..and that's the real tragedy of modern Formula 1. I don't know how it could have been prevented, but the lack of competitive teams and especially privateers has paralleled its trip to the largely sedate sport it is now.

The last season went better than most of the recent ones, and this one is shaping up to be pretty good, with 4 teams in the hunt. (Considering that supposedly the new tech showed up in Spain, let's consider that our first real measure of the cars.) If the Renault's performance is 90% Alonso, I've never been so glad someone did not get along with their team. Let's see if he can go drive for Toyota or Honda next! Then, we can get him to drive for some sort of Lotus/Ford that I dream about and make them good, and I will just plain sleep better at night.


Ok, that was a bit of a tangent. But if Renault can keep that engine together this will be a very nice season. If Renault/McLaren/BMW can find enough to at least make Ferrarri work realllllly hard it could be an excellent season. Hopefully someone will show up to fill in the gap that that Super Aguri seems certain to leave. (Ford?...GM?...Porsche?...Fuji Heavy Industires?...anyone?...anyone?)

 

McLaren's just not looking all that great this year compared to Ferrari. Wonder how much is because they don't have all the Stepney info to help them out. They were watched especially carefully during the off season.

BTW, don't know if you BMW fans have seen this flick, but it's pretty funny (in a perverse sort of way).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-24NutTQ_E

 

Here's the teams from 1996:

Williams
Ferrari
Benetton
McLaren
Jordan
Ligier
Sauber I still hear them called BMW/Sauber
Tyrrell
Footwork
Minardi
Forti


Bold - Still Alive
Red - Gone from the sport.

 

While the 1996 team names no longer exist, some of those teams have had interesting lineages.

Benetton became Renault, of course

Jordan became Midlands became Spyker became Force India

Ligier became Prost for a while

Footwork became TWR Arrows under Tom Walkinshaw for a while

(At one point there was a buyer for both Prost and TWR equipment hoping to get into F1, but it didn't come to pass.)

Minardi became Toro Rosso

Sauber survives in name only thanks to a thoughtful gesture by BMW. I don't believe Peter Sauber has any say in the team, though.

 

 

Read an article on SpeedTV that Heikki is OK. He says he has a headache and a stiff neck but otherwise is fine. Quoted from the article:

" McLaren has calculated that Heikki’s speed was approximately 145mph when the tire deflated, and about 80mph when he hit the five-layer tire barrier. That created a deceleration of 27 Gs." Written by: Adam Cooper
RACER Magazine

Amazing! I thought for sure he would of had some lower body injuries. I hope he makes the next race.

 

These guy's win. And I'm sure he'll be back. Hamilton's wreck last year was just as bad and he was back soon enough. Now on the other hand, Bob got noodled pretty bad and was out for a few weeks.

 

Oh no--Kimi, say it isn't so:

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/300420...quit-talk.html

That really WOULD give you-know-who an opening. Remind me to quit seeing red.

 

I would be hard pressed to believe that. Just can't see it happening like that.

 

Where there's smoke, there's (often) fire...

And after all, he's put in a long time. I'm guessing he's got the bucks to show for it, too.

 

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2008/5/7723.html
Good news for HK fans. It looks like he'll be back as long as he passes the FIA checkout.

 

Quick question... has anyone here ever attended the Monaco GP? I'm looking for a bit of travel advice to try to see a little F1 on short notice.

Thanks!

 

gptours.com seems to offer the most comprehensive travel arrangements. If only I could afford that... I want Indy back!!

On topic... I can see Kimi quitting. What else is there to do? He's got lots of cash to party with now. Run a little Le Mans, maybe DTM... Oh! NASCAR! Heh.. that'd be a sight.

 

Travel part is taken care of. I'll be in France for business. I'm looking for advice on viewpoints, tickets, etc for the race and qualifying.

 

*sarcasm*Well, there's a team that feels the need to wear a lot of red and paint little horsies on their cars. Boo them. There's a team with a really neat silver and red scheme. Cheer for them or the team that's white, yellow, and blue. Or the BMW guys in white.

 

If you can't get tickets, PM me and I'll give you the street-by-street directions for the course. We're going to be there the week before the race, and will drive it IF they haven't already set up the barricades. We are renting an Alfa (okay, a cheap one, but still an Alfa), so it would be great to run it.

Hope you are able to get tickets. It's always a great race.

 

I'm a huge F1 fan so I'm trying my best. I don't think I can make the actual race but I would like to go to Saturday qualifying. Just trying to figure out if I need to buy the $400 ticket or if I can get a glimpse from somewhere around the city.

If not, I may go to Nice and Monaco on Tuesday and just wander... check out the auto museum and see what awesome cars are in town for the race.

I just want a taste.

Then next year I'll be motivated to go for the actual race and not just as a side trip on a business trip.

 

Where? Do you have a link/address/info?

We are going to the Ferrari museum in Maranello. Supposed to be great.

 

http://www.frommers.com/destinations/monaco/A20623.html

 

Thanks, I'll add it to the list!

 

Bummer !

Wonder who will take their place?

 

Yeah, now F1 needs a new crappy team to make the other teams feel better when they do lousy.

 

It's a real shame that the Super Best Friends can't play. It seems that Sato and Davidson are real stand-up guys. Friendly and down-to-earth. They seemed truly appreciative of the opportunity that they have (had) as opposed to the attitudes of some drivers.

Sato provided one of the most exciting moments in F1s recent history when he passed Alonso at the Canadian GP last year.

I'm sorry to see them go but hope and expect to see them driving again, soon.

 

I went to San Marino in '04 . . . and spent a night before arriving in Imola in Fiorano.

If you are lucky there will be some testing going on while you are there. There are a couple of places around Fiorano to get a good look at the test circuit. The Galleria Ferrari is unbelievable. Not to be missed.

There are several very cool F1 and Ferrari memorabilia shops in the area, too.

Managed to rent a mini and drive six or seven laps of Monaco on my way to Monza in '06! A lifelong dream realized, albeit only partially and within the law! be careful, there are more police in Monaco per capita than any other place on earth.

have fun

 

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