Is Flavor Flav even allowed back into F1 after engineering a crash to get a race win?

At least there is some good news F1 related:

https://www.motorsport.com/gen...ke-accident/6927379/


Zanardi leaves hospital 18 months after handbike accident

IndyCar champion and Paralympic hero Alex Zanardi has finally left hospital 18 months on from the handbike accident that left him with serious head and facial injuries.

Jamie Klein

The 55-year-old Italian legend had been hospitalised after he collided with a truck during the Obiettivo Tricolore handbike relay event in June 2020, with his injuries requiring multiple operations and a prolonged rehabilitation programme.

In an interview with BMW, his wife Daniela provided the first update on her husband's condition since July, saying that Zanardi had left hospital "a few weeks ago" to continue his recovery at home.

“The recovery continues to be a long process," she said. "The rehabilitation programme led by doctors, physiotherapists, neuropsychologists and speech therapists has enabled steady progress.

"Of course, setbacks are there and can still occur. Sometimes you also have to make two steps back in order to make one step forward. But Alex proves again and again that he is a real fighter.

"An important step was that Alex was able to leave hospital a few weeks ago and is back at home with us now. We had to wait very long for this and are very happy that it was possible now, even if there are still temporary stays in special clinics planned for the future to carry out special rehabilitation measures on site.”

Zanardi has made "a lot of progress" in terms of his condition and in particular his arm strength, Daniela said, which has enabled him to spend most of his time in his wheelchair rather than in bed.

On her expectations for her husband's future recovery, she added: “You still can’t predict how his recovery will further develop. It is still a long and challenging way that Alex tackles with a lot of fighting spirit.

"It is a big help for him and us that we receive so much support on this way, not only from the doctors and therapists that intensively work with him. Our friends are always there for us. This includes the BMW Group family which we can always count on and that is firmly at our side also in this difficult time.

"We are very grateful to everyone for that and for so much more because these strong ties give us additional energy. This also goes for the continued sympathy we receive from racing drivers, fans and acquaintances from all over the world.

"We would like to express a big 'Grazie' to all who send their good thoughts and power to Alex."

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
Bernie also thinks Flavio Briatore should be running Ferrari if they want to win again.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/...ari-flavio-briatore/

He is right about Mattia… Probably correct about Flavio/Ferrari! lol

quote:

Is Flavor Flav even allowed back into F1 after engineering a crash to get a race win?

Great question. It was a 5 year ban, then reduced to only 3. It was originally supposed to be lifetime.

Pretty light, IMHO.

Linky to old article

Was it reduced by appeal? MotoGP had a rider attempt to appeal an 18 month doping ban but because he failed to bring any new information to court they increased the ban to four years.

The strange part is Bernie thinks Ferrari need to bring in some non-Italians to shake things up but Flavio's an Italian.
He's probably right about his concept. Back in their last successful run, they had Jean Todt (French), Ross Brawn (English) and a number of designers/engineers and crew that were from elsewhere.

They need a non-Italian to run Ferrari given past recent history. Before Todt and Brawn, they were still floundering when John Bonham was designing Ferraris in the late 80’s early 90’s.

He’s also in Jeffrey Epstein’s black book as well. Not sure if that’s through him banging Naomi Campbell, but Flavor Flav has a sleazy backstory rivaled only by Don King.

How abou this story in regards to personal responsibility and owning your mistakes:

https://www.planetf1.com/news/...y-bastard-pre-italy/

Yuki Tsunoda Admits He Was a 'Lazy B*stard' before moving to Italy midseason

Yuki Tsunoda has revealed his mid-season move to Italy shook him out of being a “lazy b*stard”.

The Japanese rookie had been living in England but in early summer, his AlphaTauri team ordered him to set up home close to their Faenza base instead.

The switch was designed to enable Tsunoda to work more closely with his boss Franz Tost and the engineers after the 21-year-old’s initial promise, when he finished in the points on his debut in Bahrain, failed to evolve into consistent performances.

The team declared themselves happy with how the move was working out and while Tsunoda did not have as productive a year as many had predicted, suffering more than his fair share of crashes, he rounded off the campaign with an excellent fourth place in Abu Dhabi.

From his own perspective, he felt basing himself in Faenza had got him into better, more professional habits than had previously been the case.

“The move helped me in terms of preparation,” said Tsunoda, quoted by the Autosprint website affiliated to Corriere dello Sport.

“Before coming to Italy I was just a lazy b*stard. After training I would go straight home, turn on my PlayStation 5 and play all day, just trying to have fun.

“I think that was the reason why, as I approached the [race] weekend, I had the feeling I had done everything frantically. I was only just starting to prepare for race week and I think it was too late.

“Comparing myself to other drivers as well, I thought about it and prepared a lot more. I’m a rookie and I needed more preparation than the more experienced drivers, and I think I’ve done some useful things since then.

“Some aspects improved after I moved to Italy. After the race, we went back to the factory to review the races to understand what the problems were, and this approach made a difference.”

An area where Tsunoda feels he needs to improve further is his physical conditioning, and to that end he will not be indulging himself too much during the off-season.

“First, I’ll go back to Japan and recharge myself,” he said. “Since February I didn’t go back to Japan. I’ve really missed Japanese food, so I have to recharge first that one.

“But at the same time, of course, I need to improve myself – especially [on the] fitness side. So of course I’ll keep pushing on those things to improve myself, and also have a good start in 2022 at the first race in Bahrain.

“That’s pretty much how I’ll do the off-season. I won’t be, like, fully rested or drinking beer or whatever. It will be a tough off-season, but to have a good start I need those things.”

A couple interesting stats on the '21 season

McLaren was the only team to get a 1-2 finish, neither Mercedes nor Red Bull managed it this year.

Verstappen is the champion since Lauda in '84 that did not race against M[ichael] Schumacher.

I was surprised to see the McLaren 1-2 finish stat.
That shows how much better the front two were than the rest, including their teammates.
I remember when Ricciardo was getting crap because he was often as much as .4 to 5 seconds behind Max in qualifying. In the races he was usually much closer and sometimes ahead.
RB would be happy to have someone in that car like that again, in spite of squeaking through with Perez.
That probably did cost them the Mfg. championship.

Perez really came alive at the tail of the season.
We'll see what he can do with a bit more establishment in the team, for '22.

The MCL 1-2 was a bit of luck, with the MV/LH bunk beds in T2.

I'm curious now, how far back you have to go to find another season where the WCC top 2 didn't get a 1-2 finish in a season.

Found a video that puts the new 2022 rules into context:

Sounds like Otmar's out at Aston Martin. No indication yet where he might end up.
When Martin Whitmarsh was hired recently it sounded like something was up but he is listed on the road car side of the business. Still could be that way, too early to tell.

^ Saw rumors this morning about Otmar possibly landing at Alpine.

The Race had a video about that today:



I was wondering when Larry was going to show him the door for taking the copy/paste Mercedes from last year and failing miserably the with supposedly "better" $15 million a year Sebastien Vettel failing to match Sergio Perez.

A couple of points brought up in the video is that Martin Whitmarsh is more like the guy in charge of the whole Aston Martin program with both the road car and race team reporting to him, and there's been rumors of him going to Alpine for the last several months.

Something F-1 to keep you from falling asleep in January.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/686-9ciCaTw

Mercedes engine strategy has been revealed for 2021… They were running at maximum output knowing reliability was going to suffer. Didn’t matter because of the amount of power made it possible to start last place and drive away to 1st.


Now you know why Merc had so many engine changes last year. Everybody else pretty much divided the 21 races by three to come up with seven races per engine.

(From Driver61 and Scarbs)

Not exactly a surprise.
Budkowski out at Alpine.
Otmar next?

https://www.planetf1.com/news/...rcin-budkowski-exit/

Interesting article on F1 and new tires

Link

F1 Races Might Actually Be Won On The Track Thanks To Durable Tires, Pirelli Says
There could be fewer pit stops, but drivers will be able to push harder per stint, according to the tire supplier's chief.



Right now, the most effective tool one driver has to get past another in Formula 1 is pit strategy. The inability for F1 cars to run close alongside each other without suffering huge disturbances in aerodynamic activity — coupled with the general flimsiness of the tires — has produced this obsession with undercuts and overcuts. Commentators will spend half a race trying to verbally work out which strategy is stronger while Amazon makes its flashy graphical predictions. When the pass eventually comes, it’s done with one car in the pit lane. It all feels a bit anticlimactic. But Pirelli, F1's tire manufacturer, could have a strategy to change all that.

Some might argue this isn’t a problem, considering the F1's stratospheric growth as of late. But the move to ground effects signals that the FIA itself knows the inability to make an on-track pass is a shortcoming of the sport. Tires play a role in this balance too of course, and recent comments from Pirelli F1 boss Mario Isola suggest that the new company’s new compound may encourage a shift toward fewer stops, for the good of wheel-to-wheel contention. From Motorsport.com:

While one-stop races are not the preference for F1 chiefs, Pirelli head of F1 and car racing Mario Isola thinks that fewer stops will not influence the show if there are spectacular battles on track.

“I hope we don’t have less strategic variabilities,” he said. “The idea and the way in which we have designed the tyres is to continue to have different strategies, with a mix of one and two stops.

“It is also true that with a new product with less degradation, it is possible that we will have less pitstops and the majority of races could be one stop.

“For me, it is not an issue as long as we have good races and action on track.

“If we have drivers that can push for an overtake, and when overtaking is too easy, it’s not good, it is important that drivers are putting a lot of effort in to overtake. That is exactly what spectators want.

“There is a survey made by F1 on that and the majority of feedback on that is that spectators don’t want easy overtaking, they want action on track and they want fighting.”

Tires that are effectively spent after one or two attempts at a pass don’t promote close racing — they discourage it. A number of F1 drivers have spoken out about this in recent years, and seemingly every other season, Pirelli returns to the table saying it sought out a wider operating window, with tires less prone to overheating, so drivers don’t need to hold back as much. Whether it actually meets those marks or not is sometimes hard to say, but the fact of the matter is, passes are still being done in the pits.

In fairness to Pirelli, it carries a pretty thankless role in the sport. When it’s providing a reasonably reliable product, we don’t tend to hear about it. But when that product spectacularly fails, like during the 2020 British Grand Prix, it becomes public enemy No. 1. Simultaneously, the cars are forever getting heavier and faster, placing more strain on the rubber. It was believed that 2022's breed would be roundly slower than its predecessor, but Pirelli now expects the new cars to outpace 2021 machinery by the end of the coming season.

More from Isola:

“This tyre is designed in a different way, with different targets,” he said. “Drivers are asking for less overheating, and less degradation. They want to push on tyres, they want to fight on track.

“We decided, and we agreed with the FIA, FOM, and the teams, to follow this direction. So we had to design a new profile, a new construction, optimise the footprint, and design a new range of compounds. It is a complete new product with a new approach.”

You’d expect the guy who runs the tire company to gas up how good his tires are, but I’m getting the sense that Pirelli — and, perhaps more importantly, the FIA, which tells Pirelli what to make — are really listening to drivers when they say they want a compound that gives them the confidence to push, rather than a fickle tire to designed to manufacture drama. And if that comes at a consequence of fewer pit stops, well, this is a race, not a chess match. A little on-track action will be good for everyone.

Tire degradation was the dumbest racing strategy ever. Team spending hundreds of millions of dollars to have it only come down to tire wear, one pitstop and degradation. F1 did this to themselves. Pirelli only does what f1 tells them to do.

Remember when we went from slicks to grooved tires?

Tire degradation is what happens when F1 pit crews can’t stop setting themselves and others on fire. I have yet to see or read a good reason why they need to use a pressurized helicopter refueling rig while every other formula in the world can do just fine with a gravity fed system.

However, in a reversal of sorts:

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/...ply-to-2025/7677145/

quote:

Honda set to extend direct Red Bull supply to 2025

Adam Cooper

Honda will continue to supply power units to Red Bull directly from Japan until the end of the current Formula 1 regulations, in a dramatic change of plan.

Honda ceased its official works involvement in the sport at the end of last season, and henceforth Red Bull is paying for its services, including the development of this year's power unit for the move from E5 to E10 fuel.

The original strategy as announced late last year was that the new Red Bull Powertrains division would take complete power units from Honda, with full engineering support at the tracks, only in 2022.

Once RBP had got up to speed it would then build the engines from Honda parts at its Milton Keynes facility in 2023, 2024 and 2025 while simultaneously working on its own project for the new F1 rules that come into force in 2026.

However Red Bull motorsport boss Helmut Marko has revealed that the plan has changed, and the intention now is that Honda will continue to supply complete engines from Japan to Red Bull and AlphaTauri until the end of 2025.

The decision removes any concerns about issues such as quality control that might result from moving the building of the power units to the UK, while also freeing up RBP to focus more on its 2026 project.

The change has been made in part to ensure that RBP will still be a new participant when its own engine is introduced in 2026.

It will thus benefit from the concessions that are being discussed mainly to help encourage the VW Group to finally commit to F1, such as a higher power unit budget cap.

It's understood that details of the new arrangements have yet to be finalised, and it's not clear yet whether the engines will still be badged as Hondas until 2025, although such a move would be logical given the desire to ensure that RBP is a new participant in 2026.

"We have now also found a completely different solution to the one originally envisaged," Marko told Autorevue magazine.

"The engines will be manufactured in Japan until 2025, we will not touch them at all. That means that the rights and all these things will remain with the Japanese, which is important for 2026 because it makes us newcomers.

Marko suggested that winning the 2021 world championship has encouraged Honda to remain closer to F1 than had been expected.

"In the course of our ever greater successes, a certain rethinking has taken place among the Japanese. And also that they could of course use the battery knowledge for their electrification phase.

"It was initially planned that they would only make our motors for 2022. Now it has been decided that this will continue until 2025, which is of course a huge advantage for us. This means we only have to make fine adjustments and calibrations."

Regarding the building up of the RBP facility, he added: "The prerequisite for this agreement was that engine development was frozen. Because the first phase would have been that we do everything ourselves. That's why we started in Milton Keynes and dutifully bought in from [dyno supplier] AVL.

"The plant will go into full operation in May/June. The final decision to do it ourselves was conditional on everything being frozen. Because otherwise we wouldn't have had a chance with this complex thing."

Meanwhile as reported on Wednesday former Honda F1 boss Masashi Yamamoto has left the manufacturer to set up his own consultancy in order to provide a bridge between Red Bull and Japan, further extending the continuity between the partners.