Post Tagged with: "KERS"

F1 Singapore GP: Hamilton Boosted To Victory

Get it? Boosted? Because Hamilton’s McLaren uses KERS? Knee-slapping, I know.

Winning from the pole position by a triumphant 9.634 second margin over Toyota’s Timo Glock and 16.624 seconds over Renault’s Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton won for the second time this season and is now in 6th place in this season’s Driver Standings. Speaking of Driver Standings, let’s take a look at how Button, Barichello, and Vettel are standing now that the night-race dust has settled over the Pacific island city-state.

F1 News: Points, Not Wins Will Determine Champion in 2010

Under the "wins" system, Jenson Button would very nearly be the winner of the 2009 F1 Driver's Championship.

Forget what you’ve heard previously about the future of how the Driver’s Championship will be determined from 2010: it will remain as a “points” system rather than a “wins” system. Under the “wins” system as proposed, following yesterday’s win at Barcelona, Jenson Button would only need to win one more race in order to have clinched the Driver’s Championship. How much fun would that make the rest of the season, both for teams and for spectators? Not much.

Now that you’re sufficiently relieved, follow the jump to learn more F1 news!

F1 News: The Curse of KERS Lifted from 2010?

The F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain took place this past weekend and saw relatively little drama occur on the track itself. Indeed, it was more remarkable for the fact that it almost became one of the very few races in the entire history of Formula One wherein all cars present on the grid actually finished the race. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be, as Kazuki Nakajima’s Williams became the only car not to make it across the finish line. Still, it wasn’t all fun and games for race winner Jenson Button as he later revealed a very personal injury in the post-race press conference. Here’s hoping Seb’s hands weren’t too rough….

Elsewhere in F1-land, off-track events weren’t quite as dramatic as they have been in recent memory, although a few important things have occurred. Follow the jump for more.

USF1 Challenge: Part 3 – The Design

[You can find Part I - Fact or Fantasy here and Part II - The Organization here]

With an organization and facility in place, USF1 will begin the process of designing and building their race car. Every car in Formula 1 is unique, as are the design teams that create them.

The FIA Formula 1 World Championship is all about the car. Although the drivers get most of the media attention and compete amongst themselves for their own championship, Formula 1 teams are, first and foremost, constructors and compete for the constructors championship. This has always been the case. The mission of a Formula 1 team is to design and build the world’s fastest car, in accordance with the rules  set out by the FIA. They then compete in a series of races to discover who did the best job. This is the essence of Formula 1.

12 Hours of Sebring 2009 Preview

Sebring, Florida is a quite little town located in the centre of the state, just over an hour south of Orlando. It is home to a lake, and airport and an historic 3.5-mile road course built on an abandoned WWII airbase. For one weekend a year, it is the focal point of international motor-sport as the elite of world sports car racer gather for the annual 12-hour race. This year’s contest, scheduled for March 21st, will highlight new technology as well as renew old rivalries.

Before we review the players, it might be helpful to talk about what makes Sebring such an important date on the racing calendar. Sebring is a circuit built on an airfield and, although they have continued to update the surface, it is a very bumpy track. This means that, besides being the first opportunity for endurance race teams to compete this season, it is also considered to be a prerequisite test for aspiring Le Mans competitors to test their equipment. It is said that 12-hours of racing at Sebring is more punishing on cars and drivers than 24-hours at Le Mans.

Formula 1- First 2009 Preview

With only 6-weeks until the start of the 2009 Formula 1 season, teams are actively testing their new machines in preparation for the first race in Melbourne, Australia. This season Formula 1 teams will not be permitted to test once the season begins, with the exception of practice day on the Friday of race weekends. This, combined with the large scale changes in technical regulations for this season , puts added pressure on the engineers and designers to develop and prove their technology.

Test times are of little value to we fans, only the teams know what they represent as they run test programmes with different fuel loads and experiment with components that may or may not be used on the final race car. They are an indication of how close the competition may be however, and if last weeks times are any indication of this, we will have a much smaller spread in the field this season.

F1 News: What Future F1 World Champ Sebastien Vettel Will Drive in ’09

Earlier today, the Red Bull F1 team unveiled its 2009 F1 championship contender, the RB5. All we were able to think while looking at these photos was, “Poor Mark Webber, can he never catch a break?” Follow the jump for a full gallery and tons more F1 news. No, really. Tons. It’s been a busy week.

F1 News: KERS Update

As the first round of testing for the 2009 Formula 1 season concludes there remains many questions about the development and viability for Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) to make its debut in Melbourne. I though it would be interesting to take a more practical look at KERS and discuss some of the ways the teams are applying this technology to date.