Paddy Driver, F1 driver

Williams team boss James Vowles recently stated his duo of Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz will be "the best driver line-up on the grid" in 2025, kickstarting an interesting discussion as several teams could realistically make that claim.So, which team really has the best line-up next year? Our writers have their say.Jake Boxall-Legge - McLaren's duo takes it on current formRoute-one pick? Perhaps ...

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Liam Lawson will race in the US Grand Prix next month after replacing Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull's sister Formula 1 team RB.It won't be the first time the Kiwi competes in F1 but, on this occasion, it's not just as a stand-in, and his arrival is seen as a test for Red Bull to find out if it has the right man for the future.So is Lawson the driver Red Bull needs? Our writers debate. Only time ...

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Red Bull and RB's decision to drop Daniel Ricciardo mid-season had nothing to do with him performing so badly that an immediate change was needed.RB team boss Laurent Mekies made it crystal clear last weekend that if the Australian had the car underneath him he needed, like in the Miami sprint this year, his pure speed was still there to make the most of it.Instead, the manoeuvring that has ...

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Formula 1 drivers are planning discussions about how best to respond to their unease about the FIA’s hardline response to Max Verstappen swearing in a press conference.The FIA’s decision to impose a day’s public service punishment on Verstappen for using the F-word ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix has not gone down well with the series’ current stars.It even prompted the Dutchman himself ...

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Max Verstappen and several other Formula 1 drivers are under investigation for undertaking under virtual safety car conditions after the finish of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.In Baku the VSC came out for a crash on the penultimate lap between Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz, who tangled on the run down to Turn 3.Their accident littered debris at that part of the track which drivers had to weave ...

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Kevin Magnussen served a one-race ban at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after reaching the maximum amount penalty points on his superlicence. The Haas driver pulled off a number of controversial moves on other drivers this season, including gaining five points at the Miami GP for an incident in the Sprint race where he was deemed to have left the track and gained a lasting advantage and a crash with ...

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Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko says that the RB line-up will be revealed after next week's Singapore Grand Prix as the team is yet to announce Yuki Tsunoda's team-mate for 2025.Tsunoda was confirmed for a fifth season with the team formerly known as AlphaTauri earlier this year, but it remains unknown whether the team will choose to persist with Daniel Ricciardo for another season.If Ricciardo does ...

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Formula 1's penalty point system "need to be reviewed" in the wake of the incident that triggered Kevin Magnussen's one-race ban for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix - which other drivers described as "harsh".Magnussen made contact with Pierre Gasly at the Variante della Roggia during the Italian Grand Prix in a bid to make an overtake, ultimately forcing both to take to the run-off cutting the ...

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The Audi-owned Sauber Formula 1 team has admitted to facing a youth versus experience dilemma over its driver choice for next year, as it ponders what is best for the long term.The German manufacturer had hoped to lure Carlos Sainz for 2025 to become team-mate to Nico Hulkenberg, as it transitions to become a full works team from 2026.However, amid uncertainty about the competitiveness of the ...

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The 2024 F1 season is hotting up, with seven different winners in the first 16 races of the year and four in the same number of races. Max Verstappen currently leads the championship with 303 points, ahead of Lando Norris in second with 241 points.Over half of the grid’s contracts are set to expire at the end of the year and it looks likely that the summer break will be packed full of ...

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Finally, it's out: Andrea Kimi Antonelli will race for Mercedes as Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton's replacement in the 2025 Formula 1 season.In signing with the Silver Arrows squad, Antonelli breaks a long tradition, which stretches back 70 years to 1954 and the season Karl Kling made his world championship F1 debut for Mercedes alongside the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio and co.Their career paths ...

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"To have the opportunity to be here, speaking to all of you, it's a pleasure."New Williams driver Franco Colapinto there – addressing a packed scrum of Formula 1’s press corps in a sweltering tent at Monza that was in places five-people deep.Let’s see if he still feels that way after the nine races he will compete in to end this campaign in place of the ousted Logan Sargeant. After all ...

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The private WhatsApp group of Formula 1 drivers became a hotbed of animated debate on Thursday amid frustration over the Monza track changes.As the reality of modifications made to the kerbs at the historic Italian Autodromo became clear, F1 drivers agreed amongst themselves that the new flat designs were a step backwards.But perhaps of even greater annoyance to them was the fact that they ...

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A host of drivers have been left unimpressed by the changes to one of Formula 1's "old-school" tracks, Monza.While the resurfacing of the circuit will be the most eye-catching feature over the course of the weekend, there have also been changes made to kerbs, with the profile of some being altered and others being installed from scratch.Even though no F1 cars have run on the altered layout as of ...

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Franco Colapinto is set to make his Formula 1 debut this weekend in the Italian Grand Prix, having replaced Logan Sargeant at Williams for the rest of the season.The 21-year-old has been a Williams Academy driver since his second F3 campaign in 2023 and follows in the footsteps of countrymen Juan Manuel Fangio, Carlos Reutemann and Gaston Mazzacane, the most recent Argentinian to feature on the F1 ...

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Christian Horner has launched a staunch defence of Red Bull's decision to retain Sergio Perez for the remainder of the 2024 season – insisting the team has "the two best drivers" for the current car.With team-mate Max Verstappen leading the drivers' championship and despite Horner admitting Perez has been stuck in a "spiral" amid recent struggles, the team stuck by the Mexican and threw its ...

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Lando Norris fears that conditions during Friday practice for Formula 1’s Dutch Grand Prix could be “dangerous” as forecasts predict 80km/h gusts.Weather warnings have been issued for the local province, with officials saying there is a risk of disruption to all outdoor activities because of flying debris.But even if things do not get that extreme, Norris has voiced concerns that severe ...

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George Russell was aware he was “a little bit light” ahead of the 2024 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix he won on the road but lost to a post-race disqualification.The Mercedes driver was stripped of the Spa victory he had secured with an audacious one-stop strategy to finish ahead of his team-mate and long-time leader Lewis Hamilton, after his car was found to be 1.5kg underweight – a ...

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Formula 1's modern era is littered with examples of front-running teams paying a big price for sticking with two equal drivers.As recently as 2007, when McLaren fielded then-reigning world champion Fernando Alonso and rookie Lewis Hamilton, infighting saw both drivers miss out on the title by a single point as Kimi Raikkonen snatched the crown with Ferrari.Other notorious rivalries such as ...

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Yuki Tsunoda believes he is now ready to fight at the front of Formula 1, saying he's a "more complete driver now" in his fourth season with RB.Tsunoda has always shown flashes of speed, but in the past, his fiery temper has often let him down, with the Japanese admitting getting his emotions under control was key to his future; not only to achieve a better level of consistency but also to be ...

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Since Formula 1's inaugural race at Silverstone in 1950, just 776 drivers can lay claim to being an F1 grand prix driver.With so few positions on the grid, competition is fierce so having the right person to get you that drive - and creating the right environment for you to flourish - is key.The majority of today's F1 drivers have a management team behind them, performing various roles to ensure ...

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Mercedes suspects that plank and tyre wear, plus weight loss by George Russell himself, may have contributed to his car being under the limit at the end of Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix.Russell was disqualified from his victory after last weekend’s race at Spa when his Mercedes was found to be 1.5kg below the minimum weight limit of 798kg that includes the driver.Early analysis conducted by ...

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Williams team boss James Vowles has enjoyed plenty of highs in his Formula 1 career – including having helped Brawn and Mercedes to world championship titles.But he has no doubts that his team’s capture this week of Carlos Sainz for 2025 and beyond marks the proudest moment of his career.Along with the huge vote of confidence that Sainz’s decision delivers for the vision that Vowles has for ...

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George Russell was denied his third Formula 1 victory as an underweight car saw him disqualified post-race from the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix.Russell became the sixth driver in F1 history to lose a race win through disqualification, after having an underweight car at the Belgian GP.The Mercedes driver had claimed a sensational victory from sixth on the grid, as Russell opted for a risky one-stop ...

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Zak Brown says McLaren will discuss over the summer whether it will make Lando Norris’  shot at the F1 drivers' championship title a priority.It comes after McLaren ordered Norris to swap places with his team-mate in the Hungarian Grand Prix - much to Norris' frustration - after he undercut Piastri in the final round of pitstops.Piastri's victory, and Norris's second place, meant the latter was ...

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