The Caterham F1 team confirmed today that team principal and team owner Tony Fernandes is to step down from his at the F1 before the end of the season in order to focus his attention on his other business interests specifically Caterham Cars recent link up with Renault Cars.
Fernandes brought the Lotus name back to Formula One in 2010 when his group became one of the three new team's in Formula One. The team became Caterham last year when Fernandes bought the British car company Caterham after losing a naming right's row with Group Lotus.
Lengendary Technical chief Mike Gascoyne made his Formula One return with the team in 2009, however he has since moved across the the car division side of the business.
It is going to be extremely interesting to see who takes over at the helm of Caterham. The team has achieved some impressive results however are yet to score a point in the championship, however I believe that they will be in a position to challenge for points during next year's campaign. In my opinion, out of the three new team's involved in the sport Caterham have the most complete package and have laid all the foundations for a successful future.
The team moved to a new facility earlier this year when they took over the old Arrows and Super Aguri factory in Leafield in the UK so it only a matter of time before they achieve some good results, but like everything it will take time.
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
Number 300
So today's post, happens to be my 300th article. Firstly I would like to thank everyone for visiting the blog so far. There is plenty more still to come this season from the blog. Today's story concerns the driver market. Last week we had confirmation from the Lotus F1 Team that Kimi Raikkonen has re-signed for the team for 2013 and he did a fantastic job on Sunday in Abu Dhabi when he won the race.
The Scuderia Toro Rosso team also announced last week that they have re-signed both Daniel Ricciardo and Jean Eric Vergne for next season. Now there are reports coming out of Shanghai today suggesting that the HRT F1 team are about to announce that they have promoted their development driver China's Ma Qing Hua to drive for the team in 2013. It is expected that Pedro Dela Rosa will continue with the Spanish team in 2013.
It is also expected that Britain's Max Chilton who is the development driver for the Marussia F1 Team will be promoted to the second seat in the team alongside Timo Glock replacing Charles Pic. So with these seats expected to confirmed it will leave Caterham, Sauber, Lotus, Williams and Force India to confirm their line-ups.
This week sees six team's taking part in the end of year Young Driver Abu Dhabi test. This morning's session was lead by McLaren's Kevin Magnussen and RedBull's Antonio Felix Da Costa, Nicolas Prost was in third for the Lotus team. Robin Frijns was four with Luiz Razia was in 5th with Giedo Van Der Garde rounded out the top 6th for Caterham.
I am extremely exciting to see what the next crop of F1 driver's can do behind the wheel of F1 cars.
The Scuderia Toro Rosso team also announced last week that they have re-signed both Daniel Ricciardo and Jean Eric Vergne for next season. Now there are reports coming out of Shanghai today suggesting that the HRT F1 team are about to announce that they have promoted their development driver China's Ma Qing Hua to drive for the team in 2013. It is expected that Pedro Dela Rosa will continue with the Spanish team in 2013.
It is also expected that Britain's Max Chilton who is the development driver for the Marussia F1 Team will be promoted to the second seat in the team alongside Timo Glock replacing Charles Pic. So with these seats expected to confirmed it will leave Caterham, Sauber, Lotus, Williams and Force India to confirm their line-ups.
This week sees six team's taking part in the end of year Young Driver Abu Dhabi test. This morning's session was lead by McLaren's Kevin Magnussen and RedBull's Antonio Felix Da Costa, Nicolas Prost was in third for the Lotus team. Robin Frijns was four with Luiz Razia was in 5th with Giedo Van Der Garde rounded out the top 6th for Caterham.
I am extremely exciting to see what the next crop of F1 driver's can do behind the wheel of F1 cars.
Monday, 5 November 2012
Young driver test gets underway
The final Young Driver test of the 2012 F1 season gets underway later today at the Yas Marina Bay circuit in Abu Dhabi. six team's elected to hang back following Sunday's race to allow their young driver's participate in a three day test programme.
Race winners Lotus along with, RedBull, McLaren, Caterham, Sauber and Toro Rosso will all field driver's over the three day's.
Lotus will run four title world champion Alain Prost's son, Nicolas, they will also run Edoardo Mortara and Davide Valsecchi will be given an opportunity to drive for the team.
Over at McLaren, they will run Test and Reserve driver Gary Paffett along with Oliver Turveythey will also test Kevin Magnussen.
Over at Caterham, test driver, American Alexander Rossi will get behind the wheel to prepare for his F1 weekend debut when it is expected that he will run for the team in Austin next Friday during Free Practice, he is joined in Abu Dhabi by Giedo Van Der Garde who drove the Caterham F1 car in Dublin earlier as part of the Bavaria City Racing event.
Reigning champions RedBull Racing will field Portugal's Antonio Felix Da Costa along side Dutch driver Robin Frijns.
The Sauber F1 team will be running Esteban Gutierrez, who stepped in for the "unwell" Sergio Perez during Friday Practice in India. The team are continuing to evaluate the young Mexican as a potential replacement for the McLaren bound Sergio Perez. Robin Frijns will split his time between RedBull and Sauber so that in my opinion is going to be extremely interesting.
Finally, Toro Rosso will have Luiz Razia and Johnny Cecotto in action.
So out of the six team's who are not participating in the test, Marussia, HRT, Force India, Mercedes AMG, Ferrari and Williams only Marussia have elected to send personnel directly from Abu Dhabi to Austin for the GrandPrix of Texas.
So it is going to be extremely interesting to see how the new crop of F1 talent get on over the course of the next three day's. As always I will keep you all updated with developments from the UAE.
Race winners Lotus along with, RedBull, McLaren, Caterham, Sauber and Toro Rosso will all field driver's over the three day's.
Lotus will run four title world champion Alain Prost's son, Nicolas, they will also run Edoardo Mortara and Davide Valsecchi will be given an opportunity to drive for the team.
Over at McLaren, they will run Test and Reserve driver Gary Paffett along with Oliver Turveythey will also test Kevin Magnussen.
Over at Caterham, test driver, American Alexander Rossi will get behind the wheel to prepare for his F1 weekend debut when it is expected that he will run for the team in Austin next Friday during Free Practice, he is joined in Abu Dhabi by Giedo Van Der Garde who drove the Caterham F1 car in Dublin earlier as part of the Bavaria City Racing event.
Reigning champions RedBull Racing will field Portugal's Antonio Felix Da Costa along side Dutch driver Robin Frijns.
The Sauber F1 team will be running Esteban Gutierrez, who stepped in for the "unwell" Sergio Perez during Friday Practice in India. The team are continuing to evaluate the young Mexican as a potential replacement for the McLaren bound Sergio Perez. Robin Frijns will split his time between RedBull and Sauber so that in my opinion is going to be extremely interesting.
Finally, Toro Rosso will have Luiz Razia and Johnny Cecotto in action.
So out of the six team's who are not participating in the test, Marussia, HRT, Force India, Mercedes AMG, Ferrari and Williams only Marussia have elected to send personnel directly from Abu Dhabi to Austin for the GrandPrix of Texas.
So it is going to be extremely interesting to see how the new crop of F1 talent get on over the course of the next three day's. As always I will keep you all updated with developments from the UAE.
Kimi who?
So you may be wondering why I have named this post Kimi who? The reason for this is because certain sections of the media in my opinion appeared to completely overlook the fact that Kimi Raikkonen won the GrandPrix.
I was watching Sky News last night, and in the headlines at the top of the hour it was Sebastian Vettel who came first in the headline's as he closes in on his third title in three year's and then came the news that Kimi Raikkonen had won the GrandPrix.
I was listening to the BBC Sports news on BBC Radio 1 at 10.30 this morning and when it came to Formula One there was no mention about Kimi winning it was all about the fact that Vettel had come from the pitlane at the start to finish third in the race.
Now I'm not denying the fact that Vettel drove well yesterday, however and it is a major however I want to point out firstly he was helped by the fact that there were two safety car periods during the race, secondly he is driving arguably the fastest car on the F1 grid this season so of course he was going to come through the field. Thirdly his team-mate Mark Webber who was ahead of him was ordered to 'box, box box' to allow Vettel through. Before he pitted Mark was told not to challenge his team mate if he was in a position to pass the Australian and when Mark ignored the order he was told to pit.
Another thing that I found appalling was the fact that during the podium celebration's after the race Vettel swore live on TV. Now I know what you're thinking, that's petty, however I would like to point out the fact that Formula One has a global television audience that includes millions of young children who many would look up to Sebastian Vettel as their role model and to hear their hero swear live on television is in my opinion extremely bad however that is only my opinion.
It is well known that I am not a fan of Vettel, he may be a great driver, however I believe that there is absolutely no reason whatsoever for him to use the language he did. David Coulthard, who was conducting the post race podium interviews apologized for Vettel's language however Vettel just grinned and said nothing. DC even went on to say that the driver's were speaking in their second language however in my opinion that is no excuse.
When you look at the Lotus team, Kimi took the name's first win since the 1987 American GrandPrix.
Race winner Kimi Raikkonen also swore however his was nowhere near as bad as Vettel's and he
I was watching Sky News last night, and in the headlines at the top of the hour it was Sebastian Vettel who came first in the headline's as he closes in on his third title in three year's and then came the news that Kimi Raikkonen had won the GrandPrix.
I was listening to the BBC Sports news on BBC Radio 1 at 10.30 this morning and when it came to Formula One there was no mention about Kimi winning it was all about the fact that Vettel had come from the pitlane at the start to finish third in the race.
Now I'm not denying the fact that Vettel drove well yesterday, however and it is a major however I want to point out firstly he was helped by the fact that there were two safety car periods during the race, secondly he is driving arguably the fastest car on the F1 grid this season so of course he was going to come through the field. Thirdly his team-mate Mark Webber who was ahead of him was ordered to 'box, box box' to allow Vettel through. Before he pitted Mark was told not to challenge his team mate if he was in a position to pass the Australian and when Mark ignored the order he was told to pit.
Another thing that I found appalling was the fact that during the podium celebration's after the race Vettel swore live on TV. Now I know what you're thinking, that's petty, however I would like to point out the fact that Formula One has a global television audience that includes millions of young children who many would look up to Sebastian Vettel as their role model and to hear their hero swear live on television is in my opinion extremely bad however that is only my opinion.
It is well known that I am not a fan of Vettel, he may be a great driver, however I believe that there is absolutely no reason whatsoever for him to use the language he did. David Coulthard, who was conducting the post race podium interviews apologized for Vettel's language however Vettel just grinned and said nothing. DC even went on to say that the driver's were speaking in their second language however in my opinion that is no excuse.
When you look at the Lotus team, Kimi took the name's first win since the 1987 American GrandPrix.
Race winner Kimi Raikkonen also swore however his was nowhere near as bad as Vettel's and he
Sunday, 4 November 2012
8 different winners during a sensational season
So with two race's to in the 2012 F1 season it is still all to play for between Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso for this year's Driver's title. On Sunday more history was made in Formula One as Kimi Raikkonen became the 8th different race winner of the season. The result means that 6 team's have picked up wins this year.
Going into this season if you had told me that with two race's to go we would have had eight different winners I would have said that it was not going to happen and yet here we are that is exactly the situation we have. This season all team's in the top five in the championship have won races. RedBull, Ferrari, McLaren, Lotus and Mercedes have all won races as have the Williams team when Pastor Maldonado brought the team their first win since the 2008 Brazilian GrandPrix.
For the Lotus name, before yesterday, their last win came with Ayrton Senna in America 25 years ago. It has been a sensational season so far and their are still two race's remaining. Could we our 9th different winner this season next time out in Texas? It is a very real possibility as it will be Formula One's first adventure to the circuit in Austin, Texas so all the team's are going in 'blind' they just have simulations of the track and it won't be until Friday practice when they get the opportunity to drive the track to see how it feels.
Back to Kimi Raikkonen, not only has he finished every single race this season, the Iceman has also been on the podium seven time's and as I mentioned in my previous post, he capped his sensational comeback season with an incredible win in Abu Dhabi his first victory since the 2009 Belgian GrandPrix in SPA.
With Kimi's result in Abu Dhabi, the Iceman has consolidated third place in the championship and with neither Lewis Hamilton or Mark Webber scoring points on Sunday Kimi is now 31 points ahead of Mark Webber in third place in the championship. The Lotus team are also in a great position as they are in 4th in the Constructor's championship on 288 points, 152 points clear of Mercedes AMG in 5th place while the Enstone based team are 30 points behind McLaren in third place with a maximum points haul of 86 points available from the last two race's.
So if yesterday's race was anything to go by, the final two race's of the season are going to be sensational particularly as it looks like the title will go down to the wire in Brazil on November 24th
Going into this season if you had told me that with two race's to go we would have had eight different winners I would have said that it was not going to happen and yet here we are that is exactly the situation we have. This season all team's in the top five in the championship have won races. RedBull, Ferrari, McLaren, Lotus and Mercedes have all won races as have the Williams team when Pastor Maldonado brought the team their first win since the 2008 Brazilian GrandPrix.
For the Lotus name, before yesterday, their last win came with Ayrton Senna in America 25 years ago. It has been a sensational season so far and their are still two race's remaining. Could we our 9th different winner this season next time out in Texas? It is a very real possibility as it will be Formula One's first adventure to the circuit in Austin, Texas so all the team's are going in 'blind' they just have simulations of the track and it won't be until Friday practice when they get the opportunity to drive the track to see how it feels.
Back to Kimi Raikkonen, not only has he finished every single race this season, the Iceman has also been on the podium seven time's and as I mentioned in my previous post, he capped his sensational comeback season with an incredible win in Abu Dhabi his first victory since the 2009 Belgian GrandPrix in SPA.
With Kimi's result in Abu Dhabi, the Iceman has consolidated third place in the championship and with neither Lewis Hamilton or Mark Webber scoring points on Sunday Kimi is now 31 points ahead of Mark Webber in third place in the championship. The Lotus team are also in a great position as they are in 4th in the Constructor's championship on 288 points, 152 points clear of Mercedes AMG in 5th place while the Enstone based team are 30 points behind McLaren in third place with a maximum points haul of 86 points available from the last two race's.
So if yesterday's race was anything to go by, the final two race's of the season are going to be sensational particularly as it looks like the title will go down to the wire in Brazil on November 24th
The Dark Horse Rises under the light's in Abu Dhabi
Well where do I start? That was a sensational GrandPrix from light's to flag. Kimi Raikkonen capped a fantastic comeback season taking his and the Lotus team's first win of the 2012 season, but that is only part of the story. The Abu Dhabi GrandPrix was action packed with McLaren's Lewis Hamilton starting from pole position expecting an easy race with championship leader Sebastian Vettel ll but out of contention starting the race from the pitlane.
Hamilton made a good get away and left Kimi who made a great start going from 4th to second in his wake. Hamilton built up a steady lead however the Iceman managed to stay on his heels. Hamilton retired from the race on lap 20 with a fuel pressure issue. Kimi led from then on and managed to make his first and only stop and still come out in the lead ahead of Fernando Alonso. The Iceman conserved his Prime tyres to hold off a late charge from Alonso to take the win.
It was a dramatic race throughout with Nico Rosberg involved in a horrendous crash with the HRT of Narain Kartikeyan who appeared to have some kind of engine failure. Rosberg closed up on the back of the HRT and was launched like a missile over the HRT landing heavily and retiring from the race. Fortunately both driver's walked away without injury.
Meanwhile through no fault of his own Romain Grosjean was caught up in another first lap incident with Rosberg that resulted in the Lotus driver receiving a puncture. He recovered well however went out of the race following a major crash caused by Sauber's Sergio Perez which took out the Lotus driver, RedBull's Mark Webber, Force India's Paul Di Resta was also involved in the crash and pitted with a puncture however the Scot recovered well to finish in the point's coming home in 9th place.
Sebastian Vettel endured an extremely tough day, having start from the pitlane after failing to provide a fuel sample after qualifying. The German came up through the field twice following an incident with Daniel Ricciardo's Toro Rosso to finish on the podium behind The Iceman and Fernando Alonso. Vettel takes a 10 point lead in the championship as the team's head for new territory next time out in Austin.
So what an incredible season we are having. With Kimi winning in Abu Dhabi, he becomes the eighth different winner this season. That is unprecedented in Formula One. Certainly in my time following the sport I have never seen 8 different driver's win in a season. In my opinion, it was fantastic race for Kimi to win.
So we move on to Austin, Texas, which promise's to be a carnival atmosphere as Formula One ushers in the dawning of new era in the USA. It promises to be an electrifying race with the championship so finely balanced at the top of the championship.
Hamilton made a good get away and left Kimi who made a great start going from 4th to second in his wake. Hamilton built up a steady lead however the Iceman managed to stay on his heels. Hamilton retired from the race on lap 20 with a fuel pressure issue. Kimi led from then on and managed to make his first and only stop and still come out in the lead ahead of Fernando Alonso. The Iceman conserved his Prime tyres to hold off a late charge from Alonso to take the win.
It was a dramatic race throughout with Nico Rosberg involved in a horrendous crash with the HRT of Narain Kartikeyan who appeared to have some kind of engine failure. Rosberg closed up on the back of the HRT and was launched like a missile over the HRT landing heavily and retiring from the race. Fortunately both driver's walked away without injury.
Meanwhile through no fault of his own Romain Grosjean was caught up in another first lap incident with Rosberg that resulted in the Lotus driver receiving a puncture. He recovered well however went out of the race following a major crash caused by Sauber's Sergio Perez which took out the Lotus driver, RedBull's Mark Webber, Force India's Paul Di Resta was also involved in the crash and pitted with a puncture however the Scot recovered well to finish in the point's coming home in 9th place.
Sebastian Vettel endured an extremely tough day, having start from the pitlane after failing to provide a fuel sample after qualifying. The German came up through the field twice following an incident with Daniel Ricciardo's Toro Rosso to finish on the podium behind The Iceman and Fernando Alonso. Vettel takes a 10 point lead in the championship as the team's head for new territory next time out in Austin.
So what an incredible season we are having. With Kimi winning in Abu Dhabi, he becomes the eighth different winner this season. That is unprecedented in Formula One. Certainly in my time following the sport I have never seen 8 different driver's win in a season. In my opinion, it was fantastic race for Kimi to win.
So we move on to Austin, Texas, which promise's to be a carnival atmosphere as Formula One ushers in the dawning of new era in the USA. It promises to be an electrifying race with the championship so finely balanced at the top of the championship.
Saturday, 3 November 2012
Vettel Excluded from Qualifying and will start from the back of the grid
RedBull's Sebastian Vettel will start tomorrow's Abu Dhabi GrandPrix from the back of the grid after the FIA penalized him for stopping out on track after qualifying and failing to provide a sufficient fuel sample to the race stewards.
The decision throws the championship wide open with Vettel and Fernando Alonso seperated by only 13 points with three race's left this season. As a result everyone will move up a place on the grid.
The decision throws the championship wide open with Vettel and Fernando Alonso seperated by only 13 points with three race's left this season. As a result everyone will move up a place on the grid.
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