Well the season has been wrapped up for a considerable amount of time - and now that I've seen the final two races from Australia's V8 Supercar series I am now officially out of motor-racing which is rather sad, but for the first time I am running three simultaneous sets of rehearsals which is a nice distraction. A little note on the V8 Supercars finale - that is how you bring a season to a conclusion a million miles more entertaining then that race we had in Brazil. It was two hours of brilliance - thoroughly looking forward to their new season as well as the obvious wait for F1 to set up once more in Australia (supported by the V8s which is a fantastic combination). But you may be asking, why am I here, after all the cars are all tucked away in their top secret research labs, unfortunately none of them will be controlled by Aperture Science - but that would make the sport very different indeed. The FIA might have something against cars controlled by a malevolent AI program obsessed with deadly neurotoxins and falsified promises about cake.
Well I digress a little, but the purpose of this post is to pretty much sum up of the updates and developments that have fallen into place since that black and white chequered flag fell all those weeks ago now - I say realising that it is now December. As the blog HQ doesn't contain a chocolate advent calender all the days tend to blend into each other with the lack of sugar and all, however there is a picture of the internet friendly lolcats informing me of the month. Ah sidetracked once again but here is the round up of the developments starting with the driver line up down and the team formerly known as Renault Squadron
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| F1 Total 2011, in rFactor at Homebush the V8 supercar finale circuit |
Three into two won't go
Renault Squadron were in the difficult position of having Petrov, Senna and Grosjean in contention for the two seats available at the team - theories of how this would play out were bandied across the internet weighing up the merits of each. Petrov with his proven experience with the team and the car, Senna with his impressive stand-in job after the Squadron disposed of their Squadron Leader mid season. Then there is Grosjean looking for a second go in the car after his 2009 debut replacing sacked Piquet Jr. moved back into the picture with a strong championship win in the GP2 series. Initially there was a fourth element in the form of Robert Kubica who would have been an obvious selection given his speed and skill, but alas he hasn't healed from the injuries sustained in a rally crash pre-season
Well the decision became very complex as one of the available seats filled up, and who have Renault Squadron pulled from the ether, a reserved seat for Kubica perhaps with a planned late comeback in mind. That theory was then disbanded when Robert was dropped from Renault Squadron's services, opening the door for a mystery guest. It turned out that the mystery guest was former finish F1 champion Kimi Raikkonen - which is a spectacular announcement. Bringing the monosyllabic racer back is brilliant, just so he can spend rain delays eating ice cream and preferring toilet breaks over Schumacher's first retirement ceremony.
So one seat to go in the Renault Squadron, and the original three drivers were now only in contention for a single racing position. A couple of weeks after the Raikkonen decision the final seat has now been assigned so did they go with the experience of Wing-commander Petrov or the turn of speed offered in the prospect of Bruno Senna. As it turns out the answer is none of these options and it fell to the final option in the original line-up, matching Raikkonen with Frenchman Romain Grosjean. There is a possibility that financial incentives were involved with the French company Total. Where does this leave Petrov and Senna, well out of a job really but time will tell if they end up someplace else.
Still undecided
There are still some places on the grid next year that have yet to be decided, Force India for example are in a very similar problem with their driver line-up. With three drivers of fairly equal talent in contention for the two spaces, at least in this case there is - at the moment - no sense of an outside guest star swooping in to claim one of the spaces. Unless someone would like to give Montoya a call, that would make things very interesting indeed. Alas it does look like to be left to three current drivers on staff to decide who gets the race seats. Hulkenberg, Sutil and Di Resta all have very valid claims on a drive next year, each with proven ability and skill - Nico even managed to claim pole for Williams in Brazil 2010 before being dumped on a financial basis for Pastor Maldonado.
So where else are there openings on the grid - well one place is left open at Williams alongside Maldonado who is booked for another year of erratic performances, it's amazing what government backed funding can do for you. Rubens would like to retain his place in the team ready for a 20th season, but no contract has been signed, now with more unsigned drivers from the exodus from Renault Squadron now.
One of the bigger problems lie with the seats at Torro Rosso, where the entire output from the Red Bull driver development program are going to want to end up currently adding Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne to the list. Add that to Buemi and Alguersuari who drove the car in the past season, and the decision on who makes the final cut becomes very difficult. Weighing up the idea of throwing in some people into the cars against keeping the experience of the current drivers who have been performing well in the second half of the season.
Elsewhere there is a final space at HRT to run alongside One-Stop Perez 2.0 also known as Pedro De La Rosa possibly the team were looking for someone to help develop their car off the final row of the grid. Apart from this final spot everything else seems locked out, with the division one teams holding station, despite rumours that Massa's position could be under threat if Kubica becomes fit later on in the year. Further back Sauber and the team formerly known as Lotus will be retaining their line-ups for another season which is probably a good move for both of them. A little further back the team formerly known as Virgin have continued their pattern of giving Timo Glock a new friend at the start of each year and this time the German is to be partnered with Charles Pic, a Frenchman and graduate of the World Series By Renault.
Change Afoot
In addition to the reshuffling of drivers and FOTA slowly becoming a ghost town there have been some alterations to the regulations for the 2012 season, many things have been updated such as testing allocations and the way in which tyres are to be used across the weekend but here are few key developments.
- Maximum 4hr cap on races: The likes of this seasons Canadian GP are now to be regulated to a maximum of 4 hrs, the amount of racing is already capped at two hours which we always come very close to in Singapore. Now the introduction of red flag stoppages for mayhem or water whichever happens first.
- Stricter controls in overtaking: So what does this mean then, well previously drivers were allowed to make one move to defend their position, restricted to avoid cars being thrown into the air and having massive accidents. Which is always a problem when open wheeled cars are involved. Drivers were then allowed to retake the racing line on the entrance to a corner, well this element has now been removed. Making passing even more of a form of over-choreographed dance then actual racing, effectively neutering the racing even more. Taking away the element of innovation and inventiveness if drivers are being forced to drive in certain specific ways with each other. Health and safety is probably involved in this process and a major thumbs down on this count.
- Moving Lapped cars under the safety car: It is about time this regulation was brought in, all too often restarts have been compromised by having slower cars stuck in amongst the leading cars as the SLS pulls into the lane. It breaks up any interesting battles and can compromise the outcome of a race. Well finally this will actually be sorted out, any cars trapped off the lead lap in the middle of the pack will be allowed to unlap themselves and join the back of the queue. Yes this will make the safety car periods longer to sort the order out but the benefits should win through
So there you have it a partial round up of how things are progressing as we descend further into the winter with. Should more things develop in the mad world of F1 motor-racing there will be further updates, until then farewell for now.
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