KL-Racer’s F1 Management: 2006 (SEASON FINALE UP!)

[Klon]

Tiago Monteiro will leave the team if he doesn't get to drive the car outside of testing? Well, then it's "farewell", because there will not be any line-up changes at Toyota this season.

Do I need a tester? If yes, what pay drivers are there on the market, if any?

For now, Toyota will work on Reliability and Power.

[KL-racer]

Tiago Monteiro will leave the team if he doesn't get to drive the car outside of testing? Well, then it's "farewell", because there will not be any line-up changes at Toyota this season.

Do I need a tester? If yes, what pay drivers are there on the market, if any?

For now, Toyota will work on Reliability and Power.

Just to clear things up In regards of test drivers, they are not required because if Williams ran the first half of this season without a tester, then any team can decide not to hire a test driver to save money. Simply put, it's your call whether to use a test driver or not.

[RedEyes504]

Testing for more power x2, with Heidfeld & Doornbos

Change of plan, I'd like Massa & Doornbos at the test

[Wallio]

Ferrari is going to dump us? No real loss there, the engine is clearly #2 (at best) to BMW, and hell, the Toyota is gaining fast.

[Peteroli34]

Both cars finished and in the points amazed an engine didn't blow up, Honda will work on Reliability and Race Pace, the car will be driven by Webber and Klien

[roblo97]

Ferrari would like to focus on Power X2 with Montoya and Schumacher driving.

[KL-racer]

Hockenheim Test results

1 Fernando Alonso 1:17.070
2 Kimi Raikkonen +0.211
3 Jarno Trulli +0.245
4 Michael Schumacher +0.474
5 Juan Pablo Montoya +0.558
6 Ralf Schumacher +0.604
7 Jacques Villeneuve +1.222
8 Rubens Barrichello +1.245
9 David Coulthard +1.428
10 Christian Klien +1.621
11 Felipe Massa +1.647
12 Sebastien Bourdais +1.741
13 Mark Webber +1.773
14 Jenson Button +1.774
15 Adrian Sutil +1.913
16 Pedro De La Rosa +1.960
17 Robert Doornbos +2.005
18 Anthony Davidson +2.617
19 Mark Gene +2.705
20 Vitantonio Liuzzi +3.007
21 Alexander Wurz +3.138
22 Michael Ammermuller +4.029
23 Takuma Sato +4.498
24 Giorgio Mondini +4.503
25 Narain Karthikeyan +5.592
26 Pastor Maldonado +5.901

Guess the Ferrari is making a late-season charge to steal the Driver’s title along with the Teams championship! Their engine power upgrades really did help them close the gap to the front runners.

[KL-racer]

Round 13 Hungary

Alright, we are starting the final third of the season. The circuit at Budapest is known as Monaco without the walls, let’s see if that’s true or not today! Here’s the recap

Qualifying Results

1 Kimi Raikkonen 1:19.785
2 Fernando Alonso +0.077
3 Jarno Trulli +0.209
4 Ralf Schumacher +0.429
5 Michael Schumacher +0.700
6 Juan Pablo Montoya +0.701
7 Rubens Barrichello +0.928
8 Jacques Villenueve +1.174
9 David Coulthard +1.444
10 Nick Heidfeld +1.448
11 Pedro De La Rosa +1.543
12 Jenson Button +1.581
13 Christian Klien +1.662
14 Mark Webber +1.755
15 Sebastien Bourdais +1.763
16 Felipe Massa +1.846
17 Sebastian Vettel +2.229
18 Anthony Davidson +2.461
19 Vitantonio Liuzzi +3.080
20 Alexander Wurz +3.204
21 Mark Gene +3.219
22 Michael Ammermuller +4.349
23 Takuma Sato +5.009
24 Giorgio Mondini +5.324
25 Narain Karthikeyan +6.296
26 Pastor Maldonado +6.729

Kimi Scoring Pole position on a track that is normally difficult to pass on, is a good sign to retake the lead of the Driver’s title from Trulli, but Trulli will start 3rd. Give some props to De La Rosa, he will start 11th for the race.

Race Summary:

At the start JPM got up to 2nd and overtook Kimi on lap 2 down to turn 1. De La Rosa and to a lesser extent Trulli got somewhat horrible starts. With around 20 laps to go, Trulli and Raikkonen got engaged in an epic stand-off, but Trulli had to pit a second time, while kimi was on a one stopper. Lap 54, Kimi got stuck behind Klien, and Alonso took the chance and made it work at the final turn. A few laps later, Trulli got by R. Schumacher for 3rd into turn 1. On Lap 63, while Montoya tried to lap Button, he damaged his front wing and had to pit. Luckily, he didn’t lose his position. Meanwhile, Michael Schumacher also had to pit from 4th for a software glitch. Despite making a second planned stop, somehow, Trulli managed to squeak out a win over Alonso and Kimi.

Race Results

1 Jarno Trulli 1:40:04.514
2 Fernando Alonso +4.812
3 Kimi Raikkonen +7.004
4 Ralf Schumacher +18.689
5 Michael Schumacher +32.806
6 Juan Pablo Montoya +46.613
7 Christian Klien +1:12.183
8 Jacques Villenueve +1:17.812
9 Felipe Massa +1:27.829
10 David Coulthard 1 lap
11 Nick Heidfeld 1 lap
12 Sebastien Bourdais 1 lap
13 Jenson Button 1 lap
14 Pedro De La Rosa 1 lap
15 Vitantonio Liuzzi 2 laps
16 Mark Gene 2 laps
17 Anthony Davidson 2 laps
18 Takuma Sato 3 laps
19 Alexander Wurz 3 laps
20 Giorgio Mondini 4 laps
21 Narain Karthikeyan 4 laps
22 Pastor Maldonado 5 laps
DNF Mark Webber Suspension
DNF Sebasitan Vettel Water Leak
DNF Rubens Barrichello Puncture
DNF Michael Ammermuller Suspension

Fastest lap: Juan Pablo Montoya 1:22.132

ROTR: NO ONE! I just couldn’t find anyone that did anything really out of the blue this time around!

Paddock News:

Michael Schumacher is not retiring at the end of this season

After Ferrari finishing 5th and 6th at Budapest, Michael Schumacher is still committed to Ferrari retaking the Teams title away from Renault. He has decided not to hang it the suit and helmet at this moment. However, he is only considering offers from teams that finished in the top 4 in this year’s teams championship for next season and are willing to pay him for a #1 seat.

[Miguel98]

Sad that in Hungaroring of all of places, De La Rosa had a horrible start...

[KL-racer]

Round 14 Turkey

Okay, 5 races left to go, and Jarno Trulli is somehow still leading the Driver’s title by 6 points over the iceman. Next stop is the Istanbul circuit and the quad-apex turn 8. Here’s what happened.

Qualifying results

1 Fernando Alonso 1:26.423
2 Jarno Trulli +0.513
3 Kimi Raikkonen +1.021
4 Michael Schumacher +1.105
5 Juan Pablo Montoya +1.148
6 Felipe Massa +1.399
7 Ralf Schumacher +1.842
8 Nick Heidfeld +1.842
9 Jacques Villenueve +2.205
10 Mark Webber +2.214
11 Sebastien Bourdais +2.261
12 Jenson Button +2.435
13 David Coulthard +2.436
14 Sebastian Vettel +2.468
15 Pedro De La Rosa +2.480
16 Christian Klien +2.677
17 Rubens Barrichello +2.904
18 Anthony Davidson +3.017
19 Vitantonio Liuzzi +3.023
20 Mark Gene +3.447
21 Alexander Wurz +3.832
22 Takuma Sato +4.291
23 Giorgio Mondini +5.409
24 Michael Ammermuller +5.439
25 Narain Karthikeyan +6.841
26 Pastor Maldonado +8.420

The good news for Trulli is he will start 2nd ahead of Kimi but the bad news is he’s alongside Alonso for the race. Massa and Heidfeld surprised some people by qualifying 6th and 8th for the race. Barrichello was a major disappointment in Qualifying, he will start 17th. At least Sato punched above his car’s weight to qualify 22nd.

Race Summary

At the start, Kimi got the holeshot through turn 1 and somehow JPM got into 2nd. Vettel Damaged his front wing through turn 4 on lap 1. Meanwhile, Massa got by M Schumahcer for 5th but quickly lost it into turn 12. On Lap 4, Kimi had a glitch in the software while leading and had to pit. While this was going on, Maldonado’s front wing was damaged going through the turn 8 complex, and had to pit. On the next lap, M Schumacher spun out of turn 8 and dropped all the way down to 25th. Gene also had to pit for a damaged front wing suffered down the back straight. Takuma Sato started having brake issues as well, and had to pit as well on the same lap as Gene. Massa had suspension issues and had to retire at turn 9. On Lap 13, De La Rosa also had issues with Brakes and had to retire. Ammermuller had to retire due to suspension damage a couple laps later.

The biggest news came on Lap 18 when Alonso retired due to brake failure. Several laps later, Karthikeyan retired due to an Oil leak.

At the halfway point it was Trulli leading Montoya by 21 seconds, but on lap 36, Webber crashed out into turn 1. With 6 laps to go, Gene’s engine gave up. In the end, Trulli got the race win, again. Kimi somehow recovered and salvaged 5th, and M. Schumacher ended up in the points after all, in 7th.

Race Results

1 Jarno Trulli 1:28:27.376
2 Juan Pablo Montoya +24.615
3 Ralf Schumacher +50.214
4 Nick Heidfeld +1:07.594
5 Kimi Raikkonen +1:19.220
6 Jacques Villenueve +1:25.153
7 Michael Schumacher 1 lap
8 Christian Klien 1 lap
9 Sebastien Bourdais 1 lap
10 Jenson Button 1 lap
11 David Coulthard 1 lap
12 Sebastian Vettel 1 lap
13 Vitantonio Liuzzi 1 lap
14 Anthony Davidson 1 lap
15 Alexander Wurz 2 laps
16 Takuma Sato 2 laps
17 Giorgio Mondini 3 laps
18 Pastor Maldonado 5 laps
DNF Rubens Barrichello Transmission
DNF Mark Gene Engine
DNF Mark Webber Accident
DNF Narain Karthikeyan Oil Leak
DNF Fernando Alonso Brakes
DNF Michael Ammermuller Suspension
DNF Pedro De La Rosa Brakes
DNF Felipe Massa Suspension

Fastest lap: Fernando Alonso 1:28.987

ROTR: Pastor Maldonado, for being super slow all race weekend.

Paddock News:

Spyker looking to buy Carlin for $15 million?

Spyker is getting desperate to get on the F1 grid in some capacity for 2007. After talks with Super Aguri broke down, they are now aiming their sights on Carlin, for either an engine deal with them or a complete buyout of the team for $15 million. Unlike the talks with Super Aguri, Christian Albers will not be part of the buyout package, hoping that was the reason why Super Aguri was hesitant to pull the trigger.

Just as a friendly remainder, the Young drivers test at Barcelona will be after the Italian GP, which happens to be the next race. Just in case, you didn’t see the addition in the first post here’s the guidelines for this test

1. No Upgrades can be done during this test
2. The two real-life drivers that are to be used has to be meet the following requirements
a. Between 18-26 years old as of 1-1-2007
b. Has to be racing in a reasonable series
c. Has to have no F1 race starts, prior testing session experience is OK.
3. Finally, the teams can ask the drivers to pay for the test, the maximum allowed is $1 million per seat, and there are two seats for each team, so the maximum one team can make is $2 million.

[Ataxia]

Midland would like to see which of the following drivers offer the most for the Young Drivers' test.

Adrian Valles
Lucas di Grassi
Vitaly Petrov
Luca Filippi
Bruno Senna
Javier Villa

[pi314159]

Carlin are interested in Spyker buyout, however, I would like to know more about those Spyker engines, especially how competetive they're expected to be.

For the young driver tests, Carlin hope to get 1 million each from two of the following drivers:

Giedo van der Garde
Vitaly Petrov
Mikhail Aleshin
Nelson Piquet Jr.
Jose Maria Lopez
Giorgio Pantano

[Miguel98]

Prodrive's Young Driver's are:

Franck Perera

And from these, which one can bring more moneys?

Mathias Lauda
Andreas Zuber
Vitaly Petrov
Nico Hulkenberg
Adrian Zaugg
Salvador Durán

[Phoenix]

Renault is interested in Lewis Hamilton and Alexandre Prémat for the tests. If they bring in money that'd be a bonus.

[Klon]

Toyota would like to test Simon Pagenaud and either Kazuya Oshima, if he can provide $1,000,000, or Pastor Maldonado, if Oshima cannot and Pastor can provide $1,000,000.

[roblo97]

Ferrari would like to run Nico Hulkenberg, Alvaro Parente, Timo Glock, Dani Clos, Nico Rosberg and Oliver Jarvis in the Young Driver Test.

[RedEyes504]

BMW Sauber would like to run any of these drivers if they can bring the £1,000,000

Nico Rosberg
Adrian Sutil
Timo Glock
Ernesto Viso
Clivio Piccione

[Peteroli34]

For the young driver test Honda will run our Test driver Ernesto Viso and Heikki Kovalainen

[FMecha]

Super Aguri's YDT choices (must bring 1m):

Hiroki Yoshimoto
Nicolas Lapierre
Ananda Mikola
Jonathan Summerton
Charlie Kimball
Kohei Hirate

[KL-racer]

Round 15 Italy

Yes, we are getting closer to the end of the season. This time, it’s no other than Monza, and after the YDT in Barcelona we will be off to the final 3 races of the season. Of Course, Ferrari hasn’t won a race this season yet, so Ferrari expects nothing less than a win on their home soil! Could Trulli keep his hopes for the improbable WDC running strong? If Midland are expecting to make a serious run at the Teams title and defeat Ferrari, they will need some points from Gene from this point forward to even have a fighting chance at it. So, let’s get it going!

Qualifying Results:

1 Fernando Alonso 1:24.605
2 Michael Schumacher +0.682
3 Jarno Trulli +0.719
4 Kimi Raikkonen +0.720
5 Juan Pablo Montoya +0.860
6 Ralf Schumacher +1.001
7 Nick Heidfeld +1.494
8 Sebastian Vettel +1.538
9 Jacques Villenueve +1.721
10 Sebastien Bourdais +1.904
11 David Coulthard +1.954
12 Mark Webber +1.990
13 Felipe Massa +2.002
14 Rubens Barrichello +2.126
15 Christian Klien +2.126
16 Jenson Button +2.524
17 Mark Gene +2.707
18 Pedro De La Rosa +2.904
19 Anthony Davidson +3.265
20 Vitantonio Liuzzi +3.578
21 Alexander Wurz +3.911
22 Giorgio Mondini +4.319
23 Michael Ammermuller +4.715
24 Takuma Sato +4.985
25 Narain Karthikeyan +5.945
26 Pastor Maldonado +6.356

Michael Schumacher surprises the home crowd by starting alongside Alonso on the front row.

Race Summary:

Off the start, Trulli rocketed pass both Alonso and M Schumacher into the first chicane and managed to keep hold of it. Of Course, Monza is rather infamous for its first lap collisions, and this time Webber was the unlucky one with a damaged front wing. Vettel was out of the race with a puncture on Lap 8. Ammermuller’s race ended on lap 12 with an transmission problem. The next lap, Coulthard and Sato dropped out with failures of their own. Lap 16, Bourdais retired with a transmission failure. Lap 18, transmission failure for Button. A glitch caused Wurz to pit on lap 21. On the same lap, Trulli suffered a loose Right-front wheel and had to retire from 2nd. Lap 25, Barrichello pitted for a glitch from 10th. A couple laps later, Massa was out of the race. Lap 33, Ralf retired due to a front-right puncture from 5th. A dozen laps to go, Villeneuve had an oil leak and dropped out of 5th. With 10 laps to go, Gene dropped out of 7th with a loose front-right wheel, making it a double-DNF for Midland-Mercedes. In the end, Alonso won easily over both Ferrari’s.

Race Results

1 Fernando Alonso 1:17:51.052
2 Michael Schumacher +41.469
3 Juan Pablo Montoya +46.355
4 Kimi Raikkonen +49.151
5 Nick Heidfeld +1:25.305
6 Christian Klien 1 lap
7 Rubens Barrichello 1 lap
8 Mark Webber 1 lap
9 Pedro De La Rosa 2 laps
10 Anthony Davidson 2 laps
11 Vitantonio Liuzzi 2 laps
12 Alexander Wurz 2 laps
13 Giorgio Mondini 2 laps
14 Narain Karthikeyan 3 laps
15 Pastor Maldonado 4 laps
DNF Mark Gene Loose wheel
DNF Jacques Villenueve Oil Leak
DNF Ralf Schumacher Puncture
DNF Felipe Massa Suspension
DNF Jarno Trulli Loose wheel
DNF Jenson Button Transmission
DNF Sebasiten Bourdais Transmission
DNF David Coulthard Engine
DNF Takuma Sato Transmission
DNF Michael Ammermuller Transmission
DNF Sebastian Vettel Puncture

Fastest Lap: Fernando Alonso 1:26.539

ROTR: Midland-Mercedes Both cars retired from this race with the same exact problem? Really odd for that to happen!

[KL-racer]

Important changes to the Young drivers test! PLEASE READ CAREFULLY!

After reviewing your requests so far for the YDT. I decided to make the following three changes to the YDT

1. Instead of just one day, it will be three days!
2. All teams that posted their lists already will now get $2 million from the drivers no matter what because I wanted to be nice! If you didn’t post your list early, you can still do it within the next 24 hours, but for $1 million instead.
3. If you decide not to post your list, you will not get any bonuses and your driver choices will be selected randomly.

With that in mind, here’s what I have so far! If you want to change your list that you already posted, you can do that as well, but it has to be within the next 24 hours from this post to do so.

Renault

0 Lewis Hamilton (All 3 days)
2 Olivier Pla (All 3 days)

McLaren-Mercedes

3 Mike Conway (all 3 days)
4 Neel Jani (all 3 days)

Ferrari

5 Nico Hulkenberg (days 1 and 2) Karun Chandhok (day 3)
6 Dani Clos (Days 1 and 3) Oliver Jarvis (day 2)

Toyota

7 Kazuya Oshima (all 3 days)
8 Giedo van der Garde (days 1 and 2), Simon Pagenaud (day 3)

Williams-Cosworth

9 Sebastien Buemi (all 3 days)
10 Adam Carroll (all 3 days)

Honda

11 Ernesto Viso (all 3 days)
12 Heikki Kovalainen (all 3 days)

Red Bull-Ferrari

14 Vitaly Petrov (Days 1 and 3) Dani Clos (day 2)
15 Marco Andretti (all 3 days)

Sauber-BMW

16 Adrian Sutil (all 3 days)
17 Clivio Piccione (all 3 days)

Midland-Mercedes

18 Adrian Valles (Day 1) Vitaly Petrov (day 2) Bruno Senna (day 3)
19 Lucas Di Grassi (day 1) Luca Filippi (day 2) Javier Villa (day 3)

Toro Rosso-BMW

20 Ho-Pin Tung (all 3 days)
21 Fairuz Fauzy (all 3 days)

Super Aguri-Honda

22 Hiroki Yoshimoto (day 1) Ananda Mikola (day 2) Charlie Kimball (day 3)
23 Nicolas Lapierre (day 1) Jonathan Summerton (day 2) Kohei Hirate (day 3)

Prodrive-Cosworth

24 Franck Perera (day 1) Andreas Zuber (Day 2) Adrian Zaugg (day 3)
25 Salvador Duran (days 1 and 2) Nico Hulkenberg (day 3)

Carlin-Cosworth V10

26 Jose Maria Lopez (day 1) Nelson Piquet Jr. (Day 2) Giedo Van Der Garde (day 3)
27 Mikhail Aleshin (all 3 days)

[Klon]

Well, let's modify our plans a bit

7 Kazuya Oshima (day 1, day 2), Simon Pagenaud (day 3)
8 Pastor Maldonado (all 3 days)

[pi314159]

Maldonado has already F1 experience for Carlin and is therefor ineligible for the young driver test.

[takagi_for_the_win]

Why are Sauber running with Rosberg? He has race experience; he started the season with Williams.

Speaking of which, Williams would like to whack Sebastien Buemi and Adam Carroll in for all 3 days.

[Klon]

Maldonado has already F1 experience for Carlin and is therefor ineligible for the young driver test.

Dämliche Petze.

Well, whatever. Let's modify our plans then ... again:
7 Kazuya Oshima (all 3 days)
8 Giedo van der Garde (days 1 and 2), Simon Pagenaud (day 3)

[KL-racer]

Okay, I saw another error and I fixed it before you guys complained about it. Alexandre Premat is ineligible because he started this season racing for Midland-Mercedes! So he has been removed from the Renault YDT lineup and needs to be replaced. Anyways, I am missing three teams, McLaren, Red Bull and Toro Rosso's YDT Lineups as of right now!

EDIT: I just realized that Timo Glock is also ineligible because he raced for Jordan in 2004. So, he's been removed also!

[Ataxia]

ROTR: Midland-Mercedes Both cars retired from this race with the same exact problem? Really odd for that to happen!

It seems we have a few teething problems with our pitstops...unfortunately, such problems surpass my knowledge in dentistry! We have to look at this as a blip, and hopefully we can get Jarno to the title. If he ruins his own chances, then I've got Sakon Yamamoto's phone-number and bank details ready.

[Wallio]

Red Bull will run Petrov for 2 days and Clos for the third in one car, and Marco Andretti all three days in the other.

[Miguel98]

ProDrivers takes Mathias Lauda off and puts Salvador Duran 2 days in the car.

[KL-racer]

YDT Day 1 Results:

1 Lewis Hamilton (Renault) 1:22.287
2 Ernesto Viso (Honda) +1.719
3 Clivio Piccione (Sauber-BMW) +1.945
4 Adam Carroll (Williams-Cosworth) +2.247
5 Nicolas Lapierre (Super Aguri-Honda) +2.776
6 Adrian Sutil (Sauber-BMW) +2.808
7 Lucas Di Grassi (Midland-Mercedes) +3.136
8 Kazuya Oshima (Toyota) +3.226
9 Olivier Pla (Renault) +3.227
10 Adrian Valles (Midland-Mercedes) +3.347
11 Jose Maria Lopez (Carlin-Cosworth V10) +3.393
12 Heikki Kovalainen (Honda) +3.432
13 Hiroki Yoshimoto (Super Aguri-Honda) +3.573
14 Marco Andretti (Red Bull-Ferrari) +3.958
15 Franck Perera (Prodrive-Cosworth) +3.958
16 Fairuz Fauzy (Toro Rosso-BMW) +4.091
17 Neel Jani (McLaren-Mercedes) +4.314
18 Nico Hulkenberg (Ferrari) +4.354
19 Sebasiten Buemi (Williams-Cosworth) +4.443
20 Dani Clos (Ferrari) +4.670
21 Giedo Van der Garde (Toyota) +4.750
22 Ho-Pin Tung (Toro Rosso-BMW) +4.800
23 Mike Conway (McLaren-Mercedes) +4.842
24 Vitaly Petrov (Red Bull-Ferrari) +5.017
25 Mikhail Aleshin (Carlin-Cosworth V10) +5.019
26 Salvador Duran (Prodrive-Cosworth) +5.542

Guess GP2 series champion, Lewis Hamilton is banging on the door for an F1 race drive for 2007, he was 1.7 seconds quicker than EJ Viso, Honda’s Regular tester. Sauber ended up with an awesome result for them, 3rd and 6th quickest times seems promising as they head to day 2. Lapierre ended up doing the improbable putting his Super Aguri up there in the top 5. Both Midland-Mercedes ended up in the top 10 further blowing up that one-season wonder tag. Jose Maria Lopez was oh so close to breaking into the top 10 in the Carlin. It was a shock that Ferrari and McLaren were down the order with both of their young drivers, but expecting Toro Rosso-BMW to do better might be asking a little bit too much!

Day 2 Results

1 Lewis Hamilton 1:22.504
2 Ernesto Viso +1.472
3 Adam Carroll +1.591
4 Clivio Piccione +1.771
5 Nelson Piquet Jr. +1.860
6 Adrian Sutil +1.991
7 Kauzya Oshima +2.470
8 Luca Filippi +2.476
9 Olivier Pla +2.514
10 Heikki Kovalainen +2.519
11 Marco Andretti +2.556
12 Vitaly Petrov +2.910
13 Mike Conway +3.309
14 Andreas Zuber +3.309
15 Ho-Pin Tung +3.405
16 Neel Jani +3.482
17 Nico Hulkenberg +3.483
18 Olivier Jarvis +3.578
19 Sebastien Buemi +3.647
20 Giedo Van der Garde +3.794
21 Dani Clos +3.842
22 Salvador Duran +4.142
23 Mikhail Aleshin +4.187
24 Fairuz Fauzy +4.226
25 Johnathan Summerton +4.535
26 Ananda Mikola +6.131

Day 3

1 Lewis Hamilton 1:22.074
2 Ernesto Viso +1.805
3 Adam Carroll +2.016
4 Adrian Sutil +2.018
5 Clivio Piccione +2.026
6 Heikki Kovalainen +2.208
7 Marco Andretti +2.375
8 Olivier Pla +2.411
9 Simon Pagenaud +2.496
10 Kauzya Oshima +2.947
11 Bruno Senna +2.998
12 Mike Conway +3.133
13 Vitaly Petrov +3.171
14 Ho-Pin Tung +3.291
15 Neel Jani +3.422
16 Javier Villa +3.476
17 Sebastien Buemi +3.553
18 Giedo Van der Garde +3.554
19 Koehi Hirate +3.878
20 Adrian Zaugg +3.957
21 Nico Hulkenberg +3.959
22 Mikhail Aleshin +3.996
23 Dani Clos +4.033
24 Fairuz Fauzy +4.100
25 Karun Chadhok +4.222
26 Charlie Kimball +5.186

The Next round from China will be posted soon, so stay tuned!

[KL-racer]

Round 16 China

Three races away from determining the World Champion. Who would win it? It’s anybody’s guess right now! So, let's get it going

Qualifying Results

1 Fernando Alonso 1:34.055
2 Kimi Raikkonen +0.555
3 Jarno Trulli +0.597
4 Juan Pablo Montoya +0.874
5 Michael Schumacher +0.960
6 Ralf Schumacher +1.007
7 Sebastian Vettel +1.563
8 jacques Villenueve +1.656
9 David Coulthard +1.840
10 Nick Heidfeld +1.842
11 Sebastien Bourdais +1.973
12 Felipe Massa +2.242
13 Christian Klien +2.249
14 Rubens Barrichello +2.339
15 mark Webber +2.342
16 Jenson Button +2.718
17 Pedro De La Rosa +2.765
18 Mark Gene +2.888
19 Anthony Davidson +3.304
20 Vitantonio Liuzzi +3.688
21 Alexander Wurz +4.139
22 Giorgio Mondini +4.501
23 Michael Ammermuller +4.776
24 Takuma Sato +5.188
25 Narain Karthikeyan +6.386
26 Pastor Maldonado +6.531

Race Summary:

On Lap 1, turn 10 De La Rosa spun off, but he was able to continue on! On Lap 2, at turn 6, Ammermuller lost his front wing and had to pit. Lap 8, Ralf Schumahcer lost his front wing through turn 1 while trying to overtake an opponent. Lap 11, Massa lost his front wing into turn 14 and had to pit. On the next lap, Trulli lost it coming out of turn 11 but thankfully doing no damage, but fell all the way down to 21st. Button had to retire due to an oil leak on lap 13. Another front wing was lost by Massa on the next lap this time heading down into turn 1. The other Williams of Barrichello retired due to transmission issues. On Lap 17, Trulli spun off again, this time into turn 1. On Lap 21, Gene crashed and damaged his front wing out of the final turn and had to limp the whole way around for a new front wing. Lap 27, Electrical issues for Vettel and later retired. Lap 30, M. Schumahcer spun and damaged his front wing out of turn 6. Lap 35, Electrical problems for Davidson, caused his race to end. On Lap 38, Villeneuve had to pit with a glitch. Lap 41, Alonso crashed out of the lead down the back straight as he was trying to lap Mark Gene. Gene was given two penalty points on his super license for blocking. Lap 48, Klien had to pit for a glitch while running 7th. Trulli had a late spin out of turn 12, while he was chasing for 8th.

In the end, Trulli ended up gaining no points while Kimi gained the 10 points for the race win and retaking the lead of the Drivers championship by 3 points. JPM and M. Schumacher rounds off the podium

Race Results:
1 Kimi Raikkonen 1:33:42.905
2 Juan Pablo Montoya +26.568
3 Michael Schumacher +1:04.174
4 Ralf Schumacher +1:09.605
5 Nick Heidfeld +1:17.125
6 Sebastien Bourdais +1:31.552
7 Jacques Villeneuve 1 lap
8 mark Webber 1 lap
9 Christian Klien 1 lap
10 Jarno Trulli 1 lap
11 Vitantonio Liuzzi 1 lap
12 Giorgio Mondini 2 laps
13 Alexander Wurz 2 laps
14 Pedro De La Rosa 2 laps
15 Mark Gene 2 laps
16 Takuma Sato 2 laps
17 Felipe Massa 2 laps
18 Michael Ammermuller 2 laps
19 Pastor Maldonado 3 laps
DNF Fernando Alonso Accident
DNF Anthony Davidson Electrical
DNF Sebastian Vettel Electrical
DNF Rubens Barrichello Transmission
DNF Jenson Button Oil Leak
DNF David Coulthard Transmission
DNF Narain Karthikeyan Engine

Fastest lap: Fernando Alonso 1:38.546

ROTR: A TIE between Felipe Massa and Jarno Trulli! Just the race summary will give you enough information on why it's a tie!

Driver’s standings after Round 16 out of 18
Raikkonen 97 pts
Trulli 94 pts
Alonso 85 pts
Montoya 78 pts
M Schumacher 67 pts
R Schumacher 49 pts
Heidfeld 29 pts
Villeneuve 28 pts
Webber 25 pts
Klien 18 pts
Bourdais 14 pts
Coulthard 12 pts
Barrichello 10 pts
Vettel 8 pts
Button 4 pts
Massa 3 pts
De La Rosa 3 pts

Teams Standings after round 16 out of 18
1 Ferrari 145 pts
2 McLaren-Mercedes 111 pts
3 Midland-Mercedes 94 pts
4 Renault 93 pts
5 Toyota 49 pts
6 Honda 43 pts
7 Red Bull-Ferrari 40 pts
8 BMW Sauber 32 pts
9 Williams-Cosworth 14 pts
10 Prodrive-Cosworth 3 pts
11 Toro Rosso-BMW 0 pts Best finish 9th (x1)
12 Super Aguri-Honda 0 pts Best finish 11th (x1)
13 Carlin-Cosworth V10 0 pts Best Finish 12th (x1)

[Miguel98]

Seeing the Young Drivers Test Results, ProDrive will offer a Test Drive role to Andreas Zuber.

[RedEyes504]

Ok, BMW Sauber have finally run out of patience with Felipe Massa, we would like to bring in Clivio Piccione for the last two races after his impressive YDT

[KL-racer]

Round 17 Japan

Okay, we are off to Suzuka! This was originally supposed to be delayed until tomorrow, but since the driver’s championship suddenly got a lot more intriguing after China, I decided to post it anyway! Meaning that you guys get a double dose of recaps today! This track is always a driver’s favorite and yes, Felipe Massa has been fired from Sauber and replaced by Clivio Piccione, after a great showing in the YDT with them! At least, the car he has is capable of scoring points especially because Heidfeld has 29 of Sauber’s 32 total points this season. So, back to more pressing matters, can Jarno Trulli and/or Fernando Alonso fight back against Kimi Raikkonen, who took back control of the championship lead after China? Finally, can Ferrari clinch the Teams title despite not winning a single race this season?

Qualifying results

1 Fernando Alonso 1:37.024
2 Jarno Trulli +0.319
3 Kimi Raikkonen +0.438
4 Michael Schumacher +0.664
5 Juan Pablo Montoya +0.665
6 Ralf Schumacher +0.827
7 Jacques Villenueve +1.581
8 Nick Heidfeld +1.677
9 Rubens Barrichello +1.756
10 Sebastian Vettel +1.763
11 David Coulthard +1.794
12 Sebastien Bourdais +2.017
13 Mark Webber +2.120
14 Christian Klien +2.166
15 Jenson Button +2.423
16 Pedro De La Rosa +2.514
17 Clivio Piccione +2.560
18 Mark Gene +3.076
19 Anthony Davidson +3.131
20 Vitantonio Liuzzi +3.560
21 Alexander Wurz +4.006
22 Michael Ammermuller +4.827
23 Giorgio Mondini +5.005
24 Takuma Sato +5.192
25 Narain Karthikeyan +6.581
26 Pastor Maldonado +6.894

Race Summary:

At the start, Clivio Piccione’s debut race ended on lap 1 turn 1, he collected Mark Gene and had to retire with the front-left corner torn apart. As a result, he got two penalty points on his super license for causing a collision. Lap 8 Heidfeld and De La Rosa retired at the hairpin, both cars were out. Lap 16, Kimi was out of the race. Lap 20, Button is out with a left-rear puncture. Other than that, it was pretty standard fare, Alonso won the race over Trulli and M. Schumahcer rounds off the podium. On a more important note, Ferrari has officially clinched the team’s title despite not winning a single race this season!

Race Results:
1 Fernando Alonso 1:29:26.166
2 Jarno Trulli +23.295
3 Michael Schumacher +32.517
4 Juan Pablo Montoya +35.844
5 Ralf Schumacher +1:14.864
6 Sebasitan Vettel +1:38.480
7 Christian Klien 1 lap
8 Mark Webber 1 lap
9 David Coulthard 1 lap
10 Sebastien Bourdais 1 lap
11 Jacques Villeneuve 1 lap
12 Vitantonio Liuzzi 1 lap
13 Anthony Davidson 1 lap
14 Mark Gene 2 laps
15 Alexander Wurz 2 laps
16 Michael Ammermuller 2 laps
17 Giorgio Mondini 2 laps
18 Takuma Sato 2 laps
DNF Narain Karthikeyan Accident
DNF Jenson Button Puncture
DNF Kimi raikkonen Suspension
DNF Rubens Barrichello Engine
DNF Pastor Maldonado Engine
DNF Nick Heidfeld Transmission
DNF Pedro De La Rosa Loose Wheel
DNF Clivio Piccione Accident

Fastest Lap: Ralf Schumacher 1:39.091

ROTR: Clivio Piccione, for causing a collision on the first corner of the first lap!

Driver’s standings after Round 17 out of 18
Trulli 102 pts
Raikkonen 97 pts
Alonso 95 pts
Montoya 83 pts
M Schumacher 73 pts
R Schumacher 53 pts
Heidfeld 29 pts
Villeneuve 28 pts
Webber 26 pts
Klien 20 pts
Bourdais 14 pts
Coulthard 12 pts
Vettel 11 pts
Barrichello 10 pts
Button 4 pts
Massa 3 pts
De La Rosa 3 pts

Teams Standings after round 17 out of 18
1 Ferrari 156 pts
2 McLaren-Mercedes 111 pts
3 Renault 106 pts
4 Midland-Mercedes 102 pts
5 Toyota 53 pts
6 Honda 46 pts
7 Red Bull-Ferrari 40 pts
8 BMW Sauber 32 pts
9 Williams-Cosworth 14 pts
10 Prodrive-Cosworth 3 pts
11 Toro Rosso-BMW 0 pts Best finish 9th (x1)
12 Super Aguri-Honda 0 pts Best finish 11th (x1)
13 Carlin-Cosworth V10 0 pts Best Finish 12th (x1)

The final round at Interlagos will be posted in at least 24 hours after this post. Meanwhile, you guys can start pondering on which drivers and teams should be on the ROTY podium?

[KL-racer]

The final round! Brazil!

This is it! I couldn’t wait any much longer anyway! 71 laps around Interlagos to decide who will take home the F1 World Driver’s championship. Basically here’s the basics of what has to happen to our 3 championship contenders for them to take the title, and avoiding a tiebreaker situation to occur.

For Trulli, he must finish 3rd or better in the race and he wins regardless of what Alonso and Kimi do.

For Kimi, if he wins the race, Trulli must finish no higher than 5th.

For Alonso, if he wins the race, Kimi must finish no higher than 3rd AND Trulli must finish no higher than 7th.

In case of a tiebreak situation, keep in mind that Kimi has 7 wins, Alonso has 6 wins, and Trulli has 4 wins entering this final round.

Qualifying results

1 Fernando Alonso 1:15.929
2 Jarno Trulli +0.091
3 Kimi Raikkonen +0.252
4 Juan Pablo Montoya +0.475
5 Michael Schumacher +0.514
6 Ralf Schumacher +0.596
7 Rubens Barrichello +1.074
8 Jacques Villeneuve +1.087
9 Nick Heidfeld +1.177
10 David Coulthard +1.399
11 Christian Klien +1.446
12 Mark Webber +1.530
13 Sebasitan Vettel +1.648
14 Jenson Button +1.660
15 Sebastien Bourdais +1.691
16 Pedro De La Rosa +1.779
17 Clivio Piccione +2.043
18 Anthony Davidson +2.401
19 Mark Gene +2.542
20 Vitantonio Liuzzi +2.792
21 Alexander Wurz +2.937
22 Michael Ammermuller +3.890
23 Giorgio Mondini +4.205
24 Takuma Sato +4.369
25 Narain Karthikeyan +5.415
26 Pastor Maldonado +5.763

WOW! Our 3 contenders in the championship will start the race 1-2-3 when the lights go off. This ought to be great!

Race Summary:

Before the race, Trulli is the only one among the three contenders to start relatively light on Gas. At the start, kimi dropped 2 places while Alonso and Trulli stayed put 1-2. At the end of the 1st lap, Alonso lost the lead to trulli. Then Alonso lost 2nd to R. Schumacher heading to turn 1. The next lap, JPM took 3rd from Alonso. Our first causality was Davidson with an engine failure through the middle sector. Mondini also had engine problems shortly thereafter. A couple laps later, Webber had Transmission issues. At the end of Lap 10, Trulli still leads, Kimi is 5th while Alonso is chasing right behind in 6th. On Lap 16, Trulli suffers a front-left puncture while leading, ending his day and maybe his improbable WC run! It’s down to Kimi and Alonso to fight it out. On Lap 20, Alonso is 2nd and Kimi is in 3rd but he suffered from a glitch, he did made it back in safely and able to continue but he dropped all the way down to 10th. On Lap 25, Heidfeld was out, Alonso is now leading and kimi is charging through the field, he’s 5th as of now. On Lap 30, Alonso is still leading but Kimi is now 4th. By Lap 35, Gene in the other Midland was out, Alonso is about to pit from the lead, and Kimi is still 4th. After the pit stop by Alonso, he somehow got out in front of Kimi, which will be his only one. On Lap 38, Kimi makes his only fuel stop, and he comes out in 7th. On Lap 45, Alonso is about to take the lead again, because both Ferraris will have to pit again. On Lap 48 Button got 3 penalty points on his super license for an unsafe release. While this was happening, Both Ferraris cycle into 2nd and 3rd in front of Kimi. On Lap 56, Alonso can taste it, he is still leading, kimi is trying hard to catch up but not making up much ground on M Schumacher for 3rd. At the end of the race, Alonso won while Kimi ended up 4th.

Race Results:

1 Fernando Alonso 1:35:23.648
2 Juan Pablo Montoya +21.744
3 Michael Schumacher +24.393
4 Kimi Raikkonen +41.634
5 Ralf Schumacher +1:10.108
6 Rubens Barrichello +1:17.249
7 David Coulthard 1 lap
8 Sebasitan Vettel 1 lap
9 Christian Klien 1 lap
10 Pedro De La Rosa 1 lap
11 Jenson Button 1 lap
12 Clivio Piccione 1 lap
13 Alexander Wurz 2 laps
DNF Pastor Maldonado Engine
DNF Sebasiten Bourdais Engine
DNF Michael Ammermuller Transmission
DNF Jacques Villenueve Loose wheel
DNF Vitantonio Liuzzi Puncture
DNF Takuma Sato Puncture
DNF Mark Gene Oil Leak
DNF Narain Karthikeyan Accident
DNF Nick Heidfeld Transmission
DNF Jarno Trulli Puncture
DNF Mark Webber Transmission
DNF Giorgio Mondini Engine
DNF Anthony Davidson Engine

Fastest Lap: Ralf Schumacher 1:18.273

ROTR: The Williams Pit crew, for an unsafe release of Button

Final Driver’s standings
Alonso 105 pts
Raikkonen 102 pts
Trulli 102 pts
Montoya 91 pts
M Schumacher 79 pts
R Schumacher 57 pts
Heidfeld 29 pts
Villeneuve 28 pts
Webber 26 pts
Klien 20 pts
Coulthard 14 pts
Bourdais 14 pts
Barrichello 13 pts
Vettel 12 pts
Button 4 pts
Massa 3 pts
De La Rosa 3 pts

Final Team’s standings
1 Ferrari 170 pts
2 Renault 117 pts
3 McLaren-Mercedes 116 pts
4 Midland-Mercedes 102 pts
5 Toyota 57 pts
6 Honda 46 pts
7 Red Bull-Ferrari 42 pts
8 BMW Sauber 32 pts
9 Williams-Cosworth 17 pts
10 Prodrive-Cosworth 3 pts
11 Toro Rosso-BMW 0 pts Best finish 9th (x1)
12 Super Aguri-Honda 0 pts Best finish 11th (x1)
13 Carlin-Cosworth V10 0 pts Best Finish 12th (x1)

The season review is coming up soon! Expect at least the following

Top 10 drivers of 2006
Top 5 teams of 2006
ROTY

[Miguel98]

ROTY: Massa

[Ataxia]

After failing to help Jarno to the world title, I'm going to relinquish control of Midland for someone else to take over.

[Miguel98]

With finishing 10th and looking for them moneyz, ProDrive is ansious to get rid of these awful Cosworth engine and grab themselves a better engine deal.

[RedEyes504]

ROTY: Massa

He has been shocking although I think Giorgio Mondini has been even worse, considering the Toyota was probably a better car than the Sauber

[pi314159]

If Carlin are bought by Spyker, would it be mandatory to run Spyker engines?