Adam Cooper F1

The FIA doesn't want F1 drivers to have a 'boy racer' image...

In the light of Lewis Hamilton’s infamous ‘hooning’ incident in Australia the FIA has made it clear that it won’t tolerate F1 drivers getting into trouble on public roads.

That includes ensuring that they have to have a valid road licence, while there could also be investigations into specific incidents.

Today’s statement said: “The FIA, both in its motor sport and mobility roles, has a strong interest in promoting road safety. Competitors at FIA events must act as ambassadors for the sport, be aware their conduct on the road must be exemplary and respect road safety rules. A proposal to amend the international sporting code will be submitted to the FIA General Assembly to clarify that any holder of an International Super Licence must also be in possession of a current road driving licence.

“Additionally, the Code will be amended to clarify that if an International Super Licence holder is involved in a serious road traffic offence recognised by a national police authority, the FIA, depending on the severity of the case, may issue a warning or refer the matter to the International Disciplinary Tribunal, which may temporarily or indefinitely withdraw the competitor’s International Super Licence.”

The FIA is to follow up on its earlier suggestion to issue licences to key members of F1 team staff, so to avoid the problems that occurred after the attempts to ban Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds.

It will give the FIA the chance to prevent personnel who have got into trouble from continuing to work in the sport.

The FIA statement reads as follows:”The World Motor Sport Council will submit a proposal to the General Assembly that a specific licence is created for a restricted list of members of staff of the competitors entered in the FIA World Championships. The aim is to introduce a system that ensures they are subject to the criteria set out in a new FIA Code of Good Standing. This would apply to a minimum of six people per competitor, including the Team Principal, Sporting Director, Team Manager, Technical Director and two race engineers (or equivalent).

“A new mechanism will be introduced to control access to areas under the jurisdiction of the FIA and no pass of any kind will be issued to any person or body who is not in good standing for the purposes of the FIA International Sporting Code. Entrants will also become responsible for their staff, meaning any person connected directly or indirectly with the entrant in connection with their participation in an event.”

As expected the Indian GP has been given an end of season date for 2011, as usual pending the homologation of the circuit.

However Bernie Ecclestone has chosen not to shuffle around the other flyaway races so the season will end with an unprecedented run of six events outside Europe. He has however taken the logical option of putting Japan and Korea back to back.

Brazil has relaced Abu Dhabi as last race on the unusually late date of November 27, presumably for the very obvious reason that India and Abu Dhabi are very close on the map.

Indeed this will be latest end to a season since 1963, when the South African GP was held on December28 – although qualifying for the January 1 1965 race was actually held in December…

Australia now stands alone, two weeks ahead of Malaysia, which makes little logistical sense for team personnel. However the later race is at least placed back to back with China.

 2011 F1 World Championship

13/03 Bahrain

27/03 Australia

10/04 Malaysia

17/04 China

08/05 Turkey

22/05 Spain

29/05 Monaco

12/06 Canada

26/06 Europe

10/07 Great Britain

24/07 Germany

31/07 Hungary

28/08 Belgium

11/09 Italy

25/09 Singapore

09/10 Japan

16/10 Korea

30/10 India*

13/11 Abu Dhabi

27/11 Brazil

The FIA has as widely expected confirmed that there will be no 13th team in 2011, after decreeing that none of the potential candidates met the requirements.

An FIA statement read as follows: “Following the press release of 19 March 2010 calling for expressions of interest to participate in the 2011 and 2012 seasons of the FIA Formula One World Championship, a number of interested parties expressed their interest.  It was considered that none of the candidates met the requirements to be granted an entry into the Championship.

“Consequently, the allocation of the 13th team will not be granted.”

Kobayashi has extended his relationship with Sauber

Kamui Kobayashi will stay at Sauber in 2011 after a strong second half of the season impressed his team boss.

The Japanese driver struggled with reliability problems and first lap incidents earlier in the year, but has been in the points in five of the past seven races, with a best of sixth in Valencia.

Peter Sauber said in a statement that he’d never had any doubt: “We enjoy having our rookie as part of the team – both as a driver and a person. We never had any doubts about working with him again in 2011. Kamui has definitely fulfilled our expectations in terms of his speed and fighting spirit. Plus, his work with the engineers and his technical understanding has also developed very well. The experience he has built up over his first full season in Formula One will certainly stand him in good stead for 2011. And our aim is to give him a fast and reliable car from the outset next season.”

Kobayashi said: “We had a very difficult start to the season, but we’ve worked together to pull ourselves out of that situation. I feel very much at home in Peter Sauber’s team and am very pleased we’ll be working together again in 2011. However, for now I’m focusing one-hundred per cent on this year. There are still six grand prix weekends to go in 2010, and we’ll be hoping to make up more ground.”

 Pedro de la Rosa’s future remains in doubt, the team saying only thatt the “second driver for the 2011 season will be announced at a later date.” It remains to be seen whether Telmex confirms a new partnership with the Swiss outfit, in which case Sergio Perez and Esteban Gutierrez look likely to have roles.

Like several other teams Renault is yet to decide whether to run with or without an F-Duct at Monza this weekend, so it seems likely that the team will try both configurations on Friday.

Some sources suggest that the logical path is to have a normal Monza wing and then a slightly higher downforce version equipped for the F-Duct, and Ferrari is believed to be trying both.

Robert Kubica admitted that the team hasn’t made a final call as yet, and it’s not easy to assess form going into the race.

“It’s hard to say and I think this will be a very interesting weekend to judge the performance of the cars,” said Kubica in a Renault preview. “Spa was a good example of how powerful the F-duct can be and we were immediately more competitive and closer to the front when we fitted it.

“The effect will be less powerful in Monza because the cars run with less drag, but there will be still be an advantage, so we need to see which teams use it and if we are able to as well. This circuit can sometimes throw up some surprises, so I prefer to stay cautious when it comes to predictions. But if the car feels as good as it did in Spa, then there’s no reason why we won’t be competitive in Monza.”

Technical director James Allison added: “Monza has such long straights and so few corners that it requires much smaller wings than any other track. To add further complication, the F-duct is a potential alternative option for Monza. Like several other teams, we too are evaluating whether we can make the device work in the particular, low-downforce environment of Monza.”

Meanwhile Kubica says that driving a low downforce car at Monza is always a special challenge: “It’s like being at the wheel of a completely different car. At the start of the weekend, you think that the rear end is very unstable, but in fact that’s how it stays all the time, and you never quite find the grip and stability you’re used to at other circuits.

“That makes it a bigger challenge for the drivers, and I also enjoy the fact that there’s a lot of heavy braking, where you approach the braking points at very high speed and need to be extremely precise. It’s not easy to pick them up or to hit the apex of the corners.”

It's him! Check @karunchandhok on Twitter for more pics from Korea

Karun Chandhok has given the Korean organisers a big boost by driving the Red Bull demo car today, effectively demonstrating that the track is in place.

However the Indian says that the surface is very slippery and there’s still a lot to be done. He’s been making some interesting comments on his Twitter page today and in so doing has done more positive PR for the event in one day than the locals have managed by themselves all year:

“Done my first 5 laps of circuit in road car…. Layout looks really interesting actually – 1st half slow and technical but then opens up.”

“4 or 5 mega quick corners which should be fun for the drivers and the first sector should be good for overtaking.”

“Just been out for the first run of an F1 car on the Korean circuit ! Very slippery but fun!!!”

“When the track rubbers up for the race weekend will be very interesting… Got a great flow to it especially in sectors 2 and 3!”

“There’s undoubtedly a lot of work still to be done around the circuit but the Kavo guys seem confident it’ll be done!”

Later Red Bull issued more quotes from Karun, while also thanking HRT for loaning him out: “It’s a really interesting layout. The track’s got a good mix of corners and I think we’ll see a lot of overtaking in the first sector – there are long straights into slow hairpins. The straight after turn one and two is really long, so we may see some good slip streaming there, like in Shanghai. From turn seven onwards, there’s a fast section of flowing corners all the way back to the start-finish line – so I think the Red Bull Racing guys will be happy in sectors two and three. It’s an interesting layout.

“Looking at the facilities, the garages and team buildings look pretty much finished and they’re big! I think teams will need to bring around 30% more furniture to fill them! The grandstands also look reasonably finished. The track itself needs a bit more work on the asphalt and the kerbs, but the organisers think it’s all within their time-lines and are confident that it will be ready on time. And the locations nice, we’re overlooking the sea.

“There’s certainly some enthusiasm for F1 here. There are a lot of people at the event today, which wasn’t heavily publicised, and there’s a lot of media, which shows an interest. The organisers say they have sold a significant amount of tickets, so it should be a good race. It’s been great to drive the Red Bull car again and thanks to my team, HRT F1, for letting me complete this demonstration run.”

For more words and pics try @karunchandhok over the weekend.

Karun's pic of the crowd - although presumably they are watching him!

The track appears to be in place, but is that the final surface?

The FIA’s Charlie Whiting is to conduct a final inspection of Korea when he stops off on his way to the Singapore GP.

September 21 is exactly 30 days before the start of the event – which the FIA decrees to be the Thursday of the actual race meeting – rather than the 90 that the rules officially specify (see earlier story).

Meanwhile a photo passed to me by a reader shows an interesting overview of the track. While the outline appears to be complete it’s not clear which parts already have the definitive top surface, and certainly the section on the right appears to need some work.

More worrying is the mess that the surroundings are in, and while he is pushing for it to happen it remains to be seen how Bernie Ecclestone will feel about TV viewers watching a race through a building site.

If the race is cancelled after Whiting’s inspection it will be at considerable inconvenience to everyone in F1 since both freight and team personnel will already have started on a round trip that takes in Singapore, Suzuka and Korea. It leaves very little time to re-route everything.

We also wait to see if the World Motor Sport Council has anything to say about Korea next week. As previously noted if this year’s race is cancelled then it can’t appear on next year’s calendar. At least that’s what the rules say…

We may know a little more after Karun Chandhok drives the Red Bull demo car there tomorrow.

Malaysian Jeffri has driven an F1 car at age 16. Lucky lad...

Formula BMW contender Nabil Jeffri made a little bit of history today by driving a Lotus T127 at the age of 16, as these pics from the team show.

It was only a straightline test at Duxford aerodrome, but nevertheless it represents a pretty impressive effort by the Malaysian, who doesn’t turn 17 until October 24.

And if you are trying to put that into perspective, he was born on the very day of the 1993 Japanese GP, when Ayrton Senna launched his infamous assault on Eddie Irvine, and a certain Rubens Barrichello scored his first points.

So if you can remember that, then you are older than he is…

Jeffri talks to 'old man' Heikki Kovalainen

The Austin track features an elevation change of 40 metres

Further to my earlier story on Austin, here for the very first time is a computer generated 3-D image that gives a clearer idea of how the track will look.

An obvious key characteristic is the uphill run into Turn One, which is somewhat reminscent of the A1-Ring. The long back straight, which appears somewhat truncated in this picture, undulates like the old pit straight at Kyalami.

Incidentally it seems that race pomoter Tavo Hellmund did not after all officially release the basic track map to Austin’s Statesman newspaper. Apparently the determined local media outlet obtained it from City Hall within hours of it being received by the permits office, and then presented to a surprised Tavo for comments yesterday evening.

The above picture did however come via the right channels…

PS: In an official release this afternoon Hellmund said:  “In the modern era of Grand Prix racing, I think this track layout and topography will be very special. It will have many of the elements of previous ‘classic’ circuits combined with the benefits of FIA-mandated safety for the competitors and spectators alike. Add in the amenities fans have come to expect, like rare, multiple-turn viewing opportunities for added value, and you have an ideal, world-class venue.

“For the competitors, we’ll have all the ingredients necessary. You’ll see fast turns that require commitment from the drivers and technical turns that will test the engineers from a set-up point of view. We have a good deal of elevation to make it not only scenic but challenging also, and the view of downtown Austin is wonderful as well.”