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Jean Todt is the new FIA president after comfortably winning Friday's election in Paris.The former Ferrari team principal had been up against former world rally Ari Vatanen for the top job within motor racing's governing body.Todt got 135 votes compared to Vatanen's 49. There were 12 abstentions or invalid votes.The entire voting procedure was supervised by an external Huissier de Justice, the French state-appointed public witness.The victory means he will succeed outgoing president Max Mosley.
Below is Jean Todt's candidacy list:
President of the Senate
Nick Craw, President, Automobile Competition Committee for the US (USA)
Deputy President Automobile Mobility & Tourism
Brian Gibbons, Chief Executive, New Zealand Automobile Association (New Zealand)
Deputy President Sport
Graham Stoker, Council Chairman, Motor Sports Association (UK)
Senate Members
Hernan Gallegos Banderas, President, Automovil Club del Ecuador (Ecuador)
HH Tunku Mudzaffar bin Tunku Mustapha, Chairman, Automobile Association of Malaysia (Malaysia)
S.H. Rudolf Graf von der Schulenburg, President, Automobilclub von Deutschland (Germany)
Carlos Slim Domit, Patron, Asociación Mexicana Automovilistica (Mexico)
Jainchang Yan, Deputy President, Federation of Automobile Sports of China (China)
Mobility Vice Presidents
Carlos Barbosa, President, Automovel Club de Portugal (Portugal)
Victor Dumot, President, Touring and Automobile Club of Paraguay (Paraguay)
Ignacio Gonzalez Fausto, President, Asociación Mexicana Automovilistica (Mexico)
Gus Lagman, President, Automobile Association Philippines (Philippines)
Franco Lucchesi, Delegate to the FIA, Automobile Club d'Italia (Italy)
Jorge Rosales, President, Automobile Club of Argentina (Argentina)
Danijel Starman, President, Avto-moto zveza Slovenije (Slovenia)
Sport Vice Presidents
José Abed, President, Organizacion Mexicana del Deporte Automovilistico Internacional (Mexico)
Michel Boeri, President, Automobile Club de Monaco (Monaco)
Morrie Chandler, Honorary President, MotorSport New Zealand (New Zealand)
Enrico Gelpi, President, Automobile Club d'Italia (Italy)
Carlos Gracia, President, Real Federación Española de Automovilismo (Spain)
Mohamed ben Sulayem, President, Automobile and Touring Club for United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Surinder Thatthi, Automobile Association of Tanzania (Tanzania)
Jenson Button wins the World Championship in Brazil after a stunning drive where he finished 5th, enough for the Briton to claim the championship. It made him the 10th Briton to take the title, and marked the first time England has celebrated back-to-back drivers' champions. At the same time, his success was more than sufficient to cement the constructors' crown for Brawn, a unique and historic achievement in their first season.
Other F1 News
Renault Hearing
Renault have been disqualified from the FIA Formula One World Championship, with the ban suspended for two years, after the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) found them guilty of conspiring to cause a deliberate crash in last year's Singapore Grand Prix.Investigations by the Council and by Renault found that team boss Flavio Briatore and executive director of engineering Pat Symonds, both of whom have now left the team, planned the crash with driver Nelson Piquet in order to benefit the race strategy of Fernando Alonso, who went on to win. Alonso was not aware of the conspiracy, which was known only to Briatore, Piquet, Symonds and an additional unidentified witness.
In addition to banning Renault, the WMSC handed out hefty individual penalties to Briatore and Symonds. Neither will be allowed any involvement in FIA-sanctioned motorsport, Briatore indefinitely and Symonds for the next five years. Piquet, who was dropped by Renault in July, was granted immunity from sanction for volunteering his evidence in the investigation.
For all the news on the latest Driver line-ups for 2010 - click here
2010 teams discussion - click here
Renault have been summoned to an extraordinary meeting at the World Motor Sport Council to answer claims that they caused a deliberate crash with former driver Nelson Piquet in order to help teammate Fernando Alonso win the inaugural Singapore GP last year.
Dubbed "CrashGate", the incident which seems to suggest Renault were race-fixing the event to aid them to victory has already been frowned upon in the past, as the resulting Safety Car caused mayhem in the pits.
Amongst those affected was Felipe Massa who, without the carnage in the pit stop that wouldn't of occurred if the crash never happened, would almost certainly be World Champion now instead of Lewis Hamilton.
Should the Renault team's result be removed from the Singapore GP too, it is possible that Nico Rosberg could be handed the race victory, depending on if the FIA decide to move everyone up a place.
Whilst it has not been confirmed, it is highly expected that the new source of evidence revealed to the FIA is from Nelsinho Piquet himself, who just recently had an explosive falling out with team boss Flavio Briatore.
Should Renault be found guilty of any race-fixing, the punishment is limitless, and likely to match or even exceed SpyGate from two years ago.
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.:: CrashGate - September 21st ::.
In an eerily similar fashion like Honda last year, BMW have announced they will leave the sport at the end of the season.
Last year, Honda announced an emergency press conference the day before they quit, and today BMW did the same thing.
Citing "current circumstances in motor sport", the Hinwil squad, that took over Sauber's company in 2005, announced they could no longer continue.
The team was well known for announcing the plans to win a World Championship by their 4th season - a target they almost reached in only their 3rd season.
In 2006, they wanted to score consistently, a target they reached. In 2007, they wanted to finish 3rd in the constructors championship - a target they exceeded when McLaren were excluded. In 2008, they wanted to win a race - a target they reached with Kubica's victory in Canada, and also almost came to World Championship victory - only falling out of contention in the penultimate race.
However in 2009 they wanted to fight for a World Championship. They were only the second team to start work on their 2009-spec car, but so far have only amassed 8 points - whereas the only team to actually start building their car before them - ironically Brawn GP, who used to be Honda - have over 100 points more.
BMW-Sauber were also the team that pushed for the introduction of KERS, even though no other team wanted to use it. Eventually, mid-way through the 2009 season they dropped the eqipment after they could not get it to work successfully.
Such has been the disappointment of 2009, this year is set to be the first time the Williams team - whom BMW supplied engines to from 2000 to 2005 - finishes ahead of them in the constructors championship.
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BMW announce they will leave F1
Renault has been suspended from the European GP after Fernando Alonso's wheel fell off during the race from not being fitted on properly.
This means the French squad will not appear again until the Belgian GP at the end of August.
Alonso, who had been on pole, was released by the lollipop man too early and that meant the front right tyre did not have the sufficient time to be placed on properly.
As a result, Fernando had to retire after the wheel fell off, damaging the sidepod of the car.
It was frowned upon even more so given the events of just last week, where 18 year old Henry Surtees was killed during an F2 race as a result of a loose tyre.
Renault have confirmed they will appeal the decision.
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Hungarian GP Thread
Felipe Massa has suffered a cut above his left eye, bone damage to the skull and a brain concussion after a piece of debris from what appears to be Rubens Barrichello's car hit the younger Brazilian on the head.
As a result, he will not compete in today's Hungarian GP, an event in which he has just one points finish in six visits.
Massa underwent surgery for the injuries and will remain in intensive care under observation for "an undisclosed amount of time" to ensure the best recovery.
Afterwards, word from the hospital was that the Brazilian was in a "serious, life-threatening but stable" condition, which later became a "stable and satisfactory" condition.
The incident comes just 6 days after F2 driver Henry Surtees was killed after being hit in the head by a tyre during a race at Brands Hatch.
Massa will not be replaced this weekend, and it is still unknown as to when he will make his return, if ever.
He was in an induced coma until Sunday morning, and CT scans later today will tell us Massa's current condition. Afterwards, he will be placed in an artificial coma for the next 48 hours to help in his recovery.
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Hungarian GP Thread
Formula Two driver Henry Surtees has been sadly killed during the 2nd race at Brands Hatch today.
Henry, son of former F1 World Champion John Surtees, was racing when a loose tyre from another car which had just crashed came across the track and hit him in the head.
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Toro Rosso confirmed today that Sebastien Bourdais will no longer race for the Italian team.
The 4-Time ChampCar Champion impressed in his debut, running 4th until an engine failure dropped him to 7th, and had a string of unfortunate incidents that cost him some more points, including a potential podium in Spa when on the last lap he dropped from 3rd to 7th, a stall on the Italian GP grid in 4th, and a controversial penalty in Japan cost him a points finish as well.
In 2009 though, the Frenchman has been less than impressive. Out-qualified by his rookie teammate seven races to two and lacklustre races mean Bourdais' time was going to be limited.
No replacement has been announced; however it is expected that Formula One will see its second Spanish driver on the grid in the form of 19 year-old Jaime Alguersuari.
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After being told that they are not officially entered into the 2010 season, and that they have no decision on technical regulations for next year, FOTA have announced that plans to breakaway from Formula One have resumed.
A breakdown in communications between FOTA and the FIA came to a head yet again earlier this week when Charlie Whiting stated FOTA were merely "observers" to the meetings for regulation changes of 2010, and that their entries into next year's championship were not official - contradictory to the announcement made by the FIA on June 24th.
F1PU has covered the entire story as it has unfolded, and you can find it in the link provided below.
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FOTA will no longer continue their persuit of a breakaway championship after an agreement was made with the FIA on Wednesday.
Max Mosley will not stand for re-election of Presidency of the FIA, meaning a new leader will be named in October.
Other details of the agreement are yet to be publicised; however the F1PU will keep updated with the news as it happens.
In a critical day for Formula One, all of the current 10 teams have been granted a place in next year's season - but five of them must drop their conditional offers by next Friday in order to confirm their place.
Williams and Force India were already guaranteed places on the grid after lodging unconditional entries, but despite their conditional entries, Ferrari, Toro Rosso and Red Bull Racing were all given guaranteed places on the grid.
All three teams have come out and stated that their entries are still conditional, regardless of what the FIA says.
Campos Grand Prix, Manor Grand Prix and USF1 are the three new teams from a selection of 15 who have been granted places in the 2010 season, although the teams that failed to make the cut are still in discussions with the FIA should any of the current FOTA teams fall out of the Entries list.
The story continues.
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Alexander Mosley, 39 year-old son of FIA President Max, has been found dead.
He was an economist in his life, and currently his body has yet to be formally identified.
The FIA has already offered the Mosley family their condolences for their loss.
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The fallout from Australia gets worse for the Woking team.
McLaren have been summoned by the World Motorsport Council to asnwer to 5 charges of bringing the sport into disrepute.
It comes after Trulli was unfairly penalised when David Ryan and Lewis Hamilton were found to have "deliberately mislead" the race stewards regarding a pass under the safety car at the end of the Australian GP.
Trulli had originally fallen off the track, to which Hamilton passed him. Under safety car rules, this is acceptable. However, Trulli then re-took Hamilton later on in the next lap. Ryan told Hamilton to tell the race stewards he was not given the call to let Trulli pass, and to instead say he was distracted by a message on his dashboard.
However, he was indeed told to give the place back to Trulli, and despite the recordings being available, Ryan and Hamilton still went with their original stories.
The 5 counts that the McLaren team face are:
* on 29 March, 2009, told the stewards of the Australian Grand Prix that no instructions were given to Hamilton in Car No. 1 to allow Trulli in Car no. 9 to pass when both cars were behind the safety car, knowing this statement to be untrue;
* procured its driver Hamilton the current World Champion, to support and confirm this untrue statement to the stewards;
* although knowing that as a direct result of its untrue statement to the stewards, another driver and a rival team had been unfairly penalised, made no attempt to rectify the situation either by contacting the FIA or otherwise;
* on 2 April, 2009, at a second hearing before the stewards of the Australian Grand Prix, (meeting in Malaysia) made no attempt to correct the untrue statement of 29 March but, on the contrary, continued to maintain that the statement was true, despite being allowed to listen to a recording of the team instructing Hamilton to let Trulli past and despite being given more than one opportunity to correct its false statement;
* on 2 April, 2009, at the second stewards' hearing, procured its driver Hamilton to continue to assert the truth of the false statement given to the stewards on 29 March, while knowing that what he was saying to the stewards was not true.
The FIA has already stated McLaren could face further punishment, but that Hamilton himself would not face any penalties after being put in an "impossible" position.
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- Trulli Penalised, until Hamilton found "misleading" the Race Stewards
- LiarGate Thread
Formula One rip-roars into the new era as the 2009 season opener is just a mere week away!
Of course, by now you know that the F1PU is the only place to come for all the latest as the season begins.
You can already give your thoughts and opinions on the Australian GP as the countdown to the race reaches the end, and the F1PU Predictions Championship returns as bloodling looks to retain the crown he won in 2008.
So get ready: The Chain is back, and it's GO, GO, GO! FAAAAAAAAAAAAAANTASTIC!
Official confirmation of the Honda takeover was made Friday morning, as Ross Brawn now takes full control of the team.
The team, which will now be known as Brawn GP, contains a predominantly white livery along with an illuminous yellow and black addition.
Rubens Barrichello, who was predicted by most to be replaced by Ayrton Senna's nephew Bruno, stunned many by keeping his seat and so will improve on his 271 GP total in 2009.
For more, including the official website of Brawn GP, check out the story here.
Honda have given the green light for a Ross Brawn and Nick Fry-lead management buyouy of the Formula 1 Team.
After months of speculation as to whether the team would make the 2009 grid and plenty of rumours surrounding the likes of Slim and Branson buying Honda, the news today means the Brawn/Fry takeover bid mentioned at the top of 2009 will see the team take its place in the 2009 season, with enough finances to see them through the 17 races.
Not only does this give the team a year to now find a suitable buyer, it also means Jenson Button will be back on the grid to improve on his 153 GP career.
Bruno Senna is expected to take the 2nd seat, although Barrichello is not completely out of the running.
For more on the story, check out this thread.
Sir Richard Branson could be making his return to Formula One - this time though, taking over the Honda team.
Virgin Mobile was a sponsor for the Jordan team in 2002, but besides that Branson has had no proper jump into F1 until now.
Honda have confirmed the bid has been made and, if successful, means Jenson Button will be back on the 2009 grid, most likely to be joined by Bruno Senna.
For more on this story, check here.
After a long break, the launch season continues with the RB5 - the last of the planned car launches.
Sebastian Vettel looks to continue on from his fantastic full rookie year, in where driving for his new team's sister outfit took a victory in the wet Italian GP - a victory that came before the A team's first win!
Alongside him will be Mark Webber, who will be starting his 3rd season in the team and 5th overall in the outfit (previously known as Jaguar).
To see the releases of the BMW, Renault, Williams, McLaren, Toyota and Ferrari (the latter of which revealed their challenger almost a month ago now), check this thread out.
NOTE: As this is the last of the planned launches, coverage of Toro Rosso, Force India and (in the case of a buyout) Honda's releases may not gain front page headlines. Please refer to the linked thread in order to keep up with any updates.
USF1, an American-based Independant team, is looking to enter the Formula 1 circus for 2010.
Fronted by Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor, the base would be in North Carolina and from there, they would build their own chassis.
No official entry has been lodged as of yet, however it is believed all rival teams have welcomed the arrival of the team should they officially enter.
For more on the story, check the board. (Links are not working right now)
The early favourites for the 2009 season, BMW, revealed their car today in which they hope that their 4th year allows Dr. Mario Thiessen to tick the 4th target off the list - a Championship.
In 2008, BMW were the first to test out KERS and in the early stages looked to be the Championship favourites.
Since then, the talks have died down, but the hope hasn't.
To see more pics, along with the releases of the Renault, Williams, McLaren, Toyota and Ferrari, check out this thread.
