April 2021

It will be “a few more race weekends” before Daniel Ricciardo will be challenging for podiums with his new teammate, McLaren boss Andreas Seidl has warned.So far, while not obviously struggling in the car, Ricciardo has been outperformed by Lando Norris in both of the opening two races, with the young Brit finishing fourth and third to Ricciardo’s seventh and sixth. Ricciardo even had to suffer the indignity of being told to allow his teammate, who is 10 years his junior, to overtake him in Sunday’s race at Imola. But he’s not the only driver struggling in new surroundings, with every driver who switched teams ahead of the new season being outperformed by their teammate who didn’t. Ricciardo has been honest about not having fully adapted to the car yet, having only had three days of pre-season testing split between himself and Norris before the Bahrain Grand Prix, and his new boss agrees. “We know it is not just straightforward to jump from one car into another one, and only have one and half days of testing,” Seidl said. “And we have seen from other drivers, all these drivers are very talented and have a lot of experience, and they adapt very quickly and straightaway. “But these cars are complex, and to find these last two, three, four, tenths, but also make the difference when how comfortable they are to push these cars to the limit, that is not straightforward to find and get out of these cars. “That takes time. It is not a surprise. “It is part of the process of integrating a new driver, and with the experience Daniel has, in the experience we have within the team, it is just a matter of a few more race weekends before Daniel is fully comfortable in our car.”

Haas rookie Mick Schumacher admits that driving at the back of the field in F1 without much competition to deal with is “kind of a torture”. Schumacher is enduring his first year in the sport with a team that arguably has limited ambitions given its finite resources and a car stranded among the backmarkers since last season. Schumacher’s main task this season is to learn, but fulfilling an education while making up the rear means that motivation can understandably be in short supply on race day. But the young German has come up with a stratagem to keep himself focused and charging on race day. “I don’t enjoy it when I’m not first so it’s kind of a torture driving at the back with no real competition,” he told Britain’s Channel 4. “Therefore I have to make myself a Grand Prix, so let’s say if I have Nicholas (Latifi) in front of me or (George) Russell, it’s just like for me they are the leaders and I have to catch them. “That’s the game that I’m playing to always stay motivated, to always keep on pushing and always be 100 per cent.” The 22-year-old is facing a two-fold challenge in F1: learning his trade in a difficult environment and showing a glimpse of evidence that he is worthy of following in the footsteps of his famous father, seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher. “I think in general you have to say that you can’t make everybody happy, and I know my worth, I know what I have accomplished to be here,” he said. “Having that surname doesn’t only give me the surname, it gives me potentially also the genes so I think I have a very good package and maybe the best teacher in the world.” Haas team boss Guenther Steiner obviously isn’t expecting miracles from his young apprentice, an assumption that also applies to Schumacher’s teammate, Nikita Mazepin, whom the German has comfortably outpaced so far. For Steiner, results are almost unimportant for Schumacher, but progress is paramount. “Mick did well to recover from the earlier part of his race,” said the Haas team principal. “As much as it’s not the result that makes you happy, what makes you happy is that we made progress. “That was our plan, and if we can continue to work like this with less mistakes and more performance, that’s what we’re here for this year.”

Nikita Mazepin has been under fire since before the start of the 2021 Formula 1 season, but his first two Grand Prix weekends have not improved matters. The Russian spun often in those two weekends and is nowhere near his teammate. Even before the season started, Mazepin had come in for a lot of criticism for his actions on and off the track. When he failed to go further than three corners in the first race, after spinning too many times throughout the weekend, his nickname quickly became Mazespin. The Russian is far from worrying himself though. ”I’m sure I’ll be in this paddock for a few years at least. I’m not panicking yet,” Mazepin said according to Formel1.de. That may not be surprising, because, with Uralkali, Haas finally found a sponsor for the car and the only reason that sponsor is on the car is the fact that Mazepin is the son of the owner of that company. Still, there is work to be done for Mazepin, who has to leave a big gap on Mick Schumacher in qualifying but also in the race. ”We are in the same situation. So far, Formula 1 has been surprisingly intense for me. Of course, I knew it would be intense, but the two qualifying sessions were very hectic”, concludes Mazepin who was caught out by Antonio Giovinazzi in Imola because Mazepin passed the Italian in the final corner of qualifying, ruining his fastest lap.

Seven time World Champion Lewis Hamilton believes Red Bull’s performance at the start of the 2021 Formula 1 season shows it has produced a championship-winning car for the “first time in a long time.” The seven-time world champion was able to overturn a qualifying deficit to beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to a narrow victory at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix before the Dutchman hit back with a commanding win at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Hamilton, who recovered from a rare error to finish second behind Verstappen at Imola, is convinced Red Bull currently has a faster car than Mercedes and reckons this year’s title fight will go down to the wire. “I’m excited for the battle,” said Hamilton after Sunday’s race. “I think this is really the first time in a long time that Red Bull have had a championship-winning car, so I think it’s going to be close all the way through the year – and it’s just going to be, hopefully, more and more of these battles.”Lewis Hamilton believes Red Bull’s performance at the start of the 2021 F1 season shows it has produced a championship-winning car for the “first time in a long time.”Lewis Hamilton believes Red Bull’s performance at the start of the 2021 Formula 1 season shows it has produced a championship-winning car for the “first time in a long time.” The seven-time world champion was able to overturn a qualifying deficit to beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to a narrow victory at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix before the Dutchman hit back with a commanding win at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Hamilton, who recovered from a rare error to finish second behind Verstappen at Imola, is convinced Red Bull currently has a faster car than Mercedes and reckons this year’s title fight will go down to the wire. “I’m excited for the battle,” said Hamilton after Sunday’s race. “I think this is really the first time in a long time that Red Bull have had a championship-winning car, so I think it’s going to be close all the way through the year – and it’s just going to be, hopefully, more and more of these battles.”Hamilton’s recovery to P2 enabled him to preserve a one-point championship lead over Verstappen after the opening two rounds. But with 21 races still remaining, the Briton acknowledged just how crucial every point will be between now and the final chequered flag in Abu Dhabi. “Without doubt, getting back to second and getting these points will be very valuable through the season,” Hamilton added. “If I’d lost 25 points today, that would have been hard to recover based on the fact that Red Bull – it’s the first time that they’ve had a championship-winning car, their car is incredibly fast. “They were faster than us this weekend, definitely in qualifying trim but it looks like a little bit also in race trim. But I don’t know if they made a couple of mistakes, I think they did, Max did in qualifying for example otherwise he would have been on pole. “But we’ve got a real close battle which we love the fact that it’s a close battle. “It’s great to see McLaren back up there after such a long time, it’s great to see Ferrari looking strong so there’s going to be a lot of exciting races up ahead and challenging for all of us in so many different ways.” While Verstappen was thrilled to have beaten Hamilton at Imola and proven more than a match for Mercedes in Bahrain, he is refusing to get carried away at such an early stage of the season. “It’s a very long season,” said Verstappen. “We just have to keep on working very hard. I’m very happy with the result, of course, today but that’s today. I’m of course going to be happy about today, but tomorrow, we start again. “We have to keep on improving because there’s still a lot of work to be able to keep doing this the whole season. “It’s great to be fighting against Lewis, Mercedes who, I think, as a team, they have been so dominant and they’re very difficult to beat. So to be able to sit here now, now two races in a row, we were very, very competitive, that’s very promising but no guarantees.”

It’s fair to say Nikita Mazepin’s first two race weekends in Formula 1 were poor, with him crashing out of his debut in Bahrain after just a matter of seconds and being the only driver to finish last weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix two laps down on the leaders. The F1 community has been quick to mock Mazepin for his poor start to life in the pinnacle of motorsport, with his numerous spins resulting in him being dubbed “Mazespin” on social media. This is unsurprising, as he became public enemy number one after he groped a model in December, and given the fact that, frankly speaking, he is only in Formula 1 because of his father’s financial backing. But, how bad really is the controversial Russian and does he deserve his place in Formula 1? His first two races certainly add weight to the argument that he doesn’t belong on the F1 grid, but it’s important to remember that Haas have the worst car this season – and their 2021 challenger seems to be very difficult to stay on top of. This has been evidenced by Mazepin’s team-mate, Mick Schumacher, also struggling with Haas’ 2021 car and having several spins and incidents of his own, both in Bahrain and Imola. Nevertheless, it has to be noted that the Russian has made far more mistakes than Schumacher, and things also look bad for Mazepin when you compare their qualifying records in Formula 1. Schumacher has outqualified his team-mate at both of the opening two grand prix of the season, with the German outqualifying Mazepin by eight-tenths of a second at Bahrain and around half-a-second at Imola. In equal machinery, such margins are a cause for concern, especially when you consider the fact that Schumacher wasn’t particularly impressive in qualifying in his junior career (he didn’t secure a single pole position in his Championship-winning Formula 2 campaign last year, for example.) And, even when it comes to race pace, Schumacher isn’t a very strong benchmark for Mazepin, as throughout his junior single-seater career, he hasn’t performed at a very high level in his first season in any given category. As for Mazepin’s own junior career, he finished fifth in the F2 standings last year, third in the 2019-2020 F3 Asian Championship, and second in the 2018 GP3 Series. But, the rest of his single-seater campaigns were fairly poor – and he is currently the only driver on the F1 grid who has never won a Championship in his entire racing career, even in go-karts. So, it’s difficult to argue that Mazepin does deserve his place in Formula 1, but with 21 races of this season to go and Haas unlikely to fire him at the end of 2021 regardless of how badly he performs, he certainly has plenty of time to prove me wrong.

Max Verstappen’ s contract with Red Bull Racing runs until 2023, which means he will have almost three full seasons with the Austrian team. However, there are escape clauses in the contract of the 23-year-old Dutchman that could make an early switch to Mercedes possible. Verstappen does not want to waste words on that though. “I have a contract at Red Bull until 2023, and I am very happy where I am. There is no reason to change,” Verstappen revealed in an interview with The Independent. The 11-time Grand Prix winner started at the then Toro Rosso in 2015 and switched to Red Bull in May 2016. So Verstappen is already on his sixth season with the Austrian team but he could not really compete for the world title yet with the top team. In recent seasons Red Bull has always been behind the times, but Verstappen has always had faith in his employer. And rightly so, because in 2021 the driver from Limburg and his new teammate Sergio Perez will be able to compete directly with ‘The Silver Arrows’. The prospects are good, although much will depend on how Red Bull interprets the new regulations for 2022. Verstappen lives in the here and now and only wants to focus on taking his first world championship in Formula 1. “I never think too far ahead because I want to live in the moment. I want to win races and championships with Red Bull and that is why I signed for so long. I feel at home here and that is very important to me.”

Two former drivers have suggested Sebastian Vettel’s most competitive days in Formula 1 may be over. There were high hopes the quadruple world champion’s form would be boosted by his move from Ferrari to Aston Martin for 2021. Actually, after Vettel’s first two races for his new team, former F3000 driver Jason Watt told Ekstra Bladet newspaper: “Vettel is a finished man. “It’s a very long time since he did anything good. He also makes many mistakes and looks like a man under pressure,” he added. Watt even thinks the 33-year-old might not make it to the end of the season. “I don’t know if he can keep it up mentally,” he said. “I do hope he stays the year, because he’s probably clinging to the hope that things will start to go his way all of a sudden.” However, Watt doesn’t think Aston Martin will simply oust him. “People talk about him being an expensive guy for the team, but you also have to consider that he will have attracted a lot of sponsorship money, so he effectively pays his own salary,” he said. Meanwhile, F1 legend Gerhard Berger – Vettel’s first team boss in Formula 1 – hinted that the German’s time on the grid may be approaching the end. “If you are a successful racing driver and you continue to pursue your sport with all of your experience and passion, you can still have success,” he told Sport Bild. “But I know from my own experience that the time does come when you are past your prime. You have to take that into account,” Berger added.

Tuesday evening saw an outpouring of emotion around the world as police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of the murder of George Floyd at his trial in Minnesota. Reigning Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton was among many from the world of sport to react to the verdict. Hamilton paid tribute to Floyd on Instagram after Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. “JUSTICE for George! The emotions I feel right now are hard to describe,” wrote Hamilton in response to the news that Chauvin had been sentenced to a maximum term of 75 years in jail. “Derek Chauvin has been found guilty.” Sharing his thoughts alongside an image of a piece of art depicting Floyd, Hamilton told his almost 22 million followers that the guilty verdicts marked “a new dawn in the fight for racial justice”. “This is the first time that a white officer has been convicted for killing a black man in Minnesota. This is monumental, George’s death is not in vain…The result of the Derek Chauvin trial today is the right one. Convicting him of all three charges marks a new dawn in the fight for racial justice.” In the aftermath of Floyd’s death in May last year, Hamilton was a vocal supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement. The 36-year-old now takes a knee on the grid before every race and wears anti-racism slogans while competing. He stated his relief at the fact that the trial was now over. “This trial was an opportunity for the justice system to hold Derek Chauvin accountable for his actions when he took the life of George Floyd. We can now breathe a collective sigh of relief that the right decision has been met, and that justice has been served. “Today’s outcome is a sombre victory for George and his family, but it shows that our efforts to promote justice are not in vain. Black voices have been heard and action is happening. When we stand together, we can make a difference.” Long-time social activist Hamilton, though, believes the fight for equality is far from over – declaring that there is much still to be done in the fight towards equality. “But this is just one step on the path towards a more equal society. Since George’s death, so many other Black people have died at the hands of the police and we must ensure the momentum of today continues. The fight isn’t over, and there is more to be done, but we can consider today a glimmer of hope. “My thoughts and prayers are with George’s family. I hope they will feel a sense of peace from this result,” concluded Hamilton. One of many high-profile sporting figures to use their platform to bring focus to the Black Lives Movement, Hamilton recognises that there is still much work to do. However, the elation with which Tuesday’s verdict was greeted around the world shows just how big of a moment it was.

According to Auto, Motor und Sport a decision has been made regarding some plans for sprint races. A sprint race will be held at Silverstone, Monza, and Interlagos in 2021, and to cover the costs the teams will be reimbursed part of the costs. It has been rumored for some time now, but according to German media there will be three sprint races in 2021. The starting order for this race is determined by qualifying, after which the result of the sprint race is the starting order for the main race on Sunday. However, the big teams were worried about the extra costs, now that a budget cap is in place this year. As the teams have been lying down for it, Formula 1 has had to come up with a solution. According to AMuS, each team will receive $100,000 per sprint race. The team can supplement this bonus with $50,000 from their own funds, which will not be counted for the budget cap. In addition, teams are allowed to use up to a maximum of $200,000 to repair damage caused during a sprint race. The teams have had their way with this, but the question is to what extent these amounts can be controlled? A part that has been used for races and then breaks down, is of course worth a lot less than a part that has just been fitted. Knowing the F1 teams they will make optimal use of this loophole.

CEO Stefano Domenicali admits the new Miami GP could come at the expense of a European round when the 2022 schedule is announced. The sport will visit Miami for the first time in 2022 and the drivers are set to race on a high-speed street street circuit around the Hard Rock Stadium, home of the NFL team the Miami Dolphins. “I think it is a possibility because we need to be realistic, we cannot have 52 weekends in Formula 1,” Domenicali told RacingNews365.com and other select members of the press when asked whether a European round could be dropped due to Miami. “But the good thing is that we have a lot of interest that will enable us to create unique events with the right value. And we’re going to mix the strategic need for Formula 1 to develop in certain countries with historical places where we know that Formula 1 should stay. So that’s the beauty of having these many opportunities in front of us.” Domenicali also said the Miami GP will take place in the second-quarter of the season, indicating the new American event likely to be held around the same time as the Canadian GP at the end of May or in June. “Having two races in the US means that we have taken the right direction for our strategy for the future,” added Domenicali. “We will keep them separate in order to give the right space for both, and this is really crucial. “We always said that the US is a very important area on which we need to develop our business. There is a lot of opportunity. We are proud as Formula 1 because in this moment, above all after 2020 [which was] so difficult, the challenge in 2021, we are looking ahead, we are putting the foundation for an incredible future of Formula 1 and this is a milestone that we all wanted. “Just last night, when we shared the information with all the teams, everyone was really ‘wow, that’s the right way to go, this is really where we should be’. And this is really the direction I’m going to take for a great future for our Formula 1.”

has sold its iconic Woking HQ to American real estate giant Global Lease Network for £170m. The deal will see the companies Automotive, Racing, and Applied divisions continue to work out of the facility with a 20-year, NNN lease. The deal is the latest stage of McLaren’s bid to raise cash in the wake of a number of factors, not least the pandemic, which has hit sales of the company’s supercars and also seen a reduction in the prize money dividend from F1. Facing possible insolvency last year, in June the Woking company agreed a £150m loan – or “financing facility” to use ‘Ronspeak – with the National Bank of Bahrain and subsequently sold a 15% stake in the F1 team to MSP Sports Capital, a US-based sports investment group, for £185m. “We are excited to announce that this world-class facility will become part of the GNL portfolio,” said James Nelson, CEO of Global Lease Network. “The McLaren Group Headquarters’ state of the art buildings have won numerous awards, were designed by renowned architect Norman Foster, and are the type of mission-critical, net-leased properties that make up the GNL portfolio. “We are very pleased to have been able to collaborate and work with the management team of the McLaren Group to effect this transaction. We look forward to the long-term partnership with McLaren and the benefits this transaction will have to GNL. “The acquisition exemplifies GNL’s ability to source large scale and accretive sale-leaseback opportunities in a competitive marketplace that add significant value to our overall portfolio. We believe our global presence as a leading net lease REIT will continue to provide attractive acquisition opportunities that complement our best-in-class portfolio.” The McLaren Technology Centre campus includes the McLaren Technology Centre, McLaren Production Centre and McLaren Thought Leadership Centre and was designed by world-renowned architects, Foster & Partners. It has many environmentally conscious features. In 2010, the campus, which includes several lakes which assist in cooling efforts, earned Carbon Trust Standard certification from the Carbon Trust. The buildings have self-cleaning roofs that use a high-pressure drainage system to collect rainwater which is then used to refill the lake. In 2011 McLaren Racing was announced as the first ever carbon neutral team in Formula 1. The firm has also planted more than 100,000 trees at the site and created a wildlife sanctuary for otters and kingfishers.

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was at the wheel of the team’s test car on Tuesday morning, as the team stayed on for two days of 18 inch tyre testing at Imola. As part of the preparation for the introduction of the bigger wheels and tyres for the 2022 regulations, Pirelli are conducting twenty five days of specialised testing of the new tyres. This is in addition to the data being gathered from Formula 2, which has already introduced the bigger wheels this year. With Ferrari testing after the Bahrain GP, it’s Mercedes’ turn this time, and the test team have stayed on at the Imola circuit. Lewis Hamilton has got his first taste of the new tyres as he drives on Tuesday, with Valtteri Bottas taking over on Wednesday. Nine of the ten teams are taking part in the Pirelli tests, with just Williams unable to supply a mule car for the tyre manufacturer. The British team haven’t completely ruled out doing so later in the season. The test programme is decided by Pirelli, with teams unable to use the days to help with development or trying new items. The teams aren’t told any information regarding the tyres being used at any given moment, and all data gleaned is shared across all the teams to ensure noone gains an early advantage or extra understanding.