The action kicked off in Japan today, with Hamilton leading Free Practice 1. It was bright and sunny, a vast difference to the state of the track this time last year. There were barely any incidents, bar a few wide corners, and we spent most of the session trying to distinguish between the soft and hard tyres with the lovely green stripes.
Free Practice 2 saw much more action, although still few incidents, and several drivers led the timesheets at one stage or another. Timo Glock ended the day as the fastest man, giving Toyota a much needed boost at their home race weekend. Alonso was close behind in second, whilst early pace-setter Hamilton settled for third.
Elsewhere, the Montreal government have said they will meet with Bernie Ecclestone to try and get the Canadian Grand Prix reinstated. Mayor Gerald Tremblay said he wants to understand the economic state of the race first, as the disagreement with Bernie is worth between $10 and $20 million.
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.
You’re listening to F1 Minute and today is the 16th August 2008.
If you happen to be anywhere near Rotterdam this weekend, you might be lucky enough to catch sight of an F1 car on the streets. Toyota, Force India and Renault have all taken a break from their Valencian preparation to head to the Netherlands for the Bavaria City Racing festival.
Trulli will be giving the fans a demonstration in his Toyota, whilst Fisichella, Sutil and Renault test driver Yamamoto all take their respective cars on a trip through the streets as well. With team mate Trulli in the Netherlands, Glock has travelled to California to take part in some Historic Automobile Races at Laguna Seca. Nice work if you can get it.
Meanwhile, the F1 news doesn’t stop. Rumour has it that Nelson Piquet is having to wait until September this year before finding out whether he has a race drive for 2009 or not. The Renault driver is one in a long line of people having to wait until Alonso makes his move for next season, before finding out his own future.
That’s it for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with 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.
Heikki Kovalainen put McLaren on top in Jerez for the final day, leading Bourdais in the Toro Rosso, and David Coulthard in the Red Bull. McLaren were running brand new nose wings, similar to Honda, although more elegant, but notably, Kovalainen’s fastest time was set without them. There were three red flags during the day, one from Heidfeld, and two from Kobayashi in the Toyota. He started the day by running into the gravel, and ended it by stopping out on track.
Elsewhere, Max Mosley has launched a new lawsuit against the News of the World. After successfully winning his case for invasion of privacy, he is now suing them for libel, after saying he was lying about the Nazi element of what went on. He is also suing German newspaper Bild. Quite a few top names have come out and said that whilst Mosley has successfully won his court case, he should now step down. They include Jackie Stewart, Eddie Jordan, Paul Stoddart and Stirling Moss.
That’s all for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
The second day of testing in Jerez drew to a close today with Vettel still leading the way. Toro Rosso were testing out slick tyres and posted the fastest time ahead of de la Rosa in the McLaren and Raikkonen in the Ferrari – who was on grooved tyres. There was just one red flag caused by Alex Wurz for Honda, as he stopped on track with what appeared to be an engine problem.
Following yesterday’s incident where a BMW mechanic suffered an electric shock from a car with KERS installed, we’ve had a few updates. The mechanic was released from the medical centre with just a minor injury to his arm, but was later taken to hospital suffering dizzy spells and kept overnight for observation. He was released today. Toyota team president John Howett has spoken out, saying he doesn’t believe that KERS will be ready in time for introduction as soon as 2009.
It looks like the F1 Working Group will be discussing the issues at their next meeting.
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.
You’re listening to F1 Minute for the 21st July 2008.
Following his heavy crash at Hockenheim, yesterday, Timo Glock stayed in hospital overnight for observation but was released today. He is fine, and returns now to rest up ahead of the test at Jerez this week. Toyota general manager Pascal Vasselon has spoken to Timo: “We have already talked to him on the phone. It may not be possible, but he is already thinking that he wants to drive in the test at Jerez. So he is fine.” At the moment, the cause of the crash is still unknown.
Also, following the race yesterday, the stewards announced that Fisichella had been given a 25 second penalty, due to unlapping himself from behind the safety car when he technically wasn’t allowed to. This puts the Force India down from 14th place to 16th.
Finally, after back to back wins from Hamilton, ex-champion Niki Lauda has spoken out, and changed his mind about the Brit: “It was a great race from him in Germany and if If he continues like this, he will be unbeatable.”
That’s it for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
Having led all but one of the session this weekend, it’s no surprise that Hamilton took a dominant win at Hockenheim today. It wasn’t all plain sailing, though, as a safety car brought out by Glock put a bit of a spanner in the works. The Toyota spun on the exit of the last corner and crashed into a concrete wall backwards. Glock climbed out of the car, and was taken to the medical centre and then on to hospital. He appears to be okay, but there’s no official word just yet.
The safety car reduced Hamilton’s lead to nothing, and McLaren decided not to pit the race leader until after the safety car had gone. That meant Hamilton’s final scheduled stop saw him return behind his teammate, Massa, and Piquet. The Renault had been one stopping, and came in just before the safety car appeared. A nice bit of luck and some strong driving from the rookie.
Hamilton made short work of Kovalainen, Massa almost handed the place to the McLaren, and Piquet couldn’t put up much of a fight. A great race, and a fascinating podium. The championship remains the same as post-Silverstone, although the points are more spread out now.
That’s all for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.