Formula 1 Blog - BBC Top Gear

Paint wars: Renault vs McLaren

Sam Philip — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 11:21:22 GMT

We weren’t expecting to say this, but… damn, isn’t Renault’s 2010 F1 car hot? Dubbed the R30, it was unveiled yesterday sporting a waspy livery that harks back to Renault’s gorgeous Le Mans racers of the 1970s (google ‘Alpine 442B’ and you’ll see the family resemblance). Interestingly, the team is yet to find a title sponsor, following [...]

Alonso’s horse

Jamie Hibbard — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:47:15 GMT

There must have been some strong words said last year at Ferrari’s headquarters in Maranello by those in charge of F1 things. Pretty much, they sucked. They won only a single race – the Belgian Grand Prix – after failing to interpret the new rules correctly and so making a dog of a car. So much of [...]

Quick Nick: seatless

Sam Philip — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:32:52 GMT

The final song in the big game of F1 Off-Season Musical Chairs is fading to silence. Today, Mercedes are expected to confirm Nick Heidfeld as their reserve driver for 2010, while new boys USF1 have secured Argentine racer Jose Maria Lopez, and Toro Rosso have announced they will hang on to Jaime Alguersari. That’s a [...]

Silver Arrows are go!

Sam Philip — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:25:01 GMT

Mercedes GP have revealed their 2010 livery. It is very silver. In a suit-studded ceremony in Stuttgart, drivers Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg watched the covers come off the first Mercedes F1 car since 1955… only to discover it was last season’s Brawn with a new paintjob. Like Ferrari, Mercedes have chosen to keep their 2010 car [...]

Revealed: Ferrari’s 2010 colours

Sam Philip — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:26:18 GMT

We weren’t supposed to see Ferrari’s 2010 F1 livery until Thursday, but here it is in all its red-and-white glory. Well, nearly. This is, technically, the 2009 Ferrari car – the F60 – with the 2010 paintjob. The most obvious change is the whacking great Santander logo on the rear wing, which replaces the Marlboro bar [...]

Schuey’s three role

Jamie Hibbard — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:30:48 GMT

You knew it was going to happen, you just didn’t know when it was going to start, but a number change was all it took. Michael Schumacher has taken the first step to making himself appear as the number one Mercedes GP driver, by taking the number three sticker for his car from Nico Rosberg. Nico was [...]

‘Stig’ to race for Merc

Jamie Hibbard — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:18:09 GMT

It’s a strange coincidence that the current series of Top Gear is about to finish in a couple of weeks, and Mercedes GP have just announced that Michael Schumacher will be racing for them in F1 next season. Hmmmm… Anyway, Schumacher is back, on a three-year deal with the former Brawn/now Merc Formula 1 squad – which [...]

Poll: your driver of 2009

Jamie Hibbard — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:07:52 GMT

Go on then, vote for your favourite driver of the year, and feel free to leave a comment about what you expect of the 2010 season. Much stuff has changed for next year, and we’re still waiting on confirmation that Michael Schumacher will be returning to the grid – all being well with his neck – [...]

Virgin vs Lotus

Jamie Hibbard — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:43:37 GMT

Virgin Racing have revealed their 2010 drive line-up: ex-Toyota driver Timo Glock and GP2 racer Brazilian Lucas di Grassi. But a more interesting duel is revealing itself, between Virgin Racing boss Richard Branson and the Lotus F1 team. The latter’s boss, AirAsia owner Tony Fernades, said the other week that his first objective in F1 is to [...]

Jarno and Heikki for Lotus

Jamie Hibbard — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:34:19 GMT

Lotus F1 Racing have announced their driver line-up for next year, and although not particularly brave choices, they’ve got themselves a lot of experience in Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen. Trulli was left seatless after the demise of Toyota’s Formula 1 team, and Kovalainen was put out in the cold when his former team McLaren signed [...]

New F1 car launches

Jamie Hibbard — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:27:44 GMT

Always something to look forward to in the New Year is F1 teams launching their new cars, which gives us something to get excited about. January 2010, however, is about to change all that. Gone is the chance to be the first of our friends to find pictures of the season’s new chariots. Gone is marking [...]

Brit GP saved

Jamie Hibbard — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:44:05 GMT

After much wrangling over the future of the British Grand Prix, Silverstone has just announced that it has secured a 17-year deal to host the race. The GP was put in doubt when the deal with Donington fell apart, after the circuit’s leasing company were unable to secure funds to redevelop the track. F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone [...]

Silliest season

Jamie Hibbard — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:00:00 GMT

Without a doubt, we’ve had one of the best Silly Seasons ever in Formula One this year, providing nearly as much to talk about in the pub as the stuff that actually occurred on-track. The Silly Season has, traditionally, happened between one season ending and another beginning, but this year it was all carrying on far [...]

Rosberg to Mercedes

Jamie Hibbard — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:19:00 GMT

More driver changes in the news this week, only this time it’s not quite as surprising as Button going to McLaren: Nico Rosberg has been announced as Mercedes GP’s first driver for 2010. The move has been expected since Rosberg announced he was leaving Williams earlier in the year – not that we knew Brawn would [...]

British super team

Jamie Hibbard — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:13:31 GMT

Jenson Button has signed on to drive for McLaren from next year. At least, that’s what BBC Sport are reporting. In a move that’s expected to be officially announced later on today, Button will line up as 2009 World Champion next to the 2008 World Champ Lewis Hamilton in an all-British super team. Maybe McLaren just like [...]

Kimi on holiday

Jamie Hibbard — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:29:25 GMT

Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat is today reporting that ex-Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen will not race in F1 next year. Kimi’s had been talks with McLaren following his forced Ferrari exit, saying he only wanted to race in 2010 if he was in a car capable of winning grands prix. The discussions are believed to have collapsed over [...]

Glock to the Manor born

Jamie Hibbard — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:46:56 GMT

Former Toyota driver Timo Glock is off to join one of the new squads for next year, in the shape of the Manor Grand Prix team. Glockdog – as he’s known to his friends – was left without a drive after Toyota announced their exit from F1, and although he’s had some bigger team offers on [...]

Mercedes GP

Jamie Hibbard — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:54:00 GMT

It seems the rumour-mongering was true: German manufacturer Mercedes has just announced that it has bought a controlling stake in the Brawn GP squad. Which means that, from next year, Brawn GP becomes Mercedes GP. Merc and an Abu Dhabi investment company are believed to have bought 75 per cent of the Brawn team, though Ross Brawn [...]

The year in pictures

Jamie Hibbard — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:20:49 GMT

This is just a quick note to say that BBC Sport has put together a brilliant F1 season review entitled The Year in Pictures, which takes a look back over the highs and lows of 2009. In his foreword, BBC commentator Martin Brundle says: “Formula One’s return to BBC television served up a sensational and thoroughly [...]

Ballsy Brawn

Jamie Hibbard — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:48:54 GMT

BBC Sport’s Ted Kravitz always comes up with some great insider type blogs, and his latest episode post-Abu Dhabi is more of the same. This time he reveals something that I certainly had never heard before, and that’s regarding a ballsy move taken by Brawn GP boss Ross after Jenson Button’s sixth win of the year. Ross [...]

Toyota pulls out

Jamie Hibbard — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:00:04 GMT

Toyota has this morning announced that it is pulling out of F1 with immediate effect. It cites the global economic downturn as the reason for the withdrawal, after posting the company’s first ever operating loss back in March. It comes as something of a shock, but not really a surprise, as there had been speculation since that [...]

Rubens to Williams

Jamie Hibbard — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:35:55 GMT

News reaches us this morning that’s about as surprising as the clocks going back, that we didn’t have a proper UK summer and that Fernando Alonso is driving for Ferrari next year: Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg are in at Williams. OK, so it’s a bit more surprising than those other three things, but it’s been [...]

Abu Dhabi do

Jamie Hibbard — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:25:23 GMT

The first ever Abu Dhabi GP didn’t really live up to all of the off-track bluster once the race actually got going, until about two laps to go when Jenson Button got close enough to second place man Mark Webber for a bit of an on-the-edge ding-dong. Jenson had been closing Mark down for quite a [...]

Lewis poles in

Jamie Hibbard — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:02:07 GMT

Well it wasn’t the all-British front row that we’d hope for, but McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton stuck his car on pole position for the inaugural Abu Dhabi GP, the last race of the year. Incoming world champion Jenson Button had been hinting at his intent to go out on a flyer during practice yesterday, but it turned [...]

Hamilton vs Button

Jamie Hibbard — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:04:26 GMT

Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton traded places at the front during the first practice session at the inaugural Abu Dhabi GP this morning, and it was good. The incoming and outgoing World Champions made a fine show of it, and if their dueling was anything to go by, then Sunday’s race should be a gloves-off cracker. The [...]