January 2010

Insider Secrets of Racing – Part 2

We have talked about how to master your Karting career in Part 1 of our Insider secrets article. To recap, here is what we talked about:

1. Driving Skills
Don’t focus too much on your equipment. Make sure that you are driving well before investing in expensive data logging equipment or a new chassis. Whilst the kart has a influence on the lap times, 90% of the time, the main component for reducing lap times falls on the driver, which is you.

2. Kart Technical Knowledge
Knowing your kart well is essential for attaining good results. If you can’t work out what is wrong with it, your mechanic will have a harder time trying to figure it out, using trial and error methods.

Think about it as if you are trying to drive with your eyes blindfolded. It will be virtually impossible. Thus, it is important to understand your equipment and know how it behaves. Only then, will you be able to work with your technical team to come out with the best possible set up. Even in more competitive levels of motorsport, it holds true. If the driver doesn’t give good enough feedback about the car, the technical director will find it harder to do his job, and that is to get you to the podium.

How to plan for your next Corporate Retreat

Global Racing Schools takes a look at how you can plan an event for your employees that will be a wonderful break from work, whilst at the same time being productive.
How often does your company, or your top employees, get away from the office for a corporate retreat? A vastly different environment, with no distractions and premise of work?
The value of corporate retreats is that they remove the team from outside distractions for a sufficient length of time to contemplate strategic and governance issues, including the team’s own development.
Corporate retreats help to solidify a management team or board of directors and enhance its effectiveness by giving members time to get to know each other and to do long range or strategic planning for the organisation. A regular dedicated time spent at a corporate retreat off-site and away from distractions should be considered essential.

Valentine’s Day Package ( Barcelona)

Panoramic view of Barcelona

Price: Euro 1655 ( 2 Person with VAT Included)

If you are looking for a Unique Valentine’s Day Gift that is likely to be the highlight of your loved one’s year, be sure to read on. Finding a Valentine’s Day Gift for a loved one can be daunting, with so many options, contemplating what they would like or dislike. Take a departure from the norm of buying a physical gift and instead, buy them an experience that will be firmly embedded in their minds for years to come.

Global Racing Schools is introducing a special racing program package, which caters for couples just for Valentine’s Day. If you wish to pamper or wow a loved one with a unique gift experience, this is what you would want to consider. It is not biased to either gender, with activities for both to enjoy. Whether it’s a relaxing steam bath, or a heart pumping drive in a Sports Car, we cater to enjoyment for both parties.
This package will be set in the beautiful city of Barcelona in Spain.  This package will start off with a pick up from the airport to your Hotel. You’ll be staying at a 5 Star Hotel.

Toro Rosso and USF1 Confirm Drivers, Heidfeld Latest

Before the start of this week, there were five race seats available for the 2010 Formula One season, now there are just two.

Toro Rosso has confirmed that young Spaniard Jaime Alguersauri will remain with the team, not exactly a secret, but the paperwork has finally been completed, and the deal formally announced.

Alguersauri replaced Sébastien Bourdais half-way through the 2009 season, finishing just three of his eight races, but just 19-years-old, he still has a lot to learn, and a lot of miles to run before his career takes off.

Elsewhere, new team USF1 is finally on the verge of announcing their first driver as Argentine José María López joins the team.

The team expects to make a formal announcement next week, but López’s manager has already confirmed the deal.

Piquet moves to NASCAR for 2010

Nelsinho Piquet has revealed he will be racing in NASCAR this year after giving up on landing a Formula 1 drive.

The Brazilian, who has been involved in the ‘crashgate’ affair after leaving the Renault F1 team during the 2009 season, did not confirm in which series he will race this year, but made it clear it will be in NASCAR, meaning it will be either the Truck, the Nationwide or the Sprint Cup series.

Piquet tested a NASCAR truck from the Red Horse Racing team in October last year and is expected to test again this month.

“I have spent the last few months carefully evaluating my options for this year,” Piquet wrote on his website. “I had to choose a path and it was a difficult decision to make.

“Being successful in Formula 1 was always my goal but I have learnt that happiness is just as important as ambition and after my first 18 months in F1 did not go as planned I have decided to focus on something different and have chosen to take a route in America.

“NASCAR is hugely challenging and nobody has ever come in as an outsider before and gone on to win it – it will be the ultimate challenge.

“I will let you know more details on the exact programme soon.”

He added: “This will be an awesome new challenge for me, and a healthy one. I have always been open to new challenges and I will be putting everything I have into this. I have found a good group of people that are really willing to help me in my career and I am grateful that they are there for me.

“I think it will be a positive environment and a good life experience. I am sure this year is going to be fantastic and I am very excited at the prospect of my future.I will miss Europe and all the friends I have there but I will always have my successes there to be proud of.

“I am sure I’ll still do some racing in Europe as I have a lot of ambitions in my life, one of which has always been to win the Le Mans 24 Hours.”

Source: autosport.com

The Return of Cosworth: An F1 Legend Screams Again

On June 4, 1967, Jim Clark won the Dutch F1 Grand Prix in a Cosworth-powered Lotus. That was Cosworth’s first F1 win, and they went on to become the most successful engine builder in F1 history.

Numerous F1 world champions were propelled to victory by Cosworth engines. Jim Clark, James Hunt, Emerson Fittipaldi, Jackie Stewart, Mario Andretti, Kiki Rosberg, Jochen Rindt, Alan Jones, Graham Hill, Nelson Piquet; all of them were Cosworth-powered F1 champions.

Michael Schumacher scored his first F1 victory in 1992 and his first world championship in 1994 with a Cosworth engine screaming behind him.

A fabulous history, then, but what can they do now? Is their glory of another day?

We’ll know soon enough.

For the 2010 F1 season no less than five teams will be using Cosworth engines, so if all those teams actually run, Cosworth engines will be the most numerous on the grid. Bernie Ecclestone does not believe all those teams will run, he does not believe they all have the finance to, and he may well be right.

The Edge

Before looking at the Cosworth-powered teams, it may be worth asking if an engine can give an F1 car that winning edge.

In 1968, there were three teams using Cosworth engines; they won all but one grand prix and finished with the top three championship places. That was not coincidence, it was a demonstration of Cosworth’s absolute supremacy at the time.

In the current era of F1, engine development has been severely restricted by the FIA, which has had the intended effect of equalising power outputs. It is no longer possible for an engine to give a team a decisive edge, and we saw that in the 2009 season.

The most successful driver, and thus the champion, was Jenson Button in a Mercedes-powered Brawn car. Behind Button, second in the championship, was Sebastian Vettel in a Renault-powered Red Bull car.

Yet the highly-rated Fernando Alonso finished a long way down the rankings, despite being Renault-powered, and Mercedes engines did not elevate Force India to the top rank.

An engine does have to be reliable, for a string of DNF’s will scupper a driver’s ambitions for certain. And because there will be no in-race refueling in 2010, engine economy will assume crucial significance. The thirstier an engine is, the greater the fuel load the car will have to start the race with, and weight increases lap times.

Quite possibly, the chances of a Cosworth engine powering a 2010 F1 winner will depend on the chassis design more than anything, so let’s have a look at the teams who will produce those cars.

Williams

Drivers: Rubens Barichello and Nico Hülkenberg

Williams F1 have been a very successful partner for Cosworth in the past, although I suspect their adoption of a Cosworth engine for 2010 is due more to price than nostalgia.

Of all the five Cosworth runners, Williams seem to be the most certain to actually appear on the grid. In recent years they have been no better than a mid-field team, and there have to be questions about their ability to hang a winning chassis design together.

Frank Williams and Patrick Head must be coming towards the end of their F1 careers now, it would be a fine thing to see them raise a last hurrah.

Rubens we all know and smile about, Nico is a GP2 series winner and a hot prospect. They look a good pairing to me.

Virgin Racing

Drivers: Timo Glock & Lucas Di Grassi

Richard Branson’s money has put his Virgin brand name on a car produced by Manor Grand Prix. Manor have been successful in Formula Renault and Formula Three, and the Virgin team will have Nick Wirth as Technical Director.

Wirth made his mark on F1 as chief designer for Benetton, and was owner of the Simtek F1 team. The Virgin car is the first to be designed entirely by using computational fluid dynamics simulation technology, and that’s a great phrase even if it doesn’t produce a front-runner!

Overall I find Virgin the most intriguing of the new entrants, and I only regret their unexciting driver line-up.

Lotus F1 Racing

Drivers: Jarno Trulli & Heikki Kovalainen

Given that their backers include the Malaysian Government (via car maker Proton), it does at least seem highly likely that Lotus F1 will actually put cars on the grid.

Sadly, the team is nothing to do with the legendary Lotus race-winning machine founded by the great Colin Chapman.

They have Mike Gascoyne as Technical Director, and he has F1 experience aplenty, if not a cabinet full of trophies. The team began as a venture by Litespeed, a reasonably successful F3 team, so they appear to start F1 life with enough racing expertise aboard to make a not-too- embarrassing debut.

It is good when a new team brings at least one new F1 driver’s face to the circus, but Lotus F1 have gone for two faces that are far from being that. Jarno and Heikki? I’d rather see Wallace & Grommit.

US F1

They’ve got a website, a YouTube channel, and some big talk; with a car and some drivers they could really go places.

There have been media reports of drivers being offered US F1 seats if they can bring sponsorship worth millions of dollars to the team, it’s all very sad.

US F1 should have been a big thing for F1, attracting new interest and support in America, but Bernie Ecclestone does not think they are going to happen, and it is hard to disagree.

Campos Meta 1

Drivers: Bruno Senna & TBA

The Campos car is being built by Dallara, who have a long and successful history of producing open-wheel racers, notably in Formula 3 and IndyCar.

Team Principal Adrián Campos has a long racing history as an F1 driver and then running various racing teams, he gave Fernando Alonso his first professional drive.

On the face of it, Campos appear to be a sound contender, except that they have not yet secured a major sponsor, and that may be the reason Bernie Ecclestone has publicly doubted they will make it to the F1 grid.

There may be better qualified F1 newbies than Bruno Senna, who is coming to F1 at a relatively late age, he will be 27 in 2010. The Senna name in F1 again will attract a lot of attention to him, and merciless criticism if he does not live up to it.

The Return

The last time Cosworth power won a grand prix was at Interlagos in 2003. That was an unfortunate last win, because the result was only settled after a court battle resulted in Giancarlo Fisichella being declared the victor.

If an F1 car with a Cosworth engine scores a win in 2010, and I don’t care which team achieves that, then the engine king will truly have returned.

Source: bleacher report