Monisha Kaltenborn

Sauber given no choice, Mallya share scandal revealed, Who is Caterham’s new F1 boss? Austin – 1 year ago, Ecclestone cocks up the calendar

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Sauber have no choice: If Sauber’s biggest sponsor has its way, Esteban Gutierrez will next year line up on the Formula One grid alongside confirmed 2013 driver Nico Hulkenberg. Gutierrez’s fellow Mexican Sergio Perez, who is heading to McLaren, was until now the cream of Sauber backer Telmex’s Formula 1 programme for the last two years.

But waiting in the wings all the time has been the one year younger Mexican reserve driver Gutierrez, who is this week testing Sauber’s C31 in Abu Dhabi, as is another 2013 candidate, the highly rated dutchman Robin Frijns.

Telmex chief and Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, however, could have a substantial influence on the final decision.

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Korea GP review: Alonso and Kobayashi know the game is up. More poor marshalling ruins the race

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The rather limp wristed waft of the chequered flag by Psy, of “Gangnam Style” fame, probably encapsulated the event that was the 2012 Korean GP.

The headlines are, Vettel takes the lead in driver’s WDC from Alonso for the first time since Valencia, and Red Bull extend their lead in the constructors’ table, with Ferrari significantly overtaking McLaren for 2nd place.

Marshalling ruins another race

As I suggested following Singapore, the marshalling of the event had a significant impact today and  robbed us of what could have been a very exciting race. How it took until lap 10 to move Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes is beyond me, particularly when considering where it was. Races with high tyre wear are often fascinating in strategy and can produce exciting finishes. By lap 2 when the DRS was available, the cars were still tightly bunched any number of drivers may have been able to have a go at Vettel and a number of position interchanges would have occurred.

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Japan GP review: Kimui enjoys more pressure, Massa’s 1st podium for 36 races, Grosjean hounded again

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We’re pretty fortunate in the UK in the amount of TV coverage we now have. Many UK fans were distraught last year when it was announced that the BBC would not be getting more than 10 races live and that SKY TV (subscription) would be covering all the races.

Of course having to pay a few hundred pounds a year to watch F1 for some is too much, but if we just look at coverage SKY F1 now provides, it is of the highest quality.

Of course most countries get the official podium interviews and some of the press pen interviews the drivers are compelled to provide. Yet where we are fortunate is we get many post race unofficial interviews with the various SKY (and BBC when they’re live) presenters from team principles, race engineers, drivers and many others.

In these informal chats away from the pack of photographers and mass microphones, the F1 players are often emotional, positive or negative, and can be very, very revealing

The main reason for me saying all of this is that when I’m fortunate to be at a race, I get to spend several hours after the chequered flag has fallen pouring through the race and post race footage.

So for those of you without SKY here’s some stuff I picked up.

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