Toyota man Marquardt to replace Theissen at BMW

Jens Marquardt is to leave his role at Toyota to replace Mario Theissen as head of BMW Motorsport. Marquardt was the team manager of the Toyota F1 team before in effect taking over the day-to-day running of the Toyota Motorsport … Continue reading

Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2010/11/24/toyota-man-marquardt-to-replace-theissen-at-bmw/

Michael Schumacher Ralf Schumacher Vern Schuppan Adolfo Schwelm Cruz

Hispania in the lurch as Toyota cancels 2011 deal

Toyota Motorsport put out a statement earlier today saying that the company had ended its co-operation with Hispania, adding that it “will not resume.” The team was intending to use a version of the stillborn 201o chassis with a Cosworth engine and … Continue reading

Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2010/11/15/hispania-in-the-lurch-as-toyota-cancels-2011-deal/

Cliff Allison Fernando Alonso Giovanna Amati George Amick

Red Bull train sights on second title

Red Bull clinched their first Formula 1 constructors' title at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday and experts have been marvelling at just how an energy drinks company came to topple the racing powerhouses of Ferrari and McLaren six short seasons after buying the ailing Jaguar team.

Driver turned BBC pundit David Coulthard, who raced for Red Bull from their debut season in 2005 until 2008, believes the success of any F1 team is built first on the strength of its technical department.

"Bringing in designer Adrian Newey was the first piece of the jigsaw puzzle of putting together a successful team," Coulthard explained.

"The technical chief is the king of the castle and Adrian had already won more grands prix than Michael Schumacher."

Coulthard was influential in persuading Newey, who had masterminded six championship-winning cars for Williams initially and then for McLaren, to join Red Bull in time to design the 2007 car.

Team principal Christian Horner says the next step was to create the "right environment" in which Newey, who had become disillusioned at McLaren, could work.

The English designer needed a nimble operation that allowed him to spend more time at the drawing board - the only literal drawing board you are likely to find in F1, where computers are king - and which was capable of responding quickly to his 'eureka' moments.


Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber celebrate a Red Bull one-two at the Brazilian Grand Prix

Relations between Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber have been strained this season. Photo: Getty

"Adrian is like the conductor of an orchestra and he has to have the relevant players so we had to make some key appointments early on," Horner told BBC Sport.

"Guys like our head of aerodynamics Peter Prodromou, who was also at McLaren, Rob Marshall who joined us as chief designer from Renault and Paul Monaghan and Ian Morgan on the engineering side.

"Unlike Williams and McLaren, who already had [established] structures which Adrian just fed into, with Red Bull he started with a clean sheet of paper."

After two seasons spent moulding the team's technical department, Red Bull came alive on the track in 2009.

Sebastian Vettel scored the team's first win in China ahead of team-mate Mark Webber. It was to be the first of six victories in Red Bull's breakthrough season.

When I asked Horner to put a percentage on how important Newey - who Mercedes boss Ross Brawn ruefully described in Brazil as his nemesis - was to Red Bull's success, he said it would not be fair to do so.

But most F1 insiders believe Newey's design genius is Red Bull's main weapon.

Red Bull also helped their 2010 championship charge by retaining both stability and momentum in the team.

While rivals Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes bedded in new drivers, Red Bull stuck with Webber and Vettel.

Between them they have captured pole position 14 times and won eight races for Red Bull on their way to the constructors' crown.

"Mark and Sebastian are both vitally important because they had to deliver their part on the track," Horner added.

"They are different personalities and characters but they share a common determination and drive, which is winning.

"Mark and Sebastian are not superstars in the factory, they are two drivers and they show great camaraderie with their team.

"Mark lives near the Milton Keynes factory and so you often find him out riding his mountain bike with members of the team up in the hills.

"I vividly remember Sebastian's first visit to Red Bull when he was 17. He had only just got his driving licence and so he drove over to the factory just because he could. He turned up in reception and said, 'Hi, I'm Sebastian Vettel.'


Adrian Newey celebrates with Red Bull at the Brazil Grand Prix

Adrian Newey gets front and centre in Red Bull's Brazilian celebrations Photo: Reuters

"Sebastian injects a lot of enthusiasm because of his infectious personality and sense of humour."

The relationship between Red Bull's two drivers has, at times, threatened to undermine the team's title ambitions and Horner has played a crucial role in defusing a powder-keg of internal team tensions.

First, Horner had to smooth over relations after Vettel took Webber out when trying to pass him for the lead at the Turkish Grand Prix.

At Silverstone accusations of favouritism towards Vettel blew up after a new version of the front wing was taken off Webber's car and bolted on to Vettel's.

In Brazil the pride in winning the constructors' title came only three days after Webber had cast a shadow over the team by publicly claiming they were not supporting him emotionally.

Though reluctant to talk about his own role, Horner said: "Inevitably when you have two fiercely competitive animals, who are both competing for the same target, there will be times when tensions bubble over.

"Yes, we've had blips this year where tensions have run high between the drivers but we've always recovered from those very quickly - and that's about not being afraid to deal with issues head on and being as transparent and open and straightforward with the drivers as possible.

"Red Bull are probably the least political team in the pit-lane. It is all about racing, it is all about the sport."

What Red Bull are not, however, is a privateer racing team such as Williams, or a manufacturer team like Mercedes or the Fiat-owned Ferrari.

They are a marketing arm for Austrian businessman Dietrich Mateschitz's energy drink company and that brings no guarantees that Red Bull Racing are in F1 to stay.

The team are understood to run on a similar budget to McLaren - around 200m euros - with Ferrari's coffers stacked a little higher.

But Horner sees no reason for Mateschitz to cut off the F1 team saying: "There has never been any timeframe on Red Bull's commitment.

"They have been in F1 for the last 15 years as a sponsor, a shareholder [in Sauber] and now as a team owner, so they are as committed, if not more so, as any other team in F1.

"Dietrich always had a clear vision for Red Bull to run at the front and to become a winning race team. It been a lot of hard work but I'm very proud of what's been achieved."

Red Bull are famous for throwing parties but the celebrations will not have lasted long in Sao Paulo as there is still one more prize to be won.

Red Bull go two-handed to Abu Dhabi where the desert will decide if Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, Webber, Vettel or McLaren's Lewis Hamilton will be crowned champion.

"It's nice to get the constructors' championship out of the way," smiled Horner among the confetti strewn outside Red Bull's garage.

"Now we can focus on the drivers."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/sarahholt/2010/11/red_bull_train_sights_on_secon.html

Danny Kladis Hans Klenk Peter de Klerk Christian Klien

F1: Di Resta eyes race seat after DTM title

Di Resta eyes race seat after DTM title By Pablo Elizalde Monday, November 29th 2010, 11:06 GMT Paul di Resta says he has his sights set on a Formula 1 race drive with Force India next year after winning the DTM championship on Sunday. The Scot, who has been Force India's third driver during the 2010 season, clinched his maiden title in the German series after finishing in second place in Sunday's season finale Related posts:
  1. F1: Di Resta confident of future race deal Di Resta confident of future race deal By Glenn Freeman...
  2. DTM: Di Resta takes title, Paffett wins race Di Resta takes title, Paffett wins race Sunday, November 28th...
  3. F1: Force India set to confirm di Resta Force India set to confirm di Resta By Jonathan Noble...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Source: http://doxcar.com/f1-di-resta-eyes-race-seat-after-dtm-title/

Henri Pescarolo Alessandro PesentiRossi Josef Peters Ronnie Peterson

Vettel heads for Berlin

New world champion Sebastian Vettel will drive a Red Bull-Renault on the streets of Berlin on Saturday, in honour of his Formula 1 title. The event will take place on the Strasse des 17 Juni, which runs through the Tiergarten Park to the famous Brandenberg Gate. The street is often used for big events and [...]

Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2010/11/24/vettel-heads-for-berlin/

David Brabham Gary Brabham Jack Brabham† Bill Brack

Will next year be the real thing for Mercedes?

The end of the season couldn?t have come quick enough for the Silver Arrows team.

Talked up at the start of the year as one of four title-challengers, they have spectacularly failed to compete at the front ? ending as the only one of the ?big four? to not win a race.

A dream Michael Schumacher return coupled with the young Nico Rosberg proving his potential, never failed ...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/rgYfcg7O4vo/will-next-year-be-the-real-thing-for-mercedes

Brian Redman Jimmy Reece Ray Reed Alan Rees

Vettel keeps cool to fulfil destiny

Sebastian Vettel was choking back tears as he tried to respond to his team's congratulations after he won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to clinch an unlikely first world drivers' title. They were tears of disbelief as much as joy.

The German and his Red Bull car have been the fastest combination on the Formula 1 grid all year but a mixture of driver errors, mechanical failures and pure bad luck had meant that Vettel - who replaces Lewis Hamilton as the youngest world champion in history - had never led the title chase heading into the final race of the season.

Starting from pole position but 15 points adrift of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, who was directly behind him on the grid in third place, the title looked a long way away for the 23-year-old.

But Vettel did everything he needed to do by driving a race of cool maturity as things began to unravel for Alonso and Ferrari almost from the start.

A lost place to Jenson Button off the line was a minor inconvenience for the Spaniard, but the title was lost with a catastrophic strategic call to mirror the decision of another championship protagonist, Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber, to stop early for fresh tyres.

It put Alonso back in the pack of midfield runners, breaking the cardinal rule of all F1 strategy moves - keep track position and if you don't make sure you have clear air in which to run at your maximum pace. Stuck behind Renault's Vitaly Petrov, Alonso had neither, and the Ferrari driver was at the mercy of Vettel's result.

Vettel did what he has proved more than capable of all year - made no mistakes when running in the lead, reeling off the laps to the chequered flag.

It was an incredible final twist to end an astonishing season, one that will go down as one of the greatest in F1 history.

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It was the first time four drivers had ever gone into the final race all with a chance of the title - and a fifth, Button, was only knocked out of the reckoning seven days ago in Brazil.

What has made 2010 so compelling was to have so many superb drivers competing in cars that were relatively evenly matched.

For Alonso, Hamilton and Button, though, the season was always a rear-guard battle fighting a faster car in the Red Bull, and they were able to compete only because of the mistakes made by that team and both their drivers.

For all Vettel's stunning qualifying pace and coolness when leading, he is less convincing when not in first place.

He crashed into Webber while trying to pass him for the lead in Turkey, got a puncture at the start in Silverstone after making an ill-advised decision to sit it out around the outside of Webber at the first corner, and inexplicably rammed into Button after losing control behind him in Belgium.

His talent may still have some rough edges, but it is of the highest quality, and he has made a convincing case this season that he can now be considered in the same breath as F1's two benchmarks - Alonso and Hamilton.

Vettel shot to prominence in F1 with his performances for Red Bull feeder team Toro Rosso in 2008, culminating with a brilliant victory in the wet at the Italian Grand Prix.

Back then, his image was all positive. He was young, fast, approachable and had a sense of humour - he was that most unlikely thing, an Anglophile German who liked The Beatles and Fawlty Towers.

Since then, he has displayed a darker side to his character, and the steeliness and ruthlessness all great F1 champions need has been fully in evidence this season as he and Webber have gone toe-to-toe at Red Bull and sparks flew.

It was obvious Vettel was going to be the man to beat this season from the moment he took pole for the first race of the season in Bahrain and led until a spark plug failure handed victory to Alonso.

Vettel lost another victory two weeks later in Australia thanks to a wheel-nut failure and had he won those two races perhaps the pressure would have been off and he would have led comfortably throughout the season.

Thankfully, for the sake of the championship battle, that is not what happened.

Two superb wet-weather wins for Button in the space of three races put him in the lead; Webber took over after dominating in Spain and Monaco; Hamilton took his place at the top after back-to-back wins in Turkey and Canada; Webber took it back; and then it was Alonso's turn after a quite superb late-season run of form.

As Vettel put it on Sunday: "All of us could write a book about races we should have finished in higher positions. We have all had so many ups and downs. It has been a tough season mentally to ignore what people were saying and always get your own thing done."

It has been an intensely competitive year and the pressure on everyone was huge throughout, but Vettel and Red Bull always had the consoling thought that they were the fastest thing on the grid.

Still, though, it had looked as if the drivers' title was going to slip through their fingers. And what appeared as if it was going to be the decisive turning point of the season occurred at the Korean Grand Prix two races ago, when Vettel - under intense pressure from Alonso - suffered an engine failure.

That put Alonso 11 points clear of Webber, and the manic cackle he gave over the radio at the end of the race - a mixture of joy, surprise and disbelief - summed up everything about the Spaniard's unlikely fightback from being 47 points off the championship lead after the British Grand Prix.

In Abu Dhabi, though, Ferrari again found themselves at the mercy of a faster car. Caught between deciding whether to cover Webber's early stop and Vettel disappearing up the road, Alonso's engineers chose what in hindsight was the wrong option. As Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey said after the race, had Alonso stayed out, he would probably have finished fourth. Which would have made him world champion.

Alonso had been adamant before the race that this would have been a great season for him no matter what happened in the championship, and although clearly gutted he stuck to that line after the race.

"If we didn't stop, Webber would probably overtake us; if we stop, we let (Nico) Rosberg and Petrov overtake us," he said. "Very difficult call.

"Next year we try again. But it was [a] very good [season] for me, especially after two years of some difficulties, coming back to winning races, fighting for the championship in the last races.

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"I won five races, I overtook in victories Niki Lauda, Juan Manuel Fangio, some great names, and I'm sure with this team it is very possible to fight for championships in the future, so I am happy."

Forget all the nonsense about team orders at the German Grand Prix, Alonso would have been a fully deserving world champion. In fact, no matter who won it there wasn't going to be a bad one in 2010 and in Vettel there can be no doubt that the sport has a good one.

This is a man who is going to be at the heart of F1 for years to come. There will be many more victories, probably many more titles. And at 23, who knows, even his friend Michael Schumacher's record of seven titles and 91 victories might be vulnerable.

To get there, though, he will have to beat the likes of Alonso and Hamilton, who are not going anywhere in a hurry, as well as Renault's Robert Kubica, a man who this year convinced even his doubters that he will be a major force once he gets his hands on a competitive car.

In 2011, the same top drivers will be with the same teams, and there is every reason to believe it could be just as good as 2010, perhaps even better. Bring it on.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2010/11/vettel_keeps_cool_to_fulfil_de.html

Martin Donnelly Mark Donohue Robert Doornbos Ken Downing