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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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…

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

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

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

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

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

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…

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

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

The leading F1 teams are in the thick of an argument at the moment about how much money they should be allowed to spend every year to go racing, with Red Bull out on a limb, taking a different view from other FOTA members about the next phase of the Resource Restriction Agreement. If it all goes wrong, as some predict, this could lead to a new arms race in F1 with Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes able to spend more than McLaren (which no longer has Mercedes factory backing as it did in the last “Arms Race”) and far More…

Fresh faced drivers are getting their chance to drive current F1 cars this week at the Abu Dhabi Young Guns test, with one driver as young as 18 out on track. However Jean Eric Vergne continued to set the headline lap times in the Young Guns test at Abu Dhabi after two days of running. The Frenchman has picked up where Dan Ricciardo left off in last year’s test in the Red Bull, setting the fastest time of the day ahead of Ferrari’s Jules Bianchi, who covered 91 laps today and McLaren’s evergreen Gary Paffett. Vergne only did 43 laps More…

There is a lot going on behind the scenes in Austin, Texas at the moment with threats from all sides that the 2012 Grand Prix might not take place. And this afternoon Susan Combs, who controls the finances for the State of Texas, has confirmed that the recent announcement of a rival race in New Jersey for 2013 is a “concern” and said that the first $25 million the state had earmarked for the project will no longer be available before the first event has taken place. This is significant, because the deal agreed with Combs was that she would More…

This weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was very interesting from the point of view of Race Strategy, with six different strategies in the top ten finishers. Pre race predictions of two stops were the norm, but there was a wide variety of alternatives tried, with Mark Webber doing three stops en route to fourth place and Paul di Resta scoring a points for ninth using a one-stop plan. We also saw McLaren pull off something very audacious at the first stop; they pitted Jenson Button on the same lap as the leader Lewis Hamilton, with only a 12 second window 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…

Today and for the next three days the F1 teams will test at Abu Dhabi in what has become the traditional “Young Guns” test. The idea behind it originally was to evaluate young up and coming drivers, who haven’t taken part in Grands Prix, giving them a chance to drive a real F1 car, rather than a simulator. But as ever in F1 some teams have taken it differently. McLaren for example are using the three days to do some serious evaluation work on 2012 technology with 30 year old Gary Paffett leading the way, although Day 1 they ran More…

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was always going to be the acid test for the new concepts introduced this year to promote overtaking; Pirelli short life tyres and DRS. After all it was at this track last year that Fernando Alonso lost the world championship because he couldn’t pass Vitaly Petrov’s Renault after a bad Race Strategy call. For this year’s race the FIA went for a double DRS zone, as it has done a few times this year, on Yas Marina’s two straights. The result was a lot more overtaking and plenty of examples of drivers overtaking in the More…

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton took his third victory of the season as Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel crashed out in an intriguing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina. So who was your driver of the day? Lewis Hamilton Began the weekend strongly, topping the times in second and third practice as his McLaren team had some trouble-free running. Set the quickest time in qualifying, albeit in Q2 when times don’t count for pole, and finished second quickest after getting edged out by Vettel. Made a clean getaway and benefitted from Vettel’s puncture at the start to take the lead. Was closed More…

I’m delighted to announce that the 2011 JA on F1 Yearbook is now available to pre-order. Titled “Vettel Steals the Show”, it is a comprehensive look back on the F1 year, comprising the best posts from this site during the 2011 season, along with extensive new written content and stunning photos from F1′s top photographer Darren Heath. There is a foreword from world championship winning Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner. All books ordered through this site will be personally signed by me. This is the third year we have produced this limited edition book and collectors who already have More…

Lewis Hamilton won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after a close battle with Fernando Alonso, with Jenson Button in third place. It was Alonso’s 73rd podium and his first trophy from this event, so he now has a complete set of trophies from every track he’s raced on in F1. It was Hamilton’s 17th career victory and his third of this season and although he said he felt “fantastic” he was also pretty humble in his post race statements, saying that one win hadn’t necessarily put him back on track, he felt above all “fortunate not to get into any More…

Sebastian Vettel staged a dramatic last minute smash and grab raid on McLaren with a stunning lap to take pole away from Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. It was Vettel’s 14th pole of the season, equalling Nigel Mansell’s record from 1992 and the 29th of his career. McLaren had controlled the pace throughout the weekend, but in the final crucial phase they lost out to Vettel, who strung together a perfect lap, with a stronger Sector 1 and Sector 2. It seemed that the McLaren didn’t perform quite as well as the Red Bull when the temperature came down to More…

The first day of practice at Yas Marina Circuit brought some surprises as both Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso went off track, although both cars were only lightly damaged. It is the fourth time this season that Vettel has crashed in practice, of the three previous occasions in Turkey, Canada and Japan he went on to win only one of them. Alonso meanwhile hit the kerb under braking in the same Turn 1 and went off into the barriers. The McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button set the pace, as Pirelli tried out an experimental soft tyre, with a More…

With two races to go in the 2011 F1 season and Jenson Button ahead of Lewis Hamilton by 38 points, we’re running a competition to predict what the final points position will be between the two McLaren team mates after the final race in Brazil. Hamilton had the edge during the first two thirds of the season then Button got in front at the Belgian Grand Prix and since then his run of podiums and a win in Japan have eased him clear, while Hamilton has been involved in collisions and hasn’t hauled in the points. Hamilton, who has never More…

One of the themes running through the second half of this season has been Lewis Hamilton’s troubled demeanour and the way issues off the track have affected his performances on it. Here in the Yas Marina paddock yesterday Hamilton offered a window in to his troubled soul, confirming many of the things commentators have been saying for months about the effect his private life have had on his professional life. He explains some of how he is feeling. He envies team mate Jenson Button’s protective “bubble” of friends and family and faces the prospect of being beaten by a team More…

Nico Rosberg has extended his contract with Mercedes, for a period that will take him into his 30s. It puts to an end all suggestions that he may join Ferrari as replacement to Felipe Massa any time soon. Rosberg was already under contract for 2012, but the new deal adds a “multi-year” term to that, likely to be three years from 2013 onwards with options. Mercedes statement claims that the 26 year old has demonstrated that “he belongs to the top group of drivers currently racing in Formula One.” Meanwhile Rosberg himself confidently asserts that “To win in a Silver More…

Two JA on F1 readers got the chance to experience a 3 hour in-depth driving session on a real state of the art driving simulator today with coaching from Darren Turner, who has over 10 years experience of F1 simulator design. Turner is an experienced racer and F1 test driver who now runs Base Performance Simulators in Banbury. He has become an expert on F1 simulators in particular. He did the initial development work on the McLaren simulator from 1999 to 2006 and has worked with two other F1 teams developing their simulators. Our two competition winners, Joe Consiglio and 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…

Behind the scenes in F1 at the moment there is movement everywhere as things start to click into gear in a process which will ultimately lead to a change of ownership of the sport and a new way of operating it. Today and tomorrow in Munich, Formula 1′s commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone will give evidence in the fraud trial of Gerhard Gribkowsky, a former banker and chairman of F1′s holding company. Clearing up this matter and getting to the bottom of what happened when CVC bought the sport from Gribkwosky’s bank Bayern LB, is crucial to the hopes of CVC, More…

Last season’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix showed how critical Race Strategy is in F1 and how a bad call can cost the World Championship. Following a strategic blunder by the Ferrari team, Fernando Alonso came out of a pit stop behind two slower cars, which he could not then overtake. So this year’s Abu Dhabi race will be the ultimate acid test of the extent to which the DRS wing and Pirelli tyres have improved overtaking opportunities in Formula 1. There are two DRS zones on the circuit and with the long back straight out of the hairpin, overtaking slower More…

Team Lotus has announced that Steve Nielsen will be joining the team as Sporting Director next month. He will perform a similar role to Sam Michael at McLaren and Ron Meadows at Mercedes, overseeing the way the team operates at the race track, liasing with the FIA Race Director, attending stewards meetings and working alongside the engineers to get the most from the package at any given race weekend. He worked most recently at Renault and was offered the job at Team Lotus last Autumn and turned it down, but then things changed at Enstone this season as the new More…

There has been a lot of chatter in the last 24 hours with reference to statements made by Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo yesterday at the Finali Mondiali event at Mugello. Many commentators have read Montezemolo’s line as “Ferrari boss threatens F1 pullout” but it isn’t easy to decode his message here. I’m not sure that he meant to go that far on this occasion and that’s why the notorious Horse Whisperer was deployed on Monday to play down suggestions that Montezemolo was making threats. What is clear is that he was doing something he likes to do from time More…

As motorsport continues to come to terms with the death of Dan Wheldon in an Indycar accident a few weeks ago, this weekend there was a heart warming story of a driver who himself was once caught up in an accident on an oval, lost his legs as a result, but has found a new outlet for his competitive drive. Former Lotus, Jordan and Williams driver Alessandro Zanardi won Sunday’s New York City Marathon’s handcycle division yesterday with a time of 1 hour, 13 minutes and 58 seconds. Zanardi lost his legs in an accident in 2001 and since then 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…

“And so it came to pass that in Milton Keynes in the shire of Buckingham, Stewart GP begat Jaguar, which begat Red Bull, which smote everyone into submission. While Tyrrell begat BAR, which begat Honda which begat Brawn which begat Mercedes which chased furiously after the Red Bulls.” Name changes in Formula 1 are as old as the hills; it’s a business and takeovers are an essential part of business life. They aren’t always allowed, as Tom Walkinshaw found when he tried to turn Arrows into TWR, but generally where it’s in most people’s interests to see strong brands with More…

The performance of the Toro Rosso cars at the weekend underlined how much progress the team has made in the second half of the season. But where is the boost coming from and is there a back story to it? Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastian Buemi both qualified in the top ten in India and Alguersuari raced strongly to another points finish. In the last five races the team has scored 29 points, while rivals Sauber in the same period have scored six and Force India 19. Since Suzuka in particular the Toro Rosso has been making huge strides. In Singapore More…

Although this was not a thrilling race, it was an intriguing one from a strategy point of view because of the difference between the two types of tyres each driver had to use. Like many races this year, it didn’t turn out the way pre-race expectations had predicted. In fact it was quite a surprise. At the front, Vettel always had something in hand over Button. Although the McLaren was closer at the start of each stint, the Red Bull had the raw pace to ease away each time into a five second cushion. This was a margin Vettel was More…

Today we announce the winner of the Shell V Power Fan Ambassador programme, which will take them to Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi later this month. We have been looking for a Fan Ambassador to go to Abu Dhabi in November, the week after the F1 Grand Prix and days after the Young Guns test, to have the experience of a lifetime at a Shell V-Power Network of Champions event at Ferrari World, then experience the Yas Marina GP Circuit in a high performance race car. The winner will then report on the trip for the JA on F1 website. More…

We have been running a competition which will give two JA on F1 readers the chance to experience a 3 hour in-depth driving session on a real state of the art driving simulator, with coaching from Darren Turner, who has over 10 years experience of F1 simulator design. Turner is an experienced racer who now runs Base Performance Simulators in Banbury. He has become an expert on F1 simulators. He did the initial development work on the McLaren simulator from 1999 to 2006 and has worked with two other F1 teams developing their simulators. The session with Darren will take More…

It was interesting last night after the Indian Grand Prix to hear McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh suggest that part of the reason for Lewis Hamilton being off form and rather niggly with many people he encounters in F1 at the moment is because he isn’t enjoying being beaten by his team mate, Jenson Button. “Lewis will be feeling under pressure because of the great performances from Jenson at the moment, ” said Whitmarsh. “Lewis, the great, exciting driver that he is, will not like being beaten by Jenson. I don’t want him to enjoy being beaten by his team-mate. I More…

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel became the first man to win a Formula 1 race in India when he scored his 11th victory of the season at the Buddh International Circuit but elsewhere in the field, there were a number of standout performances. So who was your driver of the day? Sebastian Vettel Arrived in India with the drivers’ title and constructors’ title for Red Bull already in the bag but refused to take his foot of the gas. Took his 13th pole of the season to keep him on course to break Nigel Mansell’s record of 14 in a single More…

Felipe Massa spoke around 90 minutes after the Indian Grand Prix in which he was penalised with a drive through for colliding with Lewis Hamilton. It was the sixth occasion the pair have collided in a bitter season. Speaking after the race Massa said, “I don’t have anything against him. Zero. If I saw him I would tell him what I’m telling you now. “I don’t understand why I have the penalty. I braked later than him, I was in front and on the grippier part of the circuit and I didn’t see him on the left. So he was More…

Sebastian Vettel made more history today as he won the first Indian Grand Prix, setting a new record for most laps led in a season in the process. The German went past Nigel Mansell’s 692 laps led from the 1992 season. It was his 11th win of the season and the 21st of his career. It was one of Vettel’s most comfortable wins of the season; he won from pole position, led every lap and set the fastest lap. “I’m very proud to be the first winner of the Indian Grand Prix,” said the world champion, “It’s a great country, More…

Sebastian Vettel took his 28th career pole position today equalling the great Juan Manuel Fangio, as Red Bull Racing set a new record for poles in one season with 16. There are still two races to go. Lewis Hamilton went into qualifying knowing that he would have to go three places back on the grid from where he qualified, following an incident in practice where he ignored waved yellow flags, as did Sergio Perez. Vitaly Petrov carried a five place penalty from the previous race. The hard tyres are 2 seconds a lap slower than the softs here, so the More…

Felipe Massa set the pace on Day 1 at the Buddh International Circuit, with Sebastian Vettel second and Fernando Alonso third after three hours of running on the new track. It is a hit with drivers and teams alike, certainly as far as the layout is concerned, even if the facilities behind the scenes aren’t quite there yet. Alonso had an engine failure in first practice, which was halted early on due to a dog on the track. An earlier support race session had to be stopped for the same reason. The track was very dusty in the morning and More…

Several of the top teams have flown out half a dozen mechanics to have on standby in case any of their crew should fall ill during this weekend’s Indian Grand Prix. This unprecedented situation has arisen after stories emanating from the Commonwealth Games, held here in India last year, where many key workers got “Delhi belly” and were incapacitated. With long transit times from Europe, some teams do not want to take the risk that they might have people unable to work or to perform vital functions, such as late night rebuilds or even pit stops. The rules say that More…

The confirmation on Tuesday of the news that there will be a second F1 race in America from 2013 onwards is positive for the sport. Rather than write about this from a purely F1 insiders perspective, I asked a long time JA on F1 reader and poster, Rudy Pyatt, who lives in the area, to give us a local perspective on the news and I have intercut his thoughts with mine. Rudy Pyatt writes: There are three key parts of the potential audience. F1 must win them over, or this event will be Phoenix all over again. The easiest audience 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…

This weekend the teams race on the new Buddh International Circuit, located about 50 kilometres south east of New Delhi. The track has similarities in composition of corners to a number of F1 circuits but it has unusual features too. So how will the teams tune the cars in to the circuit and what will the winning race strategy be on Sunday? Here is a comprehensive guide to the considerations the F1 engineers will be looking at when deciding how to attack this weekend’s race. Track characteristics Buddh International – 5.125 kilometres. Race distance – 60 laps = 307.249 kilometres. More…

The social media competition we’ve been running, in conjunction with Shell, to find a Fan Ambassador enters its final phase. We are looking for a Fan Ambassador to go to Abu Dhabi in November, the week after the F1 Grand Prix, to have the experience of a lifetime at a Shell V-Power Network of Champions event at Ferrari World, then experience the Yas Marina GP Circuit and then report on the trip for the JA on F1 website. They will join fans from around the world at this unique event. After an initial phase we selected five finalists, who were More…

We’ve done some great competitions this season, taking the fans closer to the sport of F1 and taking them to Grands Prix and overseas events. But for those fans who dream of getting behind the wheel, here is something a little bit special; we are delighted to offer JA on F1 readers the chance to experience a 3 hour in-depth driving session on a real simulator, with coaching from Darren Turner, who has over 10 years experience of F1 sim development. Turner now runs Base Performance Simulators in Banbury. Turner is an expert on F1 simulators. He did the initial More…

Here is my video of the day a F1 fan drove Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren F1 car at Silverstone. Djorge Simic works in a bank in Serbia, but for one day he got to taste the shattering performance of a 2008 F1 McLaren, the car in which Lewis Hamilton won the 2008 British Grand Prix. Contributing to the video are Mika Hakkinen and Hamilton – “I bet he’s crapping his pants!” says Hamilton when asked how the fan will be feeling moments before the off. Simic was chosen from 17 finalists to win the drive as the top prize in McLaren More…

On Friday evening in the US news began to emerge that there could be a second US Grand Prix from 2013 onwards, with suggestions that a street circuit in New Jersey would be announced as an F1 venue on Tuesday. According to Autoweek, the circuit is believed to have the Manhattan skyline as a back drop and the concept has been developed over several years by Leo Hindery Jr, who is married to the daughter of legendary US motorsports promoter Humpy Wheeler. There are suggestions that the race would be paired in June with Montreal, which is a short distance More…

This week I went along to Silverstone to see something I haven’t seen before; a member of the public driving a Formula 1 car. This extraordinary happening was the final stage of the Drive of a Lifetime programme, which is organised by one of McLaren’s sponsors, Johnnie Walker. Thousands of entries from all over the world were narrowed down to 17 finalists, who came to England for a three day experience, which took in some time at McLaren’s HQ in Woking, a day driving fast cars at Jonathan Palmers’s track in Bedford and then a day in single seaters at More…

In the last 24 hours it appears that a clarification has gone out from the FIA’s Charlie Whiting to all teams regarding exotic engine maps, to the effect that they aren’t allowed after the end of this 2011 season. Many engineers I’ve spoken to are rejoicing, because they feel that at last there is clarity on exhausts having an aerodynamic effect by continuing to blow over aerodynamic surfaces while the car is in corners. The feeling is they can all get on with designing a nice F1 car for next year, without worrying about how engine modes are going to More…

We’ve been running a competition in conjunction with our friends at Shell, to find a Fan Ambassador to go to Abu Dhabi a week after the Grand Prix, to experience the amazing Ferrari World theme park and get a taste of the Yas Marina GP circuit in a racing car literally days after the F1 Grand Prix and the Young Guns F1 test. The winner will take part in the Shell V Power Network of Champions event in November, meet fans from other countries around the world and will get to write and produce content on his or her experience, More…

With the championship settled, teams are using the final races of the season as a test session looking at “carry over” items, which could be used in 2012. Ferrari’s Nicolas Tombaszis said last week that they would be trying out some new parts, including a new front wing. And so it proved in Korea. Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa carried out back to back tests over the weekend, with Alonso taking the wing for the qualifying and race. It featured several Red Bull-esque touches, such as the endplates, the main plane slot and the large top flap, and was considered More…

The accident which killed British racing driver Dan Whedon yesterday in an Indycar race at Las Vegas has raised a number of safety questions, including the wisdom of running 34 open wheel cars on a tight 1.5 mile oval track such as Las Vegas with an average speed of 220mph. But it has also revived discussion about the possible use of canopies to make the drivers safer in the cockpit from flying wheels or debris, as happened with Felipe Massa and Henry Surtees. The FIA Institute has done some work in this area and produced some interesting content in the More…

I was very sorry to hear of the death of Dan Wheldon, the two times Indy 500 winner and IRL series champion. He was killed in an Indycar accident at Las Vegas Speedway. The race was only his third start this season. Wheldon had taken part at Indy this year on a one-off basis and won the race. He was taking part in a challenge organised by the Indycar series to try to win the race in Vegas from 34th and last place on the grid in pursuit of a $5 million prize fund, when he got caught in a More…

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel racked up his 10th victory of the season with a dominant performance but there was plenty of action all the way down the field. So who was your Driver of the Day? Sebastian Vettel Didn’t trouble the top of the timesheets in a wet Friday practice and then saw Red Bull’s run of pole positions come to an end when he could only manage second. Made a clean start before passing pole-sitter Hamilton at the end of the back straight. From then on, the German controlled the race from the front, as he has so often More…

Sebastian Vettel may have clinched the 2011 World Championship, but it’s not dented his motivation as he again out raced and out thought his opponents, despite the race not working out the way Red Bull had thought it would in terms of tyre strategy. Pole sitter Lewis Hamilton battled with understeer all race and finished second. It was Vettel’s 10th win of the season, making him the only driver apart from his countryman Michael Schumacher do win 10 or more races in a season. It was the 20th victory of his career and with Mark Webber’s third place it gave More…

Lewis Hamilton rediscovered his form in qualifying for the Korean Grand Prix, breaking the stranglehold Red Bull have enjoyed on pole position since November 2010. It is his 19th career pole position and his first for 27 Grands Prix, stretching back to Canada 2010. Although Red Bull’s tactics showed that they had accepted they were not going to be able to beat McLaren to pole, Vettel nevertheless managed to fight Hamilton and to split the McLarens on the grid. Hamilton was on sensational form, setting a time three tenths of a second faster than team mate Jenson Button and squeezing More…

I’ve got a fantastic competition this weekend for JA on F1 readers around the world; we have four signed Senna movie posters and DVDs of the film, released this week, to give away. All you have to do is predict the time gap between the two McLaren drivers at the finish of Sunday’s Korean Grand Prix and in whose favour. So for example if you think that Jenson Button will finish ahead of Lewis Hamilton by 4 seconds use the comments box below and write “Button by 4 secs”. Or you could predict that one will finish and the other More…

Earlier this year I wrote a post about Force India’s initiative to try to find a driver from India whom they could develop – they call it the “One in a Billion” search. I was reminded of this yesterday when Force India announced the deal with Sahara. There were seven karting trials across India giving 14 to 17 year-olds the chance to show show their talent. The best from each trial, a total of 100 kids, reached the national finals in September. Now ten finalists have been chosen to come over to Silverstone next week for the grand finale. The More…

Force India boss Vijay Mallya today confirmed that he has sold 42.5% of the F1 team to Sahara India Pariwar, described as “a leading promoter and patron of sports in India.” The fee is US$100 million The deal therefore values the team at $235 million (£150 million), a significant uplift on the price Mallya paid to buy the team known as Spyker. It is the same Silverstone based team which was originally known as Jordan, founded by BBC pundit Eddie Jordan. “With this investment both the Sahara India Pariwar and Dr. Mallya will own 42.5% each in the team. The 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…

The Japanese Grand Prix was all about race strategy. With tyre wear much more tricky to manage than expected, throughout the field the drivers who succeeded were the ones whose teams got the strategy right, not just on race day but on qualifying day too. There were some pretty contrasting races at the front. Of the top three, Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull had the worst tyre performance and Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari had the best. Alonso was nowhere near as quick as Vettel at the start of each of the stints, but he was always the quickest of the three cars More…

Some say he’s going to win as many titles as Schumacher, others say he’s still improving as a driver, while others say it’s all the car and Vettel cannot overtake. No 24 year old driver has achieved more – two world titles, 19 wins, 27 pole positions. And now Fernando Alonso has challenged him to a contest to see who can be the youngest ever three times world champion – one of them is likely to beat Ayrton Senna’s record of 31 years of age. Alonso has been waiting five years for his third title.. Whatever the hype, the hyperbole More…

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel may have sealed his second successive title at Suzuka, but there were plenty of exciting battles all the way down the field in what was another unpredictable race. So who was your Driver of the Day? Jenson Button Dominated the weekend leading up to qualifying by topping the times in all three practice sessions. Missed out on pole position by 0.009 seconds to start second. Pushed towards the grass by Vettel at the start and lost a place to team-mate Hamilton, but kept calm and maintain the gap to the leader while looking after his tyres. More…

Sebastian Vettel became the youngest double world champion in the history of F1 today, the 24 year old finishing third in the race and wrapping up the title with four races still to go. “To win the championship here is fantastic,” said an emotional Vettel. “I’m so thankful to everyone in the team, working day in and day out pushing hard. We found ourselves in a strong position and it’s great to achieve our goals. This year we have always been one step ahead. There is no secret, it’s step by step. The hardest thing is winning after winning, to More…

Sebastian Vettel took his 12th pole position of the season, rather unexpectedly, as the pace setter McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton failed to get a final run in Q3 due to a timing error. Jenson Button, who had set the fastest times in all three practice sessions, ended up second by one hundredth of a second, his first front row start since Monaco. Having set the fastest time in the first runs, as he ended his out lap for his second Hamilton was passed by Schumacher and Webber and crossed the line after the chequered flag had fallen. He blamed the two More…

It’s a story that has been running for 12 months and now two Formula 1 teams want to change their names, but the other teams are not going to make it easy for them. Team Lotus wants to change the team name to Caterham F1 Team while the Renault team wants to change the “Lotus” in its name from a title sponsor to the team and chassis name, but both parties may have to wait until the F1 commission next meets in order to do so. The F1 commission normally meets in the first week of December, but Bernie Ecclestone More…

Many F1 drivers and F1 commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone have got behind the efforts of Kamui Kobayashi and others to raise money for victims of the tsunami, which devastated areas of Japan earlier this year leaving over 20,000 people dead or missing. The 80 year old F1 boss has bought 3,000 tickets for this weekend’s race at an average price of 35,000 yen to give to people who have suffered through the disaster. The total bill is almost £1 million. Meanwhile a puppet of Ecclestone has been commissioned for sale to raise money and there are paintings of the five More…

Jenson Button has committed himself to a long term contract at McLaren, ruling out a move any time soon to any of the team’s rivals. McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh describes him as “one of the most capable and respected drivers we’ve ever had.” ‪ Button is in the form of his life at the moment, lying second in the drivers’ world championship, with a chance to become the first F1 team mate to beat Lewis Hamilton in the points standings – he is currently 17 points ahead – and he is thoroughly enjoying his racing. He’s stood on the More…

Ferrari chief designer Nikolas Tombazis has promised a more aggressive car from the Scuderia next season, as it looks to close the gap to the pace setting Red Bull. Over the winter of 2010/11 Ferrari went too conservative under the technical leadership of Aldo Costa, leaving some ideas untested in a generally risk averse strategy. McLaren went the opposite way with initially calamitous consequences, of the kind Costa was trying to avoid, but they changed direction before the first race and got the car on track. However they, like Ferrari, have been playing catch up all year. Meanwhile Red Bull More…

There is an interview with Mark Webber posted on Yahoo News Singapore today, which a JA on F1 reader flagged up to me. There are some interesting comments in it which are worth highlighting, although it appears that Webber belives he has been misquoted on the main one. Webber is quoted as saying that last season, where he lost the title at the final round, was his “last chance” to be world champion, a rare admission for an active racing driver, especially one who is sitting in the fastest car on the grid. He goes on to explain that a More…

The aftermath of the collision between Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa at Singapore shows no signs of abating. Immediately after the race we had Massa attempting to confront the Englishman, who rebuffed him in front of the TV cameras at the track. Then there came the suggestion that the F1 drivers want to meet with FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting in Suzuka this weekend to discuss Hamilton’s overly aggressive driving. Then at the weekend F1.com ran a race edit featuring a radio clip of Massa’s race engineer Rob Smedley urging his driver to,”Hold Hamilton as much as we can. Destroy More…

Pre-event strategy content Suzuka Circuit October 7-9 2011 The Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka is a race at which the Drivers’ World Championship has been clinched on many occasions in the past by greats like Senna, Prost, Schumacher and Hakkinen. And this weekend it is likely to see Sebastian Vettel clinch his second consecutive world title for Red Bull. The Suzuka circuit has a special place in the drivers’ hearts, along with Spa Francorchamps, as it provides a great driving challenge with its high speed corners and the first sector of the lap in particular is special, with a series More…

Next Monday, October 10th, sees the UK launch of the DVD of the award winning F1 documentary film “Senna”. The film has won awards, including an audience award at the Sundance Film Festival and has had great reviews world wide for its portrayal of the tragic icon and his struggles to reach the top of the F1 ladder. Much of its success lies in its crossover appeal – many people with no interest in F1 have been captivated by it and hopefully some of them now take more of an interest in the sport. Britain’s leading film critic, Mark Kermode, More…

There was an article in the Austin Statesman on Friday which caught the eye and suggests that there are some changes imminent in the management and promotion of the US Grand Prix at Austin, which is due to have its inaugural event in 13 months from now. The paper has seen a letter sent by the Texas state comptroller Susan Combs to F1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone which deals with a transfer of ownership rights to the US Grand Prix in the promoter contract. It appears that Tavo Hellmund, who struck the deal with Ecclestone for the US GP to More…

JA on F1 is delighted to launch a very exciting new F1 competition in partnership with Shell. We are looking for a Fan Ambassador to go to Abu Dhabi in November, the week after the F1 Grand Prix, to have the experience of a lifetime at a Shell V-Power Network of Champions event at Ferrari World, then experience the Yas Marina GP Circuit and then report on the trip for this website. If you can convince our expert panel of your passion for F1 and performance, you will be invited to travel business class to Abu Dhabi from London, stay More…

Mercedes GP has announced today that both Geoff Willis and Aldo Costa have joined the team, beefing up a technical staff which is already well stocked. This is part of a process in which Mercedes are adding a significant number of people to their team, which was slimmed down in the Brawn GP era of 2009. The signs are clear; Mercedes are going for it. The board has signed off on an expansion plan to take the team up to the limits imposed by the Resource Restriction Agreement and enable Ross Brawn’s team to challenge Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren More…

Today on F1.com there is a transcript of a chat between F1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone and Red Bull racing supremo Christian Horner. There are two eye catching quotes in here, the first is Ecclestone’s blunt assessment that championship leader Sebastian Vettel has now grown into the best driver on the F1 grid and is still improving and the second is a swipe at FOTA, which Horner, a FOTA member, seems to endorse. “In my view Sebastian is the best driver on the grid right now…” says Ecclestone, who has always taken a close interest in the young German’s career. More…

Strategy wise, this race didn’t turn out as expected. The key consideration for the strategists on Sunday was thermal degradation of the tyres, especially the rears. This is due to the surface temperature of the tyres being very high, due to braking, traction and very heavy fuel loads at the start. With Singapore being a high fuel consumption track, cars were over 10 kilos heavier at the start than for the average F1 race. Before the race, the talk was of three stop strategies at the front and so it proved for the leading four cars, but the way they More…

For many years Emerson Fittipaldi held the record of the youngest world champion, until the new breed of Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel lowered the bar. Now we need to keep an eye out for Emmo’s grandson Pietro, who has just won NASCAR Limited Late Model series at the age of….15! Racing under a special licence, Fittipaldi minimus has come up through karts and this season entered the Limited Late Model series, a 24 round championship, which is a breeding ground for NASCAR stars of the future. “I’m very proud, not because he is my grandson, but because he’s the first More…

Each driver has just eight engines to see him through the F1 season. All drivers took a new engine for both Spa and Monza, the two great power circuits, but Singapore not being a power circuit, most drivers used a high mileage engine to do this weekend’s qualifying and race. One of the Ferraris was running an engine that had already done one race weekend and the other had a two race old engine, according to Luigi Fraboni, who is head of Ferrari’s engine operations side and formerly the engine engineer for Schumacher and Raikkonen. At this late stage of More…

Engine supplier Renault Sport F1 has been making moves recently with its partners, first a long term deal with Red Bull Racing, essentially its ‘works’ team and now Team Lotus. The deal announced on Sunday in Singapore takes the partnership through to the end of the V8 engine era and also adds in KERS for the first time. This will come along with the gearbox from Red Bull Racing, which the team has been using this year. Although the deal runs to the end of 2013, team boss Tony Fernandes said that his intention is for a longer term deal More…

Championship leader Sebastian Vettel may have dominated the Singapore Grand Prix from the front to stand on the brink of his second world title, but there were also plenty of impressive performances from others further down the field. So who was your driver of the day? Sebastian Vettel Arrived in Singapore with a mathematical chance of winning the world title, but appeared unfazed by the pressure and produced another storming lap in qualifying to secure his 11th pole position of the season. Made a clean getaway from pole before flying off into the distance. Saw his lead evaporate when the More…

Sebastian Vettel is just one point away from clinching the world championship after another dominant performance in the Singapore Grand Prix. Only Jenson Button stands in his way, but a single point from any of the remaining five races will do it for him. It was Vettel’s ninth win of the season, he joins Michael Schumacher and Nigel Mansell as the only drivers who have won nine races in an F1 season. It was also the 19th of his career. Amazingly, having led almost 600 laps this year this was the first time this year he has led a race More…

Today’s Singapore Grand Prix should provide a thrilling spectacle on track between the world’s leading drivers but there is also fierce competition in the pitlane between rival teams of mechanics for the fastest pit stops. As you would expect from the team which has raised its game in all areas of late, Red Bull leads the way on the fastest average pit stop across the season, but they have some stiff competition from Mercedes in particular and it is a point of contention for the Red Bull crew, directed by Jonathan Wheatley, that Mercedes has set a faster time this More…