The FIA took the opportunity of the WMSC meeting with Renault to release the 2010 F1 calendar of events: March 14 – Bahrain March 28 – Australia April 4 – Malaysia April 18 – China May 9 – Spain May 23 – Monaco May 30 – Turkey June 13 – Canada* June 27 – Europe (Valencia) July 11 – Great Britain July 25 – Germany August 1 – Hungary August 29 – Belgium September 12 – Italy September 26 – Singapore October 3 – Japan October 17 – Korea October…
Read MoreMonth: September 2009
F1 – WMSC Puts Down Smack
The FIA has issued their full verdict on the Renault ‘Piquetgate’ scandal and the arbitrary hand of FIA justice has fallen. Leading up to this mornings WMSC hearing, Pat Symonds and Flavio Briatore left the team and Renault made it known that they would not dispute any of the FIA’s findings. On top of that they issued an unreserved apology to the FIA for the actions of members of their team. The FIA found that Nelson Piquet Jr., Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds conspired to have NPJ crash during last…
Read MoreIndyCar – Versus Acknowledges History
We have complained a bit here at Open Paddock about the way the TV broadcast ignores the historic records of past greats like AJ, Mario, and even Paul Tracy when they wax poetic about the winningest driver in IndyCar history being Dixon or Hornish before him. Both Versus and ABC have been equal opportunity offenders on that count. I thought at the beginning of the season when the IRL published their first combined historic record book, that we had seen the end of this. The combined book includes all records…
Read MoreIndyCar – Points Battle TIGHT!
Going into the Motegi race, Ryan Briscoe had a comfortable 25 point lead and with the promise of Penske perfection behind him, looked to be a shoe in to win the Championship with only two races left. But a giant monster pit exit cone attacked him, ending his chance at extending his points lead. You can see our race wrap up for more details on that. Scott Dixon went on to score maximum points for the weekend (53) for pole, most laps lead and the win. Dario Franchitti took home…
Read MoreIndyCar – Daikaiju Cone Attacks Briscoe
The Land of the Rising Sun played host to the IndyCar series last night at Twin Ring Motegi. Non-typical for Motegi, the race ran the full distance without any rain. For the most part, the affair was pretty exciting. Scott Dixon started the race on pole, and the running order was established early on. Dixon and Franchitti led pretty much the entire race, but there was a bit of intrigue behind them. Briscoe, who started the race 25 points ahead in the championship, was clearly saving fuel from the start.…
Read MoreEpisode 08 – Open Paddock Podcast
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadThis week Doug and I are joined by Todd aka Negative Camber to talk about a whole bundle of F1 news. Todd was gracious enough to lend us some smarts on the FIA traveling circus. Doug also does a brilliant job with feeder series. Enjoy!
Read MoreOP-Ed – DiRT 2 Review
It has been a week now since DiRT 2 came tearing through the back roads of the world and onto your game console of choice. We here at Open Paddock spoke very highly of the game and gave it as much free advertising as we could. However, it is now time to break the game down and give it our final review. We will do this by looking at car selection, controls, race types, and soundtrack as well as single and multi player modes. Car Selection: To understand the current…
Read MoreF1 – Symonds Offered Immunity
The showdown between the FIA and Renault over race fixing allegations is set to come to a head in just a few days, the FIA has reached out to Pat Symonds (director of engineering) at Renault F1 and offered him immunity from punishment if he releases further details regarding the events surrounding the 2008 Grand Prix of Singapore. Symonds has been somewhat suspect in dealing with these allegations all together. The director indicated that there were discussions about having Piquet crash, but those ideas were brought forward originally by Piquet…
Read MoreF1 – More Entries for 2010
The FIA has written to the teams to seek their blessing to expand to 14 teams for the 2010 season. This was prompted by BMW finding a buyer for their operation and the addition of Lotus as a new team. Lotus F1 has taken the official 13th entry on the grid for next season with backing from the Malaysian government and several Malaysian firms. The team principal has been announced to be Tony Fernandes, the founder and CEO of Tune Group who owns Air Aisa. Mike Gascoyne has been named…
Read MoreF1 – Having Your Cake and eating it too
We found out this past weekend that Santander will be sponsoring Ferrari for the next five years. However, it now appears the Spanish banking giant will now have the market cornered in terms of top teams as they have also extended a sponsorship deal with McLaren as well. What gives? This decision will see the banking company not only sponsor grand prix, but the two most successful teams in Formula 1 history. According to an article on AUTOSPORT, the deal with McLaren is mainly in line with Lewis Hamilton. Whereas…
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