Category: Motor Sports

• British former champion hits out at former colonial rulers

• ‘I’m hoping countries unite and take Africa back’

Lewis Hamilton has called for a movement to “take Africa back”, claiming the continent is being “controlled” by European powers. On the eve of the new Formula One season in Melbourne, the seven-time champion outlined his ambition to compete in a grand prix on African soil.

But the 41-year-old, F1’s first black race driver, did not stop there. He suggested former colonial rulers still exerted undue power in the region and called for action to reverse that influence. “I’ve got roots from a few different places there, like Togo and Benin,” he said. “I’m really proud of that part of the world.

Williams team principal on pre-season trevails, why McLaren are an inspiration and closing the gap to the top

“I didn’t realise it until I saw the notice,” James Vowles says of last month’s third anniversary of his arrival at Williams as their team principal. On a rainy afternoon he smiles wryly in his London office. “I probably should have allowed myself a moment to reflect but you are too caught up in the work. That reality defines Formula One.”

Vowles is one of the most interesting men in F1 and not just because, as the director of strategy, he helped two of his past teams win nine constructors’ championships, including eight drivers’ titles. He will soon reveal a reflective side to his character and touch on the adversity he overcame at the outset of his career. His relish for a challenge in pure racing terms is already obvious because in 2022 he left Mercedes, who had finished second in the championship, for Williams, after they ended that season in 10th and last place.

Get to grips with active aero, boost mode and super-clipping as the adoption of new hybrid engines shakes up the sport before the new season begins next weekend

In a week’s time, a new era will begin in Formula One as a major shift in regulations brings with it an air of unpredictability when the Australian Grand Prix gets under way in Melbourne.

The cars have been made smaller and lighter with the intent of making them more nimble, better to drive and to facilitate improved racing. The wheelbase has been reduced by 20cm to 340cm and the width by 10cm to 190cm. Across changes in the chassis and to the engine, the overall weight has been reduced by 30kg. Drivers such as Lewis Hamilton have declared themselves generally pleased with the improved handling characteristics of the more sprightly rides, which will operate with approximately 40% less drag, but they will not enjoy the same downforce or the same pace as last year’s models and are expected to open the season around one to two seconds a lap off last year’s times.

Briton overcame crippling self-doubt to become F1 world champion and is determined not to relinquish his crown

Lando Norris recalls being rendered speechless with joy when he was given his first contract with McLaren. Sitting in the cramped office of a paddock truck, the confirmation that he had made it to Formula One left him “very smiley for a long time”. Seven years on, he enters the new season having achieved his lifelong ambition of becoming world champion and is wearing an equally irrepressible grin as he sets about defending his title.

Claiming the championship after a monumental season-long tussle that went to a thrilling three-way fight at the finale in Abu Dhabi was the defining moment of the 26-year-old’s career and perhaps something of a turning point.

• Australian F1 driver was replaced after 2025 Miami GP

• Doohan revealed threats and abuse on Drive to Survive

Jack Doohan has said he received death threats and called police to resolve an encounter with armed men around the time of last year’s Miami Grand Prix, just before he lost his Formula One drive with Alpine.

In the latest series of the Netflix documentary Drive to Survive, released on Friday, the Australian driver said he had been threatened by email, describing the atmosphere around what proved to be his final race as “pretty heavy stuff”.

• Mercedes chief attacks backlash over engine loophole

• Vote on legality of power plant ‘a storm in a teacup’

Toto Wolff, the Mercedes principal, has snapped back at “utter bullshit” about a potential fuel problem a day after the FIA proposed a mid-season rule change over the team’s controversial engine.

It was announced on Wednesday that a vote will take place over whether a regulation change should be implemented from August onwards over the legality of Mercedes’ engine, after they were adjudged to have found a loophole that allowed them to deliver a higher limit when their engine is at operating temperature.

• Dutchman joins Lewis Hamilton in criticism of new cars

• Champion Lando Norris says changes are a ‘lot of fun’

Driver disquiet over the new Formula One regulations marked the second pre-season test which concluded in Bahrain this week, with world champions Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen delivering damning verdicts on driving the new cars, while in competitive terms leading contenders Mercedes and Red Bull were entertainingly vehement in each declaring the other as favourite.

Times in testing must be taken with a liberal amount of salt, more so this year as so much time is being put into understanding the new cars and how best to drive them, without yet really pushing toward real performance limits. Nonetheless, across the three days in Bahrain it was Mercedes who finished on top with Kimi Antonelli and George Russell setting the quickest times, from the two Ferraris of Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in fifth and sixth for McLaren and Verstappen in seventh for Red Bull.

• Power management regulations will be hard to explain

• Hamilton: ‘You need a degree to fully understand it all’

Lewis Hamilton has issued a striking warning that fans may struggle to understand Formula One’s new regulations for the 2026 season, branding them “ridiculously complex” after having spun while testing his new Ferrari in Bahrain.

Hamilton was speaking at the second pre-season test where the teams are coming to terms with cars and engines that have been subject to what amounts to the biggest single shake-up in the sport’s history, and specifically to how drivers are expected to manage the power of their engines which are now defined by a near 50-50 split between combustion and electrical power.

A look at each team’s choice of colours and designs ahead of the new F1 season

• ‘My motivation to win is exactly the same,’ says champion

• McLaren driver admires rival Verstappen’s killer instinct

Lando Norris insists he enters the new Formula One season highly motivated to retain the world championship he won for the first time last year. The McLaren driver believes his maiden triumph has only given him greater confidence in his ability to defend the title.

Norris won the championship after an intense competition that went to the wire. After a three-way fight with his teammate, Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, Norris sealed the title by just two points at the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.

• Mercedes principal insists their new car is within rules

• ‘Other teams are finding excuses before they have started’

Toto Wolff has dismissed claims from rival teams over the legality of Mercedes’ new engine, insisting it is within the regulations. The Mercedes team principal said that the onus lay with the other manufacturers who had missed an opportunity and that they should get their “shit together”.

The row over whether Mercedes and Red Bull have stolen a march on the opposition in their engine design has dominated the buildup to the new season and Wolff notably did not rule out other teams protesting against the legality of their engines after they are used competitively for the first time at the Australian Grand Prix on 8 March.

• Former team principal was dismissed last September

• ‘I feel like I have unfinished business in Formula One’
  

Christian Horner said he misses Formula One and has unfinished business in the sport as he spoke publicly for the first time since he was ousted by Red Bull but is prepared to wait for an opportunity to “win something”, adding: “I am not in a rush.”

The 52-year-old was dismissed as Red Bull team principal following July’s British Grand Prix before his official exit was agreed in September. He oversaw a period of extraordinary success during his 20-year career with Red Bull, winning eight drivers’ and six constructors’ titles.

• Silver arrows finish 500 laps, well clear of all their rivals

• Fears around new engines and regulations unfounded

Fears the swathe of new regulations and entirely new engines might be problematic on their first outing proved unfounded, after Formula One’s first pre-season test concluded in Barcelona on Friday. Mercedes put in an almost bulletproof performance in distance and reliability while Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton grabbed the quickest lap of the week.

Held behind closed doors at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, it is believed at least partly to minimise attention on the potential negative impressions of the new formula that might be formed by new engines going bang and cars struggling on track, as happened when turbo-hybrid engines were introduced in 2012, the running was overwhelmingly positive given the challenge of the biggest regulation change of the modern era.

• AMR26 car will not run until Thursday and Friday

• Williams unable to take to the track at all in Spain

The Aston Martin team have admitted they are to miss at least one day of their allotted three at Formula One’s first pre-season test in Barcelona and will not run their car before Thursday at the earliest. They are the second team to fail to take full advantage of the opening test after Williams also announced they would be unable to take to the track at all in Spain.

Testing is taking place from Monday to Friday this week at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with teams able to use three of the five days to assess their cars. They have been designed to entirely new regulations and with new engines this season and consequently three full pre-season tests are being held. But as the track running began, Aston Martin conceded they would not be there at the off and issued a statement.