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The first appearance of the 2009 (ish) spec. F1 cars in testing at Barcelona last week prompted me to do a bit of a round-up of the news. Most teams were running interim cars which looked to have the big aero bits on, though it's not clear anyone ran with moveable front flaps, though Ferrari said they were going to. First reaction is that the cars look quite ugly with that high and narrow rear wing and the very wide front wing for which it looks like the engineers raided their Lego sets! All racing cars built to a spec. rather than designed strictly for purpose seem to attract the attention of the ugly stick to a greater or lesser extent. The first A1GP car had been thrashed mercilessly and the new "Ferrari-based" car, although a lot better, has had a tap, whereas the IRL car has clearly had a good few belts. Still, we'll get used to the new F1 cars in time and handsome is as handsome does, so when there's a frenzy of overtaking next year, we'll think them gorgeous - except McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa says there won't be no frenzy. He says they will be better but we can forget slipstreaming battles with a pack of cars covered by a handkerchief and multiple leader changes. Also, that wide front wing looks awfully vulnerable to first corner incidents.... De la Rosa tested for Force India last week, following the announcement that they are dumping Ferrari power in favour of a partnership with McLaren and Mercedes in which they'll get an engine, transmission and KERS. Wading through the McLarenspeak, the deal goes further with Macca helping Force India with their methodology and other bits and bobs to move them up the order. Midland Racing leftover Colin Kolles and Technical Director Mike Gascoyne have already been shown the door and McLaren's Operations Director Simon Robert will become Force India's COO, working full-time at the ex-Jordan factory. Does this presage a full takeover by the Grey Empire when regulations allow? De La Rosa and other Macca 'droids may or may not be in the frame for a Force India drive next year but meantime I'm sure McLaren will be grateful for direct experience of the Ferrari engine. Wonder if any of V J Mallya's millions could possibly end up in Stuttgart as a result of that $100m fine imposed on McLaren last year? Talking of that, I wonder what happened to the dosh? The FIA said at the time “Just over half the money from this fine will go to the competing Formula One teams" and “The World Motor Sport Council will be invited to distribute the remainder to the FIA's national sporting authorities world-wide for them to spend on helping young drivers to progress in circuit racing and rallies". I don't recall seeing anything about it since, be interesting to know which young drivers were helped and how. The week's testing saw everything from 2008 spec cars through to KERS equipped cars running so times are meaningless, but Sebastian Vettel was fastest in what looked like an '08 car on slicks. Behind him came a trio of drivers in Tori Rossi, battling for a seat there next year. These were existing incumbent Sebastien Bourdais, GP2 racer and Red Bull protégé Sebastian Buemi and Super Aguri/Honda refugee Takumo Sato. The two STR seats and possibly one at Honda are the only ones up for grabs next year, though the situation at Force India may change. Honda gave GP2 drivers Lucas di Grassi and Bruno Senna a run. The latter did a competent job but clearly isn't the sublime talent his uncle was. There have also been a few PR stunts like Red Bull giving rallyist Sebastian Loeb a go and some Italian flimflam at Mugello which I'm not going to dignify with any more publicity; at least Loeb had a go with the others. McLaren and BMW-Sauber ran KERS equipped cars. Pronouncements on the benefits of this technology have been lukewarm thus far. F1 cars are built well underweight at around 470kg and are heavily ballasted. They must be 605kg when they finish the race, minus the weight of the driver, say 65-70 kg, which means the cars had to carry a similar amount of ballast. KERS systems are said to average around 40kg, so this means much less ballast will be required. Ballast or KERS, what does it matter? With four grooves filled in on the front and rear tyres the narrower fronts will have a proportionally bigger increase in rubber on the road and hence will need to carry a bigger proportion of the car's weight. However, the KERS clockwork has to be at the back, behind the driver safety cell, for Health & Safety reasons. The advantage of the KERS squirt (0.1-0.3 secs a lap) is said to be less than the advantage of optimising weight distribution. It also penalises the bigger driver - good job Nige isn't still racing! It's interesting that Luca di Montezemolo isn't keen on KERS, stating they are expensive and questioning the relevance of F1 systems for road cars. This rather suggests that Ferrari is behind with the technology. What is clear is that there will be lot more variables next season and that has to be good for racing. Whether it's good for Ferrari is another matter. In Barcelona Ferrari test drivers Luca Badoer and Marc Gené were
on duty. Badoer concentrated on reliability testing of the engine and
gearbox, driving a car with a slightly modified aero package to simulate
the downforce of the 2009 season. At times, weights were added to the
car to simulate KERS. The first day Gené used an unmodified F2008
to test different set ups. Both ran on slicks. Off track, it doesn't look like there's going to be Canadian or French
GPs next year, as the organisers claim the cost is simply prohibitive.
Perhaps more significant for the Bernie and Max view of the future is
that EuroDisney has withdrawn its bid to stage a race and even China was
said to be considering whether to renew its contract after 2010, though
this was later denied, being put down to an error in translation. Click here to return to the Ferrari Happenings page.
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