Yesterday I said it was time for Formula One to stand up and tell the the FIA it is wrong in deciding it was appropriate to hold a Bahrain Grand Prix this year. So did they? Well… not in exactly those words…

The Mexican grand prix in 1991 was the last time that a Porsche powered F1 car raced. In the hands of Michele Alboreto and Alex Caffi, the Footwork Porsche cars failed to qualify for most races and when they did make the start the cars wouldn’t last long before suffering reliability gremlins. It was an unfitting end to the German manufacturer tenure in the sport, with them having won three world championships in the 1980s with Mclaren. However, Porsche may be about to put all of this right.

The appeal of …

It’s been almost eight months since Jean Todt took over the helm of the FIA from outgoing President Max Mosley and during that time the Frenchman has been content to say little about his policies and plans, in direct contrast to his predecessor who was hardly ever out of the news. It takes time to settle into a new job. Todt, for all his experience will have wanted to settle in, listen to his office bearers and little by little, stamp his mark on the presidency and reshape public opinion …

Back in November I wrote about qualifying on low fuel and how I would miss the loss of the fuel-predicted grid. At the time I had mixed views; I hadn’t been privy to watching F1 when qualifying on low fuel was the norm but, as many fans seemed genuinely excited by the prospect I thought (and hoped) my pessimism would be unfounded.

Qualifying itself was fine, it wasn’t fabulous. I’d watched and had been happy that Formula One was back but it wasn’t as exciting as it could have been. I …

Friction between the FIA and the teams had been slowly building since the middle of 2008 as the ongoing economic situation forced all parties to reassess the direction that Formula 1 was headed. However, there was little in the way of agreement as to how that could be achieved and Max Mosley’s proposal to use a standard engine only served to antagonise the car-manufacturer based teams.

Then at the beginning of the year, the FIA announced it would be opening up the grid to three new teams and in order to …

This blog entry was somewhat unplanned and I guess takes the form of a bit of a personal rant, prompted by the overnight news that Michael Schumacher could be allowed special permission to test the F60 Ferrari in the midst of an in-season testing ban.

Even though I am really excited about Michael making a temporary return to Formula One and the unique chance this affords us to see a former champion in action, I feel that it’s wrong on so many levels.

Special treatment?
Many drivers were very vocal on safety issues …