The video below features some in-car footage of Bruno Senna driving a McLaren MP4/8 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed over the weekend. Truth be told it’s a pretty crappy clip, filmed on a mobile phone. But, when you stop to think about it, how many times do you see amateur in-car footage filmed from inside a Formula One car like this. That alone, makes this clip very, very cool!
The dreams of the Honda F1 team appear to have come true with news Mexican telecommunications billionaire Carlos Slim Helú (inset pic) has bought the team, according to a report in Italian newspaper La Stampa. Slim is reported to be the world’s second richest man and has proven experience in motorsport with his Telmex company being a long time supporter of the US based Chip Ganassi Racing.
The news is yet to be confirmed in an official capacity, and autosport.com is reporting that Slim is just one of four parties in negotiations with Honda F1 Racing.
However, according to the La Stampa article it is believed Slim paid the £1 asking price announced by Honda when confirming plans to quit Formula One. If this news comes to fruition it is likely the revitalised team will keep Britain’s Jenson Button for one of the driving positions, while the other drive will go to Brazilian Bruno Senna (pictured above during testing in November). Bruno is the nephew of F1 legend and triple world champion Ayrton Senna. This means the former Honda driver, Brazilian veteran Rubens Barichello, could be forced into retirement.
Importantly, master tactician Ross Brawn will also be kept on staff and assuming Slim throws the full weight of his finances behind the team, the F1 circus will see the welcome the addition of new privateer player on the starting grid.
Source: autoblog, AFP & autosport.com. (Thanks to Nick and Dylan for the tips.)
The shootout saw Jason Plato in a Lexus IS-F with Tiff Needell in a BMW M3 saloon. The Bimmer was quicker round the track. Just. But no surprise that the Toyota felt softer and more distant. Tom pitted the new Subaru Forester against a Land Rover Freelander II. He reckoned the Forester was tinny and under powered. He wasn’t much of a fan of the auto transmission either. A weclome addition to the cast this week was the Nissan GT-R and the Porsche 911 Turbo. Oh yeah, and Bruno Senna. Fittingly, he was fanging the cars around a wet track in conditions that his uncle would have loved (see clip above). I say, flick Tiff and replace him with Bruno.
Vicki filed a report from a tribute to Colin McRae which saw 1086 Impreza WRXs spell out his name. She also got a fang in McRae’s 1996 WRC winning car. Very tidy indeed! Tom had a go in the Dodge Challenger SRT8. I have to say it looks pretty damn good—for an American coupé. Vicki got the keys to a Vauxhall Astra VXR Nürburgring and a Ford Focus ST (XR5 to us Aussies). Geez, they cram a lot into these episodes. Plato finished the show with John Prescott in a racing Jaguar XK-R. The first three episodes of this series were a bit testing at times, but the last couplf have been much better.