Alvin's Formula One Blog

The World Motor Sport Council met recently to ratify some detailed changes to the F1 calendar for 2013 and to the sporting and technical regulations. The main headline is that the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone are keen to insert a 20th race as the New Jersey race has been postponed. The German Grand Prix will move to July 7th (from 14th July) to make room for a race on July 21st. The Turkish Istanbul Park race track has confirmed an agreement in principle to host the race, which would fall one week before the Hungarian Grand Prix. However the deal might not happen as the Turkish government has not given approval to fund the race. Problems of funding the event have dogged it in the past. “The date for the 2013 Grand Prix of Germany has been moved to 7 July, and 21 July has been reserved for another F1 European event, subject to the approval of the relevant ASNs,” said the FIA statement. There has been talk of the return of the French Grand Prix, but sources in France say that there is...

There has been intense speculation these past 2 weeks about Lewis Hamilton's future. Will he stay at McLaren or will he go to Mercedes? Will he turn his back on the team that has nurtured him since he was 13 years old and made him world champion? Or will he go to a new team that has new promise for a new era of dominance? I think it is difficult for the rest of us to speculate as we do not have access to insider information. All we can do is speculate the best we can based on our knowledge of how F1 works and information or opinions from F1 insiders or experienced F1 people. Based on our own knowledge of how F1 works, changing a team for a driver such as Hamilton is a very difficult decision at this moment. It might be a simpler decision in a different season or it might be even harder. But based on what we know, this current season and the way things are at the moment, it is a very difficult decision for Hamilton to make. An F1 driver is driven to win. That is it. It is...

The FIA has issued the Technical and sporting Regulations for the 2010 Formula One World Championship. Main points No budget cap. KERS to be retained. Titles to be decided on points not medals. To accommodate the need for cars to carry enough fuel for a full race, the weight limit has been raised to 620 kg. Q3 will see a shootout between the drivers that survive Q1 and Q2 all running on low fuel. Eight engine rule to remain in place - despite calls for drivers to be allowed only five engines a season. Only change to in-season testing rules is that teams are restricted to eight straight-line tests and limited running on "promotional" tires. Windtunnel testing limited to 60 per cent scale models (or smaller), and speeds capped at 50 mps. Click here to see the full Technical Regulations (pdf) and here to see the full Sporting Regulations (pdf).

08/07/2009 The FIA has tonight issued the following: Following the decision of the World Council on 24 June to revert to the pre-29 April version of the 2010 F1 Sporting and Technical Regulations, the FIA today met the teams which have entered the 2010 Championship to seek their agreement to these changes. All changes have now been agreed subject only to the maintenance of the minimum weight at 620 kg and the signing of a legally binding agreement between all the teams competing in 2010 to reduce costs to the level of the early 1990s within two years, as promised by the FOTA representative in Paris on 24 June. The eight FOTA teams were invited to attend the meeting to discus...