Motorsports Mondial

Photo: gpupdate

These boots are made for walking!

Bavarian Blue spotted at the recent Moscow City Racing Festival. Giancarlo Fisichella put the red in Red Square by demonstrating a Ferrari to F1-starved Russian racing fans. They don’t have to wait much longer as Sochi will host will the first ever Formula 1 Championship race in their nation in a few years.

Years have flown by for the German Grand Prix. The home of once mighty 14.2-mile long “Green Hell” was absent from the inaugural season of Formula 1 in 1950 while the Indy 500 was part of the 7-race season. On Sunday, the German Grand Prix returns to a much sanitized and circumcised new Nürburgring following the now infamous race at Hockenheimring last year.

The Nürburgring is where Mark Webber scored an impressive maiden win in 2009. With season half over it is now or ‘niemals’ for the Aussie to win one over his mate in the Red Bull camp. Sebastian Vettel will be aiming for home victory which would pretty much dampen and demoralize the competition for this year’s title hunt.

As impressive and popular Alonso’s victory was in the last round at Silverstone, it was made possible by a rare pit lane problem on Vettel’s stop. Ferrari, or rather Alonso’s Ferrari, may see more wins this season but another ‘Sebastian on Sunday’ story will be hard for the two-time world champion to overcome.

McLaren. Rumors are now flying of a rift between Martin Whitmarsh and Ron Dennis while Lewis Hamilton after experiencing the thrill of championship victory in 2008 is now facing the agony of continued defeat and realizing ‘no package, no delivery.’

The idea or whispers, fueled by the sighting of Hamilton and Christian Horner chatting, of a dream team at Red Bull with the two youngest world champions in the same Austrian-financed British-based team has more spice to it than Indian curry in Calcutta.

The taste is not for everyone’s liking. As the removal of any hint and name in McLaren Technology Centre will testify of the man who brought them four impressive wins in 2008.

Sometimes they just walk all over you…….

GP2 & Grosjean

Romain Grosjean, in the words of a Grand Prix winning French driver, is a “Swiss driver who is French because Bruno Michel (the Boss man of GP2 Series) wants him to be.”

French or Swiss, the kid is quick and has been very successful in junior formulae despite not having an extensive karting career. His last foray into F1 was in the halcyon days of Flavio fiefdom at Renault. It is true Grosjean did not make an instant impact as others have done in their entry into the top tier of racing like Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez, his past and present performance of three wins and championship lead in GP2 warrants a full time ride in 2012.

TLC has never been part of F1 vocabulary but Eric Boullier, team principal at Renault and Gravity Management, the Luxembourg-based company handling Grosjean’s career,  can perhaps provide FST.

Full Support of the Team is a major requirement for any talented driver to succeed.

References available from Barrichello to Saturo.

 

Nasir Hameed

— Greetings and Eifel Mountains regards.