Alvin's Formula One Blog

The Italian Grand Prix (Gran Premio d'Italia) is one of the longest running events on the Formula One calendar. The Italian Grand Prix was also one of the inaugural Formula One championship races in 1950, and has been held every year since then. The only other championship race for which this is true is the British Grand Prix, and the only other inaugural F1 races that are still on the calendar are the Monaco Grand Prix and the Belgian Grand Prix. Every Formula One Italian Grand Prix since 1950 has been held at Monza except in 1980, when it was held at Imola. The Italian Grand Prix counted toward the European Championship from 1935 to 1938. It was designated the European Grand Prix seven times between 1923 and 1967, when this title was an honorary designation given each year to one grand prix race in Europe. Monza is the fastest circuit on the F1 calendar and the one with the highest straight line speeds, which are expected to reach 360km/h this year, due to the reduction in d...

Another weekend, another race. That was quite entertaining actually. I expected it to be a bit boring as most Chinese GPs tend to be, at least to me. The pack did fan out quickly as expected, the cars were spread out quickly within a lap due to the nature and layout of the track. But the tires did cause varying strategies to be played out. We saw this coming during qualifying especially during Q3 when Button purposely set a slow lap of 2 minutes plus while Vettel didn't bother to set a time. That set up an interesting race strategy wise as teams chose different tires to start and finish the race. The start was pretty clean and as expected Lewis lost the lead to the shockingly fast Ferraris. Seems their race pace is hugely strong compared to their qualifying pace. Just imagine if Alonso had put the car on pole? He would have blitzed the start and romped away. In comparison, Lewis had a good start but couldn't stretch out a lead over the Ferraris at all with mediocre pace t...

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...

The F1 themed movie called "Rush" has been in production for some time now and F1 fans are eagerly awaiting it as there has never been a really good F1 movie so far. "Senna" however good it was, was a documentary. I've been waiting for a real Hollywood type movie with a story and action. This one is it. The movie is directed by Hollywood legend Ron Howard. Who is Ron Howard? Ronald William "Ron" Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American film director, producer and former child actor. He came to prominence playing Opie Taylor in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show for eight years and later the teenager Richie Cunningham in the sitcom Happy Days for six years. He appeared in the films The Music Man in 1962, American Graffiti in 1973 and The Shootist in 1976, the latter during his run on Happy Days. He also directed "Apollo 13" starring Tom Hanks. Ron Howard So what is the story behind Rush then? Here's the official synopsis: T...

Fernando, Massa is faster than you now.. Qualifying for the 2013 Malaysian GP is done and guess what? Vettel took pole again in changeable conditions. Yeah I know, Vettel again? Beggining to look like 2011 all over again where Vettel took 14 pole positions. But then again maybe not. I think it was more due to a smart decision based on the conditions. The Red Bulls started Q1 on the Medium tires which was strange as almost all the top runners used the Hards. It was common sense to use the harder tire for Q1 so as to graduate to the faster Mediums later in Q2 and Q3. Most of the time in Q2 the top teams would still be using the softer of the 2 compounds because they know they can get into Q3 with those tires. No problem. But here both Red Bulls started Q1 with the Mediums leading most people to think that they either had a tire issue or we trying to save the hard tires for the race. It was a strange decision indeed but upon closer inspection, turned out to be a smart...

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 article is written by Andrew Davies and published on PlanetF1.com. It is re-produced here in its entirety. For the original article, click  here . Red Bull got the wake-up call, Kimi Raikkonen got the points and the win, but it was Adrian Sutil who got the glory... Star of the Race Adrian Sutil, Force India, 7th Whoever took the ultimate decision to hire Adrian Sutil must have been in line for a few cheeky Kingfishers after the result in Melbourne. It was the story of the race. Raikkonen did well, but described his race wins as one of his easiest. Staring at the telemetry in the closing stages to see what kind of impression Alonso was making on Raikkonen, the data did seem to bear that out. Kimi seemed able to respond to a fast lap from Alonso almost at will. Starting from P12 Sutil made his medium tyres last and was not fazed by having a triple World Champion behind him. Around Lap 14 he was putting in 1:33.7s while Perez, on the same compound, was only just managing 1:...

As usual James Allen has come out with his excellent Race Strategy Reports with the assistance of Mark Gillan. Since we are having back to back races, time is of the essence. Here I will share with you the report which gives good insight into the pace of the top 3 teams in Melbourne - Lotus, Ferrari and Red Bull and what we can look forward to this weekend. Some interesting points to ponder: Lotus The impressive note was that Raikkonen set the fastest lap near the end, 1.2 seconds faster than the Red Bull, having been 1.2 seconds slower in qualifying than Vettel. Mercedes There were plenty of positives for Mercedes to take away, but in Malaysia they will surely be working more carefully studying tyre life on long runs during Friday practice. Ferrari Massa had outqualified and outstarted his team mate so was in position on merit and he had the fastest pit stops. But it definitely took something away from Alonso’s race effort. It’s debatable whether Alonso could hav...

WOW! That's what I can say about the first race of this season in Melbourne last weekend. I mean, the Melbourne race is usually good as it is the first race, the temperatures are quite high and the track hard on the tires (due to it being half a public road and half unused track). But this race was even more interesting as the use of the supersoft tires and the different ways each car treats its tires made for a very exciting race to watch. WOW! From an F1 PR point-of-view it was perhaps good that the opening race wasn't won by Vettel or Red Bull, because that would be a familiar story to the casual viewer who needs luring back. Lotus blooms To be honest, I did not expect Lotus to win....at all. Sorry Lotus fans. Congratulations to Lotus and Raikkonen, it was a masterclass of strategy, driving and car design. Raikkonen drove a measured race that balanced aggression with intelligence (he does know what he is doing after all). According to him it was "easy...