GP Racing UK

will.i.am? Well I never! The Miami Grand Prix promoters are determined to carve out a unique identity for this recent addition to the F1 calendar and the full-on assault of kitsch and celebrity cameos isn’t for everyone. This year’s event also presented us with a new format for the pre-race ceremonials, wherein the drivers were presented to the audience individually by the Grammy Award-winning rapper LL Cool J against a background tapestry featuring an honour guard of cheerleaders (whatever happened to the moratorium on grid girls?) and Black Eyed Peas founder will-i-am conducting a 30-piece orchestra. Naturally this attempt to ramp up the showbiz element met with a rebarbative response from the usual quarters. A mob of naysayers assembled on Twitter to bellow about this attempt to serve up change where…

MATT KEW Matt looks at how F1’s elder statesmen, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, have stayed at the top of their game (p30) ALEX KALINAUCKAS Autosport’s Grand Prix editor dives into the thorny question of what is going on at AlphaTauri in the post-Dietrich Mateschitz era (p40) OLEG KARPOV A busy month for Oleg is headlined by his exclusive interview with new McLaren team principal Andrea Stella (p52) MARK GALLAGHER Mark investigates how F1 teams are dealing with the needs of their employees, as the calendar continues to expand (p60) Thanks to Sophie Almeida, Harry Bull, James Lloyd, Clarisse Hoffmann, Stuart Morrison, Sophie Ogg, William Ponissi, Katharina Rees, Milly Stell, Tom Wood IS POWERED BY…

No kerbing their enthusiasm This was my first time at the Miami Grand Prix so I came in with no preconceptions about the circuit or where to go. The chicane was an area many of the drivers complained about last year but it does have a few things going for it visually: there’s an elevation change and the drivers have an incentive to spend as little time in it as possible, so they tend to ride the kerbs. I shot this from Turn 14 where the elevation change means you’re low relative to the car, so you can play with the foreground and background. A slow shutter speed adds to the sensation of movement and the right-front wheel in the air shows just how hard the driver is trying. Photographer Jake Grant Where Miami,…

PICTURES 01 TOST SPREADS HIS WINGS AlphaTauri team boss to go after 17 years 02 MUSICAL CHAIRS AT MERC Allison returns in tech director job swap 03 NEW CONTRACT FOR NEWEY TOST OFF: NEW BOSS FOR ALPHATAURI 01 After 17 years at the helm of a Formula 1 team, Franz Tost is to step down from his role as team principal at AlphaTauri to make way for Laurent Mekies, currently racing director at Ferrari. It remains unclear, however, when exactly Mekies will be able to take up his duties at AlphaTauri’s Faenza base. The announcement of Tost’s imminent departure was made prematurely – in response to rumours leaked to the press of Mekies’ forthcoming move from Ferrari to AlphaTauri. Initial reports of the Frenchman’s intention to leave the Maranello outfit had surfaced at the start of 2023; insiders…

FUNDRAISING TEAMS McLaren has recalled its former sporting director, Gil de Ferran, to act as a consultant and aid the team in the next phase of its reorganisation. The Indy 500 winner will support team principal Andrea Stella and newly appointed COO Piers Thynne. RACES The organisers of the Miami GP are believed to be in discussions with Formula 1 about making the GP a night race TEAMS General Motors, partner to Andretti Autosport’s F1 team bid, is thought to be investigating entering the champiosnhip as a power unit manufacturer as early as the 2027 season RACES The Azerbaijan GP signed a three-year contract extension with Formula 1 ahead of this year’s race, which takes the event up to the end of the 2026 season PICTURES: MARK SUTTON; SIMON GALLOWAY…

Q1 How many races were red-flagged during the 2022 F1 season? Q2 Who won the last F1 GP to be held at the Jerez circuit in Spain, in 1997? Q3 Only four drivers started the first four races of 2023 inside the top 10. Who are they? Q4 Every full-time driver in 2022 scored at least a point, but at what race did Nicholas Latifi become the last to do so: Singapore, Japan or US? Q5 How many laps did Takuma Sato lead during his F1 career: 0, 1 or 2? Q6 Who am I? I started 61 GPs from 1991 to 1995 for Brabham, Ligier, Tyrrell and McLaren, scoring 32 points and claiming three podiums. Q7 Who was the last driver to make his F1 debut after winning the Indy 500? Q8 True or false: Sebastian…