Category: Motor Sports

• Alpine condemn social media abuse of world champion

• Fans of Argentinian driver criticised after Baku incident

Lando Norris has been the victim of a wave of online abuse, having stated that the Alpine driver Franco Colapinto should not be in Formula One, after the Argentinian caused an accident that knocked the defending world champion out of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Saturday.

Such was the level of abuse on social media, which appears to be from fans of Colapinto, his Alpine team were prompted to issue a statement condemning what is only the latest incident in a host of occurrences of fan abuse associated with the Argentinian driver.

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• Briton forced to retire from Azerbaijan GP when eighth

• Colapinto given a grid drop at the next round in Malaysia

Lando Norris has issued a scathing criticism of Franco Colapinto, saying the Alpine driver does not deserve to be in Formula One and should face a ban after taking Norris’s McLaren out of the race.

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix was won by Mercedes’ George Russell but Norris was forced to retire from eighth place after Colapinto caused the accident that all but ended the defending world champion’s title hopes.

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• Briton leads from pole to claim third win of the season

• Russell closes gap on leader Kimi Antonelli, who was fifth

George Russell took a dominant victory from pole to flag at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix to give his world championship hopes a shot in the arm. His Mercedes teammate and title leader Kimi Antonelli delivered a strong comeback to claim fifth from 16th on the grid, but the British driver clawed back 15 points on the Italian.

Russell delivered a drive that was all but flawless, including managing two tense restarts after the safety car was called. He was hounded to the line by Max Verstappen, his margin at the line just one-tenth of a second.

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• Championship leader Antonelli crashes out in Q1

• Mercedes teammate takes pole by 0.837 from Leclerc

Kimi Antonelli was left ruing an uncharacteristic error in qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix which eliminated the championship leader in the first session after he hit a wall in Baku. His Mercedes teammate George Russell claimed pole with a fine lap and will be in a strong position to make up ground in the title chase in Saturday’s race.

Antonelli leads Russell by 81 points in the world championship and has won the last two races but sat disconsolately trackside after only 11 minutes of running on Friday in Baku, when he was a little too eager into the 90-degree left-handed turn one and clipped the barrier.

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• ‘I want to try and win every single race. That’s my goal’

• Briton quickest in practice for Azerbaijan Grand Prix

George Russell has insisted he will keep fighting for the Formula One world championship until it is mathematically gone but while he made an encouraging start to his efforts by going quickest in practice for this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix the makeup of said numbers remains somewhat in limbo.

Russell is 81 points behind his Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli going into the race in Baku which is taking place on Saturday to avoid clashing with Azerbaijan’s national remembrance day. The Italian has eight victories this season including the past two in a row, coming through to win from 19^th on the grid in Monza and then taking the flag in Madrid.

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• ‘I love going to the Middle East,’ says Ferrari driver

• Qatar and Abu Dhabi races could still be cancelled

Lewis Hamilton said he hopes the Formula One season can still end at the two scheduled rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, with the finale still in doubt because of the war in the Middle East.

Formula One is pressing ahead with its original plan, although a contingency is understood to be in place to host a final round in Imola if the volatile situation means both meetings have to be cancelled.

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• Monaco and Bahrain among additional sprint hosts

• 24-race schedule includes returns to Turkey and Portugal

Formula One has announced its calendar for 2027, with an increase in sprint races to 10 events, including at Monaco, and the addition of meetings in Portugal and Turkey.

The season of 24 races will open in Bahrain, while the British grand prix at Silverstone is to take place on the weekend of 2-4 July. All four races in the Middle East are scheduled to take place in their normal slots.

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The Italian was the beneficiary of Lando Norris’s ill luck with a virtual safety car and pit stop

The formation lap is away. It’s a hot day in Madrid, 31 degrees, no shade at all. The track temperature is 54 degrees.

The 57 laps are soon to start, a voyage into the unknown, with the preliminary races throwing up a few questions of what the track will dish out to the drivers.

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• Mercedes principal likens 20-year-old to F1 greats

• ‘No stopping him when a driver and car are one’

Toto Wolff has compared Kimi Antonelli to the greats of Formula One after the Mercedes driver’s remarkable victory at the Italian Grand Prix where he came back to take the flag from 19th place on the grid.

The Mercedes team principal cited the win as similar to some of the best made by seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton and said that Antonelli would likely remember the race as one of the greatest of his career.

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• F1 champion first to back junior team in single-seater era

• Norris also creates legacy programme to support talent

Lando Norris has co-founded a new junior, single-seater racing team. Named LN4 Fusion it will compete in multiple championships including the feeder series for Formula One, F3 and F2, as the current F1 world champion commits to helping young drivers make it to the top level in motorsport.

Norris’s involvement, including a personal financial undertaking alongside an investment group, represents the first time an F1 world champion has directly backed a team in the modern junior single-seater era. As part of the project he has also established the LN4 Legacy programme, a driver development initiative designed to identify and support talent coming through the ranks from karting upwards and then provide assistance financially as well as in coaching, performance and career support.

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• Norris: ‘I want my whole career to be with McLaren’

• F1 title holder says other teams have approached him

Lando Norris has said he would like to see out his career with McLaren, as the defending Formula One world champion announced he has agreed a multi-year deal until at least 2030 with the team he described as like “a second family”.

The 26-year-old, who won his first F1 title last season, joined McLaren to make his debut in the sport in 2019. He has been with them ever since and his current contract was due to run until the end of this year. Norris emphasised that he had not countenanced leaving McLaren and had made no approaches toward other teams – although some had made advances towards him.

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• 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.

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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.

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The reigning champion was in supreme form as he scored his first race victory of the season at the Hungaroring

Lando Norris is eating what appears to be rice pudding, doubtless with extra protein protection. It’s hot out there, with Bono saying it’s 50 degrees on track, though there’s also a wind picking up.

Martin Brundle starts his own dance. Laurence Stroll, Mr Aston Martin, is there, and happy enough with his team. Adrian Newey is not around, so Brunds doesn’t get to speak to the great man. Herbie Blash, FIA veteran, recalls the first Hungarian GP from 1966 fondly. George Hendy, rugby man, has been enjoying his time on the grid. Joe Ramirez, another veteran, has been to every GP here, and his first ever was Monaco in 1962. We seem short on celebs as compared to the glitzier tracks. This isn’t like the World Cup. No sign of David Beckham or Tom Brady. Quick chat with Bono, Antonelli’s man: “Bit rough,” he says of the Antonelli penalty. “We’re at least on the grippy side of the grid. Here’s Adrian Newey. “We had so little prep time,” he says. He’s scoping out the McLaren. Casey Stoney, bikes legend. “There’s ups and downs with the regs, it’s overcomplicated, I like how much power there is.” And so to the anthem…

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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.

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