Alvin's Formula One Blog

HELLO AGAIN

2011-11-16T10:05:00.002+08:00

Been a long time since I posted here, just didn't have the time or the energy. Recently, received an offer for new articles to be posted by a third party. Hopefully we''l have some new and fresh articles coming soon to keep the blog alive.

Abu Dhabi was quite a good race. Enjoyed Lewis winning again, although it was at the expense of Vettel. At this point I don't really care as Vettel has dominated too much. It's time for a change.

Looking forward to Brazil next, though I am thinking whether to catch it live or on repeat. it will be 1am here when the race starts and it's on a Monday morning. Not a good combo I know.

Whatever it is, salute F1 and lets hope it will be a great race to end the season!

BRAZIL GP 2010

2010-11-09T10:21:00.004+08:00

Didn't I say it would be bonkers? It was a great race even if a little boring in the middle but not without lots of overtaking. Hulkenberg failed to live up to some bloated expectations, we were expecting him to be overtaken easily at the start but he managed to hold back Alonso for a while. What was worse (or better), he managed to hold back Lewis for a lot of laps. Lewis had to wait for the pitstops just to get ahead.

Which says something about the McLaren. It just can't match the Red Bulls and Ferrari on any pace anywhere now. Seems like bye bye championship for Lewis. The constructors has been lost to Red Bull already. Congrats to Red Bull by the way.

So now we look forward to a battle royale at the season finale in Abu Dhabi this weekend. A lot can happen and it will be interesting to see how Vettel and Webber handle this race. It is still amazing to see Alonso's signle minded approach and his self belief and confidence. Incredible. If he wins the WDC this year I salute him.

Can't wait for Sunday.

INTERLAGOS 2010

2010-11-04T06:05:00.003+08:00

The penultimate race of a bonkers season is upon us this weekend. And what a season with ups and downs for everybody and changes of leads for both championships occurring almost at every other race.

Right now, the championship is as tight as it can get with 4 drivers reasonably able to snatch the championship at any given moment. Alonso, Webber, Hamilton and Vettel - Button is out as it would be impossible to imagine the 4 others having a DNF this race. Vettel is not looking too either and could be out after this race with 25 point deficit to the top plus his ability to self destruct especially under pressure.

I'd put my money on either Alonso or Webber but my personal preference would be Hamilton. I'm not sure how he's gonna do it but McLaren have to get their act together from this race onwards and Hamilton will for sure be wringing that car's neck to the podium.

On top of all that, Brazil with it's unique layout and weather will surely present one of the most exciting races on the calendar. Can't wait for Sunday.

2011 F1 CALENDAR CONFIRMED

2010-11-04T05:32:00.002+08:00

The FIA today finally confirmed the 2011 Formula 1 calendar and it's looking good with 20 races especially the new race in India. I'm looking forward to hosting more people at our home race here in Sepang and being able to bring people also to races in Singapore, Abu Dhabi and India via our new enterprise - P1 Motorsports Hospitality (link here).


2011 Formula 1 calendar
13/03  Bahrain
27/03  Australia
10/04  Malaysia
17/04  China*
08/05  Turkey
22/05  Spain
29/05  Monaco
12/06  Canada
26/06  Europe
10/07  Great Britain
24/07  Germany
31/07  Hungary
28/08  Belgium
11/09  Italy
25/09  Singapore
09/10  Japan
16/10  Korea
30/10  India*
13/11  Abu Dhabi
27/11  Brazil

*Subject to the homologation of the circuit.

NEXT RACE - SUZUKA

2010-10-07T10:11:00.004+08:00

The next race in this ever exciting season will be held at Suzuka, Japan this weekend. Suzuka is another of those classic circuits that everyone loves. Everybody likes it because it hasn't been touched by Tilke and it was designed in the 70s. It is very demanding and fun to drive, even on a simulator. This race is important because it will decide the balance of power until the end of the season.

Another reason it could be extra exciting is because it might rain. Both races in Japan, either at Suzuka or Fuji has always had the threat of rain and cold weather. But Suzuka this year is predicted to rain on Saturday but not on Sunday, therefore potentially disrupting the usual suspects up front.

The final sprint to the championshiop this year is still between 5 drivers and 3 teams, sadly for Massa though. Red Bull and Ferrari stand as favorites up front with McLaren trailing in 3rd, although they will never admit to that. I'm also hoping that is not the case and hoping that they bring some good upgrades there. Also, I hope that those upgrades have a chance to work on track provided Hamilton doesn't crash his car again.

I would like to take this opportunity to praise Alonso (God forbid!). Even though I never liked him, I always knew he was a good driver all round. But this year he has proven something else. He has shown how determination and absolute self belief have transformed his chances of becoming world champion again.

At the middle of the season, a lot of people have written him and Ferrari off after a series of disastrous races and bad luck. But after he announced that he will win the title this year and followed it up with the same message, even to his team that they will win the titles this year, his fortunes has changed.

Ferrari are on a charge with Alonso winning twice since his announcement to the world. Their car now looks strong on any track and Alonso is 2nd in the championship, just 11 points adrift. That was incredible. Even though I don't want to admit it, he looks strong to win the title this year.

But then again, let the talking be done on the track. We'll have to wait and see how it goes. may the best man win.

AMMENDED GRID POSITIONS FOR SPA

2010-08-29T04:36:00.000+08:00

The FIA has published a provisional grid for Sunday's race following the penalties dished out to Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg, Timo Glock and Sebastien Buemi after qualifying.

Pos Driver Team

 1. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault
2. Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes
3. Robert Kubica         Renault
4. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault
5. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes
6. Felipe Massa          Ferrari
7. Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth
8. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes
9. Nico Hulkenberg       Williams-Cosworth
10. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari
11. Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari
12. Vitantonio Liuzzi     Force India-Mercedes
13. Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth
14. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              *
15. Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Cosworth
16. Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari    **
17. Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari
18. Bruno Senna           HRT-Cosworth
19. Sakon Yamamoto        HRT-Cosworth
20. Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth       ***
21. Michael Schumacher    Mercedes              ****
22. Pedro de la Rosa      Sauber-Ferrari
23. Lucas di Grassi       Virgin-Cosworth
24. Vitaly Petrov         Renault

*   Five-place penalty for gearbox change
**  Three-place penalty for impeding Rosberg
*** Five-place penalty for impeding Yamamoto
*** 10-place penalty for Barrichello incident in Hungary

BELGIAN GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING

2010-08-29T02:49:00.003+08:00

Wow, it has been months since I wrote. I can't believe how busy I've been. And the 3 week break didn't help either. Finally, it is over and we are back in business. The first race after the break couldn't be at a better track than Spa-Francorchamps.

And the first qualifying session after such a long break couldn't get any better as Spa served up an intense qualifying which looked like a race from Q1. This was of course courtesy of the unpredictable weather in the micro-climate of the Ardennes.

Everybody was saying how strong Ferrari would be, how tough it would be for Red Bull and how much of an advantage McLaren have with their f-duct on the long straights of Spa. In the end, it turned out pretty mixed.

Q1 was chaos as it rained a bit and a couple of spins plus the crash from Petrov which caused a red flag made sure of that. After the session was restarted, it started to rain so everybody was in rush to set a banker lap as they knew how unpredictable Spa can be. This made the qualifying seemed like a race with drivers jostling for positions.

Overall, Ferrari were not so competitive and Alonso left it too late in Q3 when the weather turned again. Massa was mostly uninspiring and both of them couldn't get any higher than 6th.

McLaren were on fire. Lewis and Button at one point served up purples on every sector, one after the other to take both top positions. Unfortunately, in Q3 Button made some mistakes and probably his balance went off, so he couldn't make it higher than 5th. Lewis fared better even though he had some off moments and finished P2. Actually he could have gotten pole because he was just .085 off Webber's time.

Red Bull were also not as inspiring especially Vettel. Webber somehow is on fire in a controlled way and managed to snag pole in the dying seconds of Q3. With their car passing the FIA tests, it's hard to see what they're doing right and whether anybody can stop them from winning again tomorrow.

The best of the rest was Renault with Kubica almost getting P2 if not for the incredible lap from Lewis. The updates especially the f-duct seems to work well and I wouldn't discount the thought of Kubica being on the podium tomorrow. Petrov killed his chances of anything tomorrow after his first Q1 lap crash. What a waste.

Mercedes was uninspiring, again with both cars being out of Q3 and having to serve their separate penalties. Since they're in damage limitation mode and defending from Renault, and Renault in good form now, their place in the championship is not guaranteed.

Lotus surprised again with Kovalainnen making it into Q2 and Trulli just but after some penalties were applied, it seems now that both cars are higher up the grid. with changeable weather conditions, anything can happen for that coveted 10th place in the championship.

Other than that, both Saubers crashed out - what a disappointment. Other teams were not worth talking about. Now, it's just a matter of the weather tomorrow and how the run to the first corner pans out plus the chase up Eau Rouge. Can't wait.

GERMAN GP 2010 REVIEW

2010-07-26T04:13:00.003+08:00

It was supposed to be a great race, with Formula 1 not returning to Hockenheim for the last 2 years. The track looked great and is great to drive as well. The championship is shaping up nicely with Red Bull the strong car at every track but McLaren able to reel them in at every opportunity and Ferrari trying to make a comeback.

The last 2 races gave a suspicion that Ferrari got something right but didn't manage to show the potential because of their own mistakes. This race was where they were supposed to show their upgrades had worked. It showed in free practices and Qualifying. The raw pace of the Ferrari was beginning to match Red Bull and leave McLaren in the dust.

That set up a nice race where anything can happen and raw pace would be tested to the fullest. Ferrari had the chance to show their comeback strength and claim a win or a 1-2 in glorious fashion. But instead they chose to show us how low they would go just to entertain someone's ego.

The team orders they issued, which was subsequently proven because they did not appeal the penalty that was given, ruined an otherwise great race. After all that happened, Ferrari were just fined but the results still stand, although they were referred to WMSC for further action. We'll see what else comes out of this.

Other than that, what else is there to say. The race was ruined by Ferrari and that was it. Again, this kind of thing just wastes my 2 hours and all the adrenalin that I invested in the sport. I hope Ferrari think carefully next race in Hungary before they do another stupid thing like this.

SOUR GRAPES?

2010-06-29T20:48:00.003+08:00

It seems the controversy over the Valencia race has not died down. How can it be extinguished with comments coming out Maranello and Alonso that they were cheated, the race was manipulated and the sort. Alonso even said that a bottle thrown onto the track was the response from angry fans, angry at the cheating done by Lewis Hamilton.

There have been loads of commentary and discussions and comments by everybody. The funniest thing so far was that Ferrari in trying to denounce the FIA and McLaren and Lewis Hamilton, has even used comments from their fans on their forums as "proof". Hahahahahahahahaaa..

As for Alonso, I think he still has 2007 stuck in his mind. He needs to grow up and move on. Comments from forumers make sense such as this one:

If the race wasn’t ‘manipulated’, how about a penalty (race ban?) for Alonso bringing the sport into disrepute? This is standard procedure in any sport.
I also think his comments regarding the ‘justified anger’ of the fans at Valencia and his allegation that the bottle was thrown onto the track as part of this rage a very close to incitement. His outbursts may be amusing, but they’ve stirred up a lot of anger and vitriol when to most external analysis this anger results from his own frustration at bad luck and the failure of his team to produce a car as good as he wants. - David BR

At the end of the day, Alonso and Ferrari just couldn't take it that after all the upgrades they put into the car for Valencia, they couldn't do better because of bad luck. That's all it is, bad luck. The timing of the accident, the safety car, the positions of the cars on track and what they were doing all conspired against Ferrari. Just accept that.

It was to Hamilton’s benefit that the stewards took so long to decide, that Kobayashi held Button up so much, and that Valencia’s pit lane configuration means drivers lose little time going through it. On another day this penalty could just as easily have dropped him out of the points.

Again, it was just the situation. Ferrari really need to look at themselves since nobody else on the paddock agrees with them, there must something wrong with their rants. It's time to move on.

VALENCIA GP 2010

2010-06-28T19:57:00.005+08:00

First of all, apologies for not writing as much as I could. I'm really tied up nowadays with work and my new business venture - P1 Motorsports Hospitality. We are into bringing motorsport fans to attend their favorite F1 or MotoGP events here in Malaysia (and hopefully in other parts of the world soon) in a comfortable setting but more importantly, motorsport focused. No typical tours here. We eat, sleep and breathe motorsports.

Well, on to the Valencia GP. It was thought to be another boring featureless race even with all the new upgrades teams brought with them. And going by the performance during FP1, FP2 and FP3, it was still undecided which team had the real advantage. As it turned out, Red Bull who were written off at Valencia still had the advantage.

Red Bull secured another qualifying 1-2 with Lewis Hamilton managing to hold on to P3. The race start was really edge of your seat stuff as Hamilton overtook Webber and went straight for Vettel's jugular. Almost had him too. They touched actually and Hamilton damaged his front wing a bit.

All was quiet until lap 8 when Mark Webber ran into the back of Kovalainen, flew up into the air 360 degrees, landed on his head, bounced around and hit the barriers - at 190mph! Wow! I was speechless. But due to safety measures and technology, he just walked away. Just another day at the office.

That incident brought out the safety car which promptly caused everybody to pit, except for Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso and Massa who were all out of position. Hamilton managed to overtake the SC (intentionally or not) and Alonso and Massa got stuck there for the remainder of the lap while Vettel, Hamilton and virtually everybody pitted away.

Now, Hamilton did break the rules by overtaking the safety car and he was duly punished with a drive through but the structure of the race at that time did not cause him to lose his P2, so he was lucky. Alonso and Massa's race was ruined because they got stuck at the wrong place and the wrong time. It was unlucky and that is part of racing.

But they and Ferrari can't stop complaining. They even suggested to change the SC rules again just because of this. If it was them that benefited, I'd bet my balls they wouldn't be crying to change the rules. Sore losers! Just ridiculous the statements that Ferrari and Alonso made.

But lets not dwell on that because these people are never satisfied unless they benefit or they can cheat and get away with it, like they did at Fiorano while "filming".

In the end, congrats Vettel and McLaren. Lewis still leads into Silverstone when the new updates to the car will be available and McLaren will blow Ferrari away again.

Lastly, I have to pay tribute to Kamui Kobayashi. What a race he drove. He drove with the same set of tyres for 52 laps, running 3rd for a long time and holding back Jensen Button (who wasn't really trying anyway). Then after changing tyres, he overtook Alonso on the last lap and overtook Buemi on the last corner to snag 7 points. This guy deserves a seat in a better car.

CANADIAN GP 2010 QUALIFYING

2010-06-13T10:44:00.004+08:00

The Canadian GP is always tiring as on this side of the world, qualifying is at 1am. And the race is at midnight but it's a good thing I'm off on Monday. These few days have been great with the Canadian GP on with Le Mans at the same time and the World Cup in full swing.

But this morning after waking up at 1am, groggy and sleepy, I immediately came to my senses as the circuit Gilles Villeneuve came alive with the sounds of the glorious V8. It was an exciting and glorious qualifying session after 2 years missing from the action. The McLarens and Red Bulls were on the pace as expected with Ferrari showing some pace after the disastrous outing in Turkey. I expected them to come back as this race was using the super soft tyres.

The action was fast and furious with Lewis taking command of the circuit and taking pole off Webber on his last flying lap which was set with 8 seconds remaining on the clock. It was one of those classic poles as everybody had run out of time and him being still on the lap after the chequered flag had fallen.

Button didn't do too well as he finished P5, something to do with his tyres not getting in enough heat. He seems to have this problem of getting heat into his tyres since last year at Brawn.

The interesting part of this qualifying and the strategy for the race is that Red Bull have gone for the Prime tyres for qualifying i.e. the harder compound while everybody else has gone for the super soft. They still managed to get P2 and P3 though, just shows you the true pace of the Bulls.

It seems that they will try to overtake Lewis at the start and maintain a long lead before changing tyres later. Hopefully Lewis can keep them behind at the start and as everybody knows, Montreal likes to throw a few safety cars which should help Lewis to pit for the harder tyres. But then again, anything can happen in F1.

The rest of field didn't make such an impact. Renault faded out of view although they did better than Mercedes. Schumacher got P13 while Rosberg P10, they were both beaten by Force India. It was expected that Force India would do well with their low downforce chassis and Mercedes engine.

All in all, another great qualifying from one of the best tracks on the calendar. Really glad Montreal came back. Now, looking forward to the action tonight.

Qualifying Times

01. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.105
02. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:15.373
03. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:15.420
04. Alonso Ferrari 1:15.435
05. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.520
06. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:15.648
07. Massa Ferrari 1:15.688
08. Kubica Renault 1:15.715
09. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:15.881
10. Rosberg Mercedes 1:16.071
11. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:16.434
12. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:16.438
13. Schumacher Mercedes 1:16.492
14. Petrov Renault 1:16.844
15. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:16.928
16. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:17.029
17. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:17.384
18. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:18.019
19. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:18.237
20. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:18.698
21. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:18.941
22. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:19.484
23. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:19.675
24. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1:27.757

CANADIAN GP 2010 PREVIEW

2010-06-11T05:20:00.004+08:00

Well, the Canadian GP at Montreal is back. I'm glad it's back as Montreal is a very nice and fun circuit to drive, even though it looks simple and boring. It's very fast as it has a lot of long straights punctuated by chicanes. Plus the races here is always not processions as there's always something going on up and down the track. And it's raining there now.

The Bulls still look good for a strong performance here, as they are everywhere. But at least we can hope for a strong fight from McLaren, whose F-Duct will definitely give them a big advantage as Montreal is just full of straights. Also in their favour is the fact that the Bulls are strong in fast corners but Montreal has not much fast corners.

I'm also looking forward to Robert Kubica making some sort of upset here as he has been good at this track. Even though he had a very serious crash here in 2007, he won the race in 2008 (albeit being gifted the race win as the leader at the time retired). Here is the video from that crash, watching it again puts the Massa accident to shame.

Somebody made a 3D animation of the same crash and it is a fantastic video, showing how the crash happened in detail with highlights of the parts of the car that saved his life.

I'm looking forward to the Force Indias making an impact as they have a very good straight line speed. Adrian Sutil should be able to fight for position in the top 10 and score some good points. Not too sure about Liuzzi though but then again he has a new chassis, so maybe both cars could make in to the top 10.

As for the rest, nothing much to say. Lotus dreaming of scoring their first points ever is a bit too high an expectation. The only way is for some huge accident involving 15 cars or something to make that happen.

Anyway, looking forward to F1 action again at a great circuit although I'll be sleepy at midnight as the race airs here at that time. And with the world cup starting at the same weekend plus the Le Mans 24 hours race also on-going, it's gonna be a tiring but exciting weekend. Have a great weekend everybody.

Hamilton and Button testing out the new Mclaren MP4-12C supercar

2010-05-31T20:09:00.002+08:00

Ahh yes, the McLaren MP4-12C. What a car if there ever was one. It is the essence of Formula 1 and McLaren rolled into one tight little package. It looks the part too. If I ever had the chance to buy a supercar (and I'm sure I will in the not too distant future), this is the car i would have. And make that in that lovely orange shade please.

Here is a video of the two McLaren f1 drivers putting the MP4-12C through its paces at Goodwood. Makes me wanna cum.

Hamilton and Button testing out the new Mclaren MP4-12C supercar

TURKISH GP 2010

2010-05-31T17:45:00.003+08:00

What a race. With everybody expecting a boring race, it turned out otherwise. Quite an entertaining and edge of your seat race I must say.

The start was good and clean. Lewis lost a position to Vettel because he was on the dirty side of the grid, so did Button to Schumacher. I was worried that Button wouldn't have the balls to take back the position and would just sit behind Schumacher for 50 laps but he proved me wrong by taking back the place further down the road.

On the whole, the whole race was worth watching as there were battles up and down the order. The most interesting part was the battle between the Red Bulls and the McLarens. It seems to me that McLaren has caught up with Red Bull on race pace as the four of them were trading fastest lap times and fastest sector times all the time.

I'm happy to note that McLaren have found the pace to close to Red Bull and that their reliability is so much better. Now all they need is to do better in qualifying and to improve their pit work. Lewis could have overtaken Webber in the pits if not for a slow pitstop which put him behind Vettel. Although that didn't matter as the 2 Red Bulls clashed afterwards.

Talking about that clash, it seemed strange that Vettel seems to have run into Webber. He was faster at that point, that's why he could put his car right next to Webber's and there was a left turn coming up, so it didn't make sense for him to run into Webber. Unless, Vettel needed the space to turn left and Webber didn't give any. Webber did say that he was holding the racing line. But according to team principal Horner, it was a bit of both but ultimately both drivers lost their heads at the time.

A shame but a good result for the McLarens. Although to be fair, winning by a gift like this does take the shine away. To be honest, as fast as the McLarens were, they could not challenged the Red Bulls for the win outright. If not for the crash, Lewis would have finished P3 and he admitted as much.

"..winning today doesn't feel quite as good as it sometimes does. That's because it's a little bit different from some of my previous race victories: ideally, the racer in me wants to win by overtaking the guys in front, not by seeing them crash out in front of me. Rather than inheriting a win, it's much nicer to fight your way past your rivals and earn the win the hard way."

I so agree with him on this point. Winning the hard way is always better. You wouldn't hear such humbleness from Alonso.

HOW AN F1 STEERING WHEEL WORKS

2010-05-20T10:07:00.001+08:00

After watching the Monaco GP and seeing how Rubens Barichello threw out his steering wheel (which incidentally costs anywhere between USD20,000 to USD40,000), I was also wondering how these things work with all the controls crammed in there.

James Allen has a very good video and some explanation on this here, and here is the Youtube video explaining how it works.

SPANISH GP RACE 2010

2010-05-12T23:07:00.002+08:00

Well, there's not much to say about it. The race was not as boring as it was supposed to be with a good start. Surprising no major first turn crash too. The Red Bulls that were so invincible were split by Lewis and he stayed on Mark Webber's tail for the whole race, matching Webber for pace. Even Vettel couldn't really chase the two.

The really crappy part was that in the penultimate lap, Lewis' tyres or rims blew up and he didn't finish the race and lost a load of points. After 64 laps of incredible performance, that kind of incident really deflates your enthusiasm.

Now just looking forward to the next race in Monaco where it could be even more exciting or frustrating depending on how the weather turns out and how the 6 backmarkers spoils the qualifying.

SPANISH GP QUALIFYING 2010

2010-05-09T18:22:00.002+08:00

Again it was an electrifying session with the Red Bulls miles ahead of everybody. Sebastian Vettel was a shoe in for pole from his performances in practice, Q1 and Q2. He also did an incredible lap with an incredible time but was ultimately beaten by his teammate Webber. Webber did a 1.19.xxx to beat Vettel, a time which Vettel could not replicate earlier.

The McLarens were also up there with Lewis slotting in P3. It would seem normal but a look at the time difference to Vettel reveals a worrying trend. Lewis was almost a full second behind. The power of the Red Bulls are undeniable. Button is P5 with a slight mistake but Alonso managed to sneak in at P4. Massa meanwhile disappointed with P9. Seems since Alonso arrived at Ferrari, Massa has been relegated to the dust heap and the worst part is he's not even lifting a finger about it.

Mercedes is doing better with their new longer wheelbase car. Schumacher is at P6 while Rosberg P8. It seems that Schumacher is back with his control over the team where he has successfully ordered changes to the car to suit himself at the cost of Rosberg. Rosberg did warn us before this race that Schumi won't stay down for long. Now I see what he meant. Perhaps Rosberg has more to talk about to Barichello now.

The best of the newcomers - Lotus, has improved as they said and it shows. Although they are still about 4 seconds behind the leaders (not much change there), they have pulled away from Virgin by about 1 second, which is a great improvement. They are also closer to the midfield now and maybe they can catch them soon.

But the best of the rest goes to Kamui Kobayashi with his "burger" banzai lap that got him into Q2 and Q3 while his teammate Pedro didn't quite like the taste of burger patties. Kobayashi muscled his car with the new updates and Burger King logos into P6 a couple of times but it shows that it is not ready enough to take on the big boys in Q3 when he finished P10. But perhaps Sauber didn't want to use up tyres in that session and saved them for the race. We'll see.

Whatever it is, the race is gonna be a cracker. And if the weather predictions come true, the it will be even better. The Bulls might have some trouble then and Lewis will overhaul them and the rest of the field will be really messed up. Bring it on.

SPANISH GP 2010 PRACTICE NOTES

2010-05-08T16:58:00.003+08:00

Well, the 2 Friday practice are over and it seems that the top teams are still the top teams. McLaren controlled FP1 with Lewis Hamilton setting the fastest time. Red Bull took FP2 with Vettel setting the fastest time. But the most interesting thing is that in both free practice, Michael Schumacher took P3 ahead of Nico Rosberg.

Schumacher seems to improve with the new longer wheelbase car. He said:

"It's not about confidence, it's simply that the car goes where I want it to go and I don't have to wait too long to go to this point.
"The clear trend is there. We have improved certainly, I have more ability to work the car to my needs, that's what it is, that's what I look for. The team has reacted very good, and now we look forward to make the best out of this.
So I'm feeling a lot more confident in what the car is doing to me. Again it sort of confirmed that China, whatever glitch it was, but something didn't work out for whatever reason, and that works back to a more normal situation."

Hmm. Seems that there was something wrong with the car in China. Funny how that didn't affect Rosberg much. But now with this new car, Rosberg is affected as he finished P6 in FP1 and P7 in FP2. So it seems that Mercedes will sacrifice Rosberg to please His High-Cheating-Ness. Good luck Rosberg, I hope Rosberg will still kick Schumachers ass.

Meanwhile, Lotus who promised a 2 second improvement when they came to Spain did improve. They seem to have a 1 second advantage over Virgin and are edging closer to the middle pack. But their gap to the front of the field is still the same 4 seconds since Malaysia. Probably because the top 4 teams have found another 1 to 2 seconds in Barcelona anyway. At least Trulli is happy.

And Ferrari has fully tested a better F-duct at Barcelona and would probably keep it until the race. It doesn't seem to work much or maybe the 2 drivers are quite used to it yet. Whatever it is, Alonso is scared of the Red Bull's pace and he might not be able to catch them if the race is dry.

SILVERSTONE IS BACK

2010-04-25T14:41:00.006+08:00

A home for Lewis and Jensen. After all the ups and downs with Bernie and Donnington, Silverstone is back as the official venue of the British GP. And it will do so for the next ten years with an option to renew for another 7 years, provided Silverstone can afford Bernie's demands.

I like Silverstone. Not just because of its rich racing history (it did kick off the current world championship in 1950) but the circuit layout although looks simple, is quite enjoyable to drive. It's fast, flowing and has a 4 apex chicane, kinda like Suzuka.

Well, now that Silverstone is safe and will host this year's race, it has been freshened up with a new layout. According to Damon Hill, president of BRDC (British Racing Drivers Club) which owns Silverstone:

‘We think we have produced a racetrack of the future,’. It looks like it has the potential to be a real corker.’

I hope so too. Anyway, with the amount of top teams this year and the drivers challenging for the win, it will be. Have a look at the new layout here.

PECKING ORDER JUST BEFORE BARCELONA

2010-04-24T11:27:00.004+08:00

Keith of F1Fanatic has as usual come up with an excellent analysis of the current team and drivers pecking order in F1 for this season so far. It seems the indications during winter testing has some accuracy to it although everybody says that we cannot take any times from testing seriously.

From winter testing, everybody knows or have guessed that the top 4 teams would be Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes - not necessarily in that order. And they were right, so winter times does have some bearing, it's an indicator. And we have been proven right. So heading to Spain, we have the top 4 teams - Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes - hot on each other's heels with massive development waiting to make an impact.

So here are the links to Keith's analysis:

The pecking order as the teams ready their Barcelona performance upgrades
Jenson Button form guide
Lewis Hamilton form guide

On the side, it's worth mentioning that although it seems that Button has out qualified and outraced Lewis so far, he has been doing it on making the right calls. But Lewis has been far superior when it comes to pace and overtaking. Lewis has done 32 overtaking maneuvers so far compared to Jensen's 7.

So I would say that on a one-on-one basis on a free track and nobody around, Lewis beat the crap out of Jensen, hands down.

SHANGHAI F1 2010 RACE

2010-04-18T18:05:00.007+08:00

What a race! Again it has been proven that rain does make a good show even better. And what a confusion at the start as the rain started during the warm up lap. I was and still am confused who started on what tyres and the consequence of that.

Finally a McLaren 1-2. They deserved it after all the speed they displayed during practice and qualifying, even though Q3 sucked for them. The win was exceptional because of the 2 different strategies employed by Button and Lewis. Lewis as usual displayed his skill and determination by carving up the field from P6. He chased and overtook everybody on his way to P2.

I especially enjoyed his tussle with Schumacher. Schumacher displayed some skill in defending and re-overtaking his position from Lewis but finally it shows how tired he was and how low was his killer instinct when Lewis re-took the position and flew away. Also, worth mentioning was the fact that the Mercedes was no match for the McLaren, a fact demonstrated again when Lewis took Rosberg for P2. But then again, is it the car or the driver because even Petrov took Schumacher. And he's a rookie driving a Renault.

Red Bull was a disappointment again even though the car was reliable, it somehow didn't have the setup for rain I suspect. Vettel and Webber both got taken by Alonso at the start but we have to remember Alonso jumped the start (and paid for it with a drive through, although a black flag was warranted if you ask me). Then they were overtaken by the McLarens and even Petrov (one of them at least).

The win by Button just shows that sometimes a correct call would be better than banzai driving. Lewis is again undisputed as one of the best and thrilling drivers out there but Button made the right call again and took care of his tyres better. This was demonstrated by the fact that Button made 2 pitstops compared to Lewis' 4 and towards the end, Lewis was losing almost 2 seconds a lap to Button as his tyres were just gone.

But then again Lewis did catch up to Button in the final few laps partly due to Button slipping around and almost going off the track. It also demonstrates Lewis' killer instinct and skill.

Rosberg also showed his potential. If he was in the McLaren he would be very difficult to beat. I hope he continues his upward climb and beats Schumacher at every race until the end of the season.

The only worry about this race was the incident between Lewis and Vettel in the pitlane. It started when entering the pitlane where they were both still racing going into the pits. And after what looked like an unsafe release by McLaren, Lewis managed to get alongside Vettel, almost lost the car and they were both still at it fighting out of the pits. Crazy and exciting to watch but I can't imagine what the stewards are gonna do about it as they have announced an investigation after the race.

Knowing the stewards and almost everybody's hatred for Lewis, I have a bad feeling that either the stewards are gonna ruin this race by giving a post race penalty or a grid penalty at the next race. Whatever it is, one thing is sure, there will be a penalty.

Update : Well I guess pigs do fly then. It seems that the incident involving Vettel and Lewis in the pitlane has been adjudged as a racing incident and the stewards have given them both reprimands and no penalties. NO PENALTIES. Yes, you read right. What has happened to our beloved race-ruining stewards, we'll never know.

SHANGHAI GP 2010 QUALIFYING

2010-04-17T17:44:00.003+08:00

To put things in perspective just requires one word - disappointment. It was a disappointment watching McLaren during today's qualifying because as strong as the Red Bulls are, McLaren has so much promise leading both FP1 and FP2 plus topping Q1 and Q2.

What happened in Q3? Lewis should have taken pole but was pushed back to 6th. I could understand if it was P2 but P6?

"It was quite easy to be up the front. The car started bottoming a lot more in Q3 but I don't know whether that's had anything to do with the balance of the car, but I just had no more time in the car. The car was sliding a lot more.
"In Q1 and Q2 the car was even better and I really don't understand what was wrong with the car in Q3 but I wasn't able to get any more time out of it.
"That was me on the limit so I don't know where the time is. We have to go and analyse it and try and find it, but I'm sure tomorrow will be a good race."

McLaren need to seriously up their game if they are to stay in the game and beat the other 3 teams. Look at how strong Rosberg is. Luckily we don't have to worry about Schumacher, he doesn't seem interested to be aggresive enough to win races. It shows on his lap video. His lap was too clean, he wasn't using the track to the maximum or attacking the corners enough.

These Red Bull boys are a tricky lot. The more I look at how they've been handling race weekends, the more I'm inclined to believe that their strategy is to sandbag, deceive the rest into thinking that they are not that fast during free practice and even during Q1 and Q2 of qualifying. Then when it matters in Q3, they "unleash the Kraken!".

Red Bull have had 4 pole positions 4 races in a row. That must mean something. It means their car is bloody fast and bloody good at balance, whether it be low fuel or high fuel and does not matter which track it is running on. I would not discount the Red Bull to become this year's champion.

Hamilton loving driving 2010 McLaren

2010-04-09T08:25:00.002+08:00

Lewis Hamilton has said that he is enjoying driving this year and enjoying the car. I agree. look at both his inspired driving at Melbourne and Sepang. Normally I would be devastated when he does not get a good qualifying position but nowadays I just stay cool when it happens.

I'm cool because I know the race will be exciting as Lewis will be carving his way through the field and overtaking like mad. And he did it at both races. His driving was incredible, inspiring and full of action. That is the kind of action that I want to see as an F1 fan. But sadly, most races these days are just a procession. A reverse grid would spice things up but not practical to implement.

Anyway, lets hope the rest of the season is just as exciting and that Lewis gets a chance to start from pole and blazes his way tom the win more often.

INDIAN F1 TRACK LAYOUT

2010-04-09T07:12:00.004+08:00

India will be hosting a round of the F1 world championship in 2011 (postponed from 2010 as they had to host some Commonwealth games). That should be an exciting race as it will be in a country of 1.3 billion people who are starting to support F1 and the fact that there is an Indian team and an Indian driver in the mix would stir up interest.

What's more important though is the track itself. Would it provide an interesting race and would it be exciting to drive? Well, here is the proposed layout of the new track. It looks simple enough with some interesting elevations but don't expect much as it is another Tilke creation. Hopefully we can download the track to our simulator and give it a go soon.

So what do you think?

QUALIFYING - DO BANKER LAPS

2010-04-07T02:38:00.002+08:00

We have seen during the last 2 race weekends how a top team like McLaren and Ferrari can make mistakes in qualifying and therefore put their drivers in a difficult position. Lewis Hamilton started the race in Melbourne 11th and 20th in Malaysia.

After the last 2 races, it is quite obvious that the thing to do during qualifying is to do banker laps everytime a qualifying session starts. Which means that no matter what the radar or technology says, just go out and set the best time possible as soon as possible.

Martin Whitmarsh had this to say about their recent qualifying form :

"We have learned lessons. The primary one is that in Q1 we are not racing Ferrari or the other big boys, we just need to get through to Q2 and cover the slow cars in those changeable conditions."

Exactly. That is why a banker lap needs to be done as soon as the session turns green. This is especially important when it is raining or when the weather is not so good. I hope McLaren learns this lesson well and applies it to China as the Chinese GP has a habit of going wet.

MALAYSIAN GP 2010

2010-04-07T01:57:00.003+08:00

The 2010 Malaysian F1 GP is over and what a race. For once, the race at Sepang was exciting and it happened without rain. It was supposed to rain, Friday practice was wet and so was qualifying. In fact, qualifying was so bad that Alonso, Massa and Lewis were relegated to 19th, 20th and 21st. But I knew that Lewis being behind would be good for the race because he'll be carving his way up the field like in Melbourne the week before.

I especially enjoyed the start where Lewis jumped as much as 7 cars in the first lap alone, I think it was at the first turn alone. And he kept on overtaking cars, on the inside and outside of turns until he was at one point 2nd, up 18 from 20th. His tyres lasted more than 30 laps before he changed to the soft options.

Button on the other hand pitted early, probably another one of his gamble which didn't really pay off. In fact, this race showed that Button is not really world champion material but last year he was helped by the car. He had Massa behind him and allowed Massa to pass him without much fuss. In fact, watching him "holding back" Massa was like watching a Sunday driver wasting time.

Button does not have the aggressive killer instinct that Lewis does. Forget about asking Button to overtake, he can't even hold back somebody. Although he managed to hold back Alonso, Alonso almost overtook him in the end if not for an engine failure. And Alonso was going round with a problematic gearbox.

Lewis made some incredible overtaking maneuvers like the one on Petrov and defended his lead after that with 4 weavings on the front straight. Although the stewards gave him a warning for weaving or dangerous driving, I think it was only racing. By the way, somebody should tell the stewards that motorsports is dangerous.

All in all, a great race which didn't need rain. Although after this we'll never know when we'll need rain. But I am considering reversing grids after this. It seems that the race is really spiced up when that happens. What do you think?

RACE WEEK SEPANG HAPPENINGS

2010-03-24T18:20:00.004+08:00

The Australian GP is upon us this week and the Malaysian GP will follow the following week. It's gonna be a hectic 2 weeks. For those of you looking for happenings in KL during race week, here is a partial list compiled by the Tourism Ministry.

The interesting events are these 2:

Petronas Pit Pulse at Jalan Binjai
PETRONAS Formula One street demo will see the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS MGP WO1 special demo run by drivers Nico Rosberg and seven-time world champion, Michael Schumacher.

We haven't had a street demo in years. This should be good. Also look out for the STYLO F1 Party at Asian Heritage Row on April 1st. I will be there and looking forward to meet some F1 fans there too.

And last but not least, Lotus Racing is having a booth at Pavilion KL on 30th march (just 1 day) where they will show off their actual race car (as they don't have a replica) and there will be appearance by all 3 drivers. The interesting part for you race fans is that I will be there with 2 F1 simulators and you are invited to have a go. Try and beat my time, if you can.

F1 2010 THE GAME UPDATES

2010-03-20T23:26:00.004+08:00

Keith from F1fanatic had a first look at a beta or pre-alpha version for the upcoming complete F1 game called F1 2010. I say complete because the one launched last year, F1 2009, was not complete and was only available on the Wii and PSP.

This next version will be launched on the XBox, PC and PS3. According to the developers the game will be launched in September (so late) but will include all tracks this year. I've already talked a bit about the game in my previous post but this preview by Keith is more in-depth and exciting. I can't wait to get a copy. It seems that this game is as realistic as it can get with proper weather and other factors affecting a race such tires graining and damage multipliers.

For more information, click here to read Keith's review plus a great video on the development of the game.

BAHRAIN GP REVIEW

2010-03-15T04:33:00.003+08:00

First and foremost, congratulations to Fernando Alonso for winning the first race of the season. The first race run under the new regulations was a bit of a disappointment for me. To be honest I was expecting a different and exciting race but it turned out to be much of the same. "Boring" it was according to Schumacher and a "train the whole way" according to Lewis Hamilton.

The start was a good clean one with Mark Webber's car spewing a lot of smoke which caused Sutil to touch Kubica and he spun, leaving him to prop up the back of the field. Shame for Sutil, seems that with Kimi Raikonnen now gone, he has other people hitting him.

Vettel was the class of the field, pulling away strongly and never looking like he could be challenged. In fact, his pace was so good that he should have won this race hands down. Unlucky for him, his spark plugs didn't work properly and he has to slow down considerably only to be overtaken by Alonso, Massa and Hamilton. Poor Vettel still managed to hold on for 4th though.

Alonso was always strong during this weekend and I knew he would be on the podium but not winning the race. His win was only because Vettel had that spark plug problem, without it Alonso could not have challenged Vettel. But Alonso did drive a controlled and stable race.

Massa also although he had good race pace, did not have the pace to challenge Vettel. He lost a position to Alonso at the start and has some other problems especially with fuel consumption throughout the race, so he wasn't even able to challenge Alonso.

Hamilton had a good start as well and had similiar pace to the Ferraris. His only problem was either he made a mistake at Turn 4 by himself or he was squeezed by Massa. Either way, he drifted wide and lost a position to Rosberg which wasted a lot of time for him for half the race. Without this, he could have got closer to Massa and maybe even taken him near the end.

The 2 Mercedes cars did not really have the pace to challenge the leaders as expected but Rosberg put in a respectable performance. Not much to say about Schumacher though, he seemed pretty quiet and was just holding station.

Webber was a different kettle of fish. Not only did he have a bad start, his engine spewed out a lot of smoke, probably due to overflooding of the engine or something almost causing a major accident. He lost a position and was caught behind the Mercedes cars and then Button. Even though the Red Bull had the pace, Webber couldn't do much as overtaking is still impossible.

The rest of the field did not conjure up anything interesting to talk about aside from all the retirements and there were quite a few of them. Bruno Senna retired as well, shame to have the Senna name not finishing the race. Virgin also disappointed with double DNFs.

The surprise of the race was Lotus Racing which managed to finish the race albeit last and were 3 laps down. Tony Fernandes was quite excited at the prospect. Maybe he's serving free nasi lemak now at the teams' motorhome.

ANOTHER EXPLANATION ON MCLAREN'S REAR WING

2010-03-14T08:49:00.004+08:00

This is another but simpler and easier to understand explanation of the system used in the McLaren MP4-25 regarding the rear wing and the ability for the drivers to control the amount of airflow to it during a race.

"It is believed that a small air scoop in the nose of the car — you can see it just below the steering wheel in the pic below — allows air to enter a tube that runs through the cockpit and the air intake above the driver’s head to the rear wing. From there it flows to the wing and passes through small slots to the back side of the wing, where the added energy can aid the airflow like the slats on a plane. This increases downforce in the corners.

The downside of increased downforce is, of course, increased drag — in this case induced drag, a byproduct of lift.

To minimize this drag, the driver can close the vent with his knee (or elbow, no one outside of McLaren seems to know for sure), halting air flow to the rear wing. Button and Hamilton can thus control the airflow to the rear wing in much the same way flute players control the flow of air through their instruments. When the driver closes the vent, it essentially stalls the rear wing, thereby reducing drag and increasing speed on the straightaways. Some accounts put the increase at 6 mph."

Hope that helps. The link is here.

BAHRAIN GP QUALIFYING

2010-03-14T08:00:00.003+08:00

It was great to be able to watch a qualifying session after so many months being laid off. Especially with all the rule changes and limited testing due to weather. I was quite surprised to see Vettel grab pole at the last moment but when I think about it, I shouldn't be because Vettel has shown last year that he is very adept at grabbing pole in 1 banzai last minute lap.

As expected, the new teams were seriously off the pace and filled up the back of the grid. I wasn't paying any attention to them to be honest except for Karun Chandok as he did no running until today and at least the car ran.

Q2 was as expected. Q3 was more interesting as a Renault and Force India made it through. I was not surprised at Kubica being there because he is such a competitive driver but maybe I was surprised at a Renault being there. If Kubica was in a better car, he would have shown up higher.

Force India is another surprise and especially Sutil. He has shown that he can stick his car where it matters, if only he had a McLaren. But I won't be surprised in the race tomorrow if he manages to secure a good points haul because the car seems stable and fast, if only the team doesn't let him down. At least he won't have to worry about Kimi crashing into him.

McLaren and Ferrari seemed closer during testing and practice but somehow McLaren lost downforce and speed when it mattered. I wonder what happened. But it shows the difference between Hamilton and Button with both separated by 4 positions. But what is worrying is the pace between Hamilton and Vettel which is a second. Has Red Bull been sandbagging all this while?

This year the gap between cars were huge. Past years the gap was 2 seconds for the entire grid. Now the difference between P1 and P10 is 2.2 seconds! Lets go racing.

MCLAREN GENIUS IN BAHRAIN

2010-03-13T06:47:00.003+08:00

Well, it has to happen sometime right? It can't be all the time that McLaren gets a beating or is blamed for something. This time they've done something ingenious and everybody, in true F1 style, has either decided to accept that McLaren came up with a damn good idea and have to copy it or make a lot of noise and try to get it banned.

I still don't understand what the device is. Explanations range from "works by the drivers blocking a pipe in their cockpit with their knees" to "the drivers themselves - who are not classified as an aerodynamic device, moveable or otherwise - who operate the flap by using their right knee to cover the flow of air into the cockpit tunnel. This in turn effects the flow of air to the rear of the car and 'stalls' the rear wing."

It's believed that the advantage accrued from the device amounts to approximately an extra 6mph on the straights when the cars are running at top speed. Which is all well and good. That is what F1 is all about. Coming up with engineering ideas to solve difficult problems and gaining an advantage.

Go McLaren!

Updates

James Allen has a very clear analysis about the McLaren wing, how it works but I still don't get it. There is a close up photo of the rear wing with a drawing as well which clearly shows the detail of the rear part of the car. It is no normal shark fin engine cover I can tell you. Click here to read more.

F1 2010 THE GAME

2010-03-12T06:38:00.004+08:00

Finally!!!! The new complete season, realistic simulation of Formula One is almost here. F1 2010 will be released this year in September by Codemasters for the XBOX 360, PS3 and PC platforms. The game will be launched before the Korean GP, which means all the tracks will be ready. I wonder how they will simulate that track without seeing it.

This is how Codemasters describes the game:

In “F1 2010″ gamers will take on the full, expanded grid in a variety of game modes including Grand Prix, Championship, Time Trial and an extensive, innovative Career mode. “F1 2010″ will also feature a highly advanced damage model, fully dynamic weather system and extensive competitive multiplayer options.
In production at Codemasters Studios Birmingham, “F1 2010″ is being developed using the EGO Game Technology Platform, Codemasters’ proprietary tech that powered the critically acclaimed, million-plus selling “Colin McRae: Dirt 2″ and “Race Driver: Grid”. The award-winning technology has been further developed to accurately recreate the unique aerodynamics and handling of 200mph-plus Formula One cars. The tech combined with Codemasters’ unprecedented access to Formula One teams and drivers will ensure that “F1 2010″ delivers the most authentic Formula One racing experience yet.

I've been playing the closest simulation to F1 yet, the F1 Challenge 99-02 game with a few different mods and updated tracks, cars, drivers, etc for a few years now on the Simsys F1 simulator. The simulator gives the best driving experience as you are seated low in almost an F1 driving position.

That simulation is as real as you can get with tweaks possible for everything from tyre pressure to wing (back and front) adjustment to brake force distribution and all manner of things which I still don't understand today. The new F1 2010 should add another dimension to that with realistic physics and greater graphic detail. I'm curious as to how realistic the weather behaviour will be.

Whatever it is, I'm definitely getting this new game and I'm gonna be pounding the tracks for a long time to come. In fact, it would be a dream to drive the F1 2010 game on a motion simulator such as the Force Dynamics.

F1 LIVE TIMING APP DOES IT AGAIN

2010-03-11T10:57:00.005+08:00

Remember the F1 live timing application on the iPhone? Well, it has been the number 1 selling sports application in 10 countries. I talked about it here recently and last year. For those of you whose missed out, it is a downloadable app from the iPhone online store that takes live timing data from races and displays it on your iPhone showing a full bird's eye view of the entire track in real time and follows the relative positions of the whole field from lights off to chequered flag. It is now available for the 2010 season.

The F1 Live timing and track positioning App offers fans:

Ability to see the live timing screens used by the teams themselves.
Ability to replay any session at any time you choose, and jump forwards and backwards to key points of the action.
Ability to focus on the driver of your choice.
News and information on race circuits, teams, drivers, results, standings and much more.

I seriously need one too but not sure how do you get enough bandwidth to follow and entire race. Maybe if you were attached to a wi-fi network it's ok but if there if no wi-fi around, do you log onto to your 3G network and pay through your nose?

KOREAN GP

2010-03-09T10:21:00.003+08:00

The Korean GP is confirmed this year but the track is still being built. Have a look here for the picture. This track should be ready just in time for the race just like Abu Dhabi. when I got to the Abu Dhabi track, it was still under construction with last minute works. Hopefully, the Koreans will get this track up and running on time, they do have a good reputation when it comes to construction so I'm not too worried.

2010 Sub 2 Second Pitstop - Is this possible?

2010-03-09T09:42:00.003+08:00

Since this season refuelling has been banned, teams will only pit for tyres. The tyre rules have not really changed as teams will still need to use 2 different compounds during the race. And since they will have to start with a full fuel load, tyre management will be important.

What is more important is to change the tyres quickly as that is the only was to jump your rivals in the pit. But that means a tyre change will have to take between 3 to 4 seconds. That is definitely possible. A sub 3 second tyre change would be incredible which quite a few teams have done over the winter testing and at their factories. But a sub 2 second change?

Red Bull have indicated that they have done that. In fact it is rumored that they did a 1.8sec tyre change. Wow. Their guys even went training to get fit fot this purpose just like drivers have to. That would be fantastic. Now even tyre changes are calculated in the tenths.

Shuttle bus service for 2010 Malaysian GP

2010-03-07T08:44:00.003+08:00

Here is news on public transport for all you Formula One fans out there especially our foreign friends. Skybus is again offering shuttle services to and from Sepang International Circuit on all 3 days of race week and the cost is very minimal.

The bus leaves every half an hour and it will take about 1 hour 15 minutes per way, so plan your time well. Also, note that buses will stop at the main road and you will have to walk about 1 km into the track, a bit of exercise never hurt anybody, right?

Links are as follows:

Shuttle Bus Service for F1

Skybus shuttle services

Sepang International Circuit

McLaren not fazed by rear wing controversy

2010-03-05T07:25:00.003+08:00

Here we go again. It always happens doesn't it? And it's always McLaren. What is it about McLaren and F1 anyway? Now it seems that Ferrari and Red Bull are protesting McLaren's rear wing just before the championship is about to begin (and conveniently just after all testing has finished).

"There's a bit of a fuss over McLaren's rear wing," says Red Bull's Christian Horner, according to the Daily Telegraph. "They have a slot on it that affects the air flow and they can pick up a lot of straight-line speed. "I think it will get resolved before the first race," he added. "We've asked the FIA for clarification although I think Ferrari are probably more excited than we are to be honest."

Funny though that McLaren said they spoke to Ferrari and Ferrari didn't know about it.

"We're very confident that our car is entirely legal - and we're not aware of any protest. In fact, we've spoken to Ferrari this morning and they're not aware of any protest either."

I think this is normal F1 games before the start of the season to try to derail your competitors' competitiveness if you see any advantage. The fact that this issue even came up means that McLaren are fast and have an advantage so Ferrari and Red Bull are trying to slow them down before the first race.

What is scary though is Mercedes' quietness. I won't be surprised at Bahrain when they whip out some crazy diffuser or something and blows everybody away.

OFFICIAL FIA 2010 ENTRY LIST

2010-03-04T08:26:00.002+08:00

The FIA has officially announced the 2010 Formula One entry list today and it's not surprising that USF1 is not there and Stefan GP did not get an entry. So we have 24 cars on the grid.

McLaren-Mercedes
1. Jenson Button
2. Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes Grand Prix
3. Michael Schumacher
4. Nico Rosberg

Red Bull Racing
5. Sebastian Vettel
6. Mark Webber

Scuderia Ferrari
7. Felipe Massa
8. Fernando Alonso

Williams
9. Rubens Barrichello
10. Nico Hülkenberg

Renault F1 Team
11. Robert Kubica
12. Vitaly Petrov

Force India F1 Team
14. Adrian Sutil
15. Vitantonio Liuzzi

Toro Rosso
16. Sebastien Buemi
17. Jaime Alguersuari

Lotus Racing
18. Jarno Trulli
19. Heikki Kovalainen

HRT F1 Team
20. TBA
21. Bruno Senna

BMW Sauber F1 Team
22. Pedro de la Rosa
23. Kamui Kobayashi

Virgin Racing
24. Timo Glock
25. Lucas di Grassi

HAKKINEN OR BRUNDLE?

2010-03-04T07:46:00.005+08:00

Rumours are swirling since Lewis Hamilton announced that Anthony will no longer be his manager and that he is looking for a replacement manager. The rumours are going round saying either Martin Brundle or Mika Hakkinen could take the role.

Personally, I like both. Brundle is an ex F1 racer and has raced in various other categories and currently is a commentator on the BBC for Formula One. And a damn good one too. Mika Hakkinen needs no introduction of course. He is the 1998 and 1999 world champion and overall nice guy. Met him a couple of times, great guy to be around.

If it was up to me, I'd have Mika manage Lewis.

GPPrep Opens Up

2010-03-03T18:23:00.002+08:00

An interesting piece of news, even to me. Anthony Hamilton has not just stopped being Lewis' manager but has opened up a driving academy for aspiring Formula One drivers with Formula One cars managed by Formula One personnel. That sounds hugely interesting. I wonder how it works. Although, the cars will be from the preceding season. The website is here.

I knew that Anthony was working on the Lewis Hamilton Academy, a sort of club like what David Beckham did with the David Beckham Football Academy. We almost had a deal going with Sepang last year with that academy but somehow the academy didn't turn out. Or maybe it turned out to be this one.

I thought an academy for aspiring drivers would start at karting and provide the necessary help to progress to Formula One but this one sounds like somthing to prepare young drivers to graduate to Formula One itself. Meaning, if you are already in GP2 or F2 or World Series by Renault, then you could enrol in this academy and get the necessary training to prepare to enter Formula One. Or something like that. Oh well, we'll have to wait to ask Anthony himself next month.

Hamilton parts ways with Hamilton senior

2010-03-03T17:31:00.003+08:00

Hmm, I was quite surprised to learn that Anthony has stopped being Lewis' manager as of this season. I wonder who Lewis will hire to represent him in future, I have no idea at all as I have not been in contact with both of them for quite some time.

Lewis said:

"I'm 25 now - and I think it was inevitable that there had to be change at some point,"

"You see, because my dad has always been my manager, and because we've always been working and doing business stuff, I've not fully had that relationship with my dad since when I was maybe a kid and we went radio control car racing - and did it just for fun.

Whoever it is, it better be a reputable person and Lewis better introduce him to me..haha. Anyway, we'll find out more when the race comes to Sepang. I will of course try to have lunch with Anthony to catch up on the year that was. I do still believe that Anthony will still continue to play a role and have some influence in decisions Lewis makes in the future. Perhaps the new manager may even have to double check things with Anthony before proceeding. I know that Anthony takes a very personal interest in anything to do with Lewis.

F1 timing and track positioning for the iPhone

2010-03-03T11:57:00.005+08:00

Soft Pauer Ltd has launched its official Formula One Timing and Track Positioning Application for iPhone and iPod touch users.

The unique application allows fans to simultaneously track the progress of all cars in real time on a dynamic track map which offers a variety of views of the circuit, including the unique ability to see a bird's eye view of the action. The data is taken directly from the official timing feeds generated at each circuit, giving the user unprecedented portable access to the information used by race engineers in the pit lane, with the added ability to track the individual driver of your choice. So for the first time, fans will be able to get a full, detailed picture of the racing action wherever they are.

Soft Pauer CEO, Otmar Szafnauer, who was formerly director of strategy and business planning at Honda Racing, says of the application: "We're very pleased to offer fans an added dimension to the experience of watching Grands Prix. We hope that they will take advantage of this new opportunity to get a full picture of the racing action wherever they go."

"I'm very excited by this application," said Bernie Ecclestone, "as it will allow fans to keep in touch with what is going on whilst on the move."

See the whole circuit in real time

The application converts the live timing data from the track into a graphically rich 3D circuit showing you the location of every driver in real time through the whole race weekend, whether they are on track or in the pits.

Zoom in to see the action

Zoom in and out to track the progress of the race around a particular section of the track.

Choose your driver

Designate the racing driver of your choice and the software will highlight your chosen driver on the detailed track map and depict all other data relative to the chosen driver, including lap time differences between your chosen driver and all others in the race.

Live timing screen

Toggle across to see the main timing screens that the team engineers use at the circuit.

Replay feature

After the sessions have concluded you have the ability to replay any session at any time you choose, or jump to a particular point within the session.

This means if you record the race and start the application as you replay the recording, you can enjoy the live timing alongside your video recording.

To run the application live, your iPhone will require a 3G phone signal or WiFi connection, and your iPod touch will require a Wifi connection.

Full specification and prices can be found on the iTunes store

2010 F1 cars technical analysis (Part 2)

2010-03-01T00:15:00.003+08:00

Wow, John Beamer is good. He is intricately knowledgeable about F1 and engineering as he explains and analyses the remaining cars on the grid this year. You can read his analysis at F1Fanatic with his 2010 F1 cars Technical Analysis Part 2.

And here is John's advice for this year as it is for most seasons. Casual fans will no doubt celebrate and talk about their teams or drivers timing after these 4 days of testing at Barcelona and probably will conclude that the fastest driver is on top. But that could not be further than the truth as John Beamer puts it:

"More so than previous years outright pace isn’t necessarily the critical performance element. Consistency is important and so is tyre wear. A car that works well on low and high fuel and is easy on its tyres is a better bet than one that can has extraordinary single lap pace."

Bring on Bahrain!!

FERRARI COPIED MCLAREN

2010-02-26T19:38:00.013+08:00

It seems that the weird McLaren shark fin engine cover with a connecting part to the rear wing has been copied by Ferrari. Alonso was seen sporting one today at the Barcelona test. Have a look courtesy of picture from F1Fanatic and photography by Julien Leroy.

Now, compare this to the McLaren MP4-25 below.

Something about this design works I suspect. In fact, Alonso recorded the fastest time ever for this test today at Barcelona, beating Webber by about 3 tenths. His best time was 1:21.183 done somewhere in a 14 lap run. We'll have to see what the analysis by James Allen of todays' test first to make a more educated guess of the pace of the Ferrari.

Whatever it is, the Ferrari F10 looks good this year so far and Alonso looks good so it's a scary prospect. I've always admitted Alonso is a good driver even though I don't like him. And Alonso in a Ferrari is scary, what more a performing Ferrari.

Who is Charlie Whiting?

2010-02-26T19:10:00.008+08:00

Most if not all F1 fans know who is Charlie Whiting. He's the guy with the white hair that gets involved when something goes wrong on the track or during a race. But who is he really and what does he do (and how he does it so well)? Well, to answer that question, read here a re-production of the roots of Charlie and how he is absolutely qualified to do his job.

Who on earth is ... Charlie Whiting?

Laurence Edmondson
February 25, 2010

When the lights go out in Bahrain, the fate of the teams' multi-million pound cars, and all the months of painstaking development that has been put into them, will be put in the hands of 20 plus adrenaline junkies. Worrying, isn't it.

Formula One isn't like football or rugby where a referee can step in and calm things down a bit. In fact, the last man who tried to get between an F1 car and its intended destination was an Irish priest at Silverstone in 2003 and he was, quite rightly, arrested.

So officiating a grand prix is a near impossible task, and that's exactly why it's a job held by one the most experienced men in the sport, F1 race director Charlie Whiting.

Put simply he is responsible for the start, the circuit, the safety, the fairness, and the (potential) untimely finish or stoppage of a race. It's an incredibly high pressure job, and he has to call on all of his extensive experience and vast knowledge of the rules and regulations - many of which he was instrumental in creating - to keep everyone happy.

Like most men at the pinnacle of F1, Whiting is absolutely besotted by it. The love affair started at the age of 12 when he snuck under the fence at Brands Hatch to watch the 1964 British Grand Prix. From that point onwards his mind was made up, and when he was old enough, he became a mechanic for his racing-driver brother Nick. The pair became notorious in motor racing circles at Brands Hatch and it wasn't long before they moved from touring cars up into F5000, where they prepared a Surtees for female F1 driver and Olympic skier Divina Galica.

In 1977 Whiting was poached by Hesketh, but by that time the team was in decline and its James Hunt's glory days were well and truly in the past. He finally made the big time with Bernie Ecclestone's Brabham team, where he quickly rose up the ranks, and by the age of 29, achieved his dream of working as a chief mechanic on a championship-winning car with Nelson Piquet.

A second title followed in 1983 and he was duly promoted to chief engineer at the British team. A year before Ecclestone sold up at Brabham, Whiting left and in 1988 became the FIA's chief scrutineer.

Essentially it was his job to catch the cheats, and after working at a top-flight team for several years, you could argue that he had the ultimate qualification for the job. After all, this was the man who in his first year with Brabham was involved in the production of the infamous BT46B fan car - the ultimate rule bender if ever there was one.

After nine years in that job he was promoted to the position of FIA race and safety director, the role he's still in now. It's a heavily scrutinised job, and like nearly all top sporting umpires, he has overseen his fair share of controversy.

But he openly admits he doesn't do the job expecting to be praised.

"While I would never expect anyone to come up to me and say that was a really well-run event, if I don't get anyone complaining about something then it's nice," he admitted. "And you do get a certain amount of satisfaction out of coping with difficult situations because sometimes it's not that easy.

For example, if we need to use the safety car four times during a race you've got to have your wits about you. One gets satisfaction out of knowing that you've done a decent job and if no one comes complaining then that's usually the yardstick."

But Whiting's remit goes well beyond grand prix weekends. He is also chairman of the technical and sporting working groups in Formula One that oversee all major changes to the sport's rules and regulations. It's another unenviable task, as he has to appease all the teams while trying to solve near impossible problems such as finding a way to increase overtaking. Add to that the task of approving all the race circuits on safety grounds each year and working as an FIA inspector and you have a very busy man.

Essentially Whiting has to be a referee, a scrutineer, a safety inspector, a politician and an engineer all rolled into one. So remember, if you don't hear his name again all season it means he's continuing to do a brilliant job. F1 simply wouldn't work without him.

Laurence Edmondson is an assistant editor on ESPNF1

© ESPN EMEA Ltd.

Jerez: Webber is the quickest of the quick

2010-02-20T07:08:00.004+08:00

Re-published from Planet F1

Mark Webber set a blistering pace on Friday where, thanks to a day of sunshine, he posted this year's fastest lap time at the Jerez circuit.

After finishing top of the timesheets with a lap of 1:19.299, the Aussie reported: "We're certainly showing some good form in terms of reliability, but we always need to work on performance - you never know what the other teams are doing.

"But we're in a good position at the moment to build up to the first race.

"It's close, but there's also quite a way to go, as other teams have no doubt planned developments for Bahrain.

"We're doing the work we need to do in order to understand the car more."

Report: After two days of rain and interruptions, Friday's running at the Spanish circuit kicked off under blue skies and with the track almost completely dry.

However, even the dry surface didn't stop the red flags from being waved as the action was halted on six occasions.

Heikki Kovalainen brought out the first red flag in the opening hour when the Lotus driver came to halt at Turn 9 with the team reporting that the "car stopped with a clutch sensor failure."

Lotus, though, were the only newcomers to run into problems as Virgin Racing, having a great start to the day, soon found themselves beached in the gravel.

Lucas di Grassi, who took over from team-mate Timo Glock for the final two days of testing, put in a respectable 1:31.6, which had the team crowing about that great "Friday feeling!" Five minutes later, di Grassi's VR01 was in the gravel and the red flags were once again being waved.

No soon had the action started than it stopped again, this time it was Kamui Kobayashi, who came to a halt out on track on his very first lap out of the pits.

"A festival of red flags so far," is how Ferrari described the first few hours of testing.

And hour of clear running on an ever-drying track followed, allowing Jenson Button, Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso to put in some blistering laps as the trio moved ever closer to last week's leading time of 1:19.583, which was set by Lewis Hamilton.

Their charge, though, came to an end when Webber's RB6 broke down between Turns 8 and 9, red flag number four of the day.

The next stoppage of the day belonged, yet again, to di Grassi, whose VR01 stopped out on track at the Dry Sack hairpin.

There were also additional problems for Lotus with tech boss Mike Gascoyne revealing that a "cracked exhaust pipe" was the cause of Kovalainen's second delay of the day.

With the session once again green-lighted, the drivers continued putting in the laps with six of them hitting the 100 mark.

But while the lap counter climbed, the lap times dropped.

Webber, back on track after his earlier problems, stormed into the lead with a 1:19.4, easily outpacing Ferrari's Alonso.

The Aussie, though, wasn't done and continued to lap, dropping the benchmark time to a 1:19.299, 0.284s quicker than any F1 driver had gone at Jerez this year.

And with the cloud cover building over the circuit, causing the track temperature to drop, Webber's rivals were not able to match the Red Bull racer's pace.

Any chance they may have had with a final dash at the very end of testing was put to rest when Nico Hulkenberg caused the sixth red of the day.

So the day ended with Webber 0.816s ahead of Alonso, Button was third while Hulkenberg, who was the busiest driver with 137 laps to his name, finished in fourth place.

"We have done pit stop practices with the Hulk & race sims. Much better weather-wise today - clear skies = good!" Williams reported.

Seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher was fifth ahead of Robert Kubica, Adrian Sutil and Kamui Kobayashi. Kobayashi, though, only managed 28 laps as a fuel problem kept him off the track for large parts of the day.

Unofficial Times
1. M. Webber Red Bull Racing RB6 1:19.299 114 laps
2. F. Alonso Ferrari F10 1:20.115 +0.816 132 laps
3. J. Button McLaren MP4-25 1:20.394 +1.095 101 laps
4. N. Hülkenberg Williams FW32 1:21.432 +2.133 137 laps
5. M. Schumacher Mercedes GP W01 1:21.437 +2.138 79 laps
6. R. Kubica Renault R30 1:21.916 +2.617 100 laps
7. A. Sutil Force India VJM-03 1:21.939 +2.640 69 laps
8. K. Kobayashi Sauber C29 1:22.228 +2.929 28 laps
9. J. Alguersuari Toro Rosso STR5 1:22.704 +3.405 120 laps
10. L. Di Grassi Virgin Racing VR-01 1:23.504 +4.205 34 laps
11. H. Kovalainen Lotus F1 T127 1:23.521 +4.222 68 laps

Links

Jerez: Webber is the quickest of the quick

Lotus sidelined after Kovalainen's crash

2010-02-19T07:31:00.002+08:00

A bit of news on Lotus F1 or for those patriotic of you out there, the 1Malaysia F1 team. The good news is that the car ran..yeah, I know. It ran for 63 laps yesterday driven by Fairuz at Jerez without any problems. Well, it had a problem, there was no power steering at all. And Fairuz managed to drive it properly for 63 laps! Hands up to the man, he should be driving the car in races.

Not so good news today, day 2 at Jerez. Heikki Kovalainnen took the car for a drive today in rainy Jerez and crashed it. That's the end of testing for today. The best part is that there was no spare parts. The part ordered was supposed to arrive at 2am tomorrow, so hopefully they'll get some more running then. If this is how Tony runs the show, I can't wait to see Kamaruddin and Nasarudin giving their input as well.

POSSIBLE RACE PREP SCENARIO

2010-02-17T07:28:00.004+08:00

James Allen gives a great insight into the possible scenarios and plans that teams might use in practice, qualifying and races this year based on the changes to the rules and cars/tyres. It seems that the restrictions will make thinking forward much more important this year as you don't want to go out with the wrong tyres.

An example:

If this is the character of 2010 tyre on some tracks it will be very hard to find out during practice sessions whether stopping earlier than your rival is going to be the better option, as some people have been suggesting. So much will depend on track characteristics and how the tyres degrade on those tracks.

It's also interesting to see that because of the limitations imposed on teams, perhaps teammates will be forced to work together and trust each other. I'm just no so sure which one will take the right task as they might be thinking that they are better at setup or something else as James said:

So you might see teams split with one driver pounding round doing a long run tyre evaluation on Friday afternoons while the other works on fine tuning set up.

Can't wait for Bahrain.

Links

Teams experiments show what Ferrari’s plan might be

CLASSIC DOLL HOUSE PLAY

2010-02-17T05:36:00.004+08:00

It seems that the old playhouse rules still apply. You know the one where I appoint you and you appoint me so that we both control everything, so we can have it our way, have our cake and eat it too. Even if we both have no idea what we're doing.

Not only is Tony Fernandes the team principal at a F1 team, he is a team principal with no prior training or experience in F1. And now, to add icing to the cake, he has appointed his 2 partners in the venture to the position of deputy team principals. This is highly unusual having deputy team principal, what more 2.

Having a team principal with no F1 experience is mad enough, appointing 2 deputies with no F1 experience also is just dumb. I thought before that Mike Gascoyne would be advising Tony on the pitlane during races but now Mike is even further removed. I wonder how Tony will make split second decisions during races when the message is being passed from Mike to Nasaruddin to Kamarudin and then to Tony and vice-versa.

Lotus, oh Lotus.

Links

New Appointments at Lotus

MCLAREN MP4-25 TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

2010-02-13T12:59:00.004+08:00

Here is an excellent article on the technical analysis and some explanation of the design decisions used on the new McLaren MP4-25 car. The article was published by F1Technical.net and there are various other articles and interesting bits of information for you F1 tech heads.

McLaren MP4/25 Mercedes

LOTUS FINALLY LAUNCHED

2010-02-13T10:57:00.004+08:00

Finally after all the talk and work, Lotus has launched their brand new car in London. It has a lot of historical weight to carry as Lotus has been successful in the past and Tony Fernandes better not screw up that history because then the whole of Malaysia will be blamed by motorpsort nuts worldwide.

A first look at the car makes me feel nervous. Why? Because it doesn't really look like a F1 car. The nose is too thick, it looks like an F3 car. The rest of it is pretty simple and the sidepods are very big. Keith from F1Fanatic has had some articles lately with explanations about the new diffucers and how a slimmed down sidepod helps airflow to the diffusers. The Lotus' sidepods looks huge.

The only part of the car that is interesting is the front wing. It is pretty complicated on an otherwise dull car. The funny thing is the wing is devoid of any sponsors, which is weird. I also noticed that Naza has only 1 sticker on the whole car.

We'll have to wait for the car to hit the track next week to find out its performance. So, what do you think of the liveries and the design of the car? For more pictures of the car, click here. For hi-res images and more pictures, click here.

2010 F1 cars technical analysis (Part 1)

2010-02-08T12:29:00.003+08:00

There is a very good technical analysis of the 2010 F1 cars so far revealed done by F1Fanatic's guest writer John Beamer on F1Fanatic. It offers quite an in-depth analysis on the designs of the cars as well as the effects that teams want to achieve this year within the rgulations and gives a good guess who should do well.

The explanation about the rear diffuser is really interesting and insightful. You can read it here.

2010 F1 CARS - WHAT I THINK

2010-02-03T20:05:00.010+08:00

Well, let me apologise for this delay to post my opinions on the cars that were launched recently by the F1 teams for this season. My mind has been quite busy lately dealing with some personal stresses.

So, getting to the point. The first test of the season is already underway at Valencia (not the street track but the permanent one, I must say that track is pretty short and not so demanding) but I have not even given my 2 cents of the current crop of cars. So here it goes.

FERRARI

The Ferrari F10 looks good. The overall shape is different than last years' car and the nose is similar but seems higher and longer. The front wing is complicated, the rear wing is still too small but there is a nice touch of white to the livery. The sidepods are weird though and I seem to notice the exhaust coming out halfway down them, is that right or even legal?

MCLAREN

So far the most beautiful car in the pack. McLaren have this knack for good design, they did it last year with the MP4-24 when the new front wings were revealed, they had the best looking front wing. This year the whole design is more cohesive and beautiful. Still having that 'Red Bull' high nose of 2009 and the sidepods are smaller and the shape is different. I am amazed at their 'shark fin' engine cover though as it extends and connects all the way to the rear wing. That front wing is also damn complicated.

TORRO ROSSO

They've unveiled a car that is much like last years' car and Red Bulls' car as well. Red Bull started the high nose design last year and STR has followed through, that design was a competitive design. The car looks not much different besides the extended engine cover and the shark fin joining the rear wing, much like McLaren. Although that front nose does look similar like the Mercedes.

MERCEDES

Mercedes really outdid themselves. Not only does the car look fantastic, the livery is one of the best looking. I would rate their livery together with McLaren as the best looking this year. The car itself was based on the Brawn BGP-001 but the nose is much lower with a sudden drop after the front tyres. And the front wing is again complicated. The sidepods are different, twisted somehow. The nose has that sunken valley like Ferrari's and overall looks good.

RENAULT

Renault have reverted back to their original team colors of the 80s in the absence of major sponsors and I have to say the R30 looks bad just like the R29. I still prefer the colors of the Mild Seven days. Although a saving grace is that the nose does mimic the F2004 and overall the shape is ok, nothing radical. This year Renault have decided to go for the shark fin though and Kubica must be hoping that whatever design that has been put in better work or his career will be delayed again after his days at BMW. Overall, I would have to say that the R30 is one, if not the ugliest car on this years' grid.

SAUBER

This car is weird. What else can I say? Look at that nose, it's too high and the color scheme makes the car look like it has a weird shape. The nose looks like it was cut off at the bottom or something. And not having any sponsors makes it look worse. The front wing is fairly complicated and they have the shark fin too. I'm not sure of this car's design but it seems to work these few days at testing as Sauber has finished 2nd on the timesheets so far. Maybe they're looking for sponsors with low fuel runs, who knows.

WILLIAMS

The new Williams looks like the old Williams. The color scheme looks the same and most of the sponsors are the same too. The nose and front wing looks then same, you'd have to look carefully to see the difference. What can I say, it looks the same as last years' car.

VIRGIN RACING

And the latest reveal is by Virgin. Their car has been completely designed on a computer via CFD with no windtunnel work or models made. The nose is very long and the rest of the car looks typical. I can't see any radical design there, maybe because of that boring color scheme. The front wing looks normal not complicated and the engine cover is also normal. I was hoping that a Virgin car would be cool or hip or whatever as Branson is known for his over the top..whatever. But the end result is bland.

So, what's left now is to see how Red Bull will look like. I got a feeling they will come out with something radical that will give a good fight this year as they came tantalisingly close last year. And of course the balance of the newcomers such as Lotus, Campos and USF1.

Michael Schumacher will be the world’s most superstitious man

2010-02-03T19:41:00.003+08:00

This was written by Duncan Stephen, based in Kirkcaldy, Fife on his great blog DoctorVee. I'm a regular visitor and reader of his articles. I wanted to share his lighthearted look at the new 2010 season so I've re-posted this here. For more in-depth and critical analysis of F1 please visit his blog at http://doctorvee.co.uk/.

Following on from the revelation that Michael Schumacher has a mad superstition for odd numbers, the German will reveal a litany of hitherto unknown superstitions. Among these will be an insistence that his team mate runs with an inferior set-up because “it makes me feel a bit better about my car”.

He will also reveal that he has a special form of OCD that means he just has to brake-test any drivers that are behind him, and cannot stop himself from driving straight into anyone who has just overtaken him. He also has a strong superstition for getting to choose his own parking space, and will park his Mercedes car in Race Control, where he can literally control the race by tampering with the timing system.

No-one will think to point any of this out, because nothing is allowed to get in the way of Princess Michelle’s Fairy Tale Comeback.

The virtual F1 car

2010-02-02T20:28:00.003+08:00

Re-produced from ESPN.

With testing in Formula One now strictly limited, much of the preparation for the new season is done behind the wheel of multi-million pound simulators. A computer game so advanced that it can actually replicate every movement of the car, the only snag is it costs £125,000.

These state-of-the-art machines are not only used to develop driver skills but also allow the engineers to achieve the perfect set-up. The simulator can run full race distances, allowing the teams to tweak every tiny variable.

Most of us mere mortals have to settle for arcade or home computer games to feed our need for speed. The trouble is they simply don't get close to a real race experience. But now there are is new breed of simulators, although still too expensive for home use, can offer the ultimate race experience. You can feel the wheel vibrate as you try and ride the curbs, the G-forces as you brake, and the back end slip away as you accelerate too quickly out of a corner.

To show just how good this simulator is, when I arrived at Pure Tech Racing to try their latest simulator I had to wait my turn. A string of GP2 Series drivers were pitting their wits against the technology. Sam Bird, who races in GP2 for the ART team, took a break to tell me why he likes the new set-up.

"It is actually very close to the GP2 car I drive," he explained. "We are here in this hall and it honestly feel like you are out at Jarama driving a real car. You get the G-forces with this machine, because of the moving platform you get the feeling that you are on track.

"It handles like a proper single-seater should do. If you brake too hard you lock-up, if you go into a corner too hard you get understeer. If you're too aggressive on the throttle on the exit it's quite easy to spin. But the platform is excellent as you can actually feel what the car is doing and adjust your driving accordingly. So you can actually make a mistake and correct it, whereas without the moving platform you can actually get a bit of oversteer, not know about it, keep your foot buried and all of a sudden you are spinning down the straight. "

Although drivers like Bird might use simulators like this to prepare for racing, there are a lot of members of the public who would love to have a go. Luckily, if you are prepared to travel to Gatwick you could have just that opportunity.

Pure Tech Racing's centre manager Nick Dunn explaines: "What we are doing at our new centre is setting up ten of these simulators for the public to enjoy. We know there are lots of frustrated racing drivers out there who have never had the chance to really go racing.

"The BRD06 simulator has been built from the ground up to bring all aspects of the motorsport world to the general public. Within the software we have also got the ability to change the set up of the car from an engineering perspective. It allows the guys to change the handling of the car just like you would at the race track - We are trying to make it as realistic as we can.

"We think it's great that the GP2 boys are enjoying the simulator as much. It's really important to us that we can validate the system. So these guys' reactions are absolutely vital."

So if you have always fancied yourself as the next Michael Schumacher, you can try your skills for around £20 a session at the centre which is due to open in the spring. Be warned, though, it is not as easy as the experts make it look.

Claire Furnell is the senior editor of ESPNF1

© ESPN EMEA Ltd.

SILVERSTONE UPDATES FOR 2010

2010-01-28T05:41:00.004+08:00

Silverstone is currently undergoing a renovation not just to the facilities around the track but the track layout itself. The new layout is called the Arena layout and was probably designed to cater to the MotoGP and Superbike races but was considered for F1 as well.

It seems that this year F1 might use the new layout, I say might because it has not received approval yet from all parties concerned. The last party to give consent is Bernie (of course). More in-depth story can be found at F1Fanatic where Keith gives the run down on what is happening with pictures and a layout map.

What do I think of the new layout? It looks interesting, not much of a radical change and maintains the high speed nature of Silverstone - which is good. This new layout is probably designed more for the fans than the drivers anyway.

MERCEDES GP THOUGHTS

2010-01-26T07:38:00.003+08:00

Mercedes GP has launched their new livery for 2010 and their new car is to be called the Mercedes MGP-W01. This livery was launched on the old Brawn GP BGP001 though because the Mercedes car is actually to be launched next week in Valencia. But that didn't stop Mercedes from wasting money on this sort of pre-launch.

Overall, the livery looks good although I can't make out the actual color from the pictures. Maybe when the car is out in the sun then we'll be able to appreciate the actual colors. It doesn't look very silver to me, the report says that there are 2 different silvers there..hmmm.

On another note, Schumacher was upset that his record has been questioned again. And it was also questioned whether he might repeat the way he won his championships again. He wasn't very happy with that. Personally, I think he will go back to his old ways and cheat. Ross is there and so is Jean Todt, so the chances of him winning again is very high.

Talking about upset, Nico Rosberg is showing a united front. He seems very excited at the prospect of racing with a good car and team together with a multiple world champion but I don't buy it. Everything was looking rosy for him when suddenly Schumacher joined the team. Not only is Schumacher is buddies with Ross Brawn and Jean Todt, he has taken Rosberg's new car number, citing superstition.

It would be interesting to see how Schumi operates in this new setup and whether he can still command a number one status. I hope Rosberg doesn't get the Barichello treatment here, in fact I hope he shows Schumacher the door.

F1 SIMULATORS FOR TESTING

2010-01-20T09:41:00.003+08:00

I love simulators especially driving simulators. From the ones that we provide for promotions and entertainment to serious ones for F1 testing, they are a great tool for serious work and fun. Hexatech from Cruden is a really serious simulator and I wouldn't mind having one in my living room.

Keith from F1 Fanatic had the rare opportunity to test one, read his report about it here. To Keith, I need a job with you so I could travel and test this kind of things.

LEWIS SPLITS WITH NICOLE

2010-01-11T23:04:00.003+08:00

Well, not exactly how one would start a new year would it? And so soon after a birthday, Lewis' birthday to be exact. Somehow, I'm not surprised. As I have said before on this blog, it was one of my earliest posts here too, I know a secret and I'm not telling.

That secret has something to do with Lewis and relationships. That secret was told to me by Anthony Hamilton himself over lunch in KL. I can't divulge what it is because I don't want to break my word to Anthony. And Lewis is not gay!

It would seem that Nicole is pressed for time. After all, we all are. She needs to settle down as she's pass 30. But it ain't gonna happen with Lewis, that's for sure. Sad for Lewis though. He was so excited about her, he was like a little boy and punching the air while squealing - "My girl is f**king hot!" at the airport last year.

Hmm, sounds familiar this, being a little boy I mean. I'm back to being a little boy again cos my girls is hot!

SCHUMACHER RETURN THOUGHTS

2009-12-26T11:11:00.003+08:00

Here's another thought on the Schumacher return which is not like the others and more like mine. See, I'm not a Schumi fan nor am I a hater (like some people who pretend to be neutral about Lewis Hamilton but are in fact haters). I'll admit that Schumi is a good driver, most drivers are damn good, if not they won't be F1 drivers in the first place.

But I have a feeling that Schumacher might find the going tough as James Allen has put it:

"As e ex F1 driver put it to me last week, “I don’t care if he is Michael Schumacher, when he’s wheel to wheel against Hamilton into a corner his brain is going to say, ‘I’m 41, he’s 24, I’m going to be the one who lifts off here. ‘ It’s human nature and you cannot fight against it.”

And I also agree on some points raised by DoctorVee especially the one about it being a marketing ploy by Mercedes. The name Schumacher generates a lot of interest and it will definitely bring a lot of benefit for Mercedes and their sponsors.

But personally, as much as I'm convinced that Schumacher will have a tough time next year there is also this nagging feeling that he might just surprise everybody with some good performances because of the Mercedes engine and the package that Ross will have put together. Here's hoping that McLaren will do better and Lewis will outgun everybody.

SCHUMACHER : THE RETURN

2009-12-24T06:57:00.005+08:00

Well, it had to happen. After all the rumours and posturing, it has been confirmed, by the man himself no less, that Michael Schumacher - the 7 time F1 world champion and undisputed greatest driver of all time (so far, although some people do beg to differ), will return to racing.

He of course will drive for Mercedes GP, even after Norbert Haug and some people at Mercedes/Daimler have said before that they are not looking at an all German team. Hmm, we now have an all German team.

What do I think of his return? It's great news as the show will get interesting. It would definitely be interesting to see whether he still has it in him and how he will adapt to the new cars. Do I think he will be competitive? He certainly seems to think so. But then again all F1 drivers are supremely confident of themselves, if not they won't be where they are. But personally, I'm not so sure he will be competitive unless the car is supreme again like this year. if Button can win it in that car then Schumacher can too.

What I am looking forward to is watching Lewis take on Schumacher. I've always wanted to know how that would work out as does Lewis. Now we'll get our chance and Schumi will be in a good car...hopefully.

Anyway, good luck to Herr Schumi and here's looking forward to seeing him being beaten by Hamilton, Vettel and Rosberg.

Yoong speechless at Petronas deal

2009-12-22T10:02:00.003+08:00

Well, finally Petronas signs back into F1 after flirting with a possible move to Sauber to Lotus F1. I knew somehow Petronas wanted to stay in F1 and that the strongest candidate would have been Sauber but I did not expect this at all.

Now all Mercedes will have to use Syntium instead of Mobil 1 and Petronas ads will use Mercs instead of BMW cars. Should be exciting times for Petronas staff as they'll have new merchandise to use. I can't wait to see the new livery and merchandise.

The best piece of news is that Alex Yoong is speechless. Ha ha..what did he expect? That Petronas would just roll over and obey? Support a so called national team? Petronas is not stupid, they have been left in the dark before by these useless glamour hungry idiots and they won't repeat the same mistake.

Yoong said on Twitter:

"Petronas signs with Mercedes GP," he wrote. "Words fail me. Mercedes is a good team, no doubt, but what Lotus is doing is completely ground-breaking and brave and Petronas not seeing that fills me with shame."

What fills me with shame is having the name Alex Yoong associated with F1 and Malaysia in one sentence. BTW Alex, what Lotus is doing is not "ground-breaking and brave", it is either foolhardy or just plain stupid, expecially with all the marketing statements made by the people in the team who have no knowledge of F1. Shame.

Lotus F1 names Trulli, Kovalainen and Fairuz

2009-12-15T01:31:00.002+08:00

Finally, the drivers have been named. It was not so much of a surprise to see Trulli confirmed but I was surprised to see Kovalainen there. I'm not sure he'll fit in comfortably though but then again, he has nowhere to go. Better here then nowhere.

Fairuz I think deserves his place now as test and reserve driver. I think he has what it takes and just needs a chance. At least he's better than Alex Yoong as has been proven many times in A1GP and the World Series by Renault.

The funny part of the announcement and I should use the word "stupid" really is that an F1 team line up was made by a Prime Minister of a country. The Lotus F1 driver announcement was actually made by PM Najib with his speech read out by the Sports Minister. Didn't I say it's about glamour?

New points system to be launched in 2010

2009-12-11T09:35:00.002+08:00

It is a foregone conclusion that next season will see a change in the points awarded for races. Since there will be more cars on the grid, the FIA has seen it fit to increase points collection positions from 8 to 10 and the points collected for each position also increases.

This is how it works out:

1st: 25

2nd: 20

3rd: 15

4th: 10

5th: 8

6th: 6

7th: 5

8th: 3

9th: 2

10th: 1

This probably will make it more interesting but it would be a chore to be calculating the points and drivers positions on the fly. We'd definitely need a paper and pen handy everytime during a race.

BRITISH GP SAVED

2009-12-08T06:41:00.003+08:00

One good news today is that the British GP has been saved with Silverstone being given the rights to host the race for the next 17 years, although it seems that there is a clause for both parties to go separate ways after 10 years. Whatever it is, it's still good news as Silverstone not only has the history of being the first race in the history of the official F1 series but is also a pretty good track.

Lewis Hamilton is happy that the track has been saved and will host more races in future. He won there convincingly in the rain. It would be great to see him racing Button there next year too.

"The place has an atmosphere money can't buy and I have some fantastic memories of the track, winning both races in GP2 in 2006, getting an incredibly emotional and satisfying pole in 07 and winning in the wet in my championship year (2008). "

Lotus F1 appoints Yoong, two others to key posts

2009-12-07T07:46:00.004+08:00

Well, it was bound to happen, just a matter of when the announcement would be made. And here it is:

"..former Malaysian F1 driver Alex Yoong as Head of Driver Development (Asia).."

"Yoong and Judge will co-host Lotus F1 Racing’s driver development programme with the aim of nurturing young drivers for future development in Malaysia, Asia and Europe."

I wonder what kind of advice would Yoong be giving - how to spin more than 8 times in a single race perhaps. Or how to be snot nosed in public.

OPINIONS

2009-12-06T09:43:00.003+08:00

Well, it has been some time since I've been writing here, it feels like an eternity. I think I stopped just before I went to Abu Dhabi for the inaugural race there. We had 4 simulators going and placed at the new track for Etihad, the title sponsor of the race. It was a blast and I will definitely have to post a story on that with pictures after this.

I guess my 'disappearance' so far has something to do with my personal life. I apologize to my readers for the absence but it seems that my mind has been filled with thoughts of a certain young lady who has captured my heart and attention. F1 being in the off season didn't help either. But I will try to post regularly as much as I can, starting with my opinions on some recent news.

1. Silverstone announcement on Monday

One of the hottest topic around for some time is whether Britain will host a race or not next year. With Donnington bitting the dust, I for one favor Silverstone as it is a challenging track, not to mention the history. And you can't have 2 British world champions back to back and no British GP. Where's the sense in that?

2. Alonso 'better' for Ferrari claims Domenicali

This is a hot one. Stefano Domenicali seems to think that Alonso is in the Schumacher mould and would be better to carry Ferrari development and winning ways. He says that Alonso won't have a problem at Ferrari like he had at McLaren because "At Maranello that will not happen. I can guarantee that." Hmm..a guarantee like that means that Massa has or needs to be tied down and put in his place. What irony then after all the heated exchanges Massa had with Alonso in the past. I like this as Massa is not known to take it sitting down.

3. Ecclestone confident Renault will remain in F1

The rumblings at Renault based on what has happened this year in F1 and in the car world does not bode well for their continued participation. The borad of Renault will meet soon to discuss their position and personally I don't see them continuing next year. The boss of Renault Carlos Ghosn is not known as spending man. I see Renault pulling out, the team being bought by Prodrive (that would be fantastic) and Renault supplying engines.

4. Brawn on Button's McLaren challenge

Again, the topic of Jensen Button leaving Brawn GP and putting his reputation at risk by joining McLaren and jumping into Lewis Hamilton's cage is being talked about. Personally, I don't think Button will survive at McLaren although he will be better at bringing the points home compared to Kovalainnen. even without McLaren being built around Lewis, Button is not of the same calibre and Lewis will run rings around him.

5. Raikkonen inks Citroen WRC deal

Ah Kimi. No surprise this, we all knew that he was forced out of F1 because of his couldn't care less attitude. He is fast but not a team player and he can't talk much. What else was he supposed to do? If you're a Finn and a previous world champion, go rallying.

6. Sauber confirmed as 13th entry

This is a happy piece of news. I'm glad that Sauber got a spot. I think they have a good car for next year and a good team. Hopefully they'll be able to find some good drivers too. Petronas will definitely follow Sauber and not Lotus as they know as much as we do what a disaster Lotus will be with all those political crap attached to it.

Looking for the ultimate F1 gaming experience?

2009-11-13T06:31:00.000+08:00

12/11/2009

Never mind buying F1 cars off Ebay, race fans with a little bit of dosh can now buy the exact same equipment used by top racing drivers and engineers to improve their race craft and evaluate new tracks and car settings.

Cruden B.V. - the world's leading designer and manufacturer of interactive motion-based racing simulators - is offering its new racing simulator as an extreme alternative to popular home gaming equipment for affluent motorsport and performance driving enthusiasts.

The Hexatech - a professional full motion simulator with six 'degrees of freedom' (6DOF), realistic g-Force simulation up to multiple g's, seat belt tensioners and 100 per cent realistic steering feedback - is normally found in Formula One factories and automotive research centres.

Now, this same sophisticated equipment can provide the definitive motorsport experience at home, with prices for the base simulator package starting at £120,000.

"Snooker rooms, swimming pools, gyms and cinemas have been done time and again. Now, enter the professional racing simulator," says Frank Kalff, Cruden's commercial director. "Let's be clear: this is not a video game linked up to a steering wheel, race seat and pedals. Although easy to operate, this is the exact same equipment used by the top racing drivers and engineers to improve their race craft and evaluate new tracks and car settings. Our simulator and the software it uses cannot be bought in a store."

The Hexatech promises years of highly challenging entertainment both in terms of durability - it is built to endure hundreds of thousands of 'driving' miles per year in almost constant use and lasts 10 to 15 years without major overhaul - and in ensuring drivers never get tired of the quest to improve.

Kalff explains: "Driving a real Formula One car is not easy and getting fast and consistent laps in the simulator isn't either. The simulator takes minutes to learn and enjoy but a lifetime to master, unlike most driving games which are conquered and then discarded before too long. The immense challenge of honing the same level of driving skill as a top racing driver is unbelievably addictive and satisfying."

Creating a bespoke simulator - or even multiple linked-up systems - will introduce an unrivalled centre-piece within the home. The Hexatech is now available as a three-seater (3CTR), where passengers sit either side of the driver to experience the ride together. Cruden can supply open or closed cockpits, fit bodywork or use actual vehicles, and apply the livery of a race or road vehicle according to customer preference. Owners can choose between three 'wrap around' 42 inch screens or (stereo) projectors to view their virtual world of state-of-the-art graphics. Friends and family can watch the race projected onto nearby screens or walls. There is a wide variety of software packages and competition settings to chose from, allowing customers to host fast lap shoot-outs, 24-hour endurance races and full championships, as well as to select race tracks and cars; for example from F1, rally, NASCAR and sports car racing.

Ownership is made easy with full installation, training, access to upgrades and on-call support provided as part of the purchase. The electro-mechanical system typically requires only five KWh of electricity, making the Hexatech economical to run. The simulator has a footprint of 2.3 m x 3 m, requires a floor loading of 1,000 kg/m2 and a minimum ceiling height of 3 metres. Cruden also makes static and 3DOF simulators to customer order.

For more details visit the Cruden website, though be advised it is currently under construction and will not be running until Sunday (November 15).

Article from Pitpass (http://www.pitpass.com):

Published: 12/11/2009
Copyright © Pitpass 2002 - 2009. All rights reserved.

ALONSO vs MASSA

2009-10-16T09:11:00.003+08:00

This season still has not ended yet and next season is still along way to go but it seems that the rivalry between Massa and Alonso has already started to simmer. Massa again was accusing Alonso of knowing about the plot to crash at the Singapore GP last year but a few hours later and after a dressing down by Ferrari, he issued another statement playing down his earlier accusation.

The second statement, although almost denying the first one still had some unhappiness sprinkled over it. One thing is for sure, Massa was extremely upset not to win last year's championship and is still looking for somebody else to blame. Lewis lost it to Kimi by 1 point and he lost to Lewis by 1 point, deal with it.

I'm looking forward to the Massa-Alonso rivalry next year. That should tear Ferrari up from the inside or at least trip them up through the season.

FIRST FOOTAGE OF YAS MARINA CIRCUIT

2009-10-15T06:50:00.002+08:00

James Allen has published the first on board footage of a lap of the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi in a 2 seater open wheel race car driven by Bruno Senna. The track looks awesome and drives awesome too. At least on our F1 simulator. I was thinking it would be a good looking track but boring to drive but surprisingly, it was quite fast and challenging with some great 3 apex turns at high speeds. Can't wait to go to Abu Dhabi on 27th Oct. Woohoo.

MASSA TO WAVE THE FLAG AT INTERLAGOS

2009-10-09T00:55:00.004+08:00

This is an interesting bit of news. It seems that the organizers of the penultimate race of this season at Interlagos, Brazil have decided to have some fun and add some novelty to the race by having Felipe Massa wave the chequered flag to signal the finish of the race.

Taking into consideration what happened to Massa and the fact he is currently out of the racing, that sounds nice and sweet. But imagine if the race was won by Lewis Hamilton this year? I can't imagine the look on Massa's face having to wave the flag for Hamilton at his home race after losing the championship to Lewis last year in such dramatic fashion.

Image courtesy of The F1 Files.

MASSA TO RACE IN 2009?

2009-10-07T00:13:00.002+08:00

That's what the rumours are saying. I'd be very surprised if he did. Currently his fitness is not known so it's just speculation. Although he did come back to Maranello for meetings and sessions in the simulator. It also turns out that Ferrari have asked the stewards whether massa could test the F2007 with GP2 tyres just like Schumacher.

Williams have given their blessing to the test and Ferrari are not saying whether it is confirmed or not. But it seems we'll know something by next week.

JAPANESE GP 2009 RESULTS

2009-10-04T18:51:00.005+08:00

Well, that was quite an exciting race. I say "quite" because it is not really exciting or great. I was expecting more based on what I saw during qualifying yesterday with all the crashes and spins and drama. There was a safety car today though and a heavy crash but still the results were no surprise. By that I mean the top 3 started and finished in the same position.

The start was exciting, yes more exciting than quite exciting, but that was it. Lewis had a good start overtaking Trulli into the first turn and almost taking Vettel with him but the run down to the first turn was too short for his KERS to be effective. On top of that, Vettel had an amazing start, defended his line well and just pulled away like he had an extra 200 horses on that Red Bull. He never looked back since.

Lewis took Trulli into that first turn and stuck to Vettel. All 3 of them had a pretty relaxed race all the way except for when Lewis' KERS gave some problems and switched off. Lewis couldn't restart the thing and it proved fatal in his bid to take Trulli later. Lewis' second pitstop exit was delayed by a couple of tenths. These 2 factors contributed to him unable to pass Trulli when Trulli was exiting the pits. Damn.

Alguersuari had a pretty big spin at 130R and whacked the tyre barriers pretty hard. It was a spectacular crash which brought out the SC with 11 laps to go. The field bunched up and upon the restart, again lewis couldn't take Trulli cos the KERS wasn't working. He also couldn't get near him as the Toyota was pretty much on the pace also.

The Brawns were pretty much in the midfield this race. Button just needing to take it easy and making sure he got some points not too far away from Barrichello which he did by finishing P8 behind Barrichello's P8. He was almost taken by Kubica though, the BMW Sauber looking quite fast hassling Button.

Kovalainnen again drove a "mising" race. By that I mean he was missing most of the time. The only time he stood out was when he was overtaken in the pits by Fisichella and wrestled his position back just after leaving the pitlane. It was a close fight and he won it.

Kimi was his usual self, sleeping from the start of the race and deciding to wake up and really race when the race was run to about 90%. He didn't do too bad though, finishing P4. Poor Mark Webber not only started from the pitlane but had to pit 5 times and finished 2 laps down. Taht was a nightmare race for him.

Overall, quite an exciting race but not exciting enough. I thought the way this track was laid out would give more overtaking opportunities and some brave driving. But in the end it was quite straightforward and by the book. Looking forward to Brazil which is also a damn good track which should produce some exciting racing.

If not for an exciting race, I'd stay up just to see Massa going round telling everybody how he was robbed by Piquet last year at Singapore.

Results
01 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:28:20.443
02 J. Trulli Toyota + 4.877
03 L. Hamilton McLaren + 6.472
04 K. Räikkönen Ferrari + 7.940
05 N. Rosberg Williams + 8.793
06 N. Heidfeld BMW + 9.509
07 R. Barrichello Brawn GP + 10.641
08 J. Button Brawn GP + 11.474
09 R. Kubica BMW + 11.777
10 F. Alonso Renault + 13.065
11 H. Kovalainen McLaren + 13.735
12 G. Fisichella Ferrari + 14.596
13 A. Sutil Force India F1 + 14.959
14 V. Liuzzi Force India F1 + 15.734
15 K. Nakajima Williams + 18.973
16 R. Grosjean Renault + 1 lap(s)
17 M. Webber Red Bull + 2 lap(s)
Did not finish
18 J. Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso + 10 lap(s)
19 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso + 42 lap(s)

RESHUFFLED SUZUKA GRID POSITIONS

2009-10-04T01:42:00.002+08:00

Following the various penalties given to drivers for speeding during a yellow flag, driving around a damaged car and gearbox changes, the new grid positions for today's race will be as follows:-

1st row:
Sebastian Vettel (GER/Red Bull-Renault)
Jarno Trulli (ITA/Toyota)

2nd row:
Lewis Hamilton (GBR/McLaren-Mercedes)
Nick Heidfeld (GER/BMW-Sauber)

3rd row:
Kimi Raikkonen (FIN/Ferrari)
Heikki Kovalainen (FIN/McLaren-Mercedes)

4th row:
Nico Rosberg (GER/Williams-Toyota)
Robert Kubica (POL/BMW-Sauber)

5th row:
Adrian Sutil (GER/Force India-Mercedes)
Rubens Barrichello (BRA/Brawn-Mercedes)

6th row:
Jaime Alguersuari (ESP/Toro Rosso-Ferrari)
Jenson Button (GBR/Brawn-Mercedes)

7th row:
Giancarlo Fisichella (ITA/Ferrari)
Sebastien Buemi (SUI/Toro Rosso-Ferrari)

8th row:
Kazuki Nakajima (JPN/Williams-Toyota)
Romain Grosjean (FRA/Renault)

9th row: Fernando Alonso (ESP/Renault)
Tonio Liuzzi (ITA/Force India-Mercedes)

Pitlane: Timo Glock (GER/Toyota)
Mark Webber (AUS/Red Bull-Renault)

JAPANESE GP 2009 QUALIFYING

2009-10-03T19:08:00.003+08:00

That was an incredible, action filled qualifying. I have never seen the Japanese GP at Suzuka as the place was closed for renovations since 2006. I played the circuit on our F1 simulator this week and found the track to be awesome, challenging and unforgiving to mistakes, even the slightest one.

Yesterday, both free practice was spoiled by the weather. We couldn't really see the cars at their full potential as the best time recorded was 1.47.xxx when I could do 1.32.853 on the simulator. Today, the sun came out and the cars were able to do fast laps on slicks. Boy, were the times telling. Fastest time recorded was 1.30.385 I think. So, I've got some work to do.

And what action this track produces. There were 4 crashes, 1 serious with Timo Glock warded at the hospital with possible leg injuries. Nobody is sure whether he can race tomorrow. There was 3 red flags, multiple yellows and the crashes were spectacular.

The qualifying was close but it was never in doubt that Vettel was on fire the whole weekend. He topped the timesheets in Q1, Q2 and Q3 taking pole by a margin of 0.060 secs. It looks good for him to win but that depends on whether Lewis in P3 can take him before the first corner with KERS and whether his engine can take the heat.

The other Red Bull didn't make it as Webber crashed his car in practice and had to change the chassis thereby starting from the pitlane. It looks like their title challenge is over. Toyota did good with Trulli in P2 but Glock crashed heavily in Q2 and might be hospitalised.

McLaren didn't do too well either even though Lewis got P3, Kovalainnen crashed in Q3 and will start P9. Lewis looked to have the pace but was really beaten by Vettel. It's not too bad though as he starts behind Vettel and has KERS, although the fuel weights will play a factor.

Ferrari fared quite bad as Kimi got P8 and Fisi was way down the order in P16. They don't seem to have a good package for this track. BMW was a surprise as Heidfeld snuck in quietly into P6. he always does that. Kubica though is in P13. The surprise was Sutil, who put his Force India in P4. It seems that Sutil is a very good driver given the right equipment. McLaren might do good to consider him next year.

Alonso didn't look too happy to end up P12. He seems to have blame Buemi for crashing at the right time to disturb his flying lap. Rosberg's lap too might have been spoiled by Buemi. The yellow flag brought about by Buemi it seems was ignored by 4 drivers including Alonso, although he says he was innocent. The result - 4 drivers were given 5 slot grid penalties including Alonso. Anyway, that's racing and they'll have to take it as it is.

The fuel weights reveal different strategies but Lewis might have some advantage with KERS. The grid penalties have also turned things upside down, sad for Sutil. He seems to be struck with bad luck all the time.

Can't wait for the race, it's gonna be a cracker at this track.

Times before penalties
01 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:32.160
02 J. Trulli Toyota 1:32.220
03 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:32.395
04 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:32.466
05 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:32.660
06 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:32.945
07 J. Button Brawn GP 1:32.962
08 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:32.980
09 H. Kovalainen McLaren no time
10 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso no time
11 N. Rosberg Williams 1:31.103
12 F. Alonso Renault 1:31.638
13 R. Kubica BMW 1:32.341
14 T. Glock Toyota no time
15 J. Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso no time
16 G. Fisichella Ferrari 1:31.704
17 K. Nakajima Williams 1:31.718
18 R. Grosjean Renault 1:32.073
19 V. Liuzzi Force India F1 1:32.087

ALONSO CONFIRMED AT FERRARI

2009-10-01T19:11:00.002+08:00

And there you have it, finally and officially. Fernando Alonso has been signed by Ferrari to race for them in the 2010 F1 World Championship, reportedly at a cost of GBP55 for 3 years. Nightmare come true.

But there is a silver lining. The championship next year should be interesting as Lewis can now fight with Alonso again as Alonso will be in a competitive car. Plus Kimi will probably replace Kovalainnen at McLaren, thereby giving Lewis the push he needs to become better and better.

The rest of the driver market is pretty open for now. Read here for the possible outcomes.

Show me the money

2009-09-28T06:54:00.001+08:00

Re-published from Malaysian Insider by Justin Ong

Sept 27 — Motorsports costs money. All sports, to some degree, cost money but more to the point, motorsports costs a lot of money. So much money that only the rich or very talented ever get to participate here in Malaysia.

First there’s the vehicle itself, but rather than being the bulk of your investment, it is merely the gaping hole into which you would proceed to pour all your money into. Modifications can and often do cost more than the car itself. Or even several times the cost of the car.

Once it’s up and running, you need more money to keep it going. Maintenance can be frightening, as things which last years on a normal car regularly run only two or three events, not to mention racing parts are often a magnitude more expensive than standard items. Beyond parts, you’ll also need a crew to keep the vehicle running. That’s money, too.

For the average guy thinking of trying to self-finance his own motorsport career, let me tell you now that it is a financially ruinous venture. Before you know, you’ll have pumped in more money than you actually have. And when you win, you discover the purse barely even covers your tyres.

I’ve seen some amateur participants at local events where it’s blatantly obvious there’s more heart than money. Sometimes that’s just life; these people are in it solely for the thrill. Other times, it’s a crying shame because some of the drivers, if they could find the money, might have gone somewhere.

That’s simply weekend warriors who harbour minor ambitions in auto racing. It’s saddest when professional drivers, people who have bet their lives and livelihoods on the sport, barely scrape enough money together to make the entrance fee. That’s not a shame, that’s a bloody disgrace.

While the country is now supposedly throwing its weight behind the Formula One team currently in conception, it didn’t do very much to help one who was already a proven winner and world champion. Karamjit Singh’s tale is not only poignant, it is the story of motorsports here in Malaysia: Good enough to win, but couldn’t afford the bus fare to get there.

If you followed the travesty of Karam’s troubles — which got so bad he couldn’t even pay to ship his car back from a race — you’ll know motorsports here in Malaysia is a non-starter. If you can’t wrangle enough sponsorship money when you already can show you’re a winner, what hope is there where you’re just starting out?

Maybe rallying is too mucky, too spectator-unfriendly. But then A1GP’s Team Malaysia hasn’t fared much better either.

If there was a motorsport where the whole country could get behind, A1GP has to be it. Billed as the World Cup of motorsports, it pits country against country on the circuits. Now doesn’t this sound like the type of competition that could fuel national pride?

But like most other forms of motorsport here, it’s barely managed to get any kind of serious sponsorship. Certainly not anywhere remotely near the kind of money that’s being touted for the upcoming Lotus F1 team. Though they carried Proton’s emblems on their cars, I don’t know if they ever got paid for it. Or if they did, whether they were paid very much.

Malaysians couldn’t be roused to support a Malaysian team battling it out against Indonesia, Singapore, China, et al. Is there any reason they would back Malaysia versus Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari, and Toyota? I can’t say for sure; maybe they will or maybe they won’t.

But what’s for certain is the reason why Karam and A1GP Team Malaysia have had such a hard time finding sponsorship dollars is because, by and large, Malaysians don’t care for motorsports. Corporate sponsors know this and thus are reluctant to pump any kind of money into it.

Beyond just F1, Malaysia hosts numerous other racing events — both amateur and professional. While the disciplines are diverse, the one unifying characteristic that ties all these races together is the dearth of spectators. Few know about them, and fewer still attend.

It’s just not in our culture. It can be, of course. Just not how it currently is. But until there is concerted effort to promote, cultivate and support the races and racers we already have, it’s going to be hard to see why we should take the Lotus F1 team seriously as a Malaysian motorsport effort. And harder still to see where it can all go.

As a Malaysian-owned venture, sure. As a questionable advertising blitz, maybe. But as a team that’s supposed to mean something to Malaysians all over the country? 1 Malaysia F1 — DNS.

SINGAPORE GP 2009 RESULTS

2009-09-28T01:24:00.002+08:00

McLaren are back! Well, at least half of McLaren. Lewis Hamilton won the race from lights to finish in formidable form and without KERS. His start was impeccable and his lead was never threatened even when his KERS malfunctioned and with the numerous on track incidents with the safety car.

He started well off the line, controlling the pace after that being chased by Vettel and Rosberg. Rosberg also made a great start, overtaking Vettel into the first turn. Both Vettel and Rosberg pressured Lewis but Lewis kept his cool. Unfortunately, both Vettel and Rosberg suffered in the race which cost them a place on the podium.

Kovalainnen again disappoints. Not only did he start the race in tenth but he virtually disappeared fir the whole race. Not much coverage was on him and nobody talked about him in the live online blogs/forum.

Rosberg had a moment when exiting the pits at his first stop and crossed the white line thereby incurring a drive through penalty and Vettel damaged his car, first losing a rear view mirror then breaking off the rear diffuser and damaging the bottom of the car on a kerb. Both dropped down the order, Glock and Alonso benefiting with 2nd and 3rd respectively.

It seems that Singapore is a good hunting ground for Alonso. Both times here he finished on the podium, last year famoulsy winning the race with a little help from Nelson Piquet. This year, a few more incidents and another safety car helped him again.

The Brawns were not on the pace much, concentrating mainly on securing as many points as possible. It seems that the title race will be decided between Button and Barrichello as both Red Bulls screwed up their race this weekend. With no more engines for the rest of the season, it seems unlikely that they will pose much of a threat to the titlle ambitions of Brawn.

Much more of the pace and virtually unheard of during the race (as per Kovalainnen) were the Ferrari duo of Kimi Raikonnen and Giancarlo Fisichella. They were just fighting for scraps in the middle of the pack and were not seen or heard of much (which is the way I like it, I have to admit).

Other than that, the race was quite boring, as I imagined quite a few people will admit to. The track and atmosphere looks fantastic at night but seriously, the racing action is few and far in between. Even on the F1 simulator the track feels quite easy to master and not much of a challenge.

Looking forward to Suzuka next. That is a real racers track with its twists and turns.

SINGAPORE GP 2009 QUALIFYING

2009-09-27T01:58:00.004+08:00

Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the 2nd Singapore GP tonight with a blazing lap of 1.47.891 while Rubens Barrichello crashed into the barriers red-stopping the qualifying session with 30 seconds to go. Lewis was fast all night although it was possible that either Vettel for Rosberg could have beaten him to pole without the red flag.

It could have been a close fight with the pole sitter decided after the chequered flag had fallen as has happened many times before, which would have made it that much more exciting. In fact, Vettel was on fire on that last lap that Rubens crashed with a purple sector 1. But then again Lewis could have been unbeatable as his car was rebuilt overnight after some electrical problems and according to Lewis the car was fantastic to drive and he could have gone quicker if need be.

But that is racing and it does look like the start later could be an interesting one. Fuel weights could play a role later. We'll see.

The Brawns were quite a disappointment with Rubens crashing. Although he stayed at P5, he did change his gearbox and will take a 5 grid place penalty. That still puts him in front of Jensen Button who starts a disappointing P12. The championship battle seems to be between Barrichello and Button but with both Red Bulls in front of them, Vettel P2 and Webber P4, things could still go to the wire at the end of the season.

Kovalainnen again disappoints with a P10, not showing much life throughout the whole qualifying session. This does not bode well for his seat next year. Honestly, McLaren needs Rosberg or Vettel there next year as they can't win the constructors championship with just one driver scoring points.

Ferrari are in for another difficult race with Kimi P13 and Fisichella P18. It looks like the Ferraris are not well balanced here. Last year they left Singapore without any points as Kimi crashed and Massa finishing out of the points after the safety car came out and he tore his refuelling hose.

The 2 BMWs are looking strong with the new updates that they have and could finish in the points with both cars in the top ten after qualifying. These last few races are their chance to show that they can start strong next year and are worthy of a big sponsor. force India disappoints with both drivers languishing near the bottom, expected maybe that their car is not so good with higher downforce tracks.

Others are not even worth a mention as they were not even covered much by the TV cameras. Looking forward to the race later, something tells me with the very dusty track and tight turns there will probably be another safety car which will re-arrange the order halfway and throw out some strategies. Hopefully, some strategies does not include purposely crashing a car again.

Times
01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:47.891
02 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:48.204
03 N. Rosberg Williams 1:48.348
04 M. Webber Red Bull 1:48.722
05 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:48.828
06 F. Alonso Renault 1:49.054
07 T. Glock Toyota 1:49.180
08 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:49.307
09 R. Kubica BMW 1:49.514
10 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:49.778
11 K. Nakajima Williams 1:47.013
12 J. Button Brawn GP 1:47.141
13 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:47.177
14 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:47.369
15 J. Trulli Toyota 1:47.413
16 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:48.231
17 J. Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:48.340
18 G. Fisichella Ferrari 1:48.350
19 R. Grosjean Renault 1:48.544
20 V. Liuzzi Force India F1 1:48.792

1MALAYSIA F1 TEAM MORE INFO

2009-09-26T08:27:00.002+08:00

It seems we were wrong about the government wasting our money on an F1 team in next years' championship. Or are we? A news report, and this was published in Singapore not in Malaysia (I can't seem to find anything reported in the Malaysian press except by Paul Tan), says that the Malaysian government will not be funding the team. The arrangement is as follows:

The Malaysian Government has no equity directly or indirectly in the team, and the team will be funded by a group of companies including Litespeed (which submitted an application to join Formula 1 next year under the name Team Lotus), Naza, and the Tune Group, run by Tony Fernandes, current team principal. Petronas, a very familiar name in Formula 1 (BMW Sauber’s sponsor), is expected to join the team via its Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (a Petronas university in Malaysia), which will collaborate with the team together with UTM (University Teknologi Malaysia – a state owned university) to help develop future Malaysian engineers.

A company called Composites Technology Research Malaysia (CTRM) will also be involved in the team. The Malaysian-based (92% owned by Malaysia’s Ministry of Finance and 8% by Petronas) company produces composite materials for companies like Airbus and Lotus (composite body shell for Lotus Europa S). Team Lotus will be run by Litespeed. Litespeed is an F3 team that is founded by Nino Singh Judge and Steve Kenchington, both ex-Lotus employees. As revealed earlier, the team is expected to introduce its driver line-up by the end of next month.

No equity directly or indirectly? That maybe the case but the government does own 92% of CTRM. And since CTRM will be involved in what I assume to be the carbon fibre components of the car, a lot of money will be spent as carbon fibre components are not cheap to produce.

The report also says that Proton will only license Lotus technology and/or name to the project. What kind of technology will Proton license? Lotus does have F1 heritage but all Lotus cars run around with a Toyota engine. The F1 engine to be used will probably be Cosworth as it is the cheapest one available and the FIA has insisted that new teams use them.

And the chassis will probably be from Litespeed which is not free or cheap. That obviously comes with a set of systems and support which is on a retainer basis. And these don't come at your basic retainer rates.

So, it seems that Naza and Tune will be footing the bill. All a billion of it. Does that make sense for Naza and Tune? Especially since Tune is also sponsoring Williams to the tune (pun intended) of a few million dollars a year. Can Naza or Tune afford the whole setup, maintenance and running of an F1 team? Somebody convince me my money will not be used in this mess?

Sauber confirmed to be using Ferrari power

2009-09-26T00:56:00.003+08:00

Well, the horse has spoken from the mouth. Dr Mario Theissen has confirmed that if and when the new Sauber team gets on the grid next year, they will be using Ferrari engines.

And should the team make the grid, their 2010 challenger will be equipped with Ferrari engines. "It will run a Ferrari power-train," Theissen told Autosport.

Shame no more BMW engines on the grid. And I had so high expectations for my favorite car brand. Well, back to WTCC.

Lotus F1: World’s most expensive paddock club pass?

2009-09-25T09:56:00.002+08:00

Re-published from Malaysian Insider

SEPT 20 — Alex Yoong. What is the first thing that comes to mind when you see the name? If you’re anything like the average Malaysian, Yoong’s name will have become practically synonymous with an internationally broadcast debacle.

Which is a bit of a shame, really. Although Yoong did not make a very strong case for himself in that, the pinnacle of motor racing, he’s actually quite a handy racer. His numerous wins in touring cars are testament enough to his skill and talent behind the wheel. Make no mistake, Yoong was good. Just not good enough for F1.

I admit I was one of those baying for blood after I watched a struggling Yoong — running sixth in a Melbourne GP that looked more demolition derby than Formula One — meekly make way for seventh place Mika Salo, surrendering without a fight what would have been the sole championship point of his career. That was simply too much.

From then on, Yoong’s Formula One career was one embarrassment after another. It came to the point that television commentators, usually quite reverent of F1 drivers, began ridiculing him. The ignominy of it all...

After Yoong lost his F1 drive, I thought he would be consigned to oblivion. Who would want to be associated with a virtual emblem of failure? To his credit, Yoong persevered. For a time, he languished on the sidelines, with part-time drives in minor series, before he finally redeemed himself with a stellar showing in A1GP.

I’ve grown to respect the man. Not for what he did in Formula One, but for what he’s done since. A lesser person who have been crushed by the negativity of an entire nation weighing on him. Enough to maybe make peace with god before going down on a 12-gauge. Not Yoong; he got on with life, got on with the job.

Many, probably most, still associate Yoong with his craptacular performance in Formula One. That’s how life is: when you do good no one remembers, when you do bad no one forgets. And that’s also probably why the upcoming Lotus/1 Malaysia/ Formula One team has been so poorly received.

And I don’t even begin to blame them. Politics and innuendos of public monies being railroaded to fatten some crony’s pockets aside, Formula One is no free ride in the park. So far, we’ve heard figures ranging from RM160 million to RM1.6 billion being talked about as the annual cost of running the team.

The higher end is, of course, what it costs for the teams that want to win. The lower range is, unfortunately, what it’ll take just to come along for the ride. Remember also that this number is only what it will take to run the team. To set it all up, well, that’s going to be quite a bit more.

So where do we want the team to be? Actually challenging for victory or are we happy if we don’t end up holding the wooden spoon? Which then begs the question: If we’re not in it to win it, why are we even doing it at all? Just to be there? To simply make up the numbers? If that’s the case, I can’t see how it would be positive to have Malaysia associated with also-rans, unless that’s what the government is planning to market the country as: mediocre at best.

Because Proton is involved, there’s also talk of “technology transfer”. But seeing as A) they already own Lotus and B) the only thing an F1 car has in common with a road car is they both have four tyres and a steering wheel, you’ve got to wonder just what kind of technology is going to be transferred. Probably the kind that makes better badges — “Handling by Lotus F1”, that’s got to be worth another couple of thousand cars a year at least.

You know how all the companies that sponsor F1 (even if it’s just some sticker on a driver’s helmet) will tell you how their products have “F1 technology” or are developed from “experience earned on the race track”? Not to put it too bluntly, it’s all bullcrap. Nothing in F1 gets into your car, and nothing from your car is used in F1. It’s all chalk and cheese.

I have no idea how much money this entire exercise will cost Proton, but when comparative giants such as Honda and BMW cannot justify the expenditure, can Proton really do so? Also consider that these companies sell on a global scale, so they’ve got even more reason to be there. Proton, well, I guess we’re about due for another Special Edition...

Right now, the details are still sketchy so it’s too soon to point the finger of death at Lotus/1 Malaysia/ F1. Maybe it’ll all get going without the risk of us having to read about a RM12 billion Lotus/1 Malaysia/ F1 scandal a decade from now.

Maybe they’ll actually figure out some way to get up to speed without putting Alex Yoong at risk of losing his status as the butt of every joke involving a Malaysian F1 entry. If they do, they could probably sell the blueprint to Toyota, god knows they could do with one.

Right now, however, I can’t help but think the happiest man in the world goes by the name Alex Yoong.

THE FIA WILL CONTINUE TO BE USELESS

2009-09-23T19:58:00.003+08:00

It seems that the Renault scandal decision was already decided before the WMSC hearing took place. Discussions were made behind closed doors and a decision was made to keep Renault in the championship in the interest of having more teams on the grid and keeping the money making machine rolling. According to Mohammed ben Sulayem, FIA vice-president and United Arab Emirates' automobile club president, "everybody" wanted Renault to stay in the sport.

Everyone with something to gain, that is. According to him, Abu Dhabi made sizable investments into the Abu Dhabi race and they wanted Renault as part of the show. Therefore, Renault couldn't be thrown out but instead they'll throw out justice and rule of law.

"We are not here to hang teams, we did our negotiations before and everybody is happy with the result.
"Protecting the investments Abu Dhabi has made into Formula One is my duty; it is a big show and it needs teams. But this is the pinnacle of motorsport and it needs teams to follow the rules.

"In the current crisis, you cannot go around hitting people and causing severe damage.

Funny, they hung McLaren out to dry and fed them to the dogs after that. It turns out that Sulayem is Jean Todt's man. Is this the kind of future FIA management of F1 that we want to have? Max Mosley controlling the sport from the shadows, manipulating it as he always has. If this is the future, then we are in for a stressful life indeed.

Doubts over Formula for unity

2009-09-23T16:16:00.001+08:00

Re-published from The Sun

I AM not going to be a wet blanket, in prematurely criticising the government’s plan to enter Formula One.

The timing – in the midst of the global financial crisis – is probably questionable as this will cost us at least RM1 billion. The bulk of this money comes from national carmaker Proton, which in effect means the people are funding it.

There is a theory that the Finance Ministry will approve more special draws to help fund this venture.

However, in the long run, this may be one of our best investments; one of the best things Malaysia could have done in putting itself on the map. In terms of branding we are exposed 18 times a year – the number of races – to a global television audience of around 600 million.

Let’s not forget the potential tie-ups, endorsements and sponsorship deals which are a usual spin-off of a massive agreement such as this.

It also creates jobs and other opportunities through massive R&D investments, offering limitless prospects to local students for internships, training and attachments.

Ferrari, for instance, has a team of close to 800 people, including 200 frontline crew involved in pit and technical aspects of the race.

Now, with the Lotus name we cannot go wrong. The name itself evokes memories of the 79 grand prix wins that the team had before it folded and was bought by Proton.

But as the Malay saying goes, let this not be a case of "kera dapat bunga". In the hands of Datuk Tony Fernandes, one is more confident that our second foray into F1, albeit ambitious, will not go the way of our first venture with Team Minardi in 2001, with Alex Yoong being the country’s first ever F1 driver.

Minardi languished at the bottom and Yoong could boast of a position no higher than seventh place in Melbourne, when the other teams crashed out. Malaysia spent what is estimated at RM120 million in the tie-up and Yoong returned to the less competitive A1 race.

The worry is while we can impress with high-tech facilities and state-of-the-art headquarters complete with wind tunnel at the SIC (Sepang International Circuit), whether we can produce world-class performances from our drivers and technology is another story.

We can spend big bucks and pay millions for top notch drivers, but then, he will only be as good as the car he is driving.

Vitantonio Liuzzi, who is at the bottom of the drivers standings, cost Force India RM5 million a season, while Force’s chief engineer Mike Gascoyne is F1’s most expensive engineer at RM28.8 million a year.

Can we afford these kinds of salaries for average showings?

In our quest to put a Malaysian face in the cockpit, do we sacrifice quality and experience for Malaysia Boleh?

Probably, and we could end up a laughing stock languishing at the bottom of the 13-team race.

Hence, we need to be practical and ask ourselves what is the main motivation for the conception of the 1Malaysia F1 Team. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak’s explanation: "It will be a national team under the 1 Malaysia banner which stands as a unifying foundation for all Malaysians to come together in celebrating the cooperation between our multiethnic, multicultural and multireligious society through sports."

If one needed to use sports as a unifying factor, one only needs to go back in time to the era of the Malaysia Cup, the Thomas Cup and the Razak Cup to witness how for the sheer love of sports, Malaysians irrespective of ethnicity came together to cheer the multiethnic national teams.

The last time we witnessed a dramatic surge in national pride in the sporting arena was the 1998 KL Commonwealth Games.

Nicol David had succeeded to a certain measure in becoming a unifying factor through sports. The only set-back is that not many people follow squash.

If enhancing national unity is the main agenda, perhaps instead of spending RM200 million a year on an F1 team, we could explore strengthening the sports we already have.

Football has a tremendous following from Malaysians of all walks of life. It was only 30 years ago that we wore Pahang, Selangor and Kedah shirts with the same pride that we have today in adorning jerseys of Manchester United, Chelsea and Real Madrid.

Perhaps tweaking the organisation of sports associations and getting the deadwood out of the Football Association of Malaysia would be a cheaper and sure-fire way of getting football stadiums full again and reviving some of that national pride.

There is nothing to say Fernandes and the executives at Naza are not going to do a good job. Probably if anyone can get our F1 dreams on track it is the team unveiled by the prime minister on Tuesday. But at the end of the day, they are businessmen whose main focus is flying low-cost carriers and selling cars.

Malaysians would want to know what was the fine print when they signed on the dotted line and when do we pull the plug if this ends up draining our coffers yet again.

THE FIA IS USELESS

2009-09-23T12:35:00.004+08:00

I say it again, the FIA is useless, fucking useless. The inconsistencies in their regulations and the way they enforce it is really making me sick to the core. I'm of course talking about the latest round of crap policing in the wake of the Nelson Piquet Jr/Renault race fixing scandal of the 2008 Singapore GP.

The excuse given by FIA president Max Mosley is so stupid it beggars belief. Even a non F1 person would find it hard to believe such stupid excuses given by Max. He said:

"The penalty that we have imposed is the harshest one we can inflict, which is disqualification, and it is complete expulsion from the sport," Mosley said. "However, because Renault demonstrated that they had absolutely no moral responsibility for what took place – that is to say Renault F1 the team did not know and still less did the company have any responsibility – it would be wrong in the circumstances to impose an immediate penalty. I think we've demonstrated that we've dealt with it."

Dealt with it? Nothing happened to Renault. Only Flavio and Pat Symonds bore the brunt of the action. Renault were only made to pay the costs of the investigation, which costs as much as Max's sex romp with a couple of prostitutes for an hour. It's unbelievable, Max called the punishment "unparalleled severity", the rest of the world feels it's more like "unparalleled leniency". Damon Hill says it's a crying shame and it's just a game by Bernie.

"Formula One has to ask itself, is it just a very expensive form of entertainment or a proper sport? There is a whole book on what's wrong with Formula One. It's called Bernie's Game and the history of this episode is typical."

What is needed is a radical change at the FIA with people who have some form of consistency and righteousness to manage the sport. Planet F1's editorial seems to have hit it spot on then they said:

The affair only reinforces the view that there needs to be a new broom at the FIA and that when Max Mosley retires, Ari Vatanen should take over. Most important is the consistent application of F1's rules. Had the Singapore race stewards enforced the rules that were so strictly adhered to in Belgium (about leaving the track) just two races previously, then Alonso would have been serving a drive-through not cheating his way to victory. Also, it was the poor framing of the Safety Car rules that led to Briatore and Symmonds being able to exploit a situation where cars couldn't pit for fuel when they needed to, without a penalty.

The only certainty that we have from this episode is that if it was McLaren, it would have been much much more severe. It shows what a fuckhead Max Mosley is and how insane are the powers that control the FIA are. Both Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone have to go for the good of the sport. Keith from F1Fanatic puts it squarely:

Max Mosley refused to acknowledge the craven manner in which the FIA backed down from punishing Renault yesterday.

He insisted the team received “the harshest [penalty] we can impose”, which was patently false given that they kept all the points and money earned by their ill-gotten victory, and have not been banned from any events.

With every race my enthusiasm drops by a point. I still love the technical aspect of the sport, the prowess of the drivers, the many other detailed things that make F1 great but seriously, the politicians in the sport must go. They are fucking up a great sport and entertainment for us fans just like politicians in Malaysia are fucking up a great country.

A lot of people have argued about Renault, Alonso, Piquet, Flavio, Symonds, cheating, can we believe what ever is happening on the track, is it all fixed? In the end, it all comes down to the FIA. The Fia has to be cleaned up. No more dodgy rules, no more dodgy race stewards, no more decisions that looks to be favoring one side only. The sport will fix itself because it won't have to play safe or try to cheat because the FIA is creating the wrong environment for it.

Clean up the FIA and the sport will clean itself up. We will have cleaner, fairer and more entertaining races. Real racing.

Renault slapped with two-year suspended ban

2009-09-22T09:14:00.002+08:00

What did I tell you? I'm somehow not surprised that they wouldn't be thrown out of the championship or receive a heavier penalty. What did we expect? Their team name does not spell McLaren. It seems to me that Flavio got out just in time and Max got his going away present. Perhaps losing BMW and the threat of Toyota leaving was just too much of a drain on the sport.

Seems that the rules can be bent for some people for not for others. Makes me sick just thinking about it. You can see how short this post is as I'm lost for words.

2010 F1 RACE PROVISIONAL CALENDAR

2009-09-22T07:13:00.003+08:00

The WMSC has unveiled the provisional calendar for the 2010 World Championship and it has 19 races on it with Canada still awaiting approval. I do hope Canada is confirmed soon. So far it looks good with Korea the newest track there.

Formula One 2010 calendar
Mar 14 - Bahrain (Sakhir)
Mar 28 - Australia (Melbourne, starting at 1700 local time)
Apr 4 - Malaysia (Sepang, starting at 1600 local time)
Apr 18 - China (Shanghai)
May 9 - Spain (Barcelona)
May 23 - Monaco (Monte Carlo)
May 30 - Turkey (Istanbul)
Jun 13 - Canada (Montreal, provisional)
Jun 27 - Europe (Valencia)
Jul 11 - Great Britain (Donington Park)
Jul 25 - Germany (Hockenheim)
Aug 1 - Hungary (Budapest)
Aug 29 - Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps)
Sep 12 - Italy (Monza)
Sep 26 - Singapore (starting at 2000 local time)
Oct 3 - Japan (Suzuka)
Oct 17 - South Korea (Yongam)
Oct 31 - Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina, starting at 1700 local time)
Nov 14 - Brazil (Interlagos)

WOULD MASSA HAVE BEEN WORLD CHAMPION WITHOUT CRASHGATE?

2009-09-21T10:21:00.004+08:00

A lot of people are speculating about this issue, whether the Crashgate incident would have affected the 2008 championship. Of course Massa fans now are crying foul and speculating left, right and centre how Lewis didn't deserve the title and how Massa should have won it and now the proof is there with Crashgate. They will continue to whine about it with or without Crashgate anyway.

The way I look at it is that it didn't make a difference. As Lewis has stressed, he deserved the title and fought hard for it. He was hampered a few times by the rules but he still won anyway. There are a few things that could have happened with Crashgate:

There were a few more races after Singapore, even if Massa won there Lewis could still win the other races or Massa could have screwed up and Lewis would still have been champion.
Or Massa could have won the other races and become champion outright but he didn't. It still came down to the wire in Brazil.
During the Singapore race, Massa/Ferrari screwed up and ripped the fuel hose thereby fucking up his pitstop. Without Crashgate, his race was still fucked and he didn't score points.

Actually, come to think of it, Crashgate had nothing to do with Massa losing the title. The fucked up pitstop did it. Everybody needs to get over it. Talking about this incident, now Alonso has been summoned to appear at the hearing today and was he surprised. I said before that it's impossible for him not to know something was going down.

LEWIS vs MIKA

2009-09-19T08:42:00.006+08:00

Lewis is at it again. The last time he started by fighting with Alonso over who was better, at the hotel, on the road and almost everywhere else. They were both trumped by Mika in the end. Then Lewis tried it again with Steve McQueen. Now, he's arguing with Mika over whose idea it was to come out with the Johnny Walker Join The Pact. If you don't believe me, watch the video here. Picture courtesy of emercedes.com

Fernandes to quit as Lotus F1 team boss soon

2009-09-18T15:55:00.002+08:00

What rubbish is this? Just announced the setting up of the team with his name as Team Principal then now saying he'll be TP for a few races. Just to taste the glamour of being TP is it? Able to hang around with Vijay and Martin on the pitwall for a few races. My advice is don't even bother. Let somebody like Gascoyne run the show from the start and get things moving.

Also, they announced the car will be ready by January and testing in February. 1 month of testing with last years' car is bad enough as we've seen before but this is suicide. I'm sorry to berate the team so much but I can just see their downfall. I just can't stand the wastefull lifestyle that these people lead. If they waste their money it's ok but this is our money. What the hell?

NEW SAUBER MIGHT USE FERRARI ENGINES

2009-09-17T05:57:00.003+08:00

Reports from German press are speculating that the new owners of BMW Sauber might be using Ferrari engines and transmissions when they line up on the grid next year. The entry is almost a certainty on then grid as the team has been sold for EUR80 million to Qadbak Investments and all the infrastructure is already in place.

I'm just sad to see no BMW engines will be on the grid next year. I'm such a fan of BMW (the car) and was hoping they'd be able to show their engineering prowess there but F1 is such that the whole has to be more the equal sum of its parts to succeed. Enter the Malaysian F1 team....sigh.

BRIATORE AND SYMONDS LEAVE RENAULT

2009-09-17T05:33:00.003+08:00

It's official, Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds have stepped down from their positions at Renault in the middle of all this crashgate fiasco. Or were they asked to leave by Carlos Ghosn the boss of Renault? Could be either way.

At the very least, Max got his going away present, that is to see another team boss axed. I'm not sure though whether this has any bearing on the on going trial for cheating by Renault F1. Renault has decided not to contest the charge which leads one to believe that they admitted to cheating and voluntarily causing the crash.

A statement from the team read: "The ING Renault F1 Team will not dispute the recent allegations made by the FIA concerning the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

The radio transcripts were also released but did not show much. It does sound genuine but then again, there's always 2 sides to every story. If you were going to cheat, you wouldn't want to make it look like you were cheating right? It seems that in this case, anything goes. But the part that I dislike the most is that a lot of people are guessing that even if Renault were found guilty by the WMSC, they won't be thrown out of the championship like McLaren was 2 years ago. Now, how fair is that?

The FIA have the power to exclude Renault from the Championship, although it is anticipated such a strict penalty will not be administered.- Planet F1

This charge and the result of the actions during the Singapore GP 2008 was and is more serious than what happened with McLaren in the spygate saga. How can Renault not be thrown out of the championship and fined a record amount? That should be the minimum punishment. If the WMSC does not mete out this punishment then it would be clear to all that they and the FIA are not relevant anymore.

Malaysia’s own F1 team

2009-09-16T12:50:00.006+08:00

Oh My God! That was my first reaction when I heard rumours about Malaysia wanting to have a F1 team. I fainted when the news came true. This is the last thing that we need. There are so many reasons why we shouldn't just jump into it like this.

I am so pissed off that these people actually thought about it. The first and most important reason that we shouldn't jump into this is because it was thought up, run by and will controlled by politicians. Like most Malaysian sports, it will be fucked up because these people are in charge.

Secondly, we have no racing history and knowledge to speak of. There are not that many Malaysians trained and with experience in motorsports of any level. We don't even have a proper grassroots program. The absence of such a program speaks volumes of the government's commitment to motorsports. What makes them think they can just create a F1 entry and become successful at it?

Thirdly, the Malaysian government's attitude is not like other countries especially Dubai where they get the best for the best results and give full control and creative freedom to achieve the targets. The Malaysian government is too scared to give freedom to the people assigned to do their jobs. Just look at how the many talks between Proton and VW that have failed. This attitude is what is hampering foreign investments and growth in this country.

Looking at the proposed structure of the F1 team, Mike Gascoyne has been made Technical Director but not Team Principal. That job goes to Tony Fernandes. See what I mean by control? Gascoyne will be frustrated within 6 months at all the bureaucracy bullshit and the team will get nowhere.

As a follower of F1, even without in depth knowledge of how the sport operates, I know that even with 1 element out of place the team will not succeed at much. The Malaysian team is the other way around, they probably only have 1 element that is working and not the rest. This looks like another huge waste of money again, something which the Malaysian politicians are so good at. They just want the glamour.

Another thing, the announcement came so fast that the Malaysian team has been accepted into the 2010 Championship ignoring other established and deserving teams like Prodrive. Even the BMW entry has been given the cold shoulder and might be considered later as a 14th entry. What does that tell you? That means that Bernie has some of my money already. How did Malaysia suddenly have so much influence at the FIA and FOM?

I'm really lost for words for these people. Something is wrong when they announced the entry and Petronas was not there. Petronas has years of experience being a sponsor of a team in F1 and they are missing. What does that tell you about this venture? Petronas not being around also means that the taxpayer is footing the bill.

I won't be saying that I'm from Malaysia anymore when I join online F1 forums from now on. Of course I want my national team to do well but this effort is just about glamour and sucking money from the country. The money is better spent on developing a national grassroots program starting with go karts. Somehow I just can't see it working out. And Lotus has a prestigious pedigree in F1, these people better not screw that up.

ITALIAN GP 2009 RESULTS

2009-09-14T20:29:00.005+08:00

What can I say? It was shaping up to be a great race and in a way it was. Lewis was on pole, Sutil in the Force India was P2, even Liuzzi was up there in 7th. A lot of cars were on a one stopper which should have mixed up the strategies.

For the first time in years, the start of the Italian GP at Monza did not have a first turn smash up. That first turn is notoriuosly tight and is at the end of a long straight. Either there is a mash up there or people would be all over the place cutting corners. Surprisingly, everybody got through safely. The only close call was when a few cars touched here and there causing damage to front wings like Kubica.

The worth mention was Brawn GP and Ross Brawn. A brilliant strategy from Ross, with both his drivers starting from 6th and 7th but with a one stopper and the pace that they had, they managed to win the race with a 1-2.

The thing that wrecked my weekend was when after chasing down Button from 4s to 1.2s, Lewis was pushing too hard and crashed his car on the last lap. On the last lap. He should have known that with 1.2s apart and a lap to go, there was no way of catching and passing him. He should have just kept 3rd place. It would have been a good 6 points and kept Raikonnen from the podium. But both have lost their chance at the title this year and it could be over for the Red Bulls too.

And not helping was Kovalainnen who got overtaken so many times I lost count. He even got overtaken by Liuzzi at Parabolica. It looked like he was giving places for free all day. Seriously, McLaren cannot rely on just 1 driver to get the points next year.

Sutil was incredible, the Force India car is incredible able to keep pace with Raikonnen and sometimes kissing his ass. But that KERS was keeping him from swallowing Kimi up. Other than that, there was nothing much to shout about besides the fact that the 2 Toyotas were battling each other out like it was a do or die battle for the championship. Trulli made a mistake with Nakajima, lost position to Glovk and didn't want to back off. He slid off the track trying to overtake Glock on the outside of Lesmo. Crazy.

Now looking forward to Singapore. Wished that I could go there.

Results
01 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:16.21.706
02 J. Button Brawn GP + 2.866
03 K. Räikkönen Ferrari + 30.664
04 A. Sutil Force India F1 + 31.131
05 F. Alonso Renault + 59.182
06 H. Kovalainen McLaren + 1:00.693
07 N. Heidfeld BMW + 1:02.412
08 S. Vettel Red Bull + 1:05.407
09 G. Fisichella Ferrari + 1:06.856
10 K. Nakajima Williams + 2:42.163
11 T. Glock Toyota + 2:43.925
12 L. Hamilton McLaren + 1 lap(s)
13 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 lap(s)
14 J. Trulli Toyota + 1 lap(s)
15 R. Grosjean Renault + 1 lap(s)
16 N. Rosberg Williams + 2 lap(s)
Did not finish
17 V. Liuzzi Force India F1 + 31 lap(s)
18 J. Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso + 34 lap(s)
19 R. Kubica BMW + 38 lap(s)
20 M. Webber Red Bull + 53 lap(s)

ITALIAN GP 2009 QUALIFYING

2009-09-12T23:33:00.004+08:00

That was one of the tightest qualifying ever. It was bright and sunny in Monza, a perfect day for getting the tyres up to temperature and pushing the car through Parabolica. McLaren did an excellent strategy and both cars got into the groove pretty easily and quickly in every session. Q3 was the most interesting as Lewis did a fast 2 lap run on the soft tyres to make sure he stayed near the top and then with a few minutes remaining changed to the harder tyres for the banzai lap that got him the pole from Sutil. He was surprised though at his pace.

And talking about Sutil, what a performance. He was on fire the whole day and would have gotten pole if not for a small mistake in the last lap. In fact, the situation tells us a few facts about the current balance of power. It seems that Force Indis has found the sweet spot on their car since Spa. It has performed incredibly fast and well balanced. Not only was Sutil fast without KERS (a he managed to stay about 2 tenths apart from Lewis) but Liuzzi without testing could bring the car home in 7th.

Both force India cars are in the top 10 and that is great. It shakes up the grid and will give the front runners a fight. I can't wait to watch the race. I wonder if Fisichella is having nightmares now? He must be kicking himself in the ass for leaving Force India when they have a solid car that can compete with the likes of McLaren, Ferrari, Brawn or Red Bull. Imagine being beaten tomorrow by Sutil or not even scoring points while Sutil or even Liuzzi does.

Ferrari is there again hanging at Lewis' coatails. It seems that Kimi is always just behind Lewis. It will be interesting to see how the start pans out tomorrow with 3 KERS cars surrounding Sutil. I have a feeling he will get boxed in before the first turn.

Kovalainnen again is disappointing as he managed 4th in the same car as Lewis. Rosberg although languishing at the back somewhere must be grinning. with him in the other McLaren, not only will McLaren score more points as a team but Lewis will be pushed to achieve greater heights.

The Brawns are not a s strong as expected on a hot track today but they are just within reach so I'd not bet against them. Also Alonso as he has the KERS on his car this weekend. The Red Bulls were disappointing but it was expected as they have very little engines left and have to conserve them. a shame really as I wanted to see Vettel finish strongly this season. A stupid regulation scuppered his hopes and a fantastic battle ahead.

Surprising also was a double engine blow up for BMW. Both cars ended up in the midfield. And the worst of the pack was Williams with both cars at the back of the grid. Toyota also not looking good, doesn't bode well for their continued participation in F1.

All in all, an exciting qualifying because lewis was fighting a Force India for pole and pole was grabbed after the flag was thrown. The race is gonna be a cracker.

Times
01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:24.066
02 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:24.261
03 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:24.523
04 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:24.845
05 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:25.015
06 J. Button Brawn GP 1:25.030
07 V. Liuzzi Force India F1 1:25.043
08 F. Alonso Renault 1:25.072
09 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:25.180
10 M. Webber Red Bull 1:25.314
11 J. Trulli Toyota 1:23.611
12 R. Grosjean Renault 1:23.728
13 R. Kubica BMW 1:23.866
14 G. Fisichella Ferrari 1:23.901
15 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:24.275
16 T. Glock Toyota 1:24.036
17 K. Nakajima Williams 1:24.074
18 N. Rosberg Williams 1:24.121
19 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:24.220
20 J. Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:24.951

CRASHGATE PART 2

2009-09-11T18:35:00.004+08:00

It seems now that Crashgate is confirmed as leaked transcript of the investigation interview with Piquet is available and reported widely. It's only a question of who is the culprit - was it Piquet or Flavio that suggested/instructed the crash. Either was, a deliberate crash was orchestrated and cheating happened at the 2008 Singapore GP.

Alonso has denied any knowledge of the planned crash, saying he was "shocked" to learn of this. Funny thing is, according to Piquet Alonso was put on an aggressive strategy where he would pit on lap 12 because the crash would happen on lap 13/14. This is what Piquet said:

"The key to this strategy resided in the fact that the near-knowledge that the safety car would be deployed in lap thirteen/fourteen allowed the Team to start Mr. Alonso's car with an aggressive fuel strategy using a light car containing enough fuel to arrive at lap twelve, but not much more.

I wonder why didn't Alonso question that strategy call? Didn't he feel funny to be pitting in so early compared to the others? A driver with his caliber and experience was totally oblivious to it?

HAMILTON vs ALONSO

2009-09-10T21:30:00.005+08:00

Well part 2 of this epic battle could start again when Ferrari reveal the worst kept secret in F1. I'm inclined to believe and have accepted the fact that Alonso will be moving to Ferrari soon. It could be next year or the year after that but the fact is he will move there. It has got closer now that Santander is officially signing with Ferrari.

With Renault now accused of race fixing, this move would be a good idea. Provided of course, Alonso doesn't get caught up with the whole sorry mess as he himself has denied it.

What is interesting is that Lewis is actually looking forward to the battle. With Alonso in a Ferarri, it would present a huge challenge to him and he likes challenges. Somehow, I would like to see it too. Yes Alonso is good and Ferrari are strong. But the stronger they are, the harder they fall. Go Lewis.