FIA Tag

By FIA Lewis Hamilton finished more than three tenths of a second ahead of Kimi Räikkönen as practice for the Chinese Grand Prix got underway at the Shanghai International Circuit. The Mercedes driver set his quickest lap on Pirelli’s soft tyres, while Räikkönen needed the ultrasoft compound, two steps softer in the tyre manufacturer’s range, to split Hamilton from team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who finished just under half a second behind the defending champion. In cool conditions Mercedes looked comfortably in control, with Hamilton making steady improvements throughout the session asRead More

By FIA Sebastian Vettel will make his 200th grand prix start from the front of the grid after the Ferrari driver claimed his 51st career pole at the Bahrain International Circuit ahead of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and Mercedes Valtteri Bottas. Defending champion Lewis Hamilton finished in fourth place but the Mercedes driver will drop to P9 on the grid due to an unscheduled gearbox change. Räikkönen set the early pace in Q1, his first flying laps, on soft compound Pirelli tyres, yielding a time of 1:29.951. Ferrari team-mate Vettel slotted into P2Read More

By FIA After taking top spot in Friday’s second practice session, Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen doubled up with the fastest time in final practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix. The Finn, who escaped sanction for an unsafe release on FP2, set a supersoft-shod lap of 1:29.868 with around 20 minutes remaining in the session. The time was good and the Finn might have expected it to be challenged but in the end only Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo got anywhere close, with the Dutchman finishing 0.525s behind theRead More

By IMSA Wire Service Daytona Beach, Fla. – Following an extremely productive and positive meeting held on March 18 between IMSA, the FIA World Endurance Championship and Sebring International Raceway organizations, some key changes have been jointly agreed for the 2019 race weekend. Presented by IMSA and the WEC, the March 13-16 event will feature more racing, more cars and a heightened experience for fans with the WEC’s sixth round of its Super Season now becoming the 1000 Miles of Sebring (or 8 hours, whichever comes first) and taking placeRead More

By FIA Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel grabbed top spot in final practice for the Australian Grand Prix with a late surge on ultrasoft tyres at the end of a we-dry session at Albert Park. With the track damp and greasy until the closing stages most teams opted to play safe and remain on intermediate tyres during the final minutes of the session, with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen setting the pace with a lap of 1:31.680 on the green-banded tyres with just a minute to go. Vettel, though had bolted onRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Daniel Ricciardo has been hit with a three-place grid penalty for the Australian Grand Prix. The 28-year-old Aussie was found by race stewards to have been going too fast under red flag conditions just past halfway in the second practice session. The interruption came due to a loose wire at the start/finish line. The Aston Martin Red Bull Racing pilot was on a qualifying simulation lap when the session was halted, but while returning to the pits was deemed to have been going above the minimumRead More

By FIA It’s strong enough to support the weight of two African elephants and sturdy enough to deflect a large, full suitcase at a speed of 225kph. So how is motor sport’s new Halo device made to withstand such forces? It all starts with titanium. Lots of titanium. “We had to buy about 10 tonnes of high-strength titanium within one-and-a-half months, and receive it all in time and in perfect quality,” says Steffen Zacharias of Germany’s CP Autosport, one of the three manufacturers chosen by the FIA as official suppliersRead More

By FIA After more than three years at the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, Laurent Mekies, FIA Safety Director and Deputy to the F1 Race Director, is to leave the Federation. Mr Mekies joined the FIA in October 2014 as Safety Director, being responsible for all Safety and Medical matters for the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile across all its Championships, as well as R&D and homologation activities for both track and road. At the start of 2017 he was appointed Deputy F1 Race Director in addition to his existing duties. InRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor 2019 will see a revamped Formula 3 Series enter the scene by joining Formula 2 as part of the Formula 1 support race schedule. Currently much of the younger, global talent with their eyes set on F1 is divided between the numerous national or regional F3 series and the newer GP3 series. Many of the smaller F3 series will carry one, but GP3 will disappear as the FIA continues its mission to streamline the path to Formula One. In 2019 the new F3 series complete withRead More

By FIA Sebastian Vettel set the quickest time of the opening day of the second and final pre-season test ahead of the 2018 FIA Formula 1 season, edging Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas by just two hundredths of a second. Bottas made the early running on a busy morning for 2018’s expected front runners, putting in 86 laps on his way to a best time of 1:20.596, set on soft compound Pirelli tyres. However, he was deposed from top spot shortly before lunchtime when Vettel logged a lap of 1:20.396 using mediumRead More