Incredible India logo in HRT car?

Narain Karthikeyan is in talks with the Tourism department for conducting demo runs of the HRT's Formula One car in chennai and the deal will involve placing the Incredible India logo on the HRT cars. If this happens, then it will be good.

Narain Karthikeyan will get much needed sponsorships for the HRT team which is currently struggling due to lack of sponsors. Due to the high viewership of Formula One throughout the world, placing the "Incredible India" logo

All Spanish Driver Lineup for HRT in FP1

HRT which is a Spanish team, has decided to opt for an all Spanish driver lineup in the First Practice in Spanish Grand Prix.

Dani Clos, a Spanish driver, who was earlier taken by HRT as a reserve driver, is given the opportunity

Schumacher says Pirelli tyres is like driving on raw eggs

Tyre War continues


We had earlier talked about the tyre wars which started with Michael Schumacher criticising Pirelli tyres for its high degradation.
http://www.arjunaubacha.blogspot.in/2012/05/politics-around-pirelli-tyres.html

Pirelli had hit back at Michael casting aspersions on his driving ability. Many players then jumped into the fray.

Now Michael Schumacher is not taking it lying down. He has continued from where he had left earlier. While speaking to CNN, Michael Schumacher said

Formula 1 Politics: Mercedes to Quit?

Formula 1 and Politics are two sides of a coin and are inseparable. This feeling is being reinforced every other day.

The latest political battlefield in F1 is around the new concorde agreement. 

In March Bernie Ecclestone had announced that he had concluded an agreement with a majority of the Formula One teams over a new Concorde Agreement. The existing concorde agreement is bound to get over by the end of this year. He had announced via a statement "I am pleased to announce that we have reached commercial agreements with the majority of the current Formula One teams, including Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull racing about the terms one which they will continue competing in Formula One after the current concorde agreement expires at the end of this year."

Force India to pay 5.61 crores rupees as legal costs

Force India team, which had got into a dispute with Caterham (the erst while Team Lotus) over IPR has been ordered by the London High Court to pay legal costs to Mike Gascoyne and Caterham to the tune of 650,000 pounds which is equivalent to Rs. 5.61 crores.

Mike Gascoyne will get 4,00,000 pounds out of that amount. The balance 2,50,000 pounds will go to Caterham's holding company - 1Malaysia Racing Team.

Tyre Wars: McLaren supports Schumacher

The Politics around the Pirelli tyres is not going to die down soon.
Michael Schumacher, the seven time Formula One champion had kicked up a storm when he had expressed his displeasure about the high degradation of the Pirelli tyres after the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix. Pirelli Motorsport director hit back at him casting aspersions on his ability to drive. Further details of that can be found in our previous article:
http://www.arjunaubacha.blogspot.in/2012/05/politics-around-pirelli-tyres.html

Now, Martin Whitemarsh, Principal of McLaren team has lent his voice to the debate and has agreed to Michael Schumacher's expressed views that the tyres have become a decisive factor in the races. He said "These tyres are very, very challenging. If you are in the sweet spot, you are in great shape. If not, your are in for a pretty tough time, and it gave both of our drivers a tough time. We were clearly too hard on the tyres. They were going away very quickly, and both drivers really struggled."

With the Spanish Grand Prix round the corner and Pirelli allocating the hard and the soft compounds where the degradation between the two compounds is higher, it is going to be pretty interesting to watch how each team copes up with it.

Clearly the last word on the subject has not been spoken.

Politics on Resource Restriction Agreement - II

Politics on Resource Restriction Agreement - II

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!

Look who is talking of cost reduction!

Earlier we had highlighted the politics in the Resource Restriction Agreement with Red Bull and its sister team Toro Rosso not agreeing to it. http://www.arjunaubacha.blogspot.in/2012/03/politics-on-resource-restriction.html

Now, after the Mugello testing - the first in-season testing in several years - Christian Horner of Red bull has come out strongly against the in-season testing. In an interview to Autosport, Horner has said "any test time you have is useful, but whether it is the right thing for F1 to be testing in season is probably a bigger topic." He says that the the cost of in season testing is high. "If you look at the focus on cost saving, this test hasn't achieved that for any team."

"When you look at the cost of running here, we will have done three times the mileage of a grand prix weekend." Due to widespread demands, Formula 1 rules were tweaked to allow one in season testing from 2012. With Christian Horner's call for scrapping in season testing, many other Formula 1 team chiefs are clearly not amused.

Christian Horner alluding to high cost is to hit at all the other teams who had written a letter to FIA for strict policing of Resource Restriction norms. It is said that Red Bull has spent phenomenal amount of money to develop a winning car and win the F1 championship in the last two years. So this statement of Horner is to take the moral high ground of other teams and weaken the case for imposition of a budget limit for teams.

Clearly, the last word on the Resource Restriction Agreement issue is yet to be heard.