The Spanish press chase Fernando…in karts! Santander sponsors the Ferrari Driver Academy

When Fernando Alonso makes a public appearance in Spain, it always draws plenty of attention in the media: just look at the tens of thousands of spectators who packed the grandstands in Valencia, Jerez and Barcelona during the winter test sessions and the big crowd of journalists who headed for the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro hospitality unit for the press meetings which took place on every day of track preparation for the World Championship. Today, the Iberian press, radio and television finally got the chance to see how they really measured up against Fernando in the arena that the man from Oviedo likes best, namely the track. The opportunity arose thanks to the Santander Bank, one of the Scuderia’s main sponsors, who took over Carlos Sainz’s karting facility in Madrid, organising an event in collaboration with the Spanish Automobile Federation. Fernando was the guest of honour, along with Santander’s Director of Marketing and Communications, Juan Manuel Cendoya and the President of the Federation, Carlos Gracia.

For the record, the “La Sexta” television channel took a clean sweep of the podium places, with Alvaro Garcia in first place, Antonio Lobato second and Jacobo Vega third, with Fernando not classified…

The event was also the scene of an announcement that the Bank is now a partner of the Ferrari Driver Academy, as well as supporting the Spanish karting championship for a three year period from 2011 to 2013. In recognition of the agreement, a very young Spanish karter, Victor Colome, winner of the 2010 Beca Santander Jovenes Promesas, is currently taking part, along with other drivers from the Ferrari Academy, in a course, being held at Maranello.

Source: Ferrari.com

RallyRACC stars to take part in kart race on Thursday

Loeb, Sordo, Hirvonen, Ogier, Latvala, Solberg... at the wheel of go karts

On the occasion of the RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España, the main drivers of the WRC will be taking part in a karting exhibition at the Salou Karting Centre. Most of them being karting fans, the drivers who have confirmed their attendance to the exhibition are the main stars of the championship such as World Champion, Sébastien Loeb and his Spanish team mate Dani Sordo; Mikko Hirvonen, Jari-Matti Latvala, Sébastien Ogier, Kimi Räikkönen, Matthew Wilson, Ken Block, Petter Solberg, Khalid Al Qassimi and also Federico Villagra.

This true show with the best drivers of the World Rally Championship, perfectly kitted out to drive a professional kart, will start with a group photograph of all participants followed by the exhibition as such, and will be held on Thursday, 21 October, from 3.00 to 4.00 p.m. on the 900-m track of the Salou Karting Centre.

For the agenda:
- Event: WRC stars in karts
- Place: Karting Salou (Autovía de Salou a Reus, km 2.1)
- Date: Thursday, 21 de October
-Time: 3.00 p.m.

Source: RallyRACC.com

A karting challenge

Montreal, 10 June – Almost the entire Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team, here in Canada for the eighth round of the Formula 1 World Championship, met up last night for a special go-kart race, with the personnel split into five times, one of them all women.

This friendly tournament organised by the team at an indoor venue a few minutes from the centre of Montreal, brought together engineers, mechanics, catering crew and logistics, with every competitor getting two chances to race.

At the end of an unforgettable evening, with a very unexpected grid, the twelve fastest took part in a race with a standing start. The Scuderia’s race drivers tackled the race with great professionalism, in a group that also included the latest addition to the Ferrari Driver Academy ranks, Laurence Stroll.

The eleven year old Canadian, who was yesterday announced as one of the young hopefuls of the Maranello school, lapped as quickly as the best, taking second place between Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa in the final classification.

Source: Ferrari.com

A Taste Of F1 for the Netherlands

Sebastian took time out yesterday to support up and coming drivers at a karting challenge in the Netherlands.

Red Bull had searched the country for 26 racing talents to take part in the Kart Final Fight at the GP Masters of Formula 3 event at the Circuit Park Zandvoort and our man was there to pass on advice and hand over trophies to the winners: Mark Megens (14) and Sander van Os (26)

After the races and the prize-giving Vettel took the Red Bull Running Showcar down the start-finish straight to demonstrate some straight-line speed, donuts and burn-outs.

As well as the drivers attending former Dutch footaball star Edgar Davids was on hand. Possibly to ask Seb the best way to take a corner…

Seb's diary, Zandvoort

Today I stopped by at the Masters of Formula 3 at Zandvoort (Holland).

Early in the morning I had a briefing with the kart winners from a karting championship that had been going for weeks, with the final to take place today. The kids were aged 15 or under 15, that was very funny because the questions were sometimes quite different from the ones I get asked over and over otherwise.

Then I watched the final kart race of the children, in which two children were honored in two different classes. I could give them their trophy on the podium and then we celebrated the victory with a kind of sparkling water ...

I immediately reminded of my karting times, but I had not been to the podium in the Formula Masters...

After we went to the podium press conference at which I sat between the two winners and we were asked questions.

After the Formula 3 race where I distributed the trophies, I could finally check out the track in a show car. After a few laps I took my leave with some burn outs. It was really fun. Now we go to Montreal.

Sources: Red Bull, sebastianvettel.de

Excerpt from Jäämies (Iceman) - Kimi Räikkönen Biography

From Jäämies - the Kimi Räikkönen biography (out in Finnish only), by Petri Nevalainen

Räikkönen didn't give in as a karting-driver and this is best described in a karting-event in 1999, including F1-driver Jarno Trulli. They had two separate classes; F1- and karting-drivers. Trulli wanted especially to come and drive with the karting-drivers because he had been a champion in Europe himself.

In the race for karting-drivers they had the European top attending so it was going to be a tough battle. Trulli drove well but Räikkönen drove better. Trulli was before Räikkönen in the start and Kimi tried to pass the Italian on the narrow inner track.

Räikkönen did pass him by force which led to Trulli hitting the wall. The F1-driver came to the paddock to complain about the treatment he got. Räikkönen said to Trulli that he himself wanted to come and race with racers.

- If you don't have the balls to drive then maybe you should got with the F1-men in the other class Räikkönen lashed back to Trulli.

Trulli told Turun Sanomat that 'I wasn't so happy after the crash'.

According to witnesses Trulli was shouting to Räikkönen so much that his face turned red from shouting.

Steve Robertson heard for the first time about Räikkönen through Peter Collins, ex- team manager in Lotus, who had heard about Räikkönen from Harald Huisman where Räikkönen crushed the records the first time he drove on his karting-track.

They held a test drive in Donington Park and Steve Robertson nearly dropped his phone when he saw Räikkönen coming sideways in a slide through a corner. He couldn't even say a word. And that's where it all started.

Source: Jäämies
Courtesy: Nicole @PF1