Alvin's Formula One Blog

Nico! Amma beat ya! Again! The Bahrain Grand Prix is a Formula One Championship race in Bahrain sponsored by Gulf Air. The first race took place at the Bahrain International Circuit on 4 April 2004. It made history as the first Formula One Grand Prix to be held in the Middle East, and was given the award for the "Best Organised Grand Prix" by the FIA. The Bahrain International Circuit is holding its 12th round of the world championship this year. A typical modern circuit with wide run-off areas and frequent braking zones, it has nonetheless produced some memorable races in recent years. The purpose-built venue was designed by Hermann Tilke and is characterised by long straights and slow corners. This puts a premium on top speed and traction. Despite the focus being on the controversial decision to stick with the unloved ‘elimination’ qualifying, the tactical game in the race should once again prove the main attraction. The opening race in Melbourne showed that the n...

In a bid to spice up racing this year, the tyre rules were tweaked to give teams a choice of three compounds rather than two at a race weekend. Of the 13 sets available to drivers over a weekend, Pirelli sets aside one of each -- leaving 10 sets available for each driver to choose between for the race weekend. Of the three compounds set aside by Pirelli, the softest will always be the one set aside for qualifying, with one each of the other compounds allocated for Sunday. The regulations state two different compounds must be used during the race, though that does not have to be both of the tyres set aside for use by Pirelli for Sunday. OK, you've read the explanations; how Pirelli will nominate two mandatory race sets for each car and one set of the softer compound will have to be kept for use in Q3 only, and at least one of the two sets must be used during the race... yadda, yadda, yadda. So what? Do you get it? I still am confused. So many questions. Will the top 10 start o...

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...

Image from F1Technical.net Sorry there's not much to write about still these days as there is just a lot of news around and I don't report on news. There's a million websites out there taht do that, re-hashing news all day long. Since I don't have much to write about nor do I have the time as well, I do want to share interesting and important information about our beloved sport whenever I can. John Beamer is one of my favorite technical F1 writers. He always is able to explain the technicalities of F1 in as simple a language as possible. Although his simple is still very technical to me. He also always has good illustrations to show the point. I love the way he presents his ideas and explanations. Here you will find him explaining some of the early innovations in F1 this year in glorious detail and with clear illustrations. I hope this will whet your appetite for the looming battle between the teams. Can't wait for Bahrain. Read the full article HERE . T...

Pirelli has announced its compound choices for the first four races of the season, with a different selection scheduled for each race. At the first race in Australia supersoft and medium tyres will be used. A week later in Malaysia medium and hard will be made available. At the third round in China soft and medium tyres will be on offer and in Bahrain soft and hard tyres will be supplied. The compound choices are as follows: Melbourne: Supersoft and medium [2012 - Soft and Medium) Malaysia: Medium and Hard [2012 - Medium and Hard] China: Soft and Medium [2012 - Soft and Medium] Bahrain: Soft and Hard [2012 - Soft and Medium] Pirelli gave the following explanations for its choices: "In Australia, the P Zero White medium and P Zero Red supersoft tyres will be nominated: the first time that Pirelli has nominated the softest compound in the range for Melbourne. The full step in the compound choice should ensure a performance gap between the cars that allows strategy t...

First and foremost, congratulations to Fernando Alonso for winning the first race of the season. The first race run under the new regulations was a bit of a disappointment for me. To be honest I was expecting a different and exciting race but it turned out to be much of the same. " Boring " it was according to Schumacher and a " train the whole way " according to Lewis Hamilton. The start was a good clean one with Mark Webber's car spewing a lot of smoke which caused Sutil to touch Kubica and he spun, leaving him to prop up the back of the field. Shame for Sutil, seems that with Kimi Raikonnen now gone, he has other people hitting him. Vettel was the class of the field, pulling away strongly and never looking like he could be challenged. In fact, his pace was so good that he should have won this race hands down. Unlucky for him, his spark plugs didn't work properly and he has to slow down considerably only to be overtaken by Alonso, Massa and Hamilton. Poo...

It was great to be able to watch a qualifying session after so many months being laid off. Especially with all the rule changes and limited testing due to weather. I was quite surprised to see Vettel grab pole at the last moment but when I think about it, I shouldn't be because Vettel has shown last year that he is very adept at grabbing pole in 1 banzai last minute lap. As expected, the new teams were seriously off the pace and filled up the back of the grid. I wasn't paying any attention to them to be honest except for Karun Chandok as he did no running until today and at least the car ran. Q2 was as expected. Q3 was more interesting as a Renault and Force India made it through. I was not surprised at Kubica being there because he is such a competitive driver but maybe I was surprised at a Renault being there. If Kubica was in a better car, he would have shown up higher. Force India is another surprise and especially Sutil. He has shown that he can stick his car where it mat...

Wow, John Beamer is good. He is intricately knowledgeable about F1 and engineering as he explains and analyses the remaining cars on the grid this year. You can read his analysis at F1Fanatic with his 2010 F1 cars Technical Analysis Part 2. And here is John's advice for this year as it is for most seasons. Casual fans will no doubt celebrate and talk about their teams or drivers timing after these 4 days of testing at Barcelona and probably will conclude that the fastest driver is on top. But that could not be further than the truth as John Beamer puts it: "More so than previous years outright pace isn’t necessarily the critical performance element. Consistency is important and so is tyre wear. A car that works well on low and high fuel and is easy on its tyres is a better bet than one that can has extraordinary single lap pace. " Bring on Bahrain!!

Most if not all F1 fans know who is Charlie Whiting . He's the guy with the white hair that gets involved when something goes wrong on the track or during a race. But who is he really and what does he do (and how he does it so well)? Well, to answer that question, read here a re-production of the roots of Charlie and how he is absolutely qualified to do his job. Who on earth is ... Charlie Whiting? Laurence Edmondson February 25, 2010 When the lights go out in Bahrain , the fate of the teams' multi-million pound cars, and all the months of painstaking development that has been put into them, will be put in the hands of 20 plus adrenaline junkies. Worrying, isn't it. Formula One isn't like football or rugby where a referee can step in and calm things down a bit. In fact, the last man who tried to get between an F1 car and its intended destination was an Irish priest at Silverstone in 2003 and he was, quite rightly, arrested. So officiating a grand prix is a n...

James Allen gives a great insight into the possible scenarios and plans that teams might use in practice, qualifying and races this year based on the changes to the rules and cars/tyres. It seems that the restrictions will make thinking forward much more important this year as you don't want to go out with the wrong tyres. An example: If this is the character of 2010 tyre on some tracks it will be very hard to find out during practice sessions whether stopping earlier than your rival is going to be the better option, as some people have been suggesting. So much will depend on track characteristics and how the tyres degrade on those tracks. It's also interesting to see that because of the limitations imposed on teams, perhaps teammates will be forced to work together and trust each other. I'm just no so sure which one will take the right task as they might be thinking that they are better at setup or something else as James said: So you might see teams split with one dr...

A provisional calendar for the 2010 season is out now and Bahrain will kick off the new season after which Melbourne will take over. It seems that Melbourne start later because of daylight savings or something like that. The real excuse is Bernie wants more money therefore a change for Melbourne means more people in Europe can watch the race at a comfortable time. Best part is that Montreal is back. It is one of the best and fastest tracks in F1, a classic. Long straights disturbed by sudden chicanes and u-turns, damn good. All in all, 18 races and gonna be a good season as the teams will debut more finely tuned cars as the regulations should be stable by then. March 14 – Bahrain (Sakhir) March 28 – Australia (Melbourne) April 4 – Malaysia (Sepang) April 25 – Turkey (Istanbul) May 9 – Spain (Barcelona) May 23 – Monaco (Monte Carlo) June 6 – Canada (Montreal) June 27 – Europe (Valencia) July 11 – Great Britain (Donington) July 25 – Germany (Hockenheim) August 1 – Hungary (Budapest) Aug...

Monday 27th April 2009 Lewis Hamilton has written off his chances of taking another stride towards retaining his World title in Barcelona in a fortnight. Hamilton put all thoughts of Wednesday's Liargat' hearing out of his mind to finish fourth in Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix. McLaren have worked 24/7 to give Hamilton a competitive car worthy of his status and given their woes before the season started. The 24-year-old was strong off the line at the Sakhir circuit, and at one stage a podium place was potentially on the cards. But the one-two-three of Jenson Button in his Brawn, the Red Bull of Sebastien Vettel and Toyota's Jarno Trulli were too strong for Hamilton. Hamilton readily concedes there is work to do, and although McLaren - like every other team - will sport a new package of updates for the Spanish Grand Prix on May 10, he is not expecting miracles. "I'm delighted with fourth,"...

Sunday 26th April 2009 Lewis Hamilton concedes McLaren just didn't have the pace needed to match the top three cars in Sunday's Bahrain GP. The Brit, who could be hit with a two-race ban next Wednesday when McLaren face the World Motor Sport Council, at least gave his team something to smile about on Sunday afternoon when he brought his MP4-24 home in fourth place. But while he was happy with the result, the defending World Champion admits his team is still lacking in pace. "I'm delighted, considering we started fifth," he told the BBC. "We had a great start, but it was so hard to keep up with the Red Bull and the Toyotas and Brawn. It was impossible." And although his P4 was his best result of the season, Hamilton has urged McLaren to continue developing their car if they hope to stand any chance of winning this year's World title. "We've got to keep pushing but this is...

Sunday 26th April 2009 Jenson Button claimed the victory in Sunday's Bahrain GP as the Brawn driver proved he had the race pace needed to outwit the Red Bull and Toyota Sebastian Vettel claimed second place as the Red Bull racer continued to show a maturity beyond his age, holding off the Toyota of Jarno Trulli in the final stint of the race. Lewis Hamilton added more points to his and McLaren's tally but didn't have the pace needed to finish on the podium, settling for fourth place. Meanwhile, the three-stopping Rubens Barrichello was fifth ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, who claimed Ferrari's first points of the season. Race Report The temperatures on the sun-baked Sakhir circuit were slightly down on Saturday Qualifying but with an ambient temperature of 36C, the track was still at 50C as Jarno Trulli led the field round on a very slow parade lap. All the cars would take the super soft option tyre in the fi...

Friday 24th April 2009 Lewis Hamilton believes that as World Champion it is now time for him to stand up and be counted. Just seven days after a tense, edgy, inhibited press gathering at the back of the McLaren garage in Shanghai, Hamilton was a little more positive, more lucid in Bahrain. There were still no direct questions to be asked pertaining to the 'lie-gate' hearing due to take place in front of the World Motor Sport Council in Paris on Wednesday. Instead, there was a skirting around the edges of a subject which has tainted the team, with queries about his feelings and focus following one of the most turbulent periods of his career. The 24-year-old was still guarded at times, but then feeling more at ease at others to suggest he was now stronger and had learned from the experience, or 'personal trauma' as it was put to him. "Your words. It's just one of those tough times," said H...