As with every week, a lot has gone on in the world of Formula One racing.  Here are a few interesting highlights.

•    The Chinese Grand Prix was raced on April 19, and the results were interesting.  Lewis Hamilton ended up coming in sixth, while the top two spots were claimed by Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, both driving for Red Bull Racing.  Brawn’s Jenson Button claimed third.

•    The FIA has decided that neither marketing costs nor driver salaries will be a part of their new £30 million budget cap for the 2010 season.  Despite this, some, including Max Mosley, are afraid more F1 teams may leave the sport.  A number of new teams, however, are posed to fight for the three spots created for new teams in 2010.

•    Despite losing in Shanghai, Lewis Hamilton did post the top speed in Friday’s free practice in Bahrain.  His time of one minute 33.647 seconds set the pace for the first day of practices for the Bahrain Grand Prix.  Perhaps he will bounce back?

•    Speaking of Bahrain, the head doctor who is to supervise the Bahrain Grand Prix was suspended from his medical duties due to the inquiry into a patient death.  His suspension, however, will expire three days before the Bahrain race, and FIA officials say he will serve as the race’s chief medical official despite the inquiry.

•    Finally, F1 fans will soon be able to take any of their favorite cars for a spin provided they own a PSP or a Wii video game system.  Codemasters is releasing F1 2009 for these systems soon, and F1 2010 is in the works for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

As we get further and further into the 2009 F1 racing season, more and more interesting news bits come up.  Here are some of the topics from this week.

•    The lying scandal surrounding McLaren and caused driver Lewis Hamilton to be disqualified at the Australian Grand Prix continues.  This week, Ron Dennis, McLaren’s chief executive, resigned in response to the scandal.  He will be replaced by Martin Whitmarsh when the team appears before the F1 committee in Paris on April 28.

•    First, there was concern over driving into the sun in Malaysia.  Now there are some issues concerning the tyres that the tired Bridgestone are brigning to Chinese for the Chinese Grand Prix are not the best.  Many, including Renault and Brawn team members, have made it known that they believe these medium and super-soft compound tyres are not the best for the Chinese course.  In fact, several drivers had issues using the super-softs in Melbourne and are already anticipating the same kinds of problems in China.

•    Despite the controversy surrounding Lewis Hamilton, he has recently been nominated for the Laureus Award.  The award recognizes the top names in global sports achievements each year.  Driver Sebastian Vettel has also been nominated for “Breakthrough of the Year.”

•    Finally, the diffuser issue that has plagued the F1 for the past several weeks has been settled.  The FIA has declared that the brand new diffuser design that three F1 teams (Brawn, Toyota, and Williams) used in Australia is legal.  An appeal against this decision was made and has been rejected by the FIA, leaving the matter pretty much closed.

What’s going on in the F1 racing world this week?  Read on to learn about some of the biggest names and biggest happenings.

•    Rumours that Lewis Hamilton may leave McLaren have been at the top of all F1 news stories this week.  Many report that Hamilton was upset with his team’s handing of the controversy that led to his disqualification at the Malaysian Grand Prix.  However, most believe that Hamilton won’t leave the team.

•    Other controversy in the F1 world concerns the diffusers that the Toyota, Williams, and Brawn cars are using.  Some other teams have filed a complaint with the F1 organisation over these diffusers, but many, including retired F1 racer David Coulthard, believe that the FIA will rule these diffusers legal.

•    Here’s a bit of good news: ticket sales at the Singapore Grand Prix went, unlike last year, very smoothly.  Last year, the entire ticket system crashed during the first two days of ticket sales.  This year, after some redesigning, everything went very smoothly.

•    While no one wants to see an F1 racer crash, it’s good to know that if anyone does spin out of control during the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix, a large team of medical professionals will be on hand.  Over 150 medical experts will be standing by along with ten ambulances, three extrication vehicles, and six intervention cars.  Two helicopters would also be ready to air-lift any serious injuries to medical facilities.

•    Retired three time F1 World Champion Niki Lauda and his wife, Brigit, are expecting their fourth child.  Lauda is 60; his wife, a former stewardess who worked on one of Lauda’s airlines, is 30.

•    Despite their win at the Australian Grand Prix, Brawn GP announced that they’re cutting 270 jobs from their factory in England due to the economic recession.

Many exciting things have gone on this week in the F1 world, including a shocking disqualification!

•    Current F1 champion Lewis Hamilton, recently honoured by the Queen, has been disqualified from the Australian Grand Prix.  According to sources, he gave some misleading evidence to a few of the race stewards.  This evidence concerned the race in Melbourne last weekend in which Jarno Trulli passed Hamilton during a safety car period, which is a breach of F1 regulations.  However, it appears Hamilton’s statements have been contradicted by other facts, leading him to be disqualified.

•    But that wasn’t the only newsworthy event from the Melbourne Grand Prix.  Brawn GP, the brand new kid in the F1 world, shocked us all when Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello finished first and second.  The two are two of the oldest drivers currently active in F1 racing.

•    Driver Fernando Alonso spent the Melbourne race battling an ear infection, and he has had a few days off since the race.  However, the Renault driver says he’s ready to hit the Malaysian Grand Prix this weekend and has high hopes his team will pull it together.

•    Alonso may not get a chance to race in Malaysia, however.  Nico Rosberg has recently added his name to the list of those concerned about the Malaysian Grand Prix being run late in the evening.  Racing at twilight opens up new risks that daytime racing doesn’t have, plus there’s always the chance that a monsoon will blow in.  Alonso himself had difficulty with the setting sun’s glare in afternoon practices in Melbourne.

Looking for the latest F1 news?  Here are a few of this week’s breaking stories.
•    Here’s an interesting news story highlighting some of the major changes the F1 world has gone through lately, including the retirement of superstar Michael Schumacher, the “Spygate” scandal involving the McLaren team stealing information from Ferrari, and more.

•    Torro Rosso driver Sebastien Bourdais may be living his dream of being an F1 racer, but in his dreams, he was probably on top of the podium.  In real life, however, while his story of hard work is interesting, he isn’t doing nearly as well as he (and his team) hoped he would.

•    The New York Times features an interesting debate on the drivers of the F1 world and how they’re expected to do this season.  The panel includes reporter Brad Spurgeon, grandprix.com chief Joe Saward, and Italian F1 commentator Leo Turrini.  It’s an interesting read, especially if you want to get the experts’ opinions on the up and coming season.

•    Finally, something a little different: a fun F1 racing game from Computer Weekly.  This F1 game challenges you to complete a lap as fast as you can.  If you do, you may just win the chance of getting to drive a real F1 car around Silverstone and experience what it’s like to be behind the wheel of one of these powerful racing cars.

As the world moves closer to the opening of the 2009 F1 season, the news keeps pouring in.  Here are some highlights from this week.

•    Lewis Hamilton’s waxwork at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum was unveiled this week.  That waxwork cost an estimated $230,000 dollars.  Hamilton joins drivers Nigel Mansell, Ayrton Senna, and Michael Schumacher in the wax museum.  According to reports, Hamilton had to send the museum around 230 different measurements for the wax replica!
•    Thinking about visiting Bulgaria?  Well, F1 teams and fans may get the chance if the F1 approves the Bulgarian Motorcycling Federation’s request to host an F1 race.  They have all of the funding they need to build a new track capable of hosting MotoGP motorcycle races by 2011, and if they get approved to host an F1 event, the federation says it will build a second track.  They’ll have their answer from F1 within a couple of weeks.
•    Speaking of new tracks, drivers are getting a chance to try out Abu Dhabi’s new circuit, but they don’t even have to leave their team’s headquarters to do so.  Instead, since testing at the track is banned until the end of December, drivers are turning to virtual racing.  The track simulators are getting more of a workout this year, especially as teams start to realize just how valuable a tool they are.

Following the FIA’s approval for the Brawn GP name earlier this week, the team has been confirmed as an official Formula One racing team.  The team name, originally Honda Racing, was changed to Brawn GP after Ross Brawn purchased it earlier this year.  While they’ve been planning to race in the 2009 F1 series, they had to officially be approved by the F1 governing body.  Now that they have approved the name change, there’s nothing holding Brawn GP back from entering the race.  They are, however, being viewed as a new entry in the F1 world championship although, since the entry fee had already been paid when the team was under the Honda name, that fee is being waved for Brawn.

On Tuesday, the FIA announced that the Formula 1 championship will now go to the driver who wins the most races in the 2009 season.  This change in how the title is awarded has been very controversial, and many F1 teams have opposed it, although F1 supremo Bernie Eccleston remains unrepentant.

The previous points system has been in use for almost 60 years, but now it will only be used to break a tie between two drivers who have won the same number of races.  It will also be used to determine places from second down.  Simply put, whichever driver manages to win the most of the seventeen races set for 2009 will take the title.

Celebrities always seem to attract hot women, and Formula 1 drivers are no different.  Many enjoy relationships with supermodels or pop stars, including current title holder Lewis Hamilton, who is dating Pussycat Dolls member Nicole Scherzinger.  But he’s not the only one to date a celebrity.  Kimi Raikkonen, the 2008 title holder, is married to a beauty queen, specifically a former Miss Scandinavia. 

Even those who don’t win big, such as Jenson Button, can marry a model.  Drivers for the 70s and 80s also enjoyed marital bliss with hot babes.  James Hunt dated model Jame Birbeck and married another model.  Mike Hawthorn was engaged to a Vogue model before his untimely death, and Nino Farina, the first F1 world champion title holder, was married to a fashion designer.

In today’s world of celebrity fascination, these relationships are almost just as interesting as the races themselves and just as often make the headlines.

Happy Friday the 13th!  Fortunately, the F1 world isn’t very superstitious, at least not when it comes to this day.  Here are some of the top news stories from this week that we haven’t had time to spotlight.

•    McLaren, the employer of the current F1 World Champion (Lewis Hamilton) put up some very disappointing numbers at Barcelona.  However, word is the issue with the car has been discovered and will be corrected in time for Australia’s Grand Prix.
•    Following that note, six different teams have decided they’re done with the pre-season testing.  Red Bull, Toyota, BMW, Toro Rosso, Ferrari, and Force India have called it quits, some happier than others with the times they put up.
•    Here’s an interesting video of a couple of guys controlling a remote control F1 car using a BlackBerry!
•    F1 president and CEO Bernie Ecclestone and his wife, Slavica Ecclestone, were granted their divorce on March 11.  The two have two daughters.
•    When Lewis Hamilton received his MBE from Queen Elizabeth earlier this week, his girlfriend, Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger, wasn’t able to attend due to the group’s tour.  Since she couldn’t be there, rumour has it that she sent him a very sexy congratulatory video!