Weekend Preview: 31 Jan & 1 Feb

Weekend Preview: 31st January & 1st February 2009

After last week's excitement at Daytona we have a couple of quiet weeks again, with my listings only showing two events happening at all this weekend and absolutely nothing next weekend. Time for everyone to get their houses in order before the racing madness kicks off again in earnest.

I was actually thinking of setting up a Google Calendar showing all of these events, but actually I'd be better off giving you the link to one of the sources of info for this series of posts.

FORIX Race Calendar < < < Bookmark this page!

Red dots show events upcoming, green dots are past events and are clickable! The list of series expands as the year progresses so don't worry if it looks small now.

FORIX (main page) is a colossal motorsport database which aims to record the result of any race anywhere. It started out as a Formula 1 resource in the early 90s, until they eventually filled in the gaps in F1 history and started adding other series. Now they cover all sorts of things. I'm not saying their coverage of other series is as comprehensive as their F1 coverage, it's getting there though.
These days the site is hosted by Autosport.com (hence the banners and domain) but as far as I know it is still free. I have a sub to Autosport so it's free for me anyway!

You might think giving the link defeats the object of these posts but I disagree - these posts are to flesh out those single-line entries and hopefully provide a bit of background and context.


On to the listings:

World Rally Championship [website]
Rally Ireland
Round 1 of 12
Rally HQ: Sligo, Ireland

The first round of this year's WRC gets under way with the cross-border event on the Emerald Isle. I don't know if this is the only rally in the world held in two countries, in this case Ireland and the UK, as the cars will cross the border into Northern Ireland. For that reason alone this event should be supported by everybody - it's nice to see that kind of positivity.
For the WRC, the loss of the Monte Carlo Rally to the IRC is a bitter blow but one they put upon themselves. WRC is going through a turbulent time at the moment with crazy rules and crazy schedules. If you are able you should watch this year anyway as it may be the last we'll see of the current-spec World Rally Cars before IRC-style Super2000 comes in, and let's face it these guys throwing cars at the scenery (and missing) is still pretty spectacular stuff.


Trophee Andros
Clermont/Superbesse, France
Round 7 of 7

The final round of the sideways ice racing series. Take a look!:



I didn't realise they send bikes around there as well:



Okay I'm out of here, maybe for a few days, maybe not...

UOWWB: Hamilton & Dixon

United Open Wheel Word Butchers Question of the Week:

If Lewis Hamilton and Scott Dixon switched places for the 2009 season, how would each driver fare in the other's league? Who would be more successful in 2009?

Dixon would have a year much like Raikkonen's 2008. F1 cars are not easy to get your head around because they are much more 'knife-edge' in terms of setup and driving style than any other car. I'm not doubting he has the talent to be a successful F1 driver because he clearly does, I'm just saying it'll take time and F1 cars can be notoriously finicky things to learn. If you don't get the car right or it inherently doesn't suit your driving style you're nowhere - again see Bourdais who was driving better in the STR2 early in the season than he was in the STR3 for most of the rest of the year. And how else do you explain Kimi's lacklustre season?
So if he dials it in, and the car suits him, he would do very well. I think he'd end up on the middle road with an 'average' but respectable first season before stepping up in performance in 2010. He'd probably win a race in that first season. This assumes McLaren are still a top team in 2009!


The same would be true of Hamilton in the Dallara, he'd have the same kind of year as Dixon in F1. But he wouldn't be properly up to a Ganassi-level of performance until after the huge mileage they do at Indy over those few weeks. Jumping directly into two street fights at St Pete and Long Beach is going to be a challenge for all the newcomers this year! And then on to the ovals. There isn't what he'd know as a 'normal' track until the Glen in July, so he'd have to completely relearn how to race. And I include the street races on purpose here, American street tracks are not like Monaco, Melbourne or even Montreal, they have to be treated differently.
Again he's with a top team so a win isn't out of the question. Ganassi's guys certainly know how to use strategy to get him there and you have to assume they and Penske will remain top dogs in '09.


I do think the Dallara would be the easier car to learn but the tracks the IRL races on are a lot tougher, more rough and ready, more physical. F1 drivers are quite pampered when it comes to race track surfaces and run-off areas, so Hamilton would have to mentally adjust himself. Meanwhile Dixon could let it all hang out without fear of hitting much of anything.

There are so many variables which could affect the performances, not least of which is how much pre-season testing they do. There isn't any doubt though - they'd both get there eventually.

Racing Podcasts

The racing season is quickly approaching and in some places has started already, and that means the racing podcasts are doing the same. I just thought I would mention some of my favourites:

Midweek Motorsport
I've known about MWM for a couple of years now and 2009 represents their 4th season. At two hours every week it is a pretty hefty commitment which is why I've not listened until now, I until now preferred LiveFastRacing's podcast which was a similar length but every few weeks. With the demise of that podcast I've decided to switch over to MWM. They cover all sorts of racing with several guys from different backgrounds. There's an F1 guy, a sportscar guy (the legendary John Hindaugh who is the track announcer at ALMS events and the man behind Radio Le Mans), and many more.
Very knowledgeable and actually very much like the Eurosport MotoGP commentary in terms of style, the 'down the pub with your mates' atmosphere. I say that having only heard episode 1 of 2009 and they are on to no.3 as of today (there's a new one every Wednesday), so maybe they've settled down a bit? I'm playing catch-up so I get back to the 'current' week if you see what I mean, and I highly recommend you do the same.

Check it out at RadioLeMans.com!


FastMachines.com
Chris, Josh and George put together a fast and furious ride through the world of racing, everything from NASCAR to ALMS to bikes to their crazy no-holds barred opinions of F1. And all in about half an hour! I'm not quite sure how they cram it all in but they seem to cover everything and in detail. I've been listening since ep9 or 10 and it's a lot of fun.

Ep.21 is coming soon so keep checking FastMachines.com!


MyNameIsIRL.com
Jeff is the host of the I Am Mindy Show, a run through the latest IndyCar news in 30 minutes or less or your money back. Still relatively new to podcasting although you wouldn't know it from listening, our mate Jeff is considered by many to be one of the 'senior' IRL bloggers out there (along with Pressdog) and his blog is quickly becoming the focal point of IRL fandom. You tend to go there first then link through to other sites. His podcast is equally as good.

Head on over to MyNameIsIRL.com and search for 'Podcast'!

Try all of these once and then settle on the ones you enjoy most. I fully intend to listen to all of them throughout the year.

Getting in the mood

I've been keeping the withdrawal symptoms at bay by watching huge amounts of last season's racing. It's good racing. But it's not live, nor recorded a few days ago - it was recorded months ago.

I need to watch something very recent involving cars and drivers I care about. The Daytona 24 was interesting to follow online, and I might have been more into it had I been able to see it on TV, but I don't care for the series or the cars and I don't know most of the drivers. I need F1 or IndyCar video to keep me going until March.

So here is some:

F1 winter test, Algarve, Portugal, 20 Jan 2009:



Oh those sweet, sweet engines. I don't care if you don't like the racing in F1, the politics, or whatever else - if these engines at full speed do nothing for you then you are NOT a fan of motorsport. And you should hear them in person!

You might have noticed McLaren using the 2008-spec rear wing for stability in wet conditions. You might also have noticed how frikkin' STUPID that Renault looks.

Note to FOM: do not shut these clips down unless you intend to carry video of winter testing on Formula1.com. Or any video at all ever, for that matter.

F1 winter test, Algarve, Portugal, 21 Jan 2009:



F1 winter test, Algarve, Portugal, 22 Jan 2009:




That got the racing blood pumping again, didn't it?

On the theme of preparing for 2009, check out the new IndyCar promos for Versus over at IsItMayYet?.

I recommend following the link to view these F1 videos on the YouTube site to see them at their intended sizes. I had to pick the small versions to fit my borders.

With thanks to the uploaders.

Twitter

Okay so I decided to try this Twitter business to see what it's all about. I know it's quite big in North America but I think only the 'early adopter' techies and media types use it over here... let's try and change that, shall we?

I've been thinking about it for a while but didn't really understand it, but after Jeff from MyNameIsIRL blogged about it this week and I'd already noticed Wedge from FuriousWedge [check out the Blogathon!] and Meesh from So Here's What I'm Thinking had signed up I thought I'd take a closer look. Got to balance all that North American content with a bit of British charm, right?

So there you are. My profile is @toomuchracing and you can read my little notes in the nice little widget in the sidebar here. I have no idea if this will work. I have no idea if I'll stick with it. I have no idea what we're going to do about spoilers - I might have to ban myself from Twitter until I can see the IndyCar races as I can't watch them live - but those are problems for another day!

***
EDIT - Just in case anyone is wondering, my profile photo both here and on Twitter is nearly 5 years old! I just can't find a more recent head-on shot where I'm not drunk.

Weekly Question - Foreign Drivers

UOWWBA asks:

Is the prominence of foreign drivers in the league hurting the IRL?

The answer to that depends on which drivers you're talking about. If you're referring to the highly successful championship winning drivers Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Juan Pablo Montoya, Cristiano da Matta and all the rest - then clearly you are insane if you think that somehow hurts IndyCar or any other series they've run in over the last decade. Joel at IRL-O-Rama wrote a good piece in answer to this same question, and I agree with him entirely.

On the flip side if you're referring to the ride buyers which propped up the last few years of Champ Car then yeah, it does hurt. Several of those guys had no business being in a top line single-seater. But then you could say the same about the ride buying Americans which propped up the first years of the IRL.

Us hardcore fans of racing don't give a monkey's where the drivers come from if they are talented and are able to get a ride in a good team.
What I think the question is driving at is the appeal to the more casual fan. The guys who only watch when someone of their nationality is winning. We have the same in Britain, many more people watch F1, tennis, golf, etc. whenever a Brit is winning or competing for wins.

Those 'fans' will never change and that's a shame because they are missing some great racing and great sport generally. They seem to miss the whole point of Indy-style (and sportscar) racing as opposed to NASCAR - bringing top drivers from around the world and racing them against the best America has to offer to see who's best. And guess what guys: sometimes the Americans win!

From my limited knowledge of the beginnings of the Indianapolis 500 I seem to remember something about those first races consisting of drivers from everywhere racing cars from all over the place to see which combination was best over a distance. I'll wager that's one of many reasons why the 500 became so huge in the first place. Surely as the Speedway enters what it terms the 'Centennial Era', that's the one thing it needs to hold on to?


Let me compare it to our little BTCC. Ten years ago it was at its height with big fields of British drivers alongside the cream of talent from all over Europe choosing to join them and race here. Result: big crowds at the circuits, good TV ratings, sponsorships, all the rest of it.
Nowadays we have smaller fields of British drivers and only one foreign driver, albeit he's one of the best tintop drivers around. Result: far smaller crowds, relatively low TV ratings, and less sponsorships (and this was before the crunch).
OK the modern cars aren't as good as those a decade ago and you didn't have WTCC then, but still the point remains:
BTCC fans not only appreciate the foreign drivers racing here but consider it something to be proud of that some the best talent from across Europe chose to race here instead of DTM or any of the other national series. There really isn't any reason why IRL fans can't look at it the same way.


***
Speaking of non-Americans looking for IndyCar rides, check out Dan Clarke's quotes when he was interviewed by Autosport.com prior to this weekend's A1GP event.

"I'm still living in Indianapolis, and we're still gearing up for a season in IndyCar. But if the opportunity arises to do more of these (A1GP) races then I will jump at them, of course. But after this race I will go back to Indianapolis and continue with the negotiations that we're having there with the teams in IndyCar."

More on Autosport.com.

Launch Season: BMW Sauber F1.09

BMW Sauber F1.09

Earlier this week the new BMW Sauber was launched at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia, Spain.

Like the other '09 cars it is a much cleaner design than the '08 car, although that wasn't difficult in the case of the 2008 BMW! Also in common with other teams there are fewer sponsor logos on this car. Long-time backer Credit Suisse, who supported the team long before BMW supplied Williams let alone Sauber, have withdrawn their backing. Given the present condition of the banking sector globally this isn't a huge surprise, it is maybe more surprising that RBS remains with Williams. It also looks like the Intel sponsorship has disappeared. Again in common with most other teams, BMW Sauber insist they remain on a solid financial footing.

On the whole this looks like a fairly ordinary car compared to the more radical designs of the McLaren and Renault, say. The nose is conventional albeit higher than in previous years, there is no engine cover fin, and the front wing is one of the most basic we've seen - particularly the endplates.

This team is widely tipped to continual their steady rise in performance and become contenders for race wins rather than picking up when McLaren and Ferrari falter. They need to be wary of Renault who had a resurgence of form towards the end of last year.

BMW are believed to be the most advanced in their development of the KERS system yet are still claiming they may not use it for the first race or two. I'm not sure I believe that.







Here's a comparison to the 2008 car, kindly set up by BMW:



Sorry if the pics appear slightly fuzzy, I think I buggered up the upload and resizing and I'm not messing around with it any more, it is Friday night...

There are further details at www.bmw-sauber-f1.com/ - though be warned the site doesn't work well in Firefox.

Weekend Preview: 24-25 January 2009

Weekend Preview: 24 & 25 January 2009

Welcome to the first proper weekend of racing in 2009!


Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series [website]
Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona [website]
Round 1 of 12
Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Florida, USA
A field of 52 cars and a huge cast of drivers take to the 'roval' (horrible word) course at Daytona for the annual sportscar classic. Will Ganassi triumph again, will arch rivals Penske's entry spoil their party, or will it be a team 'native' to Grand-Am rather than one of America's big racing powerhouses?
It gets under way at 3.30pm local time, 8.30pm UK. Coverage is live in the US on Speed (with the start on Fox). It looks like you guys get lots of hours of coverage. Here in Europe we'll get 5 hours live on Eurosport 2 with a highlights show some time later. Note these are not a continuous five hours, and we don't get the start. We should get from 9.30-11pm Saturday, then 6.30-7pm and 8-9pm on Sunday. I say 'we', I don't actually have Eurosport 1 or 2...


A1GP [website]
4 of 10 (or thereabouts)
Taupo, New Zealand
The World Cup of Motorsport arrives down under. Marco Andretti, Robert Doornbos and Dan Clarke do battle with A1 regulars Adam Carroll and Neel Jani in the new Ferrari cars. The race is live on Sky Sports 1 at 00.30 on Sunday morning (okay, Saturday night). There are replays throughout the day on Sunday on both Sky Sports 1 and 2, the same is true for qualifying.


GP2 Asia Series [website]
3 of 6
Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain
The revolving cast of drivers arrives in Bahrain for what should be an entertaining couple of races, not that anybody will see them. Bahrain attracts zero spectators. This one is for schmoozing the sponsors. These races are on Eurosport. They were due to be delayed but because women's skiiing got cancelled, should actually be live. Note these races are on Friday and Saturday.


Speedcar Series [website]
2 of 6
Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain
Speedcar returns on the double-bill with GP2 Asia as part of the 'Grand Weekend' which I think is a translation error.. I don't believe live coverage exists outside of Asia but I could be wrong.


Intercontinental Rally Challenge [website]
Monte Carlo Rally
1 of 12
Valence, France; Monaco
This former World Championship rally switches to the IRC this year and has actually got under way already, the organisers taking the opportunity to extend the rally away from the constraints of the WRC.
There is coverage on Eurosport - some of it live - because the network part-owns the series! I believe live coverage is on Friday evening.


Andros Trophy [website]
6 of 7
Serre Chevalier, France
The penultimate round of the French ice racing series.


***
I'd planned to put logos up for most of these but ran out of time.

Before you complain, yeah I know I've not done the BMW F1 launch post yet. I'm getting around to it. Tomorrow. Promise.

Mike Conway to IndyCar

In a surprise announcement about 24 hours ago, Dreyer & Reinbold announced Mike Conway as their first race driver of 2009. I'm guessing that wording means one or two drivers will be added to the programme, and that one of those is probably Milka Duno. It'll be interesting to see if she does the full year this time.

I'd just like to say hi to anyone coming over here as a result of Jeff's kind link at MyNameIsIRL.com. I commented over there about Mike Conway's race history. MyNameIsIRL.com has been the source of most of my visitors for some time now, so thanks for coming!

Mike Conway is a fast driver who doesn't seem to pull a decent year together. He's one of those guys who you always think it'll only be a matter of time before he does pull a good year together. A bit like Vitor Meira, he runs quickly but always seems to have a backmarker take him out or a little bit of mechanicals go wrong at just the wrong time. There's never a right time, but mid-race when you're running in the top three or four is particularly galling.

I commented on his test with Panther at the time and noted how that story seemed to come from nowhere - and this new announcement certainly did as well.
I wrote at the time:

Conway won a race at the Monte Carlo round of the GP2 Series, supporting the Monaco GP, and currently sits 11th in points. Not stellar, but respectable given the competitiveness of the midfield in GP2, and a win at Monaco is nothing to be disregarded. I saw that race and he was dominant, it was not a fluke.

Since then he put in some good performances but still only wound up 12th in points. Given his speed this is a bizarre finishing position to find himself and I struggle to explain it because he was a top 5 driver all season. Okay so his team did fade a little toward the end of the year, but not THAT badly!

I also noted how only autosport.com had the story. Clearly the 'name' US journos we all know and love (Miller, Cavin) must have known about the test - the guy was fastest - but I assume they didn't take the prospect of him driving in 2009 too seriously. I didn't either, I expected him to go for a full GP2 title assault with a top team!

I wish him well for 2009, it'll be fascinating to see how he adapts. I have a feeling he'll turn out to be a good oval racer but it might take him most of the year to get into it.

Launch Season: Renault R29

Renault R29

As mentioned in my previous post, the second launch in the Portimao pitlane on Monday was the colourful Renault R29.

Sporting a livery not unlike the Spanish flag (hmmm.. wonder why..!), noticeably larger branding from ING and new sponsorship from Elf's sister (parent?) company Total, the 2009 Renault is certainly eye-catching. Last year's livery design was a bit of a mish mash and didn't really stick out, so although I'm not keen on these colours, at least they are distinctive!

The most noticeable feature of the car itself is the very wide nose, even wider than the widest seen so far on the Williams, yet the Renault version is much more blunt, more of a wedge-shape. Is this to punch a hole in the air? Is this to stow more ballast in the nose to counteract the weight of the KERS at the back? We're not really sure at this stage but it is certainly a departure from their ultra-narrow noses of three and four years ago.

The front wing is relatively basic compared to the opposition, but you can expect developments before Melbourne. Remember that the front wing flaps are now adjustable by the driver, but only twice per lap. It seems Renault and Toyota have preferred to make this area uncomplicated aerodynamically for the time being.

Here is a launch pic:



This is a head-on view of the car in testing later on Monday, it really shows both the extent of the nose design and also just how far the new front wing regulations make the endplates stick out. There is a lot of potential for damaged wings this season, and you can imagine it'll take a race or two for the guys to get used to how close they can race - they don't run wheel-to-wheel in testing.




If I have time tomorrow I'll post something on the BMW launched today, but I've a lot of college homework to get done first. I really shouldn't have spent so long tonight watching Obama's parade on the BBC News website stream!

By the way: Dreyer & Reinbold signing Mike Conway - excellent move for all concerned. My only regret is that they don't appear to be replacing Milka Duno, instead Mike will take the car vacated by Buddy Rice. Let me tell you now, a Rice/Conway combination would be a great driver line-up. Don't let his 12th place in '08 GP2 points fool you into thinking he's midfield, Conway is a good driver, he's won in GP2 at Monaco and in F3 at Macau. He can push, he can overtake.

Launch Season: Williams FW31

Williams-Toyota FW31

AT&T WilliamsF1 launched their new FW31-Toyota today in the pitlane at the Portimao circuit in Portugal in a somewhat underwhelming and understated ceremony. I guess the dull and dreary weather conditions didn't help matters, yet compare it to the Renault one held just a few yards up the road very shortly afterwards, which saw more team personnel, more media, and much more colour - although when you see the colours chosen you may wonder if this is such a good thing.

To be honest though, the big glitzy launch never suited this down-to-earth team who much prefer to get on with the business of testing and racing. I like that. Full disclosure here: Williams are my favourite team and have been since I was a kid in the late '80s, watching Nigel Mansell do his stuff. It hurts to see this former championship team near the back of the field simply because they fell out with BMW and couldn't hook up with another manufacturer (except in a customer deal).

Still, the launch pics do look a little... well.. pathetic. It just doesn't look professional. Sorry guys.

This car was launched in an interim test livery which is nearly identical to the one used this time last year, the only real differences being the names on the car. Despite losing some major Iceland-based backing after that economy tanked, as well as Lenovo (which most of us know as Hewlett Packard) and the Petrobras oil company of Brazil, the team insists it is on a solid financial footing for the next two years at least, and has secured increased support from Philips. The Dutch electronics giant previously used only its' shavers section to sponsor the team, this has now increased to cover their whole 'Consumer Lifestyle' division. Williams now feature the Philips logo more prominently on the sidepods and rear wing. Other partners have stepped up their involvement too.

You can read the full announcement here.



I can't find a shot of the FW31 taken from the same angle as the Ferrari, Toyota and McLaren photos I've posted, which is annoying because I was going for the 'comparison' thing. Thankfully F1Fanatic.co.uk has done a much better job of the side-by-side comparisons!

As a fan of Williams I am slightly concerned that on the face of it this looks like an enhanced 2008 car with new-style wings, whereas the likes of McLaren and Ferrari seem to be developing in a new direction with ultra-tightly packaged rear ends. This car isn't so tightly packaged. It is much more so than their '08 car, but not to the extent of the leading teams. I wonder if this is a result of Williams locking their '08 car and switching to the '09 car early on.

The one thing I believe Williams as as an advantage is its KERS system, as the team are believed to be the only one using a mechanically-based flywheel system. This is said to already be capable of exceeding the levels allowed in the regulations. Other teams are developing chemical systems which are more expensive, heavier and with a lower potential development limit. F1 teams are not chemists, after all. There is also the matter of disposing of the batteries and flying them around the world.

Williams say they may not run KERS until the aero and tyre development is more complete, as these are each worth seconds of lap time - KERS is only worth a few tenths of seconds. It is the pragmatic approach but I wonder if it wouldn't be better to hit the ground running and have that few tenths anyway...

Launch Season: McLaren MP4-24

McLaren-Mercedes MP4-24
The 2009 McLaren was unveiled at the Woking factory earlier today, along with the announcement that Ron Dennis was moving out of his F1 role to concentrate on McLaren's ever growing portfolio in other areas.

The McLaren group of companies is active in electronics, engineering and is currently designing and building it's own road car, as well as many other things which I'm not quite sure about...

Martin Whitmarsh, Ron's long-time Lieutenant, will take over the day-to-day running of the race team as well as being the Top Dog at the racetrack. Dennis will remain as Chief Exec and will still oversee the general running of the F1 operation.
This has been coming for a while and was maybe due a 12-18 months ago, but the whole Stepneygate affair seemed to galvanise Ron into staying longer than maybe he'd originally planned. Still, it wasn't expected that he'd announce it at the '09 car launch.

The car itself looks absolutely gorgeous, save for the stupid-ass rear wing. On the other hand, now that we're seeing true designs the front wings are growing on me, and they are sure to become further refined before we reach Melbourne. The rear wings definitely do need more work. The MP4-24 overall though looks absolutely fantastic in this colour-scheme without all of the aerodynamic and cooling devices on the main bodywork. This is the third car which looks better than the '08 cars, discounting the main wings, so I'm very quickly becoming a fan of this particular new regulation!

By the way, is anyone else absolutely loving the return of slick tyres? They look brilliant on these cars. Racing cars should always run on slick tyres except when it is raining.

Here's a pic from McLaren.com:



This chassis is actually the second '24 constructed, the first car is already at the Algarve circuit in Portimao for a shakedown on Saturday, where McLaren have booked an exclusive test day. Other teams will join McLaren at the same venue next week. Check the news sites for on-track photos!


Previous launches (now with photos):
Toyota
Ferrari

I will return on Sunday. I'm thinking of doing something on British coverage of motorsport now that some announcements are coming through, although I may hold it for a while. In the meantime it looks like A1GP is falling to pieces so that could be an interesting talking point. The Furious Wedge is keeping tabs on things and I tend to agree with his assessments when it comes to A1GP.
(I'm developing a habit of ending my blog posts on a tangent, maybe I should reign that in a bit..)

Weekend Preview: 18-Jan-09

Weekend Preview: 17th & 18th January 2009

Two posts in one day! I think that's the first time I've done that.. On to this weekend's preview, which is pretty light but I decided to go ahead and write it just for the hell of it. Look out for next week's post which will be much more interesting.

Dakar Rally
The 2009 Dakar enters its final stages and concludes on Sunday. Shock today as the runaway leader crashed out! Who's going to win the first Dakar outside of Africa?

Andros Trophy (Rnd 5 of 7)
Isola 2000 / Alpes-Martimes, France
Slip sliding away.

New Zealand V8 Supercar (Rnd 5 of 7)
Teretonga, New Zealand
Yeah I really know nothing about this series..


Blog Notes
- These listings primarily come from Autosport magazine, so thanks to them for compiling the original list. I will supplement this with info from other sources when we get nearer the time.

- I've decided to not annotate some listings for the sake of brevity and not at all to disguise my lack of knowledge in some areas.

- I have a new email address for the blog: toomuchracing at gmail dot com
I thought it best to split blog traffic out of my main personal account. Actually it is registered with the UK version 'googlemail.com' but 'gmail.com' also reaches me. Our version has a different name due to a copyright dispute. Okay, I'll see you tomorrow when I'll be hoping McLaren release some decent photos of the new car!

Launch Season: Toyota TF109

Toyota TF109

Today the 2009 Toyota F1 car was unveiled in a special 'virtual launch' online. This means the press have only seen what we've seen, they've not seen it 'in the flesh'.

The car looks somewhat different to previous Toyota F1 cars, which always seemed a little bulkier than the competition. It has a higher and shorter nosecone section than both previous cars and those of other teams. I hope they've tested it and it won't pierce sidepods of other cars in a crash.. It looks like a much improved car on the previous efforts, but we really can't tell too much yet as Toyota have only released a small selection of photos.

***
EDIT - here's a pic:

***

Motorsport.com and Autosport.com have the pics - although they are identical on all sites.

Unfortunately the recent trend among all teams is to ban photographers from these events in favour of a strictly controlled PR environment where they supply studio shots of the cars, where journalists are only allowed to ask banal questions and they only receive banal answers. This is the reason you will not find any team or driver quotes from the launches on this blog. There isn't any point, you know what they are going to say before you read it. How things have changed since the late 90s! No dry ice and elaborate presentations these days.


--
Tomorrow sees the launch of the new McLaren, with Williams and Renault both launching on Monday, then BMW on Tuesday. This is followed immediately by the first 'group test' of the season, to be held at the new Portimao circuit in the Algarve, Portugal (although it seems BMW will be at Valencia). The F1 press will get some good photos next week. I really must investigate the rights and wrongs of posting other people's photos here..

Launch Season: Ferrari F60 (w/video)

Ferrari F60
Today saw the first official new car of the 2009 Launch Season, which in the current economy is a little muted compared to normal. Even so, this year has the excitement of the new rules changing the look of the cars, making it much more interesting than any January/February for several years!

The first car to be unveiled was the Ferrari F60, the team breaking with recent naming tradition to mark the occasion of their 60th season of competition within Formula One.

Interestingly the car looks much like the F2008 but with the aero devices chopped off, the ugly new wings fitted, and the whole thing generally shrinkwrapped a bit. I'm pleasantly surprised because I was expecting something as ugly as the BMW test hack that has been running around since autumn.

The new rules make for a much cleaner car along the chassis, and you can really see how tightly packaged the rear bodywork is. (insert joke about team PR girl here) Still, that doesn't mean the extended front wings and compressed rear wings are any easier to look at.

***
EDIT - here's a pic from the official Ferrari website www.ferrariworld.com:


***


Here is an onboard from today's installation lap at Mugello:



YouTube link found on the DigitalSpy F1 Broadcasting forum (posted by Fergie1).

For official videos and photos go to: http://f60.ferrariworld.com/ Also check out the galleries at the usual suspects.


Other Cars
Expect the remaining teams to launch their cars in this order:

Jan 15 - Toyota
Jan 16 - McLaren
Jan 19 - Renault & Williams
Jan 20 - BMW Sauber
Feb 6 - Red Bull
March - Toro Rosso & Force India
Will they make it?? - The Team Formerly Known As Honda

Entry List
In other news, the FIA has released the official entry list as it presently stands:

1. L.Hamilton - Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
2. H.Kovalainen - Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
3. K.Raikkonen - Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
4. F.Massa - Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
5. R.Kubica - BMW Sauber F1 Team
6. N.Heidfeld - BMW Sauber F1 Team
7. F.Alonso - ING Renault F1 Team
8. N.Piquet - ING Renault F1 Team
9. J.Trulli - Panasonic Toyota Racing
10. T.Glock - Panasonic Toyota Racing
11. S.Buemi - Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari
12. ?? TBA ?? - Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari
14. M.Webber - Red Bull Racing Renault
15. S.Vettel - Red Bull Racing Renault
16. N.Rosberg - AT&T Williams Toyota
17. K.Nakajima - AT&T Williams Toyota
18. ?? TBA ?? - Honda Racing F1 *
19. ?? TBA ?? - Honda Racing F1 *
20. A.Sutil - Force India F1 Mercedes
21. G.Fisichella - Force India F1 Mercedes

* To quote the FIA:

The Honda Motor Company announced their withdrawal from Formula One on December 5th, 2008. The Honda Racing team has not withdrawn its entry from the 2009 Formula One World Championship. The FIA understands the team is now for sale.

Car numbers are assigned by Driver's Champion and team-mate first, followed by teams in Constructors' Championship order, excluding #13 because these guys are superstitious!

Blog Note: I've ditched my planned entry about the FIA / FOTA goings on of last week because I got bored of it, as well as the entry about the Autosport International summary because you can find all that on Autosport.com. I should be back on Thursday for the Toyota launch!

Work under way at Donington Park

Planning permission was granted to Donington Park on Thursday evening for the upgrades required for the 2010 British Grand Prix. Work had already started in December on the first stage: a new access tunnel to the infield. A slice was taken out of the track, a tunnel dug, and it's about to be covered over to allow racing to resume when the 2009 season starts in a couple of months.

The tunnel will be used by construction traffic so the track itself won't be disturbed while the new pit/paddock buildings are being constructed. The other changes to the racing surface, including realignment of the back straight and hooking up to the new loop to the existing track all won't take place until the 2009 racing season is in the books.

That means the MotoGP, British Touring, and whatever other events they may choose to hold will all continue to take place in 2009 with only minor disruption. This also means that by watching those races we can keep up with developments without having to remember to check the websites for updates!

Simon Gillett, the owner of DP, was at the Autosport International Show this week. Keith the F1 Fanatic was there and has a great piece on what was said - here are a few quotes:

“We’ve already started - we began about two weeks ago on the expectation that we would get planning permission. We have the tunnels bored through so there’s a big hole in the circuit at the moment. That will be completed by February 20th so we can re-open the track. And we start work on the pits and paddock on Monday morning."

“From Redgate corner to McLeans is being left untouched - we’re not even re-surfacing that part of the track. It’s wide enough, the run-offs are big enough and it’s fantastically good so I’m not going to touch it. One of the main elements of Donington Park’s character is that from Hollywood all the way down to Schwanz you’ve got a grass bank for spectators, which is staying. It’s where I go to watch the racing from."

“Why is it that you turn up at an event and the first person you see is someone who doesn’t want you to get in? It’s ridiculous. Look at what Asda have done introducing greeters at the front of their stores. It’s not ‘I don’t want you in’, it’s ‘I want you in - with the right ticket’. For food - gone are the polystyrene tubs with the polystyrene burgers in them. People still want burgers, but what’s wrong with a ciabatta with a 100% beef burger in it? And the toilets. There will be no blue plastic toilets. We’re putting in eight permanent toilet blocks and more under the suites. You have to get the basics right and allow people to get in and out easily."

Gillett also talks about the debenture scheme, the logistics of a racetrack being sited at the end of a runway of a growing airport, and asks how the 90,000 people who go to Wembley and Twickenham aren't allowed to drive there and why DP shouldn't be different, and there's lots more too.

Check out the full story!
F1Fanatic has a lot more quotes from Gillett than most of the other sites out there and what I've posted is only a fraction.


So, Donington will become everything Silverstone isn't! Silverstone has a bit of a reputation for focussing their attention on the 'champagne and cucumber sandwiches' crowd who get helicoptered in. I'd like to attend the race this year to see how true that is, and I'd like to go to Donington next year to see how they do it.
I tell you what, now I've seen their plans and heard their approach I really like what they are doing. I've been to Donington several times despite it being bloody miles away, and it is a great place to watch a race. Okay so the facilities as exist right now fall considerably short of Silverstone, but I really do see that changing.

The question then becomes.... what will happen to Silverstone?

In the comments of F1Fanatic, someone provided a link to the BBC local TV news who have a short piece on the development. You can see it here although it may only work for UK viewers (others should try it anyway).

On Marco Andretti

This week the Word Butchers ask:

Does Marco Andretti improve or hurt his teammates at Andretti Green Racing?

I'd say probably both in a way, although he's still improving year on year. His raw talent and speed isn't in doubt but he seems to find himself in accidents maybe a little more often than maybe he ought to. Accidents cause a loss of track time (obviously), and that's not what you need especially in a series as close as IndyCar where you need to be on top of conditions at all times.

With four drivers AGR can split the race weekend set-up workload and get results more quickly than other teams can - in theory, anyway. If you take out a chunk of time caused by crashes, his part of that is lost to the whole team. I'm including the races here, even then you lose valuable learning time. Even the most experienced drivers need that time because the cars, engines, tyres and circuits are always evolving even in a largely spec formula.

He'll sort it out soon - I'm tipping him to do just that this year. He showed signs of it in '08, it'll come.

He's showing an apparent change of attitude since the last part of the '08 IRL season. The willingness to go to A1GP when he really didn't need to take an unpaid drive in what is still a fairly obscure series, on his earnings and with his secure ride, I think it says a lot about how he's willing to broaden his experience base and technical ability. I'm not sure how true that was before. I mean I don't know if he genuinely wanted to be in the ALMS car, or if he was just parachuted in to help.. Those of you who watch those races may be able to answer that.

So yeah, in summary... If he keeps ending up in the wall or other cars, it hinders his teammates. Sometimes he shows a level of arrogance I don't like, maybe that hinders things too, although in his defence perhaps that's the only way to get anything in that team with Princess around.
On the other hand, his ever growing experience with these cars and his experience with another powerful single-seater will give him another reference point to work with. He'll now approach the Dallara with a completely different mindset. This will help him and his teammates, particularly Mutoh who is still new to this stuff, and may also take some of the set-up pressure off of TK, which in turn will allow Tony to fight for the title... although I'm sure Marco is thinking of an assault on that himself.

Weekend Preview: 11-Jan-08

Weekend Preview: 10th & 11th January 2009

Dakar Rally
The competitors reach the halfway stage of the famous endurance test over the weekend. Sensation today as a leading car entrant was disqualified for skipping part of the route! So that's about all I know of the how the '09 event is progressing. I'm backing Carlos Sainz to win! Mentally, not with an actual bet.. Info at www.dakar.com. TV on Eurosport, Versus, etc.


Toya Tires Dubai 24 Hours
Dubai Autodrome, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
The circuit racing season kicks off with the first 24 Hour race of the year, featuring GT and Touring Car teams and drivers from Europe and Asia. It looks like most of them are running Porsche 997s of some description. Actually the only thing of note about this race is that one of the teams is running the new Audi R8 GT car.
This event takes place on Friday and ends on Saturday due to local customs regarding when they have their weekend.
I can't find details of live TV coverage, although I'm not convinced you'd want them. MotorsTV usually has a half hour highlights package on extensive re-air in the weeks after the race, although that might only have been because they entered two cars last year. I watched it last year, pretty damned boring. I mean who wants to watch a 24 hour race on sandy roads through a desert? You have no bearings or reference points. Imagine the ALMS race at Utah but without the prototypes or people. If you're as confused as I am about which brand-new Middle East venue is which, this is the one GP2 Asia visits and not F1 (Bahrain) or MotoGP (Qatar). In Dubai's defence, lots of buildings are springing up nearby so it probably looks completely different now....
The official website is www.24hdubai.com although the Dubai Autodrome website is a far superior source of information.


New Zealand V8 Supercar
4 of 7 - Timaru, New Zealand
I've never heard of Timaru, I don't know who's racing, I have nothing to add.


Trophee Andros
4 of 7 - Lans-en-Vercors, France
Sideways ice racing at it's best! Multiple F1 champion Alain Prost is racing again, I expect touring car man Yvan Muller is too. I have no clue where/when you can see this so check listings.


Autosport International
NEC, Birmingham, England
This isn't a race, it is the annual racing 'trade' show at the NEC in Birmingham, being held from today until Sunday. Expect lots of transcripts of Q&As and comments appearing over at autosport.com from their featured guests on the main stage. If you get their RSS news feed that'll be why it went crazy busy today! Last year they made several interviews available as audio clips, too (but I don't think those will be in the feed). There are updates throughout the weekend on MotorsTV (Sky ch.413 and also available on Virgin Media).


Blog Note - Next week's Preview may not appear due to the lack of racing. It's January! What I will do over the weekend is summarise today's FIA/FOTA releases as well as the highlights of what is coming out of Autosport International.

All-Racing Fantasy League

All-Racing Fantasy League
This is a reminder to check out Andy The SpeedGeek's fantasy competition over at his blog. I mentioned it a few weeks back. This is a game where you pick 14 drivers across F1, IRL, NASCAR, ALMS and Grand-Am - but you are only allowed to commit 10 drivers on any given weekend... and that's five road course and five oval drivers per weekend! A small number of drivers can be traded each week. It'll be interesting to see how it all works in play.

The 2009 game gets under way in about ten days time with the pre-season draft, which needs to be done before the first event, the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. Sign up now to get a shot at the good drivers! If you read several racing blogs you'll know Andy from the comments sections of many of them, as well as his own of course.



I'll be back on Thursday with my UOWWB 'question of the week' reply, and Friday with the weekend preview. Or it might be the other way. I might even push the boat out and do two posts in one day! I know, crazy!

Weekend Preview: 04-Jan-09

Welcome to the first in a new series of posts previewing the coming weekend's racing. Yes, I know it is Saturday and the weekend already - I only thought of this idea this morning!

As you know in 2008 I posted a series of F1 race previews. To save repeating the same stuff before each race (and to shamelessly find a way to create more content) I thought it would be good to expand to cover more races and to write some very short comments about each of them. We'll see how long this lasts shall we? Hah. The format will probably develop as more races take place per weekend from April. Okay, let's begin:


Weekend Preview: 3rd & 4th January 2009

Dakar Rally: Today is Stage 1 of the 2009 Dakar, which this year takes place in Argentina and Chile. As usual hundreds of bikes, cars and a few trucks will be tackling the 9500kms over the coming fortnight including some drivers from other disciplines, such as Carlos Sainz (ex-WRC), Robby Gordon (NASCAR) and Ukyo Katayama (ex-F1). Stage 1 runs from Buenos Aires to Santa Rosa de la Pampa.
You can follow rally updates at www.dakar.com including live stage results.
TV coverage is on Eurosport in Europe, on Versus in North America, on Fox Sports Latin America in Central and South America and on ESPN Star Sports across Asia. I'm not sure how much is live and how much is daily highlights, take a look and find out! Other coverage partners can be found here. Unfortunately I can't get any of the channels it's on and I don't want to be downloading updates every day. I miss having Eurosport, I want it back!

Message to IRL IndyCar fans in US/Canada: NOW would be a great time to check if you have the Versus channel. Go and have a look, watch some of their Dakar coverage and report back to: a) me because I'm curious, b) your favourite IRL blogs, and c) the likes of Cavin and Miller. Are they taking an official Dakar feed or a Eurosport feed, or are they providing their own content, commentary, etc? Is it any good?
The Dakar Rally is organised by the same people behind the Tour de France which is probably how this coverage deal came about.


Africa Race: Since the Dakar has moved out of Africa, for the time being at least, an alternative has been set up. It's about the scale of the early Dakar rallies so there aren't a huge number of competitors and the TV deals aren't great (I can't find where it will be shown). In any case, if you're interested you can follow it at www.africarace.com and www.africarace-live.com.


That's about the size of it for this weekend. Thanks for reading and I hope I'll be able to continue this feature throughout the year. Feel free to include anything I've missed in the comments.


If anyone can tell me how to fix the mis-alignment in the footer of my posts please let me know. I was dicking about with the settings and it went out of line, I returned it to what it was and it didn't fix itself.

This post was written with the aid of a Lemsip as I hate colds - at least I have Mario Kart!

News Round-Up

I hope everyone had a good New Year! I had a quiet one after spending the last two years in central London, and the previous one in Edinburgh (the Home of Hogmanay and the best New Year's Eve street party in the world!). This year I just played a bit of Mario Kart Wii before heading into the middle of the little town I live in for the moment itself.

I thought I should catch up on some of the smaller bits of news I missed when I was revising for an exam in December, believe it or not when you summarise it a lot did actually happen even if it seemed very quiet day-to-day. And not all of it was bad, either. I'll skip the things reported by my blogging colleagues at the time, I mean we've all seen that, right?


F1
- Big news in sponsorship as Vodafone takes their primary sponsorship from McLaren to Ferrari for 2009 onwards.

- Allianz will continue with WilliamsF1 for the forthcoming year, however technical partner Lenovo have instead joined McLaren. No word on the plans of RBS after the bank was bailed out by the British government a few months ago, my fellow taxpayers and I now own 60% of the company.

- Teams have been testing the KERS system and new aero package, to varying degrees. BMW, Honda and Williams were among the first to test the new gear, while Red Bull has been running with '08 systems simulating '09 rules.


IRL
- 2008 GP2 champ Giorgio Pantano is looking for a ride in the US after the F1 teams showed no interest in him.

- Penske continue to state that an announcement on Helio's ride - i.e. will he drive or will there be a replacement - will be made 'in the next few weeks', although they've been saying that since November.


GP2
- Pastor Maldonado has signed with ART Grand Prix for the '09 European series. His teammate is expected to be Nico Hulkenberg.

- The Asia series is continuing with what is becoming a regularly revolving cast of characters. Seems several teams are using it as an extended driver test for the main series.

- The February round of the Asia series at Dubai has been moved to Qatar, and will become a night event under the floodlights. MotoGP race under the lights there last year.


F2
- At least 20 drivers have been signed up to the revived F2 series for this year and it looks to be oversubscribed, in which case it will be capped at 24 drivers. So far 10 drivers have been officially announced by MSV and more are being added to this page every week, presumably in order to get more PR from staggered announcements which is a good move.

- Great to see Red Bull joining the party and helping legitimise the series further, alongside MotorSport Vision and WilliamsF1.


F3
- Carlin Motorsport have switched from Mercedes engines to Volkswagen, marking a big increase in VW's presence in both the Euroseries and the British one. Carlin say they are following their backers Red Bull, who announced in November that all teams they are backing in F3 will run with VW.

- VW already confirmed they are dropping RC Motorsport, and will continue with Signature-Plus (both for the Euroseries), while in Britain they'll join with T-Sport.


Sportscars
- The Le Mans pre-event Test Day has been cancelled to reduce the costs for both competitors and organisers. Wednesday's qualifying has now become a mandatory practice session.

- Leo Mansell and dad Nigel tested the Ginetta-Zytek 07S LMP sportscar at Valencia. Meanwhile Leo's brother Greg tested the World Series by Renault FR3.5 car in a group test at Paul Ricard, back in November.

- Barwell Motorsport will not going back to ALMS this year with their bio Aston Martin. They will instead enter the LMS and FIA GT3. I'm not sure if they'll use that car but they will run Astons.

- BMW have been testing their GT2 class M3 in the US with World Touring Car drivers Andy Priaulx, Jorg Muller and Augusto Farfus. Priaulx says he'd like to take part in some ALMS races in the car, but Sebring clashes with a WTCC event at Puebla. Joey Hand and Bill Auberlen have been announced as the drivers of Rahal Letterman Racing's M3.

- The Britcar 24 Hours at Silverstone has been reduced to a 6-hour event for 2009 for cost containment reasons. Organisers hope to return the race to the full distance in 2010. It has only been running since 2005.

- Ex-Super Aguri driver Anthony Davidson tested a Peugeot 908 HDi at Paul Ricard and is the running for a race drive. Go Ant!


Other
- Both Subaru and Suzuki have pulled out of the World Rally Championship. Kawasaki looks set to announce a pull-out from MotoGP next week. Seems like the Japanese car and bike makers are in trouble.

- 1998 and 1999 F1 World Champion Mika Hakkinen has become a driver manager, alongside his own manager Dider Coton.

- A1GP has agreed with the Chinese government to run two rounds per season for the next five years. Venues were not confirmed. A1 has raced in Shanghai, Beijing, Zhuhai and Chengdu since the series started in 2005.

- Organisers of the Surfers Paradise street race are building a pit/paddock complex for 40 teams in time for the '09 event. That should be enough to service all of the A1GP and V8 Supercar teams.

- The Dakar Rally gets under way this week, but in Argentina. The African event was cancelled last year due to terrorist theats which prompted the move over the Atlantic, however a rival series called Africa Race has been set up and will be running at the same time albeit with far fewer numbers competing.

Blog
- Check out the Last.FM radio player in the white sidebar!

- The blog might be quieter than intended between now and June as I am in my final year of an accountancy course. It isn't quite 'Accountant' level, its the level just below it, but that doesn't make it easy! So I'll be quite busy doing that.

- It's New Year's Day, I didn't drink stupendous amounts last night yet my head still hurts because I have a cold, only a mild one but I HATE colds. Especially ones I pick up during a stock-take at work on NYE. I need a good rant so might come back soon to tell you all my pet peeves.

All stories shamelessely pilfered from the pages of the last several editions of Autosport magazine and reworded by me.