Honda Starting On The Back Foot?

When Honda first announced their return to Formula 1 with the McLaren team, the decision to delay the launch until the 2015 season seemed like a cautious but beneficial move. The new hybrid power units are very complicated pieces of equipment so the extra year of development and the fact that they can use 2014 performance figures to benchmark their engine means they have a better understanding and chance to be level with their competitors this year.

Honda left Formula 1 at the end of the 2008 season.

2016 Super License Rules - Good Idea, Poor Execution

Formula 1 drivers have been getting younger and younger year on year. Alonso became the youngest Formula 1 champion in 2005. Hamilton claimed the record in 2008. before Sebastian Vettel's 2010 championship claimed the still standing record at the age of just 23. Jaime Alguersuari currently holds the record for youngest ever driver to start a Grand Prix, doing so at the age of just 19 years old. That record will be broken in 2015 though, when Max Verstappen starts the Australian Grand Prix for Toro Rosso. He turned 17 years old September last year.

Max Verstappen has already completed a number of tests in a Fornula 1 car, including Friday Practice in Japan

2015 Return

Happy New Year! I hope you have had a great holiday break and are well prepared for 2015.

Since my last blog post following the Belgian Grand Prix, just a few things have happened within motorsport... Okay, once again I have managed to miss a lot. I've made posts already throughout last year having to explain missed races and potential blog changes, but the truth is that the time commitment ultimately got the best of me.

It would be easy to read this, knowing where it is heading, and think this may be another New Years resolution ready to be broken by the end of January. It is easier than that though - I am now armed with a laptop. Yes, until 2014, I still lived in the desktop age.

So, maybe this is my first post you are reading, or perhaps it will even be your last, but I would like to extend a warm welcome to the new and improved for 2015 blog to all!

Did I miss something?

I will address the missed news within January...

F1 Resumes With A Bang

Let's get straight to it then, the incident. Nico Rosberg has obviously taken a lot of the bad press from this one, and no-one was helped by Lewis Hamilton's post debrief claim that Rosberg admitted to crashing into him on purpose. There are a few angles to cover with this one, but I wonder whether 1 argument blankets the majority - Formula 1 usually protects the driver being overtaken in any manoeuvre.

The undoubted flashpoint in the 2014 Formula 1 season.

Rosberg Completes Perfect Week

7 days don't come much better than Nico Rosberg's. Get married, watch home country win the World Cup, sign a new multi-year contract with Mercedes, and then win your home Grand Prix in a German car. The F1 fans and a certain Brit would suggest that the race wasn't quite perfect, given the lack of competition opposed to Rosberg's victory, and such was his margin throughout the 90 minute race that he was barely televised at all. Another "gift" as Hamilton put it after another technical failure left him with serious ground to make up, both in Germany and the overall championship fight.

The victory was assured as soon as Hamilton crashed on Saturday, but Rosberg will not complain if they all come like that.

Making Sense of FRIC Suspension Ban and Pirelli Test

Following last weekends British Grand Prix, the teams stayed behind to complete an in season test on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. The main news to come from these days were the banning of FRIC (Front and Rear InterConnected) Suspension, and Pirelli testing a prototype set of 18 Inch wheels on an adapted 2014 Lotus car. This post will try to explain exactly what these are and the affect of Formula 1.

Charles Pic completed 14 laps on the experimental 18" Pirelli wheels.

Best of British

12 months ago, the 2013 British Grand Prix made spectacular viewing for all of the wrong reasons. The Pirelli issues first came to light in a number of high speed and very frightening blow-outs, which nearly saw a driver boycott in later races. It was Lewis Hamilton that suffered the first of these incidents, and it took away his lead and all hopes of winning his home Grand Prix for the second time.

What a difference a year makes.

Hamilton's bad luck struck during the race in 2013, but his weekends fortunes reversed come Sunday in 2014.