Grand Prix Rejects

It was a solid job indeed. One we came to expect from HRT instead after the last 2 years. Since they ousted Kolles though, things went backwards somehow...

DanielPT wrote:

AdrianSutil wrote:Feeling old now, feeling old. I can remember watching Kimi's first race for christ sake!!

I remember watching Schumacher's first race...

...as did I. I still remember it now even though it didn't last very long, and the locals were so annoyed that Bertrand Gachot was in the slammer instead of racing that they'd painted slogans saying that over parts of the track.

I remember it well. Free Gachot!

So despite the very good race in Australia, Marussia are looking for even more improvements at Malaysia - http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98226

Can't fault their enthusiasm, but I'm not sure we'll see much improvement considering the car is basically the same. I hope they get some dry practice sessions though to work on set-up, there must be a few tenths at least to be gained from that.

and a realistic challenge to the midfield will have to wait until 2013

jackanderton wrote:

and a realistic challenge to the midfield will have to wait until 2013

I meant in the same vein that Caterham are at now, nipping at the heels of teams like Force India and Toro Rosso.

AndreaModa wrote:

jackanderton wrote:

and a realistic challenge to the midfield will have to wait until 2013

I meant in the same vein that Caterham are at now, nipping at the heels of teams like Force India and Toro Rosso.

Are they? If Australia is anything to go by, they are roughly where they were last year.

Phoenix wrote:

AndreaModa wrote:
I meant in the same vein that Caterham are at now, nipping at the heels of teams like Force India and Toro Rosso.

Are they? If Australia is anything to go by, they are roughly where they were last year.

If not further away because last year Williams was dropping behind the midfield and Caterham was catching them and sometimes matching their pace. Williams gave a performance leap this year and left Caterham playing alone, again...

True, but they're obviously some way ahead of Marussia, and of course HRT. I think there's more to come from Caterham yet though. They've suffered from unreliability and with a bit of extended running and resolution of their problems, I think they'll be more of a threat as the season goes on.

Did anyone get a chance to see this on Sky 1 on Friday?

A League of Their Own go racing

Can't for the life of me work out what car they used, I reckon it much be circa 07-08 but how Marussia got their hands on it I have no idea! Good exposure for the team though.

AndreaModa wrote:Did anyone get a chance to see this on Sky 1 on Friday?

A League of Their Own go racing

Can't for the life of me work out what car they used, I reckon it much be circa 07-08 but how Marussia got their hands on it I have no idea! Good exposure for the team though.

It's an old Super Aguri, that is all.

As I have nowhere else to say this, I'll say it here:

Am I the only one who's really starting to like Pic? He seems to be a match for Glock, and he seems like a genuinely cool guy.

Pamphlet wrote:
Am I the only one who's really starting to like Pic? He seems to be a match for Glock, and he seems like a genuinely cool guy.

Sounds like D'Ambrosio in Hunt For Glory.

RealRacingRoots wrote:

Pamphlet wrote:
Am I the only one who's really starting to like Pic? He seems to be a match for Glock, and he seems like a genuinely cool guy.

Sounds like D'Ambrosio in Hunt For Glory.

Funnily enough, I also like JDA quite a lot.

Pamphlet wrote:Am I the only one who's really starting to like Pic?

Hes been a pleasant surprise, and so has Jean Eric Vergne.

CoopsII wrote:

Pamphlet wrote:Am I the only one who's really starting to like Pic?

Hes been a pleasant surprise, and so has Jean Eric Vergne.

At least Vergne can race, unlike his teammate. That being said though, Ricciardo must be going for the 'most likable driver on the grid' award if his interviews are anything to go by.

Wizzie wrote:At least Vergne can race, unlike his teammate.

Yes, because driving an HRT is a great way to learn racecraft
Sometimes he maybe forgets he's now driving an STR rather than an HRT and just lets people by in a momentary lapse of memory.

RealRacingRoots wrote:

AndreaModa wrote:Did anyone get a chance to see this on Sky 1 on Friday?

A League of Their Own go racing

Can't for the life of me work out what car they used, I reckon it much be circa 07-08 but how Marussia got their hands on it I have no idea! Good exposure for the team though.

It's an old Super Aguri, that is all.

This was surprisingly decent. I don't like the program, but the F1 bit was good. Spotted Peter Dumbreck there as one of the 'instructors'.

Not been much news on the Marussia front since the start of the season, but I just thought I'd bring to everyone's attention a competition the team are running in the lead up to the British GP. It's a chance to visit the factory in Banbury, meet the drivers and personnel and get to ask questions in a q+a session with the team. I'm going to enter it, once my mate gets back to me, and here's the link if anyone else fancies too:

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=369854539737040&id=240888299300332

AndreaModa wrote:Not been much news on the Marussia front since the start of the season, but I just thought I'd bring to everyone's attention a competition the team are running in the lead up to the British GP. It's a chance to visit the factory in Banbury, meet the drivers and personnel and get to ask questions in a q+a session with the team. I'm going to enter it, once my mate gets back to me, and here's the link if anyone else fancies too:

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=369854539737040&id=240888299300332

The chance to meet Maria de Villota?!!! I'm entering! (As soon as I figure out who my fellow guest would be...)

dr-baker wrote:

AndreaModa wrote:Not been much news on the Marussia front since the start of the season, but I just thought I'd bring to everyone's attention a competition the team are running in the lead up to the British GP. It's a chance to visit the factory in Banbury, meet the drivers and personnel and get to ask questions in a q+a session with the team. I'm going to enter it, once my mate gets back to me, and here's the link if anyone else fancies too:

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=369854539737040&id=240888299300332

The chance to meet Maria de Villota?!!! I'm entering! (As soon as I figure out who my fellow guest would be...)

Well there goes Bakers law.

looks like they are gearing up Maria de Villota for some straight line tests plus the young drivers test SL maybe on the cards

S951 wrote:looks like they are gearing up Maria de Villota for some straight line tests plus the young drivers test SL maybe on the cards

I'll see if I can ask her a question about getting time in the car if I get the chance next Thursday!

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/100806
Finally, Marussia are bringing upgrades this season. But is it too little, too late with HRT improving all the time?

Marussia pretty much just have to show up to beat HRT. Sure, HRT out-qualified them in Valencia, but Pic finished on the lead lap when de la Rosa didn't.

East Londoner wrote:http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/100806
Finally, Marussia are bringing upgrades this season. But is it too little, too late with HRT improving all the time?

Hard to tell, but it's good to see it finally happening. Hopefully the work in the wind tunnel will start to pay off, but I'm not hoping for too much. A slightly bigger advantage over HRT would be nice, though Caterham are far too out of touch to catch.

Captain Hammer wrote:Marussia pretty much just have to show up to beat HRT. Sure, HRT out-qualified them in Valencia, but Pic finished on the lead lap when de la Rosa didn't.

True, although the performance advantage that Marussia had over HRT in race trim was not as large in Valencia as normal - I believe that Pic was about 24 seconds ahead of De La Rosa by the end of the race, although that seems to be as much down to tyre management as anything else. De La Rosa's lap times dropped off very sharply after lap 48 - he was around a second a lap slower compared to his times up until then, and for a number of laps Karthikeyan was faster than both Pic and De La Rosa (laps 43-50, where at one point he was about 3s a lap faster than De La Rosa and Pic, and for what it is worth Karthikeyan's best lap time was about 0.3s better than Pic's whilst using tyres that were as old as Pic's tyres).
That is not to say that I think the F111 is comparable in performance - I would expect it to still be some way behind the MR-01 - but the gap has definitely narrowed in recent races, and not just in qualifying. A major upgrade package for Marussia will be welcome indeed and may increase their performance advantage over HRT again, although it might not gain them a huge advantage as I believe that both Caterham and HRT are planning to bring in fairly large upgrade packages for Silverstone.

There's been a crash & driver injury at Marussia's straight-line test today, not confirmed who the driver is but Maria de Villota was due to be in the car today.

EDIT: BBC saying it was a female driver, so likely to be Maria.

GwilymJJames wrote:There's been a crash & driver injury at Marussia's straight-line test today, not confirmed who the driver is but Maria de Villota was due to be in the car today.

EDIT: BBC saying it was a female driver, so likely to be Maria.

That sounds like it could actually be quite serious. I'm about 25 miles from Duxford and it's very wet here today. I'll keep an eye on this story throughout the day.

madmark1974 wrote:

GwilymJJames wrote:There's been a crash & driver injury at Marussia's straight-line test today, not confirmed who the driver is but Maria de Villota was due to be in the car today.

EDIT: BBC saying it was a female driver, so likely to be Maria.

That sounds like it could actually be quite serious. I'm about 25 miles from Duxford and it's very wet here today. I'll keep an eye on this story throughout the day.

Yeah they're down there doing the straight line testing for the new aero parts. Reports from earlier in the day on their Twitter said it was dry and 19 degrees Celsius, and it is Maria de Villota driving. Things just don't work out for Marussia do they?

madmark1974 wrote:

GwilymJJames wrote:There's been a crash & driver injury at Marussia's straight-line test today, not confirmed who the driver is but Maria de Villota was due to be in the car today.

EDIT: BBC saying it was a female driver, so likely to be Maria.

That sounds like it could actually be quite serious. I'm about 25 miles from Duxford and it's very wet here today. I'll keep an eye on this story throughout the day.

Hopefully her injuries are not too serious and she can be back in the car soon.

"Suddenly Accelerated" eh? Sounds like some sort of mechanical failure to me but I guess it's too early to speculate.

The story has been updated, and now says :

"The car hit a lorry which had been used to take it to the track. Villota is believed to be seriously injured"

I have everything crossed for her.

hope she is ok timo had tweeted about 45min ago a pic of her ready to go out to

I am really worried, I really hope she recovers.

Just caught the end of a quick description on BBC Radio 5 Live from someone there, apparently the crash was at a relatively slow speed, around 30-40mph, and I heard something about her being able to move her hands and signal to firefighters getting her out.

Also, Autosport article here: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/100882

And one on F1Fanatic too: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2012/07/03/marussia-driver-maria-de-villota-injured-test-crash/

Hoep you guys don't mind the 'live updates', but the BBC story has been updated again :

The East of England Ambulance Service said Villota had suffered life-threatening injuries.

BBC Cambridgeshire presenter Chris Mann, who witnessed the crash, said the car had completed a circuit when it "suddenly accelerated" into the back of the lorry.

"From where I was standing it looked like the helmet took the brunt of the impact," he said.

I really hope she is OK. Scary to think that she could have been racing in Valencia, and now this has happened.

Not good at all. Hope she's okay.

As far as I understand, it seems to be a result of a mechanical failure. On the other hand, one could ask whether a Timo Glock or Charles Pic might have gotten the car under control. But we should ask these questions at a later stage.