The Spanish Grand Prix was a perfect example of how a race can be won or lost on the finest of margins and on a good or bad strategy decision. Pastor Maldonado beat Fernando Alonso and won the race for Williams due to planning and to a good strategy call half the way through the race, while Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen again had the car to win, but was a fraction off due to race strategy and conditions and he ended up third. There were several key moments and decisions which decided the outcome of this race. The main one was More…

[Updated] Everyone who follows F1 knows that Ferrari have shown extraordinary level of support to Felipe Massa in the last two and a half years. The little Brazilian almost won the world title for them in 2008 and would have done if they hadn’t lost him a win in the Singapore GP by leaving the fuel hose attached at a pit stop. After his accident in Hungary 2009 they again stood by him, helping him back into the car for 2010. But now, with such a tight field at the front in F1, the signs are that their patience is More…

Williams F1 Team has released a further bulletin on their staff members who were injured in yesterday’s pit garage fire after the team won the Spanish Grand Prix. “Following yesterday’s fire which occurred in the team’s garage after the Spanish Grand Prix, Williams F1 can confirm that a further two team members have now been released from hospital and have returned home having received treatment for smoke inhalation. “One member of the team remains in hospital in Spain having suffered burns in the incident. He is stable and will return to the UK within the next 48 hours to receive More…

Pastor Maldonado’s victory in yesterday’s Spanish Grand Prix as well as strong showings from Grosjean in the last two races and from Sergio Perez in Malaysia is highighting an important point about F1 and the relative state of the drivers. Do we often not give enough credit to the drivers in midfield cars? For years F1 races have been won by an elite of drivers from top teams with perhaps only 7 drivers managing to visit the F1 podium in the course of an entire season. In five races this season, we’ve already had 9 drivers on the podium and More…

[Updated] The FIA is likely to discuss with teams a review into the storage of fuel and the high voltage KERS systems as well as other potentially hazardous materials after a fire broke out in the Williams garage, an hour after the Spanish Grand Prix finished. The Williams team was celebrating its first win since 2004, with Sir Frank Williams in the garage and team members as well as media present having just done a celebratory photograph. The garage was quickly evacuated, but the fire took hold quickly and the garage was gutted. Thick plumes of acrid smoke poured out More…

Pastor Maldonado gave Williams its first F1 win since 2004 with a brilliantly judged victory in the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona, ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen. It was Maldonado’s first win in his 24th Grand Prix start and the first for a Venezuelan. He is the fifth winner and car combination in five Grands Prix, the first time that has happened since 1983. “We are getting better race after race,” said Maldonado. “This is a dream for Venezuela and a great moment for our country.” Maldonado started from pole position after Lewis Hamilton More…

Lewis Hamilton has been excluded from qualifying by the FIA race stewards in Barcelona. It means that he will have to start tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix from the back of the grid. Hamilton had 1.3 litres of fuel in the car on his cool down lap when the McLaren team told him to switch off the engine. The rules say that a car must have 0.5 litres for a sample, plus enough to get the car back to the pits, which is around 2.5 litres on this track. McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh had said that he felt the team would More…

Lewis Hamilton couldn’t believe his luck in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, as not only did he take a dominant pole position, but his main rivals for the win all tripped up in one way or another. However his luck changed after the session as the FIA Technical delegate reported him to the stewards for a fuel quantity irregularity after he stopped out on track on his cool down lap. Tyres were again the dominant story, as teams tried all manner of curious strategies to give themselves the best chance in the race. Sebastian Vettel looked good in practice More…

It’s going to be a very closely contested Spanish Grand Prix, with McLaren looking like the pace setters but Red Bull and Mercedes there on qualifying pace and Lotus right right there on race pace, judging from today’s practice sessions. Jenson Button set the fastest time in Friday’s second free practice session, ahead of Vettel’s Red Bull and Rosberg’s Mercedes, but it was the performance of the Lotus cars of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean (5th and 6th today), which caught the eye on the long runs. They both managed long runs on the soft Pirelli tyre which were both More…

Michael Schumacher said today that he is very pleased to have launched a debate on F1 about what kind of sport we want it to be; one where the drivers push to the limits or one where they have to manage the tyres. And in the paddock today the other F1 drivers have been giving their views on the discussion. The younger ones, who by and large have limited or no experience of racing on the Bridgestones used up to the end of 2010, say that they are quite happy to race on the current tyres. Others have mixed views More…

Thanks to everyone who sent in feedback on the new JA on F1 Connect news site. We’ve had a lot of interaction with you the readers and we’ve taken on board your comments. Many of you are viewing the site on mobile devices and we’re looking at how to optimise that. We’ve also picked a winner at random from the readers who left feedback, who will get two passes for the F1 Paddock Club at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix. The winner’s name is below. JA on F1 Connect is the fastest way to get up to speed on the More…

[Updated] Last year’s Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona was widely heralded as one of the most exciting race finishes of the season, largely due to the way race strategies played out, with an intense battle for the lead in the final laps of the race between Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton. Vettel managed to hold on to take the win. However tyre degradation was very severe last year and after the recent Bahrain Grand Prix there were complaints from Michael Schumacher, as well as from many fans, that the racing is suffering from drivers not been able to push to More…

What is Mercedes’ place in Formula 1? Is it one of the great names of the sport, given that its cars were winning Grands Prix in the 1920s and 30s, before F1 was even invented? Or is is another flighty car manufacturer which comes and goes as it pleases and as the markets dictate and which was absent from the sport from 1955 to 1993? This question is at the forefront of people’s minds at the moment as the German manufacturer is at odds with commercial rights holders CVC and Bernie Ecclestone over its place in the sport and what More…

Today we are launching JA on F1 Connect, THE gateway to F1 news and social media. We hope it will prove to be a valuable tool for F1 fans and professionals alike as a one-stop shop where users can get a full picture of what’s going on in F1. See the latest news from all the major news organisations and F1 websites as well as the latest postings on Facebook, You Tube and Twitter, all in one place. Nowhere else can you take in all the latest F1 news and across social media platforms in one single visit to a More…

It’s been interesting to see how Fernando Alonso has started opening up much more to the public recently, clearly part of a move to address his image in the public’s eyes and to use the social media tools available today to build a better relationship – and a direct one – with fans. This weekend has has taken part in a widescale question and answer session with fans via his Facebook and Twitter accounts. For example Alonso only recently joined Twitter, one of the last of the leading drivers to do so. He now has almost half a million followers. More…

Caterham technical director Mike Gascoyne has been awarded £400,000 in costs as the legal dispute between Force India and 1 Malaysia Racing Team (now known as Caterham, formerly Team Lotus) moved another step closer to conclusion today. In the original judgement in March, the judge found that a copyright infringement had taken place, but that it was not the ‘systematic copying’ which Force India alleged. He found that the windtunnel supplier Aerolab had misused Force India’s confidential information when Team Lotus was in a rush to design its first F1 car ahead of the 2010 F1 season. But he cleared More…

[Updated] “It’s very beautiful and the food is very good, but we are spending a lot of money and honestly we didn’t feel the need to come here,” said Red Bull boss Christian Horner when asked about the usefulness of testing at Mugello in Tuscany. Lotus boss Eric Boullier described the test as “money spent needlessly” while one of Mercedes’ senior engineers told Gazzetta dello Sport, “I wonder about the sense of having just one test session during the season. Either we do more tests or we forget it.” Mark Webber meanwhile said, “It would be amazing to hold a More…

Ferrari knows that it needs more points than it is scoring at the moment from its second car. Last year Felipe Massa scored only 45% of Fernando Alonso’s points tally. This season so far, described as make or break for Massa by both team boss Stefano Domenicali and Ferrari president Luca Montezemolo, Massa has 4% of Alonso’s points. And so rumours have begun to swirl again about the possibility of Ferrari hiring Mark Webber to partner Alonso on a short term contract. The story originated in Spain’s El Confidential, which claimed that the deal was already done and it has More…

The first day on in season testing since 2008 was a bit of an anti-climax today as heavy rain especially in the afternoon, spoiled the chance of much meaningful running or evaluation of development parts. Most of the running was done on either full wet or intermediate tyres. In the morning on a drying track the teams managed to cover some mileage, but in the afternoon the teams and drivers at Mugello in Tuscany competed only to see who could tweet the most graphic photographs of rain. At one point the cloud base was so low that the medical helicopter More…

The new JA on F1 podcast is out today. This month, with a lot of talk about whether the F1 drivers are able to push to the maximum with the current regulations, we take a look at the wider subject of how to get the most out of an F1 driver. Very often you’ll hear that a driver “didn’t get the maximum” from a qualifying session or a race. So why does this happen? How do you avoid on-days and off-days, what are the secrets in terms of preparation, work with engineers and so on? Can a driver be allowed More…

The F1 teams are setting up in the garages of Mugello, near Florence, Italy today ahead of a three day test, which could prove something of a life saver for some of the teams who are in trouble at the moment. When it was announced that there would be an in-season test, for the first time since the Resource Restriction Agreement came into force at the end of 2008, it looked like it would be a very significant three days as it was the teams’ only chance outside of a race weekend; a chance to try development parts and to More…

The Sauber F1 team and Chelsea FC have announced a unique link up between two brands across two sports, designed to increase the reach of both into a new platform and to give added value to sponsors. Also with a shared platform across two of the biggest TV sports in the world, they can offer a joint sponsorship deal to a global brand looking for exposure in both areas. This is something Tony Fernandes has been hoping to achieve by owning both the Caterham and Queens Park Rangers teams. According to the Sauber statement, “In concrete terms, this (the deal) More…

Pirelli boss Paul Hembery has responded to criticism from fans and drivers that the tyres are too big a talking point in F1 at the moment, saying that the situation will resolve itself soon and the tyres will become less significant. This week has seen a flood of comment on this site and elsewhere following Michael Schumacher’s criticisms of the tyres in Bahrain. The 7 times champion said that drivers were unable to push to the limit on the 2012 tyres and added, “I just question whether the tyres should play such a big importance, or whether they should last More…

The Bahrain Grand Prix was another example of close racing with uncertain outcomes, dependent on race strategy, which has already come to characterise the 2012 F1 season. Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull became the fourth different car/driver winning combination in four races, showing not only how closely matched the teams are, but also how delicate the balancing act is in getting the strategy right on the Pirelli tyres. In just four races we have already had eight different drivers on the podium, more than in the whole of 2011. Bahrain’s Sakhir circuit provided the sternest test yet of the tyres, More…

There has been some movement in the future shape of the F1 calendar with confirmation from Bernie Ecclestone that from next year onwards Valencia and Barcelona will share a slot. And at the same time he said that a deal has been concluded for France to return to the schedule, in a deal alternating with the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa. “The deal is done,” said Ecclestone. “We agreed the financial terms last Tuesday with the minster of sport, David Douillet. As soon as France is ready, we will sign.” The sign off for the French Grand Prix is clearly More…

Pirelli have reacted to Michael Schumacher’s attack on their 2012 tyres, saying that other drivers “were getting on with the job and getting their tyres to work.” Schumacher suffered a frustrating weekend in Bahrain, with technical problems in qualifying relegating him to the back of the field. He took a tactical gearbox change, which moved him back to 22nd place and although he made a great start and had all new sets of tyres for the race, he only managed to finish 10th. “The main thing I feel unhappy about is everyone has to drive well below a driver’s, and More…

Sebastian Vettel produced a faultless drive from pole position to win the Bahrain Grand Prix ahead of the the two Lotus cars of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean. This is Red Bull Racing’s first victory of 2012 and makes it four different winners in as many races this season. It was Vettel’s 22nd career F1 victory and his first of the season. He is the fourth different winner in four races. If Vettel’s pace in qualifying was a surprise, it was the Lotus’ performance on race day which caught the eye. Raikkonen, starting in 11th place, had a chance to More…

FIA president Jean Todt has carefully avoided making public comment on the security and political situation around this year’s Bahrain Grand Prix, leaving most of the talking to Bernie Ecclestone. However today he broke his silence to speak to the BBC and said that, despite widespread protests and a security scare for Force India mechanics, there had been no compelling reason to call the race off. There was, he said, “nothing (that) could allow us to stop the race. On rational facts, it was decided there was no reason to change our mind.” An activist has been found dead in More…

Sebastian Vettel claimed his first pole position of 2012 in Bahrain today as he made the most of two runs in the final part of qualifying to beat Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber in an eventful session. It was a day for not making any mistakes, particularly front wheel lock ups under braking and for getting the perfect lap as the soft tyres were only good for one lap. Vettel is the third different pole sitter in four races. It was his 31st career pole position. Red Bull has led just one racing lap in the first three Grands Prix More…

The first day’s running at the Sakhir circuit took place against in an edgy atmosphere as, for the first time in this Bahrain saga, events outside the circuit had a direct effect on the running of the Grand Prix. Force India decided not to run in second practice, to respect the wishes of their staff who have expressed concern about their safety travelling back from the circuit at night. They came under pressure to revise their decision over the lunch break, but clearly there is a lot of anxiety among team members, especially as there appears to have been a More…

The F1 paddock went about its everyday business today, media briefings, team managers’ meetings, all gearing up for Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton says that he’s a better man in 2012 for his difficult years, Sebastian Vettel says that he’s going to use the new specification Red Bull exhausts, Michael Schumacher says that Mercedes’ challenge is to hit the sweet spot on the race tyres, like they did in China. The Grand Prix is moving up into gear. Everywhere there are banners proclaiming that Bahrain is “UniF1ied”, while the slogan “back on track” is also evident. It’s quite surprising More…

There are quite a few unknowns going into this race weekend. Sakhir circuit has been modified from the 2010 event, without the extra loop, which was added just for that event. This means the track is shorter by just under a kilometer and four braking zones have been removed. The last time this layout was used there was still refueling in F1, so the strategy for this year will be completely new. With lots of corners following each other and a heavy car at the start of the race, Bahrain is one of the toughest circuits of the year on More…

The UBS Chinese Grand Prix was a thrilling race, despite the comfortable winning margin for Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes. Race strategy was crucial to the outcome and we also learned a lot about how F1 has changed in 2012, with the field closing up on performance, so the top teams can no longer rely on building gaps over the midfield to drop nicely into after pit stops. The leading teams will have to work much harder than last year on creative race strategy and the drivers will have to do a lot more overtaking. During Friday’s Free Practice 2 More…

Nico Rosberg joined the exclusive club of drivers who have converted their first pole position into their first victory with a dominant performance in Shanghai. It was Mercedes first win as a constructor since 1955. And it meant that team boss Ross Brawn has now won races as a senior manager with four different teams, a unique achievement. Rosberg produced a faultless drive and it gave him that elusive first win after one-hundred and eleven starts, and the first for the Silver Arrows since 1955. Rosberg completed the race twenty seconds clear of the McLaren duo of Jenson Button and More…

Mercedes will have an all Silver Arrows front row in tomorrow’s Chinese Grand Prix, the first time this has happened since their comeback as a constructor in 2010. Nico Rosberg took an emotional first F1 pole position, in his 111th Grand Prix, while Michael Schumacher moves up to join him on the front row after Lewis Hamilton is demoted five places on the grid tomorrow, from second to seventh, due to a forced gearbox change penalty. “It went really well and it’s a very special feeling,” Rosberg said. “Now obviously l am looking forward to starting first in the race! More…

Yesterday’s robust announcement from the F1 authorities and teams that the Bahrain Grand Prix will go ahead appears to have galvanised opposition and provoked a reaction on the streets of the Gulf state. A planned funeral march for Ahmed Ismail, a protestor who was shot by security forces last week, turned violent while there were strong words of condemnation from human rights groups and activists in the country. A report by AP for the American ABC network featured the following passage, ‘ “No F1, no F1. … They killed my son in cold blood,” sobbed Ismail’s mother, Makyia Ahmed, who More…

Michael Schumacher topped the time sheets this afternoon in the drier of the two practice sessions, but the indications from the long runs and analysis of lap times is that McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton is the man to beat this weekend. The McLaren driver has confirmed that he will have to move five places back on the grid from where he qualifies, due a forced gearbox change, but in terms of car pace he looked the fastest today. Hamilton set the fastest time in the damp morning session and then finished second behind Schumacher in the afternoon session, with the Red More…

The FIA has released a statement this morning, before the teams and Bernie Ecclestone have had their scheduled 12-30pm meeting, designed to stop speculation about the Bahrain Grand Prix taking place next week. After a long silence over the subject of Bahrain, this statement puts the governing body shoulder to shoulder with the Bahraini authorities and states in the clearest terms that the race will go ahead next week. The timing is interesting for another reason; in that region Friday is a day when protests typically take place after prayers, so there will be close attention paid to the reaction More…

[Updated] After two Grands Prix of phoney war and back room discussions, Lotus F1 came out and lodged a formal protest against the Mercedes F Duct front wing system in Shanghai. A hearing involving both teams took place at 17-15pm local time on Thursday in the FIA stewards’ room at the circuit. The stewards rejected the protest and Lotus has made it clear it will not appeal the decision. The system sheds drag from the front wing when the driver activates the DRS rear wing, by means of a pair of pipes which channel the air forwards through the chassis More…

[Updated] In the paddock at Shanghai today the talk is all on one subject: the Bahrain Grand Prix and whether it will take place next week. Although an emerging protest into the Mercedes front wing looks like it will soon take some of the spotlight off the politics. The Bahrain situation is now acquiring an acute feel to it, with many team members and media due to fly from Shanghai to Bahrain in little over 72 hours time. The teams are clearly very concerned about the event and looking to the FIA for leadership. FIA president Jean Todt will arrive More…

There is a Grand Prix this weekend in China, but it’s the one the following Sunday in Bahrain which is dominating the headlines and looks set to dominate the agenda in Shanghai this weekend as well. One of the leading opponents of the Bahraini ruling regime yesterday predicted “violence” on the streets of the country if the Formula 1 Grand Prix goes ahead next week. Speaking in a discussion on BBC Radio 4′s PM programme, in which I also took part, Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, said, “I’m afraid that it will turn to violence.. More…

Next weekend is the Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai. Strategy decisions for this race are always on a knife edge; there are several ways to do the race, especially with the cars being close together on performance this year and with the two Pirelli tyre compounds also being close on performance. And after what happened in Malaysia, teams will be working hard in Friday practice to understand how the tyres are likely to perform on long runs and in qualifying. This year getting the right car set up to deal with both is proving very tricky, largely thanks to the More…

[Updated 9 April] “No one will enjoy the F1 in Bahrain with cries for freedom from the inside and outside of the race,” a protester in Manama told Associated Press today, as activists turned up the pressure on the Grand Prix, due to take place on April 22nd, to be called off. Protests have started to focus on the race itself with anti-F1 slogans and imagery graffitied on walls. On April 8th, according to the Financial Times, a group of youth activists called ‘February 14th Youth Coalition’, said “it would not be able to “ensure the safety” of Formula 1 More…

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn says that the team has understood why its qualifying and race performances have been so imbalanced this season and that he is willing to give up some qualifying pace to have stronger races. Mercedes has scored just one point so far this season from a potential maximum of 86, and trails McLaren by 54 points already. This is despite qualifying one car in the top two rows of the grid at both races. Mercedes issued a pre-race bulletin today with some findings from the first races, which showed that they were caught out by not More…

Over the past couple of weeks the majority of F1 teams have reached commercial agreements with Bernie Ecclestone to stay in the sport until 2020. Next will come a process by which other details of the next Concorde Agreement will be generated. One of the most important aspects of securing a stable sport will be agreeing the best method of cost control going forward. Ecclestone has been pushing recently the thorny subject of budget caps and it’s interesting to note that on the official F1 site today, Sauber CEO Monisha Kaltenborn endorses the idea. Kaltenborn says that the Resource Restriction More…

Updated – After the messages of reassurance from Bahrain GP organisers this week and the show of the support from the F1 bosses and teams, events on the ground in the country this weekend have raised further questions about what might happen over the next three weeks as we count down to the scheduled race date of April 22nd. Protests this weekend saw a fatality as local militia shot dead a man who, according to a Reuters report quoting the man’s cousin, was “taking pictures of a demonstration when what he described as “militia members” in an unmarked car opened More…

Toro Rosso refugee Jaime Alguersuari has been hired as test driver by Pirelli, giving him a platform from which to try to return to an F1 cockpit in 2013. The 22 year old was dropped by Toro Rosso in mid December 2011, giving him no time to find a seat for the 2012 season. He has been working this season for BBC Radio 5 Live as my co-commentator and driver/summariser. Pirelli has also retained the services of Lucas di Grassi to provide a reference point from the tests conducted so far. According to Pirelli, “Both drivers will drive Pirelli’s latest More…

Thanks to all the JA on F1 followers who downloaded the first podcast in February and for taking it to number 1 on ITunes in several countries, including the UK. The new podcast, Episode 2: March, is now available. This month with the new F1 season off to a great start with races in Australia and Malaysia and China up next, we take a look at F1 in Asia. With six races on the current calendar, why has the region become so important to F1? Is the sport managing to build a fanbase in Asia? And what is the best More…

Today at a lunch at the RAC Club in London the organisers of the Bahrain Grand Prix met with Bernie Ecclestone, several leading F1 team principals and journalists to discuss the forthcoming Bahrain Grand Prix. The message from Bahrain and from the F1 teams was clear: the race is on, despite continuing flare ups of protest in the country and rumours of impending cancellation which have surfaced from time to time during the first two Grands Prix of the season. Many of the people who work in the sport have privately expressed concern about the race taking place. The Bahrainis More…

Both the Ferrari drivers went back to Maranello from Kuala Lumpur for meetings and discussions about the first two races and the way forward. Interestingly Malaysian GP winner Fernando Alonso had two meetings with Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, a long one on Monday and another yesterday. Alonso participated in the ceremony whereby a flag is raised at the factory gate after a race victory, but while the Spanish driver’s stock is as high as it has even been within the team after winning a Grand Prix in arguably F1′s fifth or sixth fastest car, it has served only to More…

The Malaysian Grand Prix provided us with an exciting glimpse of what we can expect in 2012, from a racing and strategy point of view. We saw also a phenomenon which could provide the key to the season for whoever wins the title; the ability to be fast on all types of tyre in all conditions. Because judging from the Sepang race, even more so than Melbourne, all the teams are finding it hard to manage that. Hamilton, the pole sitter, for example, wasn’t particularly fast in any condition, while the Sauber was very quick on used intermediates and hard More…

Red Bull driver Mark Webber has been immortalised in a waxwork at the new Madame Tussaud’s which will open in Sydney in May. “When Madame Tussauds approached me about including me in their Sydney collection, I was rapt,” Webber said. “It was fun working with the team in London to make a second version of myself, particularly my varying five o’clock shadow. “I think it’s an incredible and accurate representation and I’m still amazed at how perfectly they matched everything, particularly my eyes, which is spooky.” Madame Tussaud’s has been producing lifelike waxwork figures for over 250 years. Initially the More…

Fernando Alonso produced a scintillating performance today, with the Ferrari strategists and pits crew making all the right moves, to win a rain hit Malaysian Grand Prix. The track has always been good to the Spaniard; he took his first pole position and podium here and has won the race twice before. But even he had to admit that he was lucky not to lose the victory in the closing stages to 22 year old Sergio Perez, who was challenging for the lead with seven laps to go but made a mistake, losing four seconds and giving Alonso breathing space More…

The physical challenge of driving in the Malaysian Grand Prix is often overlooked, because it’s not obvious to the spectator watching on TV. Now in its 14th year on the F1 calendar, Sepang has always been one of the toughest races of the season on drivers. With ambient temperatures of 32 degrees and 70% humidity, the drivers lose around 3 litres of body fluid in sweat. Since Singapore joined the calendar in 2008 that has established itself as the hardest and bumped Malaysia down to number two. I’ve heard drivers say that they are almost crying with pain in the More…

Lewis Hamilton grabbed his second consecutive pole position of the season at the Malaysian Grand Prix in a closely fought final shootout which saw the top eight cars covered by 0.4 seconds. Hamilton is joined on the front-row by his McLaren team-mate Jenson Button, making it consecutive races that they have locked out the front of the grid. But Hamilton knows only too well that it’s vital that he leads out of the first corner in the race and doesn’t get mugged by Button, as he did in Melbourne. The threat of the Mercedes was intense throughout the session as More…

Today Bernie Ecclestone announced that the “majority” of the current F1 teams have agreed a deal to stay in the sport, which will lead to a new Concorde Agreement starting next January. “I am very pleased to announce that we have reached commercial agreements with the majority of the current Formula One teams, including Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull Racing, about the terms on which they will continue competing in Formula One after the current Concorde Agreement expires at the end of this year.” This begs the questions, who is holding out and how many are in the majority? The More…

Free practice on Friday ahead of Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix showed that, once again, the McLarens remain the team to beat. But the Mercedes looks quick too and the Red Bulls’ long run pace hints at the threat they could pose on Sunday, as long as they don’t give up too much ground in qualifying. And after Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton’s opening round battle in Melbourne, we are set for another one here. In Melbourne Button set up his car with more wing than Hamilton’s to take care of the tyres in the race, while Hamilton took the pole. More…

A judgement has come out in the Force India legal case against Caterham over alleged intellectual property theft – and both sides are claiming a win. Force India issued a statement this morning saying that the judge had found “Team Lotus (now known as Caterham) and Aerolab liable for copyright infringement and using confidential information respectively. Some parts created using Force India confidential information were used on the Team Lotus race cars in the early part of the 2010 season.” Force India has referred the judgement to the FIA, who fined McLaren $100 million for taking Ferrari Intellectual Property in More…

This weekend F1 is straight back on track for the second round of the world championship at Sepang in Malaysia. The teams will be dealing with a different kind of track, one with high energy corners, longer straights and one that punishes the tyres far more than Melbourne. This Briefing is designed to give you the readers a closer understanding of what the teams aim to get right when approaching the race in terms of preparation and strategy planning. Our Race Strategy Calculator has now been reset with Malaysia settings. This includes a sophisticated tyre model based on the performance More…

The Australian Grand Prix got the new season off to a great start and showed that the race strategy side is going to be as vital as ever to a good outcome. In this first Strategy Report of the year we will look at how Jenson Button was able to dominate the race by taking priority in strategy decision making at McLaren, while Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull used good strategy and a piece of opportunism with the safety car to steal second place away from Lewis Hamilton. We will also see how, for the second consecutive year, Sauber’s Sergio More…

Race day did not match expectations for the Ferrari team in Australia – it exceeded them. Fernando Alonso’s fifth place finish – essentially the position his Ferrari was in for much of last season in qualifying – was a very strong result from 12th on the grid. It is fair to say that the lowly grid slot was due to Alonso spinning off the track in Part 2 of Qualifying and he would probably have been more like seventh or eighth on the grid in a clean session. But Alonso’s result also put the spotlight on his team mate’s difficulties More…

Jenson Button won an dramatic Australian Grand Prix ahead of Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, with Lewis Hamilton dropping from pole position to third at the flag. Hamilton was disconsolate afterwards, while Button was delighted having won the bragging rights within the team at the outset of the season. It was Button’s 13th career victory and his third here in Melbourne and it was all done at the first corner, where he dived down the inside of Hamilton to take the lead. He managed to survive a late safety car, which cut his 10 second lead to nothing, while Vettel and More…

If this is what the 2012 F1 season is going to be like, we are in for a very exciting championship. Today in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne the form book of 2011 was overturned as Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber struggled to get on terms with the McLarens in particular. Lewis Hamilton pulled out a tremendous lap early in the final part of qualifying to issue a ‘catch me if you can’ message to his rivals. Jenson Button did a very good second lap to get to just over a tenth of a second More…

Welcome to the Race Strategy Calculator, brought to you by UBS. This is an exciting new development in our Race Strategy programme, aimed at giving you the fan a closer understanding of how Formula 1 teams calculate the best strategy for a Grand Prix race. Here you will find a step by step guide to the major considerations when planning a race strategy, such as tyre choice and the length of time it takes to make a stop. However the clever part is a sophisticated tyre model, which simulates the Pirelli tyre wear and the resulting drop off in performance. More…

After all the hype and the build up to the new season it was rather a frustrating first day of the new season in Melbourne. Rain affected both sessions, the second one more than the first and the amount of dry running was limited. Michael Schumacher set the fastest time in the afternoon on a drying track; not hugely significant in itself save for the impression that the 43 year old seven times champion is excited by this new Mercedes and the step closer to the front that it represents. Red Bull looked like they were carrying lots of fuel More…

The F1 paddock was in full swing today as the new season got underway in Melbourne. The atmosphere was positive, with everyone looking forward to what should be a closely fought championship. But as always there are undertones of problems in the offing. And the weather threw up some surprises with rain storms in the afternoon and evening. More are forecast. Whatever happens from here this is an historic season already for two reasons; it’s the first time there have been six world champions in the field and it’s the longest ever F1 season with 20 races. Although there are More…

How will the teams approach the first race of the season? What difference will the new Pirelli tyres make to the racing? Will there be more stops or less? What is the likelihood of a safety car in Melbourne? You will find the answers here. The new season kicks off this week ‘Down Under at Melbourne’s Albert Park and we welcome back the JA on F1 Race Strategy content strand, in partnership with UBS, which was so popular last season. For each race we will produce a pre-race briefing and a post race analysis. The content is prepared by JA More…

On the eve of the new F1 season Michael Schumacher has said that he is still one of the sport’s top draws and expects to compete for podiums this season in the new Mercedes. Speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport the seven times world champion said, “I was out (of F1) for three years, I’m now 43 and I don’t know if I can compare myself to when I was 30. But I know I’m still one of the best in the world, that I’m motivated, that I enjoy myself and that most people are happy to have me still in More…

There are some interesting things going on behind the scenes in F1 at the moment which could have a significant bearing on the ownership of the sport in the future. It has been revealed that 15% of the shares in F1′s holding company will soon come up for sale. At the same time the media regulator in the UK has said that it is ramping up its probe into whether NewsCorp and James Murdoch pass the “fit and proper person” test for controlling BSKYB, which now has the UK F1 TV rights. Mr Murdoch is still chairman of BSKYB. According More…

Luca di Montezemolo, the president of Ferrari, has publicly entered the debate about the problems the new F2012 has been having in testing, increasing the pressure on the technical team hurrying to find the remedy. Speaking in Geneva ahead of the launch of the new F12 Berlinetta, the most powerful road going Ferrari ever with 740 horsepower (similar to an F1 car) he said, “I spoke to Alonso and he said that that there are many positive features on the car, but it will take time to unlock their potential. It’s a car still to be discovered and only in More…

Jaime Alguersuari was unveiled today as the final member of the BBC Radio 5 Live presentation team for 2012. The 21 year old from Barcelona will be my co-commentator, with Jennie Gow the pitlane reporter. Today in London the BBC teams from TV and Radio did a press day, meeting with journalists from web and newspapers. Alguersuari comes to broadcasting after two and a half years as a driver with Toro Rosso; last year he had a strong second half of the season, as he took the improved Toro Rosso and made some bold strategies work for him. The key More…

The winter testing season is at an end; the next time most F1 teams will fire up the engines will be on Friday morning practice in Melbourne less than two weeks from now. And the picture that has emerged from testing is pretty much as it has seemed throughout the month of track action: Red Bull lead the way and are likely to fight against McLaren initially, while a group of four or five teams look quite close together on pace with Mercedes and Lotus at the head, Force India in the mix and Ferrari struggling. Ferrari has looked in More…

The penultimate day of testing before the start of the new F1 season saw a dramatic piece of theatre from Red Bull Racing, who had such a significant upgrade package they needed to ship out a new car to Spain. The real Red Bull RB8 stood up in the pitlane and now the opposition know what they are up against. And by leaving it so late, Red Bull have not given the opposition much time to study their design and copy it. Under FOTA single car testing rules, this required permission from other teams, which was granted and the car More…

Lotus driver Romain Grosjean set the pace again on Day 2 in Barcelona, setting the fastest time of the day in 1m 22.614, but he also managed 124 laps in the day including a race simulation which impressed onlookers. Grosjean said,”I’m very happy with the car, and it was great that we could still run strongly at the end of the session, even after a long stint.” Team mate Kimi Raikkonen takes over tomorrow in the car for the remainder of the test. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso managed the Scuderia’s first race distance simulation this afternoon, after Felipe Massa’s attempt yesterday. More…

Sir Frank Williams, who oversaw the eight world constructors’ championships for his team between 1980 and 1997, has taken another step back with the announcement today that he is to step down from the board of the team he founded. This highly phased process follows on from his partner Patrick Head withdrawing from the F1 team at the end of last year. Williams, who will be 70 years old next month, described it as “the next stage in the gradual, but inevitable process of handing over the reins”. He remains team principal for the moment, but that will surely change More…

The final pre season test got underway today in Barcelona. The test will last four days and its the last chance for teams to test new parts ahead of the first Grand Prix in Melbourne. Teams worked mainly on set up and in the afternoon many focussed on long runs when the track conditions were stable. Lotus has bounced back from the shock of missing last week’s test due to a chassis construction issue. Romain Grosjean set the fastest time of the day on a soft tyre run, ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button. After a difficult first two tests, where More…

Here is something I really hope you enjoy: it’s the first JA on F1 podcast. This is a new content strand for us and we’re really excited about it; at the end of every month we will produce a new podcast with input from the big names in the sport as well as from names you don’t get to hear so often. We aim to give F1 fans a rounded insight into the sport, bringing them closer to the sport and taking into the audio arena what we’ve been doing for years in text. Thanks to our partners at UBS More…

This week in Barcelona the F1 teams will have their final chance to test the new cars before shipping them off to Australia for the first race, which is just over two weeks from now. The test starts on Thursday and runs to Sunday. It’s a crucial opportunity to put the planned development updates on the car which will be used in Melbourne and it should give us a clearer indication of who starts where at the opening of the season. It is however important to point out that there is likely to be a lot of movement from the More…

I have two pairs of tickets to give away to see the BAFTA award winning film “Senna” on the BFI IMAX screen in London’s Waterloo. After doing very well at the box office, the film, which has now scooped 17 awards and counting, is doing a very short run at the IMAX: Today – Tuesday 28 February (21:15hrs), Thursday 1 March (21:15hrs) and Sunday 4 March (18:30hrs). The JA on F1 tickets, courtesy of Universal and the film’s writer Manish Pandey, are for the Thursday 1 March show. Apologies to readers outside the UK, or who are unable to reach More…

The second pre-season test drew to a close today in Barcelona with all the leading teams focussing on longer runs and not on setting headline lap times. The next test will be the one where we see the definitive Melbourne specifications and there is no doubt that for most teams there are some big updates coming. This is certainly true for Red Bull and McLaren, no doubt for Ferrari and Mercedes too. Mark Webber certainly hinted that Red Bull has some big changes in the pipeline, “We have a lot of work to do back in Milton Keynes over the More…

Sebastian Vettel has been honoured by his nation, Germany, in a ceremony in the capital Berlin. The double world champion travelled there on Wednesday after completing his two days test in Barcelona to receive the Silver Bay Laurel Leaf, a sports award issued by the office of the President. According to Wikipedia, “The Silberne Lorbeerblatt (Silver Bay Laurel Leaf) is the highest sports award in Germany. It had been endowed on June 23, 1950 by the German President Theodor Heuss. To be honored with the Silberne Lorbeerblatt an athlete or a team has to be nominated by the president of More…

Bernie Ecclestone was in a jocular mood this morning when a few of us caught up with him after the Tata Communications announcement for a chat on the issues of the moment. With most of the “Fleet Street” UK national newspaper representatives present, Ecclestone knew that they would need some eye catching news lines to get space in the papers for the story of the day and he didn’t disappoint. The highlight for me was after he had made numerous reassurances that Bahrain’s GP would go ahead in April, that there would be no protests, that the teams were all More…

The penultimate day of the Barcelona test saw the Mercedes team complete a race distance on the new W03 car, which is quite impressive for a car which only began serious testing this week. Michael Schumacher was at the wheel in the afternoon to complete a simulation, featuring live pit stops. Mercedes say the car has now done a total of 1700 kilometres, with a few niggles, but on the whole it’s been pretty reliable. “We have definitely improved our game which is what we wanted to achieve,” said Schumacher. “To what extent, we can only see later, but I More…

“It’s the most significant moment for F1 since the advent of satellites,” says Eddie Baker, the man responsible for broadcasting F1 TV and data around the world. Today in London, F1′s commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone unveiled a deal which will transform the way live F1 races are broadcast and all forms of digital content are consumed. It’s the key which opens up a door onto a new era for F1. Satellite TV revolutionised the sport in the late 1970s, by making it possible for millions of fans to watch races live around the world. This was Ecclestone’s first revolution, providing More…

Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull continue to be the team to beat as the F1 testing season reached the half way point today. I was trackside today in Barcelona, getting a first view of the 2012 cars in anger and sounding out the feeling of teams and engineers up and down the paddock. On Day two of the second of three tests, the Red Bull carried out a race simulation run in the afternoon. It wasn’t spectacular, which gave other teams some encouragement, but the car clearly works in all conditions and is fast and well balanced. It picks up More…

Mercedes this morning officially unveiled its 2012 car, with team principal Ross Brawn describing it as “detailed and sophisticated” and highlighting the very close integration of the AMG engine and chassis departments in Brixworth and Brackley as key to the progress the team has made. “We’ve set our objectives over the winter and we’ve met most of them,” said Brawn, who admits that he has only two ambitions left in motorsport: to see Michael Schumacher take a 92nd Grand Prix win and to see Nico Rosberg win his first. The W03 got down to intensive testing alongside its peers following More…

An interesting move today was made by Williams, which is going into the season with Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna as its drivers. The pair have just 45 Grands Prix starts between them and Williams clearly feels that it will be advantageous to have an experienced head like Wurz in the garage, as a driver mentor. The Austrian, who runs his own driver coaching business called Test & Training International, masterminds the FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy, now in its second year. Wurz, who took three podiums in his 69 race F1 career, will attend the races this season More…

Ferrari has posted the strongest sales figures in its history, despite the economic squeeze and the worsening euro crisis. The luxury sports car maker broke through €2 billion in sales for the first time in 2011, reporting a net profit of €209 million. This was on sales of 7,195 cars, the most that Maranello has produced and sold in a year and almost 10% up on the 2010 sales figures. Interestingly, although the USA remains the leading market, sales in China increased 62% and the country has moved straight into second position. And despite the anxiety in Europe, sales in More…

The news that Jarno Trulli has lost his drive to Vitaly Petrov means that there will be no Italian driver in the F1 field for the first time since 1969. For the country which gave the world Ferrari, Maserati, the Mille Miglia, Ascari and so many other motorsport legends, it’s hard to believe that there will be no driver on the grid in 2012. France, where the sport was born and which gave the name “Grand Prix” to the F1 events, went through the same thing recently. Now they are represented again with Grosjean, Pic and Vergne, while it is More…

The car everyone is waiting to see is the new Mercedes, which will make its debut alongside its rivals at the Barcelona test next week. Yesterday Mercedes shook it down at Silverstone and issued another “teaster” of the car, this time a video which gives little away about the nose of the car, but shows the concept of the main monocoque, which is very scooped out on top. Red Bull design guru Adrian Newey suspects that this car may hold some design secret everyone will soon be copying, perhaps something to do with a front wing F Duct, perhaps another More…

The first pre season test of 2012 concluded yesterday and although it’s too early in the game to draw conclusions on the pecking order in terms of outright pace, it is possible to look at what some of the front running cars managed in comparable circumstances. Here we will look closely at some comparisons. One of the headlines is that Pirelli have done an excellent job with the first stage of development of their tyres. Engineers and drivers alike are full of praise for them. The 2012 tyres are more durable and offer good grip. This was particularly evident when More…

Fresh from winning the Evening Standard Film Award for the Best Documentary Film, the Senna movie is now odds on favourite to win a prestigious BAFTA award at the ceremony this Sunday 12 February at the Royal Opera House in London. And the distributors, Universal Pictures, have announced that there will be a very special set of screenings of the film on a giant IMAX screen at the British Film Institute in London. For those not familiar with IMAX, the key is not just the quality of the image but its enormous size. According to Wikipedia, “A standard IMAX screen More…

Formula 1 has six world champions in the field this year and today three of them stepped out of their cars, having done the early test work while three others stepped in. It was the turn of Alonso, Vettel and Hamilton to get their first taste of the Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren respectively. Meanwhile Nico Rosberg came in for Michael Schumacher in the Mercedes and continued to set the pace; the German running the same 2011 specification car with the blown diffuser as the team builds up data on the new generation Pirelli tyres. Rosberg did his fastest time More…

A group of politicians from the British House of Parliament, especially the House of Lords, has written an open letter to the Times newspaper today calling for the FIA to cancel the forthcoming Bahrain Grand Prix, scheduled for April 22nd. Last year’s race had to be cancelled due to political uprisings in the country and attempts by the FIA and F1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone to reinstate the race later in the season were thwarted by the teams refusing to go. The FIA’s rules state that if an event is called off within three months of taking place it cannot More…

In today’s second day of testing at Jerez ahead of the start of the 2012 F1 season it was Michael Schumacher who set the pace, following on from Kimi Raikkonen’s performance yesterday. This test marks the first occasion the pair have shared a race track since 2006, when Schumacher retired and Raikkonen took his drive at Ferrari. The seven times world champion was at the wheel of the 2011 Mercedes, the only top team not to bring its new car to the first test. After some early fast laps by Red Bull’s Mark Webber, Schumacher lowered the bar set by More…

JA on F1′s favourite photographer, Darren Heath, has opened an exhibition of his best 2011 photographs at the Collyer Bristow Gallery in London. The exhibition runs from 6th to 16th February. Darren is widely regarded as one of Formula 1′s most creative and experienced photographers. A multi award winner, he has been the chosen photographic partner of JA on F1 since its inception in 2009 and a great supporter of the site. The exhibition features many stunning images of Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and others in action at many of last year’s Grands Prix. The artwork More…

Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest time at Jerez, as winter testing ahead of the 2012 F1 season kicked off in earnest. In total there were 11 teams running in Jerez, with only Marussia not present. Most teams were giving their new cars a debut outing, however both Mercedes and HRT were running 2011 specification cars. Both Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher got a chance to run in the Mercedes today. Raikkonen wanted to start strongly and send out a positive message and he certainly did that; he was straight into the groove, after his two day outing in Valencia in More…

Despite losing their technical director a few days before the first test of the 2012 season, Sauber is ready to go with its C31, which ran today in Jerez. Kamui Kobayashi covered an impressive 106 laps, the most of any of the new cars. Like many 2012 cars, the C31 is an evolution of the 2011 car, but there is one significant difference. Like their friends and allies at Ferrari, who supply the engines, the team has switched to pullrod suspension, albeit only at the rear. Ferrari has gone for pullroad suspension front and rear, which is much more edgy. More…

On the day that Toro Rosso began testing its new F1 car, the team’s former driver Jaime Alguersuari has told his side of the story of how he was abruptly dropped by the team. Alguersuari, who looks likely to appear in the F1 paddock this year as reserve driver for Mercedes, thought he had been given verbal confirmation before the end of the season that his seat at Toro Rosso was secure. But two weeks after the last race he was told that he was out. Speaking on his own website the Spaniard said, “On December 13th, when Red Bull More…

Red Bull Racing today unveiled the RB8, the car with which it will defend its world championship crown. It is a development of a car whose DNA goes back to the RB5 of 2009, but adapted to the new regulations banning exhaust blown diffusers and stiplulating a low nose. Like many of its rival teams, Red Bull’s designers have gone for a step down to the low nose, keeping the main chassis level high, to improve airflow to the vanes, around the sidepods and to the floor or the car. Red Bull were the team that led the way in More…