F1RMGP 2014: may the Fourth Season be with us!

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 05 Mar 2012, 14:45

The Management Speaks

Sir Bernard Shekelslike would like to publicly deny any rumours that he spent far too long on a beach in Antigua over the summer break and found himself in an expensive private hospital in Florida having emergency treatment for skin cancer. All is well and the 81-year-old series boss is in fine form, if with a slightly red and mildly scarred face that was also most definitely not the result of having drunk too much and fallen over.

Sir Bernard's spokesman, Oswald Campbell OBE, gave the following statements about recent stirrings in the motorsport press:

J.O.U.R.N.A.L. wrote:'Berserk' devices found at Magnussen, Badoer cars (Hockenheim)
A Viking and Forti mechanic recently noticed a 'berserk' device - that could make a car go berserk - was found in Jan Magnussen's and Luca Badoer's car(s) respectively. The devices were apparently sold as a trap by a mysterious ArrowTech F1RWRS Team manager The Fox, claiming it as a 'performance enhacher'. Such devices has also been reportedly found on F1RM cars, which was caught after 3 races. Neither Viking and Forti have to confirm them.
Berserk devices found again at nearly all retired cars (Spa)
Recently, it was found that almost every cars that retired from Belgian F1RMGP race were found to have 'berserk' devices. The devices apparently originated and sold by The Fox, of ArrowTech fame. The devices were found in nearly all cars that failed to finish, save Foitek's Spyker. No-one has yet to confirm this.

The Series management finds it absolutely incredible that Viking and Forti, of all teams, would ever need "performance enhancing devices". Forti, maybe, because they're way down on where they were last year, but still, they're up the top, aren't they? And they've had a win, even if it was in a non-championship race without their regular drivers. F1RM as well would never have taken such drastic measures, as with Chris Dagnall at the wheel, that car's still capable of a couple of visits to the top step of the podium. Jan Magnussen, since this race, has held his hand up and said he was an idiot, and gave Luca Badoer a crate of Odin's finest mead (taken out of his own wages) by means of an apology.

As for the retirees in Belgium, something smells equally fishy there. Both Leyton Houses, F1RMs, Super Aguris and Fortis retired, as did the sole EuroBrun and SPAM in the race, but if Gregor Foitek's Spyker was the only non-finisher to contain this alleged "berserk" device, then how do the J.O.U.R.N.A.L. bigwigs explain Perry McCarthy's retirement with this device while Pedro Chaves ended up on the podium?

These devices will be taken to the F1RMGP skunkworks for careful analysis, and the results will be announced after the race in Italy. It is thought that they will be some kind of dummy device, and that a lot of the drivers in Belgium were being twonks, although the devices removed from the Super Aguri cars do appear superficially different...

J.O.U.R.N.A.L. wrote:Arrows entry propaganda: Malik, RWRS sisters caught at David Price garage
In order to promote Arrows wish for an entry on 2015 F1RMGP season, Arrows has reportedly used David Price team as a target. Prince Malik, together with two sisters that raced at RWRS - Shinobu Katayama and Yuka Katayama, were reportedly seen at David Price garage. The trio warned that David Price won't survive and progressed by vandalising the garage, and leaving it. Neither David Price, Prince Malik, Shinobu Katayama, nor Yuka were available for comment.
Update: Two more people - reportedly Malik's impersonators (known as Falik and Walik) were also found taking technical documents, proably as a part of espionage plot.

If Prince Malik wants to be part of the F1RMGP circus, then he is most definitely going about it the wrong way. While nobody from the top of the Series Management to the bottom of the grid believes that David Price Racing are in this series for any other reason to be laughed at - with the exception of the team themselves, and Jan Magunssen who showed what a proper driver could do in their fearful pile of junk - the Management takes a very dim view of prospective team bosses attempting to break their way in by force!

Arrows itself is certainly being considered as a team which may join the fold, but the team's chances will be massively improved by getting rid of this diabolical oaf. Furthermore, Günther Schmidt would like to remind Arrows fans that he holds the team boss position in F1RMGP's Hologram Projection Unit, so don't go getting any ideas about bringing Tom Walkinshaw back either.

The only hint that the Series Management intends to give is brought to you, Sesame Street style, by the letters P and D.

J.O.U.R.N.A.L. wrote:Lotus Bakeries admit 'nearly defaulting' to GTM
Earlier before qualifying of Belgian F1RMGP round, it was reported that Lotus Bakeries - a bakery associated with RonDen Racing Engineering team in other leagues - had silently signed a sponsorship agreement with Genii Team Malaysia, hence why some noticed Lotus Bakeries' logos on Fauzy's GTM. It was later reported that Lotus Bakeries failed to give GTM the sponsorship money until the last minute. "We just notified by our PR division that we almost forget to pay sponsorship money to Genii Team Malaysia F1RMGP Team", said Lotus Bakeries spokeperson.
The deal was reported worth 350,000 euros (later revealed to have been 350,000 frangipanes). GTM have yet to comment on this.

Group Lotus wrote:Dany Bahar is reportedly furious with Tony Fernandes and he wants to start his own team.

These two stories are, of course, inherently linked.

First of all, Dany Bahar and Tony Fernandes are reminded that they are the ones who created this situation; by their constant bickering over who wons the Lotus name and who has the rights to use it in Formula 1, and how the name can just so easily pass from a new team created in 2010 to one that was racing against the original Team Lotus from 1981-94, whether it was as Toleman or Benetton, became Renault later despite having no links to the original Renault that raced against Lotus and Toleman... that has dragged the Lotus name through the mud and has brought it into so much disrepute that the two team bosses can forever suffer in a cage, being manacled together until they sort this out once and for all. (And this is before we get into the even larger tangle that is the presence of Ted Toleman and his original F1 team in F1RMGP since its inception.) That Lotus Bakeries is now involved, and knowing what's going on in the Lotus Racing League with Lotus paper tissues as well, if these two are determined to involve ever more Lotuses in their devious scheme, then it's time to hit them hard...

The release document that will allow Dany Bahar to go their separate ways - and no longer participate in F1RMGP - must be signed by both of them, each one faking the other's signature. Three other names will be needed as signatures; first, that of Keith Wiggins, who was spectacularly gazumped at the end of the 2011 season in the "Lotus Team Pacific" fiasco which brought Tony Fernandes to the series in the first place - the team's entry will be signed over to him, free of charge, and he will have the option of continuing the team as Pacific Racing, as it was in 2011, or selling the entry. It's not as if Genii Team Malaysia's current assets will allow for a very competitive package, though. Also, both bosses will have to sign the rights to the Team Lotus name to the one man who really deserves it - Colin Chapman, who will be the final signature required on the release document. Tricky, isn't it? He's been dead for three decades and there's only one way to bring him back - load him into the Hologram Projection Unit. However, that will mean temporarily switching off Günther Schmidt - and how will the legendarily irascible German take that news? I imagine it'll go down like a sack of cold sick, especially given his team's most recent performance. So, at the very least, GTM are going to have to hope for a spectacular points-payday for ATS Rial in a future race just to secure the remote possibility of getting that all-important signature of Colin Chapman...

The Maganement would also like to suggest to Dany Bahar that he follows his nemesis' example. The Team Formerly Known As Toleman, Benetton And Renault (Sponsored By Group Lotus And Genii Capital) would be wise to drop the "Lotus" name from Formula 1 as soon as possible, and buy another small sports car manufacturer known for making its own version of the Lotus Seven. Westfield Formula One, anyone?

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 05 Mar 2012, 15:03

The Management speaks again: series goings-on that J.O.U.R.N.A.L. and all the others missed

The previous statement concerning the unorthodox way by which Arrows have attempted to barge their way into the series, and the methods by which Pacific might get to return, have caused the Series Management to release the following statement.

First of all, the Management understands that SIX of the current teams are in a perilous state of financial health, some of which are obvious, some less so. Even so, there are plans to potentially expand the grid.

However, potential entries for the 2015 season need to be warned that, in order to facilitate an entry list that will see the maximum number of teams rise to 24, pre-qualifying will be implemented. The top ten teams from the 2014 season will be exempt from pre-qualifying, unless any of them are subject to a takeover in the close season, in which case (for example) the 11th placed team will be off the hook and the new entry will be the one forced to take part in the pre-qualifying session. For convenience, if it can be called that, Thursday's free practice will act as pre-qualifying, creating the occupational hazard for the teams involved that there may be faster cars on the track at the same time who want to get past, or who may be running experimental bits and pieces that may explode...

The top eight cars in pre-qualifying will go into Friday's proper qualifying session, involving all the top ten teams as per usual, for a total of 28 cars, two of which will be sent packing at the end of the session.

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 06 Mar 2012, 14:56

That's a big annoucement. :shock:

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 06 Mar 2012, 16:00

ABSOLUTELY BATHPLUGGING BRILLIANT REAL-LIFE INTERLUDE

So, today, I bought the BBC's Formula One 2012 Season Guide. First of all, take note of what I wrote above.

dinizintheoven wrote:The Maganement would also like to suggest to Dany Bahar that he follows his nemesis' example. The Team Formerly Known As Toleman, Benetton And Renault (Sponsored By Group Lotus And Genii Capital) would be wise to drop the "Lotus" name from Formula 1 as soon as possible, and buy another small sports car manufacturer known for making its own version of the Lotus Seven. Westfield Formula One, anyone?

Now, turn to page 66 of the guide, and we see Richard Porter's satirical take on the 2043 Virtual Formula One Season...

Richard Porter wrote:Further down the field, mid-ranking teams to watch include Westfield F1 - built from the ashes of the old Lotus F1 Team - and Dutton F1 - built from the ashes of another team that was also called Lotus back in the earlier part of the century.

Just call me Nostradamus. I'll scan the page if you don't believe me.

Anyway, back to the present, which is also the future...

EDIT: it gets better!

Richard Porter wrote:Button's driving days are well behind him... ...and the British team boss must be relieved that he doesn't have to compete with the new generation of pre-pubescent whizz kids brought into the sport following the relaxation of minimum age requirements. No one typifies this new breed more than last season's champion, Miami Hamilton, protégée of proud grandfather Lewis.

Miami Hamilton is eight years old. And male. But "protégée", with that extra e on the end of the word, is the feminine form of the word, and may I remind you all what one of Sir Bernard Shekelslike's daughters is called...

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 06 Mar 2012, 22:23

Round 12: Monza, Italy
Saturday, 4 October 2014

THE GRID

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1 –    8  Y. Ide          Super Aguri   1'32.666
2 –    27 L. Badoer       Forti         1'32.824
3 –    28 A. Montermini   Forti         1'33.187
4 –    10 Þ. Einarsson    Viking        1'33.524
5 –    15 H. Noda         Leyton House  1'33.598
6 –    21 J. Winkelhock   ATS Rial      1'33.985
7 –    11 P. Chaves       SAC           1'34.148
8 –    7  S. Nakano       Super Aguri   1'34.178
9 –    16 B. Giacomelli   Leyton House  1'34.267
10 –   30 M. Asmer        Simtek        1'34.274
11 –   2  J-D. Délétraz   F1RM          1'34.309
12 –   33 G. Foitek       Spyker        1'34.430
13 –   12 P. McCarthy     SAC           1'34.476

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14 –   1  C. Dagnall      F1RM          1'34.522
15 –   9  J. Magnussen    Viking        1'34.555
16 –   18 F. Barbazza     Monteverdi    1'34.595
17 –   6  A. McNish       Toleman       1'34.724
18 –   17 O. Grouillard   Monteverdi    1'34.797
19 –   34 O. Beretta      Spyker        1'35.012
20 –   22 V. Weidler      ATS Rial      1'35.049
21 –   36 M. Apicella     Dome          1'35.345
22 –   3  G. Tarquini     AGS           1'36.080
23 –   5  R. Firman       Toleman       1'36.085
24 –   35 E. Naspetti     Dome          1'36.578
25 –   29 P. Belmondo     Simtek        1'36.664
26 –   26 P. Alliot       SPAM          1'36.826

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---------------- DID NOT QUALIFY ----------------
DNQ –  4  P-H. Raphanel   AGS           1'36.993
DNQ –  31 K. Nakajima     Stefan        1'37.437
DNQ –  19 C. Langes       EuroBrun      1'37.480
DNQ –  25 S. Sarrazin     SPAM          1'37.575
DNQ –  20 E. Bertaggia    EuroBrun      1'37.613
DNQ –  32 J. Villeneuve   Stefan        1'38.687
DNQ –  23 A. Yoong        Minardi       1'39.093
DNQ –  39 F. Fauzy        GTM           1'39.176
DNQ –  40 R. Teixeira     GTM           1'39.513
DNQ –  37 P. Kralev       David Price   1'40.129
DNQ –  24 E. Tuero        Minardi       1'40.160
DNQ –  38 C. Hurni        David Price   1'43.135

So, Monza. The tifosi haven't exactly been out in force since the 2011 Italian races when a reconstituted Ferrari were competing, and the Osella team's dubious association with Alfa Romeo in previous seasons didn't exactly compensate. But the team bearing those famous numbers, Brazilian-owned though it may be, with their two Italian drivers, made the best of their run on sort-of-home soil. Yuji Ide was peerless and took a fine pole position, but the two Fortis lined up immediately behind him, Þorvaldur Einarsson being elbowed down to fourth. Leyton House didn't make the best of their powerful Suzuki engine, though, Hideki Noda managing only fifth and Bruno Giacomelli ninth; between them, Joachim Winkelhock gave it everything he had to compensate for his and ATS Rial's alarming qualifying capitulation in Hungary, Pedro Chaves shoved his SAC into a creditable seventh, and Shinji Nakano did all he could to match his team-mate but fell well short. Completing the top ten was Marko Asmer, still barely able to believe his amazing good fortune at the previous race, and determined to prove that it wasn't quite as much of a fluke as it may have been perceived. Jean-Denis Délétraz was the top F1RM at a circuit the team openly admitted the PURE engine wasn't suited to, behind him... who'd have believed it, it's Gregor Foitek in the Spyker! Time is running out for them to score any points this season, and the team were seen fiddling with his car until long into the night, and it is alleged they were trying to make a qualifying hand grenade just to give him a chance to fight for those points. Perry McCarthy, just behind, would try to make sure that never happened.

Kicking off the second half of the grid – look at that, it's last year's championship challengers! If Chris Dagnall was annoyed at being only 14th and with Délétraz ahead of him, then Jan Magnussen was in an utterly foul mood, knowing that time was running out for him to catch his team-mate; it's possible, but he hasn't half made it hard for himself here. Fabrizio Barbazza was just behind to keep them company, and has been eyeing up a more competitive drive recently – he's in the right position to give these two at the top teams a fright. Allan McNish ended a run of three DNQs to take 17th, and behind him – Olivier Grouillard's managed to qualify again, within two tenths of Barbazza! There's a turn up for the books. Further back, Olivier Beretta took 19th place, having probably not been given the hand-grenade treatment, Volker Weidler was 20th – but, amazingly, only just over a second slower than his team-mate, and Marco Apicella led a Dome horror show that at least saw both cars on the grid but in very lowly positions. Behind Apicella, there was a seven-tenths gap to Gabriele Tarquini, brought back down to earth with a bang, followed by Ralph Firman, Emanuele Naspetti, Paul Belmondo – getting the wrong end of Simtek's luck this weekend – and Philippe Alliot, who just barely qualified by a tenth, having wrestled every last drop of performance out of his SPAM. Peugeot, of course, are too proud to call shenanigans on Audi for the honour of being best of the diesels...

Pierre-Henri Raphanel was the fall guy for AGS, who'd thought his lap was good enough to qualify until Alliot beat it at the death. Kazuki Nakajima was also annoyed to have not made it, yet again, despite his best qualifying performance in ages, although at half a second behind Raphanel he couldn't really complain all that much. He led a group of drivers languishing in the 1'37s – Claudio Langes, Stéphane Sarrazin and Enrico Bertaggia – double-DNQ misery isn't something EuroBrun have known much of over the last two seasons, but they're back down there again. Maybe they should have tuned their engines the way Spyker did. Below the 1'38 mark were some real cretinous performances – Jacques Villeneuve, and both Minardis, GTMs and David Prices, all so woefully off the pace that it's a wonder they even bothered turning up.

CLASSIFICATION

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1 –    10 Þ. Einarsson    Viking         53   1h 27'14.536
2 –    7  S. Nakano       Super Aguri    53   1h 27'18.068
3 –    30 M. Asmer        Simtek         53   1h 27'30.458
4 –    27 L. Badoer       Forti          53   1h 28'18.509
5 –    9  J. Magnussen    Viking         53   1h 28'26.903
6 –    15 H. Noda         Leyton House   52   + 1 lap (DNF, turbo)
7 –    21 J. Winkelhock   ATS Rial       52   + 1 lap
8 –    18 F. Barbazza     Monteverdi     52   + 1 lap
9 –    28 A. Montermini   Forti          52   + 1 lap
10 –   29 P. Belmondo     Simtek         52   + 1 lap
11 –   2  J-D. Délétraz   F1RM           52   + 1 lap
12 –   3  G. Tarquini     AGS            52   + 1 lap
13 –   22 V. Weidler      ATS Rial       52   + 1 lap

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14 –   1  C. Dagnall      F1RM           52   + 1 lap
15 –   6  A. McNish       Toleman        52   + 1 lap
16 –   26 P. Alliot       SPAM           51   + 2 laps
17 –   36 M. Apicella     Dome           51   + 2 laps
18 –   35 E. Naspetti     Dome           51   + 2 laps
19 –   5  R. Firman       Toleman        51   + 2 laps
20 –   16 B. Giacomelli   Leyton House   46   spin
21 –   11 P. Chaves       SAC            43   engine
22 –   34 O. Beretta      Spyker         26   puncture
23 –   12 P. McCarthy     SAC            25   loose wheel
24 –   33 G. Foitek       Spyker         16   puncture
25 –   17 O. Grouillard   Monteverdi     13   transmission
26 –   8  Y. Ide          Super Aguri    10   spin

Fate can be a cruel mistress sometimes.

This race was, as many had predicted, a power battle between the top three teams – Viking, Leyton House and Super Aguri, after one of the diesels – the SPAM of Stéphane Sarrazin – had fallen by the wayside the day before, and two of the others had looked a bit out of sorts. So nobody was surprised when, at the start, a Super Aguri took the lead... but those who brought binoculars soon saw it was Shinji Nakano who was out in front, having made a lightning start to catch everyone napping, as well as Hideki Noda and Yuji Ide who were fighting for what they thought would be the lead at the first chicane. Nakano was on a light fuel load, though, hence his pace, whereas the other two Japanese drivers, and Þorvaldur Einarsson who was just behind them, were fat with fuel. With Ide committing an absolute howler, spinning off at Ascari on lap 11 while chasing Noda for second, that took the pressure off from behind for a while, and second turned into first after Nakano's inevitable early fuel stop. Noda resisted everything that the charging Icelander behind could throw at him, racing SIDE-O BY SIDE-O! as they say in Japan, down the back straight, to see which one of them would have balls of steel as they rounded Parabolica... Noda took the inside line wherever he could, and it was finally going to be his day. Wasn't it? The Leyton House garage became rather more nervous as Bruno Giacomelli spun off between the Lesmo curves, reminiscent of Lewis Hamilton having a moment of severe brain face, but still Noda resisted even when he had to pass his stricken team-mate sitting at the side of the track. And then, on the last lap...

...no power.

Noda was parked at the side of the back straight, shaking with a mixture of shock, fury and crushing disappointment. It was going to be his first win. It wasn't, and investigations revealed his turbo had failed. Howls of despair could be heard from the trees between the back straight and the paddock, all of them in a Japanese accent. That he was classified sixth, a lap down, and gained eight points, was no consolation. He wanted that win. Instead, it dropped into Þorvaldur's hands... one of which, you'd have to say, was now on the championship trophy. Japanese honour, though, was saved by The Shinjinator, whose early sprint into the lead had reminded everyone outside the Super Aguri garage that he still existed, plus it was his best ever result in this series. And third... grinning like an Estonian Cheshire cat, there was Marko Asmer on the podium again – not on top of it this time, given that he'd had to profit from the misfortune of both the drivers he shared the podium with to get that sensational win in Hungary, but he was proving now that he is no slouch, and neither is his Simtek.

Luca Badoer was the first to finish off the podium, with Jan Magnussen not so far behind, but they'd both been comprehensively caned by Þorvaldur, and the Japanese who was classified behind them. Joachim Winkelhock made what he could of his ATS Rial's diesel power – not enough to challenge the frontrunners, but they're getting used to scoring points now, and six of them for seventh place was a decent reward. Now may be a good time for Genii Team Malaysia to ask Günther Schmidt for a loan of his time in the Hologram Projection Unit, if they know what's good for them. Completing the top ten were Fabrizio Barbazza, taking his best result of the season, Andrea Montermini, curiously off the pace on race day, and Paul Belmondo, who may have been pleased to score but must be wondering what his team-mate has been drinking... a massive dose of Red Dwarf's luck virus, maybe?

Who's that in eleventh and out the points again? It's Jean-Denis Délétraz, who's scored once – a third place in the opening race of the season – and then done nothing and gone nowhere, even if there's been a bit of bad luck on the way. Gabriele Tarquini couldn't repeat his fine result in Hungary, and couldn't even get close; Volker Weidler, just happy to be on the grid after Hungary, couldn't cash in the way Winkelhock could. And if JDD thought he had it bad, Chris Dagnall could barely manage 14th, ahead of Allan McNish in the ailing Toleman. So much for the French diesel challenge; Philippe Alliot was 16th, two laps down, as were the Domes of Marco Apicella and Emanuele Naspetti – on par with each other for once, but way down in the dumps. Ralph Firman was the only other driver to finish the race.

Of the retirements, Yuji Ide escapes the dreaded Reject Of The Race award, because there's a more deserving recipient. It's not Olivier Grouillard – there was nothing he could do about his box full of neutrals, and neither is it Gregor Foitek, who was falling down the field from the start; it seems Spyker's hand-grenade experiment didn't work as planned, and Foitek was undone by an exploding tyre anyway, as was his team-mate, Olivier Beretta, ten laps later. No, the clue comes after 25 laps, when Perry McCarthy called in for a routine pit-stop and was sent out with three wheels on his wagon. As if that wasn't bad enough, Pedro Chaves' fine day, that was at least going to bring him and the team some more points, his engine failed after some clot dropped a spanner into the airbox during his second pit-stop. The errant mechanic most likely lost his job, but it won't save the ROTR award from being directed at SAC's pit crew.

DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP
Four races remain, and 100 points are still available. Drivers who can still win the Carel Godin de Beaufort Cup are shown with a star.

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1 –  * 10 Þ. Einarsson    Viking         171
2 –  * 9  J. Magnussen    Viking         110
3 –  * 16 B. Giacomelli   Leyton House   99
4 –  * 8  Y. Ide          Super Aguri    95
5 –  * 1  C. Dagnall      F1RM           91
6 –  * 15 H. Noda         Leyton House   89
7 –  * 11 P. Chaves       SAC            73
8 –    27 L. Badoer       Forti          70
9 –    36 M. Apicella     Dome           69
10 –   7  S. Nakano       Super Aguri    63
11 –   30 M. Asmer        Simtek         48
12 –   29 P. Belmondo     Simtek         35
13 –   3  G. Tarquini     AGS            30

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14 –   28 A. Montermini   Forti          26
15 –   22 V. Weidler      ATS Rial       24
16 –   21 J. Winkelhock   ATS Rial       22
17 =   12 P. McCarthy     SAC            18
17 =   26 P. Alliot       SPAM           18
19 –   20 E. Bertaggia    EuroBrun       16
20 –   2  J-D. Délétraz   F1RM           15
21 =   4  P-H. Raphanel   AGS            8
21 =   18 F. Barbazza     Monteverdi     8
23 –   35 E. Naspetti     Dome           4
24 =   5  R. Firman       Toleman        3
24 =   19 C. Langes       EuroBrun       3

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26 =   25 S. Sarrazin     SPAM           2
26 =   6  A. McNish       Toleman        2

CONSTRUCTORS' CHAMPIONSHIP
Four races remain, and 172 points are still available. Teams that can still win the Willi Kauhsen Cup are shown with a star.

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1 –  * Viking         281
2 –  * Leyton House   188
3 –  * Super Aguri    158
4 –    F1RM           106
5 –    Forti          96
6 –    SAC            91
7 –    Simtek         83
8 –    Dome           73
9 –    ATS Rial       46
10 –   AGS            38

Code: Select all

11 –   SPAM           20
12 –   EuroBrun       19
13 –   Monteverdi     8
14 –   Toleman        5

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 09 Mar 2012, 21:25

Round 13: Estoril, Portugal
Saturday, 18 October 2014

THE GRID

Code: Select all

1 –    9  J. Magnussen    Viking        1'26.999
2 –    1  C. Dagnall      F1RM          1'27.481
3 –    10 Þ. Einarsson    Viking        1'27.764
4 –    15 H. Noda         Leyton House  1'27.919
5 –    8  Y. Ide          Super Aguri   1'28.002
6 –    11 P. Chaves       SAC           1'28.200
7 –    16 B. Giacomelli   Leyton House  1'28.606
8 –    36 M. Apicella     Dome          1'28.806
9 –    27 L. Badoer       Forti         1'28.883
10 –   12 P. McCarthy     SAC           1'29.005
11 –   18 F. Barbazza     Monteverdi    1'29.285
12 –   34 O. Beretta      Spyker        1'29.534
13 –   22 V. Weidler      ATS Rial      1'29.930

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14 –   7  S. Nakano       Super Aguri   1'30.053
15 –   28 A. Montermini   Forti         1'30.089
16 –   2  J-D. Délétraz   F1RM          1'30.218
17 –   30 M. Asmer        Simtek        1'30.805
18 –   23 A. Yoong        Minardi       1'31.095
19 –   3  G. Tarquini     AGS           1'31.308
20 –   5  R. Firman       Toleman       1'31.334
21 –   6  A. McNish       Toleman       1'31.428
22 –   33 G. Foitek       Spyker        1'31.507
23 –   21 J. Winkelhock   ATS Rial      1'31.617
24 –   26 P. Alliot       SPAM          1'31.618
25 –   39 F. Fauzy        GTM           1'31.978
26 –   4  P-H. Raphanel   AGS           1'32.262

Code: Select all

---------------- DID NOT QUALIFY ----------------
DNQ –  29 P. Belmondo     Simtek        1'32.298
DNQ –  20 E. Bertaggia    EuroBrun      1'32.386
DNQ –  40 R. Teixeira     GTM           1'32.426
DNQ –  35 E. Naspetti     Dome          1'32.466
DNQ –  19 C. Langes       EuroBrun      1'32.583
DNQ –  25 S. Sarrazin     SPAM          1'32.696
DNQ –  17 O. Grouillard   Monteverdi    1'33.383
DNQ –  32 J. Villeneuve   Stefan        1'33.832
DNQ –  37 P. Kralev       David Price   1'33.838
DNQ –  31 K. Nakajima     Stefan        1'34.560
DNQ –  24 E. Tuero        Minardi       1'34.681
DNQ –  38 C. Hurni        David Price   1'37.605

Under a crisp autumn afternoon in Portugal, doesn't the front of the grid have an all-too-familiar look about it? Jan Magnussen on pole, with Chris Dagnall on the front row, Þorvaldur Einarsson just behind them, and... oh, wait, my 2013 analogy has unravelled, because there would be neither Hideki Noda nor Leyton House there. Still, with variety being the spice of life, it wasn't quite so spicy up the front, with all the usual suspects in play – Yuji Ide fifth, Pedro Chaves in sixth on home soil, as might be expected, with Bruno Giacomelli and Marco Apicella on row four – nothing special about seeing one Dome that high. Luca Badoer and Perry McCarthy occupied row five, McCarthy determined to show his team-mate he still exists, and then comes the point where it gets interesting; Fabrizio Barbazza put his Monteverdi 11th, a place that car has no right to be, with Olivier Beretta and Volker Weidler behind him. Rumours once again flew around the grid that Spyker had cranked up the revs, this time on Beretta's engine, as Gregor Foitek had done very little with the opportunity he was given before his race was run in Monza. As for Weidler, he wrenched every last drop of speed out of his Audi diesel engine that he could on the long straight.

Shinji Nakano, unusually, found himself in the lower half of the grid, lining up 14th, with Andrea Montermini and – rather less unusually in this position these days – Jean-Denis Délétraz. Marko Asmer, in 17th, had the recent smiles wiped right off his face when he looked round to see who he'd be starting alongside on the grid... Alex Yoong, in a Minardi. Beaten by the Italian misery machine with its geriatric 28-year-old 1.5-litre turbo were Gabriele Tarquini, sporting an engine of similar age in his AGS, both Tolemans, though at least they both qualified this time, and Gregor Foitek, relegated back to a standard-spec Spyker. Try saying that when you're drunk. Row twelve saw the diesel duo of Joachim Winkelhock and Philippe Alliot, both having gone the wrong way on setup, and on the last row, a rare appearance on the grid for Fairuz Fauzy, which would most likely come to nothing, did at least stop Tony Fernandes and Dany Bahar from arguing with each other for five seconds. Pierre-Henri Raphanel qualified the second AGS by the skin of his teeth...

...three hundredths behind, Paul Belmondo was far from impressed, and growled loudly as his side of the Simtek garage packed up for the weekend. Enrico Bertaggia wasn't too far away, either, and – amazingly – Ricardo Teixeira put in one of his better performances, third of the non-qualifiers being something of a result for him. This only served to reinforce the utter grudging misery of Emanuele Naspetti, Claudio Langes, Stéphane Sarrazin and Olivier Grouillard – to say all of them have failed to shine this year is a massive, massive understatement. The last five cars included both Stefans, both David Prices and Esteban Tuero's Minardi, with Christophe Hurni the slowest of them all by a clear three seconds. Even Zoran Stefanovic managed to crack a smile at that.

CLASSIFICATION

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1 –    15 H. Noda         Leyton House   71   1h 50'55.160
2 –    8  Y. Ide          Super Aguri    71   1h 51'22.865
3 –    11 P. Chaves       SAC            71   1h 51'48.599
4 –    9  J. Magnussen    Viking         71   1h 51'50.614
5 –    27 L. Badoer       Forti          71   1h 52'18.894
6 –    1  C. Dagnall      F1RM           71   1h 52'20.310
7 –    18 F. Barbazza     Monteverdi     71   1h 52'23.920
8 –    36 M. Apicella     Dome           71   1h 52'32.466
9 –    28 A. Montermini   Forti          70   + 1 lap
10 –   2  J-D. Délétraz   F1RM           70   + 1 lap
11 –   12 P. McCarthy     SAC            69   + 2 laps (DNF, suspension)
12 –   7  S. Nakano       Super Aguri    69   + 2 laps
13 –   5  R. Firman       Toleman        69   + 2 laps

Code: Select all

14 –   30 M. Asmer        Simtek         69   + 2 laps
15 –   6  A. McNish       Toleman        69   + 2 laps
16 –   26 P. Alliot       SPAM           69   + 2 laps
17 –   33 G. Foitek       Spyker         69   + 2 laps
18 –   3  G. Tarquini     AGS            69   + 2 laps
19 –   21 J. Winkelhock   ATS Rial       69   + 2 laps
20 –   23 A. Yoong        Minardi        69   + 2 laps
21 –   39 F. Fauzy        GTM            68   + 3 laps
22 –   10 Þ. Einarsson    Viking         33   crash
23 –   22 V. Weidler      ATS Rial       33   crash
24 –   16 B. Giacomelli   Leyton House   29   turbo
25 –   34 O. Beretta      Spyker         10   transmission
26 –   4  P-H. Raphanel   AGS            6    crash

If fate can be a cruel mistress, as it was in Italy for Hideki Noda, then sometimes that cruelty is spectacularly reversed.

The Japanese contingent has suffered some awful luck recently – not just Hideki Noda's last-lap blowout at Monza, there's the double-blanks that Super Aguri have been leaving the races with as well. So, Yuji Ide had been hoping to reverse that with a win – but if he couldn't do that, a podium would do just fine, and for once – especially after Monza – he was happy giving second best to his compatriot. Noda went berserk on the podium, jumping up and down like an excited anime girl – coincidentally, there were a few of those there to greet him on his way to receive the trophy. And, fittingly, who should join them but the man who has almost made third place his own this year – Pedro Chaves, the home hero, who thrashed his SAC for all it was worth to chase the two Japanese for the lead, but more importantly, to hold off Jan Magnussen, and that's a story to behold.

Earlier in the race, it looked like it was all going wrong, and the Dane was going to be surrendering the Carel Godin de Beaufort Cup for a third successive year. He'd banged wheels with Chris Dagnall at the start and lost out, then was unceremoniously overtaken round the outside of the final corner by Þorvaldur Einarsson, in a move that many observers saw as the straw that would finally break Magnussen's back – not knowing the Icelander was light on fuel. Magnussen spun on the main straight on lap 17, purely of his own accord. Þorvaldur would have streaked away with it, duelling for supremacy with Yuji Ide, but came up to lap the incautious ATS Rial of Volker Weidler. 33 laps gone, "sorry mate, I am not seeing you there, ja?" and two piles of scrap carbon fibre were soon to be winched off the side of the track, one mainly gold, one mainly silver, both with a hint of blue. Despite this, Weidler would not pick up Reject Of The Race. And neither would Magnussen; on hearing the news on lap 34 that his team-mate and chief championship rival was out, he spun again on the home straight, completely unprovoked, and that should have sealed his fate, especially as this time he needed to pit for a new nose. But, in 14th place and terrifyingly close to being a lap down with Noda and Ide rampaging towards him, he put in one of the most fantastic charges through the field seen in this series. Rival after rival ahead of him was clinically dispatched, and with Luca Badoer out the way with a whole 15 laps to go, he set about reducing a 30-second gap to Chaves. He missed by two seconds, but it was not for the lack of trying, and 12 points keeps him in the championship hunt. Remember, this time in the past two seasons it's been him in the lead, only to fall at the final hurdle, first to HWNSNBM, then to Daggers...

Behind that story, the rest of the finishers seemed inconsequential, but a few will argue with that. Luca Badoer and Chris Dagnall have seen better results, but Fabrizio Barbazza hasn't, this season – seventh is now his best result of the year, and he is steadily climbing up the results table, as well as the championship, for what it's worth at this stage. Marco Apicella was relieved to get four more points, Andrea Montermini couldn't care less about two, but... in tenth, finally, he's done it! It's only one point, but it's Jean-Denis Délétraz' first scoring result since the opening race of the season. And it shouldn't have happened, really – the only reason it did was because Perry McCarthy's suspension broke on the last lap, and put him two laps down instead of one, or he'd have been in ninth. As it turned out, he was classified eleventh, along with a whole load of other twice-lapped drivers. Shinji Nakano was strangely off the pace, Marko Asmer couldn't repeat his recent heroics but Simtek were having a bad day all round, Allan McNish was just happy to bring the car home in one piece, while Philippe Alliot, Gregor Foitek, Gabriele Tarquini, Joachim Winkelhock and Alex Yoong all survived to see the chequered flag. As, amazingly, did Fairuz Fauzy – a classified finisher, three laps down, in 21st.

There is not much to report for the retirements, the Viking/ATS Rial clash being the most significant. But the turbo problems which marmalised Hideki Noda's chances of a win at Monza resurfaced here on Bruno Giacomelli's car instead. Earlier on, right near the beginning of the race, Pierre-Henri Raphanel had not covered himself in glory, throwing his car into a gravel trap for no discernible reason. But even that mirthsome move does not earn Reject Of The Race. Instead, Spyker's ham-fisted attempts to get themselves a point take the award, as desperation is clearly setting in. Their Neotech V12 is capable of delivering a huge amount of power, and they know where to find it, Only problem is, their car is so fragile it can't take the power needed to propel them up the grid. Olivier Beretta's car was an ugly sight, when winched into the air, the driveshaft could clearly be seen, completely torn apart by the thromping torque of the engine that the mechanics had extracted from it. They're going to have to rely on sheer blind luck and a lot of retirements, I'd say.

DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP
Three races remain, and 75 points are still available. Drivers who can still win the Carel Godin de Beaufort Cup are shown with a star.

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1 –  * 10 Þ. Einarsson    Viking         171
2 –  * 9  J. Magnussen    Viking         122
3 –  * 15 H. Noda         Leyton House   114
4 –  * 8  Y. Ide          Super Aguri    113
5 =  * 1  C. Dagnall      F1RM           99
5 =  * 16 B. Giacomelli   Leyton House   99
7 –    11 P. Chaves       SAC            88
8 –    27 L. Badoer       Forti          80
9 –    36 M. Apicella     Dome           73
10 –   7  S. Nakano       Super Aguri    63
11 –   30 M. Asmer        Simtek         48
12 –   29 P. Belmondo     Simtek         35
13 –   3  G. Tarquini     AGS            30

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14 –   28 A. Montermini   Forti          28
15 –   22 V. Weidler      ATS Rial       24
16 –   21 J. Winkelhock   ATS Rial       22
17 =   12 P. McCarthy     SAC            18
17 =   26 P. Alliot       SPAM           18
19 =   20 E. Bertaggia    EuroBrun       16
19 =   2  J-D. Délétraz   F1RM           16
21 –   18 F. Barbazza     Monteverdi     14
22 –   4  P-H. Raphanel   AGS            8
23 –   35 E. Naspetti     Dome           4
24 =   5  R. Firman       Toleman        3
24 =   19 C. Langes       EuroBrun       3

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26 =   25 S. Sarrazin     SPAM           2
26 =   6  A. McNish       Toleman        2

CONSTRUCTORS' CHAMPIONSHIP
Three races remain, and 129 points are still available. Teams that can still win the Willi Kauhsen Cup are shown with a star.

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1 –  * Viking         293
2 –  * Leyton House   213
3 –  * Super Aguri    176
4 –    F1RM           115
5 –    Forti          108
6 –    SAC            106
7 –    Simtek         83
8 –    Dome           77
9 –    ATS Rial       46
10 –   AGS            38

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11 –   SPAM           20
12 –   EuroBrun       19
13 –   Monteverdi     14
14 –   Toleman        5

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 11 Mar 2012, 11:11

Dagnall in a tie! Can he win the tie-breaker at the next race? :shock:

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 13 Mar 2012, 15:12

Round 14: Jerez de la Frontera, Spain
Saturday, 25 October 2014

THE GRID

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1 –    27 L. Badoer       Forti          1'30.944
2 –    16 B. Giacomelli   Leyton House   1'31.289
3 –    3  G. Tarquini     AGS            1'31.448
4 –    28 A. Montermini   Forti          1'31.481
5 –    2  J-D. Délétraz   F1RM           1'31.486
6 –    10 Þ. Einarsson    Viking         1'31.489
7 –    21 J. Winkelhock   ATS Rial       1'31.786
8 –    9  J. Magnussen    Viking         1'31.826
9 –    1  C. Dagnall      F1RM           1'31.996
10 –   7  S. Nakano       Super Aguri    1'32.033
11 –   26 P. Alliot       SPAM           1'32.070
12 –   30 M. Asmer        Simtek         1'32.103
13 –   8  Y. Ide          Super Aguri    1'32.109

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14 –   15 H. Noda         Leyton House   1'32.375
15 –   35 E. Naspetti     Dome           1'32.528
16 –   22 V. Weidler      ATS Rial       1'32.808
17 –   19 C. Langes       EuroBrun       1'33.148
18 –   33 G. Foitek       Spyker         1'33.151
19 –   11 P. Chaves       SAC            1'33.570
20 –   34 O. Beretta      Spyker         1'33.698
21 –   12 P. McCarthy     SAC            1'33.959
22 –   36 M. Apicella     Dome           1'33.995
23 –   5  R. Firman       Toleman        1'34.223
24 –   6  A. McNish       Toleman        1'34.422
25 –   18 F. Barbazza     Monteverdi     1'34.654
26 –   4  P-H. Raphanel   AGS            1'34.766

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---------------- DID NOT QUALIFY ----------------
DNQ –  29 P. Belmondo     Simtek         1'34.805
DNQ –  39 F. Fauzy        GTM            1'34.973
DNQ –  20 E. Bertaggia    EuroBrun       1'35.459
DNQ –  25 S. Sarrazin     SPAM           1'35.938
DNQ –  17 O. Grouillard   Monteverdi     1'36.162
DNQ –  32 J. Villeneuve   Stefan         1'36.819
DNQ –  23 A. Yoong        Minardi        1'36.820
DNQ –  24 E. Tuero        Minardi        1'37.177
DNQ –  31 K. Nakajima     Stefan         1'37.366
DNQ –  40 R. Teixeira     GTM            1'38.431
DNQ –  37 P. Kralev       David Price    1'38.901
DNQ –  38 C. Hurni        David Price    1'40.921

Under the Spanish autumn sun, fortune favoured Forti, as Luca Badoer took advantage of a clear track and a small but light and powerful engine to take pole position by three tenths ahead of the snorting Suzuki-powered Leyton House of Bruno Giacomelli, with Gabriele Tarquini coaxing ever single morsel of speed possible from his AGS to take third. The next three places were occupied by Andrea Montermini, a resurgent Jean-Denis Délétraz, driving for his future at F1RM, and a revved-up Þorvaldur Einarsson looking to secure the drivers' title – all three were covered by only a hundredth of a second. Joachim Winkelhock took a fine seventh for ATS Rial, beating last year's title challengers, Jan Magnussen and Chris Dagnall – last year, that would have been unthinkable. Shinji Nakano and Phillippe Alliot couldn't quite crack the 1'32 barrier, but still placed themselves in the top half of the grid, as did Marko Asmer, who again outperformed what his car is considered to be capable of, and Yuji Ide, who didn't.

Hideki Noda led the second half of the grid – definitely the wrong half from the point of view of his team. He may not be driving for his future in the series, but Emanuele Napsetti is, and thrust his Dome to 15th, where on another day he might have failed to qualify yet again. Volker Weidler was 16th, ahead of another driver with a huge question mark over his future – Claudio Langes. The Italian beat Gregor Foitek by three thousandths... if only Spyker had tried their hand-grenade trick at this race? The second Spyker of Olivier Beretta was only two places behind, with a subdued Pedro Chaves between them, the SAC not working well at this circuit. Marco Apicella admitted that he was almost driving with the brakes on after the session, and just beat the 1'34 mark that many said would be the cut-off for the end of the grid; in the end, it wasn't, as the two Tolemans, Fabrizio Barbazza and Pierre-Henri Raphanel all recorded times in the 1'34s.

The end of the session saw a very unhappy Paul Belmondo, who missed the cut by four thousandths, for his second successive DNQ, as his team-mate romps away with the honours at the Simtek squad. Fairuz Fauzy again came tantalisingly close to qualifying without actually doing so, and Enrico Bertaggia fell where his team-mate didn't, not even clearing 1'35. The remainder of the grid was littered with the usual suspects; the next two were Stéphane Sarrazin, for SPAM, and the man he had replaced at the combined team, Olivier Grouillard; SPAM must have been wondering if they'd made the right decision, and maybe they should have hired Vincenzo Sospiri from DAMS after all. The last seven, to nobody's surprise, were the two Stefans, the two Minardis, Ricardo Teixeira in the other GTM, and the two David Prices, with Christophe Hurni so far off the pace you'd need binoculars to see him at the back of the field.

CLASSIFICATION

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1 –    27 L. Badoer       Forti          69   1h 51'18.904
2 –    16 B. Giacomelli   Leyton House   69   1h 51'24.297
3 –    2  J-D. Délétraz   F1RM           69   1h 51'35.327
4 –    3  G. Tarquini     AGS            69   1h 51'44.214
5 –    10 Þ. Einarsson    Viking         69   1h 52'05.172
6 –    9  J. Magnussen    Viking         69   1h 52'07.874
7 –    21 J. Winkelhock   ATS Rial       69   1h 52'11.195
8 –    1  C. Dagnall      F1RM           69   1h 52'30.122
9 –    26 P. Alliot       SPAM           69   1h 52'32.820
10 –   8  Y. Ide          Super Aguri    69   1h 52'36.024
11 –   15 H. Noda         Leyton House   69   1h 52'55.850
12 –   7  S. Nakano       Super Aguri    69   1h 52'56.330
13 –   19 C. Langes       EuroBrun       68   + 1 lap

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14 –   22 V. Weidler      ATS Rial       68   + 1 lap
15 –   35 E. Naspetti     Dome           68   + 1 lap
16 –   12 P. McCarthy     SAC            68   + 1 lap
17 –   5  R. Firman       Toleman        68   + 1 lap
18 –   4  P-H. Raphanel   AGS            67   + 2 laps
19 –   34 O. Beretta      Spyker         67   + 2 laps
20 –   36 M. Apicella     Dome           67   + 2 laps
21 –   6  A. McNish       Toleman        67   + 2 laps
22 –   28 A. Montermini   Forti          52   engine
23 –   11 P. Chaves       SAC            49   oil leak
24 –   33 G. Foitek       Spyker         23   transmission
25 –   18 F. Barbazza     Monteverdi     17   engine
26 –   30 M. Asmer        Simtek         5    suspension

Forza Forti! Finally, this year, they've done it – they've been threatening to win, only the car's reliability has let them down, but now, it was Luca Badoer's turn to stand on top of the podium, conducting the crowd in a fervent rendition of the Italian national anthem. He became the seventh race winner this season, even if one of them had been rather improbable, so if there'd ever be any doubts that this was going to be a totally predictable season – hopefully they were blown away. Bruno Giacomelli looked very pleased with himself as well, claiming another podium for Leyton House, and having chased Badoer all the way, to within six seconds of having won the race himself. And there, mending his ways at the best possible time, was Jean-Denis Délétraz, who's used to making a late-season charge – though, this time last year, he was in the middle of winning three races in a row. However, we must look further down the standings to find the man happiest with the proceedings at the podium ceremony, as well as the man with a face like a smacked arse.

Gabriele Tarquini, beaming with confidence after another performance that was hauling AGS even further out of a dreadful predicament, was not that man, because he'd been eyeing up a place on that podium. The man with a face like a smacked arse, though, was Jan Magnussen. He knew he had to finish ahead of his team-mate to keep alive his hopes of the title. Finishing sixth, on a day which hadn't really belonged to the Vikings, wasn't ideal – it netted him only eight points. But the most bitter pill to swallow? He could see his team-mate and championship arch-nemesis ahead of him at the end. Being able to overtake would have kept his title hopes alive - just. But it was not to be. How had he been beaten again? And how, this time, had the defeat come from within the same team?

Þorvaldur Einarsson was the winner of the intra-team war – and, indeed, the war against everyone. Fifth place in the race didn't get him a place on the actual podium, but he was invited out to join the three who were – by this time, he was already clutching a bottle of Odin's finest Victory Mead, a hefty dose of which was devoured up there, and some found its way all over Luca Badoer's head. The F1RMGP Series Management had really pulled out all the stops for this presentation ceremony – the Carel Godin de Beaufort Cup was presented by none other than Carel Godin de Beaufort himself, despite having been dead for 50 years – death is no longer such a hindrance with Sir Bernard Shekelslike's Hologram Projection Unit, and with a spare driver's slot going begging in the machine, Bernie thought he'd use it for a practical purpose. The celebrations were long and wild, and would go on long into the night... but one man was conspicuously absent, and one dark corner of the Viking Racing motorhome was shadowed by a deathly silence.

Outside those top six, it was almost business as usual. Joachim Winkelhock, having been leading for the first three laps after a lightning start, scored more valuable points for ATS Rial – they've cracked a half-century, which would one have been so far beyond the realms of possibility that Günther Schmidt even managed an approximation of a smile. Better still, they're grinding their diesel rivals, SPAM, into the dirt – Philippe Alliot's performance just to get two points could still be counted as heroic, as the car just isn't as good as the Audi-powered Germans. Between them – Chris Dagnall finished eighth, which is symptomatic of his title defence season, it was genuinely the best he could manage. He was seen at the front of the crowd at the podium ceremony, applauding the new champion – and assuring anyone who would listen that he will be back stronger. And someone else who will need to do so was Yuji Ide – tenth, in the last points-scoring place – his day will surely come again, though, as it needs to; Super Aguri are most likely going to be beaten by their upstart Japanese rivals this year.

Talking of those Japanese rivals, Hideki Noda couldn't score, despite finishing on the lead lap; he was considered a better driver than Giacomelli, but it's the Italian who has regularly brought home the pancetta. Shinji Nakano was the last driver not to be lapped by the charging Badoer; it seems that this was a far more competitive race than some have been, so on any other day it would most likely have been a strong double-points finish for Super Aguri... not today. Outside the lead lap were Claudio Langes, Volker Weidler and Emanuele Naspetti, all with question marks over their futures – again, on a different day, they might all have been in the points, but crucially, two of those beat their team-mates. Perry McCarthy trundled home in the sole SAC, followed by Ralph Firman; Pierre-Henri Raphanel led three other cars two laps down, those of Olivier Beretta, Marco Apicella and Allan McNish. On a day when there were very, very few rejectful performances at all, it seems harsh to award Reject Of The Race to anyone... but, almost by default, Marco Apicella takes it, just for finishing second to last in a car that has been capable of so much more over the course of the season – furthermore, he was thrashed by his underperforming team-mate by five places and a lap, and the car was rigorously checked for meat pies and other such aberrations, and was found to be clean...

Only five cars dropped out over the course of the race. The first to do so was Marko Asmer, who had, yet again, bothered the front runners, barging the Vikings and Délétraz out the way on the first lap and snapping at Bruno Giacomelli; his race was run after only five laps when his suspension shattered, leaving Simtek to wonder what might have been. Fabrizio Barbazza wasn't having a stellar afternoon as the sole Monteverdi in the race, and it was ended after 176 laps when his engine blew. Gregor Foitek was free of engine trouble this time but not from transmission troubles, Pedro Chaves sprang an oil leak which (fortunately) didn't claim any further casualties, and Andrea Montermini was well set for some respectable points when his engine gave up, sending a huge warning to Luca Badoer. Fortunately, that didn't stop the Italian getting that well-deserved first win of the year.

Talking of winning, nobody knows exactly where the Viking Racing entourage went that evening. All we do know is that some bars in downtown Jerez were visited, one of which ran up a thousand-euro tab, and Þorvaldur woke up the next morning chained to one of the orange trees with a traffic cone on his head and a bird making a nest in his racing suit... which he was still wearing, and was still covered in champagne, mead, cava, sherry, Toilet Duck, brake fluid and anything else that the whole team (bar one) had tried to drink the previous night. It is said that howls of terror in in a strange troll language woke the locals in the morning... possibly due to the extremely unfamiliar experience of seeing trees with oranges growing on them.

The Carel Godin de Beaufort Cup, on the other hand, was already safely on its way back to the trophy cabinet at Rudskogen Motorsenter.

DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP
Two races remain... but it's all over!

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1 –  * 10 Þ. Einarsson    Viking         181 - CHAMPION
2 –    9  J. Magnussen    Viking         130
3 –    16 B. Giacomelli   Leyton House   117
4 =    15 H. Noda         Leyton House   114
4 =    8  Y. Ide          Super Aguri    114
6 –    27 L. Badoer       Forti          105
7 –    1  C. Dagnall      F1RM           103
8 –    11 P. Chaves       SAC            88
9 –    36 M. Apicella     Dome           73
10 –   7  S. Nakano       Super Aguri    63
11 –   30 M. Asmer        Simtek         48
12 –   3  G. Tarquini     AGS            42
13 –   29 P. Belmondo     Simtek         35

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14 –   2  J-D. Délétraz   F1RM           31
15 =   28 A. Montermini   Forti          28
15 =   21 J. Winkelhock   ATS Rial       28
17 –   22 V. Weidler      ATS Rial       24
18 –   26 P. Alliot       SPAM           20
19 –   12 P. McCarthy     SAC            18
20 –   20 E. Bertaggia    EuroBrun       16
21 –   18 F. Barbazza     Monteverdi     14
22 –   4  P-H. Raphanel   AGS            8
23 –   35 E. Naspetti     Dome           4
24 =   5  R. Firman       Toleman        3
24 =   19 C. Langes       EuroBrun       3

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26 =   25 S. Sarrazin     SPAM           2
26 =   6  A. McNish       Toleman        2

CONSTRUCTORS' CHAMPIONSHIP
Two races remain, and 86 points are still available. Amazingly, this trophy is still up for grabs... just!

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1 –  * Viking         311
2 –  * Leyton House   231
3 –    Super Aguri    177
4 –    F1RM           134
5 –    Forti          133
6 –    SAC            106
7 –    Simtek         83
8 –    Dome           77
9 –    ATS Rial       52
10 –   AGS            50

Code: Select all

11 –   SPAM           22
12 –   EuroBrun       19
13 –   Monteverdi     14
14 –   Toleman        5

tristan1117 · Post by **tristan1117** » 15 Mar 2012, 00:23

Þorvaldur wins the championship!

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 15 Mar 2012, 00:28

tristan1117 wrote:Þorvaldur wins the championship!

That he does, and a well-deserved championship it is too.

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 15 Mar 2012, 10:23

And following this, with the Willi Kauhsen Cup still up for grabs, Sir Bernard Shekelslike would like to publicly deny any rumours that he might be taking another well-deserved holiday on an unspoiled resort in the Democratic Republic Of The Congo that is reserved for government officials, their lackeys and their honoured guests while the rest of the people in the country are told to go and insert bathplugs where the sun never shines - and that's hard in the DRC because the sun shines all night. Sir Bernard would also like to deny that he is taking Marktin Brundell with him. However, this is no reason for the rest of the rumour mill to dry up!

Sir Bernard will return from the place he's definitely not going to in due course, and by that time the F1RMGP circus will be unloaded at Suzuka and ready to finish the season. Can Leyton House pull off a stunner in the end? We will see.

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 15 Mar 2012, 10:24

Rumours are starting to float out of Italy that Alex Zanardi is looking to join the series. Can anyone confirm or deny these rumours?

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 19 Mar 2012, 23:54

Sir Bernard Shekelslike would like to publicly deny all rumours that he has been spending the last few days on the beach in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, waited on hand and foot by all President Kabila's servants. The official covering story is that he was away from the F1RMGP circus, but was staying in a caravan in Rhyl, because nobody would ever think to look for him there. Further rumours that Iron Maiden were staying in the neighbouring caravan, the huge six-berth luxury model, are not denied, because Rodney Smallwood is such a tight git he wouldn't let them upgrade to a cheap flight to the Costa Brava, even though Bruce Dickinson volunteered to fly the plane himself with Nicko McBrain as co-pilot.

Waris wrote:I forgot... does this season run in quasi-real-time in a parallel universe where it's now 2014, or is this supposed to be in the real year 2014 (so it runs in the future)?

BlindCaveSalamander wrote:Clearly this is an alternate universe where Daggers played for Scunthorpe in those years.

Sir Bernard Shekelslike would like to publicly deny all rumours that F1RMGP is run in a parallel universe, despite the almost unbelievable feat achieved by Rrrrrmmmnn Grrrrjjjjnnn that is competing in F1 and F1RMGP at the same time. He's just that good, y'see.

Wizzie wrote:Rumours are starting to float out of Italy that Alex Zanardi is looking to join the series. Can anyone confirm or deny these rumours?

Sir Bernard Shekelslike would like to publicly deny all rumours that Alex Zanardi has been in negotiations with one of the F1RMGP teams. And that he has most definitely not been extensively consulting with Dr Francesca Rimmer, F1RMGP's Chief Technology Officer, about adapting the cars with the exact same hand controls as would be used in Alex's WTCC car, or even commandeering the vacant driver's slot in the Hologram Projection Unit to build him some hard-light hologrammatic legs that would be as close to having regrown those he lost 13 years previously as is physically possible. However, the official reason why Alex Zanardi would not be competing would be that he would blow everyone into the weeds the way Michael Schumacher had a habit of doing in 2004, and we can't be having that, can we?

One rumour that is definitely not a rumour, though, comes via Marktin Brundell's Newsround...

Un-United Kingdom...
With the referendum on Scottish independence having just taken place, and with MSP Alex Salmond having used the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn to stir up a tide of Scottish Nationalism unheard of since the release of Braveheart, it is widely expected that Scotland will be allowed to secede from the UK. Anticipating this political change, the F1RMGP Series Management has decided that drivers and teams currently racing under the flag of the UK will be competing under their national flags from the 2015 season onwards. Drivers from Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories (and by that we mean Pippa Mann's season in the WEC) have already been doing so since day one.

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 23 Mar 2012, 01:23

An excitable Japanese motorsport commentator wrote:AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! CRASHUUUUUUUUUUU! CRASHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! HATTORI SHIGEAKI OUTTA!

That's right, we're in the land of ramen, geisha girls, excitable motorsport commentators, Hello Kitty and racing circuits with spectacular scenery that always seems to be shrouded with huge, grey clouds. Side-o by side-o we marchu onwardsu!

Round 15: Suzuka, Japan
Saturday, 15 November 2014

THE GRID

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1 –    9  J. Magnussen    Viking         1'52.837
2 –    10 Þ. Einarsson    Viking         1'53.879
3 –    27 L. Badoer       Forti          1'54.120
4 –    8  Y. Ide          Super Aguri    1'55.234
5 –    15 H. Noda         Leyton House   1'55.237
6 –    2  J-D. Délétraz   F1RM           1'55.312
7 –    7  S. Nakano       Super Aguri    1'55.480
8 –    21 J. Winkelhock   ATS Rial       1'55.560
9 –    28 A. Montermini   Forti          1'55.724
10 –   16 B. Giacomelli   Leyton House   1'55.757
11 –   3  G. Tarquini     AGS            1'55.827
12 –   5  R. Firman       Toleman        1'55.908
13 –   1  C. Dagnall      F1RM           1'56.268

Code: Select all

14 –   30 M. Asmer        Simtek         1'56.273
15 –   18 F. Barbazza     Monteverdi     1'56.401
16 –   12 P. McCarthy     SAC            1'56.479
17 –   29 P. Belmondo     Simtek         1'57.675
18 –   19 C. Langes       EuroBrun       1'57.870
19 –   33 G. Foitek       Spyker         1'58.074
20 –   11 P. Chaves       SAC            1'58.274
21 –   32 J. Villeneuve   Stefan         1'58.311
22 –   36 M. Apicella     Dome           1'58.514
23 –   6  A. McNish       Toleman        1'59.351
24 –   31 K. Nakajima     Stefan         1'59.471
25 –   35 E. Naspetti     Dome           1'59.502
26 –   26 P. Alliot       SPAM           1'59.505

Code: Select all

---------------- DID NOT QUALIFY ----------------
DNQ –  23 A. Yoong        Minardi        1'59.536
DNQ –  4  P-H. Raphanel   AGS            1'59.907
DNQ –  20 E. Bertaggia    EuroBrun       2'00.457
DNQ –  25 S. Sarrazin     SPAM           2'00.587
DNQ –  22 V. Weidler      ATS Rial       2'00.906
DNQ –  34 O. Beretta      Spyker         2'01.071
DNQ –  17 O. Grouillard   Monteverdi     2'01.413
DNQ –  38 C. Hurni        David Price    2'02.739
DNQ –  39 F. Fauzy        GTM            2'03.143
DNQ –  24 E. Tuero        Minardi        2'04.129
DNQ –  40 R. Teixeira     GTM            2'04.370
DNQ –  37 P. Kralev       David Price    2'05.407

The Main Series had got away with it for the whole season so far, but as if to celebrate his dad's team with a driver who bears his name winning the Driver's title last race, Thor went on holiday to Japan and very definitely took the weather with him. A gigantic stormcloud hung over the circuit for the entire practice session, and barely five minutes before qualifying, ejected its contents all over the track.

Irritatingly, this threw up very few surprises. With most of the field being careful to the point of paranoid, the grid had a strangely familiar look to it. And no, you do not read that top time wrong; Jan Magnussen was determined to show his newly-crowned champion team-mate he could still be the boss. Þorvaldur, not particularly put off by this chest-beating Danish display, took second, ahead of Luca Badoer, and two Japanese drivers in Japanese cars on home soil – Yuji Ide and Hideki Noda, who many had thought would do far better. Jean-Denis Délétraz led the charge for F1RM, after picking the right moment to set his lap, and lined up ahead of Shinji Nakano in the second Super Aguri. Joachim Winkelhock worked wonders to thread the diesel ATS Rial round the twisty circuit, given the performance of the other oil-burners, and took eighth place.Andrea Montermini, Bruno Giacomelli and Gabriele Tarquini scrapped hard for Italian honours, while Chris Dagnall was amazingly beaten for 12th by Ralph Firman in the struggling Toleman.

Into the second half of the grid, and Marko Asmer completed row seven, with Big-Haired Fab and The Black Stig just behind, followed by Paul Belmondo and Claudio Langes, who's picked up his form again... but still, what is it with only one EuroBrun ever making it out of qualifying? They really need to pick their pace up next year. Nineteenth was Gregor Foitek, in the lone Spyker, present on the grid in a last-gasp chance to get the Dutch team a point or two. Behind him was Pedro Chaves, rather subdued at the wrong end of the grid, then another driver and team absolutely desperate to score – Jacques Villeneuve for Stefan. That he beat Marco Apicella, driving for one of the home teams, as well as Kazuki Nakajima beating Emanuele Naspetti three places further down, was something of a bonus for the Serbian team. Allan McNish sandwiched himself between them. Finally, right at the back, Philippe Alliot endured a nightmare session, never getting any power out of his SPAM round those first few curves thus marmalising his lap every time, still managed to qualify...

We've really become accustomed to some of the fall guys now. Alex Yoong was frustratingly close to knocking Alliot off the timesheets, whereas serial loser Pierre-Henri Raphanel wasn't, exactly. Enrico Bertaggia again cursed the thought that he might have taken Langes' car by mistake, Stéphane Sarrazin and Volker Weidler were all at sea, almost in a literal sense, and Olivier Beretta fell victim to Spyker's desperation to get the car in a position to score, blowing his engine to smithereens after only getting a slow banker lap in. Olivier Grouillard was as much of a mobile chicane as usual, Chris Dagnall having blamed the French greaser for costing him four grid places, and as for the jokers at the back – Christophe Hurni was only fifth slowest, compounding the embarrassment of his team-mate, both GTMs and Esteban Tuero behind him.

CLASSIFICATION

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1 –    9  J. Magnussen    Viking         53   1h 44'02.342
2 –    10 Þ. Einarsson    Viking         53   1h 44'33.262
3 –    15 H. Noda         Leyton House   53   1h 45'09.350
4 –    16 B. Giacomelli   Leyton House   53   1h 45'23.034
5 –    3  G. Tarquini     AGS            53   1h 45'47.100
6 –    19 C. Langes       EuroBrun       52   + 1 lap            
7 –    5  R. Firman       Toleman        52   + 1 lap            
8 –    12 P. McCarthy     SAC            51   + 2 laps            
9 –    6  A. McNish       Toleman        50   + 3 laps            
10 –   28 A. Montermini   Forti          50   + 3 laps            
11 –   29 P. Belmondo     Simtek         46   crash            
12 –   11 P. Chaves       SAC            46   crash            
13 –   36 M. Apicella     Dome           46   engine

Code: Select all

14 –   30 M. Asmer        Simtek         44   engine
15 –   8  Y. Ide          Super Aguri    37   crash
16 –   21 J. Winkelhock   ATS Rial       36   crash
17 –   35 E. Naspetti     Dome           33   transmission
18 –   2  J-D. Délétraz   F1RM           27   suspension
19 –   33 G. Foitek       Spyker         26   puncture
20 –   31 K. Nakajima     Stefan         21   transmission
21 –   1  C. Dagnall      F1RM           19   crash
22 –   32 J. Villeneuve   Stefan         16   suspension
23 –   27 L. Badoer       Forti          16   crash
24 –   26 P. Alliot       SPAM           13   crash
25 –   7  S. Nakano       Super Aguri    11   crash
26 –   18 F. Barbazza     Monteverdi     10   oil leak

The rain lashed down on Suzuka, almost unendingly. And in the end, who should come – almost literally – sailing through the chaos, than those whose ancestors had done exactly that a thousand years back. If at a rather more sedate pace, but with storms that would make this seem like a light sprinkling. The script said it would be the race that Viking Racing won their third successive Constructors' Championship, and as had been the case in Spain, Willi Kauhsen was flown out to Japan to be the guest of honour at this race, and to present the cup that bears his name to the winning constructor. Stefan Johansson certainly left that podium ceremony with his hands full. And it was smiles all round – with Jan Magnussen having dominated the race from start to finish, his younger team-mate decided to let him have the glory this time, he having won the season-long war at Jerez, and so everyone got a taste of the Victory Mead this time round, and also a fair bit of sake. Talking of which, it had not been a vintage day for the Japanese on their home turf – for their teams, drivers or engines – but the Leyton House Suzuki Works Team held the flag high, with Hideki Noda getting on the podium to share in the Scandinavian delights. Bruno Giacomelli took fourth and looked on at the celebrations; meanwhile, Gabriele Tarquini's fifth place scored enough points to make sure AGS will definitely not be participating in next year's prequalifying lottery, which for a while, it looked like they might. Claudio Langes' sixth place for EuroBrun was met with wild celebrations, and it was enough that they have a mathematical chance of knocking ATS Rial into that lottery next year – although they will need to get a 1-2 to do so, and given their problems getting both cars into the races, it can be virtually guaranteed they won't. And so, despite not scoring any points, Günther Schmidt and the ATS Rial team partied like it was 1989 and Christian Danner had just fluked fourth place. Behind Langes, the two Tolemans kept their noses so clean that the Celtic duo (well, sort of) both scored, and moved Toleman tantalisingly close to the almost one-car team that is Monteverdi. And talking of a close race... Andrea Montermini's single point for Forti put that team level with F1RM. At the beginning of the season, it was widely predicted that one team would batter the other in the battle of the turbo-charged four-pots up the front... and after fifteen races, they are dead level. Strange, isn't it? Who will come out on top in Australia...

And with that, the ten points scorers complete the list of finishers, with the weather having put paid to quite a few of those who retired. We start the casualty list on lap 11, when Fabrizio Barbazza's engine sprang an oil leak, and by the time Barb had realised his power was dropping, the engine had vomited oil all over the track from Spoon Curve, through the 130R and almost to the Casio Chicane. Over the next ten laps, it would claim five victims – four directly, one as a side reaction. Shinji Nakano, who had jumped up to third on the first lap, was the first to perish on the spilled oil, followed two laps later by Philippe Alliot, who had had a wretched weekend so far, and this really compounded it; it also made damn near certain that SPAM would be prequalifying in 2015. Lap 17 saw a crazy move; Luca Badoer aimed to lap the Stefan of Jacques Villeneuve, deliberately drove into the oil slick to do so, crash, bang, wallop, he slid into Villeneuve, sending himself into the wall and the Canuck into retirement with suspension damage; last race's winner has just gone from hero to zero and that'll be a Reject Of The Race award for you, my son. The carnage did not stop there, as Chris Dagnall, pushing hard to scramble up the points positions, overcooked it at 130R, just where the oil was, and that was him in the gravel trap.

As for the rest of the retirements: Stefan's race was run on lap 22, as Kazuki Nakajima's driveshaft seized suddenly; both Stefans, unusually in the race, had retired through no faults of their own, but will that be enough to save their drives? Spyker are going the same way; Olivier Beretta hadn't qualified, and a puncture for Gregor Foitek, possibly from a shard of Villeneuve's suspension, threw him to the lions on lap 27. And one lap later, Jean-Denis Délétraz also found his suspension wrecked on a hard kerb, thus completing another pointless weekend for F1RM. Dome, a home team here, were going well but were undone by transmission failure for Emanuele Naspetti. Then, for some bizarre reason, two more drivers failed to heed the warning of the oil flag coming out of Spoon Curve; Joachim Winkelhock and Yuji Ide, who both ended up in the wall, Ide in particular should have known better. Marko Asmer, having a quiet afternoon after an altercation which had required a nose change, finally succumbed to engine failure on lap 45, as did Marco Apicella, who had been hoping for points on his team's home ground. Finally, a particularly rejectful crash caused by the smokescreen of Apicella's engine failure saw Pedro Chaves and Paul Belmondo collide with each other, with a lap difference between the two meaning it was Chaves who lost points.

One race remains, in which eleven drivers and five teams have their final chance to get on the scoreboard. Will they do it? The paymasters for these teams will be watching. How many of them will be finding their way into Marktin Brundell's Newsround for all the wrong reasons?

Also, can either EuroBrun or SPAM pull off the nearly-impossible and wipe the Teutonic smile off Günther Schmidt's hologrammatic face? The deficit is 25 points for the Swiss team, 30 for the French... and 43 are available. Theoretically.

DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP
One race to go, and it was all over in Jerez.

Code: Select all

1 –  * 10 Þ. Einarsson    Viking         199 - CHAMPION
2 –    9  J. Magnussen    Viking         155
3 =    16 B. Giacomelli   Leyton House   129
3 =    15 H. Noda         Leyton House   129
5 –    8  Y. Ide          Super Aguri    114
6 –    27 L. Badoer       Forti          105
7 –    1  C. Dagnall      F1RM           103
8 –    11 P. Chaves       SAC            88
9 –    36 M. Apicella     Dome           73
10 –   7  S. Nakano       Super Aguri    63

Code: Select all

11 –   3  G. Tarquini     AGS            52
12 –   30 M. Asmer        Simtek         48
13 –   29 P. Belmondo     Simtek         35
14 –   2  J-D. Délétraz   F1RM           31
15 –   28 A. Montermini   Forti          29
16 –   21 J. Winkelhock   ATS Rial       28
17 –   22 V. Weidler      ATS Rial       24
18 –   12 P. McCarthy     SAC            22
19 –   26 P. Alliot       SPAM           20
20 –   20 E. Bertaggia    EuroBrun       16

Code: Select all

21 –   18 F. Barbazza     Monteverdi     14
22 –   19 C. Langes       EuroBrun       11
23 –   5  R. Firman       Toleman        9
24 –   4  P-H. Raphanel   AGS            8
25 =   35 E. Naspetti     Dome           4
25 =   6  A. McNish       Toleman        4
27 –   25 S. Sarrazin     SPAM           2

CONSTRUCTORS' CHAMPIONSHIP
One race to go... and the trophy is presented! The most interesting other battles are for fourth (the battle of the turbo four-pots) and tenth (for the last escape from prequalifying place!)

Code: Select all

1 –    Viking         354 - CHAMPIONS
2 –    Leyton House   258
3 –    Super Aguri    177
4 =    F1RM           134
4 =    Forti          134
6 –    SAC            110
7 –    Simtek         83
8 –    Dome           77
9 –    AGS            60
10 –   ATS Rial       52

Code: Select all

11 –   EuroBrun       27
12 –   SPAM           22
13 –   Monteverdi     14
14 –   Toleman        13

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 25 Mar 2012, 11:20

The J.O.U.R.N.A.L Round-Up is back! 8-)

J.O.U.R.N.A.L wrote:Zanmai: F1RM uses 2013 Sunshine compoments
Former, disgraced Sunshine Motorsports F1RWRS Team manager, now technical advisor for Leyton House Suzuki (and allegedy manager of F2/F3RWRS Falik Arrows team), Shinji Zanmai, recently claimed that F1 Rejects Motorsports illegally used aerodynamic parts from 2013 Sunshine F1RWRS car. "F1RM's aero designs looks very close to the 2013 Sunshine car, in which I was previously worked for", said Zanmai on his Twitter account, @SZanmai. He further claims he have seen the F1RM car during the Japanese GP, seeing-through from the F1RM pit as one of the F1RM car went into pit-stop. Neither F1RM or the management have yet to comment on this issue, although a F1RM pitcrew claimed that Zanmai 'have drunk P-Minus too much'.

Melrose Racing Team to enter 2015 F1RMGP season?
Melrose Racing Team, a racing team with moderate success at F1RWRS, run by F1 and F1RWRS driver Daniel Melrose, has reportedly announced to enter 2015 F1RMGP season. They are planned to enter Gary Brabham and Alex Zanardi as their drivers. No-one at MRT have yet to comment on this.

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 26 Mar 2012, 00:56

Daniel Melrose wrote:Moderate? MODERATE!? I'll show you moderate *Lunges at journalist before being dragged away by security guards*

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 26 Mar 2012, 16:47

With the cars arriving for the season finale in Adelaide, where there is an enormous, threatening stormcloud hanging over the entire city, the Series Management reveals one small piece of news...

...that there is definitely one new team joining F1RMGP for 2015, said to be "recently involved in a major worldwide racing series where they weren't very competitive so they decided to have a crack at this one instead".

The mystery team go on to say they're not afraid of pre-qualifying, but they won't say who they are. Yet.

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 27 Mar 2012, 05:54

dinizintheoven wrote:With the cars arriving for the season finale in Adelaide, where there is an enormous, threatening stormcloud hanging over the entire city, the Series Management reveals one small piece of news...

...that there is definitely one new team joining F1RMGP for 2015, said to be "recently involved in a major worldwide racing series where they weren't very competitive so they decided to have a crack at this one instead".

The mystery team go on to say they're not afraid of pre-qualifying, but they won't say who they are. Yet.

Arrows? Melrose?

Do keep in mind that Melrose Racing Team is actually competitive enough.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 27 Mar 2012, 12:54

FMecha wrote:
dinizintheoven wrote:With the cars arriving for the season finale in Adelaide, where there is an enormous, threatening stormcloud hanging over the entire city, the Series Management reveals one small piece of news...

...that there is definitely one new team joining F1RMGP for 2015, said to be "recently involved in a major worldwide racing series where they weren't very competitive so they decided to have a crack at this one instead".

The mystery team go on to say they're not afraid of pre-qualifying, but they won't say who they are. Yet.

Arrows? Melrose?

Do keep in mind that Melrose Racing Team is actually competitive enough.

Clearly it's HRT.

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 27 Mar 2012, 16:41

Round 16: Adelaide, Australia
Saturday, 29 November 2014

THE GRID

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1 –    8  Y. Ide          Super Aguri    1'30.191
2 –    36 M. Apicella     Dome           1'30.240
3 –    10 Þ. Einarsson    Viking         1'30.279
4 –    27 L. Badoer       Forti          1'31.042
5 –    18 F. Barbazza     Monteverdi     1'31.116
6 –    26 P. Alliot       SPAM           1'31.208
7 –    1  C. Dagnall      F1RM           1'31.290
8 –    7  S. Nakano       Super Aguri    1'31.295
9 –    11 P. Chaves       SAC            1'31.389
10 –   15 H. Noda         Leyton House   1'31.509
11 –   16 B. Giacomelli   Leyton House   1'31.542
12 –   33 G. Foitek       Spyker         1'31.681
13 –   12 P. McCarthy     SAC            1'31.805

Code: Select all

14 –   32 J. Villeneuve   Stefan         1'31.941
15 –   20 E. Bertaggia    EuroBrun       1'32.185
16 –   28 A. Montermini   Forti          1'32.481
17 –   9  J. Magnussen    Viking         1'32.523
18 –   34 O. Beretta      Spyker         1'32.743
19 –   19 C. Langes       EuroBrun       1'32.824
20 –   2  J-D. Délétraz   F1RM           1'32.871
21 –   30 M. Asmer        Simtek         1'33.454
22 –   3  G. Tarquini     AGS            1'33.464
23 –   21 J. Winkelhock   ATS Rial       1'34.022
24 –   5  R. Firman       Toleman        1'34.185
25 –   35 E. Naspetti     Dome           1'34.403
26 –   29 P. Belmondo     Simtek         1'34.440

Code: Select all

---------------- DID NOT QUALIFY ----------------
DNQ –  4  P-H. Raphanel   AGS            1'34.535
DNQ –  6  A. McNish       Toleman        1'34.571
DNQ –  22 V. Weidler      ATS Rial       1'34.574
DNQ –  25 S. Sarrazin     SPAM           1'35.035
DNQ –  17 O. Grouillard   Monteverdi     1'35.330
DNQ –  37 P. Kralev       David Price    1'35.385
DNQ –  38 C. Hurni        David Price    1'35.726
DNQ –  23 A. Yoong        Minardi        1'35.934
DNQ –  24 E. Tuero        Minardi        1'36.487
DNQ –  39 F. Fauzy        GTM            1'36.533
DNQ –  31 K. Nakajima     Stefan         1'36.816
DNQ –  40 R. Teixeira     GTM            1'37.455

One final qualifying session, and that means one final chance for a pole before the well-earned winter downtime – or summer, as they'd call it here. The spring rain fell on Adelaide before the Friday session, easing enough to have a dry line starting to form – before there was more rain that caught out several of the bigger names and gave some of those rear-midfield teams, and some of the backmarkers, a chance to shine.

Not caught out in any way was Yuji Ide, who thundered to pole just at the right time, and accompanying him, with a truly superb lap that on any other day would have taken that pole, was his old team-mate, Marco Apicella. There always was speed in that Dome... if only there had been two capable drivers to take advantage of it. Þorvaldur Einarsson kept watch from the second row, the third of the drivers to shatter the 1'31 barrier. Luca Badoer was the first not to do so, but fourth was still a highly respectable effort. On row three, though, came two monumental performances; Fabrizio Barbazza for Monteverdi, and Philippe Alliot for SPAM, both utterly out-performing their cars, although the rain certainly helped. Row four was occupied by Chris Dagnall, saying goodbye to a trying season, and Shinji Nakano, slightly overshadowed by his charging team-mate. Pedro Chaves took ninth for SAC ahead of the two Leyton Houses, unable to use all their power on the slippery surface of this tight street circuit. Gregor Foitek, in 12th, was another one of those who benefited from the weather, hauling his Spyker to a grid slot it hardly deserves to be, and beat Perry McCarthy for good measure.

Starting the second half of the grid, incredibly, was Jacques Villeneuve in the reticent Stefan; that, again, is what unpredictable weather can do, especially seeing who ended up behind him. Enrico Bertaggia couldn't break the 1'32 barrier, and neither could two very large scalps – Andrea Montermini, for Forti, and Jan Magnussen, for Viking – all the way down in 16th and 17th. Neither driver thought to put in a banker lap before the clouds descended again and paid the price for it. Olivier Beretta couldn't repeat his team-mate's magic, but at least beat Claudio Langes – hey, look, two EuroBruns in the race! That's novel. Behind him, in 20th, was Jean-Denis Délétraz; what he was doing was going out for his hot lap at exactly the wrong time. Down in the 1'33s, Marko Asmer had an equally difficult afternoon, as did Gabriele Tarquini, and qualifying by the skin of their teeth in the 1'34 bracket were Joachim Winkelhock, Ralph Firman, Emanuele Naspetti – in a car that was good enough for the front row, remember – and Paul Belmondo.

There really is a horribly familiar look about the DNQs, many of which contain candidates for both Deadbeat Team-Mate Of The Year and Reject Of The Year. Pierre-Henri Raphanel, Stéphane Sarrazin and Olivier Grouillard would certainly all qualify for the first of those awards, Sarrazin getting a particular beating this time because his non-qualification now means it is impossible for SPAM to escape pre-qualifying next year, short of some of the larger teams going to the wall. Allan McNish and Volker Weidler, despite not exactly shining and also missing the cut here, can probably consider themselves to have escaped DBTMOTY nomination, the Toleman car having been a bit of a shocker for most of the year, and the Audi diesel having catapulted ATS Rial out of next year's pre-qualifying lottery, and it's been about a half-and-half effort points-wise. Meanwhile, in the lower half of the DNQs, who would possibly be surprised here? Maybe to find that the David Prices were first and second out of the "bottom seven", beating both Minardis, both GTMs and Kazuki Nakajima... but at this end of the timesheets, it's all for pride, or maybe avoiding the dishonour of the wooden spoon. Today, it's Ricardo Teixeira's turn. But at least he managed to get into one race this year... Christophe Hurni has gone through the whole season without ever doing so, and that includes the Grand Reversal where he had a Viking at his disposal.

CLASSIFICATION

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1 –    15 H. Noda         Leyton House   81   2h 07'48.426
2 –    26 P. Alliot       SPAM           81   2h 07'51.640
3 –    9  J. Magnussen    Viking         81   2h 07'59.085
4 –    7  S. Nakano       Super Aguri    80   + 1 lap (DNF, engine)
5 –    36 M. Apicella     Dome           80   + 1 lap (DNF, electrical)
6 –    10 Þ. Einarsson    Viking         80   + 1 lap (DNF, electrical)
7 –    1  C. Dagnall      F1RM           80   + 1 lap
8 –    20 E. Bertaggia    EuroBrun       80   + 1 lap
9 –    33 G. Foitek       Spyker         80   + 1 lap
10 –   18 F. Barbazza     Monteverdi     80   + 1 lap
11 –   11 P. Chaves       SAC            80   + 1 lap
12 –   30 M. Asmer        Simtek         80   + 1 lap
13 –   12 P. McCarthy     SAC            80   + 1 lap

Code: Select all

14 –   3  G. Tarquini     AGS            80   + 1 lap
15 –   27 L. Badoer       Forti          79   + 2 laps (DNF, electrical)
16 –   2  J-D. Délétraz   F1RM           79   + 2 laps
17 –   19 C. Langes       EuroBrun       79   + 2 laps
18 –   34 O. Beretta      Spyker         79   + 2 laps
19 –   29 P. Belmondo     Simtek         79   + 2 laps
20 –   28 A. Montermini   Forti          79   + 2 laps
21 –   21 J. Winkelhock   ATS Rial       79   + 2 laps
22 –   16 B. Giacomelli   Leyton House   73   + 8 laps (DNF, turbo)
23 –   35 E. Naspetti     Dome           58   crash
24 –   32 J. Villeneuve   Stefan         54   transmission
25 –   5  R. Firman       Toleman        42   suspension
26 –   8  Y. Ide          Super Aguri    7    transmission

So, a very moist season finale, even if it wasn't quite in the same league as previous F1 visits to Adelaide in 1989 and 1991, and with considerably less carnage.

As it always seems to be, the results do not tell the story of the race. Hideki Noda, as it would turn out, took his second win of the season... but it should, by all rights, have been a different Japanese victory. Shinji Nakano had made a lightning start from eighth on the grid, to hack his way through to second behind Yuji Ide at the end of the first lap; when Ide's transmission broke after only seven laps, leaving the lead Super Aguri driver as frustrated as he has been on seven occasions this year now, Nakano inherited the lead. He kept it for the whole race, leaving the rest of the field for dead. But it all had to come undone, on the last lap, as the tell-tale blast of a cloud of blue smoke showed that his engine had screamed enough. Nakano beat his fists on the steering wheel as Noda rocketed past the stricken Super Aguri to save Japanese honour for the day – but even that could so easily have changed. Philippe Alliot, having had an unusually strong qualifying, threw everything he could at the Leyton House, ending up just over three seconds adrift of an amazing first win for SPAM – they've had a torrid season, though not quite as much as 2011-12 when the old Prost team was genuinely hopeless. The boost for the team was amazing, the result lifting Alliot six places in the Drivers' Championship at the last gasp, and SPAM up to eleventh in the Constructors' table – though that would not see them out of the pre-qualifying horrors for 2015. And also on the podium was Jan Magnussen, who had fluked it. He had been out-driven by both cars ahead of him, Shinji Nakano, and several others – all of whom perished in the final stages. Bruno Giacomelli had been the first of those, with eight laps to go his turbo had blown, so he remained the last classified finisher. Luca Badoer was plagued by electrical gremlins and was classified two laps down, and the same problem struck Marco Apicella and Þorvaldur Einarsson, who'd been eyeing up the podium themselves. All three put the blame squarely at the wet track, though some suggested the meat pie monster may have been nibbling on the wires... anyway, Nakano was finally classified fourth, little compensation for losing the win, Apicella was fifth which jumped Dome ahead of Simtek in the final table, and the Thundergod's sixth position meant he cracked 200 points for the season.

Genuinely a lap down were Chris Dagnall, unable to find enough grip on the wet track with his underpowered engine threatening to spit him off the track several times during the race, Enrico Bertaggia took eighth to celebrate a return to the grid after five successive DNQs, Gregor Foitek kept his car on the island and all the pieces of the fragile chassis intact to take ninth place, two points and finally score for Spyker at the final attempt for the season, and Fabrizio Barbazza trundled in a forlorn tenth after being mugged at the start – his race never really recovered. Pedro Chaves, Marko Asmer and Perry McCarthy all failed to score, the SAC and Simtek teams having a bizarrely uncompetitive weekend, and Gabriele Tarquini was left to round out the once-lapped cars. Luca Badoer, as mentioned, was the first to be two laps down with his electrical problems, but Jean-Denis Délétraz had no such excuse – F1RM's setup may have been a bit dodgy, but he should not have been this slow. Claudio Langes, Olivier Beretta and Paul Belmondo were all also down in the dumps, but none quite so much as Andrea Montermini – the only Forti to finish, but two laps down and 20th? That he was as much help to his team-mate as Délétraz was for Daggers counts just as much against him, and as Badoer was sidelined at the end with electrical gremlins, thus losing them the season-long battle with F1RM for four-pot turbo supremacy, that gets Forti a Reject Of The Race award, only one race after Luca Badoer took it outright. There are things to be thought of at the Brazilian team over the winter, which will be summer in parts of Brazil and no particular season in the rest of it.

As for the rest: Joachim Winkelhock was the last of the finishers, two laps down, although Bruno Giacomelli was still classified eight laps behind with his turbo problems. Yuji Ide had been the first retirement, his transmission giving up the ghost early, which meant the glory should have been handed to Nakano, but ultimately wasn't; Super Aguri's SA14 chassis escaped the ROTR award only because the team were secure in third place for the championship. Ralph Firman was going well until his suspension failed after 42 laps, Jacques Villeneuve's chronically unreliable Stefan once again could not get to the finish, on one of its few attempts to do so, and Emanuele Naspetti was the only driver to crash out of the race on the wet track.

So it's all over for another season. Awards will be handed out, and the nominations will follow shortly. Until then, the Series Management leaves F1RMGP fans in the capable(ish) hands of the journalists who will undoubtedly get the Silly Season going all the way through the winter.

Before we go, though...

Honours are settled in the final tables in favour of:

- Hideki Noda finishes ahead of Bruno Giacomelli in the inter-Leyton House battle.
- Chris Dagnall and F1RM ahead of Luca Badoer and Forti; it was predicted that one team would absolutely crush the other, but in the end, both teams were level going into this race, and it's come down to a difference of six points.
- Dome jumped Simtek for seventh at the last gasp, despite Marko Asmer's brilliant win earlier in the season.
- Philippe Alliot jumped from 19th to 13th in one race, and SPAM moved up to 11th in the Constructors' table... but they'll be pre-qualifying next year. Diesel rivals ATS Rial won't.
- Gregor Foitek and Spyker scored at the last possible moment, to get 15 teams on the scoreboard! Formula One can't match that...

DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP: FINAL STANDINGS

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1 –  * 10 Þ. Einarsson    Viking         207 - CHAMPION
2 –    9  J. Magnussen    Viking         170
3 –    15 H. Noda         Leyton House   154
4 –    16 B. Giacomelli   Leyton House   129
5 –    8  Y. Ide          Super Aguri    114
6 –    1  C. Dagnall      F1RM           109
7 –    27 L. Badoer       Forti          105
8 –    11 P. Chaves       SAC            88
9 –    36 M. Apicella     Dome           83
10 –   7  S. Nakano       Super Aguri    75

Code: Select all

11 –   3  G. Tarquini     AGS            52
12 –   30 M. Asmer        Simtek         48
13 –   26 P. Alliot       SPAM           38
14 –   29 P. Belmondo     Simtek         35
15 –   2  J-D. Délétraz   F1RM           31
16 –   28 A. Montermini   Forti          29
17 –   21 J. Winkelhock   ATS Rial       28
18 –   22 V. Weidler      ATS Rial       24
19 –   12 P. McCarthy     SAC            22
20 –   20 E. Bertaggia    EuroBrun       20

Code: Select all

21 –   18 F. Barbazza     Monteverdi     15
22 –   19 C. Langes       EuroBrun       11
23 –   5  R. Firman       Toleman        9
24 –   4  P-H. Raphanel   AGS            8
25 –   6  A. McNish       Toleman        4 (4 × DNQ)
26 –   35 E. Naspetti     Dome           4 (7 × DNQ)
27 –   33 G. Foitek       Spyker         2 (4 × DNQ)
28 –   25 S. Sarrazin     SPAM           2 (11 × DNQ)
-----------------------------------------------------

Code: Select all

NC –   34 O. Beretta      Spyker         0 (4 × DNQ)
NC –   32 J. Villeneuve   Stefan         0 (9 × DNQ)
NC –   24 E. Tuero        Minardi        0 (11 × DNQ, 11th × 1)
NC –   23 A. Yoong        Minardi        0 (11 × DNQ, 12th × 1)
NC –   17 O. Grouillard   Monteverdi     0 (13 × DNQ, 13th × 1)
NC –   39 F. Fauzy        GTM            0 (13 × DNQ, 14th × 1)
NC –   31 K. Nakajima     Stefan         0 (13 × DNQ, 20th × 1)
NC –   37 P. Kralev       David Price    0 (15 × DNQ, DNF × 1)
NC –   40 R. Teixeira     GTM            0 (15 × DNQ, DNF × 1)
NC –   38 C. Hurni        David Price    0 (16 × DNQ)

DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP: STATISTICS

Most wins: Þorvaldur Einarsson (5)
Most podiums: Þorvaldur Einarsson and Hideki Noda (7)
Number of winners: 8 (the top seven, and Marko Asmer)
Number of podium scorers: 14 (the top thirteen, and Jean-Denis Délétraz)
Highest ranked driver without a win: Pedro Chaves (8th, one 2nd)
Lowest ranked driver with a win: Marko Asmer (12th)
Highest ranked driver without a podium: Paul Belmondo (14th)
Lowest ranked driver with a podium: Jean-Denis Délétraz (15th)
Number of drivers with at least one DNQ: 24
Highest ranked driver with a DNQ: Marco Apicella (9th)
Lowest ranked driver with no DNQs: Fabrizio Barbazza (21st)
Most DNQs for a driver on the scoreboard: Stéphane Sarrazin (11)
Most DNQs: Christophe Hurni, obviously... (16)
Highest ranked driver who is still a reject: Volker Weidler (18th, one 5th so far)
Lowest ranked driver who is unrejectified: Allan McNish (25th, unrejectified Britain 2013)

CONSTRUCTORS' CHAMPIONSHIP: FINAL STANDINGS

Code: Select all

1 –  * Viking         377 - CHAMPIONS
2 –    Leyton House   283
3 –    Super Aguri    189
4 -    F1RM           140
5 -    Forti          134
6 –    SAC            110
7 –    Dome           87
8 –    Simtek         83
9 –    AGS            60
10 –   ATS Rial       52

Code: Select all

11 –   SPAM           40
12 –   EuroBrun       31
13 –   Monteverdi     15
14 –   Toleman        13
15 –   Spyker         2
--------------------------------------------
NC –   Minardi        0 (22 × DNQ, 11th × 1)
NC –   Stefan         0 (22 × DNQ, 12th × 1)
NC –   GTM            0 (28 × DNQ)
NC –   David Price    0 (31 × DNQ)

CONSTRUCTORS' CHAMPIONSHIP: STATISTICS

Most wins: Viking (8)
Most podiums: Viking (13)
Number of winning teams: 6 (the top five, and Simtek)
Highest ranked team without a win: SAC (6th, one 2nd)
Lowest ranked team with a win: Simtek (8th)
Highest ranked team without a podium: ATS Rial (10th, two 5ths)
Lowest ranked team with a podium: SPAM (11th, one 2nd)
Number of teams with at least one DNQ: 14 (all but the top five)
Highest ranked team with a DNQ: SAC (6th)
Lowest ranked team with no DNQs: Forti (5th)
Most DNQs for a team on the scoreboard: EuroBrun (17)
Most DNQs: David Price (31)

UNREJECTIFIED DRIVERS: THE COMPLETE COLLECTORS' EDITION

2014 drivers:
Yuji Ide (Monaco 2011)
Jean-Denis Délétraz (Canada 2011)
Fabrizio Barbazza (Brazil 2012)
Marco Apicella (Brazil 2012)
Jan Magnussen (San Marino 2012)
Chris Dagnall (San Marino 2012)
Paul Belmondo (Monaco 2012)
Þorvaldur Einarsson (Mexico 2012)
Gabriele Tarquini (Italy 2012)
Pedro Chaves (Japan 2012)
Luca Badoer (USA 2013)
Philippe Alliot (Monaco 2013)
Ralph Firman (Monaco 2013)
Andrea Montermini (Canada 2013)
Perry McCarthy (Britain 2013)
Allan McNish (Britain 2013)
Claudio Langes (Hungary 2013)
Hideki Noda (Mexico 2014)
Shinji Nakano (Mexico 2014)
Bruno Giacomelli (San Marino 2014)
Enrico Bertaggia (Andorra 2014)
Joachim Winkelhock (France 2014)
Marko Asmer (Hungary 2014)

Past drivers:
Gilles Villeneuve (entered 2011; USA 2011)
Michael Andretti (entered 2011-2012; USA 2011)
James Hunt (entered 2011; USA 2011)
Scott Speed (entered 2011-2013; USA 2011)
HWNSNBM (entered 2011-2012; Brazil 2011)
Slim Borgudd (entered 2011; Brazil 2011)
Taki Inoue (entered 2011-2013; San Marino 2011)
Nelson Piquet Jr. (entered 2011; Mexico 2011)
Rrrrrmmmnn Grrrrjjjjnnn (entered 2012; USA 2012)
Pedro Diniz (entered 2012; USA 2012)

Drivers with scores counting towards unrejectification:
Volker Weidler (one 5th)
Ralf Schumacher (entered 2011; two 6ths)
Pierre-Henri Raphanel (one 6th)
Gregor Foitek (one 6th)

Shizuka · Post by **Shizuka** » 28 Mar 2012, 06:58

That was a brilliant season!
I found a mistake though: you repeated the drivers' most podium part at the constructors section.

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 28 Mar 2012, 07:02

BlindCaveSalamander wrote:
FMecha wrote:
dinizintheoven wrote:With the cars arriving for the season finale in Adelaide, where there is an enormous, threatening stormcloud hanging over the entire city, the Series Management reveals one small piece of news...

...that there is definitely one new team joining F1RMGP for 2015, said to be "recently involved in a major worldwide racing series where they weren't very competitive so they decided to have a crack at this one instead".

The mystery team go on to say they're not afraid of pre-qualifying, but they won't say who they are. Yet.

Arrows? Melrose?

Do keep in mind that Melrose Racing Team is actually competitive enough.

Clearly it's HRT.

My money's on Marussia :mrgreen:

tristan1117 · Post by **tristan1117** » 28 Mar 2012, 10:17

We should have a Reject of the Race tally like tjc3r's one in the HWNSNBM forum. If I have time to compile it, I will.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 28 Mar 2012, 11:04

FMecha wrote:
dinizintheoven wrote:With the cars arriving for the season finale in Adelaide, where there is an enormous, threatening stormcloud hanging over the entire city, the Series Management reveals one small piece of news...

...that there is definitely one new team joining F1RMGP for 2015, said to be "recently involved in a major worldwide racing series where they weren't very competitive so they decided to have a crack at this one instead".

The mystery team go on to say they're not afraid of pre-qualifying, but they won't say who they are. Yet.

Arrows? Melrose?

Do keep in mind that Melrose Racing Team is actually competitive enough.

Dragon Racing Lotus!?!

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 28 Mar 2012, 22:39

Shizuka wrote:That was a brilliant season!

If only more people would say so as the season is going along, as has been the case before...

I found a mistake though: you repeated the drivers' most podium part at the constructors section.

Bum. The Series Management would like to make it known that the person responsible for sacking those who make mistakes and did not do so, has been sacked. The mistake has been personally corrected by Sir Bernard Shekelslike using ink made from dried elderberries mixed with the tears of squirrels.

tristan1117 wrote:We should have a Reject of the Race tally like tjc3r's one in the HWNSNBM forum. If I have time to compile it, I will.

I don't think there were ROTR awards in the 2011 season, but check just in case - although there was ROTY, because Kazuki Nakajima won it by a country mile. There are definitely ROTRs for the whole of the 2012-14 seasons, but I don't think there was ROTY for 2013.

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 29 Mar 2012, 09:33

J.O.U.R.N.A.L wrote:Normally-aspirated teams want turbo ban

Recently, major teams running normally-aspirated engines, featuring the likes of Super Aguri and Andrea-Coloni, has called for a ban on turbocharged engines, as well as supercharged ones, by 2015 or 2016. Both teams claimed that turbos and superchargers made disadvantage to normally-aspirated teams (Super Aguri reportedly had 80-point gap against Leyton House who ran turbo engines while most of the other normally-aspirated teams are stuck outside top 5). The so-called Association For F1RMGP Teams Running Normally Aspirated Engines (AFFTRNAE), set-up at the end of the Australian GP and backed by all naturally-aspirated teams (Super Aguri, Andrea-Coloni, AGS, Toleman, Onyx, Dome, EuroBrun, Simtek, Stefan, Spyker, and David Price Racing) has been set-up to propagate the ban on turbos and superchargers by 2015 or 2016 through a petition to the management. The management have yet to answer on this.

Yet another F1RWRS team attempting for F1RMGP?

After the rumours about Melrose Racing Team, there's another RWRS team that reportedly attempted to enter F1RMGP: Shonan Racing, one of the most rejectful teams ever in F1RWRS, has reportedly revealed themselves via their Twitter account that they are the mysterious team appearing in the 2014 F1RMGP Australian Grand Prix. A confirmation from the management has yet to be confirmed.

Other teams that claim as the mysterious team in the last race [they actually just submitted their application form for the next year's teams bid - see For the record article] are Arrows, Aston Martin, Daihatsu, Hispania Racing, Marrusia-Virgin, Mitie Aviation, Melrose Racing Team, Midland Racing, Phoenix F1, Prodrive, Sunshine Motorsports, Team Wales*, Trojan Racing, and Zakspeed. But remember, only time will tell who is the mysterious team is actually really.

(For clarification, Team Wales is the BATracer's Ferrari after legal issue with them

)

And...

J.O.U.R.N.A.L wrote:For the record...
...most the teams we named in the yesterday's article [above] actually did not claim as the mysterious team in the Australian Grand Prix. They actually just submitted entry form for the 'new team[s] bid' for 2015 to the F1RMGP management, most of them very silently. We just leaked the names of the teams bidding for 2015 team spot.

Which team you want to see in F1RMGP next year? Send a letter to the editor or comment in our website/Twitter page and we will put up your hopes!

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 29 Mar 2012, 10:20

Unconfirmed rumours coming from South-East Asia suggest that the mysterious new team might be the former A1 Team Korea, with Kim Jong-Un as driver.

Almost concurrently, another press release emerged from Southern Europe:

A1 Team Greece Seeking to join F1RMGP 2015

Why is Europe like a frying pan?

Because it has Greece at the bottom!

However, many media commetators have already stated that neither statement of intent is to be taken seriously, the former because of the historic tensions between North and South Korea (depite their statement stating that this project is to try to paper over the cracks and start to work on a joint recovery programme), while the latter country's financial plight of recent years are well-recorded.

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 29 Mar 2012, 10:33

dr-baker wrote:
A1 Team Greece Seeking to join F1RMGP 2015

Why is Europe like a frying pan?

Because it has Greece at the bottom!

Oh boy...

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 29 Mar 2012, 10:43

DanielPT wrote:
dr-baker wrote:
A1 Team Greece Seeking to join F1RMGP 2015

Why is Europe like a frying pan?

Because it has Greece at the bottom!

Oh boy...

A1 GP team Greece was run by Arena Motorsport, they currently owned by Mike Earl, of Onyx fame. They even operate from the same base as the old Onyx team. Arena ran Max Chilton in British F3 and scored 0 points, also ran A1 GP team India and led Narain Karthikeyan to two wins.
They also ran in partnership with Audi sport UK an Audi R8 in Le Mans with, of all people, Perry McCarthy behind the wheel, alongside Mika Salo and Frank Biela. They completed only 28 laps.

Now Arena plug around near the back of the WTCC in Ford Focuses. I support this team for F1RMGP!

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 29 Mar 2012, 11:36

Shadaza wrote:
DanielPT wrote:
dr-baker wrote:A1 Team Greece Seeking to join F1RMGP 2015

Why is Europe like a frying pan?

Because it has Greece at the bottom!

Oh boy...

A1 GP team Greece was run by Arena Motorsport, they currently owned by Mike Earl, of Onyx fame. They even operate from the same base as the old Onyx team. Arena ran Max Chilton in British F3 and scored 0 points, also ran A1 GP team India and led Narain Karthikeyan to two wins.
They also ran in partnership with Audi sport UK an Audi R8 in Le Mans with, of all people, Perry McCarthy behind the wheel, alongside Mika Salo and Frank Biela. They completed only 28 laps.

Now Arena plug around near the front of the BTCC in Ford Focuses. I support this team for F1RMGP!

There you go. The perfect team. Then the joke could be:

Why is F1RMGP like a frying pan?
Because it has Greece at the bottom!

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 29 Mar 2012, 20:11

Go Greece lightning!

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 01 Apr 2012, 15:41

SERIOUS REAL-LIFE INTERVENTION:

The F1RMGP 2014 season took three months to finish, a lot longer than I thought it would, and was rather rushed into starting due to (a) the fervour that the 2013 season generated and (b) the need to give the forum something to take their collective minds off F1 Deprivation™. I get the idea that it backfired... slightly. Maybe the reduced activity this time round was because SuperAguri wasn't constantly bombarding the thread with vicious rumours from Autosport, and because BlindCaveSalamander's Some Publication ceased publication for a while, or maybe it was because interest in this forum increased when the F1 season is on. Either way, something tells me I should take a break from this series - and keep it, say, three months on, three months off - I need that "off" time to get other projects done. (That, and I also need a template for the 2015 cars which I don't have...) The "off" time may, however, include F1RMGP-related series and events which other forumites can participate in, with one in development right now which I'll announce very shortly. As will there be a poll for Reject Of The Year, which really needs to be decided this time.

Other than that, feel free to announce Silly Season rumours, which Marktin Brundell will analyse on an approximately weekly basis. We start, though, with something completely official...

The Silly Season starts already: Hispania Racing join F1RMGP for 2015

Formula One's legendary modern-day rejects, HRT, have left a paper trail of rejectfulness behind them since their inception. Never quite getting the car ready before the season started, the early-season DNQs, two changes of management in as many years, the recruitment of Sakon Yamamoto and Narain Karthikeyan... they have everything going for them to be immortalised as forever hopeless. However, they've left a few people rather hacked off in the past, not least the former owners, Adrián Campos (from the team's inception as Campos Meta) and José Ramon Carabante (from the second incarnation, and the first to race, as Hispania). Campos and Carabante have unfinished business, and declared their intention to run as Hispania Racing in F1RMGP, and do what HRT are spectacularly failing to do - move up the grid. To avoid conflict with the F1 team, the car for next season will be known as the CH115 (short for Campos-Hispania).

Nothing else has been confirmed, but strong rumour has it that the VW Group will be supplying the same diesel engines currently powering ATS Rial, only these will be badged as SEATs. Should this turn out to be true, Peugeot are likely to increase their engine supply to two teams. Hispania have also yet to comment on their driver choice, but should take into consideration that this is a series where the driver can make all the difference; witness what Jan Magnussen did in a David Price in The Grand Reversal...

...and the first driver change is announced

Bruno Giacomelli has decided to retire from F1RMGP with immediate effect, citing that it is best to go out on a high.

Giacomelli spent three seasons with Life Racing Engines, with ever decreasing results; despite qualifying for every race in 2011, he had only one points finish, seventh in Hungary. 2012 started with tenth in the United States, but that would be his final point as the team spiralled downwards towards nine DNQs in the remaining 15 races, and 2013 was an unmitigated disaster, the Life being the worst car in the field (déjà vu or what?), qualifying only for the French race where Giacomelli finished 18th; team-mate Gary Brabham would not make the grid at all that year. A lifeline came in the form of Suzuki's determination to crowbar their way into F1RMGP, using a Life L213 chassis to test their V6 turbo engine, and recruiting Giacomelli to drive it; when the engine manufacturer finally teamed up with Akira Akagi to bring Leyton House to the grid, Giacomelli's reward was a race drive in one of the cars, which he took with relish, and scored a win at Silverstone plus two other second places. That was enough to avenge the demons of his time with Life in both F1 and F1RMGP, and prove what he was worth.

Leyton House, not wanting to be stuck with the problem of trying to fill the second seat the way they landed themselves with for their inaugural season, immediately offered Fabrizio Barbazza the drive alongside Hideki Noda, knowing full well what he could do when given a decent car - witness the way he stitched up the entire field at the Grand Reversal when driving a Forti, and also that he never failed to qualify his Monteverdi that, this season just gone, was a very poor car. The big-haired Italian thought about the offer for all of five seconds, and accepted. Suzuki, of course, are going nowhere, so we have our first complete entry for the 2015 season.

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 01 Apr 2012, 16:18

dinizintheoven wrote:...Maybe the reduced activity this time round was because SuperAguri wasn't constantly bombarding the thread with vicious rumours from Autosport, and because BlindCaveSalamander's Some Publication ceased publication for a while...

Yea but I now owns and already ran the new rumor machine: J.O.U.R.N.A.L! :lol:

Speaking of which, how's with the bid document leakage? With HRT being confirmed (but not yet accepted), how with the others?

And how with the turbo ban petition?

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 01 Apr 2012, 16:22

Gary Brabham to join the F1RM?
According to recent reports the 2013 F1RMGP champion Chris Dagnall is dissatisfied with the car and the team last season and is now looking for a more competitive team. Although we cannot confirm this at this time, we can say that Life driver Gary Brabham has been named as the suitable contender to replace Dagnall if necessary. Neither Dagnall, Brabham or anyone from Life or the F1RM were available to comment.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 01 Apr 2012, 19:17

Yeah, sorry I haven't been able to come up with any new Some Publication articles, been overworked with coursework. Good news is I only have a couple more to hand in, and a couple of exams before my course is finished, so I should be able to make a triumphant (or not) comeback next season.

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 01 Apr 2012, 20:27

Marktin Brundell's Newsround

Right! Time to comb through all the rumours that have already spread like a rash through the end of the season...

FMecha wrote:Yea but I now owns and already ran the new rumor machine: J.O.U.R.N.A.L!

One thing the editors of J.O.U.R.N.A.L. could provide us with is what the U stands for in the acronym. "Journal Of Rejectful Named Autoracing Leagues" would be J.O.R.N.A.L. for short. Maybe the other motorsport publications can speculate wildly on where the U went to?

Speaking of which, how's with the bid document leakage? With HRT being confirmed (but not yet accepted), how with the others? And how with the turbo ban petition?

J.O.U.R.N.A.L wrote:Normally-aspirated teams want turbo ban
Recently, major teams running normally-aspirated engines, featuring the likes of Super Aguri and Andrea-Coloni, has called for a ban on turbocharged engines, as well as supercharged ones, by 2015 or 2016. Both teams claimed that turbos and superchargers made disadvantage to normally-aspirated teams (Super Aguri reportedly had 80-point gap against Leyton House who ran turbo engines while most of the other normally-aspirated teams are stuck outside top 5). The so-called Association For F1RMGP Teams Running Normally Aspirated Engines (AFFTRNAE), set-up at the end of the Australian GP and backed by all naturally-aspirated teams (Super Aguri, Andrea-Coloni, AGS, Toleman, Onyx, Dome, EuroBrun, Simtek, Stefan, Spyker, and David Price Racing) has been set-up to propagate the ban on turbos and superchargers by 2015 or 2016 through a petition to the management. The management have yet to answer on this.[/size]

More - much more - on this, later in the Silly Season, for definite. But nothing can be revealed yet.

J.O.U.R.N.A.L wrote:Yet another F1RWRS team attempting for F1RMGP?
After the rumours about Melrose Racing Team, there's another RWRS team that reportedly attempted to enter F1RMGP: Shonan Racing, one of the most rejectful teams ever in F1RWRS, has reportedly revealed themselves via their Twitter account that they are the mysterious team appearing in the 2014 F1RMGP Australian Grand Prix. A confirmation from the management has yet to be confirmed.
Other teams that claim as the mysterious team in the last race [they actually just submitted their application form for the next year's teams bid - see For the record article] are Arrows, Aston Martin, Daihatsu, Hispania Racing, Marrusia-Virgin, Mitie Aviation, Melrose Racing Team, Midland Racing, Phoenix F1, Prodrive, Sunshine Motorsports, Team Wales*, Trojan Racing, and Zakspeed. But remember, only time will tell who is the mysterious team is actually really.

All these prospective teams should be very scared of next year's pre-qualifying sessions. Hispania Racing, already confirmed for next season, have already said they're not scared, even though they should be - the VW/Audi/SEAT diesel is no guarantee of success, as ATS Rial found out ten times last season, and SPAM had just as much trouble. Furthermore, two of the other teams condemned to pre-qualifying for 2015 are in negotiations for more powerful engines. Whether it's former F1 rejects, F1 never-weres or F1RWRS prospects, all new extrants should be made aware that it's going to be very tough at this end of the grid!

One thing which can be absolutely confirmed is that Marussia will not be joining F1RMGP - with the Nick Wirth connection, Simtek is effectively their representation in this series. Just look at the S141 for proof...

J.O.U.R.N.A.L wrote:For the record...
...most the teams we named in the yesterday's article [above] actually did not claim as the mysterious team in the Australian Grand Prix. They actually just submitted entry form for the 'new team[s] bid' for 2015 to the F1RMGP management, most of them very silently. We just leaked the names of the teams bidding for 2015 team spot.
Which team you want to see in F1RMGP next year? Send a letter to the editor or comment in our website/Twitter page and we will put up your hopes!

Or dash them, as the case may be.

JeremyMcClean wrote:Gary Brabham to join the F1RM?
According to recent reports the 2013 F1RMGP champion Chris Dagnall is dissatisfied with the car and the team last season and is now looking for a more competitive team. Although we cannot confirm this at this time, we can say that Life driver Gary Brabham has been named as the suitable contender to replace Dagnall if necessary. Neither Dagnall, Brabham or anyone from Life or the F1RM were available to comment.

Chris Dagnall has now been contacted for comment, and when he'd picked himself up off the floor from laughing too much, what he said boiled down to "Ey, la, where else would I go?" He's got a point; no sooner did a window at a top team open, than it slammed shut again. Don't forget also that the F1R-14 was a first attempt with a PURE engine, which now has a season's worth of data to improve its fortunes with... and Daggers dragged two wins out of that first attempt.

Shadaza wrote:A1 GP team Greece was run by Arena Motorsport, they currently owned by Mike Earl, of Onyx fame. They even operate from the same base as the old Onyx team. Arena ran Max Chilton in British F3 and scored 0 points, also ran A1 GP team India and led Narain Karthikeyan to two wins.
They also ran in partnership with Audi sport UK an Audi R8 in Le Mans with, of all people, Perry McCarthy behind the wheel, alongside Mika Salo and Frank Biela. They completed only 28 laps.
Now Arena plug around near the back of the WTCC in Ford Focuses. I support this team for F1RMGP!

At least they'd be giving the likes of David Price and GTM a bit of competition. In the pre-qualifying session, that is.

That's enough rumour-combing for now. And the Silly Season might have to wait until The Next Big Event is announced...

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 01 Apr 2012, 20:50

Turbocharged teams want normally-aspirated engines banned: report
Coming from an unknown source from America, there are reports that the turbocharged teams want to attempt to ban normally aspirated engines in an attempt to start an engine war. "I don't care if the engines cost more!" says an oblivious American reporter. "The engines just sound bloody better." None of the teams were able to comment on the topic.

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 02 Apr 2012, 12:43

dinizintheoven wrote:One thing the editors of J.O.U.R.N.A.L. could provide us with is what the U stands for in the acronym. "Journal Of Rejectful Named Autoracing Leagues" would be J.O.R.N.A.L. for short. Maybe the other motorsport publications can speculate wildly on where the U went to?

U in J.O.U.R.N.A.L means Underdogs' - sorry I forget that :oops:

So that's Journal Of Underdogs' Rejectful Named Autoracing Leagues.

AJ 37 · Post by **AJ 37** » 02 Apr 2012, 16:06

As a great fan since the start of the championship, It's normal I would add my little part to the building.

Here's the "infos" from one of our most famous pundits, if not totally reliable (understatement of the century), John-Luis Moncet, translated from French.

F1RMGP: The Great Exodus: Part 2 ?

We know that we 'll have a good amount of new teams next year, with the instauration of the dreaded pre-qualifications sessions, the list of new hopefuls is already long enough and two more are considering (see below), but some actual teams are considering their engagement for the next year.

Of course, you'll think about the three stooges, Stefan, GTM and David Price. And it's true, the utter lack of performance of those teams make them reconsider a new year of races when they'll be trashed like always if it's not the DNPQ mark who will obviously appear in their performance cards.

After a meticulous investigation, I can say that David Price have very little chance to run next year, their money problems are known and the last year didn't arrange the problem.

The two other teams will probably run next year, but with some driver changes. Jacques Villeneuve told us that he wants to quit, not wanting his name to be tarnished by mockery more than it is already. For GTM, they're searching for pilots willing to drive for them, to no result for the moment.

But there are other teams who thinks about deserting the championship, the first is Toleman, who have been really bad this year. They don't think they can compete with the top teams now, and because they're not technically rejects, staying here without any chances to win isn't good enough for them.

The other team who projects to leave the F1RMGP is Minardi, who didn't score any point this season after close calls the past years. Here, the problem is the geriatric and craptastic engine Motori Moderni, and if they don't have a new engine they won't bother to register next year. " We want anything, Asiatech, Supertech, anything but that piece of crap." said Alex Yoong to the journalists.

More informations about the subject later...

The Empire strikes back ?

We can't deny that this year have been very difficult for the Firm (F1RM). All eyes are turned toward the PURE engine, too innovative and not reliable enough to face the Vikings. There are no words for any change in this matter, but it's not the same concerning drivers.

The drivers line-up could be vastly different next year. First, there are words that Chris Dagnall could quit the team and the competition to focus on his soccer career but it's a bit of a longshot here. A more reliable source told us about JDD's future in the team, and the future is not good for him. During the last two seasons, Deletraz was a good contender for deadbeat teammate of the Year, but in 2014, he didn't have a end-rush of victories and podiums to save him. His case is very discussed by the bosses, if we understood right which is not really easy with them.

If there are departures in the future, the team will have to recruit and the first idea is the new champion Þorvaldur Einarsson. It seems that the relation between the two Viking drivers are icy at best and many thinks that it would be best to separate the two drivers. another possible future driver is Marko Asmer, the Estonian have been a nice surprise this season, with a tremendous win in Hungary driving a Simtek, synonymous of IIDOTY, and no DNQ ( besides the Grand Reversal, who don't really count) when many betted he would be a perennial DNQ this year. Talks for a trade between Deletraz and Barbazza, too, have been discussed before Big-Haired Barb signed for Leyton House. We will have more news on the subject later.

Two new French teams?

The long list of new possible teams will possibly see the add of two new teams.

The first is Venturi, who have raced for a season with Larousse, but this time they planned about having a complete team ( engines and chassis). They will have to find drivers, because the two drivers they had during their F1 year are not rejects and one of them is a team principal of a rival team.

The second is a surprise, because they never raced in F1, even if they're known in the motorsport world, it's Pescarolo Sport. This team, more famous for their Le Mans and Endurance multiple participations, wants to bring back glory for France who didn't really perform well in four years. " No French teams and no French drivers have won a race in four years of competition, it's time to correct the situation." said Henri Pescarolo adding that the Swiss with no vowels doesn't count. the only sure thing is with the good amount of F1 never beens that have raced for him in Le Mans, Pescarolo won't have any shortage of drivers.
(Bourdais, Collard, Lagorce, even lucky bastard Bouillon...)

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 02 Apr 2012, 17:47

AJ 37 wrote:If there are departures in the future, the team will have to recruit and the first idea is the new champion Þorvaldur Einarsson. It seems that the relation between the two Viking drivers are icy at best and many thinks that it would be best to separate the two drivers.

That's definitely jossed. [/tvtropeswmg] :lol: