Alvin's Formula One Blog

Friday 12th June 2009 All ten of the existing Formula One teams have been included in next year's line-up but that doesn't mean the war is over. Despite submitting conditional entries as part of the FOTA application, Ferrari, Red Bull and Toro Rosso have all been put down for next year's Championship as the FIA believe they have a binding contract with the three teams to race until 2012. Ferrari, though, have already made it clear that they won't race unless motorsport's governing body accept FOTA conditions, which including running next year's Championship under this year's regulations. So at least one battle remains there. Meanwhile, McLaren, BMW, Renault, Toyota and Brawn GP have also been included in next year's entry list, however, the FIA have urged them to drop their conditional entry before next week Friday. "These five teams have submitted conditional entries," said ...

Friday 12th June 2009 Max Mosley is facing a call to stand down as FIA president as the motor manufacturers of Europe threw their weight behind the Formula One Teams' Association. Mosley is fully expected to confirm later this month he is to stand for re-election later this year, for what would be a fifth term in office. But in the wake of his bitter battle with FOTA these past few weeks with regard to next season's regulations, his leadership is being brought into question - and not for the first time. The war with FOTA prompted an urgent board meeting of the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association, who incorporate 15 of the continent's major motor companies. The ACEA members include BMW, DAF Trucks, Daimler, FIAT, Ford of Europe, GM Europe, Jaguar Land Rover, MAN Nutzfahrzeuge, Porsche, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Renault, Scania, Toyota Motor Europe, Volvo and Volkswagen. In support of FOTA, the AC...

Friday 12th June 2009 Despite being included in next year's line-up, Ferrari have again insisted they will not race unless FOTA's conditions are met. Earlier this week Ferrari told the FIA not to sign them up unless they are willing to abide by the conditions laid out by the Formula one Teams' Association in their May 29th block entry. Those conditions include the scrapping of Max Mosley's proposed 2010 regulations and the budget cap as well as the signing of a new Concorde. However, motorsport's governing body claim they have a contract with Ferrari, forcing them to compete in Formula One until 2012. And as such, Ferrari's name appeared as an unconditional entry when the FIA published the 2010 entry list earlier today. The Italian marque, though, are sticking by their threat not to race, adding that Mosley's planned rules 'violate' any previous contract Ferrari had with the FIA. ...

Tuesday 9th June 2009 Lewis Hamilton believes McLaren's woes are likely to continue at his home grand prix at Silverstone next weekend. Hamilton and his McLaren team had another troublesome weekend in Turkey and he could only muster 13th place on Sunday. Team boss Martin Whitmarsh conceded after the race that Hamilton's Title defence is over. The Brit, who is 52 points behind Brawn GP's Jenson Button in the Drivers' Standings after just seven races, admits things are unlikely to improve for McLaren at next weekend's British Grand Prix. "We fully expect next weekend to be very difficult," he told his official website. "Firstly, Silverstone is one of the fastest courses on the calendar and it's clear that our car doesn't behave well through fast corners. It's also harder to harvest KERS there than at other circuits because there's not too many heavy braking spots - to giv...

I'm going to attempt to explain one of the most intriguing and least understood aspects of F1 racing, which some people may understand, some will not and some others don't care. I'm not very technically adept nor have I been watching F1 for 20 years. I am very interested in the goings on in F1 and try my best to read up on any material that I can get my hands on, plus I try to have discussions with like minded people as much as possible. There have been many arguments lately about drivers and their ability to drive a modern F1 car to the limit and perform seemingly incredible and heroic feats on the track. So much so that fans of certain drivers or teams have become fanatics who cannot see any wrong in their heroes no matter what. They also always see wrong in other drivers and teams and always find excuses to run them down. I have been following F1 since the Senna days but only started being a fanatic the season before Lewis Hamilton joined i.e. 2006. That's because I ...

Sunday 7th June 2009 After his pass on Sebastian Vettel on the opening lap, the Turkish GP may have been a boring race for Jenson Button, but it's one that puts his name in F1's history books. Button, who overtook Vettel on the exit of Turn 9/10 when the pole-sitter ran wide, strolled to victory at the Istanbul Otodrom, handing him his sixth grand prix win of the season. And that put Button in F1's history books where he joins the names of Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Jim Clark and Michael Schumacher in having won six of the first seven races. Vettel, meanwhile, also lost out to team-mate Mark Webber after opting for a three-stop strategy. But his inability to overtake Button for the lead cost him dearly and he eventually finished 0.7s behind Webber. Jarno Trulli claimed fourth place ahead of Nico Rosberg, whose flying start, saw him leap up from ninth place. Felipe Massa, Robert Kubica and Timo Glo...

Sunday 7th June 2009 Think that Lewis Hamilton endured a miserable Turkish GP? Think again. The World Champion has claimed that he "thoroughly enjoyed" the race despite finishing way out of the points in a car that was a full two seconds slower than Jenson Button's victorious Brawn. Smiling broadly despite the frustration of driving the deficient MP4-24, Hamilton's defiant and cheery response to his predicament was in sharp - and impressive - contrast to his monosyballic petulance of the early season when it become clear that defending his title would be impossible. "I thoroughly enjoyed the race," he assured the BBC. "I was very, very heavy and it was just impossible to keep up with the rest of the guys but I just pushed and pushed and pushed. I was way over the limit and that is why I am smiling: I fulfilled my driving potential." Having earlier in the weekend called for the team ...