And all the new regs for budget capped teams. for operating under 40M GBP. They get constantly adjustable wings, engines with no rev limit, more powerful KERS systems, and - in theory - four-wheel drive. They will also be allowed unlimited out-of-season track testing with no restrictions on the scale and speed of wind tunnel testing.

The bugdet cap doesn't include drivers salaries, hospitality, fines/penalties, engines (for 2010 only), any expenditure which doesn't affect the championship and dividends (and taxes therein) gained from competing in the championship.

There will also now be 26 slots (13 teams) in the championship and new teams can now get $10M and free freight of 2 chassis, 10,000 kg of other freight and 20 economy class tickets to every non-European race.

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2009/4/9290.html

Well shit, that sounds so cheap! Let's pool our money and start SECCS F1! :rolleyes:

If the budget cap doesn't include things like engines, how the hell is it a cap? Teams already spend 10's of millions on engines alone... and they'd probably spend more if they had it.

Plus the bonuses for the capped teams are hilarious... AWD? You can't develop it properly under the cost cap. Unlimited testing? Unlimited wind-tunnel use? It don't matter, you can't afford it either, 'cause you spent all your money trying to get your higher power KERS batteries reliable enough to last through qualifying. Higher rev limits? Only useful while the cap doesn't cover motor costs... but then again, if there's an 8 motor per season limit, you can't really risk spinning the motor to 20k anyway.

So really, the only thing the cappers have to combat Ferrari's $200M budget is constantly adjustable aero. :lol:

How in the hell can they start a race without telling them what the penalty for "4 wheels off" in the chicane is? That is insanity! FIA at it's best.

I guess this is really more 2010 silly season stuff, but today was the deadline for 2010 entries.

Campos, USF1 and Williams all submitted applications before today. Today, the rest of the FOTA teams as well as Prodrive and Litespeed have submitted their applications. I believe that leaves 4 teams with 3 spots up for grabs.

And it looks like Lola submitted their entry too.

http://www.crash.net/formula+one/new...o_the_fia.html

And there is a possibility that the Prodrive application will actually be called Aston Martin, but run by Prodrive. Looks like a deal was made with Bernie to use the Aston Martin name, basically guaranteeing them a spot on the grid.

http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/news/2009/...enter-in-2010/

And Wurz has lodged and entry (as Team Principal) for a new team called Superfund.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/75753

dont forget race is on fox this weekend!

Yea was definatly watching tv at midnight tonight...got all excited when i saw the F1 race then missed it cause I made an irresponsible decision...I hate college.

So if anyone has this season of the F1 races on there DVR and have a way of burning them I am down to supply the DVD-Rs and buy you dinner cause I have missed every single race because they are on at obscene hours of the night...

Its on at noon today on Fox.

Me = Fail

Now I know why my DVR didn't catch it.

Replay Tuesday @ 10am on speed.

DVR should catch that one. Thanks Dean, you made my day.

My DVR couldn't find it because Fox's listings for pretty much all day Sunday were "TBD". :mad:

I had to wait for the Speed replay yesterday. Hopefully they fix their retardation before Silverstone.

Here is the silliest news I've heard all season.

BrawnGP has made their own iPhone game, and playing each track you qualify on, will give you one entry into a contest to win a Mercedes SL in November.

http://www.brawngpcontest.com/

That's not as silly as the current wrangling between FIA and FOTA.

FIA: "You guys win, we'll cave to your requests instead of letting you guys go off and starting your own series."
FOTA: "Thank you, we can't wait to may F1 the best it can be, and we're glad we were able to come to an agreement."
- 1 week later -
FIA: "Hey, why do you FOTA guys think you get a vote in the Technical Working Group? You're not actually accepted into the series. You're just accepted in the series as far as it takes for you not to keep planning your own series."
FOTA: "Fuck it, we're outta here."

Oh yeah, that drama is just ridiculous and mean. Brawn's shenanigans are cheeky and fun.

Race is on FOX again this week FYI

So, Bourdais got fired. http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/news/2009/...-against-team/

Anyone know the guy rumored as taking his seat at the next race, Jaime Alguersuari? Apparently he's the British F3 champ?

Now Bourdais is threatening to sue to keep his seat.

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.a...46398&PO=46398

Cause that's worked out so well in the past...

Alguersuari officially has the seat for Hungary

Driver roster updated.

...though I think I need to figure out a way to note unavailable drivers with the new organization of the rosters. Unfortunately, it seems IGT has started blocking the SSL connection to the server so I can't log in to make any changes. :rolleyes:

Does anyone have the live timing iPhone app that they were talking about during qualifying?

I think this is the one: http://www.softpauer.com/f1app/index.html

It looks really cool but it costs 26.99 for the full version and according to the "reviews" you apparently have to pay for each race.

I think I'll just watch F1 via my dvr when i get home rather then while im walking down the street for that price.

Nothing like live updates while you are sleeping.

So, who or can somebody theoretically get into Masaa's backup car? There are no third drivers, and no "testing" drivers...

Somebody back at the factory track?

Has to be somebody familiar with the steering wheel... :)

Technically speaking (or so I've been reading from random people) once qualifying starts a substitute driver cannot be put into the car. Each competing driver needs to take part of qualifying.

That would be weird...

People get sick all the time between qualifying and races... But not in F1??? The car and driver qualified... The driver cannot compete for "medical" reasons...

For F1, I would think it would make more sense that you can't switch to a backup car after qualifying begins since there is no practice after Q and I assume the car is toast.

Just an interesting rules question... Wonder if it is either or both... Even if they could find someone qualified/certified to drive there in time.

Scott Speed is all the way across the globe at Indy. :)

Actually, if the car breaks, in the past you could start with a new car, either from the back or from pit lane (I forget). Now that they've gotten rid of the backup cars in F1, they can completely reassemble the car from the ground up with new parts and do the same thing (start from the back or from pit lane). In that sense, F1 is more about the driver qualifying and less about the specific car. It may seem odd, but that's what I've been reading in random internet forums written by random internet experts.

Regardless, a rumor has it that Ferrari might pull Kimi out of the race too, in honor of Massa.

It looks like his helmet took some damage. He is lucky to be alive

Story

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2009-07/48280479.jpg

Honor? Latest news I saw he was out of surgery and "stable".

He's in a chemically induced coma on a respirator until tomorrow morning, which is usually a sign that its fairly serious. The hospital also said "life threatening but stable" not "stable." I'll be surprised if he's back in the cockpit before the next race.

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/150342/..._of_massa.html

I was actually having problems with that statement, but I what I meant was that I can't imagine that the team will be in a racing mood if he's still in a coma.

Also, I did look it up and a driver can be nominated to replace Massa if the stewards allow.

http://www.formula1.com/inside_f1/ru.../8694/fia.html

EDIT: Nevermind about the official roster comment, I think that's wrong.

More: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...qualifier.html

Buried in this article they are saying that Ferrari are contemplating pulling Kimi's car too.

The picture sequence in that article is scary. From the telemetry on screen, it looks like he's full on gas a brake from when the spring hits his helmet to when he hits the wall.

The video appears to show him out of it and still on the gas just after spring impact and then apparently coming to as he goes off track left and then locking up the brakes and skipping all the way back across the track and into the wall.

Thank SNELL and HANS he is alive.

I am still stunned there is not a tether retaining that spring. Bet there will be soon...

After the death of Henry Surtees from a similar accident last week, I'm sure they are going to do something but who knows what it'll be.

I consider them quite different.

No matter how good tethers are, stuff will come off of crashing cars, no way to avoid it at least and still be light and aerodynamic, but springs and such should not fly off cars that are not crashing!

Yes, open wheel/cockpit racing has these inherent dangers over closed, but the spring is just bizarre and should have had something retaining it.

Thank god:

http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/news/2009/...day-afternoon/

Sure, he may be blind in one eye, and may never race again... but it sounds like he'll recover enough to live to see his baby born in November.

I saw this on the regular news. I missed all the racing action.

Definitely a big loss to racing if can't race again. In his interviews he seems like a passionate guy always wanting to win for his fans and team first and foremost

:sadface:

I'm a big fan of Massa, and I've been pretty distraught over his accident. I hope his vision returns, but if he is indeed done racing, he should not be ashamed, he had a great career. The most important piece is that he will live and be able to carry on his life with his family.

If they're gonna get crazy... put Schumacher back in a Ferrari.

...but seriously, if I were one of Ferrari's backup drivers, and didn't get a seat in the exact situation that backup drivers are for... I'd be pissed. Like lawsuit pissed.

I loved Niki Lauda's comments today that Badoer and Gene (and even Bourdais) are useless and Schumacher is the only driver that makes any sense.

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/150448/...s_useless.html

renault le banned for Valencia

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headline...26194313.shtml

Oi, and this season was looking a little dull...

Some guy named M. Schumacher will take Felipe's drive until he gets better.

http://www.michael-schumacher.de/?pa...=82078&lang=uk

Still hasn't been picked up in the media yet.

EDIT: here it is

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/77418

This is, of course, on top of the news that BMW will be leaving the sport at the end of the year.

That really sucks. I bet if the new car was more competitive they'd stick it out. Maybe they can revive the Sauber name as an independent team again? I'm even more bummed that BMW won't even be an engine supplier.

Paging David. Time to get your fanboi engine revved up. :P

I think he's already pegged against the limiter. Poor Dayna, it's going to be like having a Chihuaha on Sundays, lol.

Piquet has been dropped by Renault
http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.a...46542&PO=46542

Piquet Sr. is supposedly interested in buying the BMW Sauber team
http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.a...46542&PO=46542

Massa interviewed leaving the hospital on the way home to Brazil. Vows to race again. With recent picture and a gnarly looking (but really not that bad) scar.
http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/news/2009/...-felipe-massa/

Yeah, Massa looks half retarded. I can't help but think of Peter's stroke face.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IA5nokOFh8...s+McStroke.jpg

Poor guy... but then again he looks pretty good for a broken skull and almost dying.

I already sacked Piquet on the FF1 site. He kinda sucked anyway, I don't really blame Renault for dropping him. Plus, with the long break and the ban at Valencia, Renault has all sorts of time to pick up a replacement for him.