What you can see in the video below is a BMW Sauber F1 mechanic which got a taste of the experimental Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) used during some tests of the F1 team. When Christian Klien pulled into the pits, one of the mechanics touched the car and received an electric shock that put him to ground. Fortunately, he was ok and didn’t sustain and serious injuries, after a short medical check being allowed to return to the pits.

One of the BMW Sauber spokesmans said: “During testing of the KERS car at the Jerez track this morning, there was an incident involving a mechanic […] When the car returned to the pits, he touched it and suffered an electric shock. He sustained slight injuries to his left hand and grazing on his left arm.”

Read More: "F1 cars are shocking, literally"

During the German Formula 1 Grand Prix, BMW will be paying very special homage to the legendary pop artist Andy Warhol. To mark the 30th anniversary of the BMW M1 and also to celebrate the reival of the Procar, Warhol’s BMW Art Car (1979) will again be taking to the starting grid. Both on 19th and 20th July 2008, ten of these cars will be on the starting grid in Hockenheim. Jochen Neerpasch, former head of BMW Motorsport GmbH and initiator of BMW M1 development, will take Andy Warhol’s Art Car round the track on a few of laps of honour.

During this ride, the co-pilot will be Frank Stella, one of the most significant artists of the 20th century, and also an enthusiastic racing car driver, which designed the BMW 3.0 CSL that raced at Le Mans in 1976. Warhol himself was just as enthusiastic as usual: “I love that car. It has turned out better than the artwork”. Instead of first designing a scale model and leaving the final completion to his assistants as his predecessors did, the pop art legend painted the BMW M1 from the beginning to the end himself - and signed on the wet paint using his fingers. “If a car is really fast, all contours and colours will
become blurred”.

With Warhol’s car and Frank Stella driving it, the event is also a token of gratitude to all art lovers and should be very interesting to watch.

As you all know, the British Formula 1 Grand Prix was held at the Silverstone Circuit two weeks ago. But what you might have not knew is that before the F1 cars took to the circuit, a charity auction was held, the winner having the priviledge of being driven by everybody’s favourite tame racing driver, Top Gear’s The Stig in a two seat F1 car.

The winner, a man who previously won a lottery, offered £35,000 for the chance of being behind The Stig on the circuit. And it was well worth it, the 3 laps done by The Stig gained praise from even former F1 champion, Fernando Alonso, having declared that “Whoever’s in that car is a seriously good driver, I’ve no idea who he is, but he’s definitely ex-F1.”. Stig impressing him by having managed to control the difficult handling car in the rain and gaining applause after recovering from a step-out of the back wheels.
Read More: "Fernando Alonso impressed by The Stig"

Pollution is a big thing and governments are acting to stop every part of it. Such is the case with cars which have a high output of CO2, manufacturers are forced to keep up with stricter and stricter norms of pollution, the European Council setting a date of 2012 until all manufacturers need to have cars that eliminate at most 130 g/km of CO2.

“Fine” said almost all the big producers, smaller and more fuel efficient engines are good for budget models, but for high end producers like Ferrari or Lamborghini, with a tradition of big performance V8, V12 or even W16 engines, this regulation pulls the warning signal. Luca di Montezemolo, president of Ferrari has declared for the german magazine Welt am Sonntag that the italian manufacturer has already began to develop hybrid tehnologies which will power the future models of his company.

The company’s goal ? A model with 40 % fewer emissions of CO2 until 2012. The means of achieving this goal ? As always their Formula 1 experience, more specifically, the KERS which stands for Kynetic Energy Recycling System, basically the energy developped from braking the car is stored in a battery and then used for momments when the car needs that extra bit of power, such as overtaking or cornering.

These hybrid tehnologies won’t change Ferrari’s philosophy about cars, “it would still be a Ferrari” said Montezemolo, and the first models will most likely appear as early as 2015. The first steps towards a more eco-friendly Ferrari are already being taken, by using more “greener” turbocharged V6 engines on the more recent models.
Read More: "Ferrari to develop hybrid cars"

Ayrton Senna was the Formula 1’ s God. What a great champion! What a talented man! Nowadays we hear speeches about leadership. A lot of speeches! But Ayrton was the real lider. He died in 1994, in Italy. The people wanted and still want at least a follower, somebody that can continue to inspire the others.

Lewis Hamilton had the extraordinary honour to receive two trophies, including the one for International Racing Driver of the Year. The organizers of the ceremony had invited Viviane Lalli Senna, Ayrton Senna’s sister, as guest of honor. The big moment came when from her hands, Lewis received the trophies. All these wonderful things happened at Britain’s most important motorsport awards presentation in London.

I thought I should write about this subject because it’s more than a prize in this situation. We’re facing a succession here. It’s a symbol. Lewis Hamilton is taking on his shoulders a huge weight. The weight to be the man that has an ethical duty starting that moment. The duty to continue to bring hope to the people.

Is it too early to make comparisons between Hamilton and Senna? Yes, it is. But it isn’t too early to look forward and find huge characters.

“We all are dealers in hope” - Napoleon
Read More: "Lewis Hamilton - Success is a matter of attitude!"

After 12 years in which ITV owned the TV coverage rights for Formula 1, starting next year, BBC will be the channel to broadcast the F1 action in the UK. And, of course, BBC needs some quality presenters commentators and it seems that one of them will be Richard Hammond, who, alongside Jeremy Clarkson and James May, presents the popular auto show Top Gear.

Apparently, the deal cost BBC somewhere around £200 million deal and many question if it was really worth it. Especially after BBC lost the rights for live Champions League matches to ITV and these matches bring a lot more viewers than the F1 races.

The BBC plans on making the presentation more dynamic, screening races live via broadband and mobile phones as well as conventional television, plus it seems that the Top Gear team will create some great reports from the races.

Read More: "Richard Hammond to cover F1 for BBC"

Ok, I gotta admit that my first reaction when I saw this was “Wow!”. It’s a McLaren F1 car replica made from an impressive 956,000 matchsticks. This is the work of Michael Arndt and it took him 6 years and 1686 tubes of glue to finish it. It cost 6000 Euros and can be broken down into 45 separate parts to move it around easier. However, after reading that, one question bothers us: “Why?”. And we still haven’t gotten our answer so, if you have any thoughts, please do share.

Check out more photos after the jump.

Read More: "McLaren Formula 1 car made from matchsticks"

In the same day Ferrari presented their Formula 1 car and team for the 2008 season, McLaren also introduced it’s new McLaren MP4-23, in which Lewis Hamilton and new teammate Heikki Kovalainen will try to get the best results. The car is powered by the Mercedes-Benz FO 108V engine, an improved version of last year’s. From the press release:

“New to the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-23, as well as to any other cars competing in the 2008 Formula 1 World Championship, will be a standardised Electronic Control Unit (ECU) for powertrain control and data logging. This ECU has been developed by McLaren Electronic Systems together with its Technical Partner Microsoft on behalf of the FIA and must run FIA-approved software. One of the main technical features of the new ECU is the elimination of all driver aids, including traction control, which allowed maximum traction without wheel spin. Without traction control the driver’s abilities to control the car become even more significant.

Other engine regulations have remained unchanged. The 19,000rpm operating limit for the engines has been effective since 2007. Since then, basically anything which is inside the FIA seals cannot be changed, but ancillaries outside, for example the fuel system, airbox or other elements of the engine which will affect its packaging in the chassis can be altered. So there is still a degree of scope within which Vodafone McLaren Mercedes can operate from the standpoint of engine development. Also the rule requiring one engine to be used on two consecutive race weekends remains in place for the 2008 season.”

See more photos after the jump.

Read More: "McLaren unveils new car for the 2008 Formula 1 season"

Ferrari has just launched their new Formula 1 car for this season. Current world champion, Kimi Raikkonen and his teammate, Felipe Massa will try to get the best results in a new car, which has a lot of modifications, like the new SECU (Standard Electronic Control Unit), gearbox rules (must now be used for four consecutive events), safety (higher side protection around the driver’s helmet), materials (limit to type of composites that can be used) and the much talked about loss of traction control. Aerodynamicly the car has been totally revised and will be totally changed again before the season starts in March at the Australian Grand Prix.

More photos and a video from the official presentation, after the jump.

Read More: "Ferrari launches the Formula 1 car for the 2008 season"

McLaren F1 driver, Lewis Hamilton, was caught speeding on a highway in France. The 22 year old British driver was caught doing 122 mph (196km/h), that’s 37 mph more than the legal speed limit in France, which is 80 mph (130km/h). Hamilton had his Mercedes town away, got a one month ban from France, plus he had to pay a 600 euro (£430) fine. However, the French policemen told the press that Lewis was “co-operative and courteous”.

Read More: "Lewis Hamilton caught speeding in France"