Qualifying showed the usual Red Bull dominance with Sebastian Vettel taking pole with a 1:27.407, almost 1/2 a second of Mark Webber’s fastest time for second!  A front row lockout is a good result for Red Bull, but the real test for tomorrow will no doubt be whether the cars can look after the tyres!!

Hamilton did Mercedes proud for his first official qualifying for them taking 3rd! Something he looked very pleased about!

The boys in red look to be on form for this season with Felipe Massa 4th and Fernando Alonso in 5th! The Ferrari genrally always shows better race than qualifying so hopefully they can pull a good result out of the bag!

Lotus were further down the field than expected, although are tipped as a good bet due to the cars being easier on the tyres. I guess we will have to wait and see!

Force india also look ok!… You can never really tell with them until they race though!

McLaren don’t look like the car is playing well. Jenson Button described the car as having “Fundamental problems”….. not good :S

The times were:

(click on the image for a bigger version of the table)

It’s the first race of the year!

Testing is over (although it didn;t really mean too much in terms of tyre performance intell i’d imagine as there was so much rain!) and it’s time to race!

My “new patented” bullet pointed practice summaries follow:

FP1

• FP1 showed that Ferrari may have got the formula right this year with strong perfomances from both cars with Alonso coming in 3rd fastest in the session and Massa taking second fastest!
• Red Bull also showed that they might be strong as Vettel took the #1 time of the session with a 1:27.211!
• Mercedes must think they also made a good move signing Hamilton as he came 4th fastest with a 1:27.552!

FP2

• Red Bull, Mercedes and Lotus were all strong in FP2 with Vettel once again leading the times with a 1:25.908.
• I’m not sure what Ferrari were playing at but a 6th and 8th from Alonso and Massa will not cut the mustard up against the likes of Red Bull.
• Mclaren look to be struggling with this year’s car. Button ended up with a 1:28.294 for 11th fastest and Perez did a 1:28.566 for 13th fastest. This is not good enough for McLaren!

 Fp3

• FP3 blew my mind slightly as Lotus’ Romain Grosjean did a 1:26.929 to be fastest! The boy knows how to put in a good time. Let’s hope his race style has improved too to allow him to be competative!
• Ferrari redeemed themselves with Alonso coming 2nd fastest and Massa 3rd! *phew*
• Vettel and Webber’s times were not good… don’t trust this… they will be faster in the race!

The full time chart is below!

(click on the image for a bigger version of the table)

F1 returns to our screens! Hurrah!!!!

We start with the Australian GP at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, Australia!

Due to the winter testing in Barcelona only giving 1 day of true dry running the race will be a tense one with the mystery of the Pirelli tyres and their wear playing a key factor!

Come on Ferrari!!!!

The only real option for Hospitality available to us this year at Winter Testing was Red Bull hospitality! There were a few other choices but the F1 Corporate package with Red Bull was a cut above the rest!

The day gave us a paddock pass for the day and allowed us to hang out in the Red Bull motor home “The Energy Station”!

We also got with the package:

•   Complimentary access to viewing areas around the circuit
•   Circuit tours around perimeter track (subject to availability)
•   Team garage tour
•   Private pit lane viewing access
•   Complimentary drinks and three-course lunch in Team Hospitality unit
•   Exclusive behind-the-scenes view of the Team and car
•   Team F1 goody bag
•   Driver autograph opportunities

The F1Corporate packages allowed the exclusive ‘F1 Paddock Pass’ to access grandstands and to watch the track action and view from the first turn area for those extra special shots! My bro was certainly in heaven with the access which also included a personalized drive around the track in the Red Bull mini-van.

The even stopped around the track and let Tom take pics track-side!!!!

The pit walk was pretty cool too as you can see from the next pic!

The highlight of the day for me was the track tour and the garage tour where we got to view the garage and watch as they tweaked Seb’s car and put the flow-vis paint on and then sent him out. It really was worth every penny and was a great experience!

I’ll be doing it with Red Bull again for sure! The hospitality girls running the show were also amazing hosts and really made us feel welcomed!

For more info on things like this go to F1Corporate.com!

My brother and I got off the plane in Barcelona about 10am ready to hit the circuit and start off our F1 fix for the year!

After a quick cab to the hotel we jumped in a cab to the circuit and got out just in time for the sky to open and soak us! Luckily I was wearing my Ferrari raincoat but it was still freezing to boot!

After waiting a VERY LONG TIME to buy a beer (the serving staff like to take their time) we went into the covered main grandstand to get some pics!

Tom managed with his new Nikon to get this great pic of Sergio Perez from the main grandstand!

More pics and adventures to come tomorrow as we have Red Bull Hospitality!!!! SWEEEEEET!!

In early December 2012 myself and Andrew went to Bologna with Bologna Welcome to experience all the city and surrounds had to offer. The first place we stopped at was the Ducati headquarters!

Here’s a bit of Ducati history for you:

In 1926 three brothers, Adriano, Marcello, and Bruno Ducati; founded Societa Scientifica Radio Brevetti Ducati in Bologna to produce vacuum tubes, condensers and other radio components!

YES THAT’S RIGHT! DUCATI STARTED AS A RADIO COMPANY!!!!!

By 1935 they had become successful enough to construct a new factory in the Borgo Panigale area of the city. Production was maintained during World War II, despite the Ducati factory being a repeated target for Allied bombing.

In 1950 the Ducati firm started their first motorcycle based on the Cucciolo (a small pushrod engine mounted on a push bike). This first Ducati motorcycle was a 48 cc bike weighing 98 lb (44 kg) with a top speed of 40 mph (64 km/h) and had a 15 mm carburetor giving just under 200 mpg-US (1.2 L/100 km; 240 mpg-imp). Ducati soon dropped the Cucciolo name in favor of “55M” and “65TL”.

In the 1960s, Ducati earned its place in motorcycling history by producing the fastest 250 cc road bike then available, the Mach 1!

In the 1970s Ducati began producing large-displacement V-twin motorcycles and in 1973, released a V-twin with the trademarked desmodromic valve design.

I got all of this info from Wikipedia and my head! You can read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ducati

At the Ducati factory we got a tour around the manufacturing plant where we got to see the assembly line and the QA area where they test the beasts!!!

The final area of the visit was at the Ducati Museum where we got to see some awesome bikes from MotoGP and Superbike Championships across the world!

Ducati’s history with motorsport began with speed records on Cucciolo motorized bicycle in 1951, followed in 1954 with bringing in Fabio Taglioni to found a road racing program. As of 2009, Ducati was still pursuing the “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” business model and spending 10% of company revenues, €40 million, on its racing business!

You can find out more on visiting the Ducati factory & Museum in Bologna here: http://www.ducati.com/company/visit_us/index.do

So these are in the post to me!

I will be donning them for “most” of the Winter Testing days at Barcelona!

I really do like the look of the new strip! It looks a lot “cleaner” than last years! (although I liked last years too!)

Ferrari today unveiled the new F138 at Maranello!

Team Principal, Stefano Domenicali hopes 2013 will be different compared to 2012′s near miss my Fernando Alonso!
The F138 also does not feature the stepped nose that became the norm in F1 last season, and is definitely one of the “lookers” this year!

Domenicali said:

“The key objective is to immediately deliver a competitive car to the drivers. Unfortunately in recent seasons we have not been able to get to the start of the season right on top of what we are doing like our competitors”

“We need to be competitive from the start of the season.”

“We have come from a season which was very difficult from an emotional point of view. To come second at the last race is always difficult,” he said.

“But we have already forgotten those things which left us with regret last year and we have started improving on the positive aspects of 2012 such as reliability and strategy during the races.
“There are plenty of things that allow us to look forward to the new season.”

Alonso will again be partnered by Felipe Massa in 2013. This will be Massa’s eighth year with the team.

In early December myself and my best mate Andy (also a racing fan) were invited by Bologna Welcome (Bologna’s Tourist Centre) to fly over and take part in a 3 day weekend of Motors in the historic Italian town of Bologna.

The concept was that we use social media to the fullest while we were there, so we were Tweeting, posting on Facebook and many other social sites!

I’ll be posting several blog posts over the coming weeks detailing what we got up to!

Our Itinerary included:

• A visit to the Ducati factory and Museum
• A guided historical city tour
• A day at the Bologna Motorshow
• A trip to Maranello for a tour of the Circuit and the Ferrari factory
• A visit to the Maranello Ferrari Museum

As you can bet a couple of those items had me ready to jump on a plane right away!

There were also a lot of trips to some awesome restaurants and other areas of Bologna, but i’ll cover them in another post!

It was an awesome trip so stay tuned for a more detailed breakdown of what we got up to!

You can also follow Bologna Welcome here:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BolognaWelcome

Twitter: http://twitter.com/BolognaWelcome

This release on the Ferrari.com website today says:

Maranello, 24 January – It will fall to Felipe Massa to give the car that Ferrari will use in this year’s Formula 1 World Championship its track debut. The Brazilian will begin work on development of the new car, starting on 5 February at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit, which hosts the first of three test sessions of four days duration each, to be held in the run-up to the start of the season. Felipe will stay on track until 7 February before handing over to Pedro De La Rosa, who will thus make his debut at the wheel of a Ferrari.

In the meantime and throughout all the first part of February, Fernando Alonso will intensify his physical training, in preparation for a first part of the season which, as usual will be very demanding, both because of the long distances involved between the various Grands Prix and because of the variety of weather conditions encountered from Melbourne to Sakhir, with Sepang and Shanghai in between. Fernando will get behind the wheel of the fourth car of his Ferrari career for the first time on 19 February at Montmelo’s Catalunya circuit. The Spaniard will drive for three days before handing over to team-mate Massa. The final test session, also at Montmelo from 28 February to 3 March will see Felipe and Fernando take turns on track: Thursday and Saturday for the Brazilian, Friday and Sunday for the Spaniard. This means the breakdown of test days for the Ferrari men is as follows: Massa six days, Alonso five and De La Rosa one.

In fact, Pedro is in Maranello today for a seat fitting to fine tune his position in the cockpit of the new car. He has had a series of meetings with the Scuderia engineers to define his programme on the simulator, which will constitute the major part of his role as test driver. This means that his day on track on 8 February will be very important, as it will allow both the team and the driver to work specifically on looking at the correlation between the virtual and the real experience. The work of assembling the new car goes on: yesterday the engine was fired up for the first time.