The post-season news is still piling in this week as Formula One makes a slew of announcements before taking a break for Christmas.
On Friday the Lotus Renault team announced that Romain Grosjean would replace Vitaly Petrov and race alongside Kimi Raikkonen. Something is clearly happening with racing in F1 and France. There was a time when there were about seven drivers from France in the series — a few decades ago — but that dwindled over the last decade to one or none. Next year we’ll see at least two French drivers – Grosjean and Charles Pic at Marussia – and there is a possibility that Jean Eric Vergne will drive for Toro Rosso.
Earlier in the week the World Motor Sport Council of the International Automobile Federation announced several changes for next season, including a three-day test session during the year and a few changes to the sporting regulations. There was no change to the F1 calendar announced, despite uncertainties surrounding the Bahrain Grand Prix and the U.S. Grand Prix in Austin.
One of the new regulations is that drivers can no longer return to the racing line after protecting their position off the line. I’m looking forward to seeing how that one works out in practice – I mean, what does it mean? They get to defend their position, but if they do it successfully they can’t return to the racing line, and so end up in a precarious position in the corner? I will be fun and interesting to see how that is enforced.
For a look back at the season, my season review special report is now online. The overview article looks at the main themes of the F1 season this year. And speaking of rookie French drivers for next year, there is an article that examines how this year’s F1 rookies did, and the problems they have faced – notably with so little testing available to teams now to try out the rookies. And speaking of next year’s racing venues and the calendar, there is also a roundup the current state of the juggling of the F1 calendar. Finally, and perhaps most fun of them all, is the double QA with the two Ferrari drivers, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa. I interviewed both drivers separately and asked many of the same questions to both of them.