Thread F1 News 2012 in the Motorsport forum

The 2012 Formula One season will be the 63rd FIA Formula One season. 2012 will be the penultimate year of the current 2.4 litre V8 engine configuration, before being replaced by more environmentally friendly 1.6 litre V6 turbo engines in 2014.

Sebastian Vettel will start the season as the defending World Drivers' Champion, having secured his second championship with a podium finish at the 2011 Japanese Grand Prix. Red Bull Racing defend their World Constructors' Championship.

TEAMS & DRIVERS


Red Bull Renault
1. Sebastien Vettel
2. Mark Webber

McLaren Mercedes
3. Jenson Button
4. Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari
5. Fernando Alonso
6. Felipe Massa

Mercedes
7. Michael Schumacher
8. Nico Rosberg

Lotus Renault
9. Kimi Raikkonen
10. Romain Grosjean

Force India Mercedes
11. Paul di Resta
12. Niko Hulkenberg

Sauber Ferrari
14. Kamui Kobayashi
15. Sergio Perez

Toro Rosso Ferrari
16. Daniel Ricciardo
17. Jean Eric Vergne

Williams Renault
18. Pastor Maldonado
19 tba

Caterham Renault
20. Heikki Kovalainen
21. Jarno Trulli

HRT Cosworth
22. Pedro De La Rosa
23. tba

Marussia Cosworth
24. Timo Glock
25. Charles Pic


Just about all the top teams have kept the same line up. De La Rosa, Grosjean and Raikkonen are back in F1. Kimi Raikkonens return takes the amount of world champions on the grid to 6.

There are two seats left at HRT and Williams. Those who had seats last year but not this year are Adrian Sutil, Nick Heidfeld, Vitaly Petrov, Bruno Senna, Sebastien Buemi (Red Bull Reserve), Jaime Algursauri, Tonio Liuzzi, Narain Karthikeyan, Jerome d'Ambrosio and the most experienced man in F1, Rubens Barrichello.

Other changes you will see are Williams switching from Cosworth power to Renault. There is also three new team names: for Virgin read Marussia, for the Lotus green car thats down the back of the grid, read Caterham. For Renault (ie the black car that was closer to the front) read Lotus.



TESTING SCHEDULE

1. February - 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th - Circuito Permanente de Jerez, Spain

2. February - 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th - Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

3. March - 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th - Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

4. May - 1st, 2nd and 3rd - Mugello Circuit, Italy



CALENDAR



There are 20 races scheduled. Bahrain will return in round 4, while the 2nd last race will be in Austin, Texas, USA returning after a 5 year absence (providing they get round to actually building it). The Turkish GP is dropped from the calendar.



RULE CHANGES

The 2011 season saw teams running "off-throttle blown diffusers", which created downforce by forcing fuel through the engine to produce exhaust gasses and directing it over the diffuser when the driver was not applying the throttle. This concept was originally banned in incremental phases, with increasingly restrictive rules on what teams could and could not do, with a full ban to be applied from the 2011 British Grand Prix onwards. However, the incremental ban was controversial, with several teams applying for and receiving permission to circumvent the total ban.

After discussion between the FIA and engine manufacturers, the original regulations were restored, with the full ban delayed until 2012. The regulations in 2012 will govern the design of the exhaust with the teams agreeing to strict constraints on the position of the exhaust tailpipe. This will result in the exhaust exiting the bodywork much higher up than in 2011, and no longer in the vicinity of the diffuser. In October 2011, a clarification to the amended rules was issued, effectively banning "exotic" engine maps" in November, further amendments were introduced, completely banning the practice of blowing exhaust gasses over parts of the car to improve downforce, following a bid by several teams to allow it under certain conditions.

After being banned in 2009, in-season testing will return in 2012, with plans for a test to be held at Mugello on 1 May ahead of the European leg of the 2012 championship. As teams will only be permitted to do fifteen days of testing over the course of the season, the pre-season winter testing schedule has been cut back to accomodate the Mugello test.

At the September 2011 meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council, representatives of the member organisations voted to amend the rules for double-waved yellow flags in all FIA-sanctioned championships. The amendment means that double-waved flags will be shown when a track marshall is working on or beside the circuit.

Technical regulations for 2012 include the reprofiling of the car's nose. The pre-2012 regulations allow the nose to be as high as 62.5 centimetres (24.6 in) above ground, but the revisions to the sporting code lower the maximum allowable height to 55 centimetres (22 in).

Faced with several constructors applying for name changes, teams have requested a clearer definition of what constitutes a "constructor". Under the rules set out in the Sixth Concorde Agreement, several teams have been forced to compete under names that do not necessarily reflect their ownership – such as Sauber competing as "BMW Sauber" in 2010, despite BMW withdrawing from the sport at the end of the 2009 season – in order to preserve their status as a current constructor and their claim to a share of the television rights paid to teams that placed in the top ten in the final World Constructors' Championship standings.

At the meeting for the Formula One Commission in Geneva in November 2011, the use of helium in air guns used to change tyres during pit stops was banned. Despite increasing the rotation speed of the air guns by up to 30%, the use of helium was deemed to be too expensive with little competitive gain.

At the final meeting of the World Motorsports Commission in December 2011, a series of amendments to the sporting regulations were published. Chief among these is the re-introduction of a rule that will allow all lapped traffic under the safety car to be released from the queue before the car returns to pit lane, allowing the drivers to unlap themselves and to ensure a clean re-start.

Drivers will not be permitted to leave the confines of the circuit without a justifiable reason, following a spate of incidents in 2011 when drivers were sighted using access roads around the circuit to shorten their reconnassiance and in-laps in order to preserve their fuel and tyres.

Similarly, drivers will not be allowed to return to the normal racing line should they choose a defensive line going into a corner.

Races will have a maximum four-hour time limit to prevent the indefinite suspension of a race. This will stop the theoretical possibility of a race lasting more than eight hours. This rule was introduced in response to the rain-interrupted 2011 Canadian Grand Prix, which set a record for the longest race in Formula One history, at four hours, four minutes and thirty-nine seconds.

Any driver in the pit lane when a race is suspended will be permitted to return to the circuit and take up the position on the grid that they were running in at the time of the suspension.

All cars must now pass their mandatory FIA crash tests before being allowed to take part in pre-season testing. Previously, passing the crash tests was only a requirement prior to the first race of the season. Crash tests for the 2012 season will also be more rigorous than in previous years.