Ten years later: Diamonds announced lost after strapped to F1 car

A bizarre story has filtered from the Formula 1 paddock, and it’s not to do with this weekend’s race.

Whoever thought it would be a good idea to place two diamonds on the nose of a Formula 1 car, ripping around the streets of Monaco?

Well, in 2004 for the movie premiere of Ocean’s Twelve, movie producers decided to place diamonds worth $300,000 on the front of Austrian driver Christian Klein’s Jaguar.

Of course traditionally on an opening lap at Monaco, the car was involved in a crash and the diamonds were – well, nowhere to be seen.

Due to strict FIA Formula 1 regulations, the team were not allowed to search the track hours after the race.

No one knows what happened to the diamonds – however it is to be believed that a lucky spectator found the sparkling rock.

According to script writer Doug DeMuro, the diamonds were not insured.

Written by Loren Hazelwood. @LorenHazelwood

– See more at: http://fiascosports.com/ten-years-later-diamonds-announced-lost-after-strapped-to-f1-car/#sthash.zbmI1y5o.dpuf

Athlete Profile: Daniel Ricciardo

The Australia Times

Published in Volume 2 Issue 11 Page 26 of The Australia Times.

Dan Ricciardo = Australia’s New Hero

Formula 1, Spultured

He’s the young pup who started out in Formula 1 with his teeth covered in braces and his ambitions high to make it to the top. Well, four years later and this rising star has clinched his maiden Grand Prix win in Montreal, with his dentist gifting Ricciardo the biggest smile any racer has ever had, making Aussies more proud than ever.

The world was not ready for his smile, let alone the skill and determination this Australian has to offer. Many non-believers thought he would end up in the same position as Mark Webber being defeated by his four-time world champion teammate Sebastian Vettel.

Oh boy, were they wrong.

Of course the Merecedes’ Silver Arrows have dominated the 2014 season so far, but Ricciardo has been the talk of the pits with his dominance in the Infiniti Red Bull team this year. He also broke the Mercedes winning streak, being the first driver this year to defeat the victorious Nico Rosberg and the swag of Lewis Hamilton.

Not only is the rookie sitting third in the championship, he’s out-performing Vettel. VETTEL! The guy who was booed every time he was on the podium last year. Just, wow.

Only two Australians have tasted Formula 1 world championship glory – Sir Jack Brabham and Alan Jones – I wouldn’t mind betting$1,000 that Ricciardo makes that tally three.

Ricciardo may have an Italian last name, but his heart is full of Aussie gold. He has the Australian fighting spirit and has blood the colour of wattle. This bloke is going to break history, and eventually will give us the Formula 1 championship that Webdog was so close to claiming.

And you know what, who cares about the Queen’s fake birthday. Let’s make this public holiday dedicated to Daniel Ricciardo and his firstFormula 1 victory. Happy Daniel Ricciardo Day people, hope you had a lovely long weekend.

And Dan, cheers to your maiden victory at the Canadian Grand Prix!

Published by Spultured

(Image source: ABC)

Pastor “Crashdonado”

Formula 1, Spultured

Pastor ‘Crashdonaldo.’

A name used by many to describe Pastor Maldonado, a driver who could quite possibly be the most overrated Formula 1 winner of all time.

I don’t like bagging drivers – and I completely respect them for what they do for y’know, a day job. But seriously, after the incident at Bahrain, how dare you flip poor Esteban Gutierrez! And not to mention he flipped Gutierrez mid-corner just coming out of the pits? That’s simply not on.

I feel sorry for Esteban, and in his defence the rollover was very stylish. I completely agree with him in saying, “What was that!?”

Now what made me REALLY laugh, was this crash at Round Five of the Championship in Shanghai.

“I crashed,” Maldonado said.

“Oh,” Lotus said.

“I’m sorry,” Crashdonaldo continued.

But wait, it gets better. Check out how his pit crew at Lotus reacts right here.

Clearly, Lotus is ecstatic about Maldonado replacing their beloved Kimi Raikkonen.

Of course there’s more (yes, this is an article about Maldonado crashing). Check out Maldonado crashing out in Q1 at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Oh, but it couldn’t hold it in for the race despite only qualifying 22nd, so this happened.

By the way, here’s a fun fact. Maldonado was supposed to be banned from the Monaco circuit after a race when he was racing Formula Renault a few years ago. He didn’t obey a yellow flag, and he actually injured a marshal. Of course, his investors jumped in and paid for the injured to come good; therefore he got away with not being banned. What!

This year he actually made it around the Monaco circuit, his first time of not retiring since, ever.

We all have our point of view, but I’m sure this article may have made your point a little clearer. We are only halfway through the Formula 1 season, and he’s pretty much crashed at every race.

You could say this article made you LOLdonaldo.

You’ll never be forgotten, Sir Jack Brabham

Fiasco Sports, Formula 1

The loss of a legend in the motor racing world, Sir Jack Brabham passes away at 88 years of age.

He was not only a household name, but also a motor racing legend. An inspiration to many, and made Australia overly proud. His records will never be broken, and he will never be forgotten. Sir Jack Brabham, a legend in his time and a motorsport icon forever.

Brabham began his career in a different place to other racing car drivers, running a small engineering workshop and was a Royal Australian Air Force flight mechanic, before he started racing midget cars back in 1948.

The Australian’s natural knack for driving and strong success in midget racing events in Australia and New Zealnd pushed for Brabham to make the move to Europe to race with a team led by John Cooper, while he also engineering his own car in 1955.

Brabham formed a great friendship with Cooper, and was eventually given the keys to his transporter to take the cars to the events. Brabham made his Grand Prix debut in sports cars at the 1955 British Grand Prix, but later retired from the race due to a broken clutch.

Brabham later in the year ran a non-championship event for the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Australia, before selling his car to make a permanent move to England with his family.

The Australian then pointed his racing campaign towards Formula 2 in 1956, becoming the champion just two years later in 1958.

Sir Jack Brabham was unique, as no other driver worked on the mechanical side of their own racecar, and he also contributed to the design of the car that Cooper introduced into the world of Formula 1 in 1959.

Brabham went on to win his first world championship in 1959 with Cooper, going into the final round of the Formula 1 Drivers’ World Championship, the Australian was among two other drivers that could take out the championship – Ferrari’s Tony Brooks and Stirling Moss. Brabham was awake until 1am working on the car with the team, and they went on to win the final round of the championship in Sebring, US.

Despite winning his first world championship, he strived for more and believed he could achieve higher, winning his second Formula 1 Driver’s World Championship in 1960.

In 1962, Sir Jack Brabham left Cooper to race for his own team. He also asked his friend from Australia Rob Tauranac to come to the UK and build a Formula 1 car, producing the first of the Brabham cars – the Brabham BT-3.

Despite not winning a single Grand Prix in ’62, in which some teams felt was because Brabham was reluctant to spend money – he continued on with the team.

In 1965, Sir Jack Brabham stepped aside to manage his team and Dan Guerney took the lead driver role, winning the Brabham team their first Formula 1 World Championship. Towards the end of the season, Guerney announced his intentions to leave the team, with Sir Jack pushing on with his dream.

In 1966, a new 3-litre engine formula was introduced into Formula 1, with all engines having to be 12-cylinders and were difficult to develop because of the weight and unreliability. Sir Jack Brabham took on a different approach, and convinced an Australian Engineering Company called Repco to develop an engine for him.

The Repco-Brabham BT19 chassis went on to win the 1966 Formula 1 World Championship, with Brabham being the first – and only – man to win a Drivers’ and Constructors’ World title in a car that carried his own name.

Brabham won his last Grand Prix in Africa during 1970, retiring at 44 years of age.

The three-time world champion then made the move back to Australia, to raise his three sons Geoff, Gary and David on a farm for a life away from motorsport. Of course, this didn’t happen, with all three of his sons making a career out of motorsport.

In 1979, the Australian driver became the first person in motor racing history to be knighted by the Queen, being knighted for his services in motorsport.

Sir Jack Brabham has influenced the way we all look at motorsport, and the world of Formula 1 today would not be the same without Sir Jack Brabham’s determination and will to become one of the best.

The saddening news of Sir Jack’s passing has impacted the motor racing world, with tributes flowing from all over the world.

The Queensland Government will be holding a state funeral for Sir Jack, with the ceremony confirmed for June 11, 1:30pm at the Southport Church of Christ on the Gold Coast.

Sir Jack Brabham will never be forgotten, and will always be remembered as one of the great legends in world motorsport. Rest In Peace, Sir Jack Brabham.

Written by Loren Hazelwood. @LorenHazelwood

– See more at: http://fiascosports.com/youll-never-be-forgotten-sir-jack-brabham/#sthash.ycF23F6V.dpuf

Hamilton takes hat-trick win in China

Fiasco Sports, Formula 1

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton claimed his third consecutive race victory, finishing first at the Chinese Grand Prix.

British driver Lewis Hamilton has broken a personal racing record, winning three consecutive rounds in the Formula 1 Drivers Championship.

Hamilton lead from pole, taking the chequered flag at the Shanghai circuit, finishing ahead of his German teammate Nico Rosberg.

Hamilton drove away from the start, racing his own race ahead of the rest.

Rosberg endured telemetry dramas throughout the entire Grand Prix, forcing the German to report the data from his steering wheel to the data engineers, costing Rosberg at the very beginning of the race.

Red Bull Racing were unable to catch Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, with the Spaniard able to race his #14 Ferrari to third, despite clashing with former teammate Felipe Massa at the start of the race.

Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo fell shy of his first podium finish in Formula 1, crossing the line only 1.2s behind Alonso, despite starting the race on the front row.

Ricciardo and German teammate Sebastian Vettel battled mid-race, with Vettel being told by team principle Christian Horner to surrender his position to Ricciardo because the Australian was faster.

Vettel quoted, “tough luck” on the radio communications and let Ricciardo race Vettel for fourth position.

Vettel was outshone by his new Australian teammate, finishing behind the Red Bull rookie in fifth place.

Both Force India drivers scored points, Nico Hulkenberg racing his way to the end to defeat Williams driver Valtteri Bottas for sixth and Sergio Perez falling seconds shy from Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari to finish ninth.

Rookie Toro Rosso driver Daniil Kyvat finished tenth, the 19-year-old consistently scoring points.

McLaren failed to make it into the points, Jenson Button finishing 11th and Kevin Magnussen crossing the line 13th.

Rosberg still leads the Formula 1 Drivers Championship, Hamilton close behind in second.

Mercedes extend their comprehensive lead in the Constructors Championship.

Round 5 of the Formula 1 World Championship will be hosted in Barcelona for the Spanish Grand Prix on 11 May.

Chinese Grand Prix Results

Pos	Driver	Team	Time/Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1h36m52.810s
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	+18.686s
3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	+25.765s
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-Renault	+26.978s
5	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	+51.012s
6	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	+57.581s
7	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	+58.145s
8	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	+1m23.990s
9	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	+1m26.489s
10	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Renault	+1 lap
11	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	+1 lap
12	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Renault	+1 lap
13	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	+1 lap
14	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	+1 lap
15	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	+1 lap
16	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	+1 lap
17	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	+1 lap
18	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	+1 lap
19	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	+2 laps
20	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	+2 laps
RET	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	27 laps
RET	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	4 laps

– See more at: http://fiascosports.com/hamilton-takes-hat-trick-win-in-china/#sthash.7Gj9w88L.dpuf

Australia v Vettel

Formula 1, The Australia Times

Published on The Australia Times Issue 3

Sebastian Vettel. Source: Wikimedia Commons

By Loren Hazelwood @LorenHazelwood

Sebastian Vettel. A name well-known in Australian households for being the German that caused fans to yell at their TV sets every time he was near or in front of our Australian Mark Webber.

He’s won world championship after world championship, and the more he won, the more frustrated Australian fans have become, saying, “Why can’t Webber achieve the same results?”

Well, this year should be completely different for our Aussie fans.

With Webber now retired and racing for Porsche, young-pup Daniel Ricciardo has graduated from his team at Torro Rosso, joining the German at the top of Formula 1. And to most people’s surprise (Vettel’s in particular), the young Aussie has outperformed his teammate on numerous occasions this season.

With the new generation of Australian racing overseas, Ricciardo has built respect with his new teammate, managing to outshine his world champion colleague.

In three out of four races this year, Ricciardo has blitzed Vettel in qualifying, and has also finished races in front of the German, causing a bit of tension in the pit paddock at Red Bull.

At the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, Vettel was in front of Ricciardo, with both running different tyre strategies. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner immediately went on the radio to Vettel sending him a team order to let through our Aussie racer.

Vettel’s reply was simply, “Tough love.”

Ricciardo then raced Vettel passing him into Turn 1, enabling Ricciardo to finish fourth, with Vettel fifth overall.

Although Vettel is currently in front of Ricciardo in the Drivers’ Championship, this won’t stop Ricciardo over-achieving at his new squad.

With the new 1.6-litre turbo-charged power trains, this season of Formula 1 has been nothing but completely unpredictable.

We thought we’d see many surprises, but would never predict seeing an Australian finally stand on the podium in Melbourne only to later be stripped of second place due to a fuel system failure.

Everyone could see from the Australian Grand Prix that Ricciardo had pace, and that he knew how to drive these innovative cars.

With a year that has so far been dominated by Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton taking the last three race victories, it’s easy to say that Red Bull seem not to have the pace and straight-line speed they had over the last four years.

Vettel has been struggling with the new car technology, and it wouldn’t be surprising if Ricciardo passed the world champion in the Drivers’ Championship.

Australia only has two Formula 1 World Champions including Alan Jones and Sir Jack Brabham. Webber was extremely close but was outshone by Vettel; can our Ricciardo defeat the German and make it three drivers to take the momentous championship? Only time will tell…

Are broadcasting rights killing motorsport?

Australian V8 Supercars, Fiasco Sports, Film and TV, Formula 1, MotoGP

With media deals happening in every category for 2015, are these new pay-TV deals pushing fans away from the sport?

With a sport that costs a lot of money to run with the fancy bodywork, complicated engineering and the drivers that are paid by the millions, there is also the media side of racing that costs channels millions each year, resulting in major series of motorsport no longer available free-to-air.

MotoGP is one category with a faint future on free-to-air, with fans purchasing a Foxtel sports package to watch their favourite rider or constructor win the world championship.

Network Ten are currently in their final year of televising the MotoGP, but will only retain full live coverage of the MotoGP until the end of 2014. Fox Sports are broadcasting every Moto2, Moto3 and MotoGP practice, qualifying and races live in 2014.

Another broadcasting amend includes the new contract in V8 Supercars, with Seven losing the rights to Network Ten, Foxtel and Fox Sports, with only six of the races in the 2015 championship to be available on free-to-air channels.

Former TEN CEO and current CEO of V8 Supercars James Warburton signed the new broadcasting rights deal, including a $241 million media deal with Foxtel, Fox Sports and Network Ten for all media rights including $196 million cash and $45 million of advertising, making this deal the biggest in V8 Supercars history.

The new deal means that only the Adelaide, Townsville, Sandown, Bathurst, Gold Coast and Sydney V8 rounds will only be shown free-to-air.

“This is a tremendous and significant deal for our sport,” Mr Warburton said.

“It is a great boost to our amazing race teams and fans and will lead to unprecedented coverage on multiple platforms for our sport, never before seen on such a scale.”

Formula 1 is set to stay on free-to-air with the coverage supported by Network Ten, the only major motorsport category worldwide not under the Fox banner in 2015.

Currently on free-to-air channels in Australia, only the Formula 1 and V8 Supercars are shown live to racing fans.

Other categories shown within free-to-air are broadcasted a week or so later, including ONE HD’s coverage of the World Series Sprintcars, Australian Rally Championship and NASCAR.

Fans have expressed concern about the new broadcasting rights, stating it is another expense they cannot afford.

After interviewing fans at Winton Raceway during the V8 Supercar event at the Winton 400, most said they were outraged and disappointed about spending money every month to watch motorsport.

Nothing yet has been confirmed towards the coverage for motorsport after 2015.

By Loren Hazelwood. @LorenHazelwood

– See more at: http://fiascosports.com/are-broadcasting-rights-killing-motorsport/#sthash.W2qBiesK.dpuf

Rosberg Triumphs in Australian Grand Prix

Formula 1, The Australia Times

New F1 is too quiet according to race goers

Australian V8 Supercars, Formula 1, On The Record

By LOREN HAZELWOOD

Kamui Kobayasi crashing out after a brake-by-wire failure. Photo: AP Photo/Ross Land

Australian Grand Prix organisers claim the new F1 cars may have breached race contracts because they were not loud enough.

Fans have also spoken and agreed that the new V6 turbo-charged powertrain cars sound duller than a lawnmower on a Saturday morning.

The Australian Grand Prix Coordination’s (AGPC) organiser Andrew Westacott said the new cars took away the fascinating spectacle of Formula One racing.

“One aspect of it was just a little bit duller than it’s ever been before and that’s part of the mix and the chemistry that they’re going to have to get right,” Mr Westacott told Fairfax radio.

Westacott also mentioned that AGPC chairman Ron Walker told Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone who said that the quieter sound might have breached the race contract.

“Ron spoke to [Ecclestone] after the race and said fans don’t like it in the venue,” Mr Westacott said.

“We pay for a product, we’ve got contracts in place, we are looking at those very, very seriously because we reckon there has probably been some breaches.”

Not only were the big bosses disappointed with the sound of the new cars—the fans and racing drivers were in disbelief with the V6-turbo sound, including NSW Formula Ford Driver, Daniel Holihan.

“They should definitely bring back the V8 or even the V10 and V12 engine, it’s the fans that come to hear the high pitch roar of a Formula One around the city of Melbourne,” Mr Holihan said.

“I was getting more of a thrill watching the rolling starts of the V8 Supercars.”

Although the cars were not as loud—the racing spoke for itself, with the drivers battling for position throughout the whole race, while trying to not break down.

The competition level was high and it was unpredictable who would win the race before it started, with reliability also playing a big part during the first race in Australia.

“I loved the action, the race was very entertaining because it was a complete fresh start for every team and there was a lot of passing going on,” Mr Holihan said.

Not only did the race deliver great action and unpredictability, it also saw controversy unfold as Australian young gun Daniel Ricciardo was disqualified after a fuel-flow sensor error.

Ricciardo’s team at Red Bull have appealed the decision, with the verdict expected to take a few weeks to be announced.

Nico Rosberg was the eventual winner of the race, with McLaren rookie driver Kevin Magnussen replacing Ricciardo for second on his Formula One debut, with McLaren teammate Jenson Button rounding out the top three.

Formula One management are yet to comment on the hybrid-generation cars.

Media by Loren Hazelwood

Motor sport media, marketing and content specialist

Formula 1