Tomorrow (Thursday June 20) at 9-30am local time Ross Brawn of Mercedes and Paul Hembery of Pirelli will appear before the first ever FIA International Tribunal in Paris. This is the conclusion of a process started by Red Bull and Ferrari when they protested Mercedes’ 1,000 km test at Barcelona in the week following the Spanish Grand Prix. The FIA Sporting Regulations explicitly prohibit the testing of current cars once the F1 season has started. The hearing is set to last into the early afternoon and the FIA has indicated that a judgement will be made public as soon as More…

Lotus F1 boss Gerard Lopez has sold a 35% stake in the team to Infinity Racing, a consortium of investors with US and Middle Eastern backgrounds. The team hopes that this investment will give the team the financial boost it needs to challenge current top dogs Red Bull and Ferrari for wins and championships. Lopez’ Genii Capital concern will continue to hold a controlling stake of 65% in the team and Lopez remains as Chairman and his partner Eric Lux as a director. Infinity’s chairman is Mansoor Ijaz and the deputy chairman is Suhail Al Dhaheri, CEO of the Abu More…

It has been reported this evening that my old broadcasting colleague Murray Walker is fighting cancer. Approaching his 90th birthday, Murray was already dealing with a fractured pelvis from a fall; blood tests during his treatment revealed a form of cancer in the lymphatic system. Fortunately it has been found early in its development, so there is a degree of optimism about the treatment of it. “They’ve caught it incredibly early. It’s treatable, the doctors say my condition is mild and I’m very hopeful,” said Murray. His mother lived to over 100 and the veteran commentator always used to say More…

The Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal is in discussions with Bernie Ecclestone’s company about a new contract to retain the race for 10 years, according to a Reuters report today. And the news highlights the push by F1′s commercial rights holder, backed by CVC Capital Partners to secure long term contracts with host venues. Although CVC’s senior partner Donald McKenzie said recently that the proposed floatation of F1 may need to be postponed once again to 2014, getting a full calendar of events on long term contracts is a key component of the sale; circuit hosting fees are at around More…

BRDC president Derek Warwick says that the nightmare of last year’s British Grand Prix still hangs over this year’s event, but hopes that fans will turn out this year and support the event for the long term. Tickets sales are down this year in a season which has yet to see a British race winner. There are also bad memories from last year’s event where torrential rain caused chaos. Many fans were asked not to attend on Saturday so the organisers could get the car parks ready for race day. Around 400 public events were cancelled in the UK that More…

Williams are to provide the battery system that will be used in the FIA Formula E championship which is set to debut in Autumn 2014. Williams Advanced Engineering, a division of the Williams group which commercialises Formula 1-based technologies, will partner Spark Racing Technology to design and assemble the units. The single seater fully-electric championship is set to start in September 2014 with 10 city centre races – eight of which have already been announced in the form of London, Rome, Los Angeles, Miami, Beijing, Putrajaya (Malaysia), Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. Bangkok is under consideration for one of More…

A frustrated Pirelli has today issued a statement with the tyre specifications for the next three Grands Prix, noting that it has not be able to introduce its revised 2013 tyres, due to a lack of testing and a failure of the F1 teams to agree to the change. The revised tyres, aimed at solving the delamination issue, which some teams suffered in Bahrain and Spain, were brought to Canada last weekend, but only received scant testing due to adverse weather conditions. Pirelli was keen to substitute them for the old construction, claiming that the old ones were not unsafe, More…

During Free Practice 3 at the recent Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal I had the chance do something I have never done before in 23 years in F1; to go on a team’s pitwall stand. I’ve listened in on team radio and observed in plenty of garages, but never sat plugged into the famous ‘prat perch’ and got an detailed insight into operations. It gave me a chance to get closer to the sport and to really understand how a team like Marussia operates. And it was an eye opener. With Marussia technical director Pat Symonds staying in the UK More…

The sponsorship marketplace in Formula 1 is looking “pretty good” at the moment with several new brands coming into the sport, according to Formula 1 business expert Zak Brown, however he adds that there remains a big pressure on teams to continue to find ways to raise money. Teams are facing soaring costs heading into next year, with the new 1.6-litre V6 engines set to be introduced to the sport. As a result, the price of the powerplants will rise from around £6-10 million per year to around £18 million. That sizeable increase will put pressure on the midfield and back More…

Three times world champion Sebastian Vettel has signed an extension to his Red Bull contract, taking it to the end of 2015. The German, who is 25 now and will be 28 at the end of the new agreement, has been linked with long term moves to Ferrari and Mercedes in recent months, but Red Bull has been able to secure his signature on a fresh deal, albeit only another year. There have been rumours that Vettel had some kind of understanding with Ferrari. Italian sources say that Alonso has been working behind the scenes to ensure that the team More…

What made the Canadian Grand Prix unusual was the fact that after a wet qualifying session, where no dry running was done at all, teams had all new Pirelli slick tyres to race on. This meant that potentially less stops would be possible as the tyres had more life. Against that the track was green because of the rain, so no-one knew what the tyre life would be like in the first stint. The result was a fascinating strategy battle with lots of different approaches taken by the various teams. Although it was a runaway win for Sebastian Vettel, the More…

McLaren’s Jenson Button said he has “never been so pleased to get out of a car” after he finished a lowly 12th in Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix, once place behind his team-mate Sergio Perez. The result ended McLaren’s impressive 64-race streak in the points and highlighted their current plight. The team are sixth in the constructors’ championship, 164 points behind leaders Red Bull while neither Button or Perez has come close to scoring a podium. Button, the 2009 world champion, tried a one-stop strategy in Montreal, while his team-mate Sergio Perez did two stops, however both drivers struggled and finished just three More…

The Montreal weekend was a positive one for Jean Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso’s young driver, who secured sixth place in the race, a personal best for him and the team’s best result since Sebastian Vettel’s win in Italy 2008. What is most pleasing for Vergne is that it was the result of a complete weekend, where he put it all together from start to finish, including qualifying, starting seventh on the grid. It is surprising how rarely that happens, the complete weekend. “We shouldn’t get carried away with sixth place,” said the Parisian, “The road is still long. But I’m More…

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel became the first driver to win three times in 2013 with victory in the Canadian Grand Prix to extend his lead in the drivers’ championship. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso limited his losses in Vettel, finishing second after starting sixth on the grid, while Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton took his third podium of the season in third. Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne scored his best ever finish in sixth while Force India’s Paul di Resta and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa produced an impressive recovery drives from the rear of the grid to finish in the points – but who was your More…

Sebastian Vettel produced an almost faultless drive to claim a lights to flag victory at the Canadian Grand Prix and extend his World Championship lead over Fernando Alonso, who came home second ahead of Lewis Hamilton. But the day was marked with tragedy as a 38 year old marshal was killed while recovering the damaged car of Esteban Gutierrez. He was hit by a mobile crane and died of head injuries. He made a small mistake into Turn One on Lap 52, running down the escape road and losing four seconds in the process, but it was the only time More…

Next season will be the busiest on record for the F1 teams; a 21 race calendar is taking shape for 2014 while on Saturday in Montreal the Sporting Working Group approved a package of test days and aerodynamic reductions which are set to save money, while bringing back four test sessions. The package agreed by the SWC will now be put forward to the FIA World Motor Sport Council taking place on 28 June at Goodwood House, England. The package envisages the end of the Young Drivers test session, a reduction in straight line aerodynamic test days from eight to More…

Sebastian Vettel was able to master the difficult conditions at an overcast and wet Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, taking pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix, beating Lewis Hamilton by a tenth of a second. But the undoubted star of qualifying was 23 year old Finn Valtteri Bottas. Bottas was among the front runners throughout all three parts of qualifying, but saved his best for last with a stunning performance in Q3 to leave some big names trailing in his wake. Meanwhile McLaren, which has owned this Montreal circuit for the past three seasons, had a poor session with Sergio Perez More…

Fernando Alonso has bounced back from a below par performance at the Monaco Grand Prix to head the Formula One field in Free Practice around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Romain Grosjean. The Ferrari driver set the fastest lap in a qualifying simulation on the supersoft tyre and also put in a strong long run performance with fast, consistent laps. But Red Bull also looked consistent on the long runs and Mercedes looked strong on single lap pace again. Following heavy rain overnight much of Free Practice 1 was run in wet conditions, with More…

Lewis Hamilton has never been outqualified by a team mate four races in succession. Here in Montreal, arguably his most successful track, where he has won three times, he knows he has to regain the upper hand over Nico Rosberg, author of pole at the last three events. And it is going to be in the braking that he will do it. Montreal is all about the brakes. And a lot of Hamilton’s speed has always come from his ability on the brakes. “The braking has been a bit of a killer for me this year,” Hamilton admits in his More…

One aspect of the Mercedes testing saga which drew some brief interest this week was Lewis Hamilton tweeting about Miami when he was actually at the controversial Pirelli test in Barcelona. The team explain it away thus: Hamilton was in Miami until the Wednesday of that week on a Blackberry sponsor event and tweeted a photo on Thursday about where he had been, not saying that he was still there. It highlighted once again the potential pitfalls of Twitter. Hamilton fell foul of the medium last year when he tweeted – and made public – a set up sheet of More…

Caterham has launched a racing academy aimed at providing a path for young motorsport talent from junior formulae right up to Formula 1. The Caterham Racing Academy is an evolution of its driver development programme which started in 2010. It aims to provide a bespoke development plan for each driver that will cover every aspect of a modern day racing driver’s life. They will work on racecraft and engineering feedback, mental and physical training and media and sponsor relations. Crucially, the drivers will also receive financial support providing they meet their performance-based targets. The prize fund will make a contribution More…

[Updated] The FIA has decided that Mercedes and Pirelli have a case to answer over the test which took place last month in Barcelona with a 2013 car and the current race drivers and they will be required to appear before an International Tribunal to defend themselves against a charge of breaching the rules. Ferrari has been exonerated for the test it carried out using a 2011 car. The FIA statutes suggest that it can take up to 45 days to convene an International Tribunal, but the process can be fast tracked. Mercedes has acknowledged the summons and said that More…

Welcome to the JA on F1 podcast for June. This month we have a great mix of personalities, intrigue and insights into the money flow in F1. We talk to a Hollywood legend, the world champion team boss, a former F1 driver and we get right to the heart of the stories of the moment, with analysis of the secret Mercedes Pirelli test and JA on F1 technical adviser and former Williams chief engineer Mark Gillan tells us what potential benefit Mercedes may have got from the test. F1 Business expert Zak Brown CEO of Just Marketing looks at where More…

Six years ago, Robert Kubica had a huge accident at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, crashing into a wall at 180mph while trying to overtake Jarno Trulli in the Canadian Grand Prix. Incredibly, the Pole escaped serious injury, emerging with only a slight concussion and a sprained ankle, thanks to the work of the FIA to improve safety standards in Formula 1. The sport’s approach to safety has changed dramatically since the death of Ayrton Senna in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix with the FIA’s crash tests for Formula 1 cars becoming more and more stringent. The FIA’s technical delegate Jo More…

Montreal is always one of the most interesting races of the season from a strategy point of view. With a very high likelihood of safety cars, a low grip surface and very easy overtaking, it is always an entertaining race and hard to predict. Red Bull leads both championships at the moment, but has never won in Montreal. McLaren has ruled for the last three years but has an uncompetitive car this year. And will this be the race where three-times winner Lewis Hamilton gets the upper hand over his resurgent team mate Nico Rosberg? After the extreme of Monaco, More…

The first production model of the Infiniti Q50, which was tested and evaluated by three time world champion Sebastian Vettel, has rolled off the assembly line at the manufacturer’s Tochigi production plant. The Q50 is the first of a new generation of Infiniti cars which premiered at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January and aims to set new benchmarks in terms of styling, advanced technology and performance. Vettel, 25, spent time with Infiniti engineers in Japan early in the development process to give them feedback on chassis dynamics, performance and handling. Along with Red Bull reserve More…

Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel swapped his Red Bull F1 car for an Infiniti road car when he spent some time at French circuit Paul Ricard a day after finishing second in the Monaco Grand Prix. The German, 25, evaluated the latest Infiniti road cars and their competitors as part of his new role as the company’s director of performance. He gave detailed feedback on vehicle attributes such as handling, steering feel and response to experts from Infiniti’s European dynamic performance team as they look to tap into the three-time world champion’s expertise. Vettel said: “As new Infiniti cars are More…

Caterham will make its Le Mans 24 Hours debut later this month after linking up with the Greaves Motorsport LMP2 squad. Racing under the Caterham Motorsport banner, Caterham F1 reserve driver Alexander Rossi, 21, will join double LMP2 class-winner Tom Kimber-Smith and Eric Lux behind the wheel of the #41 Zytek Z11SN-Nissan in the LMP2 category for the race which takes place on the weekend of 22 and 23 June. Caterham Group technical officer Mike Gascoyne, who has worked for McLaren, Jordan and Renault, will lead a group of Caterham engineers, technicians and data analysts working on the project. Gascoyne said: More…

Three times world champion Sebastian Vettel has said in an interview with the German Welt am Sonntag newspaper, one of the more serious papers in Germany, that he may quit F1 in five years time. The 25 year old has won the world championship for the past three seasons and enjoys a strong lead in this year’s points table after six of 19 rounds. There has always been speculation that he might leave Red Bull and join Ferrari, part of a destabilising process which is common in F1 when a team and driver combination is winning. But he has always More…

A statement was issued by the FIA on Friday night which takes the story of the secret tyre tests conducted in May by Ferrari (with a two year old car) and Mercedes (with a current car) to the next level, in calling them to co-operate with a disciplinary inquiry. Ferrari being drawn in is an interesting development, given that they were one of two teams, along with Red Bull, to protest against Mercedes over its test. On the face of it Ferrari’s test with a two year old car was within the rules. At the same time Pirelli has issued More…

Williams has confirmed the recent speculation that it will switch from Renault to Mercedes engines next season when the new 1.6 litre hybrid turbo engines come in. Mercedes believe that they have a class leading engine and powertrain and Williams believe that this will set them up well for improving their long term competitiveness. The Mercedes is believed to also be slightly cheaper than the Renault unit. There is a lot of unhappiness among the teams outside the top four about the cost of the new hybrid turbo engines. The manufacturers have committed vast sums to develop them and want More…

It has emerged that the new specification Pirelli tyres which were promised for the Canadian Grand Prix will now only be tested there during practice and will be used for competition only from Silverstone onwards. The move means that teams will have two sets of the tyres which will feature a new construction, aimed at reducing the risk of delaminations, to try out before Pirelli make the harder compound versions for use in competition at Silverstone. This means that there is a risk during the Canadian Grand Prix of a repeat of the delaminations seen in Spain and Bahrain, but More…

The upheaval of the management of the Williams F1 team continues in the wake of Toto Wolff’s departure to become motorsport director of Mercedes; CEO Alex Burns has left the company to be replaced by former Janguar and Aston Martin boss Mike O’Driscoll. O’Driscoll is no stranger to Williams having sat as a non-executive director since 2011. He has a wealth of knowledge, experience and contacts from the automotive industry and will act as Group CEO in a new structure which pulls Williams Hybrid Engineering into the same management group as the F1 team. He will work alongside the recently More…

The Monaco Grand Prix was similar in many ways to last year’s event; a race of managed pace, but this year with interesting consequences. It showed a wider strategy on the part of the championship contenders in particular. If you analyse the way they conducted their races, it appears that they were focussed on the championship rather than on challenging for the race victory. Nico Rosberg was the dominant figure in Monaco across practice and qualifying, but he wasn’t well placed in the championship going into the event and he wasn’t challenged in the race as he might have expected More…

Ferrari arrived in Monaco on the back of their strongest performance of the season in Spain, where Fernando Alonso took victory and Felipe Massa third, but they left the principality with just six points and a missed opportunity. Along with Mercedes, the Italian team were one of the favourites for the win and on Friday, the car looked very impressive. Both Alonso and Massa were able to take more kerb on the left on the entry to the Swimming Pool section which opened the corner out. In contrast, Red Bull and Mercedes were avoiding the kerb. But the team dropped More…

Sergio Perez’s style of driving was once again brought into question in the Monaco Grand Prix with the McLaren driver attempting a series of aggressive and late-braking overtaking moves, including one on Kimi Raikkonen which effectively ended his own race and damaged the Lotus driver’s title ambitions. The Mexican, 23, tried to pass Raikkonen, 33, up the inside of the Nouvelle Chicane for fifth, but both ended up cutting the corner. Later in the race, Perez tried a similar move but this time the pair collided with Perez hitting the barriers and Raikkonen suffering a puncture. Perez later retired while More…

The F1 paddock in Monaco was in ferment on Sunday over the story of Mercedes’ secret Pirelli tyre test in Barcelona the week following the recent Grand Prix. Mercedes and Pirelli say that they got approval from the FIA for the test. The FIA disputes some aspects of this, while Ferrari and Red Bull launched a protest and on Sunday morning were seeking allies among other teams. But some bad blood over previous protests in which those teams did not support others meant that some other teams did not join them, despite wanting clarification too. So what is this all More…

Nico Rosberg gave Mercedes their first win of the season with victory in a chaotic Monaco Grand Prix, 30 years after his father Keke triumphed on the streets of Monte Carlo. Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel drove a sensible race to take second and increase his championship lead while his team-mate Mark Webber took his second podium of the season with third. Force India’s Adrian Sutil proved overtaking is possible in Monaco by battling to fifth and his team-mate Paul di Resta produced a strong recovery drive to rise from 17th to ninth, but who was your Driver of the Day? Nico Rosberg More…

It was thirty years ago that Keke Rosberg claimed his second career win around his hometown of Monaco. And today for the first time in Formula One history a son was able to emulate his father and he too collected his second career win around the streets on which he spent his childhood. Nico Rosberg delivered a masterclass in poise in a race full of chaos and incident to win a heavily disrupted Monaco Grand Prix, ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. The race saw two safety car periods and a red flag stoppage due to three heavy incidents, More…

As a boy Nico Rosberg was driven through the Monaco tunnel on his way to school. Today as he clinched his first Monaco pole position and Mercedes’ fourth straight pole of 2013, pipping team mate Lewis Hamilton in Monaco qualifying on a drying track. World champion Sebastian Vettel completed the top three ahead of Mark Webber, with Kimi Raikkonen fifth and Fernando Alonso a surprised and disappointed sixth. It was a tough day for Ferrari, with team mate Felipe Massa crashing heavily in Free Practice three and taking no part in qualifying. Tomorrow Rosberg will attempt to become the first More…

Friday in Monaco is a day off, but there are still quite a few people wandering around the paddock. There was a summit meeting of team principals with Bernie Ecclestone in his motorhome this morning, while the drivers are on promotional duties and the mechanics are up in the garages, tinkering with the cars. There’s no doubt which team has the most confident staff: Mercedes. Thursday’s free practice was everything the team could have wanted; fastest on a green track in FP1, fastest again in the second session with Rosberg and Hamilton ahead of the rest. The Mercedes single lap More…

Nico Rosberg underlined Mercedes’ claim as pole position favourites for this weekend’s Grand Prix by topping both practice sessions on an eventful Thursday in Monaco. In the faster second session he was the only man to break under the 1m 15s barrier, ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. But it looks very close at the front with Ferrari, Lotus and Red Bull all competitive in different ways. The Lotus has exceptional speed at the end of long runs, the Ferrari looks good in all conditions and might challenge the Mercedes for pole, while the Red Bull also looked pretty More…

This year’s tyres remained a big talking point in the Monaco paddock on Wednesday, with Fernando Alonso suggesting Red Bull’s criticism of Pirelli was a result of them not being able to handle defeat. Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel defended his team, insisting that the reigning world champions were not the only ones to be unhappy about the aggressive tyres while his team-mate Mark Webber said Formula 1 needs to have a think about where it’s headed. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton said that it’s wrong for a driver to be able to start second but drop back and end up getting lapped More…

Force India’s Adrian Sutil has suggested he and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton are still some way off sorting out their differences after the two came face-to-face in an FIA press conference today for the first time this season. The duo were once good friends, having got on well as they made their way through the various junior formulae and in their first few years in Formula 1 together. The situation changed in 2011, though, when Sutil was involved in an incident in a Shanghai nightclub following Hamilton’s Chinese Grand Prix win. Sutil had hoped Hamilton would serve as a witness, but More…

McLaren has picked up an accolade at the first annual European Awards for Innovation Leadership in recognition of its years of innovation of electronics and software for high impact industries. Managing director of McLaren Electronic Systems (MESL) Peter van Manen attended the ceremony in Dublin to receive the High Performance Innovation Award. MESL is the official engine control unit (ECU) supplier to the Formula 1 World Championship, Nascar Sprint Cup stock car series and IndyCar single-seater championship. The company also supplies control and data systems to the automotive, aerospace, transport and healthcare markets. Van Manen said: “McLaren has innovation in its More…

Caterham Group technical officer Mike Gascoyne is utilising his Formula 1 engineering knowledge to enter the world of ocean racing. The 50-year-old, who has worked for McLaren, Jordan and Renault, has already completed a solo transatlantic trip from Cascais to Grenada last year and now plans to increase his involvement on the water. Together with record-breaking round the world yachtsman Brian Thompson, Gascoyne plans to use F1 technology and logistics to encourage a greener and more sustainable future for offshore racing. Using the Technology & Innovation and Composites arms of the Caterham Group, Gascoyne and Thompson plan a two-year Caterham More…

Fans will get a special insight into the world of Formula 1 when Canadian Grand Prix organisers host an “Open House” at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve next month. The free initiative, which takes place on Thursday June 6, will allow fans to spend up time exploring the pit lane and getting a good view of the teams working on the cars before the race on Sunday June 9. Fans will also get the chance to speak to team members. While at the venue, visitors will gets to see the trophies – designed locally by the BRP Innovation and Design team More…

Felipe Massa warmed up for this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix by taking to the streets of Poland’s capital Warsaw in a Ferrari Formula 1 car. It was part of a promotional event for sponsor Shell which launched their new fuel – Shell V-Power Nitro+ – with over 30,000 fans turning out to watch the Brazilian in action. Massa did 20 laps in a 2009 Ferrari F60 around a specially designed street circuit that included two chicanes and two hairpin corners. The team’s pit crew also showed off their speed and accuracy in changing all four tyres on the car several More…

This season we have seen how starts are almost as important as qualifying in setting up a driver for a good result. Crucial places gained off the line by Alonso in the Spanish Grand Prix or Raikkonen in the Australian Grand Prix, for example, set them up for their wins in those respective races. Starts at Monaco make a huge difference; last year 13 cars ended the opening lap in a different position from their grid slot. So how is it done? What is the secret of a good start? JA on F1 technical adviser Mark Gillan provides the answer. More…

The long running saga of Paddy Lowe’s move from McLaren to Mercedes was resolved today when the technical director was released early from his contract to begin work on June 3rd. Originally Lowe was being held to his contract and was set to be blocked from starting work in Brackley before the end of 2013. But the announcement that McLaren is to move from Mercedes to Honda engines meant that Mercedes had a bargaining chip to negotiate his early release. Which means he will be able to play an active role in preparations for 2014, a year which Mercedes has More…

The last few Grands Prix have been decided by race strategy; good planning and execution. And Monaco looks set to be the same. Mercedes has taken three poles in a row, but lost out on race day. Will Monaco offer them a chance to hold on and win the race? If the race is a marginal one or two stop race, will Lotus and Ferrari be able to play a strategic game to get the win? Ferrari hasn’t won Monaco for 12 years. From a strategy point of view the Monaco Grand Prix is a very tricky race as cars More…

There has been a raft of activity recently around the new FIA Formula E series, set to debut in 2014 and JA on F1 has recently interviewed Alejandro Agag, promoter of Formula E. Agag says the new zero emission motor sport championship is targeting a reverse calendar to F1, which will see the series start in September and end in June. Also recently the series announced that Bangkok, Thailand is a candidate for one of the two remaining slots on the 2014 calendar. The city is close to a Formula 1 night race and Formula E is dealing with the More…

[Updated]In the aftermath of the decision by Pirelli to make some changes to the 2013 tyres from round 7 in Canada onwards, there has been a backlash from those teams whose cars were working well on the tyres. Lotus boss Eric Boullier and now Ferrari’s Horse Whisperer column have attacked the change and Red Bull in particular for lobbying behind the scenes and in the media for a change in tyres. Pirelli is caught in the middle and whatever changes it makes from here onwards it will be perceived by some fans as having affected the outcome of the championship. More…

Honda will return to Formula 1 as an engine supplier with McLaren in 2015 to revive their famous partnership which brought domination of the sport in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Japanese company had its own team between 2006 and 2008, but during that time, it managed just one win – the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix with Jenson Button – and the manufacturer ended the project at the end of 2008, as the global economic crisis struck. However, Honda has been lured back to the sport by a change in the engine regulations from 2014, with 1.6 litre More…

Ferrari won the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday without the majority of the new parts that the technicians had brought to Barcelona to update the car and only some of them were tried on Friday in practice. Alonso and Massa found a good balance on Friday and felt that they had a good chance for the race and didn’t want to upset that. According to Gazzetta dello Sport, the issue wasn’t that the new pieces failed to match expectations, it was rather that the rain in the morning limited the opportunities to evaluate them properly and the priority was to More…

This race may come to be viewed as a tipping point in the ongoing debate about whether the high degradation Pirelli tyres are good for F1 or not, as two of the three drivers on the podium did a four stop strategy. Pirelli has indicated that they have been “too aggressive” with the construction of the 2013 tyres and will make changes from the seventh round, Montreal, onwards. However against this backdrop, the strategy battle at the heart of this race was fascinating. And it showed that the teams who came out on top were the ones who had the More…

The sudden announcement by Pirelli that they are to change the tyre specifications from the seventh round of the world championship onwards will inevitably raise many questions: who will it favour, what are the implications for the racing? With no testing available – a significant part of the reason why Pirelli has struggled to get the tyres right this year – they will have to use a construction solution that has been proven to work in the past, rather than try something new. JA on F1 technical adviser Mark Gillan was chief operations engineer at Williams until the end of More…

[Updated] The chorus of disapproval from affected teams, as well as calls from media and fans to do something about the high degradation tyres has led Pirelli to announce today that it is to make construction changes to its tyres from the Canadian Grand Prix in June onwards. The Italian company blamed the lack of adequate winter testing in suitable climates for producing products this year that have fallen short of the standard required. They admitted in a statement this afternoon that they underestimated the demands of the current F1 cars on the tyres. Pirelli is conducting meetings at its More…

The Spanish Grand Prix threw up a few interesting comparisons from last year to this, not least in the relative pace of the cars and the improvement in speed of the pit stops. At one end of the spectrum the Mercedes was 2.3 seconds faster in qualifying than in 2012, while the Williams was a second slower than Pastor Maldonado’s pole time from last year. But in the pits there has also been progress; Ferrari set the fastest stop on Sunday, a clear second faster than its best time last year (when it was again fastest) thanks to the many More…

Britain’s Jenson Button has described McLaren’s current form as “embarrassing” following the Spanish Grand Prix where he finished eighth, one place ahead of team mate Sergio Perez. McLaren, who won the final race of last season with what was considered to be the fastest car on the grid, made major changes to their machine for 2013, while their rivals took an evolutionary approach. As a result, they have dropped down the grid and currently lie sixth in the constructors’ championship, 102 points behind leaders Red Bull while Button is best placed in the drivers’ standings 64 behind leader Sebastian Vettel. More…

All 22 Formula 1 drivers came together on the grid ahead of Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix to support the United Nations’ Global Road Safety Week, which aims to draw attention to the need to protect pedestrians on the world’s roads. More than 5,000 pedestrians are killed on roads across the world every week, according to the World Health Organisation. These fatalities make up a large percentage of the 1.3m killed on the roads every year. The aim of the campaign is to give pedestrians a voice when traffic safety is concerned so the UN launched “Long, Short Walk”, an initiative More…

Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz says Formula 1 is “no longer about the racing” after tyre management played a huge role in the outcome of Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix. A remarkable 77 pit stops were made during the 66-lap race with several drivers being told to lift off in certain corners to protect the high-degrading Pirelli tyres. In an interview with Autosport, Mateschitz said his two drivers – Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber – were not able to push their Red Bull to the limit without ruining the tyres. Mateschitz said: “Everyone knows what happens here. This has nothing to More…

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel says he does not like the plan to give drivers penalty points, which could see them being handed a one race ban. Under the new proposed system, stewards would hand out penalty points – similar to road users getting points on their driving licence – in addition to existing punishments, such as drive-through penalties, for misdemeanours on track. Stewards will be free to choose the number of points handed out, although they will be given an advisory level to work from. Should a driver accumulate 12 points over a 12-month period, they would received a one More…

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso delighted his home fans and got his title challenge back on track with an impressive victory in a Spanish Grand Prix which saw battles all the way down the field. Kimi Raikkonen scored his fourth podium in five races for Lotus to close the gap on Red Bull’s championship leader Sebastian Vettel while Felipe Massa made it onto the rostrum for the first time this season with an accomplished drive in his Ferrari. Paul di Resta produced another strong drive to finish seventh for Force India while McLaren’s Jenson Button made up for a bad start to More…

Fernando Alonso made the perfect use of a blistering start and bold strategy to deliver an emphatic victory to his adoring fans at the Spanish Grand Prix, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa. It was a race that was dictated by tyre strategy, with much of the field played it safe by adopting a four-stop strategy, whilst Raikkonen and Lotus were again able to make one less pit stop and he put himself in contention for the race win in the middle stages of the race. It will give further fuel to critics of Pirelli who argue that the More…

Nico Rosberg made it a hat-trick of pole positions for Mercedes GP as he produced two laps fast enough to take the top spot for the Spanish Grand Prix, ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. After concentrating on longer fuel-laden runs in Free Practice, Mercedes went in to qualifying somewhat unknown as attentions were focused on Red Bull, Ferrari and Lotus. But – as with at China and Bahrain – the one-lap specialist Mercedes was able to eclipse its competitors. Rosberg clinched the third pole position of his career by over 2/10ths of a second, with Vettel a further tenth More…

Sebastian Vettel continued to set the pace during free practice for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, but it was very close between him, Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber and it promises to be a very competitive weekend. As with pre-season testing the long run performance of the Lotus of Romain Grosjean was the stand out from the day and combined with Raikkonen’s single lap pace, just 2/10ths of a second slower than Vettel, Lotus look to be a force this weekend as well. There was a scare for Paul Di Resta who suffered what appeared to be a left rear More…

Mercedes shareholder and executive director of Mercedes F1 Toto Wolff says team principal Ross Brawn is in charge of his own destiny and will decide his own future at the Brackley-based team. The management structure of the team, which tasted World Championship success in the form of Brawn GP in 2009 and oversaw the early years of the team’s reincarnation as Mercedes, is going through a transition. Following the arrival of Wolff and also Niki Lauda as non-executive chairman of the team, Nick Fry stepped down from his role as CEO in March, while there is much speculation that Paddy More…

Caterham has made a film entitled “Access All Areas” which gives a behind the scenes look at a day in the life of a Formula 1 team as well as revealing their upgraded 2013 car for the first time. Tony Fernandes’ team headed to France’s Magny Cours circuit to shoot the film, with race drivers Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde on hand to drive the car. It follows the team from waking up in the morning and heading to the venue to the drivers suiting up and heading out on track to test the car. Caterham has raced More…

Lotus F1 driver Kimi Raikkonen said today in Barcelona that the sudden departure of technical director James Allison would not affect the team’s performance. Allison quit the team yesterday to be replaced by Nick Chester. There are no firm indications of where he is heading, but there is a strong suspicion that it is Ferrari, as they seek to build a brains trust at Maranello to mount a sustained challenge for the championships over the coming years. Fernando Alonso was cagey in the FIA press conference today when the subject of Allison came up; his body language suggesting that it More…

The Formula 1 teams have voted against bringing back in-season testing, after a meeting of the Sporting Working Group yesterday. Ferrari, which owns a test track on its doorstep at Maranello as well as the circuit of Mugello in Tuscany, which hosted a test last summer, was keen to see a return of testing and proposed various ideas including some aimed at opportunities to bring new drivers on. But in a vote yesterday, only the Ferrari engined teams for 2014 supported the return of testing, the majority were against it, these did not include Toro Rosso but did include Marussia, More…

Ferrari has decided to cut production of its high-performance road cars by at least 4% this year, despite an increase in sales, as the Italian luxury car manufacturer seeks to preserve the exclusivity of its brand. In 2012, Ferrari sold 7,318 cars but chairman Luca di Montezemolo said the company would look to reduce that figure to below 7,000 vehicles while still aiming to increase profits. Despite the global economic outlook remaining uncertain, Ferrari has seen a growth in revenue of 4% to 551m euros (£433m) in the first quarter of this year. Net profit was 54.7m euros (£46.3m). Ferrari More…

The Lotus F1 team has today announced that technical director James Allison is to leave the team and that Nick Chester has succeeded him as technical director. While Chester’s credentials for the role are unquestionably strong, the loss of an innovator like James Allison is a blow to the team, which has made great progress in the last two years on a significantly lower budget than the other front running teams. Allison is much in demand among the top F1 teams in an engineering arms race as F1 heads to a new formula from 2014 onwards. Under Allison Lotus has More…

The Formula 1 engineers have a love/hate relationship with Circuit de Catalunya; it is the track they know the best from the pre-season testing that has been held there for many years, but it is an enigmatic circuit, always changing with temperature and wind conditions. A car, which flies in the morning, can be uncompetitive in the afternoon, without anything being changed on the car itself. As the first European race of the season it is also a track where teams bring their first major technical update package to the car, which will have taken 10-12 weeks of wind tunnel More…

It has been interesting to note the comments from readers in response to Jenson Button’s point that the team radio extracts of conversations between drivers and teams can lead to a skewed view of what is really happening within a team. Team radio in the live broadcast coverage has been around for a while, but its’s noticeable as a commentator how much more frequently it is employed this season. And without it the drama of Button’s tussle with team mate Sergio Perez in Bahrain or the Red Bull driver’s clash in Malaysia would have been a lesser experience for the More…

JA on F1 technical adviser and former Williams chief engineer Mark Gillan thinks that Mercedes will be hurt by Pirelli’s decision to make a small tweak to the hard tyre compound. Last week the Italian tyre manufacturer said it will change the hard tyre, rather than the soft as expected, to be closer in specification to the 2012 tyre, which would make it more durable. It will likely have a larger working range, so will be more versatile, and Gillan adds that the move will help every other team on the grid except for Mercedes. “Pirelli specified at beginning of season More…

Caterham reserve driver Alexander Rossi will get his first taste of the team’s 2013 Formula 1 challenger when he takes to the wheel in Friday’s first practice for the Canadian Grand Prix. The American was expected to drive the car on Friday morning in Bahrain, but a combination of Heikki Kovalainen returning to the team in a reserve role and Rossi getting a drive for the team’s GP2 outfit meant it didn’t happen. “Obviously the weekends that I’m not doing GP2 I’ll be looking to be drive the F1 car in Friday practice sessions and that will start in Montreal,” More…

McLaren’s Jenson Button has voiced his frustration at the way television companies select team radio messages to broadcast during races because he believes they don’t always tell the full story. Radio messages have become even more of a talking point following the Bahrain Grand Prix where Button, 33, and team mate Sergio Perez, 23, clashed on track and then criticised each other after the race. While battling over fifth place, Perez tapped the back of Button, breaking off part of his front wing, prompting Button to get on the radio and say: “He’s just hit me up the back. Calm More…

Marussia is likely to use Ferrari turbo engines next season when the new regulations come in, according to the team’s technical director Pat Symonds. From 2014, the current 2.4 litre V8s will be dropped in favour of 1.6 litre V6s. Marussia’s current engine supplier Cosworth is pulling out of the sport at the end of the season, which will leave just Ferrari, Renault and Mercedes. “Cosworth has decided it can’t find any commercial justification for building an engine [for 2014] so we have to look elsewhere,” said Symonds in the latest edition of the JA on F1 podcast. “There will More…

The lack of on-track testing in modern Formula 1 means teams rely more heavily on one particular tool – their simulator. It’s essentially a super-advanced computer game and a hydraulically controlled F1 chassis which replicates the experience of driving on-track. And thanks to Red Bull, you could be one of the few people in the world to have the opportunity to have a session in one with guidance from a team expert. It’s part of an initiative to support the reigning world champion’s charity Wings for Life, which funds worldwide research into spinal injury. The charity wants companies and groups More…

Fernando Alonso goes into his home Grand Prix at Barcelona next weekend looking to bounce back from the disastrous Bahrain Grand Prix in which he lost a chance of victory due to a failure on the Drag Reduction System rear wing. It means that after four rounds of 19, he now lies 30 points behind title rival Sebastian Vettel. The fallout from the DRS failure is interesting. According to a statement from Ferrari, “Analysis revealed that the problem was caused by the breakage of a mechanical component within the system. It’s the first problem of its kind on this system More…

Ticket sales for this year’s British Grand Prix are down on this time last year, according to the circuit’s managing director Richard Phillips. There are a number of factors to blame for the slow take up of tickets this year, including lack of British winners in 2013 as well as bad memories and bad publicity hanging over from last year’s event, where torrential rain led to chaos; many fans were asked not to attend on Saturday in order that the operators could repair the circuit’s car parks for race day. Around 400 public events were cancelled in the UK that More…

Rising star James Calado’s chances of making the move up to Formula 1 have been boosted by a deal to be managed by Nicolas Todt, whose All Road Management group manages Felipe Massa, Pastor Maldonado and Jules Bianchi. Nicolas is the son of FIA president Jean Todt and also a shareholder in ART Grand Prix, a front running team in GP2 and other categories. Calado is currently driving for ART GP in the GP2 series. Calado, 23, competed with current Williams F1 driver Valterri Bottas for the GP3 title two seasons ago and last year won two races in his More…

F1 in Schools in the Middle East – Watch this Space! By Steve Nevey F1 technical business expert, formerly with Red Bull Racing As part of my Business Development role with the fabulous F1 in Schools educational initiative, I have the occasional pleasure to meet some of the inspirational students who participate in the program. F1 in Schools is currently active in more that 40 countries, making it a truly Global initiative that encourages children to develop an interest in the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). http://www.f1inschools.com One of the regions where F1 in Schools is really beginning More…

Welcome to the third JA on F1 podcast in our 2013 series. This month we speak to a driver and a team boss, a technical director and the man at the centre of F1′s hottest debate of the moment. Mercedes F1 CEO Toto Wolff tells us how many marks out of 10 he gives his team for their start to 2013, talks about Lewis Hamilton’s impact on the team and whether Ross Brawn is staying; we ask rising Toro Rosso star Daniel Ricciardo about his standout drive in China and his chances of getting a Red Bull seat; we explain More…

This month we ran a competition called “Performance Reinvented”, in conjunction with Shell, giving three lucky winners the chance to do some performance driving with former F1 racer Gimmi Bruni, get into a proper F1 Simulator and to get a ride with Ferrari test driver Giancarlo Fisichella at the launch event of the new Shell V Power Nitro + fuel at London’s Battersea Power Station. We’ve already heard from Rich Gibbons. Here are the other two guest blogs, from long time JA on F1 poster “Hero was Senna” (Carlo Carluccio) and Robin Middleton. Guest Blog by “Hero was Senna” When More…

F1 promoter Bernie Ecclestone has confirmed to the Daily Telegraph that the automatic $10m prizemoney payments made to the “new” teams which entered F1 in 2010 are to end. From now on only the top ten teams will receive money each season. This makes the battle for 10th place in the constructors’ championship more intense than ever, with Caterham and Marussia vying for the final position. Currently Marussia holds 10th place due to Jules Bianchi’s 13th place in Malaysia. When former FIA president Max Mosley pressed for the new teams to enter the sport, Ecclestone agreed to pay them each More…

Former Marussia F1 aero test driver Maria de Villota has been speaking this weekend of her new life, following her life threatening accident at Duxford almost a year ago. De Villota was doing straight line aero tests on the runway at the former WWII airbase when she crashed into the open tailgate of a truck which was parked near the team’s temporary pit awning. Formula 1 held its breath as she underwent a series of vital operations at Adenbrokes Hospital in nearby Cambridge. She suffered a severe head injury, lost her right eye and required 104 stitches in her face. More…

This month we ran a competition called “Performance Reinvented”, in conjunction with Shell, giving three lucky winners the chance to do some performance driving with former F1 racer Gimmi Bruni, get into a proper F1 Simulator and to get a ride with Ferrari test driver Giancarlo Fisichella at the launch event of the new Shell V Power Nitro + fuel at London’s Battersea Power Station. Over the next few days we will share with you their experiences in the form of guest blogs and images. Here’s the first, from long time JA on F1 reader Rich Gibbons. Tyre degradation. Backmarker More…

After weeks of speculation, Pirelli has today announced that it is changing one of the F1 tyres in its range from the Spanish Grand Prix onwards. The hard tyre will be changed to be closer in specification to the 2012 tyre, which would make it more durable. It will likely have a larger working range, so will be more versatile. It was the preferred race tyre in Bahrain at the weekend for most teams. This is a surprise change in some ways, as there was speculation that the soft tyre would be the one to face changes. It proved troublesome More…

While they work behind the scenes on their car ahead of the start of the European season, Mercedes is aiming to be three times faster than the opposition when it comes to the increasingly important area of transferring data from the car at the race track to the factory and back again. And a new deal announced today could ultimately lead to F1 teams taking smaller numbers of staff to the race track in future. Mercedes has become the first F1 team to follow the lead of Formula One Management, which signed a deal last year with Tata Communications, for More…

The Bahrain Grand Prix was another race packed with action and incident, the outcome heavily influenced by race strategy. The drivers who finished in the top ten tried a wide variety of strategies to attain their result, working around the limitations of the medium and hard Pirelli tyres and the intensely high track temperatures. The DRS wing technical problems encountered by Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who started third on the grid, meant that it was a relatively easy win for Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel. But behind him, everyone else was reliant on strategy for their result as we shall see. The More…

The McLaren Group’s electronics business has been awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for its work in international trade. McLaren Electronic Systems (MESL) sells electronics, software and components internationally, with the company saying export sales are up by more than 60% since 2008. MESL is the supplier of the official engine control unit for all teams in the Formula 1 World Championship – a contract which the company has had for 20 years – and also provide the same service to the American Nascar Sprint Cup stock car and IndyCar single-seater series’. Outside of motorsport, the company sells its products – More…

Championship leader Sebastian Vettel says the Sochi Olympic Park Circuit, which will host the inaugural Russian Grand Prix next year, is very impressive. Along with former F1 driver David Coulthard, Red Bull’s Vettel drove part of the track, which is still under construction, in an Infiniti road car a day after winning the Bahrain Grand Prix. The German three-time world champion then toured the venue in Sochi, a southern Russia Black Sea resort near the Caucasus Mountains, with officials from the Russian government. Russia’s first grand prix is scheduled to join the F1 calendar next year at some point after More…

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh is confident Jenson Button and Sergio Perez will be able to move on after the team mates clashed several times in Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix. Perez, who joined McLaren from Sauber this season, has had a lacklustre start to the season, prompting Whitmarsh to tell him earlier this week that he needs to “toughen up” and “use his elbows” – and in Bahrain, the Mexican did just that. The 23-year-old boldly overtook Red Bull’s Mark Webber and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso to show signs of the spark which attracted McLaren to him in the first place. More…

Paul di Resta has sent out a message to his Force India team: “Give me a faster car and I’ll get a podium. The Scot drove an impressive race in Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix, leading at one point and spending much of the grand prix in the top three. However Di Resta was passed by the Lotus of Romain Grosjean, who was on fresher option tyres, in the closing stages and had to settle for fourth. Despite just missing out on the first podium finish of his career, Di Resta told JA on F1 after the race that the team More…

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel became the first driver to win two races this season with an impressive victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix – but behind him, there were countless battles all the way down the field. Kimi Raikkonen bounced back from a disappointing qualifying, which saw him start eighth, to finish second ahead of Lotus team mate Romain Grosjean who secured his first podium of the season. Paul di Resta produced one of the best drives of his career, running in third place in the Force India and on course for his first F1 podium before losing out to More…

Sebastian Vettel pulled off two key overtakes and managed his tyres to perfection to get early control of the Bahrain Grand Prix and take an easy victory, ahead of impressive drives through the field from Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean. It was the same podium as last year’s race, with Vettel again starting on the front row and the Lotus cars being forced to come through the field. After losing his second place to Fernando Alonso at the start of the race, the World Championship leader scythed past the Ferrari in the midfield esses section and promptly set about taking More…

One of the biggest surprises in Saturday’s qualifying session for the Bahrain Grand Prix was the performance of the Lotus cars, with Kimi Raikkonen 9th fastest and Romain Grosjean 11th. They were the pace setters on Friday, set the fourth fastest time in Saturday morning practice and Raikkonen set a competitive Q2 time in 1m 33.146, the third fastest time in that session. So what happened? According to Lotus’ Trackside Operations Director, Alan Permane, the result is something of a mystery. They believed – and many other teams agreed with the view – that Raikkonen could win this race, based More…

Nico Rosberg made it two Mercedes pole positions in as many weeks as he produced a sensational final lap to take the spoils in Bahrain, ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso. It was the second pole position of his career and means that Mercedes and Red Bull have both taken half the pole positions this season. But the race could be a different story. After being off the ultimate pace throughout the weekend’s practice sessions Rosberg showed his speed from the outset of qualifying, although he only topped the times in Q3. And after coming close already this year More…