Kamui Kobayashi crashes during Moscow demo in Ferrari F1 car

Former Sauber and Toyota Formula 1 driver Kamui Kobayashi crashed during his promotional run at the Moscow City Racing Demonstration, whilst behind the wheel of Ferrari’s 2009 F1 car. The Japanese driver, who is now competing in FIA World Endurance Championship with Ferrari, was running in wet conditions when the incident occurred.

After being dropped by Sauber after last season despite his maiden podium finish in the sport, Kamui Kobayashi switched to endurance racing with the Scuderia after a drive in Formula 1 failed materialize due to a lack of funds. The 26-year-old Hyogo-born driver finished 20th in this year’s Le Mans 24h event in the GTE Pro category, and received his first outing in a Ferrari Formula 1 car back in May around the Scuderia’s testing facility at Fiorano.

However, Kamui Kobayashi’s return behind the wheel of a Ferrari F1 car was plagued by embarrassment after he spun in the tricky weather conditions and hit the retaining barrier. Although significant damage was caused to the F60 machine, the Italian outfit had luckily brought a second car to the event therefore allowing Kamui Kobayashi to return to the demonstration within 20 minutes of his embarrassing ordeal.

Kamui Kobayashi’s incident comes almost a year after Pastor Maldonado’s humiliating incident at a demonstration event in Venezuela last August. The local hero had recently secured his and Venezuela’s first victory in Formula 1, accounting for the 20,000 fans attending the venue. Many other teams’ were present at the demonstration in Moscow on Sunday including McLaren and Lotus, ahead of Russia’s inaugural Formula 1 race next season.

Picture Copyright © Ferrari

McLaren Set To Run Higher Wing Spec At Spain

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh has confirmed that the Woking-based team will be running a higher spec nose during this weekends Spanish Grand Prix, after successfully testing such a design at the Mugello test last week. This particular design features long pillars to the actual wing, and moves the design of the front nose closer to that of the platypus stepped design of the other teams on the grid.

During a phone-in with title sponsor Vodafone, the McLaren boss confirmed that the new design will be featured on the cars during this weekends race, with a strong likelihood that the design will remain on the cars throughout the race itself on Sunday.

“There’s a reasonable chance we will see it on Sunday, which will be the first time our drivers experience it,” Explained Martin Whitmarsh. “We got a lot of feedback from Mugello, so we have the data to set it up and can find the performance on track.”

The meaning behind the change in design is in aid of helping the airflow towards the rear of the car, which in turn is expected to assist McLaren back to the sharp end of the field in Spain. The Woking-based team suffered a disastrous Bahrain Grand Prix, with Jenson Button retiring and Lewis Hamilton suffering embarrassingly messy pit-stops which put pay to any reasonable result.

Throughout the Mugello test, eager eyes were fixed on the various teams up and down the paddock as to whether any were testing the Mercedes ‘super-DRS’, which has assisted the Silver Arrows throughout qualifying so far this year. Many believed a slightly thicker rear-wing endplate were tail-tail sings of McLaren experimenting with the device, however confirmation that this was the case have yet to arise. 

McLaren are the second most successful Constructor at the Spanish Grand Prix, having won the race eight times. The team will be hoping this new spec front wing enables them to make that nine victories in Spain by the end of the weekend.

Picture Copyright © LAT Photographic 

Caterham To Run Aero Test At IDIADA

After a tough week at Barcelona, Caterham have announced plans to run an aero test at the IDIADA Automotive Facility on Monday, which will be carried out by Finnish driver Heikki Kovalainen.

After the team replaced F1 veteran Jarno Trulli with Russian driver Vitaly Petrov last week, Caterham have been making various changes to their car to accommodate their new driver. This has included great amounts of setup work, with the team searching for the best setup for the Russian driver.

“We spent quite a bit more time looking at various areas of the car to help me find a setup I’m really comfortable with and can push on from,” explained Vitaly Petrov, who was in the car yesterday at Barcelona. “Once we’d sorted out the morning’s issues we were able to try a few different setup options in the afternoon and by the last couple of runs I think we were heading in the right direction both mechanically and with the different tyre compounds.”

The IDIADA track is an hour’s drive south from the Circuit de Catalunya, where Heikki Kovalainen will be continuing Caterham’s pre-season testing plans today. The newly-rebranded team, formerly Lotus, will be searching for there first ever points finish in 2012.