F1 Tag

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Four rounds completed and it’s safe to say that Scuderia Ferrari are nowhere near title contenders. Not because they’ve just had rotten luck, but they’ve been out beat when it matters most, the grand prix races. It shows as they only have 99 points in the Constructor’s Championship to Mercedes-AMG F1’s 173 and have swept the first two steps of the podium in every grand prix thus far. Sure, the duo of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc have been fierce in the free practice sessions, butRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer LONG BEACH, California – McLaren could be well on their way to a full-time entry sooner rather than later in the NTT IndyCar Series. Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren, traded the milestone 1000th Formula One grand prix in Shanghai, China, for the always festive Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, the site of the fourth round of the 2019 IndyCar championship. It was there during a media availability he shared some of the vision of the organization’s plans, as well as his thoughts on the one-offRead More

By FIA McLaren’s Carlos Sainz set the fastest lap of pre-season F1 testing so far on a day when Ferrari managed just one afternoon installation lap for Charles Leclerc following a morning crash involving Sebastian Vettel that sidelined the team for most of the day. Sainz recorded the best time of day two of this final pre-season test midway through the morning session. The Spanish driver used the C4 compound Pirelli tyres to a lap of 1:17.144s. As many teams focused on longer runs in the afternoon the time comfortablyRead More

By FIA McLaren rookie Lando Norris went quickest on the opening day of the second F1 pre-season test of 2019, despite twice stopping on track during the session. Norris first brought out the red flag with a little over 90 minutes left in the morning session when his McLaren was halted with what was later reported as a loss of hydraulic pressure. The British driver, who had completed 38 laps to that point, missed the remainder of the morning session but returned to the action after lunch. Late in theRead More

By FIA Ferrari began its 2019 Formula 1 campaign in style as Sebastian Vettel topped the timesheets at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya lapping almost four tenths second quicker than nearest rival Carlos Sainz of McLaren and posting an impressive total of 169 laps as testing got underway in Spain. Vettel’s table-topping time was set just before the lunch break, with the four-time champion registering a time of 1:18.161. At the time that was almost 1.8 seconds clear of nearest rival Sergio Perez of Racing Point. The time then served asRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Scuderia Ferrari has officially replaced Maurizio Arrvabene with Mattia Binotto as their team boss Monday, ending a four-year term that’s notably seen a turnaround and shortcomings. “The decision was taken together with the company’s top management after lengthy discussions related to Maurizio’s long term personal interests as well as those of the team itself,” said in a statement by Ferrari. “Ferrari would like to thank Maurizio for his valuable contribution to the team’s increasing competitiveness over the past few years, and wish him the best forRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The biggest open secret in the racing world has finally been confirmed. After Lance Stroll’s billionaire father Lawrence Stroll, the Canadian fashion magnate purchased Sahara Force India F1 Team and saved it from the brink of bankruptcy in August, everyone in the paddock has been waiting for the announcement that Lance would leave the beleaguered Williams outfit for his father’s new team. That confirmation came today as the team announced that Stroll has agreed to a long term deal with the team and joins Sergio PerezRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The 69th season of Formula One has officially concluded, and Mercedes continued to steamroll the competition in the Hybrid Era. Lewis Hamilton once again proved to have risen on the occasion as Sebastian Vettel faded away due to Ferrari’s costly errors that eliminated him from the championship race. Not only that, the 2019 season is starting to look clear with key names having no choice but to become a test driver or find different ventures in favor of even younger drivers and even the comeback for theRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The comeback trail has come full circle for Robert Kubica, who was announced Thursday that he’ll join Williams Racing for the 2019 Formula One campaign, and will be back on the main grid for the first time since the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Kubica, 33, will be partnered up with F2 star and current Mercedes-AMG Petronas test driver George Russell, who’s 13 years his junior as part of a new driver direction for the team that’s under-performed all season. “Firstly, I would like to thankRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Fourteen rounds done, seven to go, and since my first installment, there’s been so many changes across all 10 Formula 1 constructors and its 20 drivers. A few would-be contenders have gone by the wayside like Fernando Alonso and Red Bull, and others have flourished after a quiet or abysmal opening leg such as Kimi Raikkonen and Haas F1. We even saw a hot mess behind closed doors, resulting a new constructor and have so far been tremendous. In my latest installment of “Heptagon Viewpoints,”Read More