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.
Massa has scored pole position for the very first F1 night race at Singapore, beating Lewis Hamilton by six tenths of a second. Hamilton pulled out an impressive lap at the end of qualifying, especially considering the fact that he almost didn’t make it through to Q3. His first lap in the second session went wrong, and he had to abort it, and his second lap saw him tenth. Once again, he had to abort the third, and thankfully for him no one managed to push him out. Alonso finished 15th in that session, as he had to retire his car moments after hitting the track.
In team mate comparisons, Vettel pulled out an impressive 7th to Bourdais’ 17th, and Button finished in 12th to Barrichello’s 18th. Fisichella finished last having only managed to complete two laps due to a gearbox problem from Free Practice 3.
We also learned today that Kovalainen is using up his free engine joker for this race, and will therefore start with a fresh motor.
That’s it for today, please join me again tomorrow for 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.
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.
From an unexpected pole position to a superb victory, Sebastian Vettel has become the youngest ever F1 race winner by taking his maiden win in Italy.
The race got underway with a safety car start due to the weather conditions, but it was only a couple of laps before racing began proper. Vettel pulled out an early lead, whilst team mate Bourdais was a lap down having stalled on the grid.
The first few laps were amazingly clean, with very few incidents. In fact, the race itself only saw one retiree in the form of Fisichella. He collided with Coulthard during an overtaking manouvre that dislodged his front wing. The wing went under the car and the Force India headed straight into the tyres.
Hamilton one-stopped his way up the field, but made another bad tyre decision by taking on extreme wets when the rest of the field had inters. He had to pit an extra time, but finished a respectable 7th, just behind Massa. Raikkonen woke up towards the end of the race and finished 9th.
Congratulations to Vettel, and the other podium finishers Kovalainen and Kubica. 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.
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.
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.
It was just yesterday that I told you about BMW’s desire for Nick Heidfeld to start getting some better results, and the German driver has made a good start. He topped the timesheets for Day 2 at the Monza test, pipping Rosberg in the Williams by just two tenths of a second.
Kovalainen was third ahead of Vettel and then Massa, who caused the one red flag throughout the day, having a quick trip into the gravel.
Whilst we’re on the subject of Ferrari, team principal Stefano Domenicali has been talking about the dynamic within the team. Whilst they’re not ready to put their full support behind just one driver yet, Domenicali is quoted as saying that Raikkonen is more than happy to support Massa if it should fall that way. He also said he has faith that Raikkonen can pick up his game once more, it’s just a matter of the team giving him a car that he likes.
And talking of the championship, McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh believes a big part of the title this year will come down to the uncontrollable factor of the weather.
That’s it for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.