BMW Sauber F1.09 unveiled at Valencia - Click above for high-res image gallery

2010 F1 cars reportedly set to be unveiled at joint event in Valencia originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gallery: 2009 European Grand Prix

Continue reading SPOILER ALERT: Getting Back to Work at the 2009 European Grand Prix

SPOILER ALERT: Getting Back to Work at the 2009 European Grand Prix originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 23 Aug 2009 14:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gallery: GTA Spano

Continue reading GTA Spano supercar debuts in Valencia

GTA Spano supercar debuts in Valencia originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

click above for more high-res pics of the Williams FW30

Things have gotten a bit foggy over at Williams F1. The once front-running, championship-winning grand prix team has landed on tough times. This year the team opted against holding a glitzy unveiling event like those held recently by Ferrari, McLaren, Toyota and BMW Sauber, and instead focused its energies on developing its new car, the FW30. It seemed like a strange choice for the team that will be celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and during the season will mark its 500th grand prix and 50,000th racing lap.

But while the team isn't holding an official unveiling, it has whipped up six special paint schemes to celebrate its milestones this year. (We doubt any of them will be as cool as Aston Martin's new-old Gulf livery, but hopefully they'll be better than Honda's tree-hugging paint scheme.) The first time the motorsport press got a glimpse of the new FW30 was yesterday at the Valencia track where the new car was being put through its paces.

Renault was also supposed to take out the R28, the new chariot it has developed for returning former champion Fernando Alonso, but the fog kept them indoors. Honda is scheduled to unveil its new car later this week, as well. Williams, for its part, is hoping the new FW30, powered under contract by Toyota and driven by Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima, will perform and be reliable enough to get it back on the track to its former winning form.

[Source: Autosport, Photo by DIEGO TUSON/AFP/Getty]

Gallery: Williams FW30

Williams FW30 breaks through the fog originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The critics have been silenced, and silenced good.

Michael Schumacher retired a seven-time world champion, but his eighth title narrowly escaped him right down to the line at his farewell grand prix in 2006. Retiring after losing the championship two years in a row to a younger Fernando Alonso, many started asking if the driver that dominated the sport for so long still had it in his, ahem, "advancing" age.

Those pundits got their answer when Schumacher briefly returned to F1 in taking the wheel of the Ferrari F2007, this year's title-winning car, at an official FIA-sanctioned Formula One testing event in Spain this week. The focus of the event, the first since the end of the season, was to give the teams a chance to run the cars without traction control and with the standardized engine control unit (ECU), as mandated by the 2008 regulations.

Schumacher drove for the first two of the three day test session, and on both days his lap times sat at the very top of the time sheets. Unfortunately, spokespersons were quick to point out that this did not herald Michael's return to the grid, just a one-time event. So the rest of the drivers can sleep easier.

[Sources: Italiaspeed and Ferrari]

Back with a Vengeance: Schumacher takes all in comeback F1 test originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 16 Nov 2007 18:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Singapore is getting ready to host the first night race in Formula One history after the FIA approved the proposed calendar for next year's championship. Race promoters in Singapore got the clearance from the FIA to build the Monaco-style street circuit in May, and things are reportedly moving along well. The spectacle of the flood-lit road race in the Pacific city-state promises to inject some more excitement into what is already held as the pinnacle of international motorsport.

As we had reported earlier, there were a few proposed grands prix that were up in the air, but the motorsport governing body has approved them all. (Yay!) In addition to Singapore, the new event in Valencia, Spain, was awaiting approval. The French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours was under threat, as well. Even the perennial Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal wasn't for sure, as the economies of scale in schlepping the whole F1 circus to North America were eliminated with the cancellation of the race at Indianapolis. In the end all were confirmed, alongside the usual suspects in Australia, Malaysia, Bahrain, Spain, Turkey, Monaco, Britain, Germany, Hungary, Belgium, Italy, Japan, China and Brazil. Only a few dates were changed around by the FIA in the process. Altogether it makes for a full eighteen races, and we're looking forward already.

Follow the jump for the full 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship calendar.

[Source: Autosport]

Continue reading Singapore night race joins 2008 F1 Calendar

Singapore night race joins 2008 F1 Calendar originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The case for a second grand prix in Spain is growing stronger. The prospective site would be the Valencia circuit, the race track on Spain's Mediterranean coast that most of the F1 teams use for testing. The city of Valencia has recently undergone considerable renovations for hosting the America's Cup sailing regatta, particularly around the port area that has transformed the city into a Spanish Monaco. Now, city officials wonder what will happen after the America's Cup is over. Their ideal solution, it would seem, would be to secure a grand prix, but while the popularity of F1 in Spain has skyrocketed with Fernando Alonso's back-to-back world titles, Spain already has a race in Barcelona, leaving Valencia to fight several uphill battles to get their own.

Germany and Italy have both lost their second grands prix for next year, so the idea of Spain getting a second seems counter-intuitive. Overall, the number of races in Europe has been going down, with talk of even France and Britain having to possibly alternate seasons.

There'd be a couple of ways of making it work, though, and they're more than semantics. One possibility would be to make the Valencia race a Mediterranean Grand Prix, drawing in with the possibility of alternating with a site in North Africa, a region which hasn't hosted F1 racing for many years. Another door opens with the achievements of the Catalonian separatist movement which has been gaining autonomy. Catalonia encompasses Barcelona where the current Spanish Grand Prix is held, which, if it were to become the Catalonian Grand Prix, could leave the door open for Valencia to assume the mantle. The Valencia track doesn't have a lot of spectator seating, leaving race organizers to either put up temporary grandstands or potentially make the race an exclusive VIP-only venue.

Unlike other locations bidding for a race, the Valencia circuit is already built and up to F1 standards. F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone says it's far from a fait accompli, but it could be closer than we'd think.

[Source: GrandPrix.com]

Spain wants a second grand prix originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 15 Nov 2006 08:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.