Category: Motor Sports

• Team principal under scrutiny after underperformance

• ‘Fred is the guy to take this team in the right direction’

Lewis Hamilton has backed his Ferrari team principal, Fred Vasseur, as the best person to lead the team, but believes the leadership structure above and around the Frenchman could be overhauled.

Hamilton was speaking before this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, with the race being held at the Sepang circuit but branded as a replacement for the meeting that was cancelled earlier in the season because of the war in the Middle East. Ferrari go into the race with Vasseur under scrutiny, given the team have been underperforming and with the former Red Bull team principal Christian Horner having stated last week that taking over at Ferrari would be his dream job.

Continue reading...

• Marque reaffirms commitment to Fred Vasseur

• Horner had expressed interest in joining Ferrari

Ferrari have reaffirmed their backing for their team principal, Fred Vasseur, in an effort to end speculation that Christian Horner was being considered as a potential replacement for the Frenchman.

Horner gave an interview in the Times last week in which he stated that leading Ferrari would be his “dream” job and the only one he would consider without having part-ownership of the team. His comments provoked debate that he could replace Vasseur, given the Scuderia’s underperformance this season.

Continue reading...

• 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.

Continue reading...

• 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.

Continue reading...

• 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.

Continue reading...

• 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.

Continue reading...

• ‘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.

Continue reading...

• ‘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.

Continue reading...

• 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.

Continue reading...

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.

Continue reading...

• 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.

Continue reading...

• 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.

Continue reading...

• 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.

Continue reading...

• 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...