Stefan Grand Prix’s unraced car

TF110 in Serbian Red

Is this the car that Stefan Grand Prix could have been racing in the 2010 Formula One World Championship?

Details have emerged from Racecar Engineering magazine of Toyota’s abandoned 2010 race car which was tested recently in the factory’s car park by Kazuki Nakajima.

Two chassis were build, one decked out in Serbian red which was intended to be used by Stefan GP, and the other in sleek black.

From the photos, it looks like this car was very advance, modelling the most a complex and highly sculptured diffuser and boasting a ride height adjustment device.

TF110

But perhaps such design, engineering and manufacturing mastery should be taken with a pinch of salt when remembering Toyota’s track record in the formula. However complex the front wing looks (and indeed it does!) with the Red Bull moulding of the nose cone, it certainly looks an incredible leap from their 2009 effort.

It’s uncertain if this car, or indeed a 2011 spec development of this car will ever take part in a competitive environment, or whether, like many projects before, this will be preserved as a museum piece.

Stefan GP Championship – Monaco Grand Prix

Chandhok & Trulli (Sutton Images)

The first victory victory for Hispania Racing, only soured by Jarno Trulli’s antics of trying to decapitate the young Indian driver.

Meanwhile Virgin Racing are going from bad to worse with proprietor Richard Branson having to deny media reports that he is about to pull the plug on the fledgling team. Is he wishing he’d stuck with Brawn and now be teaming up with Mercedes at the sharp end of the grid?

Fastest lap this time around goes to Hekki Kovalainen who still leads the points haul.

Driver Standings

1st: Hekki Kovalainen 42pts

2nd=: Karun Chandhok 30pts

2nd=: Jarno Trulli 30pts

4rd: Lucas Di Grassi 23pts

5rd: Bruno Senna 21pts

6th: Timo Glock 16pts

Constructor Standings

1st: Lotus 71pts

2nd: Hispania Racing 51pts

3rd: Virgin Racing 39pts

Stefan GP Championship – Spanish GP

Just a quick round up. Fastest lap was Jarno Trulli in 1.29.564

Drivers Table

1st: Hekki Kovalainen 37pts

2nd: Jarno Trulli 24pts

3rd: Lucas Di Grassi 21pts

4rd: Karun Chandhok 20pts

5rd: Bruno Senna 18pts

6th: Timo Glock 15pts

Constructor Standings

1st: Lotus 61pts

2nd: Hispania Racing 38pts

3rd: Virgin Racing 36pts

Chinese Grand Prix Review

With the Formula One circus having slowly trickled their way back to Europe following the closure of the European airspace, we’re able here on the Stefan Grand Prix blog to look back and evaluate the third exciting race in a row after the turgid start in Bahrain.

As qualifying was held in perfect sunny conditions, it was no surprise to see all three new teams competing in the SGP Championship falling foul in Q1. This time around, it was Timo Glock in the Virgin-Cosworth who stole pole position from Jarno Trulli in the Lotus-Cosworth by 0.100 seconds. Meanwhile, Bruno Senna regained the upper hand over Karun Chandhok qualifying the Indian driver by 0.100 seconds.

Of interested as well was Bruno Senna’s Hispania Racing’s qualifying time compared to Lucas Di Grassi who qualified just ahead of the Brazilian. It would appear that the HRT’s are now only 0.7seconds off the Virgin & Lotus pace.

Race Report

Now, be honest, who would have thought after 4 races, you would have seen a Lotus racing in 6th place? Ok, dreaming it isn’t the same and thinking it would happen. Keeping his Finnish head cool while all others lost theirs and came in to change their tyres twice, Hekki Kovalainen eventually crept up to 6th for several laps until he was gobbled up by the recovering pack. After a tense battle with Nico Hulkenburg’s Williams, Hekki eventually finished 14th and on the top spot for the 3rd time this year of the Stefan Grand Prix Championship. He also picked up an extra point for the fastest lap of those competing for the Championship.

Meanwhile, for the second race running, the two remaining podium places here taken by the Hispania Racing Team’s Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok, although this time around, it was the Brazilian who led home his Indian team mate. After a week of negative headlines from it’s own employees, it must be heartening for the small Spanish team to again achieve such great milestones as the F1 paddock heads home to Europe.

Dr. Kolles said after the race “A good day for the team completing our second two-car finish in the rain in our fourth race. Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna drove their second wet race after Australia. Again we reached our goal with two cars finishing the race and we gathered quite a lot of data on this track that can be used for the European season. Congratulations to the team. Now in the three weeks to come, we must work on more developments for the team’s home Grand Prix in Barcelona.”

Retiring on lap 26 was Jarno Trulli, who had to retire with hydraulic failure…again. A common gremlin for all of the new teams. Jarno has said this week that he feels the team are only achieving 10% of their potential.

“I knew that it wouldn’t be easy, that everything would be new and we would need time,” he said. “I had expected at least to drive. Instead, after four races I did not start once and when I got to the finish, it was because it was decided I should take the chequered flag but in far from ideal conditions.

“We operate like a real team in the top series, but unfortunately we are only at 10% of our potential because of lack of time. There’s no testing, and the racing weekend is the only chance to test and oil the structure. For us this is our apprenticeship year.The thing Lotus has lacked is time, the main culprit for our difficulties. Had we had time to program everything more in advance, we would have better prepared the structure, the car, the gearbox, our hydraulics system and everything you need to start well. All this work is being done now, race after race.”

Coming in last again was the Virgin Racing Team, whose season is progressing from bad to worse with the news last week that the delay in getting back to Europe due to the complete shutdown of Northern European airspace has meant that only one Virgin Racing car will be ready in time for the Spanish Grand Prix with a bigger fuel tank. Currently, they have reasonable pace, but reliability is severely lacking.

Nick Wirth explained after the race what has happened during the Chinese Grand Prix. “Following the overnight Parc Ferme, we started the cars this morning and discovered that the clutch on Lucas’ car was not functioning correctly. We changed the clutch before the Race, but it still wasn’t working properly even when we eventually got Lucas out and into the Race and ultimately we had to retire him. Timo’s car lost engine valve system air pressure on the Grid, which required us to move him back to the garage. We attempted to refill the air system but it was clear that there was a substantial air leak from the system in a place which was difficult to access quickly, so we were also forced to retire his car. All in all, a very disappointing day, but I know that we will get to grips with the problems and bounce back in Barcelona.”

Driver Standings

1st: Hekki Kovalainen 36pts

2nd= Karun Chandhok 17pts

2nd= Lucas Di Grassi 17pts

4rd: Bruno Senna 16pts

5th: Jarno Trulli 13pts

6th: Timo Glock 9pts

Constructor Standings

1st: Lotus 49pts

2nd: Hispania Racing 33pts

3rd: Virgin Racing 26pts

Stefan Grand Prix Press Conference

Stefan GP confirm 2011 entry (plus new website!)

Zoran Stefanovic (right)

News earlier this evening confirmed that Stefan Grand Prix, led by Zoran Stefanovic, have lodged an official entry to the FIA for the team to compete in the 2011 Formula One Season as well as plans to build a technology centre and an F1 standard track.

As official anouncement read on their new website as follows;

“STEFAN GP would like to make a public announcement that the AMCO Corporation and its owner Zoran Stefanovic have today signed an agreement with the Mayor of Stara Pazova, located 25km from Belgrade , Serbia , to build the STEFAN TECHNOLOGY PARK . This will include a racing circuit suitable for the competition of Formula One, and a technical complex that will serve as STEFAN GRAND PRIX’s team headquarters upon completion in two years time.

“I think this is an excellent development for our team, Stara Pazova city, region and country,” Mr Stefanovic said today. “This is proof that we want to put ourselves on the map as a serious hi-tech company, and that we are serious about competing in Formula One for the long term.”

As well as this announcement, it would appear that the team have put a lot of effort to rebuke the critics of its simplistic websites. Us fans now have a plethora of extra sections, photos and announcements to keep us busy and entertained. Plus a new logo. (Darn..a redesign for me then!)

Who's missing...? (Bravo Mr. Stefanovic)

Also, a picture over the headline “Stefan GP Team”, there seems to been some good work from the Photoshop man in editing out Mike Coughlan. (Opinion: Good Move!)

So, after this rather exciting evening, I’ll leave you with the words of Mr. Stefanovic.

“A great man by the name of Sir Winston Churchill once said something that I try to implant into the minds of the people in my team. It’s something along the lines of: NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP! In the last almost 12 months you were all witnesses of the fact that I strongly stand behind my beliefs.

I still believe that F1 would be a much more interesting competition with SGP, and my team and I feel like the battle is just starting. We want to be a part of F1 for both the long and short term future, and I hope that we will finally have the success we deserve.

This quality is shared by every person who has changed the world. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP! Thank you for supporting us, and I hope to see you at GP soon!

Best Regards, Zoran Stefanovic”

As ever…Go Stefan GP!

Wikipedia – To be, or not to be…believed…

Well, never to be believed, without a reference aleast. So, once again, the hollow ring of wikipedia is tolling out across the internet highway with this rather bold statement.

“It is now confirmed that StefanGP did apply for an 2011 entry. Their plan is to have Canadian Jacques Villeneuve test the car for them during 2010 while it is reported that Villeneuve will races in other series for the remainder of the year.”

Oh dear oh dear oh dear. And the reference?? Well, for this part of the story, there isn’t one. It only goes back to the Autosport story regarding the separation between Stefan GP and Toyota.

So, who wrote this? Anyone out there know? Investigations are afoot. Any information anyone has, let us know!

In the meantime, lets hope that Stefan Grand Prix’s enterprise of great pitch has not turned awry and lost its name of action…

Stefan Grand Prix – Update & Championship

Yes, the Stefan Grand Prix blog is back, for the second time, after it’s brief brush with eternity. As its author has been given the all clear with five years of check-ups and scans, the Stefan Grand Prix blog can continue with it’s mind fully focused back on F1 and the future.

Quick Championship Update:

Turning our minds back a week and a half to the weary hours of last Sunday morning, sitting there wondering if the rain was to come and wash away the Red Bull white wash, we remember that in the SGP Championship podium , it was the driver débutantes claiming all three steps beneath the rising flags and anthems.

Despite having to desperately save  on fuel in the last 20 laps, Lucas Di Grassi and Virgin Racing claimed their first victory in the championship, crucially beating the reliability issues that had plagued them since the teams inception.

Coming a close 2nd and on the same lap was Karun Chandhok, once again showing he has the making of a great F1 driver and showing the critics wrong who said he would be outperformed by his team-mate Bruno Senna who came in 3rd.

Disappointingly,  at their ‘home’ Grand Prix, Lotus F1 dropped crucial points against its rivals with both cars suffering issues, putting both drivers down the pecking order in 4th & 5th place. Kovalainen picked up a point for the fastest lap of 1:42.701. Propping up the SGP field after a spin on lap 2 was Timo Glock whose over-exuberance at the start of the race got the better of him.

Championship Standings

1st: Hekki Kovalainen 25pts

2nd: Lucas Di Grassi 15pts

3nd: Karun Chandhok 13 pts

4th=: Jarno Trulli 10pts

4th=: Bruno Senna 10pts

6th: Timo Glock 8pts

Constructor Standing

1st: Lotus F1 35pts

2nd: Virgain Racing Team 25pts

3rd: Hispania Racing Team 23pts

Malaysian Grand Prix Qualifying Report

A quick update from the Stefan Grand Prix blog due to it’s authors recovery and treatment shows an exciting Malaysian Grand Prix Qualifying session, resulting in an upside down grid and two of the débutantes making it into Q2

Hekki Kovalainen

The stand-out driver so far this season has been Hekki Kovalainen in his Lotus and he did not disappoint infront of the teams home crowd, beating nearest rival Timo Glock in the Virgin Racing. Both capitalised on mistakes by the Ferrari and McLaren drivers to make it into Q2 for the first time this year. Kovalainen lapped the Sepang circuit in 1 minute 52.270 seconds, 2 tenths faster than Glock. A result which left team boss Tony Fernandes delighted “To get 15th place in our home country, in front of our home crowd is amazing. I’m over the moon and just so excited. We gave the Toro Rossos a run for their money today and Jarno was just unfortunate to get blocked, otherwise he’d have been in Q2 as well. Tomorrow’s another day, and we’ll see what happens, but it’s a good step forward.Today we’ll enjoy it, and we’ll live for the day, and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

Karun Chandhok

The other stand out performance for the second weekend in a row was Karun Chandhok, who not only out qualified his team-mate Bruno Senna, but also for the first time this season, his Hispania Racing out-qualified Lucas Di Grassi in the Virgin Racing car. “I will start tomorrow’s race just behind Trulli, Alonso, Hamilton and Massa.” Chandhok said after qualifying. “The weather was not looking good in the afternoon before qualifying and I was not sure if it would hold until the qualifying session as well. It didn’t and that gave us our first wet experience driving the car for the first time in heavy rain. I made the best of it.”

For the second year in a row, the start time for the Malaysian Grand Prix has been put back for the convenience of the European audience. However, this has placed the race firmly into the grasp of the Malaysian monsoons which cleans the days events as regular as clock work. For those of us who will now watch the Grand Prix with less sleepy eyes, we will have greater clarity of the entertainment unfolding beneath the Asian cyclones.

15.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth         1:52.875  1:52.270
16.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1:52.398  1:52.520
17.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:52.211
18.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth         1:52.884
19.  Alonso         Ferrari                1:53.044
20.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:53.050
21.  Massa          Ferrari                1:53.283
22.  Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth           1:56.299
23.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth           1:57.269
24.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth        1:59.977

Stefan Grand Prix Championship – Australian Grand Prix

Australian Grand Prix Start (c) Sutton

After all of the doom and gloom reports in the press following the disappointing Bahrain Grand Prix, today’s race at Albert Park in Melbourne did enough to silence those critics and to get them to put down their hammers and nails. A spectacular race all round with a thrilling battle up front and in the midfield. But what about our boys at the back?

Unsurprisingly, out of only two cars to finish, it was the green and yellow car of Hekki Kovalainen who led home the new teams to claim his second victory in the Stefan GP Championship, finishing 2 laps down on race leader Jenson Button.

After the race, Kovalainen said he’d had an enjoyable afternoon at the wheel of his Lotus. “I enjoyed it today and had good fun out there. Our target was to finish the race and from the start we were quite comfortably ahead of the new teams. When Timo Glock dropped out I just focused on keeping up a decent rhythm, not making any mistakes and bringing the car home.Now we go to Malaysia with a good feeling and we’re all looking forward to that.”

Team boss Tony Fernandes praised the efforts of his Finish driver. “Heikki did us proud – three places away from a point, and he was keeping pace with most of the other cars throughout the race. Maybe it would have been nice if three other cars had gone out so we could get a point, but, joking aside, it is good that at this stage of the season we’re already thinking about points. We’re in a nice position for Malaysia.”

Hekki also claimed an extra point for producing the fastest lap of the debutantes, recording 1:33.638 on lap 52.

Chandhok in the HRT garage

The biggest surprise of the race was the Hispania Racing Teams’ car of Karun Chandhok, completing the race and being only 5 laps down. Having only achieved a 9 lap consecutive run previously, today’s performance is one to be greatly admired and one that the team can take a lot of heart from and also a lot of data.

“To finish was very difficult today, and all the more satisfying because of that,” Chandhok said after finishing the race. “I dedicate this race result to all the mechanics and engineers who worked so hard since Bahrain, without any pre-season testing. This is a fantastic day for the team and a great step forward. I am proud to have ended our first race. We achieved the best result we could do today. We have to keep pushing and working and we will manage to finish even higher.”

HRT does Colin Kolles was also delighted with the cars performance in the race. “This result, having Karun ending up the race in 14th position is a great step forward,” said Kolles. “We reached the goal with one of the two cars in the finish. I’m sorry for Bruno because he did a good job all weekend. Karun drove the team’s first full race and finished in 14th position the first race for the team, what was really fantastic, especially with these difficult conditions. The team did a great job and brought two very competitive cars on the grid. Now we will keep on pushing and just focus on our preparation for Malaysia, where our season will really begin.”

Lotus  Chief Technical Officer also added his praise to Chandhok. “Congratulations to Karun Chandhok for getting a finish!”

Finishing third was Timo Glock, who must have been disappointed to retired after only 70% of the race with suspension failure. The German was very confident that he would have finished the race had the car not developed this problem.

Virgin Racing cars emerge from the pits (c) Sutton

“The start of the race was okay. After leaving the pit lane I was able to catch up Chandok and some other cars and we had a bit of fun fighting with Michael. The car felt reasonably good in the wet and dry conditions. I started to feel that there was something wrong with the way the car was feeling. I came in and we found a problem which we now know to be a camber shim having worked loose, and this was causing the suspension to move around on the left rear. Had we not had the suspension issue I think we would have been looking good for our first chequered flag.”

Up next was Lucas Di Grassi, whose Australian Grand Prix will be remembered for his great battle with Michael Schumacher in the first few laps of the race. Coming into turn 13, Schumacher over took Di Grassi only to run wide, allowing the Brazilian to muscle his way back through. Though it was inevitable that Schumacher in the Mercedes was going to overtake and pull away, it was nice to see a driver in the lower cars battling it out with the established teams, showing that the new boys are not going to be pushed over.

After the race, Di Grassi said “The early part of the race was okay for me. The car was behaving quite well at the beginning. Unfortunately, we didn’t time the strategy well to change to slicks but otherwise things were going okay. So it’s a shame that we were hit by another problem – a hydraulic problem – and we had to retire after 26 laps.”

Hydraulics were again the mice in the machinery for Bruno Senna, who could only manage 4 laps until his Australian Grand Prix was over. “I didn´t intend my second Grand Prix to end with an hydraulic failure, but that´s racing! I made a good start and was in 14th after the big crash in front. It’s fantastic for the team to make it to the finish and we have got a great deal of data to work from for Malaysia. I hope we can finish with two cars next race.”

Still, it must be heartening for Senna to see that there is potential for the Dallara Chassis to last a full race, following his team-mates excellent performance. Although he would probably wish this it was him, he must take delight in knowing that the potential is there for the coming season.

Rounding up the débutantes was Jarno Trulli who would not make it out onto the track following an unusual problem for Lotus F1 , that being the hydraulics. Mike Gascoyne explained the problem after the race. “Obviously a very disappointing start. Jarno had a hydraulic power pack fail on the grid, not something we’ve seen before and we couldn’t get it changed in time.”

Looking at the championship table, it looks like there needs to be some stellar performances to reel in the lead that Hekki Kovalainen is building up. Although the battle to decide who will do the chasing is developing very nicely, with the remain five drivers covered by just 2 points.

Lotus F1 are also stretching their legs in the constructors table while the F1 circus heads off to the teams’ home Grand Prix, Malaysia. Hispania Racing and Virgin Racing  will be hoping to close down the gap to it’s début compatriots,while the Green and Yellow cars will be dreaming of chasing the more established teams at their end of the grid.

Driver Standing

1st: Hekki Kovalainen 22pts

2nd=: Karun Chandhok 7 pts

2nd=: Jarno Trulli 7pts

2nd=: Timo Glock 7pts

5th=: Bruno Senna 6pts

6th Lucas Di Grassi 5pts

Constructor Standing

1st: Lotus F1 29pts

2nd: Hispania Racing Team 13pts

3rd: Virgain Racing Team 12pts