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Felipe Massa was back behind the wheel of the Ferrari F60 on Sunday, his first outing in the team’s 2009 machine since his life-threatening crash at the Hungarian Grand Prix meeting back in July. Massa wowed the crowds at Spain’s Valencia circuit, where Ferrari were celebrating the end of their motorsport season with the annual Ferrari World Finals.

It may not have been his first time back in an F1 car - he tested an older machine at Ferrari’s Fiorano test track last month - but it was a very special day for the Brazilian, back in front of his beloved fans less than four months after his skull was fractured by a loose spring from a rival car.

“I am very happy to be here, that I can work with the team,” said Massa. “It’s true that I’ve been with them in Sao Paulo and in Abu Dhabi, but driving is really extraordinary! Today I also want to thank all the fans, who were really close to me over the last months. The messages I received were wonderful.”

Massa drove around 20 laps, first with his test driver team mates Marc Gene, Giancarlo Fisichella and Luca Badoer and later on, after a couple of pit stops, alone - an experience he described as almost as good as a race win.

Wow - it seems lately like everyone is jumping ship. Is it due to the economic downturn - or something else?

From the Formula One website:

Toyota will be absent from the grid next season after the team’s parent company announced its withdrawal from Formula One racing on Wednesday. The team had been competing since 2002.

“Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) announces it plans to withdraw from the FIA Formula One World Championship at the end of the 2009 season,” said a statement released by the Japanese car manufacturer.

“TMC, which had viewed its participation in F1 as contributing to the prosperity of automotive culture, remained dedicated to competing at the pinnacle of motor sports, even in the face of the abrupt economic changes that started last year.

“However, when considering TMC’s motor-sports activities next year and beyond from a comprehensive midterm viewpoint reflecting the current severe economic realities, TMC decided to withdraw from F1.”

Read more…

Fans of the FIA World Rally Championship will be able to tackle the stages themselves next year when a new WRC video game, billed as the most realistic and playable rally game of all time, is launched.

WRC promoters, ISC, have signed a three year agreement with Black Bean Games to produce the new game which, for the first time, will be available in PS3, X-Box 360 and PC versions.

Black Bean, and their in-house development studio Milestone, are two of the most respected names in motorsport gaming, and were behind the highly rated SBK Superbike championship and MotoGP games.

Simon Long, ISC CEO, said: “The official WRC game will engage a whole new audience for the sport and we’re tremendously excited at the opportunities to grow our fan base and the profile of the WRC. It provides a hugely powerful touch point for us in which to showcase the WRC to consumers, and it will be the most realistic and playable rally game of all time.”

Virgilio Bixio, Black Bean Games president, added: “We are particularly proud to bring the WRC franchise back into the video games arena after so many years of absence. Milestone has been working hard on this title and our expectations are really high.”

OK - I can hear you all collectively rolling your eyes right about now. We are so inundated with articles about “going green” and “global warming” or “healing the environment” that we’re all about to scream. But with all the exotic locations around the globe that we choose to host various auto racing events, an impact upon the local/surrounding environment should be considered.

Last week we heard about the environmental concerns surrounding the 2009 running of SCORE’s Primm 300 out in the Nevada desert. Apparently last year’s event was devastating to the desert tortoise, an animal that has been plagued with adversity in recent years as more development comes to the desert. Even out here in California we’ve heard about its plight and adjustments have been made to accommodate this important creature. SCORE was instructed by the Department of Fish & Game to forbid any “recon” maneuvers by teams prior to the race as it was discovered that the off-road scouting of the track was what caused the tortoise so much trouble. A lot of drivers (and fans) were outraged by the decision, but when you decide to run an event in an exotic location - such as a desert, near a wetland area or other protected/fragile region, environmental impact is definitely a concern.

A report was released today by the folks at FIA’s World Rally Championship Series that a study done on the recent Rally Australia had caused no significant impact on the area’s wildlife within the region. The top concern in this area was the endangered koala who has suffered many setbacks in recent years as well as other threatened species in the area of the rally’s route.

Perhaps other series will conduct studies on the impact of their chosen track locations in the future. While most series are set track driven - asphalt, dirt, etc. in large stadiums in pre-set locations - others like off-road, rally, etc. tend to have their races set in remote mountainous, wilderness locations where environmental impact should be a major consideration. As we evolve our ideas of what’s important to us all and weigh the impact that sports such as auto/motorcycle and even boat racing might have upon the surrounding area, we will all reap the benefits of such considerations and can look forward to a better future for all concerned.

F1 2009™, the official video game of the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship, is set to deliver an even more authentic experience for gamers after developers Codemasters announced that a limited edition Race Wheel accessory, styled after an F1 steering wheel, will ship with the Wii™ edition in selected territories.

The F1 2009 bundle box will feature the exclusive white Race Wheel, which the Wii remote slots into, enabling players to steer the Formula One cars in the game, due for release this autumn, like their heroes.

The news comes ahead of this weekend’s European Grand Prix and the Valencia circuit, complete with its unique swing bridge, is playable for the first time in F1 2009. A gameplay video packed with race action from Spanish track is now available at www.formula1-game.com.

F1 2009 will offer a fully authentic Formula One experience, with all the teams, drivers, cars and tracks from the enthralling 2009 season. The Wii version will set new standards for racing immersion and authenticity, while remaining accessible for the entire family, and the PSP version will allow fans the opportunity to enjoy the world’s most thrilling and glamorous sport on the move.

With Formula One heating up a LOT in recent weeks, we thought we’d share some quotes from the series’ top drivers with their thoughts on how the season is shaping up and what’s in store for the upcoming Grand Prix:

Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
2008 Qualifying - 2nd, 2008 Race - 2nd
“It’s great to be getting back to business after the four-week break. I’m still buzzing from the win in Hungary and I’m hopeful of being able to carry that pace into the Valencia weekend - particularly with our new upgrades to the car. It’s a very demanding circuit, the kind of place that punishes any mistakes hard. It’s quite tight and relatively slow, so it should suit our package. It’s also very difficult to overtake, as we discovered last year - but, with our KERS, Mercedes-Benz has proved that anything can happen and I’m once again hoping that it will provide the difference in the race.”

Jarno Trulli, Toyota
2008 Qualifying - 7th, 2008 Race - 5th
“I am really glad to be racing again; it’s great to have some time off to relax with my family but my passion is racing so it’s good to be getting back to the track. It seems like a long time since the last race so everyone in the team is fired up to come out fighting this weekend. Valencia is not such an exciting circuit for me but that doesn’t matter so much if we are strong, which we were last year on this track. Unlike somewhere like Monaco, Valencia is actually very fast for a street circuit so that should suit our car pretty well. In fact, it doesn’t really feel much like a street circuit at all because it is so much faster than other city tracks. We were in the top six last year in Valencia and that is my target this season. It was good to have both cars in the points in Hungary. The Valencia track has a different character so it’s difficult to predict at this stage but my target is to score as many points as possible.”

After travelling back to his home country of Brazil on Monday, Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello has wasted no time in catching up with friend Felipe Massa. Barrichello visited Massa’s home on Wednesday, as his fellow Brazilian continues to recuperate from the fractured skull he sustained during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Updating his official Twitter page, Barrichello said: “I have spent the afternoon with Felipe. He is fine and exactly the same person as before…thank God. I loved the afternoon, he was so well and in good spirits. On Felipe’s comeback we need to be patient. He has to be 100 percent before he drives again.”

Although Massa has been making a remarkable recovery from his injuries, no official date has been set for his return to the track, with personal doctor Dino Altman explaining last week that he’ll need time to ‘calmly convalesce’. Ferrari tester Luca Badoer is to fill in for the 28 year-old at next weekend’s European Grand Prix.

See even more info/updates at www.formula1.com and follow F1 and other racing series every day at www.carracing.com.

Well, they went and did it. BMW announced this morning it’s plans to pull from Formula One racing effective the end of the 2009 season. Citing “restructuring” of the company, BMW’s spokesperson called this a “landmark” decision - indeed!

BMW’s original Formula One involvement began in the 1980s as an engine supplier. With Brabham from 1982 to ’85, the company clinched eight Formula One victories and one world title, courtesy of Nelson Piquet in 1983. Following a final win with Benetton in 1986, BMW were absent from F1 competition until 2000 when they began supplying engines to Williams, taking 10 victories over the following five years.

In 2006 the company took over the Sauber team and enjoyed a positive first season as a fully-fledged works entry, finishing fifth in the constructors’ championship, with two podium finishes. The team went from strength to strength in 2007, occupying the ‘best of the rest’ slot behind Ferrari and McLaren. Scoring in all 17 races, BMW Sauber eventually finished second in the standings, behind Ferrari.

Last year, the team became championship contenders, with driver Robert Kubica clinching the team’s first pole position in Bahrain and then a maiden win at the Canadian Grand Prix. However, they have found the going a lot tougher this season and have scored just eight points to date.

The Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari, 19, will become the youngest driver to race in Formula One this weekend and is drawing criticism from fellow drivers about his inexperience even before the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest. Alguersuari will set the record at 19 years 126 days, breaking the mark set by the New Zealand driver Mike Thackwell by 57 days.

Don’t miss this weekend’s Formula 1 action - view it online or check your local listings!

Formula One’s leading teams revived their threat to form a breakaway series on Thursday despite the sport’s governing body insisting that a deal to end the long-running saga over regulations could be reached in days.

F1’s fragile peace was thrown into doubt again Wednesday when the Formula One Teams Association walked out of a meeting with the FIA after being told they had not been entered into the 2010 championship and would have no say in finalizing cost-cutting measures.

“We cannot sit back and wait. We have to keep all options open,” BMW Sauber motorsport director Mario Theissen said Thursday from the site of the upcoming German Grand Prix. “And that means we have to look at the other points as well. We have to prepare for all possibilities.”