Ferrari left out in the cold

A meeting held Friday Jan. 29th was supposed to involve the 10 teams discussing severaly items with Max Mosely. However the meeting was boycotted by every team but Ferrari. Max Mosley was quoted saying alot of progress was made however one can't deny the message this send to the F1 community.

Ferrari F2004M front wing

Ferrari's radical nose on the F2004M

McLaren to run third car in 2005

Ron Dennis has announced that McLaren intent to run a third car in the Friday practice sessions for the 2005 season. Becuase McLaren finished 5th in the construtors tournament for the 2004 season the regulations allow a third car to be run. The rule was designed to allow the smaller teams more testing opportunities since they don't have the testing programmes of the larger teams. There has not been a decision as to which of McLarens two test drivers will run the third car, however Dennis did say a decision would be made and stuck to. There would be no alternating of drivers.

McLaren Launch the MP4-20

McLaren have launched their 2005 car, the MP4-20 today. The first glimpses of it were seen as Kimi Raikkonen took the car out for a few laps of the Barcelona track several hours before the launch. The new car is characterized by larger exhaust chimneys, similar to the F2004, on the sidepods which also have a more undercut look, similar to that of the 2005 Sauber. However noticably missing are rear side-pod mounted winglets, which is odd considering the new regulations for 2005 leave cars with much less downforce.

A Beautiful Rendering of the F2004 

Day Three of Testing at Jerez

It turned out to be quite an eventful day with Mark Webber leading the times in his Williams-BMW. Behind him in a close second and third were the McLaren's of Kimi Raikkonen and tester ALex Wurz. Ralph Schumacher came in a disapointing eigth in his Toyota. Bringing up the rear was Marc Gene testing for Ferrari in ninth place before crashing out. Hopefully tihs will be signs of things to come!!

Times
01. Webber Williams 1:16.505 72 laps
02. Raikkonen McLaren 1:16.857 89 laps
03. Wurz McLaren 1:17.185 99 laps
04. Montagny Renault 1:17.464 135 laps
05. Button BAR 1:17.568 93 laps
06. Pizzonia Williams 1:17.691 63 laps
07. Davidson BAR 1:17.705 124 laps
08. R Schumacher Toyota 1:18.242 69 laps
09. Gene Ferrari 1:18.255 35 laps

Read More at Planet-F1.com

Ferrari to Visit Pope

According to itv-F1.com:

Michael Schumacher and the Ferrari team will visit the Pope on Monday.

Speaking at the Ferrari’s annual ski break in Madonna di Campiglio, Rubens Barrichello revealed that a delegation from the team had been invited to the Vatican.

Schumacher, Barrichello and team boss Jean Todt will all attend.

Click here to see the full Article

Red Bull Drivers could share Second Seat

Red Bull racing are still considering using a rotation policy for their seacond race seat alongside David Coulthard. According to itv-F1.com:

"RBR’s director of motorsport Helmut Marko has indicated that with veteran Coulthard now firmly installed as the team’s lead driver, he would have no objection to the second seat being shared between Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi.

..........
"Asked whether a rotation policy was practical, Marko said: 'I cannot detect any problem with that, because the team can orientate itself on David. This is why we got him in the first place.'”

Perks of the Profession 

Red Bull Explain Firings

Dietrich Mateschitz, owner of enrgy drink giant Red Bull, revealed to several Austrian journalists last weekend reasons behind the firing of Purnell and Pitchforth. The main reason appeared to be a heated argument over driver selection. All company were happy to sign Coulthard in early December, however an agreement could not be made as to the second race seat. Purnell and Pitchforth were said to favor either B.A.R. test driver Anthony Davidson, or McLaren test driver Alex Wurz, whom they had tried to hire on one other occasion. Mateschitz and his assistant Helmut Marko wanted to hire a Red Bull backed driver, such as Christian Klien or Vitantonio Luizzi.

Honda Complete BAR Buy-in

Honda's previous attempt to buy into the BAR racing team had been thwarted by a member of the team previous holding company. As a result of this BAR had been put into administration. The F1 team will now be owned by a company called BARH Limited, of which 55 per cent is owned by BAT and 45 per cent by Honda. However it is expected that BAR will attempt to sell their remaining stake in the company as many European countries will ban tobacco advertising later this year.

Cocaine in F1?

Recently, Benigno Bartoletti, a former doctor with Ferrari, had alleged of rampant cocaine usage among Formula 1 drivers. He claimed that as many as a third of the drivers took the drug before races to speed up their reaction time. When asked for comment, Sid Watkins, FIA medical delegate, laughed and said “Look, we’ve tested the drivers so often – and there’s no way they could know when we were testing them. And we’ve seen no trace of anything in F1 – ever. Apart from the chaps who’d taken the wrong cough drops.”

The second part is in reference to a 1995 episode where Rubens Barrichello and Max Papis inadvertently took a cough medicine containing the banned substance ephedrine. However becuase both drivers informed the doctor prior to testing and the substance was not deemed to be a performance enhancer, they were allowed to drive.

David Coulthard holds off Michael Schumacher 

Red Bull Fire Purnell and Pitchforth

In a stunning suprise of events Red Bull Racing have fired team principle Tony Purnell, and managing director David Pitchforth. Christian Horner, of Arden F3000, is to replace them as the new sporting director. He will work jointly with a new technical director to be appointed within the week.

2005 PanasonicToyota Racing TF105 

Toyota Launch TF105

Toyota are the first of the teams to launch their new car the TF105. Toyota had scrapped development of their previous car, the TF104B, early in the season to get an advantage on 2005. They are very hopeful that their race winning driver lineup of Trulli and Ralph Schumacher can outperform the teams recent results.

Red Bull Racing Saves DC

Thanks much in part to the stupidity at Ford Racing for the change in management of the Jaguar Racing team two additional racing seats are up for grabs. It has now been confirmed that David Coulthard will occupy one of these seats, saving him from what was looking like then end. Red Bull has also signed indentical deals with Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi. Which one will take the remaining race seat next to DC is still yet to be decided.

Kimi Raikkonen flies around the track at a blistering pace! 

What a generous man!!

I'm no fan of Michael Schumacher. I'll admit he's one of the greatest to ever drive an F1 car, but that by no means makes anyone a fan. However he recently donated $10 million to the tsunami relief fund. That is almost a fifth of his annual income. I believe despite how rich he is you would be hard pressed to find many other people willing to donate soo much. The US's first offer was to only donate $15 million, untill the came under so much pressure they upped it to $30 million, and then again to $350 million.

Inaugural Post

This is the inaugural post of the Formula Once Racing Discussion weblog. I have created this weblog to talk to other F1 fans about the most technology advanced sport in the world. This is a general weblog so posts about any topic can be posted. Have fun and Kimi Raikonnen is the best!!