Race Notes: Australian Grand Prix 2009

2009 Formula 1 ING Australian Grand Prix
Circuit: Albert Park
Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Coverage: BBC One *live*
58 laps

Anchor: Jake Humphrey
Analysts in the paddock: David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan
Race commentary: Jonathan Legard and Martin Brundle
Pit and paddock reports: Ted Kravitz and Lee McKenzie

** Disclaimer - These are notes taken during the live broadcast of this race. They may or may not make any sense and I have only edited them for brevity, punctuation and grammar. **

F1 is back on the Beeb!

Its 6am BST but 5am on the body clock as we switched from GMT overnight. For this reason I'm not going to comment everything being said over the next hour of this pre-race show.

Love the intro, and we start with a quick look at the race schedule for the year.

Now a quick qualifying recap.

Now we introduce the pundits: DC and EJ each get a montage with old Murray Walker commentary over it. Live again, DC is wearing a pink polo shirt in pitlane.

We're running through the drivers now to the strains of The Who, Who Are You. Nice choice. We reach Mark Webber and cut away...
Mark visited the scenes of devastation around the state of Victoria, where Melbourne is located. 200 people died in forest fires in February, it made appearances on world news but here it is considered a major disaster. F1 as a whole has really responded well to this. BMW sent Klien with a car, and Minardi sent a 2-seater, to do demos in the streets of a badly affected town. There are many other initiatives over the weekend.

We're now seeing live pictures of the driver parade, normally the drivers ride the circuit on the back of open-top classic cars in Melbourne, today they are on fire trucks. Many of the fire marshals at this race fought the forest fires just a few weeks ago. Love this idea!

The driver run-down continues.

Hamilton says "it's great to see Jenson up there".

This pre-race is flying by! Fast and furious. No commericals. No let up. Full steam ahead. 33 mins to go already. Cut to a feature: Martin and David are walking the track.

Martin at turn 3: "One of the biggest crashes I had in F1 was in the back of you right here, although I did arrive out of control."

Martin has a shirt with BBC logos on and I'm used to it already, he's a born BBC man.


30 minutes to go - Pitlane open for reconnaissance laps.
A Williams is out first.

A live chat with Richard Branson as the cars leave or run through pitlane. It's quite hard to hear anyone talking. Branson is very excitable but then I would be if I'd just sponsored a Formula 1 team!

First shot of the grid on the World Feed. World Feed = TV pictures supplied by Formula One Management, with the F1 logo in the corner. Each broadcaster puts their own commentary over the top of these pics and can dip in and out until we hit the F1 logo at 5 mins to go - after that you can only break away for ads.

Adrian Sutil went off the track on the way to the grid!

Grid looks great. Both Toyotas will start from pitlane.

To Martin for his Gridwalk!

He's found Ross Brawn straight away, Ross in black BGP overalls and a white BGP cap. I want that cap. In fact all the Brawn guys are in black today.

I can't keep up with what's being said, sorry, they are all talking so quickly! I'm rusty at this.

Brundle shows us the front wings, "they're so ugly they should put brown paper bags over them but clearly they are very effective"

We're with Rubens:
"It's a lot of people here who wanna check our car, I'm just happy! My feet are on the ground, I'm happy." TV crews surrounding him!
We move off, passing M Schu talking to German TV.

Martin finds Rosberg:
"We know Red Bull and the Brawns are not 100% technically confident in their reliability, whereas we are."

Back up front and he finds Button:
"Can you do this?"
"Yes"
"How?"
"Cross the line first I guess! [on Rubens] yeah we're against other. Tyre strategy is going to be key today, more so than usual."

Back to Jake in pitlane with EJ & DC. They've retreated into one of the pit garages, looks like Brawn's. Soon the pitlane itself will be for teams only.

The media etc are leaving the grid.

We go to the Australian national anthem. Nice job BBC, ITV always skipped this. LOL at the drunks singing along!

Ted is with Chris Dyer, engineer at Ferrari:
"We're a bit further back than we'd like to be." No shit.

BBC guys back in the paddock as a Qantas 747 flies over their heads.

I've got live comments at Sidepodcast, live timing at f1.com, Notepad for this and waiting for BBC's onboard camera feed to appear on their site. So when I look away from my TV I'm not really concentrating on what's being said. I think I'm going to have to watch this again.

A few minutes to go and we join Jonathan Legard and Martin Brundle in the box.

FOM intro! 5 mins to go! Live timing resets to race mode.

Shots of the beach, of the atmosphere around the circuit.

Start order:

BUT, BAR
VET, KUB
ROS, MAS
RAI, WEB
HEI, ALO
NAK, KOV
BUE, PIQ
FIS, SUT
BOU, HAM
p/l TRU & GLO

Engines are fired!
Grid clears of people.

Formation lap.

GO!

Rubens in trouble. Big mess at turn one, didn't really see it.
Rubens 7th.

Button leads, Vettel, Massa.

Raikkonen alongside Kubica!

Wow huge lead from Button after one lap.

Puncture from Heidfeld, and a Force India lost it's nose.

Kovalainen is slow at the back of the track, long way behind the field.

Start replays, Rubens hit the anti-stall. Webber, Heidfeld, Alonso come together. Ah! Barrichello started the chain reaction re-passing the guys who got alongside at the start. He pushed into Webber who hit Heidfeld.

Ted: Kovalainen retires with suspension damage. Webber came in and they switched him to one-stop.

Team radio: Barrichello has damage.

Button, Vettel, Massa, Kubica, Rosberg, Barrichello, Nakajima, Piquet, Hamilton, Trulli, Bourdais, Alonso, Glock, Heidfeld, Sutil, Webber

Lap 4, 54 of 58 remaining. Fast and furious here, can't keep up. Focus.

L52/58 Hamilton passes Piquet. Vettel sets fastest lap!

L51 Kovy: "Webber spun, I lost the front wing and it was all over."
Barrichello has caught Rosberg who is behind Raikkonen.
Button and Vettel are 2sec/lap faster than everyone else apart from Rubens and Hamilton.

L50 Ted: "We know Button started the race with 7kg more fuel than Vettel, he's looking ok strategy-wise."

L49 radio to Rosberg: "you need to get by, chance of a podium if you get by him" meaning Kimi.
And he does it immediately, into turn 1!
Rubens tries it at turn three and hits Kimi! Passes him but has damage on his wing. Will it have damaged Kimi's tyre?

Replay: Rubens may have lost the back end, might not have been trying a pass.

L48 Kimi pits. Both he and Massa were on super-softs, against the mediums of others. They've got this tyre out of the way now. Fast but only for a few laps, then they degrade heavily. Mediums are much better.

L47 Massa pits. Hamilton pits.

Long shadows already, with this late start at 5pm local.

Ted says Ferraris and Lewis came in 2 or 3 laps early because the s/softs were so bad.

Barrichello just lost 2 places?

L46 Kubica is in. Bourdais has already pitted for same reason.

L44 Barrichello now slower than Button, he's lost a lot of downforce with hits. 3 sec/lap slower. Martin says at this rate it's worth changing the front wing.

L43 Rosberg is quick now the cars on s/softs have pitted out of his way.

L42 Vettel pits. He's out in clear track. Rosberg is in. Slow stop on the left front tyre. Kimi passes him on the run to turn 3.

L41 New FL: Button 1m28.0s
Nakajima crashed! Debris on track. Where are we.. turn 4?
Surely this is a Safety Car?

Replay: Nakajima lost it on kerbs in turn four.
Brundle: "I think that was his fault."

L40 Barrichello pits for a new nose and a LOT of fuel.

Button pits. 14 seconds, very long stop, lots of fuel.

Safety car only appears now! How bizarre.

Shot of Race Control!

We have new speed limit rules under SC. Cars can't exceed a set time through the sectors until they catch the SC. Also the pitlane speed limit is up from 80 km/h to 100 km/h.

Oh! Force India pit error, he's run over a gun and tyre. It's Fisi.
Replay: he missed his box!! pulled in late and ran his guys over!

L39 Green light on the SC for the wave by.
SC picked up Vettel not Button. Button still leads.
So we now have cars going almost full speed after the 'speed limit' thing is over, thus defeating the point of the SC. Get the right car guys!
Did they miss Button because he stopped?

L36 Lapped cars have been let through: Sutil, Heidfeld, Webber.
Hamilton: "It's so hard to get temperature in these tyres, I don't know if I can warm them up again."

I think Sutil took a stop after being let through by the SC, according to timing. Shot of Branson stroking his beard...

L35 No idea why the SC is still out, the track is clear. Ah, graphic: SC in this lap.

Restart order:
Button, Vettel, Massa, Kubica, Raikkonen, Rosberg, Piquet, Trulli, Buemi, Barrichello, Glock, Hamilton, Alonso, Fisi, Bourdais, Heidfeld, Sutil, Webber.

Massa keeps locking up!!

SC pulls away - lovely sound.

L34 - RESTART
Button messed up the last corner but still leads. Piquet spins off into turn one!!
Remains a local yellow so far.

Hamilton takes Glock! P11 for him.

L33 double waved yellows into turn one for Piquet.
Piquet almost touched wheels with Rosberg and lost it.

L32 Legard notes that Buemi is running very well in 8th - agreed, good stuff.
Brundle: "Buemi is not troubling these apexes but he's getting away with it."
Hah! "He's making Bourdais look a like monkey."

L30 Top ten: Button, Vettel 2.4s, Massa 4.3s (to Button), Kubica, 5.5s, Raikkonen 6.5s, Trulli 7.3s, Barrichello 9.2s, Buemi 12.6s, Rosberg 12.9s, Hamilton 14.5s

L29 That Brawn car looks fantastic.

We are halfway.

L28 Piquet with Lee McK: "There were no brakes at all. The car is not as we want."

L27 Massa is the first 2nd stopper. Brundle suggests a lot of fuel, he takes 10.9sec worth. He's out in 14th.

L26 Rob Smedley to Massa: "Kimi and Kubica have 7 laps more fuel than you."

Shots of Nakajima and Piquet on the pit wall, Brundle says they are being told off..

L24 Kubica fastest lap! 1m27.989
He's catching Vettel at 3/4sec.

Several of the guys at the back have stopped for a second time.

L23 Lee has found Nakajima: "Quite disappointed, pace was pretty good, it was a good race. I took the kerb on exit and I lost the rear suddenly and I couldn't do anything."

That was over the Glock team radio so we missed that.

L22 Kubica is still the fastest man on track. He's third and only 6.7s behind Button leading.

L19 Kubica and Kimi pit. Kimi is now 10th, Kubica is 7th I think.

L18 Glock spins in the penultimate corner, rejoins 10th behind Kimi. Aha, Glock spun trying to pass Alonso.

L17 Buemi pits from 4TH!

L15 Hamilton pits, as does Raikkonen. Hamilton beats Massa! Buemi tries it on Massa but can't make it.

L14 Raikkonen into the wall!! He's rejoined last on the lead lap, ahead of Webber only.

L13 Vettel is in and takes super-softs, emerges in front of Barrichello. He should pull away until they start destroying themselves.

L12 Now Massa is slow, what's wrong with the Ferraris?
Massa pits and leader Button follows him in.
Button's fuel hose didn't go on, had to switch to backup!

Massa is in the garage, out of his car.

L11 Top ten:
Button, Vettel 1.5s, Barrichello 3.4s, Kubica 4.6s, Alonso 16.0s, Glock 16.9s, Rosberg 23.2s, Fisichella 30.8s, Trulli 31.3s, Hamilton 31.7s

L10 Rosberg fastest lap! 1,27.706

L9 Hamilton takes a look at Trulli but gets blocked off.
Fisichella pits from 8th. Buemi is now 10th.
Radio to Button: Kubica is on prime (medium) tyres, could be a threat.

L8 Ted confirms it wasn't a faulty hose, they were slow with the first one and didn't use a second but he had a lot of fuel from the safety car.

Close racing between Glock and Buemi! Glock wins as Buemi lifts off at the wrong moment.

L7 Rubens pits now from 4th. He's out just behind Rosberg. Alonso was also in.

L6 Glock takes Alonso, identical to his move on Buemi, nice job.
Barrichello takes Rosberg into the back chicane. Rosberg is losing a lot of time, have his tyres gone?

L5 Trulli passes Rosberg. Hamilton takes him later in the lap. All the people passing him are on mediums.
Button is on the super softs and leads Vettel by 2.5, can he hold on? Kubica is catching Vettel though and all within 4 seconds of Button!

L4 Alonso takes Rosberg.

L3 Vettel deep into the first corner, Kubica has a nice run, CONTACT in turn 3!

Vettel on the inside, Kubica around the outside, contact, then Vettel hits the wall, Kubica keeps running but is then *hard* into the wall.

SAFETY CAR
That's it kids, race over.

Replays: Brundle says 50-50 blame.

Vettel apologises to the team over the radio.

Vettel is still running with a wheel hanging off the car to make the final lap, Brundle insisting he has to pull over, it's in the rules if you have a heavily damaged car you have to pull over.

Replay: clumsy moves from both drivers. Wings everywhere. Both continue but then have no front downforce and understeer into the wall.

Vettel has now pulled over.

1 lap to go. How did Trulli get 3rd? Did he pass under yellow? Hamilton was 3rd after the crash.

Lights out on the safety car.

Raikkonen has pitted and retired, he's out of the car.

SC pulls in on the final lap.

CHEQUERED FLAG

Jenson Button WINS FOR BRAWN!

Finishing order:

Button, Barrichello, Trulli, Hamilton, Glock, Alonso, Rosberg, Buemi, Bourdais, Sutil, Heidfeld, Fisichella, Webber with Vettel, Kubica and Raikkonen still classified.

Nice job Toyota for starting in pitlane and getting 3rd and 5th!

Button team radio: "This is gonna be a great year, thank you."

Crowd invasion on the main straight!

Cars return to pitlane, Button out of the car to mass cheering from the crowds whcih have gathered in pitlane.
This. Is. Brilliant.

Guys head upstairs for the podium, in the 'ready room' thing. We can hear them talking! Trulli congratulates Ross Brawn, says he didn't want to be in the team - until February! Rubens says he had anti-stall. Jenson says he had no drinks bottle.

PODIUM

British national anthem for JB and Brawn.

Jenson's second win and well deserved it was as well.

Cheers all round for Jenson, Ross and Rubens as they get their trophies.

Champaaaagne!!

Ross hides behind the massive trophy. Brilliant scenes.

We cross back to Jake with DC and EJ on audio, pictures still from pitlane.

EJ is convinced Button wouldn't have been on pole without the pressure and support from Barrichello.

Main straight packed with people!

Ted with Nick Fry:
"We were quite worried at the end there with Kubica on the prime, we got there in the end, thank you to everyone in Brackley and everyone at Mercedes-Benz. Most of us thought we'd be out of a job, they've worked their socks off. Jenson stuck with us even though he thought he might be out of a job."

BBC guys are on the pit wall now.

Lee with Lewis:
"We did the best job we could, an incredible job, even though we were off the pace we just kept going, very happy with the points. The car is what it is at the moment but we've got a lot going on in the factory."

Press Conference with Peter Windsor
Button: "It always looks easier than it is, the first few laps were great for me. WHen the SC came out I struggled massively and flat spotted a tyre. Being at the front should be easy but it was not easy at all. Some people might say it was a shame to finish under the safety car but I don't care, I won the race!"

Barrichello: "I was hit from behind, hit in the front, I never thought I could finish on the podium after that. I recovered quickly but was hit from behind by a McLaren. I lost the braking stability when I hit Kimi. I had a lot of mixed emotions but it was fantastic, really fantastic. Delighted to be here with second place.

Trulli: "After yesterday it was a great day for the team, I missed the first corner accident and from then was pushing, pushing, pushing hard. After yesterday a well deserved day to show we are doing things in the right way."

Button: [pitstop - which they are showing!] It was frustrating, it cost me five or six seconds, it was a mistake. I made it difficult for us today but we go there. It was difficult, a few of the corners you could not see the exit at all, with the glare of the sun it was so difficult. And it was always on the most difficult corners."

Back to the boys.

BBC One coverage is over but press red for the 'interactive forum' because "we'd love to show it here but we don't have time". BBC One has to go to a political discussion show. I don't have a red button to press as I don't have digital TV yet.

Foo Fighters acoustic to close!

I've found the forum feed on the BBC website. I won't comment much of that, just anything of note.

Ross Brawn: "Stunning, absolutely stunning. Sensational. I can't put it into words. It wasn't that easy, we hadn't done a race distance before today."

Brundle has joined the guys in the paddock. Nice atmosphere back there, music in the background.

Brundle: "What I hadn't seen in commentary is the big shove Rubens got."

Lewis onboard start: he picked off five or six cars by turn three but then got on the grass a bit and lost a place or two.

Martin Whitmarsh of McLaren says Trulli got third because he ran off track under SC, Lewis had no choice but to pass him under yellow then let him through again. I didn't really get what he meant.

Vijay Mallya: "We started building this car in November, we've had 120 days to build the car since the McLaren agreement. We proved our reliability today. We are allowing McLaren to develop KERS before we install the package on our chassis, we are targeting Barcelona. Fischella's pitstop was not what we wanted to see, but Adrian knocked his wing and took three stops and still finished tenth."

DC's reaction to Vettel/Kubica: "Little bit silly from both of them, lots of points to be won at this stage of the season. They came together and managed to have another crash coming out of the corner."
EJ: "For me there's no winner. I think this was a genuine mistake. In my opinion if I were the team boss I'd be on the phone saying let him go but drivers don't like that."
MB: "When Vettel makes mistakes they are costly. They were both pretty stupid, not only points on the line but a podium. Kubica should have given more room, it was clear Vettel was going to be on the apex. I called it 50-50 in the commentary and I haven't seen anything to change my mind."

Shots of Mario Thiessen and Seb Vettel talking, the pat each other's shoulder as they walk off, no harm done, racing incident.

Jordan and Brundle think he's being weak while DC defends him, saying Vettel has a BMW car supply and needs to put food on the table!

Heated discussions on all subjects, too fast moving to transcribe but certainly worth hanging around for - so don't switch off when the main BBC1 coverage ends!

That's it for the first Grand Prix of 2009. I'll be back with more notes for Malaysia next weekend, I hope to do St.Pete too but we'll see what happens.


Result At The Flag
(under yellows)
1. Button (Brawn) 58 laps
2. Barrichello (Brawn) +0.8s
3. Trulli (Toyota) +1.6s
4. Hamilton (McLaren) +2.9s
5. Glock (Toyota) +4.4s
6. Alonso (Renault) +4.8s
7. Rosberg (Williams) +5.7s
8. Buemi (STR) +6.0s
9. Bourdais (STR) +6.2s
10. Sutil (FIF1) +6.3s
11. Heidfeld (BMW) +7.0s
12. Fisichella (FIF1) +7.3s
13. Webber (RBR) + 1 lap
13. Vettel (RBR) + 2 laps
14. Kubica (BMW) + 3 laps
15. Raikkonen (Ferrari) + 3 laps

DNF Massa (Ferrari) + 13 laps
DNF Piquet (Renault) + 34 laps
DNF Nakajima (Williams) + 41 laps
DNF Kovalainen (McLaren) did not complete a lap

A fantastic result for Brawn! This is the first win for a new entrant since Wolf in 1977, and the first 1-2 finish for a new entrant since Fangio and Kling for Mercedes-Benz in 1954! Okay we know what gestation the car has had, we know they are still operating on Honda money this year - but they still had to survive the winter and pull everything together. The car didn't even run until three weeks ago!
A brilliant drive from the two Toyota drivers after starting in the pitlane, and Hamilton somehow got up from 18th too.
Buemi scores a point on his debut!
Ferrari really messed this one up though.


Penalties
- Jarno Trulli has been given a 25-second penalty for overtaking under safety car conditions. This demotes him to 12th. It seems he fell off the track, Hamilton passed him unavoidably (and legally), but then Trulli took his place back again. Apparently you can't do that, no passing means NO PASSING and if you mess it up that's your problem. Toyota intend to appeal.

- Sebastian Vettel will receive a 10-place grid penalty at the next event for causing an avoidable incident.

- Red Bull Racing has been fined $50,000 (is that USD or AUD?) for instructing Vettel to stay on the track with a heavily damaged car.


Trulli's penalty is fixed, I don't think the stewards had any leeway with the length of time because this is equal to awarding a drive-through penalty during a race. They want to award him a drive-through but since the race is over they give him roughly the amount of time it takes for a drive-through at most circuits.

Vettel's penalty is harsh, I thought that was clearly a racing incident and the 10-place drop is unwarranted.
Red Bull were in the wrong to tell him to continue, that wheel could have come off and gone anywhere and he may have been dropping carbon fibre all around the circuit.


***UPDATE (April 3rd)
The FIA stewards have reconvened in Malaysia to reopen the Hamilton/Trulli debate. The result has been to cancel Jarno Trulli's penalty because Lewis Hamilton had pulled over to let Trulli retake the position. Lewis Hamilton has been excluded from the Australian GP for misleading the stewards.
In the meeting with stewards after the race, Hamilton and team manager Dave Ryan told the stewards that no instruction was giving to Hamilton to let Trulli re-pass him. Thus Trulli was deemed to have passed illegally and was penalised accordingly. The stewards claim they were not given access to the team radio. It later came to light that Hamilton had already told the media that he'd been told to fall back by the team, and that there is a recording of McLaren team radio proving this. It was decided this was intentionally misleading the stewards and so he was thrown out.
In response, McLaren has suspended Dave Ryan and he's on his way back to the UK. Ryan has been with McLaren for 34 years.
***

Provisional Race Result (red: revised after Hamilton's DQ)
1. Button (Brawn) 58 laps
2. Barrichello (Brawn) +0.8s
3. Trulli (Toyota) +1.6s
4. Glock (Toyota) +4.4s
5. Alonso (Renault) +4.8s
6. Rosberg (Williams) +5.7s
7. Buemi (STR) +6.0s
8. Bourdais (STR) +6.2s
9. Sutil (FIF1) +6.3s
10. Heidfeld (BMW) +7.0s
11. Fisichella (FIF1) +7.3s
12. Webber (RBR) + 1 lap
13. Vettel (RBR) + 2 laps
14. Kubica (BMW) + 3 laps
15. Raikkonen (Ferrari) + 3 laps

DNF Massa (Ferrari) + 13 laps
DNF Piquet (Renault) + 34 laps
DNF Nakajima (Williams) + 41 laps
DNF Kovalainen (McLaren) did not complete a lap

EXC Hamilton (McLaren) +2.9s

This result remains provisional until the diffuser protest hearing has concluded in Paris on April 14th.


Championship (Revised)

Drivers

10 Button
8 Barrichello
6 Trulli
5 Glock
4 Alonso
3 Rosberg
2 Buemi
1 Bourdais


Constructors (Revised)

18 BrawnGP-Mercedes
11 Toyota
4 Renault
3 Williams-Toyota
3 Toro Rosso-Ferrari

Just look at that Constructors' standing! Incredible.

Okay I'm out of here, hope you enjoyed the race, feel free to comment away below!

EDIT - More notes!
Check out notes on SPEED's coverage with the esteemed Pressdog, who's a lot better at it than I am. He also has an exclusive interview with SPEED reporter, FIA Press Conference moderator and future team owner Peter Windsor!
- For a Canadian look at the BBC coverage, make sure you go to Meesh's blog but be wary of the sweary shouty match I got into in the comments. :-)

F1 World Feed Intros

Question: Are you ready for the new F1 season to begin less than 5 hours from now? Maybe you're killing time waiting for it to start, maybe you're not quite into the frame of mind just yet. I'm not quite there yet either, almost like there's something missing.

I noticed in the qualifying coverage that FOM have designed a revised sting for when we enter 'world feed' coverage. This is the official F1 logo which appears just minutes before qualifying or racing begins, when the action switches from anchors to commentators. Let's take a quick trip through memory lane*.

* assuming FOM hasn't pulled them from YouTube!

This is the classic version used through the 1990s, arguably still the greatest:



This is the version used since 2002 or 2003 which we are all very familiar with, more corporate but perhaps a little bit bland:



Here is the 2009 edition, updating the theme of the previous version - I like it!:



So, ready yet? Almost, but not quite.

How about the BBC's first intro of the season? If you don't know anything about the BBC's prior stint from the 1970s to 1996 you might not know they used The Chain by Fleetwood Mac as the theme tune. When it was announced the BBC would be returning for 2009 after a spell with ITV, internet fora (including the BBC's own) immediately exploded with demands that The Chain be reinstated in it's original form after ITV had used completely different intros. You can search YouTube if you want to see the ITV intros or classic BBC.

Right now though, this was the BBC introduction to qualifying:



NOW I'M READY!!!

Red Bull's mistake

Today one of our fellow humble bloggers received a letter from a Formula 1 team - not just any Formula 1 team but the very group he spends his time blogging about, you see his is a blog devoted to the Red Bull F1 family of Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso. Fantastic! Or so you might think.. read his own words..:

Excitedly I opened it, wondering what was contained inside. My enthusiasm quickly turned to sheer bewilderment when I realised that I had in fact received a letter from Red Bull’s legal people with regards to this blog.

..and the words of Red Bull:

Your use of the domain names and the Bull Logo misrepresents some affiliation between the famous Red Bull brand and the Websites. Potentially, this could confuse members of the public.

Utter stupidity! Confuse the public? How? Perhaps they think there is money being made? It's a fan blog. Someone writing positive stories about his favourite racing team. I'm sure we're all fans of the atmosphere Red Bull brought into what had become a stale F1 paddock even if we may not be fans of the team. Personally I respect them a lot but I'm generally indifferent, but that's irrelevant. I like the things they do elsewhere such as the Red Bull Air Race World Series and sponsorships throughout motorsport. RBR/STR are good teams. But let's face it there aren't many Red Bull Racing fan sites out there, so why try to stamp out this one?

Quite rightly he's decided to close the blog rather than agree to strict terms of operating, and that's a shame.

Let's hope sense returns to the legal department on Monday and they reconsider stripping one of their biggest supporters of his freedom to big 'em up.

Read more here:

http://www.red-bullog.com/2009/03/28/the-end/

F1 Qualifying - Australia 2009

Qualifying results for the 2009 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park, Melbourne

Here are the results for each of the three qualifying sessions, plus the starting order after penalties were applied. I am considering whether to post this for each F1 and IndyCar race this season, time permitting. Let me know what you think, is it better to get this info from the racing news sites?

Format: 3-round knockout losing 5 drivers per round, those 5 are locked in that position barring penalties. Times are deleted and the next round begins. In the final round the drivers carry the fuel they will start the race with. I'll post each session so you can see the progression.

Qual 1
(20 mins, low fuel)
1. Barrichello (Brawn)
2. Button (Brawn)
3. Webber (Red Bull)
4. Glock (Toyota)
5. Heidfeld (BMW)
6. Massa (Ferrari)
7. Rosberg (Williams)
8. Raikkonen (Ferrari)
9. Kubica (BMW)
10. Vettel (Red Bull)
11. Alonso (Renault)
12. Nakajima (Williams)
13. Kovalainen (McLaren)
14. Trulli (Toyota)
15. Hamilton (McLaren)
Knocked out:
16. Buemi (Toro Rosso)
17. Piquet (Renault)
18. Fisichella (Force India)
19. Sutil (Force India)
20. Bourdais (Toro Rosso)


Qual 2
(15 mins, low fuel)
1. Barrichello
2. Button
3. Vettel
4. Rosberg
5. Kubica
6. Webber
7. Trulli
8. Glock
9. Massa
10. Raikkonen
Knocked out:
11. Heidfeld
12. Alonso
13. Nakajima
14. Kovalainen
15. Hamilton (no time - gearbox)

Qual 3
(10 mins, race fuel)
1. Button
2. Barrichello
3. Vettel
4. Kubica
5. Rosberg
6. Glock
7. Massa
8. Trulli
9. Raikkonen
10. Webber

Penalties
Hamilton - gearbox changed after qualifying, drop 5 positions. 15th to 20th.
Trulli and Glock - wings found to be flexing illegally, qualifying times deleted, cars may start at the back if the wing is corrected.

Starting Order
(new for 2009: weights are declared after qualifying)
1. Button 664.5kg
2. Barrichello 666.5kg
3. Vettel 657kg
4. Kubica 650kg
5. Rosberg 657kg
6. Massa 654kg
7. Raikkonen 655.5kg
8. Webber 662kg
9. Heidfeld 691.5kg
10. Alonso 680.7kg
11. Nakajima 685.3kg
12. Kovalainen 690.6kg
13. Buemi 675.5kg
14. Nelson Piquet 694.1kg
15. Giancarlo Fisichella 689kg
16. Adrian Sutil 684.5kg
17. Sebastien Bourdais 662.5kg
18. Lewis Hamilton 655kg
19. Jarno Trulli 660kg
20. Timo Glock 670kg

The Brawns are exceptionally fast even on a heavier fuel load - will they have the reliability though? What of Vettel up front, surely Kubica will have something to say about that? And I'm still not counting out the Ferraris who are fast on longer runs through a stint.
The Toyotas were showing upper-midfield pace so ought to find their way through the field well enough, but I'm not so sure Hamilton will be able to!

Turns 1 and 3 at Albert Park always provides butt-clenching action as we hope nobody crashes or destroys front wings, concerns magnified with this year's wing regulations. Let's hope they make some good clean passes!

F1 Preview: Australian Grand Prix 2009

Finally, after all the waiting, it's here!!

* * * *
FIA Formula 1 World Championship
- ING Australian Grand Prix (1/17)
- Albert Park
- Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- www.formula1.com
- F1.com track map / F1Fanatic's track guide
- Live timing (Java required, free registration required, worth it)

* WARNING *
In the UK the clocks will change on Sunday morning. At 2am GMT we will jump to 3am British Summer Time (BST). Thus Qualifying and Race start at the same time locally but one hour apart for us.

Preview
Welcome to the slightly delayed preview to the Australian GP!

Circuit
Albert Park is a semi-street track set around a lake in the city of Melbourne. It isn't a traditional street track, being as it runs through a park and the barriers aren't always up tight to the racing surface. The racetrack isn't as bumpy as your average street track - although this year the drivers seem to have found more bumps than usual.

The deceptively fast first corner is always a concern, more so this year with the extended width of the front wings this year. You know how drivers like to win the race at the first corner? Well this is the first corner of the Championship and some of them think they can win the title in the first corner!

Of course this is followed up by a medium/long straight into the tight heavy braking area of turn 3. Some guys who were careful in turn 1 decide turn 3 is the better opportunity, sometimes they are right, sometimes they are wrong. The guys will need to temper their enthusiasm to avoid crashes!

Here are two onboard laps to refamiliarise yourself with the layout, assuming you haven't already been watching Free Practice!

The first is Jenson Button's 2006 pole lap described by Martin Brundle, then of ITV:



Here is Kimi Raikkonen's 2007 pole lap described by David Hobbs of SPEED:



Rule Changes
There are far too many variables to discuss with regards to the new rules and the time for explaining them in long reams of text is over. What we do know is that both Ferraris, both McLarens, both Renaults and Nick Heidfeld of BMW will all be using KERS this weekend. Force India, BrawnGP and Toyota say they are not running KERS, and the remainder are tight-lipped on the subject with speculation that Williams and others may be running it.

If you've been away from all the pre-season hype you may be aware of some major changes this year but perhaps not the specifics. Everyone else could probably use a refresher on the eve of the first race and this video is ideal for the purpose:


(7m40s, Inside Track from SidepodcastTV
you may prefer to try the low-res version)


Form
BrawnGP have been running exceptionally well in testing and have carried that into Free Practice. McLaren and Ferrari are stuck in the midfield among suggestions of sandbagging, running heavy to mask their true pace. I'm not sure this is true. Ferrari seem to have good speed over a long run if not over a lap, but they aren't at the absolute cutting edge of lap time. McLaren appear to be struggling much more.

Williams are also fast however this has happened with Williams over the last few years, they are quick at Albert Park and then have a dire race in Sepang. Let's hope the latter trend is put to rest this season. Interestingly Toyota and Force India have shown promising form in practice.

What is clear is the grid is very well shaken up and yet very close together, with only 2 seconds separating front to back in Friday FP2. The combination of all the different factors makes it incredibly difficult to predict what will happen on both Saturday and Sunday, something we haven't been able to say about F1 for a very long time!! I think we're going to enjoy this season.



UK TV
Q: BBC One will air Qualifying live at 5am GMT Saturday, session begins at 6am. Rerun at 1pm.
R: BBC One will air the Race live at 6am BST Sunday, race starts at 7am. Rerun at 1pm.
H: BBC Three will air 1hr Highlights at 7pm BST Sunday.

US TV
Q: Speed will air Qualifying live at 2am ET, it seems they are jumping straight in to the green flag unless I have my times wrong.
R: Speed will air the Race live at 1:30am ET with the race to start at 2am. Rerun at 4:30pm.

Canada should get coverage on TSN featuring BBC commentary.
EDIT - you used to be able to choose Speed but you may want to see this link and check what you can see at the time, although I'm not sure why you'd voluntarily sit through all their ads.

Race Notes
I will again be writing notes during the race for upload straight after the event. I won't be doing a live blog, it's more a journal of noteworthy events which is written live, checked for editing and uploaded shortly after the podium ceremony. If you're sitting here killing time before Qual or Race because of the timezones, you can click here to see notes on previous races.

Live Comments
This season I will also be in the Sidepodcast.com Live Comments for all races and most qualifying sessions. Fire up the Live Commenting Live..Thing at the appointed time and join the appropriate thread at the top of the screen, then just type away! I've been keeping up with the comments during the latter end of the off-season, but not a live F1 GP before - it should be fun. You're welcome to join us as long as you keep the sweary exclamations away.. I think I'll struggle with that bit.. I may be quiet during races while I concentrate on the Race Notes, however I should be active during qualifying.

I will of course have TwitterFox to hand for those all-important tweets.


Support events
V8 Supercars*, Australian GT, Australian Formula Ford, Aussie Racing Cars, Historic Formula 5000, Mini Challenge, Minardi F1x2 two-seaters, Ultimate Speed Comparison (road car vs V8 Supercar vs 2008 BMW F1 car)
(these events are spread across the weekend)

Weekend Preview: 28-29 March 2009

This blog covers a great many racing series to a greater or lesser degrees, and as regular visitors know this Weekend Preview strand is intended as a 'broad brush' to briefly touch on as many races happening in a given weekend as possible.

However, the main focus of the blog is Formula 1. For this reason I have elected to write separate preview posts for each F1 round of this season as well as 'special events' such as the Indy 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Australian GP preview follows shortly, in the meantime here is a quick run-down of what else is happening in the world of racing this weekend.

* * * *
Feature Event

FIA Formula 1 World Championship
- ING Australian Grand Prix (1/17)
- Albert Park
- Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- www.formula1.com
- Track map

I will post a full preview shortly!

Support events:
V8 Supercars*, Australian GT, Australian Formula Ford, Aussie Racing Cars, Historic Formula 5000, Mini Challenge, Minardi F1x2 two-seaters, Ultimate Speed Comparison (road car vs V8 Supercar vs 2008 BMW F1 car)

* non-championship races billed as a manufacturer battle between Ford and Holden. This has to be one of the best support race bills of the entire F1 season, and you can add several air displays from the Royal Australian Air Force into the mix too.

Absolutely brilliant that they've included the old F5000 cars for this year. I've not seem them myself, but hear they're quite a sight! A packed programme of events as always at Albert Park.

* * *
Other Events:

NASCAR Sprint Cup
- Goody's Fast Relief 500 (6/36)
- Martinsville Speedway
- Martinsville, Virginia, United States
- www.nascar.com

Another short track for the Cup boys.

UK TV: LIVE on Sky Sports 3 from 7pm BST Sunday.
US TV: LIVE on FOX from 1:30pm ET Sunday.

Support races: Camping World Truck Series (Saturday)


Stock Car V8 Brasil
- Interlagos (1/12)
- Autodromo Carlos Pace
- Interlagos, Sao Paulo Brazil
- www.stockcar.globo.com

Brazil's answer to NASCAR? The first race of the season on the F1 track at Interlagos.


* * * *
Notes
I believe that's all there is this weekend. You'll thank me for the F1 split-out in a few weeks when this post gets busy!

TMR Gets Airtime on Sidepodcast

That's right, I guested on my very first podcast!

I appeared alongside many others on Sidepodcast.com's recent Episode #97 with a modest little prediction for the upcoming Australian Grand Prix.

The podcast featured predictions from a whole host of regular commenters from Sidepodcast's Live Comments, many of whom have their own blogs which I recommend you check out (I'll be updating my links over the weekend).

If some of them seem at ease on the calls it's because they regularly call in to the various podcasts produced by SPC. This was my first phone-in to any show anywhere!

You can listen via two methods:

- If you've got less than an hour I highly recommend you listen to the full Episode as it weighs in at a perfectly-formed 43 minutes, an ideal length in my opinion because you don't have to set aside your evening to hear it! There are a variety of options for listening in, just go to the page to find out more. The predictions appear in the 'Feedback' section but don't worry about that, you'll come to it soon enough.

- If you're more pushed for time please check out the 6 minute Predictions Montage.


While you are on the site take a listen to this week's hilarious Panel featuring guest host Gavin Brown! The podcast edition should appear later this week so look out for it.

There are also a variety of F1 Season Previews to look out for as well as an hour-long fascinating chat with F1 scribe Joe Saward who is the man behind GrandPrix.com as well as being a published author of racing books. (Meesh, if you're reading this, he talks about the trials of being a journalist in the F1 media centre - some things don't change, even in F1!).
Even if you don't listen to any of the other items above, at least make sure you listen to that discussion. It's worth it.


SPC Crash Course
These guys 'live comment' everything. That is to say, a 'live blog' but with all the commenters joining in with conversation in real time. You can't quite imagine it until you see it, so go there now!

To keep up with chat between events, go here: Doohickey
For commenting during events, go here: LCLT

Just keep it clean and keep an eye on what thread you're posting in and you'll be fine.

Warning: This will take over your life. It has mine - and I don't see that as a bad thing. That's when you know you're hooked.

I will be in the comments for all F1 races and for as many qualifying sessions as I can make. During races I may be a little quiet as I'll be taking notes for this blog, though I do hope to throw my oar in from time to time. These guys do the practice sessions as well, unfortunately I have to work. Grr, damned work, grr.


PS - I still hate my voice

F1 Week: WMSC decisions

Welcome to F1 Week on Too Much Racing! I'm planning to post daily in the run up to this weekend's Australian Grand Prix, the first F1 race of the year.

Last week the FIA World Motorsport Council (WMSC) announced some changes for 2009 and 2010, some of which were quickly rescinded after FOTA pointed out they were done without the consultation of the teams, which is necessary when we are so close to the start of a season. If they'd announced it earlier the teams wouldn't have had a choice but to accept them - I may be wrong but I believe the cut off is 1st January.

The WMSC decisions were:

To award the World Drivers' Championship (WDC) to the driver who wins the most races, irrespective of points standings.
Not Adopted
Thankfully FOTA got this one stopped because this is a stupid idea. It got a lot of press around the world in time for the new season, and I get the niggling feeling that maybe this was the intention all along? In any case, FOTA's own proposal to increase the points awarded for podium finishes was in my opinion much more sensible.

Teams may conduct three 1-day test sessions for young drivers, between the end of the final GP of the year and 31st December. Drivers must not have either taken part in an F1 event or tested an F1 car for more than four days during the previous 24 months.
Adopted
This is an excellent move to ensure the traditional young driver evaluations of November/December are able to continue through the test ban. My main query is with the chosen 24 month restriction which means a certain M. Schumacher becomes eligible soon.

Teams may conduct eight 1-day straight line aero tests between 1 Jan and 31 Dec 2009
Adopted
This is interesting because it has been backdated to 1st January, and certain teams (including McLaren and Renault) are known to have conducted extensive straight line testing at Kemble airfield. It would be interesting to know how much of their allocation has been used already and if they already knew this rule was coming in.

The FIA will publish the weights of cars after qualifying.
Adopted
This is in response to comments that there is too much guesswork after Q3 (qualifying with race fuel) and the beginning of the race. Instead of waiting until cars make their stops, we ought now to be able to guess the strategies. But wait! We have KERS now, and some teams aren't running it. KERS is worth 30kg so if two teams are running 615kg, which of them is running a medium load with KERS and which is running a heavy load and no KERS? We are none the wiser! Thanks FIA!

Tyres: 'Wets' are now 'Intermediates' and 'Extreme Wets' are now 'Wets'.
Adopted
On the face of it this seems pointless, but it is an important change as it clears up some confusion. Bridgestone always referred to wets and extremes, yet the paddock, teams, drivers, fans and media all referred to inters and wets. The latter has been common terminology for over a decade and actually brings Bridgestone into line with everyone else.

Drivers must be available in their team space in pit lane for autographs on the first day of practice.
Adopted
This looks good but really, who has access to pit lane even on Friday? The fans? Not always! Many GPs have pit walkabouts, I don't believe they all do. This seems mainly to benefit sponsors and Paddock Club members. Not good enough.

Drivers eliminated from Qualifying, drivers retiring from the race and drivers finishing outside the top three must all make themselves available to the media for interviews.
Adopted
Excellent move! This was called for by FOTA, and effectively prevents a driver from leaving the track when the race is in progress until he's answered questions. Both Raikkonen and Hamilton have been guilty of disappearing without a word when their day hasn't gone well. The top 3 are covered by the press conference which we should all see after the race, but can get skipped by broadcasters.

During the race every team must make a senior spokesman available to the media.
Adopted
Teams have usually been pretty good at this in recent years but this makes it official.

"A number of further amendments were made to the 2009 Technical Regulations. Full details on www.fia.com shortly."
Curious... This was announced one week ago and there isn't anything newer on the site to do with Tech Regs.


2010: In addition to existing rules which remain stable, all teams will have the option to compete with a budget cap.
There's a lot of words to state the cap will be £30m but that technical development will be much less restrictive than the existing rules. It's an interesting concept and I'm very curious, yet it'll create a two-class F1 and that's not right. Everyone should run to the same formula. Multi-class racing is for sportscars, which does it very well! This one still has a long way to run.

Side-note: interesting they use pounds instead of euros, the FIA's normal currency after they switched from US dollars a few years ago.


There was also some housekeeping about changing HondaF1 to BrawnGP. This had the knock-on effect this week of the car numbers changing and potentially denying Brawn any monies owing to Honda. It's interesting that the FIA treated Brawn as a completely new entrant, yet Force India was not a new entrant when it bought Midland. I can't work that one out although GrandPrix.com suggests it may have something to do with Honda breaching their contract to race in F1 because they withdrew without a buyer already lined up.


During this week I'll come back with a recap of all rules changes for 2009, i.e. wings, KERS, the new Safety Car rules; a track guide; my guess at a form guide for the weekend; anything else that takes my fancy!


* * * *
Also in the WSMC decisions were some matters for other FIA series:

The future World Rally Car will be based on S2000, with modified aerodynamics.
Present WR cars will not be eligible for the championship from 2011 (they will still be able to enter rallies, but not win the title).
Proposal to limit WR cars to 1.6 litres from 2013.

The FIA GT calendar was amended to change the date of the Bucharest street race and the Zolder finale, and to replace the Argentinian round with an event at Paul Ricard.
This looked bad until Stephane Ratel of series promoter SRO issued his own release clarifying that Argentina will be a feature event in the brand new FIA World GT Series calendar in 2010.

There were also several paragraphs stating the FIA's intention to be more green, including potentially setting up a new 'energy efficiency' championship for manufacturers, laboratories, universities and individuals 'without become a spending race'.

Okay, see ya tomorrow.

IndyCar TV: Versus & Sky Sports

While I've keeping up to date on the BBC's F1 coverage here in the UK, I've been remiss in not talking about the new TV deal for the IRL IndyCar Series. Since it is effectively the series I cover most after F1, I need to put that right straight away.

US Coverage
(see below for UK coverage details)

New for this year is a switch to the Versus cable channel, which brings with it an increase in race day coverage and as well as more time for qualifying. What's interesting is that all of their content will also be available on Versus HD - which is a result!

Five races are still with ABC, doing that curious American thing of splitting coverage between broadcasters. Obviously Indy isn't moving any time soon but with the rest of them... guys just put them in one place and market the hell out of them, yeah? I'm guessing ABC insisted on this arrangement.

Versus is cleverly choosing to air IndyCar programs around the 500 so as to keep the content rolling and the awareness out there, which is good thinking. I think it includes something on qualifying but that'll be announced properly later.


Previews
Prior to the season there are four hour-long previews every Saturday at 2.00pm ET.
- The first of those was aired last weekend and was about Danica P. Okay, not my choice but she is the marketing darling of the series so I can live with that, even if I'd prefer a similar show about the reigning champion - but I'm just a hardcore fan not a casual viewer... The remaining shows are:
- 'Top Ten Closest Finishes in IRL History' which should be very entertaining! (I'm fairly sure this is 'IRL' and not 'Indycar' history, so since 1996);
- Next is 'Crashes and Conflicts' which worries me slightly, we don't want to be attracting the sort of "fans" who "only watch for the crashes" so I hope they treat it with a respect for the danger instead of 'hey that's cool' - because it isn't cool, what's cool is the skill in avoiding the crashes;
- Finally we end with 'IndyCar World Tour' which is about the circuits visited during the season;


Qualifying
During the season there will be a post-qualifying wrap up show at 6pm ET on the Saturday. I don't think ESPN covered qualifying did it? I'm not sure, someone let me know, but if so this marks a big improvement and dare I say a toe-in-the-water for potential live coverage next season, so make sure you watch it to convince them to do it!

If the IRL knock-out qualifying is as good as it is in F1 then it'll be worth watching, and the oval system seems interesting in a completely different way.


Race
This is followed on Sunday by a live 3-hour race show featuring build-up and post-race. It sounds like you guys are finally getting for IndyCar what we've got here for F1! IndyCar finally gets the hours it deserves.

Race commentary will be provided by Bob Jenkins, Jon Beekhuis and Robbie Buhl. Jenkins is an experienced hand who'll run a steady ship, Beekhuis is possibly the best IndyCar technical expert around, and Buhl is a team owner. That's a good, solid line-up.

In the pits will be the inimitable Jack Arute, along with series newcomers Lindy Thackston and Robbie Floyd. I hope Thackton isn't the token female that Brie was for so long last year (due respect though - she did get A LOT better). Apparently she's been on ALMS pit reporter duty before so that's promising. Floyd seems to be coming in as a total newbie to racing, so maybe he's the one in the deep end this year? Good luck to them all, let's keep an open mind and give them a few races to bed in.

Races will be re-aired in full the next day (Monday). There will also be further reruns on Sunday for races in odd timezones, like Motegi.


Lights
Alongside the Monday re-air, Versus will show Indy Lights in full - a great result for the Lights guys. Furthermore, two of the Lights races will be live - at Indy and Homestead. I'm sure this marks a major step up for this series.
(PS - if someone could see their way to sending MotorsTV in Europe the Lights tapes a little earlier than last year, that'd be cool too)


Overview
On the whole this looks to be a very good deal, and it's long-term as well. Okay so the reach isn't as big as ESPN's but ever since the coverage announcement was made a couple of months back several US-based IRL bloggers have noted that Versus has appeared in their local area, or the area of people they know. So it is growing and will continue to do so - this a great chance for the IRL to put their series in a place where it can grow along with the network, a bit like NASCAR did many years ago. There's a lot of potential here - this is a good deal.

The IndyCar Series begins on April 5th on the street/airport hybrid circuit in St Petersburg, Florida. This will be live on Versus at 2.00pm ET, and remember to check out the qualifying recap show the day before at 6.00pm - get eyeballs on to it to show them you want to see it live next year!


UK Coverage
IndyCar once again returns to Sky Sports with every round live or same-day delayed, primarily on Sky Sports 3 (St Pete will be on Sky Sports Xtra).

There are precious few details around at the moment and I've been unable to locate an announcement but I have found a short-term schedule of motor racing appearing on Sky over the next six weeks and IndyCar is on it, along with NASCAR and A1GP.
I assume there will be at least one replay of the IndyCar races if not more at various stages in the week, however there is no HD coverage as far as I am aware - this of course may still change. Last season there were only two HD races across their entire motorsport portfolio, yet this year I believe most if not all of the NASCAR events held so far have been in HD. We'll know more nearer the time.

We also don't yet know who will provide commentary. In previous years ESPN supplied a different commentary pairing, Garry Lee and Larry Rice, along with the same pit crew seen on American TV (albeit with fewer reports). We don't yet know if we'll have Jenkins/Beekhuis/Buhl or another team - frankly there are pros and cons to both options. It's nice having the guys talking to us without endless promotion for other stuff on the network, and giving shouts to countries watching. On the other hand, it'd be fantastic to have everyone watch the same thing (a la A1GP) and maybe the US domestic guys could shout out the different places tuning in live.

Once again you can expect interjections from Sky's London studio with Keith Heuwen and guests during any yellow flag periods.

The IndyCar Series begins on April 5th on the street/airport hybrid circuit in St Petersburg, Florida. This will be live on Sky Sports Xtra at 7.30pm and is directly followed on the same channel by live NASCAR Sprint Cup from Texas. That's a good long day of racing, starting with the Malaysian GP - love it!

Weekend Preview: 14-15 March 2009

Welcome to what Blogger tells my is my 100th posting! I can't believe I'm at that number already, I only started in August.

We have a quiet weekend this week with only one major series competing, as even NASCAR takes a break from time to time. Next week is very different with ALMS kicking off at Sebring and NASCAR paying a visit to Bristol, among many others.

As always this preview highlights events happening this weekend. Make sure to regularly check your listings for highlights and preview shows! I know that MotorsTV is airing an ALMS preview and ITV4 has WTCC highlights, and over in the US Versus has another of their four IndyCar pre-season specials - so there is content out there to be found if you can look for it.

* * * *

FIA World Rally Championship
- Cyprus Rally (3/12)
- Cyprus
- www.wrc.com

The WRC makes a return to the island after a couple of years away. This year the drivers will have to manage with using gravel tyres instead of asphalt ones, I don't know why this is and it doesn't make sense, to me it sounds like a cost-saving method. I have to admit to not following WRC this year so I don't really know what's going on or who's fast - though I can guess!

The Production WRC boys will be joining in this weekend along with a small number of Junior WRC entries.


UK TV: Daily updates each evening on Eurosport, and a roundup on Sunday on Dave.
Elsewhere: Check www.wrc.com for details, video and live stage timing.

* * *

Other Events:

World Superbikes & Supersport, Losail, Qatar.
I don't follow WSBK at all. I'm sure the racing is good but I just can't bring myself to care. MotoGP has it for me. Now, fans of bikes will almost certainly tell me that I'll like WSBK if I watch it and this may well be true! If I'm cruising the sports channels and stumble upon it I'll watch, but since I don't have any sports channels this may be a long time coming..


Note - Autosport magazine lists the Atlantics as starting this week in Savannah, Georgia, yet Open Wheel World noted yesterday that there are under 14 days until the start of the Atlantics season, as a support to the 12 Hours of Sebring. I'm calling this a cancellation which Autosport forgot to erase from their calendar.


Come back for another preview next week, which may be slightly earlier or slightly delayed depending on what college work I get done, and other reasons.

FOTA's Proposals

The Formula One Teams Association (www.teamsassociation.org), the independent body made up of the 10 teams of F1, conducted a survey in 17 countries of both F1 fans and non-fans as well as those who follow casually. From the results of this survey they have made the following proposals, known as the 'roadmap' and classified as 'sporting', 'technical' and 'commercial' to match the working groups established some months ago.

I'll list these in the order of the press release and include my own comments in each section.


Technical
For 2009:
- An engine life increase of over 100%.
- A reduction in the usage of wind tunnels and computational fluid dynamics (CFD).
- Engines to be supplied for €8 million per season per team.

These are expected to provide significant savings over 2008. In addition, these proposals were made for 2010:
- Engines to be supplied for €5 million per season per team.
- Gearboxes to be supplied for €1.5 million.
- Standard KERS system to be put to tender, target price €1 million to €2 million.
- 50% reduction on 2009 levels on the spend on aerodynamic development.
- Cap the number of chassis, bodywork and aero updates per season via homologation.
- Prohibit 'exotic' materials.
- Standard telemetry and radio systems.

My thoughts:
I agree with all of these moves, but one. They retain the uniqueness of F1 development, that the teams design their own cars, without needless aero updates for every race. The one I disagree with is standard KERS - the whole point of KERS being in F1 is that each team is developing their own systems, and some are radically different from others. Green tech should be the areas left open for development, not closed off!


Sporting
For 2009:
- A reduction in testing of 50%.
- Adjust the points system to 12 for a win, 9 for 2nd, 7 for 3rd. The remaining points to 8th remain as present. This is to further reward winners and podium finishers. (10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 would become 12-9-7-5-4-3-2-1)
- Starting fuel loads and tyre selections to be made available to the public before the race.

For 2010:
- Recommend a new qualifying format.
- Radical new points-scoring opportunities (e.g. fastest pit stop).
- Further testing restrictions, to 4 x 4 day single car sessions, plus one single car shakedown.
- Reduce Grand Prix race distances to 250km max, or 1hr 40 mins. (presently 300km or 2 hours)

My thoughts:
I agree completely with the 2009 proposals, of which testing has already been reduced significantly. The points need adjusting and the race data should be available, as it is in MotoGP.
I don't think we need a new qualifying format, the present one works very well indeed! I also disagree with reducing the race distance and the 'new points opportunities'. F1 should be about going flat out for a couple of hours, not racing for trick points or becoming a sprint race.


Commerical
For 2009:
- Increase data provision for the media.
- Explore means to more dynamically present F1, to improve engagement with the public.
- Nominated senior team spokesman available during GP.
- Commitment to enhance consumer experience via team and FOTA websites.

For 2010:
- Commitment to enhance viewer experience through TV coverage.

My thoughts:
You can't disagree with any of this. I would prefer to bring the TV coverage forward to this year but I understand if it's now too late, although I'm sure some improvements can be filtered in in the latter half of the year. I'd also prefer F1.com to be the focal point, unfortunately Bernie won't let that happen. I like the opening up of personnel during race, like they do on American coverage of IRL/NASCAR. I also like telling the drivers to show up at an appointed time to meet the fans.


Other Points To Note
FOTA noted several other findings.

1. F1 isn't broken. The survey results clearly were against the mooted suggestions of splitting GPs into 'sprint' and 'feature' races, or reverse grids.

2. F1 needs to be consumer-friendly. Only devotees watch a race live outside of their peak viewing times. No shit, Sherlock!

3. Qualifying changes are not urgent. Fans like the meritocracy and don't want luck to play a part of it. Fans are actually quite smart.

4. Revise the points scoring system. Fans want the winner to be more rewarded than at present. Good idea.

5. Evolution of pitstops and refuelling. It seems fans very much like tyre changes, but don't really care about refuelling and strategy. This isn't a surprise as strategies haven't been explained well in the past, despite the best efforts of James Allen and Ted Kravitz (here at least), and they are quite hard to follow sometimes even for us smart fans. Sometimes they are only hard to follow because they are boring. I like the sound of the 80s, when cars would go full distance but some drivers would choose to stop for tyres and try to catch up the time lost by making full use of their fresh rubber. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.


There are further details on these points in the press release which I urge you to read. We'll shortly hear of the FIA's own proposals I believe as soon as this coming week. It'll be interesting to see if there's any convergence.

BBC Promo vid

Check out the new BBC F1 promo!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/7911126.stm

Theme: 'The World's Greatest Car Chase'

Two F1 cars in the BBC Sport colours of yellow and black race through city streets in the classic movie style, with a hint of that theme... I'm excited now. F1 is back on the Beeb. REALLY excited!

* okay, so they aren't F1 cars, they're mockups and they are in South Africa for no reason at all, but I don't care.

This will air on all BBC channels in the few weeks before the season starts, and in cinemas nationwide. F1 is now arguably their biggest sports property and they are really going for it.

Weekend Preview: 7-8 March 2009

Some more championships get going this weekend with the WTCC and IRC both starting their seasons in Brazil, and interestingly they will be at the same location. More on that later.

Note - My copy of Autosport hasn't arrived today due to snow, so I'm relying on internet links and prior notes - this means no 'minor races' this week.

* * * *

NASCAR Sprint Cup
- Kobalt Tools 500 (4/36)
- Atlanta Motor Speedway
- Atlanta, Georgia, United States
- www.nascar.com

Yet another 500 miler, those guys get through a lot early in the season don't they? This time we head to the fast Atlanta track. Midweek Motorsport said this week that you get 8 lap manic sprints followed by 15-20 laps of running on worn tyres. Can they not do what they did in Days of Thunder and back off for the first bit, then in the later bit pass them all as if you have another gear?

UK TV: 6.00pm, Sky Sports 3 & 3HD
US TV: 1.30pm, FOX

Also racing at Atlanta:
Camping World Truck Series
UK TV: No deal.
US TV: 1.30pm Saturday, SPEED.

* * *

FIA World Touring Car Championship
- HSBC Race of Brazil (1&2/24)
- Autodromo Internacional de Curitiba
- Curitiba, Brazil
- www.fiawtcc.com

The WTCC gets started for 2009 with another visit to Curitiba, where for the 3rd year running there is a charity initiative to help the less well off of the locality, of which there are many. If a spectator brings 2kg of food they can watch the racing for free. I absolutely love this idea, last year the stands were packed and they collected 52 tonnes of food!! More here.

It'll be interesting to see if one manufacturer dominates again. It took a few rounds last year for the balance to be restored. This year there is a new performance balancing formula to replace weights, which I've forgotten to read up on because I didn't realise these guys were starting already...

UK TV:
Race 1 at 4.00pm, Eurosport 2
Race 2 at 7.00pm, Eurosport 1

US TV:
No deal.


* * *

Intercontinental Rally Challenge
- Rally Internacional de Curitiba (2/12)
- Autodromo Internacional de Curitiba
- Curitiba, Brazil
- www.ircseries.com

The second round of IRC is under way already and comes to a close on Saturday afternoon. That's not a typo in the location section - the service park is stationed behind the main grandstand of Curitiba race circuit. Both IRC and WTCC are backed and promoted by Eurosport Events so this marks an interesting cost-saving move whilst bringing a variety of motorsport to one location. It's certainly the first time I've heard of a race and rally being held in the same place.

UK TV:
Updates throughout the weekend on Eurosport's channels.


* * *

Other:

AMA Superbikes at Daytona. I imagine this is on SPEED in the US. It isn't available here, not live anyway.

2009 Le Mans 24 Hours - Entry List

Last Thursday the ACO released the official entry list for the 2009 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and it confirmed some pre-announced deals, verified some rumours and offered some complete surprises - as it does every year!

I'm writing this quite late so I'm going to just do short notes.

LM P1

1 / Audi Sport Team Joest / Audi R15
3 / Audi Sport Team Joest / Audi R15
2 / Audi Sport North America / Audi R15

Audi are returning with a new car, which will be raced first at Sebring but will probably not contest the full 2009 season.

14 / TME Kolles / Audi R10
15 / TME Kolles / Audi R10

I'm not sure if this is backup plan from Audi, but they've sold or loaned to R10s to Colin Kolles. They'll still need to be adapted to the narrower rear wing regulations.

7 / Team Peugeot Total / Peugeot 908
8 / Team Peugeot Total / Peugeot 908
9 / Peugeot Sport Total / Peugeot 908

Peugeot also return with three cars. An updated car and revised driver line-up should mean they are quietly confident ahead of this year's race - but they said that last year.

17 / Pescarolo Sport / Peugeot 908
16 / Pescarolo Sport / Pescarolo Judd

Count this is as a surprise. A customer Peugeot for Pescarolo. Surely this is in response to Kolles? It seems to be a 2008 car modified to new rules from what I've read, and not the '09 cars of the factory team.

007 / Aston Martin Racing / Lola Aston Martin
009 / Aston Martin Racing / Lola Aston Martin
008 / AMR Eastern Europe / Lola Aston Martin

Three entries also from Aston Martin, who are in a naming dispute with Lola at the moment. First year with these cars so a win surely isn't on the cards, but they'll be looking to show good speed. AMR Eastern Europe is Charouz, in fact they all might be, but this is the only one under the Czech flag.

13 / Speedy Racing Team Sebah / Lola Aston Martin

This entry seems to be being run more at 'arms length' from the factory/Prodrive.

10 / Team ORECA Matmut AIM / Courage-ORECA AIM
11 / Team ORECA Matmut AIM / Courage-ORECA AIM

Can't say I know much about this so I'm assuming it's a continuation from last year.

6 / Team LNT / Ginetta Zytek
23 / Strakka Racing / Ginetta Zytek

Zytek and Ginetta merged toward the end of last year and LNT have stepped up from running a GT2 Panoz (and they entered Petit with this car). Quick chassis, promising for the privateer sub-class.

12 / Signature Plus / Courage Judd

The Formula 3 team makes the switch to endurance racing. 'Tis all I know.

20 / Epsilon Euskadi / Epsilon Euskadi Judd

I'm surprised this only got one entry.

4 Creation Autosportif Creation Judd

Yay, Creation are back. I like them.


LM P2

5 / Navi Team Goh / Porsche RS Spyder
31 / Team Essex / Porsche RS Spyder
49 / Vitaphone Racing Team / Porsche RS Spyder

Team Goh won overall with the Audi R8 a few years back, they've been absent for a while. Team Essex weren't going to enter and changed their minds. Vitaphone are a surprise announcement, they run Saleens in FIA GT and did enter Le Mans last year with an Aston GT1 but a prototype wasn't expected at all.

25 / RML / Lola Mazda Coupe
44 / KSM / Lola Mazda Coupe

RML are always strong. No idea who KSM are. This Lola is fast, I think it's basically the P2 version of what Aston Martin are running.

30 / Racing Box / Lola Judd Coupe
33 / Speedy Racing Team Sebah / Lola Judd Coupe

More Lola coupes for these guys but a choice of Judd engines instead. It'll be an interesting battle between the four Lolas!

24 / Oak Racing / Pescarolo Mazda
35 / Oak Racing / Pescarolo Mazda

Pescarolo with a Mazda engine? Fair enough.. I'm sure I read who Oak Racing are, it's a name change of a team I know about but I can't remember who at the moment.

40 / Quifel-ASM Team / Ginetta Zytek 09S

The P2 version of the P1 car above. ASM had a Lola last year.

41 / Gac Racing Team / Zytek 07S

No idea. Seems like they have the previous version of the car ASM will run.

26 / Bruichladdich Bruneau / Radical AER

I like this team too and the Radical is pretty quick.


LM GT1

63 / Corvette Racing / Corvette C6.R
64 / Corvette Racing / Corvette C6.R

With no works Astons, guess who'll win this class? This is the last appearance of works GT1 Corvettes though, so enjoy it.

72 / Luc Alphand Aventures / Corvette C6.R
73 / Luc Alphand Aventures / Corvette C6.R

Back-up for a fight that never came. They weren't going to enter after a fight with the ACO over the promotion of the LMS, but changed their minds last minute. Not to mention wanting to prove how pacesetters in European GT racing fair at LM.

60 / Gigawave Motorsport Ltd / Aston Martin DBR9
66 / Jetalliance Racing / Aston Martin DBR9

Two quick Astons may just push Corvette hard enough.

55 / IPB Spartak Racing / Lamborghini Murcielago
68 / JLOC Isao Noritake / Lamborghini Murcielago

Is it unkind to say these are field-fillers?

This is probably the last year of GT1 in this spec. I know Ratel's FIA World GT coming next year will run to different rules.


LM GT2

76 / IMSA Performance Matmut / Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (997)
77 / Team Felbermayer-Proton / Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (997)
80 / Flying Lizard Motorsport / Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (997)

Just three Porsches this year in GT2. I'm amazed, they used to dominate! Shame the Lizards didn't get a second entry.

78 / AF Corse Srl / Ferrari F430 GT
82 / Risi Competizione / Ferrari F430 GT
83 / Risi Competizione / Ferrari F430 GT
84 / Team Modena / Ferrari F430 GT
89 / Hankook - Team Farnbacher / Ferrari F430 GT
92 / JMW Motorsport / Ferrari F430 GT
96 / Virgo Motorsport / Ferrari F430 GT
97 / BMS Scuderia Italia / Ferrari F430 GT
99 / JMB Racing / Ferrari F430 GT

Nine Ferraris!! I think that shows this is the faster car, as everyone gravitates toward it.

87 / Drayson Racing / Aston Martin V8
85 / Snoras Spyker Squadron / Spyker C8 Laviolette

Good to see that Drayson got an entry. You have to say they are aiming to score a finish, but that's what Le Mans is about. Nice to see Spyker still plugging away but only one car this time.


You'll note I'm not tipping winners in any class (except GT1!). Frankly with this field it's much too difficult to go picking winners this early, and with no Test Day it's even harder.

Reserves
There are ten reserves this year as opposed to 8 in previous years. As always they'll enter the race in this order should any of the above withdraw, regardless of class. So if a P1 drops out the first reserve, a GT2 this year, will take that spot.

R1 / GT2 / Team Seattle Advanced Eng / Ferrari F430 GT
R2 / GT2 / Endurance China Team / Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (997)
R3 / GT2 / IMSA Performance Matmut / Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (997)
R4 / LMP2 / Barazi Epsilon / Zytek 07S
R5 / LMP2 / Gerard Welter / Zytek
R6 / LMP1 / Epsilon Euskadi / Epsilon Euskadi Judd
R7 / GT2 / Team Felbermayer-Proton / Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (997)
R8 / GT2 / Snoras Spyker Squadron / Spyker C8 Laviolette
R9 / GT1 / Team Larbre Competition / Saleen S7R
R10 / LMP2 / Racing Box SRL /Lola Judd Coupe

That answers where Epsilon Euskadi and Spyker's second cars are, as well as several Porsches. How did Barazi and Larbre not get entries??? That's nuts.
I don't think we've seen Welter on the list for a while..

More Info

Okay I think I'm done. Unfortunately I don't have time to scout for more information, sorry, but I hope this was enough to work as a little primer.

No doubt the boys at RadioLeMans.com will discuss this in great detail (along with more USF1 news and lots else) in tomorrow's Midweek Motorsport which you can hear live at 8pm GMT / 3pm EST. I think it's repeated at 8pm EST. If that's not helpful, the podcast will follow on a day or so later. You need to count MWM as a 'Must Listen' even if sportscars isn't your thing, 'cos they cover all sorts of stuff.
(I also recommend FastMachines.com for a quick weekly hit and Sidepodcast.com for specialist F1 talk)

And of course there's always the official website of the race.

Launch: Force India VJM02

Force India Mercedes VJM02

The new Force India had a soft-launch over the weekend, with pictures first appearing a day ahead of Sunday's official release. Today these studios shots were joined by a whole host of Q&As from the FIF1 press office which you can find on the usual news sites, as well as pics from Jerez.



The big news is the switch from a Ferrari customer deal to an agreement with McLaren-Mercedes for the full powertrain - that is the engine, gearbox and KERS systems, as well as technical co-operation in other areas. Simon Roberts of McLaren is now the Chief Operating Officer at Force India as part of a personnel shake-up. Mike Gascoyne and others have left the company.

The basic theme running through all of the Q&As is that the new McLaren/Mercedes deal frees up FIF1 engineers to work on other aspects of the car, such as aero and internal packaging. It means that as other teams cut back, Force India don't need to worry about that and can concentrate on the task at hand: working their way from the back of the field to regular points-scoring positions.

The first chassis was shaken down at Silverstone last week and Fisichella took it for a test at Jerez today. Liuzzi will shake down the second car during this week before the final big pre-season group test in Barcelona.



It's a good looking car, quite aggressive with another high nose. The late launch means the car has spent longer in CFD and in the wind tunnel than their competitors, many of whom will need to do an (expensive) upgrade for the first race of the season.

I hope they are able to close up the remainder of the gap to make the midfield a close fight. They made some big gains in lap time last year even if that wasn't represented in positions, in qualifying they used to be 3sec off the back and last year they were about 1 - 1.5 sec back. A long time in F1!

The downside here could be the decision not to run KERS until very much later than everyone else. Some reports suggest they won't run it until May - that could prove to be a mistake. Still, at least they'll be ahead of whatever Honda becomes..

Photo credits: http://www.forceindiaf1.com/

* * * *

Tomorrow Williams will launch their Formula 2 car powered by Audi, I'm not sure if I'll be around but I'll put a short post up about that some time this week as well as something on the Le Mans entry list.