Alvin's Formula One Blog

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 relocate...

At the conclusion of its second season in F1 since its return, Pirelli has issued a range of statistics relating to tyres, circuits, pit stops, overtakes and just about everything else… even mascarpone! TYRES Total number of tyres provided for the season: Race tyres: 31,800 of which 22,500 dry tyres and 9,300 wet tyres plus an additional 6,600 for the tests (not including development tyres) Of which (for race tyres only): supersoft: 6 % / soft: 25 % / medium: 21 % / hard: 17 % / intermediate: 18 % / wet: 11 % / 2 % development tyres Total numbers of tyres used: Dry tyres: 21,400; wet tyres: 2,100 Number of tyres recycled during 2012: All, i.e. 31,800 race tyres plus 6,600 test tyres Average life span of a dry compound this season: 180 km Average life span of a wet compound this season: 140 km TRACKS, RACES AND TESTS Longest continuous energy input into a tyre: India (turn 10-11) Longest race of the year: Malaysia in 2h 44:51.812 Shortest race of the year:...

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 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 ...

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...

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 is an interesting bit of news. It seems that the organizers of the penultimate race of this season at Interlagos, Brazil have decided to have some fun and add some novelty to the race by having Felipe Massa wave the chequered flag to signal the finish of the race. Taking into consideration what happened to Massa and the fact he is currently out of the racing, that sounds nice and sweet. But imagine if the race was won by Lewis Hamilton this year? I can't imagine the look on Massa's face having to wave the flag for Hamilton at his home race after losing the championship to Lewis last year in such dramatic fashion. Image courtesy of The F1 Files .