I write this post as the latest game in the series ‘F1 2011’ is launched and yes it includes the new Buddh International circuit at Noida. Its coded by codemasters and is marketed by Zapak in India.

The game has a number of new gameplay options, one of which is the much awaited co-op mode, you and your friend compete as formula one racing partners for a team. I have just got my review copy and cant wait to play it out. If you are looking for features, they are all listed here. You can also view the release trailer here, the graphics look simply awesome ! Am awaiting my Xbox copy to really see the HD graphics

The game is available on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

F1 2011™ is the sequel to the BAFTA winning FORMULA ONE™ videogame from Codemasters®, the developer and publisher of award-winning racing games. Developed under Codemasters’ exclusive worldwide agreement with Formula One   World Championship Limited, F1 2011 will come complete with all the official drivers, teams and circuits featuring in the 2011 FIA FORMULA ONE World Championship™. Zapak Games, the licensing & merchandising arm of Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd. will distribute the title in India.

Developed using Codemasters’ EGO Game Technology Platform F1 2011 will deliver an unrivalled FORMULA ONE experience that puts players into the heart of the world’s most exciting sport, powered by cutting edge graphics, advanced physics systems and integrated network play.

· Go Compete!  F1 2011 builds extensively on the multiplayer options from F1 2010. Split-screen racing is included for the first time in a high-definition FORMULA ONE title. Competitive online racing is extended with 16 players going head-to-head in GRAND PRIX™ with up to 8 AI drivers added to simulate the full grid of 24 drivers. An innovative new co-op Championship enables two players to lead their favourite FORMULA ONE team to Driver and Constructor glory across the course of a FORMULA ONE season. These enhancements are complimented by additional quick fire modes including Time Attack.

· New Circuits for 2011. Two stunning new additions to the race calendar extend the number of circuits to feature in F1 2011 to 19. Players will be able to debut ahead of the drivers on the Buddh International Circuit, the home of the first FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX OF INDIA and players will be able to test themselves on the iconic Nürburging circuit for the first time in High Definition, as this legendary track returns for the 2011 season.

· Be the driver, live the life.  From the paddock to the track, F1 2011 takes players closer to the experience of being a FORMULA ONE driver than ever before. A new Parc Ferme area, an expanded and revamped Paddock, new Pit Lane, celebration and reaction cinematics and an enhanced media interaction system fully immerse players in the glamour, pressure and excitement of being a FORMULA ONE driver. Players progress from rookie to FIA FORMULA ONE DRIVERS’ WORLD CHAMPION in an extensive career mode where gamers fight to become priority driver and shape the development of the car by performing well in races and earning performance upgrades.

· All the cars, all the stars. Fully licensed, F1 2011 features all the drivers set to contest the 2011 FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, including Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher and Jenson Button. All 2011 teams are represented including Ferrari, Red Rull Racing, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and Lotus Renault GP in their iconic black and gold livery.

· KERS, DRS and more! F1 2011 includes all the new rule changes set to make this year’s season the most exciting yet. F1 2011 debuts DRS (Drag Reduction System) – the new system which enables drivers to adjust the rear wing on the car to give a boost of up to 10km. KERS also returns, giving players an extra 80BHP for up to 6.67 seconds, enabling drivers to blast past rivals. Combined, these systems encourage close wheel-to-wheel racing with new options for both defence and attack. This season’s new Pirelli tyres are faithfully simulated in the game, and if players push their car too hard they may experience a range of authentic new damage failures.

· Full Day / Night Racing. The 2011 FORMULA 1 ETHIAD AIRWAYS ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX comes alive with a full day/ night transition which recreates the special atmosphere at this unique track. Every one of the existing circuits from the 2010 roster has been given a complete visual overhaul. New atmospheric effects, including dynamic clouds, compliment a weather system which features an advanced rain model that affects on-track grip.  Powered by the EGO Game Technology Platforms, F1 2011 pushes forward the graphical standard of what can be achieved in a racing game.

· The world’s greatest cars, the most exciting racing. Building on the heritage of producing award-winning racing games for over a decade, Codemasters is uniquely placed to realise the spectacle and exhilaration of racing 200MPH+ FORMULA ONE cars for all fans. F1 2011 can be tuned for players from a wide range of skill levels, from the casual gamer to the hardcore simulation enthusiast and those in between, with a range of differing skill levels. A huge range of vehicle variables can be tuned to suit each player’s unique driving style, or drivers can entrust their Race Engineer to set their car up and head straight onto the track. F1 2011 will support a comprehensive range of racing wheels for the ultimate racing experience.

· Unprecedented authenticity. Codemasters has used its unprecedented access to the world of FORMULA ONE to connect the development team directly with FORMULA ONE teams and tyre manufacturers. Extensive consultancy has taken place with a range of FORMULA ONE professionals, including race engineers, mechanics and drivers. This has been combined with real world data including CAD and on-board telemetry to deliver a race experience complete with authentic handling, accurate circuits and precisely modelled racing cars.

· EGO powered FORMULA ONE. F1 2011 is being developed on the EGO Game Technology platform, evolved from the award winning EGO engine. Enabling Codemasters development talent to share tools and technology across Studios and Central Technology teams, the EGO Game Technology Platform empowers Codemasters game designers to realise their creative visions across multiple platforms featuring cutting edge graphics, powerful AI, advanced physics systems and integrated network play.

Apologies for no photo of the winning driver, apparently Red Bull’s media department is not approving our application to use their photos for editorial purposes.

Red Bull really did give Sebastien Vettel and Mark Webber wings with the duo grabbing a 1-2 at the 2010 formula one Malaysian Grand Prix. Nico Rosberg was third for the Mercedes GP formula one team (erstwhile Brawn GP) while his teammate Michael Schumacher was unlucky yet again as a nut came off his car’s wheel and he was forced to retire. Before that Michael Schumacher in a strong start had made up 2 places.

Sebastien Vettel proved that if you are good enough and if you drive good enough, victory will come and luck factor will diminish. After 2 unlucky races, Malaysia proved to be third time lucky.

Lewis Hamilton was another the start performer of the day though, the Briton made his way up from 20th on the grid to sixth place. His teammate Jenson Button was 8th at the finish line.

Meanwhile Spaniard and Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso called the Malaysian Grand Prix the toughest race of his life. He suffered a gearbox problem and apparently no clutch in the race.

“Right from the start things went wrong. On the formation lap, my gearbox broke, and I had no clutch during the race,” Fernando Alonso said.

“So I had to brake in a weird way. I had to first gear down and then push the throttle hard so it would engage the gear for that corner.

“So it was probably the hardest race of my whole life in terms of driving, because I had to improvise for every corner.

Final Classification of the Malaysian Grand Prix 2010

Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts

1 5 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 56 1:33:48.412 3 25

2 6 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 56 +4.8 secs 1 18

3 4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 56 +13.5 secs 2 15

4 11 Robert Kubica Renault 56 +18.5 secs 6 12

5 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 56 +21.0 secs 4 10

6 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 56 +23.4 secs 20 8

7 7 Felipe Massa Ferrari 56 +27.0 secs 21 6

8 1 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 56 +37.9 secs 17 4

9 17 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 56 +70.6 secs 14 2

10 10 Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 56 +73.3 secs 5 1

11 16 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 56 +78.9 secs 13

12 9 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 55 +1 Lap 7

13 8 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 54 +2 Laps 19

14 25 Lucas di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 53 +3 Laps 24

15 20 Karun Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 53 +3 Laps 22

16 21 Bruno Senna HRT-Cosworth 52 +4 Laps 23

17 18 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 51 +5 Laps 18

Ret 19 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 46 +10 Laps 15

Ret 12 Vitaly Petrov Renault 32 +24 Laps 11

Ret 15 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 12 +44 Laps 10

Ret 3 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 9 +47 Laps 8

Ret 23 Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari 8 +48 Laps 9

Ret 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 2 +54 Laps 16

DNS 22 Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari 0 +56 Laps 12

It has only been done 8 times before and never been done by a Briton, but its Jenson Button’s ambition to be the first ever Briton to win consecutive formula one driver championships. Last year Lewis Hamilton had the chance to achieve the same but couldn’t as the Brawn GP cars outclassed all others giving Jenson Button a lucky break from an otherwise almost over career.

However this year he is in a much humbler car the McLaren 2010 challenger which is quick but doesnt have an obvious advantage over every other car on the grid. We see these Brits (Lewis Hamilton) and now Jenson can talk the talk, but can they walk the walk

Jenson Button heads to this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix with a victory back in Melbourne.

“It would be an incredible achievement to win back-to-back titles with two different teams. As a champion, you want to retain your title; only 30 per cent of drivers do it. But it’s never easy, especially fighting against these exceptional drivers,”

“You always think the title might be on but it’s a long season. We don’t come away from Australia thinking we can win the next race in Malaysia on Sunday and it will be easy. It’s not like that,”

Jenson Button was quoted as saying.

Its amazing to consider that before the start of the 2009 season, Jenson Button had won only 1 race. Now that we are 2 races down in the 2009 season, this man has 3 races in his kitty. The race was abandoned after 31 laps after red flags were waived to stop the dangerous race in torrential rain. Later on the race could not be started as a lot of time had been wasted.

“What a crazy race, it really was,” said Jenson Button

“My start was really bad, I had a lot of oversteer and maybe I didn’t get enough heat in the rear tyres.

“Choosing the tyres here was difficult because unusually when it rains here it pours, but it didn’t.”

And what about Brawn GP, the new outfit is the 1st to win their 1st 2 races since Alfa Romeo who won their 1st 2 races in 1951.

After the race ended, half points were awarded to the top eight finishers as not enough of the race had finished, which is also happening only for the fifth time in formula one history.

Ferrari continued their overly dismal performance. After they had dominated practice the Tifosi were hoping that they would be stronger in the race. But Ferrari would only manage to get Kimi 16th place and Felipe Massa was DNF.

Nick Heidfeld was 2nd with an exceptional pit strategy. After being disqualified from the last race for lying, Lewis Hamilton finished 7th in the race, gaining a few places since the start.

Timo Glock for Toyota was 3rd.

Malaysia GP result – at the end of 31 laps

1.  BUTTON       Brawn
2.  HEIDFELD     BMW
3.  GLOCK        Toyota
4.  TRULLI       Toyota
5.  BARRICHELLO  Brawn
6.  WEBBER       Red Bull
7.  HAMILTON     McLaren
8.  ROSBERG      Williams
9.  MASSA        Ferrari
10. BOURDAIS     Toro Rosso    +1 lap
11. ALONSO       Renault       +1 lap
12. NAKAJIMA     Williams +1 lap
13. PIQUET       Renault +1 lap
14. RAIKKONEN    Ferrari +1 lap
15. VETTEL       Red Bull      +1 lap
16. BUEMI        Toro Rosso    +1 lap
17. SUTIL        Force India   +1 lap
18. FISICHELLA   Force India   +2 laps
R.  KUBICA       BMW           +30 laps
R.  KOVALAINEN   McLaren +31 laps

Fastest lap: Jenson Button,Brawn GP: 1m36.641s

Also if you are looking for Brawn GP Merchandise, including fan caps and T-shirts they are available at OnPole.com

Hi, Im Nico Rosberg, race driver for AT&T Williams. Today myself and Christian Danner are going to introduce you to the Sepang International Circuit.

Nico Rosberg and Christian Danner explain all tricky points on the Sepang International Circuit.

The week after a grand prix just blazes by, doesnt it.

At the post race press confrence Kimi Raikkonen was true to his nickname of the iceman. The flying Finn (sorry Mika Hakkinen ) calmly replied to questions about the ‘tough’ race and said that it wasn’t too bad in Malaysia. His teammate Felipe Massa meanwhile had to retire when he went onto the gravel earlier in the race on lap 32.During the last race it looked like Kimi was uncomfortable without the traction control, but it looks like Massa is more uncomfortable without the tractions control. Kimi ran an almost perfect race, he could have overtaken Felipe on the 1st lap itself but decided to hold back and let his pit strategy do the overtaking for him. He lapped exceptionally well during his in lap and that sheer pace made overtaking Massa look like a piece of cake.

Lewis Hamilton was sort of robbed of a possible podium finish when his pitstop didnt goto plan and his pitstop got extended due to a problem in one of his wheels. He eventually finished 5th His teammate however finished on the podium in third place. Robert Kubica of BMW meanwhile finished second putting in another strong performance for the BMW team. Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella got a nice 12th place finish much better than what most people would have expected from the ex-Spyker F1 team.

Final Result of the formula one Malaysian Grand Prix 2008

Ferrari came back with a bang this weekend bagging a cool 1-2 to get back into the game. Felipe Massa got the pole position with Kimi Raikkonen coming in behind his teammate.

Meanwhile McLaren on the other hand had a super bad session with both of its drivers being penalised for impeding other cars. Heiki Kovalainen was penalised for impeding Fernando Alonso’s Renault and Lewis Hamilton was penalised for impeding Nick Heidfeld’s BMW. Heidfeld was pretty open in his criticism of Lewis Hamilton , after hearing McLaren’s argument that they did the best they could, he had this to say to them :

“If they did the best that they could do, they didn’t do very well.”

“I was approaching my last lap on the option tyre and it would have been my quickest lap if not for the McLarens driving in the middle of the racing line at 80kmph.”  Heidfeld said

Earlier the FIA had released a statement that the McLarens were running slowly on the racing lines while other cars were on their flying laps and thats why they had been penalised.

As far as Force India goes, the difference between Sutil’s and Fisichella’s class was apparent, Fisichella clocked approximately one second faster that his teammate, Vijay Mallya’s decision to hire Giancarlo Fisichella seems to be a good one now.

The starting grid after the various disqualifications was :

A poor start by the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa was all that was needed by Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton to clinch their first McLaren 1-2 of the season.

Fernando Alonso to his Pit crew after winning :

“It’s been a tough week but thank you very much. We all did it.”

Felipe Massa thoroughly blew his chances when he went wide on the fifth lap( i think) while pursuing Lewis Hamilton. Lewis Hamilton drove pretty good and is look set to prove that Australia was not a fluke. He was able to hold off a charging Kimi Raikkonen during the dying moments of the race. And the hype around this young lad is just destined to grow more and more.

But must say Ferrari must be really disappointed with this debacle, after the excellent qualifying session yesterday, this was the last thing they needed. Lewis was driving much better than Massa and outraced him. The experienced Massa was showing nerves while the rookie Lewis Hamilton looked as cool as a cucumber. Lewis Hamilton also clocked the fastest lap of the race.
Nick Heidfeld in his BMW Sauber scored fourth place ahead of Felipe Massa. Nico Rosberg was unlucky with his Williams retiring on lap 44 with smoke pouring from his Engine, he was in 8th place when this happened. Williams surely have to sort their reliability issues.

Results from the 2007 FIA Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix, Sepang:

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, 1:36.701, lap 22 (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes)

Quote of the Day – Lewis Hamilton says he tricked Felipe Massa

“Felipe had a couple of moves but fortunately I was able to trick him into outbraking himself and get my car stopped,”

McLaren’s Rookie Lewis Hamilton.

Tricked Felipe Massa eh ?, With f1 drivers having egos as big as their engines, i can already see Felipe fuming and wanting a piece of Lewis at Bahrain where we head to now for round three of the Formula One 2007 season. The Bahrain Grand Prix is on the 15th of April !

Click here for the official Formula One Driver’s and Constructors championsip standings

First tomorrow’s telecast timings (Indian And Others) :

12:30 pm for India on Star Sports?

7:00 am GMT (calculate your local time from this)

In a keenly contested Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying,Ferrari F1′s Felipe Massa grabbed the pole position for the 2007 Malaysian Grand Prix. McLaren’s Fernando Alonso came 2nd in the qualifying just edging out Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton came fourth. The qualifying was quite uncertain with teams playing poker on whether it would rain or not. The competition was so fierce at the end, that hte top four positions were decided only after the session had ended and the drivers were on their final flying laps. Fernando had lapped an exceptional time early on in the session only to see it being quashed at the end.
Renault gave an extremely poor performance with both cars (Heiki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella) failing to qualify for the last qualifying session. BMW and Williams also gave good performances by clinching places in the top ten.
The Result of the 2007 Malaysian Grand Prix Qualifying :

Quotes from Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso :

Felipe Massa said :

“Melbourne didn’t finish as I expected but things look a little bit different here,” . “It was a great final lap and I tried to do everything that I could.

“McLaren were strong in qualifying and they will make us work harder for a good race tomorrow. Hopefully, I can fight very hard from the beginning to the end.”

Fernando Alonso said

“This week we have improved the car and have a much more competitive package,”

“Realistically our pace is not as good as the Ferraris but we hope to have a good fight with them and complete the job tomorrow. Everything seems to be going in the right direction.

Formula One rules state that engines must last atleast two f1 races, incase there is an unscheduled engine change , it results in a penalty of 10 places on the podium after the qualifying.

Jean Todt particularly was unhappy about the whole engine speculation.

“The whole story about the engine came from outside speculation and not from us,” said Jean Todt. “Yes, there seemed to be a problem with Kimi’s pipe which maybe lost a slight bit of water.

“After all the testing we saw nothing to demonstrate that we should change our preparations for the race or change the engine.”

For other Malaysian GP related news :
http://f1chronicles.com/category/races/malaysian-grand-prix/