F1 Tag

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Mercedes has finally announced that Valtteri Bottas as its driver for the 2017 Formula 1 season alongside Lewis Hamilton. Bottas replaces reigning world champion Nico Rosberg, who announced his shocking retirement just days after winning the title in a thriller in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The 27-year-old Finn emerged as the favorite to replace Rosberg, but with a contract in place at Williams for 2017 it meant Mercedes had to negotiate a deal with the Grove-based outfit to release him for the upcoming season. ItRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost highlighted Daniil Kvyat’s spirited battle with Max Verstappen in the Singapore Grand Prix as the turning point of his 2016 Formula 1 season. The Russian started the season off with Red Bull, but was swapped in favor of Max Verstappen prior to the Spanish Grand Prix – which the Dutchman went on to claim as his first F1 victory. Kvyat’s return to Toro Rosso started off rough, but his ninth-place run at Singapore was impressive enough to warrant being re-signed andRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Toro Rosso announced that its 2017 car, the STR12, has passed all of the FIA mandatory crash tests. The Italian-based team is the second to confirm its updated car has passed the set of crash tests, behind Force India. Toro Rosso made the announcement via Twitter: So guys, good news… You’ve got a car to go testing with!#AllCrashTestsPassed #WellDoneTeam 🙌🏼👍🏼💪🏼🍾✅ pic.twitter.com/0hM0DwHbwY — Toro Rosso (@ToroRossoSpy) January 13, 2017 The updated Toro Rosso car will see inherently greater changes than its STR11 predecessor, in addition to theRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief The 2017 Formula 1 season is drawing near and with it hopeful answers to the uncertainty that looms over it. The big elephant in the room is who will be replacing reigning world champion Nico Rosberg at Mercedes? Several speculate that Toto Wolff is set on bringing in Valtteri Bottas from Williams to pilot alongside Lewis Hamilton. Bottas is remarkably talented, but there are reasons to halt that idea and go a different direction. There is a good chance that whoever takes over the seat isRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief The tire compounds for the Bahrain and Russian Grand Prix, the third and fourth races of the 2017 Formula 1 season, have been announced by Pirelli. The third round will feature medium, soft and super-soft compound selections – the same as last season. For round four, the Italian manufacturer has decided to go with its traditional super-soft and soft rubber, but also added ultra-softs to Sochi circuit. 2017 will see a change in tires in F1, with a new era of regulations both bigger and widerRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Frederic Vasseur helped lead Renault Sport F1 back onto the grid in last season, but unfortunately, the two have decided to part ways prior to 2017. The Frenchman worked alongside Renault F1 chief Cyril Abiteboul with restructuring and recruitment for long term vision. Vasseur was promoted to team principal midway through the season as Abiteboul moved to the factory with a focus on overseeing the operation. The team released a statement on the departure, citing it as a “mutual agreement” and that there is no changeRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief It has been confirmed by McLaren that engine supplier Honda will bring in a redesigned power unit for the 2017 Formula 1 season. The Japanese manufacturer returned to the sport in 2015, scoring a woeful 27 points as McLaren-Honda only managed to finish ninth in the constructors’ standings. However, 2016 saw a dramatic improvement as the Woking-based team scored 76 points and finished sixth in the constructors’ standings with Fernando Alonso finishing fifth on two occasions (Canadian Grand Prix, U.S. Grand Prix). The team’s technical director,Read More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief The dominoes continue to fall as now Renault have confirmed the launch date for their 2017 Formula 1 machine for February 21. In what feels like a contest of ‘who can show it off first,’ the French manufacturer’s date is three days ahead of Ferrari, two ahead of Mercedes and one ahead of Force India. The team, which returned to F1 last season after taking over the Lotus F1 Team, finished 2016 with nine points en route to ninth in the constructors’ standings. The 2017 lineupRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Bernie Ecclestone doesn’t appear to have a ton of faith in the current regime at Ferrari and says that the team should look outside of its Italian roots in order to find success once again. Despite having four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel and 2007 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen, the Maranello-based squad failed to score a win in 2016, scoring just 11 podiums en route to third in the constructors’ standings. Under the leadership of Team Principal Maurizio Arrivabene since November 2014, Ferrari have only managed toRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Force India officially confirmed that it will reveal their car for the 2017 Formula 1 season at Silverstone on February 22. The team enjoyed its best season to date with a fourth-place finish in the Constructors’ Championship, led by a pair of podiums from Sergio Perez and a best finish of fourth by Nico Hulkenberg  – both of whom finished among the top 10 in the driver’ standings. Hulkenberg has since moved on to Renault and Esteban Ocon will now drive the upcoming VJM10 alongside PerezRead More