Kimi Raikkonen believes Ferrari can aim to repeat is Monaco podium finish at the similarly high downforce Hungaroring this weekend.

The world champion team enjoyed its most competitive grand prix of its winless season so far at the street venue in May, Raikkonen narrowly missing out on pole position and then claiming its first podium of the campaign with third.

Raikkonen is now eyeing the same result on the return to a tight and twisty circuit, having scored just a single point in the four races since Monte Carlo.

“They say that Hungary is somehow similar to Monaco: true, the corners are very slow, but the Hungaroring is definitely more “forgiving” than the track at the Principality, where the tiniest slip will almost certainly make you end up in the barriers,” he said.

“Having said that the next race will definitely be the most similar one to the one at Monaco.

“This year we gained a place on the podium at Monaco and this is our objective for Budapest: we were able to fight for the pole until the last moment and I think that if we had gained it, the race would have gone in a completely different direction.

“We’ll retry in Hungary, but it will be difficult.”

However, while Ferrari emerged as then runaway points leader Brawn’s closest rival in Monaco, Raikkonen thinks the field has got even more competitive since then.

“The F60 should adapt pretty well to the track [in Hungary], but we know that all the other teams have improved their cars considerably after the race at Monaco, so there will be fierce competition,” he added.

“We’ll get a better picture of the situation on Friday morning after the first free practice.”

Here are the times for the BBC’s F1 coverage in the UK this weekend.

Friday 24th July

Free practice 1 - 8.55-10.35, BBC Red Button and online
Free practice 2 - 12.55-14.35, BBC Red Button and online

Saturday 25th July

Free practice 3 - 9.55-11.05, BBC Red Button and online
Qualifying - 12.10-14.15, BBC One, BBC Red Button and online

Sunday 26th July

Race - 12.10-15.00, BBC One, BBC Red Button and online

Here’s a new video preview of the Yas Island circuit which will host this year’s F1 season finale.

Bernie Ecclestone has changed his mind on the future of the British Grand Prix yet again.

To recap, he started the year saying there was no way the 2010 race would be held anywhere other then Donington Park. He later suggested in an interview with The Times that this wasn’t the case, and then took those words back.

Then over the British Grand Prix weekend he warmed to the idea of keeping the race at Silverstone. And today he’s told the Independent he thinks the race should be held at both tracks, rotating from one year to the next:

    If they don’t do it, Donington will get together with Silverstone.

I think this is a fine idea in principle: they’re both great tracks and it would ensure the British Grand Prix will remain on the calendar. As Andrew Tsvyk’s article on this site today points out, the race has rotated between Silverstone and other venues in the past.

But we have to be realistic and admit this approach has not worked very well of late.

The German Grand Prix was supposed to rotate between the Nürburgring and the Hockenheimring, but the ltter has now said it cannot afford to hold a race next year.

Fuji Speedway and Suzuka are also supposed to be sharing the Japanese Grand Prix. But Fuji’s owners Toyota have recently decided the track will not continue to hold F1 races.

Rotating tracks should in theory allow tracks to spread out the mmoth costs of holding a Grand Prix over a longer amount of time, but for whatever reason that doesn’t seem to work in practice.

Already a month has passed since the last British Grand Prix - a month which in previous years would have seen tickets going on sale. Time is already running out, and it seems to me the decision Ecclestone should be taking at the moment is which circuit is bet placed to hold a race in 2010, and take care of subsequent years after that.

Ferrari is the only team to score a podium with KERS so far

A waste of money. Pointless greenwash. White elephant. Just a few of the criticisms levelled at the Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems that were introduced into F1 this year amid much fanfare.

Nine races in, no KERS-equipped car has won a race or even set a pole position. Of the four teams that began the year with the technology, only two used it at the last race.

The F1 teams’ association are now eager to drop the technology for 2009. It’s not hard to see the reasons why. But in their eagerness to correct one mistake they might be about to make another one.

An expensive failure?

Over the winter an engine technician from one of the teams using KERS told me the sums being invested in the technology were comparable to those being spent on engines before the development freeze. Again, it’s not difficult to understand the teams’ frustration at the venture at a time when costs are supposed to be cut.

Added to that, the teams which haven’t gone to the expense of putting KERS on their cars have found it by far the quicker way to go racing in 2009.

This has understandably soured people’s attitudes towards energy recovery technology in Formula 1. And it’s manna for those who always thought ‘green’ technologies have no place in motor sport.

Regulation limitations

But we shouldn’t lose sight of how seriously limited F1’s 2009-specification KERS devices are. The present systems can only produce a maximum of 400kJ per lap (around 80bhp for 6.6s).

That is not a limitation of the technology, it is a limitation imposed by the rules. (Technical Regulations article 5.2.3).

No team has bothered to create a system that produces less charge but weighs less. But there have been a lot of complaints about how ineffective KERS is for its weight. When the proposals were first announced Toyota engine boss Luca Marmorini said:

The adoption of energy recovery leaves me rather perplexed because the system chosen by the FIA is really primitive.

Instead of simply throwing KERS in the bin next year - along with the countless millions spent developing it - why not give some thought to relaxing the rules and making it more powerful?

This was originally part of the plan for KERS - its total power was going to be doubled in 2011 and doubled again in 2013. Offered a KERS four times as powerful as the one we have today, would any team consider not using one?

Let’s not forget that KERS in its current forum has brought an interesting extra dimension to races - particularly at starts and in wheel-to-wheel racing between differently-equipped cars. A more powerful version could enhance that. And the improved form of Ferrari and McLaren in recent races suggests KERS-equipped cars can be competitive.

I think there’s a solid case in principle for keeping KERS and making it more powerful. So what real-world problems might work against it?

Practical problems

Cost is clearly one. But chucking KERS now won’t bring back the millions already spent on it. Still, the teams understandably fear increased development of KERS will cause the costs to mount ever higher.

A second problem could be the other major technical change planned for next year - banning refuelling. This will require teams to carry bigger fuel tanks, increasing the weight of their cars at the start of races.

Faced with that, designers may find the further weight penalty of KERS even less attractive. But again, a more powerful KERS (or a higher minimum weight limit) could alleviate those concerns.

Tainted by association

Although I can see why a lot of people want to get rid of KERS next year, I don’t think it’s a decision to rush into. KERS has allowed for a degree of difference in car performance which has made for some enjoyable racing.

I think it has suffered from being poorly implemented with too tight restrictions on its performance.

And I think many people automatically oppose it just because it was Max Mosley’s pet project.

Let’s consider the technology on its own merits before rashly consigning it to the junk heap.

Source: F1Fanatic.co.uk

On our YouTube channel are Virtual Laps for all the grand prix in the 2009 season. Below is a video of a lap around the famous Hungaroring in Hungary.



Be sure to watch in High Quality (HQ)

Felipe Massa says his third place finish in the German Grand Prix has raised spirits at Ferrari and given the team extra motivation to move closer to the front.

The Germany result was Massa’s first podium of a sub-par season for the Maranello squad in which it has been unable to match the pace and consistency of Brawn and Red Bull Racing.

It was also Massa's fifth consecutive points finish, and the Brazilian feels Ferrari is now building some decent momentum heading into the season’s second half.

“Being on the podium was a good feeling but also a strange feeling at the same time and it was definitely something I’d been missing,” he told Ferrari’s website.

“In a difficult season this was nice because it’s a sign of the improvement going on within our team.

“In the past few races we’ve been scoring points again, always in the top five, so to do even better and finish on the podium was good, not just for me but also in terms of motivating everyone in the team and at the factory.

“It proves we are still fighting but it is important for us to keep working.”

Massa added that Ferrari is persisting with KERS because it needs to offset a continuing lack of downforce, and reckons the pecking order behind Brawn and Red Bull is still fluid.

“If you watched the helicopter shot of the start of the race you would have seen that me and Kimi [Raikkonen] and the two McLarens were in a class of our own, making up a lot of ground off the line,” he noted.

“The point is that if we are lacking the downforce levels of the guys who are winning, at least KERS gives us an advantage in another way.

“I had a good weekend in Germany and there were some surprising performances - some good, some bad - from other teams.

“I think this is because, apart from the two top teams, everything is so close that if you have the slightest problem or one lap that isn’t as good as it should be you can slide down the time sheet from fifth to 15th.”

Massa is hoping for better luck at next weekend’s Hungarian GP than he experienced last year, when an agonising late engine failure denied him a dominant victory and arguably cost him the world championship.

“I haven’t got very good results at this race but that doesn’t mean I don’t race well there,” he said.

“If you remember last year I had the win in my pocket, but then my engine unfortunately let me down with just two laps to go.

“It’s a nice circuit to drive, even if it’s not really one of my favourites, but ask me how we will get on in this race and to be honest I really don’t know.

“I hope we can carry on making improvements to our package, carrying on in the same direction as in Germany.”

Source: ITV-F1

Jean Todt has vowed "to give something back" should he be elected as president of the FIA.

After being soundly endorsed earlier this week by outgoing president Max Mosley, former Ferrari team principal Todt has on Thursday confirmed he is to stand for the election on October 23.

Todt, who faces a straight fight with former World Rally Champion Ari Vatanen, now becomes favourite to succeed 69-year-old Mosley.

In setting out his mandate in a letter to the FIA member clubs, Todt intends "to offer continuity, but also to encourage change to meet the new challenges facing the sport and motoring in the years ahead."

Todt feels the FIA must be ready to shape and encourage a new era of global mobility and motor sport, and is ready to promote three major themes to his leadership: affordability and competition; innovation and excellence; team-work and co-operation.

Many critics would assess 'co-operation' has far from been top of Mosley's agenda over the years given what has been perceived as his autocratic style of governance.

Todt can at least call on a distinguished career in motor sport, if not tainted by team order controversies, which started in 1966 when he was a rally co-driver.

Over the years he has worked for many of the major manufacturers - BMW, FIAT, Ford, Maserati, Matra, Mercedes, Nissan, Peugeot Citroen, Renault, Toyota, and most notably Ferrari.

Under his leadership his teams have won four World rally titles, two Le Mans 24 hours victories, one world sports car Championship, four victories in the Paris-Dakar, 13 Formula One World titles and 98 grands prix.

Todt remarked: "I have been very fortunate in my career to have enjoyed considerable success in motor sport and benefit from the hard work of previous leaders of the FIA in creating a global platform on which to compete.

"I feel that for me the time is now right to give something back to the sport and the FIA's clubs that have given me so much.

"I would also like to assist my colleagues from the mobility clubs in their important work representing the motoring public.

"For these reasons I am enthusiastic and excited to serve as president of the FIA."

Max Mosley has thrown his full weight behind Jean Todt to succeed him as FIA president when he steps down from the post in October.

In a letter to the governing body’s member clubs on Wednesday, Mosley confirmed that he would not seek re-election for another term – paving the way for the peace deal with the Formula One Teams’ Association to be finalised.

Mosley expressed strong views about who his successor should be, however, arguing that former Ferrari team principal Jean Todt would be the ideal candidate.

“I believe the right person to head that team would be Jean Todt,” Mosley wrote.

“Jean is unquestionably the outstanding motorsport manager of his generation and arguably of any generation.

“Teams run by him have won the World Rally Championship, cross-country rallies including Paris-Dakar, the Le Mans 24 Hour Race and, in the last 15 years, one Formula 1 world championship after another.”

The politically astute Todt has long been mooted as a future candidate for the FIA presidency but has not so far declared his intention to stand, while former World Rally champion and MEP Ari Vatanen officially threw his hat into the ring last Friday.

Mosley said Todt’s executive experience as CEO of Ferrari was a crucial advantage, and added that the Frenchman was fully versed in the FIA’s road safety and environmental campaigns.

“He has been CEO of a successful car manufacturer,” he wrote.

“He thus has experience in charge of a large and complex organisation, something which is an essential qualification for any future president of the FIA.

“From his road car experience, he has a thorough understanding of the unseen but vital work of the FIA away from the race track and the special stage.

“Most recently he has been involved with his partner Michelle Yeoh in FIA road safety and environmental campaigns all over the world, thus demonstrating a commitment to the major public policy initiatives which are such an important part of the FIA’s work.”

While few question his managerial and political skills, Todt is not universally liked in the paddock and is viewed with suspicion in some quarters because of his close, and recent, links with Ferrari.

FOTA vice-chairman John Howett recently suggested that the teams’ alliance would prefer an independent candidate who had no ties to the F1 competitors “either currently or historically”.

But Mosley insists Todt would be able to cast off his past associations and act disinterestedly on behalf of the sport as a whole.

“Finally, I must emphasise he would not in any way be a motor industry candidate,” he wrote.

“He would have no special relationship with his former company, Ferrari, nor with Peugeot Citroen, the manufacturer behind his former World Rally, cross-country and Le Mans teams.

“He would preserve the independence of the FIA.

“If he agrees to stand, I think he would be the ideal person to continue but also to extend the work of the past 16 years. He can be relied on in all areas where the FIA is active.

Ferrari are poised to cease development of their 2009 car despite an improved showing at the German Grand Prix, team boss Stefano Domenicali has revealed.

Felipe Massa finished third on Sunday to secure the team's second podium of the season, but Domenicali is close to writing off the current campaign.

"We've already started work on the new project and in the next couple of weeks we will move on to that," he said.

"We want to start with a different pace compared to this year."

With both Massa and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen out of contention in the drivers' championship, and Ferrari a long way adrift in the constructors' standings, it is no surprise they are already looking beyond this season.
 
"A podium is always important, and third is a good result for us, but we cannot say it's our return," said Massa after his third place at the Nurburgring.

Domenicali admitted the recent political infighting in Formula 1 had been a major drain on his time and energy and he was looking forward to getting involved in car development again.

"To be honest, I would have preferred to have been more balanced for the team," he stated.

"But it was a very critical moment for F1 and we have had to make sure we were doing our job."

"Being the team principal of Ferrari, with all that Ferrari means for F1, I also felt a responsibility."

Does this mean Alonso will also join the Scuderia team in 2010. Stay tuned!