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Jul
1st

F1: Tony Fernandes to confirm Caterham team sale this week

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From GMM

Ever since team founder and main backer Tony Fernandes departed Twitter with the message "F1 hasn't worked", Caterham has been officially silent.

The back-of-the-grid team did say Indonesian driver Rio Haryanto will drive the green car in the post-Silverstone test, but otherwise the lack of noise from Caterham has been filled up with speculation.

"I will be 100 per cent ready to work to the plan the team set and help them develop as best I can," Haryanto, who also drives for Caterham's GP2 team, said.

But now, team sources are spilling the beans behind the scenes.

Multiple reports have the details about Fernandes' falling out of love with F1 amid spiralling costs and the lack of results.

F1 Caterham CT05-Renault
Caterham CT05-Renault. (Photo: WRi2)

Veteran Swiss journalist Roger Benoit says he has heard that Fernandes, the Malaysian entrepreneur best known for the low-cost airline Airasia, will front Caterham's staff at the factory in Leafield on Tuesday.

There, Benoit wrote in the Blick newspaper, staff will be told that Caterham has been "sold to a consortium of Arab businessmen in Switzerland".

He said Fernandes, now enamoured with his newly premiership-qualified football club Queens Park Rangers, is particularly dismayed that F1 consistently failed to implement the budget cap he was promised from the start in 2010.

Team sources also claim that Caterham will make the news public before the British grand prix, adding that team boss Cyril Abiteboul will return to his former F1 employer, French engine supplier Renault.


Jul
1st

GM recalls nearly 500,000 extra vehicles

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Another week means another round of recalls by General Motors: The automaker has just announced three new ones covering 473,788 vehicles in North America.

The first recall affects 466,940 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra (2014-2015) pickup trucks as well as Chevrolet Tahoe/Suburban and GMC Yukon/Yukon XL (2015) SUVs. The transfer case may electronically switch to neutral without input from the driver, so dealers will recalibrate transfer case control module software.

The second recall involves the windshield wiper module assembly in 4,794 Chevrolet Caprice police cars (2013-2014) and Chevrolet SS sport sedans (2014) sold in the U.S. If the motor gear teeth become stripped, the wipers may not operate.

Finally, 1,972 Chevrolet Corvettes from 2014 (including 33 in Canada) need to have their two rear shock absorbers replaced due to a possible insufficient weld that could lead to a fracture and/or reduce the shocks' service life. No incident has been reported so far.

As previously mentioned, GM has now recalled an industry-record 20+ million vehicles this year. With new CEO Mary Barra, the company just doesn't want to take any risks.
Jul
1st

Alex Zanardi looks forward to Michael Schumacher recovery

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From GMM

Alex Zanardi, horrifically and near-fatally injured in 2001, has wished his old rival Michael Schumacher well.

Three times during their respective racing careers, the Italian and German faced off on the circuits.

The first was as teenagers, at the wheel of European kart competitions. Then a few years later, in the early 90s, when Zanardi raced in F1 for Jordan, Minardi and Lotus.

And after Zanardi's ultra-successful American open wheeler career, the pair met yet again in F1, this time with Zanardi struggling in a Williams and Schumacher well on the road to the Ferrari-coloured glory years.

F1 Alex Zanardi 2008 Michael Schumacher
Alex Zanardi and Michael Schumacher in 2008. (Photo: Ferrari)

Today, Alex Zanardi has rebuilt his sporting life after losing his legs and nearly his life in a 2001 Champ Car crash.

Like Schumacher, who has just emerged from a six-month coma and is reportedly conscious in a Lausanne hospital, Zanardi spent time in a coma 13 years ago.

"I know Michael from childhood, in karts," he told Speed Week. "He has always been a person who does not give up. So I was always sure that his condition would improve and he would beat the coma."

Zanardi says he remembers little from his own coma, except extreme tiredness when he woke up, and then briefly struggling to recall how to do simple things on his own -- like breathe and urinate.

Schumacher's coma, of course, has been much longer, and involving brain injury. But Zanardi has hope.

"I remember when I stood up on my new feet for the first time after the accident, it was during an event in which Schumi took part as well. I remember how touched he was. So I want to tell him that I cannot wait to see him standing up, to see that it is me that is moved this time," Zanardi, 47, added.

Meanwhile, in the case of Schumacher's stolen medical records, suspicion has returned yet again to the hospital in Grenoble, where for six months the great German was in a coma.

Earlier, it was reported that Swiss ambulance staff may have photographed the doctor's letter during Schumacher's transfer from Grenoble to Lausanne.

But, citing police sources, the French newspaper Le Dauphine Libere claims the stolen letter - on the market for a reported EUR 50,000 - contained "spelling mistakes".

It seems the letter was in fact a draft, thrown in the hospital bin in Grenoble.

"So far, no one has been identified as the person responsible for the act (of theft)," Grenoble prosecutor Jean-Yves Coquillat told the French news agency AFP.

"The investigation is ongoing and far from over."



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