The worst case scenario

We are in a period of quite extraordinary calm in Formula 1. Nothing much seems to be happening. The Formula 1 teams (at least nine of the 10 members of FOTA) have agreed to enter the World Championship provisionally, based on terms that they wish to dictate before the deadline of June 12. Yet there does not seem to be any negotiation going on. This is worrying. At the same time, each day brings new rumours about the "paper tiger "F1 entries that want to be part of the show in 2010. By our reckoning there are somewhere between eight and 10 new teams that have thrown their hats into the ring. Several of them are barely credible. It may be that some are allied with one another, but at the moment no-one is saying much. It is clear that David Richards will have an entry with Prodrive. All the signs are that he will ally with Mercedes, as was planned a couple of years ago. The USF1 team is definitely entered, as is Lola. Campos Racing has confirmed (but only in Spanish) that an entry has been made. Alex Wurz and Litespeed both seem to have made entries. In addition to that Wirth Research, Epsilon Euskadi and Manor Motorsport are all rumoured to be keen to get involved. There has even been talk of March making a comeback, but there seems to be little to back this up beyond the ownership of a name and some trademarks.

In theory at least, without any of the FOTA members being involved, there could be between nine and 11 teams on the grid next year. That is a big stretch, of course, given the lack of preparedness of all concerned but one has to think ahead (as no doubt FIA President Max Mosley has done) to what will happen if he decides to take the decision to call FOTA's bluff and not give the current teams entries for 2010.

What are the nine teams going to do if they are not granted entries?

FOTA says that the teams will act as one, but is that really what will happen? Is there something strong enough to stop the alliance coming apart? Will those involve really have the stomach to try to start their own championship? Is that even possible in the time available? This is the worst case scenario for all concerned as it would split F1 and drive away money and media coverage, just as the IRL-CART split did in the United States. It is not rocket science and there is a very recent model which shows exactly what a disaster that would be. People understand this, but it does not seem to be stopping them thinking about it. FOTA has some serious obstacles in its way. The use of the term "World Championship" would likely be challenged by the FIA, which claims for itself the status of being "the sole international sporting authority entitled to make and enforce regulations for the encouragement and control of automobile competitions and records, and to organise FIA International Championships and shall be the final international court of appeal for the settlement of disputes arising therefrom". A challenge to the FIA's right to control motorsport would be a tooth-and-nail battle from which no-one would emerge unscathed.

FOTA cannot easily use the term "Formula 1", because the Formula One group claims ownership of that. There are also questions about the copyright to the rules and regulations. They have no races planned (at least as far as we know). The idea that fixing all of this is possible in just a few months is stretching the imagination.

The alternative to a FOTA series would be the collapse of the teams' organisation. The smaller teams have to race to survive and so they are really in no position to sit and wait for something to happen. The manufacturers may have the financial muscle to create a new championship but are they really going to do that in the current economic climate? It is a time when the boards of the car companies are all concentrating on the core business: selling cars and even if the team principals think they can go off down that route, there are no guarantees that their bosses will agree with them, particularly if things start to get messy.

The option for them is to walk away and use the FIA's behaviour as an excuse to leave. Renault, BMW and Toyota are all not doing very well on the race tracks. There would be no shortage of people willing to give them a dollar for their F1 assets and staff. One can imagine Alexander Wurz being only too happy to take over BMW's share of BMW Sauber; and one can very easily see Renault F1 falling to Campos, Epsilon Euskadi or Wirth Research, with Flavio Briatore in the background, playing the puppetmaster. Toyota is more complicated.

If the manufacturers take the opportunity to walk away then they will face legal action from Formula One Management (FOM), which has a commercial contract with all of them lasting until the end of 2012. That could get very messy for all concerned and it would almost certainly be settled before the question ever went anywhere near a court, unless the car manufacturers really decided to go for Bernie Ecclestone's throat.

In all probability that would not happen. They have more important things to worry about.

If the three manufacturers mentioned walk away FOTA would have just six members left: Ferrari, McLaren, Brawn, the Red Bull teams and Force India.

With Williams and eight to 10 paper tiger teams there would still be room for as many as three or four existing teams to be given late entries - if they accept the terms offered by the FIA. It is unimaginable that one of these would not be offered to Ferrari, unless the Italian manufacturer really wants out and is willing to go to legal action with Ecclestone. Ferrari needs F1 as much as F1 needs Ferrari and it would be stupid for anyone to think otherwise. Ferrari provides F1 with mystique and magic and that reflects on all the teams. Yes, F1 could live without Ferrari, but it would be a much weaker entity - and would be worth a great deal less.

McLaren is at a disadvantage because of the recent unpleasantness with the federation and so has adopted the role of mediator. It exists to race, but has other businesses as well. Mercedes-Benz gains a lot from the sport.

Brawn, the Red Bulls and Force India would be left high and dry.

Brawn will probably end this year as World Champions - assuming, of course, that this year actually ends (which is something that also needs to be considered) - and the FIA and FOM would presumably like the team - and Jenson Button - back next year. It is logical to assume that they would be welcomed with open arms. McLaren Mercedes is also a valuable asset to F1 although the FIA will only want it back in a federation-friendly form. Red Bull might be offered a slot as well, but it is unlikely to get two. If the Austrian drinks company wants to protect its vast investment in F1 it would have to buy out one of the paper tiger teams. It is doubtful it would buy two.

Vijay Mallya too might wish to buy his way back in.

Alternatively, the smaller teams could be offered the free slots and the big teams left to buy out the paper tigers.

If this all sounds fundamentally depressing it is because the situation has clearly hardened to a worrying extent. Mosley seems willing to bet the house on winning the fight. He seems to have the support - or at least the acquiescence - of the FIA. The teams seemed to have left little room for any negotiation.

It is all rather reminiscent of something that happened in NASCAR in September 1969, when the Alabama International Motor Speedway at Talladega was first opened. Qualifying for the NASCAR Talladega 500 showed that none of the tyre companies had a product that could last more than a few laps. The Professional Drivers Association, led by Richard Petty, decided to boycott the event and 37 of the stars went home. NASCAR boss Bill France threw open the entry to anyone he could find with all manner of half-cocked machinery appearing for the race. It was won by the little-known Richard Brickhouse, who decided that the opportunity to race a top car was too good to miss and so quit the PDA.

The regular drivers were back in action a few days later at the Columbia Speedway in South Carolina.

Compare that to a similar disaster - the United States Grand Prix in 2005 - when the FIA held firm and the race became a charade with a procession involving only six cars. It was a farce and did untold damage to F1 within the United States and across the world. Perhaps Mosley thought that day that he would win and the teams would back down and accept defeat. They did not.

"This was stupid, really stupid," wrote Mike Mulhern, a reporter from the Winston Salom Journal at the time. "It is arrogance and stupidity that has caused this. It shows no respect for the people watching in the grandstands and on TV. It is slap in the face for the US public."

We can only hope that those involved in F1 do not make the same mistake again.

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Watkins Glen: Krohn Grand Am Race Preview

Posted by: MSulka on Sunday, May 31, 2009 - 06:32 PM Dover: NASCAR Sprint Cup Race Results - Johnson, Chevrolet Win!Jimmie Johnson won the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at the Monster Mile.Credit: CIA Stock Photo

Jimmie Johnson and his No. 48 Lowe's/KOBALT Tools Chevrolet won the Autism Speaks 400 Presented by Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips and Cheese, his 42nd victory in 268 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. This is his second victory and eighth top-10 finish in 2009. This is also his fourth victory and 10th top-10 finish in 15 races at Dover International Speedway.

Tony Stewart picked up a second place finish in his No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet to post his 13th top-10 finish in 21 races at Dover International Speedway. It is his ninth top-10 finish in 2009.

Greg Biffle had another good run at the Monster Mile with a third place run in his No. 16 3M/Nexcare Ford. It is Biffle's ninth top-10 finish in 14 races at Dover International Speedway.

Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch rounded out the top five. Busch's result was the best effort from the Dodge teams.

Joey Logano was the highest finishing rookie with his 15th place finish. He also delivered the best result for a Toyota driver.

Tony Stewart leads the point standings by 46 points over Jeff Gordon. Stewart is the first driver-owner to lead the point standings since Alan Kulwicki at the end of the 1992 season (Nov. 15, 1992). Read more... (29952 bytes more)

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May's Most Popular Green Car Posts: Hybrid Ferrari Rockets To The Top

It's that time again, our regular roundup of last month's most popular posts on GreenCarReports.com. For May, we have some new contenders as well as some recurring regulars. Here we go:

# 1: Ferrari To Go Hybrid, World Trembles On Its Axis.� Sometimes one of our entries catches fire on Digg, and that's what happened here. It's the second most popular piece we've ever run. Bottom Line: Even Italian sports cars are looking at using hybrids to improve their efficiency, including Ferrari, which plans to launch a hybrid system in at least one model by 2015.

# 2: BREAKING: House Agrees on Cash-For-Clunkers Bill. Falling just one notch, this news item was our best effort at the time to detail the (still incomplete) compromise Cash-for-Clunkers bill that the US House of Representatives apparently agreed to--though there are likely to be further gyrations before any legislation is approved. Bottom Line: Old vehicles traded in must achieve combined EPA ratings of 18 mpg or worse, and their replacements must come in at 22 mpg or better. The largest tax credit ($4,500) is granted for the highest improvement in fuel economy. Cars, light trucks, and other commercial vehicles have separate rules.

# 3: Pollution Perspective: One Giant Cargo Ship Emits As Much As 50 MILLION Cars. This six-week-old piece continues to circulate, meaning that many people really didn't know that the world's cargo ships emit so much uncontrolled airborne pollutants that they post a much, much greater risk to air quality than vehicles. Bottom Line: Just a single cargo ship of the largest class now on the seas emits as much every year as 50 million vehicles do. One reason: The fuel they burn is equivalent of liquid asphalt.

# 4: Will the 2010 Volkswagen Golf TDI Be Diesel's Biggest Winner? Our dedicated diesel drivers come through again, launching this latest installment in our coverage of clean diesels toward the top of our chart. Bottom Line: We think that Audi, BMW, and other brands that haven't previously sold diesels in the US will have a tough time getting a foothold, while Volkswagen will benefit from its low prices and that same loyal band of diesel owners who already know the cars' benefits.

# 5: The New 2010 Rabbit TDI Diesel...Or, Is It a Golf Again? Now 10 weeks old, this perennial top-five post tags right onto the previous item. As we've said, we love our Veedub diesel fanboys.�Bottom Line: Never mind the PR waffling from VW spokeman Steve Keyes, we got it right the first time. Yes, the 2010 Volkswagen Golf won't be a Rabbit after all. Snap!

VWvortex reader Bajan2.0T snapped this shot of the badges on the 2010 Golf TDI that was displayed at the Toronto Auto Show.

Enlarge Photo

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Classic Turkish Grand Prix highlights

The Turkish Grand Prix has had only a short history but the four races hosted by the Istanbul Park track have provided plenty of drama.

As a preview for this weekend's race, where Brawn's Jenson Button is chasing a sixth win in seven grands prix this year, our pick for our classic Formula 1 series is the inaugural event in 2005.

This was the only race in Turkey not won by Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who triumphed in the succeeding three grands prix at a track that, despite its novelty, is already a firm favourite among the drivers.

Designed, like so many of the new generation of modern F1 tracks, by Bernie Ecclestone's favoured architect Hermann Tilke, Istanbul Park stands alone in terms of quality.

To a large extent this is to do with the land that was chosen to build it on. While the tracks in China and, to a lesser extent Malaysia and Bahrain, are on largely flat land, Turkey's makes the most of the hilly terrain on the eastern side of the Bosphorus.

In that, it follows the grand tradition of great F1 tracks such as Spa-Francorchamps and the old Nurburgring.

While no-one in their right mind would class Istanbul Park in that company, its twists and undulations still provide a demanding challenge for today's grand prix cars and their drivers.

And its crowning glory is the stupendous Turn Eight, a 165mph left-hander with four apexes that puts the drivers' neck muscles through perhaps their stiffest test of the entire season.

It has also proved to be a key corner in the races held in Turkey so far. The highlights are linked below, and available on the red button from 0830 BST on Wednesday morning, although space restrictions on Freeview because of the French Open mean it will only be available on satellite and cable.

In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.

Watch short highlights of the 2006 Turkish Grand Prix
Watch short highlights of the 2007 Turkish Grand Prix
Watch short highlights of the 2008 Turkish Grand Prix

In 2005, McLaren's Juan Pablo Montoya appeared to be cruising to a comfortable second place behind his dominant team-mate Kimi Raikkonen when he ran into trouble at the corner with two laps to go.

At the end of the previous lap, the Colombian had been hit from behind while lapping the Jordan of Tiago Monteiro. Obviously, it is a backmarker's duty to keep out of the way of the front-runners, but in this incident Montoya had not helped himself by cutting back in front of the Jordan in the braking area.

The two cars cannoned off the track and while Montoya was able to rejoin without losing a place, he now had the Renault of world championship leader Fernando Alonso breathing down his neck.

And, turning into Turn Eight for the first time since the collision, Montoya found his car, damaged in the collision with Monteiro, did not have the downforce it had previously.

On the limit at 160mph-plus is hardly the best moment to discover this - and Montoya ran off the track, allowing a grateful Alonso through into second place, thus limiting the damage Raikkonen, his closest rival, was able to do to the Renault man's already substantial championship lead.

Turn Eight was to be a feature in the outcome again in 2007 and 2008. In 2007, Lewis Hamilton appeared on course for third place behind a Ferrari one-two when his McLaren's front left tyre exploded through the corner in the late stages of the race, demoting the Englishman to an eventual fifth and team-mate Alonso to third.

Initially, this looked like bad luck, but it turned out that Hamilton's oversteer-biased driving style was to blame - it asks more of the front tyres, particularly the loaded-up outside one, than other drivers, and his style, combined with the demands of Turn Eight, had overworked it.

This characteristic also hampered Hamilton's hopes of beating Massa last year. Now alive to the problem, if unable to solve it, McLaren had to put Hamilton on an unfavourable three-stop strategy to ensure his tyres lasted.

It livened up the early stages of the race, with Hamilton, lighter on fuel, challenging Massa, and even passing him at one stage. But it was an illusion, and he had to settle for a valiant second.

Whether this problem afflicts Hamilton again this year remains to be seen. Either way, it is likely to be a side issue, as McLaren, lacking downforce, are not expected to be contenders in Turkey this weekend.

The battle for victory is likely to be fought out between Brawn, Red Bull and Ferrari - but will that fabulous corner have a part to play again?

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From Dublin to Romeon just two tanks of diesel?

THE CHALLENGE is set: get from Dublin to Rome with just one fuel stop. The car is a Ford Mondeo 1.8-litre diesel Econetic with a full 70 litres on board, the starting point is Rialto Motors in Dublin on Saturday, and the target is Piazza Barberini in the centre of Rome by 2pm on Wednesday.

A quick check with Google Maps and a bit of maths on the back of a napkin suggests that we will not only manage to get there with days to spare but with probably enough fuel to allow us to get lost on the way.

According to the modern-day Ptolemy, once we disembark from our ferry at Le Havre, Rome is but 1,639km or 15 hours 11 minutes of driving away. Add on the 163km to Rosslare and we get a grand total of 1,800km. With an official fuel economy figure of 5.3L/100km, that means we’ll manage the trek in 95.4 litres. Monday evening in Rome with over three-quarters of a tank looks a pretty safe bet.

Saturday, 11am: The red Mondeo with its steel wheels and hubcaps looks every bit the undercover Garda car that we tested some months back. It’s even managed to get involved in a few scrapes along the way, with paint rubbed off the rear bumper and side doors, the sort of dents every self-respecting Garda Mondeo seem to carry.

First dent in our own belief is that the car’s trip computer reckons it has averaged just 7.1 L/100km recently and on its full tank has a range of just 748 km. Those are not the sort of figures we achieved over breakfast with our napkin. To bring down the average and start as we mean to go on will require sacrifices.

First, the radio and air-con will have to be switched off. Some suggest we tuck in the wing mirrors as well, but that’s never going to be feasible when driving on the continent on the wrong side of the car. Instead, we gingerly head down the Wexford Road at 10km below the legal limit, avoiding sudden stops and taking advantage of any natural downwards slopes.

Saturday, 1pm: Saving fuel may be good for the planet, but driving like this clearly leads to road rage for both the motorist and those stuck behind. Remarkably as we head south, the car’s computer increases our range to over 1,000km. Could we do it even without a refuel – or is that just too silly to contemplate?

Saturday, 3pm: Rosslare at last. Four hours of our lives that we will never get back and we’ve now been told that our LD ferry has been cancelled and we’ve been moved onto an earlier one from Irish Ferries. Good news: we’re going to arrive in France at 9.20am instead of 4.45pm on Sunday. Bad news: we’re going to Roscoff, not Le Havre.

On the Oscar Wilde ferry we’ve parked alongside a Porsche 911 Carrera 4 from Dublin and a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder from Wicklow. Are the wealthy really abandoning our fair isle? Don’t think our Mondeo will challenge either much on France’s motorways.

Sunday, 9.20am: Stomachs lined with greasy ferry breakfasts (€4.30 for a boiled egg, if you can believe that!) we disembark and meander through the streets of Roscoff, a wonderful little French village that’s ghostly quiet. A few hours from now we should be near Lyon.

Sunday, 12pm: Temperatures are hitting 30 degrees and with no air-con, feelings of nausea set in – not helped by the fact that even at 90km/h our fuel average is only down to 6.5L/100km and everything is overtaking us. Some drivers have this little continental trait of driving right up to your bumper before pulling out. At first it’s quirky, by Le Mans it’s downright infuriating. Time seems to have stopped in the car while the world passes us by. Great stretches of French motorway run out to the horizon before us and we don’t seem to be making a dent on this nation.

Sunday, 2pm: Losing the will to live, we opt to divert to Le Mans to visit the home of the legendary 24-hour race. Our trusty TomTom Sat-Nav brings us right to the track, where we’re met by a host of Lotuses testing for the day. Green with envy at those who can pummel the throttle without fear of using fuel, we turn to the little motorsport museum at the track. The high-pitched din of the Lotuses make it difficult to get back into the oven-like Mondeo and crawl to our next destination.

Sunday, 5pm: That’s it. We’re going no further than Tours. It proves a little haven from our motorway hell. The good news is that our range is still up around 900km, according to the trip computer.

Monday, 8.30am: Right. France is not going to get the better of us. We’re going to get out of here by Mondeo or mule. The slow crawl to Rome begins again, but this time we know to respect the size of France. Years of flying over it lulled us into a stupid sense that it was small. Now, at these speeds, it seems the size of Russia.

Monday, 9.50am: Seriously, do people do this sort of drive for a holiday? With giddy children in the back? Sado-masochism has a bigger following than we thought.

Monday, 10.30am: We rebel. While Paddy sleeps I break free from the shackles of fuel savings and for 10 glorious minutes I throw caution to the wind and sit at 130km/h on the motorway, overtaking trucks. I’m only human. I couldn’t handle it. Sitting between two trucks as a Dacia Logan whizzed by, I gave in to my natural instincts. A quick stop-off at an Autogrill seems in order to get us back to our senses.

Monday, 11.40am: We are agreed: filling station sandwiches are vile, French crisps are flavourless and Ford were clearly seeking revenge for something we previously wrote about them when they came up with this challenge. To compensate for the earlier excess, I’m now driving at a snail’s pace when there is no one behind me in order to conserve fuel.

We’ve got 260km to get to Lyon, but another night in France would be regarded as failure. We have to get out of here to signify some progress. Geneva adds another 90km to the journey if we change route, but our fuel average is down to 6.1L/100km now and the Swiss city is still within range. The car’s computer reckons we have 370km, so we should pull in there on fumes if nothing else. No room for a Sat-Nav diversion, however.

Monday, 5pm: Crossing into Switzerland. According to the glorious Google Maps, the journey from Tours should have taken us five hours 59 minutes. We’ve made it out of France, however, and that deserves some form of celebration. Refuelling will wait until tomorrow.

Tuesday, 9am: Back on the road, at least if we can find our way out of here. The TomTom Sat-Nav has been a solid – if rather annoying – guide so far, but Geneva’s criss-crossing city centre streets seems to have it muddled. We’ve got about 30km of fuel left so we need to stop.

Tuesday, 10am: A full tank and empty roads, what more could we ask for? Perhaps the chance to put both to better use. Mont Blanc beckons and our crawl across Europe continues.

Tuesday, 11am: The ascent to the famous tunnel has a dramatic effect on our fuel range according to the car’s computer. It proves we could never have made it all the way on one tank. On the other side, the range is increasing by about one kilometre every 20 seconds. What it seems to prove is that trying to average out your range or consumption is a thankless task.

We’re now in the midst of a torrential downpour, which normally would depress any eager sunseeking tourist, but in an unair-conditioned car anything that keeps down the heat – and smells – is a welcome relief.

Tuesday, 12pm: As Italian road signs take over from French, Florence is our next port of call. We have to stop off to do some work along the way, but if it’s anything like France then all the service stations will have some form of WiFi.

Tuesday, 2pm: No one seems to offer WiFi, so we make a beeline for Milan Malpensa airport. The problem now is that despite our best intentions, there is no realistic way we can keep below 110km/h on the autostrada without being run off the road.

It’s a great excuse to open up the Mondeo a little and it proves that it can not only be frugal, but fun as well. Ford has managed to cut the average fuel consumption while retaining the car’s natural handling ability and plenty of power in the engine. With a relatively full tank of fuel we can stretch its legs and keep up with the best of them on these wide open roads.

Tuesday, 5pm: Guilt over our errant fuel consumption in recent hours push us back to a crawl and it seems that Florence – after a two-hour stop to do some work – will be unattainable. Modena – next to Maranello, home of Ferrari – seems a decent alternative.

Wednesday, 6am: Glorious morning, and Rome is but 400km away. The early start, a decent amount of fuel and good roads mean we should just make it. We’ve enough time to call over to the Ferrari factory. Workers in their red overalls cycle past on decrepit bikes, on their way to build dream cars for millionaires.

Wednesday, 11am: A couple of hours of regular driving, and suddenly the fuel situation is not as rosy as we thought. We’re now 200km out of Rome, and the fuel gauge is warning us we have just 260km left. It seems that our less than frugal Italian driving habits are starting to take their toll. However, our average remains 6.1 L/100km.

A Mercedes SL speeds past at what seems like 300km/h. On the outer lane a Mercedes E280 hangs about 30cm off the rear bumper of a BMW at speeds of 140km/h. A Ford Transit cuts across three lanes of traffic within metres of the exit to get on the right road. Everyone seems to be on the phone, in the midst of full-blown domestics or reading the newspaper. It’s incredible how much you notice when trying to save fuel. Italian drivers seem to be working hard to fulfil the stereotypes.

Wednesday, 2.27pm: We’re rolling into Rome now and though the traffic is heavy, our end goal is in sight. A couple of wrong turns and we’re on the Piazza Barberini. Alive, sweaty but intact – the Cork-registered Mondeo dusty but undaunted amid the clamour of Rome.

The total distance covered comes to 2,318km so clearly our in-car Sat-Nav didn’t follow the Google Maps route. Total fuel used comes to just under 135 litres, significantly more than estimated but still within the required challenge of one fuel stop. We have to admit that we didn’t drive as gingerly towards the end as we might have done.

While there was never any way we could do it on one tank, a lighter foot in Italy could have saved us some fuel.

The Mondeo was well up to the task, but so we suspect are many of its rivals. However, the cost savings over flying are not that clear. Several of the tolls we crossed cost us €20-€30. Put them all together and they add up to more than the cost of the flight from Dublin for at least one passenger, if not a carful.

There is also no way that you can retain your sanity while maintaining the hyper-mile mentality. The journey did make us far more conscious of the fuel gauge than we have ever been, and you get to see where you can save on fuel. Perhaps car firms should make fuel usage figures more prominent on the dashboards, up there as digital readings with the rev counter.

The trip proves the Mondeo can maintain a very good fuel economy over a long run. We struggled to find things we didn’t like about the car, or an alternative in its class that we would choose over it. It’s spacious, comfortable and handles well. It’s just not quite as quick as Aer Lingus.

Road to Rome: Some essentials

We used the TomTom One IQ Route Edition, €199.

It might have come with a pretty annoying voice but you can always change that, and without this device foreign travel would be pretty tricky. This model, an entry-level one, is really all you’d ever need.

If, like us, you don’t plan out your journey but rather hit the road and hope for the best, then we found this website ideal for getting good last-minute deals.

Priced from €49 with O2, this little gadget proved invaluable on our journey – not only because it has maps on it, but the endless amount of applications meant we could calculate our fuel economy and our Swiss francs, and figure out how to ask for a hotel room in Italy.

Pure genius – even if we are fretting about the phone bill.

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times

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Ginetta takes double victory at Rockingham

Ginetta takes double victory at Rockingham Racing series   BGTC Date 2009-06-02 (Northamptonshire, England)

By Gareth Fair - Motorsport.com

Joe Osborne and Olly Bryant brought their Barwell Motorsport Ginetta G50Z home in first place in both rounds of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship at Rockingham in Northamptonshire. Yet with the new Zytek engined G50Z not yet homologated and running as an invitation class entry it was Hector Lester and Allan Simonsen and their Rosso Verde Ferrari that took the GT3 class honours in the first of the races. Dan Brown and Gregor Fisken in the Momo-backed Rollcentre Mosler in the second. The weekends racing now leaves the 17-year-old Mosler driver Brown returning to the top of the points table.

Osborne commenting on his first of the two wins said "We always knew the start would be critical, my first three laps were real qualifying laps to pull a good gap of about four or five seconds over Dan Brown's Mosler, and then I settled into a pace I could drive at consistently."

Bryant added "When the gap started coming down I had to up my pace a bit, but I had to be very careful not to slide off the track in the process. The car was good but we still need to do a lot of work to it to make it a bit kinder on its tyres."

The Rockingham Motor Speedway formed the dramatic backdrop for the 5th and 6th rounds of the British-based series. The quad-oval track with a road course in the infield claims to be the fastest banked oval circuit in Europe with a lap record of 24.719 seconds set by Tony Kanaan in his Lola-Ford Champ Car on 22nd September 2001 who recorded an average speed of 215.397 miles per hour in the process on the 1.47 mile track. It was the 1.94 mile road circuit that would host the GT cars which encompasses part of the banked track.

Osborne lead from the start having put the Ginetta on pole fending off Brown in his Mosler but any chance of taking the win were ended when he spun at the hairpin just after taking the lead when Osborne pitted to hand over to Bryant. Bryant inherited a car in a good position with the now second placed Beechdean Aston Martin of Andrew Howard and Jamie Smyth.

The Aston did not hold on to the GT3 lead for long, first being passed by the VRS Ferrari of Phil Burton and Adam Wilcox and then by the Rosso Verde 430 now with Simonsen at the controls taking over from the excellent work done by Lester in the opening stint. As the race progressed Simonsen closed the gap to Wilcox and the pair fought over the GT3 class lead, Simonsen come out on top thanks to a move around the Deene Hairpin four laps from the flag giving him the inside line for the Yentwood right-hander and the win was his.

"It was an extremely hard race because of the heat," said Simonsen, "but everyone was struggling with it, not just us. A few people dropped out, which helped our situation, and then I was able to pick off a few towards the end."

Wilcox and Burton crossed the line in third overall and GT3 class second place Howard and Smyth took fourth place overall and the last step on the GT3 podium, with Brown and his new driving co-driver Fisken just missing out in fourth.

The GT4 points leaders Nigel Moore and Jody Firth scored their fourth class race win from five races in their Team WFR Ginetta.

The second race of the weekends races saw another victory for the Ginetta with Osborne and Bryant coming through to win the race with the Rollcentre Mosler MT900 of Brown and Fisken taking the GT3 podium and the maximum points.

Simonsen it in his Rosso Verde Ferrari started from pole but that position was rapidly overhauled by Wilcox in the VRS Ferrari, who muscled took the lead at the Deene hairpin on the first lap. The Safety Car was soon out and stayed there for six laps as the MTECH Ferrari 430 of Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin caught fire.

On the restart Simonsen took the place back from Wilcox but as he handed over to Lester the Rollcentre car now with Brown at the wheel would be hard to stop. Lester lost the lead to the Ascari on lap 24, David Jones having taken over from brother Godfrey, and shortly lost another two places to Brown and Burton now in the car after Wilcox pitted.

Osborne and the Barwell car were soon in the fight and an almighty three way battle ensued between the Mosler, Ascari and the Ginetta.

Five laps from the end Osborne dived down the Mosler's inside at the hairpin to take second place taking the Ascari 2 laps later. Meanwhile Brown drove a great race to take the class victory away from David Jones in the Preci-Spark Ascari on the last lap of the race. The ABG Motorsport Viper of Aaron Scott and Craig Wilkins collected the final GT3 podium position with the VRS Ferrari 430 of Wilcox and Burton taking fourth ahead of the Smyth and Howard Beechdean Aston Martin in fifth.

GT4 class honours went to the Austin Racing Ginetta G50 with Hunter Abbott and Gary Simms driving.

The next round of the championship will take place on the 13th and 14th of June at the Scottish Knockhill race track.

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Turkish Grand Prix Preview

The Turkish Grand Prix is one of those races like Sepang and Bahrain where the enthusiasm of the organisers to organise it isn't matched by the spectators who want to spectate.

It's one of a series of races away from F1's traditional core which by now should have established a healthy audience - given that the circuit is built for excitement and overtaking. A grandstand seat at the final chicane before the start/finish straight at Istanbul would be a brilliant place to watch a grand prix.

But it hasn't. And the person who profits most is the commercial rights holder who pockets the fee for providing a race.

In golf the organisers of the top competitions know that they have to attract big names to give credibility to their events. So they pay appearance money. They don't pay it to the European PGA, they pay it to the golfers themselves. In F1 none of the teams get extra appearance money for going to the Ulan Bator GP. They are obliged to turn up at races that aren't particularly good for their sponsors.

If Max Mosley is so worried about the vital new teams then the FIA should step in to administer the awarding of new races. What they should do is create a fund for new teams from the new nations who want to host a race. If they want to become part of the exclusive club of F1 venues they need to show a long-term commitment to the sport (like Bahrain has done in investing in a team).

The FIA has to sanction any new event and therefore should take its cut, leaving the likes of Ferrari, McLaren and Toyota to mind their own businesses.

And speaking of Ferrari, this weekend will be the race where they show that all the late nights and long hours have been worth it by taking a serious shot at winning their first GP of 2009. Felipe Massa loves the Istanbul circuit which has a preponderance of fast corners and the four apex corner of Turn 8, the greatest challenge in F1.

Last year Massa had the advantage of a car that suited his driving style and not Raikkonen's. Armed with slick tyres, Kimi has regained a lot of his exuberance (that's behind the wheel, not behind the microphone). Both he and Felipe have won at the Otodromo Istanbul and it should be a lot closer this year than last.

We should also get an overtaking fest as the cars will be able to follow much closer than before. Brawn have been developing a new front wing for the race and Red Bull will be able to dial in their new double decker diffuser, Monaco hardly being the track to show what it can do. Toyota, too, will be keen to get out of the confines of the barriers and prove that they haven't gone in to terminal decline.

One thing we can be fairly certain about is that discounting a miracle, McLaren and BMW will be firmly planted in the middle of the grid, unable to generate any grip in the high speed corners. It seems almost inevitable that following the grand prix at Silverstone, Mclaren will start designing for 2010. Providing the rules are going to be locked down there doesn't seem much point in assailing a championship that Norbert Haug already admits is beyond them.

Likewise BMW, another team who invested massively in KERS technology only to find others could go faster without it.

In fact the season has been a curse of KERS. The three teems that have run without it are leading the constructors' championship - Brawn, Red Bull and Toyota.

Meanwhile Renault, Ferrari, BMW and McLaren who all invested significant amounts of their development budget and time on KERS are languishing in unfamiliar positions in the table. That Max, he really knows how to help teams save money.

What is not great for those who want to throw in the towel early in 2009 is the position of KERS next year. How do they design a car when the technology might be dumped or might have a single spec adopted by all teams?

Should we get more Brawn and Red Bull success in Turkey it might be a case of the majority of the grid giving 2009 up as a bad job. The consequences of not being able to test improvements on a car with the in-season testing ban looks to be that if a team can open up a big advantage, then they can keep it much more easily if the only testing is on Friday afternoon.

For season-long interest sake we need Ferrari, McLaren and Toyota success and some Brawn and Red Bull failure. The chances are that on Sunday we'll probably only get one out of five.

I wonder of it ever rains this time of year in Turkey...

Andrew Davies

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