In the round-up: Alain Prost reveals how close Renault came to quitting Formula One.
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Renault was ‘very close’ to F1 pull-out – Prost (Motorsport)
“In Abu Dhabi a few days ahead of the weekend, it was almost a no go. Only Carlos Ghosn made the decision. He had to make it himself, but yes, it (a pull-out) was very, very close.”
Red Bull felt reluctance from Renault (Autosport)
“I never felt that Renault fully embraced the technical capability and simulation capability that we tried to offer and it was very clear early on that Renault weren’t happy just being a supplier.”
Channel 4 snaps up live F1 after BBC ditches TV coverage (FT – registration required)
“F1?s live audience fell to an eight-year low in the UK this year, although comparisons are complicated by splits between pay-TV and free-to-air coverage.”
Pirelli primed for strong car performance gains in 2016 (F1i)
“Clearly some of the changes we made this year did lose some performance, they made the tyres run cooler and in an ideal world we probably would have revised our compound range for 2016 and changed all the compounds to regain some of the performance.”
Ich schaffe 368 Kilometer pro Stunde (Stuttgarter-Zeitung – German)
In an interview with two 11-year-olds, Hamilton said he has dyslexia and had difficulty at school partly becuse of it.
Rich Mears’s 1980 F1 tests with Brabham (Motorsport magazine)
“The money in F1 was good, yes, but it was road courses only, and I liked oval.”
Opinion – Has the BBC stepped down from F1 just in time? (Autocar)
“Formula One?s core problem is that it hasn?t moved on. Any fool, barring those involved in its governance, can see that it should.”
Tweets
ITV cut their #F1 deal short by three years in 2008. Ecclestone collected their early exit penalty cheque within hours. Get a pen ready @BBC
? F1 Fanatic (@f1fanatic_co_uk) December 21, 2015
On this day in F1
Pierre Levegh was born on this day 100 years ago. He had a brief career in Formula One, starting hald-a-dozen races in 1950 and 1951. Sadly he is best known for the circumstances of his death in a terrible crash during the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hours, which killed over 80 other people when his Mercedes was launched into the crowd.
