Alvin's Formula One Blog

A major coup by Bernie Ecclestone, the 1986 Hungarian Grand Prix was the first Formula One race to take place behind the Iron Curtain. Held at the twisty Hungaroring in Mogyoród near Budapest, the race has been a mainstay of the racing calendar. Run in the heat of a central European summer, it also held the distinction of being the only current Grand Prix venue that had never seen a wet race up until the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix. The first Grand Prix saw 200,000 people attending, although tickets were expensive at the time. Today, the support is still very enthusiastic, particularly from Finns. Due to the nature of the track, narrow, twisty and often dusty because of under-use, the Hungarian Grand Prix is associated with processional races, with sometimes many cars following one another, unable to pass. Thierry Boutsen demonstrated this perfectly in 1990, keeping his slower Williams car in front of champion-elect Ayrton Senna, unable to find a way by. The secret to a winning perfo...

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This article was written by Matt Coch of Pitpass and is re-produced here in full. In-season testing is set to return next season under a revised set of regulations ratified by the World Motor Sport Council. While many of the new regulations are expected, such as engines having to last five Grands Prix instead of the current four, some are entirely new. POINTS PENALTIES FOR DRIVERS Following much the same lines as road drivers, F1 drivers will receive points on their license for driving offences. It's a system the FIA has been silently running throughout the 2013 season as it looks for a more structured and consistent method of penalising drivers. For 2014 if drivers accumulate twelve points in a twelve month period he will be forced to sit out a grand prix. A one-point penalty will be handed out for less serious offences, increasing to three points for the most serious. IN-SEASON TESTING Teams are currently prohibited from testing during the se...

The British GP is coming up this weekend and promises to be a special race for British fans as there will be 4 British drivers on the grid. It will be a homecoming race for them all and especially interesting for Lewis Hamilton fans as this will Hamilton's first time racing in F1 at Silverstone not in a McLaren. Hopes are high that he can score massive points and maybe even win it after doing so 5 years ago in 2008. In celebration, Mercedes Benz as most other brands and sponsors are running a host of competitions and promotions. This particular one is interesting as it is directed at you Lewis fans out there with the opportunity to win signed Lewis stuff. Mercedes-Benz is creating a virtual Silverstone racetrack asking the Twitter community to tweet #GoodLuckLewis messages in order to power his F1 car around the Silverstone track, to help him qualify for Sunday’s race. They're calling on the F1 racing community to show their support for Lewis in full force and provide him...

The British Grand Prix is a race in the calendar of the FIA Formula One World Championship. It is currently held at the Silverstone Circuit near the village of Silverstone in Northamptonshire. The British and Italian Grands Prix are the oldest continuously staged Formula One World Championship Grands Prix. It was designated the European Grand Prix five times between 1950 and 1977, when this title was an honorary designation given each year to one Grand Prix race in Europe. Silverstone Circuit is a British motor racing circuit next to the Northamptonshire villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury. The circuit straddles the Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire border, with the current main circuit entry on the Buckinghamshire side. The Northamptonshire towns of Towcester (5 miles) and Brackley (7 miles) and Buckinghamshire town of Buckingham (6 miles) are close by, and the nearest large towns are Northampton and Milton Keynes. Silverstone is the current home of the British Grand Pri...

Mercedes-Benz is searching for reporters to attend their sponsored events and report on it for the brand in their own unique and original way. Recognising we’re all Social Reporters these days, from Twitter to Facebook and Instagram, Mercedes-Benz are giving fans the chance to invigorate their timelines with amazing content opportunities at this years British Grand Prix and The British Open. Launching with Formula 1, the winner will be able to attend the Silverstone Grand Prix and document the experience, a pretty great prize for any racing or sports fan. This would be a great competition for everybody so Mercedes Benz would love it if you could spread the word and inspire your followers to get out there, create and share their racing moments and become a Social Reporter for Mercedes-Benz. The competition submissions end on the 19th, with voting commencing on the 20th – 24th June. Sorry about this late post but was busy. Enter #SocialReporter and you'll get VIP access, inte...

Williams are to provide the battery system that will be used in the FIA Formula E championship which is set to debut in Autumn 2014. Williams Advanced Engineering, a division of the Williams group which commercialises Formula 1-based technologies, will partner Spark Racing Technology to design and assemble the units. The single seater fully-electric championship is set to start in September 2014 with 10 city centre races – eight of which have already been announced in the form of London, Rome, Los Angeles, Miami, Beijing, Putrajaya (Malaysia), Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. Bangkok is under consideration for one of the remaining slots.Williams’ work with battery storage systems began with its F1 programme following the introduction or Kers (Kers Energy Recovery Systems) in 2009. Since then, the outfit develops both battery and flywheel energy storage systems for both motorsport and non-motorsport industries. Read more..