Today, the rebelling FOTA (Formula 1 Teams Association) teams finally signed up for the new budget limited 2010 season and that includes Ferrari who were the most vociferous opponents to the new budget capped formula which was intended to limit each team to a maximum expditure of £40million.
Now though it seems a compromise has been reached with the 9 rebelling teams (Ferrari, McLaren, Toyota, BMW, Renault, Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Brawn & Force India) lodging their entries on the dependancy of a new Concorde Agreement being drafted on June 12th where it is likely that FOTA will be given more of a say in the settinG out of the rules. One of which they want to get rid of is the rule that would potentially introduce a so called "two tier formula." which would offer techincal incentives to teams that stayed within the budget cap like 4 wheel drive and larger engine rev limits. We should know more about the state of the sport after the concorde agreement has been finalised.
But most interestingly, the prospect of a cheaper formula has enticed some brand new teams to put themselves into the fray for 3 team spots on the grid which means for the first time since 1995, there is the possibility of a full 26 car field, one of which is a former F1 team itself on a number of occasions, i'll look at each newcomer here and assess their chances of making the grid
US GRAND PRIX ENGINEERING Joint owners - Ken Anderson & Peter Windsor Base - Charlotte, North Carolina, USA This is an all american operation which has been in the pipeline from the minute the budget cap was first proposed, set up by Peter Windsor, a former Williams PR representative and Ken Anderson who is technical director for the Stewart-Haas NASCAR squad. They claim to have funding in place, a deal to run Cosworth engines has reportedly already been agreed and that the design of their 2010 challenger is already in full swing, they would prefer to have 2 american drivers to come in to drive although this is unlikely. PROSPECTS - 10/10: With the team being the first to express their interest and already having nearly all of the building blocks in place, then they are dead certs to enter, budget cap or not.
LOLA Owner - Martin Birrane Base - Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, UK The name Lola is already very familiar in F1 circles, they first entered in 1962 as a chassis supplier for the Reg Parnell team scoring some very competitive finishes, after that, customer deals followed with Graham Hill's tragically short lived team, Larrousse and for a limited time, Scuderia Italia in 1993, but it was in 1997 where Lola are most infamous for after a rushed package at the behest of their title sponsor Mastercard saw them fail to qualify for the opening race of 1997 and withdraw due to lack of funds afterwards. Now though they have a more solid footing and better technical knowhow after acting as chassis suppliers for several major open wheel championships and also press on well with an LMP1 coupe for Le Mans. PROSPECTS - 8/10:Now run by the Irish billionaire Martin Birrane, Lola certainly have the funding and they also have the ambition and technical expertise, but their past may come back to haunt them when in competition with the others for places, still though a very strong candidate.
ASTON MARTIN/PRODRIVE Owner: David Richards Base: Banbury, Oxfordshire, UK Arguably this is the most appealing and exciting of the entries to be submitted so far, and the man behind it has experience by the bucketload. David Richards, himself a former F1 team boss with Benetton (1997) and BAR (2001-2004) along with owning the Aston Martin brand also runs the motorsport company Prodrive which specialised in running the Subaru World Rally team which won world titles for the great Colin McRae (1995), Richard Burns (2001) and Petter Solberg (2003). Currently, Richards presides over Aston Martin's efforts in GT racing and in particular this years Le Mans 24 Hours which they have high hopes of winning outright after huge success in the lower GT1 category. From 2012 onwards, Prodrive will officially be renamed as part of Aston Martin's motorsport division. PROSPECTS - 8/10:It may be the most appealing, but it definitely is not a certainty as it all depends on the budget cap being in place. Also like Lola, the past is not on their side as they failed in their attempts to enter in 2007 with a pair of customer McLaren cars. But if they were to succeed in entering, they would certainly earn themselves the support of the British public making them look like Britain's answer to "Ferrari", definitely the fans choice.
CAMPOS META FORMULA Owner: Adrian Campos Base: Valencia, Spain Teams run by former drivers are a rarity nowadays which makes this prospect run by Adrian Campos (who drove in 21 Grand Prix for Minardi in 1987 and 88 before being replaced by Pierluigi Martini for suffering three DNQ's in a row) very exciting. He has though since then become a very successful team owner in the lower formulae with the highlight being a Spanish Formula Nissan championship for Marc Gene in 1998. After success in that and Spanish F3, he graduated his squad to the new GP2 series for 2005 and after 2 years of acting as the perennial backmarkers, they soon found their feet and went on to claim the GP2 teams championship in 2008 with 4 wins and 103 points before selling his GP2 operation to Alejandro Agag. PROSPECTS - 8/10: Campos still runs his F3 operation and can count on his considerable wealth and connections in Spain to pull off a decently run outfit, there are question marks though about their initial ability to build an F1 car, hence why if they enter, they will go with a deal for Dallara to build customer F1 cars for them.
LITESPEED F1 Joint owners: Nino Judge & Steve Kenchington Base: Besthorpe, Norfolk, UK Litespeed are a bit of an unknown quantity, but they have big ambitions. The team was formed by Nino Judge in partnership with Steve Kenchington, themselves with experience in helipng run the Lotus F1 team in their demise in the early 1990s. At the moment, they are running and developing their own F3 chassis known as the SLC R1 but they are moving on to a more up to date Mygale for the rest of the 2009 season. PROSPECTS - 5/10: Despite claiming to have the support of former F1 designer Mike Gascoyne and also have backing, they are the most unlikely of the 5 to get the nod, simply due to their size and apparent lack of initial funds.
After The biggest prize in American racing, the richest prize in motorsport and his name alongside the greats of the Indianaplis 500 on the huge Borg Warner trophy, its a fantastic honour for any driver to earn their name to be engraved on the famous cup for all eternity, but for Helio Castroneves, it really was a sense of dejavu as he joined a prestigious group of drivers who have won the great american race three times and also the only non American driver to do so.
Below though is a very scary reminder of how dangerous open wheel oval racing can be as Vitor Meira (who started 14th) crashed out on lap 173 in an accident so bad, it looks like it has ruled out the popular brazilian for the rest of the 2009 season with a serious lumbar vertebrae fracture
THE RACE LAP 1 - With a massive 33 car field, it did not take long for the first incident to occur and it was unlucky for Mario Moraes who had shown good pace throughout practice and qualifying, but in this isntance it was his fault as he squeezed Marco Andretti up to the barrier which tipped himself into it and out of the race, Andretti was able to continue but only after major repairwork was carried out putting him over 50 laps down, as for upfront, Franchitti had managed to snatch the lead from the Penske pair of Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe.
LAP 20 - One team though that did have a pigs ear of an Indy 500 was the Vision team and Ryan Hunter-Reay in particular, many bookes pick to pull off a shock. His race ended in the pit wall on lap 20 after losing it at turn 4, Franchitti held the lead
LAP 56 - A momentary blip for Franchitti allowed his Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon to retake the lead from the scot, meanwhile another pre-race favourite Graham Rahal crashed his newman-haas car out.
LAP 98 - The lead remained with Dixon ahead of Franchitti, Kanaan, Castroneves and an increasingly threatening Danica Patrick who had worked her way up well due to some canny pitwork. Unfortunately for Andretti Green, their day would get worse as perennial Indy underachiever Tony Kanaan crashed out heavily with a broken driveshaft and broken steering column, he was fine however ald will be ok for next weeks race at Milwaukee.
LAPS 130 to 139 - This period changed the race completely, after Nelson Philippe was eliminated after an incident, Dixon had led from Franchitti who was acting as a tail gunner to keep Castroneves and Patrick at bay, but at the round of pitstops that followed Philippe's crash that forced the full course yellow flags, Franchitti was koncked out of contention with a slow pitstop after his refuelling rig became jammed. Dixon could not hold off Castroneves at the restart as he took a lead he would not relinquish, Patrick also got by Dixon but Dan Wheldon (who started down in 18th) had at that point driven superbly to work his way up the field, he would pass both Dixon and Patrick to run 2nd and Townsend Bell had driven himself into contention too also passing Dixon to take 4th.
LAP 173 - The most frightening incident of the race and arguably the season so far involved Vitor Meira and Raphael Matos, Meira was fighting for 19th spot with his fellow brazilian when he suddenly drove very wide into turn 1, not knowing Matos was still there, Meira was tipped round and ploughed face on into the wall and travelled on his side down the wall for a good 300-400 yards before coming to a rest on the entrance of turn 2, both were taken to hospital where Matos was soon discharged without injury, Meira however was kept back for further tests on a suspected broken back.
Castroneves went on to take an easy win ahead of Wheldon, Patrick, Bell, Power, Dixon, Franchitti, Carpenter, Tracy and Mutoh rounding out the top 10.
RACE RATING - 7/10 - Not what you expect from oval racing, fast and frantic paced action, but only 4 drivers led the race and nearly all the overtaking occured further down the field, despite that though it allowed some lesser lights to shine.
RACE RESULT - TOP 20 1. Helio Castroneves - Team Penske ................ 3h 19m 58.001 2. Dan Wheldon - Panther Racing ................ + 1.982 3. Danica Patrick - Andretti Green ................ + 2.335 4. Townsend Bell - KV Racing ................ + 2.704 5. Will Power - Team Penske ................ + 3.622 6. Scott Dixon - Target Chip Ganassi ................ + 4.299 7. Dario Franchitti - Target Chip Ganassi ................ + 4.916 8. Ed Carpenter - Vision ................ +5.510 9. Paul Tracy - KV Racing ................ + 6.518 10. Hideki Mutoh - Andretti Green ................ + 7.331 11. Alex Tagliani - Conquest Racing ................ + 10.531 12. Tomas Scheckter - Dale Coyne Racing ................ + 10.987 13. Alex Lloyd - Target Chip Ganassi ................ + 11.194 14. Scott Sharp - Panther Racing ................ + 11.426 15. Ryan Briscoe - Team Penske ................. + 12.670 16. AJ Foyt IV - Foyt Enterprises ................. + 15.487 17. Sarah Fisher - Sarah Fisher Racing ................ + 15.977 18. Mike Conway - Dreyer & Reinbold ................ + 16.349 19. John Andretti - Richard Petty Motorsports ................ + 18.087 20. Milka Duno - Dreyer & Reinbold ................ + 1 LAP
INDYCAR DRIVERS TOP 20 AFTER ROUND 4 OF 17 1st Dario Franchitti 122pts, 2nd Helio Castroneves 117 pts, 3rd Ryan Briscoe 114pts, 4th Scott Dixon 111pts, 5th Tony Kanaan 110pts, 6th Danica Patrick 109pts, 7th Dan Wheldon 106pts, 8th Will Power 99pts, 9th Ryan Hunter-Reay 84pts, 10th Marco Andretti 83pts, 11th Graham Rahal 82pts, 12th Justin Wilson 77pts, 13th Hideki Mutoh 71pts, 14th Ed Carpenter 70pts, 15th Robert Doornbos 69pts, 16th Vitor Meira 62pts, 17th Raphael Matos 60pts, 18th Alex Tagliani 59pts, 19th Mario Moraes 53pts, 20th EJ Viso 49pts
Its no longer fairytale, this is now the norm, Jenson Button eased to a lights to flag win in the biggest and most famous Grand Prix of them all adding his name to a long list of greats to have won at Monaco. Rubens Barrichello made it an even better day for Brawn by jumping Kimi Raikkonen at the start and holding onto 2nd place.
The race itself did not have much action to report although there were a few incidents during the race and in qualifying that had a notable impact on the result, firstly, Lewis Hamilton had displayed excellent pace in free practice showing McLaren's recent improvement, but he threw all that promise away with a schoolboy error at the mirabeau corner demoting him to the back of the grid, as a result, he did have a trouble free and eventless run to 12th. Another possible challenger for the win, Sebastian Vettel ran well early on before crashing out on lap 16.
The Ferrari's showed a big improvement to be the best of the rest as Raikkonen and Massa gave the Maranello men an 11 point haul for 3rd and 4th respectively, Mark Webber, Nico Rosberg, Fernando Alonso and Sebastien Bourdais completed the points scorers.
RACE RATING - 3/10: Not a race for the first time fan
RACE RESULT - TOP 10 1. Jenson Button - Brawn ................ 1h 40m 44.282 2. Rubens Barrichello - Brawn ................ + 7.666 3. Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari ................ +13.422 4. Felipe Massa - Ferrari ................ + 15.110 5. Mark Webber - Red Bull ................ + 15.730 6. Nico Rosberg - Williams ................ + 33.586 7. Fernando Alonso - Renault ................ + 37.839 8. Sebastien Bourdais - Toro Rosso ................ + 1m 03.142 9. Giancarlo Fisichella - Force India ................ + 1m 05.040 10. Timo Glock - Toyota ................ + 1 LAP
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 6 DRIVERS TOP 10 1st Jenson Button 51pts, 2nd Rubens Barrichello 35pts, 3rd Sebastian Vettel 23pts, 4th Mark Webber 19.5pts, 5th Jarno Trulli 14.5pts, 6th Timo Glock 12pts, 7th Fernando Alonso 11pts, =8th Kimi Raikkonen 9pts, =8th Lewis Hamilton 9pts, 10th Felipe Massa 8pts
CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIP 1st Brawn 86pts, 2nd Red Bull 42.5pts, 3rd Toyota 26.5pts, 4th Ferrari 17pts, 5th McLaren 13pts, 6th Renault 11pts, 7th Williams 7.5pts, 8th BMW Sauber 6pts, 9th Toro Rosso 5pts, 10th Force India 0pts
Bump day was full of drama and some close calls but in the end, the expected 2 missed the final cut along with a suprise omission, Alex Tagliani who missed out after a tactical mixup by his Conquest team meant he was unable to set a time before the end of the day, his teammate Bruno Junqueira though did manage to get his car into the race in 30th place but an agreement afterwards allowed Tagliani to take up the drive in Junqueira's place, as a result of the change of driver, the Canadian moves to the back of the grid. Here then is the remainder of the field.
ROW 8: 22nd Davey Hamilton (Dreyer & Reinbold), 23rd Robert Doornbos (Newman Haas), 24th Townsend Bell (KV Racing) Dutchman Robert Doornbos was the fastest man in bump day qualifying and thus takes the highest position possible on the grid for him to have, 23rd. he will be joine don the 8th row by Townsend Bell, who gets the third KV Racing entry into the show.
ROW 9: 25th Oriol Servia (Rahal Letterman), 26th Tomas Scheckter (Dale Coyne), 27th Mike Conway (Dreyer & Reinbold) The popular spaniard Oriol Servia managed to get into the field after a superb show to nail 25th spot in the car racing in famous Eagle colours as driven by the great Dan Gurney for his F1 team in the late 1960's. Tomas Scheckter (son of the 1979 F1 world champion Jody) was a very late deal confirmed for Dale Coyne's 2nd car and the South African did not let down his team owners faith in him by getting the number 18 car onto the grid. And a big round of applause for Mike Conway who defied doctors and a serious rib injury to qualify his car in 27th spot.
ROW 10: 28th John Andretti (Petty), 29th EJ Viso (HVM), 30th Milka Duno (Dreyer & Reinbold) Finally, Richard Petty (NASCAR legend and 7 times NASCAR champion) will get his first ever crack at the 500 as a team owner after John Andretti ended 2 weeks of nerves to qualify the famous number 43 on the grid in 28th. As for the only British team in the field, they had a raft of problems all week but HVM have recovered well to get both their cars into the race with Viso the best of the 2 in 29th spot while Milka Duno makes it 3 Dreyer & Reinbold cars in the field as she managed to get her CITGO entry into an Indy best 30th spot
ROW 11: 31st Nelson Philippe (HVM), 32nd Ryan Hunter-Reay (Vision), 33rd Alex Tagliani (Conquest) Nelson Philippe, the young Frenchman helped HVM boss Keith Wiggins breathe a huge sigh of relief as his final run in the closing stages got him in while early season sensation Hunter-Reay has had a nightmare 2 weeks of practice after suffering problem after problem, but he finally managed to get it right at last to take the final spot by just 0.021 seconds from Barrett. Tagliani's entry has been demoted from 30th to the back after a driver swap with Bruno Junqueira.
DID NOT QUALIFY: 34th Stanton Barrett (3G), 35th Bruno Junqueira (Conquest) 36th Buddy Lazier (Hemelgarn) These are the unlucky 3 drivers that have suffered the indignity of having an Indy 500 DNQ next to their name, two of them suffered simply by not being quick enough, Barrett however was extremely unlucky after missing out by just over 2 hundreths of a second over the 4 lap. Lazier, himself a former winner was however off the pace throughout the 2 weeks and unsuprisingly turned up at the bottom of the timesheets, Junqueira sits it out after swapping with Alex Tagliani.
After a frantic hard fought couple of sessions, it was Penske driver Helio Castroneves who grabbed the Indy 500 Pole position and the $100,000 prize that comes with it, it was a familiar front row with Briscoe completing a Penske 1-2 and Dario Franchitti grabing 3rd on his return. There were a few suprises also with some not so well known runners springing some welcome suprises at the front end of the field. There was concern though for British rookie Mike Conway who suffered a nasty accident on his timed run, thankfully he was released from hospital but will not be fit to race. Darren Manning, who made way for Milka Duno will take Conway's palce in the number 24 car.
Here then is my review of the grid so far and how i think the said drivers have done, remember, these 22 care are locked into the show and cannot be kicked off the grid when Bump day comes along on Sunday.
ROW 1: 1st Helio Castroneves (Penske), 2nd Ryan Briscoe (Penske), 3rd Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) A welcome pole for the popular Brazilian who claimed pole with an average speed of 224.86mph, infact only 3mph covers the whole top 22 who have qualified for the race, a great advertisement for the standard of the drivers on show. Ryan Briscoe got 2nd which give Penske a good advantage coem race day while Franchitti joins both the Penske runners on the front row.
ROW 2: 4th Graham Rahal (Newman-Haas), 5th Scott Dixon (Ganassi), 6. Tony Kanaan (AGR) The young Rahal suprised everyone 2 weeks ago with pole position on the smaller oval at Kansas so 4th spot for the 500 is a decent showing for him. Dixon though i think will be very disappointed with 5th spot while Tony Kanaan was the best of the Andretti-Green cars who had a largely poor qualifying by their high standards
ROW 3: 7th Mario Moraes (KV Racing), 8th Marco Andretti (AGR), 9th Will Power (Penske) Here come sthe first of the suprises, Mario Moraes for KV racing performed superbly to get within just 1.5mph within pole and with that has earned a brilliant 7th spot, by far his best qualifying performance in the Indycar Series. Marco Andretti will hope to do well from 8th as he tries to emulate his grandfather and Will Power on a one off drive helped Penske get all 3 of their cars into the top 9.
ROW 4: 10th Danica Patrick (AGR), 11th Alex Lloyd (Ganassi), 12th Raphael Matos (Luczo Dragon) Considering this is the big race she wants to win more than ever, Danica Patrick will face a tough struggle to be in contention from the 4th row, Alex Lloyd on a one off drive for Target Chip Ganassi performed brilliantly to force himself into the top 11 and qualify on the very first day. Rokkie driver Raphael Matos was the fastest of the 2nd day runners so he bags 12th spot.
ROW 5: 13th Paul Tracy (KV Racing), 14th Vitor Meira (Foyt), 15th Justin Wilson (Dale Coyne) Paul Tracy marked his Indy 500 return in such a way, you'd think hed never been away, 2nd quickest on day 2 getting him 13th spot on the grid while Vitor Meira and Justin Wilson both got into the show on their 2nd attempts.
ROW 6: 16th Hideki Mutoh (AGR), 17th Ed Carpenter (Vision), 18th Dan Wheldon (Panther) All 3 drivers on the 6th row i think will be disappointed to be this far down the grid, Mutoh performed well last year and will be disappointed with 16th, Carpenter is an oval racing specialist and he will be let down too but Dan Wheldon will likely be mortified to get 18th position after a very problematic practice program.
ROW 7: 19th AJ Foyt IV (Foyt), 20th Scott Sharp (Panther), 21st Sarah Fisher (SFR) AJ Foyt's grandson will be happy to get into the show after missing the beginning of the season due to being dismissed by the Vision squad, Scott Sharp makes his return after 2 years away but he will be disappointed to be down in 20th while Sarah Fisher exceeded her expectations by getting herself into the top 22, well doen to her.
ROW 8: 22nd Davey Hamilton (Dreyer & Reinbold) The experienced Hamilton got into the 22 by the skin of his teeth but he was helped by his team-mate's accident
The incredible fairytale has continued as Jenson Button made it 4 wins out of 5 at Barcelona in a race that lacked much overtaking but a lot of scratching heads in terms of strategy, and that is where Ross Brawn excels as he and his engineers once again outwitted the opposition into submission.
The race began with Button on pole from Vettel, Barrichello and Massa in 4th who showed Ferrari's improvement but what they gained in speed they certainly lost in tactical awareness as a monumental mess-up in qualifying strategy meant Raikkonen failed to get out of Q1 and lined up in 16th place.
Button and Vettel both got off the line very well but not as good as Barrichello who got ahead of both of them at the 1st corner, but then mayhem, Rosberg forced Trulli onto the grass, he lost control and smashed into the side of Sutil's Force India car, also the 2 Toro Rosso drivers Bourdais and Buemi earned themselves an ear bashing from their team boss as they crashed each other out of the race in a seperate incident.
Not much happened until the 1st pitstops, by which time Raikkonen's weekend had gone from bad to worse when his hydraulics system packed up after just 17 laps. But at the 1st pitstops came the move that decided the race, Button (who was under constant pressure from Vettel and Massa) decided to switch strategy mid-race from a 3 stop to a 2 stop. Not only would this work in his objective, it would also allow him to jump Barrichello later on to take the lead and eventually victory ahead of the Brazilian, some added bonus eh.
Another to benefit from a sudden change of strategy was Mark Webber who jumped both Massa and his team-mate Vettel to take 3rd, Vettel though spent the large part of the race held up by Massa who was struggling with saving his fuel due to problems refueling in his pitstops, he was then told to let Vettel go to give him a good chance of holding 5th, but it was too late, Massa had slowed to a crawl and Alonso ended up taking 5th and he came within a whisker of losing 6th to Heidfeld. He then ran out of fuel on the slow down lap. So despite Ferrari doubling their points tally, it was a weekend to forget for them, and with Monaco coming up next where their KERS system could be rendered useless, it promises to be another tough weekend before they move on to Massa's favourite track, Turkey.
Overall its easy to see why the likes of Luca di Montezemolo (Ferrari boss) and the manufacturer teams are not in favour of the proposed $40million budget cap to be in force for next year as even in the current regulations, it looks like a new order has emerged in Formula 1, a new order that does not look like favouring the manufacturer teams (well apart from Toyota, but even they are not infavour as they have a reported $500million annual budget.)
RACE RATING - 4/10: For the majority it was the usual precessional sort of race we are used to when it comes to Barcelona but the startline incident and Button's sudden change of tactics did plenty to add interest to the proceedings, but wern't the new regulations supposed to promote overtaking?
RACE RESULT - TOP 10 1. Jenson Button - Brawn ................ 1h 37m 19.202 2. Rubens Barrichello - Brawn ................ + 13.056 3. Mark Webber - Red Bull ................ + 13.924 4. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull ................ + 18.941 5. Fernando Alonso - Renault ................ + 43.166 6. Felipe Massa - Ferrari ................ + 50.827 7. Nick Heidfeld - BMW Sauber ............... + 52.312 8. Nico Rosberg - Williams ................ + 1m 05.211 9. Lewis Hamilton - McLaren ................ + 1 LAP 10. Timo Glock - Toyota ................ + 1 LAP
DRIVERS TOP 10 AFTER ROUND 5 1st Jenson Button 41pts, 2nd Rubens Barrichello 27pts, 3rd Sebastian Vettel 23pts, 4th Mark Webber 15.5pts, 5th Jarno Trulli 14.5pts, 6th Timo Glock 12pts, =7th Lewis Hamilton 9pts, =7th Fernando Alonso 9pts, 9th Nick Heidfeld 6pts, 10th Nico Rosberg 4.5pts
CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIP 1st Brawn 68pts, 2nd Red Bull 38.5pts, 3rd Toyota 26.5pts, 4th McLaren 13pts, 5th Renault 9pts, =6th BMW Sauber 6pts, =6th Ferrari 6pts, 8th Williams 4.5pts, 9th Toro Rosso 4pts, 10th Force India 0pts
The biggest and richest single race for open wheeled cars is officially underway, this weekend will decide which of the 39 drivers will take up the first 11 guaranteed spots (in what is the first of 4 qualifying sessions) on the grid for (along with NASCAR's Daytona 500) one of the USA's 2 big motorsport events, with it being the first 11 to qualify, this will also mean we will know who will occupy the coveted pole position in what is known as the Pole Day Time Trials and with a pole prize of $100'000 on offer, it is sure to be well fought out.
The qualifying process itself may seem complicated but it is realtively simple, The first day of qualifying (May 9th) sees the first 11 spots on the grid as well as the lucky polesitter, each timed run is an aggregate of 4 laps (covering a distance of 10 miles) and this is in force for all 4 days. May 10th sees the 2nd session where positions 12 to 22 are decided, these are also locked down giving 22 lucky people guaranteed spots in the race. Then after a further 3 days of practice sees day 3 of qualifying (May 16th) where positions 23-33 are decided but only provisionally as the next day (May 17th) sees the highlight of qualifying known as "Bump Day" where the drivers outside the 33 car grid are given one last chance to get themselves into the race and anyone from 23rd spot downwards will be on tentahooks as they hope and pray that come the end of the day, they'll be in the top 33 and with it comes qualification for the race.
Here though I will look through the 39 driver entry list and assess each ones chances of winning, doing well or even just managing to get in the show, the leading entries get more of a mention of course.
ANDRETTI GREEN RACING - 7. Danica Patrick (USA), 11. Tony Kanaan (Brazil), 26. Marco Andretti (USA), 27. Hideki Mutoh (Japan) The joint effort of Indycar legend Michael Andretti and team owner Kim Green are arguably the biggest of the teams in the Indycar Series with a strong 4 car effort. The experienced Tony Kanaan is their strongest hope of success and should challenge. Danica Patrick dreams of winning this one race and has a good chance of doing so after strong recent performances. The lineup is completed by Marco Andretti (who has gone off the boil recently but should do well in a race where the Andretti's are famous) and Hideki Mutoh who performed admirably last year as a rookie.
TEAM PENSKE - 3. Helio Castroneves (Brazil), 6. Ryan Briscoe (Australia), 12. Will Power (Australia) Penske, the most famous name in American open wheel racing and also one of only 2 American teams to ever win an Formula 1 Grand Prix (Austria 1976.) But unusualy for them this year they have expanded their efforts in this race to a 3 car operation mainly due to Helio Castroneves's recent tax evasion trial, his replacement's (Will Power) performances in his absence were so impressive that Roger Penske decided to give him a chance for the 500. AGR may have the biggest lineup but Penske have a stronger mix which should do well and live up to their early season promise
TARGET CHIP GANASSI RACING - 9. Scott Dixon (New Zealand), 10. Dario Franchitti (Great Britain), 99. Alex Lloyd (Great Britain) A driver lineup to even make Penske jealous, 2 cars, both piloted by the 2 previous winners and also for this years race, they are also the 2 favourites to win again. Scott Dixon did the magic double by winning this race as well as the Indycar Championship which it counts towards and after an excellent recent win in Kansas City, he will be tough to beat as he defends his 500 crown. Dario Franchitti, a regular in the american motorsport scene, returns after a less than successful year in NASCAR returning to where he feels he belings and his win at Long Beach certainly proves he has not lost any of his talent. Joining them both in a one off entry run in conjunction with Sam Schmit Motorsport is the 2007 Indy Lights champion Alex Lloyd who ran well last year before breaking down.
NEWMAN-HAAS-LANIGAN RACING - 02. Graham Rahal (USA), 06. Robert Doornbos (Netherlands) Another one of American racing's most famous names returned last year after the merger of the IRL and the ChampCar racing championships and performed well on their return. Now they are a much more stronger force on the ovals this year, proved after locking out the front row in Kansas City. Graham Rahal should use his first year's experience well to hopefully for his sake compete for a top 5 while Robert Doornbos gets his first taste of the 500.
PANTHER RACING - 4. Dan Wheldon (Great Britain), 16. Scott Sharp (USA) The Panther team look better prepared then they have ever been for a 500 with a strong 2 car lineup which includes 2005 winner Dan Wheldon who returns to the team that gave him his big break in the USA, he has started strongly this season and will hope to challenge for a victory which would be Panther's first at the 500. Joining him in a one-off entry is Scott Sharp who returns after a 2 year absence after racing for Rahal-Letterman.
--- OTHER ENTRIES --- DREYER & REINBOLD RACING - 23. Milka Duno (Venezuela), 24. Mike Conway (Great Britain), 44. Davey Hamilton (USA). A blend of experience and rookie drivers here with the very wealthy pay driver Milka Duno thrown in, expected to struggle as Conway continues to learn the oval racing scene. KV RACING - 5. Mario Moraes (Brazil), 8. Townsend Bell (USA), 15. Paul Tracy (Canada). It looks like another average 3 car entry but that only changes when you see the man who makes his return after his heartbraking 2002 attempt, the ever popular veteran Paul Tracy. VISION RACING - 20. Ed Carpenter (USA), 21. Ryan Hunter-Reay (USA). Tony George's Vision squad could spring a suprise after an encouraging start to the year for both drivers, Hunter-Reay is their best hope for glory. HVM RACING - 13. EJ Viso (Venezuela), 00. Nelson Philippe (France). Technically the only British team in the race as it is run by former F1 team owner Keith Wiggins. EJ Viso gets another chance after a difficult 1st year where he was criticised for his over-zealous style while Nelson Philippe is reunited with his old champcar squad FOYT ENTERPRISES - 14. Vitor Meira (Brazil), 41. AJ Foyt IV (USA), 48. t.b.a.The team run by Indy 500 legend AJ Foyt comes with a 2 car (possibly 3) lineup with perennial underachiever Vitor Meira joining AJ's grandson. LUCZO DRAGON RACING - 2. Raphael Matos (Brazil). An entry run by Roger Penske's son Jay with the former Indy lights star Matos driving in his first 500. DALE COYNE RACING - 18. Justin Wilson (Great Britain), 19. t.b.a. Dale Coyne's popular little team returns with Justin Wilson who should do well after a promising start to the season. A 2nd car could follow too. RAHAL-LETTERMAN RACING - 17. Oriol Servia (Spain). A lack of funds has prevented Bobby Rahal from running a full season but the 2004 winners will be at the 500 fielding a car for the popular spaniard Oriol Servia. SARAH FISHER RACING - 67. Sarah Fisher (USA), 68. t.b.a. A one car effort for another popular female driver Sarah Fisher, now with her own family run team, a 2nd car could be fielded if backing can be found in time. RICHARD PETTY MOTORSPORTS - 43. John Andretti (USA). The famous STP colours of NASCAR legend Richard Petty makes its first appearance at the 500 as "The King" (as he is known) has his first crack at the 500 as a team owner, racing for him is another sibling of the Andretti dynasty in the form of Mario's nephew John Andretti. HEMELGARN RACING - 91. Buddy Lazier (USA). Veteran Buddy Lazier returns to reunite the partnership that won the 500 back in 1996, they will struggle to qualify though ROTH RACING - 25. t.b.a., 52. t.b.a. No drivers confirmed yet for Marty Roth's team but its expected Roth himself will fill one of the seats.
Adam Carroll produced a near perfect weekend with a clean sweep of pole positions for both races and dominant race wins in both, the monopoly may have been ruined by Australia's John Martin taking the feature race fastest lap but it didnt matter, a truly dominant weekend for Adam Carroll helped Ireland secure their first ever A1GP championship and in the process prevented Switzerland (the leaders going into the final weekend) from being the first country to win back to back titles. Hardly anyone else got a look in for any sort of honour this weekend at Brands Hatch in Kent apart from John Martin taking the feature race fastest lap. With it being Great Britain's home event, there was much emphasis on them, especially seeing as this could be the team's final race in their current guise after their ongoing and very public financial difficulties, they were cheered up though with a feature race with a brilliant drive from 14th to 7th place from Dan Clarke which secured a top 10 championship finish for the team, a positive end to what has been a difficult year for them both on and off the track.
SPRINT RACE GRID ROW 1: 1. Adam Carroll (Ireland), 2. Salvador Duran (Mexico) ROW 2: 3. Jeroen Bleekemolen (Netherlands), 4. JR Hildebrand (United States) ROW 3: 5. Filipe Albuquerque (Portugal), 6. Earl Bamber (New Zealand) ROW 4: 7. Narain Karthikeyan (India), 8. Neel Jani (Switzerland) ROW 5: 9. Satrio Hermanto (Indonesia), 10. John Martin (Australia) ROW 6: 11. Daniel Morad (Lebanon), 12. Nicolas Prost (France) ROW 7: 13. Dan Clarke (Great Britain), 14. Clivio Piccione (Monaco) ROW 8: 15. Michael Ammermuller (Germany), 16. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy) ROW 9: 17. Felipe Guimaraes (Brazil), 18. Aaron Lim (Malaysia) ROW 10: 19. Alan Van Der Merwe (South Africa), 20. Cong Fu Cheng (China)
The 18 lap feature race on the famous Grand Prix circuit at Brands Hatch was certainly full of suprises but the race itself was eventually decided on the effectiveness of the pit crews. At the start, Carroll made a mess of his getaway and lost the advantage he had as Mexico's Salvador Duran went bravely on the outside of Paddock Hill to take the lead going up to Druids, Mexico have been much improved since Duran (himself a race winner back in 2006 at Laguna Seca) replaced the inexperienced and ineffective David Garza in the car, and he settled down to a steady pace ahead of Carroll, the debutant JR Hildebrand, Albuquerque, Karthikeyan and Bleekemolen. Crucially for Ireland, their main championship rivals Switzerland stuck down out of the points in 9th.
The race turned at the pitstops, Karthikeyan pitted early before the 2 leaders came in together, some super quick pit work from the Irish team enabled Carroll to jump ahead of Duran who also lost 2nd place to Karthikeyan too after the Indian driver had a impressive out lap. From then on Carroll, was never headed and began to set a string of fastest laps to win the sprint race by an incredible 7 second margin ahead if Karthikeyan and Duran who scored Mexico's first podium in nearly 3 years. Hildebrand, Albuquerque, Bleekemolen and Martin completed the top 7 while the Swiss driver Neel Jani managed to just hold off Nicolas Prost for the final point available for 8th place. Carroll also scored the fastest lap bonus point giving Ireland 11 points and the championship lead by 7 going into the final race
CHAMPIONSHIP WATCH - Ireland 96pts, Switzerland 89pts, Portugal 86pts
The task now was simple for Carroll, all he had to do was finish at least 3rd in the feature race and the title would be Ireland's for the first time. Portugal could still mathematically snatch the title but it was unlikely as it would have required a crazy set of results.
FEATURE RACE GRID ROW 1: 1. Adam Carroll (Ireland), 2. Clivio Piccione (Monaco) ROW 2: 3. Jeroen Bleekemolen (Netherlands), 4. Neel Jani (Switzerland) ROW 3: 5. Nicolas Prost (France), 6. Earl Bamber (New Zealand) ROW 4: 7. John Martin (Australia), 8. Cong Fu Cheng (China) ROW 5: 9. Filipe Albuquerque (Portugal), 10. Narain Karthikeyan (India) ROW 6: 11. JR Hildebrand (United States), 12. Alan Van Der Merwe (South Africa) ROW 7: 13. Salvador Duran (Mexico), 14. Dan Clarke (Great Britain) ROW 8: 15. Daniel Morad (Lebanon), 16. Michael Ammermuller (Germany) ROW 9: 17. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy), 18. Satrio Hermanto (Indonesia) ROW 10: 19. Aaron Lim (Malaysia) ------------------------------------------------------------------- DID NOT START: Felipe Guimaraes (Brazil)
The crucial 50 lap feature race would start with just 19 cars after Brazil were forced to pull out and would take 2 attempts to get the race underway after Van Der Merwe stalled on the grid therefore reducing the race to 49 laps.
Carroll made amends for his fluffed start in the sprint by nailing it this time and led thefield away into paddock hill but then a 3 car incident eliminated both Karthikeyan and Cheng and forced the fast starting Hildebrand into the pits for a new nose, this was disappointing for Cheng who hoped to score good points from China's best qualifying performance of the year. Netherless, the safety car was deployed and remained out until lap 5 when the race resumed.
Carroll got the jump on Piccione at the restart and raced clear as Piccione held up Bleekemolen, Jani, Albuquerque and Bamber, the latter would spin out just 2 laps later in frustration. Shortly after that, the first round of pitstops took place and after another fast pitstop from the Irish crew, Carroll re-emerged in what would later turn out to be an even bigger lead over the chasing pack. Piccione decided to stay out until the end of the pit window but this move backfired as his pace was not quick enough and he rejoined down in 5th place.
The real star of the show though was Great Britain's Dan Clarke who was a different driver in this feature race, he was regularly the fastest car on the track despite starting down in 14th place but by lap 16 after the pitstops he had made his way up into 8th place and on the next lap he made arguably the move of the race on John Martin to take 7th sending the home crowd wild in appreciation, he then began to hack away at the gap between himself and the 6th placed Duran. Meanwhile outfront, Carroll was running at a steady pace despite Bleekemolen slowly closing in but not quickly enough to make a telling impact.
Before the 2nd round of pitstops, Ammermuller and another debutant, Aaron Lim both crashed out bringing a disappointing end to Malaysia's season in which it promised so much after winning the season opening race at Zandvoort. Slick pitwork again from the Irish allowed Carroll to come out again in front this time with a 9 second lead over Bleekemolen in 2nd with Jani, Piccione, Albuquerque, Duran, Clarke, Martin, Liuzzi and Morad completing the top 10. Carroll began to up the pace again in search of the fastest lap that would give the Ireland team a 27 point clean sweep, this though would not happen as Australia's John Martin snatched that honour while chasing down Dan Clarke for 7th who was now struggling with a broken exhaust, he would eventually hold off Martin to finish 7th, afterwards he claimed it was the best and toughest race he had ever driven.
Carroll (despite upping the pace) was never headed and he cruised across the line to win by nearly 11 seconds and with it claimed the championship crown for Ireland, Bleekemolen and Jani completed the podium
WORLD CUP OF MOTORSPORT 2008-09 FINAL STANDINGS1st Ireland 112pts,2nd Switzerland 95pts, 3rd Portugal 92pts, 4th Netherlands 75pts, 5th France 47pts, 6th Malaysia 43pts, =7th New Zealand 36pts, =7th Malaysia 36pts, 9th Monaco 35pts, 10th Great Britain 28pts, 11th United States 24pts, =12th India 19pts, =12th Mexico 19pts, =12th South Africa 19pts, 15th Brazil 18pts, 16th Italy 17pts, 17th Lebanon 8pts, 18th China 7pts, 19th South Korea 4pts, 20th Indonesia 3pts, 21st Germany 2pts =22nd Pakistan 0pts, =22nd Canada 0pts
DRIVERS FINAL STANDINGS: 1st Adam Carroll 119pts, 2nd Neel Jani 99pts, 3rd Filipe Albuquerque 92pts, 4th Jeroen Bleekemolen 50pts, 5th Fairuz Fauzy 41pts, 6th Loic Duval 40pts, 7th John Martin 36pts, 8th Clivio Piccione 35pts, 9th Robert Doornbos 31pts, 10th Earl Bamber 30pts, 11th Danny Watts 20pts, =12th Narain Karthikeyan 19pts, =12th Adrian Zaugg 19pts, 14th Felipe Guimaraes 18pts, 15th Salvador Duran 17pts, 16th Marco Andretti 16pts, =17th Dan Clarke 8pts, =17th Daniel Morad 8pts, =17th Edoardo Piscopo 8pts, =20th Vitantonio Liuzzi 7pts, =20th Ho Pin Tung 7pts, =20th Nicolas Prost 7pts, 23rd Chris Van Der Drift 6pts, 24th JR Hildebrand 5pts, 25th Jin Woo Hwang 4pts, =26th Zahir Ali 3pts, =26th Charlie Kimball 3pts, =28th, Fabio Onidi 2pts, =28th Andre Lotterer 2pts, =28th David Garza 2pts, =31st Cong Fu Cheng 0pts, =31st Michael Ammermuller 0pts, =31st Satrio Hermanto 0pts, =31st Aaron Lim 0pts, =31st Alan Van Der Merwe 0pts, =31st Adam Khan 0pts, =31st James Hinchcliffe 0pts
Welcome to Speedworld, A blog dedicated to my views on Formula 1, A1GP and the all new Formula 2 series. I also will talk about F1's glory days focusing on drivers and great races
Today, the rebelling FOTA (Formula 1 Teams Association) teams finally signed up for the new budget limited 2010 season and that includes Ferrari who were the most vociferous opponents to the new budget capped formula which was intended to limit each team to a maximum expditure of £40million.
