F1 News & Rumours

[|Nuno|]

FIA to hear to F1 fans' voices


Formula One fans will this week get a unique chance to help change the sport for the better, as motor racing's governing body goes public with the biggest ever fans' survey on the state of Grand Prix racing.

With FIA president Max Mosley having long believed that team bosses were overlooking the interests and desires of spectators in their move to agree on a future direction for F1, the FIA has initiated the survey to make sure the supporters' voices are heard.

An FIA spokesman told Autosport-Atlas: "At the beginning of 2005 the FIA launched a consultation on the future of Formula One with all of the sport's stakeholders. We felt that including Formula One fans in this process was essential.

"To help shape the future of the sport we want as many fans as possible to visit our website and complete the online survey."

This survey, which can be accessed later this week on the FIA's own website, www.fia.com, aims to get feedback from fans on what their opinions are on the sport - and what differences they would like to see made.

Mosley is currently heading up plans to define a new set of Formula One regulations from the start of 2008 - although he has found several teams reluctant to join in those discussions until market research has been completed.

Key figures from F1 have long echoed Mosley's belief that the fans' opinions on the sport are too often ignored.

Renault director of engineering Pat Symonds is one man who has often said that more consultation should be made with the public - although not necessarily just with diehard F1 fans.

"I've always advocated that if we want to know what to do, we should be asking the public," he said last year when talking about the continued problems of finding an acceptable qualifying procedure.

"What we should do is go out on a Saturday afternoon while qualifying is on and ask the people in the street, in the shopping centres 'why aren't you watching qualifying, what is wrong with it? Why aren't you watching racing?'

"Those are the people whose opinion we need."

The results of the FIA survey are due to be published later this summer.


http://www.autosport-atlas.com/news.aspx?id=44256&s=5
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Toyota escape heavy punishment


Toyota have narrowly escaped losing the points they scored in the first four races of 2005 after it was discovered that prior to Imola they'd raced without the correct paperwork.
All teams need a competition license which is issued by their national authority before they can be issued with a superlicense by the FIA. A superlicense is needed to race in Formula One.
However, while Toyota had a superlicense, it was found that they'd failed to renew their competition license since 2000. And that was only renewed prior to the San Marino GP.
The punishment for racing without the license could have cost Toyota all the points they'd scored in the initial four races.
"If they apply a sanction we have to accept it," Toyota Motorsport President John Howett told Reuters last week.
"The FIA has the right to apply sanctions but I hope it will be commensurate with the size of the error. We have tried to be completely transparent."

"This has been blown out of proportion to what we see as an unintentional and fairly minor error relating to the paperwork."
However, Howett needn't worry about being penalised as FIA President Max Mosley has cleared them of intentionally cheating.
"There won't be any penalties for Toyota, even though until the Spanish Grand Prix they raced without the licenses required by the FIA," Mosley told Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport.
"It was a mistake, with no real cheating involved."
Further explaining Mosley said: "It is an administrative matter, an error with no fraud."

http://www.planet-f1.com/news/story_19546.shtml
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Me, they should have been fined at least...

[styla21]

-------FIA announces qualifying changes-------

Formula One racing’s governing body, the FIA, has confirmed that Sunday morning qualifying is to be dropped as of this weekend’s European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring in Germany.

Grid positions will now be determined by the Saturday session alone, which will continue in the same single-lap format, but with cars required to qualify in race trim. They will then be kept under parc ferme conditions until the race.

The running order for the session will be reverse of the finishing order of the previous race. This means that at the Nurburgring, Takuma Sato is likely to be first man out for the returning BAR team, while Monaco winner Kimi Raikkonen will have the benefit of running last.

The change to the qualifying format was agreed by the ten Formula One teams over the Monte Carlo weekend and was confirmed after the proposal won the approval of the FIA’s World Motorsport Council on Monday.

- F1.com

[ae86_16v]

^ Yes!!!

So no more of this combining laps one and two thing?!?!

That's great!!! One hot lap and that's it.

[phantomfocus]

Excellent, just about anything is better than what we had. Not exactly what I had wanted, but definitly a step forward.

[|Nuno|]

Cool, now I can sleep properly again at Sundays.

I'm still not happy tough... This is still a boring format, and I don't like the fact that it's done in race trim.

[ae86_16v]

Originally Posted by |Nuno| Cool, now I can sleep properly again at Sundays. I'm still not happy tough... This is still a boring format, and I don't like the fact that it's done in race trim.

There could be excitement in One Hot Lap, but I agree, you should be able to tune your car during qualifying to get the best out of it.

[|Nuno|]

Montagny joins Jordan:

Originally Posted by F1racing.net As reported this morning Franck Montagny will be driving for the Jordan F1 team on Friday in the free practice sessions starting at the European Grand Prix tomorrow. The reason behind the switch is because the team wanted a more experienced driver than Doornbos. "We began the season with three rookie drivers, which was the right thing to do while we adjusted to the Formula 1 environment. But now, after 6 races into the season, we do understand that we need an experienced driver to join forces and simultaneously build up our three rookies," said Jordan's managing director Colin Kolles. "As we are in a transition year, we are in the unique position to try different options to make sure that next year, when the team will race as Midland F1, we will be able to be competitive from the very beginning. We are very pleased to be given the opportunity to use Franck Montagny's considerable track experience - more than 13,000 km behind the wheel of an F1 car - to give our development a major push forward. In light of this, I am expecting improved performances from our team over the course of the next few races." Montagny's F1 manager Flavio Briatore said about his deal with the Jordan team: "We have been working to give Franck the opportunity to demonstrate his undoubted capabilities at a race weekend and this is a good step for him, as at Friday practice he will have the chance to test the car in representative conditions. I am happy to be able to help Alex Shnaider and the Jordan team, who will be getting valuable feedback from a quick and proven F1 test driver who has experience with a top car and team. I believe this is a good opportunity for everyone concerned.

[SFDMALEX]

Still shit! I want the real qual back, none of this one lap race trim bullshit. What can I say, Im dissapointed, to me this is as bad as the previous qual.......

[Toronto]

^^^ ahh the times when senna would go out, and set a slow lap. wait ten min's or so then make some changes to the car, then wait a few sec. more, move his fingers (tell the boys in the crew he was leaving), and blows his old and everyones else time out of the water

[5vz-fe]

I guess if they change to a non-one lap qualifying, all teams will bark at FIA that they are Ferrari biased.

[zondaland]

What I would personally like to see is the old style hour long session followed by an each car on the track single flying lap session, on race fuel. That way the fans get the excitement of seeing who is truly fastest, but the grid can be slightly scrambled due to different strategies. Also the smaller teams get their guaranteed 1min 30 s of air time.

[5vz-fe]

More Trouble for BAR....

[27/05/05 - 08:18]

Honda’s engine concerns for Nurburgring
Racing Imola engines could pose a problem

When BAR Honda were stripped of their points paying positions at the San Marino Grand Prix and forced to miss the Spanish and Monaco Grand Prix, the team looked forward to Nurburgring and the latest engines from Honda to try and make a big impact on their return to the sport.

The team are however to use the same V10 Honda powerplants that were used at the San Marino Grand Prix as the rules state that engines must be used for two consecutive races. BAR Honda believe that they are entitled to fresh Honda engines as they did not race in either of the last two events, while the FIA take the stance that it is in fact two consecutive races for the team.

As it stands, BAR Honda will practice, qualify and race with the same engines that powered them to the points back at Imola. Honda has concerns that after five weeks sitting in storage, the engines will be compromised and perhaps not as reliable as an engine juts a week or two old.

http://f1.racing-live.com/en/headlin...27082107.shtml

[|Nuno|]

Barrichello: "Press Lies."


NUERBURGRING, Germany, May 27 (Reuters) - Ferrari's Michael Schumacher played down a rift with team mate Rubens Barrichello on Friday after the Brazilian said he would treat the seven-times champion like any other rival from now on.

"For me it's fine to see it like that for the race, as long as we can go on having parties after the race," Schumacher said at the European Grand Prix.

"I'm relaxed about the whole thing," added the German.

"We saw each other last night for dinner. He was calmed down. He's Brazilian after all and has temperament. There was no problem between us. It's all normal. It's time to sort this out and get back to work."

Schumacher has had to mend fences with both his brother and Barrichello after last week's Monaco Grand Prix, where he barged past his team mate on the final lap and then almost collided with Ralf's Toyota on the line.

"There's just too much commotion about this, just like with the thing with Ralf," said Schumacher.

Barrichello, who has played the role of loyal number two since he arrived at Ferrari in 2000, was quoted in Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport saying: "In future I will have to consider Michael not as a team mate but as a driver like any other."

The Brazilian, whose once-dominant Formula One team have been struggling without a win so far this season, did not want to make any further comment but dismissed a suggestion in the Gazzetta that his days at Ferrari were now numbered.

"It's bull****," Barrichello said. "That's the Italian press saying too many things. I have no problem with Ferrari just because I had one problem with Michael in one corner. So that's the deal."

Schumacher finished seventh in Monaco, with Barrichello eighth. Ralf withstood Schumacher's late attack to hold sixth. Although both brothers declared peace at the Nuerburgring, sixth-placed Ralf had said Michael could have killed him.

Ferrari boss Jean Todt said he understood both drivers and would not take sides in whether Schumacher made the right decision to pass Barrichello at Monaco.

"I don't say what one should have done or should not have done," he said. "It's part of racing. It's important that they didn't compromise the work of the entire company by hitting each other."

Todt said it was also vital that both drivers continue talking with each other and work together. He pointed out that Schumacher called Barrichello on his birthday early this week and they had dinner together on Thursday.

"There is no controversy," Todt said.

"They have the same car and the same support. We try to minimise as much as we can the opposition between them. But there is a limit. The drivers are happy to be together and they speak to each other."


Source:

http://tinyurl.com/9j7to

[Toronto]

please quote your sources

[|Nuno|]

Originally Posted by Toronto please quote your sources

It's there:

NUERBURGRING, Germany, May 27 (Reuters)

Or do you mean a link or something?