Roll-Out Of The Historic Formula Exhibition Practice One At The 50th ACURA Grand Prix Of Long Beach

Formula One Historic No. 14 1979 Tyrrell 009 driven by Cal Meeker of Oceanside, California rounding Turn 11 hairpin on the famed 50th ACURA Grand Prix Of Long Beach temporary street circuit. Image Credit: Brandon O'Brien - Motorsports Journal (2052)

Roll-Out Of The Historic Formula Exhibition Practice One At The 50th ACURA Grand Prix Of Long Beach

An exclusive display captivates attendees at the 50th ACURA Grand Prix of Long Beach, showcasing historic race cars from three iconic racing eras - Formula 5000, Formula 1, and IndyCar. These machines represent the evolution of open-wheel racing at North America’s premier street race. Later, during the Historic Formula Exhibition on race weekend, the cars hit the track, offering fans a thrilling glimpse into motorsports history. For the first time, all three types race together, driven with intensity and a touch of grit.

VIDEO - Pump Up The Volume!!! >>> Formula One Historic No. 8 1980 McLaren M30 driven by Sean Allen of Manhattan Beach, California rounding Turn 11 hairpin on the famed 50th ACURA Grand Prix Of Long Beach temporary street circuit. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks - Motorsports Journal

Adding to the historic weekend, the video highlights the Roll-Out of the Historic Formula Exhibition Practice One, a standout moment of the 50th Acura Grand Prix Of Long Beach. Attendees were enthralled by a remarkable display of vintage race cars from three iconic open-wheel eras - Formula 5000, Formula 1, and IndyCar - representing the evolution of the sport at North America’s premier street race. Open-wheel racing, born in the early 1900s with milestones like the 1911 Indianapolis 500, progressed through innovations such as the 1960s rear-engine designs and navigated organizational shifts like the CART-IRL divide, leading to IndyCar’s modern era.

Formula 5000 Historic No. 48 1975 Eagle 755 driven by EthanShippert of Corona, California rounding Turn 11 hairpin on the famed 50th ACURA Grand Prix Of Long Beach temporary street circuit. This Tom Malloy owned F5000 has the distinction of being the first ever racecar to enter the track od the first Long Beach Grand Prix - pretty special. Image Credit: Brandon O'Brien - Motorsports Journal (2025)

During the practice session, these legendary machines roared to life, their exposed wheels and open cockpits evoking motorsport’s storied past.

CART IndyCar Historic No. 48T 1969 Eagle (with knock-offs) driven by Butch Leitzinger of Poughkeepsie, New York rounding Turn 11 hairpin on the famed 50th ACURA Grand Prix Of Long Beach temporary street circuit. Image Credit: Brandon O'Brien - Motorsports Journal (2025)

The true spectacle unfolded in the Historic Formula Exhibition, where, for the first time, Formula 5000’s raw, thunderous power, Formula 1’s sleek, precision-engineered elegance, and IndyCar’s bold, American-bred grit raced side-by-side on the Long Beach circuit. Driven with unrelenting intensity, the cars wove through the streets, offering fans a breathtaking tribute to open-wheel racing’s diverse and dynamic legacy.

... notes from The EDJE







TAGS: HMSA, Formula One, F5000, IndyCar, ChampCar, CART, The EDJE

HAAS F1 2020 Livery Unveiled To Mixed Reaction

Better visibility than modified single color presentations. Image Credit: Jalopnik, Modified - Edmund Jenks (2020)

HAAS F1 2020 Livery Unveiled To Mixed Reaction

Last Thursday, HAAS F1 Team unveiled its competition livery on the car with which it will contend the 2020 Formula One season.

Everyone has an opinion, especially when it comes to F1, but one opinion posted by Bradley Brownell of Jalopnik was particularly pointed.

This excerpted and edited from Jalopnik -

Here's The First Boring Ass Formula One Livery Of 2020 
By Bradley Brownell - Thursday 10:00PM

Freed from the ridiculousness of its Rich Energy partnership, the team was able to ditch its boring black and gold livery - which Elizabeth gave a D+ rating last year. 

Able to forge their own path, starting from scratch, the sky was the limit when it came to designing the team’s new livery. They had an opportunity to seize the carp and make their car look totally fresh and new. And what did they do? 

Left-rear quarter panel look. Image Credit: Jalopnik, Modified - Edmund Jenks (2020)

They went as boring as they absolutely could, painting the damn thing black, red, and white. I have no other reaction than to throw up my hands in disgust. When you have every color available to you on the face of the planet, why why why go with the most boring choices possible? Ya basic.
----
As boring as the livery is, the rest of the car looks alright. 
----
The team says it has learned from its mistakes and put them into making this 2020 car better. The car was allegedly derailed by an upgrade at the Spanish Grand Prix which did not produce the results the team was hoping for. Shortly after that the team put all of its efforts into the 2020 chassis development. It’ll be interesting to see if that paid off.

Differentiation in color helps, going away. Image Credit: Jalopnik, Modified - Edmund Jenks (2020)

“It’s always exciting to see the development of a new Formula One car and undoubtedly the VF-20 has to deliver where our previous car didn’t,” said team boss Guenther Steiner. “With the regulations remaining stable into this season, it’s allowed us to improve our understanding of the car and to scrutinize ourselves more in order to find solutions and applications to channel into the design of the VF-20.

“Last year was definitely a set-back, one I would never have asked for, but you learn from such situations – we all have. Everybody at the team was forced to look at themselves and understand what they can do better. I’m looking forward to seeing the VF-20 make its track debut. As always in testing, you want many things, but lots of mileage, reliability and speed would be welcomed as we ready ourselves for the first race in Australia.”

The team will again use the same driver pairing employed in 2019 of Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grossjean.
[Reference Here]

Straight on, this car will be seen in a crowd. Image Credit: Jalopnik, Modified - Edmund Jenks (2020)

The only redeeming value of this somewhat simplistic livery, it may translate more easily to the broadcast viewer from the side to previous HAAS liveries.

From the side, the broad top to grounding bottom White then Black with the bold Red letters of the team name, will capture one's eye much more easily than most of the liveries of last year's display.

Then upon considering front view shots, the stark definition from White to Black may help to pick HAAS cars out from others in the pack (where HAAS traditionally hangs) - this may be interesting to observe.

As always, one person's boring may end up another's observation point. In movement, in a pack, this may serve HAAS better than previous body wrapped presentations during in-race visual activity than on stationary display.

... notes from The EDJE




TAGS: HAAS, F1, Formula One, 2020, Kevin Magnussen, Romain Grossjean, Guenther Steiner, Australia, VF-20, Jalopnik, Bradley Brownell, PEAK, Jack & Jones, BlueDEF, The EDJE

Kimi Raikkonen Joins Lotus Renault GP for 2012 F1 Season

Image Credit: lotuscars.com

Kimi Raikkonen Joins Lotus Renault GP for 2012 F1 Season

Last year, Kimi Raikkonen came across the pond to keep his skills fresh by driving a NASCAR truck in the Camping World Truck Series. Further, Kyle Busch Motorsports built a car that former Formula One champion Kimi Raikkonen used to make his debut in NASCAR's Nationwide Series. That one-time entry proved to be a springboard toward a full-time effort on the circuit that Busch's organization will undertake next year ... but this effort will be without the services of Kimi.

Kimi has decided to campaign the Green and Yellow of Lotus Renault GP for the 2012 season and the ambassador of Group Lotus, Jean Alesi, couldn't be more pleased as expressed in this Lotus interview release.

Jean, are you excited about the news that Kimi Raikkonen is returning to F1 next year with Lotus Renault GP?

It’s fantastic news. Kimi has more natural speed than just about anyone who has ever raced a Grand Prix car, and if he’s coming back it’s because he wants to do it, he misses F1, and he believes he can do well. He has had a short break, which was a little bit forced by Ferrari. I think he was fed up with the system and wanted to take time out, which I can totally understand. But now he’s coming back, with Lotus, so it’s really exciting.

Kimi’s speed was never in question, but there were concerns he failed to develop the car as Michael Schumacher had done before him. Is that a concern for you now?

Michael was brilliant at that, but it isn’t working for him now at Mercedes and I think this is a reflection of how F1 has developed in recent years and re-prioritized. Now you just need to focus on having a quick driver, someone who does the job. The great thing with Kimi is he extracts the maximum from a quick car. When the car was good at McLaren and Ferrari he was always winning. LRGP will expect him to extract the maximum from the Lotus as well.

It’s sure to fire up the workforce at Enstone, isn’t it, having a world champion in the car?
F1 teams need a driver who will consistently set lap times that are 100 percent on the edge. That is what a driver of Kimi’s caliber can do, to dance on the edge and never fall off. From that, the engineers get a baseline. They understand the true speed of their car and can make changes accordingly. It eradicates any doubt. I expect Kimi will be a very valuable tool indeed. But I don’t expect a lot of talking outside the car! I’m sure he hasn’t changed a bit.

Let’s talk about the Sao Paulo race. Bruno Senna was given a drive-thru penalty after he came together with Michael Schumacher. Did you think that was unfair?

Definitely, yes. It was a 50/50 accident, so why penalize one of them? Both cars were compromised – Bruno with a broken front wing and Michael with a rear puncture. To then penalize one of the drivers in this situation kills the spirit of racing. The stewards should have let it go.

Vitaly Petrov started the year on a high with his podium in Australia and finished the season tenth in the Drivers’ World Championship. How well do you think he did?
He’s been very competitive when the car is quick, and it’s been more difficult for him in the second half of the season. He did a fantastic first grand prix but he seems to suffer more when the car is not perfect.

Lotus Renault GP started the year on the podium but struggled towards the end. Did the designers take a few wrong turns?

The R31 was extremely aggressive in terms of design. At the start of the season, Red Bull’s designer Adrian Newey said that the most creative car out there was the Lotus Renault GP. When the best designer in the world says that, it means a lot, and at the start of the year LRGP were brilliant. Then the exhaust-blowing rules changed, and that hurt the team a lot. We were penalized more heavily than any other team. To finish fifth in the championship is superb.

How did you rate the F1 World Championship 2011 generally?

Even though Red Bull Racing was dominant throughout, I thought it was a very interesting season and I enjoyed the races very much. Out of those 19 races, only three or four were a bit boring; I was on the edge of my seat for the rest. We’ve seen lots of overtaking, lots of incidents, and there was tough competition out there, particularly between McLaren and Ferrari. Lotus Renault GP were very competitive at the start of the season as well, so overall I really enjoyed it.

Which race stood out for you?
My shoes are still drying after the Canadian Grand Prix, so that was memorable not least for the incredible race we saw. I could have done without the two-hour red flag delay in the middle, but that race was really exciting and it’s always great to see a change of the lead on the last lap.
Sebastian Vettel was the class of the field, but who would you nominate as your Man Of The Year?

Apart from Vettel, who did an unbelievable job, the award should go to Jenson Button. I was not surprised by his performance, because he’s been a world champion, but the way he managed to be there all the time, even when he was struggling with set-up, and still get good points was impressive. He also pulled some great overtaking moves, so he was aggressive when he needed to be and smooth when he needed to be, adapting to the Pirelli tyres quicker than most. What a mature performance, and all the more impressive when your team-mate is Lewis Hamilton and Jenson is still, essentially, the new boy. I believe 2011 was even more impressive than his championship-winning year, given that he didn’t have the best car and his team-mate was Hamilton.
(ht: Lotus Motorsport and Group Lotus)

... notes from The EDJE


<first seen as Kimi Raikkonen Joins Lotus Renault GP for 2012 F1 Season at Motorsports Unplugged>