Grand Prix Rejects

Sunshine Infiniti Press Officier wrote:Ms Katayama will not be answering any questions today or making a statement as she is rather upset about losing a likely win to a puncture of no fault of her own, we were delighted with her performance and we were very happy with Shizukas performance, he was very unlikely not to score points and he could have challenged for a podium if it was not for his spin, which our telemetry shows that it was not his fault as the left hand wheels spun on something and he could not correct it in time.

Barii Mori wrote:As Kay said morons driving like morons ended our races. We hope for better things in the next race.

Mark Dagnall     16 (FL)
Chris Dagnall    10
Aurelian Moll     8
Rhys Davies       5
Daniel Melrose    4
Dave Simpson      3
Hagane Shizuka    2
Daniel Martins    1
Douglas Mann      1 (Pole)

Dagnall   26
Gillet     8
HRT        5
Arrowtech  5
Prospec    3
Sunshine   2
Foxdale    1

Mark Dagnall     25
Chris Dagnall    18
Aurelian Moll    15
Rhys Davies      12
Daniel Melrose   10
Dave Simpson      8
Hagane Shizuka    6
Daniel Martins    4
Gary Cameron      2
(Saeed Al Faisal (and so FAT Turbo Racing) scores no points as did not complete enough laps to be classified)
  
Dagnall    43
Gillet     15
Arrowtech  14
HRT        12
Prospec    10
Sunshine    6

Daniel Melrose wrote:Well I guess 5th in my first race for Arrowtech was a good effort while my teammate Daniel Martins finished in 8th showing that the reliability is there. All we need now is abit more speed but as the saying goes "You can make a quick car reliable but you can't make a reliable car quick."

Willy Rampf wrote:Incomprehensible German

Rhys Davies wrote:Alright, 4th place in front of the home fans, that's brilliant. Had Spencer been able to use his brakes properly, Ashley would have been in with a good shot. Ah well, there's still the rest of the season.

Frank Zimmer wrote:Bathplug. When I signed up to drive for Horizon, I thought they'd be remotely competitive!

Wizzie wrote:Before I forget will Reject of the Year be a democratically voted award or will it be decided by you?

Phoenix McAllister wrote:I subscribe the scathing comments against Spencer's moronic way of driving, which made Jari retire with collision damage. Where on Earth do you see a professional race driver brake so much for a turn that it became a danger for everyone else? This is rather reminding me about Sammy Jones, I wonder if it was him driving instead of Spencer...

About my retirement, it was because of a puncture-induced crash because apparently that tyre was defective. Bad luck only. What it itsn't bad luck, though, i sour car's lack of pace. I thought we had a solid enough base to at least be able to score points, and instead we've been mediocre. And we haven't managed to obtain any upgrade credits for the next race, of course. We'll need some luck and some people getting a neuron or two so we don't risk life and limb out there...

Thomas De Bock wrote:Well, it looks like the car is really quick, but not good enough to match the Dagnalls. I was up in the top ten at one point, and I thought it was a good race for me. As for my retirement, I simply accelerated too hard on the kerb and lost control. It was totally my fault.

Aurelien Moll wrote:Well, at least this time I could score a podium without a car that was good for more than just a couple of weekends. The car seems competitve, and I feel 2013 will be a great season for us.

Tony Gillet wrote:To tell you the truth, the team is ecstatic at the result. This race confirmed our pre-season form, and it looks like Aurelien will be our lead driver this year. Thomas had a good race as well until his unfortunate retirement. Excuse me? The Dagnalls, you say? Well they certainly look dominant, but I'll go ahead and say that they're not our immediate objective. Our current goal is to stay ahead of Arrowtech and HRT, which looks like an acheivable target. Maybe we'll sneak a win or two, as a high point to the season. Anyway, it looks like we're in for a good season throughout, which is the first time we can say that.

Daniel Martins wrote:I'm happy with the job the team has done. Being backmarkers last year and now being able to challenge for points is a great effort taken by the team. The boys did a great job working on this car and we hope to build on Melrose points success and win a lot more points. Qualifying went good for me but the in the race I didn't had the same grip so it was one of those could've been races. Hopefully we can build on this result and move up a bit on the grid.

Phoenix McAllister wrote:Hey, wait a moment...If Be Here Now Magazine, a very trustworthy source, is suggesting that the BMW engine in the QANTAS MRT car, which is the official BMW team, may be a scam, then what about our engines? This may go some way to explain our poor developments at this race.

WTF1 wrote:Is it true that MRT is already working on next year?

Willy Rampf wrote:To be honest with you as of right now there won't be much work done on the chassis this season as both drivers find the car easy to drive and having a bucketload of grip. I won't be able to speak for BMW but as far as I know BMW will be introducing development parts which will be tested by Horizon Motorsport before being put on the MRT engines should they prove to make a noticeable difference.

Mario Theissen wrote:BMW will be working on the engines and by the end of the season we are planning to increase the output of the engine by atleast 30bhp, funding permitting, on the Horizion Motorsport engines atleast. Daniel is yet to advise me on what MRT will do concerning their engines.

Be Here Now Magazine wrote:Do you believe that you can pull the performance of your team upward in order to avoid pre-qualifying?

Willy Rampf wrote:I am confident that the team can improve the performance of our cars considerably to avoid pre-qualifying.

Be Here Now Magazine wrote:Is the engine all what it seems, as there have been rumours the engine is a BMW only by name.

Mario Theissen wrote:The engine was designed by several employees which had come over from Yahama at the beginning of last season who have worked in Formula One during their time at Yahama. I will admit the design is based an older Yahama design to fit the new regulations but the engine is built in-house at Munich before being shipped to MRT's engine workshop at the former Toyota facilities at Cologne which is separate from the MRT headquarters at Munich.

WTF1 wrote:Can you make an analysis of what´s been happening at the testing and now to suffer this performance drop?

Daniel Melrose wrote:From what I was seeing in the pitlane at Kyalami and Brands Hatch the car seemed incredibly slow in a straight line. The general balance of the car seems fine but since I haven't driven the car for myself I can't really speak for Nathaniel and Phillipe

Phillipe Nicolas wrote:The car was fairly quick through the first sector at Adelaide around the 90 degree corners but was simply hopeless in a straight line. Nathaniel and I went for a comprimise in setup to compensate for the lack of straightline speed which made the car more unstable which eventually led to my crash early in the race

Nathaniel Spencer wrote:The car felt much better once we took some downforce off it and Igenuinely believed that I may have in with a shout of points had I not been taken out on lap 1 by Watkinson.

Be Here Now Magazine wrote:Where do you think the best oppotunities to finish and score well will be?

Nathaniel Spencer wrote:Definitely Monaco.

Phillipe Nicolas wrote:We mayalso be competitive at other street circuits like Pau, Bathurst, Norisring and Dallas.

WTF1 wrote:What do Spencer have to say about the comments from other drivers regarding the accident at Adelaide?

Nathaniel Spencer wrote:I was trying to avoid running up the back of Mori who was having a horrifically bad first lap but Watkinson didn't realise that you have to be cautious on the first lap as to not trip over other people and just fired into the back of my car. Mr Lon may have been a championship contender last year and I do have a great respect for him as a driver but let's just say after his comments he's not on my Christmas Card list right now.

Be Here Now Magazine wrote:And finally, which of the teams currently in the pre-qualifying session is the biggest threat to your team?

Willy Rampf wrote:First of all can I just say that the pre-qualifying rules are "odd"at best? I mean, Steele did an absolutely fantastic job to pre-qualify thrid but didn't make it to the main game even though his time would have been good enough to qualify 13th on the grid. I belive the rules should be changed so the fastest 6 drivers go through, not the fastest 3 teams.

Now, onto our biggest threats in pre-qualifying. We've only done one race so far so we don'tknow who we're racing for sure but early indications are our biggest threats will be Flying Fish and American Racing.

Nathaniel Spencer wrote:I was trying to avoid running up the back of Mori who was having a horrifically bad first lap but Watkinson didn't realise that you have to be cautious on the first lap as to not trip over other people and just fired into the back of my car. Mr Lon may have been a championship contender last year and I do have a great respect for him as a driver but let's just say after his comments he's not on my Christmas Card list right now.

Barii Mori wrote:I suggest that Mr Spencer change his optician as he clearly did not see me, unless he was watching how I exited the corner. Watching the TV replays, I believe that both of the FAT cars were the ones in front of him at the time with I belive a prospe in the mix. Also he claims he was trying to stop running into another driver, but the replays show he was braking from so far back in a pack that it was no wonder that there was a 4 car pile up. I suggest Mr Spener, rather then make excuses, just admit as, oh how did Martin Brundle put it?, oh yes he was driving like a rock ape and stop blaming other drivers, Mr Lons comments were justified as a number of people said the same thing. I for one, beleive that MRT will drop into prequalifying and the grid will be a lot safer.

Some random news reporter wrote:Daniel, how do you like ArrowTech so far?

The Generic Times wrote:Do you believe it possible for any significant improvement to come from just adding power to the engines? If so, who do you think you can challenge in the constructors' championship?
Also, Mr Melrose, do you think that ArrowTech can consistently challenge the likes of HRT and Gillet?

The Generic Times wrote:Do you believe it possible for any significant improvement to come from just adding power to the engines? If so, who do you think you can challenge in the constructors' championship?

Mario Theissen wrote:We believe that increasing power to the engines would improve laptimes by about 6 tenths of a second per lap. We believe that this should be enough to remain in the main game should the parts be successful whilst running them on the Horizon cars. Frank Zimmer will be carrying out most of the development work on these engines for those that are interested. He will take up this job full time as BMW's test driver with an MRT car from last season testing our new engines in the pipeline

A news reporter wrote:Daniel, how do you like ArrowTech so far?

Daniel Melrose wrote:ArrowTech may be a small team by most standards but they are some of the most talented, dedicated and friendly guys I've ever seen. In terms of experience in motorsport most of them have less experience than me but my job is to help build the team in a sort of "mentor" role and they are willing to learn. My teammate Daniel Martins is one talented young driver who has the oppertunity to go far in the sport.

The Generic Times wrote:Also, Mr Melrose, do you think that ArrowTech can consistently challenge the likes of HRT and Gillet?

Daniel Melrose wrote:I know for a fact that the ArrowTech is the most reliable car in the field because we were the only team not to record any problems in testing or the race weekend in Adelaide. While we may not be able to challenge the front runners on pace but on reliability and consistancy we should be able to beat them.

On an unrelated note, Spencer apoligises for the comments made against Mori on the basis that Nathaniel had a moment of confusion whilst in the car and watching the replays

Resi Respati wrote:I can't say anything else but a very well-done effort by Yu Hiang Hao for getting us through the pre-qualifying. He deserved it!

TEAM PHOENIX DROPS BMW DEAL, AUDI STEPS IN

Team Phoenix has surprisingly broken its agreement with BMW over their engine supply. Apparently, team owner and driver Phoenix McAllister, as well as team principal Aguri Suzuki, were both unhappy about the performance of the engines, and the last rumours about the quality of the works engines being suspect, let alone the customer ones, has strained the relationship between both parts.

However, the team was also unhappy about being given what in McAllister's words was "too much of a second fiddle treatment". Plus, he stated that the engines were too gutless.

However, what has really come as a shock is that Audi has inmediately stepped in to help the squad, benefitting from both interests from the VW Group to get involved with F1RWRS and because of BMW's deteriorated reputation. Audi's sporting director Wolfgang Ullrich has declared: "BMW has always been a natural competitor for us in the road car market, and now we want to take the fight to them in F1RWRS as well. What better way to do that than with a disgruntled ex-BMW customer, veteran of F1RWRS, with good personnel and drivers, like Team Phoenix?

This is the second manufacturer tie-up Team Phoenix takes in after a turbulent relationship with Honda that lasted until last year.

McAllister himself was not available for any further declarations because of his busy agenda including meetings with Audi and tests, but has been reported to randomly mumble things like "Munich pr*cks", "BMW can go suck up my little Willie", and "I hope Mario Theissen finds Phil McCracken someday in a lonely dark alley."

tristan1117 wrote:With Jack O' Melley not having visited in the last week, as acting team owner, I would like to buy two qualifying bonuses for him and myself as well as one consistency bonus for the two of us. I would also like to add 3 BHP to the engine.

4 Quali Bonuses+2 Consistency Bonuses+ 3 BHP= 100 credits
225-100= 125 credits left.

Willy Rampf wrote:More incomprehensible German

Rhys Davies wrote:Alright, top 10 start at the greatest track of all, Watkinson ahead of Spencer, Melrose nowhere to be seen. Perfect!

Kay Lon wrote:Meh, why bother? Car's s**t, I'm s**t. Meaningless beyond words.

Daniel Melrose wrote:The car felt so unstable over the top of the mountain it's not funny. I spent the best part of a minute just holding onto the steering wheel for dear life as it was just simply all over the place. Daniel in the other car also reported similar problems in his car. Our straightline speed however was encouraging so should the car remain reliable we can pull some moves on people and points could be on the table.

Onto MRT now and I've received an offer from a chap called Roger Penske who is willing to pay the team 80 credits if we run an American in one of the MRT seats at Dallas. Pending approval from the F1 Rejects Council we will have Spanish-American driver Vidal Reyna-Sanchez in one of the cars at Dallas.

Wizzie wrote:On an unrelated note when were you nominated for ROTR Klon?

Anyways:

Daniel Melrose wrote:The car felt so unstable over the top of the mountain it's not funny. I spent the best part of a minute just holding onto the steering wheel for dear life as it was just simply all over the place. Daniel in the other car also reported similar problems in his car. Our straightline speed however was encouraging so should the car remain reliable we can pull some moves on people and points could be on the table.

Onto MRT now and I've received an offer from a chap called Roger Penske who is willing to pay the team 80 credits if we run an American in one of the MRT seats at Dallas. Pending approval from the F1 Rejects Council we will have Spanish-American driver Vidal Reyna-Sanchez in one of the cars at Dallas.

Daniel Martins wrote:The car was barely drivable today. We were hoping to make up some ground this weekend but, given the machinery at our disposal, we have to hope for a destruction derby to score some points. Anyway, I will do my best to deliver as will certainly my team-mate. Hopefully, we will have a better pace in the race and achieve what was our main goal coming here!

Aerond wrote:

Wizzie wrote:On an unrelated note when were you nominated for ROTR Klon?

Anyways:

Daniel Melrose wrote:The car felt so unstable over the top of the mountain it's not funny. I spent the best part of a minute just holding onto the steering wheel for dear life as it was just simply all over the place. Daniel in the other car also reported similar problems in his car. Our straightline speed however was encouraging so should the car remain reliable we can pull some moves on people and points could be on the table.

Onto MRT now and I've received an offer from a chap called Roger Penske who is willing to pay the team 80 credits if we run an American in one of the MRT seats at Dallas. Pending approval from the F1 Rejects Council we will have Spanish-American driver Vidal Reyna-Sanchez in one of the cars at Dallas.

The F1RWRS is keen on giving the green light to an extra credit injection for a pay driver if the pay driver has further limitations in terms of performance. (His perf points will be between 12500 and 13500 instead of the usual 13000-14500 range, plus his incosistency points will be a fixed 2500)

Wizzie wrote:On an unrelated note when were you nominated for ROTR Klon?

Autosport wrote:Nicolas Steele for Kahama?

A source at Kahama has reported that Barii Mori has been talking to Nicolas Steele in a bid to bring him to the team. Steele has been posting some fast times in prequalifying but his more experienced team mate David Koczo has been struggling to get to grips with the car meaning that Calinetic has failed to prequalify twice and Steele has already stated to the press that he is a little annoyed by this. The same source has also told us that Barii Mori and Kay Lon are close to falling out, due to Lons continous negative comments in the press. We would not be surprised to see Steele drive in a Kahama next race as Steele would already in qualifying and would probably qualify in the top 12. At time of press Steele, Mori, Kacoz or Lon were available to comment.

Motorsport wrote:STEELE CONFIRMED AT KAHAMA
Citing issues with the car and the somewhat odd inconsistency of David Koczo, Nicolas Steele has left Calinetic Racing. "It's a great thing to happen to me, really. Sorry David, but the team should be renamed at once to Pathetic Racing! " Not too long afterwards, a Calinetic mechanic was seen beating up Steele with a frying pan, but Steele was ok after the incident. There is no word yet on the mechanic from Calinetic, though there are rumours that he has been released from the team.
Steele later apoligized Calinetic for his comments while in the press room after qualifying, and promised not to say many negative items to the press, quoting "Kahama looks very reasonable for the time being. I haven't a good car in my career; first ArrowTech and now this crap.
No word yet on who will be replaced for Steele.

motorsport-total.de wrote:KAY LON RELEASED BY KAHAMA

Only shortly after the suprising switch of Nicolas Steele team owner Barii Mori has confirmed the release of Kahama's long time driver Kay Lon, claiming that his negative attitude caused disruptions in the team. He also stated his disappointment with the change of his now former team mate. "He was quite a nice fellow, but somehow losing that title last year has flipped a switch in him. I don't recognise him anymore.", the Japanese team owner stated.

K. Lon was ready for a short comment: "A collective bunch of ungrateful bastards. I was the only shot at glory they ever had. Looking forward to seeing them anguish in midfield hell."

It remains to be seen where Kay will end up. While the option of a straight driver switch with Calinetic Racing is obvious, it can be questioned if Kay Lon is willing to drop even further down the grid. Should that be the case, it also remains to be seen whether Calinetic's boss is willing to risk a possible negative attitude in the team to gain a few tenths, if at all.

Autosport wrote:Jones linked in return with Lon tie-up

Former F1 legend Sammy Jones has reportedly been linked with a return to the F1RWRS under his 'Jones Racing' banner, Autosport has learnt. A source has revealed that Jones, having quit the F1RWRS at the end of the 2012 season citing the new regulation changes as being unfavourable for his team, is seriously considering making a return, and consequently linking up with the recently released, but talented driver Kay Lon. The source was also able to reveal that preliminary talks with backers were 'looking good' and rumours that Marlboro were still interested were 'dead in the water'.

"He's looking into the possibility of getting back into the F1RWRS in the near future. He's also mentioned that he'd be very interested in signing up Kay Lon. Jones Racing would be probably be looking at entering at the third or fourth round, depending on whether things could get sorted in time. Whilst most of the equipment was sold off to Dagnall's new team, he's still in control of some the stuff and he's in the stage of securing some good financial backing."

Whilst mere speculation at the moment, Jones is expected to make an offical annoucement during this weekend's race at Bathurst.

Autosport wrote:Vidal Reyna-Sanchez to race for MRT

Spanish American racing driver Vidal Reyna-Sanchez is to have a one-off drive at the F1RWRS round at Dallas for QANTAS MRT. The 25 year old is in his second season in the IndyCar series with the Penske team but so far has failed to impress with only 3 top 10 finishes to his name from last season. Rumour has it that Roger Penske is paying MRT a considerable sum of money to run Reyna-Sanchez for the Dallas race but neither Penske nor team owner Daniel Melrose were avaliable for comment.

The one-off deal isn't expected to change the current driver situation as Nathaniel Spencer and Phillipe Nicolas both have contracts until the end of the 2014 season.

AndreaModa wrote:

Autosport wrote:Jones linked in return with Lon tie-up

(Interesting article)