This blog is MOVING to http://freshf1.com

In a few weeks we have grown as others in years :). I know this sounds like a lack of modesty but I want to thank you all our readers for making it possible to be one of the fastest growing blogs (no. 45) on WordPress. Also hitting the 10000 page views mark in less than three weeks was a big encouragement to us. Becoming one of the top 100 blogs of wordpress (no. 5 was another step you helped us make. In less than two weeks from our launch we featured almost daily in the top100 posts on WordPress (no.27) so we decided to move to our new location (http://freshf1.com).

Please update your bookmarks with the new address.

We decided to to this because we want to offer you a better looking blog with the same fresh information. Some of out sources (Turun Sanomat in Finland, Gazzetta dello Sport in Italy, Marca in Spain do not have websites in English). We want to bring you the freshest F1 info so we are coveting the most important F1 news from there.

I’d like to thank Sorin Dincea, Warwick, Flavio Gomes and all the friends who helped this site become better. Last but not least, again, thank you for coming to us for you fresh daily news. We hope from the new location we will be able to do an ever better job.

Cris Popescu (aka Wiz Kid).

P.S.: Don’t forget to subscribe to the new Fresh F1 feed

Webber praises Alonso

Red Bull’s F1 driver Mark Webber said that Fernando Alonso is currently the reference in the F1 drivers’ World Championship. To prove his affirmation he mentions the last two World Driver’s Championships that he won. “Everybody has to know that Fernanda is the reference. He is the driver to beat” said Webber in an interview given to the Australian newspaper “The Age”.

Webber considers Alonso gained all his credit by directly defeating Michael Schumacher the last two years. “He did a great job.” Speaking of Raikkonen, Webber said “he is as fast as Schumacher but he is less involved in the team as Michael was” said the Red Bull driver.

Source:Marca (in Spanish)

Coulthard is expecting surprises this year

In an exclusive interview for F1grandprix.it pilot David Coulthard, who will be 36 on 27 March in Australia, said that he believes it could be one of the more competitive Championships in recent years. “We presume the big three of the first division are McLaren, Renault and Ferrari.

That’s a presumption, we don’t know. But if you say that, the second division is made up of Honda, Toyota, BMW, Williams and hopefully ourselves.” is what the Red Bull pilot declared. Also: “No one would have thought in 2005 that Ferrari would only win one race, when they had dominated for so many years, and then they bounced back again the following year.”

No qualifying laps for Kimi Räikkönen

Interview with Kimi in the Finnish Gazette Turun Sanomat

TS reporter: Did you do qualifying runs [in testing this winter]?
Kimi Räikkönen: We didn’t focus on that; we focused on race lengths and reliability. In Bahrain we only had one new car [fitted] with the new parts so there was no time for anything else. I don’t think that would be a problem. Usually the car is quite the same to drive qualifying laps, it’s just the fuel load that is different. Of course it would help if we had practiced qualifying laps, but different tracks have different tricks. We still have all the Fridays and Saturdays to do set up work for qualifying too.

TS reporter: Is Ferrari as strong as the rivals have said?
Kimi Räikkönen: Tricky to say. We had a good pace in Bahrain with our new car. Hard to say if it’s the same somewhere else (at other tracks), but I think it will be good. We have a strong package. However anyone alse can find something `crucial` that will get them right to the top. We’ll see in races. Australia will tell where we are. You can always speculate who is the fastest and who is not. I think that there could be some surprises too.

TS reporter: Who may surprise?
Kimi Räikkönen: I’d say most likely BMW, they have been quite competitive all winter. I don’t know about Renault, they have been quite `mild`, but at the end Bahrain test they got some speed. McLaren will be strong. They are our biggest rivals.

Translation by Warwick.

Kimi: Bahrain was the only real test

Kimi talked to Turun Sanomat on the 8th of March. Kimi was asked whether with 20 days and 6000km of testing behind him, he was able to drive enough? Kimi said:”Well basically we might as well have had driven only in Bahrain, because all other tests were hampered with bad weather. Bahrain was the only place where we managed to really do something.But there was nothing what I or the team could do about it. It was actually the same for everyone. In Bahrain, though, We did manage to do almost everything we wanted to. I Don’t think that there would have been anything more to be done.”

The next tests will be held in Malaysia, at the end of March. Räikkönen will drive there for two days. He doesn’t spend his energy on worrying weather the rival teams are able to catch up.”For sure everyone will have new parts there. I don’t think those tests would give any special advantage or disadvantage to anyone. It’s just little more easier to go race there once you have already tested there a week before.” said the Finnish Ferrari star.

Another news from Ferrari is that the two drivers will take turns with the spare car. Luca Badoer shook down the three F2007 cars for Melbourne on Thursday.

The spare car will be given in turns to Räikkönen and Massa. According to Ferrari, they haven’t made a decision for which driver the spare car will be set up in Australia. But changing that isn’t a big deal. Ferrari also announced they will only use the two race drivers in Friday’s Free Practices. “If there aren’t any problems the race drivers will always be the ones to drive [on Fridays]. The test driver might occasionally drive, but I doubt it” confirmed Räikkönen.

——

Translation by our Finnish corespondent, Warwick.

Dyer on Kimi: `You can’t ask for more`

Ferrari engineer Chris Dyer dimisses all rumors concerning Kimi’s lack of tecnhical interest. Dyer was Michael Schumacher’s race engineer for the previous seasons. Schumi was well known for providing very accurate techincal feedback to his engineers. As a result he always able to set up the car very well. Dyer declares himself impressed with Kimi’s technical abilities, as you can see in the interview. Coming from Michael’s race engineer one can imagine these comments mean a lot, as he has a good point of comparison. Dyer’s comments are backed up by another Ferrari engineer working with Kimi: Andrea Stella.

Here is the report broadcasted on Finnish TV MTV3 (transcript below)

News presenter in the studio:

Kimi Räikkönen’s abilities to develop the car have been questioned after his move to Ferrari. Tulosruutu (The name of the MTV3 TV Sports Bulletin) wanted to find out what Ferrari’s staff think about it, and therefore interviewed Räikkönen’s closest collaborators (people who work with him directly at Ferrari)
Kimi received a `thumbs up` from his new team.

Reporter’s voice on the story:

Kimi Räikkönen’s quest for the WDC (World Drivers’ Championship) relies on his pit crew, lead by this man (Chris Dyer in the picture). After 6 years of working with Michael Schumacher, Chris Dyer got a new `work mate`, Finnish Kimi Räikkönen. A number of well known F1 people have publicly questioned Räikkönen’s abilities to develop the car and give feedback to the team. The vast majority of the critics have come from people who have never worked with Kimi. Chris Dyer and his team has a different view on the matter.

-Chris Dyer’s interview-

-Andrea Stella’s interview-

Reporter’s voice in the story:

With a reputation of a cold and silent person, Kimi has shown a surprisingly different side of himself to the team.

-Andrea Stella’s interview-

Reporter’s voice in the story:

If Kimi and Ferrari are unable to win the World Championships, it’s not going to happen because of the lack of work. Even when driver’s long day has ended and the sun has set, the team continues working long hours into the night. The team at Ferrari isn’t used to leaving anything to chance.

-Chris Dyer’s interview-

Reporter’s voice in the story:

The season starts with Australian GP less than in one and a half weeks time.

—————————————————————-

Translation by Warwick.

One on one with Kovalainen

The Renault pilot was quoted as saying that he isn’t thinking about Melbourne too much at the moment. “I am not the kind of person who gets nervous, I prefer just to stay calm and concentrate on doing my job,” he said.

Kovalainen also mentioned that he is pleased with the team’s winter activity: “We were a little bit off the pace at the start, but we have worked hard and during the final week in Bahrain, I think we made some good progress with the set-ups. The long run pace has been pretty good all the way through, but we look better on a single lap now too.”

As far as his strategy for the next grand prix, he said he would “push to the limit” in order to achieve the best possible result: “I will be going flat out on every lap - and waiting for the team to call me on the radio, or into the pits for my stops.”

Full interview

Honda’s aim

Honda’s technical director, Shuhei Nakamoto has recently been interviewed, declaring: “We have set high targets for this, our second season as a 100% Honda team, and, as always, are excited about getting down to business at the Australian Grand Prix”.

Although the racing team is aware they are not as competitive as they had hoped, their aims is to get the most out of the actual configuration at the Australian Grand Prix. “All in all, we must try to get the best out of our current package, whilst continuing to work hard on the development of new items for the test in Sepang after Melbourne.”

Source: autosport.com

Aston Martin to enter F1 ?

David Richard’s bid for Aston Martin has been successful, sources report. It is expected that he makes the announcement in Geneva tomorrow. All reports to date indicated Richards hasn’t linked Prodrive in this business. One might ask oneself whether his expected F1 debut in 2008 won’t be under the name of Aston Martin. Even though Prodrive and Aston Martin are not connected to the point, David Richards could make the decision to brand the 2008 Prodrive car or at least its engine under the name of Aston Martin. It would be a marketing tool that would benefit both Prodrive and Aston Martin.

The main challenge would be to make the company supplying Prodrive’s 2008 customer chassis agree with the rebranding process. They might not want to do that as it would be a support to a rival car company. If Prodrive decided to start its own chassis design program, which it intends to do anyway eventually, then, with the support of Cosworth they might pull off the trick and we could see `Aston Martin` entering F1 next year. This would undoubtedly be supported by Aston Martin’s manager Ulrich Bez, who had connections with F1 in the past. It will all go down to money, and David Richards’ alliance with Naeem Capital, a privileged investment firm in the Middle East.

Source :Grandprix.com

Kimi expects trouble but feels no pressure

Kimi Raikkonen spoke to the Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat about the rule imposing to use two different compounds in a race. “It’s the same for all. At some tracks you will have much more difficulty with the other compound(the one not suited to the track). There is nothing you can do about it. Monaco can be terrible, because most likely the harder compound doesn’t have grip at all in there.”

When asked what minimum number of laps with the `bad` compound would be, the Ferrari driver answered “I don’t take any pressure from it, I just drive.”

In the same interview Kimi said he will have a press conference with the Finnish press on Thursday. Fresh F1 will keep you informed on that with the help of our Finnish corespondent, Warwick.