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FIA sets diffuser appeal date

A date has been set for the FIA International Court of Appeal hearing over the diffusers on the Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams cars. It will take place in Paris on April 14 in the week prior to round three of the championship, the Chinese Grand Prix.

Stewards passed the cars of all three teams in Melbourne on Thursday, prompting protests from rivals, who believe their diffusers may be illegal. Those protests were rejected, a decision that was subsequently appealed by Ferrari, Red Bull Racing and Renault.

It means Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams could in theory be stripped of any points they score in Australia and Malaysia, should their cars be deemed outside of the rules.

What is a Diffuser?

A diffuser allows the air traveling underneath the car a place to expand and decelerate back to road speed as well as providing wake infill. As the air enters towards the front of the car it accelerates and reduces pressure. There is a second suction peak at the transition of the flat bottom and diffuser. The diffuser then eases this "high velocity" air back to normal velocity and also helps fill in the area behind the race car making the whole underbody a more efficient downforce producing device by reducing drag and increasing downforce.

Understand that a true flat bottomed car (one without a diffuser) will produce downforce in and of itself when run in rake. Essentially the entire flat bottom becomes one large diffuser. It too has two suction peaks, one upon entrance, the second at the trailing edge of the flat undertray. A diffuser acts to enhance this underside suction, it acts like a pump, encouraging better flow under the car.

One thing to note is that the rear wing interacts with the diffuser "driving" it. The proximity of the low pressure side of the rear wing encourages better flow through for the underbody.

Diffuser Controversy

Looking at the times from Qualifying, there’s no doubt that the innovative diffuser designs of Toyota’s TF109, Williams’ FW31 and Brawn’s BGP001 is making a difference to performance at Melbourne’s Albert Park.

It is clearly that Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams have found a loophole in the regulations which allows them to run a taller diffuser.

The interpretation of the regulations was very clear in the past - the cars need less downforce for safety reasons. Every time a new car built, it was to be two to three seconds slower than the previous car. That was always the intention of the FIA.

What happened here is that the three teams are going pretty clearly in the direction of downforce! And as we all knew that from 2009 on, all cars run on slick tyres, it was the intention of FIA president Max Mosley and the FIA to impose new rules to reduce downforce.
But somebody was going in the downforce direction that was forbidden by the FIA, and that is not following the principles of the rules.

2009 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX Qualifying

2008 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX Qualifying

FOTA says points change is invalid

The Formula One Teams' Association says the FIA's decision to change the scoring system for 2009 is invalid and cannot be enforced.

FOTA - which proposed an alternative points system but saw it rejected by the FIA World Motor Sport Council - claims that Formula 1 regulations do not allow such a change so close to the season unless all the teams are in agreement.

"Following the decision of the World Motorsport Council of the 17 March 2009 to change the way the drivers’ championship is awarded, the Teams gathered and unanimously agreed to question the validity of this decision," said a FOTA statement.

The regulation in question says that changes to the sporting regulations have to be "published at least 20 days prior to the opening date for entry applications for the championship concerned" unless "the unanimous agreement of all competitors properly entered for the championship or series concerned is obtained."

It added that its own suggestion that the top eight scoring system be amended to a 12-9-7-5-4-3-2-1 points distribution had the backing of the fans surveyed by FOTA when it was devising its 'roadmap' for F1's future.

FOTA had made a proposal that was carefully based on the results of a Global Audience Survey, which allowed listening to preferences of the public, and all the Teams firmly believe that these indications should be properly taken into account.

Driver with most race wins to become 2009 champion

Formula One racing’s governing body, the FIA, has approved a change to the points systems for this year’s drivers’ championship, which will see the title awarded to the driver with the most race wins. The rest of the standings, from second to last place, will be decided by the current points system.

If two or more drivers finish the season with the same number of wins, the title will be awarded to the driver with the most points, the allocation of points being based on the existing 10, 8, 6 etc. structure. The constructors’ championship is unaffected.

The FIA’s World Motor Sport Council accepted the proposal for the new system from Formula One Management at a meeting in Paris on Tuesday. An alternative proposal to change the points awarded to drivers finishing in first, second and third place to 12, 9 and 7 points respectively was rejected.

Further changes agreed by the Council included minor tweaks to the testing regulations, increased media duties for teams and drivers at races, and a cost capping option for 2010. Honda’s request to have their entry changed to the Brawn GP Formula One Team was also approved.

The World Motor Sport Council’s decisions in full:

A number of measures were agreed to help reduce costs and increase interest in the FIA Formula One World Championship.

2009 Formula One Regulations

Points

The WMSC accepted the proposal from Formula One Management to award the drivers’ championship to the driver who has won the most races during the season. If two or more drivers finish the season with the same number of wins, the title will be awarded to the driver with the most points, the allocation of points being based on the current 10, 8, 6 etc. system.

The rest of the standings, from second to last place, will be decided by the current points system. There is no provision to award medals for first, second or third place. The Constructors’ Championship is unaffected.

The WMSC rejected the alternative proposal from the Formula One Teams’ Association to change the points awarded to drivers finishing in first, second and third place to 12, 9 and 7 points respectively.

Testing

Teams will be allowed to carry out three one day young driver training tests between the end of the last event of the Championship and 31 December of the same year. Drivers are eligible only if they have not competed in more than two F1 World Championship Events in the preceding 24 months or tested a Formula One car on more than four days in the same 24 month period.

Teams can also conduct eight one day aerodynamic tests carried out on FIA approved straight line or constant radius sites between 1 January 2009 and the end of the last Event of the 2009 Championship.

Media

The FIA will publish the weights of all cars after qualifying at each Event.

For greater clarity for spectators and media, wet tyres have been renamed “intermediate” and extreme-weather tyres renamed “wet”.

On the first day of practice all drivers must be available for autograph signing in their designated team space in the pit lane.

All drivers eliminated in qualifying must make themselves available for media interviews immediately after the end of each session.

Any driver retiring before the end of the race must make himself available for media interviews after his return to the paddock.

All drivers who finish the race outside the top three must make themselves available immediately after the end of the race for media interviews.

During the race every team must make at least one senior spokesperson available for interviews by officially accredited TV crews.

A number of further amendments were adopted for the 2009 Technical Regulations. Full details available on www.fia.com.

2010 Formula One Regulations

Budgets

As an alternative to running under the existing rules, which are to remain stable until 2012, all teams will have the option to compete with cars built and operated within a stringent cost cap.

The cost cap is £30m (currently approximately €33 or $42m). This figure will cover all expenditure of any kind. Anything subsidised or supplied free will be deemed to have cost its full commercial value and rigorous auditing procedures will apply.

To enable these cars to compete with those from teams which are not subject to cost constraints, the cost-capped cars will be allowed greater technical freedom.

The principal technical freedoms allowed are as follows:

1. A more aerodynamically efficient (but standard) under body.
2. Movable wings.
3. An engine which is not subject to a rev limit or a development freeze.

The FIA has the right to adjust elements of these freedoms to ensure that the cost-capped cars have neither an advantage nor a disadvantage when compared to cars running to the existing rules.

The Honda Racing F1 Team requested to change its name to the Brawn GP Formula One Team. The WMSC accepted this request on the basis that the team is, in effect, a new entry in the FIA Formula One World Championship. The contract the team had with the FIA was to run as ‘Honda’, which they are no longer in a position to do. However, the standard fee required for a new entry has been waived.

Bill Gates is back as world's richest

The world has become a wealth wasteland. Like the rest of us, the richest people in the world have endured a financial disaster over the past year. This year the world's billionaires have an average net worth of $3 billion, down 23% in 12 months. Today there are 793 people on the list of the World's Billionaires, a 30% decline from a year ago, down from 1,125 people.

Bill Gates regained his title as the richest man in the world, with $40 billion after slipping to third last year when he was worth $58 billion. He lost $18 billion. Warren Buffett, last year's No. 1, saw his fortune decline $25 billion as shares of Berkshire Hathaway fell nearly 50 per cent in 12 months, but he still managed to slip just one spot to No. 2. Mexican telecom titan Carlos Slim Helu also lost $25 billion and dropped one spot to No. 3.

It was hard to avoid the carnage, whether you were in stocks, commodities, real estate or technology. Even people running profitable businesses were hammered by frozen credit markets, weak consumer spending or declining currencies.

The biggest loser in the world this year, by dollars, was last year's biggest gainer. India's Anil Ambani lost $32 billion - 76% of his fortune - as shares of his Reliance Communications, Reliance Power and Reliance Capital all collapsed.

Maxis iPhone 3G Plans

Maxis got the Apple iPhone 3G deal in Malaysia!

The Maxis official iPhone 3G launch will be held on March 20, 7pm, at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC), where customers who have pre-registered for iPhone 3G will be invited to the event to collect their phones.

Maxis will offer the 8GB and 16GB iPhone 3G models with four new and specially designed postpaid plans called iValue, starting from RM100 per month.

For customers who sign up for a monthly commitment of RM375 over a 24-month period on the iValue 4 plan, the iPhone 3G 8GB will be provided free of charge.

12 megapixels is enough for most folks

Olympus has declared an end to the megapixel race.

"Twelve megapixels is, I think, enough for covering most applications most customers need," said Akira Watanabe, manager of Olympus Imaging's SLR planning department, in an interview last week at the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) tradeshow. "We have no intention to compete in the megapixel wars for E-System, Olympus' line of dSLR cameras," he said.

Instead, the company will focus on other characteristics such as dynamic range, color reproduction, and a better ISO range for low-light shooting, he said.

Increasing the number of megapixels on shooters is an easy selling point for camera makers, in part because it's a simple concept for people to understand. Even though having more image resolution can enable larger prints and enlargement of subject matter through cropping, adding megapixels comes with some drawbacks.

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