Kimi Raikkonen is paying tribute to one of his heroes this weekend at Monaco. During Thursday practice for this weekend's blue-riband event, onlookers were surprised to see the late James Hunt apparently at the wheel of a 2012 black and gold Lotus. In fact, it was Finn Raikkonen wearing 1976 world champion Hunt's iconic black helmet livery. In 32-year-old Raikkonen's championship year in 2007, he famously entered a snowmobile race under the name 'James Hunt'. Raikkonen has admitted to identifying with the carefree Briton, who […]

Force India might skip Friday's second practice session in Bahrain. Two of the Silverstone based team's staff members returned to the UK earlier this week after a Molotov cocktail incident. The BBC is reporting rumours that other members are the team are now refusing to travel from the circuit back to their hotels after dark. That would mean Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg will not be able to practice in the second 90 minute session scheduled for 2pm local. The BBC said the rumour […]

Jenson Button doubts other teams will be pushing too hard to rush a Mercedes-style 'double-DRS' to their 2012 package. The F-duct-style concept is, so far, the highest profile innovation of the season. So with the FIA declaring it fully legal, and Nico Rosberg breaking through with his maiden pole and win in Shanghai last weekend, it seems a no-brainer that the other teams will now be following suit. But McLaren's Button doesn't think so. "I really don't think it's giving them that much -- I […]

Organisers of the New York street race have hit back at Bernie Ecclestone's claim the inaugural 2013 date might be delayed a year. The F1 chief executive had announced a race on the streets of New Jersey for 2013, and recent photos showed that work on the main pit building is well underway. But Ecclestone told the BBC this week: "Maybe the New York race will be 2013. It's a (question of) when. 2013 or 2014." Some sensed that the surprise news might be a […]

The vast majority of the 12 F1 teams have declined to comment on the sport's deepening Bahrain crisis. With uncertainty surrounding the staging of next week's race at Sakhir by the controversial Bahraini government, CNN contacted every one of the competing teams. Nine declined to comment, but world champions Red Bull said the decision about whether or not teams attend belongs to the governing FIA. "It's not up to the teams to pick and choose which races we take part in," said a spokesman. Red […]

With F1 currently scheduled to arrive en masse in Bahrain next week, a crisis surrounding the possible cancellation of the island Kingdom's race is continuing to deepen. The teams have now denied Bernie Ecclestone's claim that they can simply choose to skip the event. "That would not be possible," said a statement issued by the teams association FOTA. "Teams are unable to cancel (a) grand prix." Bahrain, meanwhile, stepped up its campaign, accusing some of deploying "scare-mongering tactics" designed to force the race's cancellation. The […]

Many F1 insiders are now expecting next weekend's Bahrain grand prix to be called off. "We're not going to Bahrain, the decision will be announced soon," wrote Livio Oricchio, the correspondent for Brazil's O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper. In the wake of the latest reports about the ongoing political situation inside the island Kingdom, Oricchio said he expects the news about the race to be known "today or tomorrow". He referred to the direct threat made by the protest organising group February 14th Youth Coalition, […]

Martin Brundle has described Red Bull's lack of pace as the biggest surprise of the 2012 season so far. After consecutive world championships with Sebastian Vettel, the energy drink-owned team was universally tipped as the pre-season favourite for yet another F1 title. But McLaren dominated in Australia before Ferrari and Sauber surprisingly set the pace recently in Malaysia. Former F1 driver Brundle admitted the struggling RB8 was the surprise of the opening salvo in 2012, but he also acknowledged that the turnaround might have been […]

The BBC's delayed and edited highlights of Sunday's Australian grand prix attracted more viewers than the British broadcaster's live coverage of the same Melbourne race a year ago. From 2012, F1's television coverage for Britain is being shared between pay-channel Sky - who have the full-time live rights - and the public broadcaster BBC. Last year, the BBC's live coverage of the 2011 season opener averaged 2.13 million viewers. But the delayed highlights package for 2012, aired hours after the race finished between 2 and […]

Timo Glock is hoping McLaren's driver simulator is accurate. That's because he is relying on that data in hoping his 2012 car - the new Cosworth-powered Marussia MR01 - is fast enough to beat Formula 1's 107 percent qualifying cut-off. If not, he and rookie teammate Charles Pic could be left out of Sunday's season opening Australian Grand Prix. Some promotional running on demo Pirelli tyres aside, the MR01 sat out the entire pre-season period because it twice failed to pass one of the FIA's […]

Kimi Raikkonen made an appearance today on the Star In A Reasonably Priced Car segment of the BBC TV series Top Gear, driving a Suzuki Liana around the Top Gear test track. All laptimes from Formula 1 drivers are put on a special leaderboard. Top Gear F1 leader board 1. Sebastian Vettel 1:44.0 2. Rubens Barrichello 1:44.3 3. The Stig II (Ben Collins) 1:44.4 4. Nigel Mansell 1:44.6 5. Lewis Hamilton (wet & oily) 1:44.7 6. Jenson Button (hot) 1:44.7 7. Kimi Raikkonen (very wet) […]

Christian Horner and Bernie Ecclestone have singled out Jenson Button as potentially the biggest rival to Red Bull's dominance in 2012. McLaren's Button surprised many observers by beating his highly rated teammate Lewis Hamilton last year, and finishing runner-up behind Red Bull's dominant Sebastian Vettel. "Jenson seemed to get the team around him and strung a set of results together that was very impressive," Red Bull team boss Horner told Sky Sports. And when pressed on BBC radio to name Vettel's biggest rival, he admitted: […]