The Twitter page alleged to belong to Formula One team founder, owner and boss Peter Sauber has fooled sections of the international media.

The page hosted on the popular micro-blogging website claimed on Wednesday (Dec 30) that a teammate for Kamui Kobayashi would be “announced next week”.

The news was picked up and reported by multiple outlets, including the official Dutch formula one broadcaster RTL 7, and the website of the major French daily Le Figaro.

But on Thursday, some other specialist sources including Brazil’s Grande Premio website revealed that the Twitter page in the 66-year-old Swiss’ name is in fact a fake.



via yallaf1, Image(C) flickr

When the clock strikes twelve on December 31st, people all over the world cheer and wish each other a very Happy New Year. For some, this event is no more than a change of a calendar. For others, the New Year symbolizes the beginning of a better tomorrow.

Wishing that your new year is filled with Creativity, Festivity, Love, Passion, Dreams & a Hope to see all your dreams come true.

Celebrate Happiness and Celebrate Success.

Movie: "When Harry Met Sally", Harry Burns

And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

What can be said in New Year rhymes,
That's not been said a thousand times?
The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.
We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.
We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.
We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our prides, we sheet our dead.
We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that's the burden of a year.

F1Insight.Blogspot.com wishes all our readers a Happy Prosperous 2010!!!



Images(C) bing

Here is a video looking back on BMW’s last decade in Formula 1, prior to their departure from the scene. The Abu Dhabi GP, at Yas Marina Circuit, in November was the team’s last F1 race for the team.

17 years after winning the World Championship in 1983, BMW returned to Formula One as an engine supplier. The BMW WilliamsF1 Team celebrated ten victories, 17 pole positions and 45 podium finishes between 2000 and 2005.

In 2005 BMW acquired the majority share in the Swiss Sauber AG and sent its own team into battle for the first time the following year. To date the BMW Sauber F1 Team has 304 World Championship points to its name.

In 2008 Robert Kubica claimed the teams maiden pole position in Bahrain, while the 24-year-old and his team-mate Nick Heidfeld achieved a magnificent one-two at the Canadian Grand Prix in the same year.

It seems that the signing of record-breaking multiple world champion Michael Schumacher by Mercedes Grand Prix for F1 2010 has not gone down quite as well in some quarters as in others, despite the general euphoria that the sport is to welcome back its most successful and crowned driver of all time.

The Daimler Works Council has already been critical of Mercedes' F1 decisions in the past, publicly questioning the Stuttgart manufacturer's increased involvement in the top flight at a time when employees are being laid off on the automotive side and cost-cutting is in full force in response to the ongoing global credit crunch.

When Mercedes purchased a majority stake in double 2009 world champions Brawn GP last month, council member Erich Klemm opined that 'in these economically difficult times, the company should invest in better marketing of its real cars' – and it would appear that the recruitment of Schumacher has elicited a similarly unimpressed reaction.

“For many colleagues, it is unimaginable,” works council leader Uwe Werner told the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper, adding that the seven-time F1 World Champion's reputed £7 million annual salary is 'hard to justify to our people' when some of Mercedes' manufacturing plants and therefore jobs are being transferred overseas, prompting protests in Germany. “The staff would have understood better if Mercedes had withdrawn from the expensive F1 business altogether.”

Indeed, the board's contention is that Mercedes should have followed the example of fellow car makers Honda, BMW and Toyota in departing the fray to focus on more environmentally-friendly and road car-relevant initiatives rather than continuing to throw millions at F1.

“Mercedes in particular is a company for which sportiness is not a selling-point but rather security and quality,” automobile industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer of the University of Duisburg-Essen in western Germany told the Bayerische Rundfunk radio station. “Why should a driver decide to buy a Mercedes because of Formula 1? Every car will have to be sold for €200 to €300 more for Mercedes to finance Formula 1.”

However, Daimler chief executive Dieter Zetsche insists that 'it would be a missed opportunity' not to take advantage of the increased global possibilities in F1 now that there are only three manufacturers left – Mercedes, Ferrari and to a lesser degree Renault – with Asian and Middle Eastern markets in particular ripe to be tapped into. Moreover, Mercedes Benz Motorsport Vice-President Norbert Haug is convinced the partnership with Schumacher will be an investment for the future, and will do wonders for the company's worldwide image and consequently sales.

“The whole engagement will sell a lot of cars and make a lot of people aware of the quality of the [three-pointed] star,” the 57-year-old told ZDF public television. “We believe we know how to invest our money.”

Meanwhile, it has emerged that Schumacher has been forced to write an open letter of explanation to the millions of tifosi who are angry at his departure from Ferrari after 14 years together, with some going so far as to brand the 41-year-old a 'traitor'.

“I say [about Schumacher] the same as president [Luca di] Montezemolo – all the best,” the Scuderia's spokesman Luca Colajanni told news agency ANSA. “From now on he is an opponent, and we try to beat our opponents.”



via crash.net, Image(C) daylife

Ralf Schumacher has confirmed reports that he would like to make a return to Formula 1.

An unnamed source close to the 34-year-old German has told Bild newspaper that Schumacher, the younger brother of seven time world champion Michael, turned down an offer from one of F1’s new teams for 2010.

But Ralf confirms that if a more attractive offer was to materialise, he is ready to give up his Mercedes seat in the German touring car series DTM.

“I have noticed that the formula one fire is once again burning within me,” he told the newspaper.

“I can understand Michael’s decision 100 per cent and I would not have hesitated for a second. You can’t stop the passion: racing was and is our life and we have always looked for challenges.”

Schumacher was asked why he turned down the reported offer for 2010.

“The challenge must be the right one,” answered the winner of 6 grands prix, who admits his reputation was damaged by his stint with Toyota that ended two years ago.

“There is no point signing a second-best contract, and it’s not about the money but whether together we would be able to achieve something,” Ralf added.

Bild mentioned Sauber, Renault and Toro Rosso as potential options for Ralf Schumacher that have been discussed internally by those teams.

“For me the Toyota years are in the past. I know what I can do and I feel good and ready,” he said.



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The Australian grand prix is yet to sign a title sponsor for its 2010 event.

The Melbourne race was previously backed and named after the Dutch bank ING, who early last year announced it would no longer be involved with formula one beyond 2009.

March’s Australian GP at Albert Park made a $40m loss, and the local Herald Sun newspaper said the lack of a title sponsor for the 2010 event will cost taxpayers even more.

But the race organiser’s chief executive Drew Ward insists Melbourne could successfully host the event without a title sponsor.

He also said efforts to attract corporate interest is a “work in progress”.

“There won’t be any impact on the overall cost of the event in terms of overall sponsorship revenue. If you look back at this year’s event, general sponsorship interest was increased on previous years,” said Ward.

A spokeswoman for the Victorian state government said that with three months to go until the 2010 race, a sponsor could yet be signed.

“It is not unusual for an event as big as this not to have a title sponsor in place this far out,” she said.

Despite traditionally hosting F1’s season opener, in 2010 the Melbourne race will follow mid-March’s Bahrain GP.



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A second 2010 formula one car has been designed without the aid of a wind tunnel.

A minor spat between the new Virgin and Lotus teams erupted earlier this month when Virgin designer Nick Wirth said his single seater for next year had benefited only from computational fluid dynamics technology.

“I am from the aviation business, mate. You’ve got to have a wind tunnel,” said Lotus’ Tony Fernandes.

USF1 sporting director Peter Windsor, however, has now revealed that the new American team’s 2010 design has also not yet seen the inside of a wind tunnel.

Referring to Wirth’s comments, he wrote in a blog entry on the new USF1 website: “The same thing (CFD) applies to our car, although we see this as a logical process for a new team rather than something about which to be particularly excited.”

Windsor clarified that the team will eventually make use of the state-of-the-art, $41 million new Windshear wind tunnel, which like USF1 is located in Charlotte.

“Windshear is about 15 minutes’ drive from our headquarters and will prove to be invaluable when we start to aero-map the full-size car in January,” he said.

“We have no model shop … and none of the expenditure and complication of running a model shop. Our ‘model’ is the real car -– and, as a new team in F1, we will be able to test at Windshear on numerous occasions in 2010,” added Windsor.

The Briton, whose recent F1 role has been as a broadcaster and journalist but in the past worked for Williams and Ferrari, also revealed that USF1’s European base at the new Motorland facility in Alcaniz (Spain) is “nearly finished”.

“Very soon we’ll be announcing our driver lineup for 2010 plus a whole lot more besides,” said Windsor.



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