Alvin's Formula One Blog

A slow race to begin with and I almost switched it off halfway if not for the safety car. From then on, it was nail biting to see Lewis Hamilton hammering the field and on to winning the race. Here is the winners vs losers piece by Andrew Davies of PlanetF1. Original article HERE . F1 race strategists may use algorithms and 'Latin hypercube sampling', but tossing a coin would probably have got the same result on Sunday... Star of the Race Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1st Lewis maintained the high pedigree of the Singapore Grand Prix Winners Club by making it seven World Champions in seven races. Only he, Seb and Fernando have won at Marina Bay before and for much of the afternoon that looked like being the podium. Obviously his job became a lot easier the second he pulled away on the parade lap and left his team-mate searching for a gear. Lewis's biggest threat, after Vettel went backwards in the first stint, was a badly timed Safety Car and we almost got one. After ...

At the end of 2013 F1 bid farewell to its normally aspirated V8s and embraced brand new power units that combined a hybrid V6 turbo engine with two energy recovery systems - the MGU-K that works under braking, and MGU-H which harvests energy at the exhaust. Monza 2014 offered an ideal opportunity to compare and analyse the performance of modern low downforce-spec F1 cars with their previous counterparts. The recent Grand Prix emphasised an important point: the 2014 regulations have greatly enhanced the cars' efficiency while maintaining - and even increasing - their level of performance. Renault takes a look and explains the differences and improvements made so far. A two-second gain in a single year 2013 saw F1 cars fitted with normally aspirated V8s delivering around 800bhp (that's 590kW without the extra 60kW provided by the KERS). Monza's speed traps recorded single-seaters clock around 340kph, with pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel posting a lap of 1:23.755 in quali...

The Singapore Grand Prix is a motor race on the calendar of the FIA Formula One World Championship. The event takes place in Singapore on the Marina Bay Street Circuit and was the inaugural F1 night race and the first street circuit in Asia. Spaniard Fernando Alonso won the first edition of the grand prix, driving for the Renault F1 team. The Singapore Grand Prix will remain on the F1 calendar through at least 2017, after race organizers signed a contract extension with Formula One Management on the eve of the 2012 event. The longest race in the F1 calendar at almost two hours, one of the hardest on brakes, with a 100% record of a safety car, a long slow pit stop and a choice of the softest tyres which cannot do the 308km marathon in one stop, the Singapore Grand Prix is always a strategy challenge. But now, with a new ban on team radios due to come into force this weekend, it makes it even more fascinating. Messages from engineers to drivers about strategy are permitted, but dr...

The FIA's World Motor Sport Council, meeting in Beijing ahead of the inaugural Formula E event, has announced the 2015 F1 calendar. In essence there are no changes to the calendar leaked over the course of the Italian Grand Prix weekend other than the fact that the Japanese event takes place a week earlier than originally scheduled and the United States and Mexican races change order. Date         Race                  Circuit 15-Mar Australia          Melbourne 29-Mar Malaysia   Sepang 05-Apr Bahrain     Sakhir 19-Apr China        Shanghai International Circuit 10-May Spain         Barcelona 24-May Monaco    Monaco 07-Jun Canada      Montreal 21-Jun Austria      Red Bull Ring 05-Jul Britain      Silverstone 19-Jul Germany   Nurburgring 26-Jul...

The Italian Grand Prix (Gran Premio d'Italia) is one of the longest running events on the Formula One calendar. The Italian Grand Prix was also one of the inaugural Formula One championship races in 1950, and has been held every year since then. The only other championship race for which this is true is the British Grand Prix, and the only other inaugural F1 races that are still on the calendar are the Monaco Grand Prix and the Belgian Grand Prix. Every Formula One Italian Grand Prix since 1950 has been held at Monza except in 1980, when it was held at Imola. The Italian Grand Prix counted toward the European Championship from 1935 to 1938. It was designated the European Grand Prix seven times between 1923 and 1967, when this title was an honorary designation given each year to one grand prix race in Europe. Monza is the fastest circuit on the F1 calendar and the one with the highest straight line speeds, which are expected to reach 360km/h this year, due to the reduction in d...

Slippery Nico..yeah I know.. A fantastic race, exciting with crazy overtaking up and down especially during the last few laps. If it were not the Rosberg incident, this race would have been perfect. Thanks to Rosberg, there is a slight bitterness in the mouth. Here is the winners vs losers piece by Andrew Davies of PlanetF1. Original article  HERE . Daniel Ricciardo made it two on the trot thanks to Nico Rosberg's one-man campaign at wrecking Mercedes' challenge. Star of the Race Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1st With virtually no elements to the Red Bull rear wing, the middle sector of Spa was incredibly tricky to drive. Dan was driving a Monza wing (at the next race, there will be nothing left to take off) around Spa. Maybe the trickiest bit of all was qualifying in the wet on Saturday. As we saw from the onboard footage from Q3, Dan made the most monumental of saves going through Blanchimont to keep all of his car in Belgium. In the race he got a reasonable start a...

The Belgian Grand Prix is an automobile race, part of the Formula One World Championship. The first national race of Belgium was held in 1925 at the Spa region's race course, an area of the country that had been associated with motor sport since the very early years of racing. To accommodate Grand Prix motor racing, the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps race course was built in 1921 but it was only used for motorcycle racing until 1924. After the 1923 success of the new 24 hours of Le Mans in France, the Spa 24 Hours, a similar 24-hour endurance race, was run at the Spa track. Since inception, Spa-Francorchamps has been known for its unpredictable weather. At one stage in its history it had rained at the Belgian Grand Prix for twenty years in a row. Frequently drivers confront a part of the course that is clear and bright while another stretch is rainy and slippery. The Belgian Grand Prix was designated the European Grand Prix six times between 1925 and 1973, when this title was a...