Petrov confirmed at Renault
The heavily-sponsored Vitaly Petrov has been signed to Renault as the team’s second driver sponsor.
Petrov is known to have significant backing, rumoured to be more than €15M, and was linked to several F1 teams for a 2010 ‘rent-a-driver’ role berth before committing with Renault.
Despite unconvincing protestations from Renault that it wasn’t interested in Petrov for his money alone, there is no doubt that his substantial backing has eased his path into Renault. Expect to see a wealth of Russian-backed companies’ logos on the Renault sidepods in no time! And if previous Russian sponsors’ involvement in F1 is anything to go by (hello, Gazprom with Minardi), expect many of them not to pay either!
Sauber unveils C29 challenger
Sauber was the first of the two teams to unveil its 2010 challenger at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit on Sunday afternoon. The Ferrari-powered C29 is the team’s first car for the Hinwil squad since it was bought back from previous owner BMW by team founder Peter Sauber after the German manufacturer announced its pull-out from F1.
The C29 will be piloted by ex-Toyota stand-in Kamui Kobayashi and former McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa.
While still entered under the name of its predecessor, BMW Sauber, it is likely that the team will adjust its FIA entry to the Sauber name only.
Unveiled in a sponsorless black-and-white livery, the team is in serious need of sponsorship backing, although team boss Peter Sauber has confirmed that the budget for the 2010 season has been secured.
The C29 features a ’shark fin’ engine cover, tight radiator packaging and a very complex front wing treatment. Given that the Ferrari engine was only confirmed late in the design process and following on from the team’s largely disastrous campaign in 2009, will this be the season that the team moves forward?
While de la Rosa comes with bucket loads of testing experience, he is hardly considered top-shelf F1 material. Kobayashi – if his form at Brazil and Abu Dhabi is anything to go by – will be exciting to watch!
Renault will launch its 2010 challenger later this afternoon.
Raikkonen crashes in Arctic Rally
Former F1 champ Kimi Raikkonen successfully completed his debut outing for the WRC Citroen Junior team at the Arctic Rally, despite crashing on the opening day of the event.
Any hopes of a competitive result went pear-shaped when the former Ferrari pilot crashed into a tree on the second stage of the opening day, but he was able to rejoin competition and set competitive times on the remaining stages.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Gianni Morbidelli
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Gianni Morbidelli, 2007 With a family background in motorsport, Italian Gianni Morbidelli is one of the few to achieve his dream of being a Formula 1 driver. Snapped up for a Ferrari test driver role at the age of 21 after great success in Formula 3, Gianni’s Formula 1 CV (67 starts, 1 podium, 8.50 points) belies a great motorsport talent. A stand-in drive with Scuderia Italia in F1 in 1990 was an opportunity not to be missed, although it was a difficult introduction to F1 – he failed to qualify at his debut in Phoenix with next to no mileage under his belt – he finished 14th in Brazil and was drafted at season-end into Minardi who were to take on Ferrari customer engines the following season. A tough season against Pierluigi Martini proved his mettle, and he was again drafted – this time into Ferrari when Alain Prost was sacked – and finished in the points on his race-shortened sole outing in appalling conditions. It was back to Minardi for 1992 – this time saddled with Lamborghini V12 engines – but he failed to add to his half-point and was out of a drive for 1993. A year of rebuilding in the Italian Touring Car Championship netted him two wins with Alfa Romeo and a call-back to F1 with Footwork for 1994. Two seasons with the underfunded outfit netted plenty of retirements and the occasional point, and he was forced to step aside for the pay drivers mid-1995. A late call-up for the final races of the 1995 season resulted in a miraculous podium at Adelaide, and at last, a reward for Gianni’s talents. F1 again left Gianni by the wayside for 1996, and he returned after 18 months with Sauber as the replacement for Nicola Larini. But his relationship withy Peter Sauber headed south and he was injured in two separate testing accidents, the latter which ended his F1 career for good. Post-F1, Gianni has raced successfully in a multitude of tin-top categories with marques such as Alfa Romeo, SEAT, BMW and Audi, and it the three-time and defending Italian Superstars Champion. Recently, Gianni returned to the F1 paddock as a driver in the Speedcar Series alongside other retired F1 driver, taking several victories in his two seasons en route to taking the 2008/9 title. At last, Gianni was able to beat his F1 campadres in equal machinery and could everyone what a talent he is! Gianni graciously accepted our interview request, and has provided a great insight into the highs and lows of his F1 career, including his interest in joining the V8 Supercars Championship! I offer my sincere thanks to Gianni for his time and effort with this interview. |
Mehdi Bennani signs with Wiechers Sport
Mehdi Bennani – the young Moroccan driver who made such an impressive WTCC debut last year – will compete for the entire 2010 season at the wheel of a Wiechers-Sport BMW 320si.
“We are delighted that Mehdi will be able to do the entire season with Wiechers-Sport. As the only Moroccan driver in a world championship, he will be carrying high the colours of Morocco on the world’s most prestigious circuits” said Aly Horma, President of Marrakech Grand Prix.
“We are very pleased that Mehdi Bennani has joined Wiechers-Sport. From his very first laps in the WTCC, he proved to be very competitive. Our common aim is a place on the podium of the 2010 Yokohama Independents’ Trophy,” said team manager Dominik Greiner.
In 2009 Bennani took part in selected events with a SEAT León run by Exagon Engineering and managed to claim an outstanding victory in the Independents’ class on his maiden appearance at his home race in Marrakech.
Di Montezemelo claims credit for Schumacher return
Fetch me a bucket, stat!
Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemelo is still trying to take credit any way he can, now by claiming that Schumacher’s return would never have occurred had he not suggested it to the German himself.
Is Michael incapable of thinking for himself, Luca?
Schumacher made an aborted comeback for the Scuderia last year, with a view to subbing for the injured Felipe Massa, but tests proved that the German’s neck injury sustained earlier in the year had not fully healed.
Realising that Schumacher was still hungry to race and that he had been premature in his signing of Fernando Alonso alongside Massa, di Montezemelo then proposed the ‘two cars for all teams, except Ferrari’ rule to enable Schumacher to remain at Ferrari.
Di Montezemelo has now seen the light and perhaps realised that greed was his downfall: "I like Schumacher and I’m this misdeed’s author," the Italian said.
"It was me who woke his desire to come back to racing and, honestly, I never thought I’d see him in a car which wasn’t a Ferrari. He’s now a competitor, an opponent, like many others. I’m not worried about the possibility that he might have taken material from our development."
And let’s just shove the knife in again, Luca! Talk about sour grapes!
McLaren launches radical MP4-25
McLaren has unveiled its 2010 title contender, the MP4-25, at Vodafone’s UK headquarters today.
Presenting the car to the gathered media throng were drivers Lewis Hamilton and the newly-signed Jenson Button.
The tightly packaged MP4-25’s most striking feature is the elongated shark fin engine cover that connect with the car’s rear wing.
One problem: if the car is hit from the rear and the rear wing breaks, the team will have to replace the entire engine cover on top of the wing! Perhaps the team is thinking the car will be so quick that no one will be able to ram it from behind!
In what will be a common trend with all 2010 designs, the car’s wheelbase is longer than its predecessor to cater for the larger fuel tank required under this season’s regulations that do not permit refuelling.
Despite not securing either title in 2009, the 2010 cars will again bear the numbers 1 and 2 courtesy of Button’s victory in the 2009 Drivers’ Championship.
Hamilton launches F1 test academy
Lewis Hamilton’s father, Anthony, is planning to run a fleet of 2009-spec F1 cars in an effort to help young drivers gain valuable mileage in current Grand Prix cars without the restrictions of the current testing regulations.
Hamilton is intending to lease year-old cars, equipment and personnel from F1 teams and run them independently in a programme titled GP Prep Drivers Academy, which is expected to be launched in March and largely feature the use of UK-based circuits.
What a dull name for the concept!
Not surprisingly, a deal has already been struck with McLaren for the supply of two of its 2009 cars, and the driver-manager is allegedly in talks with other teams.
While such an idea provides obvious benefits to drivers looking to graduate into the F1 market, if McLaren proves to be the sole team to provide the use of its cars (and one highly doubts that another team will permit the loan of its intellectual property to someone who is so intrinsically linked with McLaren), what’s to stop McLaren from running some 2010-spec components on these 2009 cars to test them, thereby circumventing the in-season testing restrictions?
Fisichella settles for Ferrari reserve driver role
Giancarlo Fisichella couldn’t find a race seat elsewhere prefers to remain as Ferrari’s reserve driver rather than attempt to secure a seat with any of the remaining teams still to announce their second driver for the 2010 season.
Fisico, now 37, was present at Ferrari’s launch of its 2010 challenger in Maranello.
Fisichella peaked with pole position and a podium finish at last year’s Belgian GP with Force India before being drafted into Ferrari as the injured Felipe Massa’s replacement for the final five races of the season. Ferrari had confirmed that it would be prepared to loan its reserve driver back to Force India for the 2010 season.
Force India has since confirmed its retention of Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi; Fisico was then tipped for a possible drive with Sauber, given the Swiss team’s use of the Ferrari engines for the 2010 season.
Sauber has since announced that it has signed Pedro de la Rosa alongside Kamui Kobayashi, leaving him in the wilderness so far as a top-line race seat is concerned.
"I couldn’t find a seat elsewhere It’s better to stay here as the third driver," Fisichella told Reuters, before adding that a move to the questionable Campos or USF1 teams would be unsuitable.
Let’s just admit that no one else wanted you, Giancarlo!
Ferrari retain Badoer and Gene as test drivers
As was clearly evident by their appearance at the Ferrari launch, both Luca Badoer and Marc Gené have been retained as the team’s underutilised test and reserve drivers. The pair were also team-mates during the 1999 F1 season with Minardi.
While Badoer is not thought to be supplementing his limited Ferrari role with any race duties outside of Maranello, Gené will continue to represent the factory Peugeot team in the Le Mans series and his defence of the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans title he secured alongside former F1 racers David Brabham and Alexander Wurz.
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