Year: 2022

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 […]

Continue Reading
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 […]

Continue Reading
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 […]

Continue Reading
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 […]

Continue Reading
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 […]

Continue Reading
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 […]

Continue Reading
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 […]

Continue Reading
18 Jan 2022

Top teams ‘holding F1 hostage’ over sprint damage allowance

Part of the agreement for the three experimental sprint races held last year was an allowance within the new the budget cap framework for competing in the extra events. Teams were given an allowance of $150,000 per event or $450,000 in total just for taking part in the three sprints. The teams were also given […]

Continue Reading
18 Jan 2022

Ducati MotoGP “DNA is incredible” for Gresini’s Bastianini

Coming into his second season in the premier class, Bastianini has switched from the defunct Avintia squad to Gresini Racing as it returns to being a true independent outfit following seven years as Aprilia’s factory entrant. PLUS: Ranking the top 10 MotoGP riders of 2021 Bastianini – who began his grand prix career with Gresini […]

Continue Reading
18 Jan 2022

McLaren reveals launch date for 2022 F1 car

The Woking outfit is the third team to reveal a launch date this far, with Aston Martin opting for 10 February and Ferrari naming 17 February. All three dates announced thus far suggest that the teams concerned are planning to run shakedown “filming days” ahead of the start of official testing at Barcelona on 23 […]

Continue Reading