Looking more refined than the North American version, the model has a larger grille, a different front fascia and circular fog lights.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Global Toyota Camry unveiled
Looking more refined than the North American version, the model has a larger grille, a different front fascia and circular fog lights.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Hamilton decision-making under the microscope
 Lewis Hamilton has come in for criticism |
Bob Sweikert Toranosuke Takagi Noritake Takahara Kunimitsu Takahashi
Designers talk the Cadillac Ciel Concept [video]
Concept's inspiration is explained by Cadillac's own designers in this new video. 
Giovanni Lavaggi Chris Lawrence Michel Leclere Neville Lederle
My Belgian Grand Prix preview
We're having one of the best Formula 1 seasons ever and the final eight races promise to be really exciting, with Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari closely matched. Watch my preview to this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix and the rest of the season.
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Who wants to know what Mark Webber has been up to during the Formula 1 break?
As you know, the 2011 Formula 1 season is coming to the end of a summer break. Red Bull’s Mark Webber has admitted in the past that he isn’t a fan of the significant break in the middle of the season, but as it turns out, he has enjoyed his time off. Here is an [...]
Eugenio Castellotti Johnny Cecotto Andrea de Cesaris Francois Cevert
Friday, August 26, 2011
Warwick confirmed as BRDC President
Derek Warwick was formally elected as the President of the BRDC at the club’s AGM today. Warwick replaces his fellow ex-F1 driver Damon Hill, who had decided to step down. ?First and foremost I would like to thank Damon for … Continue reading 
Nelson Piquet Jr Renato Pirocchi Didier Pironi Emanuele Pirro
2011 Belgian Grand Prix: Preview
Formula 1 bursts back into life this weekend as the Belgian Grand Prix marks the return of the sport for the first time in three weeks. Of course the world of formula 1 descends upon the magnificent Spa-Francorchamps with Sebastian Vettel threatening to run off into the distance with the World Championship safely tucked under [...]
Twenty years of Schumacher
At Spa-Francorchamps
For the first time since he started his comeback at the beginning of last season, Michael Schumacher was the centre of attention as the Formula 1 circus rolled into the spectacular Spa-Francorchamps circuit ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix.
Twenty years ago this weekend, the man who would go on to become the most successful racing driver of all time made his debut here for the Jordan team, which was also in its first season in the sport.
It did not take long for him to catch the eye - a stunning qualifying performance put him seventh on the grid, several places ahead of his vastly experienced team-mate Andrea de Cesaris. And although he retired after a few hundred yards with a broken driveshaft, Schumacher had made his mark.
By the time of the next race, Benetton had stolen him from under Eddie Jordan's nose - and the legend that culminated in seven world titles and 91 race victories began.
Although it is - as Red Bull's Mark Webber pointed out - only Schumacher's 17th season in F1, on account of the three he missed during his 'retirement', this weekend has partly been set aside to honour his achievements.
His Mercedes team are planning an event on Saturday, while Ferrari, with whom he won five of his seven titles, have promised "a little something to mark the occasion".
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However you count the years, Schumacher's achievement came into sharp perspective when his rivals were asked whether they remembered his debut.
Most of them were too young to have any recollection of it at all, picking a later point in his career as the time they first became aware of him.
Most, though, were more than happy to pay tribute to his remarkable achievements, with the most glowing reference coming from Fernando Alonso, the man who ended Schumacher's run of five consecutive titles in 2005 and then won a memorable mano-a-mano duel between them the following season.
"Michael, I have great respect for him," Alonso said. "He is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, in the history of our sport. There are numbers there it will be impossible to repeat for any one of us.
"It has been a great pleasure to drive with him all these years. I will always remember all the battles with him and for me it was a privilege to drive against Michael Schumacher. It will be something I always remember. Then he decided to stop and come back.
"I'm sure he missed the adrenaline and the F1 show. Now he is in the second part of his career, the car is not competitive, but he is still enjoying [it].
"There are some criticisms about his return and results now, but I don't agree with those.Michael three years ago was watching F1 at home. Now he is doing seventh or ninth but I'm sure he is happy every morning because he is doing what he wants to do."
When Alonso was racing Schumacher before his comeback, the German was the benchmark, so beating him gave the Spaniard's titles the ultimate stamp of credibility.
There are no questions about Alonso's greatness now, standing as he does alongside Lewis Hamilton as the new benchmark against which all drivers are measured.
For Schumacher, though, these are very different times, and the last 18 months or so have been punctuated by ongoing questions about the merit and wisdom of his return.
Last year, he was by and large pasted by team-mate Nico Rosberg - a man who for all his undoubted potential has yet to win a race. This season there have been signs of progress - while the younger German still comfortably has Schumacher's measure in qualifying, the veteran has looked more competitive in the races
It is clear, though, that Schumacher is not the driver he was.
Where once he appeared to dance at will on a limit beyond almost all his rivals, he now appears too often to be searching for that rarefied high wire, usually without success.
But the man who was famous for his willingness to do almost anything to win says he is satisfied with his current lot, scraping around for lower-ranking points as Mercedes battle to catch the top teams, while still insisting he wants to repay the German manufacturer for funding his debut and "return race wins and championships back to them".
His anniversary has given him a chance to reflect on a career that is still remembered for its many controversies as much as it is for his great success.
And in an interview with BBC F1 pit-lane reporter Lee McKenzie, which will be broadcast as part of the race build-up on BBC One on Sunday, he went as far as to admit he had regrets about some of the incidents that in so many minds went beyond the boundaries of respectability.
"Certainly I would do things differently," he said. "After 20 years in F1, you have a few regrets but, quite honestly, if I think it was 20 years, the few spots I have, you have to make mistakes to learn from them - and I think I do learn."
Asked if any of his mistakes stood out, he picked this race in 1998, when he lost a certain victory in the wet after crashing into the back of David Coulthard's McLaren. Once he had made it back to the pits, convinced the Scot had slowed deliberately to take him out, Schumacher charged off to the McLaren garage and had to be restrained from physically assaulting him.
"Maybe I should regret to go for an attack to David after he spoiled my race in 1998," he says. "We had this mysterious misunderstanding, I had a certain reaction, I think it was the first and only time I have been like this, I am normally a very balanced person."
It is perhaps revealing that of all the many incidents in his career, he should choose one for which he was not at fault, rather than his two title-deciding collisions with Williams drivers Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve in 1994 and 1997, or his decision to 'park' his car in Monaco qualifying to prevent Alonso beating him to pole position.
He still refuses to answer questions about the last incident and is resigned to the fact he will always - at least outside Germany - be a man who is more admired than loved.
"Everybody forms his own opinion about any person," he says. "I think I just want to be treated fair, that's the only think I look for. Who likes me or loves me, I'm happy about. Who doesn't, I understand, because you can't be loved by everyone."
Mid-season technical review part 2 | F1 technology
Guest writer John Beamer concludes his look at the technical developments so far this year.
McLaren drivers out of title race
 Is it now a three-way battle for the title? |
?Focus and concentration will be of paramount importance and there is none stronger in this regard than Ferrari?s Fernando Alonso.?The Guardian?s Oliver Owen thinks that it is Mark Webber?s title to lose now, and that this may be the Australian?s last realistic chance of winning the title.
?He has driven beautifully. Monaco and Silverstone spring to mind. He has been an uncompromising racer, not giving Vettel or Lewis Hamilton an inch in Turkey and Singapore respectively. Most importantly, he has largely avoided the bouts of brain fade that can wreck a season ? his on-track hooning in Melbourne when racing Hamilton being the only exception. But there is a feeling that for Webber it is now or never, that a chance of a tilt at the title may never come again. He is certainly driving as if that is the case and that has been his strength.?According to The Mirror?s Byron Young, both McLaren drivers are now out of the title hunt after their fourth and fifth place finishes in Suzuka.
?McLaren's title hopes died yesterday in a weekend from Hell at Suzuka. Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton finished fourth and fifth in a Japanese Grand Prix they had to win to have the remotest chance of keeping their title bid alive."The Sun?s Michael Spearman was of the same opinion, saying ?Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button's title hopes were in tatters after a shocker in Japan.?
Helmut Niedermayr Brausch Niemann Gunnar Nilsson Hideki Noda
Senna replaces Heidfeld at Spa
Lotus Renault has finally confirmed that Bruno Senna will replace Nick Heidfeld for the Belgian GP, but has declined to give any more details or explain how things have been resolved with the German driver. A short statement tonight said: … Continue reading 
Leslie Thorne Bud Tingelstad Sam Tingle Desmond Titterington
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