Managing Director Flavio Briatore and Executive Director of Engineering Pat Symonds have officially left the Renault F1 team.
While the news doesn’t come as a surprise to us anymore, it is curious to note that the decision to leave Renault comes a few days before the team is set to stand before the World Motor Sports Council to answer allegations that they attempted to manipulate the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix by telling former driver Nelson Picquet Jr. to deliberately crash his car to give teammate Fernando Alonso better track position.
Even more curious is the statement the team released regarding the accusations laid out by Picquet Jr. The team said: "The ING Renault F1 Team will not dispute the recent allegations made by the FIA concerning the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix."
This sounds like Renault is either trying to pre-empt the inevitable or they know something we don’t, but it does raise eyebrows as to how this whole situation has played out.
Briatore and Symond’s decision to leave the team casts a cloud on Renault’s future in F1. Should the team be found guilty, they could face sanctions ranging from a fine to a possible exclusion from the world championships down the road.
By now, you’ve probably heard of the latest scandal circulating around the F1 paddocks these days.
If you haven’t, here’s a brief refresher course. Recently sacked Renault driver, Nelson Piquet Jr. released a statement saying that he was instructed to intentionally crash his car at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix in order for teammate Fernando Alonso to move ahead of the pack and win the race.
Now, a hearing is scheduled to take place on September 21 to determine whether or not Piquet Jr’s statement really did happen. For their part, Renault team bosses Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds have vehemently denied any wrongdoing and attributed their former drivers attempt to smear their team as a sign of retaliation after being unceremoniously fired last month.
While it’s been official for a long time now, BMW’s exit to Formula One has hit the nail in the coffin after the German-based automakers completed the sale of its Sauber F1 team to Qadbak Investments Ltd.
If you haven’t heard of this company before, then you’re not alone.
Apparently, Qadbak is a Swiss-based foundation that represents a number of Middle East and European based families.
It sounds to us that this group has got some well-off backers if they were able to buy the Sauber team from BMW. But yeah, when you say European AND Middle East families, then that sort of gives away the secret, doesn’t it?
BMW’s exit from Formula One has paved the road for the return of one of its old racing teams, Lotus.
In announcement made by the FIA, the sanctioning body of Formula One said that the famous brand’s return to the F1 stage resulted in the empty slot vacated by BMW Sauber, despite the fact that Sauber is still interested in procuring a team of its own for the 2010 season.
While Sauber’s official application generating good reviews from the Paris-based federation, the team is optimistic that it can return to F1 as the 14th and final team in the grid.
For the record, the rulebooks only allow for a maximum of 13 teams and Sauber’s stature as ‘team no. 14’ is still subject to change, depending on how the other teams are open to having 28 cars for next year.
As far as Lotus is concerned, the team has tied-up with a Malaysian F1 outfit – 1 Malaysia F1 Team – and will be powered by a Cosworth engine. The team’s principal is expected to be Tony Fernandes and joining him as technical director would be Mike Gascoyne.
For those who don’t know, Fernandes is the incumbent CEO of AirAsia, which, coincidentally, is a current sponsor of the Williams team.
Brawn GP’s one-two finish at the Italian Grand Prix all but sealed the Driver’s World Championship to a duel between teammates Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello.
While it’s not yet technically official, their closest rival to the title – Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel would have to overcome Button’s 26-point lead with only four races to come.
It’s been quite a year for the new darlings of Formula One. After starting off in dominating fashion during the first few months of the season, Brawn’s performance over the past few months seem to have tapered off a bit, allowing its rivals to catch up with them. But even as they struggled, the Ross Brawn-led outfit never was ultimately challenged and the results of the Italian Grand Prix all but gave the team its first Constructor’s Championship and a duel between Button and Barrichello to determine who the 2010 World Champion is going to be.
As it stands, Button still has a 14-point lead over Barrichello but the Brazilian has become the more consistent driver as of late and figures to be peaking at just the right time to give Button everything he can handle as the season winds down.
As far as Ross Brawn is concerned, he just wants both drivers to fight for the title in a fair and distinguished way. “I ask from my drivers now is they compete fairly and openly, they have got to work together fairly, but they’re old enough to deal with it," he said.
Who would’ve thought that by this time of the year, any discussions about world titles wouldn’t include Ferrari and McLaren?
With new and improved racing video games about to hit the shelves soon, we have an obligation to all of you guys to pump up the anticipation even further. Suppose you’re playing GT 5 on your Playstation 3, don’t you think that it’d be a little off when you’re using just any other wireless controller?
Fret not, race – and video game – fans, Thrustmaster recently released a number of officially licensed – that’s the key ter, right there – Ferrari video game controllers for the PS3 and the PC. We say that again.
Thrustmaster released OFFICIALLY LICENSED Ferrari controllers for the PS3 and the PC. The controllers, which are decaled with your favorite Ferrari cars including the F60, the F430 Challenge, and the 430 Scuderia,, come with unique a stable of unique race-catered features including programmable buttons and a optical wheels with auto-centering. It’s like having your own Formula One steering wheel in your hands.
The one exception to these wireless Ferrari controllers is the F60 Dual Analog,which, sadly, is PC-exclusive and doesn’t boast the same unique features as it’s three brethrens.
Nevertheless, the Ferrari-designed controllers are still primed to be
plucked, just in time for the year’s hottest racing games. These controllers will be available online around mid-October and you can pluck them out at Amazon.
With all the talk of the driver lineup changing in Maranello, it appears that Formula One veteran Giancarlo Fisichella’s stellar performance, coming a close second behind Ferrari’s championship hopeful at Spa just over a week ago, has landed the Italian a spot on the team that he has always dreamed of racing for. Giancarlo was happy to be driving for the Force India team this season, but he always said if the Scuderia ever approached him with an offer, it wouldn’t take much for him to jump ship. Thanks to the prancing horse’s test driver, Luca Badoer’s less than stellar performance in the absence of the recovering Felipe Massa, Fisichella has been given the opportunity of a lifetime.
Giancarlo began racing with the big boys in 1996 when he had a one year stint with Minardi and since then has accumulated 224 Formula One starts, 4 poles, 3 grand prix wins, 19 podiums and a total of 275 carrer points since he began competing in the top tier of motor sport. Not only will he pilot the #3 Ferrari F60 for the remaining five races of the 2009 season, but he has also been contracted to remain in Maranello to test in 2010. However with a little luck and a good showing, Giancarlo Fisichella might just find himself sitting inside of a red monocoque every grand prix weekend next year.
The Formula One driver’s carousel is up and running and is slowly gaining some steam. A week after we reported that Fernando Alonso may very well transfer to Ferrari next year, the latest we heard is that Alonso may very well be taking the seat now occupied by fellow world champion, Kimi Raikkonen.
Here’s the twist. In the same report last week, we mentioned that Raikkonen would most likely leave Formula One to race at the World Rally Championships. It turns out; Raikkonen isn’t planning on leaving Formula One and instead might return to his former team, McLaren.
Wow.
Ever the self-assured and confident driver that he is, Raikkonen, in an interview with the Telegraph, said, “If for some reason I am not at Ferrari next season I know I’ll have a seat at another team in the paddock. It’s not a problem. Other teams want me."
"I’m too young to retire. I have a contract with Ferrari for next season,” he also adds. “If I didn’t want to race next season I would not have signed a contract”
You want a Formula One collector’s item? If you happen to be at the Spa-Francorchamps, you can get one for 25 euros a pop.
Michael Schumacher’s comeback to Formula One may have ended prematurely, but that doesn’t mean his merchandise won’t meet the far end of souvenir shops. So for 25 euros, you can buy the ‘official’ Michael Schumacher comeback hat at the Belgian GP.
The cap comes with the traditional Ferrari scarlet red color with the words ‘Schumi’ and ‘comeback’ emblazoned on the cap’s trim. The design also features Schumi’s personalized ‘signature’ logo, stitched right beside a ‘09’ insignia.
We’ve known for a while that Schumi’s supposed comeback never materialized. But the thing was, his merchandise was already en route to Belgium and was supposed to be put on sale when the F1 circus comes into town. But despite no Michael Schumacher comeback, the officials at the Spa-Francorchamps are still planning on selling the ‘comeback’ merchandise, this time as a collector’s item of something that could’ve been.
After last week’s update leading up to the European Grand Prix, Panasonic Toyota Racing’s Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock are back preparing for round twelve of the FIA Formula One World Championship, the Belgian Grand Prix, that will take place on the historic Spa racing circuit this coming Sunday, August 30th. Trulli truly adores Spa not only because of his 2004 pole position, but also for its mix of sharp twists and long straights as well as significant elevation changes as well as the unique combination of low, high and medium speed corners.
The team’s test driver, Kamui Kobayashi then joins the two grand prix stars to continue their question and answer session where we learn that Jarno is not only the best soccer player of the three, but he is also the team’s “love doctor” and like any group of friends that are being exposed to a foreign language, they were quick to pick up the dirty words from the Japanese test driver first. Check you local listings to see when you can see the boys of F1 compete at Spa-Francorchamps this weekend.
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