Author: Giles Richards

• Chief executive says fans don’t care about technology

• Season may finish in Europe due to war in Middle East

Stefano Domenicali has issued a stout rebuttal to critics of Formula One’s current regulations, claiming most fans are enjoying the sport more than ever and are unconcerned by driver complaints.

The Formula One chief executive also confirmed that this season finale would be staged in Europe if the last two grands prix, in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, are called off due to the Middle East war.

Continue reading...

As the paddock disperses for its traditional mid-season three-week break, the race is on to catch Kimi Antonelli

Mercedes came into the season as favourites and have lived up to the billing. Their car has been dominant with eight wins from 11 meetings, a strike rate greater perhaps even than the team had expected. Despite the rather skewed conclusions of the Aduo engine assessment, which declared the Red Bull the cream of the crop (on the basis of internal combustion output rather than overall capacity) the Mercedes power unit as a whole, including the hybrid electrical element which is now so vital, is without doubt the class of the field.

Continue reading...

Computer-controlled energy deployment now dictates races – it turns out drivers don’t like Skynet controlling their cars

Another race down another classic circuit, in this case Spa-Francorchamps, left neutered for drivers and so their slow, dissonant discontent rumbles ever onward. In the wake of the Belgian Grand Prix, there was an overwhelming sense they wished to simply escape. Not so much from Spa but away from the numbers.

George Russell was at the centre of attention in Belgium, the Mercedes driver’s championship hopes taking a severe blow as, inexplicably to him and his team, his engine did not recover energy through turn one and he was left with no electrical power to deploy. He was swallowed up by the Ferraris and vying with Lewis Hamilton, who clipped him through Les Combes, was pitched out of the race.

Continue reading...

• Russell clipped by Hamilton on lap one after power loss

• British driver 50 points behind Antonelli in standings

Toto Wolff, the Mercedes principal, has admitted the team let George Russell down. The British driver failed to score a point at the Belgian Grand Prix after a clash with Lewis Hamilton which Russell attributed squarely to his car’s performance not being up to scratch.

The race at Spa was won by Russell’s teammate, Kimi Antonelli, who now leads Russell by 50 points in the world championship, a serious blow to the British driver’s title hopes.

Continue reading...

• Russell out on opening lap after clash with Hamilton

• Antonelli has 50-point lead on Mercedes teammate

Kimi Antonelli won the Belgian Grand Prix for Mercedes with a cool, assured drive but his title rival and teammate George Russell was left distraught after his championship challenge suffered another serious blow when he was knocked out on the opening lap after a clash with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.

Antonelli was in control at the front and delivered a commanding drive including coming back at Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who finished second, after the Monegasque driver had gained the lead through the pit stops. The win was assuredly deserved but the race was notable because of Russell’s retirement, for which the British driver took aim at his Mercedes team and what he sees as his car’s weakness.

Continue reading...

• Russell will share second ​row with Ferrari’s Leclerc

• Norris ‌third fastest ‌but has a 10-place grid penalty

Kimi Antonelli has suffered a run of no little bad luck of late, but the Italian teenager demonstrated it had left him entirely unfazed as he produced a dominant lap to secure pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix.

The 19-year-old’s composure and control at Spa-Francorchamps on Saturday was something to behold as he flew round the circuit in the Ardennes mountains with ease, comfortably beating the Red Bull of Max Verstappen into second place. Notable was the manner in which he did so given Verstappen had benefited from having a tow from his teammate, Isack Hadjar, who willingly sacrificed his laps given he had a 30-place grid penalty to come.

Continue reading...

Antonelli’s lead in the F1 drivers’ standings looked insurmountable after Monaco, but now Russell is potentially within one race win of wiping it out

Squaring off at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, Formula One’s leading title protagonists Kimi Antonelli and George Russell are embroiled in an increasingly tense head to head.

The 19-year-old Antonelli appeared to have an iron grip on the lead, having secured five straight victories, the last at Monaco, after which he enjoyed a 68-point lead over Russell. However, with Antonelli enduring some bad luck during the past three rounds and Russell taking a strong win in Austria, that gap has reduced to 25 points. A seemingly insurmountable chasm has suddenly become all too bridgeable and with it the title race is on again.

Continue reading...

Fans were denied thrilling finale as Charles Leclerc won behind safety car but there are no easy solutions

The British Grand Prix ending under the safety car and denying a potentially thrilling finale was a controversial, but also complicated incident. It raised issues from the sport’s past and questions over what it may yet address for the future.

The Silverstone victor, Charles Leclerc, of course said he would rather have done it in more style than with taking the flag behind the safety car. The scenario does not happen often, but whenever it does, almost no one finds it a satisfactory way to conclude a race.

Continue reading...

• Ferrari driver qualifies first ahead of Kimi Antonelli

• Hamilton: ‘I love this place, I love this crowd’

Lewis Hamilton gave the home crowd reason to roar as he took pole position for the sprint race at the British Grand Prix for Ferrari, beating the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli into second, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in third.

The pole for the short format race to be held on Saturday morning at Silverstone must be considered somewhat against the odds, as Ferrari had been expected to be somewhat on the back foot to Mercedes, at the power dominated track.

Continue reading...

Partnerships with Aston Martin, Red Bull and Haas mean students have a rare chance to make it in F1 after graduation

Unnoticeable amid the spectacle and heaving crowds at the British Grand Prix this weekend, the school that overlooks the circuit is a definitive success story and will continue its contribution to Formula One well into the future after the roar of the engines has receded.

Kian Brown and Savannah Morgan both graduated last year from the Silverstone University Technical College that facilitates a fast-track into engineering, and they have gone on to take positions with F1 teams. Brown is now a composite machining apprentice at Mercedes and Morgan is an advanced digital machining apprentice at Cadillac.

Continue reading...

Less than a decade ago, the British GP was on the brink of disappearing but this July it will break the record for the biggest ever with 570,000 through the gates

The scale of change at the British Grand Prix in recent years will be writ large come July when the meeting is poised to become the biggest in Formula One history.

This year’s race is expected to sell out its new capacity of 570,000 over four days, which will be a record-breaking 50,000 increase on the previous highest attendance of 520,000 at the Australian GP in 1995. Only Wimbledon, across two weeks, will boast more numbers in the UK summer with Silverstone the largest event on F1’s calendar.

Continue reading...

• Changes will address energy management issues

• Verstappen one of most outspoken critics of current rules

The key players in Formula One have come to an agreement to settle the proposed changes to the sport’s engines for the 2027 and 2028 seasons. These have been seen as crucial in addressing widespread driver dissatisfaction with the current formula, not least for the four-time champion Max Verstappen who has repeatedly threatened to leave the sport owing to how unhappy he is with the current engine rules.

Verstappen has been particularly outspoken, declaring the rules “anti-racing”, but he has been far from alone. The FIA, teams, engine manufacturers and F1’s owners have since been in discussions looking at ways to address the issue. Notably their resolution does not reach the minimum scale of improvement Verstappen believed was needed until 2028.

Continue reading...

• ‘It has always been more than just a team to me’

• Driver is third in this year’s standings

Charles Leclerc has signed a new multiyear deal to remain driving for Ferrari, with the 28-year-old Monegasque extending his relationship with the team which began in 2019. He will continue to drive alongside Lewis Hamilton, who also has a long-term contract with the team.

Ferrari announced their decision to continue with Leclerc on the eve of his home grand prix at Monaco this weekend. He has been a staunch Ferrari driver for almost all of his career and has competed in 155 races for the Scuderia, a tally second only to Michael Schumacher’s enormously successful tenure with Ferrari between 1996 and 2006.

Continue reading...

Engine failure in Canada is latest setback for British driver, who is 43 points behind teenager Kimi Antonelli after five races

George Russell was left wondering quite which deity he had offended as he despairingly contemplated his retirement from the Canadian Grand Prix with a mechanical failure. Fortune, for good or ill, will always play a part but what also became clear in Montreal is that Russell’s teammate and championship leader Kimi Antonelli is going to be fearsomely hard to beat this season, whatever the circumstances.

Russell ground to a halt on the circuit Gilles Villeneuve on lap 30 after a thrilling battle with his Mercedes teammate Antonelli that had ebbed and flowed. The British driver deserved better, the two had been exchanging the lead and going side by side repeatedly, inches apart and trading paint on one occasion, only for Russell’s efforts to count for naught as he went out not with a whimper when the systems on his car shut down due to battery failure.

Continue reading...

• British driver enjoys best finish at Ferrari

• ‘I am much, much happier in the car’

Lewis Hamilton was thrilled with his second place at the Canadian Grand Prix in what he called “the greatest job in the world” after a great fight with his old adversary Max Verstappen and expressed how excited he was to be back in a wheel to wheel contest, enthused with his and his Ferrari team’s performance.

“I love this job it’s the greatest job in the world, I never take that for granted,” he said. “To have a good battle with Max finally, I’m really, really grateful. I am so, so happy. It’s good day of racing, overall, a solid weekend. I felt the whole team have done an amazing job.”

Continue reading...