Italian GP FP2: Lewis Hamilton fastest as Alonso hits trouble

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton was fastest in the 2nd free practice session at Monza, leading his team-mate Jenson Button to a solid one-two. There was trouble for Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and current Championship leader, as his car suffered from gearbox and brake problems.

The standing driver Jerome D'Ambrosio (replacing Romain Grosjean) got to grips with his Lotus racing car, and managed 13th place. The highlight of the session came when Kimi Raikkonen got a bit too aggressive with the kerbs on the 2nd corner of the track and got airborne. No significant damage was done and Kimi was able to return to the pits.

The final (3rd) free practice session will start today, before the ever crucial qualifying for Italian GP 2012.

Here are the top 5 from yesterday's FP2...

- Lewis Hamilton
- Jenson Button
- Fernando Alonso
- Felipe Massa
- Nico Rosberg

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Hamilton to Mercedes? : Silly season 2012 in full swing!

Lewis Hamilton may be switching to Mercedes next season, thereby ending his 6 year long stint with McLaren, even since he joined back in 2007. That is the rumor circling around in the paddock nowadays.

Initially started by BBC co-presenter, and former Jordan boss, Eddie Jordan, the rumor has spread like wild fire and is now being talked about throughout the F1 fraternity. It is interesting to remember that Hamilton's 5 year deal is due to end at the close of the current 2012 season. Hamilton's recent performances have been pretty solid, with a few mishaps and accidents, but many experts believe it's the lack of communication between the drtiver and the team that could eventually lead them both to split.

Lewis Hamilton has always been a straight talker and rarely decides to shy away from speaking his mind. The McLaren team on the other hand maintains a very corporate and professional look in their way of doing business on and off the track.

If Hamilton does decide to switch, it is very likely that Schumacher will be the one to leave the team and Formula 1. Regarding the matter, this is what Eddie Jordan had to say...

“I believe Hamilton and Mercedes have already agreed personal terms and a deal could be imminent,”

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Jérôme d’Ambrosio stands in for Grosjean at Monza

It's Official. Jerome d' Ambrosio will be standing in for the French driver Romain Grosjean in next week's Italian GP at Monza.

This was confirmed today by the Lotus team, after the one race ban that was handed to Grosjean with regards to the first lap incident in Belgian GP. Romain Grosjean was blamed for starting the chain of events that led towards championship contenders like Alonso and Hamilton retiring on the first lap. Other drivers that were affected in the crash were Sergio Perez, Kamui Kobayashi, and Pastor Maldonado.

Naturally, Ambrosio, now 26, is pumped up by the opportunity and is looking forward to racing after a long time in F1. He lets his feelings out by saying...

“My desire for 2012 has always been to get back into the seat of a Formula 1 car, so I am grabbing this opportunity with both hands,”

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Beglian GP Friday FP2: A Complete Washout

Team Marussia F1 are celebrating their 50th grand prix entry and what better to do it than take the first place in the second session of Free practice. No, you're not reading this wrong. Charles Pic was some of the few drivers who actually went out and did some running on the extremely wet Spa Francorchamps track.

Over the course of the complete 90 minutes of the session, not even a single competitive time was set. Drivers went out in the dying minutes of the session to trundle around and do some practice starts.

The weather forecast seems to indicate a dry spell on Saturday, with a strong chance of rain again during Sunday's race. This will put huge pressure on the teams to figure out their car handling and setup during the crucial Free practice 3 session tomorrow.

Here are the top 5 standings from the FP2 session.

1. Charles Pic Marussia 02:49.354
2. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 02:49.750
3. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 02:50.497
4. Paul di Resta Force India 02:51.333
5. Pastor Maldonado Williams 02:51.660

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Robert Kubica Return: Alonso is very uncertain

Robert Kubica is still in recovery mode after his horrific crash back in 2011 in a rally car, which almost took his life and left him hospitalized for weeks.

His good friend, Fernando Alonso meanwhile is quite uncertain if Kubica will ever be able to return to a full time ride in Formula 1.

"It’s very hard to say whether Robert will return to 100 percent fitness and be able to race again in Formula 1,"

Alonso also said that he keeps regular contact with his friend, and how Robert tells him he misses the life of F1. It is interesting to note that before Kubica's crash, he was widely tipped to replace Massa for the second Ferrari seat, which would have made him team-mates to Fernando Alonso. 

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Rubens Barrichello: "Returning back to F1 still a possibility"

Rubens Barrichello is refusing to let go of any hopes of returning to F1 in the future, particularly with his former team Williams F1.

Rubens said...

"I think there is still a way back, I'm not using IndyCar as a last resort,"

Barrichello added that Williams F1 needs him back to tame their young (and careless) drivers. He of course was pointing towards the fiery Pastor Maldonado, who's been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons. 

Barrichello also added that driving the Williams this season would have been a lot more fun than the previous years and that he always knew this year's challenger would been far much better and be able to give results. He said his heart bleeds to think he could have done so much better and it's a shame he was dropped at the end of 2011. 

Barrichello is currently racing in IndyCar with KV racing and sits in 15th position in the championship with a total of 164 points. 

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Lewis Hamilton 'very close' to a new McLaren contract

Lewis Hamilton is 'very close' to a new McLaren contract that could see him cement his position with the team on a long-term contract. That is the story surfacing from the world of F1 while we wait for the Belgian GP on September 2012.

Lewis Hamilton is currently in his 6th season in Formula 1 when he joined back in 2007 with the McLaren Mercedes team.

Managing Director of McLaren Jonathan Neale meanwhile claims that Hamilton and McLaren are currently in serious negotiations about a future contract and we might hear some news in the coming days. Here's what he had to say...

“We are closer and of course we are in dialogue, For obvious reasons I can't speculate more at the moment. We are working very hard to find a common ground.”

It is however unclear if an official public announcement will be made in the current summer break.

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Rush Movie release expected in September 2013

Rush, the movie about Former F1 champion Niki Lauda and his fight with fellow racing driver James Hunt in the 1976 Formula 1 championship season, is expected to hit the cinemas in September 2013.

The movie is directed by Ron Howard, and will try to cover the incidents leading to Niki Lauda's fiery crash that almost took his life and James Hunt subsequently winning the title.

The character of James Hunt is being played by Australian star Chris Hemsworth (known for Thor), while Lauda is being played by Daniel Bruhl (Inglorious Basterds). The movie is being filmed in various locations including UK, Austria as well as Germany.

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Jenson Button's restaurant 'Victus' shuts down

It's the Formula 1 summer break, and the news from the F1 world is slightly on the 'thin' side.

However, in some non-racing related news, the 2009 F1 champ Jenson Button's restaurant has to be shut down after almost an year since it was opened up.

Button co-owned the restaurant named as 'Victus', with his partner and former F1 driver Richard Goddard. Sadly, due to undisclosed reasons, the restaurant is to be closed for business.

Here's the reason given by Mr. Richard Goddard...

“Unfortunately the business was launched in an economy which then continued to slide and just hasn’t stopped, with people simply not having the disposable income needed to spend in restaurants.”

Meanwhile, Jenson Button is currently spending his F1 break in Philippines, with his girlfriend Jessica Michibata.

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HRT boss says the car is at half of it's potential

HRT boss Luis Perez-Sala while talking about the first half of the season remarked that their 2012 challenger is probably at 50% of it's true potential, and more performance could be extracted particularly from the aerodynamics side.

"I'd say we're at 50 per cent of its potential and we can still extract another 50 per cent, mainly in aerodynamics."

It must be remembered that HRT missed the pre-season testing completely and were also not able to qualify for the first race of the season in Australia. It has been a tough season for them ever since, and they have so far scored no points in the constructors championship at all.

However, the HRT team boss is optimistic about a point scoring position and says that new updates planned for the Singapore GP might improve their pace.

It is interesting to note that their direct competitors, Marussia F1 have also not been able to score a single point in the championship thus far.

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"We don't want to rush into a decision regarding Schumacher" - Ross Brawn

Mercedes F1 team will be not be rushed into a decision regarding Schumacher's contract for 2013, according to team principal Ross Brawn.

Ross Brawn says that it's a really important matter for everyone involved and will be decided when the time is right. He added, "I don't want to increase speculation by commenting on where we are."

Michael Schumacher returned to the sport in 2010, and now his contract runs out at the end of 2012. So far, no decision has made and Schumacher himself has been pretty quite about it.

So far this season, Schumacher's luck hasn't been so good, with him only scoring 29 points compared to team-mate Rosberg's 77, and the latter even winning a race.

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Ferrari not a good option right now for Vettel - Jackie Stewart

If Vettel chooses to switch teams and move from Red Bull to Ferrari at the end of this season, it would be a big mistake, according to 3 times F1 world champion Sir Jackie Stewart.

"I wouldn't do that at this time", said Sir Jackie, mentioning that Alonso is way too strong at the moment and has 100 % backing of the whole team. Two young world champions at Ferrari would just not work.

Interestingly, Sebastian Vettel's contract at Red Bull ends at the end of the 2014, while Alonso has signed up for a long term deal which could see him continue to drive a scarlet Ferrari until the end of 2016. So for Vettel to move to Ferrari, he will have to break his current contract and that's not always a good thing for an F1 driver,

Sir Jackie Stewart is also of the opinion that Vettel should stick with Red Bull and only think of moving to another team if he has a really bad year with them. So far, Vettel is 3rd in the championship, with a total of 42 points behind the leader, Fernando Alonso.

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Tense environment between Marussia F1 drivers

The latest news from the Hungarian GP paddock suggested that all is not well at the Marussia F1 garage, with drivers Timo Glock and Charles Pic not having the best of times.

The tension increased after an angry reaction from Timo Glock about the Pic's rash driving qualifying. It is also  interesting to note that Glock was out-qualified for the first time this season in Hungary by his team-mate.

Timo Glock alleges Charles Pic to have slowed him down on his qualifying lap, and points out it's no good speaking with Pic about it because he doesn't understand English.

Maybe he doesn’t understand the English over the radio, It’s pointless. This has now happened two or three times, so it’s something the team needs to solve.”

Frenchman Charles Pic finished the Hungarian GP in 20th place, one place ahead of his German team-mate Glock.

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Lewis Hamilton takes victory at Hungary

Lewis Hamilton held back a late charge by Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen to win his 3rd Hungarian GP and his 19th victory of his career. Raikkonen's team-mate Romain Grosjean completed the podium as the driver's championship leader Alonso settled for a lonely 5th place. The Red Bull duo of Vettel and Webber could only manage 4th and 8th respectively.

The F1 circus now goes on a month long mid-season break and will return with the ever so tough and driver's favorite Spa-francorchamps in September.

The title fight is still wide open with Kimi Raikkonen now announcing his intention very firmly indeed. The Lotus team have been working extremely hard on the car and both drivers have had strong results. With things improving as they are, it won't be long until we see a Lotus driver on the top step of the podium.

After the race, Alonso was a bit surprised that he was still leading the championship and urged his fans that it could be a tough final part of the season as his Ferrari seems to be losing pace with respect to the competition.

So, we meet again in September (2nd to be exact) for the Belgian GP 2012. 

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"Alonso among the best drivers in F1 history" - Andrea Stella

Alonso is among the best drivers in F1 history. That is according to his race engineer, Andrea Stella.

Andrea Stella didn't want to do comparisons between each and every successful F1 driver, but he did say this.

I just think that, when Fernando performs at these levels, there are just a few drivers in history who can stand the comparison.

Andrea also praised Alonso's skill when the track was wet and said that he performs his best in almost all types of conditions. Germany was yet another proof that Alonso is right on the top of his game and it's going to be hard for other drivers to stop him now.

Fernando Alonso currently leads the F1 driver's championship comfortably from Red Bull driver Mark Webber. Alonso is now the only driver this season to have won 3 Grand Prixs.

Next up, the F1 circus heads to the twisty circuit of Hungary.

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Raikkonen delighted with podium, but wants a victory

It was a strong run for Kimi Raikkonen in the German GP. He finished on the podium after the FIA stewards declared Sebastian Vettel's overtake on Jenson Button as illegal.

If not for his poor qualifying effort, Raikkonen could have had a strong chance for a race victory and that showed in his comments after the race with the press.

"It's nice to have another podium, but obviously we would rather get it on the track. Having said that I think we did the best we could from the position we started.

Raikkonen with his consistant form in recent races is now 4th in the drivers championship with a total of 98 points. Kimi says it's been half season so far.

"If you had told me in January that we would be fourth halfway through the season, I think I would have been pretty pleased.

But having that, Kimi believes the team can win a race this season and will push hard for the victory in the remaining second half.

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Alonso dominates in Germany, furthers his lead in the championship

Fernando Alonso won his third race of the season in what turned out to be a 'controlled' race for the 2 times world champion. Fending off Sebastian Vettel for the first half of the race, and then successfully tackling Jenson Button in the latter part, Alonso managed to cross the chequered flag with relative ease and finesse.

The fight for second place came down to a battle between Button and Vettel, in which the German apparently overtaking Button on the penultimate lap.

Vettel's overtake was deemed illegal by the FIA stewards after the race, thereby demoting Vettel to 5th place, resulting in Button promoted to 2nd while Kimi Raikkonen taking the final place on the podium.

Meanwhile, the 100'th race for Lewis Hamilton didn't prove enjoyable when he retired with a technical fault before languishing a lap down after hit by a tire puncture at the start of the race. The race was a one to forget to Alonso's team-mate Felipe Massa as well, as he was also a victim of a first lap incident, which forced him to pit for a new nose and losing a lot of positions which he never recovered.

The F1 circus now moves towards Hungary next week with Alonso in a dominating position in the championship.

German GP 2012 - Top 10

1. Fernando Alonso
2. Jenson Button
3. Kimi Raikkonen
4. Kamui Kobayashi
5. Sebastian Vettel
6. Sergio Perez
7. Michael Schumacher
8. Mark Webber
9. Nico Hulkenberg
10. Nico Rosberg

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Fernando Alonso on Pole in a wet German GP Qualifying!

Yet again, Fernando Alonso destroyed the competition in a wet qualifying session here in Hockenheim, Germany. This is 2nd consecutive pole position after what was a similarly dominating performance in Silverstone.

Sebastian Vettel managed to grab the 2nd place with Webber claiming the 3rd place which he will have to forfeit to Schumacher because of his gearbox change penalty. Rosberg and Grosjean are the other two drivers who will be demoting down the grid due to penalties.

Here are the top 5 for tommorow's German GP 2012.

1. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 01:40.621
2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 01:41.026
3. Mark Webber Red Bull 01:41.496 (Penalty)
4. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 01:42.459
5. Nico Hülkenberg Force India 01:43.501

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New Upgrades for McLaren and Lotus in Germany

It was a rain-soaked first practice session at Hockenheim on Friday at the German GP, and the focus of attention were two teams in particular. McLaren and Lotus.

New sidepods for the McLaren 2012 challenger have brought up the hopes for the team and in the hands of drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, they expect a return back to the sharp end of the grid.

The new sidepods are not the only upgrade for the McLaren car, because they have also brought a brand new rear wing for this race.

The first practice session the McLaren boys leading the pack, but it's still early in the weekend to suggest the changes and their affects on the car.

Hamilton put it like this...

“I just hope these upgrades can get us back on track, We want to be fighting for wins and top points positions again.”

The other news doing the rounds in Germany this weekend is the new and unique 'Super DRS' of the Lotus E20. The team is optimistic about the new upgrade and hopes it will help them challenge for the top positions come qualifying time on Saturday.

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Bruno Senna wins the 'Lorenzo Bandini Trophy'

There is yet another addition to the 'Lorenzo Bandini Trophy' list in addition to Formula 1 drivers like Fernando Alonso, David Coulthard, and Robert Kubica to name a few.

The latest recepient of the prestigious award is current Williams F1 driver Bruno Senna.

Senna collected his trophy by driving through the beautiful Italian towns of Faenza to Brisighella. This famed award was initiated back in 1992 in honor of Ferrari driver who lost his life in the 1967 Monaca GP.

Senna described his emotions by saying that it was an honour for him to receive such a distinguished award.

He also expressed optimism about his future by saying...

“I've seen some of the names who have won this in the past and what they have gone on to achieve in their careers, so let's hope this is just the start of greater things for me too.

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De Villota crash was not because of the car - Marussia

Team Marussia F1 have finished their investigations and have concluded that Maria De Villota's crash was not due to any technical problem with the car but rather suggesting an unfortunate driver error. The 32 years female F1 driver as a result of the crash lost the use of her right eye and is still being treated for her injuries in the hospital.


Here's the full statement from Marussia F1...

"We are satisfied that the findings of our internal investigation exclude the car as a factor in the accident, we have now concluded our investigatory work and can again focus on the priority, which continues to be María’s wellbeing. In that regard, we continue to support María and the de Villota family in any way we can.”

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Sebastian Vettel wants to win the German GP

Sebastian Vettel has the German GP win in his mind as he heads to Hockenheim, Germany for the next F1 race. A two times world champion, Vettel, has never won at this circuit and will be very eager to visit the top spot on the podium. His best finish to date has been second which was back in the 2009 season, when Mark Webber (his teammate) won the race.

Here's what Vettel has to say about the weekend...

"I’m looking forward to the German Grand Prix, hopefully there will be at least as many people supporting the German drivers as there were in Silverstone last weekend. Hockenheim is only half an hour away from my home town, so I have a lot of friends and family there and it’s always a special crowd to race in front of.  I haven’t won the German GP before and of course, I would like to!"

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Formula Renault driver fixes steering wheel. While driving!

It's all about quick decisions and having a calm approach when it comes to the mindset of a race car driver, but this racer takes it to the next level.

During a Formula Renault 2.0 race, Jeroen Slaghekke was faced with a situation where his steering wasn't working properly. Usually, drivers would head over to the pits to let the pit-crew fix the problem.

But he would rather fix the steering wheel himself than to head over to the pits and lose valuable positions on track.

Now that's a racer!

Watch the video below...

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New Contract For Schumacher?

Ross Brawn has dropped a huge hint regarding the future of the 7 times World Champion Michael Schumacher and his contract with Mercedes team...

Ross Brawn when asked about Schumacher's future with the team said that Schumi is enjoying himself in the team and racing beyond 2012 would be a 'logical and sensible' conclusion.

Schumacher's contract ends at the end of this season (2012) and so far Mercedes haven't signed him up for further racing.

But Ross Brawn's recent comments seem to indicate that Schumacher might stay on and continue his racing career with the team.

Here's what Ross had to say...

"We are focused on Michael for as long as it takes and whatever it takes," Then we will see where we are elsewhere. We haven't discussed (about the contract) but he enjoys himself and if he enjoys himself, why not?

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London F1 GP is 'no joke' : Ecclestone

Bernie is admanant that plans for the proposed London GP track are 'no joke' and things are going ahead as planned...

About a month ago, reports in the media started to surface related to a new GP track, right in the heart of London city. F1 cars racing through historic landmarks like the Buckingham palace, and Trafalgar Square was just too much for F1 fans.

But this news has been shunned by many skeptics who are of the opinion that such a track is not 'realistic' and a bit of a 'sham'.

Ecclestone however believes the track will see the light of day and is serious about it.

"We are getting on with it. It is no joke, 100 percent completely no joke," he told The Guardian.

"With the way things are, maybe we would front it and put the money up for it," he said.

"If we got the okay and everything was fine, I think we could do that."

Only time will tell. Meanwhile, here's the proposed layout...

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Ferrari still tight-lipped over Massa's Future

Ferrari remain secretive as to the identity of the second seat for the 2013 season and beyond.

After Mark Webber's confirmation with Red Bull for the 2013 season, Massa would have hoped for a positive response from Ferrari regarding his own future at the team. But that is not the case as Ferrari remain tight-lipped and refuse to make any hasty decisions.

An anonymous source at Ferrari said that no decision has been made over the second seat as the team feels there is still a lot of time to think over the possible choices.

So it seems that Ferrari will leave this as late as possible, maybe even after the 2012 season to confirm the second seat.

According to rumors going around, several drivers are in contention including Massa, Rosberg, Sutil, and Di Resta.

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Prost not happy with his depiction in 'Senna' movie

When the movie 'Senna' was released last year, Prost was questioned about it and his reply was that he hasn't seen it yet but had a CD of it and would watch at a later time.

It seems that the Frenchman Alain Prost has finally watched the movie. His reactions are not very positive about the movie's depiction of his role in particular.

Talking to journalists at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Prost expressed his displeasure at how he was shown as the 'bad guy' of the movie. Here's what he had to say...

Asked if he was happy with his depiction in the film, Prost said: “Absolutely not. No I don’t agree at all.

“I’m really, I would say, upset, in a way. I tell you why in 30 seconds. Because I spent a lot of time shooting for this. I spent many, many hours trying to explain things.

“We had one Ayrton Senna before Formula One, we had the Senna when we were fighting in Formula One and we had the Ayrton Senna when I retired

“And then comes back the human side of the story with two personalities and people would understand much more what happened when we were fighting, why he was fighting like this, and would have understood much more the last three or four months where he was calling me almost once or twice per week asking me questions, asking me to go back to the GPDA, asking questions about Williams, about safety, about personal life – very big secrets that I will never tell anoybody.

“It would have been good to have that, it was all in the rush that I have done. And at the end they wanted to do a commercial thing going to the good and the bad. I don’t care too much about being the bad boy.

“But what I care is look at that. We are here in Goodwood, we have a lot of fans, it’s history of motor racing. I would have loved to have this end of the story.

“At the end of the day all of what you can see is the human side. Otherwise you have no history, you have no tradition and that is really a big shame.”

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Belgian GP is secured until 2015

Good news F1 fans! The famous Spa-Francorchamps track in Belgium is now secured and will feature in the Formula 1 calendar until the 2015 season.

The Belgian GP is widely regarded among fans as one of the best racing circuits in the world, and it's existence in the F1 calendar was looking doubful in the past few years. So this confirmation will only come as a pleasant surprise to everyone in the F1 community.

The circuit officials had the following announcement to make...

"We were able to negotiate a contract extension for the years 2013, 2014 and 2015 seasons and there will definitely be a race at Spa-Francorchamps."

Eau-rouge, here we come!

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F1 2012 British GP - Post Race Championship Situation

After yet another exciting race, we have Alonso maintaining his lead of the drivers championship, albeit by a smaller margin.

Mark Webber's brilliant race victory at Silverstone has put him closer to the double world champion in the standings and the fight to the world title is on with Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, and Kimi Raikkonen all close behind waiting for their oppurtunity to strike.

This season has shown us that consistency will win it in the end and Alonso is doing exactly that. He lost the battle in Silverstone to ensure that he can win the war.

Next up, we have Hockenheim, and as always, it's going to be epic!

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Fernando Alonso takes pole in a full wet qualifying session

The two times world champion Fernando Alonso has taken pole position in the last moments of what turned out to be an extended yet exciting qualifying session. With over one hour of the session under red flag due to heavy rain, the qualifying session turned out it's surprises with Alonso taking pole, followed by Webber and the seven times world champion, Michael Schumacher.

Top 10 for tommorow's British GP 2012

‎1 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:51.746
2 Mark Webber Red Bull 1:51.793 0.047
3 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:52.020 0.274
4 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:52.199 0.453
5 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:53.065 1.319
6 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 1:53.290 1.544
7 Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:53.539 1.793
8 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1:53.543 1.797
9 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:54.382 2.636

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Schumacher hopes to makes the best of the British weather

Michael Schumacher, widely known as one of the best racers in the business when it comes to wet weather situations, is banking on his experience to produce a strong result in Silverstone this weekend.

In the Friday practice sessions, he was finished the 3rd quickest in what was a very wet track.

Fellow F1 drivers have termed the Friday sessions as a waste but Schumacher remains optimistic and said that it wasn't all wasted.

Michael Schumacher is hoping to make the most of the British summer rain after finishing third quickest in Friday's very wet second practice.

Here's what he had to say...

"There are still things to be learned on days like these and the positive about today's rain was that it is also forecast for tomorrow and Sunday," Schumacher said.

"This meant that we were able to use today to prepare for the race, primarily on the wet tyres. We also tried the intermediates briefly but they were no faster in these conditions.

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Maria De Villota's family says thanks to her fans

Maria de Villota's family have offered their thanks to the F1 fan community for their well wishes, support and the respect everyone gave her after the terrible crash during Marussia F1 testing in UK.

The 32 year old driver, crashed her car straight into a parked lorry and freak circumstances resulted in her losing her right eye. The impact was severe enough for her to be transported straight to the hospital where she remains in care. 

The details of the crash are yet to be known but the FIA and concerned parties have assured that a full investigation will be made. 

Maria's family issued a short statement...

“We, the family, are supporting each other here at María’s side and we take great comfort from the remarkable medical care she has been receiving. We remain positive and this is due, in no small part, to the overwhelming expression of love and support for María from every corner of the world.

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Fernando Alonso: Silverstone will better suit to Ferrari's characteristics

After the epic win at Valencia, Fernando Alonso is all charged up and ready to face the Silverstone circuit. And this weekend, he is expecting his Ferrari will be even better suited to the track. In Valencia, his car was struggling, as we saw in qualifying but Alonso still managed to drive superbly and win the race.

Currently leading the championship by a healthy 20 point margin from Red Bull driver Mark Webber, Alonso feels his car will perform better at Silverstone.

"Silverstone should be a little bit better for us, suit our car better," Alonso said in Thursday's press conference. "In the high speed corners our car is performing quite well, so hopefully me and Felipe (Massa) will do good this weekend.

"The weather is also very important here, anything can happen. The forecast is for lots of rain, so we need to be prepared for all. We will try to have a smooth qualifying, be in the right time on the right lap. Hopefully the car performs well in the race."

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Maria De Villota loses the use of her right eye

After the bizarre crash on Tuesday, the hospital staff have confirmed the news that Maria De Villota has the lose the use of her right eye. The Marussia F1 driver was rushed to the hospital after her car was involved in a collision with a loading tray of a lorry.

Details are still very sketchy, but it is being reported that her head received the bulk of impact.

The whole F1 fraternity has been affected by the news of her crash and we would also like to wish her a speedy recover.

Here's the official statement...

“Maria emerged from theatre at Addenbrooke’s Hospital this morning after a lengthy operation to address the serious head and facial injuries she received in the accident at Duxford Airfield yesterday,” Team Principal John Booth says in a statement.

“We are grateful for the medical attention that Maria has been receiving and her family would like to thank the Neurological and Plastics surgical teams. However it is with great sadness that I must report that, due to the injuries she sustained, Maria has lost her right eye.

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"Michael Schumacher a different driver" - Riccardo Patrese

Ricardo Patrese (Former Williams driver) thinks that Shumacher is no longer the driver he was in his Ferrari years.

Michael Schumacher - Mercedes GP

Ever since his comeback to Formula in 2010, Michael Schumacher has generally struggled reaching back to the top place. Many experts believe that one of the main reasons for Schumacher's lack of performance is the tough compeition he has had to face with the likes of Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso and Button fighting it out.

However, Ricardo Patrese has something slightly different to say...

"Michael raced against drivers like Senna, Mansell and myself and proved immediately that he could be competitive and better," the Former Italian F1 driver said.

"Now we have drivers like Hamilton and Vettel who look very good but I don't think they are better than Senna, Mansell or the drivers that were around when Michael started in F1, so I think Michael is a little below the level of performance compared to his very best."

"Michael proved himself against the best when he started in Formula One so if he can't match the best today perhaps it is because he does not have the best car, but in the past without the right car he was able to make the difference; now he can't make the difference. If he had the best car now he could still win races, but in the past, even without the best car, he could win."

"Today he is a good driver but he cannot make the same difference as he could in the past from what I have seen at the beginning of this year and last year. You know how much I respect Michael and his talent but from what I have seen this is not the same Michael as before his retirement. I have my doubts about whether this is because of the tyres or the new regulations. Maybe his motorcycle and neck injury has had an effect in some small way. The difference can be very, very small but there seems to be a difference."

Kiki The Cat's Opinion

Schumacher will be fine. Someday. He needs a few more years to settle in. Like 10 more. By the time he'll be 50, we can expect him to challenge Vetel!"

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Alonso: "We still have work to do"

Fernando Alonso thinks there is a lot of work to be done for Ferrari before the season opener in Australia. 

During the pre-season testing so far, Ferrari has had a tough time and both drivers have struggled to find reasonable pace. It's seems Ferrari's start to the 2012 campaign might have problems.

However, Alonso is optimistic about the car and the chances for the 2012 F1 season.

Fernando Alonso - Ferrari

Here's what he had to say...

"We are continuing with development of the new car," the Spaniard is quoted as saying by the official Ferrari website.

"Maybe we are only taking small steps forward, but they are coming constantly: in Barcelona, the F2012 was better than it had been in Jerez and it will be better still this week and even more so in Melbourne.

"There is still a lot of work to do, but as of today, there is no reason why we should not be ready for the first race.

Kiki The Cat's Opinion

"Poor alonso muhaha. He can cry all he wants. Ferrari can never be the same. Schumacher was the best!"

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