Formula 1

After a short hiatus, testing resumed today at the Jerez. While BMW Sauber, Ferrari and Toyota tested in Bahrain, the remaining teams minus Force India Mercedes, were back in action at the Spanish test venue.

Sebastien Buemi set the pace as expected in the 2008 specification Toro Rosso Ferrari but his times are effectively meaningless in comparison with the other drivers running the newer low downforce 2009 challengers.

There was however a rain shower mid-way through the day, but for much of the session, the 4.428km remained dry. The new Toro Rosso Ferrari driver led the way with a best time of 1:19.660s and put in 104 laps.

Red Bull Renault, who unveiled its new RB5 package at the circuit yesterday and proceeded to test in private, were back in action again today with Sebastian Vettel once again behind the wheel.

Vettel completed 61 laps, his fastest time of 1:22.177s coming on his 49th lap of the day but was forced to halt the new 2009 challenger late in the session with a mechanical problem.

Williams Toyota test driver Nico Hulkenberg was on duty today for the grove-based team, moving third fastest late in the session. Hulkenberg was just over two-tenths slower than Vettel.

Heikki Kovalainen put another 60 laps on the new McLaren Mercedes challenger and was fourth fastest ahead of Renault's Nelson Piquet who only completed 35 laps in the new R29.

Testing continues on Wednesday.

Jerez - 10/02/2009
1 . S. Buemi - Toro Rosso Ferrari STR3* - 1:19.660 (+ 0.000 ) - 104 laps
2 . S. Vettel - Red Bull Renault RB5 - 1:22.177 (+ 2.517 ) - 61 laps
3 . N. Hulkenberg - Williams Toyota FW31 - 1:22.443 (+ 2.783 ) - 82 laps
4 . H. Kovalainen - McLaren Mercedes MP4-24 - 1:22.634 (+ 2.974 ) - 60 laps
5 . N. Piquet - Renault R29 - 1:23.313 (+ 3.653 ) - 35 laps.

NEW MEANING TO GO-ING, GO-ING... GONE

February 16, 2009
By Alan Baldwin

Renault team title sponsor ING Group will pull out of Formula 1 at the end of the 2009 season and leave the sport about $150-million poorer.

ING has been heavily involved in trackside advertising as well as backing the former World champion team and its 2005 and 2006 World Drivers' champion Fernando Alonso.

An ING statement read: "ING confirms it will not renew its three-year sponsorship (2007-2009) contract with Renault F1 and will not continue its presence in F1 beyond 2009."

The company is the official sponsor of the season-opening Australian GP to be raced in Melbourne on March 29 as well as the Belgian, Hungarian and Turkish races.

The Dutch financial group had on-track branding at 13 of 2008's 18 races but announced in January 2009 that it would cut operating expenses by a billion euros in 2009 and shed 7000 of its 130 00 employees worldwide.

A 2008 Formula Money report estimated that ING was paying $86-million a year into F1 with $65-million of that going to Renault. - Reuters

Oh my look who it is.

Old coyotes are us....

I'm still around M8 :laugh:
Just swamped at work for the moment :(

The Dutch bank ING on Monday announced that it will end its Formula One sponsorship activities at the end of 2009.

It was already clear that Renault's embattled title sponsor was reviewing the F1 programme - which also includes trackside advertising and naming sponsorship of Grand Prix - because of the global financial crisis.

The Dutch government recently moved to safeguard ING Group, who had posted a second consecutive multi-billion dollar quarterly loss and decided to cut F1 spending by 40 percent this year.

The three-year title sponsorship of Renault was due to expire at the end of this year.

A statement said ING has decided ‘not to renew’ the deal and therefore will ‘end its presence in F1’ beyond 2009.

"ING has enjoyed the relationship with Renault F1 and will continue to work closely with the team during the final year of the partnership," the statement added.

The competing teams should own the business of Formula One, according to Red Bull's Dietrich Mateschitz.

The Austrian billionaire, who owns two of the ten teams entered in the 2009 world championship, waded into the argument about the commercial governance of the sport in interview with Germany's Auto Motor und Sport.

"The teams are the ones who firstly make up F1 and also bear the financial risk," he said. "They are the ones that not only have the expertise necessary, but also the passion. For me, therefore, there is only one logical and morally acceptable partner for F1 - the teams."

With the Formula One Teams’ Association already established, Mateschitz said a joint ‘takeover bid’ is the ‘next logical step’ in the discussion about the future of the sport.

Max Mosley is a known friend and ally of Mateschitz, but the FIA President recently said the commercial governance of the sport belongs to Formula One Management and CVC, because the FIA sold those bodies the rights.


"It's not something I should get involved in but I would make the remark that the idea that F1 belongs to the teams is fallacious," he said earlier this month at a media lunch in London.

"You don't get to own a restaurant by eating in it every night - and they haven't even eaten in it every night, apart from Ferrari," he added.

Mosley said that if the teams are not happy to agree with F1's existing commercial arrangement, they can set up a rival championship and the FIA would be obliged to sanction it.

Kimi Raikkonen's final day of testing at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain did not go according to plan for the Ferrari team.

The morning was initially trouble-free as Raikkonen completed several stints to check the different set ups.

Just after 11:30am the car started to have a problem with the Kinetic Energy Recovery System cooling circuit and the Finnish driver was forced to pit.

Repairs lasted three hours and Raikkonen returned to his testing duties. The team were keen to point out that systems put in place to deal with a KERS failure were followed in a 'rigorous and precise way' and in complete safety.

Just after the F60 returned to the track another unexpected event occurred as two dogs decided to go for a walk on the circuit, forcing the session to be halted.

The final part of the day was dedicated to race simulations with a series of quite long stints and pit stops with refuelling. Like yesterday the session again ended with start simulations from the grid.

"Until today the car's development went well, although we were mainly concentrating on its behaviour and the tyres," Raikkonen said.

"Today we had a problem with the cooling system of the KERS, but these things can happen during the tests.
Anyway we drove many laps. The whole car improved during these tests, but it's still too early to say where we are compared to our competitors."

"I think we have to wait until Melbourne for that. Today was the first time I could get close to a car in front of me; but I wasn't close enough to understand if the new aerodynamics really make overtaking easier," he concluded.

Errr... I hope the car is gonna be ok in the actual races....

Work this one out quickly.

With the global economic situation being in the state it's in, Fiat might well have controlling shares in Daimler Chrysler soon...

I have been watching Formula1 when I was little, but somehow I losted. I liked Ayrton Senna...