Behind The Scenes: Jarno Trulli
Jarno Trulli
He’s one of the most experienced racers on the Formula 1 grid, but what does Italian driver Jarno Trulli get up to when he’s not on the track.
Q: Are you the kind of guy to have a ‘Plan-B’?
Jarno Trulli: No, a ‘Plan A’ guy, definitely.
Q: Who do you most look forward to seeing when you arrive in the paddock on a Thursday?
JT: My bicycle.
Q: Who is your dream date?
JT: My wife!
Q: Which film last made you cry?
JT: Ah so many! I don’t like watching romantic movies, I prefer watching action. CSI… things like that.
Q: What are you afraid of?
JT: I’m a bit afraid of flying because I feel like once they shut the door you’re a dead person, and when they open it again you’re alive
Q: What was the last book you read?
JT: It was one my wife gave me… quite a while ago.
Q: What is your favourite way to relax?
JT: Doing sport, being with the family and being away from Europe because if I’m in Europe people keep calling me, so I like being in Miami.
Q: Have you ever – or would you ever – dye your hair?
JT: No, and I don’t plan to.
Q: Name five things that you hate?
JT: Snakes, being late, when things are unjust, screaming and pepper on my food.
Q: Do you have any tattoos or piercings?
JT: None.
Q: What did your teachers say about you in your school reports?
JT: That I was always there, but not for studying!
Q: Who were your childhood heroes?
JT: Niki Lauda.
Q: Do you have any guilty pleasures?
JT: I like gadgets too much.
Q: Do you collect anything?
JT: I’m passionate about all sorts of things. I’ve got a couple of old jukeboxes for example.
Q: What do you miss most about home when you are on the road?
JT: I don’t really miss home as I know I’ll be back very soon.
Q: What was your worst buy?
JT: A lot of people think it’s bad, but I like it – it’s a Hummer.
Q: How do you take your coffee?
JT: I don’t drink coffee.
Q: Your ideal non-race Sunday morning?
JT: Get up early, go out for some training and then go home to watch sports on TV.
Q: What was your first vehicle?
JT: A go-kart.
Q: What’s the most embarrassing mistake you’ve ever made?
JT: I’m not really embarrassed about anything I’ve done.
Q: What is the best thing you can cook?
JT: Salt fish – fish cooked in a salt crust.
Q: When was the last time you were really angry?
JT: Saturday in Spa [where Trulli felt he was blocked during qualifying].
Courtesy www. formula1.com
Schumacher Apologises To Barrichello
Michael Schumacher
Michael Schumacher admitted that his blocking manoeuvre on Rubens Barrichello towards the end of Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix had been “too hard” and, in a rare apology, said he was “sorry” for placing the Brazilian in danger.
Barrichello, now racing for Williams, described Schumacher’s move as the most dangerous made against him in his 300-race career and accused his former Ferrari team-mate of almost killing him to settle old scores.
“If he wants to go to heaven before me he can; I don’t want to go to heaven yet,” Barrichello said. “It was a go-karting manoeuvre. He’s taking something from the past into the present and there’s no need for that.”
The incident occurred when the pair were battling for the final point-scoring 10th place and Schumacher ran wide coming into the pit straight. Barrichello moved to pass the Mercedes driver on the inside but the German, making a comeback this season after three years in retirement, closed the gap, squeezing the Brazilian gradually closer to the pit wall.
An accident was averted only when the wall ended and Barrichello was able to veer right and pass into turn one. Schumacher, 41, was given a 10-place grid penalty for the forthcoming Belgian Grand Prix on Aug 29.
Schumacher was initially unapologetic, claiming that Barrichello was making a fuss about nothing. “We know certain drivers have certain views, and then there’s Rubens …” he said. “As far as I was concerned there was enough room for him to get through there. But it’s clear that I wanted to make life for him as difficult as possible.”
However, on his website on Monday, Schumacher admitted he had been in the wrong and said his post-race reaction was borne of adrenalin.
“Yesterday, right after the race I was still in the heat of the action, but after I watched the incident with Rubens again, I must say that the stewards were right with their assessment: the move against him was too hard,” Schumacher said.
“I wanted to make it hard for him to pass me. I clearly showed him that I didn’t want to let him pass but I wasn’t seeking to endanger him with my move. If he feels I was, then I’m sorry; this wasn’t my intention.”
It was not the only controversial incident of the race for the Mercedes team, who also released Nico Rosberg from a pit stop with one of his wheels not properly secured. The German had only gone a few yards when the wheel flew off and bounced down the pit lane, knocking down a Williams mechanic, who escaped with bruised ribs.
Team principal Ross Brawn said that the team had worked out where they went wrong and promised to be more vigilant in future.
“It appears that as the guy came off with the wheel gun, it spat the wheel nut but he didn’t see it disappear,” Brawn said. “He went back on, fired the gun and realised the nut was no longer there so came back out to grab the other gun and the rear jack guy thought he had finished, so he dropped the car and away he went. I think we understand what happened and we will look at how we can prevent it happening again.”
He added: “When the gun went on to take the nut off, the gun hadn’t engaged properly, so the nut was off the axle and it spat it out.”
Meanwhile, the sport’s governing body has announced the date of Ferrari’s hearing into their actions in Hockenheim two weekends ago when they defied a ban on team orders by instructing Felipe Massa to stand aside and allow team-mate Fernando Alonso through to win the race.
Ferrari were fined $100,000 on the spot – the maximum allowed – and the case was referred to the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council for further consideration under Article 151c of its Sporting Code, which deals with disrepute charges.
FIA president Jean Todt, a former team principal of Ferrari, is not expected to attend the hearing on Sept 8, the week of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. It will be chaired by the FIA’s deputy president for sport, Graham Stoker.
Todt is keen to avoid allegations of a conflict of interests, having promised an overhaul of the governing body’s disciplinary process during his election campaign last year.
Courtesy of The Telegraph
Mark Webber Back On Top Of Standings
Mark Webber and teammate Sebastian Vettel.
Australia’s Mark Webber leads the Formula One world championship after winning the Hungarian Grand Prix from Fernando Alonso.
His team-mate Sebastian Vettel again failed to turn pole position into a race victory after a controversial drive-through penalty. The German finished third after failing to find a way past Alonso, with Felipe Massa in fourth.
With Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren suffering a gearbox failure on lap 24, Webber now lead of the championship by four points from the Briton, with Vettel a further six points down.
With just a fifth of the 70-lap race gone it appeared as if a processional run to the finish was in store on a circuit where overtaking is virtually impossible.
But thanks to nothing more than that piece of debris on the track from Vitantonio Liuzzi’s Force India, it sparked remarkable scenes, penalties and retirements.
The safety car came into play, with Vettel just receiving the call in time to pit as he cut across the kerb running alongside the entry to the pit lane. With the exception of Webber, running third at the time, the bulk of the field piled in to change their tyres.
Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg was primarily the instigator of the mayhem – or at least part of his pit crew were as they failed to correctly fit his right rear tyre.
As the German pulled out onto the pit lane the tyre worked loose, initially rolling and then bouncing its way through the other pit crews, with one Sauber mechanic just avoiding injury. Whether it was a distraction to Renault’s pit team is unclear, but Robert Kubica was released too early by his lollipop man.
Within an instant he had run into the side of Force India’s Adrian Sutil just as he was about to pull into his pit entry box.
The damage was too great for Sutil to continue, and although Kubica was soon sent on his way again he unsurprisingly received a 10-second stop-go penalty for an unsafe release from the pits.
As for Rosberg, he trundled down to the end of the pit lane on three wheels, and with his crew unable to retrieve him, that is where he retired. The stewards are to further investigate both incidents after the race, with the likelihood the teams will receive penalties given the danger that had been created.
The safety car initially seemed to serve McLaren well as Hamilton jumped Felipe Massa in the pit stops and Ferrari were forced to back their drivers up.
That allowed Hamilton to move up to fourth, whilst Jenson Button, who had made his stop just before the safety car was deployed, had moved up to 10th from 14th following a woeful start.
The drama, though, did not end there because just as the safety car was poised to return after two laps on track, Vettel allowed Webber to open up a considerable margin.
The tactics were clear, with Webber needing to stop, the team were looking for him to get a flyer in the hope he could then eke out a lead, take on tyres and so secure a one-two, likely behind Vettel.
Vettel, though, allowed the gap to Webber to exceed 10 car lengths, which is against the regulations, resulting in him being handed a drive-through penalty.
When he served his punishment at the end of lap 31, he allowed his emotions to get the better of him as he clenched his fists in anger, seemingly towards the stewards, as he drove through the pit lane.
In filing in between the two Ferraris, and despite staring at the back of Alonso’s exhaust for around the final 30 laps, the 23-year-old never once found an opportunity to pass.
Out in front Webber, who it initially appeared had made a mistake in not making his stop when the safety car appeared, stayed out on the super-soft tyres for 43 laps.
By that time he had built up a 23-second cushion to Alonso, enough to allow him to take on fresh rubber, retain his lead and stroll to victory.
At the end the margin was 17.8secs, with Alonso holding off Vettel for second, followed by Massa in fourth and Renault’s Vitaly Petrov enjoying his best result for the team with fifth.
That was also the case for Williams’ Nico Hulkenberg who was sixth, whilst Pedro De La Rosa ended his points drought for Sauber with seventh.
Behind Button in eighth was the second Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi, whilst Williams’ Rubens Barrichello claimed the final point.
That was after a pass on Michael Schumacher in his Mercedes on lap 66 in which he was almost pushed into the wall along the pit straight, another incident the stewards are to investigate.
Courtesy of The Telegraph
Coulthard: Ban On Team Orders Should Be Scrapped
Ferrari
Formula One is a team sport. There, I said it. It is not a popular view but it is the truth. And because it is a team sport, the frankly ludicrous ban on team orders that everyone is getting so worked up about should be scrapped.
Now just hear me out. I know that what we saw at Hockenheim, when Felipe Massa was ordered aside for Fernando Alonso, was unpalatable to many fans but for goodness sake, wake up and smell the coffee.
Team orders happen in F1. They always have and they always will. Just because Ferrari were ham-fisted in breaking the rules, does it make their transgression any worse? I cannot believe some of the hypocrisy we’ve heard in the past couple of days.
The only way to stop team orders would be to race with one car. As long as there are two (and some teams want three — how difficult would it be then to control team orders?) the rule is unenforceable.
Team principals should be allowed to do the best they can for their team, for their employees, for their owners. That is what they always used to do. At some point during the past 60 years we seem to have lost sight of that fact.
The public furore is based on a fundamental misunderstanding, which is that Formula One is about the individual.
When I raced I lost sight of that as much as anyone else. Like every driver, I was racing for myself as well as the team. Unfortunately I was asked to make way for Mika Hakkinen at Jerez in 1997 and Melbourne a year later. Both times I acquiesced; both times reluctantly.
As I have written in previous columns, I have often wondered what would have happened if I hadn’t been so compliant. Perhaps I would have won more respect? Perhaps I would have been world champion? Perhaps I would have been fired? These are the kind of decisions a driver must weigh up.
No doubt Massa is grappling with such questions. The most damaging aspect of Sunday’s race is what it could do to his reputation. People will see him now as a ‘yes man’ who bends to the will of the company. And maybe they are right. Team player or stooge? The line is thin.
But it doesn’t change the underlying truth. My old team boss, Frank Williams, used to make decisions that would anger us drivers but when we complained about them he would say it was not about us, it was about the 700 employees in the team. We were just two paid drivers. He was right.
Ah, people will say, if it is a team sport then why is the drivers’ title the holy grail? You didn’t see Ferrari celebrate the constructors’ crown in 2008 after Lewis Hamilton pipped Massa to the drivers’ title.
That’s true. Sponsors need stars so teams will try to win that crown above all. That is the ultimate goal. It is tough luck for one of the two drivers but only one of them can win the thing.
Like the Tour de France, which is all about getting the team leader across the line first. Like a football team, who can sometimes sacrifice a player to man-mark a member of the opposition in order to give his striker room to score.
Like any team sport, in fact, the manager must be free to decide how best to manage his team. The players involved are free to obey or disobey — often the best sportsmen are not team players — but they do so at their own risk.
That is all part of the delicate and unique team-driver relationship.
The only possible drawback I can see to repealing the team orders rule is the encouragement it might give to the illegal gambling industry.
But it remains the only way of stopping charades such as the one we saw.
Courtesy of David Coulthard and The Telegraph
Schumacher Backs Ferrari And Alonso
Michael Schumacher
It was reminiscent of the days of old when Schumacher drove for the Italian marque, winning title after title, at times at the expense of his team-mate.
And although the German admits there are “nicer” to go about implementing team orderst, “in principle I fully accept” them.
Here’s an easy way to decide debates about sporting morality. 1. See which side Michael Schumacher’s on. 2. Take the other side. Rarely will you be in the wrong.
And so it proved again at the German Grand Prix, when Schumacher immediately defended Ferrari’s blatant and cack-handed team orders. Well, at least he’s not a hypocrite.
Clearly, though, this was a bad day all round: farcical ’sport’, some woeful lying, and some pretty shoddy journalism too.
And it would take a heart of stone not to feel for Felipe Massa. It is exactly a year since that nauseating full speed smash at Hungary, which could have ended Massa’s career, or even worse.
A victory at Hockenheim would have been the most uplifting of stories. Instead, he was shafted.
Worse followed, when the poor sod had to stand on the podium as Alonso sprayed champagne all over him.
Courtesy of The Telegraph and PlanetF1
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