Fernando Alonso made the perfect use of a blistering start and bold strategy to deliver an emphatic victory to his adoring fans at the Spanish Grand Prix, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa. It was a race that was dictated by tyre strategy, with much of the field played it safe by adopting a four-stop strategy, whilst Raikkonen and Lotus were again able to make one less pit stop and he put himself in contention for the race win in the middle stages of the race. It will give further fuel to critics of Pirelli who argue that the More…
Nico Rosberg made it a hat-trick of pole positions for Mercedes GP as he produced two laps fast enough to take the top spot for the Spanish Grand Prix, ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. After concentrating on longer fuel-laden runs in Free Practice, Mercedes went in to qualifying somewhat unknown as attentions were focused on Red Bull, Ferrari and Lotus. But – as with at China and Bahrain – the one-lap specialist Mercedes was able to eclipse its competitors. Rosberg clinched the third pole position of his career by over 2/10ths of a second, with Vettel a further tenth More…
Sebastian Vettel continued to set the pace during free practice for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, but it was very close between him, Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber and it promises to be a very competitive weekend. As with pre-season testing the long run performance of the Lotus of Romain Grosjean was the stand out from the day and combined with Raikkonen’s single lap pace, just 2/10ths of a second slower than Vettel, Lotus look to be a force this weekend as well. There was a scare for Paul Di Resta who suffered what appeared to be a left rear More…
Sebastian Vettel pulled off two key overtakes and managed his tyres to perfection to get early control of the Bahrain Grand Prix and take an easy victory, ahead of impressive drives through the field from Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean. It was the same podium as last year’s race, with Vettel again starting on the front row and the Lotus cars being forced to come through the field. After losing his second place to Fernando Alonso at the start of the race, the World Championship leader scythed past the Ferrari in the midfield esses section and promptly set about taking More…
Nico Rosberg made it two Mercedes pole positions in as many weeks as he produced a sensational final lap to take the spoils in Bahrain, ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso. It was the second pole position of his career and means that Mercedes and Red Bull have both taken half the pole positions this season. But the race could be a different story. After being off the ultimate pace throughout the weekend’s practice sessions Rosberg showed his speed from the outset of qualifying, although he only topped the times in Q3. And after coming close already this year More…
Kimi Raikkonen continued his strong start to the season and highlighted Lotus’ position as front runners for this weekend by topping the time sheets in Friday’s Free Practice, ahead of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel. It looks like being an extremely competitive weekend between the Lotus, Ferrari and Red Bull teams, while Mercedes look to be struggling with tyre management. With much of the afternoon being spent on longer runs and race simulations, the front-runners took their only medium tyre run in the opening half an hour of the afternoon. And it was Raikkonen who found the largest improvement switching More…
Force India have today announced an extension to their engine agreement with Mercedes-Benz, which will see the German firm supply the team with the new powertrain system from 2014. The deal will see Mercedes supply Force India with the full Power Unit, transmission and all necessary systems for when the new regulations are installed next year. With 2014 bringing back turbo engines, Mercedes have spent much of their recent years developing the new 1.6 litre Power Unit that is expected to be the leading system in Formula One. The change to small, turbo charged engines has been driven by the More…
Sebastian Vettel has won a tense Malaysian Grand Prix after edging out Red Bull team mate Mark Webber with a close move late in the race, after Webber had been told to turn down his engine and drive to the finish. As Vettel attacked on lap 46 of 56, the pair almost collided several times, but the German squeezed through for the win. Vettel apologised to Webber, but the Australian did not say that he accepted it, instead commenting that Red Bull management “protects” Vettel. Team boss Christian Horner meanwhile confirmed that Vettel had “taken things into his own hands” More…
For Sebastian Vettel the Malaysian weather played in to his hands as he took a sensational pole position in changeable conditions for the second Grand Prix of 2013, almost a second ahead of Ferrari duo Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso. It was the fourth Grand Prix in a row that Massa has outqualified his team mate Alonso, stretching back to Austin last season. Alonso bristled in the official press conference at suggestions that this is a problem for him, pointing out that Massa has always been a strong reference point for him, despite his problems of the last few years. More…
Kimi Raikkonen and Lotus sent out a powerful message to rivals by managing a two-stop strategy to perfection and taking a thrilling victory in Melbourne, ahead of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel. And to rub it in, Raikkonen set the fastest lap of the race at the end, showing that he had more life left in his tyres. In a race that saw seven different leaders and the majority of the field running a three-stop programme, Raikkonen was able to make one less stop in the Lotus E21, that is well-known for its gentleness on the tyres. He worked his More…
The decisive parts of Qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix has been postponed until tomorrow morning at 11am Melbourne time (midnight UK time) after heavy rain caused major delays and brought the session to an end following the first phase of qualifying. It’s an unusual move by the race stewards, but not unprecedented. Qualifying was delayed in the same way at Suzuka twice in the last decade, the last time in 2010. THe forecast is for partly cloudy, and temperatures of 18 degrees. Having already been delayed by twenty minutes, Q1 got underway in very wet conditions and claimed a More…
Pre-season testing is over – in two weeks time the first Grand Prix of 2013 will take place in Melbourne and Nico Rosberg signed off today with the fastest time recorded this year in Barcelona, ahead of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button. As with Lewis Hamilton yesterday, Rosberg used a set of the soft Pirelli tyres to set the fastest time we have seen in the eight days of testing at Barcelona as well as going 4/10ths of a second faster than Hamilton managed yesterday and 1.5 seconds faster than the 2012 pole time. He set the time in the More…
Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes made a firm statement of intent today as they finally ran the Pirelli soft tyre and dominated the penultimate day of pre-season testing in Barcelona. Having been the only team to not yet run the yellow banded soft tyre, the F1 paddock would not have anticipated that Hamilton would shave over a second off the fastest time that we have seen in Barcelona so far this year. Mercedes themselves believed their gain to be closer to half a second, so their improvement will be thought provoking for their rival teams. Mercedes’ tyre difficulties have always appeared More…
Romain Grosjean made up for a poor first day of testing yesterday to top the times on the second day in Barcelona, ahead of Jenson Button and Pastor Maldonado. It was another day of mixed conditions as rain fell overnight and continued through to this morning, offering another opportunity to run the intermediate and wet tyres and gain a clearer picture of the perfect cross over point on to slick tyres. And this cross-over point occurred an hour prior to the lunch break, when the majority of teams took the chance to cover some dry miles beneath a threatening sky. More…
Mark Webber made the most of today’s short dry spell to head the field on the first day of the final test in Barcelona, as Force India opted for Adrian Sutil to fill their second race seat. Sutil, who has not raced since 2011, was re-appointed as Paul Di Resta’s team mate at midday following a lot of talk regarding the employment in recent days. The move means that Jules Bianchi is to stay in the Reserve Driver role, where he will also continue his work with Ferrari as part of their Ferrari Driver Academy. Di Resta was in the More…
Lewis Hamilton ended the first Barcelona test by topping the time sheets on a wet day, ahead of Jenson Button and Jean-Eric Vergne. The final day of the test was heavily interrupted by rain that had been threatening throughout the week. During the couple of hours of respite from the poor conditions there was a chance to sort out today’s final order and as expected times swapped constantly, with a drying track giving a number of cars a chance at the top spot. Ultimately, it was Hamilton who found the most time at the start of a sixteen lap run More…
Fernando Alonso completed his first week in the new Ferrari F138 by topping the times on the third day of testing in Barcelona, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and Romain Grosjean. Alonso – who is handing the car over to Felipe Massa tomorrow for the final day of the test – used today as a chance to show his team’s pace on the soft compound tyre, completing a number of single-lap runs during the morning session. His time today was within 1/10th of Sergio Perez’s time yesterday, and half a second quicker than Alonso managed in Q3 of qualifying last year. More…
Sergio Perez showed that pre-season testing is in full swing today by going fastest on the second day at Barcelona with a time just shy of last year’s pole position, ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen. Perez and Vettel both set their times during a one-lap run on the soft tyre, before switching their attentions to extended stints in the afternoon. Whilst Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton behind set their fastest laps on the medium and hard compound respectively, with Hamilton’s lap in particular likely to make the other teams raise an eyebrow as it was set during an eight More…
Nico Rosberg overcame a gearbox issue to top the times on the first day of testing at Barcelona today, as Fernando Alonso had a productive day on his first outing in the new Ferrari F138. After missing the Jerez test to focus on his physical preparation for the season Alonso completed the most laps of any driver today as he focused primarily on heavy fuel runs on the hard tyre. His times increased steadily during the stints of around sixteen laps and he finished the day with 110 laps. The late flurry in the final half an hour, which saw More…
Kimi Raikkonen ensured Lotus became the only team to top the times on two days at Jerez as the Finn set the pace on an extended final day, which required a long break to fix a pot-hole. The fourth and final day at Jerez had to be extended due to the appearance of a pot-hole between Turns 10 and 11, which caused a fifty minute delay and required quick-drying cement. To compensate, the teams were given an extra half an hour of testing time. Raikkonen set the second fastest time of the week to narrowly deny Force India’s Reserve Driver More…
Felipe Massa underlined Ferrari’s statement of intent by topping the times on the penultimate day of testing, in Jerez. He set the two fastest times of the week to end the day around a second clear of Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel. After two difficult days of unreliability for Mercedes, Rosberg managed to make up for lost time with 148 laps, or 655km of running; more than two race distances in one day. Ferrari have been one of the first teams to start bringing development parts to the car after starting tests on Tuesday with a fairly standard launch car. More…
Romain Grosjean continued Lotus’ strong form during this week’s first winter test by topping the times of Day 2 at Jerez, as the teams piled on the mileage, some covering around 100 laps while Lewis Hamilton’s opening day at Mercedes came to an abrupt end due to a brake failure. Hamilton had completed just fifteen laps this morning and had just done a lap in the 1m 19.5s, when a hydraulic brake line at the back caused him to run straight on at the Dry Sack hairpin and lightly in to the barriers. The back-straight leading in to Dry Sack More…
As the new F1 cars got down to business on the first day of testing in Jerez, Jenson Button and McLaren overcame an early on-track stoppage to top the time sheets by a considerable margin, ahead of Mark Webber and Romain Grosjean. But there were troubles for Mercedes too, as they were forced to cut the opening day short with electrical problems. Two red flags in the morning caused by Button and Nico Rosberg put the brakes on their respective programmes, with Rosberg the most hampered as Mercedes opted to call it a day and solve the issue before Lewis More…
Caterham Team Principal Cyril Abiteboul has said that his team’s focus over the winter has been on improving the infrastructure of the Leafield-based squad rather than putting significant time in to this years car, which was released today as testing began in Jerez. Abiteboul says that the CT03 is to be a work in progress throughout the year, with a B-spec machine planned for later on in the season. But the newly appointed team boss believes that they can still push themselves in to the midfield positions with a slightly updated version of last year’s car. “We cannot satisfy ourselves More…
Ferrari Team Principal Stefano Domenicali believes that this year’s car, the F138, must be on a par with its competitors from the outset in order to give the Maranello based squad their best chance of winning their first Formula One Championship since 2007. Speaking at the launch of the car at Ferrari HQ today, Domenicali says that they must make amends for a slow start last year, which cost them Championship points in the early stages of the season, and hit the ground running in order to compete with McLaren and Red Bull. “The key objective that we must have More…
Less than a week after losing his Formula One seat with Marussia F1, Timo Glock has joined BMW as a factory driver in DTM. The move comes following the Germans impressive first taste of the new machinery, at Valencia this week. Today’s move sees Glock reunited with the company that started his racing career and gave him his first chance in a Formula One car. “We are delighted to have Timo Glock back at BMW Motorsport,” said BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt. “Over the course of his career, Timo has proven on more than one occasion how valuable he is More…
This year will see the 50th anniversary of the McLaren racing team, and the Woking-based squad has announced that it will host a number of events throughout the year leading up to its celebration half a century on from the inauguration of Bruce McLaren Motor Racing, on September 2nd 1963. The eight-time Constructors’ Championship winners will display a special ‘McLaren 50’ logo on this years MP4-28 and on their team shirts, whilst a heritage video is also in the making to mark the achievement. Ron Dennis CBE, executive chairman, McLaren Group and McLaren Automotive, said: “McLaren’s history is long and More…
Mike Gascoyne has successfully completed his maiden solo transatlantic sailing trip after making it from Europe to the West Indies. The Caterham Composites CEO captained the teams ‘Caterham Challenge’ racing yacht, that is currently active in World yacht racing, and reached Grenada on Friday December 14. “Just arrived back home after 3 weeks away, so much has happened and so many experiences, strange feeling but good to be home and safe,” Gascoyne tweeted.”No traffic jams in the middle. No M25 misery. Just a journey to unlock the door to your future. Act on your dreams.” Gascoyne has been a keen More…
Sebastian Vettel has become only the third man in history – and the youngest – to claim three consecutive Formula One World Championship titles after an exhilarating season finale in Brazil, which saw Jenson Button claim victory. Vettel overcame a first lap collision which dropped him to 17th, three pit-stops and a broken radio which meant the team wasn’t expecting him for one of his stops, to take sixth place and join Michael Schumacher and Juan Manuel Fangio as triple-consecutive World Champions, as his fellow contender, Fernando Alonso, finished second in the race and three points behind Vettel at the More…
Lewis Hamilton has claimed his seventh pole position of the season and the last for McLaren, at the season ending Brazilian Grand Prix, heading a McLaren front row with Mark Webber in third. It was McLaren’s 62nd front row lock out, which establishes a new F1 record. After his well judged win in Austin last weekend, this was Hamilton once again on form, highlighting what might have been had the McLaren been as reliable as it has been fast this season. The title battle between Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso meanwhile, will see the two start three places apart, with More…
Lewis Hamilton continued his strong record in North America by winning an exciting race in Austin, Texas. Although Red Bull clinched the Constructors’ Championship, the result forced the Drivers’ Championship battle to roll on to the final race of the season in Brazil, as Sebastian Vettel was beaten into second place while his title rival Fernando Alonso completed the podium, from seventh on the grid. Losing the extra seven points a win would have given, the result sees Vettel increase his Championship lead over Alonso by just three points, to thirteen, whilst Red Bull have become the first Formula One More…
Sebastian Vettel claimed his sixth pole position of the season and surely one of the more important, to put one hand on the world championship crown, as fellow contender Fernando Alonso could only manage eighth place for Austin’s inaugural United States Grand Prix. A win tomorrow would mean that Vettel would need at worst a 6th place finish on Brazil to be champion, regardless of Alonso’s results, but if Alonso doesn’t climb at least five places from his grid slot, the German will be champion tomorrow night. Vettel maintained his supremacy from free practice to top every phase of qualifying More…
The McLaren Production Centre, situated alongside the McLaren Technology Centre Formula One base in Woking, has received the Judges Special Award at the 25th anniversary of the British Construction Awards, held in London this week. The MPC, which is the base of McLaren Automotive, houses the manufacturing and design processes of the groups high-performance cars, such as the MP4-12C, and has been rewarded with the accolade as it is regarded to be a civil engineering project that is particularly inspirational. Opened in November 2011 at a cost of £800million by the British Prime Minster David Cameron, the site is large More…
Sebastian Vettel cruised to a dominant victory in the Indian Grand Prix to increase his lead in the World Championship ahead of Fernando Alonso, with Mark Webber in third. The title is now a two horse race between Vettel and Alonso with three races to go. In a fairly uneventful race, Vettel survived a late scare with a floor stay to take his fourth consecutive race victory and extend his Championship lead to 13 points over Alonso. Vettel’s car began to produce sparks due to a loose skid block in the final dozen laps, giving Alonso some false hope, but More…
Sebastian Vettel overcame a mistake on his first run in the final part of qualifying to take pole position for the Indian Grand Prix ahead of Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton. Although a predictable result, it was achieved with difficulty; Vettel had a worrying moment when he made a mistake on his first lap in Q3 after, running wide on the in-field section. At this stage Webber help provisional pole with the fastest time of the weekend. Vettel was able to keep his cool and pip his team mate to pole by just 5/100ths of a second, but he had More…
In a period where the Hamilton/Mercedes/Schumacher affair has dominated the Formula 1 paddock’s attention, the wider repercussions in the driver market could open up a wealth of possibilities, led by Caterham and the possibility of two available race seats in 2013. Heikki Kovalainen said during the Japanese weekend that he was in talks with Caterham owner Tony Fernandes, and that despite apparent recent friction between the Malaysian and the Finn’s management, he was still hopeful of a fresh deal. Nonetheless the presence of a surge of talented and well-backed young drivers who are eager to break into the sport means More…
Caterham F1 have announced this weekend that the current Deputy Managing Director of Renault Sport F1, Cyril Abiteboul, is to become the teams new CEO; taking control of all on and off track operations and reporting directly to Riad Asmat and Tony Fernandes. It is an interesting move which could also have wider implications for Caterham’s relationship with Renault on the road car side. Due to contractual commitments Abiteboul will remain in his role at Renault Sport F1 until January 2013, splitting his efforts between that and his new role at Caterham. Having been part of the Renault brand since More…
The FIA has announced that there is to be a number of tributes in place for the late Professor Sid Watkins, F1′s legendary doctor including a bronze bust, book of Remembrance and a minute’s applause, at this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix. Although there have been suggestions that this may be revised to a minute’s silence. Formula One is also set to mark the passing of the Prof with the bronze bust, which was commissioned for him following retirement from his role as FIA Institute Honorary President, to be sat alongside a Book of Remembrance throughout the weekend allowing all those More…
Jenson Button claimed his first McLaren pole position in dominant fashion today with a spectacular performance in Spa to head an unexpected top three ahead of Kamui Kobayashi and Pastor Maldonado. But hours after the session ended, stewards took Maldonado’s fastest time away for an impeding incident in Q1 on Hulkenberg. It moves Kimi Raikkonen, who was also quizzed by stewards for leaving the circuit boundary with all four wheels, up to third, with Perez fourth. In Button’s 50th Grand Prix for McLaren he set two laps fast enough for pole and finished the session 3/10ths faster than anybody. The More…
Caterham F1 have confirmed today that EADS, an aerospace and defence group, has joined the team as an official partner. This is one of those deals which don’t appear to mean much at first glance, but which on closer inspection is quite significant. It means that Caterham will be able to outsource a significant amount of CFD and use the computing power of EADS, which has a significant value. To pay for that capability in house would be many millions. EADS is a leader in aerospace, defence and related services; it owns the aircraft maker Airbus, and Astrium, a European More…
The 2012 F1 in Schools World Finals are to be held in Abu Dhabi from 29th October to 31st October to coincide with the nation’s fourth Grand Prix. It is the eighth time that the prestigious event has taken place, and this year’s host could not be more fitting with the Yas Marina Circuit and Ferrari World Abu Dhabi as a very suitable back drop. The F1 in Schools challenge was set-up in 1999, aiming to make the teaching of engineering and technology more exciting for young people. They aim to stimulate the notion of team work and creativity in More…
The McLaren Group has announced a new branch of its company, McLaren Animation. The new venture is aimed at bringing a more accessible front to McLaren as well as stimulating increased brand loyalty; as is apparent in the company’s first production – ‘Tooned’. McLaren Animation has set up an alliance with Oscar-winning animation studio Framestore – whose recent projects have included the film War Horse and the BBC’s Euro 2012 title sequence – to create ‘Tooned’, a new show featuring the voices of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button as themselves as well as Alexander Armstrong, who will voice Professor M. More…
Caterham F1 Performance Director John Iley believes that with the package of upgrades Caterham is bringing to the car for Silverstone, the team is poised to become a “giant killer”. In a Caterham TV interview on the team’s website Iley has given a review of Valencia as well as a preview of their home Grand Prix at Silverstone. “Silverstone is going to be a significant upgrade for us; floor, more work on the front of the car, more work all over the car. It’s a significant step,” he said. “We were talking 2 or 3/10ths of a second in Valencia More…
Finnish video game developer Rovio, creators of the best selling application Angry Birds, have released a Formula One version of their game called “Angry Birds Heikki”, dedicated to Caterham F1 driver Heikki Kovalainen. The on-line format of the app allows players to enjoy the game set in the backdrop of 12 World famous Grand Prix circuits. Starting with Silverstone as Level One, a new level is unlocked at set dates for each of the forthcoming races until the end of the season. Angry Birds has been prominent in Formula One this year with Kovalainen sporting a themed crash helmet and More…
Ferrari’s Chief Designer Nikolas Tombazis says the team has found “a big improvement in car performance” following intensive work on the F2012 and it goes into the European Grand Prix this weekend with confidence. Valencia’s street track plays host to F1 for the fifth time this weekend. It is a track similar in some characteristics to the two previous races in Monaco and Montreal; low speed traction being pivotal to performance there. This was a weakness of the Ferrari at the start of the season, with the first round at Melbourne being a race in which neither car managed to More…
Caterham Group, the parent company of Caterham Cars and Caterham F1 Team have appointed Graham Macdonald as their new CEO of Caterham Cars. The appointment sees Macdonald move from his position as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Cars department following the departure of former CEO Ansar Ali by mutual consent. Macdonald and Ali have worked together through the rebuilding of the Caterham Group, making Caterham Cars a prominent part of the group following a management buy-out in 2005. During his time Ali was able to rejuvenate the historic spirit of innovation within the group and bring back the legendary More…
Italy has been rocked in recent weeks by a series of earthquakes that have destroyed the lives of many families in the Emilia-Romagna region of the nation, which is the home to the city of Modena; a name prominent with both Ferrari and motoring fans alike. Ferrari had to stop work in Maranello for a day this week. Ferrari are holding an on-line auction to raise funds for the families of those who have lost their lives, a number that currently stands at 23. The auction will have a designated section on the companies on-line Ferrari Store, allowing the public More…
The McLaren Group has announced that it is to advance its alliance with SAP solutions, a world leader in enterprise application software. The increased collaboration is aimed at improving the group’s productivity and efficiency, as well as integrating the various business centres within the group. SAP software provides an integrated and scalable solution focused on increasing future growth to the IT infrastructure within any size of business, offering the McLaren Group a base with which to process the vast quantities of performance data that they produce. “Our ability to process that data and act on it rapidly is crucial to More…
Caterham has introduced its new F1 Performance Director, John Iley, with an interview on the Caterham F1 website. Iley is one of many established names to have joined Caterham F1 (formerly Team Lotus) since their re-introduction in to Formula One in 2010. He has a strong pedigree with stints as a senior aerodynamicist at Ferrari and Renault during their championship winning seasons among other credits. Following on from Mike Gascoyne and Mark Smith, Iley, who was confirmed as the squad’s Performance Director in December last year, will take up his role as head of aerodynamics and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) More…
Caterham F1 headed into 2012 looking to pick off from where they had left off last year, hoping to challenge the midfield runners and gain their first points. And although they are yet to see a clear positional step, the team believe there have been significant gains, particularly in race trim. Following some positive pre-season tests, which had indicated an improvement in reliability and single-lap pace, Caterham have had a mixture of results in the opening grands prix. A double DNF in Melbourne was followed by both cars reaching the chequered flag in Malaysia, however due to the conditions in More…
Pre season testing is concluded, the new season is about to start and the signs are that the Caterham team has closed the gap to the midfield runners down to around half a second per lap; potentially close enough to race them. And Caterham F1 team boss Tony Fernandes believes that the team is ready to kick on in other ways, including the way it presents itself. Speaking in the team’s e-zine Caterham Notes he said that he sees his team having a “good and strong” 2012. Fernandes was born in the Chinese year of the Dragon, and with this More…
Caterham F1 will leave Jerez pleased with their efforts from this weeks first test, with technical boss Mike Gascoyne calling it “probably the best first test I have ever been involved in throughout my career.” In particular they will be happy with their overall reliability, completing 358 laps over the four days, and barring a minor problem with the starter on Tuesday the new CT-01 ran smoothly throughout the week. Jarno Trulli took over from Heikki Kovalainen and Giedo van der Garde to have his first taste of this years chassis, as well as getting to grips with KERS. “I More…
It has been announced today that Heikki Kovalainen has joined IMG Worldwide as his new management team, as well as being represented for all future commercial interests. At the same time, Kovalainen is testing the new Caterham CT01 in Jerez and believes that it is a big step closer to the midfield cars than was his 2011 model. The Caterham has full use of KERS for the first time and this alone is worth around 4/10ths of a second per lap. “Just looking the timesheets we’re closer than we’ve been before. We’ve done proper running, we haven’t done any show More…
As the first official pre-season test of 2012 kicked off today in Jerez Renault Sport F1 have been busy, adding a fourth team Williams to their roster of customer teams along with Caterham, Lotus and the works outfit, Red Bull. This year will see Renault’s 35th year of competition in Formula One, producing ten Constructors’ titles and nine driving titles, and they will be hoping that the RS27 will bring more glory with Red Bull this season. Having added another new team to their supply for two consecutive years Renault Sport will feel assured that they can continue to improve More…
The Caterham F1 Team has today unveiled a teaser photo its 2012 season challenger, the CT01, a day ahead of the planned release in F1 Racing magazine. Caterham had intended to showcase their car, the first since the name change from Team Lotus, on the cover of F1 Racing magazine, which is released on Thursday. However at midday UK time, the team posted an image of this years car on its official Twitter feed with more images set to be published on Caterham’s website tomorrow, along with some thoughts from technical boss Mike Gascoyne and team boss Tony Fernandes. The More…
Caterham F1 Team and its GP2 team Caterham Racing have today confirmed their long rumoured move to a new factory, closer to F1′s Silicon Valley of Oxfordshire. They are proposing to move from their Norfolk based operation to Leafield, in August 2012, although some areas of the business will stay in Norfolk. As the Caterham Group looks to expand, Team Principal Tony Fernandes believes that housing both racing teams and Caterham’s road car operation together will help the group to grow as a whole. “Acquiring Caterham Cars and establishing the wider Caterham Group, it became clear that we needed to More…
Caterham F1 Team have announced, via the team’s chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne, that next year’s car has successfully passed the FIA crash tests. The CT-01 has yet to be given an official launch date, but getting the all clear from these preliminaries will allow the team to tick another box and make advances heading into the new year. It has been a busy week for the Hingham based squad following on from their official name change from Team Lotus to Caterham F1 Team on Tuesday. Gascoyne expressed his joy on Twitter. “Great week,” he said. “Renaming as Caterham F1 More…
John Iley has today been confirmed as the Team Lotus Performance Director. The teams name change to Caterham F1 Team will be confirmed on December 14th and the move from McLaren will see Iley rejoin his former Jordan and Renault F1 colleague Mike Gascoyne at the newly named squad. Iley’s new title will see him take control of all aerodynamics and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) aspects of development heading into the new year and the pre-season tests. Having worked at both Ferrari and McLaren, Iley brings even more experience to Lotus’ growing roster of accomplished personnel as the team looks More…
Heading into the final race of the 2011 Formula One World Championship we are able to reflect on how overtaking has changed through the installation of DRS and the new Pirelli tyres, as well as the return of KERS, thanks to data from Mercedes. And Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Buemi turns out to be the pass master, the driver who has done the most overtakes. With a deliberate focus on increased overtaking 2011 was set to be, at the very least, a very interesting experiment aimed at producing a better spectacle for fans. The overtakes can be split down according to More…
This week twenty-nine of the world’s most promising young racing and rally drivers arrived in Austria for the Selection Event for the second year of the FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy. Each driver was assessed over the 4-day event and 18 were chosen to take part in the year long programme. They are: Mohamed Al Mutawaa, 18, UAE Klaus Bachler, 20, Austria Andrea Bate, 22, South Africa Craig Breen, 21, Ireland Andrea Caldarelli, 21, Italy Gabriel Chaves, 18, Columbia Jonas Gelzinis, 23, Lithuania Michael Klitgaard Christensen, 21, Denmark Jack Le Brocq, 19, Australia Michael Lewis, 20, USA Alexander Lynn, More…
It is well-known in Formula One that time is integral to any development. Whether it be designing the car or testing new configurations; strict limits on wind-tunnel use and testing can only allow for a certain amount of improvement during the season. For the three new teams that joined the grid in 2010, the last two years have consisted of non-stop development just to keep within touching distance of the more established outfits. Team Lotus has proved itself to be the out-standing case of the new entries and as we come to the end of the 2011 season the T128 More…
Group Lotus, Proton, 1Malaysia Racing Team and the current Team Lotus have announced today that the legal dispute surrounding the names of Team Lotus and Renault Lotus is now officially over. As of 2012, Team Lotus will become Caterham F1 Team and Lotus Renault will be rebranded purely as Lotus. Through the settlement, the “Lotus” brand has been re-established under the sole ownership of “Group Lotus”, which includes the use of the name throughout Formula One. This means that any relations between Tony Fernandes and Group Lotus has come to an end. The 1Malaysia Racing Team (1MRT), which is owned More…
Team Lotus has announced that American, Alexander Rossi, will join the team for the Young Driver tests at Abu Dhabi, taking place in the week following the Grand Prix. The former World Series by Renault race winner has shown a lot of promise in the recent GP2 winter test sessions and will step into the seat of a Formula One car for the second time, his first having taken place with the BMW Sauber team in 2009. Rossi will also be competing in the GP2 season finale at Abu Dhabi for Caterham Team AirAsia and will be looking to improve More…
The Formula One fraternity heads to India for the first time this week, keenly anticipating the nations first Grand Prix event. The race will be sure to boost India’s passion and image within the sport, as well as allowing people within F1 the chance to experience a new culture. The event will be particularly special for Lotus reserve driver, Karun Chandhok, whose father has been instrumental in bringing the race to India and building the track. Although the Indian driver has only competed in one race this season, he had high hopes that he would have the chance to contest More…
If you live in Australia here’s an opportunity for you to race Mark Webber and raise some money for good causes at the same time. As a warm up for his gruelling Tasmania Challenge event, Webber is offering all levels of runners the chance to compete against him in a sponsored “Adventure Run” around the Hobart waterfront in Tasmania. The run will take place on December 4th in aid of the Mark Webber Foundation and Save the Tasmanian Devil foundation. The Swisse Mark Webber Tasmania Challenge Adventure Run is being held three days prior to the main event; a tough More…
An Australian Secondary School has been crowned world champions in this years fiercely competitive F1 in Schools World Final, held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Pentagliders from Brooks High School in Tasmania produced the best engineered car and the fastest; completing the 20-metre sprint in 1.084 seconds, beating the times of 22 other schools from around the world to claim the Bernie Ecclestone World Champions trophy. The F1 in Schools challenge was set-up in 1999, aiming to make the teaching of engineering and technology more exciting for young people. They aim to stimulate the notion of team work and creativity More…
After 80 years in the motor sport business and statistically the most successful team in Formula One history, it is no surprise that Ferrari are experts in spotting talent for the future. The signing of a young Gilles Villeneuve towards the end of the 1977 season showed Ferrari’s prowess for spotting raw talent. Villeneuve had only driven in 3 Grand Prix for McLaren before Ferrari noticed his potential and immediately put him in their car for the last 2 rounds of the 1977 season. He was to stay in this seat until his untimely death at the Belgian Grand Prix More…
Fernando Alonso
Kimi Räikkönen
Felipe Massa
Sebastian Vettel
Mark Webber Nico Rosberg
Paul di Resta Jenson Button
Sergio Perez Daniel Ricciardo Sebastian Vettel Kimi Räikkönen Fernando Alonso Lewis Hamilton Felipe Massa Mark Webber
Romain Grosjean Paul di Resta Nico Rosberg Jenson Button Sergio Perez Daniel Ricciardo Adrian Sutil Nico Hulkenberg Jean-Eric Vergne Esteban Gutierrez Valtteri Bottas
Pastor Maldonado Jules Bianchi Charles Pic
Giedo van der Garde Max Chilton
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