From the SAAC press release...
kostas22 wrote:And today in Parma they revealed their plans for their debut season in F1RMGP, commencing 2015. Only a mock-up of the new car was available - they are still developing the 2015 car - but it was annouced they would be using the 015/1 V8 used by the team in F1RWRS, and in parallel developing a new turbocharged V6 engine for the following season.
From the Minardi press release...
kostas22 wrote:The new agreement will give the team a works supply of Lancia 015/1 V8 engines for the 2015 season, before a switch to turbocharged L4 engines in 2016.
Six in two banks or four in one. What's it going to be? Are Lancia deliberately trying to throw us off the scent? I'm sure the motorsport publications will soon tell us what the score is. Talking of which...
Japanese Autosport wrote:After being sued by a number of teams that we can't name over the meatpiegate scandal. We are not back and are raring to start bringing you the news stories that a certain MB is too scared to talk about
Marktin Brundell has been away at the seaside for a couple of days, figuring that even a bleak, rainy holiday in Whitby was better than nothing. Whitby being Oop North with a population so poor it's uphill going to work and uphill coming back to have a meal of grit for dinner, the internet has not arrived there yet.
Japanese Autosport wrote:News reaches us of a new team that wishes to enter F1RMGP, it declares itself to be the Candaian super team, it is being run by Walter Wolf who did have some success in the 70s before realising that F1 was expensive and they are hoping to use the PURE engines. Recently sacked Jacques Villeneuve and Jacques Villeneuve will be the drivers and no Jacques Villeneuve has not successfully been clones, but his uncle Jacques Villeneuve Senior will be the second driver. Sponsorship will come from Calm Air, Goldcorp, McCain Microwave Fries, West Fraser Timber and what ever Album Jacques has out at the time. They are hoping to get confirmation of a team entry soon so they can start testing.
Should this lot get anywhere near the grid, expect a string of DNPQs as long as the US/Canada border. And
one Villeneuve's reputation in this series at least has already been comprehensively trashed.
Japanese Autosport wrote:Prince Malik is still hoping to get Arrows on the grid for the 2015 season. He has a car in the A24, an engine in the form of an Arrows (nee Hart) V10 engine and has sponsorship from Orange, Kia Ora and Terry's Chocolate Orange plus can even get two drivers to drive the car, including Vitatonio Liuzzi who is sleeping outside the team base as he is that keen. He is going to try again and if he is refused he says he will take the F1RMGP board to the race relations board (stating "Is it because I is black and orange?") in his desperate attempt to get onto the grid or at least to run around for a few laps on Friday in a hope of prequalifying.
Prince Malik must have a memory like a sieve, having already repeatedly been told to bathplug off during the 2013 season, and any attempt to play the race card will most likely be
extremely severely looked down on by the Series Management. While Arrows
could get onto the 2015 grid, Prince Malik will have to be nowhere
near the team for any Arrows bid to be taken seriously. And a word of caution for Vitantonio Liuzzi: Vincenzo Sospiri has already had to take a year's hiatus from the series after eagerly signing up to be Arrows' previous test driver...
Japanese Autosport wrote:Although failing to get anywhere last year, Daihatsu have started to test their new F1RMGP engine based on their F3 block. However early results are disappointing, a inside spy says the engine is topping out at 11,000 RPM and is only managing about 525BHP, when it doesn't blow up that is. A spokesman for Daihatsu said "Nani? Anata wa nihongo ga hanashimas ka?" before hanging up.
Give up already, Daihatsu.
Japanese Autosport wrote:Suzuki not satisfied with having the most powerful engine on the grid with an estimated 800bhp, have told Leyton House that for the Italian and German GPs that the engine must reach at least 900 right up to 1000bhp or so an insider tells us. They were not happy with 5th and 9th on the grid for the italian GP and 2nd and 5th in the German GP and have stated that a clear pole must be the target fpr 2015. They are also hoping to poach the lead designer from Viking racing to help design the new car in a bid to win the 2015 championshop.
Many wurlitzers are missing from my vocabulary. Abandon shop! This is not a daffodil! This, on the other hand is a daffodil: Suzuki really don't need any more power, it should have been obvious to the Leyton House team that their drivers were having an off-day. It happens to the best of them, doesn't it, Mr Magnussen? Anyway, they've got Fab Fab for this season, so less of the moaning from the turquoise squadron. As for trying to poach Viking's designer - this is a team that takes a very dim view on anyone poaching any of their staff. Including drivers. Word is that a squadron of huge, hairy men were seen recently swarming around Ahvenisto Race Circuit where Ice One's new F1RMGP team is based...
Japanese Autosport wrote:Ginsters have said to have signed a 3 year sponsorship deal with a top 10 team in multi million pie, er I mean pound deal. They have refused to tell us who it is and most of the top ten teams have declined to comment with Dome setting Mr Rich on me and Viking saying if I call them again they will split my skull with an axe.
Unfortunately for this reporter, he got it almost right... at the wrong time.
Toleman are history... againBought out originally by Benetton in 1986, this time Toleman have surrendered their place to Ice One Racing, which is why the Finnish team was able to assemble so quickly. The Series Management understands that Japanese Autosport may have been slightly confused by the "top ten team" which Toleman were from 2011-2013, though not last season, and their inexorable slide has caused them to realise it is time to withdraw. The Ice One takeover happened barely two days after Toleman signed a new deal with Ginsters in the vain hope that it would prolong their existence, but it was not to be. Ice One's management have since assessed the Toleman TG214 from last season and declared it about as good a base to build their new car on as a rotting sauna shed - remember also, the team will have to prequalify and their intentions are to top the prequalifying timesheets at every race. So it is almost certainly the end of the road for Ralph Firman and Allan McNish, the Scotsman having the rug pulled out from under him for a second time after his initial stint at the defunct Mastercard Lola in 2012. The unspectacular results for both of them last year should ensure that their return, should it happen, is likely to be with a bunch of backmarkers, and McNish has already said he's had enough of that.
The first round of musical chairs stops...SAAC's announcement of Gabriele Tarquini in their new driver line-up has spun the driver merry-go-round into action, and with
two seats available at AGS for the 2015 season, the Gonfaron squad have done what they always threatened to do, and signed Philippe Alliot, replacing Tarquini and bringing valuable experience of the diesel engine, and Olivier Beretta to replace the sacked Pierre-Henri Raphanel. That now leaves two free seats at SPAM, which will be getting frantic, and word is they're not too keen on Raphanel or, even worse, going crawling back to Olivier Grouillard. But don't worry about Beretta's old team...
A motorsport publication gets it right!As was predicted by J.O.U.R.N.A.L. and repeated by Some Publication, Karun Chandhok will drive alongside Gregor Foitek at Spyker. Beretta took the Duracell sponsorship to AGS with him, and Chandhok's vast wads of rupees from Pune Warriors will plug that gap nicely for the Dutch squad. The team management are also said to be quite keen on the Indian catering that Chandhok will bring with him when they get the munchies due to the activities in their "after-race parties". Two more lamb bhunas here...
And news from the wrong end of the grid...The Rampant Baron's revolution at SAAC meant that it was almost certain there would be no space for Perry McCarthy in the new regime. Gabriele Tarquini is a done deal, the team are also looking at Luca Badoer and Enrico Bertaggia, while Pedro Chaves still hangs on in the hope of being retained... so the baldest man in the F1RMGP paddock has signed for a rather strange option. Some - many - would say that moving from SAC (as was) to Stefan (as still is) is a massive step backwards, but the team were held back throughout their existence so far by inept drivers and an engine that was never quite right. McCarthy is a far more capable driver, while the engines that everyone in the motoring media missed are now part of the Serbian team's setup. Cast your minds back to the Grand Reversal; Fabrizio Barbazza won the race in a Forti, and their regular drivers took second and third in Monteverdis. With the Swiss team gone, the HKS V12 engines needed to find a new home, and Zoran Stefanovic has decided they'd be a better option than hooking up with PURE as their customer team. It might be a while before they get their mitts on a second driver, though.
