2009 Pre-Season thread

last SG · 2009-01-13T16:13:47+00:00

The new Brawn-Mercedes BGP001 was shaken down on grooved tyres this morning at Silverstone:

Kuali Baba SG

This thread is for news on the upcoming season's driver line-ups, new car launches and test sessions. We begin with the latest revised 2009 race schedule, which sees the Chinese GP moved to April and the Brazilian and Abu Dhabi GPs brought forward by 2 weeks.

March 29 Australia
April 5 Malaysia
April 19 China
April 26 Bahrain
May 10 Spain
May 24 Monaco
June 7 Turkey
June 21 Great Britain
July 12 Germany
July 26 Hungary
Aug. 23 Europe (Valencia)
Aug. 30 Belgium
Sept. 13 Italy
Sept. 27 Singapore
Oct. 4 Japan
Oct. 18 Brazil
Nov. 1 Abu Dhabi

566117 SG

2009 F1 entry list

1 Lewis HAMILTON (GB) McLAREN MERCEDES
2 Heikki KOVALAINEN (FIN) McLAREN MERCEDES

3 Kimi RAIKKONEN (FIN) FERRARI
4 Felipe MASSA (BR) FERRARI

5 Robert KUBICA (PL) BMW SAUBER
6 Nick HEIDFELD (D) BMW SAUBER

7 Fernando ALONSO (E) RENAULT
8 Nelson PIQUET (BR) RENAULT

9 Jarno TRULLI (I) TOYOTA
10 Timo GLOCK (D) TOYOTA

11 Sebastien BUEMI (CH) STR FERRARI
12 Sebastien BOURDAIS (F) STR FERRARI

14 Mark WEBBER (AUS) RBR RENAULT
15 Sebastian VETTEL (D) RBR RENAULT

16 Nico ROSBERG (D) WILLIAMS TOYOTA
17 Kazuki NAKAJIMA (J) WILLIAMS TOYOTA

18 TBA HONDA
19 TBA HONDA

20 Adrian SUTIL (D) FORCE INDIA MERCEDES
21 Giancarlo FISICHELLA (I) FORCE INDIA MERCEDES

2009 F1 car launch dates

January 12    Ferrari
January 15    Toyota
January 16    McLaren
January 19    Renault
January 19    Williams
January 20    BMW Sauber
February 9    Red Bull Racing
TBA           Toro Rosso, Force India

vIn.Warrior SG

Next year Singapore will be using the new Changi Road Circuit?

Or will it be same as this year?

Pitot SG

No Canada and France. =(

AFAIK, the circuit at changi or tuas will not be up to F1 standard.

I thought i saw somewhere that MOTOGP was coming to singapore?

EDIT: ok, it has been confirmed that once the track at changi is completed, it will host the MotoGP.

2010 or 2011 or later.

And also, Force India F1 Drops the ferrari engine.

Shift to mclaren?

Kuali Baba SG

They're likely to get Mercedes powertrains next season (engine, gearbox, KERS).but the announcement will only be made on Monday. Mike Gascoyne has left the team along with Colin Kolles in a "reshuffle" however. There goes one experienced and highly-rated designer.

Interestingly there appear to be no rookies for next season so far. Contesting for the remaining slots at STR and Honda are Senna, Di Grassi, Bourdais, Sato, Button (touted to stay) and Barrichello.

I haven't read anything about the new track but given the current economic climate, I don't think it'll be finished that early, if ever.

Kuali Baba SG

First photos of 2009-spec cars:

They look a lot like the lower formula cars with those wide nosecones.

566117 SG

Barcelona test day one times (November 17)

1.  SATO          Toro Rosso   1m20.763s
2.  BUEMI         Toro Rosso   1m21.071s
3.  WURZ          Honda        1m21.198s
4. DE LA ROSA    McLaren      1m21.417s
5.  BADOER        Ferrari      1m22.038s
6.  PAFFETT       McLaren      1m22.235s
7.  KUBICA        BMW          1m22.341s
8.  LOEB          Red Bull    1m22.503s
9. PIQUET        Renault      1m22.560s
10. KLIEN         BMW          1m22.883s
11. HULKENBERG    Williams     1m23.467s
12. LIUZZI        Force India 1m23.794s
13. SUTIL         Force India  1m23.832s
14. GENE          Ferrari      1m24.117s
15. SENNA         Honda        1m24.343s
16. VAN DER GARDE Renault      1m24.908s
17. DI GRASSI     Honda        1m25.512s

Kuali Baba SG

The cleaned-up sides look better.

De La Rosa will test for Force India today and tomorrow on a goodwill basis.

And there is talk that points will be scrapped for medals as early as next year.

566117 SG

And there is talk that points will be scrapped for medals as early as next year.

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=44628

And BMW drivers say modified car is ugly
http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/081119101652.shtml

566117 SG

Barcelona test day two times (18 November)

1. VETTEL Red Bull 1m19.751s

2. SATO Toro Rosso 1m20.017s

3. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1m20.034s

4. BUEMI Toro Rosso 1m20.223s

5. PAFFETT McLaren 1m21.340s

6. KUBICA BMW 1m21.521s

7. ROSBERG Williams 1m21.525s

8. BUTTON Honda 1m21.770s

9. SUTIL Force India 1m22.073s

10. DI GRASSI Honda 1m22.283s

11. PIQUET Renault 1m22.348s

12. BADOER Ferrari 1m22.425s

13. GENE Ferrari 1m22.772s

14. HEIDFELD BMW 1m22.945s

15. VAN DER GARDE Renault 1m23.250s

16. DE LA ROSA Force India 1m23.499s

Kuali Baba SG

3 launch dates have been added to the second post.

566117 SG

~~Deleted~~

566117 SG

Jerez testing times (Tuesday 9 December)

1. BUEMI Toro Rosso 1m18.742s

2. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1m19.288s

3. PAFFETT McLaren 1m20.134s

4. DE LA ROSA McLaren 1m20.164s

5. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m20.261s

6. HEIDFELD BMW 1m20.678s

7. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m21.338s

8. PIQUET Renault 1m21.547s

9. KLIEN BMW 1m22.098s

Full article:
http://www.itv-f1.com/news_article.aspx?id=44743

Kuali Baba SG

McLaren's prototype 2009 front wing:

566117 SG

Testing times from Jerez (Wednesday 10 December)

1. BUEMI         Toro Rosso 1m18.073s
2. SATO         Toro Rosso 1m18.601s
3. BOURDAIS      Toro Rosso 1m18.673s
4. DE LA ROSA   McLaren    1m19.032s
5. RAIKKONEN     Ferrari    1m19.334s
6. KOVALAINEN    McLaren    1m19.631s
7. ALONSO        Renault    1m19.907s
8. ROSBERG       Williams    1m20.309s
9. HEIDFELD      BMW         1m20.365s
10. MASSA         Ferrari     1m20.490s
11. KUBICA        BMW         1m20.954s

Full Article:
http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=44751

566117 SG

Testing times from Jerez (Thursday 11 December)

1. BUEMI         Toro Rosso 1m17.258s
2. SATO         Toro Rosso 1m17.520s
3.  KOVALAINEN    McLaren     1m18.049s
4.  RAIKKONEN     Ferrari     1m18.782s
5.  MASSA         Ferrari    1m19.050s
6.  ALONSO        Renault     1m19.319s
7. ROSBERG       Williams    1m19.388s
8.  DE LA ROSA    McLaren     1m19.499s
9. KUBICA        BMW         1m19.559s
10. KLIEN         BMW         1m19.738s

Full article:
http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=44756

566117 SG

Testing times from Jerez (Monday 15 December)

1. BUEMI Red Bull 1m17.704s

2. HEIDFELD BMW 1m19.223s

3. HARTLEY Red Bull 1m19.586s

4. KLIEN BMW 1m19.655s

5. HULKENBERG Williams 1m20.704s

Testing times from Portimao (Monday 15 December)

1. PAFFETT McLaren 1m31.788s

2. MASSA BMW 1m32.926s

Full article:
http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=44784

566117 SG

Testing times from Jerez (Tuesday 16 December)

1. BUEMI Red Bull 1m17.029s

2. VETTEL Red Bull 1m17.319s

3. HEIDFELD BMW 1m19.303s

4. KUBICA BMW 1m20.006s

5. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m20.332s

Testing times from Portimao (Tuesday 16 December)

1. DE LA ROSA McLaren 1m30.080s

2. BADOER Ferrari 1m31.320s

3. GENE Ferrari 1m33.076s

Full article:
http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=44790

566117 SG

Testing times from Jerez (Wednesday 17 December)

1. VETTEL Red Bull 1m16.617s

2. BUEMI Red Bull 1m16.988s

3. KUBICA BMW 1m19.013s

4. KLIEN BMW 1m19.066s

5. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m19.341s

Testing times from Portimao (Wednesday 17 December)

1. DE LA ROSA McLaren 1m28.993s

2. BADOER Ferrari 1m30.163s

Kuali Baba SG

Less than a week to go before we get to see how the 2009 cars will actually look like.