Jochen Mass

On the back of its struggles at the Austrian Grand Prix, Mercedes has worked hard on a series of developments to improve the cooling of its car – which has been marginal all season.<br>The timing of the introduction of the new parts could not have been more important, with Germany taking the full brunt of the heatwave that has spread across Europe as temperatures got close to 40C.<br><br>Read ...

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Gasly qualified fifth for the British Grand Prix, matching his strongest grid position of the year, as he ended up just under half a second off Mercedes' polesitter Valtteri Bottas.<br>His Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen was one place ahead in fourth, just over 0.3s faster.<br>Gasly began the Silverstone weekend by topping first practice, and was again quicker than Verstappen in both the second ...

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Amid plans to overhaul F1's rules for 2021, Perez believes that the sport has taken a wrong path in recent years because the impact that a driver has on results has become less and less.<br>The Mexican has admitted to his own frustrations with the situation, and suggested that if things do not change dramatically in two years' time then he could lose interest in carrying on.<br>"I think what F1 ...

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The British driver, a Red Bull junior since 2017, drove the title-winning team’s RB15 on day two of the post-Bahrain Grand Prix test at the Sakhir circuit.<br>He completed 134 laps, focusing more on long runs as Red Bull works through the set-up issues that have held it back in the opening two races of the 2019 F1 season.<br>“It’s different, definitely,” he said of working in the increased ...

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Ricciardo's Renault bounced awkwardly over a gutter on the run to Turn 1 after he dropped his right-hand wheels onto the grass in reaction to a slow-starting Sergio Perez.<br>The impact tore the front wing off his car, immediately dashing any hopes of a decent result on home soil for the Aussie.<br>Having not expected to come across a gutter capable of causing significant damage, Ricciardo chalked ...

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Massa, who spent eight seasons at Ferrari and won 11 races, said Ferrari “did a great job” to produce two cars capable of challenging Mercedes over the past two seasons.<br>However, the now-Venturi Formula E driver told Motorsport.com things have been “difficult” at Ferrari because of the culture that has developed since Jean Todt moved on from his role as team boss after the 2007 ...

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Irvine raced for Ferrari from 1996 to 1999 and earned all four of his grand prix victories in his final season with the famous team, taking on the role of its title protagonist after Michael Schumacher suffered a broken leg.<br>Despite claiming that "I don't watch it [F1] anymore because it bores me", Irvine – who left F1 at the end of the 2002 season after three years with Jaguar – questioned ...

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Ocon helped Force India to fourth place in the constructors' championship in 2017 as it defied its restricted resources and status as one of the least-funded teams on the grid.<br>Force India remained a regular best-of-the-rest contender in 2018 but fell into administration during the season and had to be reborn under new ownership as a fresh entity, now known as Racing Point.<br>Ocon has lost his ...

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A cross-weight problem - a weight imbalance across tyres - affected Hamilton’s car after some major extra work saw the water pumps on both W09s replaced as a precaution. Mercedes also had to deal with an increase in the prescribed Pirelli rear tyre pressures, and the team also closed up the ventilation holes in its rear wheels to avoid a possible post-race protest. All of those factors ...

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The Italian outfit pushed Mercedes hard for much of this year but a spate of errors from Sebastian Vettel and on the operational front have left it needing a miracle to get back in the hunt. Lewis Hamilton will be crowned champion in Austin on Sunday if he wins the race and Vettel is no higher than third. Massa, who drove for Ferrari from 2006 to 2013 and nearly won the championship in 2008 ...

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The Brazilian was invited to the Japanese Grand Prix to take part in an historic demonstration, putting in some laps with a 2006 F248 and a 2010 F10 which were both powered by V8s. It was the first time that Massa had driven an F1 car since he retired from the sport at the end of last season, and he says that while he preferred the lighter cars to current machinery, the older engines were not ...

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Last weekend, Toro Rosso's livery was much in evidence among local fans, despite the team's relatively low profile this season. Toro Rosso drivers Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly started sixth and seventh at Honda's home track, hinting at real potential, although ultimately both finished outside the points. "It's very encouraging," Marko told Motorsport.com. "We got so much welcome in ...

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Williams asked Massa to extend his F1 career by one more season so it could field the experienced Brazilian alongside incoming rookie Stroll, and the pair helped the team to fifth in the constructors’ championship. Massa was then replaced by Sergey Sirotkin for 2018, and Stroll downplayed the benefit of having a veteran driver alongside him the previous season. Stroll told Motorsport.com ... ...

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Of Gasly's three standout F1 results in 2018, the latest two were made possible by lengthy yet very competitive opening stints on the softest tyre. A mammoth 37-lap stint on the hypersoft, unmatched by anyone else in the race, helped Gasly to seventh in Monaco - while in Hungary he broke away from his midfield rivals during a 32-lap run on the ultrasoft, which ultimately enabled the Frenchman ... ...

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F1's calendar matched its all-time high of 21 grands prix this season, including an unpopular maiden triple-header.There have been suggestions the season could feature 22 or 23 in the near future, with new races targeted in the United States and Asia.Abiteboul told Motorsport.com: "We need to be able to engage with fans but is has to remain something special. We are already way above ...

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Massa said recently that he felt Williams' situation was being made more difficult because it had had to make finances a priority when it came to drivers, so couldn't afford high-paid superstars.But speaking ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Stroll said he was baffled by his former team-mate's remarks – especially because he had showed strong form already last year."I don't und ...

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Williams has endured a tougher than expected start to 2018, and is the only team that has yet to score a point in the first three races of the campaign.Massa, who retired from F1 at the end of last season and was replaced by Sergey Sirotkin, believes the difficulties that Williams is facing can be traced back to it not having the kind of money that is enjoyed by the big manufacturer ...

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On the back of a star-making run to fourth place in Bahrain, Gasly qualified a lowly 17th for the Shanghai race.The Chinese circuit was not expected to suit the Honda-powered STR13 as well as Bahrain had, but Gasly's pace in particular suffered a noticeable decline between Friday and Saturday."We knew top 10 would be difficult, but [we expected to be] around P11, P12, and actually to ...

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After being drafted in at late notice to replace Mercedes-bound Valtteri Bottas alongside Stroll last year, Massa retired from grand prix racing for a second time at the end of the 2018 season.The Brazilian’s place has been taken by rookie Sergey Sirotkin for 2018, giving Williams one of the least experienced driver line-ups on the F1 grid.But, when asked whether he would miss having ...

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Hulkenberg left Force India at the end of 2016 to replace Kevin Magnussen at Renault, and outscored initial teammate Jolyon Palmer 34 points to eight before Palmer was dropped in favour of Carlos Sainz.Chester said Hulkenberg's main contribution had been to give Renault a dependable reference, and that Sainz had multiplied that effect."It is massively important. The really great ...

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Hamilton clinched his fourth world championship this year, fending off Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel with Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas 58 points adrift. Mercedes usually operates a policy of treating its drivers equally, but Massa, who was beaten to the 2008 title by Hamilton, believes the world champion team will focus on the Briton next year.“Next year the team is completely on ...

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Massa, who won 11 grands prix for Ferrari between 2006 and 2008, ended his 16-year spell in F1 with Williams in 2017.The Brazilian said this year's cars restored a challenge he felt had been the missing before the aerodynamic rule changes and move to more durable tyres."Definitely I will remember that it [the 2017 car] is nice to drive," Massa said."When you're just driving the car ...

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The Brazilian came out of retirement to race for the team for a fourth year in 2017 after Valtteri Bottas replaced Nico Rosberg at Mercedes during the winter.Massa scored 43 points for the team and was in contention to win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix before he suffered a technical problem.Lowe said Massa was consistent throughout the year, which in turn meant rookie Lance Stroll always ...

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The Frenchman scored points in 18 of the 20 races and finished just one place and 13 points adrift of Perez in the drivers standings.He was impressively consistent, scoring 43 points in the first 10 races and 44 in the second 10 races, having started the year with just nine F1 races of experience with Manor at the end of last year."It was a smooth transition but it's never easy to ...

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