2010 Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix

The Formula 1 season kicks off in Bahrain. The race consists of 57 laps around a 5.412 km circuit, totaling 308.238 km. Practice sessions begin on Friday 12 March, with qualifying taking place on Saturday afternoon. Bahrain Grand Prix will then begin at 15h00 on Sunday 14 March 2010.

Date: 14 March 2010
Venue: Bahrain International Circuit
City: Sakhir
Country: Bahrain

Formula One Driver Fitness

Formula One drivers have to be well trained, highly conditioned athletes able to cope with the forces exerted upon them whilst racing. It is not simply a matter of sitting in a car and driving, it requires physical and mental preparation for strength and stamina. So what is involved in F1 driver fitness training? And why is it necessary?

To begin, let’s answer the second question: Why? Immense forces or loadings created by F1 cars include lateral G-forces up to 4.5 G, or 25 kg on the neck of the driver. Longitudinal G-forces can also reach 4.5 G, sustained 3.5 G of cornering force in some instances, as well as braking of up to 4.5 G and acceleration of 1 G. During the course of a race a Formula One driver’s pulse rate will remain at approximately 160 beats per minute (BPM), sometimes peaking at more than 200 BPM. The driver’s blood pressure may increase by some 50 % during the race. Add to this the intense heat in the vehicle’s cockpit and you have a lot of factors that require training and preparation of the body to make it through the entire length of a race.

Depending on the F1 team, approaches to training may vary. Because of the size of a Formula One car cockpit, it is necessary that drivers do not put on too much weight whilst developing strength. Endurance is increased through cardio-vascular training including running, swimming, cycling and kayaking. Specific muscle groups, particularly the neck and chest require work, thus special equipment has been designed for F1 driver strength training.

Another factor in F1 driver fitness training is diet and nutrition. Carefully planned healthy diets ensure the correct amount of protein, minerals and carbohydrates are consumed. As drivers may loose some 2 to 3 liters of water while racing, it is vital that they drink plenty of water prior to racing. All in all the physical endurance of Formula One drivers is quite similar to that required by a marathon runner.

Mental training is vital for Formula One drivers who need to concentrate for extended periods of time. Drivers develop extremely fine tuned sensitivity, to the point that they can sense minute changes in front-rear aerodynamic balance. They are trained to keep the engine at approximated 2000rpm and are able to make consecutive lap-times in a range of just 0.2 seconds through careful pacing. Throughout the race it is vital for the driver to maintain complete awareness, control stress and make important decisions.

Scuderia Toro Rosso for Sale

Formula One Scuderia Toro Rosso (Italian for Team Red Bull) has been put up for sale by joint-owners Dietrich Mateschitz and former F1 driver, Gerhard Berger. The recent announcement has put an end to rumors that have been circulating in auto racing circles for some time with regard to the fate of the team.

Dietrich Mateschitz is the man behind the successful Red Bull Formula One team, and Scuderia Toro Rosso has been considered to be Red Bull’s “B” team. With amendments to the Concorde Agreement, which will come into effect at the beginning of 2010, the collaboration between Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso will no longer be feasible. The Concorde Agreement amendment will prohibit Red Bull Racing from building cars for Scuderia Toro Rosso, prompting the decision to sell the team before 2010.

The Concorde Agreement is a contract between the motor racing events governing body, FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile), Formula One teams and Formula One Administration. The agreement dictates the terms under which F1 teams compete in races, as well as the share split of television revenues and prize money. The main purpose of the Concorde Agreement is to promote the commercial success of Formula One in a professional manner. This is achieved largely through each team meeting its obligation to participate in every race of an F1 season, thereby making the sport financially viable for broadcasters who invest a great deal in the television broadcast rights.

Confirmation of the team being up for sale has led to much speculation as to who would be in the market to buy Scuderia Toro Rosso. Possible buyers include Nicolas Todt, the manager for Sauber driver Felipe Massa and son of Ferrari’s CEO, Jean Todt, as well as A1GP chairman Tony Teixeira. The current owners have made it clear that Scuderia Toro Rosso will only be sold if it is being put into safe hands.

Scuderia Toro Rosso made a notable start to the 2008 F1 season at the Australian Grand Prix, with Sabastien Bourdais featuring prominently throughout his F1 debut race. He narrowly missed fourth-place when his car suffered engine failure with two laps to go, but nevertheless was classified in seventh place. Auto racing enthusiasts agree that with performances of this caliber, Scuderia Toro Rosso should have no problem in finding a buyer.

Auto Racing Series and Season Schedules for 2008

The racing world, in all its shapes and forms, is gearing up for the 2008 series season. Schedules have been updated, teams have confirmed drivers, and the fans have already ensured that they have a copy of the 2008 series schedules for their favourite sports. No matter what type of racing fans prefer, it is going to be a year filled with good racing and spectacular events.

In the NASCAR camp, teams are gearing up for the sixtieth year of NASCAR racing, and all its divisions have already confirmed venues and races for their 2008 series schedule. The NASCAR season runs from February to November, and the Sprint Cup Series will be kicking off the new season on the 9th of February 2008 with the Budweiser Shootout at the Daytona International Raceway. It will be the last season that Craftsman will be sponsoring the truck series and the Daytona 500 will be celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. A new series will be introduced, namely the NASCAR Nationwide Series, which will replace the NASCAR Busch Series and run from the 16th of February to the 15th of November.

The Formula One arena has a few rule changes for the upcoming year, and their season will start on 16 March 2008 with the last race taking place on 2 November. With seven teams rearing to go, it will be interesting to see how they perform under the new rules. The changes that have been made to the rules include Bridgestone being the 2008 – 2010 official tyre sponsors, the installation of a standard Electronic Control Unit, gearboxes have to remain in the cars for four Grand Prix and changes will be penalised, new restrictions of aerodynamics changes during the season and engine changes, the ban on traction control, and the banning of tyre warming blankets.

The Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing season for 2008 will run from 9 March to 26 October. Two minor changes have been made to the 2008 series schedule, with the Grand Finale being held in Valencia on the 26th of October, instead of the 2nd of November as previously planned, and the Portugal race being moved forward from the 20th to the 13th of April.

January 25th is the date for the first race of the 2008 World Rally Championship Season that will finish at the Wales Rally GP, which is held between the 28th to the 30th of November. Very small changes have been brought forward, in the interest of the public. The term “leg” will from now on be called “day”, and each day the running order will be selected according to the classification of the event.

Other racing organisations such as the Drag Racing circuit and the National Hot Rod Association are also preparing to start their new seasons. With so many racing schedules and noteworthy racing taking place, it is going to be a tough choice to decide which to attend. The year 2008 is going to be a spectacular racing season, where new legends will be made and memorable races will be recalled and spoken of for years to come.

Auto Racing Events

A1 Grand Prix

A1 Grand Prix is a new international motor racing series that conducted its first full season in 2005. Although open-wheel cars somewhat similar to those used in Formula One and Indy car racing are used, there are significant differences between A1 racing and other types of auto racing. The main difference is that drivers compete for their nation instead of for a private team or constructor. Each competing nation uses identical cars, with the hope that this will provide a level playing field for drivers to compete in. The main points of A1 racing are that driver skill should be the determining factor for success, and that one of the participating nations will be awarded the championship at the end of each racing season.

A1 racecars are identical mechanically, each comprising a Lola-designed chassis weighing 600kg and shod with Cooper 370/660R13 racing slicks. The engine, built by Zytek, is a 3.4 litre V8 engine with performance limitations that can be circumvented by the driver by pushing a “boost button” on the steering wheel. Although 30 franchises were made available before the first season of A1 racing in 2005-06, 25 nations ended up taking part. Each team has 2 drivers and teams are free to change their drivers from race to race. The top 10 placed teams in each race are awarded points, on a decreasing scale, with the winning team receiving 10 points, second place 9 points, and so on down to tenth place which receives a single point. In addition, one extra point is awarded to the team that sets the fastest lap of race day. These points are awarded to the nation, not the driver. Prize money awarded ranges from $10,000 to $300,000.

The very first A1 Grand Prix race was the A1 Grand Prix of Nations Great Britain, which took place on September 25, 2005 at the historic Brands Hatch circuit in Kent. The A1 format calls for “race weekends” comprising two individual races to be held in a total of 12 rounds, making up 24 races in total. The first A1 Grand Prix world championship was awarded to A1 Team France.

In the inaugural 2005-06 racing season, A1 Grand Prix races took place at racetracks including the Dubai Autodrome in the United Arab Emirates, the Shanghai International Circuit in China, EuroSpeedway Lausitz in Germany and Laguna Seca raceway in the USA.

Formula One Grand Prix

Formula One auto racing is one of the longest running series of auto racing. What is considered to be the World Drivers Championship and World Constructors Championship was organized in the late 1940s with the first formal F1 race being run in 1950. Argentine driver Juan Manuel Fangio was the dominant driver in F1’s first decade, winning the championship 5 times. The decade of the 1960s belonged to British and Commonwealth drivers. Team Lotus featured legendary drivers such as Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Jack Brabham and Graham Hill. As F1 cars continued to improve technologically, safety issues began to become a source of concern. Various restrictions were put on features of the cars’ design, for example the banning of turbocharged engines in 1989 and of various traction and suspension aids in 1994. Formula One racing is known to be the most expensive form of auto racing. This is due to the requirement that each team construct the chassis for its cars. Only then can engines made by manufactures such as BMW, Honda or Ford Cosworth be added to complete the cars. Another major expense is the deposit new F1 teams must place with FIA, the sport’s organizing body. This $50 million fee is gradually repaid over the course of the racing season, but as an “entry fee” it’s some chunk of change! These days, Formula One events are run in countries around the world. Even China and Bahrain have hosted recent races. Drivers such as Fernando Alonso, Kimi R�ikk�nen and Juan Pablo Montoya vie to become the next legendary Formula One champion, succeeding the modern era’s most successful driver, Germany’s Michael Schumacher.

The 2006 Formula One season contains 18 races beginning with the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 12 and ending with the Brazilian Grand Prix on October 22.

The 2007 Formula One season is scheduled to contain 21 races beginning with the Australian Grand Prix in March and winding up with the Brazilian Grand Prix in October. Some of the notable “non-country” races on the schedule include the European Grand Prix and the Pacific Grand Prix. Grand Prix races will also be held in San Marino and Monaco.

Rally

Rally racing is an immensely popular form of automobile racing that takes place on public roads, off-road trails and in some cases uncharted desert wastes. Rallying is done with customized production cars specifically modified to handle anything and everything that could happen on any sort of surface.

This exceptional motorsport is very different than the NASCAR or Formula One-style circuit racing many people are familiar with. The participants in a rally race compete in a point-to-point format where drivers and their co-drivers (or navigators) “rally” to a set of points, leaving in regular intervals from set starting points. Rally is also unique in that races take place on all types of road surfaces and in all weather or climate conditions. Asphalt (tarmac), gravel, sand, snow & ice; all surfaces are valid and sometimes rally racers encounter more than one on a single rally. You can find rallies being run in every month of the year and in every climate, from bitter arctic cold to drenching monsoon rain to scorching desert heat.

A typical rally course consists of a sequence of relatively short (up to about 50 kilometers) timed “special stages” where the actual competition takes place, and un-timed “transport stages” where the rally cars must be driven under their own power to the next competitive stage within a generous time limit. The need for the cars to be driven on public roads in the un-timed stages means that they must be “street legal”, and this factor adds to their popularity with rally fans. Generally a rally will have 20 drivers and 20 co-drivers competing. Rally racing is also a great entry-level sport for amateur racers, as few modifications need to be made to most production cars in order for them to compete in a car rally.

Dozens of Rally Racing events take place around the world. Some of the more notable car rallies are the Monte Carlo Rally, the Acropolis Rally, the Paris Dakar Rally, the Carrera Panamericana and of course the World Rally Championship.

IndyCar

IndyCar is most often used as a generic term for open-wheel auto racing in the United States National Championship, and comes from the name of the Indianapolis 500, the best known and long most-popular open-wheel auto race in North America. There are many drivers competing in a single race and can be up to 50. Points awarded range form 50 points to the winner and scales down to 10 points to the one in 33rd place. Prize money ranges from about $3 000 to about $300 000.