The guys from FIA met the representatives from FOTA yesterday to discuss the ways how to make the whole F1 to burn less money. Few days before the meeting Mr. Max Mosley spiced the whole issue up with the announcement of the standard engine supplier tender. The manufacturers involved in F1 were not exactly excited about the stadard engine idea. In an unusual expression of F1 teams unity the FOTA (Formula One Team Assoaciation) came up with own cost cutting ideas. So how did talks go ? Judging from the statement issued by FOTA (represented at the meeting by Luca de Montezemolo from Ferrari and John Howett from Toyota) it looks like not too bad:

Read the rest of this entry »

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

Fisichella and Sutil, team mates for one more year

Force India announced their drivers line up will remain unchanged for 2009 season. That means both Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil will keep their jobs for one more year. None of the drivers scored single point this year, Sutil however came very close to finishing 4th in Monaco (before getting hit by the Raikkonen missile).

No one has been dropped so far this season, no one has been dropped for the next, except Coulthard who dropped himself . The only remaining seats to be confirmed are in Renault, Honda and Toro Rosso, with Toro Rosso having a vacancy and all this three teams having some serious candidates for the chop on their current roster.

Read the rest of this entry »

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

Magny Cours 2008

The decision of the Federation Francaise du Sport Automobile (FFSA) to cancel the 2009 French Grand Prix came as a surprise. At the same time however it was probably only a matter of time before someone came out cancelling a race. Rumours about some race organizers looking for a way out of 2009 calendar surfaced around the same time the Canadian GP was dropped. French GP did not feature on F1 calendar only 1 time, back in 1955, following the Le Mans events. There are several French regions and venues interested in staging the Formula 1 race (Disneyland being the front runner) but it looks dead certain now that there will be no Formula 1 race in France next year. What looked like 19 races season only 2 weeks ago is turning into 17 races one. Will FIA and FOM keep it at 17 or will they add another race in place of the French GP ?

Read the rest of this entry »

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

No more cooling vents in 2009 ?

Aldo Costa talked to Gazzette dello Sport on Ferrari’s progress with KERS development. Besides telling the world that Ferrari is still behind the schedule with the KERS he also revealed some details on the look of next year’s Formula 1 cars:

“The front wing will be striking because it will be as wide as the car’s track (the distance between the wheels on the same axle). A lot of them will come off because, since they cover the wheels, it will be easy to lose them in crashes. On top of that, the rear wing will be taller and narrower, the bodywork smoother and more sealed off because we won’t have the current liberty of opening air vents anymore, and this has forced us to heavily re-design the cooling system.”

Read the rest of this entry »

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

Rubens Barrichello - is the end of his long F1 career near ?

The 2009 grid is filling up. BMW Sauber announcement last week they would continue with Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld in 2009 means that half of the current teams has confirmed both their drivers for next season. Ferrari, McLaren, BMW Sauber and Williams will enter 2009 season with unchanged race drivers line ups. The only confirmed change so far is Sebastian Vettel replacing retiring David Coulthard in Red Bull. And although there has been no official confirmation from Toyota yet, the fact that Kazuki Nakajima remains with Williams for another season may be a clear indication that both Glock and Trulli will stay on (as widely expected anyway).

So, 6 teams and 12 seats are but there are still 8 question marks left:

Read the rest of this entry »

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

FIA today announced the 2009 Formula 1 calendar. Compared with the provisional calendar published a while ago there is one big change - the Canadian GP in Montreal is missing for the first time since 1987. There was no reason given (at least for now). This means that after inclusion of Abu Dhabi the 2009 Formula 1 calendar will have 18 races, same as this year. This also means there will be no Formula 1 races in North America next year. What will remain after dropping Canada is the summer break.

Read the rest of this entry »

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

Kazuki Nakajima, Williams

We entered the last month of 2008 Formula 1 season and after a short period of silence the drivers market there seems to be a lot happening on drivers market.

Williams team confirmed yesterday their 2009 drivers line up will remain the same as this year - Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima. Rosberg’s drive has been confirmed for a while already, Nakajima being the Toyota boy doing a decent rookie job was expected to continue. No real surprises here.

Read the rest of this entry »

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

1998 grooved F1 tyres

Italian GP was the last European F1 race to feature the grooved tyres (not much though due to rain). There are only four more fly-away races left this season and then the grooves (along with other ugly things) will be gone, hopefully for good. Hated by many fans the grooves have been with us for 11 seasons since 1998. Back then in 1998 Goodyear was still F1 tyre supplier and Bridgestone started only their 2nd F1 season after their 20 year hiatus. Now however we are about to see the last of them. Here is a brief look at the short history of modern grooved Formula 1 tyres.

Originally with 3 circumferential grooves on the front tyres and 4 on the rear ones they were introduced in order to slow down the cars. From 1999 the front tyres received the 4th groove as well.

Read the rest of this entry »

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

There has been a lot of speculations about the look of 2009 cars. The tall and narrow rear wing that Williams ran yesterday at Jerez may be the first indication of things to come. As expected, return to early 1990s .

It will be interesting to see if any other teams test some 2009 features during this final test of 2008 season.

Photo: Williams/LAT

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

The FIA announced the winner of the Formula Two chassis and engine supplier tender - MotorSport Vision (MSV):

MotorSport Vision (MSV) has won the tender to supply chassis and engines for the new FIA Formula Two Championship, following a fax vote of the FIA World Motor Sport Council. As part of the winning tender it has been agreed that MSV will be the promoter of the Championship as well as the operating entity for all of the cars.
MSV has commissioned WilliamsF1 to design the car, which will incorporate a turbocharged 1.8 litre Audi engine and be built to Formula One-level safety standards. The first prototype car is on schedule for its testing debut in November 2008, with the Championship due to start in May 2009 and comprising 16 races over eight events. Performance levels will be between Formula Three and Formula One and the cost per competing driver will be less than €250,000.

Read the rest of this entry »

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here