During the Friday FIA press conference at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Renault duo Fernando Alonso and Pat Symonds and Red Bull duo David Coulthard and Geoff Willis answered the questions of the gathered press.

Q: Pat, I can remember in Barcelona you were very happy as you felt you’d taken a step forward. In Monaco you were going to spring a surprise. What’s been going on?

Pat Symonds: I never said we would spring a surprise in Monaco.

Q: What is the next step there is a test next week. Will you have some new bits there?

PS: It’s Barcelona next week. More bits there. Every week there are new bits on the car, new bits we are testing. Some aerodynamic updates for the French Grand Prix, some quite big ones, so keep on moving.

Q: Do you remember what you did with Heikki a year ago?

PS: Yes.

Q: Are you going to tell us?

PS: No.

Q: Fernando, tell us about the track conditions today.

Fernando Alonso: I think we had a little bit of everything. This morning a wet track to start with and it was dry just for the last 10 minutes but it was not completely dry, so we found a different track in the afternoon with more normal conditions. It was okay, a normal Friday in Canada with a slippery track and we tried to put some rubber down with the laps. I am sure during the weekend it will be better and better every lap we do on the track.

Q: There are a lot of words being written about what you might be doing in the future. What is your own personal comment on that?

FA: Nothing really. The same comment as always. It is too early to speak about the future and too early for me to think about the future. It is only the sixth or seventh grand prix of the championship this year and there is a long way to go to the end. First of all I want to improve the results and the performance we are having now. The aim for the next two or three months is to be closer and closer to the podium which is the real target. There is enough to do to reach this target that I don’t want to lose too much time on the future.

Q: David what are your feelings about this season so far?

David Coulthard :Well, I am clearly disappointed not to have scored any points. That’s the way it goes sometimes. I’ve obviously been involved in a few incidents which is unusual but again when you are in what I call the ugly part of the grid there seems to be a lot more contact. And clearly the goal is to keep out of that. In the first six races I have been in the top 10 three times in qualifying and clearly that is the key area to be to avoid a lot of the concertina effects especially somewhere like here in Montreal. We have seen that many years with cars getting out of position.

Q: And your feelings about today?

DC: As Fernando said it was a normal Canada Friday with the exception of some wet running thrown in. The track is pretty green but that is the usual gig especially when you come from Monaco as you have got a lot more speed on the car and a lot less downforce, so stopping it through the chicanes is a bit more of a challenge. Usually the cars that have good kerb ride tend to show their lap time here and the grid can be a bit more spaced out, so we just need to review our performance after qualifying tomorrow and hopefully we will have a strong one.

Q: Geoff, to what extent are you already working on the 2009 car?

Geoff Willis: Certainly we are already underway aerodynamically with the 2009 car, both wind tunnel programmes and the CFD programme. We are clearly looking at the tyres as there is a big regulation change there next year, one part of which is the slick tyres. We are still waiting until the last July team test when we will get the final specification of those tyres. Some of the main car lay-out will have to be delayed a little longer but we have done quite a lot of work. At the moment we are juggling that balance between the 2008 car development and 2009 and certainly where we are in the championship, and as David says, we are in that ugly area where a small performance improvement can give you help to get that one or two points. We do certainly have to divide out time as efficiently as we can between the 2008 championship, trying to turn an equal fourth place into a secure fourth place, but at the same time not penalizing ourselves for next year.

Q: As far as you are concerned are the regulations for 2009 perfectly clear?

GW: I think on a technicality the final things we have agreed in the last Technical Working Groups have to go before the World Motor Sport Council which I think is on 30 June but to all intents and purposes, as far as I understand, the regulations are fixed for 2009.

The conference was quite informative. Some questions were asked from the floor. F1 people were all in readiness. For detailed information check out the reference below.

Reference:

http://217.204.13.141/mediacentre/Press_Releases/FIA_Sport/2008/June/030608-04.html

http://www.formula1.com

Super Aguri had withdrawn from Formula One racing - that news broke this week and it came as a bitter blow to all those involved, but in particular to driver Anthony Davidson. After years of toil as a Honda tester, it was Super Aguri who finally gave Davidson a full-time race seat. As he prepares to spend the Turkish Grand Prix on the sidelines, the Briton discusses his reaction to recent events - and his belief that his F1 career is far from over…

Here is an interview with Anthony Davidson on this occasion. (published on F1’s official web site)

Q: What was your initial reaction when you heard the news about the team?

- It wasn't a complete shock as we have all known how difficult things have been, but I'm obviously really disappointed that the team is unable to see out the rest of the season and beyond, and gutted not just for myself but for all the guys at the factory who have worked so hard.

Q: Have you spoken to the team since the news broke?

- Yes, I spoke to my engineer and a few people at the team this morning, and I have been at the factory in Leafield today.

Q: Looking over your time at the team, what have been the best moments, and the worst, other than our recent news?

- There have been a lot of good moments - being on the grid in Melbourne for the first time last year having waited so long for a race drive, and some very strong qualifying performances would be among my favourites. The worst moment was hearing that the team was withdrawing, and of course the infamous ground hog which cost me a top five result...

Q: What do you think made Super Aguri team so special?

- It was a small team, but with a lot of passion. The team has always worked incredibly hard, and I think this year the guys showed great dedication and loyalty to keep fighting especially given the uncertainty over the future.

Q: What is in store for you now?

- After several years as a test driver in F1 I’m glad that I had the chance to show that I can race and to prove my speed, and I’m grateful to the team and Honda for the opportunity. Although it's a difficult time of the year to find an alternative option as most plans are finalised and the season is well underway, I’m glad I took the opportunity to compete again this year and strongly believe that I have unfinished business in Formula One.

Q: And finally, Super Aguri fans in their thousands have sent messages of good will and support to the team in Leafield. Do you have a message for the fans around the world?

- The SAF1 Team fans have always been brilliant and I would like to thank them for their incredible support. The many messages that we have received have been very much appreciated.

The Italian press believes Ferrari is set to dominate the 2008 season. Despite officials for the Maranello based team's rivals McLaren and BMW playing down the gap following Ferrari's second consecutive one-two victory on Sunday, the sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport insists that the "dominance" of the scarlet F2008 at Barcelona was "impressive".

"Not a single mistake was committed," - Gazzetta added. "McLaren and BMW are far away. After Spain, the 2008 world championship could be over."

Corriere dello Sport said of championship leader Kimi Raikkonen: "The Finn is objectively the only true candidate for the title. As in the past, this championship could become 'formula boredom'."

The Turin-based national newspaper Tuttosport added: "Raikkonen and Massa conquered Spain and demonstrated Ferrari's absolute power.The advantage over their rivals is almost embarrassing, even though Stefano Domenicali has called for restraint. Raikkonen had the race totally under control, and Massa actively supported him. This is his role, even if he does not want to admit it."

Rome-newspaper Il Messaggero wrote: "The Ferrari conductors are trying to curb the enthusiasm, but it is obvious that Ferrari's lead over McLaren and BMW is great."

And now BMW-Sauber, and probably other formula one teams, will shortly experiment with the new 'nose hole' innovation that featured on the dominant Ferrari cars in last weekend's Spanish grand prix.

Although Maranello based Ferrari insists that the
shark mouth-style feature in front of the driver position may not be used at every race this season, BMW technical director Willy Rampf confirmed that a similar concept will be trialled in the team's Hinwil wind tunnel in the coming days.

"I am almost certain that it would also work on some of the other cars so we will have a look," -Rampf is quoted as saying by Switzerland's Motorsport Aktuell publication.

References:

http://www.formula1.com/news/features/2008/4/7701.html

Formula One racing’s first-ever night race - the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix brings an unusual lightning conditions to the sport and marks specially developed electronic flag displays. Italian-based Valerio Maioli S.P.A. is lighting consultant, who developed this new technology . The necessary lighting system is design and constructed to illuminate the Singapore event. It will be used in conjunction with the traditional flag signals waved by marshals.

‘DigiFlags’ will convey the different flag colours in a more visible way during the night race. Thirty five display panels will be situated around the Singapore track, each controlled by handheld panels operated by officials at each marshals’ post. In addition to improved visibility, the new system will also provide the race director with an overview of every flag display around the circuit, thereby ensuring the more efficient communication of warnings.

Earlier Colin Syn, deputy chairman of the Singapore Grand Prix commented: "Staging the first Formula 1 night-race is a huge undertaking but, with Valerio Maioli's extensive experience, we are confident that they are able to deliver the system successfully."

With less than six months to go before the inaugural Singapore event takes place on September 28, the race organisers have been hard work preparing the new street circuit. A week-long demonstration of the lighting system was held from March 29, with a 64-metre stretch lit up with 16 projectors, ahead of its complete installation in August.

References:

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2008/4/7655.html

http://www.crash.net/motorsport/f1/news/156028-0/singapore_sheds_light_on_key_contractor.html

The 2008 Olympics which are to be held in China, have become more than just a point for pride for the Chinese. It has become a part of their national consciousness. The fact that about 3500 children have been named in the honor of this outstanding event makes clear the importance of Olympics to Chinese nation.

Most of these 3500 children with the name “Aoyun” (Chinese name for Olympics), were born in 2000, when Beijing was one of the competitors for the honor of hosting 2008 summer games. These amazing data was published by Beijing Daily, resting upon the information provided by China’s national identity card database.

Almost all children named “Olympics” are male, and only six of them reside in Beijing, while others are most probably from the rural areas.

The creative Chinese parents went even further with giving their children names related to Olympics: more then 4000 children bare names of main Beijing Games mascots. These names are Bei Bei, Jing Jing, Huan Huan, Ying Ying, and Ni Ni. If put together these names, the received phrase will be translated as “Beijing Welcomes You!”

Chinese parents increasingly use unique names to express individuality of their offspring. This can be explained by the fact that the Chinese population of 1,3 billion has just 129 family names, which creates ambiguity, as a lot of people can have same names and surnames.

To solve the problem, parents turned to creating new, unique names by putting together unusual combination of letters, numbers and symbols. According to deputy director of the National Language Commission, Li Yuming, at least one couple has recently called their child “1A”, while others use the e-mail address symbol (@). This symbol is pronounced “Aita” in Chinese meaning “I love him”.

Scotland's national soccer team needed a victory and then a one more point to qualify for Euro 2008. Georgian national team needed a victory to gain self confidence and rehabilitate. Scotland brought an experienced team on the field. Georgia opted to a youthful "gang". Three teenagers including the goalkeeper were playing on the whites' side. Both teams had different needs but the same objective - to win the game at any cost.

It was the 16th minute when Georgian team scored the first goal. Zurab Menteshashvili's corner headed past Craig Gordon at the near-post by Levan Mchedlidze for Georgia. 1:0.

Georgian national team was leading the whole match, increasing pressure on Scotland minute after minute, killing Scotland's hopes of taking anything.

It was the 64th minute when David Kvirkvelia took on Greame Murty on the left side of the penalty area before cutting the ball back for David Siradze, who scored the second goal. 2:0.

Scotland pushed forward for a while but chances were few and none of them were used by Alex McLeish's men.

Scotland has lost a national hero and the motorsport world - a man with extraordinary spirit. Rally legend Colin McRae along with his five-year-old son died in a helicopter crash on Saturday.

McRae became the first Briton to win the World Rally Championship in 1995. McRae was devoted to motor sport with his heart and his soul. He has taken part in Le Mans, Paris-Dakar and even piloted Martin Brundle's Formula 1 car.

McRae is extremely popular in the world of computer games. The first Colin McRae Rally was released in 1998 by Codemasters followed by the second release in 2000. The second release was available both for PC and PlayStation. The latest game DiRT's PlayStation 3 edition was released on 14th of September, day before McRae's death. All of the games were inspired by the legendary driver.

The world of motorsport will never be the same without McRae.

$100 million in fines and 0 points in the 2007 season's constructors' championship is FIA World Motor Sport Council's final verdict for the McLaren-Mercedes team. McLaren-Mercedes drivers Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton have not been penalized and are free to continue their fight for the drivers' title.

We expect the FIA to explain the reasons behind the Council's decision today. This should be followed by McLaren's decision to appeal or not.

On the Formula1.com website there is a poll about the verdict. It seems that the public opinion is divided evenly with a slight advantage to those who think that the decision was fair.

It looks like that in Formula One the battle from the circuit has shifted towards the court rooms and FIA World Motor Sport Council summits.

Tomorrow may prove to be a crucial day for the leading team. If the McLaren-Mercedes team is found guilty, not only does the team face multi-million dollar fee, but potential punishment includes disqualification from this season and from the next as well. Not a promising outlook for the British-German team.

Unfortunately, some sources speculate that McLaren will drag other teams as well in the case and will require adequate sanctions against such teams. According to the sources, Flavio Briatore's team is the one that McLaren will try to drag into the case. But the Renault boss is calm and accuses his vis-a-vis at McLaren Ron Dennis of “throwing stones everywhere” in an attempt to deflect pressure. This might prove to be a good strategy for McLaren to shift attention from the main point but it might turn to be a critical decision as well.

But what do we, passionate Formula One fans gain from this? I have been a big fan of Formula One for many years now and the royal sport is experiencing degradation.

Come on guys, be serious about the sport. Concentrate your resources and energy on your cars, drivers, the team. We like Formula One because of the joy that it brings to us on the grid not in the room. We love observing the battle of your pilots, not the battle of your lawyers.

(Original post from Formula1.Blogvasion.com)

The International Automobile Federation has issued a statement according to which, the federation had summoned their World Motor Sport Council again for a hearing in Paris on September 13th to consider the development of a Ferrari-McLaren spy case.

The meeting on the 13th is in effect replacing the appeal hearing, which has been filed by Ferrari after the WMSC decided not to punish this year's leading team in July.

The situation up to date is that McLaren was found to be in possession of Ferrari's confidential 780 page material. However, as the WMSC has found, the team has not benefited from it in the championship battle. FIA's representative has mentioned that new evidence had emerged in the spy case but the representative has not made any comments.

The bottom line is that if McLaren is found guilty, the team may get disqualified not only from this, 2007 season, but from the 2008 season as well. So, quite much is at stake for the McLaren-Mercedes team, which at the moment is leading the constructors' championship by 11 points to Ferrari.

Finally, you may like to read the following articles about the spy case:

McLaren face second Stepneygate hearing by Planet-F1.com

UPDATE 1-F1 body says has new evidence in spy case by Reuters UK

McLaren and Hamilton face fresh threat from Ferrari by The Independent

Ferrari say truth will out in F1 spy hearing by GUARDIAN

Hamilton Dream Under Threat by Daily Express

An Indian businessman and a member of the upper house of the Parliament of India, Vijay Mallya has acquired the Spyker F1 Team.

Mallya, who is the chairman of the United Breweries Group and Kingfisher Airlines puts India back on the F1 circuit. Not only will India be mentioned in the updated name of the company, but this will give a perfect chance to Indian drivers to be on the circuit. Especially, this might turn to be a golden opportunity for Narain Karthikeyan.

India still hopes to secure a place in the Formula 1 calendar. The nearest opportunity is 2009. However, Mallya is already expecting a German designer Herman Tilke, who has done Bahrain, Istanbul and is now working on Singapore. Tilke will be flying to Delhi on Monday and will check the suitability of two-three sites.

Photo copyright Jonathan Drake/Bloomberg News /Landov

The international governing body for motorsports, FIA, will announce next month whether Singapore Grand Prix will proceed with a night or day race.

Meanwhile, the work at the circuit has been going at a wild pace and instead of a muddy area of the land at the Marina Promenade we'll see an ultra-modern pit building in exactly nine months. Not much time time but Mr. Lim Neo Chian, Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive of the Singapore Tourism Board is confident that the infrastructure for the Grand Prix will be fully ready by the deadline.

Simple yet modern and environmentally sustainable structure will accommodate 36 garages for the 12 race teams on the first floor. The second floor will be taken by the Media Center, hospitality lounges, race control center and the winners’ podium.

The 26 year old Spanish driver has become a national hero. The reigning double World Champion has accumulated some impressive statistics over his career.

The 2007 Turkish Grand Prix marks the 100th Formula 1 race for Alonso.

At the 2005 Brazilian Grand Prix he became the youngest driver to ever win a Formula 1 World Championship. He was 24 years and 59 days old.

In 2006 he became the youngest ever driver to win double World Championship title in a row.

The record for the youngest driver to win a race goes to Alonso as well. When he won the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2003 it was 26 days after his 22 Birthday.

Alonso has stood on the top step of the podium a total of 18 times in his Formula 1 career to date and he has finished on the podium on 44 separate occasions.

He has scored a total of 16 Pole Positions and 454 points in his 99 Grands Prix to date. Easy calculation shows that his average score is 4.58 per race. With Vodafone McLaren Mercedes his average score is 6.63 so far.

Over the five and a half seasons that he has competed in Formula 1 Alonso has been leading a race for a total of 4,938 kms.

But the most important contribution he has made is that his success has had a major impact on the popularity of Formula 1 in Spain. I believe many teenagers dream of following his steps.

Photo source www.grandprix.com

As expected, Indianapolis is out of the Formula 1 2008 calendar and the only American driver, Scott Speed has shared the Brickyard's fate.

The Scuderia Toro Rosso team said that Sebastian Vettel would replace Speed for the rest of the season starting with Sunday's race in Budapest, Hungary. Vettel, who is 20, had been a test driver for the BMW Sauber Formula One team.

Why American drivers have this challenge in succeeding in Formula One is a mystery to me. Speed is not a bad driver, yet he has not earned even a point in Formula 1. His double 9th position is his best result. Scott Speed has shown considerable promise, much more than Michael Andretti from the mid 90's but not enough to keep his stay in an European-dominated sport.

Let's hope that we see American drivers in the royal motor sport as well as the US Grand Prix in the future.

Photo courtesy of http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk

Nelson Piquet, a Brazilian racing driver, who was Formula One world champion in 1981, 1983, and 1987 has loses his driving license. According to O Globo, Piquet's Brazilian driving license has been revoked after a series of speeding and parking offenses.

Can you imagine an ex-F1 driver without a car? I can't. So, the 54-year old driver began a driving reeducation course. Funny, but Piquet is not a lone. His wife, Viviane, also joined her ex-champion husband in the class after having her license taken away for bad driving.

The couple will have to attend mandatory classes over eight days and pass an exam before getting back their licenses. I don't think Piquet will have trouble with that.

Photo courtesy of http://www.goodwood.co.uk

The FIA has confirmed the calendar for the Formula One 2008 world championship.

Valencia, Spain, will host the European Grand Prix on a street circuit on August 24, subject to approval. Singapore will also stage a street race on September 28, subject to circuit approval. In Singapore we may witness the first night race.

The 2008 calendar in full looks like this:

16 Mar Australia
23 Mar Malaysia
6 Apr Bahrain
27 Apr Spain
11 May Turkey
25 May Monaco
8 Jun Canada (Provisional)
22 Jun France
6 Jul Great Britain
20 Jul Germany
3 Aug Hungary
24 Aug Europe (Subject to circuit approval)
7 Sep Italy
14 Sep Belgium
28 Sep Singapore (Subject to circuit approval)
12 Oct China
19 Oct Japan
2 Nov Brazil

Photo courtesy of f1istanbulturkey.com

The FIA World Motor Sport Council acknowledged that McLaren had breached the sporting regulations by having unauthorised Ferrari documents in their possession.

I believe this is what every Ferrari fan was expecting. However, McLaren went unpunished. This is almost a comical situation indeed and I am deeply disappointed with the FIA's decision. And this is why.

Formula One is a sport where a verge of success and failure may lie in a thousandths of a second. In Formula One every detail is important. In Formula One there are no unimportant details.

Even if McLaren declares that they have not benefited from possessing the secret material, it might still have an impact on the outcome. If nothing else, it is psychologically devastating realising a fact that your competitor possesses your confidential material.

FIA, please bring justice to this case by imposing appropriate sanctions on McLaren. One of the reasons why we love Formula One is that it is extremely fair sport. Formula One is more than sport. Do not legitimize dishonest behaviour.

Photo by courtesy of www.leblogauto.com

Today I was checking visitor statistics and to my amazement over 80% of all visitors coming to Blogvasion.com from Google during past couple of days were searching for Formula 1 2008 Calendar.

Dear friends, unfortunately the 2008 calendar has not been confirmed yet. Moreover, there isn't even a preliminary schedule. Need a speculated one? Oh dear, here it is found on Wikipedia.

However, there are a couple of facts.

Fact number one is that we won't see the US Grand Prix. I've already written a post about this.

Fact number two is that Australia has lost the pole position and that Bahrain will host 2008 season opener.

Fact number three is that Bridgestone will be the official tyre supplier for the 2008 season and probably up to 2010.

The article on Wikipedia provides more "facts" but I don't take anything on Wikipedia as a fact. As soon as the Formula One 2008 schedule is confirmed, I'll publish it and where the hell I wrote down Bernie's cell phone... :)

Web 2.0 is almost instantly associated with user-generated content. While Web 2.0 encompasses more than that, user-generated content is the first sign of a Web 2.0 site.

Even among the Web 2.0 sites some are more popular, some are less. Personally, I believe that one of the most successful directions is video sharing and streaming, with YouTube being a vivid example.

However, YouTube is a universal video sharing service. Almost all general markets are already taken by big players who have enjoyed the first mover advantage. But niche markets are still open and I believe that is where we will see the future Web 2.0 sites appearing in.

What will you get if you take baseball and add Web 2.0 to it? Yes, you'll get Actober.com. It was designed to promote the MLB 2007 postseason. The Actober.com site lets fans put together videos containing their favorite baseball moments. Fans can take the clips both from the site's archive and from personal clips. Users with the best videos can win tickets to the 2007 World Series.

It was believed and anticipated that Christian Klien would take the vacant seat at Spyker F1. However, the team management opted to go with the Spyker reserve driver Markus Winkelhock. Markus Winkelhock will make his Formula One debut at Sunday's European Grand Prix and we will see one more rookie in this season.

To Winkelhock this is a dream come true. The driver admitted that while he hadn't have much time in the car this year, he is prepared both physically and mentally.

I think Markus' appearance on the track is some kind of an experiment. This can be a one-off race or we may see Markus in subsequent races, maybe even for the rest of the season. One thing is clear that the team must make a decision who will be Adrian Sutil's partner for the rest of the season. Therefore, it will be an extremely important moment in German driver's career.