Alvin's Formula One Blog

Monday 30th March 2009 Lewis Hamilton feels he faces the hardest challenge of his career to help McLaren again become World title contenders. Against the odds, the reigning World Champion clinched third place in Sunday's Australian Grand Prix in a car he has revealed is the hardest he has ever driven. From 18th on Melbourne's Albert Park grid, Hamilton was given a helping hand as three accidents during a dramatic season-opener accounted for four of his rivals, whilst Jarno Trulli was handed a 25-second penalty after the race. But on the other side of the coin, there was Hamilton's undoubted talent as he produced a masterclass to underline just why he is defending World Champion, conjuring up a number of memorable overtaking manoeuvres. The fact it was in one of the worst designed McLarens to take to a circuit gives you some idea of just how well Hamilton performed. But these are tough times, potentially wo...

Sunday 29th March 2009 It was an epic start to the 2009 season with incidents, accidents, overtaking, Safety Cars, and the cherry on the icing, a high-speed Nelson Piquet exit - what more can you ask for? STAR OF THE RACE Jenson Button, Brawn GP, 1st What a fantastic weekend for F1. Jenson Button has shaved off most of his ginger beard. Result. Oh and he also won the Australian GP for the Brawn team. On paper - Grid: Button P1, Barrichello P2 - Result: Button P1, Barrichello P2, it all looks pretty straightforward. But there were many times when it could and almost did go horribly wrong. Button had no drinks bottle for the entire race, something that will cripple him next week in Malaysia if it happens again. He flat-spotted a tyre trying to get heat into the tyres during the Safety Car period. He had to resist the pressure from a tenacious Sebastian Vettel behind him and a pit-stop that he almost botched himself...

Sunday 29th March 2009 Lewis Hamilton has described his performance in the Australian GP as one of the best of his career. The World Champion silenced the critics who have opined that he can produce good results in a good car by hustling his under-paced MP4-24 into third place with a mixture of fine driving, determination and a little luck. "It was one of the better races that I've driven simply because of the way the car is to drive. It's the hardest thing I've ever had to drive in my life," Hamilton said. "We scored way more points than we could have realistically expected. I was looking to try and get one point, so to get six is a great achievement. We've definitely not forgotten how to win: our strategy was perfect and the team did a fantastic job. Considering the package we've got, I wrung every last ounce of pace out of the car, drove one of my best ever races and absolutely rac...

Monday 30th March 2009 Footage of Lewis Hamilton overtaking Jarno Trulli behind the Safety Car has raised more questions than answers about the legality of the move and the fairness of the stewards' subsequently decision to add 25 seconds to Trulli's time for Sunday's Australian GP. In two separate incidents missed by the televisions cameras following the collision between Seb Vettel and Robert Kubica, Hamilton overtook Trulli for third when the Toyota slid off the circuit before Trulli then retook the position when Hamilton, under instruction from his McLaren team, slowed down to let him through. The footage - now removed from the Youtube website - clearly shows Trulli falling off the track and struggling to keep his Toyota under control on the grass before belatedly returning to the track behind Hamilton's McLaren. Whilst cars are not allowed to overtake under the Safety Car, article 40.7 of the 2009...

I was quite confused during the race and after it about what actually happened. Reading the news from 3 different websites did not help as one reported Trulli to be saying and doing one thing while another reported the opposite. But after reading what Keith reported on F1Fanatic, I'm convinced of the truth. Here it is and I quote Keith : "Meanwhile, unseen by the TV cameras, Trulli went off the track, losing what was now third place to Hamilton. Trulli then re-passed Hamilton after the safety car had arrived on track, and was later handed a 25-second penalty by the stewards which demoted him from third to 12th . Trulli’s form at Melbourne was quite atypical: out-qualified by his much heavier team mate, but in superb form on race day, he deserved much more from the weekend. He later claimed Hamilton had slowed and he had no choice but to pass the McLaren . Hamilton inherited third place against all expectations, and was the highest-placed KERS-equipped finisher." Source...

Sunday 29th March 2009 The lights have gone out but the guessing game goes on... Brawn Really Are Out In Front Determining the reality of Brawn's pace at the front is a hazardous undertaking, with the results presented in the race confused and clouded by differing fuel levels, the double deployment of the Safety Car and the sudden deterioration in lap times caused by the soft tyres. Having led the grand prix from start to finish, and finished on top in all three segments of qualifying, it is indisputable that Brawn currently possess the fastest car. The rest of the pecking order can be debated endlessly without resolution, but Brawn's status as number one is fixed. But Not By As Much As Feared/Expected. Possibly The indication in testing, and even from qualifying, was that the Brawns would be up to a second faster than the rest per lap. The indication from the race was that their margin of superiority is less than half a seco...

What an incredible race. Started by an incredible practice then qualifying and topped off by this. I was glued to the TV set as never before. The start wasn't as good because Lewis started 18th and Heikki was taken out at the first turn. That first turn is so dangerous, everybody knew it was gonna happen. Poor Heikki. The Brawn of Jenson was straight out of the grid like a bat out of hell. Not much to shout about for Rubens though except maybe he was too aggresive (or in a rush) at turn 1 and caused that accident which took out Heikki..and Webber. Surprisingly the car was quite tough as he went on to finish second with a couple more other run ins with a few other cars. I'm surprised there was no penalty or reprimand or fine or anything. Lewis was attacking like mad as expected. I already knew he would do that as I've seen him before being relegated to the back and fighting his way up. It was incredible watching him lining cars up and overtaking them. That KERS has it's...

Sunday 29th March 2009 An elated Jenson Button feels Brawn GP deserve everything they got from the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. Just weeks after it appeared that Button and team-mate Rubens Barrichello might be forced to sit out the season after the collapse of Honda, Button led home a Brawn GP 1-2 after starting on pole. "The way I'm feeling is like yesterday but times 100!" the 29-year-old said on the BBC . "It was still tough but we came away with the win and I know I've said it before but I'll keep saying it, we deserve this, I really feel we do." Button had a 35-second lead over second-place man Sebastian Vettel in the early stages of the race, but the gap was cut after the Safety Car was deployed following Kazuki Nakajima's crash on lap 17. Once the Safety Car returned to the pits, the Brit found it tough to get going again and Vettel and Robert Kubica made sure the...

Sunday 29th March 2009 Lewis Hamilton has celebrated his fourth position as the best possible outcome for him and McLaren from the Australian GP. Having travelled to Melbourne warning that he was unlikely to even collect a point in the season-opening race, a combination of fine driving and a little luck saw the World Champion wrestle his MP4-24 into fourth. Incredibly, despite the McLaren's lack of pace, Hamilton was within a second of finishing on the podium and only yielded third place to Jarno Trulli under orders from his McLaren after overtaking the Toyota behind the Safety Car. The matter is under investigation. "We did an incredible job," a jubilant Hamilton told the BBC . "We did all that we could. I am very happy and very proud. "If you'd have offered me that before the race I'd have bitten your hand off." Update: Hamilton was awarded third place and an extra point after he...

Sunday 29th March 2009 Jarno Trulli has fallen out of the points for the Australian GP after being slapped with a 25sec penalty by the race stewards for overtaking Lewis Hamilton under a Safety Car while Seb Vettel has not one but two punishments. The final lap of Sunday's grand prix, which took place behind a Safety Car after a huge crash involving Vettel and Robert Kubica, saw Trulli, who was lying in third place spin his Toyota TF109, allowing Lewis Hamilton through. But rather than accept the situation the Italian retook the third place, which broke the F1 regulations that state no overtaking behind the Safety Car. As a result the Toyota driver was slapped with a 25second penalty, which dropped him from third place to 12th with Mark Webber the only runner behind him in the classification. Toyota are believed to be considering an appeal. Meanwhile Vettel was hit with not one but two punishments after causing t...

Sunday 29th March 2009 Brawn GP couldn't have asked for a better debut, nor the 2009 season for a better start, as Jenson Button clinched the Australian GP victory, while the two men in line to join him on the podium crashed into each other on the penultimate lap. In an incident-packed race, the Brawn GP driver endured the pressures of two Safety Car periods, no drinks bottle and a botched pit-stop to score a lights-to-flag victory Rubens Barrichello lucked into second place after Robert Kubica collided with Sebastian Vettel late in the race, the accident handing a podium finish to Jarno Trulli and an unlikely fourth place for World Champion Lewis Hamilton. Both Ferraris failed to finish while rookie Sebastien Buemi claimed a point in eighth place for Toro Rosso. Race Report The cars lined up on the grid in late afternoon sun with an ambient temperature of 21C and the track at 31C. As the tyre war...

Saturday 28th March 2009 Lewis Hamilton has vowed to attack in Sunday's Australian GP despite starting the race from a lowly 15th place on the grid. McLaren have wallowed near the back of the pack for much of this weekend's practices but showed an improved performance in Saturday's final session. It all came to naught, though, as Hamilton's MP4-24 let him down after Q1, forcing him to sit out the second segment even though he had made it through. "Something broke on the rear of my car on my second flying lap in Q1. I just lost all drive in the gearbox and couldn't continue," he explained. Unfortunately for Hamilton the fault lay with his gearbox meaning the Brit needs a new one and as such will incur a five-grid slot penalty, putting him at the back of the pack. "It was a gear failure and although we are allowed to change gears under the regulations, we will change the gearbox," ...

Saturday 28th March 2009 Has a World Champion ever endured such an ignominious start to a season? Already suffering the indignity of being relieved just to sneak through to the second round of qualifying, Lewis Hamilton's woes were compounded by a failure on his McLaren forcing him to retire even before Qualy Two had begun. At the time of writing, Hamilton is listed as 15th for the start of the Australian GP. However, if the "drive failure" that resulted in his early exit from Saturday's proceedings requires the remedy of a gearbox change then he would suffer the demotion of five grid slots and start his first race as World Champion in last place. To his credit, Hamilton sought to put a brave face on his predicament, but there can be no disguising the simple reality that McLaren are way off the pace. "I'm happy we made it through [to second qualifying] but something has gone wrong on the back...

What can I say - nothing really. I was dumbstruck by the flurry of times set, not because the times were set in quick succession but because they were set by the most unlikely of drivers/teams. It's no more Ferrari-McLaren-BMW but Brawn-Red Bull-Toyota and even Force India. It is weird trying to fathom the top 5 or even top 10 of the order without the big guns there. I was so happy to see names like Sutil, Rosberg, Button, Barrichello, Glock, Trulli, Nakajima, Vettel, Webber topping the times in quick succession. It was incredible to watch and I was laughing to myself all the time. I hardly could get my eyes off the TV. But as fun and exciting as it was, there are deeper concerns at play. The most important being the reason all this excitement has been produced and that is the rear diffuser on Brawn, Toyota and Williams (although it didn't produced the required results for Williams in qualifying). The other teams will definitely want to produce similiar diffusers for their cars...

One word - Incredible! Wow! Saturday 28th March 2009 It was a dream debut for Brawn GP as Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello locked out the front row of the grid, easily outpacing their rivals. Saturday's session in Melbourne marked Brawn's GP first qualifying as a constructor, but that didn't seem to worry the former Honda outfit with Button calmly grabbing pole position with a 1:26.202. Only his team-mate Barrichello came close to matching his pace, finishing 0.3s behind the Brit. Sebastian Vettel, who qualified in third place in his first grand prix weekend for Red Bull Racing, was followed by Robert Kubica, Nico Rosberg and Timo Glock. Felipe Massa was the best placed Ferrari driver in seventh place, although the Brazilian was 0.83s off the pace. Meanwhile it was a disappointing afternoon for McLaren with Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton qualifying down in 14th and 15th places with the latter suff...

Saturday 28th March 2009 Nico Rosberg and his Williams finished fastest in Saturday's practice, giving the German a hat-trick of P1s and a confident starting point ahead of the day's qualifying session. It was in fact another session that belonged to the 'diffuser three' with Rosberg leading Toyota's Jarno Trulli and Brawn GP's Jenson Button. Ferrari, though, will be buoyed to see that Felipe Massa was able to mix it up at the front as the Brazilian finished P4. Report: A beautiful sunny day greeted the drivers for this late-starting third practice, with the track temperature sitting at a comfortable 35'C. All 20 drivers ventured out in the first 10 minutes to complete their installation laps. However, silence descended in the minutes after as the teams waited to see who would be the first to blink. Nelson Piquet Jr set the day's first lap time, a 1:31.330, but he was quickly overhauled ...

After waiting for so long for the new season to start and going through a very thin winter testing season, finally the first race weekend of the year has begun. And what a way to start. Practice 1 and 2 were explosive with almost everybody topping the timesheets one time or another. Even Sutil in the Force India managed to go P1 for a while which was unthinkable last year. Although the McLaren pace was expected from what we've seen in winter testing (who says testing times does not mean anything) the rest of the field especially the smaller and unfancied teams were incredible to watch. Williams, Toyota, Force India, Brawn, Red Bull were swapping times at the top 10 end of the charts. It was surreal. Also surreal was watching McLaren, Ferrari, BMW and Renault at the bottom and midfield. Weird actually. Yes, the new rules has shaken up the order and given a chance for others to shine. No doubt about it. But this diffuser thing is not good. It would mean another day in court with some...

Friday 27th March 2009 Lewis Hamilton's lap times in Friday's practice sessions for the Australian GP have concerned McLaren fans but the the World Champion insists it's not as bad as it looks. After struggling in pre-season testing for both pace and grip it was suggested in some optimistic quarters that McLaren were sandbagging and would display their true pace come this weekend's Australian GP. But instead all the Woking team showed was that those sandbags are geniunely weighing them down. Defending Champ Hamilton failed to impress in either of Friday's two practices, finishing 16th in the first and 18th in the second, 1.8s behind pace-setter Nico Rosberg. But despite his sluggish start to the Championship - evident in his unimpressive lap times - the 24-year-old Brit insists McLaren have actually made progress. "My day was not too bad," Hamilton told Autosport. "We're not as ...

Friday 27th March 2009 The performance advantage accrued from what they still believe is an illegal diffuser design has been acknowledged by Renault contemplating a 'substantial reworking of the rear of the car' in order to incorporate a version of the controversial diffusers used by Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota. Renault were one of three teams to make a formal protest against the designs on Thursday ahead of the Melbourne GP. After six hours of scrutineering by stewards, the cars of Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota were deemed legal. However, an appeal has now been lodged and the matter is set to culminate in a FIA hearing. The simplest solution to the furore would be for the remaining teams to immediately introduce a similar design to that of the 'Diffuser Three'. However, that, it would seem, is far easier said than done, with the expert word in the paddock suggesting that it would be far easier for Brawn...

Friday 27th March 2009 Expect fresh cries over illegal cars after the 'diffuser three' grabbed the top three places on the timesheets in Melbourne's second practice where Nico Rosberg led home Rubens Barrichello and Jarno Trulli. Report: Jarno Trulli was the first to venture out as the session began, leading a train of driver as they completed their installation laps. The Italian opted to remain out on track, clocking the sessions first lap time, a 1.32.102, but he was quickly overhauled by Timo Glock, Mark Webber, Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastian Vettel. With 14 drivers out on track the timesheet continued to change with Adrian Sutil putting his Force India up into first place while Fernando Alonso went fourth quickest for Renault. Sutil's reign was short-lived as Heikki Kovalainen went fastest only to lose out to Nico Rosberg. Alonso, pushing hard, clipped the inside kerb at Turn Five before going into ...

Friday 27th March 2009 A late charge from Williams driver Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima saw them edge out pre-season favourites Ferrari and Brawn GP to lead the way in the first practice session for the Australian GP. Report: Partly cloudy conditions and a track temperature of 25'C greeted the drivers as the 2009 F1 season kicked off with its first practice session in Melbourne, allowing teams and drivers to witness for the first time the full impact the new regulations governing the aerodynamics, as well as slick tyres and the introduction of KERS, will have on competitive lap times. Robert Kubica was the first driver to turn a wheel in anger as the BMW driver led out the field for their installation laps. But it wasn't until almost half an hour of the session had passed before this year's only rookie driver, Seb Buemi, set the first timed lap of the day, a 1:41.493. The Swiss driver improved to a 1:33....

Actually thinking about it, the amount of effort put in for the 2008 car was not worth it and didn't make a difference as without Glock, Lewis would've lost the title. McLaren should've just let Lewis race his heart out. He probably would've finished higher than 5th. Thursday 26th March 2009 Lewis Hamilton has blamed last year's success for this year's slow car, saying McLaren focused too much on their 2008 car rather than switching their attention to their 2009 challenger. Last season, in a bid to win the Drivers' Championship title, McLaren continued to develop the MP4-23 right up until the season-ending Brazilian GP. And the decision paid off for the Woking outfit with Hamilton clinched the title by one point over Ferrari's Felipe Massa. Long-term, though, the decision has, according to Hamilton, cost the team as they've struggled for both pace and reliability during pre-season testi...

Monday 23rd March 2009 Lewis Hamilton insists he's still race his "heart out" even if he fails to start this Sunday's Australian GP from a strong position on the grid. With McLaren struggling in pre-season testing questions have been raised about how the Woking team will do in this weekend's season-opening Melbourne race. And comments coming from the team haven't been at all encouraging with team boss Martin Whitmarsh confessing to a performance shortfall while Hamilton himself recently said they may battle to make their way to the front of the pack. But despite his earlier assessment, the defending World Champion insists he's going to Australia determined to get the best result that his car and himself can offer. "My plan is to be at the front of the grid in Melbourne, but if I'm not able to start the Australian Grand Prix from the front of the grid, I'll still race my heart...

Monday 23rd March 2009 Bernie Ecclestone insists the 'winner-takes-all' Championship system "will be" used in 2010 even if the team's aren't in favour. Last week the FIA shocked the F1 community when they announced that this year's Championship would be decided on the number of race wins. But 48 hours later motorsport's governing body were forced to back down after the Formula One Teams' Association questioned the validity of the FIA's ruling. And even though the teams are clearly not in favour of the plan, Ecclestone insists it will be implemented next season. "It will be supported by the FIA and it will be in the regulations. So when people enter the championship, that's what the regulation will be," he told the Daily Telegraph. "To make any changes when the entries have closed you have to get the unanimous agreement of all the people that have entered. ...

Massa..what a prick. If you are something, you don't have to say it or tell people, they will know or find out by themselves. What a sore loser and childish prick. Up yours la Massa. Sunday 22nd March 2009 Lewis Hamilton is ready to start the next chapter in his career after finally winning the World Championship last year. After narrowly missing out on the Formula One title in his rookie season, the McLaren driver bounced back in 2008 to win the Championship in dramatic circumstances in the season finale in Brazil. The 24-year-old admits it was a massive relief to win the title last year, but says his focus is now firmly on the 2009 World Championship. "I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders," he told The Independent . "I want to win more, I want to be more consistent, though in 2007 nine podiums in my first nine races was pretty special. "I am happy with what I have achiev...

Another example of FIA stupidity with changes occuring often and not well thought out with loopholes. The best way the could resolve this when the shit hits the fan is by changing the results in a committee and spoiling the race for us fans. The growing row over diffuser designs in Formula 1 appears to be heading for a showdown protest at the Australian Grand Prix, with the FIA saying it is now too late to resolve the matter before the start of the season. The designs of the diffusers on the Brawn, Toyota and Williams have led to questions from rival teams, who think the trio are unfairly using a bigger diffuser than was originally intended by the regulations. So far the FIA has said that it believes the designs are within the wording of the regulations, but the matter has moved up a gear with at least one team believed to have written to the governing body to state its belief that the design is illegal. Now, FIA president Max Mosley has said that he thinks ...