In the later FP2 session, which best replicates qualifying conditions, Leclerc was fourth fastest as his Scuderia team-mate Carlos Sainz ran to 14th. Leclerc was 0.46s adrift of Aston Martin pacesetter Fernando Alonso and 0.3s in arrears of 2022 title rival Max Verstappen before the shift to focus on race stint simulations. While Leclerc expected […]
Month: March 2023
Stroll was “protecting” injured wrist during Bahrain GP practice
Onboard TV footage showed the Aston Martin driver apparently resting his right hand at times and focusing on using his left to push the top of the steering wheel into the tight right-hander at Turn 1. He was also seen using assistance from his mechanics to get out of the car during second practice. Stroll […]
F1 technical images direct from the pitlane
Alfa Romeo C43 technical detail Photo by: Giorgio Piola Alfa Romeo is the first team to apply a solution that was pioneered by Mercedes in 2022, with the Swiss-based outfit looking to refine the flow structures at the front of the car, to improve performance downstream. Mercedes introduced its widebody chassis blister solution as part […]
What we learned from Friday practice at F1’s 2023 Bahrain GP
Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin backed up their promising Formula 1 2023 testing form with the quickest time in the opening practice running for the Bahrain Grand Prix, but pre-season favourites Max Verstappen and Red Bull are lurking close behind. In fact, judging by the times logged in the late-FP2 race data gathering exercises and […]
New W14 sidepod design won’t copy F1 rivals
His comments suggest that while the team is planning to move away from the “size-zero” design introduced in Bahrain a year ago on the W13, it won’t necessarily be following the trend towards the concept used so successfully by Red Bull last year, and since copied by others. Team boss Toto Wolff flagged an in-season […]
“Worse” 2023 rear tyre good news for F1 drivers
Pirelli has revamped its rubber for 2023 in a bid to make the fronts stronger, which is aimed at dialling out the understeer that became a common factor throughout last season. But following the first proper test with the new tyres in Bahrain last week, world champion Max Verstappen said his impression was that the […]
Why new rear wing hints at change of F1 approach for Mercedes
As well as last year’s W13 suffering from porpoising and a lack of useable downforce, it also left Lewis Hamilton and George Russell facing a deficit on the straights. The team was keen to address its aero efficiency for this year, but one of the notable factors in last week’s Bahrain test was that it […]
Hamilton knew of Mercedes’ 2023 F1 car “challenges” from first drive
His comments echo those the seven-time world champion made after his first run in the troubled W13 last season in what turned out to be his first winless campaign in F1. However Hamilton says that the team is in much better shape as the porpoising that afflicted the old car is now absent, making it […]
How Gulf deal has boosted Williams’s F1 commercial strategy
Relative to the size of the actual logos of the car, the deal received a lot of media coverage thanks to the familiarity of the brand across motorsport, and the perceived iconic status of its orange and blue colours. At a time when so many relatively obscure tech or crypto companies are coming into F1 […]
Tsunoda has to “get it together” in third F1 season
The dynamic in the Italian outfit changes this year as team veteran Pierre Gasly has moved on and been replaced by rookie Nyck de Vries. While the Dutchman is in his first year, he is older than Tsunoda and brings experience from other categories, as well as the knowledge gained with other F1 teams. Tost […]