Ukrainian or russian

Virgin Racing will be part owned by Russian specialist car maker Marussia, following a deal struck this week, which shows the growing Russian interest in the sport. The news follows on from the announcement that Russia will host a Grand Prix in Sochi starting in 2014 and that Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin tested a Renault F1 car as a guest of team owner Gerard Lopez. Like all Virgin's sponsors, Marussia wants to plug into Virgin's vast network of customers and communications channels. Marussia wants to go further than that, however. The intention is that its brand should appear in the Virgin team name, which means that along with the renaming of the current Lotus team and the Lotus Renault branding destined for the current Renault F1 team, there will be some new names on the grid next year. Sauber will also drop the BMW part of its name. The deal was announced today at Yas Marina Circuit and according to the Financial Times, Marussia is buying part of the stake … [Read more...] about Virgin comes over all Russian

The big headline from the Singapore Grand Prix was the end of Red Bull’s winning run as Ferrari scored their first victory in 14 months. Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free Max Verstappen was the highest placed Red Bull driver in fifth, marking the first time he has missed out on the podium since the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix. That ended his chance of emulating Michael Schumacher’s record of finishing on the podium in every race in a season, which he achieved in 2002. Sergio Perez finished eighth in the other Red Bull, his worst result since this May’s Monaco Grand Prix, on his 250th grand prix start. The Marina Bay street circuit is one of eight in Formula 1 that Verstappen has raced on but is yet to taste victory at. Three of those tracks are ones that he has only visited once, while his two visits to Algarve and Istanbul Park has resulted in a second place finish at each. He has raced at Shanghai, which returns to the calendar next year, on five … [Read more...] about Sainz becomes F1’s newest multiple winner at Verstappen’s ‘bogey track’

Sebastian Vettel took pole position for the final round of the 2010 World Championship ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. It was his 10th pole position of the season and a record equalling 15th pole of the season for Red Bull Racing. Mark Webber could manage only the fifth fastest time, which deals his title hopes a real blow. He has to hope for misfortunes to the others tomorrow, as starting behind Alonso on the road and with less points, he's in a difficult position. Alonso made some changes to his car, reverting to settings from Friday, while Hamilton and McLaren were able to get the maximum from their F Duct. Despite that, he did not have an advantage over the Red Bull on the straights in the second sector. In the first part of qualifying, Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel traded fastest laps as the track improved all the time. Even though it wasn't for position, it was exciting stuff, building the atmosphere perfectly. Alonso was fastest, with the best … [Read more...] about Vettel on pole for crucial title decider in Abu Dhabi

Williams has announced today that the team will drop promising rookie Nico Hulkenberg for next season. At the same time it was confirmed that Rubens Barrichello will race on for the team in 2011, and unprecedented 19th season of F1 competition. Hulkenberg's spectacular pole position in Brazil last week, where he set nine consecutive best sector times, was not enough to save his drive, in the face of the expected arrival of GP2 champion Pastor Maldonado, who has extensive backing from the Venezuelan government. Barrichello's contract was signed some time ago but was not announced as the team worked hard behind the scenes to replace the sponsorship money which ends this year from its leading backers RBS, Philips and AT&T. Team principal Adam Parr has been working hard on raising money in Venezuela and Qatar. It has also been suggested that minority shareholder Toto Wolff is to increase his stake in the team. Under the management of Willi Weber, who had Ralf Schumacher … [Read more...] about Hulkenberg gets the bullet from Williams; Barrichello goes for 19th F1 season

Red Bull driver Sergio Perez says his team have a good idea what they got wrong with their set-up last weekend in Singapore. Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free The world champions were defeated last weekend for the first time all season at the Marina Bay circuit as Max Verstappen took fifth place and Perez finished three places further behind. After Lewis Hamilton said he expects Red Bull to be fully back to their race-winning ways in this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, Perez said that was “definitely the target” for his team. “We still don’t understand fully what went so wrong in Singapore,” said Perez. “We have some ideas, but certainly this track is very different. So, there should not be a reason why not to be strong in Suzuka. Actually, they should be one of the best circuits for us. “We obviously have some good ideas on how we prepared the weekend and the misinformation we have, and where things went wrong. Obviously, it’s something that we … [Read more...] about Red Bull understand “misinformation” behind poor Singapore performance – Perez

Sirmacis, 21, became ERC Junior runner-up in his first full-time international campaign last year and stepped up to the main class for 2016. Winning the first stage of the Greece event, the Latvian established himself in the lead for most of Day 1 only to end up two seconds behind Lukyanuk, who was slowed by a puncture in SS2. Kajetanowicz, meanwhile, having finished second in both Spain and Ireland, was quickly out of contention as he rolled in SS1, losing 14 minutes in the process. Lukyanuk suffered a second puncture in the opening Sunday stage, allowing Sirmacis through. The Russian then damaged his suspension two tests later, giving Sirmacis a safe overall lead. The youngster completed a drama-free rally to take his maiden ERC almost three minutes in the clear. Local driver Lambros Athanassoulas inherited second but was in danger of losing the runner-up spot in the final stage when he caught up the crawling Peter Ranga. He ended up just one tenth ahead of Jaromir … [Read more...] about Greece ERC: Sirmacis takes shock win on main-class debut

Top junior single-seater outfit Hitech GP is the latest team to declare their intention to join the Formula 1 grid in 2026 . Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free They doubled up yesterday’s announcement of their plans with news of major new investment in the team. But does that plus the team’s racing pedigree mark it out as being worthy of the coveted 11th slot on the grid? Founded by Oliver Oakes in 2015, it at least the third team to use the name ‘Hitech’. The former racer obtained permission to use the name from David Hayle, who launched the original Hitech Racing team in 2003 to race in British Formula 3, and knew Oakes as a World Karting Championship-winning youngster. Another Hitech squad raced in Brazilian F3, but Oakes brought the name back to European competition when he was just 27. Oakes’ entity was also launched with the intention of competing in F3, and made its first appearances in 2015 at the end of the European championship season. Right … [Read more...] about Hitech’s high hopes: The billionaire-backed F2 team planning a leap up to F1

London, UK – This weekend the final European Le Mans Series event takes place at Estoril in Portugal and Nissan will be there to celebrate 30 years of NISMO with the fans of Le Mans racing. This event also sees the LM P2 debut of 2013 GT Academy Europe winner and local man, Miguel Faisca. Nissan will help to bring the excitement of Le Mans racing to Estoril through its sponsorship of this event. On Saturday and Sunday fans can go along to the circuit entrance to test drive the Nissan product range and the first 200 fans to do so will receive Nissan VIP passes for the event. “It’s good to see another NISMO Athlete take the next step up the ladder,” said Darren Cox, Global Head of Brand, Marketing & Sales, NISMO. “As always we will be watching to see how he performs as it’s important for us to build our drivers into top line racers for our premier racing activities. Lucas Ordonez showed them all how it was done this year when he moved up to Super GT so let’s see what the next … [Read more...] about 30 years of NISMO celebrations continue at final Le Mans Series event