Sauber promotes Kaltenborn to Team Principal

The fourth oldest team in Formula One, Sauber, has a new team principal. Who would have thought that in the top flight of motor racing and male dominated sport, a woman would be the "top dog"?

Peter Sauber had always insisted that he didn't want to be in control of the team when he turned 70, and has recently relinquished control of the day-to-day operations to Monisha Kaltenborn.

Monisha Kaltenborn (L), with owner and founder Peter Sauber

Indian-born Kaltenborn joined Sauber in 2000 as head of its legal team and had been CEO since 2010. With her new position comes a third of the shares in the company.

Sauber on passing the baton: "...I'm in no doubt that Monisha has all the necessary skills to be an outstanding team principal, and I'm equally certain she will ensure that the values underpinning the company live on. That is very important to me."

This move's timing could not have been better for the Sauber Team has had four podium finishes this year. Kamui Kobayashi raced to the checkered flag in third place at the last race (Japan) while his teammate Sergio Perez was runner up at the Malaysian GP and Italian GP, and third at the Canadian GP.

What a great story. Kudos to Monisha and keep up the good job!

To watch a short video on "Woman power on the F1 tracks", please click here.

Source: Sauber F1 Team, Crash.net
Photo credit: Sauber F1 Team

The race weekend that was - UPDATED

NASCAR, at Pocono:
This unique track's 2.5-mile tri-oval has challenged Nascar's best since they first ran there back in 1973. And everyone knew that the 400 [miles long race] would be a difficult race, especially pole-sitter Joey Logano, since no one had gone from pole to win the race in a long time. But in the closing laps of the race, he found himself saying: "I can do this. I can do this."

Logano taking the win from pole

With just four laps to go Logano shows veteran Mark Martin no respect and gives him the bump and run for the lead and wins. Mark Martin finishes for the seventh time in second place, and made the following statement on the youths' winning move:
"Well, I'd call that a bump-and-run. It's been acceptable in this racing for a long time. It's not how I would have done it, but certainly, if I'd have a fast enough car, he would have gotten a return [bump]. But I couldn't quite keep up with him".

The race result are as follows: 1. Joey Logano, 2. Mark Martin, 3. Tony Stewart, 4. Jimmie Johnson, 5. Denny Hamlin.

The bizarre aspect of this race was the quantity of pit-road speed violations. A total of 22 were handed down, with Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski and three others being penalized twice for speeding in the pits.

Below a short video on the bump-and-pass winning move by Logano.



The next race will be held in Michigan on June 17. Fore more info, please click here.


Formula One, at the Canadian GP:

The street circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, in Montreal, was the venue for the seventh round of the world championship. And yes, there was a seventh different winner here too.

The first five on the grid of the Canadian GP were: 1. S. Vettel, 2. L. Hamilton, 3. F. Alonso, 4. M. Webber, 5. N. Rosberg.

The first corner and subsequently first lap of the race was free of racing incidents, which is remarkable for a narrow street circuit. In the opening stage of the race different tire strategies became the center of attention, with teams trying to position their drivers with the best strategy to win the race.

2nd place R. Grosjean

As all the front runners (RBR, McLaren and Ferrari) seemed to be running a two-stop tire strategy, the Britton Lewis Hamilton flinched first and came into the pits, but when it became apparent that the other two were running on a one-stop strategy, he was forced to pass them "the old fashion way". Go around them on the track!

And so he did. At this time Hamilton was lapping a second quicker a lap and first passed Sebastian Vettel and just two laps from the finish he passed Fernando Alonso for the lead. In the end, Lewis Hamilton defied a two-stop strategy to claim his third win in Canada and assume the F1 world champion lead.

The one-lap tire strategy proved to be the wrong one, as both Alonso and Vettel dropped outside of the podium, when the were passed by Romain Grosjean (Lotus) and Sergio Perez (Sauber).

Mexican Sergio Perez and Sauber team

The podium looked like this:
1. Lewis Hamilton, 2. Romain Grosjean, 3. Sergio Perez, 4. Sebastian Vettel, 5. Fernando Alonso.

For more information on the race, including selected quotes, please click here.

Hamilton on his win. "...I'd say it's one of the best races I've had for a very long time."

Below the post Canadian GP interview.



Since the drivers were on "our" side of the pond, and the new american races are closer to reality, Bernie encouraged some airtime for the races in Texas and New Jersey.

Below you can watch the skid from the Late Night Show David Letterman with Vettel as guest.




The next race will be GP of Europe, at Valencia, on June 22-24, 2012. For more info, please click here.

Thanks for reading.

Source: Formula One, Crash.net, Wikipedia, Nascar.

Cutaway F1 Sauber

Yesterday the world of Formula One, the very pinnacle of motorsports,  became a little less secretive with the posting of this video by the Sauber F1 Team, and in doing so, allowed fans to better understand where the components of a F1 car are located.

For the last two years the Sauber F1 Team mechanics have been using their downtime to slice a Formula One racing car lengthwise down the middle with the precision of true craftsman. Chief Designer Matt Morris quite literally gets underneath the skin of the F1 car, pointing out where and how the individual components are located within the chassis. Everything is packed tightly. Sergio Perez is also on hand to demonstrate the driver's seating position.



Two thumbs up to the folk at Sauber for coming up with this great idea and for sharing it with us. Thanks for reading.

Source: Sauber Motorsports

Perez shines at Sepang

The Malaysian GP delivered a shocking upset result at the end of a race, which saw the red flag come out due to a spectacular electrical storm that flooded the Sepang Int'l Circuit in the early stages of the race.

Strategy would play a big role as the teams tried to figure out which way to go regarding tire choice. Early front runners Hamilton and Button suffered a couple of mishaps, but Hamilton fought back to finish third. Rookie and Sauber driver Sergio Perez (Mexico) found himself in the lead due to a different tyre strategy but was passed by Fernando Alonso who kept the Mexican at bay to win the race.

Newspaper headlines around the World read: "Alonso wins, Perez shines in Malaysia upset".

Sergio Perez was the first Mexican to lead a GP since Pedro Rodriguez led the Dutch GP in 1971. Towards the end of the race Perez picked up the pace and put a lot of pressure on two-time World Champion Alonso, but ran wide in a corner just six laps from the finish and was ordered to maintain position to secure as many points as possible.

Kimi Raikkonen had to start from tenth place (qualified P5 plus a five spot penalty for changing a gearbox that was overheating a bit in Albert Park) and hadn't raced on wet weather Pirellis. Not did he know how the intermediate or wet weather tyres would react, but he still managed to finish in fifth place.

Schumi was delighted to start from P3. However, soon after the start of the race he was touched from behind and spun around. This caused him to drop to 16th place and eventually climbed his way back to finish tenth.

Sebastian Vettel lost radio communication with the pits after the long red flag period. Normally that would not be that much of a problem, but a punctured left rear tire caused by a slight contact when lapping Karthikeyan's HRT caused him to drive outside of the points, and on the final lap was ordered by Red Bull team principal Christian Horner to park the car. Vettel on the incident with Karthikeyan: "As in real life, there are a few cucumbers on the road." Too bad that the reigning Champion got emotional after a poor start to his season. He was clearly at fault here. To see a video this racing accident, please click here.

The F1 circus will be going to Shanghai next, for the Chinese Grand Prix on April 15.

Thanks for reading.

Source: Crash.net, Mercedes AMG F1