Villeneuve and Montoya close in on closed wheels

Posted Nov 21st 2006 11:08AM by John Neff
As the 2006 NASCAR season comes to an end, the parallel sagas of our two former F1 drivers moving to stock cars drive on.

After talks between Jacques Villeneuve and Roush Racing came to an all but full and complete stop, the former world champion is apparently gearing up to drive under his own banner instead. Roush isn't entirely out of the picture, though, as the new team would use their machinery for the 2007 season. JV is tipped to be working with his manager Craig Pollock to put the deal together.

Meanwhile, McLaren refugee Juan Pablo Montoya has taken a big step towards NASCAR and another two back. Before the end of the 2006 season, after practicing in lower series, Montoya made his Nextel Cup debut at the season closer at the Homestead speedway in Florida. Close qualifying placed him a somewhat respectable 29 out of 43, with his team-mates in the Ganassi cars qualifying 11, 23 and 39. The race itself went worse, though, as JP crashed in the final laps of the race after having climbed to an admirable 13th place. Not bad for a rookie, but you've got to finish the race to win, and coming down from the pinnacle of motorsports, Juan Pablo is hardly a rookie.

One thing's for sure: more F1 fans (like this writer) will be keeping an eye on the stock car scene to see how Jacques and Juan Pablo fare as they try to make the jump from champagne to moonshine. Bottoms up, boys!

Autoblog je napisal/-a:Return of the Hakk? Maybe, maybe not

Posted Nov 23rd 2006 5:01PM by Noah Joseph
Nothing gets the sporting press as excited as the prospect of a former champion coming out of retirement. When it's a race driver, the motoring press jumps on it too. So it's no surprise, then, that the rumors of Mika Hakkinen's purported return to Formula One have been spreading like margarine.

The Finnish driver (please, no finish-line jokes) won the title two years running in '98 and '99 behind the wheel of a McLaren, before retiring in 2001. He began driving again for Mercedes-Benz (McLaren's engine partner) in DTM (German touring cars), but Hakkinen's been seen getting in and out of the cockpit of McLaren formula race cars several times this year, leading to speculation that he could be coming back to drive for McLaren.

The rumors could very well be true. McLaren's two drivers have both left the team: Kimi Raikkonen (another talented Finnish driver) to Ferrari and Juan Pablo Montoya for NASCAR. World champ Fernando Alonso joins the McLaren line-up for next year, but the team has yet to announce their second driver. Test driver Pedro de la Rosa could get the job; so could protégé Lewis Hamilton. But some have speculated that McLaren chief Ron Dennis would rather go with a tested-and-true champion like Hakkinen. (Another interesting piece to the puzzle is Hakkinen's recent appointment by McLaren sponsor Johnnie Walker as its ambassador for responsible driving.)

Mika and Ron are known to have stayed close even after Hakkinen's retirement, opening the door to a number of alternative explanations: Mika might have simply gotten the urge to drive an F1 car again, for nostalgia. Ron might have asked Mika to give his old team some developmental feedback on the car while they wait for Alonso to be released from his Renault contract. Or maybe, just maybe, Dennis is trying to keep Pedro and Lewis on their toes with the mere suggestion that neither one of them is guaranteed the seat (and doing a damn fine job at it, too).

Hakkinen might be pushing 38, but he was widely regarded as Schumacher's greatest rival (including by Michael himself). And who knows what Mika might accomplish with Schumi now retired.

[Source: GrandPrix.com - v nadaljevanju]

NOVEMBER 22, 2006
A possible explanation for Hakkinen rumours

The rumours that Mika Hakkinen might make a comeback with McLaren are rather odd. It is hard to believe that McLaren would go down that route when the team has a hotshoe like Lewis Hamilton, who would be signed up within minutes if he was on the open market. And the other car belongs to Fernando Alonso, so there is no chance of Mika taking that one.

So what is going on?

The team has an experienced test driver in Pedro de la Rosa but there is always a chance that McLaren might turn to Hakkinen to ask him to try out the cars and see how they can be developed. Alexander Wurz was an established testing expert with an engineering background and so his move to Williams was definitely a loss to the team. Perhaps Hakkinen might be called in to do occasional tests to sort out problems - and at the same time keep the regular drivers on their toes.

It may not even be as complicated as that. Ron Dennis and Mika Hakkinen have enjoyed a very close relationship for more than 10 years and it may be that Mika just wants to try a Formula 1 car one more time and Ron is happy to do it for old time's sake.

24ur je napisal/-a:Prvi temnopolti dirkač v F1
Hamilton bo v prihodnji sezoni formule 1 ob Alonsu drugi voznik McLarna ter prvi temnopoltni voznik v zgodovini.

London | 24.11.2006 | STA
Britanec Lewis Hamilton bo v prihodnji sezoni formule 1 ob Fernandu Alonsu drugi voznik McLarna, je danes objavilo angleško moštvo. Enaindvajsetletni Hamilton bo prvi temnopolti voznik v zgodovini tega športa. Tudi dvakratni svetovni prvak Alonso bo v sezoni 2007 novinec v moštvu McLarna, kamor je prestopil iz Renaulta.

Lewis HamiltonPrince Charles se je leta 1999 ob obisku McLarna pogovarjal s 14-letnim Lewisom Hamiltonom, ki je takrat še vozil gokart

"Uresničile so se mi sanje. Dirkanje za McLaren je bilo zame največji cilj že, ko sem bil majhen deček in ta novica je izvrsten konec odlične sezone," je dejal Hamilton, ki je v pretekli sezoni prepričljivo zmagal v seriji GP2, ki poteka v okviru formule 1. Britanec z afro-karibskimi koreninami se je leta 1998 pridružil McLarnovemu programu za mlade, tako da podpis pogodbe ni presenetljiv.

"Zavedam se, da je to velik izziv. Vem, da bom deležen velike pozornosti, toda v moštvu so mi rekli, naj se sprostim," je še dejal novi ljubljenec britanskega tiska, ki bo naslednji teden začel s testiranji v Barceloni.

Takuma Sato earns the big bucks

Posted Nov 24th 2006 7:26PM by Noah Joseph
You may be shocked and startled to find out that Takuma Sato is among the highest-paid drivers in F1. This despite his dismal driving record, reputation as an irresponsible driver, and inability to hold on to his race seat without protection from his patrons at Honda.

Factoring in his salary from perennial backmarkers Super Aguri, plus his sponsorship contracts – which we'd assume would be substantial given Japan's love of F1 and Sato's standing as Japan's premier racing driver – Takuma pulled in an estimated $7.7 million in 2006. His new team-mate at Super Aguri, meanwhile, will be paid about $250,000 – barely a fraction of Sato's earnings.

That kind of dough puts Takuma in the same earning bracket as world champion Fernando Alonso and ahead of his old team-mate Jenson Button, among many, many other well-reputed drivers.

At this point, Autoblog would like to welcome Super Aguri to hire any member of our writing staff. There are several of us who'd be glad to crash a whole bunch of cars for you for a lot less than $7.7 million!

[Source: F1i]

sport je napisal/-a:Moj podpis pove dosti

Renault R26 za muzej
Sezona formule ena 2006 ni prinesla samo drugega naslova za Fernanda Alonsa, Španec je namreč vse dirke odpeljal z eno in isto šasijo

Dvojno drži bolje: Moštva formule ena ponavadi izdelajo osem šasij na posamezno sezono, ki jih uporabijo na dirkah in testiranjih. Prav tako je običaj, da dirkači redno menjavajo šasije, z namenom, da imajo dirkalnik, ki bazira na novih in modernih šasijah.

To pomeni tudi, da v današnjih časih nobena šasija ne opravi celotne sezone. Na primer leta 2004 je Fernando Alonso uporabil tri različne šasije s številkami R24-02, R24-06 in R24-07. Prva menjave je bila vezana na škodo, ki je nastala na enem izmed dirkaških vikendov. Druga menjava je sledila zaradi tega, ker so v moštvu imeli na koncu sezone na razpolago novo in lažjo šasijo.

V sezoni 2006 pa je Alosno s šasijo R26-03 opravil vse dirke. Zmagovita šasija iz ogljikovih vlaken je zapustila tovarno v Enstonu 7. februarja 2006, 33 dni pred dirkaškim debijem - in zmago v Bahrajnu.

Po treh dneh na testni mizi in razvojnih delih je šasija krenila na pot v Barcelono, kjer so se od 22. do 24. februarja odvijala zadnja testiranja pred začetkom sezone. Na teh testiranjih je "št. 3" opravila skupaj 1.391 testnih kilometrov, vse z isto specifikacijo motorja RS26-V8.

Ta testiranja so predstavljala edino vožnjo te šasije izven dirkaških vikendov. V prvi polovici sezone (z začetno zmago v Bahrajnu) je Alonso s svojo "stalno" šasijo osvojil kar 84 točk od 90-ih možnih – in povrhu končal vsako dirko.

Ko se je v Braziliji na zadnji dirki še enkrat okronal z naslovom prvaka, ga je šasija "št. 3" obdarila s 134 točkami in drugim naslovom svetovnega prvaka. Na poti do sem je Alonso nabral sedem zmag, šest pole pozicij, pet najhitrejših krogov na dirki in skupaj 14 uvrstitev na stopničke. Od maksimalno mogočih 1.137 dirkalnih krogov, jih je Alonso opravil kar 1.108, kar znaša neverjetnih 97 odstotkov. Odstopil je samo v Monzi (deset krogov pred koncem dirke) in v Budimpešti (19 krogov pred koncem).

Še več: Vztrajna šasija je bila tudi največkrat v vodstvu na dirkah – dlje, kot bilo kateri drugi dirkalnik. To je tudi logično, saj je Alonso nabraj največ krogov, v katerih je vodil. Na poti do svojih sedmih zmag je šasija "št. 3" kar 463 krat ali 41 odstotkov vseh možnih krogov, kot prva prečkala ciljno črto.

Na testiranjih in vseh dirkah sezone 2006 je šasija R26-03 nabrala natančno 11.317 kilometrov in na svojih "ramenih" nosila enajst različnih motorjev: deset med sezono, enega pa za testiranja v Barceloni. Motorji predstavljajo vse uporabljene različice: RS26 A/B/C/D. Sicer pa je zmagoviti dirkalnik med sezono prejel tudi deset svežih lakiranj.

Ta, v tolikih bitkah zmagovita šasija dirkalnika, ima sedaj pred seboj mirno starost – v zgodovinski zbirki Renaulta v Parizu bo namreč dobila svoje častno mesto.

samekk je napisal/-a:v suknjuču in čeveljcih
tip legenda v pravem pomenu besede

Eddis je napisal/-a:

samekk je napisal/-a:v suknjuču in čeveljcih
tip legenda v pravem pomenu besede

Se dobr da ma bele nogavicke da se je lepo vidlo delovanje nog
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