Blog / Detail

Formula 1 roundup: crazy, interesting times

Posted by Hootan Mahallati | September 16, 2009 | In formula 1 motorsports news

The 2009 F1 season has been one for the ages, what with underdogs beating the giants, big companies pulling out of the series, new names coming in, major drivers moving.....the list goes on. A few significant changes have taken place just over the past few days, so we thought we would give you a quick rundown:

- Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds fired by Renault

The two men who as managing director and executive director of engineering, respectively, have led Renault to several championships over the past few years, have been fired by Renault. This is a serious blow to the Renault F1 team and will no doubt affect the attractiveness of the team to talented drivers on the move for next year.

In case you have not been following the news, their sacking is a result of a scandal that has been in the headlines over the past two weeks. You see, Briatore fired a certain Nelson Piquet, Jr. for underwhelming performance earlier this year. A disgruntled Piquet, Jr. then let it be known that Briatore ordered him to purposely crash his car during last year's Singapore Grand Prix in order to bring out the safety car and therefore, give teammate Fernando Alonso the best chances of winning. Nelson was surely being a good solider in order to cement his 2009 drive at the time, but now that he has nothing to lose, he executed his revenge on Briatore quite successfully.

Read this post by ITV-F1's James Allen for more on this huge development.

- Lotus is returning to F1

Lotus has been granted the final spot in next year's roster of teams. A partnership between the Malaysian government (owner of national automaker Proton, itself the owner of Lotus) and a consortium of Malaysian entrepreneurs has made this move possible. The team will initially be based in England, but it will then move to a large, permanent facility in Malaysia, at the Sepang International circuit. Tony Fernandes, Funder and CEO of the Malaysian-based Tune Group, owner of the Air Asia airline, will be the team principal, while former Toyota F1 and Force India technical guru Mike Gascoyne will be the team's technical director. The Lotus team will join several other teams in using Cosworth engines.

This move coincides with Dany Bahar taking over as CEO just two weeks ago. His former job? Senior Vice President, Commercial and Brand, Ferrari SpA. In laymen's terms, Bahar led road car, after sales, F1 marketing and merchandising for Ferrari, a role he had landed after a successful marketing stint at Red Bull.

- Swiss investment group buy the BMW Sauber team

The BMW Sauber team has been sold to Swiss-based Qadbak Investments Ltd, a group which "represents the interests of certain Middle East and European-based families". The FIA has granted the BMW Sauber team (the name will obviously change soon given BMW's pullout) a standby position for the 2010 season. This means the team will be able to race in F1 if one of the currently-registered teams pulls out.

No Comments