Formula 1 2009 Season [may contain real time spoilers]
 

With the teams just about to start unvieling and then testing thier new cars for the 2009 season I thought it's about time to start a new thread..

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Well I couldn't help posting in the other thread as it was 4 minutes after I posted. Unfortunately bad news already. No F1 in HD . Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere but couldn't find mentions. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/sportedit...=13&ssoc=login and http://whathifi.com/News/BBC-No-HD-for-F1/ not surprised. Grrrrrr. Very mad indeed.

Other than that I haven't seen any other news apart from the interactive stuff.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Ferrari unviel thier car on the 12th Jan, with Toyota on the 15th, Mclaren on the 16th with Renault, Williams and BMW Sauber unveiling the following week. Redbull have said thier car will be unvieled after all the others on the 9th Feb

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

It's angered me too, and MotoGP isn't in HD either now. I think im going to ditch Sky HD when my contract runs out. :td:

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

it's not Sky's fault. It will eventually be in HD - it has no choice. same with all channels... given time, HD will be the new SD. It's very annoying though. I was really hoping it would be in HD. Still, it can't be any worse than ITV's sport coverage quality. Football and F1 on ITV is such poor quality...

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

I know it's not Sky's fault, but i like to watch my motorsport in HD and i was expecting it this year, im not going to pay £10 a month for a service i use once a month.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

I know it's not sky's fault either but it's just a statement of how it is. I know MotoGP won't be proper HD until 2010 (upscaled looks chuffing good) but that means nobody gets to watch it in HD as BBC HD will never put that on. Same with F1, with a 9hr spill-over channel Formula 1 isn't likely to get on BBC HD much for years. I was expecting 1 race though. This sucks. We're getting "channel blocked" as BBC hogs the SD, has exclusive rights and won't put it on in HD.

Looking forward to the new season and that though. Will be good to get the car piccies.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

The problem is caused by the way the F1 coverage is shot. While all the channels covering it send commentry and sound teams out to each race, the video is provided by the local channel (so, the BBC would provide coverage for the British Grand Prix, a US local channel the coverage for the American Grand Prix).

The problem is caused because not all the local channels have HD equipment and facilities, and the FIA likes coverage to be uniform. The same happened when Nicam was introduced, and the same with Widescreen broadcasting.

Of course, that wouldn't prevent the BBC filming the British Grand Prix in both HD and SD, but there are presumably other reasons why they are not doing that..

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Last time I checked, no local broadcaster was responsible for the filming. Apart from Monaco and Japan, FOM do the filming and broadcasting. Filmed in HD and broadcast to everyone in SD. The BBC have no chance of showing F1 in HD as there is simply no HD feed to use.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Ferrari have announced that they are prepared to provide Honda Racing engines if they can find buyer. That's nice of them. Another team on the pay-roll? (Only kidding)

I'd like it if BBC made a dedicated website to the F1, like ITV had done. Currently its a subsection of the sports pages. If there isn't one, I'll probably still use the ITV-F1 website, because I personally prefer that over the BBC's site.

I'd also like to see if these new aerodynamics will make the racing any better, or whether it was a waste of time.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

we've only in the last couple of years got widescreen for f1 coverage! Dream on for HD, that would mean those on their high horses safe from the financial crisis actually spending some of their billions

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Toro Rosso have finally named one of their drivers for the 2009 season as Sebastien Buemi... It's nice to see the teams bringing in more young new talent :)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/moto...ne/7820688.stm

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Yeah, Gerhard was talking about it the other day and it's nice to have it confirmed. Not sure what to think, with the potential loss of Honda, I have mixed feelings about yet another newbie coming in.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Nick Fry is rumoured to place a bid for the Honda Racing Team. At least that's what it says on ITV-F1.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Ferrari's new car unvieled

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/moto...ne/7812490.stm

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

That car looks hideous, the rear wing look so wrong.

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...009/01/106.jpg

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

I think the extra wide front wings just makes the rear wing look even worse. Lets hope we get some decent racing though

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

All the cars are going to look hideous this year. Maybe it'll create better racing, maybe it wont. F1 always has some form of radical change every so often.

Now Ferrari has basically removed any chance of Honda using a Ferrari engine for the 2009 season.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Yeap I agree, another Ferrari humdinger. They are supposed to build beautiful cars not scaletrix ones!

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Although, there is no HD this year for the F1, the best thing about this moving accross to the BBC, is no breaks in the race, I hate it and will now be able to sit on my couch watching the F1 with no interuptions. :D:D

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Ferrari have apparantly backed down on providing engines to the next owners of Honda. Which leaves Toyota, BMW, Mercedes and Renault as likely providers. I reckon BMW would be a good tie-up for the new owners, they could use the technical expertise both ways if the Honda chassis ends up either being a potential race winner or a pile of junk like the previous 2 seasons.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

if the deal gets sorted out then it will be Merc engines

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns21097.html

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

The new Toyota

[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]
[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]

More details at http://www.toyota-f1.com/en/car/tf109/

---------- Post added at 09:39 ---------- Previous post was at 09:38 ----------

McLaren launch their car today I think... (16th Jan)

[edit] Confirmed..unveiling at 10:45GMT [/edit]

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

the new cars look horrible, the front and rear wing aren't in proportion, the front wing just looks really un-areodynamic too, particularly the end part.

Love the new side pods though with no flick ups on them so side on the cars look better.

The first real test is, i think, next week in Portugal when the new cars that are out will run together

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

One of the things they wanted to get rid of was the winglets (you can probably blame honda for going over the top with their DUMBO ears ;))

Personally I'm all for changes (even ugly ones) especially if it means an increased chance of overtaking, though I am really worried that some teams will have a great deal more advantage than others, especially as the KERS system isn't compulsory, anyone know which teams definately have it and which don't???

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

IIRC I think all teams will be using it, although Ferrari may introduce theirs late, also there is a chance some teams might not run it at all races preferring to go with a lighter car at some tracks.

Will have to double check on what Force India are doing

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

And here's McLaren's new car

http://www.formula1.com/gallery/launches/2009/346.html

More details at http://www.mclaren.com

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Ron Dennis steps down for this season... Linkage wonder if that changes Hamilton's future?

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

I don;t see how this will change Hamilton's relationship with McLaren as Ron is still going to be Chief Executive of the group....so he'll still be in overall charge just not involved in the day to day running of the F1 section..

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

agreed he gets on just as well with Martin Whitmarsh as he does with Ron. Wonder how long Frank Williams and Patrick Head will last, they are about the same age as Ron

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Ron said he was going to stand down last year, he's been grooming Martin Whitmarsh to take over for years. I don't see any change in Lewis's future.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

That may be the best looking 2009 car I've seen so far! I'm sure the paint job flatters it though.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

McLaren are still leaving the door open to supply Honda Racing with an engine if they find a buyer.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Renault unveil their new car.

http://images.itv-f1.com/ImageLibrary/52050_2.jpg

Williams Unveil their new FW31 car.

http://images.itv-f1.com/ImageLibrary/52057_2.jpg

http://images.itv-f1.com/ImageLibrary/52054_2.jpg

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Is the Williams black or dark blue?? If black then it reminds me of the old JPS cars...

Nicest looking to date though I think is the Toyota

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

The Williams is dark blue. Yeah, the Toyota is the nicest looking car.

Here's the new BMW car.

http://images.itv-f1.com/ImageLibrary/52103_2.jpg

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Don't know how accurate it is, but the member D.M.N. at Digital Spy has summarised what we can expect from the BBC coverage..

From: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...d.php?t=965927

Now, where he says "This is an almost certainty to be the theme", I suspect he means Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain" (the original BBC F1 theme was part of the bassline to this song). Unfortunately, I can't check this, as youtube have deleted the video he linked to, and the PC I am on has no sound.

I particularly like the sound of the red-button multi stream option.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

That's a good find. Red button was about what I was expecting for practice, that'll be good to quite a few people. Wonder whether the data stream will be the same that they get at races.

I like the new BMW. Dislike the new renault. The Toyota seems the prettiest.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/moto...ne/7854692.stm

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Also found these new rule changes:

Teams can use drivers other than their race drivers in practice sessions.

Drivers who start from the pitlane can now do a reconnaisance lap berfore the start instead of having to stay in the pits. They are also excluded from parc ferme rules, so they can change their car's setup.

There's no longer a requirement for how many races an engine must last, but a team can use no more than 8 engines in a season. If a team uses a ninth engine, they will get a 10 place grid penalty for every race afterwards.

KERS can be charged and discharged in parc ferme.

If more than one car starts from the pitlane, those who arrive at the pit exit 15-5 minutes before the start get queueing priority. Those who arrive after 5 minutes must queue in order of arrival. Otherwise, cars will still line up in the order in which they qualified.

If a car on the grid changes wheels after the three minute warning, they will get a 10-second time penatly instead of a drive-thru or starting at the back of the grid.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

the way i heard it was the penalty was only done once not every race, could be a loop hole though if what i think is correct.

a driver has a dreadful Q2 and finishes 14th (or whatever will be last in Q2). The track is singapore and so no overtaking really, he cuts his losses and uses his 9th engine. His 10-grid penalty puts him 18th/last. He can then use that engine again as a 'fresh' engine in the next race

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Teddy Mayer has died at the age of 73. He was the former boss of McLaren after Bruce died in 1970 and ran the operation until Ron Dennis and co took over in 1982. RIP. :(

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/moto...ne/7863736.stm

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

very sad news indeed my thoughts are with his family and friends

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Well the argument is still going between the GPDA and the FIA over the price hike on the Super-licences (reminds me of Toyota in 2005 when they seemed to not have a licence and the FIA went balistic threatening to deduct the points they got in the first 4 races..

Further news is that in testing in Spain (Jerez) Hamilton is fastest...Ferrari in thier usual stunt pulling blames a sand storm for halting practice...the stewards have since penalised the sandstorm which must now go back 10 miles before continuing...

I'm still wondering if though anyone is going to buy Honda...and even if they do will they want to keep Button in the drivers seat......

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Mark Webber has completed 83 laps at Jerez, proving the doubters wrong.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Rumour has it that Honda as it is now will be on the grid with Jenson Button and Bruno Senna as drivers. Bernie Ecclestone is apparantly trying to fund them but will probably get stopped by the EU (competition laws), and Mercedes are still actively looking to supply their engines.

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=45118

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

great news, read about this the other day but forgot to post it. it seems it will cost Honda more to lay off the staff than it will for them to keep the team going so I think they are paying some of this too. Senna has huge backing behind him which is helping too.

The only real problem is no testing so if there are any probelms with the car, and lets face it it is a Honda :D, then they won't have any time to fix it

Virign to Buy an F1 Team
 

Sorry I have double posted....didnt spot this thread....:dunce:

http://f1.uk.reuters.com/f1/news/India-380697-1.php

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Hedgie, I moved your post into the F1 thread...

Really great news if it goes ahead, Bransons got the clout behind him to make Honda a viable car for the championship...All they need to do now is to tell Button where to go ;)

---------- Post added at 11:44 ---------- Previous post was at 11:44 ----------

LOL, will edit the threads...
OK, original deleted, everything is back to normal :)

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

I wonder if their actual speeds will match their advertised/claimed ones... :D

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Not sure if this has been posted, but Virgin have made a bid to buy Honda F1.

Link.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Or if the car will slow to 1/4 speed between 4pm and 11pm..

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

I dunno, Honda were one of the biggest spending teams (if not the biggest) over the past few years and got exactly nowhere. Spending large amounts of money in F1 guarantees nothing which is why they had to pull out.

Whoever saves Honda need to do it sooner rather than later, last years car was a joke and so they better hope the people who started the 2009 car learnt from it otherwise it'll be a waste of a season for Honda. One saving thing for them is that McLaren seem happy to supply them with [decent] engines so they should be ok in that department, just the rest of the car they need to fix. :p:

Except Virgin don't own VM the ISP ;) Just the naming rights are leased to them.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Humour, it is a difficult concept. It is not logical.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

I know but it's older than Mr Branson himself and got rather tiresome

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Oh dear the punmeisters are going to have a lot of mileage with any possible Virgin tie up to Honda. There is just so much potential for traffic shaping issues.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Rotfl!!!!!

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Except Virgin don't own VM the ISP ;) Just the naming rights are leased to them.[/QUOTE]

Branson ownes 10% of Virgin Media http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle2013297.ece

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Good to hear that Honda are likely to be back on the grid.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Thanks for getting back ON TOPIC ;)

that's the problem with F1 it has that high a cost for entry that I don;t think that any other team would have replaced Honda especially at this late stage,,

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Would Button or Senna want "VIRGIN" on their chests? :)

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

I subscribe to Autosport and post on their forum, teams are VERY cagey about when they will run witj KERS. BMW will probably go with it first I suspect.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

wonder if they do will virgin traffic manage them,

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Yup, and some teams aren't even convinced that running KERS will make you faster due to losing some ballast that they can use to sort handling out etc. It's no good going faster in a straight line if you corner like a piano.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

I think it would be great for Virgin take over the Honda team.

This would be Branson alone i.e. the Virgin Group, so no one needn't worry about Virgin Media blowing loads of cash on this venture as it would be nothing to do with them.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

The American's are looking to create a US only team, named USF1. It would well see the return of Scott Speed.

Also Formula 1 could well see a female racer in the coming years. Rumour has it that Danica Patrick (IndyCar star) is linked with the USF1 team.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

So much for Branson's interest

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/moto...ne/7905235.stm

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Branson said he'd only consider it IF the sport became a lot more green.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Hold on, if Honda have received between 10 and 20 offers (speculation, I don't actually know how many they've had) to run the team, you'd have thought one of them would have been taken up, and since the management want it to I'd have thought it was in their best interests to have accepted an offer! We're only a month away from the start of the season, 3 weeks from now they get shipped off to Australia! They need some testing mileage before the season, they can't use Friday practice to determine either of the following results: "the car's fantastic, it's a regular race winner and could win the championship", "the car's s**t, what are we gonna do about it?", "the car's not bad, but could use some work to get it up to speed properly".

At this stage, IMO it seems cheaper and easier for Honda just to chuck £50m at the team and say "you have to make this last for a year, after that you're on your own", especially since the team's in place still and hasn't been laid off yet.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

I think the problem is IF any of the other bids were serious they would want to bring in their own management team to run it. Ok for Brawn as I can't see anyone letting him go but not very good for Fry who would be out of a job. As such he didn't want any of the other bids to go through and wanted a management buy out which it seems he doesn't have the money for.

One report i read stated it would cost Honda more money to make everyone redundant than it would to keep the team going all year so it could still go either wayy

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Honda and Honda racing are completely different.

Honda couldn't finance another year, so how would they be able to give the racing team an extra £50 million? Weren't they Honda Racing because they used Honda engines and staff? Now if they are completely separate, is it work being called Honda Racing...if the only involvement Honda have with F1 is now a logo? (On the cars and shirts, etc)

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Problem I see with a management buy-out is that yes fine they might be able to reach the asking price...but can they seriously keep the funds going to keep the team competitive??

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

The Chain it is then. :)

Formula One

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Did you truly expect anything else??? :D

---------- Post added at 11:37 ---------- Previous post was at 11:35 ----------

All we need now is Murray :)

Fantastic watching that clip, especially as it's at Kylami...where my claim to fame is that I've sat on pole in a formula ford racing car...Pity it wasn't running and it was for a SABC drama series :p: ;)

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Murray is involved too, he will be doing a column for the BBC website and will give a few thoughts after the GP

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/moto...ne/7911490.stm

Looks like still some hope :)

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Interesting - Ive heard Nick Fry possibly may not be involved in the final setup, if the team actually makes it onto the grid in Australia, however the mods to take the Mercedes engine have allegedly been done ???

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Good news on "The Chain", great news on Honda.

However, did anybody miss this? http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/moto...ne/7909357.stm The USF1 thing definitely looks on, I'm curious to know who'll actually be in the seats.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

just been reading about this team today. It seems to start with they might not even have a US driver just someone who is good but then once they are established they will look for a US driver.

They also plan to have web cams and open up the factory to fans

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Yep, but that's news for 2010 (as well as the RBS pull-out of Williams sponsorship) so didn;t want to drag the thread off-topic ;)

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

looks like the management buy out of Honda is going ahead. The money is still coming from Honda as it seems it is cheaper to fund the team for a year than it is to close it down and make everyone redundant

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Here's a look at Force India's 2009 car:

http://images.itv-f1.com/ImageLibrary/52417_2.jpg

The FIA is planning on trying to reduce team spending by 50m Euro's (sorry, I don't have a Euro sign on my keyboard) per season.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Just been browsing the Force India site http://www.forceindiaf1.com/

Its a nice looking car, hopefully it'll go well too :D

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

They're saying they are front running capable with their new engine partner of McLaren. That'd be good to see.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Mercedes engine & the McLaren gearbox should make the car quick enough but is there going to be reliability in the car and will the drivers be able to get the car into the points this season? Sutil & Fisichella are more than capable to be running mid field hopefully the car will allow them to.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Will we see any of the features talked about here available on Virgin?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pre...rmulaone.shtml

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

I think those features would have to be supported by Virgin.

Does Freeview use the red button feature like Sky and Cable? I've never tested.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Vettel in the Red Bull went more than a second quicker than Massa in the Ferrari on Sunday, and Glock in the Toyota went quickest in testing on Monday when it was very wet. So the grid's looking a little topsy-turvy at this point in time. :)

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Always does in the final weeks run-up...few teams push really hard giving false results ;)

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

none of the teams want to use their proper aero kit in testing as if teams see it they will copy it before the first race of the season. s such we won't really know how the cars will look until the first race, although we might not be able to tell the difference ourselves.

In testing some teams run light to get the headlines too

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

VM CAN do Red button, so I guess we ought to see some of it - after all they manage it on Snooker & Wimbledon (BBCi coverage).

Will be disappointed if they don't.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

According to Adrian Sutil on the ITV F1 website, tyre graining is a huge problem with these new slicks. Wonder how many other people will mention this?

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

It might just be a problem with the Force India using the tyres inefficiently. Nobody else has mentioned it AFAIK. If it was a problem with the tyres, I'd expect other drivers to have the same problem and Bridgestone to take some action to remedy it.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

i've heard drivers so the rears go off on a long stint but nothing too serious. It is part of a F1 drivers job to manage the tyres anyway

It's looking good for Brawn Racing anyway, announcement should be made soon

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/moto...ne/7911490.stm

Honda news confirming 2009

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Lewis has had a crash. He was apparently caught out by high winds.

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Not been keeping up with F1 for a few months - OK - so what's new / changed in the rules for this year?

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

Re: Formula 1 2009 Season
 

well it's quite a long list but basically

Slick tyres are back
The front wing is wider
the rear wing is smaller
All the barge boards and extra bits teams put on the cars are now banned
The above means there is 50% less downforce, or so the FIA hope
testing after the start of the season is banned
Cars can only use 8 engines a season