Karun Chandhok - HRT F1 2010

The 2010 HRT F1 driver Karun Chandhok is to be replaced at the German Grand Prix by Sakon Yamamoto following his impressive performance at the Silverstone Grand Prix when he drove in place of  Bruno Senna.

The 28-year-old driver ended the British Grand Prix in 20th position for the Hispania Racing team and has been given a second opportunity to drive this time alongside Senna.

Chandhok is expected to race again later in the season with team test driver Christian Klein stating that from now onwards any of the four drivers may get a chance at the race seats.

The Japanese driver has completed 15 Grand Prix starts, initially with the Spyker team now Force India and then the Super Aguri team before joining the HRT F1 team as a test driver in April of this year.

Yamamoto said in an interview;

“The last race weekend was very exciting for me. Now, the team has given me another chance to race on Sunday and I will do my best to prove that it was the right decision.

“I have a lot of good memories of the circuit in Hockenheim. I like the track layout with the passing point at the end of the long straight and also the Stadium sector, which is very challenging. There is always a nice atmosphere with the spectators at the grandstands and I am always looking forward to come back to Hockenheim. Compared to Silverstone, I think we are more competitive and we can achieve a good result again.”

Toro Rosso

The Toro Rosso team are to test two new drivers after the Italian Grand Prix, Sebastien Buemi and Takuma Sato.  They will have a day’s testing at the Jerez circuit in the STR3 to see if they are up to the job of replacing Sebastian Vettel.

Sebastian Vettel will be racing for the Red Bull team in the 2009 season, although it has been rumoured that he could actually be racing for them towards the end of this season, but there has been no confirmation as yet.

Buemi is already the test and reserve driver for the Red Bull team, so could have the advantage and still only 19-years of age.  He is also currently running in fifth place in the GP2 series.

Sato, has completed 91 Grand Prix in his career, after changing from motorcycles to racing cars.  He won the British Formula 3 championship in 2001 before joining the Jordan team in Formula One in 2002.

He left Jordan for the BAR team, where he remained for three years until he joined the Super Aguri team in 2006, when the team withdrew he was left without a drive for the rest of the season.

The testing will take place in September with Buemi testing on the 17th and Sato on the 18th.

Sato About To Pass Alonso

According to the latest rumours, Takuma Sato could be taking his place in the cockpit of a Toro Rosso after his previous team, Super Aguri, withdrew this season.

Sebastian Vettel, who has been driving for Toro Rosso this year, has already confirmed he will be driving a Red Bull in 2009.

Sebastien Bourdais scored two points at the Melbourne Grand Prix but has not achieved a single point since, as his team-mate has out-performed him in every race from the Monaco GP.

Sato, won the British Formula Three Championship in 2001 and graduated to Formula One in 2002 where he raced for the Jordan team.

He was then racing alongside Giancarlo Fisichella, and gained the reputation as a crasher.  In 2003, Sato moved to the BAR team as a test driver but drove as a replacement driver for Jacques Villenueve in the final race at Suzuka, finishing in sixth place.

In 2004, Sato drove for the BAR team as a full-time driver, where he remained until 2005.  He then went on to join the Super Aguri team until the team withdrew from racing this year due to financial difficulties.

The Aguri Suzuki Team Principle has issued this statement;

“In order to realise my dream to become an owner of a Formula One Team, I applied for a grid position in the FIA  Formula One World Championship in November 2005.  Since then, I have participated in the championship for two years and four months as the Super Aguri F1 Team, but regretfully I must inform you that the team will be ceasing its racing activities as of today.”

“The team has competed against the many car manufacturer backed teams and has succeeded in obtaining the first points after only the 22nd race finishing in ninth place overall in the 2007 Constructor’s Championship.”

“However, the breach of contract by the promised partner SS United Oil & Gas Company resulted in the loss of financial backing and immediately put the team into financial difficulties.  Also, the change in direction of the environment surrounding the team, in terms of the use of customer chassis, has affected our ability to find partners.”

“Meanwhile, with the help of Honda, we have somehow managed to keep the team going, but we find it difficult to establish  a way to continue the activities in the future within environment surrounding F1 and as a result, I have concluded to withdraw from the Championship.”

“I would like to express my deepest thanks to Honda, Bridgestone, the sponsors, all the people who have given us advice during various situations over the past couple of years, all the Team Staff who have kept their motivations high and always done their best, Anthony Davidson who always pushed to the limit despite the very difficult conditions, Takumo Sato who has been with us from the very start and has always fought hard and led the team and lastly our fans from all over the world who have loyally supported the Super Aguri F1 Team.”

On the day of the team’s demise, the Super Aguri team boss and co-owner, Aguri Suzuki has hit out at Nick Fry.

It was Fry who said before the start of the 2008 season that he didn’t approve of the Aguri teams wish to sign Narian Karthikeyan, and it was also confirmed this week by an official source, that Fry was behind the lock-out of the team at the Istanbul circuit.

In a press conference, Suzuki said “I don’t understand how suddenly Nick Fry needs to be commenting on everything.  Honda were our backers and he’s not the CEO of Honda.  I have no interest in Nick Fry whatsoever and have no idea what he was talking about.”

Fry is the CEO of Honda’s racing division but is no longer the works outfit’s Team Principle.

Lewis Hamilton came in third for the Mercedes McLaren team while his teammate Heikki Kovalainen suffered a front left wheel failure which saw him going at full speed through the gravel trap and buried in the tyre wall. The medical team were quickly on track attending to Kovalainen who was taken from the circuit in the air ambulance.

He will be staying the night in hospital after it emerged that he was knocked unconscious in the high speed crash. Ron Dennis has said that he had a CT scan which has revealed there is no head injury other than concussion and added “The team is optimistic that he will make a full recovery over the next few days”.

Robert Kubica continued his impressive form with a fourth place for BMW Sauber with Mark Webber taking a fortunate fifth. The position should have belonged to Nick Heidfeld who needed to stop for fuel while the safety car and the medical team were on track meaning that the pit lane was closed. Heidfeld with no choice, refuelled and incurred a ten-second stop and go penalty putting him back down the field.

Jenson Button finished in sixth place getting some much needed points for the Honda team followed by Kazuki Nakajima who took seventh for the Williams Toyota team, his first points since joining them.

Jarno Trulli finished in eighth place for Toyota after a three stop race followed by Heidfeld.

Force India driver, Giancarlo Fisichella continued with a steady race pace to finish in tenth place. He fought hard to hold Heidfeld back but finally lost the position to finish ahead of Timo Glock.

The second Red Bull driver, David Coulthard, had an eventful race from the start. He was hit on lap one when Adrian Sutil lost control of his car and then later was hit from behind by Timo Glock. He had to make an extra stop due to a rear tyre problem but amazingly still managed to finish in twelfth place.

Many of the drivers retired during the race. Nico Rosberg in the Williams had a great start and was running in seventh place but an engine failure ended his race.

Fernando Alonso was second on the grid but was left behind as Massa shot passed him at the start. He was in for his first pit stop on lap fifteen and rejoined the track behind Rubens Barrichello who was lapping two seconds slower than Alonso had managed before. At the end of the first set of pit stops, Alonso had lost his position to Hamilton, Kubica and Heidfeld but half way through the race, he to retired with engine failure, a disappointing day for the Renault team and the Spanish fans.

Nelson Piquet took a trip through the gravel early on in the race and later made a bad move on the Toro Rosso driver, Sebastien Bourdais taking them both out of the race. The second Toro Rosso was out on lap one after getting caught in the accident between Sutil and Coulthard.

Plenty of incidents but a pretty boring race overall. Thankfully Kovalainen wasn’t seriously injured after the high speed accident which practically crushed the car and will undergo a medical check before he attends the next Grand Prix in Turkey.

Here are the results;

1. Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1 min 21.813 secs
2. Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 1:21.904
3. Felipe Massa (Brz) Ferrari 1:22.058
4. Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 1:22.065
5. Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren – Mercedes 1:22.096
6. Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren – Mercedes 1:22.231
7. Mark Webber (Aus) RedBull – Renault 1:22.429
8. Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 1:22.529
9. Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 1:22.542
10. Nelsinho Piquet (Brz) Renault 1:22.699
11. Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Honda 1:21.049
12. Kazuki Nakajima (Jap) Williams – Toyota 1:21.117
13. Jenson Button (GB) Honda 1:21.211
14. Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota 1:21.230
15. Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams – Toyota 1:21.349
16. Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Toro Rosso – Ferrari 1:21.724
17. David Coulthard (GB) RedBull – Renault 1:21.810
18. Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Toro Rosso – Ferrari 1:22.108
19. Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India – Ferrari 1:22.516
20. Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India – Ferrari 1:23.224
21. Anthony Davidson (GB) Super Aguri – Honda 1:23.318
22. Takuma Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri – Honda 1:23.496

However, all eyes will be on Fernando Alonso for the Spanish Grand Prix.  He has been amazingly fast all weekend at the Circuit de Catalunya in the much modified R28, but it was surprising to see him take that second place.

In third place is Felipe Massa after losing the pole position in the final few minutes of the qualifying session ahead of Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber.

The two McLaren drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen could only manage fifth and sixth positions respectively followed by Mark Webber in the Red Bull Renault.

Jarno Trulli took the eighth place on the grid for Toyota, six places ahead of his teammate Timo Glock.  Nick Heidfeld and Nelson Piquet filled the last of the top ten places.

Rubens Barrichello finished in eleventh place ahead of Kazuki Nakajima in his best qualifying so far for the Williams team.

Jenson Button was in thirteenth place for Honda just ahead of Glock and Nico Rosberg.  Sebastien Bourdais made an impressive sixteenth for the ever improving Toro Rosso Ferrari team.  Bourdais teammate struggled and finished in eighteenth, behind David Coulthard.

Force India driver, Giancarlo Fisichella,took the nineteenth grid spot ahead of teammate Andrian Sutil.  The final places were taken by the Super Aguri drivers, Anthony Davidson and Takuma Sato with only a tenth between their fastest lap times.

Last Wednesday the team confirmed that it’s investors, the Magma Group, no longer wished to fund the intended acquisition.

The team in the meantime have been in further talks with the Magma Group as well as other parties as the staff and equipment continued to make there way to the Circuit de Catalunya for this weekends Spanish Grand Prix as planned.

Although the team are now in Spain, it is still unclear if they will be able to participate in the race itself.  This statement has been released as the team continue with last minute negotiations.

“Further to the statement issued by SUPER AGURI F1 TEAM on Wednesday 16th April 2008 we advise that discussions regarding investment are on going, however, due to legal conditions, we are unable to expand on, allude to or provide further details regarding this confidential matter at present.”

“We would like to thank our Team partners, suppliers, our fans and colleagues in the media for their continuing patience and support, and we look forward to our weekend at the Barcelona Grand Prix.”

There had been speculation earlier that a new deal was about to be struck with the Magna Group but even it that is the case it will still depend if the contracts can be signed in time to allow Takumo Sato and Anthony Davidson to race on Sunday.

Honda, who supply the Super Aguri with free cars, engines and technical support are allegedly insisting that contracts must be signed before the cars can exit the pit garage.

Team insiders are not only look to other prospective buyers, but also a possible bail-out by Honda, although Honda ruled out rescuing the team on Thursday according to reports.

Honda have supplied the team with cars and engines as well as offering them financial and technical support but it seems to have scaled back its support in recent months.  A Honda spokesman said “We intend to continue the present structure or our support for Super Aguri.”  He also denied that the team had asked Honda for a rescue package after losing the Magna Group financial deal.

A Super Aguri co-owner has confirmed the dire financial status of the team, but clarified reports of a less than two-day deadline for survival.

In a recent report it claimed that the Japanese outfit needed to replace the financial deal that they had just lost, so urgently, that the teams transporters who were scheduled to leave for the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday may be called off.

Fumio Akita, co-owner of the team did confirm that the team were in danger of not making the forth coming Barcelona race, “It’s possible” he said.

All Formula One teams are required to attempt to qualify for every Grand Prix on the calendar or can face the risk of permanent exclusion from the sport.

Akita added “Even if we have the money to go to Spain we might not be able to carry on after that”, although he did deny that Saturday is the final deadline.  “I don’t think there will be a decision until after the weekend.  It is likely to be Monday or Tuesday until we hear.  It will be very. very tight.”

The teams each had a car on the track which has not been used since February, but Felipe Massa in the Ferrari took the top of the timesheets, 2.7 seconds ahead of his nearest rival with a time of 1:18.339.  The Ferrari is finally testing the much anticipated radical nose.  The new nose was revealed on Massa’s car at Barcelona and was positioned much closer to the cockpit than was speculated so was not easily seen from the front view but was obvious from an overhead position.

Alex Wurz was the second fastest man on the track, despite a small fire early in the morning in the Honda RA108 and he completed 75 laps of the circuit, finishing ahead of Pedro de la Rosa in the Mercedes McLaren.

Nick Heidfeld, now second in the Championship in the BMW Sauber was in fourth, ahead of Nelson Piquet in the Renault.

David Coulthard was in sixth place with the Red Bull Renault ahead of Kazuki Nakajima for Williams.  Timo Glock managed  93 laps for the Toyota team despite going off the track at one point.

The Super Aguri team are expected to test next week at the circuit and the Toro Rosso team are due to start testing on Tuesday as they were preparing the new STR3 challenger.

Felipe Massa took the chequered flag today at the Bahrain Grand Prix for Ferrari, after dominating the race from the first lap. It’s the first points he’s scored so far this season but it’s his sixth career win in Formula One.
World Champion, Kimi Raikkonen finished on the tail of his Ferrari teammate to take his 50th podium position so far in his career. His second place has also put him at the top of the points chart with 19, 3 points ahead of Nick Heidfeld.

British driver, Lewis Hamilton, had a disastor of a race after messing-up at the start and later, damaging his car badly after running into the back of his old mate Fernando Alonso. He had lost seven places at the start of the race and finally finished in 13th place. Amazingly, Alonso did not appear to have too much rear end damage for a while but, it was soon apparent that he was in trouble with the balance of the car.

Robert Kubica, the pole position man, did not make such a great getaway off the line, but had a very impressive race finally finishing in third place to take his well deserved place on the podium. It is the first time that a BMW Sauber driver has started a grand prix in pole position. His teammate Nick Heidfeld finished in a creditable fourth place and moved the team up the the top spot of the Constructor’s Championship.

Jenson Button and David Coulthard were battling it out until Button tried to dive up the inside of Coulthard spinning both cars of the track. Fortunately both drivers were able to rejoin immediately, Button minus his nose cone. He pitted again and then retired from the race on lap 21. There may be handbags at dawn down in the pits!

Another exciting scrap happened between the Toyota driver, Timo Glock and Fernando Alonso. Alonso was trying to pass Glock who was in ninth place on lap 38 but Timo was having none-of-it and Fernando was seen locking his rear brakes and losing more time as he shook his fist at Glock. I’d love to be a fly on the wall when those to get together!

Here are the results for the Bahrain Grand Prix 2008:

1 Felipe Massa (Brz) Ferrari one hour 31 minutes 6.970 seconds
2 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari +3.339 secs
3 Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber +4.998
4 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber +8.409
5 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren-Mercedes +26.789
6 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota +41.314
7 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault +45.473
8 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyota +55.889
9 Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota +1:09.500
10 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault +1:17.181
11 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Honda +1:17.862
12 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India-Ferrari one lap behind
13 Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes one lap
14 Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams-Toyota one lap
15 Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Toro Rosso-Ferrari one lap
16 Anthony Davidson (GB) Super Aguri-Honda one lap
17 Takuma Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri-Honda one lap
18 David Coulthard (GB) Red Bull-Renault one lap
19 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India-Ferrari two laps
R Nelson Piquet Jr (Brz) Renault 40 laps completed
R Jenson Button (GB) Honda 19 laps
R Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 0 laps

Fastest lap: Kovalainen, 1:33.193, lap 49.

Key: R = retired