Ben Pon

Aston Martin entered the 2021 season hoping to continue its upper-midfield fight that the former Racing Point squad found itself embroiled in throughout last year.<br>But the team appeared to be a step behind rivals such as McLaren, Ferrari and AlphaTauri through much of the Bahrain weekend.<br>Team principal Otmar Szafnauer expressed frustration over the revised technical regulations for 2021 ...

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Rampant costs were out of control. The screaming V8 engines made it an obvious target for those who felt it was just a gas guzzling waste of resources, and sponsors did not seem interested in a sport that was suffering from falling audiences and almost zero presence on social media.<br>Fast forward a few years to the present day and things are very different for grand prix ...

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The changes to the floor, brake ducts and diffuser were originally aimed at cutting downforce by 10%, although indications suggest teams have already clawed back half of that.<br>But of more intrigue in Bahrain was how the floor tweaks in particular had favoured some teams over others, with the low-rake concept cars in particular looking like they have lost more.<br>It was no wonder then that a ...

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Williams unveiled its new car for the 2021 season last week, presenting a heavily-revised livery that saw it adopt a striking new white, blue and yellow colour scheme.<br>The FW43B livery design saw a reduction in size of a number of the sponsorship stickers, leaving a significant amount of blank space on the car.<br>But the decision was a deliberate one, according to Williams CEO Capito, who ...

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The Mexican has been signed as teammate to the Dutchman this year, after predecessor Alex Albon failed to live up to expectations last season.<br>While Verstappen’s most recent teammates – Albon and Pierre Gasly – both failed to hit their targets and keep their seats, Perez thinks he is much better placed to deal with the pressures. He believes lessons learned throughout his career – ...

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The Austrian water treatment company had been replaced as title sponsor at Aston Martin this year, following a successful 2020 campaign with Racing Point that delivered one win with Sergio Perez at the Sakhir Grand Prix.<br>But with Aston Martin taking over the branding of Racing Point for this season and switching to British racing green colours, there was no scope for it to continue with the ...

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BWT was the title sponsor of Racing Point last year, having worked with the Silverstone-based outfit since 2017.<br>Its famous pink livery proved to be a standout in the sport, and achieved its most famous moment when Sergio Perez triumphed at the Sakhir Grand Prix last year.<br>However, Racing Point's rebranding as Aston Martin, and preference to run a British racing green livery, meant that ...

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Red Bull announced the signing of one-time grand prix winner Perez last month after opting to drop Alexander Albon following a difficult second season in F1.<br>Albon regularly struggled to match Verstappen's form, picking up just two podium finishes all season. Verstappen scored two wins and nine further podiums, accruing more than double Albon's points total.<br>Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton ...

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Almost 21 years to the day since being named as a Williams Formula 1 driver for the 2000 season, Jenson Button has returned to Grove. Since then, Button has won a world championship, scored 15 wins, defeated Lewis Hamilton as a teammate, and established himself among the top tier of F1 drivers before stepping away at end of the 2016 season.<br>Post-F1 life has been kind to Button. He has won the ...

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Last year’s race in Shanghai was the first to be scrapped following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a further 12 races eventually being cancelled through the 2020 season.<br>F1 unveiled a more usual calendar for 2021 in November, listing 23 races, but is already set to postpone the planned season-opener in Australia due to the ongoing pandemic and global restrictions in place. Doubts ...

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After changing its name to Aston for the start of 2021, the team that started life as Jordan will lose the pink livery associated with Force India/Racing Point and previous main backer BWT, and switch to a British racing green-based livery that will be fully revealed in March.<br>The team has agreed a multi-year deal with American IT consulting company Cognizant Technology Solutions.<br>Rumours ...

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Hogan was best known for his work with Philip Morris, overseeing deals with McLaren and Ferrari that led to World Championship victories for Emerson Fittipaldi, James Hunt, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher.<br>Hogan arrived in the sport at a time when sponsorship hunting and exploitation was still in its infancy.<br>He was a key player in moving the goalposts and ...

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After seeing its 2020 calendar undergo significant changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, F1 aimed to return to a more regular season in 2021 by announcing a 23-race schedule in November. <br><br>Read Also:<br><br>Formula 1 approves 23-race 2021 calendar <br><br><br>The season was due to begin with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on 21 March, marking the first running of the race since ...

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The Corriere della Sera reports that Zanardi, who was badly injured in a handbike crash in June this year, is responding to voices with hand gestures having recovered his hearing and sight following a series of brain operations after his brutal accident.<br>Zanardi, 54, remains hospitalized in the neurosurgical department of the hospital of Padua. The report says that he is able to shake hands and ...

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The two companies tied up at the start of 2018 with both a title sponsorship partnership and a technical collaboration on the Valkyrie hypercar project.<br>As well as being part of the official team name, Aston Martin's logos appeared in prominent positions on the F1 cars - including the rear wing - and on the drivers' overalls.<br>But following Lawrence Stroll's takeover of the Aston Martin road ...

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The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix served as F1’s season finale since 2014, and hosted the final round of the revised 2020 calendar last weekend.<br>But the last six editions of the race have all been won from pole position, while the track layout has been a regular point of contention for drivers left frustrated by the limited overtaking opportunities.<br>Sunday’s race featured just two overtaking ...

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Mazepin was announced as a Haas driver for 2021 earlier on Tuesday, and while there has been no confirmation of the commercial arrangements, the logos of his father's Uralkali concern are expected to be seen on the car.<br>With several other sons of wealthy fathers landing seats on the grid inevitably there has been some scepticism about the choice on social media.<br>However Steiner insisted that ...

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The rule allowing cars to unlap themselves under the safety car came into question during the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola, after cars passed marshals at high speed.<br>Racing Point's Lance Stroll was seen to pass particularly close to some marshals as they cleared George Russell's car on entry to Acque Minerali, prompting drivers to call for the incident to be addressed.<br>Vettel said it ...

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F1 announced on Thursday that the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix would be joining the calendar from 2021 as part of a long-term partnership with the nation.<br>A night-time street race will be held in Jeddah next year ahead of a planned switch to a newly-built circuit in Qiddiya in 2023.<br>But the announcement drew criticism from Amnesty International, who said staging the grand prix would “be part ...

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The Dutchman has a contract with Red Bull that runs until the end of 2023, and Honda’s decision to leave F1 has fuelled speculation that it could prompt Verstappen to look elsewhere.<br>But while there is uncertainty about what Red Bull’s engine plans are from the start of 2022, Verstappen said it would be foolish to start worrying about what he should do so far in advance.<br>“I just focus ...

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The concession has been made to allow engine manufacturers more time to conduct dyno testing before they head into a race weekend committed to the new restrictions.<br>The move to a single mode for qualifying and the race was first outlined in a letter sent to the teams by the FIA’s secretary general for motorsport Peter Bayer last week.<br>Under the heading “power unit ICE modes – reduction ...

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At the moment Pirelli is expected to retain the current tyres for a third season, but the Italian company wants to refine them if it can do so, in order to meet the challenge of rising downforce levels.<br>With no opportunity for dedicated tyre testing outside races, the 2020 FIA Sporting Regulations were changed to allow prototype running in the first 30 minutes of Friday FP2 sessions, with all ...

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Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and Carlos Sainz all suffered front left failures in the closing laps of the British GP after pushing their C1 tyres for an unusually long stint, a result of an early safety car intervention.<br>For this weekend as a precaution Pirelli has upped the minimum front pressures by 2psi and the rears by 1psi.<br>In addition Pirelli believes that the move to a one-step ...

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As predicted by Motorsport.com last week, McLaren has agreed a deal with Gulf Oil that will cover both its F1 team and supercar company.<br>The move comes on the back of a previous partnership with Brazilian oil company Petrobras having been terminated at the end of last year by the Brazilian government as part of a cost-cutting drive.<br>The Gulf logos will appear on the McLaren engine cover and ...

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Mercedes has taken three poles and three wins in the opening three races of the season, and in Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying its cars were 1.3s and 1.4s respectively ahead of the best placed Ferrari and Red Bull.<br>While acknowledging that it may run alternative strategies at some events this year in order to promote a race between its drivers, Wolff says there’s little the team can ...

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