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  • F1 Mid-Summer Movements

    Number of comments: 2
    So Max Mosley has again said he will not run for president of the FIA, and Jean Todt will, and Mosley will support Todt. Okay. I believe it this time. The first time Mosley said he was quitting the presidency, a few years ago, I believed it. Turned out he [...]
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    Posted: July 16, 2009, 9:32am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • The Sutil/Raikkonen Story

    Number of comments: 11
    No story at the German Grand Prix can quite top that of Mark Webber winning the race in his 130th race in the series and after a hellish winter with a broken leg. But certainly the weirdest - and saddest - story in the race was that of Adrian Sutil [...]
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    Posted: July 12, 2009, 1:25pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Crazy Qualifying at the Nurburgring

    Number of comments: 5
    That was certainly the best qualifying session I have seen in terms of its mixture of craziness, satisfaction and fairness. I recall some quite crazy qualifying sessions that have delivered bizarre results - the one at Spa many years ago when all the top teams got caught in the rain [...]
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    Posted: July 11, 2009, 9:58am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • The Refueling Point

    Number of comments: 7
    Something other than politics anyone? As I was sitting through today's press conference at the Nurburgring I had as a personal goal to wait and watch for how long it would take to start talking politics. That category is, after all, the one I believe I now post most blog [...]
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    Posted: July 10, 2009, 12:21pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • FIA-FOTA War Continues

    Number of comments: 6
    No need for my comment on this one. The press releases say it all. Here is the FIA's press release, the first out: Press Release 2010 FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 08.07.2009 Following the decision of the World Council on 24 June to revert to the pre-29 April version of the 2010 F1 [...]
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    Posted: July 08, 2009, 4:37pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Bernie's Dictators

    Number of comments: 15
    Every once in a while Bernie Ecclestone gives an in-depth personal interview that reveals a politically incorrect opinion or two. There is a very fine interview of this kind in The Times of London today and it has a little chapter about dictators in general, and Hitler in particular. Oh [...]
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    Posted: July 04, 2009, 1:39pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • FIA-FOTA War Not Quite Finished

    Number of comments: 10
    Yes, well, as I stated in my previous post, I was not entirely convinced that Max Mosley would really be gone. After all, we have been through this sort of thing before - when he announced his retirement a few years ago and then returned "by popular demand." Autosport is [...]
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    Posted: June 25, 2009, 8:22pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • FIA-FOTA War Finished

    Number of comments: 15
    That's it. The FIA World Council met today and Max Mosley announced he was not going to put himself up for re-election in October. And he announced that the crisis was now finished, the teams have all signed up for another three years at least in the series, and the [...]
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    Posted: June 24, 2009, 12:26pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Royalty at the Silverstone

    Number of comments: 2
    Brad Spurgeon Damon Hill, center, with Prince Michael of Kent, on his left, and the Duke of Kent on his right, in the Formula One paddock in Silverstone on Sunday morning before the British Grand Prix. As potentially the last Formula One race at Silverstone, the British Grand Prix was a [...]
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    Posted: June 21, 2009, 12:40pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • KERS Finished?

    Number of comments: 14
    While Max Mosley and the teams lock horns in a battle to the death of their series, one of Max's pet bits of technology seems to have lost the battle for its existence. KERS looks as if it will die a quiet death in the background. I know, probably no [...]
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    Posted: June 20, 2009, 12:36pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Life Goes on at Silverstone - Sort Of

    Number of comments: 6
    Clearly the main pastime for the denizens of the paddock in Silverstone this weekend is, and will continue to be, watching the physical moves, the comings and goings and the body language of the team directors, officials and Max and Bernie. Now that the FOTA teams have released their statement [...]
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    Posted: June 19, 2009, 10:41am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Last Race at Silverstone, Last One for F1 As We Know It?

    Number of comments: 4
    It is as cold as winter here in Silverstone. Even London was like hot summer compared to this. The wind is high around the track today. Tensions are high too. The sense at the moment is one of expectation. Nothing much to report today, it's tomorrow that things are expected [...]
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    Posted: June 18, 2009, 1:23pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • FIA-FOTA Impasse

    Number of comments: 6
    The FIA continues to provide us with blow-by-blow accounts of its battle with FOTA. Here is the latest in an FIA press release: As agreed at the meeting of 11 June, FIA financial experts met yesterday with financial experts from FOTA. Unfortunately, the FOTA representatives announced that they had no mandate to [...]
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    Posted: June 16, 2009, 5:08am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • 24 Hours of Racing

    Number of comments: 4
    Michel Spingler/Associated Press The Peugeot No. 9 driven by Marc Gene, Alexander Wurz and David Brabham won the 77th Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race on Sunday. Update | 2:37 p.m. Audi's reign at Le Mans has just ended. The Peugeot No. 9 of Marc Gene, Alexander Wurz and David Brabham' [...]
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    Posted: June 13, 2009, 8:57am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • FIA Announces 2010 Team List - With Surprises

    Number of comments: 10
    Perhaps it was full of surprises, perhaps it wasn't. But the list of next year's Formula One teams that the FIA released today does achieve one very good thing: A delay in the FOTA-FIA war. But first the really good news: Three new teams. Among them, USF1. So now [...]' [...]
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    Posted: June 12, 2009, 12:24pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Le Mans-ell and Prost in the Sarthe

    Number of comments: 4
    Just watching the Le Mans 24 Hours race practice session on Eurosport in France. Le Mans takes place this weekend, and I'm looking forward to taking it in. As I watch at the moment I was prompted to note just a couple of things. The first is the interesting thing' [...]
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    Posted: June 10, 2009, 3:54pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Webber Talks Turkey

    Number of comments: 12
    Mark Webber took the post race press conference as an opportunity to clarify his feelings, or backtrack, on something he had said earlier about the lack of Turkish fans at the race. It was interesting that Jenson Button, speaking in the context of the British Grand Prix, also made a [...]
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    Posted: June 07, 2009, 2:44pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Various Istanbul Observations

    Number of comments: 4
    Two years ago I wrote a blog item talking all about the horror of traveling to the race outside Istanbul. I am pleased to report that after a year in which I opted out of staying in downtown Istanbul and stayed instead on the Asian side of the Bosporus Strait, [...]
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    Posted: June 06, 2009, 9:37am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Vital Vettel Pole

    Number of comments: 4
    With that fantastic pole position today by Sebastian Vettel the cheers resounded not only through the Red Bull garage, but also in the media center and probably in the sparsely manned grandstand. "It's quite a surprise," said Vettel. "Obviously the best position to start from. It's a tough season but" [...]
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    Posted: June 06, 2009, 8:48am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • No War in F1, Says Briatore

    Number of comments: 2
    Track action today in Istanbul was hard to interpret. It looked as if the strong teams of previous seasons are climbing their way back definitively, with Heikki Kovalainen setting the fastest time in his McLaren Mercedes and Fernando Alonso second fastest in a Renault and Robert Kubica third fastest in [...]
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    Posted: June 05, 2009, 10:03am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Behind the F1 Drivers' Public Facade

    Number of comments: 6
    I found a very interesting dynamic today in Istanbul between the same question asked in the press conference or in a small, intimate press scrum. I will start with the press conference first, although it was the media scrum that happened first, an hour and a half before the press [...]
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    Posted: June 04, 2009, 9:01am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • FOTA Takes a Step

    Number of comments: 7
    A compromise looks ever closer in the FIA/FOTA war. (Doesn't that have a familiar ring to it?) All the teams that threatened to not enter the championship next year have now applied for entry. They have done so with very clear reservations, however, and it will be interesting to see what' [...]
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    Posted: May 29, 2009, 2:57pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Williams Team Creates Schism in FOTA

    Number of comments: 7
    It was, as Frank Williams indicated, basically inevitable. On Monday the team announced that it had lodged its entry for the 2010 season. Today the team announced that it was being kicked out of the Formula One Teams Association as a result of breaking ranks with the other nine teams [...]
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    Posted: May 27, 2009, 10:31am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Monaco's Underdogs

    Number of comments: 3
    It was a fascinating race today, despite the urge to fall asleep because of the procession. No, the fascination was not so much with the winners of the race and the other "contenders" - which I have reported on in my race report - but on the people farther down [...]
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    Posted: May 24, 2009, 11:59am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Pre-Race Notes

    Number of comments: 12
    Despite all the talk of the possibility of rain, at less than an hour before the race in Monaco, the skies look quite blue, just light, hazy cloud cover. Can't imagine how it could rain. The temperature is 25 degrees Celsius and humidity is at 58 percent. This looks like' [...]
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    Posted: May 24, 2009, 7:09am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • A Defining Qualifying - But Race Could Change All

    Number of comments: 3
    If ever there was a qualifying session this season that seemed to define what is really happening between the teams, Monaco, of all places, seems to have done it. As seen in the last couple of races, McLaren and Ferrari are still climbing back. Ferrari looked particularly good. It was [...]
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    Posted: May 23, 2009, 11:49am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Quiet Friday in Monaco

    Monaco is not only the most unique race on the calendar because of the location - through the streets of this extraordinary ancient city - it is also the only race of the season where nothing happens on Friday. First practice sessions are on Thursday, Friday is a down day, [...]
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    Posted: May 22, 2009, 10:36am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Observations From a Thursday in Monaco

    Number of comments: 5
    An interesting thing happened during today's two practice sessions: We had a hint of the old order of things as, despite some continuing good results for Brawn and Williams, the Ferraris and McLarens were looking a lot better than probably since the beginning of the season. The Renaults were looking [...]
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    Posted: May 21, 2009, 12:02pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Clear Skies in Monaco, Decisions in Paris

    Number of comments: 1
    My memory is probably faulty, but I seem to feel as if this is the first Wednesday in at least a couple of years in which I have arrived in Monaco to find the kind of nearly cloudless, clear blue skies and good weather you hope to find here on [...]
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    Posted: May 20, 2009, 11:51am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • F1 Talks Fail - But Continue

    Number of comments: 15
    So as Formula One prepares for its most commercially important race of the year, the Monaco Grand Prix next week, it has left an odor of financial breakdown in the air. Funny enough, it's the FIA that wants teams to spend less in these recessionary times while certain teams actually [...]
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    Posted: May 15, 2009, 6:07pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Renault Joins Ferrari and the Others in Threat to Leave F1

    Number of comments: 11
    The Renault team today announced that it too will leave Formula One at the end of the 2009 season if the International Automobile Federation leaves its new two-tier rules system in place. Yesterday Ferrari announced it would leave if the rules did not change, and over the weekend in Barcelona, [...]
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    Posted: May 13, 2009, 9:28am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Ferrari Joins the Protest

    Number of comments: 7
    After a lively Spanish Grand Prix weekend in which the controversy on the track was matched by controversy off the track, the post race news is just as hot. In Barcelona, Toyota, Red Bull and Toro Rosso said they would not join in Formula One next season if the rules [...]
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    Posted: May 12, 2009, 3:57pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • The Brawn Pit Stop Strategy

    Number of comments: 15
    Although it is a topic that I have inevitably written about in my race report for today's Spanish Grand Prix, I feel an equal desire to write about it here - partly because I'm sure it's a topic that people will be burning to discuss. This time, there was no booing' [...]
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    Posted: May 10, 2009, 12:22pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Buttonmania in F1 Paddock

    Number of comments: 6
    Brad Spurgeon Jenson Button surrounded by reporters in the paddock in Barcelona at the Spanish Grand Prix. How quickly things change. In recent years the media scrums over at the Honda motor home with Jenson Button and his teammates were among the most quiet, least attended affairs. Now with the team [...]
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    Posted: May 09, 2009, 9:35am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Paddock Notes From a Friday in Barcelona

    Number of comments: 1
    Brad Spurgeon Ferrari's bright red new motor home on the right in the paddock in Spain. Just a few paddock notes today. Actually, the first thing I noticed was that… - Yesterday in talking to Sebastien Bourdais, the Frenchman was really upbeat about the new parts brought to the car. I wondered' [...]
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    Posted: May 08, 2009, 1:46pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • The Alonso and Hamilton Warm-Up

    Number of comments: 10
    There was an interesting thing happening at the FIA press conference today. You can read it all on the transcript at the FIA site, but I think that having been there and seen it, I can add just a little more in the way of the look and feel. It [...]
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    Posted: May 07, 2009, 6:28pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Ayrton Senna

    Number of comments: 8
    Fifteen years ago today, May 1, Ayrton Senna, one of the greatest Formula One drivers in history, died in a crash at Imola on the seventh lap of the San Marino Grand Prix. It was a day like today in Europe, in fact, sunny, warm, but it was the blackest [...]
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    Posted: May 01, 2009, 12:34pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • F1 Budget Cap

    Number of comments: 12
    The International Automobile Federation has confirmed that it will institute a budget-cap option as outlined earlier in the year. This will allow extra technical freedom to the teams that opt for it. The level of the cap has risen from £30 million to £40 million, however. This $59 million at [...]
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    Posted: April 30, 2009, 9:55am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Formula One's Cleaner but Very Slow Hybrids

    Number of comments: 15
    Formula One has introduced an energy-saving device known as Kinetic Energy Recover Systems that is supposed to show off how the series is moving toward environmentally relevant technology. But this season, no KERS car has won a race. [...]
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    Posted: April 26, 2009, 12:32pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • The Wild F1 Season Saga Continues

    Number of comments: 8
    Luca Bruno/The Associated Press Jarno Trulli celebrates his pole position in Bahrain, with his teammate Timo Glock, who finished second, and Sebastian Vettel, who finished third, in the background. Hold it, the Toyotas leading the starting grid in first and second position, with Jarno Trulli, 34, scoring his fourth career pole [...]
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    Posted: April 25, 2009, 9:38am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Friday Track Action in Bahrain - or Lack Thereof

    Number of comments: 6
    Before Friday's morning practice session in Bahrain I had almost put up a post talking about how much track action we were likely in for this weekend. As the teams no longer have the right to test between races I had assumed - including thanks to what drivers were saying [...]
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    Posted: April 24, 2009, 4:55pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • KERS Revisted

    Number of comments: 9
    The Kinetic Energy Recovery System, or KERS, continues to come up as a topic in almost every press conference and press scrum this year even as we move into the fourth race. And it's still not sorted out. We learned today that Robert Kubica plans to use it Bahrain for the [...]
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    Posted: April 23, 2009, 2:29pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • A Story of the Three Sebastians in F1

    Number of comments: 10
    Sebastian Vettel's victory at the Chinese Grand Prix today was a beautiful way to ensure yet another unexpected race finish, and a clear demonstration that this championship is wide, wide open. He drove a dream race, a dream weekend, in fact, just like when he handed Toro Rosso its maiden [...]
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    Posted: April 19, 2009, 9:30am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • The Sebastian Vettel Show

    Number of comments: 8
    Eugene Hoshiko/The Associated Press Sebastian Vettel celebrates his second career pole position after scoring the fastest time in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, at the third Formula One race of the season. Sebastian Vettel's second career pole position, scored during qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix outside Shanghai [...]
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    Posted: April 18, 2009, 3:38am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • A New F1 Season Commences

    Number of comments: 10
    Watching the first practice sessions of the Chinese Grand Prix this morning I began having doubts about what I have been thinking for weeks and wrote in my own story this morning: That despite the final decision by the FIA that the double diffusers are legal, the top teams of [...]
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    Posted: April 17, 2009, 4:22am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Ron Dennis Steps Out

    Number of comments: 2
    Interesting timing for this one: Ron Dennis today announced at a press conference in England at the McLaren Technology Center that he was stepping down from his other role as CEO of McLaren Racing, which is the Formula One team, in order to take on a role as executive chairman [...]
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    Posted: April 16, 2009, 4:11pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Brawn, Toyota and Williams Exonerated

    Number of comments: 5
    The FIA Court of Appeal rejected the accusations by the other teams that the diffusers of the Brawn, Toyota and Williams cars are illegal. I will be looking at this in more detail in a full article tomorrow, so I'm just going to post the decision announcement here today. Suffice' [...]
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    Posted: April 15, 2009, 12:44pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Byrne Weighs in Against the Diffusers

    Number of comments: 6
    Just three days before the appeal against the Brawn, Toyota and Williams diffusers is heard at the FIA in Paris on Monday, an esteemed and respected voice has spoken out against the legality of these aerodynamic devices. Rory Byrne, one of the best F1 car designers of the last two decades [...]
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    Posted: April 11, 2009, 12:20pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • McLaren Summoned Before World Council

    Number of comments: 15
    The McLaren Mercedes team has been summoned before the World Council of the International Automobile Federation regarding the change in stories told to the racing stewards over the Australian Grand Prix problem. It will be interesting to see if the FIA could possibly consider charging the team a $100 million [...]
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    Posted: April 07, 2009, 12:02pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Eddie & The Robbers at the Hard Rock Cafe KL

    Number of comments: 4
    Yes, that race today was dynamite. At least I thought so, as you can see in my Malaysian Grand Prix race report. But as regular readers of this blog know, I like to look at all sorts of stuff surrounding F1 race weekends that often have very little to do [...]
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    Posted: April 05, 2009, 1:58pm EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • The Brawn Show Continues

    Number of comments: 10
    Jens Buettner/European Pressphoto Agency Jenson Button of Brawn GP during the qualifying session at the Sepang circuit, outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Saturday. Yesterday's resurgence of the Ferrari team was just an illusion. The track in Malaysia still belongs to Brawn. Or almost. In fact, things are much more interesting than' [...]
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    Posted: April 04, 2009, 6:40am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Lewis Hamilton Apologizes

    Number of comments: 13
    Brad Spurgeon Lewis Hamilton holding a press conference to apologize to the media for lying during a stewards' investigation at the Australian Grand Prix. Slowly, the pieces of the puzzle begin to fit together surrounding the disqualification of Lewis Hamilton from the Australian Grand Prix for the discrepancies in the story' [...]
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    Posted: April 03, 2009, 6:43am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Lewis Hamilton and McLaren Excluded From Australia Results

    Number of comments: 15
    The first day of paddock action here in Malaysia came complete with excruciating heat followed by a massive thunderstorm, followed by the massive storm of news a few minutes ago that Lewis Hamilton and his McLaren Mercedes team have been excluded from the results of the Australian Grand Prix last [...]
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    Posted: April 02, 2009, 5:33am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Overcast in KL as F1 Arrives

    Number of comments: 5
    I arrived in Kuala Lumpur last night along with half the paddock on the Malaysia Airlines flight from Melbourne. Was I seeing things, or was Nelson Piquet Jr. sitting in economy class a few rows ahead of me - visited briefly by his dad the multiple world champion from some [...]
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    Posted: April 01, 2009, 4:01am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Post-Race Notes

    Number of comments: 15
    Need I say it? What a race!! Please refer to my blog post below about F1 writing stories that are hard to believe…. But to move on with a few post race notes…. First, although the Brawn results are astounding, what is particularly worth noting are the results of the non-questionable diffuser [...]
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    Posted: March 29, 2009, 8:57am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Accusations and Penalties Continue to Fly at Melbourne

    Number of comments: 5
    The first race of the season will run under the dark cloud of no one being quite sure whether or not the winner will keep the victory - with the Brawns, Toyotas and Williams cars all facing an appeal court in Paris on 14 April and the wrath of the [...]
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    Posted: March 29, 2009, 1:10am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Of Brawn, Button, Branson and the Virgin Pole Position

    Number of comments: 7
    Formula One somehow, year after year, seems to write its own extraordinary, larger-than-life, wild and inspired stories. That's why I think no one has ever made a very good novel or film - although Frankenheimer's Grand Prix is memorable - out of the sport. Who could ever write a believable [...]
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    Posted: March 28, 2009, 4:15am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Global Sports Forum: Formula One Edition

    Number of comments: 5
    PART FOUR: LOOKING AHEAD. FORMULA ONE ON A TIGHT BUDGET? CHRISTOPHER CLAREY: In our final segment of this global exchange on all things F1, let's talk about what everyone's talking about: economics. F1 and value for money don't seem to fit in the same sentence in the general public's perception, but' [...]
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    Posted: March 28, 2009, 2:53am EDT
    by By The New York Times

  • Lap Times Are a Changin' in F1

    Number of comments: 4
    It was a topsy turvy world in Melbourne on Friday during the first day of practice of the new season as many of the weaker teams from last year turned the fastest laps, while the champions struggled along at the back of the field. Winter testing may have set the scene, [...]
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    Posted: March 27, 2009, 3:38am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Global Sports Forum: Formula One Edition

    Number of comments: 4
    PART THREE: THE TEAMS CHRISTOPHER CLAREY: We're back for part three of this preview of the Formula One season that officially begins this weekend in Melbourne, Australia. Our panel remains Brad Spurgeon from the IHT and New York Times, Joe Saward from grandprix.com, Leo Turrini from Italy and Jayme Brito of' [...]
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    Posted: March 27, 2009, 2:50am EDT
    by By The New York Times

  • Paddock Comes to Life

    Number of comments: 7
    William West/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen of Finland signed autographs for fans ahead of Sunday's Australian Grand Prix. The 2009 Formula One season has truly come to life. For anyone wondering if Formula One has been affected by the current financial crisis that has hit so many [...]
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    Posted: March 26, 2009, 4:41am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • Global Sports Forum: Formula One Edition

    Number of comments: 9
    We're back with our well-connected, seriously jet-lagged panel of F1 critics to talk about the 2009 season, which begins Sunday in Melbourne. A surprising number of people are talking down defending champion Lewis Hamilton in the buildup, but then it is a year of particular uncertainty with the technical changes' [...]
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    Posted: March 25, 2009, 6:45pm EDT
    by By The New York Times

  • Global Sports Forum: Formula One Edition

    Number of comments: 10
    At the Global Sports Forum our panels of expert journalists and insiders look at the sprawling world of sports through an international lens. Our topic this time is the upcoming Formula One season, the 60th, which starts in Australia this weekend. [...]
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    Posted: March 24, 2009, 9:29pm EDT
    by By The New York Times

  • Lewis Hamilton Criticizes New Rules - FIA Backs Down

    Number of comments: 3
    Lewis Hamilton has followed two other world champions, Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso, in criticizing the new rules that have been imposed upon Formula One this week by the International Automobile Federation. Hamilton's team McLaren Mercedes, actually went to the trouble of sending out Hamilton's response in an email statement [...]
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    Posted: March 20, 2009, 11:32am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • F1 Season Off to a Controversial Start

    Number of comments: 10
    Less than two weeks before the start of the 2009 Formula One season the series faces its first crisis with a set of radical rules change decisions from the World Motor Sport Council of the International Automobile Federation. Two of the decisions are particularly controversial. One allows some teams to [...]
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    Posted: March 18, 2009, 3:18am EDT
    by By Brad Spurgeon

  • New season, new address for this F1 blog

    Number of comments: 3
    The coming F1 season - less than two weeks away - will be the fourth in the life of this blog, and I am really delighted to announce that the blog will be moving from the IHT site to the New York Times site. Same blog, different address, but the [...]
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    Posted: March 16, 2009, 9:26am EDT
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • Brains or brawn for Brawn?

    Number of comments: 5
    The team that was Honda and is now Brawn has dominated the news all winter. If budgets were decided on PR coups, then this team would certainly be at the top of the heap over the winter. But looking at how fast that new Brawn car is going and the reactions [...]
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    Posted: March 13, 2009, 10:30am EDT
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • Vijay whips up a storm - off track. Just another poker move?

    Vijay Mallya is more than just a familiar face around the paddock these days. As the team principal of the Force India team and a man full of racing passion, the Indian billionaire is accepted amongst the Formula One community as one of the boys. Well, more or less. The [...]
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    Posted: March 07, 2009, 9:00am EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • Brawn GP Formula One Team

    Number of comments: 5
    It will be interesting to see how long people in casual bar conversation continue to ask me the same question when we talk about Formula One and the economic crisis: “So, how many teams have dropped out of Formula One now?” I’ve been answering, “Why, none!” But now I’ll actually [...]
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    Posted: March 06, 2009, 1:57am EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • The FOTA proposals

    Number of comments: 4
    The directors of the 10 Formula One teams - that includes the not-defunct Honda team - held a press conference in Geneva today to announce the following list of proposed changes to the regulations to cut costs and improve the show. These changes proposed by the Formula One Teams Association [...]
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    Posted: March 05, 2009, 7:01am EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • A new F1 blog

    Number of comments: 2
    It’s a bad day for me and many other F1 bloggers, but a good day for F1 fans. Joe Saward, the man behind GrandPrix.com has announced that he has launched Joe Saward’s Grand Prix Blog. I think we all risk feeling like Salieri to Mozart, but I laud Joe and [...]
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    Posted: March 04, 2009, 9:41am EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • Testing puzzles

    Number of comments: 2
    Way, way too early to tell anything. But I have felt winter testing has been even more difficult to decipher than in years past. This could mean a very interesting season, or it could mean nothing. But today’s testing times are just as bizarre, if not more so, than many [...]
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    Posted: March 01, 2009, 12:48pm EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • Towards a belief in USF1

    Number of comments: 9
    I have known about the USF1 project for some months, but until the last few days I remained sceptical that the project would get off the ground. Three recent things have led me to tilt toward thinking this project can make it to the starting grid in 2010. First, some [...]
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    Posted: February 27, 2009, 9:52am EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • A new form of silly season

    Number of comments: 6
    This is a great time of year for Formula One. A low period on news disguising itself as a high period. Just think about it. Here are the latest headlines in what is … or is not … happening in F1 as we enter the last six weeks or so [...]
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    Posted: February 18, 2009, 12:00pm EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • Bruno Senna not with Honda?

    Number of comments: 2
    Interesting story in the Telegraph today saying the whole Bruno Senna/Honda link is not happening. [...]
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    Posted: February 16, 2009, 7:32am EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • ING to leave F1 after 2009

    ING, the Dutch financial services company, is moving faster than it said it would only three weeks ago. When ING announced on 26 Jan. a cut in its F1 sponsorship program for 2009 of 40 percent, it also said it would stick to its long-held plan of reassessing the F1 [...]
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    Posted: February 16, 2009, 7:30am EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • Personal message and proposed solution to the GPDA

    Number of comments: 8
    I would like to give my support to the Grand Prix Drivers Association in their battle to resolve the problem of the outrageous sums they have to pay for their Formula One super license. I know some of my colleagues in the media think that because people around the world [...]
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    Posted: February 13, 2009, 8:58am EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • GPDA sets the record straight

    Number of comments: 8
    Very interesting press release from the Grand Prix Drivers Association (the first such to the media in general in my memory): In the wake of recent misreporting of the drivers’ issue with the FIA regarding their Super Licence fees in certain sections of the media, and in response to Mr. Mosley’s [...]
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    Posted: February 06, 2009, 2:19pm EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • A talk with Max

    Number of comments: 1
    I attended Max Mosley’s annual pre-season get together with a few members of the press yesterday in London and did a story about the talk with Mosley it that we’ve just put on the site and which is coming out in tomorrow’s IHT. There were a number of interesting things [...]
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    Posted: February 05, 2009, 8:45am EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • Riches at Le Mans

    The 24 Hours of Le Mans organizers have announced that there may be a world financial crisis, but that they have received far too many entrants for the race in June. “The Le Mans 24-Hours event is in rude good health and doesn’t mind admitting it,” the Automobile Club de [...]
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    Posted: January 29, 2009, 3:19pm EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • ING troubles to hit F1 program

    Number of comments: 6
    The Dutch financial services company, ING Groep, which took an injection of 10 billion euros last year during the financial meltdown has today announced that it has posted its second quarterly loss in a row, this time for 3.3 billion euros. According to reports by Bloomberg, the company will cut [...]
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    Posted: January 26, 2009, 3:23am EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • Future F1 winners

    It is difficult to recall an F1 pre-season with as many teams and drivers predicting victory. They are all inspired by the idea that the change in regulation this year will help them do what they have failed to do in the past. The only team on the upper half [...]
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    Posted: January 21, 2009, 11:17am EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • Of wings, sponsors, new cars and Ron Dennis

    Number of comments: 8
    Who cares about the wings? I know I’m going on again about the way the 2009 cars appear, but that’s a preoccupation at the moment while the cars are unveiled. In fact, from disgust in December after seeing the BMW Sauber, I really am moving towards a liking of the [...]
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    Posted: January 16, 2009, 7:58am EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • The contours of the F60 Ferrari

    Number of comments: 3
    I never thought it would happen so quickly. But I must agree completely with what Kimi Raikkonen said today about the new Ferrari, launched in Mugello today: “It looks different because of the new regulations, but after looking at it for a little while you get used to it,” he said. [...]
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    Posted: January 12, 2009, 9:32am EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • Mosley pressures the teams

    Number of comments: 4
    Max Mosley has written a letter to the Formula One Teams Association to tell them he wants action on the cost cutting measures agreed upon in December…and then some. It makes it look like the teams are back to their usual way of operating. Crisis? What crisis? I like that news. Mosley [...]
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    Posted: January 08, 2009, 8:09am EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • Gutierrez and Tambay now teammates

    In my last blog post I linked to the story I did last week about the rising talents of the younger generations. (Actually, they’re ALL so young now, right up and into F1!) Among others, I mentioned specifically Esteban Gutierrez and Adrien Tambay from the European Formula BMW series, which [...]
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    Posted: January 06, 2009, 12:07pm EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • Future F1 champions

    I find it difficult to remember a year in which there was no clear favorite new young talent on the way in to Formula One the way this year strikes me. I have a story in tomorrow’s IHT (and on the web now) about that, as part of a series [...]
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    Posted: January 02, 2009, 12:12pm EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • Guest item

    Number of comments: 10
    I’ve never done guest blogging on this site. Today, I thought I’d put up an email I received from one of this blog’s regular readers, Robert Passman. It seems a fitting post for this holiday period when we’re in the REAL F1 off-season and thinking about next year. I will [...]
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    Posted: December 26, 2008, 4:55pm EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • F1 bumper cars?

    Number of comments: 1
    The first thought I had when I saw the snowplow front wing of the new Formula One cars was that the cars may well be designed in laboratories to allow for more overtaking, but clearly there was also going to be a lot more broken front wings during passing maneuvers. [...]
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    Posted: December 18, 2008, 1:50pm EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • FIA World Council decisions

    Number of comments: 10
    This just in from today’s World Council decisions. Check out the FIA site for further additions: The World Motor Sport Council met in Monaco on 12 December 2008. The following decisions were taken: FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP The following measures to reduce costs in Formula One have been agreed by the World [...]
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    Posted: December 12, 2008, 8:07am EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • More on Honda F1 departure

    Number of comments: 7
    The current issue of AutoHebdo, the French motor racing magazine, which was published today, adds an interesting layer to the theories of exactly why Honda may have pulled out of Formula One. A story by Patrick Camus, who has reported on the sport for some three decades, quotes Takeo Fukui, [...]
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    Posted: December 10, 2008, 1:25pm EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • Is Honda pullout the end of F1?

    Number of comments: 10
    Lots of people see the Honda pullout from Formula One today as a sign that one car manufacturer after another, and then, therefore, Formula One itself will soon follow and disintegrate with the economic hard times. (Have they forgotten the golden age of Grand Prix racing in the 1930s?!?!) While it [...]
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    Posted: December 05, 2008, 11:52am EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • Honda to withdraw from F1?

    Number of comments: 5
    Serious sources say that Honda is about to announce that it will leave Formula One before next season and sell the team. It is believed that a statement will be released by the team tomorrow morning. If Honda is indeed about to quit, and if we combine that with rumors [...]
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    Posted: December 04, 2008, 5:25pm EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • Senna vs. Prost

    Number of comments: 6
    We all remember or know of the great Ayrton Senna versus Alain Prost battle of two decades ago. (Yes, it really goes back that far!) What fewer of us will know of is the unofficial, completely unpublicized dual career of the nephew and son of these two drivers, which as [...]
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    Posted: December 01, 2008, 9:58am EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • LG Electronics Joins F1

    Number of comments: 7
    Amidst all the financial gloom, there could be a flight to quality towards F1 - to use a business term discussed in my F1 economy story last month - and signs are this is already happening. LG Electronics, “a global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics, today announced that [...]
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    Posted: November 26, 2008, 5:30am EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • Superleague Formula

    Number of comments: 2
    Following up on the F2 post above…. This was what seemed to me a crazy idea more than half a decade ago. I was not surprised to see it fade out. But I am surprised now to see that it has not only faded back in again, but actually begun [...]
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    Posted: November 23, 2008, 8:19am EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • F2 anyone?

    Number of comments: 2
    Do you have 245,000 euros to blow? Why not sell your apartment or supercar and join the FIA Formula 2 championship next year? It appears to really be moving ahead, this new-old series with eight meetings and 16 rounds, so far. Go check out all the details at the www.formulatwo.com [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 21, 2008, 11:53am EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • Formula One 2009 season begins - sort of

    Number of comments: 7
    The teams were testing in Barcelona today, and what a weird day that was. As the new rules cars of 2009 begin to make their way onto the track you’d think you were looking at…Formula 3. But experience shows us that we get used to the visual changes of the [...]
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    Posted: November 17, 2008, 1:05pm EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • Crashed and Byrned

    And the winner is…Keisuke Kunimoto. I’m refering to this weekend’s F3 race in Macao that I mentioned yesterday. But since I have F3 and little-known drivers on the mind, I highly recommend reading my review of “Crashed And Byrned: The Greatest Racing Driver You Never Saw.” This book about Tommy Byrne, [...]
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    Posted: November 16, 2008, 1:07pm EST
    by Brad Spurgeon

  • Macao Grand Prix

    While we wait for Formula One off-season action to begin again with testing next week - notably the all-important Toro Rosso testing of drivers to replace Sebastian Vettel and maybe even Sébastien Bourdais (hey, will they call on another pair of Sébastiens? There’s Buemi….) - this weekend we have the [...]
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    Posted: November 15, 2008, 1:42pm EST
    by Brad Spurgeon
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