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.

Catching up on some news

Check out Pressdog, MyNameIsIRL and other bloggers (as well as Sarah Fisher) on Trackside with Kevin & Cavin which is a weekly IndyCar radio show in the Indianapolis area and online. Proviso: I haven't listened to it yet. I'm currently listening to Live Fast Racing podcast 18 which I know is a few weeks old now but also features Bill and Jeff and is really very good indeed.
Lots of chat about IRL, a little about F1, all good.

A busy week in the world F1 in this first week of the off-season. I'd intended to do smaller updates during the week but my accounts studies got in the way so I hope this works as a summary.


Force India
A big reshuffle in progress at the team formerly known as Jordan, with Colin Kolles (the dentist) and Mike Gascoyne (the rottweiler) both leaving at the behest of Vijay Mallya, a guy who makes Flavio Briatore look modest, but I like him. You gotta like a guy who owns a beer company and an airline. Force India will announce a new management structure on Monday.

Probably bigger news is that they have parted ways with Ferrari. Unannounced but expected is a switch to Mercedes engines and gearbox. Some sites suggest they'll also take McLaren customer chassis. I don't buy that because this team has been against customer cars for years regardless of what name was above the door.


Driver Update
Toro Rosso will be testing Takuma Sato again this month and it could be that he is being lined up to replace Sebastian Vettel.
Bruno Senna and Lucas di Grassi will both test for Honda which may lead to Barrichello losing his drive. This has led to suggestions of Rubens Barrichello moving to Toro Rosso. Sebastien Bourdais' place isn't necessarily fixed so they could take Sato AND Barrichello.
Nobody seems to be rumouring anything about Sutil's seat at Force India which I'm sure is still available. I'm pretty sure Fisichella is locked in. Up and coming team (since 1991!) so it's a seat that may just prove useful to someone.


TMR Rocks
So I rule all and that's official. I mean what did I say the other day?
Check it out:

I propose a Superlicence for race stewards. I want these people to have had experience officiating F1 Grands Prix, or have performed a similar role in another top line or feeder championship for at least a year. I want there to be a permanent steward who attends every GP and chairs the stewards' meetings, as Tony Scott-Andrews did.

Aaand what did the FIA announce this week?

The FIA also announced that trainee stewards - nominated by their nation's governing body and selected by the FIA - will attend five grands prix next season in an observation role. Any national stewards officiating on a Formula One race for the first time must have observed at least one grand prix in this way to obtain their stewards' super licence. A short CV of all trainee stewards will also be posted on the FIA website. The FIA also confirmed that ex-racers are eligible to obtain their national stewarding licence and graduate to the super licence.

So yeah, listen to me, I'm a pompous F1 fan who knows it all! Yeah. Or...not.


New Deputy
The FIA has appointed Nick Craw as Deputy President for Sport, replacing Marco Piccinini. Craw is the president of ACCUS, the American national sporting representative at the FIA (on behalf of NASCAR, IRL, ALMS, etc). This is a good thing for me because Piccinini is ex-Ferrari so to my mind that removes a layer of perceived bias. And there is again an American that has something to do with F1!


Yet Another Schedule
The FIA has released yet another version of the F1 calendar for '09. I can't remember the last time they've released so many of them. This time they've shunted China to April to fall between Malaysia and Bahrain. Everything at the end of the year moves up 2 weeks to fill in the gap.
There is no news regarding Canada, the last I heard a deal could still be done if the money can be found.

EDIT
I was playing around with Feedburner last night after I posted this. Let me know if it causes any problems as I'm not sure what I'm doing..

2009 F1 calendar: Canadian GP dropped!

The FIA has today released the final schedule for the 2009 Formula 1 season. A provisional calendar was announced in June.

The big surprise was that the Canadian Grand Prix has been removed. GrandPrix.com suggests that Norman Legault, organiser and promoter of the CGP, has struggled to meet the $$$ demands made by the F1 Group. This doesn't surprise me because a lot of F1 promoters are struggling at the moment, such as Germany.

There are also the recurring problems with the track surface at Circuit du Gilles Villeneuve. Year after year they struggle to produce a suitable racing surface and this year things finally came to a head when the track was almost declared 'unraceable', before some overnight repair work just about solved things - and there were still concerns throughout the race that perhaps the surface would not last.

I do have some sympathy with them as it must be a hell of a problem to try and beat the temperature fluctuations which are said to be huge, between very low in winter to very high in summer. It causes all kinds of havoc with the asphalt. But still.. you kind of expect that the event organisers would know about the local conditions by now?

On the whole, I think the F1 community was willing to put up with a crappy track surface because they need a North American round, although they might have started to push for an alternative venue if it had happened again. This is why my thoughts return to this being a problem securing the money.

I can't say it has ever been my favourite venue partly for the annual track surface issues, partly because it seems to breed Safety Cars and carnage. Someone should spend a shed load of money developing Mont Tremblant, the sole Champ Car race there was excellent. I say 'developing' not 'redeveloping' on purpose! I'd like to see extra run off etc., rather than a complete reworking.

Turkey is moved into Canada's slot in June, which frees a gap in August for the annual summer break which was largely missing this season. Italy and Belgium jump around a bit so that Valencia and Spa are back-to-back with Monza a fortnight later.

As previously announced, there will be a new event in Abu Dhabi, details of which are sorely lacking. It was supposed to be a race around a marina, part street track and partly on a purpose-built racetrack. That plan was canned a few months ago and I don't believe their current plans have been announced, I would expect that to change when we get to November and the T minus 12 months marker.

Here is the 2009 calendar from the formula1.com announcement:

29 March - Australia
5 April - Malaysia
19 April - Bahrain
10 May - Spain
24 May - Monaco
7 June - Turkey
21 June - Great Britain
28 June - France
12 July - Germany
26 July - Hungary
23 August - Europe (Valencia)
30 August - Belgium
13 September - Italy
27 September - Singapore
11 October - Japan
18 October - China
1 November - Brazil
15 November - Abu Dhabi

(funny, you'd think the offical F1 site would be all over the event sponsors, oh well maybe they don't want the publicity)