Bridgestone Motorsport announce tyre specifications

Bridgestone, the Official Tyre Supplier to the FIA Formula One World Championship, is pleased to announce the compound allocations of Potenza tyres for the first three rounds of the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship.

This season will be the second with slick tyres which made a return to Formula One last year after eleven years absence from the sport. Changes for 2010 include a narrower front tyre and new constructions front and rear. All four dry compounds are modified from those used last year.

Just as in 2009, non consecutive allocations of tyres will occur at many circuits. Despite the changes to the compounds themselves, the compound names remain the same, with the range consisting of hard, medium, soft and super soft. There are two distinct temperature working ranges of tyres. The hard and medium have a higher temperature working range than the soft and super soft.

In a change to the regulations, the number of sets of dry tyres available for each driver at a grand prix changes from seven of each compound to six of the harder ‘prime’ compound and five of the softer ‘option’ compound.

The wet and intermediate tyres have no significant changes apart from the width of the front intermediate tyre, which will now be the same as the new dry front tyre.

The means of distinguishing between the two compounds on event will be through means of green bands painted on the edges of the tyre sidewalls of the softer tyres at a race. The wet tyre also has a green line at the bottom of the central groove. These markings allow the compounds to be visually distinguishable by fans at the circuit and those watching on television. The green colour shows Bridgestone’s continued support of the FIA’s Make Cars Green campaign.

Season’s 1st

This week we are telling the story of Jenson Button’s in 2009, from its humblest beginnings to the championship winning weekend. Jenson Button celebrates the first race of the season, his first victory with Brawn, and the team’s first podium. Barrichello made it a Brawn 1-2, as well.

Credit: Brawn GP

Toyota Motorsport GmbH statement

Toyota Motorsport is pleased to hear the FIA International Court of Appeal has upheld the decision of the Australian Grand Prix stewards concerning the rear diffuser on our car.

As we have maintained throughout, our team studied the wording of the new 2009 regulations in precise detail to ensure we interpreted them correctly.

We also made full use of the consultation procedure with the FIA which was a helpful process to ensure our interpretation of the technical regulations was correct.

Therefore we had every confidence that the design of our car would be confirmed as legal, firstly by race stewards in Australia and Malaysia and subsequently by the Court of Appeal.

Chairman and Team Principal Tadashi Yamashina said: “I was confident the Court of Appeal would reach this verdict and I am satisfied with it. It is important to stress we studied the technical regulations in precise detail, consulting the FIA in our process, and never doubted our car complied with them. This has been a challenging period for Formula 1 and I am pleased this issue is now in the past and we can focus on an exciting season on the track.”

FIA – International Court of Appeal – Decision

The FIA International Court of Appeal has decided to deny the appeals submitted against decisions numbered 16 to 24 taken by the Panel of the Stewards on 26 March at the 2009 Grand Prix of Australia and counting towards the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Based on the arguments heard and evidence before it, the Court has concluded that the Stewards were correct to find that the cars in question comply with the applicable regulations.

Full reasons for this decision will be provided in due course.

FIA – Extraordinary Meeting of the World Motor Sport Council

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes has been invited to appear before an extraordinary meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris on Wednesday, 29 April, 2009, to answer charges that, in breach of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code, it

• on 29 March, 2009, told the stewards of the Australian Grand Prix that no instructions were given to Hamilton in Car No. 1 to allow Trulli in Car no. 9 to pass when both cars were behind the safety car, knowing this statement to be untrue;
• procured its driver Hamilton the current World Champion, to support and confirm this untrue statement to the stewards;
• although knowing that as a direct result of its untrue statement to the stewards, another driver and a rival team had been unfairly penalised, made no attempt to rectify the situation either by contacting the FIA or otherwise;
• on 2 April, 2009, at a second hearing before the stewards of the Australian Grand Prix, (meeting in Malaysia) made no attempt to correct the untrue statement of 29 March but, on the contrary, continued to maintain that the statement was true, despite being allowed to listen to a recording of the team instructing Hamilton to let Trulli past and despite being given more than one opportunity to correct its false statement;
• on 2 April, 2009, at the second stewards’ hearing, procured its driver Hamilton to continue to assert the truth of the false statement given to the stewards on 29 March, while knowing that what he was saying to the stewards was not true.

Giancarlo Fisichella: ‘The handling is much more consistent’

After a long winter the F1 action got underway again in Melbourne last weekend, and the early signs are that the Force India VJM02 could be a competitive package this year, as the car was able to run on the pace of several teams that were out of reach last season.

In the end Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella missed out on the points, but at least the overall performance gave everyone considerable encouragement.

Giancarlo has always enjoyed his trip to Melbourne, and this year he was celebrating the 13th anniversary of his first GP start.

‘I won in 2005, so it’s a special track for me,’ he says. ‘It’s the track where I made my debut in 1996, and I’ve always got a great feeling when I go to Melbourne for the first race of the season. I like the atmosphere, I like the town and I like the circuit too. Usually something good happens in the first race.’

There was carnage at the first corner, and Adrian Sutil was one of the unlucky victims. But Giancarlo made it through safely and gained a lot of places.

‘It was a good start, I was just careful at the first corner. I managed to avoid the accident! Then I was quite surprised about my pace in the first stint, which was good. I was a bit unlucky with the safety car but because my strategy was very good, I planned to stop on lap 27-28.’

The safety car meant that Giancarlo had no choice but to come in, and he thus wasted the advantage of running with a heavy fuel load in the first part of the race. He then misjudged the location of the Force India pits and faced a long delay.

‘When I went to the pits I made a big mistake, it was just my fault, I have no excuse. I was convinced that as last year, we were always at the very end of the pitlane. So I was going there. When I realised it was too late, I just saw the guys in my colours. I lost lots of positions, and the possibility to score points.’

After that he dropped out of contention for the top eight, but he continued to keep up a good pace, despite having a few problems.

‘In the middle stint I had a problem with the car balance, I had a lot of understeer through all the weekend I had a problem with the rear locking. We set up the car so it was very stiff on the front. In the middle of the race there was more rubber down, and the rear picked up more grip, so there was a lot of understeer. I think the pace was quite positive, we showed we were quite close to the other people, and I think there was a possibility to score points.’

On the plus side Giancarlo was very happy to be running ahead of several other top runners, including his former team mate Fernando Alonso.

‘He was a little bit quicker, with less fuel than me, and he was struggling to overtake. That’s a good thing. Reliability looks very good, and this year the handling is much more consistent.

‘I think the power of the engine is pretty similar, but obviously we’ve got the gearbox and the package is a little bit better. Mechanically the car looks right, and has very good potential. We just need more downforce.’

Giancarlo admits that it could be a lot tougher in Malaysia, which is a more ‘traditional’ circuit: ‘Here we’ll know where we are. We know that it’s going to be more difficult than Australia. But I won in 2006, and it’s another great circuit, one of my favourites. There are a lot of very nice places, like the quick chicane and the other quick corners. The only problem is the heat is horrible, it’s too hot!’

There’s already been a heavy thunderstorm on Thursday afternoon, and more rain is forecast for later in the weekend.

‘Absolutely, there’s a good chance that anything could happen. But so far the main problem is our level of downforce, which is very low, and in the rain it could be a problem. But we’ll see.’

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes suspends sporting director Dave Ryan

This morning, Dave Ryan was suspended from his position as sporting director of the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team.

Team principal Martin Whitmarsh said: “In my 20-odd years working for McLaren, I doubt if I’ve met a more dedicated individual than Davey. He’s been an integral part of McLaren since 1974 and has played a crucial role in the team’s many world championship successes since that time.

“However, his role in the events of last Sunday, particularly his dealings with the FIA stewards, has caused serious repercussions for the team, for which we apologise. Therefore, I suspended him this morning and he has accepted this.”

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes – Statement

The FIA Stewards have reviewed their decision of Sunday 29th March 2009, and have excluded Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton from the results of the 2009 Australian Grand Prix.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes understands that the Stewards made their decision on the basis of reviewing radio transmissions between the driver and the Team.

The Team mistakenly believed that the radio transmissions had been reviewed by the FIA on Sunday 29th March 2009, and consequently did not believe it was necessary to discuss them with the Stewards on that date.

Nonetheless, the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Team now regrets that it did not do so, accepts the Stewards’ decision and will not appeal.

Jarno Makes His Point

Jarno Trulli faces the press ahead of the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend. It was announced today that Hamilton has been excluded from the Australian race results, and Trulli has been granted his third place back. The stewards state that Hamilton didn’t tell them the exact truth when he allowed the Toyota to pass him under the safety car in the last few laps of the race.
Credit: Toyota Motorsport GmbH

02-Apr-09: Hamilton Stripped of Australia Points

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Listen to this episode

It’s the 2nd April 2009 and this is F1 Minute.

After Toyota announced they were dropping their appeal over Trulli’s penalty from Australia, we thought the matter was closed. How wrong we were. Rumours began last night that Lewis Hamilton would be called before the race stewards again.

The FIA confirmed today that Hamilton was excluded from the race classification of the Australian GP. Trulli was reinstated to third, and the rest of the points remain as normal. A statement issued by the stewards said they felt Lewis deliberately tried to mislead them when questioned after the race. He was told by his team to hand the place back to the Toyota, but told the stewards this never happened. Their argument was backed up by onboard camera footage, pit-to-car radio evidence, and press interviews given by Lewis post-race.

Martin Whitmarsh says that Lewis did not lie, but acted on the belief the stewards had already heard the radio footage. McLaren will not be appealing the penalty.

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

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