Motorsport News March 17, 2022

Seven-time F1 World champion Lewis Hamilton has played down his chances of fighting for a win when the new season gets underway in Bahrain this weekend. Hamilton languished in 16th place on the timesheets after three days of testing at the Middle East track ahead of Sunday’s race, although his team-mate George Russell posted the fifth-fastest time. World champion Max Verstappen topped the timesheets for Red Bull. Both Mercedes suffered with more porpoising problems in Bahrain despite developments to the machine following the opening test runs in Spain. Hamilton said: “At the moment, I don’t think we’ll be competing for wins. But there is a potential within our car to get us there. We have just got to be able to extract it and fix some of the problems, which is what we’re…

While the off-season seems to be shrinking due to F1’s habit of racing deep into December, the hunger for this year’s Formula 1 battle is higher than ever. The conclusion to 2021 is fresh in the memory and the TV audience has never been higher. What grand prix racing needs now is a gloves-off season where what happens on the race track is the only arbiter of the result at the end of the year. The rancour of 2021 needs to be firmly put to bed and the sport, not the backbiting, needs to take centre stage. Lewis Hamilton is urging caution over the pace of his Mercedes, while World champion Max Verstappen says he can push his Red Bull even further despite topping the pre-season testing timesheets in Bahrain last week.…

World champion Max Verstappen said he has yet to unlock the full pace from his new Red Bull RB18 despite topping the times in the three-day test in Bahrain ahead of this weekend’s season-opening grand prix. The Dutchman’s 1m31.720s lap, set on the final day of running, put him top of the pile ahead of Haas driver Mick Schumacher, whose team was granted extra running after missing some mileage due to a freight delay. Verstappen said he had been buoyed by the pace of the car and the progress made since the opening test sessions of the season in Spain three weeks ago. He said that the team had assessed all the different tyre options ahead of Sunday’s grand prix as the whole field gets used to the new 18-inch Pirelli rubber. “Nobody…

Aston Martin will look into developing its own powerplant to coincide with new rules coming into grand prix racing in 2026. Team principal Mike Krack said that the Silverstone-based operation, which will field Mercedes-powered cars for Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel this season, would look to see if its own branded powerplant was feasible. Krack said: “We have a new set of regulations coming for 2026. With more emphasis, obviously, on electric power than today. I think it’s normal for brands likeAston Martin that if there are new power unit regulations that you have a look into them, that you carefully investigate if this is strategically the right thing. “I think it is the right step that F1 is taking, to have a higher hybrid bias, or higher bias over electric power.” Krack said…

Formula 1 will not be shown in Russia due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. The free-to-air coverage will be terminated on the Match TV Channel and F1 TV will no longer be made available. Match’s executive producer Aleksandr Taschin said: “The Match TV channel was informed of the termination of our agreement to broadcast F1. Unfortunately, the 2022 season will not be shown on our channel, despite the fulfilment of all the financial and marketing obligations from our side.” Excluded F1 driver Nikita Mazepin and his father Dmitry have been added to the list of sanctioned people by the European Union. Nikita Mazepin, who has set up a foundation for athletes unable to compete for political reasons, says he is keeping his legal options open after his contract with Haas was ripped…

Mercedes has defended the radical sidepods on its new Formula 1 car that were was revealed in testing in Bahrain last week. The compact and tightly packaged sidepods were a new addition to the W13 chassis during the second testing sessions, and team boss Toto Wolff said the initiative was cleared by officials. Wolff said: “The process is very clear, when you go in a specific development direction with your team, having the FIA as part of scrutinising it, you’re exchanging CAD data and making them part of the process.” However, F1 managing director Ross Brawn said the design was something the rule makers hadn’t accounted for when drawing up the new regulations. “I think there’s no doubt that the Mercedes concept we didn’t anticipate, it’s an extreme interpretation of the regulations,”…