Formula 1 Set For Unpredictable Australian Grand Prix

Formula 1 teams’ and drivers’ are expecting this weekends season-opener in Australia to be a highly unpredictable affair, with qualifying and the race potentially throwing up a few surprises. After 12 days of testing which offered no indication to a dominant team as of yet, it is believed any midfield team could excel on Sunday.

Coupled with the new regulations regarding the blowing of exhaust gases in 2012, along with Pirelli’s new and aggressive tyres, there is a great recipe for excitement at the Australian Grand Prix. 

As ever during pre-season testing, not one team looked a dominant force. However, it is strongly believed by many in the F1 paddock that this will continue throughout the early stages of the season as teams’ get to grips with understanding the new Pirelli tyres.

The other factor adding to what could be an enthralling spectacle is the record breaking six World Champions’ on the grid for 2012. What with the return of ‘Iceman’ Kimi Raikkonen for this season with Lotus, F1 now has every World Champion since 2000 on the grid, something that has never been seen before in the sport.

“It is great for Formula 1 to have so many world champions,” said Mercedes team principal, Ross Brawn to AutoSport. “It is the quality of the field and the fact that the cars look like they are going to be close this year, it is going to be a really exciting season and it could be one of the best seasons we have seen for a number of years, so I am quite looking forward to a very challenging season. I am expecting the tightest start to a season that we have seen for a number of years.”

Whether these six World Champions will dominate proceedings at Australia, or whether it will be as unpredictable as many believe, we have only 2 days and 12 hours to wait!

Picture Copyright © Sauber F1 

Mercedes Set To Offer Schumacher Contract Extension

After unveiling their 2012 challenger at the Circuit de Catalunya yesterday, Mercedes seem eager to offer 7-time World Champion, Michael Schumacher, a contract extension that would see the German remain at the team until 2014.

After returning to the sport in 2010, Schumacher has been highly uncompetitive in comparison to his former self when he dominated the sport with Ferrari. However, Schumacher still believes he has what it takes to win an eighth World Championship, and is confident Mercedes can build a competitive enough car in the future.

The 43-year-old is without a doubt the most successful driver ever to race in Formula 1, utterly dominating the sport between 2000-2004 with Ferrari. However, upon returning to the sport, he has yet to win a race yet alone finish on the podium. With this in mind, many believe Mercedes should look elsewhere once his contract with the team ends, however Mercedes seem to have other ideas.

“Before we talk to any other candidate, our first contact will definitely be Michael,” said team principal, Ross Brawn, who has worked alongside Schumacher during all seven of his World Championship titles as both Benetton’s and Ferrari’s technical director. This alone fuels speculation that the Brawn/Schumacher partnership is set to continue beyond 2012.

With testing currently underway at the Circuit de Catalunya, Michael Schumacher seems pleased the progress of the Mercedes AMG F1 W03, and has commented: “I’ll decide when the time is right,” regarding his future in Formula 1.

Picture Copyright © Reuters

Firestone Extends IndyCar Deal

Firestone have extended their deal to continue as the sole IndyCar tyre supplier until the 2014 season, as well staying as the title sponsor of the IndyCar feeder series Indy Lights. It has been the sole tyre supplier since 2000 and has been part of IndyCar since the series’ debut year in 1996.

As well as supplying tyres for the IndyCar Series and staying as the title sponsor to Indy Lights, Firestone will also remain the title sponsor of the Firestone 550 at the Texas Motor Speedway, which will host the 7th Round of the 2012 IndyCar Series.

“Firestone continues to be a great fit for our sport, carrying on a 100 year-old tradition that began at Indianapolis Motor Speedway,” explained IndyCar CEO, Randy Bernhard. “When our new car takes its first competitive laps on the streets of St. Petersburg in March, all of our drivers will take great pride in knowing that they have a reliable tire designed to maximize performance.”

With this new agreement, Firestone will also have an increased presence at the IZOD IndyCar Series Fan Village.

Picture Copyright © LAT Photographic

Williams Part Company With Title Sponsor AT&T

It was officially announced today that Williams have parted company with their title sponsor AT&T, with their logos disappearing from the teams website earlier today. This comes after the teams most unsuccessful season in their long and colorful history in the sport as they finished the season with only five points from 19 races.

The American multi-national telecommunications company have been the teams title sponsor for five years after Williams split from their BMW partnership that had lasted since the 2000 season. With Williams promising better results in the up-and-coming 2012 season, they now not only have to find themselves a second driver, but also a title sponsor. It has become apparent through Reuters that the team are now currently undergoing negotiations with another telecommunications company, with other sources hinting that this particular company could turn out to be Qtel, the Qatar national telecommunications company.

Either way, there is no denying that Williams have an uphill struggle to find success in 2012, even though they will have the backing of Renault engines. Williams found huge amounts of success with Renault in the 1990s with Nigel Mansell (1992), Alain Prost (1993), Damon Hill (1996) and Jacques Villeneuve (1997) all being crowned Champions driving a Williams-Renault.

Ben Edwards Becomes BBC F1 Lead Commentator

Ben Edwards today announced on the social networking site Twitter that he will become the new BBC F1 Commentator, replacing Martin Brundle to commentate alongside David Coulthard in 2012. This comes after Martin Brundle switched to Sky for next season to front their commentary team alongside fellow ex-BBC commentators Anthony Davidson and David Croft.

Ben Edwards has recently been the British Touring Car Championship commentator for ITV and has also previously fronted EuroSport’s Formula 1 coverage alongside former F1 driver John Watson throughout the 1990s. Once EuroSport lost the rights to broadcast F1 at the end of 1996 he began commentating on ChampCar (CART) for EuroSport and ESPN International and had undeniably his finest moment during the final laps for the 2000 Michigan 500 where Juan Pablo Montoya and Michael Andretti crossed the line side-by-side with Ben Edwards literally screaming in both delight and shock at such an exciting and close finish.

In 2002 Ben became the Lead Commentator for Bernie Ecclestone’s F1 Digital+ channel which was pay-per-view through Sky TV and was partnered by former colleague from EuroSport John Watson. However due to an unsuccessful 2002 season, F1 Digital+ ceased to exist and three years later Ben Edwards became the Lead Commentator for the new A1 Grand Prix Series launched in 2005. 

Although there has been no official statement from the BBC pertaining to Ben Edwards joining the team, he did say this on Twitter: “So, it looks as though it’s really happening. I will be the BBC F1 commentator in 2012 and I can’t wait! It took a while for things to be sorted, and thanks to ITV for being so understanding. Really looking forward to working with the crew.”

With both Sky and the BBC signing two superb commentators it’s going to be difficult to decide which channel to watch next seasons races on. 

Senna Replaces Heidfeld Official

       

It has been officially been announced today that Bruno Senna, nephew of the late great Ayrton Senna, has replaced German driver Nick Heidfeld for the rest of the season at Renault. When Senna was announced as a replacement just before the start of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, Heidfeld was heard to be planning to take the Renault team to the Courts as he believed they were contractually obliged to keep him on for the whole season. However much to the disappointment of Heidfeld, the courts ruled that Renault were completely within their rights replacing him for Senna.

When I first heard of Nick Heidfeld in 2000, and when I first saw him race for Prost in 2000, I thought we were looking at very high potential. Although he failed to finish 10 of the 17 races in 2000, he did finish 9th after starting 16th in his first race at the 2000 Australian Grand Prix. He then finished 8th at his first Monaco Grand Prix of the same year, and when he signed for Sauber in 2001, finished in the top six seven times! Including one 3rd place at the 2001 Brazilian Grand Prix. He continued this consistency throughout 2002 and 2003 with a highest finish of 4th at the 2002 Spanish Grand Prix and 5th at the 2003 American Grand Prix. It was 2004 when things changed, and he signed for the slowly fading Jordan team. With a highest finish of 8th at the crazy 2004 Monaco Grand Prix, things looked like they were over for any chance of Nick Heidfeld winning an F1 race.

Then he signed for Williams in 2005, and the hunt for that illusive Grand Prix win was back on! Second time out for the team he scored only his second ever podium with 3rd at Malaysia, and then got one better with 2nd at both the Monaco and European Grands Prix plus taking his one and only pole-position at the European Grand Prix. Things were looking up, until he was injured in a testing accident and had to miss both the Belgian and Italian Grands Prix. He was scheduled to return for the Brazilian Grand Prix but was hit by a motorbike whilst out cycling and had to sit out the rest of the season.

In 2006 he signed for BMW Sauber, and had two very consistent years with Sauber with every other race ending with him finishing in the points. But he never won a race, and I think that a huge disappointment. I like Heidfeld immensely but when you race for teams such as Williams and even qualify on pole-position for the team, you must surely convert it to at least one race win.

That was why I was both shocked and concerned when Renault announced Heidfeld as the replacement for the injured Robert Kubica. Renault ended the 2010 season strongly, and it was common knowledge amongst the F1 fraternity that the Renault/Kubica partnership were very likely to produce a race victory in the near future. But when Kubica was injured, I thought one of two options were to be taken.

1) They were going to use one of their many reserve drivers and call on Petrov to become Driver No. 1.

2) They were going to find a retired race winner that would lead the team until Kubica’s return.

Now I know Heidfeld has potential as I have previously stated, but he has never won a race in the 11 seasons he’s been in F1! Surely Renault could’ve persuaded Ferrari to let them have Giancarlo Fisichella for the season. At least Fisichella has won races and raced with a World Championship winning team. Or even persuade Jacques Villeneuve back from America! Villeneuve has been hinting at returning, and there was the door open very wide for him. But instead they chose Heidfeld who admittedly finished 3rd at this years Malaysian Grand Prix, but since then, like all the other seasons he’s race in, has not produced anything other than that.

As I have stated I really do like Heidfeld, and still think that with the right team and the right type of MotorSport he’ll blossom and become a champion. Which is why I wish him luck in whatever he decides to race in next. Maybe DTM might suit him, or even NASCAR or IndyCar in America. I just wish Renault could’ve seen the signs and prevented all this negativity.

Anyway, fingers crossed Kubica can return next season and put the team to right. If not, then I hope they’ll stick with Senna and give him the top flight chance he needs and deserves!