Alpine owners Renault want to see the team achieve success sooner rather later, despite the stated 100-race plan that Szafnauer and his colleagues had put in place.It’s no secret that Enstone fell back during the Lotus/Genii period, and even in the early days of Renault’s second spell of ownership there was not enough investment.Over his 18-month spell at Alpine Szafnauer led the push for …Keep reading
2021 Formula 2 champion Piastri came into McLaren this season following a protracted transfer saga involving Alpine, with the battle between the two teams indicative of how much was expected of the Australian rookie.Piastri’s debut season was starting to be overshadowed by an underperforming car until a comprehensive summer upgrade package gave McLaren’s MCL60 a huge boost in competitiveness.It …Keep reading
Bruce McLaren’s firm made its F1 world championship debut in 1966 and the New Zealander scored its maiden victory in the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix. Since then, 19 other drivers have taken wins for McLaren and seven have won drivers’ titles.PLUS: The numbers that reveal McLaren’s revivalFor the selection of the top 10 McLaren F1 drivers, Autosport has considered the amount of success the drivers …Keep reading
Hulkenberg has started 193 F1 races – not including the 2013 Melbourne, 2015 Spa and 2020 Silverstone races he failed to start – with a best result of fourth.He achieved that result three times for what was then called Force India and Sauber between 2012 and 2016, but had several other podium near misses.These include his crash with Lewis Hamilton after leading much of the 2012 Brazilian Grand …Keep reading
The pair have not always seen eye-to-eye this season, and there have been a number of times when radio messages have highlighted disagreements about their approach.In Australia, Leclerc was unhappy that he did not get the tow that he had been expecting to get from Sainz in qualifying.At the Austrian GP, Sainz came on the radio early in the race to ask Ferrari to move Leclerc aside, but his request …Keep reading
Szafnauer departed the team after last month’s Belgian Grand Prix as part of wholesale changes at the Enstone outfit, with long-time sporting director Alan Permane also leaving.The news followed the departure of Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi, who was moved aside by Renault CEO Luca de Meo to a position away from the F1 programme.At Spa, interim team principal Bruno Famin said Szafnauer and Renault were …Keep reading
On the one hand, they want to produce a car that feels real and challenging to the hardcore sim-racers, but if they do that too well then it risks alienating the casual gamer who just wants to jump in and have some immediate fun. It’s a balancing act that the official F1 games have had to tread in recent years, and it’s something that was central to one of the big changes made to this …Keep reading
Ricciardo’s three-year McLaren contract was ended one year early last winter after the Australian struggled to get on with the team’s F1 cars.In the difficult-to-handle McLaren, Ricciardo was consistently behind team-mate Lando Norris during his two seasons in Woking, despite taking a shock win at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix.Ricciardo was then snapped up by Red Bull as a third driver during his …Keep reading
However, despite some clearly more prescriptive regulations, there were distinct differences between each machine, with the sidepods, in particular, offering a wide variety of design solutions.Now, a year and a half into this regulatory era, we have started to see a wholesale shift towards one of these concepts – the downwash solution – as teams realise it best serves the overall aerodynamic …Keep reading
Honda continues to languish in second-to-last in the constructors’ standings ahead of only Yamaha, after both marques combined to score just three points from the recent British Grand Prix weekend.Read more: The forgotten trooper of Honda’s MotoGP miseryHRC has scored a victory in 2023 courtesy of Alex Rins at the Americas GP, but this has so far proven to be an outlier result – with the …Keep reading