Today is Mickey’s first birthday ...
I thought it would be fun to pass along a few pictures of Mickey hanging out at the shop while the Porsche was being worked on, these are from June so he’s quite a bit bigger now. You can see that Mickey is a real shop dog and enjoys being around the cars, especially the Porsche 911.
For those of you wondering about the name, no, Mickey is not named after the mouse but after the Irish boxer in the excellent movie Snatch.
Amazing video showing the capabilities of the Bose Active Suspension. The first part of the video shows an impressive ride but the last few seconds are truly amazing.
The rift between F1 world champion Fernando Alonso and team McLaren boss Ron Dennis appears to be at an all time low. Crash.net reports that Dennis and Fred, “have not had any conversations since that point [the Hungarian Grand Prix].” It also appears that Alonso’s threats to expose incriminating emails regarding the Ferrari spy case to the FIA were empty. McLaren COO Martin Whitmarsh says, based on McLaren’s investigation, “he [Alonso] cannot have been telling the truth”.
The McLaren team continues to be in the focus of the press after the Belgian Grand Prix with several new articles on the BBC site. The tension between the teammates grows with Hamilton fuming over Alonso’s turn one maneuver that pushed him into the run-off at the start of the race. From the coverage I’ve read it appears this was a valid move from a driver trying to protect his position on track.
Of more interest are reports that Alonso threatened boss Ron Dennis with exposing his involvement in the Ferrari spying incident. Apparently Fred thought he could use this to gain primacy in the team and Dennis immediately contacted FIA officials to report the new information rather than give into his driver. Alonso is reported to have apologized later but this cannot be helping his position with a team that has an investment in Hamilton.
With these disclosures it’s no wonder that rumors are circulating around Alonso leaving McLaren in 2008 for Ferrari or Renault. Will Ferrari really consider dropping Massa and (why) would Alonso go to a team where he would not be the top driver but must battle for recognition with Kimi? Renault would be a welcome home to the world champion especially if he can help get the team in order for the new season.
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Today marked what feels like a major milestone in the restoration/transformation of the 1974 Porsche 911 as the first coats of Kristallsilber were applied to the interior, jambs, engine compartment and trunk areas. The original Porsche color looks great and it’s exciting to imagine what the car will look like with the Cobaltblau trim added.
There is still a lot of work to do with this project and even with the paint complete it will just be a more pretty rolling chassis. 
One of these days I’m going to be forced to remember how to put the thing together again along with figure out some of the planned improvements such as the new wiring harness with modern blade fuse box.
All of this will come in time.
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Yes, It is Cheating ...
Both the Sporting Life and the BBC have reported on the involvement of world champion Fernando Alonso in the McLaren/Ferrari spying debacle. The former have a fairly detailed transcript of an email chain between Fred and test driver Pedro de la Rosa, including de La Rosa’s statement that, “All the information from Ferrari is very reliable.”
It is obvious that Ferrari’s Stepney was providing McLaren’s Coughlan for an extended period of time and that more than just the design documents were being shared. Undoubtedly, the flow of information into McLaren benefited the team, if nothing else providing them with confidence in their decisions and continuous pressure to improve their own designs.
It will be interesting to learn more about Alonso’s involvement, and how much he benefited from the Ferrari data. Also intriguing is the revelation that Ron Dennis learned of his driver’s email communications during the Hungarian Gran Prix and reported the discovery to the FIA the day of the race – this may be further explanation of the poor relations between the team boss and the world champion.
The FIA will be publishing the full judgment next week after, “both McLaren and Ferrari have been given the opportunity to redact any confidential technical information.”
Is it really cheating if there isn’t a discernable benefit?
According to a posting on the FIA website, McLaren through their own admission, “was in breach of the International Sporting Code through their possession of confidential technical data belonging to rivals Ferrari, who are now all but assured of the 2007 constructors’ title.” In addition to the loss of the constructor’s title McLaren will also be fined $100 million. The good news for the team is that the drivers, Alonso and Hamilton, will not be effected by the ruling and will continue to compete for the driver’s championship.
While it is clear that McLaren has cheated to some degree through the acquisition and possession of confidential Ferrari documents one has to question the penalties. Certainly the team should suffer repercussions for their indiscretions but do they really deserve to be ejected from the constructor’s title? Ferrari’s relative poor performance this year has largely been due to reliability issues. McLaren has consistently run more reliable races and often been faster.
The McLaren cars have demonstrated better suspension characteristics, being easier on tires and more capable at handling varying road conditions. If anything, they’ve benefited by not doing what Ferrari have done. While the fine seems appropriate (after all, what’s $100 million to an F1 team) the title penalty seems severe.
I wonder what evidence the drivers presented. Something was definitely afoot with Fred not saluting the team at the end of the last GP - perhaps Dennis was pressuring him re testimony. I
have to believe Lewis would have been a good soldier and not provided anything to damning to the team; Fred would be focused on his championship opportunity.
Ferrari may win the cup but it will be marked by an * and we will all know who the better team was.
