Remaining Actively Involved
The British Grand Prix weekend kicks off tomorrow morning and with David Coulthard choosing today to announce his impending retirement, we’re all set for a Sunday afternoon to remember.
I get the impression that DC fully intends to enjoy his last few months racing in F1, as yesterday’s visit to his old team’s headquarters will attest. Today’s official press conference came across as a pretty relaxed affair with just the three British drivers in attendance. Plenty of banter ensued, that culminated in Lewis offering to go head-to-head against Jenson in a future triathlon, while David wisely avoided the proposition.
I’m hoping that some of DC’s good vibes will wear off on the rest of the paddock, giving us a nice and chilled out second half to the year. Max, apparently has other ideas though, trying as he did today to quash David’s announcement (and his personal thanks to Bernie), with a poorly timed “open-letter” to the teams on the subject of cost cutting (another shining example of transparency when it suits).
Regardless, we shall not be dragged down by yet more politics. There’s much to look forward to and one of those things is David Coulthard’s very last British Grand Prix.
July 3rd, 2008 at 8:51 pmme said:
fyi: as promised, we’re trying to give f1 photographers a bit more limelight, so the copyright text in the picture above has been enlarged and Mathias Kniepeiss’ name has been appended.
hope that helps anyone who may be interested.
July 3rd, 2008 at 8:55 pmme said:
blogf1 has noted that anthony hamilton withdrew the triathlon offer later in the day:
http://blogf1.co.uk/2008/07/03/why-…iathlon-with-button/
i guess he needs to stand near coulthard some more.
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:12 pmme said:
by the way - not wanting to follow up on the whole “max’s ideas” thing too much (because we know he deliberately sets the bar high for negotiating purposes), but this is got to be seen to be believed:
http://www.drop.io/sidepodcast/asset/new-f1-rules-for-2011
10-race drive trains, with no gear ratio changes for the entire life of the product. so that’s the same ratios for say monaco and canada?
the penultimate paragraph leaves me speechless. nurse!
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:27 pmSteven Roy said:
I don’t get why DC is retiring now. Next year he would have an Adrian Newey car designed for new regulations and when everything is new more experienced drivers thrive because they have the knowledge to deal with it.
Max has now decided that cars should be able to overtake by slipstreaming. Why has it taken him this long to understand that a slipstreaming car has to be able to run faster than the car in front to pass? He has done exactly the opposite with every rule he has introduced since he came to power.
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:45 pmLe BOL said:
Lovely pic. Can be voted “the best F1 pic of 2008″.
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:55 pmme said:
and they’ll be running on slicks which he has experience with right?
you raise a good point. i can only assume that his poor start to the season hurt him somewhat. or maybe he’s just getting tired of it all?
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:56 pmme said:
i think it should be, yeah
i wish someone would film these press conferences. we missing out here.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:36 pmFelipe Leite said:
Well, besides getting tired of F1, he probably felt that his contract would not be extended.
So Red Bull may have offered him the opportunity to retire in a nice fashion, and not a melancholic way - like Ralf did last year, or many more before him. And DC deserves all the compliments for his F1 career. If he was not one of the best of his time, at least he had some good moments throughout his career.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:46 pmMichael said:
Even bigger news! Toyota have unveiled their new B spec car, which is surely going to give them pole.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:56 pmRich said:
I do not think this should be analysed too much. Personally I think it is a good time - because David has come back to show he can drive an F1 car (especially Canada). Rather retire at a fairly high point, not linger like Ralf did only to be neglected by everyone. On another note PlanetF1 reported that David returned to Woking for a day after submitting the top bid for a F1 charity auction. The prize was lunch for four and a tour of the Macca technology centre by Martin Whitmarsh. Very cool and a lot of style DC!
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:13 pmDom said:
Mark Webber will stay at the team for 2009. Plenty of Red Bull news today.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:13 pmSteven Roy said:
It was a tour for four. He took Christian Horner, Adrian Newey and Martin Brundle with him.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:22 pmme said:
very tasty
this is taking the proverbial though!
http://www.autosport.com/gallery/photo.php/id/106195
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:24 pmme said:
in other news, kubica has noted that bmw have rather fallen behind of late:
http://www.autosport.com/gallery/photo.php/id/106161
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:30 pmDom said:
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:54 pmlou said:
ahhh DC retiring?! omg why does everything happen while i’m out?!
This is a sad day, i do not remember a GP without DC in… I was too young to take much notice before 1994. *sniff* so we are down to just 2 British drivers for next year.
It’s such a lovely photo, my fav so far this year
Can we say that it’s pretty much given that Vettel will be at red bull next year now then?
July 4th, 2008 at 12:00 amlou said:
Thank you
July 4th, 2008 at 12:02 amme said:
credit to f1wolf for finding it first:
http://www.f1wolf.com…to-retire-at-the-of-2008-season.html
July 4th, 2008 at 12:08 amlou said:
pics of jenson’s british gp helmet on the honda website
It looks really good 
July 4th, 2008 at 12:39 amRod said:
Just found out this morning! DC to retire! Webber to get another RB year! Lewis accepts Jenson’s Triathlon challenge only to have his dad tell him he has to concentrate on his schoolwork! Wow, I hope the rest of the weekend is this good!
July 4th, 2008 at 5:03 amMattw said:
Yes. Or a BMW.
BMW would be wise to let him prove himself against Mark Webber, and have another learning year in F1 before bringing him back to the BMW team.
July 4th, 2008 at 9:30 amCorey said:
I agree. It would be good to see how the kid performs against Webber. On the subject of DC’s retirement I think its a great time to announce it especially after the podium in Canada.
The triathlon head-to-head seemed like a good idea and Button was willing to put 10,000 to charity as well. Considering some of the PR nonsense Lewis has done all year I think Button’s challenge was better than anything McL came up with.
Maybe we should have a Sidepodcast best F1 photo competition or something. It would highlight the photographers as well.
July 7th, 2008 at 2:35 pmme said:
that’s a good plan corey, will try and remember later on it the year.
July 7th, 2008 at 6:38 pmMattw said:
Great idea. However could it be an ‘F1 related’ photo competition, as I left it a bit late to head out to Silverstone…
However I do have a good shot of Le Seb at the Champ car race at Brands.