Adrian Sutil receives 18 Month Suspended Sentence for Bodily Harm

©Jordan A. Irvine – 2012

On just the second day of court proceedings in Munich, today Adrian Sutil was handed an 18 month suspended sentence and ordered to pay €200,000 in fines which will go towards various charities for causing bodily harm to Lotus F1 team co-owner Eric Lux.

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Interview: Emma Buxton

Emma Buxton is a freelance press officer, sponsorship leverage consultant, broadcast presenter/ interviewer and live events specialist. She works with a range of companies and sponsors and currently is working in the fast lane.

(c) Emma Buxton on Twitter

She has worked for the likes of Jenson Button, Force India and Super Aguri and is currently PR for young American racing driver Alexander Rossi. She also works for the Race of champions, a very well received and world renown event. I know a number of you are interested in a job in the F1 or Motorsport world and Emma has some interesting points and advice on her job. Check out this interview with the lovely lady herself.

Kubica to test Ferrari F10

The long-term rumours of Robert Kubica's move to Ferrari have been given more fuel this week as it's been reported that the Pole is due to test in a Ferrari F10 in June this year.

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Kubica, who has been on the side-lines of F1 since February 2011, following a terrible rally accident, is reportedly progressing well with recovery, despite a slip and fall on ice in early January. The 27-year-old is hoping to get back behind the wheel of an F1 simulator in April if all goes well, and following that, the real-deal, which is reportedly where Ferrari come into the picture.

Should Barrichello return to F1?

The 2011 season was one filled with disappointment for Rubens Barrichello. He scored the majority of the William’s team’s points but even then just 4 points were scored. This left Rubens in a vulnerable position. The team had already confirmed Pastor Maldonado would drive for the team in 2012 and a number of other drivers waited in the wings.

It was announced on the 17^th of January that Bruno Senna, a fellow Brazilian, would be racing for the Williams F1 Team in 2012. This left Rubens without a seat. The 39 year old is the most experienced racer on the grid, competing in 326 races and scoring 11 wins. He debuted at the 1993 South African Grand Prix for the Jordan team and impressed without seeing results. The 1993 Jordan was restricted by its poor reliability. He had to wait till the 2000 German GP at Hockenheim to win. He was renowned for his wet weather skill and took the win, the first of a fair few.

Now that Rubens is out of Formula 1, after 19 seasons, I debate whether he should make a return to F1 Racing or not? Click below to see the full story.

Do you believe John Surtees should deserve a knighthood?

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F1 blogger, Alex Goldschmidt has created a petition to get John Surtees a knighthood. Surtees, 78, is an 4 wheel and 2 wheel motor racing legend who has won titles in both F1 and Motor bike racing. Alex and a few others are striving to get him a knighthood not only for his racing career results, which are outstanding, but also for his contribution to motor sport. 

John's son Henry tragically died in a Formula 2 race at the Brand Hatch circuit in 2009. The Henry Surtees foundation was set up in his name to help people with accidental brain damage and physical injuries. John already has an MBE and OBE but I think, as do many others, that he should be given a knighthood.

I will let Alex explain all, click "read more" to see the article.

Interview: Max Chilton

Max Chilton is a 20 year old British racing driver. He is the brother of BTCC race winner Tom Chilton but is having currently making headlines of his own.

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Chilton has been moving up the ranks of Motor racing categories, competing successfully in the likes of Karting, Formula 3, GP2 Asia and GP2. He raced for Carlin in the 2011 GP2 series and found some success, but struggled with reliability issues. Formula 1 was knocking at Max's door and in November 2011 he participated in the Abu Dhabi Young Driver Test for Force India, against a number of talented young racers. He impressed, setting his fastest time of 1m.41.575 seconds. In the overall combined fastest times this made him 5th fastest out of the 25 runners, ahead of more experienced drivers like Gary Paffett in the Mclaren.

I caught up with Max via email and asked him some questions on his 2011 season, F1 idols and what he really thinks on the term "pay drivers".

Jules Bianchi signs for Force India

22 year old French driver Jules Bianchi has signed for the Force India team. He will take the role of reserve driver.

Jules has tested for Ferrari and was their 2011 reserve driver.He will now integrate himself into developing the Force India car and will complete a minimum of 9 practice sessions over the year. Bianchi will get his first run in the 2012 car during pre-season testing in February.

Image courtesy of the Sahara Force India team

Jules Bianchi said after being confirmed “I’m obviously excited to join Sahara Force India and the chance to get track time during race weekends is an important step for me. Being regularly in a current car is the best way to learn quickly and I hope it will put me in a strong position to one day move into a race seat. The next few months will be really exciting as I get to know the team, see how they work, and prepare for my time in the car. I would like to thank everyone for believing in me and especially Sahara Force India for giving me this great opportunity.”

Vijay Mallya, Team Principal and Managing Director, commented saying “I am delighted to welcome Jules into the Sahara Force India family. We always keep an eye on young, talented drivers and his performance in GP2 certainly impressed us all."

F1 Journalism - A Job, or a Way of Life? By Jordan Irvine

Over the last few months I have got to know, via twitter, an accomplished F1 journalist over twitter. It is a job sector which I could only dream of getting and I know a lot of other people aspire to an F1 journalist as well. I asked Jordan Irvine, freelance journalist, to write a piece for my website explaining his experiences and advice on getting a foot in the door of the industry.

Click read more to see the full article.

Caterham F1 Team reveal CT-01

The Caterham F1 Team has unveiled their first Formula 1 car, becoming the first team to show their 2012 challenger.

(c) Caterham F1 Team

The Hingham based team, who are now moving Leafield Technical Centre in Oxfordshire for the 2012 season, have become the first Formula 1 team to show their 2012 spec car. It was revealed to the world on the front cover of the February edition of F1 Racing Magazine. The Magazine is due to be on sale on the 26th January but subscribers received their issue a day early. The 26th will also see more images posted on their website.

Pirelli change tyre markings for 2012

Pirelli the sole tyre supplier for Formula 1, have tweaked the colours of their tyre compounds to make them stand out more for viewers.

The dry tyres are staying the same colour but the colours will be brighter and more saturated to make them stand out and be easily recognised by the viewing public. The wet and intermediate tyre compounds however will have a different colour gracing their sidewall. The Intermediate tyre used in damp conditions will now be a lime green, instead of 2011's light blue, with the Full Wet tyre now being blue when they were once orange.

Pirelli also reveal that the 2012 tyres will be alot softer than last year. They are targeted more at the degradation from the first few 2011 races. In 2011 the first few races saw the tyres degrade and change constantly but by the end of the season the pit stop numbers went down and the tyres were more reliable.

Paul Hembrey told F1 Times "For 2012 we will have some new compounds and also a new profile for the tyres: the idea is to reduce the performance gap between the compounds in order to make the racing even closer,"

"Generally speaking, all the compounds are softer. The 2012 hard tyre is much closer to last year's medium compound. These are some of the quickest tyres that we have ever produced and they are definitely more biased towards performance. In spite of that, the degradation rate has actually been improved, and we’re still aiming to see between two and three pit stops at every race. The gaps between the compounds are also much closer, which should lead to some interesting race strategies."

Comment your views below

Behind the lens: Mark Sutton

Sutton images are one of the world’s leading Motorsport picture agencies. Mark Sutton is one of the company’s main photographers. He is now known around the world as one of the leading, most respected photographers. Mark and his brother Keith co-own Sutton Images and have taken the company from strength to strength. Both Mark and Keith have taken been taking professional Motorsport photo's for 30 years. Since the 1960's Sutton Images have built up over 700,000 Motorsport photo's in their archive.

© Sutton Images

I spoke to Mark and got a better insight into the life and mind of a photographer. I recently interviewed Darren Heath, another respected F1 photographer, so I was eager to see the similarities and differences between their views. Here is the interview, behind the lens, with Mark Sutton.

D'Ambrosio confirmed as Lotus F1 Team 3rd driver

Belgian driver Jerome D'Ambrosio has been confirmed as the Lotus F1 Team 3rd driver.

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The 26 year old was confirmed on the 24th January 2012 as the reserve driver for the Lotus team. He said "it's an exciting next step in my career" and an opportunity that he just "couldn't afford to miss." He also tweeted the news saying "Looking forward to working with Lotus F1 Team this season"

D'Ambrosio raced for the Marussia Virgin Racing, now Marussia F1 Team, in 2011 before being replaced by French driver Charles Pic.

Autosport Show Gallery

On the 14th January 2012 i visited the Autosport show at the NEC. Here is my review of the event here and you can view all my images in my Autosport Show Gallery here on my Facebook page.

The show had special guest stars like Paul Di Resta, Jake Humphrey, David Coulthard, Christian Horner and even my friend Dan Wells. I had a great time but as always my feet hurt afterwards. It was worth it though to see such amazing machinery and listen to some very insightful interviews.

Enjoy looking through the gallery.

FIA ban reactive ride height system

F1 teams have been told that the reactive ride height device, pioneered by the Lotus team, has been banned for 2012.

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It has been confirmed by valued sources that a note was sent to all the F1 teams on Friday evening indicating the ban. It is said the FIA are not satisfied that the concept, which regulates the ride height under braking, is legal.

HRT target car launch in time for second test

The HRT F1 Team target a second test launch for their 2012 challenger.

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HRT are renowned for their late launches and absence from the testing sessions, but this year it could change. The team have announced they target launching their car at the second test, at the Circuit de Catalunya. Here is the full 2012 winter schedule.

F1 2012 Winter Schedule

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The F1 Winter season is soon approaching, with numerous tests and car launches to come. Here i have added all the car launches and winter tests so you can keep up with everything.

Winter testing is the time to work out problems and test new components. The car's have not changed too much but click here to see all the changes for 2012.

Click "read more" to see all the current dates. They will be updated whenever something new is revealed.

Bruno Senna signs for Williams

It was officially confirmed today (17th January 2012) that the final seat at the Williams F1 Team will be taken by Bruno Senna. There has been rumour after rumour surrounding the seat. A number of big names like Kimi Raikkonen, Adrian Sutil and Rubens Barrichello were all mentioned but Bruno Senna has been confirmed as the teams 2nd driver, alongside Pastor Maldonado.

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Click "read more" to see the full story.

Autosport International Motor Show 2012

I was lucky enough to visit AutoSports annual Motor Show at the NEC in Birmingham on Saturday the 14th of January 2012. It's a show which I have visited a few times and i always find it extremely interesting, but extremely tiring.

BBC reveal full F1 2012 line up

The BBC have revealed their full line up for the F1 2012 season. The broadcasting channel will show half of the races live and will use evening highlights to fill in audiences on the ones they have missed.

Williams team up with Olympian

The Williams team recently parted ways with telecommunications giant AT&T but now they have a new partnership emerging, and its with an Olympic legend.

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The team have announced a deal with former 200M record holder and Olympic gold medallist Michael Johnson. His company Michael Johnson Performance Inc will provide thorough training for the Formula 1 teams pit crew and evaluate its current training programmes. In return for this training, the team will wear MJP on their team kit while the driver's overalls will also contain the logo.

Lotus's reactive ride height system

The Lotus team, now the sole Lotus team on the grid, have developed a revolutionary mechanism for their 2012 challenger. The innovative idea is the "reactive ride height system" and its job is basically to keep a standard ride height while under braking

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Raikkonen's first F1 test since 2009

Kimi Raikkonen has been away from F1 since the 2009 season ended in Brazil, but he will step into an F1 car for the first time in 3 years in January. The private test is schedules for the 23rd and 24th of January 2012 at the Valencia test track.

Kimi will be trying out an F1 2010 spec car.

He will drive a 2010 spec car and the "Flying Finn" will use the test to acclimatise to an F1 car again and get used to it before winter testing begins in February. He admits it will be a challenge, especially the Pirelli tyres which he said earlier this month will be the "most important" part.

Kimi's last race was the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix

Raikkonen has been absent from F1 since 2009 and in that time he has been off around the world rallying on some of the most dangerous roads. All eyes will be on him as he tries an F1 car for the first time in 3 years.

2012 Rule Changes

The FIA published their sporting and technical regulations for 2012 this week. It includes some brand new rules which the drivers will have to adjust to, as well as revised rules and ones which have been left unchanged.

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Remember back in 2011, we had the new rules such as DRS, KERS, no F-Ducts or Double Diffusers and Gearbox's lasting 5 races. Now let’s look at 2012's new rules.

Click "read more" to see the full run down.

Alguersuari turns down HRT Seat

Jaime Alguersuari has turned down the second race seat at the Spanish F1 team HRT. The team are keen to have an all Spanish team but Alguersuari turned the move down, admitting it would be a "step backwards" in his career.

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The Spanish 21 year old was dropped from the Toro Rosso team at the end of the 2011 season and has been replaced by 2 new drivers, Jean Eric-Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo. Alguersuari is still hoping for a test or reserve drive spot at one of the top teams, possibly at the Vodafone Mclaren Mercedes team after losing Pedro De La Rosa to HRT.

Comment you views below, should he have turned it down?

Reserve role at Red Bull for Buemi

Sebastian Buemi has been confirmed today (Thursday 5th January) as the new Red Bull reserve driver. He takes up the role after racing for the Red Bull junior team Toro Rosso for a number of seasons, consistently scoring points across each season.

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Click "read more" to see the full story

Chandhok gives up on 2012 seat

Karun Chandhok has been in the F1 paddock for the last few years but has struggled to get a drive in a competitive car, or get the chance to drive at all. He raced 10 times in 2010 for the back markers Hispania but never got the chance to show his true racing potential. He has now conceded defeat on the hopes of driving again in 2012.

Click "read more" to see the full story.

Williams, holding on to someone's lifeline

The title of this piece could be deceiving. Williams has been a team which continues to fall lower down in the results and 2011 saw its worst year, with press and news pushing the team into a shadowed corner. The only headline they could get would be a poor performance or driver error which to be honest was common in 2011.

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Now rumours have surrounded the team for a number of weeks. They confirmed Pastor Maldonado, known in 2011 as a rookie with a habit for collecting the barrier, in early November as their 1st driver but the 2nd has yet to be revealed. A number of driver's are vying for the seat and it could prove to be a life line which they all desperately need.