Lotus F1 Racing, the Malaysia-based team granted the 13th entry in the 2010 Formula One World Championship, has revealed a scale model of its new Formula One car.
The model, a product of the recent collaboration between Lotus F1 Racing Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne and the team’s technical partners, will be used for wind tunnel testing.
Considering the team’s application was only approved a month ago they seem to be making remarkable progress although, as Gascoyne says, the car has already been in development for some time:
The start of any windtunnel testing is an important step in the development of a new Formula 1 car, but it is particularly exciting for us as we continue preparations for our first season. It has been a very busy time since our entry was confirmed by the FIA.
We had been working on the entry for several months so we already had aspects of the team infrastructure in place; the finances, the factory and the top management. Once our entry was confirmed in mid?September, we were able to accelerate our recruitment and car development process and this is really where we are at now.
While other teams have started development on their 2010 cars, Lotus is the first to release any pictures. We will have to wait until next year to see the final paint job (and I know it’s not really the same team) but I hope they go with the old black and gold livery of the John Player Special years.
Rubens Barrichello is the most experienced driver in Formula One. Yet despite his 286 races and 17 years in the sport he has never won in Brazil.
This weekend that needs to change if he wants to keep his Championship hopes alive; Jenson Button goes to Interlagos with a 14 point lead.
There are a few ways Button can seal the Championship on Sunday but if Barrichello can win his home race then the Championship decider will come down to the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi (at a new circuit no-one has driven before.)
Sebastian Vettel is theoretically still in the fight and, while he will have his work cut out for him to close the 16 point gap to Button, seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher thinks he could do it:
I think it helps to think of a fact which I was always sticking to during my career: It is not over until it is over; you have to fight until the end.
It looks like Jenson Button will have to try pretty hard to not win the Championship this year but rain is forecast for this weekend and as we saw in 2008 anything can happen when the track is wet.
To make your predictions in round 16 of the F1 Buzz prediction game (and be in with a chance to win some nice prizes), just leave a comment on this post with your driver predictions for the race in the following format:
Pole:
First:
Second:
Third:
Fastest lap:
Remember, the deadline for entries is start of qualifying on Saturday, thats 16:00 GMT.
Good luck!
Image: Brawn GP
Along with KERS, it seems the teams have agreed to ban wheel covers for 2010.
This is a good thing!
Extended rim shields first started to be used on the rear wheels in 2006 and were designed to increase brake cooling and reduce turbulence.
In 2007 Ferrari added covers to the front wheels of their F2007. These front rims or ‘spinners’ were different from the rear rims in that they were designed to direct airflow underneath the car to the diffuser and so increase downforce.
Williams’s technical director, Sam Michael, has said that the wheel covers can have “quite an adverse effect on the following car” and this is no doubt the reason behind the ban.
Personally, I think there is an even better reason for banning them. They look awful.
Wheel covers look bad on road cars and they look even worse on racing cars. At least Ferrari painted theirs to look like the wheels they were covering. Those fluorescent yellow things on the Brawn cars make me want to claw out my eyes.
Image: Red Bull
The Official Formula 1 Website has an interview with Niki Lauda and Bernie Ecclestone where they talk about Flavio Briatore and the Renault race fixing scandal and reminisce about the good old days.
Back in the 70’s you didn’t cheat by purposely crashing into a wall. No, you cheated by building an obviously illegal car with a whopping great suction fan on the back, winning one race and then withdrawing it before it could be declared illegal:
Q: How were the two of you working together in the years 1978 and 1979?
NL: We cheated together!
BE: Never!
NL: We did. Remember the Swedish Grand Prix in 1978 when we were running the car with the ventilator [the famous Brabham BT46B fan car]. I won with that car.
BE: Stop. That was not cheating. It was pushing the technical requirements to the limit. You were able to keep that victory. Later on they banned the ventilator. It was much too good for the time.
NL: True. At that time I was a bit stupid. All practice and qualifying I had to drive with a 200-litre fuel load, while all the others where low on fuel. I was fuming. I only made it to P12 on the grid. In the course of the race I knew why: so nobody would guess how fast the car really was – otherwise they would have banned it before the start.
BE: Thanks Mr Lauda. People from other teams came to our pits for a little spying, so I said to (Brabham team manager) Herbie Blash very audibly, De-fuel the car. So they all were putting their minds at rest when they saw our meagre qualifying time. They had no idea that we didnt de-fuel the car.
At the beginning of the year the FIA tried to change the scoring system so that the driver who won the most races would be crowned Champion – the so called ‘medals’ system.
There was much debate at the time as to whether this would enhance or detract from the Championship. I was (and still am) of the opinion that it would not increase the spectacle and may even harm it. In the end it was the teams who rejected the plan as it was introduced too close to the start of the 2009 season to be allowed by the FIA’s own regulations.
However, I decided to leave the wins in the Drivers Championship standings in the sidebar so we could see what effect the rule change may have had.
It is clear that under the medals scheme Jenson Button would be Champion now. In fact, he would have been Champion after Singapore and he hasn’t won a race since Turkey back in June!
In a previous article I posted a quote from Jenson Button where he argues against medals:
I think the public will struggle to understand why a driver with 60 points can become champion instead of the one who has 100. I understand the logic behind it and I find it interesting. For sure its an incentive to always go for the win, but it seems risky too after nine races, we could find ourselves with a driver that has already won the title and can stand still eating ice cream, while the guy in second in the standings is just 18 points behind.
As it turns out Jenson could have been eating ice cream after only 7 races although he couldn’t have known that in Turkey.
Thankfully, the FIA are going to leave the scoring system unchanged for 2010. Anyway, it still looks like the driver who won the most races is going to win the Championship so that should keep Bernie happy.
For the last couple of years the points based system has provided exceptionally close run Championships and this year looks like it will be no different.
Image: Brawn GP
