Alvin's Formula One Blog

Well there it goes, another season ends and another one awaits. It has been a long season with ups and downs, many new records set, new controversies achieved, new rules being made and broken in the same season but the defining topic has been Sebastian Vettel's domination...again. In a word..boring. The season was over about halfway when Vettel was just unchallenged from pole to flag. I did not bother to watch the last 2 races as I knew what I would read the following morning. James Allen put it nicely to recap what this season means with so many "eras" ending: It was the end of an era in many respects; the last race for V8 engines, the last race for Mark Webber and possibly a few others who don’t know it yet, like Paul di Resta, depending on driver market movements in the coming weeks. It was the last race, for the moment at least, for Cosworth engines and Felipe Massa’s last race for Ferrari. And maybe Ross Brawn’s last race at the helm of Mercedes. If so, will ...

The Brazilian Grand Prix (Portuguese: Grande Prêmio do Brasil) is a Formula One championship race which occurs at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Interlagos, a district in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. The Brazilian Grand Prix was first held in 1972 at the bumpy and demanding Interlagos circuit, located in São Paulo, although it was not part of the Formula One World Championship. The following year, however, the race was first included in the official calendar, and it was won by defending world champion and São Paulo local Emerson Fittipaldi. In 1978 the Brazilian Grand Prix moved to Jacarepaguá in Rio de Janeiro. Argentine Carlos Reutemann dominated in his Ferrari, which was equipped with superior Michelin tires. This proved to be the famed French rubber marque's first victory in Formula One. Reutemann was followed by home favorite Fittipaldi and defending champion Niki Lauda. The race returned to Interlagos for the next two seasons. But in 1980, the neighborhood of In...

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The world championship has been decided, but Formula 1 still has plenty of energy for its second visit to Austin, Texas, which proved a huge hit with teams, drivers and fans last season. Austin is the tenth different venue for the Formula 1 US Grand Prix, but this one is considered a real winner. The new Circuit of the Americas, which runs anti clockwise, is a wonderful mixture of many of the most famous circuits on the F1 calendar; it has more corners at over 250 km/h than Spa and more below 100kph than Hungary, which is quite a combination! The United States Grand Prix is a motor race which has been run on and off since 1908, when it was known as the American Grand Prize. The race later became part of the Formula One World Championship. Over 42 editions, the race has been held at ten locations, most recently in 2012 at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Circuit of the Americas often abbreviated as COTA is a 3.427-mile (5.515 km) motor racing circuit near Austin, Tex...

UPDATED Hulkenberg is now confirmed at Force India . Guess he had nowhere to go really. So far the 2014 driver lineup has been much waiting and not much confirmation as teams play the cat and mouse game. Some drivers are confirmed, some are waiting for the right time to move, some are not sure what is going on, some think they know what is going on. At least one driver is confirmed for now and it is Felipe Massa who will be moving to Williams . So how does the driver line up look so far? We've had a flurry of news yesterday about driver seats and some quite unexpected. Perez is out of McLaren, something I didn't expect . They've given the seat to Kevin Magnussen. Heikki Kovalainen replaces Kimi Raikkonen for the last 2 races but will stay at Caterham for next season. No Driver Entrant Constructor 1 Vettel Red Bull Racing Red Bull-Renault 2 Ricciardo Red Bull Racing Red Bull-Renault 3 Ro...

We've been seeing it the past few seasons. We've also seen it more pronounced this season. Vettel seemingly able to spurt ahead at the starts, then pull out a 2 second gap by lap 2 then pull away sometimes up to 30 seconds by three quarters of the race, pulling away 1.5 to 2 seconds a lap and still setting fastest laps near the end of the race. All this while Mark Webber, virtually in the same car can't. How does he do it? Is it the car? Is it some tricks Red Bull have hidden in the car? Is Vettel superhuman? Well, James Allen has gotten hold of his F1 buddies to come out with an analysis and it seems to explain how that is possible. Although the cynic in me still is not happy for 1 person to monopolise the championship for 4 years running. Read the full article HERE . Never one to hand out praise readily to his team mate, Mark Webber said after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday, “Seb was on another planet today and was very, very strong in the first stint. He was ...

I know the Abu Dhabi race is over. All the excitement is gone, if you can call Vettel cruising to another victory "excitement". But the race track is still there. The track is still exciting with all sorts of fast racing activities you can do there. What's that? You're in Mongolia and can't go to Abu Dhabi? No worries matey, I got you covered. You can drive the track virtually. Etihad Airways are inviting Formula 1 racing fans from around the world to experience the iconic Yas Marina circuit with the release of their online interactive race course. The interactive circuit features fantastic facts about the official home of the 2013 Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix which is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year. Visitors will be greeted with images, videos and statistics about the circuit over 14 points as they complete a full lap around the animated track. Some of the features included in the interactive race course include: Images fro...

Here is another fantastic race strategy analysis by James Allen with input and data from several F1 teams, from JA on F1 technical adviser Mark Gillan and from Pirelli. For the full article, click HERE . Although Sebastian Vettel made a mistake in qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, his rivals were not able to press home their advantage and control him on race day, as he took the lead at the start from team-mate Mark Webber. Any chance of his rivals being able to work with strategy to prevent Vettel from taking his seventh consecutive victory went out of the window there. Vettel was able to pull out a lead and preserve the tyres at the same time in the opening stint and then, because he had not used the medium tyres at all in qualifying, he was able to do two stints on new medium tyres in the race. But behind the top three battle there were some interesting strategy plays and we will focus on these in this UBS Race Strategy report. For the full article, click HERE ...

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was announced in early 2007 at the Abu Dhabi F1 Festival in the United Arab Emirates. The first race took place on November 1, 2009, held at the Hermann Tilke designed Yas Marina Circuit . On June 25, 2008 the FIA announced the provisional 2009 Formula One calendar including the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as the 19th and final race of the season on November 15. On November 5, 2008, however, it was announced that the race would be held as the season finale on November 1, two weeks before the initially planned date, as the 17th and final race. The inaugural race was Formula One's first ever day-night race, starting at 17:00 local time. Floodlights used to illuminate the circuit were switched on from the start of the event to ensure a seamless transition from daylight to darkness. Subsequent Abu Dhabi Grands Prix have also been day-night races. The temperatures drop during the race and this has a bearing on tyre performance and thus race strategy. Yas Marina...