Formula One

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Re: Formula One

Postby The Insider » Sun Nov 04, 2012 8:15 am

Hi Guys,

Sorry for not being on here, India and Abu Dhabi have been hectic and it's been a little learning curve especially realising that my feet are no longer used to 18 hour days.

We fly back to Madrid early tomorrow morning before the flight to Austin next Sunday.

When I have recovered from the next double header in the America's over the coming weeks I'll post a report on how it went at the final four GP's.

TI
Last edited by The Insider on Wed Dec 05, 2012 10:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Formula One

Postby Frosty » Mon Nov 26, 2012 3:20 pm

A fantastic final race in what turned out to be one of the best Grand Prix seasons ever!
I must admit that it wasn't between the two drivers who I thought - and hoped - , at the beginning of the season, would be fighting it out! What could have been a great final race for Lewis, with McLaren, winning in Brazil plus securing McLaren second in the Constructors Championship, turned out to be another disapointment. Kimi, after an amazing comeback season, struggled to get the Lotus in a good points finish( some unforgetable driving plus radio coms. I'm so glad that he is driving again next season)
I'm sure there were a lot of people who thought that after the turn four, first lap, incident between Sebastian and Bruno that the Drivers Championship was once again heading to Spanish shores. Luck was with the RedBull No.1, ensuring that no other car hit him when he was facing the on coming pack. I'm sure, when he opened his eyes, he then knew that Sunday was his lucky day.
It will be great to hear from our very own insider on his views of the last few races, including the best USA Grand Prix ever.
He may well let us know if HRT will be back for another year, or if Bruno Senna will be in a green car, Caterham, or a blue car, Williams, next year?

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Re: Formula One

Postby Govangirl » Fri Nov 30, 2012 5:20 pm

Aye Frosty, it was nail-biting stuff right enough and ended an exciting season, as you say. I thought Hamilton was very emotional after the race and I was wondering if he felt he had made a mistake?

Has anyone seen the details of the new film they are making about Hunt the Shunt? Certainly, he had quite a life so I reckon the film would be interesting especially as it is focusing on the rivalry between him and Lauda. I know Spielberg and Ron Howard are making it and I heard an Australian actor ( :<> ) is playing Hunt but that's all.
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Re: Formula One

Postby The Insider » Sun Dec 02, 2012 11:43 am

Hi Guys,

Just so you know.

I AM working on a post of my experiences with HRT at the last four races, it's not all pretty to be honest but I will be fair and realistice about what it was really like, no point in telling you anything other than the truth.

I have a couple of pages done already and as soon as it's ready I'll post it.

I'm still trying to work out how to post pictures on here, there are a couple that would sit well with the whole HRT story.



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Re: Formula One

Postby The Insider » Sun Dec 02, 2012 5:08 pm

India, Abu Dhabi, Texas and the Brazilian GP’s on the road with HRT.

Hi Guys,

As promised before I left for India, here is an outline of how it all went during the final four races of the 2012 season with the HRT merry go round.

To be honest, when my mate asked me to step in to assist the team for the final back to back flyaway’s of the year I didn’t want to do it, I knew it would be gruelling and really hard work, however; I bit the bullet and took the opportunity to get back in the pit lane and see what it’s all about since I last worked at a GP weekend which was Brazil 2006.

India:
I jumped a flight from Manchester to Madrid on Oct 19th then met the lads at the factory the next day; we hopped onto an Emirates flight to Delhi via Dubai and arrived in India on the Sunday afternoon.

It’s some time since I was last in that part of the world and to be honest I have missed the chaos of the sub continent, most F1 types don’t like it there but I love as I’ve spent so much time in between India, Nepal and Pakistan.

I knew through experience (plus everything I had been told about HRT) and their lack of budget etc that this would not (by any means) be a seamless few weeks with this team, my suspicions were well founded and it went wrong at the first fence on the Monday morning.

A coach arrived at the hotel to take us to the track, after twenty minutes it was very obvious that the driver didn’t have a clue where he was going and we ended up in downtown Delhi much to the displeasure of everyone and none more so than the ‘Chief Truckie’, to say he was annoyed would be an understatement.

The thing is, we are all pushing to get the garage built by Tuesday lunchtime, the cars HAVE to be worked on by then at a flyaway, everything in this game is time critical and even more so with a small budget team, that means less spares, less staff, less infrastructure and a lot more work for everyone concerned.

However; we made it to the track eventually around 1115am when (in truth) we should have been there by 0930, not the most auspicious start I’ve ever seen but we were soon well ahead as the team doesn’t have a massive garage set up, PLUS, what they do have was well thought out by the ‘Chief Truckie’ it is easily assembled AND packed up.

You have to remember that the last team I worked at was Red Bull, the current triple back to back World Champions, so to come into HRT with very little of everything was quite frustrating, we had a lot more and much better kit on the RBR Showcar project than this team had to go racing, as always, it’s all about cash and they (HRT) spent very little on frills, it was just a question of buying what you can afford to and making it to the flag in Brazil.

The week went ok but I was surprised how poor the cars actually were in many areas, this was no way to run an F1 team and it was obvious to me that the writing was on the wall, unless a well funded buyer could be found, this team would NEVER see the 2013 season opener in Australia.

We got through the FP 1&2 and I soon discovered that Friday’s ARE a killer, it’s an eighteen hour day from leaving the hotel to returning, I’m NOT used to that anymore and it was my feet and leg injury from two years ago that suffered the most.

To add insult to that injury, I had hardly any team kit and NO trainers, are you getting the picture about this team now? NO trainers, I had to beg a pair from my mate at Lotus, luckily he had a spare pair with him and saved me even more pain.

Saturday went to plan and (as expected) the cars were back of the grid after qualifying, or as the lads called it “Twenty minutes of disappointment”

When you choose to do work for a lower end team, the key to NOT being disappointed with results is not to have any expectations and accept it for what it is, I wasn’t disappointed.

Sunday morning arrived and there was an accident in the garage, one of the carbon fibre guys lifted a circuit supplied ‘garage cooling fan’, there was a gap at the bottom of the guard and his fingers went straight through, as you might imagine, it wasn’t pretty.

As it turned out he was the ‘Pit Stop Rear Jack Man’

Yes, you guessed it, TI had to stand in with NO practise, the last time I did rear jack in a stop was at Jaguar in 2000, however I managed fine, first stop was a little slow but the second was spot on.

You never lose it ;o)

India to Abu Dhabi:

We packed up after the race and left straight away next morning for Abu Dhabi, the contrast in country and culture is incredible, from extreme poverty with millions living on the streets to sickening wealth, from the friendliest people your ever likely to meet to a nation that looks at you with distain, they don’t like us but they need us. I have NEVER liked the Middle East or the Arabs.

Don’t get me wrong, we had a nice enough time there and the circuit is an AMAZING facility to work at but that’s all material things, life is about people, not places, the people make the place.

By the Thursday of the second week my leg and feet were so sore that I needed to sit down as often as possible in the evening, it was the end of October and touching 37 degs in the day and cooling to 30 degs in the evening, that is NOT for me.

There Isn’t a great deal to report about Abu Dhabi race apart from a Hydraulic problem with Narain’s car which caused him to suddenly lose the power steering, he then HAD to lift immediately to avoid a massive off, unfortunately Rosburg was tucked up behind Narain and you all saw the accident.

There was a lot of damage to the RH side of the car and it wasn’t good, it forced a factory type repair to the RH Crash Structure in Austin, Mark (the carbon man) did a STUNNING job on the car and you would not have known the difference come Friday morning FP1, good skills all round.

By the Sunday evening in Abu Dhabi I WAS struggling badly after two weeks in the heat and humidity, I was ever so glad when the Monday evening flight out of a stinking hot Abu Dhabi arrived and we headed for five days off in a cool Madrid, relief was not the word.

The rest and down time helped my feet and leg recover so by the time we hit the States I was in much better shape to deal with the long days, it’s obvious that you soften up a lot when you’re out of the game for SO long and my performances in the US and Brazil were more like the ‘old me’ and everyone noticed the difference in my energy levels.

Austin Texas USA:

It was (of course) fantastic to make the return to the US for a GP, I for one was a bit sceptical about it both being in Texas AND their ability to pull it off.

Two years ago everything I was hearing was about lack of money and lots of politics that would kill the project before it even started, WELL, I’m delighted to say I was wrong and we had a fabulous time even though the garages are WAY too small for modern F1.

Considering that Abu Dhabi is now the modern day template for an F1 facility it was a little disappointing to be crammed into an inadequate garage space, the overall facility is fairly good but the Paddock lacks working space, again it’s slightly disappointing when you consider how big everything else is in Texas and the landmass there is available, shame really.

However; I have NO DOUBT F1 will be racing in Texas for years to come, that’s a given and the circuit have a degree of work to do between now and the first MOTO GP race in five months time but after seeing what they have already achieved I am now confident they will get it done.

The people in Austin were fantastic and they really threw themselves into the race week with events downtown in the city, the bars, restaurants and clubs were packed and there were 62,000 spectators for Friday Practice alone, that’s more than Hockenheim race day this year, tells you everything you need to know about the popularity of the sport in the states.

Race Day saw 120,000 spectators at the ‘Circuit of the Americas, that’s really impressive.

Brazil:

Well, as ALWAYS, I LOVE going to Brazil, I have some fantastic friends there and the people are just so friendly and welcoming.

We arrived a little late due to cheap flights via here there and everywhere, however; as I said before, the HRT garage set up is quick and easy and again we were on top of things pretty sharpish and out of there even quicker for one of the main eating event of the year, Brazilian BBQ or Churrascaria.

It truly is an eating experience worth global recognition, if you have never experienced this then Google ‘Foga de Chao’, that will explain it all.

Our hotel was around Marumbi, all the teams are based there, it’s twenty five minutes from the circuit at Interlagos and not far from the cemetery where Senna is buried, as normal I made my pilgrimage to pay my respects to the great man, it’s something you just HAVE to do when you’re so close.

The whole week was a bit of low point for the team, it was pretty obvious that this would be the last ever GP for HRT, there were so many rumours about the team going bust, ceasing to operate, Chinese and Arabic buyers, not getting paid and contract breaches etc, it was just misery for most of the lads.

Luckily none of this concerned me as I was only there on a short term contract but I can see the effect it had on the boys who had put a year of their life into the team and could see it dying in front of their eyes, it was all a bit sad really, but as I lived through the demise of Arrows AND Super Aguri there was NO DOUBT in my mind that this was a team on its last legs and it was over.

We covered off FP1 & 2 on Friday with the minimum amount of laps, just enough to get an idea of how the car was suited to the track, it was a spares saving exercise on both Friday and Saturday, there was just enough left to do the race, no more, a shunt on either day would have meant a DNS for one of the cars, luckily we scraped through to the Sunday and saw both cars across the line, there was no celebration in the garage, only the want to pack up and get out on the town for a well earned drink or two.

We flew back to Madrid on the Iberia flight overnight on Monday and arrived at 0530, I was sitting at baggage collection with Alonso who was on the same flight, he looked really down after a tough year, I couldn’t help myself and as I’ve spent the last year training as a ‘Performance Coach’ I went straight into coaching mode and ran through some stuff with him while we waited on the bags, he looked at me a little strangely at first but I soon had him feeling better about the whole affair.

He has been (in my opinion) the best driver this season in an inferior car, the lad ticks ALL the boxes, he’s a beast and if he was driving that RBR car he would be untouchable.

I arrived at the hotel at 0630 and went to bed, I was up around 1400hrs to find out what had gone on at the factory with the guys that went straight from the airport.

NOW, you all saw the press reports about, and I quote, ‘Drunken HRT mechanics in factory brawl’

TOTAL AND ABSULUTE NONSENSE.

There was NO ONE drunk on the flight, and there were NO mechanics, truckies, electricians or for that matter any other NON management involved in ANY brawl, it’s a TOTAL fabrication of the facts, I WILL however be posting a little story about what actually happened last Tuesday morning, but only when the whole HRT business is closed and ceases to operate.

Coaching:

For me the opportunity to return the F1 fold was driven by a want to ‘have another go’ but mostly because I have spent the last year training as a ‘Performance Coach’.

I now do a degree of work with a football agent here in Liverpool and a FANTASTIC ‘Elite Performance Coach’ who (it has to be said) is my mentor.

Being back in a team for four races offered me the greatest networking opportunity possible for my new skills and to be honest they were VERY well received by my team mates, friends but more importantly the drivers.

I took the chance to run some of what I had learned by all the HRT drivers including the reserve lads who do the Friday driving, it went very well.

After that success I pushed fairly hard with the other teams and drivers I know, I had a fantastic 30 minutes with the William’s star kid Valtteri Bottas, the lad is a class act, no doubt about it, I had already done an aero test with him here in the UK last year, it was obvious then that he was good but when I coached him I was a bit taken aback by how good he actually is, he is a DEFINATE star of the future.

I also chatted with Max Chilton, Charles Pic, Timo Glock and Mark Webber, they are all booked in for a session here at home between now and the first 2013 test.

I have to say it felt really special to be able to offer these athletes something different after taking a step back from the sport and reinventing myself, even at fifty years old it CAN be done, all you have to do is work hard and have passion.

I hope this has been worth a read for all of you, I’ll be home at Christmas with my dad so if you see me out and about please stop me for a chat.

Merry Christmas to all,

TI
Last edited by The Insider on Wed Dec 05, 2012 10:19 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Formula One

Postby Bitter End » Sun Dec 02, 2012 7:34 pm

Thank you for posting T.I. :D
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Re: Formula One

Postby Govangirl » Sun Dec 02, 2012 9:37 pm

Ditto Bitter :D
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Re: Formula One

Postby Frosty » Sun Dec 02, 2012 11:04 pm

T.I.
Thank you so much, the best and certainly your most informative post to date, the time you spent putting all of it together is much apprieciated!
I've just left Campbeltown after enjoying one of the best weekends in Town ever, with the hangover to prove it on Saturday morning! I'm sure you will enjoy your time at home, though I couldn't check the Forum as I had no T -- Mobile signal?
Even although I'm not Fernando's greatest fan, I agree with you when you stated that he was the best driver this season, he certainly drove the Ferrari to positions on the grid that the performance of the car did not warrant.
It's great to hear how the Performance Coaching is developing and it sounds like word is spreading around the Paddock very quickly. All the best with this.
Thanks again, it would have been great if we could have met up in Town, The Royal and The White Hart have all been done up to a great spec., I'm sure you'd feel , as I did, very at home in their comfortable surroundings!
All the best to you and your family across the Festive Season and for 2013. I'm sure you'll be very busy prior and into the 2013 Grand Prix Championship. Slainthe Mhath.

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Re: Formula One

Postby The Insider » Mon Dec 03, 2012 3:30 pm

Guys,

Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings about the passed six weeks, someone did say they couldn't be bothered reading it because it was too long, I understand that, I should have given a more informative post from each GP but I was too wiped out.

However; next season will be slightly different, I won't be doing anymore Race Team work, well not unless it's a favour for anyone who needs a hand, I will be floating around at specific races in another guise, somewhere between a coaching roll and looking after guests for a sponsor.

Keep you posted.

TI
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Re: Formula One

Postby Bitter End » Tue Jan 22, 2013 1:37 pm

Weel weel now, whit a stert tae the new year --frae the BBC today---


" Mercedes want to replace team principal Ross Brawn as part of a restructure aimed at improving the team's performance.

The proposal is to replace Brawn, who masterminded Michael Schumacher's seven world titles at Benetton and Ferrari, with two new appointments.

New executive director Toto Wolff is the first of these and he agreed a deal to bring in McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe.

Their intended job titles are not clear but Wolff, 41, will likely be team boss and figurehead with Lowe, 50, running the sporting and technical aspects of the team.

McLaren have refused to comment on the situation, and Mercedes described BBC Sport's information as "highly speculative".

The planned restructure leaves no place for Brawn or chief executive officer Nick Fry, the two men who in the winter of 2008/9 saved what has become Mercedes following the withdrawal from Formula 1 of then-owners Honda.

In their guise as Brawn, the outfit won the 2009 drivers' title with Jenson Button as well as that year's constructors' title before being taken over by Mercedes ahead of the 2010 season.

BBC Sport understands Lowe has agreed to join Mercedes but has not yet signed a contract - so there is a possibility, however small, that he will stay at McLaren. "

An thers mair on the BBC site
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Re: Formula One

Postby The Insider » Thu Feb 07, 2013 12:59 pm

Hi Guys,

I've been at the first two days of Jerez Test.

As you might imagine it's all talk and smoke screens at the moment, everyone is testing systems, running different fuel loads and trying set up's etc.

Impossible (as you would expect) to say where it all sits at the moment andso hard to make any predictions apart from it will be the same big names on the score sheets as the season progresses.

However; I will say this.

Watch out for young Bottas at Williams this season, this kid IS the 'REAL DEAL'

I spent a chunk of last years training as a 'Performance Coach' and while I was away doing the last four GP's with HRT I took the chance to coach some drivers, Bottas was one of them.

The lad is a class act in every area, if he has the car, he WILL score points, he's so consistant and delivers every time he gets in the cockpit, he has it all really and I'm sure he is a champion of the future.

Watch him perform this season, he will be the most impressive rookie since Vettel and Alonso :wink:

TI
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Re: Formula One

Postby Govangirl » Sun Mar 24, 2013 5:11 pm

Wish I was a fly on the wall in the after-race debrief!!!!!!!
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Re: Formula One

Postby The Insider » Sun Mar 31, 2013 2:40 pm

Hi Guys,

Interesting start to the season.

Young Bianchi is a bit flash according to the Marussia boys, they were SUPER impressed with him from the word go.

Looks like my tip Bottas needs a better car, they are working hard on ironing out the issues, I spoke with Mike C last week, they ARE getting there.

As for the 'Team Orders' saga.

Well, they have ALWAYS existed, legally or not, tragic to see them employed in Race No 2, if it was Race No 18 I could live with it.

As for Seb and RBR.

Nothing has, or will change, he will have the little slap on the wrist, he's said 'sorry' to everyone and that will be that, it's all about German - Austrian domination.

They want to carry that domination on with RUTHLESS Germanic efficiency, and they will.

Seb is now youngest Race Winner, Wet Race Winner, Fastest Lap Holder, Pole Setter, World Champ, Double World Champ, Triple World Champ, Back to Back World Champ, Triple Back to Back World Champ etc etc.

It will continue just as it has.

Watch this space after Bernie said Seb was right to take the win, that's the seal of approval from the main man, he likes to see drivers being totally ruthless, that's why he loved Schumi and let 'Spag Racing' do what they wanted for years.

Business as usual.

TI.
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Re: Formula One

Postby Govangirl » Sun May 12, 2013 5:37 pm

:( Sorry but was so bored by it today. Was all about the tyres really and Alonso and Ferrari managed theirs better than the rest. I just don't want to watch them driving around a track 66 times to only manage their tyres - it's just not racing! Govangirl@bored.com
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Re: Formula One

Postby howlsatthemoon » Sun May 12, 2013 9:50 pm

The only race that is about driving, and not tyres, is the Monaco Grand Prix so get used to it.
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