Winter testing kicks off at Barcelona

The first test since the conclusion of the 2008 season got underway on Monday, with all but one team present. It was Toyota that sat out whilst the rest of the pack started their preparations for the 2009 season, by testing new regulations and evaluating new drivers at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona

Toro Rosso’s fight for race seats was brought to the front of the time sheets and Takuma Sato set the fastest time of the day, a 1:20.763, three tenths faster than Sebastien Buemi in the sister STR. The Italian team will continue their driver evaluation into tomorrow, where Sebastien Bourdais will join the battle. Alex Wurz was in a modified RA108, and set the third fastest time for Honda ahead of the McLaren test drivers, Pedro de la Rosa and Gary Paffett. Robert Kubica and Christian Klien set the sixth and ninth fastest time in a radical concept BMW F1.09 car. Five-time rally champion, Sebastien Loeb, took the to wheel of the Red Bull RB3, and finished seventh fastest. Test drivers Luca Badoer and Mark Gene were out for Ferrari and tried out their KERS and former test driver for Spyker, Giedo van de Garde, was driving for Renault. Bruno Senna finally made his first appearance in an F1 car, sharing the Honda RA1O8 with fellow Brazilian and Renault test driver, Lucas di Grassi.

Testing continues into Tuesday at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Canadian GP negotiations come to an end

It has been announced today that negotiations with Bernie Ecclestone over next years Canadian Grand Prix have come to an end. After a shock move in October, the Montreal race was dropped off the second provisional calendar, despite the huge fan base in Canada.  A glimmer of hope for the event was offered following the withdrawal of the French Grand Prix, but the local government could not afford the amount Ecclestone was demanding for the race.

The Mayor of Montreal, Gerald Tremblay, released a statement saying: “Despite our endeavours and those of the business community, the unreasonable demands of Formula One exceeded the taxpayer’s ability to pay.” The local minister of tourism added: “We worked very hard over the past few weeks to ensure there would be a grand prix in Montreal, while staying fiscally responsible. We cannot meet Mr. Ecclestone’s unworkable demands.”

This move leaves no races in North America for the 2009 season and, providing no more events drop out before the final calendar is released in December, just 17 rounds of the world championship.

Shootout at Barcelona for Toro Rosso seats

Three drivers will be joining Scuderia Toro Rosso for their first testing duties of the off-season. Sebastien Bourdais, Sebastien Buemi and Takuma Sato will be under evaluation for the two race seats available at the Italian team, who waved goodbye to their star driver, Sebastian Vettel, at the end of the season.

Four time champ car champion, Bourdais, came under pressure mid-season for not matching up to Vettel’s results, and may now get the boot from the team if he is out-performed at the upcoming test. His rivals (Red Bull third driver, Buemi, and Sato, who also tested for STR in September following the collapse of his Super Aguri team), are both looking in very strong positions for a race seat. If rumours are to be believed, GP2 drivers Bruno Senna and Giorgio Pantano may also be in the running for a seat, and even Rubens Barrichello may be a contender for a drive, if he is forced out of Honda.

The test will take place at Barcelona next week.

Force India switch to Mercedes engines

Force India have dropped the Ferrari engines used by the team this year and by Spyker in 2007, in favour of Mercedes engines and a technical partnership with McLaren. As well as engines, they will also be using the same gearbox, KERS and other technical equipment used by the British team in 2009.

The scale of the deal looks like it will make Force India almost a McLaren B-team, much what was expected to happen to Prodrive, before the team decided not to enter the sport. The Indian outfit, however, will remain constructing their own chassis. Team owner, Dr. Vijay Mallya, has said “Force India Formula One team has been in existence for only one year, and inevitably our first season has constituted a learning period, but we said at the outset that we meant business and were not interested in merely making up the numbers.” Mallya also began to repeat similar predictions he made before the season began, saying the team will reach the podium for the inaugural Indian Grand Prix in 2011.

The announcement comes days after chief technical officer, Mike Gascoyne, and team principle, Colin Kolles, were dropped from Force India as Mallya restructured the team following a point-less season. This is the first time Mercedes will supply engines to a team other than McLaren.

China moves to April in revised 2009 calender

The FIA has released an updated version of the 2009 Formula 1 calendar. The third provisional schedule published for 2009 sees the Chinese Grand Prix moving to round three from it’s usual end of season slot. The race will be held on April 19th, seven months after the penultimate round of the 2008 season took place in China.

Other changes include the withdrawal of the French Grand Prix which leaves just 17 races, meaning the season finale at Abu Dhabi will take place two weeks earlier. The Canadian Grand Prix has not yet found a way back onto the calendar, but negotiations are likely to be taking place, so not all hope is lost. Also, the opening rounds of the season in Australia and Malaysia will start at a later time for European audiences, as will the Japanese race.

The FIA also announced that the final draft of the 2009 schedule will be released in mid-December. The full 2009 calendar can be found here.

Renault keep Alonso and Piquet for 2009

Renault have confirmed they will not change their driver line up, singing Nelson Piquet Jr for next year and Fernando Alonso until 2011. The announcement ends speculation that Piquet Jr might have been replaced after a poor season in comparison to Alonso.

Piquet was tipped to be replaced by either GP2 driver Lucas di Grassi or GP2 champion Romain Grosjean, after suffering nine retirements and being the only driver who was out-qualified by his teammate at every single round of the season. The son of the triple world champion said “Although I have had a tough year, I have learned a lot from my rookie season and I will aim to put that experience to good use next season.”

After the first few rounds of 2008, Alonso was tipped to be making a move to Ferrari or BMW for next season, and strong rumours began to go round at mid-season that he would replace Rubens Barrichello at Honda but after his back-to-back wins at Singapore and Japan, the chances of the Spaniard leaving Renault for 2009 looked unlikely.

Renault become the seventh team to announce an unchanged line-up, and the eight team to confirm their drivers for 2009, leaving just Honda and Toro Rosso with question marks.

Ferrari win constructors’ championship

Despite the heartbreak of Felipe Massa coming so close to becoming a champion and failing, Ferrari do have a reason to celebrate after winning their 16th constructors’ championship. With Massa finishing first and Kimi Raikkonen finishing third, the Italian squad easily clinched the title from McLaren by 21 points, despite BMW making it the closest constructors’ battle in recent years.

This is the teams second consecutive title since the downfall of Renault, and their eighth since 1999. The rest of their wins come from 1961, 1964, 1975-77, 1979 and 1982-83. Williams are the closest rival to Ferrari’s tally of 16, having won 9 titles.

A full list of constructors champions can be found here.