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Turkey F1

Get fit with Eddie

Get fit with Eddie

Istanbul Park, Saturday. Former team boss and personal irritant to David Coulthard, Eddie Jordan, today announced that the two most unfit drivers he ever employed were Giancarlo Fisichella and Eddie Irvine.

According to EJ, Irvine (left) often struggled to make… it to the door, though thankfully he did finally manage to reach it and escape to a life of luxury with Ferrari and Jaguar, before retiring to spend more time with his money.

Jordan, who had no less than 30 drivers race for him in F1, must know his stuff (his BBC colleague, Jake Humphrey, does remind us of this a lot) but EJ’s comments on fitness may have been ill advised, as during a walk up the pitlane with Jake and Coulthard, Eddie was out of puff by the time they got to the Red Bull pit and when the trio reached Renault, he was well and truly knackered - but was still expected to interview Flavio Briatore.

Eddie then posed a long, breathless, question to Flavio that would have had an asthmatic reaching for his inhaler but with Briatore being in one of his totally incomprehensible moods, nobody was any the wiser.

No change there then.

Good news for McLaren?

Good news for McLaren?

 

Istanbul Park, Saturday. After failing to make it through Qualifying 1 - again, McLarens Lewis Hamilton told the world “We’ve lost our way with this car, we probably should have scrapped it a long time ago” which must have cheered… his team up no end - even though he is probably right.

However, there is a morsel of good news on the horizon, as under the new car scrappage scheme introduced by the UK Government, McLaren will get £2,000 towards the cost of their next car if they send the MP4 -24 to the crusher.

Said a spokesman for the Department of Transport; “Normally the car would need to be over 10 years old to qualify for the scheme, but we recognise that it would be for the good of the nation to put this particular dog out of its misery now

Ferrari give new system to McLaren

Ferrari give new system to McLaren

 

Istanbul Park, Saturday. Having discovered they don’t need it anymore, Ferrari have, rather charitably, donated their new control system to McLaren.

Ferrari install new system

Ferrari install new system

 

Istanbul Park, Friday. Following second practice for the Turkish Grand Prix, where the best their cars could manage was a lowly 11th and 15th, Ferrari install new controls to be used if things don’t improve for qualifying.

Glock angers builders..

Glock angers builders..

 

In the run up to the Turkish Grand Prix, Timo Glock has got himself into hot water with construction union, the ‘Trade of Scaffolding Services’ (TOSS) after commenting in this month’s F1 Racing magazine, that the ‘system’ method of scaffolding… is easier to use than the tube and fittings alternative.

Glock, who served his apprenticeship at the family scaffolding firm in Germany during his F3 days, apparently does not have his ‘CISRS Advanced Scaffolding Certificate’, which according to TOSS spokesman, Darren Owens (left) does not qualify the Toyota star to advise on scaffolding practices.

Owens, 42, said; “We are tired of Formula One drivers telling us how to do our job. Last week we had Kimi Raikkonen, being interviewed by ‘Auto und Motors’, giving his opinion on the best way to mix cement while Robert Kubica recently gave a demonstration of bricklaying on a Polish DIY television show – it is just not on”. He added; “After all, we wouldn’t tell BMW or Toyota how to build a quick race car would we?”

Come to think of it, that may not be such a bad idea as it first sounds….

Cheer up McLaren - it could be worse…

Cheer up McLaren - it could be worse...

 

With Lewis Hamilton already a whopping 42 points behind Jenson Button, with only a quarter of the season gone, it seems that McLaren are considering giving up this year as a bit of a bad idea, to concentrate on preparing for 2010 instead. Thats $400 million well spent then.

According to Spanish newspaper ‘El Pais’, McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh reckons that the MP4-24 is not going to shine at aerodynamically-demanding tracks like next weekend’s Turkish GP venue.

So, it won’t work at fast, open tracks like Istanbul Park and it wasn’t too mesmerising around a non-aero circuit like Monaco either. OK – now we get the point about giving it all up for 2009.

With Mercedes apparently showing interest in branding the all conquering Brawn GP car, Whitmarsh applauds the success of the new team, but points out that the team’s car is based on former owner Honda’s efforts over 18 months, comprising “four wind tunnels and hundreds of millions of dollars“.

Sounds like a bit of an excuse to us, but Martin should look on the brightside. The management at Honda, who decided to ditch the F1 effort five minutes before the Brawn glory started, must be seriously more hacked off than he is…

BMW introduce new mount for Turkish GP

BMW introduce new mount for Turkish GP

After his two drivers qualified 17th and 18th in Monaco, BMW boss, Dr Mario Theissen, has decided to fully concentrate on the 2010 car and introduce something more apt for the Turkish Grand Prix. Just as slow, but much more reliable..

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