Having just returned from teaching on an executive programme in Shanghai – my first visit to the city, two things struck me. First how, despite the internet appearing to be the same as usual, I was unable to blog, twitter or access Wikipedia and second how the internal combustion engine has to be replaced sooner rather than later. I came to the second point after going on a range of exciting taxi trips – the drivers here outshone Rome and Rio for sheer lunacy, but it was the mind blowing number of vehicles that struck me. Shanghai is a huge city – officially the population is just below 20 million, but unofficially probably closer to 30 million, larger than the populations of Australia and New Zealand put together, and it sits in a cloud of permanent smog which will undoubtedly get worse as more of the population acquire cars. Many manufacturers are well advanced in their plans for electric vehicles and it won’t come soon enough for China. I only hope F1 will take a real lead in the new technologies that will propel cars in the future. The sooner we get KERS back the better, as far as I’m concerned. Let’s hope the post 2012 regulations give the engineers the opportunity to develop some creative new ways of powering F1.

It’s been almost thirty days since the Formula 1 season finale, the Abu Dhabi dazzle in the twilight. It’s been almost thirty days since I’ve been able to recognize this sport we love so much.

It’s also been almost thirty days since Toyota announced the end of their relationship with us and F1. Since that large blow, Mercedes split from McLaren and bought 75.1% of Brawn GP inevitably turning the team into ‘Mercedes GP.’ A few clicks of your mouse later and Button and Raikkonen were both testing waters for a McLaren seat which Button landed. His salary of peanuts sounded better to Mercedes than Raikkonen’s asking price of a hand and a leg. The Finn decided it was better to ditch next year all together, seeing that Ferrari are paying him enough to get through the inactive year.

With McLaren sitting happily with an all British line-up, it seems reasonable to suggest that Mercedes might be aiming for an all German line-up especially with the news that Rosberg has joined camp. That makes rumors of a Schumacher return tickle our fancy even more.

After BMW’s shocking exit announcement after the 2009 season, their future is not clear until… they announce selling the team back to Peter Sauber.

You consume all that and then take a breather. Oh, and Alonso announced his move to Ferrari. That slipped my mind because after a few pictures were snapped of him walking alongside Massa as an official Ferrari driver, he disappeared into Ferrari Land.

For 2010, refueling has been banned which was an idea proposed to help cut costs rather than improve F1 excitement. Anyone who knows anything about F1 knows that some of the best race moments take place during pit stops. But life is all about money so we shall only nod our heads and hope it helps us enjoy the show.

As of next season, Lotus, Campos, Manor and USF1 will be given a small nudge by the FOM: a $10 million grant including the free transportation of two chassis and 10,000 kg of freight to each race. That’s a good way to encourage fresh interest. Hands up for Volkswagen anyone?

KERS is still permitted in 2010 even though the FOTA have agreed to do without it. The minimum car weight has been increased from 605 kg to 620 kg to eliminate any driver height or weight disadvantage if any team decides to use the electric box.

Mercedes GP, Red Bull Racing, McLaren, Ferrari, Sauber F1, Williams, Renault, Force India, and Toro Rosso have been joined by Lotus, Campos, Manor and USF1. That makes 26 cars. With 24 cars in 2009, qualifying rules have been reevaluated accordingly: 8 drivers knocked out in Q1, 8 drivers in Q2 and 10 drivers fight it out in Q3.

Wheel covers have been banned, in season testing is still banned, a limit has been placed on number of aerodynamic upgrades per season including a limit on the number of team personnel able to attend a Grand Prix – c’mon, the more brilliant minds in the paddock will affect the success of a team? I don’t get it.

ING is gone after the Renault controversy and has been replaced by TW Steel.

RBS has canceled its trackside sponsorship in 2010 and will end its sponsorship agreement with Williams after next season.

YouTube has joined USF1.

Vigin Group have bought a 20% stake in Manor Grand Prix and plan on renaming the team.

Banco Santander is sponsoring Ferrari in 2010 and has extended its agreement with McLaren as well.

Since when has there been this much information during an off season? And in less than 30 days? I can’t remember when. It’s a busy winter and I am sure it’s going to get busier. I just hope all these changes are for the better. KERS had some pros but most of its cons were reoccurring. I honestly think KERS is genius and just needs more time to evolve for F1 to become accustomed to it.

Let’s hope with all these changes Formula 1 is still worth retaining its number: 1.

Oxford, November 24, 2009. Following the recent announcement of part funding by the Government-backed Technology Strategy Board, the partners in the KinerStor project have today announced further details of their collaborative programme to demonstrate the viability of low-cost flywheel hybrid systems. The KinerStor project will be led by Ricardo and will comprise a consortium of industrial partners including CTG, JCB, Land Rover, SKF, Torotrak and Williams Hybrid Power. The project aims to demonstrate the potential of flywheel-based hybrid systems with the potential for 30 per cent fuel savings (and equivalent reductions in CO2 emissions) at an on-cost of less than £1000, thus enabling the mass-market uptake of hybrid vehicles in price sensitive vehicle applications.

The project will research and de-risk the principle critical flywheel sub-systems individually, then bring them together for system optimisation in two forms of proprietary device; a mechanical/magnetic coupled flywheel system developed by Ricardo (known by the trade name Kinergy), and an electrically coupled unit developed by Williams Hybrid Power. The flywheel systems being developed by the KinerStor consortium partners are ideally suited for potential applications in passenger cars ranging from small, price-sensitive mass-market models through to large luxury SUVs, as well as in low-cost compact energy storage systems for application in industrial and construction equipment. The KinerStor project team aims to design, build and test a number of prototype units such that on completion, the developed technologies are ready for vehicle-based installation, testing and demonstration.

The KinerStor consortium brings together a critical mass of relevant skills and expertise in specialist areas, including: advanced flywheel systems, focusing on new material technologies including low-cost composite fibres and specialist steels; continuously variable transmissions; bearing and coupling design; drivetrain integration; and volume vehicle manufacturing. The project’s structure will allow for the development of common core technology solutions which can be tailored to the individual needs of vehicle manufacturers, maximising potential fuel saving and CO2 emission reduction benefits.

Commenting on today’s announcement, Ricardo group technology director Neville Jackson said: “The development of highly optimised flywheel based technology offers the prospectof the effective and low-cost hybridisation of price-sensitive vehicle applications with consequent benefits to fuel economy and CO2 emissions reduction. Ricardo is pleased to be able to lead the KinerStor consortium which brings together a crucial mass of skills and expertise in this important area of future automotive technology.”

The KinerStor project is supported by an investment from the Government-backed Technology Strategy Board with balancing resources provided by the project partners.

Continued from Part Two

Raikkonen did give Ferrari a win, at Spa, after fending off…Fisichella! On that occasion, however, the Italian was still with Force India, whose Mercedes-powered car showed remarkable form on circuits where low downforce was required. Adrian Sutil proved very fast but wild and accident prone in the other car, but only Raikkonen’s KERS prevented Fisichella from staging a huge upset victory in Belgium. Fisi’s replacement, the underrated Vitantonio Liuzzi, was headed for a podium finish behind the Brawns at Monza when his car broke a driveshaft.

It was also at Spa that yet another scandal was unveiled. In Hungary Renault had been lucky to escape suspension when, only a week after former world champion John Surtees’ 19 year-old son Henry had been killed by an errant wheel in a Formula Two race at Brands Hatch, the French team’s pit crew released Fernando Alonso from a pit stop knowing that the right front wheel had been improperly secured. It came off, and the stewards of the meeting fined them the maximum possible, US$50,000, and suspended them from Valencia.

Renault won their appeal against exclusion, but soon it became clear that they were being investigated for fixing the result of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix following allegations from former driver Nelson Piquet, sacked in July, that he had been told to crash deliberately there to give Alonso the safety car intervention that helped him through to victory. Subsequently, team principal Flavio Briatore was banned indefinitely from the sport, and technical chief Pat Symonds for five years.

Meanwhile, as Renault struggled on and off the track, Toyota’s performances picked up after a mid-season slump. Timo Glock was an excellent second to Hamilton in Singapore, a result that Jarno Trulli repeated on their home ground at Suzuka. That left them fifth overall, which was respectable, while a late-season charge from BMW Sauber, who had introduced a significant aerodynamic and technical upgrade for Singapore, benefited from a second place by Kubica in Brazil and Nick Heidfeld’s fifth in Abu Dhabi to jump ahead of Williams by one and a half points into sixth. The British team had its most consistent season of late, showing well on all but the low-downforce tracks, and would have gone better still had the Toyota engine had competitive horsepower.

Renault were a humbled eighth after one of their toughest-ever seasons yielded just one podium for Alonso, ironically enough in Singapore. Force India might have finished only ninth, but they showed they have the potential to run at or near the front, but Toro Rosso, in 10th overall, showed only flashes of speed with their Red Bull RB5 lookalike STR4. Sebastien Buemi looked good at times, while rookie Jamie Alguersuari replaced Sebastian Bourdais from Hungary onwards.

When Glock crashed in Japan in what would become history’s longest-ever qualifying session, he was subsequently replaced for the final two races by GP2 driver Kamui Kobayashi, who did enough with a ninth and a sixth place finish to make himself unofficial ‘Rookie of the Year’ ahead of Buemi. There were suspicions all along that he had been placed in Glock’s seat by a team that knew they were on borrowed time, and shortly after Bridgestone had announced after Abu Dhabi that they were quitting at the end of 2010, Toyota duly said they were going too, as of now. Like Honda and BMW, they blamed the economic climate and made compelling arguments why they had to stop spending so much on Formula One racing.

That in theory could clear the way for Peter Sauber and his new partner Qadbak to join the four new teams who are due to assemble on the grid in 2010: Lotus, US F1 Team, Manor and Campos Meta.

As yet some key driver placements have yet to be settled, notably whether Button stays with Brawn, and where, if anywhere, Raikkonen goes. The odds favour the second McLaren seat, but you never know with the Finn. With Red Bull staying the same, Alonso at Ferrari alongside Massa, Nico Rosberg and Barrichello being tipped to swap places (the latter is already confirmed at Williams), and Glock reportedly heading to Renault to join Kubica, the new season is already shaping up fast.

And based on what happened in 2009, it is safe to suggest that in the new era of Jean Todt succeeding Max Mosley as President of the FIA after a landslide victory against Ari Vatanen, and refuelling being banned, anything is possible.

Reference: F1.com

Well, that was some season! Yet another stunning FIA Formula One World Championship that created a fresh chapter of history.

Brawn GP, the Phoenix that rose from the ashes of Honda who sent shockwaves rippling through the sport after their sudden and unexpected withdrawal the previous December, became the first ‘new’ team ever to win their first two races (Mercedes-Benz, March and Wolf in 1954, 1970 and 1977 respectively had won their first) and go on to win both the drivers’ and constructors’ titles. They won eight races, took four one-twos and 15 podiums.

And by season end Jenson Button’s succession to Lewis Hamilton’s throne meant that for the first time ever two Englishmen – as opposed to two Britons – had won back-to-back titles.

Almost inevitably, 2009 began with controversies. First, there were the new regulations. Slick tyres were back. Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) were optional, and promised those who opted to pursue their multi-million dollar development in an era of cost cutting, such as McLaren, Ferrari, BMW Sauber and Renault, an extra 80bhp for six seconds a lap, and a potential gain of 0.6s in lap time.

And aerodynamic changes aimed at improving overtaking meant less bodywork ‘furniture’ such as bargeboards, smaller and higher rear wings, and wider and lower fronts which could be adjusted twice a lap through three degrees to cut down understeer while following closely in another car’s wake. Sadly, despite all the research that went into this, most drivers were sceptical about the overall effect.

It was the aero side, allied to the new rule banning testing during the season, which were to create the main talking points at the start of the season, because Brawn, Toyota and Williams all hit, through varying routes, on the idea of running a double diffuser. They had spotted the loophole in the regulations, and the FIA rejected protests from the likes of BMW Sauber, Red Bull and Renault after Button had wiped the floor with everyone in Melbourne.

The testing ban made it hard for others to catch up, though invariably they did after four or five races. By then Button had run amok. He won again in the rain-shortened Malaysian Grand Prix (and had that race run its course the latter part of his season might have been less stressful), in Bahrain, Spain, Monaco and Turkey. Of the opening seven races, only China, the third, fell to Red Bull, as Sebastian Vettel led home Mark Webber.

Button was third there, and for the first time the Brawn’s Achilles’ heel was exposed: an inability to generate the same sort of tyre temperatures in cool conditions (or rain in this case) as the Red Bull. The Adrian Newey-designed RB5 had the best lift/drag performance of any car, and in a year that would yield the Milton Keynes-based team six wins, four one-twos and 16 podiums, fearsomely improved reliability.

As Brawn and Red Bull thus set the pace, others struggled. McLaren’s MP4-24 was initially a major disappointment, with very poor aero performance. Ferrari’s F60 was beautiful, but likewise lacked aero ‘grunt’. The two big hitters were paying the price for throwing so much technological development into their 2008 title fight, whereas Brawn had been working on their car’s concept since February 2007.

Though BMW Sauber briefly looked strong in Australia until Robert Kubica was taken out in a clash with Vettel, they and Renault would soon find that their respective F1.09 and R29 offerings were not up to scratch. Thus the cars that showed promise in the wake of the two leaders were Toyota’s TF109 and Williams’ Toyota-powered FW31.

The second controversy was born in Australia but ultimately came to light in Malaysia. Lewis Hamilton inferred to the Australian Grand Prix stewards that Jarno Trulli had refused to let him repass after Trulli had briefly slipped off the road in Melbourne when the field was running behind the safety car, but the FIA subsequently ruled that radio transmissions proved that McLaren – in their first race under new team principal Martin Whitmarsh – had told him to hold station. The suggestion that McLaren were trying to get Trulli into trouble left a bad taste and led to the departure of their sporting director, Dave Ryan.

Continued in Part Two

Reference: F1.com

British company Zytek won the Powertrain Innovation of the Year award at the Professional Motor Sport World Expo held in Cologne this week. The prize came as a result of development work performed on the hybrid technology seen in Formula One and the American Le Mans Series.

Zytek is the operation behind the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) used by the McLaren MP4-24 this year, and also designed the device fitted to the GZ09HS Le Mans Prototype hybrid which raced in the United States.

McLaren’s KERS assisted Lewis Hamilton in winning the Hungarian Grand Prix in addition to the Singapore night race; he also finished second in Valencia and was contesting the victory in Abu Dhabi until a braking issue forced him to retire.

“Turning the concept of kinetic energy recovery into a race-winning reality was a major breakthrough and Zytek made a vital contribution to this achievement,” said awards judge Charles Armstrong-Wilson.

“Motorsport is one of the best environments in the world to showcase and develop technology,” said John Manchester, Zytek’s Operations Director. “This type of focus can help to educate people about hybrid systems and ultimately lead to the transfer of technology onto our everyday road vehicles.”

Reference: F1-live.com

Sirlan Pedrosa tem contribuido regularmente aqui no F1 Around na sessão de comentários e estréia hoje como blogueiro convidado na retrospectiva de 2009. Articulado e inteligentíssimo, Sirlan tem dado regularmente o seu pitaco em questões técnicas e foi daí que surgiu a idéia de pedir um post retrospectiva sobre o KERS.

Aproveitem: Sirlan tem um raro talento para traduzir temas técnicos em conceitos fáceis e palatáveis, algo raro que jornalistas profissionais às vezes fracassam. Dito isso, boa leitura! — Becken —Já dizia Lavoisier: “Nada se cria, tudo se transforma.” Aproveitar a energia desperdiçada nas frenagens para gerar mais potência a ser usada quando necessário: Uma grande idéia!

Num mundo buscando redescobrir sua matriz energética e focando na sustentabilidade, a F1 apostou no KERS. Nada muito original, afinal vários carros conceitos apresentados nos últimos anos usam o sistema. O próprio Toyota Prius, de produção em série, tem o seu KERS.

Entretanto, como aconteceu com o freio a disco, motores turbo, câmbio semi-automático, suspensão ativa e outras tecnologias, a F1 levaria o desenvolvimento do conceito a patamares muito elevados em pouco tempo. É certo que em alguns anos o sistema terá a metade de seu peso, talvez quatro ou cinco vezes sua eficiência e as baterias (calcanhar de Aquiles dos carros elétricos) passarão por uma assustadora revolução. No final, tudo aquilo será paulatinamente transferido para o nosso dia a dia.

O Línea no Brasil, por exemplo, carro da Fiat proprietária da Ferrari : Tem uma versão com motor turbo, cambio semi-automático, freios a disco, grande eletrônica embarcada…

Mais no caminho do KERS havia uma crise mundial sem precedentes. Pega de surpresa e fortemente pressionada pelas equipes devido ao seu alto custo de desenvolvimento, a FIA tornou a adoção do sistema opcional. Foi o começo do fim.

O difusor duplo revolucionário, criado em uma fresta do regulamento, obrigou sete das dez equipes a praticamente refazer todos os seus projetos, sugando recursos já escassos num momento de forte pressão econômica.

Não precisou muito tempo para ficar claro também que o sistema causava grandes perdas de equilíbrio dinâmico geradas pela impossibilidade do uso dos lastros como agentes de acerto dos carros. Os pilotos mais altos e pesados também ficaram prejudicados, ao ponto de uma mesma equipe (BMW) utilizar o equipamento apenas no carro de seu piloto mais leve.

O banimento dos testes ao longo da temporada ajudou a dificultar ainda mais as coisas para uma tecnologia que precisava tanto de desenvolvimento na pista.

O que condenou o KERS foi o fato de que o automobilismo não desenvolve tecnologia como os laboratórios de pesquisa das fábricas e universidades. Na pista a prioridade é andar mais rápido e vencer. E nesse ano andou mais rápido quem teve o melhor assoalho e difusor duplo integrado. O KERS adotado pela equipe BMW com grande entusiasmo e investimento, teve na equipe suíça/alemã a primeira a descartá-lo. Depois a Renault também o abandonou. Williams, Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Force Índia e Toyota jamais o utilizaram. A Campeã Brawn sequer jamais cogitou o seu uso. Apenas a Ferrari e a McLaren, não por acaso os times de maior estrutura e orçamento, insistiram no seu desenvolvimento.

No meio do ano o KERS havia perdido sua batalha. As equipes resolveram então tornar o sistema uma espécie de “Rainha de Inglaterra”: Está no regulamento, mas por acordo de cavalheiros ninguém utilizará.

Depois de ter seu destino traçado o KERS começou a dar frutos e ajudou as equipes que insistiram no seu uso e desenvolvimento a salvar-se de um ano desastroso. A McLaren entrou para história como a primeira vencedora usando o sistema de reaproveitamento de energia das frenagens. A Ferrari deve sua vitória na Bélgica ao KERS, sem o qual dificilmente Kimi teria conseguido resistir à surpreendente Force Índia de Fisichella.

Fechando uma temporada que colocou a F1 de cabeça para baixo, a McLaren de Lewis Hamilton dominou a classificação e fez a pole position mais folgada do ano contando, Ironicamente, com uma grande vantagem: O KERS!

Reference: F1.com

Reference: f1.com

Reference: F1.com

Thats 2009 overwith Bring on 2010

Provisional Results blog live in a min – http://wp.me/pF7qv-dA

19 weeks until the F1 2010 session starts – 133 days that is

That concludes the 2009 season – Check back during the next few weeks for Analysis and reviews

WOW Jenson Swearing alert

If red bull had a Double diffuser at the start of the year where would we be now?????

Get in there webber Red Bull 1 – 2

Brawn 3 and 4

What a fight ohh

Webber purple S1

webber’s lead down to 0.7 to button

webber’s lead down to 1.3 to button

webber’s lead down to 2.2 to button

L47 Vett now 17secs ahead of Webb

Jenson closing on webber by half a sec a lap – gap down to 3 sec

webber’s lead down to 3.6 to button

fight possible between 4th, 5th, 6th

Vettel, Webber, Button is what the podium looks like atm

Vettel and Button pitted

Rosberg overtakes Kubica who spins fighting with Buemi

Rubens and Nick in and out, that was quick

Webber in and out of the pits – option tyres

Kubica in and out of the pits with option tyres

Rosberg in – First 2 stopper to switch to option tyres studying lap times now I think

brb before 2nd stops

Kob News: Understeer, using the front flap max 6th place is possible

Force India fighting

Speed Trap data:

Kov – 322

Rubens, Liu and Sut – 320

Fisi and Button – 317

Alonso pits – 8.2 sec puts option tyres on

Top 3 look set now to finish in them positions – Webber and button may pit on the same lap with Vettel has 1 more lap of fuel

3 wins in a row for Red Bull Japan Vet, Brazil Webber, That is looking likely

Kov, Fisi, Gro and Liuzzi in the pits

Sutil killing the bollard

Fisi to get drive though pen for speeding in the pit lane

Kob lovely stop now on the option tyres

Kimi just pitted lets see how he will take the option tyres

Fisi just pitted the only driver to have used the option tyres

All 2 stoppers now pitted 1 stoppers should pit soon

Jamie went to pit stop at the wrong pit (stopped at Red Bull not STR, easy mistake) then ran out of fuel in the next lap very slow on that lap

Lewis: Couldn’t stop the car, right rear breaks, failure maybe???

Red Bull 1 -2 now both of them in my FR team with Sutil and Buemi go go go !! lol

Button nearly lost it again

1 stoppers now mixing with the front runners – Kob for points???

Silly Jamie trying to stop in the Red Bull pit with problem stopped on the circuit now

Yellow flag S3 STR stopped – Turn 11

Lewis in the pit again – He is out NOOOOOOOOOOO first retirement  and he is in my Fantasy Racers team

McLaren clearing space in the pit lane

STR running slow

Lewis: Could have a right rear break problem

Webber in pits, also Truill, Buemi, Rosberg in

Hamilton and Button in the pits, all safe out of the tunnel into clear air

Ferrari not use tyres all the time because of a heat issue

Kubica and Rubens in and out of the pits staying on the prime (Medium) tyres

Button is lewis’ threat now

Red Bull 1 -2 is looking likely

Back Kob looking good for a chance of points

i will brb pit stops start in 2 laps time

2 stoppers need to be at least 1.5 sec every lap quicker than all the one stoppers otherwise they could lose position and get in traffic

Lewis lost .8 of a sec oops Now lewis has to run and overtake Vettel in the 2nd part of the race

Lewis is smashing everyone in S2 half a sec quicker

1 stoppers on good pace

Top 5 pace within 2 tenth of a sec

Lewis Radio: Vettel quicker, losing most time in S3 and a bit in S1

Lewis not doing enough, grip not there atm, also it’s tyre heat low atm

Lewis half a sec quicker than anyone thought S2

Jenson 6 sec back from the leader Lewis

Lewis needs to get the gap to Vettel to over 5 secs or he will lose the place after the pit stops

Soz about that had to set dad sat nav

Rubens has a damaged car – Confirmed

Remember the fastest lap from this race will be the lap record

Jenson jumped rubens

Kubica jumped Truill

Button Quick with lots of grip

Rubens may have lost downforce from the front wing

GRO in front of Alonso

Lewis not sprinting atm

Kubica to stop about lap 15/16

Truill and Kubica fighting

Webber and Rubens have touched

The lights are out

Fisi on the option tyres for the start

Parade Lap is go go go

I am listening to BBC during the race today not 5live, what is everyone else listening to?

The grid is clearing

Ready?

Track Temp 33 c
Air Temp: 31 c
Air speed: 3.9 mps

Is everybody set, I have blog, Live commenting and blog post Comments

If u have a question, comment, idea or if i miss something please put a comment on any of my posts

Not good for Brawn and Kubica on pit stops

YAY Ron Dennis back on the grid thats very nice to see

9 Minutes to go

Martin and DC in a 2 seater love it

Loving the tunnel

Luca on the grid lol if he was quicker maybe he would be in the car for this race

End of grid walk today loved it like normal under 15 minutes to do to lights out

JC – Look at him lol – He is quick at the Top Gear track tho

I like Mark Webber, Webber Lewis and Jenson for podium

Lewis Interview WOOP WOOP Best car on the grid today

Grid walk time with Martin and Eddie YAY

WOW I wish i was a racing driver now, I have missed my chance of f1 as u have to start karting at about 7/8

I think jake will do well

Jake racing yay

half a hour to lights out can’t wait

Ferrari – a very ruff year for them, big crash, few podiums not what they looking for

I am wearing my F1 t-shirt today, lets hope it gives jenson and lewis some luck for 2 brits on the podium

McLaren: I thought they would be mega this year, lots of charactor building i think this year for lewis

BMW – I was quoted saying last winter they were my tip for success this year race wins and a challenge for the championship

Fernando to Ferrari 2010

What a year for them

Renault Renault Renault

Here is the grid:

Lewis, Seb, Mark, Rubens, Jenson,

Alonso out in Q1 – love Quail features

Buemi is in one of my  Fantasy Racers teams so Go Go Buemi

maybe I would love for STR to get points today with Buemi

I am loving the BBC intro love that song, look at that pretty car (BGP 001)

Jenson Button – 2009 World Drivers Champion don’t forget

BBC Intro is go go go, Remember after the race the bbc do a race forum today it will not be on freeview just Sky red button, Online and Virgin media (i think). I will add live comments on the forum into this live blog

Who will crash into the tunnel on the pit lane exit first, if any?

Will Lewis run away in the first stint

From the fuel weights we see the top 10 2 stopping and the last 10 1 stopping with Renault stacking the car with fuel

Afternoon All, under 10 minutes until the BBC coverage starts!

Lewis Hamilton and McLaren have surged back from nowhere at the start of the year to become race winners and consistent top three contenders again going into the final rounds of the 2009 season.

Having continued that form with a crushing pole position in Abu Dhabi, Hamilton told the media why he is so upbeat about 2010, but why the current car is still not perfect.

Q. If you had had this car at the start of the season, do you think you would have been fighting for the title?

Lewis Hamilton: I don’t think so. It is difficult to say it would have been a world championship campaign for sure, because there are some tracks where the car has really been quite poor, I think of Spa for example. Even though it is feeling quite good here on these slow speed corners, it is still not the best car by a fair amount. We still have a lot to improve on. And the foundations of the car are not perfect, so we need to improve that for next year. The faster we get, the worse the car gets in the high speed corners, and if we went to places like Spa we would struggle still.

But the reliability has been good, the engine has been performing fantastically, and we have definitely got closer. If we had this car from the beginning we would have got closer, and if we had started from here we would have just continued to improve.

Q. Were you expecting such domination this weekend?

LH: The weekend is not over, but I didn’t expect it. We arrive at every race this year, and each one is different. Sometimes we are there, sometimes we are not. We came here, and I didn’t know where we would be. So it was a real surprise. On Friday we really dialled the car in, and it feels the best it has felt all year to drive. So it was a surprise for all of us.

Q. Watching trackside this place looks fantastic, how does it feel from the cockpit?

LH: It is a bit like driving a go-kart through some of those corners. Turn 11/12/13, it is like corners of a go-kart track. A bit of kerb here, a little bit more there, a little bit less – you lose vision as you go over the brow, and then the car drops back down so you get back on the power. It is cool. I like it.

Q. There were a lot of incidents in Brazil that have prompted a debate about driving standards this weekend. Is it time for a new code of conduct, or is the FIA doing enough?

LH: I think the FIA has done a tremendous job this year. Whether it has all been perfect… it is a very hard job to do. The situations are always different, but they have done a great job this year. I think for Brazil, clearly we had some great racing, some very tough calls for them, but for us in the drivers’ briefing it was more comments about younger drivers coming in. The rest of us, we have been here and we have established an agreement amongst drivers. The new ones have come and have not been briefed about what we all go by manoeuvre wise, so perhaps it is a question of them becoming aware of it.

Q. What direction would you like to see F1 go now that we have a new FIA president in Jean Todt?

LH: I haven’t really thought about it too much. I have not really seen Jean to say congratulations, but I think he is going to do a great job. Clearly, it is not an easy job for him to just step in and do, but he did a great job in his past history in F1 and has been a good team leader. So the people around him, hopefully he will be able to manage them very well and help us all move forward. From our point, [that means] working well with the GPDA and hopefully improve safety. For the rest of the FIA, I don’t know what they need to improve but hopefully it is going to be an addition to the group and hopefully a positive.

Q. How encouraged are you by the way the team has ended the year, looking ahead to next season?

LH: It is extremely encouraging. I cannot express how encouraging it is. When you come from a team where for two years you have had a good, competitive car, to the beginning of the year where you had your doubts and you felt the car was just nowhere, and didn’t know when or if it would get better. It is encouraging for the future, but it is also such an encouraging feeling to be working so close with everyone, my team-mate, and all the guys back at the factory. Bit by bit we are getting there.

Q. McLaren’s approach is different to Ferrari – who drew a line under the season and started developing the new car for next year straight away. You’ve kept developing this year’s car. Are you satisfied enough effort has gone into the 2010 car?

LH: Yes, definitely. Sure you can always start earlier, but we had to understand and work with this year’s car to know where we were going. If you start making a new car but don’t know where you’ve been or where you are coming from, then you cannot work on it. We think we have done a great job, a very good approach to understand mistakes and wrong routes/right routes with this car, to improve it to the point that we are now. But we have been focusing on next year’s car for some time now so we should be quite strong.

Q. Sebastian Vettel could not explain the gap after qualifying. Could you explain it? Was it the perfect lap for you? Was it KERS?

LH: We are getting no more than we are always getting from KERS. There was a great feeling in the car, and it was a great lap. I would say it was the best lap I have done all year. It was a very, very nice lap. I need to go and look at it to see where I could improve. There are always places where you can do a little bit better, but if I compared it to my perfect lap – maybe there are a couple of hundredths here or there. Otherwise I am very happy with it.

Q. Better than the lap in Q1 then?

LH: Yeah, it was better than that. So that is why I am smiling. It was even better. Especially when you have got heavier fuel, the balance between front and rear tyres, the amount of kerb you are taking. In previous laps you take a bit too much kerb in places, hits the bottom of the car, miss the apex a bit, and lose a bit of time. But it was just full on.

Q. There has been talk this weekend about the pit exit. How close to the limit have you been there?

LH: I have been quite sensible. It is quite a challenging pit exit, especially going from 60 km/h to 100 km/h, you switch off the pit limiter and it accelerates so quickly. Then all of a sudden you have to brake, so you have to be careful. It drops all of a sudden and it is easy to lock your tyres and go straight on, so it is not easy. But is definitely exciting and should be a real challenge. There is time there if you need it.

Reference: Autosport.com

The final race of the season always features a number of “lasts” ahead of the winter break. Abu Dhabi 2009 is no exception as the grid is set to be shuffled with driver moves, team ownership and engine supply changes ahead of the 2010 season.

Reference: f1-live.com

The first day/night qualifying session proved a complete success on the dramatic new Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi, where Lewis Hamilton’s pace in the McLaren surprised Red Bull duo Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. This trio seems to have a small but crucial advantage over the Brawn duo of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button.

For the record, the fuel weights were: Hamilton, 658.5 kg; Vettel 663, Webber 660, Barrichello 655, Button 657, Toyota’s Jarno Trulli 661, BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica 654.5, BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld 664, Williams’ Nico Rosberg 665 and Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi 661.5.

McLaren
Lewis Hamilton, 1m 40.948s, P1
Heikki Kovalainen, 1m 40.983, P13, will start P18
Hamilton was delighted with the MP4-24, saying it felt the best it had all season. He used KERS for all it was worth, and said things just got better and better as he regained the advantage from the speedy Red Bull duo. Kovalainen’s chances were damned straight away in Q2; he had just set the first fast time when he suffered a gearbox failure. The unit required replacement, leaving him with a grid-place penalty that dropped him from 13th to 18th.

Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel, 1m 41.615s, P2
Mark Webber, 1m 41.726s, P3
Vettel admitted that he and Webber were surprised by Hamilton’s pace, especially when it transpired that he wasn’t that much lighter on fuel. Both felt they got the best from their RB5s and said the cars were working well. They also thought that McLaren’s KERS was particularly advantageous here.

Brawn GP
Rubens Barrichello, 1m 41.786s, P4
Jenson Button, 1m 41.892s, P5
Barrichello said he was happy with the way his car improved as the temperatures dropped for qualifying. Button was very quick all through practice and Q1 and Q2, but with a fuel load in Q3 he started to get serious vibrations which led to debilitating understeer.

Toyota
Jarno Trulli, 1m 41.897s, P6
Kamui Kobayashi, 40.777s, P12
Trulli felt he got things right in all of the sessions and was happy with sixth, especially as Button only marginally improved on his time. Kobayashi had hoped to make Q3 in his first fully dry Formula One qualifying. In the end he was philosophical to miss out by just a couple of tenths.

BMW Sauber
Robert Kubica, 1m 41.992s, P7
Nick Heidfeld, 1m 42.343s, P8
Kubica rued Friday’s loss of time after his second session engine failure and said that the lower track temperature in qualifying had a deleterious affect on his F1.09’s handling. Heidfeld was quite happy on the greater fuel load and said that his marginal chance of a final improvement might have been frustrated when he came across Webber late in the lap.

Williams
Nico Rosberg, 1m 42.583s, P9
Kazuki Nakajima, 1m 41.148s, P14, will start P13
Rosberg made the top 10 again in his final race for Williams, and felt that ninth was the best he could have expected as his FW31 struggled on the open sections of the circuit. Nakajima didn’t manage to get his last lap together in Q2.

Toro Rosso
Sebastien Buemi, 1m 42.583s, P10
Jaime Alguersuari, 1m 41.689s, P15, will start P14
Buemi admitted that he had hoped for better than 10th after shining all through practice, but said he was happy overall given his fuel load. Alguersuari lost valuable track time when he didn’t run at all in the morning, for reasons the team didn’t divulge, and never managed to catch up.

Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen, 1m 40.726s, P11
Giancarlo Fisichella, 1m 42.184s, P20
Once again Raikkoinen got the most out of the ageing F60, and Fisichella didn’t, and prospects for regaining third place in the constructors’ championship from McLaren appear weak.

Renault
Fernando Alonso, 1m 41.667, P16, will start P15
Romain Grosjean, 1m 41.950s, P19
Renault struggled throughout practice and qualifying here, and 16th and 19th indicated the depth of the problem.

Force India
Vitantonio Liuzzi 1m 41.701s, P17, will start P16
Adrian Sutil, 1m 41.863s, P18, will start P17
Liuzzi was really happy with his VJM02 on his first run in Q1 and believed he had the pace to get through to Q2. But the second set of soft tyres changed its behaviour for the worst as it lost grip. Sutil also complained of oversteer.

Reference: F1.com

Lewis Hamilton looks in superb shape to take a third victory of the season at the Formula 1 finale in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

The McLaren driver was on pole by a margin of nearly 0.7 seconds and he was still half a second clear when the amount of fuel in the cars was taken into account – an astonishing margin in a season that has been so close.

The cars in the top 10 qualifying shoot-out are not allowed to refuel between qualifying and the race, so the amount of fuel they carry dictates their pace on Saturday as well as when they will make their first pit stops on Sunday.

So grid positions can be misleading until the fuel weights are published and the ramifications of that calculated. Assessing those figures underlines just how strong Hamilton is looking.

This is BBC Sport’s fuel-adjusted Abu Dhabi Grand Prix grid, with projected first pit stops:

1 Lewis Hamilton (lap 17)
2 Sebastian Vettel +0.496secs (lap 19)
3 Mark Webber +0.721 (lap 18)
4 Jarno Trulli +0.854 (lap 18)
5 Rubens Barrichello +0.971 (lap 16)
6 Jenson Button +1.001 (lap 17)
7 Nick Heidfeld +1.186 (lap 19)
8 Robert Kubica +1.196 (lap 15)
9 Nico Rosberg +1.388 (lap 19)
10 Sebastien Buemi +1.651 (lap 18)

Because he has two laps’ less fuel on board, Hamilton’s fuel-adjusted margin over the Red Bulls is not as large as it was on the track but at nearly half a second it is still more than big enough for the race to look like it is his for the taking.

It seems as if the Abu Dhabi track could have been made for the McLaren.

There are two long straights for them to get the most out of their Kers power-boost system, which gives them an extra 80bhp for 6.7 seconds a lap.

And the track abounds in the slow- and medium-speed corners in which the car is so strong, while lacking the high-speed bends in which it struggles – and in which the Red Bull is the class of the field.

Not only that, but it should ensure he is unpassable on the first lap, so he should be able to lap at his own pace for the first stint.

If Hamilton has any rivals for victory, it looks like being the Red Bull drivers.

They are making their first pit stops a little later than Hamilton – Vettel on lap 19, compared to Hamilton’s 17, and Webber on 18 – but, as long as the Englishman maintain his superior speed into the first stint of the race, it is hard to see Vettel or Webber being able to make up enough time to leapfrog him.

More likely is that the Red Bull drivers will be engaged in a tight battle with the Brawn drivers and Jarno Trulli’s Toyota behind Hamilton.

With regards to Vettel and Brawn’s Rubens Barrichello, that means a fight for second place in the championship as well as in the race – the German has a two-point advantage heading into the grand prix.

But just as they are fighting for the crumbs left by Jenson Button in the championship, they look certain to be doing the same behind Hamilton in the final race of the season.

Reference: BBC Sport F1

Lewis Hamilton will stop just one lap earlier than main rival Sebastian Vettel in tomorrow’s race, making the Briton’s excellent pole position lap in qualifying this evening even more impressive. The 2008 champion went two thirds of a second quicker than second-placed Vettel, but the publication of the post-qualifying fuel weights revealed that the pair would stop just one lap apart on laps 18 and 19 respectively, hitting Red Bull’s victory hopes in the process.

With Vettel going just one lap longer than Hamilton, the German’s chances of leapfrogging the McLaren driver during the pitstops are now very slim, especially with Hamilton having KERS at his disposal to easily re-pass Vettel should he be behind. Webber is equally disadvantaged, stopping on lap 18, the same lap as Hamilton.

Behind the leading trio, Brawn’s Barrichello and Button will stop on laps 17 and 18, or possible earlier, with Jarno Trulli set to pit for the first time on lap 19. BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica has the lightest car on the grid with just 16 laps of fuel on-board, with Heidfeld, Rosberg and Buemi all stopping in or around lap 20.

While all the top-ten runners are geared up for two-stop strategies, the entire latter half of the grid have the option of stopping just once, depending on tyre wear. Both Ferraris are the lightest cars in the bottom 10 with 30 laps of fuel, while the heaviest are the Renaults, with Alonso and Grosjean set to go 36 and 37 laps respectively before stopping.

Reference: Manipe F1

My last predictions of this Formula One season! The final race of this season takes place in Abu Dhabi at the newly constructed Yas Marina Circuit. No one has seen this track firsthand and right now both McLarens are on the pace. Kovalainen leads Hamilton by a few tenths and then it is F1 World Champion 2009 Jenson Button in third. Vettel is in fourth right now followed by the impressive rookie Kamui Kobayashi in the Toyota. I think that this race is going to come down to who can keep up with both of the McLarens. This also means that I think…no, I know that McLaren will retain third in the manufacturer’s standings. Fisi hasn’t really done anything with his Ferrari and Kimi don’t care enough to go fast. He’s just looking to next season when he will be driving either a rally car or listening to his awesome speakers hewn from living rocks. Right now he is trying to sew up a deal with McLaren to be their second driver, but his contract states that he is allowed to go rally racing, but McLaren don’t want him to do that during the season. It will be interesting to see whether or not he gets to drive for his old team again, and if he does, whether they will allow him to race rally cars during the season. Personally, I am hoping that he does go to McLaren and then there is a huge squabble between the team and Kimi about driving. That would be fun to read about. Ok, back to the race at hand. Winning this race will be Hamilton. I have a feeling that he is gaining a lot of confidence with his car, and that the KERS system will be in full effect. In second will be Vettel, and third will be Button. The rest of the point scorers will be Raikkonen, Webber, Kobayashi, Rosberg and Kovalainen. I think that this race will be a forgettable affair, but the track will look good and the place will be pretty. The track is very wide open and features huge run-off areas for the racers. I think there may be some passing, but it will be from the people at the back of the pack and won’t matter all that much. As far as crashes go, I don’t expect there to be any of those because the start is fairly simple and all the corners are very wide. Come back on Monday for the full recap and a look forward to next season.

WilliamsF1 Flywheel based KERS system may become standard in 2013

At the meeting of the World Motorsport Council on 21 October 2009 the proposals put forward by the Environmentally Sustainable Motor Sport Comission (EMSC) were supported. These proposals were significant in that they made an unequivocal statement that ‘Motor sport must move from a power per unit.. as basis for engine performance regulation , to one of power per unit energy.’ In short this means that rather than defining engines in terms of volume or rpm, they will, in future, be defined in terms of brake horse power (bhp) per litre of fuel. They also state that it will be necessary to limit the amount of fuel/energy consumed: so we may go back to the days in the 1980s and early 1990s when F1 cars had a fuel capacity limited to 195 litres and we had cars running out of fuel on the last lap – some of us remember when victorious Nigel Mansell gave Ayrton Senna a lift on (yes on, rather than in) his Williams back to the pits during his celebration lap after Senna’s car had run out of fuel at the end of the 1991 British Grand Prix.

The other interesting note in the EMSC proposals relates to KERS systems: ‘Energy consumption and CO₂ emissions should be regulated on an onboard energy reservoir to wheel basis’. This implies that although KERS will not be used in 2010 it is planned to reintroduce it, potentially on a single spec basis to save cost. Later in the document they make the statement that ‘Technology such as fly wheels reducing dependence on batteries and concentrating on ICE load shift [ICE = Internal Combustion Engine I think!] proves to be the most promising way forward.’ Good news for Williams who have been developing their own flywheel system as a potential spin-off from the F1 operation.

However, there is no mention of when or how any of these proposals will be implemented. Clearly they will be on the table for the next Concorde agreement to run from 2013, it will be interesting to see whether or not they really do come to fruition.

Formula One cars are hardly the greenest things on the planet. But however we can make these cars more environmentally friendly, I am all for it, especially if it enhances the racing.

The majority of the teams may not like it, but I have certainly enjoyed  watching the KERS being deployed and all the tactics that come with the KERS cars, and there have been wins from the KERS cars which prove it can work! I will also enjoy it being used in 2010 by whoever wishes to use it, and Williams look set to defy FOTA who agreed not to run KERS and are going to use the system, probably alongside the team which ran it consistenly throughout last season, Ferrari and McLaren.

Williams have been developing a flywheel based system rather than a battery one that all other KERS teams have used which is quite interesting. There is a little video on the Williams KERS system below:

Updates for Formula One are slightly few and far between (at least for the stuff that I want to cover) but there is still some speculation about the new USF1 team. Bernie is constantly making claims that one or more of the new teams won’t make it onto the grid next season, and many people take that to mean the USF1 team. I can see where they are coming from, because the team is based in North Carolina and, supposedly, the employees are paid on a month my month basis. Also, the driver that was closest to getting a full time race seat for the squad, Alexander Wurz, has pulled out from the running. But both Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson are adamant that they have all the pieces in place and that they are just putting them together. The FIA has seen the work space for the team and has come away impressed and they even have a new driver in mind for their car. That person is Kyle Busch. I do not normally watch NASCAR if I can help it, so I know very little about Kyle. From what I have read – which is very little – he is 24 and is very good at turning left. Regardless of that though, I would be skeptical to see how well he can get on in a full on F1 car. For what its worth, not even the winningest rally driver ever, Sebastian Loeb, was quick enough for the FIA to grant him a super license to drive an F1 car, and I think that rally drivers are much more skilled than NASCAR drivers. I think they are more skilled than many F1 drivers too, but that may be because they risk their lives driving next to huge cliffs and on narrow, tree lined roads at over 100 mph. Whatever the outcome of this, at least Kyle is sort of young enough to maybe, kinda learn how to drive an open-wheeled car. I’m sure we will all know more as the time draws closer to the season opener in Melbourne next season.

Also, it seems as though the saying for next season should be “KERS is dead; long live KERS.” This is because, even though KERS is being taken off the cars for next season (because it sucked and didn’t really do anything and led to higher costs), it seems like the FIA is trying to push for it to be standardized in 2011. This seems foolish to me because they must have seen the problems it caused for teams who ran, or tried to run it. Oh yeah, before I forget, which team running KERS won the title? None. Zero. The two remaining teams who have KERS systems on the cars are currently battling it out for third place in the constructor’s title, and are not even close to the title winners at Brawn. It is true that McLaren did make extraordinary strides this season, but that is mostly down to aerodynamic changes, and not the KERS system. This “green” technology that is KERS should be saved for road cars and not be anywhere near a Formula One car. I say leave it behind and never speak of it again.

After yesterday’s eventful qualifying session, we are left with starting grid that few would have predicted. The headlines will focus on Barrichello finally turning up at his home circuit and Button handling the pressure like only a Brit knows how, but it is the performance of some of the supporting cast that I think gives the best opportunity make some money from the race. As soon as the status quo is upset, bookmakers are forced to hurriedly revise their prices and there are a couple that just look a shade out of line to me.

I’m very much operating under the principle that “today is another day” and I’m looking to forgive a couple of disappointments in yesterday’s rain. This had lead me to the following:

Giancarlo Fisichella to finish in the points – 7/1+ Betfair

The standout feature about this bet for me is how well Fisichella has improved from poor grid positions already this season. In the fourteen races in which the Italian has been classified, he has made up a total of fifty-one places. That is second only to Timo Glock in the field and we know how much praise the German has received for his race drives this season. It equates to an average of 3.64 places gained per race and whilst that won’t be enough to see him into the points alone, we must factor in a) retirements and b) that it is an average and he hasn’t always had the entire field in front of him. Since Fisi moved to Ferrari that average has remained constant (3.66).

The other thing that I like, is that twentieth place on the grid is not representative of his Ferrari’s pace; his teammate managing a very credible fifth placed start with the same package. Giancarlo made a mistake in the wet, pure and simple: however with fourteen classified finishes this season he is one of the best in the field at getting the car home. More inclement weather wouldn’t necessary discourage me either, as he generally has a good wet weather pedigree and more turmoil in the race is likely to help rather than hinder his cause.

He has a fast car, KERS, a tank full to the brim and a point to prove. This is my bet of the weekend.

Lewis Hamilton to finish in the points – 6/4+ Betfair

Whilst the man from Stevenage doesn’t boast such an impressive places gained per race statistic as Giancarlo Fisichella (just 0.38), it must be put in the context of his qualifying. Three pole positions in the last five races have not left him much room for improvement! Equally his grid slot owes more his car’s inability to perform in the conditions than any individual error. I’m essentially backing the McLaren mechanic’s ability to give him a car more suitably set up to today’s conditions.

Very differently from last year, the real pressure is off Hamilton and with his KERS, his love for overtaking and crucially a track that permits it, I think he’ll fancy a charge through the slower cars ahead of him on the grid. Certainly Martin Whitmarsh will have half an eye on Jarno Trulli’s position at the front of the grid and will be urging Hamilton to attempt to pick up just a few points to keep the Japanese team at arms-length in the constructors battle.

Good luck.

Formula One might not be using the controversial KERS energy-boost system next year, but that’s not stopping Williams from powering ahead with its development outside the sport.

The Oxfordshire-based team pursued a different course from the rest of the F1 grid, developing an innovative flywheel system that it believes has uses far beyond motor racing.

As a result Williams Hybrid Power Ltd, a company that was bought by the team and relocated to its Grove headquarters last year, has developed and patented a mobile energy recovery and storage solution.

It has just announced its membership of a partly government-funded consortium called KinerStor which aims to show mass market uses for a low-cost flywheel hybrid system. The project is led by transportation consultant Ricardo and also includes companies such as JCB and Land Rover.

KinerStor hopes to demonstrate fuel savings of up to 30 per cent, with equivalent reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, at a low enough cost to put the technology into affordable mass-market hybrid vehicles.

It will research and check the individual systems that make up flywheel energy-saving technologies and then develop them into two proprietary devices.

One will be Ricardo’s mechanical/magnetic coupled flywheel system, known as Kinergy, and the other will be an electrically-coupled unit developed by Williams Hybrid Power.

The KinerStor project team aims to design, build and test prototype units to ensure that the completed systems are ready for vehicle-based installation, testing and demonstration.

Ricardo group technology director Neville Jackson called the consortium “a crucial mass of skills and expertise” that could make future cars more fuel-efficient and greener.

Nor is it just cars that could benefit – along with all sorts of vehicles from sub-compact run-arounds to luxury SUVs, it is thought that the technology could provide low-cost compact energy storage systems for industrial and construction use.