Welcoming in the new era of Formula 1

Welcome back F1 fans!

After a nice winter break the teams returned to the limelight this week with launches of the first batch of 2009 contenders; the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro F60, the Panasonic Toyota TF109 and most recently the Vodaphone McLaren Mercedes MP4-24. Four more teams will also showcase their vehicles next week, beginning with Renault on January 19th, 2009.

Technical changes for the 2009 season include a widened and lowered front wing in an attempt to reduce costs of track maintenance as the economic crisis hits hard for many Formula 1 venues. The aim of this change is to reduce costs of grounds keeping by using Formula 1 cars to mow the grass around the track when they veer off track, and to eliminate the necessity to rake out the gravel traps between sessions.

Further changes include the introduction of KERS, which not only gives drivers a momentary boost on-track, but also generates enough charge to shock and instantly kill unwanted rodents around the track within a 10ft radius of the vehicle (yes, that includes the notorious Montreal 'beavers' and Turkish strays...). The increased height of the rear wings also assists in reducing pests of the avian kind, and our sources indicate that several petitions to cancel the introduction of KERS put forward by PETA have already been dismissed.

The season kicks off in Melbourne on March 27th, 2009.

The McBoom???

During the season opener in Melborne, reports from the Ferrari camp had blamed the engine failures on the standard ECUs. LSOF1 obtained images that the McLaren camp had installed a secret button on the steering wheel of their cars to kill Ferrari engines with the aid of secret algorithms written and hidden deep within the programming of the standardized ECUs.

The latest reports from Barcelona had suggested since the opening round, McLaren had removed the secret button from their steering wheels in fear of being discovered by the FIA, but instead have upgraded this engine kill system, nicknamed the “McBoom” to a portable device which can be remotely activated from anywhere within 5km of the pit lanes via a remote laptop.

Rumor around the paddock suggests this upgraded system was implemented as early as Bahrain, and was also the subsequent reason why Lewis Hamilton plowed into the back of Alonso’s Renault in the opening stages of the race.


Sources from within the McLaren camp informed LSOF1 that the accident between Alonso and Hamilton in Bahrain was cause by human error as the two member in the McLaren team that were operating the “McBoom” device had simultaneously activated the “Rev Reduction” on Alonso’s car and the “Boost” on Hamilton’s car, and McLaren has since solved this problem by only assigning the McBoom Device to one member of their race team.

When asked if the “McBoom” device was the cause for Alonso and Rosberg’s engine failures on Sunday in Catalunya, our sources in McLaren declined to comment except that the “McBoom” device is now in full operation after it’s testing during the recent tests in Barcelona and with the introduction of the MP4-23B due in the next few races, we should expect a McLaren on the top of the podium very soon.

Catalunya Testing

Occasional test driver Michael Schumacher will be back at the wheel of a Ferrari as testing resumes at the Circuit de Catalunya next week.

The 39-year-old German's F2009 prototype will be equipped with simulated 2009 levels of downforce and adjustments in anticipation of new environmentally minded regulations.

"We at Ferrari are excited to introduce a radical redesign of our current race car. This new car has been designed in anticipation of the new rules and technologies being introduced into the sport. I will be testing the redesigned car which runs 2009 levels of downforce, as well as being more environmentally friendly--because it's totally electric.", commented Schumacher.

The 7-time World Champion continued, "By going to an entirely electric propulsion solution so soon, we hope to have a leg up on McLaren and the rest of the field."

Massa - "I Lost the Car"

Felipe Massa on Sunday did not take the blame for his retirement from the Malaysian grand prix.

The pole sitter, who had fallen behind his teammate and grand prix winner Vodka Boy, through the first pit stops at Sepang, mysteriously spun into the gravel around mid-distance.

"I'm not sure what happened, I heard a strange voice over my pit to car radio, but it was at a much lower volume than normal conversations with the team. It sounded like Jean (Todt) speaking to Stefano (Domenicali), and it said something like, ok time to activate the Vettel program. Then there was strange twitch in the rear, and I don't know, I just lost the car completely." he was quoted as explaining to the British broadcaster ITV.

Massa's second retirement of 2008 means that while eleven drivers have scored points in the opening two races, the 26-year-old is now fourteen points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton.

Playing the blame game

None of the six Ferrari-engined F1 cars made it to the checkered flag last weekend at Melbourne. Both Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa ended the day with engine failures and now the technical staff at the Scuderia have begun their investigations into the cause of the double DNF.

Ferrari's official comment on the situation: "This kind of thing can happen when you are working with one procedure that you do not know so well. Now we know that there is a conflict we can make sure it does not happen again,"

Speculation has it that the MES supplied ECU, co-developed by arch-nemesis McLaren International was the cause of the failures. Further examination into the cockpit of Melbourne winner Lewis Hamilton's race car found a possible link between McLaren and the Ferrari engine failures.


McLaren refused to comment on the allegations...

Reducing the deficit

Recent testing form shown at Bahrain International Circuit by Scuderia Ferrari has gotten everybody in the paddock digging deep for ideas to claw back the performance deficit ahead of the season opener in Melbourne.

Speculation has it that Kimi Raikkonen's pace was aided by a special Driver Hydration System (DHS) pioneered by the Finn. Our spy photographers caught a glimpse of the Iceman using his DHS in Bahrain:


Super Aguri driver Takuma Sato attempted to replicate the results with his own Sake-based personal hydration system with disasterous results. The Japanese driver was inebriated for the majority of the small team's first test of the season, severely setting back the development program of the 2008 challenger. As a result, team principal Suzuki Aguri has decided to call off the official car launch which was due to be unveiled on February 18th.


Meanwhile BMW Sauber has chosen to exploit a loophole in the technical regulations to reduce the performance deficit. Dr. Mario Thiessen was able to provide us with some minor details regarding the innovative solution to winning races: "We found that the FIA has not imposed any restrictions on use of weapons in Formula 1, so our strategy is that if we can't overtake them we'll just destroy them."

Stephney gets a fresh start

Ex-Ferrari mechanic Nigel Stephney has announced that he has taken a role of "Director of Race Technologies" in Gigawave Ltd. following the spy scandal in Formula 1.

Gigawave Ltd. are manufacturers of on-board cameras for various motorsporting categories and also intend on running an Aston Martin Vantage GT2 for the 2008 FIA GT championship.

The press release read: "We are excited to have Nigel on board and are well aware of his capabilities in other categories of motor racing. We hope he exceeds our expectations and brings more than the promised 780 pages of documentation of our main rival, the Ferrari F430 GT2."

Whitmarsh happy with productive start

With more rain falling at the circuit in southern Spain today, wet track conditions meant that, on top of the continuing development programme, the McLaren team took the opportunity to look into improving engine drivability and car handling with wet settings.


In addition the MP4-23 has been running with the new FIA ECU codes and development of this was also a focus.

Lewis Hamilton had a couple of minor off track excursions during the day due to an unexpected ECU reboot. His car was not damaged and he was able to complete the test plan for the day, with the second fastest time.


Heikki Kovalainen was sixth fastest in the second MP4-23.

Martin Whitmarsh
"We have now completed six full track days with two MP4-23’s and already clocked up approximately 4193km’s on our 2008 challenger, 1,000kms of which were covered last year by Ferrari alone, and we are only halfway through the third week in January."

"It has been an immensely productive start to our pre-season test programme and is a strong motivation for the team to keep pushing. Although it is far too early in the development stage of the car to be predicting how competitive it will be, last year's feedback from Kimi, Massa, and the team has been positive and we have a huge amount of Ferrari's data on which to base the continuing development programme around."

Mad Max confirms budget cap?

Rumor has it that Max Mosley has confirmed that a budget cap is to be introduced in Formula One starting from 2009.

In related news, Jean Todt has crossed Max off his Christmas card list.