Formula One has descended upon the hustle and bustle of Monaco, bringing sport to meet the wealthy and glamourous in the principality. It's a glorious location when the sun is shining, providing endless photographic opportunities, and it's not a bad place to showcase the pinnacle of motorsport.

Owners of Formula One, CVC, are expected to float the sport on the Singapore stock exchange next month, and they have already managed to sell some of their stake to three investment groups. The valuation looks to be set at $7.8 billion dollars - a price tag that any number of the rich businessman floating into the Monaco harbour this weekend could afford.

Despite the sunshine so far this week, clouds look set to darken the skies over Monte Carlo as the weekend draws closer. Storms are expected on Thursday and Friday, with showers predicted for race day.

This is an original article published by F1BigPicture.com

© Copyright 2009-2012 • Christine Blachford • All Rights Reserved

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For the majority of the second practice session in Barcelona, Lotus were running heavy fuel loads and looking relatively slow. Thankfully, their pace picked up towards the end of the ninety minutes and they finished 5th and 6th.

Kimi Räikkönen was ahead of his teammate by just five thousandths of a second, and Romain Grosjean is content with how his day turned out. "The weather is fantastic, the car feels great and the lap times were promising; I'm a happy man. I'm happy with the performance of the car even when the tyres are nearer the end of their performance life which is a good sign for this weekend. It's very close of course, so qualifying will be interesting. I can't wait for tomorrow to come."

Many have predicted Kimi for a win this weekend, as the Finn has gone well at Barcelona before. He's not thinking too far ahead though, saying: "Our car is better now than the winter, and it feels that this Friday was a bit more easier than the others, so we are maybe ahead than where we were at other races. In Bahrain we didn't have so easy a Friday, so we will see tomorrow."

This is an original article published by F1BigPicture.com

© Copyright 2009-2012 • Christine Blachford • All Rights Reserved

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Friday in Barcelona was a practice day filled with third drivers getting a chance behind the wheel. In the first session, four test drivers found themselves completing laps for their respective teams.

Valtteri Bottas has driven the Williams several times before, and finished the session fifth fastest. He was glad to be getting the opportunity at Barcelona, saying: "This was the first track of the season that I already know so it was nice for me to be able to focus purely on the driving from the start."

Jules Bianchi was in the Force India, and he managed to end the session 18th out of 24 runners. The French driver was all about the task in hand: "The session went well, I managed 21 laps on the hard compound tyre and the programme has given us a lot of data to analyse before qualifying."

Alexander Rossi was the headline name of the day, making his debut in the Caterham car and winding up 21st. The American took Kovalainen's seat for the session and felt the pressure immediately: "Today wasn't about setting the quickest lap I could - there may have been another seven or eight tenths to be found but the main thing today was to learn as much as I could, contribute by following the plan, give the engineers clear, concise feedback, and not make any mistakes."

Finally, Dani Clos was participating in the session for HRT, finishing the morning 24th and last. It wasn't a perfect experience, says Clos, but he made the most of it: "I'm happy to have got into the car for the first time today, albeit for a short first encounter. The feeling I had when I left the pits and saw the Spanish crowd, whilst driving for a Spanish team alongside Pedro, was unbelievable. It was my first time in the new car and I wasn't 100% comfortable since the car is built for Narain, so I had to adapt."

This is an original article published by F1BigPicture.com

© Copyright 2009-2012 • Christine Blachford • All Rights Reserved

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Earlier this week, Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher criticised the Pirelli tyres of 2012, suggesting they play too big a part in the racing action. Disappointed with how much they take away from a driver's ability to show his skill, Schumacher described the tyres as "raw eggs."

"I just think that they're playing a much too big effect because they are so peaky and so special that they don't put our cars or ourselves to the limit. We drive like on raw eggs and I don't want to stress the tyres at all. Otherwise you just overdo it and you go nowhere."

After practice today in Spain, teammate Nico Rosberg has also admitted frustration with the tyres, but specifically for Mercedes, rather than the sport as a whole.

"It was very different to winter testing and a lot tougher on the tyres. It has been a very challenging day first of all to see how to get the car right for qualifying and especially how to get it right for the race."

Despite the negative headlines for Pirelli over the last week or so, they remain confident in the product they've provided. Motorsport boss Paul Hembery said:

"At the end of last season the number of people who came to see us and say they were unhappy was zero. And the number of people who have come to see us this season is one. So you have to be reasonably pragmatic."

This is an original article published by F1BigPicture.com

© Copyright 2009-2012 • Christine Blachford • All Rights Reserved

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Bright blue skies highlighted the lush green grass as the final day of testing in Mugello was completed. After a washed out first day, the weather gradually brightened so that by the end of the three days, it was time to get the sunglasses out.

Most of the drivers enjoyed their time at the circuit, but for Caterham driver Vitaly Petrov, it was not a relished experience. After his stint in the car, he said: "I don't think we should have come here. It's not safe and wide enough... It is not for Formula 1 and, if you lost the steering or the tyre pressure dropped or whatever, then it will be a big crash."

However, his teammate Heikki Kovalainen was perfectly satisfied with his time at the Mugello circuit, although hinted at how mundane testing can be: "I enjoyed myself out there today - even though a lot of what we were doing was pretty repetitive, it's still a good place to drive an F1 car around and having got through everything we'd planned it's good to leave this test on a positive note."

The two teammates disagree, but it looks as though the rest of the paddock are on Heikki's side. Both Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber praised the track saying that single laps around Mugello were worth hundreds more than at other circuits.

This is an original article published by F1BigPicture.com

© Copyright 2009-2012 • Christine Blachford • All Rights Reserved

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The second day of testing in Mugello was dry and allowed teams to catch up their programmes from the washed out first day. Romain Grosjean was leading the way towards the end of the afternoon, and he finished the times on top. However, that was not before Kamui Kobayashi sped into second, matching both the Lotus driver's time and top speed.

Despite being joined at the top, Grosjean was very content with his day's work and afterwards said it had been a useful session.

"This test gives us an opportunity to try things that we wouldn’t have time to do during a race weekend, so hopefully it’ll help us to keep pushing forward. We’ve done a lot of setup work today, and for sure we’ll need to take some time to look through all the data and analyse what we need to focus on tomorrow, but it’s a good baseline for the final day."

Meanwhile, Sauber explained their afternoon's running without acknowledging the fact their top time was a joint effort.

"At 4pm Kamui had an off in turn 12 which cost about an hour of track time. After this he joined the session again for some runs on the harder tyre compound and, finally, on a set of new soft tyres with which he set the best lap time of the day."

Tomorrow, Sergio Pérez takes over duties for Sauber, whilst Romain Grosjean will remain in the car for Lotus.

This is an original article published by F1BigPicture.com

© Copyright 2009-2012 • Christine Blachford • All Rights Reserved

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With rain making conditions very difficult at Mugello, it was not a good day to be a new test driver trying to impress your host team. Rodolfo Gonzalez was granted some time in the Caterham car, but could only complete 35 laps throughout the day. The team made the most of the time they did spend with Rodolfo, however, making changes to the brakes and ride heights, plus spending some time evaluating the wet tyres.

Gonzalez was grateful for his day in the hot seat, despite the poor conditions. Afterwards, he wished for more dry running but was glad that he didn't make any mistakes under the circumstances.

"After the morning session I was happy with my performance, particularly considering how stop / start the session was, and while the running was pretty much meaningless this afternoon it's still been another very valuable day for me. Every minute I'm with the F1 team helps me develop as a driver, so even though everyone at the test was affected by today's rain, for me this has still been another step in the right direction for my career."

Meanwhile, Sporting Director at Caterham Steve Nielsen is keeping a watchful eye on the young Venezuelan driver.

"He is developing as a driver and we can measure his progress over the last couple of years against the data we accumulated from his previous outings with us, at the Abu Dhabi young drivers' tests in 2010 and 2011, and in the way he conducts himself in and out of the car."

This is an original article published by F1BigPicture.com

© Copyright 2009-2012 • Christine Blachford • All Rights Reserved

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Timo Glock had a difficult day on track for Marussia, after the car spontaneously parted company with the front wing. Glock lost control of the car as the wing disappeared, and ended up crashing into the barriers. The team aren't sure if the wing fell off before Glock went off track or not, and are investigating the issue thoroughly.

Describing his day, the German driver said: "Unfortunately we have experienced a problem which points towards an operational issue. While this is disappointing, we can at least be sure that this was not a car issue of any kind. In fact, the package, including the new developments, seems quite promising and I was happy with the good balance. There is damage to the car, as you might expect from the impact, but it is mainly cosmetic and the chassis is fine."

He also described what could have potentially been a serious injury, as immediately after the crash he felt as though he had damaged his hands.

"In the first moment it felt like I had hurt it. I was so slow in the end, and I thought I would just touch the tyre barrier, so I kept my hands on the steering wheel... but it felt like I ran against a wall and not a tyre barrier. We pulled 8G, and I got a bit of a hit on my hand. But it is all okay now."

Glock previously missed three races at the end of the 2009 season, after being replaced by Kamui Kobayashi for what started out as a fever and subsequently became a cracked vertebrae. Thankfully, he will be fully fit to race this weekend with no significant damage to his hands.

This is an original article published by F1BigPicture.com

© Copyright 2009-2012 • Christine Blachford • All Rights Reserved

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Mark Webber has been very quiet in the build up to the Chinese Grand Prix, and he, like many others in the F1 paddock, has one eye on the upcoming Bahrain race instead. Webber has been one of the few to speak out about the decision whether to race in Bahrain or not, but the Australian driver admits that the grid have to put their trust into the governing body.

"We can only go on what the FIA are reading into the situation and we are putting an immense amount of trust in them in going to and from the track each day, competing at the track and having a normal grand prix weekend. There are some massive decisions to be made."

Despite having to place the option of whether to race or not into the hands of others, Webber has said he is trying to keep informed about the situation in Bahrain.

"I've tried to watch the news to get the most balanced view that I can possibly get without being too corrupted with other information... If I have a choice, then I want to race. That's what I want to do. But saying that, you cannot ignore the fact that in the back of your mind there are a lot of good people in our sport and all of them want it to go down smoothly."

This is an original article published by F1BigPicture.com

© Copyright 2009-2012 • Christine Blachford • All Rights Reserved

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Fernando Alonso held off stiff pressure from Sergio Pérez to take victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix. For the latter half of the race, the Sauber driver was closing the gap on the Ferrari, and it looked as though he was going to be overtaken. A set of pitstops gave Alonso a moment to breathe, but then the Sauber was back on his tail.

Pérez eventually made a mistake, losing about four seconds with not enough laps left to close the gap again. Alonso took the chequered flag, happy and relieved to have won, but not 100% confident the car is worthy of the result.

In the post-race press conference, the Spaniard said: "I think this changes nothing, to be honest. We are in a position we don't want to be, fighting to go into Q3, fighting to score points. Definitely in these first two races we have found ourselves off the pace. The goal was not to lose many points, I think we did the job trackside. This is the positive news about these first two races. But coming to China, Bahrain, there is stuff coming to improve the car, and this is the real job to do."

Two races in and a win already is not something to be sniffed at, but Alonso knows it was more the difficult conditions and a dash of luck that allowed him to be a winner in Sepang.

This is an original article published by F1BigPicture.com

© Copyright 2009-2012 • Christine Blachford • All Rights Reserved

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