[Archived] 2011 Formula 1 Season

[Grabbi Graeme]

The F1 calender kicks off this weekend in Australia and here is a preview of who will be racing this season.

Red Bull Racing

Looking to build on last years success, the new car is fast and has done more pre season miles than its rivals.

Sebastan Vettel

The youngest ever world champion is out to win back to back titles.

Mark Webber

The Australian's home GP and he must be wondering where it all went wrong last year and if that was his best chance to be world champion.

Mclaren Mercedes

Pre season problems mean that that both Hamilton and Button have not had that much time in the car, a late change to the exhaust system has meant little time to test it.

Lewis Hamilton

Could be another year where he is playing catch up due to the cars reliability issues.

Jenson Button

Will be hoping for the same kind of start as last season where he won two of the first four races.

Ferrari

Won opening race last season but then slumped before a revival towards the end of the season, the new car is quick and reliability issues have been adressed.

Fernando Alonso

Alonso's title chance last season went west after a pit wall cock up in the deciding race, Alonso will be looking to strongly challenge Red Bull.

Felipe Massa

Not the best of seasons last year and it came to a head when discreetly told to move over to let Alonso past, no problems for that this year as team orders are now allowed.

Mercedes

After buying out Brawn the team failed to deliver any title challenge like the previous year, needs a big improvement on last year.

Michael Schumacher

A big comeback last year which ended in a big disappointment, Schumacher mostly made the headlines due to some dangerous driving.

Nico Rosberg

Outshone his team mate in their first year together at Mercedes, son of fomer F1 champ Keke Rosberg.

Renault

Were delt a blow when driver Robert Kubica was badly injured in a rally crash

Nick Heidfeld

Gets a chance to race due to Kubica's injury, still looking for his first win after 172 races.

Vitaly Petrov

Made mistakes last year but also showed some decent driving, will be looking to impress to keep his drive.

Williams

The 2011 car boasts the smallest gearbox in Formula 1.

Rubens Barrichello

With 303 races under his belt he just seems to keep going, the team will value his vast experience, he is also the fastest F1 driver around the Top Gear track

Pastor Maldonado

If Williams have a experienced driver in Barrichello then in Maldonado they have a novice, he is the first Venezuelan in F1 in 25 years, he won the GP2 series last year.

Force India

Good start last season then it all went wrong, not had the best pre season and have lost some behind the scenes staff.

Adrian Sutil

Missed out on a drive for Renault, had his best year last year finishing 11th in the driver stadings.

Paul Di Resta

The 24 year old Brit makes his F1 debut, will be the 141st British driver to race in F1, has raced and beat Hamilton and Vettel in junior racing.

Sauber

Strong finish to last seaso after a bad start, will be looking to keep it going.

Kamui Kobayashi

A fearless driver who will go for some crazy overtaking moves, always entertaining to watch.

Sergio Perez

Another newbie to F1, the 21 year old is backed by Carlos Slim, a telecom giant in Mexico.

Virgin Racing

Struggled last year, but this years car is a big improvement compared to last seasons car.

Timo Glock

After finishing 25th in last years standing, Glock will be hoping the car is decent enough to give him a better chance this season.

Jerome D'Ambrosio

The first Belgian in F1 for 17 years, at 25 years old took him a while to get here and has impressed in pre season, nicknamed custard by his mechanics.

Hispania Racing

Unable to develope the car due to no money, had good reliability last year, expect to be at the back mostly.

Narain Karthikeyan

Last raced in F1 6 years ago with Jordan, was called the fastest Indian in F1 back then, a big challenge ahead this time round.

Vitantonio Liuzzi

Not the best of times at Force India last year, only given this drive because of the lack of other drivers, should be ahead of his team mate but will struggle.

Lotus

The name of Lotus has it's second season after it's return last year, will be looking to finish in the middle of the field.

Heikki Kovalainen

Former team mate of Hamilton at Mclaren, where he struggled, only managed 20th overall last year and will be looking to improve.

Jarno Trulli

A veteran in F1 with 234 races under his belt but just the one win, has his own vineyard in Italy.

Toro Rosso

Have clocked some impressive times in pre season, always in the shdow of it's big sister Red Bull.

Sebastien Buemi

A big year for the Swiss driver to prove himself in the middle of the grid.

Jaime Alguesuari

Will battle Buemi for top spot at Toro Rosso, both are looking to take Webbers place at Red Bull should he go.

2011 Calender

Australia March 27th

Malaysia April 10th

China April 17th *

Turkey May 8th

Spain May 22nd

Monaco May 29th

Canada June 12th

European June 26th

(Valencia)

British July 10th

German July 24th

Hungary July 31st

Belgium August 28th

Italy Sept 11th

Singapore Sept 25th

Japan Oct 9th

Korea Oct 16th

India Oct 30th *

Abu Dhabi Nov 13th

Brazil Nov 27th

Subject to circuit approval

[Presty On Tour]

Are there any new rules this year?

I believe it was an health and safety issue but I thought the "no fuel stops" brought in last season was terrible and didn't allow teams room to manoeuvre in terms of race strategy and made racing very boring.

[Grabbi Graeme]

Don't think anything major is changing this year apart from the fact that team orders are now allowed after last years farce by Ferrari.

I think the idea about getting rid of the fuel stops was to stop all the strategy stuff going on, where races were being won because of teams planning how many fuel stops they needed to win the race.

Although the strategy stuff still goes on as cars are not fuelled to go race distance at full tilt.

[SAS]

There are Many changes.

Kers returns

Rear moveable wings allowed only to aid overtaking

Tyres that degrade much faster (they only really showed real pace for 10-15 laps in testing

Big mclaren fan, not impressed with new car, but the team is optimistic .

[Tango]

There's the new "overtake" button, which allows you to adjust the angle of the rear wing to allow you to gain better straight line speed in order to execute a pass for position. That can only be used on a designated straight and only when the following car is within 1 second of the car in front.

KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) has been reintroduced, but whether anybody will use it is another matter.

Pirelli have been told to make their tyres "less durable" so that teams will be expected to pit for tyres more frequently (i.e. more than the minimum one stop to change between compounds).

The F-duct (the rear wing stalling device) has also been banned, or rather replaced by the "overtake" button.

That about covers the major "highlights" I think.

Was really hoping that a Mclaren car having had full development time with Jenson and Lewis would be a title challenger, but they've been off the pace in practice and suffered reliability failures.

Toro Rosso and Perez at Sauber are my outside tips for "surprises of the season".

[Grabbi Graeme]

Forgot about the KERS system coming back, anybody hear Bernie Ecclestones idea that to make it more interesting tracks should be sprayed with water, not sure I could go with that one really.

Yes it is interesting when it rains but a wet track can also ruin a race as well.

I think making tyre's with less durability is a daft idea, what they are doing is just replacing fuel stops with tyre stops.

[SAS]

Well button and hamilton fastest this morning in fp2. No one saw that coming.

[Grabbi Graeme]

Vettel on pole for Sunday's race, Hamilton alogside him in second, Webber third and Button fourth, Mclaren have maybe surprised a few today considering the problems they had during pre season.

Ferrari not looking the best Alonso only managing fith and Massa only getting eighth, Vettel 0.7 seconds quicker than Hamilton and Vettel didn't even use his KERS system for his flying lap.

[SAS]

Hamilton didn't use Kers either...

[rebelmswar]

What about that Perez?

Not a bad showing I thought.

[Grabbi Graeme]

A couple of good programmes on BBC4 last night, a celebration of 60 years of F1 racing which featured 18 world champions who got together at last years Bahrain GP.

That was followed by F1 The killer years which showed how bad the safety was in the 50's 60's and 70's, it showed the loss of some great drivers and how Jackie Stewart pushed for safety in F1

[BangkokRover]

Currently in Malaysia for the F1. Just back from the excellent quali. With luck I will post some pictures when I get back to BKK. Now I need to try and find a bar that is showing our game. Funnily enough I wil not hold my breath.

Cheers

BKR

[ABBEY]

watched some of todays race whilst scoffing the delights of a homemade full english .What was all the black debris all over the track?

[HemelRover]

watched some of todays race whilst scoffing the delights of a homemade full english .What was all the black debris all over the track?

Rubber from the tyres.

[ABBEY]

what all the chunky black bits? there was loads.

[Josh]

The pirelli tires don't pick up rubber so there is bound to be tons left on the ground

[Grabbi Graeme]

The pirelli tires don't pick up rubber so there is bound to be tons left on the ground

Some drivers have voiced concearns over the tiny rubber balls off the tyres as they are being kicked up into the air as cars drive over them and one driver described them as being like bullets hitting the car.

[AlanK]

ABBEY, Pirelli are the new tyre supplier and were asked to design a tyre that degrades rapidly to add to the excitement. The side effect is all of the rubber you see on the track otherwise known as " marbles ".

[rubecula]

Some drivers have voiced concearns over the tiny rubber balls off the tyres as they are being kicked up into the air as cars drive over them and one driver described them as being like bullets hitting the car.

I'll take a bet that Bernie Ecclestone likes the idea. after all it will save the expense of providing artificial rain to make it harder to race.

I wish he would get replaced for the good of the sport. IMO he has had his day and made his money, and now he should get out.

[HemelRover]

This has been a great GP so far. Great drive by Hamilton and as for Webber...well wow!

[Kamy100]

Cracking race today. Hamilton drove fantastic and Webber was out of this world to get onto the Podium.

[rubecula]

Fully agree Kamy100, best race I have seen in ages. What the heck was Button doing? Trying to get Red Bull to change his tyres for him?

Hamilton drove a brilliant race, but Webber was out of this world. 18th on grid, no KERS, three tyre stops and finishes on the podium in third place behind Vettel (And if the race had gone another lap I think he would have got second)

I really enjoyed it.

[AlanK]

That was a fantastic race. I expect more of the same as McLaren get to grips with their new car.

[SAS]

Considering how much better red bulls car is, it's a disaster they have not got the top two, 3 wins and a large lead in the constructors.

Hamilton drove an amazing rave so Many overtakes, something we've yet to properly see from vettel.

Let's hope mclaren can get some upgrade to get the same pace as red bull.

[AlanK]

Hamilton drove an amazing rave so Many overtakes, something we've yet to properly see from vettel.

No truer word spoken

Vettel is happy leading from pole position but very rarely impresses when in the pack. Exceptionally quick but not much race craft.