Alvin's Formula One Blog

Here's another thought on the Schumacher return which is not like the others and more like mine. See, I'm not a Schumi fan nor am I a hater (like some people who pretend to be neutral about Lewis Hamilton but are in fact haters). I'll admit that Schumi is a good driver, most drivers are damn good, if not they won't be F1 drivers in the first place. But I have a feeling that Schumacher might find the going tough as James Allen has put it: "As e ex F1 driver put it to me last week, “I don’t care if he is Michael Schumacher, when he’s wheel to wheel against Hamilton into a corner his brain is going to say, ‘I’m 41, he’s 24, I’m going to be the one who lifts off here. ‘ It’s human nature and you cannot fight against it.” And I also agree on some points raised by DoctorVee especially the one about it being a marketing ploy by Mercedes . The name Schumacher generates a lot of interest and it will definitely bring a lot of benefit for Mercedes and their sponsors. But per...

Well, it had to happen. After all the rumours and posturing, it has been confirmed, by the man himself no less, that Michael Schumacher - the 7 time F1 world champion and undisputed greatest driver of all time (so far, although some people do beg to differ), will return to racing. He of course will drive for Mercedes GP, even after Norbert Haug and some people at Mercedes/Daimler have said before that they are not looking at an all German team. Hmm, we now have an all German team. What do I think of his return? It's great news as the show will get interesting. It would definitely be interesting to see whether he still has it in him and how he will adapt to the new cars. Do I think he will be competitive? He certainly seems to think so . But then again all F1 drivers are supremely confident of themselves, if not they won't be where they are. But personally, I'm not so sure he will be competitive unless the car is supreme again like this year. if Button can win it in that ca...

Well, finally Petronas signs back into F1 after flirting with a possible move to Sauber to Lotus F1. I knew somehow Petronas wanted to stay in F1 and that the strongest candidate would have been Sauber but I did not expect this at all. Now all Mercedes will have to use Syntium instead of Mobil 1 and Petronas ads will use Mercs instead of BMW cars. Should be exciting times for Petronas staff as they'll have new merchandise to use. I can't wait to see the new livery and merchandise. The best piece of news is that Alex Yoong is speechless . Ha ha..what did he expect? That Petronas would just roll over and obey? Support a so called national team? Petronas is not stupid, they have been left in the dark before by these useless glamour hungry idiots and they won't repeat the same mistake. Yoong said on Twitter: "Petronas signs with Mercedes GP," he wrote. "Words fail me. Mercedes is a good team, no doubt, but what Lotus is doing is completely ground-breaking and br...

Finally, the drivers have been named . It was not so much of a surprise to see Trulli confirmed but I was surprised to see Kovalainen there. I'm not sure he'll fit in comfortably though but then again, he has nowhere to go. Better here then nowhere. Fairuz I think deserves his place now as test and reserve driver. I think he has what it takes and just needs a chance. At least he's better than Alex Yoong as has been proven many times in A1GP and the World Series by Renault. The funny part of the announcement and I should use the word "stupid" really is that an F1 team line up was made by a Prime Minister of a country. The Lotus F1 driver announcement was actually made by PM Najib with his speech read out by the Sports Minister. Didn't I say it's about glamour?

It is a foregone conclusion that next season will see a change in the points awarded for races. Since there will be more cars on the grid, the FIA has seen it fit to increase points collection positions from 8 to 10 and the points collected for each position also increases. This is how it works out: 1st: 25 2nd: 20 3rd: 15 4th: 10 5th: 8 6th: 6 7th: 5 8th: 3 9th: 2 10th: 1 This probably will make it more interesting but it would be a chore to be calculating the points and drivers positions on the fly. We'd definitely need a paper and pen handy everytime during a race.

One good news today is that the British GP has been saved with Silverstone being given the rights to host the race for the next 17 years, although it seems that there is a clause for both parties to go separate ways after 10 years. Whatever it is, it's still good news as Silverstone not only has the history of being the first race in the history of the official F1 series but is also a pretty good track. Lewis Hamilton is happy that the track has been saved and will host more races in future. He won there convincingly in the rain. It would be great to see him racing Button there next year too. "The place has an atmosphere money can't buy and I have some fantastic memories of the track, winning both races in GP2 in 2006, getting an incredibly emotional and satisfying pole in 07 and winning in the wet in my championship year (2008). "

Well, it was bound to happen, just a matter of when the announcement would be made. And here it is: "..former Malaysian F1 driver Alex Yoong as Head of Driver Development (Asia).." "Yoong and Judge will co-host Lotus F1 Racing’s driver development programme with the aim of nurturing young drivers for future development in Malaysia, Asia and Europe." I wonder what kind of advice would Yoong be giving - how to spin more than 8 times in a single race perhaps. Or how to be snot nosed in public.

Well, it has been some time since I've been writing here, it feels like an eternity. I think I stopped just before I went to Abu Dhabi for the inaugural race there. We had 4 simulators going and placed at the new track for Etihad, the title sponsor of the race. It was a blast and I will definitely have to post a story on that with pictures after this. I guess my 'disappearance' so far has something to do with my personal life. I apologize to my readers for the absence but it seems that my mind has been filled with thoughts of a certain young lady who has captured my heart and attention. F1 being in the off season didn't help either. But I will try to post regularly as much as I can, starting with my opinions on some recent news. 1. S ilverstone announcement on Monday One of the hottest topic around for some time is whether Britain will host a race or not next year. With Donnington bitting the dust, I for one favor Silverstone as it is a challenging track, not to mention...

12/11/2009 Never mind buying F1 cars off Ebay, race fans with a little bit of dosh can now buy the exact same equipment used by top racing drivers and engineers to improve their race craft and evaluate new tracks and car settings. Cruden B.V. - the world's leading designer and manufacturer of interactive motion-based racing simulators - is offering its new racing simulator as an extreme alternative to popular home gaming equipment for affluent motorsport and performance driving enthusiasts. The Hexatech - a professional full motion simulator with six 'degrees of freedom' (6DOF), realistic g-Force simulation up to multiple g's, seat belt tensioners and 100 per...

This season still has not ended yet and next season is still along way to go but it seems that the rivalry between Massa and Alonso has already started to simmer. Massa again was accusing Alonso of knowing about the plot to crash at the Singapore GP last year but a few hours later and after a dressing down by Ferrari, he issued another statement playing down his earlier accusation. The second statement, although almost denying the first one still had some unhappiness sprinkled over it. One thing is for sure, Massa was extremely upset not to win last year's championship and is still looking for somebody else to blame. Lewis lost it to Kimi by 1 point and he lost to Lewis by 1 point, deal with it. I'm looking forward to the Massa-Alonso rivalry next year. That should tear Ferrari up from the inside or at least trip them up through the season.

James Allen has published the first on board footage of a lap of the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi in a 2 seater open wheel race car driven by Bruno Senna. The track looks awesome and drives awesome too. At least on our F1 simulator. I was thinking it would be a good looking track but boring to drive but surprisingly, it was quite fast and challenging with some great 3 apex turns at high speeds. Can't wait to go to Abu Dhabi on 27th Oct. Woohoo.

This is an interesting bit of news. It seems that the organizers of the penultimate race of this season at Interlagos, Brazil have decided to have some fun and add some novelty to the race by having Felipe Massa wave the chequered flag to signal the finish of the race. Taking into consideration what happened to Massa and the fact he is currently out of the racing, that sounds nice and sweet. But imagine if the race was won by Lewis Hamilton this year? I can't imagine the look on Massa's face having to wave the flag for Hamilton at his home race after losing the championship to Lewis last year in such dramatic fashion. Image courtesy of The F1 Files .

That's what the rumours are saying. I'd be very surprised if he did. Currently his fitness is not known so it's just speculation. Although he did come back to Maranello for meetings and sessions in the simulator. It also turns out that Ferrari have asked the stewards whether massa could test the F2007 with GP2 tyres just like Schumacher. Williams have given their blessing to the test and Ferrari are not saying whether it is confirmed or not. But it seems we'll know something by next week.

Well, that was quite an exciting race . I say "quite" because it is not really exciting or great. I was expecting more based on what I saw during qualifying yesterday with all the crashes and spins and drama. There was a safety car today though and a heavy crash but still the results were no surprise. By that I mean the top 3 started and finished in the same position. The start was exciting, yes more exciting than quite exciting, but that was it. Lewis had a good start overtaking Trulli into the first turn and almost taking Vettel with him but the run down to the first turn was too short for his KERS to be effective. On top of that, Vettel had an amazing start, defended his line well and just pulled away like he had an extra 200 horses on that Red Bull. He never looked back since. Lewis took Trulli into that first turn and stuck to Vettel. All 3 of them had a pretty relaxed race all the way except for when Lewis' KERS gave some problems and switched off. Lewis couldn'...

Following the various penalties given to drivers for speeding during a yellow flag, driving around a damaged car and gearbox changes, the new grid positions for today's race will be as follows:- 1st row: Sebastian Vettel (GER/Red Bull-Renault) Jarno Trulli (ITA/Toyota) 2nd row: Lewis Hamilton (GBR/McLaren-Mercedes) Nick Heidfeld (GER/BMW-Sauber) 3rd row: Kimi Raikkonen (FIN/Ferrari) Heikki Kovalainen (FIN/McLaren-Mercedes) 4th row: Nico Rosberg (GER/Williams-Toyota) Robert Kubica (POL/BMW-Sauber) 5th row: Adrian Sutil (GER/Force India-Mercedes) Rubens Barrichello (BRA/Brawn-Mercedes) 6th row: Jaime Alguersuari (ESP/Toro Rosso-Ferrari) Jenson Button (GBR/Brawn-Mercedes) 7th row: Giancarlo Fisichella (ITA/Ferrari) Sebastien Buemi (SUI/Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 8th row: Kazuki Nakajima (JPN/Williams-Toyota) Romain Grosjean (FRA/Renault) 9th row: Fernando Alonso (ESP/Renault) Tonio Liuzzi (ITA/Force India-Mercedes) Pitlane: Timo Glock (GER/Toyota) Mark Webber (AUS/Red Bull-Renau...

That was an incredible, action filled qualifying . I have never seen the Japanese GP at Suzuka as the place was closed for renovations since 2006. I played the circuit on our F1 simulator this week and found the track to be awesome, challenging and unforgiving to mistakes, even the slightest one. Yesterday, both free practice was spoiled by the weather. We couldn't really see the cars at their full potential as the best time recorded was 1.47.xxx when I could do 1.32.853 on the simulator. Today, the sun came out and the cars were able to do fast laps on slicks. Boy, were the times telling. Fastest time recorded was 1.30.385 I think. So, I've got some work to do. And what action this track produces. There were 4 crashes, 1 serious with Timo Glock warded at the hospital with possible leg injuries. Nobody is sure whether he can race tomorrow. There was 3 red flags, multiple yellows and the crashes were spectacular. The qualifying was close but it was never in doubt that Vettel w...

And there you have it , finally and officially. Fernando Alonso has been signed by Ferrari to race for them in the 2010 F1 World Championship, reportedly at a cost of GBP55 for 3 years. Nightmare come true. But there is a silver lining. The championship next year should be interesting as Lewis can now fight with Alonso again as Alonso will be in a competitive car. Plus Kimi will probably replace Kovalainnen at McLaren, thereby giving Lewis the push he needs to become better and better. The rest of the driver market is pretty open for now. Read here for the possible outcomes.

Re-published from Malaysian Insider by Justin Ong Sept 27 — Motorsports costs money . All sports, to some degree, cost money but more to the point, motorsports costs a lot of money. So much money that only the rich or very talented ever get to participate here in Malaysia. First there’s the vehicle itself, but rather than being the bulk of your investment, it is merely the gaping hole into which you would proceed to pour all your money into. Modifications can and often do cost more than the car itself. Or even several times the cost of the car. Once it’s up and running, you need more money to keep it going. Maintenance can be frightening, as things which last years on a normal car regularly run only two or three events, not to mention racing parts are often a magnitude more expensive than standard items. Beyond parts, you’ll also need a crew to keep the vehicle running. That’s money, too. For the average guy thinking of trying to self-finance his own motorsport career, let me tel...

McLaren are back ! Well, at least half of McLaren. Lewis Hamilton won the race from lights to finish in formidable form and without KERS. His start was impeccable and his lead was never threatened even when his KERS malfunctioned and with the numerous on track incidents with the safety car. He started well off the line, controlling the pace after that being chased by Vettel and Rosberg. Rosberg also made a great start, overtaking Vettel into the first turn. Both Vettel and Rosberg pressured Lewis but Lewis kept his cool. Unfortunately, both Vettel and Rosberg suffered in the race which cost them a place on the podium. Kovalainnen again disappoints. Not only did he start the race in tenth but he virtually disappeared fir the whole race. Not much coverage was on him and nobody talked about him in the live online blogs/forum. Rosberg had a moment when exiting the pits at his first stop and crossed the white line thereby incurring a drive through penalty and Vettel damaged his car, first ...

Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the 2nd Singapore GP tonight with a blazing lap of 1.47.891 while Rubens Barrichello crashed into the barriers red-stopping the qualifying session with 30 seconds to go. Lewis was fast all night although it was possible that either Vettel for Rosberg could have beaten him to pole without the red flag. It could have been a close fight with the pole sitter decided after the chequered flag had fallen as has happened many times before, which would have made it that much more exciting. In fact, Vettel was on fire on that last lap that Rubens crashed with a purple sector 1. But then again Lewis could have been unbeatable as his car was rebuilt overnight after some electrical problems and according to Lewis the car was fantastic to drive and he could have gone quicker if need be. But that is racing and it does look like the start later could be an interesting one. Fuel weights could play a role later. We'll see. The Brawns were quite a disappointmen...

It seems we were wrong about the government wasting our money on an F1 team in next years' championship. Or are we? A news report, and this was published in Singapore not in Malaysia (I can't seem to find anything reported in the Malaysian press except by Paul Tan), says that the Malaysian government will not be funding the team. The arrangement is as follows: The Malaysian Government has no equity directly or indirectly in the team, and the team will be funded by a group of companies including Litespeed ( which submitted an application to join Formula 1 next year under the name Team Lotus ), Naza, and the Tune Group, run by Tony Fernandes, current team principal. Petronas, a very familiar name in Formula 1 (BMW Sauber’s sponsor), is expected to join the team via its Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (a Petronas university in Malaysia), which will collaborate with the team together with UTM (University Teknologi Malaysia – a state owned university) to help develop future Malaysian...

Well, the horse has spoken from the mouth . Dr Mario Theissen has confirmed that if and when the new Sauber team gets on the grid next year, they will be using Ferrari engines. And should the team make the grid, their 2010 challenger will be equipped with Ferrari engines. "It will run a Ferrari power-train," Theissen told Autosport. Shame no more BMW engines on the grid. And I had so high expectations for my favorite car brand. Well, back to WTCC.

Re-published from Malaysian Insider SEPT 20 — Alex Yoong. What is the first thing that comes to mind when you see the name? If you’re anything like the average Malaysian, Yoong’s name will have become practically synonymous with an internationally broadcast debacle. Which is a bit of a shame, really. Although Yoong did not make a very strong case for himself in that, the pinnacle of motor racing, he’s actually quite a handy racer. His numerous wins in touring cars are testament enough to his skill and talent behind the wheel. Make no mistake, Yoong was good. Just not good enough for F1. I admit I was one of those baying for blood after I watched a struggling Yoong — running sixth in a Melbourne GP that looked more demolition derby than Formula One — meekly make way for seventh place Mika Salo, surrendering without a fight what would have been the sole championship point of his career. That was simply too much. From then on, Yoong’s Formula One career was one embarrassment a...

It seems that the Renault scandal decision was already decided before the WMSC hearing took place. Discussions were made behind closed doors and a decision was made to keep Renault in the championship in the interest of having more teams on the grid and keeping the money making machine rolling. According to Mohammed ben Sulayem, FIA vice-president and United Arab Emirates' automobile club president, "everybody" wanted Renault to stay in the sport. Everyone with something to gain, that is. According to him, Abu Dhabi made sizable investments into the Abu Dhabi race and they wanted Renault as part of the show. Therefore, Renault couldn't be thrown out but instead they'll throw out justice and rule of law. "We are not here to hang teams, we did our negotiations before and everybody is happy with the result. "Protecting the investments Abu Dhabi has made into Formula One is my duty; it is a big show and it needs teams. But this is the pinnacle of motorsport...

Re-published from The Sun I AM not going to be a wet blanket, in prematurely criticising the government’s plan to enter Formula One. The timing – in the midst of the global financial crisis – is probably questionable as this will cost us at least RM1 billion. The bulk of this money comes from national carmaker Proton, which in effect means the people are funding it. There is a theory that the Finance Ministry will approve more special draws to help fund this venture. However, in the long run, this may be one of our best investments; one of the best things Malaysia could have done in putting itself on the map. In terms of branding we are exposed 18 times a year – the number of races – to a global television audience of around 600 million. Let’s not forget the potential tie-ups, endorsements and sponsorship deals which are a usual spin-off of a massive agreement such as this. It also creates jobs and other opportunities through massive R&D invest...

I say it again, the FIA is useless, fucking useless. The inconsistencies in their regulations and the way they enforce it is really making me sick to the core. I'm of course talking about the latest round of crap policing in the wake of the Nelson Piquet Jr/Renault race fixing scandal of the 2008 Singapore GP. The excuse given by FIA president Max Mosley is so stupid it beggars belief. Even a non F1 person would find it hard to believe such stupid excuses given by Max. He said: "The penalty that we have imposed is the harshest one we can inflict, which is disqualification, and it is complete expulsion from the sport," Mosley said. "However, because Renault demonstrated that they had absolutely no moral responsibility for what took place – that is to say Renault F1 the team did not know and still less did the company have any responsibility – it would be wrong in the circumstances to impose an immediate penalty. I think we've demonstrated that w...

What did I tell you? I'm somehow not surprised that they wouldn't be thrown out of the championship or receive a heavier penalty. What did we expect? Their team name does not spell McLaren. It seems to me that Flavio got out just in time and Max got his going away present. Perhaps losing BMW and the threat of Toyota leaving was just too much of a drain on the sport. Seems that the rules can be bent for some people for not for others. Makes me sick just thinking about it. You can see how short this post is as I'm lost for words.

The WMSC has unveiled the provisional calendar for the 2010 World Championship and it has 19 races on it with Canada still awaiting approval. I do hope Canada is confirmed soon. So far it looks good with Korea the newest track there. Formula One 2010 calendar Mar 14 - Bahrain (Sakhir) Mar 28 - Australia (Melbourne, starting at 1700 local time) Apr 4 - Malaysia (Sepang, starting at 1600 local time) Apr 18 - China (Shanghai) May 9 - Spain (Barcelona) May 23 - Monaco (Monte Carlo) May 30 - Turkey (Istanbul) Jun 13 - Canada (Montreal, provisional) Jun 27 - Europe (Valencia) Jul 11 - Great Britain (Donington Park) Jul 25 - Germany (Hockenheim) Aug 1 - Hungary (Budapest) Aug 29 - Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps) Sep 12 - Italy (Monza) Sep 26 - Singapore (starting at 2000 local time) Oct 3 - Japan (Suzuka) Oct 17 - South Korea (Yongam) Oct 31 - Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina, starting at 1700 local time) Nov 14 - Brazil (Interlagos)

A lot of people are speculating about this issue, whether the Crashgate incident would have affected the 2008 championship. Of course Massa fans now are crying foul and speculating left, right and centre how Lewis didn't deserve the title and how Massa should have won it and now the proof is there with Crashgate. They will continue to whine about it with or without Crashgate anyway. The way I look at it is that it didn't make a difference. As Lewis has stressed, he deserved the title and fought hard for it. He was hampered a few times by the rules but he still won anyway. There are a few things that could have happened with Crashgate: There were a few more races after Singapore, even if Massa won there Lewis could still win the other races or Massa could have screwed up and Lewis would still have been champion. Or Massa could have won the other races and become champion outright but he didn't. It still came down to the wire in Brazil. During the Singapore race, Massa/Ferra...

Lewis is at it again. The last time he started by fighting with Alonso over who was better, at the hotel, on the road and almost everywhere else. They were both trumped by Mika in the end. Then Lewis tried it again with Steve McQueen. Now, he's arguing with Mika over whose idea it was to come out with the Johnny Walker Join The Pact. If you don't believe me, watch the video here . Picture courtesy of emercedes.com

What rubbish is this? Just announced the setting up of the team with his name as Team Principal then now saying he'll be TP for a few races. Just to taste the glamour of being TP is it? Able to hang around with Vijay and Martin on the pitwall for a few races. My advice is don't even bother. Let somebody like Gascoyne run the show from the start and get things moving. Also, they announced the car will be ready by January and testing in February. 1 month of testing with last years' car is bad enough as we've seen before but this is suicide. I'm sorry to berate the team so much but I can just see their downfall. I just can't stand the wastefull lifestyle that these people lead. If they waste their money it's ok but this is our money. What the hell?

Reports from German press are speculating that the new owners of BMW Sauber might be using Ferrari engines and transmissions when they line up on the grid next year. The entry is almost a certainty on then grid as the team has been sold for EUR80 million to Qadbak Investments and all the infrastructure is already in place. I'm just sad to see no BMW engines will be on the grid next year. I'm such a fan of BMW (the car) and was hoping they'd be able to show their engineering prowess there but F1 is such that the whole has to be more the equal sum of its parts to succeed. Enter the Malaysian F1 team....sigh.

It's official, Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds have stepped down from their positions at Renault in the middle of all this crashgate fiasco. Or were they asked to leave by Carlos Ghosn the boss of Renault? Could be either way. At the very least, Max got his going away present, that is to see another team boss axed. I'm not sure though whether this has any bearing on the on going trial for cheating by Renault F1. Renault has decided not to contest the charge which leads one to believe that they admitted to cheating and voluntarily causing the crash. A statement from the team read: "The ING Renault F1 Team will not dispute the recent allegations made by the FIA concerning the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. The radio transcripts were also released but did not show much. It does sound genuine but then again, there's always 2 sides to every story. If you were going to cheat, you wouldn't want to make it look like you were cheating right? It seems that in this case, anythi...

Oh My God ! That was my first reaction when I heard rumours about Malaysia wanting to have a F1 team. I fainted when the news came true . This is the last thing that we need. There are so many reasons why we shouldn't just jump into it like this. I am so pissed off that these people actually thought about it. The first and most important reason that we shouldn't jump into this is because it was thought up, run by and will controlled by politicians. Like most Malaysian sports, it will be fucked up because these people are in charge. Secondly, we have no racing history and knowledge to speak of. There are not that many Malaysians trained and with experience in motorsports of any level. We don't even have a proper grassroots program. The absence of such a program speaks volumes of the government's commitment to motorsports. What makes them think they can just create a F1 entry and become successful at it? Thirdly, the Malaysian government's attitude is not like other c...