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The End!

14 th November: Abu Dhabi race: Vettel is the WDC! Yes, we predicted it at the start of the year and looked pretty stupid 5 months ago! But coming from behind, he took the championship by just 4 points. He had to win the race today to make that dream come true, and did it in style from pole to win. Poor Mark Webber was doomed since qualifying yesterday and had to settle for a lowly (by his standards!) 8 th place in this race. Hamilton comes close to winning the race and finishing second, but needing a win to have a chance of the WDC. Jenson is third. Alonso only needs to finish 4 th to win the WDC but we are glad to say Ferrari strategy fails and he gets stuck behind the two Renaults, especially Petrov, on whom he vents his anger on the slowing down lap! The Russian had driven superbly well and had held back the Ferrari for some time. So, in Alonsoworld it’s Petrov who lost him the WDC! There is an early safety car when Schumacher spins on the first lap, and Liuzzi’s Force India spears into him, unable to avoid the Mercedes. Glock retires on lap 44 with a gearbox issue. Jarno’s gearbox is fine, but his front and rear wings have a bad day. First he has to pit with a front wing that is dragging on the floor and 3 laps from the end, his rear wing drops off so he is classified 21 st. Heikki has a much easier time, finishing 17 th. It’s the end of the season so Lotus’ 10 th place is confirmed. Sadly neither driver got a point though. Top 10: Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Rosberg, Kubica, Petrov, Alonso, Webber, Alguersuari, Massa.

13 th November: Vettel is quickest again in final practice, with Webber second. Practice goes off without any incidents. So does qualy, where Vettel takes pole, then Lulu, and Alonso is only third. Jarno takes new team pole, meaning it’s 10-9 to Jarno for the season against Heikki.

12th November: Abu Dhabi GP: Just a few days and the teams are in Abu Dhabi for the final Friday practice session of the season. Amazingly, it rains in the morning, who’d have thought that would happen? Vettel is quickest from the McLarens in the first session. Fairuz is in the Lotus apart instead of Heikki. In the second session, Lewis takes over top spot from Vettel. Still no dramas.

7 th November: Just to complicate matters there is talk that the current Renault team might link up with Group Lotus Cars to form a team that could be called Lotus Renault. As lotus Racing have the naming rights to Team Lotus, and have a Renault engine next year, they could be called, er, Lotus Renault. This could make life quite tricky. It’s a bit rich that Group Lotus Cars have had 16 years to re-enter F1 but have shown no interest until Tony Fernandes actually did it. Now GLC want to jump on the bandwagon. Outrageous.

 

7 th November: Brazilian GP. Race. The WDC goes on to the final race of the season, but Red Bull are Constructors Champs after today’s race, where Vettel wins and Webber comes second. Unfortunately Alonso is third, which still leaves him in the lead, thanks to Red Bull keeping their integrity and allowing their drivers to race each other. Vettel takes the lead at the start as Hulkenberg does his best to stem the tide of Red Bulls, McLarens and Ferraris overtaking him. Hulkenberg finishes 8 th in the end. The only retirements are Liuzzi, crashing out at turn 2, a mechanical failure we find out later, with 20 laps remaining, bringing out the safety car, and Di Grassi on lap 63 with mechanical problems. Massa has a problem with a wheel nut needing an extra pit stop to solve. And Barrichello has a puncture, finishing 14 th. Heikki is 18 th and Jarno just behind him is 19 th, after a problematic start. Top 10: Vettel, Webber, Alonso, Hamilton, Button, Rosberg, Schumacher, Hulkenberg, Kubica, Kobayashi.

7 th November: Jenson is unharmed after an attempted attack on his car by machine gun wielding thugs on his way back from the circuit last night. The police driver barged his way through the traffic and got Jense and his entourage back to their hotel safely. But why does F1 think it’s okay to go to these places?

6 th November: Final practice is wet enough for extreme wet tyres at the beginning. As it dries the drivers change to inters but the last part of the session is quiet as they save their intermediate tyres in case qualy is wet as forecast. Kubica takes the honours from Vettel and Jarno makes it 3 out of 3 practice sessions ahead of the other new team drivers. We have to clutch at these straws! Qualy did indeed start wet, until the drivers were able to change to slicks late on. There is a surprise pole sitter, as Hulkenberg does a stunning job to be easily fastest. He is joined on the front row by Vettel, then Webber. Glock, always good in the wet, takes new team pole, with Jarno just behind in 20 th. Sutil drops out with them from Q1 and also has a penalty from Korea.

5 th November: Guy Fawkes Night! And the Brazilian GP. Friday practice. The Red Bulls and McLarens take up the first 4 places, with Vettel fastest. Petrov and Kobayashi end their sessions in the wall in separate incidents. Jarno is quickest of the new teams. Virgin has D’Ambrosio in Di Grassi’s car and Klien takes Yamamoto’s place again. He can’t still be sick so it must be a money problem. It’s still Vettel on top and Webber second again in the second session. Jarno was again new team champ and the HRT’s beat Glock’s time for once.

24 th October: South Korean GP. Race: Really difficult wet conditions spoil the GP today and skews the WDC in favour of Alonso, who is the last person who should win it, if there is any justice. Vettel has an engine failure while in the lead on lap 45, while Webber has a spin on lap 18, sliding helplessly across the track and collecting Rosberg’s Mercedes on lap 18. (Finally a crash!) This enables Alonso to win, Hamilton to take second place with Massa third. The race is delayed because of the heavy rain, then when it eventually starts under the safety car, only 4 laps are completed before the race is red-flagged for another hour. Another 13 laps under the safety car follow before the race proper begins. Webber’s incident brings out the safety car again, and it returns again when Buemi spears Glock’s Virgin, having already tipped Heikki into a spin on lap 30. For some reason there seems to be a lack of cranes in Korea, particularly in the far reaches of the circuit. Jarno has already retired on lap 25 with, surprise, surprise, an hydraulic problem, but he has already had a spin early on relating to that, and a clash with Senna breaks his front wing. Heikki drives on to 13 th, despite a pit lane speeding penalty, one place behind Button who has had a bad afternoon. Di Grassi spins into the wall while trying to pass Yamamoto’s HRT on lap 25, and Petrov has a massive crash on lap 39 at the final corner. Sutil leaves the race on lap 46, the final retiree. Top 10: Alonso, Hamilton, Massa, Schumacher, Kubica, Liuzzi, Barrichello, Kobayashi, Heidfeld, Hulkenberg.

23 rd October: Still no crashes in final practice, as Kubica is fastest. Vettel doesn’t do many laps but doesn’t have to. He is on pole after qualifying, alongside Webber, with Alonso third. Jarno is quickest of the new teams in 19 th, with Heikki 21 st, the other side of Glockie. Liuzzi is the fall guy in Q1. Still no crashes.

22 nd October: South Korean GP. Friday Practice. New GP. Apparently they are going to build a city around the circuit. It’s good F1 is encouraging the re-generation of South Korea. In session 1, no one crashes, Jarno has gearbox problems, nothing new there. Lulu is fastest. Someone called D’Ambrosio is in a Virgin. Webber is quickest in session 2, still no one crashes although Yamamoto spins, brushes the wall and stalls. Senna only gets out for 3 laps. Heikki and Jarno are 19 th and 20 th, which they are used to. The drivers are complaining about turn 16 and turn 18, so the organisers are doing a bit of re-profiling. And how did they get away with the pitlane entry and exit on health and safety grounds?

12 th October: The (South) Korean GP is finally approved. Just as well as it is less than 2 weeks away!

10 th Oct: When qualy is finally run, it’s a Red Bull front row with Vettel in front. Lulu got to third but will be 8 th after the penalty is applied. Jarno is 19 th and Heikki 20 th. It’s Buemi’s turn to be out in Q1. And in no time….. it’s the race. Lotus are quite excited as Heikki and Jarno come in 12 th and 13 th respectively for Lotus’ best race result so far. This is helped by 5 cars crashing on the first lap. Di Grassi even manages a bizarre crash on the drive to the grid! And the team finds no mechanical failure… On the run down to the first corner, Petrov clipps Hulkenberg’s Williams: the Renault heads straight for the wall and the damaged Williams is also finished. Immediately after that, Massa takes to the grass and spears back across the track into the unfortunate Liuzzi’s Force India. Later Petrov is penalised 5 places for the next race but Massa isn’t. During tbe safety car period, one of Kubica’s Renault’s wheels parts company with the car and his race is finished, which is a shame as he is running second at the time! Strangely, the wheel thing also happens to Rosberg 5 laps from the end of the race, causing him to crash at the S curves. Sutil spins on his own oil as his engine lets go at 130R on lap 45, although he insists on taking the car back down the pitlane. Kobayashi entertains late in the race, overtaking Sutil and Alguersuari who breaks his front wing trying to retaliate. Vettel drives according to plan, from pole to victory, with Webber not far behind. Top 10: Vettel, Webber, Alonso, Button, Hamilton, Schumacher, Kobayashi, Heidfeld, Barrichello, Buemi.

9 th Oct: Final practice is washed out, literally, as the track turns into a river of rain. Only 2 brave, or stupid, drivers register a lap: Glock and Alguersuari. It hasn’t changed for qualy, so that is postponed to Sunday morning.

8 th Oct: Japanese GP: In first practice, Hamilton has another speciality crash, at Degner, which buggers up his day. Must be a McLaren thing because Button almost does the same thing but without the final mangling of the car. Heikki is 19 th, Jarno 21 st. Virgin have D’Ambrosio in Di Grassi’s car again. Vettel is quickest, with Webber second, Kubica third. It’s a replay of that top three in second practice. Lulu only has 8 minutes running in the session following his prang in the morning. And he also has a 5 place gear box penalty. It’s not his weekend, is it? Jarmo is 20 th to Heikki’s 19 th.

29 th Sept: Lotus sign up Mike Gascoyne for 5 more years, proving the team has more sense than Toyota.

26 th Sept: It is another one of those unlucky races for Jarno: despite a good start, he picks up a puncture from debris and after that is fixed, he has to retire on lap 26 with yet another hydraulics issue. Heikki almost finishes but his race ends dramatically on the penultimate lap when suffering an airbox fire which he extinguishes himself. The only new teamer to finish is Di Grassi. There is an early safety car to rescue Liuzzi’s broken Force India, which sees a few early strategic pitstops. Kobayashi retires on lap 29 following what Mark Webber describes as an ‘entertaining’ performance, which ends in the barriers where Senna drives into him, ending his own race. Lewis Hamilton makes another race-ending mistake, failing to give Webber enough room in an overtaking manoeuvre, but the Red Bull continues to 3 rd place. Heidfeld also retires on lap 35 after contact with Michael Schumacher. Alonso wins. Vettel is close behind him at the finish but doesn’t have a chance to pass. Top 10: Alonso, Vettel, Webber, Button, Rosberg, Barrichello. Kubica, Sutil, Hulkenberg, Massa. Sutil picks up a 20 second penalty after the race for cutting a corner on the first lap. Why did it take so long? Sutil is now 10 th with Massa and Hulkenberg moving up.

25 th Sept: Vettel is again quickest in Saturday practice. Alonso is not far behind though. And so Alonso takes pole in qualy, beating Vettel to second and Lulu is third. Glocky is fastest of the new teams as the Virgin seems to like the track better than the Lotuses. Massa’s Ferrari doesn’t like it much either, stopping with an engine problem in Q1, relegating him to the back of the grid right away. The other casualty is Petrov who spins and bashes the barriers in Q2.

24 th Sept: Singapore GP. Friday practice, and Webber is fastest from Schumacher. The track was a bit damp after a rain storm so it took a while to get going. Jerome D’Ambrosio is in Di Grassi’s car for this session, Fauzy is in Jarno’s, Klien is taking Yakamoto’s place in the HRT, as Sakon is said to be sick (he will be if he doesn’t get back in the car for the Jap GP!). And Heidfeld is back in the Sauber, replacing Pedro. In session 2 it’s vettel on top with Webber second. Sutil breaks his car on the turn 10 chicane, which Lulu Ham brands ‘ridiculous’; it looks it too.

24 th Sept: Lotus Racing announces they will be Team Lotus from next season as Tony Fernandes has bought the rights to the name from David Hunt, who is actually very happy about it and wants to help the team acquire more sponsors.

21 st Sept: Renault has announced a new Russian sponsor….a shipyard. Not sure how prestigious this is. It’s Vyborg Shipyard JSC, from Petrov’s home town, which should keep him his drive. It’s only for the last 5 races though, so 2011 is still in doubt.

16 th Sept: Pirelli completes its third test ahead of its F1 return at Jerez. Heidfeld drove but now he is back at Sauber, Roman Grosjean will take over the test driver job.

16 th Sept: The Australian GP made a huge loss this year. It cost $49 million to host and although there was a bigger attendance, sales revenue was down and it cost the Victorian taxpayer $46m. MP Craig Ingram told The Age newspaper: “I think it is just outrageous, it has gone past a joke and it is time both sides of politics started to seriously reconsider the ongoing cost of taxpayers bailing out of this event…..when we struggle to get funding for health services, education, support services…..” Tim Holding, Major Events Minister defends the race saying “the race was seen by about 12.8 million people in Europe this year” (not sure that’s a great argument!). Apparently this builds their “worldwide reputation as a great place to visit.” Anyway, their contract is for 5 years so trying to get out of with Bernie will cost more than hosting the race.

14 th Sept: Nick Heidfeld will return to F1 with the Sauber team with effect from the Singapore GP. That means farewell to De la Rosa who is a “bit surprised” by the team’s decision. At least Nick knows the way to the factory, having raced with them for 7 years in total. But he may be a bit deluded as he refers to the Sauber as a “good car”.

12 th Sept: Cosworth announces it has reached an agreement to end its engine deal with Lotus. This paves the way for Lotus to sign with an engine supplier like Renault for next year, who will also supply the gearbox and transmissions. For why, see the reason that Jarno retired from the Italian GP. And….Lotus will adopt the Team Lotus name from next year. Tony Fernandes has purchased the rights to the name.

12 th Sept: Italian GP. Race. Button takes the lead at the start, banging wheels with Alonso. Hamilton tries to go past Massa but doesn’t leave enough room and the clash with the Ferrari broke his steering, the McLaren finishing in the gravel. Button changes tyres first on lap 35, and is passed by the Ferrari after Alonso stops a lap later. Alonso goes on to win, with Button second and Massa third. Webber finishes 6 th, in damage limitation with regard to the championship. Vettel, who is 4th, doesn't stop for his obligatory pit stop until the final lap! Jarno retires on lap 47 with a smoky gearbox problem but Heikki finishes in 18 th. Senna also retires on lap 12 with more reliability problems. Top 10: Alonso, Button, Massa, Vettel, Rosberg, Webber, Hulkenberg, Kubica, Schumacher, Barrichello.

11 th Sept: Lulu beats Vettel to top spot in final practice, with the Ferraris next. Webber is the unfortunate who has problems this session, only doing 9 laps. Jarno is 19 th and HK 20 th again. In qualy, well well well, it’s a Ferrari on pole at their home GP. It’s Alonso. Massa is third. Button is the meat in the Ferrari sandwich. Jarno tops the new teams in 18 th, with HK 19 th. It’s Liuzzi who misses out, in 20 th, having sat out most of the session, but he still beat Virgin and HRT! Afterwards, Glock has a penalty for gearbox issues and Petrov one for blocking Glock in qualy.

10 th Sept: Italian GP. Toro Rosso tries it’s F-duct so only the ‘new’ teams don’t have it now. Not worth it now, is it? It’s banned for next year. Button is quickest in first practice, chased by Vettel and Lulu. Senna and Barrichello (not connected) only do a handful of laps each for reliability reasons. Jarno is 19 th and Heikki 21 st, although the latter has hydraulic problems. Jarno’s are probably waiting for the race to fail….In second practice it’s Vettel at the top from the 2 Ferrari’s. HRT have a diabolical session, only doing 8 laps between them. Jarno is 19 th and Heikki 20 th.

9 th Sept: The FIA wimps out of punishing Ferrari any further for the recent team orders incident. Although sure that the team did indeed use team orders for Alonso to win the German GP ahead of Massa, they won’t take it any further. It’s the Italian GP next….

8 th Sept: The FIA announces a 20 race programme for 2011. Starting on 13 th March and finishing on Christmas Day….. only joking, but it’s not far off, 27 th November… they have added India (on 30 th Oct) to this year’s collection. That means there are now more races out of Europe than in it. Also, the FIA has decided that none of applicants to be the 13 th team are good enough (no, not even Jacques Villeneuve’s) so we stay as we are.

29 th August: Belgian GP. Race. The unpredictable weather continues for the race as is customary in Spa. The two Lotuses bog down a bit at the start but after that Jarno drives a strong race. Unfortunately after the safety car in the final laps he has a high-speed spin but luckily doesn’t hit anything! It does drop him back to last to begin with, but he still beats Yamamoto! Heikki’s race goes the other way round. He pits early on with a dmamaged front wing and makes a tyre gamble that fails but manages to finish 16 th, almost swapping places with Jarno. The Lotuses aren’t the only bad starters… pole sitter Webber also bogs down at the start allowing Lucky Lewis to take the lead and basically stay there till the end. In his 300 th GP, Barrichello hits Alonso at the bus stop on the first lap (which is a good celebration!), putting himself out of the race, although the Ferrari continues. Well, it does until Alonso crashedsout himself in the rain on lap 38. Vettel has an eventful trace, from running third to finishing 15 th: trying to pass Button’s McLaren which has already suffered front wing damage on the first lap, Vettel loses control of his Red Bull and crashes into the side of Button’s car, putting the McLaren out of the race and earning the Red Bull driver a drive through penalty. Plus Vettel has to pit for a new front wing, and later gets a puncture after Liuzzi’s Force India collideswith the back of the Red Bull. Bit of a disastrous race really. The rain comes down hard on lap 35 but after much changing of tyres with a few choosing full wets but most inters, everyone else finishes the race intact. Apart from Senna who retired on lap 6, cause unknown. Top 10: Hamilton, Webber, Kubica, Massa, Sutil, Rosberg, Schumacher, Kobayashi, Petrov, Alguersuari.

28 th August: Webber is quickest in Saturday practice, with Hamilton second. Jarno is 19 th, Heikki 21 st. Vettel is taking Eau Rouge flat with one hand on the steering wheel because of the F-duct. There was heavy rain 15 minutes from the end to make it more interesting. Webber takes pole in a bonkers qualifying from Ham and Kubica. At the beginning, Petrov tries out a kerb to see if it’s slippery, and it is: he ends in the barrier and causes a red flag. The two Saubers have incidents and can’t continue. Jarno only just misses out in going through to Q2, and joining Heikki and Glock. He is 18 th, Heikki 16 th, but with all the penalties for Rosberg (gearbox) and Schumacher (idiot) plus Glock’s for blocking Yamamoto, the Lotuses start 14 th and 15 th. Jarno is not happy with Di Grassi (see News page).

28 th August: Bridgestone is worried that the drivers won’t have enough sets of intermediate tyres if the current mixed weather continues. Because of the stupid rules, that only have 4 sets of inters per weekend. Hamashima is complaining that the drivers used up one set during Friday practice. How dare they! Otherwise they sit in the garage. Not sure if it’s not Bridgestone’s fault really though: “A few years ago Briatore complained so strongly that there weren’t enough wet and intermediate tyres, but we explained to everybody that the past data showed that 3 sets of wets and 4 sets of intermediates are enough. That was until yesterday. For this weekend now I don’t know.”

28 th August: As a 300 th GP present (maybe), Barrichello is elected head of the GPDA, now Heidfeld has gone off to do some work. Vettel and Massa are his helpers.

27 th August: Belgian GP. Friday practice. Alonso is fastest between monsoons. Lucky Lew is second and it looks like the third placed Renault of Kubica might be quick this weekend. No crashes, which must be a first. Jarno is 21 st and Heikki 23 rd, so not great. Alosno is also quickest in session 2, with Sutil second. Heikki is 19 th, Jarno 20 th. Some idiot spectators try to climb over a fence to play with the cars so there is a delay while they are removed.

27 th August: It’s no surprise that Red Bull’s car passes the new flexi-wing test and a front floor deflection test. They try a McLaren as well, which also passes. Thrilling.

24 th August: Lewis Hamilton has been fined a massive £288 at a court hearing in Melbourne for the ‘hooning’ he did there in March. Goodness knows how he’ll afford it. How ridiculous! All that fuss and a paltry fine. Guess his grovelling helped.

17 th August: Pirelli begin testing its new F1 tyres at Mugello. They are using a Toyota TF109 for the test programme, run by Toyota Motorsport. This was the only car available that is current F1 machinery but is not affiliated to any team, as recommended by FOTA. It is driven by Nick Heidfeld, who has been released from his Mercedes GP contract to become Pirelli’s official test driver.

2 nd August: Wonders will never cease! Michael Schumacher apologises to Rubens for his appalling driving during the race yesterday, although we suspect it has more to do with Mercedes than Schumi. Plus we learn from guest steward Derek Warwick that if there had been longer in the race to make the decision then Schumacher would have been blackflagged. “Throwing a black flag would have shown a better example to our young drivers, but by the time we got the video evidence we ran out of time and had to do it retrospectively”, he tells Radio 5 Live.

1 st August: Hungarian GP. Race: Yet again Seb Vettel fails to convert a pole into a race win! A strange elementary mistake too, so he has no one to blame but himself. His team mate Webber DOES win again though, thankfully preventing an Alonso win. Don’t think we could stomach that again after last week. Massa is 4 th. Hamilton has to retire with a transmission problem on lap 25, and Button can only manage 8 th, so Red Bull go into the break leading both championships. The speed of the Red Bulls gives the team more strategy options and when the safety car comes out on lap 15 to recover unidentified debris on track, the team leaves Webber out there, gambling he will recover from a later pit stop using his superior car. Vettel does pit and comes out behind Webber. His downfall comes when he isn’t paying attention at the restart and allows himself to drop more than 10 car lengths behind the leader, Webber, which sparks a drive through penalty. He does still finish third though. The safety car period is eventful in the pitlane. On lap 17, Rosberg’s Mercedes sheds its right rear wheel on leaving the pitbox, which bounces through the neighbouring mechanics and ends up injuring a Williams mechanic. Immediately after this, Kubica’s Renault is released into the path of Sutil’s Force India as it is about to enter its own pit box. The resulting collision causes the Force India to retire immediately, once it has been extricated from the Renault. Surprised it hasn’t happened before, although this seems a genuine mistake rather than a risky manoeuvre. Kubica continues but received a stop/go penalty for the incident, and retires anyway on lap 25. The only other retiree is Alguersuari on lap 2, with smoke pouring from his engine. Jarno and Heikki both finish the race, as does all the new teams’ cars. Heikki (14 th) gets switched with Jarno (15 th) in the pitstops. Michael Schumacher does his best to put Barrichello in the pitwall towards the end of the race as they fight over 10 th place. Old habits die hard but this time Schumacher is penalised 10 grid places in the next GP. Top 10: Webber, Alonso, Vettel, Massa, Petrov, Hulkenberg, De la Rosa, Button, Kobayashi, Barrichello.

31 st July: Yep, it’s those Red Bulls again, dominating the timesheets, with Webber just in front this time in Saturday practice. Jarno is 20 th, Heikki 21 st. Liuzzi’s driveshaft split so that was the end of his session after 8 laps. It has to be a Red Bull pole and Vettel is the one to take it, with Webber second. The Ferraris make up the second row. Star of the show is Petrov who qualifies 7 th outqualifying team mate Kubica. The dummies are Button, finishing P11, Schumacher, P14, and Kobayashi drops out of Q1 with the new teams, who are unusually led by Di Grassi. Kobayashi also gets penalised 5 places for failing to see a red light in the pitlane. Jarno is 21 st and Heikki 20 th. Petrov, Yamamoto, Glock and Di Grassi are also reprimanded for driving too slowly at the end of their qualy sessions.

30 th July: Hungarian GP: The Red Bulls are the fastest two in FP1, followed by Kubica. There are few dramas. Jarno is 19 th and Heikki 20 th. Looks like it’s going to be the Red Bull show, as Vettel is fastest again in the second session, with Webber third and Alonso in the sandwich. Sutil spends some time in the garage but gets out to be 16 th. Heikki is also in the garage with problems and is classified last, while Jarno is 19 th.

29 th July: Felipe Massa says that if he finds himself in the same situation as the German GP “I will win….The time I say I am number two driver, I will not race anymore.”

28 th July: Ecclestone tells the Daily Telegraph “I would not be surprised if one of (the new teams) did not make the end of the season…..they are a bit out of their depth at the moment……All we ever want is 10 teams….Lotus is a good name. I wouldn’t want to lose them.” Make up your mind.

26 th July: Michael Schumacher says he supports Ferrari’s actions in handing Alonso victory at the German GP. Of course he does! “I have been criticized in the past for exactly that and I understand 100% and I would have done exactly the same if I were in their situation.” It’s clearly against the rules, Michael. Niki Lauda is more in tune with the fans: “An obvious and unacceptable episode of team orders. People buy tickets to see the best man win. What has happened is a fraud against the spectators. The Ferrari team was providing a superlative performance. Why did they want to ruin this way what would have been a perfect victory? Fernando has talked such nonsense that I’ve never heard before. He has shown he has no character.” Precisely. I’d rather Lulu Hamilton won the WDC than Teflonso now, that’s how serious it is!

25 th July: German GP. Race. Good ol’ Ferrari! They don’t learn, do they? Or is it they are so arrogant they don’t think the rules apply to them? Or are they so thick they can’t even see that what they did falls into the category of team orders? More likely they thought they could get away with getting Massa to let Alonso through to win the race and no one would have anything to say! Big mistake! Media furore, an uncomfortable long press conference for the Ferrari boys who are first and second, the wrong way round, in front of a bemused Seb Vettel in third place who wasn’t aware of the controversy at the time. No doubt Ferrari feel the $100,000 fine imposed on the team by the stewards who did NOT have the wool pulled over their eyes, is cheap for what it is worth, even though it still has to go to the WMSC. But aren’t Ferrari and Alonso well suited? Felipe Massa is far too nice for that team. He makes such a fab getaway, that while Alonso and Vettel are fighting for position, he shoots away in the lead. He should finish there, he IS quick enough, but the Alonso-centred team have other ideas. No doubt Alonso was moaning and carrying on in the cockpit until the team organise the switch. The prima donna act isn’t a requirement of being a champion…. look at Jenson. The McLarens are 4 th and 5 th, having been off the pace all weekend. Lotus have a bad day: Jarno’s gearbox lasts a couple of laps before he retires on lap 4, after the team has tried and failed to reset the box. Heikki has to retire on lap 58, after colliding with De la Rosa’s Sauber which was part of a convoy passing him under blue flags, Heikki gets reprimanded for it afterwards but has already apologised. Buemi is the first retirement, on lap 2, after his team mate crashes into him at the hairpin. Oops. Other retirees are Yamamoto on lap 20 and di Grassi on lap 51. Force India has a terrible day: the drivers collide on the first lap, with Liuzzi returning to the pits for front wing repairs, with Sutil also turning up at the same time as they had decided to bring him in for a tyre change due to strategy if he had a bad start. Unfortunately the team mixes up the tyres and they both have to go back to rectify the situation. They eventually finishe 16 th and 17 th. Top 10: Alonso, Massa, Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Webber, Kubica, Rosberg, Schumacher, Petrov. Ferrari decides not to appeal the stewards’ decision. That’s an admission of guilt isn’t it? They are hoping for leniency from the WMSC who they hope “will know how to evaluate the overall facts correctly.” We hope so too.

24 th July: The practice session begins wet but is dry for the last 20 minutes when all the cars come out to do several laps. Except for two Germans bizarrely: Sutil has a broken driveshaft and Glock also has issues. Senna also can only manage 9 laps. But a German is quickest: Vettel tops the times for Red Bull, from Alonso and Webber. Heikki is 18 th, Jarno 19 th. And in qualy, Vettel takes pole as well, just fending off the challenge of Alonso and Massa. Liuzzi manages to crash into the pit wall after spinning out of the final turn, putting an end to his session and leaving him among the HRTs. Jarno has a good run and is 18 th to Heikki’s 19 th. Q2 goes much to plan except Schumacher didn’t expect to be P11. Glocky gets a 10 place penalty anyway for a change of gear box, plus they changed the ratios as well, so double whammy!

23 rd July: German GP. Friday practice. The first session is wet so Sutil is quickest, although Massa is next, despite being a multi-spinner, followed by Jenson. Lulu hits a puddle and the car smashes into the barriers. Jarno is 15 th with Alonso and Schumacher among others behind him. Fairuz is in the car instead of Heikki and is 21 st. Yamamoto is last. The second session is mostly dry so there’s a different order. Alonso is quickest from Vettel but Massa is still up there. Jarno is 20 th and Heikki 22 nd.

19 th July: Buemi now says he will stay at Toro Rosso ‘for the foreseeable future’ and was already under contract. He’ll make up his mind soon. Maybe he got a bonus for saying so!

17 th July: Now it’s Karun Chandhok’s seat at HRT that is under threat. The team is putting Yamamoto in his car for Hockenheim. Karun says: “It’s not defined for the rest of the season and I expect to be back in the car at some races. Probably not all of them, but I do expect to be back in the car and racing soon…” Now this IS supposed to be about money. The Senna situation is now rumoured to have been about an email he sent to the team boss!

16 th July: Buemi denies having committed to the Toro Rosso team for next year. He’s obviously hoping a team higher up the grid will come in for him. Don’t know why they would…

15 th July: The F1 teams have closed the loophole whereby teams have been sneakily testing new bits on ‘filming’ days. Now they have to use components that have been raced before.

15 th July: Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost says that the team will retain Buemi and Alguersuari for next season.

11 th July: Mark Webber still has the severe hump about the front wing business, even though he has made the best point possible by winning the race. He makes sarky comments like “not bad for a number two driver” after the race. Says he’d never have a signed a new deal if he thought he’d be treated like that. Probably needs to get over himself…

11 th July: British GP. Race. Well done Jarno, after his ‘disastrous’ weekend! The car gets to the end of the race and he finishes 16 th, ahead of Heikki in 17 th. Inevitably, a Red Bull wins the race, but it’s Webber, not pole-sitter Vettel, who ends up 7 th, following a puncture on the first lap, when he looks to have touched his rear wheel on Hamilton’s front wing end plate. Hamilton consequently runs in second for the rest of the race and finishes on the podium with Rosberg in third place. Alonso has a bad start and bangs wheels with Massa’s fellow Ferrari, giving him a puncture too. Alonso gets a penalty after cutting a corner and gaining a place from Kubica….. it has to be a drive through as the Renault has already retired with a differential problem. Alonso later gets another puncture when tussling with Liuzzi and is a bit angry when he finishes 14 th. Just one ahead of Massa. Now THAT’S poetic justice! Next car on the road is Jarno! Hooray! The safety car comes out after a clash between De La Rosa and Sutil leaves half the Sauber’s rear wing on the track. The Sauber soon retires on lap 30, joining Di Grassi who slips away on lap 10, Kubica’s Renault on lap 20 and Alguersuari on lap 45. At least the latter will be celebrating Spain’s World Cup win tonight! Maybe that’s cheered Alonso up too! Top 10: Webber, Hamilton, Rosberg, Button, Barrichello, Kobayashi, Vettel, Sutil, Schumacher, Hulkenberg.

11 th July: Liuzzi has a penalty of a five place grid drop for impeding Nico Hulkenberg in qualy. He’s not happy. Says when a Williams impeded him 3 times before, nothing happened! Doesn’t work like that, lad.

11 th July: Always one to jump on the bandwagon, following the World Cup, Bernie Ecclestone has a hankering for South African GP now. But apparently “Russia is more important right now” because “Africa is limited for all the people who are involved in F1 for business, whereas Russia is wide open.”

10 th July: Saturday practice and it’s a Red Bull 1-2 with Vettel fastest. Vettel has a bit of a scare when his front wing comes loose and drops down to scrape on the ground after the Abbey bump. Jarno has hydraulic problems this time and only does 11 laps. Glock does only 6 due to a throttle glitch. Jarno is 21 st to Heikki’s…yes, you guessed it….19 th. In qualy, Red Bull take the front row with Vettel on pole. Here starts the saga of the front wing. After Vettel’s front wing failure in practice, the team only has one new one and in their wisdom, they take it off Webber’s car and put it on Vettel’s. Red Bull says it’s because they had to choose and Seb’s ahead in the points, but it goes down like a lead balloon with Mark. Alonso is 3 rd and Lulu 4 th. Button can only manage 14 th after McLaren’s saga of the blown diffuser. They tried it, it didn’t work, so they reverted to their old configuration and Button came off worst. Alguersuari is the unfortunate driver stuck in Q1 with the new teams. Heikki is, yep, 19 th and Jarno 21 st with Glocky in between them.

9 th July: Hispania say that Bruno Senna will race for them for the rest of the season. It was definitely about money….

9 th July: British GP. Friday practice. Vettel is quickest from Hamilton and Kubica. Fairuz Fauzy takes over Jarno’s car but only has it for 5 minutes when he blows the engine. The mechanics do a quick change and get him out for 11 laps at the end, in 23 rd place. Heikki is 19 th. Yamamoto is last. The drivers have trouble with the new section of the track: there is a large bump at Abbey and the new surface is still slippery. Webber keeps Red Bull on top in session 2, from Alonso and Vettel. Jarno gets his car back but the gearbox is broken! He can only do 3 laps and is 24 th, of course. Heikki is his customary 19 th. It’s hot!!! Afterwards, the drivers do ask if the new high kerbs (“big lumps – like half sausages”) at Maggotts/Becketts can be reduced. Some like the layout, some don’t.

9 th July: Here we go…Ecclestone has one of his ‘proposals’: he wants tyres to last only 100 kms so there are a minimum of 2 pitstops per driver in each race. How does that save money? He reveals the F1 contract was between Pirelli, who got it, Michelin, Avon, Hankook and Continental. “Every team will pay 1.35 millions euros per year for the tyres. But Pirelli will pay for track advertising, so the teams in some way will get back part of the investment.” Er… doesn’t that go into HIS pocket? And more tosh from the little man… “There is no space for FOTA (in F1)…” At least he hopes it won’t work. This follows a row about sponsorship branding on the teams’ tractor units. They have been told to remove the units from the paddock, as Allsport, which owns the trackside advertising, complains about the competition. Haven’t the teams’ transport always carried logos etc.? Isn’t that the point of sponsorship?

8 th July: Uh oh, Hispania drops Bruno Senna from the British GP in favour of one of their test drivers, Sakon Yamamoto. It MUST be about money…..

7 th July: Robert Kubica will stay at Renault to the end of 2012: he likes it there, so why not? And that’s confounded the speculators who think he is destined for Ferrari.

27 th June: European GP. Race. The most dramatic incident of the race is Webber launching his car over the rear of Heikki’s car, it taking off like a rocket, then rolling upside down before righting itself and slamming into the tyre barriers. And Webber walking away. This obviously ends both their races on lap 9. Why is Webber in that position? He had slipped back at the start and took an early pitstop, with a delay for a stubborn front wheel, coming out behind Heikki. Vettel had led away from the line, despite banging wheels with Hamilton who damaged his front wing. After the safety car comes out after the accident, as Vettel is away in the distance, Hamilton manages to overtake both the safety car and the medical car. Alonso complains bitterly but the stewards take so long to decide the drive through penalty that Lucky Lewis is able to rejoin the track still in second place. Other drivers have also breached safety car rules but are not dealt with till the end of the race. Then they are given a paltry 5 second penalty that is a waste of time except Alonso moves up one place to 8 th and Rosberg moves into 10 th place at the expense of De la Rosa. Those given the 5 seconds are Button (still 3 rd though), both Williams, both Force Indias, both Renaults, Buemi and De la Rosa. Pointless. Glock is also penalised 20 seconds for ignoring blue flags. Driver of the day is Kobayashi, who ran third after the SC and stayed out until the last knockings of the race, eventually finishing 7 th after passing Alonso with a lap to go and Buemi at the last corner. The only other retiree is Hulkenberg, with a delaminated tyre on lap 50. Jarno survives a first lap attack on his front wing, followed by damage from an assault on his rear wing, which leads to a gearbox problem eventually solved in the pits. He resumes the race an extra 2 laps down and manages to finish. 21 st. Vettel wins the race followed by the 2 Mercedes. Top 10 (revised): Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Barrichello, Kubica, Sutil, Kobayashi, Alonso, Buemi, Rosberg.

26 th June: There’s always one isn’t there, and it’s often Ferrari, employing a slight cheat: naughty Ferrari ran their new exhaust system in a filming day last week. Nice try guys, but McLaren were watching. This means that FOTA are now going to have to clarify the testing rules. Martin Whitmarsh: “ I didn’t think the regulations needed clarification but for some they clearly do…” He also feels the teams should now do a bit of mid-season testing now the economic situation is improving. Er…hadn’t noticed that. In favour of testing though, as long as it’s at Silverstone.

26 th June: Vettel tops final practice from Kubica and Webber. Jarno is still 20 th and Heikki 19 th. But this is reversed in qualy! The Lotus drivers have been equal (4-4) up to now. Kobayashi is the fall guy with the newbies again. It is almost MS though, who escapes at the last minute. Only to P15 though, with his team mate Rosberg in 12 th. Mercedes have kinda swapped with Williams this weekend as they end up 8 th and 9 th.

25 th June: European GP. Mercedes have an F-duct and it apparently enables Rosberg to run fastest in first practice. Not Schumacher though who is 8 th. McLaren is the next fastest team. Senna’s Hispania sheds a mirror, which is promptly run over by Buemi’s Toro Rosso. It causes a red flag. These things make a mess you know. Have Hispania got a spare mirror? We don’t find out as they also have driveshaft and gearbox problems and don’t do many more laps. Klien is in the other car in this session. Di Resta also has another outing for Force India. Jarno has the new chassis and is… er…. 22 nd. Heikki is 19 th. In second practice, Alonso takes over with both Red Bulls just behind. Another red flag for Massa’s spin and stall and another driver in trouble is Glock who has to park at the side of the track. Jarno improves to 20 th and Heikki is still 19 th.

24 th June: It’s Pirelli! The tyre company has a 3 year deal to supply the F1 teams and strangely they claim that the costs associated with the contract will be ‘zero’, which must mean the teams are all paying!

23 rd June: The FIA announces an adjustable rear wing for 2011 to replace the current front and F duct. This is supposed to help overtaking. The driver can only use it when they are very close to the car in front and it will be disabled as soon as they brake. Is it worth the effort? Jarno doesn’t think much of it: see the News page. The FIA also announces the return of the 107% rule in 2011, which means very slow teams could be excluded from racing. Most would have qualified this this year anyway so you have be preeeeetty slow for it to count. Also at this FIA meeting, the WMSC fines and disqualifies USF1 for not appearing this season. Have they got any money left? It’s 309,000 euros, the entry fee plus costs. Also, finally, it approves a name change to take the BMW off the name of the Sauber team. But only after the end of the season. How silly.

17 th June: Luca di Montezemelo has another go at the slower cars, claiming they cost Alonso the victory in Canada. Where does Ferrari get off on this stuff? How flippin’ arrogant…. “Cars who perform at GP2 level should not be allowed to participate in F1 races because they are supposed to race on Sunday mornings…..Our car’s race pace was good enough for victory.”

13 th June: Canadian GP. The race. It’s an eventful race and tyres are crucial. Hamilton and Button are first and second with Alonso completing the podium. Jarno’s car stops on track on lap 43, but Heikki is 16 th, behind Massa’s Ferrari and ahead of Petrov’s Renault. This guy has had an eventful afternoon with a jump start penalty and a spin into De La Rosa’s Sauber on the first lap. The Sauber later retires, joining team mate Kobayashi, who retired on lap 2 after sliding into the wall while tangling with Huilkenberg. Senna retires on lap 14 and Glock on lap 50. Poor ol’ Felipe, who tangles with Liuzzi on the first lap, damaging his car, then gets almost shoved into the wall by his old mate MS. Top 10: Hamilton, Button, Alonso. Vettel, Webber, Rosberg, Kubica, Buemi, Liuzzi, Sutil.

12 th June: Finally a proper practice session for Jarno! HE is 19 th this time, Heikki 20 th. Chandhok misses the whole session though, stopping with hydraulic problems at the pit exit. Hamilton is fastest from Webber and Alonso. In qualy, Hamilton takes pole with Webber second, although he has a gear box change penalty so will drop 5 places with Vettel moving up to front row. Lucky Lew is the first non Red Bull car on pole this year. Heikki is 19 th, Jarno 20 th. Kobayashi is the guy knocked out with the others in Q1. Eliminated from Q2 are the other Sauber, both Toro Rossos, Petrov’s Renault. Both Williams, and Michael Schumacher.

11 th June: Canadian GP. Friday practice. Oh no! Jarno is beaten by an HRT car, Chandhok splitting the Lotuses who are 19 th and 21 st. Jarno only does 12 laps though. Button is fastest with Schumacher right behind. There are lots of off track excursions and spins on the dirty track. Session 2 is worse… Jarno is slower than BOTH HRTs, slipping to 22nd! He has an excuse: his Lotus gets stuck in gear due to an electrical problem and he only does 11 laps this time. But the Virgins are slower. Heikki is still 19 th though. Vettel is fastest from Alonso.

2 nd June: More from Red Bull. It seems that while Webber had turned his engine down to save fuel as Vettel came up behind him, with a lap in hand before he had to do the same, Webber requested Vettel back off. The team says that wasn’t possible because Vettel was being chased by the McLarens. That’ll teach ‘em to be at the front.

1 st June: Lotus Racing has been granted indemnity in a legal case brought by Force India against Aerolab/Fondtech and Mike Gascoyne, who they accuse of using their intellectual property to design the T127, specifically the wind tunnel model. Guys, Force India are ahead of Lotus and still not at the front of the field, so it doesn’t look like Lotus got any advantage from any alleged info, does it?

1 st June: Team Red Bull has decided that BOTH drivers were to blame for the accident between them on Sunday. This follows motormouth Helmut Marko blaming WEBBER for the unfortunate coming together right after the race. If you look at all the online polls and discussion in offices and pubs, you will find that 75% of fans blame Vettel! It seems the team doesn’t want to blame young Seb for anything, so they have settled for 50/50. Naughty Mark, holding position when Seb is coming through and pulling to the right!

30 th May: Turkish GP. Race. Lotus have more problems with the dreaded hydraulics as Jarno is left stranded out on track when the car won’t go any further, and Heikki limps back to the garage the lap after. Luckily both HRTs also retire, as the Lotuses were the only retirees at the time. The only other driver not to finish is Vettel, a victim of his own desperation, as he tries to squeeze past Webber for the lead on lap 41, but appears to turn in too soon, so they touch. Vettel is out immediately, although Webber continues to third after a change of front wing. Seb is probably not the most popular guy in the team tonight. But afterwards they both blame each other. This tangle lets the McLarens through for first and second, but not before they have their own close battle for the lead. Lucky Lewis, new ear studs and all (what’s that about?), wins with Jenson second, after major panics in the team about having enough fuel. Alonso is off Petrov’s Christmas card list after the Ferrari collides with the Renault, causing a puncture: Alonso gains a place, Petrov drops out of the points. Sauber gets a point!

29 th May: Vettel is quickest in practice, with Rosberg and Hamilton giving him a run for his money. Webber and Ham provide the entertainment, spinning wildly at Turn 8. At least they got out there….Sutil is stuck in the garage with a hydraulic problem and fails to set a time. Jarno is 18 th and Heikki 19 th. In qualy, Vettel struggles and later is found to have a problem with the roll hoop that upsets the balance of the brakes. But he is still third, behind Ham and, on pole, Webber. Jarno is 19 th and Heikki 20 th. They and the rest of the new team’s drivers, are eliminated from Q1 along with the unfortunate Liuzzi. Dropping out of Q2 are the Toro Rossos, the Williams’, a Sauber (DLR) Sutil and Senor Alonso, who can’ make his Ferrari go any quicker apparently. Top 10: Webber, Hamilton, Vettel, Button, Schumacher, Rosberg, Kubica, Massa, Petrov, Kobayashi.

28 th May: Turkish GP. Friday practice. It’s amost impossible to crash because of the wide run offs here but Sutil manages it at turn 8. The 2 Macs are quickest, Lord Ham the fastest, and the Mercs are next. Yamamoto takes Senna’s seat in the HRT for this session. Heikki is 19 th and Jarno 20 th. In the second session the McLarens sandwich the Red Bulls at the top, with Button quickest. Webber’s car conks out 5 minutes from the end of the session. Jarno misses part of the session with a gear problem and is 21 st to Heikki’s 19 th.

26 th May: Hispania Racing Team parts company with Dallara, who actually built their car for them, the ungrateful bunch. There has been tension but they say the split is ‘amicable’. Yeah, right.

25 th May: You know what we were saying about not counting chickens…. Ecclestone has now struck a deal to hold the US GP in Austin Texas from 2012. A nine year deal as well. Just one fly in the ointment….they still have to build the track! Why do I get a bad feeling about this? According to Tavo Hellmund, managing partner of Full Throttle Productions. Who will promote the race “Austin has earned a reputation as one of the ‘it’ cities in the United States.” I’ll believe it when it happens.

21 st May: Apparently a loose manhole cover caused Barrichello to crash in Monaco. Strange it only happened in the race after they’d driven round there all weekend. No news yet on the whereabouts of the steering wheel he threw out in a temper. My guess is that HRT extricated it from the bottom of Chandhok’s car and are copying it as we speak.

21 st May: The president of the Monticello Motor Club in upstate New York says he wants to host the USGP and has a letter from FOM saying they want it too. He’s met Ecclestone and Tilke and apparently has the perfect venue. Don’t bank on it yet mate.

18 th May: More lip service from teams with regards to fans: Williams’ Adam Parr reveals that he and Christian Horner met with Bernie Ecclestone in Monaco to discuss among other things, the race weekend format to “make things more engaging for fans.” This is because race weekend attendances have been poor, even in Monaco. A little clue for you guys….IT’S TOO EXPENSIVE. And we all know whose fault that is. Which is why it won’t change.

18 th May: Oh dear, Fernando Alonso’s crashed chassis from Monaco has been declared a write off. This may or may not be connected, but Ferrari now wants to revisit the ban on spare cars (which were banned on the grounds of cost cutting)…. And Damon Hill is questioning the role of ex-drivers being stewards, having been on duty in Monaco. “I imagined I’d be there as a consultant” rather than an “interpreter of regulations”. A technicality, surely? It was the Michael thing though. “Partly…. my discomfort was because I was called to make a ruling on an incident involving Michael. I acted entirely properly but I have already received some stinging emails accusing me of prejudice.” People can be idiots.

 

16 th May: Monaco GP. Race. Jarno tries an unconventional way of overtaking at the Monaco circuit today… by passing over the top of Karun Chandhok’s HRT car. He is behind the HRT because of a slow pitstop and in a passing attempt at Rascasse a touch of wheels propels the Lotus over the top of the HRT, taking them both out and causing a 4 th safety car period which takes us virtually to the end of the race which was won by Webber with Vettel second and Kubica third. The first safety car has to come out on the first lap when Hulkenberg’s Williams slams into the wall in the tunnel. Alonso makes a pitstop immediately putting him on optimum strategy to move him up through the field. The second safety car comes out for the other Williams of Barrichello, who has mechanical failure on lap 28. Comedy moment of the race comes when Barrichello temperamentally throws his steering wheel across the track where another car runs it over and probably still has it embedded underneath as we don’t see it again, not even in crushed mode! Let’s hope Williams make Rubens pay for it and they don’t come cheap! By then several cars have already retired with various mechanical issues: Button on lap 1, with overheating issues possibly caused by a team mistake, both Saubers and both Virgins. Senna’s car fails on lap 59 and Heikki’s car comes out in sympathy about the same time. Jarno is classified 15 th. The third SC is about a possible broken drain cover and doesn’t last long. On the last lap, as the SC goes in, Schumacher passes Alonso for 6 th place, the legality of which is still being debated. Top 10: Webber, Vettel, Kubica, Massa, Hamilton, Schumacher, Alonso, Rosberg, Sutil, Liuzzi. Post race, Schumacher is given a 20 second penalty for the pass on Alonso deemed to be under the safety car, which drops him out of the points so Buemi gets one and everyone else shoves up one place.

5 th May: So much for Alonso’s speed in Friday practice. Waste of time now he’s hit the wall in Saturday practice and wrecked the right side of the car. The team can’t fix it before qualifying either so that’s that…..he’s starting from the pitlane on race day. Instead, fastest now is Kubica, ahead of Massa and Webber. Jarno is 20 th and Heikki 19 th. Minor incidents are MS and Petrov visiting the Mirabeau escape road, and Sutil wiping out his rear wing on the barriers in Casino Square. In qualy, Jarno and Heikki have a go at getting out of Q1. Heikki comes closest, but has to settle for 18 th with Jarno 19 th. Don’t forget Alonso is 24 th regardless. Petrov gets into Q2 but then hits the Ste Devote barriers, qualifying 14 th. Everyone else keeps it on the road and Webber takes pole from Kubica and Vettel.

14 th May: Bernie Ecclestone tells the Daily Telegraph that "HRT have got problems. I will sort it out. I'd like to see 12 teams finish the season because they have made the commitment to come in. We might lose one of them. But I'm doing my bit to make sure it doesn't happen." He knows how to cause trouble, doesn’t he? Richard Branson has to deny the team in trouble is Virgin, and HRT boss Colin Kolles denies it’s them either: “Obviously we are not competitive enough, even as we expected as a new team, and we have to find solutions for the future. But we are positive and Bernie is helping us secure a better future.” That’s not really the kind of help you want! "This team will finish the season, and we are already looking at 2011. We hope to make an announcement next month, perhaps before the Canadian Grand Prix, about our plans going forward for building our own chassis." Good luck with that.

14 th May: Jarno tells it like it is re traffic in qualifying that some teams are complaining about: "I will be very upset if someone after qualifying comes and starts complaining. They have had plenty of time among the teams about what to do for here, and they didn't come up with a solution. So I don't think anyone should start complaining now. This is Monaco, it is always hard and the traffic will be as bad as usual," he said. "But I don't see any big issue. There are some cars that are much quicker than us, but there is 20 minutes in the session. The top teams, who are at the moment complaining the most, they only need one lap to stay ahead of us. I don't think it will be a problem."

9 th May: The F1 teams vote to ban the F-duct for 2011. McLaren is the dissenting voice, just because theirs works! At least we’ll be spared the sight of Alonso taking his hand off the wheel to work the Ferrari one! * The teams fail to agree on a split system for Monaco qualifying, some people are concerned that there will be too many cars on track for Q1. Guess there will be that many in the race though, if they can all start their cars! Lotus boss Tony Fernandes was one of the dissenters saying “ I have been in Formula One for 7 months now and these guys are very good drivers and they are paid to drive well.”

9 th Ma: In the race, Webber gets away at the front and carries on to the flag to win the race. Vettel can’t get past and develops brake problems, so it’s a miracle he finishes and finishes third. Hamilton almost comes second, but has some kind of puncture type wheel collapse just 2 laps from the end, gifting Alonso the place. Jarno finishes normally this time, in 17 th, but Heikki has the bad luck for a change and doesn’t start, retiring with gearbox issues. There are some minor incidents: Senna crashes into the wall on lap 1, his team mate retires on lap 28 with mechanical problems, De la Rosa retires on lap 19 after sustaining damage on the opening lap, as did Kobayashi. Buemi, who already had a drive through penalty for almost hitting Jarno at the pit exit (not shown on TV), retires on lap 43. And Button, who is 5 th still leads the WDC!

8 th May: In Saturday practice, the Red Bulls line up ahead of the McLarens with Vettel quickest. Turn 4 is the nemesis for both Kobayashi and Petrov who contrive different accidents at about the same time. Jarno is his customary 19 th just ahead of Heikki. Bruno Senna languishes in the Hispania garage for most of the session with some kind of leak. On his car, of course. On to qualifying and Red Bull reverse their practice positions leaving Webber in P1. Button manages to get split up from Lulu though, letting Alonso come between them. Back in Q1, Jarno is….you guessed it…. 19 th!!!! Heikki is 20 th, and the cuckoo in the nest of the new teams not going through to Q2 is Barrichello. And boy, does he moan about being held up by ‘slow’ drivers. Kobayashi squeezes into Q3, but his team mate, the Force Indias and the Toro Rossos, with Hulkenberg and Petrov are left behind. The Virgins and Petrov already have 5 place penalties, for failing to notify the FIA about gear ratios in Virgins’ case and a gear box change in Petrov’s.

7 th May: Spanish GP. Friday practice and in the first session the McLarens are sitting pretty with Lulu faster than Jense. Lotus are a little bit quicker as planned and this time Heikki is 18 th and Jarno 19 th. De la Rosa is last due to not completing a timed lap because of a gearbox problem. Hulkenberg seems to have a engine failure 10 minutes from the end, and driver failure in session 2 when he crashes into the wall. The Red Bulls take over the second session with Vettel in P1. Jarno finishes slightly quicker than Heikki, in 19 th and 20 th.

6 th May: Ferrari removes the barcode design from the side of its car (see 30 th April). Before anyone can prove it subliminally encourages people to smoke presumably. The car looks a lot better without it anyway…

5 th May: This must be the quickest GP plan to be binned on record. Just yesterday Jersey City (USA) announced grandiose plans for a GP around the streets. Today Mayor Jeremiah T Healy announces “this type of event is not suited for Liberty State Park”. So much for the 5 year deal…

5 th May: Christian Klien becomes a test and reserve driver for Hispania (HRT) starting from this weekend. Haven’t they already got one of those? Yes, it’s Sakin Yamamoto, who must have been outbid by Klien, who is actually one of the good guys. Hope Christian keeps his radio commentary job as this won’t keep him over busy. Bruno Senna is rightly miffed, believing the race drivers need as much time as possible in the car.

4 th May: FOTA is contemplating an offer from British engineering company Flybrid for an independent supply of KERS next year. They used to work with the Honda F1 team on KERS, so they must have a few parts languishing in a lock up somewhere. Cynical, moi? It’s supposed to be commercially attractive enough to be considered although most still think KERS (if they must) should wait till all the rules change (again) in 2013. * The FIA approves modifications to Ferrari engines on reliability grounds. Something to do with air consumption related to leaking pneumatic valves. Perhaps they’ll design it better next time, but with the FIA to help out, who cares?

3 rd May: The Virgin team will only be able to manage one upgraded car for the Spanish GP and Glocky will get that. They blame the delays in getting back to Europe after China because of the volcanic ash crisis. And the team owned by Virgin airlines’ Richard Branson too. Don’t hear Lotus complaining. Besides it only delayed Virgin by a couple of days at most, surely? Seems remiss to have a schedule quite that tight!

1 st May: The new 3.7 mile Silverstone track incorporating the new ‘Arena’ part of the track is used in the FIA GT race. Some, like Darren Turner and Oliver Gavin really like it. Others like Roman Grosjean don’t. Guess the F1 boys will be the same….

30 th April: Ferrari denies that its car livery is using subliminal Marlboro advertising. Some doctors in Britain and Spain are apparently concerned about this. Must be that increasingly ridiculous-looking barcode.

29 th April: Tyre company Pirelli confirms that it is interested in supplying F1 tyres next season. And there were the teams about to choose between Michelin and Cooper Avon….

28 th April: Williams’ Sam Michael states that the team is now in favour of bringing back KERS next year. It may be just a coincidence that Williams now have a majority shareholding in Williams Hybrid Technology, which developed a KERS system they never used last season. Sam says if all the teams are to have it must cost less than a million. What’s the point though, if everyone has it? They’ll probably all went to use it at the same time! Might as well leave it that no one does!

26 th April: In an effort to help Michael Schumacher stop being outqualified and outraced by his team mate, Mercedes will switch his chassis to one they previously used for testing. Or officially, because his old chassis was damaged. They hope the new one will be more to his liking….

26 th April: Forgetting how many other Spanish drivers they could sponsor, Santander are determined to take care of every part of Fernando Alonso. As well as being sponsored by the bank, he, or rather his thumbs, are now also backed by their insurance….um, arm. His thumbs are apparently worth 10 millions euros. Tune in next time to find out what his toe nails are worth….

24 th April: We thought they were dead, but no…. Stefan GP releases a statement to “announce our bid for the FIA 2011 Formula 1 world championship.” You’ve got to give them points for tenacity! What’s more they reckon they’ve signed an agreement with the Mayor of Stara Pazova near Belgrade in Serbia to build a race track that would be suitable both for their headquarters and “for the competition of Formula One.” Their website also reveals they talked to several well known drivers about a race seat. As well as their chosen ones, Villeneuve and Nakajima (because of Toyota connections) they also spoke to rally driver Sebastien Loeb, Ralf Schumacher, Christian Klien and Takuma Sato! It’s hard to know what kind of fantasy world they are operating in….

22 nd April: F1 equipment on the FOM freight planes finally lands back in Europe following the delay because of volcanic dust. Some F1 staff are still in China though. Lotus are already back however: one of the advantages of having a team owner who also owns an airline!

18 th April: The teams are getting a bit bothered about how to get back to Europe with this volcano dust all over the place and keeping jet aircraft on the ground. Surely one solution would be to fly everything to Barcelona (for the Spanish GP) a couple of weeks early, as at time of writing, the Spanish airport was still okay? It might mess up their plans for upgrades though. They say they can hang on till the end of the week before the situation gets crucial. The joke coming out of the circumstances though is…. Bernie issues revised 2010 F1 calendar: Bahrain, Melbourne, Sepang, Shanghai, Shanghai, Shanghai, Shanghai………

18 th April: Chinese GP. The race. Well, that’s another interesting one, once again mixed up by the weather. Alonso couldn’t wait to start… he goes before the lights go out, jumping into the lead but sadly for him, it’s spotted and he has to serve a drive through penalty before the race is many laps old. There is a safety car period after the first lap when Liuzzi loses control of his car and takes out Buemi’s Toro Rosso and Kobayashi’s Sauber. Not sure what happened to Glock, as it isn’t shown and not reported (Virgin’s don’t count after all) but he retires on the first lap and Di Grassi goes on lap 9. De la Rosa’s Sauber retires a lap before. Chandhok starts from the pitlane but both HRTs finish. Sadly, Jarno’s race ends on lap 27 with hydraulic issues again, after 5 pitstops. However, Heikki’s Lotus goes on to finish 14 th, ahead of Hulkenberg’s Williams, after running as high as 6 th at one brief point as all the pit stops and general panic play out. Should we be suspicious yet? Sutil, Alguersuari and Barrichello are also behind having pitted for repairs following Liuzzi’s craziness, and Hulkenberg has dropped down the order having gone extremely wide to avoid the accident. There is a lot of wheel changing in the first few laps as the rain tries to make up its mind what it is doing and the race is won on the right tyre calls at the right time, notably by the winner, Button, and third placed Rosberg. Hamilton is second but achieves that mostly by bullying and hassling, to earn our title of Loose (as in cannon) Lewis. An incident when he and Vettel race each other into and out of the pitlane is investigated later and they both get away with only a reprimand. Massa and Alonso also have one of those moments going into the pitlane but Massa wins that one and they are both in the same team anyway. The safety car is out again when Alguersuari clips the back of an HRT and drops his front wing all over the track. At the end, all are struggling on their tyres with Schumacher lacking traction as well so there is plenty of passing, attempted passing and overshooting of the final hairpin (in Jensons’s case). JB keeps the lead though as Loose Lewis settles for second on bald tyres. Top 10: Button, Hamilton, Rosberg, Alonso, Kubica, Vettel, Petrov, Webber, Massa, Schumacher.

17 th April: Sakon Yamamoto has taken on a test and reserve driver role with Hispania Racing. Wonder how much he paid for that? * Cooper Avon has come forward as a possible contender to supply tyres to the teams next year. Although the teams are keen on Michelin tyres, Mich want to change their wheels to 18” and Ecclestone is apparently not keen. It does mean yet another new car design. The teams want it decided by the Spanish GP.

17 th April: Lucky Lewis says he does not understand why there is so much fuss over his defensive weaving against Petrov in the Malaysian GP. Presumably he didn’t realise it’s against the rules! It was discussed in the drivers’ briefing and the other drivers were clear in their view. “Unfortunately, the guys – I don’t understand why everyone was fussing about it but it wasn’t really a problem for me….. They seemed to be talking about it for some time….Charlie has made it clear (it’s not acceptable) now and we won’t be doing it.” Let’s hope he doesn’t get that paranoia thing going again…. Why is it always Lewis that’s involved in the dodgy stuff?

17 th April: Renault’s Petrov has a weird accident in Saturday practice when he wobbles and then appears to drive straight for the tyre wall on the start of the main straight. That’s the only drama, with Webber quickest, beating Lucky Lewis and Seb Vettel into 2 nd and 3 rd. Jarno sinks to 22 nd with Heikki 20 th. He pulls up to 20 th in qualy though, with HK 21 st. Glocky just manages to get ahead of Jarno at the last minute. Tonio Liuzzi is the man to join the new team drop outs from Q1. Both Williams, Saubers, Toro Rossos and Petrov are the eliminees from Q1. Vettel takes pole from his team mate, with Alonso P3. Top 10: Vettel, Webber, Alonso, Rosberg, Button, Hamilton, Massa, Kubica, Schumacher, Sutil.

16 th April: Chinese GP: Friday practice. Button is quickest from Rosberg and Hamilton. Jarno is 18 th and Jarno 19 th. Buemi has a weird incident, losing both front wheels which appear just to break off! And before he’s even set a time. Alonso loses another Ferrari engine. He states he has “zero worries” about engines even though he has now lost 2 of the 8 he has for the whole season. That’s either blasé or daft.

Hamilton and Button change places in session 2, but with Rosberg still in the middle of them. Jarno is making that P18 his own, with HK just behind again in 19 th. No further dramas.

15 th April: Lola will not reapply for F1 entry next year and neither will Prodrive! Not as popular as Max and Bernie think then! This is a result of the lack of budget cap and new rules. They reckon it’s not long enough to prepare.

12 th April: Flavio’s ‘lifetime ban’ has turned into a couple of years as a settlement with the FIA allows him to work in F1 from 2013 and in any other FIA sanctioned series from 2012. Same goes for Pat Symonds. Apparently they’ve both expressed “regrets and presented their apologies” to the FIA although Flav still says he wasn’t personally responsible for the race fixing. * Also today we hear that Michael Schumacher has decided to join the GPDA after all: “…after some thoughts and discussions, mainly with Felipe Massa, he reconsidered the initial decision and will now be a silent member.” Felipe has more influence than we realise!

4 th April: It’s tight at the top as 4 drivers find themselves within 4 points of each other! But it’s only race 3 so a long way to go! Seb Vettel doesthe business, passing Rosberg and Webber at the start and getting his car to the end of the race. Webbermakes it a Red Bull 1-2 and Rosberg is third. There is no rain! At the back it is definitely Lotus v Virgin for real, as Glock makes a botched attempt to overtake Jarno, spins his Virgin and hits Jarno’s Lotus with it, which slows Jarno right down through the damage, although he does nurse the car to the end. Glocky is not so lucky and has to retire. That’ll teach him! Kovalainen makes a pig’s ear of passing the other Virgin, Di Grassi, and gives himself a puncture. The team fixes that and an hydraulic issue and sends Heikki out again, for him to finish 10 laps down. Jarno is classified 17 th as there are several other retirements. De la Rosa never starts, as his Sauber developes engine problems between the pits and the grid, and his team mate Kobayashi has mechanical failure on lap 8. Next to retire is Michael Schumacher with a dodgy rear wheel problem. Then it is Kobayashi, followed by Liuzzi and Petrov. Alonso’s engine blows a couple of laps from the end, after he has spent the whole race unable to downshift normally. This means Massa leads the WDC! Top 10: Vettel, webber, Rosberg, Kubica, Sutil, Hamilton, Massa, Button, Alguersuari.

3 rd April: Now what is this about…. Renault thinks we need KERS back and Ferrari agrees. It seems their main reason is because they already have it, which is hardly fair on the new teams. Still, when did that ever count in F1? Team boss Eric Boullier says “not to use it any more is a waste of money”. Pity you didn’t spot that before you developed it. They also want to use it for road cars….get on with it then. They also want the system to be more powerful than before. But if all the teams have it, as in the standard supplier they suggest, there’s no advantage, is there? Pray the small teams vote against it. * Finally the FIA have realised, through a light test at the last race, that the Oz GP needs bringing forward, by probably one hour. Bob Kubica has a good idea…. Why not have an early morning start in Oz, so in Europe we get an evening race? Brill.

3 rd April: Saturday practice and Webber is quickest this time, pushing Lulu down to second. Jarno is 20 th to Heikki’s 21 st. Lotus main drama is HK losing a bit of front wing. It’s beginning to drizzle…..

Which turns into a downpour just in time for qualifying. It’s already raining hard when the cars leave the pits, although some parts of the circuit are not as wet as others! The smaller teams make the right choice, sending their drivers out right away for banker laps, while smart asses Ferrari and McLaren make a ricket of it. The rain gets harder contrary to their weather forecasts and Alonso, Massa and Hamilton are eliminated from Q1. Ironically, Button, stuck in the gravel has already set a time that is just good enough for Q2. He can’t run again but is classified P17. Jarno has some idiot spinning in front of him on his fastest lap so just misses out but HK progresses to Q2 and sets a time good enough for P15, just ahead of Glock. Petrov, De la Rosa, Buemi and Alguersuari are also eliminated in Q2. Webber takes pole from Rosberg, and Vettel is third, so at least Red Bull get it right. For Mercedes, Nico is 2 nd to MS’s 8 th. Top 10: Webber, Rosberg, Vettel, Sutil, Hulkenberg, Kubica, Barrichello, Schumacher, Kobayashi, Liuzzi.

2 nd April: Malaysian GP. Friday practice. Lotus let Fairuz Fauzy have a go in Heikki’s car in first practice, at his home circuit. He ends up 22 nd with Jarno 19 th, ahead of Glocky which is what matters! At the sharp end, Hamilton is quickest, just ahead of Nico in the Mercedes. He was also quickest in session 2, this time from Vettel, with Nico third. Drivers are struggling with the option tyre so will hope they don’t have to use that one if it’s wet.

2 nd April: The teams have been told that the outboard mirrors they have been using which are next to useless, have now been banned. But they have got away with the rule being delayed until the Spanish GP, claiming they can’t be changed that quickly.

29 th March: Lewis H says he understands where the team were coming from now when they called him for another stop yesterday. When he “passionately expressed himself on the radio” in Martin Whitmarsh’s words. Seems his tyres were graining, as we all expected and the drivers who had changed tyres were going much quicker. It all makes sense but when your team mate wins and you don’t, all logic goes out the window, doesn’t it?

28 th March: First some awards:to Sauber, some strong screws and super glue for Kobayashi’s front wing, and to Lewis Hamilton, a calming lavender candle for tantrum of the day (well, McLaren IS his team and his team mate won the race to Lew’s 6 th place…. AND he hasn’t got his road car back yet.) Poor Jarno’s awful weekend continues when his hydraulic pack fails while he was on the grid waiting to start the race! The team takes the car back to the garage to try to get it fixed but to no avail. If Heikki keeps on smiling the way he is, if he’s not careful we’ll start to suspect skullduggery! Heikki’s race is fine and he finishes 13 th, 2 laps ahead of Karun Chandhok, the only car of the other new teams to finish. Hispania’s other driver, Senna, has yet another hydraulic failure on lap 5. The Virgins retire on laps 25 (di Grassi – more hydraulic issues) and 41 (Glock - suspension). Both had started from the pitlane. It is an eventful race this time because of the rain and the nature of the track which does allow some overtaking. They all start on intermediate tyres and the tyre change to slicks proves a big factor in Jenson Button’s win. His brave call to change first and to stay out till the end gives him the victory. His team mate Hamilton on the other hand is rather upset at his team mate’s success and blames his own 6 th place on the team calling him in for a second stop (probably because he’d ragged his tyres) and a tangle with Mark Webber 2 laps from the end when the Red Bull hits the back of the McLaren. That only costs him one place though, and he did start from 11 th! Webber is reprimanded after the race for not being more careful. Pole sitter Vettel has to retire again from brake failure on lap 26. Sauber’s Kobayashi somehow loses his front wing yet again on lap 1 and hits the inside wall before bouncing back across the track and taking out Buemi’s and Hulkenberg’s cars. Apart from them, the other retirees are Petrov on lap 10 and Sutil on lap 12. Another incident on lap 1 sees Button and Alonso touch, which sends the Ferrari spinning into Schumacher’s Mercedes: he finishes 10 th, 5 places behind his team mate Rosberg. Kubica in the Renault had taken advantage of the first lap confusion to make up several places and finishes 2 nd, with Massa’s Ferrari in 3 rd place. Top 10: Button, Kubica, Massa, Alonso, Rosberg, Hamilton, Liuzzi, Barrichello, Webber, Schumacher.

27 th March: They’re not saying there’s anything wrong with Red Bull’s suspension but Ross Brawn and Martin Whitmarsh would like it clarified anyway. There are rumours that red Bull has a system that changes the ride height of the car between low fuel and heavy fuel. Ross Brawn: “I think we do need to tidy it up, in fairness to Red Bull because there are accusations being thrown around. It is very unfair. They have a very good car, and there is no evidence they are necessarily doing anything untoward.” Except you’d love it if they were, hence the ‘clarification’. Another one seeking ‘clarification’ is Michael Schumacher who is angry about Alonso and Hamilton allegedly blocking him in qualifying. He even ‘has a word’ with Alonso, or perhaps he just wanted to touch a Ferrari again. MS is thinking of a few years ago when drivers used to jump out of the way for him, but it’s a different era now.

27 th March: Saturday practice is quite boring, with Webber finishing fastest, from Alonso and Schumacher. Everybody runs anyway, for a change! Jarno is 20 th to Heikki’s 19 th. Qualifying is as expected, with Lotus in 19 th and 20 th (Jarno). Poor Jarno has a broken seat which is floating around in the car, which doesn’t help. They both beat the Virgins and HRTs anyway. Petrov’s Renault is the surprise car left behind in Q1 and Unlucky Lewis Hamilton the surprise package left behind in Q2 in 11 th place. He’s probably worrying about his car in the police pound. And to rub it in, team mate Button is P4. In the end, Red Bull lock out the front row with Vettel on pole again. Alonso makes it to P3. MS is outqualified by Rosberg again. Not quite going according to plan, is it?

27 th March: Richard Branson puts the fuel tank mistake down to birth pains of the new team and doesn’t expect it to affect the Virgin name, which is “synonymous with experimentation and trying things.” We can see what his priorities are! “If we can get this problem resolved, and we don’t have an hydraulic problem and we don’t have a gearbox problem, then we know we have a fast car.” Um, not that fast compared to Red Bull.

26 th March: An amusing little incident after Hamilton leaves the track. He is questioned by Aussie cops after showing off in his posh McLaren, what Lulu describes as driving in an “over-exuberant manner”. In other words, wheel-spinning and fishtailing, known as ‘hooning’ in Oz. Lulu: “What I did was silly and I want to apologise for it.” The worst thing for him is they impounded the car so he will have to drive a normal hire car now. Probably a Toyota or something.

26 th March: Australian GP, Friday practice, first session. Kobayashi has the Curse of the Front Wing moments. First he hits a cone and takes half of it off, and when they give him a new one, that falls off on the track! His Sauber team mate has clutch failure so not a good day and it’s only first practice! Jarno has problems too, with his differential, which takes half the session to sort out. Always seems to be Jarno’s car as Heikki’s is okay. Timo is unlucky too, as his gearbox has an oil leak and he only does 8 laps. They are all at the back end of the times, obviously, Jarno 19 th and Heikki 20 th. Sutil lets Paul di Resta use his Force India car for a bit of testing. Kubica is fastest from Rosberg and Button.

There is not much decent running in session 2 as the weather takes a hand and it rains, leaving only a 15 minute window for proper times. More woes for Virgin as the team are taking an age to sort out this gearbox oil leak, and Di Grassi can only complete an installation lap before an issue with his telemetry box. He is not seen on track again and Timo only manages 9 laps. At HRT, Senna misses the whole session with a fuel pressure problem and Chandhok has to park 200 yards into his outlap when he loses drive in a suspected gearbox failure. I think they need a word with ‘suppliers’. Jarno is not entirely happy with his engine, but is 20 th, while Heikki actually beats a Toro Rosso into 18 th place. Hamilton is quickest from Button and Webber.

26 th March: Now this really is a big mistake and it’s hard not to laugh. Virgin Racing has discovered that its fuel tank is not actually big enough to hold enough fuel to get to the end of some races. How excruciatingly embarrassing!!! As a result they have asked for and been given permission to make the major modification on reliability grounds. Ha ha! They are hoping it will be done by…er… the Turkish GP at the end of May! They are blaming ‘suppliers’. Nick Wirth’s computers somehow didn’t spot the mistake. “At the time the design of the tank was locked down in June 2009, its capacity was determined by a number of factors, some of which have since changed, and the tank capacity now needs to be increased accordingly.” Except that none of the other teams have been caught out….

25 th March: It didn’t take long… Sauber introduces its own version of the McLaren duct system (left). They can’t test it in the wind tunnel however, as they are not allowed to go fast enough for it to have an effect. De la Rosa admits that he had prior knowledge of what Mac were doing from his test driver role last year. Is that allowed? He’s not that knowledgeable though: “Honestly it’s so new the system that I have to get in the car and check – where it is, how we do it!” Come on mate, even we can see where it is! 22 nd March: The Stefan GP team end its association with Toyota, as they have finally accepted they don’t have an F1 entry this year. So the dream is over… 19 th March: McLaren, Mercedes, and at least 2 other teams, believed to be Renault and Force India, will be forced to make changes to their diffusers by next weekend after

the FIA close a loophole about the size of starter motor holes in the said diffusers. Although not against the actual regs, these holes, which help air flow are so big they are against the ‘spirit’ of the rules. *Renault has been given approval to make a ‘large’ number of improvements to its engine for cost and reliability reasons, although this is not a form of power equalisation. This is clearly to try to help Red Bull who have moaned that“otherwise we will end up with Mercedes-powered cars winning all the races.” Well, they weren’t going to complain for altruistic reasons, were they?

19 th March: Monza officials have secured the Italian GP until 2016, so even if there is a Rome GP, they will have to come up with another title. So, the plan worked and it’s a win-win situation for Ecclestone, yet again!

19 th March: The FIA invites entries for the 2011 F1 season, and they may appoint reserves to fill any vacancies after this season, which sounds ominous! The very desperate Stefan GP’s latest idea to get in is to buy USF1, which they think would enable them to start competing immediately. Not sure the FIA will go along with that. And as USF1 may attract penalties for not making the grid this year, Stefan GP would have to pay them if their plan comes to fruition.

18 th March: McLaren has bought back the majority of Mercedes’ stake in the team which is now down to 11%. Mac launch today their MP4-12C sportscar and they want to race it against Ferrari: “Our message (to Luca di Montezemolo) was “We want to race with you. Where are you going to go? Why don’t we go together?” Yes, why don’t you, it will be just like F1!

16 th March: Following the panic among teams after the boring Bahrain race, David Coulthard suggests that there should at least be 2 mandatory pit stops for tyres. And he blames Mad Max for it, which we have been arguing for years…. no joined up thinking. “I hope Max Mosley, watching from his ivory tower….enjoyed the Bahrain GP on Sunday. Revs limited to 18,000rpms, the ban on in-race refuelling, standardised gearboxes and engines, a single tyre supplier, all initiatives introduced during his tenure at the FIA… all of which have done little for the show if Bahrain is anything to go on.” Quite.

16 th March: Peter Sauber is going to submit an application for a name change….. but only when the timing is right. That’s to avoid losing the TV money linked to the BMW team. It’s about time too: the name BMW Sauber-Ferrari is quite ridiculous!

14 th March: We saw the evidence on TV in Martin Brundle’s grid walk….. no drivers on the grid. And why is this? Because driver’s physios have been stopped from having grid access before a race. So the drivers are fighting back and spending time with their physios OFF the grid as long as possible. And the reason for this idiotic idea, comes from….hmmm……let’s think….ah yes, Bernie Eccelstone Esq. Who would have guessed it? It seems that previously the physios would have received passes from FOM, but allegedly according to Ecclestone, there are too many people on the grid before a race! That’s true, but if access was not given to the King of Ramboland, or Prime Minister Shrek or some B-list movie star, there’d be a lot more room, wouldn’t there? What’s more, Bernie says it’s okay if the teams supply the physios with passes, but they, of course, want their sponsors to have them. Honestly, fans don’t care about celebrity guests or sponsors but they would like to see the drivers. Oh, I forgot, fans only count when it suits the teams and the powers that be….

 

14 th March: Bahrain GP. The race. All the cars get through the first corners relatively unscathed, although Renault’s Kubica and Force India’s Sutil touch and spin, unable to see through a cloud of smoke from Webber’s car.All 3 continue and finish though. Vettel probably would have held on for the win without an exhaust problem that slows him down in the latter part of the race. This enables Alonso to take his first win in a Ferrari, closely followed by team mate Massa. Hamilton lucks into 3 rd after Vettel’s problems. We don’t call him Lucky Lewis for nothing! One great result is Nico Rosberg (5 th) finishing one place ahead of his team mate, Michael Schumacher!! But the best bit is LOTUS GET BOTH CARS TO THE END OF THE RACE!!!! Jarno has hydraulic problems while Heikki has none, so no change on that score, but Jarno is still classified 17 th, even though he doesn’t quite cross the line. Heikki is 15 th. They have a Toro Rosso between them. Finishing IS a big deal as Lotus is the only new team to finish the race. The HRT’s start from the pitlane and Chandhok lasts 2 laps before a little crash ends his race and Senna does 18 laps before a possible hydraulic problem. Virgin also have one of those on di Grassi’s car after 3 laps and Glock has a gearbox problem, retiring on lap 17, even before Senna. The other non-finishers are both Saubers (more hydraulics!) and Petrov’s Renault (suspension). So well done Lotus!!! Top 10: Alonso, Massa, Hamilton, Vettel, Rosberg, Schumacher, Button, Webber, Liuzzi, Barrichello.

13 th March: Bahrain GP, Saturday Practice. There’s a lot of competition at the top with Alonso coming out P1, beating Rosberg into second place. At the other end in the battle of the new teams, Glocky (Virgin) somehow beat the Lotuses into 20 th (Heikki) and 21 st (Jarno). The other Virgin here today didn’t fare so well though, as di Grassi can only complete 2 laps because of a gearbox issue. Poor ol’ Karun Chandhok, Senna’s team mate is still having to spectate while the HRT team messa round with his car trying to work out why it has no gears. Perhaps they forgot to put the gearbox in…. Qualifying: I wonder if Schumi is still wondering how he got beaten by his team mate, Rosberg, in this season’s first qualy session. Maybe Alonso at Ferrari is wondering the same thing (well done Felipe!). Unfortunately Button got beaten by lucky Lewis to the tune of 4 places. No excuses for fuel strategy either, as that’s no longer a factor. The dark horse number one on pole today though is…. Sebastian Vettel (my dark horse for the WDC). At the back Jarno does outqualify Heikki for the first race, but that darn Virgin is one place ahead. They are all out in Q1 though, along with the other Virgin on the grid and the 2 HRTs (somehow Chandhok is allowed to take part even though these are his first laps in the whole weekend) and a minor surprise in Toro Rossos Alguersuari. But it had to be someone. Top 10: Vettel, Massa, Alonso, Hamilton, Rosberg, Webber, Schumacher, Button, Kubica, Sutil.

12 th March: News from the track….in Bahrain, McLaren get their air inlet thingy that sits on one side of the front wing and is apparently controlled by the driver’s KNEE, past the stewards. It’s supposed to help straight line speed, so inevitably, all the teams will get it now. Ross Brawn, the double diffuser man from last year, lets it go but Mikey Gascoyne is very annoyed. Like the new teams don’t have enough to contend with, he says, as the stewards seem to accept anything these days. * Seb Vettel has given his Red Bull car a name… following last year’s Kate and Kate’s ‘dirty little sister’….it’s Luscious Liz! * Lotus are first out in Bahrain’s first practice, with Jarno the first T127 on track. The Lotuses are track sweepers for a while until the others join the fray. By the end Jarno has done 15 laps and is 21 st in the times with Heikki doing 21 laps and finishing 20 th. There’s about a tenth between them and they have been running heavy fuel. Behind Jarno are Virgin’s di Grassi and Hispania’s Bruno Senna, neither of whom do a flying lap. Poor Karun Chandhok, the other HRT victim, does not even have a car to drive, so finds it difficult to join in! We’re only concentrating on the bottom of the times, but for anyone interested, Sutil of Force India is quickest, ahead of Alonso. In the second session, Mercedes take a 1,2,3,4, even thought the Merc team has only 2 cars! That, of course, is why they supply McLaren with engines, so they have a better chance of winning. Fastest is Rosberg, followed by Hamilton. Schumacher, and Button. Seb Buemi’s Toro Rosso is in the garage for the whole session as the team has the rear of the car in bits. Not a great start. The 2 Lotuses beat the 2 Virgins this session, with car 18 (Jarno) in 19 th place and car 19 in 18 th place. Can we have it the other way round next time please? Bruno Senna does get a massive 17 laps in this time, 5 seconds off the pace….of the Lotus…. but still no Chandhok on track, who must wonder why he bothered to show up today! The other rookie is Vitaly Petrov, who is in a Renault and beats Kubica for pace in the second session.

6 th March: Now Felipe Massa is dissing the new F1 teams because they are off the pace: “I hope they won’t be a danger…. It’s like two different series….They’ll suffer. And we’ll suffer too, when we have them in front of us during qualifying.” This is clearly the purely selfish reason why he and Ferrari are having a go. Tell you what, guys, if you had allowed the new teams the time testing and the chance to get up to speed, you wouldn’t have had anything to moan about, would you? Oh, but then they might have been competition, wouldn’t they? You can’t have it all ways. But it makes us look forward to the first time a Ferrari trips over a new teamer!!!

4 th March: Uh oh, there seems to be some doubt about the legality of the McLaren rear wing! Christian Horner of Red Bull says it’s not them who are concerned but Ferrari. Ferrari says it’s Red Bull. Anyway Charlie Whiting is planning a trip to Woking to have a look. Seeing as Ferrari has already made a churlish fuss about the new teams (like they are going to be a threat!) and preventing them from having any privileges like extra testing (even though they have got round the rules with GP2 tyres and old chassis), we shall blame Ferrari. It also seems to have slipped below the radar that Ferrari has vetoed the new budget cap rules. Nothing like a level playing field, is there?

4 th March: There IS an HRT car(right). Dallara made it and the colour scheme looks a bit boring but it’s not easy to see. They also have a second driver (with money), Indian Karun Chandhok. Shouldn’t he be driving for Force India? 3 rd March: The FIA publish the full F1 entry list for this year, and hey, Stefan GP have not been given an entry despite the demise of USF1. What a shame. The FIA says it’s too late. Campos only just make it…. we haven’t seen a car yet! What’s more they are the subject of a name change. They will be HRT F1, which should cause a few chuckles. They obviously don’t realise it stands for Hormone Replacement Therapy in English. The initials actually stand for Hispania Racing Team, which is far more attractive. They’ve shoved Adrian Campos aside to be an executive vice-president, and called it after one of the new owners companies.

2 nd March: Even though team USF1 have blown it for this year, they haven’t given up, oh no, they now hope for an entry in 2011. They have asked the FIA to “hold” their entry until next year. What are the chances? USF1’s poor driver, Jose Maria Lopez, who thought he was an F1 race driver is now hoping to become Campos Meta’s reserve driver. he has to get his money back from USF1 first. You’ve got to feel sorry for him.

28 th February: The final day of pre-season testing and it doesn’t seem enough. Hamilton is fastest for McLaren, then Webber for Red Bull and Massa for Ferrari. These are the 3 teams that look fastest and then there is Mercedes in the mix. It’s hard to say precisely as several teams concentrate on long runs. Heikki takes over for Lotus and completes 65 laps, finishing ahead of the Virgin again. Hard to believe the next track action will be in Bahrain for the GP!

27 th February: Jarno drives a second day for Lotus and before rain disrupts the running late morning, he is 6 th quickest of 9. By the end of the day, after 102 laps, he is 9 th of 11, ahead of a Sauber and a Virgin. At the top it is Nico Rosberg for Mercedes, and a ---er--- Toro Rosso.... just behind him.

26 th February: Hulkenberg makes it to the top in Barcelona today, beating Ferrari’s Alonso into second place. Jarno is driving for Lotus and completes another 70 laps for the team, finishing ahead of Glock’s Virgin car at the bottom of the times. He does 52 laps after more spare parts arrive. Lotus would very much like to win the battle of the new teams but so far only the Virgins are playing!

25 th February: The teams are testing at the Barcelona track this week and on the first day, Mark Webber is fastest for Red Bull, followed by Nico Hulkenberg’s Williams. Fairuz Fauzy does 76 laps for Lotus but is bottom of the timesheets behind Virgin, whose Lucas di Grassi spins into the barriers at turn 9 while the teams are running “some experimental control settings on the car.” Back to the drawing board guys!

23 rd February: James Key, who was Force India’s technical director and had been with them through 4 owners, leaves the team. Is it me, or is this a funny time to do that? I wonder where’ll he’ll appear next….

23 rd February: Formula 2 champ Andy Soucek joins Virgin as reserve driver. They were going to have the other guy, Alvaro Parente, but that fell through because one of his backers dropped out. Virgin can praise Andy to the high heavens all they like but we know he really got the gig because he has sponsors. Strangely, Andy thinks he’s going to do some DRIVING soon. Has he not seen how little test drivers get to drive these days? He says enthusiastically: “I will get to use the simulator, I will be at every test and Grand prix, and I will be in every meeting between the drivers and the engineers, so I will be a real member of the team.” Who doesn’t get to drive! I could do all the other stuff myself….

22 nd February: Fans of QPR breathe a sigh of relief as Flavio Briatore steps down as chairman of the football club. He’ll stay as a stakeholder but perhaps someone else will pick the team now (allegedly). * Reality kicks in for Stefan GP who have to cancel the Portimao test due to a lack of tyres! Bridgestone can’t supply F1 tyres unless the team has a grid slot, and it was apparently too short notice for a supply of GP2 tyres. Really?

20 th February: Oh dear, as widely rumoured, USF1 co-founder Ken Anderson admits he is in discussion with the FIA about missing the first four races of the season, after they have fallen behind with their preparations and there is speculation about the whereabouts of co-founder Peter Windsor and investor Chad Hurley.

20 th February: It’s Jarno’s turn in the Lotus, and he completes a massive 141 laps, the most of anyone today. He is bottom though, a second off the Virgin’s pace, but it is their second week, even though they have not done that many laps (they are having hydraulic problems…. in contrast the Lotus is very reliable). At the top it’s Jenson Button, with Kubica and Kobayashi behind them.

19 th February: Back at the test in Jerez, Webber is quickest for Red Bull. Alonso and Button complete the top 3. It’s mostly sunny today, which helps, and several drivers do over 100 laps. Heikki manages 68 for Lotus, after a clutch sensor problem is sorted early on. He is slowest but almost on a par with Virgin and now only about 4 seconds off the pace.

19 th February: The Campos Meta team has changed management with Jose Ramon Carabante taking full control and Colin Kolles being appointed team principal instead of Adrian Campos. Do we feel a name change for the team coming on? No sign of a car yet either….. * Heikki Kovalainen says the Lotus car’s biggest problem is lack of downforce, which they expected, as the car had to be designed without info on the engine. Now the new workforce is getting down to business in Hingham, this will be a priority. * Stefan GP has fired up it’s SF01 car at Toyota’s Cologne factory, so the dream continues…

18 th February: Kovalainen, sadly, bins the Lotus car after 30 laps and props up the bottom of the times. Blimey, even the Virgin completes 72 laps today and is 8 th quickest of 12. Although only 11 teams are present, Force India are making Liuzzi and di Resta share. The weather is rubbish again and Barrichello sets the fastest time when the track is at its best around lunchtime. On the plus side, Heikki reckons the car feels good. When the spare parts catch up it will be better! *Also today. The Campos Meta 1 team may make it to the grid after all….the majority owner, Jose Ramon Carabante, is set to take full control from Adrian Campos. What will it be called then? Carabante Meta 1? * And rumour has it that the Stefan GP team want to sign Jacques Villeneuve as one of their drivers in cloud cuckoo land….

17 th February: Testing resumes at Jerez, where it is still raining a lot, and Lotus Racing introduces the T127 on track for the first time at a test. Fairuz Fauzy is at the wheel, partly to do enough mileage to get his superlicence! He does a fantastic 76 laps, without any reliability problems and only minor issues with the cooling at the start of the day. Bless him, he’s knackered by the end as he doesn’t have any power steering (Heikki and Jarno are not daft!) as someone hasn’t delivered parts in time. It doesn’t help FF that the PAS will be on the car tomorrow when Heikki takes over! FF reckons there’s another 3 to 4 seconds per lap available with power steering and Mikey G says there’s even more, especially in the dry…. if it ever is! As it is, FF is quicker than Timo Glock’s Virgin by 0.6s. The Virgin does another 10 laps….they are up to 34 laps now. They might make Lotus’s first day total by next week if they go on like this. Seb Vettel is fastest overall for Red Bull, from Hamilton’s McLaren.

12 th February: Lotus Racing launch the T127 in London. See the News page and the Photo Gallery for info and photos.

12 th February : Virgin manage another 8 laps in Jerez in the hands of Lucas di Grassi. That’s 24 laps in 3 days now. They are way, way off the pace. The weather is mixed which doesn’t help. Alguersuari is quickest for Toro Rosso.

11 th February: Kobayashi is fastest for BMW Sauber in Jerez. Virgin have another bad day, causing a red flag when Glock’s front wing falls off out on the circuit. They find out why but need new parts to fix it, so just another 11 laps for them today.

10 th February: Testing starts in wet Jerez, with Mercedes, Toro Rosso, Williams, Ferrari, Sauber, McLaren, Force India, Renault, Red Bull and Virgin all there, and they finish in that order, speedwise, with Virgin somewhat off the pace….by 17 seconds from Rosberg, who is quickest for Mercedes. Glock only does 5 laps for Virgin though.

9 th February: Fairuz Fauzy shakes down the new Lotus at Silverstone. Yay!!!

9 th February: Todt says he is confident there will be 13 teams in F1 this year, even if a couple of the new ones (USF1 and Campos) don’t make it for the first 3 races, which JT says is allowed for in the Concorde Agreement. But just in case, Stefan GP has sent freight to Bahrain and Malaysia…..

9 th February: Force India launch their VJM03 car. Well, they release some pics anyway. It’s Sutil and Liuzzi and Paul di Resta as reserve driver this year. * Jean Todt is talking about as much sense as Max used to: “we need to cut costs, improve the show and draw investors. F1 must understand that the world has changed. Hpw can you explain that an F1 car needs 80 litres of fuel to cover 100kms?” You don’t need to…if you don’t like, butt out. “I don’t like the cost cap….” But “It’s not acceptable to have given up with KERS. The teams complain it costs too much? Then they must find the way to save money….” They have, they’ve ditched KERS!!! You can’t tell them to save money then tell them to keep KERS!!! Todt wants a “single aerodynamic package for the entire year” now (that’s GP2 isn’t it?) to save money. The usual jumbled thinking. Must be catching. One good thing…Todt says he will only stay in office as FIA President for one term. Phew!

4 th February: It’s finally announced that Nick Heidfeld will be test and reserve driver for Mercedes GP. That completes the all-German driver line-up!

3 rd February: Alonso makes it third day in a row that Ferrari has topped the times in Valencia. There are a few new faces today: as well as 2 more WDCs in Button and Schumacher, Alguersuari, Petrov and Hulkenberg get outings in their teams’ new cars. De la Rosa and Hulkenberg clash on track in the early part of the day. It’s just testing lads!

3 rd February: Virgin Racing has a few technical difficulties with its ‘online’ launch..... it doesn’t work! Let’s hope the 'all digital' car fares a little better! It looks pretty smart though, in red and black (that’s what it looks like anyway!).

The Virgins’car (left)

2 nd February: Massa is quickest again, making the most of an Alonso-less couple of days. Mike S has gone home and Nico relishes being able to get on with testing on his own, although his seat drops by 1.5cm during the day. Nothing to do with Mike S, we hope. Kobayashi does a bit for BMW(less) Sauber and is second quickest. Hamilton is on track for Mac, and is 3 rd.

On Planet Stefan GP, the wannabee F1 team announces it will test its first F1 car at Portimao later this month. They plan to have a launch as well! Kazuki Nakajima looks likely to be one of its drivers - the Toyota connection, along with their tech support and an engine that is presumably a Toyota, but called the Stefan RG-01. They release a picture of their offices. Whaaat??? The team owner is shown along with Mike Coughlan, famous for dropping McLaren in the mire.

1 st February: Testing is back!!!! Ferrari, BMW Sauber-Ferrari (what’s that about???) Mercedes, McLaren-Mercedes, Williams-Cosworth, Toro Rosso-Ferrari and Renault all hit the track in Valencia, and they finish in that order, with Massa the fastest. Mercedes let both Rosberg and Schumacher have a go. Only McLaren use a test driver, Paffett…. the rest are all race drivers.

31 st January: Renault launches in Valencia ahead of the test and has gone retro in its colour scheme, rolling out in yellow and black. They now have a second driver also, namely Vitaly Petrov, the first Russian driver in F1. They also introduce what can only be called an excess of reserve drivers: Ho-Pin Tung (no, me neither), Jerome D’Ambrosio and Jan Charouz. The first 2 are linked to Renault’s new partner Gerard Lopez. Ho-Pin is the official 3 rd driver, not sure of the point of the others. Jerome is in GP2 and Jan is in Formula Renault 3.5 this year.

29 th January: Stefan GP, who appear to be living in some kind of parallel F1 world of their own, where they are the only team, announces it has come to an agreement with Toyota Motorsport to receive technical support from them. Stefan has already acquired the rights to the Toyota 2010 chassis, and if no one drops out of F1, then Stefan will just keep on testing until someone does!

29 th January: McLaren Mercedes launch their 2010 car at Vodaphone’s UK HQ in Newbury. Their new colour scheme is er….silver. And orange. Yes. It’s the same as last year! They’ve still got Gary Paffett as test driver, when he gets the chance.

26 th January: More tinkering in an effort to make F1 more interesting….. F1 teams have agreed to make the top 10 qualified drivers start the race on the tyres they qualify on in their fastest lap. It still has to voted on by the WMSC. Guess it all depends on what tyres Bridgestone produce in their final season…..

26 th January: Red Bull appoint Daniel Ricciardo and Brendan Hartley as reserve drivers for their two teams for 2010. They’ll be useful if they need them. without any testing.

26 th January: Finally, finally, finally, US F1 announces a driver. And it the one we all expected, Jose Maria lopez, who tested for Renault eons ago. He’s from Argentina. So not exactly American. He has been racing successfully in touring cars in Argentina and knows diddly squat about current F1 cars.

25 th January: Groan. Already the new points system has been changed before it’s even been used. Last week it was 25-20-15-10-8-6-5-3-2-1. Now it’s 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1. They don’t introduce other good stuff like points for pole or fastest lap. Or to make the drivers do 2 pitstops. Missed a trick there probably. So we are left with a points system that we will all have to look up all the time. Great.

25 th January: The erstwhile Brawn team, now called Mercedes GP, launches it’s new colour scheme in a car museum in Stuttgart. It’s an exciting er…. silver. And they’ve stuck Petronas onto their name, as in Mercedes GP Petronas Formula 1 team. Everyone’s going to call them that all the time…..NOT. The grey doesn’t suit 7 times world champion Michael Schumacher quite as well as red. Ross Brawn reckons Nico Rosberg will “enjoy” working with MS. We’ll ask him at the end of the season. Ross B also insists there will be no number one driver at Mercedes. Ha ha ha ha ha!

25th January: Flavio says: “I will never manage another team in Formula 1 in my life, this is sure, but I have got my dignity back…” But he is still moaning about another aspect of the verdict, the ban on managing drivers, that doesn’t seem to have changed. Or the drivers got out while they had the chance! “We lost Alonso, we lost Kovalainen, we lost several drivers… We will sue the FIA for the money we lost.” Probably needs it to keep QPR going….

22nd January: F1 teams agree to ban double diffusers from 2011. The word is that the aerodynamic changes agreed for 2011 will make the cars up to 2 seconds quicker and the view is they are too fast already, so banning the diffuser will claw back some of the extra. Thought they were supposed to be fast….

21st January: Ferrari gives Valentino Rossi yet another test in the F1 car. They are getting round the test ban by using the F2008 with GP2 tyres in Barcelona. Someone should look into it. Vale is excited because he achieves a good lap time on low fuel. Felipe gets the car tomorrow, who at least has the excuse of rehabilitation to get into the car in a January test ban!

20th January: Michael Schumacher has taken Nico Rosberg’s number 3, using some spurious excuse about having a preference for odd numbers! It’s a darn cheek and I’d be pissed off if I was Nico, who obviously had no say in the matter at all! MS is reported by Bild as saying “Ross knows I like odd numbers.” So???? A Mercedes GP person tells Reuters: “He asked if he could be the odd number and we were happy to accept.” How pathetic! However…odd number, odd bloke.

19th January: Pedro de la Rosa has been hired by BMW Sauber. No, not as a mechanic or a wheel washer, but actually as a racing driver. Seven years he’s been McLaren’s test and reserve driver so there must be hope for everyone, even Ralf, to go back to racing. He races alongside Krazy Kamui Kobayashi, so a bit of a strange team…

11^th January: Michael Schumacher has been given permission by the FIA to test a GP2 car at Jerez. That hardly seems fair, does it? He is not allowed to test a Formula One car but he CAN test GP”! * And USF1 have been granted extra straight line testing days to help their preparations; they are only supposed to have 4, and that was originally 6 before it was cut back. As it is, they are allowed to do their pre-season tests in the US rather than travel to Europe! 

11^th January: Fernando Alonso makes his first appearance in Ferrari red at their traditional skiing event. What if you can’t ski? Do you just have to watch?

Or is this the helicopter pilot????

11^th January: The FIA says it WILL appeal the Briatore verdict. Keeps the lawyers in cream buns I suppose. Then they’ll change the rules. In the meantime the FIA says the Crashgate 2 can still not work in F1. But it won’t enforce the part about drivers managed by Briatore not getting a superlicence….. not that any of them seemed to worry about their Briatore connection!

6^th January: Mad Max says the Briatore affair is far from over and says the FIA can just change the rules so that non-licence holders can be banned as well! Regarding the suggestion that Flav could sue the Piquets, Max says: “It’s just talk. A little bit of boasting in the Italian press. The fact is if he went after the Piquets there would be a countersuit that would make his eyes water…….because don’t forget he accused them of blackmail and extortion, which is very defamatory….Remember, the court did not find that [Briatore] was not guilty. They just didn't like the procedure we used. But it's a very preliminary judgement. I think the FIA should appeal the judgement because I think it is seriously flawed in a number of areas. Aspects of it are just extraordinary. Symonds actually admitted in writing that he was guilty and yet they found in his favour. But that's only because they are not looking at the substance, they are just looking at the procedure."

5^th January: Renault announces that Eric Boullier will be it’s new team principal, as Bob bell moves aside to oversee the car design and production. It’s interesting that it’s today that a French court rules that the life ban for Flavio Briatore and the 5 year ban for Pat Symonds should be overturned. This is not because they are not guilty but because the decision is “irregular” because the FIA has no jurisdiction over those who are not licence holders. So they get off on a technicality and the FIA should announce the court verdict in French newspapers. Flav is pleased but says he has no immediate plans to return to F1. It gets the English football league off the hook though as Flav continues to run QPR! Not that they’d even mentioned it as a problem as far as we’re aware! Flav also threatens to sue the Piquets…..

23^rd December: He cannot be serious!!! Michael Schumacher will drive for Mercedes GP in 2010!! Well, he’ll have one title….. oldest man on the grid! He reckons his neck is better now! Ross Brawn must have talked him into it…. you have to feel sorry for Nico Rosberg who signed up thinking he’d be top dog, when in waltzes Schumacher! 

21^st December: Maurizio Flammini, organiser of the Rome GP proposed for 2012 tells Gazzetta dello Sport: "The first agreement has been signed. The details can't be disclosed, but it's a written confirmation that Bernie will support the GP in Rome.” But representatives of Monza are not so impressed: “This is the latest act of arrogance from a parasite capital city that has lived for the last 2000 years with the oxygen stolen from the other towns," Monza mayor Marco Mariani told Gazzetta. Monza provincial president Dario Allevi added: "This wouldn't be the first time Flammini lies for propagandistic reasons." Whoa! Steady on, boys!

18^th December: The Turkish GP is in jeopardy after 2010, as Ecclestone doubles the price of the contract, according to their local media. It’s obviously outlived its usefulness…

17^th December: Now this is a weird one….. Kamui Kobayashi joins Sauber for 2010. It’s nice for him, and now he won’t have to work in his father’s sushi restaurant. But you’d never have put them together, would you? There doesn’t seem to be money involved…

16^th December: Renault announces a partnership with the Genii company, which is quite apt in this Panto season. The team will stay as Renault but wants to be ‘greener’. Didn’t Honda try that with the Earth car? And look what happened to them!

15^th December: The Virgins confirm there is a new one in their ranks: Lucas di Grassi will partner Timo for 2010. They have the launch in Notting Hill for some reason…. Is that Branson’s house? 

14^th December: Jarno and Heikki Kovalainen are confirmed at Lotus F1 Team for 2009. Jarno has a 3 year deal, dunno about Heikki. See the News page…

11^th December: The FIA announces a new points system for F1. Who’s been interfering here then? They say it’s due to the expanded grid. The new system works this way: 25 points for a win, then 20, 15, 10, 8, 6, 5, 3, 2, 1.. It will now be impossible to compare previous years though…..oh wait, there’s bound to be some boffin who works it out!

10^th December: The teams approve changing the name of Brawn GP to Mercedes GP. And they get all the perks Brawn won in 2009.

7^th December: Silverstone gets the British GP for the next 17 years!!!! Hooray!!! You see, we had to go through the pain of Donington to get to this point… Silverstone is making some changes to the track and starting work on a new pits and paddocks complex after Christmas. It won’t be the same if they do all that though… there wasn’t that much wrong with it.

4^th December: Renault is considering bids to take control of its F1 team. In the frame is David Richards’ Prodrive, and Genii Capital, headed up by some geezer called Gerard Lopez. Ecclestone approves especially of the latter so there’s bound to be something wrong with it. * Kimi Raikkonen joins the World Rally Championship with the Citroen Junior Team in a car backed by Red Bull. Just for 2010 for now. 

December

30^th November: Manor GP will run under the name Virgin Racing in 2010. So Timo is a virgin…..

27^th November: BMW agrees to sell Peter Sauber’s original team back to Peter Sauber. It’s as if he’s never been away! The other suitor Qadbak, the Swiss company with the Arabic name, is out of the picture. * Force India retains Sutil and Liuzzi for 2010. Fisi didn’t get it then. * The Canadian GP’s return to the calendar is now official. It’s a 5 year deal. The governments of Canada and Quebec, Montreal and Tourisme Montreal have had a whip round to get it back….

26^th November: Lotus and Manor are granted FOTA membership, so now FOTA has ‘em all!!! Even Toyota is still a member….. huh????

23^rd November: Nico Rosberg joins Mercedes/Brawn expecting to partner Jenson, only to find he’s jumped ship! Nico’s calling it a “Silver Arrows re-launch in 2010”. No news yet on the other Merc driver…..

18^th November: A new low for the company that leases Donington: Donington Ventures Leisure Ltd has gone into administration. Shame about their 150 year lease. And direct from Cloud Cuckoo Land, the recovery company Begbies Traynor hopes that someone will buy the company and still hold a Grand Prix in 2011…. 

18^th November: Nick Fry reckons Jenson may have signed for McLaren for less than Brawn/Mercedes were offering. “I respect his decision. It’s not one that I would have made and I think he has been poorly advised…..we don’t understand the logic of the decision and I think Jenson is going to have to up his game if he’s going to beat Lewis on home territory.”  Sir Jackie Stewart also believes “it’s a mistake by Jenson…There’s a totally different culture in McLaren, something that he might never have experienced before….It will be difficult for him to take on Lewis Hamilton….because Lewis has had three years with McLaren now. He has it his way. He’s already disposed of one driver (Alonso)… and I think that Lewis will want to retain his position of prominence in the team….”

18^th November: Something Jenson forgot to mention to Ross, obviously: Jenson HAS signed for McLaren, a 3 year deal, partnering Lewis Hamilton. Oh Jenson, what have you done? Unless you had no choice because Merc froze you out, this “dream team” could be a nightmare, especially for you. Team Lulu is built around Hamilton, the car will be to HIS liking, he expects to be number one. This could all go horribly wrong for you. Why didn’t you sign earlier for Brawn then they’d have to keep you in “your” team? Or pay you a sight more than Mac are to get rid of you! There’s a big discrepancy in salary between two World Champions.  And what of Kimi, who would only consider driving for McLaren? His wage demands priced him out. Too greedy mate. He will take a year off from F1. “A gap year means nothing to Kimi” says manager Steve Robertson. Quite. 

17^th November: Timo Glock joins new team Manor GP for 2010. He obviously doesn’t trust in Renault either, which is where he was rumoured to end up. He says he wants to help develop the car and build up the team, which he says is run by “true racers”, whatever that means.

16^th November: Mercedes takes over the Brawn F1 team. How clever is Ross Brawn? He takes a chance investing in a team, gives it his name, they win the WDC and the Constructors Championship, so he is forever in the record books, and then sells to Mercedes, trousering a fortune. And still keeps his job! Brilliant! Mercedes take over a winning team and sensibly keeps its driving force in Ross. Ross poopoos the speculation that Jenson is about to sign for McLaren, stating “negotiations are continuing and the reports that he has already signed terms with McLaren are not helpful”. However, there are suggestions that Mercedes has already signed Nico Rosberg and is keen to have two German drivers, which isn’t JB…. McLaren keep Merc engines though.

 

 

Q & A with Jarno about Sutil!!!

From Autosport 19^th October 2009     http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/79623

Q. You still seem quite upset by what happened with Adrian Sutil.

Jarno Trulli: I am not angry because of the result, I am angry because of the manoeuvre which was extremely, extremely dangerous. We know it is an easy flat out corner, and he should have given me enough space not to go on the kerbs. We were in sixth gear and we were lucky that no one got injured - but this was something really bad.

Q. Adrian says he could not see you in the rear view mirror.

JT: Yeah, because I was next to him! And why then did he protect himself on the inside? He knew that he came out of that corner very slow because of Kimi Raikkonen. I didn't know what happened to Raikkonen. I saw them suddenly slow down. I thought if I could pull away, Sutil would stay there and I was coming with much more speed. He went on the inside so I went on the outside, and we went side-to-side to him. There is an onboard camera showing my front wheel next to his wheel, so if you looking at the back then I am not there.

He might say that he drove on the racing line. Yes, but I am still on the racing line in this case. So if you decide to stay on the inside, then stay on the inside. Don't pull on the outside because I am there – and you can see him there. The problem was that he put me over the kerbs – and once I was on the kerbs I lost car control completely.

And the fact that I hit him on the back is that once I was on the kerbs that car got unstable. I lifted off and then I hit him on the back – even though at the time I was next to him.

Q. Are there some drivers that need a slap on the wrist?

JT: I spoke with Fernando Alonso straight after crash, as he saw the accident. He said that Sutil is totally crazy. What he did was totally crazy. Because we were probably at 250-260km/h, flat in sixth gear. It is a straight, even though it is a bend, because it is flat in wet and dry conditions – and you cannot push someone like that. If there was a wall I would have hit the wall straight. He sent me over the kerbs.

Q. So you don't accept his apology that he could not see you, which is why he moved across?

JT: Well, I think he really thought I was stupid. But the problem is, he pulled onto the inside to protect himself because he knew the speed difference – as he had a problem with the car in front. When that happens the first thing you do is look in the mirror and protect yourself as you know someone is going to come.

That is why he went on the inside, and I went on the outside. Clearly you can see from the television images and the onboard shots that I was next to him. So why did he pull onto the outside line and then push me on the kerbs. I can accept that he did not see me in his mirrors, but there was no one to see in the mirrors at that stage.

Q. Even if he says he says he could not see you at all...

JT: No. No. No. Come on. It is impossible. The speed difference was too much. You can expect someone coming clearly quick next to you. This is what happened. You can see I was three lengths behind in the shot before Turn 4. This gives you an idea because there is no shot between Turn 4 and Turn 5. You only see after Turn 5 and you can see, in Turn 5 already that I am next to him. So what happened between Turn 4 and Turn 5?

It is what I am telling you – he lost three car lengths because he basically ran nearly into Kimi. So he lifted off, and probably had to brake because the speed difference between me and him was too much. I can understand that he protected himself going onto the inside, but you have to leave me enough space to go around. You know I am coming much quicker than you.

Can you imagine - I know that you are quicker than me, so I go on the inside and then I try to push you on the outside, ignoring that you are going to go there? It is an easy flat corner. You cannot imagine anyone to lift off there, even on the outside. You can go around that corner flat three cars together.

Q. Is this the worst incident of its type that you seen in Formula 1?

JT: Honestly, yes. That is why I was so bloody nervous afterwards when I jumped out of the car. To happen once is a racing accident – we might have a touch or we might bang wheels. But when someone does it deliberately at that speed, this is crazy. It is unacceptable. You cannot do that. It is like a straight – you are flat, and he basically sent me onto the kerbs and grass when I was on the straight. I cannot accept any apology, I am sorry. It is clear to anyone in the paddock that you cannot do that.

Q. In all the years you have been in F1, I have never seen you so upset.

JT: You know why, because it was dangerous. The way I lost the car control immediately I touched the kerb. I was next to him and it was enough to push me right onto the kerbs, then he was still on the inside. It was flat. We were on the straight, not in the corner, and I was worried as I spun about if anyone would come and hit me.

Q. And you saw what happened when Sutil collected Alonso afterwards?

JT: This is what I was wondering. On the straight at 260km/h you cannot play these games.

Q. Would you have driven the same with another driver, because Adrian claims there is a lack of respect as he is a Force India driver?

JT: I respect everyone in the paddock. I am the first man to respect everyone in this paddock. But what he has done today is totally crazy. And you ask any driver in the paddock for their comments about this – you ask Alonso, who was right behind me. He told me – it's a crazy manoeuvre. You cannot push someone on the straight line, flat out at 260km/h, straight onto the grass. It is unacceptable, come on.

Q. John Howett reckoned a podium place would have been possible?

JT: Yes. I totally agree. Maybe even fighting for the victory because on Friday I was very quick and very competitive. I had enough fuel. The strategy was fine. The start was good, so I was in the frame honestly to fight for the win. The car all weekend was very good.

Q. So how do you go about racing someone that you don't trust like this?

JT: I think in the paddock everyone knows him because he is always involved in accidents. But this one was the basic concept. You can go into a corner, brake later being on the inside or outside, make a collision or have a crash. You can argue that it is a racing accident. But pushing someone on the straight, because it was a straight. Trying to push him on the outside line and on the kerbs at 260km/h – you must be really mad. You must be crazy.

Q. With the FIA having done nothing, is it now a GPDA issue?

JT: We will talk about it I am sure, because it is something unacceptable. And the guy, Alonso, who was behind me said it was crazy.

Phew!!!!

Japanese Grand Prix Preview - Q+A with Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock
29^th September 2009

How would you describe Suzuka as a circuit?
Jarno: It is a very technical and very challenging circuit. There are a lot of high-speed corners and quick changes of direction, so it is a very nice lay-out for a driver. Spa is very similar but I would say a little bit harder because it is longer. There are many different types of corner so you need your car to be strong in all areas and, as a medium-high-speed track, aerodynamics are very important. I am really looking forward to going back to Suzuka after two enjoyable trips to Fuji Speedway because it's one of the sport's great tracks.
Timo: Suzuka is a mega track, one of the best in the world. I am really looking forward to driving there again as it has been five years which is way too long! The main thing about Suzuka is that it is high speed and in a Formula 1 car that is a lot of fun. It is a really interesting circuit, with lots of different types of corners as well as up and downhill sections. It's certainly not easy.
What is your favourite part of the track?
Jarno: The track is too good to only choose one part! The combination of fast corners at the start of the lap is great fun in a Formula 1 car then you have the quick left-hander of 130R followed by hard braking for the chicane which is quite challenging.
Timo: For me the most exciting part of the track is the first sector, turns three, four and five going uphill. You're hitting over 300km/h so the speed and direction changes are really nice. It's just an unbelievable combination of corners. In the past I think 130R was quite challenging but now it is flat-out, even with the new aerodynamic rules.
What memories do you have of Suzuka?
Jarno: I have some good and some bad memories of Suzuka. Generally I have not been particularly lucky there. I remember back in 2003 I was fastest in first qualifying but in the second session it rained at the wrong time and I had to start at the back. But even so I was really quick in the race and finished fifth; if I had started in the top six I think I could have won it. One of my best memories of Suzuka is making my Toyota debut there in 2004. It was a really special experience to go to Japan for the first time as a Toyota driver and in first qualifying I was on provisional pole; seeing the reaction from the team and the fans was great. Obviously the car wasn't that competitive in race trim but it was good motivation to see what was possible.
Timo: I have only been to Suzuka once before and the first thing I remember is getting to the airport and realising my mobile phone didn't work. It was my first time to be anywhere in Japan I wasn't expecting that! I had to get another one. Apart from that I just remember the track being really, really impressive.
When was your first visit to Suzuka?
Jarno: I actually visited Suzuka for the first time many years ago before I reached Formula 1. It was in 1994 for a kart meeting and I won the Ayrton Senna Memorial Cup, which was a very proud moment for me. I can't remember too much about the visit but obviously it was a different experience for an Italian who has spent most of his time in Europe.
Timo: My first race at Suzuka was in 2004, the year they had to postpone qualifying until Sunday due to the typhoon. That was a really surreal experience, not only because we were back in our hotel on a Saturday afternoon when we should have been qualifying but also because it was the first time I saw a typhoon; it was very impressive. I was watching the TV to see if it would really hit Suzuka or not. In the end it rained a lot but it wasn't as bad as expected. I didn't have the best race because my car at the time wasn't so competitive. I would have preferred to have a wet race but it stayed dry and I just got the car to the finish, in 15th.
What experiences have you had of the Japanese fans?
Jarno: The great thing about Japan, whether you go to Suzuka or Fuji, is the number of supporters we have there. As Toyota we have a lot of fans but I personally have a big fan club in Japan. I really enjoy spending some time with my fans in Japan during race week and I hope I can do the same again this year. They make it a special race for me because it feels like a second home Grand Prix. I have a lot of friends in Japan and I hope to celebrate with them on Sunday!
Timo: Last year I was really surprised how many fans were at Fuji supporting me and Toyota. They are so enthusiastic and they really love Formula 1. It's a great feeling to drive around a track and see Toyota flags and banners giving me support. It is really motivating and I can't wait to be back in Japan to experience it again. One thing I remember about being at Suzuka is that the fans surround you all the time. At the hotel there are always hundreds of fans waiting outside and if you drive in and out of the circuit they are everywhere, just wanting to say hello and give you their support. They are crazy, nice people and they create a really special atmosphere.
What are your targets for the Japanese Grand Prix?
Jarno: This year we should be competitive and we hope to be very strong so I hope to race well in our home Grand Prix. We are strong enough to be in the top six and we should be aiming to get near the podium. I hope to give the Japanese fans a good show and a result they can enjoy.
Timo: One day I would love to win the Japanese Grand Prix for Toyota; that is a dream. I don't know if that will be possible this year so my target for the weekend is to fight for the podium; if I can stand on the podium in front of the Toyota fans that would be perfect.
What are you particularly looking forward to this weekend?
Jarno: That's easy: spending time with my fans and driving at Suzuka again.
Timo: Aside from driving at Suzuka again, I am looking forward to two things; it will be great to be in Tokyo again because it's a really cool city and I have spent a lot of time there the past couple of years. It's good fun so I'm happy to have a short time there before the race. The other thing I am looking forward to is sushi; I am really a fan and the best sushi in the world is obviously in Japan.

 

Italian Grand Prix Preview Q+A - Jarno Trulli

9^th September 2009

Is it different for you to be racing in your home Grand Prix this weekend?
For me, the Italian Grand Prix is a very special occasion and I always look forward to this weekend. It's great to drive in front of your own fans and there are always a lot of people supporting me at Monza. In the past we had two Grands Prix in Italy, plus some testing, but this weekend is the only time I will be driving on my home ground this year and I only live a couple of hours or so away in St Moritz so it is really local for me.

Why is Monza such a special venue for Formula 1?
Because it is in Italy and the Italians make it special! Monza is just a very different circuit from any other in Formula 1 because you have the long straights, high speeds, low downforce, heavy braking and the chicanes. It is not the most technical circuit but it is unique in Formula 1. I think the Italian fans make Monza really special as they are passionate about motorsport in general, whether it is Formula 1 or whatever. The Italian Grand Prix is a major event for all Italians and Monza is the home of Italian motorsport.

Do your home fans motivate you more?
It's impossible to be more motivated or to push harder than I am doing! As a driver you do notice when you have more support than usual and you appreciate it, but there's no way you can try any harder. If I wasn't giving 100% at all Grands Prix, I would not be doing my job, so in that sense Monza is just like any other race. Perhaps it would just make it a bit sweeter if I could get a great result...

What was it like to race in the wet at Monza last year?
Monza is definitely a track where you want good weather. Wet conditions are not the best for this track, especially on the long straights where visibility is virtually zero. At the moment the forecast looks much better than last year which is good for everyone.

What are the key attributes you need in a car to be quick at Monza?
The main things are good top speed because of the very long straights then braking stability and the ability to ride the kerbs at the chicanes. You can gain a tenth of a second or so at each chicane if you can ride the kerbs well so you have to find a set-up which allows you to jump over the kerbs smoothly and get good traction at the exit. Exit speed is as important as top speed because if you are slow out of a corner you carry that disadvantage all the way down the long straight.

What are your memories of racing at Monza?
I think my first visit to Monza was in 1997 when I raced there in Formula 1 for the first time. From what I can remember it went quite well and I finished in the top 10. I have been strong several times at Monza; I finished fourth in 2002 to equal my team's best result of that season and in 2005 I was fifth. But I've had some really bad luck as well. Three times in four years I qualified in the top six and was in good shape but had to retire on the first lap, twice because I was hit from behind and once because of a technical problem. This year I want to create some more positive memories!

Is there one thing you particularly look forward to at Monza?
Apart from racing in front of my home fans it is definitely the food. I am Italian so there is only one type of food for me! There are so many great places to eat around Monza but the hotel where I stay has a very good restaurant so the Italian Grand Prix weekend is my favourite from that point of view.

Do you expect a competitive weekend?
I hope we can be competitive. It is quite hard to predict this season because our relative performance has changed from race to race sometimes. We were strong in Spa which has some similar characteristics to Monza, and it was encouraging to see our improvement in qualifying. I don't want to make any predictions but as always I will give my all and I hope we can be fighting at the front again.

Can you explain what is happening on Saturday night?
Since the terrible earthquake in Abruzzo, which is my home region, I have been raising money to help the victims through the Abruzzo nel Cuore appeal. We have already raised over Euro75,000 through www.abruzzonelcuore.net and we expect to raise a lot more on Saturday night in Monza. There will be an auction of overalls and helmets from different drivers, as well as watches from Audemars Piguet, to raise money for Abruzzo. We have had support from the other drivers and the other teams. We also received a lot of help, in terms of donations and organisation, from Audemars Piguet and I'm sure this will really help the people of Abruzzo. The money we are raising will be used to help them rebuild their lives and I hope we can build a new school or something useful for their community.

 

YourRacingCar.com

Fathers Day

Dare to be different with a gift that lasts all season long! Remember ‘Pass the Parcel’ – well that’s what we have on offer for you to give – several surprises in one package.

Gift a YourRacingCar.com pack and an exclusive tyre-tread team cap and pin will wing its way to you with an adult ticket to Paradise Wildlife Park, Hertfordshire for you to wrap as you choose.

We’ll pop a “Welcome YRC’er” card with their unique YRC number in with the details of all the other benefits and ask them to go to the website to see how to claim them; £25 off of track days, 10% off or racing experiences, 10% discount on solar travel products, cheaper motorsport merchandise, two–for-one entry to the London Motor Museum, a trip to a big cat wildlife sanctuary in Kent, and the chance to be in the monthly prize draw.

 On the website the lucky YRC’er will see that since the season started they could have won a PowerTraveller DVD player, an in-car AudioSystem amplifier, a pair of Select Motor Racing hospitality tickets to the BTCC at Donington Park and a BookATrack track day courtesy of YRC’s partners.

June’s fantastic prize is for ten YRC’ers and a friend each to visit the Ginetta factory in Leeds during July, to see these high-performance cars being built and maybe even catch a glimpse of the Ginetta-Zytek LMP1 back from it’s Le Mans stint on the 13 and 14 June. Names will be drawn at the end of the month.

The lucky gift recipient will get the chance to upload a picture of their choice and to put their name or a message on the YRC racing car for this season.

So a gift worth over £100 will be all wrapped up, at a cost of just £27.95 (including P&P) to you. Father’s Day is heading this way fast so to ensure delivery on time please join up by 15 June.

If you fancy splashing a bit more cash the team’s first race t-shirt and the season t-shirt are only £10 each in a fab quality black cotton with striking green designs to suit all shapes and sizes from XS to XXL.

To set up your gift account, just think of a user name between eight and 15 letters and confirm the t-shirt size needed by dropping us a line at admin@yourracingcar.com putting “GIFT” in the subject line. We’ll sort out the checkout with you and pop everything in the same posting packet.

If you fancy treating yourself then it’s easy to join at www.joinyrc.com and if you are already a YRC’er and want to add to your team gear just drop us a line at admin@yourracingcar.com with “T-SHIRT” in the subject line.

 

PRESS RELEASE

More history in the making at Croft … take your place in the race!

YourRacingCar.com (YRC) the fan-funded racing team will celebrate their fifth race outing at the Croft circuit on the 13 and 14 June whilst the illustrious circuit will be making preparations for its 45^th anniversary of motor racing in August. How fitting that the YRC team are running a hand-built car made in Yorkshire, as they take part in the Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup which runs in support of the HiQ British Touring Car Championship.

 

No ordinary car, this is the YRC car which has pictures from it’s fan sponsors on the roof and their names and messages on the bonnet, so the fans get a place in the race! Reaching speeds of up to 130 mph on the circuit puts the fans in a spin as they try to spot themselves at the track, but all are welcome to pop by the garage between races! Croft is a great track to experience exciting motor racing first-hand with the Ginetta G50 not being just a car chase, but providing a lot of high-speed over-taking , thrills and spills.

 

“Running a team funded by people who love motorsport took a leap of faith due to the sheer numbers required,” said Hannah James, Team Manager, “but the support has been great as we get to the
half-way point in the season. It’s brilliant to welcome fans local to the circuit at each round and they get the extra thrill of cheering their own car home. The June prize draw has a Yorkshire theme as it offers an extra special treat for 10 YRC fans, and a friend, who will have the chance to visit the Leeds-based Ginetta racing factory in July.”

 

Adopting the traits of hard-work and thrift, the small YourRacingCar.com crew works hard to keep an eye on the money spent and to give something back to the fans. If you join the team as a fan sponsor in return you’ll get your name and a picture on the car plus perks which can be worth over four times the season sponsorship fee of £25. YRC’s fans get an exclusive team cap and pin plus special offers on a number of days out, track days and experiences, travel products and motorsport merchandise and entry into the monthly prize draws.

 

Small businesses are invited to get involved too and experience the thrill of being a racing car sponsor. Deals on Racing Wheels is a credit crunch buster marketing package, which not only puts the business name over the wheel arch of the car, it also gives back benefits to share with staff or suppliers and customers to more than the value of the spend and two tickets to the racing plus a signed tyre presented to the business at the end of the racing weekend; just contact hannah@yourracingcar.com.

 

YourRacingCar.com will next be out at Croft, Yorkshire on the 13 and 14 June 2009 and if you want to be part of history in the making of the fan-funded car go to http://www.joinyrc.com/

 

MONACO POST QUALY Q&A

 

By Jonathan Noble   http://www.autosport.com/

Saturday, May 23rd 2009

Q & A with Jarno Trulli

After securing its first front row lockout in Bahrain just two races ago, Toyota is suddenly in the doldrums, with Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock occupying the last row of the grid in Monaco.

What's worse, however, is that the team has no answers about the lack of performance.   Trulli talked about Toyota's worrying situation after qualifying, and AUTOSPORT was there.

Q. How do you think things are looking for tomorrow?

Jarno Trulli: I don't think we are looking good at all, so we will see.

Q. Is it a big shock what has happened this weekend?

JT: It was a bit unexpected the underperforming here, but it is a shame that we did not get as good as in Q1 - because I was able but I just found traffic. At the end of the day, it was a terrible day.

Q. How do you explain the fact that two races ago you were fighting for the win in Bahrain and locked out the front row, and two races on you are at the back of the grid?

JT: There are many things we need to understand at the moment. We don't know.

Q. Is it down to car characteristics? The car set-up?

JT: The set-up not for sure, because we have tried everything – we really put the car upside down and anything we did, did not change the situation. It is difficult now to judge.

Q. Do you think it could have been a track specific thing for the last two races?

JT: No, no. At the moment I don't have an answer because we need to investigate and understand.

Q. And no inkling that this sort of thing could happen in the pre-season built-up?

JT: Yes. We never had such a bad performance in any of the conditions we met over the winter. We are a little bit disappointed about what is happening because we are finding it hard to understand.

Q. Do you think other teams have made bigger steps of development with their cars then?

JT: It doesn't explain one and a half seconds. It is too much – especially for me in Monaco. It is too much.

Q. Is this one of the biggest disappointments of your F1 career?

JT: So far, yes. Okay, I was unlucky to find the traffic otherwise I would have qualified 15th in Q1, but nevertheless the pace is just too far away. It is too far away.

Q. Does the car feel different to drive compared to how it was at the start of the season?

JT: No. The car doesn't feel bad. There is just no grip. It looks like we cannot stress the tyres, get temperature in the tyres, we cannot switch them on. That is the key.

Q. Could that explain what has happened then?

JT: If we can understand this, then we can make a big step forward. But the main problem is turning the tyres on. At the moment we cannot do that and we do not understand why. I don't know why. It is really hard to answer.

Q. And tomorrow, what is the best you can hope for?

JT: We will race and we will see. I really have no idea, but I don't think we can race for points unless many cars stop in front of us.

Q. Is the car problem something that could be cured quickly by looking at data in the factory?

JT: We are already analysing. But the problem is that as drivers we both have the same problem – there is no grip. It is not a question of balance, there is just no grip. We cannot feel the car. We cannot feel the tyres – and we are struggling to make the best use of the tyres. It is not the car – we have changed everything, really everything, and nothing has made a difference.

Q. Could the lack of testing this year have had an impact on the situation?

JT: No. I don't think so. No. I believe more that we need to understand what is going on. There is no testing that will help us, because there are other things that we will have to look at. Obviously this has never been a good race track for Toyota – but it has never been so bad as well.

BAHRAIN POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Jarno, a great result for you and a great Q3. But many problems today with the brakes, the wind and the heat.

Jarno TRULLI: It wasn't an easy qualifying I think for everyone but for me it made everything more difficult as after the first run we found out a couple of troubles on my car especially I was struggling with the brakes. The pedal was getting longer and longer and I was not able to brake the way I wanted. Nevertheless I did not give up as I knew I had a good car and I could fight for pole, so it was really nice to end up with first and second for the team especially for Toyota. Mr Okamoto is also here to support us, so it is great to show him what a great result and what great work we have been doing over the winter time and today.

Q. Timo, you lost a little bit of time in P3 this morning with an electrical problem. But a great qualifying for you too.

Timo GLOCK: Yeah, it was not too bad. We found quite a lot overnight as we struggled yesterday with the brakes quite a lot. You know overnight we did the right changes to the car and I was really, really happy this morning. I was quite surprised that I was still quickest at the end and I was quite happy for qualifying. In qualifying the wind changed and I struggled a little bit in the first run. It was a bit more points, a bit more nervous, it was a bit difficult. And in the Q3 lap I knew when I crossed the start-finish that it would not be enough for Jarno as he is really, really good in qualifying, especially in Q2 getting everything out of the fuel load. I had one mistake in it when I lost a bit of time but at the end I think it would not have been enough for pole but I am happy for the team. The mechanics had a hard time the last couple of weeks. The first four races were really, really hard and I think it is really good for the team.

Q. Sebastian, on the back of your great win in Shanghai continuing your record in the top three again. It looks like you saved a set of tyres in Q2 and a big smile on your face now as we go into the race.

Sebastian VETTEL: Yes, I think it was a good session for us. I think we could see already in Q1 that it was very tight. It was not enough to do one run on the prime, so I think everybody had to put the option on. The whole field, we could see already this morning, is very close together. But to come back I think it was a smooth qualifying session for us, we did not have any problems. We have a very, very quick car. In Q2 we only needed one run and we still managed to stay quickest, so that was very good. Even the circuit was improving. But I think in Q3 the two Toyotas today were just a bit too quick. I am looking forward to tomorrow though. I reckon they will pull in a bit earlier but it is a long race. Let's see, but of course I am looking forward.

Q. Jarno, your reaction to Sebastian's comment there that maybe you are going to be pulling in a bit earlier than he will and also your thoughts going in on potentially the day Toyota might win their first grand prix.

JT: To be honest I did not feel very confident for the qualifying lap. I have been working quite a lot more on the race pace and I felt more competitive and this is why probably I am on pole as today when we fuelled the car, it felt better. I feel especially confident for tomorrow. I should not have any problems apart from the fact that we need to analyse the brake and see the situation there.

Q. Jarno, it does sound that there is a bit of a worry about brakes. What can be done between now and the race itself?

JT: It was a hard qualifying. I had troubles with my car. At the beginning we found out that maybe we had some problem with the fuel, so I had a bit more extra fuel on board to make sure I was not running out of fuel. And then the biggest problem was the brakes. We have not had any problem during the whole weekend but unfortunately in qualifying after the two runs I was struggling and I lost a couple of tenths on all my runs from Q2 to Q3, so I think there is much more potential in the car. But I cannot be so disappointed being on pole. Obviously I was not so confident to be here today because I have been spending most of the time on the race pace and I think I was much more comfortable on a heavier fuelled car and this probably I have shown in Q3, so I am extremely confident for tomorrow's race as the car in general has been running pretty well.

Q. But what can be done between now and tomorrow morning?

JT: We need to analyse the data to see if we have some problem on the brakes and eventually if we can change it as straight away after the first run I had a problem and all weekend I never appeared to be in trouble, so this is a bit of a worry.

Q. After yesterday you said that you wanted more drivability to the car and the team also said that tyre choice was not particularly critical which is interesting as well.

JT: Yeah, there are a few things which are interesting which we discovered yesterday and today compared to winter time testing as I believe the position has changed dramatically. All in all we are happy with the data collected and I think we have quite a good idea what can happen tomorrow. Obviously we just have to wait and see but I must say I am very confident for the race as my race pace and looking after the tyres has been pretty good all weekend.

Q. Timo, you have not had any brakes problems?

TG: We had the problems yesterday. I struggled quite a lot yesterday with the car already and was far away from the test pace and overnight we had a lot of stuff to change and it worked out this morning that we were quickest in P3, so I was pretty happy with the car. But in qualifying the wind changed a bit and we struggled already in Q1 on the prime tyres and I couldn't get the lap together and had to get used to it first. After that I was quite happy in Q2 in the last run and this was okay. In Q3 I was still struggling a bit to get used to the heavier fuel load from low fuel in Q2 into Q3 and after turn eight I knew it would not work out for pole because I did a mistake. In the end I have to be happy with the first row for Toyota and it is really good for the team. A perfect result and thanks to the mechanics for all the hard work in the last four weeks. I think it was one of the toughest beginnings of the season for them and it is a good result for us.

Q. Presumably they had quite a lot of work last night as well because you were saying yesterday that the car was quite hard to drive and yet you set fastest time this morning and then stopped on circuit.

TG: Yeah, what we had this morning was a bit strange. Suddenly the engine went off and we had a little bit of an electrical problem. We found that quite quickly and were able to repair it in time. In the end, I think we have to be happy with the result.

Q. How much is this performance due to the modifications that have been made to the car since China?

TG: I don't think it was a big step, just some small improvements on the car, so nothing big to notice. At the end the result in qualifying is just the result of a smooth qualifying and we've never had a smooth qualifying. I think we've made our lives a bit difficult in the first couple of weekends. We've started two times from the pit lane and we've had to fight quite a lot in the race. Now we've had a smooth weekend so far in qualifying especially and hopefully we are quick in the race.

Q. Sebastian, was third on the grid better or worse than you expected?

SV: It's always difficult to know what to expect when you go into qualifying, especially with different fuel loads. You either go aggressive, conservative or average. It really depends, so you don't know what to expect. We have known since yesterday - yesterday afternoon was quite good for us and also this morning - that our car is quick. I think we proved that in Q1 and Q2, so that was very good. In Q3 I was personally a bit surprised by how big the gap was to Jarno, he was very, very fast but I think it was the best we could have achieved today, so thanks for that and I'm looking forward to tomorrow. It will be very hot, it will be a long race, so a long way to go. I think it's very important to be in front of Jenson as it was very tight with him. I think we did more or less the same lap time, so that was good; gaining any grid positions always helps, so let's see tomorrow.

Q. Have you had any problems with brakes?

SV: Well, I wouldn't say problems. I think Bahrain is well known as a heavy braking circuit, so you ask a lot of your brakes. There's a lot of stop and go here, so tomorrow, also with these temperatures, it will be difficult to cool them but I think this is the kind of problem everybody will face. I think we are prepared, so I hope we don't have any problems tomorrow.

Q. And is there a big difference in tyres for you?

SV: I would say that both compounds are working really well here. We were basically focusing on getting the car into race trim over the last two days, so I think we will have a good time on both compounds and not face any problems similar or close to Australia where we had a lot of graining. I think both compounds are working well here, and Bahrain isn't that heavy on tyres, more so on the brakes, so I think we will be fine, even though it's very hot. Let's see tomorrow - if there's no sand storm it will be a good race.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Ottavio Daviddi – Tuttosport) Jarno, I think the pressure will be very big starting from pole; are you afraid of that?

JT: I wish I could always have this pressure. I'm not afraid. One time I was on pole I won, I think, so it's not a problem.

Q. (Marco Evangelisti – Corriere dello Sport) Jarno, do you want to dedicate this pole to someone?

JT: Well, definitely my thoughts have recently always been with my region. As you all know, I'm supporting a charity campaign with all the drivers as well, the GPDA, and I'm trying to involve as many people as possible, so my first thoughts are with my region, obviously as well to the Toyota team and everybody. One of the big bosses, Mr Okamoto, is here, so it's nice to show him that we are doing well this year.

Q. (Frederic Ferret – L'Equipe) Question to Jarno and Timo: can you explain why you are on the front row together today compared to the other circuits? Is it that the track suits the TF109?

JT: I think half of it is thanks to the fact that we have been testing here over the winter time, part of it is also thanks to the fact that we have seen in the past that this is one of the tracks which our cars seems to like and partly because we have done a better job than the others. I don't know, but putting everything together puts both cars on the front row, so it just shows that the whole team has done a reasonably good job.

TG: I think, as Jarno said, we have just put everything together this time and had no trouble, and the car was closer to that which we knew from winter testing. Maybe that's due to the fact that we tested more here but in the end, I just think it was a good qualifying because everything went smoothly and we just got it together. That's it.

Q. (Frederic Ferret – L'Equipe) And what do you fear from this race?

SV: Sand storm.

JT: I don't know. During the first three races, I don't think things have really worked out well for me. I just hope for a trouble free race and I'm sure we can do a good job and get a good result because if I look back at everything that's happened during the past races, it's always been a bit difficult for me, so I just hope everything goes alright. RG: Yeah, for me the wind and the KERS cars. I think the best KERS car is Lewis Hamilton in P5 and that could be a little worry for us up to the first corner. I think the KERS cars have shown that they are really, really strong at the start and that could be one point. I hope we have a clean start and not the same problems that we had in Malaysia and get a clean race.

Q. (Juha Päätalo – Financial Times Deutschland) Sebastian, what do read from the results of Q2 and did the results of Q3 make you any more worried?

SV: No, not worried. I think in Q2 there's no need to play around, so everyone tries to go as quickly as possible. I was surprised how good we were, so we only needed one run, so we were able to save tyres for tomorrow. I think it showed that we are doing well here, the car is behaving well, so in Q3, when I crossed the line and I got the message and also the lap times from the guys ahead, from Timo and Jarno, I was a bit surprised but on the other hand, you never know, sometimes your car is a lot better on lighter fuel levels, sometimes it's better on high fuel levels but I think we should be sorted for tomorrow.

Q. (Beniamino Casadei – Il Giornale) When you were a young boy, an Italian fan of Formula One, did you enjoy more success for an Italian team on pole or for an Italian driver?

JT: As an Italian, Formula One was represented by Ferrari, so anything which was Formula One had to be red, I remember, but I grew up in a family which was a big fan of motor sport in general and they were actually not just big fans of Ferrari but talking about and discussing drivers a lot and their performance, so I grew up more with an overall mentality, rather than just a Ferrari mentality because unfortunately in Italy, Formula One is not represented by me or Giancarlo (Fisichella) but it's Ferrari and this can be a down point for us but on the other hand you just have to deal with it. I'm lucky enough that I was able to get here and I'm on pole now and that's it.

Q. (Roland Hughes – The National) Question for all of you: how much do you think the heat will play a part tomorrow, not only for the cars but for the drivers themselves?

JT: I'm not concerned at all, to be honest. If you look back, all my best performances always come in the worst, difficult conditions. I'm more than happy to race in these hot conditions.

TG: For me it's not a problem. I think at the end, when you see the numbers – 40 degrees or 38 degrees – you think it's pretty hot in the car but at least it's a dry heat, so it's reasonable. I don't have so many problems and it's OK.

SV: I think it should be colder tomorrow if I'm not wrong, not too much, still hot but maybe a little bit colder. I think the worst time is when you're waiting in the pits in the garage to go out again and you're kind of standing and the car is stationary and the car is hot. It's much better when you're driving on the circuit, you get a little bit of air and as Timo said, it's probably not as bad as Malaysia because there's not so much humidity. How hot is it going to be in Abu Dhabi when we are there? (Reply: Cooler.)

Q. (Peter Hesseler – Pitpress) Jarno, what was the problem with the brakes and what do you think was possible without any problems on the car?

JT: To be honest we don't understand what happened. I could only feel that after the second run in Q1 the pedal was long, I was getting knock-off. We had to do a quick hot bleed between the two sessions but I was still having problems, so basically I was not stopping the car well and I could not handle the brake pedal well, so I couldn't feel it very well. Some time was lost there but as I say, I cannot be too disappointed now and see what we can do tomorrow.