Entries in Austin (48)
Cycles
Monday, March 21, 2011 at 12:12PM
No not the kind you peddle, the business, economic, civilization rise and fall kind. I know this sounds all esoteric but bear with me. I think I have commented before on how "developing" countries are discovering motorsport and us "developed," or overdeveloped some would say, countries are struggling to keep the viewers attention. I receive lots of approaches from would be track owners, both here in the States and overseas, but not the south of France unfortunately. Here in the US, apart from Tavo over there in Austin, would-be owners have limited budgets and are afraid of committing to proceed. Not so in those developing countries where money seems easy to spend, like Croatia's F1 track. They are going to spend $450m in a country of 1.5 m people with an average wage of $17,500. I know it is close to other borders, but does this really make sense? Obviously it does to them.
I am supposed to be overseas now, but the bureaucrats cannot get a vise issued in less than two weeks, and this weekend I have had approaches from a Middle East and Far Eastern country about developments that include not only tracks but major tourist infrastructure. So what is going on? Well, the Bob Barnard theory is we are seeing a cycle where interest grows, just as economies and civilizations, and then peaks and falls down the back slope. I see the US particularly on the back slope in respect of motorsport. Just as Rome ended up consumed by "bread and circuses" so the young generation are consumed by virtual sports, fantasy leagues etc. In developing countries the opposite is happening, new found disposable income is letting them discover how much fun motor racing is. I went to Taiwan a long time ago to advise on a track and was told the children do not want to work all the time like their ancestors, they want time for fun and were basically racing on the streets.
So, am I in the wrong country? Not really, I like it here and still believe there is life in the sport, it is just changing to participation by rich guys in their Ferraris and Porsches on Country Club tracks. When you look at most racing in this country that is what is going on anyway.
Talking of developing countries, Casey Stoner won the Qatar MotoGP from Lorenzo on the Yamaha and a whole lot of Hondas. When I saw a photo of Casey out in front my first reaction was it was him and daylight, but of course it was moonlight. So we know the Hondas are the real deal and the Yamaha cannot be ruled out so we should have a good year. The Ducati was where we expected, and I know his shoulder is still a problem, but Jeremy and Vale need to get something sorted on that bike.
The debate over the Sebring live streaming coverage continues, check out the piece on Last Turn Club that echoed my thoughts that if it is not on live TV it cannot be important. It seems that the ABC "highlight" package either was not shown in some places or lived down to expectations. Can someone explain why some ISP's do not provide access to espn3.com? It will be interesting to see how many cars actually start at Long Beach now we are back to the ALMS, not many I suspect. I loved Duncan Dayton's comment that Sebring was a test for them and it was good of the other 55 cars to turn up! It is pretty amazing how that car ran faultlessly. Think back to last year with a "sorted" car. From my memory they had a bunch of problems, mainly electrical. As Pagenaud said, he'd better watch out for the Highcroft car at Le Mans where he will be back in the Peugeot.
The Lotus naming row is in court with things getting murkier by the moment with David Hunt now saying his deal with Tony Fernandes was not completed. Good luck to the Judge sorting this lot out. I'd tell them both not to use the name and to get on with it.
McLaren are going into this weekend with a revamped exhaust and floor in an attempt to find another second. Not a good way to start a season, but if anyone can do it they should be able to.
I am supposed to be overseas now, but the bureaucrats cannot get a vise issued in less than two weeks, and this weekend I have had approaches from a Middle East and Far Eastern country about developments that include not only tracks but major tourist infrastructure. So what is going on? Well, the Bob Barnard theory is we are seeing a cycle where interest grows, just as economies and civilizations, and then peaks and falls down the back slope. I see the US particularly on the back slope in respect of motorsport. Just as Rome ended up consumed by "bread and circuses" so the young generation are consumed by virtual sports, fantasy leagues etc. In developing countries the opposite is happening, new found disposable income is letting them discover how much fun motor racing is. I went to Taiwan a long time ago to advise on a track and was told the children do not want to work all the time like their ancestors, they want time for fun and were basically racing on the streets.
So, am I in the wrong country? Not really, I like it here and still believe there is life in the sport, it is just changing to participation by rich guys in their Ferraris and Porsches on Country Club tracks. When you look at most racing in this country that is what is going on anyway.
Talking of developing countries, Casey Stoner won the Qatar MotoGP from Lorenzo on the Yamaha and a whole lot of Hondas. When I saw a photo of Casey out in front my first reaction was it was him and daylight, but of course it was moonlight. So we know the Hondas are the real deal and the Yamaha cannot be ruled out so we should have a good year. The Ducati was where we expected, and I know his shoulder is still a problem, but Jeremy and Vale need to get something sorted on that bike.
The debate over the Sebring live streaming coverage continues, check out the piece on Last Turn Club that echoed my thoughts that if it is not on live TV it cannot be important. It seems that the ABC "highlight" package either was not shown in some places or lived down to expectations. Can someone explain why some ISP's do not provide access to espn3.com? It will be interesting to see how many cars actually start at Long Beach now we are back to the ALMS, not many I suspect. I loved Duncan Dayton's comment that Sebring was a test for them and it was good of the other 55 cars to turn up! It is pretty amazing how that car ran faultlessly. Think back to last year with a "sorted" car. From my memory they had a bunch of problems, mainly electrical. As Pagenaud said, he'd better watch out for the Highcroft car at Le Mans where he will be back in the Peugeot.
The Lotus naming row is in court with things getting murkier by the moment with David Hunt now saying his deal with Tony Fernandes was not completed. Good luck to the Judge sorting this lot out. I'd tell them both not to use the name and to get on with it.
McLaren are going into this weekend with a revamped exhaust and floor in an attempt to find another second. Not a good way to start a season, but if anyone can do it they should be able to.
Sebring
Sunday, March 20, 2011 at 01:28PM
Well I joined Chairman Atherton's brave new world yesterday and watched the 12 hour on espn3.com. I have to admit to being a sceptic and was actually pleasantly surprised. After connecting my lap top to the TV via an HDMI cable which I already had, and some teething problems, it ran faultlessly all day. Could not use the lap top for anything else, but hey, I was watching the race. Not sure why some folks cannot get espn3.com? This is the first time I've been on it and it won't be the last. When I first connected my soccer team was being shown live.
The Radio Le Mans commentary added to the enjoyment, I turn the sound off on Speed and listen to these guys anyway so I was pleasantly surprised by it. The only jarring note were the required female and American in pit lane for the ABC highlights show presumably. When will they learn to keep their mouth shut unless there is something worth saying, and no we do not need to be told that the fuel goes in first at every stop. I particularly liked being told that the windscreens had to be cleaned because of the "daylight sunshine." That nightime sunshine can be deadly to. Mind you John Hindhaugh, the main man at Radio Le Mans has his Murray Walker moments. After a couple of hours of great racing John admitted he "could watch this all day." Well John it's a 12 hour race so your in luck. But I knew what he meant and love his passion and knowledge as we loved Murray's. Motor Sport had a great interview with Murray this month in which Murray said that commentators could not fake excitement or enthusiasm. Take note Lee Diffey, and no one could accuse Bob Varsha of faking either, Mr. Bland. I was amused by the number of comments on how hot it was. I guess if you come from the north of England it is, in which case do not come back in a couple of months time John.
To me it was more enjoyable watching this broadcast than Speed. Much less interruption for commercials, although the two we had got old very quickly. There were the inevitable "infomercials", but again these seemed less intrusive, perhaps because we were seeing so much of the race. Why oh Why does Atherton feel he has to talk to the commentators at every race, and who cares? Is it an insecurity complex? As I said before, Bernie never feels the need, nor Brian France. There were too many extended in-car camera shots, as good as they were, and static camera shots like the camera crew were on break, but this is nit-picking.
The race was a cracker, with three cars capable of winning down to the wire. Great to see Hughes de Chaunac's Oreca Team win it, and the tears in Hughes eyes are a testament to his passion for the sport despite the many years and great success he has had. Not to mention the incredible job done by Highcroft to finish second and nearly steal the race, in a petrol Honda that only turned a wheel a week ago. Well done Duncan, Brabs and the rest of the team, and on to Le Mans. Peugeot finished third in their new car, but both Peugeot and Audi ran into problems and each other, but let's not take anything away from Oreca and Highcroft, they were on the pace and not just lucky. Hard to see what the ALMS is going to do for LMP1 cars though, and the LMP2 were disappointing to say the least.
Not so the GT's who put on their usual performance with 5 or 6 cars running together most of the race. Well done Bobby Rahal and BMW, but we can expect the new Ferrari's to come back strong. Corvette avoided the debacles of last year to finish strong, so we are in for a stellar year, again. It is hard to accept, as the pit lane reporters seemed to do, that overseas professional teams did not know the rule book because it was their first time here. I'm sure Tony Dowe would not be making these mistakes wherever he went.
Corvette showed their in-car video display from the rear facing cameras which lead me to the question, why not build them into the wing mirrors?
The track played its part in the proceedings as is normal for Sebring. At what point do the bumps, that is a mild term to describe them, stop being "character" and become dangerous? We saw cars being destroyed thanks to Turn Seventeen particularly, and we were fortunate we did not see serious injury to Johannes van Overbook when his Jaguar was tipped into the fence through no fault of his own. It is time Don dipped into his wallet and spent some money to maintain this place.
So, is the "game changer" a success? Well for me as an enthusiast and a professional involved in the sport it was actually an improvement, but how many average fans are going to go to the trouble to do this? OK, the next generation are being brought up on live streaming on handhelds, but are they interested in motorsport anyway? The evidence says not. Is a two hour highlights show on ABC today going to bring new viewers? Perhaps, the average sports fan is brought up on a diet of two or three hour games, so watching twelve hours is unlikely. The viewing figures will tell the story, but again, will the average fan think our sport unimportant if not worthy of live TV?
Elsewhere the MotoGP season is underway in Qatar in what should be a good race, at least for third as Julian Ryder said. C'mon Aussie! Bernie is up to his games again saying this could be the last F1 GP in Australia this week, he has to drop two races anyway to make way for Austin and Russia, so it may as well be Oz. Nice negotiating position. Vettel is making noises that if the drivers are not happy with the rules this year they may withdraw their labor. He needs to talk to the drivers who tried that on in South Africa a couple of decades ago. Bernie's position on drivers is like buses, there will be another one along soon.
The Radio Le Mans commentary added to the enjoyment, I turn the sound off on Speed and listen to these guys anyway so I was pleasantly surprised by it. The only jarring note were the required female and American in pit lane for the ABC highlights show presumably. When will they learn to keep their mouth shut unless there is something worth saying, and no we do not need to be told that the fuel goes in first at every stop. I particularly liked being told that the windscreens had to be cleaned because of the "daylight sunshine." That nightime sunshine can be deadly to. Mind you John Hindhaugh, the main man at Radio Le Mans has his Murray Walker moments. After a couple of hours of great racing John admitted he "could watch this all day." Well John it's a 12 hour race so your in luck. But I knew what he meant and love his passion and knowledge as we loved Murray's. Motor Sport had a great interview with Murray this month in which Murray said that commentators could not fake excitement or enthusiasm. Take note Lee Diffey, and no one could accuse Bob Varsha of faking either, Mr. Bland. I was amused by the number of comments on how hot it was. I guess if you come from the north of England it is, in which case do not come back in a couple of months time John.
To me it was more enjoyable watching this broadcast than Speed. Much less interruption for commercials, although the two we had got old very quickly. There were the inevitable "infomercials", but again these seemed less intrusive, perhaps because we were seeing so much of the race. Why oh Why does Atherton feel he has to talk to the commentators at every race, and who cares? Is it an insecurity complex? As I said before, Bernie never feels the need, nor Brian France. There were too many extended in-car camera shots, as good as they were, and static camera shots like the camera crew were on break, but this is nit-picking.
The race was a cracker, with three cars capable of winning down to the wire. Great to see Hughes de Chaunac's Oreca Team win it, and the tears in Hughes eyes are a testament to his passion for the sport despite the many years and great success he has had. Not to mention the incredible job done by Highcroft to finish second and nearly steal the race, in a petrol Honda that only turned a wheel a week ago. Well done Duncan, Brabs and the rest of the team, and on to Le Mans. Peugeot finished third in their new car, but both Peugeot and Audi ran into problems and each other, but let's not take anything away from Oreca and Highcroft, they were on the pace and not just lucky. Hard to see what the ALMS is going to do for LMP1 cars though, and the LMP2 were disappointing to say the least.
Not so the GT's who put on their usual performance with 5 or 6 cars running together most of the race. Well done Bobby Rahal and BMW, but we can expect the new Ferrari's to come back strong. Corvette avoided the debacles of last year to finish strong, so we are in for a stellar year, again. It is hard to accept, as the pit lane reporters seemed to do, that overseas professional teams did not know the rule book because it was their first time here. I'm sure Tony Dowe would not be making these mistakes wherever he went.
Corvette showed their in-car video display from the rear facing cameras which lead me to the question, why not build them into the wing mirrors?
The track played its part in the proceedings as is normal for Sebring. At what point do the bumps, that is a mild term to describe them, stop being "character" and become dangerous? We saw cars being destroyed thanks to Turn Seventeen particularly, and we were fortunate we did not see serious injury to Johannes van Overbook when his Jaguar was tipped into the fence through no fault of his own. It is time Don dipped into his wallet and spent some money to maintain this place.
So, is the "game changer" a success? Well for me as an enthusiast and a professional involved in the sport it was actually an improvement, but how many average fans are going to go to the trouble to do this? OK, the next generation are being brought up on live streaming on handhelds, but are they interested in motorsport anyway? The evidence says not. Is a two hour highlights show on ABC today going to bring new viewers? Perhaps, the average sports fan is brought up on a diet of two or three hour games, so watching twelve hours is unlikely. The viewing figures will tell the story, but again, will the average fan think our sport unimportant if not worthy of live TV?
Elsewhere the MotoGP season is underway in Qatar in what should be a good race, at least for third as Julian Ryder said. C'mon Aussie! Bernie is up to his games again saying this could be the last F1 GP in Australia this week, he has to drop two races anyway to make way for Austin and Russia, so it may as well be Oz. Nice negotiating position. Vettel is making noises that if the drivers are not happy with the rules this year they may withdraw their labor. He needs to talk to the drivers who tried that on in South Africa a couple of decades ago. Bernie's position on drivers is like buses, there will be another one along soon.
Desperate
Wednesday, March 2, 2011 at 04:53PM
Joe Saward followed up where I left off on Bernie's idea of purposely engineering wet races. Encouraged no doubt by Pirelli coming out in support of the idea Joe has really said it all in today's blog on how desperate F1 is becoming.
Check it out at http://joesaward.wordpress.com/
I said Bernie should retire gracefully but Joe suggests he goes off to Las Vegas instead, but he tried that once didn't he? I really like the Ferrari tank though.
Mid-Ohio has finally been sold to Kim Green and his partner Kevin Savoree. Kim is an Australian who has lived and raced here in the US for a long time, most recently partnering with Michael Andretti in the IRL team and race promotions like St Petersburg until Michael kept the team and Kim took the promotions arm. I wish him luck with it, it is a tough sell making money from spectator races as we just have seen at Jerez.
Times are tough for other promoters too, with Korea severely reducing ticket prices to try and fill seats, and Singapore giving large early purchase discounts. Now the prices we are talking about would make the average NASCAR fan have a heart attack, $200 plus, with the most expensive $400. Korea is offering a 50% discount if you buy your ticket this month. Now they are saying they had 80,000 there last year, so doing the math at say an average of $300 a ticket that is $24m. Now Bernie's fee is north of $30m, probably more like $40m, so how do you make money on that? Halving the price even if it doubles the attendance only gets you back to square one. And Austin is going to make money?
Sad to hear that Aston Martin is not going to debut it's LMP1 car at Sebring this year. With Audi saving their new car for later that means Peugeot should have it all their own way, in theory.
Sorry to hear about Sir Jackie Stewart's health problems and hope he makes a full recovery.
And sorry the blog is late. I had an appointment this morning to go and look at some land for a track. Interesting and has potential, so we will see what sort of deal there is to be done.
Check it out at http://joesaward.wordpress.com/
I said Bernie should retire gracefully but Joe suggests he goes off to Las Vegas instead, but he tried that once didn't he? I really like the Ferrari tank though.
Mid-Ohio has finally been sold to Kim Green and his partner Kevin Savoree. Kim is an Australian who has lived and raced here in the US for a long time, most recently partnering with Michael Andretti in the IRL team and race promotions like St Petersburg until Michael kept the team and Kim took the promotions arm. I wish him luck with it, it is a tough sell making money from spectator races as we just have seen at Jerez.
Times are tough for other promoters too, with Korea severely reducing ticket prices to try and fill seats, and Singapore giving large early purchase discounts. Now the prices we are talking about would make the average NASCAR fan have a heart attack, $200 plus, with the most expensive $400. Korea is offering a 50% discount if you buy your ticket this month. Now they are saying they had 80,000 there last year, so doing the math at say an average of $300 a ticket that is $24m. Now Bernie's fee is north of $30m, probably more like $40m, so how do you make money on that? Halving the price even if it doubles the attendance only gets you back to square one. And Austin is going to make money?
Sad to hear that Aston Martin is not going to debut it's LMP1 car at Sebring this year. With Audi saving their new car for later that means Peugeot should have it all their own way, in theory.
Sorry to hear about Sir Jackie Stewart's health problems and hope he makes a full recovery.
And sorry the blog is late. I had an appointment this morning to go and look at some land for a track. Interesting and has potential, so we will see what sort of deal there is to be done.
tagged Aston Martin, Audi, Austin, Bernie Ecclestone, F1, Ferrari, Kim Green, Korea, Mid-Ohio, NASCAR, Peugeot, Pirelli, Saward, Singapore, Tickets Prices
Aston Martin, Audi, Austin, Bernie Ecclestone, F1, Ferrari, Kim Green, Korea, Mid-Ohio, NASCAR, Peugeot, Pirelli, Saward, Singapore, Tickets Prices Tiananmen Square
Friday, February 18, 2011 at 11:07AM
The photos of tanks in the streets of Bahrain reminded me of the Tiananmen Square situation, why do soldiers carry out such orders against unarmed civilians? Joe Saward rightly says that all the investment by Bahrain in presenting itself as a good place to visit and do business has probably been lost. Joe also suggests it is not a place that F1 should be associated with, but then again we just extended the deal with China, and I'm sure business will go on. Ever since the Munich Olympics the question of sport and politics has been raised. Still, if sponsors are concerned about their "green" image, I'm sure they are just as concerned about their humanitarian one. I've learned in my travels that there are very different cultures around the world, and we ignore them at our peril when doing business in them.
It seems Bernie's week is not getting any better with his comments on the situation in Bahrain being treated at best as "insensitive." One twitter post says Bernie thinks things are calmer now, (now they have shot a few people.) Not Bernie's words, but you see how they are being taken. He writes off the GP2 race as "only being the Asia series," "not terribly important." For the full piece go the ESPN F1, http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/story/41200.html
With some spare time yesterday I watched the twin 125's from Daytona, and have to announce that if that is what is going to happen on Sunday over 500 miles I will not be watching. A boring, bizarre pair of races. OK, the drivers are doing what they need to to be competitive, two cars hooked up are close to 10 mph faster than one, and by the second race they had worked out how to keep the car behind cool without having to waste time swapping over. So young Trevor Bayne pushed Jeff Gordon for the whole race. What was going to be his reward? They are not the same team? TV air time? Jeff Burton the winner of race two was pushed by Bowyer his Childress team mate for the whole race so what did they do, flip a coin to see who pushed who? So what now NASCAR? The reduced restrictor plate slowed them down to about 199 mph, but we still have the strangest racing I've ever seen.
The debate over the Phillip Island MotoGP date rolls on, and the Daytona model might be a good one for Ron Walker to look at. Running the GP and World Superbike one month apart may not work, but one week could be built into a Daytona "Speedweek." If you are a fan of two and four wheels you could actually camp out at Daytona from the Rolex in late January through the Daytona 200 bike weeks in March, with non-stop action, and many do. Bike week is huge, with supercross and flat track events as well as a series of road races from pure amateur through to AMA, or is that DMG these days? In fact most motorcyclists come for the atmosphere and never go to the race. Still does not solve Ron's problem of having the F1 GP around the same time, but as I have said, that should be another "raceweek" with the Melbourne Cup in November.
It seems the Austin F1 track started again. Passers by the site report activity. What's that four starts now?
F1 testing resumes at Barcelona, which seems certain to host the final test as a result of the Bahrain problems. Track was wet this morning and no one is near last years times. Seems we are still not seeing any clear picture although the analysts are saying that from their long run times Red Bull is still the car to beat. Alonso in the Ferrari is topping the times at the moment, as they have done most days, so they must have a different strategy to these tests, or they are just quick. Hold the presses, Vettel just banged in fast time, over a second quicker than Alonso, just to show he can? Luizzi is down to test the HRT this weekend, good luck.
It seems Bernie's week is not getting any better with his comments on the situation in Bahrain being treated at best as "insensitive." One twitter post says Bernie thinks things are calmer now, (now they have shot a few people.) Not Bernie's words, but you see how they are being taken. He writes off the GP2 race as "only being the Asia series," "not terribly important." For the full piece go the ESPN F1, http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/story/41200.html
With some spare time yesterday I watched the twin 125's from Daytona, and have to announce that if that is what is going to happen on Sunday over 500 miles I will not be watching. A boring, bizarre pair of races. OK, the drivers are doing what they need to to be competitive, two cars hooked up are close to 10 mph faster than one, and by the second race they had worked out how to keep the car behind cool without having to waste time swapping over. So young Trevor Bayne pushed Jeff Gordon for the whole race. What was going to be his reward? They are not the same team? TV air time? Jeff Burton the winner of race two was pushed by Bowyer his Childress team mate for the whole race so what did they do, flip a coin to see who pushed who? So what now NASCAR? The reduced restrictor plate slowed them down to about 199 mph, but we still have the strangest racing I've ever seen.
The debate over the Phillip Island MotoGP date rolls on, and the Daytona model might be a good one for Ron Walker to look at. Running the GP and World Superbike one month apart may not work, but one week could be built into a Daytona "Speedweek." If you are a fan of two and four wheels you could actually camp out at Daytona from the Rolex in late January through the Daytona 200 bike weeks in March, with non-stop action, and many do. Bike week is huge, with supercross and flat track events as well as a series of road races from pure amateur through to AMA, or is that DMG these days? In fact most motorcyclists come for the atmosphere and never go to the race. Still does not solve Ron's problem of having the F1 GP around the same time, but as I have said, that should be another "raceweek" with the Melbourne Cup in November.
It seems the Austin F1 track started again. Passers by the site report activity. What's that four starts now?
F1 testing resumes at Barcelona, which seems certain to host the final test as a result of the Bahrain problems. Track was wet this morning and no one is near last years times. Seems we are still not seeing any clear picture although the analysts are saying that from their long run times Red Bull is still the car to beat. Alonso in the Ferrari is topping the times at the moment, as they have done most days, so they must have a different strategy to these tests, or they are just quick. Hold the presses, Vettel just banged in fast time, over a second quicker than Alonso, just to show he can? Luizzi is down to test the HRT this weekend, good luck.
Overtaking, What Overtaking?
Saturday, February 5, 2011 at 11:49AM
A good friend, Allen Petrich, wrote a send up of the goings on in F1 like a French farce. As we say, who would believe it. Following my explanation of the rules for using the movable wings he added that we should make it a Monty Python script. We devise a movable wing to aid overtaking, the teams spend millions to put it on the car, and then we constrain its use inside painted boxes so overtaking is almost impossible. There are definitely mixed feeling about it and as Mike Gascoyne comments we would have missed that incredible race at Jarama when Villeneuve Senior held off all comers for the whole race. Yes we want overtaking, but not some video game, we want Hakkinen and Schumacher at Spa. Lewis says that the extra buttons will be more of a problem in practice and qualifying, when they have no restrictions on using it. That is really going to make qualifying a bit of a mystery for us spectators, almost like having qualifying engines again.
Hamilton also said he is not changing his driving style to suit different cars or tracks, this is who he is and that's how he is going to drive. Good on him, I for one enjoy watching him. Overtaking for Lewis and Kobayashi seems all too easy. Perhaps they could give lessons, or some "brave pills" for the others. Lewis stirred the pot in Berlin when asked if he thought Schumacher would be better this year. He said he thought Michael would not be much different, but he was welcome to prove him wrong.
Bernie is apparently winging his way to Melbourne for the race this year with his daughters, girlfriend and entourage, to bring some "global prestige" to the event. If this is an unusual occurrence then it just shows how Bernie feels about the event.
Lotus, the green and yellow one, completed an untroubled private test yesterday at Valencia and ended up 18th and 20th on the time sheets in the 1 minute 15's. Not too bad, about two seconds off the quick times, so a big leap forward, and they say they had no time to set the car up. Glock in the Virgin was even faster, so just maybe we will see those teams up amongst the second tier this season. Will make for more interesting racing. Jerez will tell us more, I hope.
Nice to see young American Alexander Rossi moving up to FR3.5 with a top team, Fortec. He finished fifth at a one off outing in Monaco last year and has gone well in testing, so go get 'em Alexander. Bernie or Tavo should pay for a top notch publicist to get his name better known in the US. Then we might see the public wake up, like with Lance Armstrong.
Williams are to proceed with a stock flotation on the Frankfurt exchange. I think it was Joe Saward who suggested that this may not be such a good move. Stockholders care about returns, like CVC, and not results. I think the Washington Redskins are the most profitable NFL team, and this clearly is not related to on-field performance. Managing expectations could be a hard balancing act for Sir Frank.
Hamilton also said he is not changing his driving style to suit different cars or tracks, this is who he is and that's how he is going to drive. Good on him, I for one enjoy watching him. Overtaking for Lewis and Kobayashi seems all too easy. Perhaps they could give lessons, or some "brave pills" for the others. Lewis stirred the pot in Berlin when asked if he thought Schumacher would be better this year. He said he thought Michael would not be much different, but he was welcome to prove him wrong.
Bernie is apparently winging his way to Melbourne for the race this year with his daughters, girlfriend and entourage, to bring some "global prestige" to the event. If this is an unusual occurrence then it just shows how Bernie feels about the event.
Lotus, the green and yellow one, completed an untroubled private test yesterday at Valencia and ended up 18th and 20th on the time sheets in the 1 minute 15's. Not too bad, about two seconds off the quick times, so a big leap forward, and they say they had no time to set the car up. Glock in the Virgin was even faster, so just maybe we will see those teams up amongst the second tier this season. Will make for more interesting racing. Jerez will tell us more, I hope.
Nice to see young American Alexander Rossi moving up to FR3.5 with a top team, Fortec. He finished fifth at a one off outing in Monaco last year and has gone well in testing, so go get 'em Alexander. Bernie or Tavo should pay for a top notch publicist to get his name better known in the US. Then we might see the public wake up, like with Lance Armstrong.
Williams are to proceed with a stock flotation on the Frankfurt exchange. I think it was Joe Saward who suggested that this may not be such a good move. Stockholders care about returns, like CVC, and not results. I think the Washington Redskins are the most profitable NFL team, and this clearly is not related to on-field performance. Managing expectations could be a hard balancing act for Sir Frank.