Tag: 2011

Social Media

Takuma Sato’s Travel Log

Horse racing has now become very popular in Japan. Recently, I went to the Hanshin Horse Racecourse for the Japan Cup Dirt (G1) race. Because this is one of the major races, there was a huge crowd, 50,000 spectators in front of the main straight. Thoroughbred horses are very beautiful and when galloping, they appear very powerful and graceful. The race itself was very exciting. I think Motorsports and horse racing have a lot in common, so I found it very interesting. Perhaps, because IndyCar racing has some oval circuits, I found common ground. Regarding betting, I started by losing, but I won on the main race! It was very exciting and I enjoyed it very much. If you have a chance, I highly recommend you go to horse races in Japan! [Source]

News

Happy birthday, Robert Kubica!

Robert Józef Kubica, born 7 December 1984 in Kraków, Poland, is the first Polish racing driver to compete in Formula One. Between 2006 and 2009 he drove for the BMW Sauber F1 team, promoted from test driver to race driver during 2006. In June 2008, Kubica took his maiden F1 victory in the Canadian Grand Prix, becoming the 99th driver to win a World Championship race.

The maiden win Canada:




The infamous crash in Canada:



Features

Interview with Kamui Kobayashi

(Photo: Kamui with girlfriend, actress Yu Abiru)

As the dust settles from another Formula One season and preparations for next year go into full swing, Kamui Kobayashi caught up with the Sauber Media team to review his 2011 season and the tough decisions that needed to be made part way through the season when the team abandoned development of the C30’s blown diffuser.

How would you sum up your season?

Kamui Kobayashi: “We had a promising winter testing and a strong start to the season. In the beginning we had every reason to be happy with our performance. Later, I would say from the British Grand Prix onwards, which was the ninth out of 19 races, we struggled due to the decisions made about the rules and our own technical development. We didn’t follow the direction of the ‘off throttle exhaust blown diffuser’ any further. Instead we worked hard on the direction of development we had decided to go in, but we could not make up for the disadvantage that came from not having the same technology as the other teams. I can be happy that I still scored points in the final two races. This was a good achievement under the circumstances.”

Read the full interview here.

Kamui post-race interview from the Monaco Grand Prix:

Slow motion from the Canadian Grand Prix:

News

Peter Gethin R.I.P.

Peter Gethin died at the age of 71 in December 2011 after a long illness. Gethin participated in 31 World Championship Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 21 June 1970. He won the 1971 Italian Grand Prix in the fastest average speed in Formula One history (until the record was broken by Michael Schumacher at the same race in 2003), but this was his only podium finish. There was only 0.01 seconds between him and second placed Ronnie Peterson, also a record). Indeed, he never led an entire lap of Formula One racing, as he passed from fourth to first in the last lap. He also participated in numerous non-Championship Formula One races.

Here is a great video of the 1971 Formula 1 Grand Prix Of Italy at Monza. This was one of the closest finishes in Formula 1 history. The winner was Peter Gethin in the Yardley Team BRM. 2nd to 5th were Ronnie Peterson, Francois Cevert, Mike Hailwood and Howden Ganley.