Lotus F1 Racing Revs Up One Week Ahead Of Schedule

Mike Gascoyne hopes the progress made by Lotus on developing their 2010 contender, will allow them to mix it with the midfield runners by the Spanish grand prix. Lotus will return to formula one racing in 2010 with Air Asia boss Tony Fernandes at the helm, after an absence of 15 years, along with three other new entries Virgin Racing, USF1 and Campos Meta.

Staff at the Lotus F1 factory in Hingham, Norfolk, said they have been braving the treacherous weather conditions and battling through the heavy snow and ice that has blanketed the UK over the past week, determined to continue work on their 2010 car.According to the team's technical director Gascoyne, this determination and commitment by the Lotus engineers has paid off, as development of the team's first F1 contender is well ahead of schedule.

A statement on the official Lotus website, quoting Gasgoyne, said: "We had been looking at firing up our engine for the first time on 12th February, but with the efforts everyone's been putting in we have now been able to bring that forward to 5th February.

"This is obviously a great boost for everyone involved in the team, and shows how much hard work has already gone in since we had our entry confirmed on September 12th."With the engine fire up date in the diary, we are also in a position to confirm that we will be on track for the first time at the third official test at Jerez from February 17th, and then at Barcelona from February 25th.

"We are also aiming to run chassis two for the last two days of that Barcelona test."With such a high rate of progress, Gascoyne said he is hoping the team can begin mixing it with the midfield runners at around the start of the European season, when Lotus will introduce its first major upgrade package of the year.

"We have said we are aiming to be ahead of the new teams when we all reach Bahrain, but we would also like to be pretty close to the midfield teams after the first few races of the season," said Gascoyne.

"The update we have planned for Spain will see a boost in performance when we reach Barcelona which will give us the chance to start fighting with the slowest of the established teams which, given progress so far, has to be the next goal for us."Lotus boss Tony Fernandes has been quoted as saying he has faith in Gascoyne and believes the team has a real shot at achieving results in 2010.

In an interview with 422race.com, the Lotus boss said: "Come March, we are on the grid. It's up to us how we'll perform after that."Despite the high rate of progress, Lotus has yet to confirm the date and the location of its 2010 car launch.The manufacturer became the first of the new teams to fill both its race-seats, taking on ex-McLaren racer Heikki Kovalainen, who lost his seat at McLaren to Jenson Button, and former Toyota driver Jarno Trulli.

In an interview with BBC Radio Norfolk, Kovalainen said: "For me my time with McLaren didn't work in terms of results, I didn't feel like I got everything out of the team."But I feel what I learnt from McLaren I will take into my future career and I will start from here."This is a good opportunity for me and hopefully I will be able to get everything out of the team and hopefully the results will show that."
11 January 2010, 12:00

Qualifying analysis - Bahrain Grand Prix

Tyre preservation will again be the name of the game here, but Sakhir is a very different type of circuit to Melbourne and China, where degradation on the super-soft rubber militated in favour of the mediums. They take longer to hit their optimum temperature and have less grip, so everyone will try to go as far as they can on super softs and keep the prime running to a minimum.
But some are more adept at eking out tyre life than others.
On fuel weights, the relevant ones were
Toyota’s Jarno Trulli: 648.5;
Toyota’s Timo Glock 643;
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel 659;
Brawn’s Jenson Button 652.5;
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton 652.5;
Brawn’s Barrichello 649. Which makes Vettel the dangerman…

Toyota
Jarno Trulli, 1m 33.431s, P1
Timo Glock, 1m 33.712s, P2

Toyota were delighted to lock out the front row of a grid for the first time since they entered Formula One in 2002. Trulli reported that things didn’t go as smoothly as planned because of a brake problem that still needs to be rectified before the race. He dedicated his first pole since Indianapolis 2005 to the team for their hard work, and to the people of Abruzzo after the recent earthquake. Glock lost time with an electrical problem in free practice, but was happy with the set-up changes made overnight. A change of wind direction forced him to struggle on the prime tyres in Q1, but he felt more comfortable in Q2. He admitted to a small error in Q3, but said it wasn’t enough to have affected his chances of taking pole from his team mate.

Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel, 1m 34.015s, P3
Mark Webber, 1m 34.038s, P19, will start P18

Vettel was fastest in Q1 and Q2, and said he was very happy with the way things went in Q3. He also harvested a set of option tyres in readiness for the race. Webber was very unhappy after his final runs in Q1 were thwarted by Sutil. The Red Bull was trapped behind the Force India at the end of its first lap, and then Sutil repassed into the first corner to spoiled Webber’s second try. The German was penalised three grid places as a result.

Brawn GP
Jenson Button, 1m 34.044s, P4
Rubens Barrichello, 1m 34.239s, P6

Button and Barrichello complained of lack of grip in Q3, when usually the Brawn is at its best with a fuel load, and were disappointed not to take a pole that they had expected to contend for. Button said he had wheel locking, Barrichello traffic.

McLaren
Lewis Hamilton, 1m 34.196s, P5
Heikki Kovalainen, 1m 33.242s, P11

Hamilton was very happy with fifth place, especially as he is the fastest KERS runner and will have an advantage on acceleration on Sunday afternoon. He even talked of being in a position to challenge for pole position soon. Kovalainen could not explain his relative lack of performance.

Renault
Fernando Alonso, 1m 34.578s, P7
Nelson Piquet, 1m 33.941s, P15

Alonso complained that the closeness of qualifying is stressful in the cockpit but was pleased to have a competitive car after overnight work on his latest diffuser. This time, he said, seventh was about what he had expected. Piquet made it through to Q2 but pushed too hard for Q3 and overdrove.

Ferrari
Felipe Massa, 1m 34.818s, P8
Kimi Raikkonen, 1m 35.380s, P10

Ferrari looked very strong in Q1 and Q2 but faded when it mattered. Massa reported a small step forward and was happy to be in the top 10, especially as his F60 was oversteering more than it had in the morning. He is looking forward to maximising his KERS at the start. Raikkonen said it would have been difficult to better his eventual 10th place as he’d run out of fresh super-soft tyres. He also reported that his car behaved better with KERS.

Williams
Nico Rosberg, 1m 35.134s, P9
Kazuki Nakajima, 1m 33.348s, P12

Rosberg was not comfortable in his FW31 and felt he was lucky to make it through to Q3. But he was happy with ninth as he was running a heavy fuel load. Nakajima said he made no errors, and was mystified why he wasn’t quicker.

BMW Sauber
Robert Kubica, 1m 33.487s, P13
Nick Heidfeld, 1m 33.562s, P14

Kubica admitted that BMW Sauber simply lacked performance, and that a radio malfunction made it difficult to fine-tune tyre pressures. The Pole also had two small flash fires in the pits while refuelling, which didn’t help. Heidfeld found his F1.09’s balance inconsistent between runs as the wind changed. Both drivers used KERS.

Force India
Adrian Sutil, 1m 33.722s, P16, will start P19
Giancarlo Fisichella, 1m 33.910s, P18, will start P17

Sutil reported a drop in grip levels compared to free practice and that the balance of his VJM02 was thus not as good for qualifying. He said the problem with Webber arose because he was trying to make a gap to Alonso to start his own lap, and that he didn’t realise Webber was on a flying lap. The stewards docked him three grid positions.Fisichella felt he’d got close to Q2 but said he wasn’t entirely happy with his car’s balance and that the super-soft tyres made the handling unpredictable.

Toro Rosso
Sebastien Buemi, 1m 33.753s, P17, will start P16
Sebastien Bourdais, 1m 34.159s, P20

Buemi thought he could easily have made Q2 but for a mistake in the third sector on his best lap in Q1. Bourdais lost track time with undisclosed technical problems in the morning, then picked up a lot of understeer on his second run in Q1. He corrected that with the front wing for the final effort, only to encounter serious oversteer.


David Tremayne@www.formula1.com

Panasonic Toyota - Australian GP Preview

Australian Grand Prix - Preview

Panasonic Toyota Racing heads Down Under this weekend for the Australian Grand Prix on the street circuit at Albert Park; the first round of the 2009 Formula 1 season. The new TF109 car has completed 21 test days and around 10,000km kilometres since its first official test on 19 January, including a four-day test with the Australian Grand Prix aerodynamic package in Barcelona earlier this month. These tests produced very promising results so the team makes the 16,000km journey from Germany to Australia full of optimism. Jarno Trulli made his Formula 1 debut at Albert Park in 1997 while Timo Glock's first race with Toyota was in Melbourne last year, the fifth Grand Prix of his career.In 2008 neither Jarno nor Timo finished the Australian Grand Prix so a significant improvement is expected this time around.

Jarno Trulli - Car 9

"Melbourne is a great place to visit and the Australian Grand Prix is always good fun. As a Formula 1 driver you really want to race so I am pleased the season is starting and we can get on with the competition. I am totally fired up for this season and I am feeling very positive about our chances. The TF109 is the best Toyota I have driven in pre-season testing; it feels stable and gives the driver confidence but more importantly it seems to be pretty quick, even though it's hard to make too many judgements based on testing. We made a big step last year, proving we can fight for podiums and finish regularly in the top six so I am hoping for another step forward this year. We have more experience now and the team has worked really hard for a long time on the TF109 - we are ready for the season and I am raring to go."

Timo Glock - Car 10

"It's very exciting to be going to the first race this year because the big changes to the technical regulations for 2009 give Toyota a good opportunity to fight at the front. It's really hard to predict because you don't know what other teams are working on in testing but I know our programme and the results we have seen are very encouraging. Testing has gone really well and I have a good feeling for the new car. It's a different emotion to be starting my second year with Toyota compared to 2008 because now I am much more familiar with the team and I feel I can really start the season strongly. Last year it took a few races to find the right direction for me in terms of set-up but I don't expect that to be a problem this season. Australia is anyway one of my favourite places to visit so I can't wait to get to Melbourne and get the season started."

Trulli says Singapore still a worry for F1 drivers

Formula One drivers are still fretting about the sport's first night race less than a month before Singapore's new street circuit makes its debut.

"It's a new circuit, we don't know much about it, the schedule, the times of running. we all are a little bit concerned about the night race and the poor weather which might occur there," Toyota's Jarno Trulli told reporters at the Belgian Grand Prix on Thursday.

"It's a big question mark for everyone, we mustn't underestimate the situation."
Singapore will become the second new venue this season after last month's Valencia street race when the southeast Asian island state hosts the 15th round of the championship on Sept. 28 at the tail end of the monsoon season.
Unlike Valencia, which staged a couple of junior formula races on the street circuit a month before the grand prix to iron out any problems, Singapore remains untested.

"In Valencia they did a good job, so I am confident they can do a good job for Singapore," said Trulli. "But the location is different and the climate conditions are different.
"We are all a little bit uncertain because we probably don't have enough data. I haven't seen the circuit layout but that's not the problem. The problem is we don't know if the circuit is good enough, if the surface is good enough, if we have enough run-off areas, if the safety is good enough for a night race in wet conditions.
"There are several question marks and several concerns. I'm not saying that I don't want to race there, but that we might encounter some more problems than in Valencia."

Massa wins New Valencia GP street Circuit.

Felipe Massa has won the European Grand Prix in Valencia ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Robert Kubica.
Starting from pole position, the Ferrari driver led from start to finish through the harbourfront streets of the Spanish city, which was hosting a grand prix for the first time.
With team-mate and World Champion Kimi Raikkonen retiring with engine failure on lap 46, the result also moves Massa up to second place in the Drivers' Championship, six points behind Hamilton.
The victory, Massa's fourth of the season, remained provisional for a time after his second pit stop almost brought a collision with Force India driver Adrian Sutil.
Sutil was forced to dart left and scrape the pit wall as both drivers accelerated away out of the pit lane.
Race control then announced that Massa's car was being investigated for 'unsafe release from a pit stop' by stewards.
And, although it was then announced that any punishment for Massa would be meted out after the race, he eventually escaped with a reprimand and a fine of €10,000.
Hamilton's McLaren Mercedes team-mate Heikki Kovalainen finished fourth, ahead of Toyota's Jarno Trulli and Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel.
Trulli's team-mate Timo Glock finished seventh, with Williams driver Nico Rosberg claiming the final Championship point.

Massa gave a dominant display in the heat of the Mediterranean summer, three weeks after an engine failure cruelly cost him victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
But Ferrari's afternoon was nevertheless a chaotic one, with Massa's pit lane infraction being followed by another incident which befell Raikkonen.
Disputing fourth place with Kovalainen, the two Finns pitted in tandem for the second time on lap 44.
However, Raikkonen's eagerness to get away saw him depart with the fuel hose still intact and also drag a mechanic to the ground.
As the mechanic was stretchered away to hospital - having suffered a foot injury ( broken Ankle) and back pains - Raikkonen fell to sixth place behind Trulli.
But his race was soon run - Raikkonen's Ferrari trailing a plume of smoke across the start-finish line much as Massa's had in Budapest.
After qualifying fourth around the 3.380-mile track, it has to be said that, before his retirement, Raikkonen had once again failed to shine.
Massa looks Ferrari's best bet of mounting a Championship challenge on current form, the opening stint alone seeing him build a lead over his team-mate roughly the equivalent of one pit stop.
But it was during the second stint that he really extended his lead over the second-placed Hamilton, with Massa setting successive fastest laps on laps 34, 35 and 36 as he went 10.2 seconds ahead of the lead McLaren.
The race had already lost its biggest draw when Fernando Alonso retired with rear wing and suspension damage after his Renault was hit from behind by Kazuki Nakajima's Williams on the opening lap.
Incident
And it wasn't until lap 37 and Massa's near-collision with Sutil that the processional affair that had developed produced any more genuine incident.
Elsewhere, Kovalainen passed Raikkonen off the line to take fourth, with the next change of track position in the top eight coming when Trulli leapt ahead of Vettel for sixth at the opening round of stops.
Given the newness of the track, teams also were feeling their way in terms of tactics and strategy.
Most drivers elected to make two stops but Glock was among the few to pit only once as he climbed from 13th on the grid to seventh at the chequered flag.
Despite his rather lonely race, Hamilton nevertheless sees his Championship lead increase by one point, with Massa now leading the pursuers.
Raikkonen drops to third place and now stands just two points ahead of Kubica.
In the Constructors' Championship, McLaren have closed the gap to 13 points on leaders Ferrari.
However, after another race for the Italian team not without its difficulties, they at least have the knowledge that they now head to a track - Spa-Francorchamps, venue for the Belgian Grand Prix in two weeks' time - on which they dominated 12 months ago.

French Grand Prix - Magny Cours

It all goes wrong for Hamilton in France

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton always knew he was going to have a tough weekend at Magny-Cours, after picking up a ten-place grid penalty for his pit-lane misdemeanour in Canada, but he probably didn’t think it would be quite this tough.Even starting 13th, Hamilton was at least hoping for points, but after 70 laps of the French Grand Prix circuit the Englishman trailed home a lowly tenth, thanks in large part to a drive-through penalty for straight-lining Turn Seven on lap one as he completed a pass on Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel.Hamilton - and McLaren - believed he had already completed the pass before being forced wide over the chicane, but the stewards disagreed and decided he had gained an advantage. When he took the penalty on lap 13, he dropped from P9 to P13, effectively ending his chances of a top-eight finish.The only consolation for McLaren was a storming drive from Heikki Kovalainen, who himself had taken a five-place grid drop for impeding another driver during qualifying. The Finn came from tenth on the grid to finish fourth, with only some excellent defensive driving from Toyota’s Jarno Trulli keeping him off the podium.The result means Hamilton drops to fourth place in the drivers’ championship on 38 points, 10 behind new leader Felipe Massa, while Kovalainen lies sixth on 20.

Stunning Trulli putsToyota back on the podium

Toyota proved their return to form in Montreal a fortnight ago was no stroke of luck in Magny-Cours on Sunday, as Jarno Trulli secured the team’s first podium for three years. Trulli crossed the finish line third behind the dominant Ferraris of race winner Felipe Massa and second-placed Kimi Raikkonen.Toyota arrived in France motivated by their fourth and sixth in Canada and on Saturday the TF108’s strong pace continued, with Trulli and team mate Timo Glock both making it through to Q3. As Sunday’s race got underway things only got better. After a strong start, during which Trulli was able to pass the Renault of Fernando Alonso, the Italian settled into third, a position he had to work very hard to defend from McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen late in the race."What a great result and a great weekend by the whole team,” said Trulli. “Today was a great race, hard and tough. We had a good pace, even if we had to battle with some cars that were quicker than us. When the rain came at the end I had to take care because it's always difficult to judge how bad it is when you're in front.“But I got back into a rhythm and had a wheel-to-wheel fight with Heikki, just like in go-karts. The team made no mistakes this weekend, from the people in the factory who made the new parts on the car to the mechanics who did perfect pit stops today. There's still more to do but today we can be very satisfied. The team is doing a great job, the car is much more competitive and everyone is motivated. Things are moving on."Trulli’s podium is the Japanese team’s first since Ralf Schumacher finished third in the 2005 Hungarian Grand Prix and the Italian’s first since that year’s Spanish race. The strong result was a fitting tribute to the team’s former principal Ove Andersson, who was killed recently during an historic car rally in South Africa."This is a fantastic day for everyone involved with Toyota Motorsport,” said Toyota team president John Howett. “It was our first podium for a long time so we dedicate it to Ove Andersson, who did so much for the team and will be greatly missed. "Congratulations to everyone involved both at the factory and in the race and test teams who have worked hard to improve the car. Of course we must now keep pushing really hard because our pace is still not matching the front-runners but we can be hugely satisfied with this result."Although Glock eventually finished outside the points in 11th, Trulli’s haul of six extends Toyota's points' tally to 23 and bolsters their fifth-place in the championship standings. The team are now just one point adrift of fourth-placed Red Bull.