Sebastian Vettel's road to the championship

Bernie Ecclestone believes that F1 will continue to move away from Europe over the coming years. The 2013 season will feature just seven European races, the lowest figure since the 1960s when the season consisted of around ten events. When asked about the direction F1 is heading in, Ecclestone told Sky Sports F1 that "we'll keep trying to move forward. We're a world championship". "We'll probably lose two or three more races in Europe as we have to sort of move on". When asked about Ecclestone's comments, […]

Formula One and the USA have never gone hand in hand. Is this about to change?

Nelson Piquet Jr has denied reports he doubts the great Ayrton Senna would have succeeded in today's Formula One. The former Renault driver's spokesman Luis Ferrari said there is "absolutely no way" the Brazilian said his countryman Senna would not have won races in today's cars. And 27-year-old Piquet Jr, who has raced in the world of Nascar since leaving F1 in 2009, blamed the controversy on some careless "members of the Brazilian media". In his column for Brazil's Yahoo Esportes, the son of triple […]

Rubens Barrichello has once again refused to rule out returning to Formula One. The Brazilian, who with almost 330 grand prix weekends in his pocket is the sport's longest serving driver of all time, told a German magazine last week he can still imagine "a way back" to the grid. Barrichello, who at 40 is three years younger than Michael Schumacher, switched to the US-based Indycar series for 2012. "My problems have been with the tracks than are much bumpier than the ones in Europe," […]

With rain once again dominating qualifying, just as it did in Silverstone two weeks ago, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso has taken his second consecutive pole position in wet conditions, this time using the Pirelli Cinturato Blue full wet tyre. The P Zero White medium tyre has been nominated for the race along with the P Zero Yellow soft: a combination that was last used at the Grand Prix of Europe in Valencia. All the frontrunners started Q1 on medium tyres, in overcast conditions with a high […]

McLaren's lucrative title sponsorship could be in doubt. The Financial Times reports that Vodafone, the British telecommunications national, "is reviewing" its major sponsorship deals. Vodafone is Woking based McLaren's naming sponsor and the review "will probably raise questions about its continued involvement", wrote telecoms journalist Daniel Thomas. The current contract, which according to one source is worth "tens of millions of pounds" a year to McLaren, runs out at the end of next season. The source added that mobile phone businesses throughout Europe are struggling […]

Q&A conducted by the Official F1 Website Q: Vijay, both Force India drivers finished in the points in Valencia. Why did the team prove so successful last weekend? Vijay Mallya: Well, the car was performing great all weekend long. In fact I was hoping for a better qualifying result, but in Q3 maybe both overdrove the car, locked up the wheels etc. So we started eighth and tenth while I was actually hoping to start in the top five. We knew that this season’s unpredictability has […]

Reproduced with kind permission of the FIA Team representatives - Franz Tost (Toro Rosso), Riad Asmat (Caterham), Norbert Haug (Mercedes), Luis Perez-Sala (HRT), Eric Boullier (Lotus). Q: Franz, as it's your first time in the press conference this year, can you give us an assessment of your two new drivers? They've had time to settle down. Two drivers for whom there are a lot of new circuit too. Franz Tost: Yes. Daniel Ricciardo, our driver from Australia, he is a little bit more experienced, he did […]

If Thailand joins the F1 calendar in 2014, the southeast Asian country's grand prix could be staged under lights, it has emerged. Thailand made its intentions clear recently by successfully bidding to host this December's end-of-season Race of Champions, and talks have also taken place about bringing Formula One to the country. "Our discussions with Bernie Ecclestone have gone smoothly. We expect to get rights to host a grand prix from 2014 onwards," Kanokphand Chulakasem, governor of the Sports Authority of Thailand, said recently. Asiancorrespondent.com […]

The third consecutive street circuit on this year’s Formula One calendar, the Grand Prix of Europe, contains the highest number of corners of any track all year (25) and is likely to be run in high temperatures – meaning that the P Zero White medium tyres and P Zero Yellow soft tyres have been nominated. This combination highlights both the durability and performance of the tyres, on a circuit where overtaking is notoriously difficult. Just like Monaco, qualifying will be crucial, and the speed of […]

Montreal is on the verge of securing a new long-term contract to host Formula One until at least 2024, the Quebec newspaper La Presse reports. It had already emerged that Bernie Ecclestone met at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve last weekend with race and government officials. F1 chief executive Ecclestone confirmed that the new deal for 2014 and beyond is almost complete, with only a few details left to resolve. "The annual fee is done," the 81-year-old said. "That's not a problem. "All they need is […]