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Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari return gives F1 a lift

Rome: Kimi Raikkonen’s return to Ferrari, which was confirmed on Wednesday, may not be exactly what Fernando Alonso wanted, and it was certainly not on Felipe Massa’s wish list, but it will give Formula One a lift in 2014, when conversation elsewhere is likely to be dominated by talk of motor generator units and ERS (forget DRS) as teams downsize to new 1.6-litre V6s.

In a flawed sport constantly wringing its hands about whether to be pure and boring or contrived and exciting (cue Pirelli), and always fussing over team orders, Raikkonen represents F1 One at its very best.

The Finn is skilful and fast and if he is at his best during his two-year contract with Ferrari he will give Alonso a headache and the rest of us a rare treat. The disappointment among the leading teams is that Sebastian Vettel has been much too good for Mark Webber at Red Bull, Alonso has been a class ahead of Massa at Ferrari and Raikkonen has been too experienced and knowing for Romain Grosjean at Lotus. Raikkonen has the experience and speed to keep Alonso honest and may force the Spaniard to up his game in qualifying.

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have looked the strongest pairing on the grid, but now that all changes. Raikkonen might give Ferrari indeed all of Italy a headache. The truth is that the prancing horse does not know exactly what it is getting, even though they employed the Ice Man from 2007-2009. He was paid off in 2009 because he was being outdriven by Massa, whom he replaces at Maranello.

Source: http://gulfnews.com

Singapore: Formula One team bosses say the rapidly escalating costs of the sport — set to climb even higher next season — mean there is something “fundamentally wrong” with the sport which must be corrected.

The switch to V6 turbo engines next season, along with the re-introduction of in-season testing, means already financially-stretched teams will face a significant increase in costs.

Talks between teams to agree on cost-reduction methods have collapsed without any agreement, failing to bridge the gap between the smaller teams and the big four of Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes, who were resistant to any restrictions.

“When I came into Formula One, people talked to me about cost coming down, but I don’t think there’s been a single year it’s come down,” Caterham team founder and Air Asia chief Tony Fernandes said. “Next year will be the highest year, so there’s something fundamentally wrong.

“The teams lost out an opportunity to get costs under control. Self-interest overrode the sport and we are as much to blame for this problem as a [new] engine. We screwed it up. It’s as simple as that.”

Cost-saving measure

Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost voted against the reintroduction of in-season testing, which was originally axed as a cost-saving measure but brought back in 2014 at the behest of the big teams.

“The teams are stupid enough to do tests during the season,” Tost said. “On the one had they’re complaining they don’t have money, on the other hand they throw it through the window.

“And who wants the tests? The rich teams. As usual.”

Lotus team principal Eric Boullier said costs had come down significantly since the manufacturer era of last decade when the likes of Renault, BMW, Toyota and Honda had their own teams. However he still urged more talks between teams, governing body FIA and the commercial rights holder headed by Bernie Ecclestone, to stabilise regulations to reduce compliance costs.

Bob Fearnley, deputy principal of Force India, agreed regulation needs to be imposed from the top as there is too much competition between the teams for them to ever reach an agreement.

“The teams have demonstrated that they are not capable of being able to agree a cost control, so the answer is to take it outside of the teams’ control. It’s up to the FIA to decide a formula, bring that in and implement it.”

Re-negotiate

Aside from cost reduction, another means of sustaining the teams is for more of the money earned by the commercial rights holder to be passed on to the teams.

“We may have missed an opportunity to just sit down with the commercial rights holder and re-negotiate something which could have been more in favour of the teams, but we failed,” Boullier said.

Tost said getting more money flowing from TV rights and sponsorships to funnel down to the teams was not the answer.

“It’s easy to say we should get more money, but give the engineers one million and they ask for two. Give them four million and they ask for eight.”

Boullier agreed, saying increased revenue must work in concert with tighter regulations to control spending.

“The more money you get, the more money we will spend if you don’t have any safeguards around you,” Boullier said. “The more open the regulations are, the more we will spend money and waste money.” 

Source: http://gulfnews.com

After Thursday’s hearing at the Sepang International Circuit, relating to the Aragón Grand Prix collision between Repsol Honda Team’s Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa, MotoGP™ Race Director Mike Webb explains the decisions taken by Race Direction as well as emphasising how all manufacturers are working together to avoid repeats of such happenings.

Following Thursday’s hearing at Sepang, please explain which decisions have been taken in relation to Marc Marquez and Repsol Honda Team following the touch between Marquez and Dani Pedrosa in the Aragón Grand Prix.

I have to stress that Dani was in the meeting just in case he wanted to offer any opinion - he was in no trouble at all. The hearing was on two subjects: one was the contact between Marc and Dani during the race and the second, related but separate, was the crash of Dani which Honda has explained to us was caused by a fault in the traction control system. So, two separate things. Our decisions on those two separate items: for Marc Marquez, we have added one penalty point to his total for the 2013 season due to irresponsible riding. On the second subject, which is the technical subject of the failure of the traction control on Dani’s bike, we have deducted 25 points from the manufacturers’ championship for Honda that they gained due to winning that race. In both cases, I want to stress that this is Race Direction sending out messages: one is about the standard of riding and the care our riders take when they are riding close to others, while the second was a message to the manufactures about the standard of safety and the inbuilt failsafes for the systems on the bikes, to try and increase the safety.

Regarding the contact between Marquez and Pedrosa, some riders have been quite vocal about Marc’s riding so far this year. After today’s decision, will he and other riders now be more careful when it comes to issues of contact with opponents?

Yes, that is our intention. We are sending a message to Marc, very clearly, that we understand that he is an extremely talented rider but he is also intelligent enough to understand that there has to be some margin for error – especially, as we have seen a number of times this year, under braking when the rider behind has the responsibility of not getting too close to the rider in front who is riding his own lines. Finally, we have had an incident in which Marc has been very close to another rider – close enough to make contact – when coming from behind under braking. For us, that is a signal (even though the contact itself was quite minor) to make a formal warning by way of a penalty point to Marc to say he has to take more care.

Looking at the Honda issue and the failure of the traction control system, could this lead to changes in the Technical Regulations in order to ensure that all manufacturers and CRT outfits can follow such solutions in order to avoid any scenarios in which damage to rear wheel sensors leads to traction control issues?

It is a subject we are discussing in the context of safety. Right now, I am not going to say that there are going to be rule changes or things like that. As a working group, we are investigating it to try and increase safety. The thing is that these are very complex systems and every manufacturer has their own way of doing it. It is difficult to write an overall regulation that would be effective and sensible in the light of ongoing developments. We are discussing the issue and trying to work together with the manufactures, with recommendations and basically trying to work together to raise the safety. I have to say that all of the manufacturers, and in this particular case HRC, are very aware of the issue and they are the first to say that they want to improve it. In fact, they have already improved their bike, so it is not so much a question of having to make regulations to force them to do something; it is more a cooperative effort to make sure that all of us can work together to make the bikes safer.

Source: http://www.motogp.com

Sepang renews MotoGP™ deal until 2016

Dorna Sports is pleased to announce that the Sepang International Circuit (SIC) will be hosting the MotoGP™ World Championship for a further three years, ensuring the race will be held in Malaysia until at least 2016.

The popular track with both riders and teams, which has been on the MotoGP™ calendar since 1999, will play host to the premier class, along with Moto2™ and Moto3™, until 2016 for certain. Having seen crowd numbers go up drastically in recent years, with a new record expected this weekend, this is great news for the championship, the fans, and the continued expansion of motorcycle racing into the Asian territory.

Last year the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix attracted record spectators of 125,000 over the three days with Dorna, the exclusive rights holder acknowledging the event as The Best Grand Prix of the Year. This year, with extensive regional promotions and the unprecedented representation of six Malaysian riders, this premiere motorcycle event is expected to attract an even larger crowd with 95% of the available 80,000 tickets for Sunday’s race day already sold.

Dorna Sports CEO, Carmelo Ezpeleta:

“To sign this agreement for the next three years is fantastic news for all parties involved in MotoGP. The Sepang International Circuit is a great facility that is a favourite for many reasons, and is invaluable on the race calendar. It is one of the cornerstones of the Championship’s push into new markets, and continues to draw ever-greater number of fans. I hope for many more years of exciting racing to come.”

SIC Chief Executive Officer, Dato’ Razlan Razali:

“The announcement of the extension could not have arrived at a better time, as SIC has been in the midst of much progress of late with the launch of the South East Asian Motorcycle Business Forum as well as the Shell Advance Asian Talent Cup.”

Source: http://www.motogp.com

Pedrosa maintains top spot at Sepang

Dani Pedrosa was just two tenths of a second off Jorge Lorenzo’s fastest ever lap of Sepang as the Repsol Honda Team rider upped the pace on Friday afternoon. The 2012 winner topped the second practice session from teammate Marc Marquez and Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow, with Lorenzo sixth quickest for Yamaha Factory Racing.

As the premier class escaped the rain that did fall at the Sepang International Circuit on Friday, Pedrosa – already fastest in the morning – raised the bar to 2’00.554, half a second quicker than teammate Marquez. Crutchlow made the top three while Yamaha Factory Racing’s Valentino Rossi and GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista filled the void back to Lorenzo, although the reigning World Champion was in fact fifth fastest when taking into account the combined timesheet.

All riders bar five improved on their best times for the day during the afternoon session; one who did not was Colin Edwards, whose NGM Mobile Forward Racing machine had been quickest of the CRTs in the morning. By the time the day met its end, Aleix Espargaro (Power Electronics Aspar) had moved ahead and was 11th quickest. The aforementioned Bautista was a faller at Turn 4, while Damian Cudlin rounded out the field as the Australian made his second appearance for PBM.

Saturday’s third practice will start at 9:55am local time (GMT +8).

Source: http://www.motogp.com

Specifications
LG Fireweb

Network	2G 3G	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 HSDPA
Size	Dimensions Weight Display	113.8 x 66.5 x 9 mm (4.48 x 2.62 x 0.35 inches) 122.5 gram TFT capacitive touchscreen 320 x 480 pixels (~144 ppi pixel density)
Memory	Phonebook Call records Internal Card slot	Yes Yes 2 GB microSD, up to 32 GB
Data	GPRS EDGE 3G WLAN Bluetooth Infrared port USB	Yes Yes HSPA Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n Yes microUSB v2.0
Features	OS CPU Messaging Ringtones Browser Radio GPS Games Camera Video Colors Java	Firefox OS 1.1 1.0 GHz Cortex-A5; Adreno 200 SMS, Email, IM Vibration, MP3 ringtones HTML5 Yes Yes 5 MP, LED flash Yes Black - Loudspeaker - Mini-SIM - 3.5 mm jack - Geo-tagging - Accelerometer (sensor) - MP3/AAC+ player - MP4/H.264 player - Photo viewer - Document viewer - Organizer - Predictive text input - Clock - Calendar - Alarm
Battery	Stand-by Talk time	Li-Ion 1540 mAh Up to 744 h (2G)/744 h (3G) Up to 8 h (2G)/8 h (3G)

Image: http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_fireweb-pictures-5798.php

Specifications
LG Vu 3 F300L

Network	2G 3G 4G	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 LTE 800
Size	Dimensions Weight Display	True HD-IPS + LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors 960 x 1280 pixels (~308 ppi pixel density)
Memory	Phonebook Call records Internal Card slot	Yes Yes 16 GB, 2 GB RAM
Data	GPRS EDGE 3G WLAN Bluetooth Infrared port USB	Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 - 48 kbps Class 12 HSPA 42.2/5.76 Mbps, LTE Cat3 100/50 Mbps Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot v4.0 with A2DP, LE Yes microUSB v2.0 (SlimPort), USB Host
Features	OS CPU Messaging Ringtones Browser Radio GPS Games Camera Video Colors Java	Android OS, v4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) Quad-core 2.26 GHz Krait 400; Adreno 330 SMS, MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones HTML5 Stereo FM radio with RDS A-GPS, GLONASS Yes 13 MP, autofocus, LED flash 1080p@60fps, HDR, stereo sound rec. White, black - Loudspeaker - Micro-SIM - 3.5mm jack - Multitouch - Corning Gorilla Glass 2 (protection) - Geo-tagging, face detection, HDR - Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass (sensors) - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic - MP4/DviX/XviD/H.264/WMV player - MP3/WAV/FLAC/eAAC+/WMA player - Photo viewer/editor - Document viewer - Voice memo/dial/commands - Clock - Calendar - Alarm
Battery	Stand-by Talk time	Li-Ion 2610 mAh battery Up to 775 h Up to 13 h 20 min

Image: http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_vu_3_f300l-pictures-5723.php

Info

Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari return gives F1 a lift

Rising costs hurt smaller F1 teams

Race Direction explains Aragón decision

Sepang renews MotoGP™ deal until 2016

Pedrosa maintains top spot at Sepang

LG Fireweb

LG Vu 3 F300L

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