Results from yesterday’s exciting and highly tactical Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka below the fold…
Author Archives: Graham Prix
F1 Grand Prix of Japan — Qualifying Results
Today’s Qualifying results from the fantastic Suzuka Circuit below the fold…
RIP Maria de Villota
Pic from F1zone.net
On the eve of Qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix comes the very sad news that F1 reserve and test driver Maria de Villota has been found dead in her hotel room in Saville, Spain. The Spanish police say that “everything points to natural causes.”
De Villota was nearly killed in July 2012 when the Marussia she was driving in straight line tests accelerated into the lowered rear platform of a support truck. She lost an eye in that accident and it cost her her dream of becoming the first female F1 driver. Since the accident and what must have been a grueling rahab, de Villota had married and was about to debut a book about her ordeal entitled “Life is a Gift”. A very sad day for all motorsports fans, Maria de Villota was a much too young 33 years of age.
F1 Korean Grand Prix — Results & Aftermath
Join me below the fold for the results of what was a very exciting and incident-filled race in Korea…
Motorsport Movies: Rush vs. Grand Prix
Ron Howard’s Formula One blockbuster Rush opened this past weekend across the country to generally very positive reviews from the critics and rather lackluster box office receipts. Most people, particularly Hollywood cognoscenti, will take that to mean that straight up racing films remain box office poison and that films about the Euro-centric world of F1 are particularly lethal. The thinking will be that unless you have Paul Walker and Vin Diesel blowing things up and destroying the bad guys in stolen hot rods while crashing them into jet liners, the general public is just not going to go to a straight racing movie no matter the high profile director or the technical virtuosity on display amongst all that vroom vroom.
That’s all fine and good but the real issue is: Is Rush any good as a racing film, period? One can make a cult classic that does not attract great popular success and yet still have made something special, exciting and valuable to the cult itself. To truly evaluate Rush one has to compare it with arguably the only other really good racing film Hollywood has ever made, John Frankenheimer’s 1966 Grand Prix. (Obviously, the documentary Senna is indisputably fantastic but we are talking dramatized portrayals). Unfortunately it has to be said that in comparison Rush falls short, not on narrative but on the basis of visceral excitement.
Looking at footage from the two films is instructive of the difference between them. The trailer for Rush:
F1 Singapore Grand Prix – Results & Aftermath
By now I reckon you’ve had a chance to watch the race. But if not, race results and the aftermath under the fold…
F1 Italian Grand Prix — Results & Aftermath
By now I figure you’ve had a chance to watch the race. But if not, race results and fallout below the fold…
F1 Grand Prix of Italy–Qualifying Results
Another classic on the Formula One calendar and the last European race of the season, Qualifying for tomorrow’s Grand Prix went down at Monza today. Results below the fold…
F1 Grand Prix of Belgium– Qualifying Results
One expects the excitement of changeable weather conditions at Spa and today’s 3 rounds of Qualifying for the pole did not disappoint. Full results and F1’s official recap below the fold… Continue reading
Formula 1 Backgrounder: Spa Francorchamps
The most technically advanced motor racing series in the world returns to action after its 4 week summer layoff for Round 11 at one of the classics of the calendar, Spa-Francorchamps. The Belgian Grand Prix at Spa dates back to the inception of F1 in 1950, although for several years in the 1970s and 80s the race was held primarily at the Zolder track, infamous for the death of Gilles Villeneuve during qualifying in 1982. But Spa has its own deadly history to be sure. Originally an open road circuit, Spa used to encompass a blistering 14k tour through several Ardennes villages and was considered, along with the original Nürbergring, the ultimate test of a driver’s skill, not only because of the high speeds but also the unpredictable weather. But as cars became faster and faster and particularly prior to the advent of downforce, the risk factor for such a long country road course with houses, ditches, telephone poles and trees only yards from the edge of the road became extremely perilous and fatalities and serious shunts piled up.
New and Old Spa Circuits Overlaid
Eventually in 1983, after many years of disuse by F1, the Spa track was shortened to the 7k circuit we see today. Although most of the real life hazards have been removed, the circuit is still one of the fastest and is considered a supreme test of driver skill, as it always has been, particularly the narrow uphill charge out of Eau Rouge. When you see overtaking there, you know that a driver has nerves of steel because the consequence for failure can still be quite severe. Simply have a look at this terrible crash by a very fortunate Ricardo Zonta in 1999 to see what happens when things go awry at Spa:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWFZWpbjO44
You can see the practice times for the first two Friday sessions at Spa at FormulaOne.com.