McLaren went into the inaugural race weekend around the streets of Vegas with muted expectations but, while similar pessimism proved unwarranted in Austin, Mexico or Brazil, it did turn out to be justified on the low-downforce street circuit.Lando Norris was knocked out by former team-mate Daniel Ricciardo by a mere 0.020 seconds in Q1 to qualify 16th, while Oscar Piastri followed in 19th in what …Keep reading
Mercedes W04 chassis #4 was campaigned by Hamilton – who joined the Three-Pointed Star for the 2013 season as team-mate to Nico Rosberg to end his six-year spell at McLaren – in 14 of the 19 rounds.Most notably, Hamilton – who would win six of his seven titles with Mercedes – converted pole position to win the Hungarian GP ahead of Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.Of …Keep reading
Sargeant has endured a difficult debut season with Williams, showing flashes of promise that were punctuated by rookie mistakes in his ambitious quest to try and get on par with a high-flying Alex Albon.While some errors led to headline-grabbing crashes, others flew under the radar but cost the Floridian a better qualifying position, putting him on the backfoot – and left him without points until …Keep reading
F1’s long-awaited spectacle on the streets of the gambling haven of America got off to a disrupted start on Thursday when Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari suffered huge damage after striking the a loose water valve cover after just eight minutes into FP1.The session was abandoned as track workers were forced to remove all 30 covers around the 6.2km circuit and fill them with sand and asphalt, which led to a …Keep reading
Track action finished at 4am local time on Friday morning, three hours later than scheduled, after a delay caused by the need to inspect and make secure all the water valve covers around the track.This followed the curtailment of FP1 after Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz struck a cover at high speed, which had been torn loose by Esteban Ocon’s Alpine, wrecking the underside of his car.Domenicali and …Keep reading
The team fast-tracked some new components through the manufacturing process and will be running them in both Las Vegas and at the season finale in Abu Dhabi that follows.The items were not expected to improve the performance of the A523 in Las Vegas.The team struggled for pace in FP2, with Gasly 15th and his team-mate Esteban Ocon only 16th after a change of chassis following his incident in …Keep reading
F1’s much anticipated romp around the streets of Vegas hit an early roadblock when the cars of Carlos Sainz and Esteban Ocon dislodged water valve covers, which damaged both of their chassis beyond repair and led to FP1 being abandoned after eight minutes.After emergency fixes were applied to the 30 similar covers around the 6.2km street circuit, FP2 eventually shifted to 2:30am local time from …Keep reading
F1’s flagship Vegas race weekend endured a turbulent start after the first practice session was red flagged eight minutes in, and then FP2 delayed by 2hr30 as steps were taken to cement 30 water valve covers in place after one was lifted by Esteban Ocon and then ran over by Sainz.The major impact to the underside of the SF-23 resulted in Ferrari needing to build a new chassis and swap the …Keep reading
And things are only set to get worse as the entire circus transits to Abu Dhabi next weekend, going through a 12-hour shift forward in time.While the whole paddock is in the same boat, the focus is inevitably on the drivers. They may enjoy private jet or business class travel and have physios looking after their every need, but it’s still a struggle to be 100% rested and prepared.And that’s why …Keep reading
If the groundbreaking, F1 promoted race around the Strip is earmarked as the series’ very own Superbowl, then it already served up a halftime show to match a day before on-track proceedings even start.F1 pulled out all the stops to produce a ceremony befitting its entertainment driven host city, featuring appearances by Kylie Minogue, John Legend, Journey, Keith Urban, Steve Aoki, Thirty Seconds …Keep reading