Formula 1

Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has revealed that F1 is aiming on holding sprint races in a third of the 23 races on the 2022 Formula 1 calendar. The sprint qualifying format is currently under trial after being used in Silverstone and Monza. It will be also be used in Brazil as the F1 management engage in talks with FIA and the teams on the plans to use the format onwards. Sprint qualifying has brought about mixed reactions with Formula 1 managing director Ross Brawn the media and some team bosses showing delight in the format. However, the drivers and the fans somehow seem unconvinced mainly because of the controversies evolving around the Silverstone and Monza races. The only advantage the sprint qualifying hold is that the drivers have the freedom to choose the tyre compounds to start with in the grand prix. According to Domenicali, rubber stamping the Sprint format is a mere formality with organisers planning to host the events at a third of next year’s Grands Prix. “We said at the beginning of the year there would be three tests this year to make sure we have the right plan for the future,” he said. “The vast majority of the comments we received were super positive. “Promoters are super happy because there is something new and important on Friday and Saturday and Sunday,” he added. “We are receiving this positive feedback therefore we need to know next year we have a great plan where we will consider also the points highlighted by people who did not like this format. Generally speaking it has been an incredible success. “I can say we will not go everywhere with the Sprint format,” he continued. “It is something we want to keep for one third of the races more or less and to connect with a certain different way of giving rewards and points and to connect with specific circuits that as you know would make the difference. “So there is a lot of food for thought. We will involve all the stakeholders: broadcasters, drivers, teams, promoters and fans. We won’t forget our role is to take the right decision and to consider all the points and points of view of everyone.” Talking about the planned 23-date 2022 Formula 1 schedule, which will see two American events, Domenicali said, “I can anticipate that, for sure, the calendar will be done with 23 races. “Of course we will be very respectful towards the COVID regulations issued around the world from the different governments. But that is our aim that F1 can give this sign of hope and to go to normal things to enjoy. “The idea is to make sure there is the right rhythm to the calendar,” he continued. “There are, of course, considerations related to periods to make sure logistically the flow has to be right. “One thing I can tell you, without discovering too many things is that next year the season will start in the middle of March and will finish in the middle of November.”

FIA declined on a hearing presented by Red Bull on enquiry about Mercedes trick. FIA did nothing on the claim meaning the 2021 world championship battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton is still wide open. With only seven races left on the 2021 Formula 1 calendar, the fight for the championship is very tight between Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton is currently leading the championship with a narrow margin of only two points from Verstappen. With this, both teams are trying to make any efforts within their reach to sway the championship title fight to their favour. Thats why Red Bull decided to go to the FIA to inquire about Mercedes. Red Bull claims that Mercedes is using a trick in cooling the plenum. The plenum is a volume of air that is big enough to run the engine efficiently when you go to full throttle and high revs. Normally the compressor and turbine are one unit which is called the turbo but with this design, you have the turbine which can be running at 800 to 1000 degrees sitting next door to the compressor which you want to be as cool as possible otherwise the charge air will be increased in temperature. On the Mercedes the compressor is at the front of the engine connected to the turbine which is at the rear of the engine with a shaft, the MGU-H is placed in the middle of this shaft between the compressor and turbine. This gives Mercedes the opportunity to drive the MGU-H with the turbine to harvest energy while also allowing the compressor to stop when you don’t want or need the boost pressure. So in effect, it’s just flowing ambient air through the system, which will cool everything a bit. According to Red Bull, the Mercedes trick is not in accordance with the rules and regulations but according to relative sources, FIA did not wan anything to do with Red Bull’s request. This means the two rival teams have to take the battle back to the track.

Mercedes Formula 1 team introduced the black livery for its formula 1 cars back in 2020. The cars were entirely black as the choice was motivated by Lewis Hamilton’s anti-racism messages. The team however, chose to move on with the black livery over to 2021 but Hamilton insists he would love it if the silver livery made a return. The seven-time world champion said he has nothing against the silver livery when he was asked his opinion about the issue, “I don’t really have an opinion on it,” he told Motorsport.com. “Originally it was the silver arrows.” “When I asked for the car to be black for symbolism last year, and what our future plans are in terms of diversity, I didn’t expect it to stay for so long. It’s great that we kept it for another season,” he explained. “If it comes back that would be a nice change. It doesn’t stop us from making changes internally, we continue to make a strong case for diversity,” Hamilton said.

Alfa Romeo team boss Frederic Vasseur has shed some light on the driver consideration for his team next season. He has also claimed that Antonio Giovinazzi still has the opportunity to save his seat with the team. Current Mercedes driver, Valtteri Bottas was announced by the team to replace world champion Kimi Raikkonen as he decided to retire at the end of the 2021 Formula 1 season. Rumours have been going around that Gwanyu Zhou is the team’s favourite to drive be alongside Bottas next year. The Alpine junior driver is currently ranking second in the Formula 2 championship. Alfa Romeo is impressed with the chinese as he has impressive talent and will be coming with an attractive sponsorship package. Antonio Giovinazzi on the other hand, is fighting very hard to retain his seat with Alfa Romeo. He has put in impressive qualifying sessions at Zandvoort and his homeground Monza. However, he has been unable to replicate the qualifying success into races. Vasseur insists the Italian can still save his seat during the remaining seven races of the year he said, “I think at least the good side of our position is that we can wait because we know we have some drivers in contact and the ball is in our hands.” “I’m considering the situation as an opportunity for Antonio, because he’s the guy in the car who can show that he can do a good job and can improve. It’s much more frustrating when you’re not in the car and you have to wait to see if the others are doing well or badly. Antonio has this opportunity, and he has to take it.” “He did very well in the last few events, and I was very happy to see that he could deliver and could do a step over the different stints and runs. He was improving from Q1 to Q2 and Q2 to Q3 every single run, and he was able to put everything together and fine-tune during the qualifying.” Vasseur also pointed out that a significant factor that will affect Giovinazzi’s chances lay with his ability to carry his brilliant qualifying runs over to his performances on a Sunday. “For sure, now the target is to score points, and the last few events were a bit difficult. But I know he’s able to do the job and now I’m waiting for the weekend when he puts everything together – qualifying pace, race pace and then from the first lap to the last lap.”

Aston Martin F1 team boss Otmar Szafnauer still remains incharge of the team but will be soon reporting to new group CEO Martin Whitmarsh. Through an announcement last month, Aston Martin nominated Whitmarsh to lead the new Aston Martin Technologies and Performance unit, which will oversight all the F1 activities. Whitmarsh was formerly at Mclaren for 25 years, a tenure that came to end back in 2014, holding an executive role with Olympic yachtsman Ben Ainslie’s America’s Cup challenge. The 63-year-old’s new role with Aston Martin will see him leverage the F1’s team’s engineering and technical expertise for the benefit of a wide variety of key industry sectors. Whitmarsh will therefore have no involvement in the day-to-day running of Aston Martin F1 which remains entrusted to Szafnauer. “The F1 side will remain under my leadership and remit,” said the American, quoted by Motorsport.com. “So I’ll still be team principal and CEO. Martin will be group CEO, with the F1 side reporting through him. “So I guess the only thing that hasn’t been planned is how much of his time, because he’s got the entire group, does he spend on each one of those entities? “I would imagine at the beginning most of his time will be spent growing the Aston Martin Performance Technologies area, which is where his most recent expertise lies, and not focus so much on F1. “But the bit that hasn’t been planned is how much of his time will be spent where.” Szafnauer says Whitmarsh’s vast F1 experience and management expertise will help Aston deploy its engineering assets towards projects located outside of the world of racing, following an approach similar to that embraced in the past by McLaren with its Applied Technologies subsidiary. “He was there at McLaren when they started doing that, so he’s got that experience, and he can lead us to shortcuts in doing that,” said Szafnauer. “He’s also had seven years now of boat racing experience, including starting a new company that is taking technologies from boat racing and moving that technology into I think cargo ships. “And it’s an applied technology type business, technology transfer. He’s got good experience in that, and he’ll help us shortcut the development of our performance technology business.”

The chances for Lewis Hamilton avoiding an engine penalty are becoming slim. This comes after Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admitted there are question marks surrounding his driver’s engines. This comes as Hamilton is locked in a tight battle for the 2021 Formula 1 championship with Red Bull driver Max Verstappen with just two points seperating them currently after Hamilton 100th win in Sochi last weekend. The seven time world champion is currently using his third and final permitted engine with just only seven races left on the 2021 Formula 1 calendar. However, thre is speculation that Hamilton has to fit a fourth engine which will lead to a grid penalty. Red Bull gave Verstappen a fourth engine fit in Sochi last weekend which saw the dutchman start from the back of the grid, but managed to finish the race second after chaotic final laps. This was very impressive regarding the damage limitation for Verstappen’s championship hopes. Red Bull’s move is now giving Mercedes a headache regarding engine options for Lewis Hamilton. His teammate Valtteri Bottas got two consecutive engine penalties in Russia and Italy after the team changed his engines in the two rounds. “I think we haven’t only made the cautionary engine change because we felt we wanted to stockpile, but also because we want to understand the engine’s performance – and that has given us some question marks,” Toto Wolff said. “We’re just taking it one race weekend at a time – and [then we’ll] reassess the performance of the power units and then take decisions. “At the moment we are reassessing the performance of the power units because we have question marks, and therefore haven’t decided which engines would go back into the pool.”

McLaren driver Lando Norris finished a disappointing seventh place despite starting the race from pole position. Norris was leading for much of the Russian Grand Prix but things didn’t go well in the final laps of the race as rain pounded the circuit. As Mercedes was bringing Lewis Hamilton in, Land Norris opted to stay out in the track in slicks. Although he did not want to come in either, but it was the team at fault for having no information for Norris. According to Ralf Schumacher, the team made a very huge mistake and Norris missed the victory because the McLaren weatherman did not provide information to the driver which could have forced him to pit. ”The fault lay with the McLaren weatherman. Team boss Seidl said to Sky that they had assumed light rain and that Norris had therefore been left out. There’s nothing the driver can do about that. If he had gone against his team, it probably would have been different, but he just didn’t have the information that the team has. But his crew just had the wrong information”, says Schumacher in his column for Sky Germany. “I would have brought him in one lap after Hamilton to at least bring home second place. Even a slightly damp track makes it much harder for the driver to drive. A few splashes don’t matter, but when it’s wet all over the surface, the slicks lose all grip, it’s like driving on soap”, the German concludes.

2021 Turkish Grand Prix venue will be treated to give drivers more grip and prevent 2020 drama with drivers spinning allover. The circuit had not been in use since 2011 and was re-carpeted in 2020 just a few weeks to the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix. This made the drivers struggle for grip especially with the hard tyres as they could not retain temperature. Pirelli said they would have prepared tyres with softer compounds had they known the circuit had been re-carpeted just prior to the grand prix. However, the situation became much worse as rain hit the circuit in qualifying and the race itself making it extremely difficult for the drivers to find grip. Michael Masi, the FIA race director updated all the teams that the track had been treated to add more grip. This means that all the data that the teams had collected at the circuit back in 2020 will be irrelevant. “We do regularly each season send updates to the teams about any circuit changes for upcoming events,” said Masi. “Be they be barriers, fences, gates, whatever. It may be areas of resurfacing. “So yes, the surface in Turkey has been effectively water-blasted, would probably be the best way to put it, which is a regular treatment that happens. “We have seen that regularly used in Singapore as an example, where the public roads that are used they resurface those quite regularly because of the movement. That is what has happened there, along with a few other changes.” F1 managing director, Ross Brawn commented that lack of grip was a good challenge for the drivers after the 2020 race. “I appreciate drivers were not happy with overall grip levels,” he said. “But it was a consequence of the late decision to race there as the calendar was revised to respond to COVID-19. “I think drivers sometimes need to remember it’s a competition of who crosses the line first, so while grip levels weren’t high, it was the same for everyone. “Some drivers got their head down and came to terms with it, others found it a distraction. “Having a challenging surface as we had this weekend was no bad thing. It showed a driver’s talent to the max. I don’t think grip levels are a measure of the level of competition you will have.”

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz is looking at a grid penalty in the Turkish GP. This comes as Ferrari plans to change the engine on the Spaniard’s SF21 to give him more speed. This means that the engine swap will see him start from the back of the grid in the race. This will be the third time Ferrari is changing the engine exceeding the regulated number of engine changes. The Italian team believes that by changing the engine, Sainz will have a better chance of finishing in the points in Turkey despite starting from the back of the grid. Carlos Sainz’s engine upgrade in Turkey will be the same as Leclerc’s during the Russian GP. Despite the Monesgague finishing 15th in the Russian GP, Ferrari insists that the new engine yielded positive results and had nothing to do with the low performance. The team believes Sainz can also benefit with the change. The Italians are back on level terms this year after a poor season. The team is fighting with McLaren for third place in the world championship, where they are 18.5 points behind the competition. Sainz has so far amassed 112.5 points, while Leclerc has yet to score more than 104.

Seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton has admitted he ‘often’ thinks about retiring from Formula 1 but also insists he is ‘still hungry’ to win more F1 races. The Brit won his 100th grand prix in Russia last weekend adding to his list of record Formula 1 wins. The 36-year old is locked in a tight battle for the 2021 championship with RedBull driver Max Verstappen with only two points separating the latter with only seven rounds remaining in the 2021 Formula 1 season. Hamilton signed a two-year contact with Mercedes that will see him drive for the team upto 2023. When asked about his retirement after so much success in Formula 1, Lewis said, “That thought often happens to me. It’s like a wave.” “It comes and goes, there have been many occasions in the last four or five years when I didn’t know if I still wanted to try, sacrifice myself with training at the expense of personal life.” “There are other things I like to do. So many things I would like to try. But on the other hand I tell myself that I am so lucky to be doing this job.” “In a rather long period of time, the career in the car becomes only a small part, there is a lot of time to retire. It is a question of finding the balance. I tell myself that if I am still hungry and I train like I was a boy, which I am doing, and if I still get great results and I’m still hungry…” “If I find myself slower, lacking strength to train, and unmotivated, then I’ll know it’s time to stop.” Hamilton will be joined by George Russell at Mercedes in 2022 which will see a brand new car and new regulations put in place. He also praised the new generation of young F1 drivers such as Lando Norris, George Russell and Charles Leclerc and insisted he was not ‘scared’ of facing them in 2022 under new regulations.

Ferrari’s vice chairman, Piero Ferrari has admitted that Ferrari is helping Mick Schumacher, the son of legendary Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher a more competitive car in Formula 1. The Italian team is helping Mick Schumacher, who is currently driving for Haas Formula 1 team speed up in F1. “He is making his way in a team that we support,” Ferrari, the only living son of the great Maranello marque’s iconic founder Enzo told the Italian media. “His team (Haas) has made the choice not to spend in 2021 so they are using a car that was already not good in 2020,” he added. “But they are spending for 2022 and we at Ferrari are also helping Haas. For his second year, we hope to give Schumacher a car with which he can demonstrate his qualities.” Piero Ferrari also admitted he misses Michael Schumacher, who is the legendary seven time world champion having won five titles under Ferrari. “I had the pleasure of having Schumacher as a guest in my home, drinking a bottle of red win together. He really enjoyed these moments of intimacy and tranquillity. “He was a simple person – clear, precise, a very linear personality,” Ferrari said. “I’m sorry that we talk about him today as if he is dead, because he is not. Michael is there but he cannot communicate.”

Losail International Circuit will be hosting its first ever grand prix this year with a 10 year deal in place starting from 2023, Formula 1 has confirmed. The track has hosted MotoGP since 2004 and its inclusivity in the Formula 1 calendar means the three final rounds of the 2021 Formula season will be taking place in the Middle East. The Qatar Grand Prix will be acting as a replacement for the Australian Grand Prix which was cancelled due to travel restrictions imposed by the Australian government due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The round will be happening from 19th to 21st November just between the Brazilian GP and the inaugural Saudi Arabia GP. “There was a strong will from Qatar to be helpful to F1, and in the course of this process, the vision for a longer partnership was discussed and agreed for 10 years,” a statement from F1 said. The 10-year agreement was driven by the fact that Qatar will be hosting FIFA World Cup in 2022 and the biggest strategy was to showcase Qatar after the 2022 games. “As part of the longer-term deal, discussions will continue regarding the location for the Grand Prix from 2023 with further details to be provided at a later time.” F1 President and CEO Stefano Domenicali praised the efforts of the Qatar Motor & Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) and the Qatari Authorities in helping to arrange the Grand Prix at short notice, saying: “We are very pleased to welcome Qatar to the Formula 1 calendar this season and for the longer term from 2023.” It is understood that the race will be classified as a twilight start, similar to the Abu Dhabi GP and with lights out at 18:00 local time.

Antonio Giovinazzi says his Russian Grand Prix was “a mess” after the Italian lost radio communication with his team on the opening lap of the race. The Alfa Romeo driver started from 17th on the grid despite changing his gearbox, one place higher than where he qualified, with bigger penalties to other drivers actually helping him out. However, his efforts to move further up the grid during the race were compromised early on when he lost radio contact with his team on Lap 1. In the end Giovinazzi finished 16th, with the radio issues and contact with Mick Schumacher proving too much to overcome. “I had no radio from Lap 1, so it was impossible to communicate with the team, and it was just a difficult race with the fuel saving,” Giovinazzi said in an interview. “I tried to watch my pit on the main straight to see what I need to do, but without the radio it was just a mess. “And then also with the rain in the end I had no communication. It was just a silence race for myself, so just a difficult race from lap one. “It was also difficult to overtake, so I lost a lot of time there. Then when I was in free air the pace was good. But we lost a lot of laps.” Giovinazzi’s future at Alfa Romeo remains unclear at this time as he has yet to be confirmed by the team for 2021, with the Italian outfit already announcing that Valtteri Bottas will join from Mercedes.