The British Formula One Grand Prix qualifying was superb with my old team Williams taking seventh place on the start grid by Argentine driver Pastor Maldonado.

He finished 14th during an action-packed Grand Prix with a few errors made by the more experienced drivers like Michael Schumacher who was involved in another shunt, to the well trained pit crew of McLaren who failed to secure the right front wheel of Jenson Button’s car after a pit stop. His race was over at that moment.

At the top of the grid was Australian Mark Webber who, in the end, finished third with some controversy over team orders to ‘maintain the gap’ to his team mate so they didn’t collide one lap to the end of the race.

And at the bottom of the pack was Australian F1 debutant Daniel Ricciardo of Western Australia, driving his first ever Formula One Grand Prix. He finished 19th out of 24 cars in the HRTF1 and gained valuable experience for his F1 future.

Ferrari played their cards close to their chest and won the Grand Prix with Fernando Alonso with his team mate, Felipe Massa, battling it out with McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton for fifth on the last corner before the chequered flag.

There will be ongoing media coverage of the team orders from Red Bull to Webber with 1,6oo Facebook fans vetting their feelings online as the drivers walked up to the podium for their trophies. Some colourful words were written, majority not happy with the Red Bull management – fewer in defence of the outcome.

Nurburgring is next on 24 July, a place you should visit to drive a lap or two of the old circuit, 22.5kms of it, known as the Green Hell. From Wikipedia: “The original Nurburgring was meant to be a showcase for German automotive engineering and racing talent, and was built with both purposes in mind. Construction of the track, designed by the Eichler Architekturburo from Ravensburg (led by Architect Gustav Eichler), began in September 1925. A Nurburgring circuit map photo taken at German Grand Prix 1964; the legend advises “No driving in the Eifel (mountains) without a lap on the Nurburgring”.

Enjoy your week, try not to miss a social outing for you and the family when the Senna movie screenings open in July and August, check it out.

After leaving Montreal Canada the Formula One season returned to Europe in Valencia Spain.

The circuit has been designed around a docklands type area where yachts can berth parallel to the racing track and the apartment suites overlook the best part of the straight making great party atmosphere venues for this unique race.

The Red Bull team continue to dominate with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber qualifying on the front row of the racing grid for Sunday’s race just gone. A good start was had by all, with all 24 cars to finish a race. The young German taking the win with Mark Webber gambling on the use of the medium tyre losing second place to Ferrari rival Fernando Alonso on his last pit stop.

Mark was in third behind Alonso on his new medium tyres as Alonso stayed out longer on used soft tyres. Webber’s gearbox started playing up and Mark was short-shifting to keep the revs and pace up as his team informed him to stay safe, not push any harder, and try to finish the race. He held on to finish third.

Mercedes were perplexed with Nico Rosberg finishing seventh and his team mate, seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher, one lap down, ended his race in 17th place.

Sebastian Vettel leads the world championship on 186 points, with Mark Webber and Jenson Button second with 109 points each.

The constructor’s championship is led by Red Bull Renault, then McLaren Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault, Mercedes, Sauber-Ferrari, Toro Rosso-Ferrari, Force India-Mercedes and Williams-Cosworth.

Latest news on my old team Williams is that they may re-enter a new agreement and change to Renault engine power for 2013, perhaps 2012.

Mugello hosts the next round of MotoGP on July 3 where Casey Stoner will look to increase his championship lead, also welcome his injured team mate Dani Pedrosa back after collar bone surgery.

No doubt Valentino Rossi who lives nearby, will be looking to improve his season ride on Ducati and perhaps go for a win.

Keep an eye on it at One.

Anything you need on F1 or MotoGP contact me at my website www.alanjones.com.au.

Enjoy the rest of your week and the weekend coming up.

Well the Formula One season has encountered one of its most historic events in Canada a fortnight ago with the race taking 4 hours to complete instead of the regulated 2 hours. The delays came from wet weather, plenty of accidents and errors by some top name drivers – one in particular, Lewis Hamilton who watched the second half of his race with Rihanna and some NFL legends at McLaren VIP team hospitality.

Jenson Button was given a drive through pit lane penalty for speeding in pit lane; pitted four times for new tyres; then from the back of the grid – chased leader at the time Sebastian Vettel down, to force an error two corners to the chequered flag and won the race.

As the rain bucketed down, spectators left after 30 mins hoping, in torrential rain, for a quick re-start that took longer than expected and for those who stayed it was another hour and three quarters before wheels turned again in race mode and they would witness one of the historic races ever seen.

The circuit brings back great memories for me as I won the 1980 world championship there with a great crowd in the stands and the party atmosphere outside never stops.

In 2012 we are taking a tour there as the following week, USA’s Austin Texas will host their first ever Formula One Grand Prix. So it’s an F1 FEST ‘back-to-back’ for two weeks and includes Canada and North America. More info contact me at www.alanjones.com.au or via www.thatsgold.net.

This weekend we are in Valencia, Spain with some ECU engine mapping changes made by the governing body FIA to ’spice-up the show’ as well as a new medium tyre introduced by Pirelli.

Valencia is a good looking venue though a relatively safe track for everyone so if you get a good run on the others the chances of winning are good, of course mistake-free is the key ingredient.

Casey Stoner continues to dominate MotoGP in Assen. Three races back we saw Dani Pedrosa on the Repsol Honda break his other collarbone and Cal Crutchlow two weeks ago at Silverstone break his collarbone in five places to put his bike into 6th place for the Saturday race, a fanatical event on the MotoGP calendar for the Dutch fans.

Valentino Rossi ordered the 2012 chassis for Assen to try and grab back some points to recover in a season that may since 1996 be his worse one ever now riding the Italian Ducati. Rossi is the guy to count on who from any position always moves forward, the team of course hope he does it with points faster and faster before they get to the backend of their racing season together. Stoner won a world title on the Ducati so we are all sure at the moment the king on a Ducati is Stoner, who now races a Honda and again looks good for another world title.

The last two races in Formula One and one in MotoGP have revealed some new trends with both categories in 2011.

Pit stops have ramped up in Formula One with the speed to change a set of four wheels with tyres and their pressures preset is now 3.4 seconds. Let that be known to your tyre mart next time you visit for some new boots.

The guys in MotoGP are now using airbags inside their race leathers during their Grand Prix weekends to help keep them in one piece when they fall at speed, most on average doing 200 kmh plus when the fall happens on track. As we are taught at a younger age how to fall in sport, these guys practice the art of falling off a bike “in a gym” countless times to keep their bodies in one piece not ending in tears.

Mark Webber may have had a Chinese feng shui charm with him during the China Grand Prix where he started in 18th position to finish on the podium in 3rd place. Incredible result considering the place he started on the grid. In Turkey Webber returned with a second place, and now after 4 rounds, he has finished 5th, 4th, 3rd and 2nd so let’s hope next race in Spain he takes a win just like 2010.

Turkey was a race of pit stops and position changes all because of the new DRS and KERS fitted to the race cars. The DRS allows you to limit drag on a straight. The KERS will give you 80 BHP of extra power to pass another car. All from the driver’s cockpit, so these days the F1 driver is an engineer-type racer with so much available to them during a race to help improve their car and their overall result.

Last week the French Grand Prix saw Casey Stoner win and Dani Pedrosa break the other collar bone.

This week we are in Spain for the Formula One where Mark Webber will be looking for a win to improve his season before the glam event in Monaco the following weekend.

Before this weekend just gone we saw Casey Stoner taken out in a racing incident by Valentino Rossi during the Jerez MotoGP. When 8 track marshalls jumped the fence to help, they all went to Valentino Rossi, lifted his bike up, helped him onto the bike and push-started him who incidentally went on to score points. Poor Casey Stoner stood there screaming inside his race helmet for some help too. They did finally help Casey who did not score points and was fuming for good reason.

When Casey was met in his own pit garage by Valentino, Casey was dressed back into casual team wear, Rossi still in race leathers with helmet on, came to apologise. Casey Stoner’s comment to Valentino Rossi on the race incident was “ambition outweighed talent”, tapped Rossi’s sore shoulder and said it one more time. Needless to say the marshalls were spoken to later about not doing that again please!

Yesterday we raced in Malaysia at the Sepang Circuit with a great raceday crowd over 100,000. Just before the cars took to their grid positions there was a call on the radio from Mark Webber to his Race engineer about his KERS. This is a power boost the driver can use when he wants to burst past another driver in the race with another 80BHP.

Well Mark’s KERS was not working and never did so all race. Everyone else was okay so Mark pushed like no other to go from 3rd on the starting grid, to 9th, to 15th with a total of 4 pit stops again, just like Melbourne. There was massive determination in the cockpit, calm engineering from the team pit wall to see Webber finish 4th almost taking 3rd if there was a few laps to go, not so UNFORTUNATELY.

Top effort from Mark Webber, lots of tyre wear with marble-like rubber balls on the edges of the racing track that look like rubber hail all over the place. When these hot race tyres pass over them your race tyre feels like you’re on the gravel. Most drivers managed to keep off the marbles, and whilst there was not a lot of overtaking each other early in the race, late towards the end it happened and the F1 show ramped up.

Next weekend we are in Shanghai China so let’s see how things go there on another fast track then Turkey, Spain and Monte Carlo late May (if you like the 120 footer 3 levels of yacht for race viewing check out That’s Gold)

The Australian Formula One Grand Prix has come and gone with Mark Webber perplexed on why he was so far behind his team mate Vettel, why he had worse tyre wear stopping three times for tyres versus his team mate in two stops, and his team mate won the race.

The front wing on Vettel’s car flexed more than Mark’s during the race, perhaps giving his team mate more downforce, more grip, less tyre wear with a quicker race car.

We had our Lexus events go well, the AGP media machine was working flat out for me to be in position for plenty of interviews and keynote gigs. Sir Jack was a real trooper in attending public autograph appearances, interviews, a race day parade lap and some socializing in the mix of things.

On a technical note, the Swiss based Sauber team were disqualified after the race, when the FIA found their top rear wing plate was 2 mm wider than it should be, so they lost points and prize money.

After we saw the Lowndes and Button car-swap on the mountain at Bathurst last week, this was not the case in Melbourne where Button was battling the guys ahead after a drive through penalty with his team mate taking second place ahead of Russia’s Vitaly Petrov who only joined F1 twelve months ago.

This weekend we race in Jerez Spain for MotoGP where Casey Stoner will attempt to take a win again versus his team mate on home soil who is carrying an injury and will most definitely look to stop Stoner taking line honours.

The Grand Prix of Monte Carlo in May has a new boat entering the harbour known to many as Happy Hour. If you want to be there and watch F1 in the harbour let me know at The Motorsport Shop, the details are all there for you from 25-29 May 2011.

This week has been a tough one for the Lotus Renault F1 team as their number one driver was involved a in a major crash with his Skoda Rally car in Italy on the weekend just gone. Robert Kubica had the Armco go through the engine into the cabin pass him all the way to the exit point of the rear hatch door. Visualize that!

It wasn’t good, with Robert suffering leg, arm and right hand lacerations. Fortunately his hand was saved, but not so the start to his 2011 season next month in Bahrain. At this stage Robert will miss at least three rounds of the 2011 season, maybe more. Drivers love to push hard and that’s part of their makeup.

Formula One teams are launching almost every day with Mark Webber confident of a title chase again to the chequered flag and victory. He is confident the car is already an improvement on 2010 so let’s hope he has their number from the getgo.

My old team Williams Engineering will float on the Frankfurt stock exchange next month, share price expected to be 27-29 euros a share, looking to land both owners Frank Williams and Patrick Head a combined return on their share sales of 70 million euros. Both men are dedicated to the future of Williams and their contribution to improved engineering for the passenger car and commercial vehicle markets worldwide.

Next Thursday I will launch the ‘BIG HELMET’ at City Centre Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, a roadshow to the schools before arriving Albert Park on March 24.

I’m off to Clipsal in Adelaide next month to do some event PR and drive our new Supercar for display. Take a look at www.alanjones.com.au

MotoGP riders had their first test in Malaysia this month before returning in two weeks to do it all again.  Casey Stoner was fast, ahead of rival Valentino Rossi on his Ducati, with Stoner already the favourite of the fans for the 2011 title.

The V8 Supercars take to the Abu Dhabi track this weekend and return home without competing in Bahrain to maintain impact on that market. Latest news is the sale of SEL, Gold Coast resident Tony Cochrane being co-founder, the 25% share has interest from local and overseas sports events buyers and operators.

Next blog we’ll update you on the driver taking Robert Kubica’s place and how the F1 and MotoGP season is looking especially as we head to India later this year for F1.

With the floods we have seen in Queensland and now NSW and Victoria; it is hard to get too excited about much as our mates are doing it tough across Australia.

In brief, as we help them along, a few events are worth a mention: There is a young man in NSW who will shave his head on Monday after enjoying long locks of curly hair as his signature mark for 10 years. The locks are going to an American charity that remakes new wigs for young cancer patients who have lost their hair (the reply from Australia apparently was “sell you hair and send the donation through”, hence why they are heading to the USA). When the full donation is calculated the cheque will be scanned and placed on his website and Facebook page as proof, with donations coming in so far from Hong Kong (an ex-pat Aussie from Brisbane) the USA as well as Australia. Go to www.rhyeeswedes.com

Now we have a real special experience on offer by the Australian Grand Prix Corporation where they are auctioning a ride in the F1 2-seater on the circuit at Albert Park during the Grand Prix in March. This is a real F1 car and the speed, g-forces, tight fitting cockpit are cool experiences on their own let alone. The winner will also enjoy a lot of attention and some grandstand tickets included. Click here to browse and bid.

A great cause and we urge you to bid as our mates will need a lot of help in re-building their homes and their lives.

With motorsport the new Ducati GP11 has just completed 386 laps in Jerez Spain with good reports back to the new owners of the race bikes, Rossi and Hayden.

Mark Webber is ready for the season to start as he feels the title he missed in 2010 is still there to take back in 2011.

There are loads of the new changes I’ll let you know about over the coming weeks as all new F1 cars and MotoGP teams launch this month and next.

India will host a race in F1 this year. Australia has been told by MotoGP bosses to move their date from October in 2011 to April in 2012 or face the chance of losing the event. More on that as the season moves forward.

Pirelli is the tyre manufacturer this season in F1 and they have just completed the first ever night wet weather test in Abu Dhabi. They run recycled water tankers around the track dropping water for the test driver to run simulated laps over a variance of speed using full wet tyres and then intermediate tyres where there is some water and some dry patches. With track temps around 40 degrees C you could imagine the action on track a race driver experiences.

I will keep you updated again in 2011 on Formula 1 and MotoGP.

Thirty years ago I was successful in winning Montreal and taking the Formula 1 World Championship racing for Williams F1 Engineering. Last fortnight’s build up was very busy with media interviews right up to the eve of Abu Dhabi to see if Mark Webber could take the F1 championship with three others also in contention.

I saw Mark qualify in 5th place, not the ideal grid position but good enough to challenge the win only to pit once for a mandatory tyre change inside 55 laps of the Yas Marina Circuit.

Our build up to race start was great with a special on Mark’s season from OneHD then live grid reporting from Rusty and James giving us what the UK see every Grand Prix from Martin Brundle.

The race start was okay, and the accident with Schumacher and Luizzi could have ended a lot worse, hence a safety car. This was the turning point in car position as some drivers pitted for new tyres on the mandatory stop. A few stayed out on track and when all was back racing Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso were down in the teens instead of closer to the leading group. Once other cars came to pit, Mark himself, moved up the order but not enough to challenge Alonso in front of him nor Hamilton or Vettel. All three drivers that were ahead of Mark also wanted the title, for the first time this season, the Renault F1 and Mercedes team held the Ferrari of Alonso and Massa back. Mark’s race was showing stability though he did not progress to the leading group at any stage in the remaining laps to the chequered flag.

Sebastian Vettel drove a perfect race from pole position to victory, ending the season with 10 pole positions and a world championship and the double for Red Bull Racing.

It will be a tough few days as the PR machine starts for Red Bull at home in Austria then a well earned break before pre season testing in January, 2011 back in Europe.

Australian fans of F1 and Motorsport are proud of Mark Webber’s achievements this season, we look forward to his new car and the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix next March.
If you are going to the Grand Prix email us at patrick@gpshop.net and join the festivities planned, loads of freebies on offer, all will be revealed on email.

Brazil was a race to the end and now it’s the end of the season where the race to a world championship is up for grabs with four drivers in the hunt. After Korea Mark Webber had to maximise the Brazil points opportunity, and second was good but this weekend it’s a victory being the need over expectation. If Ferrari’s Alonso does not make the podium steps in Abu Dhabi, Webber may find himself in the box seat, let’s hope so.

There is pressure on everyone, and this starts with the driver, his engineer, crew chief, crew and the PR Media management right down to the crew chef who is witness first hand to the mood in the team motor home or team track hospitality at the ‘fly-away’ rounds like Abu Dhabi. Long hours have already started the strategies on whiteboard to handheld palm pilots, changed, tested in the factory, refined and set to react to any combination of change to weather, grid position, mechanical advantages like engine mileage on race engines, tyre compounds, pit stops, fuel loads to name just a few.

The PR obligations are still a priority in order to allow the drivers some ‘me-time’. Abu Dhabi F1 is a grand prix finale, attended by thousands of corporate guests, international fans and local UAE dignitaries. Ferrari World opens to the public, hotels show off their best in cuisine, beach culture and shopping let alone the awesome construction architecture on show in Abu Dhabi.

Red Bull F1 owner does not believe in team orders, so both drivers, in the hunt for a championship title are to survive on track in the fittest way, perhaps one may help the other if there is a need to do so because the team itself face losing the driver’s title to Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari. The most dominant team all season have Ferrari and McLaren to deal with for the driver’s title after taking the Constructor’s title last Sunday in Brazil.

Williams with 69 points will do their best to beat Force India on 68 points for sixth place in the constructor’s  championship.
The season so far:
01 RBR-Renault 469
02 McLaren-Mercedes 421
03 Ferrari 389
04 Mercedes GP 202
05 Renault 145
06 Williams-Cosworth 69
07 Force India-Mercedes 68
08 BMW Sauber-Ferrari 44
09 STR-Ferrari 11
10 Lotus-Cosworth 0

Tune in on Sunday to cheer on Mark Webber for the Formula One World Championship Title for 2011…