An F1Zone.net analysis has shown that, in terms of points percentage, Sergio Perez is the most improved driver when compared to the mid-point of 2011. Twelve drivers have scored points in 2011 and 2012 and the Sauber driver has come out on top, with a 588% increase on last season. Perez has benefited from an improved package this season, as well as putting in some outstanding drives in Malaysia and Canada. It should also be noted that the Mexican missed two of the opening eleven races in […]

Valtteri Bottas, currently Williams' reserve and 'Friday' driver, has admitted a race seat at the British team would be "ideal". The young Finn is hotly tipped to step up for his grand prix debut next year, with the reigning GP3 champion now focusing only on his F1 duties, and managed by Williams shareholder and new executive director Toto Wolff. Bottas, 22, is quoted by Turun Sanomat as saying making the next step also with the Williams team "would be ideal". "I like working with these […]

With the longest ever grand prix career now behind him, and half a season into his new foray, Rubens Barrichello is still not willing to say he is done with Formula One. "I think there is still a way back," he said in an interview with Germany's Auto Motor und Sport. Just shy of two consecutive decades on the grid, the 40-year-old Brazilian lost his Williams race drive and for 2012 had to cross the Atlantic to join his non-blood 'brother' Tony Kanaan in Indycar. […]

Williams' driver lineup will "definitely" remain in place this year, team shareholder and executive director Toto Wolff insists. He joked that a change of policy will happen "when the sun falls from the sky," according to Speed Week. Pastor Maldonado brings millions to the famous British team from his native Venezuela, and he won May's Spanish grand prix from pole. But Speed Week said his carbon-crunching mistakes - the latest during a demonstration run in Caracus at the weekend - are costing Williams a substantial […]

A determined drive to seventh from Bruno Senna strengthened Williams’ hold on seventh in the Constructors’ Championship. For the first time this year Williams had two cars qualified in the top ten, but a poor start from Pastor Maldonado and a subsequent penalty saw the Venezuelan drop out of the points. Bruno Senna, however, prospered from ninth on the grid and finished seventh after dueling with Jenson Button for much of the race and subsequently holding off the charging Red Bull of Mark Webber in […]

We rate each driver after the Hungarian Grand Prix

Both Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber admitted that strategic choices hampered their chances in a Hungarian Grand prix in which the champion finished fourth and his team-mate came home eighth. Starting third, Vettel made an attempt to go round the outside of second-placed Romain Grosjean at the start but, forced wide, he allowed Jenson Button to sneak through on the inside and dropped to fourth. Vettel then spent the first two stints bottled up behind the McLaren and only managed to get free when the […]

Williams’ Spanish Grand Prix winner Pastor Maldonado says his team’s decline in form has been a mixture of mistakes and bad luck. In the five races since Maldonado’s maiden victory, Williams has scored just four points, with two tenth places and a ninth for Bruno Senna. Maldonado himself has finished no higher than twelfth. Speaking in the FIA press conference on Thursday, the Venezuelan driver sought to explain why his – and Williams’ – season has failed to ignite. “I think after Barcelona, for whatever […]

Yesterday Williams F1 driver, Bruno Senna, collected the Lorenzo Bandini Trophy in the picturesque town of Brisighella, Italy, awarded to him for showing great promise at the beginning of his racing career. In front of a large crowd of enthusiastic grand prix fans, the presentation ceremony saw Bruno presented with the trophy which honours the memory of Lorenzo Bandini, the leading Italian racing driver at the time of his tragic death at the 1967 Monaco Grand Prix. The trophy was presented to Bruno in an […]

Wet weather at Silverstone caused disruption for second practice ahead of the British Grand Prix. The first forty minutes of the session passed with barely any running, before Kamui Kobayashi finally emerged on track to the delight of a drenched crowd. Bruno Senna, the initial pacesetter, has never raced in Formula One at Silverstone. He handed over his Williams FW34 for the morning session and his afternoon ended in dramatic fashion. Senna's car snapped sideways as he exited Chapel, bouncing across the grass and gravel […]

The Williams FW34 should be ideally suited to Silverstone in this weekend's British Grand Prix. That is the view of Pastor Maldonado, Bruno Senna and Mark Gillan, Williams's chief operations engineer. Maldonado, winner in Spain, said "I think the track will suit our car because it’s similar to Barcelona and it’s also very fun to drive with sections like Maggots and Becketts which really test you as a driver." Maldonado also pointed towards the pace of the car in the European Grand Prix as a […]

Williams's Chief Operations Engineer Mark Gillan says that his team failed to capitalise on their good pace at the European Grand Prix. Both Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna were involved in collisions in Valencia, resulting in the team scoring just a single point. "We are obviously disappointed not to have capitalised on the pace shown throughout the weekend but we have learnt a great deal at Valencia, especially relating to tyre management", said Gillan. Speaking about Maldonado's late accident, Gillan said that "obviously the team […]