Alvin's Formula One Blog

This excellent article was written by Brad Spurgeon of the New York Times. I'm reproducing it here in part for the benefit of most of the casual F1 and racing fans to understand racing from the racing line perspective. There are many excellent and technically detailed articles out there I'm sure but this one is written in a more laymans term, so it is nice to read. The full article is HERE . When most people think of the world’s greatest racing drivers fighting to be first at the checkered flag, they think of speed, guts and bravado, of brilliant overtaking moves and the car’s raw power. What is often not realized is that the real challenge for a driver is not posed by the other drivers but rather by his own constant effort to find the best racing line. The racing line is the most efficient, fastest path around the track. In short, drivers do not think of racing in terms of always going at top speed, but of finding the most economical trip around the circuit and shaving...

A bit of news on Lotus F1 or for those patriotic of you out there, the 1Malaysia F1 team. The good news is that the car ran..yeah, I know. It ran for 63 laps yesterday driven by Fairuz at Jerez without any problems. Well, it had a problem, there was no power steering at all. And Fairuz managed to drive it properly for 63 laps! Hands up to the man, he should be driving the car in races. Not so good news today, day 2 at Jerez. Heikki Kovalainnen took the car for a drive today in rainy Jerez and crashed it . That's the end of testing for today. The best part is that there was no spare parts. The part ordered was supposed to arrive at 2am tomorrow, so hopefully they'll get some more running then. If this is how Tony runs the show, I can't wait to see Kamaruddin and Nasarudin giving their input as well.

Finally, the drivers have been named . It was not so much of a surprise to see Trulli confirmed but I was surprised to see Kovalainen there. I'm not sure he'll fit in comfortably though but then again, he has nowhere to go. Better here then nowhere. Fairuz I think deserves his place now as test and reserve driver. I think he has what it takes and just needs a chance. At least he's better than Alex Yoong as has been proven many times in A1GP and the World Series by Renault. The funny part of the announcement and I should use the word "stupid" really is that an F1 team line up was made by a Prime Minister of a country. The Lotus F1 driver announcement was actually made by PM Najib with his speech read out by the Sports Minister. Didn't I say it's about glamour?

McLaren are back ! Well, at least half of McLaren. Lewis Hamilton won the race from lights to finish in formidable form and without KERS. His start was impeccable and his lead was never threatened even when his KERS malfunctioned and with the numerous on track incidents with the safety car. He started well off the line, controlling the pace after that being chased by Vettel and Rosberg. Rosberg also made a great start, overtaking Vettel into the first turn. Both Vettel and Rosberg pressured Lewis but Lewis kept his cool. Unfortunately, both Vettel and Rosberg suffered in the race which cost them a place on the podium. Kovalainnen again disappoints. Not only did he start the race in tenth but he virtually disappeared fir the whole race. Not much coverage was on him and nobody talked about him in the live online blogs/forum. Rosberg had a moment when exiting the pits at his first stop and crossed the white line thereby incurring a drive through penalty and Vettel damaged his car, first ...

About time! Finally, the upgrades work and they've got the problem pinned down. I knew at the Nurburgring that the changes were working and it showed at Hungary. This week during all practice sessions and now qualifying, it's proven that the McLaren cars are fit for duty and will stay at the sharp end of the grid for the rest of the season. Lewis was all relaxed and cruising as it looked like his car is almost perfect. Although both he and Kovalainnen had different wheelbase cars, both seemed to work well. As usual, Kovalainnen is off Lewis' pace slightly. But the Brawns are back and it looks like tomorrowit will be McLaren vs Brawns. With KERS thrown in. The Red Bulls were off the pace with Webber making some mistakes in his rush and Vettel being demoted for an engine change. Ferrari is pretty off also with Raikonnen off the pace and Badoer providing all the fun. It's great seeing a Ferrari starting from last. Sutil in the Force India was great. he provided a great sho...

Well, unfortunately I missed both free practice sessions today but from the reports I've read, I can guess that this race on Sunday will be interesting to watch. Not that the track is any fun as Valencia is pretty boring and looks bad. But maybe, just maybe the drivers will make it exciting for us. From practice 1 , it seems that the McLarens' pace from Hungary was no fluke. Both cars finished the session P2 Kovalainnen and P3 Hamilton behind the Brawn of Barrichello. It also seems that the new parts i.e. front wing and underfloor fitted to Kovalainnen's car has added some tenths to the times as Kovalainnen did finish ahead of Hamilton. It also seems that the Brawns has found their pace back as they finished P1 and P4. What is fun to notice though is that Ferrari has one car finishing at the back, last position, Badoer. Not surprised but fun. Practice 1 Times 01 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:42.460 19 laps 02 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:42.636 16 laps 03 L. Hamilton ...

I'd like to see more from Heikki . To be honest, he's not delivering the points the team needs since last year. In races where Lewis is not scoring the maximum points or is not scoring points at all, Heikki is also not scoring or adding to the tally. I like Heikki actually as he is a nice person, I've met him personally a couple of times. I've also had him in an F1 simulator and he was incredible to watch, his performance was also great. But compared to Lewis in the same simulator, he is still lacking something. On the track, with the same machine he can't match Lewis for performance either. I've got a feeling next year he won't be around. "Heikki is doing, as a team player, a fantastic job in this team," Whitmarsh said in a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 'Phone-In' media call. "On his own evaluation he has not raced as well as he would have liked and we would have liked him to this year. Shame.

It seems that anticipation is still running high at Schumacher's re-debut in an F1 race in Valencia. According to Ross Brawn , if Schumi doesn't perform it's not because he is no good, it's because the car is no good. Luca di Montezemolo though doesn't expect much or doesn't want to put undue pressure on Schumacher to achieve anything. What do I think? I think Schumacher is still a good driver no matter what, even if he hasn't driven an F1 car competitively for some time. There are some things you never forget, it's like riding a bike. But there are 2 things which I think will affect his performance, whether good or bad : His skill and ability - he's obviously got loads of this to drive an F1 car as most F1 drivers have (well, maybe not Piquet or Bourdais..haha..just a joke). His skill and knowledge of driving the car is still there and he will either take to it like duck to water or need a bit of time to adjust (as the car is at least 50% different...

We are at the halfway point of the season where the championship takes a breather for 3 weeks. Everybody gets a chance to rest and recuperate, especially Felipe Massa after his accident at the Hungaroring last week. He is reportedly fine for now but long term damage is unknown. His personal physician reports that his eye is undamaged but whether he can race again is too early to tell. But then again, if Webber could do it, so can he. One thing for sure is that he won't be racing for the rest of the season. The question is who will replace him? Ferrari have 2 good test drivers that could do it but isn't it more interesting if Schumacher was the one ? Another twist to the season is that Renault has been banned from the next race at Valencia (Alonso and Piquet won't miss much as that race is boring) because of the incident where Alonso's front right wheel was not attached properly during the pitstop, he was released anyway and the wheel flew off onto the track which cou...

Sunday 26th July 2009 Lewis Hamilton claimed his first grand prix victory of the season in Hungary as McLaren put their early season woes behind them to return to winning ways. Starting from fourth on the grid, the defending World Champion put his KERS to good use, easily sliding his way past his rivals and up into second place by the end of the first lap. From there it was just a case of chasing down Fernando Alonso, which he easily did, taking the lead as the Spaniard pitted. Alonso's pit stop, though, proved to be the Renault driver's downfall as his front right wasn't secured properly and came off on his out-lap. With the wheel hurtling across the track, F1 proved for the second time this weekend that its safety standards still need to be improved. The damage from driving back to the pits on three wheels resulted in Alonso retiring on the next lap. Meanwhile, with Hamilton pulling away from the chasi...

Finally, a race worth watching. And what a race. The supposedly boring Hungarian GP turned otherwise. Alonso who was on pole and looked to have at least been on the podium ended up DNF because of a loose wheel which came off flying in a dramatic way. Sebastien Vettel also retired due to a problem with his car and Mark Webber really didn't have the pace although he did end up 3rd. Rosberg quietly finished in 4th and Kovalainnen got some more points for McLaren in 5th. He really is no match for Lewis even with the same car. The 2 Toyotas were surprising finishing 6th and 8th after a poor practice and qualifying. The Brawns seems to have lost some steam with Button 7th and Barrichello 10th. Looks like Rubens won't be racing next year. The race was watchable, I'd definitely watch it again. The start was nail biting, there were some overtaking moments and McLaren are back.

24/07/2009 Ahead of today's second practice session, the air temperature is 28 degrees C, while the track temperature is 45 degrees. It remains bright and sunny and very, very warm. We didn't see the super-softs this morning, however, we can sure that we'll be seeing them this afternoon. The lights go green and first out is Heidfeld , followed by Trulli , Glock , Rosberg and Alguersuari . As ever, the track was very green this morning, with a number of drivers having problems, particularly at Turn 7, however, the track will improve this afternoon and throughout the weekend. There's none of the messing about we had this morning - and every Friday morning - an...

Friday 24th July 2009 Heikki Kovalainen put in a late charge to pick up where he left off in Hungary last year, sitting right at the very front of the pack. The 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix winner clocked a 1:22.278 after the fall of the chequered flag to beat Nico Rosberg, another late charger, to the P1 slot. Third place went to Lewis Hamilton as McLaren were quick out of the blocks in Budapest, an encouraging sign for the team who appear to have turned a corner on their early season woes. Report: Bright skies and a warm track greeted the drivers on Friday morning as F1 rookie Jaime Alguersuari, who is making his debut this weekend, made his way out onto the track for his installation lap, which just so happens to be his first ever lap in a Formula One car. He was soon joined by other drivers all checking the conditions and their cars before heading back to the pits. Alguersuari heads out to record his first time as a...

Saturday 11th July 2009 In a surprise revelation, car weights post qualifying have hinted that Brawn GP's rivals have not only caught them, but surpassed them. Brawn's two drivers, Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button, qualified second and third for Sunday's German GP, a feat that one has come to expect from the duo this season. However, what wasn't expected was how light they are. Barrichello and Button are the lightest drivers on the grid, weighing in at 647 and 644kgs respectively, whereas pole sitter Mark Webber and his team-mate Sebastian Vettel are both coming in at 661kgs. Lewis Hamilton, who qualified in fifth place and has already said a podium finish could be on the cards for McLaren, is third lightest of the top ten, with his MP4-24 weighing 654kgs while his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen is carrying 10kgs more fuel. One of the biggest surprises of qualifying, though, was Adrian Sutil's perfo...

Saturday 4th July 2009 Lewis Hamilton concedes McLaren-Mercedes are facing a difficult home race in Germany as the team will not be introducing major upgrades to their under-performing MP4-24. This year's Championship has been anything but successful for McLaren and their defending World Champion as their 2009 challenger has sorely lacked speed, something the team has struggled to find even when adding updates to the car. As a result Hamilton and his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen haven't scored a single World Championship point in the last four races, leaving McLaren down in sixth place in the Constructors' standings, a marked difference to last year's achievements. And, unfortunately for McLaren fans, Hamilton isn't expecting any better at the next race in Germany. "While we aren't expecting any major upgrades for this weekend, I'm still looking forward to the race," he said. "...

To be honest, I was expecting a more interesting race than what transpired. Three reasons why I didn't enjoy the race at all. Number one - which is obvious to people who know me - because McLaren and specifically Lewis Hamilton had no chance at all of scoring any points. And I was right about that, plus the fact that the TV director hardly focused on Lewis or Heikki at all. Number two is because my other choice of winner - Sebastien Vettel, made a mistake early on in Lap 1 whereby he let Jensen Button overtake him after making a mistake and almost running himself off the track. All that after he stole pole from Button yesterday. The race could have been his but he lost it at the start. Number three - Jensen Button winning again. As he himself said it, he has become a "right boring bastard". The races nowadays are just that - boring. It reminds me of the Schumacher and Ross Brawn era when Schumacher won 17 out of 18 races. What's the point of watching. Other than that,...

Currently the state of McLaren is not good and it does not look good either for the rest of the season. The car is not performing at low, medium or high downforce tracks, in short it is not performing at all. The last few races we could see that Lewis is doing everything he can to wring out every inch of performance from the car and Heikki too but somehow when it matters most i.e. during qualifying and the race, it lets them down. The back is so twitchy that on-board footage of Lewis or Heikki driving it looks like a wrestling match between the driver and machine. I said it weeks ago that McLaren should forget about this season and concentrate on next year. They need to put resources where it matters as this season is too late for them. Brawn GP and Jenson Button has run away with the championship. It's a battle between Brawn and Red Bull. Now even Lewis has admitted it to the world. And talking about his despair , it is revealed clearly this year that not only does the driver mat...

Saturday 6th June 2009 Lewis Hamilton is a bit confused after witnessing his MP4-24 lose pace while his rivals' cars were going quicker. McLaren may have been the pace-setters on Friday afternoon in Turkey but it was a different story on Saturday as Hamilton and his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen failed to get into the top ten in qualifying. In fact Hamilton even failed to get into the top 15 as his MP4-24 lacked both grip and pace. "What can I do?" Hamilton told the BBC. . "I did the best job I could, just like the team; I had no grip - I think if you could see my on-board you will see I'm sliding everywhere. "It has just got slower and slower throughout the weekend as the track has got hotter. "It looked great yesterday but this morning it didn't look fantastic. I don't think we should rush anything, it's better that we take our time to refine it. It's not like we can cla...

Friday 5th June 2009 Lewis Hamilton will continue to 'hustle and grind' on Saturday in a bid to cause a qualifying surprise ahead of the Turkish Grand Prix. The reigning World Champion and McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen perhaps raised a few eyebrows in Friday's practice sessions at the Istanbul Otodrom. Hamilton was second quickest in first practice, knocked off the top in the dying embers by the latest showboating performance from Nico Rosberg as the Williams driver put in another low-fuel late blast. Then in the second 90-minute run, Kovalainen set the fastest time of the day with a lap of 1:28.841, although it is fair to suggest there is more to come from pre-race favourites Brawn GP, Red Bull and Ferrari. Nevertheless, Hamilton was happy with his day's work, in particular as McLaren were not expected to be running anywhere near the top. "I was quite surprised by the pace of the car,...

Friday 5th June 2009 Heikki Kovalainen showed massive signs of improvement in Turkey on Friday as the McLaren driver topped the timesheets, albeit by only 0.006s over Fernando Alonso. Kovalainen hit the front of the timesheets prior to the halfway stage of the session and quickly set about extending his lead over the chasing pack. And although Alonso put in a late charge, the Spaniard found himself 0.006s off the pace. Robert Kubica went someway towards putting his Monaco disaster behind him as the Polish driver finished in the third place. However, it must be noted that all the drivers up and including Nick Heidfeld in 16th place were separated by just 0.7s. Report: Friday's second practice got underway with the track temperature already sitting at a very warm 43'C and cloud cover building over the circuit. Seb Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Nico Rosberg were the first drivers out on track with Buemi and Rosberg...