Alvin's Formula One Blog

Here is an interesting article written by James Allen and aided by JA on F1 technical adviser Prof Mark Gillan. Prof Mark Gillan was formerly chief operations engineer at Williams, Toyota and Jaguar and he recently gave a lecture on this subject as principal R&D engineer of MTS Systems, which makes testing equipment. Picture an F1 car standing still in the pit lane. The sidewalls of the tyre are nice and straight and the contact patch of the tyre is touching the ground. But imagine what that tyre looks like when loaded up in a high speed corner – it flexes and the shape is no longer that ideal vertical line, so easy to model in a wind tunnel. In modern F1 there is a real premium on understanding this phenomenon and being able to work with the changing shape of the tyre so that the car’s aerodynamics are the best they can be at all times. In simple terms there is lap time to be gained from doing better in this area; so there’s a lot of work going on there at the mom...

We've been seeing it the past few seasons. We've also seen it more pronounced this season. Vettel seemingly able to spurt ahead at the starts, then pull out a 2 second gap by lap 2 then pull away sometimes up to 30 seconds by three quarters of the race, pulling away 1.5 to 2 seconds a lap and still setting fastest laps near the end of the race. All this while Mark Webber, virtually in the same car can't. How does he do it? Is it the car? Is it some tricks Red Bull have hidden in the car? Is Vettel superhuman? Well, James Allen has gotten hold of his F1 buddies to come out with an analysis and it seems to explain how that is possible. Although the cynic in me still is not happy for 1 person to monopolise the championship for 4 years running. Read the full article HERE . Never one to hand out praise readily to his team mate, Mark Webber said after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday, “Seb was on another planet today and was very, very strong in the first stint. He was ...

Here is another fantastic race strategy analysis by James Allen with input and data from several F1 teams, from JA on F1 technical adviser Mark Gillan and from Pirelli. For the full article, click HERE . Although Sebastian Vettel made a mistake in qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, his rivals were not able to press home their advantage and control him on race day, as he took the lead at the start from team-mate Mark Webber. Any chance of his rivals being able to work with strategy to prevent Vettel from taking his seventh consecutive victory went out of the window there. Vettel was able to pull out a lead and preserve the tyres at the same time in the opening stint and then, because he had not used the medium tyres at all in qualifying, he was able to do two stints on new medium tyres in the race. But behind the top three battle there were some interesting strategy plays and we will focus on these in this UBS Race Strategy report. For the full article, click HERE ...

This article was written by James Allen with the input of JA on F1 technical adviser Mark Gillan, former Williams F1 team chief operations engineer in order to analyse and understand what made Vettel so untouchable in Singapore and whether we should just pack up and go fishing instead for the rest of the season. This issue was blown up recently when former team owner Giancarlo Minardi who was at the race questioned Vettel's engine sounds as he was going round. "From my suite, I chose some mainstays as a reference point in order to monitor and compare the drivers' way of driving. I was impressed by Vettel's neat way of driving on that stretch of the track. He was able to drive all that stretch without making any corrections, unlike all his rivals (also his team-mate). On the same stretch, Sebastian was able to [accelerate] 50 metres before any other driver, Webber included. The thing that surprised me the most was the engine's output sound. Besides speeding up...

By plane of course. That would be the literal answer to the question of how teams will approach Melbourne. But we're being literal in another sense. How they will approach the race weekend. How they will consider their strategies. How they will setup everything they need in order to get the best results. How would they do it? Beats me, I don't have access to the pits. But I know who does. James Allen does. And Mark Gillan does. Who's Mark Gillan ? That guy who used to work with Williams F1. And McLaren. And Jaguar/Red Bull. And Toyota. So he knows a bit of what he is saying. Just a bit mind you. And he is advising James Allen now. So James knows what is talking about too. James Allen is one of the most experienced and insightful broadcasters and journalists working in Formula 1 today. He is currently the F1 correspondent for BBC Radio 5 Live and is the network’s lead F1 commentator. He is also F1 correspondent for the Financial Times and presents the on-site coverag...

Pirelli has announced its compound choices for the first four races of the season, with a different selection scheduled for each race. At the first race in Australia supersoft and medium tyres will be used. A week later in Malaysia medium and hard will be made available. At the third round in China soft and medium tyres will be on offer and in Bahrain soft and hard tyres will be supplied. The compound choices are as follows: Melbourne: Supersoft and medium [2012 - Soft and Medium) Malaysia: Medium and Hard [2012 - Medium and Hard] China: Soft and Medium [2012 - Soft and Medium] Bahrain: Soft and Hard [2012 - Soft and Medium] Pirelli gave the following explanations for its choices: "In Australia, the P Zero White medium and P Zero Red supersoft tyres will be nominated: the first time that Pirelli has nominated the softest compound in the range for Melbourne. The full step in the compound choice should ensure a performance gap between the cars that allows strategy t...

P15 y'all. Better get used to it. P15??!! WTF?? Yeah, I know what you mean. For all those who are not aware yet, I am a Lewis Hamilton supporter. Not a die hard (maybe Bruce Willis) supporter as sometimes he does wrong (he's only human) and I give him his due shit. I met him in 2007 when he was in Sepang, Malaysia for his second race of his F1 career. I got to know his dad, Anthony well. We had "roti canai" on the streets of Malaysia and I drove them around, well mostly Anthony. So of course I had an interest in his career from the start. The fact that he is a damn fierce racer who throws the car around corners is also the reason why I'm a fan. So yes, I'm surprised as well to see him finish P15. Well, not really. It happens quite a few times with McLaren reliability lately. And with Mercedes, P15 could be his new jam studio. This is what we F1 fans would know and probably accept. Except some of those zombie die hard supporters out there. Yes you know ...

As we all know, in 2014 there will be a new engine formula in F1. The 2.4 litre V8 engine, producing 750 horsepower at a maximum 18,000 rpm, will be replaced by a 1.6 litre V6 revving at 15,000 rpm with a kinetic and heat energy recovery system (ERS) and turbocharger running at 125,000 rpm. Each driver will be limited to five engines per season rather than eight engines at present. If a sixth is required, a 10-place grid penalty will be incurred. When the news was first announced, the whole F1 world, especially the fans responded negatively, fearing that the sport we loved so much would never sound the same again. Promoters and track owners were also scared that the new engine would not sound the same and would drive fans away. Even the F1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone has reservations about it, mentioning many times that he did not want the smaller engine and that it would drive the fans away. Recently, Mercedes is the first to unveil the controversial new for 2014 engine, so you ...

The Indian Grand Prix is on this weekend at the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida near New Delhi, India. As with all grand prix races, the right preparation can decide where you end up on Sunday evening. Even with all the practice and testing and forecasting on Friday and even qualifying on Saturday, the strategy plays an important part in any race. The Buddh International Circuit proved popular with drivers last season on its inaugural event. It is the second fastest race track on the calendar after Monza, with an average lap speed of 145mph. But it’s a tricky one on strategy. Last year the harder tyre was too slow relative to the softer one so the strategies were quite skewed. This year the teams will hope to play it like they did in Japan, favouring two stints on the hard tyre, but there is a possibility that one stop might turn out to be the way to go. As the teams have so little data to work with from last year and with different tyres this year, the free practice s...

After watching the Monaco GP and seeing how Rubens Barichello threw out his steering wheel (which incidentally costs anywhere between USD20,000 to USD40,000), I was also wondering how these things work with all the controls crammed in there. James Allen has a very good video and some explanation on this here , and here is the Youtube video explaining how it works.

James Allen gives a great insight into the possible scenarios and plans that teams might use in practice, qualifying and races this year based on the changes to the rules and cars/tyres. It seems that the restrictions will make thinking forward much more important this year as you don't want to go out with the wrong tyres. An example: If this is the character of 2010 tyre on some tracks it will be very hard to find out during practice sessions whether stopping earlier than your rival is going to be the better option, as some people have been suggesting. So much will depend on track characteristics and how the tyres degrade on those tracks. It's also interesting to see that because of the limitations imposed on teams, perhaps teammates will be forced to work together and trust each other. I'm just no so sure which one will take the right task as they might be thinking that they are better at setup or something else as James said: So you might see teams split with one dr...