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What went wrong with Williams?

I’ll be upfront here. While many like Williams, with their “plucky underdog” status and stridently independent approach, they have never been my among my favourite teams. To the extent that I have ever liked them, it has been as the anti-Ferrari. In other words, I like them about as much as I like McLaren, which […]

Jenson Button: a deserving champion?

Belated congratulations to Jenson Button for becoming the 2009 World Champion. I know it’s long overdue, but hey — that’s what happens when real life takes over (more on that real life stuff can be found here). I have not always been convinced that Jenson Button is a good driver. In fact, the only times […]

Brawn — another historic name disappears

Okay, so Brawn may only have been in Formula 1 for less than one year. But undoubtedly it is a name and a team that will go down in history. There was a magnetic attraction to the Cinderella story that was the life of Brawn GP. Until March, the existence of the former Honda team […]

Sayonara Bridgestone

The end of this season has not been a particularly healthy one for Formula 1. Two major names have left, and another has had an emergency meeting to consider if it should leave too. First of all, the sole tyre supplier, Bridgestone, has announced that it will quit F1 at the end of 2011 when […]

Brilliant Brazil

I love the Brazilian Grand Prix. It is a unique circuit — not only anti-clockwise, but uniquely short in the same way you might think of Spa-Francorchamps as being uniquely long. It is also special because it has now comprehensively replaced Suzuka as the proper place to settle a World Championship, particularly due to its […]

Crikeynen! Kimi wins again at last

What a grand prix weekend that was. It just goes to show you what a decent circuit can do for racing. Boy, can Spa do it for racing. It also clearly does it for Kimi Räikkönen, who is always mesmerising in this most inspirational of settings. Räikkönen confuses people a lot of the time with […]

Badoer: the fastest-ever slowest driver?

Allow me to explain. Despite all the jibes about Luca Badoer struggling, it occurred to me that he may now have another unusual record to add to his list. Here is the official lap chart for this year’s Belgian Grand Prix, as published by the FIA. Do you spot anything unusual about it? Despite the […]

The Williams F1 simulator and museum

The final part of the factory tour was the chance to see the simulator. It is an impressive piece of kit. The driver sits in a cockpit, surrounded by a massive screen that curves round to take up his entire field of vision. Little wonder it has been known to induce sickness. Drivers are advised […]

Schumacher calls off comeback; Badoer deputises!

A pain in the neck has brought a halt to Michael Schumacher’s planned comeback. The injuries caused by his motorcycle accident in February have proved too much to cope with. There were rumblings about his neck immediately after his first test in an F2007, but the extent of the problem was not made clear. The […]

My trip to the Williams F1 factory

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be invited on a visit to the Williams F1 factory. It was all organised by Synergy on behalf of Philips, who wanted to promote their amazing competition for a chance to win five laps round a grand prix circuit in a Williams F1 car, which I […]