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Formula 1 2008

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Well he did collide with a 4x4. Could've been a whole lot worse really. Heck, the 4x4 probably got totaled if he went into it chin first.

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Revised BBC team: t'is AWESOME!!

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/7745347.stm

 

David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan have joined the BBC as part of next year's presentation team in Formula One.

 

Coulthard, who retired as a race driver at the end of the 2008 season, will join former team boss Jordan as a pundit alongside anchor Jake Humphrey.

 

Jonathan Legard moves from 5 Live to commentate with ex-F1 driver and award-winning broadcaster Martin Brundle.

 

And veteran commentator Murray Walker will return to the BBC as a regular presence on the Sport website.

 

The 84-year-old, who became a household name during five decades of F1 commentary for the BBC, will be offering his expert insight and perspective on the action and interacting with F1 fans through an online Q&A forum.

 

The pit-lane reporters will be Ted Kravitz and Lee McKenzie. I was delighted to be given the opportunity to share my views and experiences through the BBC coverage of F1

 

David Coulthard

 

For Coulthard, who will continue as a test driver and consultant for Red Bull, it will be a first foray into broadcasting after a long and successful Grand Prix career behind the wheel that included 13 victories and runner-up spot in the world championship to Michael Schumacher in 2001.

 

The 37-year-old Scot said: "After 15 seasons competing in F1, my passion for the sport is still very much alive, and therefore I was delighted to be given the opportunity to share my views and experiences through the BBC coverage of F1.

 

"Many of the BBC team are known to me already and, for those members new to F1, I look forward to building on the established audience of F1 fans in the UK." 606: DEBATE

Give us your thoughts on the BBC F1 team

 

Legard is returning to F1 after four years as 5 Live's football correspondent - he was the radio station's F1 correspondent from 1997 until 2004.

 

Humphrey switches to F1 having previously worked on the Beijing Olympics and Euro 2008, among other things.

 

Kravitz, like Brundle, is a former member of ITV's F1 team. McKenzie, the daughter of Daily Express F1 correspondent Bob McKenzie, has been a broadcaster on motor racing and other sports for ITV and Sky Sports.

 

The BBC has a five-year deal to broadcast F1. It runs from 2009-2013 and includes exclusive rights for TV, radio, online and mobile.

 

Niall Sloane, BBC head of F1, said: "We have put a fantastic team together and are delighted to be able to offer a comprehensive and engaging Formula One experience.

 

"This is an exciting sport and we are very much looking forward to next year."

 

Further details about the BBC's plans for the coming season will be revealed in the new year.

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This is getting rediculous!!

 

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72283

 

Hockenheim's F1 future in doubt

 

The future of Formula One at the Hockenheim circuit is in doubt unless the government decides to help financially, a track official has said.

 

"Without grants from the state there will be no more Formula One in Hockenheim," Karl-Josef Schmidt told the Der Tagesspiegel newspaper.

 

The track will be absent from the calendar next year because it is alternating the event with the Nurburgring.

 

According to the newspaper, Hockenheim made a loss of 5.3 million euros this year after hosting the German Grand Prix.

 

The Canadian and French Grands Prix will not be on next year's schedule due to financial reasons.

 

Schmidt believes only Arab countries will be able to afford hosting a Formula One race if the future unless they start to get better deals.

 

"Formula One will disappear not just from Hockenheim but from Germany as a whole. Then it will only be run in Arab countries," he added.

 

There are currently five German drivers racing in Formula One, plus companies such as BMW and Mercedes.

Hockenheims never been the same since they removed the 'forest run', but still, it's another classic track in danger of being lost!!

 

I read on the autosports forum that Hockenheim changed it's layout to what it is now because Bernie wanted a circuit with more laps, so that spectators/VIP's could see the cars passing more frequently.

But in doing so he took away the circuits character, charm and appeal, and now they are loosing money!

 

I would hate it SO MUCH if the future of F1 was modern characterless circuits [built in wastelands; hello scenery!!], street circuits and Middle Eastern countries!

And under Bernies control it looks like that's where we're heading!! That moneygrabbing hobit needs to go!!

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I read somewhere (might have been Autosport.com) that F1s parent company took it's debts from other concerns and lumped it onto F1 so they could use all that money sloshing around to pay them off. That's why the sport is charging race hosts through the nose and slashing budgets at the same time.

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Holy shit!

Honda poised to quit Formula One

 

Honda will quit Formula One on Friday, BBC Sport understands.

 

The Japanese car manufacturer are set to announce that they are selling their team, with a view to closing it down by the end of March if no buyer is found.

 

Sources told BBC Sport the team were "optimistic" they would continue, but no investor had yet been found.

 

However, according to the Reuters news agency, team bosses Ross Brawn and Nick Fry fear Honda could close the team within weeks.

 

According to a Reuters source, Brawn and Fry told a meeting of the Formula One Teams' Association, "They have a month to find a buyer, otherwise they are closing the team."

 

Honda, who recently cut road vehicle production as a response to the global economic crisis, are expected to make an announcement regarding the team's future at 0500 GMT on Friday.

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Holy shit!
Holy Shit indeed!!

 

There have been rumours about Toyota considering their future in the sport recently, but I didn't see this coming from Honda! Hope Toyota don't follow!

 

Button must be worried! With pretty much all F1 seats filled for 2009 [except for Toro Rosso] he won't have a team for next year! You'd expect the buyers of the Honda team to instantly offer a seat, but that's firstly dependant on them finding a buyer and then Bet that Williams seat he turned down is looking real good now!

 

The future of F1 is looking shaky!! We're loosing decent tracks and now teams!

 

http://www.itv-f1.com/Feature.aspx?Type=James_Allen&id=44706

 

James Allen on Honda's F1 future

 

Honda will announce tomorrow morning that it is withdrawing from Formula 1.

 

It is putting its team up for sale and will continue to fund the team for three months, but if no buyer is found by March then the team will be closed down.

 

The team was addressed by team principal Ross Brawn this evening and he explained the situation to the workforce.

 

As today was a FOTA meeting in Geneva it is likely that the news was broken there and has leaked out from other teams initially.

 

Honda has its car factories in Japan working part-time shifts, owing to the collapse in the automobile sales market and clearly the management feel that they can no longer justify spending up to £200 million a year on F1, even if cost-cutting measures are in the pipeline.

 

Too much time has been wasted in agreeing a package of measures as the FIA and Williams management have been warning for months.

 

The news is a major shock, because Honda is one of the most profitable of the car makers currently engaged in F1.

 

If they can make this decision, so can the others.

 

This is a major moment for the sport and I imagine Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley will be ringing around frantically this evening ensuring that the remaining teams are solid.

 

Toyota are the ones most are nervous about. They may use the withdrawal of their major rival as an excuse to get out, should they feel the conditions demand it.

 

Mosely is likely to use this difficult situation to reiterate that radical cost-cutting measures need to be taken with immediate effect.

 

He is entitled to say, "I told you so" and although he'll take no pleasure from it, he will have been proved right.

 

Honda has a track record of sudden withdrawals, pulling out of Williams in 1987 to switch to McLaren and then withdrawing from F1 altogether in 1992.

 

Honda took full ownership of the BAR team in 2005 and the highlight of its brief career was Jenson Button's win at the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2006.

 

The Financial Times newspaper recently wrote that the team was the highest spending of the F1 outfits and had got through £147 million in 2007, about £40 million more than McLaren.

 

They added 100 new staff - taking the total to 667 - and were investing heavily in the Ross Brawn plan for the future.

 

The news will be a savage blow to Button, who renewed his contract with the team shortly before the Japanese Grand Prix.

 

With all the top seats filled and on the back of an indifferent season, Button will be feeling nervous about his prospects for 2009.

 

It is only hearsay at this stage but I understand that it will be confirmed in the next few hours, when Tokyo opens for business.

 

I understand that the package being put up for sale does not involve the potential new owner running Honda engines but instead involves Ferrari engines, a deal which one imagines Ross Brawn would have put together.

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Wow what a shocker?

 

Button must feel gutted. He is so unlucky aswell, poor guy.

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Possible New Qualifying:

 

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72320

 

FOTA to propose radical cost-cuts

 

Formula One's team owners will present a package of radical cost-cuts to the FIA World Motor Sport Council next week, as they move to head off the threat of a standard engine being introduced.

 

Following unanimous agreement in a meeting of the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) in London on Thursday, it was confirmed in a statement by the organisation that the teams plan to propose a new low-cost engine for 2011 and the implementation of substantial cost-cutting measures for the next two years.

 

These are believed to include drastically reducing the current 30,000km testing limit by half.

 

"FOTA met today in London to address the relevant commercial challenges that are faced by Formula One," read the statement. "The teams had previously unanimously agreed measures that will significantly reduce costs in 2009.

 

"In today's meeting the teams have agreed to further measures implementing substantial cost cutting for 2009 and 2010, and additional initiatives to improve the show.

 

"Furthermore it is unanimously agreed that a new low cost engine will be introduced in 2011."

 

The FIA has asked for teams to come up with concrete proposals to reduce costs in the sport, with FIA president Max Mosley warning that F1 is currently unsustainable. Such moves are set to have a new urgency from tomorrow, with Honda's F1 future in serious doubt.

 

The new engine formula being proposed is believed to be based on a 1.8-litre turbocharged unit featuring energy recovery systems and designed to consume 30% less than current fuel levels.

 

FOTA also confirmed that it will make proposals to spice up qualifying. The new idea being considered consists of all cars being on track at the same time with the same amount of fuel, with the slowest driver being eliminated after each lap.

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Can't say I will miss Honda, ugly cars that go about as fast as they look. I hope Barichello can get a drive elsewhere but Button, like Honda, is a bit of a non-event in my eyes and I doubt the sport would miss him. The interesting thing with this is that now the other teams will have to make up the 20 car minimum grid, I look forward to seeing how that works out.

 

The new qualifying format sounds interesting. I've always liked the current knock out format, the only problem being the race fuel 3rd session. With people qualifying in their race pace order it more often than not leads to a very boring first part of the race. I just hope they realise that and let the teams use whatever fuel they like (very little) in this revised qualifying.

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I'm still a bit shocked really. They were investing so much and honestly looked as though they were going to come back strong next season, and then all of sudden they pull the carpet right from under themselves. I hope the team can find a buyer and sponsors.

 

Anyway, Max Mosley recently sent out a letter, which makes for interesting reading for the future of the sport. It suggests that a standard power train will be made available to teams, and they can take it, build their own version or stick with their own engines, which seems like a good compromise to me.

 

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72325

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Can't say I will miss Honda' date=' ugly cars that go about as fast as they look. I hope Barichello can get a drive elsewhere but Button, like Honda, is a bit of a non-event in my eyes and I doubt the sport would miss him. The interesting thing with this is that now the other teams will have to make up the 20 car minimum grid, I look forward to seeing how that works out.[/quote']

 

I think the concorde agreement expired either last season or the one before, so they wont have to make up the grid. Which if you read the rules was an utterly stupid idea anyway.

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I think your right in that it's expired but I think there's some sort of rolling agreement until something else is signed? Not 100% sure, apparently the rule was 16 cars anyway.

 

To be honest I'd rather see larger grids with certain teams running a 3rd car than the pitiful ones we seem to be heading towards.

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Oh yeah I'm all for a bigger grid, however the FIA would chose which teams could run the 3rd car. This car couldn't score championship or constructors points. (rightly so), however it still gives an advantage to the team picked to run a 3rd car.

 

Using the last race of this season as an example, say Ferrari had been selected to run a 3rd car. Say this 3rd car was deliberately running the wrong set up so Ferrari could get different testing information. As such it was near the back, Hamilton comes up to lap the 3rd Ferrari, which either gets a sudden burst of speed and holds him up or accidentally has a collision with him.......

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I think quite clearly situations like that wouldn't be allowed to arise by the selection process, as biased as people like to think the FIA are.

 

Hopefully they'll actually sort out some decent cost cutting measures and in a few years time we'll have MORE teams on the grid. IMO they should relax the regulations to give engineering freedom but put very strict limits on team budgets.

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Thoughts...

 

- No mid season testing is a pretty extreme measure!!

- Engines to last 3 races; how does that equate to a driver being aloud 8 per season? I don't get it?

- Engine revs down yet again, was 20, down to 19, now 18,000! oh well!

- Medals can go fuck themselves [and I will say so in the market research poll should it turn up on any of the F1 websites]

- 2010 - no tyre warmers - I think this is pretty stupid but still!

- 2010 - no refuelling - how will that save costs? whether you run with a full tank, or refuel 10 times during a race you are still using the same amount fuel! Unless it's just the money spent on developing/running a refuelling rig?!

- Possible reduction in race distance!! Piece of crap! [again the market research poll will pay!]

 

... I think KERS should not be allowed this year and then a standard KERS introduced in 2010 to make it fair on all teams.

 

While I think about it, if it wasn't for the FIA constantly interfearing with how the cars should look and making the teams R&D their own KERS systems etc... wouldn't the teams save ALOT of money?

How are teams supposed to develop a decent KERS device with no testing next year.

The FIA should have developed a standard unit and then introduced it into the sport [and do the same with other changes], thus saving teams money.

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