Charles Pic, F1 driver

A lacklustre sprint race at the United States Grand Prix has prompted discussions about what F1 needs to do to ramp up the entertainment factor with the Saturday events. As Motorsport.com revealed, F1 chiefs are believed to be now considering a raft of radical ideas – including reverse grids and a standalone championship – as part of an effort to change things for the future. While calls for ...

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The McLaren driver thinks it is “silly” that a lack of harshness from the FIA in dealing with such rule breaches means it can be better for drivers to get a five-second penalty for illegally jumping a slower rival they can easily pull clear of, than lose time by getting stuck behind them.Norris’s comments come in the wake of his team-mate Oscar Piastri losing a position to George Russell in ...

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So, it was little wonder that Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, whose team has been dominant in F1 2023 up until now, found himself having to repeatedly dismiss any suggestions that his squad’s struggles were related to new FIA stipulations over the wings.Backing up his argument is the fact that, with a flexi-wing estimated to be only worth about one-tenth of a second around Singapore, the ...

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The Dane qualified 19th for this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix while team-mate Nico Hulkenberg continued his strong one-lap form by running to 10th place in Budapest.Magnussen blamed a 0.511s gap in Q1, when both cars were running with hard tyres under the experimental Alternative Tyre Allocation, on his discomfort aboard the VF-23.He says that as the Haas car has evolved, he has struggled to ...

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Formula Regional driver van 't Hoff was killed on Saturday on the final lap of the race after spinning on the Kemmel straight in heavy rain and being hit by a following car as he was unsighted due to severe spray.
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The ...

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The idea was logical that if there was less disturbed air thrown up by cars then this should allow some closer racing. 
The subsequent simplification of car's upper surfaces, with more reliance on the underfloor to generate downforce, certainly seemed to achieve some of these goals initially.  
But, as the teams now have a more sound understanding of the fundamentals, they are ...

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Until his 2023 appointment at the helm of Williams, Vowles served two decades at Brackley, rising to the ranks of Mercedes chief strategist and latterly its motorsport strategy director.
Beyond influencing in-race strategy, Vowles co-managed the Mercedes' junior driver roster in his former position and steered the manufacturer's presence in other categories.
He was considered a contender to ...

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Hamilton has the sixth-highest start count in F1 history and is poised to leapfrog Michael Schumacher and Jenson Button for fourth come the end of the 2022 campaign.
Ahead of his landmark race at Paul Ricard on Sunday, Hamilton has singled out current Alpine pilot Alonso as his toughest opponent - the Briton having made his F1 debut at McLaren in 2007 alongside Alonso, with the defending ...

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While sprint qualifying races have divided opinion among those in the paddock, F1 says that feedback from fans is hugely positive.
F1 is looking to expand the number of sprint events to six in 2023, but those plans have currently been put on hold awaiting approval from FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
However, a lack of excitement at the Red Bull Ring last weekend ? with the top ...

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The Monegasque driver had been completing a demonstration run in the ex-Niki Lauda 1974 Ferrari F1 car on Sunday, when he spun at Rascasse.
After suffering unexpected brake failure during his third lap on track, Leclerc was pitched in to a spin and struck the barriers backwards, dislodging the rear wing.
Although he was able to get going again, Leclerc eventually pulled up on the main ...

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Made with the support of the Williams family, King Richard tells the story of how Richard Williams groomed his daughters to be tennis stars also while allowing them to grow up with a rounded education.
The film was produced by Smith, who has already won a best actor BAFTA, and is a favourite to score another success in Sunday?s Academy Awards.
Hamilton, who is a friend of both ...

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This week?s final pre-season test has been another good one for Sainz?s Ferrari team, which has maintained the momentum from a strong showing at Barcelona last month.
And with Mercedes appearing to struggle to get fully on top of the handling quirks of the W13, the German car manufacturer has singled out Ferrari as the team to beat heading in to the 2022 season.
Lewis Hamilton suggested ...

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At the opening test of the season in Barcelona it was evident that teams could potentially benefit from having flexible edges to the floors of their cars.
When running at speed, the floor could in effect seal the gap to the road and act like the skirts on the original ground effect cars of the late seventies.
At the same time some teams ? notably Mercedes ? have explored ways of making ...

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Mercedes and Red Bull continue to provoke one another both on and off the track this season, with the intensity turned up another notch at the Qatar Grand Prix, as Christian Horner threatened to protest his rival's car.
Red Bull has announced its dissatisfaction about the legality of the rear wing on the Mercedes on several occasions now, with the team convinced its bitter rival is gaining an ...

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The team announced Valtteri Bottas for next year on Monday and, with the announcements of George Russell at Mercedes and Alex Albon's move to Williams following that, the second Alfa seat remains the biggest question mark of the silly season.
Vasseur is no longer contractually committed to take a Ferrari Driver Academy member and, while incumbent Antonio Giovinazzi could still retain the seat ...

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What should have been a normal pitstop for Benetton driver Jos Verstappen turned into near disaster when petrol sprayed out of the refuelling hose and was ignited on a still hot car.
Captured live on television at the time, the drama of the moment has been further sealed by what is now a world-famous photograph of then Benetton pit crew member Paul Seaby captured in the middle of flames as he ...

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Alonso was the star of Saturday's sprint qualifying event at Silverstone, starting on the soft tyre and jumping from 11th to fifth, before eventually falling back to seventh.
The former world champion agrees that the new format creates action on all three days, but he believes that Friday could be made more interesting with a restriction on tyre usage and the number of qualifying runs that ...

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Russell started the race 10th for Williams and moved up to eighth early on after Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly made contact on the opening lap.
The Williams driver was able to hold position, keeping the likes of Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda behind, and even closed up on Fernando Alonso for seventh towards the end of the first stint.
But after Williams informed Russell that it was ...

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Hone?s image captures Grosjean?s figure approaching the barrier his Haas car had just pierced through before bursting into flames at the start of the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix, following contact with former AlphaTauri racer Daniil Kvyat.
In the picture, Grosjean is about to haul himself out of the flames and over the barrier and into the arms of F1 medical rescue co-ordinator, Dr Ian Roberts ...

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Tsunoda's heated and often expletive-ridden team radio messages attracted a lot of attention this season and drew mixed responses from fans and observers.
Speaking on F1's Beyond The Grid podcast, Tsunoda accepted that his temper behind the wheel and his team radio communications are a "main topic" to improve in the coming races, admitting he doesn't know why he gets so hot under the ...

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Observed from an angle slightly above and behind the rear wing, the video offered a unique perspective of an F1 car being pushed to its limit around the Monte Carlo streets.
As Alesi darted through the iconic corners, and blasted through the tunnel, the sensation of speed accompanied to the sound of the 3-litre flat 12 engine, demonstrated the magic of a racing car in a fresh way.
In fact ...

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Norris was on course to take third place on the grid for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, which would have been his best-ever qualifying result in F1, but saw his fastest lap time deleted due to exceeding track limits at Turn 9.
That transgression relegated Norris from third to seventh in Q3, behind teammate Daniel Ricciardo, and prompted Norris to be very self-critical.
Speaking straight ...

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Hamilton and Vettel have collectively won 10 of the last 11 F1 drivers' championships, and went head-to-head for the title in both 2017 and 2018 when they raced for Mercedes and Ferrari, respectively.
Hamilton was able to defeat Vettel in both years, but the duo enjoyed a number of close tussles and tense moments throughout the title fights.
Asked what his favourite rivalry in F1 history ...

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Here, with the help of the Autosport.com Archive, we take a look back at the stories of the race, and the bigger pictures that were bubbling away in the paddock at the time.
Sakhir spectacle

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG
Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

As the result of a move to make grand prix racing more road relevant, F1 had abandoned the screaming V8 engines in ...

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Mercedes and Red Bull deployed differing tyre strategies, with Verstappen's offset rubber life advantage in the final stint meaning he was chasing Hamilton after leading the early stages from pole.
With four laps to go, Verstappen attacked Hamilton around the outside of Turn 4, which was been heavily policed for track limits by the FIA, and as the Dutchman went too wide off the kerb he was ...

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