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…

Sauber has lost its technical director, James Key, just weeks before the start of the new F1 season. The Englishman made a similar unexpected move before, announcing in late February 2010 that he was leaving Force India to take up the position at Sauber. When he started work there, after a short gardening leave, he helped to stabilise the Swiss team after a start to the season riddled with reliability and performance problems. Sauber was struggling to adjust from being a manufacturer backed team under BMW to being a privateer again. In both the last two seasons Sauber scored 44 More…

When we look back on the 2012 F1 season in photos and yearbooks, we will wince at the ugliness of the cars, especially the nose sections. Luckily it won’t last long, it’s a passing phase, because in 2014 the new rules mean a totally new generation of F1 cars. Ferrari, arguably F1′s most stylish brand, has today unveiled the F2012. It’s a car whose nose is aesthetically challenged, but if it’s fast, no-one at Maranello will care about that. And it needs to be fast, because this needs to be the year Ferrari gets back into the winners’ circle on More…

Sahara Force India revealed its new car today at a freezing cold Silverstone, with a young dynamic driver line up and an ambitious target; to attain fifth place in the constructors’ championship. Paul di Resta, Nico Hulkenberg and third driver Jules Bianchi look a potent force, with Force India’s proven system of developing young drivers through the Friday morning practice sessions working on several levels. It helps to bring through young drivers and to give them valuable track time, helping them to get race sharp and it puts constant pressure on the race drivers, which keeps them sharp and it More…

Here is something a bit different, which will hopefully give fans a flavour of the McLaren 2012 car launch yesterday. It’s an opportunity to listen to the audio of the media group interviews conducted yesterday with Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Martin Whitmarsh. Hamilton speaks about what he’s been doing over the winter, his 2011 season to forget and his hopes for the year. He also speaks about how it feels to be getting older as a driver, now 27 years of age. Button speaks about his feelings about the competition, particularly the thrill of being one of a record More…

“What I have decided to do this year is just focus on the most important thing and that’s racing,” Lewis Hamilton told the media today at the launch of his 2012 McLaren car. After a 2011 season that was overshadowed by stories of his troubled personal life, Hamilton has hit the reset button over the winter and is ready to do what he does best: take the fight to the other F1 front runners. But its hard to completely shed baggage in this game; at the same time he got a brickbat from his old friend Adrian Sutil who was More…

McLaren has finished the last two constructors’ world championships in second place, a point made today by team principal Martin Whitmarsh. His message was clear: 2012 has to be the year when they get one over on main rivals Red Bull and take back at least one of the world titles. Today, McLaren launched their 2012 car at their headquarters in Woking with Lewis Hamilton praising its refinement and describing it as “the finest-looking car we have had for some time.” The version unveiled today is not in the specification it will be seen in come the first race, it’s More…

Rubens Barrichello drove an IndyCar this week in a specially arranged test session at Sebring, Florida. The Brazilian, who lost his seat for this season at Williams to Bruno Senna, completed 94 laps and was on the pace of the KV Racing Team’s lead driver Tony Kanaan. “I’m truly happy and I like what I saw,” said 39 year old Barrichello. “I just need to see what comes up. I need to talk to my family and to Jimmy (Vasser, KV team owner). Barrichello certainly does need to speak to his wife, Silvana. Because he made her a promise, that More…

Former Force India driver Adrian Sutil has been in Munich this week appearing before public prosecutors charged with grievous bodily harm surrounding an incident with the co-owner of the Lotus F1 team in a Shanghai nightclub last April, and on Tuesday the court found the German driver guilty and gave him an 18-month suspended sentence. The 29-year-old was also handed a 200,000 euro (£166,139) fine, which will be paid to charities, according to the BBC. The two-day trial had centred around an incident following last year’s Chinese Grand Prix when Sutil had been in a nightclub celebrating his close friend More…

Stories coming from Italy suggest that injured F1 driver Robert Kubica aims to get into an F1 simulator and then back into a car and has set his sights on doing it from June onwards. The Pole, who broke bones down his right side and severed nerves in his right arm in a rally accident a year ago, is still in a light cast at present after breaking his right leg again earlier this month. But he’s counting down the days to getting back into training. According to our colleague Pino Allievi, who is in close contact with Kubica, he More…

Today the Sahara Force India team confirmed the story which we first ran during the Brazil GP weekend: that Jules Bianchi will become its third driver. The 22 year old Frenchman will have the opportunity to drive on at least nine Grand Prix weekends in the Friday morning practice session. He will join a small but growing number of young drivers getting some regular track time on Fridays, including Williams’ Valtteri Bottas and Lotus’ Jerome D’Ambrosio. Caterham are likely to have someone in that role and Marussia has also made use of the Friday morning opportunity too. It’s the right More…

Kimi Raikkonen completed his comeback F1 test this week and has spoken about his feelings at driving an F1 car after two years away. Raikkonen, the 2007 F1 world champion now aged 32, drove for two days at Valencia’s Riccardo Tormo circuit, which has been used for F1 testing for many years. Testing restrictions meant that he was in a two year old Renault on Pirelli demonstration tyres, but the Finn said it was enough to give him back the old feelings and to show that he’s still got it. “I was a little concerned about finding the sport had More…

Pirelli has launched the 2012 range of F1 tyres promising that they will create more exciting racing and more variation in race strategies. Although still targeting a minimum of two stops per race, Pirelli says the tyres will be more consistent in the way they degrade and be slightly more durable than last season’s, which led to four pit stops at some races. One of the objectives for Pirelli this year is to achieve a crossover point, where the performance of the harder tyre is close enough to the soft that it’s extra durability makes it worth using, rather than More…

Italian technical journalist Giorgio Piola has struck again, releasing some details of the new Ferrari due to be launched at Maranello on Friday February 3rd. The car has been described as “ugly” by Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo and it’s certainly a new departure from the DNA of Ferraris of recent years, but all there are agreed that if it’s fast enough, it will certainly be beautiful! Among the indiscretions Piola has published in Gazzetta dello Sport today are that the suspension is a pull-rod system, the first on a Ferrari for 11 years. This is what Red Bull has More…

Kimi Raikkonen’s comeback is go; the Finn is driving today the first of two days in Valencia at the wheel of a two year old Renault R30. It’s the car with which Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov campaigned the 2010 World Championship. It’s the first time Raikkonen has driven an F1 car since the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. He covered 300kms on his first day and will do more tomorrow. “Having not driven a Formula 1 car for two years and obviously with a new team, there is a lot to get used to,” said Raikkonen. “I’m happy because More…

Last week we reported a story from technical journalist Giorgio Piola about a clever device Lotus Renault had developed to stabilise the suspension under braking. After initial signals from the FIA that the system would be considered legal, last night it became clear that there has been a change of heart in Paris with a message to teams saying that it will not be allowed during the 2012 season. It contravenes the rules regarding moveable aerodynamic devices. Williams’ senior operations engineer Mark Gillan confirmed the news on Peter Windsor’s “Flying Lap” webcast last night. “The FIA has just banned that More…

Yesterday the boss of Red Bull, Dietrich Mateschitz, said that “Sebastian (Vettel) has improved and is stronger than ever. He has prepared during the winter break like never before and he will certainly not let us down.” With just two weeks to go until the wraps come off the new cars from the challengers for the championship, attention is building on what kind of season we will have and how close the racing will be. Mateschitz went on to say in the same interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, that he thinks the closest challenger this year will be McLaren, then More…

The Grand Prix Mechanics Charitable Trust has launched a new area on its website, exclusively for former and current F1 mechanics to chat online and swap photos and stories. The new area of the website is open to current or past F1 mechanics, who have registered with the Trust. Called ‘The Garage’, it is a private area where mechanics, past and present, can find old friends and colleagues, interact and reminisce or plan meet ups. There’s a forum to discuss any topic they like, plus a section for photographs from when mechanics worked in the paddock. There’s even a list More…

Veteran Italian driver Jarno Trulli has today reacted to increasing rumours in F1 circles that his Caterham seat is under threat from Lotus Renault refugee Vitaly Petrov. The 37 year old has a firm contract for 2012, but has faced question marks about it since it was signed, with Daniel Ricciardo being linked with the drive at the end of last season. More recently Petrov, who brings backing from Russian sponsors, has been linked with the seat since he was dropped by LRGP. It is clear why someone like Petrov would appeal as he might offer similar levels of performance, More…

Here is the audio of an interview I did with Williams’ new driver Bruno Senna for BBC Radio 5 Live this afternoon. The interview runs just under 7 minutes. We spoke about painful memories of his uncle Ayrton’s time at Williams, the Williams team in transition with new technical staff, his thoughts on where his move leaves Rubens Barrichello and his plans for pre-season testing. Bruno also takes a look forward to the 2012 F1 season and the state of the competition with changes on rules on exhausts. Throughout the season you can follow our F1 adventures on BBC Radio More…

Bruno Senna took part in a conference call with media this afternoon, answering questions about his move to Williams. Among the eye catching notes to arise from it were that he first had contact with the team about a 2012 drive at the Japanese Grand Prix, that he and senior Williams engineers believe that they will be solidly in the top ten in qualifying and the races this year and that his grand parents – Ayrton’s mother and father – were ‘ecstatic’ about the news. It’s very clear that tomorrow morning’s headlines will be all about the death of Ayrton More…

Williams F1 today announced that Bruno Senna, nephew of former Williams driver Ayrton Senna, has joined the team to partner Pastor Maldonado for the 2012 season. The news appears to put an end to Rubens Barrichello’s career in F1, spanning almost two decades. And it leaves just one seat open on the F1 grid, the second seat at HRT. Senna was long rumoured to be favourite for the drive ahead of his fellow Brazilian, with the CEO of one of his sponsors, a Brazilian oil company, tweeting last week that he would drive for the team. Senna did an unhappy More…

We are in the thick of what the movie industry calls “Awards Season” with the Writers Guild of America awards, the BAFTAs and the Oscars among the many awards ceremonies on the horizon. Although the Senna movie was snubbed by the Academy for an Oscar nomination, it seems to be finding more traction with the British version of the awards, the BAFTAs. Today it was confirmed that the documentary about the great Brazilian three times F1 champion has been shortlisted in three categories, including Outstanding British film for the ceremony on February 12 in London. It has also had the More…

Tonio Liuzzi has had one of those careers where his drive for the next season seems always to be in doubt. Now at the age of 30 he finds himself once again waiting for a call, despite the fact that he has a contract with HRT. And it sounds like this time, he might have run out of options. “At the moment everything is very vague,” he told Italian site 422race.com. “The main problem is that the team have no budget, so they are evaluating the way to get the money to have two drivers. Now I’m still tied to More…

F1 drivers are among the fittest of all athletes, even though they do their sport sitting down. The strength and stamina required to sustain forces of up to 5g many times in a lap and maintain concentration without giving in to fatigue are vital to success. Lewis Hamilton has had a relationship with sports clothing brand Reebok since the early days of his F1 career and he is set to become one of the key faces in a new multi million pound campaign for the brand, set to launch in March. According to Marketing Week, Reebok, which is part of More…

We’ve had a big response to the story earlier this week about the new ride height control system on the Lotus Renault using tiny cylinders on the end of the pushrods. There were many questions from readers about whether Lotus could patent the idea. A senior F1 engineer has kindly stepped in to clear up the question of patenting F1 technical ideas for readers. His explanation is below: “The lack of patents in F1 is quite simple. It’s because if a team takes out a patent on a design, that then locks in an advantage the other teams cannot access. More…

Public prosecutors in Munich, Germany announced on Thursday that former Force India driver Adrian Sutil has been indicted on charges of grevious bodily harm and will face trial at the end of this month on. The trial is slated for the 30th and 31st January. The German driver was in a nightclub in Shanghai in April celebrating his friend Lewis Hamilton’s victory in the Chinese Grand Prix, when an incident occurred with a champagne glass which led to Eric Lux, the co-owner of the Lotus Renault GP team receiving a serious wound to the neck. Lux went to hospital immediately More…

Felipe Massa appeared at the Ferrari Wrooom media event in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy today, knowing that his back is against the wall and 2012 could be his final year with the team if he doesn’t raise his game significantly. Two lacklustre campaigns have left the Brazilian vulnerable and both Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo and team boss Stefano Domenicali have spelled out that he is fighting to save his job. Interestingly, the Ferrari website presents a stark picture in its story on Massa’s appearance in Madonna and puts Massa’s position in these terms, “Felipe Massa’s future depends on what More…

Troubled Polish driver Robert Kubica is back in hospital, according to reports on the BBC, after a fall on ice near his home in Italy. The 27 year old, who was recovering from multiple fractures and a partially severed right forearm in a rally accident almost a year ago, slipped on ice near his home and reopened a fracture in his right leg, setting back his rehabilitation further. According to the BBC he will need an operation to insert a metal screw above his ankle, plus more time in plaster. Kubica split with his long time doctor and ally Riccardo More…

Ferrari’s annual Wrooom event is underway at Madonna di Campiglio in Italy. This is a traditional pre season media event at which the team and management give their thoughts and assessments on the sporting and political year ahead. I went last year, but this year had to decline, as I have to be at the Autosports International Show in Birmingham tomorrow for the BBC. Today saw conferences from team boss Stefano Domenicali and a brief appearance by Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo. Montezemolo has been quite vocal over the winter about many things and today reiterated that Ferrari is ready More…

In 2010 it was the F Duct, last year the blown diffuser, is this year’s must-have technical gizmo a braking stabilising system, innovated by Lotus? Veteran technical journalist Giorgio Piola is writing that Lotus Renault GP has a system which brings back echoes of the “mass-damper”, one of the innovations when the team was known as Renault, that helped to win it the 2006/6 world championships. According to Piola, the system is mechanical, operated by the driver (like the F Duct) and means that when the driver hits the brakes, it manages the ride height as the front of the More…

Raniero Gianotti (above left), one of the best known driver physical trainers in F1 circles, who has worked with Sebastian Vettel, Rubens Barrichello and most recently the Toro Rosso drivers, died of a heart attack when out cycling. The 46 year old was cycling with friends in Urbino, in the Marche region of Italy and was only a few kilometres into a ride. Gianotti had been working in motorsport for many years. In F1 he was a well known and popular figure as the trainer of Barrichello, first at Stewart GP, then at Ferrari. On Twitter Barrchello said, “It was More…

With just over three months to go until the scheduled date for the Bahrain Grand Prix, a human rights group in the country has called for the teams and drivers to boycott the event. Last year in the wake of protests in the country, the event was first postponed to later in the year and then cancelled after the F1 teams wrote to the FIA saying that they didn’t feel the event could take place. That letter was signed by F1 Teams Association chairman Martin Whitmarsh, who took a significant personal risk in doing so as his team, McLaren, is More…

Helmut Marko, whose influence on the moves made by the Red Bull company in F1 is significant, has explained why the company decided to drop Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi from the Toro Rosso team. “Toro Rosso was created to give young drivers a chance,” he told Gazzetta dello Sport yesterday. “Alguersuari and Buemi had that chance for three years and after that period it’s possible to evaluate a drivers’ development. “We didn’t see in them any possibility of growth. Both are Grand Prix drivers, but for us that’s not enough. We want Grand Prix winners.” Although a tough decision, More…

The success of the Senna movie continues to impress, with news today that not only have DVD sales in the UK surpassed 600,000 copies, making it the most successful British made sports documentary ever, but that it has been nominated for some prestigious awards. The writer Manish Pandey has been shortlisted for the documentary screenplay award by the prestigious Writers Guild of America. Producer James Gay Rees has also been nominated by the Producers Guild of America. And also today comes news that BAFTA has long listed “Senna” in six categories, including best documentary and best editing. Surprisingly however the More…

I’m delighted to announce that I am joining the BBC Radio 5 Live team as F1 correspondent and lead commentator this season. I’m really happy about this; 5 live is the default setting on my radio at home and in the car, it’s a great institution and I’m proud to be part of it. Anyone who has followed my career knows I love a challenge; whether it’s taking over from Murray Walker, setting up this website, or creating the first F1 fans forums. I’ve never done radio before and I’m really looking forward to adapting to a new medium. This More…

This is a moment Kimi Raikkonen’s many fans around the world thought they may never see again; the 2007 world champion back behind the wheel of an F1 car, albeit a chassis mock up, in the Lotus Renault factory near Oxford. It’s the first time Raikkonen has sat in an F1 car since the end of the 2009 season, when he left Ferrari and went to compete in the WRC. Raikkonen was at Lotus’ Enstone factory today for a seat fitting ahead of his first run in an F1 car. The chassis he is sitting in is not the 2012 More…

Lewis Hamilton has done a short interview in La Gazzetta dello Sport today in which he says a couple of interesting things. One is about team mate Jenson Button, the other on Felipe Massa. On Button he says, “Jenson is very fast and has built around himself a very strong team of technicians. I always want to beat him and I’m never happy if I don’t. But psychologically I don’t see it as a problem. He’s an open person who you can get along with. “It would be great to fight with him for the world title in 2012, it More…

Red Bull Racing has confirmed pre-Christmas rumours that Sebastien Buemi will be the test and reserve driver for the 2012 season. He will carry out simulation work at the team’s HQ in Milton Keynes and will be present at all the Grands Prix, standing in for either Sebastian Vettel or Mark Webber should either of them be injured or unavailable. It would make sense for him also to fulfil a similar role for Toro Rosso as he will be at the races, knows the team and it’s highly unlikely that both teams would find themselves a driver short at the More…

With a month to go before the start of the new car testing season and two months to the first race there are still two race seats available. Many seats were filled in the weeks leading up to Christmas with Lotus Renault, Toro Rosso and Force India filling in their entry cards. But what of Williams and HRT? The contenders for Williams seem quite straight forward; Rubens Barrichello is the choice of the Williams engineers, who rate the Brazilian highly and were pleased with his performances in the closing stages of last season. Meanwhile Adrian Sutil has experience, is fast More…

As 2011 draws to a close, it’s a good moment to reflect the good, the bad and the “only in F1″ moments of the year. I’ve laid out some of my personal favourites below, please let us know what yours were. The Good Jenson Button winning in Canada after running last, hitting Hamilton and Alonso and seeing Vettel spin off in front of him on the last lap. Sebastian Vettel’s pass on Alonso at Monza… wheels on the grass Alonso’s starts in Barcelona and Monza which lit up both races and showed his hunger. Michael Schumacher in Canada, showing all More…

Before Christmas break I had the chance to visit the Mercedes F1 engine factory near Northampton and I posted on their analysis of the 2011 season. You can read that post HERE But the final part of the visit was forward looking, with an eye to 2014 and we got a sneak peak at what lies ahead as the engine builders prepare to run prototypes of the new engine on the dyno for the first time in 2012. The new generation of F1 engines for 2014 are small capacity single turbo V6 engines. They will turn the page as far More…

While 2011 was by no means a classic year for F1 with such a dominant champion, it was an exceptional year in the sense that there were so many outright records set during the year. The headline numbers of course revolve around Sebastian Vettel, but there are plenty of other eye catching figures from the year: Most Grands Prix started: 322 Rubens Barrichello continued to extend the record held for many years by Riccardo Patrese. With safer cars and F1 seasons now extending to 19 or 20 races, this was always likely to be broken, but Barrichello’s marathon career is More…

How would the world championship table look if the fans voted for who they thought had performed best? We have the answer. After a fantastic response, with 500 fans from around the world submitting complete forms this week, here are the conclusions of the JA on F1 Fans’ World Championship of 2011. We asked you to look past the machinery and provide us with your Top 10 drivers of 2011, based on who did the best job with the equipment they had. Each reader listed their Top 10 and we gave them points as in a Grand Prix (25 for More…

Yesterday was Ferrari’s traditional end of year dinner with the Italian media and there have been some headlines about company president Luca Montezemolo wanting more from the team and from Felipe Massa. But less widely reported were his comments about world champion Sebastian Vettel and Bernie Ecclestone, which could have more far reaching consequences. There have been various stories this year speculating about Ferrari’s interest in Vettel, but Gazzetta dello Sport’s Pino Allievi – normally a reliable guide to the goings on in the corridors of Maranello – suggests that there has been a change of feeling and that the More…

During 2011 JA on F1 reached out to F1 fans like never before, playing a central role in organising and hosting the three FOTA Fans Forums in Montreal, Woking and Milan, organising one of the first UK screenings of “Senna” for over 200 fans with a star studded list of speakers, sending 14 fans to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone and last month we sent a fan ambassador to Abu Dhabi in conjunction with our partner Shell. After a competition in which the contestants were asked to write a post and submit a video, Rachel Clarke was selected as More…

Fernando Alonso has been in the news a couple of times this week, first for his bullish statements about Ferrari’s competitiveness in 2012 and then again yesterday with the sad confirmation that his marriage has ended. The Spaniard, now 30 years old, met his wife Raquel de Rosario in late 2005 and married a year later, just after he clinched his second world title. Apparently the pair have been separated for some months, they were last seen together at a Grand Prix in Hungary in late July, where Alonso celebrated his 30th birthday. The private life of F1 drivers has More…

Luca Montezemolo celebrated 20 years as the president of Ferrari with a Christmas lunch this weekend for the F1 team’s employees, sponsors and drivers. Montezemolo began the year by saying that Ferrari had to win this season, but that didn’t work out and the team was third best after Red Bull and McLaren. He did not dwell on this too much in his speech to the staff, instead focussing on the future and asserting his confidence in the technical team under team principal Stefano Domenicali. Ferrari ends 2011 in a place where it has been before, somewhat isolated as it More…

We had a fantastic response to the Top Five Drivers of the year competition. But the comments that it sparked about the relative merits of the current F1 drivers really got us thinking. Following on from that, we thought it would be fascinating to see how the drivers’ championship table might look if it were decided by you. So give us your top ten and we’ll award them championship points, add them all up and see who’s the champion. The key to this is to imagine the drivers in equal cars and then look at the job they did week More…

Another midfield team has unveiled its driver line up for next year, but unlike Toro Rosso, which sacked both incumbents this week, Sahara Force India has gone with the line up which was predicted in the final third of this season. Paul di Resta keeps his seat for another year and Nico Hulkenberg steps up from reserve driver to race driver alongside him. This means that there is no place for Adrian Sutil, who has been with the team for four seasons. Sutil’s manager was a man on a mission in Brazil, which was the tell tale indicator that this More…

It’s not often that a piece of news in F1 genuinely causes shock, but the sacking of Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari seems to have done so, especially to the drivers themselves. After a simple statement yesterday thanking them for their efforts and wishing them well in future, team boss Franz Tost has acknowledged that the decision looks “harsh” and found it necessary to go further today and explain in more detail why the team let the two drivers go, “Sébastien has been with us for three seasons and Jaime for two and a half. Both of them worked hard More…

Toro Rosso, the Red Bull junior team which exists to develop young drivers for the energy drinks brand, has unveiled its driver line up for 2012 and it’s all change with Daniel Ricciardo and Jean Eric Vergne replacing Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari. The programme is overseen by Dr Helmut Marko and he has made a tough decision here, clearing out Buemi and Alguersuari and bringing in new blood. The decision is something of a shock, given that Alguersuari, who is still only 21, had appeared to be getting a lot stronger in the second half of the season and More…

Today Team Lotus steps back out of F1 and Caterham F1 comes to life as part of the deal which saw Group Lotus and Tony Fernandes end the dispute over the use of the Lotus name in F1. The Caterham team’s new logo has been unveiled and next season the cars will race in green and yellow colours under this brand. Meanwhile Lotus Renault will race in black and gold. Speaking in the final edition of its e-magazine Team Lotus Notes Fernandes said, “With Team Lotus, I would have battled to the end if I felt it was the right More…

Today sees the publication of the review book of the season, JA on F1 2011 – “Vettel steals the show” This is the third year we have produced a limited edition yearbook, which features the best of the posts from 2011, plus lots of new text linking the stories and looking back and how they developed. It’s fascinating to look back and see the origins of a story and then to see how it plays out across a year, to see how the principal characters reacted at the time and how their attitudes change over time. There are reports on More…

Today Dany Bahar the CEO of Group Lotus entertained a small group of media at a lunch at the RAC Club in London’s Pall Mall. This was the second year of this event. On the agenda this time were Kimi Raikkonen, the possibility of Group Lotus taking over the F1 team from Genii or vice versa, Lotus Renault GP’s rejection of “pay drivers” and the future of Eric Boullier as team principal of the team. It was confirmed that Bahar has been awarded a four year contract extension, following a visit by the board of Lotus holding company Proton to More…

The Swisse Mark Webber Tasmania Challenge has drawn to a close after a five gruelling days, in which Webber himself competed in the early stages. A 60-strong field of athletes in two-person teams took on some of Australia’s most rugged scenery, racing on foot, with a paddle and pushing pedals. This year’s Challenge covered a course of around 350km and involved a variety of disciplines including kayaking, mountain biking, trail running and rope work. Webber took part in the early stages, but having finished third in the world championship thanks to his win in Brazil, he had to attend the More…

There is an interview with Paul di Resta in Gazzetta dello Sport today, ahead of an important week for the Scotsman, as he waits to learn of his confirmation in a race seat for 2012. That announcement is due to be made on Thursday. Di Resta was famously team mate to Sebastian Vettel in F3 back in 2006 and beat him in equal cars. The Scotsman is a year older than his celebrated former colleague and took longer to break into F1 because he didn’t have a BMW or a Red Bull to push him forward. Invited to draw conclusions More…

We have been running our annual end of year competition for readers to name their top five drivers of the season and this year we had well over 700 entries. The first ten entries which match my selection, will receive a free signed copy of our review book of the season; James Allen on F1 2011: Vettel Steals the Show, which is due to be published on December 13. It was a difficult choice, as always, with many strong contenders throughout the field. So here is how I see it: 1. Sebastian Vettel I’ve gone with the World Champion as More…

Romain Grosjean is back in Formula 1. The 25 year old Frenchman will drive alongside Kimi Raikkonen in a deal which has clearly been brokered by French oil company Total, which has also extended its sponsorship of the team for a further two years. Team owner Gerard Lopez of Genii hinted recently that the team might well change both drivers after a lacklustre 2011 season, which saw Vitaly Petrov criticise the team and Bruno Senna drafted in half way through the year to replace Nick Heidfeld. Grosjean did a stint in F1 with the Enstone based team during its days More…

Professor Sid Watkins has retired as president of the FIA Institute bringing down the curtain on his professional involvement in motor sport. Watkins served for over 25 years as the F1 Medical Delegate, staring in 1978. He has saved many lives in many ways, wither through helping to make the cars and circuits safer or more directly, such as when he saved Mika Hakkinen’s life trackside after a heavy accident in Adelaide in 1995. He will take up an honorary role with the organisation, but the presidency will now pass to Professor Gerard Saillant, who is a close ally of More…

The FIA World Motor Sport Council met today in India for its traditional pre-Christmas session to finalise the calendar and rules for 2012. The calendar is as previously published, which means that Bahrain and Austin are on. The promoters from Circuit of the Americas have therefore paid Bernie Ecclestone the outstanding payment which was due and presumably have agreed or will agree the increased terms for the contract. They have already invested $100 million in the venue, so had to decided whether to cut their losses or go in bigger. As for Bahrain, it still remains a doubt in the More…

The on screen team has been announced which will lead Sky’s F1 coverage when it kicks off a new six year contract next season. It features five presenters who have been employed on F1 by the BBC this season, as the Pay TV broadcaster flexes its muscles and raids the Corporation’s staff roster. Radio 5 Live’s David Croft will be lead commentator, with Martin Brundle moving into a role like the one Andy Gray used to have in football for Sky; live colour commentator, chief pundit and lynchpin of the operation. His hiring is the main coup for Sky and More…

Mercedes has been the top scoring F1 engine maker since it started selling customer engines in 2009, with 35 wins and 104 podiums. The Mercedes AMG powertrain division at Brixworth in Northampton opened its doors today to a small group of media to give us a behind the scenes insight into what went on during 2011 and to get a sneak peak of how the 2014 engine is coming on, which I will post on separately. We learned some very interesting background information from senior Mercedes engineer Andy Cowell about some of the things engine builders faced in 2011. In More…

This morning I took part in a teleconference with two of the principals of the Mercedes F1 team, Nick Fry and Norbert Haug. The conference was called to discuss the name change for the F1 team, which will incorporate Mercedes’ high performance brand AMG and leverage the name through increased exposure on F1′s world wide media platform. It will be called Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team. This is entirely logical and will help the company to increase the value it gets from involvement in the sport. But there was also a chance to get the company’s reaction to the More…

We’ve done some great competitions this year, bringing JA on F1 readers closer to the sport, but here’s something different: Fancy jogging alongside Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner, then visiting the top secret RBR factory in Milton Keynes – and raising some money for charity in the process? Wings for Life have offered one JA on F1 reader a place on the team they are entering in conjunction with Red Bull Racing in next year’s Adidas Silverstone Half Marathon, which takes place on Sunday 11th March 2012. The winner will be able to run alongside RBR team members with More…

The decision of two of the most powerful teams in F1, Ferrari and Red Bull, to quit the Formula One Teams Association over the ‘stalemate’ in the organisation, leaves questions about whether the institution will survive. And if it does not, will F1 again descend into a spending arms race between a few wealthy teams? FOTA was formed in September 2008 to represent the interests of the F1 teams in dealings with the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone’s organisation. It was designed to prevent a repeat of what happened in 2005 when Ferrari broke ranks with the other manufacturers who were More…

A day after its entry for 2012 was published by the FIA without a named driver, Williams has this evening announced that Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado will race with the team in 2012. Meanwhile rumours that Finnish GP3 driver Valterri Bottas would get a race seat have proved wide of the mark, as the team confirmed that he will remain as third driver. But as an added incentive to the youngster, he will be given Friday morning practice runs at 15 of the races next season. This is a programme which Force India has used very effectively over the past two More…

It’s that time of year again, where we need to establish the Top Five drivers of the year, in descending order, with your Driver of the Season at the top. This is the third year we’ve run this popular competition. Once again the first ten entries which match my selection, will receive a free signed copy of our review book of the season; James Allen on F1 2011: Vettel Steals the Show, which is due to be published on December 13. You have just under a week to give us your answers in the comments box below – the closing More…

The FIA issued an entry list today for the 2012 F1 season with nine driver vacancies from the 24 cars which will line up for the first race in Melbourne. Kimi Raikkonen is among the unprecedented list of six world champions in the field. Among the names unexpectedly missing from the list are Pastor Maldonado and Vitaly Petrov, both of whom were believed to have contracts to race for Williams and Lotus Renault respectively. Toro Rosso is keeping its options open with two empty berths as is Sahara Force India, although Paul Di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg are expected to More…

After a season in which they dominated the opposition, some items donated by Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber will go under the hammer tomorrow (December 1st) in a Bonhams sale at Mercedes Benz World, Surrey, England. There is one item from almost every 2011 Grand Prix race, with the exception of Abu Dhabi. The auction is in aid of Wings for Life, a charity with connections to the Red Bull team and features race suits from both drivers as well as a Mark Webber helmet which he wore at five Grand Prix in 2011 – Monaco, Valencia, Germany, More…

This is our final Strategy Report of the 2011 season, looking not just at how the key decisions were made in Brazil, but also at the trends we have seen in 2011 and what we see as the likely trends for 2012. The Brazilian Grand Prix brought to an end a season which has seen Formula 1 run to a quite different pattern in terms of Race Strategy, largely due to the Pirelli tyres. But also because the DRS wing has made it easier for cars to overtake, so less time is lost for fast cars in trying to pass More…

Here’s a video that’s well worth watching of Kimi Raikkonen’s first interview since announcing his F1 comeback with Lotus Renault. He says that he hasn’t really followed the 2011 F1 season or the progress of the Lotus Renault team and reckons that the biggest thing he’ll have to get the hang of is the new Pirelli tyres, on which his rivals will have a year’s head start. He also says that he’ll have to step up his training and that he started a month ago on F1 level fitness.

Kimi Raikkonen, Formula 1′s most enigmatic driver, will make it a record six world champions on the F1 grid next year when he lines up to race with Lotus Renault. Fans have been on tenterhooks for months to see whether the 2007 world champion, who is still only 32 years old, would make a comeback, following in the footsteps of Michael Schumacher, who spent three years on the sidelines before coming back with Mercedes in 2010. Like Schumacher, Raikkonen was eased into early retirement by Ferrari. The Finn has been in rallying since he was dropped by the Scuderia after More…

The feud which has simmered between Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa this season, often flaring into an on track clash, has been put to an end by Hamilton visiting Massa after the race to make up. The Brazilian was finishing off his press briefing at the front of the Ferrari hospitality area when Hamilton approached him and gave him a hug and said a few words. It is not clear whether Hamilton felt moved to make some kind of apology or just a gesture to say that he wanted to put the events behind them. But either way, Massa, who More…

Mark Webber won the Brazilian Grand Prix for the second time today, the seventh victory of his F1 career, but crucially it was his first win of the season and it came about because of a rare technical problem for his team mate Sebastian Vettel. The World champion rolled in second having survived most of the race with a gearbox problem, which forced him to short shift in second and third gears and eventually to use only the higher gears. Jenson Button came through after an intense race long battle with Fernando Alonso to claim his 12th podium finish of More…

As Team Lotus embarks on its final F1 race before becoming Caterham F1 next season, team boss Tony Fernandes this morning laid out his vision for the team to a small group of media in the paddock at Interlagos. There were many details to do with the company being in four main divisions and some of the initiatives were eye catching. For example the future of technical director Mike Gascoyne. He and Fernandes see great potential in taking F1 composites and other technologies into aviation, an area where Fernandes has businesses (Air Asia and a share in Malaysian Airlines) and More…

The Force India team has three drivers on its books and has said that it will announce which two will be the race drivers on December 15th. There has been a lot of speculation about which of the three is to be disappointed, but in the press conference yesterday, Bob Fearnley the deputy team principal, said something very interesting, “I think it is only fair we deal, obviously, with the drivers. We have got three very talented drivers and we need to make sure that the one that is going to be disappointed has the best opportunity to position himself More…

World Champion Sebastian Vettel scored his 15th pole position of the season, setting a new record that beats the one set by Nigel Mansell which has stood for almost 20 years. It was Vettel’s 30th pole position in just 81 Grands Prix. It was a scintillating lap by Vettel, only a tenth faster than team mate Mark Webber, but a perfect summing up of the season in many ways, as the German put everything together in one lap. The Red Bull’s prowess in the middle sector was the decisive factor in keeping them ahead of the McLaren of Jenson Button, More…

The final Grand Prix of 2011 is upon us and so far only seven drivers have stood on the podium this year, tying the record for the lowest number ever. They are Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Vitaly Petrov and Nick Heidfeld. Amazingly neither of the Mercedes drivers have been up there and nor has Felipe Massa. Will that still be the case on Sunday or will one of those faces or a new face appear on the podium, especially is we get one of those rain affected Brazilian classics? And what does it say More…

The first day of practice for Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix saw some close lap times between the two leading teams, Red Bull and McLaren, promising a tense battle for the final race of the season. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of the day, just over a tenth clear of Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, but the long runs were interesting. The Red Bull was 8/10ths faster than the McLaren, but allowing for the difference in fuel loads, they were close. Red Bull tends to do its long runs using the fuel load it would typically start the second stint More…

The build up of technical staff at Team Lotus is set to take a new step with the arrival of leading aerodynamicist John Iley from McLaren. The move has yet to be announced by Team Lotus, but it is believed that Iley has left McLaren and is on gardening leave until joining what will then be called Caterham F1 Team in June 2012. Iley is another in a series of leading names who have worked before with Mike Gascoyne and have decided to join him at Team Lotus. He joins ex Red Bull technical director Mark Smith and ex Renault More…

This is the last F1 race before Sky come into the sport and start their blanket pay TV coverage which will run until at least 2018. It will be a big change in the way F1 fans in the UK watch the sport. Meanwhile BBC has released details of the 10 races it will cover live. Sky wants to appeal to F1 fans, giving existing subscribers another reason to continue paying, avoiding the dreaded “churn” as it is called when subscribers cancel. And it hopes to attract at least 150,000 new subscribers, which would be roughly the break-even point against More…

Lewis Hamilton looked on good form today in the paddock at Interlagos as he spoke openly about his ups and downs in 2011 and drew the conclusion that although it’s been a painful year, he has grown as a driver and his three wins, including at the last race in Abu Dhabi, were a great satisfaction. He will be going all out for a fourth on Sunday. “It’s been a year of growth, which was one of the most positive things I have learned this year,” he said. “It really has been. What I’ve learned this year I’ll take into More…

We’ve very proud that this year here on JA on F1 we’ve given many fans a chance to get closer to the sport, sending 14 fans to Grands Prix, one fan to Abu Dhabi, we’ve put two fans on a real F1 simulator and we’ve had lots of other great prizes for competitions. Our friends at Santander, with whom we did the FOTA Fans Forum in June, have given us a few nice things to celebrate the end of a great season of F1 – a VIP trip for two people to the McLaren factory (known as the McLaren Technology More…

The short term future of Robert Kubica has been cast in doubt after the Lotus Renault team issued a statement in which the Pole said that he wouldn’t be ready to return in 2012. But his manager denied that his client had used the words quoted in the statement. And paddock speculation here in Brazil is that Ferrari is keeping the door open for him to return with them. “Even if I’ve been working very, very hard over the course of the last few weeks, I came to the conclusion that I am not yet certain to be ready for More…

With a fairly high likelihood of a safety car and a new tyre choice from Pirelli which brings the two compounds closer together on performance, this should be one of the most interesting races of the season from a strategy point of view. The weather forecast also adds spice to the event with a strong likelihood of showers on Saturday and Sunday. The Brazilian Grand Prix is special for a number of reasons; set in a natural bowl around a lake in a suburb of Sao Paulo, the passionate and noisy crowd can see most of the circuit from their More…

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has given Felipe Massa notice that he is fighting to save his seat with the team next year. Montezemolo used an interview on a show in Italy called Politica nel Pallone to confirm that the Brazilian, who almost won the world title three years ago, is safe for next year despite an “unfortunate season” but that he must prove himself to stay with the team beyond next year. “With Massa we have a contract for next year. He’s had an unfortunate season but we aren’t doubting a driver who three years ago fought for the More…

Veteran Pedro de la Rosa will make it two drivers over the age of 40 on the grid next year when he lines up with HRT. The Spaniard has signed a two year contract with the team which will certainly help them to move forward technically. The team is owned by Thesan Capital and sees itself very much as the Spanish team in F1. De la Rosa has had a chequered career as a race driver in F1 with stints at Arrows and Jaguar and an ill fated stint at Sauber last year. He has been McLaren test driver and More…

This weekend there have been rumours that McLaren and Honda may be looking at getting back together to chase the coveted number one plate they carried during the classic partnership which dominated F1 in the late 1980s. But is there really a business case for it as far as Honda are concerned? The Honda era for the McLaren team was a real landmark, with 44 victories between 1988 and 1992 and Prost and Senna in their prime. Recently we’ve seen the revival of the Williams-Renault for 2012 onwards, so retro brands are in vogue. German magazine Auto motor und sport More…

Bernie Ecclestone has raised the possibility of the commercial arm of F1 being floated on the stock market in Asia. The 81 year old billionaire has told the Telegraph that he thinks a floation in Asia, either in Singapore or possibly Hong Kong would be a good step for the business and allow private equity form CVC to make a complete or partial exit. “If I wanted to dispose of the company today I would float it in Singapore or Hong Kong,” Ecclestone said, adding that if CVC wants an exit, “it would be better to float the company in More…

Rachel Clarke was the winner of our competition in partnership with Shell V Power to send a Fan Ambassador to Abu Dhabi. The two day adventure takes in Ferrari World with its record breaking roller coaster and an insight into Shell’s partnership with Ferrari. Here are Rachel’s thoughts as she set off this weekend on her journey. Rachel will meet with bloggers and other people active in social media from around the world. Rachel Clarke writes: Do you enter competitions? I’ve been entering them a lot more over the last year, winning a few things like a month’s supply of More…

Russia’s first F1 driver Vitaly Petrov has unleashed a broadside against his team, Renault, accusing them of a lack of development, poor race strategy and sloppy pit work. It throws doubt over whether he will continue with the team in 2012. The 27 year old, who has started 37 races with the team, stood on the podium at the first race in Australia and feels that it’s been a downward slide into midfield mediocrity ever since. Renault came out with an highly imaginative front facing exhaust this season, which exited at the front of the sidepods. Although it looked quick More…

The only in-season test of the 2011 season came to an end today at Yas Marina Circuit, Abi Dhabi as the Young Guns switched off the engines after three exciting days. For many of the drivers it was a first taste of F1 power; a couple of them are as young as 18 years of age. For teams it has been a chance to test out ideas for the 2012 car, try out the experimental Pirelli tyres for next year and in some cases, to evaluate some young drivers. For the third day in a row the fastest man was More…