well,
its been an interesting year in terms of F1 09,Brawn GP (run by former Ferrari Technical Director Ross Brawn)took an early lead in pre-season testing and the Ferrari's and McLarens dropped to the back of the field in the early part of the season but have made a slow and steady comeback and are on par with the performance of the underdogs Brawn... although, Red Bull racing's Sebastian Vettel and (AUSSIE!) Mark Webber are taking the lead and slowly chipping away at the lead Brawn's Jenson Button took at the beginning of the season.
All in all, New season, new rules always spells excitement in what is known as the pinnacle of Motorsport. so good luck to all of the drivers!
a lot has happened in the last week...
Ferrari's Felipe Massa was struck by a 800g suspension damper spring in qualifying for last weeks hungarian grand prix.
Although he admits remembering nothing of the incident,
he lost conciousness immediately and crashed straight on into the tyre barrier at turn 4, a 8.5g collision originally caused by a 160MPH collision with the spring.
The spring, which hit him with the force of just over 200kg, struck his helmet, then rebounded of his car and fell behind it, caused some confusion as it was not seen to be the cause of his crash till careful replays picked up the collision.
he was removed from the car and subsequently taken to the AEK Military hospital in Budapest, where he was put into an induced coma to recover from the fractured scull caused by the spring striking his car and his helmet.
this came, a week after Henry Surtees (F1 and MOTO World Champion John Surtees' son) was killed in a collision with a wheel which had come off another car in the F3 race in Brand Hatch.
So not a great week for motorsport.
Nelson Piquet Jr. has been dumped at Renault, amidst a lot of speculation, the Brazilian blamed Manager and Team Boss Flavio Briatore for the sacking, stating he never had a fair chance at renault next to 2 time world champion Fernando Alonso. This is fair and obvious in any race reflected on, so i wish him well in any category of racing that proceeds him and i have emailed him stating this.
SO!
To the big news...
Ferrari's replacement, or rather, 'sub' for Felipe Massa, is non other than 7 times (and 5 time Ferrari) World Champion
MICHAEL SCHUMACHER!!!!
who although never setting foot in a F1 machine since april 07, has been practising in a sold, but loaned 07 machine.
There is a ban on in-season testing this year (to reduce running costs set by the FIA) and this has meant that Schumacher has had no time to get to grips with Ferrari's 09 machine, the F60.
Ferrari wrote to all the teams and the FIA asking for an exemption to the rule, allowing Schumacher to test the F60 for 1 day to allow him to get to grips with the car.
This was subsequently appealed by F1 teams Red Bull, Scuderia Torro Rosso (Red Bull Team 2) and Williams F1 on the basis that Rookie and STR replacement for an underperforming Sebastian Bourdais, Jaime Alguersuari had no run-in or testing time...
Ferrari have openly criticised Williams for the move, but are staying closed lipped in terms of STR (perhaps because they use Ferrari engines)
stay tuned by visiting...
www.Formula1.com
www.itv-f1.com or
www.bbc.co.uk/f1
or stay tuned to FTO Australia For regular updates
SchumieFan
