Formula one will use a different point system next year

The new system is pretty simple to understand. The race winner for each competition will receive 25 points for the win, with 20 and 15 being awarded for second and third places in their turn. The next seven places will receive 10, 8, 6, 5, 3, 2, and 1 points for their finishing in their respective spots during a race. This will take the place of the current set up for points that saw drives score, 10, 8, 6, 5, 3, 2, and 1 point respectively.

The F1 Commission also decided that the Brawn team will be allowed to make a change to their chassis name to Mercedes for the 2010 Formula One season, but Brawn will continue to receive payment based on their old name. This was allowed because of the long history of Mercedes-Benz has with Formula One and their decades of commitment to the sport.

While the Commission was at work they also took care of putting forward a number of further changes that they would like to see to Formula One next season. The changes they proposed were to the sporting and technical side of Formula One, but these changes have yet to be stated and need to go before the WMSC for final approval, which should be on Friday.
What we do know is that they apparently have strong support for the changes and the Sporting Working Group, a smaller sub-committee of the F1 Commission that is composed of FIA and F1 team members, us leading the charge to implement the changes proposed, which they hope will improve the level of entertainment for the fans coming to the races. We have also heard that FIA and FOM will be working together to increase the communication level and promotion of the Formula One championship for the media and its worldwide fan base.

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A Different Formula One in 2010

Formula One will see the return of Lotus in 2010

BMW actually announced to the Formula One world that they would be leaving the tour in 2010 and then promptly sold the team to the man that originally sold it to them, Peter Sauber, instead of the investment group Qadbak, who were originally talking to BMW about buying the team. At first it didn’t look like BMW Sauber was going to be able to grab one of the thirteen available tickets to be one of the teams for the 2010 Formula One season, when Lotus looked like they had grabbed the final berth. BMW Sauber got another chance at a ticket to the big show, after Toyota decided to withdraw their team for the 2010 season.

FIA has been busy finalizing the teams for the 2010 Formula One season and is certainly glad to get this part of the process secured and now they can get onto preparing for the season. This means that the thirteen teams that will be on the grid for the opening race of the 2010 season, will be McLaren, Mercedes (Brawn), Red Bull, Ferrari, Force India, Toro Rossi, Renault, Williams, Sauber, Virgin Racing, US F1 Team, Lotus and Campos. This isn’t written in stone just as yet, and there could still be changes to the thirteen teams that will arrive at the first race of the 2010 Formula One season, but things are looking pretty good for these teams to be the ones that will be competing for the 2010 Formula One title.

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BMW Sauber Confirmed for 2010

It should be a nice warm weekend on the track since the venue is in the Middle East as forecasters are calling for intermittent clouds and warm temperatures in the neighbourhood of 37 degrees Celsius for the race. This will make for a pleasant weekend for all involved, the fans and the racers, who obviously love to race out of the rain.

The first reaction of the racers to the new Yas Island Circuit has been excellent and they’re all impressed with the facilities and the way they have been treated, which has been first rate. The track will be new for all the racers, so they’ll be even on those grounds and they certainly won’t have any way to simulate the track. They’ll be out on the track tomorrow and over the next few days as much as they can to get a feel for the track but it will definitely be an adventure for all involved this weekend, the organizers, fans and racers.

Just because the world championship is settled, don’t expect these gentlemen to let off the accelerator for this affair; they just aren’t that kind of competitor. These gentlemen only know one way to complete and that’s to hold nothing back and let it all fly.

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Abu Dhabi is Being Prepared to Race

Jean Todt being congratulated on his appointment as President of Formula One

Born in Pierrefort, France, Jean Todt isn’t a beginner in Formula One having helped Michal Schumacher achieve five world championships as team principal for Ferrari back in those days. A successful student at the School of Economics and Business in Paris, he enjoyed a racing career behind the wheel of a rally car and was reasonably successful in the period from 1966 to 1981, with a highlight of his racing career being a manufacturers title in collaboration with Talbot Lotus.

Once he decided to hang his racing gloves up, he slipped into the seat of the director of racing activities for Automobiles Peugeot. He started and helped Peugeot Talbot Sport team win two world rally constructors’ crowns, two world rally drivers crowns and drive away victorious four times in the Paris-Dakar competition. The racing bug still causing an itch, he next helped to win the world sports car title in 1992, along with the Le Mans 24 Hour competition in 1992 and 1993 as director of sporting
After retiring from competition in 1982 he was appointed director of racing activities for Automobiles Peugeot, where he founded the Peugeot Talbot Sport team, which went on to win two world rally constructors’ championships, two world rally drivers’ championships and four Paris-Dakar victories. In 1990, Todt became director of sporting activities at the PSA Peugeot-Citroen Group, which won the world sports car title in 1992 plus the Le Mans 24 Hour race in ‘92 and ‘93.
He next helped Ferrari to win 98 Grand Prix races and 13 world championships as Chief Executive Officer of Ferrari, before spending six years as the representative of rally drivers to the rally commission of the FISA and then thirteen years representing the opinion of the rally constructors.
The last sixteen years he was Ferrari’s spokesperson on the FIA World Council, before recently working as special advisor to Ferrari’s board chairman and then deciding he would retire. Apparently retirement wasn’t all he thought it was going to be and he was decided to throw his knowledge and experience into the ring. Considering his experience this is certainly a welcome decision. After all, sometimes old warriors don’t ride into the sun, sometimes they stay around to lend a helping hand and their knowledge to the fight.

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Jean Todt Grabs the Wheel of Formula One

Nelson Piquet has been dropped by Renault

This year they have changed the pit exit by leveling it to the same height as the track which should make getting onto the track easier and less hazardous. They have also extended the curbs on the apex of Turns 4 and 5, which will give the drivers more room to make it around each turn. In addition, the trackside walls of Turns 3, 5, 9, 10, and 14 have been moved further back from the circuit. Minor safety changes include the installation of high-grip resin to seal the inner pit lane while they added artificial grass behind the curbs of the exits of Turns 10 and 14.

It appears that Renault will be fielding a team and cars for the European Grand Prix after all, after an FIA International Court of Appeal overturned the suspension they received in Hungary. The court decided the penalty imposed was a bit too severe considering the circumstances surrounding the event and instead imposed a reprimand and US$50,000 penalty for Alonso’s tire infraction.

Renault welcomed the decision as a balanced one that teaches them a lesson, yet doesn’t penalize the team unfairly. They admit they were at fault, just not to the level or necessarily in the way interpreted, and now look forward to preparing for Valencia.

The first thing they did to prepare was announce that Nelson Piquet has been dropped for the race in Valencia and instead Renault test driver and GP2 star Roman Grosjean will take his place beside Fernando Alonso. This certainly wasn’t a surprise after Nelson Piquet had publicly announced he had parted ways with the team earlier this month.

Nelson’s departure gives Roman a chance to show what he can really do behind the wheel of the R29 and learn how to drive from a double world champion. If this doesn’t motivate you to be your best then nothing will.

This 23 year old Frenchman signed up with Renault’s driver development program in 2006, after winning the French Formula Renault title. He was the Formula Three Euro Series champion in 2007 and in 2008 he won the GP2 Asia Series. This year, Roman has been competing in GP2 and had currently won two races before being called to make his appearance in “The Show”.

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Renault Gets to Race in Valencia After all

Formula One helmets protect lives

The space age helmets used in Formula One races use safety standards that are set by the FIA and the criteria have been adopted by all three of the main Formula One helmet manufacturers, Bell, Arai and Schuberth. The resulting helmet designs were made compulsory by the World Motor Sport Council in 2004 and are currently used in racing competitions around the world. The exact composition of the materials that are incorporated into a Formula One helmet are kept secret for obvious reasons but they do the job they were designed to do as was illustrated by this incident with Felipe Massa.

The outer shell consists of multiple layers of various materials designed to provide safety against impact, fire and heat and even flying debris like the type that hit Felipe Massa. Typically weighting a minimum of 1250 grams helmets are designed to be super strong and absorb damage and penetration from both crashes and flying debris. All helmets undergo a comprehensive list of tests to examine all aspects of a helmets ability to protect the driver from injury during a Formula One race. In fact, the helmets used in Formula One races are tested as completely as the cars, as are all aspects of Formula One safety, and undergo a battery of tests that would impress Einstein.

The tests and helmet designers did the job for Felipe Massa and this incident with Massa must give the other drivers a feeling that the helmets they wear will do the job they were designed to do. This event will certainly re-energize the industry to strive to make Formula One racing as safe as possible for industry professionals and the fans that come to the races and this is a good thing.

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Space Age Formula One Helmets

Shanghai is next on the Formula One schedule

The other teams will certainly be disappointed with the news, but will soon recover and implement diffusers of their own using the disputed designs. This will take time, how much, and will they implement them before Shanghai, only they know, but the likely seems remote that they could install them and test them before Shanghai.

The Shanghai International Circuit is a technical course that the drivers generally enjoy, with a variety of slow and fast sections requiring proper speed management and opportunities to pass at several points. The total length of the track is a moderate 5.451 kilometers, and it has the general shape of the Chinese character “Shang”, which translates as high or above in the English language. The set up of the cars will be critical as they need speed and balance through the high-speed corners and but good mechanical grip for the hairpin corners. The course designers created a beautiful course with seven right and seven left turns, with several opportunities for the drivers to pass slower traffic. One of these passing areas is Turn One and another is the tight corner at the end of the 1.1 km straight stretch that demands the cars brake from speeds in access of 320 km/hr on the area of the track between Turn 13 and Turn 14.

Watch carefully this weekend when your watching for these areas of the track, they will be where all the excitement will probably occur, and enjoy the race.

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Shanghai International Circuit is Next

The changes will mean that after ten years driving on grooved tires, Formula One will be using slicks in 2009; with no grooves the performance gains will be noticeable for both the drivers and the fans in the straight parts of the track. The corners will be a little different, however, since the revised aerodynamic regulations implemented will mean the down-force in the corners will be significantly reduced, which will definitely decrease the cars performance when traveling through the corners.

The winds of change are coming through

Teams will also have the option of employing a Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) to recover kinetic energy generated when the car brakes, store it, and then make it available to the driver in quantum amounts per lap using a “boost button” located on the steering wheel.

The FIA wants to increase reliability even more, so they are putting in limits on the revs, from 19,000 to 18,000 rpm; limiting drivers to 8 engines for the F1 season; implementing new dimensional regulations to reduce the cars aerodynamic performance, and hopefully increase a drivers’ ability to pass during the race. Teams and drivers won’t be allowed to test during the F1 season from the week before the first race until December 31 and 15,000 kilometers will be the maximum limit for testing. The pit lane will stay open during safety-car periods, so drivers will have the option of refueling during this time without being penalized and if two drivers are tied in wins at the end of the season, the championship will be awarded to the driver and team with the most race points.

March 26th, well get to see just what effect these changes really have when the drivers take the track in Melbourne, it should be interesting, and informative.

See you there!

Image: Newscom.com

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The Winds of Change Blow Over Formula One