Autoblog

Not that BMW's Sauber F1 car has anything more than three letters in common with cars that bear the propeller logo on public streets, but who's going to argue with the opportunity to lay down the tools early? Hotshoe Nick Heidfeld recently treated a crowd of laborer's at BMW's Munich factory to the spectacle of a big-dollar race car being treated like a hand-me-down Reliant, complete with a body-damaging finale. The shriek of a high-strung F1 racer while it slides around doing lurid donuts is a thing to behold, but the smile quickly fades when the front splitter gets tangled up in the curbing and ripped off the nose. Whoops. Video after the jump - Thanks for the tip, Ovidiu!


[Source: YouTube via Zercustoms]

Last weekend's rain soaked European Grand Prix at Germany's Nurburgring saw many of the drivers aquaplaning out of control early on in the event. Rain started in just the second lap of the race and it had to be restarted by the fourth lap due to dangerous conditions. By the time the race restarted the rain had stopped and the track dried up quickly.

Fernando Alonso managed to take the top spot on a day where it seemed that anyone could win, but even he suffered a hitch during the closing laps as he tried to overtake Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who was in first place. Massa's front wheel grazed the side of Alonso's McLaren and this led to a heated argument between the two post-race.

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton was one of the drivers who slid off the track in the beginning, but he was given a lifeline when his car was lifted by crane back onto the track. A poor decision to switch to dry tires too early after the rain had stopped saw him spin out again. This left him out of contention of a podium finish, and at the end the rookie came at in 9th place.

The major disappointment was pole sitter Kimi Raikkonen being forced to retire because of mechanical problems with his Ferrari. This allowed the competent Mark Webber to cruise into the third spot to gain his first podium finish at Red Bull racing. Another disappointment were the BMW boys, with sixth placed Nick Heidfeld hitting the side of team-mate Robert Kubica and then doing the same again with Ralf Schumacher.

UPDATE: Video of the event can be found after the jump.

Once upon a time, fragile little grand prix cars raced on circuits that had no huge run-off areas, no enormous corporate hospitality suites, and lots of blind corners. Then the 70s happened.. Drivers like Jim Clark had already died at the wheel of their racecars and three time former champion Jackie Stewart was pushing to improve safety in all forms of racing, particularly Formula One. In August of 1976, defending champ Niki Lauda had a near-fatal accident at the Nurburgring in Germany. The Green Hell, as the 14 mile long track was called, would never again experience the shriek of a modern Formula One car. Until yesterday, that is.

The Nordshleife (North Loop) would be relegated to lower classes of racing, while a new, modern, antiseptic Sudschleife would play host to the European Grand Prix in the nineties and into the twenty-first century. On April 28, BMW Motorsport held a special event at the 'Ring and brought out several race cars including an M3 GTR and and one of last years F1 cars. BMW-Sauber driver Nick Heidfeld did three laps in the F1.06 which was stock aside from having the ground clearance maximized to survive the bumpy surface of the old course. He managed a best lap of 8:34 and a top speed of 275 km/h on the long straight.

If you are ever in the vicinity of Cologne Germany, on a weekend when the weather is good, it's worth €19 to take a lap of the track, just to get a taste of what it was like in the "good old days" of racing.

[Source: F1-Live]