Simon Roberts, Vijay Mallya and Martin Whitmarsh

Big changes happening at Force India. Last week Colin Kolles and Mike Gascoyne parted ways with the Silverstone based team. Vijay Mallya took over the job of team principal. The team also ended their engine deal with Ferrari. Today came the expected announcement of new technical parnerships with McLaren and Mercedes:

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F1Wolf

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Anthony Davidson, no longer on anyone's radar ?

It has been a week since the grand 2008 F1 season finale, it is about the time to begin the evaluations here. Not everything went according to pre-season predictions, some teams did better some much worse than expected (or hoped). But let’s forget about the cars and focus on the drivers here. This is the part one of my 2008 Formula 1 driver rankings, positions 22 to 16.

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F1Wolf

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Takuma Sato, what is he after in that Toro Rosso garage ?

We have survived the first week of the official Formula 1 off season, here is brief summary of what has happened:

It looks like ages ago now, but it has been only a week since Lewis Hamilton won the 2008 F1 driver’s title, the first for McLaren since Mika Hakkinen’s title back in 1999. The constructors title went to Ferrari, the 8th constructors title for Ferrari in last 10 seasons.

Only 2 days later the “Lewis Hamilton 2008 World Championship die cast presentation” was announced. These guys are quick .

As expected Fernando Alonso will stay with Renault, perhaps not so expected was the decision of Renault to stay with Nelson Piquet.

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F1Wolf

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There are 2 reasons for this post:

1) To congratulate Steve Robertson one more time for the win.

2) To motivate everybody to join us again next year for the 2009 Prediction Game

There are worse things that can happen to you than this:

The MUMM bottles were delivered last week and that pretty much concludes the 2008 Prediction Game. Well almost, 2 prizes haven’t been claimed yet. If that does not happen within next 2 weeks then bad luck, game over .

F1Wolf

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Macau GP Formula 3 Race

The 55th Macau Grand Prix will be held between November 13 - 16, 2008 on the Guia Circuit in Macau. The provisional entry for its star event - the Formula 3 race - has already been released. The Macau GP Formula 3 race traditionally features the best of the best from different Formula 3 series around the world. There may not be any big big names on this list, but how big names were Robert Kubica or Sebastian Vettel back in 2005 …

Here is the updated Entry List for the Windsor Arch Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix:

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F1Wolf

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Timo Glock, the title decider ?

It is funny how the actions of the almost rookie driver became the topic of heated debates following the final race of 2008 season. But how did Glock actually end up in that position ?

Well on the Brazilian GP race day it was combination of his tactics and the weather. He was well behind Hamilton before the rain, and without the rain he would not even be ahead of Hamilton in those final stages. There would be no drama and no premature celebrations in Ferrari garage. Unless of course all the cars ahead of him planned one more splash and dash stop even without rain.

That was the race day. But how come neither Massa nor Hamilton were able to lock title earlier ? How come we even had to talk about Timo Glock ? They both had their opportunities… (read on)

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F1Wolf

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The racism and improper behaviour of fans in Formula 1 is back in the news. Bernie Ecclestone believes that the events earlier this year during Barcelona test were more joke than racist abuse. Jaime Martin, F1 editor of Spanish newspaper Marca accepts they may have been racist “but if Lewis was bald, the insults would have related to his baldness.” Ecclestone also considers the booing aimed at Hamilton in Brazil last weekend or back in Valencia during European GP as normal expressions of allegiance by home fans:

“In Spain people supported Fernando Alonso and in Brazil they supported Felipe Massa. People are entitled to support who they want to support. When was (Hamilton) insulted? Do you remember the Ferrari guys that wore the red wigs? People are expressing themselves.”

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F1Wolf

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The World Motor Sport Council met in Paris yesterday and came up with three significant decisions.

1) The 2009 Calendar

I made a post on the latest version of the calendar yesterday (click here). FIA hasn’t commented much on the new calendar. They simply took advantage of the French GP dropping out, moved China to April, kept the summer break and shortened the season by 2 weeks. No mention at all about the Canadian GP. Now I am not sure if this is a good sign or not. The talks between Montreal officials and Bernie Ecclestone took place about 2 weeks ago, there was some sort deadline for some decisions to be made set for the Friday before Brazilian GP. We haven’t heard anything from Canada neither we had from Bernie. All we get is the 3rd version of 2009 calendar. So does it mean this version is finally the final one and we can forget about any North American Formula One race next year or are the talks still going on behind the scenes making further changes to calendar possible ? I would like to start making some plans for Formula 1 travels for next year and knowing which final calendar is really final would be very helpful …

2) Three race engines

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F1Wolf

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Canadian Grand Prix still missing from the 2009 calendar

Another version of 2009 Formula 1 calendar was agreed on today at the World Motorsport Council meeting in Paris. Some changes were expected following last month’s cancellation of the 2009 French GP. The season was shortened by 2 weeks with final race now moved to November 1 instead of previously planned November 15. The biggest chnage is Chinese GP moving to a new slot - Shanghai race will now be the 3rd race of the season after Australia and Malaysia.

I was probably not alone hoping that following the talks between Montreal officials and Bernie Ecclestone we may see the Canadian GP back. Well, that hasn’t happened yet. The revised again calendar still features only 17 races, none of them in North America ….

2009 Formula 1 Calendar - Revised on November 5, 2008

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F1Wolf

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Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet, team mates for one more year

ING Renault F1 team made their 2009 drivers line up announcement today. As widely expected Fernando Alonso will stay on after agreeing 2 year extension to his deal with the Enstone team. In Alonso’s case it was more about the driver wanting to stay than the team wanting to retain him. But with all the other potentially competitive seats occupied and Renault steadily progressing towards the front of the grid there was very little doubt about Alonso staying on.

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F1Wolf

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