F1 2017 Tag

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of opening practice for the Canadian Grand Prix, beating Formula One Drivers’ Championship leader Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari by two tenths of a second. Hamilton set a best time of 1:13.809s in the second half of the session after switching to Pirelli’s ultra-soft tyres. The Mercedes driver’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas was third quickest, just four hundredths of a second behind Vettel. Kimi Raikkonen was fourth in the second Ferrari and the top five order was rounded out by Force India’s Sergio Perez. TheRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Robert Kubica has completed his first Formula 1 test in six years. The 2008 Canadian Grand Prix winner had an incredibly bright F1 future curtailed in February 2011 after crashing his Skoda Fabia rally car in the Ronde di Andora. The accident left Kubica’s arms and hands severely injured and put an immediate end to his single seater career. After intensive rehabilitation he was able to recover and went on to compete in various World Rally Championship and sports car races in the years that followed. RecentlyRead More

The Sauber F1 Team is pleased to announce that Gustav Malja will be in the cockpit of the Sauber C36-Ferrari for one test day during the second in-season test at the Hungaroring following the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend (28.-30. July). It will be the first Formula 1 experience for the 21-year-old Swede, who is currently racing in the FIA Formula 2 Championship and has been a competitor since 2016 (former GP2 Series). As with many other racing drivers, Malja began his career in karting when he was eleven years old,Read More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Sebastian Vettel is in a class of his own in 2017. The Ferrari driver just picked up his third win and sixth podium of the season in spectacular fashion by overhauling team mate Kimi Raikkonen with a strategy that recalls memories of his friend and mentor Michael Schumacher. He is calm, he is confident, he is excited, and it shows. He is relishing the budding rivalry with Lewis Hamilton and the challenge of beating Mercedes, but he is already a step ahead of them. In anotherRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor After an incredible rookie performance at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this May, two time F1 Champion Fernando Alonso’s Indy 500 and Triple Crown dream ground to a halt with a late race engine failure this afternoon. Alonso led the race multiple times, for 27 laps, and had the highest average speed before his Honda engine let go as he was running in seventh place with 21 laps to go. He immediately pulled off and was greeted by a standing ovation from the 300,000 strong crowd when heRead More

Kimi Räikkönen took his first pole position in nine years with super final lap in Monaco that saw him finish just four hundredths of a second ahead of championship leader Sebastian Vettel as Ferrari locked out the front row. Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas was third but team-mate Lewis Hamilton was eliminated in Q2 in 14th place. Ferrari were quickest out of the blocks in Q1 with Raikkonen on track first, the Finn quickly followed by team-mate Vettel. It was the German who set the early pace and though he was brieflyRead More

After ceding top spot in the opening practice session in Monaco to Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton by just under two tenths of a second, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel went quickest in the second session, outpacing his main title rival by over a second as Mercedes appeared to lose their way in afternoon. Vettel’s time of 1:12.720, set on ultrasoft tyres midway through the 90-minute session is the fastest ever lap of the Circuit de Monaco and the four-time champion finished the session 0.487 seconds clear of Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo. Third placeRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Behold the RS 2027 Vision concept car, Renault Sport’s detailed project on what the future of F1 could look like in ten year’s time. Aside from some more theatrical elements like the LED lighting and the impossibly low profile tires, it isn’t something too far of what could be in the realm of possibility. It features semi-transparent bodywork to keep the driver on display despite utilizing a jet fighter style canopy. It has all wheel drive, four wheel steering, and active aerodynamics. The deceptively simple shapeRead More

Valtteri Bottas set the quickest time of the final day of in-season testing in Bahrain, posting a time of 1:31.280 as the Mercedes driver worked through 143 laps of the Sakhir Circuit. The Finn’s time eclipsed that of Sebastian Vettel by just under three tenths of a second. The lap total gap between the Mercedes driver and his Ferrari counterpart was much greater, however, with Vettel logging just 64 laps as he spent a significant portion of the day in the garage. Ferrari had brought Vettel to the garage duringRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso will race in the 2017 Indianapolis 500, driving a McLaren-branded Honda-powered entry run by defending champions Andretti Autosport. The 35-year-old Spaniard cited multiple reasons for wanting to race at Indianapolis in a statement issued by McLaren-Honda this morning. Among them, his desire to emulate the late Graham Hill and become just the second driver to complete the Triple Crown of Motor racing. “I’ve won the Monaco Grand Prix twice, and it’s one of my ambitions to win theRead More