Main rule changes for 2008 F1 season

LONDON, March 5 (Reuters) - The Formula One season starts in Melbourne on March 16 with drivers adapting to cars without traction control and some new rules. The following lists the main changes:

STANDARD ECU
All cars have a standard electronic control unit (ECU) controlling the engine, gearbox and clutch and designed by McLaren Electronic Systems and Microsoft to a specification set out by the International Automobile Federation (FIA).
The introduction of the unit, which gathers data from more than 100 sensors on each car, has allowed the governing body to ban the use of traction control and other so-called 'driver aids'.
Renault estimate that the loss of such systems, which particularly help drivers in wet and slippery conditions, will cost them up to 0.4 seconds per lap.
Some teams, notably Ferrari and Renault, have suggested the unit could give McLaren an early advantage as makers of the system.
Drivers have raised concerns about the safety of driving without traction control in the wet, while welcoming a move that puts more emphasis on individual skill and could lead to more overtaking.

ENGINE CHANGE
Drivers are allowed one 'free' engine change to their car without the normal 10-place penalty on the starting grid.
This must be a competitor's first change of the season and it must be a result of genuine engine failure rather than for tactical reasons.
Engines still have to last for two successive races. Any unscheduled change, other than the first, will incur a 10-place penalty as before.

HEAD PROTECTION
Drivers have been given increased protection from side impacts at head level by higher cockpit surrounds.
The change followed last year's Australian Grand Prix when David Coulthard's Red Bull passed over the Williams driven by Alexander Wurz, narrowly missing the Austrian's head.

BIO-FUEL
A minimum of 5.75 percent of the fuel must be derived from biological sources.
SPARE CARS
Each team is allowed no more than two cars available for use at any one time at a grand prix. The rule effectively means there will no longer be spare cars in the garages.

GEARBOX
Gearboxes must now last for four successive races (Saturday/Sunday). Any unscheduled replacement will incur a five-place penalty on the starting grid at that event.
Like engines, gearboxes can be changed for the subsequent race if a driver fails to finish for reasons beyond his or the team's control.

QUALIFYING
Refuelling is not allowed between the end of qualifying and the start of the grand prix.
Teams are likely to run shorter first stints in the race.
The first stage of qualifying will last 20 minutes, the second 15 and the final phase with 10 cars has been shortened to 10 minutes. This will eliminate the wasteful fuel burning seen last season at the start of the final round.

Author: Alan Baldwin

The CDG Wing

The FIA consultation on the future of Formula One clearly demonstrated that the vast majority of the viewing public (94% according to the FIA/AMD survey) want more overtaking. This is at a time when overtaking in Formula One has become
increasingly difficult.

Most aerodynamic research aims to improve a car’s performance when running in what is known as ‘clean’ air which has not been disturbed by the wake of a car
running in front. However, in race conditions when cars follow each other closely, the wake of the car in front significantly reduces the aerodynamic performance of the following car, making overtaking extremely difficult and often impossible.

As a general rule, the better the aerodynamic performance of a car on its own, the worse its effect on the car behind and the greater the loss of performance for that car.

In order to encourage overtaking, the FIA initiated a programme of research into
improving the aerodynamic performance of a car when trying to overtake. The
objective was to produce regulations for a car shape which would create a wake in which a following car would generate more downforce with reduced drag.

With the help of the FIA’s technology partner AMD, the FIA’s research team have
reached a preliminary conclusion which the FIA is now able to publish. The CDG
Wing (Centreline Downwash Generating Wing) will be presented to the Formula One Commission meeting in London today (October 24).

It is intended that the CDG Wing, together with wider wheels and slick tyres, will form part of the 2008 FIA Formula One Technical Regulations. With the support and collaboration of the teams it may be possible to introduce these changes as early as 2007.

Max Mosley, FIA President said, “This new research is important for the future of Formula One. By introducing the CDG wing we can give motor sport fans exactly what they have asked for, wheel-towheel racing with much more overtaking.
”It is our hope that the teams will collaborate with us in the optimisation of this radical new idea so that the aerodynamic benefits can be introduced into Formula One in 2007 rather than having to wait until 2008.”

Henri Richard, AMD Executive Vice President said, "It’s clear the FIA has listened to the feedback of its key constituents - F1 fans around the world - and has taken a bold, innovative approach to improving overtaking and
therefore creating a more exciting race experience. AMD is committed to
encouraging innovation and creativity and to helping the world's leading
organizations take advantage of the phenomenal impact of our technology."

source: click here

_____
pic 1: Project CDG Wing (Centerline Downwash Generating Wing) front, back, upper animated display
pic 2: comparison between air flows of conventional wing and the new design of CDG Wing

Bridgestone announce tyre specifications

Bridgestone has announced the compound allocations of Potenza tyres for the first nine rounds of the championship.

The Bridgestone Potenza tyres for the 2008 season feature minor changes, made in the interests of safety, from last season’s tyres. The allocations for the first nine races of the season are the same as used in the respective events in 2007 except for the Bahrain Grand Prix, which will now use the medium and soft compounds, as opposed to the hard and medium compounds in 2007.

Also of note, the super soft compound, which will be used at the Monaco Grand Prix, is modified from the compound used in 2007. The other three compounds, hard, medium and soft remain the same, as do Bridgestone’s wet and extreme wet tyres.

The tyre marking of the softer of the two tyres allocated to a Grand Prix continues with the bottom of the second from inside groove painted white. The FIA’s tyre regulations are unchanged from those which occurred in 2007 as regards dry and wet tyre allocation numbers.

Each driver receives 14 sets of dry tyres for a Grand Prix, broken down into seven sets of each compound. Four sets of wet tyres and three sets of extreme wet tyres are additionally available to drivers.

“Tyre allocation choice for the first half of the season has been made easier by the continuity of our tyres from last year," said Bridgestone Motorsport Director Hirohide Hamashima.
"We have made a minor evolutionary change to the construction of the dry tyres for safety and we have modified the super soft compound, but apart from that the tyres are the same. However, we should see faster lap times as teams and drivers now have a year’s experience with these tyres and the cars are being developed all the time."

"For Bahrain, having looked at the data we accumulated last year, and data from the recent test there, we are confident about using softer tyres. In the second half of the season we will have more of a challenge with tyre allocation as we visit two new street courses at Valencia and Singapore.”

Tyre compounds for rounds one to nine:
Melbourne - Soft, Medium
Sepang - Medium, Hard
Sakhir - Soft, Medium
Barcelona - Medium, Hard
Istanbul - Medium, Hard
Monte Carlo - Super Soft, Soft
Montreal - Super Soft, Soft
Magny Cours - Soft, Medium
Silverstone - Medium, Hard.

Source: Bridgestone

McLaren boss Ron Dennis set to quit

McLAREN Mercedes boss Ron Dennis, whose driver Lewis Hamilton is one of the favourites to win this year’s Formula One world championship, is likely to step aside this week.

Sources close to Dennis made it clear that the man who has built McLaren into one of the most powerful teams in the history of the sport is determined to achieve a better balance between his family life, other McLaren businesses and the Grand Prix team. Dennis, who recently announced that he had split with his wife of 22 years, Lisa, is understood to feel that the time demands of heading up the F1 team have become disproportionate and, contrary to reports last week, is increasingly inclined towards a change of priorities. There are 18 races scheduled this season.

Now 61, he is adamant that he intends to be more available to his children, and also believes that the role of team principal has changed. Unlike Dennis, who is a major shareholder commanding a majority on the McLaren board, several other current team principals are essentially employees who sometimes have to refer major decisions.

Dealing with the ‘Spygate’ affair stopped Dennis from fulfilling his original intention of stepping down at the end of last season. However, he believes that doing so now would not adversely affect the business, including Hamilton’s chances of winning the championship. This is despite the investigations of Italian police regarding the 780-page dossier of Ferrari data that was passed to Mike Coughlan, then McLaren’s chief designer, last year. The sport’s governing body, the FIA, fined McLaren a record £50m and disqualified the team from the constructors’ championship, which it would have won. Last week Italian detectives carried out an oddly-timed and theatrical series of raids on the homes of several McLaren employees, and took copies of the e-mails which the FIA concluded proved the information was more widespread within the company than Dennis had originally claimed.
Related Links

However, those who believed a fine of £50m would have a detrimental effect on McLaren’s championship challenge have – so far – been proved wrong. Preseason testing results suggest that the title will come down to a battle between the Woking-based team and rivals Ferrari, as it did last season.

Dennis is expected to announce his decision in midweek. He is under no pressure from other shareholders and many staff have been urging him to stay on. The biggest factor which might still stay his hand is the perception outside McLaren.

Dennis maintains that when he told the FIA that the Ferrari information had not been disseminated widely within his team, he was telling the truth as he then knew it. He will not want it to be said that he is being forced into moving as a result of having been proved to have misled the FIA, unwittingly or otherwise. A compromise is also being considered whereby he hands over the role to chief executive Martin Whitmarsh a few races into the season. Dennis by nature is not, however, a man who compromises.

source: click here

F1 switch for Sebastien Bourdais was right!

FOUR-time Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais says the reunification of US open-wheel racing has convinced him he was right to switch to Formula One.

The Frenchman, who is expected to make his F1 debut with Toro Rosso in Melbourne in two weeks, said the merger with the Indy Racing League had killed the series he once dominated.

"It is not a merger, it is the death of Champ Car and the IRL taking over, the schedules, cars, everything," Bourdais said after F1 testing in Spain.

Bourdais said the agreement to reunite the series 30 days before the IRL season started left Champ Car teams no time to prepare.

"It is a disaster for Champ Car teams," Bourdais said.

"Even if they work on the cars now, the season is going to be over by the time they start to be half-competitive.

"Formula One was the right thing for me to do. I would not have been a contender in any way this year (in America)."

The two series announced last week they were reuniting 12 years after the former CART championship split, with Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Tony George forming the IRL, which had the rights to the high-profile Indy 500.

- Reuters

_____
pic 1: Sebastien Bourdais standing at the Toro Rosso caravan
pic 2: Sebastien Bourdais head shot (yellow helmet)

_____
pic 1: Sebastien Bourdais Toro Rosso testing in Jerez
pic 2: Sebastien Bourdais Torro Rosso

The sport has changed, I haven't.. Not enough sex scandals!

Bernie Ecclestone is sitting in his local pub, talking about Formula One world champion Kimi Raikkonen and the Ferrari driver's undeserved reputation as one of the dullest men on the planet.

"Every time I've been out to dinner with him," Ecclestone says, "he has been as good as gold. And he's even better when he's pissed.

"There's nothing wrong with that.

He doesn't embarrass people to the extent they say: 'My God, he shouldn't be doing that'. It's just that when he wants to do something, he doesn't muck about. He just does it.
"I think he's going to be the guy to beat this season. And I think he'll take a lot of beating."

There's a touch of nostalgia in the way Ecclestone talks about Raikkonen. As he approaches his 50th year in grand prix racing, he remembers the days when colourful characters used to be prized in Formula One rather than treated with suspicion and distaste.

Ecclestone's old school like that. No publicity is bad publicity in his book. But as F1 prepares for the opening of its new season in Australia in a fortnight, he says it's never been in better shape.

Even last year's Spygate Affair, he says, the initial £50million fine it brought for McLaren and the agonies it inflicted on team boss Ron Dennis, didn't damage the sport's reputation.
"I don't think it affected the sport badly," Ecclestone, 77, says. "I suppose it damaged poor old Ron more than anybody. He got all the stick, didn't he. That's how it is.

"If he didn't know what was going on, perhaps he should have known. And he should have apologised immediately. If he did know what was going on, he should have apologised immediately, too.

"That way he could have minimised the risk. It wasn't really a question of whether he should have quit or not. He's not an employee. He's a shareholder and he had internal support from other shareholders.

"They didn't want to believe what had happened. But look, it's not just McLaren that needs to watch out. Everyone needs to be careful. There but for the grace of God, you know. McLaren won't suffer too much this season. They're big enough and successful enough to ride it out."

Part of Ecclestone's optimism about McLaren is based on his admiration for Lewis Hamilton, the team's undisputed No.1 driver this year after the departure of Fernando Alonso at the end of last season.

The F1 supremo caused some surprise recently when he reacted to the abuse hurled at Hamilton during testing in Barcelona by saying the FIA's planned anti-racism campaign was unnecessary. "If I was Lewis Hamilton," he says, "I'd go up to the people who were shouting these insults and shake them by the hand and start talking.

"Say hello and ask them what their problem is.

"Say: 'Is it because I'm black or is it a problem with Fernando?' He could also say: 'I'm so sorry that Fernando left because he was so helpful last year'. They wouldn't know what to do.

"It is going to be a much more difficult year for Hamilton this year than last year. Last year, he could afford to be a little more relaxed. They had all the problems in the team but he didn't have any pressure to win.

"Now he's got a lot of pressure to win. He's the No.1 in the team for sure and people expect him to win. Having the world champion there last year took some of the heat off him. He must have learned from him as well.

"But it's not like Lewis is going to retire in a year or something. He's got a long time ahead of him. He's made his mark now. As far as the world is concerned, most people think he should have been world champion. He was unlucky not to be.

"I have been very impressed with him. He's very together. He says the right things at the right times to the right people. He will make statements depending on who he is talking to. He is very talented not only as a driver but as a person."

Hamilton's emergence is one of the reasons why Ecclestone is filled with optimism about F1. Others, he says, are that the engine manufacturers are fully committed to the sport and the threat of a breakaway is over.

"I don't think there's any chance of them disappearing," he says. He's not really a man given to wistfulness or sepia-tinged reminiscences about the good old days. But occasionally, the memories flood back.

"In lots of ways, I suppose they were the good old days," he says. "The guys all used to get together, the team owners and managers.

"We would help each other. If someone had an engine problem, someone would help them and they'd have an engine. It couldn't happen now and it wouldn't happen even if they still all used the same engines. They were just a different breed of people back then.

"The sport has changed. I ... we ... used to control every aspect of the sport. The sporting regulations, the technical regulations, what went on with the race. If we wanted to stop a race, I'd get a flag and stop it.

"The FIA look after the sporting aspect now. I don't get involved. I have grown to live with that.

"If we go back to the good old days, most of the owners ran the team. They had their dollars on the line whereas these days most of the people running the teams are not the owners. They are employed. It's a different dynamic.

"The Colin Chapmans of this world, the Teddy Mayers, we all used to fly by the seat of our pants and we'd make decisions on the run. Today, people have a board meeting, ring their doctor and then a psychiatrist comes in. The spontaneity has gone.

"Whether that's good or bad, I don't know. That's the way a lot of companies are run now. Ask anyone who sits on a company board and they say they are run by lawyers and accountants. We have got rid of the entrepreneurial type people. What's going to happen in the long term because of that, I don't know."

If the sport has changed around him, though, Ecclestone remains the same.

"I still have the same passion," he says. "I'm still wheeling and dealing, which is what I enjoy. I've not changed.

"I always feel that I'm a good friend. But if you're an enemy, look out."

source: click here



pic 1: Bernie Ecclestone Partying ;)

Schumacher prime from 1991 to 2008

I show my honor, I show my respect to the greatest F1 driver that ever lived - yes of course Michael Schumacher!! I attached some photos, pictures from 1991 to 2008.. He was in three teams winning seven championship titles! The first pic is from Jordan, the next four are Benetton, and the rest are Ferrari. I have even included 2 pictures at the very end of Schumi testing in Catalunya and Barcelona (I think ;))


_____
pic 1: Michael Schumacher Jordan 1991
pic 2: Michael Schumacher Benetton 1992

_____
pic 1: Michael Schumacher Benetton 1993
pic 2: Michael Schumacher Benetton 1994

_____
pic 1: Michael Schumacher Benetton 1995
pic 2: Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1996

_____
pic 1: Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1997
pic 2: Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1998

_____
pic 1: Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1999
pic 2: Michael Schumacher Ferrari 2000

_____
pic 1: Michael Schumacher Ferrari 2001
pic 2: Michael Schumacher Ferrari 2002

_____
pic 1: Michael Schumacher Ferrari 2003
pic 2: Michael Schumacher Ferrari 2004

_____
pic 1: Michael Schumacher Ferrari 2005
pic 2: Michael Schumacher Ferrari 2006

_____
pic 1: Michael Schumacher Ferrari 2007*
pic 2: Michael Schumacher Ferrari 2008*
*testing for Ferrari