Force India kick off "empty promise" season
Exciting times for F1's minnows, if you can really describe a team owned by an Indian billionaire a "minnow", as Aqua Team Hunger Force India recently announced an end to their engine deal with the winners of the constructors championship, and the beginning of a new partnership with a team statistically worse than them. But wait, it's not all bad news, unless you work in Findia's R&D department. Mercedes will supply the team with engines, but also "the marque's KERS and...McLaren gearbox and hydraulic systems", along with "access to McLaren's network of parts suppliers". All very exciting. And indeed, the deal has all got too much for Vijay Mallya, who busily trumpeted that "winning races I think I can certainly aspire for maybe in 2010, but for 2009 I would be happy if we are regularly in the points". All this despite Findia ending the 2008 season without a single point to their name. Optimism-me-doo.
Silly Season continues to thrill
The 2009 Silly Season is almost at a conclusion, as Renault recently confirmed that they would become the seventh team to continue with their 2008 driver line up next year, keeping Fernando Alonso after impressing him with the late season development and benefiting from him ending up with nowhere else worth going. More confusing is their decision to keep hold of Nelson Piquet Jr, a move only explainable if you assume that Flavio Briatore has done it for a bet. "We are happy to confirm both Fernando and Nelson for next season," Flav half-lied as the news was confirmed, "Fernando's commitment for the next two seasons confirms the faith he has in the team". Yes, he has more faith in Renault than in Honda or Toro Rosso. Result.
The final pieces of the jigsaw
All that leaves just Honda and Toro Rosso left to put their houses in order for next year. With Honda testing Bruno Senna this month, and the young be-surnamed one looking odds-on to replace Rubens Barrichello at the team, Toro Rosso have lined up a trio of drivers to test their car in Barcelona next week. Sebastien Bourdais, Sebastian Buemi and Takuma Sato will all get a go in the car, with those three believed to be in the frame for 09, along with Barrichello if he is turfed out by Honda. All remarkably thrilling, I think you'll agree.
Luca starts KERSing
The controversial, and complicated, KERS innovation for 2009 continues to divide the F1 fraternity. Ferrari boss Luca Di Montezemolo has become the latest man to angrily spit at the whole system. "We feel introducing KERS already this year was a mistake...the energy recovery system in the races will in any case be very different from the road system," he bleated recently. He did show some signs of mellowing on the whole cost issue though, saying that "It's true...that the costs are prohibitive, and with FOTA we've studied important proposals in order to meet Max Mosley's fair requests regarding spending cuts," though he continued to smack down talk of a common engine base for the future. "It's unthinkable that the big car manufacturers can accept to re-badge the engines built by someone else". The debates rumble on.
Like the Murphy's...
Jenson Button was quick to offer praise to the newest F1 world champion after Brazil, but keen to make sure that nobody forgets about him, he was at pains to point out that what really makes a driver special is driving a rubbish car. "The guy hasn't been in a bad car...It's an experience and you learn from it - you become a better driver trying to work with a bad car," he insisted in a desperate effort to paint the last two years of his life as having been in any way useful. On the subject of this year's Honda, he added that "We might as well have tried to put the front wheels on the back and the back on the front". Or the Piquet method, as it is sometimes known.
Awards Time
The post-season backslapping has begun in earnest, with the Professional Motor Sport World awards in Cologne handing out their awards. The Singapore Street Circuit won "motor sport facility of 2008", which sounds hard-earned and impressive, until you find out that it was up against the Valencia street track. And frankly, News Junkie's driveway is a superior motor sport facility than that place. Also in amongst the gongs was Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost, who won team principal of the year, though he later went on to finish second in the "tastiest surname" category to STR team owner Gerhard Berger. Possibly.
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