We have 90 days to go to the opening race of 2008 season in Australia. Since the 100 days mark few things have cleared up. Renault escaped unpunished (although guilty) and went on to announce signing (and return) of Fernando Alonso and promotion of Nelson Piquet Jr. to the race seat. Heikki Kovalainen did not stay without home for too long, he is now McLaren boy. Fisichella lost his Renault seat and eyes Force India drive.

McLaren’s 2008 car was not cleared by WMSC. Further inspection was to follow in February. But then came shocking admission of guilt by McLaren and Mosley’s proposal to WMSC to end the whole thing.

At this day the only 2 teams without confirmed line up for 2008 are Super Aguri and Force India.

The 2008 F1 Wolf Prediction Game has kicked off as well, so don’t forget to make your mark. The preliminary voting for the 2008 F1 champion has began and at this day only Kimi and Lewis got vote of confidence, with a bit more going Kimi’s way.

The 2008 Formula 1 Season Countdown will be back again in 10 days.

F1Wolf

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It is funny to find an inspiration for a post on F1 blog on one of the top “Make Money Online” Blogs, but well, F1 is about money and lots of it too

I suppose this video has been around on YouTube for quite some time, judging from the Mild Seven Renault livery, but is just too funny and so it has the honour to be featured on F1 Wolf too. Enjoy Richard Hammond of Top Gear making the transition from Bugatti Veyron driver to F1 driver.

Should you have a problem watching the YouTube version, you can download it in QuickTime here:

How To Drive An F1 Car Video

If you want to see what people who normally do not talk about F1 think about this, check the discussion at JohnChow site.

F1Wolf

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After some period of silence few Super Aguri rumours surfaced last week.

First there was a suggestion in Swiss paper Blick that Luca Filippi is in the running for the second race seat in the Japanese outfit. The reason behind such move is reportedly 10 million Euros in sponsorship money Filippi would be bringing with him. This is probably not what Anthony Davidson wants to hear.

Luca Filippi finished 4th overall in 2007 GP2 season, racing for Super Nova.

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F1Wolf

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Heikki Kovalainen will race for McLaren in 2008 F1 season. The expected straight swap Alonso to Renault Heikki to McLaren has happened. This means McLaren will enter the 2008 season with 2 young guns. The experienced Pedro de la Rosa will have to accept the 3rd driver role again.

Here is the first official photo of Heikki Kovalainen in McLaren Mercedes team:

Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren Mercedes, photo Daimler Media

Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren-Mercedes:

“We had a number of options open to us and as always we want to make sure that we have the most competitive driver line-up and I think that Lewis and Heikki will be a formidable combination. Both enjoyed great rookie seasons in 2007 and share a genuine passion for winning and being the best. Heikki made a strong impression and Lewis’ performance so far has been outstanding and speaks for itself. I am confident that they will push each other on track and work well together off track. In addition with Pedro remaining our primary test driver alongside Gary, we really have a strong package and look forward to 2008.”

Heikki Kovalainen:

“I am so excited to join a team like Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. So far I have been blown away by the dedication and commitment to winning which is clear through the entire organisation and I am really excited about our joint future. As a Finn it’s an honour for me to follow in Mika and Kimi’s footsteps. I haven’t really spent a lot of time with Lewis so far but from what I know I think we will work well together and do our best for the team.”

Lewis Hamilton:

“As soon as the chequered flag went in Brazil I began to count down the days until Australia. I am really looking forward to 2008 and working with Heikki as my teammate. Together with the team we will do everything we can to ensure that our Championship challenge is as strong and focused as possible. My first year in Formula One was incredible and I was so fortunate to spend it with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and I hope that Heikki will enjoy his first year with the team as much as I did mine.”

The 2008 Formula 1 grid is almost finalized. Only Force India and Super Aguri are yet to confirmed their 2008 driver line up.

F1Wolf

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The automotive lighting producer Hella held a demonstration of new motor racing circuit lighting system at Melbourne’s Calder Park Raceway on November 12, 2007.

This demonstration included test drives by current Red Bull Formula 1 Team driver, Mark Webber, five time World 500cc Champion Mick Doohan and Australian Formula 3 Championship driver Leanne Tander.

Here are few photos from the demostration provided by Hella:

Five time World 500cc Motorcycle Champion Mick Doohan testing the ARTIS illumination ystem at Melbourne’s Calder Park Raceway on November 12, 2007.

Red Bull Racing Formula One driver Mark Webber tests the Artis system in an Elfin sports car.

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F1Wolf

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What a bizzare turn of events… I suspect there must have been some behind the scenes talks between Mosley and McLaren, and the timing of both announcements seems to confirm my suspicion. I can’t believe I am saying this but it looks like Max Mosley has proven his case against McLaren… I must say the events of yesterday are perhaps even more shocking than the 100 million dollar fine imposed on McLaren… McLaren team that always denied use of any Ferrari data all of a sudden admits widespread use the information among their technical staff. And what more, the team even comes out with an apology to FIA and announces freeze on development of parts that might have been influenced by the information from Ferrari… Wow … This FIA McLaren Report explains things a bit. If what is in that report is indeed the real story, it shows that the information Coughlan obtained from Stepney was quite extensively used within McLaren, and moreover Coughlan’s role in the car development was much bigger than what McLaren previously admitted.

Here is the full statement from McLaren:

“As a result of the investigations carried out by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile it has become clear that Ferrari information was more widely disseminated within McLaren than was previously communicated. McLaren greatly regrets that its own investigations did not identify this material and has written to the World Motor Sport Council to apologise for this.

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F1Wolf

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The contest for the Force India race drive is getting hotter. Not that drivers can now do much about the selection (or do they ?) but nevertheless they all talk a lot. Here is the summary of what the leading contenders for the Force India seat Ralf Schumacher, Giancarlo Fisichella, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Christian Klien and Roldan Rodriguez had to say:

Ralf Schumacher:

“I’m testing today because Vijay Mallya asked me to try the car. This way I can give the team some feedback and tell them what might need to be changed. I don’t see myself as a candidate though to race with the team next season. To be honest, I don’t exactly know what I will be doing next season. Maybe I will quit racing, or maybe I will just join another racing series. I just want to do what’s best for me. This week might have been the final outing for me in a Formula 1 car.”

Giancarlo Fisichella

“I can bring a lot of experience and ideas of how we can go in the right direction. I think I did a good job with the team in the couple of days testing. We were working in a few areas and we made a step forward, especially in the car balance and the set up. The team was quite impressed with the job I did so far. I am impressed about the team, which is still a small one, but they have a good potential. I still know a few mechanics from when I drove here in 1997, 2002 and 2003 (as Jordan). I feel a good atmosphere and it was good to be back with them. Force India is working on a nice project, with a better budget then last year and they can go up very quickly, so we’ll see. We’ll see if we’re both happy to work together in the future.”

and…

“My objective is to race with Force India. I wouldn’t have gone through a shoot-out otherwise, because it’s always something very tense. All the drivers at Jerez were there for that, let’s not kid ourselves. Even Ralf Schumacher arrived two days earlier, went often around the track to see the trajectories and he was in contact with the pits. He never did that at Toyota. No one came to Jerez to be a tourist of for a stroll in F1.”

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Welcome to the new regular feature on F1 Wolf and meet other guys and ladies that spend their time blogging about Formula 1 and other motor sports. One of my regular reads is The Rediscover Formula 1 blog at F1Chronicles.com. To find out more about this blog I asked the mysterious webmaster (who is also one of the commentators on F1Wolf) to introduce his site briefly to the readers of F1Wolf.com:

The Rediscover Formula One blog was started by me and one of my school friends as we enjoyed watching formula one. Over time my friend lost touch and i bought a domain for the blog and shifted to Wordpress. The blog features lots of articles, photos and quotes from f1. Very soon we will be launching new exclusive features, so watch out !

I also threw in few questions to find out more about the guy behind this cool F1 site. Here the answers:

1) Where are you blogging from:

New Delhi, India

2) When did you start blogging :

2005

3) Why do you blog:

It’s a way to interact with people from all around the world, keep in touch with my favourite sport and earn a little pocket money too. I enjoy blogging and learning more and more about F1.

4) Your favourite F1 team and driver (both current and all time):

Current: Kimi Raikkonen ,
Team: Ferrari ,
All Time : Michael Schumacher (In fact most forums had this as my ID)

5) Your favourite F1 track (both current and all time):

Current and All Time : Belgium (pray for rain and disaster (sadistic am I! (Yoda would say)))
(well even Jenson Button prays for rain most of the time )

6) Did you go to any F1 races ? Which one was the best for you ?

Never had the money or time to go, would like to go to Malaysia since its pretty near.

7) Did you meet any F1 drivers ?

Narain Karthikeyan (He does count, right ?)
(he definitely does)

Your favourite F1 or racing websites ?

I would say funf1.com (great and funny insights)
(have to agree, they had this great piece on Shanghai Grand Prix back in October!)

9) Your favourite F1 or racing magazines ?

Autosport

10) What TV channel you watch the races on ?

ESPN-Star Sports plus live timing.
(If knew that I would have asked what he thinks about Steve Slater’s commentary )

This is all from The Rediscover Formula 1 blog for now, but if you want to see more do visit the blog. Among other things you find there much more info on the Force India team than on official Force India web !

F1Wolf

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It may seem early to some, but for some others, like Mr. Klokan, it is too late and he has been chasing for news already :-). At the end it is only 3 months to go to the season opener and we already know where 2007 top three drivers will race.

The inaugural 2007 Prediction Game was great fun and I want to thank again to all who took part. It was pleasure competing with all of you. Fatfish beat us all and ran away with the bottle of MUMM. It is time for revenge… The 2008 Prediction Game will be almost same but also very different

While following similar philosophy as the 2007 Prediction Game, the 2008 Prediction Game features several changes that I hope will make the guesses wilder and results less predictable:

1) First of all, the game starts right away, from now until March 13, 2008 you can predict the 2008 Formula 1 World Champion. Do not worry, even if you make your prediction and later want to change your mind, your last entry before the deadline March 13, 23:59 GMT will be the one that counts. The correct guess will be worth extra 25 points at the end of the season. The 2007 winner collected 287 points, so 25 points bonus is quite significant. Make your 2008 F1 Driver Champion Prediction here, in the comments below this post anytime between now and March 13, 2008 !

2) The second change is that you have to make your prediction before the start of the Qualifying on Saturday, that means before the starting grid is known ! Why ? Firstly to make the guesses less predictable. The other reason is that in the new season there will be points also for correct prediction of the driver on Pole Position… It would be too easy to predict the guy on P1 after qualifying

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Vijay Mallya said on Sunday to The Mail that he plans to make decision on team’s drivers before Christmas with announcement coming in January. He made it clear that it is him to decide:

“I will decide who we will sign.”

Then he dropped the hint:

“I need to balance talent with experience, and I need to find out how the engineers feel on driver feedback. I’ll decide before Christmas - but there won’t be an announcement until the new year.”

He also made it clear he expects efficiency instead of money wasting:

“The team will have $100m a year to work with. The bottom line is that money cannot buy performance. Equally, there’s only so much research and development you can do in one year.”

And on December 20 the team can expect lavish Christmas party. He knows how to throw them, he has proven it in Monaco this year with his Kingfisher party.

“Some people may call how I live flamboyant, others may call it extravagant. But my brands are built on a lifestyle platform,so it is consistent that entertainment is part of that. It will be a good party where I want the people to feel respected and motivated.”

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F1Wolf

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