F1-Blog

Pascal Vasselon has announced that the Panasonic Toyota team are to have more aero improvement's for the German grand prix.

The improvements are said to be small, with a major upgrade to the TF106B's aero and suspension (perhaps the rumoured TF106C?) to be released for the Turkish grand prix.

Things are starting to look good for the Japanese/German team, and are hoping for a good result at their 'home 2' grand prix.

It seems like the team will continue with their current driver line up as well, adding stability to the team from that front. I would seriously like to see the Toyota team do well, not only because I am a Toyota fan (I own enough of them) but because the team have brought a lot to the sport over the few years they have run, and introduced another watching aspect, with them against Honda. 

The FIA have ruled that the Advanced Damping system that Renault and Ferrari (and probably a few others) is to be banned as it contravenes Article 3.15 of the technical regulations (it stipulates that all devices influencing aerodynamic performance of the car must be rigidly secured to the entirely sprung part of the car and must remain immobile in relation to the sprung part of the car)

The system worked by suspending a mass in the fluid of the damper. The effect of this is used in many other applications, from cranes to geophysics and gave the cars an advantage over rough terrain like kerbs where the tyre wall could not damp enough of the vibration.

With this technology gone, the Renault and Ferrari (and others) may find it a little more difficult to 'ride the kerbs' as they have in the past, and I would assume the FIA are hoping it will lower corner speeds as a result.

I wonder where teams sit with using the variable damping systems used in new cars like the Audi TT that has a charged fluid in the dampers. That is probably banned under the active suspension rulings however. 

Super Aguri have shown off their latest SA06 car today (Wednesday) at a Silverstone test.

The Car although still based on the SA05, which was a modified 2002 Orange Arrows, has apparently had so much work done to it that the FIA made the team pass the crash test again.

The SA team are hoping the car is a big step in the right direction, and hopefully stops them being relegated to the rear of the grid.

The engine after all, is the Honda engine used in the works Honda team, so horsepower should not be an issue, it could be interesting though, if Honda cannot pick their game up, the satellite team may start to qualify ahead of them. 

It's that time of the year again, most of the contracts that expire this year are coming up to needing renewing on the 31'st of July.

The current state of affairs largely relies on what Michael Schumacher does at Ferrari.

What we do know is this :-

Toyota : Ralf is contracted till the end of 2007, and Jarno is said to be close to a 3 year deal

Honda : Both Jenson and Rubens are contracted

Williams : There was talk at one point of Rosberg going to Toyota, but now that Jarno is close to a deal it seems that both drivers will stay where they are, Webber is know to be saying as Briatore said  "He'll stay at Williams on the conditions set by us"

Red Bull : Coulthard is said to be close to a one year deal with options as he want to drive the Adrian Newey RB3 car, and the likelihood is that Liuzzi or Speed will step up to partner him in the 'A' team, the other driver will probably stay with STR, will Klien move down to the 'B' Team? doubtful as Red Bull have a fistful of drivers under contract elsewhere that they would like to move up to the premier class. If Massa is booted from Ferrari he could find a seat in the Red Bull 'A' car as well, especially if the team continue with Ferrari power next year.

BMW Sauber : Heidfeld has a contract for 2007 with the team, and it look like even though Villeneuve has been driving admirably he will be dropped, however in the world of F1 BMW will be trying to get a big name, or new name into join Heidfeld, and if they cannot get one Villeneuve may get a reprieve.

McLaren : We know that JPM is not going to be there, and that the current world champion Fernando Alonso will be, also with the rumours of Renault and Ferrari having first refusal on Raikkonen's services, it look likely he will not be at McLaren either. Ron Dennis has a few options for drivers to partner Alonso. There is the current sit in driver Pedro De la Rossa, who is a safe bet, however there are the interesting Brit's Gary Paffet (currently test driver for the team) and GP2 title leader and McLaren all star Lewis Hamilton. So Ron is not short of options.

Ferrari - Schumi? and if he does stay will he force the team to keep Massa on board, or will he 'allow' Raikkonen to come on board? I would hazard that if Michael stays on (likely) then Massa will too, and Ferrari will pick the Raikkonen drive up to partner Massa when Michael decides enough is enough.

Renault - That leaves the Briatore led Renault team. Briatore has a few drivers under his wing, the first being the impressive Heikki Kovalainen. Then if Raikkonen comes over as well that would be an all Finnish line-up for the 'French' team.

Hopefully a lot of the rumours and back talk should be cleared up at the German Grand Prix, it should be an interesting time.

It's been announced that Microsoft MES has been selected as the official FIA partner for the 2008/2009/2010 standard electronic control units in the F1 engines using the Windows Mobile for Automotive platform. Now as many know, in my other 'life' I am quite a fan of MS technologies, however Microsoft really need to be on the ball on this project! F1 is watched by a massive number of viewers, and if the unit's supplied to the teams are less than perfect it will be mentioned, on live TV, the Microsoft boys really don't want to annoy the Ron Dennis and Frank Williams of this world, as even the might marketing people at MS will not be able to live that down.

The other FIA announcement is that surprise surprise, Bridgestone have been announced as the single tyre supplier to F1 for the 2008/2009/2010, and it would seem with Michelin pulling out at the end of the year the 2007 season as well (unless BF Goodrich turn up like in WRC, who are Michelin by another name, and will bizarrely be the only tyre supplier in the WRC series). 

There has also been agreements inside the Formula One Working Group that corner speeds need to be reduced to make tracks safer, this now it's a one tyre series will be relatively easy with help from Bridgestone. 

Again the Italians have shown the French who's boss. Ferrari's Michael Schumacher romped to a convincing win in the French GP ahead of Alonso in second.

The Bridgestone shod Ferrari showed it's dominance yesterday in qualifying, where the Ferrari drivers locked the front row of the grid up with ease.

Ferrari seem to have had a step up in performance, bringing there 'new' car to the French GP seems to have paid off well for the team, the Ferrari has had some Major additions and changes to it this race, although it is not a 'B' car apparently. Bridgestone have picked their game up as well, as seen by the uplift in performance of the Toyota cars, although the Toyota seems to have improved quite dramatically as well.

Renault seemed to struggle at their home race, Alonso did not seem to be in the same race as Michael.

The only time the Renault car showed any chance of getting ahead of the Ferrari was during the start, however even the fast starting Renault cars need a little space to work there magic. The Magny-Cours track however has a very short run to the first corner.

Massa played rear gunner for the first stint of the race, allowing Michael's tyres to go through their graining period, and for him to run off and hide with a 6 second gap between him and his team mate Massa in second.

Massa pitted first on lap 18, the Ferrari team put a new set of Bridgestone tyres onto the car. The first lap pace of the Bridgestone tyres allowed Massa to hold onto his track position ahead of the Renault of Alonso. Alonso pitted on lap 19, he then fell to 5 seconds back of Massa.

Rubens retired his Honda with what looked like engine issues on lap 19 as well. The Honda car's performance all weekend has been weak. A good quote from Rubens team mate Jenson Button "we (Honda) have a lack of overall speed, that comes from a lack of engine power and from a lack of down-force, that's all we are lacking at the moment, and also we are lacking in reliability" So then Jenson, your lacking a race car when you think about it.

The Toyota cars of Ralf and Trulli showed that the qualifying pace they had was genuine, both cars running long on their first run. Ralf pitting on lap 22 had a problem with the left wheel and his stop ended up taking 17 seconds, dropping him to 7th.

Trulli came under threat from Raikkonen, he held out well, but then it seemed that the McLaren left the Toyota standing coming out of the slow corner approaching the Nurburgring chicane. It was however later noticed that the Toyota was having engine troubles. Trulli retired later on lap 40.

De la Rossa showed that he is not afraid to have a go, he dived passed Nick Heidfeld in the BMW Sauber 'Twin Tower' car at the Adelaide hairpin. Showing that he could handle the step up to race driving now that Juan Pablo has been sidelined.

The Williams cars seem to struggle every race, and this race was no different. Lap 39 saw Webber's rear left tyre de-laminate and throw him into a spin. No sooner had he recovered to the pit lane and replaced the wheel, it happened again. The car was retired as unsafe, and Webber's team mate Rosberg had his car called in to check it over for the same issue. It seemed to be an overheating issue, although if Rosberg's car was not having the same problem it must have been a setup issue with Webber's car.

Alonso was switched onto a two stop strategy, Renault filled the car to the end of the race on lap 42, this made the Renault heavy and allowed both Massa and Ralf to start to catch the Renault.

Ralf then made his stop on lap 46, also on a two stop strategy and came out ahead of the Ferrari of Massa. Massa however stopped on lap 53 and joined the track ahead of Ralf, ending the Toyota teams chances of a podium.  

Michael then made his last stop on lap 55 with no incident. Jenson retired his car on lap 61, ending a bad day for the Honda team.

The Hockenheim grand prix is next, Renault have already said that a revised car will be at the German track. Alonso will be hoping the changed Renault will be able to challenge the Ferrari and Bridgestone challenge, as we will be hoping for a more interesting race.

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The French GP has brought some strange things to light. The firstone is the lack of performance from the Honda cars. Neither of the Honda cars have shown any performance all weakend, and when I say no performance, I mean MF1 levels almost. Button therefore will be starting from 18th on the grid, with team mate Barrichello starting 13th.

Another shock came from the 'Two Towers' BMW Sauber cars. They have been setting the pace all weekend up untill qualifying, where they just did not perform. Villeneuve will start the race from 17th after falling out in Qualy1 and Heidfeld will start 11th.

Other supprises where the good showing of the Bridgestone tyres, they went well on both the Ferrari (1 and 2 on the grid for Michael and Massa) and Toyota teams, who are the other plesant supprise. They have proved the pace they showed in the USA is a real improvement. Both cars made it through to Q3, with Trulli starting 4th and Ralf starting 5th.

The Michelin tyred cars seemed to stuggle with the increased track temperatures. Alonso showed he is still a talented driver, getting the home car Renault onto 3rd on the grid, with his team mate Fisichella struggling to match the pace in 7th.

The McLaren cars showed a decent pace, De la Rossa showed good pace, getting 8th and Raikonen put his car on the 3rd row in 6th.

Coulthard also drove well to get through to the Q3 session, he starts 9th (after the other Q3 runner Rosberg took a 10 place drop for an engine change). He used the Q3 session to work on the balance of the car, never using a new set of tyres, or setting a 'fast lap'.

That leaves us with a good grid for the race tomorow. Will the Toyota's be able to show race pace in the same area as their qualifying pace? Will the Ferrari's run off and hide? or will the home team win out the day. Only time will tell.

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It looks like the only French driver in F1 will get to race his home event. Franck Montagny has been confirmed as the second driver in the Super Aguri team.

The French driver is not expected to win the race (obviously), but let's wish him our best for his home grand prix. 

News has reached me (now I am back in the country) that Juan Pablo Montoya has been sacked with immediate effect at McLaren Mercedes.

The word is that the team believed he had broken part of his contract when he announced his move to the Chip Ganassi Racing team during the weekend.

The good news (I liked JPM, so that is bad news) is that the team will run test driver Pedro de la Rosa who I rate quite highly personally.

"Juan Pablo is an exciting driver and immensely likable character who will undoubtedly make a successful transition to the NASCAR scene," said Ron Dennis, boss of McLaren Mercedes. "We have agreed that with so many things happening in Juan Pablo's life right now, he should take some time out of the car and prepare professionally and personally for the future."

So at the base it looks amicable, however it is believed that JPM has 'gone' due to a contract break on his part.

It will be a sad goodbye to JPM in F1. He was one of the most 'watchable' drivers of the past years. He would not shy to any challenge on or off the track. That however has repercussions if the outcome is bad for the team or the sport.

JPM had the ability to become one of the best drivers of the era, but unfortunately just never found the sweet spot.

On a side note, I apologise for the lack of news over the last week or so, I was dragged away on holiday. Normal service will now resume.

Eurosport has posted a good set of shots of the roll the BMW Sauber driver had to endure in this weekends USA GP first lap incident.

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