Today’s McLaren launch was a quietly confident affair. The team looked composed and calm ahead of what is likely to be a hard fought and chaotic season, with complex new rules and an intense development programme away from the circuit. And then just as the thing was winding to a close, Ron Dennis, the sport’s most successful entrant, goes and lets slip that he’s standing down as team principal at the end of February. It’s no great surprise in one sense; he is 61 years old and has been discussing stepping down for some time. He was under pressure from More…

Amid promises of a first win being around the corner and a commitment to stay in F1 for the long term, Toyota virtually launched their new car today in an online ceremony, which saved them a lot of money. It’s important at the moment in F1 to show that you are cutting costs wherever possible. I’m hearing that job cutting programmes are starting to bite now, many posts have been shed in catering departments, while one UK based manufacturer team has imposed a 20% pay cut on management and 10% on the workforce. There will be some big job losses More…

Full marks to Ferrari for getting their 2009 car out first, especially as they were fighting for the world championship until the final round last season. So dramatic are the rule changes this year – the biggest for a generation – everything is new with these cars and it’s hard to make many judgments based on what we see at the launch. Technical boss Aldo Costa says that it is a completely new car, a clean sheet of paper, but I’m sure much of the DNA which has run through the ultra successful generation of Ferrari cars since 1999 is More…