It's going to be a cracking season!!!

This year's F1 season is shaping up to be cracker. In 2012, there will be a total of six ex or reigning world champion's with the return of 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen who returns to the sport for the first since 2009. So far in preseason testing all team's have been extremely close and reliability has been very good. There have been a number of rule change's for the 2012 season. I shall go into these in more detail. 

I find it very interesting that this season four out of thee 12 team's competing in F1 are powered by Renault engine's, RedBull, Lotus, Caterham and Williams all have the V8 power planets. So far in presason testing it has been to close to call between RedBull and McLaren, however the Lotus team have been very quick and have shown good reliability.

Last season, Lotus Renault as they were known as made a great start to season scoring two podium's in the first two round's of the championship in Australia and Malaysia. The team will be hoping for a repeat of last season's great start especially this year with a new driver line-up in Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean. Kimi has always performed very well in Australia.

Ecclestone calls for Australian GP time change

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has called for the Australian GrandPrix organizers to change the race start time. The race currently starts at 5PM local time however Ecclestone wants the race to become a night race like Singapore. The current race deal in Melbourne runs until 2015 and Ecclestone has hinted that if the race organizers do not agree to change the time of the race the Australian GrandPrix could return to Adelaide.

The race organizers have stated that the cost involved in changing the race to a night race would be overwhelming not to mention the environmental impact that it would have on the local area.

I beleiev that the race should be kept at the the time it is at the moment because I know myself, I love getting up early for the Australian GrandPrix because to me that's what all the fly-away races are all about.

Lotus confirm return to testing action

The Lotus F1 team confirmed today that they will return to Barcelona for the final four day's of testing starting tomorrow morning. The team were forced to miss last week's test with a chassis problem however the team are confident that the issue has been resolved. The team spent the last four day's working on a solution.

They will therefore join the rest of the team's at the Circuit Du Catalunya. The team said that the route of the problem was with the E20 chassis 02 and that this chassis is going to be used strictly as a spare and that that both Kimi and Romain will share chassis 01.

The team were able to get plenty of mileage on that car in Jerez, however the fact that they missed the test last week is a set back, however it is not a major problem.

I believe that the team will bounce back and hit the ground running. From the pace that both Kimi and Romain were setting in Jerez they will be back up to speed with the heavily revised E20.

In the past few minutes it has been confirmed that Romain Grosjean will be driving the E20 tomorrow and Friday wih Kimi Raikkonen taking over for Saturday and Sunday, he final two day's of testing.

I will be posting the latest times throughout tomorrow and the weekend.

Final preseason F1 test gets underway on Thursday.

This Thursday sees the final four day's of preseason testing get underway at the Circuit Du Catalunya in Barcelona Spain. The test is similar to a GrandPrix weekend as it will last from Thursday - Sunday. However unlike GrandPrix weekend's there are four day's of track action instead of three day's.

All the team's with the exception of the Marussia team will be attendace. The remaining team's have just confirmed their running order for the four day's. The Lotus team are yet to confirm their plans for the test. Due to the fact that they missed all of last week's running because of a problem with their chassis they had been hoping to secure an extra day of private testing, however after Ferrari and RedBull were forced to change their test plans it is unlikely the FIA will allow Lotus to run a private test.

The week is the final chance for the team's to sort out any issues that they have before they pack up and go to Australia for the first race of the season.

Thursday

RedBull - Mark Webber
McLaren - Jenson Button
Ferrari - Felipe Massa
Mercedes - Nico Rosber
Lotus - Romain Grosjean
Force India - Paul Di Resta
Sauber - Sergio Perez
Toro Rosso - Jean - Eric Vergne
Williams - Pastor Maldonando
Caterham - Heikki Kovalainen
HRT - TBC
Marussia  - Not Attending.

Friday

RedBull - Sebastian Vettel

McLaren - Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari - Fernando Alonso

Mercedes - Michael Schumacher

Lotus - Romain Grosjean

Force India - Nico Hulkenberg

Sauber - Kamui Kobayashi

Toro Rosso - Daniel Ricciardo

Williams - Bruno Senna

Caterham - Heikki Kovalainen

HRT - TBC

Marussia  - Not Attending.

Saturday

RedBull - Mark Webber

McLaren - Jenson Button

Ferrari - Felipe Massa

Mercedes - Nico Rosber

Lotus - Kimi Raikkonen

Force India - Paul Di Resta

Sauber - Sergio Perez

Toro Rosso - Jean - Eric Vergne

Williams - Pastor Maldonando

Caterham - Vitaly Petrov

HRT - TBC

Marussia  - Not Attending.

Sunday

RedBull - Sebastian Vettel

McLaren - Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari - Fernando Alonso

Mercedes - Michael Schumacher

Lotus - Kimi Raikkonen

Force India - Nico Hulkenberg

Sauber - Kamui Kobayashi

Toro Rosso - Daniel Ricciardo

Williams - Bruno Senna

Caterham - Vitaly Petrov

HRT - TBC

Marussia  - Not Attending.

All Schedule's aree subject to change

Sky Sports viewers in for a REAL F1 treat

F1 fan's who have made the plunge and signed up to Sky Sports F1 for 2012 are in for a massive treat. Yesterday I had an incredible experience thanks to Sky Sports F1 HD. As part of the promotion of the brand new dedicated F1 HD channel Sky Sports are currently touring around the UK with a Formula One car that is connected to a computer giving fan's the opportunity to drive a handful of laps of Silverstone's short circuit.

On Sunday and Monday the car was in St Stephen's Green Shopping Centre. Sky F1 commentator Martin Brundle was in Dublin on Sunday for a photoshoot with the car. Over 200 people showed up on Sunday at the launch of the F1 Experience and I found out about it late on Sunday afternoon via Facebook as 98FM were broadcasting live from the centre to celebrate the launch of Sky's F1 coverage.

I was out of Dublin for the weekend so couldn't make it up to Stephen's Green however yesterday I raced into the city centre with my fingers and toes crossed that the car was still there. I arrived at the shopping centre just after 1.30 and to my delight the car was still there. I got talking to the Sky team at the car and after a short time they asked me if I wanted a go. My eye's lit up. I was like a kid in a candy store. They said to me to come back in 15 minute's as they were setting up the car so that you could get as realistic an experience of the the sensation of what it is like to drive an F1 car.

I left the centre and a sort time later I arrived back and luckily there wasn't a big queue. In fact I was the only one in the line hahaha. So I stepped into the car and was guided through the circuit and told to put plenty of pressure on the throttle pedal. The car was fully automatic so that as great and I was told that because there wasn't anyone waiting I could take my time and get comfortable with the feel of the car.

The last time I drove and F1 car in that situation sitting in the car was back in 2003 when I was actually in Silverstone for the Grandprix and got to drive the B and H Jordan Ford around the Silverstone circuit, The old layout which I prefer to the new layout. That time around I came very close to winning the F1 challenge that was in association with the Jordan team themselves. Had I won it I would have worked with Eddie Jordan for the day in Silverstone. Alas it wasn't to be I ran wide on the exit of the final corner and spun the car.

In the Sky car however I absolutely loved the experience I spun the car twice but that was while I was getting used to the sensitivity of the controls. Driving the car was incredible sensation. I felt the pressure in my leg's as braked into and accelerated out of corners and raced down the straight. I was guidded by one the guy from Sky for the first few laps which was fine and then it was time for me to try it myself.

I did around ten lap's of the circuit and managed a fastest time of 48.9 seconds which had I done it on Sunday I would have placed tenth out of 200 people. No bad haha.

I have been extremely lucky over the years as I have taken part in a number of pitstop challenges where you are given the opportunity to change the tyre on an F1 car. Twice I have changed the tyre on a Ferrari F1 car and I have also changed the tyre on a Jordan car. Which if you ever get the opportunity to do go for it, it is a fantastic experience.

Anyway back to Sky F1, I wasn't very happy when it was announced last July at the Hungarian GrandPrix that the BBC and Sky would be sharing the right's to the UK and Ireland's F1 coverage from 2012 onwards. I was even more disappointed when I learnt that Martin Brundle, Ted Kravitz, Natalie Pickham, Anthony Davidson and David Croft were all moving from the BAFTA winning BBC F1 team to Sky Sports F1HD.

However I have to say that although Sky have a massive mountain to climb and a battle to beat the BBC they have assembled a fantastic team that will enable them to go into this season confident in the fact that they are going to do extremely well against the BBC.

From what I have seen of Sky Sports coverage of F1 so far it is going to be BRILLIANT. I don't have Sky Sports yet however I have Sky Sports News and during the Winter when the team's were launching their car's Sky had a correspondent at every launch and interviewed the driver's and team personnel. They have also had reporters in Jerez and Barcelona giving live updates on testing and all the latest F1 news.

This year Sky's coverage of F1 is going to be far more compressive then the BBC's coverage ever was and Sky have also promised that like the BCC their live coverage will be commercial free and uninterrupted. Sky have all 20 races live this season while the BBC will show an hour long extended highlight's package of over race on Sunday evening's. The Beeb will however show 10 races live for 2012.

Martin said that the reason he moved to Sky was to do with the fact that they are showing all 20 races live and the fact that he will be doing many more technical features then he did with the Beeb. The first feature that he will do will be driving the Ferrari F2012 at Fiorano Ferrari's test track next month.

Australia - Sky Sports F1HD
Malaysia - Sky Sports F1HD
China - Sky Sports F1HD/ BBC F1
Bahrain - Sky Sports F1HD
Spain - Sky Sports F1HD/ BBC F1
Monaco - Sky Sports F1HD/ BBC F1
Canada - Sky Sports F1HD
European GP - Sky Sports F1HD/ BBC F1
Britain - Sky Sports F1HD/ BBC F1
Germany - Sky Sports F1HD
Hungary - Sky Sports F1HD
SPA- Belgium - Sky Sports F1HD/ BBC F1
Italy - Sky Sports F1HD
Singapore - Sky Sports F1HD/ BBC F1
Japan - Sky Sports F1HD
Korea - Sky Sports F1HD/ BBC F1
India - Sky Sports F1HD
Abu Dhabi - Sky Sports F1HD/ BBC F1
United States - Sky Sports F1HD
Brazil - Sky Sports F1HD/ BBC F1

Breakdown of 2012 F1 Coverage between Sky and the BBC note for Irish F1 fans Setanta Sports no longer carry's  Formula One so they have a choice of Sky Sports for all 20 Live races or 10 races live with the BBC.

FIA clarifies testing regulations resulting in testing rethink for RedBull and Ferrari

The FIA has clarified the regulations regarding testing that has forced Ferrari and RedBull Racing to rethink their plans for the upcoming final preseason test in Barcelona at the end of this week. Ferrari and RedBull had asked permission to start testing on Friday and to stay in Barcelona to continue testing there next Monday.

The FIA has rejected this request and clarified the rules regarding testing as set down by the 2012 F1 Sporting Regulations which state that no testing can take place the week prior to the first round of the FIA Formula One World Championship. The FIA stated last night that the prior to the first race in Melbourne will start on Monday 5th March which is next week.

This means that NO testing of any sort can take place during that week, so team's cannot conduct straight-line aero tests.

Lotus participation in final test uncertain

The Lotus F1 team have yet to confirm whether or not they will be in attendance at the this week's final preseason test after the team were forced to go home early from last week's test following a chassis failure on the E20 chassis 02. The team were due to travel back to the UK to collect the E20 chassis 01 however following an inspection of that chassis it was determined that the car also had a failure on it despite running in Jerez and being very quick.

Reports emerged over the weekend that the team have so far been unable to sort out the problem with the new car. This could cause major issues for the team because should they be forced to miss the first race of the new season they would receive extremely severe financial penalties.

It has also been suggested that the team may be able to make the first race of the season however that they would be only entering on car into the race. If that were to be the case Kimi Raikkenon would likely get the car as he has been designated the number 9 while Romain Grosjean has the 10 making Kimi the number one driver at the Lotus team.

Marussia to miss final test after failing final Crash test

The Marussia Formula One team have been forced to sit out the final pre-season F1 test in Barcelona at the end of this week after their new car dubbed the MR01 failed the final mandatory FIA crash test. The fact that the team failed the crash test affectively means that they will have to run their new car for the first time in Friday practice for the Australian GrandPrix in just over two week's time.

Marussia aren't the first team to have failed a crash test for this season, the HRT team failed the test last week however their car was passed last Friday and is now ready for the test in Barcelona. The team could ask for permission for a private test however this request is unlikely to be granted as they have had ample time to pass the crash tests.

As I have said in previous posts I believe that teams should be given a date by which to have their new cars completed by and none of this bringing an interim car to the first few race's of the season like Ferrari did a number of year's ago. This would avoid a situation like the one Marussia find themselves in at the moment.

All is not lost for Marussia, because the team could join the Barcelona test from Saturday - Sunday if the car passes the new crash test.

Schumacher entering into last year of Mercedes deal

The Formula One season is just three week's away and it marks the start of Michael Schumacher's final season with Mercedes AMG. The German 7 time's world champion came out of retirement at the start of the 2010 F1 season but has failed to find the form that made him so successful while driving fr Ferrari during the early 00's.

Michael Schumacher has failed to match the pace of his younger team-mate Nico Rosberg who joined the team in 2010. Mercedes will be hoping that this season they will be able to challenge McLaren, Ferrari and RedBull. Last year Mercedes finished 4th in the championship for the second year in a row.

The team had endured very tough challenge's since Mercedes took over the 2009 champion's. Nico Rosberg has a long term deal to race with Mercedes, however it id currently to early to say whether or not Schumacher will have his contract extended beyond this season.

I believe that Schumacher will hang up his gloves and helmet at the end of the season however I think that he will stay on at Mercedes in a consultancy role similar role that he held at Ferrari following his retirement from his first F1 career at the end of the 2006 F1 season.

So far Mercedes have shown great reliability during preseason testing and they ran their new car the W03 for the first time in Barcelona this week and racked up many miles. Once again I will be updating the blog with reports about the upcoming final pre season test that gets underway in Barcelona on Thursday.

Doubts over HRT's final pre-season test appearance.

The HRT F1 team's participation in next week's final pre-season test is unclear as it emerged theat the Spanish outfit only passed the mandatory FIA crash test's yesterday, after their car the F112 failed two previous tests. The team had been scheduled to test in Barcelona during this week's outing at the Circuit Du Catalunya however those plan's were put on ice when news broke that the new car had failed initial crash tests.

The final pre-season test gets under way on Thursday in Barcelona and HRT have yet to test their new car at any of the previous two test's so it is crucial that the team get some mileage in the new car before the new season starts in Melbourne in three week's time.

I strongly believe that there should be a cut off point a date by which new cars should be completed as a number of the team's arrived at the first test session in early February with their 2011 cars.HRT are hoping to run their new car for at least two day's next week. The Marussia team are also expected to run their new car next week in Barcelona.

If HRT and Marussia opt to run their new car's it will be the first time in 2012 that all the team's will be present at a test and also the first time that all the 2012 cars will have run together. The test in Barcleona is a crucial one for the team's as it is the last opportunity that they have to rack up extra mileage on their 2012 car's and it also gives them the chance to iron out any teething problems that they have had.

In fact all the team's are expexted to bring major upgrade packages for their cars to the final pre-season test. The team's will only have a short amount of time at the conclusion of the final test on 5th March to bring the car's back to their respective factory's and prepare them for the long journey to Australia. The first lot of team equipment is expected to arrive in Albert Park very soon after the final test.

Kamui Kobayashi was the man to beat today as the first Barcelona test drew to a close today. The Sauber driver completed a staggering 145 laps with a fastest time of 1m 22.312s two trnths faster then Paster Maldonando who completed a good test for the Williams Renault team.

Today's test passed off without any major issues for any of the team's however Caterham suffered an electrical problem with the CT01 which required the team to change the engine. This ruled Heikki Kovalainen out of track action for a brief time however the Finn managed to complete 70 laps finsihing at the bottom of the timesheets in 9th place.

The Marussia team wre unable to take part in testing today after a suspension failure on their car.The Final Pre-season test gets underway next Thursday where the Lotus team will return to the track with Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean behind the wheel after missing the entire week of testing this week due to a chassis problem.

Second week of preseason testing concludes today

The second week of preseason testing concludes at the Circuit Du Catalunya in Barcelona today. So far this morning Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi has topped the time-sheets with a fastest time of 1m 22.520s. Jenson Button was second with Paul Di Resta third.

This week I have been pleasantly surprised  with Toro Rosso's pace as both Daniel Ricciardo and Jean -Eric Vergne have been in the top five all week. Right now as I type this update Vergne currently lies in 5th place just ahead of Mark Webber in the RedBull.

The shock for me is the fact that Lotus are absent from the test, granted they had an issue with their car however the need to rack up the mileage and unfortunately the chassis failure on Tuesday morning and subsequent discovery of a second fault with their number one chassis forced them to pull out of testing.

In any case they will be back up to speed next week when the final pre-season test kicks off in Barcelona. The team have also asked for an extra day of private testing due to the car failure. This week also saw Vitaly Petrov make his track debut with the Caterham F1 team. The Russian has replaced Jarno Trulli for 2012 and so far the team have been very happy with his progress and feedback.

In other news Ferrari and RedBull have altered their plans for the final preseason test which takes place from next Thursday to Sunday. The two team's have decided to run their cars from Friday 2nd to Monday 5th March instead of Thursday to Sunday. Ferrari decided to change their plans and RedBull approached the Scuderia and asked if they could join them at the test which Ferrari, a request Ferrari were delighted to accept.

I have found it extremely interesting that despite Lotus' problem's and a few teething problems for RedBull and Ferrari, reliability has been very good for the teams. All the team's with the exception of Marussia were running their 2012 machines this week, however Marussia were using 2012-spec Pirelli tyres on their car. So when next week's test gets underway all 12 team's will be in attendance with HRT opting to skip the second test to concentrate on the development of their 2012 car.

McLaren who have been matching the pace of RedBull throughout testing have announced they will be bringing a major update for the MP4-27 to Barcelona next week although I'm sure that all the team's will have upgrades for the final test.

I am extremely excited as the Formula One season officially gets underway in exactly three week's from today (Friday). In fact this time three week's we will know who was fastest in the first two practice session's in Melbourne. T - 21 DAY'S TO GO UNTIL TRACK ACTION STARTS IN MELBOURNE AND THEN AS THE LEGENDARY MURRAY WALKER USED TO SAY IT WILL BE GO GO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Maldonado stays top as day three comes to an end

Pastor Maldonado's time this morning was enough to keep the Williams driver at the top of the timesheets as day three of preseason testing concluded in Barcelona today. He was nearly a second ahead of Michael Schumacher. The top three from this morning stayed the same this afternoon with Michael Schumacher and Kamui Kobayashi second and third respectively. Meanwhile Mark Webber was sixth for RedBull despite stopping out on track in the afternoon.

The second week of preseason concludes in Barcelona tomorrow afternoon. Over the course of today 966 laps were completed of the Circuit Du Catalunya. So far in testing McLaren and RedBull have been very close to each other in terms of pace.

It will be interesting to see what happens when Lotus return to the track next week with the modifications that they have made to the new E20. Will the team be able to set similar pace they set at last week's test in Jerez?

Maldonado fastest in morning session on day three

Williams driver Pastor Maldonado posted the fastest time this morning with a fastest time of 1m 22.391s. The Venezuelan completed 52 laps as Williams continue to rack up the mileage on their brand new supply pf Renault engines. The Grove based team endured their worst season last year since their entry into the sport. The team made sweeping changes over the winter and over the course of last season. Sam Michael stepped down from his role at the team and joined rivals McLaren. Meanwhile co-founder of the team Patrick Head resigned from the team.

Williams have brought in ex McLaren designer Mike Coghlan to help turn the team around. Michael Schumacher was second fastest while it was another great start for Toro Rosso as F1 newcomer Jean - Eric Vergne was fifth quickest. Meanwhile Mark Webber was down in seventh for RedBull Racing.

I will have another update later at the conclusion of today's action.

Lotus set to receive boast with an extra day of testing

The Lotus team could receive a welcome boast in the next couple of day's as they have requested an extra day of private testing following a failure on their new E20 which ruled the team out of this week's test in Barcelona. I believe that the team should have no problem getting the extra day of testing as Mercedes AMG were given permission to carry out a shakedown test of their W03 prior to this week's test in Barcelona.

In order to be allowed to run the extra day of testing Lotus need to get permission from all of the other team's on the grid. They have already received support from the majority of the team's. It is believed that the problem that the team encountered with their car was suspension related.

Day 2 belongs to Force India and Sauber

There were some surprise's during day two of F1 testing in Barcelona today as Force India's Nico Hulkenberg ended the session fastest with a time of 1m 22.608s 0.283s fastest then reigning champion Sebastian Vettel who topped the timesheets this morning. During the afternoon session the teams took advantage of the great weather in Spain and carried out long runs with a lot of fuel on board.

It was a great day for Sauber and Sergio Perez who posted the second fastest time of the day for the Swiss team. From what I have seen so far many of team's are very evenly matched with very little between any of them. The top five drivers today were covered within a second.

Today marked the end of the Barcelona test for Vettel who hands the RB8 to Mark Webber who will test the car for the remainder of the week. Likewise over at McLaren Jenson Button will takeover from Lewis Hamilton.

It was another good day for Daniel Ricciardo who finished the session mid-table in fifth place just ahead of Lewis Hamilton and just behind Fernando Alonso. Kimi Raikkonen was due to take over from Romain Grosjean at Lotus tomorrow however that won't happen as the team returned to the UK last night after a fault was detected with their car, the team opted to miss the rest of this week's test.

I believe that this a put the team on the back foot as both their driver's having not raced in F1 since 2009 need to get as much mileage under their belt as possible and with the team absent from the test, it means that they only have from 1st - 4th March to iron out problems that they may have with the car before they are packed up and shipped to Melbourne for round 1 of the season.

Vettel leads morning session on day 2

Sebastian Vettel once again showed that the new RedBull is fully up to speed by setting the early leading pace at the circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona this morning. However the German was only 6 thousandths of a second ahead of Sauber's Sergio Perez. While 9 of the 12 team's are in Barcelona Lotus have returned to the UK after discovering a problem with their chassis and the new HRT car won't debut until the final Preseason test.

It has been another good morning for Toro Rosso driver Daniel Ricciardo, the Australian set the 5th fastest time of the morning ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

So far on his Caterham debut Vitaly Petrov has set the 9th fastest time completing 17 laps. There will be a full update on today's action this evening.

Lotus pull out of Barcelona test

Lotus has confirmed in the last few minutes that due to a problem the team had this morning with the E20 chassis number 2 they have pulled out of this week's Barcelona test. Romain Grosjean only completed 7 lap's in the second chassis this morning before reporting a problem with the car.

Despite the fact the team was due to send chassis 1 to Barcelona for tomorrow's test that plan has now been scrapped. In a statement this evening the team said that both of the new Lotus chassis require modification. This is extremely bad news for the team especially for Kimi Raikkonen who was set to test the car on Thursday and Friday.

The team will be in attendance for the final preseason test in Barcelona next week.

Vettel fastest as new Mercedes makes track debut

RedBull-Racing's Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time of the day as the second week of preseason testing kicked off in Barcelona today. The reigning world champion completed 79 laps with a fastest time of 1m 23.265s 0.175 seconds faster then Force India's Nico Hulkenberg. Michael Schumacher was behind the wheel of the new Mercedes GP AMG W03 as it made it's track debut and he ended the day 6th fastest completing 51 laps.

However it was Daniel Ricciardo in the Toro Rosso who was the star of the day. The Australian who made his F1 debut with the HRT team last season set the fourth fastest time of the day.

It was a problematic day for the Caterham team as a broken track rod ended the team's day early. Lotus were also forced to pull out of today's session.

Mercedes GP AMG become final team to unveil 2012 car

Mercedes GP AMG became the final top team to unveil their new car the Mercedes GP AMG W03, the car that they hope will bring the team success in 2012. The team will have the same lineup of Michael Schumacher who is in his final year of a three year deal and he will be once again be partnered by Nico Rosberg who has consistently outperformed the former champion during their time at Mercedes GP.

Just like the majority of the 2012 cars with the exception of McLaren the Mercedes features a stepped nose. The car was unveiled to the media in Barcelona this morning just before day two of testing got underway. Sebastian Vettel was fastest this morning for RedBull while Michael Schumacher was 6th in the new Mercedes.

It was has been a very poor start to the second week of pre-season testing for the Lotus team as a chassis problem has forced Romain Grosjean to cut his test programme short for the day. Today was the first day of testing for the second Lotus chassis the E20-02 which has been sent back to the team's Enstone base for checks. The team are sending the E20-01 to Barcelona and it is due to arrive tomorrow on time for the second day of testing.

The issue is a set back for the team who started testing so strongly in Jerez two weeks ago. They will be hoping that this is the only issue that they face with only the rest of this week and a test in Barcelona in early March before the season gets underway in Australia on March 18th.

Kimi Raikkonen takes to the track in Barcelona on Thursday and Friday. I will be back later today with an update at the conclusion of today's session.

Barcelona Test lineup

With the second round of preseason testing getting underway tomorrow the team's have just confirmed the running order for the test session.

RedBull: Tuesday - Sebastien Vettel
              Wednesday - Sebastien Vettel
               Thursday - Mark Webber
                Friday - Mark Webber

McLaren: Tuesday - Lewis Hamilton
                Wednesday - Lewis Hamilton
                 Thursday - Jenson Button
                 Friday - Jenson Button

Ferrari: Tuesday - Fernando Alonso
            Wednesday - Fernando Alonso
             Thursday - Felipe Massa
             Friday - Felipe Massa

Mercedes: Tuesday - Michael Schumacher
                  Wednesday - Nico Rosberg
                  Thursday - Michael Schumacher
                   Friday - Nico Rosberg

Lotus: Tuesday - Romain Grosjean
           Wednesday - Romain Grosjean
            Thursday - Kimi Raikkonen
            Friday - Kimi Raikkonen

Sauber: Tuesday - Sergio Perez
             Wednesday - Sergio Perez
             Thursday - Kamui Kobayashi
             Friday - Kamui Kobayashi

Force India: Tuesday - Nico Hulkenberg
                    Wednesday - Nico Hulkenberg
                     Thursday - Paul Di Resta
                     Friday - Paul Di Resta

Toro Rosso: Tuesday - Jean Eric Vergne
                    Wednesday - Jean Eric Vergne
                     Thursday - Daniel Ricciardo
                     Friday Daniel Ricciardo

Williams: Tuesday - Bruno Senna
               Wednesday - Valtteri Bottas
                Thursday - Pastor Maldonado
                Friday - Pastor Maldonado

Caterham F1 - TBA

HRT - NOT RUNNING

Marussia: Tuesday - Charles Pic
                Wednesday - Charles Pic
                 Thursday - Charles Pic
                 Friday - Timo Glock

So all teams will be running with the exception of HRT who will be back on track for the final preseason test of 2012 in Barcelona from 1st - 4th March. Mercedes GP AMG will be running their new 2012 car in Barcelona this week.

It has been confirmed the past few minutes that Vitaly Petrov will test the new Caterham CT-01 on Wednesday. The Russian had his seat fitting with the Norfolk based team on Friday.


             

Barcelona here we come!!!

This week see's F1 return to track action as Barcelona is venue for the second week of preseason testing as the team's prepare for the start of the new season. This week is a big week for the Mercedes GP AMG team as they will launch and run their new car dubbed the W03 for the first time. It will be interesting to see what new development packages the team's will bring to the second week of testing.

Once again all the top team's will be present however, Mrussia have stated that their new car will make it's debut at the final preseason test in Barcelona from 1st - 4th March. There are a number of team's to keep an eye on this week, Lotus for example, can they continue their great pace? What will Ferrari and RedBull bring to the table this week and what if anything have Mercedes been hiding.

This week will also see former Renault driver Vitaly Petrov make his track debut his his new team Caterham. The Russian driver was announced as Jarno Trulli's replacement at the team on Friday. The absence of Jarno Trulli in 2012 means that for the first since 1969 Italy will not be represented by any driver on the grid.

One month until the green light's go out

Today mark's exactly one month until F1 2012 gets under way down under in Melbourne Australia. Many questions will be answered at the race. How will Kimi Raikkenon do on his F1 return? Can anyone stop Sebastien Vettel and RedBull? How affect will the new regulations be? And probably the most important question of of all How will Sky Sports do on their F1 debut.

The latter question can pretty much be asnwered straight away witythout much difficulty at all. I beleieve that if Sky Sports News coverage of F1 so far during the Pre-season period is anything to go by then their coverage of F1 will be a huge success. I hate the fact that Sky have the right's to show all of the 2012 races and that the BBC are only showing 10 live however I feel that Sky have put together a fantastic team that will help them hit the ground running.

Unfortunately for the BBC, I feel that their F1 coverage is going to suffer dramatically as Sky have managed to lure many of the BBC's top F1 personnel for their own coverage, Martin Brundle, Ted Travitz, David Croft, Natalie Pickham and Athony Davison have all jumped ship for 2012, leaving Lee McKenzie, DC, Eddie Eddie Jordan and Jake Humphrey to head up the BAFTA Award wining BBC F1 team.

So F1 2012 is shaping up nicely to what I think will be the most exciting season in years.

Petrov replaces Trulli at Caterham for 2012

With just over a month before the 2012 F1 season gets underway in Melbourne Australia, the Caterham team announced today that former Renault driver Vitaly Petrov will replace Jarno Trulli at the team for the 2012 season. Petrov made his F1 debut in 2010 with the Renault team, becoming the first Russian driver to compete in Formula One.

Petrov will partner Heikki Kovalainen and will make his on track debut with the team at the second pre-season test that kicks off in Barcelona next Tuesday 21st February. The news means that after 15 seasons in Formula One the Italian who has driven for Minardi, Prost, Jordan, Renault, Toyota and Lotus took his first and only win at the 2004 Monaco GrandPrix driving for Renault.

In other F1 news Mercedes 2012 car the W03 made it's track debut on Thursday afternoon in Silverstone where Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg completed laps in the new car for filming purposes. The new car will make it's test debut in Barcelona next Tuesday.

Caterham promote Gascoyne

The Caterham Group announced today that they have appointed former Caterham F1 technical director Mike Gascoyne to that role with the Caterham Group of company's. In his new role Gascoyne will oversee all the technical departments within Caterham Cars and the Caterham GP2 programme he will also attend a number of GrandPrix in 2012 and will continue to play a role in Caterham F1.

Gascoyne joined the then Lotus F1 team at the start of the 2010 season, the team's first season in F1 and played a key role in the foundation of the team along with Caterham CEO Tony Fernandes.

Former Force India and Cosworth engineer Mark Smith has taken over as Caterham F1's technical director.
the team are currently in a transitional phase in their development as they are in the process of moving from their Norfolk HQ to the former Arrows and Super Aguri base in Leafield. The team will be hoping that they can score their first ever championship point in 2012 after finishing ahead of the two other new team's in F1 HRT and Mrussia F1 in the 2011 season.

Ecclestone and FIA insist the Bahrain GrandPrix WILL go ahead

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has insisted that the 2012 Bahrain GrandPrix will go ahead as planned on Sunday April 22nd. Last years race was cancelled due to civil unrest in the country  after riots broke out in the country on 14th February 2011. At the time the Gulf state insisted that race could go ahead however last year Bahrain was scheduled as the first race of the season and as the team's cancelled the final test of the pre-season in Bahrain they felt the best thing to do was to cancel the GrandPrix.

Ecclestone however, sees no reason at all why the race won't go ahead this year and fully expects F1 to back in Bahrain in April. In an interview with the Telegraph Ecclestone said that the only negative reports that he has heard of this week was that 'some kid's got in trouble with the police'.

A spokesperson for the Bahrain International circuit echoed Ecclestones belief that the race will go ahead comparing the riots and unrest in the country to last summers riots in London. The FIA has also said that they feel that the race can go ahead as president of Motorsport governing body Jean Todt has viusited the region in recent weeks and believes that the country is ready to host the race again and he feels that the hosting of the GrandPrix will help to bring the country together.

In my opinion Formula One should not return to Bahrain this year due to the fact there has been reports of fresh violence in the country and that the staging of the GrandPrix could mean that it becomes a target. The announcement that the race will go ahead comes just day's after a number of MP's in Britain had called for Formula One to cancel the race again this year.

We shall just have to wait and see what happens in the coming day's.

Barrichello to test for KVRacing next week

Formula One veteran Rubens Barrichello will conduct another test with IZOD IndyCar team KVRacing at Sears Point next week 24th and 25th February as the team continue to evaluate the Brazilian. Rubens Barrichello's 19 year F1 career came to end last month when the Williams team replaced the veteran of 322 races with his compatriot Bruno Senna.

With just over a month to go before the IZOD IndyCar Series gets underway in St Petersburg, Barrichello still has plenty of time to acclimatize to IndyCar should he be given the drive with KVRacing Technology. I beleieve that this would be a great move for Barrichello if it happens. He would be following a long line of F1 drivers who have competed in IndyCar.

During his F1 career Barrichello drove for Jordan, Stewart, Ferrari, Honda, Brawn and Williams, winning a total of 11 GrandPrix and taking 14 pole positions.

Mercedes to launch new car in Barcelona

The Mercedes AMG team announced this morning that they will launch their 2012 challenger dubbed the W03 on the morning of Tuesday 21st February in the pitlane in Barcelona at 8.20am. The team brought last year's car to the first preseason test last week to allow them extra time to develop their new car. 

Schumacher will drive the new car on Tuesday and Thursday while team mate Nico Rosberg will drive the car on Wednesday and Friday. Mercedes will be the last of the big team's to launch their new car with only HRT and Mrusssia left to launch their cars. They will run their new car's at the final preseason test in Barcelona from 1st to 4th March before all the team's head to Melbourne, Australia for the first race of the 2012 season on March 18th.

Senna wins big at BAFTA's

I was absolutely delighted yesterday to hear that The Senna movie won two awards at this year's BAFTA's in London. The film is a documentary about the legendary triple F1 champion who was tragically killed in a crash during the 1994 San Marino GrandPrix. The film was made with the permission of Senna's family who provided never before seen video footage of Ayrton Senna during his career. The film won the BAFTA for Best Documentary and also the Best Editing award.

Alonso leads day four as first 2012 pre-season winter test ends

Fernando Alonso lead the way for Ferrari on day four of the week of pre season testing in Jerez, Spain. The Ferrari driver, at the wheel of the team's F2012 car completed 39 lap's finishing just ahead of F1 newcomer Jean Eric Vergne in his Toro Rosso. Sebastien Vettel was 3rd for RedBull Racing while Romain Grosjean completed a great week for the Lotus team by finishing 5th overall.

Despite setting the fastest time on Friday Alonso only managed to complete 39 laps for Ferrari due to a hydraulic issue with the new Ferrari F2012. I believe that the first test of the F1 preseason has been inconclusive due to the fact that Mercedes were using their 2011 car and were fastest on Wednesday and Thursday, so this is not a real indication of where the team's currently stand.

However OI believe that Lotus are in a good position, Kimi Raikkonen, making his comeback after two years away from the sport was fastest on Tuesday the first day of Preseason testing and was very quick on Wednesday meanwhile Romain Grosjean has been extremely quick on his return to F1 after two years away from the sport.

All the team's bar HRT were in attendance at Jerez this week. They announced prior to the start of winter testing that they would be debuting their new car at the second pre-season test in Barcelona on 21st February, however it was announced this week that the team would miss the second test due to the fact that their 2012 car has failed the mandatory FIA crash test's twice.

A new regulation for the 2012 F1 season is that before any F1 car can make it's test debut it must first pass the strict FIA crash test. So if HRT are unable to run their new car in Barcelona that will leave them with only the final preseason test in Barcelona from 1st - 4th March before the team's head off Down Under for the opening race of the 2012 F1 season in Melbourne on 18th March.

FIA asked to consider cancelling Bahrain GrandPrix

The FIA has been asked to consider cancelling the 2012 Bahrain GrandPrix following fresh violence in the Gulf state. Last year's Bahrain GrandPrix was cancelled due to civil unrest in the country and the British government have called for the race to be cancelled following fresh violence in the country. Last month the FIA said that it would leave any decision on whether or not to travel to Bahrain up to the team's. The 2012 Formula One season gets underway on 18th March in Melbourne Australia.

This year's Bahrain GrandPrix is scheduled to take place on 22nd April.

Rosberg tops day three in Jerez

Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets on day three of pre-season testing in Jerez today. The German is currently evaluating Pirelli's 2012-spec tyres with the 2011 Mercedes GP car. Taking over from team-mate Michael Schumacher who was fastest yesterday. Rosberg completed 118 laps with a fastest time of 1.17.613s 0.806s ahead of F1 returnee Romain Grosjean who took over driving duties from Lotus team Mate Kimi Raikkonen.

Grosjean set a fastest time of 1.18.419s completing 117 laps and was the fastest of the 2012 cars just ahead of the RedBull of reigning champion Sebastien Vettel who completed his first day of pre-season testing in the RB8.

The Jerez test session concludes tomorrow morning

Schumacher tops day two with 2011 Mercedes

Michael Schumacher topped the time sheets on day of pre-season testing at Jerez. Schumacher, driving the 2011 Mercedes with 2012-spec Pirelli tyres completed 132 laps setting a fastest time of 1.18.561s, Mark Webber was second for RedBull on his last day before handing over driving duties to Sebastien Vettel tomorrow.

Yesterday's pace setter Kimi Raikkonen finished the day 5th overall with a best time of 1.20.239s. The Finn endured a difficult second day running wide onto the gravel in the morning causing slight damage to his Lotus E20. He makes way for Romain Grosjean tomorrow but will be back behind the wheel of the Lotus for the second preseason test in Barcelona on Tuesday 21st February.

It has been a great return for the Iceman so we shall see how Romain Grosjean fairs tomorrow.

Testing continues tomorrow morning,

Raikkonen tops day one of Winter testing at Jerez

Kimi Raikkonen made a successful return to track action as testing for the 2012 Formula One season got underway today in Jerez. The Finn, who is making a return to the sport with Lotus after two season's away from the sport completed 75 laps of the Jerez circuit and recorded a best time of 1m 19.670s just ahead of Force India's Paul Di Resta.

In setting the fastest time of the opening day of testing Kimi was faster then amy of the times set at the the circuit throughout pre-seson testing in 2011.

The Finn will continue his test programme for tomorrow before handing over to team mate Romain Grosjean on Thursday

Williams launch FW34 at Jerez

The Williams F1 team rolled out their 2012 car. The Renault powered FW34 was unveiled this morning by Pastor Maldonado and new driver Bruno Senna who replaces Rubens Barrichello for 2012. This year Williams have teamed up with Renault. The team will be hoping that this new partnership will be able to re live some of the success that the team had with Renault during the 1990's when the team won back to championship's with Renault power in 1996 and 97.

The team will be hoping for a far better 2012 season after suffering heir worst performance in the sport last year when they finished 9th in the constructors championship only scoring 5 points..

Raikkonen fastest in initial shakedown at Jerez.

Lotus have made a great start to pre-season winter testing at Jerez with Kimi Raikkonen as the Finn set the fastest time of the morning following an initial shakedown of the Lotus E20. On Monday the Finn ran the E20 for the first time for filming purposes and was extremely happy with the car despite the fact that he never made it out of second gear due to the regulations layed our when filming.

Kimi completed 22 laps and was very happy with the car however he said that the team would not see how the car performs on Tuesday as the first test got underway

Toro Rosso launches 2012 car at Jerez.

Toro Rosso became the seventh team to unveil their 2012 Formula One challenger the Ferrari powered STR7, they joined Sauber and RedBull Racing who also launched their 2012 car's on Monday (See previous post). The launch also saw the presentation of the team's all-new 2012 driver line-up to the assembled media.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo joins the team from HRT, while French RedBull backed Jean Eric Vergne who performed extremely well at the young driver test for RedBull Racing in Abu Dhabi at the conclusion of the 2011 season.So it will be interesting to see how this new driver pairing performs over the course of the season. Pre-season testing gets underway in Jerez tomorrow morning.

Lotus, Toro Rosso, Sauber, Williams, McLaren, Ferrari, Caterham, Force India, and RedBull will all be running their new car's. Mercedes and HRT will be running their 2011 spec car's. The Mrussia team are not in attendance.

All the team's will run their new cars in Barcelona the site of the next test

Busy day of car launches ahead of day one of pre-season testing

Today was extremely busy day for Formula One with not one but two 2012 car launches as defending champions RedBull Racing revealed their new Renault  powered RB8, the car they hope will help them to continue their dominance of the sport and give them their third championship double in a row. For 2012 the team retain the driver pairing of world champion Sebastien Vettel and Mark Webber. Sebastien Buemi joins the team as their official test and reserve driver after being replaced at Toro Rosso for the 2012 season. We shall see how the team get's on when Mark Webber takes to the track in the new car for the opening day of testing tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile The Sauber F1 team have also taken the wraps off their new car the C31. The team have retained the services of Japan's Kamui Kobayashi and Mexican Sergio Perez who was very impressive in his debut season for the tteam in 2011. For 2012 the team will be hoping to build on their 7th place finsih in the2011 championship.

Lotus launch E20 ahead of 2012 F1 season

The Lotus Renault GrandPrix team have unveiled their 2012 F1 car, the E20 was launched this afternoon at the team's factory in Enstone England. Lotus will be hoping that the new E20 will help them to score consistent points and challenge the top three team's during the 2012 season.

In 2012 Lotus have a number of big changes within the team the first is the fact that they have an all new driver line-up of 2007 World champion Kimi Raikkonen who returns to F1 after two years away from the sport. Kimi is joined at the team by Romain Grosjean.2012 also see's the team take to the grid with just the Lotus name.

The E20 will make it's track debut at Jerez in Spain on Monday morning for a shakedown run before Kimi Raikkonen takes to the track on Tuesday for the first day of pre season testing.

Karthikeyan completes the 2012 driver jigsaw puzzle

The HRT team announced this morning that Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan will drive alongside Pedro Dela Rosa for the 2012 F1 season. The Indian driver drove for HRT for the first eight races of the 2011 season but was replaced following the European GrandPrix by Australian rookie Daniel Ricciardo who has moved to Toro Rosso for the 2012 season.

The announcement that Narain Karthikeyan will drive for HRT this season means that with just seven week's to go until the first race of the 2012 season in Melbourne Australia all driver line-ups have been confirmed. And they are as follows

RedBull Racing: 1 Sebastien Vettel
                        2 Mark Webber

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes:3 Jenson Button
                                               4 Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari: 5 Fernando Alonso
            6 Felipe Massa

Petronas Mercedes GP AMG: 7 Michael Schumacher
                                                8 Nico Rosberg

Lotus F1 Team: 9 Kimi Raikkonen
                         10 Romain Grosjean

Sahara Force India F1: 11 Paul Di Resta
                                     12 Nico Hulkenborg

Sauber F1: 14 Kamui Kobayashi
                   15 Sergio Perez

Scuderia Toro Rosso: 16 Daniel Ricciardo
                                  17 Jean Eric Vergne

Williams Renault F1: 18 Pastor Maldonado
                                 19 Bruno Senna

Caterham F1: 20 Heikki Kovalainen
                      21 Vitaly Petrov*

HRT: 22 Pedro Dela Rosa
         23 Narain Karthikeyan

Mrussia: 24 Timo Glock
              25 Charles Pic


Driver's marked in Bold are new line-ups for 2012. And number 21 Vitaly Petrov replaces Jarno Trulli

Ferrari unveil F2012 in Marnello

Today has been an extremely busy day for Formula One so far because following Force India's car launch Ferrari launched their 2012 car the F2012. the car that they hope will help them win this year's championship. In my opinion compared to the Force India car the 2012 Ferrari looks very plain but we will have to wait until Monday morning to find out what the car is capable of when it comes to performance.

Ferrari had been due to run the F2012 for filming purposes on Friday morning but due to extremely heavy snow in Marnello the team was forced to cancel their launch ceremony and instead the otped for an online launch.

For 2012 Ferrari has retained the same driver line up Fernando Alonso will again be team mates with Felipe Massa, the Brazilian is under pressure to raise his game for the upcoming 2012 season.

Force India launch radical VJM05 at Silverstone

The Sahara Force India Formula One team launched thier 2012 car the VJM05 at the Silverstone circuit in England this morning. The Merceds powered car features a very radical slightly slopped front wing and nose cone assembly. The car was unveiled to the media by the team's driver's Paul Di Resta and Nico Hulkengerg who replaces Adrian Sutil at the team for the 2012 season.

The team will be hoping that their new car will help to challenge for the top five position'd in the Constructors Championship following from their fantastic 2011 campaign which saw the team finish in 6th place in the championship. the best result for the team since they entered the sport in 2008.

The team will get to assess the cras performance when it is put through it's paces at the opening preseason test in Jerez on Monday.

Barrichello runs KV car for third day

Former Williams F1 driver Ruben Barrichello has extended his IndyCar test debut with KV Racing Technology into a third day as he continues to evaluate a move to America's pinnacle open wheel racing series. The Brazilian has been testing for KVRacing at the Sebring International Speedway in America.

KVRacing currently employees IndyCar veteran and close friend of Barrichello's Tony Kanaan and EJ Viso who both linked up with Barrichello at Sebring to conduct testing of KVRacing's 2012 Cheverlot powered IndyCar Chassis.

If Barrichello teams up KVRaicng Technology for the 2012 season he would join a long list of former F1 driver's who have driven in IndyCar including 1992 F1 Champ Nigel Mansell, 1997 champion Jacques Villlenuve, Juan Paoblo Montoya, Mario and Michael Andretti,  Justin Wilson and Takuma Sato.

If Barrichello does not get the drive with KVRacing he has not ruled out competing at the 2012 Indianapolis 500. A decsion about KVRacing Technologies 2012 driver lineup will be made in thee coming day's. The 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series gets underway on Sunday March 25th at the Street's of St Petersburg 1.8 mile street circuit

Bad weather forces Ferrari to cancel launch

The Ferrari Formula One team has been forced to cancel the launch of their 2012 F1 challenger due to heavy snow in Fiorano where the team had planned to run the new car. The team was set to host a launch ceremony at it's Marnello HQ followed by a shakedown of the new car for promotional purposes next to the factory at the team's test track in Italy.

However with no sign of the poor weather clearing up any time soon the team have opted instead for an online unveiling of their new car. The new Ferrari will instead be unveiled by their driver's Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa on the team's offiical website www.ferrari.com on Friday Morning with interviews with the driver's and key team personnel appearing on the website later that day.

Ferrari are not the first team to opt for an online launch Vodafone McLaren Mercedes launched their 2012 car the MP4 27 online yesterday (Wednesday), their launch was also shown live on Sky Sports News and was presented by Sky F1 HD's lead commentator David Croft.

McLaren launch 2012 car

The McLaren Mercedes Formula One team became the first of the front running team's to launch their 2012 car when they took the wraps off the MP4-27, the car they hope will help them to close the gap to RedBull Racing and deliver the team both the 2012 Driver's and Constructors championships. McLaren last won the Driver's championship in 2008 with Lewis Hamilton, however the last time the team won the Constructor's championship was in 1998 wihen Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard drove for the team.

Towards the end of last season McLaren strengthed their technical department by bringing in Sam Michael from Williams.

2012 see's Mclaren stick with a familar line-up of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton for a third successive season. Button had a fantastic season in 2011 finishing second in the standing's.arguablly his best season to date despite winning the championship in 2009.

Lewis Hamilton will be hoping that the new MP4 27 will help him challenge for the 2012 drivers Championship after a difficult 2011 campaign which saw him out performed by his team mate.We will find out on Monday what the car is capable of when pre-season testing gets underway in Jerez.

the next car launches to take place will be on Friday when both Frrari and Force India take the wraps off their 2012 F1 challengers.