F1 – BUTTON REIGNS AT SEPANG

  Damn it but don’t you just love wet races? Nobody has any idea what is going to happen and when. Not the drivers. Not the team managers. Not the commentators and certainly not the viewers. How wet? Intermediates or full wets? When to change? How much fuel to bung in while stopped? And even the big teams bugger up their strategy once in a while. This time Ferrari’s soothsayers got it all wrong and poor Kimi had to wallow around on full wets as the heavens stubbornly refused to open up. Oops. And following on from their qualifying blunder which saw Massa start from 16th on the grid…Oooohh dear…  

  OK in the end Jenson still probably deserved to win the Malaysian GP but he did still get just a bit lucky. He made a complete cock of his start from pole position and was fortunate to come out of the first turn complex in third place. From there he was stuck behind Jarno Trulli until the first stops while Rosberg in the Williams cantered away in front. Williams has a long and proud history of buggering up pit stops and lousy strategy calls and Sunday saw them produce the full range of their armoury. Nico’s first stop was way too early and way too long and put him back out on the track on slicks just as the rain was coming. Six laps later he was back in for full wets when, as Glock proved, intermediates were the best choice. Five laps later he was back in for intermediates just as it started to really rain. Two laps later, back in for full wets. A distant eighth and half a point was the end result. Mind you, they did a better job then Ferrari……

   In mitigation it must be said that at the first round of stops most drivers picked the wrong tyre (full wets) except Timo Glock. After a shocker of a start which saw the Toyota as low as 15th place, once on the inters he climbed from 11th to 2nd in just six laps carving as much as ten seconds a lap out of the leaders. Had he stopped just one lap earlier for full wets he may well have won the race But he didn’t and by the end of that one lap, Button who had stopped, was back in front on a track that was turning into Lake Titicaca. By the time Timo had stopped, rejoined and repassed Nick Heidfeld the red flag had arrived and so he ended in third place behind the BMW-Sauber pilot who had only stopped twice, and made the right call both times. 

  The other star of the conditions was Red Bull’s Mark Webber. Careful to avoid last weeks fate he made a cautious start to run seventh early on behind Alonso with whom he was to have a monumental scrap. On several occasions the Red Bull got in front only to see the Renault’s KERS system blast Alonso back past on the long front straight. After some highly entertaining side by side stuff through turns one and two Mark finally slithered past and simply vanished. Then the rains came and although on full wets Webber blew by four cars on his out-lap and was up to third place from 14th in just six laps when he was called in to put some inters on. It was of course, the wrong call at the wrong time and just one lap later he was back in for another set of wets and he rejoined in sixth on lap 30. He was still there on lap 31 but as he crossed the line after his 32nd lap he was second and hauling in Button at a great rate. But the red flag then came out and the race was called as of the end of lap 31. Typical of the poor sods luck Although his luck as been a bit better than Heikki Kovalainen’s in the McLaren who is yet to complete a racing lap this year. 

  Anyway who knows what would have happened if the race had continued. With cars on different tyres and different fuel loads, some with KERS, some without, Hell maybe Fisichella would have won in the Force India. Oh that’s right, no he wouldn’t have. He spun off at about 25 miles an hour on about 3 feet of water.

   You just gotta love the rain.

  Sam Snape 

08-04-2009     

BRISCOE TOPS IRL TEST

 All the lads from our part of the world were in the top seven at the first IRL test of the year. Ryan Briscoe topped the test for Penske Racing with a best time of 0’25.1984 at an average speed of 212.156 mph. Seventh Stater Scott Dixon was next best for Target Chip Ganassi Racing just 4/100ths of a second off the pace. Will Power had a good first outing for Penske and ended up in seventh place with a time of 0’25.3914, just 2/10ths off Briscoe’s time.

Homestead test times 2009-02-25

 IndyCar Spring Training

Circuit: Homestead Miami Speedway (1.5-mile oval)

Homestead, FL Full Field Practice Times: 

Ps.  Driver             Team                     Chassis        Best Lap Time  

1.  Ryan Briscoe       Team Penske              Honda Dallara  25.1984        

2.  Scott Dixon        Target Chip Ganassi      Honda Dallara  25.2378        

3.  Marco Andretti     Andretti Green Racing    Honda Dallara  25.3036        

4.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green Racing    Honda Dallara  25.3582        

5.  Dario Franchitti   Target Chip Ganassi      Honda Dallara  25.3842        

6.  Mario Moraes       KV Racing Technology     Honda Dallara  25.3842        

7.  Will Power         Team Penske              Honda Dallara  25.3914        

8.  Dan Wheldon        Panther Racing           Honda Dallara  25.4085        

9.  Mike Conway-R      Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Honda Dallara  25.4299          

10.  Graham Rahal       Newman Haas Lanigan      Honda Dallara  25.4465        

11.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green Racing    Honda Dallara  25.4578        

12.  Robert Doornbos-R  Newman Haas Lanigan      Honda Dallara  25.5077        

13.  Vitor Meira        A.J. Foyt Racing         Honda Dallara  25.5210        

14.  E.J. Viso          HVM Motorsports          Honda Dallara  25.5356        

15.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green Racing    Honda Dallara  25.5383        

16.  Milka Duno         Newman Haas Lanigan      Honda Dallara  25.5809        

17.  Ed Carpenter       Vision Racing            Honda Dallara  25.5881        

18.  Raphael Matos-R    Luczo Dragon Racing      Honda Dallara  25.6165        

19.  Justin Wilson      Dale Coyne Racing        Honda Dallara  25.6886        

20.  Jaime Camara       Conquest Racing          Honda Dallara  25.7790        

21.  Stanton Barrett-R  Team 3G                  Honda Dallara  25.9180          

F1 – BAD DAY FOR THE BIG BOYS

  The Grand Prix season finally got under way today at Albert Park and to most people’s surprise, the big four teams all struggled to break into the top ten in either of the practice sessions. The worst of the lot was McLaren who ended the second session in 17th (Kovalainen) and 18th (Hamilton) place. BMW-Sauber were not much better and Renault lived up (down?) to its testing performance while Ferrari also struggled. Williams were the stand-out of the first day while home-star Mark Webber was the quickest of the “legal” drivers.  

   McLaren were playing down their prospects after suffering rear down-force problems in testing but no-one expected suck a lackluster performance with both drivers complaining that they had no grip and no feeling. Both Nick Heidfleld (14th) and Robert Kubica (15th) suffered from a similar problem and the way both drivers were sawing away at the steering wheel on their quickest laps suggests a fundamental balance drama. Renault has always looked slow during testing and didn’t look any better today. Both drivers had several spins on the way to 12th (Alonso) and 19th (Piquet). At least both Ferraris made it into the top ten in the first session but only Felipe Massa snuck into that list with the 10th best time in the second session. Kimi Raikkonen spent a considerable time at the bottom of the list before leaping up to 11th near the end of the session. Massa survived the most lurid slide of the day which would have surely put a driver of lesser car control into the wall after a huge “tank-slapper” approaching the second last turn. Proving the size of his genitalia he then put in his quickest lap of the day.

   Harking back to the mid nineties, was the pace of the Williams team which saw Nico Rosberg topping the time-sheets of both sessions with Kazuki Nakajima backing him up well finishing 2nd (session 1) and 7th in the FW31. The Brawn-Mercedes and Toyotas also featured at the top of the times in both sessions but these three teams are all racing under protest due to the configuration of their rear diffusers. Williams and Toyota have used a loophole in the technical regs and have a centre section that is higher than those regulations require. Brawn has used a double-decker diffuser design which meets the regs in that the lower part of the diffuser is lower that the regs require but the upper element is above them. All have been declared legal by the scrutineers however this has been appealed to the FIA International Court of Appeal. This will probably not be heard until after the Malaysian Grand Prix due to be held next week.   

  Australia’s home-grown hero Mark Webber was the only driver of a “legal” car to break up the top three teams with a stunning forth fastest time of the day after suffering hydraulic dramas in the first session and exhaust problems in the second. Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel also had a troubled day stopping with similar hydraulic problems in session one and spinning while trying to match Webber’s pace in the second. 

  Rubens Barrichello proved that Ross Brawn’s faith was well placed by beating team-mate Button in both sessions and ending the day second fastest. It is believed that Sir Richard Branson will announce that Virgin will become the title sponsor of the Brawn team later today. 

FINAL TIMES 

SESSION 1 

Pos  Driver       Team                      Time              Laps 1.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B) 1:26.687           19 2.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B) 1:26.736 + 0.049   21 3.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B) 1:26.750 + 0.063   24 4.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B) 1:27.226 + 0.539   21 5.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B) 1:27.453 + 0.766   15 6.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B) 1:27.467 + 0.780   12 7.  Massa        Ferrari               (B) 1:27.642 + 0.955   24 8.  Glock        Toyota                (B) 1:27.710 + 1.023   24 9.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B) 1:27.993 + 1.306   2010.  Alonso       Renault               (B) 1:28.123 + 1.436   1611.  Heidfeld     BMW Sauber            (B) 1:28.137 + 1.450   2012.  Trulli       Toyota                (B) 1:28.142 + 1.455   2113.  Kubica       BMW Sauber            (B) 1:28.511 + 1.824   2214.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B) 1:28.603 + 1.916   1615.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B) 1:28.785 + 2.098   2716.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B) 1:29.042 + 2.355   1817.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B) 1:29.081 + 2.394    718.  Piquet       Renault               (B) 1:29.461 + 2.774   2519.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B) 1:29.499 + 2.812   2120.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B) 1:32.784 + 6.097    4   SESSION 2 Pos  Driver       Team                       Time              Laps 1.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:26.053            36 2.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:26.157  + 0.104   38 3.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:26.350  + 0.297   42 4.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:26.370  + 0.317   30 5.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:26.374  + 0.321   38 6.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:26.443  + 0.390   42 7.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:26.560  + 0.507   33 8.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:26.740  + 0.687   19 9.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:27.040  + 0.987   2910.  Massa        Ferrari               (B)  1:27.064  + 1.011   3511.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:27.204  + 1.151   3212.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:27.232  + 1.179   2813.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:27.282  + 1.229   3214.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:27.317  + 1.264   3415.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:27.398  + 1.345   3616.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:27.479  + 1.426   3617.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:27.802  + 1.749   3518.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:27.813  + 1.760   3119.  Piquet       Renault               (B)  1:27.828  + 1.775   3520.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:28.076  + 2.023   33 

HONDA F1 TEAM SOLD

  Mexicans? Virgin? Mexican virgins? Nope – Ross Brawn now owns the remains of Honda F1. After three long months it has finally been announced that the Honda F1 Team has been sold in a management buy-out to Ross Brawn. Most of the details have been a widely known secret for a while now but there was one surprise. The new Brawn Grand Prix team will use Mercedes V8 engines, possibly badged as Ilmors, and be driven by Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. The only Surprise there was that good old Rubens gets another chance after outpacing Button for most of last year. It had looked for a while that Bruno Senna would get the second seat but Brawn & Barrichello have had a good relationship dating back to their Ferrari days and Brawn wanted Rubens experience to help develop the car which will have only two test sessions before the season begins in Melbourne in three weeks time. Button has already given the BGP001 a shake down run at Silverstone on Friday and the team is now getting ready for the Barcelona test beginning on Monday.

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  Below is the full statement from Brawn Grand Prix

FUTURE OF THE HONDA RACING F1 TEAM SECURED

 Honda Motor Company Limited and Ross Brawn are pleased to confirm that they have reached agreement to secure the future of the former Honda Racing F1 Team. With immediate effect, Hondawill pass ownership to Ross Brawn, Team Principal of the new Brawn GP Formula One Team.

Brawn GP has agreed a partnership with Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines, Brixworth, UK to supply the team with its 2.4 litre Mercedes-Benz FO108W Formula One engines.

The team can confirm that its race driver line-up for the 2009 season will combine the talents of two of Formula One's most experienced drivers in Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. The race-winning drivers continue their partnership at the team for a fourth consecutive year, forming the most experienced driver partnership on the grid with 423 Grand Prix starts between the pair.

Brawn GP Team Principal, Ross Brawn, commented: "The past few months have been extremely challenging for the team but today's announcement is the very pleasing conclusion to the strenuous efforts that have been made to secure its future.

"Firstly, it is a great shame that having worked with Honda Motor Company for so long we can no longer continue together. I would like to thank Honda for the fantastic co-operation and support we have received throughout this process - particularly those members of the senior management who were closely involved with concluding our agreement - and for the faith they have demonstrated in myself and our team.

"I would also like to take this opportunity to pay due credit to our staff at Brackley. The levels of motivation and commitment that I have witnessed at the factory deserve the highest praise.

"I am delighted that Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello will form our race driver line-up for the 2009 season. The vast experience and knowledge that both drivers bring to our team will prove invaluable as we aim to get up to speed in the shortest possible time to be ready for the first race of the season in Melbourne on 29 March. In what will be their fourth season together, their experience with our team in Brackley, our systems and our engineers, will prove a real asset.

"It would be impossible to mention all of the people without whom today's announcement may not have been possible, however I would like to express particular appreciation for the support we have received from Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, the FIA (Federation Internationale de L'Automobile), FOM (Formula One Management), FOTA (Formula One Teams Association), BERR (the UK's Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform), Bridgestone, our other team partners and our many fans the world over. The journey ahead will be challenging but exciting and we know we can count on their continued enthusiasm for our team and its ambitions."

Hiroshi Oshima, Managing Officer of Honda Motor Co., Ltd. responsible for Corporate Communications and Motor Sports, commented: "Since announcing our withdrawal from Formula One racing on December 5 of last year, we have conducted various studies and discussions so that the team can continue its activities as a new team. We are very pleased that we could sell the team to Ross Brawn, with whom we have been partaking in the challenges of F1 competition, and are grateful for his decision. We offer our sincerest wishes for the new team which will be led by Ross."

 Brawn GP will now focus its efforts on the remaining pre-season tests, in Barcelona (9-12 March) and Jerez (15-17 March) prior to heading to Melbourne, Australia for the start of the 2009 Formula One season.  

A1GP Switzerland Take Feature Race Victory in South Africa

Gauteng, South Africa Switzerlands Neel Jani claimed victory in this afternoons Go-GP.Org A1GP Gauteng, South Africa Feature race with what his Seat Holder, Max Welti, would most likely call a gorgeous drive from fifth on the grid. The win means Neel Jani equals the all-time win record for a driver, Nico Hulkenbergs record of nine wins for Germany.

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Jani finished 13.176 seconds ahead of Brazils Felipe Guimares, the 17-year-old putting in a mature drive to record the teams best result of the year at the Kyalami circuit despite crashing heavily at the end of yesterdays qualifying. Pole-sitter Clivio Piccione finished in third for Monaco after losing the lead to Switzerland in the first round of pit stops and then dropping behind Brazil after making a mistake.

As the Feature race got underway, Switzerland made a fantastic start to move from fifth to second into turn one. A1 Team Irelands Adam Carroll was making a move around the outside of Malaysia for fourth when the pair touched resulting in the championship leader being beached in the gravel and out of the race.

Brazil made a good start, running in sixth by the end of lap one, while the battle for third was on as Malaysia began putting pressure on New Zealands Earl Bamber. Bambers defensive driving kept Malaysia at bay until lap four when Malaysia touched the rear wheel of New Zealand with Bamber spinning into the gravel. Fauzy was then forced to pit with a suspected slow puncture from the incident and after changing a front tyre, he returned to the track, although now back in 16th place. A few laps later Fauzy returned to the pits for his mandatory stop and with four new tyres returned to the race track.

On the same lap, Mexico and France also came together at the same corner ending both their races.

On lap nine the first mandatory pit stops began with race-leader Monaco not having the quickest of stops. Switzerlands slick team-work enabled Jani to leap-frog Piccione and take the lead in Kyalami. Despite having a good stop, Australia had a disaster in the pit lane when John Martin stalled as another car came across in front of him when he was about to leave his pit box. He eventually got going but dropped down from third to 15th as a result.

USAs Marco Andretti was the last to pit, but on rejoining lost four positions as South Africa, Germany, Lebanon and Indonesia all found their way passed the American car.

Local A1 Team South Africas Adrian Zaugg was looking strong, having moved up from 15th to ninth, but on lap 17 coasted back to the pits and out of the race with gearbox problems.

Daniel Morad was putting in a good performance in the A1 Team Lebanon car to get passed Germany for seventh. Morad made his move around the outside of Michael Ammermller through turn one before taking the inside line through turn two and the position.

On lap 19 the order was now Switzerland from Monaco, Brazil, Netherlands, Great Britain, Portugal, Lebanon, Germany, Indonesia and China.

As the race reached half distance, Brazil began closing the gap to Monaco. The Brazilian car was only 0.466-seconds adrift on lap 24 with the 17-year-old finally capitalising on a mistake by Piccione  to take second position.

In the second round of pit stops Switzerland had a ten second lead and another clean stop brought Jani out with a comfortable lead.

After the second pit stops, Malaysia continued to struggle with the handling of the car and was finally forced to go back to the team garage. The team worked quickly to resolve the problems and were finally able to send Fauzy back on track. With no hope of finishing in the top ten to score points, the team took the decision to use the PowerBoost and set the fastest race lap to score one point and Fauzy quickly accomplished this recording a 1m28.306s.

In the final stages of the race India put pressure on Italys Edoardo Piscopo for tenth. Narain Karthikeyan tried on a number of occasions to pass the 21-year-old Italian but to no avail.

Lebanons Morad was now chasing Great Britains Danny Watts for sixth and, with three laps to go, made a fantastic move on Watts to record Lebanons best ever A1GP finish, only its second ever points-finish.

Switzerlands Neel Jani took the chequered flag 13.075-seconds ahead of a delighted Felipe Guimares who recorded the teams best result of the season and become the youngest ever A1GP medal winner. Clivio Piccione finished third getting Monacos first ever podium in its debut season.

Switzerland is now top of the 2008/09 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport standings with A1 Team Ireland crashing out on lap one after an incident with Malaysia.

Switzerlands Neel Jani said: It was a little bit of a replay start from Taupo, from fifth to second.  I was a bit worried starting from fifth, because I knew the first two turns would be very close and you could get knocked off easily, so my strategy was to just try the outside and it really worked and was a fantastic start.  I then tried to follow Clivio (Piccione) and I struggled a bit. But then we had a great pit stop and I had good pace. I think Monaco had a bit of bad luck in the pit stop so that helped us too.  But after it I could really keep up my pace.

Brazils Felipe Guimares said: I am so happy as its the first time I have been on the podium. Yesterday I had the big crash in qualifying and I didnt think that today I would finish on the podium! But I had a great start then during the race the car was good. It was a bit worrying at the end because the engine was losing power, but we managed to keep going to the finish thankfully. I was pushing hard but not taking any risks and we brought it home in second. I really wanted to do a good job today and I have.

Third placed Clivio Piccione commented: At first we got in the lead and I kept a distance from Switzerland.  The car felt pretty good as well.   We got into our first stints and then comes the tricky bit the pit stop.  For now, were not the quickest team in the pit stops and we know it.  But the team did the best they could and we know were going to work it out.  Our second stint was a bit of a struggle as I suffered with a lot of understeer and I think my tyres were not at their best.  I made a slight mistake and Brazil got through.  Then we went for our last pit stop where we knew we had new tyres. We had a problem on the back wheel but got out in third. From there on I could push pretty hard and we were catching Brazil because they struggled as well.  Still overall its a good result Im pleased with the final ending.

On claiming the teams first podium in its debut season he continued: We are only six months old and we started a team from scratch.  So we are a brand new team in a brand new series for us and a new car, so we got used to it like everyone.  We had a good start to the season then we had a struggle in the middle with some missed data.  From this weekend on we knew what was wrong and were back at the front so Im looking forward to the rest of the season and I hope to come back here many times.

A1 Team South Africas Zaugg, who endured a difficult home event, commented: The first laps were not bad at all and we were able to actually get past France as well. But already from lap six onwards I started to hear strange noises in the engine, especially in second gear.  And I also then start to feel like a drop in power accelerating in second gear.  But I just carried on.  I informed the team but they just told me to carry on.  And thats what I did and eventually I started to get misfires.  Eventually on the breaking and changing down to second gear, the engine just went off.  I kept rolling and the engine went back on and eventually I tried to continue but it carried on misfiring so in the end I just had to give it up.

Taking about racing in front of his home crowds he continued: that really boosted me, especially this morning when I saw the people there and after the drivers parade - all the people cheering for me.  So I feel really sorry for all of them you.  They all came here to see us race and do well and unfortunately we couldnt finish the race. But I want to just say thanks to all the supporters.  We have had a really difficult season so far.  But I think we really improved with lots of things this weekend and I hope we can carry on positive from here.

 Feature Race Results

Fastest lap: A1 Team Malaysia set the fastest lap (1m28.306s) of the Feature race with a speed of 173.8kph on lap 15.

A1GP 2008/09 Championship Standings