2010 Race Calendar

During the 2009 season I thought it would be a great idea to create a race schedule in Google Calendar featuring different racing series. I was busy with accounts studies at the time and I never got around to taking it further. Early last month I decided it was worth exploring so I set up a trial with F1 and IndyCar dates. I'd add more later if I decided it looked okay. Again I let it drop when other things got in the way.

Christine from Sidepodcast recently created a calendar highlighting F1 events and the SPC / F1 Minute podcast schedules and she did a great job, enough to inspire me to get on and finish my idea.

Here it is!



My schedule includes F1, F2, GP2, IndyCar, Le Mans 24hr, ALMS, LMS, MotoGP, WRC, IRC and WTCC. I've also put in Dakar, Goodwood and a couple of other things. I'll add NASCAR Sprint Cup and DTM soon - there are categories already so if you add them the events will hopefully appear in your calendar automatically.

Christine's calendar is F1-specific and it includes Free Practice, pre-season testing and car launches. My calendar includes none of these things, only qualifying and race. I highly recommend adding Christine's F1 calendar if you would like this extra information.

Click the "+GoogleCalendar" button to add to your own Google Calendar account. I have split events by race series so you can just pick the ones you want. I think there is a way to get them into iCal and other systems, though I don't know how.


The calendar is set to UK time because that's where I am and that's most useful to me. I'm not sure but I believe when you import it, it will adjust it to your own default timezone. Have a play with it and see.

Race start times are estimates apart from F1 and Le Mans. This information is surprisingly hard to find. E.g. IndyCar.com only lists TV start times, not race starts. Many sites only give the dates and I've had to improvise. Then there's the issue of timezones which I may have got wrong. I plan to make each forthcoming weekend as accurate as I can, beyond that just use this as a guide.

I've included qualifying for F1, Le Mans 24Hrs and IndyCar (times estimated). I don't intend to include any more qualifying.

I hope you find this useful and please let me know if there is anything you would like to add. If the demand is there and I think it warrants adding, I'll do so. I'm already considering Indy Lights.

As you can see I've also added a list version to the sidebar. When I create the new site I will have a version similar to the one above on its own page.

A New Year

Happy New Year!

I am looking forward to the 2010 racing season, it'll be a good one.

F1 has the return of Schumacher, the uniting of the last two World Champions at McLaren and Alonso moving to Ferrari, with the added interest of Sauber's return to independent status, Toro Rosso building their own car, the addition of the new teams and drivers, and watching to see if Williams and Force India can capitalise on all of these things.

IndyCar has a new title sponsor which should really help the series grow domestically, which in turn should help it internationally. Ganassi and Penske will be the teams to beat again and it'll be interesting to follow the Andretti team's progress after their restructuring, can they challenge as they once did?

Sportscars features the new Intercontinental Cup and I hope we'll see several teams attempt all of those rounds despite the economic downturn. It could be the prelude to something big and that should excite us all greatly!

It looks like rallying is on the road to recovery now that the FIA is starting to realise it was killing WRC, and along with the IRC we should see some good competition this year.

Touring cars... is shot to pieces, sorry. Manufacturers pulling out and fields of independent teams, not really a great selling point. I'm sure it'll be bumper-to-bumper as always, but will anybody care?

I don't know what's going on in MotoGP, WSBK, NASCAR or DTM, I've fallen behind on news. Then there's the new GT1 World Championship, which might be good or it might not be. We'll see.

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Moving on to this blog, I'd like to thank everybody who reads and comments here, it really does mean a lot and I hope you stick around into 2010. I plan to blog even more during this season!

I am planning to spend January reviewing the 2009 IndyCar and GP2 seasons race by race as part of the 'Race Review' feature. These entries are heavily delayed, initially by studying preventing me from watching them and then by other work or racing news getting in the way, however I should now have time to complete these posts albeit probably in a shortened form. I may well throw some other races in from time to time although we are quickly running out of off-season!

I am persisting with these despite the delay because I would like to refine them into a workable format ready for the coming season, and the best way to do that is to just keep knocking them out. Eventually they will be at the sort of length to get across the information without being overly long which they have been in the past, this in turn will mean I can cover more races.

Towards the end of the month and into February I will move into 'Preview' mode and cover the F1 car launches and tests, as well as any other interesting car launches and team news from elsewhere in racing.

I hope you join me on the journey of the 2010 season!

Schumacher's Return Isn't So Bad

It became official this morning: Michael Schumacher has departed his advisory role with Ferrari to take a race seat at Mercedes GP, where he will be reunited with Ross Brawn.

I'm surprised at this news, in the beginning I thought it was a ploy by Mercedes to extract a better deal first from Jenson Button, and then Kimi Raikkonen. It looks like they were serious all along!

I am not a fan of Michael Schumacher. He has a known history of "bending the rules" (I'm being charitable, it is Christmas) at both Benetton and Ferrari and the FIA consistently let him off with weak penalties or none at all. He is the man who took Senna's swerving and weaving to a new level, to the extent that all the young drivers in lower formulae starting doing it, thinking it was normal. Yet I find myself excited at his return. Why?

You have to say this wouldn't have happened had Ross Brawn not been involved with the team. The two have enjoyed a lot of success together and I for one am not looking forward to the kind of dominance they so frequently displayed. Schumacher and Brawn's unique combined skill was to do things with fuel strategy that no other driver/strategist combination could. Schumacher has the ability to drive the car to a target laptime, relentlessly. It was this ability that allowed Brawn's to put into play fuel strategies that just wouldn't have otherwise worked. The combination of the two was dominating.

The rules have changed now. There is no more in-race refuelling, so this advantage no longer applies. The most they can do is be creative with tyre strategies while managing the weight of the car. It will be very interesting to see how this pairing copes under the new rules, probably more so than anyone else.

We have a level playing field again and one in which the driver has more say - and we know Schumacher prefers an open track to wheel-to-wheel racing. Over a lap he is better than nobody but he doesn't like the wheel-to-wheel, where he panics. This is where Alonso beat him before, and I believe will again - even better, he'll be driving Michael's red car! Then there's Hamilton and we know he's not scared of a fight either, with Button, Vettel and hopefully Massa making life interesting too.

2010 will feature one of the strongest grids in years among the 'regular' runners, then add in the new teams who will almost certainly be getting in the way for much of the year as an added distraction (and possible Safety Car enabler) and we have the recipe for an amazing season. It was shaping up to be so anyway, and now everybody will have just one man in their sights.

I am looking forward to Schumacher attempting to best this new generation of racers, many of whom have never raced him in F1 - and the 'new Button', the champion Button, could surprise him too.

I feel relieved for Rubens Barrichello who could easily have played the role of Schumi's Lapdog once again, Williams may be a step down but he is team-leader at last and it'll suit him well, and he can now play a role similar to that of his good friend Tony Kanaan.

I feel bad for Nico Rosberg who may have expected to be sitting alongside Nick Heidfeld next year and now faces the inevitibility of being No.2 in a team revolving around Schumacher, for it is clear even before it has been mentioned that MS will be the de facto Number One.

I even feel bad for Heidfeld who is probably going to be stuck with Sauber again, the Merc seat was probably his last shot at a race-winning drive.

In summary then, I fully expect Schumacher to play his old tricks again but the other aspects of his return outweigh that for the short term at least, and the sudden jump in media coverage and internet discussion is testament to ability to draw fans back to F1 - perhaps his return will see a rise in TV ratings and race attendances once more, after 2009's dip.

The thing I'm really not looking forward to is dealing with the pro/anti MS arguments again, the bane of internet discussion for the bulk of this decade. Twitter is going to be a nightmare.

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I promised to update my entry list after every driver annoucement, here is the first update:

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
McLaren	Mercedes	MP4-25
1. Jenson Button	2. Lewis Hamilton	T: tbc
Mercedes GP Petronas
Mercedes	Mercedes	tbc
3. Michael Schumacher	4. Nico Rosberg	T: tbc
Red Bull Racing
Red Bull	Renault	RB6
5. Sebastian Vettel	6. Mark Webber	T: tbc
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
Ferrari	Ferrari	tbc
7. Felipe Massa	8. Fernando Alonso	T: G.Fisichella
AT&T Williams
Williams	Cosworth	FW32
9. Rubens Barrichello	10. Nico Hülkenberg	T: tbc
Renault F1 Team
Renault	Renault	R30
11. Robert Kubica	12. tbc	T: tbc
Force India F1 Team
Force India	Mercedes	VJM03
14. Adrian Sutil	15. Vitantonio Liuzzi	T: tbc
Scuderia Toro Rosso
STR	Ferrari	STR5
16. Sebastien Buemi	17. tbc	T: tbc
Lotus F1 Racing
Lotus	Cosworth	tbc
18. Jarno Trulli	19. Heikki Kovalainen	T: F.Fauzy
Campos Meta 1
Campos Dallara	Cosworth	tbc
20. tbc	21. Bruno Senna	T: tbc
US F1 Team
US F1	Cosworth	tbc
22. tbc	23. tbc	T: tbc
Virgin Racing
Virgin	Cosworth	VR-01
24. Timo Glock	25. Lucas di Grassi	T: A.Parente T: L.Razia
Sauber
Sauber	Ferrari	C29
26. Kamui Kobayashi	27. tbc	T: tbc

There is also the Stefan GP team waiting in the wings to get an entry either in 2010 or 2011, they say they have signed drivers already, the buzz says one of those drivers is likely to be Vitaly Petrov.

2010 F1 Entry List Roundup

The last few weeks have seen a flurry of announcements of driver movements and other changes within teams for the 2010 Formula 1 season, including the first real presentations from some of the new teams.

I thought it would be a good idea to keep a note of what has been announced up to the Christmas break. For the moment I am assuming the Mercedes / Petronas deal (and wow where did that come from?) is the last announcement for 2009. The best format for this seems to be a table rather than a really long write-up, so I'll list the entrant name, then the constructor, engine and chassis, followed by the race and test drivers.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
McLaren	Mercedes	MP4-25
1. Jenson Button	2. Lewis Hamilton	T: tbc
Mercedes GP
Mercedes	Mercedes	tbc
3. Nico Rosberg	4. tbc	T: tbc
Red Bull Racing
Red Bull	Renault	RB6
5. Sebastian Vettel	6. Mark Webber	T: tbc
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
Ferrari	Ferrari	tbc
7. Felipe Massa	8. Fernando Alonso	T: G.Fisichella
AT&T Williams
Williams	Cosworth	FW32
9. Rubens Barrichello	10. Nico Hülkenberg	T: tbc
Renault F1 Team
Renault	Renault	R30
11. Robert Kubica	12. tbc	T: tbc
Force India F1 Team
Force India	Mercedes	VJM03
14. Adrian Sutil	15. Vitantonio Liuzzi	T: tbc
Scuderia Toro Rosso
STR	Ferrari	STR5
16. Sebastien Buemi	17. tbc	T: tbc
Lotus F1 Racing
Lotus	Cosworth	tbc
18. Jarno Trulli	19. Heikki Kovalainen	T: F.Fauzy
Campos Meta 1
Campos Dallara	Cosworth	tbc
20. tbc	21. Bruno Senna	T: tbc
US F1 Team
US F1	Cosworth	tbc
22. tbc	23. tbc	T: tbc
Virgin Racing
Virgin	Cosworth	VR-01
24. Timo Glock	25. Lucas di Grassi	T: A.Parente, L.Razia
Sauber
Sauber	Ferrari	C29
26. Kamui Kobayashi	27. tbc	T: tbc

Notes:
- This only covers what has been announced not what has been rumoured, nor deals with conditions (such as Lopez at USF1 which depends on raising a budget).
- Jaime Alguersuari is likely to retain the STR seat.
- Lotus F1 Racing is operated by 1Malaysia F1 Team.
- The Renault team is now 75%-owned by Genii Capital.
- Car number allocations remain fluid until March. #13 is not used.
- For the first time in years we have the return of the famous 26 and 27!

I'm really pleased to see Sauber back in their original guise, complete with 'C' designation for the chassis. I'm also pleased to see Cosworth on the grid again! Let's hope they can regroup, and the new teams can do a respectable job over the coming years.


Here is the 2010 Calendar:

14-Mar	Sakhir, Bahrain
28-Mar	Melbourne, Australia
04-Apr	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
18-Apr	Shanghai, China
09-May	Barcelona, Spain
16-May	Monaco
30-May	Istanbul, Turkey
13-Jun	Montreal, Canada
27-Jun	Valencia, Spain (European GP)
11-Jul	Silverstone, Britain
25-Jul	Hockenheim, Germany
01-Aug	Budapest, Hungary
29-Aug	Spa, Belgium
12-Sep	Monza, Italy
26-Sep	Singapore
10-Oct	Suzuka, Japan
24-Oct	Korea*
07-Nov	Sao Paulo, Brazil
14-Nov	Abu Dhabi

* pending circuit homologation

I will post updated lists throughout January and February as more is released. I am tempted to do the same for IndyCar and GP2, would that be interesting to people? I am much less sure what has been completely confirmed in either of those but I am willing to try and find out.

Thursday Thoughts: The Future of F1 Content

Thursday Thoughts visits different blogs and is hosted here this week, so it is my turn to ask the question. Here is my response.

- What innovations would you like to see in F1 content delivery?

I think most of us by now are aware how far F1 lags behind other motorsports, even other sports entirely when it comes to delivering their product to the end user, the customer, the fan. It is quite frustrating to be told repeatedly how F1 teams use the most advanced technology to create these fantastically fast cars and yet the rights-holders are in some cases years behind the game in introducing the technology needed to provide real insight to the fan.

The rights-holders to Formula 1 are the collection of companies owned by CVC and controlled on their behalf by Bernie Ecclestone, I am not sure which company controls which element but I think FOA runs the races or at least the bits the FIA don't run, and FOM handles the TV and online offering. For the sake of argument I'll use FOM.

FOM seems insistent on relying on traditional avenues to get their message across, whether it be TV, magazines or newspapers. They seemingly reluctantly got themselves involved with the web business with www.formula1.com but they only did so in 2002 or thereabouts. Given the web recently celebrated 25 years of existence and most forward-thinking companies have been on it in some for or another since the mid-90s it was a curious oversight.

Why is it that F1 keeps talking about "embracing the internet" as if it's 1994 and it's a clever idea? Perhaps get on with it?

Ed Straw, F1 Editor of Autosport, via Twitter yesterday

Two major gaffes have appeared on Formula1.com. There may have been more.

One was the SMS text service. This was a great idea in principle: sign up to the service and you would receive a text message after every session informing you of the fastest drivers, and the points positions after races. The problem was they introduced it with the pricing structure of a decade earlier and the world had moved on, at least in the more developed mobile phone markets.
While I forget the specifics, the prices would have looked reasonable in 1997 when the mobile market was enjoying rapid growth and a plethora of new applications but in 2007 they looked utterly ridiculous and far too high. I would like to see this adjusted so that the more casual fan who isn't able to watch all the sessions or even all the races can receive updates at reasonable rates. My Dad gets a text message whenever his football team scores a goal. It can't be that hard.

The other was the web shop, again a good idea in principle - yet the original version was stocked with the wrong goods. Like so much in F1 it was pitched towards the premium customer, the more affluent fan who wants something special. Only in F1 could you buy an official carbon-fibre mouse mat, replete with F1 logo, for £200. Which is fine - I actually like the fact these items are there because I appreciate it helps position the brand of F1 - they just forgot to include things mere mortals could afford, a position they have gone some way to correcting in 2009.

Another aspect website is the live timing. When it works it is very informative, unfortunately it has a lot of glitches. It has been used ever since the site went live and is probably due a rethink. It could be bigger and contain more information. F1 is full of data, let's make use of it. Again, this year they've gone some way to making the info they offer open to more fans by creating the iPhone app which I've heard is tremendously useful, if pricey (there seems to be a theme here).

While I'm on the subject of timing, the TV coverage desperately needs to cut back on the "1-stop" graphic and tell us how far apart the cars are! Of course if they borrowed from DTM they could just mark a little '1' on the vertical position graphic that appears to the left of screen from time to time. If I don't have an iPhone or can't get near a computer to access live timing, I shouldn't be deprived of the basic car-to-car gaps, these should be available to all on the main feed and if I want the extra info like sector times then that's when I should look it up elsewhere. With any luck this data will be rolled out to further mobile platforms in future.

I must admit, other than the iPhone timing app I don't know what else is offered officially for mobile devices because I don't own a modern smartphone - but soon I and most others will do, I suspect I am already in the minority among mobile-owners.

I see no reason why FOM cannot offer an app offering short video clips to mobile devices, for a small fee. I see no reason why they cannot offer those same videos on their website, although I think most of us expect web video to be free unless it is of some length. On the website I would therefore offer short, free videos to anyone who visits. I would also offer a premium subscription ('premium' in name only, priced at a level we can afford!) where you can watch entire races, let's say until Jan 1st. They could expand that to show classic races and send FOM TV to each test session to provide us with reports from winter testing.

FOM claim they don't offer these because the commentary and ownership is specific to particular broadcasters, yet the broadcasters claim they can't provide online coverage because the video is owned by FOM. The only notable exception seems to be the BBC's iPlayer (an excellent service) and the FP sessions trialled last year by ITV. At the end of every session aired on the BBC there is a particularly large copyright notice stating that the production is copyright of FOM. If FOM owns the video,can they not put it online, even a version with no commentary? Even better, work with each broadcaster to offer the same footage with different reactions. It would fascinating in the week after a race incident to go to Formula1.com and compare the reactions of crews from BBC, SPEED, Globo, RAI, RTL, etc, etc. They could make a montage and sell it for money.

They also need to bring in High-Def coverage to those who will take it and offer that as a quality option for the downloads. There are HD channels in more and more countries and even the little devices support it now. They've been using HD cameras for a year or so now but they still won't release a true HD feed for broadcast or sale, which is crazy, why invest in the technology if you aren't going to use it?
This is the most technologically advanced sport in the world and it is still in fuzzy-vision. NASCAR has 36 races per year and most, if not all of them, are available in HD in the US (and sometimes in the UK). It doesn't matter if you don't have an HD TV or monitor, you still notice a difference. I think Abu Dhabi was in HD and it looked fantastic on my SD TV on the SD digital broadcast.

Conclusion: FOM are applying 20th Century solutions to 21st Century fans. They need to change. Fast.

There are signs that they are changing slowly. The iPhone app. The F1 2009 Wii and PSP games, and the 2010 PC, Xbox and PS3 games. These should be released annually in the way that the FIFA, Madden and other licensed games are, there is a demand for it.

Perhaps they are starting to wake up?

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You can read the Thursday Thoughts of my fellow bloggers by following the links in the Question post!

Thursday Thoughts: Question

For the last few weeks I have taken part in the 'Thursday Thoughts' initiative, which calls for bloggers to respond to a question set by a colleague. This week it is my turn to ask the question.


- What innovations would you like to see in F1 content delivery?


This came up on Wednesday at the Motorsport Business Forum in Monaco in relation to Formula 1's reluctance to embrace new technologies and content delivery systems, and you can read some of the reports from Autosport here and here as well as some excellent entries from Stuart Codling's new blog here and here. The main point coming from it was people want more than just the TV experience, they want more online and mobile content.

All of which was fascinating from those in the industry but what I want to know is what my fellow fan thinks, after all we are the end users. What sort of online and mobile content do you want to see? How do you want to consume F1 in the near future, say by this time next year or going into the following season?

This question is aimed at F1 but if you want to expand it out or talk about other racing that's fine. This is a multi-series blog whose remit is to get people talking about different racing (including how F1 relates to various other racing), which is why I included WRC's fascinating announcement in the links above.

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I will update this post as blog entries come in, please feel free to link to your blog in the comments or if you don't have a blog perhaps you may like to post your thoughts here. I look forward to your opinions!

- Ollie at BlogF1 already wrote about this yesterday;

- A month ago Allen from The Furious Wedge wrote about the online services provided by IRL and A1GP;

- StartledBunny of Another Planet and RubberGoat from Making Up The Numbers both mention joining in with the race while it is in progress, which is an interesting idea;

- Over at Sidepodcast they are already a few years ahead of many of us when it comes to consuming video away from the TV, and Christine considers the only way forward may be to change the man at the top. (Mr C also wrote something on online content recently).

- Dylan from the new Triple League Racing blog offers an interesting perspective on how IndyCar and NASCAR approach things.

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Thursday Thoughts: F1 Engine Parity

Pitlane Fanatic is the host of this week's Thursday Thoughts question, which is this:

Is engine parity necessary for 2010?

Absolutely not. With engine parity we have seen the F1 grid close up like never before but it has come at the expense of passing. I would argue that it is this factor which is offsetting the improvements made by the aero changes - there is less wake behind the cars yet nobody has enough grunt to take advantage, unless they have KERS in which case their KERS-less victim is a sitting duck (see Kimi and Giancarlo at Spa), yet if both have KERS we are back to square one.
With differences between engines we would find some drivers have a power advantage, but perhaps not enough that a well-driven disadvantaged car couldn't still beat them from time to time.

Without differences between engines what is the point of having different engine manufacturers? Perhaps this is a ploy to get us used to similar engines should the 'world engine' concept come about. Let's hope not. Some engines are more powerful than others. Some are more fuel efficient, and their time would (or should) have come in 2010 with the ban on refuelling. While none of us (except the Tifosi) like to see domination, I don't think many of us want to see top line racing reduced to a group of spec series - and occasional domination is part and parcel of the sport anyway.

The differences between equipment make up a fundamental part of the sport, and let's not forget this is a sport, not entertainment. If I wanted to watch entertainment I'd watch a comedy show. Sport is about tackling a problem with different techniques to see which comes out best. In some sports that's using similar equipment in different ways or simply being better than the others. In motorsport you are and should be allowed to find a better way.

The cost issue is a concern. Manufacturers were spending ridiculous amounts of money on engines in the V10 era and the beginning of this V8 era and that had to end. Yet consider all the money currently being spent on aerodynamic work which bears absolutely no relation to anything else done not just in the car industry but anywhere. It has no other purpose. Yet the area the car industry needs to explore most urgently right now is engine efficiency or even alternative engines, and this is the area being cut back in the arena which develops tech faster than no other? I find that absurd.

Let's reduce the aero spend - OK I accept they already are - and allow the teams and manufacturers to explore different engine technologies with their money, should they wish to. There is nothing wrong with a new concept being five seconds per laps slower at the beginning of its life. If you believe it works, persevere and make it faster. They did it with turbos. They did it with V6s, V8s, V10s, V12s in the 1990s when engines were more open. That's how it should be. That's F1.

Is parity necessary in 2010? No. I'd get rid of it completely.

Thursday Thoughts: F1 Launches

This week's Thursday Thoughts question from Sidepodcast:

Should F1 teams launch 2010 cars in a single launch event?

When I first read the question I thought I would be in favour, but after considering the pros and cons I've turned out to be against the idea. Let's run through them.

In favour of a group launch:

- It cuts costs for everyone. Perhaps they would each pay a flat rate to FOTA who would hire a venue, perhaps they could even get a neutral company (say a series sponsor like LG) to sponsor the event and make it break even.

- All of the world's F1 media would be in the same place at once. Not only would this cut their costs but it would mean not having to choose between competing events held the same day.

- It would create a huge pre-season buzz with all the new cars appearing before the world at once, or in reality probably in stages through the day. The publicity would be huge! You could even set up a dummy grid, though I'm sure you'd have to draw lots for the order.


In favour of individual launches:

- 'Launches' these days aren't the frivolous affairs of the late 90s with the Spice Girls and the dry ice. The cost of plonking a tarpaulin-covered car in the pitlane in Jerez really isn't that high when it is there for testing anyway.

- If there are launches held on the same day in different countries, the bigger players tend to have enough staff or freelancers to be able to send one or two to each.

- We already have a huge pre-season buzz, it just isn't concentrated into a focal point, it is spread over many weeks or even months. This for me as a fan is the clincher. The anticipation builds from late January as car after car is steadily launched right up until we can visualise the full grid in early March, just days before the real thing. No other form of motorsport can or does do this.

- If they launched at the same time only the specialist motorsport press will cover every team. At the moment the general media might have a larger story for McLaren and a smaller one for Force India, but they'd pretty much all get something, at least in newspapers. If they launched all at once the editors would have the same space to cram in 13 or 14 teams and it just isn't going to happen, they'd pick Brawn, McLaren, Ferrari and maybe one other. This should be the clincher for the teams but they seem to have missed it.

The group shot idea I had above - it would look cool to have the cars lined up together but the team sponsors would probably prefer the focus to be on their car on that day. With an individual launch you get the focus on your team and your sponsors. For this reason alone I am amazed a team like McLaren, with their focus on "corporate partners" (never "sponsors" for McLaren) is prepared to even entertain the idea let alone consider it seriously.

In other responses I have seen it said the new teams would prefer individual launches to get the focus but actually I disagree with that. I think they are pushing for a group launch. Why? Because it legitimises them to be seen alongside Ferrari and McLaren and so forth. At this stage that is worth a considerable amount more to them than a single-focus launch - but that isn't enough of a reason to go for it.

Then you have other issues such as the invited guests. Would you have one conference room, wheeling in each set of sponsor's bigwigs before wheeling in the car? Then getting them all to leave in a timely manner before the next group, bearing in mind you have essentially 8am to 8pm to launch 13 teams?

I think the cons outweigh the pros on this one, not just in number but in gravity. It was a good idea and let's not fault them for coming up with radical ideas for they are needed, but the execution of it is a logistical nightmare and the media benefits - which after all is the point of holding a launch - are diminished in my view.

Mercedes Grand Prix

Yet more big changes among the F1 teams for 2010! Not only do we get get a raft of new teams, the departure of BMW (who may yet come back in a new form) and Toyota, now we also have Mercedes completely restructuring their involvement after a long unbroken run with McLaren.


McLaren
Mercedes presently own 40% of the McLaren F1 team (not the group as a whole though). The problem Mercedes faced is that while they are the largest single shareholder, the others hold an agreement by which they vote as a single block, thus having the power to veto Mercedes. There is also the new supercar which is the first McLaren-built road car in years not to feature a Mercedes engine.

Plan: The 40% shareholding will be reduced gradually over the next 18 months or so and for the 2010 season (and beyond??) the team will still be called Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. The engine supply agreement remains and, for now, so does the colour scheme.


BrawnGP
After Honda departed F1 the team has had to cut back somewhat in personnel, and it still seemed to suffer the same problem as it always had under every incarnation, that of not being able to attract long-term sponsors. With benefactors like BAT and Honda it was never necessary only desired, indeed Honda effectively bankrolled the 2009 season. It was anyone's guess what would happen in 2010 and beyond. Yet amazingly the came from nowhere to dominate the first half of the season, and while it went south after that they managed to battle on to secure both championships.

Plan: Mercedes have bought 75.1% of the team in an agreement with a Middle Eastern investment company. The team will henceforth be known as Mercedes GP and the cars branded as 'Silver Arrows', harking back to the famous cars of the 1930s and 1950s. Ross Brawn remains in charge but will liaise with Norbert Haug.


Drivers:
Rubens Barrichello left Brawn last month and had already signed for Williams to replace Nico Rosberg, who was looking to leave that team. Nico had therefore been linked with the vacant Brawn seat in a straight swap and now Mercedes have a greater involvement the deal appears as good as done.

The big question is over the future of Jenson Button. There are strong reports placing him at McLaren with a pay rise, doing nothing to quell his reputation as a money-chaser. At least this time he's earned it. I am not sure what placing himself in what is Lewis Hamilton's personal team is going to acheive for Button other than damaging his career, he must be confident in his ablility to beat him. It will be interesting to see him try!
At this stage it could still be an elaborate bluff and Kimi Raikkonen could still get that seat, though you have to say that possibility is shrinking daily. In fact just this evening Kimi's manager has stated any chance with McLaren has now disappeared.

That leaves a space at MercGP. Will Kimi end up there? Are the Heidfeld rumours a ploy by the Kimi or Jenson to get more money (either take us for mega $$ or end up with Nick), and is that how he gets himself hired? What is the fate of Heikki Kovalainen?

Lots of questions still need answering. One thing's for sure, this is a much bigger deal for the ex-Brawn team than the Virgin deal suggested a while back and perhaps that's why Virgin are now hooking up with Manor.

One final point I saw mentioned:
Among entrants this makes BrawnGP the most successful team in history, in terms of strike rate.
Years entered: 1
Drivers titles: 1
Constructors titles: 1
Maximum score.

2nd F1 Bloggers and Friends Karting Competition

Anyone for karting?

Alianora from La Canta Magnifica Blog is arranging the 2nd F1 Bloggers and Friends Karting Competition, to be held on Saturday 16th January 2010 in Birmingham, and I am going to be there.

This is just around the corner from the NEC where the Autosport International show is being held and the karting is planned to start as the show closes so that we can enjoy as much of the show as possible.

Here are the details:

Event: 2nd F1 Bloggers and Friends Karting Competition
Date: 16 January 2010 at 6pm (arrive by 5.45pm)
Location: Birmingham - that's England, not Alabama
Booking deadline: 30 November 2009
Booking and contact details here
Cost: £50

I've not driven a kart for about five years so I'm really looking forward to this! There are several confirmed attendees already so we should get some good racing, and if we don't we'll at least have a good time trying.

If you can make it, contact Alianora to find out if places are still available.

I'm almost certainly going to the Autosport show on the same day so if I don't see you at the karting, perhaps I'll see you there?

IZOD IndyCar Series

Congratulations to the Indy Racing League for securing a new sponsor for the IndyCar Series, which will henceforth be known as the IZOD IndyCar Series.

From all reports IZOD sound like a fantastic partner to work with, and not just reports from yesterday's announcement but also from during this season where they were a personal sponsor for Ryan Hunter-Reay. I like the attitude and marketing style they appear to bring to the series. I say 'appear' because living here in the UK I had never heard of them before they came to the IRL.

The announcement was webcast live last night, unfortunately the usual gremlins crept in and the feed was very quiet at first, then lost sound before dying completely. This is not unusual for IndyCar.com live streams, either pressers or races, and Allen makes a fantastic suggestion on how to fix it - the IRL team have some really good ideas but their tech and implementation don't seem to ever catch up, so imagine mixing those two groups of people.

So yeah, good news for the series which is finally starting to heal some of the old wounds of the past. First the reunion, now the sponsor, next.. the car?

Some have attempted to spin this as Tony George doing good. Ha. No. He is the cause of the mess we are only just crawling out of. We haven't quite got to the 'standing up and dusting ourselves down' bit yet, but we will.

Anyway, good to have some positive news after what has been a bit of a negative week for the rest of motorsport.

Presumably this means the series acronym will now be IICS - for those not following closely, i.e. most reading this I presume, over the last 18 months or so they've been redefining 'IRL' to refer to the sanctioning body rather than the championship, so the series has sort of started to be called the ICS, for IndyCar Series. So we now have IRL IICS. Not catchy.. needs work.

Jeff Olson has a good piece over on AUTOSPORT.

EDIT - IndyCar.com has a nice landing page explaining it all, though unfortunately the main site underneath is still a mess and has auto-run video (it is video of the announcement though, so check it out).

BMW Announces F1 Withdrawal

The board at BMW has today announced the company's withdrawal from Formula 1 racing, effective at the end of the season.

There have been rumours for some time now that this or that F1 team was withdrawing, most frequently about Renault and Toyota and consistently denied by all parties. Announcements may yet prove forthcoming from other teams.

It is a shame that BMW-Sauber is the next team to jump. Just one season ago they were leading the World Championship. Many observers, including myself, believed at the time that had they not dropped the development of the 2008 car (in favour of the 2009 model) they would have had a good shot at winning either title by the end of the year. As it was, the regulation changes were so great the decision was made to attempt to steal a march on the field by switching development early.

It didn't work. The 2009 car has not been competitive since the early part of the season and doesn't seem to be improving relative to the competition, even if it has done so relative to where it was before. You would think they'd switch focus to the 2010 car, as is usual when performance falls short of expectation. That they are bailing out and that it was announced by the higher-ups of the company suggest this one was out of Mario Theissen's control.

I think this is bigger than one underwhelming season, there has to be more to it than that. The announcement talked about changing their focus towards "sustainability and environmental compatibility". F1 is not embracing this as much as it should be, with even the token-effort KERS looking like being withdrawn next season under FOTA proposals.

I'm sure the global economy, slow car sales, and of course the whole Mosely affair and the Ecclestone/Hitler comments did not help sell F1 to the board of a German company.

A shame. I always thought BMW-Sauber should have achieved much more than they did, and 2008 should have been the beginning of a competitive phase. It was not to be. Let's hope a buyout can be arranged, either internally a la Brawn, or from elsewhere.

Hinwil is a top notch facility and the engines were produced in Munich. This is ideal as Hinwil shouldn't have to be downscaled for any prospective buyer, all they need do is slot in an engine of their choice. Perhaps BMW could even be persuaded to supply engines to the team in 2010. All of this has yet to be decided.

The War Ends Before It Begins

24 hours ago Max Mosely and Luca di Montezemelo were sat discussing the FIA/FOTA fiasco, with Bernie Ecclestone also present presumably as moderator as well as looking after his own interests. The trio reportedly discussed the issues for most of the night in order to strike a deal before Wednesday's crucial FIA World Motorsport Council (WSMC) meeting, in which frankly anything could have happened.

Thankfully the time pressure of the deadline meant common sense broke out and the following agreements were announced:

- There will be no FOTA breakaway, instead they will report back tomorrow with cost-reduction proposals.
- Budgets are to be reduced to "early 1990s levels" within two years. Curiously the method for achieving this was not stated so the budget cap may not be the answer.
- The 1998 Concorde Agreement, which determines the distribution of revenues, methods for agreeing regulations, and more, has been amended and extended to 2012. This means all teams are committed to that date.
- There will be 13 teams in the 2010-2012 Formula One World Championship, this is the list per the press release:

SCUDERIA FERRARI MARLBORO
VODAFONE McLAREN MERCEDES
BMW SAUBER F1 TEAM
RENAULT F1 TEAM
PANASONIC TOYOTA RACING
SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO
RED BULL RACING
AT&T WILLIAMS
FORCE INDIA F1 TEAM
BRAWN GP FORMULA ONE TEAM
CAMPOS META TEAM
MANOR GRAND PRIX
TEAM US F1

The latter three operations will use the cheap Cosworth engines, it is currently unclear if those will be under 2006 regulations since 2006 was the last year Cosworth competed (as a nod to cost-saving). If so this would give them a 2000rpm advantage over the other teams, and not have to run to the multi-race engine rules. While this is clearly unfair, it could be the new teams' chassis will be so far behind the established teams, for the first couple of years anyway, that it all balances out nicely - should the new teams catch up, they can expect these breaks to be lifted.

You can read the FIA press release on their own website.

* * * *

Within the press release were some other nuggets relating to other FIA series.

World Rally

- The new 1.6 litre turbo engine will be brought in ahead of schedule in 2011.
- Events can now be more flexible. Instead of running to a set 3-day timetable, they may run 2, 3 or 4 days as long as it finishes on a Saturday or Sunday. They may include different surfaces.
- The 2010 calendar is out and you can see it in the link. Looks like the move to a winter championship schedule has been quietly dropped.

World Touring

- Yokohama is the sole supplier for the next three years.
- Autosport reported the 1.6 litre engine will be used in WTCC in 2011 as well, and that it'll be a spec engine, but the release doesn't mention this.
- The 2010 calendar is out, check it out in the link. Algarve and Zolder are in. Pau is out. Valencia and Imola move around, assuming Imola is the Italian round.

I find the whole idea of the top rally and touring car series running 1.6 litre engines to be laughable. At least the rally cars will be turbocharged.


World GT

- Stephane Ratel's plan to expand FIA GT into a new FIA GT1 World Championship has been authorised. GT2 will split into a new European series of its own races, many of which will run on GT1 weekends alongside GT3 and GT4.
- GT1 will be for pro drivers, GT2 for pro-am, and GT3 for non-professionals.
- The Bucharest street race next year is out, instead they'll go to Budapest (I'm assuming this means the Hungaroring).

It seems like a good idea and I really hope it works for them, despite my reservations at losing the element of class traffic from sportscar racing.

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.