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…