This is the new livery that Sauber will race this season and the first impressions are, its looks fantastic! It reminds me of the classic 1993 car with the dark graphite style.

The C32 was revealed in an event at the team’s Hinwil headquarters in Switzerland. Sauber hopes that this new car will continue last season’s success – which included four podium finishes and sixth in the constructors’ championship – in the upcoming Formula 1 season.

Sauber team boss Monisha Kaltenborn said that given last year’s results, Sauber wanted to build on the previous car’s strong points rather than starting afresh.

“I’m very excited, but also a little tense,” she said. “The aim is very clear and simple: we want to continue to improve ourselves.

“The Sauber C32 is based on its predecessor, which was a very competitive car.

“It had a lot of strengths and some weaknesses, and our engineers have worked to build on those strengths and eliminate the weaknesses.”

Sauber also has an all-new driver line-up for 2013, with Nico Hulkenberg joining from Force India while the team’s test driver Esteban Gutierrez has been promoted to the race seat.

This is the new Formula 1 car that the Scuderia hopes it can mount a serious challenge in this season’s world championship.

Ferrari presented its F138 at Maranello and has been developed with the aid of the ex-Toyota windtunnel in Cologne following the team’s decision to shut down its own unit in order to upgrade it.

The F138, whose name is a combination of the current year and a tribute to the V8 engines that will be used for the final time this season, is the 59th Grand Prix single-seater produced by the Italian outfit.

Ferrari hopes that the new car will be quick and trouble-free following a dismal performance by its predecessor when it made its testing debut last year.

Despite the issue, the historic Italian outfit managed to stay in the championship fight until the end of 2012, with Fernando Alonso losing out to his Red Bull Racing rival Sebastian Vettel in the season finale in Brazil by three points.

For the fourth year in succession, Ferrari has retained the driving talent of the 2005/06 world champion Fernando Alonso with the 2008 runner-up Felipe Massa.

Team principal Stefano Domenicali described the car as an “evolution” of the car, which the team raced in 2012 and said it represented the “first step” in the team’s development for this year.

The F138 retains the pull-rod front and rear suspension used on last year’s car. According to the Scuderia, the car’s bodywork has been redesigned to improve its aerodynamic performance, a key weakness of recent Ferraris.

The Kinetic Energy Recovery System has been revised and lightened. However Ferrari stressed they are keen to repeat the high levels of reliability they enjoyed with the F2012.

After securing a one-year contract extension thanks to his resurgence in the second half of the 2012, Felipe Massa will have the unique opportunity to shakedown the F138 for the first time during testing at Jerez.

Two-time world champion Alonso will be partnered by Felipe Massa again this year after the Brazilian secured a one-year contract extension thanks to his resurgence in the second half of the season.

Let’s hope the new car will perform well and can challenge for race wins and possibly the drivers’ title in the upcoming season.

Force India unveiled its 2013 car at the home of the British Grand Prix with the VJM06.

The Silverstone-based team finished seventh in last season’s constructors’ championship, despite increasing their points haul and could have won in Brazil thanks to Nico Hulkenberg’s spirited drive at Interlagos.

Hulkenberg has now moved to Sauber for 2013, and Force India has yet to announce who will partner Paul di Resta during the upcoming Formula 1 season.

Frenchman Jules Bianchi had been strongly linked with the drive, but he was present at Maranello during the launch of the new Ferrari F138.

The new VJM06 car will be powered by Mercedes engines for the fifth consecutive time and had a brief shakedown run at Silverstone before heading off to Jerez for proper pre-season testing.

“I’m eager to feel what the car is all about. We’re giving it a short test today to get a bit of an idea,” said di Resta, who admitted it was hard to make predictions for 2013.

“I think it’s difficult to set yourself targets, especially at this point. It’s consistency and working the momentum to carry over from last year.

“That’s the focus, to have a car that gets into Q3 and put ourselves into strong positions.”

Technical director Andrew Green said the limited scope for innovation under the technical rules forced them to be more aggressive in their pursuit of performance.

“I’ve pushed the guys quite hard in areas that’s outside their comfort zone,” said Green. “It is under the skin, you can’t see it from here: rear suspension, front suspension, aerodynamics have all been pushed hard.

“I think the guys have done a really good job over the winter and the car is a step improvement from last year. The car should be a lot more consistent, should be a lot easier to drive. We’re looking forward to Jerez to see whether it does what it says on the tin.”

He added that the team’s focus in testing will be getting to the bottom of Pirelli’s new tyres for 2013: “The new tyres haven’t had too much of an impact on this year’s design. It’s been quite small, really.

“We’ve left ourselves a few options to look after the tyres and keep them in their optimum windows.

“What it will do is drive our winter test programme massively. Our focus in testing will be all around the tyres. It’s one thing we don’t really understand at the moment and we probably won’t until we start running them.

“Ever in winter testing it will be difficult to get the complete picture, running around Barcelona is not going to be the same as running in Melbourne.”

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes became the second Formula 1 team to unveil its 2013 challenger with a public launch at the McLaren Technology Centre.

The Woking-based squad finished last season’s 20-race campaign in third position in the constructors’ championship behind Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Ferrari, even though the team scored as many victories as the world champions.

It may had been the quickest car in 2012 but the lack of reliability played its part that cost the opportunity for both Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button the drivers’ title.

Hopefully the MP4-28 has stamped out these reliability issues and with a new driver line-up in the shape of Jenson Button and Sergio Perez (who joins from Sauber) for 2013, McLaren hopes it can challenge for the championship in the upcoming Formula One season.

“With Jenson and Checo, and this fantastic-looking new car, I believe we’re extremely well prepared for another competitive season,” said team principal Martin Whitmarsh.

“Jenson is driving better than ever – he’s the most experienced driver in Formula 1, but he makes every ounce of that experience count: he’s peerless in his ability to read a race and one of the very fastest drivers out there. He’s a consummate professional, too, and will revel in working hard to drive this team through the year.

“Checo joins us after a sensational 2012 season and he’s immediately proved that he’s intelligent, modest, hard-working and, make no mistake; very, very quick. Of course, there’ll be a learning curve to overcome as he gets used to our organisation, particularly during the hustle and bustle of the early-season race weekends, but he understands that we are placing no pressure on him.

“This is an exciting time for the whole team. In our 50th anniversary season, I want Vodafone McLaren Mercedes to underline why we are the finest grand prix team in the world.”

I must admit the new McLaren looks very similar to last season’s MP4-27 and yet the 2009 world champion insists that the MP4-28 has gone through enormous changes in the design.

“It is exactly the same colour scheme and I think it looks similar to last year, but it is completely different to last year under the skin,” he said.

“We know the regulations haven’t changed much since 2012 but it’s enough to make a difference.”

Let’s hope the difference is more than skin deep once the MP4-28 hits the track during the first week of testing at Jerez.

Watch the build-up to the launch of the new car including classic McLarens like the the M8D Can-Am sportscar, the 1974 M23, the Le Mans-winning F1 GTR and the MP4-13 from 1998.

Lotus F1 Team became the first outfit to unveil their 2013 race car for the upcoming Formula 1 season.

The E21 was revealed to the public via a live video broadcast on the team’s official YouTube channel, with an estimated 12,000+ viewers keenly excited to see the new car.

It must be said that the new E21 looks very similar to last year’s car, it even has the stepped nose! Although a splash of red indicating the new sponsors against the black and gold livery works quite well in my opinion.

Technical director James Allison said that while the E21 looked outwardly similar to its predecessor, it had undergone plenty of changes.

“There is a lot gone into it and it is going to be an exciting car,” he said. “The rules for 2013 are very, very similar to 2012 so you can expect a lot of family resemblance from the 2012 car, but the devil is in the detail and it adds up to a significant amount of performance.

“There are lots of new ideas and same concepts we have been pushing on with for a few years.”

Team principal Eric Boullier hopes the E21 will bring success in this season’s campaign with the squad aiming a target in finishing the constructors’ championship in the top three.

Lotus have retained the 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean for this season’s world championship and the pair will start their second year as team-mates.

Also unchanged is the team’s engine supplier Renault. This is the second car produced by the team since become the works Lotus outfit in 2012.

The E21 chassis name signifies the outfit’s twenty-first car produced by the Enstone team after racing in four different identities over the last couple of decades: Toleman, Benetton, Renault and Lotus.

It’s going to be fascinating to see how well the new Lotus E21 goes in pre-season testing in Spain. Will we see another race victory for Kimi Raikkonen after winning in Abu Dhabi last year?

As for Romain Grosjean, he has been given a second opportunity in Formula One despite his countless first-lap crashing including that massive startline pile-up at Spa-Francorchamps that earned him a race ban.

Close-up on the new Lotus E21 video:

This season of Formula One racing has been sensational. Six world champions on the grid, with eight drivers winning races – making history as the first seven Grand Prix were won by different people – and not forgetting the six teams who took the honour of winning such prestige events.

And yet in the end, it was the familiar result of Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing taking the Drivers’ and Constructors’ world titles, for the third consecutive year. An impressive achievement despite a demanding 20-race schedule.

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Jenson Button ended an epic Formula One season with his 15th win of the season after a thrilling wet and dry Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos.

As for the championship battle between Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso, the Red Bull driver was able to win his third drivers’ title becoming the youngest ever triple Formula One champion in the sport’s history.

Vettel was able to finish in sixth position despite suffering significant damage on his RB8 on the opening lap. His title rival Alonso battled to second place in the dramatic wet/dry race, which was led for a quite a period by Nico Hulkenberg until the Force India clashed with Lewis Hamilton.

Despite Vettel getting involved in a first-lap crash and suffering a pitstop delay, the German was able to recover sufficiently to ensure that even Alonso’s runner-up finish could not deny the Red Bull driver a third title. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa took a solid third in his race.

Vettel’s race had immediately become more complicated as a tentative start and first corner in drizzly conditions dropped him to seventh spot, while Alonso swept around the outside to move up to fifth.

Then as the pack jostled into the Descida do Lago, Vettel made heavy contact with Bruno Senna, spinning the Red Bull and also collecting Sergio Perez.

It was heart in the mouth moment with Vettel facing the wrong way down the track. In fact, the Red Bull driver did not appear to see Senna’s car alongside and the pair made contact (twice!).

The impact damaged the bodywork around Vettel’s exhaust and Red Bull was concerned it would overheat. But Vettel was able to continue – albeit now down in P22.

While the Sauber and Williams were both out, Vettel was amazingly able to continue. He then charged up through the field and was up to seventh place by lap eight.

Meanwhile Alonso was on a mission by taking a potentially title-clinching third by diving past Felipe Massa and Mark Webber in a single move as they battled into the Senna S.

But an error at the same corner two laps later meant Alonso lost a position to Hulkenberg, who had quickly dismissed Webber and Massa in a blistering early charge.

The McLarens still led at this stage, with Button all over Hamilton as the rain steadily increased.

The worsening conditions prompted everyone except Button and Hulkenberg to head into the pits for intermediates tyres.

That initially put Alonso and Vettel down to P12 and P17 respectively, although they were both back in the top five within five laps thanks to a combination of bold overtaking and others pitting.

While up front, Force India’s incredible performance continued as Hulkenberg edged up behind Button before passing down the outside into the Senna S on lap 19.

By that time the pair were in a class of their own. They had been left 45 seconds clear once the rest of the field went for intermediates, and with the shower passing, their rivals were all now having to stop.

Hulkenberg began to pull away, but debris was littering various corners from earlier incidents, and when Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes picked up a puncture the decision was made to call out the safety car.

At the restart on lap 29, Hulkenberg led Button, Hamilton, Alonso, Vettel, Kobayashi and Webber. Kobayashi and Webber immediately pounced on Vettel, although Webber ran out of track at the Senna S and went over the run-off.

Kobayashi’s charge soon took him past Alonso to fourth, although the Ferrari did not take long to regain the position, whereas Vettel had no answer to the Sauber.

Massa, who lost track positions by staying on slicks for far too long and going to intermediates late, completed a recovery charge by passing both Vettel and Kobayashi to slot into fifth behind team-mate Alonso, who could not stay with the top three.

Hamilton overtook Button for second shortly after the restart, but Hulkenberg appeared comfortable in the lead until lap 49, when a half-spin at the Bico do Pato let the McLaren through.

Hulkenberg did not let the McLaren escape, and as they jostled through traffic on lap 54, the Force India slipped ahead into the Senna S, only to slide into a spin and hit Hamilton.

Despite bouncing onto two wheels, Hulkenberg was able to continue in second behind Button, although he did pick up a drive-through penalty for causing the clash. Hamilton had to retire and so ends his time driving for McLaren.

The return of the rain was a factor in the incident, and as the track became slippery again, everyone opted for intermediates. Vettel was among the first to pit, but the team was not ready, leading to a long delay.

He was rapidly able to get back up to sixth, which was sufficient even with Alonso getting up to second thanks to the Hulkenberg/Hamilton tangle and some assistance from Massa, whose well-timed intermediate switch had got him ahead of his team-mate.

The race then came to a slightly underwhelming conclusion as Paul di Resta crashed heavily on the pits straight kink and brought out the safety car with a lap to go.

That clinched the win for Button, and meant that despite Ferrari’s double podium finish; Vettel’s sixth position gave him the championship triple by a three-point margin.

Webber recovered from a variety of adventures, including an early clash with Kobayashi, to take fourth ahead of Hulkenberg and Vettel.

Michael Schumacher claimed seventh in the final race of his Formula One career, despite a late brush of wheels with Kobayashi, who consequently spun to ninth behind Jean-Eric Vergne.

Superb underdog performances in the treacherous early laps led to Caterhams, Marussias and HRTs all appearing in the top ten, with Heikki Kovalainen and Timo Glock as high as sixth and seventh.

The battle ultimately came down to Charles Pic versus Vitaly Petrov for P12, with the Russian battling past the Frenchman to give Caterham tenth in the constructors’ championship in what became eleventh when di Resta crashed.

But for that incident, Daniel Ricciardo was set to pass both Pic and Petrov, which would have given Marussia tenth place back again.

Raikkonen had a wild afternoon, starting when he nearly wiped out Vettel moments before the Senna tangle, and also including a long excursion at Juncao where the Lotus driver tried to use an access road to rejoin only to encounter a closed gate. He finished in P10.

Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado’s eventful years came to messy ends with both crashing in the opening laps.

And so ends a thrilling race to an exciting season of Formula One racing. Vettel’s race engineer Guillaume Rocquelin admitted he feared his driver’s title hopes were lost after the first-lap crash. But an error-free recovery drive of measured aggression gained Vettel a deserved third title by the narrow margin of three points.

Both he and Alonso deserve praise for their efforts and achievements this year. Alonso once again wrung all he could from his Ferrari and it’s doubtful he could have finished higher.

If a championship is valued by the quality of the opposition a driver faces, then Sebastian Vettel can count this triumph as his greatest so far.

Brazilian Grand Prix, race results after 71 laps:

1.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           1h45:22.656
2.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +2.754
3.  Massa         Ferrari                    +3.615
4.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +4.936
5.  Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes       +5.708
6.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +9.453
7.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +11.907
8.  Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +28.653
9.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +31.250
10.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault              +1 lap
11.  Petrov        Caterham-Renault           +1 lap
12.  Pic           Marussia-Cosworth          +1 lap
13.  Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
14.  Kovalainen    Caterham-Renault           +1 lap
15.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +1 lap
16.  Glock         Marussia-Cosworth          +2 laps
17.  De la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth               +2 laps
18.  Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth               +2 laps
19.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +3 laps

Fastest lap: Hamilton, 1:18.069

Not classified/retirements:

Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes             55 laps
Grosjean      Lotus-Renault                6 laps
Maldonado     Williams-Renault             2 laps
Senna         Williams-Renault             1 lap
Perez         Sauber-Ferrari               1 lap

Final World Championship standings, round 20:

Drivers:
1.  Vettel       281
2.  Alonso       278
3.  Raikkonen    207
4.  Hamilton     190
5.  Button       188
6.  Webber       179
7.  Massa        122
8.  Grosjean      96
9.  Rosberg       93
10.  Perez         66
11.  Hulkenberg    63
12.  Kobayashi     60
13.  Schumacher    49
14.  Di Resta      46
15.  Maldonado     45
16.  Senna         31
17.  Vergne        16
18.  Ricciardo     10

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          460
2.  Ferrari                   400
3.  McLaren-Mercedes          378
4.  Lotus-Renault             303
5.  Mercedes                  142
6.  Sauber-Ferrari            126
7.  Force India-Mercedes      109
8.  Williams-Renault           76
9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         26

Lewis Hamilton heads a McLaren front row in the all-important championship decider at Interlagos, denying his team-mate Jenson Button to pole position.

As for the title rivals Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso, the Red Bull driver will start the Brazilian Grand Prix in fourth position while his Ferrari-powered opponent could only manage eighth.

Neither Vettel nor Alonso looked like they had the speed to fight for pole as McLaren took charge of Q3.

Hamilton and Button were fastest after the first runs, with Alonso in fifth at that stage while a mistake at the Descida do Lago left Vettel only sixth.

Both improved on their next qualifying runs, but Alonso’s gains were only marginal. The Spaniard held fourth, only to be demoted to eighth as others improved. His German rival was right down in tenth position at that stage, but was at least able to salvage fourth.

Meanwhile his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber briefly deposed the McLarens at the head of the order, before Hamilton and Button’s final laps thrust them back to the top, 0.055 seconds apart.

Behind the McLarens and Red Bulls, Felipe Massa outqualified Alonso for the second time in the space of seven days as he claimed fifth.

Pastor Maldonado’s Williams and the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg also found themselves ahead of the championship contenders as they took sixth and seventh.

The final top ten spots went to the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen and Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes.

Competing in his final qualifying session, Michael Schumacher recorded a disappointing result for himself and the team with only P14. Half a second down on his team-mate Rosberg. Not the ideal way to celebrate the end of his ‘second’ Formula One career.

Paul di Resta again struggled to match Force India team-mate Hulkenberg’s qualifying form too, ending up missing the Q3 cut in P11.

Also out in Q2 were Williams’s Bruno Senna, both Saubers and both Toro Rossos.

Romain Grosjean was knocked out in Q1 in dramatic fashion. The Lotus made contact with Pedro de la Rosa’s HRT on the start/finish straight when he tried to squeeze past the slower car as they passed the pit entry.

Grosjean brushed the barriers and was left with a mangled front wing, and although he did make it back out and do a lap that brought him back inside the cut-off, Daniel Ricciardo pushed him down to P18 moments later.

Vitaly Petrov narrowly beat Caterham team-mate Heikki Kovalainen to P19, the duo lapping half a second clear of Timo Glock’s Marussia.

Despite weather dominating conversation this weekend, the only rain of the afternoon came half an hour before the qualifying. That meant early Q1 laps were on intermediates, but the track was fully dry before the opening segment was over.

However rain is heading towards Sao Paulo on race day and it will be fascinating to see what kind of unexacting results will fall on Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso following their less than ideal qualifying positions.

Qualifying times for the Brazilian Grand Prix, Interlagos:

1.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m12.458s
2.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m12.513s
3.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m12.581s
4.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m12.760s
5.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m12.987s
6.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m13.174s
7.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1m13.206s
8.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m13.253s
9.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m13.298s
10.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m13.489s
11.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m14.121s
12.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     1m14.219s
13.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m14.234s
14.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m14.334s
15.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m14.380s
16.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m14.574s
17.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m14.619s
18.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m16.967s
19.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1m17.073s
20.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1m17.086s
21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth    1m17.508s
22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1m18.104s
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m19.576s
24.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1m19.699s

107 per cent time: 1m20.330s