The Grand Prix of Singapore marked a significant milestone for Shell's Technical Partnership with Scuderia Ferrari as the companies reach their 500th Formula 1 Grand Prix together.
They have clinched 12 Drivers' Championships and 10 Constructors' Championships, including 163 Grand Prix victories.
The excellent, four-minute film features archived footage dating right back to the F1 World Championships early days in the 1950s. There are also short bits of interviews with significant people of Ferrari from present and past such as Luca di Montezemolo, Stefano Domenicali, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, John Surtees and the first man to win an F1 race for Ferrari, Argentine José Froilan Gonzalez.
Lotus may have ploughed too much effort into its 'double DRS' system.
That is the claim of former Finnish F1 driver Mika Salo, who is worried his countryman Kimi Raikkonen could lose his shot at the 2012 title.
Usually a front-runner this season and still in the hunt for the title, Raikkonen qualified a poor twelfth in Singapore before battling up to sixth at the finish.
Will Kimi Raikkonen clinch one victory this season? (Photo: Lotus F1 Team)
Lotus has been pushing hard to ready its straightline speed-boosting 'double DRS' concept, which could finally make its grand prix debut at Suzuka next weekend.
"If the developments do not work in Japan, they will fall out of the championship battle," former Sauber and Toyota driver Salo told the Finnish broadcaster MTV3.
"I think it's likely that they have focused so much on the double DRS that many other things have been missed, and it has slowed down the development of the car overall," he said.
Formula 1 race director and FIA safety delegate Charlie Whiting inspected the new 5.47-km (3.4-mile) Cicuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas on Tuesday.
Whiting gave the new road course the green light to host its inaugural U.S. Grand Prix on November 18.
The Briton also told the medias that the circuit would have just one Drag Reduction Zone during the Grand Prix.
Although he did not mention it, the DRS zone should logically be located on the back straightway of the circuit, which is 1200m long (three quarters of a mile).
Helmut Marko believes McLaren and Ferrari have joined their lead drivers in the "unholy alliance" against Red Bull.
Late last year, after Sebastian Vettel secured his second consecutive title, Italy's La Stampa newspaper said Lewis Hamilton and Fernando had formed a new friendship akin to an "unholy alliance".
In 2007, the pair clashed spectacularly as McLaren teammates, but since Red Bull's Vettel took his dominant grip, Ferrari's Alonso and McLaren's Hamilton are now 'friends', regularly praising one another and embracing in parc ferme.
According to Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko, the friendship is all about knocking German Vettel off his dominant perch.
Dr Helmut Marko. (Photo: Red Bull Racing)
Asked by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper if Austrian Marko is expecting Ferrari-McLaren 'mind games' in the dash to the 2012 finale, he admitted: "Yeah, sure. It is going to be intense."
He admitted it is "interesting", that McLaren and Ferrari, "who were enemies for decades, now suddenly are friends".
French rally driver Sebastien Loeb can clinch the FIA World Rally Championship for a ninth time by beating his Citroen teammate Mikko Hirvonen on Rallye de France Alsace next month.
Loeb is 61 points clear of Hirvonen with three rounds left to run following a dominant season in the Citroen DS3 WRC he shares with co-driver Daniel Elena.
Providing Loeb finishes ahead of Finn Hirvonen on the Strasbourg-based event from October 4 to 7, then Frenchman will put the title beyond his rival's reach.
Sebastien Loeb, Citroen Racing (Photo: Citroen)
But even if Hirvonen finishes ahead of the eight-time title winner then Loeb can still be champion in France by finishing one place behind him, providing Hirvonen doesn't win the rally or the event-closing Power Stage.
Another possible outcome is that if Hirvonen fails to finish in the top eight then Loeb will clinch the title regardless of his result.
Whatever the outcome in France, only Loeb or Hirvonen can take the title after Ford driver Petter Solberg was ruled out of contention following Wales Rally GB earlier this month.
"Everything I've seen has been absolutely first class," Whiting is quoted by the Austin American Statesman newspaper. "Progress since last time I was here has been amazing."
Charlie Whiting on the main strait line. (Photo: Circuit of the Americas)
Asked how the F1 world will react to the venue, he said: "I think they'll all be really stunned."
Walking the entire layout on Tuesday, it was Whiting's third inspection of the Austin venue, with the last to take place on the Monday before the race.
"It's not supposed to be totally ready now," he explained, "but we can see quite clearly that it will be (ready) without any problem at all."
Photo: Circuit of the Americas
He said the best feature of the layout is turn 1; a sharp corner after a steep climb.
"Awesome is the only word I can find to describe it. Drivers and teams alike coming here for the first time are saying the same thing," said Whiting.
HRT's Chinese test driver Ma Qing Hua might have to sit out next weekend's Japanese grand prix.
According to Speed Week, the Spanish team intended the 24-year-old to drive Narain Karthikeyan's car during Friday morning practice at Suzuka next week.
But Ma Qing Hua is apparently having trouble securing a visa for entry to Japan.
China and Japan - Asia's two biggest economies - are locked in an escalating row over the disputed Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea.
Bernie Ecclestone has revealed he is considering emulating tennis' "grand slam" concept for formula one.
The sport's chief executive revealed he was impressed by the "hype" generated by London's Olympic Games recently.
"I will never again watch the pole vault and the long jump and all that but because it was the Olympics I watched it. It's hype," he told the Financial Times Deutschland. "Formula one doesn't have the hype."
"Maybe if we only had a race every four years it would be the same sort of hype (as the Olympics)," said Bernie Ecclestone.
So the 81-year-old Briton revealed that his idea is to designate "five one-off races", a bit like "the grand slam in tennis".
Would the Canadian Grand Prix be part of the "grand slam"? (Photo: WRi2)
Bernie Ecclestone has revealed the Nurburgring is unlikely to host the German grand prix next year.
The circuit was listed on the leaked provisional calendar that was doing the rounds in the Singapore paddock last weekend, but the Nurburgring's precarious financial situation has also been well documented.
F1 chief executive Ecclestone confirmed to the Financial Times Deutschland: "We are just looking at Hockenheim every year. We have got no contract with the Nurburgring but we are talking. It would be like starting from scratch;"
A Nurburgring spokesman confirmed the talks with Ecclestone and said officials are "in good spirits".
But, just two days before the FIA needs to ratify a 2013 calendar at the World Motor Sport Council, it is surprising the Nurburging officials are so bullish.
"If it is not supported by the region it is going to be difficult at the minute," said Ecclestone. "We are pretty close to the final deadline."
Nissan plans an independent global study of its electric Leaf batteries to satisfy a small group of owners in Phoenix who believe their batteries are aging too fast.
At a rain-sodden charity event in Detroit earlier this month, Mayor Dave Bing and other city leaders showered Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne with kind words.
Hundreds of former Chrysler executives claiming they lost retirement benefits because of age bias can sue the company's former parent Daimler AG, a federal appeals court ruled today.
Ford is planning to cut several hundred jobs in Europe in a voluntary programme, as it comes under growing pressure to cut costs in a declining market.
Tom Gloy loves hot rods but says and#8220;they sit up a bit too high; they aren't very comfortable; and when channeled, [they] look a little too wide.and#8221; He's more of a low-and-fast kind of guy. Gloy won in the
The 2013 Cadillac ATS sport sedan with an optional 272-hp, 2.0-liter turbocharged engine has received an EPA fuel economy rating of 21 mpg city/31 highway, General Motors said today.
If you want to use a new convertible to tow anything larger than a Jet Ski these days, your options are pretty much limited to a Jeep Wrangler. In the early 1970s, however, there were a number of beefy, open-air vehicles on the market, such as the Chevrolet Blazer, the Ford Bronco, the International Scout, the Toyota Land Cruiser, and, of course, the Wrangler's predecessor, the CJ, which drove straight off WWII battlefields and has been for sale ever since.
Ford is offering severance packages to "a few hundred" European workers as the carmaker struggles to rein in costs amid plunging vehicle sales, a spokeswoman said.
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