Autoblog

Following two incidents in two weeks, it looks like the ballyhooed KERS hybrid system might not make it onto Formula 1 cars for 2009 -- at least, not the first races. Teams have begun to talk about how much difficulty they're having in building a safe system. KERS not only needs to work when the car is racing around the track, it also needs to be engineered properly in the event of a 300-kph accident.

In addition to Red Bull's smoke and fumes and BMW's bolt from the blue, Mark Weber said that teams are struggling to deal with the chemicals in the batteries. Supposedly, the stuff that runs off a blown up KERS battery is poisonous arsenic. Toyota's head of engine development said all the teams are having trouble, and Williams Driver Nico Rosberg appeared to doubt whether his team would have it ready by the first race of '09. The teams have scheduled to discuss the matter at their next Technical Working Group meeting. As for us, we can live with or without KERS. Just keep the slicks, will you?

[Source: F1-Live]

Next year Formula 1 will see the introduction of KERS -- the Kinetic Energy Recovery System. The system stores the energy from braking and makes it available to the driver in an on-demand burst. Due to the magnificent braking forces in braking an F1 car, the system must be called on to store a sizable amount of electricity.

Red Bull got things buzzing last week when an eruption of smoke and fumes lead to a call to the fire department. Today, BMW test driver Christian Klien did three laps in a car equipped with an early edition of KERS, and came back to the pits. When a mechanic touched the car, he got a shock strong enough to throw him to the ground. The mechanic suffered slight injuries to a hand and a grazed arm, but was otherwise unhurt. BMW halted all testing while it looks into the issue, which could simply be a matter of improper grounding. Or, it could be time to suit pit crews up in rubber gear...

[Source: F1 Daily]

Click above for high-res gallery from the 2008 German Grand Prix

A stormy 2008 British Grand Prix had left a three-way tie for the drivers' championship in Formula 1, with Hamilton. Raikkonen and Massa all in a deadlock at 48 points. That made the German Grand Prix this past weekend, the tenth race on the F1 calendar, that much more important. Raikkonen said it was a "must win" race for him, and Massa and Hamilton no doubt felt the same way. In qualifying Hamilton kept up the momentum from the previous race by capturing pole position, followed closely by Massa, Kovalainen, and Trulli. Follow the jump for a race report and results.

WARNING: Spoilers after the jump.

We'll call this a rumor for now, but there is some rumbling that the current roster of Formula 1 drivers is so fed up with the rise in FIA Superlicense fees that they may go on strike as early as the British GP at Silverstone next month. F1Fanatic is reminding us too that this wouldn't be the first such strike. Drivers refused to race way back in 1982 over similar issues. It's actually a pretty funny story and well worth a click to read.

This current mess all stems from the World Motorsport Council's recent decision to hike fees for that license-to-thrill-at-will that is the FIA Superlicense. True, F1 drivers earn a ridiculous amount of money, but it's the principle of the matter.

As we recently explained, the standard fee for a Superlicense was just €1,690 for a newcomer, with an additional €447 for each championship point scored in the previous season when you returned the following year. The new fee structure now starts at a staggering €10,000 base fee, plus €2,000 per championship point. Kimi Raikkonen, for instance, fresh off his drivers championship last year, will have to pay €230,000, an unbelievable €199,255 more than last year. So it's not surprising these drivers might be upset. Break out the posterboard, sticks and markers lads. Or, you know, take it to court in the off-season so fans don't get really, really sore with you.

[Source: F1Fanatic]

Yesterday we reported that Danica Patrick would test with the Honda F1 team at the end of the season. That report was a false start: Honda F1 CEO Nick Fry said there was no arrangement for Danica to test, and that she and the team have had no contact. However, Fry did say that if she wanted to test, they "would be more than happy to speak to her about it." The original source for the Danica-will-be-testing article was an Austrian newspaper interview with the same Nick Fry, which even included a time frame for the test. Something was apparently lost in translation... Thanks for the tip, NIBAL!

[Source: SpeedTV]

Danica Patrick, who races for the Honda-powered Andretti-Green IRL team, has spoken of wanting to make the jump to the world's premier form of motorsport, Formula 1. Later this year, according to Honda F1 CEO Nick Fry, the team is going to give her that chance. Danica will be put into Honda's Earth Dreams F1 car in November, probably at the Barcelona or Jerez tracks in Spain, for a full-scale test. Said Fry, "We will put her into our car after the season at the latest and see how quick she is."

The recent record of IndyCar drivers succeeding on the other side of the pond is mixed. It's still too early to tell with Sebastian Bourdais at Toro Rosso, though he appears to be handling things well enough. Jacques Villeneuve did well, but Michael Andretti did not. Scott Dixon, the 2003 IRL champ and 2008 Indy 500 winner tested with Williams-BMW in 2004, but didn't get a seat. Danica's already won a place in U.S. racing history. We'll find out in November if she's fast enough to do it in Europe, as well.

[Source: Eurosport, Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty]

Click for photos from the Canadian GP in our hi-res gallery

Formula One racing is one hell of a spectacle. Although other forms of motorsport, like NASCAR and Le Mans-style endurance racing, hold large fan bases, F1 - at times in spite of itself - remains the favorite for racing fans around the world. Since the cancelation of the US Grand Prix at Indianapolis, there remains just one Formula One race in North America: the perrenial Canadian Grand Prix, held at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. That's why when the opportunity arose to visit Montreal in the summer, we timed our visit around the grand prix weekend.

Much to our continued frustration, however, the various powers that be in charge of F1 racing deemed us unworthy of a solitary press pass to cover the race weekend for you, our growing readership that numbers over 5 million monthly. After three months of jumping through hoops of red tape (and every loophole we could find) with the FIA, Formula One Management and the race organizer's office, our application was unceremoniously rejected. With our flight out set for after race weekend and stranded without a ticket, our friends at Ferrari North America were kind enough to give us a ticket at least for the Friday practice session. So we packed up the camera - and an umbrella - and headed out to rain-soaked Isle St Helene to check out the action. What we came away with, from our brief foray into motorsport photography, is a deep reverance for skill. Not just on part of the drivers, engineers and strategists that comprise the teams - theirs we already knew to be as unfathomably atmospheric as the compression inside their 20,000 rpm masterpieces. But for professional motorsport photographers, who manage to capture the breakneck fast-paced action in still frames. Of course it helps when you have one of those spiffy FIA-issued vests that gives you access to the best vantage points, but just the same, we'll contemplate those skills a little longer next time before turning the page of our favorite racing mag. As for our modest attempts at joining their ranks, you can see the results in the high-resolution gallery by clicking the thumbnails below, and stay tuned for our recap of the race.

Photos Copyright ©2008 Noah Joseph / Weblogs, Inc.

Bernie Ecclestone, the billionaire brain behind the commercial side of Formula 1, has for the first time publicly called for Max Mosley's resignation. When the Mosley scandal broke, Ecclestone, who has known Mosley for 40 years, did not take a stand on Mosley's resignation. All Ecclestone would say is, "It doesn't look good, does it?"

On June 3, Mosley faces a vote of confidence among his colleagues at the FIA. Mosley said he would not resign, and as he appeared to weather the worst of it, he then turned to defending his position in a letter to constituent FIA clubs. But the letter didn't merely attempt to defend his position; it essentially claimed that Formula 1 is in a major crisis, and using the logic that you don't switch horses midstream, Max should be the one to finish righting the ship. It also asserted that the commercial rights holders -- Ecclestone and friends -- were basically trying to do away with the FIA.

That letter made Ecclestone question whether Mosley "wants a war with" him. Ecclestone put out a response letter saying that there was no crisis, he had nothing to say against the FIA, and he looked forward to the next Concorde Agreement governing F1. And now he's called for Max's resignation. Max is expected to survive tomorrow's vote, and if he does, there'll probably be at least one more person who isn't happy about it.

[Source: AFP]

Click above for high-res gallery of the 2008 Monaco Grand Prix

Short of a divine calling or some sort of athletic/outdoorsy obsession, let's be honest here... who wants to get up before 8 AM on a Sunday? Racing fans who did rise with the songbirds yesterday, however, were rewarded with one hell of a spectacle. In fact, this past Race Sunday was loaded with wheel-to-wheel action in all manner of motorsports, between the Indianapolis 500, NASCAR Coca-Cola 600, Nurburgring 24 and, of course, the Monaco Grand Prix. We're talking about the latter here, and if you've yet to cue up the TiVo, we suggest you go no further. For those looking for a recap of the day's events on the narrow, winding streets of Monte Carlo, click below to read on.

Wired has posted a lengthy and thorough dissection of what really happened in last year's Stepneygate F1 scandal. The affair turned Ferrari an even more scarlet red, sucked $100,000,000 from McLaren's bank account and eliminated the team from the constructor's championship, ended the F1 careers of two F1 honchos, and possibly ended Ron Dennis' marriage.

And of course, being F1, it all starts with a tall blond, a sheaf of illegally-possessed documents, and a copy machine. After that come clandestine meetings in airports, furtive text messages, and sabotage. It's probably as close as you're going to get to Bourne or Bond in real life. Follow the link to read the full story.

Thanks for the tip, Todd!

[Source: Wired]