Perhaps it’s the current slump, but many forget that Williams is the third most successful team in Formula 1, behind only Ferrari and McLaren. The team had it’s worst ever year in 2011, finishing the season with just five points, and last of the established teams. It’s with this background that Williams director of engineering and legend Patrick Head is leaving the team after 34 years of service.

Head has stepped down from the outfit’s board of directors with immediate effect. He will from now focus on the company’s thriving hybrid business and will remain a board director of Williams Hybrid Power Limited.

“Patrick and I have been in partnership for 34 years. During that time, he has been the leader of the technical team that has won the majority of our race wins and championships. This is a remarkable legacy and one which will be treasured and definitely not forgotten.,” said founder and friend Frank Williams.

“Patrick is a very straightforward, hard working and truly gifted engineer who comfortably operates at a world class level. I will miss him very much, as I am sure his colleagues will, and he will always be welcome at Grove. Indeed, Patrick will still be seen around the factory as he continues to be involved in the development of our hybrid power activities,” he added.

In the glory days of the 1980s and ’90s, Head drove the team’s engineering department to win 113 grands prix, seven drivers world championships and nine constructors’ titles for Williams. As Frank said, a remarkable legacy.

Lotus Renault GP, which will race next season as ‘Lotus’ has named Romain Grosjean as Kimi Raikkonen’s teammate for the 2012 season. The 25-year old Frenchman beat 2011 drivers Vitaly Petrov and Bruno Senna to the coveted race seat. Grosjean isn’t a stranger to the team however – he was third driver at LRGP and drove in two practice sessions at Abu Dhabi and Brazil.

Besides the two brief moments behind the F1 wheel, 2011 saw Grosjean become the GP2 Series champion. His previous stint in F1 was with Renault during the second half of the 2009 season, partnering two-time champ Fernando Alonso. After losing his seat, he went to first World GT1 racing then GP2, where he took the Asia and main series titles this year.

“After Fernando Alonso it is Kimi Raikkonen, so I am getting used to having a world champion alongside me. I think it is a chance because they are really good drivers, [but] they are more than that. You can learn a lot from them but, on the other hand, your first benchmark is your team-mate so if you manage to get to their level then it is very good for you,” Grosjean said about being Kimi’s team mate.

However, he’s hinting that he may not be immediately trounced by the returning high profile Iceman. “From Kimi, I have plenty of things to learn for sure. He is a great champion and a very good driver, as everybody knows. But maybe I can teach him something about the Pirelli tyres that he never drove, except for the rally cars one. The F1 ones are a little bit different, and it will be a good deal for next year. I am sure we will get on well together and I will learn a lot from him, so let’s see.”

Conveniently, LRGP and Total, the French oil company, at the same time confirmed that they have renewed their sponsorship agreement for another year.

Champions Red Bull Racing and Ferrari have withdrawn from the Formula One Teams’ Association (FOTA) over disagreements with the Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA), which is about cost cutting in the sport. Despite this latest development, both teams insist that they are committed to finding a solution.

“Red Bull Racing can confirm it has served notice to withdraw from FOTA. The team will remain committed to finding a solution regarding cost saving in Formula 1,” RBR’s statement read.

“It was a difficult decision and a great deal of thought went into it. It was taken reluctantly after analysing the current situation and the stalemate when it came to debate on some issues that were at the core of why the association was formed,” Ferrari said.

“Some of the major achievements of the association during these years…centred around cost reduction, which was of significant benefit to everyone, the big teams and the small ones. Now however, it is necessary to find some new impetus to move it along because FOTA’s drive has run its course, despite the excellent work of current President, Martin Whitmarsh.

“Ferrari will continue to work with the other teams to make the current RRA, aimed at controlling costs, more effective and efficient, modifying it to make it more stringent in key areas such as aerodynamics, to rebalance some aspects such as testing and to expand it to areas currently not covered such as engines,” added the statement.

Still in the dark? This final parting shot should make it clear. “We must return to a situation where F1 is really a test bed for advanced technological research, the results of which can be transferred to Granturismo cars,” the supercar maker said.

“In addition, we must not forget that this sport must become more user friendly and more accessible to the general public and furthermore, it cannot be the only professional sport where it is practically impossible to do any training: the number of days of testing must be increased so that the drivers, especially the young ones who lack experience and the teams, can be adequately prepared, as well as providing more opportunities for them to come into contact with spectators and sponsors.”

By now you would have heard about the return of the Iceman to Formula 1. Yes, Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion, is back in the sport, after spending two years in the World Rally Championship. The former McLaren and Ferrari driver joins Lotus Renault GP, which will be just called Lotus next season.

The Finn has signed a two-year deal with Lotus, and will make it six world champions on the grid next year. Kimi, now 32, was also linked with a Williams race seat, but that one fell through. What’s for certain is that he misses F1 a lot, saying that “my hunger for F1 has recently become overwhelming.”

Lotus has not officially confirmed its other race seat, but for sure it will not be Robert Kubica, who is still recovering from his pre season rally crash. Will Vitaly Petrov, who has strong Russian financial backing, be Kimi’s teammate next year?

An interview with Raikkonen, provided by the team, is after the jump.
[Read more...]

Will he or will he not? It has been confirmed by Robert Kubica himself that he will not start the 2012 Formula 1 season with Lotus Renault GP. The Pole says that his recovery is good, but he simply needs more time before getting behind the wheel.

“Even if I’ve been working very, very hard over the course of the last few weeks, I came to the conclusion that I am not yet certain to be ready for the 2012 season. I have called the team and I have informed them of the situation. This was a difficult decision to make, but it is the most reasonable one,” Kubica said.

“I also know that LRGP need to prepare for next year, and further extending deadlines would not have been the right thing to do. On a personal level, my recovery is still very encouraging and my doctors keep being impressed. I just need more time, as I want to be 100% ready before I commit to anything driving related.

“Finally, I regret not having been able to provide more news and not having appeared in the papers, and I thank my friends of the media for understanding that this has been the best way for me to cope with what has been the most difficult period of my life,” he added.

Highly rated Kubica was involved in a rally accident in February this year, before the F1 season started. While he cheated death, the crash left him with severe cuts to his forearm and multiple fractures to his right arm, leg and hand.

Lewis Hamilton won yesterday’s Abu Dhabi GP, leading from lap 1 to the chequered flag. This happened after pole sitter and world champion Sebastian Vettel spun on the first lap due to a puncture on his right rear tyre, which sent him spinning off the track. He had built up quite a good distance over Hamilton in just a few corners before that happened, and this is his first DNF of the year.

This is Lewis’ third win of the season, his last being the German GP in July. It also comes at a rough patch for the McLaren man, which has saw him collide with Massa more than once and break up with his stunner of a girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger. Fernando Alonso finished second for Ferrari while Jenson Button made it a 1-3 finish for McLaren.

The results didn’t do much to alter the standings. Vettel and Red Bull are already the champions, while Jenson Button is looking good to finish the season second in the drivers’ standings. He now has 255 points, which is 10 more than Alonso and 22 more than Mark Webber, who finished fourth yesterday. Lewis is a further six points behind.

Massa finished fifth, ahead of the two Silver Arrows of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher. The Mercedes powered Force Indias of Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta were eighth and ninth, respectively, while Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi made a one-stop strategy work to get the final point. Team Lotus’ Heikki Kovalainen was running as high as 13th in the early stages, but finished 17th, ahead only of his teammate and the other new teams.

It wasn’t a very exciting race at the Yas Marina Circuit, with much of the action supplied by Red Bull’s Webber. The Aussie frustratingly lost time with a sticky wheel at his first stop, so he used a three-stop strategy that saw him change to the harder (and slower) tyres only on the last lap. He still didn’t manage to jump Button, the man he was fighting for much of the race, though.

The Mercedes GP Petronas team bosses must have been slightly worried at the sight of their two drivers battling it out in the early stages. Rosberg, who just signed a contract extension, won the duel with the old timer and kept his place till the end.

The next race is the final one of the 2011 season. It’s Brazil two weeks from now.