Alvin's Formula One Blog

Should be interesting this, either they will be difficult to chase or they will have technical difficulties with the KERS and suffer, maybe they are taking the risk to pre-empt Brawn GP pace.. Ferrari has given its Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) the sign-off for use from next weekend's Australian Grand Prix, AUTOSPORT can reveal. Following successful tests of the system during its pre-season development programme, Ferrari is heading to the race in Melbourne intending for both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen to have KERS fitted to their cars. Ferrari is the second team to confirm its KERS will be used in Melbourne, with Renault having announced earlier this week that it would use it in Australia. BMW Sauber has also said that its system is race-ready, but the team is not yet decided about whether it will be used. Although Ferrari admitted at the start of the development of the F60 that its KERS system was late, the team has made good progress since th...

Friday 20th March 2009 The FIA have averted a potential row with the Formula One Teams' Association by agreeing to defer their controversial new 'winner-takes-all' system until 2010. Just two hours after FOTA voiced an official protest to the plan, whereby the driver with most race wins becomes F1 champion, motor sport's world governing body reacted swiftly. A FIA statement read: "On March 17, the FIA World Motor Sport Council unanimously rejected FOTA's proposed amendment to the points system for the Formula One Drivers' Championship. "The 'winner-takes-all' proposal made by the commercial rights holder (Bernie Ecclestone, who had been told the teams were in favour) was then approved. "If, for any reason, the Formula One teams do not now agree with the new system, its implementation will be deferred until 2010." Source : Planet F1

Friday 20th March 2009 Lewis Hamilton has criticised the FIA's controversial decisions this week. Motor sport's world governing body announced on Tuesday that from this year the Formula One Champion will be the driver with the most race wins, turning 59 years of history on its head. A voluntary budget cap is also to come into force for next year as the FIA seek to further slash costs and attract new teams. Teams will then have a choice between freedom to spend, but forced to adhere to the current technical regulations, or enjoy a freedom of innovation, but within the £30million cap. There is the threat of a two-tier Formula One that will surely only confuse fans as some teams next year will be running under one set of rules, and other teams racing via a different system. Hamilton pulled no punches as he said: "I think it's a shame what's happening to Formula One. "It's hard to believe t...

Lewis Hamilton has been voted the UK’s favourite brand ambassador in a poll of 2,000 consumers undertaken by UTalkMarketing. The 24 year old has risen from a humble English housing estate to owning a Swiss mansion, nabbing a Pussycat Doll girlfriend, and receiving an MBE from the Queen. Not to mention the £20 million plus in earnings he’s made in brand endorsements such as Reebok and Santander. According to UTtalkMarketing’s exclusive research which asked consumers about their attitudes towards celebrity endorsement, Lewis Hamilton received the highest vote for the celebrity personality most likely to make them buy a product. He received 15 percent of the vote which is more than double the score he received last year. He has risen above the bad press around his self imposed exile or ‘to escape intrusions of his privacy’ and has come out on top. Things are not looking so rosy for camp Beckham with ...

Finally Mclaren shows some pace. Imagine if Lewis was driving. Thursday 19th March 2009 With their main rivals prying eyes turned away from the Jerez circuit on Wednesday, McLaren finally put their sandbags away and turned up the pace. The Woking team has been woefully inadequate - or at least appearing to be - during recent pre-season testing with Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen often finding themselves propping up the timesheets while the likes of Brawn GP, Toyota, BMW and Ferrari stormed ahead. In fact the team's pace was so dismal that team boss Martin Whitmarsh conceded that they are suffering a "performance shortfall" while Ferrari's Felipe Massa said he's never seen McLaren this poor. But at Jerez on Wednesday, with just Williams watching on, McLaren finally produced the lap times many expect of the Championship-winning outfit with Heikki Kovalainen setting the day's fastest time, wh...

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. ...

Thursday 19th March 2009 Two-time World Champ Fernando Alonso has warned the FIA risks alienating fans of F1 in the wake of sweeping regulation changes. The FIA's World Motor Sport Council has ruled that from this season onwards the drivers' title will be decided by race wins rather than points, while in a separate move the FIA decreed that from 2010 teams would be given the option of adhering to a budget cap of £30million. The moves have already prompted criticism from the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA), who have accused the FIA of acting "unilaterally" in their rejection of both FOTA's own proposal to revise the points structure in F1 and their plans to reduce costs in the sport by 50% from 2010. Alonso, who won the Drivers' title with Renault in 2005 and 2006, has joined the chorus of disquiet over the FIA's actions, calling for the budget cap rules in particular to be "re...