Month: January 2022

19 Jan 2022

Alpine F1 in better shape than this time last year

Alpine finished fifth in last year’s constructors’ championship courtesy of Esteban Ocon’s shock win in Hungary and an Alonso podium in Qatar, two standouts results which pulled it over the line in the fight against AlphaTauri. The former Renault team has resumed its ongoing management reshuffle, with executive director Marcin Budkowski and advisor Alain Prost […]

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19 Jan 2022

McLaren happy to wait over Audi F1 future decision

The Woking-based team has been linked as a contender to join up with Audi if the Volkswagen Group-owned company enters grand prix racing when new engine rules come in from 2026. It has held exploratory talks with the German manufacturer but it suggests that the ball is now in VW’s court about what happens next. […]

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19 Jan 2022

F1 head of marketing Norman leaves role

Norman was one of the first key executive hires after Liberty Media officially acquired F1 in January 2017. Her appointment in the top marketing role was announced in June that year and started in August, reporting Sean Bratches, the then managing director of commercial operations. Prior to joining F1 Norman had worked at Honda Motor […]

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19 Jan 2022

F1 money dispute could scupper 2022 sprint race plans

Grand Prix racing’s chiefs are hoping to push on with plans to hold six sprint races this year, following the success of the experiments at Silverstone, Monza and Interlagos in 2021. However, the green light has not yet been given because teams have yet to agree with F1’s commercial rights holder on a funding package […]

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18 Jan 2022

Red Bull and Aston Martin end dispute over aero guru Fallows

Aston Martin announced last year that it had signed Fallows from his role as Red Bull’s head of aerodynamics to be its new technical director. However, the matter went legal with Red Bull insisting that it would hold Fallows to the terms of his contract which ran until 2023. Speaking at the time, Red Bull […]

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18 Jan 2022

Prost to depart Alpine F1 advisory role; Szafnauer, BWT set to join

Alpine is currently undergoing structural changes as CEO Laurent Rossi flexes his muscles after the team’s first season under the name of the specialist sportscar division. Last week Alpine announced that executive director Marcin Budkowski, who served as de facto team principal in 2021 despite the role not officially existing, has left the team. Rossi […]

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18 Jan 2022

“No panic” if new Honda MotoGP bike not instantly quick

Honda has radically re-designed its RC213V for the 2022 season following two difficult years for the Japanese manufacturer in 2020 – which was its first winless campaign ever since it returned to MotoGP full-time in 1982 – and 2021. Though it managed three wins last year courtesy of a still-recovering Marc Marquez, Honda still ended […]

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18 Jan 2022

McLaren expects ‘extremely high’ rate of F1 development in 2022

After a one-year delay F1 is finally introducing its much-anticipated new technical regulations in 2022, drastically overhauling the aerodynamics in a bid to improve overtaking. As F1 hopes a reduction of dirty air and a more prescriptive ruleset will make the racing closer, some observers fear that the nature of a new regulations cycle will […]

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18 Jan 2022

Abu Dhabi ‘pantomime’ proves F1 and FIA needs reform

F1 and its governing body have found themselves on the receiving end of a wave of criticism for the way in which the 2021 season ended in controversy after the way a late-race safety car restart was handled at the final race. While an FIA investigation into the events of Abu Dhabi and questions over […]

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