Kimi weighs up his options for 2007

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Cars star sold on F1 show

The worlds of Hollywood and Formula 1 collided once again at the Spanish Grand Prix when the star of the new animation film Cars, Owen Wilson, made a visit to the paddock.

The American actor, famed for his role as Hutch in the 21st century remake of Starsky and Hutch, was a guest of the Renault team at Catalunya, promoting the children’s film which sees him voice the main character- an obnoxious cartoon stock-car.

It was the actor’s first appearance at an F1 race and he was impressed by what he saw.

"This is the first ever race I have been to, and it is pretty exciting to be backstage and to see what goes into it,” he enthused.

“It seems much more technological than NASCAR which we have in the US.

"There's a lot of race fans here, and it struck me how strange it is that in every game, America has its own version - and it's the same with racing. I kind of wish we took part more, so we could be involved in all of this."

The film produced by Pixar, the film-makers behind Toy Story, sees Wilson star alongside octogenarian race-fan Paul Newman and a certain M Schumacher- who cameos as a red racing car.

"It has come from director John Lasseter's love of cars, he has set it in a world of cars, and I am literally the voice of a race car,” says Wilson about the film.

“So it tells my journey, starting as an obnoxious race car, who gets his comeuppance and learns his lessons. It's a really Hollywood story!"- itvF1

Qualifying tweaks confirmed

The top-10 qualifying shootout will be cut by five minutes from this weekend’s French Grand Prix, after the World Motor Sport Council approved changes proposed by the Formula 1 Commission.

This means that the final part of qualifying will be trimmed from 20 to 15 minutes, after a fax vote by the WMSC ratified the changes to the 2006 and 2007 Sporting Regulations asked for earlier this month.

In addition drivers will now be able to complete a flying lap after the chequered flag in any of the three sessions, as long as they started the lap before the flag fell.

The approval also means that from next season third cars will no longer be used on Fridays, paving the way for a radical shake-up of F1 race weekends in 2007.

Drivers are also no longer alllowed to serve driver-thru-penalties during safety car periods.

New Super Aguri breaks cover

Super Aguri’s new car, the SA06, made its first public appearance on Wednesday when Takuma Sato carried out a shakedown test of the Honda-powered machine at Silverstone.

The SA06 will make its official race debut at the German Grand Prix on July 30 in the hands of Sato, along with new team mate Sakon Yamamoto - who also gets his maiden Formula One race outing at Hockenheim.

The car replaces the SA05 - a modified version of the 2002 Arrows A23 chassis - which Super Aguri used for the first 11 rounds of the season, the team’s first in Formula One racing following their last-minute entry to the 2006 championship.

Nurburgring and Imola dropped for 2007

Motor sport’s governing body the FIA published the 2007 Formula 1 fixture list on Tuesday after it was approved by a fax vote of the World Motor Sport Council.

The San Marino and European Grands Prix – which have long been de facto second races for Italy and Germany respectively – have been dropped, while the Belgian GP at the magnificent Spa-Francorchamps circuit has been reinstated.

As expected, Australia will resume its traditional role as the season-opener after deferring to Bahrain this year because of a clash with the Commonwealth Games.

The Japanese Grand Prix will move from Suzuka to Fuji, the circuit that staged the country’s first two grands prix in 1976 and 1977.

The 17-race schedule includes five back-to-back races: Malaysia and Bahrain in April, the two North American races in June, France and Britain in July, Italy and Belgium in September and China and Japan in September/October.

2007 Formula 1 calendar

Australia – March 18
Malaysia – April 8
Bahrain – April 15
Spain – May 13
Monaco – May 27
Canada – June 10
United States – June 17
France – July 1
United Kingdom – July 8
Germany – July 22
Hungary – August 5
Turkey – August 26
Italy – September 9
Belgium – September 16
China – September 30
Japan – October 7
Brazil – October 21

Actually, the Nurburgring will be the alternate venue for the German GP.

Originally posted by iveco:

Actually, the Nurburgring will be the alternate venue for the German GP.

not confirmed.... imola might be alternated with monza too

the long gap ahead of malaysia cud be filled by a pacific gp too

Honda target charities as sponsors

Thursday, September 7th 2006, 09:35 GMT

Honda Racing are considering a radical charity sponsorship package to replace their Lucky Strike title backing from next season, this week's Autosport magazine reports.

The plan, supported by Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone, is to bring together a number of international charities to partner Honda and thus benefit from Formula One's global exposure.

Autosport reports that the total funding of the package could be in excess of £15m ($28m).

"It's highly unlikely that we will replace Lucky Strike with one sponsor and we are looking at coming up with a portfolio of sponsors which together will be worth $40-$50," a source told Autosport.

"The idea does include a contribution to our activities from outside the normal realm of Formula One. Bernie Ecclestone is aware of our plan and is fully supportive."

The scheme is yet to be approved by the Honda Racing management board, but powerful factions believe it could attract new blue-chip clients.

So far, these are the confirmed line-ups for next season:

Renault (Giancarlo Fisichella, Heikki Kovalainen)
Red Bull (David Coulthard, Mark Webber)
BMW-Sauber (Nick Heidfeld, Robert Kubica)
Williams-Toyota (Nico Rosberg, Alexander Wurz)
Ferrari (Kimi Räikkönen, Felipe Massa)

And these drivers have booked their places for 2007:

Fernando Alonso (McLaren-Mercedes)
Jarno Trulli (Toyota)
Jenson Button (Honda)

Team Midland will be renamed Spyker, after the Dutch sportscar maker acquired the team. Renault have also confirmed that they will be supplying engines to one of the Red Bull teams.

Christian Klien makes way for Robert Doornbos in the second Red Bull Racing seat from the Chinese Grand Prix onwards.

Hmm, Williams to get Toyota engines? Which RB team is getting Renault engines?

It appears that Cosworth might be pulling out of F1.

Panis announces his retirement

18 September 2006

Toyota revealed on Monday that Olivier Panis has decided to leave the team at the end of 2006 and thereby put an end to his 12-year Formula One career. Panis, winner of the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix, has been with Toyota since 2003, as both a race and test driver.

"Toyota has made much progress and I am happy to have been a part of this,” said the Frenchman. “The team was always very motivated and still is. I am really positive about the job the whole team has done and will miss everyone I have worked with.”

Panis last raced for Toyota in 2004 and having spent the past two seasons testing, the 40-year-old now hopes to return to a racing role elsewhere.

“I know that it is time for me to move on and fulfil my wish to race again,” he explained. “I am looking forward to new racing challenges outside Formula One but I will keep a close eye on Toyota's performance and hope they achieve all the success they deserve."

Toyota, meanwhile, thanked Panis for all his efforts over the past four years and wished him well for his future career.

"We are very thankful to Olivier for the high level of commitment he put into working with the whole team all along our four years of collaboration,” said team principal Tsutomu Tomita. “His technical experience and human qualities greatly contributed to our team development as much as to the improvement of its overall performance."

Panis made his Formula One debut with Ligier back in 1994, going on to take his first - and only - Grand Prix win in 1996 in Monaco. He missed the second half of the following season after breaking both legs in a crash at the Canadian Grand Prix, but recovered to continue racing for the Prost team in 1998. He spent a year as McLaren’s third driver in 2000 before resuming his racing career with BAR in 2001, finally switching to Toyota in 2003.

Australia – March 18
Malaysia – April 8
Bahrain – April 15
Spain – May 13
Monaco – May 27
Canada – June 10
United States – June 17
France – July 1
Great Britain – July 8
Germany – July 22*
Hungary – August 5
Turkey – August 26
Italy – September 9
Belgium – September 16
Japan – September 30*
China – October 7
Brazil – October 21

Suzuka will be replaced by Fuji Speedway while the nurburgring will alternate with hockenheim ring startting with the latter

Brawn to leave Ferrari - official

Ross Brawn will leave Ferrari before the end of this year, the Italian squad confirmed on Thursday.

In a long anticipated move, Brawn will stand down from his post of technical director to devote more time to his personal life and will hand over his duties to Mario Almondo.

Engine chief Paolo Martinello will also leave the team, moving to Ferrari’s parent company Fiat.

Meanwhile Stefano Domenicali will take over Jean Todt’s role as sporting director.

The Frenchman, who was appointed CEO of Ferrari on Wednesday, will serve as managing director of Ferrari’s sporting division for a transitional period.

Aldo Costa will head up the team’s chassis department and Giles Simon will lead the engine department. Both men will report to Almondo.

“Ferrari offers its most heartfelt thanks to Ross Brawn and Paolo Martinelli for their immense contribution in the drafting of an extraordinary chapter in the history of the Scuderia and motorsport, which has produced a tally of 11 world titles and of around ninety wins in Formula 1 grands prix,” Ferrari said in a statement.

“After years of hard and demanding work, Ross Brawn has decided to turn his attention to his personal life, while Paolo Martinelli will take on an important role within the Fiat Group: to them go best wishes for a satisfying future.”

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F1 theme parks to go global

Klien takes over testing duties from Anthony Davidson at Honda as the latter will be moving to Super Aguri.

borin........... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
moderators tok among each oth... and topic=borin

Williams-Toyota package making good progress
18 December 2006

The Williams-Toyota package is making good progress this winter according to WilliamsF1 technical director Sam Michael. The team has focused mainly on building up better reliability than it had with the Cosworth engine in 2006.

"We started testing back in September with the FW28B car, which is a modified FW28A with the Toyota engine and our 2007 seamless gearbox," said Michael. "This car has completed over 6,500kms and no fewer than three complete on-track race simulations as part of our plan to significantly improve reliability in 2007."

"In addition to reliability, we have been working hard on understanding the changes in the tyres that Bridgestone are now supplying, and there are no untoward surprises," he added. "They are quite consistent and easier to manage, which is helpful when trying to evaluate different set-up changes from a stable baseline."

Kimi different kettle of fish to Schu - Massa
18 February 2007

Felipe Massa says his new team mate Kimi Raikkonen is a different kettle of fish to former partner Michael Schumacher. Despite this, and despite the limited time the duo have had together at Ferrari, Massa is confident they'll get on.

"Kimi has a different character and personality to Michael," Massa said. "He does not talk very much and keeps himself to himself. He appears to be very fair and he does not seem to be the type of guy who plays the political game."

"He is good to work with and I am sure I won't have any problem with him," he added. "The important thing is that he works for the team so that we both have the best car possible." - f1.gpupdate.net

Raikkonen and Massa are equal - Brawn
14 March 2007

Ferrari's former technical director Ross Brawn says Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen are on equal status and will be free to fight it out for superiority in the Ferrari team on track. Brawn is currently on a year break from F1, but was involved in signing Raikkonen as Schumacher's replacement.

"Michael established his superiority through the natural order of things, by being the fastest," Brawn told BBC Sport Online. "It was never written into his contract that I was aware of - the only thing there was, he had first call on the T-car and that's what will happen at Ferrari this season - a natural order will evolve. Michael still had Felipe very much under control by the end of the season."

"But Felipe has progressed an enormous amount and if he keeps up that rate of progress he'll be a massive competitor in F1 in the future," he added. "It's just a question of whether he does."

The news since the end of the last GP:

Kimi Räikkönen may need to have his engine changed prematurely at Sepang after it sprouted a cooling leak during the last race.

FIA makes the bodywork tests more stringent after allegations of irregularities by BMW-Sauber and Ferrari.

Bridgestone to introduce a single white groove on the softer tyre.

Air Asia to sponsor Williams-Toyota for the rest of 2007.

Spyker files a lawsuit against Scuderia Toro Rosso, alleging that the latter is using a clone of Red Bull's RB3 car.

Queensland bids to host the Australian Grand Prix along the Gold Coast.

Toyota are due a chassis update at Barcelona, while Honda and Spyker will introduce theirs this weekend.

F16 jet beats Spyker in demo race

Christijan Albers' Spyker lost out to an F16 fighter jet in a demonstration race in Holland on Friday.

More than 10,000 fans saw the Formula 1 car race the plane down the 1000 metre runway at the Volkel airbase in southern Holland.

Albers led away from the startline, but was overhauled by F16 pilot Captain Ralph Aarts in the final yards.

"It was a tight race, for the first 300m all I could see was the plane in my mirrors, but then he just accelerated past me and off into the distance - it was incredible!" said Albers.

"I'd never been close to an F16, or even sat in one, so it was really interesting to compare the performance of the two.

"Aside from the displays though, Ralph and his team do some brave work out there, I have a lot of respect for them."

F1 needs customer cars

IA president Max Mosley says that allowing customer cars is vital for Formula 1's future competitiveness.

Under the new-for-2008 rules, teams will be able to buy chassis from other outfits rather than having to design and build their own cars.

Prodrive has already announced that its new F1 team will be a customer project.

Mosley told the Reuters news agency that the enormous resources required to build a competitive chassis meant that smaller teams were doomed to struggle if customer cars were not permitted.

"There are all sorts of commercial discussions going on but, to me, it's self evident that Formula 1 hasn't got enough money for 12 different teams to have 12 research and development programmes, 12 wind tunnels, 12 organisations getting on for 1,000 employees (each)," he said.

"That means you either have 'customer cars' or you have people struggling at the back of the grid being lapped four times in the race.

"To me it's obvious you should have the customer cars.

"Whether you have four cars of a given make or two on the grid, it doesn't seem to matter.

"They will all look completely different anyway."

itv

Heidfeld will do a tour of the old Nürburgring this Saturday in the BMW-Sauber F1.07. However, he’ll be using demonstration tyres, which have less grip and are about 10% slower than the normal tyres.