While most of the attention in the F1 paddock at the Japanese Grand Prix is focussed on Sebastian Vettel’s quest for another drivers’ World Championship and Jenson Button’s potential to stop him getting it, any other business tends to be hidden away on the inside pages – but it is there if you care to look…
There seems to be no end of former F1 World Champions ready to put the boot into Lewis Hamilton. Today’s rentaquote is Nigel Mansell. “He needs to get his head in a better place,” said Mansell, talking to (little) England’s Daily Mail after Hamilton, Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher went into the final corner in qualifying virtually side-by-side, jockeying for track position ahead of a final run. Hamilton slowed down, backing up the others, but with the clock running down there wasn’t any margin to back off. In the end, Webber got across the grass and across the line for another lap, Hamilton and Schumacher did not. Webber said it was just one of those things. Unfortunately for Lewis, Mark isn’t an FIA Steward and Nigel Mansell occassionally is…
Fernando Alonso seems to be taking a sabbatical from his position as the biggest story in F1, with the column inches this season being devoted to messrs Vettel, Button and stewards’ favourite Hamilton, but despite Ferrari’s decision to stop development on the current car, according to Speed TV, Fernando still believes he can extract enough from it in Suzuka to trade up his fifth on the grid for a place on the podium.
The Ferrari motorhomes © Ferrari
Anyone with an interest in F1 memorabilia and seriously deep pockets might be interested in this: in the era before gargantuan pantechnicons bestrode the paddock, drivers might hide from the outside world in humble motorhomes – or in the case of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello, not-so-humble motorhomes. Their big red bus, which is better equipped than most people’s houses, is going under the hammer and anyone with a quarter of a million euros burning a hole in their pockets is invited to bid…
And finally, with F1 in the middle of a second Asian leg of the calendar, attention turns to the issue of where races may go in the future. One rumour that’s gaining some traction is the idea of a race in Thailand – but according to the Bangkok Post, Thailand might as easily be represented in F1 by a driver as by a circuit…
Want more?
- Visit the official Formula 1 website
- Search for Formula 1 videos on YouTube
- Red Bull Racing hits the streets of New Delhi
- Japanese Grand Prix event page
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