Race Legends - The Blog

Brock and Bondurant on Hand for Cobra Daytona Coupe Sale

Speaking of Peter Brock, both he and Race Legends client Bob Bondurant will be in Monterey, CA this weekend for the sale of the 1965 Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe, CSX 2601. Brock designed and Bondurant drove this car to the FIA World Championship in 1965. Mecum Auction will be selling the car on Saturday, August 15. For more information on the sale and CSX 2601, visit the Mecum Web Site. (Photo courtesy Mecum Auction)

The F1 World

You'd have to been living under a rock to miss all the big news of the past week in F1. Massa surviving an incredible accident in Hungary, Hamilton's win, BMW's announced departure from the sport and the bombshell yesterday of the return of Michael Schumacher to fill in for Massa. What to make of all it?

Massa's Accident: The first thought is that motorsport remains dangerous. Henry Surtees death in F2 from an errant tire and then Massa being hit by a suspension spring from a Brawn remind us that while this is a sport, it is one that can have terrible consequences for its participants.

Hamilton Wins: This season has been completely turned around on the track by the changes and updates to the cars. Brawn stole a march on everyone and for awhile it looked like it was in the bag. But with the introduction of the latest set of Newey designs and then parallel technical improvements at McLaren, we now have a real season. I often hold out situations like this as an example to my kids: it isn't over until it is over and luck often favors the prepared.

BMW Departs: Any company with public shareholders is under intense scrutiny to justify expenditures. Motorsport participation or sponsorship is the one that is often the hardest to explain and to show psotive net result. With a reported budget of $335 million for this season and with no prospect of a constructors championship, the pressure became too much. Undoubtedly the complete failure of cost-limit discussions earlier this year couldn't have helped. Is this a portent of the future for factory team?

Schumi: What a great time for him! Seven-time champion, independently wealthy, still amazingly fit and ready to do something "interesting". We thought we were in a post-Shcumacher era, but everyone everywhere is abuzz with the news of his return. After all the bad news in the past weeks, it is a ray of sunshine. Even my local newspaper, not known for covering F1 in least, has a sidebar on Schumi's return.

When F1 is news in Iowa - it's big news indeed.

Mosley to Not Stand for FIA Re-election

After weeks of on-again/off-again press releases and heated rhetoric, autosport.com is reporting that Max Mosley has said he will not run for FIA president again. Well, good. Mosely has suggested Jean Todt as a candidate. I don't have any particular insight into this, other than Todt has a successful track record at Peugeot and Ferrari to make him look good on paper - and perhaps acceptable to the manufacturers that were threatening to bolt from F1.

The Motorsports Friends 2009 Catalog

It's now become a tradition that around the first of November each year, a Swiss Post envelope arrives at our offices containing the new Motorsports Friends desktop calendar. Our friend Thomas Horat is one of the creator behind this little jewel of a catalog. Almost all of the photos that go into this weekly calendar were taken by amateurs. So the content and subject matter is like looking into a private slide show. The quality of the material is excellent and the standard of production of the catalog itself meets the vision I have of Swiss perfection.

This is an outstanding calendar and one that I truly treasure. A great way to start each week is to flip over the page. I have to force myself not to look ahead! To get yours, see the Motorsports Friends on-line store. It's the best $20 you can spend.

Formula One Radio Broadcast on Sirius

While traveling this past weekend, I heard a promo over Sirius, the satellite provider, that they are broadcasting Formula 1 races live. I checked the website (www.sirius.com/f1), and found out that the broadcasts are live and started in May with Monaco. There doesn't seem to be any qualifying coverage nor re-broadcast schedule. Also, there is no indication of whose feed it is, so the announcers are not revealed. I'm sure some Google-sleuthing might reveal those answers.

Moss on Alonso: "Threw His Toys from the Pram"

British racing legend Sir Stirling Moss gave his comments over the weekend on Fernando Alonso's announcement that he will be leaving McLaren two years before the end of his contract.

"I think it was an untenable situation.  He had blackmailed Ron Dennis and thrown his toys out of the pram! He is an excellent driver and deserves a good car.  How about a Procar Mercedes (the much discussed David Richards Prodrive F1 team - ed) or Red Bull?"

Moss, often heralded as the greatest driver never to win the F1 championship, was well-know for his display of sportsmanship during his career and his no-holds-barred commentary on the "modern" F1 happenings.

Re: F1 Engine Development to Freeze

Christian, Re: F1 Engine Development to Freeze: I too am surprised by this decision and can't help but think it hints at an internal dispute that has resulted in a temporary stalemate. That's speculation, of course, but high-profile bureaucracies tend to call a brief "time out" when their competing internal elements can't find common ground, and F1 is a very high-profile bureaucracy.

Neither Formula One nor its manufacturers can afford to be portrayed these days as indifferent to the environment, but even besides that, the very idea of Formula One deciding to halt development of its core mechanical component is perfectly ludicrous.

Something else is going on here.

F1 Engine Development to Freeze

Autosport.com is reporting that the FIA announced Tuesday that engine development for F1 will be frozen for 10 years beginning in 2008. Quoting the FIA statement,

"There will be a total freeze on engine development for a period of 10 years, starting from 2008."

I am stunned. In recent decades, F1 was seen as the motorsport series that embraced and leveraged technological change. "The Pinnacle or Motorsport", everyone said. And now at the very time when the world needs a new approach to the internal combustion engine and alternatives, they are going to freeze development? Ridiculous.

Best F1 Quip So Far

The best F1 quip thus far in the new 2007 season came from SpeedTV's own Bob Varsha. "There's Jenson Button sitting in the swamp", commented Varsha during SpeedTV's live coverage of the Australian Grand Prix Practice Session 2.

In my mind, he summed up a lot about the Honda F1 effort so far. While being "green" is laudable, why oh why would you design a car livery that makes it invisible on the track when shown on TV? Remember Jaguar's extensive experiments to get the right "TV" green for their cars? This is a sport whose most important product is a television signal. One would think that the people at Honda's marketing agency might have done a little research on that.

My prediction: This livery does not last beyond the first few races. Unless Honda continues to be a backmarker, in which case, they may very well want to be invisible.

CHRISTIAN GURNEY

Montoya learns fast

I didn't get to see much of the Busch Race in Mexico but did see Montoya bull his way through and win. I would expect him to get his first NASCAR victory on a road course, what with his experience in F1, but I didn't think he'd pick up so quickly on the bumper car philosophy of racing being shown so well this season. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt as he's new to all this and, after all, a Busch car is something world's away from an F1 car.

Anyway, the good old boys will get him shaped up fast enough and then we'll see his skills improving as he gets comfortable and I would expect him to be at the front for NEXTEL races for most of the season and that's good. It's also good for him to be driving in the Busch as well and I applaud more of the drivers doing the "supporting" races. Back in the "Glory Years," drivers like Stirling Moss and his contemporaries drove in everything available. I can remember Stirling driving at Silverstone (or maybe it was Goodwood - I'm not looking it up) and driving in the saloon (sedan) class, Formula 2, Sports cars and Formula 1 all in a weekend and finishing up front in just about all.

It's looking like a good season for everything including IRL and Champ Cars. We need a season of good racing and this could be that season. I haven't really analyzed the test weekend at Bahrain yet but a cursory view indicates it may be the most competitive for a while. I'll sound out some of my friends and clients and get their views when I get a chance.

Donn Gurney