Former Arrows team owner and 1988 Le Mans winning owner Tom Walkinshaw passed away last night. Obit on BBC Sport
Also, the ban on team orders has been thrown out the window for next year…
R.I.P. Tom
I always did have a soft spot for your XJR-14 (basically a closed wheel F1 car for Le Mans).
For anyone in the Austin area who’d like to see the track get completed for the eventual US GP in Austin.
I’m really hoping this is the rare awesome track by Tilke, like Istanbul Park. Come hell or high water I will be at the first USGP in Austin!
Might as well throw it out since the “ban” doesn’t work as Ferrari proved.
Funniest bit of F1 news I’ve heard during the off-season. Ferrari’s new car for next year has a surprisingly familiar name - that of a Ford truck.
Marvel 3 is going to hold me over well until Bahrain in March. :bgrin:
Massa’s new car shows off its Ferrari DNA… by catching on fire.
Massa?s Ferrari catches fire during testing | 2011 F1 testing
Can’t believe this hasn’t been bumped yet.
BBC Sport - F1 - Robert Kubica’s F1 career at risk after rally crash
He’s likely to miss all of 2011 at the least. God damn, this is pretty awful news.
And the Bahrain GP has been called off due to the unrest there, so the season will open in Melbourne:
BBC Sport - F1 - Bahrain Grand Prix off after anti-government protests
Makes you wonder if the Middle East continues to erupt in this protesting madness, how many other racing events are in jeopardy there. Not just F1 but also various touring cars and super bikes.
This is why the Dakar Rally will be in South America for the foreseeable future. MotoGP in Qatar and F1 in Abu Dhabi are still a ways off, though.
Bumping for the start of the season. Qualifying is Saturday
2:00 AM in NY
1:00 AM in Chicago
11:00 AM Friday in LA
7:00 AM GMT
Not-so-bold prediction: Vettel takes pole and wins
^^ I havn’t watched the race yet (just downloaded it, watching the pre-race… gotta love bbc coverage) hahah you might be right.
God I <3 f1.
My analysis
Aussie GP
[details=Spoiler]HRT weren’t ready for the second year in a row, they should’ve been excluded.
Sebastien Vettel, right now, is on another planet. I know it’s just one race but you have to make him the favorite to repeat. No one else is even close. Hell, Red Bull as a team are far and away the best on the field right now.
Good for Petrov, getting his first podium even at Alonso’s expense…again. 
Surprised there’s not more outrage over the Button penalty given that it stemmed from an incident with a Ferrari driver - and the salt usually pours from the McLaren Defense Force whenever one of their guys gets penalized, especially when a Ferrari benefits from it.
I was a little shocked at Sauber being DQ’d for what basically amounted to their rear wings being too flat when in DRS mode…but we’ll see how the appeal goes.[/details]
Gonna try harder not to fall asleep at the end, but it was a long evening and it looked like Vettel was just going to style on everyone…and he did.
That race was definitely exciting to watch. Between most of the teams having KERS, the introduction of DRS, and the swap to Pirelli tires, it’s going to be an interesting season for sure. I am looking forward to it.
Vettel is on fire. I hope he doesn’t have the mechanical failures like last year, and I hope he learned from his mistakes last year. hoping he’ll win the championship again. However, if he doesn’t, I do not want Alonso to win. I can’t stand him.
congrats to Petrov’s podium. Seeing him hold off Alonso was icing on the cake. I’d like to see Petrov have a good season
Seeing Petrov on the podium just shows that we have a better field of drivers this year than a few years ago.
DRS wasn’t as effective as it should have been, IMO it needs to be legal anywhere on the circuit, not just on the straight (as long as the drivers are within the set distance). That said, maybe Sepang or Shanghai will make me change my mind.
Gotta give props to Lewis for an amazing drive despite the damage to the undertray of his car.
the way Rosberg’s race ended was a shame. Have you seen this video about the way he trains for a race?
[media=youtube]g-KYASQKdSU[/media]
I agree that DRS should be available anywhere on the track during the race considering they can use it anywhere they want in practice. If they can use it anywhere, then it won’t be as predictable.