The ING Renault F1 team have been summoned to appear before the World Motor Sport Council in Paris on the 21st September. This afternoon the FIA put out the following statement:
Representatives of ING Renault F1 have been requested to appear before an extraordinary meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris on Monday, 21 September 2009.
The team representatives have been called to answer charges, including a breach of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code, that the team conspired with its driver, Nelson Piquet Jr, to cause a deliberate crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix with the aim of causing the deployment of the safety car to the advantage of its other driver, Fernando Alonso.
The hearing will take place the Monday prior to this year's Singapore Grand Prix.
Updated: Renault have responded to the FIA's request to appear before the WMSC:
The ING Renault F1 Team acknowledges the FIA's request for representatives of the team to appear before the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris on the 21st of September 2009.
Before attending the hearing, the team will not make any further comment.
With the UK's Formula One television rights now in the hands of the BBC, we were expecting ITV's online F1 presence to disappear at the start of this year. Surprisingly ITV-F1 is still going strong.
It was pointed out to viewers at the end of the season, that the team had every intention of continuing with the site, but seeing as they no longer have any exclusive access, nor any unique video content, it's hard to see why they would bother?
Commercial Matters
The most likely answer is the site still brings in enough advertising revenue to justify it's costs. However, the main promotion for said site was a television program which regularly publicised it. Without any ongoing plugs, shouldn't the number of readers begin to drop like a stone?
Make no mistake, the British commercial broadcasters online popularity was massive. Googling the phrase F1 sees ITV listed second behind only Bernie's official homepage, and here's how Google Trends rates them compared to Autosport and F1 Live (who sit beneath them in the search results).
According to that data, ITV ranked second behind F1 Live throughout 2008, but ahead of Autosport. We can't see the most up-to-date information, but towards the end of November, after the season was over, they were clearly falling ever further into the clutches of Autosport's grasp.
You can see the chart in more detail on the trends website. It's hard to gauge just how reliable the figures are, but we were discussing web statistics in the comments recently, and by comparison they appeared to be the most reliable of those freely available.
I'm Not Dead Yet
With declining figures and no cost effective means with which to further promote the homepage, I assumed it would only be a matter of time before the thing was axed. At least, that was until I read an interview with Mark Blundell yesterday.
Talking to Crash.net, Mark revealed he still has a year left to run on his contract with ITV and they're looking at doing something a little bit different, but still motorsport related in the future.
It seems the broadcaster really hasn't given up on the project just yet, but if what we're led to believe is true, and the company really didn't want to deal with F1 any longer, why on earth are they hanging on in there. Drivers on their books and a website with content updated as recently as Thursday, it doesn't make sense.
It was a tough day out there today, with the track literally crumbling under the force of our guys and their wheels. Vettel, Webber and Button all had issues, but we cover everything from FP3 and Qualfiying in today's F1 Digest.
Free Practice 3
Vettel and Bourdais both had terrible sessions, with the walls appearing to be Toro Rosso magnets.
Qualifying
The track slowly disintegrated, leaving the top ten really showing the men from the boys.
Conclusions
Some are convinced tomorrow will be a nightmare and the race will be completely undriveable, others are hoping the dodgy conditions will work in their favour.
A bit of rain always spices things up somewhat, and whilst it held off for qualifying, we saw what could happen in FP3. Fingers crossed for tomorrow.
Free Practice 3
Kovalainen is the first of today's barrier victims, although he still managed to retain the fastest time, thanks to the weather.
Qualifying
Coulthard was the second to clout the barrier in a series way, heading off track at a swift rate and leaving his wheel behind.
Conclusions
The teams seem to agree that today was pretty tough with the weather, so some are hoping for clear skies tomorrow and others are keeping their fingers crossed for more rain.
This article was originally written for BellaOnline, but is republished here for posterity.
Whilst I don’t want to dwell on what was an awful crash, there’s no denying that if it had happened just ten years ago, Robert Kubica would definitely not have been walking away with a simple sprained ankle. The driver’s are constantly striving for improvements to safety, and whilst it can sometimes seem as though they are whining about what is genuinely a dangerous sport, they have obviously been doing a good job.
First, let’s take a quick look at what actually happened in the crash. Kubica was trying to overtake Jarno Trulli, and hit the back wheel of the car, launching him into the air. He skipped over the grass, just missing an already parked Toro Rosso and marshal. He collided with the wall, which spins him back onto the track, literally in a circle a couple of times. The car rolls across the track, missing several other drivers who are negotiating the scene. Finally, Kubica smashes into the opposite wall and comes to rest on his side. All this at 180 mph.
The most important device to keep Robert Kubica relatively safe was the HANS device (the head and neck device). This basically keeps the driver and his helmet all tucked into the cockpit and safe, instead of letting his neck roll with the car and cause all kinds of problems.
Another noticeable thing about the car was how the area that the driver sits in – known as the tub – was completely intact despite the destruction of the rest of the car. The wheels had come off, and front and rear wings were detached almost immediately. But when Kubica was on his side, he was still safely inside the cockpit, and the cockpit was completely whole.
And of course, the most important area of safety is that the marshals were on the scene within 20 seconds of the crash starting. Luckily Kubica had crashed at the point of the circuit nearest to the medical centre, but even so, you couldn’t ask for a quicker response time than that. The safety car was instantly on track as well, to make sure that Kubica and the marshals was kept safe from the other cars and that they wouldn’t stray off course and cause anymore damage.
The crash has brought up concerns about the plans for more street circuits in the future. If accidents like this happen on a specially designed track, they are more easily controlled and handled. If a track is shoehorned into an existing street circuit, it takes a lot more planning and perhaps some sacrifices to safety. All we can do at the moment is be grateful that Kubica is okay.
It’s all about going as fast as you possibly can and beating your opponents at all costs. But at high speeds, and with such delicate equipment, safety is an important part of the sport. From the basics of a helmet and gloves, to specifics like fireproof underwear are all there to protect the driver when things go wrong.
Your driver is sitting in the cockpit, often referred to as the tub, or survival cell. This is because the basics of a driver’s survival starts here. Constructed of carbon fibre, it is both light and strong. Crash structures are built into the front and rear of the cell along with the roll hoop whose job it is to protect the driver if the car rolls, hitting the ground before the driver’s helmet.
Keeping the driver in his seat is more than your average seat belt. It comprises of four belts joined by a central buckle, shoulders and hips, to ensure the driver is fixed securely. His most vulnerable part is probably the head and neck. Aptly, this is protected by then HANS system – head and neck support system. It’s a device that joins the driver’s torso to his helmet and it’s goal is to reduce the loadings to a driver’s head and neck during the rapid deceleration caused by an accident.
Moving away from the driver to the car, you’ll find on each wheel a restraint system, which prevents the tyre from flying off uncontrollably. As well as protecting the driver, this also protects marshals and spectators, as do run off areas and tyre walls. These are in place for when a car loses control and leaves the track. Smashing into a tyre wall greatly reduces speed and impact, and run-off areas provide a safe haven for an out of control car.
Before a car can even take to a track, it has to pass a number of mandatory FIA crash tests. These are similar to the crash tests your average road car goes through, to ensure that the structure can absorb a certain amount of force on impact. This guarantees a minimum level of safety for the driver.
Now we understand how a driver is protected, the last thing to cover in the area of safety, is what happens immediately after an accident on track. If the accident is relatively inconsequential, marshals will be asked to wave a yellow flag, indicating that drivers must slow down around the affected area. If the accident is more serious, the safety car can be deployed. During a race, the safety car is constantly on standby. So, a car may be stranded in a dangerous position on the track, in which case a safety car will be deployed to slow down the remaining racers. With the safety car deployed and the cars slowed behind it, marshals are able to clear an accident in relative safety so that the race can continue without further disruption. Cars remain queued up behind the safety car until stewards deem the course safe again, at which point the safety car peels into the pits and the cars resume racing when they reach the start / finish line.
Although it may seem quite a convoluted process, it’s important to keep your drivers running safely throughout the season.
Having covered all the basics of Formula 1, the last topic in our series will be how you can get to a race.
