Alvin's Formula One Blog

I can't believe sometimes that the season is over. Some days it feels very long with 20 races. Some days I'm surprised it is over, the last race was done and dusted just last week. What a season it has been with many different race winners, teams moving up and down the grid, accidents, dramas, unexpected news and the title battle being dragged to the final race. 2012 would be remembered as a watershed year for F1 as Sebastian Vettel won his 3rd drivers title in a row, not only going into the record books as the youngest 3 time world champion but also the only other driver besides Michael Schumacher and Juan Manuel Fangio to have won 3 titles in a row, a hatrick. The Red Bull RB8 is a strong car and fast. It was strong and fast since 2010, even better in 2011 as Vettel swept the title with ease then. But this year has been different. The RB8 started not as strong , that's why there were 7 different winners in the first part of the season. But as the season p...

This article is written by Andrew Davies and published on PlanetF1.com. It is re-produced here in its entirety. For the original article, click here . Jenson Button proved that he is Der Mixed-ConditionsMeister at Interlagos while Felipe had another miserable Brazilian podium. Star of the Race Jenson Button, McLaren, 1st Button showed just who is the better McLaren driver in mixed conditions on Sunday after he stalked Lewis Hamilton over the opening laps and then made the decisive move on Lap 8. He and Hulkenberg were 45 seconds clear of Hamilton and 64 seconds in front of Alonso when the Safety Car came out on Lap 23. Although the Force India driver managed to dispose of his team-mate, it's likely that as the rain came down again Button would have re-established his superiority. Despite winning the last race, McLaren are the big losers of 2013. They had the fastest car - Hamilton scored the most poles of any driver (not even counting Barcelona) - yet they didn't ge...

This article is written by Pete Gill and published on PlanetF1.com. It is re-produced here in its entirety. For the original article, click here . No matter who won the Championship they were going to be worthy of it but for different reasons... Alonso loses out to a worthy champion Oh 2012, how we're going to miss you. Brazil's epic conclusion was a fitting finale for an epic season which had everything and which just kept on giving. The victor was deserved, but that conclusion was guaranteed long before the curtain fell; only Fernando Alonso or Sebastian Vettel could have been crowned champion at Interlagos and just because Ferrari's brilliant Spaniard warranted the title doesn't mean the German didn't deserve the crown for himself as well. In very different ways, with polar-opposite styles of personality, and usually starting from different parts of the grid, the genius and the jester were united by their shared claim for the elite ranking of triple World Champ...

This review of the final race at Interlagos in 2012 was done by Gary Anderson and posted originally here . Gary Anderson, BBC F1's technical analyst, is the former technical director of the Jordan, Stewart and Jaguar teams. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso did not lose the world championship to Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel in Brazil on Sunday - it was gone long before that. Thirteen points is a lot to make up in one race. Alonso almost managed it - he ended the season just three points behind - but in the end it was too much to do. The Brazilian Grand Prix was a lottery; races run in changeable conditions always are. It could have gone many different ways. Winner Jenson Button did two stops, Alonso did three, and Vettel did four. That sort of thing can change the outcome of the race dramatically. Everything went wrong for Vettel - although he was lucky he did not have to retire as a result of his first-lap collision with Williams's Bruno Senna - and Alonso could ...

Williams has confirmed Valterri Bottas as their new driver for 2013 replacing Bruno Senna and partnering Pastor Maldonado today. That leaves Senna without a seat for hext year. So below is the latest update of the driver line up for 2013, there are still seats available. We will post updates as soon as they become available. Below list has been updated as of today (Bold = Officially confirmed) Driver Entrant Constructor Vettel Red Bull Racing RBR-Renault Webber Red Bull Racing RBR-Renault Button Vodafone McLaren Mercedes McLaren Mercedes Perez Vodafone McLaren Mercedes McLaren Mercedes Alonso Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari Massa Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari Hamilton Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team Mercedes Rosberg Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team Mercedes Raikkonen Lotus F1 Team Lotus-Renault Grosjean Lotus F1 Team Lotus-Renault Di Resta Sahara Force India F1 Team Force India-Mercedes Sutil Sahara...

This is an article written by ex-F1 racer Christian Klien who now guest writes on www.pitpass.com. It is reproduced here in its entirety. The original article can be found  here . Christian Klien (born 7 February 1983) is an Austrian former Formula One racing driver. In total he has scored 14 points in 49 Formula One starts. Klien currently drives for Aston Martin Racing in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. With just one race to go the championship could not have been set up any better. It's been a long season with a lot of back-to-back races, a lot of them fly-aways outside of Europe, which is tough on everyone involved in the sport, especially the mechanics. Last weekend Formula One returned to the United States for the first time in five years. The US is an important market for Formula One, and I must say I was impressed with what I saw of the Circuit of the Americas. It reminded me a lot of Istanbul; very modern but with a lot of challe...

The week is finally winding down towards Friday where first practice will take place at the final grand prix of this very long season. It is the 20th race of the year and it will decide the winner of the world championship battle this year between Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso. The Brazilian GP takes place at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace or better known to F1 fans as the Interlagos circuit. The track is located in the city of São Paulo, renamed after Carlos Pace, a Brazilian Formula One driver who had died in a 1977 plane crash. The circuit is one of a minority of non-oval racing circuits to go in an anti-clockwise direction (Austin, Imola, Istanbul Park, Yas Marina Circuit, Laguna Seca, Singapore, Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, Korea International Circuit, Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, and Miller Motorsports Park being notable others). The circuit is known for its many inclines and formerly bumpy surface, which could take its toll on F1 cars because they ha...

I'm gonna have you for breakfast in Brazil! The Formula One world championship couldn't ask for a more epic backdrop to the title decider than the sweeps and valleys of Interlagos. It has been a long season and a long time coming but here we are, a few more days until the battle gets under way and the championship gets decided. It has not been like this for a few years. The championships were close and went down to the final race at Interlagos for a few seasons before. It was really close in 2007 and 2008. In 2007, Kimi Raikkonen won the championship by a point with teammates Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso tripping over each other the whole year. In 2008, Lewis Hamilton won by a point as well from Felipe Massa on the last corner of the last lap. That was a very intense final few seconds of my life! The 2009 season was won at Interlagos by Jenson Button but that wasn't the final race. It was the penultimate race of the season as Abu Dhabi hosted the...

This article is written by Andrew Davies and published on PlanetF1.com. It is re-produced here in its entirety. For the original article, click  here . The US GP in Texas was launched in mighty fine style - proving that if you build it, they will come... Star of the Race Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 1st In his penultimate drive before his wilderness years Lewis showed just how exciting the championship might have been if McLaren could have kept their car from breaking down all year. It might have been a three-way fight going to Interlagos had the MP4-27 not believed it was a TVR. Lewis was on it all the way from lights to flag and got the one bit of luck he needed with the intervention of an HRT on Lap 42. Overtaking Move of the Race Lap 13: Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus on Nico Hulkenberg, Force India for P5 Kimi Raikkonen helped show that the Circuit of the Americas doesn't need a DRS to provide great overtaking moves when he put one up the inside of Nico Hulkenberg going into Turn 1. Th...

This article is written by Pete Gill and published on PlanetF1.com. It is re-produced here in its entirety. For the original article, click here . Lewis Hamilton's brilliance provides his employers of present and future with uncomfortable questions to answer. Hamilton leaves McLaren as a leading light So that's why Lewis Hamilton is so widely regarded as being the fastest driver in F1 - and why it isn't just McLaren who should mourn his departure to Mercedes. The sport will rival Hamilton himself as the big loser from the transfer if, as seems disconcertingly and increasingly likely, Mercedes prove ill-fitting of his talents and the challenge he seeks turns out to be a dead-end street for his career. But let's not go there just yet, because the sight of Hamilton wringing every last drop of pace out of his MP4-27 as he defeated both Red Bulls around the wonderful Circuit of The Americas was one of the highlights of the season, his pursuit of Vettel an ultra-fast, slow-...

The Tower Much has been said about the home of the Formula 1 race in the United States at the Circuit Of The Americas at Austin, Texas. It is a fantatstic looking circuit with first class facilities and a menacing looking track layout. First time the word 'menacing' has been used for a Tilke track. We'll see on race day. The most interesting thing besides the track layout is the Tower. There is a viewing tower next to the track with a glass floor to watch F1 cars zoom by. This tower is 251 feet (77m) high, designed by Miró Rivera Architects as a landmark for the venue. The structure of the tower consists of an elevator hoist-way surrounded by a double-helix staircase, both of which lead to an observation platform 230 feet (70m) above ground level. The platform will provide a 360-degree panorama of the circuit, as well as views to downtown Austin, Texas. In addition, a "veil" consisting of 18 steel tubes runs nearly the full height of the tower, acting...