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Weekend Preview: 4-5 July 2009

Feature Events

Goodwood Festival of Speed

– Goodwood House, Chichester, West Sussex, England, UK
– www.goodwood.co.uk/motorsport/

This event grows every single year without fail, it was huge when I attended in 2002 and 2003 and reportedly it is even bigger now, with an expanded rally stage and other updates. Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Sebastien Loeb will be present among the luminaries of racing history such as Stirling Moss, Jackie Stewart (tbc), Damon Hill, Al Unser Sr and Rusty Wallace. The big news though?

I am hoping to attend on Sunday! I’ll be looking for last-minute tickets Thursday morning and if I’m successful I will be tweeting to @toomuchracing throughout Sunday, for as long as the battery and network signal allow.


IndyCar Series

– Camping World Fifth Annual Grand Prix at the Glen
– Watkins Glen International, New York, United States
– (9/17)
– www.indycar.com

After a long oval swing lasting several months the IndyCars make their return to the roads at the sweeping Watkins Glen circuit, utilising the full GP layout as opposed to the shorter N-word layout.

This is a good race track, nice and fast out the back and despite being narrow and bumpy it does have a couple of possible passing spots for those willing to go for them.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Sky Sports 2 at 6pm Sunday
USA – LIVE on ABC at 1pm ET Sunday

MotoGP

– Red Bull United States Grand Prix
– Laguna Seca, Monterey, California, United States
– (8/17)
– www.motogp.com

The first of two visits to the US for the premiere class of motorbike racing, they’ll go to Indy later in the summer. For now a visit to California and a track which is notorious for being hard to pass at, even on bikes, and with vicious unrelenting gravel traps.

If anyone can advise of US TV coverage in the comments below, I’d be grateful.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on BBC Two at 10pm Sunday night
Delayed on Eurosport

 

Other Events


NASCAR Sprint Cup

– Coke Zero 400
– Daytona International Speedway, Daytona, Florida, USA
– (18/36)
– www.nascar.com

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Sky Sports 1 at 1am Saturday night / Sunday morning
USA – LIVE on TNT at 7.30pm ET Saturday

If you’re not into staying up all night to watch NASCAR, this race is repeated in the UK both directly before AND after(!!) the Watkins Glen IndyCar race on Sunday on Sky Sports 2.

For all other events I will list the UK time (BST not GMT) and channel only, if you are elsewhere you will have to look it up (check their website).

FIA World Touring Cars

– Porto
– Boavista circuit, Porto, Portugal
– (7/12)
– Eurosport: Race 1 @ 11.15am, Race 2 @ 4.30pm
– www.fiawtcc.com


World Series by Renault

– Silverstone
– Unable to locate any TV coverage


Grand-Am Rolex Series

– Daytona
– (7/12)
– www.grand-am.com


British F3

– Snetterton


German F3

– Lausitzring

* * * *

For those in the UK, don’t forget Top Gear on BBC2 at 8pm Sunday!

I am again going to be offline for a while. I should be here and there for a short time on Friday.
On Thursday I’m going to see Blur in Hyde Park, London (have waited a nearly decade for them to get back together!), and I’m not here Saturday either. Then Sunday I’m hopefully at Goodwood! If I make it I will recap the day, with pictures, during next week.

Weekend Preview: 27-28 June 2009

Feature Events

IndyCar Series

– SunTrust Indy Challenge
– Richmond International Raceway, Richmond, Virginia, USA
– (8/17)
– 300 laps
– www.indycar.com

A Saturday evening race as darkness falls at the short oval where traffic will be an issue, it could cause problems or it could help the racing as the better drivers through lapped traffic will run well.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Sky Sports 1 at 1:30am Sunday morning
USA – LIVE on VERSUS at 8pm ET Saturday night for an 8.45pm green flag (why not a nice easy 9pm??)

Support races: USAC Silver Crown, USAC Sprint Car


MotoGP

– Alice TT Assen
– Assen, Holland
– (7/17)
– www.motogp.com

MotoGP is also on a Saturday as is the tradition at Assen.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on BBC Two at 12:40pm Saturday afternoon
Delayed on Eurosport

Support races: 250cc and 125cc available on the BBC Red Button

Other Events


NASCAR Sprint Cup

– Lenox Industrial Tools 301
– New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Loudon, New Hampshire, USA
– (17/36)
– www.nascar.com

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Sky Sports 1 at 7pm Sunday
USA – LIVE on TNT at 1.30pm ET Sunday

(The Nationwide Series at Loudon on Saturday night, Trucks are at Memphis also on Saturday)

For all other events I will list the UK time (BST not GMT) and channel only, if you are elsewhere you will have to look it up (check their website).


World Rally Championship

– Rally Poland
– (5/10)
– Eurosport and Dave
– www.wrc.com
This is the first time Rally Poland has been a part of the WRC.

DTM

– Norisring
– Nuremburg, Germany
– (3/8)
– live web streaming: just before 1pm Sunday
– www.dtm.tv
The UK TV deal collapsed when Setanta Sports did, let’s hope someone else picks it up. Check the webstream if you can, Norisring is nuts!
(supported by F3 Euroseries)

Superleague Formula

– Magny-Cours, France
– (1/6)
– Eurosport 2: Race 1 at 10am, Race 2 at 1pm followed by the new ‘extra time final’
– there may be live streaming on the website? I refuse to look at it.
– www.superleagueformula.com
The whole idea is a bunch of hokum clearly, but it features interesting if unspectacular drivers such as Enrique Bernoldi, Giorgio Pantano, Antonio Pizzonia, Yelmer Buurman, Adrian Valles, Tristan Gommendy and Ho-Pin Tung, all in powerful V12 single-seaters.

(also on the bill: Euroseries 3000, this is the series which picked up the old Lola A1 cars, no telly coverage as far as I know)

FIA Formula 2

– Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
– (3/8)
– Eurosport: Race 1 live 12pm Saturday, Race 2 delayed 11:30pm Sunday night but there is live streaming online
– www.formulatwo.com
The first visit to Spa for this series should be a bit of fun!
(with the International GT Open and the Dutch Supercar Challenge)


Formula Nippon

– Fuji, Japan


Grand-Am Rolex Series

– Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio, USA
– (6/12)
– www.grand-am.com


Super GT

– Sepang, Malaysia
– (4/9)
– www.supergt.net/en

* * * *

For those in the UK, don’t forget Top Gear on BBC2 at 8pm Sunday!

I will be quiet on the blog and on Twitter for a few days because I’ll be offline, if anything crazy happens I’ll text it in but won’t see responses until Sunday at the earliest. Enjoy the weekend!

The War Ends Before It Begins

24 hours ago Max Mosely and Luca di Montezemelo were sat discussing the FIA/FOTA fiasco, with Bernie Ecclestone also present presumably as moderator as well as looking after his own interests. The trio reportedly discussed the issues for most of the night in order to strike a deal before Wednesday’s crucial FIA World Motorsport Council (WSMC) meeting, in which frankly anything could have happened.

Thankfully the time pressure of the deadline meant common sense broke out and the following agreements were announced:

– There will be no FOTA breakaway, instead they will report back tomorrow with cost-reduction proposals.
– Budgets are to be reduced to “early 1990s levels” within two years. Curiously the method for achieving this was not stated so the budget cap may not be the answer.
– The 1998 Concorde Agreement, which determines the distribution of revenues, methods for agreeing regulations, and more, has been amended and extended to 2012. This means all teams are committed to that date.
– There will be 13 teams in the 2010-2012 Formula One World Championship, this is the list per the press release:

SCUDERIA FERRARI MARLBORO
VODAFONE McLAREN MERCEDES
BMW SAUBER F1 TEAM
RENAULT F1 TEAM
PANASONIC TOYOTA RACING
SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO
RED BULL RACING
AT&T WILLIAMS
FORCE INDIA F1 TEAM
BRAWN GP FORMULA ONE TEAM
CAMPOS META TEAM
MANOR GRAND PRIX
TEAM US F1

The latter three operations will use the cheap Cosworth engines, it is currently unclear if those will be under 2006 regulations since 2006 was the last year Cosworth competed (as a nod to cost-saving). If so this would give them a 2000rpm advantage over the other teams, and not have to run to the multi-race engine rules. While this is clearly unfair, it could be the new teams’ chassis will be so far behind the established teams, for the first couple of years anyway, that it all balances out nicely – should the new teams catch up, they can expect these breaks to be lifted.

You can read the FIA press release on their own website.

* * * *

Within the press release were some other nuggets relating to other FIA series.

World Rally

– The new 1.6 litre turbo engine will be brought in ahead of schedule in 2011.
– Events can now be more flexible. Instead of running to a set 3-day timetable, they may run 2, 3 or 4 days as long as it finishes on a Saturday or Sunday. They may include different surfaces.
– The 2010 calendar is out and you can see it in the link. Looks like the move to a winter championship schedule has been quietly dropped.

World Touring

– Yokohama is the sole supplier for the next three years.
– Autosport reported the 1.6 litre engine will be used in WTCC in 2011 as well, and that it’ll be a spec engine, but the release doesn’t mention this.
– The 2010 calendar is out, check it out in the link. Algarve and Zolder are in. Pau is out. Valencia and Imola move around, assuming Imola is the Italian round.

I find the whole idea of the top rally and touring car series running 1.6 litre engines to be laughable. At least the rally cars will be turbocharged.

World GT

– Stephane Ratel’s plan to expand FIA GT into a new FIA GT1 World Championship has been authorised. GT2 will split into a new European series of its own races, many of which will run on GT1 weekends alongside GT3 and GT4.
– GT1 will be for pro drivers, GT2 for pro-am, and GT3 for non-professionals.
– The Bucharest street race next year is out, instead they’ll go to Budapest (I’m assuming this means the Hungaroring).

It seems like a good idea and I really hope it works for them, despite my reservations at losing the element of class traffic from sportscar racing.

Delayed Race Notes: Monaco Grand Prix 2009

2009 Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco
Circuit: Monte-Carlo
Location: Monaco
Distance: 78 laps

Coverage: BBC One
Anchor: Jake Humphrey
Analysts in the paddock: David Coulthard (DC) and Eddie Jordan (EJ)
Race commentary: Jonathan Legard and Martin Brundle
Pit and paddock reports: Ted Kravitz and Lee McKenzie

Tyre selection (red): SS / S / M / H

[Apologies for the ridiculous delay due to my accountancy exams! These notes were taken live during the race but only edited now. I almost didn’t post these because they are so out of date, but in some ways they are an interesting historical record!]

BBC coverage is a GO at 12.10pm BST (13.10 Monaco local time) with 50 minutes until race start.

We open with classic clips in black & white.
Humphrey has been inserted into the video as if he was introducing it at the time, and talking to drivers such as Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart in period. Nice work!

Now we’re live and in colour. Great detail on the CGI overview of the circuit!
The guys are on a boat in the harbour – not sure this will work well, ITV tried it a few years back and a pundit was seasick.

EJ: We’re closer to the track here, closer to the action. Everybody wants to be here, this is the jewel in the crown of F1. Adorable place.

DC: Valencia and Singapore coming up later in the year but they have a modern twist to them, they have runoff areas, at Monaco you are rubbing the barriers.

Points coming in:
D: Button 41, Barrichello 27, Vettel 23, Webber 15.5, Trulli 14.5
C: Brawn 68, Red Bull 38.5, Toyota 26.5

Lee McKenzie is on the hill overlooking La Rascasse, packed with people, the ‘cheap seats’ she calls them. One fan says it costs £75 for a ticket. To sit on a muddy hill! I’m sure they are glad it’s not raining. People have tents pitched to get the best spots.

Ted Kravitz is having a chat with Max Mosely.
MM “We’re slowly getting a situation were we can all agree, or at least the majority are going to agree. The budget cap looks like going ahead at 45m euros in 2011 with an intermediate year in 2010. Everyone understands we cannot go on at the present level, the money isn’t there.”

[Later in the week the FOTA teams entered for next year on condition of a big cap in ’10 and a €45m cap in ’11 – and we all know the shenanigans that followed that]

Ted’s Qualifying recap:

– Lewis into the barriers. Apologised to the team.
– Massa spins but survives to Q3.
– Toyota eliminated in Q1, same story for BMWs who in desparation tried several setup changes. Didn’t work.
– Indias and Toros got higher positions as a result but Piquet underperformed again.
– Vettel disapointed not to do better than 4th with the lightest fuel load of all.
– Kimi on front row but may not be able to use KERS on the start, he says the straight is too short.
– Button on pole from Kimi 2nd then a disappointed Barrichello.
– Hamilton starts at the back after a gearbox change.
– Glock starts from pitlane after changing…something..

Onboard lap of Jenson Button’s pole position, while he talks about it with Lee.

Says it is always tense, you’ve got to get the perfect gear shifts.
He’s not thinking about the championship, he’s taking it race by race.
Honestly? Really?! You’ve won 4 races out of 5 and you’re not thinking of the title? Pfft.

We can hear cars heading to the grid now.
Recap of Senna vs Mansell in 1992, close-run thing but Mansell on fresh tyres couldn’t get by Senna on worn tyres, a demonstration of how hard it is to pass here.

Ted is with Nigel Mansell (recorded):
NM “It’s a wonderful place, the principality. Between Barrichello and Jenson we’ll have a fantastic weekend. Adversity builds character, we all know what a terrible year he had last year. Another possible British world champion, one after another? I can’t remember when that was last done.”

Shots of Bernie and then Mika Hakkinen entering the paddock.

We can see the grid now and how much smaller it is than the circuits of the rest of the year.

Jean Todt, Max Mosely, some people I don’t recognise, they are all here.

DC: Hamilton will struggle to score points from there [the back] but at Monaco anything can happen.
EJ: There’s no rain so this will be a long hard hot race.

Martin Brundle is on the start line for his gridwalk.

MB “8 GP2 cars were penalised for cutting the first corner, let’s hope that doesn’t happen today.”
John Button, Jenson’s dad: “He’s even surprising me now.”
Prince Michael of Kent: “With my RAC hat on it’s nice to keep up with Formula 1, we’re going to be in the Brawn pit today.”
MB: “The cars are spaced 8 metres apart which is the length of the average ego in F1.”
Jenson: “I’m on pole so I’ve got the easiest race compared to the rest, but it’s still not going to be easy, Kimi will be fast off the line. We’ll have to see what tyres people are on. Looking after the tyres will be a key part of this race.”
Jacques Villenueve, are you missing this?: “Slick tyres, the cars look fun to drive, I’m missing it a bit now. Monaco is always a good race to watch, with all the chaos in F1 now you never know.”
Michael Johnson, what brings you here?: “I’m just here checking it out, I’m a big fan, I usually come to Monaco and I’m trying to get to a few more this year. Button is doing a great job, he’s got a lot of confidence right now.” He says all of the stuff around the grid isn’t too distracting because the drivers are so focussed, they only see the objective.
Bernie Ecclestone has his arms around Geri Halliwell [!!]:
GH: “I love fast cars, bit of a speed freak. I’m proud of Jenson Button. My father was a car dealer so I’m very excited! [to Bernie] We go way back how excited are you?”
BE: “Super upset with him keeping winning, it should be unpredictable, it’s bloody predictable again.”
GH: “Everyone has their moment though!”
MB: “I’d like to apologise because I said it was Bernie’s daughter. Bernie, is common sense going to break out in Formula 1?”
BE: “No of course not!”
MB: “It should do though shouldn’t it?”
BE: “Don’t worry it will.”
MB: “Thanks for your time. Jake.”

Deluxe gridwalk! Silence as we look at the Royal Box… Jake comes in and says we were waiting for an anthem.

Monagasque National Anthem
Royals stand to attention. F1 people completely ignore it, we don’t bow to such things as protocol, we’re F1, we’re more important than that.

The guys witter on about something, just filling time really. I’m more interested in the official feed’s atmospheric shots of the grid.

Quick chat, Jake and Jonathan Legard:
“Button looking great, I wonder if they’ll be some danger from Raikkonen and Red Bull, and don’t forget Barrichello. The teams bring extra front wings here because there is a greater threat to being dislodged.”

Winner for today?
EJ: Jenson.
DC: Jenson.

Official F1 Intro

Chatter.

Mechanics clear the grid.

Green light for the Formation Lap.

START ORDER

Button, Raikkonen
Rubens, Vettel
Massa, Rosberg
Kovalainen, Webber
Alonso, Nakajima
Buemi, Piquet
Fisichella, Bourdais
Sutil, Heidfeld
Kubica, Trulli
Hamilton

Glock (p/l)

Cars are forming on the grid.

1.2.3.4.5.hold…GO!!

All clear through Ste Devote, amazing.

No incidents at all on lap 1, I am super-impressed!

Replay: Hamilton passes Trulli before Tabac

Start replays..
Hamilton takes Kubica off the line.

Kubica has pitted.

L3 Glock cuts the swimming pool chicane. Rubens sets the fastest lap.

L4 Button now faster! Brundle is saying these two are title rivals now.

L7 Massa tries a pass on Vettel but overshoots, he has to give the position back and does so – but Rosberg follows Vettel through! Massa lost a place.

Hamilton on a light load is stuck behind cars with twice as much fuel as he has, this is a strange strategy from McLaren.

L9 Ted news: Vettel’s tyres have gone, we’re only 9 laps in and his tyres have gone.
Vettel is now 18 seconds behind Button, already!

L10 Rubens radio – look after your tyres, they may be fragile.
They’ve been watching Vettel.
Vettel suddenly drops off, Rosberg and Massa pass him. More cars passing him.
Vettel pits.
Buemi and Piquet off at Ste Devote.
Hamilton also pits.

L12 Piquet pits and retires with accident damage. Buemi is out.

L14 Kimi is catching Barrichello who’s tyres are starting to fall away.
Massa radio: Brawns struggling with soft tyres, you’re 1-2 seconds faster than them so keep it up.

L16 Raikkonen pits and takes more of the harder tyre, as Rosberg sets the fastest lap!

L17 Vettel has pulled over just after Ste Devote, he’s hit the barrier? His car already in the air on the crane!

L18 Barrichello and Button have pitted. Rosberg takes the lead, Button gets out ahead of Massa who is now 3rd.

Rosberg, Button, Massa, Kova, Weeber, Barrichello, Kimi, Alonso

L19 Rosberg pits and comes out behind Alonso for 8th.

L21 Massa pits from 2nd and emerges behind Alonso but ahead of Rosberg for 7th.

L22 Heikki pits and is out 7th. Only Webber and Alonso of the frontrunners have to pit.

L23 Webber pits now, he’s out behind Massa for 6th – both have jumped Rosberg now. Williams went for a long stop?

L24 Piquet with Lee: I don’t know what (Buemi) was thinking about, he probably thought he was quicker but we all thought we were quicker, Vettel was holding everybody up. I was probably going to finish 7th.

Seems like Alonso is going long. I can’t remember the weights..

L29 Barrichello sets FL as Alonso pits, he’s out in 11th I tihnk.

L31 Kubica pits to retire, he is hte 4th DNF of the day.

L32 Rubens sets the first lap under 1m16s, and is beaten immediately by Kimi and Felipe.

L35 Both the Ferraris are setting very quick times. Webber is coming with them only slightly slower.

L37 Button laps Hamilton.

L41 Massa has been putting too much of the car over the swimming pool chicane marking, could be penalised if he’s not careful.
Smedley on the radio tells him he’s had another warning from the FIA!

L43 Webber sets fastest lap!
Heidfeld pits and takes supersofts.

The guys on one-stops have made an error, after what we saw earlier they’ll never get to the end on supersofts from here.

L46 Mark Webber is catching the Ferraris.

Things have been fairly settled for a while now, I think we are waiting for the next stops for the frontrunners. We have two races going on: two-stoppers and one-stoppers (with Hamilton on a stupid 2-stop among the back of the latter).

L50 Trulli finally pits. Bourdais, Fisi and Glock are still going.
L50 Barrichello pits from 2nd and emerges 5th as Massa sets FL.
L51 Button pits now. He’s out behind Kimi! Kimi does need to pit again though.

Alonso cuts the main chicane.
L53 Kovalainen out! He’s crashed at the swimming pool chicane.
Spun coming out of the first section and spun into the wall. Shame because he was running well.

L54 Raikkonen pits. No SC for Heikki.

Hamilton pits for a new nosecone and hard tyres.

L57 Webber and Massa pit at the same time from 2nd and 3rd.
Massa is out and beats Rosberg for 4th, but Webber doesn’t make it and is 6th. Rosberg may need to stop again.

L59 Glock pitted from near the back. Bourdais must have pitted recently too.

Vettel with Lee: I was braking a little too late, locked the rears and hit the wall. We thought those tyres would work for the short stint but they didn’t.

L63 It was a good race earlier on but the Ferrari challenge seems to have been blunted, and Webber is bottled up behind Rosberg.
Nothing much going on at all.

Bourdais’s stop earlier put him 8th somehow! He’s the leader of the one-stopper group some distance behind the two-stoppers, and with Fisichella right behind him.

L65 Heikki: We were going a couple of laps longer and would have worked for us, but I just lost the car.

L66 Rosberg pits and is out in 7th in the big gap between Alonso and Bourdais.

L67 Alonso pits and is out alongside Sutil who is a lap down. Alonso now 7th.

Button, Barrichello, Kimi, Massa, Webber, Rosberg, Alonso, Bourdais, Fisi, Naka

L70 The two Ferraris are running close together,

L72 Glock passes Heidfeld. Hamilton passes Trulli and is behind Heidfeld. All go at the back!
Nakajima pits with 8 laps to go

Just the run for home then, it seems everyone has backed off to make it without crashing. Nothing happening, just enjoy Monaco.

Final Lap

Nakajima in the wall at Mirabeau!

JENSON BUTTON WINS!

Cooldown lap

Jenson parked in Parc Ferme and he should be on the front straight!! Different procedure at Monaco, the top three should park on the main straight!
He’s out of the car and running down the main straight!

Podium, trophies.

British national anthem.

Nice to have a real band on site for this GP, such a different sound to the old recordings.

Champagne!

Commentary ends.

[Usually I add a little bit of the BBC post-race in here but I don’t seem to have taken any notes for it on this occasion]

Race Results
1. Button 78 Laps
2. Barrichello +7.6sec
3. Räikkönen +13.4s to winner
4. Massa +15.1s
5. Webber +15.7s
6. Rosberg +33.5s
7. Alonso +37.8s
8. Bourdais +63.1s
9. Fisichella +65.0s
10. Glock + 1 lap
11. Heidfeld + 1 lap
12. Hamilton + 1 lap
13. Trulli + 1 lap
14. Sutil + 1 lap
15. Nakajima + 2 laps
R. Kovalainen (Accident)
R. Kubica (Brakes)
R. Vettel (Accident)
R. Piquet (Accident damage)
R. Buemi (Accident)

Championships

Drivers
(Prior + Monaco = Total)
1. Button 41 + 10 = 51
2. Barrichello 27 + 8 = 35
3. Vettel 23
4. Webber 15.5 + 4 = 19.5
5. Trulli 14.5
6. Glock 12
7. Hamilton 9
8. Alonso 9 + 2 = 11
9. Räikkönen 3 + 6 = 9
10. Massa 3 + 5 = 8
11. Rosberg 4.5 + 3 = 7.5
12. Heidfeld 6
13. Kovalainen 4
14. Buemi 3
15. Bourdais 1 + 1 = 2

Constructors
(Prior + Monaco = Total)
1. Brawn Mercedes 68 + 18 = 86
2. RBR Renault 32.5 + 4 = 36.5
3. Toyota 32.5
4. Ferrari 3 + 11 = 14
5. Renault 9 + 2 = 11
6. McLaren Mercedes 13
7. BMW Sauber 6
8. Williams Toyota 4.5 + 3 = 7.5
9. STR Ferrari 4 + 1 =5
10. Force India Mercedes 0

The next race was the Turkish Grand Prix, for which I will upload notes later this week.

I am not sure if I will post notes for the IndyCar season as I did last year, I’m leaning towards not doing so because I have only posted St Pete so far. Perhaps I will do a shorter version.