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David Phillips
Editor and ChiefDavid Phillips is a long-time contributor to print and electronic publications in the U.S. and abroad, including Racer, Autosport, AutoWeek, Motor Sport and SPEEDtv.com, oversees the daily updating of news stories and assigns, edits and contributes feature material for inRacingNews.com.
Chris Hall
iRacing.com Series WriterChris Hall has been writing since the nineties and moved into motorsports reporting in 2005, covering series such as ALMS, British GT, FIA GT, Le Mans and 2CV racing for Full Throttle magazine, Motorsport.com, The-Paddock.net, GTGateway.com, L' Endurance and, of course, inRacingNews. During 2008 and 2009, he worked with the RSS Performance Porsche Carrera Cup Team (and former British GT(C) champions) as a data engineer for a variety of drivers and models of 997s.
Jameson Spies
Contributing Writer19 years old, Jameson Spies lives in Quartz Hill, California. He grew-up surrounded by racing. His mother raced late models throughout Southern California while his father built and setup the car. Not surprisingly, Jameson began racing go-karts at the age of 13, and is now racing Spec Trucks at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. He has a passion about all forms of racing and hopes to make a career out of it.
Jason Lofing
iRacing.com Series WriterJason is 21 years old and was born and raised in Elk Grove. California. A big time NASCAR fan, he hasn’t missed a race on Sunday in years. Lofing is also a huge San Fransisco Giants fan and tries to take in at least a couple games a year. Other than sim racing, his biggest (and far more expensive!) hobby is photography. Although he is rather new to sim racing, Lofing has already accomplished some pretty impressive results, qualifying for the 2011 iRacing Oval Pro Series in Season 1, 2011, winning the inaugural Landon Cassill Qualifying Challenge and finishing runner-up in the second one.
Tim Terry
Contributing WriterTim Terry, aka the voice of Maritime stock car racing, fell in love with sim racing in 2004 after he joined the Sim Racing Network crew as a pit reporter. From October 2004 to SRNtv’s closure in June 2007, he’s covered prestigious races and leagues such as the Online 500, FLM Fall 400, Real Racing Online and the DMP Racing League – each as the lead broadcaster for the company. At the same time the wheels started to turn in another direction as he began announcing stock car racing locally. Terry became the assistant announcer at Scotia Speedworld in May 2007 and took over full duties in May 2009 when long-time voice Mike Kaplan retired from the track. Terry also became the series voice of the Parts For Trucks Pro Stock Tour in ’09 and continues to hold down both posts in 2011. He has also announced races for the Pro All Stars Series, Atlantic Open Wheel and Maritime League of Legends tours and has called races at six different Atlantic Canadian tracks. Terry can be heard online at WebRacingNetwork.com, RLMtv.com and OLRtv.com covering sim races. He also makes occasional appearances on PSRtv.com. In addition to inRacingNews, his articles and columns can be read on ScotiaSpeedworld.ca, MaritimeProStockTour.com and his own website at timterryonline.com.
David Allen
Contributing WriterNorth Carolina born and raised with over 15 years of computer/IT experience, I combine two of my biggest hobbies -- racing and technology -- here at inRacingNews. In my spare time I run a Nascar fan site and cure my own need for speed riding atvs. If it involves technology or racing I'll be there, but combine the two and I'll be looking a front row seat. Stop by and say hello anytime!
Allen Krier
Contributing WriterAllen was born in West Palm Beach, Florida but grew up in Atlanta and attended Georgia College and State University where he received a BS in Information Systems. Currently a resident of Albany, GA, he started sim racing in 2008 while in college when iRacing was first released to the public. Since then, Krier has been a two time iRacing Pro Series driver (2009 and 2010), picking up one Pro Series win at Daytona in ‘09. Besides sim racing, Allen’s other hobbies include RC Car racing as well as “attending and watching any sporting event that I can including going to the local dirt track.
Ferrari moves to cure tyre issues
January 11th, 2012
Ferrari has moved to overcome the tyre issues that hurt its form last season by signing former Bridgestone Formula 1 chief Hirohide Hamashima to work in its technical department.
Throughout 2011, both Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa struggled at times to get the most out of their tyres – especially in using the harder compounds.
As part of a major overhaul of its technical structure and approach, Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali revealed at the annual Wrooom media event in Italy on Wednesday that Hamashima had joined the team today.
Hamashima will report to technical director Pat Fry, and will be used to help improve the interaction of the Ferrari car and its tyres.
Speaking about the role that Hamashima will have, Domenicali said: “Hamashima joins today and in the future we will get his contribution on the development of the car and the issue of tyres.
“There was an issue last year where we suffered in some conditions, and the goal is of having a major contribution from his part. He will be a reference for us – and we expect an important contribution from him.”
He added: “He knows the world of tyres. His knowledge is fundamental and we have used this occasion to strengthen our understanding in this area.
“Last year we were not that good in exploiting all the tyres we had in hand, so that is the reason why he has come into the team.”
Hamashima served as Bridgestone’s director of motorsport tyre development in F1 until the Japanese company left the sport at the end of 2010. Last year he worked in MotoGP.
The surprise appointment of Hamashima comes at a time when Ferrari has undertaken a major reshuffle of its organisation under the guidance of Fry – which has included the appointment of several staff.
Domenicali only confirmed the arrival of Steve Clark from Mercedes GP to help its track engineering, but it is also believed Ferrari has recruited stress engineer Jonathan Heal and aerodynamicist Lawrence Hodge from McLaren.
Although the true benefit of these changes will not be felt for many months, Domenicali reckons that Ferrari should be in a position to make up for the disappointment of last season.
“We rely on [Fry] to try and reorganise the structure that we wanted, and in the last couple of months we have done a significant job,” he said. “It is not complete yet, but it doesn’t mean we have excuses to wait and see.”
As well as the focus on its technical department, Ferrari has made an aggressive push with the design of its 2012 car – which is to be unveiled for the first time at Maranello on February 3.
“Let me say that especially from a mechanical point of view it is a break from the past,” explained Domenicali. “It is going to be a different car – but the diversity becomes relevant if it becomes competitive…there are some new concepts in the car that have never been used in our previous cars.”
Speaking about expectations for 2012, Domenicali was cautious about making too many bold predictions though.
“We know that there are expectations and it is part of our heritage and part of our presence,” he said. “We know we have to be realistic. We don’t have to shout anything before the job on track.
“I see inside the team a lot of great effort to maximise the performance in a lot of areas – the performance for sure, I would say.
“As you know we have to be on top of every detail to make sure we are a winning team. We have to stay ahead of others at the starts, we have to improve the pit stop operation, we have to be on the spot with reliability, and we know on the mechanical side the car has to be perfect.
“In terms of strategy management in the race, all these areas have to be at the limit if you want to win, and this is the target we have within the team.”
Domenicali rubbished recent reports that engineer Marco Fainello was joining Mercedes GP – by revealing that the engineer was switching to Ferrari’s road car division.
“He remains in Ferrari as a person responsible for simulation programmes, in terms of the industrial part of the group,” he said.