The German manufacturer and the seven-time world champion ended months of speculation ahead of the Italian Grand Prix when they announced that they were extending their commitment to each other until at least the end of 2025. There had been some hope of getting the new deal sorted out earlier in the year, but the issue dragged. The hold-up even served to fuel speculation that Hamilton may not …Keep reading
Last year, F1 switched to ground-effect-based cars which are set up extremely stiff to generate the most downforce. That set-up had the unintended side-effect of porpoising on most cars, with drivers bouncing violently on the straights.But even without the highly publicised bouncing effect, the low-ride heights have generally made the cars much less comfortable to drive, with more forces …Keep reading
Haas has yet to get on top of its 2023 car’s severe tyre woes, which have left the American-owned team unable to replicate its often-reasonable qualifying pace over a whole race stint.The Ferrari customer squad particularly struggles on hot and twisty circuits where Pirelli’s tyres are tested the most, with its disastrous performance in the Italian Grand Prix another new low.Hulkenberg and …Keep reading
Mercedes has endured a challenging campaign, the progress it had hoped to make with its W14 failing to materialise as it embarked on a ‘painful’ change in car concept.The team recognised it had aimed to run its aero platform too high, giving away too much performance compared to rivals running much closer to the ground.Mercedes believes that a fundamental overhaul of its approach for 2024 will …Keep reading
The Silverstone-based team concedes that this year’s car has been weak in that area, which is why it endured such a difficult weekend at Monza.Fernando Alonso had his least competitive showing of the season at the Italian Grand Prix, struggling to finish ninth, while Lance Stroll was out of the points in 16th.Alonso has urged the team to address efficiency, and McCullough agrees that it is a …Keep reading
Stevenson, 55, is a stalwart of the Silverstone squad. He joined the team in its first guise as Jordan in the early 1990s and climbed the ranks to become chief mechanic before moving into his current role in 2005. As sporting director, he leads Aston Martin’s dealings with the FIA.This year, he compiled successful protests to overturn Fernando Alonso’s pitstop penalty in Saudi Arabia and …Keep reading
From this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, the FIA has got tougher on the design of front and rear wings in a bid to stop teams from playing games with flexible parts.As first revealed by Autosport, the FIA has demanded to see all design drawings of wings ahead of the Marina Bay race to check they comply and has outlawed specific wing ideas that it believes contravene the rules.This includes wing …Keep reading
Prompted by an interview with ex-F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone earlier this year, plus archive footage of late FIA race director Charlie Whiting, Massa believes F1 and the governing body were aware of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix ‘crashgate’ scandal in time to take action before the championship was decided.Former Ferrari and Williams racer Massa says he is developing a subsequent legal case to …Keep reading
At two races this year – Hungary and Monza after the initial trial set for Imola had to be abandoned amid that race’s cancellation – Pirelli has experimented with shipping fewer tyre sets, with adapted rules implemented for qualifying.By mandating drivers run hards in Q1, mediums in Q2 and softs in Q3, Pirelli is able to bring just 11 tyre sets overall for each car and achieve an improvement …Keep reading
Despite Zhou being the first full-time Chinese F1 racer, there has been speculation he does not come with major financial banking to incentivise Alfa Romeo to agree new terms.Speaking ahead of the summer break, Alfa Romeo F1 managing director Alessandro Alunni Bravi reckoned his squad wanted to retain its line-up of Zhou and Valtteri Bottas – who moved from Mercedes for 2022 on a two-year deal …Keep reading