What’s the next “win-win” for Formula 1?

This has been the season of the “win-win” – deals which leave both sides feeling really good about themselves.
There is a lot of restructuring going on at the moment; the inevitable result of a season which has seen savage recession hit the sport, manufacturer withdrawals and the arrival of new teams.
We have had [...]

FIA publishes 2010 Formula 1 entry list

The FIA has this evening published the entry list for next season’s F1 championship. There are some interesting points of note.

First, as expected, Richard Branson’s Virgin is “doing a Benetton” and pushing its brand to the forefront, calling the team Virgin Racing and the cars Virgin Cosworths. Manor is not entering F1 under its own [...]

Briatore determined to overturn FIA lifetime ban

Flavio Briatore was not present in court this week in Paris to hear the case from his lawyer as to why his lifetime ban from F1 should be overturned. The former Renault F1 team boss is also seeking damages of €1 million and his former executive director of engineering Pat Symonds is seeking €500,000 and [...]

“F1 2009 – A Revolutionary Year” on sale today

My review of the 2009 F1 season, entitled “F1 2009 – A Revolutionary Year” went on sale today.
The book tells the story of the 2009 season, from the McLaren launch in January to the last race in Abu Dhabi. I called it “A Revolutionary Year” because this was a year in which the backmarkers [...]

Sauber buys his team back from BMW

Peter Sauber has bought back his team from BMW and it will race next season as Sauber with Ferrari engines. The deal under which Qadbak, the mysterious Swiss Arab investment vehicle was to acquire the team, is off.

The contract is subject to the team being granted a place on the F1 grid, but as Toyota [...]

Analysis of F1 engine performance in 2009

There is a great piece of work on Auto Motor und Sport’s website with an analysis of the engines in this year’s world championship. The analysis is based on collating the information each engine builder has about each other.

I’ve checked it out with some of the F1 engineers and it seems that the data is [...]

The latest on Schumacher, Ferrari and Mercedes

The rumours around the possible return of Michael Schumacher to Formula 1 with Mercedes continue to swirl, but Ferrari remain calm and expect the seven times world champion to stay with them for the next three years as a consultant.
The latest twist is that Schumacher has not yet physically signed his new three year consultancy [...]

My Top Five drivers of the 2009 season

Thank you very much to the 1,100 readers who took part in the Top Five drivers of the year competition. I’m delighted that we got more than 1,000 entries!
There were plenty of interesting entries, Luca Badoer popped up a couple of times, while several Kimi Raikkonen fans put their man in all five positions!
I put [...]

Williams looking at bigger picture

I’ve been thinking about Williams selling a minority shareholding in the team to Austrian motorsport investor Toto Wolff. The deal was announced at the end of last week.

It is yet another example, in this early part of the off season, of a structural change in the fabric of F1 teams. We have had Mercedes ending [...]

Rosberg ready to become a leader at Mercedes

Nico Rosberg will lead Mercedes’ attack on F1 next season. The 24 year old is a great choice for the iconic Mercedes brand as he is their own three pointed star; he’s fast, he’s marketable and he’s hungry.
The 24 year old German driver was announced today during a conference call n with Mercedes Benz [...]

keep looking »