Ferrari has revealed that Felipe Massa, who was struck in the helmet be a suspension spring during qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix in July, could return to the test track as early as Monday.

During his recovery from his injury (skull fracture), Massa has returned to kart testing, and, more recently, Ferrari's F1 simulator.

Also, Massa is scheduled to wave the checkered flag at the Brazilian GP on Sunday, October 18.

+ Formula 1: Massa could be back on track on Monday

According to F1-Live , Working Title Films will begin filming a documentary about the life of Ayrton Senna next month. The movie has the backing of Senna’s family, as well as Formula One Management.

The documentary will cover Senna’s career, including his death at Imola in 1994, and the legacy he has left behind.

+ F1-Live: Senna film to begin shooting in May

The 1971 Bruce Brown motorcycle-racing documentary On Any Sunday is credited by many as perhaps the best of its kind ever made. In this segment, disseminated via YouTube for a generation that might otherwise never see it, Steve McQueen and his buddy Malcolm Smith spend a muddy day at the Elsinore Grand Prix. The grass roots motorsport event reminds us of much about racing that we love, helped in large measure by McQueen’s typical enthusiasm for the down-home GP. Be sure to stick around for aerial shots of Smith and McQueen weaving through traffic on dirt tracks.

+ YouTube: Elsinore Grand Prix - "On Any Sunday"

The BBC has a tame racing driver. Some say, it's impossible for him to wear socks, and that he has a full-sized tattoo of his face, on his face. All we know is, he's called The Stig, and his identity will hopefully never be revealed.

There have been some leaks recently however from within the BBC about The Stig, even though the lads over in the UK would never truly spit it out. Supposedly, according to News of the World, The Stig is in fact a happily married 30-year-old man, who lives in a rather modest home, and drives a run-of-the-mill car. While it may have been hinted in the past that his driving on Top Gear was bred through Formula 1, the assumption isn't true—though he has been a successful racer in the past.

So there you have it. With more intriguing clues as to who this mysterious man (he is a man, that’s been confirmed at least) really is, let the speculation initiate once again!

+ Autoblog: Top Gear's the Stig identified... as a sensible married man?

For Lewis Hamilton, it seems that everything has been going his way recently. Not only did he snatch up the Formula 1 Driver's World Champion title, he was the youngest ever to do so, and the first Englishman to do so in twelve years. To top it all off, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has dubbed Hamilton, along with nearly 1,000 other recipients, as Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (or MBE for short).

"It is a massive honor and incredible privilege for me to receive an MBE from Her Majesty The Queen. It is the most amazing culmination to what has been quite a year for me," Lewis commented after the announcement.

"I am also very humbled to be included on the Honors list alongside all the members of the general public who have been recognized for their tireless work in such varied and worthwhile arenas."

So what does this mean for the British champion? Well, he can officially add the letters MBE to his name with legitimate bragging rights. Don't be mistaken however, this is no 'Knighthood,' but at least it will look rather dashing on the resume and serve as an interesting conversation piece at parties.

+ Vodafone McLaren Mercedes: Lewis Awarded MBE

0-60 magazine is responsible for this video of Ken Block’s running of a Gymkhana course on an airfield in El Toro, Calafornia. It’s quite simply one of the most disgustingly competent displays of car control we’ve ever seen, in addition to featuring perhaps the bravest Segway rider we’ve ever seen. Take a few minutes, watch the video, and explode your expectations of what can be done with a car.

+ 0-60

In only his second year as a Formula 1 driver, and at the tender age of 23 years, 10 months, and 26 days, McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has become the youngest World Champion in the history of F1.

Hamilton secured his place in the annals of motorsport in rather spectacular fashion, closing in on the title by a single point after moving into fifth place on the final corner of the last race on the season calendar. Hamilton’s work at the Brazilian GP was just enough to edge the race’s winner, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, with Hamilton totaling 98 points on the season to Massa’s 97. Felipe certainly didn’t go down without a fight however, finishing in first place for his home grand prix in Brazil.

Hamilton called the GP, “the most dramatic race of my whole life.” Going on to say, “We did a fantastic job throughout the whole year and, with all the sacrifices we made, I'm so thrilled to be able to win this for everyone."

Hamilton’s championship points with teammate Heikki Kovalainen’s 53, brought McLaren to a second place finish in the constructor’s championship behind the 172 points earned by the Ferrari team.

+ F1-Live

Americans have never been in short supply of jingoistic balladeers, especially during periods of national conflict, but this new rollicking number called Warrior from the Motor City’s most shirtless son is a real keeper. Playing on the patriotic trinity of stock cars, power chords, and guys in Humvees, this Kid Rock and Dale Earnhardt Jr. National Guard video is almost completely without guile, or a sense of scale. Click on the video above for one of the flag-wavingist, tire-shreddingist recruitment commercials you could ever hope for (or check out the website here ) and then tell us how it grabs you, in comments.
 
+ YouTube: Kid Rock Warrior Video

We were all awfully excited after this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix but we do feel that perhaps the rhetoric surrounding Sebastian Vettel’s now brilliant future may have gotten ratcheted one notch too high. Is Vettel’s value about to shoot through the roof, or are we seeing the highest point of his career? Give us your answer, in comments.

The Italian Grand Prix was the sight of many firsts this weekend including the first ever GP win for the very young Toro Rosso team, and the title of youngest ever Formula 1 race winner for Sebastian Vettel. The 21-year-old Vettel finished a dominating first place after a very wet day at Monza, securing the record for youngest win which had previously belonged to the day’s fourth-place finisher, Renault’s Fernando Alonso.

After spending the first two rain drenched laps behind the safety car with the rest of the field, Vettel was able to pull away at an astonishing rate in the rapidly improving Ferrari-powered Toro Rosso car. The German driver reeled off laps nearly two-seconds faster than second place Robert Kubica in the early going, establishing a ten second advantage by the first pit stop.

The win quite rightly brought massive adulation for the superb performance of Vettel, with several members of the F1 glitterati reaching out to congratulate the young driver. Seven-time World Champion called Vettel’s performance “completely clearly top-class,” going on to mention that the Monza fans went away satisfied because, “a half-Ferrari still won.” Vettel’s former boss at BMW racing, Mario Theissen, called the driver’s development over the last year fantastic, joking that, “he is only 21; perhaps when he is 31 he will be back with us.”

+ F1-Live: Vettel begins F1 race to greatness

Phil Hill
April 20, 1927 – August 28, 2008

We all have to die somewhere, and Phil Hill died on the Monterey Peninsula in August, after collapsing at Pebble Beach. He was the winner of the first Pebble Beach Road Race on Seventeen Mile Drive in 1951, driving a modified Jaguar XK-120, and he was very much an icon around that gorgeous stretch of California real estate. His victory at Pebble Beach in 1951 and his death there almost sixty years later, were like bookends, holding between them a great, great life, one which we might all hope to emulate.

With ongoing discussions about impending formula changes for Formula 1, some teams are pushing for a major change in the engines used.

Both Renault and BMW are heavy advocators for small turbocharged engines for the 2012 season and beyond. The teams propose the engines have a 1.5-liter capacity with a maximum 22.8 psi of boost (according to European figures). The move isn’t terribly surprising from either of those companies, both of whom were at the forefront of turbo technology the last time F1 went to forced induction.

The use of turbos in Formula one isn't anything new. In fact, turbocharged 1.5-liter engines were used two decades earlier. With Ferrari engined cars finishing in the top position at the Valencia circuit last weekend, it's no wonder the Italian marquee's rivals are pushing for this change.

+ F1-live: Some teams want turbo engines for 2012

Phil Hill died this morning at Community Hospital of Monterey Peninsula of complications from Parkinson's disease. He was 81 years old.

Hill is known to enthusiasts as the first—and only—American-born driver to win the Formula 1 World Championship (Mario Andretti won the title in 1978 but was born in Italy, even though he was and is an American citizen). Hill won the title in 1961, driving a Ferrari 156 “Sharknose” mid-engined racer for the factory. That year Hill battled the entire year with his teammate, Wolfgang von Trips, but captured the crown during the second-to-last race of the season when von Trips was fatally injured in a crash at Monza—one that also took the lives of 14 race fans. With the manufacturers’ and drivers’ titles wrapped up after that awful day, Ferrari opted out of the last race of the season (at Hill’s “home” track of Watkins Glen), leaving Tifosi to believe the Scuderia sat out the last race out of respect for their fallen driver and the lost spectators, while Hill and others wondered if Ferrari simply wanted to save money having already captured the title. Like most Ferrari lore, perhaps not knowing the real story is the best story of all.

What is known is that Phil Hill was one of the best racing drivers the world has ever seen. In addition to his landmark F1 championship, he was the first American to take an overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans (1958, driving Ferrari’s 250 Testa Rossa with Olivier Gendebien), the first driver to record a sub-9-minute lap at the Nürburgring, and one of only a handful of drivers who have won the 12 Hours of Sebring three times overall.

Hill was successful—if not a winner—in nearly everything he drove. And he drove the sorts of cars that most of us have on our bookshelves in 1:12 scale form. Cars like the aforementioned Ferrari 250 TR, Ferrari 156, Ford GT 40, various Chaparrals, Cobras, Cooper-Climax T73s, Cooper T70s, and the McLaren M1.

While the last few years of Hill’s life have been plagued by the awful effects of Parkinson’s Disease, his racing career finished at the top. His very last race was a victory—behind the wheel of a Chaparral 2F at the BOAC 500 kilometer at Brands Hatch in 1967.

Goodbye, Phil. You were one of the great ones.

+ PhilHill.com (Click to sign the online book of rememberance)

Over the weekend August 30, U.K. Colin McRae fans will celebrate the life of the late rally hero by convoying 300 miles from Lanark to Banbury. More than 1300 Subarus are expected at the gathering, a trail of Fuji Heavy products that is expected to stretch some 20 miles.

Lanark, as you may recall, is the home of Prodrive, the renowned Subie fettling house. The convoy will be led by none other than McRae’s 1996 Impreza 555 WRC car to Prodrive’stest track in Warwickshire. The group will then attempt to break two Guinness World Records, one of which is the parade of 1300 Subarus, the other of which is to spell out ‘COLIN MCRAE’ in a nearly half-mile long display.

The event has already raised in excess of £25,000 for the McRae family’s charities of choice,and they hope to raise more money along the way. The organizers have now stated that the event is full and closed to further registration, although bystanders and well-wishers are encouraged to cheer them on.

If you happen to be in Blighty on August 31, check out the full press release and website URL below for predicted convoy positioning to join the celebration.

+ www.mcrae-gathering.co.uk

• Previous Image
• Next Image
• Enlarge Image

• 
• 
• 

Retired Formula One champion and racing legend Michael Schumacher just can’t seem to slow down. The Ferrari-master was spotted last Tuesday circling the Nordschliefe circuit at Germany's Nürburgring in a Ferrari 430 Scuderia with his young son, Mick, in the passenger seat. Later during that same session, the partially damp track was closed after the same Ferrari--a model Schumi himself helped develop--was involved in a wreck.

There are conflicting reports as to whether the car was a prototype or a production Scuderia test car. Judging by these new on-the-scene photographs from our friends at CarPix, early reports that the Ferrari was a write-off appear to be incorrect, even though German newspaper Bild reports that the car went off at more than 250 kilometers-per-hour (155 miles-per-hour).

It is unclear if his son Mick—a new kart driver himself—was in the car when the accident took place, but Schumacher’s spokeswoman Sabine Kemp has apparently gone on record acknowledging the shunt. Worryingly, our man in the trees' photographs clearly show the F1 champ and his son driving on the circuit without helmets, though it isn’t clear at what speed...

+ F1 Live: Schu crashes Ferrari road car prototype

• Previous Image
• Next Image
• Enlarge Image

• 
• 
• 
• 

At the recent Pikes Peak race, Nobuhiro 'Monster' Tajima managed to take the title for the third consecutive year.

Using a "very heavily modified" Suzuki XL7 , the 58-year-old Suzuki WRC monster managed to clock a time of 10-minutes and 18.250-seconds on the 12.5-mile course. None of the other competitors even broke the 11-minutemark making Tajima truly the King of the Mountain.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/othersports/2008043055_auto10.html