Podium Celebrations
Lewis sprays Nico with champagne on the podium in Australia 2008. The FIA have published results of a survey into how medals would have altered F1 history if used instead of the points system. Here, Rosberg would have picked up a bronze. Copyright: Charles Coates/LAT Photographic
30-Jan-09: FIA Release Medals System Findings
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It’s the 30th January 2009 and you’re listening to F1 Minute.
The FIA have produced some statistics and analysis of what Bernie’s medal system would have done to results we have already seen. For example, they’ve calculated that Stirling Moss would have been Britain’s first champion, instead of Mike Hawthorn, Niki Lauda would have just one title to his name, and of course, Massa would have picked up the ’08 championship rather than Hamilton. There are many more statistics to pick over, but they don’t come with any explanation, so it’s unclear exactly what purpose the results are for. I imagine we will hear more about it soon.
Elsewhere today, it’s emerged that former Force India employee Mike Gascoyne is suing the team for damages regarding his dismissal. Gascoyne has filed his protest with the High Court in London and is asking for full wages for the year he still had to run on his contract, and a percentage of those he could have earnt with a two-year extension to said contract. What a nice way to end the week.
That’s it for today, have a great weekend and I’ll be back on Monday for another F1 Minute.
FIA – Formula One Medals
Further to the proposal for medals to replace points in the FIA Formula One World Championship, the FIA has conducted an analysis of how the proposed system would have altered the results of previous seasons.
Under the medals system, it is proposed that the top three drivers in each race would win gold, silver and bronze medals. At the end of the season the driver with the most gold medals would win the championship. If two or more drivers have the same number of golds then the silver medals would come into account and so on.
The FIA’s analysis shows that the medal system would change the outcomes of past World Championships considerably. Only 22 of the 59 World Championships to date would have the same top 3. The other 37 World Championships would be different. The World Champion would be altered on 13 occasions.
The medal system would create three “new” World Champions who did not win the title using the various points systems.
The overall effect would be to reduce the number of World Champions, concentrating the titles in a smaller group.
The results that would change are largely before 1990. The last 20 years would be largely unchanged.
In the overall assessment the list of World Championships per driver would be altered as follows:
1958 Stirling Moss instead of Mike Hawthorn
1964 Jim Clark instead of John Surtees
1967 Jim Clark instead of Denny Hulme
1977 Mario Andretti instead of Niki Lauda
1979 Alan Jones instead of Jody Scheckter
1981 Alain Prost instead of Nelson Piquet
1982 Didier Pironi instead of Keke Rosberg
1983 Alain Prost instead of Nelson Piquet
1984 Alain Prost instead of Niki Lauda
1986 Nigel Mansell instead of Alain Prost
1987 Nigel Mansell instead of Nelson Piquet
1989 Ayrton Senna instead of Alain Prost
2008 Felipe Massa instead of Lewis Hamilton
Michael Schumacher – 7 (1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004)
Juan Manuel Fangio – 5 (1951, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957)
Alain Prost – 5 (1981, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1993)
Jim Clark – 4 (1963, 1964, 1965, 1967)
Ayrton Senna – 4 (1988, 1989, 1990, 1991)
Jack Brabham – 3 (1959, 1960, 1966)
Jackie Stewart – 3 (1969, 1971, 1973)
Nigel Mansell – 3 (1986, 1987, 1992)
Instead of the existing totals:
Michael Schumacher – 7 (1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004)
Juan Manuel Fangio – 5 (1951, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957)
Alain Prost – 4 (1985, 1986, 1989, 1993)
Jack Brabham – 3 (1959, 1960, 1966)
Jackie Stewart – 3 (1969, 1971, 1973)
Niki Lauda – 3 (1975, 1977, 1984)
Nelson Piquet – 3 (1981, 1983, 1987)
Ayrton Senna – 3 (1988, 1990, 1991)
- Key notional changes to be noted
Brabham under the ownership of Bernie Ecclestone would have won no Drivers’ Championships.
Stirling Moss would have been the first British World Champion.
Jim Clark would have won four titles, rather than two. He would have won three consecutive titles in 1963-64-65.
Mario Andretti and Alan Jones would each have won two titles instead of one.
Niki Lauda would have lost two of his three championships and would have just one title to his name.
It should be noted, however, that the 1977 result is skewed by the fact that Lauda left Ferrari as soon as he had won the title and did not compete in the final races. If the scoring system had been different the result would almost certainly not have favoured Andretti.
Nelson Piquet would have lost all three of his World Championships.
All four World Champions between 1981-1984 would have been different.
Alain Prost would have won five World Championships but they would be different to the four that he actually claimed. His titles were won in 1985, 1986, 1989 and 1993. With the medal system they would have been 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1993. He would have won three consecutive titles in 1983-85.
Nigel Mansell would have won three World Championships instead of one, adding to 1986 and 1987 to his 1992 triumph.
Ayrton Senna would have won the 1989 title and thus would have had four consecutive titles between 1988 and 1991.
- The duration of the World Championship battles
The duration of the World Championship battle would have been altered in 22 of the 59 seasons. The medal system would have had no effect in 37 of the 59 World Championships.
Fourteen World Championship battles would have been shorter (1955, 1970, 1978, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2004).
Eight World Championship battles would have lasted longer (1973, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1990, 1991, 2001 and 2005).
In terms of World Championship final race showdowns, there would have been five lost (1955, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2000) but six gained (1977, 1979, 1980, 1990, 1991 and 2005).
Click here to download the full results
Force India – A new season, new rules, and new partners
Traditionally January is when the F1 season really kicks off as new cars begin to appear and the serious business testing gets underway. The 2009 Ferrari was the first of the latest generation cars to be launched, and others are due to roll out later this month.
The Force India VJM02 will probably be among the last of the new machines to hit the track, but there’s good reason for that. It was only on November 10 that the team confirmed that it will use Mercedes engines and McLaren gearboxes from 2009, a decision that came after the car had been designed around an alternative package. The team has thus had to work flat out since then to optimise the new car in conjunction with its new partners, and inevitably the original build schedule had to be changed.
‘The deal took quite a while to do and therefore the announcement and the opportunity to start work was late, especially considering the package included such fundamental items such as the gearbox, ’ says Force India technical director James Key. ‘We started designing this car in January 2008, as the new rules dictated such a different car from what we are used too. As a result there was a lot to do very quickly! The news was however extremely well received by the team.’
As soon as the deal was finalised Key and his team set to work to see what areas of the original VJM02 design had to be modified in order to integrate it effectively with the new engine and gearbox.
‘The car was pretty much defined at that point. When everything was officially announced it was then a case of having discussions with McLaren on the gearbox and Mercedes on the engine side as we had a new set of numbers to deal with.
‘Then we had to determine how compatible the existing designs were. In some areas it was fairly straightforward. Some areas of the car matched very well with the new packaging requirements we had, while in other areas it was significantly different. Effectively we have had to redesign quite a bit of the car, and starting in November, that’s been quite a major undertaking.’
Fortunately the team has a lot of experience of changing engine suppliers, going all the way back to the Jordan days. Indeed since 1991 there have been transitions from Cosworth to Yamaha, Hart, Peugeot, Mugen, Honda, Cosworth (again!), Toyota and Ferrari before the current link up with Mercedes. Although this time the issue is made more complicated by the move to a gearbox supply, the Force India guys know what’s required when there’s a change of engine supplier, and they are also used to dealing with time constraints.
‘We’ve certainly had late calls in the past! This is quite a late one, but for all the right reasons, in terms of long term stability for the team. We’re very pleased with that, although we also had an excellent relationship with our previous supplier. We’ve also got KERS to adapt to, and we’ve got totally different aerodynamics in 2009 so in any case the design of the car is different to previous years, nothing is carry-over from 2008, we have had excellent support from both McLaren and Mercedes.’
James says that there is no single issue that complicates the process – it’s just a matter of putting all the pieces of the puzzle in the right places.
‘I think it’s just getting everything together. McLaren have been absolutely excellent, they understand that we’ve had a lot of work to do in a short time. They’ve been extremely supportive, very helpful. We’ve had a lot of meetings, and there are day-to-day discussions on the gearbox and all the associated parts such as the cooling.
‘McLaren is a very big organisation, established for some time, Force India is on the smaller side and is up and coming. It’s good to see where the common ground is where fundamental differences lie in our thinking and operation.
‘And equally Mercedes have been extremely accommodating. They have helped us out as much as they possibly can, so the relationships have started out in a very good way.’
It doesn’t hurt that the Mercedes F1 facility is located in Brixworth, just up the road from the team’s Silverstone factory. In fact Force India is geographically a lot closer to its new engine partner than Surrey-based McLaren is.
‘It’s good to have an engine supplier which is just north of Northampton. We speak the same language.’
There’s still much to do, but the VJM02 is scheduled to be on track by the beginning of March.
‘It’s obviously very tight, because of what we’ve had to do. But the plan is to hit the last two official team tests before the season.’
Essential Reading for January 28th, 2009
Recommended links for January 28th, 2009:
- A Crazy-Fast Ferrari F1 Trike – If you think trikes are for kids and over-the-hill bikers, you may want to talk to the guys at Trike Japan who whipped up this F1 Ferrari-styled Suzuki Hayabusa three-wheeler for the Tokyo Auto Salon.
This F1-'busa conversion takes trikes to the next level, proving a third wheel isn't necessarily a bad thing, even if plating it with gold is.
- Bernie Ecclestone bucks the trend in drawing up plans to avoid another Honda – "The rejection of my medal system p****es me off. It is not fair that the winner scores only two points more than second place. We changed the points distribution because Eddie Jordan was complaining that it looked bad for sponsors to see a team without points. He never considered how bad it might look for his team to have four points and the championship winners 128."
- Renault F1 announces new technical partnership with Hewlett-Packard – The ING Renault F1 Team is pleased to announce the beginning of a technical partnership with Hewlett-Packard. HP equipment supplied as part of this agreement will range from PCs, printers and workstations to Windows and Linux servers for both the Team's Technical Centre and the Race Team.
Overview of Monaco
Honda participating in the Monaco Grand Prix 2008. The street circuit was recently named at the top of a list of “Seven Sporting Wonders of the World” as voted for by British fans. Copyright: HondaRacingF1.com
29-Jan-09: Ron Dennis Will Turn Up to 2009 Races
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Today is the 29th January and this is F1 Minute.
Ron Dennis has confirmed what we all suspected, that although he is stepping down from the team, he will still turn up to pretty much all the races. Ron says: “The first reason is that I’ll have work to do at Grands Prix as an influential member and proponent of FOTA, and as Chairman and CEO of the McLaren Group… The second reason is that I continue to love the sport of Formula One with every fibre of my being. That’ll never change.”
Elsewhere, Autosport.com are reporting that the FIA are aware of a rear diffuser clarification requested by Renault. Pat Symonds believes that Williams and Toyota may be bending the regulations somewhat at the back of the car, and have asked for it to be looked into. Autosport says that the FIA know about it but there’s no word if it’s illegal or not yet.
Finally, the Monaco Street Circuit has topped a list of “Seven Sporting Wonders of the World” beating out the Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing, and the Bernabeu in Madrid.
That’s it for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
Force India – Every second counts
One hour left before the start of a race. There’s a million things going on, and the clock’s ticking down. How do you keep cool and get everything done?
Chief mechanic Andy Deeming explains the procedures the team will follow before the start of a standard race time start:
11:20
Myself, the engineers and drivers will sit together for a final race strategy meeting. We’ll finalise what tyres both drivers will start on, when the pit stop windows will be, fuel loads and also review the weather for the next three hours, checking if we need to be ready to change from wet to dry or vice versa. The meeting is usually about ten to 20 minutes; it doesn’t need to be longer as we want the decisions, not a debate.
12:00
The drivers will have a light lunch before the start of the race. Usually they will have something simple like pasta or rice as it’s easy to digest and gives an energy store. The team will usually eat around the same time.
12:30
Drivers parade. At each race, all drivers are required to go out on track to greet the fans. Normally this involves them being on the back of a low-loader lorry and being driven at slow speed round the entire track, waving at the fans. The atmosphere is usually very good – most of the fans have been in the stands for hours and haven’t seen the drivers until this point.
12:45
All mechanics working on the car in the garage and on the grid will get changed into their crew suits and fireproof underwear.
The trolleys taken to the grid are also prepared by the truckies. Force India has one trolley per car that can be pulled or pushed up the pit lane. It needs to be very smooth – there’s a lot of equipment on there and when the guys bring it back from the grid they will be running to make it back to the garage in time. Each trolley will be loaded with two sets of tyres; the set the driver will start on, and a spare set. If rain looks likely we’ll take a wet weather tyre on another trolley. There will also lots of other items including a generator, a dry ice box and ice, fire extinguisher, air bottle, regulator, hoses and consumables like brake fluid, brake cleaner, wheel nuts and umbrellas.
13:05
Our chief engineer Dominic Harlow will gather everyone in the garage together for a briefing on the race strategy. Straight after the meeting the grid trolleys will be taken by two people each up to the grid.
13:20
The driver, who will be changed into his overalls and boots by this point, will come into the garage to put on his helmet and gloves. Once he’s changed into these he’ll get into the car and be strapped in with the seatbelts. The pit lane opens at 13:30, so we like to be ready to go on the green light if we need to. We’ll do radio checks between the engineer and the driver and then the pit crews to make sure everyone can hear.
13:30 – 13:45
Pit lane opens. Any time from now until 13:45 when the pit lane closes, both cars will leave the garage. At most races each driver will drive round the track, coming through the pit lane once before driving to the rear of the grid.
When the driver gets to the rear of the grid, he must cut the engine. Two mechanics will meet each car and then push it into its grid slot. Once in position the car will be put onto short stands, raising the car around five inches from the ground. The tyres will be removed and wrapped up again in blankets. The car will be reconnected to the umbilical and the radiator inlets cleaned before the cooling fans are put in. Each fan will be filled with dry ice to keep the car cool – in some races like Malaysia and Bahrain where the temperatures can be very high, leaving the car sitting on the grid can cause it to overheat.
Truckies carrying tyre warmer blankets will also arrive at the grid.
13:45 – 13:50
We’ll fire up the engine of each car to check there’s no problems.
13:50
The driver will get in the car, we’ll check the spare tyres and double check the race starts. Each driver will do a radio check, connect his drinks supply and secure his ear pieces. The bodywork will be firmly secured.
13:55 – 13:57
All tyres must be fitted to the car. 13:57 is the latest they can be fitted before the generator power is cut, the tyre blankets disconnected and the grid trolley leaves the grid to go back to the garage.
13:59
The tyre blankets are removed, the engine started and the car lowered to the ground.
13:59 and 30 seconds
All personnel working on the car have to be clear of the car and standing behind the white lines at the side of the grid. Back in the garage, there’s a small team of people ready and waiting in case there’s some sort of problem, or weather change, on the formation lap.
14:00
The cars will leave the grid for the formation lap. Once every car is clear of the grid, the mechanics will run back into the pit lane and back to our garage. When we get back to the garage, we put our balaclavas and helmets, watch the start and then deal with what comes next…
BMW Favour Bahrain
BMW running at the Bahrain International Circuit in 2008. The team recently announced they will return to the desert for the next winter test, favouring Bahrain over Jerez. They’ll join Ferrari and Toyota. Copyright: BMW AG
28-Jan-09: Belgian GP Organisers Worried About ING
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Welcome to F1 Minute for the 28th January 2009.
It’s all circuit news today, starting with speculation that the Belgian Grand Prix could be in trouble. Having made significant losses over the past two years, organisers at Spa are worried that the withdrawal of ING from sponsorship could be a problem. Apparently the bank were big on buying tickets, purchasing 3,000 corporate tickets last year. If they don’t do that this time, it will be a huge blow to the track.
The French Grand Prix, meanwhile, had some hope when the government agreed to allow a race at Yvelines. However, it looks as though strong opposition has caused the minister to reconsider, and other options will have to be looked at.
Finally, BMW have decided to test at Bahrain next month, switching from their original plan of joining the other teams in Jerez. They’ll be in good company, though, with Ferrari and Toyota, and presumably, this is down to the bad weather experienced last week in Portugal.
That’s it for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.