Adrian Newey

Adrian Newey did it again. After winning races and titles with both Williams and McLaren he ended his winless streak and added another race win to his already impressive tally of Formula 1 race wins.

Williams raced Newey built cars between 1991 and 1997 winning 59 races in the process (Red Bull’s website says 58, I counted 59). McLaren relied on Newey car design between 1998 and 2005 winning 41 races in that period. I am not sure if all these 100 race wins can be contributed to Newey’s design or not. I haven’t found any source that would state this high number of race wins for Newey built cars, most sources say “over 80″. What we can say for sure now is that he has won one more.

Many people believed that it is only matter of time before Newey designed Red Bull car wins a race. But I think no too many expected that it will be STR instead of RB …

The STR03 first appeared in April test in Barcelona and scored first points on its race debut in Monaco. Then came it’s ninth race weekend, the pole position and the win.

Photo: Red Bull/GEPA

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Sebastian Vettel, 2008 Italian GP

This was a funny Formula 1 weekend. Rain in Monza turned this classic but recently often processional race into a grand theater. As expected, we have a first time Monza winner. But few would have expected that this would be Sebastian Vettel - now the youngest ever Formula 1 race winner (and pole position holder). This was also the first time since 1957 German GP (win for Maseratti) that Italian team other than Ferrari won Formula 1 race.

It is often the case that when we have a surprise winner it is a fluke result. Just look back at Fisichella’s win in Brazil with Jordan or Panis’ win in Monaco with Ligier. Vettel’s Monza win doesn’t fit into this fluke category though. Yes, Vettel had luck on his side during the qualifying. But his and his team’s race performance was well worth the race win.

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Sebastian Vettel became yesterday the youngest ever pole setter in Formula 1 history beating the previous record set by now 2 time world champion Fernando Alonso back in 2003 (Malaysian GP). This is also the very first time Toro Rosso car will start the race from the P1, a feat that the team never achieved in its previous life as Minardi. This is also only the first time any Red Bull car is on pole position. Here is the photogallery from the remarkable day for Scuderia Toro Rosso. Click on the thumbnails to open the high resolution files:

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Singapore

We still have the final race of the European Formula 1 season before F1 moves to Asia, but there has been some news on Singapore GP (September 26-28, 2008). So before starting the previews of Italian GP, here are some updates on the first Formula 1 night race in Singapore as well as a video of a lap on this F1 night track:

The final schedule for Formula 1 sessions has been announced:

Friday: Practice 1 - 7pm to 8:30pm, Practice 2 - 9:30pm to 11pm
Saturday: Practice 3 - 7pm to 8pm, Qualifying 10pm - 11pm
Sunday: Race at 8pm

This means that now all Formula 1 sessions will be run after sunset giving the drivers more time to test in the night conditions.

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Sebastien Bourdais

The Red Bull marketing stunts continue. After the Red Bull run in Pamplona and ride around the Balaton Lake they brought last weekend the only current French F1 driver Sebastien Bourdais with his Toro Rosso F1 car to the streets of Paris. Here is the video:

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Takuma Sato

When I first heard about the possible Sato - Toro Rosso connection I found it to be quite good joke. There is a lot of competition for the vacancy created by Vettel’s move to Red Bull. Well, of course. Many drivers want to get to F1 and Toro Rosso’s is so far the only confirmed vacancy for 2009 F1 season. Now it however looks that Toro Rosso guys are seriously considering Sato for 2009 season and the more I think about that connection the more sense it makes. Here is why I think why:

Business

Japan is a big market (also for the nergy drinks) and one of the few developed ones where Red Bull is yet to make it big. There are several reasons for that but at the end, it is all about marketing. Takuma Sato is still very popular back home (nothing against Nakajima, but it will take him a while to achieve Sato’s status). The combination of Japanese F1 hero with Red Bull brand may be something what Mr. Mateschitz may be willing to try.

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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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Earlier this week Red Bull and Toro Rosso took their show cars for a ride alongside Lake Balaton in Hungary. Red Bull’s test driver Sebastien Buemi drove the Red Bull car, Toro Rosso’s team boss Gerhard Berger drove the Toro Rosso. Here is the video:

Find more videos like this on F1Wolf Club

Video also available at Dailymotion and F1Wolf Facebook Group

Check the rest of the post for picture gallery:

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To make it even more difficult to keep the engine statistics up-to-date Red Bull team has decided to keep David Coulthard on the same Renault engine for the third race in a row in Hungary this weekend. Well on paper it is third race in a row but his British GP barely lasted a lap . Here are the reasons behind the unusual decision - Fabrice Lom, Renault, in charge of Red Bull engine supply:

“This is the first time we have taken this decision. First of all his V8 has not done too much running. Plus, having our two drivers out of synch on the engine cycle means that we won’t be putting all our eggs in the same basket. This decision will also help us in the second half of the season in terms of the logistical challenge. And finally, it means that David will not have to use the same engine in Spa and Monza, which are two of the toughest challenges on the calendar.”

In the early days of two race rule there were worries the teams may choose deliberately not to finish the race to be able to run with fresh engine in next one. It actually happened in 2005 when BAR retired both cars (Button and Sato) on the final lap of Australian GP and again in Australia in 2006 when Button stopped his smoking car meters from the finish line. Now we have a team choosing to use the same engine for third time .

Photo: Red Bull/GEPA

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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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