Fisichella Doesn’t Regret Ferrari Move

Giancarlo Fisichella has told the media in Abu Dhabi ahead of his final Grand Prix that he has not regretted moving to Ferrari rreplacing Luca Badoer for the final few rounds of the season.

The Italian left Force India to replace Badoer, himself replacing an injured Felipe Massa, after a fantastic finish in the Belgian Grand Prix and since has failed to score any points with the Ferrari.

Fisichella, who will become the teams 3rd driver for 2010, said it was a childhood dream to race for the Scuderia.

“I think for me, this opportunity to race for Ferrari was a dream I’d had since I was a child and in the end it came true when I had given up hope that it would ever happen,” said Fisichella. “So you should never say never!

“I am very happy with what I have done and I would not turn back the clock, even if I have struggled in these last few races with Ferrari, for the obvious reason that is not easy to get into a car you don’t know, which was made even more complex because of the use of KERS and the fact it handled very differently under braking.

“Recently, I was able to match Kimi’s pace in the race, so this weekend, I hope to have a better qualifying which would be the first step to getting some points.”

Italian GP 2009: Barrichello Takes Strategic Win Of Quality Race

Rubens Barrichello took the chequered flag, and another win for himself and the Brawn GP team in today’s Italian Grand Prix after  a fantastic strategic effort from Ross Brawn.

The single stop strategy employed by the white cars of Brawn led to Jenson Button joining Rubens on the podium in 2nd, with Kimi Raikkonen being gifted 3rd place on the last lap.

Race Review

Lewis Hamilton didn’t get a great start, unlike Kimi Raikkonen and the Finn was forced onto the grass going down to the first chicane.  He managed to make a pass on Adrian Sutil, while the rest of the field fed around without bother – Timo Glock the only driver having to use the escape road.

Then into the second chicane, the first major incident – Robert Kubica tipped Mark Webber’s Red Bull round into the gravel and the Australian was forced to retire after just a handful of corners.  The incident led to front wing damage to Kubica’s BMW, and the Pole was forced into the pits some laps later as the FIA were concerned about its’ safety at 220mph.

Heikki Kovalainen had a terrible start, losing out to Barrichello and then Liuzzi and Alonso, despite claiming pre-race that he could win the GP and indeed his KERS system.

Hamilton then started to pull well away from Kimi Raikkonen, who to all intents and purposes held up Adrian Sutil as the Ferrari looked to struggle.

These 3 drivers at the top on 2 stop strategies made a big gap over the two Brawn’s behind them, and then Tonio Liuzzi held 7th well with Fernando Alonso hustling the Renault behind him, trying to squeeze every last bit of performance from the R29.

Hamilton pushed incredibly hard, the McLaren right on the ragged edge many times.  He pitted early, and Raikkonen & Sutil pulled ahead.  Hamilton was released into favourable traffic ahead of Liuzzi and Alonso.

With Raikkonen and Sutil then pitting, the now lighter Brawn’s pulled well away with Rubens Barrichello holding a good dap lead over championship rival and team mate Button.

Robert Kubica ended up retiring, with some kind of oil leak – although Martin Brundle claimed on BBC television that they were saving the engine as they were nearing their allocation limit.

Tonio Liuzzi too had a scare when he was driving through towards the Roggia chicane when at around 200mph the clutch appeared to break completely and the Force India driver ended his day in the sliproad of that chicane.  Disappointing after a fairly good weekend.

Giancarlo Fisichella looked largely average making his Ferrari debut, losing out on positions to various drivers, which in the end meant he finished the race in 9th place just behind Sebastian Vettel.  A shame for Fisichella not to score points on his debut.

After the final stops, Hamilton came out in 3rd behind the two Brawns and immediately started chasing.  Hamilton said after the race every lap was like “a qualifying one”.  Raikkonen and Sutil had a pitstop race, but both made mistakes! Raikkonen nearly stalled leaving his box, and Sutil tried to run down half his pitcrew.  Raikkonen came out in front and despite massive pressure would hold Adrian off until the end of the race.

The final piece of action really came from Lewis Hamilton, who, chasing down those Brawn’s managed to lose the car on the exit of the first Lesmo, spinning and smashing into an unforgiving tyre/concrete mixed barrier.  He ripped lots of bodywork off the car and left it strewn across the track. The ensuing double waved yellows and safety car board [in vein!] Raikkonen cruised passed and into 3rd place.

Classified Results

Pos	Driver	Team	Time
1	R. Barrichello	Brawn Mercedes	1.16.21.706
2	J. Button	Brawn Mercedes	+2.866
3	K. Raikkonen	Ferrari	+30.664
4	A. Sutil	Force India Mercedes	+31.131
5	F. Alonso	Renault	+59.182
6	H. Kovalainen	McLaren Mercedes	+1.00.693
7	N. Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	+1.22.412
8	S. Vettel	Red Bull Renault	+1.25.472
9	G. Fisichella	Ferrari	+1.26.856
10	K. Nakajima	Williams Toyota	+2.00.000
11	T. Glock	Toyota	+2.43.925
12	L. Hamilton*	McLaren Mercedes	+1 lap
13	S. Buemi	Toro Rosso Ferrari	+1 lap
14	J. Trulli	Toyota	+1 lap
15	R. Grosjean	Renault	+1 lap
16	N. Rosberg	Williams Toyota	+2 laps

*: Lewis Hamilton crashed on the final lap but was still classified by order of being 1 lap ahead of other runners classified lower.

Fastest Lap: A. Sutil (Force India) – 1.24.739

Retirements

Driver	Team	Lap	Reason
L. Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes	55	Crash
V. Liuzzi	Force India Mercedes	23	Clutch
J. Alguersuari	Toro Rosso Ferrari	20	Unknown
R. Kubica	BMW Sauber	16	Oil Leak
M. Webber	Red Bull Renault	1	Crash

Italian GP 2009: Qualifying, Hamilton Takes Pole

Lewis Hamilton slotted his McLaren into pole position for tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix, as the KERS and Mercedes Benz engined cars made the most of their performance advantage.

Indeed, Adrian Sutil will line up alongside Hamilton, his best ever qualifying in the Force India.  Kimi Raikkonen stares down Hamilton’s back end and will be looking for a good start, and possibly a 2nd win in a row for the Scuderia.

Kovalainen, Barrichello, Button and Liuzzi continue down to 7th, making it 6 cars in the top 7 with the Mercedes power units.

Alonso takes 8th, something to remove the limelight of Crash-Gate away from Renault.  His rookie team mate Romain Grosjean is down in 12th.

Splitting them are the Red Bull’s who really have lost their way over the past few Grand Prix.  Fisichella takes 14th in his first qualifying for Ferrari.

Jaime Alguersuari qualified last, and also takes a 5 place penalty for changing Gearboxes.

Post qualifying reaction here:

Pos  Driver       Team                       Q1        Q2        Q3
 1.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:23.375  1:22.973  1:24.066
 2.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:23.576  1:23.070  1:24.261
 3.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:23.349  1:23.426  1:24.523
 4.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:23.515  1:23.528  1:24.845
 5.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:23.483  1:22.976  1:25.015
 6.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:23.403  1:22.955  1:25.030
 7.  Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:23.578  1:23.207  1:25.043
 8.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:23.708  1:23.497  1:25.072
 9.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:23.558  1:23.545  1:25.180
10.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:23.755  1:23.273  1:25.314
11.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:24.014  1:23.611
12.  Grosjean     Renault               (B)  1:23.975  1:23.728
13.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:24.001  1:23.866
14.  Fisichella   Ferrari               (B)  1:23.828  1:23.901
15.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:23.584  1:24.275
16.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:24.036
17.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:24.074
18.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:24.121
19.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:24.220
20.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:24.951

Liuzzi Confirmed In Force India Race Seat

Vitantonio Liuzzi has been confirmed in the vacant Force India race seat, a direct promotion from team test driver.

The Italian will get his opportunity now that Giancarlo Fisichella has replaced Felipe Massa’s replacement driver Luca Badoer in the Scuderia Ferrari team.

Talented racer Liuzzi, now 28, has not competitively raced an F1 car since the end of the 2007 season when he was released from contract by Red Bull sister team Scuderia Toro Rosso.

“I’m delighted to give Tonio the opportunity to get back into a race seat, which I know he has been itching to do for the past two years,” said team boss Vijay Mallya.

“Force India is now in a very competitive position and we need a driver who can continue this momentum. This will be the chance for Tonio to demonstrate to both the team and the field that he has the commitment, speed and professionalism to perform and I am sure he will seize this opportunity.”

Liuzzi will get the chance to race until the end of the season, starting with his home Grand Prix next weekend at Monza.

Fisichella To Race For Ferrari Until End Of Season – Full Report

Giancarlo Fisichella will drive for the Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team until the end of the 2009 season, in place of Felipe Massa’s replacement driver Luca Badoer.

Fisichella leaves the Force India team with immediate effect, despite scoring their best finish ever last race out in Belgium with a 2nd place finish.

His former boss Dr. Vijay Mallya commented; “Giancarlo and his management team approached me yesterday with the proposal from Ferrari.

“For any Italian driver, a Ferrari race seat is a long-held dream and for Giancarlo it was no exception. No one should stand in the way of this. Furthermore the agreement will secure Giancarlo’s long-term future with Ferrari and it would be incorrect to jeopardise this, particularly when Giancarlo has made such a vital contribution to Force India.”

It will be even more exciting that just joining Ferrari for Italian Fisichella, because his debut race with the top team will come at the Italian Grand Prix next week.  He will be looking to impress in the Ferrari F60, which took it’s maiden win in the last race at the hands of Kimi Raikkonen.

“We have chosen Fisichella because we can expect him to make a valuable contribution in this final part of the season.” Stefano Domenicali, boss of Ferrari Formula One Team said today

“Giancarlo has shown, throughout his long career, that he is fast and competitive and we are therefore proud to be able to run an Italian driver in our home race.”

Giancarlo Fisichella, known as Fisi to his fans, is still unbelieveably excited at the prospect of racing for Ferrari.  It comes 14 years after he test drove a Ferrari in Maranello.

“I’m in seventh heaven,” Fisichella told the official Ferrari website. “I still can’t believe it – that the dream of my life comes true, and I want to thank Ferrari and Chairman Luca di Montezemolo.

“Over the last week some really incredible things happened to me: the pole position and then second place at Spa and now I’m called by Ferrari to race the last five races of the season for them.

“I’ll give my best to recompense the Scuderia for this great opportunity they gave me: I know that it won’t be easy, but I’ll give it everything to gain the best possible results.”

Massa On Road To Recovery – Fisichella To Ferrari??

Felipe Massa visited a top doctor in Miami, Florida yesterday afternoon for a prognosis of his condition and recovery time, and the results were good.

The doctor suggested following plastic and skull surgery, Massa should be 100% to return to the cockpit in 2010.

“Obviously, the results of examination has been warmly welcomed in Maranello, in the sense that the team can count on Felipe 100% for the start of next season,” said a Ferrari statement.

Meanwhile Massa told Autosport “I’m very happy with the outcome of the tests.  After the small operation I’ll undergo in the next few days, I’ll finally be able to start doing gym exercise to get back in shape a bit and, after that, I’ll be able to start doing some testing on karts.  On track with an F1 car? Let’s go one step at a time: now I’m focused only on starting over with physical activity, which is already a nice step forward.”

The rumour mill now starts the search for a permanent end-of-season replacement for Massa, with Luca Badoer being unlikely to continue after 2 shocking races.  Giancarlo Fisichella looks favourite at the moment, especially with Vitantonio Liuzzi suggesting to Italian media he will be racing in Italy.  Unless of course he means Ferrari not Force India.   Robert Kubica is a name that has been banded around La Gazetta and the like but is totally unconfirmed right now.

Force India Confident Of Maintaining Pace At Monza

Force India F1 Team’s chiefs are pretty confident that they will be able to maintain the blisteringly fast pace shown in Belgium last weekend in the forthcoming Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

The team shocked the field with the VJM02, along with its new aerodynamic upgrades proving a formindable beast and socring the teams first ever pole position at the hands of Giancarlo Fisichella.

The Italian could well have won the race too, if it were not for a safety car and Ferrari’s blindingly fast Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) working to massive advantage.

“Why not?” team owner Vijay Mallya said when asked if the team would be as strong again in Monza. “We know that the car is quick, blindingly quick I would say. The sector times show it and I think the Monza track will suit us.”

Meanwhile, the teams top tech chief Simon Roberts told Autosport Magazine in an exclusive interview;

“Our car is quick in a straight line. I’d like to say that’s what we intended, but it isn’t.

“What we have tried to do is to put genuine upgrades on the car to create more downforce. The Valencia upgrade was very low on drag and was a good time to deliver that before Spa and Monza.

“We’ve got an aero test next week, so we’ll hit the ground with more data at Monza. That makes it easier for the engineers and we should be able to set into it quicker.”

“Obviously Monza is low drag. We’ve got some more wings to try there. We’ve got an aero test next week so unlike on Friday here, on Friday in Monza we know what the wings do so we should hit the ground strong.”

Belgian GP 2009: Kimi Raikkonen Takes Ferrari’s First Win Of Season!

Kimi Raikkonen delivered an emphatic first win of the season for Ferrari this afternoon after a highly exciting Belgian Grand Prix.

Suprise pole sitter Giancarlo Fisichella came in 2nd place, Force India’s first ever points and thus podium, while Sebastian Vettel kept his championship hopes alive while others around him faltered with 3rd place.

Race Review

The getaway from the line was mostly noted for Rubens Barrichello’s anti-stall kick in, forcing Kimi Raikkonen around his outside and bunching everyone up into La Source hairpin.

Raikkonen dived onto the astroturf around the outside of the turn and raced down to Eau Rouge with Fisichella in the lead and the BMW’s far up the pack.  Further back in the field various cars including Fernando Alonso, Jaime Alguersuari, Adrian Sutil, Timo Glock, Jarno Trulli and Lewis Hamilton were all tangling with bits of bodywork flying everywhere.

The cars were bunched as they headed down the straight to Les Combes, where Romain Grosjean tagged Jenson Button forcing him into a spin.  Jaime Alguersuari tried to miss Button and ended up ramming Lewis Hamilton forcing them both out as well as Button and Grosjean.  This left us with a Safety Car situation with all these cars hanging off the track.

Some drivers including Rubens Barrichello decided to pit in.

When the safety car finally returned to the pits, Kimi Raikkonen using his KERS system to full effect managed to get ahead of Fisichella and that is where he would stay for the rest of the race.  The gap between the two was not very large, and the pitstops [all on the same laps for the pair] didn’t yield a position change.  Had Raikkonen not being using the KERS system then he would almost certainly have lost the place to Fisichella, whose Force India car looked frighteningly quick.

Sebastian Vettel had a very quiet drive to 3rd place, managingto make use of accidents and retirements.

Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld managed to get a great result for their BMW team, with 4th and 5th places.  They stayed out of trouble throughout the race, but were almost certianly helped along by faster rivals being knocked out in the first corner accident.

7th place finisher Rubens Barrichello never looked like troubling those at the front after his poor start.  He did well to end up in the points, but in all honesty was lucky to finish with his Brawn GP car pluming smoke for the final 3 laps.  The Brazilian’s car then set on fire as he returned to the pitlane after the race!

Just finishing ahead of Rubens was Heikki Kovalainen, the sole finishing McLaren using good strategy to make the position from a poor qualifying start.  8th was Rosberg picking up vital points, but Mark Webber really should have been there but he had a pitlane incident where he was released into the path of Heidfeld, focing the German to nearly crash and got given a drive-through penalty for it.

Timo Glock should also have finished higher than 10th, but a fuel rig failure ruined his chances of points from early good running.

Sutil, Buemi and Nakajima came next in the classifications with fairly average races, and Luca Badoer brings up the rear of the field [again] in what is likely to be his last Ferrari race.

Fernando Alonso retired with a broken front left wheel and suspension, while we do not know Jarno Trulli’s problem possibly a fuel pressure issue.

Classified Results

Pos	Driver	Team	Time
1	K. Raikkonen	Ferrari	1.23.50.995
2	G. Fisichella	Force India Mercedes	+0.939
3	S. Vettel	Red Bull Renault	+3.875
4	R. Kubica	BMW Sauber	+9.966
5	N. Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	+11.276
6	H. Kovalainen	McLaren Mercedes	+32.763
7	R. Barrichello	Brawn Mercedes	+35.461
8	N. Rosberg	Williams Toyota	+36.208
9	M. Webber	Red Bull Renault	+36.959
10	T. Glock	Toyota	+41.490
11	A. Sutil	Force India Mercedes	+42.636
12	S. Buemi	Toro Rosso Ferrari	+46.106
13	K. Nakajima	Williams Toyota	+54.241
14	L. Badoer	Ferrari	+1.38.177

Fastest Lap: S. Vettel (Red Bull) 1.47.263

Retirements

Driver	Team	Lap	Reason
F. Alonso	Renault	27	Tyre/Suspension
J. Trulli	Toyota	21	Fuel Pressure (Poss.)
J. Button	Brawn Mercedes	1	Accident
R. Grosjean	Renault	1	Accident
L. Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes	1	Accident
J. Alguersuari	Toro Rosso Ferrari	1	Accident

Belgian GP 2009: Fisichella Takes Shock Pole Position

Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella has delivered the small team it’s first ever pole position after a stunning qualifying session in Belgium, where the form book really was turned on it’s head.

Fisichella the flambouyant Italian was amazingly fast throughout the session in the heavily revised Force India car, and the investment has paid dividends to its owner Vijay Mallya.

Although likely to be light on fuel, this must signal the first points of the season for the team based in Silverstone.  If not that, it signals to Ferrari that Giancarlo Fisichella could deliver something for them, unlike Luca Badoer who did not help his cause by qualifying last and ending Q1 in the wall.

Jarno Trulli made second place in the significantly faster Toyota, and Nick Heidfeld made a shock return to the top with 3rd position.

Rubens Barrichello will start 4th, the highest qualifying Brawn after Jenson Button faltered and did not get out of Q2. He will start in 14th tomorrow, a big harm to his world championship chances.

Kimi Raikkonen did much better than Badoer and will start 6th, those around him must be concerned about his KERS system.

Vettel and Webber made 8th and 9th for Red Bull, so should make valuable ground tomorrow.

The improving McLaren’s have struggled in Spa this afternoon, with Hamilton making just 12th place and Kovalainen 15th.  Another big name between them is Fernando Alonso in 13th.

We thought the Toro Rosso’s looked good, but neither managed to get out of Q1 with Buemi starting 16th and Alguersuari 17th.

Romain Grosjean lines up alongside Badoer at the back, after the young French/Swiss made progress.

Pos  Driver       Team                       Q1        Q2        Q3      
 1.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:45.102  1:44.667  1:46.308
 2.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:45.140  1:44.503  1:46.395
 3.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:45.566  1:44.709  1:46.500
 4.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:45.237  1:44.834  1:46.513
 5.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:45.655  1:44.557  1:46.586
 6.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:45.579  1:44.953  1:46.633
 7.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:45.450  1:44.877  1:46.677
 8.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:45.372  1:44.592  1:46.761
 9.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:45.350  1:44.924  1:46.788
10.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:45.486  1:45.047  1:47.362
11.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:45.486  1:45.119
12.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:45.239  1:45.122
13.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:45.767  1:45.136
14.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:45.707  1:45.251
15.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:45.761  1:45.259
16.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:45.705
17.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:45.951
18.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:46.032
19.  Grosjean     Renault               (B)  1:46.307
20.  Badoer       Ferrari               (B)  1:46.359

Force India Continuing Their Fight For Points

Small team Force India have said they are still continuing the development of their car in the hope of closing the final few tenths of a second that split them from the back of the grid to points scoring positions.

The 2009 season cars have been fairly closely matched, and if it weren’t for consistent bad luck then Force India could and indeed should well have some points by now.

As the bigger teams start throwing their cash around, the front is once again seeing McLaren’s and Ferrari’s fighting out the top spots, Red Bull’s massive cash reserves help them continue their fight while Brawn GP have fallen back.

However according to technical director James Key, Force India are making clever use of their budget in the race for 8th.

“We have tenths and hundredths (of a second) between cars at present with just over one second covering the entire grid,” Key told ESPN.

“This is of course incredibly close, so any reasonable updates can make a significant difference to position.”

“There is a lot of emphasis on optimising qualifying,” Key confirmed. “We had a good start position in Germany and raced at the front without any issues, maintaining a points scoring position. With the current situation, track position is vital.”

“I think luck has not always been on our side,” Key considered. “We have had our cars in points scoring positions this year on a number of occasions but not brought the result home. We had a good window of opportunity in the middle of the season after a big step forward at Silverstone, but it did not work out for us due to Adrian’s unfortunate accident in qualifying.

However Giancarlo’s excellent race drive at that event from 16th on the grid to 10th, just seconds off the points, shows the pace to score points was there. Similarly in Germany where qualifying went well, we maintained position for points only for the coming together with Raikkonen after the first round of stops,” he added.

Key arrived at Force India way back in 2006 when it was under-going the changeover from Midland to Spyker.