Trust me…

Schumacher returns to the track

Yesterday was the first day of pre-season testing for the F1 teams and Michael Schumacher returned to the track after a three year absence, another return was that of Massa.

Both drivers impressed with Massa topping the times and Schumacher posting a faster time than Nico Rosberg, round one to Michael it seems. The Renault of Kubica seemed to be way off the pace but then Kubica can have trouble getting up to speed sometimes and this is the first day of testing - though with the limited testing that they have I’d be surprised if anyone was really just taking it slow.

With all the main teams at the test bar Red Bull it really shows that the new teams are up against it, I think it’s Virgin who’ll start testing first but it seems strange to miss days of valuable testing, perhaps they think they’ll need it later in the year.

There have also been a good few car launches over the last few days and none more low key than the Sauber launch but then they go and post the second fastest time of day 1, is this going to be a repeat of the Brawn success? I wouldn’t go that far but they may be a dark horse for the season.

Good Hunting

Which one of the new boys…

This year F1 sees the addition of four new teams, that’s if you don’t count the arrival Mercedes and the reappearance of Sauber. These teams are Lotus - backed by a Malaysian airline, Virgin Racing - Richard Branson, US F1 - Peter Windsor of F1 racing fame and Campos Meta and ex drivers team.

From the sound of it Campos Meta may already be struggling for finances, the only real thing they have going for them is Bruno Senna, and I’m sure one of the other teams will pick him up if they fail to make the grade - it seems to me that they are a lot of vacancies around…

US F1 have a lot of investment behind them so I’d expect them to make the GPs this year though I’m not sure how well they will perform, I don’t really see any F1 experience in the team which seems to count for an awful lot in this sport.

Virgin Racing have gone for a risky design strategy with a CFD only car, is it their preferred method or a way of saving cash? Anyway they look like they are up for it and do have some F1 talent on board.

Lotus - well apart from not really being lotus they are a new team, Lotus were a bit before my F1 time and so they don’t hold the same nostalgia value for me. With Mike Gascoyne at the helm I think they do have the best chance next year.

It’s a hard decision, which one of these teams to back, I think that Lotus have the best chance but I’m afraid they just don’t excite me which is why I’m going to plump for Virgin Racing, they give off a good vibe - lets hope that translates into performance on track.

Good Hunting

The mad world of F1

Over the course of the last few years F1 has seen a lot of turmoil, from so called ’spygate’ to the breakaway series. All of these issues detracted from the sport in unsavory ways. This year really put all of that behind and got on with business, even the whole Singapore 08 scandal couldn’t get that much press coverage compared to the on track action. Next year looks to be even more eventful on track with up to six more cars on the grid, I do wonder however whether they will be six more cars worth watching.

Next year the lineup in F1 will be as follows (from formula1.com);

TEAM / CONSTRUCTOR
SCUDERIA FERRARI MARLBORO / FERRARI
SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO / STR TBA
RED BULL RACING / RBR RENAULT
AT&T WILLIAMS / WILLIAMS TOYOTA
FORCE INDIA F1 TEAM / FORCE INDIA MERCEDES
CAMPOS GRAND PRIX / CAMPOS COSWORTH
MANOR GRAND PRIX / MANOR COSWORTH
TEAM US F1 / TEAM US F1 COSWORTH
VODAFONE McLAREN MERCEDES* / McLAREN MERCEDES
BMW SAUBER F1 TEAM* / BMW SAUBER
RENAULT F1 TEAM* / RENAULT
PANASONIC TOYOTA RACING* / TOYOTA
BRAWN GP FORMULA ONE TEAM* / BRAWN TBA

Obviously this has changed now with BMW and TOYOTA pulling out and Mercedes buying Brawn, this means the return of the Lotus name but it also means that there will only be two manufacturer backed teams next year and that there will be at least four new teams who have never run an F1 car in anger before. So what does this mean for the world of formula one? Well it’ll be very different that’s for sure, the refuelling change was always going to make that the case but there will be a lot of newbies around next year and I’m guessing that means that the old names will come back to form. I expect McLaren and Ferrari to be vying for the championship next year and that there will be a lot of also rans. I’d also expect Williams and Renault to jump back up to form comparably but then again who would have bet on Brawn in January!

This means that I think Jenson Button has made the right decision moving from a team that I think won’t have the stamina to develop a championship car next year to one in McLaren that do. Yes he has to fight with Hamilton but I think everyone expects Hamilton to beat him and therefore I think the pressure will start on Hamilton to prove this and as we saw with Alonso it can have some spectacular results, I’m not convinced that everyone in the McLaren camp loves Hamilton, remember the lying incident where someone else took the fall for him.

With that move sorted out I guess the rest of the driver market will now fall into place and that we’ll see a lot of new faces next year. I’m just worried that we’ll have a two tier championship where most of the cars are making up the numbers, having said that if we hadn’t had Max’s cost cutting war there would only be eight teams on the grid next year. And I guess I could be wrong…

Good Hunting

Budget Cap vs. Bernie

Ferrari announced today that they won’t enter their cars into the 2010 F1 championship if the FIA pushes through the two tier budget system. Redbull and Toyota have also voiced concerns over these new rules and have threatened the same course of action, though they drew little attention for these statements. Ferrari are at the heart of F1 and it would be a very different sport without them, Bernie has even come out and said that he won’t let it happen. 

The crux of the matter is the idea to allow teams to subscribe to a £40m budget cap in exchange for less stringent rules for development of the cars. I can’t see how this is a way to cut the costs in F1, make the teams with the money leave in exchange for letting a few unknown teams join the championship. It seems that this will drive down the revenues and make it an even harder sport to compete in. The alternative is to have the tiered system and effectively two championships in one, much like classes in other formulas. This will do nothing to make the sport easier to understand and I’m not sure anyone would be able to convince Ferrari that the budget cap would limit the effectiveness of these teams with Brawn currently beating everyone. 

The precedent for these types of disagreements is that the teams form a collalition and threaten to form a break away series, the FIA says that this is the way it is and then Bernie calls a meeting and it all gets sorted out. I can’t see these measures being implemented as per the current proposals because of the statements from an increasing number of the teams, there is no F1 without the teams, and in my view there is no real F1 without Ferrari. I guess we’ll find out in the near future as registration for the 2010 season is due in May I believe.

Good Hunting

F1 Coverage on the BBC

This season in F1 has been hotly awaited since Lewis Hamilton prised the title from Felipe Massa in the last round, in fact the last corner last year. We have also been keenly awaiting F1s return to the Beeb and the ensuing lack of advertising breaks as well as superior coverage as F1 returns “home”.

I’m not sure that I’ve been convinced by the BBCs commitment to the F1 cause, the coverage seems to be a back to basics approach and a general dumbing down of the sport. Each week we are treated to Jake Humphrey talking above the more seasoned and frankly more interesting guests. In Sundays Chinese GP coverage he even cut Mike Gascoyne short to cut to a montage of the drivers, I’m not sure that this is the type of presentation that F1 needs. He constantly reigns in David Coulthard and anybody else talking about anything interesting and brings them back to an inane point that *he* made.

Martin Brundle’s new co-commentator doesn’t fair much better in my opinion, he seems to offer little extra to the commentary and can actually be very annoying, lets relive the last lap of a great drive by Sebastian Vettel - I’m pretty sure that it was every corner he repeated, “Just keep it on the road”.

Now I know that I’m probably more technically interested in F1 than most and that I might actually understand the diffuser row. And that I’ve been following it for a good few years and therefore know quite a lot about the teams/drivers/personalities plus I understand the difference between understeer and oversteer but it just feels that all of the coverage is simplified. Some of the ITV crowd seem positively downhearted when they are asked to explain things.

The website doesn’t break the trend either, it’s badly organised, filled with superfluous content and hides all of interesting information, case and point; before the first GP I could find information on who each of the drivers fancied but I could not find the practice times anywhere. Not to mention the poor pre season testing coverage.

I’m sure that most of these gripes are part of the teething process and that the coverage will improve but I’m not impressed so far. At least advertisement break gave you the opportunity to make a cup of tea rather than running the gauntlet of missing something you could have seen (We won’t mention Imola). Given that the BBC have spent a lot of money of F1 I must admit I had expected more, but then the pre-season hype didn’t fill me with confidence, “The greatest car chase”, not how I would describe F1.

Good Hunting