ltc

Are you going to try to make it to Homestead this month for the FWT?
We'll be there, weekend of February 21-22, TaG Jr class.

A.Wayne

Yes ............ i will bring both Alonso and the FInn , i would have invited MJ , but he is still pissed from the Daytona bashment and feels if any spanitos complain over the weekend he won't hear the end of it ....


Is Fowler racing this year ?

A.Wayne

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73154


The FIA has lifted the restrictions imposed on Nigel Stepney and Mike Coughlan following the 2007 espionage case, president Max Mosley has revealed.

Although the governing body could not impose formal punishment against the pair over their involvement in the 2007 spy case between McLaren and Ferrari, it did recommend to its licence holders that they should be wary of working with either of them until July 2009.

Mosley has said now, however, that following a request from the lawyers of one of the two men that it would lift any restrictions.

"The other day we got a letter from the lawyers of one of them saying he has got this restriction and this restriction, and it does seem a little bit mad to make them serve out even longer when the two teams concerned are all making love to each other," Mosley explained. "So, we have said we will let them forget it.

"In the end they were just very minor players. If the full story came out, they are two minor players and there are people who are not minor players. But the full story will probably never come out."

McLaren were fined $100 million and excluded from the 2007 constructors' championship over the affair, while both Stepney and Coughlan were fired from their respective teams.

Mosley insisted the penalty McLaren got was modest compared to what could have been.

"Why they got fined a lot is that because to begin with they said that nobody knew, and it was just him (Coughlan)," Mosley added. "Then it came out that more people in the company were involved than they had admitted, and although the fine sounds huge the real penalty was exclusion from the championship.

"That would have been the logical penalty, and a penalty that no one would have disputed amongst the public. You have got all the technical information from one of the other teams unlawfully - so you are out of the championship. If we had done that, it would have cost McLaren far more than $100 million, it might even have put them out of business.

"The reality was actually what they got was relatively modest. It is just that people can understand $100 million is a lot of money, they don't understand the consequences for a team like McLaren if they had been excluded from the championship.

"I have to say, not because I am anti-McLaren but from a purely legal point, I would have excluded them - but the majority of the world council preferred the fine."

Stepney returned to work as Director of Race Technologies at on-board camera company Gigawave, now cooperating with the Superleague series.

Coughlan is now working for Ricardo Transmissions, the largest transmission engineering and design consultancy in the UK.





F1 Testing : Toyota: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o01tNSy29H8


Ferrari F60 Onboard-Formula One 2009 :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQR2_...eature=related

F1 Testing Algrave :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qpH8...eature=related

APKhaos

Hmm....strange that nobody wanted to post about the RL predictions for the 2008 season.
C'mon Wayne. How about a thread comparing who prodicted what in 2008 vs actual results?
Grow some stones and post 'em up before trying again for the 2009 season, OK?

A.Wayne

Why , to show how right i was or how wrong the amigos and Finn where

ltc

Great
We will be under the Arrow (Australian team) tent, kart # 205.

Unfortunately, he wasn't in January. He ended up getting work as a tuner with the Maranello team.

mdrums

With all new cars/rules for 09 Maybe in the 1st race something other than a Ferrari or Mercedes will win...just a thought.

BC

I know its just testing.

But they look "wiggly"

mdrums

Downforce trumps slicks. It will be a interesting year.

Veloce Raptor

Corrected.

ew928

Read Formula 1 website last night and it's going to be a Sebastien Sebastien show at Torro Rosso.

Bourdais got renewed.

multi21

It was last year too with Vettel and Bourdai. Now we have 3 out of 18 drivers in F1 with the Sebastien as the first name. Who would have thunk?

A.Wayne

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73209

Glock quickest in Bahrain test

By Jonathan Noble Tuesday, February 10th 2009, 15:29 GMT

Timo Glock topped the times on a fog-hit first day of testing at Sakhir in Bahrain on Monday, with little to separate the runners on the timesheets.

Although the three teams present - Ferrari, BMW Sauber and Toyota – had all given up on running in Europe because they wanted to be sure of good weather, the first two hours of the session had to be abandoned because of fog.

Once the medical helicopter was in place, however, the teams were able to complete a great deal of running – which came as welcome relief to the outfits who have been hit by poor weather conditions up to now.

Glock was fastest of the three cars present, and was happy with what the team had found on the first day spent focusing on set-up work.

"After the weather intervened during our Portugal test, this was our first real chance to give the TF109 a run in dry conditions," he explained. "The fog held us up briefly at the start but it wasn't a major problem. We did a lot of set-up work and in the end we found a good direction.

"The car felt quite consistent so this is already a positive sign. We got through a lot of laps so this was an encouraging start to the test."

Felipe Massa was second fastest for Ferrari, just more than one tenth of a second adrift of Glock's best. The Brazilian spent the morning evaluating set-up work to get his F60 dialled into the Sakhir circuit, before switching to long run efforts in the afternoon.

Robert Kubica was the only other driver present, as he set the third best time after a day also spent working on set-up. His afternoon was interrupted by a mechanical problems but he was satisfied with the progress they put in.

"It was the first time I was able to drive the new car in warm weather," said the Pole. "We learned a lot about the car's behaviour in these conditions, so overall it was a good day."

[B]Today's times:

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Glock Toyota (B) 1:33.501 82
2. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:33.615 98
3. Kubica BMW-Sauber (B) 1:33.702 95




Mosley: KERS is here to stay




By Jonathan Noble Tuesday, February 10th 2009, 14:40 GMT

The introduction of Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) in Formula One remains one of the hottest topics of debate in the build-up to the new season.

Arguments have raged for months about the development costs of the devices, whether they will be safe and what difference they will make to the racing.

So having heard from the teams, autosport.com wanted to gauge what FIA president Max Mosley thought of KERS when he met a few journalists for a pre-season chat. Here are his thoughts.

Full Story : http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73208

A.Wayne

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headline...10100036.shtml

The French carmaker Renault, who contests the Formula One World Championship with a team based at Enstone, will receive a government cash injection amid the global financial crisis.

As well as Peugeot-Citroen, Renault is to receive three billion Euros, in exchange for the manufacturers' pledge to keep factories open and workers in jobs, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced.

"This is not a gift. It is not a subsidy. It is a loan offered at an interest rate of six percent," Sarkozy insisted.

The loans run for a five year period.


I guess Alonso is getting a pay raise

multi21

No $hit... I wonder if Flava Flav has already "budgeted" the pay increase to keep Alonso at Renault rather than jump to Ferrari (allegedly) as was supposed to have one of these years.