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.
Today is the 17th September and this is F1 Minute.
BMW climbed to the top of the timesheets for the second day at Jerez, where this time eight teams were in action, instead of just the three we saw yesterday. Klien was at the wheel, and he finished ahead of Vettel. The German was driving for Red Bull, as a pre-cursor to him joining them for next season. To add to the confusion, normal Red Bull test driver Sebastian Buemi was third fastest of the day, but with a Toro Rosso under him. He was under evaluation for a possible race drive in 2009.
Also today, McLaren were testing out their KERS setup for the first time, and Williams hit the track with their 2009 spec rear wing – a much narrower and higher evolution of this year’s wing. Nakajiama finished the day last and 2 seconds off the pace of his nearest rival.
Ferrari, meanwhile, were at their own private test with Badoer in the hotseat, whilst Force India have not joined the testing fun yet.
That wraps up everything 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.
We’ve seen some teams struggle with KERS already this year, notably BMW, but now Ferrari say they too don’t think it will be ready in time for the 2009 season. Engine Technical Director Gilles Simon says: “The Kinetic Energy Recovery System is a complex subject, which finds us dealing with a lot of new and complicated areas, while ensuring that we still devote all necessary efforts into continuing our usual development programme on the current year car.” He said that all the teams will struggle to get the technology ready, and that not everyone will benefit in the same way.
Whilst we’re on the subject of new regulations, BMW director Mario Theissen says that even longer-life engines are the way to go. He says changing the regulations drives costs up, but under the current freeze, he thinks teams could get away with three-race engines, if speeds were reduced. I get the feeling any moves to deliberately make things slower won’t be popular, but let me know what you think at F1 Minute.com.
Today BMW released the findings of their investigation into the incident that saw one of the mechanics receive an electric shock. At the Jerez test last month, the mechanic was thrown to the ground and later taken to hospital, although had no injuries. BMW have thoroughly looked into what happened, and said that although the shock was painful, none of the team were in any immediate danger.
If you can follow this, they say: “The mechanic suffered an electric shock after touching the sidepod and steering wheel of the car. There was a high frequency AC voltage between these contact points, the cause of which has been traced back to the KERS control unit and a sporadic capacitive coupling from the high-voltage network to the 12-volt network.”
The findings have been submitted to the FIA, and BMW will also make them available to the other teams, so that similar incidents, and some other problems picked up during the investigation, won’t happen again.
That’s it for today, please join me again tomorrow for another 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.
More Max Mosley news today, he has been talking a lot. Firstly, he has reiterated the fact that he’s not going to be attempting another term as FIA president. When his run is over in October 2009, that’s it. Until then, Mosley says he will be concentrating on making F1 cheaper for teams, and greener for the environment. He also wants the Concorde Agreement sorted before the end of this year.
Here’s a quote regarding the cost issue: “At the moment, if you’re an independent team like Toro Rosso or Force India, you can’t run at a profit – you depend on a billionaire to subsidise you. And there just aren’t enough billionaires around to subsidise.”
Mosley also discusses the problems that the new KERS technology has been facing, and says that fears about the new technology are being overstated. He said the electric shock received by a BMW mechanic was “surprising”.
Finally, Mosley mentioned that he believes his News of the World scandal emerged because he was setup by someone trying to force him to resign.
That’s all for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
As the weekends are scarce for important, headline grabbing news, I thought it would be good to look at two more reactions to the KERS problems we’ve seen recently.
BMW and Red Bull have both had the most public issues with the technology, but Heidfeld believes that it will all be okay in time. “KERS is very new. I think we are one of the first to use it on track. Everyone knows what happened and everybody tried everything in advance to be safe, but when you introduce new technologies these things can happen. I am quite confident for the future that it can be made safe.”
Meanwhile, Coulthard has said in his latest column for the ITV-F1 site that there was always bound to be teething problems. “I know there are working groups looking at how to manage and overcome these issues, so hopefully a satisfactory solution will be found, but the timescale is certainly pretty tight to be ready for the start of next season.” He also said that when he consults for Red Bull next year, he’ll be wearing a full rubber body suit just to be on the safe side.
That’s all for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
Well, the result is in, and Max Mosley has won his court case against the News of the World. The High Court decided that Mosley’s privacy was invaded, and he deserved a £60,000 settlement in damages. Mosley has said he is delighted with the result and the money will go to the FIA Foundation.
Now, in real F1 news, Webber topped the timesheets in Jerez today, ahead of Piquet for Renault and Raikkonen in the Ferrari. Piquet did manage to bring out a red flag after hitting the wall, and de la Rosa, Glock and Barrichello also saw red flags. Glock was returning to action today after his accident and thankfully didn’t crash, but simply stopped out on track.
Also, we don’t appear to have had any KERS related incidents today, but fears about the safety of it continue. Webber has said that he doesn’t want to look into the technology too much as it makes him nervous, and the drivers are happy to let the engineers sort it out. From his position within the GPDA, he said they won’t be getting involved just yet.
That’s all for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
This is F1 minute and today is the 22nd July 2008.
All ten teams turned up in Jerez for the first day of testing this morning, and by the afternoon, Vettel was top of the leaderboard. He beat Paffett in the McLaren and Badoer in the Ferrari. The only other racing driver out there was Trulli who finished 7th. The day was not without it’s mishaps though.
BMW were testing out their new KERS, but when a mechanic touched the car, he received an electric shock. He fell to the ground, and later went to the medical centre but was unharmed. BMW were understandably cautious, and Klien didn’t complete any timed laps in the car. The team have also now decided to halt testing the system for now.
Elsewhere today, Toyota have confirmed that Glock will be back in action on Thursday, and Glock himself says: “It was a really hard impact and my back hurt immediately after I got out of the car but now it is fine. Actually, it looked worse on TV than it really was.”
That’s all for today, please join me again tomorrow for another F1 Minute.