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Peter Wahl, a partner of Hermann Tilke, has said that the changes being made to Donnington will make the track demanding and exciting with more opportunities for overtaking.

The Donnington Park grand prix circuit is undergoing a major upgrade to bring it up to Formula One standard before it takes over the British Grand Prix from Silverstone in 2010.  The last Formula One race at the circuit was in 1993 when Ayrton Senna won the European Grand Prix in spectacular fashion by lapping the entire field except for one car and finishing over a minute ahead of Damon Hill in second place.

According to Peter Wahl the modifications to the circuit will introduce a hilly new infield loop:

There is the new piece on the circuit infield, and that will be demanding and exciting.  It goes downhill steeply and into a left-hander – the drivers will feel the high pressure there, and then they will have to accelerate back uphill.

I’m starting to look forward to Donnington.  I don’t think there have been enough hills on the new circuits introduced to Formula One recently.  When you think about the great circuits of the world, the ones the drivers and fans love, a lot of them have quite significant changes in elevation; Spa, Laguna Seca, Bathurst and Monte Carlo all have hilly bits and the new Circuito Potrero de los Funes in San Luis, Argentina looks spectacular.

I know there are limits to the elevation a Formula One car can handle and we’re unlikely to see a McLaren screaming round Mount Panorama or a Ferrari lapping an Argentinian volcanic lake but in 2006 Ricardo Zonta broke the lap record at Laguna Seca in a Toyota TF106.  Wouldn’t it be great to see a US Grand Prix there if F1 ever returns to North America?

And for those of you who aren’t familiar with the Bathurst circuit (technically a street circuit), here’s Peter Brock flying round the Mountain in 1991.

Officially announced, that is. The much-rumoured new American Formula One team, USF1, was announced today at a press conference on speedtv.com.

There wasn’t much new information to be had and the team is obviously at a very early stage but it definitely looks like it’s going to happen. They have a budget and everything!

Despite earlier rumours, they haven’t made any decision on drivers yet but do intend to have an all American line up even if they would be “relatively inexperienced and rusty”. Two names that were mentioned were Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal. In fact they got Mario Andretti on the phone to plug his grandson Marco saying he would love to see him in an F1 car.

On being based in Charlotte, the team don’t see it as a problem. As Ken Anderson said, a lot of the technology that is used in NASCAR can be directly applied to F1; a wind tunnel doesn’t know if it being used for NASCAR or Formula One and not having a home race shouldn’t be a problem either as they plan to “take the US to F1” rather than try to convert millions of Americans to F1.

As for engines, the team plan to send a proposal to all the manufacturers currently in Formula One with no preference for a particular engine supplier. This seems to go slightly against the all-American, made in USA theme.

So USF1 is here. In name, at least. Now all they need to sort out are drivers, engines and sponsors…

The speedtv videos are embedded below.

USF1 Announcement

USF1 Q&A 1

USF1 Q&A 2

Like a lot of F1 fans I was sorry to see Suzuka dropped from the Formula One calendar in 2007 in favour of Toyota’s Fuji Speedway.  With its unique figure 8 layout and demanding corners, Suzuka is one of the great circuits of the world.  It’s right up there with Spa as one of the fans’ and drivers’ favourite tracks.

Thankfully, the Japanese Grand Prix returns to Suzuka this year.  In a statement outlining its 2009 automobile motor sports activities Honda, who own Suzuka, said:

Full-scale renovation work will soon be completed.  As the opening event on April 12, the Circuit will be hosting the Start Suzuka Opening Thanks Day – F1 Kick-off Party. And after a break of two years, the Grand Prix of Japan, Round 15 of the Formula One World Championship, will be held, October 2-4.

“The Start Suzuka Opening Thanks Day – F1 Kick-off Party”.  What a great piece of Engrish!  It sounded like so much fun I went to the Suzuka website to see what I could find out.  There wasn’t anything there about the F1 Kick-Off Party but it sure made interesting reading.

In June 2006 Suzuka Circuitland Co. Ltd. merged with Twin Ring Motegi Co. Ltd to form Mobilityland Corporation.  According to the website:

Uniting the two enterprises of Suzuka Circuit, which has contributed to the spread of motorsports in Japan, and Twin Ring Motegi, which introduced to Japan the new mobility of American motorsports. By concentrating the power and know-how these two companies have accumulated, we hope to be a business providing joy, fun and excitement to the community through an ever richer mobility culture.

So it’s all about mobility, then.  Whatever that is.  Luckily the site has a definition:

People move because they have goals. Community begins when people move to another place and run into other people. Through these moves, they meet different kinds of people and learn about each other; it is there that new cultures and new values are born. We call such movement-related areas “mobility.” Pursue convenience, fun, and the value of mobility; have them take root in the lives of many people. This is what we call “mobility culture.” One of Mobilityland’s main missions is to promote a richer and safer mobility culture in society.

Right, well that clears that up, then.

I’ll leave you with a little old-skool Suzuka action and as you watch Ayrton Senna’s pole position lap of Suzuka in 1989 remember the Three Joys of the Basic Principles as described in the Mobilityland Philosophy:

1. The Joy of Buying
2. The Joy of Selling
3. The Joy of Creating

Er.  Ok.

The new Red Bull Racing RB5 is set to be launched on Monday but the team have released a preview video showcasing the new Adrian Newey designed car.

In the animated video, narrated by Sebastian Vettel, the 2008 RB4 morphs into the new look RB5 as each of the rule changes are discussed.

The car also explodes to show the battery-based Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS.)

Vettel’s team mate, Mark Webber, thinks the new RB5 will be one of the most beautiful of the 2009 cars, he told the Austrian paper Salzburger Nachrichten:

[The RB5 is] perhaps the most beautiful of the 2009 class, which under the new regulations was pretty difficult.

How similar the car will look in the flesh will be revealed on Monday but it seems like quite a nice looking car; maybe not as pretty as the McLaren or Ferrari but definitely better than Renault and BMW’s efforts.

21-year-old Vettel will be first to drive the new car on Monday at Jerez with Webber taking over later in the week.

Video: Red Bull Racing