightning rod Flavour Flav at Renault as Giancarlo Fisichella’s replacement.

And I’m really getting fed up with Emperor Bernardo stating that Alonso may sit out next season in order to go to Ferrari in 2009, which seems overly preposterous to me. Given the fact that Spain will be hosting two grand Prix’s for the very first time in history next year Err, excuse me Mr. Promoter, Fernando cannot come out ‘N play!

And I doubt that Alonso will be interested in going to Toyota as Ralfanso’s replacement, since I suspect Ferdi is keen to reclaim his Driver’s crown, unless he’s more interested in how much Yen he can pilfer from Toyota’s piggy bank, eh?

F1 Guess Gesser

So I’ve noticed on the blogosphere… That several persons have taken kracks at what the 2008 Formula 1 driver line-ups will look like. And I was gonna throw Jos “The BOSS” Verstappen’s name in at Spyker, but don’t think he’ll be willing to convert Kroners to Ruphies… Nor will Ralfanso be able to stomach the thought of having to PAY for a ride as he’s off in search of “New Challenges.”

it also seems fairly certain that Ferdi the Putz will indeed be sent packing from McLaren after his black mailin’ hi-jinx efforts with Ron Dennis. The only wild card is where he’ll end up at?

Of course it’s all conjecture, but hey… I guess I’d better take a shot at it myself, eh?

1* FerrariKimi Raikkonen
Felipe Massa

2. BMW Sauber
Nick Heidfeld
Robert Kubica

3. RenaultFernando Alonso
Heikki Kovalainen

4. Williams ToyotaNelson Piquet Jr
Vitantonnio Luzzi/Giancarlo Fisichella /Anthony Davidson?

5. Red BullMark Webber
David Coulthard

6. ToyotaJarno Trulli
Timo Glock

7. Super Aguri
Takuma Sato
Davidson/Luzzi?

8. HondaJenson Button
Rubens Barrichello

9. Scuderia Toro Rosso
Sebastian Bourdais
Sebastian Vettel

10. “Orange India” (Spyker)Adrian Sutil
Ralf Schumacher?
Narain Karthikayan (Test/Race Driver?)

11. McLaren MercedesLewis Hamilton
Nico Rosberg

12. ProdrivePedro de la Rosa
Gary Paffet