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Motorsports Ramblings

  • Winter Testing

    The idea of instituting stringent restrictions on testing in F1, in order to save money, has perhaps been one of the most effective cost-saving measures to have emerged from the work of the FIA and FOTA to save the sport from financial suicide. I remember, not so many years ago, [...]
    Posted: December 01, 2009, 5:43am EST
    by Patrick
  • Road Trip

    Number of comments: 0
    Seeing as I have a lot else occupying my time this week, I thought I'd dive into what passes for the archives here - or more specifically, a scribbled account of a trip to the Belgian Grand Prix in 1999. My father had, years before, told me of his hitch-hike' [...]
    Posted: November 25, 2009, 1:15pm EST
    by Patrick
  • The Motorsports Ramblings Top 10 - 2009

    Number of comments: 0
    It's become something of an annual tradition here at Motorsports Ramblings for me to produce an annual top 10 list of the best drivers in F1 each year, in the same vein as that which appears in Autocourse. As usual, my own list, if rather less definitive, is at least [...]
    Posted: November 17, 2009, 5:35pm EST
    by Patrick
  • Every Dog Has Its Day - F1 2009 In Review - Part Two

    Number of comments: 0
    Only Brawn, Red Bull, Mclaren and Ferrari actually won races this year. Yet the strangest thing about this season, in many ways, what marked it out from the 25 or so I've seen before, was that almost all of the remaining six teams on the grid had days when they' [...]
    Posted: November 10, 2009, 2:01pm EST
    by Patrick
  • From Zeroes to Heroes - F1 2009 in Review - Part One

    Number of comments: 0
    Part One - The New Stars and the Old Guard

    What a strange, strange year it was. By season's end, we had got used to watching Brawn and Red Bull fighting it out for victories, but this time last year, if you had told me that the constructors and' [...]
    Posted: October 30, 2009, 6:06pm EDT
    by Patrick
  • Loeb Makes it Six from Six

    Number of comments: 0
    One week after Jenson Button claimed the F1 title, another World Championship went to the wire down in the forests of Wales last weekend, when Mikko Hirvonen went head to head with Sebastien Loeb for the World Rally Championship. In the end, Hirvonen fell at the final hurdle, dropping out [...]
    Posted: October 25, 2009, 8:49am EDT
    by Patrick
  • Button: 10th Champion at the 10th Attempt

    Number of comments: 1
    About the first piece I ever wrote on the subject of motorsport, for the now long-defunct Parc Ferme Magazine, was an article asking whether the young Jenson Button had been catapulted into Formula 1 before he was really ready, and if in the long term, his early stardom might do [...]
    Posted: October 21, 2009, 3:28am EDT
    by Patrick
  • Waving the Saltire

    Number of comments: 3
    Trivia Question: Name the small Northern European country whose drivers have racked up five Formula 1 World Titles over the years. If you think the answer is Finland, then you're wrong. Between them, Keke Rosberg, Hakkinen and Raikkonen have racked up four titles, though there remains the possibility that Raikkonen' [...]
    Posted: October 13, 2009, 4:30pm EDT
    by Patrick
  • The Incredible Hulk? GP2 In Review

    Number of comments: 0
    Since its inception, I've been enthusiastic about GP2. Always making time to watch the coverage, first on Eurosport, and then more recently on ITV4. This year, though, I ciuldn't summon up much enthusiasm. Maybe it was the fact that the GP2 coverage had switched from Eurosport with its informative and [...]
    Posted: October 06, 2009, 2:36pm EDT
    by Patrick
  • Night Riders

    Number of comments: 1
    A couple of years back when it was first announced, I was rather contemptuous of the whole idea of a night race around the streets of Singapore. What exactly was the point of racing under floodlights in the dark? And why on earth was Formula 1 going to Singapore, of [...]
    Posted: September 28, 2009, 3:16pm EDT
    by Patrick
  • Remembering Group C

    Number of comments: 0
    Let's leave F1 alone for a week. I've nothing to add to the vast acres of coverage of the Renault 'race-fixing' scandal. The series of articles on the subject on Joe Saward's blog and last week's MPH column in Autosport together give a pretty good overview of the whole grubby [...]
    Posted: September 23, 2009, 11:58am EDT
    by Patrick
  • Resurrection Man

    Number of comments: 0
    So, from four, it looks like we are down to just two realistic contenders for the driver's World Title following the Italian Grand Prix. I had expected Red Bull to be right on the pace at Monza. Their car, after all, had been the class of the field at the' [...]
    Posted: September 16, 2009, 3:28pm EDT
    by Patrick
  • Wagging the Dog

    Number of comments: 0
    It seemed like it wasn't quite a done deal for a moment, but Force India have now confirmed that Vitantonio Liuzzi will replace Giancarlo Fisichella at Monza. Those who have long wondered whether he got a fair crack of the whip at Toro Rosso will be pleased to see him' [...]
    Posted: September 09, 2009, 1:15pm EDT
    by Patrick
  • Tales of the Unexpected

    Number of comments: 0
    That was just possibly the strangest Grand Prix I've ever seen. Not the most exciting. Even at a circuit like Spa Francorchamps, overtaking appears to be all but impossible in the dry in a 2009-spec Formula 1 car, at least once everyone's warmed their tyres up, and the end result [...]
    Posted: September 02, 2009, 2:42pm EDT
    by Patrick
  • Losing the Edge

    Number of comments: 0
    The othr weekend, I ventured south for a friend's Stag party and afternoon's kart racing. As the 'Stag' was a former F1 journalist (he's since moved off into the world of football writing) it was inevitable that we would end up talking motorsport. On the minibus out to Buckmore Park*,' [...]
    Posted: August 24, 2009, 8:17am EDT
    by Patrick
  • Nearly Was, Almost Ran....

    Number of comments: 0
    Handbags at dawn. Thanks to Nelsinho Piquet's post-sacking outburst, we now know what many of us have long been pretty sure of anyway. That Flavio Briatore wouldn't know a diffuser from a differential. He was never a racer in the real sense. He started out selling clothes for Benetton and [...]
    Posted: August 17, 2009, 4:04pm EDT
    by Patrick
  • After the deluge: IRL post-reunification

    Number of comments: 1
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    Did reunification come too late? After losing the Champ Car World Series at the end of 2007, could [...]

    Posted: August 12, 2009, 4:06pm EDT
    by Patrick
  • Nothing But A Number?

    Number of comments: 0
    Will Michael Schumacher really be stepping back behind the wheel of an F1 car at the European Grand Prix in Valencia in three weeks time? Is it perhaps all nothing more than a very elaborate PR stunt intended to keep the sport in the press during the month-long summer break?[...]
    Posted: August 04, 2009, 4:31pm EDT
    by Patrick
  • Straws in the Wind

    Number of comments: 0
    Things have been moving quickly these last few days in the world of F1. On Saturday morning, I'd been planning to put together a little piece about how Jaime Alguersuari was faring as the youngest man ever to start a Grand Prix. By the conclusion of qualifying, that story had' [...]
    Posted: July 29, 2009, 2:40pm EDT
    by Patrick
  • Coming Second

    Number of comments: 0
    So Mark Webber has at last taken himself off of the list of candidates for the dubious accolade of being the best F1 driver never to have won a Grand Prix. Along with fellow Antipodean Chris Amon, I'd have had him down as far and away the leading candidate' [...]
    Posted: July 22, 2009, 2:23pm EDT
    by Patrick
  • Last Chance Saloon

    Number of comments: 3
    Ten minutes before Qualifying Three. The track appears to be drying off. You look across the garage to where your team mate's car sits. He's what, 22 years old. He's won three Grands Prix and he's being talked about in some circles as the heir to Michael Schumacher. Silly hyperbole, [...]
    Posted: July 12, 2009, 7:00am EDT
    by Patrick
  • On Two Wheels

    Number of comments: 0
    I'm a four wheel man, all told. I've watched the odd Moto GP race, and even took a trip to the Isle of Man for the TT a couple of years back, but fundamentally, my interest lies in cars, rather than bikes, being driven very quickly. I'm not one to' [...]
    Posted: July 08, 2009, 1:49pm EDT
    by Patrick
  • Behind the Scenes

    Number of comments: 2
    Last week I got an invite from Shell to get up close to the Ferrari team on the Saturday before the British Grand Prix. I couldn't take up their offer, unfortunately, owing to prior, more mundane commitments that weekend. Northampton is a long way from Edinburgh. A shame, because the' [...]
    Posted: June 24, 2009, 2:02pm EDT
    by Patrick
  • Racing on the Radio

    Number of comments: 1
    Sport isn't suited to radio coverage. It's all about the drama of the moment - the visual impact of moments of sublime skill. The inspired shot at goal, the intense squabble over a set point in tennis, the overtaking manouvre that leaves your heart in your mouth.

    Its appeal [...]
    Posted: June 14, 2009, 10:17am EDT
    by Patrick
  • Who's Up? Who's Down?

    Number of comments: 0
    If ever there was any doubt that you need the right machinery to be in with a shout of victory in Formula 1, this season has rammed the point home. Does anyone honestly believe that after 10 years of racing, Jenson Button has suddenly made a quantum leap forward? Or [...]
    Posted: June 09, 2009, 4:26pm EDT
  • Formula 2: The way ahead, or a dead end?

    Number of comments: 2
    After a break of a quarter of a century, the Formula 2 Championship sprung back into life last weekend at Valencia. The new formula doesn't really bear much resemblance to the old Formula 2. Where the old F2 was an open chassis and engine formula, in essence, Formula 1 with' [...]
    Posted: May 30, 2009, 5:29pm EDT
  • Street Fighting Men

    Number of comments: 0
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    Normally, a race at a circuit where overtaking is all but impossible is hardly a mouth-watering prospect. I [...]

    Posted: May 27, 2009, 2:50pm EDT
  • The Ghost of ProCar

    Number of comments: 1
    At any time, hundred of young racing drivers are plugging away in categories like Formula Renault, Formula BMW and Formula Ford, taking the first steps towards becoming professional racing drivers. In their early years, at least, most will be dreaming of F1 stardom. Most of them will fail. Despite the [...]
    Posted: May 17, 2009, 6:10am EDT
  • The Young Pretenders

    Number of comments: 2
    It can't have escaped the many young drivers aspiring to make the breakthrough into Formula 1 next year that there could be a number of seats available in the near future. Nelson Piquet Jr, Sebastien Bourdais and Kazuki Nakajima have all underperformed thus far this year and questions have to' [...]
    Posted: May 12, 2009, 2:32pm EDT
  • Fantasy Formula One...

    Number of comments: 2
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    The opening rounds of the Formula 1 Championship are out of the way. After starting in [...]

    Posted: May 04, 2009, 5:18pm EDT
  • Tortoises and Hares

    Number of comments: 1
    Four races in and we're starting to get a picture of where the balance of power lies in this year's Formula 1 championship. After several seasons in which various combinations of Ferrari, Mclaren and Renault have fought it out for the title, this year, it seems at the moment that [...]
    Posted: April 26, 2009, 11:31am EDT
  • The Quiet Champion

    Number of comments: 0
    He died ten years before I was born, and yet, in a round-about way, I suppose he is ultimately responsible for my life-long fascination with the world of motorsport. Jim Clark was my father's boyhood hero, and as with many a racing fan I've known, it's an obsession I picked' [...]
    Posted: April 20, 2009, 3:01pm EDT
  • Racing Through The Recession

    Number of comments: 0
    The last few months have seen an awful lot of ink spent in the motorsport press contemplating the effects of the global economic downturn on Formula 1. Barely a week has gone by without news, or at least speculation, concerning some new cost-cutting measure or another, or rumours that a [...]
    Posted: April 14, 2009, 2:05pm EDT
  • Brawn Spring a Surprise

    Number of comments: 0
    The grid that confronted us in Melbourne wasn't quite the surprise that the qualifying order for the opening race of the 1990 season in Phoenix had been. Nothing quite so downright bizarre as an Osella in the top 10, or Andrea De Cesaris' Dallara ahead of Senna's Mclaren, both Ferraris' [...]
    Posted: April 01, 2009, 12:52pm EDT
  • A Step Into The Unknown - F1 2009 Preview

    Number of comments: 0
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    Anyone's game?

    In the more than 20 years I've been following Formula 1, I honestly can't remember' [...]

    Posted: March 24, 2009, 2:53pm EDT
  • Loeb's Half-Century and the state of rallying

    Number of comments: 1
    Last weekend's Cyprus Rally was a bit of a novelty. It was a mixed-surface event - with the first day taking place on the asphalt of the island's roads, and the second two days switching to gravel. And though it's been described as a a cost-cutting measure, watching the first' [...]
    Posted: March 16, 2009, 4:42pm EDT
    by Patrick
  • Rivals

    Number of comments: 0
    How much to read into testing times? Truth be told, it's probably not wise to make too many assumptions on the basis of fastest laps alone. Remember when, through the winter, the 2005 Honda looked like it was a couple of seconds a lap quicker round Barcelona than anything else?' [...]
    Posted: March 08, 2009, 8:40am EDT
  • Catching up with A1GP

    Number of comments: 0
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    In my memory, the new Kyalami, which played host to a couple of Grands Prix in the early [...]

    Posted: March 05, 2009, 2:58pm EST
  • Life After F1

    Number of comments: 0
    At one time, when a F1 driver hung up his helmet, it usually meant the end of his racing career, full stop. The likes of Juan Manuel Fangio, Guiseppe Farina, Phil Hill and John Surtees all called time on their professional racing life altogether around the time they quit Formula [...]
    Posted: February 22, 2009, 8:55am EST
  • Racing As Testing

    Number of comments: 6
    Musing on the Finn's rather lacklustre performances at Ferrari last year, one F1 journalist asked "where is Kimi Raikkonen? If he can't take this seriously, why should I?". Watching the latest round of the GP2 Asia series in Qatar last weekend, I found myself asking much the same question of [...]
    Posted: February 17, 2009, 1:33pm EST
  • Sticking With What You Know

    Number of comments: 1
    With the news that Toro Rosso have re-signed Sebastien Bourdais for 2009, it is quite possible that the final seat on the F1 grid has been filled. If nothing can be rescued from the ruins of Honda's F1 dream - and with each week that passes I become more doubtful' [...]
    Posted: February 11, 2009, 1:36pm EST
  • You Pays Your Money...

    Number of comments: 1
    Kimi Raikkonen, the highest paid driver on the F1 grid, is reputed to earn upwards of £25 million a year. While it's not quite on a par with the world's highest paid sportsman, Tiger Woods, it's still a staggering sum of money for a few hundred hours of work. It' [...]
    Posted: February 02, 2009, 1:39pm EST
  • The Future of Rallying?

    Number of comments: 2
    The Monte Carlo Rally was won by the reigning champion, a French guy called Sebastien. No surprise there, then. The winner, though, was not Mr Loeb, but Junior World Rally champion, Sebastien Ogier. The World Rally Championship seems peculiarly intent on committing hara-kiri and the latest nail in the coffin [...]
    Posted: January 25, 2009, 5:28pm EST
  • On Beauty

    Number of comments: 4
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    There have been some hideous looking racing cars over the years, but I have to say that the [...]

    Posted: January 17, 2009, 9:59am EST
  • What Goes Around Comes Around...

    Number of comments: 0
    It was nearly thirty years ago, when then Brabham owner Bernie Ecclestone, in his capacity as president of the Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA) went into battle with Jean-Marie Balestre’s FISA for the rights to run Formula 1. His right-hand man in that fight was an urbane barrister whose real [...]
    Posted: January 14, 2009, 6:09pm EST
  • Archives

    Number of comments: 6
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    In general, I’m not an obsessive hoarder. When I moved house a couple of years back, I was able to do so with the [...]

    Posted: January 04, 2009, 7:40am EST
  • Race of Champions

    Number of comments: 1
    It seemed to me nothing so much as a cross between an end-of-term party and a giant scalextric tournament. With real cars. That said, it was quite some line-up for an end-of-term party. A seven-times F1 world champion, a five-times World Rally champion, a three times World Touring Car [...]
    Posted: December 14, 2008, 11:20am EST
  • 2008 - Some Personal Highlights

    Number of comments: 0
    Every year has its share of really great races. Whether they be displays of individual brilliance or close fought battles between evenly matched protagonists. I've put together a list of some personal favourites of mine from the year. Some of these, I saw on the television, others I saw in' [...]
    Posted: December 07, 2008, 8:01am EST
  • Points Mean Prizes?

    Number of comments: 1
    In recent years, there has been a seemingly irresistible urge on the part of F1's governing body to meddle with Formula 1's rulebook. It reminds me of nothing so much as a hyperactive child who can't stop fidgeting, and as with the hyperactive child, I wonder how much of it' [...]
    Posted: November 30, 2008, 11:44am EST
  • Downtime

    Number of comments: 4
    For anyone who is wondering what has happened to Motorsports Ramblings, I'm afraid that other projects and commitments (this and this (the day job) are between them sucking up all my time right now) mean that I'm starved of time right now.

    My weekly ramblings [...]
    Posted: November 22, 2008, 11:37am EST
  • Top 10 Drivers - 2008

    Number of comments: 3
    Behind Clive's list over at F1 Insight, but well ahead of the annual Autocourse list, here is the annual Motor Sports Ramblings top 10 drivers list. It's only a personal view, and I think a case could be made for any of my top 3 drivers as the being [...]
    Posted: November 15, 2008, 11:26am EST
  • A Comedy of Errors

    Number of comments: 1
    I've remarked in the past on the remarkable similarities between the 2007 title battle and the fight for the 1986 World Championship. The fierce rivalry between two team mates who had the best car. The outsider who went into the final round with little chance of the title, but who' [...]
    Posted: November 05, 2008, 4:40pm EST
  • David Coulthard's Final Hurrah...

    Number of comments: 4
    I'll leave analysis of this year's F1 title race until next week, when it's all over and whatever I write is not almost immediately outdated. Whether Lewis Hamilton and Mclaren will succeed in throwing away a second World Title in as many years will soon become apparent. This weekend will' [...]
    Posted: October 27, 2008, 1:59pm EDT
  • Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

    Number of comments: 3
    It was a relief to get through the Chinese Grand Prix without any stewards investigations and drive-through penalties, wasn't it? Not a few of us were beginning to suspect that this season's championships would be decided in the Stewards' office rather than on the track. After Shanghai though, it now' [...]
    Posted: October 22, 2008, 12:38pm EDT
  • Quantity and Quality

    Number of comments: 0
    This might seem like an odd thing for a motorsport fan to complain about, but I can't help but think that right now, there are too many racing series out there.

    I'm not talking about the many hundreds of national club-level racing championships across the world. These have always [...]
    Posted: October 14, 2008, 3:32pm EDT
  • A Golden Age?

    Number of comments: 3
    A question for motorsports anoraks to ponder upon over a pint or two: What was the most talented grid of F1 drivers ever assembled? What was the golden age of Grand Prix racing, in terms of the sheer quality of the field? There are, I think, a few possible candidates...[...]
    Posted: October 05, 2008, 1:37pm EDT
  • Book Review: Crashed And Byrned - The Greatest Racing Driver You Never Saw

    Number of comments: 4
    Some years ago, I found myself talking to an elderly relative about his time as a football talent scout for, I think, Blackpool, in the North East of England. I wondered if he had ever run into Paul Gascoigne in the course of his work. "Oh yes, saw him playing" [...]
    Posted: September 29, 2008, 1:36pm EDT
  • If at First You Don't Succeed... GP2 In Review

    Number of comments: 1
    When Giorgio Pantano made his F3000 debut, back in 2001, Juan Pablo Montoya was just beginning his Grand Prix career at Williams and Fernando Alonso was a fresh-faced teenager doing remarkable things with a hastily put together Minardi. Lewis Hamilton was still racing karts and F1's newest winner, Sebastien Vettel' [...]
    Posted: September 16, 2008, 1:17pm EDT
  • A Breath of Fresh Air

    Number of comments: 1
    Das Deutschlandleid for the winning driver. Il Canto Degli Italiani for the winning team. A combination we have heard often enough in recent years. This time, though, it was different. Michael Schumacher is two years into his retirement, and Ferrari no longer have a German driver on its books. Seemingly [...]
    Posted: September 13, 2008, 9:32am EDT
  • Being There...

    Number of comments: 3
    Standing on the banking at Pouhon on Sunday afternoon, with just five laps to go in the Belgian Grand Prix. Kimi Raikkonen leads by around 2 to 3 seconds from Lewis Hamilton's Mclaren. In the normal course of events, there would be little prospect of this changing before the chequered' [...]
    Posted: September 10, 2008, 3:56pm EDT
  • Those who can, do....

    Number of comments: 2
    ....And those who can't, write about those who can. Or perhaps they teach.... I've been writing about motorsport here for nearly three years, and I've been following the sport since I was a small boy in the mid 1980s. From time to time, though, I'm forced to confront a slightly [...]
    Posted: September 03, 2008, 10:15am EDT
  • The 2009 Rules: A Blessing or a KERS?

    Number of comments: 1
    If last weekend's European Grand Prix made one thing abundantly clear, it is that the sport is in dire need of rules changes to make overtaking if not easy, then at least a little less contrary to the laws of physics than it is at present. Here we were on [...]
    Posted: August 25, 2008, 1:21pm EDT
  • Street FIghting

    Number of comments: 2
    A new circuit beckons for the F1 circus this weekend, when the teams head to Valencia for the first time. This is something of an event in itself. Since the millennium, there have been just four new race circuits appear on the F1 calendar: the wonderful Otodrom Istanbul, the opportunity [...]
    Posted: August 20, 2008, 10:49am EDT
  • Iconic Cars - The Final Part of the Series

    Number of comments: 0
    My first two choices for my series on iconic racing cars from my youth were, in many ways, polar opposites. The Porsche 962 was stunningly, conspicuously successful, where the Metro 6R4's competition history was a story of opportunities missed and what-might-have-been. The 962 had a kind of elegant simplicity about [...]
    Posted: August 11, 2008, 1:49pm EDT
  • Two 'til the end?

    Number of comments: 0
    It has been an odd year for the GP2 series. The first year with the second generation GP2 machine has not provided quite so much of the close, wheel to wheel racing that made the championship's reputation in its first few years. One suspects that Dallara have simply got the [...]
    Posted: August 04, 2008, 4:44pm EDT
    by patrick
  • BTCC or WTCC?

    Number of comments: 0

    Both the National and the World Touring Car series were in action in the UK this weekend, at two of Jonathan Palmer's circuits - with the WTCC boys at Brands Hatch and the British Touring car series fighting it out at Oulton Park. Both Brands Hatch and Oulton Park are [...]

    Posted: July 28, 2008, 2:48pm EDT
  • Domenicali's Dilemma

    Number of comments: 10
    After winning the German Grand Prix, a journalist asked Lewis Hamilton if he was surprised that Felipe Massa didn't defend his second position more strongly than he did. "All I can say is that, if that had been me, he would never have got past." he came straight back. It [...]
    Posted: July 23, 2008, 1:35pm EDT
  • No Room At The Inn

    Number of comments: 4
    I didn't see it, because I was busy watching Lewis Hamilton giving a wet-weather driving master class to rank alongside Ayrton Senna's magnificent 1993 European Grand Prix win and Jackie Stewart's domination of the 1968 German Grand Prix, but I'm told that this year's Wimbledon Men's Final, between Rafael Nadal [...]
    Posted: July 14, 2008, 3:39pm EDT
  • A Race At The Park?

    Number of comments: 1
    I'm noticing something of a pattern developing where the really unexpected F1 stories have a habit of breaking while I'm on holiday and catching me unawares. A couple of years ago, I remember sitting in a bar in Bordeaux, leafing through a copy of Le Monde and wondering whether [...]
    Posted: July 07, 2008, 2:54pm EDT
  • Firsr you've got to be good...

    Number of comments: 0
    What does it take to win a world title? Ability? Yes. Application? That never hurt either. A team that is 100% behind you? Not for nothing did Michael Schumacher always demand a say in who his team mates were. The right car? Few have won the F1 championship in recent [...]
    Posted: June 23, 2008, 5:03pm EDT
  • Iconic Cars - The Second in an Occasional Series

    Number of comments: 2
    Last month, I wrote the first of a short series on iconic cars from the 1980s, singling out Austin Rover's brutal 4 wheel drive, rear engined Metro 6R4 rally car. My second choice is, in many ways, the polar opposite of the in-yer-face Austin-Rover. The Porsche 956/62 that becam3e [...]
    Posted: June 18, 2008, 1:20pm EDT
  • All Day And All Of The Night

    Number of comments: 1

    I've always meant to make the trip to Le Mans for the 24 Hour race, but somehow I never seem to have a free weekend for the trip in mid-June. Neil, at Fastest Lap, made it all the way over from the US to the race last year and [...]

    Posted: June 10, 2008, 5:09pm EDT
  • Favourites

    Number of comments: 3
    It was a conversation I was having with someone I met at a barbecue over the weekend that got me thinking. A long time F1 fan, she was telling me of her trip to Spa last year for the Belgian Grand Prix. "... And at the end of it all, [...]
    Posted: June 02, 2008, 4:23pm EDT
  • Wheels within wheels

    Number of comments: 4
    A while back, I had it in my head to try to write a 'Dick Francis on wheels'-style thriller about organised crime and skulduggery, set in the F1 world. It never came to much, and, revolving as it did around a gang of criminals who took over a race team [...]
    Posted: May 23, 2008, 3:09pm EDT
  • Old Age And Experience...

    Number of comments: 1
    How does it stand up against youth and enthusiasm? When old sportsmen retire, it is usually because they have achieved all that they set out to do, or because they know that they are past their best, and never likely to achieve their ambitions. In motorsport, especially at the very [...]
    Posted: May 20, 2008, 3:49pm EDT
  • Iconic Cars - The first in an occasional series

    Number of comments: 2
    Iconic racing cars? For people of my father’s generation, it might be the Lotus 49, The Ford GT40, the Maserati 250F or the Jaguar E-Type. I, on the other hand, am a child of the 1980s, the sort of person for whom the recent film Son of Rambow (if [...]
    Posted: May 13, 2008, 4:16pm EDT
  • The End Of The Road

    Number of comments: 0
    In the end, it was no surprise when the announcement was made that Super Aguri F1 are no more. It had been clear for some months that the team existed only thanks to the willingness of the Honda Motor Company to provide a line of credit to Aguri Suzuki's men, [...]
    Posted: May 08, 2008, 4:31pm EDT
  • Reading the Runes

    Number of comments: 1
    If this year's Spanish Grand Prix was in any way interesting, it certainly wasn't because of anything that was happening on the track. The Circuit De Catalunya is not a place at which modern Formula 1 cars can overtake each other, unless the car behind is several seconds a lap [...]
    Posted: April 28, 2008, 3:39pm EDT
  • GP2 2008 Preview - Winning down to an ART?

    Number of comments: 0
    It struck me the other day that there probably really aren't going to be many seats available for young F1 aspirants come the end of the season. OK, so Rubens Barrichello might call it a day and create a vacancy at Honda, and his near-contemporary David Coulthard is tipped to [...]
    Posted: April 19, 2008, 4:28pm EDT
  • Grand Touring

    Number of comments: 0
    Back in the early 1990s, when the fantastic Group C sportscar category imploded thanks to a combination of spiralling costs and the 3.5 litre engine regulations which rendered many of the good, serious privateer entries obsolete overnight, there was much talk of how the future of sports car racing would [...]
    Posted: April 14, 2008, 1:11pm EDT
  • Romain Conquest

    Number of comments: 0
    For the first time in the short history of the GP2 series, we have a champion before the final round. Romain Grosjean clinched the title after 8 of 10 rounds on Sunday, despite retiring from the lead of the sprint race. Of course, it was only the GP2 Asia series, [...]
    Posted: April 09, 2008, 3:54pm EDT
  • David Leslie - In Memory of a Proper Racer

    Number of comments: 2
    When I first heard on Sunday afternoon that a small private plane had crashed into a house in Kent, killing all on board, I couldn't help fearing that someone from the motor racing world might have been involved. After the deaths of Colin McRae, Steve Hislop and Bertie Fisher, it [...]
    Posted: April 01, 2008, 12:40pm EDT
  • Back to Basics

    Number of comments: 1
    The other weekend, I happened to find myself in conversation with an American who had come over to Scotland on the subject of sport. I mentioned that a local boy (Dario Franchitti) had won the Indy 500 last year and, for all that he was an expert on baseball, American [...]
    Posted: March 25, 2008, 4:13pm EDT
  • Known Unknowns

    Number of comments: 1
    That was a breath of fresh air, wasn't it? Whether it was the sight of Fernando Alonso ragging his ill-handling Renault in hot pursuit of Sebastien Bourdais in the closing laps, the rear end hanging out over the kerbs, or Heikki Kovalainen's inspired move on Alonso into turn 13, two [...]
    Posted: March 17, 2008, 4:09pm EDT
  • Formula 1 2008: Raikkonen for the double?

    Number of comments: 1
    It seems to have crept up almost unnoticed on me this year. Maybe it was the endless spy-scandal shenanigans. Maybe it was Max Mosley's weekly pronouncements on the future of the sport, and Bernie Ecclestone's desire to drag the sport away from its traditional heartland and towards any country or [...]
    Posted: March 10, 2008, 2:28pm EDT
  • The damage done

    A commonly told morality tale in the history of war, or at least in fictional accounts of it, is that of two bitter enemies who fight a brutal and bloody war of attrition, and at the end of it, the nominal winner sadly surveys the horrendous damage and devastation they [...]
    Posted: March 03, 2008, 3:29pm EST
  • Book Review - The Last Road Race - by Richard Williams

    Number of comments: 1
    The Last Road Race - Richard Williams

    Trivia question: What was the longest circuit ever to host a round of the Formula 1 World Championship? The common wrong answer would be the 14-mile Nordschliefe - the legendary undulating strip of tarmac that snakes through the Eiffel mountains and [...]
    Posted: February 25, 2008, 4:01pm EST
  • Equality before the law?

    Number of comments: 2
    It was a throwaway remark from Christine in a recent edition of sidepodcast which got me started. While talking about the livery of the newly rebadged Force India team, she suggests that they had perhaps had to drop the original (and much prettier) red colour scheme after pressure [...]
    Posted: February 18, 2008, 2:00pm EST
  • A Record Tumbles

    It's a wonderful feeling, being proven right. Five years ago, I jumped on a train to Berwick upon Tweed to watch the Jim Clark Rally. After much wandering around near the rally's base in the Borders town of Duns, vainly trying to locate the actual stages using only the rather [...]
    Posted: February 11, 2008, 4:19pm EST
  • The Idiot Fringe

    Even the most cursory glance at the F1 internet message boards and forums confirms that I was far from alone in finding the coverage lavished on Lewis Hamilton last year a little tiresome. That's not to diminish the scale of his achievements. In coming close to winning the World Championship [...]
    Posted: February 05, 2008, 12:33pm EST
  • Awaking from a winter slumber

    Time was, not so very long ago, when there really wasn't a whole lot to keep us race fans amused during the winter months. The Monte Carlo and Swedish rallies were about all there was happening in the racing world, besides the Daytona 24 Hour Race, at least until mid-March. [...]
    Posted: January 29, 2008, 12:59pm EST
  • The Second (Placed) Sex?

    Number of comments: 4
    There are some things which are so unremarkable, so much an accepted part of our life, that we rarely stop to ask the question why? Never even consider that they might be otherwise. Take sex for example. Why does it exist at all? (the answer as best we can tell, [...]
    Posted: January 22, 2008, 1:09pm EST
  • The Trap

    Number of comments: 2
    There has been a long, slow drift towards increasingly restrictive technical regulations in F1, slowly closing down the space in which teams can seek to find the 'unfair advantage' and design a better race car than their rivals. Of late, this tendency has rather accelerated. Max Mosley's announcement earlier this [...]
    Posted: January 14, 2008, 2:06pm EST
  • When your time is up

    Number of comments: 5
    British F1 viewers will have been treated to, or perhaps that should be, subjected to, a series of adverts for the mobile phone company, Vodafone, in which Dame Judy Dench tells us (over a montage of pictures and clips of one Lewis Hamilton) that "a dream can only become reality [...]
    Posted: January 05, 2008, 12:34pm EST
  • The Best of 2007

    Writing, as I am, on a rather grey and dreich Sunday at the end of the year, I've found myself thinking back over the year just gone. More so even than last year, I found that the world of Formula 1 took up a lot of my energies here at [...]
    Posted: December 30, 2007, 10:14am EST
  • The Jigsaw Falls Into Place

    So in the end, Fernando Alonso went back to the obvious place. For all the wild talk that the Spaniard would drive for Toyota, or Red Bull, or even Honda or Ferrari, he's back with the team with which he won two world championships - Renault. We shouldn't be too [...]
    Posted: December 17, 2007, 2:24pm EST
  • Goodbye, Nigel

    Number of comments: 5
    Tomorrow will see the appearance of Nigel Roebuck's final Fifth Column in Autosport. For racing fans, like myself, who grew up reading his Grand Prix reports and his weekly column in Autosport, this feels like the end of an era. It would be an exaggeration to say that Mr Roebuck [...]
    Posted: December 08, 2007, 9:41am EST
  • The Schumacher of the Stages and the Young Pretenders

    Just a couple of weeks after Andy Priaulx matched Michael Schumacher and Tommi Makinen by winning four consecutive FIA sanctioned championships, Sebastien Loeb equaled his feat. The French former gymnast has demonstrated a degree of dominance that has really only ever been matched in the motorsports world by Schumacher himself.[...]
    Posted: December 05, 2007, 12:59pm EST
  • Life stories

    Number of comments: 3
    A couple of years ago, I picked up a copy of Bob Dylan's elliptical autobiography, Chronicles, on the recommendation of a friend who reckoned him to be one of the few rock stars whose story really merited a book . For those who are wondering, he's a better writer than [...]
    Posted: December 02, 2007, 7:04am EST
  • A Mad World

    The other day, I was perusing the logs for Motorsports Ramblings when something caught my eye. Someone had been led to this site after entering the search term "What would happen to the plants in the world if it rained Red Bull?" I'm afraid that's a question I am not [...]
    Posted: November 21, 2007, 3:13pm EST

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