F1-Blog

Winter Testing Roundup

It's been a while since I posted, Apologies, it won't happen again, I promise.

The winter testing seems to have been a little split. Some teams have shown promise, and some teams that should have shown promise have not.

The fast teams seem to be McLaren and Ferrari. Both have set good times consistently over the winter testing season.

Then there are two shock surprises. Williams seem to have got their head around the Toyota engine, and at the moment seem to be the number 3 team. So that means that Renault are not number one, two or three. No it seems they are struggling to find the pace in the R27. We know the engine is good, as it is essentially the same one they used last year successfully. The team say that they are working on reliability, however they are not really introducing any new technologies (besides perhaps a step on the 'seamless shift' gearbox). If they are 'hiding' pace however it would not be the first time.

Speed’y PC’s

It's has been revealed that American Red Bull driver Scott Speed has signed a sponsorship deal with Voodoo PC.

The deal Rahul Sood Voodoo PC's president said "Scott is young, hungry to win and wants to prove himself as a leading race car driver. In many ways, he exemplifies the core characteristics and values of our company"

The company will launch Scott Speed branded laptops.

Rumours and thoughts

My Curious Bystander this week takes a look at the VAGroup. It seems that few people can understand why they are not in some way tied into F1. Yes the old argument that they are in Rally (with Skoda) touring cars (with Seat) and Le Mans (with Audi) goes some way to using the companies competition budget up. However can it stay that way for much longer?

Both BWM and Mercedes have got 'big' teams in F1 now, and if VW want to compete at the same level selling cars surely they need to compete at the same level in racing.

Silverstone Test Day 1

I headed along to the Silverstone test today to get some shot's and video of the event and to see what I could learn if anything about the running. Most of the teams have deemed it a 'Tyre' test session so I was not expecting much.

What surprised me was the openness that Renault had with their pits. Unlike the other teams that covered the area up with boards every time a car came in or out. Renault did not really bother, having the pit garage open for anyone to see as some of the shot's show.

I could not really see anything glaringly obvious from the different teams running to show that perhaps they where trying new parts, however the Honda's did seem to be running at least one new engine (as Anthony Davidson stopped out on the track at one point, so that must be replaced or repaired)

There was a fair few stoppages today, unfortunately for the spectators, most of these happened on the closed side of the track, so details of the issues and pictures are missing (at least from my set).

Silverstone Test

Just a quick reminder of the Silverstone F1 test that is taking place this week. The test will run over Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and will include some big names.

Renault, McLaren, Williams, Red Bull Racing, BMW Sauber and Midland F1 have all said they will be there, wit McLaren saying that Montoya will be on track Tuesday and Wednsday, and Kimi will be on track Wednesday and Thursday.

I'll bring you all the news from Tuesday and Wednesday along with any decent photo's or video I take. Let me know if you are planning on going.

For those that do not know how to get there then click here for the google map.