Alvin's Formula One Blog

Ah yes, the race weekend is nearly upon us. The long 3 week wait is almost over. Now we'll have 2 races back to back, after Shanghai it will be Bahrain (hopefully). This coming Chinese GP will be the 10th edition, that was fast, didn't feel like 10 years already. The Chinese Grand Prix is currently held at the Shanghai International Circuit , designed by Hermann Tilke. When completed in 2004, it was the biggest and most expensive Formula One circuit facility, costing USD240 million. The track is 5.451 km long and features one of the trickiest corners combinations on the Formula One calendar, comparable to that of Istanbul Park's turn 8, also designed by Tilke. Turn 1 and 2 in sector 1 are a very demanding 270 degree, right-handed corner combination that requires a lot of speed whilst entering and it tightens up towards the end. Sector two features Shanghai’s only medium and high-speed corners, Turns 7 & 8, as well as a pair of slow left handers. Then Sector thre...

A very real possibility.. The race week is here! It is a back to back race weekend with Australia and quite tiring for the teams but fantastic for the fans. It is my home race as I am from Malaysia. Our capitol Kuala Lumpur is full of activities this week, lots to do. First included in the Formula One World Championship in 1999, the current Malaysian Grand Prix is held at the Sepang International Circuit at Sepang, Malaysia. FIA-sanctioned racing in Malaysia has existed since the 1960s. But only from 1999 did Malaysia get a proper world class F1 track with the one built in Sepang. The Sepang International Circuit is located near Kuala Lumpur International Airport, approximately 60 km south of the capital city Kuala Lumpur. It is the venue used for the Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix, Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix and other major motorsport events. The circuit was designed by German designer Hermann Tilke, who would subsequently design the new facilities in Shanghai, Ba...

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...

The Tower Much has been said about the home of the Formula 1 race in the United States at the Circuit Of The Americas at Austin, Texas. It is a fantatstic looking circuit with first class facilities and a menacing looking track layout. First time the word 'menacing' has been used for a Tilke track. We'll see on race day. The most interesting thing besides the track layout is the Tower. There is a viewing tower next to the track with a glass floor to watch F1 cars zoom by. This tower is 251 feet (77m) high, designed by Miró Rivera Architects as a landmark for the venue. The structure of the tower consists of an elevator hoist-way surrounded by a double-helix staircase, both of which lead to an observation platform 230 feet (70m) above ground level. The platform will provide a 360-degree panorama of the circuit, as well as views to downtown Austin, Texas. In addition, a "veil" consisting of 18 steel tubes runs nearly the full height of the tower, acting...

The inaugural Austin grand prix is just a few days away. This will be an interesting race as it will the first time an F1 race has come back to the United States after the debacle that was the US GP in 2005 where only 6 cars raced and the rest sat in their pits in protest. It has been a long time in the making. And personally I was surprised that it would be held in Texas, way down south. I was expecting California or New York to be honest. I suppose Texas is alright as they have loads of land and everything is bigger in Texas. Also interesting is the fact that this race is the second last race of the season and it is the first time being held here. With the championship so finely balanced between Alonso and Vettel, it will be very hard to predict how it will turn out. And that turnout is so important to the championship as the points between them are so close and there is only one more race after this one. What makes the prediction so hard to do is this track is so n...

India will be hosting a round of the F1 world championship in 2011 (postponed from 2010 as they had to host some Commonwealth games). That should be an exciting race as it will be in a country of 1.3 billion people who are starting to support F1 and the fact that there is an Indian team and an Indian driver in the mix would stir up interest. What's more important though is the track itself. Would it provide an interesting race and would it be exciting to drive? Well, here is the proposed layout of the new track . It looks simple enough with some interesting elevations but don't expect much as it is another Tilke creation. Hopefully we can download the track to our simulator and give it a go soon. So what do you think?