Force India confirm Sutil and Di Resta

Force India have confirmed Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta as their race drivers for the 2011 Formula 1 season. Also they now have Nico Hulkenberg as their test and reserve driver. The news however means that Vitantonio Liuzzi leaves the team and is most likely without a drive for this year.

Hulkenberg gets to test the car a bit in the winter tests, but did not mention if he would get to test the car in the first free practice on Grand Prix weekends, like Di Resta did last year.

The future of Liuzzi is not clear with the only remaining seat available with HRT. It could well be negotiations are on between him and HRT.

F1 car names for 2011

A new season and new names for the cars. Although i'm confused between using chassis name or car names. The chassis name would usually have a -x suffixed.

Red Bull Racing cars are named RB7 . This is the 7th season for the team and the cars are aptly RB7, they surely would like to emulate the success of RB6. Similarly Toro Rosso cars are named STR6.

Ferrari's challenger will be called F150. The name is in dedication of the 150th anniversary of Italian Unification which ended in 1861

McLaren-Mercedes challenger would most likely be named McLaren MP4-26 following their usual naming convention and Mercedes would most likely name theirs MGP W02

Renault have named their car R31 which follows their naming convention from last year. Their car last year was called R30

Williams F1 cars would most likely be named FW-33 following their usual naming convention.

Sauber have named their cars Sauber C30.

Team Lotus cars are called T11, HRT cars are called F111 and Marussia Virgin Racing cars will be called MVR-02. Last year the Virgin Cars were called VR-01 but this year MVR-02 after Marussia purchased a controlling stake in the team.

HRT 2011 car to be ready by Bahrain Test

Many will remember that Hispania Racing had a troublesome start to the 2010 Formula 1 season. There were doubts as to whether the team will make it to the grid at Bahrain due to financial troubles of the team. Another new team in US F1 had already defaulted.

HRT did enter F1 at Bahrain (earlier the team was called Campos F1) after a management reshuffle and with the help of additional funding. The team started with a chassis built by Dallara. But as the season went on HRT were unhappy with their partnership with Dallara citing a poor chassis and lack of updates from them.

This year HRT will be building the car on their own. The car is designed and built under Geoff Willis as technical director and Paul White as the chief designer. Team principal Colin Kolles expects the car to be ready by the final test at Bahrain. This will mean that they will be using the older spec car at the european tests. But hopefully this time they do get to test the car before the first race at Bahrain.

Force India to announce driver line up today

On Wednesday26th Jan, Force India will be announcing their driver lineup. It is expected that Paul di Resta will move up the order and be racing in the 2011 season. His team mate will be Adrian Sutil who had earlier confirmed that he extended his contract with Force India.

Vitantonio Liuzzi's role is however the question mark. Force India is probably the last team (leaving out HRT who have a seat available) to announce their driver lineup. One would have expected an earlier announcement from the team. A good reason for the delay could be Liuzzi's existing contract with the team. Liuzzi is said to have a contract till the end of the year which probably included a race seat. The delay would have been due to the contract negotiations with Liuzzi to reach an amicable solution.

There was talk about Nico Hulkenberg taking over the reserve role, which would leave us guessing about Liuzzi's future. But all will be revealed in a few hours today

Michael Schumacher will not reach top form as per Alain Prost

Alain Prost feels that Michael Schumacher return to top form will be impossible simply due to his age. Discussing Schumacher return in an interview to the Swiss newspaper - Le Matin Dimanche, Prost said it will be impossible at Schumacher's age to return to the form he had when he left the sport.

Prost felt that his lack of pace was due to his age and not due the Bridgestone tyres. Michael Schumacher and Merdedes GP team principal Ross Brawn had said many times during the last season that the weak Bridgestone front tyres were the reason for Schumacher's lack of pace. Schumacher failed to beat his teammate Nico Rosberg on several occasions, but it did seem that he was slowly coming back to terms towards the end of the season

With this years change to Pirelli tyres, would we see a reversal of fortunes for Schumacher ? The wait is soon to be over with the first pre-season test only a week away

Fernando Alonso considers Michael Schumacher as one of his main 2011 rivals

While Michael Schumacher may not have had a good 2010 season, Fernando Alonso considers him one of his biggest rivals for the 2011 season. Speaking on the upcoming 2011 season at the annual Ferrari Wroom event, Alonso expects Schumacher to be one of the most dangerous rivals among the 5 world champions on the 2011 grid. "The most dangerous champion for me is always Michael", Alonso is said to be quoted.

Fans would remember the 2006 season where the Alonso and Schumacher were fighting an intense battle for the World championship. Schumacher's was leading the championship with two races to go before an engine blowup in Japan dashed his hopes for an eighth world title. The championship did go down to the wire in Brazil with Schumacher needing to win and Alonso finishing out side the points for any chance at the title. Schumacher fans would still remember the last race at Brazil where the former champions put in an exception drive finishing fifth.

Will 2011 boost Michael Schumacher's chances ?

The question for most Michael Schumacher fans and for himself would be how well he can adapt to the new tyres. The 2010 season had been lackluster for the former champion, Schumacher fared rather poorly when compared to Nico Rosberg. Often he failed to make it to the final session of qualifying while Rosberg comfortably qualified in the top ten. That meant that for most part of the season he had to fight with the midfield cars rather than at the front.

2011 chances slim for Senna and Chandhok

For the first two Hispania Racing Team drivers, chances of securing a 2011 race seat are now slim. Chandhok lost his drive mid way during the last season and with most of the race seats now occupied, he might be contemplating a reserve and test role. Senna might opt for the same too, with HRT team principal Collin Kolles ruling out Senna as in contention for the only available race seat at HRT.

HRT had earlier confirmed that Narain Karthikeyan would be racing for them in 2011. The announcement would also mean that either Sakon Yamamoto or Christian Klien need to look elsewhere. HRT are probably looking for experienced drivers this season, unlike like last year where they started with two rookie drivers.

With the 2011 grid now clearer, the only available race seats are one at HRT and one at Force India.

Narain Karthikeyan back in F1

Narian Karthikeyan will drive again in Formula 1 with the Hispania Racing Team. HRT team is yet officially announce his return. Karthikeyan however confirmed this news on his offical twitter page.

"Back in F1 in 2011. Signed a deal to race for HRT", Karthikeyan tweeted.

Karthikeyan also thanked the Tata Group in his twitter page. Tata was his main sponsor in 2005 when he raced for the Jordan Formula 1 team. Karthikeyan however failed to secure a race seat from 2006 onwards. Karthikeyan secured a fourth driver role for Williams F1 in 2006. He moved to the A1 GP India team in 2007 and with the closure of the A1 series, Karthikeyan moved to NASCAR in 2010.

The race drive with HRT will see the 33 year old back racing in Formula 1 after a gap of 6 years

F1 2011 Season - Who goes where

With the fast approaching start of the 2011 pre season testing, it time to again have a look at who goes where at 2011

1. Red Bull Racing : No surprises here, Sebastian Vettel has a contract till 2012 and Mark Webber has a contract till the end of this year. But it remains to be seen if Webber would continue beyond 2011. It probably depends on whether he wins the championship this year or beats Vettel in standings

F1 2011 Pre Season Preview

A brand new year and an exciting Formula 1 season in prospect. The 2010 season lived up to its hype with a cracker of a decider at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. 2010 also proved to be better in terms of spectator viewing and ticket sales. In fact even the pre season test sessions were packed with spectators, mainly Alonso's fans to see him in the red overalls for the first time.

F1 2011 Pre Season Test Schedule

The 2011 Formula 1 kicks off in March with the Bahrain Grand Prix on the 13th of March. But before that we have four test sessions scheduled in February and in March.

The first of the test session will be at Valencia between Feb 1 - 3, followed by at Jerez between Feb 10 - 13 and then at Barcelona between Feb 18 - 21.

Unlike last year the final test session will be at Bahrain this time between Mar 3 - 6. One of the issues teams faced last year were that the pre-season tests were under colder temperatures but the first few Grands Prix were hotter conditions, with the temperatures at Bahrain being extremely hot.

With a new tyre supplier in Pirelli this year, the final test session at Bahrain makes a whole lot of sense as the teams get to test the tyres under both hot and cold weather.

While most teams are yet to announce a launch date, McLaren, Force India and HRT would probably use their 2010 cars for the Valencia test. Red Bull Racing this year are likely to unveil their 2011 prior to the Valencia test