Everyone is optimistic at the start of a Formula 1 season until the lights go out on Sunday.
F1’s 10 teams will have nowhere to hide this weekend. Unlike the gamesmanship of pre-season testing, which requires some heavy interpretation to make any sense of the times, the stopwatch won’t lie during the Bahrain Grand Prix.
But it’s not just championship points and race wins against which teams will measure success — indeed not every team is capable of winning races, and one or two might not even score points.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSAussie rising star Oscar Piastri will get just six months to prove that he belongs in Formula 1 before he risks being turfed out, according to Sky Sports F1 commentator Martin Brundle.
Piastri has enjoyed an illustrious junior career on his way to the premier class, with three successive championships, including rookie titles in Formula 3 and Formula 2.
Despite spending a year on the sidelines as an Alpine reserve driver, he remains one of the most highly anticipated rookies in recent years thanks to his sparkling CV.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSMichael Andretti is having a terrible time attempting to break back into the world of Formula 1.
Andretti, the 1991 CART champion son of 1978 F1 world champion Mario, has been trying to prise his way into the sport for more than a year but has been perpetually rebuffed.
First his attempt to buy Sauber fell flat. Then the sport offered him a lukewarm response to a request to enter as a new constructor.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSIt’s been a long 12 months in the life of Oscar Piastri.
From the highs of winning his junior titles to the purgatory of a year on the sidelines and the low of being painted as a Formula 1 villain, the 21-year-old Melburnian has borne much weight on his shoulders on the way to finally signing up with the historic McLaren team for his long-awaited F1 debut.
It means he arrives in the top tier of the sport already well seasoned by its cruel and unpredictable twists and turns — and with the reputational baggage that comes with that too.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSDespite the huge history and immense complexity of Formula 1 as a sport, sometimes it seems like nothing riles up F1 fans more than docudrama series Drive to Survive.
You either love it or loathe it. Either you binged it all on Friday night or you refuse to watch it. The drama is either a bit of fun or deeply disrespectful.
Whatever your personal taste, there’s no doubting its influence.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSAfter 16 years in Formula 1, Lewis Hamilton is used to contract speculation.
But contract years hit differently for the racing veteran these days. As the most successful driver of all time and comfortably the grid’s highest profile personality, he holds all the cards in any negotiation. His seven titles and unprecedented 103 wins have earnt him that right.
What Hamilton wants Hamilton gets. But what happens when what the Briton wants isn’t possible to obtain?
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSAfter 16 years in Formula 1, Lewis Hamilton is used to contract speculation.
But contract years hit differently for the racing veteran these days. As the most successful driver of all time and comfortably the grid’s highest profile personality, he holds all the cards in any negotiation. His seven titles and unprecedented 103 wins have earnt him that right.
What Hamilton wants Hamilton gets.
But what happens when what the Briton wants isn’t possible to obtain?
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSFor the second season in a row there’s only question worth asking in Formula 1: can anyone catch Max Verstappen?
As a rare Formula 1 world champion, Max Verstappen has guaranteed himself an entry in the F1 history books.
But the greats are never truly satisfied with just an entry.
Verstappen has been a record-breaker and trend-setter from the moment he got behind the wheel of a Toro Rosso in free practice at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSOscar Piastri’s long-awaited debut looms large this week, with just days remaining before the heralded Aussie finally turns a wheel in anger in the premier class.
But despite cracking F1 in his own right after a glittering junior career, comparisons with McLaren predecessor Daniel Ricciardo are never far from hand.
While both drivers have moved on from last year’s messy silly season merry-go-round, it’s now up to Piastri to carve out a place for himself in the F1 landscape.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSThe time before the first race is generally one for optimism. Hopes and aspirations for the year are still alive in the lead-up to the first qualifying session of the year, when the stopwatch will cruelly show up those who haven’t put in the work during the off-season.
But some will start the year with more than just their own performance on their minds.
With only 20 drivers and 10 teams in the sport, there’s no space for anyone who isn’t performing at their maximum. Several drivers and even some teams will start the year knowing that how strongly they deliver on their potential this season could be career or history defining.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSThere’s only one time the vibe is really relevant in Formula 1, and it’s the days between preseason testing and the first race.
Despite having three days of numbers to crunch and analyse from thousands of laps, the different climatic conditions, track states, fuel loads, engine modes, run plans and experimental parts mean that making meaningful comparisons and conclusions is always a mug’s game.
But the teams have access to far more powerful analytical tools than us mere mortals, which is where the vibe comes in.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSRed Bull Racing is full steam ahead on its title defence in 2023.
Max Verstappen and his RB19 were calm, composed and quick about the season ahead after a day and a half of testing. There are no real reliability problems to speak about and, crucially, no obvious contender to challenge it for the mantle. At least not yet.
It’s been a mixed bag for the other potential top teams. Ferrari is keeping its cards close to its chest, while Mercedes couldn’t make progress on a heartening first day.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSIt’s better to hit trouble during preseason testing than in the season proper, but given the reliability rate of the modern Formula 1 car, it’s better not to strike trouble at all.
With regulations largely stable year on year, most cars enjoyed long stints of uninterrupted, trouble-free running on the first day of testing. None will have had the engine fully turned up and few drivers will have been pushing particularly hard, but it’s a good sign for most.
But it puts the spotlight and ratchets up the pressure on those that do suffer problems given they immediately fall behind on crucial track time.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSPreseason testing isn’t the stuff of dreams, but it can be the stuff of nightmares.
Three days of relentless running in the Bahrain sun, drivers tested to their limits after months out of the car, machines pushed the brink and beyond failure, is gruelling work.
If it goes well, you’ll make it to Sunday with your car and your neck muscles intact but only a rough idea of where you think you stand in the pecking order. Ambiguity is the reward.
If it goes badly, you’ll know for sure that you won’t win the championship. Only nine months and 23 races to go until the next one.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSThere could have been no Drive to Survive without Daniel Ricciardo, according to executive producer Paul Martin, as the popular docudrama prepares for an era without the charismatic Aussie.
Drive to Survive’s groundbreaking level of access to the ordinarily clandestine F1 paddock has been widely credited for the sport’s booming popularity by creating a new generation of fans, particularly among younger age groups and in the United States.
Ricciardo fast emerged as one of the unofficial main characters of the series, with the producers magnetised by his larrikin personality and with the Perth native more than willing to play his part in the show’s success.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSAlpine principal Otmar Szafnauer says “superfast” Jack Doohan can get himself a Formula 1 drive if he wins this year’s Formula 2 championship.
Doohan was announced as the French team’s reserve driver this week, putting him next in line to one of its full-time race seats currently occupied by Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly.
The 20-year-old Australian will fulfil his F1 obligations alongside his second full-time campaign in F2 after finishing sixth last season. He’d previously finished runner-up in Formula 3 and Formula 3 Asia in 2021 and 2020 respectively.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSThe faff of the launch season is finally over, and soon Formula 1 will get down to the business of getting cars on track for some real action.
But with the countdown still reading 16 days until the first grand prix of the year, there’s still time to analyse in a very serious way who won the battle of the brands when it comes to car launches for 2023.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTS