Source: http://nascar.speedtv.com/article/trucks-kevin-harvick-rolls-at-martinsville-nascar-camping-world/
George Amick Red Amick Chris Amon Bob Anderson Conny Andersson
Sunday, April 1, 2012
TRUCKS: Harvick Wins Easily At Martinsville
Veteran Kevin Harvick leads 248 of 250 laps to win second truck race of season?
2012 Formula 1 season ? Time to get in the mood!
The 2012 Formula 1 season gets underway this month and here are some videos to get you in the mood. While you are here, why not check out which drivers are under pressure in 2012? Enjoy these videos! More to come! [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog [...]
Michael Bartels Edgar Barth Giorgio Bassi Erwin Bauer Zsolt Baumgartner
McLaren unveil new car for 2012
At McLaren Technology Centre, Woking
Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button sat on the stage in front of the car they both hope will take them to the world title this year looking relaxed and happy.
Yet in their responses to apparently innocuous questions, both men revealed much about the different ways in which they approach the 2012 Formula 1 season.
They were asked how they had spent the winter. Button, fresh from arguably his best season yet in the sport, had spent some time in Hawaii. "Somewhere warm to chill out and train," he said, "but it's always the same - you spend a couple of weeks away and you are missing racing, so I was back on 5 January".
Hamilton's 2011, meanwhile, was self-admittedly his worst season yet in F1, with three superb wins interspersed with errors and controversy.
McLaren are set to compete for the title with their new car which was unveiled ahead of the beginning of the Formula One season due to start in March. Photo: Getty
His response to the same question was enlightening."The opposite of Jenson," he said. "I was over in the cold in the mountains in Colorado. I wasn't missing the car too much - it was nice to be away from it awhile, to refresh, start anew, and just getting back to training was great.
"I altered it a little bit this year, I think last year I was training too much. I had a good break and I was grateful to Martin (Whitmarsh, the McLaren team principal) for giving me such a good break."
Later, Hamilton revealed a little more about his desire to make amends for 2011 with a sparkling 2012.
Which race are you most looking forward to, he was asked. "Monaco is the one for me - I want to get back there and have a better race [in which he collided with two drivers and caused a storm with his post-race comments] than last year."
It was a stark illustration of just how much is at stake in 2012 for the man who many still regard as the most naturally talented and out-and-out fastest racing driver in the world.
Whether Hamilton has found the mental equilibrium he desires to enable him to perform consistently at his brilliant best remains to be seen, starting with the first race in Melbourne, Australia, on 18 March.
But much of it may depend on the reason he and Button were up on that stage - the McLaren MP4-27.
His team's failure - for the third year running - to produce a car with which he could consistently challenge at the front was one of the main causes for Hamilton's frustrations last year.
He knows exactly how good he is, so it was galling for him to see yet again that he was not realistically going to challenge for the championship.
As is the way of things, the launch of the new McLaren shed no light whatsoever on whether that will change in 2012.
The car looks nice enough - and it mercifully lacks the "platypus" front seen on the Caterham, the only other new car to break cover so far this year, as a response to new rules lowering the height of the nose.
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There was a lot of talk about McLaren's focus on the aerodynamics at the rear of the car, which featured noticeably tighter packaging than last year, and particularly of the need to make the most of pre-season testing and start the season strongly.
That was where McLaren's campaign began to unravel last season - an over-complex exhaust system led to a terrible pre-season with a car Whitmarsh has described as "neither reliable nor quick".
This year's car contains no obvious stand-out innovations but the team were quick to deny suggestions that McLaren had reined themselves in an attempt to make sure the car runs in testing, which Whitmarsh described as "data-gathering".
Engineering director Tim Goss described the MP4-27 as "a complete re-work from nose to tail".
Technical director Paddy Lowe added: "The regulations are trimming us into narrower and narrower boxes so we don't see the big radical changes from one year to the next, so the car looks quite similar.
But there is a great deal of change underneath.
"There still are obvious innovations. We have done a lot of work around the back end, a lot more tidy packaging there. We have had to respond to the change in the exhaust regulations (banning the blowing of exhausts along the rear floor to boost downforce).
That's given the aerodynamicists a big challenge to come up with the (lost) downforce and the balance."
Lowe and Goss are old hands and they did a great job of straight-batting the questions on the stand-out features of the car and it was left to Whitmarsh to utter F1's dreaded c-word.
"I don't believe we've been inherently conservative," he said. "We've set ourselves some tough targets, targets that we think if we achieve them we will win the world championship. I think we will meet those targets, and if they are the right targets, we will win the championships."
To achieve that obvious aim, though, there is the small matter of having to beat the twin formidable forces of Ferrari and Fernando Alonso and, the combination expected to remain the one to beat, Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel.
Just as the car's tight rear takes more than a small bow towards the all-conquering Red Bulls of the last two seasons, it is clear that McLaren have had their eyes on other aspects of their rivals' dominance as well.
"It didn't go unnoticed that Sebastian Vettel put the car on pole a lot and then pulled the gap (from which he controlled the race)," said Goss. "We're aware of it; we've attempted to find ways to deal with it."
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/02/at_mclaren_technology_centre_w.html
JeanPierre Beltoise Olivier Beretta Allen Berg Georges Berger Gerhard Berger
Ferrari's F2012 is a bold step - but is it enough?
Chastened by the disappointments of 2011, Ferrari promised an "aggressive" approach to the design of their new Formula 1 car and they have not disappointed.
The new F2012, unveiled via the internet on Friday because of unusually heavy snow at the team's base in Maranello, is the most radical of the four new cars that have broken cover so far this season.
Many will also regard it as the most unattractive, featuring as it does a pronounced 'step' on the upper nose that even Ferrari themselves have described as "not aesthetically pleasing".
Fernando Alonso, the man on whose shoulders rest Ferrari's huge expectations, paused when asked for his impressions of the car and said, politely, that it "looks very different".
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It is a design that will feature, to a greater or lesser extent, on most of the F1 cars this season - with the notable exception of the McLaren which was unveiled on Wednesday.
The McLaren is undoubtedly more beautiful than the Ferrari but it also appeared a little conservative - a charge vigorously denied by the team. In fact, that is a charge Ferrari have levelled at their own recent efforts, and the Italian team's new car is certainly anything but.
There is no doubting Ferrari's ambition. "We want to go back to the top level," said the company's flamboyant president, Luca di Montezemolo. "We want to win. We don't want to lose the world championship at the very last race [as they did in 2010]. We have all the ingredients for a perfect recipe."
That remains to be seen. Certainly this season could not be more critical for the sport's most famous team.
The fact is that since a major set of new regulations were introduced into F1 in 2009, Ferrari have not produced a car that was right on the pace.
The 2009 car was uncompetitive - taking only a single win in Kimi Raikkonen's hands. The 2010 was their best stab yet, but even though Alonso took it to the brink of the world title, he was only able to do so because Red Bull, who had a faster car, made so many errors between the team and drivers.
Last year was not quite as bad as 2009, but still Alonso, a man regarded widely as the most complete racing driver in the world, was able to take only one win, despite producing what he said himself was his best season in F1.
It's not hard to see where Ferrari may have created a problem for themselves.
Having put such emphasis on the need to be competitive this year, on the need to rid their design department of what they described as its conservatism, what happens if this year's car does not live up to their expectations?
They have already dismissed one technical director. Aldo Costa - who was at the team through the glory years with Michael Schumacher - was pushed aside and replaced by ex-McLaren engineer Pat Fry.
Equally, Alonso has effectively committed his career to them. This is, as team boss Stefano Domenicali has said, a huge benefit - he is a gold standard and no failure of pace can be laid at his door. But that is a double-edged sword. If the car is not winning, it is clearly Ferrari's fault, not his.
"Fernando did an incredible, extraordinary season [in 2011]," Domenicali said on Friday. "He has extended his relationship with us for many years and that is a sign of the responsibility we feel - we have to offer you a competitive high-performing car. I'm sure it will be winning from the very beginning."
Ferrari's F2012: Is this the car that will complement the exceptional talents of driver Fernando Alonso?
A lot rests, then, on the performance of the F2012. Whether its stepped nose, pull-rod front suspension and exhaust exits angled low down will make it competitive remains to be seen, but it is at least clear what Ferrari are trying to do.
The ugly step on the nose will undoubtedly cause more airflow disruption on the top of the car than any other seen so far, but it also means that Ferrari can get the much more important bottom part of the chassis higher across its entire width.
In theory, that means more airflow under the car, and therefore increased downforce, the holy grail for all F1 designers.
However, according to BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson - a man with 20 years' experience of designing grand prix cars - the curved chassis underside that will result from the 'eye-let' design on the Force India is actually advantageous in terms of directing the air where it needs to go - under the floor.
The pull-rod front suspension - where the rocker arms run from the top of the wheel to the bottom of the chassis rather than the other way around - has advantages in that it gets the weight of the suspension lower down in the car, and Ferrari claim there is an aerodynamic benefit, too.
And it remains to be seen whether Ferrari's solution on exhaust exits - which look like remaining a key issue this year, despite the ban on exhaust-blown diffusers - is as effective as that of their rivals.
"I really believe in the skills we have here in Ferrari," Alonso said. "We have to be optimistic. We have two months to get ready for the first race in Australia. We have to fight for this title."
Alonso, Ferrari say, works more closely with the team than even Schumacher did. But he is a very demanding man, who expects the absolute best from those around him, just as he delivers it on the track.
If the F2012 does not go better than it looks, things will get very uncomfortable at Maranello.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/02/ferraris_f2012_is_a_bold_step.html
Eric Bernard Ferrari Enrique Bernoldi Enrico Bertaggia Tony Bettenhausen
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