“What I have decided to do this year is just focus on the most important thing and that’s racing,” Lewis Hamilton told the media today at the launch of his 2012 McLaren car. After a 2011 season that was overshadowed by stories of his troubled personal life, Hamilton has hit the reset button over the winter and is ready to do what he does best: take the fight to the other F1 front runners. But its hard to completely shed baggage in this game; at the same time he got a brickbat from his old friend Adrian Sutil who was More…

Lewis Hamilton has done a short interview in La Gazzetta dello Sport today in which he says a couple of interesting things. One is about team mate Jenson Button, the other on Felipe Massa. On Button he says, “Jenson is very fast and has built around himself a very strong team of technicians. I always want to beat him and I’m never happy if I don’t. But psychologically I don’t see it as a problem. He’s an open person who you can get along with. “It would be great to fight with him for the world title in 2012, it More…

The feud which has simmered between Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa this season, often flaring into an on track clash, has been put to an end by Hamilton visiting Massa after the race to make up. The Brazilian was finishing off his press briefing at the front of the Ferrari hospitality area when Hamilton approached him and gave him a hug and said a few words. It is not clear whether Hamilton felt moved to make some kind of apology or just a gesture to say that he wanted to put the events behind them. But either way, Massa, who 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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

As predicted by a number of JA on F1 readers, following the news of McLaren’s business development relationship with Glaxo Smith Kline last week, today it has been announced that the team will be henceforth be sponsored by Lucozade, one of GSK’s consumer brands. When asked whether there was a branding side to the deal last week a McLaren spokesman yes that there was but that it wasn’t what the deal was mainly about. It was about McLaren lending expertise to GSK in improving its speed and performance as a business. Lucozade will appear on the car and the drivers’ More…

McLaren has today announced an interesting partnership with GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world’s leading phamaceuticals companies. The deal is all about McLaren applying know how and technology from years of perfecting the racing game to a corporate environment, such as GSK’s business. It’s something I’ve suggested for some time that F1 could usefully do for the outside world. The sport is all about innovating, adapting, overcoming, planning, reacting quickly, making strategic decisions and building a stable base. Pat Symonds once said that the attitude of the top engineers in F1 should be, “I don’t know how to do that, but More…

The mystery over where outgoing Williams technical director Sam Michael would end up was resolved today when McLaren announced him as their new Sporting Director. The post has been vacant since Dave Ryan stepped down from the job at the Malaysian Grand Prix of 2009. The role of Sporting Director can mean many things in F1. For some teams it is a kind of glorified team manager role, for others it can been more engineering-led. Usually the Sporting Director is the senior person who is required to know the FIA Sporting Regulations rule book inside out and back to front. More…

There is an interesting story from Press Association today with quotes from Lewis Hamilton denying that he has got distracted by his celebrity lifestyle to the detriment of his career in F1. Even his most ardent fans would admit that Hamilton’s performances this season have been uneven, with some very high peaks, such as the German Grand Prix, but also some troughs, where he has collided with other cars and wasted opportunities. Hamilton’s high profile girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger and his friendships with music industry figures like Pharrell Williams and P Diddy have drawn him away from his roots as a More…

It’s now August and although they lead both championships comfortably, Red Bull’s last race victory was in Valencia in June. They have maintained their 100% record in qualifying, but on race day they no longer have the fastest car. In Budapest we saw a reaction with Red Bull mechanics using up one of their four curfew free nights of the season on Friday to work into the small hours on the car to get it right for qualifying and the race. This involved changing the specification of the car from what they had intended to run, with modifications to the More…

On his 200th Grand Prix start and the 5th anniversary of his maiden victory in Hungary, Jenson Button drove a perfectly judged race to take his 11th victory and his second of the season. And it takes him to fourth place in the all time points scorers list behind Schumacher, Alonso and Prost. As in the most recent victory in Canada, it was Sebastian Vettel who followed him home. Once again it was a great outcome for his championship challenge as he extended his lead to 85 points, the largest margin at any point this season. Fernando Alonso finished third More…

We’ve posted quite a bit on F1 and social media in recent months; particularly after the FOTA Fans Forum in Montreal where it was one of the key discussion points and also when I put some of the fans’ questions to Bernie Ecclestone about F1′s reluctance to push content out on social media. Our colleagues at the leading French website Toile F1 have compiled some research on the subject, which is worth sharing and which highlights some interesting trends. The sample was measured this week. The % column refers to the gain in popularity from the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, More…

The German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring featured three drivers in different cars closely matched on performance. As the winner Lewis Hamilton observed, it was all about being perfect and not making mistakes and this was as true of the strategists and the pit crews as it was of the drivers. In the end it came down to some inspired driving and finely balanced strategy calls. But further down the field we saw some varying strategies making a difference to the race result, particularly in the case of Adrian Sutil, who finished sixth ahead of the Mercedes and Renaults. The More…

The German Grand Prix seems to have been a real crowd pleaser because it gave us three of the top F1 drivers all in closely matched cars and it came down to a straight fight on the track. It was driver versus driver and that’s what F1 fans want to see. As with all the best F1 races it is the details that make the difference; for example the tyre warm up up issue on the Ferrari meant that even though Alonso managed to jump Hamilton for the lead at the second stop, he couldn’t resist him in Turn 2 More…

Lewis Hamilton won a tense three way battle for victory in the German Grand Prix, beating Fernando Alonso and the pole sitter Mark Webber. It was Hamilton’s second win of the season and the 16th of his career. It was a great weekend for Hamilton, his result set up by a stunning qualifying lap and a great start, where he took the lead from pole sitter Mark Webber on the run down to Turn 1. And the victory was topped off by his overtake on Alonso after the Spaniard had emerged ahead of him from his second pit stop. “If More…

McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale today said that talk of team principal Martin Whitmarsh being at risk of losing his job is laughable and underlined that the team wants to secure the services not only of Whitmarsh but of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button as well for the long term. It’s been a turbulent period for McLaren, with suggestions that both drivers have made enquiries about opportunities at Red Bull, Lewis Hamilton saying that he’s not willing to do as much sponsor promotional work and then a messy British GP weekend, where Jenson Button’s race was ruined by a pit More…

This afternoon Formula 1 served up a war of words, which is hard to describe, much less explain. It’s hard for even the specialist media to understand, much less portray to F1 fans. Nor does it do great service to the sport or to the people at the centre of the argument. F1 thrives on intrigue and hype, but this is one confrontation which would perhaps have been best left behind closed doors. McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh and Red Bull boss Christian Horner got worked up and battled it out in an FIA press conference over how much percentage the More…

Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner has today come out with some comments which close the door firmly on ideas of Lewis Hamilton joining the Red Bull Racing team. Horner met with Hamilton at the recent Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, starting all kinds of speculation which neither man was quick to shoot down. It was a puzzling incident from many angles; at Hamilton’s press briefing on Thursday in Valencia, he said that his meeting with Horner had taken place before qualifying in Canada. Horner later confirmed that it was at about 5pm on Saturday evening. With Vettel under contract More…

McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh, Mercedes’ Ross Brawn, Virgin Racing’s Graeme Lowdon and Force India’s Robert Fearnley met face to face with 300 F1 fans at the FOTA Fans’ Forum, UK at McLaren Technology Centre to discuss topics raised by the fans and hear their points of view. Top of the agenda was fans’ concern that F1 should stay on Free to Air TV and the rumoured NewsCorp take over was discussed. The team principals also tackled the subject of F1′s green credentials, with Fearnley putting forward a slightly different tone from the others, describing F1 as “a celebration of excess.” “The More…

Here is the video highlights edit of Lewis Hamilton and Kamui Kobayashi’s appearance at the FOTA Fans Forum UK event at McLaren. Fans wanted to know all about the pair’s prowess at overtaking and the two drivers did not disappoint. “What does it feel like to actually pull off a fantastic overtaking manoeuvre?”, Hamilton was asked. His reply: “It’s exhilarating. It’s probably the most exciting part of the race, when you’re not too fast compared to the guy in front. You’re just creeping up on him and looking to see where he’s weaker so that you can attack next time More…

FOTA Fans’ Forum, UK. Part 2: Drivers by James Allen on F1 You can listen to all of the audio from this afternoon’s FOTA Fans’ Forum discussion involving Lewis Hamilton and Kamui Kobayashi on the SoundCloud link above. Predictably, fans’ questions largely revolved around their prowess in overtaking. Although one fan asked Hamilton what question he would ask Ayrton Senna if he had the chance. “I’d ask him how he managed to qualify a second ahead of the rest in Monaco that time,” said Hamilton. Both drivers agreed that of the three aids to overtaking in F1 today, KERS tyres More…

Not surprisingly the stories beginning to swirl around Ferrari being interested in Jenson Button have led to McLaren suggesting that they plan to offer an improved deal starting at the end of his current contract in January 2013. They have let it be known, via Autosport.com today, that they will be looking to tie up a renewal quickly with the 2009 champion. Button is having a very good year, driving very well and lying second in the championship with a win under his belt from Canada. He’s even talking about being able to challenge Sebastian Vettel for the title this More…

You’ll have to be quick to take advantage of this opportunity, as today we are announcing the latest initiative in the FOTA Fans Forum programme; a UK event at the McLaren Technology Centre on June 30th. The Fans Forum is a unique opportunity for F1 fans to meet face to face with the competitors to ask questions and put across their points of view on the sport they love. As with the recent Montreal Forum we will break the 90 minute programme into three parts: PART 1: THE BIG PICTURE This segment will focus on The Show, and how to More…

The Mobil 1 seat swap footage is now out, with various content from Watkins Glen in upstate New York. Lewis Hamilton, fresh from his nightmare weekend in Montreal, was driving Tony Stewart’s Chevrolet Impala, while Stewart climbed into the cockpit of the McLaren MP4-23, the car from 2008, Hamilton’s title winning year. Despite some fairly mixed weather, the pair seem to have enjoyed experiencing each others’ machinery on the long course at “The Glen”, which is a 3.4-mile road course. There is a deeper strategic play going on here. The seat swap is quite timely and is part of the More…

As the rain lashed the Montreal circuit yesterday, forcing the race to be stopped, all of the leading drivers knew that this day was an opportunity. Canada often presents them. Admittedly Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, who has dominated the season so far, was in the driving seat at that stage, but with constantly changing conditions, safety cars and chaos, there was a chance to make something happen. As Jenson Button did. But by that stage Lewis Hamilton already had no chance to affect the outcome, having had another messy race in which Emerson Fittipaldi’s verdict that he is “too aggressive More…

Lewis Hamilton was right at the centre of things in the early stages of the Montreal race weekend. He took part in the FIA press conference and was obliged to explain his behaviour in Monaco, where he criticised the FIA stewards and fellow drivers and what he had done about it afterwards. Hamilton said that he had been home and had a rest and time to reflect on his words and actions last week. He wrote a letter to FIA president Jean Todt apologising for his words about the stewarding, and accusations that the FIA stewards pick on him. It More…

Racing drivers very rarely say sorry, especially the really competitive ones who regard winning as their birthright. Senna, Schumacher and the like rarely used the ‘S’ word. Schumacher was asked to on numerous occasions, but only did so under extreme duress, such as post Jerez 1997 when Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo demanded that he host a press conference and apologise for his collision with Jacques Villeneuve. Today Lewis Hamilton has apologised to Felipe Massa and Pastor Maldonado for any offence caused by his comments after the race, when he complained about them not giving him room when he attempted More…

Lewis Hamilton has had his time from Q3 deleted by the stewards in Monaco as he missed the chicane. And speaking to TV reporters after the session he appeared to criticise his engineers for putting him in a vulnerable position, only doing one run at the end. Other teams have expressed surprise at McLaren’s tactics, as Monaco is famous for throwing up incidents. For that reason most teams planned two Q3 runs of two laps each in case a run or a first lap was compromised. The Englishman had been in the hunt for pole position, having set the fastest More…

The sun is shining, the harbour is full of big boats and the competition looks very exciting this weekend at the Monaco Grand Prix. You can tell that the drivers are really pumped up about this race and several of them have a chance as things look after the first day of practice. As the world pulls itself out of recession, there is a real buzz about Monaco this year. There are some monster boats bobbing in the harbour, the corporate execs are happy to be seen here again after wearing sack cloth and ashes for a year or two. More…

Yesterday’s volte face by the FIA on the exhaust blown diffusers has sent out some confused messages to fans about what’s going on behind the scenes. I’ve been in touch with engineers and with the FIA today to get to the bottom of it and here’s my take on what’s happened here. The FIA’s Charlie Whiting sent out a letter to teams on Thursday May 12th telling them that the FIA planned to clamp down on the way the engines were used to generate exhaust gas pressure on the over-run, in other words when the driver lifts off the throttle. More…

The first three races have given us much to reflect on in terms of the new style of racing F1 now provides, but there are some fascinating details emerging too about the relative performance of the cars. One of the things to catch the eye has been the relative pace of the Red Bull and the McLaren in qualifying and in the race. And it’s not just about who has the newest tyres. When you look at it closely you see that there is reason to feel very excited about the competition between the two cars this season. At the More…

The final test session of the 2011 pre-season continues this morning in Barcelona. The test lasts five days, of which the teams are allowed to do four days running with a single car. It’s a crucial test for both Mercedes and McLaren, who would normally expect to be competing against Red Bull and Ferrari, but who appear to be behind after the tests so far. With extensive updates to their cars, this has to be the week when they close the gap to the pace setters. McLaren was on track yesterday and will have a break tomorrow, while Mercedes hit More…

The tension is showing in the run up to the final pair of races in this year’s world championship as the three team bosses fighting for the titles lead their troops into the great unknown at Interlagos. And with it has come a suggestion from Red Bull that if Fernando Alonso wins, there will be a stain on the result because of the team orders row back in July. “It would be frustrating (if Alonso won the title) because we’ve obviously worked under the auspices that team orders have been illegal,” Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner told BBC Radio. More…

McLaren announced today that its title sponsorship deal with Vodafone has been extended to the end of the 2013 season. It has been a successful relationship, crowned by Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 world championship. And as the statement from the team says, it shows “what a formidable global marketing tool the sport of Formula 1 remains.” I’m told that Ron Dennis was central to the renegotiation of the deal along with McLaren commercial director Ekrem Sami. McLaren is one of the better funded teams in the F1 pitlane and the Vodafone deal is one of the largest team sponsorships. As a More…

I was fascinated by the way Jenson Button attacked the Japanese Grand Prix, with his strategy of running the hard tyre in qualifying and the first part of the race. It didn’t work for him and he has pretty much dropped out of contention for the title as a result. Actually “attacked” is the wrong word, because if anything this strategy showed timidity – perhaps even a lack of confidence. For a championship contender up against some fierce competitors, with four races to go, it seemed an odd thing to do. Surely Jenson should have gone out there on the More…

McLaren is leaving nothing on the table in its pursuit of this year’s championship, according to managing director Jonathan Neale. The team, which had a strong run of form over the summer, has recently fallen behind Red Bull and Ferrari in what is already the closest title battle we’ve seen. Accidents for Lewis Hamilton in the last two races, costing a theoretical 24 points for a pair of fourth places, have not helped, but there is a feeling that McLaren needs to find something more technically in order to get the upper hand over its rivals. “We’re throwing everything and More…

The Red Bull pair of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber set the fastest times on the first day of free practice on the Marina Bay Circuit. The Red Bulls looked back to their best after two races on tracks which didn’t play to their strengths in Spa and Monza. The cars look fast on a single lap and on long runs and are getting the soft tyres to last well. Vettel said that he’s pleased with the pace, but he has convinced himself that the rain is going to play a part in the weekend. This would be a shame More…

We are now getting into what is known as the ‘Business End” of the season and with five drivers still in with a shout of the title, separated by a scant 24 points – less that the points from a win – it’s shaping up to be the most exciting finale in recent F1 history. Five drivers can win it, no-one knows for sure who will. But one thing is certain – four drivers will lose it. No-one wants to be left in that position and thus the whole issue of team orders and teams prioritising one driver over the More…

The Italian Grand Prix at Monza is the fastest event of the season and it is a unique layout as far as F1 is concerned. The average speed of the lap is 250km/h and the top speed is 345km/h. It is essentially a series of long straights linked with chicanes. There are only three corners; the two Lesmo bends and the Parabolica.

Because of the relative amounts of time spent on the straights and in the corners, teams have traditionally chosen to run the cars in ultra low downforce configuration to minimise drag on the straights, considering this to be a greater gain than having extra speed through the corners. A car using Monza wings will generate 25% less downforce than the same car with Monaco wings on.

But this year the drag reducing F Duct rear wing has changed the game. This is a device which allows engineers to have their cake and eat it – in other words they can have low drag without sacrificing downforce.

Interestingly Ferrari’s top speed at the weekend was more or less the same as last year at 338km/h, but the lap time was 6/10ths faster this year. Much of that is to due to the F Duct.

Engineers I spoke who had carried out direct comparison tests on Friday found that the F Duct was up to half a second faster than the low downforce specification. But only those with an efficient system.

And as there is something to be gained from having a bit of extra downforce in the three corners and in stability under braking, there was an advantage to using the F Duct – but only if you have an efficient system, which sheds enough drag and doesn’t lose downforce.

Therefore a glance at the teams who chose to race without the F Duct – Mercedes and Force India being the most obvious examples – reveals the teams with the system which is the least efficient, and therefore they were too slow in a straight line with it fitted.

One of the things which made it such an interesting weekend was that there was a mix of solutions. And one of the secrets of success this weekend was having a Monza wing with an F Duct in it, rather than a compromise wing.

Button's F Duct, note steep wing angle

McLaren’s drivers went different ways. Jenson Button went for the F Duct and a higher level of downforce than any other driver, preferring the feel of the car in the corners, while Lewis Hamilton went the traditional route with skinny rear wings. After qualifying he was wondering whether he had made a mistake, as he was down in fifth while Button was second. We will never know how it might have panned out in the race as Hamilton crashed on the opening lap.

Hamilton's low downforce wing without F Duct

In other words, unlike Ferrari they had not built a specific Monza spec wing with F Duct. It worked well enough for Button, but one wonders whether that fraction of extra straight line speed for Ferrari might have just made the difference.

Ferrari’s solution featured a smaller air pipe inside the engine cover. Also the wing had a smaller flap with a completely flat profile, the main profile was completely flat.

Renault too had a Spa wing and it wasn’t fantastic, hence Kubica’s relatively poor 9th place on the grid.

Engine use
Most drivers opted to use a new engine for qualifying and the race. The engines are at full throttle for 73% of the lap in Monza, the most of any circuit, so a fresh unit is considered an advantage.

All drivers are allowed a maximum of eight engines per season and most of them took a seventh new engine at Monza, with the exception of the two Renault drivers (6th engine), the two Ferrari drivers (8th engine). Other exceptions this weekend were drivers who opted not to use a new engine, Mark Webber and Rubens Barrichello, who have used six engines each and Pedro de la Rosa, who has now used nine. His car will be taken over by Nick Heidfeld at the next round and he will carry on with the same allocation of engines.

Engines used so far in 2010 season
01 McLaren Mercedes Jenson Button 7
02 McLaren Mercedes Lewis Hamilton 7
03 Mercedes Benz Michael Schumacher 7
04 Mercedes Benz Nico Rosberg 7
05 RBR Renault Sebastian Vettel 7
06 RBR Renault Mark Webber 6
07 Ferrari Felipe Massa 8
08 Ferrari Fernando Alonso 8
09 Williams Cosworth Rubens Barrichello 6
10 Williams Cosworth Nico Hülkenberg 7
11 Renault Robert Kubica 6
12 Renault Vitaly Pertrov 6
14 Force India Mercedes Adrian Sutil 7
15 Force India Mercedes Vitantonio Liuzzi 7
16 STR Ferrari Sébastien Buemi 7
17 STR Ferrari Jaime Alguersuari 7
18 Lotus Cosworth Jarno Trulli 7
19 Lotus Cosworth Heikki Kovalainen 7
20 HRT Cosworth Sakon Yamamoto 7
21 HRT Cosworth Bruno Senna 7
22 BMW Sauber Ferrari Pedro De La Rosa 9 (Nick Heidfeld’s car now)
23 BMW Sauber Ferrari Kamui Kobayashi 7
24 Virgin Cosworth Timo Glock 7
25 Virgin Cosworth Lucas Di Grassi 7

Jenson Button maintained a narrow lead over Fernando Alonso for the first 36 laps of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, but lost the race when he pitted first. It was a game changing decision by McLaren. After the race Button said it was the wrong decision, while McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh said it was the right one. So what is the truth? Did the call to pit Button before Alonso cost him what would have been a historic and memorable victory? Button got the lead at the start, but it was clear from the performance of the Ferrari that More…

This afternoon’s Italian Grand Prix is wonderfully poised, with Fernando Alonso starting on pole but Jenson Button alongside him. Alonso’s race will be about dominating the start and then relentless pace. Button has been thinking about his race since Friday and has gone with a plan which, if it works, will spring a trap on Alonso and the others at the pits stops. The McLaren drivers were given the option of running with higher downforce and the F Duct drag reducing wing, or running a standard Monza low downforce set up. The latter gives you approximately 8km/h additional straight line More…

Red Bull got their 12th pole position in 13 races today, but behind that headline is an interesting story which gives McLaren some encouragement for the Grand Prix, particularly if it is wet, as it has been every day this weekend. I spoke with Mark Webber after the qualifying session and he seemed to be more impressed with Lewis Hamilton’s improvement of four tenths of a second at the end of the session when the track was wet, than he was with his own pole position. Asking engineers from other teams they share that sense of wonder at Hamilton’s final More…

The German magazine Auto Motor und Sport, an opinion leader in F1 circles, has published a table reviewing the finishing record of the Formula 1 teams in the season to date. Ferrari comes out well on top with an astonishing 1471 racing laps covered, out of a maximum of 1474! Fernando Alonso’s engine failure in the closing stages of the Malaysian Grand Prix is the only blot on its copybook. Felipe Massa has a flawless finishing record. And interestingly Red Bull has come out second, with 1,373 laps covered. This is despite a reputation for shaky reliability early in the More…

The German Grand Prix at Hockenheim will be remembered for the team orders row which blew up after Ferrari ordered Felipe Massa to let Fernando Alonso through, but it was also notable as a confirmation that Ferrari has made great progress with its car after a period in the first third of the season where it fell behind in development.

Unlike Red Bull and McLaren, Ferrari has been obliged to copy both of the key technical innovations of the 2010 season; the F Duct rear wing and the blown diffuser. McLaren invented the former and Red Bull the latter so both have had half the work to do compared to Ferrari in overall incorporation of new tech.

Ferrari worked first on the F Duct and got bogged down with it, then the blown diffuser was introduced later. The signs were clear in Montreal that Ferrari had taken a step forward and then in Valencia they introduced the blown diffuser. In Silverstone the step in performance was confirmed with Alonso being barely a tenth off the Red Bulls through practice and the early part of qualifying, but at Hockenheim it all came together and Fernando Alonso qualified on the front row, with Massa just behind. In the race, Ferrari had better race pace than Red Bull, indicating that they are contenders for the second half of the season.

Ferrari updates get them in the game
Hockenheim was the third outing of the blown diffuser introduced in Valencia and detailed changes to the exhausts and floor optimised the solution together with a refinement of the F-duct system. Ferrari have modified the side channels of their diffuser. This one now sports a wider and diagonal opening compared to the standard perpendicular one seen in Valencia when the solution was introduced the first time.

Ferrari also had a step on the front wing, which improved the overall downforce and stablity of the car, leading both drivers to talk of greatly improved grip and driveability. Another big step from Ferrari is due at the Belgian Grand Prix at the end of August, where heavily revised back end aerodynamics will be brought out.

Mercedes rear wing
Mercedes, for its home race brought an array of small developments, the main one being to the rear wing main profile, now featuring two big slits in its central section, to increase the efficiency of this element producing a slightly increased downforce load. The main feature is a double large opening, placed in the middle section of the main profile, mimicking the effect of an additional flap. This solution helps in terms of increasing the downforce load generated by the wing. Mercedes do not have the full active F Duct system operated by the drivers, as used by its rivals, they have a more passive system. It was useful in Germany, although the car is still short of the pace of its rivals and will be even more useful in Hungary.

McLaren blown diffuser
McLaren ran the blown diffuser all weekend in Germany, although their deficit to Ferrari and Red Bull in qualifying and at the end of the race indicates that there is still work to be done to optimise it. In Silverstone they removed it after Friday practice because it was overheating components in the rear suspension and the on-off nature of the exhaust gas pressure, combined with the bumps in the Silverstone track was causing instability.

In Germany they introduced modifications to reduce the overheating problems and now the exhaust pipes are in a more external position , sporting a diagonal cut instead of the perpendicular one adopted previously. This is still a work in progress and McLaren now need to add the next step in performance to stay with the Red Bulls and Ferraris.

As you know, I’m a keen student of viral videos; not many people do them well in F1 and there have been plenty of poor ones. I quite like this latest effort from McLaren and Vodafone. They have done some lame ones, but the one where the two blokes build a remote control device and persuade McLaren to let them use it to drive a real F1 car was funny. This one shows Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, left to their own devices by their mechanics, building what looks like a 2008 McLaren from a pile of parts. There is More…

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh has dismissed the misunderstanding between his drivers at the end of the Turkish Grand Prix, saying that when Lewis Hamilton was told that Jenson Button would not pass him, this was an engineer’s “opinion”, rather than a team policy. Speaking in a Vodafone teleconference with the leading websites, he also said that in the new style F1 racing, it is hard to know when – or indeed if – to stop drivers from racing each other in the interests of the team. In the closing stages of the race Hamilton was told to save fuel, Button More…

Lewis Hamilton put in a great lap today, just 15/100ths of a second slower than pole sitter Mark Webber’s, to line up on the front row of the grid for the first time this season. It’s taken McLaren a long time to get on top of qualifying this season and although there is still some way to go to qualify ahead of the Red Bulls, the McLaren’s race pace indicates that we could have a race on our hands tomorrow. This is particularly true when you consider that the McLaren enjoys a 6km/h speed advantage on the straights, thanks to More…

An eventful first day of practice at Istanbul ended with Jenson Button setting the fastest time, with team mate Lewis Hamilton fourth. The Red Bull cars look very fast but there are reliability worries. Winner of the last two Grands Prix Mark Webber stopped out on track in the final moments of practice with a suspected engine failure, having set the second fastest time. It will have been an old engine, probably close to its mileage limit, but nevertheless and engine failure is an engine failure. His Red Bull team mate Sebastian Vettel was third fastest despite time lost to More…

McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale took part in the latest in the series of Vodafone teleconferences with leading websites today and it was an interesting discussion. What caught my attention was his comment about Jenson Button, who lost the championship lead in Monaco after a pair of fairly ordinary results there and in Spain. For Button it has either been victory, gained through tactical plays in changeable conditions, or minor placings this season and his best qualifying has been fourth. My understanding of the situation has been that Button is quite happy with the general set-up of the car and More…

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh today spoke of his concern that there would be chaos and controversy during the first part of qualifying in Monaco this weekend, due to the enlarged field and the speed differential between the fastest and slowest cars. With the three new teams this year regularly around six seconds off the pace in qualifying and 24 cars packed onto the tight streets of Monaco for the first 20 minute session, Whitmarsh predicts trouble. It is possible that one of the front runners might get blocked, miss the cut to get out of Q1 and be forced to More…

Jenson Button had a frustrating afternoon in the Spanish Grand Prix, losing a place to Michael Schumacher at the first pit stop and failing to pass him for the remainder of the race. Button scored ten points for fifth place and retained his lead in the world championship heading into this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, but his comments surprised senior figures in the Mercedes team and many onlookers. Button criticised Schumacher for his passing move as Button exited the pits, “”He turned in and if I didn’t back out of it we would have crashed,” he said. “So he didn’t More…

McLaren is targetting the front row of the grid at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix with an updated car featuring new front and rear wings and a revised floor among a host of changes. The team is currently leading both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships and has two wins and two podiums, but qualifying has been its Achilles’ Heel and it has yet to get a car on the front row of the grid. However the designer of the McLaren MP4-25, Tim Goss, said today in a Vodafone backed McLaren team phone-in today with the leading websites that he was More…

There has been some shifting around of roles at McLaren in recent times and the opening up of new horizons with a new base being established in the Middle East. McLaren is moving forward in the aftermath of its split with Mercedes and now the company is on its own and trying to forge ahead as a car maker as well as a leading F1 team, the one trading off the other. Chairman Richard Lapthorne, who was drafted in from industry after the scandals of Spygate and particularly Liegate, has stepped down and Ron Dennis has taken back overall chairmanship More…

McLaren’s engineering director Paddy Lowe took part in a Vodafone teleconference today to discuss the ongoing debate over adjustable ride heights, a hot topic at the moment because of the advantage Red Bull have in qualifying by appearing to be able to run the car low to the ground in qualifying, but then raise the car up for the race when 160 kilos of fuel go in. He said that McLaren has dropped its programme to develop its own ride height control system in light of the FIA’s rule clarification last week, but said that he believes McLaren will be More…

I was interested over the weekend to see that McLaren’s preview to the Chinese Grand Prix features team boss Martin Whitmarsh saying that the team’s start to the season has not met its expectations. So let’s look more deeply into it. They have won one of the three races, but the wins have been shared out between them, Ferrari and Red Bull, which means that McLaren sits in second place behind Ferrari in the constructors’ table, while Jenson Button is fourth in a tight drivers’ championship race and Lewis Hamilton sixth. But the warning signs for Whitmarsh are the mistakes More…

Ron Dennis launched the new McLaren roadcar the MP4/12 today and said that he had “moved on from F1″. Dennis’s career in F1 was full of success punctuated by some short bouts of uncompetitiveness, like the 1994-1997 period. But there is no doubt that he is one of the great team owners of the sport’s history. Now 62, he stood down from involvement in the F1 team this time last year after the scandal in Melbourne where Lewis Hamilton and McLaren sporting director Dave Ryan were found to have lied to the race stewards. Following on from the spy scandal More…

The McLaren Technology Centre hosted a celebration last night of TAG Heuer’s 25th anniversary as a sponsor of the McLaren team. And today they announced an extension to one of sport’s longest sponsorship deals. From McLaren’s side Lewis Hamilton Martin Whitmarsh and Ron Dennis were there, from TAG Heuer’s side, CEO Jean-Christophe Babin and Honorary Chairman Jack Heuer. This year is also TAG Heuer’s 150th anniversary as a watch maker. Hamilton drove a 1986 F1 McLaren race car, once driven by world champion Alain Prost, down the long driveway alongside the lake. TAG Heuer has worked closely with the team 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…

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…

Amid all the furore over the Renault race fixing scandal, this week has seen another important development in shaping the next generation of F1. I posted last week on the news that Mercedes was set to take a controlling interest in the Brawn team. It appears that the deal has been worked with the backing of the Abu Dhabi investment vehicle Aabar, which bought 9.1% of Mercedes’ parent company Daimler earlier this year. It is the company’s largest shareholder. Aabar is an interesting company with a wide range of investments in many different sectors. They bought a 32% stake in More…

Ferrari president Luca Montezemolo chaired a meeting yesterday at Maranello at which it was confirmed that Luca Badoer would be given the opportunity to have a second race in the Ferrari. But, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, he has been told that unless he does something pretty special, he may well be replaced for the following race at Monza. The range of alternatives has not really changed much, which is to say that there aren’t really any. So it would be interesting to see what they would do if Badoer remained a long way off the pace of Raikkonen. More…