This Week in Auto Racing March 12 - 14
Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - While all three of NASCAR's national touring series take a break, the IZOD IndyCar Series and Formula One kick off their 2010 seasons this weekend. IndyCar will run on the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil for the first time, and F1 will be in Sakhir, Bahrain.
IZOD INDYCAR SERIES
Sao Paulo Indy 300 - Streets of Sao Paulo - Sao Paulo, Brazil
The IndyCar Series -- with new title sponsor IZOD -- will compete in South America for the first time with the Sao Paulo Indy 300 on the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Dario Franchitti also will begin his campaign to repeat as series champion. Franchitti ended the 2009 season with an 11-point margin over his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon. Four of his five wins last year came on road/street courses.
Seventeen races make up the 2010 IndyCar schedule, but nine of them take place on road/street circuits. The first oval race is scheduled for May 1 at Kansas -- the fifth event on the schedule.
"This year, with nine road and street courses, it's going to be very challenging," Franchitti said. "There are going to be lots of different drivers vying for wins, so we're going to have to be very focused and paying attention all the time."
In the last five years, three drivers went on to win the series championship after winning an inaugural race at a track. Dan Wheldon won the first event at St. Petersburg, FL and the series title in 2005. Dixon picked up the victory in the inaugural race at Edmonton during his 2008 championship season.
Franchitti won the first race at Iowa in 2007, the year he won his first series title. He also won both inaugural events on the '09 schedule -- Long Beach, CA and Toronto -- en route to his second championship.
Brazil will become the fourth country outside the United States to hold an IndyCar event after Canada, Japan and Australia. Canada (Edmonton and Toronto) and Japan continue to be on the schedule. The series held an exhibition race in Surfers Paradise, Australia at the conclusion of the '07 season.
Six Brazilian drivers -- Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan, Raphael Matos, Vitor Meira, Mario Romancini and Ana Beatriz -- will compete in front of their home crowd. Last month, all six competitors met with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and then toured the 2.6-mile, 11-turn Sao Paulo street course.
"I really like the race circuit," Castroneves said. "It has two really long straightaways, and it will be great for the fans. It is going to be a challenge for our Team Penske engineers to set up the car because of the changes between road surfaces, but it's going to be fun to drive."
Romancini and Beatriz are expected to make their first IndyCar starts in Brazil. Beatriz will drive a Dreyer & Reinbold-prepared car.
"This is very special for me doing my debut in the IZOD IndyCar race at my home event," Beatriz said. "It's also very special to be the first female Brazilian race car driver to race there, and it will be a great experience."
Romancini will run a full-time schedule for Conquest Racing.
"To have my first race in my hometown, in front of all my people, family and friends, will be amazing," Romancini said. "I am very excited for this moment and for sure couldn't ask for a better place."
Takuma Sato, a former Formula One competitor and native of Tokyo, and Swiss driver Simona de Silvestro also will make their series debuts this weekend.
FORMULA ONE
Bahrain Grand Prix - Bahrain International Circuit - Sakhir, Bahrain
Amid the blistering desert heat, the 2010 Formula One season gets underway this weekend with the Bahrain Grand Prix. Three new teams -- Hispania Racing Team (HRT), Lotus Racing and Virgin Racing -- will make their debuts at Bahrain, but Michael Schumacher will be the center of attention as the seven- time F1 champion returns to the sport.
After three years of retirement, the 41-year-old German is making a comeback with the newly formed Mercedes GP team. Mercedes-Benz recently acquired Brawn GP, which captured the constructors' title and drivers' championship with Jenson Button in the team's maiden season last year.
Schumacher considered a comeback with Ferrari last August to replace the injured Felipe Massa for the remainder of the season but had to rule out the possibility of a return due to injuries he sustained during a motorcycle accident earlier in the year.
When Schumacher signed a multi-year contract to drive for Mercedes in December, he was reunited with team principal Ross Brawn, who guided him to two world championships with Benetton and five with Ferrari.
"The decision to make my comeback feels like a long time ago now, and I can hardly wait for the season to get underway in Bahrain," Schumacher said. "It's funny to think that I will be competing in Formula One again when just a few months ago, I would have declined the opportunity categorically."
Right now, it's anyone's guess who the favorites are for this year's drivers' and constructors' championships.
After winning last year's title, Jenson Button has teamed up with 2008 champion and British compatriot Lewis Hamilton at McLaren. Button recorded six wins in the first seven grand prix last season when he drove for Brawn. He won at Bahrain, which was the fourth race on the '09 calendar.
"I'm really looking forward to getting into my car on Friday morning in Bahrain and knowing that I'm the world champion," Button said. "It's a responsibility and an honor, but it's something I'm going to enjoy for as long as I can."
Two-time champion Fernando Alonso has moved over from Renault to join Felipe Massa at Ferrari. Massa is healthy again after a high speed crash in qualifying at Hungary last July curtailed his '09 season.
Nico Rosberg has paired up with Schumacher to make Mercedes a perennial threat, while Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber hope to give Red Bull another stellar season.
Starting with Bahrain, teams are prohibited from refueling their cars after they have left pit lane prior to the start of the race. F1 has not enacted a fuel ban since the 1993 Australian Grand Prix.
Other rule changes that go into effect this season include: limited sets of tires for race weekends, tougher penalties for engine changes (loss of 10 starting grid positions) and a revised points system.
This will be the seventh time F1 runs at Bahrain International Circuit but the first on the track's new configuration. Bahrain recently increased to 3.914 miles (6.299 km) in length, making it the second longest circuit on the current schedule. Belgium's Spa-Francorchamps has a distance of 4.352 miles. (7.004 km).
Built on former desert, the 23-turn Bahrain track sits less than 20 miles south of the kingdom's capital city of Manama.
Vettel Wins Bahrain Pole
By Racingone.com
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel grabbed the pole for Sunday's Grand Prix of Bahrain in a Q3 last-lap dash. He will be joined on the front row by Ferrari's Felipe Massa.
Massa is making his long anticipated return to the Formula One cockpit after his horrific accident in last year's Hungarian Grand Prix that left him with a fractured skull.
His teammate Fernando Alonso will start third, joined by McLaren's Lewis Hamilton on the second row.
Mercedes Benz GP drivers Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher grabbed the fifth and seventh starting positions, respectively.
"I am satisfied with seventh place today having been away from Formula One for such a long time," Schumacher said. "By coincidence, it's the same grid position that I had when I started my career at Spa in 1991. It was fun to work with my new team and I appreciate all their efforts to support me as I get back into the swing of things. The boys are really good and I feel that we've improved step-by-step over the weekend. I'm looking forward to the race and I expect even more to come."
Red Bull's Mark Webber will start sixth.
Reigning champion Jenson Button, in his first qualifying in a McLaren entry grabbed the eighth spot from Q3. Renault's Robert Kubica will start on the fifth row after he qualified ninth.
"The first target for today was to get into Q3, so we can pleased with that part of the qualifying session, but I am actually a bit disappointed to be only ninth on the grid," Kubica said. "I did two good laps in Q1 and Q2, but on my lap in the final part of the session I had a big snap oversteer in the hairpin at turn 16 that cost me about four tenths. On the positive side, we have a clearer picture of where we stand now, and it looks pretty positive when you see the cars around us on the grid: the R30 clearly has good potential. It will be a long, tough race tomorrow but our target has to be to move up the field."
Force India's Adrian Sutil made it into Q3 and grabbed the 10th spot on the starting grid.
"I'm very happy. I think it was a great achievement to go into Q3 at the first race: our best start to the season for a long time," Sutil said. "The team should be very proud of it, I am very proud of this, so let's see how it goes tomorrow. Our goal is now to finish in the points. At the moment I'm in tenth and hopefully we can make one or two positions up as I'm the only car on the hard tire so it may be an advantage. I'm surprised that the others were on the soft tires so our decision could pay off tomorrow."
All of the drivers will have to start the Grand Prix of Bahrain with a full fuel load on board according to the new 2010 regulations. They will also start with the tires they qualified with.
This year, the top 10 finishers will net points in a race. The points were restructured to give the race winner 25 points, while the second-place finisher gets 18.
The Grand Prix of Bahrain begins on SPEED at 7:30 a.m. (ET) March 14.
IndyCar qualifying postponed until Sunday
March 13, 2010
SAO PAULO (AP) -Qualifying for the IndyCar season-opener on the streets of Sao Paulo was postponed Saturday because the main straight lacked enough grip to make racing safe.
Drivers ran practice sessions on Saturday, giving officials time to try to improve track conditions overnight. Qualifying was rescheduled for Sunday morning ahead of the race.
Drivers complained that the temporary circuit for the inaugural Sao Paulo Indy 300 has severe bumps and was dangerous on the slick front straightaway.
The straight goes through a Sambadrome, a stadium-like venue that stretches for about a third of a mile and is the only part of the track with concrete instead of asphalt. It is where the traditional Carnival parades take place every year.
It's really slippery over there and it's hard to control the car, three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves said. They need to try to fix that somehow.
The straightaway is where Sunday's 75-lap race is scheduled to start.
Scott Dixon of New Zealand led both practice sessions, turning the quickest lap in 1 minute, 31.7707 seconds on the 2.6-mile, 11-turn Anhembi circuit.
Australian Ryan Briscoe had the second-fastest time with a 1:31.9731, followed by Tony Kanaan's 1:31.9753 in front of his home crowd.
The fastest times of the day came in the first session because of colder temperatures. Dixon, Briscoe and Kanaan also led the time chart in the second session, when the heat made track conditions worse.
Drivers began complaining as soon as the first cars went out on the track for the first practice, which officially opened the newly built circuit.
In addition to the bumps, the front straight was so slippery that drivers couldn't fully accelerate without losing control.
Milka Duno of Venezuela crashed there in the morning session, and Briscoe and Brazilian rookie Ana Beatriz lost control there in the afternoon.
Kanaan said the slick straight and the bumps were making the track dangerous and urged officials to make adjustments ahead of Sunday's race.
My main concern is safety, the Brazilian said.
Defending series champion Dario Franchitti, who briefly ran off the track in the first session, strongly complained of the bumps.
We knew it was going to be bumpy, he said. But this is kind of crazy.
Franchitti, Dixon's teammate at the Target Chip Ganassi team, was 17th in the first session with a time of 1:33.8457 and 11th in the afternoon practice with a slower time.
Castroneves had the eighth fastest time with a lap of 1:32.9402, while American Danica Patrick clocked 1:34.7795 and failed to get past 22th place. She spun in the second session.
The straightaway, which also bumps, is the series' longest ever at just short of a mile and allows cars to reach nearly 190 mph.
Organizers had about three months to set up the track following the announcement that the IndyCar Series would be coming to Brazil for the first time since the CART series raced in the Latin American country from 1996-2000.
The IndyCar Series is trying to carry momentum from a thrilling 2009, when the points lead changed hands a record 15 times during the season, and three drivers reached the final race with chances to clinch the title.
Franchitti secured the trophy by winning the finale in Miami on fuel strategy, finishing just ahead of Dixon and Briscoe in the standings.