Dan Wheldon’s death could have sped up efforts to end the long era of open-cockpit racing.
F1′s governing body earlier this year, in response to the F1 and F2 incidents in 2009 involving Felipe Massa and Henry Surtees, tested screens and fighter jet-style canopies for possible use in the future.

Now, days after Briton Wheldon was killed when his Indycar overturned and struck catch-fencing in Las Vegas, former FIA president Max Mosley said of the canopy idea: “I think it could work.

“You’re always in danger, in an open cockpit, of objects striking the driver. It (the canopy) might also help if it’s reinforced with another roll bar, in things like the Dan Wheldon accident,” he told CNN.

“But that’s something that needs careful investigation.”

Mosley admitted that an unwanted side-effect of a cockpit canopy would be its aerodynamic effect.

“One of the troubles is that it would probably make the car quicker, which is just what we don’t want. But there are other means of slowing them down,” he said.

Yet more problems are that dirty canopies will affect driver visibility, while in severe accidents the cover might prevent marshals and doctors from extricating injured drivers.

“All of that will be looked at by a technical working group if it turns out the thing would protect the driver better,” insisted Mosley.

“What I do know is we’ve got some very clever people, looking full-time at these problems.”

More rain is headed to the already wet Yeongam venue.

With only 40 minutes to go before the scheduled race start at 3pm, plenty of earlier rain has soaked the new Korean layout and grid.

For the Hyundai support race, there was a crash on the first lap and the rest of the race took place behind the safety car as marshals struggled to clear the cars.

Fears about a safety car start for the grand prix eased along with the easing rain a couple of hours ago, but the radar is now showing more showers on the horizon.

“It feels like it is going to rain again before the race starts,” said a media source at Yeongam at 2.15pm.

F1′s governing body is investigating how Felipe Massa escaped penalty despite getting a head-start in last Sunday’s Belgian grand prix.
 
As the cars lined up on the Spa-Francorchamps grid, BBC commentator Martin Brundle noticed that the Brazilian’s Ferrari was about “two metres” ahead of its starting box.
 
And a spectator’s amateur footage, posted on video sharing website Youtube, backs Brundle’s observation, even though the race director, stewards and rival teams and drivers apparently did not notice or report Massa’s head-start.
 
The Telegraph said the FIA has launched an investigation into how Massa escaped without a drive-through penalty.
 
The report said the transponder on the floor of Massa’s F10 did not send a signal to the tarmac sensor because he was too far out of position, while the marshals did not alert the race director manually.
 
“As no further information or complaints were received before the publication of the official result on Sunday night, the classification of the Belgian grand prix will now remain unchanged,” said an FIA spokeswoman.
 
“The FIA are investigating the causes of the apparent failures in communication with race control in order to ensure a repetition is not possible,” she added.

Two touted contenders for victory in Sunday’s Turkish grand prix had a troubled afternoon practice session at Istanbul Park.

Frustrated Barcelona/Monaco winner and joint championship leader Mark Webber, although second fastest behind Jenson Button, suffered what is suspected to be a failed engine failure.

After skilfully reversing his Red Bull through a gap in the fence, the Australian then amusingly lost his temper with Turkish marshals who could not decipher his desire for a fire extinguisher to be used to chock the wheel.

2006-2008 Istanbul winner Felipe Massa, meanwhile, had the canvas showing on a set of his soft Bridgestone tyres after spinning sideways in the challenging Turn 8.

(GMM)

Note from the Editor: There were two titles for this piece, “Schumacher’s Karma catches up with him” or “Have FIA bungled with Schumacher penalty?” Either would have been appropriate, we chose the one we did because in the end it is perhaps more apt…

Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix was overshadowed by an incident involving old sparring partners Michael Schumacher, and Fernando Alonso.

Due to the spectacular crash between Karun Chandhok and Jarno Trulli at Rascasse corner, the Safety Car was called upon 3 laps from the end. The flash point came when the German veteran slid up the inside of Alonso at the final Anthony Noghes corner after the Safety Car had peeled into the pitlane for the last time.

The Formula One paddock now finds itself in the situation where Schumacher has been given a retrospective 20 second penalty and dropped to 12th position in the final classification. Fernando Alonso was reinstated to his 6th position, and we head to Turkey with the Spaniard still in touch with the seemingly untouchable Red Bull duo of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel.

However, the justification for this penalisation is hard to distinguish. It is true that Article 40.13 states: “If the race ends while the Safety Car is deployed, it will enter the pitlane at the end of the last lap and the cars will take the chequered flag as normal without overtaking”. The clarity of this rule is not in question.

There have been previous examples of this rule being enforced. The Australian Grand Prix of 2009 being one such example, where the Brawn cars of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello led the field across the line after the Safety Car had pitted following an accident between Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica. In this case, the job of the trackside marshals was to signal to the drivers that there was to be no overtaking and that they were to stay in formation. This was signified by the continued use of yellow flags and Safety Car boards at each marshal post until the Start/Finish line.

Fast forward a year and five races, and we find ourselves in a similar situation. What seems incomprehensible is that following the end of the Safety Car period, green flags were waved and a green light was shown on the overhead light gantry of the last corner. Such a contradiction in actions seems confusing to say the least.

Under FIA Sporting Regulations, a green flag signifies “that any previous danger has been attended to. The track is now clear, and drivers may proceed at racing speed and may again overtake”. Why was this signal given? The green flag completely contradicted Article 40.13, and Schumacher acted accordingly.

Based on principle alone, a driver that sees a green flag or a green light is perfectly entitled to proceed at racing speed and make an attempt at an overtaking manoevre. It is worth noting that the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg also attempted an overtake after Alonso slid on the kerbs of the final corner, but was unable to.

Such a baffling decision decreases the credibility of the FIA stewarding panel, which had proved itself to be more than capable with a string of sound decisions so far in 2010. The accusation that Damon Hill was central to the decision-making procedure does not work, as his responsibility was to ensure a fair conclusion to any racing incidents. This was a decision based on the law of the FIA.

Neither is the common misconception that the stewards could have put Schumacher back into 7th position, as under Article 16.3 of the Sporting Regulations, only three possible sanctions are legally allowed; a drive-through penalty, a grid drop for the following race, or a ten-second stop and go penalty.

It appears that Schumacher has been penalised for a communication mix-up, which is why Mercedes have attempted to appeal the decision.
Based on the precedent set by the Lewis Hamilton decision at Spa in 2008, time penalties cannot be appealed. The only conceivable outcome for Mercedes is that they can lodge a protest of the result to the FIA. A 2,000 Euro fee is attached to this and is the only option that resembles an appeal procedure in this instance.

The two underlying themes are that the large reaction to this incident reflects more on the bland nature of the race itself, and that the nonsensical decisions taken by those working in this arm of the FIA are still commonplace. Perhaps if there was no need to interpret so widely the rules that are put forth by the FIA, decisions like this would not cause such debate. With the spectacle provided by the racing being put on the backburner, the spectacle of events off track have reared their ugly head once again.

Those who believe in Karma, your time has come.

(James Rossi)

In the evening, Ferrari has hurried to clarify that the F10 problems had nothing to do with the new chassis that Felipe Massa unveiled yesterday.  As a matter of fact, they declared it was time to prepare for Bahrain, making clear that the initial tests were surmounted.

After Massa slid off the track, Vettel improved his time (1:28.162), leaving Red Bull in the third position of the timesheet.  After that lap, the red flag stopped everything; the marshals had to clean the racetrack a bit because when Massa slid off his car, the racetrack received some gravel.

A severe rain showered the racetrack again, with strong winds of 50km/h. which enjoyed the passing by of the single-seaters through the Jerez de la Frontera single-seaters.  Timo Glock did not let the command go as had been rumored and he rolled during the evening, which Lotus could not do, after Kovalainen’s incident where the front wing of the single-seater was destroyed.

Again, under the rain, Barrichello’s Williams was the one that ran more and better in the curvy racetrack of Jerez.  Meanwhile, Buemi, Hamilton, Pretrov and Glock went out to the circuit to take advantage of the last minutes of the day.

Nonetheless, they were not lucky, because again, there was a severe rainstorm that made it impossible to roll at too much rhythm.  So much so that Glock’s Virgin stopped at the first curve, finishing his session before the time.

Another day marked by the rain that altered the programmed unveiling plans and the single-seaters evolution.  Forecast are not better for tomorrow.

Thursday’s Final Times in Jerez

1. Barrichello 1:271.45 (74 lap)
2. Petrov 1:27.828 (34 lap)
3. Vettel 1:28.162 (49 lap)
4. Massa 1:28.879 (46 lap)
5. Rosberg 1:28.964 (41 lap)
6. De la Rosa 1:29.691 (8 lap)
7. Di resta 1:30.344 (33 lap)
8. Glock 1:31.557 (41 lap)
9. Hamilton 1:31.692 (44 lap)
10. Buemi 1:32.678 (43 lap)
11. Kovalainen 1:33.554 (30 lap)

Finally, the Silverstone circuit has the approval to utilize the new section of the circuit for the 2010 British Grand Prix.

The “complex stage” was originally designed for MotoGP, but when Silverstone recovered the contract to hold the British Grand Prix at Donington, it immediately approached FIA and Formula One Management (FOM) to be able to run in the new racetrack.  Today, Thursday, the FOM consented on the use of this new area, which the organizers hope will improve the view for the audience.

“The circuit was always designed for two and four wheel competitions,” explained Silverstone’s managing director, Richard Phillips. “We have been very careful, together with the marshals and pilots to insure that we are improving and increasing what Silverstone has to offer – one for the pilots and another view for the audience.”

The F1 circuit will keep most of the high-speed racetrack, but will lose Chicane Abbey, Corner Bridge and the left in Priory –all of which have been left untouched to provide an alternative design.  Contrary to this, the drivers will now turn to the right at the Abbey, before entering a 90 degree right turn that opens in two at the left to again go to the existent National Circuit and, finally, the F1 circuit.  It is expected that the extra length will increase the F1 times per lap in four seconds.

The third day began with the “variable” of watching Fernando Alonso drive the F10 for the first time.  This morning, the Valencian Community Ricardo Tormo Circuit was at a complete standstill.  A crowd of fans who gathered to see Alonso made long lines of cars in the A-3 freeway, a long distance the exit that leads to the Circuit.

While regularly it takes around 3-4 minutes to access the Circuit, today it almost took 20 minutes.  The expectation aroused by the pilot from Asturias was unbelievable.  If yesterday we spoke of 7000 people who attended the Circuit, today the amount was estimated in more than 20.000 people present.

Today has been a complete day.  It was possible to watch the three Formula One Spanish pilots in the racetrack: Fernando Alonso , Pedro Martinez de la Rosa and Jaime Alguersuari.  In addition, to the current champion, Jeson Button and Michael Schumacher who also rolled out.

The debuting racing cars start at 10 AM on the dot.  The single-seaters start to roll out and we see Fernando Alonso passing by with his new blue helmet (Asturias flag); he is ahead.  Nonetheless, the “first fright“ came with De la Rosa when unexplainably he stopped on his tracks, just when he was marking the best time.  The marshals showed a red flag.  Up to that moment, Fernando had just made one reconnaissance lap.

The march starts again and the pilots start to roll their cars.  Fernando Alonso makes the best time, stopping the chronometer at 1:12.160.  After that, he reduced his time on five consecutive laps.  Just as well it’s the first time he rolls with this car.  How many hours would he have made in the simulator?

Behind the pilot from Asturias, Schumacher marks his best score; he’s fourth in the time table and goes to boxes.  The difference between Alonso and Schumacher is of 1.007.  There was a morbid fascination in the racetrack.

Subsequent to his stop, Schumacher starts to lower his times.  De la Rosa still has the second best time; the BMW C29 is performing well.  It looks solid in the track.

In this moment, the current champion, Jeson Button appears.  He makes his official debut with McLaren.  During his first laps his times were far away from the best (1:18.420), six seconds behind the Spaniard.  The British is still in adaptation period with his new single-seater.

A great surprise comes when the pilot from Asturias improves the time achieved by Felipe Massa, yesterday.  The Brazilian made 1:11.722 and Alonso pulled off 1:11.709, in that same lap.  Schumacher also lowers his time, remaining at 7 tenths of the Spaniard, and Pedro marks a best lap, too  Aren’t this petty quarrels?

At any rate, the show was in the racetrack.  The F10 seems to please the pilot from Asturias, who in his first contact had the satisfaction of making a debut record, but subsequent to his return to the boxes he lowered again his best time.  When a little more of two hours of testing had elapsed, he stopped the chronometer at 1:11.599.

The third Spaniard in the racetrack, Jaime Alguersuari, rolled with consistent times all morning long.  He was ahead of Button, specifically, fourth place in the time table.  However, the most significant aspect is that his times are better than those of his team-mate, Sebastian Buemi.

The last stage of the morning session starts to stabilize.  Alonso starts to advance in 1:12 lows, a great rhythm.  While “Schumi” and De la Rosa follow him at half a second.  Everything seemed to indicate that the session would end in that monotony, but the pilot from Asturias returns with all his might; he wants to see the F10 potential and stopped the chronometer at 1:11.600.  We were all surprised, but a bit later, 3 minutes later, he makes 1:11.470; he lowers his time again.  Wasn’t it supposed to be his contact with the F10?

At 2 o’clock the time came to stop and have lunch.

Morning times:
1º. Fernando Alonso 1:11.470
2º. Pedro de la Rosa 1:12.094
3º. Michael Schumacher 1:12.438
4º. Jaime Alguersuari 1:12.576
5º. Jenson Button 1:13.783
6º. Nico Hulkenberg 1:14.410
7º. Vitaly Petrov 1:14.707