F1-Blog

Qualification ended in Imola with a few surprises to mull over. First off (and not really a surprise) Ferrari performed well at their home race with Michael getting his first pole of the season, and Massa finishing the session in fourth.

The one turn up for the books was not the performance of Button in the Honda, or even the Honda in general. No it was the resurrection of Rubens Barrichello's season with his 3rd on the grid.

The other 'not quite expected's' are. Renault - The team certainly did not perform as was expected, as Pat Symonds said "We are either going to go long in the first session, or we are slow". Championship leader Alonso will start from fifth on the grid with Fisichella starting eleventh even though he had an uprated engine available to him.

Toyota definitely performed above their previous attempts, Ralph will start from sixth even though he struggled on Friday with car issues, and Trulli will start from ninth, the first time this season both Toyota cars have been in the final qualifying session.

The two McLaren cars are believed to have been fueled heavy (Ron Dennis said as much after the qualifying session). If the two cars are significantly heavier than those ahead of them, and they don't take each other out at the first corner, then they should be good in the race. Montoya starts seventh one spot ahead of his team mate Raikkonen.

Webber and Rosberg seemed to be struggling at most points of the Saturday session even though they have new Cosworth power and a few aero tweaks on the Williams. Villeneuve did well in the BMW-Sauber plonking himself in twelfth, and nearly half a second quicker than his younger and better thought of (inside the team) team mate Heildfeld who starts from fifteenth.

The other surprise is the Toro Rosso team. Everyone was expecting the V10's torque to be a huge advantage to the team at the very up and down Imola track. I'm not sure what happened but Liuzzi is starting from sixteenth in his home GP and his team mate Speed has only got the four tail enders from the MF1 and Super Aguri teams behind him.

Rueters have reported that the 12 team that will be entering the F1 championsip is likely to be the Prodrive team.

"We have heard rumours of letters flying around but we have been told that the formal announcement will come next Friday and we await that with bated breath," David Richards said. However Paul Stodard has gone on record as saying "We got a 'not at this time but stay in touch' sort of letter," he added that he thought the Prodrive team was the front runner for the last position, but added "It's not over until the fat lady sings and they (the manufacturers, governing body and Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone) have got to get through a very interesting round of negotiations yet,".

So if the GPMA members or even a subset of them decide that a decision cannot be reached some of the other teams that applied may just get a chance.

The Variante Alta is being changed for this weekends Imola GP. The Chicane which is apparently one of the most incredible spectator standpoints of the season has been modified for safety reasons.

The kerbs that used to cause the cars to 'fly' have been re profiled to allow the cars to straight line the corner without causing damage. The kerbs used to be high in an attempt to make the cars go around them, but it just ended up in the cars making a leap of faith over them in an attempt to cut the lap times.

Most of the drivers who have inspected the changes to the corner have given it the thumbs up, and have said that the safety of both car and driver should be improved by the changes.

Let's just hope it makes the chicane more and not less interesting to watch.

Carlin Motorsport is looking to purchase the UK site of Penske Racing. The factory in Poole, Dorset would be a major boost to their chances of being picked for a place in the 2008 championship.

The team who currently compete in F3 and the Renault World Series have said that they are capable of resourcing the team is allowed to move up to the F1 series. If Carlin purchase the factory they would add 25 staff to the team of 60 they already have, with the site having the ability to build F1 chassis.

Alain Dassas has stated the Renault team's intention to stay in F1. Dassas has said that the team has applied for the 2008 season, and as long as cost can be controlled the Renault team has a long term future in the series.

Dassas has stated that the team (A GPMA Member) needs the cost of the 'Development Arms Race' to be reduced, and also would like to see a better distribution of the TV rights. He said “At the moment, Renault pays 60% of the team's costs, and 40% are covered by sponsorship and television rights money, We can make savings in these direct costs while maintaining our sponsorship levels and improving the central distribution of revenue from television rights.”

That is good news for F1, the worry was that if one of the major manufacturers pulled out of F1 that some of the other teams may have thoughts of following.

Dassas has put the high cost of F1 down to the engine development race and the testing the teams must do, he also said that all the manufacturers (including Ferrari) are looking for the cost of F1 involvement to come down, and said those where the key areas where the cost could be saved.

Toyota are offering a free copy of either the current or the next One Aim magazine. To get hold of your copy pop along to the One Aim website and request your copy.

Don't forget that F1 is on ITV (in the UK) this weekend, the times for the showings are Live qualifying: Saturday 22 April  1230-1425  ITV1 and Live race: Sunday 23 April  1200-1515  ITV1.

The DVD Times is reporting that a region 1 version of a fully restored version of the great F1 movie is being released. It features a restored 65mm to DVD video transfer and a remastered 5.1 soundtrack.

It also features a bunch of documentaries, 4 of which have not been released before.

I'm not sure about a region 2 release date (or even if it's coming here) so I would pick it up from your local R1 distributor.

That submited a request to enter the 2008 F1 championship season only 12 can actually make it. That makes 10 unlucky teams looking for somewhere else to invest their time and efforts.

Pitpass today reports that the teams that where not successful are finding the bad news in their post today.

So with some luck we should have a pretty definitive list of the 2008 runners before the FIA announce it on the 28th.

Oh the quote that pitpass have? that sounds a bit like Paul Stoddard to me, but I could be wrong.

The European leg of the season kicks off this weekend with the Imola GP. Why is this important? well the European leg of the season usually sees the introduction of the parts that the production and design teams have been working hard on at home while the race teams have been abroad.

We now know from the news and rumours going around already that Imola is going to be an important GP. Renault have admitted to a new evolution on Fisi's engine (Alonso will have to wait a GP or take a 10 place penalty). Toyota admitted before the season started that a team was working on a 'European' car, so expect a step up for them. Williams and engine partner have said they have worked out what the issue with the Cosworth reliability was, and fixed that; and that's already one of the best V8's on the grid performance wise. Honda have put 'countermeasures' in place to solve the exploding engine syndrome that Button suffered. To add to that BMW have increased power to their V8, and Red Bull / Toro Rosso have plenty of money to do something.

Who are we missing? well it's the home team, Ferrari. I can assure you they will be pulling out ALL the stops.