F1 2012 Preview

Hello and welcome to my new Formula One Motor Racing blog. On this blog I will be discussing all things F1.

The 2012 F1 season gets underway in Melbourne Australia in less then seven week’s time. I will be keeping you up to date with all the news over the course of preseason testing and 2012 F1 season. The Caterham team were the first team to unveil their 2012 car in February’s issue of F1Racing Magazine.

Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen remain onboard for the team’s third season in F1. They are hoping that their new car will help them to score their first points.

It has been a very busy period during the off season in Formula One. The big news is the return of former World Champion Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn is making a come back to the sport after two years rallying and trying his hand at NASCAR. The 2007 World Champion has signed a two year contract with the Lotus Renault GP team replacing Robert Kubica who is still recovering from the horrific injuries he suffered during a rally crash in January 2011.

Meanwhile former Renault F1 driver Romain Grosjean makes his F1 return with Lotus alongside Kimi Raikkonen.

Pre season testing gets underway on 7^th February and while we have the return of Kimi Raikkonen to F1, one driver who will not be on the grid in 2012 is GrandPrix veteran Rubens Barrichello who was dropped by the Williams F1 team over the winter in favour of Bruno Senna, the nephew of the late Ayrton Senna.

Bruno Senna impressed Sir Frank Williams in 2011 when he replaced Nick Heidfield at Lotus Renault GP who himself was drafted in to replace the injured Robert Kubica.

  

In a move that has made headlines throughout the winter Williams have also announced that they will be using a supply of Renault engines for the 2012 season. This means that Bruno Senna will be using the same engine that his uncle used during the 1994 San Marino GrandPrix the race in which the Brazilian legend was killed.

The Lotus Renault GP team aren’t the only team with a brand new driver line-up; Toro Rosso has two new drivers for this year. Daniel Ricciardo joins the team from HRT. The young Australian is the hot favourite to replace his countryman Mark Webber for at RedBull Racing the 2013 season should the Aussie decide to retire at the end of the season. Ricciardo is joined at Toro Rosso by F1 new comer Jean Eric Vergne. The French man was given the opportunity following his very strong performance for RedBull Racing at the young driver test session in Abu Dhabi at the end of last season.

Spanish F1 veteran Pedro Dela Rosa returns to the cockpit in 2012 with the HRT team who have yet to announce their second driver.

The Mrussia F1 team have announced that Charles Pic will partner Timo Glock for the 2012 season. All the top teams with the exception of Lotus Renault have unchanged driver pairing’s for the 2012 season. Meanwhile Force India have announced that test and reserve driver Nico Hulkenberg has replaced Adrian Sutil as Paul Di Resta’s team mate after promising performances as the team’s Friday test driver in 2011.

In a change to the Regulation’s for 2012, blown diffusers have been banned. This week 30^th January marks the start of ‘F1 launch week’ On Wednesday McLaren will launch the MP4-27 at their HQ in Woking. Ferrari and Force India will launch their cars on Friday, while on Sunday Lotus will official unveil their new car the E20. The name comes from the fact that the new Lotus car is the 20th chassis to be built at the team's base in Enstone in England. On Monday in Jerez RedBull and Sauber will unveil their cars to the media ahead of the start of on track action on Monday morning.