Formula One News — March 2011

Australian GP - Friday Photos

Australian GP - Friday Press Conference

Australian GP - Friday Team Quotes

Australian GP - Practice 2 Results

Hispania Racing Team did not contest the opening session of free practice at the Australian GP as the team is still completing its car build.

Australian GP - Practice 1 Report

Australian GP - Practice 1 Results

There was a perceptible difference in the Michael Schumacher that greeted the motor racing media ahead of the F1 season-opening 2011 race in Melbourne on Sunday.

Jenson Button has outlined some of the tyre issues that will drive tactics in this weekend's Melbourne F1 season-opener and has predicted a race that could go down to the last corner because teams don't yet understand how the Pirelli tyres will be under race conditions.

Bernie Ecclestone has again criticised the direction taken by the FIA and president Jean Todt over the future F1 engine regulations and, now, the governing body's role.

Australian GP - Thursday Press Conference

Jenson Button wowed Australian race fans, of whom more than 10,000 turned up to witness him drive a McLaren MP4-23 - the car that team mate Lewis Hamilton took to the '08 world championship - around Australia's best known race circuit, Bathurst.

Bernie Ecclestone says that his idea of introducing sprinklers on certain circuits to simulate rain and spice up F1 races is not dead, but gaining support.

Sakon Yamamoto is to be reserve driver at Virgin Racing for the first three races of the season, in Melbourne, Sepang and Shanghai.

Instead of flying to the season-opening Australian GP, F1 commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone is headed for New York City and a meeting with mayor Michael Bloomberg to discuss a possible race on Staten Island.

McLaren will go to the first Grand Prix in Melbourne with a heavily revised MP4-26 car that it hopes will find a second a lap in performance after a problematic round of pre-season testing in Spain.

Karun Chandhok has been confirmed as Team Lotus reserve driver for 2011. The 27-year-old Indian joins Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen at Lotus and will make his first appearance in the car in Friday practice in Melbourne.

As the dispute over the right to use the Lotus name in Formula 1 began today in London's High Court, it seems that there is also an internal dispute on the Team Lotus side, between team owner Tony Fernandes and David Hunt, from whom Fernandes claimed he had bought the rights to Team Lotus.

In the lead up to next weekend's Australian Grand Prix, Pirelli has announced the different colour markings that will identify the different types of tyres being used in Formula 1 during the 2011 season.

News that Bernie Ecclestone is at "at loggerheads" with FIA president Jean Todt over the move to small capacity turbocharged engines in 2013 is interesting.

Despite Stirling Moss being quoted saying he does not believe Michael Schumacher can win grands prix anymore, the seven times champion himself begs to differ.

Shell has announced that it will become the official title sponsor of the Belgian GP, in addition to it's major sponsorship of the Ferrari team.

Despite recent proclamations from politicians in Melbourne that the cost of the Australian Grand Prix is too high, F1 commerical supremo Bernie Ecclestone has told Australian media that he would hate to lose the race.

With Bahrain declaring a state of emergency, it now looks highly unlikely that the cancelled season-opening F1 race will be rescheduled in 2011.

The FIA has released a Q&A with Formula One Race Director Charlie Whiting, explaining the new rule changes for the upcoming season.