Sorry for the lack of posting, I’ve been in the midst of a move. I woke up on Friday to find AT&T already shut off my internet at my old place, and the modem at my new place wasn’t working. Saturday was of course actually moving day, and yesterday was clean up the old place and fight with my laptop because it doesn’t want to acquire the IP address to connect to the internet day. Still a lot to do, but I must get back to what’s important, too: F1 of course!
Pirelli news first! The tire supplier for Formula 1 wants to change their color coding system for the tires in order to make it easier for fans. To them I say: THANK YOU. The combination of either silver/white and even white/yellow for the tires for a race makes it so hard to tell who is running what tire.
Pirelli is looking to change not only the colors but also the pattern of the color. As you can see in the picture from their Facebook page, the tires say “P Zero” and have a colored line around the tire. They may be looking to the fans for help in deciding how to label the tires for next season. I’d go with text all the way around the tire in red, yellow, green, blue, but I’m not sure where that would leave the intermediate and rain tires. There’s definitely a puzzling road ahead.
Pirelli has also announced the compounds to be used at the upcoming Japanese and Korean Grands Prix. For the race at Suzuka, the compounds will be the medium and soft. The track in Korea will see the soft and supersoft tires in use.
Bernie Ecclestone revealed today that Bahrain fully paid for their Grand Prix this year, despite the event’s cancellation. He says the “Bahrainis” did not want the money back when it was offered to them, and that they think things will be okay for next season’s April race. I totally question this generalized use of “Bahrainis” since there is still unrest in the country. I don’t think every citizen of Bahrain thinks things are just fine and dandy and ready for a race.
Bernie also says he’s highly considering a race in South Africa, followed by Mexico.
Several reserve and test drivers had test sessions with teams last week, most notably Sergio Perez. Although he’s obviously a current driver, his participation in Ferrari’s Driver’s Academy program meant he got to test the 2009 Ferrari car in Fiorano on Thursday. Perez impressed all the top folks over at Ferrari…watch out, Felipe.
Other tests include Canadian driver Robert Wickens running for Virgin in Vairano, Romain Grosjean testing an old Renault in Valencia, and his fellow GP2 driver Max Chilton running a straight line test for Force India in the UK.
It looks like several teams have updates for their cars for this weekend’s race on the streets of Singapore. Team Lotus will be running a new floor on their car, along with bigger front brake ducts to help keep the brakes cool on the challenging circuit. HRT also has an updated floor, plus some new aerodynamic upgrades. Williams has upgraded their front wing and diffuser and will be testing them out for the first time in Friday’s practice sessions.
Lastly, the reserve drivers will be participating in a fashion show this weekend in Singapore. Let’s hope none of them crash the clothing or take any male model’s positions at other races. As Will Buxton said on Twitter earlier: Who will perfect blue steel?
My money’s on Nico Hulkenberg. (Except I didn’t see his name on the list but I’m going with him. Deal with it.)
