Alvin's Formula One Blog

F1Fanatic is one of the best, if not THE best F1 sites out there. There I said it. Keith who runs it is a very knowledgeable and connected individual in the world of F1. He may not be right all the time but his site has relevant content that is presented in a way that is easy to consume for us F1 fans. I'm not paid to rave about him or his site by the way. Although if anybody thinks I should be..thanks! I just wanted to share what a great site F1Fanatic is. And if you're any type of F1 fan, bookmark the place. So the reason I wanted to post about this today is because F1Fanatic has done such a great job putting together all the information we need about all the new 2016 cars. For those who like to pore over details, this posting from F1Fanatic is excellent. It's interactive, you can put 2 different cars side by side then move the slider to reveal or hide more of one car or the other. You have to see it to understand. And there are views from the top, front, side and r...

I read an interesting article today written by Keith of F1Fanatic. I always reads his blog and his views are quite on the spot of things F1. The article was about F1 attendance figures at the live races, on track. We know as F1 fans that attendance figures have dropped due to many factors. One of the fan favorite and most enduring factor is cost. Every F1 fan would like to attend a live F1 race at least once in their lifetime or maybe even a few. But sad to say the price of admission has prevented us from going. Yes we can buy the cheapest ticket but that is reserved for the hardcore fan who doesn't mind the heat or cold or rain. Keith commented that: It’s an unfortunate fact of Formula One that merely being well-attended is not enough for a race to keep its place on the calendar. So many races are now subsidised by governments that promoters cannot expect to cover the hosting fees Ecclestone demands by selling tickets. A case in point is the United States Grand Prix, wh...

Not my fault, blame the hose.. Many races have been decided inside the pitlane by teams switching drivers ( a fine example of team orders although a cleaner way of doing it), by pitting early or later, by pit crews who do a fantastic job changing the tires or by blunders such as not attaching the wheels properly. We saw some in the last race in Sepang where Lewis Hamilton stopped in the wrong pitbox and by McLaren who once again bungled a pitstop this time screwing up Jenson Button's wheel so much so that he had to retire from the race. So what are the best pitlane blunders of all time then? Keith of F1 Fanatic has compiled a list of the top ten pitlane blunders and it provides for some good laughs. Example from Keith: Disaster struck at the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix when race leader Felipe Massa, pitting under the safety car following Nelson Piquet’s infamous deliberate crash , was given a green light before the fuel hose had been disengaged. Massa drove off, tearin...

2014 offers a great possibility for upheaval in the F1 middle kingdom. Big big changes are coming, nothing is bigger than an engine change. We all have read and discussed the changes, we all are excited about it. How will the engine sound like? How will the tires behave? How will the drivers handle it? Too many variables to discuss. Heck, one race weekend throws up so many things already even with stable rules. But we all look forward to 2014 like a starved man lost in the desert looks lovingly and maybe a bit crazed, at a cool glass of water. So what can we expect from 2014? According to Keith from F1Fanatic, it will "absorbing" and I agree. If F1 gets it right, this will provide an absorbing technical challenge, improve the sport’s credentials as a test bed for environmentally-friendly technology, and enhance both the strategic dimension and spectacle of the races. I'm looking forward to the drivers getting a handle of the different feel of the engine, balance ...

Keith of F1Fanatic has as usual come up with an excellent analysis of the current team and drivers pecking order in F1 for this season so far. It seems the indications during winter testing has some accuracy to it although everybody says that we cannot take any times from testing seriously. From winter testing, everybody knows or have guessed that the top 4 teams would be Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes - not necessarily in that order. And they were right, so winter times does have some bearing, it's an indicator. And we have been proven right. So heading to Spain, we have the top 4 teams - Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes - hot on each other's heels with massive development waiting to make an impact. So here are the links to Keith's analysis: The pecking order as the teams ready their Barcelona performance upgrades Jenson Button form guide Lewis Hamilton form guide On the side, it's worth mentioning that although it seems that Button has out qualified...

Wow, John Beamer is good. He is intricately knowledgeable about F1 and engineering as he explains and analyses the remaining cars on the grid this year. You can read his analysis at F1Fanatic with his 2010 F1 cars Technical Analysis Part 2. And here is John's advice for this year as it is for most seasons. Casual fans will no doubt celebrate and talk about their teams or drivers timing after these 4 days of testing at Barcelona and probably will conclude that the fastest driver is on top. But that could not be further than the truth as John Beamer puts it: "More so than previous years outright pace isn’t necessarily the critical performance element. Consistency is important and so is tyre wear. A car that works well on low and high fuel and is easy on its tyres is a better bet than one that can has extraordinary single lap pace. " Bring on Bahrain!!

Finally after all the talk and work, Lotus has launched their brand new car in London. It has a lot of historical weight to carry as Lotus has been successful in the past and Tony Fernandes better not screw up that history because then the whole of Malaysia will be blamed by motorpsort nuts worldwide. A first look at the car makes me feel nervous. Why? Because it doesn't really look like a F1 car. The nose is too thick, it looks like an F3 car. The rest of it is pretty simple and the sidepods are very big. Keith from F1Fanatic has had some articles lately with explanations about the new diffucers and how a slimmed down sidepod helps airflow to the diffusers. The Lotus' sidepods looks huge. The only part of the car that is interesting is the front wing. It is pretty complicated on an otherwise dull car. The funny thing is the wing is devoid of any sponsors, which is weird. I also noticed that Naza has only 1 sticker on the whole car. We'll have to wait for the car to hit th...

There is a very good technical analysis of the 2010 F1 cars so far revealed done by F1Fanatic's guest writer John Beamer on F1Fanatic. It offers quite an in-depth analysis on the designs of the cars as well as the effects that teams want to achieve this year within the rgulations and gives a good guess who should do well. The explanation about the rear diffuser is really interesting and insightful. You can read it here .

Silverstone is currently undergoing a renovation not just to the facilities around the track but the track layout itself. The new layout is called the Arena layout and was probably designed to cater to the MotoGP and Superbike races but was considered for F1 as well. It seems that this year F1 might use the new layout, I say might because it has not received approval yet from all parties concerned. The last party to give consent is Bernie (of course). More in-depth story can be found at F1Fanatic where Keith gives the run down on what is happening with pictures and a layout map. What do I think of the new layout? It looks interesting, not much of a radical change and maintains the high speed nature of Silverstone - which is good. This new layout is probably designed more for the fans than the drivers anyway.

I love simulators especially driving simulators. From the ones that we provide for promotions and entertainment to serious ones for F1 testing, they are a great tool for serious work and fun. Hexatech from Cruden is a really serious simulator and I wouldn't mind having one in my living room. Keith from F1 Fanatic had the rare opportunity to test one, read his report about it here . To Keith, I need a job with you so I could travel and test this kind of things.

Wow, what a festival. Wished we had something like that here or at least I could go to the event. That would have been incredible. Keith of F1Fanatic went of course and he took so many pictures (about 3000++) but here is his top 40 . Good one Keith. My favorite picture is of the Audi sculpture in front of Goodwood House, it is amazing. It is actually a multi ton sculpture of a racetrack with 2 Audi cars on each end - one an Auto Union Streamliner and a modern R8 V10. Here's the picture courtesy of Keith (I borrowed it as it was the best picture I could find) of F1Fanatic.

Wow, what can I say. Keith from F1Fanatic posted this and I thought it was so cool that I had to share this also. It's a poster of all F1 cars ever made since 1950. The original post is by Racing Otaku , so head on over for more info. Sample of the cars on the poster. Below is the full poster, though very small. Via F1Fanatic .

This is gonna one exciting race. Not only is it another street circuit but it's nearby to Malaysia and it's at night. Too bad though that I won't be able to be there. I could've gone there, been in Singapore during the event and enjoyed the atmosphere. I'm sure it's gonna be an extremely exciting atmosphere even if I can't attend the race. But alas, my plans were thrown into disarray because some people couldn't get along because they were arguing over something so small - which shirt to wear and who can or cannot wear what. Incredible that some people can sacrifice so much for so little. I just don't understand. Anyway, it's gonna be a cracker of a race. For more info on the circuit and the event, go to the official site here . Lewis is looking forward to the new circuit, saying that it is a unique challenge . And Ron Dennis says that McLaren fears no circuit . I hope he's right and the team is prepared. It seems that most teams want to reta...