Australian GP - Force India - Preview

The Force India team completed the 2008 season without a single championsip point to its name, but the Vijay Mallya-led outfit expects to display better performances this year during its second Formula One championship under the FI guise.

In addition to the sweeping changes to the regulations which should favour a closer field, the technical partnership Force India signed with McLaren and its supply of Mercedes engines should allow the team to move higher up in the rankings and possibly gather those elusive first points.

This week-end's Australian Grand Prix will be the first opportunity to try out the VJM02 package in race conditions; both Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil return to defend the team's colours on the track.

Giancarlo Fisichella:
"Australia is a good place for me personally. I won the race in 2005 and started in second place in 2006 and with a car that was not as competitive as we would have liked, I finished in fifth in 2007. For these reasons, it's a fantastic track for me, but it's also a great track to drive."

"With a combination of short straights, second and third gear chicanes, this 16-turn track requires medium to high downforce and good traction is essential, particularly early on in the weekend when the track is 'green.' It is very slippery on the Friday as it doesn't get used very much over the year, and then conditions just get better and better for the race."

"There are a few chicanes in third gear so you need to have a good car under braking, but don't brake too much so you can still get into the chicane with a good speed. Turns 11 and 12 are quite quick and it's quite hard for the brakes, and the last corner is quite interesting. It's important to be quick but there is always a lot of understeer and the car slides on four wheels."

"This year the race will start a bit later at 17:00, so it may be a bit darker at the end of the race, but I don't think this will change a lot for the drivers. In Singapore we raced under the lights and it didn't seem to make a lot of difference from our perspective."

Dominic Harlow, Chief Race Engineer:
"The culmination of winter development and car build effort makes Melbourne an exciting and technically challenging race. The Albert Park circuit is hard on brakes and, being a temporary construction, has a constantly changing grip level. The weather offers plenty of variety for the teams to deal with, from 40-degree heat as in 2008, to rain disturbances from the southern oceanic region."

"For the first time ever the race this year will be an evening event, potentially leading to cooler track conditions, however Bridgestone's softer tyre will almost certainly struggle to resist graining and degradation."

"One very important fact to remember at this circuit however is the seemingly annual first corner accident where nearly five months of anticipation can be over in a few seconds. We have often seen Safety Cars in Melbourne, and it could figure again in this year's race, and the change to the regulations could particularly mix things up."

Williams try to keep Rosberg

Sir Frank Williams on Tuesday revealed that his Grove-based team will attempt to retain Nico Rosberg beyond 2009.

The 23-year-old German's current contract runs out at the end of this season, and he has indicated that if he cannot be promised a winning car for 2010, he will move on.

"For me it's a crucial year," Rosberg, who has repeated several times this winter the message that he is prepared to leave Williams if the next car is not a winner, said recently.

Rosberg entered Formula One under Williams' wing in 2006, but he is adamant the time is right if necessary to exchange patience for a top cockpit.

"I understand that Mercedes would like a German driver and Nico is at the end of his contract this year," team boss and co-owner Sir Frank Williams is quoted as saying by the Daily Express.

"We will be sitting down to talk to him sooner rather than later. We would most certainly like to keep him."

The independent and Toyota-powered Williams team is keen to use the opportunity of sweeping rule changes this year to leap up the grid, but Rosberg warned in the Daily Telegraph: "This is the one big chance that Williams are going to get."

"If we don't get it right now we don't deserve to get it right."

Abu Dhabi becomes another McLaren 'home race'

McLaren has added another 'home race' to its 2009 Formula One tour.

The Mercedes-powered British squad already calls Germany and Britain home, and a Bahraini company bought a 30 per cent stake in the Woking-based outfit two years ago.

Moreover, last weekend Mercedes' parent company Daimler announced that an investment fund controlled by Abu Dhabi's royal family had paid nearly 2 billion euros to buy a 9.1 per cent stake.

The United Arab Emirates' capital is scheduled to host its inaugural Grand Prix this November.

"We now have another home Grand Prix, so we look forward to a beautiful season finale in Abu Dhabi," Mercedes' competition chief Norbert Haug told the German newspaper Bild.

F1 Korean Grand Prix 2010

The outline of the official Brand Identity which will represent the Formula One Korean Grand Prix starting in 2010 has been made public.

Yung Cho Chung, Chief Executive Officer of KAVO (Korea Auto Valley Operation) held a press conference in Seoul on March 19th and announced a final basic plan of BI having the function of official emblem and logo of the event.

The basic design idea of the official BI resembles the Korean National Flag.

The flag of South Korea, or Taegeukgi, has three parts: a white background, a red and blue taegeuk (taijitu or "yin-yang") in the centre, and four black trigrams, one in each corner of the flag. The white background symbolizes "cleanliness of the people." The taegeuk represents the origin of all things in the universe, holding the two principles of "Yin," the negative aspect rendered in blue, and "Yang," the positive aspect rendered in red, in perfect balance. Together, they represent a continuous movement within infinity, the two merging as one. The four trigrams are related to the Five Elements of fire, water, earth wood, and metal. An analogy could also be drawn with the four western classical elements; Fire earth, air, and water.

The unveiled Brand Identity basically consists of red and black colours, with the image embedding an F1 car next to the title "F1 Korean Grand Prix 2010."

The four "Trigram" (divination) arranged on the four edges of the Korean National Flag are embodied in the tire shape of the F1 car, emphasizing the unique Korean image. Especially, the image of four Trigrams is slanted by 30 degrees similar to the Taegeuk Flag, reflecting Korean sensitivity and at the same time describing the speediness of a racing car.

The four Trigram, embracing the four edges of Taeguk Gi symbolizing the Korean National flag, are called "Geon, Gon, Gam, Ri," and represent the sky, earth, moon and sun respectively. Wind, a new visual element meaning the sensation of speed, has been added to the brand identity of the F1 Korean Grand Prix. All of this attempts to achieve a delicate balance between Eastern and Western cultures.

The red and black colours used in the basic plan have been chosen on the basis of an opinion survey, which shows that they are colours easily evoking F1. The red colour, with the image of the Taeguk Circle, symbolizes the charm of passionate F1. The black colour means the dignity of F1, which is one of the world's three great sports events.

"F1 Korea has achieved a unique machine line, not found in any other F1 hosting nation's, as a result of using Taeguk and Four Trigram as a theme, which are symbols native to Korea," said a KAVO official, adding: "The unique machine line will be promoted as a strong image and icon representing F1 Korean Grand Prix in the future."

The brand identity of the F1 Korean Grand Prix is being highly evaluated as it represents the sports of people all over the world, with its unique Korean elements in terms of design. This BI will be continuously produced in diversified forms of design and shown to 600 million F1 fans over the world as well as domestic fans.

KAVO intends to use its new Brand Identity as an official image of the F1 Korean Grand Prix and to utilize it in developing various merchandising goods.

McLaren confirm KERS debut

Another team has joined Renault and Ferrari in confirming that it will race Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems in Australia this weekend.

The other teams are expected to delay the voluntary use of their energy re-use systems until later this season, while BMW Sauber has a race-ready KERS but has not decided when and where to deploy it.

Asked if Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen will have use of KERS this weekend, Mercedes' competition boss Norbert Haug told Germany's Auto Motor und Sport: "We definitely intend to start (the season) with KERS, with both cars."

Season opener threatened by Teams boycott

At least two team bosses threatened to boycott this weekend's Australian Grand Prix, it has emerged.

London's the Times newspaper reports that Flavio Briatore of Renault, and McLaren's Ron Dennis, recently told Bernie Ecclestone they would not send their cars and equipment to Melbourne due to a dispute over unpaid income.

The Melbourne newspaper Herald Sun, meanwhile, said Ferrari may also have been involved in a boycott threat, so angry was the team and chief rival McLaren about the FIA's latest rule changes.

Ultimately, all the cars did land in Melbourne, but race promoter Ron Walker admitted he is aware of the feuding.

"It's very serious at the moment, but I think good sense will prevail by Sunday," he said.

"A clear understanding will be made between the teams and the FIA. (And) Bernie is the master deal-maker. He's been in it for years."

Australia's FIA representative Garry Connelly also played down the rumours. "That (a boycott) would be suicide for them," he said.

"They have sponsorship agreements in place. What are they going to do - throw away a large percentage of their television coverage just because they're upset?”

"They'd be in breach of contract with their sponsors, I'd suggest," he added.

The boycott ultimatum by Briatore and Dennis - also on behalf of other FOTA teams - was revealed by Ecclestone as the F1 Chief Executive this week met with a few select British reporters.

The 78-year-old said Toyota's John Howett was also present when the boycott threat was issued, reportedly over money Ecclestone promised to pay the teams if they sign a new Concorde agreement. The new commercial agreement has not yet been signed.

"Poor John was sitting there a bit confused about life in general. Flavio started it (the threat)," Ecclestone revealed, "aided and abetted by Ron Dennis. They were saying all the FOTA-schmota are not going (to Australia) - nobody's going to go.”

"So I said what I'd better do is cancel the aircraft obviously. It costs a fortune to charter those things and almost as much to cancel them," he added.

While all the cars did travel to and land this week in Melbourne, it is believed the teams have not yet been paid by Ecclestone.

The billionaire said he doesn't mind hard business tactics, but detests when the threats are empty.

"If they come in here with a gun and hold it to my head, they had better be sure they can fucking pull the trigger. And they should make sure it's got bullets in it because, if they miss, they better look out," Ecclestone warned.

Kimi Raikkonen loves to drive Ferrari F60

Despite his difficult relationship with its 2008 predecessor, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen can’t wait to drive the F60 under race conditions when the ’09 championship gets underway in Australia this weekend, hinting that it's far better suited to his driving style.

"Putting on the helmet and racing is something worth living for," said Raikkonen. "The number of tests has been limited, but I had fun anyway to work on a completely new car. I can confirm that I like the F60 more than last year's car. It's much more fun to drive and it reminds me more of the cars I was used to some year ago.”

After winning the title in 2007, Raikkonen struggled to match team mate Felipe Massa in the F2008 last season and finished the title race third, behind the Brazilian and world champion Lewis Hamilton. But the 29 year-old Finn has put his disappointment behind him over the winter and is looking forward to seeing how this year’s new regulations, particularly KERS, affect the field.

“It seems that a really long time has passed since the last race in Brazil, also considering all the changes of the car: it will be really interesting to see how its development will evolve,” he explained. “There's a lot less aerodynamic downforce than last year, so we'll be slower in the fast corners, but the car will have much more grip in the slow ones, due to the slicks.

“The KERS is something very interesting and easy to use: I hope that it will make overtaking easier. From the first test the whole team was positively surprised by how well the KERS works. Everybody is expecting more overtaking now, but I think it's still a bit too early to say what will happen and if the lower downforce will help when you're in a slipstream.”

Raikkonen, however, was unwilling to be drawn on whether his delight in Ferrari's new car will pay off in terms of results, refusing to forecast where the team will stand compared to their rivals in Melbourne.

“It's difficult making predictions, considering the many rule changes this year,” he added. “Ferrari was very competitive during the tests; but we'll do the F60's countercheck at Melbourne, when we'll all meet in the race with the same fuel at the same time. Only then we'll see how strong we are and maybe we've got to wait for a couple of races to have a clearer situation.”

F1 2009 Regulations Changes

A number of changes to both the Sporting and Technical Regulations have been made by the FIA for the 2009 Formula One season. In the case of the Sporting Regulations, the primary aims are increased reliability and further cost reductions. In the case of the technical changes, there are three main objectives - reducing the role of aerodynamics in the cars’ performance; making overtaking easier; and keeping lap times in check.

Tyres
After 10 seasons on grooved tyres, Formula One racing returns to slicks in 2009, as part of moves to increase the emphasis on mechanical rather than aerodynamic grip. With no grooves, grip will increase by around 20 percent, bringing a significant performance gain. However, that gain will be offset by the vastly reduced downforce levels of the revised aerodynamic regulations (see below). The overall effect should be reduced performance through high-speed corners.

Drivers will still have the choice of two dry tyre compounds and will still have to use both compounds during a race. As before, suppliers Bridgestone will select the two compounds for each race from their four-compound range - super-soft, soft, medium and hard. However, unlike in 2008, they will not select two consecutive compounds, so the difference between ‘harder’ and ‘softer’ at any given race will be far greater. A green band on the sidewall will distinguish the softer compound.

Standard wet-weather tyres will now officially be known as 'intermediates', and extreme wet-weather tyres will be referred to simply as 'wets'. The latter will feature a green central groove.

Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS)
From 2009 teams have the option of employing a KERS to boost their car’s performance. As its name implies, a KERS recovers the (normally wasted) kinetic energy generated by the car’s braking process. This energy is stored using a mechanical flywheel or an electrical battery and then made available to the driver, in set amounts per lap, via a ‘boost button’ on the steering wheel. Under the current regulations the power gain equates to around 80 horsepower, available for just under seven seconds per lap. This could be worth several tenths of a second in terms of lap time, but the weight and packaging of the system - and its impact on the car’s weight distribution - also have to be taken into account.

Engines
In a move designed to boost reliability still further, rev limits will be cut from 19,000 to 18,000 rpm. Drivers will be limited to eight engines per season, with each team allowed an additional four engines for testing. Once a driver has used up his eight-engine allocation, any engine change will incur a 10-place grid penalty (or a move to the back of the grid if made after qualifying) for the event at which the change is made. Just one team - Renault - has been allowed to make performance modifications to their engine for 2009 in order to help equalise power outputs.

Aerodynamics
Along with slick tyres, this is the biggest area of change for 2009. Downforce will be dramatically reduced and the cars’ bodywork will appear much cleaner, thanks to new dimensional regulations that effectively outlaw extraneous items such as barge boards, winglets, turning vanes and chimneys on most areas of the car.

As well as reducing overall aero performance, the revisions are also designed to increase overtaking by making the car less susceptible to turbulence when closely following another driver. The most obvious changes are to the front and rear wings.

The front wing becomes lower (75mm from 150mm) and wider (up from 1400 to 1800mm - the same width as the car) with driver-adjustable flaps. Drivers will be allowed to make two wing adjustments per lap, altering the wing angle over a six-degree range.

The rear wing becomes taller (up 150mm to bring it level with the top of the engine cover) and narrower (750mm from 1000mm).

Also at the back of the car, the diffuser has been moved rearwards, its leading edge now level with (rather than ahead of) the rear-wheel axle line. In addition, the diffuser has been made longer and higher, all changes that will reduce its ability to generate downforce.

Testing
From 2009 onwards testing is not allowed during the race season (from the week prior to the first Grand Prix until December 31) and is limited to 15,000 kilometres.

Safety car
The pit lane will now remain open throughout any safety-car period, allowing drivers to refuel without penalty. However, to ensure that drivers are not tempted to speed back to the pit lane, a new software system which employs GPS and the cars’ standard ECU has been introduced. When the safety car is deployed, each driver is given a minimum ‘back to pit’ time based on his position on track. If he arrives in the pit lane before that time he will be penalised.

Pre-race weights
After qualifying, the FIA will publish the weight at which all cars are expected to start the race, giving spectators an accurate gauge of what fuel load each driver is carrying.

2009 FIA Formula One World Championship Driver Entry List

The FIA have issued a revised entry list for the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship, with driver number changes at three teams.

At Ferrari, Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen swap numbers, with Massa now taking number 3 in line with his higher position in the 2008 drivers’ championship.

Similarly at Toro Rosso, Sebastien Bourdais’s senior status means he will now take number 11, with rookie team mate Sebastien Buemi numbered 12. Both Ferrari and Toro Rosso requested the changes.

The FIA have also recognised the Brawn GP Formula One Team’s status as a new constructor, dropping them to the base of the entry list with Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello now numbered 20 and 21 respectively.

The full entry list of constructors and drivers is as follows:

McLaren Mercedes
1 Lewis Hamilton (GB)
2 Heikki Kovalainen (FIN)

Ferrari
3 Felipe Massa (BR)
4 Kimi Raikkonen (FIN)

BMW Sauber
5 Robert Kubica (PL)
6 Nick Heidfeld (D)

Renault
7 Fernando Alonso (E)
8 Nelson Piquet (BR)

Toyota
9 Jarno Trulli (I)
10 Timo Glock (D)
STR Ferrari

11 Sebastien Bourdais (F)
12 Sebastien Buemi (CH)

Red Bull Renault
14 Mark Webber (AUS)
15 Sebastian Vettel (D)

Williams Toyota
16 Nico Rosberg (D)
17 Kazuki Nakajima (J)

Force India Mercedes
18 Adrian Sutil (D)
19 Giancarlo Fisichella (I)

Brawn Mercedes
20 Jenson Button (GB)
21 Rubens Barrichello (BR)

Haug - No more Scoring System Debate

As the F1 scoring system saga continues, Norbert Haug insists it should not be a formality that the FIA's rejected proposal be simply deferred until 2010 for implementation.

Mercedes-Benz's competition chief said he is sure that "constructive conversations" will be staged before next year's championship begins.

The FIA tried to rush its 'winner takes all' system into place for this season, but the teams' FOTA alliance blocked it. The structure would have delivered the title to the driver with most wins, not to the driver with most points won over the season.

F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone - who agrees with the FIA's plan - insists that the introduction has therefore only been delayed for a year, but FOTA is still championing its own proposal that would give an extra point to Grand Prix winners as a means to increase the value of race victories.

Haug told the German news agency SID that there is "enough time" for the issue to be discussed before a decision is made for 2010.

"This is not about a power struggle. If the best proposal comes from the FIA, fine, but also those active (in the sport) must be listened to," he stated.

Haug admits that the flip-flopping of rules is difficult for sponsors and the spectators, but does not think the saga has done any lasting damage to F1.

"The discussions before the start of seasons are always controversial," the German said. "It is nothing new. I don't see any damage done."