Paddy Driver

Leclerc announced via Instagram on Thursday afternoon that he had contracted COVID-19, and was now self-isolating at home in Monaco.<br>"Hello guys, I hope you are all staying safe. I want to let you know that I have tested positive for COVID-19," Leclerc wrote.<br>"I am regularly checked according to my team's protocols. Unfortunately, I learned that I have been in contact with a positive case ...

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Wolff says that Valtteri Bottas’ difficulties at the end of the season highlighted the change of mindset that comes when a driver’s Formula 1 title ambitions have ended. It was a factor that he suggests was not always appreciated before.<br>After a difficult Sakhir GP weekend, where Bottas was overshadowed by stand-in George Russell, the Finn and Wolff had talks to discuss ...

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Norris is heading in to this third season with McLaren in 2021, and delivered his first podium for the team at last year's season opener in Austria.<br>But while having made clear progress on track from his rookie campaign, it is the young Briton's off-track attitude that McLaren has been equally impressed with<br>Andrea Stella, McLaren's head of race operations, says that Norris' approach stands ...

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Norris is currently in the United Arab Emirates on holiday ahead of a planned training camp, but after recognising some symptoms, underwent a test for COVID-19 on Monday.<br>McLaren confirmed in a statement that Norris had tested positive, and would now be self-isolating for the next two weeks.<br>"McLaren can confirm that Lando Norris tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday in Dubai, where he is ...

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Clear, who famously engineered Jacques Villeneuve to the 1997 world title for Williams, has played a senior trackside engineering role at Ferrari since he joined the team in 2015.<br>From the start of 2019, Clear has been a driver coach for Charles Leclerc, acting as a useful interface between the Monegasque and the engineers as they adapted to working with each other.<br>Following ...

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F1 is preparing all-new rules from 2022, with it hoped that ground effect machinery will improve the racing by allowing cars to follow each other more closely.<br>As well as that, a raft of new financial arrangement, including a cost cap and more equitable prize money distribution, should help close the grid up.<br>Sainz says one of F1’s current weaknesses is that the performance of cars is too ...

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Sainz is switching from McLaren to Ferrari to replace Sebastian Vettel, whose expiring contract was not renewed beyond 2020.<br>Vettel enjoyed a strong start to life at Ferrari, but as the team went through several changes and its competitiveness started to slip, the four-time world champion started to struggle. The arrival of Charles Leclerc in 2019 further complicated matters for Vettel, as the ...

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Six of the current 24 FE drivers have contested at least one grand prix.  <br>These are Lucas di Grassi (18 GPs for Virgin in 2010), Jean-Eric Vergne (58 GPs for Toro Rosso in 2012-14), Stoffel Vandoorne (41 GPs for McLaren in 2016-18), Sebastien Buemi (55 GPs for Toro Rosso in 2009-11) plus Porsche FE teammates Pascal Wehrlein (39 GPs for Manor and Sauber in 2016-17) and Andre Lotterer ...

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Three F1 drivers missed races across the course of the 2020 season through illness as the FIA enforced strict protocols to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the paddock.<br>Sergio Perez missed the two Silverstone races after testing positive ahead of the British Grand Prix, while Racing Point teammate Lance Stroll pulled out of the Eifel Grand Prix ahead of qualifying, later testing positive for ...

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McLaren has brought a number of young drivers into F1 through its junior programme, including seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and current McLaren F1 driver Lando Norris.<br>McLaren does not currently have any drivers on its books as a young driver after Sergio Sette Camara left earlier this year to join Red Bull as a reserve driver.<br>But McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown felt the approach of ...

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The four-time world champion has competed alongside Leclerc at Ferrari since the start of last year, and saw first-hand how the Monegasque quickly adapted to a top-line team.<br>After swapping helmets on Sunday night in Abu Dhabi, Vettel made clear exactly what he thought of Leclerc in a special message.<br>On his helmet, he wrote: "To Charles. You are the most talented driver I came across in 15 ...

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Ilott, 22, finished second in this year’s F2 points to Schumacher, who graduates to F1 as a race driver with Haas F1 in 2021.<br>Ilott scored five pole positions and three wins with the UNI-Virtuosi team this season. He has been part of the Ferrari Driver Academy since 2017, and was previously a Red Bull Junior driver, but was dropped from its programme after the 2015 season.<br>“I am very ...

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Fernando Alonso topped the times on what was his first outing in Renault's 2020 F1 car since a filming day at Barcelona earlier this year.<br>Alonso, who will return to F1 next year after a two-year hiatus, clocked the circuit in 1m36.33s, which was quicker than the laptimes both Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon managed during qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Saturday.<br>Nyck de Vries ...

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After teams agreed to abandon plans for a three-day test earlier this year to cut costs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a single day of running at the Yas Marina Circuit was put forward to close out the year.<br>It was initially listed as a “young driver” test, with the regulations citing that only drivers who have two grand prix starts or fewer may be permitted to take part.<br>But ...

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Max Verstappen – 10     <br>At several points in 2020, Verstappen hasn’t delivered when it really mattered despite this being another overall excellent season. But that didn’t happen last weekend as he trumped the Mercedes duo at the end of qualifying. That set up his race win, but he still had to pull out a masterful race drive, which he did. Essentially faultless – ...

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2021 Formula 1 Calendar<br>In the face of the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, Formula 1 has had to completely rejig its 2020 calendar and confine its season to Europe and the Middle East only.<br>The Monaco Grand Prix wasn't run for the first time since 1954, while Portimao and Mugello hosted F1 races for the first time and popular tracks like the Nurburgring, Imola and Istanbul Park all made a ...

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Renault’s success in persuading the FIA to allow veteran Fernando Alonso to run ahead of his grand prix return in 2021 prompted rival teams to request if they too could get approval for new drivers to run.<br>For while the test had originally been intended only for those who had not taken part in more than two grands prix, the FIA accepted that allowance should be made for anyone who had not ...

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The Mexican claimed his maiden F1 victory for Racing Point with a stunning charge from the back of the field in the Sakhir Grand Prix on Sunday.<br>But despite his success, which has left his team on the verge of securing third place in the constructors' championship, Perez is in danger of being out of F1 next year.<br>He is being replaced at the soon-to-be-renamed Aston Martin team by Sebastian ...

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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 Russian driver is expected to be partnered by Mick Schumacher, with a separate announcement to follow as soon as this week.<br>Mazepin currently lies third in the F2 standings with just this weekend’s finale on Bahrain’s outer circuit to come, having won feature races at Silverstone and Mugello. He will be the fourth Russian driver to race in F1 after Vitaly Petrov, Daniil Kvyat and ...

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A number of senior drivers, including Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, hit out at the 2021 prototypes following testing in Bahrain on Friday, with some calling for the current tyres to be kept for next year.<br>However, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said that F1 needed to accept the slower rubber because Pirelli’s 2021 plans were about making the tyres more robust and avoiding the failures that ...

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Isola insists there is “no reason” not to pursue the plan to introduce the new tyres, despite world champions Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel suggesting that the current construction should be kept for a third season.<br>All teams ran the new tyres, which feature a new and more robust construction designed to deal with rising downforce levels, in FP1 and FP2 in Sakhir.<br>At the end of the ...

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F1 squads have agreed, in principle, that a driver salary cap will come into force from the start of the 2023 season – although deals in place already, such as Charles Leclerc's long-term contract with Ferrari, would not be impacted.<br>The plan would restrict driver salaries to a combined total of $30m for two drivers and would link in with the budget cap that will come into effect for 2021 ...

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It was originally agreed that the current 2019-spec tyres would be used unchanged in 2021, but following the issues seen at Silverstone Pirelli pushed ahead with efforts to create a tyre that could deal with increasing downforce levels.<br>All drivers tested examples from a range of prototypes in FP2 in a “blind test” in Portugal last month. <br>Different versions were supplied across the ...

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The Q2 session at the Turkish Grand Prix was resumed with a recovery circuit still on the circuit after it was trying to remove Nicholas Latifi's stranded Williams.<br>Despite double waved yellow flags being displayed, F1 drivers were deeply unhappy about the safety implications of what happened – with memories still fresh about the accident that went on to claim the life of Jules Bianchi at the ...

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