2005 Belgian Grand Prix

//Mike

//Mike

//Mike

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Flibster said:
Apparently the Bus Stop has been buggered around with again...

Wonder if it's to Schumachers requirement...

...again...

...like the last 2 mods to it...

Simon/~Flibster
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Any Idea what they've ruined this time? :rolleyes:.

Ask anyone and they will say the original bus stop was one of the best characteristics of Spa. Except a certain Mr. Schumacher. :rolleyes:
 

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Just how fast can a Formula One car go?

Designed to go as quick as possible on everything from hairpin bends to long straights to sweeping turns, an F1 car must be set up as a compromise to cope with a range of different challenges.

But if an F1 car was set up for straight-line speed only, how fast would it go?

The Lucky Strike BAR-Honda team will attempt to find out when it tries to set an official Formula One land speed record in October on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. The car, which will be a completely legal F1 car capable of passing technical inspection and entered in a Grand Prix, will be driven by BAR-Honda test driver Alan van der Merwe.

BAR's sporting director, 2003 Indianapolis 500 winner Gil de Ferran, is no stranger to speed, having regularly raced at speeds faster than 220 mph in North America.

"To imagine a F1 car running there is bizarre and totally offbeat," de Ferran said of the Salt Flats, "but this is what it is all about. It's a challenge for us all, but the spirit of the land speed record and the people we have met since we started this project are also a reminder to us of the pioneering spirit that symbolizes our own sport."

In order to set an official record, the car must maintain an average speed over a measured mile and then within one hour average that same speed again in the opposite direction over the same mile length.

BAR-Honda's goal is to achieve at least a 400 kph (249 mph) average speed to set the record. While F1 cars have briefly reached speeds of 370 kph (230 mph) at the fastest point on high-speed tracks such as Monza in Italy, maintaining a higher speed for a full mile in the demanding conditions of the Bonneville Salt Flats presents a host of challenges.

While flat, the surface is bumpy. Because it is so light, the F1 car suffers from a lot of wheel spin. The salt is caustic and corrosive to the F1 car's metal parts. The car wanders from side to side down the 30-yard-wide seven-mile-long track. In an initial test on the Salt Flats, van der Merwe said it was the most difficult thing he had ever done in a racing car.

"If a F1 track was this bumpy we'd pack up and go home," he said. "It is not the usual sensation of speed that you get on a racing track because there are no reference points."

Guy Savage, BAR-Honda's deputy technical director, is overseeing the project.

"We are constantly asked how fast a F1 car can go," he said, "and the truth of the matter is that we don't know because they are not built to go fast. They are built to accelerate, corner, and brake.

"It is a very difficult job because the harder we push that car forward, the more the forces of drag pull us back. So we have to strip the car down completely while still keeping it legal. The tires and wheels account for 75 percent of the total drag of the car, and this will be the main hindrance to the car's top speed."

The car will run with the bare minimum of aerodynamic downforce aids such as wings and flaps. Extra ballast will be added to stabilize the car at speed.
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McLaren plan second F1 team?

With Red Bull apparently contemplating a 'junior' Formula One team, so too - it is reported - is McLaren.

'Auto, Motor Und Sport' claims this week that, with the support of Mercedes, the silver marque could race onto the 2007 grid with a 'b' team.

McLaren was involved in the stillborn 'Dubai F1' project, but seemingly has decided that supplying another outfit with year-old cars and engines might not be a bad idea.

FIA president Max Mosley revealed at Monza that the regulations will soon allow teams to sell previously exclusive cars and parts to other teams. 'Entry level people will simply be able to buy a car from a big team,' Mosley explained. 'That will help new teams come in.'

The mandatory $48m 'new team bond' is also set for the chop.

A Tokyo-based investment company, 'Directive' - already a sponsor in the GP2 and GT categories - is thought involved in the backing of the McLaren junior team, and may already have signed contracts for five years.
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Brit GP still endangered

Whether Bernie Ecclestone is on side or not, the British grand prix at Silverstone will once again become an endangered species.

That is the warning of Chris Aylett, boss of Britain's 'Motorsport Industry Association'.

He said the rise of Turkey, Malaysia, Bahrain and China - all backed by their governments - is driving up the cost of hosting a grand prix.

Britain has waged a constant battle to win similar government funds, but the race is solely promoted by the British Racing Drivers' Club, and still lacking in terms of F1 circuit facilities.

'(The race) is becoming too expensive for the private sector to bear alone,' he warned in the Telegraph newspaper.

Team boss Sir Frank Williams backs up the view by saying that the government's outlook on a British motor industry 'awash with cash' is 'mistaken.'
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Schu threatens Patrese record

17-year F1 veteran Riccardo Patrese thinks Michael Schumacher should scoop the 2006 championship and then call it a day.

The Italian, who won six grands prix for teams including Brabham and Williams until he retired in 1993, raced a record 256 times after he debuted in 1977.

Patrese, 51, fears that seven time world champion Schumacher is heading for his long standing grands prix record.

Schumacher, the Ferrari driver, will have contested 232 races at the end of 2006, meaning that the 36-year-old will crack the Patrese-barrier shortly into season '07.

'I think he still has a lot of motivation,' Riccardo, at Silverstone for a Grand Prix Masters seat fitting, told Reuters.

'It would be good (for him) to have the last season winning the championship, because if he doesn't, maybe he wants to go on to beat my record.'

Patrese thinks beleaguered Ferrari 'will come back' next year.
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Frank firm on 'Buttongate'

Sir Frank Williams is showing little sign of buckling under the pressure of Jenson Button's fierce campaign to wiggle out of his 2006 contract.

Even as $90 million deals float around in the rumour mill, the knighted team principal said he still 'expects' the 25-year-old Briton to honour the contract he signed in September last year.

'But the less I comment about this, particularly in the press, the better,' Williams told the Telegraph newspaper.

In the interview, Sir Frank - who gave Button his debut as little more than a teenager in 2000 - laughs at the suggestion that his stance is showing him up as the 'hard man' of the grand prix Paddock.

Williams' team co-owner and director of engineering, Patrick Head, agrees that Ron Dennis or Flavio Briatore are 'just as tough - maybe more so.'

It's definitely going to be a tough 2006 for the Oxfordshire based outfit, which has lost BMW's works engine support. An annual budget of about $150 million is likely to shrink next year.

'Maybe even £85m ($156m),' Williams hinted to the newspaper of the current budget.

Of one thing, though, there is little doubt. Sir Frank and Patrick have not put a 'for sale' sign above the door.

Williams said: 'I love it just as much as ever.'
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rpstewart

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I think Flibster called this one last week but now it's official

McLaren join forces with Hilton
The McLaren-Mercedes team have announced a long-term corporate partnership with Hilton International, the hotel brand.

The deal will kick off at this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix.

The team will display the Hilton International hotel logo for the first time during practice at Spa today. The logo will appear on the lower rear wing end plate of the MP4-20 cars driven by Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya.

Team boss Ron Dennis said: "We are delighted to welcome Hilton International to our team of longstanding valued corporate partners and we look forward to driving both business success and Team McLaren Mercedes success in the Formula One World Championships together."
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I wonder if this is a lead in to a title sponsorship deal from next year? If so I think we'll still see the cars basically as silver arrows but with more Hilton blue than the West red and black we're used to.
 
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