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…

The first four races of the new season are set to feature plenty of interest and strategic challenges for the F1 teams as Pirelli announced today that it is making some changes to the tyre choices for those races. They have an aggressive plan for both Australia and Bahrain in particular, where there will be two steps between tyres and softer compounds used than before. So what does it all mean? Well here on JA on F1 we will be leading the way in online Strategy analysis once again this season, as we have for the last three years, and More…

The job of F1 commentator is never easy; certainly not as easy as many fans think it is. But this year there is a real challenge for the motormouths – spot the difference between the two Mercedes drivers at speed on a small TV monitor. The problem is that both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have a yellow crash helmet and even the design is similar. So telling them apart at distance is going to be really hard. The only way to tell them apart during Grand Prix weekends will be the roll hoops; the T shaped TV camera mounted More…

Lewis Hamilton is doing a great deal of his work in the media at the moment setting out his stall in the early stages of the Mercedes relationship. And an interview in today’s L’Equipe with Fred Ferret is a good example of how the 2008 world champion wants to draw some lines in the sand; to get some basic understandings out there, knowing that the world’s commentators, media and public will all have plenty of opinions and judgements on the rights and wrongs of his move down the grid, as he goes through the first year at the Mercedes team. More…