Trulli gearing up for 2011 season with Lotus

RichardsF1    Driver Market, Formula 1     Jarno Trulli, Team Lotus

Jarno Trulli has given the strongest hint yet that he expects to be retained by Lotus Racing – or whatever it lands up being called – for the 2011 season.

The one-time Grand Prix winner, 36, recently dismissed speculation that he was considering a switch to NASCAR racing next year, but speculation linking other drivers with his seat has not yet gone away.

Since joining Lotus after Toyota’s withdrawal from Formula 1 at the end of 2009, the Italian has had a difficult baptism with the new outfit in 2010, bearing the brunt of the team’s mechanical issues and being (at times) rather more vocal in his frustrations, while team-mate Heikki Kovalainen has rather more quietly got on with the job at hand.

read more

Happy birthday, Slim Borgudd!

RichardsF1    Birthdays, Former F1 Figures, Formula 1    

Former F1 driver and ABBA drummer Slim Borgudd is turning 64 today!

Born as Karl Edward Tommy Borgudd, the Swede’s first career was as a drummer, most famously as a session percussionist for several ABBA tracks.

The Swede dabbled in junior motorsport events from the mid-1960s, but his career kickstarted when he won the 1973 Scandinavian Formula Ford series and the 1979 Swedish Formula 3 championship.

A attempt to move into Formula 2 was not a happening thing, and his sole outing in 1980 was the Monaco F3 race, where he rose to third until bodywork became loose, and fell to finish sixth while hanging onto the flailing bodywork with one hand.

read more

Organisers looking to offload Valencia GP?

RichardsF1    Formula 1     Bernie Ecclestone, Hermann Tilke

And now to some good news…

Rumours within the Spanish press are claiming that organisers of Valencia’s European Grand Prix are furiously working to offload the race to an alternative venue.

El Periodico newspaper reports that the Valencian regional President Fancisco Camps has arrived at the conclusion that the port city can no longer afford the annual fee and organisation costs of hosting the event.

The report claims that the organisers are spending some €30 million per year on the race – including an €18 million fee to Bernie Ecclestone’s Formula One Management group.

read more

Failure to revive French GP infuriates Prost

RichardsF1    Formula 1     Alain Prost, Bernie Ecclestone

Four-time World Champion Alain Prost has expressed his frustration that attempts to-date to have the French Grand Prix returned to the Formula 1 calendar have, so far, not borne fruit.

France last hosted a Formula 1 Grand Prix in 2007 and has remained off the calendar ever since, although Prost has himself been a keen supporter of the (failed) alternative projects at Flins-Les-Mureaux and a Paris street race.

The 51-time Grand Prix winner told the RMC radio station of his concerns that interest in getting France back on the F1 landscape is starting to flag.

read more

Could an STR driver make way for Ricciardo?

RichardsF1    Driver Market, Formula 1     Daniel Ricciardo, Franz Tost, Helmut Marko, Jaime Alguersuari, Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso

Scuderia Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost has created suspicions that the Faenza-based outfit might not retain either one – or even both – of its current drivers, Jaime Alguersuari or Sébastien Buemi, for the 2011 season. This is despite the team having locked the two youngsters into contract extensions by the halfway point of the season.

The speculation has suggested that either one of the prospects could make way for Red Bull’s reserve driver, Daniel Ricciardo, who impressed many in the F1 paddock with the quick times he posted in the recent Young Driver test at Abu Dhabi.

The 21-year-old Australian’s motorsport whereabouts have not yet been determined for the 2011 season – a move to GP2 seems the most sensible prospect – and Red Bull’s advisor, Dr Helmut Marko, has not ruled out a graduation straight into Formula 1.

read more

Manager: No contract yet signed for Sutil

RichardsF1    Driver Market, Formula 1     Adrian Sutil, Force India

Adrian Sutil has reportedly agreed to an extension of his contract with Force India for the 2011 season, but no contract has yet been signed, according to his manager.

The 27-year-old has been linked with moves to other teams for the 2011 season – rumoured to be Mercedes GP, Renault and Williams – while his job-seeking compatriots Nick Heidfeld and Nico Hülkenberg (who is now rumoured to join Mercedes GP as its reserve driver) are simultaneously eyeing off Sutil’s seat at the Vijay Mallya-owned outfit should he jump ship.

read more

Mallya’s son eyes F1 role, but is he the right man for the job?

RichardsF1    Formula 1     Force India, Vijay Mallya

Vijay Mallya’s son has admitted that he will follow in his father’s footsteps into the world of Formula 1 management at some point in the future.

New York born Siddarth, 23, has a business degree from London’s Queen Mary University and is already a company director of his father’s United Breweries consortium and runs the day-to-day operations of his father’s Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket team, the Royal Challengers.

And with his billionaire father heading up Kingfisher Airlines and the Force India F1 team, rumours have been sparked that a succession plan will be on the cards in future.

But is he the right man for the job?

read more

Happy 41st birthday to Olivier Beretta!

RichardsF1    Birthdays, Former F1 Figures, Formula 1     Larrousse, Olivier Beretta

Monaco’s last F1 driver, Olivier Beretta, is celebrating his 41st birthday today!

A strong Formula 3000 season in 1993 – winning at Donington for Forti Corse – and a good helping of sponsorship dollars saw the 24-year-old Beretta join the financially struggling Larrousse team for the 1994 F1 season, partnering Érik Comas.

With the LH94 powered by the ancient Ford EB V8 engine, Beretta was never going to be a competitive prospect in his maiden season, and did well to get the car off the last couple of rows of the grid in his ten outings for the team. Beretta’s best race finish was a seventh placed effort at the crash-affected German Grand Prix, which was also the race at which Larrousse scored its final championship point (Comas finished sixth).

read more

Massa and Schumacher happy after Pirelli test

RichardsF1    Formula 1     Felipe Massa, Michael Schumacher, Pirelli, Sebastien Buemi, Tyres

With the season-ending Pirelli tyre test now out of the way, the teams and drivers now head back to their respective factories to download the massive amount of information gathered from the two-day opportunity to sample Pirelli’s tyre development efforts as it prepares to come back to Formula 1.

For some drivers, the outcome of the test was of greater significance, and the likes of Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher were two such examples who notably struggled adapting to Bridgestone’s 2010 tyres.

Massa would go on to set the quickest lap time on the opening day of the test and declared he was happy with the new-for-2011 tyres, while Schumacher was a little more restrained in his initial assessment, despite almost matching Day 2’s quickest man, Fernando Alonso.

read more

Ricciardo unsure of 2011 prospects

RichardsF1    Driver Market, Formula 1     Daniel Ricciardo, Helmut Marko, Red Bull Racing, Toro Rosso

Red Bull Racing’s reserve driver Daniel Ricciardo remains unsure of what lies ahead for him on the 2011 motorsport landscape, despite comfortably heading the timesheets in the two-day Abu Dhabi Young Drivers’ test session held last week.

The Australian wound up quickest on both days of testing in the RB6, and posted a lap time quicker than the pole position effort from championship winner Sebastian Vettel, although it must be acknowledged that the track was significantly grippier than at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend.

A long-term Red Bull protégé, Ricciardo has risen quickly through the junior formulae, winning the British Formula Renault WEC crown in 2008, the British F3 title in 2009, and being pipped at the post in this year’s Formula Renault 3.5 championship by Mikhail Aleshin.

read more

Book Review: ‘Born To Be Riled’

RichardsF1    Book Reviews     Jeremy Clarkson

Born To Be Riled, by Jeremy Clarkson
Paperback, © 1999 Penguin Books, ISBN 978014028996

Born To Be Riled is Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson’s third book in the series of his compiled newspaper columns, and despite its vintage, it is a great read that still carries relevance in today’s motoring world.

It would be an understatement to say that Clarkson finds the world, at times, to be a maddening and confusing place, and doubtless many would in fact agree with him. Compound this with observing the state of the world from behind a steering wheel – particularly within the vicinity of other mad and confused people who can’t control their own cars – and you will definitely have an appreciation for many of his dry observations on the state of play.

read more

Don’t forget to cast your vote in our Awards!

RichardsF1    Awards, F1 2010    

Don’t forget! The inaugural Richard’s F1 Awards are now open!

Until 31 December, you can vote for your favourite nominee in a host of categories, including:

• Overtaking move of the Year
• Team of the Year
• Race of the Year
• Tantrum of the Year
• Fizzer of the Year
• Driver of the Year
• AND MORE!

And you can win prizes just by voting! Vote as many times as you like to increase your chances of winning.

To enter your votes, click here.

Monza concerned it will lose its place in F1

RichardsF1    Formula 1     Bernie Ecclestone

Italian Grand Prix organisers are seriously concerned that plans to take the sport to a street race in Rome will leave the historic Monza circuit without a Grand Prix.

Noises from the Italian capital and Bernie Ecclestone’s Formula One Management group claim that Monza has nothing to be concerned about, but officials from F1’s last truly high-speed circuit are remaining sceptical.

“Amid a globalisation of grands prix, each country will inevitably be allowed to stage only one [race],” Monza boss Enrico Ferrari told Bloomberg, adding: “[And] since Rome is the capital, I’m afraid we’d lose the Grand Prix forever.”

read more

Maldonado keeping quiet on Williams rumours

RichardsF1    Driver Market, Formula 1     Nico Hulkenberg, Pastor Maldonado, Willi Weber, Williams

Newly-crowned GP2 champion Pastor Maldonado has refused to confirm speculation that he has already signed a deal with make his Formula 1 debut with Williams in 2011.

The Venezuelan was a busy figure in Adu Dhabi last week, testing with both Williams and Hispania Racing in the two-day Young Driver test at the Yas Marina circuit, and again in the HRT cockpit for both days of the Pirelli familiarisation test session. The Spanish outfit has secured a deal to use Williams’ gearboxes for next season.

Maldonado is an attractive prospect for the Williams squad by virtue of the rumoured $15 million in sponsorship backing he brings from his country’s government and the state-owned petroleum company, PDVSA. Williams is itself facing the loss of five major companies from its sponsorship roster in the off-season.

read more

2010 WTCC Final Championship Standings

RichardsF1    Championship Standings, WTCC     FIA

Final championship standings of the 2010 World Touring Car Championship

2010 FIA World Touring Car Championship – Drivers’ Standings*:

	Driver		Team	Points
1.	Yvan Muller		RML Chevrolet	331
2.	Gabriele Tarquini		SR Sport SEAT	276
=.	Robert Huff		RML Chevrolet	276
4.	Andy Priaulx		RBM BMW	246
5.	Tiago Monteiro		SR Sport SEAT	177
6.	Alain Menu		RML Chevrolet	173
7.	Augusto Farfus		RBM BMW	167
8.	Tom Coronel		SR Sport SEAT	136
9.	Norbert Michelisz		Zengö-Dension SEAT	104
10.	Colin Turkington		eBay Motors / AVIVA BMW	97

read more