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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 pushing for more testing
December 22nd, 2011
Ferrari is pushing for an increase in testing in Formula 1, with its president Luca di Montezemolo claiming that it is crucial for the development of young drivers.
From 2009-2011, in-season testing was banned outright with pre-season running heavily limited. In 2012, there will be one test at Mugello on May 1-3, following the early-season flyways. But there is no net increase in test days as these were taken from the usual pre-season allocation of 15.
Di Montezmolo underlined that he is still in favour of test restrictions, but that the current limits are too harsh and prevent rising stars from being properly evaluated.
“I was in favour of reducing the number of tests because we went too far [before],” he said. “But there has to be something in the middle. It is strange that one of the most professional sports in the world doesn’t allow the players to practice.
“This is bad for our drivers. We have the Ferrari Academy, with some potentially good new drivers and I can’t make them race GT cars or a go-kart. Giancarlo Fisichella is a good driver in F1 but when he went to GTs, for the first three or four races Gianmaria Bruni and Jaime Melo were far quicker in the Ferrari 458. It’s different to a single-seater.”
Di Montezemolo also questioned the effectiveness of such rigid test restrictions in terms of cost saving, pointing out that Ferrari agreed to restrictions because of the financial struggles of the smaller teams in F1. Ferrari has also had to invest heavily in new technology such as simulators to replace track time.
The simulator is one area in which Ferrari is believed to be a little less advanced than some of its rivals, despite making huge progress in recent years. That means that it’s likely that the team would benefit from increased running in terms of car development. Despite that, di Montzemolo denied that Ferrari’s on-site track, Fiorano, would be a major advantage as it is no longer suitable for F1 testing.
“I’m not allowed to test in Fiorano, but I’m forced to invest a huge amount of money in the simulator,” he said. “You can see that the simulator is like a building.
“And Fiorano is not an advantage any longer because it has become a go-kart track. Mugello is fantastic, but not Fiorano [for F1 testing].”
Di Montezemolo added that testing also offers teams the opportunity to entertain corporate guests outside of race weekends, something that is crucial to the economic health of the outfits.
He believes that further tests would also boost media coverage between races.
“We are facing a big crisis and we have to give value to the sponsors,” said di Montzemolo. “Testing is a possibility to organise events and entertain clients outside the races. F1 must be marketing oriented.
“We have 100 circuits in Europe without being allowed to test. In Italy, we could race at Monza and test at Mugello, for example, or in Britain race at Silverstone and test at Brands Hatch.
“It would also be good to have more presence for F1 on TV and in the media as well as for sponsors and for the tracks.”