The grid for 2010 is still not settled albeit there are now entries from the existing teams in 2009. McLaren, BMW Sauber, Renault, Toyota and Brawn have entered on mass as FOTA (Formula One Team Association) but the entries are subject to them lifting conditions they placed on their entries by next Friday, June 19. What those conditions are is for Max Mosley and FOTA to know.
Williams, Force India and Ferrari are not a part of that and their entries are secure. Williams have had their membership of FOTA recinded until final agreement has been reached between FOTA and F1 but I haven't heard that about Force India or Ferrari!
So, after a lot of speculation we now know we have 3 new teams on the grid for 2010 and they are Campos Grand Prix, Team US F1 and Manor F1. Accepting the current 20 cars are on the grid that will give us a full 26 car grid for 2010 and should introduce some interesting racing.
No one is sure what the full regs will be but maybe we will know after 19 June. The new teams in brief.
Manor F1 Grand Prix. Former single seater champion, John Booth established Manor in 1990 when he decided to form his own team. Their successes include 171 Race wins and 19 Championship titles in formulae such as Formula Renault and the F3 Euroseries.
Based in the UK they have 2 sites, one in Sheffield and the other in Bicester. Its technical innovation is characterised by the fact that the race cars are designed, tested and refined entirely in the digital domain using the processes originally developed by Wirth Research Limited (WRL).
As Technical Director of Manor Grand Prix Racing, Nick Wirth founded WRL (Wirth Research Limited) in 2003, a company specialising in research, development and manufacturing in the high technology sector. Their designs won both the 2004/5 Indy Racing League (IRL) championships as well as being instrumental in producing winning designs in the American Le Mans series.
Nick Wirth has an impeccable background initially with March, Simtek F1 and Chief Designed for the Benetton F1 team. To compete in 2010 an engine deal has been agreed with Cosworth and it will be great to see them back on the grid.
Campos Grand Prix. Launched in 1998 Campos was launched in 1998 by ex-Formula One driver Adrián Campos. Campos has won six driver championships, five team championships and currently holds the GP2 Series 2008 title.
Their HQ is in Madrid where the marketing and admin are run. The technical centre is based at Campos Racing’s current headquarters in Valencia, 25km from the Ricardo Tormo race track.
As part of its application to compete in the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship, Campos has also agreed an engine supply deal with Cosworth and technical partnerships with Dallara Automobili and Xtrac.
Team US F1. With 30 years of motor sport experience, team Principal Ken Anderson including designing and constructing multiple Indy 500 and IndyCar Series-winning race cars. This is a real departure for F1 bringing an American Team into F1 as it has been proved Indy 500 and the Indy car series are a different ball park to F1.
Fellow team director Peter Windsor is known to us all having worked in F1 for over 35 years as team manager for Williams-Renault team, manager for Ferrari’s F1 chassis and suspension departments and as a consultant for F1 drivers Nigel Mansell and Carlos Reutemann.
As part of its application to compete in the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship, US F1 has agreed an engine supply deal with Cosworth.
Cosworth. I don't think Cosworth need any introduction to we petrol heads after 50 years in engine design for most racing teams at one time or another throughout the world. It is a name synonymous with motor racing and has been missed from the recent grids. All the new teams to F1 have opted to use Cosworth engines and I have no doubt the parterships will flourish.
I am sure we all wish the new teams every success. One has to congratulate Max Mosley on his management of this process and hopefully pre Silverstone all will be known about 2010 and beyond.
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Saturday, 13 June 2009
Sunday, 7 June 2009
F1 Turkey - The Race
Welcome to Turkey 2009 on the fabulous circuit at Istanbul Park. What Turkey needs now is a F1 driver to pull in the crowds as to date that is not happening. The same happened with Spain until Fernando came along and then they poured in by their thousands, lets hope someone comes along to fire that interest in the Turks.
So, we had Sebastian (Vettel)on pole with Jenson hot on his heels and Rubens lurking. All went well on the warm up lap with the usual tyre warming antics. There were concerns again about the Green walled tyres not lasting and certainly all the teams preferred the harder tyres. They have to run both types of course and it was just a matter off choice against pit stops.
Most teams went for the hard tyres from the start but Fernando thought better and started on the the softer Green walled jobbies, mistake or not? It did mean once the first stint was over he could run the rest of the race on the hard tyres but by then maybe it was too late. Most of the teams on the hard tyres at the start finished the last stint on the softer tyres, so just a matter of strategy.
Off they went at 1300 UK time into the first corner which is blind on the approach very similar to Brazil. Sebastian (V) retained his pole into the first corner quickly followed by Jenson, Mark and the rest.
It was thought Rubens may beat Jenson to the first corner on the better side of the circuit but whatever he did in the car caused it to go into anti-stall and he went backwards very quickly to about 13th.
In the meanwhile Sebastian (V) got corner 9 all wrong and Jenson pounced into the lead which he was never to relinquish. In his plight to move forward Rubens was having a very adventurous afternoon banging into people with gay abandon. Then he announced he had lost 7th gear and his race was basically done and on lap 47 he finally retired from way down in the pack.
Jenson and Sebastian had their first pit stops and as Sebastian was on a 3 stopper he was lighter than Jenson and pulled right up to the Brawn's tailpipes. He tried always to get past but Jenson was too canny for that and Sebastian remained in the dirty air of the Brawn to the next pitstop and he was gone.
Mark was on the same strategy as Jenson and once Sebastian had his pitstop's he lost P2 to Mark and it remained that way to the finish. Sebastian had a call from the pits confirming "Mark is faster than you so hold position", that didn't fool anybody so what about team orders "did you hear any!
Behind these 3 Jarno and Nico had a race long battle with the former coming off best but a great showing form the Williams and had it not been for a hiccup in the pits Kazuki would have also been in the points.
The Ferrari's were again disappointing with Felipe running 6th the whole race and just not able to get in touch with Jarno and Nico. Kimi had a miserable day and finished a lonely 9th and nil point. Robert (Kubica) had a better race for BMW finishing in the points with 2 points for 7th.
Timo (Glock) took the last point so both Toyota's finished in the points which bodes well for them with Nick (Heidfeld) finishing in 11th. At least the BMW's have come on since the past few races where they finished last or almost last.
What about the Mclarens we ask ourselves. Well Lewis stared from 16th and finished 13th ahead of his team mate who started one place in front. The car is a dog and one had only to watch the on board with Lewis coming through turns 8, 9 and 10 to see why. He obviously has a complete lack of confidence in the car as he simply has no grip.
The team say they are building a new car and it will be out in Germany but one has to suggest they may have to work a few more hours and get it ready for Silverstone in 2 weeks or it will be sad for all the Lewis fans at this home GP.
They worked so hard in the final stages of last year to win the championship they simply haven't had the time to work on the 2009 car, this is Mclaren we are talking about!
So, Turkey finished up another Jenson / Brawn benefit. In the drivers conference Jenson said the car was fantastic and probably the best it has been all season. Both Mark and Sebastian agreed with that and a tribute to the team and that man Ross Brawn. Maybe Mclaren should get Adrian Newey back from Red Bull to put Lewis back up at the sharp end.
Lets hope Jenson can do the same on his official home grand prix at Silverstone and the fans would then have 2 drivers to shout for albeit one at the front and one at the back.
Just 2 retirements this time for Rubens and Giancarlo with Jenson taking the fastest lap with a 1.27.279, an average speed of 219.422.
Well done Jenson and one wonders if this glorious season is ever going to end with 6 wins out of 7 starts equalling Schumacher and Ascari a long while ago. He is going to take some catching now with his closest rivals being Rubens, 26 points behind and Sebastian (V) 32 behind. He is going to have to drop out of the points on many races now for others to catch him.
Brawn are a country mile away in the constructors championship now on 96 points being 40 points ahead of Red Bull and then after that it is Toyota on a far away 32.5 points.
Bring on Silverstone and let us all hope Lewis has a car rather than a tractor!
So, we had Sebastian (Vettel)on pole with Jenson hot on his heels and Rubens lurking. All went well on the warm up lap with the usual tyre warming antics. There were concerns again about the Green walled tyres not lasting and certainly all the teams preferred the harder tyres. They have to run both types of course and it was just a matter off choice against pit stops.
Most teams went for the hard tyres from the start but Fernando thought better and started on the the softer Green walled jobbies, mistake or not? It did mean once the first stint was over he could run the rest of the race on the hard tyres but by then maybe it was too late. Most of the teams on the hard tyres at the start finished the last stint on the softer tyres, so just a matter of strategy.
Off they went at 1300 UK time into the first corner which is blind on the approach very similar to Brazil. Sebastian (V) retained his pole into the first corner quickly followed by Jenson, Mark and the rest.
It was thought Rubens may beat Jenson to the first corner on the better side of the circuit but whatever he did in the car caused it to go into anti-stall and he went backwards very quickly to about 13th.
In the meanwhile Sebastian (V) got corner 9 all wrong and Jenson pounced into the lead which he was never to relinquish. In his plight to move forward Rubens was having a very adventurous afternoon banging into people with gay abandon. Then he announced he had lost 7th gear and his race was basically done and on lap 47 he finally retired from way down in the pack.
Jenson and Sebastian had their first pit stops and as Sebastian was on a 3 stopper he was lighter than Jenson and pulled right up to the Brawn's tailpipes. He tried always to get past but Jenson was too canny for that and Sebastian remained in the dirty air of the Brawn to the next pitstop and he was gone.
Mark was on the same strategy as Jenson and once Sebastian had his pitstop's he lost P2 to Mark and it remained that way to the finish. Sebastian had a call from the pits confirming "Mark is faster than you so hold position", that didn't fool anybody so what about team orders "did you hear any!
Behind these 3 Jarno and Nico had a race long battle with the former coming off best but a great showing form the Williams and had it not been for a hiccup in the pits Kazuki would have also been in the points.
The Ferrari's were again disappointing with Felipe running 6th the whole race and just not able to get in touch with Jarno and Nico. Kimi had a miserable day and finished a lonely 9th and nil point. Robert (Kubica) had a better race for BMW finishing in the points with 2 points for 7th.
Timo (Glock) took the last point so both Toyota's finished in the points which bodes well for them with Nick (Heidfeld) finishing in 11th. At least the BMW's have come on since the past few races where they finished last or almost last.
What about the Mclarens we ask ourselves. Well Lewis stared from 16th and finished 13th ahead of his team mate who started one place in front. The car is a dog and one had only to watch the on board with Lewis coming through turns 8, 9 and 10 to see why. He obviously has a complete lack of confidence in the car as he simply has no grip.
The team say they are building a new car and it will be out in Germany but one has to suggest they may have to work a few more hours and get it ready for Silverstone in 2 weeks or it will be sad for all the Lewis fans at this home GP.
They worked so hard in the final stages of last year to win the championship they simply haven't had the time to work on the 2009 car, this is Mclaren we are talking about!
So, Turkey finished up another Jenson / Brawn benefit. In the drivers conference Jenson said the car was fantastic and probably the best it has been all season. Both Mark and Sebastian agreed with that and a tribute to the team and that man Ross Brawn. Maybe Mclaren should get Adrian Newey back from Red Bull to put Lewis back up at the sharp end.
Lets hope Jenson can do the same on his official home grand prix at Silverstone and the fans would then have 2 drivers to shout for albeit one at the front and one at the back.
Just 2 retirements this time for Rubens and Giancarlo with Jenson taking the fastest lap with a 1.27.279, an average speed of 219.422.
Well done Jenson and one wonders if this glorious season is ever going to end with 6 wins out of 7 starts equalling Schumacher and Ascari a long while ago. He is going to take some catching now with his closest rivals being Rubens, 26 points behind and Sebastian (V) 32 behind. He is going to have to drop out of the points on many races now for others to catch him.
Brawn are a country mile away in the constructors championship now on 96 points being 40 points ahead of Red Bull and then after that it is Toyota on a far away 32.5 points.
Bring on Silverstone and let us all hope Lewis has a car rather than a tractor!
Saturday, 6 June 2009
F1 Turkey Quali
Well here we are at Istanbul Park for the Turkish Grand Prix. With its 5.33km lap and 14 corners Istanbul Park has a total race length of 309.396km's.
The lap record is held by Montoya from as far back as 2005 which shows the difference in speeds as in 2009 the pole lap is 1.28.316 by Sebastian Vettel. Istanbul Park is an anti-clockwise circuit like Brazil giving the neck muscles a real pounding. After Monaco the teams and drivers look forward to stretching their legs back to a normal weekend.
So, 12 o'clock UK time quali began with a flurry of drivers hoping to get into the top 15 but as usual a top name went. As with Monaco, but for different reasons Lewis just hasn't got the car beneath him to put in the times. Mclaren are simply going to have to find grip from somewhere as the car looks very unstable and back end happy.
I believe Lewis is lacking confidence in the car and one cannot blame him, it is a beast. The usual protagonists were at the sharp end with Ferrari now beginning to mix it with Brawn, Red Bull and Williams. Nico hit the front for a time followed by Nakajima but status quo soon followed.
Sutil got through into Q2 dropping the luckless Lewis down into 16th which shows just how bad the Mclaren is. Piquet complained of no brakes, which could be a problem in one of these rocket ships and finished in the gravel, so his day was done. So after quali 1 we lost Lewis, Nelson, Sebastien (Buemi), Fisi and Sebastien (Bourdais). It appears you would have an advantage with a name such as Sebastien's and certainly at Red Bull / Torro Rosso!
Off into Quali 2 and the front 6 were fighting cat and dog at the sharp end, swopping places throughout the session. Trulli, who has always been a one lap specialist shot in a surprise by taking P1 but was soon to be overhauled by the top 6 but there or thereabouts. The BMW's were shaping a little better with Robert always ahead of Nick.
Jarno's lap put him into P2 at the end of the only topped by Sebastian (Vettel) followed by the 2 Brawn's, what's new. Heikki was shaping up only a little better than Lewis and finished Q2 in 14th place so the 2 Mclaren's will be behind each other on the grid. What they can do from there is really in the hands of the other drivers.
So we lost Adrian (Sutil), Heikki, Timo, Kajuki and Nick in his BMW. With little surprise we had the 10 to go through to Q3 and battle was to commence. Q3 didn't create much drama and not many were getting Green sectors due to the fuel levels now in the cars set for the race. Sebastian, Jenson, Rubens, Mark and Jarno were trading places throughout the 15 minute session.
Mark had come alight and headed the field, then it was Rubens, then Jenson and he must have thought he had it but he had not accounted for Sebastian who was on a charge and pipped him by a mere 100th of a second.
So we have a Red Bull, Brawn front row and finishing positions were Sebastian (Red Bull), Jenson (Brawn), Rubens (Brawn), Mark (Red Bull), Kimi (Ferrari), Felipe (Ferrari), Fernando (Renault), Nico (Williams) and finally Robert in his BMW.
So the Kers cars are back in the field and shouldn't worry the 4 away from the start and one would have to put money on Sebastian hitting the first corner first. However, it is always difficult until we know what fuel levels are in the cars and one has to say the Brawn's are usually supreme in race pace.
Let's hope we have a thriller.
The lap record is held by Montoya from as far back as 2005 which shows the difference in speeds as in 2009 the pole lap is 1.28.316 by Sebastian Vettel. Istanbul Park is an anti-clockwise circuit like Brazil giving the neck muscles a real pounding. After Monaco the teams and drivers look forward to stretching their legs back to a normal weekend.
So, 12 o'clock UK time quali began with a flurry of drivers hoping to get into the top 15 but as usual a top name went. As with Monaco, but for different reasons Lewis just hasn't got the car beneath him to put in the times. Mclaren are simply going to have to find grip from somewhere as the car looks very unstable and back end happy.
I believe Lewis is lacking confidence in the car and one cannot blame him, it is a beast. The usual protagonists were at the sharp end with Ferrari now beginning to mix it with Brawn, Red Bull and Williams. Nico hit the front for a time followed by Nakajima but status quo soon followed.
Sutil got through into Q2 dropping the luckless Lewis down into 16th which shows just how bad the Mclaren is. Piquet complained of no brakes, which could be a problem in one of these rocket ships and finished in the gravel, so his day was done. So after quali 1 we lost Lewis, Nelson, Sebastien (Buemi), Fisi and Sebastien (Bourdais). It appears you would have an advantage with a name such as Sebastien's and certainly at Red Bull / Torro Rosso!
Off into Quali 2 and the front 6 were fighting cat and dog at the sharp end, swopping places throughout the session. Trulli, who has always been a one lap specialist shot in a surprise by taking P1 but was soon to be overhauled by the top 6 but there or thereabouts. The BMW's were shaping a little better with Robert always ahead of Nick.
Jarno's lap put him into P2 at the end of the only topped by Sebastian (Vettel) followed by the 2 Brawn's, what's new. Heikki was shaping up only a little better than Lewis and finished Q2 in 14th place so the 2 Mclaren's will be behind each other on the grid. What they can do from there is really in the hands of the other drivers.
So we lost Adrian (Sutil), Heikki, Timo, Kajuki and Nick in his BMW. With little surprise we had the 10 to go through to Q3 and battle was to commence. Q3 didn't create much drama and not many were getting Green sectors due to the fuel levels now in the cars set for the race. Sebastian, Jenson, Rubens, Mark and Jarno were trading places throughout the 15 minute session.
Mark had come alight and headed the field, then it was Rubens, then Jenson and he must have thought he had it but he had not accounted for Sebastian who was on a charge and pipped him by a mere 100th of a second.
So we have a Red Bull, Brawn front row and finishing positions were Sebastian (Red Bull), Jenson (Brawn), Rubens (Brawn), Mark (Red Bull), Kimi (Ferrari), Felipe (Ferrari), Fernando (Renault), Nico (Williams) and finally Robert in his BMW.
So the Kers cars are back in the field and shouldn't worry the 4 away from the start and one would have to put money on Sebastian hitting the first corner first. However, it is always difficult until we know what fuel levels are in the cars and one has to say the Brawn's are usually supreme in race pace.
Let's hope we have a thriller.
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