Albers dropped from Spyker

Christijan Albers has been dropped from the Spyker team with immediate effect. The highly rated but somewhat unlucky driver has sponsor trouble. Albers, who finished last at the British Grand Prix last weekend and had a pit lane refueling incident at the French Grand Prix will be replaced before the next race in Germany. Possible replacements include Christian Klien, Marc Gene, Narain Karthikeyan and Giedo van der Garde.

Klien might have to be released from a Red Bull contract but is probably the most race experienced having raced for Red Bull Racing and Jaguar. Marc Gene is next most experienced at racing but has huge amounts of testing time for Williams. Karthikeyan has many potential sponsors – which will be of great interest to Spyker – and van der Garde already tests for Spyker but has very limited race experience but is Dutch.

It would be a shame to see Albers go, not with standing the fact that a Dutch team is forced to remove a Dutch driver from the team, he has an air of incident that followed Jos Verstappen.

Posted by Jules at July 10, 2007, 10:17 am - Comments (1)
Tagged as: formula one, formula1, f1, albers, spyker, Christijan Albers, Karthikeyan, Klien, gene, van der Garde

Rogue Review, France 2007: Fields of nothing...

Like always, France has proved to be dull. It might be one reason why it’s going from the F1 calendar for the future. The last time anything interesting happened was when Jacques Villeneuve crashed on the sprint up to the Adelaide hairpin. This hairpin offers the most excitement of this entire track and this year this also proved to be the case.

The opening lap managed to provide two bits of fun and frolics. On the way up to Adelaide, Davidson thought he would have yet another go at Liuzzi. His first attempt during Qualifying paled into comparison with the a heavy collision which resulted in both drivers retiring from the race not having completed a single mile. Moments later Jarno Trulli made contact Kovalainen at the Adelaide hairpin in what I could only describe as “ram braking”. Why use valuable brakes when you can slow down on a Renault.

As the race settled Alonso and Heidfeld had an amount of exchanging places in what would turn out to be Alonso’s biggest headache for the entire race. Unable to shake off Heidfeld, Alonso finished two placed behind him down in 7th.

After the first lap action the race settled down. Scott Speed had a moment when his tyre decided to let go and end Speed’s race. Speed admitted that he had a slow puncture and was trying to make it to his stop in a few laps. If only he had come in. Kimi Raikkonen retired around the same time as the American ending his chance to take control of the championship.

After that there was a long, dark period of nothing, nothing but cars circling round the Nevers landscape; nothing at least until Lap 30. The Dutch driver, Albers, was called in for his regular pitstop, but surprisingly his team mate was already there, filling his spot. Much panic and activity later, Sutil had his fill of go-go juice and a new set of shoes allowing Albers to take *his* slot in the pits. But now critical time was lost. Time was now very much of the essence. Eager to leave the pits Albers made a critical mistake. He left too early. In doing this his dragged the refueling team and a large number of other mechanics over into a big mess on the floor. All this would not matter if Albers had still exited the pits cleanly, but sadly for him, his eagerness to leave had detached refueling hose from the refueling rig but not from his car. 200 meters later Albers parked up to ponder how really stupid what he had just done was. But at least we salute him! Sutil got his just deserts in the end with a drivethrough penalty for speeding in the pit lane on his quest to steal Albers’ pitstop.

Then, nothing; again the excitement was gone. Rain? No. Crashes? No. Overtaking? Not really… wait, Scott Speed! Off in the gravel trap! Yellow Flags, drama and the like… Er, No. He’s just parked in the gravel. Realisation turning to utter disappointment faster than an Albers pitstop.

Whilst the result of the race was good for Ferrari and Hamilton – when will he be stopped? – the race was not really good in our opinion. Bring back Canada, all is forgiven!

What's hot and what's not in the race

'ave it! Ram brake? Double d'oh Still there Smooth Davidson Trulli Albers Hamilton Räikkönen 2nd time lucky Renaults are soft Stop, Look, Listen, then drive! Does not want to miss the party The Iceman Cometh

Posted by Jules at July 1, 2007, 10:21 pm - Comments (0)
Tagged as: formula one, formula1, f1, france, 2007, trulli, alonso, raikkonen, albers, sutil, davidson

Imola crashes (part I)

Christian Albers, 2006
Since the development of Imola to be a safer track following the events in 1994, Imola has become sparse for real accidents. However, 2006 did not disappoint with a first lap incident for Dutch driver Christian Albers. Albers came to grief after Super Aguri driver, Yuji Ide, got a little too enthusiastic trying to overtake up the inside of the Midland Toyota. After 4 complete rolls over the gravel trap, Albers came to rest upside down. Albers was released unharmed from the car after a few seconds.

Rubens Barrichello, 1994
The Variante Alta was where Barrichello had one of the heaviest accidents ever seen at the Imola track. Kicking off the blackest weekend in F1 history, Barrichello, during Friday practice, made a mistake in his line for the entry to the Variante Alta and was launched off the kerb an into the top of the tyre wall on the outside of the chicane. The car was then launched nose first into a series of rolls coming to rest upside down. The impact knocked Barrichello out but he ultimately was not seriously injured.

Roland Ratzenberger, 1994
In Saturday qualifying the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix took a turn for the worst. Whilst overshadowed by events later in the weekend, Ratzenberger ran off the track at Villeneuve and had a massive impact with the wall. Ratzenberger was competing with the Simtek team managed by Nick Wirth and was trying to qualify the Simtek for a place in Sunday's race. Whilst approaching Villeneuve the front wing on his car failed and the car, now left with no frontal downforce, left the track and plunged into the outside wall at round 300 km/h. The car continued on down the track spinning around and eventually stopped at the next corner. Ratzenberger had received massive head injuries from which he never recovered. Ratzenberger's death was the first death since Riccardo Palletti was killed at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 1982.

Gilles Villeneuve, 1980
Father of troublesome individual Jaques Villeneuve, Gilles led an amazing career until his life was claimed in an accident in 1982 at the Belgian track of Zolder.

Whilst racing at Imola in 1980, Gilles crashed out in spectacular fashion after a tyre failure at the corner before Tosa. Hitting the barrier almost head-on the main section of the car bounced back on to the track in to the path of the cars still racing. Gilles was unhurt in the accident

Posted by Jules at May 3, 2007, 7:14 pm - Comments (0)
Tagged as: f1, formula1, villeneuve, imola, albers, barrichello, ratzenberger