2009 FIA Formula One World Championship

[FunkyG]

Copied from sky sports

Lewis Hamilton and his McLaren team have been disqualified from the Australian Grand Prix for giving "deliberately misleading" evidence to investigating race stewards.

The sport's world governing body FIA reopened an investigation on Thursday into the circumstances which saw Toyota's Jarno Trulli pass Hamilton during a safety car period in Melbourne.

A post-race stewards' probe in Australia adjudged Trulli at fault and handed the Italian a 25-second penalty, dropping him from third to 12th.

But after hearing team radio transmissions from the Australian GP, the decision has been reversed with Hamilton and McLaren now punished for providing intentionally disingenuous information to the Melbourne hearing.

Hamilton, who was originally listed in fourth place in Melbourne, has therefore been excluded from any points for the race while Trulli has been reinstated to third.

In a statement, the stewards declared: "The Stewards having considered the new elements presented to them from the 2009 Australian Formula One Grand Prix, consider that driver No 1 Lewis Hamilton and the competitor Vodafone McLaren Mercedes acted in a manner prejudicial to the conduct of the event by providing evidence deliberately misleading to the Stewards at the hearing on Sunday 29th March 2009, a breach of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code.

"Under Article 158 of the International Sporting Code the driver No 1 Lewis Hamilton and the competitor Vodafone McLaren Mercedes are excluded from the race classification for the 2009 Australian Grand Prix and the classification is amended accordingly."

Not the best start to the season for Hamilton then.

[LfcFan]

Ive just about stopped my ears from expelling steam but still couldnt comment with an impartial view just yet.
A couple of things i can say are "Long season still to go" & "This situation is probably more damaging to F1's image than Lewis Hamiltons reputation".

[HULL_CITY]

Yet again unfair judgements agains lewis and mclaren, lets hope we dont have another season ruined by stupid decisions like the last 2 seasons

[LfcFan]

All the drama of the Australian grand prix looks to have cost sporting director Dave Ryan his job. After 35 years with the McLaren team, he's been suspended.
It has put a severe dent in the world champion's reputation and has also called into question once more the integrity of McLaren.
Martin Whitmarsh has only been installed as team principal in succession to Ron Dennis for little over a month and already he is in the eye of a storm entirely of the team's own making.
Hamilton was disqualified from the Australian Grand Prix on Thursday after he and McLaren were found guilty of "deliberately misleading" the race stewards in the aftermath of the Melbourne race.
As a result of Hamilton's explanation, Toyota's Jarno Trulli was demoted from third to 12th for passing the McLaren under safety car conditions and Hamilton promoted to third from fourth.
But new evidence from the McLaren pit radio has revealed the team had instructed Hamilton to let Trulli re-pass him, contradicting what Hamilton and Dave Ryan had told the stewards during the original hearing in Australia.
The world champion and McLaren boss Whitmarsh have now apologised for the deception - but the damage has been done, with no prospect of repair.
Less than a month ago, Whitmarsh insisted; "In this team, we operate a responsibility culture, not a blame culture."
But there are plenty in the Malaysian paddock who believe Ryan has been made a scapegoat by McLaren and that he's been made culpable for an error of judgement - to put it mildly - that should never have happened.
Ryan's suspension does not reflect well on the hierarchy within McLaren.
According to Whitmarsh, it was Ryan's decision alone to go into the stewards with the story they chose to tell.
Where was the collective responsibility from a team - which prides itself on its ability to win together and lose together - to establish what had happened and what should be said to the stewards?
Whitmarsh may well have been experiencing his first race in overall control but Dennis was right next to him on the pit-wall.
Would Ron Dennis, whose attention to detail is renowned, or his successor have expected his sporting director to take such an important decision without referring upwards?
Whitmarsh claimed that Ryan had been upset by the stewards' decision at last year's Belgium Grand Prix, when race director Charlie Whiting had given Hamilton's move on Kimi Raikkonen the green light only for the stewards to take a different view.
Ryan was concerned, he said, that there was no repeat in Melbourne and that the team played by the rules.
Instead old wounds have been reopened in the face of authority.
McLaren came through a desperate year in 2007 when they were immersed in the spy row, which saw them found guilty of possessing Ferrari technical information.
As the row dragged on, so McLaren's integrity - such a touchstone of the Dennis regime - was eroded.
Winning the 2008 championship appeared to restore the team's good name. Now it has been sullied once again.
Hamilton's reputation has also been damaged.
The public may well perceive him to be a liar, even though he has apologised for his behaviour.
The fact is, he has still been seen to mislead the stewards deliberately and many people may now turn against him.
The relationship between the Hamiltons (Lewis and his father Anthony) and McLaren has also been strained.
Hamilton was told by the team to tell the race stewards a particular line and if those were team orders he had to obey them.
All drivers need to look after number one but Hamilton's long-term future with the team may have been compromised - that will all depend on how McLaren recover from this latest scandal and how much they can improve the car this season.
A key fact to this tale is that Hamilton did nothing wrong on the track in Australia.
When Trulli went off at the penultimate corner in Melbourne, Hamilton had to move forward and take his place because he didn't know Trulli was going to return to the track or if the Toyota was suffering from a mechanical problem.
Hamilton had to keep going behind the safety car; he was under no obligation to let Trulli re-pass him.
As I understand it, if Hamilton had finished the race in third and been honest about the circumstances and the discussions on the team radio then the chances are that the stewards would have reinstated Trulli in third ahead of the Englishman and that would have been the end of the matter.
That in itself would have been a great tonic for the team. He started from the back of the grid to finish fourth place in a car, which the team have openly admitted is nowhere near good enough.
As it is, this story is unravelling and may continue to do so.
Whether the apologies from Hamilton and McLaren draw a line under the affair remains to be seen.
The sport's governing body, the FIA, could yet decide that the team have a case to answer in front of the World Motor Sport Council.

[LfcFan]

For all you ladies that think Kimi Raikkonen has got hot buns,he certainly did when his batteries started melting underneath him
BBC SPORT | Motorsport | Formula 1 | Raikkonen's eventful first practice

[LfcFan]

2009 FORMULA 1 PETRONAS MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX (Kuala Lumpur) 03 - 05 Apr

A bit of an anti-climax to what was turning out to be a fantastic race.
A dramatic and unpredictable start seeing position changes all across the grid.
A good first quarter of the race while drivers try and return to the places where their cars performance should have had them running.
Then came bad weather.Kimi Raikkonen gambled massively to try and selvage points from a what would be a disastrous weekend for ferrari but it all backfired as his full wet tyres cooked on the mainly dry track.At this point,Kimi was so far off the pace that he was loosing probably 30 seconds per tour.
Eventually we had rain and everybody dived in the pit to get the full wets,except for Timo Glock,who correctly chose the intermediates.He stormed (excuse the pun) through the field,showing all teams the right rubber to be on,until the heavons opened and destroyed the race.
Conditions were dangerously undrivable.A safety car period insuded,and basically that was game over.Red flags were brought out,the drivers pulled up on the start/finish straight but nobody was expecting a restart.The rain did tail off but the circuit was a washout.The timer ran up to the 2 hour race time limit and the drivers 1st to 8th were awarded half points due to the fact that 3 quarters of the race had not been run at the last complete lap.
Jenson Button was delighted to have won back to back races in the opening 2 meetings.
Nick Heidfeld (2nd) and Timo Glock (3rd) joined JB on the podium.
Current world champion Lewis Hamilton grabs his first point after,what can only be described as a turbulant few weeks.For me,this just cements the reason for my choice of driver title contender.
My driver of the day is a hard desision,hmm Jenson or Timo?
Jenson stayed cool calm and collected among the front runners but Timo gets the nod for his mature drive and for out shining his vastly more experienced team mate Jarno Trulli.

[LfcFan]

[OP66fozzy]

No update ?

I expected to see a comment about the rear diffuser having been confirmed as legal today.

[LfcFan]

Sorry Fozzy,been a bit destracted from F1 over the last few days.
Forgot all about the defuser squabble.
This is just for you pal



The FIA has declared that the controversial diffuser designs used by Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams are legal – rejecting an appeal from rival teams.

The devices were originally protested in Melbourne, where the stewards ruled that they were within the regulations.

Ferrari, BMW Sauber, Red Bull and Renault remained unconvinced and appealed the decision, but after a hearing in Paris yesterday, their arguments have been rejected.

"The FIA International Court of Appeal has decided to deny the appeals submitted against decisions numbered 16 to 24 taken by the panel of the stewards on 26 March at the 2009 Grand Prix of Australia and counting towards the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship," said an FIA statement.

“Based on the arguments heard and evidence before it, the Court has concluded that the stewards were correct to find that the cars in question comply with the applicable regulations."

The decision now puts the protesting teams under pressure to follow their rivals' lead and develop their own versions of the taller 'double decker' diffusers, which are widely thought to have been key to Brawn's dominant start to 2009 and Toyota and Williams's improved form.

[LfcNO9Corb]

fair ply 2 Jensen button hes looking good at the moment but still think Hamilton will win overall

[LfcFan]

Former McLaren team boss Ron Dennis cuts his ties with Formula 1, leaving Martin Whitmarsh in sole charge of the team

McLaren announced on Thursday that Ron Dennis is to hand full responsibility for the company’s Formula One operation to Martin Whitmarsh, who took over as team principal at the start of March. Ron Dennis will now concentrate his efforts on McLaren’s road car business.

Jonathan Legard talks about Ron Dennis's departure from Formula 1

[LfcFan]

Chinese Grand Prix
Shanghai, 17-19 April 2009

Just under 7 hours until the cars take to the track again. This time its Shanghai,China. The scene of Lewis Hamiltons 2007 pitlane gravel trap disaster. However last year saw Hamilton take the victory from pole position. Not likely to repeat that result in 2009 with the Brawn and Toyota cars looking like the ones to watch.
Toyota's Timmo Glock could well take the top podium spot on Sunday. Toyota are getting closer to Brawn but im not going to write off the chance of Jenson Button claiming his third consecutive victory.
Quite a shock is Ferarri not running their KERS system at Shanghai,and that will surely be costly due to the massive back straight.
So,with the favourites being Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello and Timmo Glock, for me the wild card could be Robert Kubica. He (suprisingly) will have KERS onboard. That extra boost has got to put him right in the mix.
I just hope that the seemingly good KERS in Lewis Hamiltons McLaren can yield some points this weekend.

UK times
Fri 17 April 2009
Friday Practice 1 03:00 - 04:30
Friday Practice 2 07:00 - 08:30
Sat 18 April 2009
Saturday Practice 04:00 - 05:00
Qualifying 07:00
Sun 19 April 2009
Race 08:00
Local times
Fri 17 April 2009
Friday Practice 1 10:00 - 11:30
Friday Practice 2 14:00 - 15:30
Sat 18 April 2009
Saturday Practice 11:00 - 12:00
Qualifying 14:00
Sun 19 April 2009
Race 15:00




Watch a lap from Sebastian Vettel from last session

[LfcNO9Corb]

you no a lot about f1 m8 bit of a rain coat lol,no but this season could be 1 of the best for a while m8

[pofet]

I thought that the car of kubica had a lot of weight with the KERS and that would lower the performance of the car but as you said maybe the help of the KERS is in the back straight and the extra weight of Kubica wont be a problem

[LfcFan]

Pofet,in the last 2 races they have said that Kubica+car was at the weight limit.I have no idea how they have got the weight down enough to add the KERS but that is what is being said on the F1 official website.
How they can drop the weight down by 30kg (i think) to add KERS between races away from the factory is a mistery to me.

Liverpoolcorb,all my info is just what i read on the F1 official website and on BBC F1 website.
I guess ya rite tho,i can gat a bit anoraky when it comes to motorsport technicalities lol
Should i change my name to F1Fan? lmao

[pofet]

Maybe lfc+f1Fan could be good
And seems like BMW has found the way to make him smaller lol

[LfcFan]

2009 FORMULA 1 GULF AIR BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX
24 - 26 April

UK TIMES
Fri 24 April 2009
Friday Practice 1 08:00 - 09:30
Friday Practice 2 12:00 - 13:30
Sat 25 April 2009
Saturday Practice 09:00 - 10:00
Qualifying 12:00
Sun 26 April 2009
Race 13:00
LOCAL TIMES
Fri 24 April 2009
Friday Practice 1 10:00 - 11:30
Friday Practice 2 14:00 - 15:30
Sat 25 April 2009
Saturday Practice 11:00 - 12:00
Qualifying 14:00
Sun 26 April 2009
Race 15:00



Saturday Practice Times


Saturday Qualfying Times

[white_wizard]

wot happerns if drivers have equal number of 1s 2s 3rds do they go on pole pos which could also be the same??????????

[LfcFan]

Originally Posted by white-wizard

wot happerns if drivers have equal number of 1s 2s 3rds do they go on pole pos which could also be the same??????????

The championship is decided on points this season.- see page 1 - If there is a tie on points then the winning driver is the one with most wins. Dont know what happens if that is a tie to.
However,next season it is planned to run the scoring system on a 1st,2nd,3rd basis,gold,silver,bronze. The championship winner being the driver with most 1st's. If there is a tie then the most points and most wins will decide.
I fully disagree with this idea because there is no real insentive for drivers of lesser cars.Also,in my eyes it will create a bigger gulf between the top and bottom of the paddock.Aswell as all that,there is an old saying "If it is not broken then do not fix",you only have to look at what happened last season which went down to last corner of the last lap of the last race.

----------

I would like to see tomorrows race won by Jarno Trulli but he always seems to under achieve on the Sunday.A point which David Coulthard comments on during the video of the final lap of JT's qualifying season.It actually looks like he over drivers some of the corners which should have lost him some time but he still gets pole position.Perhaps he could have been even quicker.
Onboard with Jarno Trulli

----------

Below is the provisional grid for the Bahrain Grand Prix with each car's weight. Cars use around 2.6 kilos of fuel per lap at Sakhir. Note - Force India’s Adrian Sutil has dropped from 16th to 19th after being penalised for blocking Red Bull’s Mark Webber during qualifying,which effectively desroys MW's race tomorrow,he could have been right up the front of the grid with team mate Sebastion Vettel.


1. Jarno Trulli, Toyota, 648.5 kg = 18 laps = 2 stops
2. Timo Glock, Toyota, 643 = 16 laps = 2 stops
3. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 659 = 22 laps = 2 stops
4. Jenson Button, Brawn GP, 652.5 = 20 laps = 2 stops
5. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 652.5 = 20 laps = 2 stops
6. Rubens Barrichello, Brawn GP, 649 = 18 laps = 2 stops
7. Fernando Alonso, Renault, 650.5 = 19 laps = 2 stops
8. Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 664.5 = 24 laps = 1 stop
9. Nico Rosberg, Williams, 670.5 = 27 laps = 1 stop
10. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 671.5 = 27 laps = 1 stop
11. Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren, 678.5 = 30 laps = 1 stop
12. Kazuki Nakajima, Williams, 680.9 = 31 laps = 1 stop
13. Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber, 698.6 = 37 laps = 1 stop
14. Nick Heidfeld, BMW Sauber, 696.3 = 37 laps = 1 stop
15. Nelson Piquet, Renault, 677.6 = 29 laps = 1 stop
16. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 678.5 = 30 laps = 1 stop
17. Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India, 652 = 20 laps = 2 stops
18. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 656 = 21 laps = 2 stops
19. Adrian Sutil, Force India, 679 = 30 laps = 1 stop
20. Sebastien Bourdais, Toro Rosso, 667.5 = 25 laps = 1 stop

The minimum weight of the car + driver + fluids (excluding fuel) is 600kg. If the start weight of every car is 600kg and the fuel consumption is the same for each car at 2.6kg per lap then those are my calculations for predicted distance before a pitstop is needed.
Number of Laps: 57

[FunkyG]

Well what can you say, another stunning drive from Button 3 wins and a 3rd from 4 races.

What a great start the the new season, so far have seen some of the best racing and overtaking for a long time, long may it continue, shaping up to be one of the best seasons for ages.