It wouldn’t be unfair to say that the majority of the press corps who attended the San Marino Grand Prix at Misano felt the actual racing was something of an inconvenience. The traditional post-race test on the Monday was the far more important part of the weekend. For the last few months, as Yamaha and […]
Last year, F1 switched to ground-effect-based cars which are set up extremely stiff to generate the most downforce. That set-up had the unintended side-effect of porpoising on most cars, with drivers bouncing violently on the straights. But even without the highly publicised bouncing effect, the low-ride heights have generally made the cars much less comfortable […]
The 37-year-old Spaniard finished fourth in both races, missing out on a podium by just 0.669s in the grand prix after hunting down reigning champion Francesco Bagnaia. It was just his third grand prix appearance since retiring at the end of 2018, having also participated in this year’s Spanish GP at Jerez. The three-time MotoGP […]
Mercedes has endured a challenging campaign, the progress it had hoped to make with its W14 failing to materialise as it embarked on a ‘painful’ change in car concept. The team recognised it had aimed to run its aero platform too high, giving away too much performance compared to rivals running much closer to the […]
Pedrosa, who retired from full-time competition at the end of 2018, made his second wildcard appearance of the season at Misano last weekend. The 31-time MotoGP race winner finished fourth in both the sprint and the grand prix, narrowly missing the podium in each contest. His performances were met with praise from all of the […]
Despite Zhou being the first full-time Chinese F1 racer, there has been speculation he does not come with major financial banking to incentivise Alfa Romeo to agree new terms. Speaking ahead of the summer break, Alfa Romeo F1 managing director Alessandro Alunni Bravi reckoned his squad wanted to retain its line-up of Zhou and Valtteri […]
The MotoGP title battle ignited at the San Marino Grand Prix as Jorge Martin’s brilliant double victory allowed him to close the gap on championship leader Francesco Bagnaia. Pramac’s Martin broke his pole duck in 2023 with a stunner in qualifying to smash the lap record, and duly converted this into dominant wins in the […]
At two races this year – Hungary and Monza after the initial trial set for Imola had to be abandoned amid that race’s cancellation – Pirelli has experimented with shipping fewer tyre sets, with adapted rules implemented for qualifying. By mandating drivers run hards in Q1, mediums in Q2 and softs in Q3, Pirelli is […]
Due to the difficulties facing the Japanese manufacturers in MotoGP this season and the knock-on effect this has had on the rider market, with Marquez and Fabio Quartararo’s futures uncertain, Monday’s Misano test has been seen as a crucial outing. The main stories from Monday revolved around Honda’s 2024 prototype and the new parts tested […]
Prompted by an interview with ex-F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone earlier this year, plus archive footage of late FIA race director Charlie Whiting, Massa believes F1 and the governing body were aware of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix ‘crashgate’ scandal in time to take action before the championship was decided. Former Ferrari and Williams racer Massa […]