Tommy Marco, who won the pair of Paddock Club passes for last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix in a JA on F1 Connect competition, has sent us a few words and pictures showcasing his experience at Montmelo. We publish them below. There will be two further JA on F1 Connect competitions this season with a pair of Paddock Club passes as the prize in both. Keep your eyes peeled here and on our Breaking News site, JA on F1 Connect for details. Tommy Marco writes: “This weekend we had one of the most exciting experience of our lives. I can not More…

Readers of this site will be more than familiar with the work of leading F1 photographer Darren Heath. Last week he launched a stunning new book called “The Art of Racing” in conjunction with McLaren. The 304 page book is a collection of images from the past two seasons, with captions from Maurice Hamilton. Darren is a master not only at capturing speed, but also poignant personality images, as readers of this site will know. His behind the scenes work is very strong and there’s plenty of that on show in this book, which is produced in stunning reproduction, featuring More…

Commercial partnerships and collaborations in F1 are commonplace, with most teams having “technology partners”, “performance partners”, “logistics partners and so on. Now the Lotus F1 team has gone one step further and found an “angry partner”; Rovio, the Finnish company behind the popular Angry Birds game. It’s a tongue in cheek story, but designed to draw attention to a couple of significant milestones for both companies. “While Lotus F1 Team will contest its 500th Grand Prix in Monaco, the No.1 digital game in the world – Angry Birds – has just reached 1 billion downloads. As a result, both brands More…

“Formula 1 is all about innovation,” (Ross Brawn, Team Principal Mercedes) There’s a lot going on behind the scenes in F1 at the moment, with the preparation of the new powertrains, which are set to come in under new rules for 2014. These feature small capacity 1.6 litre turbo engines with a high degree of hybrid energy regeneration, stored electrically. There are over 120 sensors on an F1 car and managing the data and control systems is the Electronic Control Unit, which is designed and manufactured for F1 by McLaren Electronic Systems. In Barcelona at the weekend MES and its More…

Pastor Maldonado took the time to speak to selected media today in a Williams phone in. The Venezuelan sounded upbeat, but also forward looking as he wants to repeat the success again as soon as possible, perhaps in Monaco, “For sure we will do our best. The teams are so close, the championship is so close, but we are getting better and better,” he said. “At the moment we don’t have the quickest car in the track. But why not. F1 is changing every time, it will be difficult but we will try. The Williams looks a front running package More…

Kamui Kobayashi has said that the new aero package Sauber put on the car in Barcelona has made it easier to drive and to get results from and he believes he can better his fifth place result from Monaco last season. The Japanese driver had another strong drive in Barcleona on Sunday with two stunning overtakes as he fought his way up from ninth on the grid to 5th at the flag. He now has 19 points from five races. “Our new aero package was working well. It is definitely a step forward,” he said. “I think we have improved More…

Peter Sauber has put the first stage of his succession plan in place by transferring one third of the shares in his Formula 1 team to CEO Monisha Kaltenborn, citing the desire to retain “continuity” for the Hinwil outfit into the long term. Indian-born Kaltenborn has been with the Hinwil-based outfit for over a decade having initially joined to head up its legal department but has was given a front-line chief role by Sauber when the veteran retook control of his eponymous team at the end of 2009 following BMW’s sudden pull-out, becoming Formula 1’s first female chief executive. Sauber More…

The Spanish Grand Prix was a perfect example of how a race can be won or lost on the finest of margins and on a good or bad strategy decision. Pastor Maldonado beat Fernando Alonso and won the race for Williams due to planning and to a good strategy call half the way through the race, while Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen again had the car to win, but was a fraction off due to race strategy and conditions and he ended up third. There were several key moments and decisions which decided the outcome of this race. The main one was More…

[Updated] Everyone who follows F1 knows that Ferrari have shown extraordinary level of support to Felipe Massa in the last two and a half years. The little Brazilian almost won the world title for them in 2008 and would have done if they hadn’t lost him a win in the Singapore GP by leaving the fuel hose attached at a pit stop. After his accident in Hungary 2009 they again stood by him, helping him back into the car for 2010. But now, with such a tight field at the front in F1, the signs are that their patience is More…

Williams F1 Team has released a further bulletin on their staff members who were injured in yesterday’s pit garage fire after the team won the Spanish Grand Prix. “Following yesterday’s fire which occurred in the team’s garage after the Spanish Grand Prix, Williams F1 can confirm that a further two team members have now been released from hospital and have returned home having received treatment for smoke inhalation. “One member of the team remains in hospital in Spain having suffered burns in the incident. He is stable and will return to the UK within the next 48 hours to receive More…