The rest of the field in the Australian GP saw nothing but this...

I thought the premise of this Lewis Hamilton Vodaphone McLaren commercial was nice... yeah I know not slot related...

F1 Qualifying from Bahrain:
Drivers:
1. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), 1m 54.101s
2. Felipe Massa (Ferrari), 1m 54.242s
3. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), 1m 54.242s

Q: Sebastian, the testing did not tell us very much. You have picked up where you left off but how big a surprise is pole position to you?
Sebastian Vettel: A big surprise. I mean in winter testing no-one really knew where we were. Of course it was clear that there were four teams pretty strong, but close to each other. To be honest yesterday it was a very tough day for us and we had not as much running as we were hoping for. Another long night especially for the mechanics, not a lot of sleep, some tired faces, but everyone was still keen this morning to push. I knew we had a great car but first of all you have to get it together. I have to say practice this morning and qualifying went pretty smoothly. Obviously I am very, very happy to be on pole, so thanks to the team. As I said the boys didn’t get much sleep in the last month with a lot of testing in a short amount of time. To come here first time everyone really shows how strong they are and to be on top is definitely a very, very nice feeling.

Q: Felipe, what comeback for you from injury. Tell us about how you feel today about your journey back here and your performance today.
Felipe Massa: Well, first of all congratulations to Sebastian he did a great job for the first race of the season. I think it is very nice to be back here racing competitively and in a good direction. I feel very happy to be back after such a difficult time. I was watching the races on television and was pretty excited but it is much better to be sat in the car. I prepared myself in a good direction, testing, driving go-karts, everything was great to be back in the car for racing and if you look at what happened last season with us I think it is a good start to the season for us. After a difficult season where we finished in the last race and where we are starting the season in the first race is always great for the team, great for the guys who did a very tough job inside the factory since a long time, so I feel really positive to start on the first race second. We are second and third and for the team that is really great and we will see how we doing in the race. Red Bull and also some other teams are really strong, so the race will be very difficult but I am very happy to be here fighting for the top.

Q: Fernando, the margins at the end of qualifying were quite a bit bigger than they were at the beginning. What do you put that down to and how do you feel about where you have ended up?
Fernando Alonso: Well, I think the difference is difficult to read. With such a long lap like this one and with the conditions we were facing, with this very warm temperature, I think it is very difficult to complete that long lap with no mistakes and not any problems. I think the times are related to how the gap was as well and about the competitiveness of the car. I think in different parts of the weekend we saw times that were very tight and times that were split like they are now but I think it is okay. From our point of view we are obviously extremely happy with the result of this weekend so far. The race is tomorrow. We cannot forget this but so far everything has been great and we will keep going as we did all winter testing with a very strong car and I think competitive in all conditions, qualifying and race, and to be second and third as Felipe said is a great achievement for everybody in the factory at Maranello and the job they did from November last year until now was flat out every day and every night and the first result of the season is very, very positive, so this is a big boost for the team to carry on.

Photo used with permission from Red Bull Racing.

Check out this Monaco themed slot track!

http://www.formula1.com/news/interviews/2009/12/10303.html
See this link to read the interview where Michael Schumacher answers questions about his return to Formula 1 competing for the newly-formed Mercedes GP team.

From the interview:
Q: Michael, welcome back to Formula One. Your signature on the contract has hardly dried - can you say something about the content of your contract?
Michael Schumacher: Yep, the deal was done only hours ago. Regarding the driving, the time frame is three years. There was never any intention to do a one-off. There will be an option after that to be brand ambassador for Mercedes, which would make sense in a way.

Ferrari was in with a bang, now it looks like the scarlet racers will be out with soggy whimpers: Michael Schumacher has canceled his F1 return due to lingering pain in his neck from a motorcycle accident earlier this year.

Schumacher has been testing in Ferrari's 2007 car at the company's private track in Mugello. After the first test, though, he found that the mere strain of driving aggravated the injuries from a crash he suffered in February while motorcycle testing at a track in Spain. At the time, although he went to the hospital, it was thought that everything was fine. Eventually fractures in his neck were discovered, and that is what is causing the problem now.

After laying its hopes on the 7-time world champion, Ferrari now chooses among its reserve drivers to pilot one of their cars in Valencia in 48 hours: Marc Gene or Luca Badoer – Gene's last F1 race drive was the 2004 British Grand Prix, while Badoer hasn't turned an F1 wheel on race day since 1999, at the European Grand Prix. This morning Ferrari head Luca di Montezemolo chose 38-year-old Badoer for the role.

[Source: F1 Live | racing-f1 ]

Yesterday's rumors have been confirmed: Michael Schumacher will take Felipe Massa's place for the remainder of the 2009 Formula One season.

A Ferrari spokesperson said Schumi's return hinges on the seven-time F1 champion's ability to pass the FIA's physical (we doubt that'll be a problem) and he'll be back in full-force on August 23 at the European Grand Prix in Valencia.

Schumacher has been under the employ of Ferrari as an advisor to the team since his retirement in 2006, and although Massa is reportedly well on his way to recovering after sustaining a serious head injury at last weekend's race, Schumacher will take his place for the remaining seven races of the 2009 season.

[Source: BBC Sport]

Yesderday during Formula 1 qualifying in Hungary, Ferrari's Felipe Massa suffered a life-threatening head injury when a spring from Reubens Barrichello's car struck him in the helmet. As you'll see in the ESPN video posted after the jump, the impact appears to knock the Brazilian unconscious; immediately after the incident, his car simply drives straight into the runoff area and tire wall.

Massa was reportedly conscious when he arrived at the hospital, where he received a CT scan and underwent successful surgery to treat two skull fractures suffered as a result of the accident. He was placed into an induced coma immediately following the procedure and remains in intensive care. Doctors talking to the BBC described his condition as stable and said there were no complications following the operation. Another brain scan will be performed on Massa later today, after which the medical team will update his condition. Massa's injury comes on the heels of Henry Surtees' death last weekend, the result of the young driver being struck in the head by a flying tire. Massa's on-track incident left some F1 personnel openly wondering whether it's time to make changes that improve cockpit safety for drivers. Fortunately, things appear to be progressing well for Massa, and we wish him a speedy and full recovery. Follow the jump for ESPN's video report on the incident, which includes the on-car-camera view of what happened.

[Sources: Sky News, Formula1.com,Racing-f1.com]

AMG has been involved in Formula 1 for well over a decade now, starting with a Mercedes-Benz C36 AMG serving as the safety car back in 1996. Most recently, the SL63 AMG earned the spot last year, and it is returning for 2009 to set the pace at each F1 race this year. To ensure that it's capable of performing its duties in any situation, the car has been fitted with quite a few upgrades, including an upgraded coilover suspension system, a three-stage traction control system, massive composite brakes – 15.4 inches up front and 14.2 inch in the rear – and additional coolers for the oil, transmission, coolant, and power steering. The overall weight of the car has also been reduced by 485 pounds thanks to carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic body components and the removal of the convertible top mechanism.

[Source: Mercedes-Benz]

BMW's little 1 Series has proven itself to be a credible performer that's able to hang with nearly anything else it likely to encounter on the road. But against an Australian V8 Supercar and BMW's own Formula 1 racer? Not a chance. Regardless, these three vehicles will indeed face off at the upcoming F1 season opener Down Under. To help level the playing field, each vehicle will start with a handicap, so the real excitement will begin near the end of the lap when the three cars close in on one another as they sprint to the finish line.

The 1 Series that's taking part in the event will be equipped with the German automaker's potent 3.0L twin-turbo inline six and will wear 18" alloys bolted up to a tuned suspension set up with cross-drilled brakes. A set of tii decals and a full BMW Performance aerodynamic body kit top things off. The race will be repeated 5 times starting on Thursday, March 26th.

[Source: BMW]

Vodaphone is a huge mobile communications company, and it's also the primary sponsor of the McLaren Mercedes F1 team. The video after the jump shows just what their millions of dollars in sponsorship money can buy: a viral video staring Lewis Hamilton. Vodaphone makes the Blackberry Storm mobile smart phone, and the video kicks off with some office nerds who have hacked the Storm to control an R/C F1 car. They use the phone's built-in accelerometer so that turning the phone like a steering wheel controls the car's direction. The accelerator and the brake, meanwhile, are controlled via buttons on the phone's touch screen.

After publishing a video of their office grand prix on the web, the team of programmers is invited to the garage of McLaren Mercedes where team engineers have adapted the system to control Lewis Hamilton's actual F1 car. Hilarity ensues when Hamilton himself takes the car out on the track, sans driver, and does a lap behind the wheel of the Blackberry Storm. It's an amusing viral video and halfway convincing if we weren't willing to swear on our mothers that McLaren Mercedes would never allow its multi-million dollar F1 car to be controlled via a phone, let alone outfit the car with enough servos to actually perform the functions of steering, braking and changing gears.

One of the last Formula One cars for the 2009 season made its public debut. Called the VJM02 – the second new car since Indian businessman Vijay Mallya bought and rechristened the team Force India – the new challenger ditches the red and gold livery from last year in favor of the orange, white and green of the Indian national flag. As we reported previously, Force India terminated its engine supply deal with Ferrari in favor of a new deal with Mercedes-Benz, incorporating the engine, gearbox, regenerative braking system and hydraulics, implemented on the new car, which will be driven by veteran pilots Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil. With all the cars now revealed and Honda returning to the grid as Brawn GP, it's full speed ahead to the season opener in Melbourne, Australia on March 29.

Cost cutting is the driving force behind...well, everything these days, but Formula One especially. Several of the automakers still in F1 raced into the Geneva Motor Show with their latest single-seaters, more of which we'll have for you tomorrow and which all look more or less the same thanks to tight new regs that seek to reduce both expenses and aero downforce.

But Leonardo Fioravanti has his own idea. And why not? He designed more than his fair share of road-going Ferraris during his tenure at Pininfarina, so it was about time he take a stab at a racer. The LF1 concept Fioravanti cooked up for the show takes the streamlining of costs and aero to another level, removing the rear wing that was downsized for this year in F1, while blending the sidepods into partial wheel housings... unthinkable in open-wheel racing, but it's still prettier than any of the current crop of real F1 cars.

Of course, this is just a mock-up with no running gear, which could be why the model at the show stand laughed at us when we asked for a test drive, but that won't stop us from imagining what it would be like to ake the Fioravanti LF1 out for a lap or 20 around our favorite grand prix circuit, and it shouldn't stop you, either

There have been countless attempts to translate the Ferrari spirit from four wheels to two, ranging from sport bikes to choppers and everything in between. But this is the first we've seen with three wheels. That's right, in case your eyes couldn't adjust from the endless see of crimson contours, what you're looking at is a Ferrari trike.

Mirroring the "styling" of a Scuderia Ferrari F1 car, this one-off trike was spotted at the banzai Tokyo Auto Salon by the same people who brought us the no-less-bonkers Lamborghini ATV. Based around a 1.3-liter Suzuki Hayabusa engine and frame, this (thankfully) unique example was built by Trike Japan in order to showcase what they can do. We certainly hope the rest of their portfolio is a bit more tasteful than this showpiece, but we won't be holding our breath.

I spent a couple of teenage summers working at a camp where, every August, the director would announce his retirement. And every year, he'd be back... until one year he wasn't, and everyone was surprised. Meanwhile, the motorsport press has speculated on the retirement of McLaren team principal Ron Dennis for years now, but every year he'd be back on the pit lane wall. Now Ron's actually moving on, and this is the last car designed and produced under his direction.

It's called the MP4-24, and like those of McLaren's competitors -- including the recently-launched Ferrari F60 and Toyota TF109 -- the new car has to conform to the revised regulations. That means a bigger front wing and a smaller rear one with fewer little aero bits in between. Underneath is McLaren's KERS regenerative braking system, and the ECU which the team is now supplying to the entire grid. The MP4-24, which carries on the same chrome and Vodafone-red livery as last year's, was unveiled at the team's ultra-high-tech headquarters in Woking, England, after which the team's test driver Pedro de la Rosa took it for its first laps at the newly constructed Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portugal. McLaren's reigning champion Lewis Hamilton and his Finnish team-mate Heikki Kovalainen will take over from de la Rosa in the coming days, when several of the other teams will begin testing as well in the ramp-up to the Australian Grand Prix which kicks off the season on March 29.

Most years it's more of the same. All the constructors in the FIA Formula One World Championship unveil their cars, and for the most part they look the incredibly similar to the ones they had last year. Big whoop. But every so often, the technical regulations are shaken up a little and the cars come out looking entirely different. This is one of those years -- say "hello" to the Scuderia Ferrari F60.

The most substantial changes have been made to the aerodynamic formula, which has dictated a bigger front wing and a much narrower rear aerofoila. F1 has also moved back to slick tires, while underneath the more streamlined bodywork Ferrari has fitted the new Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) developed together with Magneti-Marelli, along with the new carbon-encased seven-speed sequential gearbox with limited slip differential.

Ferrari has opted to call this the F60, eschewing the typical numbering system that would have labeled it the F2009 while highlighting the fact that this will be the 60th season of Formula One – in which Ferrari is the only team to have competed in each and every one. Due to weather conditions, the official live unveiling of the F60 was moved from the company's on-site Fiorano test track to its Mugello circuit, where Felipe Massa will test drive it for the first time.

Ross Brawn, who joined the Honda F1 team as Technical Director in 2007 after an extremely successful stint across the paddock at Ferrari, has said that the now-ownerless ex-Honda F1 team he manages would like to ink a deal with its Italian competitor for engines to power its Formula 1 racers. Now that Honda has officially pulled its factory support from the program, the team will need a good, reliable powerplant if it has any chance remaining competitive, and Ferrari already supplies engines to Scuderia Toro Rosso and Force India in addition to its own Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro factory effort.

Regardless of what powerplant Brawn's team chooses, it isn't likely to get an early shot at testing. At this point, the team is just looking to stay on the track as it attempts to find itself a new buyer and any success found on the track for the '09 season would just be icing on the cake. Thanks for the tip, Eric!

[Source: F1 Fanatic - Photo: Tim Wang CC 2.0]

According to La Stampa, Honda F1 has a buyer: Mexican telecom billionaire Carlos Slim Helu. Reports claim he paid the single dollar Honda was asking. He trumped Force India F1 owner Vijay Mallya, who was suspected to want the Honda team only for its tech know-how, and Prodrive's Dave Richards.

When Honda announced its immediate departure from F1 on December 4, it gave the outfit 27 days to find a bona fide buyer who would make a credible 3-year commitment to run the team. If the team did find such a purchaser, Honda said it would assist with finances and technical support. Carlos Slim has the finances and the experience: he is reportedly the second richest man in the world, and his companies are already involved in motorsport.

If the transaction proves to be true, and assuming the team gets funded properly, it will mean a few good things for the 2009 F1 season: it will add another privateer team to the grid, it will let Ross Brawn continue creating the team he's been dying to lead since he was at Ferrari, and it will return the name "Senna" to the grid. Bruno, Ayrton Senna's nephew, is sponsored by Embratel, a subsidiary of Slim's Telmex company, and will certainly replace Rubens Barrichello as the one flying the Brazilian flag.

[Source: La Stampa via My Automovil]