Alvin's Formula One Blog

Nico! Amma beat ya! Again! The Bahrain Grand Prix is a Formula One Championship race in Bahrain sponsored by Gulf Air. The first race took place at the Bahrain International Circuit on 4 April 2004. It made history as the first Formula One Grand Prix to be held in the Middle East, and was given the award for the "Best Organised Grand Prix" by the FIA. The Bahrain International Circuit is holding its 12th round of the world championship this year. A typical modern circuit with wide run-off areas and frequent braking zones, it has nonetheless produced some memorable races in recent years. The purpose-built venue was designed by Hermann Tilke and is characterised by long straights and slow corners. This puts a premium on top speed and traction. Despite the focus being on the controversial decision to stick with the unloved ‘elimination’ qualifying, the tactical game in the race should once again prove the main attraction. The opening race in Melbourne showed that the n...

Fantastic but simple analysis of what could be going on in Alonso's head and what are his options if Ferrari keep going down the toilet as they are right now by ESPN feature writer Nate Saunders. I was screaming in agony when I heard Alonso was going to Ferrari because at the time Ferrari were still quite strong and I knew what Alonso was capable of. But alas, the team has floundered. I'm sharing this article in its entirety as I could have not written it any better than what Nate has done and I truly find it worthwhile reading so I wanted to share it with as many people as possible. The original article is HERE . Ferrari's PR department may well have leapt for joy when they saw Nico Rosberg finish Monaco qualifying in the Mirabeau slip road. The bad blood which followed at Mercedes provided a compelling narrative for the rest of the weekend and buried the news everyone had been talking about earlier that week, which centred around a certain Fernando Alonso. The new...

Hmm, 3 weeks is a long time in F1, no? After waiting 4 months for action, we got 4 races then suddenly all quiet. Seems like 3 weeks is longer than 4 months. Only God knows how I made it through the winter. Anyway, we'll have the start of the European season next week in Barcelona. That should be fireworks as teams will be bringing big updates to their cars there. The order will be jumbled up again, not to mention the changes made by Pirelli to the hard tire. We'll see. In the meantime, who the hell is Dougie? Well that would be Dougie Lampkin. He is the 12 times FIM Trial World Champion. And what the hell is the FIM Trial? Well, it's a motorcycle event. What?? Motorcycle? Blasphemy! Actually not. Since we're all motorsports fans generally and F1 fans specifically, we are allowed to talk about other motorsports besides F1. Any sport that uses a motor falls under motorsports, not just F1 or cars. So what is the FIM trials? According to Wikipedia: Motorcycle tria...

Friday practice came and went. After 4 months of waiting, it was gone in a flash. FP1 didn't really show us much again as the medium tires held up well in the hot temperatures (which is good). Lewis was 4th fastest in the Mercedes, not too far away from Vettel. As expected, after all that sandbagging in testing, red Bull unleashed their power in both practice session and topped the timesheets with Vettel leading the way on both. FP2 was where the supersofts came out as the teams needed to understand how they're going to attack qualifying with those. And how to go for a longer first stint with full fuel. Lewis set the 8th fastest time although his running was hampered by a crash that ruined his attempts. For a full report on FP1 click here . For full FP1 times, click here . For a full report on FP1 click here . For full FP1 times, click here . Now what worries me more is not Mercedes' reliability as Rosberg had to stop just before the end of FP2 with a gearbox prob...

Testing at Barcelona is done. Barcelona is important as it is a track that is used in the championship, teams will race here later although in warmer weather than it has been at this test. This test at Barcelona is also important as it usually shows up which team will be strong come Melbourne but as always it is very difficult to tell during testing as each team has a different program compared to the rest. Some may be sandbagging or hiding their potential. The next test in Barcelona as well should tell us more as teams have no choice but to show their hand as Melbourne is so close after that. For this test however, there have already been some good pointers to which team or driver stands a good chance open it's open season. We as fans do have to make our own analysis as best we can, so any and all information is always good. Below is re-produced an analysis done by Pirelli on their tire range performance so far. This is critical information for any serious F1 fan as we know...

What a week this has been. 5 formula one teams launched their cars this week, you know what they say - When it rains, it pours. One day you're bubbling from the mouth on the floor with not much F1 news or stories to keep you barely alive, the next you're bleeding at the eyes trying to keep up with the flood. But as F1 fanatics, we love it and just can't have enough. It's like chocolate or cheese - you can never have enough. So, the teams that launched this week were McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus, Sauber and Force India. Mercedes will launch on Monday at Jerez although their online PR stunt to create buzz for the W04 crashed their servers . Not a good omen, someone online posted that maybe their car should be called the "W404". Good one. Their online reveal can be found at www.mercedes-amg-f1.com . As we all know no F1 team will reveal the exact car that will be having the exact parts they will use in the test so these pictures here will be nice to look at and ...

Red Bull Racing has a new promotion up and running. As you can see at the top of this blog, there is a new banner that says "Red Bull Super Time Game". It's a desktop flash game, click on the banner and play it, you might win a nice prize. Or you can go ahead to try it here -  http://supertime.redbull.co.uk/ Its a really fun game which tests your reactions over a number of levels which profile Red Bull Sports, including motorsports. So what's in store for you if you play this game then? All those that enter their details having played the game will be entered into a prize draw to win an amazing, money can't buy, highly sought after behind the scenes Factory Tour at the Red Bull Racing HQ at Milton Keynes! The winner will be picked on the 8th February 2013. So, you best get those fingers fit and your eyes tweaked. This is a game of hand eye coordination. Good luck to everyone who goes for it and post some pictures of inside the factory if you get to...

In the span of seven years, Red Bull built a lackluster F1 team into the three-time world champions and the most dominant presence in motor racing. Red Bull did something quite unprecedented when it bought its first Formula One team in 2005. It took a backmarker team - Jaguar Racing, itself rebranded from Stewart Grand Prix - and through a boatload of money at it. It took its first podium finish in only its second year on the grid, and was winning races by 2009. The rest, as they say, is history, as the team - headed by some of the top minds driven by two of the best drivers in the sport - went on to secure three back-to-back world championships. Watch the video above to learn their fascinating story.