Uber driver assaulted

Jenson Button says F1’s leading teams are unlikely to run junior drivers in practice sessions in order to receive extra tyres. A plan is being considered under which teams will receive an extra set of tyres for the first practice session for a new driver to use. Button said he was supportive of the plan although he didn’t expect McLaren would take advantage of it. “I don’t think you’ll see many of the big teams having a third driver drive the car on Friday,” he said. “I think it’s a good idea to have extra sets for young drivers, yes. It’s very difficult for a young driver to have mileage in a Formula One car. They need to bring a lot of money, it seems, to have the opportunity. “But now that they have extra tyres it could actually be useful for middle-of-the-grid teams and lower to have a third driver for more mileage, more information. There are quite a few test drivers that will sit around and watch Friday, Saturday, Sunday every other weekend and they don’t get to drive … [Read more...] about Top teams unlikely to run third drivers – Button · RaceFans

IndyCar racer Marcus Ericsson, Charles Leclerc’s former team-mate, believes there’s a fundamental lack of trust between the two sides. Ericsson, who won the Indy 500 earlier this year, was team-mates with Charles Leclerc during the Monegasque’s debut season in Formula 1 in 2018 as the pair raced for Sauber. With Leclerc’s championship hopes in 2022 all but fully extinguished as his early season lead has turned into an 80-point deficit with nine races remaining, Ericsson put himself in the shoes of his former colleague and said he reckons Leclerc’s frustrations are adding to the mistakes being made by Ferrari. “I think he’s very frustrated. I think that he’s been fast this year, but it’s just been a lot of issues,” he said on Sky F1’s Any Driven Monday . Ericsson pointed to the example of Leclerc spinning off into retirement all by himself, while leading the French Grand Prix in July, as an example of those frustrations. “What happened in Paul Ricard, one of the … [Read more...] about Marcus Ericsson: There’s a lack of trust between Ferrari and the drivers

Sebastian Vettel has decided to hang up his helmet at the end of the season. It’s a decision which would likely have been received very differently had he taken it two years ago. Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free Back then,Vettel was on his way out of Ferrari after Charles Leclerc had wrecked the four-time champion’s claim to be the team’s top driver. Over his final season in red, Vettel was out-scored by his team mate by a ratio of nearly three to one. He fared better against Lance Stroll at Aston Martin last year and little has changed this year. However the team has taken another step backwards in competitiveness, so the pair are fighting over fewer points than before. Stroll has managed four points-scoring finishes, all for 10th place and a single point each time. Vettel has done slightly better, climbing as high as sixth in Baku (also the scene of his best finish last year), giving him a clear lead over his team mate in the championship. This is … [Read more...] about Aston Martin set to lose their top-performing driver for the third time in a row · RaceFans

Nicholas Latifi has praised Sebastian Vettel for having the welfare of all racing drivers at heart, not only his contemporaries in Formula 1. Barring a big change of mind, Vettel will leave F1 at the end of this season as a four-time World Champion with his career having begun in 2007. During the intervening 15 years, the German has matured into a hugely respected figure knowledgeable about a broad range of subjects both within and outside of the sport. Among the motorsport-related topics closest to Vettel’s heart is, understandably, safety and that ties in perfectly with his role as a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association – a position to which he was first appointed in 2010, the year of his first world title triumph. At this season’s Austrian Grand Prix, Vettel received a suspended fine of 25,000 euros from the FIA after he reportedly flounced out of a drivers’ briefing without permission to leave, frustrated by an argument among his rivals and stewards. Latifi … [Read more...] about Nicholas Latifi: Sebastian Vettel campaigns for everyone, not just Formula 1 drivers

Listen to this article A team that began its time in Formula 1 under controversial circumstances, Arrows’ 24-year spell in the championship came to an end in 2002 amid mounting financial problems. Still the team with the most world championship race starts (counting the Footwork years) under its belt – at 382 – without ever taking a victory, Arrows came close to troubling the top step of the podium throughout its curious history – but fell short each time. The British squad, started up by former Lotus F1 driver Jackie Oliver, Alan Rees and Franco Ambrosio, went through multiple ownership changes in its latter years. It spent six seasons as Footwork in the 1990s, before Tom Walkinshaw took over for 1997 and restored the Arrows name. Although the team made an encouraging start under his tenure, with the Scot’s investment helping to bring 1996 champion Damon Hill and famed designer John Barnard into the team, it arguably over-reached its capabilities with an in-house engine … [Read more...] about Top 10 Arrows F1 drivers ranked: Hill, Warwick, Fittipaldi and more

When McLaren first announced in 2020 that Daniel Ricciardo would be joining them to fill the seat that would be vacated by Carlos Sainz Jnr for 2021, it seemed like the perfect match. Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free McLaren were gaining an established grand prix winner with nine-and-a-half seasons of experience who had brought Renault back onto the podium multiple times during 2020. Alongside the highly promising talent Lando Norris, it would be hard to blame McLaren CEO Zak Brown and team principal Andreas Seidl for feeling very encouraged for the team’s future. But whatever McLaren, Ricciardo or the team’s legions of fans expected from having the Australian join the team, it would not have been a pattern of consistently underwhelming results and a total points difference of 102 between Norris and Ricciardo scored over 35 races together so far. With Formula 1 resting over the summer, rumours and reports indicate that McLaren are now actively looking to … [Read more...] about Would McLaren be right to drop Ricciardo for 2023? · RaceFans

If you know who both Rick Mears and Gordon Kirby are, you’ll already want this book. In brief, it is the story of one of North American motorsport’s greatest ever drivers, written by one of its greatest writers. Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free This revised edition of ‘Thanks’ updates its original 2008 edition with additional material on Mears’ family life and advisory work to the Penske team. ‘Thanks’ does everything you want it to – the comprehensive story of Mears’ life and career, charting the (very) highs and (painful) lows. With extensive contributions from Mears himself together with family, team members and rivals, alongside Kirby’s paddock insights, this is no long-distance biography. Coming in hardback and featuring copious pictures of beautiful 1980s and 1990s Penskes, ‘Thanks’ is the latest in a strong run of recent IndyCar books – last year’s ‘Indy Split: The Big Money Battle that Nearly Destroyed Indy Racing’ and Al Unser Jr’s brutally honest … [Read more...] about “Rick Mears – Thanks: The story of Rick Mears and the Mears gang” book reviewed · RaceFans

Fernando Alonso says Kimi Raikkonen has had a strong start to the season with Lotus. Alonso, who trails Raikkonen by six points after three races, said: “Kimi is having a fantastic start to the season and driving maybe better than anyone.” Sebastian Vettel leads the drivers’ championship at the moment but Alonso believes “championship positions are not really important” at this stage. “But at the same time, it?������s not a big surprise to see Lewis where he is,” said Alonso. “He is one of the best drivers on the grid right now and last year he put McLaren in a competitive position and this year he is doing it with Mercedes.” “We know the Red Bull is probably the strongest car,” he added. Alonso believes Red Bull did not fully exploit their potential last week: “In China, on race pace, Sebastian was quickest in all the stints, but had chosen a strange strategy for qualifying.” Ferrari’s Shanghai victory does not automatically make them the team to beat according to … [Read more...] about Alonso: Raikkonen ‘driving better than anyone’ · RaceFans

Pictures from the build-up to the Bahrain Grand Prix. F1 pictures 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix in pictures 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying day in pictures 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix practice in pictures First pictures from the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix weekend 2022 French Grand Prix in pictures View more F1 pictures Images ?�?� Ferrari spa/Ercole Colombo, Lotus/LAT, Williams/LAT, McLaren/Hoch Zwei, Mercedes/Hoch Zwei, Daimler/Hoch Zwei, Red Bull/Getty, Force India, Sauber, Caterham/LAT, Marussia, Pirelli 2013 Bahrain Grand Prix 2013 Bahrain Grand Prix fans’ video gallery Vettel wins Bahrain Driver of the Weekend poll Bahrain rated best race of the year so far Bahrain was an “aberration”, says Vergne Alonso’s DRS failure the first of its kind – Ferrari Browse all 2013 Bahrain Grand Prix articles … [Read more...] about 2013 Bahrain Grand Prix build-up pictures · RaceFans