Fernando Alonso is cheered round the streets of Valencia during its inaugural 2008 Grand Prix. Organisers have confirmed they will be lowering the number of seats available for the race this year due to low ticket sales – which they blame on the FIA and FOTA row. The less fans there are, though, the more grey the race will be.

Credit: Charles Coates/LAT Photographic

Bringing Some Colour to the Dockyard

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It’s the 3rd July 2009 and this is F1 Minute.

There have been rumours floating around for a while now that Virgin would switch their sponsorship from Brawn GP to Manor Grand Prix, and it looks like this might be closer to fact than rumour. The Guardian have published a leaked email from Alan Donnelly, the FIA representative, who says the deal is done and dusted. It’s unclear why Donnelly is involved at all, with Autosport reporting that FOTA have written to the FIA to question his neutrality, and the FIA suggesting he is simply helping the new teams as part of their bid to improve the sport. No one from Virgin or Manor will comment on the potential sponsorship deal though.

Elsewhere today, organisers of the Valencia street circuit have confirmed that they will be reducing the number of grandstand seats available, down by over 30,000 from last year’s 112,000. Ticket sales have not been very good, and organisers blame both the economy and also the ongoing arguments between the FIA and FOTA.

That’s it for today, please join me again tomorrow for another F1 Minute.

03-Jul-09: Virgin Switch Sponsorship to Manor

Nelson Piquet in training. The Renault driver doesn’t think that the team can fight for wins this year, or celebrate a turnaround like they did in 2008. He believes the biggest budgets will win the development race, and Renault will be lucky to fight for the top five, let alone the podium.

Credit: Charles Coates/LAT Photographic

A Development Race

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This is F1 Minute for the 2nd July 2009.

Bulgaria look set to be another new addition to a future F1 calendar, as the head of the Bulgarian Motorcycling Federation has been invited to the German Grand Prix as a guest of Bernie Ecclestone. They are already on the MotoGP calendar for 2012 and would like to host an F1 race in 2011, although there are no confirmed circuit details yet. Apparently their plans are under consideration by FOM.

Elsewhere today, Nelson Piquet has admitted that he thinks it unlikely Renault will be able to pull out some wins like they did towards the end of the season last year. He said as it is a development race at the moment, the budgets are really dictating who is doing well, but realistically, Piquet thinks they are fighting for the top five positions, rather than for wins.

And finally, the Goodwood Festival of Speed kicks off in the UK tomorrow with six F1 teams going to be represented there.

That’s all for now, see you again tomorrow for another F1 Minute.

02-Jul-09: Bulgaria Hope to Host Grand Prix in 2011

Jaime Alguersuari sits on the Toro Rosso pitwall during the Spanish Grand Prix this year. Red Bull announced today that he will take the place of Brendon Hartley as third driver, and Alguersuari says that he’s aiming to get a race seat at STR by next year.

Credit: Peter Fox/Getty Images

3rd Driver Lucky

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Welcome to F1 Minute and Welcome to July! It’s the first of the month.

Red Bull announced today that they would be switching third driver Hartley for British F3 Champ Alguersuari. Apparently this has always been part of the plan, with Hartley set to concentrate on his European F3 drive. Alguersuari says his aim is to get a seat at Toro Rosso for next season, with most assuming he would replace Bourdais. However, he says: “It’s going to be tough and there is not much testing to do. But once you get to F1, everything changes. We have seen that with guys like Buemi and Vettel.”

Elsewhere, Bridgestone confirmed the tyre compounds they’d be bringing for four more races from Hungary onwards. They have dropped the extra step in compounds this time, with Hungary and Valencia having the two softest, whilst Belgium and Italy benefit from the soft and mediums. Bridgestone haven’t confirmed if the idea is gone completely but admits that for the next few races, the gap would be just too big to be safe.

That’s all for now, please join me again tomorrow for another F1 Minute.

01-Jul-09: Red Bull Replace Hartley as Third Driver

We look back on some of the key milestones of Renault’s adventure at the pinnacle of motor sport.

1976 Renault’s F1 programme is born in Viry-Châtillon

1977 (May) The RS01 is officially presented to the world on the Champs Elysées

1977 (July) First race in Formula One at Silverstone with Jabouille behind the wheel

1978 The team scores its first points in the United States Grand Prix

1979 Jabouille scores the first victory for Renault in the French Grand Prix

1980 Renault leads the championship after three races but finally finishes the season in fourth position

1981 & 1982 Renault finishes third in the championship

1984 Renault separates its engine and chassis operations: engines are conceived in Viry and chassis in Evry

1985 Formula One activity ends for Renault, but a small development cell remains in Viry

1989 Renault produces the first 3.5L V10 engine in Formula One and wins two races as engine supplier to Williams

1992 Williams-Renault wins the constructors’ title and Nigel Mansell secures the drivers’ title

1995 Renault engines power the Williams and Benetton teams, winning 16 of the season’s 17 races, which included a famous 1-2-3-4 finish for French engines in Magny-Cours

1997 After sharing in five drivers’ titles and six constructors’ titles, Renault’s official involvement as an engine supplier comes to an end

2002 Renault makes its return to the sport as a full manufacturer team

2003 Victory in Hungary with Fernando Alonso marks Renault’s first victory since returning to the sport.

2004 Renault finishes third in the constructors’ championship

2005 Renault wins the constructors’ title and the drivers’ title with Fernando Alonso

2006 Renault successfully defends its constructors’ title and Fernando Alonso his drivers’ crown

2007 The team finishes third in the constructors’ championship.

2008 After a difficult start to the season, the team fights back strongly to win two races.

Thirty years on and very little has changed. The hunger for a technical challenge and passion for the sport still remain the vital ingredients of Renault’s success in F1.

Celebrating 30 years since Renault’s first victory in Formula One

Ex-manager of Toyota Richard Cregan explains to Timo Glock the layout of the Abu Dhabi circuit. Cregan moved on to management at the new Yas Marina circuit, who have today revealed a new game to introduce fans to the track.

Credit: Toyota Motorsport GmbH

I Bet Your Scalectrix Set Didn’t Have One of These

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It’s the 30th June 2009 and this is F1 Minute.

The Yas Marina Circuit released an online game today, which supposedly allows fans to have a go round the track and try and set a fast time. I couldn’t get it to load, so we’ll have to take their word on that. Meanwhile, ex-Toyota employee and CEO of the track management Richard Cregan has offered an insight to the game which presumably translates to the real life track as well: “Whether you are accelerating down the longest straight on any Formula 1 circuit, skidding off the track under the grandstand, tackling the tricky Marina and Yas Yacht Club corners or driving beneath The Yas Hotel, every lap offers a challenge.”

Also, yesterday it was confirmed that Kimi Raikkonen will appear in the World Rally Championship in Finland, competing against Sebastien Loeb and Mikko Hirvonen. Kimi has taken part in a couple of non-championship events but will take to the stage with a Fiat in the gap between Hungary and Valencia at the end of July.

That’s it for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.

30-Jun-09: Abu Dhabi Release More Track Info

For the four races from the Hungarian Grand Prix to the Italian Grand Prix Bridgestone will depart from its concept of leaving a gap in rubber stiffness between the two allocated tyres for each race, meaning that consecutive compound pairings are allocated for each of these races. Bridgestone’s intermediate and wet tyres will continue to be brought to all races.

Both allocations of dry tyres have to be used in each race, unless the intermediate or wet tyres are used, meaning that competitors need to find the best compromise to utilise the potential of both tyres. The means of distinguishing between the two compounds on event is by green bands painted on the edges of the tyre sidewalls of the softer tyres at a race. Green is the colour in order to show Bridgestone’s support of the FIA’s Make Cars Green campaign.

Hirohide Hamashima, Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development, says:
“We have made the change to the tyre allocation concept based on the data we have collected from races so far this year combined with our knowledge of the tracks we visit for these races. The cars of 2009 are very different to those used last year so we have learnt a lot so far this year, and they do use their tyres differently from before.

Hungary is a circuit where the characteristics demand our softest tyres. This is also true for street courses, and we used the softest allocation earlier in the year at Monaco, and will again in Valencia. In Spa the weather temperatures can be quite cool, so the hard compound could have caused difficulties, and the super soft would have been too soft for this track, so that means the allocation of medium and soft is obvious. In Monza the hard compound would have given too big a difference between it and the soft, so we will bring the soft and the medium.”

Tyre compounds for the 2009 season:

Bridgestone Motorsport announce tyre specifications