Archive for November, 2009
Vettel is a perfect fit for MercedesGP – No Bull
Nov 30th
Sebastian Vettel is hot property after becoming the runner up in this years F1 World championship. He is more then 10 years younger then his RedBull team mate, Mark Webber, and just like his idol, fellow German driver Michael Schumacher, Vettel has already made history as the youngest Formula One driver to ever win a Grand Prix after winning at the Italian GP in 2008.
He is also the youngest driver ever to be a runner up in the championship and of course the youngest driver ever to score pole position during quaili’. Predictions are, records will keep falling to Vettel in the future.
Vettel is constantly compared to Schumacher and with good reason. He has already smashed a number of records, not only is he the youngest driver ever to win a Grand Prix but when he was 19 years old he became the youngest driver to lead a race behind the wheel of the BMW Sauber.
Despite the expectations that he is the next Schumie, Vettel admits he is not feeling the pressure, instead he is focusing on one season at a time and just enjoying racing.
Vettel has a very bright future ahead of him. Ross Brawn and Norbert Haug are no doubt itching to get him to drive for MercedesGP and if it weren’t for his ironclad contract with RedBull that doesn’t expire until the end of the 2011 season, no doubt he would be signed for 2010 with the Silver Arrows.
For Mercedes however, having the best German on the grid driving for a German works team is something not only the top execs would want, but also Vettel himself.
But if Mercedes were to get desperate by the end of 2010 they might start looking at options and also be prepared to pay a hefty price to release Vettel from his contract early.
We could see Sebastian Vettel drive for the Silver Arrows as early as the beginning of the 2011, but really what is the rush? He is with a very successful team now. RedBull is coming off the back of a very strong season and Vettel is very well embedded into the team and can now focus on winning the championship.
No doubt he will be fighting for the title next year and if the team can be strong right from the beginning of the season rather then finding their form part way through, there is no reason why he can’t be the 2010 World Champion.
When asked after the Monza round this year who he thought would win the 2009 Championship, Vettel replied “I hope myself. I will fight to the last breath and minute.” It is this attitude that will see him remain in Formula1 for some time yet – hopefully winning multiple titles.
note: Sebastian Vettel will get to test the 2010 car for the first time next February. We will be following his progress in the lead up to round one very closely.
Back to Montreal in 2010!
Nov 28th
After a year sabbatical we are going back to Canada in June 2010 for the Montreal Grand Prix. Canada was not included in the 2009 season due to a financial dispute between local organisers and Bernie’s Formula One Management (FOM). The Green light has been given for 2010 as Bernie and the Canadian authorities have managed to agree on a 5 year deal after a marathon of negotiations. The race (at this stage) is pencilled in for the weekend of June 11-13 2010.
“The Grand Prix of Canada has more impact on the tourist industry than any other sports event in Canada,” stated Québec Minister of Tourism, Nicole Menard. “Of the 300,000 spectators at the competition, 25 per cent come from outside of Québec. This event alone delivers some $89 million(CAN) in economic fall-out each year, along with 75,000 overnight hotel stays. I am certainly delighted by this news.”
We are also delighted by the news, Montreal was really missed in 2009.
Daniel Ricciardo, the next big thing from Down Under.
Nov 26th
Twenty year old Daniel Ricciardo from Perth, Western Australia has got what it takes to be an F1 superstar. Not only has he got talent, but he’s also got the look.
He is not shy and admits his only goal is to become the Formula1 World Champion. Make no mistakes he is well on his way to achieving his goal.
His favourite circuit is Spa-Francorchamps, Ayrton Senna is his idol and Formula1 is not just a dream, it is an obsession and it will be his future.
This year Daniel won the British Formula 3 World Championship driving for Carlin Motorsport. He placed first at the all-important Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps rounds and he wowed the fans by recording three wins in his first four races.
His Idol, Ayrton Senna won the British Formula3 championship in 1983. When he was asked what it felt like to be the British Formula3 Champion, he replied with “It feels bloody awesome.” He hasn’t lost any of his Aussie flair.
Earlier this month Daniel visited RedBull’s F1 headquarters in Milton Keynes which is also where Daniel now lives. He attended a seat fitting and spent some time practising in the teams F1 simulator. Next week however will be the most important week of his life so far as he makes his Formula1 test debut with the RedBull team at Jerez circuit in Spain.
When asked what he thought of his F1 test, Daniel said “No way did I think I’d be getting this at the end of the year, …this is something I’ve dreamed about since I can remember, so I’m really looking forward to it.”.
Daniel will be playing an important role for the team next week since their signed drivers for next year (Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel) will not be allowed to get into the car until February 2010, due to the testing ban for seated drivers. It will not only be a good test of Daniel’s on-track abilities, but it will also test how he interacts with the team and works with the engineers and is able give them valuable feedback.
After a bad race at the Macau grand prix where he crashed out of the race from starting 5th on the grid, Daniel will be even more focused on making a good impression. He has already announced that he will be racing next year in the Formula Renault 3.5 Championship. If all goes well next week, chances are that he will be driving in Formula1 in one to two years at the most.
We will be following his progress at Jerez next week, good luck Daniel mate!
Jerez December test, less then a week away
Nov 26th
The testing at Jerez in Spain only a week away there are a lot of young drivers getting excited.
We are excited about Aussie Daniel Ricciardo testing for RedBull, he just claimed the British Formula3 World Championship this year and we think he is not far off an F1 seat if he can prove himself next week.
Ferrari are testing the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place championship finishers in this years Italian Formula 3 Championship and Williams are testing Nico Hülkenberg who has already been confirmed as their driver for 2010 partnering with Rubens Barrichello.
Despite pulling out of Formula1, BMW has kept it’s promise to allow Mario Alexander Rossi and Esteban Gutiérrez a test. BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen said ”Depriving these junior drivers of the test we had promised them was not an option for us, even after the withdrawal of BMW from Formula One,”
Updated: Mercedes have announced their drivers as Mike Conway and Marcus Ericsson, McLaren are TBC and Ferrari have added a forth driver, Jules Bianchi.
The teams and drivers testing in Jerez from next Tuesday are as follows:
Red Bull
Daniel Ricciardo
Toro Rosso
Brendon Hartley
Mirko Bortolotti
Brawn GP/Mercedes:
Mike Conway
Marcus Ericsson
BMW Sauber
Esteban Gutiérrez
Alexander Rossi
Renault
Bertrand Baguette
Ferrari
Pablo Sanchez-Lopez
Daniel Zampieri
Marco Zipoli
Jules Bianchi.
Williams
Nico Hülkenberg
Andy Soucek
Force India
Paul di Resta
JR’ Hildebrand
We will be following testing very closely next week and give you live updates throughout the two days.
Will Rosberg make Mercedes ‘his own’?
Nov 24th
Four years ago Nico Rosberg won the inaugural GP2 world Championship. He was on top of the world and the talk of the motorsport world, being the son of former Formula1 World Champion Kiki Rosberg he had a lot to live up to, and it looked like he wouldn’t disappoint. The following year he was snapped up by Frank Williams and his F1 dream came true, he was making his F1 Début as a rookie driving for one of the most highly regarded teams on the Grid. Nico’s father won the Formula1 World Championship for Frank Williams in 1982, Nico was destined for sucess driving for the same team his father did 15 years earlier. A few months into the season however and Williams turned out to not be the team it expected to be that year. The team failed to finish on the podium all season, the first time since Williams’ first season in 1977 and Romberg’s status as the ‘next big thing’ in F1 started to fade away. It’s been a long tough road with Williams who have been a very under-performing team. His former Williams team-mate Mark Webber has had a string of podiums this year and recorded his first F1 win since leaving Williams for RedBull Racing, something Nico would have surely done by now if he had not still been driving for the Grove based team.
All that is about to change however when he drives with the Silver Arrows next year and judging by the performance of the BrawnGP team this year, Nico’s first GP win is surely just around the corner and the Mercedes works team seem set make a successful return to Formula1. Nico will be the first German to drive in F1 for Mercedes since 1955 and with the no.2 driver rumoured to be another German, it looks to be World War II all over again on the Grid next year with the British Super-team of McLaren vs. the potentially All-German MercedesGP.
Being a German driver in a German team and possibly has got to have its advantages. This decade certain drivers have been synonymous with certain teams. Schumacher and Ferrari, Alonso and Renault and soon it will be Rosberg and Mercedes.
Nico is already proving to be an ambassador for Mercedes right from the minute the announcement was made “No other brand in Formula One can look back on such a long and successful tradition in motor racing. “ He said. Norbert Haug, Vice President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport responded by saying how he had followed Nico’s career closely since he raced karts alongside Lewis Hamilton.
Nico has a great opportunity to shape his future in F1 with a new team, he will be able to grow and develop with the team and with the financial backing of a large manufacturer, the world will be his oyster.
Just in time for the F1 “silly season”
Nov 24th
Well ok, so we are a bit late, but the silly is well underway and far from over!
Welcome to nbj’s F1 blog. This is where you’ll find some of the latest news as well as editorial pieces and anecdotal articles from the world of Formula1.
We launched our blog just a week after the big news of Mercedes returning to formula1 as a works team. Then shortly after the news of the new driver lineup at McLaren, now a British Super team with two consecutive British Formula1 world champions.
Now the attention of course has shifted to the Mercedes GP and who will partner with Nico Rosberg next year. Our guess is they really want another German driver. An all-German super-team is something that Mercedes and the German media would really love and whilst it will more then likely be Heidfeld, the media are really boosting the PR exposure of this team with rumours of Michael Schumacher making a comeback to drive for the Silver Arrows. At the moment this seems to be nothing more then media hype and Ross Brawn himself has said in a manner of words that Schumacher would not be driving for the team, however, Norbert Haug, Vice President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport has not denied it when asked. Either way MercedesGP are making the most of the PR hype. The announcement that Schumacher’s role with Scuderia Ferrari has been scaled-back to being less involved with their F1 program which coincided with the Brawn-Merc’ announcement has only fuelled the rumours further.
2010 is set to be a cracker of a season with 12 teams on the Grid of which 4 teams are new and 1 re-branded team (Mercedes GP has taken over the 209 BrawnGP team). We have 24 cars on the Grid and a few new names driving them. It’s seems like March is an eternity away, but with start of official testing just around the corner, it’s bound to be a really exciting lead-up to the 2010 championship season.
We plan on breaking the news here as fast as possible, that is before it hits the mainstream media sites. We’ll also tweet as it happens!
Thanks for visiting our brand new blog.
- nbj’s F1 blog team.
