The American badly damaged his car during a high-speed crash in qualifying on Saturday, which has forced a change of chassis. The FIA discovered, however, that the team had assembled its spare car far more than was normally allowed according to the rules – so it was in effect judged to be a third car. […]
Verstappen took pole at Suzuka by roughly six tenths ahead of McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. Having both drivers in the top three was a huge result for McLaren, but at the same time Stella felt it was humbling to see how much faster Verstappen was on the challenging layout, having hoped that […]
After a “nightmare” Friday, Hamilton was much happier with his W14 thanks to overnight changes, but he still faced a tricky balance come qualifying. As high as fourth in Q2, Hamilton took seventh place in Q3, immediately ahead of team-mate George Russell. The outcome clearly benchmarked the Mercedes as the fourth-best car at Suzuka after […]
The iconic figure-of-eight track has always been punishing on its rubber, but things could well be a bit more extreme this time around. Race day is expected to be another scorcher, and complaints that George Russell mentioned on Friday about a “strange” sliding have been caused by a track surface that has had a 15% […]
A one-second deficit to pole position man Max Verstappen in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix has exposed the major downforce deficit and balance struggles that Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have been battling with all season. With it clear that both men want big changes for next year, Mercedes trackside engineering director […]
The championship leader set a first lap in the final stage of qualifying that was more than good enough for pole, but proved his quality further by beating his own benchmark by over a tenth to beat second-placed Oscar Piastri by 0.581s. Red Bull’s renewed vigour followed a disappointing Singapore weekend in which the team […]
A slow-burning session, which featured no track action for the opening five minutes, ended with a series of qualifying simulations in which Verstappen set a 1m30.267s lap to eclipse the two McLarens – which had found performance relative to the Red Bull driver overnight. Verstappen had headed the field after the first set of soft-tyre […]
Tsunoda will be handed a fourth season at the Faenza outfit, while the currently injured Ricciardo will get a full season with the team after his mid-season comeback this summer. AlphaTauri’s driver decision had been made more complicated in recent weeks thanks to reserve driver Lawson’s impressive performances as Ricciardo’s replacement. While the Australian recovers […]
F1’s two main tyre warmer suppliers, Germany’s KLS and long-established British company MA Horne, are known to be exploring ways of reducing power consumption. Removing that requirement completely is one of the main reasons behind F1’s drive for a blanket ban, along with a reduction in the amount of freight that is shipped around the […]
With Max Verstappen set to land his third consecutive F1 drivers’ crown this year, as well as a constructors’ title double for Red Bull, there is no hint yet of the partnership’s stunning form hitting the buffers. But there is a certain irony to the fact that Honda’s latest golden era in F1 has only come […]