So far we have looked at one area which has got to change for society’s sake, namely engines and one which has to change for the sake of the show, which is aerodynamics. But both are likely to be refinements of what we have today, evolutions rather than any revolution. The materials from which F1 cars are made is probably the area where the biggest changes will occur to the sport in the future. Again it will be set by the rules, with some extremely expensive materials likely to be banned in the interests of cost control, but there is More…

When you contemplate the F1 cars of the future you imagine their shape and that is all about aerodynamics. F1 cars haven’t changed much in looks over the past 30 years and there is no reason why they should – you cannot uninvent aerodynamics. Lotus F1 technical director Mike Gascoyne pointed out that aeroplanes have changed little in looks and fundamental layout since the monoplanes of the World War I and so projecting forwards, there is no real reason why F1 cars should change much in looks over the next 20 years. Not everyone in F1 shares that view, however. More…

Thanks for all the feedback and ideas so far. Given widespread concerns about global warming and the environment, the conspicuous consumption of fossil fuels for entertainment is a concept that has a limited shelf life and it present risks for the sport. This is the key area where innovation is essential for survival – it’s as simple as that. Perhaps given the seriousness of the situation, many of your ideas concern the engines, fuel economy and alternatives for the future. F1 cars will always be light and will need a lot of power from the engine. Most engineers agree that More…

Schumacher has put out a carefully worded message over Christmas to the Ferrari fans, the tifosi, clearly concerned that they should not regard him as a traitor for leaving Ferrari to race for Mercedes, alongside the engineer who led Ferrari to greatness in the early 2000s. The pressure is now significantly increased on Ferrari, partly because F1 now has a new powerhouse team, backed by a manufacturer, but also because if Ferrari cannot match them on the track, critics will inevitably say that it was Brawn and Schumacher who made the Scuderia great and that the team has been in More…

There have been several reactions to the news that Michael Schumacher will race again in 2010; Bernie Ecclestone is relieved and the signs are that every team will benefit financially from Schumacher’s return. But perhaps the most interesting reaction came on Christmas Eve from Corinna Schumacher, long suffering wife of the seven times world champion. It is well known that she was relieved to see Michael get out of F1 in one piece back in 2006 and so for her his decision to come back promotes, predictably, mixed feelings, “My husband’s choice turns our family upside down, but he needs More…

F1 cars have been essentially the same shape for sixty years – petrol engined single seaters with uncovered wheels – apart from the Mercedes cars of 1954. But does it have to stay that way? If technology allows cars to race very close together – or cluster racing – but safely, then the wheels would need to be covered up and the shape would change completely. An engineer will say that to answer the question of what the cars will look like in the future you need to know what the rules will say in 2050. It’s an obvious point, More…

Over this Christmas holiday period I thought it would be good to have an interactive daily series looking at what F1 might be like in the future. I’ve prepared some content I hope you will find thought provoking. Each day I will do a specific post relating to this futuristic theme. Tomorrow we will look at what F1 cars might look like in the future, there will be posts on the engines of the future, aerodynamics, simulation tools and how the racing might be. Why is it interactive? Because I will post some thought starters and I would love it More…

Michael Schumacher has today confirmed his return to F1 and explained that the motivation was a human one; his old friend and colleague Ross Brawn needed him and he wanted to drive again after three years out of Formula 1. His motivation in the summer was that Felipe Massa had been injured and Ferrari needed him. He said that it was hard to split with Ferrari after a relationship lasting since 1996, but Ross Brawn’s call was a powerful one. Getting close to that comeback made him realise how much he wanted to race in F1 again, “The motivation I More…

Tonight Bild newspaper in Germany is reporting that Michael Schumacher has cleared the final hurdle in his quest to return to Formula 1 after three seasons of retirement and has signed a one year deal with Mercedes. Bild is a favourite place for both Schumacher’s manager Willi Weber and for Mercedes to leak stories. Although the Mercedes GP team is run by Ross Brawn, the pairing of Schumacher and Nico Rosberg in their Silver Arrows will make it Team Deutschland, as Mercedes boss Dieter Zetsche alluded to the other day. Schumacher’s doctor gave the all clear for him to race More…

The Mercedes GP team has won the hotly contested battle to secure the sponsorship of Malaysian oil company Petronas, in what it describes as a “long term deal”. The deal is a significant one, worth €30 million per season. Combined with the prize money the team won this season as Brawn GP, which is of the order of €50 million, this gives Mercedes an €80 million budget for 2010 before they themselves have injected anything, or any other sponsors have contributed. Alongside Ferrari and McLaren, this team is starting to look like a new powerhouse team for Formula 1, something More…

Over the Christmas and New Year period here on JA on F1, as well as monitoring the ongoing news sagas, like Michael Schumacher’s comeback, we will have plenty of easy-going festive content; we’ll be looking back at the 2009 season, running a short season of forward-looking pieces and a couple of public votes. So keep checking in, especially if you are snowed-in and bored! The first vote is for the top five moments of the year. We had some great racing in 2009, some stunning passing moves and some dramatic moments both on and off the circuit. I want you More…

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has again put the spotlight on Fernando Alonso and Ferrari’s expectation of him that he will work for the team and not for himself. The driver of whom Ron Dennis once said, “Competitive animals know no limits” and Martin Whitmarsh said, “As long as they can keep him winning I’m sure he will be happy,” comes to Maranello with a bit of baggage and Montezemolo has chosen to confront this head on. He said today that he had spoken with Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali “1,000s of times” about this subject while assessing the risks More…

Dr Dieter Zetsche, the CEO of Daimler AG, which owns Mercedes has said that the team will not know who will partner Nico Rosberg until the New Year. With speculation raging about Michael Schumacher making a comeback at the wheel of a Silver Arrow and suggestions that he may do an extended test in a GP2 car at either Abu Dhabi or Bahrain shortly to evaluate his recovery from neck injury, Zetsche said that, “We are struggling to announce a second driver. Who the second driver is, we will probably not know until next year.” Zetsche was speaking to German More…

Peter Sauber has always been a big supporter of talented young drivers. And in his latest guise as a reluctant team owner – having taken back his team from BMW – he is backing his instincts and giving Kamui Kobayashi a drive for 2010. It was announced today that Kobayashi will drive for BMW Sauber, as the team has not yet had its name changed. Kobayashi made a big impression in his two Grands Prix at the end of the season, not having driven an F1 car for seven months when he got the call up from Toyota to replace More…

The FIA has made another quiet but sensible decision, putting right something which was clearly wrong this season by allowing young drivers to test a car should they be called upon to move up to a race seat. This season Jaime Alguersuari and Romain Grosjean were obliged to jump into a race car with no testing when they were called up to replace race drivers who had been sacked. Luca Badoer also had a torrid time in the Ferrari with no opportunity to familiarise himself with the car. The testing ban was introduced as a cost saving measure, allowing teams More…

Renault announced today, as expected, that it is to stay in F1 for the moment, but having sold an interest in its Enstone chassis operation to Genii Capital, run by tech investor Gerard Lopez. Lopez was not present at the announcement in Paris and Renault’s long term strategy in F1 is not clear from today’s announcement. Of primary importance as far as Bernie Ecclestone is concerned is that the name Renault remains in the sport and that they continue as a supplier of engines, to maintain the balance with Mercedes and Cosworth and it was also confirmed today that Red More…

Renault has called a press conference in Paris tomorrow to announce its decision on Formula 1. It seems that they may announce that the company has decided to sell a 75% shareholding in its Enstone operation to Gerard Lopez, the 37 year old internet entrepreneur who was the first investor in Skype. The deal entails Lopez and his company Gravity, getting the factory for nothing and a guaranteed free supply of engines for two years. The sponsorship of the French Total oil company is also included. In return the team remains under the Renault name for at least the 2010 More…

Virgin Racing launched today in West London with Sir Richard Branson promising “to be a winner in the end” in Formula 1. It was a confident launch; the business package around the team seems strong and the team structure is interesting. To succeed it will require the various components to work together despite cultural and geographical differences. The design side is under Nick Wirth in Oxford and the race team management under Manor’s John Booth in Sheffield. The chairman is the vastly experienced Etienne de Villiers, formerly of Disney and ITV. He has been put in place by the venture More…

The latest twist in the story of Michael Schumacher’s move towards a comeback is Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo saying that Ferrari’s consultancy agreement with Schumacher is not binding and they cannot hold him if he wants to race for “a competitor”. Sources in Germany suggest that Schumacher was not prepared to move forward with the comeback unless Montezemolo gave it his blessing and perhaps this was the purpose of today’s interview with Reuters. Schumacher is due to meet the Ferrari president later this week, apparently. My sources in Italy and Germany are now adamant that this deal is going More…

Jenson Button collected a trophy yesterday at the BBC’s Sport Personality of the Year award, but not the one he was expecting. He was the favourite going into the event, but like Lewis Hamilton last year, the F1 world champion found himself demoted to second place, in this case by the Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs. The award is based on a public vote during the programme and this year’s Sports Personality event was totally overshadowed by the X Factor talent show which was on at the same time on ITV and which drew an audience of 20 million people. More…

The new Lotus F1 team has revealed the scale of its ambition by announcing that Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen, both race winners in F1, will drive for the team in its debut season next year. From the point of view of the drivers this is a big vote of confidence in technical director Mike Gascoyne, who worked with Trulli at Renault and Toyota. Lotus boss Tony Fernandes has empowered Gascoyne, given him the resources he asked for to get the job done and to have two highly experienced drivers, both of whom are capable of extracting the maximum performance More…

Michael Schumacher – back in Formula 1? That is the word this weekend, thanks to an article in Bild, the German equivalent of the Sun. There are two possible sources of this story – for as long as I can remember Bild has been Willi Weber’s favourite method of leaking stories. Weber is Schumacher’s manager. But Mercedes’ boss Norbert Haug has also been known to let things out through that route. “The contract is ready to be signed,” said Bild, referring to the one year deal, supposedly agreed between the two sides. Bild says that the announcement will come next More…

The calendar for the first F1 season of the new decade has been confirmed today by the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council. It features 19 events and runs for exactly eight months from 14 March to 14 November, the latest finish to a season for a long time. The major change from the previous version of the calendar is that Abu Dhabi has got back its slot as the final race, swapping places with Brazil, which had the last event on the provisional calendar. This is an important victory for the Abu Dhabi organisers as it gives the event a More…

The FIA World Motor Sport Council met today in Monaco and voted through some measures which will change F1 in important ways. There was confirmation of the change to the points system proposed by the F1 commission yesterday, with 25 points for the winner and, as expected, the Sporting Working Group has been tasked with coming up with compelling ideas in January for improving the show which can be implemented before next season. Refereeing is always a source of needless controversy in any sport and after a lot of rows over stewarding decisions in recent years, new FIA president Jean More…

Formula 1 is set to introduce a major change to its points system to reflect the fact that the grid has expanded from 10 to 13 teams. A proposal was agreed by the members of the F1 commission, which met today for the first time in five years and, if approved by the FIA World Council tomorrow in Monaco, it will mean that a race winner will score 25 points, with 20 for second place, 15 for third, 10 for fourth, then 8-6-5-3-2-1 down to 10th position. This was approved because it was felt that it was important that the More…

Nick Fry perpetuated the rumours about Michael Schumacher making a comeback with his team as he spoke to the press today after his appearance at the Motor Sport Business Forum in Monaco. He declined to comment on whether the team was talking to the 41 year old and said that they had a shortlist of “3 or 4 drivers”. He said that nationality wasn’t important because Mercedes already has a German driver but he said that experience was vitally important. They may announce the identity of Nico Rosberg’s team mate this year but it would more likely be next year. More…

Formula 1 is in robust shape but needs to attend to the demands of new media, that was the strong message from Monaco this week. And Mercedes team boss Nick Fry indicated that the sport was now ready to take that step. The Motor Sport Forum has just wrapped up and delegates are leaving with plenty of new ideas and insights. Over the two days we have heard a lot about the impact of the credit crunch on motorsport, how the Copenhagen climate change talks will impact the sport in future and heard a great deal about the next turn More…

The Motor Sport Business Forum kicked off today with Tony Fernandes the new team principal of Lotus F1 talking about the opportunity he sees in F1 and continued with a fascinating discussion on the changing model of team ownership, involving Gerard Lopez, one of the men bidding to buy Renault F1 team. The discussion moved from how the sport had fared through the credit crunch and the ‘bumps in the road’ like the Singapore crash scandal and the breakaway threat, to whether the end of the manufacturer era in F1 is permanent, but the most interesting aspects focussed on the More…

The world of motorsport is gathering this week in Monaco for a series of meetings culminating in the World Motor Sport Council on Friday and the gala World Championship presentations on Friday night. There are a number of items on the agenda at key meetings for F1 teams and stakeholders this week, the first with Jean Todt as president of the FIA. The F1 commission is meeting for the first time in four years and although it is unlikely to agree any significant new measures for next year, because teams would have to agree unanimously, it looks like there could More…

Silverstone is hosting a press conference in London this morning, with BRDC president Damon Hill due to announce that a deal has been struck with Bernie Ecclestone for the race to stay at the Northamptonshire track until 2026. The deal has a break clause after 10 years. The olive branch offered by Ecclestone, which swung the deal as far as Silverstone was concerned, was a reduction in the compound interest due on the deal each year, which will save Silverstone a significant amount of money. The starting fee to host the race is £12 million for 2010, rising to £16.8 More…

Bernie Ecclestone has heated up the debate about Michael Schumacher making a comeback at the wheel of one of Ross Brawn’s Mercedes F1 cars next season with some enigmatic comments in the Times tonight. The 79 year old said it would be “magic”, if Schumacher returned and suggested that this was beginning to gather some momentum. “I would personally doubt that he’s going to make a comeback but, having said that, it’s maybe getting a bit stronger than a rumour,” he said. Of the possible contenders for the seat, which may well include Robert Kubica when Renault disposes of its More…

BMW announced its motor sport plans for for first year after its withdrawal from Formula 1 this weekend. It is based around its ongoing challenge in World Touring Cars and its GT programme in the 24 hours classics, Le Mans and Spa. There is also a strong commitment to the young driver programme. The motorsport department will be led by former BMW Sauber F1 team principal Dr Mario Theissen. This type of racing is very much core business for BMW, which has what you would call patchy history in F1. As an engine supplier it won with Brabham in the More…

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali has shed a little more light on the decision to drop Kimi Raikkonen and hire Fernando Alonso, saying that Alonso is a better development driver, more in the mould of Michael Schumacher and that is what the team needs. Domenicali’s comments will dismay Raikkonen, who has just signed a contract to compete in the World Rally Championship. I have checked with Ferrari and the quotes are genuine. They are downplaying the Raikkonen comments as ‘superficial’, however they say that the sentiments about Alonso are what the team feels at this time. Domenicali was quoted yesterday More…

Always a driver to do things his own way, 2007 F1 champion Kimi Raikkonen has announced that he will drive for the Red Bull Citroen team in the World Rally Championship next season. He is the first world F1 champion to make that move. The 30 year old Finn has always had a soft spot for the sport and has competed in several rallies during his F1 career, including Rally Finland. When he failed to find a deal with McLaren for next season in F1 he announced that he would take a sabbatical from F1. That appears to be the More…

Tony Fernandes, the team Principal of the new Lotus F1 team will deliver the keynote address on the first day of the 2009 Motor Sport Business Forum in Monaco. All eyes will be on the Grimaldi Forum next Wednesday morning as Fernandes, talks about his new team, his innovative ideas for sponsorship and monetisation of the team and his ambitions within Formula One. I will be putting the questions to him. Send me a suggestion for a question and if I like it and think it’s appropriate, I’ll add it to the list. Fernandes has been a sponsor in F1 More…

Australian Daniel Ricciardo did his reputation in F1 circles no harm at all with a stunning lap time in the final day of the Jerez test for young drivers. At the wheel of the Red Bull, the 20 year old Australian, who won the British F3 championship, clocked a time of 1m 17.418s, the fastest time of the week. It was set on low fuel and new tyres, but it is still a quick time to add to the impressive runs he had put in during high fuel running. Engineers from other teams had their eye on him from day More…

Toyota’s adventure in F1 is now well and truly over as the FIA today granted Peter Sauber the 13th slot on the grid – unlucky for some. A statement issued by the FIA this evening said, “The FIA has written to inform BMW Sauber AG that their application for an entry in the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship has been successful.” “Subject to their signing the Concorde Agreement, BMW Sauber will be awarded the 13th entry in the Championship, taking the place of the departing Toyota team. “The FIA has worked closely with the Commercial Rights Holder and the More…

Renault is working out a plan to leave Formula 1 before the start of next season, according to L’Equipe newspaper in France. If it goes through, the sport will have lost four major manufacturers in the space of twelve months, including Honda, BMW and Toyota. A team has been charged by Renault president Carlos Ghosn with making a study into the possibility of striking a deal with Prodrive’s David Richards to take the team on. Ghosn made some uncomplimentary remarks about F1 recently, claiming that it was drifting out of relevance, with the challenge for car makers in the 21st More…

Jules Bianchi has signed up to Ferrari on a contract believed to be for three years. This is the beginning of the young driver programme which team principal Stefano Domenicali spoke about last summer. “Jules is tied to the Maranello squad with a multi-year contract, confirming Ferrari’s commitment to young talent, a policy of which Felipe Massa is a prime example. Further and more far reaching initiatives will be established in the near future,” said a statement on the Ferrari website. Bianchi, 20, is from a racing background. His grandfather Mauro was a successful GT driver and his uncle Lucien More…

Today saw the start of the first and only F1 test of the winter – the three day young drivers’ test at Jerez. Under new rules, this is the only time F1 cars will run before February. Rather patronisingly described by Toro Rosso as “Kindergarten week” in its press statement this evening the test is a chance for the next generation of F1 stars to showcase their talents. And with nine empty spaces on the grid for next year, according to yesterday’s FIA entry list, there is a chance for someone to catch the eye, as Kamui Kobayashi did in More…

A fantastic year for Jenson Button could be rounded out with a win in the most prestigious sporting award the UK has to offer. The short list for the 56th BBC Sports Personality of the Year award were announced last night and he is the odds on favourite to win. Looking at his competition, he should ease through to take the title. It is based on a vote by the British public and F1 drivers have always been well supported because F1 fans are passionate and actively get out to vote. Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill and Sir Jackie Stewart have More…

This has been the season of the “win-win” – deals which leave both sides feeling really good about themselves. There is a lot of restructuring going on at the moment; the inevitable result of a season which has seen savage recession hit the sport, manufacturer withdrawals and the arrival of new teams. We have had a spate of deals the principals have described as “win-win” lately; first Ron Dennis described the deal whereby Mercedes bought Brawn as a “win-win”, then Toto Wolff used the same term to describe his acquisition of a shareholding in Williams and at the weekend the More…

The FIA has this evening published the entry list for next season’s F1 championship. There are some interesting points of note. First, as expected, Richard Branson’s Virgin is “doing a Benetton” and pushing its brand to the forefront, calling the team Virgin Racing and the cars Virgin Cosworths. Manor is not entering F1 under its own name. The model here was set out by Benetton in the 1980s and 1990s, whereby it got the maximum brand exposure while getting the sponsors to pay the bills. Virgin Racing has yet to announce its commercial package for F1, but one would expect More…

Flavio Briatore was not present in court this week in Paris to hear the case from his lawyer as to why his lifetime ban from F1 should be overturned. The former Renault F1 team boss is also seeking damages of €1 million and his former executive director of engineering Pat Symonds is seeking €500,000 and a reversal of his five year ban over the Singapore race fixing case. So will they get their way? Briatore’s case was heard by the Tribunal de Grand Instance. His lawyer argued that the FIA World Motor Sport Council was both the investigating and judging More…

My review of the 2009 F1 season, entitled “F1 2009 – A Revolutionary Year” went on sale today. The book tells the story of the 2009 season, from the McLaren launch in January to the last race in Abu Dhabi. I called it “A Revolutionary Year” because this was a year in which the backmarkers of 2008 won the championship and the champion teams of recent times lost their dominance. Off track it was the year when the teams revolted against the governing body and almost started a breakaway series. It covers all 17 Grands Prix and tells the behind More…

There is a great piece of work on Auto Motor und Sport’s website with an analysis of the engines in this year’s world championship. The analysis is based on collating the information each engine builder has about each other. I’ve checked it out with some of the F1 engineers and it seems that the data is a pretty accurate reflection of the numbers they are working with. The result is that Mercedes comes out top, with Toyota at the bottom. Throughout the year one kept hearing stories about how much the Renault in the back of the Red Bull car More…

The rumours around the possible return of Michael Schumacher to Formula 1 with Mercedes continue to swirl, but Ferrari remain calm and expect the seven times world champion to stay with them for the next three years as a consultant. The latest twist is that Schumacher has not yet physically signed his new three year consultancy agreement with Ferrari. Schumacher’s manager Willi Weber said on Tuesday in Germany that he could not say whether the deal had been signed, even though it was all agreed and this is my understanding from the Ferrari side too. However, what many commentators are More…

Thank you very much to the 1,100 readers who took part in the Top Five drivers of the year competition. I’m delighted that we got more than 1,000 entries! There were plenty of interesting entries, Luca Badoer popped up a couple of times, while several Kimi Raikkonen fans put their man in all five positions! I put a lot of time and research into my selection, going back through my race weekend data, looking at fuel corrected figures for qualifying and so on. I’ve also sounded out some of the F1 engineers for their data analysis of the drivers’ performances More…

I’ve been thinking about Williams selling a minority shareholding in the team to Austrian motorsport investor Toto Wolff. The deal was announced at the end of last week. It is yet another example, in this early part of the off season, of a structural change in the fabric of F1 teams. We have had Mercedes ending its arrangement with McLaren and buying 75% of Brawn and McLaren setting itself up as a “British Ferrari”. Williams was set up very much like Brawn; an independent team with a private shareholder structure. Teams of this size are very well placed for the More…

Nico Rosberg will lead Mercedes’ attack on F1 next season. The 24 year old is a great choice for the iconic Mercedes brand as he is their own three pointed star; he’s fast, he’s marketable and he’s hungry. The 24 year old German driver was announced today during a conference call n with Mercedes Benz motorsport vice president Norbert Haug and Mercedes F1 CEO Nick Fry. He is the first driver to be announced by Mercedes since it took over the Brawn GP team and the first German to drive for them since Karl Kling piloted one of the Silver More…

Mercedes are on the conference call trail again this morning. This time it is to announce what Mercedes describes as the “first new driver” for its team, which is expected to be Nico Rosberg, as he has been signed to the team for some time. Rosberg will be in the conference call as will Norbert Haug, the vice president of Mercedes Benz motorsport and Nick Fry, who is now billed as the CEO of the Mercedes F1 team. Haug continues to maintain that the Mercedes driver line up will ‘surprise’ and will be appealing. Over the weekend Ross Brawn told More…

The JA on F1 reader competition to name your top five drivers of the season has been a big success so far and we have had 870 entries in the last few days. The competition runs until next week and the winners will be announced on Tuesday 24th. For those who missed it first time around – anyone who names the same top five drivers of the season, in the same order as me will get a free signed copy of my review of the 2009 season, ” F1 2009: A revolutionary year”. There’s a limited print run of these More…

Today has seen a groundswell of stories about Michael Schumacher talking to Mercedes about making a return to F1 next season. I’ve had dozens of readers asking whether this is the case or not, meanwhile Eddie Jordan has stuck his neck out and said on the BBC website that the deal is on and Schumacher will be racing in silver next season. The Telegraph’s Kevin Garside, who no longer covers F1 on a regular basis, has gone overboard on the story today too, albeit with no quotes or attributions. The authoritative end of the German media is strangely silent on More…

It’s amazing how little time there ever is in F1 to enjoy the moment, to celebrate something special, before something comes along and makes it all turn nasty. The bitterness is starting to come out now in the aftermath of Jenson Button’s shock move to McLaren on a three year contract. According to Ross Brawn, who has actually been trying to have a holiday this week while all of this has been going on, Button breached the terms of his contract when he visited the McLaren factory last Friday mid-way through the negotiations over a new deal. At the time More…

In a couple of weeks from now I will be in Monaco, for the annual Motor Sports Business Forum. Last year I was a speaker, this year I’m going one better and I’m chairing the conference. It’s a busy week for international motorsport and there are many events going on; the World Motor Sport Council meets on Friday morning for the first time with Jean Todt as president. There is a circuit holders’ meetings and other meetings, all culminating in the FIA Presentation Gala on Friday night, at which Jenson Button will collect his World Champion’s trophy and Ross Brawn More…

Kimi Raikkonen has a blank space in his diary – it’s called 2010. He has not totally ruled out F1, as his manager Steve Robertson left the door open this morning in an interview with Autosport’s Jon Noble over in Macau, that he could re-examine the possibility of racing with the new Mercedes team, if they were interested in having him. “This is Formula 1,” said Robertson. “If they can offer, or convince us, that they can provide Kimi an opportunity that Kimi is happy with, and that we are happy with, and he feels he can win races and More…

Jenson Button has done what he threatened to do; quit the team he won the championship with and launched a new adventure with McLaren. Button has a three year contract to race alongside Lewis Hamilton in an all British “World Champions” superteam. Everyone at the Brawn team in Brackley will be disappointed by this and there will be lots of question marks about loyalty and “feeling valued” swimming around on both sides. But at the end of the day Button has gone because Brawn and Mercedes were prepared to let him – and that says quite a lot. The timing More…

Kimi Raikkonen will not be racing in F1 next season, his manager Steve Robertson has confirmed. He is calling it a year off and time will tell if he ever races an F1 car again. “The options in F1 were with McLaren next season or not at all,” Robertson said, “Kimi and McLaren were unable to reach an agreement, so he will not drive at the F1 level – at least not next year. “A gap year means nothing for Kimi. He is more interested in fighting for wins and the world championship. F1 will miss Kimi. He worked hard More…

Manor GP has pulled off a great coup by signing up Timo Glock, as we foreshadowed here last week. He becomes the second driver to be named by one of the four new teams. Lotus has signed a driver but has yet to announce his identity or whether he is a race or reserve driver. Glock has had some impressive drives in the last couple of seasons, with podium finishes in Bahrain and Singapore this year and at Hungary last year. He ended the season on a bit of downbeat note with injuries and illnesses and a monstrous accident at More…

Fernando Alonso today took his first bow as a Ferrari driver, appearing at the Ferrari finals day in Valencia. A crowd in excess of 17,000 turned up at the Riccardo Tormo circuit to see Alonso and his 2010 team mate Felipe Massa and to watch the final rounds of some of the key Ferrari championships featuring 129 drivers from around the world. When it was announced earlier in the year that this important day in the Ferrari calendar would take place in Spain, it was yet more proof that a deal to take Alonso to Ferrari was in the pipeline, More…

The latest turn of the wheel in the saga over where Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen will race next year is that Button and his manager, Richard Goddard visited McLaren’s Woking HQ yesterday. In itself that is no great surprise, it sends out a message to Brawn that Button has options and McLaren are known to be good payers. For McLaren it sends out a signal to Raikkonen, whose manager also toured McLaren this week, to act now if he wants to stay in F1 in a competitive car and to be more realistic about his salary demands. But what More…

Further to my post yesterday about the new teams, it appears that Timo Glock might have got cold feet about a move to Renault and is considering a drive with the new Manor team. During the Abu Dhabi weekend the German media was reporting that Glock had signed for Renault, but with no announcement forthcoming and uncertainty still clouding Renault’s long term plans in F1 after their board meeting last week, Glock’s manager, Hans-Bernard Kamps has said that Manor is a real possibility. The other driver in the frame is Lucas di Grassi. Glock has had a rollercoaster career. He More…

As the old season fades from view attention is now on the new teams. Campos Meta team yesterday unveiled Bruno Senna at a ceremony in its native Murcia region of Spain. He is the first driver to be officially confirmed by one of the four new teams entering F1 next season. Campos is backed by the Murcia region, but is dependent on sponsorship from drivers to secure its place on the grid. Senna has some money from Embratel, but according to Adrian Campos, it is looking less likely that Pedro de la Rosa will get a seat as Spanish sponsors More…

Shell, in its capacity as a partner of Ferrari stretching back some 450 races, has issued an interesting Q & A with Michael Schumacher in which he talks about comebacks and says that if he had his time again he would do a few things differently; not least avoiding the collision with Jacques Villeneuve in Jerez 1997 which severely damaged his reputation. This week Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has reiterated his desire to see Schumacher race a Ferrari again, should all the new teams, so derided by Ferrari, fail to make it onto the grid and teams be required More…

The World Champion’s number one plate could once again appear on a Silver Arrow next season. Reports in Germany suggest that a deal is being discussed whereby the Brawn GP name could disappear after just one all conquering season in Formula 1 and the champions would be rebranded as Mercedes from next season onwards. According to Auto Motor und Sport, the deal for Mercedes to acquire 75% of Brawn, via its main shareholder Aabar, is in the closings stages and now it is a question of negotiation with McLaren as to whether Mercedes is able to rebrand the team starting More…

The era of manufacturers dominating F1 is over, according to Williams chief executive Adam Parr. Following a week in which Toyota announced its withdrawal and Renault held an emergency board meeting to discuss its ongoing participation, Parr said that the tide is turning away from the manufacturer teams towards independents like Williams and Brawn. In an article I co-wrote in this weekend’s Financial Times, Parr said, “This week marked the end of manufacturer dominance in F1, something that had been growing for a decade, ” It’s not that manufacturers are not welcome in F1, it’s just that the maths don’t More…

Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari adventure is underway. The two time world champion has begun the programme of seat fitting and preliminary work with the Scuderia. Alonso has been quite vague recently when asked about when he would be free to join his new team. I asked him about it on the Friday of the Abu Dhabi weekend and he said he did not know. He has some links with Renault sponsors and negotiations are ongoing to put an end date to engagements. Ferrari’s official website confirms that the Spaniard arrived at Maranello around 8am, met with team principal Stefano Domenicali, saw More…

The double whammy of Bridgestone and Toyota’s withdrawal from F1 is sending shivers down the spine of F1. Today Renault held a scheduled meeting to discuss its future participation in F1. It appears that there will be no communication about the outcome of that meeting until later in the week. French colleagues tell me that they do not expect Renault to pull out, but there is a panicky feeling in the air, as there was after Honda withdrew last Christmas. The BBC is reporting that acting team principal Bob Bell and managing director Jean Francois Caubet attended the meeting but More…

It has been a tough week for Japanese involvement in F1. Following on from Bridgestone’s announcement that they will withdraw at the end of 2010, Toyota have confirmed the news that many people have been expecting throughout the season; they are pulling out of F1 with immediate effect. This opens up a place on the Formula 1 grid for the Sauber team, which BMW sold to Qadbak. As things stand there will be 13 teams next season, only three of whom are manufacturer backed. F1 has lost half its manufacturers within the last 12 months. The balance within F1 will More…

Michael Schumacher has admitted that his decision to announce that he would try to make a Formula 1 comeback this summer was ‘emotional, not rational’. It was driven by a desire to do the right thing for Felipe Massa, to cover for him and protect his future. That much was fairly evident at the time, but it’s interesting nevertheless to hear him say it now, mainly because Schumacher was always such a mentally driven driver, rather than an emotional one. It was rare in his racing days for him to do anything that was not utterly pragmatic, partly because beneath More…

Williams has announced the expected 2010 line up of Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg. It is a team they have had in mind for some time. Hulkenberg represents raw youthful pace, but crucially he has shown this season that he is also capable of shaping that into an all-round racing ability. He looks like a driver who will improve himself into the real thing and he is well managed by Willi Weber, Michael Schumacher’s manager. Hulkenberg has been on Williams’ books for two seasons and this year delivered his target of winning the GP2 championship, while Barrichello brings a blend More…

I’m delighted to announce that on November 27th we will be publishing a book looking back on the 2009 season. It is a review of the goings-on both on and off the circuit in what has certainly been the most action packed season I’ve ever covered. The book is the story of the 2009 season told through the eyes of the James Allen on F1 blog, with updates and extra editorial from me. It has the behind the scenes insights into all the big stories of the year from the F1 breakaway threat and the Renault crash scandal to Ferrari’s More…

Claudio Berro, the former press officer from Ferrari has joined the new Lotus F1 team as sporting director. Berro is one of new FIA president Jean Todt’s closest allies in motorsport, having worked with the Frenchman at Peugeot and Ferrari. More recently he ran the Maserati programme and the Speedcar programme. He is a very well organised and genial individual. Todt has a lot of respect for his abilities. Although primarily an organiser, Todt gave him the vitally important role of head of communications early in his tenure at Ferrari and Berro managed to stop the leaks and get control More…

There has been a lot of talk this week about Jenson Button’s contract talks with the Brawn team. Proving what an unsentimental business this is, the champagne soaked clothes are barely back from the dry cleaners and both sides are publicly playing hardball. It’s a question of who needs who the most. The team have come through a lot together. It was really noticeable on the day the titles were clinched in Brazil that Ross Brawn’s first thoughts were for the employees he had been forced to let go when the team downsized from 700 to 450 in April. Equally, More…

Last week I showed video of the first on-board laps of the new Yas Marina Island circuit in Abu Dhabi. Here’s some footage from the same two seater F1 event, which I have edited up to give an idea of what the spectacle will look like on TV next weekend. The event is set to be the first F1 race to start in daylight and go into the night. I’ve also got some data on the track, from one of the teams. This gives you a bit of an idea what kind of track it is in terms of fuel More…

Max Mosley is no longer the FIA president. Jean Todt has been elected to the role, with a landslide majority and this will mean some major changes in the structure of the body which regulates the F1 world championship. In the end he received almost three times the amount of votes as his rival, Ari Vatanen. Todt had 135 backers, with Vatanen on 49 and there were 12 abstentions. Todt stood on a ticket which emphasized ‘teamwork’ – which is what he was known for as a leader of the Ferrari F1 team during the most successful period in its More…

Donington Park has exactly 96 hours to save it’s British Grand Prix contract and avoid an expensive lawsuit from Bernie Ecclestone’s company, FOM. Yesterday afternoon, news began to filter out that Citigroup, Donington’s advisers on the £135 million bond issue, had withdrawn the bond. There was interest apparently, but not enough and the two week window for getting the bond away proved to be too short, especially with no pre-publicity. It was a high risk investment, but according to sources in the City there were some investors willing to take the risk. “Donington Ventures Leisure Limited can confirm that a More…

The election to find a new FIA president is underway in Paris. The two candidates, Jean Todt and Ari Vatanen are going head to head for the right to succeed Max Mosley. Whoever wins will rule over F1, rallying and many other motor sport disciplines. The vote is being taken by the FIA general assembly, which comprises 221 delegates representing the sporting and mobility clubs from 132 countries around the world. The candidates had 15 minutes each to spell out their vision for the FIA. But the delegates are already well aware of what each stands for as they have More…

Lewis Hamilton handed his champions’ crown to Jenson Button last weekend and in Abu Dhabi will race with the number one on his car for the last time. He is determined to win it back again, as soon as next year, but in the short term he thinks that he and Button could finish 1-2 in the final race – and I think that is a distinct possibility. “He will make a great champion, ” said Hamilton on his website. “I’m proud of what he’s done – both him and his team – and I think he’ll come to Abu More…

The FIA World Motor Sport Council today issued the calendar for next season with some subtle changes on it from the version in circulation recently. There is also confirmation that F1 and other FIA events will change the basis on which the engine formula is devised to an efficiency based, rather than capacity based system. In F1 this new formula is due in 2013 and KERS, or a version of it, will be at the heart of it. Monaco moves forward one week, as I flagged up recently – I learned of it from a hotel over a week ago! More…

Rally champion Sebastien Loeb will not appear behind the wheel of a Toro Rosso next weekend in the F1 season finale in Abu Dhabi, it has been announced. According to colleagues in the French media, Loeb has not been able to get a superlicence and so cannot race. Despite being a five times world rally champion and a competitor in the Le Mans 24 hours, Loeb has not fulfilled the criteria for qualification, such as victories in GP2 or success in a national F3 series. This seems a little unfair given that F1 drivers like Kimi Raikkonen are allowed to More…

After a period of quiet reflection, disgraced former Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore is not taking his lifetime ban lying down and today (Monday) filed a civil law suit against the FIA in Paris. He has been given a date of November 24th for the hearing. This extraordinary season of F1 still clearly has plenty of twists and turns in store before it comes to an end, with the FIA presidential election later this week, Max Mosley stepping down as president soon after and plenty of developments to come on the driver market and among the new teams. Briatore is More…

Jenson Button has made himself hoarse with shouting and celebrating his world championship victory, giving endless interviews. He claims that today’s race was the best of his career to date, ” This was my best race I’ve driven in my life, I know because of the emotion that’s involved in it, but also because I knew what I had to do – I did it, and that is why I am sat up here as world champion, ” he said. ” I am going to enjoy this moment very much. The people around me have been so supportive. I might More…

An epic qualifying session ended with Rubens Barrichello on pole position for tomorrow’s Brazilian Grand Prix. Heavy rain delayed the start of the sessions and then there were red flags for accidents and incidents as well. Championship leader Jenson Button starts 14th after another nightmare session. He did not have the edge left in his tyres when the track was at its fastest and he missed the cut for the top ten shootout. So it is advantage Barrichello. The Brazilian needs to score five points more that Button tomorrow to take the fight to the final race in Abu Dhabi. More…

Renault’s Fernando Alonso ended the second practice session fastest, on a chilly day at Interlagos. The Spaniard, who had spent most of the session in the bottom half of the time sheets, clocked a time of 1m 12.314, 5/100ths of a second faster than last year’s pole time set by Felipe Massa. It is likely that the time, set at the end of the session, was done on low fuel and new tyres, as he often has on Fridays this season. Many of the front runners did not do low fuel runs at the end of the session. Massa, who More…

Here is something a little bit special; the first on-board camera laps of the circuit which will host the final round of this year’s world championship – the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi. Even the F1 teams haven’t seen this material yet – and they will want to because there are some amazing features, not least the pit lane exit, which is a tunnel with a corner in it! The track is 3.45 miles long and has 21 corners. It’s going to be quite tough on brakes as it has four big stop zones, where the cars come down More…

Following on from Jean Todt’s letter yesterday criticising the negative campaigning of his rival Ari Vatanen, the Finn has done an interview in today’s Gazzetta dello sport in which he calls for a “complete clean up” of the FIA. Vatanen claims that 70% of the mobility clubs and ‘around half’ of the sporting clubs are on his side. “Me and my team believe that we have more than half of the votes. We are giving people hope and they are grasping it” he says. “The majority of clubs feel the need for a new FIA, more democratic, which takes care More…

Simon Gillett’s Donington Ventures group has gone on a last chance dash to the City to try to raise £135 million to save its British Grand Prix deal. The company is basically looking for a 7 year loan of £135 million and is offering to pay 15% interest on investors’ capital, plus a 5% bonus. The offer document says that the money is “to fund redevelopment, repay existing debt, fund working capital, prefund interest on the notes and pay amounts due to the landlord under the lease.” The interest payments Donington would be liable for would be £20 million per More…

FIA presidential hopeful Jean Todt has sent out a statement to the membership of the FIA clubs today underlining his policy ideas and attacking his rival Ari Vatanen for using dirty tricks and personal attacks in his campaign. With the election now just over a week away, the tone and meaning of Todt’s message is interesting. His point is that he has sought all along to conduct a dignified campaign, whereas he feels Vatanen has been very negative about the FIA, what it stands for today and has gone around belittling what it has achieved in order to stand out More…

Today Felipe Massa did his first laps in a Formula 1 car since the horrific accident in July, which threatened his career. The Brazilian drove a privately owned 2007 car, fitted with Bridgestone GP2 tyres and covered 100kms on the team’s Fiorano test track, next to the factory in Maranello. He will do more laps tomorrow. Ferrari described it as ‘not a proper test’, rather as ‘a way to regain confidence with his natural habitat; the racetrack.’ But Massa’s return is a victory in itself. He has overcome a savage accident which had the potential not only to destroy his More…

Ferrari has put out a statement confirming that Felipe Massa will drive an F2007 Ferrari tomorrow at its Fiorano test track, but has stressed that together with the team, Massa has come to the conclusion that his best interests would be served by not trying to race again this season at the final event in Abu Dhabi. I have to say that this looks like a smart move. Prior to flying over to Europe a week ago, Massa was reported by Brazilian colleagues to be determined to drive in the final race. But having undergone some training and two days More…

Timo Glock will miss the Brazilian Grand Prix next weekend after medical checks revealed that he cracked a vertebra in his huge qualifying accident in Japan. Glock had a gash on his his leg following his accident, but according to a Toyota team statement, “subsequent medical checks in Germany have revealed a cracked vertebra. Doctors have therefore ruled him out of this weekend’s race.” This is slightly surprising as one would imagine that the FIA medics would have wanted him X rayed in Japan after such a massive accident and an injury like this would surely have been picked up. More…

No-one could accuse Bernie Ecclestone of failing to give Donington Park a decent chance of hosting the British Grand Prix. But now it seems that the 79 year old’s patience is running out as the circuit once again failed to meet a deadline to produce a bank guarantee. Ecclestone had given Donington chief executive Simon Gillett an extra week past the agreed 28th September deadline, but on Friday night that expired. There is concern that the circuit will not be able to raise the £145 million it needs and in any case time is running out to build the infrastructure. More…

I’ve picked out a couple of Darren Heath’s images from Japan to write a short post about as they offer a nice behind the scenes insight. Some of you may be familiar with these things but others might appreciate it. In this first picture, you can see the timing page 1 from the official FOM timing system. This is different and more detailed than the page you see on the F1.com website, which only gives lap times to the nearest tenth of a second and does not give the last lap time on the right. I always prefered looking at More…

Felipe Massa came through the first day of medical tests in Paris yesterday, with the doctors confirming that his eyesight has not be affected by the accident he suffered in July when he was hit in the forehead with a 700 gramme metal spring. “Today Felipe Massa started a series of neurological and ophthalmological exams by the FIA at the Pitié Salpetrière hospital in Paris, ” announced Ferrari, “Part of the Brazilian driver’s recovery programme after the accident in Budapest on 25 July. Today’s exams ended at 7:30pm and will restart tomorrow afternoon. The first outcomes are positive: especially the More…

There has been a lot of talk about the US F1 team lately, including Bernie Ecclestone suggesting that the team might not make it onto the grid next season. Many existing teams in the F1 paddock seem to be sceptical as well. There have been rumours that the factory is empty, that they have had little contact with Cosworth, that one of the sponsors didn’t materialise and the team are well behind. As I posted the other day, the Sauber team is watching the situation carefully because its only chance of getting a slot on the grid next year is More…

Disgraced former Renault team boss Flavio Briatore will learn tomorrow (Thursday) whether he is to face exclusion from football as well as motor sport. Briatore was banned from motorsport for life by the FIA last month for his part in the Renault race fixing scandal at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix. Now the Football League is set to meet to decide whether the 59 year old meets the ‘fit and proper person’ rule for team ownership. Briatore’s other great sporting passion is football. Since February 2008 he has been a DIrector and major shareholder of Queens Park Rangers, along with More…

Robert Kubica has brushed aside concerns over the Renault cheating scandal and has put his faith in the team, signing for next season. As one of the most highly rated drivers in F1, he had a choice of seats for next year, but he has gone with Renault. The Pole has been figuring out what would be his best option since BMW’s shock announcement of withdrawal from F1 in July. His manager, Daniele Morelli is a very smart man and has a good radar for F1 trends and developments. A month or so ago, I thought Williams was Kubica’s favourite More…

The Sauber team faces an uncertain future as the rest of the F1 teams voted at the weekend not to allow a 14th team on the grid next year. The Malaysian-backed Lotus team was handed the coveted 13th slot on the same day as BMW announced that it had sold the team to Qadbak, a mysterious investment group with Swiss and Arab investors. One of the names in the Qadbak set up is Russell King, who was once involved with Jenson Button’s management and who has had several abortive attempts to do deals with McLaren to set up a team More…

Fernando Alonso will be announced as a Ferrari driver on Thursday of this week according to reports in Spain, Italy and Germany. This should in turn give rise to a series of driver moves which will establish many of the teams’ line ups for next year. It’s almost October, historically much of the grid is sorted out by this time, announcements made. As I posted yesterday Kimi Raikkonen’s move away from Ferrari has been underwritten by Santander and by going to McLaren they get some return on investment. Nico Rosberg looks like he’s heading for Brawn, with Jenson Button caught More…