Paddy Driver

The young Briton has long resisted joining other F1 drivers in the tax haven of Monaco, despite the clear money benefits from doing so, and committed to living near the McLaren factory in Woking.<br>But, after getting more established in grand prix racing and having extended his McLaren contract earlier this year, Norris thinks now is the perfect opportunity to make a change.<br>"It's something ...

read on

Williams has been competing at car racing's pinnacle for more than four decades and 16 drivers have won world championship races with the team.<br>That makes selecting the top 10 Williams F1 drivers a challenge.<br>For this list we’ve taken into account the amount of success the drivers scored with Williams, the impact they had on the team and the circumstances of their time there. It doesn’t ...

read on

The subject was discussed at length in the regular Friday briefing in Qatar, shortly after the Brazilian GP stewards confirmed that there would be no review of the Max Verstappen/Lewis Hamilton incident.<br>After the briefing, several drivers admitted that still didn't know exactly when penalties would be applied. <br>However, Masi is adamant that they have been kept properly informed.<br>"I ...

read on

Amid a tight championship battle that has boiled over at times into collisions between himself and rival Max Verstappen, Hamilton is clear that how he wins is just as important as achieving his goals.<br>In a wide-ranging interview with selected media, including Motorsport.com, Hamilton said that keeping it clean was something he valued strongly, even though many other greats in the sport have not ...

read on

Often these occasions are a matter of routine and they are over fairly quickly, but this one ran on for a while as the discussion quickly turned to the racing rules, and specifically the fallout of the Max Verstappen/Lewis Hamilton incident in the Sao Paulo GP.<br>That matter had been discussed earlier in the day by the original FIA stewards of the Interlagos event. They rejected the request of a ...

read on

While race stewards denied Mercedes a right to review over Verstappen's defensive actions at Interlagos, McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl thinks a more critical moment will come in Friday night's drivers' briefing.<br>He thinks that, amid questions about inconsistency between the FIA's hands-off approach to the Verstappen incident and Lando Norris getting a penalty at the Austrian Grand ...

read on

Drivers' championship leader Verstappen enjoyed a decent margin over AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly and Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas by the end of FP1, starting the weekend on the right foot for Red Bull.<br>First practice in Qatar took place in daytime, meaning it was not fully representative of either qualifying or the race, both of which will begin at dusk in cooler conditions.<br>Verstappen spent the ...

read on

Of those on the current grid only Sergio Perez and Nikita Mazepin have previously raced at the track, in GP2 Asia and the MRF Challenge respectively.<br>Others have had to fit visits to factories and sim running around the current busy race schedule, and have only recently had the opportunity to sample Losail.<br>A high downforce set-up and a series of quick sweeping corners are expected to ...

read on

FIA F2 frontrunner Zhou has been favourite to land the job for some months, helped by the commercial support that he brings with him.<br>The 22-year-old replaces Antonio Giovinazzi, who has been dropped after three seasons with the team, but may retain a reserve role via his links with Ferrari.<br>The Hinwil outfit was given a free hand on driver choice when it renewed its sponsorship deal with ...

read on

The deal is a continuation of the relationship between the 20-year-old and Renault/Alpine, Piastri having been part of the French manufacturer's academy system for some time.<br>The role will include an "extensive testing programme" to help prep Piastri for an F1 race seat in 2023.<br>“I’m super excited to be joining Alpine F1 Team as reserve driver,” said the Australian. “I’m looking ...

read on

The single day for rookies in standard 2021 cars will be run in parallel with a two-day 18-inch tyre test for race drivers.<br>Aston Martin doesn't have a young driver programme and, while it potentially has access to Mercedes protege Nyck de Vries, the Formula E champion is likely to be used by the works team for the rookie test.<br>The Silverstone outfit looked at other options but ultimately ...

read on

Diniz is best known for escaping a spectacular fire at the 1996 Argentine Grand Prix, triggered by a safety valve in his Ligier’s fuel tank sticking open.<br>Images of the blaze and the Brazilian’s leap from the cockpit grabbed the front pages of newspapers around the world the following day, and triggered the iconic Sun headline: Diniz in the Oven.<br>When his own F1 career petered out after ...

read on

Bearman, 16, joins the academy that helped further the careers of drivers such as Charles Leclerc, Jules Bianchi, Lance Stroll and Callum Ilott over the past decade.<br>The signing of Bearman comes following an impressive outing at the FDA Scouting World Finals that were held in Maranello last month.<br>Bearman is also a finalist for the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award ...

read on

Mazepin was left annoyed in qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix when he was refused a request to overtake his teammate during a preparation lap in Q1.<br>When told he could not, he responded on the radio: "Are you having a laugh?"<br>Haas' chief race engineer Ayao Komatsu intervened and made clear the team was not joking, and told the Russian that he should drop back if he wanted a ...

read on

Mercedes stunned Red Bull by clinching a 1-2 in qualifying at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Saturday as Bottas secured his third pole of the season.<br>Red Bull was expected to hold the upper hand in qualifying, after beating Mercedes by over half a second in final practice, only for Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez to slip to third and fourth respectively in Q3.<br>The result comes as a ...

read on

While the Swiss-based squad has already signed Valtteri Bottas for 2022, a decision on who the Finn’s teammate would be has dragged on for several weeks.<br>While Formula 2 front runner Guanyu Zhou had been favourite for a while, the possibility of a buy-in by the Andretti organisation had put the driver matter on pause as IndyCar's Colton Herta emerged as a contender.<br>But with Andretti’s ...

read on

Rightly or wrongly, overtaking is often used by fans as the measure of a good grand prix. More overtaking means more action and therefore more excitement, right?<br>Not necessarily. Who could argue that watching Daniel Ricciardo cling on to win the Monaco Grand Prix in 2018 despite losing a chunk of power wasn’t compelling? The same could be said of Lewis Hamilton’s victory in the principality ...

read on

Alonso was left annoyed in the Austin race over the way that he felt Raikkonen had gained a position on him despite having overtaken him when running wide across the kerbs at the exit of Turn 1.<br>After Raikkonen passed the Alpine driver, Alonso called on the Finn to hand the place back, but race control decided that no action needed be taken and let Raikkonen keep the position.<br>A few ...

read on

The Finn qualified only fourth at COTA on Saturday after a “messy” final lap, and goes back five places to ninth after taking a new engine.<br>To get involved in the battle at the front between his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton and the two Red Bull drivers, he has to pass the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly and both cars from the McLaren and Ferrari teams.<br>"They're not the easy cars to ...

read on

There has been increasing speculation that F1 could add a third American race to its schedule in the coming years, joining the existing Circuit of the Americas event and the upcoming first race in Miami.<br>Las Vegas has been touted as a possible third venue, while famous American racing marque Andretti is currently in talks to buy a majority stake in the company that owns the Alfa Romeo ...

read on

Last week the FIA's World Motor Sport Council rubber-stamped F1's longest-ever season with a 2022 calendar comprising 23 grands prix.<br>The Miami Grand Prix will make its first appearance, while the Australian, Canadian, Japanese and Singapore Grands Prix are all returning after an enforced two-year absence due to COVID-19.<br>Two-time F1 world champion Fittipaldi thinks it's "crazy" that the ...

read on

Sargeant, 20, finished third in last year’s FIA Formula 3 championship, but was unable to move up the ladder due to a lack of budget, prompting him to return to the series in 2021 where he finished seventh.<br>Sargeant had been due to test in IndyCar for AJ Foyt Racing at Barber Motorsports Park next week, only for the running to be called off.<br>Ahead of this weekend’s United States Grand ...

read on

After this year's run of 22 events, the calendar is extended by one event in 2022.<br>However, there will be more races outside Europe, with Miami added and several races that were skipped for the past two seasons returning.<br>Sainz says he will put together a plan to ensure that he will still be in good shape for the later races.<br>"I think next year is going to be tough for everyone," ...

read on

F1 teams are still working on the designs of cars built to next year’s all-new regulations, but have already put models in to their simulators.<br>McLaren ace Lando Norris prompted some intrigue recently when he suggested that the 2022 version he had initially run was ‘not as nice’ to drive as current machinery.<br>Ferrari driver Sainz has had a lot of running in the 2022 car at his team’s ...

read on

As previously reported, the idea of deleting times emerged in Turkey after Fernando Alonso controversially escaped sanction following a post-qualifying investigation of a yellow flag offence.<br>After informal discussions between teams and race director Michael Masi on the morning of the race in Istanbul, the subject was debated further in a sporting advisory group meeting last week, when all ...

read on