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 […]
Month: January 2022
Why Pirelli’s emergency F1 fixed supply rule looks set to stay
Since the start of 2016, in a bid to add variability to each grand prix, teams were able to choose how aggressive they wanted to be with their tyre selection for grand prix events. While they were limited as to the total number of tyre sets they had available, teams were able to vary the […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
“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 […]
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 […]
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 […]