F1 - 2012

Angib · Nov 29, 2011

I just hope he can enjoy it and smile - one of the nicest things about seeing him rallying was how often he had a grin on his face.

Steve · Nov 29, 2011

Farewell Kimi (maxrally.com)

29th November 2011

It was fun while it lasted, but the adventure is over - Kimi Raikkonen is leaving the forests and heading back to Formula 1 with Renault, or rather Lotus, as the team becomes in 2012.

Two years ago, it had all seemed so promising. The world knew Raikkonen was ultra-rapid but had lost motivation in F1. It was the politics and the sponsor pressure that he appeared to have tired of, not the driving, and he loved dabbling in rallying on the side. The World Rally Championship gave him a chance to get back to pure driving, in a more laidback atmosphere in which he could thrive in time - especially with Citroen, Red Bull and Kaj Lindstrom behind him.

It wasn't just going to be good for Kimi's morale either: the arrival of such a big name was a massive publicity bonus for the WRC and saw a huge number of hitherto disinterested new fans heading to the stages or tuning in to Rally Radio to follow Raikkonen's rise to the top in his new challenge.

Except it didn't quite work out like that. Inevitably Raikkonen was some way off Citroen Junior team-mate Sebastien Ogier's pace in 2010, and inevitably he went off the road a lot as he got to grips with such a different discipline. But this was nothing that time, patience and mileage couldn't fix, especially as there were flashes of promising speed along the way.

Time was what the WRC and Raikkonen marriage did not have, though. It wasn't far into 2011 before it became clear that his heart was elsewhere. There were rallies skipped (missing Australia meant his Ice 1 team was kicked out of the standings) and events not rejoined under superally even when it was easily possible and the extra mileage would've been so beneficial. It was the extra-curricular outings that were most telling, though. Whereas once rallying had been Raikkonen's release from the drudgery of F1, now he was popping up in NASCAR Trucks and Peugeot LMP1 cars as an escape from the WRC - and also becoming pivotal to the F1 driver market. Even as he did so, his stage times got a little better, and his demeanour with fans and the WRC media became slightly more open (by Iceman standards), hinting at what might have been.

So farewell and good luck, Kimi. We would've loved to see you stick around, give rallying a proper chance and really hone your skills, but it was better to have had you with us for two years than not at all.
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am0eba · Nov 29, 2011

Angib sez:

I just hope he can enjoy it and smile - one of the nicest things about seeing him rallying was how often he had a grin on his face.
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Y' mean like this:

Doesn't seem too happy here, wearing the team colors:

In any case, I'm looking forward to his return. I always thought he was one of the "heroic" drivers of F1...

_Dave_

Steve · Nov 29, 2011

Kimi Raikkonen says motivation not an issue in Formula 1 return (autosport.com)

By Pablo Elizalde | Tuesday, November 29th 2011, 09:43 GMT

Kimi Raikkonen says there are is no question about his motivation ahead of his return to Formula 1 with the Lotus Renault team next year.

The Finn left the sport at the end of 2009 to compete in the World Rally Championship for the past two seasons, but has now secured a two-year deal with the team to return to grand prix racing in 2012.

Raikkonen, a world champion with Ferrari in 2007, says he would not have returned to Formula 1 if his motivation was not high.

"I wouldn't have come back if I wasn't motivated," said Raikkonen in a video interview with the team.

"There is always a lot of talk about the motivation but nobody really knows what I do or what I think except for myself, so I don't really care about what people say.

"I enjoy to come back. I wouldn't put my name in a contract if I didn't think I'd enjoy it. It will be interesting. It will be exciting to get back."

The 32-year-old insisted he never stopped enjoying racing in Formula 1, but rather other things away from the race track.

Raikkonen said his two outings in NASCAR made him realise how much he was missing racing against other drivers.

"I never really lost the passion in racing in Formula 1, but maybe all the things around it," he said. "But I did some NASCAR races earlier this year and I started to miss the racing more and more and racing against each other, because in rallying it's against the clock, really. That's what I was missing.

"I got the call from certain people in Formula 1 and certain things happened and then we managed to have a nice conversation with Lotus Renault and ended up making a deal with them, so I'm very happy with that."

The Finn was also in talks with Williams before signing his Renault deal, but said things worked out better with the latter.

"There were two options," he said. "It was either this team or Williams and in the end everything worked out with Lotus Renault as we wanted, so that's really the reason [to have chosen Renault]."
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[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu8Uy9PkS5g]Kimi RÃ¤ikkÃ¶nen back in F1 with LRGP in 2012 - YouTube[/ame]

minimark · Nov 29, 2011

Actually this is a good move for Lotus Renault. With Kimi they can concentrate on developing the car and team instead of rebuilding cars that an up and comer would most likely tear up as they go through the learning curve.

Kimi is still young and not that far removed from F1, so whilst they may not be competing for wins, Lotus Renault should move closer to the front...

Good luck!!

Nathan · Dec 1, 2011

2012 Lineup

The FIA released the entry list for the 2012 Formula One world championship on Wednesday.

Missing from the list is Kimi RÃ¤ikkÃ¶nen's teammate at Lotus, which might be Vitaly Petrov if he and the team come to an agreement within the team's allotted deadline. Force India is also listed without drivers, although the team is expected to confirm Paul Di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg in the near future. Pedro de la Rosa is missing from HRT's entry despite the team confirming him as a driver earlier this month. The team also has yet to confirm an engine supplier.

The Marussia team is entered as Marussia Virgin Racing--the same name it raced under in 2011--even though the team was given permission to change to Marussia by the FIA earlier this month.

Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton will swap numbers for 2012 due to their finishing order in this year's championship. Button race under the No. 4 while Hamilton raced the No. 3 last season.

Here are the teams, constructor names, drivers and driver numbers.

Red Bull Racing (AUT)

Red Bull Racing-Renault

1. Sebastian Vettel (GER)

2. Mark Webber (AUS)

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes (GBR)

McLaren-Mercedes

3. Jenson Button (GBR)

4. Lewis Hamilton (GBR)

Scuderia Ferrari (ITA)

Ferrari

5. Fernando Alonso (ESP)

6. Felipe Massa (BRA)

Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team (GER)

Mercedes

7. Michael Schumacher (GER)

8. Nico Rosberg (GER)

Lotus F1 Team (GBR)

Lotus-Renault

9. Kimi RÃ¤ikkÃ¶nen (FIN)

10. TBA

Sahara Force India F1 Team (IND)

Force India-Mercedes

11. TBA

12. TBA

Sauber F1 Team (CHE)

Sauber-Ferrari

14. Kamui Kobayashi (JPN)

15. Sergio PÃ©rez Mendoza (MEX)

Scuderia Toro Rosso (ITA)

STR-Ferrari

16. TBA

17. TBA

AT&T Williams (GBR)

Williams-Renault

18. TBA

19. TBA

Team Caterham (MAL)

Caterham-Renault

20. Heikki Kovalainen (FIN)

21. Jarno Trulli (ITA)

HRT F1 Team (ESP)

HRT-TBA

22. TBA

23. TBA

Marussia Virgin Racing (RUS)

Marussia-Cosworth

24. Timo Glock (GER)

25. Charles Pic (FRA)

Source - Formula One: FIA unveils 2012 entry list - Autoweek

Steve · Dec 1, 2011

Williams re-signed Maldonado, no word yet on their other seat.

Steve · Dec 2, 2011

FWIW, interesting perspective on Kimi's spell in the WRC.

Kimi: a potential unfulfilled (wrc.com)

02 Dec 11

By returning to Formula One following two seasons in the World Rally Championship the itch has been scratched for Kimi Raikkonen - but to what extent that has provided relief remains to be seen.

Ousted (but still paid for) by Ferrari at the end of 2009, he explained that the circumstances were finally right for him to get a few answers to some questions he had been asking himself for a while: would his sublime natural talent and his inherent speed translate just as fluently to rally stages as it did to a race track?

Circuit racing came as naturally to Kimi as breathing: when he made his Formula One debut, he only had 23 car races behind him - a fact that caused some consternation among his colleagues.

â€œI wanted to try rallying; I donâ€™t have to be so serious about it,â€ says Raikkonen. â€œI was always curious to know if I could stay on the road and keep pushing. It was very different from Formula One.â€

His detractors would say that it proved to be too different, but Kimi knew what to expect.

â€œOn a circuit you know every inch of it and it doesnâ€™t really change from lap to lap. You do exactly the same things every time. On a rally everything is different. There are no corners that are the same: even a right 2 will not be the same corner as the next right 2. Of course you have much less margin for error.â€

In the end, two years was never really going to be enough to make it to the top: as his co-driver Kaj Lindstrom warned him, this was going to be a three-year project or longer. People will say that Sebastien Loeb or Sebastien Ogier were instantly quick in a World Rally Car for the first time, but they conveniently forget the thousands of stage kilometres that will have been driven on national rallies and in testing, as well as the inherent ease that these drivers have with pace notes.

Given that Kimi never even liked engineers talking to him over the radio in Formula One, and that the sum of his rallying experience now puts him roughly where Jari-Matti Latvala was when he was 20, the Icemanâ€™s results have been pretty impressive, with consistent top six finishes this year.

Extrapolating the trajectory of his learning curve, next year he could well have been in a position to challenge for podiums, with the chance of a win perhaps coming in 2013.

The highs were his fifth place on Turkey - only his fourth WRC event - and a debut stage win on the Circus Maximus superspecial in Germany; the lows included the shakedown accident that put him out of RallyRACC-Rally de Espana last year and a banal road section accident that curtailed his activities in France.

Whatever you think about Kimi, itâ€™s impossible to deny that his star quality has made a huge impact on the World Rally Championship and that heâ€™s finally answered his own question. Yes he can do it - but itâ€™s hardly the work of a moment.
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Steve · Dec 5, 2011

Mercedes are adding AMG to their name. I'm sure that will make them a little faster. :wink:

Also:

Mercedes to use old car at first winter test (gpupdate.net)

5 December 2011

Mercedes GP has revealed that it will not be taking its 2012 challenger to the opening winter test next year, instead opting to wait until the following event at the Circuit de Catalunya. With the second test taking place on 21 February, the team is hoping that the decision will deliver the optimum balance between wind tunnel and track time.

"The car with which the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team will compete in the 2012 season is currently under development at the team's headquarters in Brackley, UK," read a team statement on Monday. "Codenamed F1 W03, it is planned for the car to make its official track debut at the second winter test of 2012, on 21 February at Barcelona."

"At the factory, we have been focused for some time on the challenge of 2012," added Team Principal Ross Brown. "As always, the winter development and manufacturing processes are a trade-off between time for finding performance in the factory, and time for delivering that performance during pre-season testing.

"We believe that the decision to run the car at the second winter test is the optimum compromise for our design and development programme with F1 W03."

The first winter test kicks off at the Circuito de Jerez in Southern Spain on 7 February.
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goaljnky · Dec 5, 2011

Somehow adding the AMG marquee to the F1 name makes sense.

farkus · Dec 5, 2011

And while they were at it, Ross Brawn went with a name change too... :biggrin5:

"At the factory, we have been focused for some time on the challenge of 2012," added Team Principal Ross Brown.
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minimark · Dec 5, 2011

.....maybe their going to race the truck. Lol

Redbeard · Dec 5, 2011

minimark said: ↑

.....maybe their going to race the truck. Lol
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*facepalm* You win. LOL! :lol:

Angib · Dec 6, 2011

Any team should think again if its full team name gets long enough that you have to stop in the middle and take another breath......

Nathan · Dec 7, 2011

Austin Race still on 2012 Calendar

The FIA World Motor Sport Council has confirmed that the 2012 Formula One schedule has not been changed, which means the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, is set for Nov. 18.

In a statement released on Wednesday morning, U.S. Grand Prix organizer Circuit of the Americas said construction work on the racetrack southeast of Austin would restart immediately. Work was stopped in November when a disagreement over the contract and control of the event put the 2012 race in doubt.

Red McCombs, chairman of McCombs Enterprises and founding partner of Circuit of the Americas, said in a statement, "[Bernie] Ecclestone received his check today. We want to thank the fans [for] supporting us, the local officials and businesses that have encouraged us, the State of Texas, Circuit of the Americas' staff and Bernie himself. I want to thank and commend [financier] Bobby Epstein for getting us across the finish line. Bobby's perseverance and leadership kept the project on track despite unfair and unfounded criticism."

Epstein said: “Our investors have believed all along that this project has tremendous benefit for our region, and provides a strong economic engine for the future. We remain committed to reaching our goal of being valuable community partners as we establish a platform for sports and entertainment. We’re glad that Tavo’s vision of bringing F1 to the people of Texas will become a reality.”

The 2012 F1 calendar also includes a race date for Bahrain despite some obvious doubts about the wisdom of F1 going there. The planned 2011 race was canceled after the Middle East nation experienced weeks of civil unrest.
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Source - Formula One: Austin race remains on 2012 calendar - Autoweek

minimark · Dec 7, 2011

Key words: "Bernie got HIS check."

I'm not popping the Champagne cork yet.....

minimark · Dec 7, 2011

Ah, just got an email from them stating the race is back on and where to purchase tickets!!

farkus · Dec 7, 2011

minimark said: ↑

Ah, just got an email from them stating the race is back on and where to purchase tickets!!
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OK there's the key, big private debt now and a definite need for cash flow to keep the project going...and how much are the tickets? :crazy:

Redbeard · Dec 7, 2011

minimark said: ↑

Ah, just got an email from them stating the race is back on and where to purchase tickets!!
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Link for ticket purchase?

minimark · Dec 7, 2011

www.circuitoftheamericas.com

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