July 2nd, 2009 at 03:55pm
Under Racing
Okay now you’re just making stuff up
This story is great. The throw away quote from Chandhok is that he thinks it cool that his name is listed along side Ron Dennis and Jean Todt as possible Max Mosley replacements. GMM, however, carries the headline that Chandhok says that Dennis is the…
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By Mikel
July 2nd, 2009 at 03:37pm
Under Racing
Talk about your slow news week
Gian Paolo Dallara says building a Formula 1 car for the Campos Meta team will be a ‘fascinating’ but ’scary.’ I get the fascinating part but the scary not so much – not unless The Flav in a mankini is involved. (Good luck getting the…
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By Mikel
July 2nd, 2009 at 07:43am
Under Racing
Everyone has come to understand that team orders are a part of F1 although they are technically against the regulations. The gnashing of teeth by Ferrari detractors when Schumacher would win a race by passing a pliable Rubens Barrichello. Ralf Schumacher not being allowed to pass Damon Hill. …
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By Mikel
July 2nd, 2009 at 07:17am
Under Racing
This team was in F1 for four season and left due to high costs. It had one win in a championship race. It later returned to the series nearly two decades later as a supplier of engines to a team that is currently in F1 and had tremendous success. They left [...]
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By Mikel
July 2nd, 2009 at 02:56am
Under Racing
Looking for another team for next year?
Every few years in Formula 1 the silly season goes into overdrive while the teams wait for the biggest driver on the market to make his move.
Top drivers and top teams pairing up always has a degree of inevitability about it: like Ayrton Senna joining Williams in 1994, and McLaren signing Kimi Raikkonen in 2002.
Fernando Alonso has been linked to a move to Ferrari ever since his McLaren deal went sour. Will it finally come to be in 2010?
The rumours
As TommyB posted on the forum yesterday, the Spanish press has been buzzing in recent days with rumours claiming Ferrari will announce Alonso’s deal at the Italian Grand Prix.
There doesn’t appear to be much substance behind this latest story. But Ferrari traditionally announce changes in their driver line-up at Monza and the Alonso deal has been tipped for some time. The story may have simply been a means of bolstering traffic during a quiet few days following the latest round of the FIA-FOTA row.
What really gave this story legs was the report in December by Italian journalist Pino Allievi, a man credited by those in the know as having a solid line on developments at Ferrari. Around this time, 82% of F1 Fanatic readers reckoned the deal was on.
Not long afterwards, Gerhard Berger revealed Toro Rosso had been in contract negotiations with Alonso for 2009, but the Spanish driver had said he was looking for a ‘transitional’ year before moving on somewhere else. Berger drew the conclusion that Alonso’s destination team is Ferrari.
The right deal for both parties?
Suspicion has fallen on Kimi Raikkonen as being the Ferrari driver most likely to be moved aside. After winning the championship in 2007 his results tailed off last year, demonstrated by his error-strewn four race streak without a point scored.
Felipe Massa, of course, fared rather better last year - had the rain at Interlagos fallen 30 seconds later his Ferrari would have the number one on it.
Ferrari are believed to have Banco Santander lined up to foot part of the bill - conveniently, their colour schemes match up.
The attraction for Alonso is clear. Ferrari may be off the pace this year, but that is hardly typical of their form over the past decade. Renault, meanwhile, have handed him poor cars two years in a row.
All the progress Renault made throughout 2008, culminating in two victories, turned to naught over the winter as the team lost ground to their rivals despite being handed a significant concession from the FIA to improve their engine performance.
In short, everything seems to be aligned perfectly for Alonso to make that move to Ferrari. And if they are going to keep everyone waiting another two-and-a-half months to announce it, well, that just keeps the opposition guessing…
Read more: Ferrari to confirm Alonso at Monza (F1 Fanatic forum)
By Mikel
July 2nd, 2009 at 02:56am
Under Racing
After being left reeling by Red Bull at Silverstone, Brawn will hit back with a package of updates of their own at the Nürburgring.
But do I detect a hint of frustration in this quote from Ross Brawn that the drivers were unable to make use of the new parts at Silverstone?
New components for Brawn in Germany
Ross Brawn: "With the confusion over the tyres, we didn't run some new pieces we had because Friday (practice at Silverstone) was very difficult with the tyre temperatures. We couldn't determine how the new bits were working so we decided to avoid confusion and went back to what we had in Turkey; we've got those bits and we have some new improvements for the Nürburgring."
Allianz to debut brand in the UK
"Allianz, the world's second-biggest insurance company, is to roll out its brand as a consumer proposition in the UK for the first time." Allianz have pumped a lot of money into building brand awareness via F1 sponsorship, especially track signage. A potential future British Grand Prix title sponsor?
YAS Marina Circuit Experience
Drive a virtual lap of the new Abu Dhabi circuit (But is it better than the fans' mod version in rFactor?)
How they manage their engine allowances - 2009 engine stats after 8 races
"It does not look too good for Robert Kubica. At this rate it won’t take long for him to start picking up grid penalties for additional engines."
Things that have caught my eye lately
"Wurz reckons that [the BGP 001] is the “most expensive can [sic] with the lowest operating budget ever”, based on the assertion that it was developed in five windtunnels with three separate programmes running. I’ve heard rival teams mutter that this is the most expensive car ever made too, but thought that they were probably jealous!"
These are links I’ve bookmarked using Delicious. You can see my Delicious profile here.
By Mikel
July 2nd, 2009 at 02:56am
Under Racing
Bridgestone has announced its tyre allocations for the four rounds of the championship from Hungary to Italy.
After much criticism from the drivers, notably Fernando Alonso, it has ceased its practice of bringing tyres two stages apart on its performance spectrum.
As last year, Hungaroring and Valencia will be tackled with its softest tyres. But for Spa Bridgestone will bring tyres one stage softer than last year.
For Monza Bridgestone is changing back to the combination of medium and soft tyres in used in 2007. Last year it brought hard and medium - but heavy rain meant the race was mostly run on wet weather tyres anyway.
Tyre allocations for rounds 10 to 13
| Circuit |
2009 tyres |
2008 tyres |
| Hungaroring |
Soft and Super Soft |
Soft and Super Soft |
| Circuito Urbano Valencia |
Soft and Super Soft |
Soft and Super Soft |
| Spa-Francorchamps |
Medium and Soft |
Hard and Medium |
| Monza |
Medium and Soft |
Hard and Medium |
Read more
By Mikel
July 2nd, 2009 at 02:56am
Under Racing
Roofs at F1 circuits would be impractical, but useful
There’s no escaping the Wimbledon tennis tournament here in Britain. Last night F1 broadcasters BBC attracted 12.6m viewers as British hopeful Andy Murray scraped through to the next round after a four-hour match that lasted well into the evening.
But there has been criticism of the decision to keep the match going under Wimbledon’s new extensible roof - and questions about whether it was done to help keep viewing figures strong.
It would not be the first sport where compromises have been made to suit the demands of television – Formula 1 is much the same. But this sort of thing can easily go too far.
The roof at centre court was constructed before this year’s event to allow the organisers to keep the tournament running when the British summer runs true to form – i.e. cold and wet.
You can imagine what has happened. London is presently basking in a heat wave, with temperatures up to 32C. Then, vexing the organisers further, fat dollops of warm rain fell yesterday afternoon.
The roof was duly rolled across to keep everyone dry. The match was finished but afterwards the players complained of being roasted in the heat under the cover.
The BBC has denied it asked for the roof to be used to keep the game going – but the desire to keep international broadcasters satisfied may well have played a role in the organiser’s decision.
It certainly would not be the first time sport has taken a back seat to commercial imperatives. It’s the same reason why the British football Premier League has been considering adding an extra round of matches to be played in cash-rich eastern countries.
F1 has been making similar concessions to economic demands in general – and television in particular – for some time.
Elimination qualifying
F1’s ‘elimination’ qualifying system was partly designed to allow advert breaks after Q1 and Q2.
I think it’s a neat solution which satisfies the demands of fans, television and the sport: fans needn’t miss any of the track action, the television companies can run their adverts and the sport has a qualifying system which works and is entertaining.
But in other areas striking this sort of balance may be very difficult. What if the sport tried to apply the same model to the race format?
Shorter races?
This is not unlikely - it was one of FOTA’s recommendations following its survey of F1 fans in March. Flavio Briatore and Felipe Massa were among those backing the idea, and Briatore has in the past suggested F1 should run to a GP2-style format with two races per weekend.
It’s not hard to see why this might appeal to television companies: two 45-minute races with a break in between could allow the races to be broadcast in full with advertising breaks confined to the ‘half-time’ break. This is similar to how A1 Grand Prix is broadcast on Sky Sports.
But would fans like it? As ever, please have your say below – but I’m going to hazard a guess that the response will be largely negative.
The best solution for F1 on TV
A poll on this site in March showed 89% of readers did not want to see race distances reducing. When much has already been done to make F1 more ‘TV-friendly’ – shorter circuits, maximum time limits etc… – this could be a concession too far.
The fixed Grand Prix distance of two hours or 200 miles is part of what defines the sport. From the lower echelons through F3 and GP2, race distances get progressively longer, building drivers up for the demands of Grand Prix racing.
FOTA has made a lot of strong arguments about how F1 should be run in the future and enjoys a lot of support from fans in its dispute with the FIA. But cutting race distances, for whatever reason, will in all likelihood cost them some of that good will.
Before going down the road of cutting race distances, FOTA should look at offering a two-tier solution for F1 fans: free coverage with ad-breaks for the masses, and an ad-free subscription service, perhaps with extra features and camera angles, for hardcore fans.
By Mikel
July 2nd, 2009 at 02:55am
Under Racing
Imagine that, making a tire that suits the racing, not the rules
Bridgestone has announced that there will be a smaller than usual gap between its tyre compounds in the Hungarian, European, Belgian and Italian Grands Prix. This year Bridgestone was mandated to put two steps between the prime and…
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By Mikel
July 2nd, 2009 at 02:55am
Under Racing
He’s also announced that he’s changing his name to Sebastien
Newly appointed Red Bull reserve driver Jaime Alguersuari says he’s targeting a race seat at Toro Rosso in 2010. Alguersuari is the youngest ever British Formula 3 champion and is currently running in Formula Renault…
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By Mikel
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