The morning of Saturday 20 August 2011 at Silverstone was warm and sunny. It was difficult to imagine that the weather would be a problem. As I was staying in a campsite just a stone’s throw away from the circuit, I thought nothing of just heading there in a t-shirt. The morning was brilliant. As […]
New World Touring Car Championship qualifying format announced
The new qualifying format for the World Touring Car Championship was revealed today. The format used in 2011 was simple. For race one, drivers had to draw a number between one and ten, multiply it by 2×Π, then aim to complete their lap in that many seconds. The grid was based on how close to […]
Visiting the village — World Series by Renault at Silverstone
As I described in my previous post, early on Saturday morning we ventured underneath the tunnel at Copse to head towards the World Series by Renault ‘village’. This is where all the bustle is. World Series by Renault is as much a festival of motorsport (or, more accurately, a festival of Renault) as a day […]
Exploring the circuit — World Series by Renault at Silverstone
Last month I attended the World Series by Renault event at Silverstone. I have become a big fan of the World Series by Renault. I have already recently enthused about its centrepiece event, the Formula Renault 3.5 series. So I was pretty excited to go and see it for real. Despite having been massively interested […]
World Series by Renault — the feeder series to watch
There is a surfeit of motor racing championships that aim to usher in the next generation of Formula 1 stars. But only a few are worth paying serious attention to. GP2 — the ‘official’ way to progress to F1 The most well-known by a long way is GP2. Backed by Bernie Ecclestone, GP2 is the […]
Is Vettel now the most complete driver in F1?
Another grand prix, and another Sebastian Vettel victory. In terms of race results, it is now on a par with Michael Schumacher’s 1994 campaign. Five wins and a 2nd place from the first six races. It is difficult to get much more dominant than that. For the 2010 World Champion, 2011 is looking much easier. […]
Why I am finding F1 less gripping in 2011
There have been four grands prix in 2011 so far, and they have been widely hailed as a great success. There is no doubt that the races have been action-packed, with something always going on. But I wasn’t feeling it quite as much as many others were. I thought the Chinese Grand Prix was okay. […]
Force India step up in the tight midfield battle
It’s time to eat humble pie. Before the season began I wrote a couple of posts outlining my pessimism for the prospects of Force India and their new driver Paul di Resta. I think it’s now fair to say that I was wrong on this! The “midfield battle” for sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship […]
Why is so much bodywork falling off?
While it is by no means unheard of for pieces of bodywork to come off an F1 car from time to time, there has already been quite a lot of it this season. In fact, after one and a half race weekends, I can think of four big bodywork failures. Firstly, there was Kamui Kobayashi’s […]
What might have been for Timo Glock
I wonder what Timo Glock is thinking just now. Following an impressive early career, and after showing flashes of talent at Toyota for two years, Glock faced a difficult decision prior to the 2010 season. Renault or Virgin? Once upon a time it was a tough choice His first option was to take a risk […]