Virgin to buy into Brawn..??

Rumours persist that Richard Branson is to buy shares in the fledgling BrawnGP outfit.

Could we see a new livery in the next few races..??

Testing resumes in Jerez

The teams resumed testing in Jerez today in preparation for the upcoming F1 season.

Of note was the first running of Force India's new VJM02 first pictured yesterday.

Also of note, McLaren, who had been running with an 08 spec wing at previous tests unveiled a new spec of 09 wing with a curved main element.

Maximum Speculation, No Sugar

I read a comment on another board where someone speculated about who the new title sponsor of the revived "Honda F1" team would be. They'd heard talk of a global brand and a livery with blue in it... Well this got me to thinking about global brands that use blue as part of their colour scheme and it came up with the above image...

Force India launch 2009 Challenger...

Force India F1 have released images of their take on the new 2009 regulations; the VJM02, also the first car produced as part of the team's partnership with McLaren Mercedes.

The new car also features the team's new livery which features a refreshing mix of Orange, Green and White - the colours of the Indian national flag.

"At least from my perspective, winning races is something I think I can certainly aspire to for maybe 2010, but for 2009 I would be happy if we are regularly in the points," said team co-owner Vijay Mallya at the announcement of the McLaren-Mercedes deal last November. "That would be already a major step forward."

Will they succeed? Only time will tell, but many would welcome the small Silverstone team shaking up the order.

Williams FW31 - Official Pictures

Williams have released official images of the FW31 in their new livery and I like it:

What I don't like are the "skate fins" either side of the cockpit, the FiA should get the rules right and ban all these apendages. Fair play to the teams for finding the loop-holes, but the rules are there to try and improve racing, if all these add-ons start to creep back in then really we'll end up with cars unable to follow each other again...

Rising from the flames...

As I write this we still wait on official confirmation but it does look like the team formerly known as Honda F1 has been saved by a management buyout.

Few would argue with Ross Brawn's skills as a Techinical Director after the success he enjoyed during his time at Benetton and Ferrari, but how will he fair as Team Principle of the team once they're free of Honda Japan's control? No-one can really answer this question, I personally suspect he'll be rather good and lead the team back towards the front of the grid. But who is Ross Brawn?

Ross was born in 1954 in Manchester, Lancashire (we can't hold that against him) and attended Reading Grammar School. He later trained as an engineer with UK Atomic Energy Authority where he studied instrumentation.

His F1 career started when after joining March Engineering in 1976 he was hired by Frank Williams in 1978 to work for his newly formed Williams F1 team. Over the next few years Ross worked for teams including Haas Lola and Arrows before being hired by Jaguar in 1989 to work in their sports car racing division. Ross was instrumental in the design of the Jaguar XJR-14 cars which won the World Sportscar Championship in 1991.

Later that same year Ross moved back into F1 and joined the Benetton Team as Technical Director and his here that he first worked with Michael Schumacher between his time at Benetton and later at Ferrari Ross Brawn was a key member of the team that helped Schumacher win his 7 World Drivers Titles.

After taking a year off from the sport in 2007 Ross returned to F1 to try and rebuild the beleagured Honda F1 team. A rebuilding year followed in 2008 whilst the team prepared for 2009, with much anticipation that the RA109 would be a race winner. Fate would deal the team a bitter blow as Honda Japan announced the team's withdrawal from Formula 1. A tense winter followed and only a trivkle of information has leaked out until recent days when reports have started to emerge that a Management Buyout led by Ross Brawn will go ahead.
Hopefully we will see confirmation of this in the coming days.

Good luck to Ross, Jenson and all the people at Brackley...

F1 Parking Space

Hello and welcome to my new Formula 1 Blog. This is my first attempt at running a blog so please be kind...
Over the coming days, weeks and months I'm going to share my thoughts on the crazy world that is Formula 1. I'll try and use good english and grammar and try to be objective in the articles I write, but let's get something out the way right from the start - I'm not impartial, I'm a die-hard fan of good racing and love the technical aspect of F1.
Okay, so please bookmark me and come back regularly. I can't promise daily updates, but I'll do my best and will be posting at least twice a week, much more during race weekends.