Force India VJM02

Force India F1 unveiled their 2009 F1 car – VJM02. Here are few studio images as well as some images from their Silverstone shakedown with Adrian Sutil behind the wheel. The livery does look similar to the livery we could see in the Force India calendar few weeks ago although the sponsor logos are bit different.

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The start of the 2009 Formula One season is getting closer and closer and so it is time to kick off our little prediction game too.

The rules are very similar to last year but there will be two small but significant changes compared to 2008 game.

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Williams FW31

A week after images of FW31 were released by one of William’s sponsors the team put their final version of 2009 livery on display. The livery is almost identical dark blue and white as that that we could see on Allianz website last weekwith most of the advertising space going to RBS and Philips.

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GrandPrix.com now claims that “multiple sources” are confirming their reports that the management buyout of Honda Racing F1 has now been agreed and that Ross Brawn and Nick Fry will run the team, using Meredes Benz engines, Honda money – plus the money that comes from TV income, plus whatever sponsorship can be found. Jenson Button is said to drive one of the cars, Rubens Barrichello is said to be back in the picture if his experience outweighs the money Bruno Senna can bring. See full article here – Honda management buyout to go ahead

At almost the same time TimesOnline brought this exclusive pretty much confirming the management buyout – Exclusive: Honda saved from the Formula One scrapheap

Earlier:
Autosport claims that Honda Racing are getting ready to begin pre-season testing. There is no news on any buyers or takeover but according to autosport.com the team personnel have been instructed to get ready to go testing. Similar claims have been made by BBC.

More here – Honda preparing to test 2009 car and here Ex-Honda team closes on F1 return

Green lines to distinguish between different compounds

The return of slick tyres called for different ways of marking the tyres as there are no longer any grooves that can be painted white. Bridgestone decided to paint bands on the edges of the softer tyres sidewalls. They chose to paint those bands in green. They could have chosen any colour or give any reason for choosing green, but they decided to be pathetic :

“We are also proud to support the FIA’s Make Cars Green campaign through our tyre markings.”

More important than the change of the marking however is the change of the tyre allocation philosophy for each race.

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One month to go ! Time to recap what happened in last few days.

BMW Sauber, Toyota and Ferrari tested in Bahrain, this time without sandstorms. The times still do not tell us much but there was surprisingly little between performances of these three teams.

Force India announced they will show us their car on this coming Sunday (after their Silverstone shakedown yesterday). The new Toro Rosso should be out next week as well.

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USF1 Formula 1 team was announced a while ago on Speed TV. Here are three videos available from Speed TV:

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How rosy all the things may seem after reading today’s headlines.

According to Autosport’s sources Honda’s F1 future is “looking good” (Honda meaning the F1 team). Mercedes-Benz (the engine supplier to be) will hold on as long as it can to make the deal happen. And the deal is to be management buy out involving both Ross Brawn and Nick Fry (although other people’s reliable sources predicted otherwise approximately 24 hours ago).

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The USF1 team is to be announced in few hours time. Before that happens, here is an earlier interview with Peter Windsor on Speed TV. Windsor talks about engines, drivers, sponsors and more.

It is Monday again and time for a little F1 quiz. This week all the questions are about F1 races that are no longer on the F1 calendar. If you find the questions tough don’t worry. Just make your guess, you will find all the answers after you complete all 10 questions. As usual please no googling for answers . And do not forget to share your result in comments ! You can also click here to see the previous quizzes.

Who won the last Argentine Grand Prix ?

Mika Häkkinen
Michael Schumacher
Damon Hill
Jacques Villeneuve

San Marino GP was held 26 times between 1981 and 2008. How many time did Williams car win it ?

6
7
8
9

How many times was Austrian GP won by Austrian driver ?

never
1
2
3

As a team Honda scored only 3 F1 wins. The first one came in Mexico, when ?

1962
1963
1964
1965

For second year in a row there will be no United States GP. Once however there were 3 F1 GPs in the US in one year, although none of them was called US GP. When was that ?

1980
1981
1982
1983

Canadian Grand Prix was on F1 calendar for 40 years. How many different tracks hosted F1 races in Canada ?

1
4
2
3

Ayrton Senna won Portuguese GP only once. With what team ?

Toleman
Williams
McLaren
Lotus

Now one with 50/50 chance - Has South African driver ever won South African GP ?

Yes
No

Where was the last Swiss Grand Prix held ?

Switzerland
France
Italy
Germany

Where did this car finish in 1978 Swedish Grand Prix ?

1
2
3
DNF

Visit Singapore has a contest with some very decent prizes. I am not expecting my pictures to win anything but game is game so I decided to submit the above photo that reminds me of 2008 Singapore GP action – I was focusing on Kimi Raikkonen getting out of the pitlane but Nick Heidfeld on his quick lap somehow squeezed into the picture too.

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Williams FW31

Same as last winter I hoped Williams would keep the dark blue livery they used at and since their launch. It does look like however that the final version of their 2009 livery will again have a touch of white. Here are the photos that Ollie from BlogF1 discovered at Williams’ sponsor (Allianz) website, marked as FW31 …

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