It was back to business as usual on Friday at Portimao with Mercedes leading the timesheet in both practice sessions. Still, it was a day of minor problems for the world champions. They suffered from the wind like everyone else, according to Andrew Shovlin, but that wasn’t the only thing. “Valtteri seemed quite comfortable with…
Factory Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia ended MotoGP Friday practice at Jerez as the pace-setter, leading Fabio Quartararo in the second session. Petronas Yamaha rider Franco Morbidelli headed former team-mate Quartararo in the early going, the pair having become the first riders to dip below the 1m38s margin this weekend. Aleix Espargaro and Takaaki Nakagami then…
The third Grand Prix of the 2021 season also means the third round in the battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton won in Bahrain, but Verstappen managed to win the race in Imola. In Portimao, there are again chances for both drivers and therefore they are both looking for the perfect setup, also…
After his difficult morning session, Lewis Hamilton bounced back to top the second practice session for the Portuguese Grand Prix, followed by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen who ended up 143 thousands of a second down on the Briton’s benchmark time. At the beginning of the session, air temperatures were 19 Celsius degrees with track temperatures…
Nadia Padovani, the wife of double world champion Fausto Gresini, will take over as the owner and team principal of the Gresini Racing MotoGP team with immediate effect, following Fausto’s tragic death earlier this year. The 60-year-old succumbed to COVID-19 after spending nearly six weeks in hospital at the beginning of the year, leaving behind…
The return of spectators to Formula 1 may now be looming large, despite the fact that three of the next four grands prix will definitely be ‘ghost races’. The optimism also comes despite the official cancellation of the Canadian GP, whose June event will be replaced by 2020 substitute venue Istanbul. The good news for…
Aston Martin has backed away after threatening legal action over Formula 1’s aerodynamic rule changes for 2021. Boss Otmar Szafnauer, presumably acting on behalf of billionaire team owner Lawrence Stroll, had hinted he suspects Liberty Media may have been part of the push to specifically disadvantage the Mercedes-like ‘low rake’ teams. But Auto Motor und…
Silverstone have announced that the British Grand Prix will be the first event to hold the Sprint Qualifying when F1 teams and drivers touch down at the venue in mid July. The shorter sprint qualifying race will be about one-third of the distance of a grand prix, with the hope being that fans are drawn…
Valentino Rossi’s VR46 team secures Saudi backing for a full MotoGP entry in the 2022 MotoGP World Championship. After debut into the premier-class by running Luca Marini within the Esponsorama team this season, Valentino Rossi’s VR46 squad has secured backing for a full MotoGP entry of its own from 2022. “In 2022 the VR46 Team…
Formula 1 is set to trial its Sprint Qualifying format at three venues this season, starting at Silverstone in July. But what specific tyre rules will be in force on those three weekends? As a reminder, drivers will qualify on Friday afternoon for the Saturday 30-minute mad dash that will determine the grid for Sunday’s…
Gunther Steiner has denied that Mick Schumacher has a “huge advantage” over fellow Haas rookie Nikita Mazepin in 2021. While 22-year-old Mazepin’s debut season on and off the track has been tumultuous so far, the similarly-aged Schumacher has had a comparatively smoother time. “I am positively surprised by the team – it’s fantastic,” Michael Schumacher’s…
Gunther Steiner has played down suggestions that the Haas project may be coming to an end in Formula 1. It is said that the small American team only started the 2021 season – its sixth in Formula 1 – because of Dmitry Mazepin’s sponsorship injection and extra support by Ferrari. Haas is treading water in…
Toyota hopes to make its new GR010 Hybrid Le Mans Hypercar the worthy successor of its former winning LMP1 machine in the WEC, but the car has yet to build an edge over its LMP2 rivals. In the capable hands of Sébastien Buemi, Toyota’s new machine the final session of the WEC’s two-day prologue that…
2020 vice-champion Callum Ilott’s Formula 1 involvement has been increased for the current campaign, following the announcement that Alfa Romeo have snapped up the Ferrari junior as an official second reserve, a deal that includes multiple FP1 stints. Ilott – who is set to share reserve duties with Robert Kubica – will work with current…
Triple MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo believes Yamaha is not treating Petronas SRT’s Franco Morbidelli “in the best way” by not giving him machine parity with its factory riders. Morbidelli remains on the ‘A-spec’ M1 for the 2021 season, which is effectively a slightly upgraded 2019 Yamaha, on which he rode to second in the…
Stefano Domenicali says the world of football might do well to look at how Formula 1 settled major political disputes in the past. Amid the ‘European Super League’ affair, the F1 CEO said Formula 1 has been in a similar situation before. “We had situations like this twice, where there was the risk of a…
