(VIDEO) How To Make An F1 Car : Design & RND

Formula 1 car is one hell of complex things. Engineers intelligence is pushed to the limit in an effort to squeeze additional ounce of downforce optimization, drag reduction, weight relocation all in pursuit of that milisecond gain. No one is doing better job than the drink company, Red Bull, coincidentally the champion for the past few years. Enjoy the video : How to make an F1 car; Design and R&D.

ADRIAN NEWEY - The Greatest F1 Car Designer Ever?

Reb Bull Racing has secured their third consecutive Formula One Constructor Championship for 2012 in the newly introduced Texas Grand Prix and subsequently Sebastian Vettel secured his third consecutive title one race later in Interlagos, Brazil. Red Bull Racing (RBR) car, the RB8 Formula One machine in the hands of Sebastian Vettel beat Fernando Alonso is his slower F2012 by mere 3 points, while RBR as a team won 60 points over Ferrari's 400 points, thanks to its consistently well performing second driver.

RBR did not has the best start for 2012, where the RB8 lacks the exhaust-blown diffuser from its predecessor due to the rule change, thus preventing RBR from continuing its 2011 momentum. It took 4 races for Sebastian Vettel to appear as a winner. He retains this strong big-points run along the season before suddenly surged for four-consecutive win from Singapore to India to fend off the diminishing Fernando Alonso who, prior to summer break enjoyed 40 points cushion.

Such resurgence is not possible if everything stays normal unless your opposition suddenly become disable, or the driver suddenly re-discovered a driving skill, quite unlikely. One answer, the improved car. As Fernando Alonso keep saying he was fighting Adrian Newey instead of directly mentioning Vettel, as Mark Webber is usually entangled too in this titanic 2012 season.

Who is Adrian Newey? Every F1 technical geek surely know who he is. Personally, I started reading about him in 1999, when Formula 1 came to Malaysia, thanks to a genius idea by the former Prime Minister to host a grand prix in Malaysia. Adrian Newey is one of the key figure in the technical aspect for F1 car, together with his counterpart in rivalling team such as Rory Byrne, Eghbal Hamidy and Mike Gascoyne. It was by reading his biodata that prompted me to choose Aeronautical Engineering as my field of study in the UK, and the desire to be like him was what inspired me to participate in Renault F1-Altran Engineering Academy back in the good old days.

Adrian Newey graduated in Aeronautical and Astronautic Engineering from University of Southampton in 1980, in First Class Degree no less. Over there, he conducted a research on ground-effect aerodynamics which won an interest from Fittipaldi Automotive where he landed his first job.

Newey then joined March racing team in 1981, initially as a race engineer before start designing racing car, March GTP which went on to win two consecutive IMSA titles. Within the same team, he then designed the Indycar for 1984 season which proved to be successful after taking 7 victories including Indy 500 and CART title in the following year.

In 1986, Newey decided to return to the formula one arena in Europe with FORCE F1 team, a short-lived job when the team withdrew at the end of that season. Newey then re-united with March team as Chief Designer for formula one project. As March team evolved into Leyton House team, Newey was promoted to be Technical Director. The partnership was not eternally smooth-sailing, he was fired in 1990 as the team performance declined.

Then the mega years began. Adrian Newey joined Williams F1 team as Chief Designer. In 1991, the team finished second in the constructor championship, and Nigel Mansell finished second in driver championship behind the legendary Ayrton Senna. The dominance happened in 1992, where the Newey-engineered Williams-Renault FW14B utterly dominated, as Nigel Mansell won 9 races in a season, record-breaking feat for the era.

Williams-Renault FW15C - the active F1 car

Adrian Newey talent continues to shine in the following year, where he, together with Patrick Head engineered an active-car, with continuously electronically adjustable suspension, anti-lock braking and traction controlled FW15C. His leading driver, Alain Prost won the championship that year, ahead of nemesis Ayrton Senna. Read more after the jump.

Sebastian Vettel snatched his first pole of 2012 in Bahrain

Sebastian Vettel has returned to form as he snatched pole position in Bahrain GP qualifying session today. This is his first pole of the 2012 season after being comprehensively outperformed by the Mercedes GP and McLaren team this season. Team mate, Mark Webber completed the top three, while these RBR drivers sandwiching the Lewis Hamilton in McLaren team.

The top-of-the-form Mercedes AMG PETRONAS team however has faded into the Bahrain dust this time around, with Nico Rosberg settling in 5th, some four tenth slower than the pole sitter, and team mate Michael Schumacher was down in 18th, behind the struggling Caterham piloted by Heikki Kovalainen. The former F1 legend was said to be angry at the mistake of not sending his out in soft tyres towards the end of Q1.

Fernando Alonso however managed to scrape into the Q3, the effort which team mate Felipe Massa clearly ran out talent to repeat so. Hence the leading Ferrari will start on 9th, while the backmarker-alike second car will start from 14th place.

Much has been talked about the safety of conducting the F1 race is the unstable country like Bahrain. Thankfully, apart from some unhurt Force India personnel who was caught in the primitive road mishap, the rest are doing fine. It is a pity that this kind of scenario is being caught in F1 scene. 

Full Bahrain GP qualifying results can be found after the jump. 

Nico Rosberg stormed to victory as rival screwed up pit stop

That elusive first win for both Nico Rosberg and Mercedes AMG PETRONAS has arrived at 2012 Chinese GP. And it was achieved without weather or safety car intervention. People said Mercedes W03 is hard on tyres and will have difficulties in staying ahead even if started on pole. Eat your word people. Not only Rosberg is unchallenged pace-wise at the front, but W03 managed to make it work and stick only to 2 pitstops.

Speaking of pitstops, Rosberg team mate Michael Schumacher who was running second prior to his first pitstop, retired on lap 13 after the front right tyre was not properly secured during his stop. Jenson Button, who finished distance second was also delayed during his third pitstop. The pursuit ended there. Jenson and Lewis completed the podium, making it all Mercedes powered car on the podium.

To speak in term of Malaysia local content, PETRONAS involvement in F1 finally yield a win. And looking at PETRONAS adverts on TV, it can be seen clearly that they are banking a lot to F1 cars/team to make the advert more exciting. Well....

Full results after the jump.

Nico Rosberg on maiden pole for Shanghai GP

Nico Rosberg has outqualified his teammate Michael Schumacher for the first time in 2012, as well as the rest of the field by snatching pole position, a maiden first position for him (after 111 attempts) and also for Mercedes AMG PETRONAS team, a first pole as a works team since Monza 1955 with Juan Manuel Fangio.

Lewis Hamilton in Mclaren was second, some 0.505 seconds slower than Rosberg ultimate 1m 35.121s. Nico's teammate, the legendary Schuey is further 0.065s slower than the Mclaren leading driver. However, due to Lewis penalty incurred by the change of gearbox, Mercedes AMG PETRONAS now filled up the front row of the grid.

The shock of the day however was the reigning champion Sebastian Vettel failure to make it to Q3. He has to settle down with 11th place at the end of Q2. However, Vettel denied that his slow pace is due to the old-spec exhaust that he opted to use instead of switching to the newer item as him team mate Webber who managed to cork out more pace in sister car. Other big names that failed to make it further than Q2 was Felipe Massa although it is hardly surprising judging by how underperforming he has been in the Ferrari ever since 2009.

The Sauber duo continues to impressed in their C31 racer by scoring 4th and 8th, each which will be 3rd (!) and 7th on Sunday starting grid. Ferrari road car might be some of the most legendary car ever, however their F1 machine is just like Perodua Viva among the Proton Preve. Even the mighty Alonso just managed some 1.501s slower than pole sitter.

Full Chinese GP qualifying results after the jump.

Alonso rides Malaysian storm to claim surprise win

Sepang podium finishers - photo from gpupdate - sutton

Fernando Alonso claimed his first win since Silverstone GP last year when he successfully fend-off the equally surprising Sauber of Sergio Perez, who went on to finish second. Lewis Hamilton finished third for second consecutive times, after also be on pole twice consecutively.

The race itself was quite a dramatic affair. The race was started under the light rain, where all contenders were on inters. As the light went off, both McLaren started cleanly, while the veteran third placement Michael Schumacher suffered a bad start, immediately losing place to the fast starter Romain Grosjean who later punted him off several corner later, which Webber carefully capitalized to seize third. After recovering from their spin, Michael was down to 13th, while Grosjean was running in 18th.

However, shortly afterwards, all runners immediately pitted for the full wet, as rain intensified. FIA then deemed the race was too dangerous to be continued, triggering a red flag in lap 9.

The race restarted at 5.15pm local time, and was conducted behind the safety car. The safety car stayed on for 3 laps. Upon the real restart, many drivers dived in the pit for an inters. However, several front runner decided to stick on the full wet, namely Hamilton and Perez, and both Red Bulls and Ferraris. When they finally pitted, Alonso capitalized on Hamilton slight delay in his release from the box, ironically to give way to Massa who was on his way to pit box. More after the jump.

Lewis Hamilton on pole for Malaysian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton has scored this second consecutive pole position of the season in Sepang today, ahead of team mate Jenson Button who also qualified in the same position in Melbourne GP. Third place goes to the rejuvenated Michael Schumacher, who was on pace all the time in his Mercedes GP car. Behind the trio is the Red Bull duo of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, with Vettel opting for the harder compound tyre, a strategic move for tomorrow's race. Kimi Raikkonen, who topped the timesheet in Q2 session, could only managed fifth, though signalling clearly the front running pace that the Lotus GP cars now have. However, he will be only be starting 10th due to the five-grid penalty because of his changed of gearbox. Full results of Malaysian GP after the jump.

Button wins F1 season opener ahead of Vettel and Hamilton

Jenson Button has scored the first of the season in the opening round at Melbourne 2.1s ahead of the reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel. Lewis Hamilton completed the podium in third place, almost 2s further down the road.

When the 5 red lights went out, it was Button that has the best start, ousted his team mate from the lead upon arriving at the 1st corner. 3rd place man Grosjean meanwhile suffered a poor start, dropping to 6th place. Mercedes duo of Schumacher and Rosberg were in 3rd and 4th at that time. 

Positions were changed again at the front in Lap 2, when Vettel took Rosberg and Maldonado accidentally took Grosjean out, an unstabled situation which was capitalized by hard-charging Alonso to steal 6th place from his 12th grid position. By Lap 10, it was all-world champion in top three, with Button leading the pack, followed by Hamilton and Schumacher. Vettel is also just 0.5 seconds behind the Mercedes. However, some gear shift problem left Schumacher out of the race in Lap 11, pity considering that this could be one of his best race upon his comeback tenure.

By mid-race, the 18th place Raikonen is already in 8th. He actually demonstrated some spirited driving, taking Massa and Kobayashi within 2 laps. Had he started higher up the grid, the story could very well be different. More details after the jump.

McLaren 1-2 in F1 season opener qualifying

McLaren has steal the thunder by locking out Melbourne front row of the grid. Lewis Hamilton is on pole, followed by his team mate Jenson Button. Third place is surprisingly belong to Lotus of Romain Grosjean, who is ahead of Michael Schumacher in 4th place, his best ever grid position since returning to the sport. Nico Rosberg did look fast, and could even put a fight to McLaren in terms of pace, but he committed a mistake in his run. Mercedes's car also debuted an innovative and controversial DRS-activated front wing F-Duct. It is indeed hard to imagine how powerful is CFD now in developing the manipulation of flow on aerodynamics bodies. In 2002, F1 teams said they neglect the effect of exhaust gas speed and temperature in their CFD modeling of the rear end, but the advancement of blown diffuser (still exist this year I suspect, albeit in different form) surely indicated that the flow regime has been analyzed with the temperature and exhaust velocity profile.

Anyway, back to qualifying story, 3rd row is locked by the reigning champion Red Bull Racing, where Mark Webber is ahead of Sebastian Vettel. Where is Ferrari you ask? Well they are 12th with Fernando and 16th with Massa. Fernando Alonso spunned out in Q2, and Massa, well he was kicked out from Q2. Bizarre days for Ferrari, and miserable too for ex-Ferrari Kimi Raikonen, who managed no better than 18th on his first returning race.

Full qualifying results after the jump.

Video : UTP intern at Mercedes GP PETRONAS

Paultan has put up a video on Michael Schumacher and Jazeman Jaafar paid a visit to a bunch of UTP students who are currently doing their internship at the F1 team Mercedes GP. Quite an interesting watch, however, there's a lot of bugger who brought up the issue of Bumi VS Non-Bumi as early as the 7th comment!!!! How stupid, and how really silly act is this when we are supposed to stand proud of witnessing our fellow Malaysian in the global spotlight, there is group of bugger to keep thinking about being racist all day long. Anyway, to those UTP students, seize your moments while you can. Opportunity like this does not come everyday!

Again I would like to stress out, please, and please support Malaysian as a whole as in the eyes of the world, they don't give a damn about your race, but more on your nationality. In this 55 years of independence, its time to be Malaysian rather than shouting Bumi and non-Bumi!

McLaren, Ferrari and Force India launched their 2012 challenger

After 3 month of doldrums, Formula 1 fans can finally cheer again. This time of the year is usually filled with the suspense of waiting for the team to release their new car, with fans eagerly waiting to see how different the car is from the previous year, as the regulation has changed quite dramatically for this year. 

While Caterham has released the detail of their car way ahead of the rest of the grid, this week we has witnessed the launched of 'big boys' i.e McLaren, Ferrari and also the Force India team. McLaren was the first among this trio to release their car on Feb 1st, where the MP4-27 was unveiled in Woking.

While Caterham CT-01 featured a platypus nose with stepped nose cone section to satisfy the 2012 regulation (Caterham coverage HERE), MP4-27 appears to adopt a more elegant solution, at least on the launch car. The transition of high tub to the lower nose cone is smooth. The car looks nothing like last years, particularly the sidepod where the aggressive U-shape cross-section has been replaced with a more familiar design, not unlike the MP4-25.  Don't be fooled by the so-2011 wing, as they are indeed an old wing, the nose is particularly interesting as there is a secondary floor cascading the cone. The car also is shorter in wheelbase than before to compensate for the loss of rear downforce resulting from the ban of EBD. Therefore, the exhaust now has been relocated to the back of the sidepod.

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However, unlike McLaren, Ferrari and Force India has followed the Caterham solution, respectively with their F2012 and VJM05. While Felipe Massa dubbed the car looks "aggressive" and Domenicali said it will kick-off the season with a win, so there must be some thing significant underneath the bodywork of the conservative looking F2012. However, Nikolas Tombazis, Ferrari Chief Designer said the car is certainly aggressive in its design approach, while simultaneously defending the ugly outlook. He also said the car will definitely changed by the time of the first race, particularly the exhaust layout as the definite configuration will only be decided after a series of test. 

Force India also lift the lid of their VJM05 today at Silverstone. Like Ferrari, VJM05 also features a stepped nose, but unlike Ferrari, the transition between the higher chassis to the lower nose section is gradual, and eared like the CT-01 solution.

The Mercedes-powered car also features a heavily revised sidepod design, with long, flowing and heavily undercut towards the bottom in response to the changed in exhaust layout dictated by the regulation. Force India has also abandoned its blade style roll-hoop design. Like Ferrari, Force India also mentioned that the exhaust is not yet definite until the first test session.

More photos of each car can be found after the jump.

Caterham F1 launched its 2012 challenger - CT-01

Caterham F1 team has launched its 2012 Formula 1 challenger, the CT-01 ahead of any other Formula 1 team so far. The team that was formerly known as Team Lotus/Lotus Racing has opted out from their two years on conservative design and started fresh with more radical design departures compared to T128 that competed in 2011 F1. Among the notable design features are the stepped nose design, tightly packaged sidepod and the inclusion of KERS for the first time.

From the side profile, the stepped nose is clearly visible. The front cone is noticeably lower than the tub towards the centre length-wise of the car. This is due to the newly enforced 2012 rules that stipulates that the nose cone is pegged at 550mm height after the front wheel centre line. The central tub height is as per current rules which maxed at 625mm tall. FIA imposed the height limit to prevent the team from raising the nose further up in their quest to maximize the airflow underneath the car leading towards the diffuser. This is more important than ever as the exhaust blown diffuser has been outlawed, hence there is an expected reduction is downforce.

The exhaust gas now exits the car from the top of the sidepod, ala the periscope outlet that was popular before the blown diffuser debuted. The sidepod of CT-01 is heavily tapered towards the bottom, and plunging towards the back, reminiscent of the all-conquering RB7. The rear fin exit duct is a familiar sight from the 2011 champion too. However, this is hardly surprising as Caterham F1 has maintained the deal to use the Renault engine and Red Bull gearbox, which necessitates the similar packaging and the pull rod rear suspension setup. More after the jump.

Michael Schumacher is F1 2011 top overtaker

Based on Autosport, using the data obtained from Mercedes GP PETRONAS team, Michael Schumacher ended the 2011 season as the overall top overtaker with 116 passess. 

In the season where the DRS allow the car shoot pass the car ahead with the aid and benefit of higher straight line speed, Schumacher record was actually aided by tha fact that he made most of his overtaking on the opening lap. This is because he usually qualified lower than what his car is capable of, indicated by his team mate, Nico Rosberg higher grid positioning. 

Mercedes GP PETRONAS team however, is more than aware that Michael race pace is not lacking, when compared to his team mate so that he could recover well on Sunday's race despite his lower qualifying position. Read more after the jump for full 2011 overtaking statistics.

McLaren to launch on Feb 1st & Caterham chassis completed

McLaren has announced that they are going to launch their 2012 challenger on February 1st. However, the launch venue of MP4-27 is still untold. The machine that Jenson and Lewis will pilot for their 2012 campaign will also participate in the first official F1 test in Jerez also in February 7th 2012.

Meanwhile, Caterham F1 team said that their CT-01 has passed all the mandatory FIA test. The new regulation for F1 2012 is that all cars must passed the crash test before participating in the first test session. The team which was formerly known at Team Lotus ( or Lotus F1 Racing prior to that, or even 1 Malaysia F1 Team in the Malaysian media) has a high hope this season. Their second season in F1 was,well, nothing like what they said during pre-season. 

Formula 1 2012 : new driver line-up & car launch date

Force India has confirmed their 2012 driver line-up as Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg. Toro Rosso team on the other hand dropped both of its driver, in favor of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne for its 2012 line-up. The biggest news after all, is the return of World Champion Kimi Raikonen in the cocpit of LRGP team. The Iceman will be paired by returnee Romain Grosjean. Its quite a pity so see Bruno Senna, who impressed on this late season appearance, was dropped from LRGP list.

The confirmed launch as for now is only for Sauber team. Sauber is due to present its 2012 challenger on 6th February 2012. Ferrari has also stated they are going to debut their car during the first test in Jerez, on 7th February 2012. 

Stay tune for more Formula 1 news.

Sebastian Vettel crowned double-world champion at Suzuka

Sebastian Vettel finished the Suzuka Grand Prix in 3rd place, conforming his world championship for the second time, on Sunday 9th of October 2011. The race witnessed the on-form Jenson Button who drove a splendid race to his first dry Mclaren victory, with Fernando Alonso in close second.

Prior to the race, Vettel only need to finish in 10th place, i.e obtaining one point to confirm his driver championship. However, the Red Bull ace never actually complacent about that. He went to set Suzuka on fire and stormed to pole position. Behind him, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton completed the top three.

At the start, Vettel hold the lead after aggressively hold the fast-starter Button, squeezing him right to the grass, while Hamilton capitalize on that and snatched second place after the first turn. The race also observed the continuity of Hamilton vs Massa episode, with the former apparently touched Massa car on the run to the last corner. The bits fallen off Massa's car triggered the safety car. More after the jump.

Build your own McLaren F1 car - from RM9.90

Back in my student time in Bristol, I always dropped by this one modeler shop every other weekend. It is situated in Fairfax Street if I'm not mistaken, in the quiet path somewhere off the Nelson Street. I bought the scale model of Formula 1 cars and some Ferrari cars at that time. During other non-purchased visit, I usually spent time looking the new arrival and the RC car kit and day dreaming about building my own RC car.

Fast forward many,many years, when I'm already back in Malaysia, I found out the price of scale F1 car or any die-cast car for the matter, is exorbitant in Malaysia, thanks to our wrong currency value.

Now, the scale F1 is available in Malaysia, with slight twist, from DeAgostini. Rather than buying a complete car (usually 1:16), now you can build your own at twice the scale. Starting price is RM9.90 only for front wing assembly, and the subsequent part will be released every week until the car is completed. Final price? I don't know, but at least you are forking out the moolah every week rather than lump sump. Admittedly, the price of subsequent part is more expensive the RM9.90.

The car of choice? Its MP4-23 McLaren, the car that Lewis Hamilton drove to his world championship in the year 2008. This is the year when the F1 car is at their peak aerodynamics optimization, with winglets, fins, vanes, ears, horns, ducts, curved, slits, and every imaginable flow-cheater appendages were applied throughout the car bodywork. McLaren is one the most fantastic looking car of the lot that year, and by winning the championship from Felipe Massa did prove too that beautiful cars go fast. 

For more information about the package, head to buildmclaren.com.my and see for yourself. There are subscription too, and with that, some goodies are thrown in FOC. I've bought my kit just now, and I can't hardly wait to start assembling the front wing. Now DeAgostini, can you release the pack all in one go so that the hardcore fanatics doesn't have to wait? Details about Part 2 and 3 of the pack after the jump.

Vettel triumphed the Singtel Singapore GP 2011

Sebastian Vettel won an unchallenge race in the Singapore GP an hour ago. He started off well from pole and lead every single lap leading to the 61st lap still on the lead by 1.737 seconds from Jenson Button. Vettel team mate, Mark Webber completed the top three finishers.

The German was virtually unchallenged as he made perfect gateway from the lights off, followed by Button and Alonso. Hamilton was boxed behind Webber after choosing the inside lane towards Turn 1. Even during Lap 30 safety car interruption, Vettel was unchallenged during the restart as there were few backmarkers between him and the second placement Jenson Button. 

With the finishing order as it was, Sebastian Vettel can't be crowned as the World Champion just yet, as he still need a solitary more points before the championship become mathematically over for other drivers. Full results are as below:

1.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	1:59:06.757
2.	Jenson Button	McLaren	+1.737
3.	Mark Webber	Red Bull	+29.279
4.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	+55.449
5.	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	+1:07.766
6.	Paul di Resta	Force India	+1:51.067
7.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	+1 Lap
8.	Adrian Sutil	Force India	+1 Lap
9.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	+1 Lap
10.	Sergio Perez	Sauber	+1 Lap
11.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	+1 Lap
12.	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso	+1 Lap
13.	Rubens Barrichello	Williams	+1 Lap
14.	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	+2 Laps
15.	Bruno Senna	Lotus Renault	+2 Laps
16.	Heikki Kovalainen	Team Lotus	+2 Laps
17.	Vitaly Petrov	Lotus Renault	+2 Laps
18.	Jerome d` Ambrosio	Virgin	+2 Laps
19.	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT	+4 Laps
20.	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT	+4 Laps
21.	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso	+5 Laps
DNF
22.	Jarno Trulli	Team Lotus	+14 Laps
23.	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	+33 Laps
24.	Timo Glock	Virgin	+52 Laps

For full elaboration on happenings, procession and incidents, follow the update on Gpupdate.net.

For full technical updates on car leading to Singapore GP, refer to Formula1.com

The Ultimate SUV - Infiniti FX50 Sebastian Vettel Concept

We don't see a super-SUV often, and there are currently only a few of them. BMW X6M and Porsche Cayenne Turbo are typical examples. Welcome to the latest addition in the elitist circle of mega-SUV, the one-off concept of Infiniti FX50 Sebastian Vettel Edition.

Produced to commemorate the relationship between Infiniti and Red Bull Racing team, the SUV has been enhanced with a host of critical updates. The engine, though remained at 5.0l V8, has been uprated from 390bhp to 420bhp through some tweaking in the ECU and revised exhaust system. Speed limiter has been removed too, and the car now reached 300km/h, with 5.6 seconds of century sprint.

Exterior of the car is adorned with carbon fibre parts including skirting, air intakes, side mirrors and rear spoiler. These aerodynamics appendages (some are inspired by RB7 bodywork design) together with 20mm lower stance helped to reduce the aerodynamic drag by 5% and increase the downforce by 30%. Weight has been trimmed too by 46kg. The black wheel are 21" in diameter.

The interior of the car was littered with carbon fibre and alcantra. These materials can be found on the seat, console and door trims.

Full gallery can be found after the jump.

Formula 1 Monza GP 2011 - race report

Sebastian Vettel won the Italian Grand Prix yesterday, his 8th win of the year, and also celebrated Red Bull Racing first Monza win. Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso complete the podium finish. Hamilton and Schumacher finish in fourth and fifth, making the first five places exclusive to current living and competing F1 world champions only!

The race has a dramatic start. Truth to his calibre, Alonso made a perfect gateway from fourth on the grid, immediately tailgating Hamilton who starts from second and split seconds later, slingshot past Hamilton on his right, taking some grass in the process, to complete a dramatic three abreast leading towards the first corner. Alonso then emerged out of it in the lead, with Vettel in the second place, and Schumacher and Hamilton dicing for third.