gear box change for Rubbens

According to Auto Motor und Sport, Rubens Barrichello will drop five places down the Malaysian Grand Prix grid because his gearbox has had to be changed.

The Brazilian's team boss Ross Brawn admitted prior to the weekend that he is concerned about the reliability of the BGP 001's transmission.

Referring to the gearbox, which after the switch from Honda to Mercedes power for 2009 had to be tweaked, he said: "For the moment that is our achilles heel. ”

"We are not yet over that mountain," he added.

Source: GMM
© CAPSIS International

 

Lewis Hamilton's nightmare run with FIA stewards continued in Malaysia, having already been retrospectively disqualified from the Melbourne results and fined for speeding.

After his morning practice pitlane speed infraction, the McLaren driver was once again caught over the limit in the second session, costing him a further 900 Euros.

BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica was also reprimanded by the stewards in Malaysia for setting a fastest sector time after ignoring yellow flags.

Niki Lauda will this weekend sit out a second consecutive Grand Prix. The triple world champion could not attend the Melbourne season opener after damaging his hip in a fall whilst walking his dogs.


His replacement as an expert pundit for German television RTL this weekend in Malaysia will be Ralf Schumacher, the veteran of 182 Grand Prix who last raced for Toyota in 2006.

E.A, Source: GMM
© CAPSIS International

 

Brawn GP will have to pay more to McLaren Mercedes if it wants to use the team's Kinetic Energy Recovery System later in the season.

The former Honda team is currently not running the new energy-reuse technology, having focused over the winter on surviving and accommodating the 2009 car for a Mercedes engine.

A side-effect of the dash to accommodate a different engine is that the BGP 001 package is currently running heavier than Brawn would like.

"That makes it quite difficult to install KERS," team boss Ross Brawn told reporters at Sepang on Friday.

The Briton admitted that his current commercial arrangement with McLaren and Mercedes is for engines only.

"We have had some tentative discussions about KERS but it is a little bit early for us to engage properly on that," Brawn added.

Source: GMM
© CAPSIS International

 

Fernando Alonso and Bernie Ecclestone have added salt to McLaren and Lewis Hamilton's gaping wounds.

Amid the Watergate-like scandal surrounding an initially innocuous stewards inquiry in Australia, Alonso at Sepang said he encountered the British team's lying when he raced for McLaren alongside Hamilton in 2007.

Asked if the affair reminds him of Hungary 2007, when he and Hamilton were locked in a controversy over a qualifying pitlane incident, he answered: "Of course it reminds me of 2007.”

"This is not the first time they have been to the stewards, it is not the first time they have lied to the stewards, so sooner or later they had to be caught and punished," Alonso is quoted as saying by Diario AS.

Germany's Bild newspaper made light of the saga by publishing a photo of Hamilton with a photo-shopped Pinocchio-style nose, above the headline 'The lying champion'.

Bernie Ecclestone told the SID news agency he could not believe Dave Ryan had been suspended, admitting he suspects the McLaren veteran is a ‘scapegoat’.

"Dave Ryan is only an employee. Does he act on his own?" the F1 Chief Executive is quoted as saying.

David Coulthard told Bild that controversial episodes like this often mark out the differences between good drivers and great ones.

"There are always the drivers who see things only for themselves," the Red Bull advisor and TV pundit said. "Ayrton Senna was one, Michael Schumacher as well, and Lewis is probably made the same way."

Source: GMM
© CAPSIS International

 

Man, Alonso really took a cheap shot at McLaren there.

I keep forgetting Brawn doesn't have KERS. Maybe that's why they're so fast, although Sepang has been said to favor cars equipped with KERS.

 

Wow. DC bashing schumi, senna, and lewis. Hmmm. I'm sure these three would have a different perspective that goes something like this: "There are always the drivers who are envious (and thus critical) of the great drivers and who never win a championship," the former [ ] time-world champion said. "DC was one and Bernie Ecclestone is probably made the same way."

 

Cheap shot? He could have said much more I'm sure... He was asked a question and answered it.

I guess he could have lied... Oh, that's right he is not a part of the McLaren team...

 

oohhhh Gary on the offensive let the smack talk begin