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British Gp officially moves to Donnington from 2011.

2008-07-04T06:00:34-05:00

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/68828

Unfortunately Herman Tilke is getting his hands on Donnington to do a redesign of the circuit.

Why is PINKS on in place of F1???

2008-07-04T07:06:20-05:00

What is going on here Speed?

(I am in Florida)

2011 RULES

2008-07-03T10:06:49-05:00

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2008/7/8034.html

The FIA's statement in full:

NEW RULES FOR 2011
We need proposals for regulations to come into force no later than 2011. These should be delivered to the FIA by 3 October 2008 and be sufficiently detailed to allow precise rules to be drafted.

Reduced costs:
It is for the teams to decide how to reduce costs and also to decide if there should be restrictions on the development budgets of the manufacturer teams and, if so, what these should be and how they would be enforced.

The rules must also allow a back-of-the-grid independent team to operate profitably.

Teams which design and develop their own drive train (usually manufacturer teams) must be prepared to supply a complete and fully competitive drive train to an independent team at very low cost. We would suggest about 2 million Euro per season per team. The complete drive train would include all the new energy-saving technologies (eg KERS) and cost would be a design constraint as it is in the car industry.

Among possible cost savings which the teams may wish to consider are: restrictions on simulators, wind tunnel use, CFD and other home-base facilities, together with long-life chassis components, up to ten-race drive trains, no gear ratio changes during life of drive train, current parc fermé rules extended for entire race weekend and other proposals to reduce the cost per kilometre of operating a Formula One car and the costs of going racing.

We would not object to shared technology, eg of core engine.

Measures to reduce costs must not affect the spectacle in any way.

Improved fuel efficiency:
The objective is a 20 percent reduction in fuel consumption for 2011 progressing to 50% in 2015, while keeping lap times and top speeds at current levels.

We believe this can best be regulated by placing a limit on both fuel flow and the total quantity of fuel used in the race (thus limiting both maximum and average power). The road-relevant research objective would then be more power from less fuel.

We hope to see many new energy-efficient technologies deployed. We would like rules to maximise the incentive to develop road-relevant devices for improved fuel efficiency. Teams will need these in order to obtain maximum power from a limited amount of fuel.

We would suggest limiting KERS to 200kw out and 300kw in, with maximum of 1.6 MJ stored energy. We would not exclude taking energy from the front wheels during braking.

We would not exclude the possibility of variable aerodynamics.

Again, it is for the teams to decide how these objectives can best be achieved and whether any, and if so which, restrictions should be placed on the drive train technology needed to produce the necessary improvements in efficiency.

Improved racing:
The 2009 Technical Regulations are intended to improve the racing. We would like to go further, with developments to allow the cars to run in close proximity to one another without losing performance. One possibility is that the car behind should be faster by virtue of being behind not, as at present, slower.

Again, it is for the teams to decide how to achieve these objectives.

3 July 2008

Caption Silverstone Thursday

2008-07-03T15:53:39-05:00

Lewis: See that reflection, that is my good side.

Jenson in the background: Dude, what did you do with my car?

SeaVett: OW OW OW OOOOWWWWWW. This dandruff is killing me. If Berger sees me scratching
my head, I will be sent home for lice.

F1 Roundtable Q&A;

2008-07-04T15:33:07-05:00

Hi all,

As some of you will have noticed, the first F1 Roundtable Q&A;is now posted in the video section of speedtv.com. Thanks to everybody who has submitted a question so far - we do read all of them even if we can't answer all of them (!) From looking through them all, there are a couple of things I can recommend to improve your chances of having your questions answered:

- Keep it short. A concisely-worded question is easier for us to use than one that is half a page long
- Don't ask questions about the nature of our F1 contract, because obviously we can't answer those!
- Make sure you include your name and hometown/state so we can give you a proper namecheck

You can submit questions at any time, they all have an equal chance of an airing. For instance, in today's Q&A;we answered questions that were sent two weeks ago, and questions that were sent while we were broadcasting live today. We will grow into this Q&A;format over the rest of the season, and certainly we'd love for you to have the opportunity to contribute as much as possible. After all, the show ultimately belongs to the fans

Pregnant at race OK?

2008-06-26T20:18:01-05:00

This is probably an unusual question, but does anyone know whether it's safe for a fetus to attend an F1 race? Can the howl of those V8s damage the hearing of a baby in utero? I really want to go to Spa this year, but I'll be six months pregnant. I can't find an Ob/Gyn who's been to an F1 race and who really understands how LOUD those engines are!

Brawn not ruling out talks with Alonso

2008-07-04T00:09:22-05:00

http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,18954,3213_3771780,00.html

"We are fairly happy with our two drivers, but we'll be interested to see what Fernando does," remarked Brawn.

"He's a great driver and a World Champion, and if he chooses not to stay at Renault then I think every team would be interested in what he's going to do. But it's no more than that.

"Over the last five years the two top teams have consistently been Ferrari, and latterly McLaren.

"I don't suppose he's got an invitation to go back to McLaren, so if he wants a top-team berth then I'm sure he's going to be looking very hard at Ferrari.

"I'm not completely clear on the Ferrari situation. Felipe (Massa) has a contract until the end of 2010 and he's doing a very good job so I'd see no reason to change that.

"If Kimi (Raikkonen) doesn't wake one morning and decide to stop, then it doesn't look like it's a situation that is going to change in the short term.

"If he doesn't get in to Ferrari, he's got to pick a horse and back it for the next few years.

"I guess he's got some thinking to do about what he wants to do, but we've not made an approach."

Appreciating his team's stock is not as high as Ferrari or McLaren, Brawn added: "Ours is all promise as we haven't delivered anything yet.

"I think for any top personnel in F1, be it drivers, engineers or whoever, we hope Honda can be a serious consideration in the future.

"People want to work with teams that can compete at the front, and at the moment its primarily McLaren and Ferrari, so if you want to work for a winning team it's a limited choice.

"We hope we can become one of those teams."

David Coulthard Retires (Merged)

2008-07-03T06:54:54-05:00

Reports in the BBC suggest that a press conference called by David Coulthard later today could be for him to announce his retirement from F1.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/drivers/7487186.stm

If this turns out to be true id expect Sebastien Vettel to be announced as DC's replacement at some point in the near future with Bruno Senna replacing Vettel at STR for next year IF Bruno finishes 1st or 2nd in the GP2 championship.

EDIT:
DC makes it official, he will retire at the end of this year.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/68799
http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/news/2008/07/03/coulthard-to-retire-at-end-of-season/

British GP: Practice and Qualifying Thread

2008-07-03T20:46:02-05:00

We're on the eve of first practice and we didn't have a thread yet, so I went for it. Re: Silverstone testing; Mclaren have some new bits on their MP4 and Louie and Kova seemed pretty happy with the car. I remember Hamilton mentioning the team experimenting with something else.., was it oil or fuel? Can't remember now. Anybody know?

The Mclaren topped the charts on final day of testing. Can't wait for tomorrow's practice times to come in. Then, we can make our picks & prognostications for the weekend.

Friday F1 Practice Time

2008-07-01T11:57:03-05:00

I see on the program schedule for this Friday that the telecast for Friday 2nd practice starts at 8AM (Eastern). The BGP official website shows 2nd practice starting at 1400 (local). The UK is currently 5 hours ahead meaning the telecast should start at 9AM (Eastern), right?