It has become apparent that the automobile manufacturers that compete in the Formula One Championship will be hurt by the new price cap proposal. Ferrari and now BMW have expressed that they are not happy with the drastic price cut and would much rather see a gradual plan to reduce costs. Currently the price cap has been around three times less than what teams are currently spending.
I fear that with manufacturers like Ferrari, BMW and possibly Toyota and McLaren Mercedes will be out of the F1 Championship all together leaving the championship to be raced all by private teams. This does not do well for marketing from a automotive manufacturer point of view. It may work for advertising but gone will be the slogan, “race on Sunday and sell on Monday”. The FIA say that they can live without Ferrari but they would take a hit. Now that BMW are in the mix, I’m sure that hit will be a little harder to the sport and to the fans.
I still agree that this is a good step forward for smaller teams. However, if you are a Formula 1 giant, this just doesn’t make sense. Especially for teams that have been in F1 for several decades. Soon, I fear that we will only see customer cars out on the track and no manufacturers. I also think that the FIA need to come up with a standardized rule for the sport as a whole and not have it be multi-tiered. As it is proposed right now, there are different regulations if you are above or below the 40-million-pound budget. Go with one or the other, but not both in the same series. Otherwise, there should be different championships.
Finally! The teams are back in Europe and many of them have made improvements over the last four races especially with the new “super diffuser” allowance. I see many teams already doing some modifications to their cars… or so they claim. Ferrari state that they’ve lightened the car and have also improved aerodynamically (reported to be the “super diffuser” concept). A straight line test was done the other day and Ferrari state that they are encouraged by the improvements. Renault have also stated that they’ve made some improvements to the car but haven’t really specified their progress. I haven’t heard too much from other teams at this time but for the most part I’m sure that many of them are progressing to the “super diffuser” platform.
Ferrari F60B
I also think that Monaco will be a crap-shoot on who’s doing upgrades for their cars. Monaco is such a unique event that with perfect luck (or luckier than others) will win you the race. However, you create your own luck, right? After Monaco though I think that teams will really start to improve their cars and implementing the pieces they need to go fast.
The other big news was the price cap for 2010. According to reports from Formula1.com, teams are rewarded with more technical freedoms if they stay under the 40-million-pound price cap. Such freedoms include the removal or higher rev limiter on the engine, freedom of aerodynamics to the front and rear wing adjustability, in and out of season testing and more. I think that this will hurt the larger teams such as Ferrari, McLaren, BMW and Toyota. However with new teams like Brawn, U.S. Grand Prix Enterprise (formerly known as USF1) and potentially David Richards bringing in Prodrive, this is a huge leap forward for them to enter into F1. Speaking of USGPE and Prodrive, it’s been rumored that USGPE may be running a Cosworth engine and Prodrive would look into an Aston Martin engine. Both engines would be great new assets to Formula 1 and for the fans. Because we all know that what starts out on the race track may eventually work its way to our street cars. So let’s keep our fingers crossed!
In my Fantasy Formula 1 team, I’m really waiting for practice to finish before I make any preliminary picks. Now that the teams are back in Europe and teams are coming out with their new evolution of cars, I really and honestly don’t know who to pick. Obviously I’m hoping that Ferrari have found their feet again and can start winning races. I’m also pulling for Alonso to do well in front of his home crowd. B-Drivers are still unknown now more than ever. Button, Barrichello and Vettel are all strong picks for the event but they could start to fade away soon if the other teams have picked up or surpassed their evolutions. So I’ll wait for practice in a couple of days and hope for the best!
Kimi Raikkonen finally scored some points at this last weekends fourth round of the FIA Formula One Championship. Coming in sixth place he brings home Ferrari’s first points (three points) for the season and a huge sigh of relief from its fans. Massa didn’t fair as well due to KERS problems early on in the race which put him too much off the pace. A two-time winner of the race, saw Massa get lapped by the leaders later in the race, not able to put team points up on the board.
My big surprise for the weekend though was to see Vettel keeping up with the leaders and be without the “Super-Diffuser”. Everyone knows that the Red Bull cars are fast (especially in the rain) but now things are getting to the point that they are consistantly up there and doing well. I shouldn’t be surprised but I am.
My big disappointment was with Toyota. They had the front row and the speed in qualifying then in the race they practically fell on their face. Everyone was talking about them winning their first grand prix, but it was not to be. Maybe they got jinxed with all the talk of winning their first GP. Oh well… Toyota will be there soon enough and get their first win, we hope.
Toyotas Make The Front Row of the Grid
I’m still happy with BRAWN GP because they’ve been there for my Fantasy Formula One picks. Although I didn’t have the highest points for the Bahrain GP, I still had enough to pull away a little on second place. I hope that my picks will continue to keep me in first place. I have yet to pick a Kimi, Massa or a Ferrari or Mercedes McLaren.
Ferrari have yet to score any points in the 2009 Formula One season. This should be no suprise since I’ve been talking about this for the last three races. Even though Ferrari are confident they will do better in the coming races; that’s still a half-assed statement. When you’re at the bottom of the championship leaderboard, you have no place but to go up. My honest opinion is that they won’t do much better in Bahrain than what they accomplished in previous three races. That would be “zero” if you haven’t been paying attention. Ferrari are hopeful though and that’s a good sign. They’ve done some of their pre-season testing there and did pretty good. They should have a good baseline setup for the car and they know what they need to change in order for a good result.
KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) should be back on the car and this will help re-establish their baseline for weight distribution. I believe that when they removed this system from the car for the Chinese GP that the weight distribution of the car was detrimental to the balance of the car.
Kimi Raikkonen, normally a good wet weather driver, was getting passed by people not as good. Granted he did state that there was a problem with the engine early on in the race. Felipe Massa had electrical problems that resulted in his retirement. For me, the biggest surprise was Heikki Kovalainen. He moved all the way up to 5th position, starting from 12th. Vettel was not really a surprise as he’s always good in the rain. I always thought that Webber was a good driver as well, just really unlucky with people running into him. Team Brawn were expected to be up there as well. Another big surprise was watching Louis Hamilton spinning out as often as he did. Obviously overworking the car trying to get to the front.
Ferrari with no points after three races in 2009
All in all though, my thoughts are with Ferrari and their lack of performance. As a true Ferrari fan, I will continue to support them (as long as Kimi drives for them) and hope that they will overcome their problems. In a statement gathered from F1technical.net, Niki Lauda says, “Now the Italians are running it all. Does it work? It could be chaos. That’s the problem.” He’s referencing that Ferrari have become too specialized in getting Italians to work the shop. However, in the more successful days they had Englishmen and Germans working there as well. This meant that they were more diversified and had a broader rage of work ethics and habbits. Ferrari should rethink their goals and bring in some fresh minds from other countries to look at different ways to solve the same problem… getting championship points.
You know, I was up till 1:oo-a.m. watching the Formula 1 Second Free Practice and I am still wondering why I’m wearing my Ferrari gear to work to show my support. Now that the diffuser debate has been settled (which I’m still not happy about) why hadn’t Ferrari come up with an emergency back-up plan to have a diffuser ready for the Chinese Grand Prix? They, along with everyone else, knew what diffuser Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota were going to race since the season opener in Australia! So there’s been plenty of time to come up with an alternative diffuser in light of the ruling. Oh Ferrari… more importantly… Kimi Raikkonen where art thou?!?!
Stepping back a few thoughts though, regarding the diffuser debate. SPEED TV had mentioned that Adrian Newey had come up with a double-decker design as well but the FIA forced him to change it. Whereas the other teams that are running the diffuser didn’t ask for permission. So I guess the old cliché of, “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness, than it is to get permission.”
Brawn GP Exhaust System... Legal? (Courtesy of Racecar Engineering)
Also, whatever happened to the investigation of Brawn GP’s exhaust system? From my understanding it’s similar or the same as what Ferrari was forced to change in the pre-season testing. I have yet to verify this but if it is true then I’m really not liking how some teams can get away with all these technical changes that were deemed illegal for other teams. Are the FIA losing grip of consistencies in the rules? I think that my other frustration is that these teams that are getting away with these technicalities are teams that did not attend the group meetings on the new technical rule changes and should penalized for that alone!
Tomorrow could be the deciding factor to the 2009 FIA Formula One championship. I am referencing the diffuser debate and the uncurtanty of many teams now lies in the hands of the higher sporting court that will be held tomorrow. Teams like Ferrari, BMW and McLaren are all running diffusers that were understood to be utilizing a read diffuser that’s within the good sportsmanship ruling of the regulations. However, there are some that are looking for the loopholes within the system and therefore taking advantage of them.
I’m not sure how I really feel about this though. Part of me says, good job for taking advantage of every angle and creating a superior car. However, there also should have been a meeting to discuss whether it was legal or not before the start of the race (not just race weekend). There should have been a better understanding of the diffuser ruling and the FIA should have been responsible to ensure that everyone is clear on the ruling. I also understand that teams are trying to adhear to the sporting regulations to keep it fair.
I feel that although I’m tipping my hat to the teams with the modified diffuser for being creative and inovative. These teams are also the teams that didn’t appear at a meeting regarding the aerodynamics that most of the other teams did attend (from my understanding for the Speed TV broadcast of the Australian GP). So I feel that these teams should be penalized but not disqualified. The should not be disqualified only because the FIA and the Sterwards allowed the diffusers even under protest. The solution at this time would be to assess the actual time advantage per lap and then take the total number of laps completed. So as an example if you are a team with a diffuser and you are thought to have an unfair advantage of 0.5 seconds and the race was 70 laps, you would be assessed a 35-second time penalty for the entire race. This way people that didn’t finish the race still are placed lower than the people who did finish the race.
Ferrari, Ferrari, Ferrari… what the hell guys? Your antics are showing of not being the veteran team that you are! First, in qualifying you fail to send Massa out to defend getting into round two and then during the race you send Raikkonen out on Wets (formerly known as Extreme Wets)? If anything Intermediates would have been okay a better bet. They knew that if there was a downpour that they most likely would have had to stop the race! It’s been a monsoon every time it’s rained there over the entire weekend. Come on guys, you’re not just looking bad, you’re making all of us Ferrari fans look bad and worst of all, you’re making Kimi look bad!
Kimi retires to the garage during the downpour at the Malaysian GP
As irony would have it, Kimi would retire from the race (or be placed 14th. I’m still not sure what’s going on with the results) but my Fantasy Formula 1 picks put me with the most points for the weekend. I jumped from 5th place to 3rd. Scoring 29 points over my closest rivals at 26 points. My picks for the Malaysian GP was: Kimi Raikkonen, Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello and Brawn GP. Lucky me, unlucky Raikkonen…
Practice was pretty boring to watch last night. There were a couple of highlights that I thought was interesting. BMW was a the bottom of the time sheets. Force India had a surpising outing but Giancarlo Fischicella had an off and broke front and rear suspension as well as other components. Looked unhurt for the most part. Ferrari had a 1-2 punch at the end of practice with my boy, Kimi Raikkonen taking provisional pole. As we all know that the times from Free Practice don’t mean much because each team has their own program and tests to run. Some will run all out to check overall speed and others will check for tire degregation as well as fuel loads. So times usually don’t mean much for Free Practice but in any case, it’s good fun to watch!
Kimi take provisional pole during Free Practice 2
I just got done watching The Duel from Tag Heuer off of Autoblog’s website. I have mixed feelings about this, but overall the cinematography was very well done. I’m not sure who I would choose in this situation. First you have Steve McQueen. The quinticential motorsport legend/actor. Then you have Louis Hamilton the 2008 Formula One Drivers’ Champion. (Click link below)
the_duel
The reasons why I would pick Steve McQueen is because the heart and soul of motorsport racing is different than today. When people raced back then, they held their life in the hands of thier peers, competition and lady luck. It was a different time and diffent type of racing.
The reasons why I would pick Louis Hamilton is that it would be a great “passing of the torch” and could be good for Tag Heuer’s image for evolutionizing their time pieces. The newest technologies that are being brought in to the epitomy of perfection. Where precision is now more than an art than bruit force.
Watch the video and decide for yourself. Who would you pick?
This really isn’t a preview but more about my thoughts leading into the race this weekend. I’m a little concerned that we won’t see much of a difference. The real wrench in the works is how the aerodynamics is going to play. This course is not as “technical” in the sense of contrast in corners and the straight a ways are longer. The transitions between corners are subtle and for the most part, expected. KERS cars will have some advantage with the extra boost coming out of the corners for the long straight a ways. However, I’m not sure how the new diffuser will react at higher speeds. As always better airflow is part of the winning combination but does the new diffuser put too much down force for a high speed track?
Sepang Circuit for the Malaysian Grand Prix
Ferrari have promised to put a better result together for this race. Well I hope so! Any championship point is 100% better than were they were at the end of this last race. Kimi needs to win to get Ferrari’s moral back on a high. However, with the looks of BRAWN GP, Red Bull Racing and BMW, this feat may be harder than what it sounds. In the end I will still be rooting for Kimi but I do have my Fantasy Formula One picks to worry about too.
Disappointed Ferrari Team - Courtesy of DayLife.com
