New Daytona Will Have Tighter Action, More Chance for Mayhem, Drivers Say

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As defending Daytona 500 champion Jamie McMurray made his first laps on the repaved Daytona International Speedway Wednesday, the newness of it all was mildly overwhelming at first.

"Honestly, from my first 15-lap run in the draft, it took awhile to take it all in and kinda understand what was happening," McMurray said of the first of two days of Goodyear tire tests on the 2.5-mile speedway's new pavement. "When we unloaded, the cars seemed really wide and the track seemed narrow. But, really, after running 20 or 30 laps, it was not scary and was not that big of a deal.

"Today (Thursday), when I got out there, it felt way more comfortable and you kinda learn little tricks and stuff."

What they also learned, McMurray and other drivers said Thursday at a press conference at the speedway, is that because the new surface is so smooth and fast and so much easier to drive, big packs of cars will stay together longer, and that means the chances of big crashes are greater.

"It's gonna be different racing than what we've had in the past," McMurray said. "The cars are going to stay bunched up more. When you're really close together, it increases those chances" of a big crash, McMurray said. "You just gotta hope that you can make it to the end, because the odds [of a crash] are going to be really good, I'd say."

Barring a huge mistake or problem, "you're not going to the lose the draft," said Jeff Burton. "It's going to be big packs all the time. Three-wide is work. Four-wide is a wreck. Because of the mentality of superspeedway racing. there's going to be efforts to go four-wide to pick up positions, and when that starts happening, it's going to be get hairy."

 

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Source: http://motorsports.fanhouse.com/2010/12/16/new-daytona-will-have-tighter-action-more-chance-for-mayhem-dr/

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How Williams triumphed in the face of adversity

Sir Frank Williams, who has been given the 2010 Helen Rollason award for outstanding achievement in the face of adversity, has never seen his disability as an excuse not to succeed at the very highest level.

The owner of the Williams Formula 1 team has been a quadriplegic since breaking his neck in a car crash in March 1986 but he has continued to oversee his company with evangelical zeal and commitment. In fact its biggest successes came after his life-changing accident.

Williams does not so much love Formula 1 as he is consumed by it. He still goes into the factory seven days a week, with Christmas Day his only time off. And his ability to carry on regardless, resolutely refusing to let his disability affect his day-to-day work, continues to humble those who know him.

When Williams suffered his injury, at the age of 43, doctors pointed out to those close to him that, based on the examples of other people with similar problems, he would be lucky to live another 10 years.

Nearly 25 years later, Williams continues to attend most of the races in an increasingly marathon F1 calendar, and remains one of the most widely respected men in the sport.

His attitude to his disability is simple - it's his own fault he ended up that way so he had better just get on with it.

If he ever felt differently, there is no evidence for it.

In her brilliant book about Frank, his wife Ginny gives an eye-opening account of the days after the accident.

Williams was a very active man and a keen runner but even when his life was still in danger immediately afterwards, he never - not even to his wife - betrayed any sense of self-pity, depression or any of the other emotions that might be expected of someone in his situation.

He talks about it very little, and simply says to Ginny that they have had several good years of one kind of life together and now they just have to get used to a different one.

Williams's partner, the team's director of engineering Patrick Head, says: "I'm sure Frank had some terrible moments thinking about the change in his life but he's never been one to sit around and be sorry for himself.

"Frank has always been very pragmatic about 'what is the problem and how can I deal with it' and applied that to himself and his injury.

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"His enthusiasm and positive attitude always overcome any difficulties he has."

This is the approach Williams has applied to his disabilities ever since.

Looking back, he says in his clipped manner: "I've had a wonderful life; wouldn't dream of changing anything, truthfully."

Williams suffered his injuries when he crashed his hire car while racing his driver Nelson Piquet to the airport after a pre-season test in the south of France.

He discusses the accident now with the same detachment he displayed in recovering from it.

"The car banged over a few times and I'm ashamed to say it was either the sixth or seventh rollover accident I'd had in my life," he says.

"I remember the sharp pain in my neck. I thought: 'Wow, rolling over isn't supposed to hurt that much.' The car finished upside down and I tried to reach for the safety belt to get myself out and I couldn't do it.

"I knew I was going to have the big one but I couldn't slow myself down."

The first few months after his accident he spent focusing on getting into a condition that would allow him to get back to attending races.

"He runs himself with military precision," says Head, "and once he'd found out what the things were that would cause him problems, he adapted his lifestyle to give himself the best opportunities. He's very disciplined about that sort of thing - it's remarkable what he has done since then.

"Frank's always been quite private in his own emotions and in control of his interactions with other people. Once we'd got used to the fact that he wasn't the same person he was before, that he was in a wheelchair, things just sort of carried on as normal."

Stopping competing in F1 never occurred to Williams.

"The thought of retiring or selling the team never crossed my mind," Williams says, "and I also suppose recognised subconsciously it would be a great daily antidote for the difficulties I would find myself in. It's a fantastic job, a very exciting business, highly competitive, always something to worry about, which can be quite healthy, actually."

At the time of his accident, his team were about to embark on one of several periods in which they have dominated the sport.

But success was a long time in coming. Getting to the top of F1 was famously a struggle - Williams operated his team out of a phone box at one stage in the early 1970s, so tight had money become. Once he had achieved success, though, he did not let it go for a very long time, regardless of the misfortune that was to befall him.

The turning point was joining forces with Head, whose first car for the team in 1978 established them as serious contenders for the first time.

In 1979, they missed out on the title only through poor reliability and an eccentric scoring system. But they made no mistake in 1980, with Australian Alan Jones romping to the championship.

They remained more or less at the top of F1 from then until Williams's accident, just missing out on the drivers' title in 1986 but winning it in 1987. But when at the end of that year they lost their supply deal with Honda, producer of the best F1 engines, people wondered whether, with the boss in a wheelchair, they would cope.

That was counting without the incredible commitment and desire of this remarkable man.

Patrick Head and Sir Frank Williams

Williams and Head have formed a formidable partnership for the last 30 years

Before long, Williams had replaced Honda with Renault, and the team went on to its greatest successes - particularly the 1992 and 1993 seasons, when a car bristling with technology such as active suspension brushed the opposition aside with Nigel Mansell and then Alain Prost at the wheel.

The team have variously dominated F1 in the early 1980s, the mid-'80s, and the early to mid-'90s, winning drivers' titles with many famous names - Jones, Keke Rosberg, Piquet, Mansell, Prost, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve, along with nine constructors' championships.

They have also provided the platform for some of the sport's most brilliant engineers to make their names - among them Adrian Newey, now in charge of design at world champions Red Bull, and Ross Brawn, who ran Ferrari's technical department in their dominant period with Michael Schumacher and now boss of the Mercedes team.

But there have been dark times, too - particularly the death of Ayrton Senna at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix only three races into his Williams career.

It remains one of William's greatest regrets: "I felt that we had been given a great responsibility providing him with a car, and we let him down."

The last few years have seen Williams slip from competitiveness. They have not won a world title since Villeneuve's in 1997 and not taken the chequered flag since the final race of the 2004 season.

And for the first time there have recently been signs that the 68-year-old Williams is slowing down a little.

In November 2009, he and Head sold 10% of the company to Austrian businessman Toto Wolff, with the two men's own shareholdings reducing proportionately from 65% (Williams) and 35% (Head).

And last summer, Williams handed his role as chairman responsible for the day-to-day running of the team to Adam Parr, with Williams remaining as team principal and Head still in charge of the technical side.

When he made the announcement, Williams emphasised that while he was planning for succession, he was certainly not retiring.

As Williams's current lead F1 driver, the veteran Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, says: "I've never met anyone with so much passion for motor racing - it's truly amazing."

So much passion, indeed, that when he had to make a decision a few years ago between building a wind tunnel that would help make the cars go faster and keeping the private plane that allowed him to attend the farthest-flung races, he chose the wind tunnel.

Williams's voice is quieter now - talking is uncomfortable for him, as a result of his disability - and his eyes a little more watery. But a few minutes in his company leaves you in no doubt that his team's current lack of success pains him greatly, and that he is as committed as ever to getting them back to the top of F1.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2010/12/frank_williams_honoured_for_ac.html

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Pressure mounts on Webber most of all

Mark Webber, typically, cut to the chase when weighing up what could be the weekend of his life with a colleague.

"It's simple, mate," he said. "Put it on pole, then disappear!"

As long as Fernando Alonso, the championship leader, finishes third or worse behind the Australian in Sunday's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, it would be that simple.

Webber would be champion, with no need for a last-lap shuffle from team-mate Sebastian Vettel, and Red Bull would have completed a deserved double entirely in keeping with chief technical officer Adrian Newey's magnificent RB6 design.

But little in this switchback season has been straightforward - particularly at Red Bull, where Vettel could have wrapped up the title some races ago had he had greater reliability.

Instead, he and his older team-mate find themselves chasing Alonso who, remember, was 47 points off the lead following the British Grand Prix in July.

"All the pressure is on Red Bull this weekend," according to one team manager with recent championship success. "And the biggest load is on Webber.

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"He's not a young driver and you don't get many chances like this. Vettel will have many more days to challenge for the title. The team clearly back him."

"As for Fernando, he's been there already - twice."

Webber's outburst about his team's lack of driver equality before the last race in Brazil was interpreted by many as evidence that he's feeling the heat.

And those same observers viewed his quiet, reserved performance here in front of the world's media alongside his three rivals as another display of nerves.

Contrast his demeanour with Vettel's front row smiles, they were saying last night.

Consider Alonso's matter-of-fact handling of any barbed team orders related probing and Hamilton's back row cheeriness: "The guys in front of me have everything to lose, so for me I'm going to be flat out as always."

Hamilton's role could be a significant curve-ball if he can repeat his pole-winning lap of last year. But let's stay with Webber for the moment.

A one-time Jaguar official who worked with the Australian at the team and still works within Formula 1 gave me an interesting slant on his comments in Brazil.

"Mark seems to need to rev himself up, needs to feel he's got to fight something," my source said.

"He's a strong character and a good driver but for some reason he doesn't always show it unless he's gets himself wound up."

Red Bull's Mark Webber

Will Webber keep his nerve in Abu Dhabi? Photo: Getty Images

His race-winning performance at Silverstone was a case in point. Vettel got the only new, surviving front wing off Webber's car before qualifying.

The Aussie got the hump. But he also got the victory - fast and furious to the end.
That was in the middle of his purple patch which continued until the Belgian Grand Prix at the end of August, when he was second to Hamilton.

Webber has not been on pole since then, and has not won a race since Hungary, the grand prix before Spa. He has been out-qualified by his team-mate at the last five events.

He lost valuable points by crashing in Korea, where he also lost the lead in the championship - which he had held for the longest period of anyone this season - to the driver he rates the strongest on the grid, Alonso.

So it is easy to see why so many in the F1 paddock believe Webber faces the greatest challenge of all the contenders this weekend to fulfil an ambition that's been losing momentum at the wrong time.

Essentially, it's now or never.

Even Webber admitted on Thursday that age is against him to enjoy more opportunities like this.

Indeed, one leading driver manager even suggested to me that, whatever happened this weekend, Webber's position at Red Bull was untenable.

"If he's champion, he should get out at the top. If he doesn't win the title, then why would he want to be in a team where he feels his team-mate is being treated differently?" he said.

By contrast, the Alonso Fan Club nodded sagely at the Spaniard's cool fatalism yesterday.

"I will not have anything to be disappointed about in 2010," Alonso said.

"This first year of the relationship we are fighting for the world championship in the last race against two Red Bulls who are dominating by far in terms of speed so overall I don't think it matters on Sunday."

Um, really?

Make no mistake, Alonso and Ferrari will be going all out to win the title on Sunday, however much they make out it would be an unexpected bonus.

But this chance has been as much to do with Red Bull's fallibility as Ferrari's remarkable recovery from a desperate mid-season slump which was threatening to turn the screw on team principal Stefano Domenicali.

If anybody can drive to a title-winning script on Sunday to join a select club including previous three time winners like Ayrton Senna, Niki Lauda and Sir Jackie Stewart, it is Alonso.

He is the man in front, with the experience of his 2005 and 2006 triumphs, seemingly able to work out the points as effortlessly as the strategy.

Above all, he knows that his rivals all have to beat him on the track to have a chance of the 2010 championship, whereas he could do the job even if he failed to finish through a mistake or a breakdown.

Vettel, who must have nightmares about that engine failure when leading in Korea, has appeared like a man who will be driving more in hope than expectation of coming first or second to have any chance of becoming F1's youngest champion.

The prospect of waving through Webber has not fazed him because both of them know their first priority is getting ahead, and staying ahead of Alonso before any switch comes into the equation.

And that is where Lewis Hamilton fits in.

He accepts that he is clearly the outsider of the four contenders; 24 points off the lead, he's all but written off his chances

But if the McLaren performs like last year - extra straight-line speed from the F-duct instead of last year's Kers power boost - on Abu Dhabi's two big straights, the 2008 champion could be the joker in the championship pack.

Hamilton gave a hint of what might be in the offing with his pace in second practice, especially in the final sector where he was supreme.

Another McLaren pole position backed up by race reliability, and those carefully prepared championship permutations at Red Bull and Ferrari will be crucial props in a juggling act which could keep us guessing until the final lap of the final race of this momentous season.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/jonathanlegard/2010/11/webber-feeling-the-pressure.html

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Your questions answered - F1 2010

Was 2010 the best Formula 1 season of all time? Will the 'old' Michael Schumacher be back in 2011? Is Vettel a deserving champion given Alonso was in a much slower car? Will Webber ever win the title? Will Ferrari ever favour Massa over Alonso? Who impressed me most - Kubica or Rosberg?

Watch my answers below:

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CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO IF YOU ARE OUTSIDE THE UK

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/murraywalker/2010/11/your_questions_answered_-_f1_2.html

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F1 gurus lead a revolution in car design

Formula 1 is undergoing a quiet revolution.

In two years' time, the cars that line up on the grid for the start of the 2013 season will be vastly different from those that raced in 2010.

Governing body the FIA has already announced that the current 2.4-litre normally aspirated V8 engines will be replaced by 1.6-litre turbocharged versions with integrated energy recovery systems.

Now, BBC Sport can reveal that, driven by this big change to the engine regulations, the cars will also undergo their own huge revisions.

To the casual observer, they will still look like F1 cars and, importantly, will still go like them. But within the limitations of an open-cockpit, single-seater racing car with exposed wheels, they will be very different from current machines.

Gone will be the huge, snowplough front wings that have been required since the last major change of rules. Gone will be the high, chunky rear wings. Gone, too, will be the high-revving shriek of the engines.

In their place will be a car with much smaller front and rear wings and the much flatter, lower-pitched sound of a lower-revving turbo.

And critically - although largely invisible - there will be a shaped underfloor, replacing the flat bottoms that have been on F1 cars since 1983.

The 1982 Ferrari - a 126C2 - also possessed a small front wing

The 1982 Ferrari - a 126C2 - also possessed a small front wing

These external changes reflect a major change in the philosophy behind the cars and, as with the turbo engines, it is a case of back to the future. As the 1980s dominate the latest High Street fashions, so F1 is borrowing from technologies last seen then and updating them for the 21st century.

F1 last saw turbo engines in 1988. The last time cars had shaped underbodies was 1982. Those were the days of 'ground effect', when designers created huge amounts of aerodynamic downforce - and high cornering speeds - by accelerating the air under the car through the use of curved underfloors to create a 'venturi effect'. This was enhanced by the use of 'skirts', which sealed the underbody and prevented air leaking out of the sides.

We are not talking about a return to those days but the general principle is the same. Just as the cars in the 1979-82 period had small front and rear wings, so will the cars of 2013 and beyond.

The difference now is that whereas in the late 1970s and early '80s aerodynamics in F1 cars were still relatively in their infancy and designers were simply chasing as much as they could, now they are highly refined. And the men behind the proposed new rules are using the underfloor of the car to create efficient - but strictly limited - downforce.

The FIA recognised that if it was to make such a major change to the cars, it needed to be done as effectively and credibly as possible. So to help draw up the new rules they asked two of the most respected and experienced designers they could find - Patrick Head and Rory Byrne.

Between them, Head, the engineering director of Williams, and Byrne, now retired but formerly of Benetton and Ferrari, have won a total of 17 constructors' titles and 15 drivers' titles. They were first approached by FIA president Jean Todt in March 2010.

Among the provisos Head and Byrne were given were: a) at the very least, make sure the changes did not make overtaking any harder than it already is; and b) make the cars a bit harder to drive - the target being for a driver to be able to be on full throttle for only about 50% of the lap, as opposed to the current average of 70%.

The new regulations are being fine-tuned by FIA race director Charlie Whiting this week before being sent to the 12 F1 teams for analysis. In the new year, they will be critiqued at the sport's Technical Working Group, a group of leading engineers who effectively define the technical rules.

Head says "sure as hell there'll be some small changes" there. The basic philosophy, though, is expected to stay the same, while Head says the shaped underfloor is "inevitable".

"It all starts with the fact that we are only going to have roughly 65% of the amount of fuel, and a (limited) fuel flow rate," he explains. "When you're very limited on fuel, it's very clear you've got to reduce drag enormously. OK, the tyres are a very high proportion of the drag but we decided not to put tiny skinny tyres on it because it's still required to go around corners quickly.

"So the next thing you turn to is the massive rear wing we're running at the moment and as soon as you replace that with a much smaller one, it's 'Oh, we've lost all our downforce, so what can we do?' So inevitably you end up with a shaped underside."

This idea has been around for a long time - as long ago as 1998, when another working group, led by the late Dr Harvey Postlethwaite, also suggested reducing the sizes of front and rear wings and re-introducing shaped underfloors. The idea was canned by then FIA president Max Mosley.

Back then, the motivating factor was to improve the racing. In theory, cars designed this way can follow each other more closely than modern F1 cars.

Currently, drivers experience a severe lack of grip when they get to within about a second of a car in front because the airflow to their cars, particularly over the critical front wing, is badly disturbed.

In theory, with smaller wings and a greater proportion of the total downforce coming from under the car, there is less disturbance in the wake of the car in front, so a following car loses less aerodynamic downforce. It therefore retains more grip, allowing drivers to get closer to the car they want to overtake, making passing easier.

Under these new rules, any benefit to the racing will be secondary. The first goal is improving the cars' efficiency.

But it's just possible that, in chasing a goal that is all about keeping F1 in step with a world of diminishing fossil fuels, the effect will be to make overtaking easier.

Chastened by years of rule changes aimed at making cars more raceable that made no discernible difference, those involved are cagey about that for now. But one senior figure will at least admit the thought is on their minds.

"One of the fundamental parts of this," he said, "was that it wouldn't make it worse. But we do believe that if you can ensure there's less disturbance in the wake, that's good."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2010/12/formula_1_is_undergoing_a_quie.html

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Jimmie Johnson (Who Else?) Named Driver of the Year

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Five-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson has been named Driver of the Year for the fourth time -- tying a record with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon for the most wins in the prestigious award's 44-year history and putting him ahead of three-time winners Mario Andretti and Darrell Waltrip.

Johnson, who is the first to win five consecutive Sprint Cup titles, edged drag racing legend John Force, who won a historic 15th National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) championship. Johnson received 10 first-place votes from the 20-member panel of racing journalists and broadcasters while Force earned seven votes. Kyle Busch, who won a NASCAR-best 24 races in three national divisions this season, received one first-place vote.

"Among such tough competition; with the voting panel, who it is and how well-versed they are in motorsports, it's a huge, huge honor," said Johnson, who will receive a Tissot watch and trophy from the organization.

Driver of the Year President Barry Smoyer said the final vote came following one of the most "spirited" debates in the history of the award, which honors the best driver in an American four-wheel racing series or best American driver racing overseas.

"As many people have said already, it will be a long time before anyone will set the bar as high as Jimmie Johnson," Schmoyer said.

 

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Source: http://motorsports.fanhouse.com/2010/12/15/jimmie-johnson-who-else-named-driver-of-the-year/

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NASCAR Tickets - Joey Logano Makes NASCAR History

Joey Logano broke a 61-year record and became the youngest driver in NASCAR history to win a Sprint Cup race last weekend, emerging victorious from a rain-shortened race at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon to capture the first Cup win of his career. At 19, Logano captured his first Cup Series title at the Lenox Industrial Tools 301, coming in ahead of Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, David Reutimann and Tony Stewart, respectively, before the rain took over and caused officials to call the race after 279 laps.

Logano started off to a slow start at Loudon, even spinning into a wall on Turn 4 of Lap 184 after he was clipped by Ryan Newman. Luck was on Logano's side throughout the race, however, and he regained a lap on the next caution flag of the race (on Lap 191). By lap 250, it appeared as if rain was imminent, and the Sprint Cup drivers then played the game of waiting on a rainout, each trying to conserve gas and hold out on refueling. Ryan Newman, the leader of the pack at one point, bowed out of the running for first when he ran out of gas on Lap 264, leaving Joey Logano in the No. 1 position as the drivers kept going in circles while waiting for the call.

The caution for rain came out four laps after Newman's exit, crowning Joey Logano the victor of the Lenox Industrial Tools 301. 101,000 fans with NASCAR tickets watched Logano take his very first Sprint Cup win, also knocking off Kyle Busch's previous record as youngest Cup Series winner of a race, which was set when Busch (now 24) was 20 years old. Setting a NASCAR record after his 20th Sprint Cup start, Logano acknowledged the importance of the day's events, saying, "To get the win today, this is cool. This is where I watched my first [Sprint] Cup race, where I ran my first Cup race and where I won my first [Cup] race. I couldn't pick a better place."

Joey Logano, the No. 20 driver of the Home Depot car for Joe Gibbs Racing and the kid known as "Sliced Bread," officially became the toast after his victory over the weekend in Loudon, and yes, the young racing prodigy has always been this good. Logano grew up in Middletown, Connecticut and began racing at age six as a quarter midget driver, garnering fame quickly as his teen years ensued. By age 15, Logano was called "the real deal" by Sprint Cup hero Mark Martin, and at 18 he jumped aboard the prestigious NASCAR circuit, becoming the youngest driver in Nationwide history to win a race at the Meijer 300 in 2008, after his third start in the NASCAR series.

In August of 2008, Logano joined the Sprint Cup Series as the No. 20 Home Depot driver after Tony Stewart left Joe Gibbs Racing, becoming a top finisher in series races ever since. Now that he's already winning Cup titles, it's only a matter of time until Joey Logano becomes the top fixture of the Sprint Cup Series. To watch him in action, get racing tickets online and cheer for this 19-year-old phenom!

This article is sponsored by StubHub.com. StubHub is a leader in the business of selling NASCAR tickets, sports tickets, concert tickets, theater tickets and special events tickets.

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