It’s no secret that Mark Webber faces a crucial race at the Brazilian Grand Prix this weekend. He needs to win, or, ideally, finish ahead of Fernando Alonso to boost his title chances. Even so, he casually says he’s expecting lots of traffic, strange weather and some nice looking women. Here’s hoping there’s a race win in there, as well!
The official Formula 1 website has an article reminding us 2010 is the 30th anniversary of Alan Jones‘ world championship triumph. When you read the opening paragraph it could easily be re-used for Mark Webber.
“His belligerence was partly a by-product of a long and hard struggle to make it to Formula One racing in the first place. Once there, he was considered little more than a journeyman driver, until he teamed up with the then equally undistinguished Williams Red Bull team.”
See what I mean.
This weekend sees Webber return to Interlagos to defend his Brazilian Grand Prix trophy. A repeat of his 2009 victory would cut Fernando Alonso’s title lead by at least seven points and ensure the final race at Abu Dhabi will decide the winner.
If you were writing the script, the return of an Australian to the summit of Formula One would be a nice fit 30 years after the last Aussie achieved the ultimate prize. It’s worth noting, then, Jones won the last two Grands Prix of his title winning season. A repeat of that stat for Mark Webber would be a wonderful way to cap off his best F1 season to date.
Incidentally, today is Alan Jones’ birthday. So, happy birthday to you AJ, may all your wishes come true. And those of all Australian F1 fans, as well!
[Source: Formula1.com | Pic: AlanJones.com.au]
A dedicated page for the upcoming movie SENNA has now been added to the Working Title Films website. Currently, it’s a basic setup but there is an intro from the writer of the film Manish Pandey. In part, he says, “At the age of 24, he exploded on to the Formula One scene, in the deluge of a street race in Monte Carlo, then spent the next decade as the sport’s brightest star, shattering records, living life on the very edge and fighting the off-track politics which kept him from what he most loved: ‘Pure racing.’”
Back in September we showed you the Japanese preview of the film. That preview was released because a version of the film was shown just before this year’s Japanese Grand Prix. If you have a subscription to autosport you can read Jon Noble’s excellent and inspiring review. Here’s a snippet:
“I confess, I’m in love once more. Formula 1 has pulled my heart strings like it hasn’t done for years. It’s like being a teenager all over again. For just under two hours in Japan earlier this week I was absolutely mesmerised by what I witnessed.
Sitting there transfixed, I experienced almost every emotion under the sun and was left mentally shattered by the end. From laughter and smiling at one moment, I went on a journey that pushed me through intense pride, excitement, fear and also sadness.”
SENNA will have its official world premiere in Brazil on 3 November. The film is expected to be screened elsewhere in the world by the middle of next year. AUSmotive has spoken with Universal Pictures to try and confirm a definite release date for the Australian market. The advice given was to check back in March/April of 2011. As soon as we have a firm date for local release we will let you know.
UPDATE 31 October: Another review for SENNA can be read over at F1 Fanatic. Make sure you read the comments from Manish Pandey.
Aligning US motoring interests to Formula One is something that doesn’t happen all that often. So it was with welcome surprise that our morning rounds saw an article from Winding Road reminding us of the great deeds accomplished by our own Jack Brabham.
Three F1 drivers titles (1959, 1960 and 1966) would usually be enough to set Sir Jack apart from the crowd, but when you consider the 1966 crown was achieved in a car of his own making, well, it is unlikely we will ever see the likes of that again.
Here’s a snippet from the article, follow the source link below for the rest:
One of the first drivers to be knighted for his service to motorsports, Brabham won the Formula 1 drivers’ championship three times. Born in April 1926, Sir Jack was a flight mechanic for the Royal Australian Air force and then ran a small engineering workshop. In 1948, he started midget car racing and moved, in 1955, to Europe to join the Cooper Car Company’s racing team. He helped to develop the design for the mid-engine Cooper, which he raced in F1 and at the Indianapolis 500. Brabham then went on to win the F1 World Championship in 1959…
[Source: Winding Road | Pic: Lothar Spurzem]
“Our Mark” binned it! Can you believe it. It was a race that promised so much; an opportunity for Webber to really intensify the pressure on his rivals. Instead, on a dramatic and soaking wet afternoon in Yeongam, Mark put it into the wall and he walked away empty handed. Pressure does strange things and amplifies the tiniest of indiscretions. It was a mistake that needn’t have happened. Webber cracked on Sunday.
Worse, it looked like his fiercest rival, Sebastien Vettel, was going to rub his nose in it with a comfortable victory. A win that would have put the young German 11 points ahead of Webber and the shift in power across the garage would likely have been irreversible. For Mark, at least, fate dealt a helping hand when a dominant Vettel was robbed of certain victory after his Renault engine disintegrated with no apparent warning.
Only too happy to watch the imploding Red Bulls ahead of him Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was there to pick up the pieces. He drove solidly and mostly kept himself out of trouble, despite the woeful light conditions towards the end of the race. Amazingly, he now finds himself 11 points ahead of Webber in the drivers’ title race. A few weeks back he was the fifth man in the chasing pack.
With just two more races to go, can Fernando hold off the inevitable challenge from those closest behind? Brazil is next and Webber is the defending race winner. How he would love an encore performance in two weeks time.
For now, though, catch up on all the drama from last weekend with 80 pics from the inaugural Korean Grand Prix.
Hans Stuck, Volkswagen ambassador and former F1 driver, says VW has a meeting scheduled for November in which its “strategy will be discussed.” That all seems fairly innocent, but in late 2009 Stuck floated the idea of Volkswagen, or one of its many subsidiaries, returning to Formula One.
The regulations for engine suppliers in F1 are due to change in 2013 and it is then that the VW Group could become involved in F1, rather than as a full manufacturer. Porsche and Audi loom as the most suitable fit to F1, but perhaps we’ll have new speculation to ponder after this meeting in November.
Indeed, this may very well be true; according to reports Stuck has also hinted strongly at Volkswagen participating in NASCAR. Why?
[Source: World Car Fans]
Formula One action was all go on Sunday in Suzuka. Thanks to the rained out qualifying session the day before racegoers got to see a full qualifying session and a race all in the one day. What they saw was an unassailable Sebastian Vettel who topped all three quali sessions and led the race virtually from start to finish.
Our boy Mark Webber maintained his championship lead with a solid second place. The Red Bull duo still can’t shake of a persistent Ferrari challenge from Fernando Alonso, who also finished on the podium. McLaren’s Jenson Button was fourth, able to take advantage of more frustration for Lewis Hamilton; this time in the form of another dodgy gearbox.
However, aside from Sebastian and Mark, this race was all about fighting for the scraps. A couple of brain farts at the start ensured there were a few more scraps too, with Virgin Racing’s Lucas di Grassi reportedly crashing on the warm up lap. Vitaly Petrov made a mess of his Renault at the start—that’s him above, on the grass with half his car missing. And Felipe Massa continued to flounder by barely making it into the first corner. It’s a shame the latter two took some Force India and Williams collateral damage with them, too.
Local lad Kamui Kobayashi in his Sauber went on a late charge and provided plenty of entertainment and loads of heart-in-mouth overtaking moves. He made them all stick, though, and continues to show he has raw pace by the bucketful.
Relive the race for yourself by checking out our gallery below, with thanks to the F1 teams who offer great access to some fantastic photography.
Red Bull Racing returned to the victory dais at Suzuka today with Sebastian Vettel claiming his third race win of the year. Constantly at the top of the time sheets, Vettel was the dominant man all weekend and started the race from pole position. Teammate Mark Webber completed the Red Bull Racing domination by securing an comfortable looking second place. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso took the final podium position.
With three races to go the title race now looks set to be a race between Webber, Vettel and Alonso. A solid haul of points saw Webber slightly extend his championship lead this weekend. He is now on 220pts, with both Alonso and Vettel close behind on 206pts.
The full post-race press conference transcript is available below.
Fernando Alonso bagged consecutive Grand Prix wins with victory in Singapore. It’s his fourth race win for the year—the same as Mark Webber, third place, who leads the driver’s championship by 11 points from the Ferrari driver.
Sebastien Vettel started and finished the race in second place. He looked the dominant man all during practice and most of qualifying, but Alonso showed he is made of the right stuff, performing when it matters most. It also shows that the F10 Ferrari has the ability to match it with the RB6 Red Bull on both fast and slow circuits. This title race is going down to the wire.
The full transcript from the post-race press conference with the podium winners is available below. A Singapore GP photo gallery should be up later today.
[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
Fast Fernando fled the field at Monza to send the tifosi into raptures. Button teased them for a moment with a banzai move on the first lap. Massa fumbled about with an over excited Hamilton, before taking no further part in any racing action on his way to the last podium step. Vettel cried about his engine dying before finding the on switch and coming home in fourth. This, mind you, after completing almost the entire race of the soft tyres.
Britney outperformed that Michael bloke, yet again. Aussie Mark fluffed the start, yet again, but scored enough points to find himself at the very pointy end of the drivers’ title race. So pointy, in fact, he is out in front. Mind, his arch rival in fifth place, is within striking distance. So this is one title race that will go down to the wire.
Pedro de la Rosa won’t be winning any races. Rumours suggest Monza is likely to be his last F1 outing after being shown the door in favour of Quick Nick (Heidfeld) who is back for a third try at success with Sauber.
There’s sixty plus pics for you all after the break, which should keep you happy until the sun goes down in Singapore in a couple of weeks time.
The list of races for the 2011 Formula One season was released by the FIA overnight. There will be 20 races in all, making next year’s calendar the longest in F1 history. Some of the details revealed in the leak following the Hungarian GP have proved to be off the mark.
Bahrain will again host the season opener (13 March), with the Australian Grand Prix to follow a fortnight later (27 March). The order of events then continues to loosely follow what we’ve seen to date in 2010.
Four back-to-back races have been confirmed: Malaysia–China (April), Spain–Monaco (May), Germany–Hungary (July) and Japan–Korea (October).
There have been 19 races scheduled this year, all maintain their GP status into next year. The new race for 2011 is the inaugural Indian Grand Prix (30 October), it will be the third last race on the calendar. Following that race will be a trip to Abu Dhabi (13 November), before Brazil once again hosts the season finale (27 November).
So, 20 races, hey—is this starting to become a few too many? No in-season testing. Reduced number of engines. Ever-tightened budgets. Yet, more races, meaning more television revenue coming in to the sport. Hmm, is there something not quite right about this?
A full list is available after the break.
A trailer for the upcoming Ayrton Senna movie has been posted to YouTube. You can see the clip after the jump. The movie is sure to be compelling viewing and, as in life, the movie about Senna will most likely polarise opinions, too. On talent alone Senna is clearly one of the best drivers we have ever seen. But he was a complex character. Was he hero or villain?
[Thanks to Micky for the tip]