After raking up some mileage for Honda back in 2007 part of this winter, not exactly perfect test in Jerez in Januray and then missing out on several previous F1 tests, the financially troubled Super Aguri finally made it to the track again. Takuma Sato did 90 laps in Jerez yesterday in SA07B interim car and the team seems to be satisfied with the way the test went. The SA07B was less than 3 tenths slower than Barrichello’s new Honda RA108.

On the same day however the team also announced postponing their new car launch (originally planned for February 19, 2008). Instead the team boss Aguri Suzuki and technical director Mark Preston will be at the circuit to answer media questions. Their new car is still due to run for the first time in Barcelona next week but withoit the official launch. That means no confirmation on the drivers line up, no new livery yet. It looks like we may have to wait perhaps until he season opener in Australia to see how the Super Aguri new car, the SA08, will look like and who will be driving it.

Now this may mean bad news (no deal in sight) or good news (ongoing talks looking good) for the team. One thing is obvious - no sponsorship or investment deals have been finalized yet.

F1Wolf

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Several current as well as hopeful Formula 1 tracks made the news these few days, here is a recap:

Bahrain - The organizers rubbished the reports they are planning to stage the GP as a night race in the future. One wonders where these reports came from. Why would they need to run the race in the night with only 2 (or 3? ) hours time difference from most of the European tracks ?

Sepang - The Malaysian organizers however confirmed they are considering night race - Dato Mokhzani Mahatir, chairman of the Sepang circuit:

“We have actually been talking aboug a night race with Bernie Ecclestone since September 2006. Since then he has spoken with Singapore and Melbourne as he’d like to see the F1 broadcast from here in Europe at a more decent hour. Having a race in Asia at night makes sense for that. Singapore and Melbourne are temporary street circuits whereas we are a permanent facility. Putting up lighting systems would allow us to hire the circuit out more.”

Melbourne - Here it looks unlikely the night race will happen, although Mark Webber has been quoted saying this to Adelaide’s Sunday Mail:

“We should try to make night work. It could be exactly what the event needs — who knows? We should fight to have a night race.”

and on Bernie Ecclestone hard line attitude:

“You can’t constantly keep having the same toys in the sand pit. He’s (Ecclestone) certainly got his head screwed on and he will do what is best for the sport.”

In the meantime there has been slight change in the time schedule for the 2008 Australian GP - The race in Melbourne will start at 3:30pm local time.

Silverstone - This is a week old news already… Although the development plans seem to be on the right track, the negotiations over new contract with CVC and Bernie Ecclestone will not be easy. Ecclestone (in his own words) will not hesitate to cut the British GP off the F1 calendar …

St. Petersburg - While slamming Melbourne (and Sydney) and Silverstone, Bernie Ecclestone is on his way to Russia to yet again discuss possible Russian Grand Prix, this time in St. Petersburg.

Algarve - Meanwhile in Portugal … A new F1 style track is nearing completion in the south of the country. The reports say that one team has already booked the facility for testing next January. The ultimate goal however is to return Formula 1 race back to Portugal. The last one was held in Estoril back in 1996 and won by Jacques Villeneuve.

Alcaniz - Amid all the bad publicity Spain received in past week or so, there are reports about another Spanish F1 venue springing up. Barcelona (Montmelo) and Valencia (street track) will host the F1 races this year. The permanent circuits in Valencia and Jerez are popular venues for F1 test. “La Ciudad del Motor de Alcaniz” is to become yet another test facility. It is designed by Hermann Tilke with advice from Pedro de la Rosa and due for completion in 2009.

A1 Ring - The attempts to revive former F1 track in Austria seem to have come to end. The track held its last GP in 2003. It was later bought by Red Bull and set for major redevelopment. The protests from ever present Austrian enviromentalists and failed talks with local authorities lead Dietrich Mateschitz to stop the project aimed at winning back the Austrian GP.

Williams - No, this is not another city but the Williams F1 team … Williams have announced plans to establish a permanent base for its test team in Spain. This is where all the Spanish (and Portuguese) test tracks may come handy .

Continue below to see La Ciudad del Motor de Alcaniz video.

Read the rest of this entry »

F1Wolf

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As those who read this blog regularly may see, I am not the biggest fan of Lewis Hamilton. I do not have much against him but simply there are other drivers I like better. But what has happened in Barcelona last weekend goes beyond the liking or not liking. The expressions of hate mixed up with racial abuse are totally unacceptable. You can just click on the image on the right that links to an Pitpass article to see how disgusting some “fans” were. If these people keep presenting themselves as fans of Fernando Alonso, then Fernando has to come out and distance himself from them, and do it pretty quickly.

The FIA has to clamp down on this right now and tough. To their credit they were quick to come out with a strong warning:

“The FIA is surprised and disappointed at the abuse directed at Lewis Hamilton. Abuse of this kind is a clear breach of the principles enshrined in the FIA statutes and any repetition will result in serious sanctions.”

The important thing is, that the serious action will indeed follow should the same happen again. I am not saying that because of few idiots F1 should now leave Spain, absolutely not. That would be total over reaction. The passions following last season are still high especially in Spain and they die down sooner or later. The sanctions should first of all be aimed at these “fans” … As a warning all these “people” caught on many of the pictures that circulate around the web should be identified and banned for ever from entering any F1 venue. This is the kind of “fans” F1 does not need and FIA needs to make it clear. Instead of threatining the tracks with loosing F1, FIA needs to sit down with organizers of the tests and races and work together on making sure that these now isolated incidents do not appear again…

Isn’t it better to express the allegiances this way:

then like this…?

F1Wolf

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Eight teams have finished their weekend of testing in Barcelona. Three days and three different cars on the top. Hamilton (McLaren) on Friday, Vettel (Toro Rosso) on Saturday and Mark Webber (Red Bull) on Sunday.

In absence of Ferrari it was expected that the McLarens will be topping or be very very close to the top. Hamilton topped the sheets on Friday. On Saturday however Toro Rosso’s were both quicker than both McLarens and on Sunday Mark Webber managed to beat the silver cars. Overall the McLarens look good.

Toro Rosso team will not introduce their new car until few races into the 2008 season, so what they test now is an updated version of their 2007 car. Their Saturday impressive run might a bit misleading, as they an the car very light. However they did not do too bad also on Friday and Sunday. This definitelly was an encouraging weekend for the team.

Red Bull came up with a revolutionary design - implementing an ugly fin on the engine cover. And unfortunatelly it seems to be working Mark Webber’s fastest time on Sunday shows. If other teams get the hint, we may see more cars getting ugly.

BMW seem to have overcome the problems they experienced last week and they seem to be around 0.3 off the McLaren pace now. Renault is also clawing back, either the car has seen quite an improvement from last year or Fernando Alonso brought his famous 0.6 second with him. They do not seem to be 1 second behind McLaren any more. It looks pretty even between them and BMW Sauber.

Giancarlo Fisichella impressed o Friday with the 4th fastest time. Force India only tested with 1 car and neither Liuzzi nor Sutil were able to get anywhere near the time Fisi posted on Friday.

Williams did not do much in Barcelona. After Kazuki Nakajima’s crash the team did not continue on Friday. And when they realized the problems with their front wing mounting need more thorough fix, they decided to abandon the Barcelona test completely. A bit of a turn in their fortunes after the excelent form in Valencia. But one of the purposes of the tests is also to find out what does not work.

Photo: HondaRacingF1

And this leaves the poor Honda. The car simply is not good enough yet and the team has lots of job ahead to move up from the back of the field to midfield at least. According to Jenson Button the car “lacks the driveability” and the new ECU and the fact that the car is brand new are mentioned as the main reasons. The gap between Honda and the top is 1 and half second at the moment. If I was to bet on who will copy the ugly fin from Red Bull first, Honda would be my candidate.

On Sunday there were 7 teams within 1 second and if ad the impresive run of Fisi in Force India on Friday we can say the field is very tight at the moment. The only team visibly lagging behind right now is Honda. We have no comparison with Ferrari and Toyota this time, these 2 will be testing this week in Bahrain. The lack of news (other than takeover and driver rumours) from Super Aguri is a bit worrying.

Unfortunatelly it will not be the racing that will be making the headlines after the Barcelona test but the racist behaviour of some Spanish fans towards Lewis Hamilton …

F1Wolf

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I will summarize the Barcelona test when it is over after the weekend. Here comes only brief summary of what was new on Friday.

All teams showed up, except Ferrari and Toyota (heading to Bahrain instead) and Super Aguri (who knows where they are going).

- Red Bull came up with a radical engine cover. The purpose of this ugly fin is to provide more balance to compensate for TC and engine breaking ban. How this will affect the car if the wind blows from the wrong side, that we will see. It is hard to blame Adrian Newey now that the new Red Bull is not radical enough

Here is the finned Bull:

And this is the usual Red Bull look for comparison:

- Lewis Hamilton was the fastets guy on track.

- Fisichella was flying in his Force India car. Fourth fastest and less than a second slower than Hamilton.

- Nakajima hit the barriers hard. Williams cut their first test day short to work on the problem with the wrong wing mounting that apparently cause the crash.

- Hondas are still at the bottom but not sounding too worried, yet…

F1Wolf

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