F1 – Life at the Cosworth End of the Grid: On USF1 and Campos

Bernie Ecclestone made some famous comments a couple weeks ago alluding to USF1 and Campos both not making the grid for the 2010 season. Further, Bernie was implicating that Stefan GP would probably take one of their places, making for 12 teams in 2010. Both Campos and USF1 promptly released statements assuring their fans and potential sponsors that they were viable. But now, more details are coming out about both teams that lend credence to the ancient billionaire’s park bench mumblings. All the while continuing to cast further doubt on…

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IndyCar – Tony Cotman Leaves IRL, Kinda

New Zealand native Tony Cotman has left his position with the IndyCar Series as Vice President of Competition to start his own company, NZR Consulting. Tony was second in command behind Brian Barnhart in the IRL and his race weekend responsibilities included race direction of the Indy Lights series. Before joining the IRL in 2008, Tony became widely respected for his role in the Champ Car World Series as Executive Vice President of Operations and Race Director. Tony was instrumental in bringing the cost effective Panoz DP01 program forward in…

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IndyCar – Sao Paulo Race Details

With just a scant 9 weeks remaining before the IndyCars make their first visit to Sao Paulo, the track layout has just broken into the news in Brazil. While I cannot understand Portuguese, driver Felipe Giaffone is seen in this video demonstrating a lap of Sao Paulo’s circuit layout. With just 9 weeks to go, they better have a final layout agreed. Especially since much of the route that is demonstrated appears to be in a bad state of repair. Reportedly, this circuit layout was distributed to the IndyCar teams…

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IndyCar – On Fuel Knobs, Reverse Gear and the Winter Meeting

Next Tuesday is the IRL’s annual winter meeting. This gives the league an opportunity to talk about rules changes with the teams, as well as perform physicals and film segments with the drivers to use for Versus and ESPN’s TV packages. For us here in the Paddock though, it really marks the beginning of the IndyCar season as we come off of a very quiet winter break. Granted, we have already had the first test of the new year with Taglianni, Briscoe and Franchitti taking laps at Homestead. But the…

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IndyCar – SATO?! New info from de Ferran

Robin Miller was hinting this early in 2009. We heard more rumors about it when Gil de Ferran said he was starting an Indy program. But now we have new word from John Oreovicz at ESPN that Takuma is joined at the hip with Gil’s new Indy effort. Clearly, this still stands as a rumor though since this comprised one line in John’s article. But it doesn’t take much to get me excited about the prospect of Sato taking to the grid in an IndyCar. Takuma showed a very aggressive…

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F1 – USF1 Car Installation Laps in Alabama?

This is definitely a first in the world of F1. USF1 team principle Peter Windsor has revealed that USF1 has been given special dispensation from the FIA to test their car stateside at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama. While no official details about where they will unveil the car have been announced, Peter did give us an early February timeframe for when their car will be hot shoeing it around the moto track. “Because we are a new team and start everything from zero the first time we will run…

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F1 – Car Launch Dates – 1/8/2010

There is no downtime here at the Paddock. Car launches and winter testing are on the horizon and we know that all you dedicated motor heads want your F1 information delivered to you in a concise and easily digestible package. That said, we are starting a new feature to keep you updated on all of the F1 car launch information. We will regularly update this with the latest info on launch dates and links to pictures from all the launches. Enjoy! Team – Launch Date – First Test McLaren –…

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IndyCar – IRL Cars and Tracks to Be Part of Gran Turismo 5

Sony’s long awaited flagship driving title for the Playstation 3, Gran Turismo 5 is reportedly going to have Dalarras and IndyCar tracks. This goes along with the WRC and NASCAR sanctions that are already signed up to be part of this behemoth title when it comes out. This news comes from VirtualR.net, a website devoted to sim racing. Their report claims that the next issue of Playstation Magazine has a huge feature on GT5, including the ‘revelation’ about IndyCar being included in the game. This continues an interesting relationship that…

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