My Motorsport Blog

The 3rd March 2009 is fast approaching and this would be the day when the doors at Brackley could finally close for the Honda F1 Team. In the meantime talks with Honda and Richard Branson’s Virgin Group over a possible buy-out continue and yet we have USF1 to make some sort of an announcement on its plans by the 23rd March 2009. I do not see them joining the F1 fraternity soon and believe it would be a non starter even if it would be in 2010.

Also in doubt would be the continued sponsorship from Petrobras, the Brazilian petrochemical company which has supported Honda in recent years and whom have indicated that they would not support a privately owned team. I do not think the current economical climate is a issue for Petrobras so could it be the proposed owners?

However, would the Honda F1 team be on track for the opening round of the 2009 Formula 1 World Championship in Australia if a sale is agreed? They certainly spent time developing this car to the end of 2008 and beyond, then another question would be, who would be their drivers?

Jenson Button has certainly played a major part in the development but would he be the right driver to take the team forward and will Bruno Senna cope in F1 if given the chance. If Virgin do succeed in the buy-out I would like to see young Senna in the drivers seat and maybe another from the GP2 series like Lucas di Grassi or even Romain Grosjean. Let’s get the youngsters to stir the pot in the F1 world. That is if they can afford the Formula One Super Licence fees which bring me to another subject.

Formula One licence

How many have paid their fees? ……..All of them would be the answer to the question because they would not be allowed to participate since fees had to be paid by the 1st November 2008 with some exceptions.

Now I have to be careful on how I say this but since Max happens to be on a European crusade to ensure the sanctity of his privacy and on the one in a million chance that he reads this blog only a man of complacency and great arrogance with a total indifference to others in a world outside of his own can make a statement to the effect

 ”A driver who does not want, or cannot afford to pay for, a F1 super licence, has many alternatives,” Mosley said. “Apart from Formula One, there are a large number of series and championships where a professional racing driver can earn a good, sometimes very good, living.

“Way to go Max!!!!!! I wonder if a “NEWS PAPER EDITOR” might not do a better job than you as “Ill Presidente” of the FIA

Well if you want to know about F1 2009 regulations and do not want to read about the interpretations just follow this link and get it from the  FIA site direct. You can search to your hearts delight and like me wonder how much time the technical guys spend working around them.

We will always have different views and each person will have his own opinions about rules made for any sport so make them known and share a few. My interest lies not only in F1 but in MotoGP, Australian V8 and stretch as far as the series run in South Africa know as WesBank Super Series. They all operate under the rule book and having been involved in some of the meetings when regulations are discussed they can become pretty hectic.

I have seen a chairman turn red and committee members wanting to strangle another. These are great fun!!!!!..Especially when some committee members are also competitors and they start looking after their own interest or try to undermine another competitors performance by not approving or agreeing to changes in the regs.

Looking at comments made about the diffusers in FI being used by Toyota and Williams you know there will be sparks flying at the first race in Melbourne and I look forward to it.

So with the actual Formula One 2009 season to start in March I see the FIA Regulations book were studied and Toyota and Williams are playing around with rear diffusers which have other teams grumbling. 

And we still have KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) which Williams have decided they might only implement after 6 races. So much speculation and guesses but we will have to see the real effect of this in the actual race in Melbourne. Wonder if this will also be available to boost the cars at the start?

One area in which the rules have changed and to which I am very grateful for is in the return of slick tyres. Just a pity they do not implement more than one manufacturer to supply the tyres as well.

Another area of improvement is the allocation of eight engines to a driver for a season, which, exclude the four supplied for testing. I still think they should just allocate 8 engines to each driver, however, if a change of engine is made after qualifying it should not mean a automatic start from the rear of the grid. Once your 8 engines have been used this can then be applied.

The new dimensional regulations should also make the cars look more like the traditional F1 cars we all remember before the “Bull Horns” on the nose cone and “Viking Ears” on the Engine cover appeared……I hope.