Mark Webber book signing in Melbourne!

RichardsF1    Formula 1     Mark Webber

Mark Webber is hitting the publicity trail on home soil to promote his first feature book co-written with Stuart Sykes, Up Front.

With the 2010 season having been Webber’s most successful to-date, and the Red Bull driver gives his account of an incredible season in Up Front, straight from the cockpit.

Following on from his hugely successful 2009 season where he took his maiden race victory, Webber takes the reader through his 2010 season race-by-race – the highs, the lows and the scandals – all written with his typical candour and frankness.

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Bed rest for heavily concussed Kovalainen

RichardsF1    Formula 1     Heikki Kovalainen

Heikki Kovalainen has been instructed to perform several days’ bed rest in order to recover from the “heavy concussion” the Finn sustained following his crash at last weekend’s Race of Champions event in Dusseldorf.

A spectator view of Kovalainen’s ROC smash

The Lotus driver – competing against Sébastien Loeb in an Audi R8 duel – clipped a wall and crashed heavily when his throttle stuck open.

Kovalainen was momentarily knocked unconscious after the accident and was sent to hospital for precautionary checks.

His passenger – his girlfriend Catherine Hyde – was also injured in the crash, suffering a hairline fracture in her pelvis and bruises to her legs.

[Original video via Dajay82]

Engineer Shovlin promoted in Mercedes GP

RichardsF1    Formula 1     Mercedes GP, Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg, Technical

Michael Schumacher’s race engineer Andy Shovlin has been promoted to the role of Mercedes GP’s chief engineer for the 2011 season.

We reported earlier in November that both Schumacher and team-mate Nico Rosberg would be working with new race engineers next year, with Shovlin to assume “a more general engineering role”.

Shovlin was Jenson Button’s long-time engineer since the Briton joined the then-named BAR Honda squad in 2003, and the pair worked together until Button took the Drivers’ Championship title in 2009 with Brawn GP prior to leaving for McLaren.

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Happy birthday, Mika Salo!

RichardsF1    Birthdays, Former F1 Figures, Formula 1     Mika Salo

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Former F1 driver – and sentimental winner of the 1999 German Grand Prix – Mika Salo is turning 44 today.

A childhood Helsinki neighbour and rival of Mika Häkkinen, the pair rose through the ranks of the Scandinavian motorsport and had a thrilling battle for the 1990 British F3 championship crown, which went Häkkinen’s way, even though Salo himself took six race wins.

While Häkkinen would go on to join the Lotus F1 team the following year, Salo moved to Japan and spent several years plying his trade as he aimed to crack Formula 1.

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Webber, Ricciardo tear it up on home turf

RichardsF1    Formula 1     Daniel Ricciardo, Mark Webber, Media, Red Bull Racing

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While Sebastian Vettel was helping Germany to win the Race of Champions Nations Cup last weekend, Red Bull’s Australian duo Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo paid a visit to the Australian Festival of Speed to engage in plenty of rubber-burning antics just outside the city of Perth.

Perth-born Ricciardo kicked off proceedings with a demonstration run alongside Riverside Driver in the CBD on the Friday, with the pair completing a series of demonstration runs at Barbagallo Raceway, located north of the Western Australian capital.

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Santander to part with McLaren?

RichardsF1    Formula 1     McLaren, Sponsors

Spanish banking and insurance giant Santander looks set to end its sponsorship deal with McLaren once its “transition” to Ferrari finishes at the end of the season.

The company has continued its sponsorship deal with McLaren – albeit in a lower-key form – despite signing with Ferrari as one of the Italian team’s major sponsors at the start of the season.

“We have had a transition with McLaren and who knows if in the future we will keep on having a relationship with them and their drivers,” spokesman Juan Manuel Cendoya was quoted in the Spanish press.

It was rumoured that Santander – who joined McLaren in 2007 in the lead-up to Fernando Alonso’s ill-fated season at the squad – was instrumental in brokering the deal that saw the double World Champion sign with Ferrari at the end of the 2009 season.

Kovalainen knocked unconscious in RoC crash

RichardsF1    Formula 1     Andy Priaulx, Heikki Kovalainen, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel

Lotus Racing driver Heikki Kovalainen was momentarily knocked unconscious after suffering a big accident while competing in the Race of Champions event at Dusseldorf in Germany.

The Finn’s return to the event that he famously won in 2004 proved to be something of a downer when he crashed heavily in the afternoon’s first heat.

After narrowly losing his heat in the Audi R8 to multiple WRC title holder Sébastien Loeb, Kovalainen clipped the barriers at the final corner and broke his car’s rear suspension.

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Ricciardo to be Toro Rosso’s ‘Man Friday’

RichardsF1    Driver Market, Formula 1     Daniel Ricciardo, Toro Rosso

The Red Bull group has moved quickly to make sure its impressive young charge doesn’t get snatched up by another outfit, signing Daniel Ricciardo to be Toro Rosso’s reserve and ‘Friday’ practice driver for the entire 2011 season.

The 21-year-old Australian will alternate between the cockpits of the team’s regular drivers, Jaime Alguersuari and Sébastien Buemi, during the opening Friday practice sessions at each of the 2011 Grands Prix.

“I have to say thanks to Red Bull for this great opportunity,” Ricciardo said as part of the announcement. “My ultimate aim is to be a full time Formula One driver and this new role has to be the best step toward achieving that ambition.”

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Ecclestone recovering after London mugging

RichardsF1    Formula 1, Mishaps     Bernie Ecclestone

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone is nursing a meaty black eye after muggers attacked the 80-year-old outside his London home.

The Sun reports that the F1 supremo and his new girlfriend, Fabiani Flosi, was rushed to hospital after the pair was set upon by four attackers who punched and kicked the British billionaire as they made off with watches, cash and jewellery on Wednesday night.

The timing certainly couldn’t have been more ironic, after the Briton had recently dismissed a recent armed hijacking attempt involving Jenson Button and his entourage during the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend, when he suggested that robbers will always target “people who look a bit soft and simple”.

[Original image via Tutto Sport]

Klien: It’s harder for European drivers today

RichardsF1    Driver Market, Formula 1     Christian Klien, Gary Paffett, Hispania Racing, Nick Heidfeld, Nico Hulkenberg, Paul di Resta

Occasional HRT driver Christian Klien has claimed that the globalisation of Formula 1 is making it harder for drivers based in the sport’s more traditional markets to secure places on the grid.

Having made a couple of impressive performances in the latter half of the season with the struggling backmarker outfit, the Austrian is hopeful he can secure a full-time berth on the grid in 2011, but acknowledged that he faces an uphill battle, particularly with a raft of pay-drivers knocking on many teams’ doors.

“Nico Hülkenberg’s case shows that there are no guarantees,” he told Vorarlberg Online. “He had a great debut year with a pole position in Brazil, and he’s out.”

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