|
Feature
F1 2004 Season Preview
by Alex
"Zander" Keep
During the
off-season this year...
- BAR switched to Michelin tires
from Bridgestone and set some blistering times in their
interim car.
- Juan Pablo Montoya was confirmed
at McLaren for 2005 while Raikkonen has been all but confirmed
to partner him making Coulthard redundant after nine years
with the team.
- Jos Verstappen's protracted talks
with Jordan finally ended after his manager demanded more
commission for advertising than the team could afford let
alone be willing to spend.
- The number of races increased from
16 to 18.
- Rubens Barrichello was signed as
team mate to Michael Schumacher until 2006.
- Ralf Schumacher has not re-signed
for Williams, although talks are ongoing.
- Eddie Irvine had a warrant issued
for his arrest after repeatedly failing to appear in court
for motoring offenses.
- New rules came into force limiting
the number of engines teams are allowed to use per race
weekend and decreasing from three to two the number of rear
wings a car is allowed to run.
- The timetable for the race weekend
has again changed.
- The pit lane speed limit has been
raised to 100kph.
- I got married to the most marvelous
woman on earth!
What do the new rules mean?
The main knock on effect of the new
rules is that cars will be looking for reliability above almost
anything else this season. Last season showed that finishing
races in the points was more important than winning or even
finishing on the podium. The two qualifying sessions will
now both be run on Saturday with the winner of the previous
race going out first in the first session. Squashing the qualifying
together and making teams unable to change engines means that
testing at grand prix weekends will be a lost art as no team
will be willing to risk their precious cars until they have
to.
The new weekend
timetable
Formula 1 World Championship official
timetable. All times are local time.
Friday (a)
11.00 -12.00 Practice
Session 1
14.00 -15.00 Practice
Session 2
Saturday (b)
10.00 -10.45 Practice
Session 3
11.15 -12.00 Practice
Session 4
Sunday (c)
14.00 Race
| a |
Thursday
in Monaco |
| b |
Except
Canada & the US |
| c |
Except
for Malaysia, Bahrain, Canada, US, Great Britain, Japan
& Brazil |
Go
To Page 2
Click here
to go to top of this page.
Copyright 2008, SimHQ.com. All Rights Reserved. Contact the webmaster.
|
