Medland: 'Don't despair at Red Bull dominance — it's what F1 needs'
The 2023 F1 season is threatening to turn into a 'boring' Red Bull walkover. What is the problem with that? asks Chris Medland
We were saddened to hear of the death of Erik Carlsson – one of rallying’s all-time greats – today. Here we re-post Richard Heseltine’s 2010 feature with ‘Mr Saab’
You have to feel for the kid, although judging by the age of the photo he’s probably in his fifties by now. “They were mad Saab fans from Belgium,” recalls rally deity Erik Carlsson, surveying the sepia-tinged image of a beaming couple. “I remember them because they had named their son Carlsson. It was his first name.” He dispatches this anecdote without additional comment, save for a “ja, ja” delivered in his wonderful sing-song Swedish lilt. This isn’t even the strangest case of fan fervour he’s ever encountered, but for a legion of the marque faithful Carlsson is a god. The title of his biography is Mr Saab, after all.
Few drivers spend their entire career with one make. It’s rarer still that they’re employed by that same manufacturer as they enter their ninth decade. Straining to get comfortable in his armchair, photograph albums stacked high at his side, he still looks much the same as he did in his heyday. The hair is thinner, his eyes magnified slightly behind thick-framed glasses, but his broad shoulders and wide girth render him instantly recognisable. Carlsson is a bulwark of a man, his size at odds with the cars he drove: with one exception, he only ever rallied Saabs. “I tried a Volkswagen Beetle once but I didn’t like it. The clutch broke,” he says dismissively.
The 2023 F1 season is threatening to turn into a 'boring' Red Bull walkover. What is the problem with that? asks Chris Medland
Saudi Arabia is looking to build a motor sport industry on the back of its Grand Prix, and could be a beacon for F1's expansion — but how can the race be justified when citizens are murdered, tortured and detained without trial?
Fernando Alonso has a tricky reputation in F1. But he's been reinvigorated since moving to Aston Martin and shaken off some of his old traits for a more straightforward approach writes Chris Medland
Fernando Alonso's name was once again near the top of an F1 timesheet during Friday testing. Mark Hughes is hoping that he'll still be there when racing starts