This weekend, Rubens Barrichello won Felipe Massa’s International Challenge of Go-Kart Champions - but it seems unlikely that the win in the charity event will have any outcome on Rubinho’s future in F1, even though he beat the man who wants his Honda seat, Lucas di Grassi, as well as the great Michael Schumacher.
Schumi, who won last year’s event, could only manage eighth, a result that will please Rubens immensely. In the last few weeks, it has become clear that Rubens has major issues with his former team-mate.
Ferrari must be concerned about Barrichello’s threat to spill the beans about his career with them - and there’s no doubt that an explosive, revelatory book is in the works. Rubens played the obedient No.2 to perfection during his six seasons as Schumi’s wing-man, but today it’s a different story: Rubens has ‘gone rogue’.
Barrichello has already claimed that Ferrari threatened to “take a closer look” at his contract during the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix, when he famously followed team orders to let Schumi overtake him.
“For me it was pretty clear. Take my foot off the pedal or get fired,” Rubens claimed this week.
Gridcrasher’s Chinese is a bit sketchy, so we have little idea why Nando and Bobby chose to go karting in Shanghai before Sunday’s GP. But they did, and here’s the proof. Looks like they had a fine time, too. Alonso is clearly in high spirits right now.
High point: Nando doing doughnuts (about 3min 30sec into the clip).
Leonardo Panayiotou, a four-year-old go-karter at the same track Lewis Hamilton first made his mark, has received £15,000 in sponsorship to pursue his motor racing dream. Despite his tender age, Leonardo races a 60cc kart as speeds of up to 50mph. A consortium of sponsors spotted the youngster racing at Rye House Kart Raceway, in Hertforshire, and came forward with the money. His dad Jason said:
“He lives and breathes motor racing. He was born to drive. He’s even beginning to beat me now and I’ve been racing for 15 years. It’s a bit embarrassing.”
This video is taken from a 1997 edition of BBC programme Black Britain and shows a young Lewis Hamilton coming to terms with life in karting, meeting Ron Dennis and learning about podium etiquette. As the total of the show would suggest, there is also a strong emphasis on Hamilton’s colour and his encounters with racism. Any of you unfortunate enough to have read his Vodafone McLaren Mercedes name-dropathon of an autobiography may get a sense of deja vu from some of the stories.
Check out Lewis’s first ever kart race in the Junior Intercontinental A (JICA) class - just like he did at Silverstone this season, he blew away the opposition in wet conditions. Great footage, we’re sure you agree.
And who knew Lewis used to race with a lucky conker?
While on his summer break, Kimi Raikkonen took part in a kart race, in his native Finland (Helsinki, to be precise). The Finn continued his recent bad run of bad form, finishing second in a race he should have won.
In Kimi’s defence, you should also know that he was slightly handicapped in the race - the reigning world champion started from the back of the grid and worked his way through the field, just failing to claim the victory.
Check out a couple more pics of Kimi in action after the jump…
Schumi’s nine-year old son follows in his famous dad’s tyre treads
Just when you thought it was finally safe to go back to F1 without being forced to endure the Sunday spectacle of Michael Schumacher (pictured above, taking part in a kart race back in 1984) grinning inanely from the top step of the podium, there comes the ominous news that his nine-year-old kid, Mick, is starting out on a racing career. Scheisse, as they say in Germany.
