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Formula 1 - 2022 Season

Ferrari 'much better prepared' for F1 title fight against 'incredible' rivals Red Bull and Mercedes

Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto says the early F1 2022 frontrunners are "much better prepared" than previous years to fight for the title although the team are still wary of their "incredible" rivals Red Bull and Mercedes.

A resurgent Ferrari have enjoyed a superb start to the new season, scoring 78 points from a maximum of 88 from the opening Bahrain and Saudi Arabian GPs to open up an unexpected 40-point gap at the top.

Their charge has been led by Charles Leclerc, who has a pole and a victory to his name, while neither the Monegasque nor team-mate Carlos Sainz have finished a race off the podium.

"For us to be there in the fight, that was our objective to start the season and we can be very pleased," Binotto told Sky Sports F1.

It is a great opening to the year, although the team are well aware their job is nowhere near done. With the cars still very new, there will be a development battle through the season - something Ferrari have struggled with before, notably in 2017 and '18 when they started well but dropped away from Mercedes in the title race.

"Keeping up the level on a long season is a challenge, not just for us but all the teams," said Binotto.

"It's true that our competitors have very strong development. In 2017 and '18 we lost a bit of ground.

"But since then, in car design, we have improved our wind tunnel, technologies, processes and simulations and so today we are much better prepared than in the past to do a good job with development.

"We also have a budget cap which will affect the rate of development... we need to make sure we have the right policy on that, as it could be a game-changer in the fight for development."

Ferrari's large lead at the top is both down to performance and reliability, with Mercedes well adrift in terms of pace and Red Bull, while evenly-matched with Ferrari, suffering a point-less double DNF in the season-opener.

"I believe Red Bull is the strongest and the favourite," added Binotto.

Sainz, meanwhile, is also wary of Red Bull and Mercedes.

"If anything I'm impressed with the car that both Red Bull and Mercedes managed to put together, with less wind tunnel time than us, with the championship fight going on," said Sainz.

"It just shows they are two very strong teams performing at an incredible level, and at any point in the season, they can turn it up and put a strong competition.

"We just need to keep our heads down and keep maximising our chances. But at the same time, I also trust the development capacity of our team. I think this year's car proves it. It's a car that is very well thought out, with some special concepts to it.

"So I really trust the people behind it and I'm sure we can develop."

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/1...ainst-incredible-rivals-red-bull-and-mercedes
 
Australian GP: Mercedes say no 'magic fix'

Mercedes say there is no "magic fix" for their underperforming W13 car for this weekend's Australian GP, as F1's world champions set their focus on maximising points rather than previously expected upgrades.

The Silver Arrows, big favourites for 2022 given their dominance over the last eight seasons, have endured a difficult start, slipping well behind Ferrari and Red Bull as the grid's third-fastest team after two races.

They were expected to bring the first upgrades to their W13 car for round three in Melbourne this weekend - with a solution to the violent 'porpoising' crucial - but it now looks like Mercedes will be waiting.

The European season officially starts in Imola in two weeks' time before the maiden Miami GP.

"There won't be a magic fix for the next race weekend, but we're pushing to steadily bring gains over the upcoming races, to hopefully move us closer to the front of the pack." said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.

"Until then, we need to maximise each opportunity and make the most of the package we have."

While second in the standings, Mercedes are 40 points behind Ferrari already and they are only ahead of Red Bull because of their rivals' double DNF in the opener, which gave Lewis Hamilton an unexpected podium.

"We are in a learning race and the first two weekends have shown we still have plenty to learn," added Wolff.

"At the moment, our track performance is not meeting our own expectations, but everyone at Brackley and Brixworth is focused on understanding the problems and finding the right solutions.

"There are various challenges ahead of us, but that's something we relish and is when a team really shows its true spirit.

"Lewis and George [Russell] are making an important contribution to the overall effort, providing feedback, spending time in the simulator and working together to help push us forward.

"Now we head back to Melbourne for the first time since 2020 and will be racing in Australia for the first time in three years - that's too long for a city and country that are so passionate about F1. We're looking forward to seeing the fans and the new track layout which promises more overtaking opportunities and faster lap times."

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/1...on-hill-discusses-lewis-hamiltons-title-hopes
 
Charles Leclerc headed Red Bull's Max Verstappen in Friday practice at the Australian Grand Prix.

Leclerc ended the session 0.245 seconds ahead of the Dutchman, who appeared to have the potential to go faster had it not been for traffic and some errors.

The second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz was 0.398secs off the pace in third place, ahead of the Fernando Alonso's Alpine, impressively competitive in fourth.

Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were only 11th and 13th.

The seven-time champion said it had been "a difficult session".

"Nothing we change on the car makes a difference at the moment," Hamilton said, "so that's the difficult thing.

"It's just a tricky car. You're trying to push and catch and even when you do a decent lap it's 1.2 seconds down."
 
<b>Australian Grand Prix
Charles Leclerc beats Max Verstappen in practice as Mercedes struggles continue</b>

Charles Leclerc headed Red Bull's Max Verstappen in Friday practice at the Australian Grand Prix.

Leclerc ended the session 0.245 seconds ahead of the Dutchman, who appeared to have the potential to go faster had it not been for traffic and some errors.

The second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz was 0.398secs off the pace in third place, ahead of the Fernando Alonso's Alpine, impressively competitive in fourth.

Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were only 11th and 13th.

The seven-time champion said it had been "a difficult session".

"Nothing we change on the car makes a difference at the moment," Hamilton said, "so that's the difficult thing.

"It's just a tricky car. You're trying to push and catch and even when you do a decent lap it's 1.2 seconds down."

Mercedes lowered the ride height of their car to try to gain performance but this led to further problems with "porpoising". This is a high-frequency bouncing on the straights as the airflow under the car is disrupted and which has afflicted the Mercedes since it first hit the track.

"Into Turn Nine it is probably the most severe I have experienced," Russell said. "We believe that's the fastest way around the track but maybe it's not."

The Mercedes drivers were struggling with a lack of confidence in the car in high-speed corners, with their biggest time loss in the 155mph sweeps of Turns Nine and 10, where the rear end felt nervous.

Verstappen complained of a lack of front grip early in the day but improved the car towards the end of running.

"P1 and beginning of P2 we were lacking a bit of balance," the world champion said. "For the final run, we changed the car around a bit and I felt a lot happier.

"We are a tiny bit off Ferrari but I do think we can make it a little bit closer. But in the long run everything felt quite stable and quite nice so I am happy about that. We have little bit of work to do but we are more or less there."

Leclerc underlined that he believed Red Bull had more potential than they had showed.

"They didn't put the lap together," Leclerc said. "Max had a bit of traffic in his fast lap so it is going to be very close and we will have to maximise our car to be starting on pole on Sunday."

Ferrari, too, were suffering from porpoising, but not to the same detrimental effect on performance as Mercedes.

"It is not so pleasant but we are working on it," Leclerc said. "For now it is not too much of a limitation lap-time wise. It is just for the comfort in the straights. It is not so comfortable but I'm not here to have a comfortable car I am here to have a fast car. For now, it's looking good."

As at the last race in Jeddah, Red Bull are running their car in lower-drag configuration than Ferrari. The Ferrari gains a lot of lap time in the corners which the Red Bull compensates for with straight-line speed.

For example, on their fastest laps, Leclerc was 0.4secs faster than Verstappen in Turn 13 alone, but the Dutchman gained 0.35secs on the flat-out run from Turn Six to Nine.

Red Bull's Sergio Perez was fifth ahead of the second Alpine of Esteban Ocon, Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas, McLaren's Lando Norris, Alpha Tauri's Pierre Gasly and the second McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo.

Verstappen looked like he had the potential to displace the Ferraris at the top of the timesheets, but encountered traffic on one fast lap and then made a mistake three corners from the end of another when he appeared on target to go fastest.

There was a brief red-flag period towards the end of the session after a piece of bodywork detached itself from Lance Stroll's Aston Martin and had to be retrieved by a marshal.

Stroll's team-mate Sebastian Vettel did not run in the second session after an engine failure towards the end of the first. The team had planned to change the power-unit but failed to do so in time for the German to return to the track.

Melbourne's Albert Park track has been modified for F1's return to Australia after a two-year absence because of the pandemic.

A chicane has been removed and some of the corners reprofiled in an attempt to make the racing more exciting on a circuit that is renowned for the difficulty of overtaking.

But there were no major incidents during the session, although a number of drivers ran off-track and Verstappen was one of those who had a couple of near misses with traffic. The Dutchman suffered particularly on his qualifying simulation run when he had to back out of a fast lap at the 155mph Turns Nine and 10 when cars were running slowly on the racing line ahead of him.

Alonso's Alpine is fitted with a new engine for this weekend - his third of the season when only three are allowed for the whole championship.

Alpine discovered a problem with Alonso's engine after the first race in Bahrain and fitted a new one for the second race in Saudi Arabia. That suffered a water-pump failure which caused irreparable damage to the internal combustion engine.

Alonso's problems mean he will inevitably face grid penalties later in the year for using more than the permitted number of power-unit elements.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/61034796
 
The top 10 in Q1 today

Verstappen
Perez
Leclerc
Sainz
Alonso
Bottas
Norris
Hamilton
Russell
Gasly
 
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc grabbed pole from Red Bull's Max Verstappen at the end of a dramatic qualifying session at the Australian Grand Prix.

The final session was interrupted by a red flag following a crash for Fernando Alonso's Alpine after an apparent hydraulic failure robbed him of a strong showing.

Leclerc had just set the fastest time when Alonso went off, but was supplanted by Verstappen when the session resumed.

But Leclerc pulled out a storming lap at the end to take pole by 0.286 seconds.

Red Bull's Sergio Perez took third, with McLaren's Lando Norris fourth ahead of the Mercedes cars of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz was only ninth fastest after a difficult session.

The Spaniard's first flying lap did not register because the red flag was thrown for Alonso's crash just as Sainz approached the line.

And then he could not deliver a representative lap on his final run, ending up 1.5secs slower than his team-mate.

But possibly the biggest loser was Alonso, who was 0.2secs up on Leclerc's first lap time after two sectors of his flying lap before his incident.

Alonso ran wide of the apex entering the corner, got on to the kerb and slid into the gravel and then the wall.

"I lost the hydraulics," he told Alpine over the radio. "I could not change gear."

The two-time champion must be considered unlikely to have contested for pole but he certainly looked on course for a competitive showing, before what seems to be the latest in a series of Alpine reliability problems this year thwarted him.

BBC
 
Lewis Hamilton says the problems with his Mercedes car are so bad that he is not enjoying driving it this season.

The seven-time world champion qualified fifth for the Australian Grand Prix and would have been seventh had it not been for problems affecting Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and Alpine's Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton was a second slower than Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc's pole position time and said the "porpoising" - a rapid bouncing at high speeds - that has afflicted his car since the start of the season was "really the worst characteristic I have experienced in a car and we can't get rid of it at the moment".

The 37-year-old, who returned to F1 this season hoping to avenge the controversial loss of the world title at last year's final race, admitted winning was "a long way off".

"We're a second off, a pretty huge gap," he said. "I enjoy the role of working with the team. I don't enjoy driving the car but I enjoy the collaboration of working with the guys, knowing that there is a steep hill to climb and just remaining hopeful we will get there."

And he admitted there was no solution on the horizon for Mercedes' problems.
"It takes a long time to make stuff but there is nothing particularly exciting coming at the moment," he said. "I wish I could be optimistic and say the next one we have something better coming, but at the moment we don't."

Mercedes at a loss

Mercedes believe that fixing the "porpoising", which is caused by a disruption in the airflow under the car, would be the single biggest step they could make towards recovering competitiveness this year.

But their quandary is that the Ferrari also exhibits the problem and that remains a far faster car.

"I don't understand it and I don't think anyone does," Hamilton said. "I wish ours was the same, but it's not."

Team boss Toto Wolff admitted that Mercedes' problems were bigger than one single issue.

"Our bouncing is worse in the sense that we are carrying it into the corners, into the high speeds so we see where we are losing the performance," he said. "On sector one, we are very competitive when you look at the overlay, and sector two we are competitive. Sector three, through Nine and 10 we are losing all our margins, almost a second through a couple of corners.

"Is curing the bouncing the miraculous unlocking of a second? No, for sure not. But there are many other little improvements we can make on weight and a few others where we can optimise, and we just need to chip away at the small gains while understanding the car.

"I'm optimistic we are going to get there eventually. Whether it is is in two races or five or by the end of the season, I don't know."

Wolff's representation of Mercedes' pace relative to Leclerc was not quite accurate - Hamilton was 0.235secs slower than Leclerc in the first third of the lap and 0.214secs off in the second. But it is true that he lost the majority of his time - 0.468secs - in sector three, which starts with the fast chicane of Turns Nine and 10.

Hamilton said the phenomenon was so bad in Friday practice in Melbourne that he nearly lost control of the car on the curving straight before Turn Nine.

"We had so much porpoising down that straight that I had, like, an oversteer moment in the middle of the straight," Hamilton said. "It was like, 'This is ridiculous.' But it wasn't the case today."
Mercedes had not fixed the problem - they had benefited from a decision by race director Niels Wittich to remove the controversial fourth DRS overtaking zone on the flat-out but curving run from Turn Six.

This meant that the DRS - which reduces drag and downforce - could not be used on that section any more, so speeds there were reduced and the cars more planted.

Hamilton said it was "good" that the DRS sector had been removed - although team-mate George Russell, who qualified a place and just over 0.1secs behind, said he disagreed with the decision and that removing the DRS there made his porpoising worse.

Slightly different set-ups aside - Russell said his was "more aggressive" - the opposing views of the Mercedes drivers on that topic seemed an appropriate reflection of just how lost the team are when it comes to the performance of their car.


Why was the DRS sector removed?

Red Bull's Max Verstappen also said he did not agree with the decision, saying: "There was only one team who
complained about it and it got removed this morning so I don't really understand."

Verstappen was referring to the fact that Alonso had been by far the most vocal driver on the safety risk of running DRS through that sector in the drivers' briefing on Friday evening.

Alonso, as it happens, was a surprise contender for pole in an Alpine much-improved by some small upgrades and the team unlocking some of its secrets. The technical failure that caused him to crash on his first lap in final qualifying - which the team have not publicly revealed - was a bitter blow for a man who, as Alonso pointed out, has waited nine years since he last had a competitive grand prix car.

Anyway, back to the DRS. After Alonso had made his point, Wittich asked all the teams for their views on the matter. Five of them - half - replied that they would prefer for it to be removed, so Wittich preferred to err on the side of caution.

The situation in which Mercedes find themselves is made worse by the fact that the porpoising problem cannot be solved in typical fashion, as it does not show up in either CFD simulations or in the wind tunnel.

The reason for the phenomenon is known - somehow, the airflow under the car is "stalling" at a certain car speed. This causes a loss of downforce, which lifts the car up, before the airflow reattaches, sucks the car down and then the problem repeats.

Experts who have experience of porpoising from F1 40 years ago - the last time cars used the aerodynamic philosophy that has been reintroduced with this season's rule changes - believe the problem is likely to be rooted in one of two areas.

It is thought the cause is likely to be either the floor flexing somehow, somewhere, or it touching the track and then lifting again. Or both. The difficulty is working out where and how this is happening.

Wolff said: "I believe we will get it nailed. Many other teams, like Ferrari, still have some bouncing but they have done many other things right that we didn't perform very well. The same with Red Bull - their car got quick in testing in one day by bringing the [bodywork] upgrade [at the end of the final pre-season test].

"This car is difficult to correlate because you can only move the car with a certain frequency in the wind tunnel and on track it does something completely different.
"It is a new way of analysing aero data, a new way of correlation between the simulations and the real world which needs to be understood. We have the tools and the people to understand it but we haven't found it yet."

Driver underpants and jewellery in focus



The DRS on the back straight took up a very small amount of discussion in a drivers' briefing that ran to two hours, the majority of which was taken up by the reminder the FIA gave before the weekend that the wearing of jewellery and non-compliant underwear in a racing car was forbidden.

Inevitably, given Hamilton's visible nose stud, this was immediately perceived by some to be targeted at him. But that was not the case. The nose stud is a minor concern for the governing body.

Far more worrying for the FIA was the fact that they had discovered - it is not quite clear how - that some drivers are racing in normal underwear, which is not fireproof and is therefore a risk to them, as it could melt in a fire. And the same goes for a watch with a plastic strap. Metal jewellery, of course, is a heat conductor and would risk worsening injuries in a fire.

Hamilton said "it was the longest driver briefing of my life" - a point true, it seems, both in a literal and figurative sense.

"I don't really understand the small things they're picking up, like the underwear," he said. "Are we really talking about that sort of thing? Anyway, we move on."

More of a concern for Hamilton was that the meeting was held with what he perceived to be a disregard for the risks of Covid - catching which is still a major risk for drivers as it means they have to miss races, as Sebastian Vettel has already had to do this year.

"No-one in the drivers' briefing was wearing masks," Hamilton said. "Some of the drivers were. Most of the FIA weren't, which for me was uncomfortable."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/61050081
 
Charles Leclerc took a dominant victory in the Australian Grand Prix to move into a commanding position in the World Championship.

The Ferrari driver was in total control of the race when his main rival Max Verstappen retired with a technical failure on his Red Bull at two-thirds distance.

Verstappen is 46 points - almost two clear wins - behind Leclerc after just three races of the season, in two of which the Red Bull has failed to finish.

Red Bull's Sergio Perez was second after winning battles with Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

Remarkably, in the context of Mercedes' disappointing start to the season, Russell is second in the drivers' championship at this early stage and Mercedes second in the constructors' chase.

Leclerc's win was his second of the season and by far the most imposing performance by any driver so far.

Red Bull had hopes of taking the fight to Leclerc, as Verstappen did on his way to victory in the last race in Saudi Arabia, but they were in vain.

Leclerc won pole position with the biggest margin of the season so far.

His team-mate Carlos Sainz caused an early safety car when he lost control of his car trying to make an overtaking move at Turn Nine after a bad start from a poor grid position. When racing resumed Leclerc first eased away from Verstappen and then bolted into the distance as the Red Bull driver began to suffer from tyre problems.

A second safety car, this time caused by a crash by Sebastian Vettel on a dire weekend for his Aston Martin team, gave Verstappen a second chance.

Leclerc, who had not long before made his pit stop for fresh tyres, struggled for tyre temperature on the re-start and Verstappen challenged him into Turn One, but the Ferrari held him off and then proceeded to pull out another significant gap, moving clear at about half a second a lap, before the world champion ran into trouble.

Leclerc was more than seven seconds in the lead - a margin built in 11 laps - when Verstappen complained he could "smell some weird fluid" and he was told to pull off the track.

Concerns for Red Bull
Verstappen's retirement will raise concerns at Red Bull, who have already made retaining the championship much harder than it might have been against a revived Ferrari this year.

Both cars retired from the first race of the season in Bahrain in the closing laps, in which Verstappen should have finished second to Leclerc, with fuel-system problems.

And now Verstappen has lost another major haul of points. Team boss Christian Horner said he thought the failure "might be a fuel issue" but they needed to investigate the car to be sure.

"We can't accept DNFs," he said. "We expected to be a lot closer to Ferrari in pace and they were untouchable today. We've obviously got some work to do."

There are still 20 races to go in the longest season in F1's history and Red Bull will be confident they can make up that ground, especially if they can out-develop Ferrari. But they have given a massive helping hand to a rival in Leclerc who is already looking formidable.

Mercedes have dropped back from the front of the field over the course of the three races so far - qualifying progressively further from the pace at each one.

But they raced well in the context of a difficult car.

Hamilton made a blistering start and leapt into third place ahead of Perez at the first corner and managed to hold off the Mexican for 10 laps before succumbing to the inevitable.

The seven-time champion was on course for his first podium of the season but was unlucky with the Vettel safety car.

Hamilton had made his pit stop just before the safety car was deployed, whereas Russell was able to benefit from stopping during it, which leapfrogged him ahead.

Hamilton closed up on Russell towards the end of the race, complaining slightly unfairly to the team that "you have put me in a difficult position" but the Mercedes finished in that order as Russell took his first racing podium after the one earned in qualifying in the race that never happened in Belgium last year.

Mercedes' focus now will be on finding a solution to the problems with their car that have left them a second off the pace at the start of F1's new era.

McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo converted their strongest grid positions of the season into fifth and sixth places at the flag, ahead of Alpine's Esteban Ocon, Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas and Alpha Tauri's Pierre Gasly.

And Alex Albon scored the final point for Williams after the team ran him right to the final lap before making his mandatory pit stop for a second set of tyres.

Fernando Alonso continued to have rotten luck. He had looked in contention for a place on the front two rows of the grid in qualifying before a oil seal failed and forced him to crash.

That put him 10th on the grid. He started on the hard tyre but was unlucky with the safety car, just passing the pit entry shortly before it was deployed.

He had to stay out and stop later, and was unable to recover when he ran into tyre problems on his inverted strategy and had to stop again for a third set.

Who else? Leclerc was, as podium interviewer Mark Webber said, "on another level". He's always looked a potential champion, and while it is early days and Ferrari have a lot to prove, he is very much that right now.

What's next?

F1's return to Europe in two weeks comes at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola, the closest track on the calendar to the Ferrari factory. Leclerc started this weekend saying he expected the race to suit them better than Australia. Can he send the tifosi into raptures with a home win?

BBC
 
Australian Grand Prix: Red Bull's Max Verstappen on 'frustrating and unacceptable' retirement

Max Verstappen is not thinking about the defence of his world championship after suffering a second DNF in three races at the Australian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver was forced to bring his car to a halt on the side of the track on lap 38 with smoke coming out of the power unit, leaving Ferrari's Charles Leclerc to cruise to victory in Melbourne.

It marked another day of frustration for Verstappen, who had to retire in the season-opener in Bahrain while fighting with Leclerc for the lead but bounced back to chalk up a win in Saudi Arabia last time out.

"We're already miles behind, so I don't even want to think about the championship fight at the moment," Verstappen, currently 46 points behind early drivers championship leader Leclerc, said. "It's more important to finish races.

"Today was in generally just a bad day and, not really having the pace, I was just managing my tyres to try to bring it to the end because it looked like quite an easy P2 and there was no point trying to fight Charles because I couldn't put pressure on him.

"But we didn't even finish the race, which is pretty frustrating and unacceptable.

"I knew there was a problem, and it was always going to be a case of trying to finish the race. But these kinds of things, if you want to fight for the title, cannot happen."

It was not an entirely disappointing weekend for the team, with Sergio Perez bringing his Red Bull home in second for his first podium finish since taking third at his home Grand Prix in Mexico last year.

However, team principal Christian Horner sympathised with Verstappen's frustrations and is determined Red Bull will get to the bottom of what caused the retirement before the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola in two weeks.

"It is totally understandable, his frustration," Horner told Sky Sports. "That was a really disappointing result to not finish the race.

"We don't know what the issue is yet, but we don't think it is an engine issue - we think it actually might be fuel related. But we need to get the car back and look at what actually is happening.

"Desperately frustrating, as Max said; we didn't have the pace to race Ferrari today, they were in a league of their own and disappointing to not be in the points."

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/1...en-on-frustrating-and-unacceptable-retirement
 
Australian GP: Lewis Hamilton praises George Russell and clarifies radio rant as Mercedes 'maximise'

Lewis Hamilton hailed George Russell's performance and Mercedes' result as "amazing" at the Australian GP as the world champions salvaged third and fourth on Sunday despite their car issues.

Mercedes, who have yet to bring car upgrades, were still off the pace compared to Ferrari and Red Bull in Melbourne, but just like in the season-opener the world champions capitalised on problems from their rivals.

In Bahrain, a double DNF for Red Bull lifted Mercedes up the order, and in Australia it was a poor weekend for Carlos Sainz and another retirement for Max Verstappen that gave the Silver Arrows a podium, with this time George Russell ahead of Hamilton.

"It's an amazing result for us as a team," said Hamilton after taking fourth.

"Whilst we haven't necessarily improved the car in these three races, I think we've extracted the most we could have points wise. To come away with this result is great.

He added to Sky Sports F1: "This weekend, we've had so many difficult moments with the car, so to get ourselves fifth and sixth in qualifying and to progress like we have, we definitely didn't expect third and fourth."

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/1...and-clarifies-radio-rant-as-mercedes-maximise
 
Max Verstappen title defence in crisis? Red Bull driver says 'no reason to believe in title' after latest DNF

Max Verstappen has insisted there is currently "no reason to believe" in defending his world championship after a second retirement in three races plunged the Dutchman and Red Bull into an early F1 2022 crisis.

While winning the Saudi Arabian GP, Verstappen has failed to finish the two races either side of that and is already 46 points behind Charles Leclerc.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner said his Australia DNF on Sunday was down to another fuel related issue, with his admission that it was "totally separate" to the Bahrain problem only likely to concern Verstappen more.

"These kinds of things, if you want to fight for the title, cannot happen," Verstappen told Sky Sports F1 after the race.

The reliability woes - which Red Bull seemed to get a handle on over recent years but have returned following Honda's exit - aren't the only constraints on Verstappen's maiden title defence, for a downbeat Dutchman was also pessimistic after Ferrari's most dominant day to date.

Even before Verstappen exited the Melbourne race under fumes of smoke, he was nowhere near catching Leclerc and the Ferrari driver would likely, without safety cars, have had a half-a-minute buffer over the Red Bull.

"We need to be faster than them, which we're not," said Verstappen. "And have zero problems with the car, which we also don't have.

"So it's going to be a big task."

He added to reporters about a second title: "At the moment, there is no reason to believe in it."

Red Bull have had issues with their other cars too, with Sergio Perez having also DNF'd in Bahrain while AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda have encountered glitches in their newly-Red Bull stamped engines.

"We can't accept DNFs," said Horner. "We need to get on top of it."

Horner also said Verstappen's frustration was "totally understandable" and called Leclerc and Ferrari "untouchable" in Australia, but is preferring to stay on the positive side regarding title prospects.

"I'd rather fix a fast car, than try and make a reliable and slow one fast," he noted, possibly with a nod to Mercedes' slow yet reliable W13.

"We have things in the pipeline that I think will help and we move back to Europe now so we have to put this behind us, address it and move on."

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/3...o-reason-to-believe-in-title-after-latest-dnf
 
Red Bull and Mercedes very heavily talking themselves down already after 3 races. Sounds like they just want to give Leclerc the title right now...
 
Emilia Romagna GP: Charles Leclerc eyes title push as Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen demand more

Charles Leclerc has admitted he is starting to sense his first F1 championship push after storming out of the blocks in 2022, with Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen demanding more from their teams ahead of this weekend's Emilia Romagna GP to get their title bids back on track.

Winning two of the season's opening three races, Leclerc has enjoyed a superb start in a newly-competitive Ferrari and already has a 34-point championship lead as the sport heads to Imola, a home race for the Tifosi.

While it's too soon for title predictions ahead of a fourth race of an expected 23 and with the teams' development race set to heat up, the near-perfect start for Leclerc and Ferrari has made him the early favourite, particularly given the relative struggles of his expected closest rivals.

Leclerc's nearest challenger is currently George Russell in the Mercedes, with last year's championship protagonists Hamilton and Verstappen only fifth and sixth in the standings with both pace and reliability concerns.

Leclerc's talent has been clear over three years in Ferrari, but this may be the first season where he has a car that can consistently contend towards the front. Something which, understandably, brings a smile to his face.

"Obviously we only had the third race, so it's difficult to think about the championship, but to be honest, we've got a very strong car, a very reliable car too," said Leclerc after winning the Australian GP.

"We've always been there, so I hope it continues like this and if it does, then we probably have chances for the championship, which obviously makes me smile after the last two years that have been difficult for the team and obviously for myself.

"It's great to be back in this position."

The Emilia Romagna GP is one of two home Italian races for Ferrari this season, with fans - who were not allowed to attend the 2020 and 2021 events - set to pour into the historic Imola circuit for the first time since 2006.

"Italy will be incredible, but we need to approach the race weekend, just like we approached the first three weekends," warned Leclerc, who has scored 71 out of a possible 78 points to start the season.

"I think it's extremely important not to put extra pressure on ourselves and not try to overdo things. Because we are working, I think, as a team extremely well since the beginning of the season and we just need to keep doing our job, just like we did in the first three weekends."

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/3...lewis-hamilton-and-max-verstappen-demand-more
 
Emilia Romagna GP: Mercedes say 20 per cent chance of title but 'improvements' in pipeline

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes the team have around a 20 per cent chance of retaining their F1 title after a difficult start to the season, but says there may be improvements for this weekend's Emilia Romagna GP.

Mercedes' pace - or lack of - so far in 2022 has been one of the major storylines from the opening three races, with the team that are on a record streak of eight straight constructors' championships having fallen well behind Ferrari and Red Bull's performance with their new W13 car.

The Silver Arrows have managed to maximise their points with two podiums and are currently second in both championships - with George Russell behind Charles Leclerc in the drivers' standings - but that has papered over the cracks of a huge deficit in pace, often around a second per lap.

And it is that gap to the top two that has team principal Wolff relatively pessimistic about their title hopes.

Speaking the day before the team capitalised on another Red Bull DNF at the Australian GP, Wolff admitted: "I think we are on the back foot.

"If I look at it from a mathematical standpoint and probability, I'd probably say that the odds are 20/80.

"But this is motor racing and in motor racing, anything can happen. Teams can DNF and if we unlock the potential of the car we are right back in the game.

"So as a motor racer I'd maybe say 40/60, as a mathematician the odds are worse against us.

"We are not going to write the title off but it's just the current status quo - we are 0.9s off."

Mercedes are currently 39 points behind Ferrari in the standings, while Russell is 34 points off Leclerc.

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/1...-chance-of-title-but-improvements-in-pipeline
 
Max Verstappen beat Charles Leclerc to pole position for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix sprint race in an incident-packed qualifying session at Imola.

There were five red flags in a rain-affected session and Verstappen ended up 0.8 seconds quicker than Leclerc.

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton qualified only 11th and 13th before the rain came down in Mercedes' least competitive showing of the season.

McLaren's Lando Norris was third, from Haas driver Kevin Magnussen.

Red Bull's Verstappen, who retired from two of the first three races of the season, said: "It was tricky out there with the dry/rain. It was very slippery. It was hectic, a long qualifying but of course in the end happy to be here. It is an amazing track and it really punishes you if you make a mistake.

"Our first three races in general didn't go to plan but we will try to have a good weekend here."

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz caused one of the stoppages when he crashed at Rivazza early in the second session, and the Spaniard will start 10th.

The other red flags were caused by a brake failure for Williams' Alexander Albon in the opening minutes of the first session, an off for Magnussen at Acque Minerali, Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas pulling off the track and then finally a mistake by Norris when the session resumed for what should have been a final one-lap shootout.

Verstappen's pole time was set on a lap on which the Dutchman had to back off for Bottas' stranded car. He was allowed to keep the time because he had slowed sufficiently for the incident.

Before that, Ferrari's Leclerc had been 0.02secs quicker than Verstappen on their first laps of the final session.

But while Leclerc chose to back off before going for a second lap, Verstappen kept going for another time straight away.

The championship leader admitted he was annoyed and that he had made the "wrong choice".

The session decided the grid for Saturday's sprint race, the results of which set the starting places for the main grand prix on Sunday.

The number of points for the sprint this year have been increased, with eight points for the winner, and all those finishing in the top eight rewarded.

Behind Magnussen in fourth, Alpine's Fernando Alonso was fifth, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo's McLaren, the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez, Bottas, Sebastian Vettel in the improved Aston Martin and Sainz.

Leclerc leads the drivers' standings by 34 points from Russell with Verstappen a further 12 points back in sixth.

It was a chastening day for Mercedes, who looked uncompetitive from the start of practice.

The two cars were five and seven seconds off the pace in the rain of first practice and although they were in better shape in qualifying, the team had both cars knocked out in second qualifying for the first time since the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix.

Mercedes were unlucky with the Sainz red flag as rain started to fall during the pause in the session while the Ferrari was removed from the barriers.

That robbed them of the chance to improve and make it into the top 10 shootout, but it would have been touch and go anyway.

Hamilton said he felt the team had "underperformed" but it is clear Mercedes need to get to the bottom of what is causing the car's problems quickly if this season is not to be a total write-off.

"It wasn't a great session. Came here with optimism and everyone is working hard at the factory but it is disappointing," the Briton said.

"There are things we should have done but we didn't. We will work as hard as we can to move up in the sprint race.

"It is what it is. Each weekend is a rescue."

Sainz's error was his second in as many competitive days, after he crashed out of the Australian Grand Prix two weeks ago.

He said: "It's a shame. I felt comfortable. I don't understand because I wasn't going at full speed. I have no choice but to apologise. The sprint race remains to come back as much as possible."

BBC
 
Lewis Hamilton criticises 'underperforming' Mercedes after both cars suffer Q2 exits in Emilia Romagna GP qualifying

Lewis Hamilton criticised his Mercedes team for "underperforming" and says he and team-mate George Russell are facing another "rescue" job at the Emilia Romagna GP after being knocked out in Q2 on Friday.

Hamilton and Russell only just scraped through Q1 in Imola, before an unfortunately timed red flag ended their moderate hopes of advancing to the final part of qualifying.

It represented a 10-year low for Mercedes, who had not failed to get a car into Q3 since the 2012 Japanese GP.

"I think we underperformed as a team today," said Hamilton. "There are things that we should have done that we didn't do."

The eight-time reigning constructors' champions have made a hugely disappointing start to the season under F1's radical new design regulations, and any hope wet conditions might help them close the gap on Ferrari and Red Bull were quickly dispelled in Italy.

Hamilton, who is seeking an eighth world title, cut a despondent figure after qualifying 13th, two places behind Russell, while Max Verstappen took pole for Red Bull ahead of the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

"It wasn't a great session," he added. "Naturally it's disappointing.

"We came here with optimism and you know everyone is working really hard back at the factory but things just don't come together."

The fact that Imola is hosting the first Sprint of the season on Saturday means that both Mercedes will have the opportunity to improve their starting place for Sunday's race, with a forecast for warmer conditions potentially aiding them.

"We will work as hard as we can to move up in the Sprint, it's going to be a difficult race, but hopefully tomorrow is better weather-wise and who knows, maybe we can move our way forwards.

"We'll just keep working. It is what it is. Each weekend is a rescue."

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/1...ffer-q2-exits-in-emilia-romagna-gp-qualifying
 
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Emilia Romagna Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes 'not fighting for championship'

Lewis Hamilton wrote off his chances of winning this year's world championship after a dispiriting performance by his Mercedes team in the sprint race at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

The seven-time champion finished 14th, losing one place from his qualifying position, while team-mate George Russell was 11th, fighting back to where he started after he, too, lost ground at the start.

The 2022 season was already looking difficult for Mercedes after the first three races in which they were nearly a second off the pace of the leading Ferrari and Red Bull cars.

But Imola, as team principal Toto Wolff admitted, "marks the low" of the year so far.

"We stick together," Hamilton said. "We try to motivate everyone. This is the situation we are faced with.

"We are obviously not fighting for the championship. But we are fighting to understand the car and improve and progress through the year. That's all we can hope for right now."

There may still be 20 races to go, but Hamilton said he had to be "realistic" about Mercedes' position.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/61202423
 
Both Mercedes lost ground [at the start of the sprint] and Lewis Hamilton was down to 15th on the first lap.

I think being stuck in the pack and losing ground at the start, they have obviously not been able to demonstrate their race pace in clear air, and that's what we talked about before the race, that they were likely to struggle to make up ground because they are suffering for straight-line speed at the moment - that car is very draggy - which is among the many problems Mercedes are having at the moment.

Saturday was definitely the worst day of their season so far in terms of racing action but there is still another day to go on Sunday.

If they can find some clear air during the race, then they can potentially move up quite a significant number of places. Generally, they have been the third-quickest car this season. A long way behind Ferrari and red Bull, but two or three tenths clear of everybody else.

So, maybe we'll see a bit of race strategy from Mercedes today, to get themselves into that clear air and benefit from pace.
 
Hamilton getting exposed by Russell this year. He isnt that good anymore and no way was better than Max last year. A rocket Mercedes engine was saving his chances
 
Red Bull's Max Verstappen dominated a wet-dry Emilia Romagna Grand Prix to revive his title hopes as rival Charles Leclerc threw away third place with a costly error.

The Ferrari driver was pushing to try to pass Verstappen's team-mate Sergio Perez after a late pit stop when he lost control at the Variante Alta chicane at Imola.

Leclerc had to pit for a new front wing and fresh tyres and dropped to ninth, and could recover only to sixth.

The error enabled Verstappen to slash his deficit to Leclerc from 45 points to 27, moving the Dutchman up from fifth in the championship to second.

Until Leclerc's mistake, the Ferrari driver appeared to be heading for a frustrating but acceptable third place. But in an instant he threw away a significant part of the advantage he had gained thanks to Red Bull's poor early-season reliability.

The fact the error happened at Ferrari's home race, in front of a packed crowd of their passionate Italian tifosi, will have made it feel even worse, especially as Leclerc had emphasised before the weekend the need "to not overdo things" with expectations so high at Imola.

It made for a nightmare race for Ferrari, who had lost Leclerc's team-mate Carlos Sainz on the first lap when the Spaniard was tipped into the gravel by McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo.

The error cost Leclerc seven points - the difference between third and sixth places.

McLaren's Lando Norris took third place after an impressive drive, ahead of Mercedes' George Russell, who held off the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas in the closing stages.

Russell's team-mate Lewis Hamilton had a dire afternoon, stuck behind slower cars throughout and unable to pass and finished in 14th place.

Verstappen's dominant drive
The late drama enlivened what until then may have been the most uneventful race of the season so far, despite the difficult conditions.

Verstappen was in total control after converting his pole position, from winning Saturday's sprint, into a lead at the first corner.

Rain before the start forced everyone on to wet-weather tyres and an apparent off-set in grip between the pole position side of the grid dropped Leclerc from second on the grid behind Perez and Norris by the time they reached the first corner.

Leclerc repassed Norris on lap eight - the third lap after a restart from an early safety car period caused by the Ricciardo-Sainz collision.

The Ferrari driver bided his time as the track dried and then began to close in on the Red Bull as the time came to change to dry tyres.

Perez pitted first for dry tyres on lap 18 and a fast in-lap by Leclerc ensured that he emerged from his stop a lap later ahead of the Red Bull.

But Perez was able to close in and pass into the second chicane and once in front managed to hold Leclerc at bay until Ferrari made their late gamble and then their driver his mistake.

Perez showed strong pace, but a couple of small mistakes dropped him to 10 seconds or so behind Verstappen, who sailed serenely on to his second win of the year.

Best of the rest
Norris was serene in a lonely race behind the big two but comfortably able to hold off Russell once the field had switched to dry tyres.

Russell made a great start to vault from 11th on the grid to sixth on the first lap.

He fought past Kevin Magnussen's Haas and benefited from Leclerc's error but was unable to close on Norris, not helped by Mercedes being unable to adjust his front wing as planned during their pit stop, which meant he was battling with a difficult balance for the rest of the race.

Bottas fought hard to try to pass the man who replaced him at the world champion team but was unable to get close enough.

Leclerc, after his error, managed to pass Magnussen, Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel and Alpha Tauri's Yuki Tsunoda but he looked distraught with himself after climbing out of the car.

What happened to Hamilton?
Unlike Russell, Hamilton was unable to make up ground at the start and his race soon fell into a dispiriting pattern.

The Mercedes' lack of straight-line speed meant he could not pass Aston Martin's Lance Stroll, as he trailed around in 12th place in the opening stages.

He was then impeded by Alpine's Esteban Ocon at the pit stops, and the five-second penalty earned by the Alpine was no consolation as Hamilton now found himself stuck behind Alpha Tauri's Pierre Gasly, again unable to pass in what was one of his worst races for years.

Driver of the day
Verstappen was utterly dominant in Red Bull's most convincing race of the season so far, a performance of such superiority that will doubtless cause some concern at rivals Ferrari.

What's next?
A two-week break before the highly anticipated new race in Miami, a glamorous event in which F1 as a sport has invested much effort and hope.

BBC
 
Lewis Hamilton: Toto Wolff says seven-time world champion 'deserves better' from team

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff described their car as "undriveable" and said that Lewis Hamilton "deserves better from us" after the seven-time world champion could only finish 13th in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Wolff apologised to Hamilton on team radio at the end of the race.

Team-mate George Russell did manage to finish fourth after a superb start.

Hamilton said it was a "weekend to forget" and that he "just wasn't fast enough to overtake" at Imola.

To add insult to injury, he was lapped by race winner Max Verstappen in the Red Bull.

He also reiterated that he was no longer fighting for the drivers' title, saying: "I am out of the championship, for sure. There's no question about that."

Hamilton said the one bonus for the team was fellow Briton Russell's climb through the field after starting 11th - although he apologised for not also getting into the points.

"Everyone is feeling it and everyone is head down, trying their best," he added. "There's no-one that's giving up and everyone is just trying to move forward as fast as they can."

Formula 1 heads to the United States next for the inaugural Miami Grand Prix, from 6-8 May.

Mercedes have dominated the constructors' championship in the turbo hybrid era and secured an unprecedented eighth consecutive title in 2021.

But this season's regulation changes have not worked in their favour, with both cars experiencing serious 'porpoising', a phenomenon caused by an increase - then a sudden decrease - of downforce.

"You see the bouncing on the main straight, I wonder how the two of them can even keep the car on the track at times," said Wolff.

"Both drivers are doing the utmost and out-performing the car. We have seen that reaping the results for George, who did an outstanding race - perfect start and then handling a car that wasn't tuned optimally.

"And Lewis was just stuck in the back."

The weekend started badly for Hamilton as he was knocked out in Q2 during Friday's qualifying session, having to settle for 13th on the grid for the first sprint event of the season.

He then lost a place during Saturday's 21-lap race, dropping him further down the order for Sunday's grand prix.

As Hamilton crossed the line after being stuck behind a train of slower cars, Wolff told him: "Sorry for what you had to drive today. I know it was undriveable. This was a terrible race. We will come out of this."

The Mercedes team principal also acknowledged in his post-race interview that the talent of Hamilton and Russell did not merit their current situation.

He said: "We have two of the three best drivers and they deserve a car and a power unit that allows them to fight in the front rather than being lapped. That's not what either of them deserves."

Russell has fared better at Mercedes so far this season, scoring a top-five finish in each of the first four races, including a podium at the Australian Grand Prix. He is 21 points ahead of Hamilton in the drivers' championship.

"In terms of results, we are getting the most out of it," said Russell. "It gives me and the team confidence that when the car improves, we will get more points on the board.

"But we can't sustain this level of results if we don't improve the pace of the car."

The 24-year old former Williams driver, who replaced Valtteri Bottas at the Silver Arrows for 2022, said that both he and Hamilton were "equally struggling" with their cars.

He added: "I expect [Hamilton] to come back so strong and the way he is pushing and motivating the team is inspiring. I am not getting comfortable with this position because I know what he's capable of."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/61211221
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A VERY close call in the pits between Lewis Hamilton and Esteban Ocon 🤯<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ImolaGP?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ImolaGP</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/F1?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#F1</a> <a href="https://t.co/qcjPpMfI7B">pic.twitter.com/qcjPpMfI7B</a></p>— Formula 1 (@F1) <a href="https://twitter.com/F1/status/1518659858358149120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 25, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Lewis Hamilton: I'll decide when my masterpiece is finished | Mercedes plan Miami GP updates

Lewis Hamilton appeared to respond to speculation around his Formula 1 future with a social media post, insisting he will be the one to decide when his "masterpiece" is finished.

The seven-time world champion has endured a difficult season so far in 2022 as Mercedes struggle to get to grips with porpoising issues, with his most recent outing seeing Hamilton finish 13th in last Sunday's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola.

That result left the Briton seventh in the Drivers' Championship on 28 points, 58 points behind leader Charles Leclerc and 21 behind fourth-placed team-mate George Russell, leading to some speculating about whether he would soon call time on his career.

Yet Hamilton seemed to brush off any suggestions of retirement with a post on his Instagram account on Wednesday evening.

"Working on my masterpiece, I'll be the one to decide when it's finished," Hamilton, who is chasing a record-breaking eighth F1 drivers' title, wrote in the caption of a picture of him in the Mercedes garage.

Among those to comment on Hamilton's future was Red Bull team advisor Helmut Marko, who was asked how he thought the 33-year-old would be feeling after a race which saw him lapped by last year's title rival and reigning world champion Max Verstappen.

"I mean, he was lapped by us," Marko told Sky Sports News. "Maybe he is thinking he should have stopped last year!"

Speaking after a tough weekend at Imola, Hamilton acknowledged that his chances of reclaiming the Formula 1 world title this year were as good as over.

However, he vowed he will work through it with Mercedes in an effort to ensure he is once again in a position to be able to compete for the championship.

"I'm out of it, for sure," Hamilton said. "There's no question about that, but I'll still keep working as hard as I can to try and somehow pull it back together somehow."

"There is nowhere else I want to be. Just because we have hit a rough patch, it is not in my DNA to back out.

"We can fix this. It is going to be a painful year that we are going to have to ride out together."

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/2...ce-is-finished-mercedes-plan-miami-gp-updates
 
George Russell backs 'inspiring' Lewis Hamilton to 'come back stronger' after difficult F1 2022 start

George Russell says he has "no doubts" Lewis Hamilton will "come back stronger" this season, backing his Mercedes team-mate after a difficult start and praising his "truly inspiring" work behind the scenes.

Amid Mercedes' unexpected struggles through the first four rounds of 2022, it has been newcomer Russell and not seven-time champion Hamilton who has got more out of the W13 car.

Russell, who made the step up from Williams this season, is currently fourth in the championship, 21 points and three places ahead of Hamilton.

But just as Mercedes and Hamilton himself are insistent that F1's most successful driver will bounce back, Russell also sees no reason to worry.

"Lewis has clearly got the pace," Russell told Sky Sports F1. "He's incredibly fast and he's showed that so far this year, but it's just been tricky for us as a team to get it done when the time is needed.

"When things have been more stable, Lewis has still been massively fast.

"I know there was a bit of a blip last weekend but I have no doubt he's going to come back and the way he's pushing the team and motivating the team is truly inspiring.

"We all want more. He wants more. Nobody is happy with the position we're in currently."

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/2...e-back-stronger-after-difficult-f1-2022-start
 
What's the issue and how have Mercedes got themselves into this position?

Mercedes have seen Ferrari and Red Bull speed off into the distance at the start of 2022 and the major issue surrounds their car's aerodynamics and, to be specific, the fact it is 'porpoising' - or bouncing - more than others.

Indeed, the team that have mastered title-winning cars for the last eight seasons appear to have hit a snag with the design of their car for F1's huge rules overhaul, which many expected to speed off into the distance once an innovative 'zero-sidepod' look was unveiled at pre-season testing.

The problem is that once the car hit the track, it bounced on the track. The design they had worked on, and was fast in the simulator, led to 'porpoising', a sensation many cars have but has hit Mercedes hardest.

"Our windtunnel was telling us we had really good downforce," explained Hamilton. "And unfortunately we got on track, there was no bouncing in the windtunnel and we came across this phenomenon."

To explain porpoising simply, it is the bouncing motion that is caused by downforce generated under cars as they gain speed. The speed sucks the car to the ground until the airflow stalls, at which point the downforce is lost and the car rises, only for the airflow to reattach and repeat the process.

While most teams have had this issue - even leaders Ferrari - it is largely just on the straights, while Mercedes' porpoising carries on into the corner. As you can imagine, that's not great for lap time, and the team believe that is causing most if not all of their deficit - around a second per lap.

Read on

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/2...plaining-the-world-champions-formula-1-crisis
 
The Formula 1 roadshow has well and truly landed in Miami.

Making its debut on the calendar for the 2022 season, this weekend's grand prix is set in the Hard Rock Stadium complex - home to the NFL's Miami Dolphins - and looks set to be the biggest and boldest event the sport has ever seen.

On Wednesday, an opening ceremony took place on the enormous podium, featuring drivers and team principals, as American fans were treated to a Super Bowl-style extravaganza.

For all the glitz, glamour and showmanship the organisers have laid on so far, it's the addition of an artificial marina, complete with fake water, around a section of the 5.412km circuit that has fans talking.

Will racing in the sunshine state of Florida live up to the colossal hype? BBC Sport takes a look at what is in store.

In a media conference before the 2017 Australian Grand Prix, when asked where they would like to see Formula 1 go next, Lewis Hamilton had only one location in mind. "Miami," said the then three-time world champion. "That would be a pretty good one."

Fast forward five years, and Hamilton's wish has been granted.

The popularity of the Netflix series Drive to Survive has opened up a new generation of fans to the sport, and F1's owners have been keen to tap into the vast potential of the US market. A night race against the backdrop of the Las Vegas strip will be joining Miami, plus the grand prix in Austin, Texas, from 2023.

This weekend's event has not been without its teething problems, however. The Miami International Autodrome went through 36 different layouts before developers settled on a street-circuit feel with 19 corners, three straights and scope for three DRS zones.

Although situated in the Miami Gardens campus of two-time Super Bowl winners the Miami Dolphins, the temporary track acts more like a moat that goes around the stadium, using the franchise's car park to maximum effect. The circuit also tips its hat to the Mexico City Grand Prix, with an homage to the semi-circular Foro Sol grandstand section that sits inside the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

And then there is the 'marina'.

When the original idea to have cars whizz around downtown Miami and the real marina were met by opposition from local residents, some decided they would give F1 bosses their Monaco-inspired camera shots of luxurious yachts in any way possible.

Since pictures of the marina were released, social media has been awash with memes poking fun of the moored boats and the walk-on-water wooden platform. Many see it as a budget version of the opulence of Monte Carlo, while others feel the forced spectacle of Miami takes the sport further away from its traditional roots.

If fans lucky enough to be attending do not fancy the beach club experience, they can also watch the grand prix from above the action.

The first of its kind, a gondola lift will be running during the 57-lap race which will allow supporters to not only take in an aerial view of proceedings, but also give a unique perspective thanks to the glass bottoms of the cable cars.

F1 goes big on American PR push
Drivers have certainly been making the most of their time in the United States this week to promote the Formula 1 brand.

Mercedes may be under pressure to deliver in South Florida after a disappointing start to the season, but that hasn't stopped Hamilton playing golf with seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady or making an appearance on the popular ABC show Good Morning America.

"I've been coming out here for a long, long time but I never quite understood why people weren't into Formula 1," Hamilton told GMA. "This Netflix show [Drive to Survive], through the pandemic, has just brought massive awareness to the sport - and now it's booming."

For world champion Max Verstappen, Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez and title leader Charles Leclerc, a trip to the Miami Marlins baseball team to try their hand at pitching was in order, while Pierre Gasly had dinner with basketball icon Michael Jordan - and let the six-time NBA winner squeeze his head into his Alpha Tauri race helmet.

The race this weekend throws up an unknown challenge for teams to face after the old-school test of Imola in April.

Leclerc's early dominance for Ferrari hit a bump in the road last time out, and his sixth-placed finish because of an error has allowed rival Verstappen to creep up behind him into second in the standings.

Dutchman Verstappen has one win and two podium places on US soil at the United States Grand Prix in Texas, while Leclerc has never finished higher than fourth competing in the country.

A Silver Arrows revival is all Hamilton can hope for at the inaugural event on Sunday. Team boss Toto Wolff apologised to the seven-time world champion after another dismal performance left the 37-year-old stranded in 13th place.

Mercedes are aiming to bring upgrades to Miami that they hope will begin to solve the car problems that have afflicted them this year.

BBC
 
Miami Grand Prix: George Russell fastest for Mercedes in 1st Practice as Max Verstappen struggles

George Russell was fastest in Friday practice at the Miami Grand Prix in Mercedes' most competitive showing by far this season.

Russell was 0.106 seconds quicker than Ferrari's title leader Charles Leclerc, whose rival Max Verstappen suffered reliability problems for Red Bull.

Verstappen failed to set a time while team-mate Sergio Perez was third, ahead of Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes.

Fernando Alonso was fifth fastest for Alpine, from McLaren's Lando Norris.

Carlos Sainz crashed the second Ferrari midway through the session, his third key error in as many race weekends.

Sainz's accident caused a 10-minute stoppage in the session, and a second red flag when Nicholas Latifi's Williams stopped out on track meant the teams were unable to do any significant running in race trim in the final minutes.

Russell's performance came as Mercedes introduced their first significant upgrades of the season, which they started with a car that was close to a second off the pace.

And underlining the apparent step forward from the world champions, the Briton was second fastest behind Leclerc in the first session as drivers had their first taste of the new Miami street track at the Florida city's inaugural race.

It is too soon to draw any firm conclusions as to whether this is indicative of permanent progress for Mercedes or caused by a series of aspects particular to this weekend, but it was certainly the first sign that the team may be getting on top of the problems that have afflicted them this season.

The upgrade on the car is a lower-drag rear wing, as well as a revised front wing.

The team hoped that the rear wing would raise the speed at which the 'porpoising' problem that has hamstrung this season would instigate and it seems to have worked.

However, it could also be that circumstances have helped them.

The upgrade appears to have worked, but at the same time this is a lower-downforce track that might have helped their car's characteristics and the hot temperatures in Miami could have alleviated their problems with getting temperature into their tyres on a first flying lap - which has been a problem all season, but was not on Friday.

Hamilton had a less happy time. His car looked less stable out on track and he was slower than Russell all day, ending it 0.241 secs behind his team-mate.

Behind Alonso and Norris, the top 10 was completed by Alpha Tauri's Pierre Gasly, Alfa Romeo's Zhou Guanyu, Alpine's Esteban Ocon and the Haas of Kevin Magnussen.

The second Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas did not take part in the session after a crash in the first hour of running.

On the short race simulations that were completed at the end of the session, Perez appeared to have a slight advantage over Leclerc and then Russell.

Verstappen was late out for the start of the session after overheating in the first forced Red Bull to change his gearbox in the break.

And when he did go out on track, his car immediately suffered a hydraulic problem and he had to tour slowly around to the pits, during which time a rear brake disc also caught fire.

"This is an extremely painful day," Verstappen said. "Certainly here you want to get to know the track, but I only did four or five fast laps. We now have zero info on my car here."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/61359789
 
<b>Miami Grand Prix: Charles Leclerc on pole as Ferrari take front row lock-out</b>

Charles Leclerc led Carlos Sainz in a Ferrari front-row lock-out at the inaugural Miami Grand Prix.

The Ferrari drivers jumped ahead of Red Bull's Verstappen as the world champion's final run fell apart on the circuit around the Hard Rock stadium.

The Dutchman made an error at Turn Five, running wide, swearing on the radio as he realised he had messed up.

Red Bull's Sergio Perez was fourth ahead of the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes.

Qualifying was held in front of a phalanx of celebrities led by former First Lady Michelle Obama at a race that has quickly jumped to the top of the list of Formula 1's most glamorous and sought-after events.

A crowd said to be 82,500, after tickets sold out within a day of going on sale last year, cheered Leclerc as the championship leader crossed the line for his third pole in five races so far this year.

"It is incredible to be here and see how the sport has grown in the US in the last few years," Leclerc said. "It's amazing."

Leclerc referenced the error he made chasing Perez for second place at the last race at Imola, which dropped him from third to sixth and cost him seven points in the championship.

"The last weekend hasn't been great for me - I did a mistake in the race," he said. "But today went well.

"Red Bull are extremely quick in the straight lines. We are quick in the corners and it will be a tight challenge and hopefully we will come out on top."

Verstappen bounced back from a difficult Friday in which he lost plenty of running because of overheating problems in the first practice session, a gearbox change which delayed his start to the second, and then a hydraulic leak.

"Overall, I was pretty pleased with qualifying," he said. "I only did four or five laps yesterday. Today was about learning the track and the car.

"I was pleased to be so competitive. Overall we did a good job but we have to stop making the weekends so difficult. The car is handling quite well and I am looking forward to it."

Sainz, too, bounced back from a difficult Friday, when he crashed heavily early in second practice.

To be only 0.19 seconds behind his team-mate, a renowned expert qualifier, after that was a decent achievement. He pipped Verstappen by just 0.005secs.

Mercedes failed to live up to the promise they had shown through Friday practice, when George Russell was consistently close to the top of the times and actually ended the day fastest after the team introduced upgrades to their car.

Before qualifying, team boss Toto Wolff had cautioned against expecting too much of the team, saying: "We need to be also honest with ourselves: it's not like that we have brought a ground-breaking solution."

And he was proved right, as both drivers struggled throughout the session.

Russell in fact failed even to make it into the final part of qualifying and ended up 12th, saying to the team: "I don't think that was good enough. I just didn't have the confidence in the car today."

Hamilton fared better. He had a tricky first session and was on the verge of being knocked out at the first hurdle until a strong lap right at the end of it, but he was Mercedes' strongest performer after that.

But even so, he was unable to get close to the dominant forces of Ferrari and Red Bull, and was even beaten by former team-mate Valtteri Bottas in the Alfa Romeo by 0.15secs.

Team principal Toto Wolff said a change to the car overnight had forced a recurrence of the problems with "porpoising" - a high frequency aerodynamic bouncing - which have afflicted Mercedes all year.

"Yesterday we had a glimpse of the performance that is in the car if we can get it in the right spots," Wolff said. "The main thing was managing the porpoising.

"That was good yesterday and then we tried something that didn't seem like a big change and affected the car badly and went all the way back.

"In the end in qualifying, the drivers suffered again with the bouncing and the bouncing has such an effect on the braking zones and what the tyres are doing. The learning is exponential but exponentially tough at the moment and we would have hoped for better today."

Alpha Tauri's Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda were seventh and ninth, split by McLaren's Lando Norris, with Aston Martin's Lance Stroll impressing by making it into the top 10.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/6136728
 
George Russell 'confused' by Mercedes inconsistency as Lewis Hamilton calls for a faster rate of change

George Russell insisted the inconsistency of the Mercedes "is not making a lot of sense" as he qualified a lowly 12th for the inaugural Miami Grand Prix.

After a disappointing start to the 2022 season which has seen the constructors' champions struggle to match the pace of Ferrari and Red Bull, Friday's practice sessions had raised optimism for an improved performance and a reduction in the porpoising that has plagued their campaign to date.

Updates to the front wing helped Russell top the timesheets in second practice, but he couldn't even match Friday's best time in Qualifying and he struggled to explain why Saturday's set-up caused so much more bouncing in his car.

"We are a bit confused to be honest," he told Sky Sports. "My qualifying lap was slower than what I did yesterday in P2.

"The car felt completely different today, we were struggling with porpoising and we just couldn't attack any of the corners.

"It is a real shame because there was the potential in there and yesterday we were quick. It has massively gone away from us today and I don't really know why.

"It has just been a bit inconsistent to be honest.

"We thought we went pretty conservative with the set-up to make sure we avoided any porpoising but it seemed just as bad as we saw this morning in P3.

"It was going all the way through the corners in Turn 4 and Turn 5 so you just couldn't attack into the braking zones so it is not making a lot of sense at the moment.

"When we get it into the window it is fast, but I am just a bit disappointed for myself and for the team, I think the potential is there.

"Yesterday we were in the fight for pole and today we qualified P12 which is the worst qualifying of the year, so it doesn't make a lot of sense."

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/1...is-hamilton-calls-for-a-faster-rate-of-change
 
Miami Grand Prix: Max Verstappen takes hard-fought win over Charles Leclerc

Red Bull's Max Verstappen survived a late-race assault from title rival Charles Leclerc's Ferrari to win the inaugural Miami Grand Prix.

Verstappen was cruising to an easy win after passing Leclerc early on but a late safety car brought them together for a re-start with 10 laps to go.

Leclerc strained everything for five laps to get close enough to pass but Verstappen broke his challenge.

Verstappen's win cut Leclerc's championship lead to 19 points.

It was an unexpectedly dramatic finish to a race that had appeared to be petering out after Verstappen's early climb from third on the grid to the lead.

The world champion passed the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz around the outside of Turn One and into Turn Two then chased down Leclerc before taking the lead at the start of the ninth lap.

From there, Verstappen edged out his advantage through the pit stops to seem to be cruising to victory with an eight-second lead before a safety car was introduced for a bizarre crash between McLaren's Lando Norris and Alpha Tauri's Pierre Gasly.

Closing up the field gave Leclerc another chance when it appeared his hopes were gone, and he gave it everything to try to reclaim the lead.

He was within a second of Verstappen for five laps after the restart but was always agonisingly just too far away to make a proper lunge for the lead.

Eventually, Verstappen put his superior pace to good effect to ease out his lead to just over a second, preventing Leclerc from benefiting from the one-second advantage provided by the DRS overtaking aid, and the race was done.

It was Verstappen's second consecutive win - the first time a driver has achieved that this year - and it continues his run of either winning or retiring this year, albeit both retirements coming when he was in second place having lost a fight with Leclerc.

It was an impressive recovery after losing a lot of track time on Friday from a series of reliability problems that he felt had prevented him fighting for pole position.

The two title rivals were in a league of their own, leaving their team-mates well behind.

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz hung on to third for the final podium position, despite Perez having the advantage of fresh tyres after Red Bull pitted him for new medium tyres at the safety car period.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/61373963
 
Miami GP: Lewis Hamilton questions Mercedes' strategy as George Russell finishes ahead again

Lewis Hamilton questioned Mercedes' strategy at the Miami Grand Prix after he was overtaken by team-mate George Russell in the closing stages.

Hamilton was asked to make a key strategic decision after Lando Norris's collision with Pierre Gasly on lap 41, as the constructors' champions tried to decide whether to pit for soft tyres under the resulting safety car.

Meanwhile, Russell took advantage of the situation to stop for quicker medium tyres, allowing him to overtake both Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas to finish the race in fifth, leaving him 23 points ahead of his new Mercedes team-mate in drivers' standings.

Reflecting on being asked to decide on the pit stop strategy, Hamilton said his team should have made the decision for him.

"In that scenario I have no clue where everyone is so when the team say it's your choice, I don't have the information to make the decision," he told Sky Sports.

"That's what your job is, make the decision for me. You have all the details. I don't!

"That's what you rely on the guys for, but today they gave it to me and I didn't understand it.

"It was just a bit unfortunate on the safety car but at least we got points today. We are finishing and reliability is good. We just have to keep trying.

"I'm excited at some stage to take a step forward, which we haven't yet."

Hamilton lost out under a safety car earlier this season when his team called for him to pit at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix just after he had passed the pit lane entry.

And Sky Sports pundit Jenson Button feels he has been unluckier than most when it comes to strategic decisions paying off.

"Lewis was unbelievably unlucky," Button said.

"He says he hasn't been lucky with strategy. To be fair, everyone was on the same strategy as him except his team-mate because he had a bad qualifying.

"Really tough for Lewis today and in that decision-making it is really difficult."

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/1...rategy-as-george-russell-finishes-ahead-again
 
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is not ruling out switching back to an older car concept that is "much slower on paper" after the world champions' continued struggles in 2022.

Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, insists that the current W13 car - despite five races of data and new upgrades for the Miami GP - has not improved at all since the start of the season.

Mercedes had an initially promising but ultimately disappointing weekend in Miami, starting F1's newest event by topping the timesheets in Friday practice but then falling back after subtle car changes for qualifying and the race, with George Russell and Hamilton eventually finishing fifth and sixth.

SKY
 
The FIA was right to enforce jewellery rules but could have taken a "different approach" to get its message across, says Grand Prix Drivers' Association chairman Alex Wurz.

Race director Niels Wittich reiterated before the Miami Grand Prix that it is prohibited to wear body piercings or neck chains in competition.

Lewis Hamilton responded by saying the sport had "bigger fish to fry".

Mercedes' Hamilton agreed to remove his earrings in the car for the Miami race.

"It is a rule for the right reasons," said ex-F1 driver Wurz, who is heavily involved in driver safety and education as the GPDA chairman.

"I would have probably liked a slightly different approach of how to deliver the message."

Seven-time world champion Hamilton has several piercings and can often wear multiple layers of jewellery during a race weekend.

In a bid to resolve the stand-off, the FIA gave the 37-year-old Briton a two-race exemption for a nose ring, which he says cannot be removed.

The ban on jewellery, as well as the wearing of non-compliant under-garments, has rarely been enforced by the FIA but following the race director controversy at last year's title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Wittich has taken a stronger approach.

Wurz added: "I don't want to end up in football where there are more hands in the air and verbal abuse... you have to work together. It's a style I would have preferred in this case."

Formula 1 heads to Barcelona this weekend for the Spanish Grand Prix.

BBC
 
George Russell 'coping better' than Lewis Hamilton? Mercedes say strong start to F1 2022 no surprise

Toto Wolff says it is no surprise to see George Russell star at Mercedes, as the young Brit bids to continue his streak over Lewis Hamilton at the Spanish GP amid claims he is "coping better" than his team-mate in 2022.

Russell, having joined Mercedes this year, has settled in superbly in silver, finishing in the top five in every race so far despite the team's lack of pace while he is also comfortably ahead of Hamilton in the drivers' standings.

The 24-year-old has impressively beaten F1's seven-time champion in the last four races, too, leading to Sky Sports F1's Martin Brundle writing in his latest column that Russell was thriving compared to Hamilton.

"It's a tough time [for Lewis] and eager George, with most of his career still ahead of him, is coping better with the situation than Lewis judging by radio transmissions," stated Brundle.

Wolff, speaking at the Miami GP, said Russell's strong start hadn't surprised him.

"When you look at George's track record in winning the title in F3, in his rookie year, and then an F2, we knew that he was very good," explained the Mercedes team boss.

"And then obviously the Williams school added it's part, so we were never in any doubt that he would be very good. And you can see that it's materialising on the track."

Wolff added: "I like his approach very much. He's very rational, whether he is fastest in P2, or whether he's 11th, it's just about applying the science and trying to make the car faster.

"He's integrated very well, it's almost like he's been here forever."

Russell hasn't just been fast, but respectful alongside Hamilton. After replacing Valtteri Bottas, many thought Russell vs Hamilton would be a feisty rivalry - akin to Nico Rosberg's time at Mercedes - although so far the pair have got on well and battled fairly on-track.

According to Wolff, he "couldn't wish for any better pairing".

"I enjoy seeing them working together, the level is high from both of them," said Wolff. "And that has put us in a decent situation in the Constructors' Championship.

"I'm really happy about the two of them, how they interact, how respectful they are with each other."

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/1...cedes-say-strong-start-to-f1-2022-no-surprise
 
Formula 1 won't replace Russian GP this season, as 22-race calendar confirmed

Formula 1 will not replace the Russian GP in 2022 despite significant interest, with the sport opting to stick to a 22-race calendar.

The Russian GP was due to be the 17th race of the season on September 25, but was cancelled back in February following the country's invasion of Ukraine.

F1 had planned to fill the slot to keep a record 23-race calendar - with Qatar and Turkey mooted as options - although the decision has now been made not to replace the Sochi Autodrom event.

The sport already has a tight calendar for the rest of the season and the Russian GP was set to kickstart one of the two triple headers after the summer break.

There will now be a weekend break before a Singapore-Japan double header.

One of the reasons for there being no replacement, despite plenty of options, is that a European round would not have been possible because of logistical issues around EU freight rules.

A fly-away race also could have had complications; a Qatar round, for example, would have been in soaring heat in September and also just two months before the nation hosts football's World Cup.

After being cancelled for 2022, the Russian GP had its contract terminated and so will not be on the F1 calendar in future seasons.

F1 2022 calendar for the rest of the season:

22 May: Spain (Barcelona)
29 May: Monaco (Monaco)
12 June: Azerbaijan (Baku)
19 June: Canada (Montreal)
3 July: Great Britain (Silverstone)
10 July: Austria (Spielberg)
24 July: France (Le Castellet)
31 July: Hungary (Budapest)
28 August: Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps)
4 September: Netherlands (Zandvoort)
11 September: Italy (Monza)
2 October: Singapore (Marina Bay)
9 October: Japan (Suzuka)
23 October: USA (Austin)
30 October: Mexico (Mexico City)
13 November: Brazil (Sao Paulo)
20 November: Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina)

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/1...-gp-this-season-as-22-race-calendar-confirmed
 
Formula 1: Carlos Sainz calls for broader debate on impact of 'porpoising'

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz wants a broader debate on the long-term health impact of Formula 1's new generation of cars.

Sainz says he feels pain from racing in a car that has a stiffer suspension to counter the bouncing, or 'porpoising', caused by new aerodynamic rules.

Asked how the cars might handle next week's Monaco Grand Prix, the Spaniard said: "It's more than Monaco.

"How much toll should a driver pay for his back and his health in an F1 career with this kind of car philosophy?"

New rules regarding car design, brought in this season, were intended to increase the chances of overtaking - but one side-effect was that cars were more likely to 'porpoise', and so teams have had to find ways to counteract that.

Sainz, who is fifth in the drivers' championship after coming third at the Miami Grand Prix earlier this month, added: "I think we need to open the debate more than anything.

"I think the regulations are great. They're doing exactly what we needed for racing. But do we need to run as stiff for our necks and back as we are having to run lately?"

Sainz, 27, has started 145 races since coming into Formula 1 in 2015 and says he is "already feeling" the impact from the car changes.

"I've done my usual checks on my back, neck tightness, and I see this year I'm tighter everywhere," he said.

"I don't need expert advice to know that 10 years like this it's going to be tough, and you're going to need to work a lot in mobility, flexibility."

However, Sainz's former team-mate Lando Norris suggested that there were ways to design a car so that it reduced porpoising without causing back problems.

Briton Norris, whose McLaren car bounces less than that of other teams, said: "I would have thought you'd have much worse effects from crashing a car at 50 or 60G like some of us have done."

He also made a redesign suggestion that would cut down on bounce - but also reduce speed and performance.

He said: "There are also many ways for them to stop porpoising. Like lifting your rear ride height 20mm."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/61516764
 
Mercedes offer first glimpse of vital W13 car upgrades for Spanish GP after private test

Mercedes have provided a first glimpse of the car upgrades they hope will get their season back on track at this weekend's Spanish GP.

F1's world champions for the past eight seasons have fallen well behind frontrunners Ferrari and Red Bull at the start of 2022's new era and the Spanish GP is crucial as Mercedes both bring much-needed updates, and compare them against the car they debuted at pre-season testing.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff suggested that after Barcelona, the team would know whether to continue with their current 'no-sidepod' car or change concepts completely, putting an end to their already slim title hopes.

The W13 car was rolled into the garage on Thursday in Barcelona and - while there will be much more clarity around the new parts during Sky Sports F1's exclusively live Spanish GP coverage, starting Friday - there are already clues that the Silver Arrows have a few tricks up their sleeve.

In pictures taken from the pit-lane, small winglets can be seen underneath the car towards the front wing, with Mercedes seemingly following a design Ferrari and Red Bull have used at the start of the season.

The parts will be to improve airflow at the front of the car.

There also appears to be subtle changes to the floor, an area of weakness for the porpoising Mercedes so far this year, with the edge of the floor tweaked on the W13.

The changes follow a filming day for Mercedes at Paul Ricard on Wednesday, where Sky Sports understands Mercedes shook down the car they intend to run this weekend.

George Russell, who leads Lewis Hamilton in the championship, drove the revamped car at the behind-closed-doors test, with Mercedes now having used both of their allocated two filming days in 2022.

F1 teams are allocated two filming days each season, with Mercedes electing to use their second of the year at Circuit Paul Ricard in southern France.

As always on filming days, Mercedes had to run on demo tyres from Pirelli while they were also limited to just 100km, the equivalent of 17 laps.

The team are still confident they can unlock their 2022 pace - as they did in Miami practice - over a full Grand Prix.

Mercedes are currently third in the standings, 62 points behind Ferrari, who narrowly lead Red Bull.

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/1...car-upgrades-for-spanish-gp-after-secret-test
 
Fernando Alonso has accused Formula 1's governing body of "incompetence" and lacking knowledge of racing.

The Alpine driver identified incidents at the last race in Miami but also made an oblique reference to the FIA's handling of other issues this year.

He said he had seen no improvement at the FIA, despite its attempts to restructure following the handling of last year's finale in Abu Dhabi.

The FIA has been contacted for a response to Alonso's comments.

Alonso described a penalty he received in Miami for gaining an advantage by going off the track as "unfair". The five seconds added to his race time for cutting a chicane dropped him out of the points.

He said he had immediately given back the time gained after the incident but the stewards had looked only at the fact that he had then gone faster in the next section of the track, and had failed to respond to Alpine showing them telemetry data to prove his point.

"We believe it was very unfair and incompetence from the stewards," Alonso said.

"They were not very professional. I missed one corner and gave back the time. They saw the pink colour [for fastest] on the next sector and took it without asking for proof.

"We arrived back with the proofs and they were packing up, not even in the room. We showed them the data and they found themselves with their hands tied because they had already issued the penalty. It was very bad. It is something that should not happen in F1 with the professionalism and the standards F1 has right now."

He also heavily criticised Niels Wittich, who has acted as race director at all five races this year.

Alonso pointed to Wittich's decision not to respond to drivers' requests for an impact-absorbing barrier to be installed at a corner where Ferrari's Carlos Sainz crash heavily in Friday practice in Miami.

Sainz had complained in the drivers' briefing that the impact was far more severe than it should have been given the low speed involved, but was told it was a freak accident and a barrier was not necessary.

Alonso's team-mate Esteban Ocon had an almost identical accident the following day, which damaged his car's chassis.

Alonso said he expected Eduardo Freitas, who takes over as race director from Wittich for this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix, to be an improvement on Wittich.

Asked if he had seen evidence of improvement from the FIA following the restructure that came after former race director Michael Masi failed to apply the rules directly in last season's controversial championship finale, Alonso said: "Not."

"We saw a couple of things already that showed we still need to improve a lot," he added.

"You need to have some knowledge about racing before being a race director or trying to monitor a race and I don't think that knowledge is in place at the moment.

"There is a a new race director here. Freitas has a lot more experienced at world endurance championship and the top level and that will already improve things.

"Even the accident we had in Miami with Carlos and Esteban, we pushed to have some barriers there and nobody did anything. When you don't have that knowledge of racing, it is difficult to talk."

Ocon said he had spoken to Freitas in Spain this week and been told that after analysis of both accidents there would be changes at the Miami track next year.

Wittich has also courted controversy this year for taking a by-the-letter approach to the rules, which has led to drivers being told they cannot wear any jewellery in the car.

Alonso said: "We just need to keep improving that we are the only ones driving the cars and experiencing the crashes and when we feel something is needed, we should be listened to.

"In Miami and some other examples we didn't have that because it seems the focus is in another place."

Lewis Hamilton said in Miami that the new focus on jewellery and clothing was "almost a step backwards" and said the sport had "bigger fish to fry".

Asked about Alonso's comments, McLaren's Lando Norris said: "Fernando's a guy you would listen to in terms of the experience he has in racing. If he says what he says, he's probably got a bit of a point, at least."

Alonso's comments also come in the context of a widespread dissatisfaction among teams and at commercial rights holders F1 at some of the FIA's actions this year.

Among them were the decision by new FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem to delay approval of a plan for the number of sprint races to be doubled to six next year.

F1 is so unhappy it has been quietly exploring ways the FIA could be sidelined from running the sport, BBC Sport has been told.

BBC
 
Championship leader Charles Leclerc headed a Ferrari one-two from Red Bull's Max Verstappen in first practice at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Leclerc was 0.079 seconds quicker than team-mate Carlos Sainz, while Verstappen was 0.336secs off the pace but hit traffic on his fastest lap.

A number of teams have taken significant car upgrades to Barcelona.

So far there has been little effect on the order, with George Russell fourth ahead of Alpine's Fernando Alonso.
 
Red Bull have accused Aston Martin of copying their car and questioned whether any of their intellectual property has been stolen.

Aston Martin have produced an extensive upgrade of their car for this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix which bears a striking resemblance to Red Bull's design.

Red Bull F1 boss Christian Horner said the idea their intellectual property might have been used was of "grave concern".

Aston Martin said the FIA had confirmed it was "legitimate independent work".

Horner's comments came before the FIA released a statement clearing Aston Martin, saying an investigation had confirmed "no wrongdoing had been committed, and therefore the FIA considers that the Aston Martin aerodynamic upgrades are compliant".

But a Red Bull statement issued after the FIA's response made clear they felt the matter was not yet over.

It said they "noted the FIA's statement with interest", adding: "Should any transfer of IP have taken place that would clearly be a breach of regulations."

Aston Martin have been struggling close to the back so far this season, while Red Bull are contesting the world championship with Ferrari.

BBC
 
Spanish GP: Lewis Hamilton 'super happy' with Mercedes progress as Charles Leclerc tops practice

Lewis Hamilton hailed what he believes is a breakthrough with his Mercedes after a promising showing in Spanish Grand Prix practice.

Hamilton was third fastest, behind pace-setter Charles Leclerc's Ferrari and Mercedes team-mate George Russell.

Hamilton said: "It is positive. I am super happy with the progress. We're not the quickest yet but I think we're on our way."

Russell said he believed Mercedes could retain their form into the weekend.

"I see no reason why we can't be as far away from the front [in qualifying] as we showed [today]," he said.

However, he cautioned that Mercedes had also looked good in Friday practice in Miami two weeks ago, only to fall away in qualifying and race, and that Ferrari and Red Bull were running their engines in a less aggressive way than Mercedes on Friday.

Mercedes, like many teams, have taken a car upgrade to the Spanish Grand Prix. It is aimed at solving the "porpoising" or "bouncing" problem on the straights that has afflicted them all year.

This is an aerodynamic phenomenon that forces Mercedes to run the car higher than they would like and which they believe is restricting their ability to use all its potential.

Hamilton said: "It is the first time we have driven down the straight without bouncing. We still have some bouncing but it is way better and we are starting to eke into the potential of the car.

"It is still tough but it is much nicer than it has been before.

"I am grateful for the upgrades. We just need to fine-tune them. I think we can get it into a better place tomorrow to tackle the heels of the guys up ahead."

Russell ended the day just 0.117secs off Leclerc's pace, and Hamilton only 0.087secs further adrift.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was only fifth fastest, behind the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz. The world champion was 0.336secs slower than Leclerc and less than 0.2secs quicker than Alpine's Fernando Alonso.

The cars of the two title contenders showed diametrically opposed performance patterns - Leclerc quick over one lap but 0.6secs slower on average than Verstappen on a race simulation run; Verstappen slow on one lap, but the fastest of all on a long run.

"It's a bit tricky to find the right balance," Verstappen said. "We clearly have a bit of work to do over one lap but the long runs look quite decent. I am happy with that but we need to try and find a middle way."

All the drivers were struggling with high tyre usage in the 30C temperatures at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which are expected to remain consistent all weekend.

Hamilton said: "The tyres are struggling in general this year in terms of overheating. Everyone is in the same boat.

"You can't attack in these temperatures. You have to do a lot of management. It feels like more management than we've ever had to do in the past, so they're weaker tyres. That's not a surprise. We knew that would be the case this year."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/61526797
 
Charles Leclerc withstood enormous pressure after a spin on his first lap in final qualifying to bounce back and take pole at the Spanish Grand Prix.

The Ferrari driver pulled out a superb performance to demote title rival Max Verstappen's Red Bull to second.

The world champion was fastest on the first laps but suffered a loss of power on his final lap that meant he was unable to respond to Leclerc's pace.

George Russell was fourth for Mercedes' best performance of the season.

Team-mate Lewis Hamilton was sixth fastest, behind Red Bull's Sergio Perez. Carlos Sainz was third in the second Ferrari at his home race.

Russell was 0.643 seconds off pole position after upgrades for this race moved the team forwards and reduced the aerodynamic bouncing that has plagued them all season.

Mercedes had looked more competitive through the weekend than at any race so far this season, but in the end they were not in the fight at the very front, even if they can be pleased to have beaten one car from the top two teams.

BBC
 
Russel and Hamilton in the same car and Russel has trumped Hamilton in every race. Proving Hamilton is not a a great driver because he won his championships in a faster car.

Overrated Lewis.
 
Technics 1210 said:
Russel and Hamilton in the same car and Russel has trumped Hamilton in every race. Proving Hamilton is not a a great driver because he won his championships in a faster car.

Overrated Lewis.
Click to expand...
Pretty much Lewis was protected by the Merc rocketship engine all these years. In midfield he will be gobbled up by these younger drivers and Russell isnt even the best of the lot and he's shown him up
 
OldWarHorse said:
Pretty much Lewis was protected by the Merc rocketship engine all these years. In midfield he will be gobbled up by these younger drivers and Russell isnt even the best of the lot and he's shown him up
Click to expand...

Lewis Hamilton should take the knee for Niki Lauda who convinced him to join Mercedes. As for Toto, he has never had to build a car from the ground up, it shows.

LH got lucky, never will his name be mentioned among the greats such as Senna and Schumacher.

Hamilton will always be the woke winner; the token/charity winner - not a great.
 
Hamilton is a massively overrated driver. Didn't he lose to Rosberg too in a Mercedes?
 
cricketjoshila said:
Hamilton is a massively overrated driver. Didn't he lose to Rosberg too in a Mercedes?
Click to expand...
Yeah in 2016. TBF they had quite a close battle over 2014-16 when Hamilton beat him twice but Rosberg wouldnt be what one would call a great like Senna or Prost
 
Spanish Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton 'really struggling' with new Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton has said he is finding it difficult to get the best out of this year's Mercedes.

Car upgrades helped Hamilton's team-mate George Russell to Mercedes' best qualifying position of the season with fourth at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Hamilton, 0.119 seconds slower than Russell in sixth, said he was "really struggling with the car this year".

"The car has potential to be third or fourth and I am not able to pull that out of the car," Hamilton said.

"I just don't feel that great in the sense of my driving and I'm working as hard as I can.

"I am still way off. I just struggle with confidence in the rear of the car. I don't know how to get around that.

"I don't know what I am going to do but I will keep trying to work hard and trying to figure it out. I just have no rear end in the car in the qualifying sessions."

But Hamilton said he was "seeing hope" for his team at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya after a redesigned floor eliminated the most significant problem the the car has had so far - a high-speed bouncing created by aerodynamic disruption on the straights, known as 'porpoising'.

"We have improved the car and stopped it from bouncing in certain areas," Hamilton said.

"We don't have the bouncing in the straight line. We still have some bouncing in Turns Three and Nine [the fastest corners in Spain] but the car's a lot better.

"The [development] bits that have come have worked, so that means moving forwards more bits will come. I am looking forward to the next upgrades that we get so we can add some performance."

Hamilton is tied three-all with Russell in their qualifying head-to-head after six races this season.

Russell said that he believed the car was potentially faster in the race than in qualifying.

"That was the best result we've had as a team this season," he said. "We didn't have the tyres in the right window. We were quickest in sector one and struggling in sector three. Ferrari looked extremely fast this weekend but we have a better race car than a qualifying car."

The porpoising was preventing Mercedes from running the car as low as they wanted to for optimum performance, but the modifications in Spain meant they could begin to run it lower and access more of the potential they believe the car to have.

Russell said: "Through the corners it wasn't fundamentally different, but we just had more grip. We could get the car closer to the ground.

"We lost a lot of overall downforce to get rid of the porpoising. The car is not quite as quick as we'd like, to be able to fight the guys in front. But this is our baseline and we can build on that and find a lot more performance."

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/61538120
 
Max Verstappen fought back from an early spin to win the Spanish Grand Prix after title rival Charles Leclerc retired from a dominant lead.

It was Verstappen's fourth victory in six races this year, helped by Red Bull imposing team orders on Sergio Perez.

It gives him the championship lead for the first time in 2022 and he heads to Monaco next weekend with a six-point advantage over Leclerc.

Mercedes' George Russell took a strong third after a long and valiant attempt to hold Verstappen at bay early in the race.

And his team-mate Lewis Hamilton fought back to fifth place following a first-lap collision with Kevin Magnussen's Haas, which gave the seven-time champion a puncture and dropped him to the back of the field.

Hamilton moved into fourth behind Russell with a move on Ferrari's Carlos Sainz around the outside of Turn One with six laps to go.

But Hamilton lost the position again after being told to slow down because he had a coolant leak, and could not use full throttle.

Russell received the same message to lift-and-coast at the end of the race. In his case, his car was overheating throughout the grand prix.

Verstappen has had his share of bad luck this season, with two retirements from the first three races, but he certainly enjoyed some good fortune in Spain.

Leclerc was on course for a comfortable victory after a rare error from Verstappen saw the world champion spin into the gravel at Turn Four on lap nine.

The race had looked finely poised between the two until that point, with Leclerc leading by two seconds, but Verstappen's spin changed the complexion of the race.

It put him behind Russell, and despite the Red Bull's much greater pace, Verstappen was unable to pass the Mercedes.

Verstappen was held back by a DRS overtaking aid that rarely worked, but at the same time Russell put in a superb defensive drive to hold the Red Bull back for 19 laps.

In the end, Red Bull decided to switch strategy to get Verstappen past Russell, and stopped him on lap 28 for a set of soft tyres.

That allowed him to run in clear air, and when he stopped again on lap 44 for a final set of mediums, he emerged ahead of Russell, with only Perez ahead.

Red Bull told the Mexican not to hold Verstappen up, and he was past into the lead a few laps later, a decision Perez said was "unfair". On his slowing down lap, he said: "I am happy for the team, but we have to speak later."

Verstappen's spin left Leclerc alone and unchallenged out front and he was nearly 30 seconds in the lead when he made what should have been his first pit stop for fresh tyres on lap 21.

The Ferrari re-emerged nearly six seconds in the lead, and with Russell still holding back Verstappen, Leclerc was 12.6secs in the lead and in total control when his engine failed six laps later.

Leclerc will be a strong favourite for victory in Monaco given the Ferrari's pace in the slow- and medium-speed corners in Spain, but the team are facing a difficult moment and must bounce back quickly.

Leclerc's team-mate Sainz was unable to salvage their day.

He made the same mistake as Verstappen, albeit two laps earlier - both drivers caught out by a tail wind at Turn Four. And after that, hampered by floor damage that reduced his car's downforce, he lacked the pace to recover as strongly as might have been expected.

He would have finished a disappointing fifth had it not been for Mercedes' reliability problems at the end gifting him a free pass back on Hamilton.

Mercedes arrived in Spain with a car upgrade which succeeded in limiting the porpoising problems on the straight that have hamstrung them so far this season.

Russell followed it with the team's best grid position of the year in fourth place, and he drove an outstanding grand prix.

Holding off Verstappen, Russell displayed the sort of defensive skills that his forerunner in the seat, Valtteri Bottas, so often failed to do.

Ultimately, Red Bull were able to pincer Mercedes on strategy and unleash the extra pace of their car and Russell was helpless to hold them back.

Hamilton, meanwhile, had a dispiriting start. He was fighting for fifth with Sainz going into Turn Four on the first lap, but he collided with Magnussen as the Dane tried to go around the outside and punctured his left-front tyre.

Rejoining at the back, Hamilton soon radioed to the team that he thought they might be better to retire and save engine miles. They replied that they thought he could recover to eighth.

He over-achieved significantly, driving a superb comeback race to enter the final laps behind Russell, only to slip back again.

Team boss Toto Wolff came on the radio to Hamilton on his slowing down lap to tell him that he had the fastest race time of any driver, and would have been contending for victory without his problems.

Behind him, Alfa Romeo's Bottas took sixth, from the Alpine of Esteban Ocon and McLaren's Lando Norris.

And local hero Fernando Alonso drove superbly to recover to ninth after the two-time champion started from the back because of an engine change before the race.

Yuki Tsunoda took the final point for Alpha Tauri.

BBC
 
Russell proving he is a better driver than the so-called 7 time WC, in the same car. Overrated Lewis exposed again.

Well done to Verstappen. Pity about the DNC early in the season.
 
LAP CHART &#55357;&#56520;&#55357;&#56521; A roller-coaster ride for lots of drivers

FTYLBbnXsAAnjew
 
Lewis Hamilton says his recovery to finish fifth in the Spanish Grand Prix feels "better than a win".

The seven-time champion impressively fought back from a puncture on the first lap which saw him drop to 19th.

With team-mate George Russell finishing third it marked an improved weekend for Mercedes, who have struggled with their car in the opening five races.

"To have that problem and come back it felt like some of the older races I've done," Hamilton said.

"It feels amazing."

Hamilton collided with Haas' Kevin Magnussen on the opening lap in Barcelona and when he rejoined at the back of the field after his enforced pit stop he despondently suggested retiring the car to preserve the engine, such was the gap to the leaders.

But he responded with a fine drive and was on course to finish fourth until he had to slow down in the closing laps because of a coolant leak, which allowed Ferrari's Carlos Sainz to retake a position Hamilton had taken shortly beforehand.

"I was thinking it was impossible to get back into points but the team said no you're on for eighth," Hamilton said. "I thought they were being super-optimistic.

"I'm glad we didn't [retire] and it just shows you never stop and never give up and that's what I did.

"A race like that is like a win, and it actually feels better than a win most often when you have come from so far back."

Red Bull's Max Verstappen won the grand prix with team-mate Sergio Perez second ahead of Russell after Ferrari's Charles Leclerc retired from the lead with an engine problem.

An upgrade to the Mercedes car in Spain featured a redesigned floor which seems to have eliminated the most significant problem the the car has had so far - a high-speed bouncing created by aerodynamic disruption on the straights, known as 'porpoising'.

In the opening five races Mercedes only had two podium finishes - Hamilton in the season opener in Bahrain and Russell in Australia three weeks later - with Hamilton often cutting a frustrated figure.

"We have made a lot of improvements with the car and the race pace is much better, the car is much nicer in the race, we have some improvements to make in qualifying," Hamilton said.

"If I hadn't had that [issue at the start], I would have been fighting with the Red Bulls."

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said Hamilton's performance reminded him of those from his previous title-winning seasons.

"Him showing this very good pace was important for not only his morale but also our morale," Wolff said.

"Who would have thought he would climb all the way to fourth before the problem and that looked like a World Championship-winning race car he was driving.

"That would have not been possible in the previous races, it reminded me of last year and the year before when the car and driver is really on the top of its game."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/61545027
 
cricketjoshila said:
Hamilton is a massively overrated driver. Didn't he lose to Rosberg too in a Mercedes?
Click to expand...

OldWarHorse said:
Yeah in 2016. TBF they had quite a close battle over 2014-16 when Hamilton beat him twice but Rosberg wouldnt be what one would call a great like Senna or Prost
Click to expand...

Hamilton has strengths that not a lot of drivers have shown. So calling him overrated is unwarranted (unless people call him the greatest ever).

Let me explain this further. As someone who has been following F1 for over 25 years, I would definitely call Hamilton one of the best, but not the the GOAT.

Hamilton's greatest asset is his accuracy, consistency and making very few mistakes. When he is given a good car, he is able week in week out place the car on the front row in qualifying and then consistently get wins or podiums. He rarely has a bad weekend when he has a solid car.

He does not have the ability of Senna (and to an extent Verstappen) to outdrive the car over a qualifying lap. He also does not have Schumacher's leadership skills (building a team and leaving a legacy) and Schumachers ability of driving an average car to the podium or even competing for the championship with an average car.

Having said all that, Hamilton is still a legend.

Rosberg is also one hell of a driver. Its a shame that his teammate was Hamilton. If he had someone like Bottas, Massa or Webber as teammates he would have 2-3 championships himself. Beating Hamilton in the same team to win the championship takes a lot of skill and mental strength. But I would not call him a top tier either. He in my opinion is in the league of Mansell, Piquet and Hakkinen.


My classification

Tier 1 - Schumacher, Senna (Possibly also Fangio and Clark, but that's from reading the history of F1. At worst they would be tier 1.5). IMHO, its a bit early, but Max has the potential to make it here.

Tier 2 - Prost, Alonso, Hamilton, Stewart. I reckon Giles Villeneuve, Graham Hill, Stirling Moss would also belong here.

Tier 3 - Raikkonen, Hakkinen, Nico Rosberg, Vettel, Mansell, Fittipaldi, Piquet and a few more.

So Hamilton would be in my top 5 (highest in Tier 2) but not the GOAT.

If in the next 2 seasons, if he is able to lead the second or third best car to a championship and then leaves the team in a good state, he would move into the top tier.
 
Sidilicious said:
Hamilton has strengths that not a lot of drivers have shown. So calling him overrated is unwarranted (unless people call him the greatest ever).

Let me explain this further. As someone who has been following F1 for over 25 years, I would definitely call Hamilton one of the best, but not the the GOAT.

Hamilton's greatest asset is his accuracy, consistency and making very few mistakes. When he is given a good car, he is able week in week out place the car on the front row in qualifying and then consistently get wins or podiums. He rarely has a bad weekend when he has a solid car.

He does not have the ability of Senna (and to an extent Verstappen) to outdrive the car over a qualifying lap. He also does not have Schumacher's leadership skills (building a team and leaving a legacy) and Schumachers ability of driving an average car to the podium or even competing for the championship with an average car.

Having said all that, Hamilton is still a legend.

Rosberg is also one hell of a driver. Its a shame that his teammate was Hamilton. If he had someone like Bottas, Massa or Webber as teammates he would have 2-3 championships himself. Beating Hamilton in the same team to win the championship takes a lot of skill and mental strength. But I would not call him a top tier either. He in my opinion is in the league of Mansell, Piquet and Hakkinen.


My classification

Tier 1 - Schumacher, Senna (Possibly also Fangio and Clark, but that's from reading the history of F1. At worst they would be tier 1.5). IMHO, its a bit early, but Max has the potential to make it here.

Tier 2 - Prost, Alonso, Hamilton, Stewart. I reckon Giles Villeneuve, Graham Hill, Stirling Moss would also belong here.

Tier 3 - Raikkonen, Hakkinen, Nico Rosberg, Vettel, Mansell, Fittipaldi, Piquet and a few more.

So Hamilton would be in my top 5 (highest in Tier 2) but not the GOAT.

If in the next 2 seasons, if he is able to lead the second or third best car to a championship and then leaves the team in a good state, he would move into the top tier.
Click to expand...

fair analysis, id say schumi, senna and clark are tier 1.
 
Formula 1 teams will be forced to miss races this season unless the sport's budget cap is increased, says Red Bull team principal Christian Horner.

The current budget limit is $140m (£111m).

"Seven of the teams would probably need to miss the last four races to come within the cap this year," he said.

"It's not just about the big teams. It's teams in the middle of the field who are really struggling with inflationary issues."

Horner, whose Red Bull team lead the drivers' championship, through Max Verstappen, as well as the constructors' championship, said F1's governing body the FIA "needs to address" the problem.

He added: "The FIA has a duty of care. I know they are taking it seriously.

"Energy bills, costs of living, costs are going exponentially, and F1 is not exempt. Freight has quadrupled and that's not something we can control."

Horner's position is backed by title rivals Ferrari, world champions Mercedes and McLaren.

But the Alfa Romeo, Alpine, Haas and Williams teams all voted against a proposal for an inflationary adjustment based on International Monetary Fund inflation figures when it was proposed last month at an F1 Commission meeting of teams, the FIA and commercial rights holder F1.

Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer said: "We've set our budgets early, we kind of anticipated a little bit of the inflation. Inflation didn't just creep up on us. If we can do it, for sure others can do it too. I'm not for just increasing the cap.

"When freight costs go up by 2.5m or 3.5m but your development budget is 20m, can you not make your development budget 17m and still be under the cap? You can.

"What that then does is it limits your development. So it's a lot easier, if you have the money, to go to the FIA and lobby to raise the cap and keep your development budget the same."

An Aston Martin spokesperson said: "We support a budget cap increase in line with inflation but do not see the need for an increase greater than that."

A spokesman said that the FIA was looking into the issue on an ongoing basis.

Some teams are concerned that the top teams are arguing the case for a budget-cap increase as a way of maintaining their high levels of spending.

Some of the smaller teams have budgets lower than the cap, and they say that increasing it would only increase the inequity across the field - which is counter to the aim of the rule changes introduced by the FIA and F1.

In addition, some sources say the bigger teams are trying to compound the effect of inflation into next year, which could end up increasing the cap by as much as $15m.

The cap was introduced last year as one of a number of ways to attempt to level the field and reduce the gaps between teams. It started at $145m (£115m) in 2021, and is set to reduce by a further $5m (£3.97m) in 2023.

However, the bigger teams contrast their flexible approach during the Covid crisis in 2020 with what they see as the intransigence of the smaller teams now.

Before the pandemic, the budget cap had been set to come in at $175m (£139m) in 2021. But the big teams agreed to a $30m (£23m) reduction in the early months of the pandemic because of the threat Covid was perceived to pose to the survival of the sport.

The leading teams point out that the cost of air freight has increased by 50% this year, and utilities required to run their factories are as much as three times more than they were.

They say the situation is serious enough that they will have to choose between not attending races or sacking hundreds of people across the industry if the cap is not increased.

They also argue that if the majority of the grid ends up breaching the cap this year, then the validity of the cap itself is at risk.

Sanctions for breaking the cap are not precisely defined, but if the breach is serious a team could even be disqualified from the championship.

One possible compromise is for teams to overspend by 5%, an amount which a mechanism in the rules dictates will be treated as a minor offence.

BBC
 
Sebastian Vettel adds amateur detective to CV by tracking down stolen item

Four-time Formula 1 champion and more recently budding environmental campaigner, Sebastian Vettel added another skill to his CV on Monday - amateur detective.

The German, 34, had a bag stolen from outside his hotel in Barcelona - and attempted to track down the thieves by riding a scooter through the city.

Vettel used tracking software in his smartphone to trace earbuds in the bag.

The Aston Martin driver found the earphones, but not the bag.

It seems the thieves discarded the earphones before making off with the bag and its contents to throw pursuers off the scent.

It is unclear whether they spotted a famous F1 driver on their trail before that happened.

An Aston Martin spokesperson said: "A bag belonging to Sebastian Vettel was stolen in Barcelona this morning. He tried to find it by using his iPhone to track his earphones which were in his bag, but when he located his earphones he found them abandoned and was therefore unable to locate his stolen bag."

Vettel has reported the incident to the police.

It has not been a great few days for the 53-time grand prix winner.

Vettel finished Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix in 11th place, one position out of the points.

Aston Martin, who are into the second year of a five-year plan aimed at turning them into regular winners, have had the second slowest car on the grid since the start of the season.

They introduced a major car upgrade for the Barcelona race, but after showing initial promise it did not produce the upturn in performance the team had hoped.

In addition, Aston Martin found themselves embroiled in a row with championship leaders Red Bull, who accused them of copying their car and have launched an internal investigation to try to discover whether any of their intellectual property left the team and found its way to Aston Martin along with six employees poached in recent weeks.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/61557866
 
Monaco GP: Mercedes say Monte Carlo not our 'happy place' as Ferrari play down F1 revival

Mercedes believe they made a "big step" last weekend but admit their expectations are low for the Monaco GP, with Toto Wolff saying F1's famous street circuit is not the team's "happy place".

Mercedes enjoyed their most promising weekend of the season at the Spanish GP, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton's third and fifth prompting Wolff to declare the world champions are back in the title race.

But the Silver Arrows' team boss also stressed there was still a gap to leaders Red Bull and Ferrari.

"We've seen another big step, probably we've halved the advantage to the front-runners," Wolff said. "But still there's lots of way to go in order to be in the fight."

Mercedes appeared to solve their porpoising issues in Barcelona and Monaco's lack of straights would ordinarily mean they are more confident for their chances. But Monte Carlo was not a particularly strong race for Mercedes even in their dominant years - with Red Bull often shining - and so Wolff is more cautious than ever for F1's most famous weekend.

"Monaco in the past wasn't our most happy place," said Wolff, with Mercedes winning only one of the last four Monaco GPs. "Maybe because the car was the size of an elephant!

"I will be curious to see where we are this weekend. My expectations are lower than any other circuit... it's going to be a learning point at least, to bring us back into the game."

Ferrari, meanwhile, have played down Mercedes' revival - insisting they still have ground to make up if they are to join the fight with Red Bull.

"Congrats to them, they recovered and they improved the speed of their car," Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto told Sky Sports F1.

"On Saturday [in Spain] they were six, seven tenths on a qualy lap which is still a short circuit. On Sunday they finished 30 seconds to a Red Bull, and it would have been maybe 40 seconds to Charles [Leclerc, who retired].

"That's six, seven tenths a lap and that's still significant, it's like Ferrari last year."

Ferrari were a distant third in the championship last season, making Binotto's comments all the more pertinent.

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/1...r-happy-place-as-ferrari-play-down-f1-revival
 
Monaco Grand Prix: Charles Leclerc says losing historic race would be a 'bad move'

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc says Formula 1 dropping the Monaco Grand Prix would be a "bad move".

F1 owner Liberty Media is assessing how to grow the sport and Monaco is one of several races said to be under threat, along with equally historic Belgium.

Leclerc, who is from Monaco and has lived there all his life, said: "It would be a bad move for both parties.

"I have never known Monaco without F1 apart from Covid reasons in 2020 and F1 without Monaco for me is not F1."

Monaco is close to a sell-out for this year's race, but it holds a relatively small crowd because of the limited space in the town - at 68,000 for the weekend, when some races top 400,000 - and it pays what is believed to be the smallest fee.

Liberty is facing pressure to fit more races into the calendar, including the new event in Las Vegas next year, while not expanding the calendar too much.

But Leclerc said its place on the schedule should be set in stone.

"F1 has some historic tracks like Silverstone and Monza - and Monaco, too," Leclerc said. "And they should stay on the calendar.

"Monaco is one of the best tracks out there, in terms of qualifying there are no places I enjoy as much here, and where the driver can make as much difference.

"The races are so close. The danger, you can still feel it because you really have the sensation of speed and in terms of qualifying it is probably the most exciting of the year.

"I agree in the races there are maybe some things we could change here and there to help overtaking. But in terms of challenge for the drivers it is one of the toughest challenges of the year."

The 24-year-old, who is from Monaco, has never finished a race in his home town during his entire career.

And he needs a win on Sunday after losing the championship lead to rival Max Verstappen in Spain last weekend.

Leclerc has seen a 46-point lead after the third race of the season turn into a six-point deficit after a difficult run in the last three races, culminating in an engine failure while dominating in Spain last weekend.

But he says his record on the track does not concern him.

"I don't think about it," he said. "It's not been the luckiest track for me overall, but it's life. It happens. It's part of motorsports, and sometimes things just don't go your way, and hopefully this year will.

"But I'll just take the same approach as I've done in the first few races of 2022. Because it's been successful until now, and hopefully it will be successful here at home."

Lelcerc was on pole in Monaco last year despite it being a season in which the team were not generally competitive, and he said he was confident that Ferrari would have the pace to compete for victory this weekend.

"I honestly don't feel the pressure," he said. "I'm just very happy to be here to be back on this amazing track. I love it here and it's a very special event for me having grown up here. And these roads I've known so well since being born.

"There is no added pressure. I know the performance is in the car for us to do a good result this weekend. And I just have to get in the car and do the job and hopefully the results will be there at the end of the weekend."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/61600012
 
Lewis Hamilton has said "way too much time" is being devoted to the issue of drivers wearing jewellery in the cars.

Formula 1's governing body the FIA has ducked a potential stand-off over on the matter at this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix by referring it for further analysis.

The move follows talks with the drivers at the race in Spain last weekend.

Hamilton said: "It's not been a problem in the past and there's no reason for it to be problem necessarily now."
 
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc headed Red Bull's Sergio Perez in a close first practice at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Leclerc, who lost the championship lead to Red Bull's Max Verstappen in Spain, was 0.039 seconds ahead.

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz was third, 0.07secs behind Leclerc, with Verstappen fourth after damaging his tyres on his final run with a lock-up.

McLaren's Lando Norris was fifth, Mercedes' George Russell and Lewis Hamilton eighth and 10th.
 
Take your jewellery off Hamiliton! Extra weight is perhaps slowing you down. Go woke, or broke!
 
Monaco Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton says track is 'bumpiest ever'

Lewis Hamilton said Monaco this year is the "bumpiest" track he has ever driven because of problems with his Mercedes car in Friday practice.

Hamilton was only 12th fastest after a difficult day, complaining he did not manage to get a lap together. Team-mate George Russell was sixth.

"There are, like, 100 bumps on just one straight," Hamilton said.

"I don't know whether the others are experiencing the same as us. But it's the bumpiest roller-coaster ride."

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc set the pace in both sessions, leading team-mate Carlos Sainz by the end of the day, both drivers more than 0.3 seconds quicker than Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen of title rivals Red Bull.

Russell was 0.7secs off the pace, and Hamilton a further 0.9secs back.

Hamilton complained about "bouncing" - but said it was not the same as the high-frequency aerodynamic problem that had afflicted Mercedes until their upgrade in Spain last weekend.

"It's the bumpiest the track's ever been. It's probably the bumpiest track I've ever driven," the seven-time champion said.

"That makes it difficult but in general our car bounces a lot. It's different bouncing to what we've experienced in the past because it's in the low speed [corners] also, but it's not aero. The bumps are making it worse.

"Putting a lap together is, wow, whole new ground. I don't remember experiencing that before.

"The grip doesn't feel terrible but it's just eyeballs coming out of the sockets. As anticipated, I didn't think we would be as quick as the Ferraris and Red Bulls. Our battle is to try and stay ahead of the McLarens."

Russell added: "The car is constantly smashing against the floor. We have experienced a lot of that this year but this is a very different philosophy and reasoning for the bouncing.

"There are sections where both tyres are off the ground - in Turn Five, the front right in the air, and it's so stiff the front left is popping up as well. You're almost doing a wheelie. We're doing everything we can to make it easier for us.

"It was a relatively good day but we are not where we want to be.

"We want to be best of the rest. That is a fair result this weekend behind Ferrari and Red Bull but we want to make sure we don't have cheeky little Lando popping it in there too."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/61610047
 
Charles Leclerc stormed to a home Monaco GP pole position for Ferrari after dominating qualifying, which ended in dramatic fashion as Carlos Sainz shunted into a spinning Sergio Perez on the very last lap.

Trying to match Leclerc's superb lap at the start of Q3, Perez went round at the Portier right-hander before Sainz, in the other Ferrari, then came round the corner and hit the stricken Red Bull.

The red flags essentially sealed Leclerc's pole, although such was the Monegasque's form it's unlikely he would have been beaten anyway.

An untouchable and unflappable Leclerc topped Q1 and Q2, was three-tenths faster than his rivals on the first laps of Q3 and was even improving on his final lap before the bizarre stoppage.

SKY
 
Monaco GP: Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes car felt 'horrendous' in qualifying as he struggles to P8

Lewis Hamilton said his Mercedes car felt "horrendous" during Monaco GP qualifying as he only managed eighth on the grid, and claims rain is the only thing that can prevent more misery in Sunday's race.

Hamilton, albeit hampered by red flags as he couldn't complete a final lap, finished over a second off pole on Saturday and was outpaced by George Russell again, with his team-mate grabbing sixth.

Hamilton and Russell were both once again suffering with bouncing and a lack of pace compared to Ferrari and Red Bull.

Asked by Sky Sports F1 how the car felt, Hamilton replied: "Horrendous. It feels pretty bad here.

"Very bumpy for some reason. It's very hard for us to get below a second of the [Ferrari and Red Bull] guys, it takes a lot of risk."

Mercedes were hoping to build on their Spanish GP momentum this weekend but were beaten by the McLaren of Lando Norris in qualifying, and encountered more, yet different, bouncing on track.

"Yesterday was a bad day and today the car felt a little bit better," said Hamilton. "in qualifying we made some changes and seemed to be a little bit closer.

With the perfect lap, I think we could have been maybe six tenths behind, but that's still a decent chunk."

Hamilton said he didn't think his finishing position would have been much different without the red flags, though he did add that it was just another example of bad luck for him in F1 2022.

The seven-time world champion is also hoping for rain in the race, with a 60% chance of showers in Monte Carlo on Sunday with temperatures way down.

"I am not doing any dancing but I do want it to rain so I am not just driving around in the dry in eighth," he stated.

"You cannot overtake so I am hoping that the weather plays up and maybe we can do a different strategy.

"We were not very good in the low-speed corners at the last race so I anticipated it would be difficult, but it is worse than we anticipated because it is super-bouncy.

"It would be nice to have some luck for once. I have been having bad luck all year so it is bound to stop at some stage."

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admitted the W13 car was "too stiff" and "too bouncy" for Monaco's unique and demanding layout, with Ferrari and Red Bull - as they have been all season - much faster than the world champions.

Russell, like Hamilton, said "bring on the rain" and continued: "It is obviously a unique race here in Monaco.

"We obviously wanted more there is no doubt but as I said before the weekend we have our baseline now and we believe we can work from there.

"But we are under no illusions that Red Bull and Ferrari are finding a lot of pace and what they showed this weekend was impressive."

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/2...orrendous-in-qualifying-as-he-struggles-to-p8
 
Hamilton is still in 8th and is feeling very frustrated stuck behind Alonso, they're running much slower than the race leaders.

1. PER
2. SAI
3. VER
4. LEC
5. RUS
 
Sergio Perez won an incident-packed, wet-dry Monaco Grand Prix after his Red Bull team outfoxed rivals Ferrari.

The Mexican rose from third to the lead during a part of the race in wet conditions after the start was delayed for an hour after a downpour of rain.

Red Bull's strategy also vaulted Max Verstappen from fourth to third, behind Ferrari's Carlos Sainz but ahead of the Dutchman's title rival Charles Leclerc.

As a result, Verstappen extended his championship lead to nine points.

Perez, meanwhile, is only six points behind Leclerc, after a strong weekend in which he outpaced Verstappen in qualifying and drove superbly in the race to deliver on Red Bull's improvisational strategy calls.

Leclerc, so outstanding in taking pole position on Saturday, was left ruing strategy blunders by Ferrari as he saw a comfortable lead turn into fourth place within the space of just four laps.

After the race was red-flagged for a second time after 30 laps because of a heavy crash by Mick Schumacher's Haas at the Swimming Pool section of the track, Leclerc asked whether they would run to the end from their current positions.

When told they would, knowing the difficulty of overtaking in Monaco, Leclerc, voice heavy with sarcasm, said: "Oh, perfect."

The top four were nose to tail for the final 10 minutes - as the delayed race had to be called after 64 of the scheduled 77 laps because of time restrictions in the rules - but Perez held on from Sainz, Verstappen and Leclerc.

When the race finally started, one hour five minutes late, it was behind the safety car for two laps, with all cars forced to be on the 'extreme' wet tyres, before race director Eduardo Freitas was convinced it was safe to let the cars free.

Leclerc immediately began to eke out an advantage over Sainz, Perez and Verstappen behind him and was four seconds clear of Sainz after 10 laps, and 5.3 ahead after 16, when Perez pitted for intermediate tyres.

Red Bull had taken the cue from Pierre Gasly's Alpha Tauri, who pitted for inters shortly after the start, but was for several laps stuck behind slower cars.

Once in free air, the Frenchman started setting fastest times, proving the track was ready.

When Perez pitted, Ferrari called Sainz immediately for intermediates on the following lap, but the Spaniard refused, saying they should stay out on the wets and switch straight to dry-weather slicks.

Two laps after Perez pitted, Leclerc and Verstappen also stopped for inters, but such had been Perez's pace, Leclerc emerged from the pits behind the Red Bull, albeit still ahead of Verstappen.

But even that was soon to change.

Three laps after stopping for intermediates, Leclerc was in again, as Ferrari pitted both cars for hard-compound slicks, bringing Sainz in from the lead and stacking Leclerc behind him.

But by the time Sainz pitted, Perez was only 3.9secs behind, so he was comfortably in the lead when Sainz re-emerged.

A lap later, Red Bull brought Verstappen in for his hard tyres, and his in lap combined with Leclerc's struggles with tyre temperature on his out lap leapfrogged the world champion ahead into third place.

Within five laps, the race was stopped because of Schumacher's crash. It restarted, but the result was effectively already decided.

Into the last 10 minutes, Sainz began to put heavy pressure on Perez, with Verstappen and Lerclerc right behind him, as the leader struggled with tyres he had damaged with a lock-up on the first lap after the restart, and which were also graining - suffering from surface tearing and a lack of grip.

But Monaco lived up to its reputation as a place where it is almost impossible to overtake and they stayed in line astern to the flag.

George Russell took fifth place in the Mercedes after a strong weekend, beating McLaren's Lando Norris, Alpine's Fernando Alonso and the second Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton.

Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas and Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel took the final points places after Alpine's Esteban Ocon was penalised five seconds for a collision with Hamilton earlier in the race.

The start of the race was delayed by an hour and five minutes after a downpour shortly before the scheduled start.

There were questions as to whether it could have started in the conditions existing at the scheduled start time.

But once it had been delayed, the FIA had its hands tied, as a heavy downpour started about 15 minutes later and made the track unsafe for racing.

There were questions also as to whether the FIA waited too long to restart the race, and also whether the second red flag for Schumacher's incident was necessary.

What happens next?

A two-week break before two races in quick succession - a brutal 'double-header', first in Baku in Azerbaijan and then Montreal in Canada.

BBC
 
Ferrari have launched a protest against Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen at the Monaco GP, accusing Red Bull's race winner and world champion of pit exit infringements.

Perez and Verstappen have been accused of crossing the yellow line when leaving the pits on Lap 23, trying to stay ahead of Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.

Perez eventually won the race, while Verstappen finished third.

Race Control didn't launch an investigation during the Monte Carlo epic but afterwards Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto accused both drivers of a "clear rules breach".

Ferrari's team principal Mattia Binotto believes Max Verstappen broke the rules by crossing the pit lane exit line at the Monaco GP.
The FIA summons then confirmed that both Perez and Verstappen were under investigation, with a Red Bull representative called to stewards at 6.15pm UK time.

Perez wins chaotic, delayed Monaco GP after Leclerc misery

"We made the protest because we believe it was right to seek clarification," said Binotto. "I think both Red Bulls were on the yellow line at the exit and in the past that has always been penalised with a five-second penalty."

Binotto noted both the International Sporting Code and the race director's notes as he earlier told Sky Sports F1: "We are disappointed because we believe there was a clear breach of regulations on the two Red Bull going on the yellow line exiting the pit.

Charles Leclerc was left furious by radio calls from his Ferrari team over whether to come into the pits or not.

"I think it was not close. It was on the line and if you look at the intonation of the sporting code it is saying crossing, but we had a clarification in Turkey 2020 to avoid any discussions and if you look at the race director notes it indicates staying to the right.

"So, being on the line is breaching the race director notes and I think each single team has a duty and a task to follow the race director notes.

"So for us that is something unclear and we are still seeking clarification from the FIA and we will be happy to have as soon as possible our feedback."

But Horner told Sky Sports News: "It's disappointing that it's been protested.

"We believe the International Sporting Code is clear. He didn't go over the line, he was always in contact with the line.

Sky F1's Anthony Davidson analyses Red Bull and Ferrari's pit stops which lost Charles Leclerc the Monaco Grand Prix.

"We've seen other precedents set, with other drivers in the past. If it was any more than even a reprimand, I'd be hugely disappointed in that. I really hope that common sense will prevail."

It seems both team bosses may have a point, with the race directors' notes stating that "drivers must keep to the right of the solid yellow line at the pit exit when leaving the pits and stay to the right of this line until it finishes after Turn 1".

But the International Sporting Code just says a tyre must not "cross" the yellow line.

Appendix L reads: "Any tyre of a car exiting the pit lane must not cross any line painted on the track at the pit exit for the purpose of separating cars leaving the pit lane from those on the track."

SKY
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">&#55357;&#56803; "It's disappointing that it's been protested"<br><br>Red Bull's Christian Horner gives his reaction to Ferrari's protest against Max Verstappen at the Monaco GP, accusing Red Bull's race winner and World Champion of pit exit infringements &#55357;&#56391; <a href="https://t.co/9roL9Halov">pic.twitter.com/9roL9Halov</a></p>— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/SkySportsNews/status/1530984932402667522?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 29, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Monaco Grand Prix: 'Too many mistakes' - how Ferrari lost out

Charles Leclerc did not mince his words after Ferrari turned victory into defeat with a series of strategic errors during the Monaco Grand Prix.

"Let down is not the word," he said. "Sometimes mistakes can happen - but there have been too many mistakes today.

"I'm used to getting back home disappointed but we cannot do that, especially in a moment now where we are extremely strong.

"We need to take opportunities. I love my team. We will come back stronger, but it hurts a lot.

"We cannot afford to lose so many points like this. It's not even from first to second, it's from first to fourth because after the first mistakes we've done another one."

Leclerc's disappointment was on two different, but inter-related, levels.

First, he had just seen what should have been a comfortable victory in his home race slip through his fingers because of a series of strategic errors by the team.

Secondly, he had just lost yet more points to title rival Max Verstappen. Four races ago, Leclerc had a 46-point lead in the championship. Now, the Dutchman is nine points ahead, with Red Bull having won four races in a row.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/61627668
 
Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen have both avoided penalties for alleged pit exit infringements at the Monaco GP after race stewards dismissed Ferrari's protests.
 
Sergio Perez: Red Bull driver extends contract until 2024

Mexico's Sergio Perez has signed a two-year contract extension with Red Bull that will keep him with the team until 2024.

The 32-year-old won Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix and is third in this season's driver standings.

Along with defending world champion Max Verstappen, Perez has helped Red Bull to the top of the constructors' standings after seven races.

Team boss Christian Horner said keeping Perez was a "no-brainer".

Perez joined Red Bull from Racing Point at the end of 2020 and finished fourth in the 2021 drivers' championship after his most successful season in Formula One.

Red Bull announced the extension on Tuesday, but Perez had actually signed before the race in Monaco, where he claimed his fourth podium finish of the season.

Perez said: "For me, this has been an incredible week, winning the Monaco Grand Prix is a dream for any driver and then to follow that with announcing I will continue with the team until 2024 just makes me extremely happy.

"I am so proud to be a member of this team and I feel completely at home here now. We are working very well together and my relationship with Max, on and off the track, is definitely helping drive us forward even more."

Horner believes the Mexican has significantly developed during the past 12 months and is now operating at a standard similar to that of the reigning world champion.

He said: "Time and again he has proved himself to not only be a magnificent team player but as his level of comfort has grown he has become a real force to be reckoned with at the sharp end of the grid.

"This year he has taken another step and the gap to world champion Max has closed significantly."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/61646036
 
Azerbaijan GP: Sergio Perez now an F1 title contender as Ferrari mistakes cost Charles Leclerc

From the twists of Monaco, to the speed of Baku - it's time for another F1 street fight, and Red Bull insist the title battle is now a triple-threat as Sergio Perez joins Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc at the front.

Perez, occupying what was often referred to as a 'poisoned chalice' seat next to Verstappen, is in fine form in his second season with Red Bull and his superb victory last time out in Monte Carlo has moved the Mexican just six points off Leclerc, and 15 off his world champion team-mate.

Next up? The Azerbaijan GP, which Perez won last year and where he always seems to excel. The whole weekend is live only on Sky Sports F1, with an earlier Sunday race start at 12pm.

"He's in this championship just as much Max is," Red Bull boss Christian Horner said. "The difference between the two of them, it's nothing. Him and Max have been a lot closer this year."

Not only is Perez in the title battle, he also now has the boost of the longest contract Red Bull have handed out since the days of Daniel Ricciardo, with the former Racing Point driver now signed on until 2024.

Baku, coincidentally, is arguably where Ricciardo and Verstappen's Red Bull partnership finally unravelled following their huge crash in 2018, though Max does not foresee a title battle changing his and Perez's relationship.

"Why would it change?" said Verstappen. "We work really well as a team. We always try to optimise the car and work for the team and we can accept when somebody does a good job or does a better job and I think that's very important because that's how you are respectful to each other.

"May the best man win at the end, right? We always, of course, [are] trying to do the best we can on the track but we also respect each other a lot."

The door has been opened to Perez partly because of Ferrari's mistakes, with even Horner admitting the Scuderia currently have the faster car.

Indeed, Leclerc has claimed three pole positions in a row but has not won a race since early April's Australian GP - and Ferrari have been actively hampering his Sundays recently with a DNF in Spain and a strategy blunder in Monaco.

Leclerc openly criticised his team's wrong calls after his home race and Sky Sports F1's Martin Brundle wrote in his latest column that the "mutual admiration and affection" was being "severely tested on Leclerc's side".

Ferrari promised an inquiry into the strategy calls that led to Leclerc dropping from what appeared a certain win to a disappointing fourth.

"We've had our briefing with the drivers, we went through it and tried to understand, but believe me, it was quite a complicated one," explained team boss Mattia Binotto on the two errant pit calls for Leclerc.

"It was not an obvious one but certainly we made a mistake.

"We made a mistake as well because we should have called him earlier, or if not, we should have stayed out to protect the position. That main mistake is straightforward. What was the process that took us to that? It will take some more time to look at it and have a clear explanation."

For Leclerc's title aspirations, he needs that explanation sooner rather than later.

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/1...nder-as-ferrari-mistakes-cost-charles-leclerc
 
Daniel Ricciardo has McLaren contract but 'mechanisms' for 2023 as F1 'rumours grow louder'

Daniel Ricciardo is adamant he has a contract in place until 2023, but McLaren say there are "mechanisms" which could see his stay end early as rumours increase about the Australian's future with the team.

Ricciardo joined McLaren as a high-profile signing in 2021 and was expected to lead the team and younger team-mate Lando Norris, but had a mixed debut campaign and has struggled even more so far this year.

Yet to outqualify Norris and scoring just 11 points to the Briton's 48, Ricciardo's form has led to questions about his future.

The eight-time race winner, after previously hinting he would be having talks with McLaren in the summer about next season, affirmed in Monaco that he does indeed have a three-year contract until 2023.

He then said after a difficult qualifying: "I have a contract in place. But I don't want to be 14th. That's not why I race, let's put it like that."

There is an implication from McLaren's side, meanwhile, that there is some kind of performance clause for Ricciardo's contract to last three years, with team principal Andreas Seidl saying "our focus is to simply get this to work" while CEO Zak Brown went a step further when hinting at options to end the deal early.

"There are mechanisms in which we're committed to each other and then there's mechanisms in which we're not," said Brown, who previously told Sky Sports F1 that Ricciardo had not hit expectations at McLaren.

"I've spoken with Daniel about it, we're not getting the results that we both hoped for. But we're both going to continue to push.

"He showed at Monza [2021 Italian GP] he can win races. We also need to continue to develop our car, it's not capable of winning races, but we'd like to see him further up the grid.

"We'll just play it... I don't want to say 'one race at a time' because we're not going to one race at a time - but we'll just see how things develop."

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/2...mechanisms-for-2023-as-f1-rumours-grow-louder
 
Sebastian Vettel questions if F1 still excites Lewis Hamilton as much given recent results

Sebastian Vettel has questioned whether Lewis Hamilton is still excited by Formula 1 following the seven-time world champion's downturn in results.

Aston Martin's Vettel also admitted he was scared by the prospect of retiring from the sport and believes F1 is "missing" the experience of the former race director Michael Masi.

Hamilton arrives in Baku 75 points - the equivalent of three race victories - adrift of world championship leader Max Verstappen after managing just one podium finish in the opening seven rounds, with Mercedes having failed to keep pace with Red Bull and Ferrari.

"When you get to know the sport in the way I have done and Lewis has done, winning and being at the top is what you strive for," Vettel said, who claimed four consecutive titles with Red Bull between 2010 and 2013.

"Does it excite you to finish eighth, or 12th or 13th? No, it doesn't, when you know you have been first so many times - and in Lewis' case more than any other guy.

"George (Russell) comes in. He spent three years at Williams suffering at the rear of the field, scoring the odd point, and then suddenly he is eighth or 12th and life for him is amazing.

"Everybody is different, but you need to be fair from the outside and say, look, is Lewis naturally going to be as fired up about finishing eighth as George probably is? No, and I would be surprised if he was."

The FIA has come under scrutiny recently for its handling of the rain-delayed Monaco Grand Prix.

This season, Eduardo Freitas and Niels Wittich are the only two nominated race directors. They were appointed as replacements for Masi following a review of the controversial 2021 season finale in Abu Dhabi.

Vettel, director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, added: "What we are missing now is the experience that Michael had and brought to the job because he did it for so long and grew up with it.

"It is not an easy position now because there is more focus and more spotlight on what is happening at race control.

"But I hope things calm down and we find a way to work together, as in the drivers and the FIA. You cannot make everybody happy but we need to try and make both sides more happy."

Vettel finished runner-up to Hamilton in 2017 and 2018 before he was dropped by Ferrari and then signed for Aston Martin in 2020.

The 34-year-old German was 12th in the standings last year and has scored just five points this season.

It is almost three years since Vettel took the last of his 53 wins - a tally which puts him behind only Hamilton and Michael Schumacher in the list of F1 winners. He says his future on the grid depends on whether Aston Martin's fortunes improve and admits the thought of retirement is scary

"Yes [it is]," Vettel said. "I have done motor racing for my whole life, and it gives you security, in terms of the schedule being made by other people.

"I don't know what life after Formula 1 looks like and I don't think any sportsperson knows what the next life looks like. You can have certain things lined up, but you don't know and that is the truth.

"I don't expect to find something tomorrow which I am really good at, because I have found something in my life that I am really good at and it is hard to find that again. How many times can you win the lottery?

"I enjoy driving the car but there are other things I don't like. After so many years, the usual stuff comes up that you don't understand at the beginning, like the travel. It is very time consuming, and I have kids at home and a family so it equals time away from them.

"The future depends on this year and the races that I have coming up. I have not decided yet. The summer is the usual time when you start to talk so we will see."

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/1...s-lewis-hamilton-as-much-given-recent-results
 
Lewis Hamilton and Brad Pitt set to link up for new Hollywood Formula One film

Lewis Hamilton and Brad Pitt look set to come together for a new Formula 1 film, with Hamilton acting as a producer on the project.

The film is set to be led by Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski, with Hamilton involved as a producer.

Apple Studios have acquired the rights to the currently untitled film, which according to Deadline, will feature Pitt as a driver who comes out to retirement to mentor a younger driver and take his final stab at glory on the track.

The film's script was written by Ehren Kruger, with Jerry Bruckheimer also being attached to the project.

Twitter Due to your consent preferences, you’re not able to view this Privacy Options
Hamilton has made cameos in films previously including Cars 2 and 3, as well as Zoolander 2. He has also had roles in video games.

The Mercedes driver has shown an interest in fellow athletes who have developed films, including Tom Brady's '80 for Brady' project.

Hollywood actor Pitt clearly takes a keen interest in Formula 1, having been seen at many Grand Prix events, and he was the starter of the 84th Le Mans 24 Hours.

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/1...to-link-up-for-new-hollywood-formula-one-film
 
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc headed the Red Bulls of Sergio Perez and title rival Max Verstappen in Friday practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Leclerc, nine points behind Verstappen in championship, was 0.248 seconds quicker than Perez, with Verstappen a further 0.108secs adrift.

Alpine's Fernando Alonso was fourth, pipping Ferrari's Carlos Sainz.

George Russell was the fastest Mercedes in seventh place, with Lewis Hamilton down in 12th.

On qualifying or race pace, Ferrari and Red Bull looked closely matched.
 
Lewis Hamilton was left "a bit sore" after his Mercedes struggled with bouncing on the straights in Friday practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

"I'll get by," he said after ending the day 12th fastest. "We're hitting some serious speeds at the end of the straight and it's bouncing a lot."

Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel say they will continue to speak out on issues after FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem questioned whether they should.
 
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