CampingF1 Silverstone 2014

The CampingF1 team is now back from Silverstone. It's been an amazing weekend! Here is a summary of what happened:

Martin Brundle at CampingF1 Spa 2014

Renowned Sky Sports commentator, motorsport legend and former F1 driver Martin Brundle has just been confirmed as our Guest Speaker for our Belgian Grand Prix Camp Site! He'll be on stage on Friday 22 August 7pm for a stage talk followed by Q&A and live music by The Lettuceheads. 

Our Spa-Francorchamps campsite offers tent & motorhome pitches, as well as spacious pre-erected tents with air beds. An Entertainment Marquee is available, full with an Food Outlet serving all day till midnight, a licenced Bar, Celebrity Guests, Live Entertainment by The Lettuceheads and DJ Phil on stage every night.

Book your Pre-Erected tent or Camping Pitch now at www.campingf1.com/events/belgian_grand_prix !

Sebastian Vettel: Red Bull could challenge Mercedes in Monaco

Sebastian Vettel believes his Red Bull team could challenge Mercedes for victory at the next race in Monaco.

Mercedes have dominated the season so far, winning all five races, but the world champion believes Monaco's unique characteristics will help Red Bull.

Asked if they could compete with Mercedes there, Vettel said: "I think yes. It is difficult to predict but maybe in Monaco you need less power.You still need power, but maybe a little bit less than in other places."

Red Bull are being held back this year by their Renault engine, which team principal Christian Horner says is "80 or 90bhp down on the Mercedes".

The car itself is at least as fast as the Mercedes in the corners, which predominate on the tight and twisty Monaco street circuit.

British Grand Prix may be at risk says Ecclestone

This month has not been a good one for Silverstone. Sure there was news that ticket sales for this year's British Grand Prix have been boosted by the success of Lewis Hamilton but a few days later it came to light that the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC), which owns Silverstone, has shelved its plan to sell the track. Now Formula One's boss Bernie Ecclestone has cast doubt on the future of its flagship race according to an article in Forbes magazine by Christian Sylt.

Lewis Hamilton wins Spanish GP over Mercedes team-mate Rosberg

Lewis Hamilton took the world championship lead from Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg with a closely fought victory in the Spanish Grand Prix.

Hamilton leads Rosberg by three points 

Hamilton revels in difficult win

as his fourth win in a row finally made up the ground he lost by retiring from the season-opening Australian GP. 
The Briton led from start to finish to win a tense battle with Rosberg, with the rest of the field far behind. Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo was third and team-mate Sebastian Vettel fourth.
The world champion produced a superb recovery drive from 15th on the grid to finish ahead of Williams' Valtteri Bottas and the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen.

British Racing Drivers’ Club withdraw plans to sell part of Silverstone

The British Racing Driver’s Club (BRDC) will no longer sell off a part of the Silverstone racecourse after talks with the investor fell through.

The BRDC confirmed a £32m deal with commercial property firm MEPC had been struck, with the company acquiring a 999-year lease on the industrial estate and development land around the circuit.

Despite this, negotiations with a second investor for the lease of the circuit and sale of Silverstone Circuits Limited have not been as successful, and as such, the deal has fallen through.

BRDC chairman John Grant said: “After intense efforts to secure an acceptable deal, we have not been able to bring negotiations with the second potential investor to a satisfactory conclusion.

The BRDC will now retain full ownership of SCL, whose highly experienced management team will continue to operate, promote and further develop Silverstone as a premier racing destination.

With or without another investor, the futures of both Silverstone and the British Grand Prix are secure.

The circuit business has enormous potential and MEPC's development of Silverstone Park - a high-tech business park on land surrounding the circuit - will enhance the circuit's image and value over the next several years.

We are delighted with the progress MEPC is already making. They are proving to be excellent partners and strong believers in our shared vision for Silverstone.

We look forward to working with them towards implementing our joint vision for the development of Silverstone as a globally recognised centre for world-class motor sport and advanced technology.”

Source: isportconnect.com

Chinese GP: Chequered flag error means race declared on lap 54

A mistake with the chequered flag at the Chinese Grand Prix has resulted in the distance of round four of the 2014 Formula 1 season being shortened.

Lewis Hamilton was shown the chequered flag at the end of lap 55 - one lap before it was supposed to have been displayed.

F1's regulations state that if the chequered flag is shown early, then the race will be deemed to have finished the lap before.

Some amazing facts and figures about Scuderia Ferrari's F1 engines and the Shell fuel used.

Come behind the scenes and follow Scuderia Ferrari's mission to be back on top of the podium. Watch as they work closely with their technical partner Shell to try and engineer the winning formula for the 2014 season.

Unprecedented access to Ferrari's Formula One factory makes for a fascinating behind the scenes look at how the most famous race team in the world prepares for the FIA Formula One World Championship™, featuring candid comments from key personnel, as well as drivers Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen.

Source : Shell Youtube

Jake Humphrey with Eddie Jordan #F121

Ahead of the Malaysian Grand Prix Jake wakes up old mate, F1 legend and garish shirt enthusiast Eddie Jordan on his yacht in the Caribbean to chat about what he is expecting this season.

Find out why Eddie feels Australia was robbed in the last Grand Prix and which young talent he is tipping for massive things this season.

Mercedes's Formula One title hopeful Nico Rosberg admits Lewis Hamilton rivalry is increasingly 'heated' - Telegraph

Nico Rosberg is recalling his earliest memory of Formula One. “I was sleeping on the roof of a boat in the harbour in Monte Carlo – it must have been 1988,” he says. “I remember being woken up on a Sunday morning by the sound of Ayrton Senna roaring out of the tunnel as they were doing warm-up. I sat up and saw the red and white McLaren, with his yellow helmet. I can still clearly see it – as a little child it was like camping outside.”

Some camping trip. But he was not any old F1 fan. The man who has a first drivers’ title in his sights this season has the sport woven into his DNA.

The 28-year-old German is the son of the 1982 world champion, Keke Rosberg, and had the pleasure of growing up in Monaco and flying around the world following the fortunes of the ‘flying Finn’ Mika Hakkinen, who his father managed. “I followed his races very intensely always, with my dad. They were always great times.”

Fast-forward to 2014, and the low-pitched grumble of turbo-powered engines will be heard in Formula One for the first season since Rosberg was woken by Senna tearing through Monaco’s streets in 1988. It is a season of immense change in which the Mercedes driver is considered one of the favourites, as he seeks to become the second son of a world champion to win the crown himself, after Damon Hill. In some quarters, he is favoured even more highly than his team-mate, and long-time friend,Lewis Hamilton.

The dynamic with Hamilton will be one of the season’s most fascinating sub-plots – a modern spin on the rivalry between Ayrton Senna, whose instinctive brilliance is echoed in the skilled, occasionally reckless Hamilton, and his McLaren team-mate, the ‘Professor’ Alain Prost, an ice-cool technician to whom Rosberg is a natural heir.

Rosberg and his girlfriend Vivian Sibold at the Thomas Sabo Rebel

"It was the same when we were young - it was so competitive between us. In the amount of pizzas we could eat, the wrestling matches in the hotel rooms, whatever it was. It’s the same today."

Prost and Senna’s relationship at McLaren was characterised by bitter dislike at McLaren. Rosberg and Hamilton are not in that category – indeed they still maintain a large degree of the friendship first kindled when they were team-mates in karting, aged 14. But Rosberg is honest enough to acknowledge a competitive edge that occasionally spills over.

“We’re not best friends, and we’re probably never going to be best friends just because it’s difficult in this industry, especially when you’re team-mates, fighting for wins. We get in well, we have a laugh, neutral, very competitive. We even have some heated exchanges, but then afterwards it gets back to normal. That's it.

“It was the same when we were young - it was so competitive between us. In the amount of pizzas we could eat, the wrestling matches in the hotel rooms, whatever it was. It’s the same today.”

Rosberg is wise enough to acknowledge that if, as expected, they are fighting at the front, maintaining their friendship will be difficult. “It will definitely be harder, yes. The more success we have, the tougher it is.”

Mercedes in 2013 were also not afraid of employing team orders, which never helps foster harmony. In Malaysia last year, while Red Bull were mired in their own controversy, as Sebastian Vettel ignored a direct order to pass Mark Webber for the lead, Rosberg was enduring his own frustration. Unlike his compatriot, however, he obeyed the order to hold his position. After the chequered flag had fallen, he ominously told his team on the radio: “Remember this one.”

There is a weariness in his voice when he is reminded of the controversy. “Ah, this subject again. I’ve been through it so much. I just wanted to reiterate that I really was a team player, which is what the team wanted from me.

“I wanted to make sure that the team remembers what I did for the future, which they very much did. It all worked out well, and I would do exactly the same tomorrow if I had to do that decision, because in the end it’s a team sport. I need my team to do it together, and I respect my team, and their decisions.”

Fundamentally, however, whatever role team orders play in 2014 at Mercedes, this is the season for Rosberg to emerge from Vettel’s shadow, and to truly establish himself in the very highest echelons of the sport.

Justly or unjustly, in recent seasons Rosberg has struggled to be recognised among that select few of Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton, and perhaps Raikkonen. After three years in which he outclassed the returning Michael Schumacher, the consensus was that the seven-time champion had lost his way, not that his younger team-mate had stepped up.

And in 2013, when he matched Lewis Hamilton in the same machinery, popular opinion had it that Hamilton's standards had slipped, rather than Rosberg’s being elevated.

Rosberg harbours no resentment – “I respect that opinion, but it’s not something that annoys me” – and prefers to focus on the verdicts of those within the Mercedes family.

“I need the support of everybody to be able to win,” he says. “I’m very conscious of that. I really like to try and work together with everybody and get the best out of everything that we have.”

We meet at an event for Thomas Sabo in Munich, a brand for which he is an ambassador, but when asked if he enjoys these kinds of events as a relief from Formula One, his mind immediately turns back to a frenzied pre-season.

Rosberg admits Mercedes “underestimated” the challenge of Formula One on their return to the sport after half a century in 2010. Since then, however, they have invested hugely, assembling a technical team which is the envy of the paddock.

In pre-season testing they showed little sign of missing the retiring Ross Brawn. While Red Bull floundered, the silver arrows racked up the miles, setting a searing pace in the process. Rosberg, with just three career wins to his name to date, can expect many more this season, with his eye for technical detail well matched to the plethora of new regulations.

“There’s so much that’s different this season. It’s really a matter of practising to integrate it all, and making it sub-conscious. The more you have to think, that’s when things are going to go wrong. There’s a very positive energy and momentum in the team. Everybody is really firing up. It’s obvious in every single person. We’re ready to step up – we feel it.”

Source: Daily Telegraph