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.
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.
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.
It’s the 15th September 2008, and you’re listening to F1 Minute.
Just a day after winning their maiden victory in Italy, Toro Rosso have come back to earth with a bump. Technical Director Giorgio Ascanelli admits they know it will be difficult to achieve a second win, and they don’t expect to do so, but he says that this will have been a boost to the team no matter what. However, Sebastien Bourdais reveals that he found it hard to celebrate with the team, as he was ruing what could have been if he had not stalled on the grid. “It’s very difficult to enjoy it with the team in these conditions. I’m very happy for them but my race was a non-event.”
Meanwhile, Stefano Domenicali has said he doesn’t doubt that Raikkonen will support Massa, without directly referencing the fact that Kimi will be playing number two driver. “I’ve always said that our main interest is the team. Of course, that’s the most important thing and the drivers know it.” Domenicali also said the team will be looking at how the car works with the tyres in cooler temperatures, as that has been one of the main problems so far this year.
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.
Today is the 10th September 2008 and this is F1 Minute.
Raikkonen has admitted that his championship campaign isn’t looking very bright at the moment, but that he won’t stop fighting until he’s actually out of it. The Finn hasn’t won a race since the Spanish Grand Prix, and now trails three drivers in the championship, but remains optimistic. He says: “My position is not ideal but that doesn’t mean I’ll give up. I will fight until the very end.” Raikkonen also says it would be good to get a win this weekend, in front of the team’s home crowd.
Elsewhere today, Gerhard Berger has admitted that the jury is still out on whether Bourdais will retain his seat for 2009. The Toro Rosso boss says that he is still watching Bourdais closely, but his recent improved form has been good. Berger says that the driver isn’t really lacking in speed, as recent outings have shown, but that he just doesn’t have the confidence yet. The team also confirmed that they have extended the deal with Ferrari to supply engines, although we don’t know how long for.
That’s it for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
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.