Charles Leclerc says Red Bull Racing’s RB19 is in another league compared to the rest of the grid after finishing a distant third to a dominant Sergio Perez-Max Verstappen one-two.

Leclerc started from pole position and held off both Verstappen and Perez at launch, but his defence of the lead was destined to be short-lived.

Verstappen breezed past him on lap 4 once DRS had been activated, and Perez wasn’t far behind, demoting Leclerc to third on lap 6 before the Red Bull Racing drivers charged up the road to an eventual 21-second victory over the Ferrari driver.

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Charles Leclerc beat both Red Bull drivers to pole position for the second day in a row despite crashing out of the first-ever sprint shootout.

Leclerc again wielded his Ferrari’s formidable pace in the technical middle sector to set the fastest time in the new condensed qualifying session, but a snap of oversteer entering Turn 5 led to him sliding nose-first into the outside barrier, ending his session early.

Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen were presented with an open goal to snatch top spot, but neither was able to improve by enough to deprive the Monegasque of a second one-lap triumph in 24 hours.

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Charles Leclerc isn’t convinced Ferrari has the pace to convert pole to victory in Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix but says the car’s unexpected turn of speed is welcome nonetheless after a difficult start to the season.

Leclerc beat title leader Max Verstappen to pole position by 0.188s after the pair had set identical times with their first runs in Q3, the difference coming in the technical middle sector of the track. It was the Monegasque’s third consecutive pole in Baku but first of the year and first since last season’s Singapore Grand Prix in October.

Ferrari has endured its worst start to a Formula 1 campaign in years, having slipped well off Red Bull Racing’s pace since the end of last season, Leclerc admitted he didn’t expect to be in the pole conversation this weekend.

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Charles Leclerc bested Max Verstappen to start Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix from pole position for the third year in succession.

Ferrari had looked quick all day in Baku, vying for top spot in the single hour of practice afforded to the drivers under the sprint rules and looking consistently competitive through the qualifying hour.

The scene was set for a duel between Leclerc and Verstappen, and the pair set equal times with their first laps, the Dutchman taking top spot by virtue of crossing the line first.

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Charles Leclerc has been reassured by Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur that the team’s recovery is still on track despite racing director Laurent Mekies’s impending departure and rumours linking him to Mercedes.

AlphaTauri announced this week that Mekies would replace Franz Tost as team principal at Faenza from next season. It’s the third significant departure from the team in the last six months.

Former principal Mattia Binotto left at the end of last season and chassis head David Sanchez will defect to McLaren for 2024 after a period of leave. Several other personnel of lesser profiles have also reportedly left the team since the end of last year’s campaign.

In a preseason of so far underwhelming or even downright misleading car launches, Ferrari’s spectacular debut of its 2023 title challenger was a breath of the kind of fresh air you can only get in central Italy.

Into the temporary grandstand at the team’s famous Fiorano test track packed 500 famously passionate tifosi, allowed to gather in person for a launch for the first time in three years.

In attendance were drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz and new team principal Frédéric Vasseur.

In the garage was the car the team hopes will banish the sour memories of last season and bring the championship home to Maranello, the SF-23.

In an age of launches becoming increasingly about digital renders of paint jobs and endless marketing guff from sponsor bigwigs, this was proper old-school Formula 1.

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If you thought this year’s driver market was wild, little did you know what was coming during the off-season for the team managers.

Formula 1 has never known team principal chaos like this. In an unprecedented two weeks, four team principals left their posts with varying degrees of autonomy. And in a hectic couple of hours this week, three positions were filled in a merry-go-round highly orchestrated between the teams.

Ferrari and McLaren, the sport’s oldest and grandest teams, have new principals. Audi has positioned itself for its 2026 debut with a new CEO. Williams, for so long last among the teams, finds itself still in the hunt for new management.

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Frédéric Vasseur will replace Mattia Binotto as Ferrari team principal in 2023, the Italian team has confirmed today.

Vasseur will leave his position at the helm of Alfa Romeo at the end of the month to take up the most famous job in world motorsport.

He will reportedly be replaced by current McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl. The Alfa Romeo-branded Sauber team will become the Audi works entry in 2026.

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Mattia Binotto has resigned as team principal of Ferrari effective at the end of the year.

Ferrari has begun its search to replace its outbound manager but says it doesn’t expect to confirm a new appointment until next year.

“With the regret that this entails, I have decided to conclude my collaboration with Ferrari,” Binotto said in a statement. “I am leaving a company that I love, which I have been part of for 28 years, with the serenity that comes from the conviction that I have made every effort to achieve the objectives set.

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Mattia Binotto has resigned as team principal of Ferrari effective at the end of the year.

Ferrari has begun its search to replace its outbound manager but says it doesn’t expect to confirm a new appointment until next year.

“With the regret that this entails, I have decided to conclude my collaboration with Ferrari,” Binotto said in a statement. “I am leaving a company that I love, which I have been part of for 28 years, with the serenity that comes from the conviction that I have made every effort to achieve the objectives set.”

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Sebastian Vettel has raced his final grand prix.

He leaves behind a mighty Formula 1 legacy of four world championships, 52 victories, 122 podiums and 57 pole positions — rare air any way you cut it and leaving an indelible mark on the sport.

But so much of that success has been front loaded. It’s been close to a decade since Vettel last won a championship, and the bulk of his race wins are a long way behind him.

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The budget cap is the story that won’t go away.

When teams aren’t being accused — or accusing other — of breaking it, they’re making a virtue about how hard they’re working to stay underneath it.

Ferrari is the latest team to admit that they’ve felt the squeeze of the hard financial ceiling — and team boss Mattia Binotto says it’s why the team has fallen behind Red Bull Racing.

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Ferrari has denied it will sack Mattia Binotto at the end of the year despite numerous reports in the Italian media that the team principal is set for the chopping block.

Both the prestigious Gazzetta dello Sport, Italy’s most widely read sports paper, and the Italian edition of Motorsport have reported Ferrari will call time on Binotto’s career after the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix this weekend.

The team released a short statement overnight describing the reports as being “totally without foundation”.

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Carlos Sainz led Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc to the top of the time sheet in first practice for the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Sainz, pole-getter last weekend in the USGP at Circuit of The Americas, set a best time of 1m20.707s to best Leclerc by just 0.046s in a largely trouble-free session for the works team.

The same couldn’t be said for the Ferrari power unit, however, which failed in the back of Pietro Fittipaldi’s Haas car after just nine laps in a plume of smoke down the front straight.

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Carlos Sainz took his third career pole position with top spot at the United States Grand Prix.

The Spaniard dueled exclusively for pole with Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, who had taken provisional pole after the first laps, while both Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen threatened from third and fourth.

Leclerc improved with his second lap, but not enough to fend off Sainz, who bested him by 0.065s. It’s Ferrari’s first pole at the Circuit of The Americas, but Sainz said it wasn’t enough to make his team favorite for victory.

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Charles Leclerc topped an unrepresentative second practice session at the United States Grand Prix ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo.

The extended 90-minute practice session was entirely co-opted by Pirelli for an in-season tire test given the dearth of opportunities for private testing during the packed 23-race season, making the times close to opaque for comparison purposes for this weekend’s race.

However, any driver who was replaced by a reserve or rookie driver in FP1 was exempt for the first 30 minutes to undertake regular set-up work, which meant Leclerc, Bottas and Ricciardo were eligible to run regular tires before switching to tire testing.

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Carlos Sainz bested Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton for the top spot in first practice for the United States Grand Prix at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas.

The Ferrari driver was the first among the front-runners to set a time on the soft tire and immediately rocketed to top spot with a 1m36.857s in warm and blustery conditions, with the ambient temperature 86 degrees F and the circuit peaking at 104 degrees F.

Hamilton responded for Mercedes in his upgraded W13, but the Briton was almost half a second off the pace, slipping to 0.475s adrift of the benchmark.

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Charles Leclerc has taken his ninth pole position of the season after title leader Max Verstappen was forced to abort his final flying lap by the team

The qualifying hour started wet enough for intermediate tires after heavy rain earlier in the day, but ended will all 10 drivers in the pole shootout on slicks despite some standing water still on track, particularly in the final sector beneath the grandstands.

Rather than plan for two separate runs, most drivers were fueled for one long stint to build tire temperature, meaning provisional pole constantly changed hands as grip ramped up.

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