Formula 1 2009 On Wii Preview Blog

In this blog I will show screenshots and videos of the game from codemasters, rule changes since 2006 (when the last official F1 was released – F106CE) and my final thoughts.

Screenshots

Videos

Rule Changes

Tyres

Bridgestone will be the official tyre supplier for the 2008-2010 seasons. Tyres are supplied in accordance with the revised Sporting Regulations, which provide for a total of 14 sets of dry weather tyres per driver over the race weekend: four sets for Friday only, and 10 for the rest of the weekend. Slick tyres returned for the first time since they were banned for the 1998 season. Bridgestone will continue to be the sole supplier of tyres, and drivers will still have to use both compounds of tyre during a race. Soft tyres are differentiated by a green marking around the sides of the tyres. Further, wet tyres were renamed as “intermediate” and extreme-weather tyres were renamed “wet”. Bridgestone have  announced that they would be marking their extreme wet weather tyres with a green line in the central groove to differentiate it from the softer wet weather tyre compound. This was so spectators could differentiate between the tyres in the same way they could with the dry compounds.

Aero

The aerodynamic regulations have been radically altered for the 2009 season. Front wings will be lower and wider, while rear wings will be much higher and narrower. As well as the changes in the dimensions of the wings, bodywork will be much more regulated with many of the additional components seen in previous seasons effectively outlawed (including barge boards, winglets, turning vanes, chimneys, Viking horns and dumbo ears), the diffuser at the rear of the car has been moved back and upwards. Many other minor chassis components have also been standardised. For the first time, cars will be allowed to use driver adjustable bodywork, in the form of adjustable flaps in the front wing. The flaps can be adjusted by up to six degrees, limited to only two adjustments per lap.

Race Weekend

The two Friday practice sessions expanded from 60 minutes to 90 minutes. All teams are allowed to use two cars.

New Drivers

• Lewis Hamilton – McLaren
• Heikki Kovalainen – McLaren
• Romain Grosjean – Renault
• Timo Glock – Toyota
• Jaime Alguersuari – STR
• Kamui Kobayashi – Toyota
• Sébastien Buemi: Trust Team Arden (GP2) → Scuderia Toro Rosso

Drivers Left the sport

• Juan Pablo Montoya moved to NASCAR
• Michael Schumacher
• Robert Doornbos
• Ralf Schumacher
• David Coulthard – BBC TV
• Jacques Villeneuve
• Tiago Monteiro
• Christijan Albers
• Scott Speed
• Takuma Sato
• Yuji Ide
• Franck Montagny
• Sakon Yamamoto

Changed Teams

• Giancarlo Fisichella – Renault – Force India
• Vitantonio Liuzzi – STR – Force India (Test Driver) – Force India (Race Driver)
• Christian Klien – Red Bull – BMW (Test Driver)
• Kimi Räikkönen – McLaren – Ferrari
• Pedro de la Rosa – McLaren (Race Driver) – McLaren (Test Driver)
• Mark Webber – Williams – Red Bull
• Sebastian Vettel: Scuderia Toro Rosso → Red Bull Racing
• Anthony Davidson: Super Aguri / Honda Racing (test driver) → Brawn GP (test driver)

Drivers with the same team

• Fernando Alonso – Renault
• Nick Heidfeld – BMW Sauber
• Robert Kubica – BMW Sauber
• Felipe Massa – Ferrari
• Jarno Trulli – Toyota
• Rubens Barrichello – Honda (which later became Brawn GP)
• Jenson Button – Honda (which later became Brawn GP)
• Nico Rosberg – Williams

Teams

• ex-Ferrari technical director, Ross Brawn, was to take a sabbatical year for 2007, after 10 seasons at the Italian team. However, it was later announced that he would leave the team. In 2009, Ross Brawn is working with Brawn GP
• McLaren changed their name to Vodafone McLaren Mercedes after signing a primary sponsorship deal with the telecommunications company late in 2005.
• Williams changed their engines from Cosworth to Toyota in a three-year deal.
• Force India changed their engine supplier from Ferrari to Mercedes in a five-year deal.
• Gerhard Berger sold his half-stake of Scuderia Toro Rosso to Red Bull, claiming that the new regulations would “leave no room for improvement for a small team like STR”.
• Honda F1 announced in December 2008 that they would withdraw their Formula One team from the 2009 World Championship because of the problems caused by the global financial breakdown and to focus on their core business activities. It was confirmed on 5 March 2009 that the team would compete in the 2009 season as Brawn GP, with Mercedes engines, following a management buy-out, and would retain the services of both Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello as drivers.
• Rumours about the possible sale of the Jordan/Spyker team had been abundant in the paddock throughout the last few months of the 2007 season. Only a year after Spyker bought the team from Midland, Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya bought the team for €88 million, several million more than Spyker paid. On 24 October 2007, Mallya was granted permission to change the team’s name to Force India. Force India had a driver announcement ceremony in January 2008 where it was revealed that Sutil would be second driver partnered by first driver Giancarlo Fisichella and test driver Vitantonio Liuzzi.
• During the 2008 season on May 6, the Super Aguri team folded and withdrew from Formula One. The team was in dire financial straits at the end of 2007 as the team did not receive a payment on a sponsorship deal. This has led to them becoming the poorest team in Formula One. Super Aguri rejected a buyout offer in January 2008 from an Indian consortium led by the CEO of the Spice Group on the condition Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan drove in the line-up, because it meant demoting or cutting one of the team’s 2007 drivers. Despite this Super Aguri were unable to sign any contracts until agreements had been reached with their sponsors. Sato and Davidson were confirmed on 10 March. GP2 series driver Luca Filippi was linked to race for the team in 2008, however he instead stayed with the GP2 series for 2008. Super Aguri announced that a major deal had been made with Magma Group to solve the team’s financial problems, however this fell through, supposedly because of Magma Group’s unwillingness to invest money in a team with poor results. On 6 May 2008, Super Aguri withdrew from the Formula One World Championship. It affirmed a prediction at the start of the season by Max Mosley saying the team would not make it to the final race in Brazil.
• On October 16, 2006, Renault confirmed that the Dutch banking company, ING, would become their main sponsor to replace Mild Seven.
• On October 20, 2006, Williams announced AT&T as their new main sponsor.

Qualifying

• The first part of qualifying lengthened to 20 minutes, and final part of qualifying shortened to 10 minutes. Teams taking part in Q3 would no longer be allowed to add fuel back to the car after qualifying to eliminate ‘fuel-burn’ phase.
• A minimum lap time for each qualifying session was implemented.
• From 8 May 2008, the FIA announced that, following Super Aguri’s departure from Formula One, the qualifying procedures changed. Rather than six drivers being eliminated at the end of Q1, only the five lowest-qualified drivers would be eliminated. This increased the likelihood that one of the midfield contenders would drop out, as only the top 15 drivers would go through to Q2. The Q2-Q3 transition remained unchanged.

Circuit Changes

• A new chicane has been inserted into the straight between Europcar and New Holland (final corner) at the Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona. This was installed in order to slow the cars down before the long main straight, and provide more overtaking opportunities into turn 1.
• Spa has also undergone track changes, with a new paddock area, a reprofiled Bus Stop Chicane, an extension of the start-finish straight and a change to La Source hairpin.
• The largest-scale repair in the last 35 years will be done to Autódromo José Carlos Pace in São Paulo, Brazil, to fundamentally solve problem of the asphalt. All the old asphalt was removed and replaced with new asphalt. At the same time, the pit lane entrance will be enhanced to improve safety.

Calender

• 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 took place at the Hermann Tilke-designed Yas Marina Circuit. The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was 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.
• On October 7, 2008, the FIA formalized the 2009 season calendar with the dropping of the Canadian Grand Prix (for apparent financial problems) and the rearrangement of the Turkish Grand Prix to June 7, 2009. 2009 will be the first Formula One season since 1958 with no Grand Prix in North America. The Canadian Grand Prix had been on the provisional schedule, before being dropped.
• On October 15, 2008, 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 race had been on the “final” schedule for 2009, and Bernie Ecclestone had previously stated that it would stay on the calendar, as they had a contract until 2011.

KERS

Kinetic Energy Recovery System. This is a regenerative braking device designed to recover some of the vehicle’s kinetic energy, which is normally dissipated as heat during braking. The recovered energy can be stored electrically, in a battery or supercapacitor, or mechanically, in a flywheel, for use as a source of additional accelerative power at the driver’s discretion by way of a boost button on the steering wheel. The regulations limit the additional power to around 82 hp (61 kW) for six seconds a lap.

Engines and Gearboxes

Each driver will be limited to a maximum of eight engines throughout the season, in addition to four engines for practice/testing purposes. To aid improvements in reliability, the engines will be detuned from 19,000 RPM to 18,000 RPM.

Final Thoughts

To close I loved F1 06, to please me if they took F1 06 put it on we and brought it up-to-date with the above rule changes I would be happy. I would love the SC in the game but I guess I will have to wait until the full game comes out next year. If I can drive the cars with aids off for a whole race weekend and it be challenging thats what I want.

Have your say and share your views in the comments  – get writing now…

Reference Source: Wiki, Google Images and Youtube