Bianchi’s parents launch young driver initiative

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: A new organisation has been set up in honour of Jules Bianchi, who died following a crash in the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix.

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Comment of the day

Jack likes the look of Monza’s planned changes for 2017:

There’s more to a good layout than slow-corner overtaking opportunities. The great corners are high-speed ones which you approach at speed. Eau Rouge and Blanchimont at Spa, 130R and turn one at Suzuka, Parabolica at Monza. You lose Curva Grande but that hasn’t been a corner since the chicanes were put in, it’s just a curved straight.

Having the courage to have a kilometre-plus straight with a flat-out corner at the end instead of an obvious overtaking opportunity — to me, that is a courageous decision and is to be commended.

I do agree with the comment that there’s less need for the second chicane if you do this, at least in its current form. Though you might need to expand the run-off a little, which may not be easy, at the start of Lesmo One. there’s loads on the exit but if you go straight on you meet the wall pretty fast).
Jack

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Lustigson and Zazeems!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is via the contact form or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

On this day 25 years ago Lauda Air Flight 004 from Bangkok to Vienna crashed, claiming the lives of all 223 passengers and crew.

Niki Lauda, who operated the airline, visited the crash site and met with representatives from Boeing, the plane’s manufacturer. He eventually pressed them to admit the crash had been caused by a fault on the aircraft which caused the thrust reverser on the left-side engine to deploy, putting the plane in an uncontrollable dive.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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27 comments on “Bianchi’s parents launch young driver initiative”

  1. That Lauda Air crash was covered in Nat Geo’s May Day show (also known as Air Crash Investigations in the UK). Loved that episode, it was such a struggle for Lauda. It’s not easy to go against a company like Boeing.

  2. I don’t wholly agree with the COTD . Yes it’s a courageous decision but for me this kills Monza. Monza had many a processional race throughout the years. Not very enjoyable at least on TV. It has 2 overtaking opportunities and this change kills both of them. So Monza becomes a track with zero good overtaking opportunities. Can’t see the appeal in that. I’d rather have the post-2008 reconstruction Imola. It has a huge straight too from Rivazza to Tamburello with a good overtaking opportunity at the end of it. The track is iconic as well with even more beautiful surroundings and some of the most famous corners in racing such as Piratella and Aqua Minerale. So who needs Monza then?

  3. Is Massa’s new helmet breaking the one helmet per season rules?

    1. OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
      26th May 2016, 2:22

      Same question here. I don’t know the answer, but it might be as one of Lewis Hamilton’s helmets which were designed but not possible to be used.

      1. Grosjean is a great driver. Ferrari should make him Vettel team-mate. GRO>JEV>GUT

      2. I posted it on the wrong place. Sorry :)

    2. @ambroserpm Same question here, too. Maybe if the drivers keep presenting new helmets without actually using them, they can finally force FIA to remove this ridiculous idea from the rules.

      NASCAR teams can change the WHOLE LIVERY kazillion times during the year, for night races, special races, they even did a Retro event last year. F1 drivers can’t even change the helmet design… I always loved looking at the special Monaco helmets in the build up to the race.

      1. @fer-no65, mind you, the reason for NASCAR teams changing their liveries on such a regular basis is because they rely on picking up local sponsors for individual races. If they were banned from doing so, most of the smaller teams would be in serious financial trouble.

    3. Verstappen is changing his helmet too, going back to the red top. Presumably because the blue was too simular to Ricciardo ‘ s. However, its a significant change in design which is supposed to be illigal.. Maybe it was only a rule last year?

      1. And Grosjean of course. I’d like to see the FIA try to penalise him from running a Bianchi tribute helmet. idio ts.

      2. Well Vettel has managed to keep tweaking his helmet design since joining Ferrari and no one has noticed.

        I do wish the drivers would just change their helmet designs en-masse to get the FIA to drop this silly rule.

    4. @ambroserpm I really hope so. It’s time someone took the FIA on over that utterly stupid rule.

      1. It would be real funny if every driver changed their helmets at the same time in protest and they all get a 5 grid penalty. Then the pole position would start from the 5th row on the grid.

        1. William Jones
          26th May 2016, 17:44

          That would be brilliant!

      2. @keithcollantine Just saw this explanation, apparently it is a one race relaxation of the rule.

        http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/fia-relaxes-helmet-livery-rules-for-monaco-740393/

  4. Everyone is using a one off helmet, since when did the rule change?

  5. Surely that helmet is now stupidly illegal?

  6. Verstappen is not entirely correct – his father was not teamed up with a world champion in ’94, as Schumacher was still on the way to his first title.
    Of course that doesn’t change the fact that Schumacher was a stupidly strong teammate to have as a rookie in F1.

  7. Someone should invent tear-offs for helmets, so that a driver can have a different helmet design every 20 laps or so.
    So long as they are careful not to drop the tear-off when they’re done with it…

    1. What happens if the drivers want to change their helmet designs like the actors change masks in the Chinese Opera … “Oh look … it’s Vettel … no Hamilton … no Max … no … it’s Felipe”
      I couldn’t understand the rule, and I still don’t. If it was a safety issue then drivers would be expected to have their car number also on their helmet, but that isn’t the case. For the most part I need a commentator or the electronic timing to tell me who is driving a car.
      Maybe there have been “breach of copyright” problems, but if so why not just say so?

  8. Re: the twitter feed….
    Why are we mad at the drivers again?
    Their obligation is to the racing on track & their respective employers. Not producing quotable sound-bites is hardly their fault.

    Had Nico said one single sentence out of line or worth quoting, the journalists would’ve had a field day now! Any minute things from one of the hundreds of tedious interviews they give on each race weekends, can get blown out of proportions by the media…always on the hunt for a sign of conflict.

  9. Hai,
    Someone pls help me on this, what does MP4 stands for. Is it Mclaren project 4 or marbloro project 4?

    1. Marlboro project 4

  10. I’m amused by the furious reactions of some journos. They desperately want the Merc drivers to say something harsh, they want the, erm, “organic waste matter” to hit the fan. But people at Mercedes aren’t stupid, they know there’s nothing to win in this fight. So they keep their statements polite and vague, thus refusing to participate in some kind of war of words.
    Funnily enough, those journos who are labelling them as ‘puppets’ who lack free will, are really the ones who are trapped in a situation where they are driven by external factors, and not by their own free will.
    I think I would be more sympathetic if more of them were actually able to think outside of their own box, realising that they can’t always get what they want. However, I haven’t read a single statement like that.
    I don’t want to blow this out of proportion, but to me, it shows a fundamental flaw in the thought of many journos: What’s good for me is good for everyone.
    Well, this isn’t always the case. Sometimes, the journos’ interests are harmful to others. The free press is also a system that tends to eat its own children.

    But I digress. In short, some people need to complain less.

  11. I find it odd that the Bianchi family are creating a young driver program at the same time they are suing Formula1 :-S

    1. The two actions are compatible with each other, and I am not sure the FIA could get away with offering overt support to the young driver initiative, even before the court case, since the ethos of it implicitly criticises the FIA’s failure to control costs in its karting and junior series (a point about which the FIA seems somewhat sensitive).

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