David Cameron has made a visit to Caterham’s Leafield Technical Centre, which is located in the British Prime Minister’s constituency of Witney. The team, which finished 10th in the constructors’ championship last season, moved its factory based from Norfolk to the Oxfordshire site in August 2012. There are also plans to move the Caterham Group’s roadcar division – Caterham Cars – to the Leafield base, which should create more jobs in the area. The Prime Minister was given a tour of the factory, visiting the workshops and race bays, meeting employees and inspecting the team’s cars. He said: “This is More…

Sergio Perez showed that pre-season testing is in full swing today by going fastest on the second day at Barcelona with a time just shy of last year’s pole position, ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen. Perez and Vettel both set their times during a one-lap run on the soft tyre, before switching their attentions to extended stints in the afternoon. Whilst Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton behind set their fastest laps on the medium and hard compound respectively, with Hamilton’s lap in particular likely to make the other teams raise an eyebrow as it was set during an eight More…

Nico Rosberg overcame a gearbox issue to top the times on the first day of testing at Barcelona today, as Fernando Alonso had a productive day on his first outing in the new Ferrari F138. After missing the Jerez test to focus on his physical preparation for the season Alonso completed the most laps of any driver today as he focused primarily on heavy fuel runs on the hard tyre. His times increased steadily during the stints of around sixteen laps and he finished the day with 110 laps. The late flurry in the final half an hour, which saw More…

The new Williams FW35 was revealed today, the last of the 2013 cars to break cover. The team opted to test at Jerez with the 2012 model to give more time for development of the FW35 and to get a baseline understanding on the new Pirelli tyres, using a car they know and understand. It’s not ideal to lose a four day test session with the new car, when there are only eight more days testing before the first Grand Prix in Melbourne, but Williams has gone this route – the only team to do so – and will hope More…

[Updated] UPS the leading logistics business has come into F1 as a partner of the Ferrari team. Although no figure was given for the value of the deal, its is described as a “long-term deal”. It follows Rolex, Emirates and Blackberry as well as Experian (announced today on the Williams) as the fifth global brand to enter F1 over the off-season, a very encouraging sign for the sport. Based in America, UPS has been involved in motorsports sponsorships for 12 years, but this is the first time it has come into F1. The deal was announced this morning in Barcelona, More…

It’s been quite a day for Ferrari; first it was named as the world’s most powerful brand in a report by industry experts Brand Finance, then it announced the best sales figures in 66 years of trading, despite a savage downturn in sales in its home country Italy. Global sales for 2012 topped €2.4 billion, a rise of 8% on 2011 values and the company sold 7,318 cars, and increase of 4%. Net profits rose by 17.8% to €244 million. Although Italy sales were down over 40%, the company enjoyed record sales in USA, China, Germany and Great Britain, where More…

Already it is clear from winter testing that the battle at the front in F1 this year is going to be very close. It’s an important season for all the top teams – Ferrari and McLaren in particular, but also Lotus and Mercedes, are keen to put a stop to Red Bull winning the title for a fourth consecutive season, while Red Bull themselves want to keep that momentum going. How have they managed it? Clearly having technical chief Adrian Newey onboard is a major asset and his group’s designs and innovations through this period have kept Red Bull’s noses More…

Of all the areas within F1 which arouse controversy and debate, perhaps none is as central as the penalties handed out – or not – by the FIA race stewards. The stewards are charged with assessing on track misdemeanours and punishing drivers accordingly; Grosjean, Maldonado, Hamilton, Petrov and others have all been on the receiving end of penalties in recent years. But today the FIA has released some details of how those decisions are reached. An extract from a fascinating article in the FIA’s new AUTO magazine, sheds light on what the Federation calls “cyber stewarding”. Fans expect the stewards More…

[Updated] France has become the latest major European market for Formula 1 to switch to a Pay TV model, as Canal + snapped up the rights starting this season. The 11th hour deal is exclusive, which means that long time free-to-air broadcaster TF1 is out of F1 after many years of association and it is another nail in the coffin for Free to Air broadcasters as purveyors of premium live sports. It also means that three of Europe’s largest markets for F1 coverage are now under the control of Pay TV, following the UK which switched to Sky in 2012 More…

Vijay Mallya, the co-owner of Sahara Force India F1 team, has come under intense pressure from 17 creditor banks in India, who have lost patience and announced they are calling loans on his failing Kingfisher Airlines business, which is $1.3 billion in debt. The airline has been grounded since October last year, the debts mounting up. And according to the Financial Times newspaper today, some of Mallya’s trophy assets are being targetted as banks look to recoup their losses, “Now that his creditors have run out of patience and are calling in loans to Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines, some of them More…