According to Team BMW Sauber, it has "concluded their investigations into the KERS incident at Jerez." Incident? You mean that time when one of your mechanics was literally thrown to the ground after doing nothing more than touching your car? Right, that one. If you are truly interested in reading all of the techno-babble regarding why the experimental KERS hybrid system reached out and touched someone, click past the break for the details. Here are the highlights: It was an accident. The KERS control unit malfunctioned. Nobody was seriously hurt and nobody was ever in any real danger (Dr Evil: Riiight...). Christian Klein, the driver, was insulated from any shocks due to his race suit and gloves. BMW Sauber has apparently fixed the problem and feels confident that it will be ready to continue testing in the Autumn. Recently, the BMW team voted in favor of running the KERS hybrid system for next year's race season, so it'll have to be ready to go sooner rather than later.
Rumors have been circulating that CVC, the commercial rights holders to Formula One, have considered selling the series. But before that could happen, they would have to give Bernie Ecclestone the boot.
The reports were fueled by comments made by Max Mosley, the embattled president of the FIA, who related to reporters that conversations about the subject had taken place with executives at CVC. According to Mosley's conclusion, CVC would consider selling Formula One if a huge offer were made – possibly by an Arab consortium – but Ecclestone would need to be replaced because "the whole business depends on a man who is 78 years old". However, CVC issued a strong statement at this past weekend's race in Hungary that it had no immediate plans to sell F1 and was pleased with its performance as well as that of Bernie Ecclestone.
Despite some serious reservations regarding the safety and high cost of the Kinetic Energy Recovery System
(KERS), the hybrid system has received the green light for introduction into the 2009 Formula 1 season. After BMW and Renault had some, uh, issues with KERS, Renault called a meeting to discuss whether the new flywheel-based system should be postponed until 2010. BMW Sauber, Honda Racing and Williams are apparently feeling confident enough in their own systems to resist the delay. Because F1 rules dictate that a consensus must be reached to change the previous ruling, F1 cars in 2009 will run with the new drivetrain. The only thing which could still hold back the new technology would be if the teams were unable to guarantee the safety of their systems, and this seems unlikely given that Honda has already completed a successful track test last week.
When the Formula One teams met last week at the Ferrari factory in Maranello, they had yet to announce who would take over the helm of their newly-formed Formula One Teams Association. The group was formed to effectively negotiate on behalf of all the teams on a new commercial deal with Bernie Ecclestone's Formula One Management and on new regulations with the FIA. Reports now indicate that Luca di Montezemolo will act as the group's leader and spokesman.
Now if you're thinking that Montezemolo isn't a team principal, you're right. In fact, he hasn't been actively responsible for the Scuderia in decades. The hereditary Marquis de Montezemolo is president of Ferrari and chairman of the entire Fiat Group, and recently finished his term as chairman of industrial association Confindustria. Certainly a heavy hitter, well above to pay-grade of Scuderia Ferrari chief Stefano Domenicali. The top-level appointment certainly lends a great deal of weight and credibility to the new association.
If you had bets placed with your bookie ahead of this year's Hungarian Grand Prix, chances are overwhelming that you lost your money. That's how shocking the final podium was at the culmination of the 11th round of the 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship. You might have been just as surprised if you had been watching the race up until the final laps when everything went topsy-turvy. If you've got the race TiVo'd, we'd advise you to go no further. But if you're keen to see how the grand prix turned out and where the results leave the race for this year's championship, read on.
The formula racing world is rife with the offspring of long-retired F1 drivers making a name for themselves: Rosberg and Piquet are already in F1, Jacques Villeneuve has already come and gone, and the Mansell brothers are working their way up, to name just a few. But since both the Schumacher brothers have retired, Formula One has been lacking that sibling rivalry. (Mind you, with Michael having won more championships than Ralf did races, it wasn't much of a competition).
However, we might get to see some serious brother-on-brother, wheel-to-wheel action in the near future. With his older sibling Kazuki (pictured at right) already racing for Williams-Toyota, 18-year-old Daisuki Nakajima is competing in the Japanese Formula 3 championship. Their father Satoru, who raced in about 80 grands prix in the late 80's and early 90's, says that Daisuki could be even faster than Kazuki. If that's the case, the younger Nakajima could find his way into F1 within the next couple of years, and then it'll be on.
In the highly competitive world of Formula One racing, the only thing teams can agree on is money -- they want more of it. To that end, they've set up the new Formula One Teams Association.
Unlike the previous Formula One Constructors Association – which represented only the independent teams and came, somewhat ironically, to be dominated by Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley when they were team owners – the new group has the backing of all the teams (both independent and manufacturer-owned). The association was founded this week in a meeting of team representatives at Ferrari headquarters in Maranello, also including the participation of Formula One rights holders Bernie Ecclestone and Donald McKenzie. The Formula One Teams Association will represent the interests of the constructors (grand prix-speak for teams) in negotiating the final terms of the new Concorde Agreement, which determines profit sharing among the parties involved in the sport. Speaking with one voice, the teams surely hope to be able to secure a bigger share of the revenues from the grands prix. Little wonder then that Ferrari, in the short statement after the jump, called the meeting "extremely constructive".
Following two incidents in two weeks, it looks like the ballyhooed KERS hybrid system might not make it onto Formula 1 cars for 2009 -- at least, not the first races. Teams have begun to talk about how much difficulty they're having in building a safe system. KERS not only needs to work when the car is racing around the track, it also needs to be engineered properly in the event of a 300-kph accident.
In addition to Red Bull's smoke and fumes and BMW's bolt from the blue, Mark Weber said that teams are struggling to deal with the chemicals in the batteries. Supposedly, the stuff that runs off a blown up KERS battery is poisonous arsenic. Toyota's head of engine development said all the teams are having trouble, and Williams Driver Nico Rosberg appeared to doubt whether his team would have it ready by the first race of '09. The teams have scheduled to discuss the matter at their next Technical Working Group meeting. As for us, we can live with or without KERS. Just keep the slicks, will you?
Next year Formula 1 will see the introduction of KERS -- the Kinetic Energy Recovery System. The system stores the energy from braking and makes it available to the driver in an on-demand burst. Due to the magnificent braking forces in braking an F1 car, the system must be called on to store a sizable amount of electricity.
Red Bull got things buzzing last week when an eruption of smoke and fumes lead to a call to the fire department. Today, BMW test driver Christian Klien did three laps in a car equipped with an early edition of KERS, and came back to the pits. When a mechanic touched the car, he got a shock strong enough to throw him to the ground. The mechanic suffered slight injuries to a hand and a grazed arm, but was otherwise unhurt. BMW halted all testing while it looks into the issue, which could simply be a matter of improper grounding. Or, it could be time to suit pit crews up in rubber gear...
In the fast-paced world of Formula One, teams come and go. Only most of the time, they're just changing names and management (in fact, Ferrari and Williams are the only teams still on the grid that were founded under the same name and same ownership as they remain today). So Jordan Grand Prix, for a most vivid example, became Midland F1 Racing in 2006, then Spyker in 2007 before its metamorphosis into Force India for 2008. Super Aguri was another story. Founded by former racing driver Aguri Suzuki, the team was the first in years to actually put up the bond necessary to start a completely new entry. Unfortunately, the uniquely Japanese-named team never had the money it needed to succeed, and after a little over two years, the team folded. But not before millions upon millions were spent on cars, equipment and everything else.
So what happened to all that stuff? Well, after Super Aguri went into bankruptcy administration earlier this year, the team's remaining assets are to be liquidated by British auction house SHM Smith Hodgkinson at the end of this month. Among the assets up on the block will be a dozen F1 racing cars, a fleet of transporter trucks and four autoclaves. So if you're looking to buy yourself the remains of an F1 team, this could be your chance.
