Alvin's Formula One Blog

Saturday 20th June 2009 Sebastian Vettel's pole position time around Silverstone become even more impressive once the FIA released the weights of the cars. Vettel will start Sunday's British GP from the P1 slot on the grid after clocking a 1:19.509, which put him 0.347s ahead of Rubens Barrichello and an additional tenth quicker than his team-mate. What's impressive, though, is fact that Vettel was carrying more fuel than both his rivals. And in fact, he is the heaviest of all ten drivers who took part in the pole position shoot-out. Meanwhile, Webber will have to rely on raw pace to get ahead of Barrichello as the duo are on similar fuel strategies as is fourth-placed Jarno Trulli. The lightest of the top ten was Kazuki Nakajima, which probably explains why he managed to qualify ahead of his Williams team-mate Nico Rosberg, who was almost 10kgs heavier. Slotted in between the two Williams is Jenson Button,...

Wednesday 20th May 2009 The Tax Dodgers GP is here again with all the glitz and glamour that yappy small dogs and women with expensive cosmetic surgery can confer. The Monaco GP is basically the South of France GP that's held about half a kilometre over the border. Walk the circuit and be amazed. It's not so much "cycling round your bathroom" as "cycling round the shower tray". Until the demise of traction control it was a pretty useless sort of race. Great for scenery, great for history, but processional in the extreme. You can be between three and four seconds a lap quicker than the car in front and not get past them on the streets of Monaco. In fact many drivers believe that a GP2 car that starts on pole could keep its F1 rivals at bay. (Let alone a GP3 car) What Monaco loses in places to overtake it gains with its punishingly close barriers ready to derange a rear suspense at the slightest hint of oversteer. And now that the ca...

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...