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Massa says new Ferrari is totally different

Felipe Massa gave Ferrari’s new Formula One car its track debut on Monday and said it felt entirely different to the one he drove to victory six times last year.

Formula One driver Felipe Massa poses with the new Ferrari F60 in an undated handout photo released on the Ferrari Web site January 12, 2009. [Agencies]
Formula One has made major changes for the coming season with new aerodynamic regulations and slick tyres brought in to boost overtaking.
New rules on weight distribution have been drawn up and the KERS system, which gives cars a limited power boost by recovering energy from the brakes, introduced.
“It really is a car which is totally different to what we were used to up to last year,” the Brazilian told a news conference as the constructors’ world champions became the first team to unveil their car. “KERS and the aerodynamic changes mean the car is completely different to drive. This is just the beginning of a new cycle in Formula One and it will not be an easy experience.”

Formula One driver Felipe Massa of Brazil tests the new Ferrari F60 car at Mugello racetrack January 12, 2009. [Agencies]
Massa was runner-up last year to McLaren’s 23-year-old Briton Lewis Hamilton, who won the driver’s title by one point.
Massa had expected the first outing at Mugello to be tough but saw positive signs ahead of a proper test in Portimao, Portugal, later this month.
“This was the first day and we weren’t looking to do 100 laps and good times given that they’ve changed the rules,” he said. “Today there were small problems like on any first day but I’m happy with how it went.

“It will certainly be very different to drive this car…but you get more familiar and eventually it will be automatic. When changes are introduced it is always like that and at this stage we suffer, like last year with the lack of traction control.
“This is a situation where the driver is more important.”
NO REGRETS
The 27-year-old had no regrets about last season and felt confident ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on March 29.
“The mood inside the team is pretty good. There have been great changes and maybe it will change some of the ways we work. I’m pretty happy with the work done by the team and I hope they’ll continue to improve week after week,” he said. “During this holiday period I just put myself in a very normal frame of mind and tried to draw a lesson from last year. I’m not looking backwards, I’m always looking to the future.”
Some observers have said the aerodynamic changes have made the new cars look ugly but Massa thought Ferrari’s F60 was not too bad.
“I was positively impressed. I prefer to have an ugly car with very high performance levels,” he said.

Alonso realistic about Japan GP

Fernando Alonso is realistic about his chances of another victory in Japan this week after his upset win in Singapore, but he remains confident Renault will again be on the pace.
 

The two-time world champion made the most of a Ferrari blunder and the saftey car being deployed on the Singapore street circuit last month to win the race after starting 15th on the grid.
The breakthrough was unexpected for a team that had struggled over the previous few months, and Alonso knows it will be tough to match Ferrari and McLaren on the Fuji Speedway on Sunday.
“It’s true that a street circuit is always unusual and your level of performance depends on the competitiveness of your car, the set-up and your ability to take risks,” he said.
“We worked hard to develop some new parts for Singapore, but also for the final three races of the season, so I think that we can be on the pace in Fuji.
“We will give our maximum to try and make that the case and to benefit from the free practice sessions on Friday as much as possible,” Alonso said.
“We must remain focused and try to repeat our level of performance from Singapore to fight at the front.
“However, I remain realistic as it will be difficult to race the Ferraris and McLarens. But we will give our maximum to score as many points as possible because the fight for fourth in the championship remains very close.”
Alonso, who has yet to commit to Renault for the 2009 season, said the set-up of the car would be an important factor on a fast track.
“The circuit has a very long straight and so aero settings will once again be crucial. There are also several medium- and low-speed corners, and the last few turns in particular are taken in second gear,” he said.
“So the team will have to work hard to determine the level of downforce and the mechanical grip, which will be especially important in the slow sections.
“We will be running a similar program to that which we run at other tracks that we visit once a year.”
After winning the drivers’ championship with Renault in 2005 and 2006, Alonso spent an unhappy year with McLaren – where he was overshadowed by rookie Lewis Hamilton – before returning to the French constructor this year.
His victory in Singapore was the Spaniard’s first in a year and his 20th career title.

Hamilton says he is stronger one year on

Lewis Hamilton says he is stronger, both physically and mentally, than ever and not about to blow his lead in the Formula One title race for a second year running.
The McLaren driver holds a seven-point advantage over Ferrari’s Felipe Massa with three races left going into this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Hamilton was unbeatable in the rain at Fuji last year but the Briton then squandered his lead in the final two races in China and Brazil, allowing Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen to close a 17 point gap and snatch the title.
No longer a rookie learning the ropes, the 23-year-old said he was wiser this time. 
“I feel a lot different coming here compared to last year,” he told reporters. “Last year I stayed in Asia for quite a long period of time.
“I was away for about five weeks. I was tired from being away. I didn’t see my family and I didn’t get back in touch with reality.
“Then you go to a race and you have to perform. I went back (home) this time and recharged my batteries. I did my training and made sure I spent some quality time with my family.”
Hamilton, winner of four races so far this year, added: “I came back here feeling fresh again. I feel just as good now as I did five months ago.”
The Briton’s hopes of making up for last year’s late meltdown were boosted by a bizarre Singapore race two weeks ago.
A third-place finish for the championship leader came after Massa’s hopes were dented by an embarrassing pitstop blunder, caused by a mechanic, which dropped the Brazilian from first to last and meant he finished 13th.
“I’m definitely in a much stronger position than I was last year,” said Hamilton, bidding to become the sport’s youngest champion.
“We not going out there to finish second. We’re going out there to win the race but the most important thing is to finish in the points.
“I’ve not thought about the different scenarios. There’s still 30 points to go. I’m just focusing on coming here to win. We just have to keep on pushing.”

Mallya expects to score points at Valencia GP

Force India is making significant changes to its car in its quest for a first point in Formula One this weekend.

Team principal Vijay Mallya said aerodynamic developments for Sunday’s European Grand Prix in Valencia included a new floor, bargeboard area and front wing.

“We should definitely be Q2 (the second stage of qualifying), maybe even the top of Q2 in Valencia and beyond,” the Indian drinks and aviation tycoon said in a preview for the race in Spain.

“I’m quite optimistic as we’re also working on more upgrades for the final races of the season so fingers crossed we should be able to maintain our momentum.

“There’s more to come for Singapore as well in the latter part of the year so if we continue on our trajectory now we’re looking quite good, on target with the goals we set at the start of the year.”

Force India has the same Mercedes engines as championship leaders Brawn GP and McLaren, winners in Hungary last month with world champion Lewis Hamilton, but has struggled to get close to the points.

Italian Giancarlo Fisichella finished ninth in Monaco while Germany’s Adrian Sutil qualified seventh for last month’s German Grand Prix and ran as high as second before colliding with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

“Every upgrade we’ve introduced so far this year has really made a difference so I have a lot of confidence that this will move us forward as well,” said Sutil.

“The car is getting better and better to drive and with another upgrade I hope we will really be in the midfield now and in the hunt for points.”

Hamilton wins F1 Chinese Grand Prix

Mclaren-Mercedes team’s Lewis Hamilton (R) of Britain kisses the champion trophy after winning the F1 Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, east China, on Oct. 18, 2008. Hamilton claimed the title with a time of 1:31:57.403. (Xinhua/Fan Jun)
Britain’s Lewis Hamilton won the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday but was denied an early world championship as title rival Felipe Massa finished second.
McLaren’s Hamilton led throughout for a straightforward win but he remains just seven points ahead of Massa, taking the championship to a dramatic final race in Brazil next month.
Ferrari’s outgoing champion Kimi Raikkonen was third after conceding second place to Massa late on. Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso of Renault was fourth.
BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld finished fifth ahead of his team-mate Robert Kubica, the only other title contender, who finished sixth to end his slim world championship hopes.
Hamilton, 23, is bidding to become both the youngest and the first black driver to win the world title after throwing away a commanding lead in the standings in his rookie season last year.

Mclaren-Mercedes team’s Lewis Hamilton of Britain sprays champagne to celebrate his victory during the F1 Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, east China, on Oct. 18, 2008. Hamilton claimed the title with a time of 1:31:57.403. (Xinhua/Fan Jun)

Mosley warns of F1 financial crisis

Formula One will only survive for one more year unless drastic spending cuts are implemented, FIA president Max Mosley warned on Tuesday.
 

Mosley, who is to stand down next year, said the sport’s future was under threat because of the rising costs of running a team, and he highlighted the fate of the Super Aguri team.
The Japanese outfit dropped out of the championship after the Spanish Grand Prix due to a lack of funds – and Mosley fears at least two more teams may also have to withdraw from the championship.
“I think it would put the sport in an unsustainable position if we lost two more teams,” Mosley told BBC Sport.
“At the moment we have 20 cars competing and if we lost two teams we’d have 16 and then it would cease to be a credible grid.
“Some of the manufacturers are already having difficulty if you look at their share prices.”
Mosley insisted the sport could not afford to survive on billionaires’ handouts and must become more cost-effective if it is to survive – regardless of the current financial climate.
“This hasn’t been prompted by the credit crunch. This is something I have been campaigning for for two or three years.
“It had become apparent long before the present economic difficulties that Formula One is unsustainable.
“If we can’t get this sorted out by 2010 we will be in serious difficulty. We can survive through 2009, but I’m not to sure about after.”
He added: “You cannot run a business like that when the outgoings are two to three times what’s coming in. It now depends on billionaires subsidizing teams.”
Mosley said simple cost-cutting measures would help the sport survive, even with the enormous financial clout that Ferrari, McLaren and BMW are able to wield over their competitors.
“There are various things we can do. The most obvious one would be to reduce the cost of the car,” he said.
“The engine and gearbox costs about 25 million pounds ($44 million) a year and that could be done for probably 5 percent of that cost without anyone in the grandstand noticing at all.
“We have various means of making sure the big spenders don’t spend so much, but that would mean some draconian measures.”

Hamilton to race Olympic champion Hoy at Wembley

Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton will race triple Olympic cycling gold medallist Chris Hoy around Wembley Stadium next month as a warmup for the Race of Champions event, organisers said on Tuesday.
However, 23-year-old Hamilton will be at the wheel of a Mercedes road car while Hoy will be pedalling a cycle on a parallel track constructed over the turf of the national soccer stadium.
Hamilton will also perform a demonstration run in his McLaren Formula One car before he and Hoy leave to take part in the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year awards ceremony in Liverpool.
“This is going to be something very special,” said Hamilton, who will not be taking part in the main event against the likes of retired Formula One great Michael Schumacher and rally champion Sebastien Loeb.
“I’ve done F1 demonstration runs away from race tracks before, but Wembley Stadium’s completely different, the atmosphere is going to be crazy. It’s going to be a great way to end a fantastic year.”
Hoy, who won golds in the sprint, keirin and team sprint at the Beijing Games, doubted he would be able to match Hamilton’s Mercedes for acceleration but hoped the tight and twisty track would help him.
“I can kick out about 2-1/2 brake horsepower so that’s not going to quite match his car but I think they’ll make the race as close as possible and I’ll be giving it absolutely everything. I’m really looking forward to it,” he said.
The December 14 Race of Champions pits competitors from various branches of motorsport against each other in a range of machinery over a parallel two lane track.

Montezemolo tells Hamilton title only on loan

Lewis Hamilton’s Formula One title is only on loan, Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said on Monday after the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix.

Ferrari’s president Luca Cordero Di Montezemolo, seen here in June 2008, has paid tribute to Lewis Hamilton after the British star denied Brazilian Felipe Massa the Formula One world title. [Agencies]

“I would like to send my congratulations to Lewis Hamilton, the youngest ever world champion in the history of Formula One,” the Italian said in a statement.
“He was a very powerful rival indeed and his win, close though it was, was well deserved.
“He’ll have the number one on his car next season, but he can rest assured of one thing: we’ll be doing our very best to put it back on a Ferrari.”
McLaren’s Hamilton, 23, won the title by a single point from Ferrari’s Brazilian Felipe Massa after overtaking Toyota’s Timo Glock only seconds from the end of the last lap of Sunday’s race at Interlagos.
Ferrari lost the 2007 drivers’ title won by Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen but retained their constructors’ crown.
Montezemolo said that, in all his years in Formula One, he had never seen a more exciting finish and congratulated his team for their efforts in winning the title for a record 16th time and eighth in the past decade.
“Winning for the eighth time in 10 years — a feat unequalled at world level in any other team sport — proves beyond a shadow of a doubt what an extraordinary group we are,” he said.
“We have two great drivers in Felipe and Kimi also, and they deserve all our compliments for a job well done,” he continued, hailing race winner Massa as a “great champion and a great man”.
“Felipe in particular is in my thoughts as he crossed the finish line yesterday as world champion only to see the title slip through his fingers a few seconds later,” he said. “I can only imagine how painful that moment must have been for him.”

Drivers under KERS to slim down

Formula One’s new rules are forcing even the drivers to adopt a more aerodynamic shape for the 2009 season.

And with the biggest changes coming to the world championship in more than 25 years, it may be a racer’s weight that decides the title.

The brand-new Kinetic Energy Recovery System, a hybrid technology that gives drivers an extra boost for overtaking, will take up approximately 35 kilograms, while car weight limits have not been increased. That leaves teams with only one variable to change ?? the driver.

“(Weight’s) always been an issue in F1, but particularly this year because of the KERS ?? all the weight is in the back and with this year’s rules it’s beneficial to be a bit further forward,” said Nico Rosberg of Williams, who said he lost several kilograms to get down to 70kg. “So that’s definitely something where the weight has become more important than ever, so I’ve watched that over the winter.”

BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica may have started the trend last season when the Polish driver dropped 6kg to be lighter in the seat. He’s had to make sure he didn’t slip up this winter either because of KERS, which is not mandatory for teams to use this season.

“As I am a tall and relatively heavy person I have disadvantages regarding the weight and consequently the weight distribution of the car,” Kubica said. “But on the other hand KERS could be a big advantage because of the boost.”

Fernando Alonso and Rubens Barrichello have dropped 2kg each going into 2009, when at least half of the drivers expected to fill the 20-car grid have lost weight ahead of the season-opening Australian GP on March 29.

Even Kimi Raikkonen, notorious for his party ways, reportedly gave up alcohol over the winter in a bid to rebound from a sub-par 2008, when the Ferrari driver didn’t win a race after April as the defending champion.

“I think you can change the car a lot to how you like it and of course now the rules are slightly more difficult, with the weight and everything. It depends on the weight of the drivers how much we can change it,” said the Finn, who was coy about how much he weighs. “I don’t know. I haven’t got scales. I am happy as long as we are OK with the overall weight, that’s all that matters.”

The Formula One Teams Association, which represents all 10 F1 teams on this season’s starting grid, will petition governing body FIA to increase the minimum weight limit as a result of the changes.

“The KERS system has added weight to an F1 car that engineers have been forced to meet the same weight, which leaves few options for reducing weight, aside from getting drivers to shed pounds ahead of the upcoming season,” BMW Sauber team principal Mario Theissen said.

FIA promises to cut F1 super licence costs

The International Automobile Federation (FIA), Formula One’s governing body, announced on Monday that they have agreed to reduce F1 drivers’ super licenses costs from next year.
A number of drivers had complained that the cost of the licenses was too high prior to the beginning of the 2009 Formula One Championship, which starts in Melbourne, Australia next Sunday.
“Following a very positive meeting between FIA President Max Mosley and representatives of the Grand Prix Drivers Association (GPDA), a proposal will be made to the World Motor Sport Council to revise super licence fees for drivers in the 2010 championship,” said a statement from the FIA.
“A reduced fee would reflect the major cost reductions that will be brought into the sport for next season.”
The basic cost of the super licence has risen from 1,690 euros in 2007 to 10,400 euros in 2009, with an additional charge based on the number of points amassed during the season going up from 447 euros per point in 2007 to 2,100 euros per point in 2009.
As a result, British world champion Lewis Hamilton will have to pay over 215,000 euros to pilot his McLaren in this year’s championship.