Grand Prix Rejects

Aerond wrote:** Revolution drops to Pre-Q from Round 15.

Autosport wrote:Mori to end career in Japan
Barii Mori will replace the exhausted Daniel Melville who did two days of solid testing to improve his driving skills at the Japanese GP. Mori who has raced for a number of teams will come back to the team he owns and attempt to prequalify and then qualify the disappointing Kamaha. Mori said in the press conference "Daniel Melville has done a good job and we are extending his contract for the next season, we will continue to invest in him as we believe he does has talent. As the poor lad did two solid days of testing, pounding out 3 grand prix distances in two days, we have decided to give him a rest and I will come back and attempt to bring the Kamaha on the grid for what is our proper home grand prix. I am excited and I hope I can finish in the points if we can drag the car out of the lottery that is the prequalifying. I guess I am not going to win a race and my record of most GPs without a win will stay for a while. Apart from that we are pleased that Yamaha are coming back and we will be the works team. We thank Suzuki and Audi for the engines over the last two years, we wish they could have fixed the problems with the engine as it always seemed to be us that had the engine failures. We are hoping that next years car will be better, I think me and Shizuka are likely to retire next year and we will need to find a new lead driver, who that will be? Well we have some shortlists but we are going to struggle. There are rumours that I will sell the team at the end of the season and I would like to deny this, we have a healthy bank balance and will improve. See you on the track.".

Kay Lon wrote:We are richer for having lost him.

Jeremy-Etienne Voeckler wrote:Enough of this nonsense. Foxdale must be thrown out of the championship immediately. They are completely unprofessional, their car is not of the required standard to compete in F1RWRS - it probably couldn't even win an F3 race. Their drivers are downright hopeless, incompetent and dangerous. Fleet showed a complete lack of awareness of the other cars on track today. He ran into De Bock while three laps down and broke his suspension. He was constantly blocking other cars as well. THREE LAPS DOWN! No, go home and don't dare come back. Foxdale are a disgrace to F1RWRS and shouldn't be allowed to participate ever again. They reflect badly on the rest of us. It's like allowing toddlers to play with high powered weapons. Downright irresponsible.

Guillaume Gauthier wrote:It was a fantastic drive for both Danny and Du, Danny in particular did very well to spend half the race I think it was ahead of Buyvolov, who we know is a very talented driver. Du also had a very good battle with Nicolas, and had probably I would say her best race in her career.

... I would also probably be remiss to not thank Fusion for agreeing to loan us their chassis. Without it, we likely would not have finished any of these races.

Alexey Buyvolov wrote:I am delighted to race this season was a excellent in my performance could feel unsatisfied that I lost a chance to win the championship, but I'm glad I hope me to keep a job in the team, I have something to prove!

Luke Knight wrote:We had a great race today, to get both cars home in the top 10 for the second time this season is a great result. Of course, had someone else in top six fallen foul of the attrition we could have walked away with a point - but to see both cars to the finish, when reliability has been lacking this year is a good sight.

Thomas De Bock wrote:I'm absolutely disgusted by these last two races. I should have won the title by now, but that's twice in a row that I've had to retire so close to the end because of someone else's incompetence. Shinobu [Katayama], Jean-Luc [Schiller] and Ben [Fleet] all drove like complete imbeciles, and instead of winning the title, I have Mark [Dagnall] 4 points behind me. If I end up losing the championship, then you can be sure I won't be happy.

Sammy Jones wrote:I'm quite disappointed if I'm honest, yes Diego has scored a good result with third palce but with Voeckler not scoring again we had a real opportunity to seize the initiative but instead Mark was out early on and Aeroracing have taken a 1-2. We still have a chance with one more race to go but it's going to be tough. All we can aim for is two solid drives to the flag and hope that misfortune strikes our rivals.

Dagnall Management Int. Japanese GP driver Round-Up

Mark Dagnall: I don't know what happened. My start had been ok and when I pushed the breaks for the first corner I got hit from behind and the suspension broke. There's nothing I could really do to avoid it ... that's another good haul of points lost and it's a pity because looking at final result I could have got a precious number of points today. We still got one chance; one race to go and everyone in the team is focused in bringing home both championships. I know we can do it. Let's make it happen!

Fredo Mestolio: I'm sorry I let everyone in the team down that way. I tried a risky overtake and it simply didn't work, plus, Japanese pizza it's so bad! They fulfill it with the weirdest ingredients. I'm furious!

Hansuke Shioya: I'm disappointed to not have been able to qualify the car in front of my home crowd. The car was not perfectly balanced and, as other races this season, we suffer in straight line speed, so it was not possible for me to set a better a time. Now, I can't wait for Macau and try to finish the season in a high.

Jesus Plaza: Another race and another retirement! Well, we already knew we'd have some problems with our car, as has been the norm this season, but I'm quite glad we, on the other hand, will finish the season out of pre-qualifying. This has been a huge step for this small outfit and I'm proud to form part of it. Hiroto also delivered in front of his home crowd and we didn't experience any troubles to qualify the car. I was comfortably running around 10th place when the engine stopped, and that's all, it's not a new problem and we know these Pure-Hart engines are quite unreliable without the latest spec, which unfortunately we cannot afford. Anyway, and all in all, quite happy

Mark Dagnall heats Season Finale

British F1RWRS driver Mark Dagnall has hit at rival Thomas de Bock before season finale at Macau next weekend. Talking about the happenings of the Japanese Grand Prix, in an interview at NHK Tokyo Dagnall was quoted saying "The fact that they tried to blame Fleet the retirement speaks volumes about their incompetence. If you watch the replay, the suspension breaks on the opposite side where De Bock hits Fleet!! How can they blame him?? The poor-sod had enough with me banging his wife. I'll tell you something, maybe they are a little bit nervous for not being able to take the championship with the best car?? Yes, yes they are." It's yet to see if Dagnall really said these words or the Japanese translator was confused with Dagnall's Brit accent.

Marco Bizzarri
The qualifying went well, and this set me up for a run at the points. I was running in the Top 10 most of the day, very happy with the pace and the feeling of the car, it had a good balance today and we had enough straight-line speed to go with it. We could have been on for a great result, but unfortunately reliability has been our Achilles heel all year, and it happened again, another technical DNF. Hopefully the car can reach the finish in the final event.

Alessandro Lucarelli
We were seventh, and ok, on paper this is an okay result, but for me the race was a disaster. The car was horrible to drive, it behaved differently one lap to the next, I felt like I was fighting against it the entire distance. I don't know, maybe something in the car was broken, I was shocked how bad the car felt in the first couple of laps - I think I dropped all the way to last place after the start! But I just stuck with it, bumping and grinding my way along, and at least finished ahead of a few other cars. I suppose it's something that both cars made it to the end, but it looks like David [Neuberg] didn't have a much better time today than me either.

Autosport wrote:Jones Delighted At Mori's Retirement

Sammy Jones has revealed that he is "over the moon" that Japanese driver and former bitter on-track rival Barii Mori will be retiring this year.

Jones and Mori have had a bad-tempered relationship ever since the 2011 season when the pair, along with Australian Rhys Davies, were involved in a series of crashes and spats. Since then, controversy has never been far away from the pair - Jones was accused of copying Mori's Kamaha team's 2013 design, an allegation that was later proven false.

Mori has had a journeyman career as a driver and never quite realised the potential his performances promised in his early days. Jones has gone on record to say that "it's about time" that Mori hung up his helmet.

"He's been way past it for ages now" Jones said. "To be honest, I don't think he was ever good enough to be in F1RWRS from the beginning. Clearly McAllister was desperate for a cheap driver who would grab his poor excuse of a team some headlines. Even without our history, I can certainly say I'd have never hired the guy. The sport will be a better place without him. When I heard my drivers wouldn't have to be avoiding him at another race weekend, I was over the moon."

Speedcafe.com wrote:RUMOUR: Zimmer to abandon F1RWRS?
After yet another retirement and failure to qualify at last weekend's Japanese Grand Prix, rumours from the Holden Racing Team have suggested that Frank Zimmer has become disillusioned with the sport, and may turn his back on the series he helped create.
Reports from an insider at the team suggest that after several disputes with current F1RWRS Commission president Daniel Prieto, including a spat over supposed contradictions in pre-qualifying regulations, Zimmer has had growing doubts about the long-term sustainability of the F1RWRS compared to the rival FIA Formula 1 championship, and may return to the series he broke away from 8 years ago.
While Zimmer denied the rumours when contacted, his business partner Jimmy Rosenforth confirmed that "we will be competing in 2018 in one form or another".

FINAL 2018 ARWS CALENDAR TAKES SHAPE

We take a look at what looks to be the 2018 ARWS Calendar; final confirmation to take place in the next few weeks:

1. 11/3 -- AUSTRALIAN GP -- Adelaide
2. 18/3 -- NEW SOUTH WALES GP -- Bathurst
3. 8/4 -- ITALIAN GP -- Monza
4. 22/4 -- MOROCCO GP -- Marrakech
5. 13/5 -- CALIFORNIA GP -- Long Beach
6. 20/5 -- UNITED STATES GP -- Phoenix
7. 3/6 -- CANADIAN GP -- Toronto
8. 24/6 -- BRITISH GP -- Brands Hatch
9. 8/7 -- AUSTRIAN GP -- Red Bull Ring
10. 15/7 -- GERMAN GP -- Norisring
11. 29/7 -- SCANDINAVIAN GP -- Åss Fartway
12. 2/9 -- BELGIAN GP -- Spa
13. 9/9 -- MONACO GP -- MonteCarlo
14. 30/9 -- SOUTH AFRICAN GP -- Welkom
15. 14/10 -- BRAZILIAN GP -- Sao Paulo Indy
16. 21/10 -- ARGENTINA GP -- Buenos Aires
17. 4/11 -- JAPANESE GP -- Fuji
18. 11/11 -- GRAND PRIX OF MACAU

espn.co.uk/rwrs wrote:Fusion: We're Innocent

Having signed a deal with tooth decay magnates Coca-Cola, Fusion Motorsports have elected to support their subsidiary Innocent Smoothies with a brand new livery for 2018. Fruit-molesters Innocent have earned plaudits for their casual approach to marketing, and the new tie-up will see Fusion adopt a bright pink scheme.

2018 drivers Fredo Mestolio and Terry Hawkin have spent time in the Innocent factory developing a new "Fredo + Terry" special edition drink which will be available in Sainsbury's; the drink contains bananas, lychee and guarana and will be marketed towards athletes, as well as people who become athletes for one month every four years every time the Olympics is on.

Milka will also sponsor the team with their brand of overly sweet chocolate, ensuring that the Fusion team rack up a large amount of dentist bills.

Diego Alvarez Torrente wrote:I was seriously lucky at the end of that race! So happy to have helped Jones get this Constructors' title, and I hope I can stay for the next year to help the team even further.

Guillaume Gauthier wrote:This was an incredible drive by Danny, simply incredible. 'E looked completely in place when fighting ze Voecklers, Jones, and MRTs, being on ze same strategy as most of them. About lap 37, he reported an issue with ze brakes, and we were quite worried about zis, but he brought the car back expertly, and really zis was something of a blessing in disguise since we were on ze same strategy as Dagnall. We were able to put a few more litres in ze car while we reset the brakes, and that meant we were just able to finish ahead of Schiller.

Kay Lon wrote:4th place, mostly due to the other idiots out there screwing up their fuel economy, is not quite how I imagined the final race of my career - then again, had you told me in 2010 that I would still be around in 2017, I probably would have doubted it, so so much for that. Despite having throttle issues, it was a fun drive and fun was all it was about after Alexey's race engineer was too dumb to plan Q2.

I want to congratulate both champions: whilst Thomas de Bock and I aren't close friends, I still feel great for him, given as we both came in in 2010 and have driven every weekend so far. He had a good season and deserve this. My history with Jones Racing is well known, I still got a few of my guys over there. They deserve this title and should enjoy himself, although I probably will not have made them happy when I was ahead of DAT for a while and refused to let him go.

Now, after my last race, there are a number of people I need to thank: first off my professional idols, James James Davies and Michael Schumacher, without my entire career would not have happened to begin with; Tatsuya Kahama, who hired me at the end of 2009 to allow me to make the step to the big leagues and was on my side during the first difficult years, his confidence in me was crucial for what happened in the years thereafter.

Next are my good friend Sammy [Jones], as well as Shinji Zanmai, who saved my career in 2013 when that egocentrical idiot Mori and that dumb bitch what's-her-name ... Gan Something? ... tried to end it. Next are Daniel Melrose, who taught me that emotionally-charged management doesn't get the job done, a valueable lesson for the BITW teams, and Phoenix McAllister, who entrusted me with Aeroracing's fate the last two years.

Last, but not least, I have to thank every designer, mechanic and guy in the back that worked to provide me with the cars I had the pleasure of driving from 2010 until this very day. Their effort sometimes gets lost in the big headlines, yet without them, even the Best In The World™, read: me, would be literally nothing. Speaking of Best In The World: anyone working for the brand must be praised as well.

Now, as far as my future is concerned, I can say the rumours are true: Best In The World Uster will be running a Skoda works entry in the International Pro Car Championship. I will be both overseeing the development of the new Skoda and joining Sandra Yoo in driving the cars for the 2018 IPCC season. With Koyomi Setou still driving the Mazda, BITW fans should really do themselves a favour and check the series out.

Alexey Buyvolov wrote:despite our great hope that I have had during the season, then I can say that this season was excellent in my performance, excellent work of the team that prepared an excellent car, and a good partner in the team (thanks Kay!), I hope it'll stay in the team for the new season , much count on it, but if there is any concrete proposal from another team do not despise ..

Andrej Kremnicky wrote:Finally, there has been progress in my career, I was able to score points in the season, which was not an easy task, I'm happy and I hope the next step forward in your career ..

L'Equipe wrote:Plaza joins Voeckler GPE in reserve role

Jesus Plaza, who spent the 2017 F1RWRS season racing for Team Mecha, will join Voeckler GPE as a reserve driver for the 2017 season.

However, despite the deal tying him to the French team in 2018, it is widely expected he will still be free to pursue race drives elsewhere, albeit with the caveat he will need replaced if he is called up by VGPE at any point.

pasta_maldonado, during 2015 season, wrote:A couple of interesting factoids here. Every F1RWRS champions has been British, and every constructor's champion has had at least one British driver.

FMecha wrote:

pasta_maldonado, during 2015 season, wrote:A couple of interesting factoids here. Every F1RWRS champions has been British, and every constructor's champion has had at least one British driver.

Now that's no more...

Salamander wrote:.
14. Mecha: 1.5/10
Mecha qualified 19 times this season. They finished exactly 0.