FORMULA BMW

Victories for Gutierrez and Juncadella in Formula BMW World Final heats

7/12/2008

Esteban Gutiérrez (MX) and Daniel Juncadella (ES) are the favourites for securing pole position for the Formula BMW World Final 2008, after claiming a victory and a third place each in the two heats held at Mexico City (MX) today. With three points each, the two young drivers jointly lead the points’ classification which determines the starting grid for Sunday’s final race.

Gutiérrez won the first intermediate heat for Josef Kaufmann Racing. His team-mate, Michael Christensen (DK), finished second, and is the best-placed Rookie of the day. Eurointernational’s Juncadella crossed the line in third after 16 laps. In the second heat, Gutiérrez and Juncadella finished in reverse order with Alexander Rossi (US), who is also racing for Eurointernational, coming second in the middle of the two drivers from Formula BMW Europe.

“I’m really happy about how this day went for me,” said Gutiérrez. “We were competitive in both heats, despite taking a rather conservative approach, as I didn’t want to risk a promising grid position for the final. One win is in the bag – and I want to add some more tomorrow.” Gutiérrez was involved in a thrilling battle with pole-sitter Jim Pla (FR/DAMS Racing) and Christensen. At the start he took the lead from Pla, but the Frenchman launched a successful counterattack on lap eight. Christensen worked his way up from fifth on the grid and passed his team-mate on lap 12 before also getting by Pla a lap later. Only on the final lap of the race Gutiérrez managed to take the win away from Christensen by overtaking the Dane.

Pla was also on pole position for the second heat. However, a jump start and the resulting drive-through penalty saw his hopes for victory end early in the race. So the way was open for Juncadella. “My great start laid the foundation for my win in heat 2,” said the driver who finished fourth in Formula BMW Europe. “I passed Jim Pla and kept the lead right until the finish. I was also among the front-runners in the second race. Of course I have high hopes for tomorrow now. It’s all about not risking too much in the final heat – and then give your all in the final.”

Rossi’s tally is six points, just behind Gutiérrez and Juncadella and still in with a chance for pole position. The Formula BMW Americas’ overall winner said: “Heat 1 was not my best race. I had a poor start, but was able to recover a lot of positions. In the second race, I got a great start and the car was awesome. Within six or seven laps I was up to second so I could not be happier.” The young guns will line up for the third heat on Sunday morning, before competing in the Formula BMW World Final from 14:50hrs local time (20:50hrs GMT).

At the World Final it was announced Formula BMW will return to Mexico in 2009. Formula BMW Americas will hold rounds supporting the FIA World Touring Car Championship in Puebla (MX) on 21^st/22^nd March.

Results Heat 1

Pos Driver Team Time
1 Esteban Gutiérrez Josef Kaufmann Racing 25:45.802 mins

2 Michael Christensen Josef Kaufmann Racing +0.714 secs

3 Daniel Juncadella Eurointernational +2.285

4 Alexander Rossi Eurointernational +2.659

5 Mikael Grenier Apex-HBR Racing Team +5.399

6 Ollie Millroy Motaworld Racing +6.409

7 Jim Pla DAMS Team +8.200

8 Giancarlo Vilarinho Eurointernational +11.254

9 Facu Regalia Josef Kaufmann Racing +11.754

10 Doru Sechelariu Eurointernational +12.393

11 Maxime Pelletier Autotecnica +14.718

12 Jazeman Jaafar Eifelland Racing +19.807

13 Gianmarco Raimondo Autotecnica +19.881

14 Velibor Jovanovic DAMS Team +1:31.567 mins

Results Heat 2

Pos Driver Team Time
1 Daniel Juncadella Eurointernational 25:47.862 mins

2 Alexander Rossi Eurointernational +1.686 secs

3 Esteban Gutiérrez Josef Kaufmann Racing +3.338

4 Jazeman Jaafar Eifelland Racing +4.610

5 Michael Christensen Josef Kaufmann Racing +5.427

6 Ollie Millroy Motaworld Racing +5.946

7 Gabriel Chaves Euro Junior Team +9.452

8 William Buller Eurointernational +12.308

9 Giancarlo Vilarinho Eurointernational +13.368

10 Mikael Grenier Apex-HBR Racing Team +16.411

11 David Mengesdorf Eifelland Racing +16.810

12 Gianmarco Raimondo Autotecnica +24.723

13 Maxime Pelletier Autotecnica +26.102

14 Doru Sechelariu Eurointernational +26.630

15 David Ostella Eurointernational +30.944

16 Alfredo Toledano Euro Junior Team +33.691

17 Jim Pla DAMS Team +35.966

18 Facu Regalia Josef Kaufmann Racing +40.234

19 Velibor Jovanovic DAMS Team +56.424

20 Simon Moss Motaworld Racing +1 lap

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Congratulations to Jazeman Jaafar for the outstanding comeback on the Heat 2. This guy is a brilliant driver. Maybe after 5 years forward, we can see him racing in F1 car. Very impressive indeed.

PROTON JUST LOVE MITSU - SIGH!

The long-running partnership between Mitsubishi and Proton is to continue with an all-new model.

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) has announced the signing of a contract with Malaysia's major automobile manufacturer, Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Sdn Bhd (Proton).

It agrees on covering the technology for, as well as the development and production of, a new Proton vehicle.

In addition, this reciprocal contract will grant a license to the Malaysian automaker to manufacture a new Mitsubishi vehicle based product.

Through this and other collaboration projects in the fields of development and production, Mitsubishi aims to expand its Malaysian business beyond the current export shipments of built-up cars from Japan to that nation.

For its part, Proton aims to work with the Japanese congolmerate to expand its model line up, as well as to raise quality levels and make more effective use of its production plant.

The two companies are also continuing to study other mutually beneficial avenues of collaboration.

Proton and Mitsubishi have a long history of shared development and vehicles built under licence.

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What!!! Again? I'm not sure about this. Why Mitsu? This is one news that I think the worst of all after the Honda F1 Team 'resignation'. We don't need vehicles built under license. We need something that can be appreciate enough as we had stand a lot for nearly 25 years now. Proton should not agree to 'collaborate' or 'share development'. It's time to have a pure production car by Proton. Built something out of our own product, cut the price, improve the campro or what ever that may helps improving our industries. But not this. It's like taking one step back.

I don't see any relevant result regarding this issues. To save cost? To improve technologies? To built a better car? What about Lotus. Why don't they just use all the technologies available at Lotus. What's the point of buying it? Just to get the Lotus Engineering or Lotus Handling emblem at the back of the car?

What I mean is that after almost 10 years 'collaborating' with the giant Mitsu, what was the obvious result that we got? Just one after another re badge product that's so called locally design built with pathetic machines? I can be satisfied with Gen2, Persona, Savvy and BLM or Neo and felt positive with it. Locally design it was. That's good! And for this future MPV, people are so eager for it. It's like, well finally Proton are seems to learn from everything. But this? Just another sad story from Proton.

OTHER CARMAKERS COMMITED TO F1

F1's other manufacturer-backed teams have rushed to insist their commitment to the sport is not diminished by Honda's shock decision to quit amid the worsening slump in global car sales.

Mercedes-Benz's Norbert Haug said the German marque's involvement with the McLaren effort is financially sound and subsidised by team sponsors, but said cost-cutting is important.

"Over the next two years we must achieve cuts of at least 50 percent," he said.

Media reports on Friday said the next most likely manufacturer to withdraw from formula one is Toyota, but Japan's other entrant said in a statement it is committed for now to the sport and the teams' efforts to cut costs.

Toyota said it is "committed to succeeding in formula one and to reducing costs".

BMW board member Klaus Draeger said F1 "is an integral part of the company strategy".

"There is no better platform than formula one for demonstrating our brand values," he said of the German manufacturer, involved in F1 since 2000, and currently with its majority ownership of BMW-Sauber.

"The cost-benefit ratio is commensurately positive," he added, and a Renault spokesman said the French marque is similarly committed.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, as head of the F1 teams' alliance FOTA, said the Italian marque and the other teams are working hard to reduce the costs in the "short and long term".

FIA president Max Mosley, however, is extremely pessimistic about the sustainability of F1 in its current guise, slamming FOTA's most recent efforts to cut costs as "fiddling about".

Nick Fry, Honda's F1 chief executive, agrees that the risk of more manufacturers following Honda out the door is real.

"The reason they are in F1 has gone for the moment -- selling cars," he said.

"The danger is that Honda might start a domino effect. That is the nightmare scenario," he admitted to the British newspaper Express.

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HONDA F1 TEAM POSSIBLE NEW OWNER

Honda head Ross Brawn in advanced negotiations with a prospective buyer

A well-placed source said that Brawn should be in a position to confirm whether or not a deal has been done "by the end of the weekend".

The takeover would see the team's annual budget cut by at least two thirds, to £50million, which would necessarily mean a sizeable reduction in the 700-strong staff at Honda Racing's headquarters in Northamptonshire.

There is speculation that the buyer may be Dave Richards, the chairman of Prodrive, which was brought in to run the BAR team in 2001. Richards was made team principal, but was replaced by Prodrive's then managing director, Nick Fry, when BAR was taken over by Honda in 2004.

Fry is now the CEO of Honda Racing, although it is unlikely he would stay were Richards to be successful in his bid.

Richards has tried before to start up a Formula One team with Prodrive, and were even officially entered for the 2008 championship before pulling out last year.

Any takeover would be good news for Jenson Button, the British driver who suddenly found himself without a race seat in the wake of Honda's confirmation that they were pulling the plug on their Formula One enterprise.

"It came as much of a shock to me as everyone else, and the first couple of hours were the most painful," Button said. "But after that I thought, 'What's the point of being down and trying to look at every reason for it?'.

"We need to stay positive in ourselves, and as one team, because if we're not, then who is going to be interested in taking us over?"

As speculation mounted yesterday that other manufacturers were set to follow Honda's lead, Toyota settled a few paddock nerves by releasing a statement insisting they were "committed to succeeding in Formula One".

Nevertheless, the current uncertainty surrounding the future of the sport gave FIA president Max Mosley, who has long been championing the need to reduce spending drastically, all the ammunition he needed to reinforce his message.

In an open letter to the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA), Mosley revealed that the FIA is now in exclusive talks with engine suppliers Cosworth, along with Xtrac and Ricardo (XR) for the use of transmissions, that could result in an annual engine and transmission cost of less than £6 million from 2010."

The use of standardised engines has split the Formula One teams down the middle, with big budget manufacturers such as Ferrari and Toyota threatening to quit the sport of they are imposed. But that is exactly what Mosley said he would do from 2010 unless teams get behind him.

"This is a watershed," Mosley said. "It is very likely we will lose another manufacturer or two unless we demonstrate to them that expenditure has got to cease.

"It's too late for 2009 - although the teams are making a big effort to cut costs. But I'm talking about a budget of 20 percent of what it is now. £30-£40million should be competitive.

"If push comes to shove, we'll say 'Those are the rules, here's the entry form. If you don't like it then you can leave."

Formula One's commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone endorsed Mosley's point of view, calling Honda's demise a "wake up call" for the sport.

"The trouble is the teams are basically run by technicians who should probably be at home playing with their PlayStations rather than spending fortunes to win races," Eccelestone said.

The final word in put-downs went to Mosley, though, who dismissed as irrelevant one question about Ecclestone's controversial new medals system. He said: "Imagine we're all on an ocean liner and we're sinking, and people are talking about the colour of wallpaper in their cabin whereas anybody sensible would be looking for a seat on a lifeboat."

How F1 could cut costs

Possible . . .
Ban testing.
Mandatory aerodynamics (no more wind tunnels).
Race only on 10 weekends.
Use a common engine.

Radical . . . Buy second-hand cars. Drive without air conditioning. Use re-treaded tyres. Celebrate with Pomagne instead of champagne. Share designated drivers

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