Rosberg: Twilight races dangerous

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Williams driver Nico Rosberg believes Formula 1's twilight races are dangerous and reckons this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix could be stopped if the weather is poor.
Drivers complained about the light conditions during last weekend's Australian Grand Prix, which was moved to a later time in order to boost television audiences in Europe.
This weekend's race at Sepang will also take place at 5pm local time, and Rosberg feels the race could be stopped if the monsoon hits the circuit.
Rosberg admitted driving with so many shadows on track was very tricky and dangerous.
"If the monsoon comes down, the race is going to have to be stopped because we can't race and drive with that amount of water," the German told Reuters.
"I think twilight racing is not the way to go. In Melbourne it was obvious that it just increases the danger so much.
"The visibility is so difficult, you can't even see the edges of the track in some corners. I was driving into the sun and that's not what racing is about. So I really hope they reconsider that.
"Even moving it forward by one hour or something will help us massively. It was just the last part of the race that was the really problematic time."

Brawn GP to shed around 270 jobs

Australian Grand Prix winner Brawn GP will make around 270 members of its staff redundant this year.
The team, saved by an 11th-hour buyout led by Ross Brawn, will be reducing its staff by a third in order to return to 2004 levels, when the squad was known as BAR, before Honda bought it.
Brawn led a successful management buyout less than a month ago to keep the team alive, but the Brackley-based outfit is unlikely to have the same budget it had when owned by Honda.
Most F1 teams have made, or will be making, staff redundant as a result of the in-season testing ban and the need to reduce costs.
"It's about 270 (jobs)," the team's CEO Nick Fry told Reuters. "We are about 700 people at the moment and we talked to the staff about going down to about 430, something like that, which is where we were in 2004.
"It's very unfortunate that we've got to do that but it's the change of technical regulations and obviously we are now a private team."
Despite the uncertainty over its future, Brawn GP dominated its maiden race on Sunday, with Jenson Button leading team-mate Rubens Barrichello to a one-two victory.

Abu Dhabi denies track building delay

abu dhabi f1 grand prix officials have denied suggestions that the circuit will not be ready in time for this year's inaugural race.
Rumours emerged during the Australian Grand Prix weekend that the circuit, which will host the season finale in November, could be replaced as there were delays with the construction of the circuit.
There was also speculation about a possible management reshuffle, with suggestions that Abu Dhabi circuit chief Philippe Gurdjian could be focusing on helping with the construction of a circuit to host an F1 grand prix in Korea.
Abu Dhabi, however, has moved to quash the reports that the circuit construction has been delayed, also denying Gurdjian was leaving.
"As tickets for the inaugural Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix went on sale in Abu Dhabi this morning, Abu Dhabi Motorsports Management (ADMM) confirmed that progress on the construction of Yas Marina Circuit, the host venue for the final race of the 2009 F1 season finale, is on track and there are no concerns regarding delivery deadlines," the circuit said in a statement on Monday.
"ADMM, the organization responsible for the management of the state-of-the-art Abu Dhabi based track benefits from the leadership of two experienced and talented individuals, Richard Cregan and Philippe Gurdjian.
"Gurdjian's main focus is on the development and delivery of the track whilst Cregan, formerly General Manager of Toyota's F1 Team, focuses on the growth of the team, the success of the grand prix, and ensuring that Yas Marina Circuit is a fully functioning, year round business."

2009 Australian Grand Prix Race Report

Force India graduates to 9th and 11th in Australian Grand Prix
29 March 2009 - The Force India Formula One Team has been awarded 9th and 11th positions in today's Australian Grand Prix following the Stewards of the Meeting's decision to hand Jarno Trulli (Toyota) a 25-second penalty for overtaking under the final safety car period of the race.
The decision demotes Trulli to 12th position, thereby moving Adrian Sutil to 9th and Giancarlo Fisichella to 11th overall.
Dr Vijay Mallya, chairman and team principal
'The decision makes today's result even better - Force India's best result to date! I hope that we can repeat, or better, this in Malaysia.'
Adrian Sutil (car 20, VJM02/03):
10th: 1:34:22.119

Giancarlo Fisichella (car 21, VJM02/01):
12th: 1:34:23.158
The Force India Formula One Team today achieved its early season objective of a double race finish, securing two top 12 finishes in the Australian Grand Prix. After a thrilling and unpredictable race Adrian Sutil finished in 10th position with Giancarlo Fisichella 12th, marking the team's best result since its 2008 debut.
For the second consecutive year Albert Park's first corner yielded a chaotic start, this time to the misfortune of Adrian, who lost part of his front wing and was forced to pit. Dropped to the rear of the field, he nevertheless drove a measured, consistent race and kept clear of the numerous accidents to claim his best result in over a year.
Giancarlo meanwhile demonstrated the much improved pace of the VJM02 and by lap 12 was in a points scoring position. When the first safety car was deployed Giancarlo had graduated to fourth position, however an unfortunate mistake on entering the pitlane cost him crucial seconds and he rejoined in 14th position. Undeterred, the Italian pushed until the end and, like his team-mate, recorded very competitive lap times right to the finish of the race.
The team will now travel directly to Malaysia for the second race of the championship in just one week's time.
Adrian Sutil (car 20)
'As expected we got a very exciting race! I had a good start, but in the first corner I think Webber slowed down and there was nowhere I could go. I damaged my front wing and had to get the car back to the pits. I lost some time behind Heidfeld's BMW: I was faster but there was no way I could get through. After the first safety car everything was fine - we had a good strategy with a short stint on the soft tyres in the middle. On the restart I could get past a few cars and then on the hard tyre it went really well. I could finish in 10th position - I think we can be happy with this.'
Giancarlo Fisichella (car 21)
'I'm very disappointed with the mistake I made in the pit stop. I was just confused with last year as we were always in the last slot in the pitlane, so I just overshot and had to be pulled back into the pits. I'm really sad about this as I think we could have got a good result. We can take some positives away from this race though - we were able to fight with the others and the car felt good over the race. I'm really looking forward toMalaysia now.'
Dr Vijay Mallya, chairman and team principal
'I am absolutely delighted with the result we have achieved here today. Considering the relatively late debut of the VJM02 and the changes we have implemented over the winter, getting two cars to the finish is a fantastic achievement. Both drivers had overall excellent races and showed that we have made improvements to both the pace and the balance of the car this year. Given our objective was just to finish this race, to do so with both cars in the top 12 is well beyond our expectations. It's a good foundation for this year.'

Button: More to come from Brawn GP

Jenson Button believes there is more to come from Brawn GP after the team dominated the Australian Grand Prix and says it will improve its performance in Malaysia.
The Briton led home team-mate Rubens Barrichello in a one-two for Ross Brawn's team on its debut, but highlighted areas for improvement such as his slow second pitstop.
"I am looking forward to getting back in the car and building it into something even more special, because we are not there yet," Button told AUTOSPORT. "It is not perfect and we didn't get the best out of it this weekend.
"I won the race, but our pitstops, I lost six seconds at the second pitstop. So we have a few areas we are weak in and that was always going to be the case because we haven't done any testing, so it has been very, very difficult for everyone to be perfect.
"There is room for improvement and that is what I am looking forward to achieving."
Button also expects a greater challenge from the likes of McLaren and Ferrari at Sepang and in the coming races and is eager to make the most of the opportunity his team has now.
"We don't know who is going to be quick there [Sepang] as it is such a different circuit. You would say we are going to be competitive, but it is a question of who else is going to be up there with us.
"I think people will start to make big leaps forward. I don't know if it is going to be at the fly away races, but when we get back to Barcelona people will have new aero packages and they will be on our arses.
"So we need to make the most of this and get the best out of everything, which we haven't quite done. But it is nice to have had not quite a perfect weekend and come away with a pole position and a win."

Toyota f1 australian result

Panasonic Toyota Racing started the 2009 Formula 1 season with a trip to the podium and a double points finish in an exciting Australian Grand Prix. Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock started from the pit lane but battling opening laps saw both fight their way up the order. Jarno started on the super soft Bridgestone Potenza tyres and made an early pit stop for mediums while Timo was initially on the mediums, preferring a longer first stint. With plenty of incident elsewhere on the track, the two Toyotas made their way into the top 10, passing several cars on the way before a breath-taking final few laps. Jarno's long final stint saw him move into the points when other cars made their final pit stops and he showed great pace to come within sight of the podium, which became a reality after a late accident for two rivals lifted him to third. Timo chose to finish the race on the super soft tyres and passed several cars in a short final stint to take fifth as the race finished behind the safety car. Race stewards subsequently handed Jarno a 25s penalty for overtaking under safety car conditions, but the team has filed an appeal within the proscribed time period.

KERS: Playing a weighting game

Over the course of the off-season there’s been a lot of talk about the new rules package for 2009, and much of it has focussed on Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems.
Introduced to encourage teams to invest in technology which may have some benefit for production cars,
KERS should also spice up the racing by giving drivers an 80bhp power boost which they can use for up to 6.7s each lap.
However, it comes at a cost. A typical KERS package weighs around 35kgs, and that weight has to be placed somewhere in the car. And it means that teams can no longer use lead ballast to bring their cars up to the weight limit, and optimise the car balance by putting that it in the ideal location.
So while KERS brings extra performance in terms of power, it also costs some in terms of overall handling. And that’s why not all teams will be using KERS from the first race – and that includes Force India.
The other consideration is that there is so much new on the car this year that it was better to get the basics right before introducing the added complication of KERS to the mix. But as the season goes on the real issue will be simple – will KERS make the VJM02 quicker?
‘The car is designed and built to run the exactly the same system as the McLaren,’ says Chief Operating Officer Simon Roberts. ‘We think as the season develops, KERS will become more of a differentiator. Currently we’re planning to introduce it, on a race-by-race basis, from Barcelona onwards. At the end of the day we’re going to treat it like any other performance item. If it makes sense for one or both of the drivers to user KERS, then we’ll use it. If it doesn’t, then we won’t.’
Just to make the question more complex, KERS may work for one driver and not the other. Adrian’s extra height means that he is heavier than Giancarlo, and when their respective cars are fitted with KERS, Adrian’s is over the weight limit even with a minimal fuel load. In the past the team could adjust the ballast to ensure he was not at a disadvantage, but now those few extra kilos cost lap time – and cancel out the gains from KERS.‘If we had to call it now, based on what we’re know, then we’re setting ourselves up to running it on one
car,’ says Roberts. ‘It’s not necessarily detrimental on Adrian’s car, but you don’t get the benefit, because it’s just offset with weight, obviously. With Giancarlo, at the right track, it’s definitely a performance positive
as far as we can see. If there are intangibles like overtaking possibilities that you can’t calculate, then it swings in Adrian’s favour as well.’
Another consideration that will come into play is that KERS won’t have an overall advantage at some tracks, typically the tight and twisty ones, and at the opposite extreme, one of the fastest.
‘Currently, just on straight mathematics, you probably wouldn’t run it at places like Hungary and Monaco. But there may be some benefits that you can’t calculate that actually means there is an advantage to running it in those places. That’s the bit we don’t know yet.
Silverstone for example is not a very big braking circuit, so you can’t harvest energy very efficiently. If you can get the energy in, you would use it there because it’s a fast, flowing circuit. But if you just can’t recover
the brake energy, then you haven’t got any to use anyway. You’ll always be able to recover something, but not enough to use it effectively. If you only get 50% of the benefit, then I expect using will be marginal, because it just compromises the weight set-up of the car.’

McLaren blame form on title bid

AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIXHamilton will start from the back of the grid for the first time in his F1 career
McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh says last season's title push has cost the team their competitiveness this term.
Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton finished qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix in 14th and 15th places.
Hamilton was demoted to last place after a gearbox change, but will start in 18th place after Toyota were penalised for breaching regulations .
"Last year we were developing our car up until the last race and so we are under-developed," he told BBC Sport.
"That was a decision we took last year and, given that we won the drivers' championship, you have to say it was the right call.
"But some of our competitors - as you saw in qualifying - have probably been developing this year's car since this time last year and, consequently, have a much more developed car than us.
"We must face that fact and catch up as quickly as we can."
Hamilton and Kovalainen have long been tempering the hopes of their supporters by admitting the McLaren is not yet up to scratch.
And that was borne out throughout practice and qualifying, with the duo well off the pace of the leading pack.
The pair were consequently virtually out of the running for a podium place even before their poor qualifying effort, but Whitmarsh insists the team will bounce back to challenge for honours later in the season.
"We know that at the moment our car is, frankly, not quick enough to win races," he said.
McLaren seem to go through a bad patch every year, if not fail entirely, and frequently its at the start of the year
"But Lewis and Heikki are professional and can see we've improved it in the last couple of weeks, before which it was in a pretty poor shape.
"In the coming races we'll be improving our car even further and hopefully quickly enough to get up there as quick as we can.
"I think it's a long season and certainly no-one in this team is giving up yet. At the moment the championship is wide open."

Branson: Virgin could be team name

Richard Branson has revealed that his Virgin Group’s sponsorship of Brawn GP could soon include the brand taking over the naming rights of the team.
The expected tie-up between Virgin and Ross Brawn’s new squad was announced in the Albert Park paddock on Saturday, with both parties anticipating that the tie-up will develop into a “broader relationship” in the coming weeks.
Speaking to journalists after the announcement, Branson revealed details of how the tie-up could quickly move forwards – with Virgin replacing Brawn as the name of the former Honda Racing outfit an option under consideration.
“It’s a possibility, we’ll see what happens over the next three or four weeks,” he said.
“The team don’t want to waste the name of the team on something that is not promoting anything.
“Everyone knows that it has a great engineer, the team doesn’t need to be named after an engineer and that may well change."
And asked if he agreed that any such move would necessitate a long-term commitment to the sport from Virgin, Branson replied: “If it happened we’d be committed for a long time.”
Branson flew into Melbourne on Friday to seal the deal with Brawn, with the Virgin logos immediately on the car in Saturday afternoon's final practice and qualifying sessions.
And after the agreement was reached just hours before he boarded the plane, Branson said more time would be needed to flesh out the full scope of the sponsorship deal – but that he was confident it would be quickly established.
“We all need more time,” he said.
“We are a Virgin bride and someone else may come in and offer something even better before this bride marries them.
“But I’m sure we will get something together.”
Branson was initially rumoured to be considering buying the former Honda outfit outright last month, but said he wouldn’t bring Virgin into the sport until it became both cheaper and greener.
However, with FOTA confident of slashing budgets by 50% and the FIA planning on introducing an optional budget cap to entice new teams into F1 by 2010, Branson believes the time is right for Virgin to enjoy a successful relationship with Brawn.
“I’ve enjoyed it [F1] for years and in past got tempted but it’s been such an expensive sport,” he said.
“But the recession has been bringing the cost of entry down to a more reasonable level and the new rules that are coming out to encourage new teams to come in for more sensible amounts of money will make it a more exciting sport.
“When the Honda team got into trouble and it looked like a possibility of it disappearing altogether we spoke with Honda.
“I think we’ve ended up with the best of all worlds with a fantastic engineer and a great brand like Virgin.
“It’s something which could develop into something exciting in the years to come.”

Toyotas thrown out of qualifying

The two Toyotas have been disqualified from the Melbourne qualifying results due to technical infringements.


The race stewards declared that the wings on Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli's cars had flexed excessively.


Wings have to be kept at a certain level of rigidity because a car's downforce at different parts of the circuit can be increased if they flex.


"The Stewards have received a report from the Technical Delegate that the upper rear wing elements of cars No. 9 and 10 are showing extreme flexibility in contravention of Article 3.15 of the 2009 Formula One Technical Regulations," said a stewards' statement.




"The Stewards have heard the explanation from a representative of Panasonic Toyota Racing and have examined the cars in question.


"The Stewards concur with the opinion of the Technical Delegate and find the cars contravene the requirements of Article 3.15 of the 2009 Formula One Technical Regulations.


"It is the Stewards decision that cars number 9 and 10 be excluded from the Qualifying Session Official Classification."


The decision means that Glock and Trulli fall from sixth and eighth places to the rear of the grid.

No weight advantage for Brawn GP cars

The Brawn GP cars, which locked out the front row of the grid for the Australian Grand Prix, have been revealed to have had no weight advantage in qualifying after the FIA published a list of each car's race-start load.

With each car's minimum weight set at 605kg (including driver), the Brawns of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello weigh in at 664.5kg and 666.5kg respectively. This suggests an opening race stint for the pair of more than 20 laps, depending on safety car intervention.

By comparison, Sebastian Vettel weighs in at 657kg from third on the grid, with fellow second-row starter Robert Kubica at 650kg. This means that the BMW Sauber driver is the lightest car in the field, helping him to qualify well despite not showing that kind of pace in free practice.

Of the top 10 in Q3, only Toyota's Timo Glock was on a heavier fuel load than the two Brawns, although Toyota's times have been disallowed.

Nelson Piquet's Renault is the heaviest car on the grid at 694.1kg, which should allow him to run more than 10 laps longer than the Brawns, with both Nick Heidfeld and Heikki Kovalainen also tipping the scales at over 690kg.

Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima's weight has been officially declared to be 612.5kg, although it is understood that figure could be amended to around 685kg.

The 10 cars who made it through to Q3 all qualified at their declared race-start weights, plus the fuel needed for them to complete that session, while those who fell in Q1 and Q2 have been allowed to choose their start loads after qualifying.

Diffuser difference in Oz

Red Bull Racing's Christian Horner says it is no fluke that practice at the Australian Grand Prix has been dominated so far by the 'diffuser gang' of teams.
Six of the top seven times on the opening day of running for the Australian Grand Prix were set by cars whose diffuser designs have been protested by their rivals.
And although Mark Webber broke the stranglehold by setting the fourth quickest time, his boss Horner thinks that the performance of Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota is pointing to the fact that teams will have no choice but to copy the diffuser concept if the FIA Appeal Court confirms that it is legal.
When asked by AUTOSPORT whether there was any coincidence that the ‘diffuser' cars were at the top of the timesheets, Horner said: "I don't think there is.
"I think that interpretation offers a performance advantage, so inevitably all of the teams, if that solution is now permitted, will all go off and pursue different variants of it."
The speed of the diffuser cars has led some teams to suggest in private that F1 is now a two-tier championship - with the cars running the diffusers in a class of their own.
Horner did not disagree with the idea.
"You could even say it is three tier: those with KERS and those without, and those with double decker diffuser and those without!
"It is a shame, however, the FIA has ruled that their cars are legal. We obviously have the right to appeal that, but we are here to go racing and we will do the best job we possibly can. Hopefully we can be as close to the front as we can be."
Although Red Bull Racing is set to join Ferrari and Renault in appealing against the decision by the Australian Grand Prix stewards to reject their protest about the diffuser designs, Horner confirmed his team was already evaluating copying the concept – in case the FIA confirms the legality.
"You cannot afford to wait," he said. "So effectively we have already had to start looking at alternative solutions."
Horner admitted, however, that using one of the diffuser designs on the RB5 was not straightforward because of the concept of its car – which includes the rear pull-rod suspension.
"It is feasible, but it depends how far you want go with it," he said. "Potentially it involves significant amounts of time if you were to really optimise to an extreme point – and potentially it involves half of the car. So it is not a quick or cheap solution."

Bernie Ecclestone has revealed there will be three new teams joining Formula 1 next season.

The F1 supremo said 26 cars will be on the starting grid for the 2010 campaign and that a medals-system will determine the championship.
"We'll have 26 cars on the grid next year - we've got a lot of people confirmed," said Ecclestone.
"It won't be necessary to discuss it (the medals). If the rules are out before they enter that's how it is."
Last Sunday, Ecclestone was asked if he was disappointed by the decision to ditch the system for this year.
"Absolutely - if you go to the athletics and look at the 100m you're not looking at the guy that's second, you're looking at the winner," he told BBC Radio 5 Live's Sportsweek programme last Sunday.
Lewis (Hamilton) last year was second in a couple of races he could easily have won and he was quite right in being second
F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone
"To make any changes when the entries have closed, you have to get a unanimous agreement between all the people that have entered, and it would appear that some of the teams didn't like the idea.
"The whole idea is nothing to do with winning the world championship, the idea was to make sure people raced in every race to win, not to be second or third and collect points."
The new system means that a driver could wrap up the title well before the end of the year, but Ecclestone brushed off suggestions it could potentially kill off interest in the sport.
"That's too bad. Maybe they'd be watching the other races where the people are racing to win rather than be second," said Ecclestone.
And he referred to a couple of races from the 2008 championship as examples of how the present scoring system discouraged attacking driving.
"Lewis (Hamilton) last year was second in a couple of races he could easily have won, and he was quite right in being second," said Ecclestone.
"If I'd have been his team manager I'd have been complaining if he'd been racing to win, in case there was a problem in the car or he fell off the road."
Defending champion Hamilton has been off the pace in pre-season testing but Ecclestone said he "absolutely" believed Hamilton remained the man to beat, adding "certainly if we had that other scoring system he would be".

Toyota welcomes stewards' decision

Toyota has welcomed the FIA stewards' decision to clear the design of its diffuser following a protest lodged by rival teams.
The team had defended its design was legal, but Ferrari, BMW, Renault and Red Bull Racing today lodged a protest against the Japanese squad as well as against Williams and Brawn GP.
All cars were cleared on Thursday night, however, and they will be able to race on Sunday.
"We are pleased with the decision of the race stewards but we prefer not to comment further on the situation," said Toyota Motorsport Chairman Tadashi Yamashina.
"This weekend promises to be a tremendously exciting Australian Grand Prix so we are now looking forward to starting the competition on track with the first practice sessions on Friday."
Toyota said in a statement that it had "studied the wording of the new 2009 regulations in precise detail to ensure that we have interpreted them correctly."

Button 'open minded' about Oz chances

Jenson Button is remaining cautious about Brawn GP's chances in the season-opener in Melbourne, but is confident that the team will be among the front-runners.
After a winter of turbulence and uncertainty, the former Honda squad's future was secured just weeks before the season - and the Mercedes-powered BGP 001 chassis then stunned the paddock by dominating winter testing once it hit the track.
That pace has made Button many people's favourite for Australian Grand Prix victory, but while pleased to have a competitive package after two years of misery, he isn't taking anything for granted yet.
"It's not a pressure, it's a nice feeling," he said.
"We've done seven days of testing and I've done three days.
"We've been reliable, I feel comfortable in the car and I've made it quite personal to myself.
"We come here with an open mind - testing is one thing, we've been reliable and done good lap times.
"But in 2006 we did well in testing and then got to the first race and were blown away by the Ferraris, so you never know.
"We are not going to be slow, I know that.
"But how quick, we'll have to wait and see."
Brawn's prospects have been clouded today with the confirmation that several rival teams have lodged official protests against its diffuser design.
Toyota and Williams have also had their cars challenged for the same reason.

F1 braced for diffuser protests

Formula 1 is bracing itself for a showdown over the diffuser row in Melbourne tomorrow, with at least one team expected to join Red Bull Racing in lodging a protest against Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams.
With the controversy already overshadowing what looks set to be a thrilling start to the season, it is understood that there will be a joint effort from a number of outfits to seek clarification about whether the diffuser designs of the three teams in question are legal.
Teams were tight-lipped about the matter as F1 personnel gathered at the Albert Park circuit on Wednesday, but talks were taking place behind-the-scenes to finalise the expected course of events on Thursday.
It is understood that if, as expected, the cars of Williams, Toyota and Brawn GP are declared legal by the race stewards in official pre-event scrutineering, then protests will be lodged against them.
It is not clear yet, however, whether teams will protest a specific team as a test case, or choose to protest all three on different grounds because of their varying designs.
Despite the looming threat of a protest, sources involved in the situation have expressed regret that the matter has to be resolved in such a way - especially as it detracts from what should be a focus on racing.
"This is an unfortunate situation - but a protest is the only way we can get the rules clarified," one senior source told AUTOSPORT. "This situation has nothing to do with us being against any of the teams involved - it is just to get an answer about the regulations."
Whatever the outcome of the stewards' reaction to the protest, it is almost certain that an appeal will be lodged by the losing party – whether it is the three teams to state their diffusers are legal, or their rivals to state that they are not.
Such an outcome would mean the matter going to a hearing of the FIA's International Court of Appeal, which would at the earliest take place following the Malaysian Grand Prix.
It is understood that Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota are so convinced that their diffusers are legal that they have not thought it necessary to come up with a contingency plan to run a different design if the stewards rule against them.
Williams technical director Sam Michael has said several times that he believes his team has done nothing wrong, and that the FIA has approved its design.
"To be honest we were surprised that it even turned into an issue because for us it was very clearly inside the regulations," said Michael recently.
"It was something that in various forms teams have been doing for two years, so it wasn't really a big issue for us or the FIA. So it was something that we clarified with the FIA well over a year ago.
"There wasn't really any confusion from our side, although there appeared to be some confusion from the other teams, but I don't know on what basis that was."
The row over diffusers is also taking place against the backdrop of further tension between the teams and Formula 1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone over television rights income.
There are suggestions that teams have not yet been paid money owed to them by Ecclestone, and are demanding the situation be resolved immediately if they are not to take further action.
It is understood that a team principals' meeting has been called for tomorrow to discuss the situation.

New 2009 renault

The new f1 renault for 2009

Red Bull 2009 f1 car

The all new Red Bull 2009

Fisichella: 2009 key year for me

Giancarlo Fisichella has said that he needs to see Force India make a step forward in 2009 if he is to stop himself calling time on his Formula 1 career at the end of the year.
The Italian veteran has admitted that a challenging 2008 campaign with the team was tough for him to cope with, but he hopes that the outfit's new technical partnership with McLaren will help lift its fortunes - and make him decide he wants to continue in F1.
Speaking to AUTOSPORT about his feelings on F1 after the difficult last season, Fisichella said: "It was really tough mentally for me you know. In my career I usually drove a good car and won races.
"I went many times on the podium so it wasn't easy to be always in the last row... sometimes it was very frustrating, and sometimes it was encouraging. But you know, it is my job and I like this sport - and I still want to go ahead.
"This year is a very important year for me. I need to know what I have to do for the future. Obviously another difficult season means it will be difficult to continue, but I am looking forward."
Although the new Force India VMJ02 has put in some strong times in pre-season testing, Fisichella is not expecting much pace from the car at the start of the season.
"I was quite optimistic after the first test, but I am not so excited now because unfortunately the car came late and we haven't tested enough," he said. "Mechanically the car looks alright, with the engine and gearbox running very well, but we need downforce.
"We are struggling with the grip, so for the first four races away from Europe I think we are going to struggle like last year. But hopefully when we come back in Barcelona we will have KERS and a new package, I hope it is a good step forward. The midfield may be a little bit difficult, but we will see."

FIA confirms points system unchanged

The FIA has now officially reverted Formula 1's points system back to how it was last year, after abandoning the 'winner takes all' concept.
Last week, the FIA's World Motor Sport Council approved a move to hand the world championship to the driver who scored the most wins, rather than the one who scored the most points.
That decision angered F1 teams and, through the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA), it complained that the rule change had been implemented against the FIA's own regulations - which state such late alterations to the regulations cannot go through without the unanimous support of the teams.
The FIA reacted to FOTA's stance by stating that if the teams were unhappy it would revert the points system back to what it was originally.
That process has now been completed, with the official 2009 Sporting Regulations updated on Tuesday to confirm that the world championship will be decided by points.
The confusion about the points has left the sport facing criticism from observers, however. Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber was one who was particularly unimpressed by the events of the last week.
"We changed our minds again and we washed our clothes in public again," said the Australian.

Red Bull 'optimistic' about RB5 pace

Mark Webber has said that his Red Bull Racing team is heading into this weekend's Australian Grand Prix in an 'optimistic' mood after some encouraging results from testing.
The new RB5 set some promising times during its initial running and, although it did not repeat such headline-grabbing performances in more recent testing, Webber is bullish about the team's prospects.
"We are going in with a little bit of optimism actually," said Webber in Melbourne on Tuesday. "We are looking forward to seeing how all the times roll out after qualifying.
"With Barcelona and Jerez, we tested at only two tracks in Europe for the whole of winter testing and now we have come to a different venue, so we need to get our head around Albert Park very quickly, which is the same every year. But we are optimistic we will be somewhere up there."
He added: "It's been a different testing situation with the testing ban, so a lot of teams here are probably a little bit undercooked, but we are all in the same boat - so we are all looking forward to getting the season under way. It will be a good season ahead and I'm looking forward to it."
Webber concedes that rival Brawn GP is heading into Melbourne as favourites judging by its pre-season testing form, but behind those cars he thinks the field is very open.
"The Brawn cars look quite interesting. They started quite late but it looks like they have produced a very, very fast car... as they were doing times at Barcelona that nobody else could get near.
"I think you have got Toyota up there and you can never underestimate Ferrari. There are so many teams doing the same lap times with the exception of Brawn, so we will just have to see how it goes come this weekend. The only probable surprise is McLaren because of its lack of performance, but you can never underestimate McLaren."
Although Webber is walking with a limp as a legacy of November's leg-breaking cycling accident, he says there is no concern about his fitness for driving.
"Yeah I am pretty good," he said about his recovery. "I was being pretty aggressive in the last few months as I always wanted to be better one week than I was the week before.
"The people around me have been good at getting me to this stage. I am absolutely fine, and in the car is fantastic. I would like to be able to walk a bit faster, and walk a bit cleaner, as I have a little bit of a limp, but that will happen with time.
"It is still healing a little bit, but when I am in the car it is absolutely fine so there is no need to worry about that."
Red Bull Racing will not be starting the season with KERS, even though engine supplier Renault has given the go-ahead for its system to be used this weekend.
Webber said he did not expect his team to have its device ready to race until at least the start of the European season.
"We are not ready as a team," he explained. "It could be five or six races before we bring it on."

Hamilton confident McLaren can recover

By Matt Beer
Lewis Hamilton says he has absolute faith in McLaren's ability to get its currently uncompetitive 2009 car on the pace during the season.
The world champion is facing a very difficult start to the year after McLaren languished near the foot of the times in recent tests, and the team admitted that it had significant problems to resolve before it could think about challenging for victories.
But Hamilton is optimistic that McLaren can develop its way out of its present predicament.
"I've driven for Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes for two years and, in both those seasons, the team has developed a fantastic car," he told a group of British newspaper journalists.
"At the moment, this year's car is a little behind the rest in terms of development but I'm absolutely confident we will get stronger and grow as the year progresses.
"I have complete faith in my team. They are working so hard at the moment, putting in incredible hours and massive effort. And I'll do my bit too. Heikki [Kovalainen] and I will work together to improve the car's pace. We're totally committed to working with the team to develop the best car possible."
He is adamant that his motivation will not slip even if he does not have a car capable of race wins.
"My plan is to be at the front of the grid in Melbourne," said Hamilton. "But if I'm not able to start the Australian Grand Prix from the front of the grid, I'll still race my heart out. I can't wait to get back racing."
The Briton added that he felt less pressure than he would have done had this situation occurred before he had clinched his first title.
"Losing the championship because you've never had it before is definitely harder than the possibility of losing the status that comes with it," he said.
"Now that I've won it, I can be very appreciative that I had a great opportunity, that I had a great car and a great team that did a great job. I've got to be mindful of the fact that you can't do it all the time.
"Some people win one; some win two or three. I don't know how many I will win, but I know that I'm just as determined as ever.
"But the energy behind that determination is managed differently. Rather than just being aggressive, it's a much happier balance because I've not got stresses from anywhere.
"Things are good; sponsors are happy, my boss is happy, so I'm getting positive energy from all these different people."

Montezemolo slams 'absurd' rule changes

By Jonathan Noble
Friday, March 20th 2009, 08:56 GMT
Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has voiced further criticism about the raft of radical rule changes that the FIA announced earlier this week.
As well as unveiling plans for a voluntary budget cap from the start of 2010, the FIA has shaken up Formula 1's points system - declaring that the world championship will be handed to the driver with the most wins.
The changes have already drawn critical comments from former champions Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher, and di Montezemolo has spoken out again too.
"I really think it's absurd, severe and dangerous that one week before the first grand prix, Formula 1 is in such a situation, which is very bad for its credibility, its security, the teams, the car manufacturers, the fans, the journalists and the sponsors who invest," di Montezemolo was quoted as saying on Ferrari's official website.
"I hope for a responsible climate, which has been started by us, the teams, with a cost reduction of 50%.
"It's important to have a serene climate and to avoid continuous changes, creating uncertainty for those who work and making decisions for the future difficult."
Di Montezemolo made his comments during a visit by Italian president Giorgio Napolitano to Ferrari's Maranello factory.

2009 Formula One team logos | F1 Wolf

2009 Formula One team logos F1 Wolf

F1 Williams abandons skate fins

By Jonathan Noble
Monday, March 16th 2009, 16:58 GMT
Williams has abandoned plans to race the cockpit 'skate fins' that appeared on its FW31 in recent testing following safety concerns about their design, autosport.com can reveal.
The team introduced the radical sail fins at the end of last month as a way of helping channel airflow over the rear of the car.
Although bodywork winglets and flip-ups were theoretically banned with the introduction of the 2009 technical regulations, the team was able to use these fins because of a loophole in the rules regarding the head restraint area of the car.
But following discussions between the team and FIA technical delegate Charlie Whiting during last week's F1 test at Barcelona in Spain about the safety implications of the design, the team has opted against pursuing the concept any further.
It is understood that there was some concern from the FIA that the fins could impede marshals from assisting a driver in the event of an accident.
Although Williams could have opted to keep the fins on its cars for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix to seek a definitive ruling from race stewards about their legality, the team has confirmed that it does not plan to race them.
The team had already removed them by the final day of last week's Barcelona test, and it is running without them in this week's run at Jerez in Spain.
Williams technical director Sam Michael said at a media event last month that the team was open about its plans to race them in 2009.
"They are likely to remain, but like any part there could be a development on the car than changes the nature of the car, so they could change shape or we could remove them completely," he said.
Williams is not the only team which will be removing cockpit fins before the start of the season.
It is understood that BMW Sauber will also get rid of the small cockpit fins that have appeared on its car in testing.

Barrichello heads start of final test

Jerez day one

Rubens Barrichello was the leading runner around Jerez on Sunday, as the final pre-season test got underway at the Spanish circuit. Barrichello made sure Ross Brawn’s was again the fastest team of the three present, with a best lap of 1m 19.236s.As in Barcelona last week, the Brawn BGP001 looked both quick and reliable. Barrichello’s time was over half a second quicker than nearest rival, Renault’s Fernando Alonso, and the Brazilian completed 107 laps as he worked on a series of set-up and tyre evaluations, in addition to a number of race start simulations."We had a good day of testing today,” said Barrichello. “It is hotter in Jerez than it was in Barcelona last week and therefore more representative of the temperatures that we can expect for the first few races, so it is good preparation for myself and the car. The car ran very well once again and we are increasing our understanding of its characteristics every day."Alonso’s day got off to a bad start, with a trip through the gravel early on causing damage to his R29. The team got him back out in the afternoon, but the Spaniard managed just 40 laps in total."Unfortunately I made a mistake this morning which was a shame as we lost a lot of track time, but sometimes this happens in testing when you are looking for the limits of the car,” said Alonso.“This afternoon the team put the car together as soon as possible and we tried to complete our main priorities for the day, which was testing some new parts on the car. In the end we managed to do it and we were pleased with the results, although we certainly would have liked more laps.”Williams tester Nico Hulkenberg completed the line-up for Sunday, which saw fine and sunny conditions throughout the day. The German covered 69 laps in the FW31 and finished two-tenths down on Alonso.The Brawn team, Renault and Williams are all due to continue at Jerez until Wednesday, with McLaren also expected to run from Monday to Thursday.Unofficial Sunday times from Jerez:1. Rubens Barrichello, Brawn BGP 001, 1:19.2362. Fernando Alonso, Renault R29, 1:19.8193. Nico Hulkenberg, Williams FW31, 1:20.015

Domencali says reliability main concern

Ferrari team boss Stefano Domencali is confident the F60 is quick enough to be at the front in Melbourne, but admitted that reliability is still a concern.
Indications from recent tests suggest that Ferrari has more reliability issues than its rivals, and Domenicali acknowledged this resolving this was the team's priority.
"Over the last days I've been to Barcelona to follow the last stages of the test sessions and I've seen a very concentrated and determined team," he said.
"We're satisfied with the level of our car as far as the performance is concerned. It's obvious that we still have some work to do and that we have to concentrate on its reliability.
"Last year we've seen how important reliability and the smallest details are. We have to work much harder in this direction."
Domenicali was unwilling to predict where Ferrari stood relative to its rivals at present, although he agreed with Felipe Massa's comments that the new Brawn GP team is in very good shape.
"I don't want you to think that I'm avoiding an answer, but it's more difficult than ever to say anything about the levels on the track," said Domenicali.
"Until a couple of days ago there was a great equilibrium between the different teams - some expected and some a bit less - and then there was Brawn GP's exploit; their performance was incredibly surprising and they have to be watched with care.
"We think that we're part of the more competitive teams, but there are still many unknown factors to consider. We have to wait for Melbourne to get the answers."
Earlier this week Renault boss Flavio Briatore hinted that there could be protests against some teams' interpretation of the 2009 rules, particularly in relation to Williams and Toyota's diffusers. Domenicali is confident that Ferrari will not receive any complaints, but can see the need the clarification.
"We think that we've applied the modified regulations - after the work done by the OWG (Overtaking Working Group) together with the FIA - to the letter," he said.
"It might be that others took a different approach. The FIA has to dissipate any doubt, let's hope they'll do it fast and clearly."

Toyota 'had doubts' about its F1 future

Toyota team principal Tadashi Yamashina has revealed that he had to battle to keep the company in Formula 1 this season.
The Japanese car giant posted its first ever operating loss in December last year, just weeks after arch-rival Honda announced its departure from grand prix racing.
Toyota rapidly quelled consequent speculation about its F1 future by affirming its commitment to the sport. But Yamashina has now admitted that a pull-out had been seriously considered.
"I stressed again and again in the company's executive board meetings there was no way we should pull out, although we have to drastically cut our costs," he told Japanese newspaper the Daily Yomiuri.
"Obviously our negative business reports did cause some doubt."
He said major sponsor Panasonic's continued commitment had been crucial to keeping Toyota in F1.
"So I was extremely happy that Panasonic decided to renew its contract with us even though they also had some financial trouble," said Yamashina. "Their understanding of what we are doing allowed us to keep racing."
He also remains convinced that F1 provides good value for Toyota.
"We have competed in the F1 circuit over the past seven years, which I believe has helped to invigorate our company and contributed to the sales of our products," said Yamashina.
The team boss is confident that Toyota is set for a major step forward this season, its car having impressed so far in winter testing.
"We must win," Yamashina said. "I'm sure of our team's potential to win a GP title after watching the final test on Thursday. Our team is definitely better than that of last year."

Barcelona day four - dazzling Barrichello ends test on a high

The potent pace of the Brawn BGP 001 continued to impress at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya on Thursday, as this week’s multi-team test - the last major session before the season opening Australian Grand Prix later this month - drew to a close.Rubens Barrichello finished fastest in the newly-launched car, clocking a best time of 1m 18.926s to finish eight-tenths of a second ahead of Williams’ Nico Rosberg. After an initial delay due to heavy fog, the Spanish track basked in sunshine and Barrichello was able to cover 110 laps as he completed a race simulation. The team will test again at Jerez next week."We are extremely pleased with the inaugural test of the BGP 001 car in Barcelona this week,” said team owner Ross Brawn. “The team made a very late start to our pre-season testing programme with only seven days in which to run the car before the first race in Melbourne, therefore our focus has been on reliability and achieving as much mileage as possible. “Both of these aims have been successfully achieved this week. That the car has run so reliably 'out of the box' is a tribute to the strong team that we have at our factory in Brackley and they have done a great job during a very difficult period. The car is performing to our expectations and the feedback from Jenson (Button) and Rubens has been positive with both drivers completing full race distances.”Rosberg in second completed 120 laps in the FW31, as he carried out set-up work and reliability tests. Third quickest was Toyota’s Timo Glock, who covered 128 laps. Glock’s programme focused on the TF109’s set-up, and even though he stopped on the circuit with a mechanical problem on his last lap, the German was pleased. "That was another useful day to round off our good winter of testing,” he said. “We did more work on set-up and long runs and everything went well until the very last lap! Still, overall the car feels strong and we seem to have good pace so we can look forward to Australia. Of course we'll only see the real results on Saturday in Melbourne but everyone at Toyota can be happy with our work so far.”Sebastian Vettel completed 83 laps on his way to fourth in the times, as Red Bull completed their pre-season testing. Finishing just under a tenth down on the German was Renault’s Fernando Alonso, who ran 64 laps in the R29. Alonso evaluated components in an effort to improve the car's mechanical balance.“We had a problem at the beginning of the afternoon and so we lost some track time, but overall I think it was an interesting day and we improved our understanding of the car,” said the Spaniard. “We tried some new development solutions and so today was not about outright performance but simply exploring new ideas for developing the car into the season.”Felipe Massa finished sixth on Ferrari’s final test day. Massa worked through a programme of set-up adjustment checks and completed 92 laps. Seventh quickest was Robert Kubica for BMW Sauber. Kubica carried out a race simulation and covered 134 laps, bringing the F1.09’s total mileage for the week to 2,162 kms."Our final pre-season test was very productive,” said BMW Sauber's technical coordinator Willy Rampf. “We worked on the mechanical set-up of the car as well as the aero configuration. In addition, we also improved our KERS. Our second goal was to prepare for the season's first Grand Prix in two weeks in Melbourne. We simulated a proper race day on Tuesday with Nick Heidfeld and today with Robert Kubica, each covering a complete race distance without any technical problems."McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton finished in eighth. Hamilton covered 70 laps and concentrated his attentions on mechanical set-up. The team will test again at Jerez next week. Just over a tenth down on Hamilton was Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi, who covered 62 laps in the STR4 before handing it over to team mate Sebastien Bourdais after lunch. Bourdais eventually finished in 11th. Sandwiched between the two Toro Rosso drivers was Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella in tenth. As it was the team’s last day in action before the Australian Grand prix, Fisichella carried out a race weekend simulation and completed a mammoth 141 laps. “It was a very good conclusion to the eight days of testing,” said Force India’s James Key. “Over the week we have completed more than 2,000km and have a very strong basis to start the season from. We don't have any major concerns and the car is now very reliable so we can really start to look at areas that will improve performance."With the Barcelona test complete, the majority of teams will head back to their respective factories to continue preparations before travelling to Melbourne. For McLaren, Renault, Williams and Ross Brawn’s team, however, the on-track work will continue in Spain at Jerez next week. Unofficial Thursday times from Barcelona:1. Rubens Barrichello, Brawn BGP 001, 1:18.9262. Nico Rosberg, Williams FW31, 1:19.7743. Timo Glock, Toyota TF109, 1:20.0914. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull RB5, 1:20.5765. Fernando Alonso, Renault R29, 1:20.6646. Felipe Massa, Ferrari F60, 1:20.6777. Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber F1.09, 1:20.7408. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren MP4-24, 1:20.8699. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso STR4, 1:21.01310. Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India VJM02, 1:21.04511. Sebastien Bourdais, Toro Rosso STR4, 1:21.629

Briatore unhappy with diffuser rules

Renault boss Flavio Briatore has complained that rival teams are flouting the spirit of Formula 1’s rules with controversial diffuser designs – and warned that his team may lodge an official protest at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
Williams and Toyota raised eyebrows when they unveiled their 2009 cars, which use creative shaping of the rear crash structure to effectively extend the diffuser’s central section beyond the new 175mm height limit, thereby generating more rear downforce.
The governing FIA has provisionally declared the designs legal, with president Max Mosley admitting last month that they cleverly exploited a loophole in the regulations.
Briatore, however, believes the designs drive a coach and horses through the rule book and has called on the FIA to clarify the situation.
“F1 must have rules that apply equally to everybody,” he was quoted as saying by Gazzetta dello Sport.
“It’s not fair that certain diffusers are made one way and others in another way, because I don’t think it’s right that every team has its own rule book.
“It seems that there are two sets of regulations: those which allow certain teams to have a diffuser made in a certain way that is forbidden to others because they consider it illegal.
“That’s not what we expect.
“We want black and white rules that are the same for everybody.”
Briatore said Renault did not rule out lodging a protest in Melbourne.
“We will see, because at least three teams are not respecting the regulations,” he said.
The Renault boss fears his team may be disadvantaged in the same way as it was last year when it failed to capitalise on loopholes in the engine regulations.
“I wouldn’t want it to end up like it did with the engine freeze, where we respected it and found ourselves 50 horsepower down on the others,” he said.
“This is the same story.”
Briatore feels F1 already risks confusing and alienating the public with Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems that will not be used by all teams.
“We will go to Australia with some cars having KERS and others that don’t have it and that is already difficult for the public to understand,” he said.

Briatore unhappy with diffuser rules

Renault boss Flavio Briatore has complained that rival teams are flouting the spirit of Formula 1’s rules with controversial diffuser designs – and warned that his team may lodge an official protest at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
Williams and Toyota raised eyebrows when they unveiled their 2009 cars, which use creative shaping of the rear crash structure to effectively extend the diffuser’s central section beyond the new 175mm height limit, thereby generating more rear downforce.
The governing FIA has provisionally declared the designs legal, with president Max Mosley admitting last month that they cleverly exploited a loophole in the regulations.
Briatore, however, believes the designs drive a coach and horses through the rule book and has called on the FIA to clarify the situation.
“F1 must have rules that apply equally to everybody,” he was quoted as saying by Gazzetta dello Sport.
“It’s not fair that certain diffusers are made one way and others in another way, because I don’t think it’s right that every team has its own rule book.
“It seems that there are two sets of regulations: those which allow certain teams to have a diffuser made in a certain way that is forbidden to others because they consider it illegal.
“That’s not what we expect.
“We want black and white rules that are the same for everybody.”
Briatore said Renault did not rule out lodging a protest in Melbourne.
“We will see, because at least three teams are not respecting the regulations,” he said.
The Renault boss fears his team may be disadvantaged in the same way as it was last year when it failed to capitalise on loopholes in the engine regulations.
“I wouldn’t want it to end up like it did with the engine freeze, where we respected it and found ourselves 50 horsepower down on the others,” he said.
“This is the same story.”
Briatore feels F1 already risks confusing and alienating the public with Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems that will not be used by all teams.
“We will go to Australia with some cars having KERS and others that don’t have it and that is already difficult for the public to understand,” he said.

Brawn confirms Fry retains CEO role

Ross Brawn has confirmed that Nick Fry will continue in the role of chief executive officer following his buyout of the former Honda Racing team.
Speculation in recent days has suggested that CEO Fry had been marginalised following the creation of Brawn GP last Friday.
Indeed Fry was not mentioned in Honda’s press release confirming the sale to Brawn, despite appearing as the team's representative at FOTA's press conference in Geneva the day before.
However, speaking to journalists for the first time about his new challenge as a team owner at the Barcelona test on Tuesday, Brawn put the rumours to bed by insisting Fry had been instrumental in helping secure the team’s rescue and that he remained a key player at the new squad.
"Nick has been a key member of the team, he retains his position as CEO and his position hasn't changed, despite the speculation,” Brawn told reporters.
“He's been a vital part of putting this all together."
While the former Ferrari technical mastermind may be the figurehead for the newly-renamed team, Brawn admits the Brackley-based squad would have closed had the management not stuck together and seen the buyout through.
"It's been stressful for the management, if we hadn't stayed together as a group it would have been very difficult to achieve, because there were some very black days in trying to keep this team alive,” he said.
“But I'm glad to say here we are and we are going to Melbourne.
"If I'm frank there were no choices.
“Because if the management group hadn't taken this task on all of the team would have been made redundant.”
Although Honda was believed to be willing to part with its F1 operation for a token sum following its decision to quit the sport last December, no confirmed details have yet emerged about how Brawn GP will finance its first season or structure its budget going forwards.
Reports have suggested that Honda will continue to fund the squad to a large extent during 2009, as it remains a cheaper option to shutting the whole team down, with further income coming from commercial revenues from Formula One Management.
Speaking on Tuesday Brawn didn’t go into details on his team's financial state, but did admit that although it had a solid budget to complete this year a long-term plan needed to be devised to ensure the squad’s survival well into the next decade.
And while he insisted this didn’t necessarily mean finding a longer-term owner, he did concede that his team needed to secure sponsors to boost its budget – hinting that the on-track performance of its so-far promising BGP 001 car this year would be key to doing that.
“Things can go wrong, but we are optimistic, but if we can capitalise on the performance of the car, and the car looks good, then the team has a future,” he said.
"This is a medium term solution and we need to find a solution for the long term.
“We are comfortable for the season.
“We need to find partners and sponsors to support the team.
“We need to be flexible on what we do but we will have proper structure going forward.”
Brawn's BGP 001 car has run without branding in its early pre-season test appearances with the team's lack of sponsors a legacy of Honda's decision to forgo on-car sponsorship since 2007 to promote environmental issues via its 'Earth Dreams' concept.

Dennis shrugs off McLaren concerns

McLaren chairman Ron Dennis has played down concerns about McLaren’s pace following the indifferent testing performance of its 2009 car over the past two weeks.
The Woking squad, which perennially vies with Ferrari for the drivers’ and constructors’ world championships, has languished near the bottom of the timesheets at Barcelona this week, where all 10 teams have been in action ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on March 29.
Although he concedes that McLaren is not yet competitive with its main rivals, Dennis is adamant his team will soon close the gap and mount a season-long title challenge with reigning champion Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen.
“Whatever performance level McLaren have today we will be a competitive racing team,” Dennis told BBC Sport.
“That means we will be fighting for the world championship.”
Kovalainen was slowest of the 10 runners at Barcelona on Monday and yesterday (Tuesday) finished ahead of only Toro Rosso, which has only just rolled out its new STR4 car.
Headline lap times, especially during winter testing, are a notoriously unreliable guide to form – but McLaren has also been off the pace over long runs with race fuel loads on board.
ITV.com/f1 sources indicate that the team is struggling with an aerodynamic problem on the MP4-24, understood to be the rear wing stalling, having alternated between 2008 and 2009-spec rear wings at Jerez last week and redesigned the car’s floor.
It has also conducted ‘flow vis’ tests – whereby a green dye is applied to the side of the car and is dispersed as the air flows over it at speed – to highlight how the airflow is being managed, a practice normally carried out behind closed doors in private testing.
Dennis admits McLaren has fallen behind schedule with its aero development, meaning that it has only just fitted the Melbourne-spec package – and says this explains its decision to continue testing with last year’s rear wing.
“We lost some time,” he explained.
“We had a strategy for this year to leave it to the last possible moment to produce our aerodynamic package for the Australian Grand Prix.
“That in itself gave us some production challenges and we have really only started to run the car in the last day with the Australian aero package.
“We ran the 2008 rear wing because it was more relevant in its performance to the wing that we are going to have in Australia.
“It doesn’t mean you are lost or that you don't know what you are doing.”
While six of the 10 teams will wrap up their winter testing in Barcelona this week, McLaren, Renault, Williams and Brawn GP will head south to Jerez for a final outing next week before flying to Australia.
Dennis is confident this will give McLaren an opportunity to catch up, and reckons the team will come on ever stronger as the season progresses.
“Whereas our main competitors are finishing testing in two days we still have the ability to test next week in Jerez,” he said.
“When we get to Australia that will be the first measurement of everyone's performance.
“We expect our car to go faster with every grand prix and we expect to maintain our pace to allow us to win the world championship.”

Barcelona day three - Button stuns in Spain

Jenson Button was the man to beat as this week’s test continued at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya on Wednesday. Button, driving the Brawn GP 001, was the only runner to dip below the 1m 20s mark, clocking a best time of 1m 19.127s around the Spanish track to better the Ferrari of Felipe Massa by over a second.Third fastest was Robert Kubica for BMW Sauber. As it was Kubica’s first day at the test, he concentrated on carrying out a variety of different race-related situations to fine tune the working relationship between him and his pit crew. He also worked to find solutions for the F1.09's set-up and covered 109 laps in total.“Today was very productive,” said the Polish driver. “We tried various solutions we weren’t able to complete last week in Jerez because of the unfortunate weather conditions. Obviously our main target today was to do a lot of evaluations for the forthcoming Australian Grand Prix.”More details to follow.Unofficial Wednesday times from Barcelona:1. Jenson Button, Brawn BGP 001, 1:19.1272. Felipe Massa, Ferrari F60, 1:20.1683. Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber F1.09, 1:20.2174. Timo Glock, Toyota TF109, 1:20.4105. Fernando Alonso, Renault R29, 1:20.8636. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull RB5, 1:21.1657. Nico Rosberg, Williams FW31, 1:21.3248. Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India VJM02, 1:21.5459. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso STR4, 1:21.56910. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren MP4-24, 1:21.657

Formula 1-Toro Rosso face uphill struggle, claims team principal

Bourdais and Buemi on the roster after Vettel's departure• Italian team buck current trend by expanding operation

Sébastien Bourdais during formula one testing at the Circuit de Catalunya. Photograph: Peter Fox/Getty Images
Toro Rosso presented their new STR4 Formula One car on Monday with team principal Franz Tost recognising they would struggle to live up to last year's race-winning performance.
"All race teams should have the same targets: to win every race they enter," he said before France's Sebastien Bourdais completed the first laps in testing at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya.
"Of course, this is not going to happen and even matching our 2008 showing will be difficult, as the sport enters a new era.
"Therefore our target has to be to leave every race track on a Sunday night knowing we have done the best job we could."
Germany's Sebastian Vettel produced a major upset when he won the team's home Italian Grand Prix from pole position at Monza last September to become Formula One's youngest race winner at the age of 21.
Toro Rosso also scored 39 points, more than ever before in its three season history, and finished sixth overall and one place ahead of sister team Red Bull.
Vettel has since moved to Red Bull, with the 20-year-old Swiss Sébastien Buemi replacing him as the sport's sole rookie and youngest driver on the grid when the season starts in Australia on 29 March.
Bourdais, whose career had hung in the balance until February, is retained for a second season after a difficult debut.
Toro Rosso's car is designed by the Adrian Newey-led Red Bull Technology, but differs from the Red Bull in having a Ferrari engine and KERS energy recovery system rather than the other team's Renault package.
Technical director Giorgio Ascanelli, whose team have to design their own chassis from next year under the current rules, said the car already had very different systems to the Red Bull.
While the bigger teams have shed staff since last season, with cost-cutting measures including a ban on testing during the season and a need for far fewer engines, Tost said the Italy-based Toro Rosso had bucked the trend.
"The team is bigger, having expanded its facility in Faenza and we have taken on more staff," he said, adding that test team members had been allocated other roles.
The significant changes to the technical regulations, with greatly revised aerodynamics and a switch to slick tyres, posed more of a challenge however.
"Historically, whenever rules have changed significantly, it is always the bigger, more established teams who have the technical resources and experience to react quickly in adapting to those changes," Tost said. "It was the long period of stability in the rules which allowed Toro Rosso to be so competitive last year."

F1 Hamilton honored at Buckingham Palace

Although his attention is now firmly focused on his campaign for the forthcoming season, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton took time to reflect on his title-winning success of 2008 on Tuesday, as he was awarded an MBE by Her Majesty The Queen at Buckingham Palace in London. World champion Hamilton was named in the New Year Honours list in January in recognition of his services to motor racing.“To go to the Palace today and meet Her Majesty The Queen was an incredible experience, following what has been an intense, exciting and unbelievable 12 months of my life,” said the British driver after receiving his award. “I’m so proud of the reception I have received from everybody in the United Kingdom.“People’s enthusiasm and support - even during the tough times - really kept me going and helped me through an extremely demanding year. To be recognised alongside the people who make an outstanding and selfless contribution to society, is truly humbling and I’d like to thank Her Majesty The Queen, her Government and the British public for bestowing this honour on me.“I’d also like to thank my family for sharing my dream and helping to make it a reality. Last but not least, I’d also like to thank my team - Vodafone McLaren Mercedes - for taking a chance on me when I was 13 years old. I still can’t believe I’m in Formula One and that I’m now a world champion - it’s incredible.”Hamilton was honoured alongside around 120 others, as the Queen officially oversaw the investiture in the Palace’s State Ballroom

Formula 1 - Kimi fastest, Brawn impresses in Spain

Kimi Raikkonen sent out a signal to Ferrari’s rivals ahead of the new season by comfortably topping the second day testing times at Barcelona on Tuesday.
However, the world champion team’s performance was slightly blotted by the return of reliability glitches on its F60 car – with a small leak in its KERS cooling system meaning the team had to cut short its simulation of a grand prix weekend.
Nevertheless despite completing just 55 laps Raikkonen’s time of 1m20.314s was still good enough to keep him almost 0.6s clear of Williams’s Kazuki Nakajima and the Brawn GP team, as the Brackley squad again caught the eye.
And ominously for the rest of the grid, Raikkonen – who now hands the F60 over to Felipe Massa for the remaining two days – says Ferrari has yet to unleash the car’s full raw pace.
"I'm happy with how the car works now, so far it's been good,” he told reporters afterwards.
“We haven't pushed 100% to try to do any special lap times but car is handling well and I'm happy with it."
Behind Raikkonen it was again an interesting picture, with Nakajima putting Williams as high as it has been on a pre-season timesheet recently and the returning Rubens Barrichello starring for Brawn.
Again it was the former Honda squad’s performance that will hit the headlines, with it adding a further 111 laps-worth of mileage to the BGP 001 following the 82 it racked up on its official track debut on Monday.
Barrichello had been not been in an F1 cockpit since the Brazilian Grand Prix in early November but showed no rustiness on his return to shave two tenths off team-mate Jenson Button’s opening day time to clock 1m20.966s.
Jarno Trulli was a steady fourth for Toyota and yet again enjoyed bullet-proof reliability from the TF109 to complete 121 laps in total, including a series of long runs.
The Italian now signs off from track duties until the Australian Grand Prix in two weeks time and is confident that when Melbourne comes around the team is ready to attack the front of the field after an impressive pre-season.
"Today was my last day of testing for the winter,” he said.
“We again did a lot of laps including some interesting long runs as we finalised our preparations for Melbourne.
“It's clear we will only find out the true picture in Australia but I'm happy with our work in the course of the tests we've done.
“The car has been competitive and consistent so we can head into the first race with confidence. I feel ready."
Mark Webber was sixth for Red Bull and only just completed a race distance (66 laps) after the team took time to identify and resolve a mechanical gremlin on the RB5.
BMW, meanwhile, had no such reliability concerns and Nick Heidfeld wrapped up his own on-track preparations for Melbourne during a mammoth 127 laps.
The day one pacesetter didn't set a time within a second of his Monday benchmark but the team's focus was set on completing a run-through of a race, including pit stops, before evaluating further set-up options on the F1.09.
Force India took seventh courtesy of Adrian Sutil, with the German again lapping faster than both Renault and the team's technical partner McLaren Mercedes in a best time of 1m21.834s.
The Silverstone-based squad tried out some aero tweaks on its VJM02 and Sutil believes the team is making good progress with both reliability and tyre management.
"We could do a lot of running again today, which was the main aim of the programme," Sutil said after 82 laps.
"I feel a lot more confident in the car now we have got some reliability and can start to look at different set-ups and making the tyres work.
"We know we have a lot of work to do, particularly with the tyres as we still struggle to bring them in, but we now have a good idea of how the car is behaving.
"I'm looking forward to Melbourne now."
Former world champion Fernando Alonso was making his first appearance of the week for Renault but his best effort of 1m21.937s was well off Raikkonen's pace.
However both team and driver appeared content with it's day's work following 111 laps.
McLaren’s second consecutive appearance towards the foot of the order may raise speculation that all is not well with the team’s MP4-24, although Heikki Kovalainen was much closer to the rest of the field than was the case on Monday – albeit still over 1.5s back on Ferrari.
The Woking squad continued to assess the merits of the new front wing, floor and top body it has introduced onto the car for this week, with managing director Jonathan Neale saying Kovalainen's two days in the car had been "very productive" ahead of Lewis Hamilton's return on Wednesday.
The team was spared another day at the foot of the timesheet by Toro Rosso who endured a problematic second full day of running with the STR4.
Sebastien Bourdais had his day cut short after 14 laps after the team discovered a problem with the car’s front suspension, with parts needed to be shipped in from its Faenza base to fix the issue.
So with its development plans for the day out of the window, it decided to give Sebastien Buemi his first experience of the 2009 car with the 20-year-old completing just six ‘in’ and ‘out’ laps in total.Testing times from Barcelona (Tuesday 10 March)
1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m20.314s
2. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m20.907s
3. BARRICHELLO Brawn 1m20.966s
4. TRULLI Toyota 1m21.182s
5. WEBBER Red Bull 1m21.347s
6. HEIDFELD BMW 1m21.615s
7. SUTIL Force India 1m21.834s
8. ALONSO Renault 1m21.937s
9. KOVALAINEN McLaren 1m21.991s
10. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1m23.039s
11. BUEMI Toro Rosso no time

Formula-1 Williams FW31 - vertical 'skate' fins

With the 2009 regulations bringing so many changes, teams are inevitably investigating every avenue in a bid to find potentially beneficial loopholes. Williams have utilised this area immediately surrounding the cockpit - an area unrestricted by most bodywork regulations - to add new vertical fins, dubbed 'skate' fins because of their resemblance to the flat fish of that name. They utilise similar principles to the 'horn' wings employed in recent seasons by McLaren and BMW Sauber on the side of their engine covers. They interfere with airflow, redirecting it more effectively towards the rear wing, hence improving the wing's efficiency. Sauber used the same idea in practice for the 2006 French Grand Prix. However, their fins were sited on top of the chassis, level with the front suspension, and fears over their effect on driver visibility meant they were never raced.

Windsor: USF1 name change ‘no big deal’

One of the men behind the ambitious project to create an American Formula 1 team has played down the team’s recent name change and says its plans are progressing well.
The team, which officially unveiled its plans at the end of last month, has dropped its original ‘USF1’ moniker and logo at the behest of Formula One Management and its website now redirects to www.usgpe.com.
Team co-founder Peter Windsor told itv.com/f1 that the change of name was not a significant setback and said a permanent name and logo would be confirmed shortly.
“It’s no big deal,” he said.
“Our original logo was just a placemark for a work in progress.
“Now that we’re in business, we need to conform with FOM rules and of course we’re delighted to be doing that and will be announcing an official logo shortly.
“As for the [interim] site, this was just one of many domain names we registered about five years ago.
“We’ll be back soon – bigger and better.”
Windsor added that the team has been delighted by the response from fans and the media since news of its plans first broke a month ago.
“We were completely overwhelmed by the reaction to our announcement,” he said.
“The latest figures show that over 4,000 articles about us were published worldwide in February alone.
“Who said that no one was interested in Americans in F1?”

STR: Tough to repeat 2008 success

Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost admitted the Faenza-based squad will be hard-pressed to match its 2008 achievements this season, as the team unveiled its new STR4 car at Barcelona on Monday morning.
STR enjoyed a breakthrough ’08 campaign, scoring a shock first grand prix victory at Monza with young star Sebastian Vettel and beating its senior sibling Red Bull Racing to sixth place in the constructors’ championship.
But with Vettel having moved up to RBR, which now boasts one of the strongest driver line-ups on the grid, and the energy-drinks firm expected to concentrate resources on the senior squad, Tost cautioned that STR may not be able to repeat its giant-killing feats.
“The 2008 season was good in terms of our on-track performance, which, it’s fair to say, exceeded our expectations, with our biggest ever haul of points, a pole position and a win,” he said.
“It's going to be tough to live up to that this year.”
He added that the sweeping regulation changes – although in theory creating a more level playing field – actually make life harder for cash-strapped smaller teams.
“Historically, whenever rules have changed significantly, it is always the bigger, more established teams who have the technical resources and experience to react quickly in adapting to those changes,” he noted.
“It was the long period of stability in the rules which allowed Toro Rosso to be so competitive last year.”
But while conceding that Toro Rosso has a tough act to follow, Tost said the impressive testing performances of Red Bull’s Adrian Newey-designed RB5 chassis, from which the STR4 is derived, bode well for his team – especially since it will have the new chassis from the start of the season.
“This year is already looking great as we are five races ahead of schedule, given that last year we did not get to race the ‘08 car until the sixth round of the season in Monaco!” he said.
“Right from Red Bull Racing’s first test in Jerez it appeared that the car was competitive straight away and that Adrian Newey and his team had come up with a very promising package.
“The car looks good and shows very promising performance.”
STR benefited last year from its Ferrari engines, which gave it a noticeable power advantage over the Renault-powered RBR.
And although Renault has been given dispensation under the engine freeze to close the performance gap over the winter, Tost is delighted to continue with the Italian marque.
“This year marks the third year of our collaboration with Ferrari, which, on both a human and technical level, works very well,” he said.
“It goes without saying that having an engine that won the 2008 constructors’ world championship can only be a good thing.”
And while other teams have had to lay off staff due to cost-cutting measures and the recession, Tost said Toro Rosso had expanded its comparatively small workforce over the past year.
“With the continued support of Red Bull, Scuderia Toro Rosso has grown in several ways in the past 12 months,” he said.
“The team is bigger, having expanded its facility in Faenza and we have taken on more staff.”
He said aerodynamic restrictions did not bear heavily on STR but did help to close the manpower gap between it and the larger teams.
“At Toro Rosso, we support the cost-cutting initiatives instigated by the FIA and FOTA.
“These are a good thing for a small team like ours, as for example, the reduction in the use of wind tunnel time and Computational Fluid Dynamics has had a minimal effect on our work.
“In terms of manpower, it means we have not had to let many people go, allocating test team staff to other roles within the company.”
Asked what the team’s goals for the season were, Tost said: “Even matching our 2008 showing will be difficult, as the sport enters a new era.
“Therefore our target has to be to leave every race track on a Sunday night knowing we have done the best job we could.
“The results will then depend on how everyone else has done.”

Formula 1 Heidfeld fastest as crunch test begins

BMW’s Nick Heidfeld picked up from where he left off last week at Jerez to emphatically head the timesheet as the crucial final group test before Melbourne got underway at Barcelona.
Meanwhile, the newly-renamed Brawn GP caused a surprise on its return to official testing action following its rescue last week with Jenson Button finishing fourth fastest in the brand new BGP 001.
The appearance of the former Honda Racing team at the test meant that for the first time this year all 10 squads are testing at the same venue, although for six teams (excluding McLaren, Renault, Williams and Brawn GP) this week's four-day session represents their final outings of pre-season.
And with in-season testing now banned from the Australian Grand Prix onwards it means this week gives the six squads last chances to both complete on-track preparations for Melbourne and test their all-new cars outside of a race weekend.
And it was Heidfeld who led the way for BMW as the team's F1.09 begins to potentially peak at the right time following a low-key start to pre-season.
And encouragingly for the Hinwil squad, Heidfeld’s best lap of 1m20.338s was six tenths of a second faster than nearest challenger Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari).
Heidfeld spent a large part of his day working on practicing race-related tasks for Melbourne, such as pit-stop drills and practice starts, in addition to set-up work.
“The weather was perfect for today’s programme”, he said after 92 laps.
“We could try a lot of different set-up solutions and even do some aero work.”
Raikkonen, meanwhile, was the closest contender as Ferrari continued to show solid pace with its F60 – the Finn clocking 1m20.908s
The former champion notched up 81 laps during work on setting up the car for the circuit, reliability tests and comparing aerodynamic solutions.
Another team that has shown well on the times in recent weeks is Toyota and Jarno Trulli put 121 further laps on the impressively reliable TF109, with the car featuring some aero updates as the team gets its challenger in Melbourne-spec trim.
"This morning started off with drizzly conditions but the rain quickly tailed off, giving us the chance to have a good day's work,” Trulli said after lapping just 0.030s slower than Raikkonen.
“The afternoon was windier but the track surface was fine. The car felt well balanced from the start and we worked on several new things on the aero side which gave us positive results.
“We were competitive throughout the day and we collected a lot of data so this was a useful start to the test."
The future of the former Honda Racing team may have only been secured, and its 2009 car shaken down, on Friday, but the new Brawn GP squad made an unexpectedly strong start to its first full test since last November.
Given that the team in its former guise had rarely appeared towards the top of any timesheet over the past two years, fourth place for Button on the BGP 001’s full debut was highly encouraging with the Mercedes-powered car just 0.8s off the day one pace.
The car – running in its livery of white, black and florescent yellow – ran reliably apart from a small gearbox issue late in the day and allowed Button to rack up 82 laps, with his best effort of 1m21.140s keeping him on top of the timesheet for much of Monday.
Renault tried out some new parts on its R29 and Nelson Piquet Jr took fifth place on his one and only day of running at Barcelona before returning at Jerez next week.
Nevertheless after seeing much of his pre-season dogged by poor weather and reliability glitches, the Brazilian was delighted to get 125 laps under his belt.
"It was a really positive day for me and nice to be able to complete so many laps on a dry track,” he said.
“I feel a lot more comfortable in the car now and, as we didn't have any issues during the day, I could get on with the set-up programme, which taught us some interesting things about the car.
“I will be back in the car in Jerez next week where we will continue our preparations for the start of the season."
Sixth and seventh places went to the Red Bull stable, although the main RBR squad will hope that 2008 history isn’t about to repeat itself this year after sister squad Toro Rosso narrowly outpaced it on its first day of testing with its Ferrari-powered version of the RB5.
STR's Bourdais, who reported encouraging progress with the STR4 (see separate story), completed 20 laps fewer than RBR’s Mark Webber (86) but his time of 1m22.158s was just under 0.1s quicker.
Webber did, however, spend the early part of the day shaking down the third RB5 chassis before going on to concentrate on a programme of work which included general car development and tyre compound comparisons.
Force India began its second full test with its new Mercedes-powered VJM02 and slotted into eighth place courtesy of Adrian Sutil, who completed both qualifying and race simulations, with Williams’s Kazuki Nakajima over 0.3s further back in ninth.
McLaren, meanwhile, unusually found itself at the bottom of the order with Heikki Kovalainen over 2.5s off pacesetter Heidfeld.
However, the Woking focused on longer runs as it compared the performance of the MP4-24's existing bodywork package with an updated one it has brought for this week.
After spending the morning running in the older bodywork spec, it mirrored the exact same programme, including fuel loads, in the afternoon with the car featuring all-new front wing, floor and top body.Testing times from Barcelona (Monday 9 March)
1. HEIDFELD BMW 1m20.338s
2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m20.908s
3. TRULLI Toyota 1m20.937s
4. BUTTON Brawn 1m21.140s
5. PIQUET Renault 1m21.662s
6. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1m22.158s
7. WEBBER Red Bull 1m22.246s
8. SUTIL Force India 1m22.452s
9. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m22.813s
10. KOVALAINEN McLaren 1m22.948s

Green band to distinguish softer tyres in 2009 for F1

Formula One racing returns to slicks this year after 11 seasons on grooved tyres. The change means official suppliers Bridgestone have had to change their method for marking the softer of the two compounds used at each race.Instead of a white groove, the tyre's sidewall will now feature a green band, not only making the softer compound distinguishable to spectators, but also signifying Bridgestone’s continuing support for the FIA’s Make Cars Green campaign.There is a change in tyre allocation rationale too. For the past two seasons, Bridgestone has brought two consecutive compounds from its range of four rubber compounds to each event. For 2009, non -consecutive allocations will occur at most races. As well as a difference in compound stiffness, there will be a variation in temperature working range between the two allocated compounds at an event.“We have tried to have one tyre which has a quick warm-up and delivers a fast lap time immediately, and the other tyre which has a higher working range, so will not deliver immediate fast times, but gives very consistent and durable performance when it is at its operating temperature,” explained Hirohide Hamashima, Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development.“Of course, we are subject to many variables such as different cars and drivers, not to mention the weather, which was such a big factor in 2008. We hope the change in allocations gives competitors a good challenge and the fans entertaining racing.”The compounds themselves are new, because of the different requirements of slick tyres compared with grooved tyres. However, they will retain the same names of hard, medium, soft and super soft. There are no changes to the wet and extreme weather tyres, which will be brought to all events in case of adverse weather. As before, the extreme tyre will have a painted central groove.Bridgestone tyre allocations for 2009’s opening races:Australia - super soft, mediumMalaysia - soft, hardChina - super soft, medium. Bahrain - super soft, mediumSpain - soft, hard

F1 Button shakes down new Brawn car at Silverstone

Just hours after it was announced that the former Honda team will compete this season, Ross Brawn’s men were already hard at work shaking down their new car ahead of the season opener later this month. Friday’s private test took place at Silverstone, close to the British team’s Brackley headquarters.Jenson Button, who has been retained to race for the new team, took charge of the Mercedes-engined BGP 001. Team principal Brawn and Button’s team mate for the 2009 season, Rubens Barrichello, were also in attendance as the team’s on-track preparations for the Australian Grand Prix finally got underway.Following Friday’s outing the team will journey to Spain, where they will join their rivals and test at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya for four days from Monday.

F1 BMW Sauber F1 Team - Test in Bahrain - Week two/Day four

02-19-2009 Test in Bahrain. 16th – 19th February 2009 Week two / Day four - Thursday Weather conditions: Sunny all day, windy in the afternoon. Air temperature: 19 – 24 °C, track temperature: 20 – 31 °C Number of drivers participating: 3 from 3 teams Fastest lap overall: Felipe Massa (Scuderia Ferrari) 1:32.162 min Circuit length: 5.412 km Nick Heidfeld Chassis / engine: BMW Sauber F1.09-02 / BMW 86/9 Test kilometres today: 661 (122 laps) Fastest lap: 1:32.225 min Programme: On the last day of this week’s test session Nick Heidfeld again worked on the set-up of the BMW Sauber F1.09. He concentrated on the suspension and aerodynamics. He also did a couple of practice starts and ended the day with long runs, pushing the total mileage for the eight days of testing up to 3,695 km. His work was interrupted twice due to mechanical problems. “Today the track conditions were the best they have been all week,” Heidfeld said. “We could already try a couple of improvements. The car reacts to changes as planned, so I’m confident we are working in the right direction.” Willy Rampf, BMW Sauber Technical Coordinator, added: “Although we lost some time due to a sandstorm last week, the long test in Bahrain was very productive. We could work with the cars in temperatures we would not have encountered in Europe at this time of the year, making it good preparation for the first races of the upcoming season. We worked mainly on the general set-up of the BMW Sauber F1.09, trying numerous solutions on the mechanical and aero side of the car as well as gaining experience with the three available tyre compounds. We also made good progress with KERS. Overall we reached our target of collecting as much data as possible about the car’s reactions to changes in the set-up.”