Would you drive around the Middle East with the word ‘Christian’ painted on the side of your car? Thought not.
27/03 Australia
10/04 Malaysia
17/04 China
08/05 Turkey
22/05 Spain
29/05 Monaco
12/06 Canada
26/06 Europe
10/07 Britain
24/07 Germany
31/07 Hungary
28/08 Belgium
11/09 Italy
25/09 Singapore
09/10 Japan
16/10 Korea
30/10 India
13/11 Abu Dhabi
27/11 Brazil
2010 Archive
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2010 Archive
Campos-2010
It’s trophy time!
The mother of sometime HRT racer, Karun Chandhok, has decided that for some reason, Grand Prix Diary deserves a trophy and so she has commissioned this rather beautiful sculpture in the shape of a samosa for us.
Mrs Chandhok is a… long time follower of us on Twitter and no doubt saw our petition to get her son back into F1 which has peaked at, er… 595 signatures.
She will also have seen that we have made sure her son gets his hands on some silverware (actually it is ‘plasticware’) as he and his HRT team won the ‘Grand Prix Diary New Teams Quiz’, held on the weekend of the Singapore GP. We will meet up with Karun after the end of the season and we’ll swap our trophies, though as you can see from the pictures below, we are fairly sure we will be getting the better deal…
(PS: Mrs Chandhok will be launching our F1 Cookery Corner soon with her favourite ‘Chandhok Family Chicken Curry’. Watch this space.)
Sickon Yamamoto
Following the impressive pace of Christian Klien and the appearance of an Austrian sponsor on the car in Singapore, HRT have allegedly told Sakon Yamamoto that he will be ill again at the Japanese Grand Prix.
He might be better in… time for the Korean round although there are signs that he might ‘Have a bit of a temperature and a sore tummy at the season ending race in Abu Dhabi.
However, with Klien outpacing Bruno Senna all weekend, it has been reported that the Brazilian may be going down with a cold any time soon.
Yamamoto prepares for the challenge of Spa
Members of the Sakon Yamamoto fan club look on worriedly, as their man attempts to take Eau Rouge flat out for the first time.
Indian F1 team to come to Chandhok’s rescue?
Distraught at seeing his fellow countryman, Karun Chandhok, booted out of F1 (albeit temporarily) by Horrid Racing Team, an Indian design student, Nikhil Talal has decided to step in and help Karun out.
Nikhil has constructed a revolutionary F1 car made… entirely out of cardboard boxes and sellotape. Provided he can rustle up the €16 million deposit, Talal, 31, hopes to pip Jacques Villeneuve to the coveted thirteenth team slot for 2011, with Chandhok as number one driver.
The car has already been tested outside Nikhil’s house in Bangalore and while initial results were at first encourging, detailed analysis of the telemetry sadly showed that it had no rigidity to speak of, so was a real handful in the corners, it went all soft in the rain and dodgy build quality meant that every time the wind got up something would fall off.
Still, after what Karun has had to drive so far this year this thing should only be an improvement…
Ten things you did not know, or care, about Sakon Yamamoto
Sakon Yamamoto has been called up to drive for the HRT squad at the British Grand Prix in place of the dropped Bruno Senna but what do we know about the Japanese star?
We spent a good ten minutes on Wikipedia before… we got bored and this is what we found out, so here are ten must know Sakon stats for you to savour.
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Apart from being a Grand Prix driver, Sakon is also a much in demand club DJ. Quite possibly, though we cannot be sure, his favourite tune to slap on the decks is the medically creepy song ‘Turning Japanese’ by The Vapors.
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In 2006 Nick Heidfeld called him a ‘Vanker’ when he mistook him for fellow countryman and mobile chicane, Takuma Sato.
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The reason HRT signed Sakon up as a test driver at the beginning of this year was, and we quote; “So he could help Hispania develop the car” It had nothing whatsoever to do with money. Not at all.
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The reason HRT dropped Bruno Senna on the eve of the British Grand Prix was because they thought he deserved a go and might be quite good. It had nothing whatsoever to do with money. Not at all.
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Sakon is a big Harry Potter fan, actually we don’t know that for sure but he should be, as his hometown of Toyohashi is the base of the fictional Quidditch team, the Toyohashi Tengu.
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Yamamoto’s surname is nearly the same as Yamato, the great World War Two Japanese battleship . The Yamato was moderately fast but unpredictable in the way it steered and had the capability of causing great damage to anything within it’s range. A bit like Yamamoto really.
Sorry, that’s only six facts of interest and we struggled getting that many as the inclusion of the Harry Potter one shows.
Chandhok not so sure about HRT Silverstone upgrade
While the cockpit on his upgraded HRT car is certainly roomy enough, Karun Chandhok is not so sure about its aero effiency. Still, unlike team mate Bruno Senna, at least he’ll be driving something this weekend.
Virgin and HRT revolt over new charges
According to a report in Italy’s Autosprint magazine, F1 teams are now going to be charged for certain pitwall services they have enjoyed for free in the past.
The GPS system that shows where any car is on the track at… any given time, will now have to be paid for as will the weather forecasts, currently provided by Meteo France.
However, some of the less well moneyed teams, notably HRT and Virgin Racing, are not keen on shelling out for these services, especially as when it comes to Meteo France forecasts, they are about as reliable as a chocolate fireguard.
While the top teams are expected to stick with the old system, HRT and Virgin are going back to basics and have, between them, bought a herd of cows to help with rain predictions.
A source close to the teams told us earlier today; “Everybody knows, that cows lay down when rain is on the way and we think that a herd of Friesians will not only be more accurate than Meteo France but they will be cheaper too.”
The plan is to use the cows during the European season while for the end of year flyaway races they will be left at home and replaced by an old man, who will suck his teeth before shrugging and saying that he doesn’t like the look of those skies.
With a big nod to Sniff Petrol
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