Formula 1 - 2008 Season

Trulli quickest on final day at Barcelona

Jarno Trulli finished Formula One's pre-season testing with the fastest time at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona on Wednesday.

The Italian, whose Toyota team appeared to have made big progress over the winter break, set a best lap that was four tenths of a second ahead of Red Bull Racing's David Coulthard - although both men were likely to have been running in qualifying simulation mode.

Trulli's day was not without incident, however, as he stopped on track at 4.32pm to bring out the final of seven red flags that were needed over the course of the day.

"That was another positive day," said Trulli. "We made some progress in understanding the car and the set-up. Even though this is only a test, it's nice to see the mechanics and the guys smiling because today's times are good motivation.

"There is still room for improvement but this shows the team has done a good job over the winter tests. Of course we won't know the real running order until Melbourne but I'm quite confident for the season. It's definitely looking much better than last year so I'm happy for the team."

Nico Rosberg maintained Williams's strong and steady testing showing with the third best time, ahead of Heikki Kovalainen and Mark Webber.

Nelson Piquet Jr. just edged out Renault teammate Fernando Alonso for the sixth best time, ahead of Kazuki Nakajima in the Williams and Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton, who brought out the first red flag of the day when he stopped at the end of the pitlane at 9.25am, was 10th fastest, ahead of Timo Glock, who caused two stoppages during the day.

Glock stopped at Turn 11 at 9.50am with a mechanical problem, and then went off at 12.29pm when he crashed and touched the tyre wall at Turn 8.

Giancarlo Fisichella maintained the encouraging start for Force India's new car to set the 12th best time, with Felipe Massa 13th overall as he spent the day running through engine mileage.

Robert Kubica was the fastest BMW Sauber runner in 14th, with teammate Nick Heidfeld 17th - having stopped with gearbox problems at Turn 10 in the morning and then causing another stoppage at 3.43pm.

The other red flag was caused by Sebastien Bourdais, who spun at Turn 1 at 3.01pm.

Honda duo Jenson Button and Alex Wurz finished the day at the bottom of the timesheets, with both men likely hoping that new aerodynamic parts due to be tried out in their private test at Jerez next week will help lift the performance of the RA108.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:20.801 83
2. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:21.258 76
3. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:21.293 77
4. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:21.309 87
5. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:21.368 91
6. Piquet Renault (B) 1:21.443 114
7. Alonso Renault (B) 1:21.454 128
8. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:21.796 124
9. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:21.933 80
10. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:22.011 88
11. Glock Toyota (B) 1:22.155 49
12. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:22.233 90
13. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:22.286 49
14. Kubica BMW-Sauber (B) 1:22.299 93
15. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:22.465 79
16. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:22.521 97
17. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber (B) 1:22.624 61
18. Wurz Honda (B) 1:24.154 82
19. Button Honda (B) 1:24.275 73
Click to expand...

News Source: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/65337
 
McLaren fury over latest espionage twist

McLaren furiously denied on Friday that Italian police had discovered incriminating evidence in their latest inquiries into the industrial espionage scandal which rocked Formula One last year.

On Thursday, senior figures at the team were interviewed by Italian investigators as part of the separate legal probe into the affair.

McLaren were fined $100m and stripped of all their points in the constructors' championship by the sport's governing body, FIA, after they were found guilty of being in possession of 'leaked' technical information from Italian rivals Ferrari.

"McLaren Racing wishes to record its extreme displeasure with the wording of a statement that the Italian Police are reported to have made yesterday (Thursday)," said a team statement.

"If those reports accurately reflect the police statement, the statement is grossly inaccurate and misleading.

"The reports incorrectly claim that the searches produced material which clearly shows the responsibility of certain people at McLaren Racing.

"In fact, the Italian police have not yet even been given access to any of the material taken, nor have they even started to review that material.

"We would be extremely surprised if the review of the documentation reveals anything which has not already been disclosed as a result of the extensive investigations already carried out."

The scandal was sparked when a 780-page Ferrari dossier was discovered at the home of McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan.

Although the FIA investigation into the incident appears to have come to a conclusion, separate legal inquiries are still in progress.

Nigel Stepney, sacked as Ferrari's head of performance development and alleged to have passed the information on to Coughlan, was last week questioned on the matter by Modena prosecutor Giuseppe Tibis.

It is understood McLaren Team Principal Ron Dennis and Chief Executive Martin Whitmarsh were among those quizzed at their homes on Thursday.

McLaren statement in full:

McLaren Racing wishes to record its extreme displeasure with the wording of a statement that the Italian Police are reported to have made yesterday. If those reports accurately reflect the police statement, the statement is grossly inaccurate and misleading.

The reports incorrectly claim that the searches produced material which clearly shows the responsibility of certain people at McLaren Racing. In fact, the Italian police have not yet even been given access to any of the material taken, nor have they even started to review that material. We would be extremely surprised if the review of the documentation reveals anything which has not already been disclosed as a result of the extensive investigations already carried out.

McLaren Racing believes that due process needs to be respected and that the conduct of an investigation process should not be construed adversely or used for publicity purposes. It should be noted that none of the extensive searches or investigations completed to date have produced any evidence that the Ferrari documents which Mr Nigel Stepney handed over to Mr Michael Coughlan were ever passed to anyone else at McLaren Racing or used on the McLaren Formula 1 car.

McLaren Racing will continue to co-operate with Surrey Police regarding any further searches and enquiries they are required to undertake. McLaren Racing wishes to thank Surrey Police for the helpful and courteous manner in which they have undertaken the process.
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News Source: http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/080229160716.shtml
 
Bridgestone announce tyre specifications

Bridgestone has announced the compound allocations of Potenza tyres for the first nine rounds of the championship.

The Bridgestone Potenza tyres for the 2008 season feature minor changes, made in the interests of safety, from last season’s tyres. The allocations for the first nine races of the season are the same as used in the respective events in 2007 except for the Bahrain Grand Prix, which will now use the medium and soft compounds, as opposed to the hard and medium compounds in 2007.

Also of note, the super soft compound, which will be used at the Monaco Grand Prix, is modified from the compound used in 2007. The other three compounds, hard, medium and soft remain the same, as do Bridgestone’s wet and extreme wet tyres.

The tyre marking of the softer of the two tyres allocated to a Grand Prix continues with the bottom of the second from inside groove painted white. The FIA’s tyre regulations are unchanged from those which occurred in 2007 as regards dry and wet tyre allocation numbers.

Each driver receives 14 sets of dry tyres for a Grand Prix, broken down into seven sets of each compound. Four sets of wet tyres and three sets of extreme wet tyres are additionally available to drivers.

“Tyre allocation choice for the first half of the season has been made easier by the continuity of our tyres from last year," said Bridgestone Motorsport Director Hirohide Hamashima.
"We have made a minor evolutionary change to the construction of the dry tyres for safety and we have modified the super soft compound, but apart from that the tyres are the same. However, we should see faster lap times as teams and drivers now have a year’s experience with these tyres and the cars are being developed all the time."

"For Bahrain, having looked at the data we accumulated last year, and data from the recent test there, we are confident about using softer tyres. In the second half of the season we will have more of a challenge with tyre allocation as we visit two new street courses at Valencia and Singapore.”

Tyre compounds for rounds one to nine:
Melbourne - Soft, Medium
Sepang - Medium, Hard
Sakhir - Soft, Medium
Barcelona - Medium, Hard
Istanbul - Medium, Hard
Monte Carlo - Super Soft, Soft
Montreal - Super Soft, Soft
Magny Cours - Soft, Medium
Silverstone - Medium, Hard.
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News Source: http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/080229133703.shtml
 
Italian police statement misunderstood

The Italian police never made the claims that led McLaren to consider involving Britain's Home Office in Formula One's spying affair, autosport.com has learned.

Reports on Thursday suggested the Italian police have stated that evidence obtained in searches at McLaren this week prove senior team personnel were involved in industrial espionage against Ferrari.

Subsequently, McLaren on Friday heavily criticised these allegations, saying the Italian police couldn't have reached such a conclusion given that they did not yet examine the material seized in the searches.

A team spokesperson also added that "In the light of this type of publicity, which has apparently been generated by the Modena police ... we intend to contact the Home Office to convey our concerns regarding the conduct of the entire matter."

However, it appears this latest controversy is down to a misunderstanding of the Italian police's statement.

In fact, the statement - made by Italy's Postal and Communications Police - clearly says that the evidence obtained in the McLaren searches will be examined by the Surrey Police along with Italian investigators in the next few days.

The statement does claim, though, that information already obtained by Italian investigators throughout this investigation - that is, prior to the searches at McLaren - have already given clear indication of McLaren's responsibilities in this case.

The statement says: "In the following days British detectives, with the collaboration of Postal and Communications Police investigators, will complete the inquest activities requested by the Italian Magistrate and will begin analysing the documents and the digital material mentioned above, with the aim of finding possible traces of the crimes concerned in the investigation.

"Such findings will be added to vast circumstantial and factual evidence already collected in the criminal investigation coordinated by the Modena Attorney, which shows clearly the responsibility of the management and some technicians at a high level in McLaren for the occurrence of 'industrial espionage' against team Ferrari, as well as for the matter of having taken advantage - both from a business and sporting level - of the data and information regarding both the design of the car that contested in the 2007 Formula One World Championship, and the race and qualifying strategies of the Italian team."

The statement details that 50 Surrey police detectives were involved in the searches on Wednesday - which took place at the McLaren factory and at the homes of team principal Ron Dennis, F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh, managing director Jonathan Neale, design team leader Rob Taylor and engineering director Paddy Lowe.

The information obtained included new testimonies on the use of email and telephone systems at McLaren, seized paper documents, electronic appliances and the copies of email systems.

Surrey Police have declined to give any further details on the information obtained in the searches or when the results of their searches will be handed over to Italian investigators.

A spokeswoman told autosport.com: "Surrey Police officers have conducted searches of McLaren headquarters in Woking and have searched the homes of five people in the investigations by Italian police in connection with allegations of industrial espionage in Formula One racing. Three of the five live in Surrey, the other two in Oxfordshire and Berkshire.

"Surrey police officers are acting on a letter of request from the Italian authorities approved by the Home Office. The Surrey officers at the McLaren headquarters were accompanied by the senior investigating officers for the Italian police, Detective Chief Superintendent Dr Tommaso Niglio. Other Italian officers were in Surrey to advise and observe.

"The case is being overseen by the public prosecutor of Modena, Giuseppe Tibis. And the deputy chief of divisional investigation Sergio Mariotti.

"Due to ongoing investigations we will not be commenting further at this time."

Tibis himself emphasized today that his office would not have asked for the searches in the UK had there not been good reasons for it.

"If nothing is found then it's all good for McLaren," he told Gazzetta dello Sport. "But if we have done the searches, it's because we had good reasons to do so."
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News Source: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/65414
 
Ferrari and McLaren look pretty tough to split, I have no idea which are likely to come out on top in Australia, but they certainly have a gap to the rest of the field.

Of the rest, apart from Honda, all of the midrange teams seem to have one good test, even Force India who would have been at the bottom with Torro Rosso you would have thought. Toyota have had one good result as well. It does seem that Williams is on the up and BMW have faultered slightly, but even so it looks very competitive in the midfield this year.

An exciting year of racing, lets hope it is as good as last, but without all the crap that went with it.

I am looking forward to the start to be honest.

My prediction for the first race at Melbourne?

1st Kovalainen
2nd Massa
3rd Nakajima

( Hamilton and Räikkönen will have a racing incident on the first lap and Rosberg will have a technical problem).
 
Presumably with Ferrari to be found out for "bending the rules", having to removed the item "not in the spirit of the rule" and then sucking for the next 8 races :LOL:
 
I hope it's not a Ferrari 1-2 as that could mean a very boring race.

I'm hoping for a fourway scrap, then a 16 car scrap and finally the two Honda's trying to keep in front of the safety car :D
 
dizietsma said:
?

1st Kovalainen
2nd Massa
3rd Nakajima

( Hamilton and Räikkönen will have a racing incident on the first lap and Rosberg will have a technical problem).
Click to expand...

Nakajima? You have to remember he is Japanese and by default Japanese drives have alot more interrest in shunting other of the track than actually finishing a race :LOL: Sato, Ide, if it wasnt for F1 being so safe we would still have modern kamikaze pilots :LOL:
 
tongue_of_colicab said:
Nakajima? You have to remember he is Japanese and by default Japanese drives have alot more interrest in shunting other of the track than actually finishing a race :LOL: Sato, Ide, if it wasnt for F1 being so safe we would still have modern kamikaze pilots :LOL:
Click to expand...


You could be excactly right with that analysis. I'm hoping he turns to be the case against the general rule though. He seems fairly level headed though, I don't think Frank and Patrick would keep him if he was like that, even though of course they have Toyota engines and Williams merchandise might be big in Japan.
 
Well he almost crashed into kubica at the last race if I remember right. So im afraid he wont be the exeption to the rule. I'm pretty sure money has alot to do with him racing. Not saying he's bad, but if you hear williams talking about who mclaren offerd a shitload of money for Rosberg but they would have never let him go because it would be like gaining a second with money to improve the car but than trow away half a second with the drivers. Might not be ment as a consious hint to nakajima but it does sound that unconsiously they dont expect any other driver that Rosberg to help them forward.
 
tongue_of_colicab said:
Well he almost crashed into kubica at the last race if I remember right. So im afraid he wont be the exeption to the rule. I'm pretty sure money has alot to do with him racing. Not saying he's bad, but if you hear williams talking about who mclaren offerd a shitload of money for Rosberg but they would have never let him go because it would be like gaining a second with money to improve the car but than trow away half a second with the drivers. Might not be ment as a consious hint to nakajima but it does sound that unconsiously they dont expect any other driver that Rosberg to help them forward.
Click to expand...

Well, we'll see ....

Regards

Andy
 
Here's my prediction.

1. Kimi Räikkönen
2. Heikki Kovalainen
3. Nico Rosberg

Hamilton leaves the pits too early, taking the fuel hose with him.
Massa has a gearbox failure on lap 42.
 
Thats just stupid. Your being punished for actually being fast. Not that it will really matter if they did, Remember how MS could eat up the whole field in a matter of laps those few times he had to start from the back? thats just what will happen. 5 laps of fast cars overtaking the slower ones and that its back to normal. Also, what will happen if fast teams just do very slow quali? thats what I would do. Why go fast if you know that means you have to start at the back?

If you want to improve overall real overtaking all you need to do is bring back slicks, cut off all the stupid wings on the car that destroy the aerodynamics for the car behind and lower them more to the ground again. Esentially take a early 90's car, bolt on a modern safety cockpit and you have your overtaking back.
 
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