Posted on 08/05/2009 7:57:45 PM PDT by Chode
This will be a general purpose thread for F1 news and pings that really don't require a thread of their own.
“In 2022, we issued our first F1 Race Promoter Sustainability Guide setting out guidance for our local promoters to deliver more sustainable events by 2025.”
Yet they all have private planes or fly in complete luxury, stay in luxurious hotels, mostly one to a room, and live in mansions....
My thoughts......Flavio Briatore was brought in to sell the Renault F1 team. Two issues, no one wants a French operation. And no one wanted Michael, guess he pissed off F1. So I suspect the deal is Renault gets out of F1, Andretti Group without Michael buys the rights to race in F1 and can use the people, locations and equipment they purchased to run in F1. A Win-Win-Win for all but Michael...... but he maybe back in the future. We shall see!
you think Flavio has a percentage deal? every 1% of this deal could be worth 10 million dollars! way to go Flavio!
We shall see how close I am.....
Andretti, whose racing teams have won the Indianapolis 500 five times and who is the son of legendary driver Mario Andretti, is listed as CEO and chairman of Andretti Global.
The company was rebranded as Andretti Global in 2023, less than a year after executive Dan Towriss and his holding company Group 1001 bought an ownership stake in the Andretti motorsports operations. The investment was in part to fund a potential Formula One team.
Andretti has for some time been eyeing a transition from his operational role.
“Michael’s goal has been to transition to a more strategic role with Andretti Global and focus less on the operational side of the race team,” Andretti Global said in a statement to Sportico. “He and Dan Towriss have been working on a structure of what this could look like and have reached a direction that Michael is very happy with and believes will bring a positive future. Michael remains engaged and will continue to serve as a strategic advisor and key ambassador. We will have more to share in the coming weeks after Michael and Dan have had an opportunity to speak to the team.”
Last year F1 Andretti Global was a bidder for an expansion F1 team. Andretti was vocal about his desire to land a team, an outspokenness which didn’t help the organization’s bid with the typically tight-lipped F1 governing body. F1 didn’t add any new teams.
Towriss did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In 2021, Andretti with his father Mario formed a special purpose acquisition company separate from Andretti Global called Andretti Acquisition. A SPAC is a business that raises cash in an IPO and then seeks to buy another business, bringing it public.
In March this year, Andretti closed a merger with Zapata Computing Holdings, a generative AI company. Based upon disclosures by Zapata in a filing two weeks ago, Andretti Global is Zapata’s largest customer, while Zapata is a sponsor of the motorsports team. Zapata is paying Andretti Global $9 million under the agreements while Andretti Global is paying Zapata $6 million, including $1 million contingent on Zapata paying the motorsports team $1 million.
All of the agreements expire at the end of 2024. Zapata, which Andretti’s SPAC took public at $10 a share, closed Thursday trading at $0.33. Michael Andretti continues to have a financial interest in Zapata with nearly 13% of the diluted equity of the company.
(This story has been updated with a statement from Andretti Global.)
A report has emerged that Michael Andretti has sold his ownership of Andretti Global
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe4LvE5C-7w
So Mikey is hoping that the F1 crowd will be more likely to let the company in with him out of the way. He musta REALLY pissed them off.🤪
screwed the wrong persons daughter or something...
Interesting news...
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What I Would Do If I Was Racist, White ,and Rich
"... I would hand-pick young black boys mostly from single mother households who want to be rappers (sic) and pay them millions of dollars to make music geared to destroying the black communities...."
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/f1-autosport/1956677/Michael-Schumacher-guests-F1-Felipe-Massa
Schumey's 27-year-old daughter Gina-Maria was married in a ceremony in the family estate in Mallorca this past weekend. Apparently Schumey was there "to give his blessing" to the union but didn't mingle with or appear to the guests, so no photos. This supposedly was the first time he's gone out in public in 11 years but it sounds like the only reason the world at large thinks he might have been in the villa is Jean Todt (indiscreetly?), apparently speaking to the press, commented that 'he didn't miss him because "...Michael is here."'
https://www.firstpost.com/sports/michael-schumacher-daughter-wedding-first-public-appearance-formula-1-13821551.html
100%
https://www.thedrive.com/news/keanu-reeves-is-racing-a-toyota-gr86-against-pros-at-indy-this-weekend
Keanu Reeves is one of Hollywood’s biggest car and motorcycle enthusiasts, so it wasn’t exactly a surprise when I heard that he’s going racing. However, he’s mostly associated with big, powerful muscle cars or high-end exotics, so it was a bit surprising to hear that he’s going to be competing in the Toyota GR Cup at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend. He’ll be suiting up for the Eagle Canyon Racing team, which is fielding a feisty Toyota GR86 Cup car.
Reeves announced his upcoming participation in a short clip on the GR Cup’s official Instagram account. However, this isn’t the first time Reeves puts on a racing suit. While Reeves isn’t as much of an actor-turned-racing-driver as, say, Paul Newman or Patrick Dempsey, he is still a massive motorsport enthusiast he’s raced in various celebrity races, has a collection of fast cars and bikes, and even owns his own motorcycle company, ARCH. He isn’t bad behind the wheel, either, as he won the 2009 Toyota Long Beach Grand Prix Pro Celebrity race and he reportedly did much of his own stunt driving for the John Wick franchise. The GR Cup, though, will be considerably more challenging than any celebrity race, as his competitors will be professional racers
He is driving the No. 92 BRZRKR car, which is promoting his graphic novel ‘The Book of Elsewhere.’ He is teammates with Cody Jones from ‘Dude Perfect’.
Hollywood legend Keanu Reeves made his professional racing debut in Indianapolis Saturday
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Hollywood legend Keanu Reeves made his professional racing debut in Indianapolis Saturday
Reeves, 60, spun out halfway through a race at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway
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Reeves, 60, spun out halfway through a race at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway
The Matrix star, who qualified 31st out of 35, ran as high as 21st and avoided a first lap crash
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The Matrix star, who qualified 31st out of 35, ran as high as 21st and avoided a first lap crash
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Sage Steele joins Donald Trump’s family and former racing driver Danica Patrick on campaign trail
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Reeves has previous racing experience as a former participant in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach in the celebrity race. Reeves won the event in 2009.
He will attend a 30th anniversary screening of Speed on Tuesday in Los Angeles alongside his co-star Sandra Bullock.
The Canadian and girlfriend Alexandra Grant were also seen at the MotoGP Liqui Moly Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland in Germany over the summer, with Keanu said to be a big racing fan.
He also attended a Formula One British Grand Prix qualifying event in 2022 before saying about his trip to Silverstone: ‘It was wet, but it was thrilling.
Keanu Reeves
https://www.thedrive.com/news/cota-adds-gravel-to-crack-down-on-f1-track-limits-violations
In addition to a full F1 track resurface, COTA is replacing some run off areas with gravel and turf—and is even adding cameras in “strategic places” to monitor track limits violations.
excellent read...
The inside story of Kimi Raikkonen’s legendary first F1 test
It was an autumnal day at Mugello, a daunting high-speed circuit nestled away in northern Tuscany that used to be a favourite among F1 teams for testing. The year was 2000 and a three-day test in September, starting two days after the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, had been scheduled for those who wanted to use the facility. Ferrari, McLaren and Sauber opted in. For title rivals Ferrari and McLaren, the test was useful to gather data and test new parts for the upcoming races. For Sauber, it was about giving a star the chance to shine.
Kimi Raikkonen, a then 20-year-old from Espoo – Finland’s second largest city – with just 23 car races under his belt, was flying in to get his first taste of Formula 1 machinery. His command of English was limited. His approach was to stay quiet and let his driving do the talking. He was so young, Sauber had to send a mechanic to fetch him from the airport as he was not yet legally old enough to drive in Italy.
Despite all this, his managers – father and son duo David and Steve Robertson – had convinced the outfit’s founder and owner Peter Sauber to give their boy a shot. Over the course of three days, the Finn shocked not only Sauber but also F1 great Michael Schumacher...
How it came about
The Robertsons knew they had a talent on their hands, so they got in touch with a number of F1 teams, one of which was Peter Sauber. David Robertson called Sauber and made his pitch. It proved persuasive enough for the team’s founder to agree to a face-to-face meeting…
Peter Sauber, Team Principal: “I had a meeting with David at the Hungarian Grand Prix on 12th August 2000. He spoke very enthusiastically about Kimi. I met him for the first time at the test at Mugello. I am still surprised that I agreed to this test, because a three-day test is very expensive. Obviously David succeeded in infecting me with his enthusiasm.”
Willy Rampf, Technical Director: “Internally, the senior team were pushing he gets a test in one of our cars, so we were excited that Kimi would have the chance. We backed Kimi to get a test drive.”
Steve Robertson, Raikkonen’s Manager: “My father laid out the facts, explaining what this kid had done in a short period of time in Formula Renault. He was winning 80% of the races and not just winning, he was winning with some huge margins. Peter was intrigued by that. He was a real racer at heart. My father tried to convince him that if he didn’t take Kimi this year, he wouldn’t see him again as he would get swallowed up by a big team.”
Jacky Eeckelaert, Race Engineer: “It’s amazing to think that 12 months before we tested Kimi, he was a kart driver. So it was a bit special, of course. I had been advised by people from the professional karting world that he was something of an exception. That’s why Peter agreed to test him. In a very short time at that test, he was up to pace with a Formula 1 car. In those days, it was more horsepower and lots of downforce so not an easy thing.”
Kimi1edit.jpg
Keeping it under wraps
Naturally, Sauber wanted to keep Raikkonen’s test quiet to fend off the threat of a rival team taking an interest, particularly as he didn’t yet have a contract. Obviously Ferrari and McLaren were present at the test, but Sauber ensured there was no fanfare. Their run plans were kept secret and even inside the team, talk of the Raikkonen test was on a need-to-know basis.
Willy Rampf: “We didn’t tell everybody what we were doing with Kimi. Within the team, we knew he was special. We had to find a name for the driver to keep his identity a secret. We could not say this is Kimi Raikkonen when we were referring to him for things like the seat fit, so we called him ‘Eskimo’.”
Sergio Rinland, Chief Designer: “Peter called Kimi the Eskimo. He didn’t call him the Iceman - that came after. Why was he called Eskimo? Because the sponsor that paid for the test was an ice cream manufacturer from Scandinavia. I remember after the test, Peter called us all into the machine shop and told us, we’re going to hire the Eskimo. And everyone burst out laughing.”
Peter Sauber: “I was present on the second day of the test. It is not easy to describe the impression that Kimi made on me. It was not so much Kimi’s speed that struck me – his speed was good. It was rather his body language that showed his strong will and determination that made the big impression on me.”
Josef Leberer, Trainer: “He was very shy. He didn’t talk but was easy and friendly. In the car, he did exactly what the engineer asked him. From the beginning, he made a good impression.”
Getting down to business
Pedro Diniz, one of Sauber’s race drivers who had the previous weekend finished eighth in the Italian Grand Prix, helped set up the car for Raikkonen, to give the Finn something to work with as a foundation. He also completed 78 laps during his one-day stint in the car. His best lap was a 1m 27.654s, which was 2.4s quicker than Raikkonen managed from his 29 tours on day one. But by day two, on only his sixth lap, Raikkonen went half a second quicker, having at that point completed less than half the laps of Diniz.
Peter Sauber: “His lap times were better than you could have expected from a young driver who had only completed 20 races in Formula Renault. In particular, he never drove more than three or four timed laps, even if his race engineer wanted more because he knew he would have problems with his neck. I already realised then how consistent he could be. Before the test ended on day two, we took out 30kg of fuel and fitted a set of new tyres on the car. He needed two laps to drive exactly the time we had expected.”
Sergio Rinland: “This test wasn’t long after Senna died, it was still very fresh in my memory and in my heart. When I saw this kid, I thought, this is the next one. He had a look in his eyes. There was a depth that is difficult to explain, but his test reminds me when Senna did the first Formula 3 test at Thruxton circuit. I was there because I was testing my Formula Ford. It was a similar story, he came in, he jumped in the car that was second in the championship the year before, drove a few laps and he asked for more front wing. And then he shattered the lap record. That’s probably why Kimi reminded me of Senna. At Thruxton, we all felt he was a superstar. At Mugello, it was that same feeling. After just a few laps, Kimi asked for a new front wing because he wasn’t comfortable. Jacky tried to tell him that that is not the way F1 works. He tried to get out of Kimi why he was asking for more wing. He said ‘because the car has got understeer’. So they added more wing. He went straight back out and was around 20km/h quicker through Arrabbiata than our car has ever been through there.”
Jacky Eeckelaert: “Even in the first outing on day one, he was quite impressive. He had no problem using full power on entry and exit of the corner. I set the car up with quite a lot of understeer, as I didn’t want him having moments in the high-speed corners. After two outings he said to me, can you not reduce a bit the understeer as I’m losing too much lap time! It was staggering to better Diniz’s time in just 35 laps. Pedro was no slouch, so to see Kimi beat that time so quickly was impressive.”
Sergio Rinland: “I remember on one day, it was getting dark, but we still wanted to get a few more laps in. So Kimi jumped in and was going flat out everywhere. But then after a couple of laps he pitted. ‘Why did you come in,’ Jacky asked him. ‘I can’t see any more,’ he replied. I had a look at him – he had a dark visor on. So we swapped it out for a clear one and got him back out!”
Kimi2.jpg
Coping with the force
In order to protect Kimi, Sauber opted not to complete too much mileage each day. They kept the runs short – one out-lap, three timed laps and an in-lap - and allowed for plenty of time in between runs to allow Raikkonen to recover his strength and go again.
Josef Leberer: “They did a short run, then you get out of the car, you talk, you do some massage and then you get back in the car. You could see as the day went on that he was finding it harder to keep his head up. At his age, he was already in a good physical condition so he coped very well.”
Sergio Rinland: “Mugello is a demanding track, because it has high G-forces, especially in these quick right-handers, Arrabbiata 1 and Arrabbiata 2. Kimi did not have this experience with high lateral G-force loading in a car, so it must have been quite painful for him to do all these laps. We built a type of a training machine, a small steel frame with the seat, pedals and steering wheel in it. Then Josef would attach rubber strings to his helmet and simulate the G-forces. This helped build strength in his muscles before his F1 debut.”
Olivier Panis, who was driving for McLaren at the test and setting the pace: “That first day was very tough physically, but he managed to do lots of laps. I’m sure that he was completely destroyed in the evening, but he came back the next day and got back on with it. There were a lot of questions – could he physically do it and deliver performance consistently. But he managed to do it.”
Keeping communication to the minimum
Sergio Rinland: “He was very quiet, he didn’t speak much. But when he did, he said the right things. There was never made a comment out of place. He’s shy of people, he doesn’t know how to deal with people in the same way he deals with a car.”
Jacky Eeckelaert: “He wouldn’t tell the story of his life after each run. He would speak about braking, early entry, entry, mid-corner, exit of each corner in a very succinct way. He would focus on the corners where he thought he could gain time. It’s a nice way to work. In the evenings, we would debrief. I asked him what he would like done to the car to make it more comfortable. He looked with his blue eyes and said ‘I don’t know Jacky. I listen to you. I’ll just drive the car’.”
Kimi Glasses Static
Getting noticed
There was a fair bit of downtime during each day of the test because the runs were kept short. But rather than just sit in the garage, Raikkonen wanted to use the time more wisely and went to watch Schumacher out on track. And it turns out the interest was mutual…
Jacky Eeckelaert: “He asked me if he could go and watch Michael Schumacher going through the corners. On the evening of the first day, after the briefing, and while I was making the programme for day two, there was a knock on the door of the motorhome and it was Michael. He asked who the new driver was, that was driving the Sauber. I told him it was Kimi and that 12 months ago he was just racing karts. He said ‘Well, he will be very, very fast’. So I was convinced he was on the right track!”
Olivier Panis: “His performance during that first test was really good. I was surprised by the decision to put him in the car, and surprised by his performance. I watched him a bit when I wasn’t in the car, I noticed he was very young but very quick – really very quick.”
Turning on the style
Now it was time to see whether Raikkonen had the ultimate pace. They sent him out on a heavy-fuel run. Then took out all the fuel, leaving him with enough to do a qualifying simulation. This was the ultimate test...
Willy Rampf: “When I was there, Kimi was doing the laps with 50kg, which was the normal fuel load for practice and racing. For qualifying, normally, we had a fuel load of about 12kg. We told him this was a new set of tyres with 50kg of fuel and do one lap - and we expect a good lap time. If he has an accident, it’s end of story. If you’re too slow, it’s also not very good. He did one lap with 50kg, we took the time and it was a reasonable time for someone who is not very experienced in a F1 car. Then we put the 12kg in and sent him out. With this fuel load, the difference in lap time is about 1.2s, which is what our simulations tell us and from our experience at Mugello. We did not tell him what the target was. We only told him it was a low fuel load and he should go for a qualifying lap. He did and he had a lap time improvement of 1.2s...
“It was very close to what we hoped for. This was amazing for somebody who does not know how a car with a qualifying fuel load behaves, because we’d never run that low fuel with him before. It was seriously amazing. During testing, he never damaged anything on the car. If he had spun into the gravel three times, everyone would have scratched their head and asked if it was a lucky shot with low fuel load or because he’s not so confident. It made it easier to convince Peter that this was a driver who knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s not driving at the limit, he always has something in reserve.”
So the proof was in the timesheets and the way he carried himself throughout. This was the driver Sauber wanted in the car for the following season – and that was the driver he got. It was a tough sell, given his age and lack of experience, but Sauber successfully convinced the FIA to give Raikkonen a super licence and the Finn rewarded his faith by scoring a point on his debut in the 2001 Australian Grand Prix. It was the start of a quite remarkable F1 career, that all began at a three-day test in Mugello…
Lewis Hamilton DELETES post that called P Diddy a ‘brother’ and thanked the disgraced music mogul for ‘always showing love’, before his sex trafficking indictment
P Diddy was recently arrested on sex trafficking and racketeering charges
Lewis Hamilton has now deleted a social media post praising the music mogul
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