Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/769023
21 Sport ATHLETICS FORMULA 1 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 4 JANUARY 2017 House of Sport 10k Race Series returns to Valletta IN 2016 the Urban Jungle House of Sport 10k Race Series kicked off with the scenic Valletta Route launching a series of races held in various locations throughout the year – athletes were able to race in Valletta, St. Julian's, Burmarrad and Kalkara. The choice of routes saw a consistent increase in partici- pation. 2017 will see the return of the iconic Valletta route. Starting off early in the morning on Sunday 15th January, at 7am, athletes will start and finish in St. Anne's Street, Floriana. The Valletta route is a circular one which takes athletes along the scenic Valletta Bastions as they proceed to Great Siege Road heading towards St. Elmo in the direction of Mediterranean Street onto Ta' Liesse. From there athletes will run up Crucifix Hill towards Castille Place before heading down for the second loop of the route. Not for the fainthearted! The Race has attracted a large number of seasoned, veteran and novice athletes who will brave the tough but scenic route early in the morning. "From the feedback received so far, we are looking at having even larger participation than we had last year – the response last year was very positive and the revival of the route after a long absence was greatly welcomed by the sizeable crowd that took part on the day" commented Charlie Demanuele, Race Organiser and Director. In order to ensure athlete safety, parts of the course will be closed to traffic and assistance from the Police will be available throughout the duration of the race. Registrations will be accepted online until Friday 6th January via the following link - http:// valletta.10kseriesmalta.com/ Athletes are requested to collect their race number and t-shirts on Saturday 7th January from noon until 5pm at the Urban Jungle out- let at Tigne Point. No registrations will be accepted and no race numbers will be given after this date. Michael Schumacher turns 48 IT'S been three years since For- mula 1 legend Michael Schumach- er suffered a horrific crash while skiing in the French Alps but even on his 48th birthday, the cham- pion's medical condition hasn't improved much. Schumacher, an experienced ski- er, was apparently travelling at a moderate speed when he hit a rock and had to be put into a medically- induced coma. Michael Schumacher's helmet, however, was broken into two pieces because of the collision. Experts state he could have been killed had he not had the helmet on. Investigations also found noth- ing wrong with his equipment and termed it as a fatal accident. His medical bill has already crossed $25million dollars as his family keeps fighting for his recovery. Last year, an initiative was launched by his family to chan- nelise the tributes paid to the for- mer legend. His manager, Sabine Kehm, stated that the fighting spirit of the champion should be lauded and others should learn from him on to keep fighting. "We want to channel the posi- tive energy that Michael and his family have received for so many years and motivate everyone who is inspired by Michael's career and character to continue fighting and never give up," she told Bunte. It was also reported that Schu- macher had regained conscious- ness temporarily at times over the past three years. However, not much has been made public of the German stalwart given the chanc- es of rumours and false informa- tion that might make life difficult for his family members. His son, Mick, who was skiing alongside Michael at the time of the accident, has followed his fa- ther's footsteps and has already made a name for himself in the motorsport circuit. He currently races in the Formula 3 champion- ship. Michael Schumacher had domi- nated the F1 circuit in the early 2000s and is a seven-time world champion. Bed-ridden F1 legend is not giving up on life yet Newey expects mixed- up start to 2017 RED Bull design guru Adrian Newey says that he expects a mixed-up grid at the start of the 2017 season, as a result of the technical regulation over- haul, but has also questioned Formula 1's future direction. Formula 1 lap times are set to be significantly quicker during the upcoming season, through overhauled aerodynamics and much wider tyres, which sup- plier Pirelli has been testing extensively. With the greater emphasis on aero performance, Red Bull has been tipped to move to the fore, but Newey emphasised that nothing can be guaranteed when such major changes are introduced. "It will almost certainly mean that the grid will be a bit more spread out to start with," New- ey, still Chief Technical Officer at Red Bull said, as he predicted the impact of the regulation re- set. "Whenever there is a regula- tion change, some teams read the regulations better than others. "Typically the big teams, who have the bigger resource, read them better, but when we had the last big change in 2009 that wasn't the case, it was Brawn and ourselves who read them correctly. "The grandees, then Ferrari and McLaren, struggled a bit [to read the changes]. "You have lots of ideas which you have to channel down to a direction and a philosophy. Although we are one of the bigger teams we don't have the resources to look at all avenues simultaneously. "It's 'this is the avenue we be- lieve is the correct one' and we hope we are right, [but] there is always the chance that there is an avenue or direction which someone else has taken which is superior." Newey, however, is uncon- vinced by Formula 1's path with hybrid technology. "Is Formula 1 a technical showcase for motor manufac- turers, of their engine prowess for instance, or is it a spec- tacle that involves man and machine?" he went on to com- ment. "It would be entirely pos- sible to come up with a set of regulations that would reward creativity more than simply the number of people... a budget cap is very difficult to imple- ment but you could come up with resource restrictions, cer- tainly on the chassis side most of which aerodynamic driven. "You could restrict research resources much more heavily, perhaps scrap wind tunnels, be much more restricted on the CFD (Computational Fluid Dy- namics) runs, and if you restrict the resources there wouldn't be [any] point having so many en- gineers because they couldn't feed it through the funnel. "On the engine side, my per- sonal opinion is that all this blurb which a few manufactur- ers would like to put out, that it improves their road car prod- uct... if that is the case then those manufacturers in the future, five years at the most, should be demonstrably ahead in the automotive sector of their rivals. "L suspect that will not be the case, which tends to say it is marketing blurb."