Formula Elaborate Bluff - 2010: Signups open!

[girry]

Week 3 news (August 9)

- The new “F1 Rocks” concept has been launched by Formula One Management and Universal Music Group, with the first big event being in Singapore. LG, F1's official timing sponsor, is sponsoring the event, which will take place in Singapore's Fort Canning Park. The concerts in Singapore will span all three days of the race weekend with the line-up including the Black Eyed Peas, Beyonce, and ZZ Top, among others.
- In order to boost F1’s presence among the wider audience, Bernie Ecclestone has also announced plans for two spin-off television programmes designed to show off F1. One will be an hour-long entertainment show, including celebrity interviews and aspirational and lifestyle features while the other will showcase the live music performances.
- No test for the Champion! Williams F1 says that it will not agree to let Michael Schumacher test a current Ferrari before his return to Grand Prix racing in Valencia. The team said that it was not fair to allow Michael to test and not allow other drivers, such as Jaime Alguersuari have the chance to test before they raced. Ferrari asked all the teams to agree to the test and the FOTA teams, aligned with GPWC seem to have accepted the idea, but Williams said that there was no reason why Michael should have any special dispensation. All current F1 teams should have agreed for the test opportunity to go through.
- There has been a rather odd story knocking about in recent days regarding a Serbian engineering company which says it is making a complaint to the European Union after its bid for an F1 entry was rejected by the FIA. The company, calling itself Stefan Grand Prix says that it believes its "rights for fair and equal competition are violated" and has asked the European Commission Competition Directorate to look at the FIA selection process, claiming that "we are forced into contract without our will, just to be "eligible" for selection". SGP claims that it felt it was forced to sign a Cosworth contract in order to get an entry. It is calling for the selection process to be declared void unless their entry were approved as well. The company is run by Zoran Stefanovic.
- BMW has reported a 76% decline in second-quarter profit as a result of the recession. The company reported that Q2 revenues dropped 11% but profits were down to $174m, compared to four times that figure a year earlier. Much of the problem is in the United States where sales have dropped by more than 25% this year. One of the biggest problems for the company is that its competitors have been offering serious discounts to get rid of unsold vehicles. BMW has cut back on its production as a result. The company says that its decision to quit Formula 1 was not related to the economic situation.
- Petronas Grand Prix is setting up a new factory in Cowley, Oxfordshire, England. It is expected to be operational for the team within a month or two.
- Virgin Racing has signed a deal with Adam Carroll for him to be their race driver for the 2010 season.
- iSport has signed a deal with Giedo van der Garde for him to be their race driver for the 2010 season.
- Ray Mallock Ltd has signed a deal with Vitaly Petrov for him to be their race driver for the 2010 season.
- Durango has entered a partnership with Genii Capital, with the investment company obtaining a 45% share in the team.
- Brabham has entered a partnership with YouTube, with Chad Hurley obtaining a 25% share in the team.
- myF1dream has entered a partnership with Four Loko, rebranding the outfit as FOUR LOKO GRAND PRIX.
- Prodrive has signed a deal with Mad Croc Energy, N.Technology with CEVA Logistics, and Superfund a deal with Embratel for the 2010 season.
- Epsilon Euskadi and Minardi have submitted their F1 entries.
- Nelson Piquet jr's race driver contract with Renault has been terminated, effective immediately. Renault has selected their test driver Romain Grosjean to replace Piquet, effective immediately. His contract lasts until the end of 2009, with an option for 2010.
- Sebastien Loeb has declined Toro Rosso's contract offer and Nico Hülkenberg has declined Williams's contract offer.
- McLaren has signed a sponsorship deal with Xnb and Force India with Jaypee Group.
- Telefónica March has merged with Lotus Racing. The new team is going to be called Telefónica March Lotus Racing, with the chassis branded Telefónica Lotus.
- Eddie Jordan is rumoured to have attracted another investor for his project, though this time, the buyer's identity has not leaked to the press.
- BMW has declined the offers it has received from Piquet Sports and USF1.

[CaptainGetz12]

Durango submits its official entry bid to F1.

[girry]

:bernie: Bernie Ecclestone has announced his World Championship calendar for the 2010 season.
It is as follows:

1 Bahrain Grand Prix Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir - 14 March
2 Australian Grand Prix Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne - 28 March
3 Malaysian Grand Prix Sepang International Circuit, Kuala Lumpur - 4 April
4 Chinese Grand Prix Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai - 18 April
5 Spanish Grand Prix Circuit de Catalunya, Montmeló - 9 May
6 Monaco Grand Prix Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo - 16 May
7 Turkish Grand Prix Istanbul Park, Istanbul - 30 May
8 Canadian Grand Prix Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal - 13 June
9 European Grand Prix Valencia Street Circuit, Valencia - 27 June
10 British Grand Prix Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone - 11 July
11 German Grand Prix Hockenheimring, Hockenheim - 25 July
12 Hungarian Grand Prix Hungaroring, Mogyoród - 1 August
13 Belgian Grand Prix Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot - 29 August
14 Italian Grand Prix Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, Monza - 12 September
15 Singapore Grand Prix Marina Bay Street Circuit, Singapore - 26 September
16 Japanese Grand Prix Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka - 10 October
17 Korean Grand Prix Korea International Circuit, Yeongam - 24 October
18 Brazilian Grand Prix Autódromo José Carlos Pace, São Paulo - 7 November
19 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi - 14 November

Interesting to note how various races on this calendar are in direct conflict with the GPWC calendar. Considering Bernie is claiming an exclusive contract with all these circuits, it remains to be seen what happens with those GPWC races...

- The Toyota Motor Company is losing a lot of money at the moment as a result of the economic downturn. The company has a new boss in Akio Toyoda. He is instituting a relentless cost-cutting plan to try to get the company back into profit.
In 2007 Toyota's then new F1 team principal Tadashi Yamashina said that he had been given two years to deliver results for Toyota in F1, following years of underperformance despite having one of the biggest budgets in F1. In January the team admitted that because of the world financial crisis its F1 programme was under scrutiny but the then boss Katsuaki Watanabe decided to continue. Toyota has since been at the forefront of the cost-cutting plans in F1 which has made the F1 involvement more cost-effective but performance is still important and the pressure remains on the team to win races. A few months ago the team's John Howett said that "if we have a weak season we have no future" and that "we feel we must win to secure a very bright future in F1". That has not happened. Jarno Trulli is currently sixth in the Drivers' Championship but his early season third and fourth places have faded and in recent events he has struggled to score. Timo Glock is 10th in the championship and he has suffered the same decline in performance. Toyota remains fourth in the Constrcutors at the moment behind Brawn, Red Bull and Ferrari but McLaren and Williams are on an upward trend and could catch Toyota. This would make life more difficult for Panasonic Toyota Racing because being beaten by customer Williams would not be a good reflection on the activities in Cologne, particularly as Williams is small and relatively under-funded compared to the main effort. The good news for Toyota is that Toyoda is a motorsport fan, who has even raced himself on occasion. He is planning to help Toyota by creating exciting new cars, including an affordable sports car.

- Ari Vatanen has announced the three members of his cabinet who support him in his candidacy for the presidential elections of the FIA, the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, due to take place on October 23. Should the representatives of the FIA’s member clubs chose to elect the former World Rally Champion as the new President, the Finn will be backed by Fernando Falco y Fernandez de Cordova from Spain as President of Senate, Bernard Tay from Singapore as Deputy President for Mobility and Hermann Tomczyk from Germany as Deputy President for Motorsport.“These cabinet members all have a long and proven track record in the FIA and in their respective countries. Together with them, we can bring about the necessary changes to make the FIA more transparent, more efficient and more effective and to increase the benefit for its members”, says Vatanen. “Now, it is time for change and together we can achieve this!”

- Having recently been announced as Felipe Massa's replacement for the European GP and possibly beyond, Michael Schumacher has tested the 2007 Ferrari at Fiorano, but it turned out that the lingering neck issues he had from his motorcycle crash earlier this year were more severe than anticipated. Michael decides to play safe and step out of the Ferrari, after all. Boy, wonder who Ferrari can find for the car in this short notice?

- Virgin Racing has signed a race driver contract with Luca Filippi for 2010. ART Grand Prix has signed a race-driver contract with Jules Bianchi. Force India has signed a test driver contract with Karun Chandhok.

- Juan Pablo Montoya's NASCAR team Ganassi has announced a three-year extension with the Colombian racer. As a comedic anecdote at the press conference, he leaked to the American press how a "Malaysian guy" he didn't evem know recently offered him a contract to come back to Europe and race in the "crapwagon F1".

- Epsilon Euskadi have signed a sponsorship contract with Pepe Jeans, iSport International with Sage Group renaming themselves to Sage Group iSport International, Lola with McDonald’s, RML with Lada, and Superfund with Itaipava.

- Brawn GP, Red Bull. Prodrive, Brabham, and N.Technology have submitted their GPWC entries, while Durango and Telefónica March Lotus Racing have submitted their F1 entries.

- The Brabham family has decided to sue Brabham F1 team over rights to use their name. Visa decides not to bother with the same action over Lola breaking their existing sponsorship contract in favour of McDonald's, but this might still make it more difficult for the British team to sign contracts with other sponsors in the future...

- USF1 and Piquet Sports have announced a merger, with Peter Windsor (Rob) and Nelson Piquet (NickyDustyOwl) becoming co-team principals, both now owning an equal share of the Formula One team. The joint effort, with its base in Italy, Europe instead of USF1's original plan to base the team in the "NASCAR country", America, will be spearheaded by their new lead driver, Nelson Piquet jr.

- RNG: Secret event #1 (1-98: event doesn’t happen: 99-100: event happens). 82!
- RNG: Secret event #2 (1-90: event doesn’t happen, 91-100: event happens). 66!
- RNG: Secret event #3 (1-10: negative outcome, 11-40: neutral outcome, 41-100: positive outcome). 55!
- RNG: Secret event #4 (1-20: negative event happens, 21-80: event doesn’t happen, 81-100: positive event happens). 80!

Also note that we will have the European GP in Valencia this weekend, and it's also now the **final week** to submit your GPWC entries as well.

[Pinkd56]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

N. Technology proudly announces the signing of Swiss former A1GP star Neel Jani for an initial one-year deal as racing driver in 2010, setting the stage for a remarkable comeback story.

In collaboration with Technogym, Jani will be featured in the captivating YouTube exclusive documentary series titled "RacingFit: Road to Recovery," chronicling his inspiring journey to regain peak fitness after a bicycle crash in August 2009, preparing himself for a triumphant return to the race seat in 2010.

[girry]

F1 news - August 23

First of all, I apologize but I noticed that I forgot to include something in the rules.
Designing a chassis will always take 8 weeks by default. You will be able to ask your design team to rush it, but that will risk the chassis being a bit … rushed.

Consider this - as well as this bit about building chassis which was actually included in the rules from the get go - when deciding on the day you start designing your cars. :toto:
(Building one chassis will cost 1m€. Remember to build enough chassis to be able to deal with possible accidents during the season!
To build a new chassis, you first need to have a factory and some staff.
Depending on how much staff you have, this process takes anywhere between 2 and 6 weeks (building 1 car at once), 3 and 7 weeks (2 chassis at once), 4 and 8 weeks (3 chassis at once) etc.
NOTE: If you are unlucky with RNG, you might face an additional delay of 1-2 weeks!
NOTE: While you are building a chassis, your staff will be preoccupied with this process every other turn. This means, during this process, you cannot do anything else on one out of 2 turns!)
Do note that while it might impact those of you who have built a coherent plan for the game, I think basically nobody has gotten any advantage over anybody else over it yet, so good that I noticed it now already
Then, we will do two of the RNG's because they will impact this weekend's European GP at Valencia.

---

- Felipe Massa's injury recovery is going fairly well, but the Brazilian will take the rest of the year off in order to return fully fit. In his absence, and with Schumacher having cancelled his return at short notice, Ferrari were reportedly considering several drivers for the seat including Luca Badoer, Nico Hülkenberg, Sébastien Bourdais and even Valentino Rossi, but eventually signed former test driver Marc Gené to replace him in the European GP at the new Valencia street circuit in his home country.

- 2009 European GP: McLaren returns to winning ways! Benefitting from mid-race safety car caused by Marc Gené's smoking Ferrari. the inaugural European GP at the Valencia Street Circuit was won by the the reigning World Champion, Lewis Hamilton whose early pitstop enabled him to jump pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel and championship leader Jenson Button for the lead. Kubica, having done the same trick from second-last on the grid, was unable to hold on to P2 and finished fourth, ahead of Fisichella with his first points of the season for Force India. P6 went to Alonso, P7 to Nakajima and P8 to Webber.

Points standings WDC, after Valencia: Button 79, Vettel 59, Webber 47.5, Barrichello 47, Hamilton 25, Alonso 24, Massa 22, Trulli 21.5, Rosberg 20.5, Glock 14, Nakajima 12, Räikkönen 10, Kubica 7, Heidfeld 6, Kovalainen 5, Fisichella 4, Buemi 3, Bourdais 2, Webber 1

- GPWC entry deadline has now passed and the following teams have submitted their entries:
FOTA members
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
Panasonic Toyota Racing
Brawn GP F1 Team
Red Bull Racing
Renault F1 Team
BMW Sauber F1 Team (but with no factory support, and the future of the team unclear)

Understandably, their entries for the GPWC championship are effectively confirmed. In addition to them, the following outfits have also submitted their official entry bids:
Prodrive Racing
N.Technology
Brabham F1 Team
Qadbak Minardi F1 Team with Carlin

Existing FOTA member Scuderia Toro Rosso did not submit a GPWC entry, and will therefore be leaving the FOTA. The team is now officially up for sale. The seven remaining FOTA members will be voting among themselves as to what the championship format will be, how many bids will be accepted, and after that, which teams will be accepted. Preliminary GPWC entry list announcement will be made on September 13.

- Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley have announced in no uncertain terms that the Grand Prix World Championship will proceed without FIA support and any circuit that is hosting races in a non-FIA approved championship will be stripped of its rights to host rounds in the FIA Formula One World Championship™ Grand Prix in 2010 and beyond. Their announcement forced five tracks on both the preliminary GPWC and the F1 calendar to immediately decide on which series they will prefer for 2010. All five - Silverstone, Monza, Montreal, Yas Marina, and Marina Bay decided to side with GPWC.
- However, Force India did not side with GPWC. Their stance on the split was previously unclear, but in the end, decided to go with
- The 1997 Formula One World Drivers' Champion, Jacques Villeneuve, has announced that he will be entering Formula One as both #1 Race Driver and co-Team Principal of the Italian Villeneuve Durango Formula effort in 2010. In the venture, Villeneuve will be joining forces with familiar faces in the form of his ex-team boss in the Speedcar series, Ivone Pinton of Durango, and personal friend Gerard Lopez of Genii Capital. Villeneuve has also obtained a 10% share in the venture. The team has submitted an F1 entry.
- Heavily supported by their sponsor McDonald’s, HSBC Lola F1 Team have signed Sébastien Bourdais as their #1 driver for the 2010 season.
- Qadbak Minardi F1 Team has signed a deal with Carlin to provide them a base and resources to enter either GPWC or F1 in 2010.
- With Luca Filippi having already signed a deal with the team, Virgin Racing have now announced a sponsorship deal with his personal sponsor Cimier Swiss Watches. Team Superfund have signed a sponsorship deal with Bruno Senna's personal sponsor Banco Cruzeiro do Sul.
- Having asked for more sponsorship from AvtoVAZ, RML have decided to rebrand their F1 team as Lada Sport in exchange! The improved financial deal also means merging Lada's existing WTCC team with RML. The new WTCC team, called "Lada RML", will run two Chevrolet Cruzes and two Lada Prioras in 2010. As previously announced, Vitaly Petrov will head the F1 team's efforts in 2010.
- McLaren's negotiations with Kimi Räikkönen, Toyota's with Rubens Barrichello and Brawn's with Jenson Button were unsuccessful, but Nico Rosberg - perhaps unexpectedly - decided against joining GPWC and said yes to Williams's offer for him to be their lead driver in their bid to win the 2010 Formula One World Championship!
- Campos Racing have signed a contract with Andy Soucek and Kolles with Christijan Albers.
- Telefónica March Lotus Racing's contract dispute with Telefónica was amicably resolved, and the squabbling parties are now looking ahead again, building a bid to enter F1 in 2010.
- N.Technology have signed a race driver deal with A1GP stalwart Neel Jani for the 2010 season. Having recently been injured in a cycling accident, Jani hopes to recover to shape by the start of the season!
- ART Grand Prix have signed a contract with Renault for the 2010 season.
- Petronas Grand Prix have reached a conditional deal with an associate.

RNG: Secret event #1 (1-98: event doesn’t happen: 99-100: event happens)
29!
RNG: Secret event #2 (1-90: event doesn’t happen, 91-100: event happens)
2!

[CaptainGetz12]

Villeneuve Returns to F1 as Owner-Driver, Takes Co-Principal Role at Durango
In an unexpected move Jacques Villeneuve returns to Formula One as co-principal and lead driver for Durango Formula. The Formula One grid has not seen an owner-driver operation since the 1970s, and critics argue that the sport is too complicated and intricate to allow this kind of behind-the-wheel management. But with the recent departure of numerous venues to the breakway series the return of a Formula One champion returns some normalcy to proceedings.

The rest of the screen is obscured by a stack of old "Durango Formula" GP2 hats.

[Ramilton]

I would like to submit an entry for Campos Racing.

[takagi_for_the_win]

And I would like to throw my hat into the ring with Lada.

[Klon]

Announcement Regarding Team Identity

Regrettably, in our eagerness to bring a great name back to the world of motorsport, we failed to do our due diligence and did not cooperate with the Brabham family over the legal rights to compete under the great Brabham identity.

As the great Sir Jack Brabham decided to not return his family name to motorsport at this time, he made us aware of this choice. As we acknowledge the Brabham family as the sole entity with legal ownership of the Brabham identity, we have decided to respect their desire and have altered our GPWC application branding to Hilmer-Hurley Motorsport for the time being.

We wish to apologise for any inconvenience caused to both Sir Jack Brabham and his family as a whole. It is not in the interest of Hilmer-Hurley Motorsport to disrespect the legends that made our sport as great as it is and we look forward to heal this situation.

[girry]

Brabham family glad to see Hilmer give up rights on their name

A recent statement by Franz Hilmer's prospective GPWC entry, confirming that they have given up on the idea of using their family name in the context of their F1 entry, has been gladly received by the Brabham family. They are happy to confirm that their earlier dispute with the team over the use of the Brabham name seems to have been settled amicably.

With the Leafield-based team now called Hilmer-Hurley Motorsport, David Brabham wishes to publicly state that, assuming things between his family and the team proceed in the pre-agreed manner, he is indeed happy to offer his personal support for mr Hilmer's project and is going to vouch in favour of their bid to enter the new "GPWC" series.

[girry]

Weekly roundup: August 30

First of all, we will close a small loophole that a couple of wily teams were attempting to use in their favour.

From next week on, it will no longer be possible to contact other teams or manufacturers with multi-part “collaboration proposals” or equivalent, in a manner that blatantly circumvents the one action per week rule.

- 2009 Belgian GP: Another shock winner! Having already scored a sensational front row in qualifying around his favourite circuit Spa-Francorchamps, Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella took an excellent start, passed championship leader Jenson Button into La Source, made zero mistakes, kept the Brawn driver in his wake throughout the 44 laps, crossed the line first, and finally stood on top of the podium to the absolute delight of his team of underdogs! It was a huge Indian celebration at the podium - but one man was missing. Vijay Mallya, the face and the biggest investor in the race team, had departed the race track after Saturday unannounced, and was nowhere to be found on the big day! Rumour has it that he is in some trouble...

Not that the championship leader Button sought to pass Fisi that hard all race, for his only remaining title rival, Sebastian Vettel on P3 was unable to find any solid pace and had to settle with the lowest step of the podium, ahead of Räikkönen and the sensational Grosjean, who thoroughly embarrassed his World Champion team-mate Alonso all weekend. With Barrichello P6, Sutil P7, and Hamilton P8 covering the last points-paying positions, the championship standings after the weekend look as such:

Button 87, Vettel 65, Barrichello 50, Webber 48.5, Hamilton 26, Alonso 24, Massa 22, Trulli 21.5, Rosberg 20.5, Räikkönen 15, Fisichella 14, Glock 14, Nakajima 12, Kubica 7, Heidfeld 6, Kovalainen 5, Grosjean 4, Buemi 3, Bourdais 2, Sutil 2

- Having received all 11 entries for their championship, all 7 remaining FOTA teams have met up and voted on structural makeup of the championship for the 2010 GPWC season, which will then determine the amount of team applications that accepted for the inaugural season. On the table were several different proposals that ranged from accepting all eleven entries, to ideas which would see just six teams on the grid!
In the end, a system of seven teams fielding three cars each prevailed. FOTA will hold a vote on the 7 teams that will start the 2010 season on September 13th.
- Big news in the driver market as well - it appears that Jenson Button will be one of McLaren's three drivers!
- With the partnership with the Piquet family rendering future of Peter Windsor's USF1 as an American outfit somewhat uncertain, it seems to be N.Technology who intends to bring American flavour for the 2010 season! American film producer, sportscar and Ferrari enthusiast James Glickenhaus has surprisingly obtained a 50% share in the team, which will see him becoming a co-owner with Mauro Sipsz, as well as the team getting renamed as North American Racing Team - N.A.R.T. for short - and competing under the American license. Close friends with the late Luigi Chinetti’s family, Glickenhaus obviously believes the partnership with the touring car outfit with F1 aspirations is an opportunity to honour the old U.S. racing legend in a positive manner.
- Scuderia Toro Rosso announced last week that the team was up for sale - but evidently not anymore! Red Bull have apparently changed their mind and are now looking to field their junior team in the more affordable version of Formula One, after all.
- Force India have signed an engine supply deal with Mercedes for the 2010 season, Villeneuve Durango Racing has announced that their cars will be powered by Toyota, and Petronas Grand Prix will be Ferrari customers.
- Team Superfund have submitted an entry for the 2010 F1 season.
- No doubt encouraged by his Le Mans victory and recent Valencia performance, Campos have signed a contract with Ferrari's supersub Marc Gené to head the Spanish team as their full time driver in 2010! We have also learned that Markus Winkelhock inteds to return to F1 with Kolles, and Lola have signed a historic deal with Cheng Congfu who might very well become first ever Chinese F1 driver!
- Virgin Racing have signed Matt Morris, Prodrive Racing Geoff Willis, iSport with Guillaume Cattellani, and Qadbak Minardi F1 Team with Carlin Mike Gascoyne as their new technical directors respectively.
- Epsilon Euskadi have announced a sponsorship deal with Certina, and Brawn GP with Unibet.
- Eddie Jordan and Denis O'Brien have struck a deal which is rumoured to be related to an Irish effort to return to Formula One.

You all may send in next week's actions already, while I get the sheet sorted.

[girry]

Weekly roundup: September 6

- Quoting Indian media, BBC reports that the Force India owner, Indian drinks tycoon Vijay Mallya has been struck by a major crisis with his fledgling Kingfisher Airlines company. More than €600 million in debt already, the airline is cancelling flights and struggling to raise cash. Sources tell BBC that Mallya himself faces a raft of charges relating to financial irregularities at Kingfisher Airlines. His monetary affairs are being investigated by India's Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate, which handles financial crimes.
- FIA presidential candidate Ari Vatanen has revealed the names of the seven candidates he is putting forward for the roles of FIA Vice President. These positions should not be confused with the two Deputy Presidents already nominated.
Vatanen's choices are not well known in the motorsport world and include Ivan Dibos from Peru, Mike Harris from Australia, Earl Jarrett from Jamaica, Niklaus Lundsgaard-Hansen from Switzerland, Peter Meyer from Germany, Tim Shearman from Canada and Maria Spetz from Sweden.
"This is a first-class team and all its members came on board spontaneously because they all want to make a change together with me", says Vatanen. "We have people from all regions, north and south, east and west, bigger and smaller clubs, so the team is well-balanced."
The choice is significant in that it is the first time a woman has been nominated for the role.
- McLaren has signed a 2010 race driver contract with their long time test driver Pedro de la Rosa. Brawn GP have decided to preserve some continuity and sign a contract for 2010 with Rubens Barrichello. Encouraged by his Spa performance, Renault have used the option in Romain Grosjean’s contract for the 2010 season. The Frenchman will be driving for the team in one of their race seats. Nick Heidfeld has signed a contract with Toyota for 2010, and Telefónica March Lotus Racing have signed José María López to be their lead driver in 2010. It is speculated that this has been partly in settlement of the legal dispute between Argentinian government and the telecommunications company who are looking to accelerate their Latin American expansion.
- In perhaps the most surprising driver news for 2010, Red Bull Racing have announced that five-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb will be one of Red Bull's race drivers in 2010! Loeb will contest a full WRC series with Citroën, but also race for Red Bull in the races that don't clash with WRC events.
- HSBC Lola F1 Team, Kolles Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso have submitted their F1 entries.
- Hilmer-Hurley Motorsport, who have made a bid to join the GPWC series, report that they have now pulled out their entry bid! Now planning to compete in F1 instead, they will act in collaboration with Toyota who will supply them engines.
- ART Grand Prix have entered an all-French partnership with their GP2 rivals DAMS, in which the former will be assuming control of the Formula One team and the latter will take over their junior teams in GP2, GP3 and A1GP. This deal will see some members of the staff exchanging factories within France in an effort to streamline the collaboration.
- Dany Bahar has been appointed as the new CEO of Group Lotus effective October 1. He replaces Mike Kimberley, who retired in July. Bahar was previously Senior Vice President, Commercial & Brand for Ferrari SpA where he was responsible for worldwide road car sales and after sales business, overall road car and F1 marketing activities, licensing, and merchandising business. The Lotus company is owned by Malaysian government-controlled car company Proton.
- Villeneuve Durango Formula report they have signed Jörg Zander as their technical director for 2010.
Virgin Racing and Lada Sport will be using Cosworth engines in 2010, while N.A.R.T. have struck a deal with Ferrari to supply their engines.
- Qadbak Minardi F1 Team have entered an agreement with the Qatari Royal House, and Sage Group iSport International will be sponsored by Flybe in 2010.
- Bad news from the doctor as Neel Jani's body is taking a much longer time to heal than expected, with him expected to be fit only in June next year.
- Team US F1 and/or Piquet Sports (or whatever their name is) are upgrading their facility in Veggiano, Italy.

You all may send in next week's actions already, the sheet will probably be sorted tomorrow.

[girry]

Weekly roundup: September 13

- Given that Fisichella is moving to Ferrari, Force India swiftly needed to hire a replacement for him. They have ended up hiring their reserve driver Vitantonio Liuzzi for the rest of the season.

- Championship implications at Monza! On Saturday, home race hero Giancarlo Fisichella put the Tifosi into a true frenzy scoring a third-place qualifying result in his Ferrari debut, but the rest of the world was focusing on the championship battle, which seemed wide open after Jenson Button qualified a lowly 8th, while Red Bull grabbed the 1-2 they were after, with Toro Rosso's Sébastien Buemi grabbing a surprise 4th place in qualifying to boot!
On the race day, a repeat of the famous 2008 victory was anticipated as Sebastian Vettel took off from pole and started growing his lead lap after lap. Meanwhile Mark Webber kept hold of his second position, but drove slowly enough to allow Vettel disappear into the distance. A small error on lap 22, allowing Lewis Hamilton, who'd carved through the field from seventh grid spot to third, pass him for P2. Webber rejoined just in front of Fisichella, who was thriving on the cheers of the Italians, and eager to recover his podium position, began battling the Australian for a podium place!
The battle raged on, as the Italian was visibly faster than the Australian, and grew equally more frustrated at the Australian's blocking in braking zones. On lap 29, Webber's tail wiggled a bit coming out of the first chicane. Fisi jumped on the opportunity and put his car inside Mark's car entering Curva Grande...
...Martin! They touched....oohhhh noooo!!!!
It was a small touch, but enough for Fisichella to lose control and strike the wall hard at over 250 kilometres an hour - his Ferrari was in absolute tatters!
The following safety car and cleanup operation took a while to cover up, and even a small red flag period was needed in wet Monza rain until the drivers were let back on the track, with 33 laps completed. Vettel led with Barrichello on P2, ahead of Heidfeld, Buemi, Trulli, Button and Hamilton who'd had a small issue on the pitstop. With the safety car out, Vettel blasted off back into the distance again.
But Vettel's joy was to be short lived, and through little fault of his own - his ex-team mate, home race hero, Vitantonio Liuzzi, was struggling in his Force India. Just as Vettel was about to lap him into the second chicane, Liuzzi's rear tyre exploded in a dramatic fashion. What followed can only be described in terms of poor Tonio being the Schlesser to Vettel's Senna - what drama, what championship implications! Was the clean-up hasty, was there still some debris left on the track?
In any case, with his opposition promptly eliminated, Rubens Barrichello was now in the lead. Famous for his wet weather exploits, and perhaps egged on by the contract extension he penned last week the Brazilian took his opportunity to blast into the lead and win the Grand Prix. Hamilton behind him had no answer to his speed, Trulli wasted his podium chance spinning out on lap 49, and Heidfeld went off at Lesmo a few laps prior, losing some time in the process. Therefore Buemi, who wasn't particularly fast in the race, was briefly promoted to third but Webber, who was lucky with the safety car giving him a free pitstop to replace his front wing, recovered and passed the junior team car for a podium just two laps to go. Slow but steady, Button racked up four more points, Heidfeld was sixth, Kimi an anonymous seventh, and Kubica got the final point.

Points: Button 91, Vettel 65, Barrichello 60, Webber 54.5, Hamilton 34, Alonso 24, Massa 22, Trulli 21.5, Rosberg 20.5, Räikkönen 17, Fisichella 14, Glock 14, Nakajima 12, Heidfeld 9, Buemi 8, Kubica 8, Kovalainen 5, Grosjean 4, Bourdais 2, Sutil 2

----

- In a shock move, Petronas Grand Prix has announced that Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen will be racing for them in 2010 instead! Red Bull have decided to promote Sébastien Buemi to share their third seat with Sébastien Loeb in 2010. Timo Glock puts the pen to the paper and signs to be Williams' 2010 driver alongside Nico Rosberg. Jacques Villeneuve has announced that Villeneuve Durango Formula’s second seat will be occupied by Nicolas Minassian. Team Superfund's lineup will be completed by young Mexican Sergio Pérez. FOUR LOKO GRAND PRIX has struck a surprise deal with Indy Lights champion J.R. Hildebrand. Qadbak Minardi F1 Team with Carlin has raised more than a few eyebrows, naming Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad al Thani as one of their prospective race drivers in 2010. Jérôme d'Ambrosio will race for ART Grand Prix. Finally, Mohammed ben Sulayem is named Renault's test driver in 2010.

- Having struck a sponsorship deal with Nestlé, the USF1 and/or Piquet Sports cars will be entered under the name Nespresso-Piquet Autosport and be painted black in Nespresso colours. As part of the deal, co-owner Nelson Piquet will act as the Swiss brand's Global Ambassador.

- BMW's story in F1 has ended as Peter Sauber has turned up and decided to buy back the team, mostly in order to keep his people employed for 2010 still. BMW will continue in F1 in no capacity.

- There have been stories this week that Mercedes-Benz is talking about buying a stake in the Brawn GP team, but at the moment everyone is playing down any possibility of a split between McLaren and Mercedes. "Mercedes-Benz's engine supply contract with McLaren is a very long-standing one - it's in its 15th consecutive year, in fact - and it will continue to run for many years to come," said a McLaren spokesman. "Both McLaren and Mercedes-Benz remain extremely satisfied with our F1 collaboration."

- Scuderia Toro Rosso will be using Cosworths in 2010.

- Hilmer-Hurley has applied to enter F1 in 2010.

- Eghbal Hamidy will be Campos Racing’s technical director in 2010, Nick Wirth will be Lada's, and Pierre Wache will be Telefonica March Lotus's.

- FOTA meeting: By unanimous decision, Ferrari, McLaren-Mercedes, Toyota, Brawn-Mercedes, Red Bull-Renault and Renault have been selected to compete in the 2010 Grand Prix World Championship. For the seventh team, a vote was required. Each FOTA member (including definitely-not- BMW BMW Sauber who had not yet been selected for the WC) had a vote on the board meeting on who they will be prefering to have in the series in 2010 as the seventh team.

First round votes:
BMW Sauber votes BMW Sauber
Ferrari votes N.A.R.T.
McLaren votes BMW Sauber (2)
Red Bull votes Minardi
Renault votes Minardi (2)
Toyota votes Aston Martin
Brawn votes N.A.R.T. (2)

Second round votes:
Toyota votes BMW Sauber (3)

BMW Sauber will be the seventh and final GPWC team in 2010.

[girry]

Weekly roundup: September 20

- In a surprise move, Paul Stoddart - whose GPWC bid, initially based in Carlin's headquarters in Farnham, just got rejected by FOTA last week - has bought Sauber! Details of this deal will see the team getting renamed as Carlin Minardi Sauber Qadbak (CM Sauber). Peter Sauber - who had just re-acquired his team back from BMW a week and a bit ago - has been assured that all his 400 employees in Hinwil will stay employed for the foreseeable future. Sauber will step back again and continue being involved in an advisory role, while Stoddart will assume operational control. Carlin will enter GP2 next year as their B team of sorts. The FOTA just could not keep this gritty Australian away, can it? Now, his mission is simply building enough of a budget to field the team in 2010…

- As part of the aforementioned deal, Khalid bin Hamad al Thani, who had been announced as Minardi’s race driver just last week, will be relegated to a test driving role.

- In an attempt to strengthen their ties with engine suppliers Toyota, Hilmer-Hurley Motorsport have announced a deal with Toyota’s long-time Formula Nippon partners Team TOM’s. This deal will see the team try to enter F1 in 2010 as PDVSA Team TOM’S. As part of the deal Nobuhide Tachi has been nominated as honorary president of the Formula One outfit, but the team will continue to have its day to day operations in Franz Hilmer’s base in Leafield.

- Giancarlo Fisichella's Monza injury has prognosis. Apparently the Italian will be fully fit in seven months - perhaps just in time for the new season? Meanwhile, excitement all over as Marc Gené is back in the car for the rest of the season, baby.

- Renault have completed their 2010 lineup by signing Lucas di Grassi, while Telefónica March Lotus Racing have signed a reserve driver deal with Fairuz Fauzy.

- Lada Sport have signed a lucrative title sponsorship deal with Gazprom, Virgin Racing have signed a deal with Hewlett-Packard, Villeneuve Durango Formula with Visa, Kolles Racing with Nordea, and Nespresso-Piquet Autosport with Burger King.

- Petronas Grand Prix have formally submitted their F1 entry for 2010.

- In light of several Grands Prix on the originally announced F1 calendar defecting to GPWC, FIA’s Max Mosley has decided to go one step further in his hand-wringing. Mosley has announced in no uncertain terms that none of the circuits remaining on the GPWC calendar on September 21 will be allowed to host any FIA-licensed racing in 2010. Therefore, each track on the GPWC calendar was obliged to decide whether to honor their GPWC contract or to cut ties with him in order to keep hosting FIA licensed racing. Upon giving it some thought, Helsinki Thunder, Singapore and Adelaide decided to bail.

- Having received news of his previously agreed upon contract to race for Minardi cancelled with no explanation given to him, Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani took a fit and immediately confronted Paul Stoddart, with whom he had agreed upon the race driver contract with. Upon some careful consideration, Al Thani signaled in no uncertain terms Stoddart better try being the passenger in a two seater ... in other words, Al Thani's personal Ferrari. No one seems to know exactly what happened on that ride... but returning to the factory, the Australian was visibly shaken, and Al Thani announced to everybody present that he will be definitely racing the Sauber for 2010, after all?

[Nessafox]

The next step for ART is designing a car. They'll approach the designers of the Le Mans project of Peugeot, but if that doesn't work out those from Oreca. (i don't know names) And well, get some tyres too i suppose. With regards to reserve drivers, we'd like to approach Jean-Eric Vergne. He doesnt need to bring sponsorship but he needs to let go of Red Bull (trust us, you'll be happy you do this)

[girry]

Weekly roundup: September 27

Singapore GP 2009

It might have been a difficult last few races for Jenson Button, but in mixed weather qualifying the Briton was right back in his comfort zone, snatching a pole position ahead of Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton, with closest championship rival Sebastian Vettel misreading the weather and out in Q1 already!

The race, contested in very wet conditions throughout, saw Hamilton outshine his next year's McLaren team-mate, passing him for the lead on lap 5 already - but after mid-race technical gremlins almost on successive laps put Rubens Barrichello and Vettel (who had been frantically climbing towards the upper half of the field), losing the victory to Hamilton (1st) and Webber (2nd) hardly mattered for JB who happily settled for a podium which secured six more very, very important points for the British racer... Rounding up the points paying positions were Jarno Trulli, Robert Kubica, Kimi Räikkönen, Fernando Alonso and Romain Grosjean.

Points: Button 97, Vettel 65, Webber 62.5, Barrichello 60, Hamilton 44, Alonso 26, Massa 22, Trulli 26.5, Rosberg 20.5, Räikkönen 20, Fisichella 14, Glock 14, Kubica 12, Nakajima 12, Heidfeld 9, Buemi 8, Kovalainen 5, Grosjean 5, Bourdais 2, Sutil 2
With three races to go, JENSON BUTTON IS YOUR 2009 WORLD CHAMPION FOR BRAWN GP!

---

News

- Having shredded their GPWC contract after all, the Singapore GP will be a part of the F1 World Championship next year.
- Despite an unfruitful relationship so far, Toyota and Jarno Trulli find no other options but each other. Jarno will stay at Toyota for the sixth successive season. GPWC amalgamation Carlin Minardi Sauber Racing has struck a deal for 2010 with GP2 champion Nico Hülkenberg, whereas Telefónica March Lotus Racing, hoping to enter F1, will attack 2010 with Javier Villa in one of their cars.
- Campos Racing has struck a minor sponsorship deal with Chupa Chups, and Sage Group iSport International with Nando’s. Ferrari has re-negotiated their existing deal with Shell.
- Lola will be using Cosworth engines in 2010.
- As a part of their deal with Ferrari, Petronas Grand Prix cars will be designed by Marco Fainello, who will be on loan from Maranello at the new team's factory.
- Having been rejected by the GPWC championship, N.A.R.T. has submitted an F1 application.
- It is reported that some associates of the FOUR LOKO team boss Ashley Wood are concerned by his sudden disappearance. Wood, of an unknown age, from somewhere in England, has managed to collect some money for their unlikely F1 bid, however, unexpectedly he has been unreachable for nearly a week already.
- There are rumours coming from within the FOTA that major players are upset with Peter Sauber’s decision to let their old enemy Paul Stoddart take control of a team in GPWC. With the cash-depleted state of the squad, there are some murmurs that a vote of confidence within the FOTA might be in order some time soon. Some might even prefer to start their inaugural season with just 18 cars over having 21 but Stoddart and Sauber in it...
- Secret event 3 (70% chance of happening) will happen.

[girry]

Weekly roundup: October 4

- Suzuka race report:
In wet Japanese weather, poleman Webber suffered from mechanical gremlins, allowing World Champion Jenson Button to make use of the conditions to celebrate another victory ahead of his compatriot and future team-mate Lewis Hamilton & the surprise package of the day, Adrian Sutil. The trio was followed by Vettel, Glock, Alonso, Räikkönen and Jaime Alguersuari, who became the youngest-ever points-scorer in the history of the World Championship. The Spaniard's odds of landing a 2010 seat no doubt increased after this performance!

Points: Button 107, Vettel 70, Webber 62.5, Barrichello 60, Hamilton 52, Alonso 29, Trulli 26.5, Massa 22, Räikkönen 22, Rosberg 20.5, Glock 18, Fisichella 14, Kubica 12, Nakajima 12, Heidfeld 9, Sutil 8, Buemi 8, Kovalainen 5, Grosjean 5, Bourdais 2, Alguersuari 1

- The following teams have submit their entries for 2010 Formula One World Championship by the deadline:

Scuderia Toro Rosso
HSBC Lola F1 Team
N.A.R.T.
Epsilon Euskadi
Villeneuve Durango Formula
PDVSA Team TOM’S
Petronas Grand Prix
Team Superfund
Telefónica March Lotus Racing
ART Grand Prix
Kolles Racing
Sage Group iSport International
Lada Sport

Now, Max and Bernie will take their sweet time to decide on how many of them will actually get an official entry and who won’t....

- After fifteen years the partnership between the McLaren Formula One team and Mercedes-Benz comes to an end, as the German car manufacturer today announced a new partnership with Brawn Grand Prix. Mercedes has bought a 75.1 % interest in the Brawn GP team, and will now enter the 2010 Formula One season under the new name Mercedes Grand Prix. The takeover is a joint venture of Mercedes-Benz who will have a 45.1% interest in the new Mercedes Grand Prix team, and the Abu Dhabi based investor Aabar Investments PJSC, which will have a 30% interest in the new team. Mercedes will continue to supply McLaren with customer engines.

- In another blow to Bernie, Mercedes Grand Prix has splashed out some money & hired their young star Nico Rosberg to spearhead their GPWC efforts!

- Sakon Yamamoto will be racing for Lada Sport in 2010.

- Team Superfund and Kolles Racing will use Cosworth engines in 2010.

- Eric Broadley will design Lola’s cars and David Floury ART’s cars for 2010.

- Oliver Turvey will be McLaren's test driver, Jake Rosenzweig will be N.A.R.T.’s test driver for 2010 and Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Saud will test drive for Villeneuve Durango Racing.

- The El Correo newspaper will sponsor Epsilon Euskadi and FxPro & Aerolineas Argentinas will sponsor Telefónica March Lotus.

[girry]

FE-B Weekly Roundup

- Bad news for all team owners! In an unexpected development, F1 and GPWC employees have unionized, and are demanding an unprecedented three weeks of consecutive holiday instead of just the one week they are currently having! This holiday will, by default, take place during the last three weeks of December. No actions can be done on those days - unless you desperately want to overrule them. In this case you can inform them that they will have to work those weeks anyway, but this will definitely risk a strike at your factory…

- The FOTA had a vote whether to expel Sauber out of GPWC due to their association with Paul Stoddart, but eventually voted against the expulsion.

- Having been mired in a contract dispute, Justin Wilson has signed a deal to race for Williams in 2010, replacing the departing Nico Rosberg. Wilson last raced in F1 in 2003.

- Sage Group iSport International have signed a sponsorship deal with Relentless Energy, Lada Sport with Yamamoto’s personal sponsor Sanho Human Services, Carlin Minardi Sauber Qadbak with Deutsche Vermögensberatung, and Virgin Racing with Rebellion Timepieces.

- Kolles Racing have struck a technical collaboration deal with Le Mans and A1GP veterans Racing for Holland in a deal that will see them renamed as the Dutch outfit and Jan Lammers becoming a joint team principal with Colin Kolles.

- Toyota have signed Kamui Kobayashi as their 2010 test driver and Mercedes have signed Paul di Resta as theirs.

- Telefonica Lotus March will use Cosworth engines in 2010.

- The FIA and Bernie had a meeting to determine how many teams they were going to have for the F1 season...As a reminder: We already have 5 teams (Williams, Force India, Campos, Virgin, and Nespresso-Piquet) and 13 teams have submitted bids to join the sport (Scuderia Toro Rosso, HSBC Lola F1 Team, N.A.R.T., Epsilon Euskadi, Villeneuve Durango Formula, PDVSA Team TOM’S, Petronas Grand Prix, Team Superfund, Telefónica March Lotus Racing, ART Grand Prix, Racing for Holland, Sage Group iSport International, Lada Sport).

The number they settled with was 22 - hence they will accept six new entries.

[girry]

Formula Elaborate Bluff - Weekly roundup: October 18 :mosley: :bernie:

- Scuderia Ferrari has extended their test driver Luca Badoer's contract into 2010.
- PDVSA Team TOM’s and their partner, Youtube-rich Chad Hurley have approached NASCAR team and Haas Automations owner Gene Haas, securing a deal that sees his businesses also entering the world of Formula One. Reflecting the new American sponsorship, the Leafield-based, German/American/Japanese-owned team will thus be registered as American and renamed as PDVSA Haas Team TOM’s.
- N.A.R.T. has made a deal with University of Perugia to collaborate with them and their bright students in the design process of their new chassis. The Perugians have a wind tunnel N.A.R.T. will no doubt be delighted to use.
- Racing for Holland has closed a major sponsorship deal with Jumbo Supermarkets. Rumour has it that the conditions of the deal will dictate the team's driver lineup be rather Dutch in 2010...
- Renault have struck a deal with Partypoker.com and in 2010 shall therefore be known as Partypoker.com Renault F1 Team.
- Itaipava will sponsor Rubens Barrichello's Mercedes team in 2010, tearing up their contract with Team Superfund - who have struck a minor sponsorship deal with Martini. Vodafone has announced a sponsorship expansion with McLaren.
- With the disappearance of team owner Ashley Wood, the status of FOUR LOKO's F1 entry is now seeming increasingly insecure. Thereby, FOUR LOKO energy drinks have apparently sent out a couple of their representatives to locate mr Wood (and his money)…