Last year Jarno Trulli painted his helmet with sakura flowers for the Japanese Grand Prix. This year the Toyota driver went for another Japanese trade mark - Fuji Mountain. Here is the helmet he will be sporting on his team’s home circuit:

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F1Wolf

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This is the first 2009 drivers posts that does not have rumours only. One 2009 F1 seat was confirmed last week - Mark Webber’s contract with Red Bull was extended for another year. He will however have new team mate following David Coulthard’s retirement announcement. Sebastian Vettel is everybody’s candidate …

There are reports that Toyota will confirm their current drivers Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock for next season. It hasn’t happened yet though. This would mean that Kazuki Nakajima may stay with Williams for a while longer.

Same as last year a lot seems to depend on the next move by Fernando Alonso. He is not planning to make any announcements before Italian Grand Prix in September and some teams may wait for his situation to clear up before making any moves.

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F1Wolf

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Several things happened yesterday that could have changed the podium line up. While Hamilton’s drive through penalty is still one of the talks of the race the opinion of the majority is that the penalty was justified. From what I have seen I tend to agree with that. There were however 2 other incidents that I am not sure were handled correctly by the race control.

Incident one - Raikkonen’s exhaust pipe

If there is a car on track that may pose danger the stewards can call it back to the pits to get rid of the danger. There is even this nice black flag with orange circle for that purpose. When Raikkonen’s car suddenly lost some pace on lap 36, a piece of the loose exhaust pipe appeared to be bouncing arround chassis hanging there only on a piece of wire. It was only matter of time before that piece of car gets loose and flies away. Ferrari were aware of that and based on post race words from Domenicali chose to let it fly away itself rather than bringing the car to the pits and cutting it away. Even when Raikkonen came for his regular pit stop nothing was done with the pipe in order not to waste valuable seconds…

Question: Why was it not possible to remove the exhaust at the pit stop?

Domenicali: It had already fallen off. It was already flying away. There was the cable of the lamda and we decided not to cut that because we were maybe losing more seconds, and we had Trulli pushing behind so we took that into consideration, and I have to say that in terms of strategy, in terms of teamwork everything was done correctly.

So everybody was aware that piece Kimi’s car will eventually get loose and fly off and nobody found that to be a potential danger to other drivers or to spectators ? I am happy for Kimi to be able to finish the race and in 2nd place under such circumstances. But I do wonder why the race control did not take any action to make sure his car poses no danger. After listening to the French GP digest at Sidepodcast I see that I am not alone …

Incident two - Trulli vs. Kovalainen

One journalist suggested at the post race press conference that Trulli and Kovalainen touched the wheels while fighting for the 3rd place with a lap to go. I do not think their wheels touched although they came very very close. It however looked to me that Trulli did make a sudden movement in Kovalainen’s direction when the cars were almost side to side forcing Kovalainen off the track. Was this a display of excellent racing we all want to see or an example of dangerous defensive driving from Jarno Trulli ? After watching the replay several times I do wonder why Trulli’s maneuvre was not at least investigated by the stewards …

At the end no flag to Raikkonen no penalty to Trulli - Was that right ?

F1Wolf

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Every year when Monaco GP comes people expect or hope for some surprise result. The track where overtaking is next to impossible (well Barrichello may not agree after his last lap in 2005), where there are no run off areas and the walls are unforgiving is the prime candidate for a messy result of the year. But how likely the surprise results in Monaco actually are ? This is what Fernando Alonso had to say a week ago:

“That’s what we always think when going to Monaco or at least we all think Monaco is so different that things will change, but in the end it’s always a McLaren or a Ferrari winning or Renault like in 2006. The cars that have been winning all season arrive at Monaco and win too so in the end we see less surprises than we initially expect.”

When was the last time we had a surprise winner in Monaco ? So let’s look back few years to see who were the winners:

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F1Wolf

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After Part 1 it is time for part 2 - Sebastien Bourdais and Jarno Trulli

Rookie no 2 - Sebastien Bourdais

Bourdais may be a F1 rookie but he ain’t no rookie driver. The F3000 title (2002), 4 consecutive Champ Car titles (2004 - 2007) is probably the best he could achieve in open wheel racing outside Formula 1. Few people can understand why it took so long for someone in F1 to bring him in…He himself was quite confident before the season about his racing abilities but expressed worries about qualifying form. The first couple of races pretty much confirmed that. He was outqualified by Vettel in Melbourne and in Malaysia. In Melbourne however his smooth drive, keeping out of trouble and great thinking (his and his pitwall crew) during the final safety car period elevated him as high up as 4th. Only a late engine failure meant DNF, but still 2 points for 7th place. Bahrain saw him for the first time to outqualify his team mate Sebastain Vettel. The new Toro Rosso car is due to arrive in Turkey and if it is as quick as the current Red Bull we may see some more points next to Bourdais’ name before the season comes to a close. Bourdais seems to be the quiet achiever next to a highly rated team mate … I did not know what to expect from Bourdais this season but I must say he has been quite impressive so far …

Veteran no 2 - Jarno Trulli

Jarno Trulli is one of the few drivers with no contract for 2009. His performances this season may well determine whether we will see him on the grid next year or not.

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F1Wolf

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What do Nico Rosberg, Kazuki Nakajima, Jarno Trulli and F1Wolf have in common ? Well all these important Formula 1 figures feature in the same show on Sidepodcast.tv

Thanks to Sidepodcast for nice review !

After you finish watching the great show about planes, wine, Formula 1 and F1Wolf see the rest of the post for few more photos of the Air Asia Airbus painted in Williams colours with Nico Rosberg’s helmet all over the nose of the plane. (all photos courtesy of AT&T Williams Team):

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F1Wolf

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Toyota is a prime example of the fact that huge budget only does not buy success. It did buy them the wrong Schumacher few years back . He however ”left” and has gone to try his luck in DTM, and so Toyota enters the 2008 season with a fresh face in the cockpit, Timo Glock, alongside the veteran Jarno Trulli.

Jarno Trulli - Italy
Born: 13 July 1974
In F1 since 1997 Minardi, 1998 - 1999 Prost, 2000 - 2001 Jordan, 2002 - 2004 Renault, 2004 - 2008 Toyota
Best Result: 6th in 2004
Career wins: 1
Pole positions: 3
Podium Finishes: 7

Jarno Trulli is one of the longest serving drivers on current F1 grid. He has been quite optimistic about the recent Toyota performance. But he somehow negated that optimism with his latest remark placing their car a full one second behind Ferrari. That would mean a position behind the midfield pack of BMW Sauber, Williams, Red Bull and Renault. Trulli’s strength has been the one lap qualifying, in 2007 he started only 3 races from outside the top 10 on the grid. To do that this year on regular basis will not be easy. Unfortunatelly for him, his race peformances lag behind his qualifying and way too often he casts himself into the role of moving chicane. It worked for him in 2004 in Monaco when he won the race. Will be inetersting to see if the removal of electronic driver aids will work for or against him.

Timo Glock - Germany
Born: 18 March 1982
In F1 since 2004 Jordan (test driver and 4 races), 2007 BMW Sauber (test driver, no races), 2008 Toyota
Best Result: 19th in 2004
Career wins: 0
Pole positions: 0
Point Finishes: 1 (7th place)

Timo Glock returns to F1 racing for the first time since his brief experience with Jordan in 2004. He spent the following years in Champ Cars (2005) and GP2 (2006-2007). He returned to F1 last year with BMW Sauber, as their driver. His biggest achievement so far is the GP2 title in 2007. Unlike his predecessor, 2006 GP2 champion Lewis Hamilton, he does not have the benefit of title contending car. His main target for his first full year in F1 therefore will be his team mate Jarno Trulli. To outscore Trulli however he will need to master the qualifying, on that turf Trulli is a formidable opponent.

F1Wolf’s prediction for Toyota drivers in 2008:
I see Trulli ahead of Glock thanks to his qualifying skills. Glock will eventually get close to Trulli later on in the season but if Trulli scores decent points early on in the season, we will stay ahead of Glock. Under normal race circumstances it is very unlikely any of these drivers will make it to podium this year.

2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - Ferrari
2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - McLaren
2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - BMW Sauber
2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - Renault
2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - Williams
2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - Red Bull

F1Wolf

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Jarno Trulli expressed suspicion that some teams may have found a way around the new standard ECU developed and supplied by McLaren Electronic Systems.

“I’m not going to name any names, but I think that some teams have already found a way to automate the starting procedure and reduce to the minimum the chance of spinning the wheels under acceleration. I’m not saying someone’s cheating, even though we’ve received some conflicting information at Toyota. But having analysed the behaviour on the track both now and in the tests in December, the changes between them are many - and in several cases suspicious.”

Autosport also reports some “Paddock sources” saying that some cars did sound different under heavy acceleration during last week tests in Jerez. Only Honda and BMW did not run in Jerez last week, so if what Trulli says is true, there are quite a few suspects. The teams would be stupid to use something outright illegal, but pushing the limits to the edge of legality is common in the competitive world of F1. Remember BAR and their fuel tank in 2005 (banned for 2 races), Renault and their mass dampers in 2006, Ferrari and their flexi floor in Melbourne 2007…

The implementation of the standard ECU, was one of the reasons why it was possible to ban the traction control. It has been banned before, but quickly everybody found a way around it somewhere deep inside the car electronics and FIA had no other way than to make the TC legal again. Standard ECU should have been (among other things) a solution to the problem policing the TC ban.

If some of the teams indeed found a way around the standard ECU after only few months of working with it, than the TC ban might be shortlived again. It would be interesting to see what action (if any) will FIA take. Trulli may be right or he may be wrong. But in any case I hope that FIA goes ahead and investigates Trulli’s suspicions now. If there are to be any rulings on legality of any cars, FIA better make them before the racing begins. It would be nice if the 2008 Formula 1 season can start without a controversy.

F1Wolf

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The teams keep rolling out their new cars and the F1 drivers are coming up with their 2008 helmet design. Here they are:

Raikkonen, Massa

Hamilton, Kovalainen

Heidfeld, Kubica

Alonso, Piquet

Rosberg, Nakajima

Webber, Coulthard

Glock, Trulli

Barrichello, Button

Bourdais, Vettel

Sutil, Fisichella

Sato, Davidson

Fernando Alonso seems to be getting away from McLaren days and returning to Renault even with his helmet design. Jarno Trulli reduced the shiny silver surface with more red colour over it. Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica keep the designs very close to their 2007 styles.

Kimi Raikkonen’s new 2008 helmet (click here) is very similar to his 2007 one, but the white front has been replaced with some sort of “tribal” drawing. Anyone knows what it means ?

Lewis Hamilton keeps his yellow helmet pretty much unchanged. Heikki Kovalainen had to make changes to accomodate new sponsors the result is Alonso 2007 like helmet. Bourdais keeps his Champ Car yellow and blue with the addition of Red Bull brand.

Both Honda and Red Bull drivers keep the same designs as in 2007. Sutil’s helmet does not look too different from his 2007 one as well. Fisichella is another guy sticking with his traditional colours.

Please check back for updates to this post with more on 2008 F1 driver helmets. It happened before that drivers used different design for the winter testing and came up with brand new one when the season started, so these may not yet be the definite 2008 helmets.

If you come across good pictures of new 2008 F1 driver helmets that are not yet displayed here, let me know. I will add them here !

To see what the drivers were wearing in 2007, check here

F1Wolf

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During the past month I published series of posts with the high resolution photos of all the teams and all the drivers (well almost, one driver is missing) of 2007 Formula 1 season for download.

For those who missed it, here are all the links:

Kimi Raikkonen
Lewis Hamilton
Fernando Alonso
Felipe Massa
Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica
Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen
Nico Rosberg, Alex Wurz, Kazuki Nakajima
Mark Webber, David Coulthard
Jarno Trulli, Ralf Schumacher
Sebastian Vettel, Scott Speed, Vitantonio Liuzzi
Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello
Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson
Adrian Sutil, Christijan Albers, Sakon Yamamoto

Screensavers are also on the way. If you do not want to miss out, subscribe to F1 Wolf via RSS Feed or E-mail

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