With just 16 days left in 2012, there are still some important loose ends yet to be tied up in F1 circles with the question mark over a 20th race for next year, the new Concorde Agreement requiring signature and some seats on the grid still to be filled. According to its own statutes, the FIA has until January 1 to confirm the 2013 calendar, with a slot left open on July 21 for a race to replace the postponed New Jersey event at the recent FIA World Council. That meeting and the FIA prize giving, took place in Istanbul More…

Sir Frank Williams, who oversaw the eight world constructors’ championships for his team between 1980 and 1997, has taken another step back with the announcement today that he is to step down from the board of the team he founded. This highly phased process follows on from his partner Patrick Head withdrawing from the F1 team at the end of last year. Williams, who will be 70 years old next month, described it as “the next stage in the gradual, but inevitable process of handing over the reins”. He remains team principal for the moment, but that will surely change More…

Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull continue to be the team to beat as the F1 testing season reached the half way point today. I was trackside today in Barcelona, getting a first view of the 2012 cars in anger and sounding out the feeling of teams and engineers up and down the paddock. On Day two of the second of three tests, the Red Bull carried out a race simulation run in the afternoon. It wasn’t spectacular, which gave other teams some encouragement, but the car clearly works in all conditions and is fast and well balanced. It picks up 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…

Over the winter we were told by teams and drivers that it was very hard to guess what the pecking order was simply from looking at testing. With so many variables like the DRS wing, KERS and fuel loads, establishing a clear picture was difficult during the four official tests. On top of that the McLaren car which turned up in Melbourne at the weekend was so utterly transformed, performance wise, from the one which stuttered through testing that it was unrecognisable. This shows that the scope for rapid development with these new rules is significant, at least in the More…

The second official test starts on Thursday at Jerez in Spain and in the last couple of days we have had the launch of the new Virgin and Force India cars. Hispania has yet to launch, but it released some images of the car today, just in front of Force India. It also announced that it will not take part in the Jerez test but will instead test in Italy on a Pirelli filming day. Virgin held a showbiz event at the BBC TV Centre on Monday. The car is the second F1 product from the digital nerve centre at More…