The Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) is a part of 2009 Formula 1 regulations. and the also the top topic of these days. Forget for a while about its relevance to road car development. Let’s look instead how it may affect the Formula 1 teams. Events of past few days suggest that it may affect F1 significantly.

Several teams face obvious problems. Red Bull had to call the fire brigade and evacuate their Milton Keynes factory after KERS tests resulted in smoke and steam all over the place. Few days ago a BMW Sauber mechanic felt the KERS impact himself. He received electrical shock after touching the KERS testing F1 car during the pit stop in Jerez.Yesterday John Howett, Toyota team president, expressed his doubts that the KERS technology will be ready and safe to use when 2009 season begins. He suggested that most of the teams are struggling with KERS development. There have been even reports of a potentially extremely dangerous by-product of exploded KERS batteries - the arsenic poison.

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You may have realized that Jenson Button used a different helmet at Silverstone during the 2008 British GP. He used special helmet designs for his home Grand Prix before but this time he had fans to design it for him on his website.

Here is the winning design by Aries Janssens:

Photos: Honda Racing F1

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After some Monaco drizzle we had the first proper wet to extreme wet race this year. It has provided us with all that can be expected - lots of spins, pit stop and strategy dilemas and some surprising faces on the podium.

It is not easy to review this race without missing something. A lot was happening on the track, the commercial breaks on ESPN Star came always in the wrong moment and Steve Slater did again his best to confuse us all with mixing up the driver names and talking bull while important things were happening on the track. How can someone like this guy keep the job with a TV station that broadcasts all over Asia is a mystery to me. But back to racing …

When we look back at the end of the season for the start of the year then Lewis Hamilton’s start to British GP will be high on the list of candidates. Starting from 4th but almost in the lead after few corners. Only very sharp defensive driving from his team mate kept him in second position. I am not sure McLaren pit wall enjoyed those few opening corners watching both their drivers getting way too close for comfort on the wet and slippery track. Both McLarens pulled away with Kimi Raikkonen in 3rd safely behind (safely for McLarens but safely for Kimi too). Hamilton kept pushing and Kovalainen kept defending. But then on lap 4 all of a sudden Kovalainen let Hamilton pass … TV applauded that as a great overtaking maneuvre from Hamilton, to me it looked like team orders in place …

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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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All we need is 2 weeks break between races and the rumour floodgates open. Let’s have a look what’s new since the second edition.

Robert Kubica has been doing well and so it comes as no surprise his future has been talked about quite a bit. Few innocent remarks to Italian paper La Stampa created two contradictory rumours. First linking Rosberg with BMW Sauber (as Kubica’s team mate) and then linking Kubica with a move to Ferrari. Sounds interesting but whom would Kubica replace ? Massa is under contract till 2010 and doing well right now (after shaky start to the season). There has been lots of talking about Raikkonen’s retirement but if I am not wrong that is part of the post 2009 future. All I can say about Kubica and Ferrari is that Kubica’s helmet matches the Ferrari colour scheme quite well as the picture above shows .

Fernando Alonso has dismissed the rumours about him signing for Ferrari, so now it is time to link him to BMW Sauber, now also a race winning car. It may help that Robert Kubica does not seem to mind having Alonso as a team mate. The question for me however is if Alonso would be OK with Kubica in the other car. At the moment all that is sure about Alonso’s future is that he has not made any decision on it, at least that is what he says.

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Danica Patrick is making F1 headlines. Rumours about her Formula 1 test with Honda spread much faster than the following Nick Fry’s denial about any contact between Honda F1 and Patrick. Nick Fry however does not seem to be entirely opposed to the idea:

“But if Danica did want to test one of our cars, we would be more than happy to speak to her about it.”

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Mike Conway did not do himself any harm by winning his first GP2 in Monaco last weekend. The tabloid talk about Conway and F1 has already begun. Does he have realistic chance to race in Formula 1 anytime soon ?

Conway’s current F1 connection is with Honda. He is part of the Honda Young Driver programme, he tested Honda F1 car last year and he does not seem to be unhappy there:

“Honda is a good place to be. They are starting to get results and next year they will be even stronger.”

But can Honda be his ticket to F1 racing ? Anthony Davidson has been part of Honda programme for quite some time. All he got out of it was 1 year and 4 races with Honda funded Super Aguri team (and 1 lap in Sepang standing in for sick Takuma Sato). What will happen with Rubens Barrichello’s seat next year remains to be seen, but it looks very likely that Jenson Button will stay with Honda. Even if there is vacancy next to Button, would Honda fill it up with another British driver ? (The last time I remember 2 drivers from same country in one team were Albers and Doornbos with Minardi, but both of them as paid drivers.) If Button signs new contract with Honda it will probably be for few years so the chances for another British driver to get a race drive with Honda anytime soon are not that good it seems. And unlike Toyota, Honda does not supply customer engines to anybody anymore … He may probably have to look elsewhere. But he is not alone among the current GP drivers with an eye on F1 and as we all know, there are not too many seats in F1 to go round …

Photo: Mike Conway/Sutton

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I know that all the teams are driven by the desire to get those few tenths that make the difference between F1 heroes and F1 zeros. But this is what happens when the teams continue fine tuning the ugly additions to their bodyworks, the ugly Dumbo wings get even uglier…

Yesterday I watched few videos from older Monaco races. Here is a clip from 1996, the famous wet race win for Olivier Panis in Ligier. How much nicer the cars were then, 12 years ago …

Even the new A1GP car looks better than the current F1 cars … The only light at the end of the tunnels is the fact, that what we see now is the end of the line for the current F1 cars and 2009 will put an end to these ugly winglets and wings and ears and all this. Season 2009 can’t come soon enough …

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Images (courtesy of Honda Racing F1) of Rubens Barrichellos’ 257th race special helmet and livery.

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The usually quiet weekend between two Formula 1 races was this time interrupted by accelerating developments surrounding Super Aguri team. First on Friday Super Aguri team and Weigl Group confirmed the talks. Then Nick Fry on Friday expressed his doubts about the deal and called it unlikely. Franz Josef Weigl responded quickly. In the meantime the Super Aguri cars were spotted to be in Honda’s Brackley factory instead on ferry from Trieste to Istanbul. I tried to keep track of these developments in this post.

Then on Sunday things took a turn for worse for Super Aguri. The team were denied access to Istanbul paddock allegedly after Honda Racing CEO Nick Fry had informed F1 management that Super Aguri would not be racing in Turkey. It appears that while Aguri Suzuki is pulling all the strings to keep the team afloat, Nick Fry is determined to bury Super Aguri F1 operation. Now, why would that be ?

I think the main reason for Fry to be suddenly so eager to see Super Aguri go (either away or under) is the genuine need for Honda to fully focus on their own development ahead of brand new F1 starting from 2009. I am sure if Suzuki was to find a slid buyer or investor that would stabuilize the team Fry would have nothing against it. Honda I believe would not mind supplying customer engines if they were to get paid for them. Supplying engines to 2 teams clearly does no harm to Ferrari, does it ? But Honda does not provide Super Aguri with engines only. Super Aguri chassis and pretty much the complete cars come from Honda. That would likely be the case at least all through the rest of 2008 season. I also think that 2009 would not be too different. Even if Super Aguri were to build their own cars from 2010, they would need some legal car for 2009. The new rules will require brand new cars and Super Aguri would sure not be able to build that themselves. The car would again have to come from Honda (unless some other team would be willing to chip in spare chassis or two). Honda as it becomes apparent is not willing to finance this any longer. If they see an investor coming to Super Aguri with pockets deep enough to pay Honda for all the supplies I expect Honda to be happy to dance along. So why is Nick Fry that negative about Weigl Group ? I think the answer is simple.

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