Four races, four winners, four constructors. That’s the 2012 Formula 1 season heading in the Spanish Grand Prix. And though lots of hand-wringing is starting to emerge regarding whether tires and their management are playing too large a role in making the field as competitive as it is, there can be little doubt that a year like this is more exciting than a beginning-to-end championship run by a single car. You don’t hear the NFL or NASCAR, perhaps the two most successful spectator sp...

[MORE]

The political tumult of Bahrain aside, competition got back to ‘normal’ this week with a front-three on the grid of Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), season points-leader Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), and Mark Webber (Red Bull). Look just a tiny bit further beneath the surface, however, and some of the variety that has made 2012 such an exciting season is easy to see, with both Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) and Sergio Perez (Sauber) within striking distance of the top spot and Daniel Ricciardo (Tor...

[MORE]

Race 3 of the 2012 Formula 1 season brings the series to Shanghai for the Grand Prix of China. Even before the race itself, drama was running high. Nico Rosberg drove to his first pole in 111 races and in the process gave Mercedes its first since Juan Manuel Fangio at Monza in 1955. At the same time, defending champion Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) failed to make into Q3 for the first time since 2009, taking 11th on the grid and being out-qualified by teammate Mark Webber for the third time this s...

[MORE]

McLaren locked down the front row for the second consecutive race, with Lewis Hamilton once again edging out Jenson Button. But lurking at P3, his highest qualifying position since 2006, was Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher. And with rain beginning to fall, both Schumacher, a historically great wet-weather racer and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, who started today in P6, were looking good. Hamilton held the lead from the start, with Button also holding P2. Schumacher spun on Lap 1...

[MORE]

Free at last! Let those racecars run! The winter was short, and even shorter what with personnel moves, technical adjustments, and shifting teams. Testing helped break the ice. But there’s nothing like actual points competition. And the season starts in Australia with a classic the-more-things-change the-more-they-stay-the-same setup. On the change side, Red Bull Racing – for which two-time consecutive champion Sebastian Vettel ran the table in 2011 -- is relegated to Row 3 of the s...

[MORE]

Racecar Engineering interviewed McLaren's head Martin Whitmarsh on a wide variety of topics relating to the upcoming 2012 Formula 1 season, including the series' November return to the United States at Circuit of the America's, in Austin, Texas, for the US Grand Prix. The excerpts pertaining to the US Grand Prix are below, with full Q&A available here.  We’re going to Austin, Texas this year. How important is it for the fans, the sport and the sponsors to...

[MORE]

Well, that's a wrap. The last race of the season didn't go entirely to script (my version: Sebastian Vettel leading from start to finish to close the year in much the way he ran it), but in so doing served as the second consecutive reminder of how thin the margin of even Vettel's dominating performance was. He didn't repeat Abu Dhabi's DNF, but a gimpy gearbox detected on Lap 16 forced him from the lead on Lap 30 and left his point average over the last two events at 9. Project that over the cou...

[MORE]

The Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi was a good reminder as the 2011 season winds down of exactly how fine the line between champion and also-ran can be in Formula 1. Practice sessions saw the continued ascent of McLaren whose cars consistently ran better than Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton in particular had always been very fast at Abu Dhabi and this continued to be the case, with the assembled well-heeled masses given good reason to believe that Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull's stranglehold on ...

[MORE]

The inaugural Grand Prix of India took place on the brand new Buddh circuit, which ended up being the second-fastset course of 2011, after Monza. The newly finished track, however, added extra menace to the high speeds. Large amounts of dust on the dirving circuit caused several offs during practice and qualifying and at least a handful during the race itself. But new, dusty course or no, one thing remained the same, Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) won the pole, his 13th, leaving ...

[MORE]

And that's a championship again! RBR-Renault secured its second consecutive Formula 1 manufacturers' championship at the Korean Grand Prix in Yeongam, though not without at least a small fight. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) became the first non-Red Bull pole-sitter of the 2011 season in Korea. By Turn 4,  however, Sebatian Vettel had claimed P1 and his Red Bull teammate Mark Webber passed Jenson Button in the other McLaren to move into 3rd place. Vitaly...

[MORE]