F1 2009

[Pete McCluskey.]

Brawn are fuel heavy compared to Mclaren and Red Bull. Given the difficulty of passing on this circuit it seems Brawn will try and do it in the Pits. It should be interesting.
P.



Pre-race weights & provisional grid


<!-- ArticleBodyStart -->For the 2009 season, the FIA are making public the weights of all cars ahead of the race start to help give an idea of relative fuel loads. The cars that made Q3 are weighed after qualifying, while the weights of the remaining cars must be declared by their teams shortly after the session.

Below is the provisional grid for the European Grand Prix with each car's weight.

1. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 653kg
2. Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren, 655
3. Rubens Barrichello, Brawn GP, 662.5
4. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 654
5. Jenson Button, Brawn GP, 661.5
6. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 661.5
7. Nico Rosberg, Williams, 665
8. Fernando Alonso, Renault, 656.5
9. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 664.5
10. Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber, 657.5
11. Nick Heidfeld, BMW Sauber, 677
12. Adrian Sutil, Force India, 672.5
13. Timo Glock, Toyota, 694.7
14. Romain Grosjean, Renault, 677.7
15. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 688.5
16. Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India, 692.5
17. Kazuki Nakajima, Williams, 702
18. Jarno Trulli, Toyota, 707.3
19. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso, 678.5
20. Luca Badoer, Ferrari, 690.5

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Vettel has only one new engine and several used engines left for the rest of the season.
Once they are gone he will incur grid penalties. are we going to see situations like this?


Intercepted radio transmission:

"OK Sebastian - keep it under 90 MPH for 56 laps, and THEN
you can open up a bit- say 100 MPH or so - but for goodness sake,
stay out of the way of other drivers! Good luck Sebastian! We're
counting on you!! Just go EASY!!!":laugh::laugh:

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

The Indian Government has ruled that F1 is not a sport! Well they got that right. From pitpass.com.


The Indian Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sport has vetoed a payment from Indian Grand Prix promoter JPSK Sports to Formula One Administration, saying that Formula 1 is not a sport. The payment of $36.5m should have been made in January but JPSK had to ask permission of the Reserve Bank of India, which controls all international transfers, under the terms of the Foreign Exchange Management Act. The bank referred the question to the ministry, which rejected the request, arguing that the sport might be "an entertainment" but was fundamentally a "commercial initiative". It argued that India does not need F1 and that the same money could be spent on other sports which would be more relevant to the general population. This is, of course, an irrelevant argument as JPSK has no plans to spend the money on anything other than F1.
The news is the latest twist in the story of the Indian Grand Prix, an idea that has been kicking around for 10 years. The concept has been championed since the late 1990s by British businessman Michael Taub. In recent years he has been supported by an Indian entrepreneur named Sunder Mulchandani. They were hoping for Indian government backing for the project and a deal was originally announced in the middle of 2007 involving the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), which is headed by Suresh Kalmadi, a member of the Indian National Congress political party, which is the leading player in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the ruling coalition that supports the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Kalmadi served as a junior minister in the national government in the 1990s.
The IOA, however, failed to find the funding needed and had to withdraw but in November 2007 a new deal was announced involving JPSK Sports, which was owned by the vast Jaypee construction conglomerate. It later emerged that Kalmadi's son, daughter and son-in-law are all shareholders and directors in JPSK, as is Mulchandani. During 2008 JPSK negotiated a deal over land with the state of Uttar Pradesh, which is run by Kumari Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party. This was allied to the UPA until June that year but then withdrew its support. This clearly did not go down well with the government. The deal with Mayawati was done in September, with 2500 acres being declared a Special Economic Zone. The plan is to use 1000 acres for the race track and the rest for other developments, in a project which will ultimately cost around $500m.
It may be that the project is being blocked by the government because of the involvement of Mayawati.
JPSK says that it remains committed to the project despite the glitch. Bernie Ecclestone will no doubt be willing to give the Indians a certain amount of leeway because he is keen to get the sport into the Indian market, and to get his hands on the estimated $400m that JPSK has agreed to pay in fees in the course of the next 10 years. This means that the race contract will start out at around $25m a year and will rise by 10% for the 10 year term of the contract. The inaugural Grand Prix is scheduled for 2011 and work will need to begin fairly soon if there is to be a circuit built in the time available. The construction itself should not be a problem because that money will remain inside India. However, JPSK may be a little unwilling to start paying out for the building work when the contract is not 100% certain. Ecclestone is not going to be keen to sit around and wait for the Indians to sort themselves out.
The rejection of the payment has been confirmed by Sameer Gaur, who runs JPSK. He says that the project is continuing and that his company is still fully committed to getting the event organised in 2011.
"We are building a motor car racing track capable of holding an F1 race," he said. "It could be used for other purposes too, like a motorbike race."
He says that the ministry is overlooking the economic benefits of the race for tourism and the country.
All things considered this is a very bad advertisement for India and does little to encourage the international business community to get involved in the Indian markets. Having said that, we may now have an explanation for Force India team owner Vijay Mallya's failure to pay his bills in F1.

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

WTF is Luca Badoer doing out there? He is embarrassing, surely Ferrari can find someone else?

 

[Price Walton]

From what I've seen, he's over doing it. Would go better just letting it flow a bit more. (he says with his extensive F1 experience :embarassed

 

[Malcolm]

Looks like he has overdone it now for good! Just as well I found and collected the bit of my wing mirror that dropped off when I visited Spa recently, Badoer would have parked right on top of it otherwise!

 

[Grady]

It was stated on SPEED TV here in the states this morning that Giancarlo Fisichella is to be in the car in Italy. I may have not had enough coffee and misunderstood Davis Hobbs. The time from P1 to the back is around 1 second, and the Ferrari of Badoer was the fastest through the speed trap at over 200 mph. I guess you really need to stay on the track to be in the run.

I can't get over his letting a car by in the pit lane last week. MS would be a great poker player if you saw his face after that mistake.

We'll see what tomorrow brings....wish I were there at the bottom of the downhill run. Anyone got the weights yet?

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Here you go!

Below is the provisional grid for the Belgian Grand Prix with each car's weight.

1. Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India, 648kg
2. Jarno Trulli, Toyota, 656.5
3. Nick Heidfeld, BMW Sauber, 655
4. Rubens Barrichello, Brawn GP, 644.5
5. Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber, 649
6. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 655
7. Timo Glock, Toyota, 648.5
8. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 662.5
9. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 658
10. Nico Rosberg, Williams, 670
11. Adrian Sutil, Force India, 678.5
12. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 693.5
13. Fernando Alonso, Renault, 684.4
14. Jenson Button, Brawn GP, 694.2
15. Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren, 697
16. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 685
17. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso, 704.5
18. Kazuki Nakajima, Williams, 706.1
19. Romain Grosjean, Renault, 704.7
20. Luca Badoer, Ferrari, 691.5

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

I don't think Mr. Webber will be very happy with his pit crew.

 

[David Morton]

From the Times :

FIA launches grand prix ‘fix’ probe




<!-- END: Module - Main Heading --><!--CMA user Call Diffrenet Variation Of Image --><!-- BEGIN: Module - M24 Article Headline with portrait image (b) --><SCRIPT src="/tol/js/m24-image-browser.js" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT><SCRIPT type=text/javascript><!--/* Global variables that are used for "image browsing". Used on article pages to rotate the images of a story. */var sImageBrowserImagePath = '';var aArticleImages = new Array();var aImageDescriptions = new Array();var aImageEnlargeLink = new Array();var aImageEnlargePopupWidth = '500';var aImageEnlargePopupHeight = '500';var aImagePhotographer = new Array();var nSelectedArticleImage = 0;var i=0;var aImageAltText= new Array(); //--></SCRIPT><SCRIPT type=text/javascript><!--aArticleImages = '/multimedia/archive/00607/nelson_piquet_junio_607432a.jpg';//--></SCRIPT><!--Don't Display undifined test for credit --><SCRIPT type=text/javascript><!--aImageAltText = "Nelson Piquet Jr" ; aImageAltText = aImageAltText.replace(/&quot;/g,"\"");//--> </SCRIPT><SCRIPT type=text/javascript><!--aImageEnlargeLink = '/multimedia/archive/00607/nelson_piquet_junio_607432a.jpg';i=i+1;//--> </SCRIPT><!-- Print Author name from By Line associated with the article -->Edward Gorman Motor Racing Correspondent Spa, Belgium




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<!-- END: Module - Module - M24 Article Headline with portrait image (b) --><!-- BEGIN: Module - Main Article --><!-- Check the Article Type and display accordingly--><!-- Print Author image associated with the Author--><!-- Print the body of the article--><STYLE type=text/css>div#related-article-links p a, div#related-article-links p a:visited {color:#06c;} </STYLE><!-- Pagination -->Formula One was plunged into a new cheating crisis on Sunday night after it emerged that the sport’s governing body is investigating claims that a Renault driver was ordered to crash his car to help his team-mate to win a race.
Even as Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix, which was won by Kimi Raikkonen for Ferrari, was under way, the FIA confirmed that it is launching an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Nelson Piquet Jr’s crash at the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix last September.
“The FIA can confirm that an investigation is under way regarding alleged events at a previous World Championship race,” a spokesperson said. Should the investigation suggest there is evidence of foul play, the governing body could call a hearing of its World Motor Sport Council, which could impose huge fines or other penalties on Renault.
The inquiry comes a month after Piquet was sacked by Renault and replaced by Romain Grosjean, from France. The Brazilian — the son of Nelson Piquet Sr, the former world champion — was furious over his treatment by Flavio Briatore, the Renault team principal, whom he claimed had not behaved as a manager to him but as his “executioner”.
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• Alonso’s ‘lucky’ Singapore win back in spotlight

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<!-- END: Module - M63 - Article Related Attachements -->The FIA did not reveal the identity of its informant and there is no suggestion that it was Piquet. But it is understood that it has been supplied with fresh evidence about what happened during Formula One’s first floodlit grand prix, which was won by Fernando Alonso, the Brazilian’s team-mate.
Central to its inquiries will be the timing of Piquet’s crash into the barriers on the fourteenth lap of the 61-lap race, which came only two laps after Alonso had gambled on an unusually early first refuelling stop. Piquet was not hurt in the incident, which did not involve any other cars, but it spread debris all over the track and brought out the safety car.
This proved the turning point in the race. While most of Alonso’s rivals were forced into the pits in the wake of the safety car, the Spanish double world champion was able to take the lead without having to stop. At the time, Piquet claimed he had lost control and spun because he was trying too hard.
“It was my mistake,” Piquet said immediately after the race. “We tried two extreme strategies with Fernando quite short and me quite long in the hope of getting a safety car. If I hadn’t crashed, I would have been lucky with the safety car later in the race. We’re always scraping the walls and once you’ve touched the wall a little too much and lose control, that’s it.”
Alonso admitted that the idea of winning “seemed to be impossible” after errors in qualifying left him fifteenth on the grid in a car that had not won all season. “It is a fantastic first victory,” he said at the time. “I cannot believe it right now. I need a couple of days to realise we won a race this year. The first safety car helped me a lot and I was able to win.”
The investigation marks the second “cheating” scandal to hit Formula One this season after Lewis Hamilton and a senior member of the McLaren Mercedes team were found to have lied to the stewards at the Australian Grand Prix in March.
In Sunday’s race in Spa, Hamilton and Jenson Button, the championship leader, were forced to retire after a first-lap collision

 

[David Morton]

If this one above is proved to be true I cannot see how any such team could survive - especially a team belonging to a car manufacturer. It could be devastating to Renault.

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

You just beat me to it David I was about to paste the same story from Auto Sport.
After the race last year the conspiracy theorists were touting that Piquet had been told to crash to Give Alonso the win and nothing came of it.
It seems strange that the FIA should open the investigation now, unless new evidence has come to light.
Maybe Piquet Jnr has his nose well out of joint and has whispered something to the FIA?

 

[Malcolm]

Or is Max just having a last go at Flavio who wanted to be the new Max/Bernie in the breakaway series that never happened?

 

[Keith]

You just beat me to it David I was about to paste the same story from Auto Sport.
After the race last year the conspiracy theorists were touting that Piquet had been told to crash to Give Alonso the win and nothing came of it.
It seems strange that the FIA should open the investigation now, unless new evidence has come to light.

Maybe Piquet Jnr has his nose well out of joint and has whispered something to the FIA?

Try Piquet SNR.. :thinking:

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Try Piquet SNR.. :thinking:

Either one wouldn't surprise, I would be surprised if Flav would ask someone to deliberately crash. there are easier and less expensive ways to throw a race. Faulty fuel filler, need to use alternate, lollipop man makes mistake, releases early=drive through penalty. Crew late with tires, wheel nut not on properly.
All of the above happened in the last two races and could easily be engineered by the team if they did not want a driver to win.

Anyway it's good to see an Fcar back at the sharp end.

 

[Paul W]

Am I the only one that noticed that Kimi into the first bend was 4th - then going off into the runoff and rejoined in 3rd - I know he is in a red car that gives him extra powers than the others but I'm just surprised it wasn't even mentioned.

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

The BBC commentators did mention it, several cars did the same. No mention of a penalty though.

Back to Picquet, do you thing Flavio could talk someone into doing this deliberately?

 

[tom pritchett]

I remember how badly damaged that car was and surprised that he walked away with no injuries. I would think that self preservation would take over and one would not allow himself to be put into a position to be injured. It would be, however, quite a thing to use a seemingless inocent accident to....get even? This will be quite a thing to watch and see what the inspectors come up with.

 

[David Morton]

Badoer replaced by Kubica.
How odd???

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Badoer replaced by Kubica.
How odd???

Wow. That is a surprise:laugh:, and Kimi rumoured to take a pay cut to go to Brawn. Kimi Raikkonen will take pay-cut to race for Brawn next season - mirror.co.uk

Who will replace him at Ferrari? Fisi?

Massa not comin back....for 2009

<HR style="COLOR: #dedcd7; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #dedcd7" SIZE=1><!-- / icon and title --><!-- message -->Ferrari does not expect Felipe Massa to return to the Formula 1 cockpit until the start of the 2010 season following the results of his medical examination in Miami on Monday.

The Brazilian visited the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit of the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami for a thorough examination by respected doctor Steve Olvey to asses his chances of recovery.

The prognosis was good, but the team said in a statement that with plastic surgery on Massa's skull due to be undertaken in the next few days, the team was not betting on Massa being ready to race in 2009.

"Obviously, the results of examination has been warmly welcomed in Maranello, in the sense that the team can count on Felipe 100% for the start of next season," said a Ferrari statement.

Massa is expected to have a small plate inserted into his skull at the area where it was damaged by the spring that hit his face during his qualifying crash for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Once that operation has taken place and Massa is fully recovered, he will then be able to resume physical training - having been forced to rest since his July accident.

"I'm very happy with the outcome of the tests," said Massa. "After the small operation I'll undergo in the next few days, I'll finally be able to start doing gym exercise to get back in shape a bit and, after that, I'll be able to start doing some testing on karts.

"On track with an F1 car? Let's go one step at a time: now I'm focused only on starting over with physical activity, which is already a nice step forward."

Ferrari is expected to decide in the next 48 hours who will drive its second car for the remainder of the season, with Luca Badoer having struggled for pace in the two races he has taken part in so far.

Giancarlo Fisichella has emerged as favourite to join the team, but Italian media on Tuesday suggested that Robert Kubica was also a serious possibility.