The 2009 F1 season gets off to a start with the season-opener in Australia this weekend. The sport’s governing body the FIA has made a number of significant changes to the overall rules overseeing the entire season. According to the official website: “The new technical changes have 3 main objectives -  reducing the role of aerodynamics in the cars’ performance; making overtaking easier; and keeping lap times in check.”

Here are a few (not all), of the regulations and changes in rules that come into effect for the 2009 season. The rules can be broadly separated into two distinct categories – Technical Regulations – affecting the design of the cars and Sporting Regulations – inmpacting how the races will be run.

Changes in the Technical Regulations

Tyres: After ten years of seeing grooved tyres, F1 enthusiasts wil lsee thereturn of slicks. A change in nomenclature too for the tyres known as ‘standard wets’ last year are now called ‘intermediates’ and ‘extreme wets’ are called just ‘wets’. At each race the softer of the two dry compounds available and the wet weather tyres will be marked with green rings to distinguish themselves.

KERS: In a radically new approach endorsed by the FIA, teams may use Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS). Using a KERS system is not compulsory and teams are allowed to run KERS and non-KERS equipped cars at different races. KERS may give them a power boost of up to 400 kilojoules per lap which roughly equals 82bhp for 6.6 seconds, though the power could be used in different ways, although the most common way would be in the form of giving a boost to the engine for a short period of time to aid in overtaking.

Aerodynamics: The cars’ front wings may be adjusted while the car is moving a maximum of twice per lap by a maximum of six degrees. There are new restrictions on the aerodynamic shape of the cars: front wings may now be wider, rear wings are narrower and taller leaving many people disappointed with the apparent lack of aesthetic appeal of the 2009 season cars.Most of the winglets and other aero aids like barge boards, winglets, turning vanes and chimneys that used to be on the cars have been banned. Rear diffusers are more tightly limited in size and shape.
The cars must now have four onboard camera housings instead of two, so hopefully viewers should see TV pictures from a variety of different camera angles this year.

Engines: Engines may not exceed 18,000rpm (reduced from 19,000 rpm of last year). Drivers must now use the same engine for three, rather than two, consecutive events. Teams will be limited to eight engines per season – eight for each race driver and an additional four for testing. Just one team – Renault – has been allowed to make performance modifications to their engine for 2009 in order to help equalise power outputs.

Testing: In an attempt to reduce costs, the FIA and manufacturers have agreed that there will be NO testing during the entire F1 season. Any and all testing will have taken place in the pre-season. There is also a limit on 15,000 Kms of allowable testing within a calendar year.

Changes in the Sporting Regulations:

Pitlane Access during Safety Car periods: The rule stating that the pit lane is closed during a Safety Car period will be scrapped in 2009. The rule was introduced in 2007 to avoid people rushing back to the pits to refuel, possibly speeding through a danger zone, but software has been successfully developed to solve this problem. The pit lane will now remain open throughout any safety-car period, allowing drivers to refuel without penalty. However, to ensure that drivers are not tempted to speed back to the pit lane, a new software system which employs GPS and the cars’ standard ECU has been introduced. When the safety car is deployed, each driver is given a minimum ‘back to pit’ time based on his position on track. If he arrives in the pit lane before that time he will be penalised.

Points System: After a lot of hemming and hawing and a controversial decision to award the Drivers’ Championship to the driver with most wins was vetoed by the Formula 1 Teams Association (FOTA), there will be no change in the 2009 season from the previous year with the 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 points system remaining in place. The driver with the most points wins.

Pre-race weights: After qualifying, the FIA will publish the weight at which all cars are expected to start the race, giving spectators an accurate gauge of what fuel load each driver is carrying.

Calendar changes:

The debuting Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has been added to the race calendar, as part of Formula One’s expansion in the Middle East. The race will take place at the Hermann Tilke-designed Yas Marina Circuit, which is will be the final round of the 2009 World Championship on 1 November, 2009.

After being dropped in 2007 and replaced by the Fuji Speedway, the Suzuka Circuit will return to host the Japanese Grand Prix in 2009. The race will then alternate between the two circuits.

2009 will be the first Formula One season since 1958 with no Grand Prix in North America

The organisers of the French Grand Prix announced via their official website that the race would no longer be part of the 2009 season, citing “economic problems”. This will be the second time that there has not been a French Grand Prix on the schedule since the start of the World Drivers’ Championship in 1950. The only previous time was 1955.

The chat room and the news widget have made way on the front page and we plan on posting a couple of member written posts about their experiences at various motorsport events soon.

Happy New Year!
- Pat W -

Message from Don at Zeppole:

Hello Folks,

We will begin changing IP addresses today.

As our Host DNS servers require time to propagate
new addresses throughout the Internet, some of you
may have difficulty logging on for a period of time,
usually no more than 24 to 48 hours. Others may
find that they will be able to renew their connections
to news.zeppole.com or news2.zeppole.com within a
matter of hours.

In the SERVER NAME field of you client software, if you do not
use the correct URL,’NEWS.ZEPPOLE.COM’ or ‘NEWS2.ZEPPOLE.COM’,
and instead use IP address’s, or the incorrect url ‘ZEPPOLE.COM’,
when changes are made at the DNS servers at the Zeppole’s host,
you will experience connection difficulties.

Those of you using your own Domain Name, make sure you use
the correct URL also, (NEWS.YourDomainName), (NEWS2.YourDomainName).

Using either of the two correct URL’s is always recommended.

-Don Barba-
Zeppole Services

If you’re unable to connect to news.zeppole.com , please try the alternate server news2.zeppole.com in your client. The web interface is currently unavailable as well. Details and updates to follow as we know more.

As always, if you need assistance, please drop us a line .

If we know anything you’ll see a notification on the left-hand side under ‘Recent Posts’, which is repeated at the bottom of the page – or click ‘Blog’ on the menu bar.

If there’s no message here, either the downtime has just occurred and we’ve not had time to update the site, or the problem is with your connection. These updates are because we think it is best to let everyone know that the problem isn’t with their connection and to prevent panicked emails flying around!

We are lucky in that we don’t often have downtime on F1NGers, so this shouldn’t be a big issue.

Keep checking www.F1NGers.com and if you have any ideas for future development of the site, do let us know!

Finally, donations are always welcome by using the form on the left-hand side of the main page or by sending something via Paypal to funds@f1ngers.com.

See you on F1NGers!
Pat W

After all, so many of us either use, or have used Microsoft products, with varying degrees of success and/or frustration.

There are some very funny images (obviously modified) to elicit quite a few chuckles.

A look at possible answers given by F1 personalities past and present…

Mika Hakkinen McLaren

“(pause) that’s tough question” (pause) “maybe” (pause) “maybe it’s a
question you have to ask the chicken.”

David Coulthard McLaren

“It couldn’t get more blatant. He could see me coming and then just crossed straight in front of me. I had to follow it for thirteen corners, and on each one the marshalls were waving a blue flag”

Michael Schumacher Ferrari

“The chicken is allowed to move over, that is clearly within the rules.
The chicken can make one move to defend his line. But it can’t zig-zag backwards and forwards across the road. What it did was quite fair and within the rules.”

Rubens Barrichello Ferrari

When I saw the red comb on the chicken’s head, I thought it was Michael and moved over to let it pass. I’d like to dedicate the chicken crossing the road to my great friend Ayrton Senna”

Ralf Schumacher Williams

“Sh*t, that b*****d chicken tried to ruin my f*****g race- what a w*nker!”

Jenson Button Williams

“To be honest, I have seen chickens crossing the road before in F3 so I knew what to expect.”

Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton

“I am very very ‘appy for the chicken to cross the road.”

Alex Wurz Benetton

“There are some chickens who have more road to cross than others and therefore take longer to cross, it has nothing to do with the speed of those chickens”.

Johnnie Herbert Jaguar

“we are still trying to catch it to understand how it managed to cross the whole road”

Jacques Villeneuve BAR

“So what the f*** if the chicken gets run over. The chicken wanted to cross the road.”

Ricardo Zonta BAR

“It was very traumatic to see the chicken cross the road because there could have been a big accident. I’ll never look at chickens in the same way again.”

Pedro Diniz Sauber

“I saw that the chicken had left a gap and moved over to take advantage – unfortunately we touched and the chicken knocked me out of a certain eleventh place…”

Jean Alesi Prost

“The chicken had no right to block me as it was crossing. I was clearly able to cross faster than the chicken.”

Jos Verstappen Arrows

“I went off because of the stupid chicken!”

Marc Gene Minardi

“I lost radio with my team, so I did not let him pass, I thought we were competing for position”

Gaston Mazzacane Minardi

“I was not aware of the chicken behind me trying to cross the road. The blue flags were put out but not waved, and Minardis don’t have mirrors.”

Irvine, Coulthard and Villeneuve

“The way the chicken crossed the road is very dangerious and has a lot to answer for.”

Ron Dennis McLaren, Chief

“I suspect fowl play. Just another one of Ferrari’s tactics to introduce a chicken into the race. I will be protesting, as clearly an electronic aid will have been used to freeze the chicken before introducing it to the track”

Adrian Newey McLaren, Technical Director

“He appeared to be running a lot of wing”

Luca di Montezemolo Ferrari, President

“The chicken knew that it couldn’t get to the other side of the road first, it had to wait for the rooster and let it through.”

Ross Brawn Ferrari, Technical Director

“I think it is hypocritical for people to keep focussing on the actions of one chicken, when other chickens have been guilty of the same actions in the past!”

Frank Williams Williams, Chief

“There is no confirmation of the chicken crossing the road. Currently, all we know is that the chicken is at the side of the road, and it may cross or it may not.”

Patrick Head Williams, Technical Director

“Looking at the sructural rigidity of its shell, then putting that into the background, as it seems to work for the chicken, we have then to wonder about the tractive effort available with wings in various positions. I’m concerned that the regulators will be looking at these movable wings more carefully, as we haven’t been able to used them for years, but now there’s been a precedent set I think a lot of designers will be burning midnight oil.
The weight seems very low, too.”

Gerhard Berger Head of BMW-Williams F1 affairs, ex-driver

“The chicken has crossed the roads well this year. Each crossing has been handled professionally, and the crossings have gone better than we couldhave hoped for.”

Flavio Briatore Benetton, Chief

“There are chickens who cross the road and chickens that are wankers. I ama chicken that crosses the road.”

Craig Pollock BAR, Chief

“We wish the chicken the best as it progresses from one side of the road to the other. The chicken has performed well on this side of the road, andit is sad to see one of our original chickens moving on.”

Alain Prost Prost, Chief

“I ‘ad the pen ready for ‘im to sign ze contract an’ ‘e just flew…..”

Max Mosley FIA, President

“We have to find ways of slowing that chicken down and making them safer.
For that reason the FIA are changing the rules so that chickens crossingroads will be equipped with special chicken bodywork and neck supports.”

Nelson Piquet ex-driver, 3*WDC

“That chicken is not fast enough to cross the road. Its also very old andugly. I wouldnt eat it even if I was starving! I hope it gets run over by a truck.”

Olivier Groillard ex-driver

“I didn’t see him”

Schumacher fans

“Der Chicken has inferior feathers”

Hockenheim Management

“We are looking into it”

Silverstone Management

“How did he get there at all?”

Murray Walker legendary BBC/ITV F1 commentator

“I am not going to say anything in these final few laps but I do believethe chicken can now just coast to the other side of the road………..Oh
No!”

Martin Brundle ex-driver, ITV commentator

“I’d heard that this weekend, the Chuckon was going to cross the rood….
I’m all for it, so long as Cool-Thud lets him through!”

James Allen ITV pitlane reporter

“Hey guys, you’re not going to believe this, but the chicken’s on a
different strategy to the bantams.”

Murray Walker and Martin Brundle ITV

Murray: And as the lights go out, it’s GO GO GO for the duck as it dives towards…
Martin: It’s a chicken Murray.
Murray: Yes, yes, it’s a chicken, charging into the lead. I think it’s got
this race sewn up.
Martin: The chicken’s stopped, Murray
Murray: DISASTER for the chicken! This will throw the whole badger
crossing championship wide open!

Collected from various sources

Firstly, for those who already have a Last.fm profile, simply click here to join the group.

Secondly, for those who don’t, what the hell is Last.fm?

Last.fm is a music site. If you love music as I do, this site will change your life, especially if you are a big listener of music stored on your computer.

It can track the music you play on your computer and uses the data to:

• generate a personal chart;
• to recommend other music you might like;
• to generates DJ-free webstreamed radio stations, for which you can love/skip/ban the tracks;

There’s a whole lot of other stuff too, like tags and forums and song previews, but I’ll leave you to find that for yourselves – half the fun is finding the cool stuff they put on the site.

As well as all this, you can create a group for your community or interest. That’s what we did, ‘cos we’re a community or interest. For all the people who are a member of the group, their listens for the week are added up and we get a chart for the group. For every person who listens to a song, 1 listen gets added to the group chart (that’s 1 listen even if the same person listens to it 4 times, it counts people not plays, it isn’t like the personal charts).

We also have F1NGers Radio!

F1NGers Radio is directly influenced by the music our group members log to Last.fm, whether that’s their own MP3s or by using other Last.fm radio stations. Why not join us and help shape our radio station?

Before you join the F1NGers group you have to set up a profile, which is free, just go to www.last.fm and all the instructions and information you need are there. You might like to check out our individual profiles first, via the F1NGers Group and the Members link. Your charts will follow in a few days, the big weekly update happens on a Sunday, your music recommendations a day or two after that. Be patient and have faith!

Don’t want a Last.fm account but still want to listen to our radio?

That’s fine – just check out ‘On The Web’ in the navigation bar above – that page is best suited for people who want to hear F1NGers Radio but don’t want to have a Last.fm account. Careful though, if you listen via our ‘On The Web’ page as a Last.fm member, your plays won’t be registered with your Last.fm account.

This is the most addictive ‘net presence there is, after F1NGers. Prepare to lose hours of your life.

Enjoy!

The times are listed as Central European Summer Time – UTC +2 [Paris,  Berlin, Monte Carlo], so do remember to convert the times to your local timezone.

Here’s a brief overview of what a F1NGers user gets:

@ F1Ngers.com Mailbox

Personalised 2GB @f1ngers.com Mailbox powered by GMail – now includes support for Blackberry devices too.

• Everything you can do with a regular GMail account but with f1ngers.com at the end of your email !
  Think conversations, search, labels, web clips and GMail’s fantastic spam filtering. It’s all available. Honest.
• Get a three letter username @ f1ngers.com
  Want your initials @ f1ngers.com? Not a problem for us. GMail still requires a minimum of six letters. We don’t. Mind you, the shorter your username, the easier it is for spammers to guess your email address and send you crap. But then, with GMail’s excellent spam filtering, you shouldn’t have too much of a problem…

Google Calendar

• Seeing the big picture
  With Google Calendar, you can quickly add events mentioned in GMail conversations, or saved in other applications; and add other interesting events that you find online.
• Sharing events and calendars
  You decide who can see your calendar and which details they can view. Planning an event? You can create invitations, send reminders and keep track of RSVPs right inside your calendar. Organizations can promote events, too.
• Staying on schedule
  You can set up automatic event reminders, including SMS notifications, and instantly bring up anything on your calendar with the built-in search tool.

Google Docs & Spreadsheets:

Get started creating new documents, or upload your existing documents. The familiar desktop-feel makes editing easy, and the sharing tools make it easy to choose who can edit or view your files.

• Keep your documents current.
  It’s easy to make sure everyone sees the most updated version of your file, everytime. When there are multiple people editing at once, we’ll keep a record so you can see who added and deleted what, when.
• Edit your documents and spreadsheets from anywhere.
  All you need is a Web browser – your documents and spreadsheets are stored securely online. To work on documents offline, or distribute them as attachments, simply save a copy to your own computer in the format that works best for you.
• Share changes in real-time.
  Invite people to your documents/spreadsheets and make changes together, at the same time. Your sharing tools are integrated with your Gmail contact list so it’s easy to invite new collaborators and viewers within an organization.

Google Talk :

Use your @f1ngers.com to sign in to the GoogleTalk client and chat with / IM other F1NGers in real-time. You can also send a message to a user if they’re currently offline – they’ll get it the next time they login.

F1NGers Start Page :

Individually customisable start page with ability to add different modules for search / RSS / news feeds / weather / Email preview etc. Personalise it with the info you want. Move around the modules so they look the way you prefer.

Just a quick update on what’s going on behind the scenes. So far, we’re all behaving ourselves and keeping it ultra-civilized.