As we lose one manufacturer, we now gain another as Mercedes announced today that it has purchased a 75% majority in the Brackley based Brawn GP. Also announced was the contract renewal of their deal with McLaren as well until 2015. Chatter had indicated that Mercedes would become more involved with Brawn GP, but to what degree remained a close secret. The team will now be a full works operation and will use the same Brackley base as opposed to opening a new location in Germany. Also, the management team…
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Episode 15 – Open Paddock Podcast
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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadThis week Mike is back from the Smokies and I try to fight off a nasty cold. We also hit off season news including the new IZOD IndyCar Series as well as discuss the Indy 500. Formula 1 news a plenty and all the other news you may have missed….which was not much. Enjoy and have a safe weekend.
Read MoreLe Mans – Acura LMP2 and Europe
The Acura ARX-01b LMP2 challenger is set to make its European debut next year in the hands of the JAS Motorsports team. JAS has been a partner with Honda for the last decade and have won both touring car titles as well as rally titles under the Japanese manufacturer’s banner. The team will take the LMP2 machine into the European Le Mans series and have listed the 24 Hours of Le Mans race as an ultimate goal as well. At this time the Milan based squad will field one car…
Read MoreRally – Introducing the R2 Fiesta
Episode 14 – Open Paddock Podcast
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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadJoin Mike and myself as we try and wrap our head around Toyota and Bridgestone pull outs. We talk about Renault and other ramifications of today’s huge news. We also talk RHR to AGR? as well as IndyCar title sponsor stuff. Gronholm may be back the WRC and Pirelli may not be. All huge news today and no signs of a slow down anytime soon.
Read MoreRally – No Gurantees on Pirelli
While reading Autosport’s web page this morning for all of the latest F1 news, I noticed that the dominoes may start to fall in the WRC before long. The site had an article posted which states that Pirelli is not guranteeing anything to the FiA in regards to its WRC contract as sole tire supplier. “We will study the interest in the sport and gauge the effect of our current supply contract to the WRC. I can then present to the board of Pirelli, but it’s not a given that…
Read MoreF1 – Spygate 2???
Offseason? We don’t need no stinking off season! So it would appear with all the news that has hit the wires the last couple days. Now we learn of a potential spygate 2 involving Force India and the new Lotus team that i snot even prepared a car yet. However, this is where the problem begins. Swiss press Motorsport Aktuell is reporting that Dr. VJ Malyah is very concerned that the wind tunnel version of the new Lotus strongly resembles the VJM-02. We must be cautioned however that F1 cars…
Read MoreF1 – Toyota Close Shop
During the last few races of the Formula 1 season, the eyes of the F1 world were shielded to the ugly side of the business. We had no court cases directly related to results, we had no he said she said, (except for Jarno Trulli running around like an idiot) and we had the bright flashy new Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi that I for one was very impressed with. Then the season ended and as the curtain came down, another came up that and behind it is a train…
Read MoreFeature – Button’s Humble Pie
Feature – Germany Nations Champs!
This morning marked the start of celebrations at China’s Bird’s Nest Stadium for the annual Race of Champions event. Teams from all over the world were there in an attempt to unseat the German team comprised of seven time Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher and this year’s F1 runner up Sebastian Vettel. All when home disappointed as Germany strikes again. The early stages seen the German’s in the toughest group with the likes of host nation China, Finland, Australia. The awesome duo took six of the first six races, easily…
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