Race Engine Technology

054A great look at the engine technology in F1 in this months Race Engine Technology magazine. Have a look at the press release below, and rush and pick your copy up, every ‘techy’ F1 fan needs to have a read of this one.

Over the last decade Grand Prix engines have attained levels of RPM never previously envisaged and have also undergone an unthinkable extension of mileage.

How did the 3.0 litre V10s, which gave way in 2006 to 2.4 litre V8s break through perceived barriers to progress?

Alonso wins

Alonso wins the first race of the 2010 season, but Vettel should have been the winner if it was not for a broken exhaust.

A very subdued race at Bahrain, I’ll do a full rundown of the GP shortly, but suffice to say that even with the rule changes, overtaking was not particularly evident. Perhaps it will get more exciting when the teams get used to the new format (or Bridgestone make the tyres less impressive).

Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts

Vettel on top

Sebastien Vettel has taken a surprise pole position in the first GP of the season.

The Red Bull cars have not looked the fastest all weekend, right up until it counted. Vettel put a sterling lap in to take the top spot ahead of the two Ferrari’s. But even there it was not the expected result with Felipe Massa getting one over on his highly rated team mate Alonso.

2010 – A New Season

The 2010 season is upon us, with the Bahrain GP this weekend, so lets take a few moments to have a look at the state of the teams, drivers and rules, and what we think might happen.

The Rule Changes

Many of the rules stay the same this year, however there are a few big changes that we need to be aware of.

FIRST MOTOR SPORT HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES REVEALED

London, 11th February 2010, Mario Andretti, Tony Brooks, Ron Dennis and Jacky Ickx were last night inducted into the very first Motor Sport Hall of Fame.
Drivers past and present – Sir Stirling Moss and Sir Jackie Stewart among them – plus celebrity guests including James Martin, Jodie Kidd, Britt Ekland, commentators and opinion formers all gathered at Camden’s iconic Roundhouse to witness the induction of four of the greatest names in the sport.

Testing Pics

New pictures coming thick and fast from the test at the moment, thanks to ScarbsF1 on twitter for most of them. I’ll update this post with interesting stuff coming through.

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 McLaren – Here you can see the cooling slots on the McLaren car, just above the sidepods. These are probably for airflow/electronics cooling.

They turned up this morning just on the left hand side of the car, and moments ago this pic was snapped with both sidepods having the cooling slots installed.

Car launches

We have a few more cars to oggle over that were launched over the weekend.

First up is the Renault R30. The team seam to have changed colour scheme to yellow and black, and the car looks good for it. Although I’m sure Eddie Jordan might have some interesting words about it come the first race.

2010 Renault R30 Launch
Valencia, Spain. 31st January 2010.
The launch of the Renault R30.
Robert Kubica, Vitaly Petrov, Jerome d'Ambrosio and Ho-Pin Tung at the launch of the Renault R30, with Team Principal, Eric Boullier.
Photo: Andrew Ferraro /LAT Photographic 
ref: Digital Image _Q0C02062010 Renault R30 Launch
Valencia, Spain. 31st January 2010.
The launch of the Renault R30.
Photo: Alastair Staley/LAT Photographic 
ref: Digital Image _P9O1960 2010 Renault R30 Launch
Valencia, Spain. 31st January 2010.
Robert Kubica, Vitaly Petrov, Jerome d'Ambrosio and Ho-Pin Tung.
Photo: Glenn Dunbar/LAT Photographic 
ref: Digital Image _G7C9057

McLaren Launch

Another day, another F1 car. Today was the launch of the MP4-24.

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mp4_25_2 mp4-25_studio-2

The car looks quite aggressive, and we are told that the rear diffuser is very aggressive, and was not allowed to be photographed (in fact it had a blanking cover over it).

More news and info on the launch over at F1 Fanatic as Keith was there.

Ferrari F10

Here we have the new Ferrari F10.

Remember the new rules of smaller front wheels and bigger fuel tank have been put into place on the new car, and it’s borrowed from a lot of last years cars (Red Bull, McLaren and Williams definitely in there)

 

ferrari_2010_1ferrari_2010_2 ferrari_2010_5

ferrari_2010_4  ferrari_2010_3

Ferrari Sneak Peek

ferrari2010_blog Here’s a sneak peek of the 2010 Ferrari colours. These are not on the 291 (2010) car, but rather the F60 (2009) car.

Obvious changes are the Santander logo on the rear wing, I’ll miss the Marlboro ‘Bar Code’

Fernando had the car out on the Paul Ricard track and he said the new car ‘is almost ready’ so lets hope we see it soon. Suppose McLaren/Lewis will have to stop making Lego bridges now.