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.

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080903/FREE/809039993/1531/...

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9ESb5vsTNo

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