Fernando Alonso moves to Ferrari

What has been rumoured for months was confirmed today. Fernando Alonso has signed three year deal with Ferrari starting in 2010. Felipe Massa stays on.

“We are very proud to welcome to our team another winning driver, who has demonstrated his amazing talent by winning two world championships in his career to date. Of course, we wish to thank Kimi for everything he has done during his time with Ferrari. In his first year with us, he managed to win the drivers’ title, thus making his contribution to Ferrari’s history and he played a vital role in our taking of the constructors’ title in 2007 and 2008. Even during a difficult season like this one, he has demonstrated his great talent, with several good results, including a great win in Spa and we are sure that we can share more good times together in the final three races of this season.” – Stefano Domenicali.

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Here are the results of Singapore GP round of our prediction game. The lowest scores were 10, the highest 19 – same as in the previosu round. The favourite score among the game leaders was 14 . The best score of this round goes to Velvet Demon, Queen Bee keeps the provisional lead.

Round 14 results:

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We had great time in Singapore last year and so we decided to go again for the second race in the Lion City. And I am glad we did so.

There was not that much wrong with organization in 2008 but there were some annoying things especially when it came to food and beverage. Clearly the organizers listened to the feedback because the improvement this year was obvious. But let’s start with basic – the logistic.

It all begins at the airport. I arrived sometime about noon on Friday. In matter of minutes I passed the immigration and picked up the luggage from the belt. The only slight delay was the process of getting the prepaid card for mobile. In Singapore they do record the identity of the SIM card buyer and as a result the whole thing takes about 5 minutes. That includes scanning the passport but also getting the phone set up and running by the friendly staff.

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Hamilton, Glock and Alonso on Singapore podium

Lewis Hamilton won the 2009 Singapore GP ahead of Timo Glock and Fernando Alonso. Sebastian Vettel finished 4th after serving drive through penalty for speeding. Jenson Button recovered from poor qualifying and claimed 5th place ahead of his team mate Rubens Barrichello.

Nico Rosberg wasted his best chance of podium this season. He went over the kerbs and the white line after his pit stop and had to serve drive through penalty. As that coincided with safety car period following Sutil-Heidfeld crash Rosberg dropped way back and out of the points. Heidfeld’s crash means his run of 41 race finishes is over …

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Here is a selection of photos I took on Saturday in Singapore. You can’t see any Red Bull, Toro Rosso or Williams cars – I simple could not get any shots of these dark cars right yesterday evening.

Hamilton Vettel Rosberg

Lewis Hamilton claimed pole position for the 2009 Singapore GP ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg. Few drivers had their final Q3 runs cut short after Rubens Barrichello crashed causing red flag with less than 30 seconds to go. It was not the best of qualifying for Jenson Button who missed out on Q3. Rubens Barrichello’s advantage for Sunday race won’t be that big however as he will drop five places on the grid following gearbox change.

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Formula One making headlines

Bingo, it is possible to get Formula One on the front page of major daily paper. This is what you need to do:

Step 1 – You ask your driver to crash the car deliberately
Step 2 – You fire the driver 9 months later
Step 3 – The driver tells on you and scandal (or “gate”) is born
Step 4 – A year after the original crash the new guy who replaced the fired driver, manages to crash in similar fashion on the same track at the same spot

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I am Singapore this weekend enjoying the Grand Prix. Here are few pictures I took on Friday. I will post more as the weekend progresses and as I slowly figure out how to handle the tricky lighting conditions. The photos are taken around the turns 1, 2 and 3. (Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the pictures.)

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ING ended its deal with Renault with immediate effect

The bad news for Renault continue. What appears to be direct consequence of the race fixing scandal two major backers of the ING Renault F1 team ended yesterday their deals with the team with immediate effect.

First came the news from Mutua Madrilena. Apparently Renault’s “substantial breach of FIA rules and regulations” has led the Spanish insurance company to terminate its contract.

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The F1 circus has moved to Asia, the Singapore GP is on this weekend and so is the round 14 of our prediction game. It is time to make your predictions for Singapore GP.

As usual you can wait till the last moment before the qualifying or make your prediction right away to make sure you do not miss the round (and change your prediction later if you feel like doing that). But do remember, the deadline is the start of the Saturday qualifying session ! So, make your prediction for the pole position, fastest lap and top eight finishers in the comments below this post. The results of round 14 will be published on Tuesday after the race. It is later than usual as I will be in Singapore for the race and will need to get back first.

Good luck !

Yesterday FIA published the complete dossier of evidence, the official decision and surprisingly even posted the audio recording of the hearing (and the decision). You can download the documents and listen to the audio here.

We have all known the decisions of the World Motor Sport Council since Monday. Now we also know how and why the council made those decisions.

Perhaps the only secret not leaked out before the hearing was the Witness X – an unidentified Renault employee who testified in very much the same fashion as Pat Symonds. This whistle-blower provided the key evidence that there had been conspiracy and named Flavio Briatore, Pat Symonds and Nelson Piquet as the conspirators. Witness X was present at the Singapore race day meeting but played no part in the conspiracy.

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Canada is back

Besides the Renault verdict the WMSC today also published the latest version of 2010 Formula One calendar (see the previous version here). Two more races than this year are planned – Canadian GP is set to return (although the contract talks are yet to be finalized) and Korean GP is to debut in October 2010. Korean GP will be part of the autumn leg of Far East races while China will keep the April spot, two weeks after Malaysian GP. The 2010 F1 season will start in Bahrain on March 14 and end in Brazil on November 14.

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