Pedro de la Rosa in Force India car, signs of things to come ?

The winter testing has started and after months of speculations we finally got some live presenation of what the 2009 Formula 1 cars may look like. It does not look that good , and according to Christian Klien these are the worst looking F1 cars, ever …

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F1Wolf

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Champagne and medals from 2009 ?

It looks like we may be in for more than just different cars next season. Few weeks ago Bernie Ecclestone floated an idea to scrap the championship points and give the top 3 drivers medals instead. The one with most golds would take the title. This would be rather radical change. Perhaps because of the radical nature of this idea I thought there is no way this could go ahead anytime soon.

To my surprise (if Bernie and the news reports can be trusted) it seems this idea found quickly the support among the teams and may be implemented for 2009 season already. The system would be simple. Gold, silver and brozne for top three, nothing for the rest. The other positions would however determine the championship rankings.

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F1Wolf

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2009 style front wing on BMW Sauber car

(Updated, more pictures added including Honda 2009 wing)

The winter testing for 2009 Formula One season begins in Barcelona today. The are is some added excitement about the testing this winter as all the teams will have to come up with brand new cars for next season, very different from the 2008 Formula 1 machinery. So far all we have had were speculations, more speculations, and few photos of Williams wings. Today BMW Sauber put their new wings to test (and public display) - large, wide and low front wing, small, narrow and high rear wing. That “Credit Suisse” painted part of the front wing seems to the movable one. All the winglets, horns and mini fins are gone. They still however run the car with grooved tyres, but those will not be used in Formula 1 from 2009 season.

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F1Wolf

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Canadian GP organizers ended talks with Bernie Ecclestone

As it is often case in Formula 1 the money and greed prevailed, the sport and fans are the loosers. Following the news coming out of Montreal on Sunday the chances that the Canadian GP may reappear on 2009 F1 calendar when its final version is released in December are now close to zero. Finding themselves far away from meeting demands from Bernie Ecclestone the organizers of the Canadian GP ended the talks aimed at keeping the Formula 1 race in Montreal.

Québec province’s Minister of Economic Development, Raymond Bachand:

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F1Wolf

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Future not clear for Chinese Grand Prix

This may be bad news for Bernie Ecclestone and good news for promoters of the other Formula 1 races. Organizers of Chinese GP are evaluating the feasibility of hosting the race ahead of expiry of their contract. Shanghai Grand Prix was first time hosted in 2004 and the organizers have two more races to go before the original contract runs out in 2010.

One would think that money does not matter in country like China. But things change … There is a chance that the Chinese GP may be dropped.

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F1Wolf

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Fernando Alonso returned Renault to the top of the podium

Sebastian Vettel, Robert Kubica, Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa, Lewis Hamilton - arguably the class of the 2008 Formula 1 field. Picking these five for my top 5 was the easy part. But how to rank them from 5 to 1 ?

All these five drivers outclassed their team mates, in Alonso’s case brutally. Those two with very equal machinery finished the season almost equal - one with 1 more point, the other one with 1 more win. Those three with less comepetitve cars in hand did not hesitate and took their chances when they came their way. All of them however also lacked the consistency, all of them had their days off or periods of slump. So here is how I rank the top 5 drivers of 2008 Formula 1 season:

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F1Wolf

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Front wings in 2009 will be much lower

2008 style front wing on Williams F1 car

We may see more of these soon, the winter testing begins next week. But Williams are the first team offering us the sneak peak at the 2009 style aero. They tested the narrow and high rear wing in Barcelona back in September, yesterday they fitted the FW30 car with the new front wing too during their Kemble airfield shakedown.

The pictures above show the differences between 2008 and 2009 spec front wings. I must say that while the new rear wing looks funny, its cousing at the front of car does have the look of proper racing wing .

More on 2009 F1 cars:

2009 Formula 1 cars look - The most obvious differences

How will the 2009 F1 cars look like ?

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F1Wolf

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Kimi Raikkonen's last win came way back in April in Spain

The 2008 Formula 1 driver rankings continue with part 3 - ranks 10 to 6. I did not have too difficult time to select the five drivers for this post but giving them their ranks was a bit different story. Here is how I settled it:

10th Kimi Raikkonen
Ferrari had bad start to the season in Australia but few races later, after Spanish GP, it looked like Kimi may be the man to beat in 2008. Unfortunately for him, that was the high point of his season. The mid season slump took him out of contention and by the time his form returned all he could do was to support Felipe Massa. He was outqualified by his team mate 12:6 and that says something about the roots of his problems. At the end Raikkonen managed to reclaim the 3rd place in drivers championship but only because the second McLaren driver was nowhere near the top and the BMW Sauber and Kubica lost the plot in the final 2 races. He made my top 10, but only just.

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F1Wolf

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Nick Thomas will race in the Windsor Arch Macau GT Cup Grand Prix

Ferry tickets, hotel room, grand stand ticket and thanks to Nick Thomas (on the picture above) also the paddock passes - all set and ready to go.

The 55th Macau GP long weekend will start this Thursday, November 13th. The first Macau GP was organized back in 1954. Since 1983 the Formula 3 race is part and the highlight of the race weekend programme in the former Portuguese enclave.

Although Macau never hosted and likely never will host Formula 1 race the Macau GP has strong F1 connection. The first Macau GP Formula 3 race winner was Ayrton Senna, the other winners include among others Michael Schumacher, Ralf Schumacher or David Coulthard.

18 out of 22 2008 F1 drivers raced in Macau before

This year 22 drivers started the Formula 1 season. Eighteen of them raced in Macau before. Can you name some or all of them ?

See 2008 Macau GP Formula 3 Entry List here

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F1Wolf

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Sebastien Bourdais - should he stay or should he go ?

I started my 2008 F1 driver rankings yesterday with Part 1, here comes Part 2 covering the ranks 15 to 11:

15th David Coulthard

DC almost made it to Part 1 but at the end I found him a bit less disappointing than Heikki Kovalainen. Although Coulthard scored the only podium for Red Bull this year he was still clearly outperformed by his team mate. The 2:16 qualifying statistics says it all. Coulthard also got involved in many racing incidents ruining several races for himself and for few other drivers. The way the final race of his F1 careers went pretty much sums up his 2008 season.

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F1Wolf

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