Check out this edit of onboards shot from the Sauber C30's first day on track. Pay attention at about the 2:50 sec mark you will see clearly, for the first time, how these movable rear wings will work.
I have to say, it looks pretty dramatic but the idea of its FIA regulated use as an artificial passing aid is fairly repugnant to me. As you may know, in the race it will only be available if a driver is following another closely and only in predetermined part of the track! That is such a lame solution.
Anyway, check out the 2011 Sauber C30 in action
Sunday, February 6, 2011
On the wings of Victory, Kubica injured
Fresh from a very successful Formula One testing session at Valencia; the Lotus Renault GP Formula One driver crashed his Skoda rally car into a guard rail.
Kubica has suffered serious damage to his right hand and arm as well as his right leg. The Pole was airlifted to a nearby hospital where he is being overseen by Dr. Riccardo Ceccarelli, the doctor of the Lotus Renault GP team.
Kubica’s manager Daniele Morelli says it’s too soon to speculate upon the process of recovery.
“Unfortunately the impact with the guardrail caused serious harm,” Morelli told the Italian media outside the hospital. “He has been diagnosed with multiple fractures to his leg and right arm, especially complications related to his right hand. We shall see later if the operation was successful. The clinical picture is not easy. We expect to make the necessary assessments tonight.”
It is currently unknown how the crash might affect Kubica's racing career. Although none of the injuries are life-threatening, a handful of unofficial reports claim that it might just be enough to end his racing career.
“The surgeons are trying to restore the functionality of his right hand. We must now think about the muscle function, but Robert has a very strong temper and will succeed.
“The important thing is that Robert recoveries, as it has already proven to do with the incident in Canada. On that occasion it took him three months to get back on track.”
“The surgeons are trying to restore the functionality of his right hand. We must now think about the muscle function, but Robert has a very strong temper and will succeed.
“The important thing is that Robert recoveries, as it has already proven to do with the incident in Canada. On that occasion it took him three months to get back on track.”
This won't be Kubica's first rodeo however. In 2007 in Montreal, he managed to recover in several months from a terrible crash when his BMW Sauber F1 car went careening off the track.
It goes without saying that Formula One drivers have a very hazardous line of work and that teams are always taking a huge risk when they let their drivers compete in other forms of motorsport; crashes happen all the time and who knows what can happen. Still that has never prevented Renault from permitting Kubica to participate in Rally on the side. Unlike his counterpart Kimi Raikkonen, Kubica has proven to actually be a competent rally driver.
I do wish Robert a speedy recovery. I've always been at least a little bit of a fan of him. It will be great to see him back to full health soon.
What you've missed the last week that I've been too lazy/busy to write
Quite frankly the world of motorsport has been a busy place for the last week. Formula One has been hammered with the unveiling of a whole slew of new cars at Valencia for the first test session. Red Bull, Ferrari, Lotus, Sauber, Renault, Mercedes, and McLaren have unveiled their new cars. Some impressively innovative, other are keeping it quite simple.
At the end of all the practice session of Friday, the times stood like this:
1. Robert Kubica - Lotus Renault GP - 01:13.14497
2.Adrian Sutil - Force India F1 - 01:13.201117
3.Jenson Button - McLaren - 01:13.553105
4.Mark Webber - Red Bull - 01:13.936104
5.Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 01:14.01780
6.Timo Glock - Virgin Racing - 01:14.207103
7.Pastor Maldonado - Williams - 01:14.299100
8.Vitaly Petrov - Renault F1 - 01:14.458104
9.Michael Schumacher - Mercedes Grand Prix - 01:14.537110
10.Sebastien Buemi - Scuderia Toro Rosso - 01:14.80173
11.Narain Karthikeyan - HRT F1 Team - 01:16.53563
12.Jarno Trulli - Lotus F1 - 00:00.00038
Favorite team or driver not on there? Don't worry, the next test session and Jerez is 4 days down the road and there are still plenty of car unveiling's left to do.
Outside from Formula One; in the sportscar racing world, we've got winter testing going on at Sebring for Le Mans.
Along with that, Peugeot has released their new 908 HDI race car. It's a completely different car and yet they still couldn't come up with a new name for it.
In the LMS GT classes, both Risi and Patron have been working on their new Ferrari 458 racers. Also BMW has been spotted with running their new M3 GT with a new front end. Not to so exciting is the news that Robertson Racing will be fielding a 2nd Ford GT race car and that Black Swan Racing will be actually competing in a whole season.
Lastly, there was obviously quite the race last weekend at a little place called Daytona. The Rolex Daytona 24 Hours proved to be quite the race in the end with a close finish in the last hour of racing. For the Daytona Prototype class; the finish podium is as follows:
1-Chip Genassi BMW- Hand / Pruett / Rahal / Rojas
2-Genassi BMW - Dixon / Franchitti / McMurray / Montoya
3- Porsche Riley - Barbosa / Borcheller / Fittipaldi / France / Papis.
In the GT class at Daytona;
1-TRG Porsche GT3 - Bertheau / Gaughan / Henzler / Lally / Pumpelly
2-Paul Miller Racing GT3 - Bell / Miller / Sellers / Sugden
3- Patrick Dempsey Racing RX-8 - Dempsey / Espenlaub / Foster / Long