Formula One, abbreviated to F1 and also known as Grand Prix racing, is the highest class of single-seat open-wheel formula auto racing. It consists of a series of races, known as Grands Prix, held on purpose-built circuits or closed city streets, whose results determine two annual World Championships, one for drivers and one for constructors. The cars race at speeds often in excess of 300 km/h (185 mph) with engines that produce, as of 2005, around 950 bhp at just over 19000 rpm.
For 2 million euros, you can buy just about anything you’re heart desires. But if there’s item where 2 million wouldn’t be enough, it’s Michael Schumacher’s 1994 Benetton Formula One car.
The said car, which is actually the exact same one Schumacher drove on his way to his first Formula One championship, is being auctioned off at eBay with the current bid price now reaching 2.6 million euro (£2.3m).
The car’s owner and seller has advertised the car on the German eBay site and in addition to the car itself, the whole package comes with two extra sets of wheels and tires, plus a data laptop that monitors the car’s fluid levels and temperatures.
The car has also been restored to its original appearance. If you recall back in 1994, Schumacher crashed into Damon Hill in the last race of season. As a result of the crash, Hill – who finished second to Schumi that season – was forced to retire from the race, thereby handing over the title to the German.
In the event that you’re interested in making the purchase, you have until Monday to make a bid for the F1 car, although at 2.6 million euros, we strongly advise you to just hang on to your cash – unless of course you’re the biggest Michael Schumacher fan in the world.
If you can remember just how excited we were just to get close to an official Formula One race car wheel from Enkie, then you can imagine how tickled we were to be in the presence of a bona fide F1 racing engine from the English racing engineers at Cosworth. However this isn’t just any old exotic high revving open wheel motor, the "CA" is a 2.4 Liter V8 that was introduced back in 2006 when the FIA mandated the switch from the more expensive ten cylinder power plants to an octet of pistons working in harmony on the Grand Prix circuit. This version of the 750 HP racing V8 was originally equipped on the Williams F1 machines and when it made its debut at the 2006 Bahrain GP and during qualifying spun to the tune of 20,000 RPM; a feat that still impresses to today. The F1 V8 wasn’t the only piece of machining art, Cosworth also had a massaged 4B11 from the EVO X complete with cutaways to let us in on what the new turbocharged four cylinder from Mitsubishi looks like on the inside.
First it was BMW. Then Toyota followed next. Now, it looks like Renault is headed out the door too.
Renault’s F1 team executives met in Paris recently and rumors have spread that the French-based company is contemplating on following Toyota in leaving Formula One.
After a tumultuous – and that’s an understatement – season that involved the sacking of team principals Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds, Renault is now looking at the possibility that participating in Formula One may not be in their best interests anymore.
Although the meetings have gone on continuously, an announcement is not expected in the coming days because the company, led by president Carlos Ghosn, is scheduled to have an event promoting the brand’s new direction in introducing zero-emission vehicles, as evidenced by the recent news that the Zoe Zero Emissions Concept will be launched in 2012.
In the event Renault does pull the curtains on their F1 tenure, it would make them the third team from the 2009 grid to leave Formula One, following the recent departures of BMW and Toyota.
By our count, that’s now four major teams – including Honda last year - that have left Formula One in the past year and we’re beginning to fear that this could be the beginning of what is already becoming a mass exit out of the sport.
The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-24 Formula One car wears a set of very special wheels from the Japanese rim manufacturer Enkei. By the very nature of the sport, components must be extremely lightweight and resilient in order to give the teams every competitive edge possible while standing up to spinning at 200 MPH and hitting FIA curbs at triple digit speeds. The wonderful thing about the SEMA show in Las Vegas is that you have a chance to get up close and personal with these types of items, as well as the wide assortment of their everyday offerings. As the Enkei representatives turned their backs, we took the opportunity to lift the wheel from its stand, and because of its size and shape considered playing a game of football with it. The wheel was so surprisingly light, and being significantly wider than it is tall makes for a rare sight to see. To get this kind of contact with a piece of a Formula One race car you would have to risk being shot in the paddock by a mechanic, however in SEMA up close and friendly atmosphere, anything goes.
The Formula One off-season is barely a day old and we already some major news on that front. Bridgestone, F1’s sole tire supplier has decided that 2010 would be its last season in Formula One.
The news was announced by the Bridgestone Corporation in Japan after the tire manufacturer decided not to extend its contract past 2010. Bridgestone has been the exclusive tire supplier of Formula One after its chief rival, Michelin, decided to leave the sport in 2007.
According to Hiroshi Yasukawa, Bridgestone’s chief decision-maker in the company’s motor racing division, the decision to leave Formula One stemmed from Bridgestone’s intention in re-directing its “resources towards the further intensive development of innovative technologies and strategic products".
Loosely translated, the company would rather spend some of its allocated budget for F1 development on other more important endeavors.
Bridgestone’s apparent exit after the 2010 season marks the end of a 13-year partnership with Formula One, which began in 1997 when the Japanese tire company entered the sport to go head-to-head with Goodyear.
As the final curtain of the 2009 season comes down, BMW closes its paddocks one last time and bids goodbye to a sport that it has been an integral part of for a decade.
Despite not winning the World Championship since it re-entered Formula One in 1999, BMW – which returned as the BMW Williams F1 Team - closes the latest chapter in their storied F1 history with a resume that includes ten wins, 17 pole positions, and 45 podium finishes from 2001-2005.
After 2005, the team became BMW Sauber F1 and since then has accumulated over 300 World Championship points, including the team’s first-ever win at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix. This year – the team’s final season in Formula One – BMW Sauber F1 finished a disappointing sixth in the Constructor’s Championship after an off-season that saw the team as one of the upstart challengers to the supposed Ferrari-McLaren tug-of-war.
Now that the season has come to end, BMW’s tenure in Formula One closes along with it. It’s been a great ten-year run, to say the least. And while we won’t be seeing BMW in the pit lanes in the foreseeable future, we’re not closing our doors to the day when BMW makes another comeback in Formula One.
In the F1 world, Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen is also known by a nickname that seems to suit his personality and driving style. Dubbed as the ‘Iceman’ by his peers, Raikkonen’s calculated and unflappable demeanor on and off the track
At this year’s Brazilian Grand Prix, Raikkonen gave new meaning to his nickname, after an overzealous Heiki Kovaleinen drove off his scheduled pitstop prematurely and taking part of the fuel rig with him along for the ride.
With gasoline pouring all over the pitlane, Raikkonen – which was behind Kovaleinen as they were exiting the pits – drove into the fuel and, for a split second, engulfing his Ferrari into a ball of fire. While other drivers would surely have panicked under similar circumstances, Raikkonen merely shrugged off the episode and, as soon as the flames disappeared, went about his merry way back on track.
If that doesn’t define Kimi as one cool customer, we don’t know what will.
Far from the circus that is Formula One, retired-F1 driver David Coulthard recently made the news after he was given a speeding ticket worth over $33,000 for driving a Red Bull F1 car along the streets of India.
Sounds insane, right?
The thing is the whole shindig was part of an F1 demonstration on a closed-off part of a busy road. Apparently, organizers of the event were given strict directives by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation for DC not to exceed the 62 mph speed limit at the Rajiv Ghandi Sea Link. Either DC forgot about the whole arrangement or he was too busy delighting the crowd, but the Scot ended up going 162 mph at the area and, as a result, was unceremoniously flagged for ‘super-duper’ over speeding.
We can’t blame Coulthard for the sudden lapse in judgment. After all, F1 drivers are wired to be faster than fast. But unfortunately, the MSRDC was none too pleased about their warnings going by the wayside.
As a result, the MSRDC will not return the organizer’s deposit of around $30,000 as payment for the super-duper speeding infraction DC incurred.
According to an MSRDC official, "We respect David for helping put the Link on the global map. But he crossed the speed limit and we will have to recover the penalty. We will not return the organisers’ deposit”.
There really aren’t a lot of F1 games available for the iPhone – actually, with the exception of this one, there’s none – so when one becomes available, you take them any way you can get them.
And for just $2, we think the new BMW Sauber F1 game for the iPhone is as good a two-dollar investment as you can find anywhere.
Let’s face it, a lot of people in America aren’t very familiar with Formula One. But it doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy it, even if it comes to us as an iPhone game. The game, by all accounts, caters to a lot of different racing game nuts. Those who want instant gratification can choose to play the quick-race mode in the game while the championship-starved fellows can opt to give the championship mode a shot. There’s also a professional mode, which gives you control of the pit crew and once you’ve gotten deeper into the game, the engineering mode will become available, which, eventually makes you the principal of your team where you will be tasked to make all the decisions for your drivers and cars.
All those talks surrounding Kimi Raikkonen’s move to rally car racing have been extinguished after reports came out that the former World Champion has signed an outline agreement to return to McLaren next year.
Citing ‘paddock sources’, the Mirror was the first to report about Raikkonen’s apparent return to the silver and black after spending three years in Ferrari, including a World Championship in 2007.
Despite being under contract to Ferrari for one more year at around $50 million, whispers are being made that Raikkonen is prepared to vacate his seat in Ferrari if Scuderia will pay him his entire 2010 salary down to the last penny.
In the event that Ferrari does give-in to the Finn’s request, we can all consider it a formality that another former World Champion will replace Kimi at Ferrari for 2010. That ex-champ being Fernando Alonso.
In the event that all of this plays out as anticipated, would we expect nothing less than a return to form from Ferrari and McLaren next year?
At the very least, an Alonso-Massa pairing and a Raikkonen-Hamilton team is pretty much worth watching.
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