Racetrackmasters

Williams Formula One team founder Sir Frank Williams was admitted to the hospital, the team announced today. No specific reason for the hospitalization was given, but the team confirmed that he is currently in stable condition. Williams, who is 78, founded the Williams F1 team in 1977 alongside engineer Sir Patrick Head. Since then, the F1 team went on to win nine constructors’ championships and seven drivers’ championships. Williams’ F1 chassis still have codenames that start with FW in Frank’s honor. Williams’ eponymous F1 team also birthed Williams Advanced Engineering, which takes on go-fast projects ranging from Singer 911 engines to Formula E batteries and even 103-mph tractors. Williams Racing posted the following statement on Frank’s condition on Twitter: “Sir Frank Williams has recently been admitted to hospital where he is in a stable condition. Frank’s medical condition is a private matter and therefore the family will not be releasing any further details at this time. We ask for you to respect the family’s privacy. The team will release a further update in due course. Thank you.”

Britain’s Callum Ilott will be Ferrari’s Formula 1 test driver next season, the Italian team said on Tuesday.Ilott, 22, was Formula 2 runner-up to Germany’s Mick Schumacher this year but missed out on a F1 race seat for 2021. He tested with Ferrari-powered Alfa Romeo in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. Schumacher, son of seven times world champion Michael, will race for the Ferrari-powered Haas team while Japan’s Yuki Tsunoda, who finished third in F2, is expected to move up with AlphaTauri. “I look forward to contributing to the work the team does on and off track, and to all of the new things I can learn by taking on this exciting new challenge,” Ilott said in a statement. “I will give my all to do a good job and gain as much experience as possible to continue making progress as a driver.”

Formula 1 has revealed the entry fees teams will have to pay to race in the 2021 season, with champions Mercedes unsurprisingly at the top of the list.A system that sees F1 teams required to make a payment to the sport’s governing body, the FIA, in order to race next season, teams are required to make the payment based on the amount of points in the preceding season. Under the rules, all teams must pay a base entry fee of $556,509, with an extra $5,563 for each world championship point they scored. However, the constructors’ champions must pay an additional $6,677 for each point scored, meaning Mercedes’ bill is substantially larger than any other team’s. As a result, Mercedes will pay $4,382,430 for the privilege of defending their title, although it’s worth noting that the loss of races due to the COVID-19 pandemic means there were less points on offer for 2020, and thus even Mercedes got a discount compared to the fee they had to pay this past season. The full list of entry fees can be found below: Mercedes- $4,382,430 Red Bull- $2,331,106 McLaren- $1,680,235 Racing Point- $1,641,294 Renault- $1,563,412 Ferrari- $1,285,262 AlphaTauri- $1,151,750 Alfa Romeo- $601,013 Haas- $573,198 Williams- $556,509

Romain Grosjean is set to undergo surgery in the wake of his horror and fiery crash in Bahrain. The Frenchman missed the final two grands prix of his Formula 1 career as a result of the burns to his hands. “I could almost live normally with my right hand already,” Grosjean, 34, told RTL. “The only problem is that it is quite painful in this cold weather.” As for the left hand, he said it will take “another three good weeks” for the burns to heal. “But there are small victories every day. The first is that I 99.9 percent don’t have to have a graft, and I also have my little finger out of the bandage now,” said Grosjean. “I do need to go to the operating room this week because the ligament of the thumb was torn off, so it will mean between four and six weeks of immobilisation of the thumb. “Apart from that, I have joked with friends that I will not be a hand model next, but honestly it’s nothing compared to what could have happened in that accident,” he added.

Formula One and the FIA jointly announced that three people tested positive in the last seven-day period, which was the ultimate test period of the 2020 F1 season. Since the coronavirus-delayed 2020 F1 season kicked off in Austria on July 5, the sport has done a tremendous job to ensure that the safety of drivers, teams and staff is guaranteed. This included the social distancing in the paddock area and the mandatory wearing of face coverings. During race weekends, teams and F1 staff are operating in bubbles to reduce the risk of contracting and spreading the virus. Everyone entering the paddock must undergo tests for Covid-19 every five days. Formula One and the FIA announced every seven day the results of the tests of the previous period. The sport has now confirmed that between Friday 4th December and Thursday 10th December, 7,723 tests for COVID-19 have been performed on drivers, teams and personnel. Of these, 3 people tested positive. „The FIA and Formula 1 are providing this aggregated information for the purposes of competition integrity and transparency. No further details as to teams or individuals will be provided by the FIA or Formula 1 and results will be made public every 7 days,” read Formula One statement.

The Young Driver Test in Abu Dhabi has started and after driving about two hours it is Fernando Alonso who leads the test for ‘rookies’. Sebastien Buemi had a nasty moment for Red Bull Racing. After the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the Formula 1 teams have not quite finished the F1 season. In Abu Dhabi there will be another test for the younger drivers. At least, that was the idea, but after an approval for the participation of Fernando Alonso there were even more possibilities. The Spaniard is therefore the number one at the moment, although times do not say everything during such a test, of course. However, it is an extra chance for the drivers and the teams to test certain things. For Red Bull Racing it is therefore annoying that precisely the experienced driver goes into the fog. Sebastian Buemi already drove in Formula 1, but he was already in the wall this morning with his Red Bull. With a fifth fastest time he is a lot faster than the young Juri Vips, but that Est is still on the track where Buemi had to go to the garage. Nyck de Vries can be found in third place in front of Mercedes, with 35 laps already behind his name.

The 2020 Formula 1 season is over after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but not every driver has finished Formula 1 yet. In Abu Dhabi, the Young Driver Test will be completed on Tuesday, although not every driver is so ‘young’. Read here who will take part in this test. At the end of the season, Formula 1 teams would have the opportunity to test their new cars, but when the regulations were shifted, the test was also shortened. The test would be renamed a Young Driver Test, in which only drivers were allowed to take part with a maximum of two races to their name in Formula 1. However, the FIA cut itself off by having Fernando Alonso tested for Renault. The two-time world champion was not in the car in 2020, so he was allowed to take part in the test. However, this opened the door wide to other teams, including Stoffel Vandoorne, Robert Kubica and Sebastien Buemi. All drivers who have made enough kilometres in F1. So the Young Driver Test in Abu Dhabi is no longer so much a test for young drivers, but rather a test for the teams to test that car with the new floor and tyres for 2021. McLaren, together with Racing Point, is not present. They decided to abandon this test earlier this season, due to the lack of official junior or test drivers. Mercedes- Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries Red Bull Racing- Sebastien Buemi and Juri Vips Renault- Fernando Alonso and Guanyu Zhou Ferrari- Robert Shwartzman and Antonio Fuoco AlphaTauri- Yuki Tsunoda and Marino Sato Alfa Romeo- Robert Kubica and Callum Ilott Haas- Mick Schumacher Williams- Jack Aitken and Roy Nissany

The 2020 Formula 1 season concluded on Sunday in Abu Dhabi with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen besting the Mercedes team to take his second win of the season. All eyes are now on the Austrian team, which is yet to confirm their driver lineup for the 2021 campaign. Verstappen’s father Jos remained coy when questioned about his son’s next teammate. Alex Albon partnered with Verstappen in 2020 and did not give a good account of himself as he struggled to match the pace set by the Dutchman. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner made it clear that a decision will only be made after the end of the season as the organization was keen to give Albon every opportunity to stake a claim for the seat. The British-Thai driver failed to leave a lasting impression, and recent reports suggest that Sergio Perez, who was let go by Racing Point, is in line to replace him. Red Bull has played their cards close to the chest, but they are expected to make an announcement in the coming days. Jos, an integral member of the Red Bull crew, admitted that he is also in the dark about his son’s next teammate. “No, I really don’t know. I haven’t heard anything yet. Otherwise, I would have known,” Jos said, as quoted on GP Blog. “Let’s wait and see where he stands in relation to Max and Albon next year. I don’t know how good Perez is.” Meanwhile, Mercedes suffered a demoralizing defeat at the hands of Red Bull in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. They had no answer to Verstappen’s pace with Valtteri Bottas finishing over 10 seconds behind in second place. Chief trackside engineer Andrew Shovlin was lost for words in explaining the blunder that they committed during the race’s weekend stretch. “The surprise came from the fact that on Friday we looked all right,” Shovlin stated via ESPN. “We did our own program on the 2021 tires, and we were keen to focus a fair chunk of our effort on that. “If we were struggling [for performance] on Friday, then we might have said that we’d spent too much time on those tires, but we weren’t and we were very quick,” he continued. “So to be honest, on Friday night, we were fairly relaxed where we stood and the surprise was on Saturday morning when we hit the track and we were slow.”

Red Bull Racing has closed the 2020 Formula 1 season in style. Not only was Max Verstappen the fastest of the whole weekend, but the Red Bull pit stop team was also the fastest in Abu Dhabi. If there is one part in which Red Bull excels, it is the pit stops. Ever since Red Bull entered F1 they have been strong in the pitlane, as seen by their several awards. The DHL Fastest Pitstop Award will once again go to Red Bull Racing in 2020, after they dominated once again. In Abu Dhabi, Red Bull was once again the fastest, with a pit stop of 2.36s for Max Verstappen. Alexander Albon also had a quick stop, 2.62s. Red Bull have been so good at changing tyres this season, they ended with more than double the points of second-placed Williams.

Lewis Hamilton is keen for new contract talks with Mercedes to be wrapped up by Christmas after his positive Covid-19 test delayed proceedings. The seven-time world champion secured his most recent title at the Turkish Grand Prix in November to equal Michael Schumacher’s record, while he broke the German’s record for most Grand Prix wins the race before his Istanbul success by notching up his 92nd race win in Portugal. Six of those titles and 74 of those wins have come with Mercedes after his move there from McLaren in 2013 and Hamilton insisted he wanted to strike a deal very soon that would allow him to race for the Northamptonshire-based team. ‘Hopefully over the next couple of weeks,’ Hamilton said when asked about when a deal would be confirmed. ‘We would love to get it done before Christmas. ‘I plan to be here next year. I want to be here next year. We, as a team, have more to do together and more to achieve both in the sport but even more outside the sport.’ Mercedes have already put Valtteri Bottas and Hamilton down as their drivers for next year on the FIA entry list and Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said talks between the team and Hamilton should be a formality and had only stopped because Hamilton had contracted the virus, which caused him to miss the second of back-to-back Bahrain Grands Prix earlier this month. ‘We will have this conversation,’ Wolff said. ‘We were delayed. We always said we would do it after the title was won, and then the virus delayed us for another 10 days, two weeks. Now we just have to sit down, maybe virtually, maybe live.’ The biggest potential sticking point in negotiations could be Hamilton’s pay, with the Briton currently making a whopping £35million a year and seeking a pay rise to £40m per year. As the highest-earning driver in the sport, he therefore stands to be hardest hit if plans by the Formula One Commission (FAC) to introduce a salary cap come to fruition. That would mean every team’s two drivers would share a salary pot of £22m a year, and could come into effect as early as 2023. Consequently, the 35-year-old may now feel under pressure to secure a long new contract now before the new restrictions come in. The FAC is responsible for approving any changes to F1’s sporting and technical regulations before these changes are then ratified by the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council. In response, Hamilton called on the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA), the equivalent of a drivers’ trade union, to work closely with the sport’s authorities to resolve the issue.

Sebastian Vettel says he will “treasure” his final day as a Ferrari race driver after an emotional Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The four-time world champion was given a guard of honour out of his garage on the way to the grid and presented with a trophy post-race to commemorate his 14 wins for the Scuderia. And reflecting on the day, and his time at Ferrari, Vettel insisted he will only look back with happiness. “There’s many reasons why, you can argue, why we did not succeed and finish the mission we set out to achieve but what you keep ultimately is the memories and the passion I shared with so many people along the way,” Vettel said. “I have no regrets looking back. Certainly, there have been mistakes, there have been highs and lows. “I’m not normally the most emotional guy, today is a different day, a day I will remember not for finishing 14th but for what it means in the big picture. “It is a day I will treasure. It is a goodbye to many friends and in a way, I fell in love with, in the last years, so those I will miss. “I’m sure I won’t lose those completely, we have a saying in German, you always see each other twice in life, I think time will tell.” After the race, Vettel and teammate Charles Leclerc completed a helmet swap, with Seb calling the Monegasque the “most talented driver I came across in 15 years of F1” in a message. And in a year where Ferrari has languished in the midfield, he voiced his wish to see Leclerc back fighting at the front of the grid. “I’ve learned so much from this team, they have given me so much,” Vettel said. “I’m very grateful for that, it’s beyond titles and victories, for sure that’s what we were after, in the end, we didn’t get it.” “It doesn’t change anything, I wish this team well, I wish the guys well. Charles is a young, fresh hope of this team and I hope he gets the car he deserves in the next years.” Vettel, though, handed his over with a personalised message for Leclerc and had some seriously high praise for him. “To Charles, you are the most talented driver I came across in 15 years of F1,” Vettel wrote. “Don’t waste it. But be sure whatever you do to be happy and smile. Thanks for everything!” As for Leclerc, he also paid tribute to Vettel and voiced optimism for the future. “It has been a difficult season for us and it’s a shame to end it like this,” he said after finishing 13th at the Abu Dhabi GP. “All the same, we have made some progress over the past few races, and hopefully we can continue doing so over the winter to come back stronger next year. “I want to thank Seb for everything he has given to the team. He is an amazing person and a fantastic driver. He pushed me to perform better and to improve.” “It’s been great to have him on the other side of the garage for the past two years and I wish him all the best for the future. “I am also happy that Carlos [Sainz] is joining the team next year. He is very quick, solid and consistent as a driver. It’s going to be a big challenge for me and I’m already looking forward to it.”