Alvin's Formula One Blog

2015 is here and we're 2 months away from the first race. It's been a nice short winter to be honest, I didn't really feel the withdrawal symptoms much this time. The new cars have been launched fast and simple, no big launches with fancy settings and the such. All 8 teams have showed their cars and run them at the first test of the year in Jerez, Spain. Ferrari seem to be topping the time sheets but as usual testing times are not representative of anything. Or are they? If you know what to look for you'd know that Mercedes are still strong and probably not concerned about fast times. They are reliable, qualifying times can always be worked out later. McLaren's troubles are expected, we'll see how good Honda really is soon. Engine Manufacturer Test Mileage - Jerez Engine Manufacturer Miles Kms Mercedes 2707.4 4356.98 Ferrari 2011.3 3236.74 Renault 14...

Image from F1Technical.net Sorry there's not much to write about still these days as there is just a lot of news around and I don't report on news. There's a million websites out there taht do that, re-hashing news all day long. Since I don't have much to write about nor do I have the time as well, I do want to share interesting and important information about our beloved sport whenever I can. John Beamer is one of my favorite technical F1 writers. He always is able to explain the technicalities of F1 in as simple a language as possible. Although his simple is still very technical to me. He also always has good illustrations to show the point. I love the way he presents his ideas and explanations. Here you will find him explaining some of the early innovations in F1 this year in glorious detail and with clear illustrations. I hope this will whet your appetite for the looming battle between the teams. Can't wait for Bahrain. Read the full article HERE . T...

Keith of F1Fanatic has done a fantastic job of summarising this years' cars and the design trends. Therefore I have decided to share that here as there is no point re-hashing the same thing when keith has done such a good job. Following is just a taster, for the full article click HERE . The first test in Jerez starts tomorrow and already we have seen renderings or photos of the cars from half the teams on the grid. The splashy launches of yesteryear have given way to online reveals and renderings, but these still give us insight into some of the major changes to car design that this year will bring. The noses Ever since the 2014 technical regulations were released last year there, there has been much speculation about the look of the noses. In recent years aerodynamicists have been trying to get the nose of the car as far from the ground as possible. This maximises airflow under the car, which is then used to feed the floor and channel round the sidepods – both which...

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 ...

Watch me and weep Alonso! It's been a long winter. Almost 4 months of no F1 action is really tough on the faithful. But we survived the cold, boring winter. We made it to the car launches and finally to the first test of the season. The testing sessions, as short as they are, will tell us more of what we want to know. Who will be fast? Which car will be strong? Who will win this year's championship? So we all want to see all the answers that we possibly can from the first test. Anything that happens at the first test is taken either as a good or bad omen. Red Bull doing plenty of laps without any trouble means we'll have another year of the "finger". Mercedes toasting their car on the first day and shoving it in the barriers on the second is giving second thoughts to Lewis supporters. But what we've learnt over the years is that even though testing is fun, it rarely is the final word on form. The tests are there to well err...test. All the hard wor...

The 2013 F1 season, which will begin on March 17 in Melbourne and end on November 24 at Interlagos, is set to consist of 19 events following the cancellation of the proposed New Jersey GP. Despite the omission of Valencia and the British GP at Silverstone losing its July slot for only the fifth time in the event's history, the calendar predominantly follows the same path as the 2012 campaign. In a minor tweak, Japan and Korea have swapped positions while both the German and Belgian GPs have been brought forward by a week either side of the now-traditional mid-season August break. Meanwhile, the much-anticipated inaugural street race in New Jersey has been postponed until 2014, with F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone confirming that although race organisers had run out of time to prove its state of readiness he remains fully committed to the event. There was speculation that a French, Austrian or Turkish GP could return to the schedule and the German race was moved forward a w...

Re-published from Planet F1 Mark Webber set a blistering pace on Friday where, thanks to a day of sunshine, he posted this year's fastest lap time at the Jerez circuit. After finishing top of the timesheets with a lap of 1:19.299, the Aussie reported: "We're certainly showing some good form in terms of reliability, but we always need to work on performance - you never know what the other teams are doing. "But we're in a good position at the moment to build up to the first race. "It's close, but there's also quite a way to go, as other teams have no doubt planned developments for Bahrain. "We're doing the work we need to do in order to understand the car more." Report: After two days of rain and interruptions, Friday's running at the Spanish circuit kicked off under blue skies and with the track almost completely dry. However, even the dry surface didn't stop the red flags from being waved as the action was halt...

A bit of news on Lotus F1 or for those patriotic of you out there, the 1Malaysia F1 team. The good news is that the car ran..yeah, I know. It ran for 63 laps yesterday driven by Fairuz at Jerez without any problems. Well, it had a problem, there was no power steering at all. And Fairuz managed to drive it properly for 63 laps! Hands up to the man, he should be driving the car in races. Not so good news today, day 2 at Jerez. Heikki Kovalainnen took the car for a drive today in rainy Jerez and crashed it . That's the end of testing for today. The best part is that there was no spare parts. The part ordered was supposed to arrive at 2am tomorrow, so hopefully they'll get some more running then. If this is how Tony runs the show, I can't wait to see Kamaruddin and Nasarudin giving their input as well.

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...

Thursday 19th March 2009 Kazuki Nakajima claimed the final pre-season P1 position at Jerez on Thursday after netting the fastest lap time of the day - and of the week. Just two outfits, Williams and McLaren, remained at Jerez for the final day of pre-season testing ahead of next weekend's Australian GP. It was a day to conduct some last minute tweaking with both Williams and McLaren finding pace they otherwise hadn't shown during the week. Nakajima proved to the quicker of the two drivers, clocking a 1:17.494 under clear and sunny skies. It was an impressive lap from the Japanese driver, who eclipsed the previous best time set by Jenson Button on Tuesday by four tenths of a second. Heikki Kovalainen, spending his second successive day touring the Jerez track in his MP4-24, also broke into the 1:17s, but was just under half a second slower than Nakajima. Times 1. Nakajima Williams 1:17.494 102 laps 2. ...

Wednesday 18th March 2009 Heikki Kovalainen's McLaren topped the time charts during a quiet day of testing at Jerez. With Renault and Brawn GP wrapping up their testing schedules yesterday, only McLaren and Williams remained out on the track for day four of testing. The woking-based outfit showed considerably more speed than in previous days, with Kovalanien clocking a fastest time of 1:18.202 during his 79-lap run. The Finn's time was the third fastest of the week, with only Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg recording quicker times. Kazuki Nakajima's Williams was 1.8 seconds off the pace of his competitor, with a time of 1:20.014. Times 01. Kovalanien McLaren 1:18.202 79 laps 02. Nakajima Williams 1:20.014 103 laps Source : Planet F1

Tuesday 17th March 2009 Jenson Button put Brawn GP back at the front of the pack at Jerez on Tuesday when the Brit achieved the exceptional and broke into the 1:17s. Button, who replaced team-mate Rubens Barrichello at midday on Monday, was back in the cockpit of his BGP001 on Tuesday morning, with the early focus being on qualifying laps. It wasn't long into the morning's session before the Brit, covering qualifying-style runs, broke into the 1:17s - the first driver to do so this week. However, he didn't stop there and went on to lower the benchmark time to a rather impressive 1:17.844. Despite track conditions improving as the day wore on, Button wasn't able to beat his morning time as Brawn GP turned their attention to race simulations in the afternoon with Button covering a total of 114 laps. Second place went to Nico Rosberg, who like Button also focused on qualifying runs during the morning sessi...

Monday 16th March 2009 Fernando Alonso finally brought Brawn GP's run of P1 finishes to an end at Jerez on Monday. This week's test marks the final outing for the teams before the new in-season testing ban is triggered as they head to Australia, making each lap vitally important to the four teams present. Alonso, in something of a surprise, proved to have the better pace on Monday as he put in a late charge to clock a 1:18.343 that brought the Brawn GP team's run of top-placed finishes to an end. Brawn GP, formerly Honda, weren't far behind the Renault, with Rubens Barrichello claiming second place with the 1:18.398 that he set during the morning session before handing over to team-mate Jenson Button in the afternoon. Button continued Brawn GP's impressive run of form, setting the third place time, just under half a second off Barrichello's pace. Lewis Hamilton, who got behind the wheel for th...

Friday 6th March 2009 Nick Heidfeld completed the final day of testing at Jerez in pole position while defending World Champ Lewis Hamilton had another day to forget. The drivers once again had to contend with a wet track this morning as rain lashed the Jerez circuit. But even after the water had all dried up there was still gusty winds for them to deal with. Heidfeld, though, made the most of conditions to set the pace for BMW with the German completing a marathon 123 laps with a best time of 1:20.052. That put him 0.35s ahead of second placed Kimi Raikkonen, who had a mixed day. Although he amassed 112 laps, the Finn reportedly suffered with intense back pain this morning that had Ferrari looking at his seat for a solution. Added to that Raikkonen also exited the pits under a red light, which should earn him a fine, and spun his F60 into the gravel. But at least his day still went better than Hamilton's. The Mc...