Ferrari Tag

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 With Sebastian Vettel’s victory in the Monaco Grand Prix, Scuderia Ferrari snapped a 16 year winless street on the streets of the principality. Much like the last Ferrari victory in Monte Carlo, which Michael Schumacher won in 2001, this was also a one-two for the team, with pole sitter Kimi Raikkonen who came home a disappointed second. It was the team’s first one-two in since the infamous German Grand Prix of 2010, where Felipe Massa who was leading the race a year to the day afterRead 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

After a Friday dominated by Mercedes, Ferrari fought back in final practice with Kimi Räikkönen heading a one-two for the Scuderia ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel. After leading the way during the medium-tyre shod opening half of the session with a time of 1:22.409, Raikkonen bolted on soft tyres shortly after the halfway point in the one-hour final practice session and immediately lowered the benchmark by more than two seconds, logging a best time of 1:21.214 that stood until the end of the session. He was quickly joined at theRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Sauber and Honda have finally confirmed the longstanding rumor that the Swiss team will switch from Ferrari power units to Honda for 2018. It appears the team will also use McLaren gearboxes which is the surest sign yet that McLaren will also stick by Honda instead of jumping ship back to Mercedes as some had speculated. Sauber CEO Monisha Kaltenborn gave the following statement about the deal. “It is a great honor for the Sauber F1 Team to be able to work together with Honda inRead More

Ferrari maintained its advantage at the Sochi Autodrom with Sebastian Vettel topping the timesheet ahead of team-mate Kimi Räikkönen. Vettel finished the session three tenths of a second ahead of Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas. In Friday’s second practice session the quickest Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas was almost seven tenths adrift of Vettel’s pace on ultrasoft tyres and while the Finn close the gap to the four-time champion in the qualifying runs of this morning’s final practice session Mercedes still struggled to match Ferrari, with Bottas ending the session 0.337s behind Vettel.Read More

Ferrari continued to set the pace at the Sochi Autodrom with Sebastian Vettel heading up a Maranello one-two ahead of team-mate Kimi Räikkönen in second practice ahead of Sunday’s Russian Grand Prix. The Finn had been quickest in the morning session beating Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas by four hundredths of a second on supersoft tyres. However, when the teams moved to the qualifying simulations and the ultrasoft compound in the afternoon, Vettel, who had finished in P5 in a scrappy opening session, made an emphatic step putting almost three tenths betweenRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Ever since Nico Rosberg’s maiden victory at the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai International Circuit has been one of Mercedes best tracks on the F1 calendar. Despite Fernando Alonso’s a stunning victory in 2013, the silver arrows have taken pole position every year since 2012 and have won the race every year since 2014. 2016 Champion Nico Rosberg has won it twice, but it’s really three time champ Lewis Hamilton who is the king of China; he has five poles and four wins from 10 startsRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The fear espoused by many in the build up to the season looks like it may have come true; overtaking has been made significantly more difficult, at least so far. Many voices of reason and experience questioned the move to higher downforce cars, veteran drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa who experienced the high downforce machines of the mid 2000’s said that increased downforce wasn’t the answer. Some of the men who designed the notoriously quick but hard to pass cars of that era likeRead More