ew928

Did someone say COSWORTH?


Those computer software people must have to pay through the nose in writing their software manuals whenever they tell you to hit the 'F1' key.

A.Wayne

By Pablo Elizalde Tuesday, April 14th 2009, 09:13 GMT

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso is convinced his Renault team can raise its game following a shaky start to the season.

The French squad has not shown the kind of pace needed to fight near the top in Australia and Malaysia, with Alonso having a fifth place as his best result so far.

The Spaniard, however, is convinced Renault will be able to react like it did in the second half of the 2008 season.

"Absolutely," he said when asked if he believe Renault can improve the car. "I believe in this team and we saw last year that they know how to fight back and find performance from the car.

"It's still very early days and everyone in the team is working hard to develop the R29 so that we can be more competitive in the next few races. I was disappointed not to score points in Malaysia as my aim is to score points at every race this season.

"Obviously it's difficult to change the car until we get back to Europe, but we have learnt a lot from the first two races and we certainly made progress in Malaysia. We need to take another step forward in Shanghai and hopefully score points."

Renault's technical director Bob Bell says the team has so far failed to maximise its potential, but reckons there is still much more in store.

"It was clearly below par," said Bell. "We weren't running any new parts so it was basically the same car we had run in Melbourne and we saw a similar level of competitiveness.

"However, during winter testing we have seen a higher level of performance from the car and so we know there is more to come.

"It's just at the moment we're not extracting that performance from the car. I suspect there is something quite subtle and sensitive that we need to put right, but it's a case of understanding what that is and resolving the issue.

"There are definitely some changes we will make to the car for China to try and restore our performance to where we want to be, but it won't take us to the front of the field just yet."

A.Wayne

Motorsport's governing body, the FIA, is meeting on Tuesday to decide whether Jenson Button's car is legal.

he Formula 1 championship leader's Brawn Grand Prix team, Toyota and Williams use a split-level diffuser.

The FIA rejected a protest by rival teams, who argue the design does not conform to the new 2009 regulations.

But the International Court of Appeal is expected to announce a final ruling on Wednesday and could deduct points from Brawn, Toyota and Williams.

An independent panel is hearing arguments from both sides at the meeting in Paris, where Ferrari's legal representative, Nigel Tozzi QC, has described Brawn GP team boss Ross Brawn as "a person of supreme arrogance".

Full Story and video:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/moto...ne/7996698.stm,

Flying Finn

I don't think Ferrari, Mc etc. has a chance but knowing FIA, interesting to hear tomorrow...

Interesting development from Ferrari: Following Schumi's booting from "advisor" position, their team manager, Italian Luca Baldisserri won't be at the races anymore (he's been the main responsible for their tactical "desisions" (read: errors) and will be replaced by Aussie, Chris Dyer who previously was Schumi's and then Kimi's track engineer.

IMO a good move. I wonder if this means Ferrari is finally coming to their senses and realize that you can't build a team based on Nationality, but you need to select your employees based on their skills.

And hey Wayne, where the youtube clip of FIA's 2nd man crashing last year's Renault F1 car?
That's worth to see and shows how damn difficult these F1 cars are to drive no matter what all us bench racers think.
OK, here's the clip.

A.Wayne

Finn, Who was Driving ? ......I guess that's why you need a Super License

A.Wayne

Will JB be this years WDC ? ............................................


By Jonathan Noble Wednesday, April 15th 2009, 09:03 GMT

Ross Brawn arrives at the FIA hearingThe FIA International Court of Appeal has declared the double-decker diffuser designs used by Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams as legal.

Following overnight deliberation by the judges after a court hearing in Paris on Tuesday, the ICA has rejected the appeals lodged by Ferrari, Red Bull Racing and Renault. BMW Sauber and McLaren had also entered the appeal as affected parties.

A statement issued by the FIA on Wednesday morning said: "The FIA International Court of Appeal has decided to deny the appeals submitted against decisions numbered 16 to 24 taken by the Panel of the Stewards on 26 March at the 2009 Grand Prix of Australia and counting towards the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship.

"Based on the arguments heard and evidence before it, the Court has concluded that the Stewards were correct to find that the cars in question comply with the applicable regulations."

The ICA's decision is a blow to those teams that did not pursue the design concept when they created their 2009 cars - as it is widely accepted that the double-decker diffusers have brought a performance advantage.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen suggested last week that the diffuser decision would be vital for the outcome of the world title - with his team likely to have to wait for several races before being able to fit a suitable one to their car.

"The FIA's Court of Appeal will decide about the diffuser and this decision will have an enormous impact on the championship," Raikkonen said.

"We're missing grip and downforce. You just need to analyse the performance in the three sectors at Sepang to understand that we're losing a lot compared to the best cars. You could see it especially in the middle sector where downforce is really crucial.

The row over the diffusers has also led to intense confrontation between the rival factions - with Brawn GP team principal Ross Brawn being on the receiving end of attacks from Renault and Ferrari about his use of the diffuser concept.

However, he has stood firm in his belief that the design was legal – and confirmed recently that he offered rivals the chance to close off the regulations to prevent teams exploiting the diffuser designs, but they rejected the opportunity.

"In March 2008 that was offered," said Brawn, when asked by AUTOSPORT about the matter.

"If I'm frank I didn't say 'look we are going to do this diffuser if you don't accept this rule' because I'm not going to tell people what we're doing, but I explained that I felt that we should have a different set of rules to simplify what needs to be done.

"I offered them and they were rejected, so my conscience is very clear. And those rules that I put on the table would have stopped a lot of things. It would have stopped the diffuser, it would have stopped all those bargeboards around the front, and it would have cleaned the cars up.

"Because it was clear that when we started to work on the regulations that there were things that you could do, and we needed to perhaps clean them up, but nobody was interested. They are interested now."

Veloce Raptor

Quite possibly. It certainly won't be Fernanda Alonsette.







Professional Racing and Driving Coach

Flying Finn

It was the FIA's 2nd guy, Mohammed bin Sulayem who should be pretty handy with a wheel.
He's not open wheel guy but has done fair share of Rally driving, all kind of Middle East championships etc.

A.Wayne

Ahhh , was that a wager , ohhh Nutty Buddy one ..................

wanna911

I think JB will win, Reubens doesn't seem to be able to beat him, and by the time everyone gets their diffusers really dialed in it may be too late to catch up. Plus it looks like Brawn still have something in the tank left to show.

The only people with the cars and drivers capable of catching and passing them are Vettel and Kubica who are both going to be nasty with diffusers. And if BMW find a way to get Kubica some KERS, he could really be a beast. But Vettel hasn't finished a race yet, so first things first.

A.Wayne

Don't rule out some kind of concession being given to teams running Kers , may it be weight or more time on the Kers ..

The FIA will have to throw sumting Ferrari's way ....
If by race ten and Brawn is running away with it , viewership will be limited to the UK only

SundayDriver

I have to admit that I am immensely amused by someone who claims to be such an expert on F1, but put up a poll about who would win the WDC and managed to not even include the driver who has taken the first two events. Yup, great inside knowledge of the sport.

Larry Herman

Hey, I should get props for picking Barrichello. At least I got the right team.

SundayDriver

Agreed. I think that makes you the resident expert on F1 and A. Wayne should ask your opinion before he digs himself any deeper.

Larry Herman

Maybe we should do a poll?