Fernando Alonso’s win was a complete surprise, but the name of another team was on more paddock-dwellers’ lips after Malaysia — Sauber.

“Only one team could do consistently good laptimes on all the tyres and in all the conditions, and it was Sauber,” confirmed Martin Whitmarsh, whose McLaren team had travelled to Sepang with arguably the fastest car.

Also in Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner agreed: “They (Sauber) have somehow managed to get all of the tyres to work perfectly, which at the moment is the key to success.

“The (tyre) window is so small that it’s very easy to not be in it,” added the Briton.

And Sepang winner Fernando Alonso, whose victory was only ensured by a late-race mistake by Sauber’s Sergio Perez, admitted: “No doubt about it, they were quicker than us.”

Some believe it was only the Malaysian weather chaos that brought the Ferrari-powered C31 to the top of F1′s form-guide, but the Sauber was in fact also fast in Australia.

“Our cars were severely damaged at the start (in Melbourne),” explained chief designer Matt Morris. “At the front for Perez, the rear for Kobayashi.”

Nonetheless, both finished inside the top eight.

“The race in Malaysia showed very clearly how fast our car is,” insisted team boss Peter Sauber, writing in Blick newspaper.

“After two very different tracks, we have the assurance now that the C31 is a success.”

The next question is precisely how the small Hinwil based team has managed to build a pace-setting car.

One possible answer is the end of the blown diffuser era, and the fact that Sauber’s 2012 solution has already been copied by F1′s formerly-dominant Red Bull.

Italy’s Autosprint, meanwhile, claims Ferrari is next, mischievously suggesting that the updated F2012 might aptly be called the ‘Ferrauber’.

Referring to the FIA exhaust clampdown, Morris admitted: “We had to give up less than our opponents.”

Peter Sauber added: “When I saw that Red Bull had chosen a similar route to us, I was sure that we were right.”

Another trick on the C31 is a clever use of the loophole allowing an opening at the front of the car for driver cooling.

“It’s no match-winner,” Morris insists, “but it gains us some (lap) time.”

And Autosprint reports that another “trick” on the Sauber is located in front of the rear wheels, exploiting yet another “grey zone” in the regulations.

Mercedes is investigating how a rear wheel fell off Michael Schumacher’s car during qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps.
Wearing a special golden helmet to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his F1 debut, the famous German will start the race last because he crashed during his outlap in Q1.

“How embarrassing for Mercedes, to destroy his anniversary race because the wheel fell off,” Sky commentator Marc Surer is quoted as saying by Bild newspaper.

20 years ago, Schumacher’s first-ever F1 race ended within half a kilometre because the clutch in his Jordan failed.

And in 2011? “We’ve looked at the data. It happened suddenly, within a second,” Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn said.

“We are still looking into it. There is a locking mechanism and we had a few problems last year but not with the new system this year.

“We have developed the system with our DTM team. There must be an explanation and I’m sure we will find it.”

Polyphony Digtial has today fully revealed the “X1 Prototype”, a project in conjunction with Red Bull Racing.

All races that exist in today’s world are restricted by regulations. However the X1 is a machine born from a fantastic “what if” dream of Polyphony; “What would the fastest racing car on Earth, free of any and all regulations look like?”

Initially the X1 prototype was a single seater, canopied prototype wing car with covered front wheels. The performance brought about by the 1500ps direct injection V6 Twin Turbo would have been spectacular as is, with a top speed of 400km/h and a maximum lateral acceleration of 6G. But this concept showed an even greater advancement through the help of Red Bull Racing, who became a partner in this project.

Red Bull Racing’s chief technical officer, the genius aerodynamicist Adrian Newey proposed that “Fan Car” technology, a dream that he had held to himself over the years be added to the X1 Prototype.

A “fan car” is a vehicle having a fan mechanism which forces the air out from underneath the car, to reduce air pressure under the car’s floor. The resulting suction draws the car to the ground surface and creates a massive amount of downforce. And because it can create downforce regardless of the vehicle’s current speed, it dramatically raises it’s cornering speed even in low speed corners.

The incredible ability of fan cars has already been proven in history. The Chaparral 2J fan car entered in the 1970 Can-Nam series was so fast that it was banned after just 1 season. Even in the F1, the BT46B fan car entered in 1978 by Brabham dominated the opening round of the series with extreme speed, and was banned just after that single race.

With this proposal from Mr. Newey, the machine was transformed with a large fan added to the rear end of the body. With additional advice regarding the shapes of the front and rear wings and rear diffuser, its aerodynamics became even further refined. As a result, the X1 prototype attained an astonishing level of performance, reaching a top speed of over 450km/h, with a maximum lateral acceleration reaching up to 8.75G. This is a performance level that is at the very limits of what a normal human body can withstand.

The driver who performed the shakedown test of the machine in Gran Turismo 5, was the world famous Sebastian Vettel. In his very first run on the Suzuka Circuit, he shortened the record time of the course by over 20 seconds. And in the test drive on the Nurburgring GP Course, he marked a record time of 1 minute 4 seconds, drawing out the incredible potential of the X1 Prototype.

This is the dream of the fastest racing car on land, brought to life through the collaboration between Polyphony and Red Bull. Witness for yourself the power of the X1 through the in-game “X1 Challenge”, the first driving lesson ever in Gran Turismo to be performed by a top professional driver.

Adrian Newey, Chief Technical Officer at Red Bull Racing

The results were thrilling. X1 is about evolution. Delivering the optimum combination of tested technologies in a single integrated design. This would be the future of racing were we not bound by regulations, but one that is achievable today. And as Sebastian has shown, it is about devastating speed coupled with real handling control. Today thanks to PlayStation®3 and Gran Turismo we can test drive the future.

Kazunori Yamauchi, President, Polyphony Digital Inc and creator of the Gran Turismo series

X1 sees the marriage of virtual and real worlds as we explore the boundaries of our technology and aesthetic senses. The X1 Prototype Project has been motivated by curiosity and passion, powerful forces that brought together the best the world has to offer in design, physics simulation, racing car product technology and driving.

X1 Downforce Specifications

Lets try calculating the cornering G’s of the X1 at 300km/h from the total tire load and coefficient of friction for the tires.

The total load on the X1′s tires at 300km/h is 1142.7kgf at the front tires, and 1432kgf at the rear tires. The coefficient of friction for the tires isμ=1.97. From these conditions, the maximum cornering force that the tires can exhibit can be determined to be 5073kgf. Dividing this by the wet weight of the X1 of 615kg comes to be 8.25, which is the maximum cornering G of the X1.

8.25G greatly exceeds the G’s felt during the launch of the Space Shuttle, and is roughly the same as that of a jet fighter plane at full afterburner. It is a figure at the very limits of what a human body can withstand.

Test Calculation: Cornering G at 300km/h
Total Tire Load: 2575.6kgf (Front Wheel 1142.7kgf+Rear Wheel 1432.9kgf)
Coefficient of Friction of Tires: μ=1.97 (baseμ=2.16, model calculates an efficiency reduction to 91.5% under high load)
Cornering force that can be exhibited by tires: 5073.9kgf
Cornering G: 8.25G (= 5073.9kgf / 615kg)

Read more: http://www.worldcarfans.com/110102929262/red-bull-x1-prototype-revealed-for-gran-turismo-5-video#ixzz13tUTExBi

Robert Kubica is travelling to Korea this week in podium-winning form.

At the weekend, between the Japanese and Korean grands prix, the Pole and rally enthusiast took part in the Rallye d’Antibes in the South of France.

The rally, with Kubica at the wheel of a Clio S1600, is part of the FIA European Rally Championship.

According to French language sources including Belgian television RTBF, the 25-year-old finished the rally in third place overall.  Auto Hebdo described it as “an excellent performance”.

F1 Renault driver Kubica reportedly finished ahead of many faster S2000 cars, topped the times in three separate stages, and won the A6 class outright.

A month ago in Italy, he took his first class victory in the Rally d’Alipi Orientali.

But at Suzuka just over a week ago, Kubica retired his F1 car from second place behind winner Sebastian Vettel when his R30 shed a rear wheel.

He was, however, buoyed by his pace in Japan.

“I didn’t expect to be as quick as we were,” he admitted.

When Mark Webber in failed to overtake Heikki Kovalainen, the rear wheel of the Lotus drivers, met the Australian was just a passenger. His car lifted into the air, turned 180 degrees in the air rang with the cockpit down on the tarmac, turned 180 degrees again and then slid with even high speed into the tire barrier. The Red Bull driver was able to enter the car luckily unhurt on their own.

“Well, you always need two for a tango, right?” Webber said in an interview with the ‘BBC’. ‘In this incident we were both involved. I looked for the best wind shadow lookout to do the job and to pass him. He defended himself pretty hard, and inside, blocked suddenly become very aggressive.
“Finally, I was surprised by the fact, as he braked early,” said the experienced racer. “This is what caught me cold. It did not matter where I was, or how close I was driving in the slipstream, I still had everything under control.”

“This was a horrible incident. Obviously, I was surprised about what happened on the access to this curve. At first I thought, ‘Okay, it me pass’ can be, because the speed difference was of course enormous. Then he started, the door , zuzuschmeißen and he showed this little maneuver. I thought ‘What’s he doing there? “.”

“Yes, he was slowed by the gas, or whatever. It turned out that this was the case 80 meters earlier than I had slowed down in the previous round. This means that this was the case in a different category than in the few laps before. “

Williams has confirmed that a loose manhole cover caused Rubens Barrichello’s high speed crash during the recent Monaco grand prix.

With technical director Sam Michael initially diagnosing a rear suspension failure, Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport subsequently reported that an investigation showed that the left rear wheel was in fact damaged by a loose drain cover.

In a media statement, the British team has now confirmed that a manhole cover at turn two “was spun up and hit the rear left wheel, causing failure”.

“This incident has been reported to the FIA,” added Williams.
(GMM)

Williams and the FIA suspect that a loose drain cover caused Rubens Barrichello’s high speed crash during the Monaco grand prix.

The team’s technical director initially diagnosed a rear suspension failure.

“We have a good idea which part is suspect, but to be completely sure, we need to await the results of materials tests back at the factory,” Sam Michael said earlier this week.

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport now reports that FIA experts conducted an investigation and now think a loose drain cover damaged the left rear wheel.

Another loose drain cover in the first sector of the famous street circuit last Sunday caused a short safety car period.

Barrichello’s chassis and engine were not damaged, but the magazine said the Cosworth unit will as a precaution only now be used during Friday practice sessions this year.

The gearbox was also not substantially damaged, but Grove based Williams has decided to replace it anyway.

The sister FW32 of Nico Hulkenberg also crashed heavily in Monaco, meaning that both cars will have to use an older specification front wing in Turkey next weekend.

“It might have been possible (to replace the damaged wings), but then we would have compromised the next developments for Montreal,” explained Michael.
(GMM)

Good race to Virgin, went all the way today as Lucas di Grassi brought his VR-01 home in 14th position, helping his Virgin Racing team to achieve an important first race finish.

Lucas drove a very mature race to see his own maiden chequered flag. He beat the other new teams into submission at the same time as having to contend with a missing front wing end-plate after an unsuccessful 11th lap challenge from the Lotus Racing car of Heikki Kovalainen.

So, Timo was less fortunate on a day where both cars were looking good to make it to the finish. He was going great guns at the start, but was losing time behind Jarno Trulli. In a bid to dispense with the Lotus he was about to execute a crucial overtaking move when he locked his rear wheels into the corner, the back end of his VR-01 stepped out and he inadvertently struck Jarno’s car, which resulted in Timo’s race coming to an end after only 2 laps.

Nevertheless, everyone at Virgin Racing is delighted that their season is now properly underway and both drivers will be heading straight back to Bicester for some all-important race preparation on the Wirth Research Simulators in readiness for their next challenge – the Chinese Grand Prix in two weeks’ time.

Lucas di Grassi
“It was a very tough race today – physically and mentally – but I’m so happy to bring the Virgin Racing car home to the finish. I had a great start and was able to make up five places on the opening lap. We had very good early pace and continued to be strong, despite losing my front wing end-plate when Heikki tried to overtake me. We had a good pit stop and we were still looking very strong in the second part of the race. We were well ahead of the other new teams, which meant that we could afford to ease off a little to make sure nothing got in the way of our result today. It has been a long wait and we’ve had some tough times in the past few months, but we know that we’re making progress and we can go on to achieve better things. Today showed that we are truly competitive and it’s a great feeling that our fight has really started now. Timo’s DNF was a real shame but I think we can start to look forward together to some great racing now.”

Timo Glock
“I had a pretty good start and the first laps were quite fun with a lot of fights going on. I dropped behind Jarno and in general I was quite a lot quicker than him. I tried to overtake but locked the rears and for some reason the anti-stall didn’t kick in. Unfortunately I hit Jarno and it was my mistake. But it’s great that Lucas finished the race, and ahead of Lotus, which is good for the team. I hope that in the next race we can get both cars to the finish.”

Nico Rosberg achieved the first podium finish for the Mercedes GP Petronas team at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia today. Nico Starting from second place on the grid, but Nico lost a place at the start and was running in third position at the end of the first lap.

He made his sole pit stop on lap 22 where superb work from the team enabled Nico to gain over a second on the chasing Robert Kubica. From there, Nico drove a composed race to the chequered flag to secure third position and his third podium finish,

Michael Schumacher was out of the race when a wheel nut came off one of the rear wheels and forced Michael to retire on lap ten.

Nico Rosberg
“Its a fantastic result today to achieve our teams first podium at the home race for our title partner, Petronas. I want to thank the whole team for all of their hard work this weekend and over the winter. This result is the start of the reward for our efforts. Its a great feeling to be back up on the podium again and to have so much support from the Malaysian fans here. My start didnt go that well today as I had a bit too much wheelspin and once I was in third place, I knew it would be difficult to follow the leading cars. I struggled a little with the options in the first stint which allowed Robert to stay quite close but once we switched to the primes, I felt really comfortable and we could manage the race home to third place. This is a great end to a strong weekend for us. Were not quite where we want to be yet so we need to push on but Im confident that well get there soon.”

Michael Schumacher
“It was a shame that I could not finish the race but unfortunately the wheel nut on the left rear wheel was lost. The car suddenly became very unstable in turn six and I could hardly steer and had no drive left. I initially thought it was something to do with the suspension but after I stopped and had a look, it was evident that was a wheel nut missing. It is something very unusual to happen and in testing we never had problems so we have to look it. I would have obviously wanted to finish the race and I think it could have worked out quite reasonably well. But in the end that is motor racing, I remember that very well. It makes no sense to get angry about it, you have to accept it as part of the game and look ahead. At least Nico scored our first podium finish and I am happy for him and the team.”

Ross Brawn
“That was an excellent drive from Nico today and a first-class performance to secure his third career podium and the first podium for the Mercedes GP Petronas team. We are delighted to have achieved the first podium for the Silver Arrows here in Malaysia and to be able to share the rewards of our hard work with our title partner Petronas at their home Grand Prix. My compliments to Nico for an assured performance today and over the weekend. Michael was in a good position after the start and we were looking forward to having a good race on his side but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. The car lost a wheel nut which is a problem that we haven’t experienced before. The wheel nuts are double-checked on the grid so we will investigate and put in place the necessary solutions.”

Norbert Haug
“A great drive from Nico and our first podium after starting from the first row in our third race. The team had a first-class strategy and Nico did not put one foot wrong and secured this first and for us historic podium finish, at the home race of our title partner Petronas. Our gap to the two Red Bull-Renaults in front of Nico was still considerable and we all know there is more work to be done in order to catch up. However it looks like we are heading in the right direction and the point standings after three races dont look too bad. Sorry for Michael who had a great start and was positioned sixth when a wheel nut came loose which stopped his race. We will work hard and concentrated to make sure that our car will be fully reliable in the future and get quicker step by step. After Melbourne, Nico and the team performed again the quickest pit stop which is very rewarding for our guys and sometimes very important to get the right amount of World Championship points. Last but certainly not least congratulations to Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing for their first and well deserved victory in 2010. Seb was the class of the field today.”

(YF1)