Alvin's Formula One Blog

Together again.. The 2015 grid has had some really big shakeup recently and it would be very interesting indeed to see how Vettel fares at Ferrari and Alonso at McLaren, especially with the new Honda engine. That is a 50/50 bet there, anything can happen. If Honda does a "Mercedes" or a "Brawn" then Alonso is on his way and 2015 will be a nice fight with the Mercedes. Red Bull Daniel Ricciardo, Daniil Kvyat Almost as surprising as the announcement that Sebastian Vettel would leave Red Bull at the end of 2014 was the team immediately confirmed Russian rookie Daniil Kvyat as his replacement. The news closed off the seat to Fernando Alonso and shows Red Bull has lost no faith in its young driver programme, confidence surely strengthened by Daniel Ricciardo's incredible first season at the team. Mercedes Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg The champions have their current driver line-up locked in for 2015. Nico Rosberg signed a "multi-year" contract ex...

Meeting in Doha, the World Motor Sport Council has announced a number of changes to the Sporting and Technical Regulations. Along with these changes to the regulations, the FIA President confirmed that the focus will be on reducing costs, improving the show, making cars quicker and more difficult to drive, and reviewing the technical and sporting regulations, with the aim of simplifying the rules where possible. Sporting Regulations Points Points for both titles will no longer be doubled for the final Event of the Championship. Standing Restarts After consultation with the Teams who raised a number of safety concerns, Articles 42.7 and 42.8 on standing restarts have been rescinded. Virtual Safety Car (VSC) Following tests of the VSC system at the final Events of 2014, the introduction of the system has been approved for 2015. The VSC procedure may be initiated to neutralise a race upon the order of the clerk of the course. It will normally be used when double waved ye...

The 2015 calendar is out now and other than the surprise inclusion of  Korea , which the World Motor Sport Council admits has yet to be confirmed, the only change to the provisional calendar announced in September is that which sees China change places with Bahrain . The Koreans were surprised they were included. On the other hand, running the Korean and Spanish events back-to-back does appear ambitious, to put it mildly. Date Race Circuit 15-Mar Australia Melbourne 29-Mar Malaysia Sepang 12-Apr China Shanghai International Circuit 19-Apr Bahrain Sakhir 03-May Korea* Yeongam 10-May Spain Barcelona 24-May Monaco Monaco 07-Jun Canada Montreal 21-Jun Austria Red Bull Ring 05-Jul Britain Silverstone 19-Jul Germany Nurburgring 26-Jul Hungary Hungaroring 2...

Article written by Andrew Davies of PlanetF1. Original article HERE . It may be the year of the Silver Arrows, but 2014 will also go down as The Year of Shocks in F1. Some of them were tragic, some of them were unexpected twists, but all stole headlines on the sports pages (and sometimes on the main news pages). We started the year with perhaps the saddest shock of all. Michael Schumacher's ski accident Michael's battle with a head injury from a Christmas skiing trip began in the last days of 2013, with the world's press camped outside a hospital in Grenoble well into the New Year. Michael survived and has begun the long, slow struggle back to functionality. What Corinne Schumacher and his long-time press secretary Sabine Kehm also have to fight, apart from health issues, is the ongoing battle to keep his recovery and his recuperation private. If one good thing can come out of the accident it's that all skiiers need ski helmets, because if someone as seemingly in...

UPDATE 12 DECEMBER! Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso have been officially confirmed as drivers for McLaren in 2015. And Kevin Magnussen has been put into the test driver role. A pretty safe combo if you ask me. So here we are going into the winter season and no action. This is gonna be a long winter again. As far as the drivers situation is concerned, most driver moves have been made. Some moved around, some were thrown out and brought in. Some are still in limbo like Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen. Very unlike McLaren to do this but when a double world champion and a new engine is concerned, I think they are probably thinking of doing a Mercedes. I don't think Marussia or Manor will be racing. In fact their stuff has been put up for auction. Caterham has been given the green light to use this year's chassis for next year, so I don't see the point of that. Unless it was just to make it attractive for a buyer to have a ready F1 team to buy. But will they make ...

What a season. It was tight going into the final race. I was sweating until the start where Lewis pulled off that incredible getaway and I knew he had it in the bag. Here is the winners vs losers piece by Andrew Davies of PlanetF1. Original article HERE . Lewis Hamilton finally achieved the points difference that all his 2014 performances have justified. Star of the Race Felipe Massa, Williams, 2nd As Rob Smedley said after the race, "not bad for an old guy". Given how far behind Williams have been behind the Silver Arrows in the last few races, this was a real star turn from Felipe. And what made it really close at the end of the race was Felipe's ability to preserve his Soft tyres in the middle stint, so that he could switch back to the SuperSofts at the end. Had he not run so long, or preserved his tyres so well, then he would have been back onto the Softs and it would have been a cruise to the line for Lewis. As it was, Felipe made the 'World Champion elec...

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is a Formula One race. It 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 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is Formula 1’s original day/night race. The race begins at 17-00h...

Lewis Hamilton will win the World title if he finishes first or second in Abu Dhabi but what happens if he is third...Double points are on offer in the season finale in Abu Dhabi, which means Hamilton's 17-point lead could easily be negated by team-mate Nico Rosberg. The Brit, though, is holding the advantage and an 11th race win for the season would see him secure his second Drivers' Championship. Here is what Hamilton needs to win the title. * A win or a P2 * To finish fifth or better and for Rosberg not to win * Sixth or better and for Rosberg not to finish inside the top two * Eighth or better and for Rosberg not to finish in the top three * Ninth or better and for Rosberg to finish fifth or lower * And if Rosberg is outside the top five, Hamilton will win the title even if he doesn't score. Rosberg, meanwhile, cannot do it by himself as even a victory won't guarantee him the World title. * He must win and hope Hamilton is third or lower * If...

I did not watch the race due to the time zone differences but read that it was a decent race and that Lewis had enough pace to beat Rosberg if not for the spin. He finished second, where he needed to so it's game on for the final. Here is the winners vs losers piece by Andrew Davies of PlanetF1. Original article HERE . Nico Rosberg kept his lock-ups to a minimum as Turn 4 came back to haunt Lewis Hamilton at Interlagos...(after his 2007 nightmare) Star of the Race Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1st From the moment he got an immaculate getaway from the line, Rosberg made few mistakes on his way to a fifth win of the season. The win crowned an almost perfect weekend; fastest in all free practice sessions, pole position and the win. The only thing he failed to pick up was the fastest lap which Lewis put in on Lap 62 (but not by much). The most important thing that Nico had to prove today was that he could resist pressure and even though he wasn't the fastest driver on the day, ...

The Brazilian Grand Prix (Portuguese: Grande Prêmio do Brasil) is a Formula One championship race which is currently held at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Interlagos, a district in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. A Brazilian Grand Prix was first held in 1972 at Interlagos, although it was not part of the Formula One World Championship. Typical of European motorsports at the time, this race was done as a test to convince the FIA if the Interlagos circuit and its organizers could capably hold a Grand Prix. The following year, however, the race was first included in the official calendar, and it was won by defending world champion and São Paulo native Emerson Fittipaldi. In 1974, Fittipaldi won again in rain soaked conditions, and the year after, another São Paulo native, Carlos Pace, won the race in his Brabham, followed by Fittipaldi. 1977 was won by Reutemann, but the drivers began complaining about Interlagos's very rough surface, and the event was then relocated for a year ...

The race started off boring until lap 24 when Lewis Hamilton pulled an overtake at a hairpin on Nico Rosberg and hammered home his superiority. The battles behind were also fantastic especially Alonso vs Button. Here is the winners vs losers piece by Andrew Davies of PlanetF1. Original article HERE . It was a gripping race in the Lone Star state with a clinical victory for Lewis Hamilton to make it five wins in a row... Star of the Race Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1st Lewis loves Austin and Austin loves Lewis. He's the Austin Ambassador. It was a carefully thought out race from Hamilton after an irregular front brake temperature cost him the chance of pole on Saturday. Once he'd got away from the dodgy side of the grid in front of both Williams then his fate was in his own hands. The lock-ups he'd suffered on Saturday had limited the life of his tyres in the first stint. And so he lost out when Mercedes pitted Nico late, dropping back to 2.5 secs down because he was o...

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 43 editions, the race has been held at ten locations, most recently in 2013 at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. The 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! It has one very long straight with a hairpin at either end. There were a total of 55 overtaking moves during the 2012 race, but only 18 in the 2013 edition. Strategy wise, the race has been a one stopper for both the previous races, due to a conservative choice of medium and hard tyres by Pirelli. This year they have opted for soft and medium. TRACK CHARACTERISTICS Circuit length : 5.516 kilometres...

What can i say about Sochi? In one word - boring. The cars were strecthed out by lap 7 and you know the rest of the race would be a procession.Except for the odd overtaking now and then, no real battles. And one set of tyres lasting almost the whole race? That didn't really help. Although it did help Mercedes seal the crown. Here is the winners vs losers piece by Andrew Davies of PlanetF1. Original article HERE . Star of the Race Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1st That's four wins in a row now for Lewis Hamilton and as people keep saying, all the drivers who have ever won four races in a row have gone on to be World Champion. (Though they weren't saying this a lot when Lewis won four races in a row earlier in the year). After he'd claimed pole on Saturday, and then worked out where to brake at Turn 2 on the opening lap with a full fuel load - something his team-mate demonstrably failed to do, then he was away. Valtteri Bottas kept him in sight in the opening laps, and ...