F1 2009 season schedule

[Venator]

The FIA released the provisional schedule for the 2009 Formula 1 championship in June 2008. Australia was listed as provisional, and Turkey moved back to August after moving to May in 2008.

And then there is the news that the French Grand Prix is back on the calendar. After being announced as the last edition in 2007, it appeared again in 2008, again as the last edition, and now it is back again, again likely at Magny-Cours.

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix would be the last race of the season, and it would be as late as 15 November. Good place to go during the cold winter in Europe....

See the provisional 2009 schedule in the table below:

2009 F1 Schedule

• Mar. 29 Australian Grand Prix* Melbourne
  
• Apr. 5 Malaysian Grand Prix Sepang International Circuit
  
• Apr. 19 Bahrain Grand Prix Bahrain International Circuit
  
• May 10 Spanish Grand Prix Montmelo, Barcelona
  
• May 24 Monaco Grand Prix Monaco
  
• Jun. 7 Canadian Grand Prix Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal
  
• Jun. 21 British Grand Prix Silverstone
  
• Jun. 28 French Grand Prix Nevers-Magny-Cours
  
• Jul. 12 German Grand Prix Nurburgring
  
• Jul. 26 Hungarian Grand Prix Budapest
  
• Aug. 9 Turkish Grand Prix Istanbul
  
• Aug. 23 European Grand Prix Valencia, Spain
  
• Sep. 6 Italian Grand Prix Monza
  
• Sep. 13 Belgian Grand Prix Spa-Francorchamps
  
• Sep. 27 Singapore Grand Prix Singapore
  
• Oct. 11 Chinese Grand Prix Shanghai
  
• Oct. 18 Japanese Grand Prix Mt. Fuji
  
• Nov. 1 Brazilian Grand Prix Sao Paolo
  
• Nov. 15 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

[Venator]

2009 F1 drivers and teams

McLaren-Mercedes

Race drivers

1. Lewis Hamilton (has 2009 contract)
2. Heikki Kovalainen (has 2009 contract)

Test drivers

• Pedro de la Rosa (has 2009 contract)
• Gary Paffett (has 2009 contract)

Scuderia Ferrari

Race drivers

3. Kimi Raikkonen (has 2009 contract)
4. Felipe Massa (has 2009 contract)

Test drivers

• Luca Badoer (has 2009 contract)
• Marc Gené (has 2009 contract)

BMW Sauber F1 Team

5. Robert Kubica (has 2009 contract)
6. Nick Heidfeld (has 2009 contract)

Test drivers

• Christian Klien (has 2009 contract)

Renault F1 Team

Race drivers

7. Fernando Alonso (has 2009 contract)
8. Nelson Piquet Jnr. (has 2009 contract)

Test drivers

• Romain Grosjean (has 2009 contract)

Toyota Racing

Race drivers

9. Jarno Trulli (has 2009 contract)
10. Timo Glock (has 2009 contract)

Test drivers

• Kamui Kobayashi (has 2009 contract)

Scuderia Toro Rosso

Race drivers

11. Sebastien Buemi (has 2009 contract) | biography | articles
12. Sebastien Bourdais (has 2009 contract) | biography | articles

Test drivers

• Brendon Hartley (has 2009 contract)

Red Bull Racing

Race drivers

14. Mark Webber (has 2009 contract)
15. Sebastian Vettel (has 2009 contract)

Test drivers

• Brendon Hartley (has 2009 contract)

Williams

Race drivers

16. Nico Rosberg (has 2009 contract)
17. Kazuki Nakajima (has 2009 contract)

Test drivers

• Nico Hülkenberg (has 2009 contract)

Brawn GP

Race drivers

18. Rubens Barrichello (has 2009 contract)
19. Jenson Button (has 2009 contract)

Test drivers

TBC

Force India F1 Team

Race drivers

20. Adrian Sutil (has 2009 contract)
21. Giancarlo Fisichella (has 2009 contract)

Test drivers

• Vitantonio Liuzzi (2008)

[Andrew]

New F1 rules for the 2009 season

A change in the size of the cars: The maximum width will increase from 1800mm to 2000mm, with the minimum width being 1980mm. The wheels will also increase in size, from 355mm to 365mm at the front, and from 380mm to 460mm.

A change to the weight: To accommodate the energy recovery systems, the minimum weight of the cars is increasing from 600kg to 605kg.

Standard ECUs will be introduced, and Traction Control will therefore be banned. Traction Control made a come back recently because the FIA found it hard to police. But with a standardisation in the Engine Control Units, the stewards can better monitor what electronic gizmos the teams are employing.

Lights inside the cockpit to warn drivers of flags being shown on parts of the circuits. One issue that has been going on for a while is the difficulty drivers have of seeing flags being waved on the side of the circuit when they are driving at high speed. The lights would corrospond with the flag being waved, and go out when the driver has passed the affected area.

Pit-to-car radios must no longer be scrambled. This is probably to aid the television companies as the recent introduction of radio messages during live broadcasts has proved popular. Even Fisichella’s colourful language, although the FIA now delay the broadcast to filter out such use of words.

Although these rules will not come into effect until 2009, the teams are surely already preparing as the changes will be quite dramatic. The increase in width of both the car and the tyres will aid grip and balance, but the FIA will undoubtedly have counter measures (aerodynamic related) to ensure speeds do get too out-of-control.

There have been changes made to the 2007 season as well, and these will be discussed in January when the build up to the next season begins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTkVKPdyWs0