"Cato Batista" 23/07/2015 19:58:08 ID #788

Ladies and Gentlemen,

After a long 3-week waiting period the Hungarian GP is coming up,  the 10th round -halfway point in the calendar.

This will be an emotional weekend. News from the F1 never stop but everything became irrelevant when last Friday we learned of the passing of Jules Bianchi nine months after his accident in Suzuka. We knew how serious his injuries were but the terrible news of his death were just as devastating. He was a recognized talent among his peers and for the outpour of support from the F1 community we know of his quality as human being. He was the first casualty in F1 since that dark weekend in Imola 21 years ago, the 27th driver to lose his life in a F1 car. We’ll always remember him, his racing number 17 will be retired. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.

Ferrari officially opened the driver’s market by signing BOT for next year. The next move will come from Kimi -is he staying? He still can find a good seat for next year although not with a top team. Not anymore.

On the sporting side, there are new restrictions in radio talk between pit wall and driver in effect by the Belgium GP. The FIA is implementing limitations to driver’s aids and coaching specifically with "a particular emphasis on race starts" …”communication and settings changes will be limited between cars heading for the grid and the start of the race to ensure drivers are not excessively assisted with finding the correct clutch set-up.”

From the moment the cars leave the garage the clutch bite point can not be changed until after the start. This could create all kinds of random scenarios at every race start, let’s see how that experiment goes.

I’d suggest you take a look at the CFA Championship standings to get really excited ahead of this GP: there are 14 colleagues within 10 points of the lead!  

I’m sure you don’t want to miss a beat.

Until Tomorrow

Cato