A tantalising taste of F1 on Channel 4

F1 offers a lot, it seems Channel 4 would have treated it well. (Infiniti)

The emergence of Channel 4’s proposal for their Grand Prix coverage is intriguing, if you haven’t seen it then take a look for yourself here. Sharing a title with a BBC documentary on the history of racing (The Power and The Glory) made me groan, but from there on in it looks stunning thanks to Darren Heath’s perfect photography and some understated design. More on F1’s history sounds great too, the Senna movie proves that tales from the past can attract new interest in the future. Channel 4 have done a cracking job with cricket and cycling in the past, I would love to have seen what they could have done with Grand Prix racing. TV brings value to a sport, not just the other way round, so let’s hope that the BBC and Sky delivered a better product to the doors of FOM rather than just the extra £5 million they are rumoured to have stumped up.

There has been a lot of doom and gloom surrounding the new TV deal for F1 in the UK. Looking at the viewing figures for other sports that have shifted to Sky Sports does not make reassuring reading – even the national obsession of Premiership football does not have the viewing figures you would imagine – it is only the BBC’s Match of the Day highlights show in the evening that gathers comparable viewers to a Grand Prix here in the UK, the live matches are often seen by thousands rather than millions despite the total saturation of soccer in the media. There is an argument that putting a bitesize F1 programme early in the evening on the BBC could actually get new casual viewers on board rather than lose them, though it will also put F1 in the firing line of the X Factor and soaps.

Before dismissing Sky we should remember that they cover some sports very well, although motorsport is not currently one of them. While they may not have dedicated much production budget to them, Sky brought live coverage of the Indy 500 and Nascar to the UK, promoted Speedway and they popularised World Superbikes making Carl Fogarty into a star. Since the 1990s their motorsport coverage has stagnated badly, but don’t underestimate them.

The cost will naturally deter many fans and the BBC have done a near-perfect job since 2009 so it will require some serious commitment from Sky to encourage fans to shell out. I’m hoping that this rubs off on their Indycar coverage and encourages them to pick up other motorsports, but we’ll see.

My ideal would be for all the support races to be shown too, creating a complete race day like bikes on Eurosport or touring cars on ITV. Somebody needs to rescue the WRC too, but now I’m just getting greedy. Or I’m simply hoping that they justify the sacrifices many will need to make if they want to see all 20 races live in 2012. As many have pointed out you could go to all three days of a Grand Prix for less than it costs to get Sky Sports in HD…

The drizzle-meister strikes again

200 not out - that was vintage Button. (pic ph-stop)

So F1 produced another thriller, yet that man Vettel still moved further ahead in the driver’s standings while Red Bull’s advantage was barely dented in the constructors. The 2011 season puts me in mind of Alex Zanardi’s CART championships; exciting races but no one clear challenger to the main contender. All this action is making Sebastian’s job easier. If Lewis or Fernando had produced the goods then we would be looking at a clear-cut rival to Vettel, instead it was the plucky Jenson Button who took a win at his 200th Grand Prix.

I have a confession to make here – I haven’t seen the full Hungarian Grand Prix as I was working. Oh how it pains me to say that, it was the first F1 race I’ve missed since 2002 – and that blip was due to being at a race meeting myself so it wasn’t such a disaster. So I’ll steer clear of ruminating too long on the event, suffice to say it was classic Button – changing conditions, keeping a cool head, confidence when others were lacking. He’s maturing into the thinking-man’s driver.

My second and final observation is that the stewards love him so much that they appear to have invented a new penalty just for Lewis Hamilton. I’ve never seen a driver punished for spin-turning the car in traffic or not. To be fair it was a dangerous move, it just shows how the FIA are clamping down on driving standards which is for the most part a good thing. Although dragging an exploded car the wrong way down the pitlane right into the championship leader’s path did rather make a mockery of their “make roads safe” campaign…

Senna – more than PR gold

Burn-outs are fun, but racing for Renault would be better. (p_c_w)

Does a famous family name really make a driver’s life any easier? It certainly doesn’t make them any faster, that much has been proven many times. It can make them richer, but not always – Damon Hill would know all about that. Bruno Senna is both blessed and burdened by the most famous name in racing, a name that frankly nobody could live up to. Bruno has been granted a go in free practice this coming Friday at the Hungaroring while his Renault team are also making positive noises about their fellow reserve driver Romain Grosjean. It’s about time that Renault noticed the potential in its own reserve drivers.

Of course Renault will be hoping neither driver is needed to step into a race seat although they are facing the grim reality that team leader Robert Kubica has to overcome many hurdles before he can return to F1 and Nick Heidfeld is solid but not able to lift the car to the highest heights. Meanwhile Vitaly Petrov has gone against type and is within only two points of the veteran, which appears to have brought Eric Boullier and his merry men round to the idea of finally considering a youngster for Heidfeld’s role – 18 months ago the quiet Russian was a far bigger gamble than either Senna or Grosjean are right now.

Some forum warriors on t’internet have been quick to dismiss Bruno Senna, many before he had turned a wheel in a contemporary Grand Prix machine. I genuinely believe that Bruno has the talent, he just needs the chance to use it. He had barely begun in karting when his exploits were cut short by the loss of his uncle prompting his family to stop his career almost before it started. Damon Hill, another man who was the second generation of a driving dynasty, also skipped the karting step and he still did alright for himself. To my knowledge Senna and Petrov are the only drivers who came from a largely non-karting background to make it into F1 in recent years, an achievement that cannot be underestimated.

This lack of a childhood spent behind the wheel meant that Bruno Senna’s very first full season of racing was in British Formula 3, a crucial distinction in his career that is lost on many. Those drivers who are multiple karting and junior formula winners often fall at this hurdle; Bruno gamely went into F3 with only seven races to his famous name. After a solid debut year in 2005 with Raikkonen Robertson Racing he took things up a notch in 2006 by winning the first two rounds in style at a wet Oulton Park, not a bad way to begin only your second year of racing. He went on to win another three races to take third overall at the end of the year, a great achievement for any driver, let alone one with such little experience who carries such great expectations. I’m struggling to think of anybody from the current crop of Grand Prix stars who was winning such high-profile races within just over a year of starting out. Nope, can’t think of any – not even Vettel the wunderkid.

After Formula 3 Senna went on to impress in GP2; in 2008 he took second in the title race to the vastly more experienced Giorgio Pantano – a guy who had been at this level of competition or above for eight seasons, far before Senna had even started his career. Testing for Honda’s F1 outfit beckoned, their emotional link with the Senna name made a hook-up between them a no-brainer. Bruno looked set to hit the big time only four years after he started car racing. Then the Japanese manufacturer pulled the plug on F1, the team became Brawn GP and they plumped for their old pal Rubens Barrichello rather than his more youthful countryman. Senna was left to compete in sportscar racing where he struggled for the first time since his early days. Even harder lessons were learned by taking his F1 bow with the woeful HRT squad in 2010. The impressive momentum built up from 2005 to 2008 was broken and Senna was passed over for this year, winding up as one of Renault’s many testers. A shame in my view. Anybody who can drive the wrong way down Eau Rouge while filming on his phone is pretty handy in a race car!

While I don’t know for certain what Bruno could do with a decent F1 chance, there is no way we’ll ever find out unless he gets the time on track. Hopefully his practice run in Hungary is an audition for a proper go at Interlagos or even sooner.

In the same week that Senna gets his run with the team Eric Boullier has been extolling the virtues of Romain Grosjean. As much as he has been a delight to watch in GP2 this year, Romain has been racing for long enough to know how to win by now, anything less would be disappointing.

What needs to be remembered is that amongst the complex web of ownership at Renault is the Gravity driver management venture. Like Flavio Briatore before them, the current management are tied commercially to drivers so it is in their interest to talk them up, although Senna is not one of them. Grosjean is part of the Gravity stable, but they need to remember that throwing Grosjean into an F1 race seat too soon damaged his market value back in 2009. In my fantasy team manager role I would leave him to focus on winning GP2, he already has F1 on his CV.

Since its rebirth in 2002 the Renault team has never felt a compulsion to run a French driver, so that is not in Grosjean’s favour as Bourdais and Montagny will testify. These days the F1 effort isn’t an outpost of the French manufacturer anyway, indeed the team wouldn’t even be called Renault if the top brass had their way.  The chassis would most likely take the title of its sponsor – Lotus – if the team could find favour with enough of the F1 paddock to allow a name change. The car is already painted in black and gold, a yellow helmet would sit nicely in there and they know it.

Group Lotus have bold ambitions which thus far are mostly based around creating a PR buzz. Right now their game-plan is more about building the brand than the brand building thousands of supercars. For the most part their racing efforts involve putting stickers on established racing teams – Renault in F1, ART in GP2 and KV Racing over the pond in Indycar. They’ve badged Judd’s forthcoming Indy engine too, although interestingly there is increasing talk that Lotus-affiliated KV Racing are not interested in running their main sponsor’s motor.  With the PR push in full swing Danny Bahar and company must be itching to see Senna race, their marketing department wouldn’t miss Nick Heidfeld at the Brazilian Grand Prix even if his vast experience is valuable to the engineers at Renault.

I can’t stand to see talent go to waste, so I would unashamedly love to see Bruno Senna get a proper crack at driving in F1 again. Hungary is a start, but surely Renault could find a proper place for Senna come Interlagos? Despite the last three years being trying for Bruno, the previous three seasons showed that he is packing more talent than the doubters would have you think. Is it enough to make a real impact on F1? Well we won’t know until somebody gives him a half-decent car, will we? Come on Renault, roll the dice.

A chink in the armour

Still something to prove - Seb can't quite match Lewis' racecraft. (Infiniti)

After starring in qualifying Lewis Hamilton put in a spectacular drive to win a fine race this afternoon at the Nurburgring. The Mclaren star had to go wheel-to-wheel with Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber, while Sebastian Vettel took until the last lap to grab fourth from Felipe Massa in the pitlane and Adrian Sutil picked up a superb sixth for Force India in his home Grand Prix. Hamilton has rarely looked happier and rightly so. He had the pace all race and put in two very different but equally brave moves on Alonso and Webber, using his ability to strike hard when his rivals are vulnerable.

Despite a spot of wheelspin off the startline Lewis seized the top spot from polesitter Mark Webber, although at least the Australian finally led some laps in 2011. Mark fought back briefly as he passed Lewis for all of one corner but it wasn’t until the leader’s pitstops were completed on lap 17 when the Red Bull man assumed control, before dropping to third the next time he stopped for tyres on lap 30 on a day when the lead three cars were tightly matched. This time it was Alonso who emerged ahead of Hamilton out of the pits, though it was short-lived as the Mclaren driver powered his way around the outside of the Ferrari in turn two as the Spaniard emerged on colder rubber. Webber then lost touch on a rare day where the Red Bull looked like it was only the third quickest car on circuit leaving Lewis Hamilton to take his 16th Grand Prix victory.

Vettel was way out of sorts with a spin on lap 10 during a very difficult first half of the race for the world champion which left the homeboy locked into a battle with Massa for a distant fourth place. A last lap switch to the prime tyre for both of them came out in Sebastian’s favour but it took the pitcrew to make the pass for him. Sebastian is arguably the outright fastest driver but he still hasn’t quelled the doubts over his ability in traffic. There remains something to prove for the youngest ever champion of the world when it comes to racecraft.

Suffering far more than any other title contender was Jenson Button who not for the first time made a bad getaway before eventually succumbing to a hydraulic failure just after fighting his way past Rosberg into sixth place. Button was left down in the dumps while Hamilton was up in the clouds.

Within a week we will go from one ring to the other as the teams pack up their kit at the Nurburgring and drive to the Hungaroring where the heat will literally be on Mclaren and Ferrari to keep up their current run of form. The higher temperatures in Hungary should help Red Bull regain ground once more. For either Lewis or Fernando to overcome Sebastian’s 77 point lead in the championship it isn’t enough to just beat him into second, they need a day like today where both their teams are able to take points away from Red Bull. That is a tough ask but the German Grand Prix will give both squads real hope.

An afternoon of perfect laps

Webber wasn't alone in smiling after qualifying at the 'Ring. (pic Infiniti)

So Lewis Hamilton delivered a “wicked” lap that was “as good as it gets” to split the Red Bulls in qualifying for tomorrows German Grand Prix. Mark Webber sits on the pole with a lap that he said he could barely of driven any better, stoking his hopes to finally lead some laps and win in 2011. Finally banished from the front row is his teammate Sebastian Vettel who lines up third ahead of the two Ferraris, Nico Rosberg was a competitive sixth with Button, Sutil, Petrov and Schumacher completing the top 10.

According to the top two drivers they both drove the perfect lap – fast, committed, yet seemingly undramatic. But the perfect lap means different things to different people. Nico Rosberg out-pacing his illustrious partner is nothing new, but 1.2 seconds ahead of Schumacher at their home race will seem like perfection where he is sitting. You don’t even need to finish ahead of your teammate to feel you have done the perfect job, if not the perfect lap. Karun Chandhok finished just eight tenths behind Heikki Kovalainen for Team Lotus, the Indian driver lines up 21st having only been announced as replacing the troubled Jarno Trulli a few days ago. Given the circumstances faced by Karun it is fair to say that this was the closest to the ideal lap that he could have delivered and he is now in the frame to achieve his dream of driving in the first Indian Grand Prix and beyond.

Even at the tail of the field the HRTs were fighting hard with the other new(ish) teams and Daniel Ricciardo in only his second Formula One qualifying session was within thousandths of Tonio Liuzzi, a guy who has been in F1 since 2005. Again, for the rookie this must have felt like the perfect lap, even last place can feel special when you are in F1.

Red Bull-backed Australians bookended the time sheets in a qualifying hour that promises much for tomorrow, especially with Vettel finally out of the top two. Sebastian obviously will not be chuffed with this at his home race, even if the Grand Prix circus is itching to knock him off his pedestal everywhere he goes. Surprisingly the Mclaren looks competitive on the harder compounds as well as the softs, at least in Lewis’ hands during qualifying, though Mark Webber produced a special drive on F1’s last visit to the Nurburgring to overcome a penalty and score his debut win so he has still installed himself as the favourite even if all eyes were on Hamilton. The weather could be the curveball that wipes the smile off a few faces on race day, though you suspect that Hamilton could find himself with an even bigger grin if the rain comes. He’ll need to do an awful lot more “wicked” laps to keep this competitive top five in check either way.

Can the ‘Ring be saved?

Old meets new at the world's automotive playground. (pic Lexus)

There is nothing more mournful to the devoted petrolhead than a once glorious racing venue that has fallen silent. The world’s first purpose-built motorsport arena at Brooklands was bombed into submission barely 30 years after it ushered in the modern format of circuit racing. Its abandoned banking is a ghostly reminder that no circuit is immune to the hand of time or, it seems, the hand of Herman Tilke. On the eve of the German Grand Prix it is worth remembering that although the Nurburgring has admirably survived a brush with Tilke, now this most fearsome of tracks is under threat from its own custodians.

In a bye-gone age when true road racing over mammoth stretches of tarmac still existed the confines of the Nordschleife still managed  to conjure up fear in even the most daring drivers. Nobody conquered the 14 miles as convincingly as Juan Manuel Fangio in 1957 or Jackie Stewart in 1968, both of whom later confessed to the fear that taming the Green Hell struck into them. That a circuit as daunting and idiosyncratic as this still hosts racing, let alone members of the public hurtling round in their own cars and bikes, is a rare triumph for the thrill-seeking spirit in an ever more homogenised world. That this Mecca for motorists is struggling under the weight of its debt is a more than a shame, it is a threat to a great symbol of the freedom of motoring.

The organisers of the Nurburgring 24 Hours have spoken of ditching the venue at the end of its current contract while Formula One is now an irregular and expensive visitor to the reasonable Tilke-drome that was tacked onto the old track in 1984. It seems that the pilgrims in their track-ready and not so track-ready machines along with the manufacturers that pride themselves on their intensive ‘Ring testing are the ones keeping races happening here at all. It certainly isn’t the track-side roller coaster that is paying the bills, nor is it the costly honour of holding the German Grand Prix. The Save The Ring campaign outlines the massive mis-managements behind the Nurburgring’s current woes. As the Grand Prix circus roll through the Eifel mountains there is no better time to connect with Save The Ring and show your support for the last bastion of a heroic era.

There is a demonstration planned for Sunday which the campaigners hope will show the world what is going on beyond the weekend’s big race. The world’s automotive playground is sinking in debt after questionable investments based on over-optimistic targets. Now those running the show want us to ‘Love the Ring’; they clearly don’t realise that millions of motor-mad individuals already do adore this place. They also don’t appreciate the art of the double entendre…

Save the Ring wants to see new management and the separation of the circuit from the exhibition halls and roller coasters springing up around the hallowed roads. I’m not nearly well informed enough to know if they stand a chance of success, but I wish them well. Plenty of tracks have fallen victim to mis-management over time, indeed Donington Park was so nearly lost recently, but surely a national treasure that has survived so much with its spirit intact can’t be left to flounder in a sea of debt?

Safety – the tradition worth keeping

The FIA needs to look to Le Mans, just not too closely... (pic Supermac1961)

It is two years to the day since we tragically lost rising British talent Henry Surtees at Brands Hatch after he was struck by an errant wheel from another Formula 2 car. That means it is also around two years since Felipe Massa was hit by a piece of suspension at the Hungarian Grand Prix, his survival being a testament to the helmets sported by drivers in contemporary racing. Since that dark month the FIA has looked into cockpit protection and has released footage of an initial test that involved a big cannon, a wheel and a piece of an aeroplane.

The FIA video shows tests that featured slamming a wheel into a jet canopy at 225km/h – a modest speed in F1 terms but still plenty quick. The good news is that the wheel bounced off, the bad news is that an aircraft canopy is probably the wrong place to start – simply using an enclosed carbon fibre racing car would seem more relevant. It’s certainly taken a long time for what looked like the very early stages of real-life research to materialise, but at least it’s underway. The FIA listed a number of downsides to having such a strong structure above a driver including egress, access, visibility and so forth; all factors that don’t seem to bother any of the multitude of series where the driver is hidden behind a windscreen. A fighter jet’s canopy seems like overkill, surely something more akin to a Le Mans-style sportscar would do the trick? Maybe I’m wrong, I’m just shocked at such an extreme idea being the first we see of this initiative.

Some observers have already bemoaned the idea of an F1 car with a lid on, saying that it would become the aforementioned sportscar. For me this is nonsense. It is open wheels rather than the amount of protection above a driver’s head that defines the nature of formula racing. The action on track didn’t radically change due to the shift from cloth caps to proper helmets in the 1960s and nor would it if the driver was further protected. As long as open wheels are still present and correct we won’t see bumper-to-bumper rubbing, so what’s the fuss?

I’m also a bit miffed when debris entering the cockpit is dismissed as a freak accident. Maybe it is a freak, but it isn’t unique. As if the two incidents so close together in 2009 weren’t enough, Ayrton Senna would have stepped out of his accident at Imola in 1994 had his head been protected by a windscreen and a roof. Instead of addressing this directly the cars were slowed (for a time) and circuits were emasculated. Maybe these changes would have occurred anyway, but it certainly didn’t seem like the most logical of tactics to my young mind. Wheel tethers are a good idea and better helmets are always welcome, but these noble measures haven’t stopped this rare problem from recurring.

As for those who use the tradition argument, it seems they are watching the wrong sport. F1 moves on at such a staggering pace that traditions are eradicated year in year out. Even a circuit as enshrined in history as Monte Carlo makes minor changes on a nearly annual basis, hardly anything is sacrosanct in the Grand Prix world. One constant in F1, at least from the late-1960s onwards, is the advancement of safety for both the sport and often helping those on the road too. Now that is a tradition worth keeping.

Designed to race, destined not to

The Pininfarina Ferrari Sigma - fated to a life of posing for pictures. (pic El Caganer)

Ifs, buts and maybes are an integral part of motorsport. Indeed, as Murray Walker would say, IF is (almost) F1 spelt backwards. Watching the radical Lotus 88 that F1 eschewed in the early 1980s speeding to the fastest time at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the hands of Dan Collins got me thinking about what other astounding machines were built to race but never had the chance to fulfill their destiny. Here are ten of my favourites…

Lotus 88 – When the Lotus-pioneered ground effect cars were culled from Formula One Colin Chapman was determined that this drag-less way of achieving serious road-holding would not die. The solution was the 88, an early carbon fibre creation that housed twin-chassis; one for the cockpit, the other for the main car itself. This allowed space for air to flow through the car and suck it to the ground. Formula One never gave the car the thumbs up, it only appeared at a few practice sessions in the hands of Nigel Mansell and Elio de Angelis in 1981 who gave it rave reviews.  Colin Chapman lobbied hard for the 88’s legality, his arguments falling on deaf ears.

Jaguar XJ13 – Amongst the prettiest racing machines ever built was the sumptuous Jaguar XJ13. At the start of the 1960s Jaguar had toyed with shifting the engine from up-front to amidships, although it took until 1966 for the XJ13 to finally hit the track. By this point the glorious green machine was already behind the times. As Ford and Ferrari duked it out at Le Mans with the Porsche 917 waiting in the wings, Jaguar were struggling to develop their swooping creation and after a change of ownership the company ditched the project. The new 3-litre rules at Le Mans mirrored Formula One at the time and would have forced Jaguar to ditch the 500 horsepower V12 that was peeking through the perspex panel in the middle of the car, the gestation of the XJ13 was just too long and its engine was powerful but dated. Like the TSR 2, Britain had lost a truly remarkable machine to economic pressures. Only one car was ever made and was later destroyed in a huge crash while making a publicity film in 1971. It was rebuilt a couple of years later by which time the XJ13’s moment had long since past.

Ferrari 637 – To many the Prancing Horse is Formula One, so when Maranello produced a bona fide Indycar in 1986 the racing world took notice. Sadly the 637 was just a political tool, leverage to help Ferrari get what it wanted from Formula One at a time when the rules were up for discussion. The engine eventually raced at Indy under the Alfa Romeo brand but the car itself never competed despite posing for photos on the yard of bricks. Gustav Brunner’s creation certainly looked the part and was on-the-money technology-wise, it is likely that it would have given March and Lola a real headache. Since the ’80s Ferrari has made vague threats about competing at Indy, though the words were never backed up by deeds ever again.

Allard J2X-C – OK, so this car did compete just the once, but it is still one of the great missed opportunities in racing. I was at the Autosport Show in 1992 when the Allard J2X-C was revealed – I knew I had seen the future of sportscar design right there. Sadly the revived Allard company itself was to play but a very small part in this future, the project was dead by the end of 1993 though its ideas live on at Le Mans to this day. To overcome the understeer inherent in Group C machines with huge rear wings and a tiny front splitter the Allard used ‘pontoon’ fenders with adjustable wings covering the suspension and an early example of an anhedral nose. The J2X-C set the standard for creating downforce where previously there was none, the design also encouraged air to flow around every surface of the car rather than going straight over it – a key philosophy shared by many modern race cars. The Allard even featured a rudimentary version of the current hot-topic of F1 in 2011 – exhaust blowing. Under-developed and down on power from its customer DFR engine, other teams simply sought to design their own evolutions of the J2X-C concept rather than buy one off the shelf, although Honda were amongst the initial suitors for this striking machine. With no customers the company closed and the car was auctioned for a mere £76,000 before being taken to test at Le Mans, sadly proving far too slow on the straights. Eventually the Allard competed just the once at an IMSA race at Laguna Seca, never coming near to the fighting chance it deserved.

Alfa Romeo 164 Pro-Car – Anybody for an F1-powered, 211mph, mid-engined, carbon-bodied touring car formula? The Pro-Car series was floated in the late 1980s as a crazy mash-up of F1, touring cars and prototypes. The series for these hyper-saloons never materialised, but Alfa Romeo had 15 cutting-edge V10 Grand Prix motors and no teams to run them, so they decided to pop one in the 164 Pro-Car in 1988 instead. It certainly looked the part, the body appeared near-identical to its road-car relative, concealing the Brabham-engineered wizardry within. Riccardo Patrese demoed the Pro-Car at the Italian Grand Prix of 1988 – the saloon car bettering the top-speeds of Senna and Prost’s all-conquering Mclaren MP4-4. Sadly there were no other manufacturers willing to join the party and Pro-Car became the series that never was.

Lancia ECV – Did you find Group B rallying too tame? Then you my friend need Group S. The S must have stood for suicidal. Group S was slated to replace the formula that spawned the Audi Quattro and the Lancia 037 with a collection of sports prototypes such as the ECV which extensively used carbon fibre to cut 20% from its already fly-weight predecessors. The 1.8 litre engine used a multi-stage turbo to pump out over 600bhp to all four wheels, although there was talk of limiting power outputs before Group S was sidelined. The Lancia ECV (experimental composite vehicle) never got to tread the forests and mountains of the world as rallying had been turned on its head by Henri Toivonen’s tragic accident in 1986 heralding a new era of safer Group A cars. Unlike the Killer Bs, Group S only required a handful of cars to be built to gain homologation which opened the door for prototypes that majored on innovation. Lancia, Opel and Toyota had already built Group S cars when the category was scrapped in 1986 while Audi and Ford were on their way to producing cars to this exciting new rulebook too. Without the shackles of designing within road car rules there would surely have been more madness just around the corner, something rallying just couldn’t afford at the time. Lancia obviously didn’t get the memo – they later made themselves an ECV2 as well…

Alfa Romeo Tipo 512 – A pre-war Grand Prix car with a flat 12 supercharged motor slung behind the driver and a gearbox over the rear axle was most commonly found painted in Silver, but not the Alfa Romeo 512. No, it was a blood-red Italian stallion built in 1940 to take on the might of the Auto Unions. Swallowed up by the war effort, the 512 was tested until 1943 but never met its rivals; by no means the only racing machine to fade away during the war years. Designed as a successor to the Alfetta 158, the 512 wasn’t eligible for the newly formed Formula One World Championship by the time it began in 1950. Ironically Alfa campaigned the once-outclassed 158 instead, winning the first two world championships with elegant updated versions of this 1930s steed.

Lexus ISF Racing Concept – When Opel left the DTM it sold a Vectra to Toyota so the Japanese giant could evaluate its own silhouette racer. The ISF Racing Concept was shown at the 2008 Tokyo Motor Show but Lexus eventually forgot all about their Opel-based beast, leaving Audi and Mercedes to fight alone in Germany until 2012. The Lexus wasn’t the only new-generation DTM car to suffer a false-start; Zakspeed also developed a Volvo for the return of the series in 2000. The car didn’t quite fit the rules and was declined the chance to race while the Audi TT which wasn’t large enough to fulfill the size criteria was granted an entry and eventually took the 2002 title, such is the fickle world of motorsport.

Toyota TF110 – Intricate aerodynamics, tight packaging and ‘adjustable’ suspension – these were some of the ingredients for Red Bull’s championship success in 2010. They are also features shared by the Toyota TF110 that was designed and ready to roll when the Japanese giant pulled the plug on F1 in a tearful press conference at the end of 2009. The company still intended to lease their services to another team, sadly they picked Stefan GP – the Serbian squad that showed up far too late in the day to get the other teams to agree to their entry. That didn’t stop them signing Jacques Villeneuve and Kazuki Nakajima, nor did it preclude them from sending freight to the first round in Bahrain. After being turned away the cutting-edge TF110 has only ever been driven around the car park at Toyota Motorsport’s Cologne headquarters, a less than glorious way to test such a machine. Who knows, perhaps the underachievers were on the verge of doing a Brawn and shocking the F1 world after losing the backing of a big Japanese manufacturer? F1 moves so fast that despite Hispania looking at buying the design it is now certain that a quick spin in the parking lot is about as much as we’ll see from the TF110 for a while.

Pininfarina Ferrari Sigma – OK, so this 1969 car was created by a styling house rather than Maranello itself and was never intended to race, but the Sigma was one of the first racing machines to put the emphasis on safety – something to be applauded in an era when drivers rarely got old. Oh, and it is well worth drooling over the Pininfarina-penned lines that dictated many a fictional Matchbox car. The Sigma featured a driver survival cell, roll-bar disguised as a wing, automatic fire extinguishers, plastic fuel-tanks, seatbelts, side-impact protection and most striking of all were the ‘fenders’ to help prevent interlocking wheels. This most visible of safety advances was the only one that didn’t find itself in Formula One in the future. The project was instigated by Auto Revue magazine and was backed by other manufacturers, though it was Ferrari that provided the chassis and running-gear to make this ice-cool car possible and will forever prove that safety isn’t just for squares.

Driver in knowing his sport shocker!

Moments like this aren't lost on Karun Chandhok. (pic lukehmuse)

I remember reading a Nigel Roebuck column many, many moons ago that mentioned in passing that many racing drivers aren’t too clued up on their own sport. To my fast-developing sense of motorsport geekery this was akin to being a Milli Vanilli fan then finding out about their dastardly miming or being an Evertonian when Rooney put on a red shirt – I was disillusioned to say the least. These superstar drivers didn’t deserve to have my dream job! I’m sure the astronauts currently orbiting the Earth in Atlantis know exactly who Neil Armstrong is.

Every driver who drives a Formula One car is well aware of what a great opportunity they have from a career perspective, but do they know why Grand Prix racing is so magical? Do they know the legends that have shaped the sport they play? One driver who emphatically does is Karun Chandhok. He’s fast becoming my unsung hero for his encyclopedic knowledge of Ecclestone-era Formula One and his appreciation of turbo-charged Indycars. On the track Karun is not shabby either, his GP2 win at Spa was a great effort and taking a totally untested HRT out into qualifying at Bahrain last year was a minor piece of heroics. On top of that he is a pleasure to listen to on BBC 5live’s excellent commentary team, another dream job for a motor-mad man such as he, though one he must be wishing he wasn’t doing right now.

Dario Franchitti is also pleasingly aware of his place in history, the photo of him looking at Jim Clark’s face on the Borg-Warner Trophy is enough to bring tears to your eyes. Tales of Valentino Rossi watching Norick Abe on video every day before school tells you a lot about how the great man feels about his sport, that is the sort of obsession usually reserved for the anoraks. I also loved this video of Lewis and Jenson exploring Mclaren’s vaults of obsolete yet iconic racing cars, I just can’t picture Kimi and Juan Pablo ever going in there and knowing their MP4/1 from their MP4/4. They probably didn’t know what MP4 even signifies.

As ever, I digress. Senna may be the racer’s racer, but Chandhok is the geek’s racer for sure – and he got himself another page in my good books this week by putting VJ Mallya in his place. It’s well worth a click, fellow Indian star Narain Karthikeyan also has a message for Mallya. The big businessman and former amateur racer (who was a rival of Karun’s Dad once upon a time) has given the former Jordan team an Indian makeover to create the Force India squad, but Mallya’s lack of faith in racing drivers from his part of the world is a little bit disheartening. Both Chandhok and his recently side-lined countryman Karthikeyan, another fellow with a keen interest in racing’s past, have not even been invited to test with the nominally Indian team.

Karun Chandhok delivered the man with the posh yacht an eloquent and accurate dressing down saying, “I think it’s a bit sad that in one breath the chairman of our Indian ASN is talking about how much he has done for Indian drivers and then in the next breath he is criticising India’s only two Formula One drivers.”

Mallya has been accused in his brief time in Formula One of not paying bills and using Force India as a giant ego-trip. This is from respected journos and insiders, as I’ve never been invited to party on his big boat I will defer to their knowledge. I doubt very much that he’s the biggest scoundrel this sport has ever seen, nor is he the best representation of it either. Unlike the two Indian drivers who are currently within touching distance of a proper F1 chance, Mallya clearly isn’t aware of the footsteps he is treading in. He is a speed, money and glamour man, while the drivers he belittles appreciate the artistry of racing.

So here’s to Karun Chandhok for telling Mallya that he’s wrong and generally being a great ambassador for his sport and his country. He knows a lot about the past of his beloved racing, it is so apt that he is amongst the few Indian drivers to be carving out their own pages of history.

Politics at 200mph

Clouds gather over Mark Webber and Red Bull at Silverstone. (pic Infiniti)

So the British Grand Prix was a soaring success. Packed stands, a giant new pit building, decent racing, a welcome first win for Ferrari in 2011 and intriguing weather conditions that looked like Bernie got his way with sprinklers as half the track appeared bone-dry while the rest of the track was awash. But somehow F1 still managed to bring plenty of controversy to an otherwise lovely day out.

First up was the flip-flopping over the charmingly-titled exhaust blowing saga. I am nowhere near technical enough to get my head around the rules themselves although you don’t need to be a Newey-esque genius to work out that changing the rules (or at least the way they are applied) in the middle of a meeting is not a good idea. For anybody. Despite what Adam Parr told Maurice Hamilton in this revealing interview, I doubt a row that even team principals struggled to elaborate on could possibly be good publicity.

I’ve been raised on a diet of burning rubber since I was no taller than a GT40, so if I was left wondering what the hell was going on then the hypothetical man-in-the-pub must have been asking the notional landlord to reach for his imaginary remote-control.

If all the technical trouble wasn’t enough to leave a bad taste in the mouth then the thorny issue of team orders was sure to leave the casual viewer enraged. It was inevitable that the now legal practice of telling your drivers how to race would rear its ugly head at some point in 2011. Politics is distasteful enough in the paddock, let alone when it spills onto the race track.

So was Christian Horner telling Mark Webber to “maintain the gap” to Vettel really so terrible? Of course we all want to see a race, but isn’t it simply sensible to tell your drivers to mind their Ps and Qs? Nobody had to give away a win here after all. Personally I wasn’t anywhere near as offended by Red Bull Racing’s communications as I was last year by Ferrari, at least my intelligence was not insulted this time around. As Eddie Jordan was so very keen to point out, the Webber and Vettel situation was similar to Ralf Schumacher being told not to challenge Damon Hill at Spa in 1998, something that garnered very little complaint at the time. The mad Irishman was only half right about the similarities between the two scenarios; the big difference is that a team like Red Bull with a crushing lead in both championships can afford to take more risks than a small team such as Jordan that had a one-two finish in its grasp for the very first time on that rainy day 13 years ago.

Holding back your drivers seems to go against the Red Bull spirit that prizes extreme endeavours above anything as they eschew conventional advertising in favour of backing the world’s most demanding and dangerous pursuits. But the simple fact is that F1 is a team game and now team orders are allowed. You could argue that this is a mistake on the sport’s part, it is rare that team orders have a nice outcome. From the Pironi and Villeneuve controversy that indirectly led to the loss of an F1 legend to less serious incidents such as Mika Hakkinen’s phantom pitstop gaff in Melbourne and on to Ferrari’s seemingly routine shafting of likeable Brazilians, team orders are bad PR however necessary they may seem when you are responsible for 500 employees and big-brand sponsors. Still, at least it took our minds off exhausts, for that I’m grateful.

Where does all this leave Mark Webber? Exactly where he was 12 months before it seems – at loggerheads with some factions within his own team. With Danny Ricciardo finishing a minute or so down on his nearest rival in his debut Grand Prix the heat isn’t on quite yet for Mark from his fellow Aussie. It seems Mark’s much-rumoured switch to Ferrari is in more danger as Sergio Perez has been penciled in for a test with Maranello before the season is out. Webber may want to focus all his mental energy on getting one over Vettel, but it seems he’ll need to get stuck into some big career decisions a little sooner than he may have liked to.