Here are my notes on the Turkish Grand Prix including how Lewis Hamilton lost the race on Saturday, what happened to the BMWs, and how much trouble Nelson Piquet Jnr is in.

Plus when was the last time we saw a pass for the lead in a dry race? more…

The ten remaining Formula 1 teams spent Wednesday to Friday testing at Paul Ricard, former home of the French Grand Prix.

It was very much a test in two parts, with the teams testing high-downforce configurations for the Monaco Grand Prix, the next round of the championship, and low-downforce settings for the Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal which follows it. That involved using a quicker configuration of Paul Ricard’s High Tech Test Track, but the final day’s running was also hampered by rain.

Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest time over the three days but the arrival of Toro Rosso’s new STR3 could cause big changes in the midfield. Here’s what each of the teams were doing. more…

Max Mosley has written to the presidents of the FIA motor sport clubs around the world in a new attempt to press his case and avoid a motion of no confidence in him at the Emergency General Meeting on June 3rd. Grandprix.com claims to have seen the letter and has published a portion, describing the contents as “explosive”.

In it, Mosley argues he should not be voted out of office because Formula One Group (which controls the commercial side of the sport) is trying to take control of the sport’s regulations away from the FIA. He even suggests the News of the World received the tip-off about his involvement in sadomasochistic sex orgies from someone who wanted to get rid of him and influence the negotiations.

What are we to make of these bizarre new claims?

(Update: download the letter in full here) more…

Alan Henry’s done it, F1 Racing did it, and now The Times are naming their top 100 F1 drivers.

I toyed with the idea of doing something similar here but these debates always end up the same: arguments about whether you can compare drivers from the ’50s with those from five decades later, why all the current drivers are over-rated and so on.

Instead let’s go to the other end of the scale and ask who were F1’s very worst drivers ever? I’ve picked five, nominate yours below… more…

We learned last week that Codemasters had snatched the rights to produce the official Formula 1 game from Sony, and the first installment in the series will arrive next year.

Codemasters have a clear choice in how to approach this. They can cynically exploit the F1 brand and just stick the official drivers and team colours on a bog-standard racing engine.

Or they can create something truly original that will court both young newcomers to the sport and long-term fans; those looking for a quick race, and those hankering for an immersive, long-term challenge. Here’s what I think they should do with the new F1 game. more…

I sadly missed the Turkish Grand Prix on Sunday because I was racing in the Czech Republic, so I’ve had to rely on race reports to get a full understanding of what happened.

Of all the comment and intrigue from the weekend, the factor that has stood out the most to me, has been the fact that Lewis Hamilton was forced into a three stop strategy because of worries he would suffer a repeat of last year’s tyre failure, whereas his team mate Heikki Kovalainen did not. more…

Max Mosley’s hopes of remaining FIA president have been dealt a new blow as it has emerged that he will be in delegating his duties as FIA president to someone else at next weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix .

Monaco’s royal palace do not want him to meet Prince Albert and so FIA vice-president Marco Piccinini will represent the sport’s governing body. Mosley will be, “conducting his business in other aspects of his role,” according to the FIA.

Mosley was previously asked by the Bahraini royal family not to attend their Grand Prix and there were rumours that King Juan Carlos of Spain and the Turkish Grand Prix organisers had been keen for him not to attend their respective races. more…

Yesterday I considered what would happen to Formula 1 if the economic crisis caused teams to leave the sport. Before I wrote that reader Scott Newton had sent in his thoughts on how F1 could work with just a few manufacturers supplying all the chassis.

My idea stems from the concern that customer cars will turn F1 into a spec series (with everyone driving either Ferraris, McLarens or BMWs).

What if we only allowed constructors to supply customer chassis depending on where they finished in the constructors’ championship? more…

Call it the credit crunch, call it the sub-prime crisis, whatever you call it, I call it trouble.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what the consequences of the developing global economic downturn will be for Formula 1. But it’s hard to imagine them being good.

And to the pessimists it could look very bad indeed. more…

The debate over who is the most-hyped driver in Formula 1 is a short one. But who is the second most-hyped driver in F1 after Lewis Hamilton?

Sebastian Vettel may be a candidate. He arrived in the sport at a rude young age last year and is apparently already being considered for a promotion to Red Bull in 2009 from its Toro Rosso ‘junior’ team. What do you think of the young German driver? more…