The Hindu Business Line : F1 to kick-start this weekend

A NEW Formula 1 (F1) season is all set to kick-start in Melbourne on Sunday. The teams are ready with new cars, some new drivers and another year's challenge. The drivers are all ready to burn rubber and metal and let their cars go vrooooooooommmmm.

So what's new, you might wonde. It happens every year. Well, yes, but this year the sport has new drivers, new rules and regulations and a new venue too. There's all the excitement over the Indian presence — Narain Karthikeyan will make his F1 debut as rookie driver for team Jordan; Tata Motors and Bharat Petroleum's Speed brand of petrol will enter the F1 circuit as his sponsors. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will provide software support for Ferrari in areas, including car electronics, safety, aerodynamics, trouble-shooting, during and in between races.

The other rookie drivers debuting this year include Narain's teammate Tiago Monteiro, and Christijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher for Minardi.

A lesser-known fact about this year's F1 season is the changes in rules and regulations with regard to qualifying, tyres and engines.

There will be one qualifying race on Saturday afternoon and another on Sunday morning before the main race. It will be a single lap qualifying, as in 2004, with the cars going out in reverse order; that means the car which came first in the previous race will be going out last and vice versa.

In the qualifying race, which will take place on Sunday morning, the car which timed the fastest lap on Saturday's qualifying will go out last and the car with the least time will come out first.

A team will be allowed to use one set of tyres per race. Earlier, the teams were allowed to use three to four sets of tyres. They have to use one set of tyres for both qualifiers and the main race. A team will be allowed to change tyres only if it is damaged or punctured.

Apart from one set of tyres, the drivers will have access to one set of wet tyres also. The driver will be allowed to use the wet tyres only if the racetrack is declared wet by the race director.

Another change is about the use of engines. Till last year, a team could use one engine per weekend. But this year they will have to use one engine which should last them two weekends, which is equal to a distance of 1,500 km.

In case the drive requires a new engine before a qualifying session then he will drop 10 places in the starting line-up or grid position for that race. In case a driver needs a new engine before the start of the race then he will have to start at the end of the pack.

We are going to see a new venue this year in the F1 calendar. Last year, the two new venues were Bahrain and China. This year Turkey is the new venue. The race in Turkey will be held on August 21. The race will run anti-clockwise which is the third race in the calendar to do so. The other two are Brazil and San Marino.

During the practice sessions on Friday, team McLaren were on top, finishing first and second. Pedro de la Rosa and Kimi Raikkonen clocked 1 minute 25.676 seconds and 1 minute 25.376 seconds, respectively. Nick Heidfeld of team Williams BMW came third, clocking 1 minute 25.940 seconds. The reigning world champion Michael Schumacher of Ferrari finished fourth, clocking 1 minute 28.081 seconds. Juan Pablo Montoya of McLaren came fifth, clocking 1 minute 26.227 seconds.

Narain Karthikeyan was fined for overspeeding in the pit lanes. While the maximum speed allowed is 80 km/hour, Narain touched 86.2 km/hour.

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F1 to kick-start this weekend

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