WordPress is a jerk.

So let’s see, what has gone on in the past week? First if you missed Sebastian Vettel on Letterman…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsc_62uNcKI

Definitely haven’t been trying to upload that for a week! Warning: if you can’t stand David Letterman, don’t even press play. His absolute obsession with Indy (as in the track) just ruins it.

- Some former drivers participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans this past weekend. It’s the first time in years I haven’t watched the entire thing but I was feeling rather apathetic towards it considering the lack of Peugeot. The usual ex-F1 suspects participated, with a few new faces. Sebastien Buemi, and Kazuki Nakajima, Karun Chandhok all made their first ever appearances at Le Mans. Things did not go too well for Buemi or Nakajima, as Toyota’s debut lead to neither car finishing. Chandhok’s team placed 6th overall.

For Anthony Davidson, it was quite a weekend. His Toyota prototype went flying through the air and landed him in the hospital with two broken vertebrae. Things were better for Giancarlo Fisichella, who brought his team home to a first place finish in their GT class.

- Michael Schumacher is being touted as the next winner of a race, which would be the snorefest that is Valencia, according to Paul Hembery from Pirelli. Kind of a weird thing for him to suggest given Schumacher’s criticisms of the tires so far this season.

- Lotus F1 are hoping to finish the season fourth in constructors points. Romain Grosjean is pretty close to victory that he’s appearing in my dreams as my roommate.

- Sauber is also hoping a win isn’t too far off, given Sergio Perez has had two podium appearances so far this season.

- There’s a new round of calls for cost cutting measures, which should come as no surprise. The FIA is hoping measures can be set in place for next season, but time is running out.

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

Friday June 8
First Practice Session: 10:00am
Second Practice Session: 2:00pm

Saturday June 9
Final Practice Session: 10:00am
Qualifying: 1:00pm

Sunday June 10
Race: 2:00pm

All times Eastern. This race begins SPEED’s absolutely annoying move to showing races on Fox, typically on a time delay after this one. You can watch the second practice session and the qualifying session on SPEED, and the other two practice sessions on their website. A pre-race show will be shown on SPEED before the race at 1:30, and also a post-race show at 4pm.

Last year’s winner: Jenson Button

What to expect: Organizers had to cancel the typical open house in the pit lane today thanks to threats from the immature student protestors in Montreal. Because if you can’t have your way, you should ruin the fun for everyone else…I learned to stop doing that when I was 5.

Anyway. Red Bull are now not allowed to use the floor their car has had for the past few races. It was declared legal to use in Monaco, but it had to be changed for this race. There was talk that they would lose their last win, but that’s kind of ridiculous when the car was deemed fine. Haters. You’re even making Mark Webber mad and you know what happens when you make Mark Webber mad…

McLaren hopes to get their butts into gear once again, considering the poor performance of Jenson Button lately.

Of course, there’s still no sign of who could possibly win this race, because it could entirely be a seventh different driver for the season. Cue continued arguments about whether or not this unpredictability is good for racing/fans/etc. I think since we’re all different people, we all just have to shut up and deal with it. Though personally I enjoy it, and I find it stupid that team principals and what have you, as in people who are not fans, try to tell us how we think.

Weather: The race should be nothing like last year, with temperatures for the weekend in the 70s. There’s a 60% chance right now for rain tomorrow.

Tires: Once again, the tires are softs and supersofts. Tire wear will be key, as the track is not exactly used by cars any other time of the year. As rubber is laid down during practice sessions, the track will progressively become faster.

DRS: There will be a single DRS zone in Montreal this year instead of the two zones last year. The one zone will be located from turn 11 until the final chicane. Word is the second zone on the start/finish line was removed because overtaking was way too easy last year.

Well duh, just ask the winner who went from last to first.

Circuit de Monaco (image credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Thursday May 24
First Practice Session: 4:00am
Second Practice Session: 8:00am

Saturday May 26
Final Practice Session: 5:00am
Qualifying: 8:00am

Sunday May 27
Race: 8:00am

SPEED will show a pre-race show beginning at 7:30am. Second practice is also live, and the others can be streamed on SPEEDtv.com. All times eastern.

Last year’s winner: Sebastian Vettel

What to expect: It’s the most wonderful time of the F1 season!

The Monaco Grand Prix and Indianapolis 500 make one of the best weekends in racing. Grands Prix have taken place in Monaco since 1929, and the glitz and glamour of this F1 weekend are well known.

Well, Monte Carlo is pretty glamourous anyway.

The chicane where Sergio Perez crashed last year has been changed. The tarmac has been slightly lowered and the barrier has been moved back 15 meters.

With tire degradation playing such a major role in races lately, it’s hard to tell who could have the best chances this weekend. Lotus hopes to continue improving, and Pastor Maldonado and Williams would love to win again. We could easily see a sixth different winner, though!

Weather: It looks like it’s going to be rainy, sadly. The chance of rain is highest on Thursday, with storms, which could make practice sessions difficult. There’s also a 60% chance of rain on Saturday and 50% on Sunday. This could always change, but we might be seeing a wet qualifying session and race, or possibly just wet qualifying, or hopefully no rain.

Tires: This weekend will be the debut of the supersoft tires for the season. The other compound will be the soft tires. And with the weather, there might actually be no debut of supersoft tires. In other interesting tire news, Paul Hembery has said Pirelli is ready at any time to supply teams with Q3 only tires if they would like.

DRS: The drivers are not allowed to use DRS in the tunnel during practice and qualifying. The DRS zone for the race will be the start-finish straight.

Circuit de Catalunya layout (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Friday May 11
First Practice Session: 4:00am
Second Practice Session: 8:00am

Saturday May 12
Final Practice Session: 5:00am
Qualifying: 8:00am

Sunday May 13
Race: 8:00am

SPEED will show a pre-race show beginning at 7:30am. Second practice is also live, and the others can be streamed on SPEEDtv.com. All times eastern.

Last year’s winner: Sebastian Vettel

What to expect: We’re back after a three week break, and that means it’s time for the European/Canada leg of the season for the summer.

Teams had testing time last week, which should mean many teams will be sporting aerodynamic upgrades. With the season still wide open for this fifth race of the year, it’s hard to tell who will come out on top. Will it be a fifth different driver? Will Mark Webber finish fourth for the fifth time? Hopefully practice gives us a general idea of what to expect, but for now it truly is wide open.

American Alexander Rossi will get his first chance to drive in the first practice session for Caterham. Dani Clos will be driving for HRT in the first session also.

Ross Brawn, team principal for Mercedes, will miss out on the race due to illness on doctor’s orders. Get well soon, Ross!

Weather: Perfect for racing or at least watching it, I’d say…this forecast looks like quintessential European spring weather. Highs in the mid 70s, partly cloudy skies, and low chances for rain.

Tires: Pirelli has decided to use the soft and hard tires. This is a bit of a different strategy than usual, since tire compounds are usually in consecutive hardness order (like soft/medium, medium/hard, etc). This should suit the circuit better. Except I guess if you’re Michael Schumacher, the tires are scrambled or hard boiled.

DRS: There will be a single DRS zone at the Circuit de Catalunya. The activation zone will be down the start/finish straight, with the detection zone between turns 15 and 16. The DRS zone is 750 meters long, so expect to see some good fights.

IT’S TIME IT’S TIME IT’S TIME!!!

Albert Park Street Circuit, Melbourne, Australia (image credit: Will Pittenger/Wikimedia Commons)

Thursday March 15
First Practice Session: 9:30pm

Friday March 16
Second Practice Session: 1:30am
Final Practice Session: 11:00pm

Saturday March 17
Qualifying: 2:00am

Sunday March 18
Race: 2:00am

SPEED will show a pre-race show beginning at 1:30am. Second practice is also live, and the others can be streamed on SPEEDtv.com.

What to expect: Who knows! Pre-season testing did not indicate a clear frontrunner, and even the midfield should be a good fight once again. Even the drivers don’t know what to expect.

Mercedes have introduced a new rear wing that will basically stall the wing by letting air flow through the endplates, leading to a boost in straightline speed. It was deemed legal by the FIA, so teams will be copying this design very shortly. Charlie Whiting said that there is basically nothing that shows it to be illegal: it’s basically an F-duct, no moving parts, etc.

Weather: Friday should be a bit wet, but the rest of the weekend looks good. Temperatures are mild, and it should be sunny for the most part.

Tires: Tire compounds for the race will be the yellow/softs and white/mediums. Expect each team to make two pit stops.

DRS: Unlike last year, there will be two DRS zones. The zones will be the straights between turns 16 and 1, and then turns 2 and 3. There will be a single detection point at turn 14.

Check back here for updates on practice and qualifying, in case you have no plans to stay up late!

Aerial view over the Circuit of the Americas, February 9 (photo credit: COTA's Facebook page)

Coolest bit of news for the day: All race distances for the season were announced by the FIA. Clearly this is most interesting in the case of the United States Grand Prix. The race will be 56 laps, for a total distance of roughly 309 kilometers. In American, that’s 192 miles.

The full list of race distances, as well as schedules for Grands Prix weekends can be found here.

Work on the Circuit of the Americas has been hampered a bit by rain, but everything is still on schedule. Here is a link to last week’s construction picture update.

The seat licensing waitlist closed on Monday, and actual ticket sales should start this summer. (Well, with a race in November, you would hope for that, wouldn’t you?)

Also happening today, Pirelli announced the tire compounds for the first three races of the season.

The first round race in Australia along with the third round in China will feature Pirelli’s soft and medium compounds.

At the second race in Malaysia, the medium and hard rubber will be in use.

Teams get six sets of the harder compound and five sets of the softer compound each race weekend.

Alexander Rossi racing in Formula Renault 3.5 earlier this year

In the midst of the mess based in Austin, I forgot to get something up about the testing on Wednesday, but that’s okay since nobody missed much. Day after day, Jean-Eric Vergne took the Red Bull Racing car around Yas Marina faster than anyone else could manage.

Jean-Eric Vergne was actually just about half a second off the pace of Sebastian Vettel’s qualifying lap this weekend.

Mexican driver Esteban Gutierrez crashed his Sauber and effectively ruined Max Chilton’s fastest time in the Force India.

Again, some drivers focused on testing for their teams thanks to the current lack of in season testing. The new Pirelli compounds for 2012 were used, as well as the current tires.

North America was well represented on Thursday with Gutierrez, Alexander Rossi of the United States, and Robert Wickens of Canada all driving.

Rossi was 9th, and had issues with fitting comfortably in the car thanks to his height. Sometimes it’s hard to be an American trying to break into Formula 1….I know this isn’t the first time we’ve mentioned the cars being a squeeze.

fastest for Thursday:
1. Jean-Eric Vergne, Red Bull
2. Sam Bird, Mercedes
3. Jules Bianchi, Ferrari
4. Oliver Turvey, McLaren
5. Max Chilton, Force India
6. Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber
7. Mirko Bortolotti, Williams
8. Kevin Ceccon, Toro Rosso
9. Alexander Rossi, Team Lotus
10. Jan Charouz, Renault
11. Stefano Coletti, Toro Rosso
12. Nathanael Berthon, HRT
13. Robert Wickens, Virgin
14. Charles Pic, Virgin

Photo from Flickr user fisico_6403

Yas Marina Circuit

Last year’s winner: Sebastian Vettel

Schedule for race events, all times eastern:

Friday November 11
First practice session: 4am
Second practice session: 8am, live on SPEED

Saturday November 12
Third practice session: 5am
Qualifying: 8am, live on SPEED

Sunday November 13
Race: 8am, prerace show begins at 7:30am on SPEED

The big story: The fight is still on for the other top spots in the points in the penultimate race of the season. Sebastian Vettel is of course looking for his third win in as many races here in Abu Dhabi. This was the site of his first world championship win last year. Other than that, it’s basically a race for the sake of racing at this point in the season.

Since it’s so late in the season, there is plenty of talk about the future of many drivers. Force India’s situation has not been sorted out just yet. Kimi Raikkonen confirmed to MTV3 in Finland that he has been in talks with Williams. Rumor has it something could be announced this weekend in conjunction with a new Middle Eastern sponsor for the Williams team.

Nico Rosberg announced a deal with his current Mercedes team. He will race with them through 2013. His teammate, Michael Schumacher, has not yet decided about his future. It is possible he could retire after next season, while some German newspapers say he has signed a deal already to continue through 2013 with the team as well.

The young drivers’ test will take place after race weekend, with a chance for every team to look at their possibilities in the future. This weekend also features an all-star GP2 race.

DRS Zone: Let’s face the facts – this race can definitely be a bore, where the most exciting thing becomes the lights changing color on the Yas Marina Hotel. This will be the third race of the season to feature double DRS zones, in the hopes of shaking up the race into something more than a (possible) Sebastian Vettel parade.

The first DRS zone will be between turns 7 and 8, with the detection point before turn 7. The second zone will be on the straight leading to turn 11, with the detection point after turn 9.

Tires: Pirelli is back where they started – testing for their tires was first done at this circuit at the end of last year. On Friday, teams will test out a new compound for the tire supplier. For the race itself, the soft and medium compounds will be used.

Weather: As you can expect in the Middle East, the weather will be excellent for racing as usual. Dry and hot, although not too hot since Abu Dhabi is a race into the night.

Track layout image courtesy of Arz at the Wikimedia Commons.

Marina Bay Street Circuit

Last year’s winner: Fernando Alonso

All times eastern
Friday, September 23
First practice session: 6am
Second practice session: 9:30am, live on SPEED

Saturday, September 24
Third practice session: 7am
Qualifying session: 10am, live on SPEED

Sunday, September 25
Race: 8am, pre-race show on SPEED begins at 7:30am
race reshown at 3pm

First and third practice sessions can be streamed live on speedTV.com
This is one of my favorite races due to the fact that the teams try to stay on European time despite being in Asia, which should be apparent by the later times for everything but the race. Thanks to geography and that choice to have a night race, this race still takes place at the typical time of a European race. Thank you for being so kind to us as to not make every race in Asia between 1 and 4am, Bernie.

This is the only night race on the Formula 1 calendar, as it enters its fourth appearance. Fernando Alonso won the first race in 2008, although it was quite the reputation ruiner.

The big story for this weekend: depending on where Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton finish this Sunday, Sebastian Vettel will become the youngest double world champion in the history of Formula 1. Both Alonso and Hamilton have had nothing but praise for Vettel recently, and both vow to make things difficult for him this weekend.

The DRS zone: Just one this time around, with the detection zone located at turn 4. The activation zone will be after turn 5, going into the longest straight of the track.

Tires for the weekend: Pirelli will supply the teams with soft and supersoft compounds for the race.

Weather: Hot and humid, there is a chance for rain, but it is unlikely to affect the race since it takes place at night.

Surprise guest host Former driver steward for the weekend: Heinz-Harald Frentzen, former Sauber/Williams/Jordan/Prost/Arrows driver. He was a steward for last year’s European Grand Prix. Apparently he’s well favored to come in at street circuits.

Other news: Kimi Raikkonen’s name is back on everyone’s tongues. The Finn has been talking to Williams, creating quite the speculation stir around the paddock. Time will tell if anything becomes of it, but Rubens Barrichello’s seat is not safe for next season at this point in time.

There are reports that Red Bull Racing broke the Resource Restriction Agreement, or RRA, last year. The RRA sets regulations for the team’s budget, and under the agreement, this would have required someone to sign off on it. Christian Horner has said it is false, and that people “will throw stones” at those who have had success.

Touche.

Sorry for the lack of posting, I’ve been in the midst of a move. I woke up on Friday to find AT&T already shut off my internet at my old place, and the modem at my new place wasn’t working. Saturday was of course actually moving day, and yesterday was clean up the old place and fight with my laptop because it doesn’t want to acquire the IP address to connect to the internet day. Still a lot to do, but I must get back to what’s important, too: F1 of course!

Pirelli news first! The tire supplier for Formula 1 wants to change their color coding system for the tires in order to make it easier for fans. To them I say: THANK YOU. The combination of either silver/white and even white/yellow for the tires for a race makes it so hard to tell who is running what tire.

Pirelli is looking to change not only the colors but also the pattern of the color. As you can see in the picture from their Facebook page, the tires say “P Zero” and have a colored line around the tire. They may be looking to the fans for help in deciding how to label the tires for next season. I’d go with text all the way around the tire in red, yellow, green, blue, but I’m not sure where that would leave the intermediate and rain tires. There’s definitely a puzzling road ahead.

Pirelli has also announced the compounds to be used at the upcoming Japanese and Korean Grands Prix. For the race at Suzuka, the compounds will be the medium and soft. The track in Korea will see the soft and supersoft tires in use.

Bernie Ecclestone revealed today that Bahrain fully paid for their Grand Prix this year, despite the event’s cancellation. He says the “Bahrainis” did not want the money back when it was offered to them, and that they think things will be okay for next season’s April race. I totally question this generalized use of “Bahrainis” since there is still unrest in the country. I don’t think every citizen of Bahrain thinks things are just fine and dandy and ready for a race.

Bernie also says he’s highly considering a race in South Africa, followed by Mexico.

Several reserve and test drivers had test sessions with teams last week, most notably Sergio Perez. Although he’s obviously a current driver, his participation in Ferrari’s Driver’s Academy program meant he got to test the 2009 Ferrari car in Fiorano on Thursday. Perez impressed all the top folks over at Ferrari…watch out, Felipe.

Other tests include Canadian driver Robert Wickens running for Virgin in Vairano, Romain Grosjean testing an old Renault in Valencia, and his fellow GP2 driver Max Chilton running a straight line test for Force India in the UK.

It looks like several teams have updates for their cars for this weekend’s race on the streets of Singapore. Team Lotus will be running a new floor on their car, along with bigger front brake ducts to help keep the brakes cool on the challenging circuit. HRT also has an updated floor, plus some new aerodynamic upgrades. Williams has upgraded their front wing and diffuser and will be testing them out for the first time in Friday’s practice sessions.

Lastly, the reserve drivers will be participating in a fashion show this weekend in Singapore. Let’s hope none of them crash the clothing or take any male model’s positions at other races. As Will Buxton said on Twitter earlier: Who will perfect blue steel?

My money’s on Nico Hulkenberg. (Except I didn’t see his name on the list but I’m going with him. Deal with it.)