Belgian GP this weekend
Spa
Francorchamps
Two GPs in a row after the four week
layoff for the F1 circus. And a circus it has been, with the
predicted sacking of Nelson Piquet Jnr and then harsh words
in return criticizing his manager and Renault team boss
Flavio Briatore from the young man. That will get him
nowhere, other than permanently out of F1 unless his father
buys him a team, and BMW is for sale, so he might get lucky
at Xmas.
Renault also had to fight the exclusion from the Valencia
round - an absolutely ridiculous penalty imposed by the
stewards at the Hungarian GP after a wheel fell off. Did
they honestly think that teams deliberately send drivers out
in cars about to shed wheels? So the pit crew cocked it up.
The fact that the car had to retire and the crew man lost
his job was enough of a penalty. But no, the FIA in its
usual heavy handed manner, hands out poorly thought through
penalties. The exclusion was dropped after the appeal,
though Renault were then fined 50,000 USD to allow the
stewards to retain ‘face’.
Ferrari have not been out of the news for the last few
weeks, with Michael Schumacher coming back, not allowed to
test, and then failing the medical. Luca Badoer next in the
seat, with howls from the Spaniards that Marc Gene should
have got the drive. Then Kimi Raikkonen upends a rally car
and the new rumor is that Ferrari will get him a Fiat rally
car drive for 2010 and stick a wedge of cash in the glove
box to get him to leave Ferrari early, so that they can get
Alonso in the seat, as the Spanish banking giant Santander
is going from McLaren to Ferrari next year. Phew! Hardly
been a holiday at all!
However, after Valencia, now we get a real race circuit, Spa
Francorchamps, with Eau Rouge being the corner for those
with big hearts (and large cojones). The race will start at
7 p.m. our time and we watch from Jameson’s Irish Pub on Soi
AR, next to Nova Park. Come at 6 p.m. for a meal and a drink
and discussion and let’s hope for some real racing. We watch
the South African feed with no adverts.
What did we learn from
the Valencia Grand Prix?
It was boring…
It was boring…
It was boring…
However, we learned that the race was probably even more
boring than last year. It is the first time I was looking
forward to pit stops to hopefully see some action, and
McLaren didn’t let me down. All ready for race leader Lewis
Hamilton’s second pit stop, other than forgetting the new
wheels.
Brawn GP again ‘out-thought’ the opposition with some
brilliant strategic thinking by Ross Brawn, doing what he
was always good at. “Just like old days,” he said to the
emotional winner Rubens Barichello.
Current championship leader Jenson Button in the other Brawn
GP was obviously asleep for the first half of the race, so
it must have been just as exciting from the cockpit as it
was in front of the television screen. It was boring…
Ferrari lucked its way into another third podium place, with
the ebullient Raikkonen managing to stay awake for the race,
even though he did look as if he were asleep during the post
race interview. The racing was as soporific as Kimi’s
sparkling comments. It was boring…
Luca Badoer, called up for National Service for the Scuderia
after 10 years in the wings, showed they had waited too
long. I suggest that Luca should try falling off a
motorcycle before Spa, to allow Ferrari to get someone else
in the seat.
Championship contender Mark Webber showed himself to be a
championship pretender, with poor qualifying and an even
poorer race finish in 9th. At least he was honest, saying,
“I’ve been struggling all weekend and I think I got the
result I deserved, which was no points.” You did, Mark, you
did. Team mate Vettel popped another engine, to make it two
for the weekend. However, he should be excused, as he was
probably bored fartless by the whole event, and just forgot
to change gear. It was boring…
Home town hero Alonso ended up sixth after a clean drive,
whilst new team mate Romain Grosjean (pronounced Roman Grow
John) found out about the first lap argy bargy down the
back, the hard way. He also saved a mighty spin and missed
the wall, so he’s already better than the previous
seat-warmer Nasty Nelsinho, who always managed to hit the
wall.
Williams gained another fifth with Rosberg, but Knuckles
Nakajima was nowhere, and not even a puncture could disguise
his poor showing. But driving around on three wheels did
break the boredom for one lap.
Toro Rosso was in the event, I believe, with new signing
Jaime Alguersuari saying, “With ten laps remaining, I had a
problem with my drinks system which meant I couldn’t get
anything to drink. It was really tough.” Fortunately I
didn’t have the same problem at Jameson’s Irish Pub,
otherwise the evening for me would have been tough as well
as boring…
I believe BMW, Force India and Toyota did also compete, but
since we never saw them, I cannot comment. Other than it was
boring…
Autotrivia Quiz
Last week I asked what car is this? It had a
side valve engine which developed 10 bhp. It had a top
speed of 42 mph (67 kph). It had 4 wheel cable operated
brakes. It sold over 375,000 and its designer was
knighted. So what was it? It was the Austin 7 built by
Herbert Austin.
So to this week. The 1936 Rolls-Royce Phantom III is a
motoring legend in many ways. Wonderful engineering,
silky smooth engine and a modern suspension - but who
developed its front suspension?
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be the first
correct answer to email [email protected]
Good luck!
Rolls-Royce
PIII
Insomniacs Grand Prix
The very pro-active people at EasyKart are
running a 6 Hour Grand Prix at the Bali Hai race track,
at the bottom end of Walking Street in Pattaya this
weekend. The event is called the Ibis-EasyKart, with
drivers competing for the Ibis trophy.
This race is for the night owls, as it starts at
midnight on the Saturday night of August 29, runs for
three hours, with a rest and regroup and then continues
on for the second three hour stint, but on a different
track layout from the first three hour session.
Each team has a minimum of three and a maximum of five
drivers, and each driver must do a minimum amount of
seat time. Drivers are weighed and those under 80 kg
will be required to carry ballast, which can be up to 30
kg for drivers under 52.5 kg. There will be at least 11
driver changes during the event, so there will be plenty
of action in the pits with team drivers swapping seats.
There is only one fuel stop allowed in each three hour
session, and the organizers say that the karts will only
do one hour 45 minutes on a full tank, so the teams will
have to keep a close watch on consumption and elapsed
time.
Mindful of the fact that some of the drivers will be
getting tired (even youngsters need their sleep), there
will be a massage area at the circuit to get the drivers
up and perky again before they return to the fray.
Qualifying will be at 11 p.m. on the Saturday night
August 29 to allot grid positions, and the start will be
a Le Mans style with the drivers running across the road
to jump into the karts at the stroke of midnight.
Six hour
gokarts at Bali Hai.
Just an expensive VW?
Much media hype about the new Bentley Mulsanne
which was shown at the American Pebble Beach Concours
D’Elegance in Monterey, California.
The press releases gush on breathlessly on how this new car
will revive the historic British brand’s Mulsanne nameplate,
which it shares with the main straight of the Le Mans
circuit that has played host to six Bentley wins.
Bentley
Mulsanne
Honestly, this is really squeezing every last drop out of
the history of the iconic British marque. Sure a “Bentley”
won the 2003 Le Mans to make it the 6th win for the name, in
a car that was Bentley in name only. (Though designed in the
UK and built by the English outfit, Racing Technology
Norfolk (RTN), the basis and the engine were Audi - also
owned by VW.) The previous 5th win was in 1930 in a ‘real’
road-going Bentley, as were the four wins before then.
The Bentley press corps, having milked the Le Mans aspect of
Bentley history, then goes on to compare the new Bentley
Mulsanne with the 8 liter Bentleys of 1930-31, which they
describe as company founder WO Bentley’s “crowning
achievement” in 1930. According to Bentley press engineers,
the 8-litre was “the last big Bentley that was designed,
engineered and built from the ground up by Bentley engineers
- until now. The 8 liter’s breathtaking performance and
quality was perhaps the finest example of a ‘pure’ grand
Bentley,” said Bentley Motors board member for engineering,
Dr Ulrich Eichhorn. “Every mechanical detail carried WO
Bentley’s unique stamp and it was the clearest demonstration
of a car built without compromise.”
Chairman and chief executive of the Volkswagen-owned brand,
Dr Franz-Josef Paefgen, revealed the Dirk van
Braeckel-designed Mulsanne saying, “The challenge we set our
engineers was to create a new grand Bentley that would stand
as the pinnacle of British luxury motoring, offering the
world’s most exclusive driving experience.”
Come on, though it may be built in Crewe in the UK, it has
much technology from the VW-Audi ideas bin, with even the
space frame chassis coming from Audi.
Possibly the closest nexus between the new 2010 Bentley and
the 1930 8 liter will be the fact that both were released in
a time of world economic recession. In actual fact, the
1930’s car was a financial marketing disaster and was one of
the (many) reasons that Bentley went under and was
subsequently bought by Rolls-Royce (which now belongs to BMW
in another of those twists of post WWII fate).
I don’t know about you, but the new Bentley looks rather
bland in its photographs and is far from Dr Franz-Josef
Paefgen’s statement, “From the very first hand sketches in
the styling studio, we were inspired by the traditions of
the grand touring Bentleys and have sought to evolve this
story for a new generation of Bentley enthusiasts.”
Whatever, the price will be astronomical in the UK, and here
in Thailand it will be 300 percent astronomical. I don’t
think I can afford it. I’ll stick with the Daihatsu Mira.
Want to start your own
airline?
An auction house in Australia has just the ticket
for the would-be aviation buff. Buy your own fully restored
1940 Hawker Hurricane MkIIA, a former WWII fighter. Totally
restored in NZ, this is one of only 11 of these aircraft
still flying. The aircraft has been refettled to
configuration as a MkIIA with eight 0.303 caliber machine
guns, and is displayed in the colors of Number 73 Squadron,
France, 1940.
You can start your own war, with Bonham’s indicating that
they expect the Hurricane to fetch between 2-4 million
dollars.
Pro Series at Bira
scheduled
for this weekend
The Pro Racing Series caters for all three types
of race vehicles: saloon cars, pick-up trucks and
motorbikes. In saloon car racing, the engine size is
restricted to 1,600cc, which is the most popular category.
Racing from around 10 a.m. at the Bira circuit, which is off
Highway 36 between the Regent’s School and Highway 331
overpass.
