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Kubica Out of the Hospital

Monday April 25, 2011

IVG.it, an Italian news service, reported that Robert Kubica is no longer at Santa Corona Hospital in Pietra Ligure, Italy.  The service said he had left the hospital and the hospital announced that, "His condition is good and the driver will be able to begin a new rehabilitation phase outside the hospital."

It will be interesting to see if Kubica can get back to racing this year, but in a statement through his Lotus Renault GP team last week the driver was very cautious on how his progress will go.

Focus on Le Mans

Saturday April 23, 2011

There is a three-week break between the Chinese Grand Prix and the Turkish Grand Prix, but this weekend in Le Mans it's a little like another Formula 1 gathering.  The 24 Hours of Le Mans, the world's most famous endurance race, takes place in June on the same weekend as the Canadian Grand Prix.  But this weekend is a test day for the teams to prepare; it is the first time in two years that the race has held the test day, as it was cut due to the financial crisis.

I was there today, and the paddock is just full of former - and even current - F1 people.  I saw and/or spoke to all sorts of ex-and-present F1 drivers.  The present ones are various reserve drivers, like Marc Gene and Alexander Wurz. This year Giancarlo Fisichella is also racing in Le Mans.  I saw Sebastien Bourdais, Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen, Emmanuel Collard, and many others.  I even got to take part in a go-kart race with Nicolas Prost - son of Alain Prost - and I making a team - I might write more about that elsewhere later once I've recovered!

Vettel Gracious in "Defeat"

Sunday April 17, 2011

For the first time this year Sebastian Vettel did not finish first.  The Red Bull driver scored all three pole positions and won the first two races.  But in China on Sunday he finished second to Lewis Hamilton, who drove a brilliant race in his McLaren, while Vettel fell victim to a bad start and worn tires near the end of the race, losing the lead at the start and then after retaking it,  losing it again a few laps from the end.

But he accepted the defeat by saying the two-stop strategy was not good enough, and that the car just didn't react quickly enough at the start.  He also had the good sense of humor to joke about an incident during his first pit stop when Jenson Button, the other McLaren driver drove into Vettel's pit stop box area just ahead of him.  He joked about how thankfully Jenson and the Red Bull mechanics noticing that he was in the wrong spot because it could have ended up badly, with the Red Bull mechanics changing Jenson's tires.  Which would, in turn, he said, mean that he might himself have had to go into the McLaren pit to ask them to change his tires!



Ugly McLaren Driver Overalls

Saturday April 16, 2011

It just happens that I am wearing some nice off-white Hugo Boss pants today at the Shanghai race track for the F1 race.  It also happens that as I sat in the media center and looked at the TV screen of the morning practice session I almost jumped out of my pants when I saw Jenson Button wearing horrendously ugly racing overalls that made him look like a space-invader from a B-film of the 1950s.  Or something like that.

What were these horrible red and black monstrosities?  I then checked my email and found a press release from McLaren and found out that they are connected to a yearlong thing McLaren is doing to celebrate its connection with Hugo Boss as a sponsor:

"This is part of the Hugo Boss - DRESS ME FOR THE FINALE design competition," said the press release, "an exciting contest arranged to celebrate the 30th anniversary of partnership between Hugo Boss and Vodafone McLaren Mercedes.

"The overalls are of a bright red color and feature a black dragon as in the Chinese culture the red color symbolizes good fortune and joy and the dragon is also a symbol of strength and good luck. "

Well, I've had a bit of bad fortune this weekend, having my iPhone 4 stolen at the track.  But you could not pay me whatever it is Button and Lewis Hamilton are earning to wear those overalls - I'll stick with my off-white Boss's no problem.  Wait, what did I just say?  No,  all right, if you pay me what they're getting paid - those drivers - I will wear the entire season's worth of Hugo Boss anniversary clothing creations at the same time and ride around the track on my unicycle in them.  But anyway....


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