Today is the 5th October 2008, and this is F1 Minute.
Half of Toro Rosso has been up for sale for a while now, and we haven’t heard of any buyers. Now it looks like Dietrich Mateschitz may want to keep his 50% stake in the team, after some good results. Of course, we could be reading too much into the quote, which simply says: “We will see if an interested buyer shows up, but it might happen that we do not want to sell at all any more. Right now, I would say nothing is fixed yet.” Mateschitz is mainly worried about the customer car regulations, so he wants to wait and see what happens with that.
Meanwhile, the Red Bull boss has also admitted that several teams are interested in Sebastian Vettel, but they want to build a good enough car to keep him at the team and Dietrich admits they would be disappointed if he wanted to leave. Vettel has also got into the good books of Bernie Ecclestone who predicts the youngster will win a championship one day. He says: “Sebastian is young, smart and friendly so he is the ideal example for other young drivers who one day hope to join the F1 circus.”
That’s it for today, please join me again tomorrow for another F1 Minute.
Williams have confirmed their driver lineup for next season and it remains unchanged. We already knew that Rosberg would be driving for them in 2009, but now Nakajima has been signed up for next year as well. Frank Williams believes it is good to be consistent with the two drivers, plus Nico Hulkenberg as tester, and says: “Nico Rosberg continues to be one of the most capable drivers in the sport. Kazuki is getting stronger all the time and has more to offer and Nico Hulkenberg is developing well.”
Also today, Flavio Briatore has apparently said he will be taking a different role at Renault next year, and bringing a team director on board to run the day-to-day business. Briatore has said he already has someone in mind.
Finally, Red Bull believe they have found what caused Webber’s gearbox to malfunction in Singapore. They’ve narrowed it down to an electrical surge from the tramlines on the street circuit. What are the chances?
That’s it for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
It’s the 24th September, and you’re listening to F1 Minute.
Although Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz has already expressed his desire to sell sister team Toro Rosso before the end of 2009, co-owner Gerhard Berger wants more investment into his team. He believes Toro Rosso’s first win should inspire more support to get better results.
As well as that, customer cars are being outlawed after next season, and Berger knows they will need to increase the infrastructure. “If we need to build the entire car, it’s clear that to do that I can’t wait until 2010, I will have to start before then, and I will need more people. From the 160 staff we are now, to build and produce the entire car in 2010 we’ll need to grow to 230 people.”
Elsewhere today, Nakajima has spoken about Bridgestone’s new one-size fits all wet weather tyre, as he tested it at Jerez last week. He concludes that it was way too slippery, like driving on an ice rink: “It is the first generation one and I think we need to do a lot of work there.”
That’s it for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
Vettel led the way at testing in Jerez today, still in the Red Bull car. He posted the fastest time despite only managing 37 laps due to an engine change. BMW were second, and Renault third. There was some rain in the middle of the day, which disrupted quite a few of the team’s programmes.
Someone in particular who was affected by the weather, was Takuma Sato who returned to Formula 1 for a test with Toro Rosso. He completed just under 50 laps and was 6th out of 8 runners. Afterwards, he said: “Although I couldn’t complete the day due to the weather conditions, I really enjoyed driving the STR3. I would like to say a big thank you to Red Bull and to the team for giving me this great opportunity.” What he doesn’t say is: Please give me a race seat next year.
Elsewhere today, Ron Dennis has issued some fighting talk, saying that McLaren are confident to do well at every circuit left on the calendar this year, and he feels they’re closing in on the constructor’s title at every stage.
That’s it for today, please join me again tomorrow for 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.
Free Practice got underway in Monza today, with Sutil leading the first session, and Raikkonen the second. Yes, you head me right. Both sessions were declared wet, but FP1 saw torrential rain, that meant organisers red-flagged the session with just five minutes remaining. The Force India driver’s time was set earlier in less treacherous conditions. Man of the morning, Sutil, let himself down slightly by missing the pit entrance once the second session was over, and he had to complete an extra lap.
Also today, a couple of important announcements were made. Red Bull confirmed they are using their freebie engine on Mark Webber’s car, as both a precautionary measure, and to get him on a better engine cycle for the upcoming races. Ferrari announced that Raikkonen had extended his contract with the team until 2010, which means Alonso won’t be moving there anytime soon. And finally, the date of the Belgium penalty hearing has been set as 22nd September, just before the Singapore Grand Prix.
That’s it for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
There’s more Bridgestone news today as they’ve revealed they are looking at revamping the Formula 1 wet weather tyres. At the moment, there are two types, extreme wet and intermediate, and Bridgestone want to reduce this to just one. They’ve done it successfully in GP2, and although the F1 regulations don’t allow it yet, Bridgestone are planning to try out their new compound at the next wet test.
Talking of testing, Red Bull have confirmed that Sebastian Vettel will be hopping into their car at Jerez this month – the first time since he was signed up for 2009. It will be for two days to give him a taster of the team and the machinery he will be running with next season.
Finally today, Nick Heidfeld has said he is perfectly aware of the pressure on him to retain his seat at BMW, but says he puts the pressure on himself as well: “It is pretty clear that if one car finishes on the podium and I finish ninth then nobody needs to tell me anything.”
That’s it for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
Welcome to F1 Minute, it’s the 2nd September 2008.
Red Bull haven’t exactly been on top form lately, and boss Christian Horner says that they’ve established the root of the problem. “Tyres are proving to be the biggest factor at the moment. Over the past couple of months, Toyota has looked very strong tyre wise in the higher temperatures. It’s not a case of our rivals suddenly ‘bolting on’ more performance. It’s down to tyre useage and they have handled that better than us. We have understood why this happened and I feel we can get on top of this situation and return to our earlier form for the final third of the season, hopefully starting this weekend in Spa.”
Elsewhere, Raikkonen has finally admitted that he needs a good result in Belgium, to keep his championship hopes alive, but says that Spa is one of his favourite races. About negative stories in the press, he says: “These things happen. It wasn’t for the first time and it might not have been the last in my career. You just have to know how to cope with these situations.”
That’s it for today, please join me again tomorrow for another F1 Minute.
Today is the 1st September 2008 and you’re listening to F1 Minute.
It seems to be the day for talking about departures, as it’s been announced the team manager of Toyota, Richard Cregan, will be leaving at the end of November. Cregan has been with the team for 24 years, working his way up to manager in 2004. It appears he will be taking a new job within Formula 1, although no details have been released, and he will be replaced from within Toyota.
Also today, Gerhard Berger has spoken of Vettel leaving the team for Red Bull next year and says that he will be sorely missed. He said: “We had been really struggling with Scott Speed and Tonio Liuzzi last year, but he has proved what the team is able to do and has done it in a very nice way, with us, with the engineers, with everybody. That has pushed us such an immense step forward - it is really a pity to lose him.” Berger also mentioned the fact that Red Bull give them so much, that it’s nice to be able to give something back.
That’s it for today, I’ll be back again tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
Today is the 19th August 2008, and you’re listening to F1 Minute.
We’ve heard from Red Bull recently that they are aiming to finish fourth in the constructor’s championship this year, but now it appears they’re not the only ones with such an ambition. After a couple of strong race finishes, Renault have said that fourth is the position they have their eye on as well. Director of Engineering Pat Symonds said: “So the performance in Hungary reinforces the belief that we are moving in the right direction and gives me confidence that we can finish fourth in the championship and end the season with the third fastest car.” Not quite sure of his maths there, but it sounds good to me.
Still with Renault, Piquet is looking to qualify well in Valencia and finish with a good points haul. He reckons that he’s had to learn a lot of new tracks this year, but as everyone else is in the same boat at this circuit, it will level the playing field somewhat.
And away from Renault, just a note that Glock says he is still smiling after his second place finish in Hungary. Three weeks later.
That’s it for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.