Fred Gamble

Bottas led Mercedes to its 12th pole position in a row on Saturday after edging out teammate Hamilton and Red Bull's Max Verstappen in the final stage of qualifying at the Nurburgring.<br>Mercedes had looked set to qualify both Hamilton and Bottas on medium tyres at the start of Q2, only to switch them to softs for their final runs in the session.<br>Hamilton said after qualifying that he wanted ...

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Verstappen was the only driver to use the hard in Q2 at Silverstone and thus commit to using it in the first stint, and it paid off when the Dutchman scored a victory over the two Mercedes drivers in a dominant style that even his own team hadn't anticipated.<br>Horner said Verstappen and the team had to balance the pros and cons of doing something different, and in the end they decided to go for ...

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Perceptions change very quickly in the sport, and perhaps the biggest shift from the Austrian Grand Prix to the Styrian Grand Prix last weekend was the reality of just how quick Racing Point can be.<br>A hesitant first weekend out with its ‘Pink Mercedes’ left rivals convinced it had made a good step, but it was really only in the second Red Bull Ring race that the reality of its pace ...

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Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel started the race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez from the front row and led the opening stint. <br>However, Leclerc forfeited track position early by committing to a two-stop strategy, while Vettel slipped behind eventual race winner Lewis Hamilton by making his sole stop later than the Mercedes driver. <br>Binotto said it only became clear the one-stop ...

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Gamble, 17, has spent the 2019 season competing in the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe series for the WRT squad in an Audi R8 LMS.<br>Although Aston Martin has since taken over as an Award partner, McLaren returned to the grand prix venue to run Gamble in the ex-Jenson Button MP4-28 from 2013.<br>The Ginetta Junior champion and BRDC British Formula 3 race winner completed an installation lap ...

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The Woking-based outfit looks on course to end this year as best-of-the-rest behind the top three teams, with its car having been consistently strong through the course of the campaign.<br>In a bid to make another step in 2020 it has elected to make some concept tweaks in the new design, which is being led by technical director James Key.<br>But while such a change of path could open up the danger ...

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The French marque is sixth in the constructors’ standings despite heavy investment in recent years, and in a season where it promised to fight at the front of F1’s midfield and move towards the championship’s ‘big three’ leading manufacturers.<br>Off the back of F1 Racing’s ‘Renault: The $1billion gamble’ feature, the magazine’s editor Ben Anderson is joined by Edd Straw and ...

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Magnussen started from the pitlane after his huge crash in Q2 led Haas to switch to the spare chassis and a new gearbox, obliging the crew to work late into the night.<br>Having dropped out of parc ferme the team was free to make any changes it wanted, and it went for a set-up that it hoped would help the Dane to progress up the field.<br>However the changes didn’t pay off, and having struggled ...

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Imagine the following situation: You are a motorsport athlete, pushing 30 as you arrive at a career crossroads. You've made an impact, fought with the best of them, emerged as a genuine star, but you've not come anywhere near your dream maiden championship title just yet.<br>Your current deal is expiring, and there's multiple suitors going forward. There's obvious interest from a top team, and ...

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But what approaches have the three leading teams taken in their car designs during pre-season testing at Barcelona? How do their crucial front wings and bargeboards compare? Who has taken the biggest gamble with their new chassis?<br>Motorsport Network's technical experts Giorgio Piola, Gary Anderson and Jake Boxall-Legge discuss the approaches of the top squads, and debate which team has made the ...

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Ferrari changed both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen onto Pirelli’s soft compound after just one sighting lap on supersofts at the beginning of Q2, at a point when rain was believed to be imminent. That timing was of the essence was emphasised by Vettel’s momentary indiscretion when the FIA called him in to the weighbridge at pit entry. Vettel and Raikkonen lapped quickly enough to ...

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Ferrari paid the price for the decision to leave the pitlane on intermediates at the start of Q3, when the track was still dry, with Sebastian Vettel finishing down in ninth position. Grosjean was one of the stars of qualifying, placing the Haas in fifth, but he acknowledged a last-minute change of mind stopped him from following Ferrari's strategy. When asked how close he was to going out ... ...

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Vettel and teammate Kimi Raikkonen were the only drivers to be sent out on intermediate tyres at the start of Q3, but both returned to the pits after just one lap as the track was dry. With rain hitting the circuit at the end of the session, the time lost at the start proved crucial, as Vettel wound up ninth after a poor fastest lap. "I think, why we took the decisions, five or six minutes ... ...

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Another race – along with Germany, Hungary and Italy – that should have been won by Ferrari slipped away through a combination of driver and strategy; the balance heavily slanted here towards Hamilton and Mercedes. The Singapore GP podium Photo by: Jerry Andre / Sutton Images Mind the gap Often in Formula 1 race strategy, it’s all about the gaps between cars and ability ... ...

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With the team well aware that its Renault power unit is lacking compared to Mercedes and Ferrari, it elected to trim out Max Verstappen's wing in a bid to not lose out in a straight line.But although Verstappen managed to qualify on the second row – just three tenths adrift of Sebastian Vettel – Horner said that the team was still losing out in top speed term."I think Max is slightly ...

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With doubts over the longevity of the hypersoft, several teams considered using the ultrasoft in Q2, which would allow them to start on it and have greater strategy flexibility in the race – including the possibility to run an ultrasoft/supersoft combination, avoiding the hypersoft completely.A one-second delta between the hypersoft and ultrasoft meant that it was always going to be a ...

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The Ferrari driver lost time after a wobble at Turn 1 in his first Q3 run and then decided to switch from supersofts to softs for his second and final attempt.Raikkonen finished down in fourth, however, nearly half a second off pole and three tenths behind teammate Sebastian Vettel.The Finn said he gambled on the soft-tyre run as he felt he did not have much to lose."Obviously after ...

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Stick or twist? This is the question Red Bull must answer as it considers whether to continue to use Renault or switch to Honda propulsion in 2019. When the deal was first done for Toro Rosso to become Honda's works Formula 1 partner last year, this seemed an optimistic hit and hope with a low probability of paying off, but Pierre Gasly's fourth place in the Bahrain Grand Prix proves ...

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