Do you like Jolyon Palmer? Then Good News! for you as Jolyon has a new job as a commentator for BBC's 5Live F1 coverage.  Don't like Jolyon Palmer - well, he's still got a new job as a commentator for BBC's 5Live F1 coverage.

It's in the rules - constructors can't make their customers run different software packages or downgraded engines compared to their works teams - but they still appear to allow previous year engines to be run.

Organizers at the Russian GP admit that the track isn't necessarily conducive to good racing and are talking to the FIA about how to change that - hint, they're not cancelling the race or ripping out the track and starting over.

Red Bull, Sauber, Renault, Mercedes, Ferrari, and McLaren all held their car launches this week, and Toro Rosso had images of their car leak early.

Have Ferrari and Phillip Morris figured out how to get tobacco based products advertised on an F1 car again?

Force India insists that despite the rumors this past week, they're not for sale.

We've finally gotten some details on what F1 coverage will look like in the US for 2018 - it'll look a lot like the coverage from Sky Sports - as they'll be supplying the race commentary for ESPN and ABC.  It's not clear if we'll be getting the Pre- and Post- race coverage from Sky, and we also don't know what the streaming offering will be either.  Hopefully we'll get more details soon.

At 10 races this season you might have the chance to ride around the track in an Aston Martin driven by either Max Verstappen or Daniel Ricciardo, or a McLaren 720s driven by either Stoffel Vandoorne, Fernando Alonso, Mika Hakkinen, or Lando Norris.

Zak Brown said that McLaren felt that they needed to keep Grand Prix Driver authentic and air the dirty laundry that came up during the filming - and we agree with him and applaud the team for their openness. Zak also says that more sponsors are coming to McLaren soon.

Sauber (aka AlFaub or AlFauber) thinks that Ferrari is providing them with the support they need to challenge Force India as the "giant killer" of the series.

Valtteri Bottas says that after driving a race distance in the simulator with the halo that it's not too bad.

Gene Haas is trying to clarify Gunther Steiner's comments about American drivers..

Haas and Williams both revealed their 2018 F1 contenders.

IndyCar wants to test the aeroscreen on a street course.

Cosworth is interested in returning to IndyCar - with a partner.

And WEC promoter the Automobile de l'Ouest is putting LMP1 teams on notice - if they managed to beat the sole manufacturer team left in the sport, Toyota,  that penalties will be handed out.

The 2018 Bloke & A Bird Show Motorsports Calendar is coming soon - we promise...

The next round of the Formula E Championship will be held in Mexico City - and the proceeds from the race are being donated to the reconstruction efforts from the earthquake last year.

Daniel Abt thinks there's cheating in the Fanboost system in Formula E - while Alejandro Agog the CEO of the sport says that there is no cheating...

IndyCar's new aerokit has hit the track for the first official time - and it seems that it's leading to increased tire wear.

IndyCar also tested the aeroscreen concept of a windscreen for cockpit head protection.  Scott Dixon doesn't think it was all that bad.

The organizers of the Six hours of Fuji race have moved the race a week earlier in the month to allow Fernando Alonzo to compete, and McLaren insists that Fernando is on loan to Toyota and only there to race.

Grid Girls are gone - now we have Grid Kids.

All that money that Williams is getting from Sergey Sirotkin - possibly will be going towards car development.

The FIA is tweaking the rules regarding the engines to make it harder to squeeze out extra performance.

McLaren won't have any influence on Renault's engines for a few years.

Mercedes has replaced Hugo Boss with Tommy Hilfiger as their team wear sponsor.

McLaren has signed Dell as their new sponsor and technology partner.

Haas has a sponsor! WOOT!

Kyalami says that F1 needs to be more attractive financially in order for them to host a race.

We discuss the Amazon short series Grand Prix Driver.

And finally - we want your questions for the 2018 prediction show...

Just a reminder - Amazon's tell all documentary about the start of McLaren's 2017 season "Grand Prix Driver" premiers on Feb 9.  Let us know what you think of it...

Formula E has revealed their next generation car - which features the range to make it through an entire Formula E race without require a change of cars... oh and it has a halo too... 

IndyCar also showed us the first view of their aeroscreen, which will make it's debut in testing this week...

Fernando Alonso's debut in endurance racing - saw him finish in 23rd, but he'll be joining the Toyota Gazoo Racing WEC team for the entire WEC season with the exception of Fuji, but that may change... Oh and he's still driving in F1....

Grid girls are no longer a part of Formula 1, and both Bernie Ecclestone and Niki Lauda agree with the decision.

Do you watch the UK's Channel 4 coverage? They'll be showing the races in Bahrain, Azerbaijan, Monaco, Austria, Britain,  Belgium, Singapore, Japan, the US, and Abu Dhabi live.  The remaining races will be live on Sky Sports F1 and highlight packages on Channel 4.  There's still no word on what the US coverage will look like.

Race starts have officially been shifted back 10 minutes and now we know why.

It looks like an F1 Live event will be coming to Miami this year!

Haas is talking to an unknown driver for a development role.

Rubens Barrichello is recovering from a stay in the hospital.

David Coulthard has won the 2018 Race of Champions.

It's a quiet week in the F1 world this week, but there's still motorsports action this week with drivers from F1, IndyCar and other series participating in IMSA's Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.

Zak Brown was playing down his team's (and Fernando Alonso's) chances for a win, and indeed as we record it's looking unlikely that the United Autosports #23 will get a victory this weekend.

Zak also says what we said last week - with limited testing time, it's hard for a driver that's not in a "traditional" F1 feeder series to break into F1.

One hour - that's how long Frederic Vasseur was in charge of Sauber before he ripped up the team's 2018 engine supply deal with Honda.

Charlie Whiting inspected Holland's Assen TT circuit and think that it's close to receiving a Grade 1 certification.

The Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya was repaved over the winter - and it could cause a problem for Winter Testing.

T wings are banned for 2018 - but we could still see t wings in 2018.

Remember when Sauber and Force India filed a complaint with the EU alleging that FOM was unfair? They dropped that complaint last week.

Williams has announced their car launch date.

Could we see a Manor F1 team again? (hint probably not)

And Niki Lauda owns an airline again....

This week we start off with the news that American racing legend Dan Gurney passed away.  We take a look at the impact that Dan had on motorsports - it was more than just driving a car and winning some races...

Sir Stirling Moss is retiring from public life.

Changes are coming to F1 cars in 2019- to make it easier to place advertising on the cars.

Williams has finalized their driver line up.

Christian Horner spoke to Daniel Ricciardo about favoritism at the team - and says that there is none.

IndyCar drivers take issue with Haas' Gunther Steiner declaring that there are no American drivers ready to move into F1.

Mercedes realizes that maybe have two drivers pushing each other so hard that it causes public controversy might not be a great idea.

Cosworth wants to work with Aston Martin on an F1 engine.

We have a date for McLaren, Toro Rosso and Mercedes car launches.

And an icon of NHRA announces that they're closing their 1/4 mile drag strip. 

This week we're looking ahead to the 2018 season - so what's coming for 2018:

Circuit Paul Ricard is concerned about travel delays around the French Grand Prix

Pat Simmonds says that Formula One Group is looking at potential changes to grid formation

Could F1 be headed to Copenhagen?

A new merchandise scheme is coming to F1 races, and we're not as critical of it as the press seems to be.

Could a digital ticker be coming to the halo? We doubt it.

Zak Brown promises some great things coming to F1's media presence, and some big changes to the 2018 McLaren.

That Amazon show about McLaren we talked about early last year - there's now a release date, look for it on Feb 9.

Toto Wolf says that Pascal Wherlin may not have an F1 seat but he still has a job.

Ferrari has hired - Daniel Kyviat

Force India has cash - so they're upgrading their facilities.

Pirelli doesn't want a tire war and Cosworth says they need a partner if they're going to return to F1.

We take a look at the new technical and sporting regulations.

And finally we talk about the movie Williams - you can stream it over on Netflix.

Haas is open to being rebranded like Sauber was, and they admit that they shifted their focus to 2018 a little too early in the season.

Sergio Marchionne says that Kimi Raikonnen has one last chance to drive better.

Ferrari announce the reveal dates for their 2018 car - which has passed crash testing.

Mercedes and Valtteri Bottas want you to design Valterri's 2018 helmet.

Lewis is in a bit of trouble over an Instagram video.

Niki Lauda says that Mercedes pushed Red Bull into signing a contract with Max Verstappen.

Force India thinks that Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez will be better behaved on track.

Honda's back up plan for 2018 - their 2017 engine.

Could the Nurburgring host F1 again?

Over in IndyCar, talks will start later this year over a new chassis possibly in 2021.

IndyCar wants a third manufacturer to join the series, and wants international races to kick off the season.

And Honda doesn't want turbo hybrid engines like F1 has to come to IndyCar - surprised?

It's our last show of the year - and once again our Christmas present to all of you is a break from us!

This week - IndyCar has a new team.

Honda is relieved that they don't have McLaren as a partner.

McLaren was concerned that Honda's problems could cause problems with staffing.

Oh - and the head of Honda's F1 Development team, has been given a new role at Honda...

Toro Rosso speaks well of Daniel Kyviat.

We answer who Sergey Sirotkin is.

Williams and Force India review their performance last year.

Renault has a goal for pre-season testing - don't break down so much...

And we talk about grid girls....

Wondering why we didn't talk about all the news that happened two weeks ago...  Well, wonder no more because we catch up on what we didn't discuss.

But first, last weekend was the opening race of the 2017/18 Formula E series and the debut race for the Audi Sport Formula team looked promising until it all fell apart...

Alexander Rossi tells Connor Daly to get a job... and he kind of changes teams.

Mexico City won't be getting an IndyCar race in 2018

The FIA launches it's Hall of Fame

There could be a decrease in F1 prize money for a few years.

Chase Carey says F1 needs to change - and maybe it will start with track design.

What won't change are the engine restrictions for 2018.

Alfa Romeo is returning to F1 on the back of Sauber.

Lance Stroll is going to Daytona...

Could F1 be coming to Miami?

Mark Webber has a new job.

Jean Todt has the same job.

And Carmen Jorda has a new job too...

This week is a short show.  We recorded it earlier in the week which is why we don't mention the Alfa Romeo / Sauber announcements.  But the whole point of this week's show is to review our predictions for the season and see how close we were...

You'll have to listen to find out who the winner was, and we promise there's no angry Sebastian Vettel audio all show...

We're sorry about last week, we fully planned on doing a show but we just ran out of weekend.

This week - the final week of the 2017 Formula 1 season:

The FIA refunded the entry fees for defunct Manor Racing Team

Force India may not become Force One for 2018

Could Formula 1 be getting a new logo?

Ross Brawn thinks that cheaper turbos are the way to avoid grid penalties for engine issues.

Ferrari is why we'll see more grid penalties next year - and Christian Horner is pissed.

Niki Lauda says some stupid things.

360 degree cameras will be coming to F1 cars next year.

The halo is a design problem.

Could Sauber be the path for Alfa Romeo to return to F1?

The crime is so bad in Sao Paulo Brazil that Pirelli cancelled the tire test scheduled for the week after the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Pirelli has released the details on next year's tires - and if we lose our clean rating it's Pirelli's fault.

Want to be an e-racing driver? And drive for Fernando Alonso? Now you can!

It's been a while since this has happened, but the weekend got away from us again and we ran out of time to record and edit a show this week...

The Constructor's Championship is settled and so is the Driver's Championship - so now what?

There's still drama to get us through the final two races of the season -

Could Lewis Hamilton be in some trouble over his prized jet and a VAT refund?

Yet again a team is held up while driving near the Interlagos circuit.

Changes this weekend to both the track and the Blue Flag system.

Toro Rosso and Renault have engaged in a slap fight...

Lewis Hamilton gets in a big wreck, and Felipe Massa is annoyed at Carlos Sainz Jr..

The League of Super Evil met this week - it seems that there's some confusion over the future of the shark fins.

Chase Carey says that a cost cap looks promising

Robert Kubica will test in a Williams - yet again.

Pirelli is looking to add yet another tire compound for next year.

And Marseille will be getting an F1 festival of their very own...

Well, the 2017 title battles are completely wrapped up, and while it looked like this year the storylines might be different in the end it was more of the same:

• Mercedes walks off with another Constructors Title
• A Mercedes driver wins the Drivers Championship
• And Ferrari falls apart in the last half of the season.

It was a thrilling start the the race in Mexico City though, and Ferrari hasn't completely imploded yet....

Fernando Alonso thinks that Lewis Hamilton had it easy this season... The rest of the world probably thinks otherwise.

Renault admits it probably pushed too much in Mexico City - and NBCSN - there were TWO Renault powered cars that finished the race, NOT ONE!

Felipe Massa is retiring at the end of the season... No, really...  No he really is....

Brendon Hartley almost ended up in IndyCar.

Bernie Ecclestone says that Mercedes is helping Ferrari with engine development - the response from the rest of F1 -why are we still listening to this guy?

McLaren is really excited for next year - because honestly, it can't get much worse than this year...

Buckle your seatbelts folks, this show is going everywhere this week.  We tried to put stuff in something that resembles order but even still we jump around quite a bit.

To start with, Circuit of the Americas wants an IndyCar race - and probably won't get one.  Josef Newgarden wants to drive in F1, but the American Team doesn't seem to want to give him a chance...

F1 went to Reddit to ask fans what we want from the sport - and the fans told F1 that we want to have streaming video, access to more of F1's video, access to more data, and that we'd be willing to pay for that.  Sean Bratches was listening because in the US at least we'll probably be seeing a new streaming service next year.

F1 has heard the complaints about the halo, and they're acting...  If they change the name it will make it all better right?

Oh, and expect to see F1 Live type of events coming to more cities in 2018 - our hope is that they remember that there's more to the host country of a race than just the city that the race is hosted in...

Could four wheel drive cars be coming? Maybe Friday practice will go away?

Pierre Gasley didn't win the Superformula series - but it wasn't his fault.

Brendan Hartley revealed how he got the job at Toro Rosso. His welcome to the team was a 50 page operations manual, and he had some helmet difficulties in his first sessions.

Daniel Kyviat is officially "terminated" by Toro Rosso.

Fernando Alonso will stay at McLaren for another year, and will drive in the Rolex 24 Hour race in Daytona next year.

Renault says that they're months ahead in their reliability efforts for 2018, which was of no comfort to Toro Rosso.

Sebastian Vettel had a difficult set of practice sessions for Mexico.

Williams almost got a pretty large fine for being late, and it's not the first time either.

Max Verstappen is still angry about how the USGP ended.

Daniel Riccardo didn't know that Max had a better engine.

McLaren is open to keeping Jenson Button around as an ambassador.

And Bernie Ecclestone is taking his toys and going to Switzerland...

No show next week - somebody booked a trip without consulting the F1 calendar.  Some of us are just as disappointed as you are...

Jolyon Palmer is out of a job - Renault managed to talk Red Bull into giving up Carlos Sainz Jr before the season ended.  Carlos will be wearing yellow in Austin.

Could Jolyon go to Williams? We think he's "mathematically eligible" for the seat.

Daniel Kvyat is back at Toro Rosso - but is he taking his old seat, Carlos Sainz Jr's seat, or Pierre Gasly's seat? Pierre won't be in Austin but will finish up the Super Formula series in Suzuka that week.

Roman Grosjean stirred up some trouble in the drivers meeting in Suzuka last week - but it's not clear what his issue was.

Sebastian Vettel got another reprimand from the stewards - one more and he's facing a grid penalty.

Team orders are staying at Force India for now.

Bernie Ecclestone (remember him?) thinks Williams should hire Robert Kubica.

F1 wants a race in Holland - but not at the track.

And the 2018 IndyCar challenge is out - and the series is going to Portland, just don't ask us which one...

First off, a big congratulations to Allan McNish on his new role as Team Principal for the Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler Formula E Team.

NBCSN has announced that they did not renew their broadcast deal with Formula 1 for 2018, followed a few hours later by an announcement from ESPN that they are the sport's new broadcast partner for 2018.  Before you go celebrating - we're not sure this means that we'll get better F1 coverage in the US, and its possible that things may get worse.

It's been confirmed that Renault has hired the former head of the FIA's technical department, and Renault has agreed to further delay his start date - we'll see if that eases the concerns over their new employee.

The grid penalties started coming in for this weekend's race long before the race weekend started.

The Formula 1 Vietnamese Grand Prix? Yeah we're not sure about that either.

And there's a change coming to F1 next year that sounds simple but is actually pretty neat.

After a week away we're back and just in time for another round of action...

First up is confirmation that there will be a Mexican Grand Prix this year..

Get ready for even more engine penalties for 2018.

F1 is testing 360 degree cameras.

The head of the FIA's technical section for F1 has resigned, and is reportedly headed to Renault and the rest of the F1 paddock isn't happy.

A couple bribed a security guard to get their picture taken on the track in Singapore - or did they?

Honda says McLaren is resistant to change

That big wreck in Singapore...  It made Fernando Alonso really angry

There was a race in Malaysia where nobody finished

And Lewis Hamilton has another Lightning McQueen moment

Singapore weekend is shaping up to be all about confirmations and yet more rumors.

What we know:

Singapore will continue to host a Grand Prix until at least 2021

Nico Rosberg is joining Robert Kubica's management team

Carlos Sainz Jr is being "loaned" to Renault for 2018

Jolyon Palmer will not be driving for Renault for 2018

Toro Rosso has a "multi-year" deal to become the Honda works team.

McLaren is dropping Honda from 2018 for a 3 year deal with Renault

Sergio Perez has a one year deal to continue driving for Force India

Valteri Bottas has a one year deal to continue driving for Mercedes

Fernando Alonso doesn't yet have a contract with McLaren for 2018

What we don't know

Who will be driving at Toro Rosso for 2018

If Red Bull will still be a customer of Renault in 2018

If Red Bull has a new title sponsor in Aston Martin