Tag: F1 news

Formula 1 FP1 and FP2 results: Verstappen outside top 5 both sessions

Despite Verstappen’s placings, there’s also reason to believe that Red Bull may not have turned up their engines for the first two practice sessions Thursday.

While Max Verstappen and the Red Bulls are still favored to top the grid for Formula 1’s first race in Bahrain, it was all Mercedes for Thursday’s practice sessions.

Verstappen has been all the rage since testing showed Red Bull’s prowess, but he only landed 6th in both free practice sessions in Bahrain Thursday. In the first session, former Red Bull driver and current Visa Cashapp RB driver Daniel Ricciardo topped the session with a 1:32.869, coming ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri and then his own teammate Yuki Tsunoda. Here’s what FP1 classifications looked like:

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FP2 was all Mercedes. It was Lewis Hamilton who topped the charts, with his 1:30.374 coming in just 0.206 seconds faster than his teammate George Russell in second. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso kept it close in both sessions, finishing fifth in FP1 and third in FP2. The VCARB cars didn’t perform nearly as well this time around, with Ricciardo placing 12th and Tsunoda 15th:

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While some may be looking for some competition on Saturday’s race day with Verstappen not topping either chart, it may not be wise to get your hopes up. When taking a look at the telemetry data from the free practice sessions, it appears as if Red Bull (and Ferrari, for that matter) have yet to fully unleash their engine during practice.

FP3 will take place at 7:30 a.m. EST on Friday, while Q1 of qualifying will be at 11:00 a.m. The race will begin at 10:00 a.m. Saturday.

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Formula 1 makes changes to sprint weekends, DRS usage and more

Formula 1 is tweaking some of its rules for the upcoming 2024 season.

The sprint race format is back for the 2024 Formula 1 season, but it’ll look a little bit different this time around.

Formula 1 is making a number of small tweaks for the 2024 season, per Chris Medland of RACER. Among them include changes to Formula 1’s sprint format, the amount of power units allotted per F1 driver and when the cars’ Drag Reduction System is allowed to be activated on race day.

The first big change comes to the sprint race format. Previously, a single practice would be held on Friday, and that would be followed by the qualifying for the regular race on Sunday — Saturday would then have sprint race qualifying and then the sprint race on Saturday. Now, sprint qualifying has been moved to Friday and the actual grand prix qualifying has been moved up to Saturday after the sprint race.

Additionally, there are two more technical rule changes. F1 is increasing the number of allotted power units per driver to four power units per driver for the next two years. Drivers were initially allowed just three, but 2023 saw a temporary change to four that has now become permanent for the next two seasons.

Finally, rules regarding F1’s DRS usage have been tweaked. Traditionally, DRS on the cars was allowed to be active after two laps of racing after a race start. That number has been decreased to one lap for 2024, meaning that drivers will have less time to build a one-second gap for the first laps of racing.

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Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc signs contract extension

The Monegasque driver will be linked to the Prancing Horse for “several more years” according to reports.

Scuderia Ferrari have locked up their star driver.

Monegasque driver [autotag]Charles Leclerc[/autotag] revealed on Thursday that he signed a contract extension with Scuderia Ferrari. While the exact duration of that contract is unknown, Leclerc specifically mentioned that he was linking himself to the team for “several more seasons.”

Leclerc first linked with Ferrari in 2016, when he joined up with the Ferrari Driver’s Academy. He served as a test driver for both Haas and Sauber before signing on with the latter in 2018. He impressed in that one stint, outqualifying his teammate Marcus Ericsson 17 times in 21 races. He would later move to Ferrari the following year, and it’s where he’s been ever since.

Leclerc has had a successful, if not tumultuous, experience racing for Ferrari. He’s scored 1,035 points for the team and has won five races, and he’s notorious for his qualifying prowess — he’s put his car on pole 23 times throughout his career.

However, his tenure has come with some downs alongside the ups, as he’s suffered from a combination of Ferrari incompetence and occasionally from his own in certain high-pressure situations. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has won more races from Charles Leclerc pole positions than Charles Leclerc has, and be it his doing or his team’s doing, speculations about his future have persisted in recent years.

Nonetheless, Leclerc is sticking with Ferrari. He’s set to race alongside teammate Carlos Sainz once again in 2024, whose own contract situation and up-and-down performance will make for another decision from both sides looming in the coming months.

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Times and standings from Abu Dhabi’s postseason tire test

See which drivers topped the standings and how the young rookies did in the last bit of F1 action until next season.

The Formula 1 season may end with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix every year, but that doesn’t spell the end of on-track action.

Teams always conduct a tire test the day after the F1 season ends for Pirelli, F1’s tire manufacturer, to test tires in specific scenarios to collect data for upcoming seasons. On top of that, the test is often an opportunity for young drivers to have experience in an F1 car, as each team runs two cars and will often put academy drivers in one of them. There were 25 drivers in the 2023 edition of the test this year.

Esteban Ocon of Alpine topped the charts overall on 110 total laps. There were three stoppages on the day — one when Mercedes driver George Russell crashed into the barriers in Turn 6 due to a car failure, another due to a water leak at Turn 13 and Turn 14 and the final one when driver Ayumu Iwasa’s AlphaTauri car failed during track action.

Here is what the final standings from the test looked like:

  1. Esteban Ocon (Alpine) [1:24.393]
  2. Pato O’Ward (McLaren) [1:24.662]
  3. Frederik Vesti (Mercedes) [1:24.679]
  4. Sergio Perez (Red Bull) [1:24.715]
  5. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) [1:24.799]
  6. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) [1:24.827]
  7. Mick Doohan (Alpine) [1:25.038]
  8. Robert Shwartzman (Ferrari) [1:25.050]
  9. Logan Sargeant (Williams) [1:25.263]
  10. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) [1:25.371]
  11. Theo Pourchaire (Alfa Romeo) [1:25.424]
  12. Felipe Drugovich (Aston Martin) [1:25.554]
  13. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) [1:25.570]
  14. Jake Dennis (Red Bull) [1:25.666]
  15. Ayumu Iwasa (AlphaTauri) [1:25.753]
  16. Oliver Bearman (Haas) [1:25.779]
  17. Zak O’Sullivan (Williams) [1:25.842]
  18. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) [1:25.930]
  19. Pietro Fittipaldi (Haas) [1:25.940]
  20. George Russell (Mercedes) [1:26.283]
  21. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) [1:26.681]
  22. Franco Colapinto (Williams) [1:26.832]
  23. Daniel Ricciardo (AlphaTauri) [1:26.965]
  24. Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo) [1:27.387]
  25. Alexander Albon (Williams) [1:27.824]

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Abu Dhabi Grand Prix results: Verstappen wins last race of year

Mercedes held on to its position in the Constructors Championship and Max Verstappen ended 2023’s F1 like we all knew he would.

The 2023 Formula 1 season ended as it started — and reflected how it was for the entire year.

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen completed the most dominant season in the history of the sport, winning his 19th race of the year in Abu Dhabi. Verstappen won a staggering 86% of his races in Formula 1, breaking the record for highest winning percentage in a season and also nabbing the record for most consecutive wins in the middle of the year with 12. Verstappen finished his historic campaign with 575 points, 290 points more than Sergio Perez in second place.

There was more on the line than just Verstappen’s race, though. The most notable battle heading into Sunday’s grand prix in the desert was for second place in the Constructors Championship, with Mercedes and Ferrari both having a chance at it. Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz qualified just 16th on Saturday, and it may have cost the Prancing Horse — he finished 15th on the day, and with Charles Leclerc finishing in second but George Russell coming in at third after a Sergio Perez time penalty, Mercedes was able to keep their position in second by three points over Ferrari to end the year. There was also a small chance that Aston Martin could have taken fourth place in the Constructors Championship from McLaren, but Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finished fifth and sixth respectively to ensure that did not happen.

Here is how the final race of the 2023 F1 season shaped out:

  1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
  2. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
  3. George Russell (Mercedes)
  4. Sergio Perez (Red Bull) [+5 seconds]
  5. Lando Norris (McLaren)
  6. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
  7. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
  8. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
  9. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
  10. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
  11. Daniel Ricciardo (AlphaTauri)
  12. Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
  13. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
  14. Alexander Albon (Williams)
  15. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
  16. Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
  17. Logan Sargeant (Williams)
  18. Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo)
  19. Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
  20. Kevin Magnussen (Haas)

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F1 bans Las Vegas Sphere from showing certain colors during race

The sphere will be used by F1 as an extravagant display during the Las Vegas Grand Prix — but it can’t use these three colors.

Formula 1’s Las Vegas Grand Prix will make ample use of Las Vegas’ already-famous Sphere as backdrop to the race this weekend, but it comes with some ground rules.

Autosport reported that the Sphere, a massive, globe-like LED display that has become a big attraction in Las Vegas in the short time it’s been installed, will be used for a number of things during the race such as advertisements, driver cards and footage from the race itself. However, there’s one rule it has to follow — it can’t use the colors red, yellow or blue.

This is due to those three colors being very important for drivers to notice on the light panels at the side of the track that signify flags. Yellow serves as a race caution in certain sectors, red indicates a race stoppage and a return to the pits and blue is a notice for lapped cars to allow cars behind them ahead on the rung to pass. Because it could get confusing for drivers seeing these colors in the corner of their eye from the Sphere, the Sphere won’t use these colors in its extravagant LED displays.

F1 will get full control over the Sphere during race proceedings after renting it out for the weekend. The Sphere is currently occupied by Irish rock band U2, who are putting their Las Vegas residency on hold for the event.

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Scuderia Ferrari to run special livery in Las Vegas

Ferrari will deliver a tribute to the 1970s with a red and white livery under the lights in Las Vegas.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, and that includes Formula 1 car liveries, it seems.

F1 is set to race under the lights in the Fabulous Las Vegas on the weekend of Nov. 16, and Scuderia Ferrari will be ready for it. The team announced Thursday that it’s running white trim on its Las Vegas livery, which is said to be in tribute to the 1970s look Ferrari ran in the series. It appears in particular to be based on the Ferrari 312B, which the team ran in Formula 1 from 1970 to 1975.

The team won one drivers and constructors championship with that car, coming from driver Niki Lauda in 1975. The team won 10 races with that car, and it will hope to replicate some of that success in Las Vegas next week.

That, however, might be a tough ask. The Prancing Horse has struggled as of late, with driver Charles Leclerc registering a DNS in Brazil after his car’s hydraulics broke down during the formation lap. Driver Carlos Sainz managed to finish sixth, giving the team 382 points in the Constructors Championship. The team will be attempting to fend off McLaren in Las Vegas, which is chasing it down with 282 points.

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SĂŁo Paulo Grand Prix qualifying: Max Verstappen takes pole after session red flagged

Bad weather at the end of Q3 saw the Dutchman take his 11th pole of the year.

Qualifying for the 2023 SĂŁo Paulo Grand Prix didn’t quite go to plan.

As this weekend features a sprint race (again), Formula 1 held qualifying for Sunday’s race in Brazil on Friday instead of Saturday. It was rather uneventful, aside from a two-place grid penalty from George Russell for impeding in the pit lane and a stunning amount of pace that saw Aston Martin lock out the second row, and part of that reasoning is because Q3 wasn’t able to finish — heavy rain called off qualifying with four minutes left to race and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was declared polesitter on the day. He was followed by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and then Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.

Here is what qualifying looked like at the end of the session, with George Russell’s penalty applied:

  1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
  2. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
  3. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
  4. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
  5. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
  6. Lando Norris (McLaren)
  7. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
  8. George Russell (Mercedes)
  9. Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
  10. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
  11. Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
  12. Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
  13. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
  14. Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
  15. Alexander Albon (Williams)
  16. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
  17. Daniel Ricciardo (AlphaTauri)
  18. Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
  19. Logan Sargeant (Williams)
  20. Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo)

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