F1 Blog

Sky reveal schedule for opening weeks of new channel

2012-02-13T18:04:00.004Z

Sky have today published their first schedules for their new F1 channel which launches on March 9th. It's not a 100% complete schedule yet and i'm sure they will be flexible when it comes to the race weekends depending on how events unfold. Here's some of the details which gives more of an idea of the things they will be showing on it

Friday 9th March

2000-2200 Formula One Magazine Show

2200-2230 Legends - Fittipaldi

2230-2300 Winter Testing - Jerez/Barcelona

2300-0100 Formula One Magazine Show (Repeat)

Saturday 10th March

1830-1900 F1 Car unveiling - McLaren/Force India

1900-2000 Time of our lives - GP Greats

2000-2230 Formula One Season Review 2011

Friday 16th March

0100-0330 Australia FP1 Live (Session is 0130-0300)

0515-0700 Australia FP2 Live (Session is 0530-0700)

0930-1030 Formula One Magazine Show (Repeated throughout the day)

Saturday 17th March

0245-0415 Australia FP3 Live (Session starts at 0300)

0500-0800 Australia Qualifying (Session starts at 0600)

Sunday 18th March

0430-0900 Australian Grand Prix Live (Race starts at 0600)

1930-2100 Australian Grand Prix Highlights (Repeated at 2130)

Tuesday 20th March

1930-2000 F1 Fast Track - Australia

Wednesday 21st March

2000-2100 Formula One 1988 Season Review

Thursday 22nd March

2000-2100 Formula One 1989 Season Review

Friday 23rd March

0200-0350 Malaysia FP1 Live

0550-0740 Malaysia FP2 Live

0750-0840 GP2 Qualifying Live

1000-1100 Formula One Magazine Show

Saturday 24th March

0445-0615 Malaysia FP3 Live

0700-0800 GP2 Race 1 Live

0800-0930 Malaysia Qualifying Live

Sunday 25th March

0330-0430 GP2 Race 2 Live

0730-1200 Malaysian Grand Prix Live

1730-2000 Live Indy Car Racing

2000-2130 Malaysian Grand Prix Highlights

I haven't posted the whole schedule as a lot of the shows are repeated during the day. The main points to note are:

- Live coverage of GP2 Qualifying
- 90 minute build up to races and 60 minute post race analysis (I'm sure they'll extend this if there's a major post race story)
- First 'Legends' interview is with Emerson Fittipaldi and Nigel Mansell is also featured in the opening weeks
- Doesn't seem to be archive footage of full races but rather season reviews

Anyway, some details which give a taster of what is to come

Andre Mas honoured at FIA Gala

2011-12-11T20:14:00.003Z

The gap between the end of the season and Christmas usually see's some racing events and award ceremonies take place and with the Brazilian Grand Prix taking place on the last weekend of November it's been quite a rush to fit everything in. The Race of Champions took place a week after the race in Interlagos. Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher took the victory for Team Germany in the Nations cup. Vettel and Jenson Button were winners at the Autosport Awards whilst Jaime Alguersuari was the overall winner of Felipe Massa's go karting event in Brazil. This week seen the final round of FIA meetings for the year before the official end of the season with the FIA Gala. Vettel, Button and Mark Webber received trophies for their top 3 finishes in the drivers championship while Christian Horner picked up the constructors trophy. However it was another award that caught my attention from the ceremony in New Delhi

Andre Mas was awarded the Jacky Ickx Award for the Most Outstanding Official. Sadly it was awarded posthumously after the Spaniard passed away last month. However it was very much deserved simply for the feat of bravery carried out by Mas 41 years ago. On lap 1 of the 1970 Spanish Grand Prix there was a collision involving Belgian driver Jacky Ickx. His car almost immediately caught fire.

An alert and courageous Mas headed to the edge of the circuit as cars flew by, aiming his fire extinguisher at the scene of the accident as best he could and within 20 seconds the fire was out. Ickx escaped with severe burns and without the quick thinking of Mas he probably would not survived. He returned to racing at the next Grand Prix in Monte Carlo. Mas would eventually become senior officer at the Jarama circuit but his act as a marshall would remain his moment of heroism and is a reminder of the dangers of Formula 1 and the great work the FIA have done and also the people who volunteer to be a marshall and put their own lives at risk to allow events to run

So there we are, just a short tale but a great act to avoid a fatality in the sport we love and wonderful that amongst the glitz and glamout of the Gala, Andre Mas was honoured and remembered for what he done for Jacky Ickx and Formula 1

The A-Z of the 2011 season

2011-12-04T21:25:00.004Z

Australia started the season and was a sign of what was to come with a dominant display from Sebastian Vettel

Bahrain had their race cancelled after months of violence in the region. The situation dragged on for months before the organisers eventually accepted defeat

Canada held the longest Grand Prix in history with the wet weather leading to a race that lasted 4 hours, 4 minutes, 39.537 seconds for race winner Jenson Button

Drag reduction system became a big talking point as it split opinion over whether it was great for entertainment value or too artificial for the sport

Engine reliability was good in the field this season with only Williams needing to resort to a 9th engine

Ferrari had a tough season by their high standards, their one moment of celebration came at Silverstone where Fernando Alonso took a classy victory

Grand Chelem - Win, fastest lap, led every lap and pole position - was achieved by Sebastian Vettel for the first time in his career in India

Horror struck F1 before the season even started as Robert Kubica was critically injured in a rallying accident. Whether he will ever return to the sport is still unknown

India became the latest country to host a Grand Prix and did so with great joy and delight as the paddock embraced the New Delhi circuit

Japan witnessed a great battle between Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso. The McLaren driver took the win but 3rd was enough to crown Vettel world champion again

Kinetic energy recovery systems returned to F1 after first being introduced in 2009 and added an extra dimension to races

Leadership of the races was contested hotly with 15 overtakes taking place on track for the lead of the race in 2011

Mexican Sergio Perez had a fine rookie season, regularly on the pace of his team mate Kamui Kobayashi and only had his season halted briefly after a big crash coming out of the tunnel at Monaco

Nico Rosberg put in some strong qualifying displays and led in Shanghai and Spa but was unable to make it onto the podium as the big 3 teams locked it out from China onwards

Overtaking was at an all time high as DRS and Pirelli tyres created some action packed races. There were 1152 overtakes in the season

Pirelli returned to the sport after a 20 year absence and brought aggressive compounds which seen high tyre wear at many tracks. There were 1111 pitstops this season

Questions linger over the careers of drivers like Rubens Barrichello and Vitantonio Liuzzi after tough seasons at the back end of the grid

Red Bull were simply the team to beat again and were on top form throughout the year. Can they be stopped from a hat-trick of titles in 2012?

Safety car was not something that was seen until the Monaco Grand Prix but was deployed 13 times in the season including a record 6 times in Montreal

Times were extremely tight in the ultra competitive Q2 segment of qualifying, in New Delhi Jaime Alguersuari and Vitaly Petrov both set the exact same time but only the Toro Rosso driver progressed

Unusual to see in the 21st century is red flags at races but we had consecutive races with stoppages in Monaco and Canada

Vitaly Petrov started the season with a sensational podium in Melbourne but the rest of the season was a mixture of good and bad results

Wings came under scrutiny again as Renault's rear wing and Ferrari's front wing were seen shaking violently during the year.

Xerotic conditions greeted the drives in Abu Dhabi and Lewis Hamilton gave himself something to smile about in a tough season with a flawless win

Yeongam was the scene of the constructors championship being clinched but already doubts are surfacing over the future of the circuit which only opened last year

Zzzzz Valencia was a bore but at least the rest of the season produced much excitement!

F1 programmes on Sky Sports

2011-11-26T17:40:00.004Z

Sky Sports have announced that they will be launching a channel dedicated to Formula 1 in 2012. This means fans can look forward to widespread coverage over race weekends but what about the days when there is no on track action? How will Sky fill their schedule? Here's some suggestions for them...

06:00-10:00 Good Morning F1 fans!

All the latest news and information on Formula One. Presented by Steve Rider and Holly Samos.

10:00-11:00 My Top 10

Sebastian Vettel discusses his 10 favourite pole position laps

11:00-12:00 Loose Reporters

Round table discussion between 4 of F1's leading journalists

12:00-14:00 The Formula One Show

Chat, features and guests. Presented by Jonathan Legard and Natalie Pinkham

14:00-16:00 From the archive

Full re-run of the 2nd free practice session from the 2006 Japanese Grand Prix

16:00-17:00 Pointless

4 more former drivers who failed to score a point in F1 have a go at the general knowledge quiz show

17:00-18:00 Lewis Hamilton News at Five

A full update on all that has occurred in Lewis Hamilton's life today

18:00-20:00 F1 does Strictly Come Dancing

9 couples battle to avoid elimination. Can Ron Dennis continue his stint at the top of the leader board?

20:00-22:00 The HRT Factor

The remaining 5 hopefuls battle for a seat at HRT next season. This weeks challenge: How much sponsorship can you raise in a week

22:00-00:00 Metal Night with Paul Di Resta

Force India driver Paul Di Resta shares some of his favourite metal songs of all time

00:00-06:00 Through the night

Former driver and commentator Jonathan Palmer takes us through the night to help all fans get to sleep

Prizes and honour at stake as season approaches end

2011-11-02T16:12:00.004Z

Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull's dominance has meant for only the 2nd time since 2005 Formula One has had 'dead rubbers' at the end of the season. The race to be number one may be over in both championships but there are still a few things worth keeping a eye on in Abu Dhabi and Brazil to keep you enthralled...

Constructor's championship: The top 4 is basically set and despite Renault's recent poor run (6 points in 6 races since Nick Heidfeld left the team) a 21 point margin over Force India should be enough to maintain 5th place. Things are much tighter from 6th to 8th:

Force India 51
Sauber 41
Toro Rosso 41

Sauber had started the season really well as their low tyre wear paid dividends in some of the races where cars were stopping 4 times. However the loss of 10 points in Australia after the rear wing was deemed illegal may come back to haunt the Swiss team. Force India have steadily improved after a difficult winter. Between Di Resta and Sutil, one has usually been in the hunt for a top 10 finish. Toro Rosso were not fighting for points with regularity early in the season but a focus on race performance and new aerodynamic updates have seen the team start to claw their way into the midfield battle and they now find themselves just behind Sauber on countback

On present form i feel Force India will have enough to hold onto 6th and that Toro Rosso will take some points to jump up to 7th. Sauber's best hope may be that Renault pick up form and that the top 10 becomes locked out by the top 5 teams and the championship standings remain stable until the end.

Lotus, HRT and Virgin look set to have another season without any points but no prize money on offer for the bottom 2 teams the highest finishing position obtained is the key factor here. Lotus have had 3 13th places this season which means they currently occupy that 10th position ahead of HRT (1 13th place) and Virgin (2 14th places) Abu Dhabi is extremely unlikely to be an abnormal race and the only way i can see Lotus missing out is if Brazil is a wet race and chaos ensues. It will take a lot of mayhem for HRT or Virgin to grab a 12th place though.

Team mate rivalry: At McLaren Jenson Button needs a maximum of 13 points in the final 2 rounds to cap off his excellent season and beat Lewis Hamilton. At Mercedes there is just 5 points between Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher. Both drivers have played down the significance of beating the other. Indeed i was surprised by how relaxed Rosberg was after India about losing 5th to Schumacher in the final round of stops. He came across as someone lacking that will to win but perhaps he will show it if he has a front running car. Toro Rosso have a difficult choice to make between 4 Red Bull junior drivers for 2012. The current holders of seats are Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi and it is currently 26-15 to the Spaniard. Staying ahead going into the final race means the Swiss driver has to miss FP1 for reserve driver Jean-Eric Vergne and his strong form could mean a first season of beating Buemi and securing a 2012 drive.

Fastest lap award: This is an award that doesn't get much attention but it is still something to win and it is definitely going to be another prize heading to Red Bull as Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel are the only 2 drivers left in the running. It is currently 5-3 to Webber so Vettel needs to get the fastest lap in Abu Dhabi and Brazil to have any chance. A 2nd fastest lap at either of the final 2 rounds for Webber would mean he would win on countback even if Vettel makes it 5-5. It is possible that in a certain tie the countback could go beyond 4th fastest laps this year so it could get tight. Can Vettel sweep up another prize or will Webber get a consolation prize for his 2011 season?

Super Seb makes it two in a row

2011-10-11T18:06:00.007+01:00

Vettel took the title, Button claimed an emotional win and Hamilton clashed with Massa again. Here's my thoughts on that and more after a brilliant weekend of Formula 1 in Japan...

Supreme Seb seals title success at Suzuka: I had never been a huge fan of Sebastian Vettel until this year. Not that i disliked him, he always had my respect as a quick guy but he was never a favourite, someone i really willed on. When Robert Kubica came through the ranks at BMW i had my eye on him so i suppose the next man along which was Vettel was never going to capture my attention as much. I knew he was fast though and he soon showed it. Debut weekend in America and he scored a point and topped a practice session. Fast forward a year and at a drenched Monza he gets his first opportunity to win a race and takes it. However taking out Kubica at the start of 2009 didn't help my vibes towards him! But the next 2 seasons would see Vettel go from someone with raw speed into more of an all round package. He snatched the title at the death in 2010 but even then i thought the German had more room for improvement.

2011 has been sensational for Vettel. His brilliant qualifying laps, his racecraft and control of a Grand Prix, the coolness under pressure, the fabulous overtakes which some have wondered whether he could produce. It has been a world class display of sheer brilliance and a pleasure to watch unfold (Even if it means the championship not going to the wire) And off the track he's a funny, likeable guy who regularly makes you laugh. He's just annoyingly good! Of course the serious side of Vettel exists and his utter will to win and snap up every prize available is incredible. The appetite hasn't been quenched by 2 world titles and we are set for a few more years of great battles and rivalry between the likes of Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton and Button.

Button victory laids down marker for 2012: It was a glorious Sunday in Suzuka. The sun shining down, the choir singing the national anthem with such beauty on the grid and a race which was close throughout and went down to the wire. First point of contention was the start. I think Vettel pushed his luck with Button but the decision not to penalise him was the correct one. Button ends up in the pit exit and then the track tightens so i think technically the road closed up on him when it got to the point he was on the grass. Don't blame him for feeling aggrieved. The stewards reasoning was strange however as they made the point that Hamilton had taken a similar line to Vettel from the start. Don't see how that really plays an influence in what happens. Good that the FIA are giving reasons at least! Button eventually retook the lead, a pit time 8 tenths quicker than Vettel allowing the McLaren to get the 'overcut'.

Then we had a safety car after debris at Turn 7 (Webber/Schumacher collision) and Turn 16 (Hamilton/Massa) I thought this was a bit of an overreaction at the time because the pieces were small but i understand safety is paramount and the biggest gap on track at the time was 15 seconds between D'Ambrosio and Trulli so it would have been tight for a marshall to get out there. Just feels strange seeing a safety car for pieces of debris and only yellow flags when a burning Renault was exploding at the Budapest pit exit. Hamilton seem to not realise Massa was there in their collision. The stewards explanation on this was also odd taking into consideration that Massa was on trying to overtake on the left into a right hander. Hamilton may have been taking the normal line but you can't just do that when another car is already there! I'm always amazed how aware the drivers are of what's around and behind them being so low in the cars with small mirrors but Hamilton's recent incidents do make you wonder about his awareness around other cars, he has made some clumsy and unneeded moves. He is still a very quick driver and on his day the best and this slump of form will pass by and i feel he will bounce back.

Amongst the joy of Button and Vettel was another tremendous drive from Fernando Alonso. This guy is just relentless, getting everything out of what he has. I actually think Massa is driving better recently as well but it doesn't show up that well because of the form of the Spaniard. He wants a third title badly and will want to get it before Vettel does! Another driver showing good race pace is Michael Schumacher who came in 6th and led a lap of a Grand Prix for the first time since the same race 5 years ago. Another stat from Sunday was that the race had the most finishers on the lead lap in F1 history. 19 cars completed all 53 laps. Cheers to Sean Kelly (@virtualstatman on Twitter) for confirming that one!

Sauber duo impress on and off the track: After 2010 we knew that plenty of attention would be on Kamui Kobayashi and it certainly was as the crowds went wild for anything their home hero did. Unfortunately anti-stall kicked in at the start and a lack of fresh rubber saw him fall back in the closing stages. It was still a positive weekend after all he had done for his country in the wake of the tsunami disaster. Sergio Perez had a stunning race. Starting 17th and suffering from the flu, the Mexican found himself behind Jarno Trulli early on yet managed to come through and take a fantastic 8th, beating the Renault and Force India cars. I didn't know much about him before this season but he is really showing good speed and some feisty combat when wheel to wheel with other cars. He is being touted as a Ferrari driver for 2013 and it wouldn't surprise me to see him there (Sorry Massa fans!) Vitaly Petrov did well to get 9th after 2 stints on the prime tyre and Force India need something special to get 5th from them in the championship now. Another weekend with a crash for Bruno Senna who isn't really doing enough to keep that seat for next year in my opinion. Will the team look towards someone like Rubens Barrichello if Kubica can't return or perhaps stick in Romain Grosjean. We'll have to see how the muddled situation at Renault turns out.

A few words make all the difference: A story doing the rounds before the Japanese Grand Prix was Mark Webber saying he had given up hope of ever winning the world championship. Whilst it hasn't been the best season for the Australian, to see a driver currently in the best car in F1 declare he had no hope of being champion was a surprising one. However on Twitter and during interviews Webber dismissed the reports and said he had been misquoted. As i looked into this i got chatting to Cheryl Tay, the lady who conducted the interview with Webber. So what did he really say? Cheryl confirmed that the question put to Webber was "Have you ever thought of that (2010) as your last chance to be champion?" to which the Red Bull driver replied "yes of course, life goes on" So basically Webber feels that a great opportunity passed him by last season but he hasn't given up on 1 day becoming champion. Shows how easily things get misinterpreted in the media sometimes.

Korea DRS zone location revealed: F1 heads back to Yenogam for a 2nd year and it appears little has been done to the circuit since the 1st race where the track only got FIA approval 2 weeks before the Grand Prix. The pit entry, criticised by many, remains and the many buildings planned around the circuit still haven't come to be. The layout is a good one though with a really mixture of long straights and technical corners. I'm not happy with the DRS zone for this race which is between turns 2 and 3, the longest straight on the track at over 1km. Surely this will provide some action anyway and with DRS added may become too easy. We'll still lots of action, i just fear it will be diluted somewhat. There are shorter straights before and after the DRS zone so expect some battles to continue for a few corners. I like the DRS but there's room for improvement and perhaps the way it is implemented needs adjustment. Hopefully the FIA will assess it closely over the winter.

Lazenby to present F1 on Sky?: The BBC/Sky story has been pretty quiet recently. Mark Thompson said in a BBC radio interview last week that the highlights shows for the races the BBC don't show live will be 75 minutes. No confirmation yet on whether full ace replays will be available on any platform. We know that the BBC will show the British, Monaco and Brazilian races next year. Sky get to pick the next 3 races and then the choosing process alternates 1 pick at a time. The Daily Mail reported this week that Sky are still chasing Martin Brundle for their coverage and that Simon Lazenby could be the presenter. I don't have Sky so don't know much about Lazenby but he seems to be highly rated and worked with Sky's head of F1 on their Rugby coverage. Also interesting to see that the latest follows on his Twitter account are the Ferrari and Red Bull feeds...

What have you made of the 2011 season? Is Vettel now the best driver currently in F1? And who could be the next rising star to join the fight for victories? Let me know in the comments section

Image courtesy of http://www.mclaren.com

F1 and Twitter

2011-09-18T18:31:00.003+01:00

This post is a bit of a split for this blog. It's still about F1 but also about social media, the experiences i've had with it and why you should check out Twitter if you have not already got an account on it. For me the first time i paid any attention to the fast growing website was when i noticed a link for it on the Autosport website for one of their main journalists Jon Noble. I bookmarked his particular page and checked it every so often. Then i picked up on the likes of Jake Humphrey and Lee McKenzie from the BBC team and eventually i was checking about 10 different pages. Finally in October 2009 i made the plunge and got an account. Once you have this you can follow different accounts and then any of their updates (tweets) appear on your homepage with the most recent at the top. For me it was great, i actually liked following the journalist more than the drivers! Lots of news and info and little snippets from the paddock. For the first 6 months though i only sent about 20 tweets myself. So barely anything, i do remember sending one when Jenson Button won the title!

6 months later and i've taken this notion of making a F1 blog. You know the deal, you discover this new platform and have all these big idea and plans on how you can become this really popular site with F1 analysis! As if that would ever happen! So how does this tie in with Twitter? Well i didn't want my blog just to be rehashing news stories. I had seen other sites with a sidebar of tweets so thought if i tweeted the latest news i could have it appear on the blog but it wouldn't be the dominant feature. So that's how it all began. I remember tweeting throughout the Monaco weekend in 2010 and getting up to 10 followers and thinking how great that was (Yes i was that sad) I seem to remember that there was a trending topic for the race and constantly using it and i kept doing that for a few races which i realise was a bit of overkill so to any of my early followers i apologise! If you are new to Twitter it is handy to use the search function as you can pick up on things about somebody and many people will use the hashtag #F1 in their tweets.

The other thing that happened at this time was i started to discover other fans on Twitter. I was only following a few dozen people and they were all drivers, teams or journalists. However there are so many people on Twitter who share the same passion for F1 that i do. It really is a great community and i just enjoy it so much. Whilst i had this great buzz for blogging to begin with it lessened (I still enjoy it) but i really got into Twitter. At first i was hoping to pick up followers simply because in my mind that meant more traffic to the blog but i soon realised that it wasn't all about numbers or stats but simply enjoying having others to talk to who shared my interest for the sport. I don't actually have that many friends into F1 so it's nice to go into the F1 'bubble' of Twitter and tweet all about it!

Anyone that follows me knows i love to tweet about the latest news/info. I'm just a simple fan but always had a bit of a yearning for journalism so i think that's why i'm into that sort of thing. Having finished University last year, i've sometimes had a bit of time on my hands and it's been interesting to learn how information gets out into the public domain. I think i've also realised that it is important to respect the journalist/websites who are reporting an exclusive story. I would have tweeted any story going about to begin with but i've think it is important to credit a site/person if they have put the story out there. Some Twitter accounts will just take a journalists words and rehash them 5 minutes later and really that isn't the way to do it. Of course some information can come out through press releases or public sources and this is readily available so i think there is nothing wrong with sharing that (once you track the source down!) because it is out in the public domain. I decided for this season to do a round-up tweet of the news like some websites do once every day. So in theory i'm breaking my own guidelines in doing that but in general i try and be fair to who has broke a story. I don't do it for any glory. Sure it's nice to get some new followers or get a big response to something you say, there's no denying that. But just doing anything to try to get a higher number is not what i want to chase, i tweet about F1 because i genuinely enjoy doing it and searching for items of interest and if that can be of some use to folks then that is nice.

So the last year has been a pleasure. Got to chat with so many different people. It is pretty cool when you tweet about something and you have people from all corners of the world giving you your opinion! I've made plenty of mistakes trying to think i was right about something or got mixed but i hope anyone who has chatted to me just sees me as the enthusiastic fan i am. I've probably chatted less in recent times to folks as time becomes less available but i still really enjoy it and it is always exciting when a Grand Prix weekend arrives and the timelines and lists get busier and busier. I think Twitter was the main source of being entertained during the 2 hour break in Canada this season!

If you're not on Twitter i would really encourage you to give it a go, it really is great for keeping up with F1. If you want to find some people to follow then check out Sidepodcast or F1Fanatic who have great lists with plenty of options. Worth a look, it is free and you don't have to stick with it if you don't want to! Right this ramble is over, might not be the most interesting post but i just wanted to share my experience of it because it has become such a part of how i follow F1.

Remembering Jochen Rindt

2011-09-05T20:35:00.003+01:00

Most F1 fans will have never seen Jochen Rindt race in their lifetime. I didn't but as a child reading about this great sport we all follow i would see his name crop up from time to time. The only posthumous world champion would be the common phrase. Whilst i would get intrigued by the mystique of Senna or how Mansell battled for a championship the story of Austria's first F1 star did not grab my attention. Now it has and it is a thrilling but tragic tale of one of the fastest drivers to have lived.

Rindt made his name mainly in F2, a series where many F1 drivers would take part in. He also had success at Le Mans in 1965 with victory in the famous endurance race. He drove for Cooper between 1965 and 1967 and whilst he showed his talent with 4 podiums in this time he was badly hampered by unreliability - 15 DNFs in 28 races. A move to Brabham would produce even more failures as he only took the chequered flag twice in the 12 race championship

Team Lotus was the constructor that allowed Rindt to fight for glory and that elusive first win would arrive at Watkins Glen. He also beat team mate and reigning world champion Graham Hill in the championship standings but Jackie Stewart would take the title comfortably in the Tyrrell. 1970 started poorly but then came Rindt's finest hour as he took an extraordinary victory on the streets of Monte Carlo. In a chase comparable with Montreal this year Rindt set fastest lap after fastest lap to close in on Jack Brabham. As they approached the final turn the Australian locked up and plunged into the hay bales. The lead changed so late that Rindt didn't even have the chequered flag waved for him!

What followed was a dominant spell of victories which would see him cement a big championship lead. His final win would come in his country of birth Germany as the home crowd at the Österreichring were left disappointed by engine failure on the Lotus. However amongst all the great results was sadness as close friend Piers Courage was killed at the Dutch Grand Prix. This and other factors including the birth of his daughter would lead to the Austrian deciding privately that he would retire at the end of the season if he took the title.

Rindt headed to Monza knowing he could take the title if things worked out but with 4 races to go there was no pressure to go for the win. However Rindt was still pushing for as much speed as possible and ran wingless in practice to try and keep up with rival cars who had better straightline speed. On Saturday he felt the setup had been optimised and he continued with the wingless configuration. As he braked for Parabolica at approximately 200mph the car suffered brake failure and speared left. The armco was poorly built and the car went under it before throwing the car back onto the circuit. His mechanic Herbie Blash (now working alongside Charlie Whiting with the FIA) would later reveal that Rindt didn't wear some of his belts as he wanted to be able to escape from the car quicker if it caught fire.

Rindt only competed in 9 of the 13 races in the 1970 season but he still took the title at the penultimate round such was his lead. It was simply a tragic way for it all to happen. 41 years ago today F1 lost one of its greatest. Jochen Rindt clearly was a supreme driver, his raw speed, racing instinct and results against other champions demonstrate this clearly. When you watch the heroes of 2011 drive towards Parabolica this weekend spare a thought for Jochen Rindt. A worthy world champion who should be never be forgotten.

F1 2011 trophies/achievements

2011-08-17T21:22:00.004+01:00

After the success of their F1 2010 game, Codemasters are preparing to launch their 2nd instalment in the F1 series. F1 2011 is just over a month away from release and hype is building as gamers get excited over the prospect of taking on the new Indian circuit, dealing with KERS and DRS as well as thinking on their feet if the safety car is deployed. I'm looking at the trophy/achievement list for this post though and dreaming up some targets which would tie in with the real goings on in F1...

Unbelievable guys! - Win the world championship at the final race having never previously led the standings

Fernando is faster than you - Let Fernando Alonso overtake you during the race to take the victory

Career highlights - Declare every race victory of your career the best ever in the post race press conference

Crash, Bang, Chandhok! - Wreck out in the opening session of the season

Is it cause i'm black? - Accuse the stewards of racism in the post race interviews

Hit me baby one more time - Win with Nico Rosberg whilst playing a Britney Spears song in the music menu

Trulli whine - Race as Jarno Trulli with Force feedback turned off

Cool runnings - Take pole position then run out of fuel on the in-lap and push the car back to Parc Ferme

That's what i'm talking about! - Take pole position at every Grand Prix

Fittipaldi flip - Finish a race in mid air

Iceman double - Win the world championship and score rally points on Dirt 3

Not bad for a number 2 driver - Win after your team mate got the latest car upgrades

Never heard you mate - Ignore team orders

Beautiful - Get approval from Rob Smedley for an overtake

Piquet corner - Crash a Renault at Turn 17 in Singapore

Should have went to Specsavers - Pull up at the wrong garage for a pitstop

If you have any other suggestions feel free to drop them in a comment

2012 driver market

2011-08-04T18:39:00.008+01:00

With 8 races to go in 2011 there is plenty of drivers fighting for their futures, particularly in the midfield. From signed contracts to foreign rumours, there's plenty of factors that make up the 'silly season' Here is a little summary of things. Of course even the drivers i have marked as confirmed may change as options are to be taken up or contracts could be cancelled but hopefully it's a half realistic perspective on how things will take shape next season!

Key
Confirmed
Almost certain
Maybe
Outside chance

Red Bull Racing

Sebastian Vettel
Mark Webber

The current world champion Sebastian Vettel has a long term contract with Red Bull. Mark Webber will decide his future this month as he decides if he has the motivation to continue. I think he will but that 2012 could well be his final year driving in F1.

McLaren

Jenson Button
Lewis Hamilton

Both drivers have deals which go to the end of 2012 but Jenson Button still has an option on his contract to sort out. Expecting that to be a formality.

Ferrari

Felipe Massa
Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso is now well embedded with the Scuderia. Rumours still crop up over the future of Felipe Massa but Ferrari insist he will be part of the team in 2012.

Mercedes GP

Michael Schumacher
Nico Rosberg

Again this should be an unchanged line up. A decision over Michael Schumacher's future is in his hands and he says he wants to complete the 'project' he set out to do when he returned to the sport in 2010.

Renault GP

Vitaly Petrov

Robert Kubica

Romain Grosjean
Nick Heidfeld
Bruno Senna
Adrian Sutil
Nico Hulkenberg

Vitaly Petrov is signed for 2012. However the second seat at Renault is shrouded in doubt. Robert Kubica has it waiting for him but he needs to prove before next season that he is over his rallying accident and is able to drive at the level required. Current driver Nick Heidfeld has had a mixed season and been criticised at times by Eric Boullier. Bruno Senna got a practice run in Budapest whilst GP2 championship leader Romain Grosjean is on the 'radar' for next season. Adrian Sutil and Nico Hulkenberg could be outside shots if either leaves Force India.

Williams

Pastor Maldonado
Rubens Barrichello
Adrian Sutil
Nico Hulkenberg
Romain Grosjean

Despite no points registered yet, Williams have indicated that they are happy with Pastor Maldonado and want him to stay on. Rubens Barrichello has made it clear that he wants to stay on with the Grove based team as well but talks have stalled so far. An unchanged line up still remains the favourite outcome but Adrian Sutil and Romain Grosjean have been linked. Nico Hulkenberg left last year after being offered a 5 year deal which would have sent him to HRT for this season. Would be a shock u-turn but he still has many admirers within Williams

Force India

Paul di Resta
Adrian Sutil
Nico Hulkenberg

Paul di Resta has impressed in his rookie year and though tipped for a future at Mercedes will likely be still with Force India next year. Adrian Sutil was looking away last year but ended up staying on and again options seem limited. With Nico Hulkenberg waiting in the wings will he find himself squeezed into a sideways move in the driver market?

Sauber

Kamui Kobayashi
Sergio Perez

No changes at Sauber who are having a good year with this pairing

Toro Rosso

Sebastien Buemi
Jaime Alguersuari
Daniel Ricciardo
Jean-Eric Vergne

All to play for at Toro Rosso but how will it play out? Daniel Ricciardo impressed early on in his practice outings and seems set to get one of the seats. With his career diverting to HRT it puts a bit more pressure on him to show his worth but he'll likely get his chance. For Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari, well both have impressed at different moments of the season but with no opening at Red Bull likely, somebody is heading for the exit door. Jean-Eric Vergne is another hot young talent but i would expect the best he will get at Toro Rosso next season is a Friday role.

Lotus

Heikki Kovalainen
Jarno Trulli
Karun Chandhok

Mike Gascoyne has strongly hinted that Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen will be retained. Karun Chandhok struggled in Germany and though he may race again in India it is unlikely he'll get a regular seat without one of the current pair moving on.

HRT

Vitantonio Liuzzi
Narain Karthikeyan
Javier Villa
Dani Clos
Daniel Ricciardo
Jean-Eric Vergne

Oh HRT, how on earth can you tell what will happen with this team next month, let alone next year! Vitantonio Liuzzi should have a good chance of staying on. Of the other current drivers, Narain Karthikeyan has struggled but has the backing of Tata. Daniel Ricciardo will probably move on. The current owners are keen to get a Spaniard in with WTCC driver Javier Villa amongst those linked. An outside shot but if Red Bull want to give Jean-Eric Vergne experience will he get slotted in with HRT like Ricciardo has been? You never know...

Virgin Racing

Timo Glock
Jerome D'Ambrosio
Robert Wickens

Timo Glock is staying on with Virgin and hoping for a better future. Jerome D'Ambrosio seems to have a good relationship with the team and really his main stumbling block could be a potential lack of financial backing. Young starlet Robert Wickens is currently a reserve and potentially a future option

Button set for 200th grand prix

2011-07-28T23:11:00.002+01:00

Jenson Button is currently in his 12th season in Formula 1 and the 2009 world champion will reach the 200 race landmark this weekend...

Before i delve into Button's career lets attempt to clear up why the McLaren driver considers this weekend to be his 200th Grand Prix. Since he made his debut in 2000 there have been 203 Formula 1 races (up to the 2011 German Grand Prix). BAR's two race ban for an illegal secondary fuel tank takes Button's tally down to 201. His practice crash at Monaco in 2003 left him concussed and he was forced to sit it out. So that's 200 going into this weekend. The contentious issue for the F1 statisticians is the 2005 USA Grand Prix. Button qualified for the race and lined up on the grid but at the end of the formation lap he, along with 13 other cars, pulled into the pits and went no further in the grand prix after safety concerns over tyres. Some class that as a race he didn't start. However the FIA/FOM classifications list Button as a retirement in the race so technically you could argue that he was part of the race. So depending on your viewpoint either last weekends German Grand Prix or this weekends Hungarian Grand Prix is Button's 200th in F1. It seems he is going for this weekend. Now lets move on before i bore you all into closing this page!

After a test for McLaren as part of the reward for winning the BRDC young driver award in 1998 and then with Prost in 1999 where he outpaced the experienced French driver Jean Alesi, Button's opportunity for a race drive came in 2000 with Williams. However he didn't get the seat easy as Jenson explains in these words taken from his official website:

We started at Jerez and moved on to Barcelona, and it was only in Barcelona that I realised Bruno Junqueira and I were battling for a race seat alongside Ralf Schumacher.

One of the first things I had to do when I got to Barcelona was an exam about the engineering side of the sport. All Williams’ drivers have to do this and I knew that I would be absolutely useless because I had no engineering experience at that time! Anyway, I didn't get many laps because we had a lot of mechanical problems, but I had at least driven the circuit in an F1 car so I was familiar with it. I ended the day 0.2s quicker than Bruno.

On the day of the car launch we still didn't know who had got the drive. We both had to do a photoshoot with the car and Ralf, and we then got called up to see Frank individually. When I walked into Frank's office, he looked up and smiled. He asked me to sit down and then he told me I had the drive alongside Ralf. I just said "thank you Frank". The relief was huge.
One hour later I was doing a press conference in front of the whole world which ended up on the front page of all the newspapers.

His debut season would feature glimpses of impressive raw speed. Being in a car that could compete for points allowed Button to show himself to the F1 world but this brought its own pressures. Williams were pleased with how he conducted himself but a dilemma was looming. The team had been trying to get Juan Pablo Montoya to join the team and after failing to get him for 2000 the Columbian was signed for 2001. Williams partnership with BMW stipulated that one of the drivers had to be a German so Ralf Schumacher's seat was safe. This left Button out of a drive but Williams were keen to have him involved in the future so loaned him to Benetton on a two season deal. It would prove to be a difficult time as the car was uncompetitive and the British driver came under public fire from team principal Flavio Briatore. He stayed on for 2002 and things improved but Button again found himself unseated by an up and coming driver as Fernando Alonso moved up from his test role with the team to replace him in 2003.

British American Racing (BAR) was the next destination for Button as he went up against former world champion Jacques Villeneuve. There was some tension early on between the pair but things would improve through the season. 2004 would see this upward curve continue as BAR would be consistently the second best team in the sport. Unfortunately for Button Ferrari had a huge dominance so whilst the podium duck was broken in Malaysia the path to victory for him and his fellow drivers was blocked by Michael Schumacher. The new tyre rules introduced for 2005 only seem to hurt BAR and they found themselves overtaken by the likes of Renault and McLaren. Off the track things had become messy. An attempt to get out of his BAR deal and return to Williams was foiled in 2004 and after signing a pre-contract deal with the Grove based team he had a change of heart. Ultimately Button got his way and remained where he was but at a hefty cost as Williams were paid £18m for not getting the driver they wanted.

Honda took over BAR and the start of 2006 was a case of unfulfilled promise as good situations were not always maximised. As Renault and Ferrari battled for the championship Honda became the third fastest team and in the second half of the season Button scored more points than anyone else. The icing on the cake was in Budapest where Button took a thrilling first win of his career, coming through from 14th on the grid in mixed conditions to take the chequered flag in first.

Read more about Button's first win in Formula 1 here

So going into 2007 Button carried a lot of confidence and momentum but it would turn into a disaster as the car was very uncompetitive. Honda had made some staff changes and the main aerodynamicist would even admit in public that he was struggling with the role and that his main background was motorcycles where aerodynamics are not very important... 2008 was another year of suffering as Button found himself driving at the back end of the grid. Ross Brawn joined the team and sought to improve things but it was difficult to do so in a short term sense. With big regulation changes coming in 2009 Honda gave up the development chase early in the season and eyed up the chance of moving up the order with the clean sheet of paper that the new rules would bring.

Confidence was abound at Brackley. They believed they had a top 3 car. Then it all went wrong with one bombshell from Japan. Honda were pulling the plug on F1 with immediate effect. Most of the seats on the grid were already filled. Button faced time on the sidelines. His career was in limbo. Eventually a deal was done. Honda helped set up Ross Brawn to take the team over. Engine manufacturers offered their services to help the team survive. In late February the team finally got to test and after 5 laps Button described the car as "feeling nice" His engineer replied "Jenson, you are 7 tenths faster than anyone else" Of course that all came out months later but at the time fans speculated about the Brawn team. Did they really have a good car or were the fast times a bit of a publicity stunt in an attempt to attract sponsors to a team which was running a virtually bare car.

You all know what happened next. Button swept aside the field to take 6 wins in the opening half of the season. A rocky middle of the year was stabilised by some solid points finishes and in Brazil he came through from 14th to finish 5th with a series of sensational overtakes marking his race and the dream of the world championship was achieved. Some say that Button's success was simply down to a dominant car but i feel this is harsh. In the first half of the season he did have the best car but he made the most of it, maximising every opportunity. Very impressive and more so when you consider that for the previous two seasons he had been stuck in the lower reaches of the field so to all of a sudden be in contention for wins and delivering the goods was excellent and ultimately the foundation to the championship success. A factor that did play into his hands was the mixed up nature of the season as many teams had spells of good performance and some of the traditional heavyweights struggled to get to grips with the new specification of technical rules.

With mission accomplished it would have been easy for Button to rest on his laurels and become settled so his next move was one that caught me and many off guard as he signed at McLaren to pair up with Lewis Hamilton, the man many believed was the best in the sport. In a sense 2010 would see Button silence many critics despite eventually being edged out by Hamilton. Two early wins in Australia and China showed off his talent in mixed conditions but McLaren were unable to keep up with Ferrari and Red Bull and in the second half of the season fell away slightly though Button almost pulled off victory at Monza and wowed fans early on in the rain at Spa with many overtakes as he read the conditions better. Just a month ago we got more evidence of Button's brilliant feel for grip in mixed conditions as he recovered from two collisions and a drive through penalty to take a breathtaking win after chasing down Sebastian Vettel on the last lap. However Vettel's dominance and retirements in the last two races for Button means a second title is a distant dream for this season.

Comparing drivers is a difficult job and of course the margins involved are so small that it can be harsh to rate drivers as good and bad as they all deserve our respect. For me Alonso and Hamilton are the best in the sport and Vettel is quickly moving up towards that level. For me Button is in the next tier. He doesn't always pull out the raw pace in qualifying and sometimes struggles if the setup isn't totally to his liking. However his racecraft is excellent and his composure and clear thinking when strategy comes into play is supreme. His classiness in racing wheel to wheel has been shown many times including many overtakes in the second half of 2009 as well as two first lap battles with Robert Kubica at Valencia and Belgium in 2010. Button has previously talked about retiring if he won another title but recently said he could go on for another 4 years. I can see him staying at McLaren and a 2012 deal should be a formality. However he has shown he's not afraid of new challenges but apart from maybe an opening at Ferrari i think he would stick with the Woking based team. Can he win another title? Well up against Hamilton it will be difficult but he has shown that he can beat the 2008 world champion and if McLaren deliver a better car then it can't be ruled out. I certainly feel this new style of racing in F1 these past couple of years is more to Button's liking. Sunday will be race 200 and i expect Jenson to race on for a few more years yet. The young boy from 2000 has matured greatly into a champion and ambassador of British sport and remains as hungry as ever for success.

Alonso back on top at Silverstone

2011-07-14T12:48:00.008+01:00

A new look Silverstone delivered a wet weekend but amongst the weather and the politics a sell out crowd was served up a brilliant grand prix on Sunday. And i was lucky enough to be there...

Friday was expected to be a bit of a wash out and so it proved to be, though it was quite changeable. At Noon i was sitting at Stowe bathed in sunshine. Before that was FP1. I headed towards the pit straight grandstands. Originally i was heading to the pit entry because i thought the top teams would be there but through a gap i spotted the Red Bull pitwall at the bottom of the pitlane. Most people were aiming for that end though! Eventually got in opposite the FIA garages at the final corner. At least the pitwall was lower at that end! It was a fun spot as the cars were really squirming through Club. A few cars ventured dangerously close to the astroturf and after 3 laps of power sliding Kamui Kobayashi lost it in spectacular fashion. As he got some air my view was blocked for a split second and i thought he was maybe going to roll! Thankfully he didn't but there was plenty of damage to the Sauber as seen in this picture taken by my Sister

Took up a seat at Becketts for FP2 and was really excited because i've heard lots of good things about this viewing area. Unfortunately it rained minutes before the start and i knew that with the first session also being wet and rain still possible for the rest of the weekend that the teams wouldn't want to use up too many tyres. Only 4 cars came out early on, including to my surprise Kobayashi in the repaired Sauber. Then it went very quiet for a long time and eventually i walked down to Copse as the wind was getting hard to handle! So it all fizzled out a bit and in terms of form there wasn't much to read into.

Returned back to the hotel to see Twitter dominated by exhaust rules discussion and disputes between engine suppliers. This would be an issue that would twist and turn all weekend. When i seen Christian Horner and Adrian Newey on the big screen during FP3 in the paddock i reckoned that something exhaust related had changed again! One line that Renault and Red Bull seemed to use a lot through the matter was that reliability would be an issue for them if the rules were changed. However i was talking to a friend with Lotus connections earlier in the week and he said something which at the time didn't mean much to me but which became more relevant as the saga unfolded. His words were that Renault were claiming reliability to be an issue but that this was just a ploy to try and stop the off throttle blowing being banned and hence stop a potential loss of performance

Qualifying was very entertaining as the conditions and circumstances meant everybody was under pressure through all 3 parts of the session and hence lots of laps from the cars. A slight anti climax as rain fell at the end of Q3. The cars came charging into Becketts as the rain fell so pretty dramatic but it meant the grid was set. Then there was some more rain post qualifying but nothing too severe so to see that they started the GP2 race under the safety car was shocking, a terrible and unnecessary decision.

Race morning and it was sunny and warm. It felt like a dry race was in prospect but an hour before the start there was a light shower at Vale. Despite that the track was still good enough for slick tyres but as the drivers came out to make their way to the grid it was clear on the screen that the other side of the circuit had got a much bigger soaking. It really was set to be a great race and so it proved to be. A dramatic opening lap seen Hamilton charging from 10th. Down into Vale Heidfeld and Petrov went into combat and almost collided! Petrov eventually ran out of space and had to give up the place.

Then it was a case of seeing who would make the stop for slicks first. I was tipping Button but it was Schumacher who pitted first, albeit he was coming in anyway after hitting Kobayashi. Another 2011 Mercedes front wing ending up in pieces. Sergio Perez did his usual trick of running long and his alternative tactics really worked out as he picked up a very good 7th. Jaime Alguersuari moved ahead of his team mate Sebastien Buemi in the championship after picking up another point.

The main focus was on the battle up front. Sebastian Vettel streaked away early on but a troublesome pitstop cost him the lead. Fernando Alonso was very quick so may well have challenged for the victory on the track but once he got out front he was away. Lewis Hamilton had fuel issues in the final stint which as confirmed by the BBC afterwards was because they had deliberately short fuelled him. A similar situation to Jenson Button in the same race last year where he started 14th and McLaren short fuelled him. It allowed him to make early progress but then handicapped him in his pursuit of Nico Rosberg and a podium finish. For Hamilton a frustrating finish but i think the strategy was a good one overall. Just shows you how much risk McLaren are having to take though. Hamilton probably would have been lower as well if Button had not been forced to stop after his wheel nut issue. Got a great view of his last lap battle with Massa, great stuff and brilliant to see cars racing to the line!

The other big talking point was the Red Bull battle in the closing laps. After Webber passed Hamilton he immediately closed in on Vettel. At first i didn't expect a fight and that Vettel would pick the pace up. But Webber kept closing and it was very exciting from the stands. After the race i was told that Webber had been told to "Maintain the gap" by Horner. My initial reaction was disappointment as i felt i had been watching a good duel develop and that it had been unfairly called off. On reflection i can see both sides of the argument, Red Bull just want the team to get the points in the bag but Webber wanted to finally beat his team mate this season. The key really is what was discussed before and during the race. If Red Bull have a policy of holding station in the final stint then Webber was quite naughty. I'm told by a Red Bull source that apparently (and i stress apparently) Vettel was told to turn down his engine with 10 laps to go as Alonso could not be caught. If that is true then the team may have created the situation. At the time Webber was still behind Hamilton so perhaps they thought he'd be busy battling him without getting involved with Vettel. Anyway there wasn't much harm done and there's a nice 4 week break in August where Webber can go and sign his contract extension if he wants to...

I thought DRS worked really well at Silverstone. Not many easy passes, lots of close duels and bringing cars closer which seen many battles through the following corners after the zone ended. Very good indeed and hopefully the FIA take note for future races. Track position was worth something in this grand prix but overtaking was still possible. It's been a fantastic season, the cars are actually racing rather than just getting near another car and being stuck. We are getting drivers going for it, being able to be positive rather than sit behind another car and wait for a pitstop and this is really good for the sport.

Another great thing at Silverstone was getting on the track after the race. Me and my Sister made a run for it and having seen on the screen that the podium ceremony was almost over we made a dive up the pit entry where there was hardly anybody and my Sister got some brilliant pictures of the cars sitting in Parc Ferme, That was very cool!

I think Ferrari have improved the car quite a bit but the Red Bull is still the one to beat. Alonso was a very deserving winner but things like the exhaust changes and avoiding the use of the hard tyre played into his hands. He's a superb driver though, he gets a sniff of victory and snaps up the opportunity so well. Vettel still increased his championship lead though. He has ticked many boxes in the last 12 months but one box which remains empty is a win on home tarmac so he'll be pumped up to achieve something which has proved difficult in his short career. A top 2 finish at the Nurburgring will also mean he becomes the first driver in F1 history to start a season with ten consecutive top 2 finishes. Lets hope for a fun double header in Europe before the summer break kicks in.

Valencia set for enthralling race

2011-06-25T17:51:00.004+01:00

You can tell it has been a while since i last posted on here when my last post is titled "Bahrain to take place in October"! The FIA took some criticism for the way the situation was handled, a situation that finished with Bahrain being cancelled for the season. Personally i think a lot of it was orchestrated, it was a case of going through the procedures for the FIA whilst always knowing the teams would be against things and in the end the race was removed without much face lost for all parties. It was a long winded process though

And then we had Canada. Wonderful Canada. It's hard not to love this grand prix, the drivers breathe in some Montreal air and it seems to bring out mistakes from most of them! It was just a mad day from all the rain to the drama of the final lap. It was a great win from Jenson Button and a very important one for McLaren. Since Spain they've had a very strong car in the races but it is going to need a big streak of points from Button or Hamilton to rein in Vettel in the championship. It's still very much possible but inroads need to be made into the 60 point gap soon.

So onwards to Valencia and stage 1 of 2 for new exhaust rules which some hope will see Vettel's dominance be halted. However it was normal service this afternoon as the German took his 7th pole of the season. Webber pulled out a late lap to join him on the front row ahead of Hamilton, Alonso, Massa and Button.

Whilst Red Bull have had the strangehold in qualifying, the races have been tighter. Coming back to the exhaust changes, this weekend see's the banning of using an engine map in qualifying and then changing it for the race. The only way you can is by plugging in a laptop at a pitstop and that would not be handy. The limit of 10% for off throttle blowing does not come into effect until Silverstone so what you need this weekend is an in between map. I don't know what amount the teams do it (Autosport did suggest Renault had a max of 95% and Red Bull 45%) In qualifying you can run it aggressively as it is just for 1 lap but doing it throughout the race would not be feasible due to fuel and overheating issues. So what the teams need to do is find a medium map, a constant one which will be usable for the whole race. Come Silverstone, things will be even more restricted.

Valencia races have been very processional. In 2009 there wasn't a single overtake. A depressing statistic which shouldn't be repeated tomorrow as we have 2 DRS zones with a combined length of over 1.5km. This should provide some action and i think we'll see the field staying closer than before. The field spread has been quite big in the opening laps in previous years. DRS zones have tended to be about 700-800 metres and i think they should be a bit shorter but for Valencia this sort of length may be what is needed.

This means we could actually have wheel to wheel racing in Valencia tomorrow, a big feature of the 2011 season. We've also seen many incidents. I think it's important to be appreciative of how good these drivers are. It can look so simple on TV but anyone who has been fortunate enough to see the cars in the flesh racing will have got that sensation of speed displayed in front of their eyes. Of course situations get analsyed because they have consequences during a race but we can all be too fickle about certain drivers and dismiss them when really the margins involved are so small and the skill level so high. I'm guilty of this too, i heavily criticised Vettel post race in Spa last year and even was arguing about his race on Twitter with people but that was an overreaction and undeserved. I thought things were getting away from him that day in the heat of the moment but ultimately he recovered to take the title and has driven at a very high level this season and been very impressive as an overall package. So let's not be dismissive of these drivers, they are fantastically talented and some of the racing this year has been excellent.

Tyres key again, the medium compound is proving to be quite a bit slower than the soft tyre so expect the prime tyre to be used as little as possible. A hot day expected tomorrow so may make the medium tyre easier to switch on. The changeover to it and getting it working may be key. In Barcelona, Alonso fell away when the hard tyre came into play and it turned into Vettel v Hamilton for the win. McLaren will hope to get in amongst the Red Bulls so Hamilton can attack for the lead. Lets just hope in a calmer manner for Lewis tomorrow! So Red Bull start as favourites but i think an enthralling race in prospect. Can Hamilton get his season back on track or will Alonso delight his local fans? Let's hope for a fun race

Bahrain to take place in October

2011-06-03T16:13:00.003+01:00

The Bahrain Grand Prix was cancelled weeks before it was due to open the 2011 season after an outbreak of violence. Today we have the news that the race has been reinstated onto the 2011 calendar with a date of October 30th, originally the date of the first ever Indian Grand Prix. It will now be the finale of the season (date TBC, likely December 11th)

A lot of fans are unhappy that the race is being held after the media reports from the country in the last months. This is a very complex situation though and it is not easy to just strike a race off the calendar. There are a lot of stakeholders involved. I'm no political expert but with the F1 connections i've followed some of the story surrounding the Bahrain region this year. It is incredible the PR which is delivered from each side. One portrays a peaceful area, working to restore calm and have dialogue amongst the people. The other a very negative story of death, repression and chaos. None of those who have not been there can't say for certain what is going on but i would guess that the real story is somewhere in the middle.

The teams haven't said much. At least two of them would have boycotted the race if it had been held in March. Mark Webber tweeted yesterday that the race shouldn't be held. However Sebastien Buemi on the 'The Flying Lap' show on Wednesday said that he had family living out there and they were reporting peaceful times and that he had no issue about going to Bahrain. I don;t think the actual security of the race would be a major issue. The teams have been going to Bahrain since 2004 and were even planning a pre season test at Sakhir so it has not been an issue before. Compare that with Brazil where attacks have occurred almost annually against team employees.

Now don't be thinking that i'm some sort of Bahrain political supporter all of a sudden because i'm definitely not! I'm just pointing out that F1 travels to other places where security cannot be guaranteed. I tweeted Will Buxton about the threat of protests days before the GP2 Asia race in the area (this was in February when it all kicked off) and he was unaware of any problems or threats. Of course it then started kicking off. Remember London in the student protests? If you didn't know what England was like and seen that on your news channel you would wonder how safe a place it is. Yet we don't get any worries about postponing Silverstone. Security is more of an issue in Bahrain but you can't guarantee it anywhere in the world.

Human rights is the thing here. Are the Bahraini government treating people wrongly and if so should F1 (even if it is nothing to do with them) being going to the region and be connected with such people? Do the sponsors of F1 teams want to have themselves linked with such an area. China has a terrible record of this as well but F1 still heads to Shanghai and the Olympics, one of the biggest sporting events in the world, were held in the country in 2008. I understand that team members and journalists may not want to travel and they should be allowed to decide and not forced to go if they don't want to. The FIA can cancel an event if fewer than 12 cars are available.

The FIA are caught here. They have a backlash about going ahead with a race in a country which some view as a unjust region. I for one really hope that peace and understanding can be found in Bahrain and across the world. The FIA sent their vice president out to Bahrain this week and he was satisfied with what he found. The area has a contract to host a race and the FIA have checked and found the area to be in a good state. The reason why this race should not go on the grounds of the sport itself is on the basis of logistics. It now seems that the season will finish on December 11th. Two weeks before Christmas and drivers could still be racing for points and for a championship. It is too far and really F1 has to be careful. We all love having races but there has to be some consideration for the human beings who are working around the world for so much of the year. F1 can still be a championship without this. Bahrain should have been told that the calendar is full and that F1 would try and return in 2012. It would have been a better solution.

So as i say i'm no supporter of Bahrain politics, i want to see peace in this world, not bloodshed. However i can understand why the race is back on and if the teams boycott it then that will be up to them. I'm just defending the FIA who have so many people to please and so much money riding on different outcomes for different stakeholders. It shouldn't come down to money but sadly it plays a big part in these things. Contracts and deals are in place. People may well skip/boycott the race and if they do then they have a right to do so. I think we should have waited until 2012 but the race is on and it'll be interesting to see what further reaction there is because this will still run for a while yet

Vettel gets the win he wanted

2011-05-30T14:21:00.005+01:00

A gripping 3 way battle was keeping F1 fans hooked to their screens but some traffic chaos deprived us of an epic finish. It was still a weekend full of talking points though...

Vettel makes it 5 out of 6: A lot of people felt Sebastian Vettel was lucky to win this race, comments which i can understand after the race because there was such a tense finish in store, but these are unfair. He delivered a superb lap to take pole position, was making the 1 stop strategy work and withstanding the pressure from Alonso. Of course between the traffic and the tyre degradation it would have been a fascinating finish without the red flag. I reckon, barring any abnormal incidents between the front 3 or a backmarker in the way, Vettel would have either hung on or hit the 'cliff' and fallen to 3rd. Something to ponder is that in Melbourne Perez did 185km on the soft compound and when the safety car was deployed near the end Vettel had done 175km on his set of tyres (same compound) with 30km to go. Red Bull said afterwards that the wrong compound was put on the world champion's car and that what should have been a 2 stopper was adjusted, on the call of Vettel himself, to a 1 stop. However BBC reporter Ted Kravitz had doubts over whether this was actually true. Red Bull changed their pitstop procedures this weekend after concerns Ferrari were reading their strategy in Spain but maybe they should reconsider after some serious confusion at the stop!

This allowed Jenson Button into the lead and he was on the options and pushing very hard whilst Vettel took the conservative route and nursed his primes. However he kept within a pitstop so when Button pitted again he had P1 again. McLaren then opted for a 3 stopper at this point which was a strange move. They had the information that the primes would do over half a race distance and really that cost Button second place and would have meant he was the man troubling Vettel rather than Alonso. Another trick missed by McLaren, though ultimately not mattering, was not pitting Button when the safety car was deployed for a second time. He was 40 seconds ahead of Kobayashi when it was deployed so could have pitted for new primes (no options left), retained third place and caught up to Alonso again but now with fresher rubber to be able to attack better on the final laps. Of course the red flag meant everybody got a chance to change without loss. Many complained this spoilt the restart and it did but it's a very rare situation and really things should be open as conditions can be variable, it was just the circumstances of yesterday that made it a shame.

Hamilton suffers a weekend of mayhem: Lewis Hamilton loves Monaco. Just thinking about flinging a car around the tight streets of Monte Carlo leaves him with a feeling of excitement at a place where his hero Ayrton Senna was so brilliant. Things were going well on Saturday as he topped Q1 and Q2 and had 2 sets of options for the all important Q3. As his main rivals got a time in early on there was no sign of the #3 car. Eventually he appeared but had a terrible sector 1. He blamed Felipe Massa in front but the Ferrari had not blocked the McLaren. Then the big accident for Perez caused a 40 minute delay. 2:26 left on the clock meant 9 cars would get a lap in fine and McLaren had ample time to calculate that. Yet they sent him out over 2 minutes before the session restarted. Cold tyres = no grip and Hamilton soon found that out, ending up cutting a corner and having his time deleted.

So he was clearly fast but it was going to be hard work from 9th on the grid. After several laps on Michael Schumacher's gearbox he made a sweet move into Ste Devote. Then it went downhill. A bad pitstop left him in traffic. Then he made an unrealistic move on Felipe Massa. He accused the Brazilian of turning in on him. Well Lewis that might have been because he was taking a corner... Then the scrap continued into the tunnel. Hamilton got a good run on him (KERS assisted at a guess) and passed in the tunnel. Massa got on the marbles and hit the wall. Race over. Then after the red flag Hamilton was all over Maldonado and into turn 1 had a look, he got half alongside and perhaps he felt it was doable after the earlier Schumacher move but really it was just too ambitious for such a tight corner and he pitched the Williams out of the race which was such a shame. Then came the post race outburst which was all a bit silly and unneeded. Hamilton has had down beat moments in his career before but this really was the worst of the lot. However he has had a habit of bouncing back with some great results so lets see what he bounces back with in Montreal, a place where he is mighty.

Elsewhere it was delight for Kamui Kobayashi with a career best 5th, though he was lucky to escape a penalty for hitting Sutil. Stewards really got that one wrong though he would have stayed 5th anyway. Sutil was 4th having been under constant pressure from the Sauber. The pair made a 1 stop strategy work and were helped by cars in front struggling and then getting stuck in traffic. Sutil emotions are probably mixed because the incident cost him time and then he got a puncture yet he still salvaged 7th! Behind Nick Heidfeld also had a good drive through to 8th and moved up to 6th in the championship. Rubens Barrichello finally got on the score board in 2011 and Sebastien Buemi took the final point after Jaime Alguersuari crashed. In the midst of the chaos near the end, it was intriguing to hear David Coulthard, Red Bull employee, on the BBC say during the replays that "Alguersuari, the man under review" Of course it could just be a general remark about the pressure both Toro Rosso drivers are under with Daniel Ricciardo waiting in the wings but perhaps a hint that it is the Spaniard that could be in line to make way for the Australian as it stands. He does have good backing coming from Spain and his Father but at the minute Buemi is the man picking up the points.

Best wishes to Vitaly Petrov and Sergio Perez after their weekend accidents. Hopefully they'll both be racing in Montreal in 2 weeks.

Vettel holds off Hamilton

2011-05-24T15:30:00.001+01:00

A normally dull race was turned into quite the compelling afternoon at Barcelona in another chapter in the drama which is F1 2011...

It was very telling in the scenes before the podium just how relieved and elated Sebastian Vettel was with his victory. He cleared his team mate off the line but was passed by the flying Ferrari of Fernando Alonso. His first stop seem ill timed as he faced traffic on his return to the track but cleared it well and quickly, something which is key this season. From there Hamilton closed in on the hard tyres and harried him home but the German kept everything smooth. He also coped with a KERS unit which was used intermittently. Seems like cooling was an issue for Red Bull. Mark Hughes on the BBC website highlights a possible factor of Red Bull's differential between qualifying and the race being the Pirelli's are too fragile to take the sheer speed the Red Bull achieves. Spain seen the new hard compound and for the first time it seem that rather than protect the tyres it was a case of getting them switched on. Vitaly Petrov described them on Friday like driving on ice. However Red Bull has produced good long runs as well as 1 lap pace so there's more to it than just this one factor, something which i'm sure the other teams are trying to work out!

Whilst the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes suffered a huge drop off in the second half of the race and found themselves lapped, the Red Bull and McLaren cars seem to have an immense pace on it and were able to get superb speed out of them in comparison to others. To see Hamilton so competitive on what should be a strong track for Red Bull was very intriguing. And to see Alonso so horribly slow in the final stints after his fighting podium at Istanbul and start on Sunday was quite surprising and a turnaround indeed.

So onwards to Monaco, where it seems like the pressure has been on to get set up for practice tomorrow. Things not helped by a truck catching fire and causing tarmac at turn 1 to be relaid. Nick Heidfeld said today that he had heard that somebody was smoking whilst handling fuel and that is what triggered it. So Ste Devote might be a bit slippery and we've seen many accidents there in the past. Less in recent years but with DRS allowing higher top speed it might just be tricky again. Super soft and soft tyres this weekend: will that benefit Ferrari who have struggled on the harder compounds? Lotus are hopeful on a track where aerodynamics aren't so critical and the drivers can make a difference.

A safety car period is a good possibility and with so many stops this year that could really mix things up, especially if there is 1 between pit windows which would really see a shake up. Pit and lose track position or try and hang on with old tyres? Should be some fun and games even on the super tight streets of Monte Carlo. Vettel seems to love the circuit but it hasn't always went well for him here so it'll be fascinating to see how Webber, Hamilton and Button (all past winners) go against the dominant force of 2011. Tyre usage will still be key but qualifying will hold some more importance than other places. DRS won't be producing overtakes but should be interesting to see who is bravest using it during qualifying. However no use of it is allowed in the tunnel. Rubens Barrichello has been very vocal about this but if he doesn't want to use DRS in the tunnel then don't activate it, it's that simple! All this moaning coming from a guy who decided it was a good idea to throw a steering wheel onto the track last year as well. Anyway that's the way it is and hopefully it'll be an exciting weekend.

Looking at DRS and racing in 2011

2011-05-12T12:59:00.000+01:00

The main talking point from the Turkish Grand Prix was the Drag Reduction System (DRS) and whether it was making overtaking too easy and artificial. Here's my thoughts on it...

Let's start by saying why the DRS system was introduced in the first place. A main objective of the teams and the sport was to create more overtaking after a survey a few years back seen more than 80% of fans who answered saying more overtaking was the number one thing they wanted to see. A high figure indeed. Changes would come, the main things were in 2009 with the overhaul of the cars (front and rear wings, bodywork, adjustable front wing) We seen some good action initially but the very clever people of F1 were soon finding new ways of adding downforce and again the problem of cars following closely was occurring with regular ease. So the idea was developed of a rear wing which could be adjusted to reduce drag so a car could increase straight line speed behind another car and make up for the loss which you suffer in the dirty air. So the principle of the adjustable rear wing was to allow cars to have a better chance of overtaking when close to another.

A fair enough principle and when you look at the extra speed it gives a driver it would have probably helped cars get closer in the 2010 season but without too many passes where it was done before the braking zone. So i think it would have really helped things, especially on circuits like Valencia, Barcelona and Budapest where overtaking is very difficult. However this season has seen Pirelli come back to the sport and their tyres are much less durable than the Bridgestones of the past seasons. This has been a massive change in the dynamic of the racing. We've rarely seen this rate of degradation in recent years (Australia 2009 and Canada 2010). The problem of close racing has been fixed by this because there are more variable strategies and people with different levels of grip throughout the race. The DRS 'oversolves the problem' because when you have it coupled with better tyres it is easy to overtake

In the first stints of races this season we have seen good racing and barely any easy overtakes because the tyre wear between cars is relatively equal. So what the DRS has been brought in to do has actually worked well because we've had loads of close battles but never too easy. Come the pitstops and we get the split in strategies and then the chaos really begins as we get people on old tyres attacked by new tyres. So because of this cars are getting close, overtakes happen in unusual places and if they reach the DRS zone then it's just a slam dunk.

I agree that the DRS was too powerful at times in Turkey. A tail wind on race day seem to make the DRS an even stronger weapon than usual. What we should remember is that against the negative of some of these easy passes was a massive amount of battles into turn 12 as well as other duels around the track. There was loads of action and way more than in races of previous seasons. It's not a perfected thing yet but it is an improvement. Fans have spent years frustrated at the processional nature of Sunday afternoons and living in hope of some rain during a race just to make it interesting. This is now gone. The opening 4 races of the season have been 'normal' races. No rain, no safety cars, just a proper grand prix and 3 out of 4 have been crackers in my opinion.

It's important that the FIA continue to analyse the affect the DRS has. Personally i'd like to see the DRS zone reduced slightly. Doing this or moving it to a part of the track which isn't such an obvious overtaking spot would help spread things about a bit. Another option would be having 2 really short zones so a driver would get more regular but smaller 'boosts' so that the disadvantage of the dirty air is combated. Yet another option would be allowing each driver a certain amount of times to use the rear wing during a race. That would make it more strategic and less gimmicky. I still think the 1 second zone idea was a necessary one because that's how bad things had become regarding overtaking but now that we may have improved things it is less needed. The DRS is still a very clever device and has a place in Formula 1. It just isn't needed as prominently now we have the changes to the tyres. Another tweak could be to reduce the gap in the rear wing when the DRS is activated, hence reducing the extra speed gained.

There are other factors in the racing. I've mentioned the tyres and hailed them as a success. 4 stops was probably one too many in Turkey but China showed how the split between 2 and 3 kept the race in suspense until the end. Pirelli are learning all the time. Track design is also key. Just look at those brilliant final corners in Istanbul. Yet some circuits seem unable to simply stick a tight corner at the end of a long straight. It isn't that difficult for most places!

So lets be positive about the fact F1 is actually tackling the on track issues and have tried to improve things. There are still areas to work on but the sport is heading in a good direction. There's been a great buzz about the season so far, people are enjoying it and there is plenty of enthusiasm for what lies ahead in 2011.

So in conclusion, the fundamental issue of the cars being so aerodynamically good and the cars being so grippy remains. This growing issue triggered the creation of the DRS to help cars get close and produce more on track racing. The new tyres have given the teams a strategic and racing headache and allowed more variance in the tactics. Most of the simple passes have come when cars have had major differences in tyre compounds/wear. The DRS alone has helped create lots of action but coupled with other factors can become too powerful at times. However there have been lots of great battles this year to outweigh these negatives. It still needs more analysis and tweaking but the ingredients are there to create a new era of Formula One which delights old and new fans alike

The F1 Wedding

2011-04-28T14:37:00.004+01:00

There's quite a Royal occasion taking place in London this week dominating the headlines but what lets have some fun and turn the Royal Wedding into the F1 Wedding...

Now on BBC1 it's time for the event of the year, the F1 wedding, presented by Jake Humphrey (Cue a minute of the chain and a big dramatic VT)

Jake Humphrey: Good morning and welcome along to the F1 wedding. I'm live outside Westminister Abbey and alongside me as usual is David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan. Didn't really bother with the dress code did you Eddie?

Eddie Jordan: I don't know what you mean

David Coulthard: I think what he is getting at is the fact that a purple shirt with green trousers isn't really the best idea for a weddi... well for anything.

JH: It's a sunny day with not a cloud in the sky but we are told rain is imminent. It always is were F1 is concerned. Of course we are set up for a belter today. But only 1 driver can tie the knot today. We have the home guys, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button fighting it out. Sebastian Vettel as well and team principal Christian Horner has conveniently found the time for a quick chat

Christian Horner: Good morning

JH: So your thoughts on (passing traffic drowns out the remainder of the question)

CH: Well the weekend so far has (more traffic noise)

JH: Fascinating stuff. Just in case you're wondering about these people gathering around us they are actually members of the Horner fan club. Must be great to have a load of young women stalking your every move eh Christian

CH: Well... (Shouts of 'We love you Christian')

JH: As you're going redder than a Ferrari we'll leave it there

CH: See you again sometime

JH: Yeah give it about 20 minutes

DC: You can clearly see there Jake the confidence in the Red Bull team, i would definitely be backing Seb for success today

JH: Well there's a surprise

DC: Indeed

EJ: This German kid, he's just great. He's young, funny, fast, relaxed, so cool and collected, it's a breath of fresh air. When i was a team boss i brought many young talents into the sport and it was great to have the likes...

JH: Moving on and Ted is down in the Abbey with some news for us

Ted Kravitz: Hello everyone. Tension starting to build down here. I'm just outside the vestry and there are the perspective wives lingering about, Nicole, Jessica, Vivian, Isabell. Of course the drivers are racing into London and soon we'll see who can make it here first.

JH: Thanks Ted. Of course after the main event we'll be at the reception with red button coverage and Lee McKenzie is down there for us, over to you Lee.

Lee McKenzie: Morning guys, i'm down here at Buckingham Palace with Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi. Both of you must be bitterly disappointed to have missed out on the main event.

Jaime Alguersuari: NO NO! FOR SURE IT'S A SHAME BUT IT MEANS I GET TO DJ HERE SO WILL BE LOTS OF FUN AND DANCE JAJA!

Sebastien Buemi: I'm giving out free Red Bull in case some people are flagging later tonight haha

LMcK: We can see Daniel Ricciardo lurking about, any worries?

JA: He is?

SB: I thought you hid his passport man!

LMcK: I think we'll go back to you Jake

JH: Well it's just me and Eddie now as David has went into the Abbey to join Martin in the gallery. Let's quickly go back to Ted though because we hear there has been some drama outside London Ted

TK: Yes and i'm afraid it's bad news for Lewis Hamilton because he has received a drive over penalty for too many lane changes on the M25.

JH: A drive over penalty? That's a new one

TK: Yes indeed, specific for this event. It means Lewis must drive over Tower Bridge and back again so that really compromises his chances of marrying Nicole today.

JH: Let's join the guys in the Abbey and Martin, drama already

Martin Brundle: Yes indeed, Lewis really should know by now the rules of the UK roads but hey that'll teach the tax evader for moving to Switzerland. Lee's found another driver

LMcK: I'm with Jarno Trulli, Jarno it must be bitterly disappointing to be missing the wedding?

Jarno Trulli: Ah yes but a i am ere and have a brought a big collection of wine and a tonight everyone will a be enjoying themselves with a my fine tastes.

JH: Guests starting to arrive down here and Felipe Massa and Rob Smedley have joined us. Your wife not make it today Felipe.

Felipe Massa: Well for sure she would have liked to come but really me and Rob have a closer relationship and the invite was for me + 1 so it made sense.

Rob Smedley: Mr Sunshine looks beautiful eh? A great day and we'll be banging on that dancefloor later, hahaha

MB: More action here guys, Petrov has stopped in what appears to be a housing estate.

DC: Clearly he had made good progress to reach the city area but something has gone wrong, here's a replay...

MB: Well he's made a wrong turn there but he could have still rerouted but WOAH! LOOK AT THAT!

DC: He didn't see the speed bump sign at all!

MB: He must have hit it at about 120mph and the thing just took off, a huge incident there for the Russian.

JH: Down here outside the Abbey there is a fantastic buzz. Air Asia 1 Malaysia Team Lotus Norfolk just arrived in Caterham's and we might just catch a quick word with Mike Gasgoyne. Mike, lots of questions on peoples lips but the big one, can Norwich get promoted to the Premier League?

Mike Gasgoyne: Well of course Jake, we are simply the best team about. Lotus progressing as well, we beat Perez in China and if 10 other drivers get penalties like him in a race we'll score points easily

JH: Didn't go so well earlier though for Heikki on the road.

MG: It didn't but let's look at the positives, he managed to put the fire out himself and save the Fire brigade a trip out so great teamwork there

MB: Sebastian Vettel has dropped behind a bit and here's his team radio, lets see what is wrong.

Sebastian Vettel: Rocky, do i use the sat nav or not?

Rocky: Negative, negative, do not use the sat nav

SV: So what do i do?

Rocky: Plan B, we are changing to Plan B.

SV: But i didn't bring the map! Adrian said it would affect the packaging of the car so took it off!

MB: All gone wrong there for Red Bull, challenge looks over

DC: Well it may have but you can't blame Red Bull for that, the sat nav is developed by a outside company so no fault of the team at Milton Keynes.

MB: Ted has some news for us

TK: Yes drama for the Sauber team who had arrived here as part of the guestlist for today but they've all been kicked out of the Abbey. Their jackets were found to be outside of the minimum measurements which are required by the regulations by 3mm so no service for them today.

MB: They'll be very frustrated with that!

TK: Indeed though we believe it was a simple manufacturing error and no-one will be held to account for the incident. Won't stop some speculating though...

LMcK: I'm still at the palace and joined by Virgin drivers Timo Glock and Jerome D'Ambrosio. Early retirements then guys?

Timo Glock: Well we are a bit confused because we thought we had to come here and we did so but there's been a misunderstanding...

Jerome D'Ambrosio: You see on the menu tonight for desert is Rhubarb and Custard so the team took that as being us

TG: *sighs*

LMcK: Unlucky guys

JH: i've just found a lot of well suited men here. With me are Romain Grosjean, Bruno Senna, Fairuz Fauzy and Ho Pin Tung. Not going to the wedding guys?

Romain Grosjean: Well we are actually on reserve in case a guest has to pull out

Bruno Senna: You never know when you may be needed

JH: But do you need this many

Fairuz Fauzy: Oh yes we are all key to the operation

Will Buxton: You keep telling yourself that Fairuz. Sorry for butting in Jake

JH: You were just saying what we were all thinking mate. Crikey a lot of police sirens coming down the street. And look who it is, can you believe it, it's Robert Kubica!

Jonathan Legard: Up, over the hill, look at him in his wheelchair, he's on a charge!!

JH: Jonathan!? You were warned not to show up

JL: Come on Jakey boy, just let me do 1 more event, for old times sake

EJ: Looks like that Kubica fella hasn't lost any of his speed, clocked doing 45mph in the speed trap.

TK: More news from the vestry and it's of a couple of non appearances on the guest list. First up Rubens Barrichello who isn't attending as he knows the ceremony will just be a load of 'blah blah blah' and he doesn't want to hear that. Also Hispania have put out a press release saying they won't make it after being held up at Barcelona airport. Reports that Colin Kolles got stuck going through the security gate have been denied.

MB: Right, things beginning to hot up now. We know that Rosberg leads Button and Hamilton but the Mercedes driver has already seen his fuel light flashing and is having to short shift around these tight streets

DC: Jenson driving around these mini roundabouts beautifully, 1 sweep of the wheel in and 1 sweep out, so smooth.

MB: Hamilton has stopped at Kwik-fit!

DC: Tyres look destroyed and that really has hurt his chances, fresh rubber now though.

MB: Rosberg is spluttering, he's running out of fuel and there goes Button, Jenson Button leads in the final stages and the crowd are going wild!

DC: What you are seeing here is a drive of experience, of composure, a man who has been serene and never looked like making a mistake all da...

MB: He's stopping! What's going on, well hang on he's running up the steps to the church but the doors closed?

DC: He's stopped at St Pauls Catherdal! He's at the wrong church, what a terrible mistake!

MB: That's incredible, i mean the look of the 2 buildings are different! He's jumped back in but the engine is off and i think it's all over for him.

DC: Well he's starting to run Martin and it isn't that far to go and could he repeat what he did in Monaco and sprint to the finish and to the glory of success!

MB: Hamilton flying though, he's ripping it up on those new tyres, smoke everywhere. Good job we're not in Melbourne!

DC: Jenson still has a bit to go. Surely Lewis will overtake him soon. Here it comes and he is through

MB: Hamilton comes through the final corners and he does is! He takes the chequered flag, parks it and is sprinting up that aisle.

JH: What a race that was, tweet me your thoughts and now lets hand over to Jean Todt for the ceremony

Jean Todt: Before we finalise everything, is there anyone here who has a reason why these 2 people should not be marry?

Charlie Whiting: Yes!

Lewis Hamilton: Not Charlie...

CW: Car number 3 has just been checked and has been found to have Michelin tyres fitted, completely against the regulations.

LH: Dude, it was all Kwik-fit had man, bless the poor guy who had to do it himself, ite

CW: Sorry no other tyre is allowed, especially a crappy French one which can't even handle a banked corner.

Jenson Button: *gasping* Where did i finish?

JT: You are our new winner Jenson. *20 minutes of blah blah blah and vows* Congratulations Jenson and Jessica! You are the F1 wedding couple of 2011!

LMcK: Down here at the reception, things are really rocking. Sutil is on the piano, Vettel has Ke$ha on full blast and Jaime is DJing with Sakon Yamamoto.

JH: Sakon Yamamoto? He's not with a team at the minute, how'd he get in?

LMcK: Let's just say Bernies wallet is now bulging even more than normal

JH: David has rejoined us. You spotted Nick Heidfeld anywhere today?

DC: Can't say i have

EJ: Me either

JH: Ted?

TK: I haven't actually but apparently he's been down in peckham selling off TW steel watches. Says that this time next year he'll have become a millionaire and have won a race.

JH: What a dreamer. That's all from us, thank you very much for watching. Congrats to Jenson and Jessica. See you next time.

Hamilton supreme in Chinese classic

2011-04-21T15:59:00.003+01:00

Another thrilling race in Shanghai as Lewis Hamilton ended Sebastian Vettel's winning run with a late race charge...

Hamilton soars as Button loses out: Jenson Button had a good start and was holding the lead ok in the first stint. Of course with Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel close behind the timing of the first pitstop was key. McLaren ended up running a 3 stop strategy on both cars but the initial plan was to 2 stop. The team came out for Button on lap 14 but he didn't come in until the next lap. He then made a terrible error by pulling into the Red Bull box. That cost both him and Vettel time. One possible theory (and this is simply guesswork!) is that Button was trying to stay out for as long as possible to make a 2 stop work better but that the team, having seen others behind pit, were reacting to the pace of the likes of Rosberg and changing to a 3 stopper because of the speed of other cars. So perhaps there was quite a bit of radio conversation and who knows amidst the busy nature of racing in 2011 maybe Jenson got distracted at the key moment in the pitlane. His pace was subdued after that and he would eventually get outdone by Hamilton.

Indeed Hamilton had been compromised because he had to wait an extra lap to pit and fell back on worn tyres, being overtaken by Vettel and Felipe Massa in consecutive laps. However his second stint was better, aided by a fresh set of options he had saved. It was interesting that a week on from Malaysia he had made such an effort to do so and it was clear after qualifying that tyres were on his mind and that he had deliberately plotted a strategy designed to maximise his race performance. Going for the extra stop really played better into his more attacking style and into the final stint he was back in the hunt and did a clean job of taking the cars ahead for a great victory.

Vettel's streak broken as Webber fights back: Red Bull ended up with 2 cars on the podium yet the fact that disappointment was felt by the team shows how far they've come. Vettel got a poor start but recovered positions at the first stop to find himself behind Nico Rosberg. Red Bull went for a 2 stop strategy and although it turned out to be the wrong decision there wasn't much in it. Having done 15 laps in the race in his qualifying tyres, he only managed a 17 lap stint in the middle of the race. That left him 24 laps on the primes and it proved to be slightly too much to hold off Hamilton. One mistake i did feel Red Bull made was sending the German out for a second run in Q3 when it was pretty clear that pole position was in the bag. Easy to say with hindsight but Vettel's first run was a good one and he would have not eeked out much more time even if it had been needed. In previous seasons this would not have been a big deal but it seems that putting a heat cycle into these Pirelli tyres really does take some life out of them if they are then reused. Expect quieter qualifying sessions with the current circumstances.

On Saturday evening i was pondering the future of Mark Webber. Out in Q1, the 2 junior Red Bull drivers doing brilliantly in making the top 10 and a bit of pressure was building even at this early stage of 2011. Would he let his head drop or fight back? Sunday showed it was the latter as he come from 18th to take a superb podium. Qualifying was a poor show, he only used the prime tyres and the car seem fine. If it had not been surely they would have given him some options. Why they didn't give him more laps at least was bizarre from the team. Anyway his pace on Sunday was mighty and showed that the RB7 is still the quickest out there. There were some conflicting reports about whether he had his KERS working or not. The actual details were that it worked until lap 24. He actually could have remarkably beaten Vettel because he had an off early in the race which cost him around 4 seconds so without that he probably would have caught his team mate late on. We also seen from his race that using the prime tyre early could be a good tactic this year. If we get an early safety car at some races i can envisage drivers pitting to get rid of it or even pitting for it and pitting again a lap later just so they can get it out of the way.

Felipe finds some form: Felipe Massa was unhappy after the race. This is good though because rather than the mentality of "i beat Fernando, that'll do" it was a case of him wanting more from the afternoon. His pace was good for a 2 stopper and i felt that was the right approach from Ferrari because they didn't have the pace to the teams in front so it was worthwhile trying something different. Unfortunately for the Brazilian track position is not as important this year and he was caught by a few drivers late on. Still it was nice to see him in the mix and battling with the drivers at the front Not much to say on Alonso's race, the Spaniard didn't seem quick throughout and limped home a frustrated 7th.

F1 changes a roaring success: It really was a tremendous race and credit to Pirelli who seem have got it right with the tyres. The DRS system is making for much more close action. Some say it has made passing too easy. My response to that is that some of the overtakes are indeed 'simple' but for those few easy passes you get lots of good one's and good battles. It also created moves in other places. For example Hamilton was able to get close to Button with DRS which allowed him a chance of passing into turn 1. In my opinion we are much better with racing like this than than what we have witnessed in some other seasons. Remember we were at a circuit which has seen little overtaking in dry races. It also helps more variable strategies become viable. On Sunday we got over 80 overtakes and the whole race was absorbing and thrilling. A peak audience of 5 million in the UK says a lot as well.

There is some talk that in Turkey we could have 2 DRS zones, perhaps with just 1 activation zone. So say we had zone's on the back and pit straights. There would be an activation point before the first one and if you are within a second of another car you can then use your DRS in the 2 zones for that particular lap. Now i think that would be too much and is unneeded unless it is a case of having the zones made shorter. So rather than one big (800 metre) gain in the lap you could make two smaller (400 metre) gains. This could eliminate the 'easy' overtakes but still allow cars to get close. The FIA may trial this in Istanbul. Another way could be giving the drivers a finite amount to use it during the race but this doesn't seem to be in the pipeline for now anyway. i think it is feasible and certainly feel it would be a great way to make the KERS more tactical at least.

Sepang serves up exciting weekend

2011-04-12T19:29:00.006+01:00

A 4 way showdown for Pole Position on Saturday was followed by an action packed race with 55 overtakes and 63 pitstops. Up front, Sebastian Vettel continued his brilliant form with a fourth consecutive grand prix win. There were loads of stories throughout the field...

Vettel wins and Webber recovers: Sebastian Vettel had to work harder for his win this weekend than in Melbourne. Qualifying saw him edge out Lewis Hamilton and despite a loss of his KERS during the race he won without too many problems. Mark Webber had a manic race. After a KERS issue in qualifying the team replaced parts of the system in Parc Ferme. However it failed before the race and coupled with a poor start left the Australian swamped. He fought back with a 4 stop strategy, 1 more than most drivers. The advantage of that was he could really attack on his shorter stints and made up the time loss of an extra stop - and more. A good fightback to 4th will left his spirits but in still has a team mate to deal with whose confidence is sky high.

Hamilton v Alonso: Lap 45 and 46 seen controversy - heightened by post race penalties - between Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. The McLaren driver was penalised for moving more than once on the pit straight. We've seen drivers in past seasons push this 'code' but this year it is a written rule. In a Ferrari pre-season video their sporting director seem well up on the new regulations and it wouldn't surprise me if he was the one who told the team to protest the move. That was key because it forced the stewards to analyse it and make a decision and by the rule book Hamilton did break a rule. I think his thinking in the move was confused. Alonso was close and he probably thought that he'd be under more pressure but because the Ferrari's DRS wasn't working he wasn't as quick on the straight. So Hamilton made unnecessary moves and then backtracked and it cost him. Alonso got a harsh penalty for what was a minor mistake. If you penalise him for that then you have to penalise a lot of other incidents e.g Webber hitting Hamilton Australia 2010, Vettel hitting Sutil Great Britain 2010 etc. Costly mistake because a podium was there for the taking.

Fortunes reversed for Renault pair: Lewis Hamilton said after a stunning start move in Malaysia in 2007 around the outside that he had studied the past starts at the track and decided to go that way. On Sunday he looked for the inside instead and on that outside route came Nick Heidfeld in the Renault. Some stunning racing between the pair continued to turn 4 but it was the German who would make it stick and finish the lap 2nd after starting 6th. He lost some ground during his first stop but kept his cool - apart from 1 brief off track moment - to come home 3rd. Vitaly Petrov wasn't far off the pace of his team mate but a few minor mistakes seen him slip back. When Hamilton pitted late on Petrov had him in his mirrors and he ran off the circuit after getting offline onto the numerous marbles. Probably in a panic to maintain 7th he kept his foot down but on the mounted grass he got a massive amount of air and snapped the steering wheel mounting as well as wrecking the suspension. A nasty and bizarre incident for the Russian.

Mixed day for the rookies: Another race, another point for Paul di Resta. He delivered a good, clean weekend. The Force India hasn't got the raw pace but the evolution of the car has at least ensured some reliability. He has benefited from a good grounding with those practice runs last year but he has come in and coped well in what have been busy races. Replacing Liuzzi with the Scot is proving to be a good decision. Sergio Perez had his race ended in very strange circumstances. A piece fell off Sebastien Buemi's car and struck the floor of the Sauber. This set off a fire extinguisher which in turn knocked off the electrics in the car. Pastor Maldonado had more mechanical issues, Williams had a poor weekend and the South Americian hasn't been able to show his worth yet. Another tough weekend for Jerome D'Ambrosio who will be awaiting Virgin's updates with eagerness.

Confused? I'm confused: In an ideal world we would want every race to be a great race with clear and good entertainment. The addition of DRS and the deliberate making of high wearing tyres have been done to improve the show. Of course you would rather not revert to these gadgets but in this day and age it is needed. Sunday was a fantastic race and to see some journalists who report on the sport spinning a negative story on it because of all the activity is quite strange and disappointing. I'm looking at this more on a UK perspective but the race on Sunday recorded the best figures for a race in Malaysia ever. My Dad stayed and watched the whole thing. A guy who works for him even watched some of the race and enjoyed it. It was a fantastic race and i will take one like that every day over one like Bahrain 2010. KERS, DRS, the removal of the double diffusers and the tyres all played their part. Don't forget track design. It is clear that this is a factor. Sepang's long straights followed by tight corners in Sector's 1 and 3 really contribute to the action. Other circuits take note.

A few other things to note from the past weekend as well as the one to come in Shanghai.

- Another difficult weekend for Ferrari but the Prancing Horse was closer to the pace during the race. Senior staff have flown back to Italy between these back to back races which tells you a lot about the concern that there is about the car. It's believed by Italian media that the team will see how the Chinese Grand Prix goes before deciding on what course of action they will take with the development with the car. Ferrari implemented big updates during 2010 so don't write them off yet.

- Sebastien Buemi received a stop/go penalty for speeding in the pitlane. He was clocked doing 120.6 km/h in the 100 km/h limited pitlane. He pressed the limiter coming in but felt it had not gone on. However it had and in pressing it again thinking he was putting it on he turned it off and subsequently broke the limit. Usually this gets a drive through penalty so maybe he got a harsher penalty for the excess of speed he had. You could argue a situation like Lewis Hamilton passing the safety car in Valencia last year could have been dealt with in a similar manner. Jaime Alguersuari reported understeer in his car and it was discovered afterwards that there was damage to the front nose.

- There was some surprise when Hamilton went onto prime tyres at his second stop and used that compound until the end of the race. This can probably be explained by Q2 where he flatspotted his right front tyre into turn 1. So that set of tyres may well have been deemed unusable for the race. This meant he only had the set he started on plus one other set, forcing him into doing half the race on primes. That qualifying lock up may well have proved quite costly. Another imprtant thing is the tyre drop off. Sauber ran longer in the first stint in expectation of rain but once the tyres went off they were 3-4 seconds slower a lap. Kamui Kobayashi did manage a 2 stop strategy so another example of Sauber keeping the tyres well on their car.

- The DRS zone in China will be just over 900 metres long and positioned on the 1.175 km back straight between turn 13 and 14. The detection zone for the 1 second gap will be at turn 12. Should see plenty of action down into the hairpin. There has been resurfacing carried out on parts of the track. Also a 4.5 metre debris fence at turn 14. This is probably a response to the incident with Sebastien Buemi in practice last year where a wheel from the Toro Rosso went into a spectator area. We've seen a lot of standing water gather at times in the final corner during wet races in the past at Shanghai and the organisers have changed the drainage on that part of the track.

- Some quotes have come out from the organisers at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain which say they are still trying to get the race on at some point this year. There is even some talk that the King of Bahrain will be in the Shanghai paddock this weekend. Abu Dhabi is prepared to let Bahrain have their November 13th slot and then move the race at Yas Marina to December 4th. They'll be happy to do this as it means they get the season finale. A few weeks ago it seem unlikely in the extreme that a race would occur in Bahrain this year but the possibility remains open. At present the UK foreign office still advise against all but essential travel to the region

- The timetable for the Indian Grand Prix has been revealed:

Times are Local/UK

Fri 28 October
Practice 1 1000 - 1130/0530 - 0700
Practice 2 1400 - 1530/0930 - 1100
Sat 29 October
Practice 3 1100 - 1200/0630 - 0730
Qualifying 1400/0930
Sun 30 October
Race 1500/0930

Williams pitlane nightmares

2011-04-08T15:18:00.004+01:00

Pastor Maldonado had a good day of practice in Sepang but coming into the pits during the afternoon session he suffered a spin and hit the wall. He's not the first Williams driver to struggle with a pit entry/exit or pitlane though...

Nigel Mansell was on course for victory until this disaster of a pitstop. Portugal, 1991.

David Coulthard was going well but got caught out by a slippery and tight pit entry. Australia, 1995.

Ralf Schumacher was in hot pursuit of his brother at the Nurburgring but carelessly running over the pit exit line meant he got a penalty and cost him a chance of challenging for the win (3:12). Europe, 2001.

Kazuki Najakima made his F1 debut at Interlagos after the retirement of Alex Wurz. He at least made an impact in the pitlane. Brazil, 2007.

This incident is better remembered for the coming together of a McLaren and a Ferrari but Nico Rosberg also made an error here. Canada, 2008.

In the same race, Kazuki Nakajima damaged his front wing and as he pitted it went underneath the car and into the wall he went (6:22). Canada, 2008.

Rosberg was driving a blinder at Marina Bay in 2009 and on course for a podium but coming out of the pits after his first stop he ran wide, cut the white line and was given a drive through penalty (3:32). Singapore, 2009.

Pastor Maldonado loses it coming into the pits earlier today. Malaysia, 2011.

McLaren to Build Own F1 Engines?

2011-03-30T15:53:00.006+01:00

Mark Martin from http://www.moneysupermarket.com looks at the future of McLaren and the possibility of the Woking team making their own engines from 2013

McLaren is set to build its own F1 engines for the start of the new environmental era in 2013 according to the latest rumours.

The British team has enjoyed a sixteen year relationship with Mercedes prior to this. However, despite the huge success of the partnership there have recently been tensions on the back of the changing business direction of Ron Dennis’s empire.

The Break-up
Mercedes has had a long held ambition to own a F1 team and bought shares in McLaren near the start of their partnership. Allegedly, the original intention was to gradually increase its shares in the team and wrestle control from Ron Dennis.

However, Dennis had aspirations to create a road car division for McLaren to build on the success of the McLaren F1 sports car which had been built in the early 1990s. Dennis knew that Mercedes would block any such move if it had influence over the direction of the company as McLaren would effectively be a new competitor. He therefore decided to sell shares in the team to members of the Bahraini royal family rather than Mercedes to fund the expansion of McLaren’s facilities in order to make his dream a reality according to reports.

Mercedes were said to be highly displeased and their concerns grew when McLaren’s sporting conduct was brought into question by the FIA. Ferrari claimed that McLaren had gained unlawful access to their designs and the FIA fined the British team $100 million. This was followed up by a conviction of lying to race stewards following the 2009 Australian Grand Prix.

The final nail in the coffin was aerodynamic performance of the 2009 McLaren chassis, with claims that Mercedes blamed the poor performance on McLaren’s own design department and their unorthodox team structure. The potential of the Mercedes engines were confirmed by Brawn GP, who won the championship despite not gaining any financial support from the German manufacturer who decided to switch allegiance with Ross Brawn offering to give them the controlling stake in his team. Brawn were therefore renamed Mercedes GP and McLaren agreed to buy back Mercedes shares in its company over a phased period ending in 2012.

The 2013 Regulations
Car Manufacturers involved in the sport had been voicing their concerns over costs and the relevance of the sport to road car technologies for a number of years. The global recession gave the manufacturers the perfect excuse to abandon the sport with Honda, Toyota and BMW all withdrawing from the sport in close succession.

The FIA therefore took action in an attempt to bring the manufacturers back by making the sport relevant to the environmental revolution sweeping the industry. It was therefore announced that engine sizes would be reduced from the current 2.4 litre V8 units to 1.6 litre turbo charged motors. This move was supported by Renault who claims that 75% of their road car engines will be small capacity turbo units by 2015. This is due to the fuel saving potential of such engines, which is becoming an increasingly important point of differentiation with fossil fuel prices escalating and some car insurance firms starting to take into account fuel efficiency when calculating insurance premiums according to Moneysupermarket.com.

It was also announced that the capacity of the current 60kw KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) units would be doubled to 120kw. These will therefore have a much greater impact on lap times, forcing car manufacturers to devote more resources into the development of them. The expectation is that advances with these units in F1 will ultimately be applicable to hybrid road car development. FIA President Jean Todt is hoping that the combination of both of these factors will be enough to bring car manufacturers back to the sport.

The un-missable opportunity
It was rumoured that McLaren considered buying the old BMW F1 engine facility in German at the end of 2009 but ultimately decided that this would go against their aims of building everything under one roof in a similar fashion to Ferrari. It is said that McLaren believe that this would bring performance benefits due to better co-ordination between chassis and engine design departments.

This ultimately fits into Dennis’s vision to have McLaren become a British version of Ferrari. This process began with the opening of McLaren Automotive and the launch of the McLaren MP4-12C, which was the first car the company had ever designed an engine for. This was rumoured to be a trial to test the teams’ abilities before committing itself to building its own engines for its F1 team in 2013.

Building engines from this point not only coincides with the end of their agreement with Mercedes but would also enable them to enter the F1 engine industry at a time when prior experience would not be a huge advantage, with all engine manufacturers being forced to come up with new designs for the new formula. This coincidental timing is surely an opportunity that McLaren can not pass up; with many insiders surprised that Dennis has not attempted to become an independent manufacturer prior before now. Will this also see the end of the McLaren silver livery, and return to McLaren Orange from the 1960s which was used at the launch of the MP4-12C? Only time will tell.

Vettel begins title defence in style

2011-03-29T19:53:00.005+01:00

The opening race of 2011 delivered a fascinating 58 laps rather than an all time classic but there was many discussion points afterwards. Here's my thoughts on some of the stories of the weekend...

Red Bull take KERS free approach: Sebastian Vettel delivered a stunning lap to take pole position on Saturday evening in Melbourne and followed it up with a controlled drive. It was the German's 4th win in the last 5 races. So all pretty straightforward for him but a different story for Mark Webber. He was nearly a second off in qualifying and was not quick during the race. The Australian also suffered with high tyre wear and Helmut Marko said that there may have been an issue with his chassis. The team will be looking for answers before Sepang in 2 weeks. Webber also stopped after the race and Christian Horner claimed this was due to being marginal on fuel. It may have been that some teams ran with less fuel than usual as they reckoned there would be a safety car at some stage. Red Bull, and especially Vettel, got good starts on Sunday despite no KERS after reliability worries on Friday. This could yet be an issue. Even if they lock out the front row they will be very vulnerable at some circuits off the line so the team will want to solve their issues quickly.

McLaren fast but Button makes unusual error: After a winter of problems, McLaren's radical new car produced the goods as they led the chasing pack trying to hunt down Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton took second whilst Jenson Button had an aggressive race and kept his tyres well. However his evening was compromised by a bad call. Frustrated behind Felipe Massa he was forced to cut a corner when side by side with the Brazilian. It was clear that he should give the place back but he argued he shouldn't and the pitwall didn't intervene. Jenson is one of the smartest drivers around so for him not to realise this was very surprising to see. He got a deserved drive through penalty but recovered to 6th. Very intriguing to see how close McLaren get to Red Bull in Malaysia and whether they can apply more pressure. Some wondered why Sebastien Buemi and Vettel didn't get in trouble for passing off track at turn 4. The reason for this was the drivers were told in their briefing that using the 'car park' area on the outside of the corner would be deemed ok and not be penalised.

Sergio surprises but Sauber stripped of points: I didn't know much about Sergio Perez before the weekend but had read a lot of good things about him so was looking forward to seeing what he could do. The Mexican didn't disappoint, stunning everyone with a 35 lap stint on options to finish 7th, ahead of team mate Kamui Kobayashi. The Sauber car in 2010 was kind to it's tyres and it seems to have carried this characteristic into 2011. It is one that will be very useful to the team. However a rear wing infringement meant that both cars were disqualified. A big error within the team and costly. Sauber have decent pace, 7th and 8th was more down to good strategy and the team will want to utilise their opportunities early in the season.

Mixed fortunes for Renault: It was a weekend of complete contrasts for Vitaly Petrov and Nick Heidfeld. The Russian did a good job of qualifying 6th, made an excellent start and drove a clean race to take a brilliant podium. He seems to be much more comfortable and confident after his debut season. For Heidfeld, Q1 involved an off track moment, KERS issues and traffic. He then suffered heavy sidepod damage and crawled home. He has a good record in Malaysia and will want to bounce back and show his worth in what is a competitive car.

'New' teams lose tag but fail to find speed: The new teams from 2010 enter their second season but it was all going wrong for them from Friday morning. Lotus reserve Karun Chandhok crashed 40 seconds into the opening practice session and the team struggled to get the tyres heated. Jarno Trulli claimed Pirelli have changed the tyres since testing. Virgin were 5-6 seconds off the pace and Timo Glock had his race affected by a loose wheel. I feel sorry for the German who is a good driver but the Virgin project is really puzzling me. You have to wonder whether this approach of CFD only is a bit of a fantasy and it's time to get a wind tunnel. The next months will tell a big story. Hispania barely got a lap in and failed to qualify. Vitantonio Liuzzi was 2 seconds off the 107% mark so with more running he should be able to improve but Narain Karthikeyan struggled albeit he had very little time to get up to speed. Still you would think they have more pace in the bag and they will need it just to qualify but they could yet find themselves battling with Virgin.

DRS gets mixed reviews: A lot of different opinions on the new DRS (Drag reduction system) on forums and Twitter over the weekend. I actually felt it worked ok. It added a new element to qualifying and caught out Adrian Sutil in spectacular fashion. In the race it allowed cars to get closer to others and we seen some overtaking into turn 1 but it was not a case of it being too easy. What was noticeable is that having KERS - whether to add to your DRS being open, or to defend from a DRS activated car - was very important. Malaysia will be very intriguing to see how it works with the combination of 2 long straights and 2 hairpins. I actually think that the gap you have to be within to another car should be increased to 2 seconds. This is not meant to be an overtaking gadget but rather something that makes up for the loss in turbulent air and 2 seconds behind is close enough to be affected by it. Cars wouldn't pass straight away but it would help a driver haul themselves closer to a rival and perhaps lead to a battle a few laps later.

F1 2011: Racing, Strategy and Tactics

2011-03-23T15:05:00.009Z

After a winter of testing and speculation the 2011 season is almost upon us. A number of changes have been made since Abu Dhabi in November with KERS back and the adjustable rear wing introduced. F-Ducts and double diffusers have been banned and Pirelli have taken over as tyre supplier from Bridgestone. Racing is set to be different but what can be expect? Read on for my thoughts on what sort of racing we could well see throughout the season...

Tyres: 2010 was a season which seen very durable tyres, some compounds even capable of lasting an entire race distance. Pirelli have been given a mandate of producing tyres which will wear out quicker, forcing more pitstops and more variance in the strategies that teams will run. There are 4 dry compounds as well as an intermediate and wet tyre. They will be as followed:

Super Soft - Red
Soft - Yellow
Medium - White
Hard - Silver
Intermediate - Light Blue
Wet - Orange

Each weekend there will be 2 of these compounds available. Usually this will be either a combination of Super Soft/Medium or Soft/Hard. It's clear from testing that the degradation is quite high and we are set to see 2/3 stops from each driver in a race. One team has even factored in the possibility of a 5 stop strategy! It should be noted that the intermediate and wet tyres are much harder and so should be able to run quite a distance if required.

Strategy is going to be intriguing, difficult and hectic for the teams. Q3 will see the option tyre being the clear one to use if you want to get on the front row of the grid. However we could see some people going for the prime tyre and deciding to utilise a better race strategy. Qualifying will be quite intense because you will go into it with 3 sets of options and 3 sets of primes. We could see less running during qualifying as well as practice though the teams are getting an extra set of tyres at some weekends for the Friday sessions. So if we have a weekend where tyre degradation is very high and a 4 stopper is need for the race you will have to restrict yourself to using 1 set of tyres per qualifying session. The front runners will want to try and get through the first 2 sessions with 1 run on options or perhaps a set of primes which then gives you 2 runs on options in Q3 if it is needed. Then you start the race on one of those sets and use primes for the rest of the race. Note the rule of using both compounds in a race remain.

Lewis Hamilton commented that he had tyres destroyed after a 9 lap run during testing. However we have seen 20 lap stints as well so clearly the compounds vary. Much is made of the different styles of the drivers and how this may affect things but it is unclear whether the Pirelli tyres are affected by this or whether mileage alone is the key factor in their wear rate. Another noticeable aspect of testing was the amount and size of pieces of rubber and marbles coming off the tyres. If we have a dry weekend then race day could see a track which has 1 racing line and it extremely slippery offline and this could hurt overtaking moves but see more mistakes. The FIA may have to look at washing the track on Saturday nights if it became detrimental to the season

KERS: The Kinetic Recovery Energy System is back after it debuted with some teams in 2009. Now we have most teams utilising the system, only Virgin, Lotus and HRT have definitely ruled it out for now. Mercedes were considered to have the best KERS a couple of years ago which will please them and customer outfits McLaren and Force India. The likes of Williams have had teething issues and i feel that Ferrari, McLaren and Renault will benefit from their past usage of the system.

The start will again be key with it, using your energy as soon as you are not traction limited. More cars will have it now so there will be more of a cancelling out effect but if you can hold position and save a bit you can perhaps attack later on in the lap. I think the teams will make use of it regularly. It can bring 0.2-0.33 seconds per lap and with regulation changes stabilising the weight distribution teams will not be able to make this up as easy with revised ballast placement. Same rules apply as 2009, you can use it for 6.67 seconds per lap.

Adjustable Rear Wing: The Adjustable Rear Wing (ARW) or Drag Reduction System (DRS) as it is also being called is a new gadget for the drivers to use this season. Gone are the adjustable front wings after 2 seasons. Each rear wing will be capable of having a slot activated which opens it, reducing drag and increasing straight line speed by 8-12 km/h. This is opened by the driver in the cockpit with a switch or button and once open remains so until the driver next uses the brakes when it closes within 20 milliseconds of the brake pedal being pressed.

In practice and qualifying the use of the wing is unlimited and the driver can use it whenever they want. This should make qualifying laps quite interesting because as soon as they accelerate onto a straight or indeed go through a flat out corner which they can take with reduced downforce they will want the wing activated so the drag, and indeed the laptime, is reduced. Some drivers have complained about this but really it is not much different to having to operate a F-Duct last year so i can see them getting on top of it early on.

The races see a different situation for the ARW. First of all the use of the wing is not allowed on the opening 2 laps and on the 2 laps after any safety car period under any circumstances. For the other parts of the race the wing is only open to use in pre-determined overtaking zones. A timing loop will be set up at a particular part of the circuit. Then ahead of this will be a line on the track which will indicate the start of the overtaking zone. If you pass the timing loop within a second of the car in front you will be able to activate the ARW when you cross the line. For the opening races this zone is designed to be 600 metres before the braking zone for the next corner but the FIA can adjust the parameters surrounding this new device throughout the season based on what they see in the season.

From what i understand, the best way to maximise speed is to open the rear wing and then deploy KERS. So when you exit the last corner of your outlap you will want to do that in the right order to get the highest speed to start your lap. Another issue will be gear ratios. You will want your 7th gear set so it just maxs out with the ARW open and KERS being used. You could have it set lower and give yourself better overall top speed when running without the use of either but i feel the teams won't do this because it would be too costly to performance in qualifying and hence negatively affect your chances.

The race is going to be a bit different though because if you are trying to catch the car in front you will (depending on the relative pace of the cars involved) want to use the KERS to push yourself into the 1 second window to activate the rear wing. However if the car in front saves some KERS he can respond to the activation of the rear wing by deploying KERS so i think we will see some of that this season. In terms of the ARW improving overtaking i think with the current way it is being utilised a car will have to be within 0.5 seconds to have a chance of passing. What we will see is a car enter the zone and suddenly move towards the car in front quite quickly. This may not result in an actual overtake at the time but we may see some closer battles, times when the driver in front is forced more defensive and indeed more late lunges. Malaysia and China in particular will show better the advantage it gives.

Safety Car: Some slight adjustments regarding the rules surrounding the deployment of the safety car. The delta time which you have to not exceed when the safety car is first deployed now must be maintained for 2 laps instead of 1 lap. This seems minor but basically means for that period the race is neutralised. So if you are a team which has cars running closely and you want both to pit you can pit one immediately and the other car the following lap and should in theory not lose out. This will mean queueing will not be required in the pitlane and should ensure a calmer and hopefully safer pitlane. A note about the pitlane is that the fast lane is only wide enough for 1 car now so more space for the mechanics and no side by side racing in the pitlane. The green light will always be on at the pit exit so drivers can come out even if there is other cars close by.

So a lot of new aspects to Formula 1 this season. I think the tyres will be a massive part of the season. Anytime we have had a big change it has seen certain teams adapt better and the new rubber could suit some drivers better than others. It could be a very reactive situation in races. Perhaps a 3 stop strategy will be the plan at the race start. However if people start to feel their tyres go they'll pit to try and jump others on fresh tyres because of the difference in compounds. This will force other drivers to react even if their tyres are not totally finished. Teams will shift their pitstops forward and then perhaps leave themselves with a longer final stint. The dilemma then is whether you hang on to the end of the race or make an extra pitstop and try and recover the time with fresher tyres.

The adjustable rear wing will be an intriguing aspect and i think people who think that cars will be breezing past too easy shouldn't worry. KERS should keep the starts manic and busy but we could see a cancellation effect when the wing and KERS go into combat. In terms of strategy you are now more likely to pit even if there is traffic because on fresh tyres and with the ARW you can make your way through the field quicker so whereas the optimum strategy was generally stuck to last year, 2011 may see teams take more of a risk with an extra stop and on certain tracks it may be workable. Don't forget that with the double diffuser gone we should see cars able to run a bit closer with less turbulent air and the cars are a bit slower than before so should be slghtly easier to attack a car in front.

It promises to be an exciting, competitive and fascinating season and it all kicks off this weekend in Melbourne

McLaren under pressure to deliver

2011-02-22T15:31:00.008Z

In the past 10 years, McLaren have had many great drivers of the 21st century driving their cars. Mika Hakkinen, David Coulthard, Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have all passed through the doors of the Technology Centre in Woking, a superb factory with excellent facilities. Built through the strength of McLaren's history and their brand value which today sees them placed as one of the biggest names in Formula 1 with sponsorship from the likes of Vodafone. Yet in this past decade they have seen a drinks company win twice as many championships as them, Ferrari cement their place as the sport's most successful team and only have Lewis Hamilton's 2008 drivers title as a show of achievement.

A sensationalised opening paragraph but one designed to trigger some thinking over what McLaren have done in recent seasons. We almost expect the silver and rocket red cars to be in the mix come the season opener yet for all the might they have possessed they have actually underachieved. With two world champions in the cockpits at present they have drivers capable of winning and certainly hungry to do so. Yet 2010 seen a promising opening half of the season eventually fade away as they found themselves out-developed by Red Bull and Ferrari.

Jenson Button is a very relaxed man these days after taking the title in 2009 but remains determined. However he is now into his thirties and seems very happy in the McLaren environment and may well be content to finish his career with the team. It's well known that Lewis Hamilton has been with McLaren for most of his life, let alone his career. However he is a man used to winning throughout that career and since the drama of Interlagos in 2008 he has rarely had a race winning car at his disposal. When he has had the opportunity to win he has usually taken it. Hamilton has shown in these past 2 years that his raw speed and ability to drive a car to the limit is clear.

Would he really leave McLaren? It seems hard to imagine in the colours of any other team on the grid. Without his Father at his side trackside this year Lewis became more independent in race weekends and certainly showed plenty of frustration in the heat of the moment such as Melbourne and Monaco when he disagreed with the tactics of his team. The Finnish website Turun Sanomat, well known for good connections within the McLaren team, even went as far to suggesting that Hamilton was on the brink of walking out on the team. I find that a bit far fetched to believe, they say things boiled up after the summer break but of course Lewis had a great win at Spa and the gesture of taking his whole team out bowling in Japan does not seem to suggest a driver totally at odds with his team.

However should 2011 not involve race wins the picture could change. McLaren have taken a radical approach to their 2011 car, something which was needed because the MP4-25 struggled on many tracks. Testing has seen many reliability issues and whilst times are hard to read it has been said by many watching in the cars in Spain that the car looks hard work to drive. Early days but for now Red Bull and Ferrari seem to be more solid and quicker with their evolutionary cars. Hamilton is contracted to the end of 2012 but whether the potential of an open seat at either of those 2 teams would tempt the British driver remains to be seen.

McLaren really need to get things together though. The resources are there and so are the drivers. It's a fierce battle between the teams but McLaren need to deliver a machine because if they do they have 2 men who can produce the goods and a pitwall which showed many times that it is one of the best when it comes to the operational side of things as well as strategy, something which could be key. Button has shown this trait as well and his smooth driving style could pay dividends with the Pirelli tyres. Hamilton could revel in the more flexible strategies with his overtaking skills and showed how to put KERS to good use in 2009. A big year lies ahead for the Woking team...

Images courtesy of www.mclaren.com

Getting to know Paul di Resta

2011-01-21T11:35:00.013Z

He's the new Scottish star of Formula 1 but Paul di Resta hasn't taken the conventional route to take a drive in the sport with Force India...

After plenty of karting as a youngster, Formula Renault was the first experience of open wheel racing for the man from West Lothian in 2002. Three years later the step up to F3 followed and he would also win the McLaren Autosport BRDC young driver of the year award. A great achievement and one which gave him the opportunity to test a McLaren F1 car. Plenty is made of him beating Sebastian Vettel in F3 in 2006 and certainly that showed that he had good potential. It should be noted however that Vettel also had commitments in 2 other series, including test driver for BMW in Formula 1.

However di Resta's career would take an unusual turn as he ended up driving in DTM in 2007 for Mercedes. This is basically the German equivalent of the British Touring Car Championship in the UK. On paper it is a strange move to make for someone who wants to get into Formula 1. Former Grand Prix winner David Coulthard has described the two series as very different in driving style. What has proved beneficial for di Resta is the building of a relationship with Mercedes. Customer of the German company Force India allowed the 24 year old to gain some experience in 2010 by being the teams reserve driver. He travelled to all the races with the team and took part in 8 practice sessions. He drove at a competitive pace and didn't suffer any major dramas and generally impressed.

Now he steps up to the true test of a race seat. Losing out is Vitantonio Liuzzi. The Italian had a deal with the team but has been replaced after a difficult seat. It's been the story of his career, flashes of brilliance but often flattering to deceive. Certainly he had some car issues at times but also made errors and was regularly outpaced by Adrian Sutil. His F1 career is now on the brink and he will find it difficult to find a new seat. Can di Resta shine where Liuzzi didn't? Time will tell but i believe that pace wise he can be close to Sutil, it will be how good his racecraft is which will be the major test.

Image courtesy of http://www.forceindiaf1.com

Who is Narain Karthikeyan?

2011-01-06T17:52:00.005Z

He's just announced that he is driving for Hispania Racing in 2011 but just who is Narain Karthikeyan...

He turns 34 next week and is back in a race seat 6 years after his one and only season with Jordan. It was a largely frustrating year in an uncompetitive car, the Indian only scoring at the USA grand prix where only 6 cars took the start. Indeed he was outspoken about the quality of the car and ended up having a war of words with Colin Kolles who will now manage him at Hispania. The season would end with a heavy crash in Shanghai.

A test driver role with Williams followed but Karthikeyan's turned to A1GP after that. The emergence of Force India offered hope but he was unable to secure a drive with Vijay Mallya's team. He was scheduled to drive for a Colin Kolles entered team in the Le Mans 24 hour race in 2009 but a shoulder injury ruled him out at short notice. Late last year he had a day in the Force India simulator. It was reported that he was a second slower than the times set by fellow countryman Karun Chandhok. It appears that Force India were trying to get a Indian driver involved in the team, especially with the Grand Prix happening in New Delhi this October. However it appears Karthikeyan did not have the pace to earn a seat.

What he does seem to have is massive backing from the Tata group. They may also be a help to Hispania technically as well as financially with some of the resources that they have. Indeed they have a computer company which can run computer fluid dynamic programmes but they have an exclusive contract with Force India. However money ruled the decision making process at Hispania in 2010 and appears to me again this season. This issue could become even greater after the owner of the team José Ramón Carabante was ordered to pay 35m Euros by a Spanish court yesterday.

Karthikeyan gets another chance to show what he can do in a F1 car and if he can survive to October will race in the inaugural Indian Grand Prix. With doubts over his ability and the development of Hispania's 2011 car shrouded in mystery you do have to wonder if his weekends will consist of being lapped or even battling the 107% rule on Saturday afternoon's.

Group Lotus set for Renault buy in

2010-12-04T01:06:00.005Z

One of the main talking points off the track in the past months has been the dispute between Lotus Racing and Group Lotus. Lotus Racing is the team which entered Formula 1 this year under the leadership of Tony Fernandes. Group Lotus is the company which looks after Lotus roadcars. Now let me make it clear, i'm no expert on all the legal matters which seem to dog the dispute between these two entities over who owns the right to the Team Lotus name. Quite frankly, it has been a story which has not really captured my interest and so haven't followed or indeed understood all the details involved. Neither do i know anybody involved so would not normally try and blog about such issues!

However i came across an interesting claim, by total chance, that Renault have already sold it F1 Chassis division and it will only make engines from now on. The sale was to Lotus, which we can presume is the Group Lotus company rather than the current F1 outfit. Of course this is not necessarily true but from what i can gather, it seems a pretty solid source and is from an employee from the team so likely is true. This would mean that Group Lotus have bought at least 50% and have a majority stake. When i first seen this i was surprised as my initial thought was that the Renault name was gone bar on the engines. However without agreement from all the teams they would not be able to change their team name without loss of FOM revenue from the season which has passed. One suggestion seems to be that Lotus would be the title sponsor of Renault on the team name so the team would be called 'Lotus Renault' like Mclaren have the name of 'Vodafone McLaren Mercedes' It would be questionable thought that people would use that name regularly but rather continue to know the team and call the cars by the name of Renault. It would likely be that the Enstone factory continued with the day to day running of the team whilst Group Lotus contribution would be more based on finance.

Still holding your attention? Good. As it stands, Lotus Racing want to change to Team Lotus, using the name made iconic by Clark, Andretti and Peterson amongst others. Of course this is challenged by Group Lotus and with both sides not backing down it could come down to a battle in the courts. How that will play out is anyones guess and of course the knock on effects of a verdict falling on either side could affect matters.

How will it affect things on the track? Well more investment for the 'Renault' team helps them put more into building on their 2010 season and giving Robert Kubica a car capable of wins. Even if a cash injection is forthcoming i still expect Vitaly Petrov to keep his seat. For Lotus Racing there has been good work done already in sealing a Renault engine deal and getting hold of some Red Bull technology as well so they will want to now move up and be battling with the midfield teams and be fighting for Q2 and getting points on the board.

For a detailed look at the Lotus/Renault situation i recommend a read of http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2010/12/03/the-renault-situation/

Legard to stay or go at BBC?

2010-12-03T19:40:00.005Z

Having shown Formula 1 in the UK for over 20 years before losing the rights to ITV, many were pleased when the corporation regained the license to show the sport. Two seasons into this new era and the BBC coverage has been widely hailed by viewers as successful. Jake Humphrey has impressed with his presentation and enthusiasm for the role of leading the coverage. Eddie Jordan's antics in the pitlane have both annoyed and entertained fans whilst David Coulthard has got used to commenting on the drivers rather than be on track after his retirement. Ted Kravitz has continued with his role from the ITV days and Lee McKenzie looks after interviews, as well as doing features and even hosting in Japan this year.

In the commentary box, there is Jonathan Legard and Martin Brundle. From his retirement from F1 driving, Brundle has been a commentator and has been applauded for his excellence in the role with plaudits and awards. However the role of lead commentator has been the main media position to provoke debate amongst Formula 1 fans. After the departure of Murray Walker in 2001, James Allen stepped up from pitlane reporter to fill the breach. He would do the job for 7 years but come under fire from many as annoying to listen to and also for being too pro-British, particularly when Lewis Hamilton hit the scene. I felt Allen did a good job personally, he toned down his over enthusiastic character in his early years and whilst he did overdo things in regards to putting emphasis on what Hamilton was doing in the races, this was because the producers of the ITV F1 coverage wanted him to. Allen blogs regularly and still goes to many races and certainly has shown that he can have a neutral standpoint.

Jonathan Legard used to be the Formula 1 main correspondent for BBC Radio before moving onto covering Football. He then left that position to take the TV commentary position. It was a difficult opening period as he struggled to gel with Brundle and came under criticism for his repetitive nature. I do feel he was greatly improved this season and was better. He still had some issues, interrupting Brundle and getting his wires crossed with his commentating partner but in general i felt he improved. It's not an easy job calling a long and strategic grand prix and i feel some of the words aimed in his direction have been unnecessary. His blog and tweets are very insightful and he seems to have very good relationships with many people in the paddock. So his commentary may not be perfect but he does have strengths elsewhere.

Rumours have been constant without any concrete information. A few months back, reports were that Legard could face the axe at the end of the season with claims that Brundle was unhappy with the partnership. Then Legard tweeted about how he had been at a charity lunch for the Mechanics trust which would be featured on the 2011 BBC coverage which suggested he may be staying on. However this was counteracted by a claim that he had not been part of the filming. Then this morning some people were claiming that Legard was not having his contract (which expires at the end of the year reportedly) renewed. I tried to investigate these latest rumours earlier and all i could get was someone who claimed they had it from a 'second hand source' that Legard was definitely out and the search for a replacement was on.

If Legard does find himself out of the job, then several names will be in the running. As mentioned before, James Allen has previous experience of the role. Ben Edwards used to commentate for Eurosport and the now defunct digital F1 channel. He currently does BTCC commentary. Charlie Cox has been linked with the position and is believed to be good friends with Brundle but i'd be very surprised if he made the move from MotoGP to F1. David Croft could move up from radio but that would mean another recruitment search for the BBC.

All in all, it has been an excellent effort by the BBC with Formula 1. Ratings have been fantastic, many people have been drawn to the sport and things like the post race forum have provided extra analysis and insight into the sport. ITV did raise the bar with their coverage but the BBC have taken things to a whole new level. Whether Jonathan Legard remains with them on their successful journey for the 2011 installment remains to be seen. Many want him out but remember this man has been with the BBC for many years. The decision makers in this process will not decide to replace him without serious thought but certainly it is a situation to keep an eye on.

The F1 Christmas Selection Box

2010-11-29T22:08:00.011Z

As the off season continues, here's some videos and pictures to hopefully amuse you through the winter break. Thanks to anyone who suggested or contributed content. Enjoy!

The Google Grand Prix

2010-11-25T19:14:00.004Z

So the off season is here, there's not much news and there will be no grand prix until March next year. Wrong, because here is the Google Grand Prix! All the drivers from 2010 were entered in to see how many results they would bring up on the worlds most well known search engine. Here's how they all did

(Figures in millions)

1. Lewis Hamilton 10.3
2. Sebastian Vettel 7.06
3. Jenson Button 5.89
4. Fernando Alonso 5.86
5. Robert Kubica 5.54
6. Michael Schumacher 4.87
7. Mark Webber 4.86
8. Rubens Barrichello 3.62
9. Nico Rosberg 3.54
10. Heikki Kovalainen 3.48
11. Jarno Trulli 3.32
12. Felipe Massa 2.71
13. Sebastien Buemi 1.93
14. Nick Heidfeld 1.89
15. Bruno Senna 1.15
16. Timo Glock 0.775
17. Adrian Sutil 0.757
18. Jaime Alguersuari 0.707
19. Pedro de la Rosa 0.689
20. Vitaly Petrov 0.570
21. Kamui Kobayashi 0.533
22. Nico Hulkenberg 0.509
23. Lucas di Grassi 0.496
24. Vitantonio Liuzzi 0.487
25. Karun Chandhok 0.355
26. Christian Klien 0.288
27. Sakon Yamamoto 0.197

Lewis Hamilton takes the win by quite a margin. World champion Sebastian Vettel splits the McLaren drivers in second. Michael Schumacher is 6th whilst Heikki Kovalainen wins the battle of the new teams drivers. Sakon Yamamoto is bottom of the pile with less than 200,000 results

The A-Z of Formula 1 2010

2010-11-24T17:41:00.004Z

Australia is where the season really started, and where it should always start

Bridgestone finished their 14 year stint in the sport with another two championships under their belt. Pirelli take over the reins in 2011

Canada made a welcome return to the calendar and produced another exciting race

Disqualification was something no driver suffered at all during the season. Only the third time this has happened in 40 years

Engine management became quite an element as Fernando Alonso juggled engines and fellow countryman Pedro de la Rosa was the first person to need a 9th unit

F-Duct became a key component, helping McLaren take 4 wins in the first half of the season but other teams eventually caught up in this area of development

Grand Chelem - Win, fastest lap, led every lap and pole position - was achieved by Fernando Alonso for the first time in his career in Singapore

Hero of Japan and the world Kamui Kobayashi thrilled this season with several overtakes and his drive at his home race was one of the best of the season

Incidents of the season include Vettel and Webber in Istanbul, the Australians huge accident in Valencia and the 'switch' between the Ferrari drivers in Germany

Jaime Alguersuari finished 11th 5 times in 2010 but points in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi were deserved and he'll hope for more progress next year.

Karun Chandhok didn't last the season with Hispania, but helped the team to 11th in the championship and won many fans with his off track media work as well

Leadership of the drivers championship changed an incredible 9 times this season with 5 different men leading at some stage

Mercedes were back with the Silver Arrows and Michael Schumacher but failed to challenge for either championship, finishing 4th in the constructor standings

No refuelling meant less pitstops and led to more action early on as drivers fought with their heavier cars

Overtaking was at it highest for over 20 seasons, Adrian Sutil producing the most moves in his Force India

Punctures were quite common this year, the most significant one being Vettel in Silverstone after contact with Hamilton

Quotes aplenty were provided by the Red Bull drivers and staff this season but post season discussions seem to have calmed the tensions for now

Reprimands became a well used punishment as stewards generally took a more lenient approach with drivers in 2010

Safety car deployed was a message seen 20 times this season. The SLS AMG led more laps this season than all but 3 of the drivers

Tony Fernandes led the Lotus project as the team won the new teams battle and won many supporters

Ultimately it only yielded 4 points on race day but Nico Hulkenberg's pole lap in Sao Paulo was one of the moments of the season

Virgin Racing finished last in their first season but did win many fans with their openness and interaction

Wings were under scrutiny as Red Bull's front wing was shown to flex up and down. Despite increased load tests, the wings were never declared illegal

Xerothermic conditions in Singapore tested the drivers and things got too hot for Heikki Kovalainen, who put out the fire on his car as the 2 hour race neared its climax

Yas Marina played host to the season finale and saw Sebastian Vettel become the youngest F1 champion ever

Zzzz Bahrain might have lacked excitement but the rest of the season more than made up for it

Pirelli tyre test: Day 1+2

2010-11-19T00:25:00.006Z

Today seen Pirelli return to Formula 1 after 19 years out of the sport. Teams are testing the new tyres and adjusting their cars to the new rubber whilst trying to understand as much as possible about them. Again, lap times are not the ultimate goal in these tests but below you can see what each drivers best lap was today and compare it to the best laps for each team from qualifying and the race during the grand prix last weekend as well as the times set during the young drivers test earlier this week, all on Bridgestone tyres.

UPDATE: Times from day 2 of the Pirelli tyre test are now shown. That concludes the testing in Abu Dhabi and indeed all F1 running for the year. The first tests of 2011 will be on the 1st February in Valencia.

Red Bull

Best qualifying lap - 1.39.394
Best race lap - 1.41.739
Young drivers test
Daniel Ricciardo (Day 1) - 1.39.616
Daniel Ricciardo (Day 2) - 1.38.102
Pirelli tyre test
Sebastian Vettel (Day 1) - 1.40.500
Sebastian Vettel (Day 2) - 1.40.825

McLaren

Best qualifying lap - 1.39.425
Best race lap - 1.41.274
Young drivers test
Oliver Turvey (Day 1) - 1.40.725
Gary Paffett (Day 2) - 1.39.760
Pirelli tyre test
Gary Paffett (Day 1) - 1.40.874
Oliver Turvey (Day 2) - 1.41.740
Gary Paffett (Day 2) - 1.41.622

Ferrari

Best qualifying lap - 1.39.792
Best race lap - 1.42.447
Young drivers test
Jules Bianchi (Day 1) - 1.43.894
Jules Bianchi (Day 2) - 1.39.916
Pirelli tyre test
Felipe Massa (Day 1) - 1.40.170
Fernando Alonso (Day 2) - 1.40.529

Mercedes

Best qualifying lap - 1.40.060
Best race lap - 1.41.711
Young drivers test
Sam Bird (Day 1) - 1.42.985
Sam Bird (Day 2) - 1.39.220
Pirelli tyre test
Nico Rosberg (Day 1) - 1.41.778
Michael Schumacher (Day 2) - 1.40.685

Renault

Best qualifying lap - 1.40.658
Best race lap - 1.41.753
Young drivers test
Mikhail Aleshin (Day 1) - 1.42.073
Jerome D'Ambrosio (Day 2) - 1.38.802
Pirelli tyre test
Robert Kubica (Day 1) - 1.41.032
Robert Kubica (Day 2) - 1.41.614

Williams

Best qualifying lap - 1.40.203
Best race lap - 1.42.397
Young drivers test
Dean Stoneman (Day 1) - 1.41.522
Pastor Maldonado (Day 2) - 1.40.944
Pirelli tyre test
Rubens Barrichello (Day 1) - 1.41.425
Rubens Barrichello (Day 2) - 1.41.294

Force India

Best qualifying lap - 1.40.914
Best race lap - 1.42.695
Young drivers test
Paul di Resta (Day 1) - 1.42.736
Antonio Felix da Costa (Day 1) - 1.41.381
Paul di Resta (Day 2) - 1.40.901
Yelmer Buurman (Day 2) - 1.41.178
Pirelli tyre test
Adrian Sutil (Day 1) - 1.42.859
Paul di Resta (Day 1) - 1.41.615
Vitantonio Liuzzi (Day 2) - 1.42.416
Paul di Resta (Day 2) - 1.41.869

Sauber

Best qualifying lap - 1.40.783
Best race lap - 1.42.673
Young drivers test
Esteban Gutierrez (Day 1) - 1.41.432
Sergio Perez (Day 2) - 1.40.543
Pirelli tyre test
Kamui Kobayashi (Day 1) - 1.40.950
Sergio Perez (Day 2) - 1.42.777
Kamui Kobayashi (Day 2) - 1.42.110

Toro Rosso

Best qualifying lap 1.41.707
Best race lap - 1.42.573
Young drivers test
Jean-Eric Vergne (Day 1) - 1.42.489
Jean-Eric Vergne (Day 2) - 1.40.974
Pirelli tyre test
Jaime Alguersuari (Day 1) - 1.42.019
Sebastien Buemi (Day 2) - 1.42.145

Lotus

Best qualifying lap - 1.43.516
Best race lap - 1.45.378
Young drivers test
Rodolfo Gonzalez (Day 1) - 1.44.924
Vladimir Arabadzhiev (Day 2) - 1.45.723
Pirelli tyre test
Heikki Kovalainen (Day 1) - 1.44.686
Jarno Trulli (Day 2) - 1.44.521

Hispania

Best qualifying lap - 1.45.085
Best race lap - 1.46.255
Young drivers test
Pastor Maldonado (Day 1) - 1.43.750
Josef Kral (Day 2) - 1.44.143
Davide Valsecchi (Day 2) - 1.43.013
Pirelli tyre test
Pastor Maldonado (Day 1) - 1.45.728
Pastor Maldonado (Day 2) - 1.44.768

Virgin

Best qualifying lap - 1.44.095
Best race lap - 1.46.126
Young drivers test
Rio Haryanto (Day 1) - 1.49.439
Jerome D'Ambrosio (Day 1) - 1.43.518
Luiz Razia (Day 2) - 1.43.525
Pirelli tyre test
Timo Glock (Day 1) - 1.44.124
Timo Glock (Day 2) - 1.44.783

F1 driver market update

2010-11-17T19:11:00.004Z

After my initial post some weeks back on the driver market, there have been a few more seats confirmed. Some remain up for grabs though...

Key
Confirmed
Almost certain
Maybe
Outside chance

McLaren

Jenson Button
Lewis Hamilton

Both English drivers are contracted until 2012

Mercedes GP

Michael Schumacher
Nico Rosberg

Both drivers confirmed for 2011, however the reserve role remains open. Could be given to GP2 driver Sam Bird who tested with the team this week or perhaps Nico Hulkenberg who is currently out of a drive with a view to taking a race seat in the future.

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel
Mark Webber

Another front runner who have secured their drivers for another season. Some feel that Webber could walk away after some of the tension of this season but i think he will honour his contract for 2011.

Ferrari

Felipe Massa
Fernando Alonso

Massa got a 2 year renewal earlier this season. Robert Kubica has been linked with the seat and is believed to be well admired within Ferrari but has a contract at Renault. Hulkenberg has also been linked with the team but it should be an unchanged line up for the Italian team

Williams

Rubens Barrichello
Pastor Maldonado

Barrichello will have a 19th season in the sport and it's almost certain that Pastor Maldonado will partner him, which will mean the first non-European driver line-up in 6 seasons for a F1 team

Renault

Robert Kubica
Vitaly Petrov
Adrian Sutil
Nick Heidfeld
Nico Hulkenberg

Vitaly Petrov is not certain of a 2011 seat but it looks like he will hang on for at least another season. His 6th place at the weekend will have helped his case. Adrian Sutil seems to have given up on a Renault seat whilst Nick Heidfeld's hopes look distant.

Force India

Adrian Sutil
Vitantonio Liuzzi
Paul di Resta
Karun Chandhok
Nick Heidfeld
Nico Hulkenberg

Adrian Sutil looked at several options but now seems set to stay at Force India. Vitantonio Liuzzi has not been confirmed and faces competition from reserve driver Paul di Resta. Karun Chandhok would slot in nicely with an Indian Grand Prix debuting next year but his only opening may be as a reserve driver.

Toro Rosso

Sebastien Buemi
Jaime Alguersuari

Both men get another season to impress and will want to do just that with the likes of Daniel Ricciardo impressing in testing.

Lotus

Heikki Kovalainen
Jarno Trulli
Bruno Senna

Kovalainen seems happy with the team and will probably stay onboard. Trulli has made it clear he is still motivated to continue racing. Confirmation should be soon. Senna has been linked but i'm not convinced by those reports, will be reserve driver at best i feel.

Hispania Racing

Bruno Senna
Sakon Yamamoto
Christian Klien
Karun Chandhok
Valtteri Bottas
Pedro de la Rosa

This team's future remains up in the air, extremely difficult to know what will happen regarding drivers. They had 4 race for them this season so i suppose they could all have a seat next year but time will tell. Possible tie-up with Williams could affect things. Pedro de la Rosa also linked with a seat

Sauber

Kamui Kobayashi
Sergio Perez

Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez have been confirmed for 2011

Virgin Racing

Timo Glock
Lucas di Grassi
Jerome D'Ambrosio
Gio van der Garde

John Booth says Timo Glock is confirmed and the German says 'it looks like i'm staying'. D'Ambrosio has had some practice runs towards the end of the season as well as testing and looks like a viable contender to take Lucas di Grassi's seat. The Brazilian's future is looking uncertain.

A look back at Schumacher's comeback year

2010-11-16T21:52:00.012Z

August 2009. A sunny Budapest afternoon. Time is up in Q2, drivers are trying to improve on their final laps to secure a place in the top 10. Felipe Massa is looking good to make it and is cruising back to the pits. He doesn't make it. He's in the barriers. The Brazilian's life threatening accident left a temporary vacancy at Ferrari and would trigger a German's emotions. Michael Schumacher had retired at the end of 2006 and had always insisted he would not return but he had stayed close to the sport and in Ferrari's hour of need as well as covering for his good friend, he decided to return and take Massa's seat. A neck injury meant this was quickly aborted. The seven times world champion had allowed emotion to overtake rational thinking. The fire was burning but where could he go? Ferrari was his stable and in Fernando Alonso they had a new horse, the one which had seen Schumacher off in his final year.

Mercedes have taken a massive interest in Formula 1. From backing McLaren to then supplying other teams with engines, its been a big investment by the company. They wanted to take that extra step though and have full ownership of their own team. McLaren was not feasible, the team itself had grown too much and established its own brand and image. Talks began with Brawn. It made sense, Ross Brawn had bought the team over from Honda and having a solid company like Mercedes buying the team would give it security. For Mercedes, it meant having a team that was a championship winning one and had the facilities in place to compete with the best.

What this meant was that a 20 year old promise could be fulfilled. Schumacher had raced for Mercedes in sportscars before his Formula 1 and indeed it was Mercedes who helped financially in getting the German his debut in the Jordan at Spa. The hope between the parties was that 1 day, Schumacher would drive a Mercedes in the pinnacle of motorsport. Of course history shows that Schumacher would become the Italian hero as he took 5 consecutive world titles for Ferrari and most of his success would come with them. All of a sudden, the talk began. Eddie Jordan, the man who received that payment to give Schumacher his opportunity, was claiming that talks were underway. Jenson Button drifted away from the team and joined McLaren. There was an opening and it was filled by the man, the legend, the hero, the enemy, the driver who had dominated the sport and broke all the records. Schumacher was back.

Much was expected from Schumacher. Personally i felt he could get podiums and even a race win but wouldn't be able to challenge for the title. Looking back, those predictions well over optimistic though they were based on Mercedes having a front running car, something which the 2011 model never was. Most have labelled the German's season as a poor one and that coming back was a mistake. However i want to look back at this season with some perspective. In a way, this story has been a fascinating case study in the same way Lance Armstrong returning to cycling was. Here was a man who had been out of the sport for over 3 years. Yes, he had done the odd test and taken part in things like the race of champions but to actually throw himself back into the full time job of a F1 driver was a massive challenge. So many changes had taken place during his 'retirement' and so to actually be able to come back and run at a competitive pace would be a feat in itself.

Mid March in Sakhir, Bahrain and the comeback begins. Schumacher rolls in 6th in an uneventful race. He's struggling with the understeer in his car, the Mercedes front end is not biting and the narrower Bridgestones are not helping. He is able to hold to hold off Jenson Button behind due to the twisty nature of the circuit. Amidst all the hype, you could say its a low key return but in the what was probably the 3rd or 4th best car, it is a very respectable result 41 months after his last grand prix. A damaged car in Australia would have to carried through the Asian races in Malaysia and China and left him prey to several cars in Shanghai. Meanwhile his young compatriot Nico Rosberg was shining, taking a podium in Sepang and leading for a while in China before coming in 3rd.

The return to Europe would yield more happiness for Schumacher with a couple of 4th place finishes in Spain and Turkey. These were punctured by the controversial penalty in Monte Carlo but this was more down to mis information from the pitwall. What is important here is that he maximised his car in getting those 4th places, he was taking on world champions like Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso and beating them on track. How many drivers could take so long out of the sport and actually come back at 41 years old and be able to get in the mix like this? Niki Lauda came back with great success and Nigel Mansell to a lesser extent but i think most would struggle to rediscover the pace needed in such a competitive environment.

What was disappointing about Schumacher's driving this year was the way he battled wheel to wheel with several drivers. To me, he was sometimes naughty and dangerous with some of his on track tactics. In Montreal he squeezed Robert Kubica onto the grass and then crudely moved across into Felipe Massa's braking zone, leaving his former team mate with a broken front wing. There's nothing wrong with racing hard but he was pushing the limits too much. Things came to a head in Budapest when Rubens Barrichello was chasing down the Mercedes on fresh rubber and as he came down the inside, from himself squeezed towards the pitwall and then onto the grass. The reaction in the paddock was one of outrage and Schumacher found himself penalised. I actually felt there was another poor piece of driving from the German this season which went relatively unnoted. In Singapore, having been passed and squeezed wide by Nick Heidfeld the German seem to have the red mist descend on him and as they headed down Raffles Boulevard he launched his car down the inside, coming nowhere near getting slowed down for the corner. The Sauber was shoved into the barriers and Schumacher limped back to the pits with a damaged front wing. A reckless move borne out of anger and frustration it seem.

Japan and Korea were positive races for Schumacher. Points scored and overtakes on the likes of Barrichello and Kubica seem to silence the talk of him walking away from F1 at the end of the season. The season would finish with a scare though as a lap 1 spin in Abu Dhabi seen him facing the wrong way on the track and a huge hit from Vitantonio Liuzzi thankfully missed the German's head by inches. A reminder that the sport is dangerous and can never be totally safe.

So overall i can understand why this season is classed as a disappointment for Michael Schumacher. When somebody has won 91 races, 7 titles and been a dominant force in the sport for so many years, seeing him somewhere other than the front is an unusual sight. However remember the circumstances, to return after missing 3 seasons and be able to compete at a reasonable level may not be all his fans hoped for but it is still a very impressive display and shows how good the man is. Where he did suffer at times was going into battle on track with some drivers. Can he do more in 2011? Well, Mercedes themselves need to improve. Operations need to be restored to the standards of early on in 2009 and Ross Brawn has promised that restructuring will happen. KERS should be a strong suit for the team. Schumacher is up against a strong grid, has a team mate on the up in Nico Rosberg and needs better machinery but you never know, the great German may yet pull off a 92nd Grand Prix win in the future.

Images courtesy of www.mercedes-gp.com

Give Abu Dhabi a chance

2010-11-16T18:30:00.004Z

Yas island. It has the glamour, the spectacular sights, the buzz of the floodlights but in 2 years it hasn't produced an exciting race, even if it did see the crowning of a champion on Sunday. A lot of criticism has been aimed at the track layout with people upset that the season finale didn't see much overtaking.

I'd like to say that this track can be a success. I agree that we haven't seen much thrilling action but there has been some. Mark Webber and Jenson Button had a great fight in the closing stages of the 2009 race and we seen Robert Kubica pull off 2 superb overtakes on Adrian Sutil and Kamui Kobayashi on Sunday. A slow hairpin onto a long straight should in theory help. However a tighter corner to cause a bigger braking zone at the end of the straight would help. What is important here is Richard Cregan. He is one of the main people in charge of the circuit and used to be team manager at Toyota. He indicated on the BBC over the weekend that he was prepared to listen to suggestions and implement changes. This facility has cost billions and the organisers clearly will make efforts to improve things.

So we might not have had a classic race in Abu Dhabi yet but the track is not as bad as is made out and the potential is there for the future. We have many changes in 2011 which will likely help overtaking but its important that tracks really look at the layout of their circuits and try to make at least 1 spot as a overtaking possibility. It has never been easy in F1 but it can me made a possibility and to be fair, the teams and the FIA are trying to find ways to improve things. Hope is there for the future of Formula 1.

Young drivers test: Day 1+2

2010-11-16T12:41:00.006Z

Only 2 days after the curtain came down on the 2010 season and off season testin is already underway. Today and tomorrow presents an opportunity for those who have not done more than 2 races in F1 to get a chance to experience some running in a F1 car. Lets be clear, it is difficult to assess exactly who is doing the best job in these tests as fuel loads, programmes, tyres may vary. However it is interesting to see who is doing what and of course the test is in Abu Dhabi where the Formula 1 field have just raced around. The track is in good condition, Karun Chandhok reckoned earlier that it would be quicker than it was on Saturday by over a second and with over 800 laps on it today it will have increased in pace. Here's a look at day 1 times complete with comparison's with the times from the weekend.

UPDATE: This post now includes times from day 2 of the test. That concludes the young drivers test. The next Formula 1 running will be in Abu Dhabi on Friday and Saturday when the teams will be testing the new tyres from Pirelli for the first time.

Red Bull

Best qualifying lap - 1.39.394
Best race lap - 1.41.739
Daniel Ricciardo (Day 1) - 1.39.616
Daniel Ricciardo (Day 2) - 1.38.102

McLaren

Best qualifying lap - 1.39.425
Best race lap - 1.41.274
Oliver Turvey (Day 1) - 1.40.725
Gary Paffett (Day 2) - 1.39.760

Ferrari

Best qualifying lap - 1.39.792
Best race lap - 1.42.447
Jules Bianchi (Day 1) - 1.43.894
Jules Bianchi (Day 2) - 1.39.916

Mercedes

Best qualifying lap - 1.40.060
Best race lap - 1.41.711
Sam Bird (Day 1) - 1.42.985
Sam Bird (Day 2) - 1.39.220

Renault

Best qualifying lap - 1.40.658
Best race lap - 1.41.753
Mikhail Aleshin (Day 1) - 1.42.073
Jerome D'Ambrosio (Day 2) - 1.38.802

Williams

Best qualifying lap - 1.40.203
Best race lap - 1.42.397
Dean Stoneman (Day 1) - 1.41.522
Pastor Maldonado (Day 2) - 1.40.944

Force India

Best qualifying lap - 1.40.914
Best race lap - 1.42.695
Paul di Resta (Day 1) - 1.42.736
Antonio Felix da Costa (Day 1) - 1.41.381
Paul di Resta (Day 2) - 1.40.901
Yelmer Buurman (Day 2) - 1.41.178

Sauber

Best qualifying lap - 1.40.783
Best race lap - 1.42.673
Esteban Gutierrez (Day 1) - 1.41.432
Sergio Perez (Day 2) - 1.40.543

Toro Rosso

Best qualifying lap 1.41.707
Best race lap - 1.42.573
Jean-Eric Vergne (Day 1) - 1.42.489
Jean-Eric Vergne (Day 2) - 1.40.974

Lotus

Best qualifying lap - 1.43.516
Best race lap - 1.45.378
Rodolfo Gonzalez (Day 1) - 1.44.924
Vladimir Arabadzhiev (Day 2) - 1.45.723

Hispania

Best qualifying lap - 1.45.085
Best race lap - 1.46.255
Pastor Maldonado (Day 1) - 1.43.750
Josef Kral (Day 2) - 1.44.143
Davide Valsecchi (Day 2) - 1.43.013

Virgin

Best qualifying lap - 1.44.095
Best race lap - 1.46.126
Rio Haryanto (Day 1) - 1.49.439
Jerome D'Ambrosio (Day 1) - 1.43.518
Luiz Razia (Day 2) - 1.43.525

Reflecting on Abu Dhabi finale

2010-11-15T19:29:00.003Z

After 19 races, it came down to 55 laps of Yas Island and as darkness fell, things would fall away for some and dreams come true for a 23 year old German...

Alonso thwarted by unlikely source: Fernando Alonso went into the race as the favourite for the title but it would be a day of frustration for the Spaniard. He lost out to Jenson Button at the start and that left him still on course for the title. However Mark Webber was now on his tail and Alonso needed to maintain his position to take the championship. The Australian's early stop prompted Ferrari into action. They needed to cover Webber who found himself behind Jaime Alguersuari but was soon released by the junior Red Bull driver and started to make use of his fresh tyres. Ferrari didn't want to pit Alonso because he'd lose out to Rosberg and Petrov who had pitted under the safety car for the scary incident involving Michael Schumacher and Vitantonio Liuzzi.

So Felipe Massa was called in to try and jump Webber. Key here was his slow time in the pits, 1.4 seconds slower than Webber and meant he could not interfere in his race. So Alonso had to make the move. It was a move which ultimately left the championship out of his hands. It was understandable why Ferrari did it, their main rival was Webber. However he would have soon caught Petrov and lost time and Alonso could have stayed out until he had a gap to pit and back out clear of the Red Bull and the early stoppers. What was surprising was that the Ferrari struggled to mount much of a challenge to Petrov. The Renault was quick in a straightline with its effective F-Duct and had good traction for going onto the long straights. The Russian also had a fresh engine whilst Alonso's was on its third weekend. Perhaps Ferrari finally found themselves hindered by their early season reliability woes directly.

Webber limps home quietly: This weekend just never seem to get going for Mark Webber. A long run in Q3 didn't pay off and he ended up 6 tenths off his team mate. He could have tried a early stop strategy like in did in Singapore but decided to stay out. Then, shortly after saying his rear tyres were starting to go, he pitted. This dropped him into traffic and he was eventually covered by Alonso and jumped by others. However his tyres were likely graining, as team mate Vettel soon regained some speed. There was some thoughts that Webber had been used as 'bait' to help Vettel take the title and the Australian seemed to hint at this afterwards. Having thought about it for a while and watching Vettel and Webber on Austrian TV tonight being interviewed, you get the feeling it could have been the case. Much was made of Vettel maybe having to let Webber through and my feeling is that both drivers were told that if one was in a better position than the other during the race then they would have to concede or be used to help the other.

Webber didn't qualify well enough, didn't do a good enough job this weekend and thus blew his chance. He used the same chassis as Singapore where he also struggled and that may not have helped. Vettel put it on pole and set himself up for a tilt at the title. If Red Bull wanted to take a 'calculated risk' like Christian Horner described, then surely Webber would have chanced a pitstop behind the safety car. Red Bull gave Alonso a dilemma and Ferrari couldnt get out of it, they compromised their race and Alonso couldn't recover what was lost. I can't say with any certainy whether i'm right, its just a feeling i get looking at the situation and the reactions of the people involved. I'm not having a go at Red Bull either, i think that, if true, they scored a huge strategic win over Ferrari and a key championship winning one at that. It was a great plan and it worked Red Bull did a great stop for Vettel, kept the lead, took the championship and the rest is history...

Vettel holds off McLaren: Lewis Hamilton's strategy was worth a go because usually you wait to clear the traffic but Vettel would have built this gap first and covered the McLaren. Instead McLaren gave Hamilton 1 lap of clear air before hitting traffic and put some pressure on Vettel and Red Bull. The team dealt with it brilliantly though and Vettel just got out ahead of Hamilton, and also Kobayashi and Kubica who had yet to stop. Didn't work out for Hamilton but Vettel done a great stop throughout the pitstop laps and it was enough for the German to maintain the lead and continue on his way to victory

What each contender faces for the race

2010-11-13T18:17:00.004Z

It was a drama filled and tense qualifying session in Abu Dhabi but Sebastian Vettel had the speed at the end to notch up his 10th pole position of the season. Lewis Hamilton was just edged out by the German into 2nd. Championship leader Fernando Alonso took a vital 3rd on the grid alongside Jenson Button but it was disappointment for Mark Webber who could only manage 5th and shares row 3 with Felipe Massa. So what could possibly unfold tomorrow...

Sebastian Vettel: In terms of getting the win, Vettel is in a good position. The start and subsequent tyre wear will be key and he may have to be wary early on of Hamilton who needs the win to have any chance. Vettel done a couple more laps on his starting tyres in Q3 than most other drivers and the opening stint will be when he track is at its hottest so some early graining could see Hamilton on his tail. I feel he should have enough race pace to cover the McLaren though and should be in the hunt for the race victory. He needs Alonso to finish 5th or lower to take the title and that is out of his hands really. He may yet have to yield a victory to Webber in certain circumstances.

Lewis Hamilton: Simple really for Hamilton, he has to win, hope Vettel is 3rd or lower, Webber 6th or lower and that Alonso doesn't score any points. I think to get the win he'll need to get ahead early on and hope his slightly fresher tyres will help him put pressure on Vettel. Team mate Jenson Button could be a help to his title aspirations if he can get involved in the fight and at least push Vettel behind but he'll still need issues for Webber and Alonso. McLaren have finally got the 'double' F-duct working and are running quite a bit of downforce to keep up in the corners whilst the improved stalling of the rear wing maintains good speed on the straights. Good progress but perhaps too late to save Hamilton's championship ambitions.

Fernando Alonso: Overall things worked out ok for the Spaniard. Ferrari look like the 3rd fastest team this weekend, albeit it is extremely close for such a long track. With Webber struggling it eases the pressure on Alonso. If the Australian doesn't win tomorrow then a top 4 finish will seal a third title for the Ferrari driver. Dropping to 5th could allow Vettel to snatch the title on countback. Realistically for that to happen it will take either a major issue or being passed by Webber and Button so Alonso will hope to maintain his position early on and keep Webber behind and then settle for a minimum of 4th. A pressure for him to handle is the old engine which after powering him around Yas Island today has now done approximately 1250km and still needs to keep going for another 310km to ensure Alonso can see the chequered flag under the lights tomorrow.

Mark Webber: There are still 55 laps for things to change tomorrow but this was not a good Saturday for Mark Webber. The Australian really needed to be on the front row so that he could be challenging for the win or at least be in a position to inherit one if the situation dictated it. Instead he finds himself behind his title rivals and he needs to take risks to get back in contention. So where can the Red Bull driver make up positions. Obviously the start is one opportunity but it'll be difficult to make multiple places up as it is a short run to turn 1 and not a big braking zone. He certainly won't want Felipe Massa nipping ahead early on and interfering with his race. His car is not particularly quick in the speed trap so that could also make his task difficult. A safety car is not likely at this circuit but an early deployment would allow him to try a similar strategy to Singapore where he gained a couple of positions by pitting early for the hard tyre. However the pitlane loss in bAu Dhabi is quite a bit less than it was at Marina Bay. His task is difficult but he will just have to try and attack as much as possible. A victory for his team mate means Webber won't take the title so he will either need issues for others or hope he can get up behind him and hope Alonso is 3rd or 4th, forcing Vettel to yield for him.

So a lot of scenario's and permutations there but the world awaits to see what will unfold tomorrow. I feel Alonso is in prime position, he is very capable of dealing with the pressures involved and with Webber behind, a top 4 finish may well be enough. A 5pm start means a long wait for the drivers and plenty of time for the tension to build. Can Mark Webber show his fighting spirit one more time? Will Sebastian Vettel make it 2 wins out of 2 races in Abu Dhabi or could the outsider Lewis Hamilton pull off an incredible turnaround? In 24 hours we will know...

Answers to the end of season quiz

2010-11-13T17:36:00.004Z

1. Trulli
2. Webber
3. Alain Prost
4. 11th
5. de la Rosa
6. Alguersuari
7. English drivers 1-2
8. Button
9. Trulli
10. 4
11. Petrov
12. Kobayashi
13. Petrov
14. Senna
15. Buemi
16. 9
17. Yamamoto
18. 28
19. $100,000
20. Kobayashi
21. Mercedes
22. Fans climbing the fencing
23. de la Rosa
24. Liuzzi
25. Red Bull
26. Grand Chelem (Pole, Win, led every lap, FL)
27. 8th
28. 2
29. di Grassi
30. 17
31. Hulkenberg
32. Petrov
33. Heidfeld
34. Alguersuari
35. Vettel
36. Hamilton
37. Guillaume 'Rocky' Rocquelin
38. Rob Smedley
39. Andrew Shovlin
40. Andre Stella
41. Webber
42. Hulkenberg
43. Massa
44. Alguersuari
45. Vettel
46. Barrichello
47. Kovalainen
48. Jock Clear
49. Hamilton
50. Alonso

A quiz on the 2010 season

2010-11-10T14:00:00.008Z

As the 2010 season draws to a conclusion this weekend, why not have a go at these questions and see how much you can remember about what has been a thrilling year of Formula 1...

1. Who was the first driver to take to the track in Bahrain FP1?

2. Who's smoke screen contributed to a collison between Kubica and Sutil in Bahrain?

3. Who was the driver steward in Bahrain?

4. Where did Lewis Hamilton qualify in Australia?

5. Who failed to make the start in Malaysia?

6. Which driver had a personal best result in Malaysia?

7. What was achieved in the Chinese Grand Prix for the first time in over 40 years?

8. Who led the drivers championship after the Spanish Grand Prix?

9. Who was outqualified in Monaco for the first time in their career by a team mate?

10. How many times was the safety car deployed in the Monaco Grand Prix?

11. Who set the fastest lap in the Turkish Grand Prix?

12. Who was a victim of the 'Wall of champions' in Montreal during the race, suffering retirement soon after hitting it?

13. Who jumped the start and caused an avoidable collision, all before reaching turn 1, in Canada?

14. Who's wing mirror caused a practice red flag in Valencia?

15. Who was overtaken in the last corner in the last lap in Valencia?

16. How many drivers were given notice during the race in Valencia of post race investigation into speed under the safety car?

17. Who made their first appearance of the season at Silverstone?

18. 5 Germans finished in the top 10 in Great Britain, how many points did they score between them in that race?

19. How much were Ferrari fined for team orders in Germany?

20. Who received a penalty in Hungary for failing to stop for the weighbridge during qualifying?

21. Which team failed to score for the first time in 2010 in Hungary?

22. Why was FP2 red flagged in Spa?

23. Who became the first driver to need a 9th engine during the Belgium weekend?

24. Which driver was promoted to tenth after a post race penalty for Jaime Alguersuari?

25. Which team led the constructors championship after the Italian Grand Prix?

26. What career first did Fernando Alonso achieve in Singapore?

27. Where did Felipe Massa finish from 24th on the grid in Singapore?

28. How many drivers set lap times in FP3 in Japan?

29. Who crashed before the start of the race at 130R?

30. How many laps did the safety car do in the Korean Grand Prix before a 'green flag' lap?

31. Who took 10th on the last lap in Korea after a late pitstop?

32. Who was the only driver to not use slicks in Q3 in Brazil?

33. Who was penalised for ignoring blue flags during the race in Brazil?

34. Who finished 11th for the third race running in Sao Paulo?

Team Radio - Who said what: Q35-50

35. "Loss of power, Loss of power"

36. I was only weaving to lose the slipstream"

37. "Hamilton pit out, Hamilton pit out,thats him"

38. "Ok, half a second faster with a broken front wing"

39. "Ok, safety car in this lap, safety car in this lap, so you're racing for turn 19 and round to the finish"

40. "Put pressure on Petrov, he won't keep his foot too long"

41. "I can continue mate, i can continue"

42. "My engine cover is burning away, i can smell it"

43. "So what i can say, congratulations to the team"

44. "I lost the speed, i lost the speed"

45. "I xxxxed up the restart, i'm sorry"

46. "That was horrible"

47. "I hope he's ok, he had a pretty hardcore flight"

48. "You're free to fight but just be careful"

49. "It's a wet race, what do you expect"

50. "This is the worst conditions i ever drove in"

Answers next week

Thoughts on the Interlagos weekend

2010-11-08T22:22:00.011Z

It wasn't up there with the all time classic Brazilian races but it sets things up beautifully for a thrilling finale to the season in Abu Dhabi...

Hulkenberg puts up a fight: Nico Hulkenberg looked pretty calm on the grid but, unseen on TV, appeared to have some sort of drama at turn 1 on the formation lap which allowed a few cars past but the German recovered to take his place at the front. It didn't last long as Sebastian Vettel and then Mark Webber dispatched him on lap 1. The Williams defended well from Fernando Alonso but eventually dropped to 4th on lap 7 and despite pressure, held off Lewis Hamilton until the pitstops. He eventually finished 8th which was enough to put Williams a point clear of Force India. The battle for 6th is the closest one left in the constructors championship.

Speculation continues over the Williams line-up for 2011. Don't expect official word until after the post-season tests in Abu Dhabi. You would think that the team would want to hold on to Hulkenberg after his weekend performance but with the team in a technical partnership next season with Hispania Racing, there has been some talk that the German could be offloaded to the Spanish team for a year before returning to replace Rubens Barrichello. Collin Kolles wants experience and youth at HRT next year and Pedro de la Rosa is believed to be in contention whilst Pastor Maldonado and Valterri Bottas, who are both testing with the team later this month, may also be slotted in at Williams request. I think that Maldonado will get into the Williams team so somebody will have to move on. This weekend could yet prove the final one for Barrichello in his long F1 career.

McLaren strategy keeps them hanging on: Lewis Hamilton was a grumpy man on Sunday afternoon. Things were bad even before the start as the 2008 champion reported vibrations with his brakes on the way to the grid, an issue he also suffered in Hungary this year. He was hounded by Alonso from the off and his McLaren looked a handful as he eventually slid wide allowing the Ferrari through. He also had tyre wear issues, overheating his tyres on his first 2 stints. Again the team excelled on the strategy side of things, responding to the safety car for Vitanonio Liuzzi's crash, caused by a mechanical issue, to put on fresh rubber without losing position. It was a fantastic move because it gave him the opportunity to attack Alonso and improve his title bid which was on the brink. However the amount of backmarkers between the leading cars caused havoc and meant that when Hamilton had cleared them all, Alonso was already 8 seconds. He needs a incredible turnaround to win the title but he's at least going into the final race with a chance, even if it is small.

Traffic, Traffic, Traffic!: This track was always going to represent some issues with backmarkers with it being so short but the fact that the record for most finishers (22) was equalled plus the safety car period towards the end compounded things. Nick Heidfeld got a penalty for ignoring blue flags and there were a few more, particularly the Toro Rosso drivers, who could have also been penalised. Felipe Massa even passed Nico Rosberg at one stage, who was 1 lap ahead of the Ferrari at the time! There was a rule a couple of years ago where the lapped cars unlapped themselves behind the safety car. That restored order but does mean some would gain back a lot of time. Perhaps allowing the cars on the lead lap to overtake backmarkers under the safety car should be considered for next season as the race was just a bit too mixed up in the closing stages.

Fernando continues the podium run: Having declared that 5 podiums in the last 5 races would be enough for the championship, Fernando Alonso has now achieved 80% of his goal. However a third title will only be certain if he is on the first or second step of the podium in Abu Dhabi. I feel that if he is behind a Red Bull 1-2 by lap 2 in Yas Marina then he'll need them to have some issues but we'll see how the weekend pans out. It is also believed that the engine that will be used in Abu Dhabi will be the same one that was used for Monza and Interlagos so managing that will be another pressure for the Spaniard to deal with.

Champions of the World!: Red Bull sealed the constructors title with a 1-2 and set both drivers up for a tilt at the drivers title. Much has been made of the approach taken by the team regarding the drivers championship. Of course they could have improved Webber's situation by letting him win but to be fair, Sebastian Vettel remains in the hunt. In theory, the best way to approach things from the start of the season is to back 1 driver completely like Ferrari did with Michael Schumacher. This however can mean much less excitement and credit must be given for Red Bull letting the pair fight each other. There could be a situation, which is not that unlikely, where Vettel is leading Webber in the final laps at Abu Dhabi. If Alonso is 3rd or 4th then Vettel can't take the title. So Red Bull will have to switch them to give Webber the title. Some think that the team will not do this but despite the ill feeling between the pair and the Austrian favouritism for Vettel, i will be hugely shocked if it didn't happened as throwing a certain title away would be simply crazy for the team or Vettel to do.

Misery all around for the Brazilians: No points garnered at all for the home drivers. Felipe Massa needed an extra pitstop after a wheel nut issue which left him scrapping it out at the rear of the field. Rubens Barrichello also had pitstop issues and then a puncture after contact with Jaime Alguersuari. Lucas Di Grassi had to spend time in the garage during the race whilst Bruno Senna came in 21st in the slow Hispania. He was up against Christian Klien but it was hard to compare the pair as the Austrian had issues pre-race and missed the race start. He also had to put more fuel in due to a pressure problem.

So the final week of the season is upon us. This promises to be a fantastic finale and 3 drivers definitely have a realistic chance of becoming world champion. Lewis Hamilton will need a shock result and issues for others but its only 1 race and it can still happen, just ask Kimi Raikkonen fans about 2007. It was a switch up front which cost Fernando Alonso that day and the same could happen again but will the Red Bull squabbling ultimately allow the Spaniard in for a third title. Engines are now heading towards the end of their life and reliability in the desert could also affect things. Webber even admitting that he thought his car was going to stop in the closing stages of Sunday's race with water pressure issues. All eyes now turn to Abu Dhabi...

Images courtesy of www.mclaren.com and www.forceindiaf1.com

All the championship possibilities

2010-11-07T21:08:00.004Z

4 drivers head into the final round of the season with a chance of winning the Formula 1 world title. After Brazil, the standings are as follow:

Fernando Alonso 246
Mark Webber 238
Sebastian Vettel 231
Lewis Hamilton 222

Fernando Alonso will definitely win the championship if he finishes in the top 2

Alonso will also win the championship with these set of results:

Finish 3rd and hope
Webber is 2nd or lower

Finish 4th and hope
Webber is 2nd or lower

Finish 5th and hope
Webber is 2nd or lower
Vettel is 2nd or lower

Finish 6th and hope
Webber is 3rd or lower
Vettel is 2nd or lower

Finish 7th and hope
Webber is 4th or lower
Vettel is 2nd or lower

Finish 8th and hope
Webber is 4th or lower
Vettel is 2nd or lower

Finish 9th and hope
Webber is 5th or lower
Vettel is 3rd or lower

Finish 10th and hope
Webber is 6th or lower
Vettel is 3rd or lower

Finish 11th or lower and hope
Webber is 6th or lower
Vettel is 3rd or lower
Hamilton is 2nd or lower

Mark Webber needs to finish in the top 5 to have any chance of winning the world championship

For Webber to win the championship he needs to either:

Win the race and hope
Alonso is 3rd or lower

Finish 2nd and hope
Vettel is 3rd or lower
Alonso is 6th or lower

Finish 3rd and hope
Vettel is 2nd or lower
Alonso to 7th or lower

Finish 4th and hope
Vettel is 2nd or lower
Alonso is 9th or lower

Finish 5th and hope
Vettel is 3rd or lower
Alonso is 10th or lower

Sebastian Vettel needs to finish in the top 2 to have any chance of winning the championship

For Vettel to win the championship he needs to either:

Win the race and hope
Alonso is 5th or lower

Finish 2nd and hope
Webber is 5th or lower
Alonso is 9th or lower

Lewis Hamilton needs to win the race or else he can't win the championship.

So for Hamilton to win the championship he needs to:

Win the race and hope
Vettel is 3rd or lower
Webber is 6th or lower
Alonso is 11th or lower

Hulkenberg breaks through in Brazil

2010-11-06T19:30:00.007Z

Sebastian Vettel qualified on the front row today, doing what he did at Monza in 2 years when he announced himself to the Formula 1 world. Tomorrow he'll line up along with fellow German Nico Hulkenberg who soared to a sensational pole position. I've been impressed with the rookie this year and i think he's been solid. Whereas fellow rookies Kobayashi and Petrov have had more spectacular moments, Hulkenberg has been quietly improving. However in the final 5 minutes of a wet qualifying, the track had developed a dry line and the top 10 all headed to the pits for slick tyres. The leaderboard was rapidly changing but the Williams driver kept lighting up the timing screen with purple sectors and would end up smashing the opposition by over a second.

So how did Hulkenberg manage to upstage everyone, including the championship contenders? My honest answer is i'm not really sure! His race engineer says he was on a dry setup and i can't imagine that the others would have compromised too much with the forecasts pointing to little chance of showers affecting things tomorrow. The Williams is a decent car but to be so far ahead of a car like the Red Bull was a massive surprise. Looking at the speed trap figures it seems the Williams and Red Bull are neck and neck on medium speed acceleration but the Red Bull cars have a greater end of straight speed. Vettel has stood out to me in recent races with this because he usually goes for a bit more downforce for a mighty car in the corners but then suffers with a low speed in the speed traps which makes it difficult to overtake. Yet he seems to be learning to compromise better, he was well up the speed charts in Korea which helped him lose less time in sector 1 whilst still be quick enough through the twistier sections of the track. From what i've can see, its a slight change of approach from the German and perhaps the benefit of experience shining through.

Fernando Alonso could be world champion in 24 hours but it'll be a struggle to seal it from 5th on the grid. I feel he will have a stronger package than Lewis Hamilton so could jump him but will not be able to beat the Red Bull's on raw pace. Up front though, Hulkenberg could well back up the pack so if anyone, like Vettel, can get past him off the line then they could well scamper off into the distance. The soft tyre should last for at least 20 laps though Friday seen graining on the rears so the first 10 laps could be quite interesting as the top 10 manage that. Jenson Button qualified in 11th and now looks out of the title hunt. Felipe Massa is down in 9th and unlikely to play a spoiling role in aid of Alonso. If the contenders finish where they are, the championship would go to Abu Dhabi looking like this:

Alonso 241
Webber 235
Vettel 224
Hamilton 222

It would also mean that Red Bull would be constructor champions so McLaren will be hoping Button can move through the field and prolong the battle to Yas Marina next week. However the reigning champion finds himself in between Petrov and Kobayashi, two men who will not hold back on the opening lap. Watch out for the Sauber driver, who has a free tyre choice and could emerge as a points scorer as the race unfolds.

So will any of the championships be decided tomorrow? Can Nico Hulkenberg score a maiden podium or even a sensational victory? Will Jenson Button and others fall out of the running for the title? Make sure you catch the race, race start is 2pm Brazilian time (4pm UK time)

Words aplenty but who will do the talking on track

2010-11-04T22:51:00.004Z

It turned into quite a spicy Thursday in Sao Paulo as the F1 world landed into the small confides of the Interlagos paddock. At Ferrari it was all love and happiness as Fernando Alonso stated his hope that Felipe Massa would win the last 2 races of the season providing he came home in second to take the title. Massa meanwhile was admitting that he may have to concede to his Spanish team mate, citing that he had done so before at home in 2007 for Kimi Raikkonen.

The battle of words were firmly on at Red Bull however as Mark Webber made it clear he didn't feel backed by the team emotionally, a clear swipe at the Austrian factions of the team who want Vettel to be the main man of the team. Vettel meanwhile was playing on the fact that Webber had been the cause of his own downfall in Korea whereas the German had been helpless after engine failure. So is Webber right or wrong to reignite the flames? Only time will tell but its that underdog mentality which has served him well at times this season and clearly he feels that is the way to play things. It heightens scrutiny on the team and he believes that this means less chance of things going against him and that he can handle the hype better than Vettel.

Lotus willl announce their engine deal with Renault tomorrow with the French company's CEO Carlos Ghosn expected in town. I also believe we may well get news on Vitaly Petrovs future and with Adrian Sutil hinting at another season at Force India this could well mean the Russian hanging on to his seat. Paul di Resta is sitting out practice again for the team and you have to wonder whether he will miss out on a 2011 race seat, though the team have to weigh up giving him experience with the close battle they are in currently with Williams. Rubens Barrichello will use a fresh engine for his home race.

Lucas Di Grassi is set for a debut home race but may find himself out of the team with both Jerome D'Ambrosio and Gio Van der Garde in the hunt to replace him. D'Ambrosio is getting another Friday run tomorrow but Van der Garde may land a 2011 race seat with the backing of his billionaire Father. Christian Klien is in for Sakon Yamamoto as Hispania look to overtake Lotus. They'll need rain and/or the wacky races on Sunday to pull that off. Big test for Senna as well against the Austrian. The Brazilian has been linked with Lotus though Jarno Trulli was talking positively about another season with the team earlier.

Fans are chatting and buzzing about the weekend already and the cars haven't even took to the track yet. Fernando Alonso could be champion this weekend and Red Bull could take a maiden title but how much blood will be spilled in the pursuit of these goals, on and off the track?

Alonso wins as Red Bull falter in Korea epic

2010-10-24T20:15:00.005+01:00

Rain, safety cars, crashes, mud and a red flag, it was a marathon inaugural Korean Grand Prix...

Race Control get 100%: It was a difficult day for the drivers but also for race control and Charlie Whiting. He had to deal with rain and the condition of the new surface. His first call was to delay the start by 10 minutes. I presume this was done as a lot of rain was coming in on the radar. The conditions before the race looked ok for a normal start and i was disappointed when they did but when things did get underway it was clear that the track was very wet and a red flag soon followed which was the correct decision. When the race resumed almost an hour later it was still a soaked surface but eventually the water cleared. There was a bit of psychological warfare going on as Mark Webber was quite reluctant for the safety car to come in but Lewis Hamilton was demanding that the race go green. I feel Whiting was a few laps too cautious in this situation. Still he managed to get a full race distance in though this was another tight call as darkness fell in the final laps. Again, another difficult decision as a red flag could have caused controversy in itself with the standings going back 2 laps. A red flag a lap after Sebastian Vettel retired would have meant the German would have been given the win so you can see the knock on effect of a decision but the last couple of laps were perhaps a bit too much.

Red Bull crash and burn: Saturday seen them take a dramatic 1-2 but it all went wrong on race day for Webber and Vettel. The Australian looked understandably edgy on the grid and perhaps in hoping the race would be stopped or not be a full points event got into too much of a negative mentality. He struggled compared to his team mate and then dropped it. His car then ended up taking out Nico Rosberg, who was unhappy with what Webber had done. I was a bit curious at the incident but looking back on it i think Webber was trying to back his car off the track rather than stop in the middle of the track so it was simply bad luck for the German. For Vettel it had been a great drive from pole but engine failure condemned him to a third DNF of the season. Whether Alonso, who was closing, could have passed him towards the end will never be known but it was still a mighty blow to Vettel's title hopes. The German can point to reliability costing him the title and its an intriguing argument, on one hand he has had the most unreliability of the title rivals but also the fastest car of the lot. Which is the best overall package is of course the big question.

Here's a rough idea of what drivers have lost through reliability, misfortunes and mistakes this season. Not possible to be accurate but interesting nonetheless...

Potential points lost through car problems

Vettel 66
Hamilton 32
Button 2
Alonso 2
Webber 0

Of course it's hard to define exact points and there has been plenty of indirect effects of reliability (Webber and Hamilton have suffered grid drops for gearbox changes) Jenson Button and Webber can also cite being hit by Vettel this season as well as Alonso suffering some misfortune. Everyone's had their moments, good and bad, and all remain in the hunt with 2 races remaining

Sauber at the double again: Another good day and vindication of the teams decision to bring in Nick Heidfeld as he scored good points for the team. He survived being passed 3 times by Adrian Sutil. The Force India had brake issues and eventually his day of banzai moves came to a end by hitting Kamui Kobayashi, the Japanese driver surviving the collision. Good stuff from the Swiss squad who will hope Kobayashi can spearhead a strong 2011 with the finances coming in from North America. The strategy was quite interesting, pitting both cars very early for inters but like Ferrari, the car keeps the tyre wear low in comparison to others and both drivers came through the field well and kept their cool.

Sutil received a 5 place grid penalty for his antics and Toro Rosso driver Sebastien Buemi was also given the same punishment after smashing into Timo Glock, putting both men out of the race. The Swiss driver was on the inside but not close enough to pass. I think he was caught out by how wet that particular corner was and under braking lost it. He hit Glock hard and thankfully the tether kept the wheel from flying loose and avoiding what could have been a very nasty incident. Team mate Jaime Alguersuari was unfortunate as he lost a point on the last lap, frustratingly saying 'not fair' on Twitter afterwards.

Mercedes shrewd but Nico denied: Its been a year of disappointment for Mercedes after high expectations but as in China, they showed the potential they had in the wet. During the red flag period, they reverted both cars to a full wet setup, taking advantage of Perc Ferme rules not applying. Both Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher attacked from the moment the race went green but when Webber spun, Rosberg went left to avoid the Red Bull but was wiped out. He was understandably frustrated afterwards. He could have went on to win his first race thought the Mercedes works the tyres hard, meaning he could have been vulnerable towards the end. It was still a shame after looking good throughout the weekend. Can he show what he's worth in 2011? Schumacher took a joint best result of the season in 4th but has now been beaten by a team mate over a full season for the first time in his career.

Petrov downbeat as Liuzzi delivers: Oh Vitaly, you had switched early for tyres, made your way through the field and looking set for a massive result and then snap... offline a touch and a huge impact with the barriers. The Russian has simply crashed too much and only his bank balance will keep him at Renault next season. Eric Boullier is considering Sutil and Heidfeld so talent or money, which will win? Meanwhile there was a joint personal best result for Vitantonio Liuzzi as he tries to cling on at Force India. Sadly its a performance which has been too rare from the Italian.

In other news, Pastor Maldonado is getting a test day with Williams after the season finale in Abu Dhabi. The team have confirmed Valeri Bottias as test driver so it certainly heightens the prospect of the Venezuelan replacing Hulkenberg for 2011. Patrick Head talked positively of the German at the weekend but also seen to hint that the decision was not down to him. Williams were looking set for big points towards the end of the race but the tyres went for both drivers, Barrichello slipping to 7th with an off and Hulkenberg crippled by a slow puncture which forced a late pitstop. A last lap pass on Alguersuari earned a point. Barrichello is one of 5 drivers with a fresh engine left so expect that to be utilised in front of his home crowd in two weeks.

Hispania's plan to sneak 10th?: It was a decent outing for Hispania, Sakon Yamamoto had a solid weekend, out qualifying Bruno Senna by almost a second. The Brazilian scored a personal best result of 14th, putting him ahead of the Virgin drivers in the championship. Hispania remain 11th in the championship which like Virgin in 12th means no prize money. Both teams need a 11th place finish, which on raw pace is pretty unlikely, to jump Lotus. It's hard to see an attritional race occuring in Abu Dhabi so basically the last opportunity is some Sao Paulo madness which is not out of the question. Colin Kolles has not ruled out getting 10th and i do wonder whether he is considering drafting Christian Klien in for the next round. The Austrian has only raced at Singapore but was much faster than Senna and he could be the best chance of pulling a top 11 finish off. It's hard to see Yamamoto being dropped with the finances he brings but with Senna heading to his homeland it would be a ruthless decision to drop the rookie. Collin Kolles can be ruthless though, so watch out for the possibility of yet another change at the Spanish team...

So Fernando Alonso heads to Brazil knowing he could seal a third championship in Sao Paulo. Mark Webber needs to bounce back and repeat his win from 12 months while Sebastian Vettel remains in the hunt but needs Alonso to have some difficulties. Lewis Hamilton kept his hopes alive with a battling second but with his car still the third quickest, he'll need plenty more twist and turns up ahead to take the title. He may however have the support of his team mate Jenson Button now, the Brits title reign now nearing the end barring an incredible turnaround.

It's incredible to think Alonso could do it earlier in the season but the Spaniard insisted that the upgrades were coming for the Prancing Horse and he has duly delivered. Six days of Formula 1 action remain and 5 still stand in the title race, roll on Sao Paulo!

Pastor to bring his word to F1 with Williams?

2010-10-16T17:24:00.015+01:00

The Belgian Grand Prix in 2008 was one of the greatest and most controversial of recent years after Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen went wheel to wheel on a dampening track with the Finn crashing out and the Englishman demoted to third after a post race penalty. However earlier that day a man from Venezuela in South America by the name of Pastor Maldonado was celebrating a second win in GP2 after coming through from 6th to pass Belgian Jerome D'Ambrosio on the final with a stunning move on the outside down Kemmel straight into Les Combes. It was the second victory in GP2 for Maldonado but it has been his 4th year in the series where he has finally shone through. He has always been a quick and feisty competitor but 2010 has seen a more consistent side to his performances and he sealed the title last month at Monza, fending off new Sauber signing Sergio Perez

The Venezuelan's career has been a tale of ups and downs from a test with Minardi when he was just 19 to a multiple race ban for injuring a steward and a broken collarbone sustained in training three years ago but now as GP2 champion he finds himself on the cusp of the ultimate stage of Formula 1. His situation is comparable with the one Vitaly Petrov found himself 12 months ago. The Russian had cemented a decent reputation in GP2 and had significant financial backing from his homeland. At the time, Renault had been hit by several sponsors leaving the team in the wake of crashgate and needed a boost, both in morale and in finance. A seat was open and Petrov managed to take advantage and land himself a F1 opportunity.

This season has seen a pretty stable driver market and with GP2 rival Sergio Perez taking a potential seat at Sauber, things were looking pretty bleak. However what looked like a unchanged pairing at Williams has been cast into more and more doubt in recent weeks with senior personnel at the team talking about losing major sponsors at the end of the year and how the driver situation is still unresolved. It appears Nico Hulkenberg could find himself out of a seat. I feel the rookie has done well this season, improving throughout the year and competing well against Rubens Barrichello. The problem is he may need to bring some money to the team to keep his seat and with 6 other Germans currently on the grid this is quite a difficult task. Contrast that with Maldonado, who is a national hero in his native land and has plenty of backing from government authorities and businesses.

Now don't get me wrong, Maldonado is a capable guy and not just buying a seat. What these finances could do though is propel him from starting out at the bottom to coming into a team like Williams who have been regular points finishers in the second half of the season. It means more expectation but i am sure the 25 year old would take that for the opportunity to better show his ability and go up against a grand prix winner like Barrichello. It also could send a further shake up into the driver market. Hulkenberg could look at Renault and Force India as options if he is forced out. Another element of this is if Renault drop Petrov, the Russians backing may be an alternative option for Williams to consider. The Venezuelan media seem almost sure that their man is in for next year and while this should be taken with caution as it could be their desperation to see Maldonando make F1 seeping through, it certainly seems plausible and is definitely something to watch as teams finalise their drivers for 2011.

Suzuka: Step by Step

2010-10-12T20:31:00.007+01:00

Having recovered from the all nighter which seen qualifying and the race take place on the same day, it's time to look back at what was a dramatic Japanese Grand Prix...

Crash, Bang, Wallop: It was chaos before turn 1 as the fast starting Vitaly Petrov swiped the front of the slow moving Nico Hulkenberg, putting both drivers out of the race. The Russian also landed himself a 5 place grid drop for the Korean Grand Prix, which was confirmed as going ahead yesterday. These errors keep coming from Petrov and he really needs to get some solid performances in to cement his 2011 seat. Team mate Robert Kubica was making noises about having an experienced driver beside him at the weekend. However it could yet be finances which helps the rookie keep his seat.

Meanwhile there was significant damage for Felipe Massa and Vitantonio Liuzzi as the Ferrari went across the grass and into the side of the Force India. The Brazilian has a contract for 2011 and Liuzzi claims to be secure but rumours still swirl about both men. I've been told by a Force India employee that Adrian Sutil is almost certain to stay with the team, though i would think he'd fancy the Renault seat if it comes free. However if true and with Paul di Resta expected to get a chance it would push the Italian out of the team. My gut feeling on Massa is that Ferrari won't move him out and that unless the Brazilian was to walk away, which i think is unlikely, he will be there in 2011. Fernando Alonso knows that Massa could yet be a foil to him in his own title aspirations.

Kubica unlucky but lucky: Robert Kubica threw himself into the mix of the championship challengers by qualifying on the second row and then moving up to second place at the start and looking good for a podium. Behind the safety car that was deployed for the lap 1 incidents he began to slow and then had his right rear tyre fly off, leading to his retirement. Having looked so good for a positive result which would have helped Renault closed the gap to Mercedes in the battle for 4th in the championship. However it was revealed afterwards that the French team had an issue with the wheel gun on the grid and that none of the Polish driver's tyres were fitted properly. So perhaps they will be thankful that there was a safety car or else it could have been an even more scary incident.

Mercedes have improved showing: It was a better weekend for Mercedes, though it only ended with 8 points after Nico Rosberg suffered a wheel failure late on through the Esses. He had a poor start and pitted behind the safety car. Meanwhile Schumacher made a good pass on Rubens Barrichello but when he was pitted he was going quicker than his team mate but emerged behind him and despite his best efforts he couldn't past. Mercedes have admitted that was an error on their part. Either they were concerned about other cars around them or wanted to ensure that Rosberg, who is close to Massa and Kubica in the championship, would score the extra points.

McLaren see margin grow: McLaren were unable to take the fight to Red Bull this weekend. Lewis Hamilton had a Friday crash and then McLaren took a chance on using his gearbox from Singapore but within three practice laps it had a problem so he got a five place grid penalty. He then lost third gear during the race so had to yield to Jenson Button and finished fifth. Button went for the hard tyre for Q3. I think it was worth the risk because McLaren did not have the raw pace and a safety car at a certain moments may have played into his hands. Both men are now more than a race win behind Webber. I think they needed a wet qualifying or race to act as a leveller and though Hamilton was catching Alonso before his gearbox issue its going to take some turnaround for the number 1 to remain on a McLaren next season.

Lotus increase grip on vital 10th position: It was a good day for Lotus Racing as they secured their best ever finish with Heikki Kovalainen 12th. He was followed home by Jarno Trulli in 13th. This means that Hispania and Virgin will need a top 11 finish to jump them and this will likely take a race of high attrition to acheive. Virgin had a poor day, Lucas di Grassi crashing before the race in spectacular fashion whilst Timo Glock was stuck behind Sakon Yamamoto for many laps. Lotus also have attention on 2011. It looks likely that Trulli and Kovalainen will be retained. The team will use the 2009 Red Bull gearbox and hydraulic system and an engine deal with Renault should be announced soon. This should help them take the fight to the likes of Toro Rosso and Sauber and ensure a much more competitive car.

Kobayashi thrills Japan and the world: There was a lot of hype around Kamui Kobayashi ahead of his home grand prix. Many feel he could be the star driver that Japan has been waiting for. On Friday he had looked ragged but i was hopeful he would score points and please his fans. The race would turn into an incredible drive, netting him a 7th place finish. He overtook several cars into the turn 10 hairpin, braking much later than his rivals yet managing to make every attempt stick. I know they talk about local knowledge around the figure of eight circuit but this really was astonishing! His first overtake on Jaime Alguersuari was a late lunge which he turned into an overtake with a bit of contact but the other moves were all clean. Even when he made a second move on the Spaniard, Alguersuari defended but still Kobayashi passed on the outside. The Toro Rosso driver was silly in turning into the Sauber several times, damaging his front wing and blowing the chance of a points finish.

How did the home hero pull off so many unexpected moves though? Part of this can be explained by strategy. Kobayashi had started on the hard tyre and then pitted late for the soft tyre. So he was able to attack late in the race. Also the characteristics of his car played a role. The Sauber has the longest wheelbase on the grid so the car is good through medium to high speed corners. This allowed Kobayashi to stay close to cars in front through the Degner corners preceding the hairpin. The Sauber is also kind to its tyres so usually performs better in races than in qualifying. Panasonic used to sponsor Toyota and are reported to be in discussions with Peter Sauber.

Red Bull win with something to spare: Qualifying and the first corner decide the Red Bull battle really and whilst Mark Webber was not far off, it was Sebastian Vettel who made it two out of two in Suzuka. The pair cruised it, even backing off when they caught up Button during the race who had yet to pit. There was still a bit of mind games between the duo when Webber pushed hard on the last lap to clock fastest lap and deny his German team mate a hattrick for the weekend. The Australian will know he may have to beat him on track at some stage. Three more Vettel victories and the championship is the German's. Fernando Alonso rolled in third which was the maximum possible, he will hope to challenge more in the remaining rounds

So the teams now head for South Korea which was confirmed on Tuesday. The pit straight isn't that long but turn 1 is tight and is followed by a massive straight, over a kilometre long so expect plenty of action down it. Sector 2 is a lot of medium speed corners and the final sector more twisty so it could be somewhere which plays to each teams strengths in certain parts. Rain is certainly a possibility in the region as well. Three races to go and still five can win it but McLaren surely need a strong result or the gap will be too much to claw back.

Singapore: Step by Step

2010-09-28T17:14:00.009+01:00

Well its good to finally be blogging after a busy weekend. It certainly was busy for the drivers as they raced to the limit for two hours on the streets of Singapore. There were plenty of talking points...

Start: The circuit organisers had a cleaning machine for this years event after the dust of 2009 and it had an effect. Off the line, the two men furthest forward on the dirty side of the grid got better launches. Fernando Alonso countered Sebastian Vettel with a hard defensive chop whilst Lewis Hamilton was more aggressive into turn 1 and took back his grid slot of 3rd from team mate Jenson Button on the outside.

Gaining an advantage: Further back, there was some controversy though it would not emerge till after the race. Nico Hulkenberg took to the astroturf at turn 2 and used it to pass Vitantonio Liuzzi on the outside going into turn 3. Then the other Force India of Adrian Sutil went off track at turn 7 and gained momentum, passing the Sauber of Nick Heidfeld. Both drivers would receive 20 second penalties after the race.

Are you serious mate?: Lap 3 and the safety car is deployed as Liuzzi's car is parked at the side of the track. Most of the front runners stay out but Red Bull decide to pit Mark Webber and put him on the hard tyre till the end of the race. Despite initial reservations from the Australian he pits and emerges in 11th. Felipe Massa who started last pitted before the safety car, doing a similar strategy as Alonso did in Monaco.

Timo train: Virgin had their last big update of the season and it paid off with improved pace. Timo Glock stayed out during the safety car period and found himself 10th at the restart. He was soon passed by Webber but put on a great display of defensive driving to hold off Adrian Sutil for several laps. Glock has always went well at the track, coming second last year for Toyota. However he would later retire and Virgin remain bottom of the championship. This race was a missed opportunity to move up the standings for the team

McLaren off the pace: Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button found themselves dropping off the front 2 as the first stint progressed. The team finds itself right in the fight for both championships but whilst some great strategy and drives have kept them in the hunt they simply won't be able to win either unless they can find some performance gains. The tyres started to go for both Hamilton and Button and they found themselves leapfrogged by Webber.

Ferrari cover Red Bull: Vettel couldn't pit early as he would have hit traffic but when the McLarens pitted Red Bull seen the opportunity but unfortunately for them Ferrari spotted this and pitted Alonso at the same time. Vettel made an error at his stop, pulling away in second gear but he eventually got away. Staying out longer was ruled out by the team as the harder tyre was the quicker one at the time.

Hamilton and Webber collide: The safety car was deployed again after Kamui Kobayashi crashed at turn 18 and was then hit by Bruno Senna. On the restart Webber found himself behind two backmarkers in the form of the Virgin cars. He cleared one quickly but stuttered slightly into turn 5 behind the other and Hamilton was right on his tail. He got alongside and heading down to the braking zone of turn 7 found himself about half a car length ahead of the Red Bull which had the inside line. Hamilton braked late to try and get far enough ahead to maintain position. Webber fought hard though and also braked hard. He stayed tight on the inside, right up on the kerb but it got too tight on the exit and the front right of the Red Bull collided with the rear of the McLaren. Hamilton retired but Webber was able to continue. In my view, it was a racing incident. Hamilton was unlucky to find himself out whilst Webber was fortunate to get away with wheel rim damage to make the finish.

Schumacher and the Saubers: Michael Schumacher was involved in a lot of activity. First he was passed by Kobayashi who made a massive lunge and forced the Mercedes wide, even clipping the barriers. Schumacher was then passed by ex-colleague Nick Heidfeld, who squeezed the former world champion wide. The Mercedes then made a wild dive into turn 7 and sent Heidfeld into the barriers and out of the race. Team mate Nico Rosberg had a good drive, taking 5th position and extending Mercedes gap over Renault in the championship.

Kubica puts on passing masterclass: Robert Kubica has had some great drives this season but they have mainly been a case of getting into high positions and then being on the defensive from quicker cars. However after a puncture meant an extra stop it looked like getting any points would be a tough challenge. Granted he had fresher tyres which was a big help but it is still a tough track to overtake on. Buemi was dispatched first and team mate Petrov followed quickly. Next up was Felipe Massa and then Hulkenberg in the Williams. The Pole saved the best for last however. Adrian Sutil covered the Renault brilliantly down the Raffles Boulevard but Kubica did what Hamilton failed to do with a superb, clean move around the outside of turn 7.

Fireman Heikki: Finn Heikki Kovalainen had a good drive, running up in 13th late on but after being passed by Schumacher was tagged by Sebastien Buemi with the race drawing to a close. A fuel line was broken in the contact and after a lot of revving by Kovalainen to get the car pointing the right way the rear of the Lotus began to catch fire. Kovalainen was going to pull into the pitlane but opted against this, later saying he didn't want to take it in where a lot of people were. You can understand his indecision in the heat of the moment (excuse the pun!) but he did the right thing by stopping on the main straight. He then got hold of a fire extinguisher and proceeded to put the fire out himself! A shame for Lotus that they couldn't make the finish but they have maintained 10th in the championship

It was a race where Vettel was quicker but Alonso getting pole position was key and he put in a great drive to hold off the German. Webber maintains his championship lead but for McLaren its a case of not having the pure pace to compete. Jenson Button says they have a good update for Sukuza but i think they may need some rain to fall in Japan and Korea to have a chance.

Korea remains surrounded by rumours of it not happening. A FIA inspection has been delayed again and will only happen 13 days before the race is due to be held. The final layer of tarmac is going down today so that will be a crucial factor in whether the race will be able to go ahead. It would have an big effect on the chmpionship if the race fails to go ahead. It would also mean a 4 week break between Japan and Brazil.

2011 driver market: Renault seat the key

2010-09-18T14:11:00.006+01:00

After 2010 gave us the potential of some great driver pairings which have been a fascinating element of the season it looks a fairly stable market for 2011. It will be the midfield where the main changes could be...

Key
Confirmed
Almost certain
Maybe
Outside chance

McLaren

Jenson Button
Lewis Hamilton

Both British drivers are under contract until 2012 and the team have been happy with the way both have performed and the partnership seems to have been managed well and been a success.

Mercedes GP

Michael Schumacher
Nico Rosberg

Both drivers have been confirmed by Ross Brawn for 2011 though there has been a recent swirl of rumours saying that Schumacher could walk away from F1. I'll put him as confirmed because that is what Ross said last weekend and he does seem committed to me as well as looking at this project as a long term one. Adrian Sutil has been talking to the team though...

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel
Mark Webber

Another front runner who have secured their drivers for another season. Some feel that Webber could walk away if he took the title and after some of the tension of this season but i think he will honour his contract for 2011.

Ferrari

Felipe Massa
Fernando Alonso

Massa got a 2 year renewal earlier this season. Robert Kubica has been linked with the seat and is believed to be well admired within Ferrari but whether him and Alonso would be a good pairing for the team remains to be seen.

Williams

Rubens Barrichello
Nico Hukenberg

Barrichello is virtually guaranteed a 19th season in the sport and Hulkenberg is close to securing another season so expect a confirmation of both seats soon.

Renault

Robert Kubica
Vitaly Petrov
Adrian Sutil
Romain Grosjean
Kimi Raikkonen
Timo Glock
Heikki Kovalainen

Robert Kubica has signed a two year deal with the team but the other Renault seat is the most sought after in F1. Vitaly Petrov is the current occupant and his rookie season has seen flashes of brilliance tempered by unforced errors. Adrian Sutil is a likely candidate to replace him with the German putting in consistent performances at Force India this season. Romain Grosjean endured a nightmare few races for Renault last season but is now driving for their associate team in GP2 and is still considered as a potential talent so could yet make a surprise return. He is also set to test for Pirelli which is a useful thing to have on his CV.

Kimi Raikkonen has enquired about a seat but staying in rallying remains the more likely career option for the 2007 world champion. Timo Glock and Heikki Kovalainen both look set to stay with their current teams. The German turned down an opportunity at Renault last year.

Force India

Adrian Sutil
Vitantonio Liuzzi
Paul di Resta
Karun Chandhok

It could be all change for Force India. The team has outperformed expectations but has hit a blip recently. Adrian Sutil may feel he needs to move to progress whilst Vitantonio Liuzzi's performances have frustrated the team. Paul di Resta has driven some practice sessions on Fridays and seems well placed to get an opportunity with the team. If both current drivers are out in 2011, then Indian Karun Chandhok may get an opportunity to drive for Vijay Mallya's team.

Toro Rosso

Sebastien Buemi
Jaime Alguersuari

Both men get another season to impress and will want to do just that with the likes of Daniel Ricciardo making their way through with Red Bull backing.

Lotus

Heikki Kovalainen
Jarno Trulli
Vitaly Petrov

Kovalainen seems happy with the team and will probably stay onboard. Trulli has made it clear he is still motivated to continue racing. A Renault deal is expected to be announced soon and rumours have linked Petrov with being part of that but i think Lotus will stick with what they have for 2011.

Hispania Racing

Bruno Senna
Sakon Yamamoto
Christian Klien
Karun Chandhok
Jacques Villeneuve

It is hard to know what will happen with this team, let alone the drivers! All four currently with the team will likely consider the team. It may not seem a competitive option but it could be the only one available for some of them. Jacques Villeneuve missed out on getting an entry for 2011 with Durango but could yet look to buyout Hispania in order to make the grid and he would likely drive one of the cars if he was successful.

Sauber

Kamui Kobayashi
Nick Heidfeld
Pastor Maldonado
Sergio Perez
Jules Bianchi

Kamui Kobayashi has been confirmed but the other seat remains wide open. Nick Heidfeld has replaced Pedro de la Rosa for the rest of the season so will hope to do enough to keep with the team for 2011. If not, then a number of GP2 drivers, including champion Pastor Maldonado and young hopefuls Sergio Perez and Jules Bianchi could get an opportunity. It would mean a very inexperienced line up for the team, though this has not deterred Peter Sauber in the past. Ferrari link up may see Bianchi get at least a reserve driver role.

Virgin Racing

Timo Glock
Lucas di Grassi
Pastor Maldonado

John Booth recently was confident when he said that he would retain his drivers for next season. di Grassi will be happy enough with that. For Glock he would likely prefer to get a better drive but also seems positive that things will be better for the team in 2011 so the German will most likely stay on.

State of play: 5 drivers, 5 races

2010-09-14T14:43:00.003+01:00

The European season is over, five races beckon in Asia and South America and five men are embroiled in the epic which is the 2010 F1 season. The value of a race win covers them all. They have all had great moments this year but also incidents which may well be regretted come November 14th in Yas Marina. Who is best placed to take the title? Lets look at some of the factors involved as the season heads towards its finale.

Points

Mark Webber 187
Lewis Hamilton 182
Fernando Alonso 166
Jenson Button 165
Sebastian Vettel 163

Mark Webber's lead is narrow over Lewis Hamilton is narrow though the English driver's disappointment at retiring in Monza was increased by the feeling that it was McLaren's best chance outscoring Red Bull out of the remaining races. For the other three they could in theory leave Singapore in the championship lead but will more likely need non-scores from the people in the front to make big leaps. If not, it will be a case of chipping into the gap. DNF's are going to be a painful blow at this stage. Ferrari have been the most reliable this season whilst Red Bull have had races adversely effected by niggling problems. McLaren have suffered three terminal failures. An advantage for Fernando Alonso is he is the only contender in his team so basically has number one status. The other four have team mates as championship rivals so for Hamilton and Webber a gap built over their respective team mates in the next couple of races would strengthen them within their teams.

Tracks

Singapore
Japan
Korea
Brazil
Abu Dhabi

The key to guessing performance could be the effect the new load tests have had on the cars. Red Bull remain adamant that their performance loss is minimal and that when we see them race in Singapore the speed shown at circuits like Monaco and Budapest will be displayed. I believe that they still have the best car in the field though the gap has tightened. Expect them to be strongest in normal race circumstances. Singapore will be a tough test though, we seen many teams struggle with brake issues last season, including Red Bull and their sister team Toro Rosso. Japan should be a strong Red Bull track with Korea more even. They may suffer a bit at Brazil where engine power is a key asset. Abu Dhabi also has two long straights though they had a 1-2 at the track in 2009. Fernando Alonso is very quick around Singapore whilst Lewis Hamilton was flying before brake issues in Yas Marina last year. Japan and Brazil has been the scene of heavy rain before which would really put the pressure on. Yenogam in Korea also seems a rainy area.

Engines

New engines remaining
Mark Webber 2
Lewis Hamilton 1
Jenson Button 1
Sebastian Vettel 1
Fernando Alonso 0

It's advantage Webber in this area with 2 fresh units left. Of course it depends on how you've managed your allocation. Lewis Hamilton had a new engine for last weekend but it only did Saturday and one racing lap on Sunday so it is relatively fresh. Fernando Alonso is really under pressure here though, solely relying on used engines to get him through to the end of the season. This may mean less running for the Ferrari driver, especially on Friday's. For any driver who needs a 9th engine in the season, a grid penalty of 10 places will be given.

Experience

Title battles
Fernando Alonso 3
Lewis Hamilton 2
Jenson Button 1
Sebastian Vettel 1
Mark Webber 0

The Australian might be leading the championship but heads into the most pressurised stage of his career having never been in a title battle before. Sebastian Vettel finished second last season behind Jenson Button. Lewis Hamilton has experienced both sides of the coin, an agonising one point loss in 2007 before an even more dramatic victory in 2008 with the last corner pass on Timo Glock. Fernando Alonso is best equipped with the pressures that the title chase bring. He fended off Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher for his two titles before missing out narrowly in 2007.

Monza moments

2010-09-12T19:23:00.004+01:00

The start Jenson Button got a great launch and Fernando Alonso needn't have squeezed across as the McLaren already had the initiative. Alonso tagged the back of Button and then went wheel to wheel with team mate Felipe Massa. Meanwhile Lewis Hamilton was now on their tails. Going into turn 4 he had a look up the inside. He tried to stay tight on the inside but couldn't take any more kerb and made contact. The first tap was ok but the second was terminal. Hamilton's mistake though a tad unlucky to be out on the spot. Hindsight shows that more caution was required. The McLaren has escaped in a few scrapes this season though and today he didn't get away with it.

Jaime Alguersuari The Spaniard lost a point in Spa after cutting a chicane and he was at it again on lap 1. The Toro Rosso passed both Force India's by doing so and was awarded a deserved drive through penalty for gaining an advantage. Getting outperformed by Sebastien Buemi and needs some good drives to finish the season strongly.

Red Bull face difficulties Mark Webber lost 2 places off the line but worse was to follow when he ended up wide into the gravel out of turn 5 and lost another 3 places. He recovered excellently, passing Schumacher, Kubica and Hulkenberg on his way to 6th position. That gave him the championship lead but he was still frustrated, probably partly because he could have built a bigger gap over team mate Sebastian Vettel and strengthening his position in the team.

Vettel recovered from a sticky brake pedal which cost him time and a position to Webber to run all the way to the final lap before making his 1 pitstop to finish in 4th.

Strategy decides the winner Alonso had got close to Button a few times but seem to be able to keep in touch whilst keeping his tyres in check. For race leader Button, it was either pit and go for a quick outlap on the hard tyres or stay out and deliver a good in lap on used soft tyres. McLaren felt pitting first was the best option but the world champion said he had poor grip initially and Alonso put the hammer down to just edge ahead when he exited from his pitstop. The Spaniard had a pitlane time that was almost a second quicker than Button and that was probably the difference between first and second.

Nico Hulkenberg The German rode his luck today after cutting chicanes 3 times which did not improve Mark Webber's mood who was stuck behind him for a while. The Williams rookie has been quietly impressive recently, always close to experienced team mate Rubens Barrichello and has been quite consistent. It hasn't been particularly flashy like Petrov and Kobayashi but that has been partly down to good qualifying performances, meaning he hasn't found himself on a recovery drive come Sunday.

So with 5 races to go, 5 drivers remain firmly in the title hunt. This race has seen a recovery to a certain extent for all 3 contenders who failed to score in Spa. Singapore will be a totally different challenge. There we will see what sort of effect the revised load tests have had on Red Bull. The streets and dust of Singapore provide a mental and physical test with a race that will run the two hour limit close. Brakes are under pressure and mistakes are punished, its a gruelling challenge and we've already seen what it can produce in the past 2 years. Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were both on the podium last year and they will be desperate to repeat that.

Alonso and Button set up for title revival

2010-09-11T15:36:00.008+01:00

Fernando Alonso delighted the Ferrari fans, and indeed president, who had flocked to Monza with pole position today. It was only the second non Red Bull pole of the season. Jenson Button, running with the F-Duct on his McLaren, was second after putting in two strong laps in Q3. Felipe Massa was 3rd whilst title favourites Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton were 4th and 5th. A good result for the Australian after practice problems but frustration for championship leader Hamilton who ran a low downforce setup and complained about a lot of sliding in the corners. Sebastian Vettel was also unhappy after qualifying 6th, claiming his car wasn't working as well this afternoon than in practice.

Image courtesy of www.forceindiaf1.com

Ferrari have had good starts recently and will be confident of maintaining the lead. A key factor could be the man not in the title race, Felipe Massa. If he can jump ahead of Button at the start, then he can control the pack and allow Alonso to pull out a gap. Button's setup makes him vulnerable on the straight though overtaking will not be easy, it won't simply be a case of breezing past the reigning world champion. Tyre wear shouldn't be a big issue but the advanatge for Button is he should keep his tyres very well, giving him the flexibility of running a long stint on the soft tyre or stopping early and running to the end on the hard tyre. I think a one stop will be the normal strategy though i wonder if Toro Rosso would try a two stopper. They are extremely quick on the straights so i feel they should try something different from 14th and 15th on the grid, an agressive approach and one that is viable with the straight line speed they have.

Image courtesy of www.mclaren.com

For Webber, it was a case of maximising a tough weekend. He will probably feel that the top three are too quick for him and Red Bull tomorrow and will have the concerns of the poor starts that him and team mate Vettel have had recently as well as Hamilton attacking on the opening lap. Hamilton felt the setup choice was wrong after qualifying but he can still recover tomorrow. He seemed to stay close to Webber as he began his final lap. Perhaps he wanted to pick up some slipstream but a slide into turn 1 indicated he may have been affected by some turbulence. For Vettel, he may need some dramas ahead or he could well leave Italy 5th in the championship with 5 races to go

It could be a grand prix that sees the title battle squeezed back closer again. It should be another sunny and dry day and will hopefully be another fascinating grand prix. Race start is 1pm.

The championship battle away from the top

2010-09-08T11:31:00.004+01:00

Red Bull and McLaren are separated by just 1 point in an epic battle for the championship this season while their drivers and Fernando Alonso are locked in their own title fight. Yet there is one fight away from the spotlight which carries its own intrigue involving Lotus, Virgin and HRT. Yes they all haven't scored this season but there is still something to fight for.

Let me explain, if teams or drivers find themselves equal on points then countback decides who is ahead. This usually means who has won the most races. However countback keeps going down the positions until it separates the positions in the standings. Lotus find themselves best of the new teams in 10th after a best finish of 13th in Australia whilst HRT's 14th in Monaco means Virgin Racing are rooted to the bottom of the championship.

This is important for all the teams as it is the team standings that decide the prize money awarded at the end of each season. There is also plenty of competitive edge between the new teams as well as the rivalry between airline CEO's Tony Fernandes and Richard Branson. So can Lotus maintain hold off their rivals and achieve their main objective of 2010? Lets look at the remaining races which may act as both opportunities and threats.

Monza this weekend is set to be sunny and dry so really it will be hard for either HRT or Virgin to get the minimum of 12th place required to move forward in the championship. The only factor would be the potential of chaos at the chicane on lap 1 but apart from that it will be very unlikely.

Singapore could well present a decent chance. It is a very long race, the 2009 event was over 116 minutes long, and has proved quite an attrition event. The safety car has appeared 3 times in 2 races there so is another factor. Rain has never occurred during 6 days of F1 action at the venue but when it rains in Singapore it can be very heavy so on a street circuit under lights this would be quite a challenge for all the teams. Certainly a chance for a surprise result here.

The Asian races in Japan and Korea should be both normalised though Japan has had some horrible weather in the past and Korea seems to be taking a heavy hit from storms recently. Then we come to Brazil which will probably be the last realistic chance to get points in 2010. Again it will require a Sao Paulo storm but as we seen in 2003 Jordan won with Giancarlo Fisichella anything is possible. Abu Dhabi will be the most unlikely with dry weather almost guaranteed and a nice open circuit making incidents a low possibility.

I think the new teams have done ok in the circumstances, what it has shown is that coming in as a new entry is not easy and yesterdays FIA decision that none of the new applicants for 2011 were accepted shows that even the governing body have realised that it takes a lot of resources and finances to be competitive in the sport. Lotus will be keen to be fighting in midfield come next season and Virgin will hope for more consistency. HRT have a more muddled outlook. With both Epsilon Euskadi and Jaqcues Villeneuve still looking for a way into F1, there may yet be a merger or buyout involving the Spanish team.

So as you follow the twists and turns of the title battle or on the edge of your seat as a crazy race unfolds keep an eye on the new guys because even a 12th position could yet prove significant

Spa: step by step

2010-08-30T12:52:00.005+01:00

It was a thrilling, frantic and at times confusing Belgian Grand Prix as the 2010 season continued to deliver lots of dramatic action. Lets try and piece everything together...

The Start: First up, a few people were wondering about Felipe Massa after he apparently overshot his box. It seems that you can get away with this. Mark Webber did something similiar in Bahrain without penalty. What i do know is that the sensors for picking up jump starts are able to track cars even if they are not in the perfect position. For Webber it was a shocking start and he was quite lucky that he got going to be about 5th into turn 1 because he could have got caught in the midfield and that would have hurt his race even more. Meanwhile i was very impressed with Jenson Button and Robert Kubica who avoided contact at La Source and kept it clean just like the pair had done in Valencia. The top 4 stayed the same up to Les Combes but the slipstreaming between the cars was an spectatular sight

Rain (part 1): As the cars worked there way round to sector 3, Button was looking to pass Kubica but as he made his move at the bus stop they both followed Hamilton in goign straight on as the rain began to fall. Rubens Barrichello had a early finish to his 300th race, hitting Alonso hard. The Spaniard recovered to the pits and put on intermediate tyres. However the safety car came out on lap 2 so most drivers stayed out as they could survive the rainy spell at reduced speed. Alonso should have pitted on lap 2 but didn't and still stayed out on lap 3 even when it had stopped raining. Poor call from the Ferrari team.

Kubica/Vettel: As the drivers struggled up the hill, Kubica ran wide. Button passed and then Vettel tried but ran onto the grass. There was enough space for him though and Kubica moved when he seen him so the stewards took no action.

Vettel/Button: My take on this is that as Vettel got up behind Button he didn't wnat to go on the outside as he felt he wuldn't get past that way. He holds to the inside but Button covers it. What Vettel is hoping is that as they approach the braking zone Button will shift towards the racing line but he waits too long. What he should have done is either commit to the outside or duck left in the hope Button would try and squeeze him and dummy back accross up the inside. He got it all wrong and deserved his drive through penalty. Costly day for both drivers.

Rain (part 2): As the showers rolled in again the top 3 stayed out as it got tricky and Hamitlon survived a near miss with the barriers. I can understand Webber staying out with the McLaren as he has the championship to think about. Kubica maybe could have gambled more, he would have put his podium on the line but it may have got him a race victory. It was a tight call at the time though and one which is much easier with hindsight. On intermediates, Fernando Alonso dropped it as his ragged season continued. A title blow for him as well and with the WMSC hearing to come he could suffer more pain. I do feel he will keep his 25 points form Hockenheim though.

Jarno Trulli: The Italian will require new overalls after spinning at Pouhon amongst the pack...

Alguersuari/Liuzzi: The FOM director spent lap 42 watching these 2 battle away but cut away before the run to the Bus Stop chicane. When he did the Spaniard was ahead but cut the chicane and was deemed to have gained an advantage, meaning he lost a point which went to the Force India driver.

Pedro de la Rosa: Getting from last to 10th was a good effort. Dropping it with 3 laps to go wasn't. Peter Sauber unimpressed and the Spaniard under pressure.

This could yet be a massive turning point in the championship with 3 of the 5 contenders failing to score but it isn't over for Messers Alonso, Vettel and Button. They will all strong scores in Monza though. If the gap gets to the 50 point mark then that equates to two wins and i think then it becomes too much especially as you may need four guys in front of you to have bad run ins.

The feeling amongst some is that the Red Bull front wing is not the same but i think it was not as effective in a low downforce configuration. I feel it will be the Monza floor tests that may force more of a change and the results will be more evident in Singapore and Sukuza. I also think that McLaren have put their attention on the blown diffuser and have improved the workings of it. They have also sussed the overrun on the gases with the retarded ignition i believe. This could prove a key improvement at this stage of the season. With that and a revised front wing for Red Bull, McLaren could yet have enough pace to give Hamilton the opportunity to fight at all tracks for wins and could prove to be enough.

Credit to Webber as well. Vettel is young and quick but has failed to learn lessons. However the Australian stayed calm yesterday when it went wrong off the line unlike the panic of Valencia. He kept his cool and to score 18 points was a huge result. It wasn't a flat out display of speed but nonetheless was gritty and determined from the 34 year old.

Six races to go and Button and Alonso need big points now. The reigning world champion was an innocent victim yesterday but now finds himself with a decent sized gap to make up, against a team mate driving superbly.

What to watch out for on Raceday

2010-08-28T21:41:00.003+01:00

The Weather: We'll start with the obvious. After all 4 sessions being affected by rain, the teams will have to be on high alert with their rain radars and the sky above as they try and keep tabs on any showers which may break out during the race. Tyre choice will be critical and a lot of tyre have been used up already.

La Source: 23 cars scrambling towards this tight corner should provide much activity and with all the drivers warned about taking to the run off area on the outside it may well get too tight for some...

Overtaking: Once the first corner drama has passed and depending on the order, get your eyes set to see who takes Eau Rouge well. Mark Webber is in a car which weakness is straight line speed and running on a full tank of fuel. Lewis Hamilton will want to utilise his F-Duct and make a move on the Australian. Robert Kubica is also flying on the straights and will be on the attack. Sebastian Vettel may need to beaware of Jenson Button as well.

Setups: It appears that Fernando Alonso's sluggish ace today was due to opting for a wet setup. A risk certainly if rain fails to materalise. We seen how this tactic can pay dividends in Brazil last year so Alonso, along with the Toro Rosso drivers will hope to wake up and hear the rain in the morning.

Drivers on a mission: Vitaly Petrov's qualifying lasted less than a la and was a mistake which could prove costly as his future remains in the balance. He desperately needs a strong drive tomorrow. He is helped that he can start from the pits and have free reign on setup and tyres as well as the F-Duct so watch put for him moving through the field. The Saubers and Mercedes will also be looking for progress as they find themselves behind the likes of the Lotus team.

It was a thrilling qualifying and should be an enjoyable race. Start time is 1PM UK time. Check out http://twitter.com/cmckinleyF1 for updates and views during the race

Race Rewind: Spa 1998

2010-08-26T10:56:00.006+01:00

With crashes, controversy, rain and death threats, the 1998 Belgium Grand Prix was one of the most memorable in history...

The weekend began with Jacques Villeneuve having a huge accident at Eau Rouge on Friday before Mika Salo followed suit in Saturday practice. Despite this, both men were ok to race. Championship leader Mika Hakkinen took pole position. The Finn was having his best season to date and was up against two time champion Michael Schumacher who qualified 4th and also had a qualifying time deleted because he failed to slow under yellow flags. Damon Hill impressed with third position.

The Grid:

1 Mika Hakkinen
2 David Coulthard
3 Damon Hill
4 Michael Schumacher
5 Eddie Irvine
6 Jacques Villeneuve
7 Giancarlo Fisichella
8 Ralf Schumacher
9 Heinz-Harald Frentzen
10 Jean Alesi
11 Alexander Wurz
12 Johnny Herbert
13 Jarno Trulli
14 Rubens Barrichello
15 Olivier Panis
16 Pedro Diniz
17 Jos Verstappen
18 Mika Salo
19 Toranosuke Takagi
20 Ricardo Rosset
21 Shinji Nakano
22 Esteban Tuero

Race day dawned wet, cold and misty and it was not for shifting. Before the start the officials had to decide whether to start the race behind the safety car like in 1997 but they opted against this. The track was wet but the bigger issue was visibility. Pole sitter Hakkinen made a good start while Villeneuve swept around the outside of La Source into second. What followed was carnage.

David Coulthard dropped his car on the exit and slid across the track. He was hit several times before coming to rest back on the side of the track where he began to lose it. The Scottish driver later revealed that his accident was caused by hitting a metal grille. With so much spray cars behind didn't slow and just kept colliding at high speed, spreading debris far and high. It was such a lucky escape for drivers, spectators and marshalls. Only Rubens Barichello and Eddie Irvine suffered minor injuries.

The race was stopped and the clear up operation took nearly an hour. Some teams had both cars damaged and with only one spare car available, some people had to miss the restart. Barrichello, Salo, Rosset and Panis were now all out. For the other drivers it was a lengthy wait as they tried to remain focused and calm on the job ahead.

The second start saw Damon Hill make a brilliant start to lead. Hakkinen was squeezed to the inside and on the exit made slight contact with rival Schumacher before he was clouted by Johnny Herbert. Both men were out on the spot and the safety car deployed. When the race resumed, Hill was on the defensive from Schumacher. The German eventually made his move into the Bus Stop chicane and began to pull away. Behind cars were sliding off all over the place. Eddie Irvine lost his front wing at Les Combes while Jacques Villeneuve aquaplaned off approaching Kemmel straight as the rain got heavier. This seen the drivers take to the pits for the full wet tyres.

Schumacher now had a comfortable lead of almost 30 seconds but what really surprised me when watching the race back was how hard he continued to push. Lapping Pedro Diniz almost resulted in contact and as he approached the McLaren of Coulthard he was gesturing for him to get out of the way, a move you'd expect from someone struggling or battling for position rather than someone comfortably leading the race. As the drivers went downhill towards Pouhon Coulthard lifted but stayed on the racing line. Schumacher was caught out in the spray and smashed into the back of the McLaren.

Things didn't finish there. Both men dragged their damaged cars back to the pits. Schumacher was enraged at seeing a potential championship lead slip away and went to the McLaren garage to confront Coulthard. The German had to be dragged away by team personnel, including Jean Todt who had spoke to Ron Dennis seconds before the incident. Coulthard would later admit that he should have got off the racing line. More drama would follow when Giancarlo Fisichella had a huge impact into the rear of Shinji Nakano in a collision which brought out the safety car. Many drivers, including new race leader Hill took the opportunity to make their final stops.

Jordan were now 1-2 and looking set for a maiden victory in Formula 1. As the safety car pitted and the final phase of the race began there were only 8 cars running. Behind the Jordan cars were Jean Alesi, Heinz Harald Frentzen, Pedro Diniz and Jarno Trulli. Meanwhile Coulthard and Nakano had both got new rear wings and rejoined the track, albeit many laps down. Jordan had the pace to hold off Alesi but he was close behind and at this stage of the race it was Ralf Schumacher who was the faster Jordan. Hill recognised this and in a move that was revealed years after the race pleaded with Eddie Jordan to use team orders and tell Schumacher to hold station. The message was given to Ralf who was asked to reply. Only after several attempts did he finally conform to the teams instruction.

The pair stayed close. Meanwhile Trulli was limping home with a sick engine. His slow speed almost caught out Hill when he lapped the Prost coming through Eau Rouge. However the Englishman would go on to take what would prove to be his final win in the sport in what was arguably the finest moment in the history of the Jordan team. Ralf Schumacher took second place but was clearly frustrated at being held back from taking a first win. Alesi gave Sauber a joyful podium in third.

The championship battle would go to the wire but Mika Hakkinen would take his first title in Japan after Schumacher stalled on the grid before suffering a puncture. Jordan would build upon their strong finish to 1998 with two wins in 1999 courtesy of Frentzen who moved from Williams to the team. Hill would retire at the end of 1999.

Passion undiminished for Barrichello as he reaches landmark

2010-08-23T15:45:00.004+01:00

When Rubens Barrichello lines up on the grid on Sunday afternoon in Belgium, he will become the first driver to compete in 300 races. 11 wins and 68 podiums are great achievements for the Brazilian but do not tell the tale of a career that started in South Africa in 1993 and continues 17 years on. To be competitive in Formula 1 is a massive challenge but to have the skill, energy, determination and passion to maintain that high level is very impressive.

It all began in 1993 when Barrichello joined the Jordan team and found himself up against the likes of Martin Brundle, Ricardo Patrese and Alain Prost. When i mention Donnington 1993 most F1 fans will instantly think of Ayrton Senna's stunning first lap and win in damp conditions and rightly so. However this was also the occasion when Barrichello would first show his ability. He started 12th but made several passes to be 4th by the end of the first lap. Mixing it with the Williams of Prost and Damon Hill he was set for a podium until a fuel pressure problem. Unreliability would be the story of his debut season but points were finally scored in Japan. 1994 dawned with points in his homeland and a podium in Aida but then a horrific accident on that black weekend in Imola saw him need life saving treatment after his tongue blocked his airways.

He survived and also had to deal with the loss of his hero Ayrton Senna. He would return and even take pole positon in a weather affected session at Spa. The highlight of 1995 would be second in Montreal though engine failure robbed him of a third place on the final lap in Budapest. 1996 seen 14 points collected but things with Eddie Jordan had soured and BarrichelLo decided to look for a new team

He joined a brand new outfit in the form of Stewart Grand Prix run by ex world champion Jackie Stewart. Only 3 finishes were recorded in 1997 but one of these was a memorable 2nd at a soaked Monte Carlo. 1998 was another year of poor results. This was a frustrating time for Barrichello. At this stage of his career he had established himself as a good driver and regularly defeated his team mates. 1999 was an improved showing for Stewart and there was 3 podiums to celebrate. Other highlights included leading in Brazil and pole position in France. This was a great display of Rubens experience and knowledge. The 60 minute session started wet and most teams were waiting for conditions to improve. Barrichello wanted to go out and get a lap in but his engineer refuted his request. Two cars set times and Barrichello demanded that he get out and do a flying lap. He took provisional pole and as the session continued the weather remained wet and his time stood unbeaten. Shrewd thinking had done the job.

Perhaps this was one of the reasons that Ferrari principal Jean Todt came knocking. The dream move was on and Barrichello was on his way to Maranello to partner Michael Schumacher. He was up against arguably the best driver in the field but now had the machinery to compete for victories. The glory moment came at Hockenheim when staying out on dry tyres in mixed conditions. The emotion of it all poured out on the slow down lap

He finished the season 4th and helped Ferrari to the constructors championship. However this role of support act within the team would play out in 2 successive races in Austria when he moved over for his team mate. Particularly controversial was the 2002 race. Barrichello had dominated practice and qualifying and held the edge over Schumacher, who had a comfortable lead in the championship, all weekend. On the final lap he was ordered to slow and let Schumacher through. Even recently, the Brazilian has insisted that he did not go to Ferrari with the agreement that he would be the number 2 driver in the team

The next two seasons yielded four more victories, including victory at Monza and a stunning drive at Silverstone though car problems robbed him of home glory in Sao Paulo. After a sluggish 2005 for him and the team in general he moved to Honda to partner Jenson Button. He struggled at the start of 2006 to get to grips with the car but eventually gained pace and had a best finish of 4th. The next 2 seasons were pretty miserable as 2007 seen his only pointless season and 2008 wasn't much better as 6th in Melbourne was wiped out by a disqualification though in the rain of Silverstone he scored a brilliant 3rd after switching to the extreme wet tyres.

Now you would think after a couple of years like that the passion for racing would be dwindling but Rubens was determined to retain his seat for 2009 and was open in expressing this desire. Then came the shock pullout by Honda. Rubens career was up in the air but after Ross Brawn saved the team he decided to plump for him over the inexperienced Bruno Senna. All of a sudden he had another season and a car capable of winning.

Race day in Budapest. Barrichello has his good friend Felipe Massa critically ill in a hospital. He has qualified down the order and finishes outside the points. Despite having the best car in the field, no races have been won and his championship hopes look faint. The head is hanging low. I'll be honest, i really felt on that afternoon that Rubens was demoralised and that he would hang his helmet up at the end of the season. I couldn't have got it more wrong!

He took a well acclaimed win at the next round in Valencia and followed it up with another victory in Monza. He couldn't wrestle the title from team mate Button but played his part in Brawn winning the constructors championship. Following the close of the season, Williams announced that Barrichello was joining them, meaning a 18th year in Formula 1. They struggled at first but things have improved and Williams have spoken very highly of Barrichello. Many felt rookie Nico Hulkenberg would finish off his career but Rubens has held his own and a contract renewal is seen as almost certain.

Rubens Barrichello is a skilled and fast driver. However what has impressed me is his passion. He loves Formula 1, he loves to get up and race. To carry that for so long is an inspiration and shows that drivers can have long careers like him. We have seen youth picked a lot recently in the likes of Jaime Alguersuari, Sebastian Vettel and Lucas di Grassi.

Barrichello though continues to deliver results and is driving as well as ever. His enthusiasm was shown on British TV recently when he appeared on Top Gear and beat the presenter 'The Stig' around the test track, a feat that Jenson Button, Mark Webber and other F1 stars have failed to acheive. When he wakes up on Sunday, he will be determined as ever to do the best he can, driving to the limit. I've mentioned his wet weather skills a few times and with the forecast for Belgium the way it is, you just don't know what magic Rubinho could conjure up for race 300 and beyond...

Webber seizes opportunity on day of milestones

2010-08-01T20:12:00.005+01:00

A fifth of the way in to today's 25th Hungarian Grand Prix and things were looking set for a relatively calm race. Sebastian Vettel had maintained the lead from pole position and had a twelve second lead. Fernando Alonso was second and Mark Webber was biding his time in third. Then a piece of debris on turn 11 transformed things. The safety car was deployed and the pit crews were on the move.

Vettel made a late entry in whilst team mate Webber elected to stay out. Lewis Hamilton took advantage of a slight delay for Felipe Massa to take 4th but chaos would then begin to ensue. Nico Rosberg didn't have his right rear tyre attached properly and it rolled through the Sauber box before being launched 20 feet, almost into the spectator area above the pits before hitting a Williams mechanic. He was taken to the medical centre but returned later and even took part in Rubens Barrichello's pitstop later in the race! Meanwhile Renault released Robert Kubica as Adrian Sutil was pulling into the next box and the pair collided. The Pole received a stop/go penalty and retired soon after. Both Mercedes and Renault were fined $50,000.

Webber now led from Vettel but the German was having some radio issues and seemed to allow his focus to drop. He didn't stay close to Webber during the safety car period and when the restart was happening Vettel appeared unaware and claimed afterward that he had no radio message alerting him and didn't see the lights go out on the safety car. His lack of awareness and Webber's eagerness to get a gap pulled to jump Alonso meant he was over 100 metres behind. Cars must stay within 10 car lengths and Vettel soon had a drive through. He served it whilst gesturing furiously, confused as to why he had been penalised. He lost a position to Alonso but was still 3rd.

The race for victory was now on. Webber had been off the pace through Friday and Saturday, not entirely happy with his car and a bit scrappy. The opportunity to take a 4th win of the season enlivened the Australian and he put in a stunning stint of driving, opening up a 22 second gap to pit and maintain a lead. He had took full advantage of the window of opportunity presented to him. Vettel was right behind Alonso but still a bit frustrated. Alonso was excellent, consistent and navigated the traffic superbly.

Lewis Hamilton meanwhile was out of the race after losing drive. He'll hope that he won't need a gearbox change for Spa or else he'll face a 5 place grid drop. The remaining points scorers were well behind but it was excellent results for Vitaly Petrov and Nico Hulkenberg in 5th and 6th. Sauber celebrated their 300th grand prix with a double points finish. Pedro de la Rosa got off the mark this season with 7th whilst Kamui Kobayashi came from the back row to finish 9th behind Jenson Button who recovered from a poor start. He was helped by an early stop before the safety car was deployed.

Rubens Barrichello was 10th after a different strategy. The Brazilian ran long on the hard tyre, not pitting until the last 15 laps. He emerged 11th behind former team mate Michael Schumacher. He set after the Mercedes on his fresh rubber and had a couple of close attempts. With 5 laps left he was finally close enough. Schumacher moved right but Barrichello went down the inside towards turn 1. Schumacher kept squeezing and shoved Barrichello within centimetres of the concrete wall. The Brazilian bravely kept his foot in and even took to the grass to make the move stick. Schumacher was widely criticised but the German defended his actions. The stewards disagreed and Schumacher has been given a 10 place grid drop for Belgium in 4 weeks.

Webber's 6th career win in his 150th race gives him the championship lead. Fernando Alonso remains 5th but is within 20 points. It is simply incredibly close. Red Bull celebrated their 100th grand prix with a 12th win and now lead the constructors championship. They will be frustrated that their massive car advantage was not turned into a 1-2. This advantage could be cut in Spa however as the FIA are to increase the loads that are applied in front wing tests. This may mean that Red Bull will have to make alterations to their front wing at the loss of performance.

Adrian Newey will be hard at work to get round this. The teams will have to take an enforced two week break though at some stage in the month. Belgium will offer a different challenge and McLaren will be desperate to turnaround their fortunes after a lacklustre weekend. Red Bull are back on top but Alonso is on the prowl. It's a long break for the fans but the championship is set up beautifully for a sensational finale.

Vettel dominates as rookies shine

2010-07-31T21:15:00.005+01:00

Red Bull were in their own battle for pole position today and Sebastian Vettel was supreme. He took pole position with ease with Mark Webber 4 tenths down in 2nd. The Australian was still three quarters of a second clear of Fernando Alonso. I think a good way of expressing the dominance Red Bull had is the reaction of BBC commentator during Q2 when he realised that Webber was upshifting through the challenging turn 11 whereas everybody else was downshifting. Felipe Massa was 4th and championship leader Lewis Hamilton was 5th. It was not so great for his team mate Jenson Button who went out in Q2 and will start 11th. He complained that he couldn't find a good balance in his car.

Pedro de la Rosa had a brilliant session, coming 8th on a twisty track with the longest wheelbase on the grid was a great effort from the Spaniard who had a personal best result of 2nd here in 2006. It was not such a good day for Kamui Kobayashi. He has showed glimpses of brilliance this season but a third Q1 exit of the season was not one of them. He was held up by Bruuno Senna on his last lap. Two other rookies though put in very impressive performances. Vitaly Petrov outqualified Robert Kubica as the two Eastern European drivers filled the 4th row. What the Russian nears to do is translate this excellent Saturday into good points tomorrow. Failure to do so puts his seat for 2011 in more jeopardy. Nico Hulkenberg pulled out a late flyer to make Q3 and qualify 10th, two places ahead of Rubens Barrichello.

McLaren and Mercedes asked for a clarification on the flexible front wings on the Red Bull and Ferrari cars after qualifying and the FIA have been examining them. They could deem them illegal but this is unlikely. What may happen is the tests applied to the wings are altered so that any loopholes being exposed are closed off. More information may emerge in the morning. The key really for the Red Bull drivers is the start. Vettel will want a smooth getaway after poor starts at Silverstone and Hockenheim. Webber will be concerned that on the dirty side of the grid he could be under threat from Alonso. If they can maintain a 1-2 then it should be comfortable for them. Their race pace isn't at the same level as their qualifying pace but they'll have more than enough to win. The Hungaroring can bite though, 70 laps int he heat could yet yield some unexpected drama. Just ask Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa from 2008. Race start is at 1pm BST

Red Bull flex their muscles

2010-07-30T15:27:00.004+01:00

It was a clear and sunny day in Budapest and the picture on the track was pretty easy to see as well. After the blip of being outpaced by Ferrari five days ago, Red Bull dominated the practice running with Sebastian Vettel finishing the afternoon half a second clear of Fernando Alonso. Indeed the Spaniard and Ferrari look to the only challengers to Vettel and Mark Webber. McLaren were well off the pace and seem to have Renault for company. There was plenty of support for Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov in this 'Eastern European' grand prix and both men were quick as the twisty nature of the Hungaroring seem to suit the short wheel base of the R30.

Another prevalent issue is traffic. It was seen last weekend in the battle between the Ferrari's. Although the lap here is about six seconds longer than Germany, the flowing nature of the circuit means it can be hard for slow cars to get out of the way immediately when caught in a sequence of corners. We could well see some controversy on Sunday regarding that. Concrete on the outside of kerbs was also an issue. Charlie Whiting examined the final corner between sessions and Fernando Alonso also lifted a chunk with his diffuser at turn 9.

The main technical innovation under scrutiny is the flexible front wing which Ferrari and Red Bull. All wings are tested by the FIA with load tests and have to be within a certain threshold or are else deemed illegal. It seems that the two teams have created a wing that can flex but work in such a way that passes the FIA tests. Analysis on the practice coverage earlier showed how the Red Bull front wing was dropping really low on the straight, even seemingly scraping the ground. The Ferrari wing was also dropping but not as much whereas the McLaren wing was maintaining its position. They will be desperate to implement it on their car soon but it will take more than this component alone to bridge the gap to Red Bull, who look very strong for a victorious Sunday

Race Rewind: Budapest 2006

2010-07-29T10:08:00.006+01:00

It was a drama filled weekend in Budapest in 2006 with penalties, rain and a new winner in the sport...

The 2006 season had become a battle between two teams, Renault and Ferrari, and more potently a battle between Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher. The Spaniard had started the season the way he finished 2005 with early season wins and podiums to build a big championship lead but Schumacher had started to lead a Ferrari revival and he arrived at Hungary 11 points behind the reigning world champion.

The title battle would already begin to develop during Friday practice. Alonso was held up coming out of the final corner by Robert Doornbos, who was getting a run out in the Red Bull. He overtook down the straight and approaching turn 1 brake tested the Dutch driver, who only just avoided a collison. Alonso was called in to the stewards office and penalised him for this and for another incident where he overtook another car through a yellow flag zone. The stewards awarded an unusual penalty, a two second penalty which would be added to each time that the Spaniard set during qualifying.

On a track like the Hungaroring this was a massive blow to Alonso's chances of a big points haul. More pre-qualifying drama was to follow. A red flag on Saturday morning after an engine failure for Jenson Button, which would mean a ten place grid penalty, meant all the cars returned to the pits. Alonso was returning pretty slowly and had debutant Robert Kubica right behind him. Coming into the penultimate corner, Schumacher passed both. Alonso was straight on the radio, relaying what had happened and making a case for a penalty. The stewards agreed and Schumacher was also given a two second penalty for qualifying.

Kimi Raikkonen took pole position for McLaren and was joined on the front row by Felipe Massa. Schumacher and Alonso took 12th and 15th respectively

The Grid

1. Raikkonen
2. Massa
3. Barrichello
4. de la Rosa
5. Webber
6. R Schumacher
7. Fisichella
8. Trulli
9. Kubica
10. Heidfeld
11. M Schumacher
12. Coulthard
13. Klien*
14. Button
15. Alonso
16. Monteiro
17. Liuzzi
18. Rosberg
19. Speed
20. Sato
21. Yamamoto
22. Albers

*Klien started from the pitlane

Raceday dawned wet and murky. Conditions were tricky and Pedro de la Rosa showed that by spinning on the parade lap. He did recover though. At the start Raikkonen held the lead while Barrichello took second, using a wide line through turn 1 which yielded more grip. Schumacher had an incredible start, exiting turn 1 in 6th but Alonso was also battling hard. Several moves on the opening laps took him to 6th and he then passed Schumacher around the outside of turn 5. The Renault was on Michelin tyres and they were working better in the conditions than the Bridgestone tyres which were on the Ferrari. Jenson Button was also making his way through the field and soon passed the struggling German. Meanwhile de la Rosa passed Barrichello to make it a McLaren 1-2

Things got worse for Schumacher when he slide into the rear of Giancarlo Fisichella and damaged the front wing. The Italian crashed out of the race soon after, along with Christian Klien and Robert Kubica, though the Polish driver recovered to the pits and changed the front nose of the car. A bigger crash would follow on lap 26 when Raikkonen ran into the back of Vitantonio Liuzzi whilst trying to lap the Toro Rosso. It was a big impact and put both men out. The safety car was also deployed. In the restart, Schumacher had a spin while Alonso pulled out a big lead. Button started to pull back towards Alonso as the track started to dry. Button decided to short fuel at his stop and keep his tyres on. This was a good decision as it was too soon for dry tyres whilst dark clouds were still looming.

Alonso was now in for his final stop and put the dry tyres on. As he emerged back on track he struggled to slow down for the first corner. It seem he was just getting the tyres up to temperature but into the next corner a wheel nut bounced off the car and a driveshaft failure pitched him into the barriers. Button now had a commanding lead and Schumacher was now second as he had stayed out on his intermediate tyres whilst de la Rosa and Heidfeld were on dry tyres. The McLaren was all over Schumacher and after several attempts he finally squeezed through. Heidfeld was next and there was slight contact. Schumacher had damage to his right front suspension ansd with only three laps to go was out. It was a major missed opprtunity. Ross Brawn would admit after the season that in hindsight he should have advised the German to bag some points and take less risks.

It was a brilliant race for the top three. Button took his first victory for himself and Honda whilst de la Rosa took his best ever result. Heidfeld came 3rd and gave BMW-Sauber their first ever podium finish. Robert Kubica came 7th on his debut but was later disqualified as his car was two kilograms underweight, believed to be because he finished on extremely worn tyres. This promoted Schumacher to 8th as he was classified 9th after his late retirement and meant he gained one point on Alonso in the championship battle.

The two men would continue to battle hard in a championship that had many twists. Schumacher announced in Monza that he would be retiring and took the championship lead in China. However, engine failure in Japan meant Alonso only needed a point in Brazil and he took second position to take a second consecutive world championship

Looking back at team orders

2010-07-27T17:40:00.005+01:00

Some people having been asking me about team orders that have occurred in the past so lets take a brief look back at some famous instances in the past...

San Marino 1982 - A boycott by some teams left the field depleted and after both Renault cars retired, Ferrari had a 1-2 with Giles Villeneuve and Didier Pironi and were well clear of the pack so Ferrari ordered their drivers to slow and take it easy. Villeneuve seen this as an order to hold station. Pironi though passed the Canadian but the lead soon changed hands again. Villeneuve thought that the Italian was putting on a show but when Pironi nipped by on the last lap and took the victory, Villeneuve was seething and was irate with his team mate. Tragically he would be killed two weeks later at Zolder.

Melbourne 1998 - McLaren arrived at the opening round of the 1998 season with a car that was much quicker than any other team. They locked out the front row on Saturday and the race was their own to lose. It was decided that whichever driver made the first corner first would be allowed to take the win unchallenged and that both Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard could run a controlled pace as the team feared unreliability would scupper their hopes if they pushed to the limit. Hakkinen maintained the lead from pole and looked set for a win. However on lap 36 he entered the pits after he misunderstood a radio message (which was later alleged to be interference from a third party) and lost the lead. Coulthard was made aware about the error and with 3 laps to go slowed and allowed the Finnish driver to take the win.

Singapore 2008 - After a poor season, Renault look to have good pace for the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix but a fuel pump issue in Q2 leaves Fernando Alonso in 15th position. Pat Symonds and Nelson Piquet agree that the Brazilian will crash soon after an early stop for Alonso, taking advantage of the pitlane being closed when a safety car is deployed. Piquet crashed his car and Alonso took the victory before the scandal was exposed almost a year later after Piquet was sacked by Renault.

Ferrari under fire in switch furore

2010-07-26T17:32:00.006+01:00

It was a grand prix that had one main talking point. Felipe Massa slowing out of turn 4 and allowing team mate Fernando Alonso to take the lead and ultimately the victory. It was a move that ignited a lot of anger amongst fans who felt that they had been robbed of a true battle for the race. Team orders have been banned in Formula 1 since 2002 when Rubens Barrichello was ordered to let Michael Schumacher through for the win which he did metres from the finishing line. Ferrari had to do this swap. Alonso title chances remain feasible whilst Massa is well out of the picture. In a sense his poor season, including no points before yesterday since Turkey, cost him the chance to take the victory.

It was a shame for the Brazilian, one year to the day since the life threatening incident in Budapest, that he could not have taken a victory which would have been such a happy moment for him and for F1 in general. He was a dejected figure behind and he now faces the prospect of being a support act to the Spaniard for this season and perhaps for the next two seasons. We have seen instances of drivers swapping in recent seasons. Heikki Kovalainen let Lewis Hamilton through by braking early into hairpins at Magny-Cours and Hockenheim in 2008 which certainly came across better. Massa himself benefited when Kimi Raikkonen lifted for him in Shanghai in the same season. This did not cause much uproar however as the Finnish driver had no chance of winning the title and Massa was locked in a close battle with Lewis Hamilton for the championship.

Ferrari did what was best for their interests but it was the way it was done which didn't help their cause. Of course with radio transmissions now open it can lead to more revealing conversations. Massa came out of the hairpin and basically didn't accelerate and Alonso was able to sail by. The Brazilian made sure that the switch was as clear as possible. Had Alonso passed him under braking into a corner it would have made it look like a realistic overtake.

Now we don't hear all the radio transmissions so the complete picture is not clear and perhaps we will hear more snippets from FOM later this week but lets analyse what was heard

First of all, we had Alonso on the radio soon after he had briefly passed Massa before he lost the position. He said 'This is ridiculous' Clearly he felt he was the faster driver and should be allowed to take the lead.

Soon after, Massa had pulled out a 3 second gap. Rob Smedley came on the radio and had a strong message for his driver 'You have to give this everything, concentrate, keep this going and you can win' This suggests that Smedley felt that the only way Massa could win the race was if he pulled out a big gap to his team mate or else he would have to give way

Alonso began to close in and then came the message which seem to decide the race. Smedley came back on the radio and said slowly and clearly to Massa 'Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm that you understood that message' There was no reply broadcast.

Two laps later and the move came. Soon after Smedley told Massa 'Ok mate, good lad, just stick with him now. Sorry' This wasn't Smedley's decision, it probably was Stefano Domenicali or Chris Dyer who made the call but the Englishman had to be the messenger and i'm sure that wasn't easy.

This is different to what occurred in Austria in a couple of ways. Firstly, 2002 was legal and 2010 wasn't. However, 2010 was a move that Ferrari had to do but 2002 wasn't. We weren't halfway through the season, Schumacher had a big lead and Barrichello was actually one of his main competitors. Once the Brazilian had to concede the win it was clear that competition at the front would be very minimal for that season. Perhaps now team orders will have to be allowed. It was brought in after the circumstances of the Schumacher years where he always had the number one status. Let us be thankful for some of the good inter team battles that have been witnessed this season.

The World Motorsport Council will meet to decide whether Ferrari should face further punishment and remember this is where McLaren nearly got expelled from the 2007 season so don't rule out heavy sanctions. I don't expect any worse than loss of team points or a suspended sentence. We'll not know to August at the earliest. Amongst the furore, Ferrari showed strong speed all the way through the weekend and Alonso is now in the championship battle and unlike his four other rivals, he is the only man in his team gunning for the title.

Vettel staves off improved Ferrari's

2010-07-24T17:55:00.014+01:00

The German crowd were delighted this afternoon as Sebastian Vettel took his 3rd consecutive pole position. He had a big fight on his hand but it wasn't from usual suspect Mark Webber as the Australian had a poor Q3 with a scruffy first lap and then running wide at turn 1 on his final lap. He will start 4th. Instead it was Fernando Alonso who was just two thousandths of a second away from Ferrari's first pole position since the final race of 2008. Felipe Massa, who took that pole, will line up 3rd though he was half a second off his Spanish team mate. McLaren were not in the hunt, Jenson Button edging out Lewis Hamilton by a tenth and both men will occupy the third row of the grid. Robert Kubica was 7th, impressive as the Renault still has no F-Duct. Rubens Barrichello was 8th and is still beaming after his exploits on the TV show Top Gear. Nico Hulkenberg joins Nico Rosberg on row 5 with Michael Schumacher 11th after missing Q3 by 8 thousandths of a second

It was a bad day for Force India. After early promise this weekend, it was a Saturday that started badly and got worse. Adrian Sutil needed a new gearbox after a driveshaft problem in morning practice so was already on the backfoot with no qualifying setup work and a five place penalty. This showed as the local driver struggled with rear end stability and he will start 19th. Vitantonio Liuzzi didn't even make Q2 after a crash early on. He was wide out of the final corner and the astroturf was quite wet and he was spun across the track and into the pitwall. A strategic option open to the Italian tomorrow is to do what Fernando Alonso did in Monaco. Start on the soft tyre, hope there is an early safety car and pit for the harder tyre. He is considering the other main option though, which is do what Kamui Kobayashi did in Valencia. Start on the hard tyre and make one stop near the end and attack on fresh tyres.

This could work as the field may get rid of the soft tyres early. If Liuzzi can get good track position then the field spread could help him get in the points. A badly timed safety car could scupper this though. Strategy is interesting as the soft tyres are holding up better than expected and the lack of heat has meant the hard tyres are taking a few laps to get up to full performance. So i think the front drivers will want to stay on the soft tyres until they are really going quite badly off as the hard tyre may leave them vulnerable on their out lap. It could well be warmer tomorrow though with the chance of rain low. The top ten will also have put their tyres through at least 3 laps already. It's a short run to turn 1 so expect little change. Further back it could get messy. The McLarens will be a threat on the run to the hairpin as they were the fastest cars in a straight line today. Mark Webber may have to be on the defensive.

A word for Jarno Trulli today. The Italian has had so many car problems at Lotus this season but really shone today, qualifying within a second of Jaime Alguersuari. Bruno Senna was only two tenths from the Virgin of Timo Glock though he had gearbox issues and has taken a penalty for a new one. Still impressive when you consider that the HRT car has had only two updates all season. Lucas di Grassi failed to set a time in qualifying, also suffering with gearbox issues.

So it promises to be another fascinating race tomorrow. Red Bull have the pole position slot again but Ferrari and McLaren may well have the race pace to make it a real contest for the victory. Tyre management could be crucial and this is something that Alonso has been good at so he will be looking for a second victory of the season to boost his championship chances. We've seen many punctures recently from small contact so everyone will be desperate to avoid those as well. It's a good track though so we should see plenty of action. Look out for the Force India drivers making their way through the field. Race start is 1pm BST and i'll be tweeting my thoughts during the race. Who do you think will win? Vote or comment

Rainy Hockenheim set for intriguing weekend

2010-07-23T15:36:00.010+01:00

Image courtesy of www.mclaren.com

Three hours of practice today in Germany proved to be an entertaining spectacle as we witnessed the drivers battling the differing conditions with all types of tyres. The morning dawned dark and wet and for the first hour of the opening session it was full wets on show before the switch to intermediates for the closing stages. The second session began with a dry line now showing and while spots of rain threatened, the heavy showers forecast did not arrive until half an hour after the chequered flag was waved. We had plenty of spins and offs for the drivers and the most notable of these was Lewis Hamilton who did substantial damage to his McLaren at turn 3. The English driver said that upshifting from 3rd to 4th gear had caused unusually big wheelspin and the car snapped away from him. Th front took the impact which then pitched the rear into the barriers. A costly impact as he only got 12 minutes of running in the second session.

Adrian Sutil again showed his wet weather capabilities by topping the first session but it was Fernando ALonso who finished the day quickest. The other Ferrari of Felipe Massa also had good pace, though the Brazilian had many trips across run off areas and gravel traps. Ferrari believe that they have had a car capable of competing at the front for since Valencia but things have conspired against them. They really need to have a good weekend or else Alonso will start to see his championship hopes fade. The Italian team may try and use the retarded ignition tomorrow in Q3 that Red Bull have been using in order to compete for pole position. Red Bull did quite a bit of running in the wet conditions and looked competitive in all conditions, always amongst the front runners. Sebastian Vettel had a narrow miss with the barriers after a trip wide at turn 12 but there were no other major drama's.

Image courtesy of www.renaultf1.com

Jenson Button seem unhappy with the setup of his car in the morning and had unspectacular pace through the afternoon. There can't be too much read into the times because the session had such mixed conditions and the track will be washed clean again this evening so it will be another slippery day in prospect tomorrow. Rain is certainly possible, it is quite a fluid situation and one that will need to be watched closely. This is just one of many elements that could give us a fantastic race on Sunday. The rain means that the track will not have much rubber and so tyre degradation will be higher than usual. The tyre compounds will make strategy difficult. In theory the soft tyre will be the one needed for the qualifying time but will drop off early in the race. However the hard tyre is taking 3-4 laps to get up to full performance so getting a quick outlap will be difficult and you could be vulnerable to attack. However this tyre will likely be able to do the whole race.

A more aggressive strategy is feasible at this circuit as overtaking is very possible into the low speed hairpin so we may see a fair of variation, similar to what occurred in Montreal. Another factor is the short lap time. The fastest lap today was under 77 seconds so backmarkers could also have an influence. All these variants really could give us another thriller in this fantastic season. Williams and Force India could be best placed to threaten the top four teams. Renault may struggle more this weekend without a F-Duct. The French team plan to have one on their car for the Belgian Grand Prix

Image courtesy of www.forceindiaf1.com

The forecasts are mixed for tomorrow, certainly the chance of rain is there. It is a matter of timing and a big challenge for the teams. They have 4 sets of intermediates and 3 sets of wet tyres available and all will have used up 1 set of each already so managing this could yet be key. Malaysia showed how even the best teams can be caught out so we could get an action packed session. Red Bull will be favourites but Fernando Alonso will be looking to re-ignite his championship hopes.

Race Rewind: Hockenheim 2000

2010-07-21T11:52:00.012+01:00

We go back a decade to reflect on an incredible German grand prix that seen a new winner emerge...

Michael Schumacher arrived at his home race in the championship lead. The German had made a storming start to the season and taken five wins in the opening eight rounds but two consecutive retirements had allowed the McLaren pairing of David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen to close in. The season was a clear battle between McLaren and Ferrari up front with Jordan and Bennetton also in the mix on occasions.

The drama started unfolding on Saturday. As the 1 hour qualifying session was about to commence, the track was dry but there was rain moving in. Everybody made a dash out and quened up for the green light to come on at the end of the pitlane. Getting space was critical and Heinz-Harald Frentzen decided that cutting the chicane on his out lap to get to the front was the best option. The stewards decided that this was unfair and deleted Frentzen's first flying lap time. As the rest of the session was in wet conditions, competing with the early times was not possible and Frentzen, along with another front runner Rubens Barrichello, who had mechanical problems, found themselves stranded at the back end of the grid.

The Grid:

1. David Coulthard
2. Michael Schumacher
3. Giancarlo Fisichella
4. Mika Hakkinen
5. Pedro de la Rosa
6. Jarno Trulli
7. Alexander Wurz
8. Johny Herbert
9. Jacques Villeneuve
10. Eddie Irvine
11. Jos Verstappen
12. Ricardo Zonta
13. Nick Heidfield
14. Ralf Schumacher
15. Mika Salo
16. Jenson Button
17. Heinz-Harald Frentzen
18. Rubens Barrichello
19. Pedro Diniz
20. Jean Alesi
21. Gaston Mazzacane
22. Marc Gene

The race started in dry conditions. Pole sitter Coulthard went defensive against Schumacher. The Ferrari swung wide going into turn 1 but Fisichella was right behind and collided with the rear of his car and both men were out at turn 1. Reigning world champion Mika Hakkinen had a brilliant start and now led. Meanwhile Barrichello and Frentzen were providing plenty of entertainment with several overtaking moves in the opening laps as they sliced their way through the field. Up front it was comfortable for the McLaren duo.

Then came the most unusual and incredible twist. At the side of the straight between turns 1 and 2 there was a man who walked along and at one stage ran across the track. It turned out he was a former Mercedes-Benz employee who was protesting that he had been given a job he could not carry out and was then sacked. He had tried to get onto the grid before the start but had been stopped and was also halted earlier in the year at Magny-Cours. Race Control had no option but to deploy the safety car and this now changed the face of the race. It was a disaster for Coulthard who should have quened behind team mate Hakkinen but unaware of the safety car being on track continued on. By the time he had made his stop, he was at the back of the pack.

The race resumed but was disrupted again within a lap after a huge smash between Pedro Diniz and Jean Alesi. The Frenchman has several spins before coming to the halt with 3 wheels. After that was cleared Hakkinen began to rebuild his lead but the skies had darkened and with 10 laps left rain was beginning to fall. Most drivers pitted for wet tyres but Barrichello risked it and stayed out on dry tyres. The stadium section of the track was now quite wet and the Brazilian was losing 7 seconds in the final sector to the chasing McLarens. However, out in the first 2 sectors in the forest the track was still bone dry. The old configuration was long but also quite spread out and Barichello was able to maintain a decent gap. He took the flag to take his first victory, an emotional moment for Barrichello who was overjoyed at his triumph. He also became the first Brazilian to win a race since Ayrton Senna in 1993.

The victory was useful to his team mate as Schumacher maintained his championship lead. He would eventually take the championship in Japan and become Ferrari's latest world champion, ending a 21 year wait. Barrichello would contribute to the team taking the honours in the constructors championship. The old Hockenheim configuration was only used once more before it was redesigned for 2002 into a new layout which still remains the grand prix circuit today

Villeneuve set to make F1 return with new team?

2010-07-15T12:47:00.006+01:00

Rumours are swirling that 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has applied to the FIA for the one remaining team slot on the Formula 1 grid with the name 'Villeneuve Racing'. The Canadian has made no secret of his desire to get back into the sport. He left BMW-Sauber during the 2006 season and has not raced since. He agreed to drive for Stefan GP before the start of this team but the Serbian team were not able to get an entry though they are believed to be bidding to get on the grid for next season.

The decision on who will get the place on the 2011 grid is expected soon. I would think word will come in the next month as prospective teams need to get the green light as to whether they should progress with their respective projects. The Cypher group have been confirmed as a contender and have a driver as well in Jonathan Summerton (More to come on them soon) Epilson Eskadi were one of the favourites last year and should be a strong contender this time. Stefan GP are bullish about making it though another likely prospect ART GP have withdrawn their entry, citing unfavourable economic conditions. It is believed that the FIA are wanting the financial credentials of any new teams checked and proven before the final decision after the problems and struggles of HRT this season.

Of course they are probably the one team that could fall out of the sport and thta would leave more spaces but lets see how it unfolds. For Villeneuve, would he really be so keen for an F1 return that he would make his own team? Well, his Father Giles wanted to form a team at some stage before his tragic death at Zolder in 1982 so the desire may be born out of that. He is somebody who has spent time in other fields apart from motorsport so he could have the links and contacts to attract sponsorship and partners to bolster the effort. Hopefully news will come soon and it will be interesting to see. Kimi Raikkonen may be set to continue rallying but we could yet have 5 world champions on the F1 grid next season

UPDATE: More details have emerged through the day about what the plans are with this project. Here is what appears to be happening if 'Villeneuve Racing' enters F1 in 2011.

- Villeneuve would be 1 of the 2 race drivers
- There would be a link up with ex-GP2 team Durango, who have worked with the Canadian in the past
- The team will be based in Italy, i also heard talk of being UK based but Italy seeme to be overriding this. Giles Villeneuve remains a massive name in the country after his career at Ferrari.

So there is some more information on what remains a developing story but an interesting one and one which will either fade away within weeks or become a big story for next season.

How Vettel's recovery could have been greater

2010-07-12T11:40:00.004+01:00

Sebastian Vettel had an absolute nightmare opening lap at Silverstone. A poor start and contact with Lewis Hamilton gave the German a puncture and he went straight on at Becketts. By the time he had dragged his RB6 back to the pits and changed to a set of hard tyres he found himself nearly a lap down on his team mate and race leader Mark Webber. His pace was then pretty steady, though his plan was now to do 51 laps on the same set of tyres. For a significant points haul to be possible, he needed a field bunching safety car period and pieces of Pedro de la Rosa meant that this occurred with 24 laps left.

As the train of cars gathered, Vettel found himself the second last car in the quene. Only the Force India of Vitantonio Liuzzi was behind him as the cars behind in the order were in front on track but a lap down. We had seen that the soft tyres were working well early in the race and of course they would have become easier to run as the track gained more and more rubber. By pitting, Vettel would have lost 1 position but gained fresh rubber. We seen how this can be such a big help in the closing stages of a race with Kamui Kobayashi in Valencia.

He did get himself up to 7th but i feel that he should have pitted as the sacrifice of losing 1 place would have probably been outweighed by new tyres and he could have well cleared cars quicker and perhaps could have got as high as 5th realistically. There was little to lose and i feel it was definitely a feasible strategic option. They were still important points but in a championship so close, every race is important to make the most of and certainly the operational side of Red Bull remains a weak side of the team after the front wing controversy of Saturday and the failure to call Vettel in on Sunday