Takuma Sato ready to test for Toro Rosso

Not surprisingly there has been renewed talk about the future of Toro Rosso following their maiden F1 win last weekend. There are basically 2 questions:

a) Who will drive for Toro Rosso next year
b) What will happen with the team after 2009 season

Not much has changed with the drivers situation. Although the Sebastien Bourdais has been doing better recently, especially in qualifying, his future is still very uncertain. On one hand the team bosses sound a bit happier about Le Seb’s performances, on the other hand Bourdais himself does not see much point in continuing with the team if he can’t get a car that would suit his driving style. So let’s see. For the time being Toro Rosso are looking at the Sebastien Buemi and Takuma Sato. Both are with the team in Jerez for the final test session of the season. Buemi was behind the wheel yesterday, today (Thursday) will be Sato’s turn. There hasn’t been much said about Bruno Senna recently though …

What is more interesting is what lies ahed of the team itself. I was wondering whether Dietrich Mateschitz would change his mind about selling the team. But what the media say this week is right, he never put the team up for sale in the first place:

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The shark fins spread like a virus. Only Williams and BMW Sauber haven’t tried them yet. McLaren are the only team who tested them but does not run them in the races. All the other seven Formula 1 teams are sporting this rather weird looking structure.

The shark fin fashion was brought to us by Red Bull Racing, probably courtesy of their design guru Adrian Newey. The aero benefits are not very clear. Some teams running the fin say it helps to clean up the air flow over the rear wing, some others say it helps the balance of the car, some say it does not bring as much benefit as some other not that visible updates. One thing most people agree on however is that the fin shaped engine cover provides nice advertising space. Let’s have a look at the fins and how the ad space is used by the teams (you can enlarge the photos by clicking on the thumbnail):

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Adrian Sutil is another German driver sporting new helmet design at his home Grand Prix. Here are few pictures (click on photos to enlarge):

Photos: Force India F1

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It is obvious now that Adrian Newey has started a trend to follow. First it was the Red Bull during the Barcelona test back in February. In April, again in Barcelona, Renault came up with their version of finned engine cover and Toro Rosso introduced the Red Bull clone.

Force India were next to follow. Hoping to close the gap to the midfield they tested several aero updates 2 weeks ago at Silverstone. The fin was one of them. And yesterday we could see the first “finned” McLaren in action at the Hockenheim test… Half the grid has the fin now.

I am not sure how much advantage this thingy actually brings. But all the teams that have tested the weird looking engine cover went on racing with it. None of the teams has dropped it since. It looks like the shark fin is here to stay, at least till the end of the 2008 season.

Who will try it next ?

The “shark fin gallery” inside the post.

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It has been a bit quiet on the rumour front since the third edition but but still not a total radio silence. And surprise surprise, Sato has been talked about again.

This time not in connection with the “future Honda North America Team” but an existing one - Force India. The rumour has it, as Swiss publication Motorsport Aktuell reports, Force India F1 may be thinking about changing their engine supplier. Some meetings are reported to have taken place in Montreal between Force India and Honda. While Force India have a contract with Ferrari at the moment, the sweetener that allegedly makes Honda deal more attractive is inclusion of Honda’s KERS system in the package. After collapse of Super Aguri Honda currently do not not supply customer engines to another F1 team. The Honda engine / KERS package would come at a discount (the rumoured sum is EUR10 mil a year less than what Force India pays to Ferrari) under condition that Force India would also take care of Honda’s headache and give a race seat to ex-Jordan/Honda, ex-BAR/Honda and ex-Super Aguri/Honda driver Takuma Sato. Sounds to me like pay driver deal on offer … I do not know why but this does not feel like a deal Mallya would do …

The other rumour connects Bruno Senna (currently 2nd in GP2) with BMW Sauber.
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First came Red Bull, then Renault, then Toro Rosso, now after 2 days of waiting, here comes Force India and their version of shark fin engine cover:

More pictures inside the post.

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Thanks to some interesting races and rather even midfield most of the drivers and most of the teams have some points to their names already. Only few zeros still remain (not including Super Aguri):

Drivers: Nelson Piquet, Adrian Sutil, Giancarlo Fisichella
Teams: Force India

Sutil came close, very close in Monaco. Fisichella’s best is 10th place in Spain. Nelson Piquet in clearly better car than Force India has only finished 2 races so far, with 11th place in Malaysia being his best.

Will they be able to break their scoring duck in France ? Looking at the predictions so far not too many people think so. But it may rain on Sunday

Photo: Force India F1

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Looks like Sonia Irvine’s Amber Lounge parties have serious competition from Vijay Mallya . Here are some photos from Fly Kingfisher Party in Monaco 2008, including again DJ Sakon Yamamoto (after his success in Istanbul).

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Rubens Barrichello celebrated his 257th F1 race in Turkey. Giancarlo Fisichella will celebrate his 200th Grand Prix start in Monaco. He is only the ninth driver in history to reach that milestone. His total does not include the 2005 US GP, when along with the other Michelin runners he withdrew on the formation lap. It also does not include France 2002, when he had a major crash in practice and did not take part in qualifying.

Here are few photos (courtesy of Force India F1) including the photo of his special Arai Helmet bearing ‘200′ logo (more pictures in the article):

Giancarlo Fisichella 200 Anniversary Helmet

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A bit of refreshment before the Turkish GP Formula 1 race. Vijay Mallya has been known for his lavish parties and his Kingfisher party last year in Monaco was said to be The party to attend. There are still 2 weeks to go before Monaco but the European Party season has already began for Force India boss. Here are few photos from the party on board Mallya’s yacht in Istanbul, on Friday before Turkish GP. He looks to have stolen Sakon Yamamoto from Renault and turned him into a DJ (All photos courtesy of Force India F1):

(more photos inside the article)

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