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.
Continue reading on RACERAlpine has brought a number of development pieces to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, though it’s unclear how many of the new parts may have been damaged in Pierre Gasly’s fiery stoppage during practice.
The Alpine A523 is sporting an upgrade package comprising a new floor as well as new front and rear suspension that the team hopes will haul it closer to Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin. It’s also equipped with circuit-specific low-drag front and rear wings designed to tackle the high-speed Baku straights.
Speaking before the practice hour, Alpine technical director Matt Harman said the floor represented a significant step forward in the team’s thinking about its aerodynamic concept.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen has reiterated a threat to walk away from Formula 1 if it continues to put what he considers to be business priorities ahead of sport.
This weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix is the first of six sprint rounds this season but the first run to an altered format, with the shortened Saturday race getting its own qualifying session and standing alone from the main event on Sunday.
Verstappen stirred controversy at the Australian Grand Prix when asked about the changes, telling Portuguese TV that he “won’t be around for too long” if the sport continues tinkering with its weekend format and increasing the number of events in a season.
Continue reading on RACERFernando Alonso says he’s been enjoying being “active and ironic” on social media amid online gossip that he’s in a relationship with Taylor Swift.
The internet has been ablaze with unverified rumours that the two-time champion has been dating the 12-time Grammy winner. Rather than ignore or rebuff the rumours, Alonso took to social media to post a video of himself winking at the camera to the backing track of Swift’s song Karma and with the caption “race week era,” an apparent reference to the singer’s Eras tour.
Asked about how he had reacted to the sudden boom in international interest, Alonso said he took it as a sign that the sport was able to attract new fans if it played its cards right online.
Yuki Tsunoda said news of Franz Tost’s intention to quit his team principal role at the end of the year surprised him despite long-running rumours of impending changes at AlphaTauri.
AlphaTauri announced this week that Tost would be stepping down at the end of the season and would be replaced by current Ferrari racing and sporting director Laurent Mekies, while ex-FIA secretary general Peter Bayer would take over as team CEO.
Rumours of changes to Red Bull-backed team have been rife since the death of company founder CEO Dietrich Mateschitz late last year, with some speculating the team could be moved to the UK to cut costs or be sold completely. Instead it appears Red Bull is satisfied to have restructured the team’s management for the medium term.
Continue reading on RACERCharles 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.
Max Verstappen claimed victory in the Australian Grand Prix after a farcical late-race red-flag restart generated mass carnage through the field.
Verstappen had been cruising to a dominant second win of the season when Kevin Magnussen lost his rear-right tire after tapping the outside barrier at Turn 2 on lap 53, triggering a brief safety car and then the second red flag of the afternoon.
After a 15-minute delay the cars lined up on the grid for a restart, with Verstappen on pole alongside Lewis Hamilton, for a two-lap dash to the finish.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen will start the Australian Grand Prix on pole after a last-gasp flying lap from the Red Bull driver rescued top spot from Mercedes.
Verstappen was sixth after making a mistake at the penultimate corner on his first lap, and though a second push lap on the same set of tires put him on provisional pole, it was with a tenuous margin of only 0.009s over the field.
And with the soft compound struggling to come up to temperature on a cool, overcast day in Melbourne, the Dutchman was on the back foot without the time to complete the two preparation laps the tire needed to be in its optimum window.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen has topped final practice at the Australian Grand Prix as Red Bull Racing teammate Sergio Perez struggled with apparent car issues.
Verstappen saved his soft-tire run until late, setting a best time of 1m17.565s to pip Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso by 0.162s. Esteban Ocon completed the top three for Alpine, a further 0.211s adrift.
Teammate Perez endured a nightmare session with car problems that have left him underdone ahead of qualifying.
Continue reading on RACERFernando Alonso topped a rain-affected second practice session at the Australian Grand Prix ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
After a sunny and reasonably warm first practice hour, Melbourne turned cool and overcast in time for the final session, and light rain drops as pit lane opened made clear the threat of rain.
The ambient temperature was just 61 degrees F, with the track barely warmer at 80 degrees F, and both were dropping as the weather changed.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen dominated a frenetic twice-suspended first practice session at the Australian Grand Prix that saw several driver in the gravel.
Verstappen set the early pace after opening the hour with a set of soft tires and never lost top spot, eventually lowering the benchmark to 1m18.790s on worn rubber.
It wasn’t completely smooth running for the Dutchman, however, who complained of gearbox problems early in the session before later clambering over the curb at the exit of Turn 4 and spinning across the track, coming perilously close to nosing the barrier. The Red Bull’s tires ruined, he returned to pit lane and ended his session.
Continue reading on RACERSergio Perez beat teammate Max Verstappen to victory at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in another dominant one-two result for Red Bull Racing.
Pole-getter Perez’s race was almost perfect but for his tardy launch off the line that handed an early lead to second-place starter Fernando Alonso — who didn’t need to be asked twice to take the straighter line through the first chicane and take first place.
But it became quickly obvious that the Aston Martin was no match for the Red Bull Racing car. Perez bided his time until lap four, when he blasted back into the lead with the help of a super-effective DRS, and never looked back, with his way being eased by a lap-17 safety car that gifted him an easy pit stop.
Continue reading on RACERSergio Perez has taken a second straight Saudi Arabian Grand Prix pole position after teammate Max Verstappen exited qualifying in 15th with a driveshaft issue.
Verstappen was on his first flying lap of Q2 when his driveshaft suddenly let go, forcing him to limp back to pit lane, where his car couldn’t be repaired in time to rejoin the session. Red Bull had just changed the gearbox before FP3 earlier in the day.
The Dutchman won from as far back as 14th at last year’s Belgian Grand Prix. The last driver to win from 15th was Fernando Alonso at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen beat Red Bull Racing teammate Sergio Perez to top spot in FP3 to sweep all three Saudi Arabian practice sessions ahead of qualifying tonight.
Perez had held top spot for much of the hour thanks to an early run on the soft tires, but a late blast on fresh rubber for Verstappen blew the Mexican’s best time out of the water by 0.613s with a time of 1m28.485s.
Other than requiring a new gearbox before the session, the only blot on his afternoon was a near accident with Lando Norris, who almost ran into the back of the Red Bull Racing car around a blind corner while the Verstappen slowed on a cool-down lap.
Continue reading on RACERAlpine CEO Laurent Rossi won’t rule out a reunion with Oscar Piastri despite the spectacular breakdown in relations between the French team and its former Australian junior star.
Piastri’s split with Alpine was one of last year’s major storylines. The Melburnian had been brought through the junior formulae with Enstone and was handed a reserve position with the squad last season, but he unexpectedly defected to McLaren when it became clear Woking had lost patience with Daniel Ricciardo.
Alpine attempted to hold onto Piastri, but the FIA Contract Recognition Board found that it had failed to offer him a valid deal to keep him in 2023 and unanimously sided with McLaren.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSReigning Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen is likely to extend his stay in the series thanks to the new Gen3 rules, according to Triple Eight team principal Jamie Whincup.
Three-time champion Van Gisbergen is embarking on his 16th full-time campaign in the main game but is out of contract at the end of the season.
The Kiwi has tied his longevity in the sport to the success of the Gen3 rules in improving the quality of the racing after years of increasing downforce made wheel-to-wheel combat more difficult.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSWhat makes an ideal Supercars season opener?
If you chose a narrow, high-speed street circuit lined by walls, oppressed by a high ambient temperature and threatened by thunderstorms, then you might be about to get exactly what you’re after.
This weekend’s season-opening Newcastle 500 will feature all the above, and as a bonus, no-one will really have driven the all-new cars in anger before they hit the track.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSTriple Eight managing director Jamie Whincup has blamed Ford for needlessly delaying the Gen3 rules sign-off until just hours before the first round of the season.
Supercars has been preparing for years for the introduction of an all-new car design that the series hopes will improve the quality of racing, but it took until 7pm last night for the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang to be homologated, less than 24 hours before scrutineering was due to begin for this weekend’s Newcastle 500 at midday today.
Homologation, which seals the design and performance characteristics of the two cars, was delayed by months of arguments about whether the two models of car had achieved performance parity.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTS