Norris slipped from fourth to sixth in the world championship in the closing races of the season. He finishing the year with a seventh in Abu Dhabi after a late puncture dropped him down from a potential fourth place finish, and cost him the chance to challenge Carlos Sainz Jr for third. His four previous […]
Year: 2021
Mir ‘doesn’t give a shit’ about MotoGP title defence critics
The Suzuki rider didn’t win a race in 2021 and only scored six podiums on his way to third in the standings, 70 points down on title winner Fabio Quartararo. Mir was hampered by a lack of development on the 2021 GSX-RR relative to its championship-winning predecessor. Reflecting on the 2021 campaign, Mir insists he […]
How Verstappen and Red Bull snatched F1 title glory in Abu Dhabi
It was a fitting end to a season that has offered controversy on and off track, as well as an all-time classic battle between Verstappen and Hamilton that went to the very end. It was a race that swung back and forth between the two drivers, and had it not been for some canny teamwork, […]
The low-downforce solutions Red Bull and Mercedes went for in F1 finale
If one of them could get a top speed edge over the other, then that could prove decisive in holding the advantage over the course of the grand prix itself. It was no surprise, therefore, that Mercedes stuck at the Yas Marina circuit with the low-downforce rear wing arrangement that it had put to good […]
Norris “unlucky” to lose fifth in championship to puncture
Norris had scored only five points in the previous four races after a string of frustrating Sundays, including a tyre failure in Qatar. After the Jeddah race he slipped from fifth to sixth in the championship, four points behind Charles Leclerc, and four and half ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr. In Abu Dhabi he qualified […]
Co-founder of Lotus Hazel Chapman dies aged 94
Born Hazel Williams, she met Chapman at a dance in 1944 and Chapman’s first car, what became known as the Lotus Mark 1, was built around an Austin 7 chassis in a lock-up garage at the rear of her parents’ house in Hornsey, North London, in 1948. She took over the development of the trials […]
Tsunoda’s 2021 F1 setbacks put him on “long journey” to recover confidence
Following a number of incidents in his first F1 season, particularly in qualifying, Tsunoda initially struggled to live up to his impressive debut at Bahrain in which he scored ninth place. F1 managing director of motorsport Ross Brawn even labelled Tsunoda as F1’s “best rookie for years” following his immediate breakthrough result, before a string […]
Jorge Martin’s rookie MotoGP year “the best and the worst” season
Martin stunned the paddock when he scored pole and finished third in just his second race in the Doha Grand Prix back in April, but would suffer a violent crash in FP3 at the next round in Portugal. Suffering multiple fractures, Martin missed four races and had to undergo an operation, while the injury to […]
Bottas left with “mixed emotions” after final F1 race with Mercedes
Mercedes continued its record streak of constructors’ championship victories by clinching an eighth title on Sunday in Abu Dhabi, ending the season 28 points clear of Red Bull. It marked a fifth constructors’ win for Bottas to end his fifth and final season for Mercedes. Hamilton was passed on the last lap of the race […]
Bottas makes Alfa Romeo F1 debut as post-season testing begins
The two-day test at the Yas Marina Circuit will see teams complete running with young drivers, who will drive 2021 cars, and with existing F1 drivers using modified mule cars to test Pirelli’s 2022 18-inch tyres. Bottas was given permission by Mercedes to take part in the test with Alfa Romeo, and made his first […]