Director of engineering Ayao Komatsu says that the Englishman, who had a run in a two-year Ferrari SF21 as part of his preparation for his race weekend debut, “didn’t put a foot wrong.”He ended the session in 15th place, three spots and 0.3 seconds behind team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, who is celebrating his 200th grand prix in Mexico.”I don’t think we can fault him,” said Komatsu. “He’s done really …Keep reading
F1 tweaked the sprint format it uses at six races in 2023 by moving qualifying for the main grand prix to Friday afternoon, followed by sprint qualifying and the race on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s main grand prix.Cars are placed under parc ferme rules after Friday morning’s single free practice session, which means teams are locked into their car setups and subject to strict limits on the items …Keep reading
The FIA only measured the planks of four cars after the race, and found that those of Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were illegal, leading to the disqualifications of the two drivers.The cars of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris were deemed legal, but despite the 50% failure rate on the bumpy COTA track, the FIA stuck with its usual protocols and opted not to sample any other cars further down the …Keep reading
Leclerc’s SF23 was one of the four cars checked for plank wear after the finish and was found to be in breach of the regulations, alongside the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, meaning the Monegasque driver lost his sixth place.Ferrari was caught out by Austin’s bumpy Circuit of the Americas, with the added difficulty of the sprint format preventing teams from making changes to the floor after …Keep reading
The number of fans and VIPs in the paddock in last year’s race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez led to security issues, with spectators crowding hospitality units and accosting drivers.Alpine’s Pierre Gasly noticed somebody had opened his backpack, while some of his peers had also flagged that the number of paddock dwellers had been out of control.Gasly raised the issue again at the Italian GP …Keep reading
As the saying goes, everything is bigger and better in Texas, but does that hold true when it comes to the F1 event that has established its roots in the Lone Star State since 2012?Last year’s F1 race at Circuit of the Americas saw a record breaking fan attendance of 440,000 but last weekend the number dropped down to 432,000.And now that the two glamorous Miami and Las Vegas races have raised …Keep reading
He’s expecting to take further steps in front of his home crowd in Mexico City this weekend.Perez and his engineers dug deep in the sim running as they tried to get him back to the sort of pace he showed earlier in the season after a run of frustrating weekends.The sprint race format at COTA made it hard to fully judge the results, as like all drivers Perez was committed to his set-up after …Keep reading
Hamilton was disqualified from second place at last weekend’s race at the Circuit of the Americas after post-race inspections found it had worn more than the 1mm that is allowed in the regulations.The team was open that it had made an error in running Hamilton too low to the ground, with the bumpy track subsequently causing too much wear.Reflecting on the error that was made, technical director …Keep reading
In a bid to add performance and finally cure an in-race tyre wear problem that has hobbled its whole season, Haas brought a key update – new floor, sidepods, engine cover – to Austin to become the last team to converge around the downwash sidepod design pioneered by Red Bull.But drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg struggled to notice any tangible gains to the ultimate pace or rate of tyre …Keep reading
Slow-starting McLaren dramatically slashed the gap to Aston Martin since the summer break thanks to an impressive string of podiums over the past four races, while the Silverstone-based squad has generally struggled since the summer.Norris’ latest runner-up spot in last weekend’s US Grand Prix was enough for McLaren to leapfrog Aston Martin and hold fourth by six points.Norris said he was puzzled …Keep reading