Links

F1 diary: Bahrain Grand Prix (Daily Telegraph)

“HRT finally gets its second car finished: it was ready to leave the pits in the morning, but a hydraulic failure struck Karun Chandhok before he’d turned a wheel. He finally gets to try the car, then, while everybody else is in qualifying mode. The Indian’s mum sends him a text: ‘At last! I’ve seen your car on TV…’”

Comment of the day

Sharp-eyed DC spotted some dodgy developments on the US F1 website:

The US F1 website has been updated, sort of. I guess they are trying to rewrite history. The post about Lopez being signed has simply disappeared.

Compare:
http://www.usgpe.com

http://74.125.77.132/search?q=cache:Sb-MifITUAkJ:www.usgpe.com/+usgpe&cd=1&hl=fi&ct=clnk&gl=fi
DC

Happy birthday!

No F1 Fanatic birthdays today. If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

Giancarlo Fisichella scored his third and final Grand Prix win on this day in 2006.

He started from pole position at Sepang and won comfortably, partly thanks to team mate Fernando Alonso being delayed in qualifying by taking too much fuel on board.

Last week Bernie Ecclestone claimed Rome would hold a Grand Prix in 2013. If it does, it would mean Italy having two rounds of the world championship for the first time since 2006.

The Italian round is one of only two races on the calendar which has appeared in every championship since it began in 1950 – the other being the British Grand Prix.

Monza has held every running of the Italian Grand Prix except for the 1980 race, which was held at Imola.

Rome Grand Prix

• Rome Grand Prix track video lap
• 2012 Rome Grand Prix circuit revealed

McLaren's MP4-12C (right) with a McLaren F1

McLaren officially launched its MP4-12C today – the sports car which will rival Ferrari’s 458 model.

The company is entering a new era as it begins production of road vehicles in greater numbers than it has done before and ends its association with Mercedes. It has begun buying back the 40% stake Mercedes acquired in McLaren and should complete the process by the end of the year.

While the new MP4-12C was officially revealed to the press at McLaren’s headquarters the car was also on display at the Goodwood Festival of Speed media event. It was shown alongside a McLaren F1 – the ultra-exclusive supercar, formerly the fastest production car in the world, examples of which have sold for millions of pounds at auction.

The MP4-12C, is powered by an engine built by McLaren in-house. This will inevitably raise speculation that the team might want to go the same way with its F1 cars.

But it announced at the end of last year that a deal was in place to continue its supply of Mercedes F1 engines until 2015 – despite Mercedes entering its own works team in the sport this year.

It’s a significant change for the team that has competed in F1 longer than any other team bar Ferrari. Instead of being partly owned by a car manufacturer, it is now dependent on its ability to sell cars.

Can McLaren inspire enough wealthy buyers to spend over £150,000 on an MP4-12C? It claims it is on the way with over 1,600 expressions of interest for the first 1,000 examples which will be built in the first year of production.

It adds an extra dimension to their long-running rivalry with Ferrari which will now be measured in car sales as well as championship trophies.

And with with Mercedes promoting its SLS AMG via its role as F1 safety car supplier we now have three car manufacturers in F1 who are all competing for sales in the same market segment – an unusual and fascinating scenario.

McLaren MP4-12C

McLaren MP4-12C and rivals

• McLaren MP4-12C road car revealed
• Schumacher in Mercedes SLS ad (video)
• Mercedes SLS AMG to lead the pack as new F1 safety car in 2010

Images (C) F1Fanatic.co.uk

The Goodwood Festival will feature an extensive collection of F1 cars

The 2010 Goodwood Festival of Speed will celebrate 60 years of the F1 world championship with at least five current teams in attendance.

Champions Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton will both be present for McLaren as will reigning constructors’ champions Mercedes.

Ferrari, Red Bull and Williams will also have cars at this year’s Festival.

Goodwood promise “a gathering of cars and drivers that have shaped the history of motor sport’s most glamorous series” will mark the 60 anniversary of the first world championship.

The theme of the 2010 Festival is “Viva Veloce! The Passion for Speed”, celebrating Italy’s passion for motor racing. Alfa Romeo will feature heavily as the marque reaches its centenary this year. At today’s media event an Alfa Romeo Tip 159 ‘Alfetta’ was on display (see below), the same model that won the first two world championships in the hands of Giuseppe Farina and Juan Manuel Fangio.

World rally fans will get to see Sebastien Loeb and Ken Block in action, and Audi, Peugeot and Aston Martin will bring their LMP1 sports prototypes fresh from the Le Mans 24 Hours.

The event will also expand its non-motor racing side this year, with a new day of the event dedicated to the launch of new production cars. Manufacturers will run these cars up the hill on the Thursday before the event. Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be reserved for the racing machines as usual. The Goodwood Festival of Speed is held on July 2nd-4th.

A handful of F1 cars were on display at the media event today. They included an MP4-23 of the type Lewis Hamilton drove to the 2008 world championship (or, at least, another recent McLaren fitted with its aero parts) and Nigel Mansell’s 199 championship-winning Williams-Renault FW14B.

The F1 car which Ayrton Senna started his first Grand Prix in Rio de Janeiro in 1984 was also in action – the Toleman-Hart TG183B. Another car from the mid-eighties on display was the Haas-run Beatrice Lola-Ford THL2 of 1986. It’s still the most recent American team to have competed in F1.

The McLaren M23 has the distinction of being the F1 car to have started the most races – 80 from 1973 to 1978.

Two great cars of the fifties were also present – a Maserati 250F and Alfa Romeo Tipo 159 ‘Alfetta’.

I’ve also included some pictures of the Jaguar XJR14 sports car from 1991. OK, it’s not an F1 car but it’s interesting for two reasons.

Reason number one: this was the car built by Jaguar and designed by Ross Brawn to beat the works Mercedes team in 1991. Who was driving for Mercedes that year? One Michael Schumacher.

Brawn had already worked in F1 previously at this point and found a lot of leeway in the sports car regulations. He described his XJR14 as being little more than an F1 car with sports car bodywork, which you can see in the pictures below. Note the whopping diffuser!

Reason number two: I think it’s gorgeous and I love that livery.

Goodwood Festival of Speed launch pictures

Goodwood Festival of Speed 2009

• My top 40 pictures from the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2009
• F1 cars, post-1980 (Goodwood Festival of Speed pictures)
• F1 cars, pre-1980 (Goodwood Festival of Speed 2009 pictures)
• Mercedes and Auto Union Silver Arrows (Goodwood Festival of Speed Pictures)

Here’s today’s round-up:

Links

Lopez critical of US F1 team (Autosport)

“As soon as I arrived in Charlotte in February, I realised that everything they were saying was not true. What happened to us was unthinkable: in 60 years of Formula 1 it never happened that a team signed up and didn’t make it. They hid things from us.”

Lotus boosted by $9 million Petrobras deal (James Allen)

The colour schemes are an obvious match – is the new teams are already pulling in new sponsors that can only be good for the sport.

Comment of the day

In the Bahrain Grand Prix track poll earlier this week just 2% of readers said they wanted to see the longer version of the circuit used again next year. GeeMac summed up why:

The “New Grand Prix Track” is a joke, and making use of it for the opening race of the most widely anticipated Formula One season in recent memory was a huge mistake. The slow fiddly section offered nothing new and helped contribute to a massive field spread in Sakhir.

I had my doubts about Bahrain hosting the opening race of the season long before the decision to use the “New” section of track was taken, because Bahrain has tended to host quite dull processional races anyway. A massive fail by F1 Management and the FIA.

Site updates

I’ve given the F1 information page a spring-clean and updated several of the pages.

The F1 statistics section in particular was long overdue a lick of paint. Head in there now via the menu tab at the top of the page and you can find detailed statistics on the 2009 season within a couple of clicks (with one exception – the British Grand Prix analysis has broken and I need to re-build it).

This is also where you can find all the 2010 F1 season statistics including the new F1 driver form guides which I’m doing for the first time this year. Hopefully these will prove very useful for settling arguments about which team mate did best…

• F1 2010 statistics
• F1 2009 statistics
• F1 information

Happy birthday!

We’re going through a bit of a birthday-less streak at the moment, though there’s quite a few coming up at the end of the month.

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

Happy birthday to Timo Glock who turns 28 today.

F1 2010 by Codemasters arrives for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in September

Codemasters claim “F1 2010″ will be “a departure for F1 games”.

F1 fans have been waiting four years for a new official F1 game for the latest generation console formats. In the last 12 months we’ve had hundreds of comments on this site discussing what should be in the game.

F1 Fanatic put your questions to Codemasters at their launch event in London today – and was among the first people to play an early version of “F1 2010″.

Handling

Senior producer Paul Jeal promised “F1 2010″ would offer “authentic, predictable and consistent handling.” I sampled a ‘pre-alpha build’ (’early version’ in non-gamers lingo) of the game to put that claim to the test.

Even in this early version the handling feels more convincing than the decidedly arcade-style “F1 2009″. Stamping the throttle and throwing the car around do not work here. Drop off a Monza kerb with the accelerator down too far and you pirouette in an instant.

But nor did the game feel punishingly difficult. I quickly got a feel for how the car behaved and got into a satisfying rhythm within a couple of laps.

This is not a bleeding-edge hardcore simulation – it feels more like “Gran Turismo” or “Forza” than “Grand Prix Legends”. It’s easy to pick up but requires a bit of concentration to master.

They have toned down the realism when it comes to following closely behind another car. The handful of videos Codemasters showed us of the game featured more overtaking than the whole of the Bahrain Grand Prix – and that’s probably for the best.

You do have more control over the car settings than in previous games. The driver can alter engine management settings to get more power at the expense of fuel economy. Use up too much of your engine life an you risk falling foul of the faithfully-recreated limit of eight engines per season. And, of course, you can tweak the adjustable front wing.

But I couldn’t find a button to control the drivers’ knee to operate the McLaren’s infamous F-duct.

Rain and rubber

Codemasters are especially proud of their track simulation which they call ‘active track technology’. This re-calculates the grip levels on the surface for every 30cm the players’ car travels, taking into account build-up of rubber, marbles from the tyres and, of course, the weather.

This has a clear effect on your car’s handling. Not only do your tyres pick up dirt if you go off the track, but braking off-line is trickier. Go out on the track in the first minutes of Friday practice and you’ll find it’s ‘green’ – low on grip – making your lap times slower. You’ll have to pay attention to how the track develops to pick the best moment to set a time in qualifying.

When rain falls the track gets greasy and eventually puddles develop. If the rain stops a dry line begins to emerge and you’ll have to look after your tyres by seeking out damp patches of track.

We saw some video of the rain effects and they look genuinely impressive. Clouds of spray billow off the cars and reflections shimmer in the puddles on the track.

Damage

Codemasters promises a more sophisticated car damage model than we’ve seen on previous games. As well as knocking off wings and wheels you can damage your suspension which unbalances your handling. Debris from collisions can land on the track and cause more damage.

Some of this can be fixed with a quick visit to the pits but make sure you stop on your marks – one video they showed us featured a car knocking a team member down.

Your driving style can provoke damage too. Repeatedly lock a wheel and you can see blisters and flat-spots develop on the rubber. Keep punishing your tyres and they’ll eventually burst.

Rivals

Artificial intelligence is one area where F1 games have fallen down in the past, with drivers either weaving across the track absurdly or making no attempt to defend their position at al.

In “F1 2010″ cars defend their positions and try to break your tow. Interestingly, the team say they’ve tried to model the characteristics of individual drivers, so some are better in the wet than others, and some do better at certain tracks, such as Felipe Massa at Istanbul.

Your relationship with your team mate plays a bigger role in “F1 2010″ than in previous F1 games. No longer is he just the guy in the other car – you have to fight and beat him to get the team on your side. Finish ahead often enough and you’ll have access to performance upgrades before he does – just like in real life.

The paddock

Codemasters’ brand manager Paul Waters believes “F1 games have always done having the cars on track very well”. He explained the team set out to do more than just simulate F1 racing, but allow players to take control of their virtual career in a way they’ve never been able to before.

In career mode, your time outside of the car plays an important role in the game. You’ll go inside your garage and the team trucks – which are modelled for the first time in an F1 game, they say.

How well perform is reflected in how many journalists are camped outside your motorhome waiting to ask questions, and how many fans turn up to your autograph sessions.

You can even criticise your team in press conferences which will do you no favours if you’re a struggling up-and-comer.

Multiplayer and more

So what’s missing? The team admitted that the safety car – one of the most requested features in the comments on F1 Fanatic – will not feature in the game. According to Codemasters it added to little to the playing experience to merit inclusion. However the full range of warning flags will be simulated including red flags for race stoppages.

Nor will players be able to drive the formation lap – again the team said they felt it added too little to the game compared to other aspects. However this feature and the safety car is being considered in the 2011 version of the game.

Because of license restrictions you can only play with the 2010 season cars and tracks. Codemasters say they looked at adding feeder series to the game but decided it would take too long to do.

The timing of the game’s release means it will be on the shelves before the cars have raced at the new Korean circuit, meaning that track will have to be built without data from the race weekend. However the team are confident that can build it accurately and have no plans for a post-Korea patch to improve the simulation.

Up to 13 people will be able to play at once in online multiplayer. Curiously, the team said they had been advised by FOM to leave the slot for a 13th team free in case one appears later this season.

The version of the game we played today which you can see in the pictures below is still in the early stages of development. Although some of the aspects fans might want to see won’t appear in the game the early signs are very encouraging. But we won’t know for sure how good it is until the game finally arrives this September.

Codemasters F1 2010 screengrabs

Codemasters F1 2010 video

This video shows ‘pre-alpha’ code which uses unfinished graphics and last season’s cars. The final game will use the 2010 season cars, tracks and drivers.

This second video was shot at the event and, again, features pre-alpha build code. Look out for Raikkonen going over the top of the Red Bull:

Video to follow

Read more: “F1 2010″ by Codemasters arrives for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC in September

Don't bother looking for Raikkonen and Piquet - they missed the event

The Bahrain Grand Prix organisers brought together 18 of the 20 living F1 champions for a special event to mark the 60th anniversary of the world championship last weekend.

Between them these 18 drivers won 36 world titles and 391 races – that’s almost half the 821 F1 championship races since 1950.

The oldest of the living champions is Australian Sir Jack Brabham. He won the first of his three world championships in 1959, then aged 33. Now 83, and not in great health, he still made it to Bahrain for the event – which is more than can be said for some of the younger successors to his crown.

Four of the 18 are still racing in F1 and may yet add to their successes. They’re in impressive company, as the record of their achievements below shows (click the drivers’ names for their biographies):

Two former champions were missing from the party. Nelson Piquet (three championships, 23 wins, 24 pole positions and 23 fastest laps) probably stayed away due to the fall-out from the Singapore 2008 controversy.

It’s not clear why Kimi Räikkönen (one championship, 18 wins, 16 pole positions and 35 fastest laps) didn’t go. He switched from F1 to the World Rally Championship this year but he wasn’t at a rally last weekend.

The remaining champions have all passed away. They are Giuseppe Farina, Juan Manuel Fangio, Alberto Ascari, Mike Hawthorn, Phil Hill, Jim Clark, Denny Hulme, Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt, James Hunt and Ayrton Senna.

F1’s greats in Bahrain – Pictures

The 18 champions are pictures below with Bernie Ecclestone, FIA president Jean Todt and Todt’s partner Michelle Yeoh:

Back: Alain Prost, Alan Jones, Nigel Mansell, Mika Hakkinen, Jacques Villeneuve, Keke Rosberg, Jody Scheckter, Michael Schumacher, Damon Hill. Front: Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Niki Lauda, Bernie Ecclestone, Mario Andretti, Jeat Todt, Michelle Yeoh, Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, John Surtees, Emerson Fittipaldi, Lewis Hamilton

Here are the 18 drivers plus the rest of the 2010 F1 drivers:

F1's former champions plus the 2010 F1 drivers

Images (C) Bridgestone

Links

Schumacher return a big hit with German TV viewers (Reuters)

“The seven-times world champion’s comeback race was watched by an average audience of 10.5 million Germans on Sunday, compared to the 5.3 million viewers the season-opening event attracted last season.” I wonder how many of them took notice of the German driver who was leading the race?

Getting rid of aero in F1 – the counterargument (James Allen)

“Frank Dernie, one of the leading F1 aerodynamicists for the past 30 years, has sent me this note, arguing that the “overtaking problem in F1″ is not the aero, but the mechanical grip from the tyres and the lack of mistakes made by drivers on gearshifts due to semi automatic gearboxes. He advocates manual gearboxes and rock hard tyres.”

Comment of the day

Here’s a great bit of thinking from Jim N:

With people still going on about the poor performance of the new teams I thought I’d check on the first outings of the established teams.

Ferrari, Monaco 1950, 4 cars , +1 lap, +3 laps, DNF, DNF
McLaren, Monaco 1966, 1 car only, DNF
Red Bull (originally Stewart GP), Australia 1997, 2 cars, DNF, DNF
Mercedes (originally Tyrrell), Germany 1966, 2 cars, +1 lap, DNF
Force India (originally Jordan), USA 1991, 1 car only, +6 laps not running at finish
Williams, Spain 1977, 1 car only, +4 laps
Renault (originally Toleman), San Marino 1981, 2 cars, DNQ, DNQ
Toro Rosso (originally Minardi), Brazil 1985, 1 car only, DNF

The current crop of new teams seem to be in good company!

Happy birthday!

No F1 Fanatic birthdays today. If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

The FIA issued a double whammy rules change on this day last year by announcing the budget cap proposal for 2010 and claiming the 2009 championship would be decided by whoever scored the most wins. In the end neither proposal came to pass.

Our top three players all predicted the podium correctly

Hanalou and Arpi_ are our first prize winners of the 2010 F1 Fanatic Predictions’ Championship.

They are tied for the lead of the championship with a third player, J-Canada, after the first round.

Hanalou wins a copy of “The Lotus Story” DVD boxset provided by Duke Video and Apri_ wins a print of the race winner courtesy of Motorsport in Print.

Impressively, Hanalou, Arpi_ and J-Canada all predicted the top five finishers correctly – though none of them also correctly named Sebastian Vettel as the pole sitter.

How close they came to predicting the pole sitter was used as a tie-breaker which put Hanalou on top followed by Arpi_. In future races I’ll include an extra question to serve as a tie-breaker should a similar situation occur.

These three lead the championship table with 48 points each. But there’s still 900 points to be won over the rest of the season.

Over 1,750 played in the first round – find out how you did in the table below.

Don’t miss a single round of the F1 Fanatic Predictions Championship. Subscribe to F1 Fanatic using RSS, email or Twitter: Click here for more information.

The prizes

This year we’re giving away a pair of prizes every race weekend.

On top of that at the end of the year the top 12 finishers all get prizes – and whoever scores the highest overall will be going to the 2011 British Grand Prix. Here are the prizes in full:

Grand prize: Two grandstands tickets to the 2011 British Grand Prix

The person who scores the most points in the 2010 F1 Fanatic Predictions Championship will win grandstand tickets to the 2011 British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

This is the first time we’ve offered F1 race tickets as a prize at F1 Fanatic and I hope you all agree it’s a fitting reward for the F1 expert who can best predict who will be on top in 2010.

The grand prize winner will receive tickets to all three days of the 2011 British Grand Prix with reserved grandstand seating for the race.

Second place prize: An F1 painting of your choice

The second place finisher in the championship will win an F1 painting by Rob Ijbema.

You get to choose which F1 driver, present or past, will feature in the painting. Or you can pick one of the other motor racing paintings on Rob’s site Car-a-day.

Runners-up prizes: Autocourse 2010-2011

The ten players who finish in third to 12th positions in the championship will win a copy of the 2010-2011 edition of Autocourse.

The highly respected journal of Formula 1 and other major international four-wheeled racing series is published at the end of every season.

This year the publication marks its 60th anniversary edition.

NB. 2009 edition cover used for illustration

Race winners prize: The Lotus Story DVD Box Set

Duke Video are supplying the prize for the player who gets the highest score in each round.

With the Lotus name returning to F1 in 2010 what better prize than a DVD box set showing the history of this great team. This four-disc set “The Lotus Story” chronicles Lotus’s participation in F1 from the company’s beginning in 1948 up to its F1 withdrawal in 1994.

Duke are also offering a special promotion exclusive to all F1 Fanatic readers – whenever you order from them you can get 15% off using the promotional code F1Fanatic at the checkout.

Race runners-up prize: F1 race winner print

The second place finisher in each race will win a 40×35cm print of the race winner from Motorsport in Print.

How to enter

Entries will open in the week before every race. You have until the start of free practice three on Saturday to make your predictions. A reminder will be posted on the site after free practice two on Friday.

Each player may predict the pole sitter and the top five finishers in the race. See below for the rules in full.

Competition terms and conditions

1. Maximum one entry per household.
2. The competition is not open to employees, friends or family of F1 Fanatic, Silverstone Circuit, Duke Video, Motorsport in Print, Car-a-Day or Icon Publishing Ltd.
3. Predictions will open up to one week before the start of final practice on the Saturday of a Grand Prix weekend and will be promoted on the front page of F1 Fanatic before closing prior to the start of final practice.
4. In each round players are invited to predict (a) who will be on pole position and (b) what the top five finishers will be (five different drivers).
5. Players accumulate points in each round as follows:
a. Correctly naming the pole sitter: 2 points
b. Correctly naming one/two/three/four/five driver/s who finish in the top five: 1/2/3/5/8 points
c. Correctly predicting where one/two/three/four/five driver/s finish: 2/6/14/24/40 points
6. Whoever scores the most points over the 19 races from round one (Bahrain) to 19 (Abu Dhabi) wins the grand prize.
7. In the event of a tie on points the winner will be determined by who picked the most race winners correctly, then second places finishers and so on. If that fails to produce a winner the editor will choose a means of deciding who has won.
8. Predictions must be entered using the form or e-mailled to competition@f1fanatic.co.uk
9. Once a prediction has been made it cannot be altered.
10. In the event of a dispute the editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
11. No cash alternative is offered for any of the prizes.
12. Grand Prix tickets: Children must be accompanied by an adult. Accommodation and transport to the venue not included. Event date TBC.
13. Players who have won prizes will be notified by email within seven days of each Grand Prix. Lotus DVDs and F1 paintings will be despatched within 28 days of that email being sent. Grand Prix tickets will be despatched once they are available. Autocourse books will be despatched once they are published.