The Brazilian Grand Prix (Montoya Wins, Alonso Champion)

[Lloyd]

Do you have any Beans?

[Julian Mayo]

Do you have any Beans?

jumping, jelly, soya, or Mr ?

[Kapel]

Do you have any Beans?

jumping, jelly, soya, or Mr ?

[Ed]

1st Friday Practice Session results - Top 8: Wurz, Sato, Alonso, Button, Raikkonen, Fisichella, Montoya and Pizzonia.

Full results - Commentary

[Ed]

2nd Friday Practice session results - Top 8: Wurz, Montoya, Zonta. Massa, Barrichello, Raikkonen, Villeneuve and M Schumacher.

Full results - Commentary

[Lloyd]

Interesting time by Robert Doornbos in the Minardi, must be looking for a contract.

[Julian Mayo]

Interesting time by Robert Doornbos in the Minardi, must be looking for a contract.

Button kept getting in his way

[Lloyd]

That would slow U down

[Lloyd]

I see that MW has been voted off the GP drivers association.
They feel 4 is one too many?

[Julian Mayo]

I see that MW has been voted off the GP drivers association.
They feel 4 is one too many?

Yes, apparantly it happened some weeks ago. Webber seems quite happy about it.

[Julian Mayo]

That would slow U down

Button must be delighted to pay 24 million pounds to drive a slow car

[Ed]

FIA Firday Press Conference now available here with Ross Brawn, Sam Michael, Pat Symonds and Geoff Willis

[Ed]

Interesting remarks from Ross Brawn (Ferrari) and Geoff Willis (BAR) on the V8 engines.


They were asked: You?ve both had quite extensive experience of running a V8 now and I wonder if you?ve noticed any unusual anomalies or any kind of weird characteristics which you hadn?t expected and whether we?ll see F1 cars next year perhaps being a little bit different from what they are this year?

Ross Brawn said:

With Pat (Symonds), in fact, having probably raced one of the last V8 cars in Formula One, I have fond memories of the vibration issues that you get with the configuration of a V8 and my colleagues and staff at Ferrari haven?t had that experience and despite my expectations, it?s still been a new experience for them to have bits falling off that never fell off before and were never a problem before. The biggest single change is just the vibration of a V8, certainly in certain planes and certain modes, is very high and you have to rubber-mount everything, you have to give it plenty of clearance. We are having components fail which have done high mileage on a V10. Ferrari made the step from a V12 to a V10 and they thought that was bad. Now they are discovering what a V8?s all about. But it?s a nice challenge, an interesting engineering challenge for everyone. The engine has less torque and less power but that actually has some benefits in the way that the tyres work and the handling of the car. It is an interesting engineering challenge. Rather like this year with Toyota, it?s wiping the slate clean again, everyone is having to start from a fresh reference and we don?t really know where we should be. What level of power, what rpm, what fuel consumption, what is the reference? Because over a period in Formula One you acquire that information, you can observe what other teams are doing, you can see what?s achievable and therefore you know what you have to try to achieve yourself. Nobody really knows with a V8; whether 700 horsepower is enough, 750 or 800, who knows? We will find out in the first part of next year. Those that don?t have the highest power output will have to catch up very quickly and those that will, can consolidate a bit and work on other aspects. It?s a very interesting challenge and one that we have had a reasonable amount of time to organise ourselves so, harping back to my earlier point, it has been less frustrating because we have had the time to work on it properly.

Geoff Willis said:

Well, I suppose the correct answer is that we are planning not to have any anomalies with a V8. We did run a V8 earlier this season, very much in very early prototype form. Since then, Honda have been working on more stages of prototypes, a lot of dyno running, and we will be back running when testing starts again after the end of the season. Certainly, I personally don?t have any experience of running a V8 in Formula One but Honda have a lot of experience running V8s and it?s a very big programme for them, and I think we will be well prepared for next year. As Ross says, the exciting bit and the difficult bit about a big change in the rules is you don?t really know where the benchmark is and I think that will be quite interesting for the early testing of the V8s when all the teams are trying to work out whether they have got it right and whether they are strong in the right areas. As well as being reduced capacity in a V8, we also have other changes. There are some material changes in the engine for cost control reasons and also the removal of the moving trumpets. That will have an effect on the torque characteristics of the engine, particularly during the start which is another new challenge and something we won?t have a good measure on until we get track testing.

From the FIA Friday Press Conference

[Julian Mayo]

The first couple of races next season are going to be very interesting indeed, especially if "bits" start vibrating off during a race.
Sam Michael also made a relevant point about the tyre switch, with regard to development imho

[Lloyd]

I see that MW has been voted off the GP drivers association.
They feel 4 is one too many?

Julian (he who Knows) said
Yes, apparantly it happened some weeks ago. Webber seems quite happy about it.
Julian where do you get your info???
I check all the F1 sites at one sitting but didnt see this till todaY