Thursday Talking Points
Webber tells Schumie to give bike racing a miss Webber: Stop it Schumie Mark Webber is surprised that Michael Schumacher’s latest fall hasn’t put him off motorcycle racing completely. Although escaping serious injury, former seven time world champion Schumacher fell so heavily while testing in February that he had to call off his participation in [...]
Sam Michael: Frustrating start to Williams season
Q: Has FW31 lived up to your pre-season expectations? Williams FW31 quick but not delivered SM: It’s been quite quick in the opening few races, but we haven’t delivered in terms of points and that’s been very frustrating. Our rivals are catching up quickly and it will be difficult to maintain a development edge over [...]
Mosley says McLaren liars no longer with team
Mosley: Not a light escape for McLaren Ron Dennis’ departure appears to have contributed to the ‘slap on the wrist’ penalty given to McLaren by the World Motor Sport Council. After Wednesday’s ‘lie-gate’ hearing in Paris, both new team boss Martin Whitmarsh and FIA president Max Mosley indicated that it was the recent departure of [...]
Ecclestone on team commitment and Beckham
Ecclestone calls the shots The Concorde Agreement expired at the end of 2007, resulting in a non-binding ‘memorandum of understanding’ now governing the terms of the teams’ income from commercial rights. “They want to be paid in the same manner as if they had agreed to be committed for five years but they don’t want [...]
FIA Q&A on cost caps in Formula 1 for 2010
GMMF1 summarises the FIA budget cap announcement Cost capping vital for Formula 1 The figure for a voluntary budget cap in Formula 1 next year has been increased by 10 million pounds sterling to 40m. Announced on Thursday, it was ratified by the World Motor Sport Council in Paris a day earlier, while at the [...]
FIA unveils big changes for 2010 season
Applications to compete in the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship are to be submitted to the FIA during the period 22-29 May 2009. Teams must state in their application whether they wish to compete under cost-cap regulations. The maximum number of cars permitted to enter the Championship has been increased to 26, two being [...]
Massa: "Bahrain race compromised"
Four races and still no points, although at least Kimi got some at Sakhir, so that the Scuderia has finally got off the mark. In all the past years when things were going very well for us, we have always said that, in F1, things can change very quickly and with a quarter of the [...]
Vijay Mallya: We are racing against the best
Force India followed Renault in becoming the second team to get a prototype double diffuser onto the VJM02 for the Bahrain GP, thus beating the likes of Ferrari, McLaren, BMW and Red Bull in the development race. The cars clearly found pace, although Adrian Sutil was delayed after a push from Kazuki Nakajima and Giancarlo [...]
McLaren humbled by FIA suspended sentence
Martin Whitmarsh Earlier today (Wednesday) FIA announced after an extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sport Council held in Paris on 29 April 2009 that the following decision was taken: “Having regard to the open and honest way in which McLaren Team Principal, Mr Martin Whitmarsh, addressed the WMSC and the change in culture which he [...]
