Category: Formula 1

• Mohammed ben Sulayem suggests rule ‘improvements’
• F1 drivers raised concerns over fines and free speech

The standoff between drivers and the president of Formula One’s governing body over the contentious issue of swearing may have taken a step towards resolution.

Ahead of this week’s Miami Grand Prix, the FIA’s Mohammed ben Sulayem posted on Instagram that after “constructive feedback” from drivers across the world of motorsport he is considering making “improvements” to the document which lays out the punishments for a range of offences ranging from physical violence to political statements and swearing.

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The world champion went from one masterclass on the track to another off it with his discontent at recent FIA rule changes

In the aftermath of a superb drive at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen went on to give something of another masterclass, in putting across an opinion while ostensibly declining to say anything at all.

It was an arch display of discontent and dissatisfaction, delivered with a disarming smile, and aimed at the FIA; the latest expression of a cumulative wave of disquiet with the governing body.

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• McLaren driver aims even higher after winning Saudi Arabian GP
• ‘I want to be leading it after round 24, not round five,’ he says

Oscar Piastri put Australia on top of the Formula One world championship for the first time since 2010 on Sunday but the McLaren driver said he was still a long way from where he wanted to be despite his Saudi Arabian Grand Prix victory.

After the barrage of celebration fireworks had subsided over the Red Sea and the business of packing up had begun in the paddock, he said there was a lot more winning to do.

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• Champion second to Piastri after five-second censure
• ‘I cannot share my opinion, it might get me in trouble’

Max Verstappen has implied it is all but impossible to express an opinion for risk of censure by Formula One’s governing body the FIA, when he refused to air his clear displeasure at the penalty he was given during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

After the race Verstappen declined to discuss the race after the top three drivers climbed from their cars in parc ferme. He was fined by the FIA for swearing in a press conference at the Singapore GP last year and this season has been far more guarded and short in answering questions and speaking to the media in Jeddah suggested he felt constrained by the rulebook.

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• McLaren man’s win catapults him 10pts clear in title race
• Max Verstappen pays price for first-lap penalty

Maintaining a focus and equilibrium under pressure has always been one of the hallmarks of Formula One’s greatest proponents and Oscar Piastri is demonstrating it with striking assurance for one so young.

His victory at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, beating the world champion Max Verstappen, was an object lesson in the 24-year-old’s calm and confidence and his potential to take the title in only his third season.

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• Championship leader will start race from 10th on grid
• Oscar Piastri qualfies second with George Russell third

His confidence in the car already wavering, the world ­championship leader, Lando Norris, now has to cope with another serious blow to his title ­ambitions after ­crashing out in ­qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, while his Red Bull rival Max Verstappen claimed pole ­position, only one-hundredth of a second clear of Norris’s teammate Oscar Piastri.

Norris is notoriously self-critical and his costly error at the Jeddah circuit might well cause him to once more deliver a brutal self-examination. His own summation in the moments after the crash summed it up as he bluntly described himself as a “fucking idiot” over team radio.

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Briton in cautious mood before Saudi Arabian GP but maintains Scuderia are ‘greatest team in F1 history’

Weathering the choppy waves of his new career with Ferrari it is still clear that every time Lewis Hamilton climbs into the car the seven-time Formula One champion believes he is taking a step forward, regardless of how it seems to others. He remains unfazed by the process of adapting, having long considered it would be an evolution, even given the weight of all the expectation and scrutiny.

This weekend at the fifth round of the season in Saudi Arabia, Ferrari and Hamilton are optimistic they will be making another stride in bridging the gap to the dominant McLaren.

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• F1 world champion finished sixth in last race in Bahrain
• ‘I’m happy, I’m just not very happy with our car’

Max Verstappen played down concerns that he may leave Red Bull after the world champion was left frustrated and disappointed at the last round in Bahrain but reiterated that he was unhappy with the car and that as things stand it will be hard to defend his title this season.

Verstappen finished sixth in ­Bahrain, unable to make any impression against the frontrunners McLaren, Mercedes and ­Ferrari. The car struggles with balance problems and is proving a handful to drive, with the team identifying a disconnect between their data from the wind tunnel and its real-world performance.

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• Dutchman finished sixth at Sakhir circuit
• Horner says team need to react ‘very quickly’

Senior figures at Red Bull held crisis talks after the Bahrain Grand Prix finished with a deeply dissatisfied Max Verstappen languishing in sixth place. But the team principal, ­Christian Horner, admitted there will be no quick fix.

Horner conceded the team have problems that need to be addressed as soon as possible, but he said: “This race has exposed some pitfalls that are obviously very clear that we need to get on top of very quickly. Ultimately you can mask it a little through setup and we were able to achieve that last weekend in Suzuka. We understand where the issues are, it’s introducing the solutions that obviously take a little more time.”

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• Australian leads from pole to flag to pick up second win of season
• ‘It was relatively straightforward,’ says McLaren driver

Australian Oscar Piastri hailed an “incredible weekend” after earning another pole-to-flag Formula One triumph at the Bahrain Grand Prix. The McLaren driver made his 50th grand prix start on Sunday and moved into second place in the drivers’ standings with the victory, which left him breathing down the neck of his low-on-confidence teammate Lando Norris.

After he held off a challenge on the first corner from Mercedes’ George Russell at the floodlit Sakhir circuit, Piastri then utterly dominated, even after a mid-race restart under the safety car. The man from Melbourne, the first driver to win two grand prix this season after his Chinese GP victory, ended up outpacing Russell by 15-and-a-half seconds – the biggest margin of victory by any winner this year – with championship leader Norris third.

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• Briton third behind teammate Piastri and Russell
• Norris: ‘I’m nowhere near the capability I have’

Lando Norris has insisted he remains confident in his abilities, even as he admitted he has no answer as to what he can do to work better with his McLaren car after a difficult weekend. The British driver, soundly beaten at he Bahrain Grand Prix by his teammate Oscar Piastri, said he is hurt by the frustration he feels.

Norris finished third at the Sakhir circuit, behind Piastri who took the flag a full 15 seconds up the road from Mercedes’ George Russell in second. After qualifying poorly in sixth, a performance he admitted left him “clueless”, an exasperated Norris felt he was no closer to getting to grips with the car after the race.

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• George Russell finishes second; Lando Norris third
• Ferrari’s Leclerc and Hamilton take fourth and fifth

Flawless was the assessment of Oscar Piastri’s race engineer after the Australian delivered a consummate victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Calm and controlled throughout, this was a champion’s drive from Piastri that has made it abundantly clear he is in contention to return the championship this season.

Tom Stallard, a 2008 Olympic rowing silver medallist for Great Britain, is Piastri’s engineer but the Australian, unflappable, barely needed so much as a gentle nudge from him all race, such was the ease with which he drove from pole to flag to take McLaren’s first victory at the Sakhir circuit.

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Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have a chance to dominate in the desert as Max Verstappen scrambles to stay in touch

Three races into the new Formula One season and this weekend’s ­Bahrain Grand Prix represents something of a litmus test as to what may ­follow for the title protagonists. Everything points to a chance for McLaren to dominate at the Sakhir circuit but there may also be some indication if Red Bull are making real steps ­forward with their car.

For McLaren, Bahrain is a chance to throw off their hoodoo at the track where they have never won and at which, in recent years, they have struggled for form. This season in testing at the circuit they gave their first evidence that they had a much improved package; one swiftly ­reinforced with dominant victories for Lando Norris in Australia and then his teammate, Oscar Piastri, in China.

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• Reid has had disagreements with Mohammed Ben Sulayem
• ‘Motorsport deserves leadership that is accountable’

The FIA has been rocked by another executive resignation with a very senior figure joining the chorus of dissatisfaction directed at how Formula One’s governing body is run and the organisation’s president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

On Thursday, the FIA’s deputy president for sport, Robert Reid, announced his resignation citing what he called “a fundamental breakdown in governance standards” and “critical decisions being made without due process”.

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• Australian finishes third behind teammate Lando Norris at Suzuka
• Piastri’s request to swap places with Norris was turned down

Oscar Piastri has said he has no complaints about McLaren rejecting his request to shoot for glory at the Japanese Grand Prix.

The Australian finished third behind teammate Lando Norris and victor Max Verstappen on Sunday, but he believed he had possessed the pace to get past the Red Bull champion and possibly make it back-to-back F1 wins following his victory in China.

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