Today is the 8th October 2008, welcome to F1 Minute.
This weekend in Japan, Bridgestone are painting the stripes on their tyres green. The FIA has a promotion called “Make Cars Green”, and in support Bridgestone will be painting every groove on the harder tyre a bright green colour. The announcement of coloured tyres, came with a joint statement from Honda, Williams and BMW, all supporting the idea of Formula 1 becoming greener. I can honestly say the green does not look great, but it’s all in a good cause.
Along with environmental issues, Max Mosley has also issued a stark warning that if Formula 1 doesn’t drastically cut costs it will face serious difficulties in the future. Today it was announced that the FOTA will meet with the FIA president immediately after the Chinese Grand Prix to discuss the matter. The FIA statement read: “At this meeting the FIA will discuss and share with the teams the strategic decisions which are now urgently required, having regard to current world-wide economic problems.”
That’s it for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
BMW have become the next team to confirm their driver lineup for 2009 and it remains unchanged. Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld line up beside Christian Klien as test driver. BMW Motorsport Director, Mario Theissen said, of the pairing: “We are in no doubt that we will again achieve our ambitious aims with them in the team’s fourth year.” Of course, this news narrows down Alonso’s options for next year, with his main choice now being between Renault and Honda.
Elsewhere today, Bernie Ecclestone has hit back at the statements Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo made regarding Singapore. The team boss said the safety car rules make F1 a circus. Ecclestone has apparently responded to this with: “After the weekend Ferrari had, their president should have shut up and kept his head down. If Massa loses the world championship, he will know the team were responsible. He would have destroyed everybody in Singapore if he had kept going.”
That’s it for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
It’s the 19th September 2008, and this is F1 Minute.
Pedro de la Rosa headed up the final day of testing at Jerez for McLaren, just ahead of BMW and Renault. There were no rain interruptions today, and no major incidents. Vettel returned to the Toro Rosso cockpit whilst Buemi returned to work for Red Bull.
Talking of which, it appears that Buemi may be a favourite for the Toro Rosso race seat in 2009, after Franz Tost has been quoted as saying as long as they could find an experienced driver to pair him with, they would want him in the car. Buemi isn’t getting too carried away, but says he is excited and getting into F1 is his main objective for next year.
Elsewhere today, Wurz has finished up testing Honda’s KERS system and declared that it’s quite safe: “Honda has an enormous amount of know how with the battery system and we have some security checks all the time going on, so we are very confident that we won’t be electrocuted.” He said it’s fine in road cars so all F1 teams have to do is work out how to package it correctly.
That’s it for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
The final in-season test of 2008 has started at Jerez, with BMW, Williams and Honda turning up for the first day. The teams tested three young drivers: Marko Asmer finished the day on top for BMW, followed by Dani Clos for Williams and Mike Conway for Honda. Both Williams and Honda tested out the new KERS technology, but Honda only managed 20 laps whilst the others completed over 70 each.
Elsewhere today, Ron Dennis has been talking about his team’s relationship with Ferrari, and says things have never been better, despite last year’s spy scandal, and the Belgium penalty incident. Dennis spoke out to put pay to rumours that there might be trouble within the FOTA, and of new chairman di Montezemolo, he said: “Luca is an old friend. Granted, inevitably, our relationship has had its ups and downs as a result of the competitiveness of our respective organisations, but there’s a deep and mutual respect between us.”
That’s it for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
Free Practice 3 was wet, and very little meaningful running took place, although Hamilton and a few brave drivers did take to the track. When qualifying began, it was still raining, but the first session looked like things were going to plan, as both Honda’s, Nakajima and Sutil were all knocked out. Finally, after proclaiming it their target all year, Force India got through to the second session with Fisichella at the wheel. McLaren appeared to make a bad decision in Q2, sending Hamilton out for one lap on intermediate tyres. He returned to the pits for extreme wets, but couldn’t get a lap time together, and finished that session at the back, starting 15th on the grid, just behind Raikkonen.
In Q3, Massa and Kovalainen were the soul representatives of the top two teams, but it was Toro Rosso who made it work. Vettel took an early lead, when conditions were less wet, and as it began to rain once more, no one could beat it. The Italian squad start their home race from their first pole position.
That’s it for today, join me again tomorrow with all the info from what’s bound to be an incredible race.
Welcome to F1 Minute, today is the 6th September 2008.
Hamilton has put McLaren on pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix tomorrow, posting a time three tenths of a second faster than second place Felipe Massa. Kovalainen aimed for the front row as well, but missed, settling behind the Ferrari, with Raikkonen in turn behind him.
For the second race in a row, both Toro Rosso drivers made it into the third session of qualifying, although didn’t get any higher than 9th and 10th. For a moment it looked as though Force India might be able to get into Q2, as Sutil was running in 14th, but inevitably he was pushed down the order. Both Force Indias and Hondas start at the back of the grid, plus Nakajima who had a very poor showing.
Heidfeld had a good day though, qualifying 5th well ahead of Kubica in 8th, trying to ease some of the pressure on him from BMW.
There was no rain to speak of, and no major incidents, and it looks as though tomorrow may be a dry day as well.
That’s it for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
It looked as though we might have had a strange couple of front rows as qualifying kicked off in Valencia today. Kubica led Free Practice 3 in the morning, adding to the list of drivers who are showing well around this new circuit. In qualifying, Vettel led two of the three sessions, and both Toro Rosso cars got into the final qualifying shoot out.
Unfortunately we lost both Honda and both Force India drivers plus Coulthard in the first session, and with the Toro Rosso’s scraping through to Q3 we also saw some big names knocked out in the second. Alonso finished the day in 12th.
However, it was business as usual for the Ferrari and McLaren boys. Hamilton posted a provisional pole, only to be knocked down by Massa. Kubica slipped into third and Raikkonen finished up fourth.
The pole position has actually been moved this morning from it’s orginal position on the left hand side of the grid to the right, after Charlie Whiting observed the practice sessions and decided that was the more favourable line to take.
That’s it for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
It’s a very slow news day today, but we have a few thoughts ahead of Valencia. Jenson Button has been preparing for the new circuit, and says the simulator at the factory has been a real help in this matter, although it doesn’t give you a total feeling of what the car will be like. It is useful for getting the braking distances and learning the corners.
Ross Brawn has also been taking a look at the new track, and says they have been getting some information from some of the previous races that have already taken place. He says that whilst the circuit is compared to Monaco, it will not require as much downforce as that street circuit because it is not quite as twisty.
Finally, BMW have released their preview quotes and are looking forward to the weekend because the team has some close ties with Valencia. They roll out their new F1 car there usually, and Heidfeld says: “The first few metres in a brand-new car are always a very special experience.”
That’s it for today, let’s hope there’s more news for tomorrow’s F1 Minute.
It’s looking likely that Toyota’s line up for next year will still feature both Trulli and Glock, although no official announcement has been made yet. President of Toyota Motorsport John Howett has hinted at such a lineup, well, he’s basically confirmed it: “As we stand here today, we intend to keep both drivers. And I don’t think that’s ever been in any doubt to be honest.”
Whilst we’re on the subject of Toyota, they hosted a meeting at their motorhome in Hungary, for representatives of all the teams to discuss KERS. It looks like more than half of teams want to delay the introduction of the new technology for a year. Four teams voted against the delay, including BMW, Honda and Williams. These are all teams who have invested heavily in the new systems already.
BMW Team Principal, Mario Theissen, says: “There were three aspects discussed in the meeting - two of them openly, which is safety and financial implications. And the other one, underlying the picture, is competitiveness…“
That’s it for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
Some snippets of news following the race yesterday: Bridgestone haven’t confirmed it yet, but believe that Hamilton’s puncture was caused by debris in the sidewall. The tyre is being flown to Japan for further investigation. The Hungarian GP has been given a five year extension. It was already contracted until 2011 and will now run to 2016.
In other news, Autosport.com is reporting that the drivers will test out a new audio warning system in their cars, as part of the overhaul of the safety car rules. The idea is that anything on the dashboard is just going to add more distraction for the drivers, so some kind of signal over the team radio may be more effective.
Finally, in the rumour mill, the speculation has increased that Alonso will join Honda in 2009 for a one-year deal before moving on to Ferrari. It’s believed that Honda are willing to offer the short term contract in return for a big name signing.
That’s it for today, join me again tomorrow for another F1 Minute.