So here we are at the race which has caused much controversary of late with the allegations that Renault forced Nelson Piquet Junior to crash at last years race (2008) so Alonso could win. The resultant FIA Council meeting concluded that Flavio Briatorre would be excluded from any involvement with events controlled by the FIA for life and Pat Simonds for 5 years.
Nelson Piquet was however given immunity as he was the one who offered the information to the FIA. I still find the saga difficult to accept within the sport I love and feel Nelson should have a penalty. He was the one that crashed the car at the perfect moment to allow Alonso, who had just pitted, to go on and win the race after the Safety Car period.
As if F1 hasn't had enough controversy over the past 2 seasons we are then faced with what has been called the worst act of its type in sporting history. Let us all hope we can finish the 2009 season off without any other controversy and that we can get back to the sport and start again with a clean sheet in 2010.
Back to F1. The teams came to Singapore with the 2009 World Champion in the balance. Battle was once more joined between, Red Bull and Brawn. Quali 1 saw a change for the first 5 drop outs as we saw Heidfeld, Liuzzi, Grosjean, and Alguersauri and the luckless Fizzi who just can't get to grips with the Ferrari. It is sad but Fizzi simply hasn't got there yet and doesn't seem to be any nearer.
Quali 2 came as a disaster for Jenson who finished 11th and not happy with his lot as once again he was outpaced by Rubens. The same luck applied to Kimi who coudn't get the Ferrari set up so both Ferrari's failed to get into Quali 1. So we lost Jarno who was again outpaced by Timo in his flying Toyota, Buemi, Adrian Sutil, Jenson and Kimi.
Into Quali 3 and without doubt Lewis was the star of the day. He launched his Mclaren into pole with a lap untouched by anyone else. His nearest challenger was the usual Sebastian Vettel who finished in P2. Nico was flying and put his Williams into P3 closely followed by Mark Webber. Alonso followed Mark and Timo (Glock) in his Toyota just pipped Robert (Kubica) and to finish off it was Heikki, Rubens and Kazuki.
Into race day and Lewis remained hot favourite and from the flag he was never really headed apart from pit stops. Timo drove a hero's race into second and he really had the Toyota humming and the same applied to Nico until he came out of the pits and crossed the dreaded White line. As is normal with this offence it brings an automatic drive through and put him back down to 11th.
The title contenders were basically locked together finishing in line astern with Sebastian (4), Rubens (5) and Jenson (6). This result tightened the championship and they went to Brazil with all 3 still in the fight albeit Jenson still has the edge.
So after returning to the scene of the Renault debacle last year all went off without a hitch, off to Japan.
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Showing posts with label FIA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FIA. Show all posts
Monday, 26 October 2009
Saturday, 13 June 2009
F1 2010 and the New Teams
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.
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.
Friday, 1 May 2009
Mclaren suspended ban
The FIA's World Motor Sport Council met on the 29th to discuss the Australian lie-gate affair after the first meeting of the season. At the council meeting on the 29th Mclaren were given a 3 race suspended ban in light of the ‘open and honest way’ in which team principal Martin Whitmarsh addressed the Council on Wednesday, and will only be applied if further evidence emerges, or there is another breach of the International Sporting Code.
I think the events of Melbourne 2009 have been well publicised but the implications of Mclaren's actions went through the Formula 1 fraternity like a hot knife through butter.
Post the stewards meeting in Melbourne, team manager Dave Ryan was suspended and Lewis was placed in a very tenuous position. He apologised for his actions during the week leading up to Malaysia but this has damaged his career for certain.
A little like Michael Schumacher, unfortunately we only remember the bad times and don't reflect on the good. A similar issue will apply to Lewis and we will await with baited breath for the end of the season. Lewis says his allegiance stays with Mclaren but I am not whether his father Anthony agrees, we will see.
We also saw the move away from the Formula 1 team of Ron Dennis to concentrate on the development of the new road car. Ron has been a huge part of the success of F1 and whilst he had moved sideways at the beginning of the season passing the reins to Martin Whitmarsh I personally find it sad we don't see him anymore.
Let us all hope this is the end of the legal ramblings to the start of the 2009 season and let's get back to racing without the umbrella.
I think the events of Melbourne 2009 have been well publicised but the implications of Mclaren's actions went through the Formula 1 fraternity like a hot knife through butter.
Post the stewards meeting in Melbourne, team manager Dave Ryan was suspended and Lewis was placed in a very tenuous position. He apologised for his actions during the week leading up to Malaysia but this has damaged his career for certain.
A little like Michael Schumacher, unfortunately we only remember the bad times and don't reflect on the good. A similar issue will apply to Lewis and we will await with baited breath for the end of the season. Lewis says his allegiance stays with Mclaren but I am not whether his father Anthony agrees, we will see.
We also saw the move away from the Formula 1 team of Ron Dennis to concentrate on the development of the new road car. Ron has been a huge part of the success of F1 and whilst he had moved sideways at the beginning of the season passing the reins to Martin Whitmarsh I personally find it sad we don't see him anymore.
Let us all hope this is the end of the legal ramblings to the start of the 2009 season and let's get back to racing without the umbrella.
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