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Five years ago, double world champion Mika Hakkinen turned his back on Formula One and returned to his native Finland to spend time with his young family, relax and enjoy life away from the pressure and pain of racing. And although Mika has since driven competitively, he hasn’t piloted a Formula One car since signing off all that time ago. Until today, that is.

Mike - who was recently appointed as an ambassador for a top McLaren sponsor, and also in an advisory role with the team - participated in a test with the Woking squad at Circuit de Catalunya today. While his initial pace was well wide of Ferrari’s Luca Badoer (about nine seconds), Mika’s expertise in F1 racing will prove to be valuable for the team, especially with two new drivers to the team this upcoming year, one of whom is a rookie. Continue Reading…

As winter testing continues at Circuit de Catalunya in Spain today, Felipe Massa again set the fastest time of 1m16.403s, shaving 0.7s from his yesterdays best. Main test driver for Ferrari - Luca Badoer managed third quickest in a session that was interrupted by rain. Nick Heidfeld impressed in the BMW managing a time only 0.7s adrift from the lead Ferrari.

Pedro De La Rosa and Lewis Hamilton will have an interesting day on Thursday when former McLaren driver a double world champion Mika Hakkinen will drive around the circuit, having recently been appointed an advisory role at the Woking-based team. Pedro finished the day in fourth, while Lewis tailed in sixth, but only 0.2s shy of Pedro’s lap. Continue Reading…

As most teams begin the change to Bridgestone tyres today - testing at Spain’s Circuit de Catalunya - Felipe Massa continued his form from Brazil and posted the fastest lap of the day in his Ferrari. Massa set a lap time of 1m17.162s, and beat Pedro De La Rosa’s McLaren by 0.4s.

Lewis Hamilton was also present for McLaren, but had to endure an engine mapping problem before returning to the track to set the sixth quickest time. Other drivers getting their first real experience of their new cars were Anthony Davidson for Super Aguri and Mark Webber for Red Bull. Continue Reading…

Barcelona hosted the first test session since the teams signed off in Brazil last month, with most teams expected to run cars over the next few days. With a lot of shuffling around, there were some new faces in new cars, and rumours have already started to circulate about the pace of next years cars.

Mark Webber was in force with his new team Red Bull. Although Mark is still contracted to is former team Williams, and so he was sporting unbranded overalls. Honda also used their now traditional unmarked car, and ran around the circuit in black. Jenson Button will not be driving though, as an injury to his ribs has forced the British driver to sit out while he heals.
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McLaren have annouced today that Lewis Hamilton will partner world champion Fernando Alonso next year. The announcement came after a lot of speculation that started before the season ended last October. With three drivers immediately available to Ron Dennis, I’m sure the decision was difficult. Gary Paffett has been impressive in what testing he has done, but a recent annoucement made his future clear as he will be racing in DTM next year. Pedro De La Rosa has also driven well for the team, filling in the early departed Juan Pablo Montoya. Some steady points and a couple of podiums saw the Spaniard gain almost as many points as race-winner Montoya did, but the Woking squad have chosen youth over experience and awarded the young British driver Hamilton the race seat. Continue Reading…

Keith at F1Fanatic has found an article written for the Observer Sport Monthly that criticises motorsport for failing the planet regarding climate change and global warming. Keith’s rebuttal on his site reflects my views precisely, and the short post is succint and well written. Head on over and take a read…

And in other blogs, Brad over at International Herald Tribune F1 has an excellent post about the other big news of today: The return of Alex Zanardi to a Formula One car. Brad’s post is uplifting and talks about his three strongest memories of Zanardi - Alex joking with Formula One’s strict protocol, his massive accident which (amazingly only) paused his career, and his return to the motor racing fraternity with a beaming smile. A well-written article that is worth reading, even you have no idea who Alex Zanardi is. Go read and enjoy…

And to answer my own question: It doesn’t help, but it is a tiny drop in the vast ocean. And yes, at times Formula One does show human spirit at its very finest.

Formula One, F1, Global Warming, Alex Zanardi

Ex Williams and McLaren Formula One driver Juan Pablo Montoya has crashed out of his proper debut race in NASCAR’s Nextel Cup Series. After running for 252 laps at Miami-Homestead Oval in America, Montoya was tagged from behind by Ryan Newman and spun, going backwards into the wall. Juan Pablo’s Dodge erupted in flames and Montoya had to make a quick exit from his car. After a check-up at the circuits medical centre, Montoya left unscathed and feels this chance to race prior to the 2007 season has been beneficial to him.
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Aguri Suzuki today announced that British driver Anthony Davidson will partner Takuma Sato at Super Aguri. This news comes after Davidson’s six year stint as BAR’s/Honda’s test driver, and although it was widely expected, the news has been welcomed by both Aguri and Honda.

Anthony has been impressing team chiefs up and down the pit lane for a while now, regularly topping the Friday test sheets. The 27 year old has also competed in three races, two with Minardi and one with Honda, covering for his now team mate Sato. However, the opportunity of a full-time drive appeared to be a little too elusive until now.
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The Goodwood Festival Of Speed - a festival of all things that move relatively fast - have announced the dates for the 2007 show. The weekend of 22nd June will be when cars new and old are given the opportunity to race around the historic track, and with plenty of side events that take up the majority of the the land, it is a show that cannot be missed by any motoring enthusiast.

I have never been to the show myself, but after reading reviews of the 2006 event, I will be planning a day off from work next June so I can pop along and soak up the atmosphere for myself? And what convinced me to visit? I read fellow F1 blogger Chris‘ journal from her visit earlier this year. You can read the first of her fantastic posts here (on Chris’ personal site) and follow the links forward to read on.

News has been pretty slow now the 2006 season has wrapped up. Things should hot up a little when Winter Testing kicks off in a fortnight, but for now there are a couple of stories that are worth mentioning:

Red Bull have finally come to an agreement with Ferrari and Renault regarding the use of their engines in the Red Bull and Toro Rosso cars for next year. Team Principal Christian Horner had been eyeing up the Renault engine for his lead team - the Red Bull squad - but they were under contract with Ferrari for two years, the second of which would have been the 2007 season. However, Horner has managed to sway the Italian marque and has convinced Ferrari CEO Jean Todt the benefits of fitting the engine in the back of the Toro Rosso car. Toro Rosso has Italian roots, as the team were formally known as Minardi (and before then, Scuderia Italia) and based themselves in Faenza in Italy.
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