More Open Wheel Chatter

As always it was entertaining to hear Robin Miller’s Open Wheel ramblings as he co-hosted Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain on SPEED a few weeks ago…

The ever “controversial” Miller seemed “ahead of the curve” as usual. During the always entertaining segment of: HELL YES or B.S.? Despain asked: Will Villeneuve race full time in NASCAR?” Miller: BS! There’s NO way that Jacques is going to run 36 races. Miller has also vehemently said that there’s NO way that “MAC” Montoya will last through August…
Jack Roush who was in talks with Villeneuve has since hired 20yr old “Young Gun” David Ragan to replace Mark Martin next season. Villeneuve will possibly land a limited Busch Series ride with Roush next year…

When Despain asked Miller what would it take to get Open Wheel racing back to prominence it we look past the contentious CART-IRL split and start with a clean sheet of paper? I found this an interesting question since I’ve once again been “bamboozled” with the latest round of Champ Car-IRL merger talks, which seem less and less likely as time passes…

Miller replied that it needed to be like the CART “Salad Days,” (Mid 1990’s) with Street circuits, Road courses and Ovals! Throw in 10 million to bring back the Triple Crown 500 miler’s: Indy, Michigan and Fontana. Plus the short 1.0 mile ovals Milwaukee and Phoenix… Preferably a 20/21 race schedule with 5 Ovals…

Miller pointed out how the lack of American drivers is detrimental to the sport. Miller noted that Ryan Hunter-Reay, a former CART two time race winner may be joining ex-Open Wheel winner Robby Gordon’s NASCAR operation?

Miller stated that although the IRL is trying with Danica, (Patrick) Sam Hornish and Marco Andretti. You’ll never win back fans with one lone American in Champ Cars… Also you’ve got to be “hooked-up” with the ALMS. People don’t give a SHIT about the Grand Am series; they care about the ALMS because they’re real sports cars…

Miller noted how INSANE it was to him that 2004 Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice is currently struggling to find employment next year in either Champ Cars or the IRL. And Miller just doesn’t think AJ almendinger will stick around in Champ Car too long either...

Miller quoted Dan Gurney’s discouraging comment: “Those days are Long Gone!” In regards to Open Wheel racing ever returning to its glory days of International acclaim…

For more Robin Miller rantings, see: Open Wheel Chatter

Il Wurld der Schuey

Talk about marketing genius… Or how to start your retirement? What better way then to have your own island? Apparently this is exactly the case for freshly departed Michael Schumacher. Not to be confused with the “World ‘O Schuey” which is located in Michael’s hometown of Kerpen. Instead Michael has been given an Island further east…

Spin ‘N Win?

Did you see AJ Almendinger’s big spin? On Saturday while “channel surfing,” I ran across the Craftsman Trucks race on SPEED. I happened to tune in just-in-time to see Almendinger get the air taken off his rear and cause a really, really big WRECK…

Meanwhile in another twist of fate, apparent former IRL driver Buddy Rice will occupy Almendinger’s vacated seat at Forsythe Racing for the Champ Car season finale in Mexico City, Mexico. (Nov. 12) Rice is hopeful that a good showing could lead to a full time position with Forsythe in 2007…
Almendinger is practically assured of finishing second overall behind three time series Champion Sebastian Bourdais. With Justin Wilson most likely not racing due to his broken wrist, Almendinger’s finishing position seams secure since Wilson currently lies third overall. The closest battle in the Champ Car points race is for fourth place overall between ex-Forsythe driver Mario Dominguez and “Sugar Ray” (Paul) Tracy. Will RuSPORT substitute a driver for Wilson in Mexico?

Cubic Dollars

On Tuesday, Red Bull announced that AJ Almendinger will pilot its #84 Toyota Camary in NASCAR’s Nextel Cup series for 2007. Although Champ Car co-owner Gerald Forsythe had offered the 24 year old American driver a multi-year contract extension, Almendinger could not resist Red Bull’s “Big Money” offer to jump ship. Almendinger has finished 13th and 5th in two NASCAR Craftsman Truck races with Bill Davis Racing in recent weeks. Almendinger will partner Brian Vickers at Team Red Bull, making his Nextel Cup debut at Atlanta this weekend…
Although Almendinger has revitalized his Open Wheel career by winning 5 Champ Car races this season at Forsythe, Almendinger accepted Team Red bull’s offer because it gave him MORE guaranteed money. Almendinger will also contest the Texas Nextel Cup race on November 5th before becoming a full time NASCAR driver next year…

“MAC” Montoya continues his steady progress towards his 2007 Nextel Cup debut at Daytona. Montoya’s ARCA short track debut didn’t fair quite as well as his initial ARCA series debut. While leading the race Montoya made a “rookie” mistake. Claiming he didn’t understand his spotter’s comments, Montoya moved “up-high” Veering into the direct path of eventual race winner Stephen Wallace. (Rusty Wallace’s son) Montoya’s ARCA stock car scorecard reads 1-1 with a Third place finish and DNF to his credit. Look for “MAC” to make his Busch Series debut at Memphis this weekend…

Italian Open Wheel veteran “Mad Max” (Maxamilo) Papis will also make his Busch Series oval debut at Texas on November 4th…

San Paulo Surprise

Talk about “Baptism under Fire.” A few of the Toyota F1 team recently learned the phrase “Up Close and Personal…”

F1: 2006 Interlagos Finale

I’ve just finished watching SPEED’S coverage of the penultimate round of the 2006 Formula One season held in San Paulo, Brazil. As always I found the insights of SPEED’S “4 Musketeer’s” enlightening…

BMW-Sauber confirmed it’s 2007 Driver line-up, which doesn’t seem too surprising as the team’s current trio will stay intact. Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica will remain race drivers, while 19 year old German sensation Sebastian Vettel will return as test driver…

Williams has begun testing a Toyota powered hybrid chassis with mixed results. Apparently the engine is reliable, but the chassis is slow. Williams has also announced that AT & T will become the team’s new title sponsor for 2007…

Renault chose to play it ultra-conservative with Fernando Alonso’s engine choice for the season finale. Renault decided to preclude Alonso from any on-track participation Friday in order to keep mileage to a minimum. Renault also decided to replace Alonso’s primary “E” spec engine with the spare cars “D” spec “lump.” Renault elected for Giancarlo Fisichella to utilize their latest specification “lump” (The E-spec) while Alonso ran the older-spec engine with proven reliability to maximize Renault’s championship efforts…

Frank Montagny has been confirmed as test driver for Toyota in 2007…

Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button sported special “one-off” helmet designs for the weekend prior to being auctioned off for charity…

Jenson Button suffered a rear tire sensor failure during the Q-2 qualifying session. This caused “Jense” to lose his use of traction control. While Jenson falterd to 14th place, “Rubinoe” wound up with an 8th place grid spot upon making the final Q3 qualifying period…

Felipe Massa’s Ferrari was clocked at 189mph through the speed trap during qualifying…

Upon hearing that Michael Schumacher stated that Mika Hakkinen was his fiercest rival, Mika flew over to Brazil to witness Michael’s final race. It was nice to hear Mika’s voice again as SPEED’S Peter Winsor interviewed the Finn during the start of Saturday’s qualifying…

Audi has offered Michael Schumacher $12.5 million to drive either its sportscar or DTM challenger next season. Could we see Michael vs. Mika again?

Michael Schumacher suffered a broken fuel pump shaft at the beginning of Q3, netting NO time during the final qualifying session. The failure relegated Michael to a tenth place starting grid position for his final Grand Prix….

Massa wore a unique “home flag colours” driver’s suit while clinching pole position and his 2nd race victory. Massa becomes the first native driver to win the Brazilian Grand Prix since Ayrton Senna’s 1993 victory…

Surf’s Up (Australia Race Notes)

Qualifying
Think that Champ Cars visit to Australia is all “Fun ‘N Games?”
Just ask Champ Car driver Justin Wilson about his trip “Down Under.” Wilson suffered a broken wrist bone during Friday’s provisional qualifying session.
Lying third in the championship, Wilson suffered the injury upon spinning and striking a tire barrier. Wilson’s Champ Car season appears to be over for the remainder of the year as RuSPORT’s 2006 season continues to falter…
While home town “hero” Will Power (Team Australia) “wowed” the natives with his sweep of pole position both Friday and Saturday. (Power’s initial Champ Car career pole) Sebastian Bourdais was having troubles of his own. During the final qualifying session, Bourdais clouted the wall demolishing his primary chassis. Ripping the left half of the Lola chassis to shreds, damage to the monocoque tub was sufficient enough to cause Newman/Haas to switch to his back-up chassis for race day…

”The Rick Daly Show”
In another classic case of “Penny Pinching” SPEED sent only Jon Beekhuis to Australia, letting Derrick Daly and Rick Benjamin call the action stateside… Yet once again Rick Benjamin belabored his favourite series sponsor WALLMART. Benjamin ONLY managed to point out Andrew Ranger’s #27 WALLMART Lola seven times before Derrick Daly had to join-in, commenting that it was actually WALLMART ‘O Canada sponsorship… Then Benjamin got in one final “plug” for a grand total of mentioning Ranger’s sponsor 8 times. How much is Wallmart PAYING Benjamin, eh?

Uncharacteristically, Derrick Daly called his “hero” (Sugar Ray) Paul Tracy an IDIOT… The quip was in regards to Tracy spearing race leader Power upon exiting pit lane. Daly also agreed with Derrick Walker that Bourdais’s overtaking attempt was “Boneheaded!”

Race Action
While the race start was aborted in favor of a single file restart, fireworks soon erupted when the leader’s made their first pit-stop under caution. On lap 16 AJ Almendinger ripped his refueling hose off its fuel rig while exiting his pit-Box. The broken fuel hose sprayed methanol in his pit stall causing a brief pit fire to erupt… Returning to pit lane to remove the torn fuel hose Almendinger stalled before leaving the pits. Then on lap 19 Almendinger hit the wall due to gearbox difficulties.
Almendinger’s retirement secured Bourdais’s third consecutive Champ Car Driver’s Title. Bourdais became only the second driver in Champ Car’s 97 year history to accomplish the feat, joining Ted Horn’s achievement 58 years ago. (1946-48)

Meanwhile “Sugar Ray” Tracy was busy digging through his bag ‘O tricks, ramming Power’s side pod while exiting pit lane. The contact only caused minimal damage and the two drivers continued on…
Unfortunately while running third overall, Bourdais tried a “bonsai” out breaking maneuver, hitting Power and bending potential race winner Power’s suspension. (Lap 28) Bourdais was assessed a “drive-thru” penalty and finished 8th overall, while Power soldiered on to salvage a 12th place finish.

The furious in-fighting allowed Nelson Philippe to quietly work his way towards the front, where he held off the hard charging Mario Dominguez, scoring his debut Champ Car victory… The win was also CTE/HVM’s maiden team victory.
Ironically, Dominguez finished ahead of his ex-Forsythe teammate Tracy, whom was the meat in a “Canadian Bacon” sandwich. Tracy was forced to relinquish third place to Alex Tagliani for shortcutting a chicane. Andrew “Insert $ponsor’s name Here” Ranger brought up the rear of the Canadian trio, finishing 5th overall…

Rocketsports Racing had it’s best showing of the season with Dominguez’s 2nd place finish and teammate Antonio Pizzonia briefly leading in the newly re-liveried Lexington Energy Lola Ford/Cosworth. Unfortunately Rocketsports apparently “bungled” Pizzonia’s pit stop strategy by mistakeningly leaving “Jungle Boy” on track during the races final caution period…


Notes
According to Derrick Daly, spectator attendance was 211,000 through Saturday’s qualifying, EXCLUDING Sunday attendance figures…Sunday’s race day attendance was reported at 101,00+, giving an estimated total attendance figure of 312,00+…

In only his third Champ Car season, 20 year old Nelson Philippe became Champ Car World Series youngest race winner. Philippe also became Surfer’s Paradises 16th different winner in 16 years. Ex-CART (Rookie of the Year) “Kiwi” Scott Dixon previously held the honors, winning at age 21. Dixon surpassed youngest race winner. honors held jointly by the late Greg Moore and Al Unser, Jr.

Schumacher’s Last Dance

It’s still hard to believe the day has finally arrived… Alas, all racing drivers must eventually retire. (Or slide into mediocrity) Although Michael Schumacher has had a season filled with some very strange mistakes, Michael has also scored 7 wins. Can it really be 15 years ago that I watched Michael make his sensational Grand Prix debut for Privateer Eddie Jordan at Spa-Francorchamps…?
As the sport’s “elder statesman” at the age of 37, Michael still seems hugely motivated to achieve victory and secure further World Championships. Was he forced to retire by the arrival of Kimi Raikkonen? As with Ferrari’s recent engine failure, we’ll never know the answer…
Unfortunately with one race to go Michael’s bid for a record 8th World Championship seems to have been extinguished with his devastating engine failure in Japan…
It appears that Fernando Alonso is poised to become Formula One’s youngest two times World Champion at age 25. All Fernando must do is finish in the points. An 8th place finish or better will do the trick. Michael must win the race with Fernando finishing 9th or worse…
Michael definitely needs some assistance to clinch the title in his final Grand Prix, look for Michael to simply dominate…Will Fernando’s Renault engine falter? Or even better go “KABLAMOE!” Highly unlikely... Will Fernando’s right rear tire nut fall off again? NO! Renault has fired the mechanic who’d had two occurrences of this… Therefore wouldn’t it be ironic if Michael’s “little” brother “Ralfie” nudged Fernando out of a points scoring position…
Unfortunately, it was Michael’s turn for shenanigans as he made a typically brilliant pass of Giancarlo Fisichella. Giancarlo earned his pay by slicing his front nose end plate against Michael’s rear tire… This incident forced Michael to pit for new tires, dropping to 18th place. Yet Michael showed why he’s won seven titles by fighting his way back to the front of the field. Michael snagged his 76th fastest race lap on route to a superb 4th place finish, passing his replacement Kimi Raikkonen with four laps remaining…

Driving “Down Under”

As previously mentioned, Andreas Wirth will drive for Dale Coyne Racing “Down Under,” this weekend. Wirth won the Formula BMW (USA) Championship in 2004. Wirth made his Toyota Atlantics debut in 2005, finishing 6th overall. Driving one of Forsythe‘s four car Atlantic contingent in 2006, Wirth won the opening two rounds of the Champ Car Atlantic series. Wirth netted 6 podiums and finished 3rd overall behind 2006 Atlantic Champion Simon Pagenaud and runner-up Graham Rahal.

Pagenaud won 2 million dollars for clinching the title and the “mega” payout is an incentive to enable fledgling drivers the opportunity to move up to Champ Cars. Rahal recently tested a Newman/Haas Lola at Sebring. Look for both drivers to graduate to Champ Cars in 2007.

Meanwhile RuSPORT has confirmed Ryan Briscoe as Cristiano da Matta’s substitute for the season‘s remaining two races. The “Aussie” has driven previously for Chip Ganassi’s IRL team along with being a Toyota F1 test driver.

Rocketsports Racing has confirmed Antonio Pizzonia for this weekend’s event. Pizzonia will pilot the team’s second Lola chassis in the season‘s remaining two races in a bid to land a permanent full time ride in 2007. Pizzonia is an ex-Williams F1 test driver with Grand Prix race experience…

The Rocketsports announcement ensures a “full” Champ Car grid of 18 cars for the final two races. Champ Car has fielded as few as 16 or 17 cars earlier this season…

Fun in Holland

How to make friends and influence people… Spyker MF1 Racing driver Christian Albers apparently has “issues” with fellow F1 competitor Nick Heidfeld. Ah, the life of an aspiring Formula One pilot…

Italian Engineering

Many of us are still in shock over Michael Schumacher’s engine failure in Japan last week. Why did Michael’s Ferrari V-8 engine detonate? Especially since this was Michael’s first race engine failure in 6 years. (France, 2000) Of course we’ll never know the exact reason, nor will Ferrari be willing to divulge the cause. Ferrari has only disclosed that it was a top end failure and there was no warning…
Speculation centers on maximum engine revolutions and whether or not Michael was exceeding these prior to the detonation? Or did Ferrari instructed Michael to “turn up the wick” in a calculated risk to gain a larger gap prior to Michael’s final pit st0p?
Interestingly this year’s engine rules allow for teams to modulate their maximum engine revs, excluding Scuderia Toro Rosso’s rev-limited Cosworth V-10. This allows for teams such as Ferrari to play with peak engine RPM’s during the race weekend. Perhaps running to or above 20,000 RPM’s during qualifying. (Which teams are currently doing) Therefore the FIA has instituted a new maximum RPM limit of 19,000 RPM’s for 2007, which must be accomplished mechanically. This bans the use of RPM modulation through the use of any electronics…
It is certainly possible that Michael was running to a higher (20,000 RPM) rev-limit than normal for race distance when his engine went “KABLAMOE!” Only Ferrari knows…

During last week’s tests at Jerez, Michael topped the time sheets in preparation for the season’s finale at Interlagos. There is speculation that Ferrari will use “tweaked” engines in Brazil as they have nothing to loose… Michael will be able to use a new engine for the single remaining race. This will allow Ferrari to utilize a higher revving engine since it doesn’t have to worry about the usual two race weekend distance rule. Apparently rival F1 teams reported that Michael was running at 20,000 RPM’s in Jerez…

Buying a Country

Talk about bullying your way into a new market Up North, eh? First Montreal’s promoter voted Champ Cars off his Island. (The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on the IL Notre Dam) Then he announced a new “Twin-bill” NASCAR Busch Series/Grand Am race as its replacement…

Now that Jack Roush didn’t hire Jacques Villeneuve for the vacated Mark Martin 2007 Nextel Cup seat, speculation is that Roush is close to possibly signing Villeneuve to run in Busch. Roush campaigns a 5 car team in Busch and will possibly run Villeneuve in a limited number of events next season. Obviously the Montreal Busch Series race will be one of them as NASCAR will use Villeneuve as a crowd darling for the inaugural event…

Champ Car Driver Roulette

Rocketsports Racing has confirmed Antonio Pizzonia for the upcoming Surfer’s paradise, Australia event. The team’s second car driver for the season finale in Mexico City is still TBA.
Meanwhile RuSPORT has confirmed Ryan Briscoe as Cristiano da Matta’s substitute for the remaining two season races.

Who wants to be an Open Wheel Driver?

As always it was fun to hear Robin Miller’s open wheel rambling’s as he
co-hosted Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain on SPEED this past Sunday.
As usual Miller seemed right on target with his quips. During the always entertaining segment of “HELL YES or B.S.?” Despain asked: Will Villeneuve race full time in NASCAR?” Miller: BS! There’s NO way that Jacques is going to run 36 races... Jack Roush who was in talks with Villeneuve has since hired 20yr old David Ragan to replace Mark Martin next season…
When Despain asked Miller what would it take to get Open Wheel racing back to prominence it we look past the contentious CART-IRL split and start with a clean sheet of paper? I found this an interesting question since I’ve once again been “bamboozled” with the latest round of Champ Car-IRL merger talks... With both series releasing expanded 2007 schedules and Champ Car’s new DP-01 chassis, DON’T expect an open wheel merger anytime in the future…
Miller replied that it needed to be like the CART “Salad Days,” (Mid 1990’s)’with Street circuits, Road courses and Ovals! Throw in 10 million to bring back the Triple Crown 500 miler’s: Indy, Michigan and Fontana, plus the short 1.0 mile ovals Milwaukee and Phoenix… Preferably a 20/21 race schedule with 5 Ovals…
Miller stated that although the IRL is trying with Danica, (Patrick) Sam Hornish and Marco Andretti. You’ll never win back fans with one lone American in Champ Cars… Also you’ve got to be “hooked-up” with the ALMS. People don’t give a SHIT about the Grand Am series; they care about the ALMS because they’re real sportscars…
Miller pointed out how the lack of American drivers is detrimental to the sport. Miller noted that Ryan Hunter-Reay, a former CART two time race winner may be joining ex-Open Wheel winner Robby Gordon’s NASCAR operation?
Miller noted how INSANE it was to him that 2004 Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice is currently struggling to find employment next year in either Champ Cars or the IRL…
And Miller just doesn’t thing A. J. almendinger will stick around in Champ Car too long either... Gerry Forsythe has offered the 24yr old American a lucrative 5yr contract extension. Miller simply thinks Toyota and Red Bull’s buckets-full ‘O cash offer will simply be to hard for Almendinger to resist, as a Red Bull Racing/Toyota Nextel Cup seat remains open…
Miller quoted Dan Gurney’s discouraging comment: “Those days are long gone!” In regards to Open Wheel racing ever returning to its glory days of International acclaim…

F1: 2006 - Sayanora Suzuka

Holy Smokes! I still just CANNOT believe it! With 17 laps remaining, final pit stops completed and Michael Schumacher on his way towards his record 8th World Championship. Schumacher’s Ferrari V-8 engine goes “KABLAMOE!” while leading the race! Amazingly this was Schumacher’s first detonated engine failure in 6 years… (France, 2000)

Sadly this past weekend’s race in Japan appears to be Suzuka’s final race for the foreseeable future. This extremely popular circuit with F1 drivers has always had a very loyal fan base. This year’s sold out event hosted 160,000+ spectators sitting patiently through rainfall at 8AM of Friday’s practice session to see the race cars navigate the famous course.
After 20 years of hosting the Japanese Grand Prix, this wonderful circuit owned by Honda will be replaced by the massively upgraded Mount Fuji circuit owned by Japanese rival Toyota…

“The Pen is mightier than the Sword?” I can only imagine what its like to be a TV commentator under the scrutiny of a nationwide audience… Yet again I found myself frequently catching SPEED’S Bob Varsha making many ’“blunders.” During Friday’s practice session, “Messer’s” Varsha pointed out the BMW-Honda… Later during the broadcast, “my friend” Mr. Varsha further “misspoke” once again. As I sat ruing about his blunder that Lamborghini’s foray into Formula One was during a period when it was owned by GM. I always enjoy how they simply go to commercial break and continue on as though nothing wrong has happened…At least I wasn’t the only person to notice the blunder. Varsha corrected himself during Saturday’s qualifying show after an astute viewer emailed to correct him that it was Chrysler who’d owned Lamborghini instead of GM…

During Sunday’s race, Varsha commented on how Bridgestone will become F1’s sole tire supplier next season. Claiming that not only will Bridgestone provide “equal” tire’s for all competitors, but has asked the FIA to utilize it’s current Champ Car philosophy of “Alternate” red sidewall tires. This strategy would require all drivers to use the alternate (softer) tires for at least one stint during a race distance. I presume this is Bridgestone’s idea to “spice-up” the show a la Champ Cars…

Shanghaied!

I’ve been “Bo-Bo Varshaed!”

During Saturday’s qualifying session, I thought I smelled a rat when SPEED’S Bob Varsha (incorrectly) announced that Spyker MF1 Racing had secured Renault customer engines for 2007…
Watching half of the Japanese Grand Prix, Varsha commented that the Renault customer engine deal will be with Red Bull Racing, transferring their supply of Ferrari customer engines to Scuderia Toro Rosso.
During Sunday’s Chinese GP race, Varsha simply stated that Spyker had announced procuring Ferrari customer engines for 2007 and that the only unknown was which of the two Red Bull teams would use the Renault customer engines next year… (Can you say Red Bull?)
It had been rumoured that Spyker would have Ferrari customer engines as soon as the sale of Midland was completed. I’d found it a bit odd that Renault would be willing to supply engines to a competitor when one of Spyker’s team owner’s holds a 5% stake in Ferrari…

Interestingly as Varsha has the habit of constantly correcting David Hobbs mistakes, I’ve fallen prey to a typical “miss-speak” by Varsha…

Also of interest was the comment by Varsha that the Shanghai circuit took over two years to complete and cost more then $325 million…

Klien and Honda?

Apparently Johannes Klien, Christian Klien’s father and manager has been seen spending considerable time with Honda Racing in the paddock at both Shanghai and Suzuka.
Speculation suggests that Klien could become Honda’s test driver next season with current test driver Anthony Davidson expected to become a race driver with super Aguri in 2007.

F1: 2006 - Shanghai Shuffle

I’ve just finished watching the video tapes of the Chinese GP practice
& qualifying sessions. Here are a few selected tidbits gleamed from SPEED’s TV coverage...

What happens when you shun Dietrich Mateschitz’s offer to run a full season in Champ Cars? You loose your “wings” as Red Bull F1 driver Christian Klien has been replaced by Robert Doornbos for the remainder of the season with GP2 driver Michael Ammermuller making his Friday driver debut for RBR in China…

Fernando Alonso was forced to sit out two crucial test sessions during the three week lull prior to the Chinese GP. Alsono originally suffered a bruised right knee during Saturday’s Italian GP qualifying session. Afterwards it was discovered tha Alonso had a hairline crack due to contact with the cockpit scuttle while bouncing over Monza’s curbing…

Renault suffered three engine failures during testing prior to the Chinese Grand Prix. This follows an engine failure for Fernando Alonso during the Italian GP. Giancarlo Fisichella suffered 2 failures with new test driver Nelson Piquet Jr. suffering the third.
Speed’s Steve Matchett who was a guest of Renault during its Silverstone test weekend speculated that Renault is most likely suffering the same random piston crown failures that Ferrari suffered at the beginning of the season…

The massive engine failures of several teams during the past few weeks seem due to the INSANE engine “homologation” rules being forced upon engine manufacture’s by the FIA. Apparently their 2007 engines must be presented to the FIA by the Japanese Grand Prix weekend. These engine designs will then be “frozen” for 4 years and mechanically limited to 19,000RPM’s…

Spyker announced that while Christijan Albers
Will be retained for 2007, Tiago Monteiro will be dropped…

Spyker also announced that it will campaign Renault customer 2.4 liter V-8 engines for 2007. With Scuderia Toro Rosso most likely upgrading to Ferrari customer engines for ’07, it appears that Cosworth could sadly be out of Formula One. Steve Matchett correctly noted this as a true tragedy…

Honda Racing sported 555 tobacco livery for the weekend as its primary sponsor Lucky Strike is not sold in China. China represents 30% of worldwide tobacco consumption…

Steve Matchett prattled on about Kimi Raikkonen’s lack of technical feedback skills compared to Michael Schumacher’s, while David Hobbs pointed out those were pretty damm large “schue’s” to fill! All three SPEED announcers speculated that Schumacher might even stay on at Ferrari as a test driver next season since Schumacher certainly seemed unwilling to quit piloting F1 cars…

New Champ Car events for 2007

Champ Car World Series has announced its 2007 schedule, vastly revamped from the nearly concluded 2006 season. . The 2007 calendar includes a total of four newly confirmed events with two more possible late European additions. The 4 new venues are: Los Vegas, Nevada: (April 8) Zhuhai, China: (May 20) St. Jovite, Canada; (July 1) Phoenix, Arizona (Dec. 2).
Strikingly there will be no oval races held as Champ Car focuses solely on temporary street circuits and permanent road courses for the very first time in its history. Also many traditional venues race dates have been reassigned.

The 2007 schedule kicks off with three “state-side” races in April, beginning the season on the streets of Las Vegas, followed by Long Beach and Houston. The series then takes a month off before heading to china. The schedule does allow teams to compete at Indianapolis if they so desire with China’s inaugural Champ car event preceeding Indy’s Memorial Day weekend race…

Then back to the States for Portland and Cleveland before a three race swing “north of the border.” (Canada) Portland moves up one week from its traditional Father’s Day date to be combined with the 100th running of the Rose Festival. (The final year of Portland’s 3yr contract) Moving north, Montreal which has been purposely “mismanaged” by its Canadian promoter has been dropped in favour of a NASCAR Busch Series/Grand am race. Montreal will be replaced by St. Jovite which hosted Champ Cars during 1967-68, followed by traditional stops at Toronto and Edmonton. Then back home to San Jose, followed by Road America moving back to its traditional date followed by Denver.

The schedule currently has no September races, which most likely will be filled with two European events in Holland and Germany. Rumoured venues are the road circuits of Assen in Holland and Oschersleben in Germany. Assen is known primarily for it’s motorcycle racing, but has just undergone a $100m upgrade to include car racing. Speculated dates are: September 23 and September 30.

Champ Cars then moves “down under” to Surfer’s Paradise, Australia, before swinging “south of the border” to Mexico City, Mexico. The season ends for the first time in 4 years in America with the finale being held on the downtown streets of Phoenix, Arizona.
Dropped from the calendar is the Korean race which all 3 race attempts failed. Also gone are Monterey, Mexico and the Champ Car “signature” oval, the famed Milwaukee mile which will now host the IRL a week after the Indy 500.

All Quiet in Champ Car

After an extremely eventful race at Road America, the series takes a one-month sabbatical before contesting round 13 in Surfer’s Paradise, Australia. Look for Sebastian Bourdais to most likely collect his third consecutive Vanderbuilt Cup “Down Under.” The historic accomplishment would tie the only other driver in Champ Car history to win 3 titles in a row: Ted Horn,
58 years ago. (1946-47-48) A.J. Almendinger will most likely finish second in the championship with Justin Wilson collecting third…

New Team, New Colours…

You may have noticed three weeks ago in Monza, Italy the MF1 team sporting a new “name” addition. Now known as Spyker MF1 Racing, the team was sold during the Italian GP weekend. The team was sold to a Dutch-Arab consortium led by Michael Mol for a rumoured $90 million dollars.
The cars will sport new colours and livery starting with this weekend's Chinese GP. The cars will now run in orange and grey, similar to Spyker’s sports car program. It’s also believed that former Toyota F1 Technical Director Mike Gascoyne has been brought on-board. Gascoyne had currently been on “Gardening Leave.”