Formula 1 Night Race

Malaysia is getting ready for night race that Bernie Ecclestone always pushing for it. Due to the larger market in European countries, and the different time zone, hosting a race in Asia makes the revenue slightly not so lucrative compare to races in other Europe countries. That’s the whole story behind this night racing thingy that trouble country like Australia, which face the similar problem.

From my understanding, Australia is against the night racing idea, simply because it is not viable. Why? Because even without the night race, Melbourne GP currently is at a loss, millions per year. To held a night race in Albert’s park, heavy investment will be needed, that will burn another big hole in the pocket.

Why Bernie Ecclestone is so firm on the decision, he even treaten Australia, saying that Australia F1 will be removed from next year calendar if they do not agree to the night racing concept. Because there are other countries dying to hold a F1 GP in their country. If Australia is not interested, he has plenty of other choices.

Full story …

Melbourne Race Result

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	22	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	58	1:34:50.616	1	10
2	3	Nick Heidfeld	BMW	58	+5.4 secs	5	8
3	7	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	58	+8.1 secs	7	6
4	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	58	+17.1 secs	11	5
5	23	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	58	+18.0 secs	3	4
6	17	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	58	+52.4 secs	10	3
7	8	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	57	+1 Lap	13	2
8	14	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	55	+3 Laps	17	1
9	1	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	53	+5 Laps	15
Ret	4	Robert Kubica	BMW	47	+11 Laps	2
Ret	12	Timo Glock	Toyota	43	Accident	18
Ret	18	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	32	+26 Laps	19
Ret	6	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault	30	+28 Laps	20
Ret	2	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	29	+29 Laps	4
Ret	9	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	25	Accident	8
Ret	11	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	19	Electrical	6
Ret	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	8	Hydraulics	22
Ret	10	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	0	Accident	14
Ret	16	Jenson Button	Honda	0	Accident	12
Ret	19	Anthony Davidson	Super Aguri-Honda	0	Accident	21
Ret	15	Sebastian Vettel	STR-Ferrari	0	Accident	9
Ret	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	0	Accident	16

Source: http://www.formula1.com/results/season/2008/787/6483/

Williams’ Patrick Head aiming high

After their fourth-place finish in last year’s constructors’ championship, Williams’ engineering director Patrick Head believes his team can go from strength to strength this season with regular top-three race finishes.

Lead driver Nico Rosberg, starting his third campaign with the team, will be joined by Japanese newcomer Kazuki Nakajima and it’s a youthful combination that Head thinks can bring Williams serious results.

“The driver line up will not be as experienced as might be expected for a team competing for a championship,” he said. “However, we intend to be regular podium visitors in 2008.”

The new FW30 has looked impressive in testing, prompting media speculation that Williams could be the leading team behind Ferrari and McLaren this year. However, Head insisted that this can only be judged after the opening race in Australia.

“It is too early to say where we will be in the pecking order,” he said. “It looks as if Ferrari and McLaren have made strong progress from 2007, BMW have a car that seems quick and Renault have made progress, I am sure some of which is coming from the cockpit with Alonso back at the helm.

“Red Bull are beginning to look stronger and Toro Rosso are making the best of a car that they are familiar with, they certainly cannot be dismissed. We have certainly made progress, but we will not see where we stand until after the season starts.”

Williams scored one podium finish last year, a third place for Alex Wurz at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.

Source: http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2008/3/7419.html

2008 wallpapers now available – featuring official event artwork

Official wallpaper release by formula1.com, you can download these wallpaper at:

 http://www.formula1.com/services/downloads/

Interview – Fernando Alonso

An interview with Fernando Alonso, Renault. 

Q: Fernando, you have traded a competitive car for an environment that is dear to your heart. With only days to go until the Melbourne race, what thoughts are crossing your mind?
Fernando Alonso: It was a difficult season last year, but the car was competitive and I was able to fight for the championship. That is all that any driver wants, so there are no regrets. Being back at Renault I feel very comfortable. There are a lot of good feelings, happy memories and a positive feeling for the future. Of course, there have been changes to the team I left in 2006, but I still know most of the team and their approach to racing has not changed. I think we have everything we need for success, and the team knows how to win because we have done this in the past. If anything the team is even stronger now as there have been improvements in many areas. Melbourne is only two weeks away, but we have had a busy winter testing and improving the car. Everyone in the team is working hard and I am looking forward to seeing how things stand when we arrive in Australia, which is a circuit that holds good memories for me. We all want to win, and we are all giving everything that we can to try and do that. This is always our approach to Formula One.

Q: You left the R26 – your world championship-winning car – in 2006 and returned in January to the R28. What were your first impressions of the ’07 development work carried out by the team?
FA: In my first test with the team in January I was driving the R27 and the car felt okay; easy to drive with a good balance. Of course, this was my first run in a car without the driver aids. Then, a week later, I started to work with the R28 and it was clear that the team had taken a step forward with the new car. It is well known that the team had problems with the wind tunnel at the beginning of 2007, but those difficulties have been solved now, and I would say that the biggest improvement with the R28 is with the aerodynamics, which is a key area to improve performance.

Q: You are used to winning races and you had your share of trophies last year. Are you ready for a season without the occasional Sunday afternoon champagne shower?
FA: I am a racer and so my goal is to win races. I have been fortunate in my career to have had some quick cars and to be able to fight for podiums, wins and championships. This was the case with Renault in the past, and last year too. However, you have to be realistic, and sometimes you cannot always win; sometimes you have to be happy with knowing that you have given your best and done the maximum with the car. But at the moment we are not thinking like this – the team is working hard, pushing the development of the car and I hope that we will be able to fight for many podiums and even race wins.

F1 in Schools gears up for 2008 world championships

The F1 in Schools competition has moved into top gear as it prepares for the 2008 world championships to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in just one month’s time. School children from 17 countries across the globe have battled their way through regional and national finals, and competed against over seven million students, to win the chance to represent their countries.

Over three days of enthralling competition from March 18-20, 25 teams will pit their miniature Formula One cars against each other along a 20-metre two-lane track. Last year, winners Team FUGA from Northern Ireland stole the show with a new world record of 1.020 seconds to edge ever closer to the elusive one-second barrier.

The aim of F1 in Schools is to encourage young people to become engineers by creating an enjoyable and exciting environment in which they can experience careers in engineering, Formula One, science, marketing and technology first hand. The challenge is for school children aged 11 to 18 to use CAD/CAM software to design, analyse, manufacture, test and race a 20th-scale model Formula One car made from balsa wood and powered by CO2.

The 2008 world championships will take place in Kuala Lumpur’s Sunway Lagoon Resort Hotel in the week leading up to the Malaysian Grand Prix. A total of 25 teams representing their countries will contest the international event as they compete to win the coveted Bernie Ecclestone World Championship Trophy and an Automotive Engineering scholarship at City University, London.

Detail report: http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2008/2/7377.html
Related post: http://bcosurich.wordpress.com/2007/11/05/formula-1-in-malaysia-school-in-2008/

Honda Earth Dream – RA108

After a disappointing season,  it seems that Honda have gone for revolution rather than evolution with the design of their 2008 machine. 

“The RA108 car is a wholly different concept to its predecessors, in terms of its aerodynamic layout and mechanical structure. The design philosophy has been developed to allow greater scope for aerodynamic packaging and exploitation, particularly to facilitate the introduction of performance upgrades through the season.

“The focus has been on attaining a high level of aerodynamic efficiency with stability and this is reflected in the way that the chassis has been revised to interact with the different aerodynamic features and the suspension. This approach should allow more potential for further developments to take place, the first of which will be for Melbourne when we will introduce a substantially revised aerodynamic package compared with the car we have launched today.

“The Honda RA808E engine is subject to the FIA engine homologation regulations and therefore the vast majority of engine components remain unchanged. The exhaust geometry and air box have changed to suit the RA108 aerodynamic package. An additional development is the FIA requirement that the fuel mix should now contain 5.75 percent biofuel – an initiative that Honda fully supports.

Interesting Interview – Mosley on cost caps, customer cars, and the new McLaren

FIA President Max Mosley

Q: You are a vehement advocate of cost-cutting measures. Are you surprised that some of the teams aren’t more enthusiastic in their support? After all, even those backed by major car manufacturers don’t have limitless finance…
MM: Absolutely. I think for a long time the feeling was with the big manufacturers that cost doesn’t really matter, that they don’t care. Now everybody understands that they do care and in fact it became of big importance to them. The teams at the last meeting were strongly in favour – or almost all of them were strongly in favour – of a cost cap rather then specific regulations, because with the cost cap the amount of money is limited, but you can spend it any way you want, whereas if we start saying this is for the use of the wind tunnel or the computer, one team has a big wind tunnel, the other has got a big computer, so you end up getting everybody unhappy. But obviously the problem with the cost cap is we have got to agree how we are going to enforce it, how are we going to check – and what the figure should be. I am very convinced that we are able to do it, but people are still sceptical, saying: ‘how will you know for sure they haven’t had something given to them?’ The answer is we’ve got some very good plans for that. It will all be discussed in the next few months.

Q: What could the budget cap figure be? At the moment we have a situation where the gap between some teams’ budgets is pretty huge…
MM: I would not really like to offer an opinion on that. We have to listen to what the teams all say. Clearly in an ideal situation you would have a figure where a mid-field team could run at a profit, because if you take an independent team they had better make a profit or they don’t stay in business. That has to be discussed and I would guess that it takes two to three years to get to the figure. You definitely could not do it suddenly.

Detail interview: Exclusive interview By Formula1.com

First Ever F1 Night Race

It may be too early to talk about it, but this is one of the race that I will never miss for the 2008 season.  Singapore is going to host their inaugural F1 race in 2008 (coming September), and it going to be the first-ever night racing in the F1 history.

Detail report: http://bcosurich.blogspot.com/2008/01/first-ever-f1-night-race.html

Circuit Layout: http://bcosurich.blogspot.com/2008/01/singapore-f1-street-circuit-layout.html

F1 2008 Driver Line Up (Final)

Ferrari
1 Kimi Raikkonen (FIN)
2 Felipe Massa (BR)

BMW Sauber
3 Nick Heidfeld (D)
4 Robert Kubica (PL)

Renault
5 Fernando Alonso (E)
6 Nelson Piquet (BR)

Williams Toyota
7 Nico Rosberg (D)
8 Kazuki Nakajima (J)

Red Bull Renault
9 David Coulthard (GB)
10 Mark Webber (AUS)

Toyota
11 Jarno Trulli (I)
12 Timo Glock (D)

STR Ferrari
14 Sebastien Bourdais (F)
15 Sebastian Vettel (D)

Honda
16 Jenson Button (GB)
17 Rubens Barrichello (BR)

Super Aguri Honda
18 Takuma Sato (J)
19 Anthony Davidson (GB)

Force India
20 Adrian Sutil (D)
21 Giancarlo Fisichella (I)

McLaren Mercedes
22 Lewis Hamilton (GB)
23 Heikki Kovalainen (FIN)Previous post: http://bcosurich.blogspot.com/2008/01/fia-confirmed-2008-driver-line-up.html
Related post: http://bcosurich.wordpress.com/2007/11/20/2008-f1-driver-line-up-prediction/