Rage!

In less than a fortnight the F1 Circus rolls into Monaco for one of, if not the most prestigious event on the world championship calender. The events long and gloried history may never again see a day like this years addition in what may come to be known as “M Day.”

The day Max “The Littlest Perv” Mosley steps from his Monaco residence and darkens the door of an F1 Paddock.
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After Scuderia Toro Rosso team manager Massimo Rivola attended the recent MotoGP night race at Qatar’s Losail International Circuit he expressed concern over scheduling of F1’s first night event in Singapore.

Under the original schedule there would only have been one and a half hours of running in the dark before the night time qualifying session on Saturday.

He told autosport.com after that experience: “Personally I am not relaxed, let me put it like this. Honestly, I would like to test but it is not possible and too expensive to realise. I am sure it will be fine in the end, but there are still some points to discuss.

“The most important is that our schedule should be all over the night, rather than split between day and the night. The sunset in Singapore is at 7pm and at the moment the plan is to have first practice finish at 6pm and second practice to start at 8pm.”

Rivola’s concerns were reviewed by the F1 teams and the FIA with the resulting change in schedule and F1 teams were informed about the latest version of the timetable in Turkey last weekend

The new schedule is as follows:

Practice 1 Friday 19:00-20:30
Practice 2 Friday: 21:30-23:00
Practice 3 Saturday 19:00-20:00
Qualifying Saturday: 22:00-23:00
Race Sunday: 20:00

Autosport also understands that the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA) is pushing for some kind of acclimatisation session on the track on the Thursday before the race – although whether this is in F1 cars or other machinery is not yet known.

Cross Posted @ Full Throttle

Technorati Tags: Formula One, Losail International Circuit, Motorsport, Sports, Scuderia Toro Rosso, Auto Racing, Singapore Grand Prix, F1 Rage, Asian Motor Sports

GP2 Race director Charlie Whiting on Sunday made it clear that F1’s governing body is not happy with the Turkish GP organizers following the Bruno Senna stray dog incident during the GP2 support race to the Turkish Grand Prix. (Video available here)

The FIA delegate said the presence on the circuit of two stray dogs, one of which was struck at high speed by iSport International driver Bruno Senna and the other triggering the deployment of the safety car, was a clear breach of the sporting regulations.

“I have formally reminded the Clerk of the Course and the organiser of their responsibilities, and how seriously the FIA views this incident,” Whiting said in a statement.

He added that he ordered special checks on all circuit gates, internal access points and all other parts of the Istanbul Park circuit prior to the formula one race at 3pm.

“Finally, given the seriousness of the matter a formal report will be submitted to the FIA,” Whiting said.

Never one to take things very seriously, and especially when the only injuries (save for the unfortunate cur) were to Bruno’s Dallara suspension, I have to ask; Will the FIA[sco] take this matter as seriously as one would hope they take the Mosley Scandal?

Or will Max “The Littlest Perv” Mosley schedule another Extraordinary Meeting of the FIA[sco] Board sometime in the next millennium?

Will Mosley rally support from PETA and offer the FIA[sco] Board as “evidence” testimony from Mistress Switch claiming it was all a set-up by person or persons unknown?

Will Ron Dennis’ name be dragged into the Turkish Roadkill Scandal?

Will Korea offer it’s support to Mosley and Turkish GP organizers in the form of a menu selection of Spicy Road Kill Dog Soup to be sold as a concession at any potential F1 event held in the country?

These are all [semi]valid questions that demand answers.

Will we see them answered?

UPDATE: A spokesman for the FIA[sco] claims the organization hasn’t ruled out sanctions on the organizers of the Turkish GP: “This was a serious lapse in circuit security and safety,” an International Automobile Federation (FIA) spokesman said on Monday.

“The FIA Safety Commission will hold a full investigation into the matter which may then be referred to the world council,” he added.

Felipe Massa’s bid to become world champion gained momentum Sunday after the Ferrari driver won the Turkish GP for his second victory in three GP’s and became the first driver since his former Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher to win three consecutive races at the same circuit.

Of Massa’s 7 career wins, almost half of them have been secured in Turkey leading the Brazilian to joke in the after-race presser; “Its fantastic to have got the hat trick here in Istanbul: “It might really almost be worth asking for a Turkish passport.”
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Brazilian Felipe Massa’s love affair with the Turkish Grand Prix continued Friday as the Ferrari driver set the pace in first practice at the Istanbul Park track.

Massa has won the last two races on the 5.338 kms circuit, which has quickly established itself as one of the trickiest on the Formula One calendar with plenty of opportunities for overtaking.

The 27-year-old is hoping to complete a hat-trick of wins in Sunday’s 58-lap race to stop team-mate Finn Kimi Raikkonen increasing his 11-point advantage over him in the drivers title race.
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Rubens Barrichello, who will set a new record as the longest-serving grand prix driver in formula one history this weekend in Turkey, reveals that the final straw was a radio call during the infamous US grand prix at Indianapolis.

Despite the fact that only six Bridgestone-shod cars were contesting the race, Barrichello recalled to the Brazilian television network TV Globo that he was asked to let his teammate Michael Schumacher pass him — despite the German not being in the hunt for the title that year.

“The team invited me to slow my pace so that Michael could get closer to me and to pass me,” Barrichello, who is now 35 and a Honda driver, said.

“In this moment I knew that the time had come for me to go. That race in the United States was crucial,” he added.

Ferrari team members insisted throughout his tenure between 2000 and 2005 that he was joint number one, but Barrichello now concedes that he was in fact Schumacher’s subordinate.

“When I signed the contract,” he explained, “there was nothing to indicate that the drivers would be treated differently.”

History, however, records several instances of team orders, most famously when the Ferrari drivers were booed at Austria in 2002 after Schumacher inherited Barrichello’s lead at the chequered flag.

Barrichello said: “Inside, I was often angry about it, because everyone claimed that there were no differences between us, but it was an unequal battle.”

Technorati Tags: Rubens Barrichello, Michael Schumacher, Ferrari, Formula One, Auto Racing, United States, Honda Racing F1

Formula one fans may have to wait for the next official computer game, as Sony and Bernie Ecclestone are reportedly locked in stalemate over a new publishing deal.

Sony Computer Entertainment’s previous exclusive publishing deal, covering the 2003-2007 period, was for a rumoured $200 million, according to the technology news source TG Daily.

The website said the “gap between what Sony is willing to pay for a (new) license and what Bernie Ecclestone’s (company) is demanding is too wide”.

Ok Bernie, I get it. The Sony contract is up and needs to be either extended under new terms, or sold off to another producer of gaming software.

But really, in a sport that generates BILLIONS of dollars to be quibbling over $200 mil when far more important issues are on the table, like F1 grids getting smaller and having a Spank-Master in charge of the FIA, just shelve this trivial bullshit will ya?

And so it is, Super Aguri’s namesake and partial owner Aguri Suzuki has unsheathed his Katana and committed Seppuku on F1’s first all-Japanese team in the Western-dominated sport.

“I have been very happy that I was able to achieve a miracle and become a team owner, but I have to make the difficult decision to withdraw,” Suzuki said.

“It had been my dream to become an F1 team owner,” Suzuki said, “but I have to put a close to the work.”

“However, the breach of contract by the promised partner SS United Oil & Gas Company resulted in the loss of financial backing and immediately put the team into financial difficulties.

“I would like to express my deepest thanks to Honda, Bridgestone, the sponsors, all the people who have given us advise during various situations over the past couple of years all the Team Staff who have kept their motivations high and always done their best, Anthony Davidson who has always pushed to the limit despite the very difficult conditions, Takuma Sato who has been with us from the very start and has always fought hard and led the team and lastly our fans from all over the world who have loyally supported the Super Aguri F1 Team.”

The Japanese outfit’s place on the F1 grid has been in doubt ever since rescue talks with Magma Group collapsed in the build-up to the Spanish GP.

The cash-strapped team only raced due to last-minute help from Honda (reportedly in the neighborhood of a quarter million dollars) who provided the team with engines and technical support.

In what EuroSport is calling an exclusive they quote former F1 world champion Alan Jones as backing FIA president Max “The Littlest Perv” Mosley.

Jones, apparently speaking after an overdose of snorted Vegemite, has even jumped on the conspiracy bandwagon: “I think he was set up,” Jones claims.

Jones, speaking to Eurosport at the final A1 grand prix of the season at Brands Hatch, believes “What he does in his private life is his business.

“I care more about what he does in the office than what he’s doing in the bed - I don’t know that even the majority of people would frown upon what he did. The only crime he committed was being caught.”

It all begs the question, what rock has Jones been living under?

Has he moved into some previously unknown cave in Ayers Rock and missed all the online polls and too-numerous-to-mention motorsport associations in all parts of the globe that have denounced Mosley’s actions and asked for his head on a silver platter?

Regardless of how The Littlest Perv’s sexual proclivities have made into public view they aren’t private any longer. To make that argument now is just a bit beyond stupid.

As far as any conspiracy, so what. Personally, I think Max pretty much set himself up when he agreed to be inspected for lice by five nazi-prostitutes. But that’s just me.

If you want to live by the riding crop, you die by the riding crop.

UPDATE: This is too bizarre to comment on at the moment, so I’ll let you all ponder the possibilities of the FIA hiring Saddams’s former attorney.

The weird and not-so wonderful odyssey of F1’s Super Aguri squad continues with reports suggesting the team has been denied access to to the Turkish Grand Prix circuit pending talks between founder Aguri Suzuki and backers Honda over the Japanese team’s future.

From my perspective gleaned from many news reports I’ve come to the conclusion someone is lying out their ass.

A team source confirmed the trucks and motorhome had been prevented from entering the Istanbul Park that much seems certain, the million dollar question is who issued the order. The [in]famous “unnamed sources” fail to offer any clues.

Most have said they either have no knowledge of, or are outright denying Honda F1 chief executive Nick Fry told FOM that the team “would not be racing thus weekend.”

The idea has been floated the request was made so that Honda F1 would not have to suffer the embarrassment of watching its sister team disassemble and leave the track should the pending Weigi deal face rejection by the Honda board.

I’m thinking if it was Fry that made the request it highly unlikely he would do so without consent from the board. To do so would be a clear message that Honda has made up its mind to reject the Weigi bid and allow Siper Aguri a painful death before even meeting with Aguri and Weigi in Tokyo this week.

The same sources have claimed no such decision has been made, in addition to having no knowledge of any request made to deny Istanbul access to the team.

“Honda will help Super Aguri as much as possible,” Koji Hayami a spokesman for the automotive manufacturer was quoted as saying. “I do not know of any request [to turn away the trucks]. It is not Honda.”

So who the hell did? Was it Fry operating without knowledge of Tokyo? Or is he being used as a pawn to “save face” on the part of Honda and not appear to be the axe-man behind the whole sorry episode?

Whatever the case the lifespan of Super Aguri looks like it will be resolved this week. Whether the truth behind the track denial is answered is an open question that may never be answered.