New rules 2008.

[schumi]

New rules for 2008 are that there is now a modification to the rule regarding the 10 place grid demotion for an engine change. Each team will be allowed their first engine change of the season without penalty. What's the bets it's a Red Bull?

[schumi]

The FIA has increased the cost of a Formula One superlicense from 2008, this week's Autosport magazine reports.

A superlicense is mandatory for an F1 driver, and last season it cost only 1,690 euros, plus an additional 447 euros per point scored in the previous year's championship.

However, the World Motor Sport Council recently approved a major increase in the license price, to 10,000 euros plus 2,000 euros per point.

This means world champion Kimi Raikkonen's superlicense will cost him 230,000 euros - an increase of 199,255 euros compared to 2007.

The total bill for both Ferrari drivers, who together scored 204 points last year, will now be 428,000 euros.

From www.autosport.com

[Genghis]

schumi said:

New rules for 2008 are that there is now a modification to the rule regarding the 10 place grid demotion for an engine change. Each team will be allowed their first engine change of the season without penalty. What's the bets it's a Red Bull?

FIA have also introduced a new rule where every car which finishes ahead of Ferrari is disqualified... not, wait a minute, that rule already existed last year.

P.S. Where's DonsKing these days?

[schumi]

Do you not think the Superlicense is ridiculous though? I mean, they all compete in the same discipline, yet success is punished financially, although I'm sure the likes of Force India won't be complaining. Bloody hell, even petrol's not reached those kind of increases yet.

[Genghis]

schumi said:

Do you not think the Superlicense is ridiculous though? I mean, they all compete in the same discipline, yet success is punished financially, although I'm sure the likes of Force India won't be complaining. Bloody hell, even petrol's not reached those kind of increases yet.

Schumi - it's not as if the drivers can't afford it, though, is it? If the money goes towards helping drivers in other less well paid disciplines, then I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing.

Bringing up the subject of the superlicence reminds of the ocassion when Balestre tried to stop Senna having one - and effectively freezing him out of F1. Fortunatley he failed.

It came at the beginning of 1990, after Senna had heavily criticised Balestre in the press, for favouring Prost in the previous year's championship. Prost had taken out Senna at the Japanese GP, Senna had manged to get back on the road and win the race after a mesmering last couple of laps (passing Nannini at the very point where Prost had taken them both off!) but Balestre disqualified him for missing out a chicane when getting back on the track, even though he'd been tagged off the circuit by another driver.

Senna got his revenge on the French pair of wankers the following season - again in Japan. Balestre again favoured Prost by switching the pole so Senna had to start from the dirty side of the track. Senna was furious. Prost came past Senna on the first bend, so Senna deliberately rammed them both into the gravel on the first turn at 150mph. Prost whinged and whined - even though he'd done the same to Senna the previous season. Bloody french weasly toad.

The upshot of Balestre's meddling in the 1989 title was that he was outvoted when it came to re-election by Mosley in 1991. Senna, on the day he clinched his third World Championship in Japan, then blasted him in probably the most interesting press conference there's ever been, where he went back over the incidents in 1989 and 1990, admitted to deliberately taking off Prost in 1990 and gave the reasons why he thought it was justified to do so.

I do miss Senna - he did things on the track that I've never seen repeated. The bloke was a genius.

With all his British connections, I can't help feel that, if he was still about, he'd either have a major role at McLaren or be part of the ITV F1 team. And I do recommend the Professor Sid Watkins book - even though it's quite sad. Senna suffered from a bad attack of Bell's Palsey very early in his career (something I had a few years ago, but quite mild), Watkins helped him and the two struck it off and become very close friends.

[schumi]

genghis said:

Schumi - it's not as if the drivers can afford it, though, is it? If the money goes towards helping drivers in other less well paid disciplines, then I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing.

Do you mean "can't"?

Well, that's the thing - where exactly does the money go. Call me sceptical, but I'd imagine a part of it, at least, goes to line the WMSC's pockets.

[Genghis]

schumi said:

genghis said:

Schumi - it's not as if the drivers can afford it, though, is it? If the money goes towards helping drivers in other less well paid disciplines, then I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing.

Do you mean "can't"?

Well, that's the thing - where exactly does the money go. Call me sceptical, but I'd imagine a part of it, at least, goes to line the WMSC's pockets.

Now corrected.

It probably does go to line somebody's pockets, but I can't see any of the drivers making a huge fuss - they're still coining it in.

Maybe the price of the superlicence should be backdated to the beginning of 2000 - it would give a certain German ex-F1 driver a nasty shock.

[Sainty]

schumi said:

Do you not think the Superlicense is ridiculous though? I mean, they all compete in the same discipline, yet success is punished financially, although I'm sure the likes of Force India won't be complaining. Bloody hell, even petrol's not reached those kind of increases yet.

The whole point of the Super Licence was to stop inexperienced and, frankly, dangerous types like Hector Rebaque from getting millions of dollars worth of sponsorship and buying himself a seat in F1, when you wouldn't trust him at your local indoor kart track.

It's still true that sponsorship dollars can get you a drive, but you're meant to have some kind of relevent experience other than deep pockets; that bloke partnered Nelson Piquet at Brabham for his first drive, then, when nobody in their right mind would employ him to make the tea, he went and bought some old Lotii and set up his own team!

To be honest, I'm amazed it was so cheap before, so I welcome this move, it will put off even more wannabees; if you watched Richard Hammond's woefull attempt at driving an F1 car on Top Gear, you will realise just how fucking difficult it is, and if I were in F1, I would want to be absolutely sure that everyone around me knew what they were about.

[schumi]

Sainty said:

The whole point of the Super Licence was to stop inexperienced and, frankly, dangerous types like Hector Rebaque from getting millions of dollars worth of sponsorship and buying himself a seat in F1, when you wouldn't trust him at your local indoor kart track.

But the superlicense fee is based on points scored from the previous championship. Any newcomers will still pay less to get into the sport because they don't have to pay for points, so surely anyone can get into F1 regardless of sponsorship?

[Sainty]

schumi said:

Sainty said:

The whole point of the Super Licence was to stop inexperienced and, frankly, dangerous types like Hector Rebaque from getting millions of dollars worth of sponsorship and buying himself a seat in F1, when you wouldn't trust him at your local indoor kart track.

But the superlicense fee is based on points scored from the previous championship. Any newcomers will still pay less to get into the sport because they don't have to pay for points, so surely anyone can get into F1 regardless of sponsorship?

You've missed the point, you have to qualify for a Super Licence; before it was introduced, anyone with enough money could buy an F1 drive, regardless of how good or experienced they were, now you actually have to have some results and experience under your belt.

Racing licences have improved over the years; when I first got mine, all you had to do was pay a fee and get a basic medical, then you had a novice National licence, which allowed you to race in any National championship, with a novice cross for ten races, then, after you'd got ten race stewards signatures, you could take the cross off.

You could then get a few more signatures and qualify for an International licence, and then you could get the money together and buy an F1 drive, without ever having driven anything like an F1 car; I could've bought an F1 drive at one point without racing anything more potent than an Escort RS Turbo.

Now, you can't even get a basic licence without passing a course in racing, which is probably a very good thing.

[schumi]

Ah, okay, thanks for the explanation.

[schumi]

From www.planetf1.com

Following the chaos in Malaysia, the FIA are set to revise the rules for qualifying prior to next weekend's Bahrain GP.

In the last minute of Q3 in Malaysia the majority of the drivers had completed their final flying lap and were coasting back to the pits. Some were so slow as they went about saving fuel that the official F1 timing screen read 'stop'.

The problem, though, was that not everyone had completed their flying lap. This meant that those drivers had to fight their way through the traffic, some of whom were in the middle of the racing line, narrowly avoiding other cars.

It was a dangerous situation and resulted in both McLaren drivers being penalised for holding up Nick Heidfeld. It also led to widespread calls for qualifying to be changed before someone crashes.

And according to Autosport, the FIA are set to announce new rules within the next few days.

The rules will see a maximum lap time imposed on drivers during qualifying, which will prevent them from returning to the pits too slow. The time will most likely be 120 percent of a normal lap time.

"The matter is under discussion and our clarification to the teams and drivers will be that cars returning to the pits having completed their flying lap or laps will be required to do so within a time that we will set," a FIA spokesman said.

"This could be approximately 120% of the 'normal' time as we do to prevent drivers going very slowly to the grid to save fuel."

[Deleted]

Jan 22, 2008 0:07:49 GMT @Sainty said:

Racing licences have improved over the years; when I first got mine, all you had to do was pay a fee and get a basic medical, then you had a novice National licence, which allowed you to race in any National championship, with a novice cross for ten races, then, after you'd got ten race stewards signatures, you could take the cross off.

I think the current licencing system is a racket though. Even a basic karting licence is GBP 29, but that doesn't allow you to race in premier meetings, nor abroad. If you want to race abroad, it's a minimum of GBP 97 which I can't how is justifiable at all.

As for improving race standards, I still see plenty of idiots smashing each other off the circuit.