Alvin's Formula One Blog

Well, the horse has spoken from the mouth . Dr Mario Theissen has confirmed that if and when the new Sauber team gets on the grid next year, they will be using Ferrari engines. And should the team make the grid, their 2010 challenger will be equipped with Ferrari engines. "It will run a Ferrari power-train," Theissen told Autosport. Shame no more BMW engines on the grid. And I had so high expectations for my favorite car brand. Well, back to WTCC.

What did I tell you? I'm somehow not surprised that they wouldn't be thrown out of the championship or receive a heavier penalty. What did we expect? Their team name does not spell McLaren. It seems to me that Flavio got out just in time and Max got his going away present. Perhaps losing BMW and the threat of Toyota leaving was just too much of a drain on the sport. Seems that the rules can be bent for some people for not for others. Makes me sick just thinking about it. You can see how short this post is as I'm lost for words.

This is interesting. It's not wrong to dream and dream big at that. It seems that rumours are now circulating that Malaysia wants to have a sort of national F1 team . There's 3 possibilities. One is via Lotus as what is happening now. Lotus has just recently brought in Dany Bahar as CEO. Dany was previously the Commercial and Brand Development & Partners director at Ferrari. I don't know what's so special with Bahar but he did work with Red Bull to setup their F1 strategy. And Lotus is owned by Proton. Second is via Petronas buying up BMW Sauber and running it as its own team. This option is expensive as the whole team is ready to run but it is the best in terms of getting competitive straight away. Thirdly, there is Team Meritus which is Malaysian based and is the most successful Asian motorsports team to date. The team has rapidly progressed up the Asian motorsport ladder, winning 32 international titles in just 12 years, and is currently the only Asian team gr...

There couldn't have been a more interesting or perplexing qualifying than this one. I was absolutely confused about it. The whole order of things has been shaken up for reasons still unknown or unbelievable . Some of the reasons to explain it is either lack of downforce or low fuel. we'll have to wait for the weights to be published to get a clearer picture. But for now, Fisichella and Force India are on pole. Yes, you read it right, Force India have scored their first pole ever. Shame for Sutil who got P11, he was outpacing Fisi for much of Friday and Saturday practice. McLaren were fast and stable on Friday and Saturday practice but something happened overnight and they finished in the middle of the pack. Lewis was right when he downplayed their chances at Spa. It seems that they still have not found the downforce they need in fast corners and Spa is full of fast flowing corners. Only the rain could save them now. The Brawns didn't do too well either with only Barriche...

A sad day indeed for motorsport when one of its best known names has decided to leave the pinnacle of motorsports and such a great team and manufacturer at that. BMW is my favorite car, they produce one of the best drivers' cars ever which not only performs but looks good, exuding class and quality. I was hoping they'd stick around for a while because 2009 with the rule changes was only a blip on the radar, a speed bump. I'm surprised they thought this way. I do hope that somebody takes over the team and a BMW engine would still be on the grid next year, just look at Brawn. Meanwhile, the shock announcement has shocked their own drivers as Nick Heidfeld says " BMW's decision to withdraw from Formula One came out of the blue." Not sure what Kubica had to say, he's probably losing his mind in his trailer as he could have finished 2008 nearer the top had BMW thrown their resources at last years' championship. I guess he now has to look for another job a...

It has been a tiring and sickening few weeks as the politics of F1, especially the childish and loony attitude of FIA President Max Mosley came to a head. Fortunately, the FOTA alliance managed to pressure him to rescind the crappy and loony regulations that he likes to come up with, if not in 2010 the teams will waste even more money on loony things. But, all is not as serene as we would like to think. Assuming that Mad Max really leaves the office, who would be his replacement? Is there a suitable candidate out there? I'm sure there is an experienced administrator with experience and passion in motorsports. But will this person be allowed to govern? Or would Max rather have a stooge in place for him to govern via proxy ? The name Jean Todt has been bandied around and I for one am hoping that that is a very sick joke and that we'll get over it in the morning. Jean has been linked to Mosley many times and was from Ferrari. It would be biased (if not already) of the FIA to have ...

23/06/2009 For the second time in as many years, as more and more factions suggest that Max Mosley's removal as President of the FIA would be the easiest way to resolve the crisis that threatens to destroy the sport, the Englishman has called on the organization's member clubs for their support. As the 8 'rebel' teams remain united, Mosley, writing to the member clubs, uses his well honed skills to rally his own troops. "Over recent weeks it has become increasingly clear that one of the objectives of the dissident teams is that I should resign as president of the FIA," he writes. "Last year you offered me your confidence and, as I wrote to you ...

Friday 19th June 2009 Now that FOTA have finally lost patience with the FIA there is going to be a whole host of consequences. Andrew Davies ponders the things that immediately spring to mind... * Max Mosley's bid to get teams to run on £40m a year (+ drivers + marketing) has always seemed out of touch with big money worldwide sports models. Spanish football club Real Madrid have a revenue of £290m and that's without a major showing in the Champions League. With a lot more sponsorship and global exposure, F1 has a far greater earning potential. * What seemed like a too-early bid to abandon ship by Lola cars - when they announced that they were withdrawing their F1 application midweek - seems quite a good move now. Because they can join the FOTA grid, which (providing it has all current eight teams) will be the series people will want to watch next year. * Will David Richards' ProDrive and Epsilon follow ...

Friday 19th June 2009 The Formula One Teams' Association have sensationally confirmed they are to form a breakaway series, causing the greatest upheaval in the sport's 60-year history. Following a meeting of the eight teams that currently form FOTA - Ferrari, McLaren, Renault, Toyota, BMW Sauber, Brawn GP, Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso - they have all declined to enter F1 for 2010. Despite weeks of negotiations with FIA president Max Mosley, the two bodies have failed to find a compromise, leaving the sport in total chaos. The FIA had issued a deadline of close of business on Friday to enter next year's championship unconditionally to McLaren, Toyota, Renault, BMW Sauber and Brawn GP in particular. As far as the FIA are concerned, Ferrari, Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso are contracted to enter, hence the reason they were given an automatic entry by world motor sport's governing body last Friday. Ferrari h...

Friday 12th June 2009 Max Mosley is facing a call to stand down as FIA president as the motor manufacturers of Europe threw their weight behind the Formula One Teams' Association. Mosley is fully expected to confirm later this month he is to stand for re-election later this year, for what would be a fifth term in office. But in the wake of his bitter battle with FOTA these past few weeks with regard to next season's regulations, his leadership is being brought into question - and not for the first time. The war with FOTA prompted an urgent board meeting of the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association, who incorporate 15 of the continent's major motor companies. The ACEA members include BMW, DAF Trucks, Daimler, FIAT, Ford of Europe, GM Europe, Jaguar Land Rover, MAN Nutzfahrzeuge, Porsche, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Renault, Scania, Toyota Motor Europe, Volvo and Volkswagen. In support of FOTA, the AC...

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...

Sunday 24th May 2009 Jenson Button goes from strength to strength, while Ferrari finally flex their muscles on the track to justify their off-circuit machismo... We Might As Crown Him The Champ Now... As the PF1 homepage declared in the immediate aftermath of Sunday's race, it is increasingly difficult to believe that Button will not end the season as World Champion. F1 has been turned on its head to the extent that it's difficult just to find a single trenchant reason to suppose he will not succeed Lewis Hamilton. If Bernie had got his way before the campaign and introduced his winner-takes-all system to decide the title then Button could already take the risk of putting his feet up. The five wins Button has claimed from the opening six races of the season is as many as Hamilton secured in the whole of 2008 and only one less than Kimi Raikkonen registered in 2007. Fortunately, Bernie's...

Well said Sir jackie..woohoo! FIA and Max..up yours! Friday 15th May 2009 Never one to pass up on the chance to have a go at the FIA, Sir Jackie Stewart has slammed motorsport's governing body, saying they have "no business" telling the teams how much they can spend. Formula One is set for arguably its most important day in its history today as the Formula One Teams Assocation takes on Max Mosley. On the one side of the table Mosley and his FIA are determined to press ahead with their budget cap even though it could result in a two-tier Championship, and on the other side the teams, including Ferrari, Renault, Toyota, Red Bull and Toro Rosso, are threatening to leave the sport if Mosley gets his way. Stewart, a three-times F1 World Champion, has now weighed in on the debate, saying its up to each individual team - and not the FIA - to decide how much money they want to spend. "I agree that there shou...

By Gerhard Kuntschik and Edd Straw BMW Sauber boss Mario Theissen has admitted that the team's version of the controversial double-decker diffuser will not be ready in time for this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix. The team has been working flat-out on the design, but has opted not to introduce it as part of its new aerodynamic package because it would not have been able to exploit its performance benefit. Theissen insisted that no date has been set for the diffuser to be introduced, although it is understood that the Monaco Grand Prix is a possibility. Despite this, the team will have an interim diffuser modification in Spain that is expected to improve its rear-end grip as part of its raft of modifications. "The Barcelona-spec aero package has long been in development," said Theissen. "Therefore a double diffuser introduced at short notice wouldn't have brought us any benefit. "There is no time limit set for when we will introduce ...

Spanish Grand Prix Preview Tuesday 5th May 2009 The Spanish Grand Prix will be the real litmus test for the FIA's brave new rules to promote overtaking in F1. The slick tyres, the cartoon rear wings, the oversize front wings will all get the ultimate test at the Circuit de Catalunya this weekend. Because the Spanish GP is one of the traditional snore-fests in F1. There used to be three you could bank on: San Marino, which was beautiful and boring; Spain, which was windy and boring; and Hungary which was just wake-me-up-in-65-laps'-time boring. Imola's gone, but Barcelona and Budapest remain to challenge the technical rule makers. If we have the usual procession in Spain then the FIA's upheaval of the teams' design processes for 2009 will be the most monumental waste of time and money. The good news is that the teams haven't been allowed to test before the race and so there are still quite a few set-up variables...

Former Canadian Grand Prix promoter Normand Legault believes Formula One teams should abandon the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone. The 53-year-old told the French language La Presse newspaper that FOTA, the teams' new unified alliance, is their ticket to shedding the sport's current outdated structure. Legault revealed that, shortly before the Formula One Teams Association was enacted, he made a presentation to the teams in Montreal . "I said to them 'why don't you reorganise yourselves like a North American sports league? When the (Montreal) Canadiens play the Boston Bruins, they don't ask the International Hockey Federation to referee the match.” "In the world of North American pro sports, each league has a board of governors, a commissioner and vice Presidents who manage the business. The owners of the sport manage themselves.” "The National Hockey League doesn't have to ask anyone if it wants to increase the size of the net by six ...

Sunday 29th March 2009 The lights have gone out but the guessing game goes on... Brawn Really Are Out In Front Determining the reality of Brawn's pace at the front is a hazardous undertaking, with the results presented in the race confused and clouded by differing fuel levels, the double deployment of the Safety Car and the sudden deterioration in lap times caused by the soft tyres. Having led the grand prix from start to finish, and finished on top in all three segments of qualifying, it is indisputable that Brawn currently possess the fastest car. The rest of the pecking order can be debated endlessly without resolution, but Brawn's status as number one is fixed. But Not By As Much As Feared/Expected. Possibly The indication in testing, and even from qualifying, was that the Brawns would be up to a second faster than the rest per lap. The indication from the race was that their margin of superiority is less than half a seco...

After waiting for so long for the new season to start and going through a very thin winter testing season, finally the first race weekend of the year has begun. And what a way to start. Practice 1 and 2 were explosive with almost everybody topping the timesheets one time or another. Even Sutil in the Force India managed to go P1 for a while which was unthinkable last year. Although the McLaren pace was expected from what we've seen in winter testing (who says testing times does not mean anything) the rest of the field especially the smaller and unfancied teams were incredible to watch. Williams, Toyota, Force India, Brawn, Red Bull were swapping times at the top 10 end of the charts. It was surreal. Also surreal was watching McLaren, Ferrari, BMW and Renault at the bottom and midfield. Weird actually. Yes, the new rules has shaken up the order and given a chance for others to shine. No doubt about it. But this diffuser thing is not good. It would mean another day in court with some...

I hope McLaren know what they're doing (as they should). If not, I won't be cheering so much. Wednesday 11th March 2009 At least four different teams will start the 2009 season ahead of McLaren unless the Woking outfit can produce a sudden improvement in performance during the few remaining days of winter testing, according to F1 broadcaster James Allen. Now an observer rather than a commentator following ITV's exit from the sport, Allen attended the opening two days of this week's test in Barcelona and departed concluding that McLaren are currently trailing Ferrari, Toyota, BMW as well as Fernando Alonso's Renault. 'I come away from the Barcelona test feeling that this is going to be a great season of racing, but in a very different way from the McLaren vs Ferrari battles of the last two years,' he wrote in a blog on his website, jamesallenonf1. 'The testing performances we have seen ...

The BMW Sauber team has concluded an interesting deal with the software company Artificial Life to deliver a BMW Sauber F1 Team racing game to users of the Apple iPhone and Apple iPod Touch devices. These will feature the new BMW Sauber F1.09 portrayed in high resolution 3D graphics which can be driven by the user against virtual teams at various race tracks based on the F1 circuits. The game is scheduled for release in July and will be downloadable from the online iTunes stores. Source : Grandprix.com