FIA Tag

By Christopher DeHarde, Contributing Writer When you’re 18 minutes behind the race leader after the first lap of a ten lap race, your race is pretty much over. Unless your name is Vic Elford and you’re running in a Porsche 907 at the 1968 Targa Florio. The Targa Florio was one of the most challenging races on the FIA World Sportscar Championship before it was dropped from the schedule as the cars outgrew the circuit. The circuit, made up entirely of public roads throughout Sicily, was a 45 mile lapRead More

By Adam Tate, Managing Editor All 11 Formula One teams have come together and drafted a unanimous letter to FIA President Jean Todt, Bernie Ecclestone and CVC Capital Partners, demanding a return to the 2006-2015 qualifying format. The letter makes it clear that the teams want the disastrous elimination format dropped immediately and that any ideas of aggregate qualifying Ecclestone may have, are not wanted either. It is easily the strongest show of force from the teams on a single issue in some time and something that team bosses and driversRead More

Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time of final practice in Bahrain ahead of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen as Ferrari took the fight to Mercedes ahead of qualifying at the Sakhir Circuit. With just over 10 minutes left on the clock, the Mercedes drivers took to the track on the red-banded supersoft tyre for their qualifying runs. Nico Rosberg immediately jumped to P1 with a lap of 1:32.104, with Lewis Hamilton quickly slotting into P2 with a lap just five hundredths of a second adrift of the Australian Grand Prix winner. ItRead More

By Adam Tate, Managing Editor Formula One drivers have finally had enough. On the heels of some of the sports biggest stars criticizing recent moves by Bernie Ecclestone and the FIA, the GPDA: Grand Prix Drivers Association, has released a statement bashing recent decisions which jeopardize the future of the sport, like the recent qualifying fiasco in last weekend’s season opening Australian Grand Prix. According to GPDA chairman, Alex Wurz, the drivers have considered speaking up for some time, and it seems now is finally the moment. It couldn’t have comeRead More

By Adam Tate, Managing Editor Stefano Domenicali, best known for his time as Ferrari’s F1 Team Principal from 2008 until 2014 is now set to be sworn in as the CEO of Lamborghini on March 15th. After being forced out of the house that Enzo built when Sergio Marchionne got rid of Luca di Montezemolo and took over Ferrari’s reigns, nice guy Domenicali was immediately snatched up by Audi. It was a move that may thought would spearhead the Volkswagen-Audi Group’s much anticipated F1 bid, until the VW emissions scandal putRead More

By Adam Tate, Managing Editor With the Strategy Group and the F1 Commission both meeting today in a series of last ditch efforts to draft new rules for 2017, 2018 and beyond; a series of announcements are set to stream out of Geneva over the following days that will have massive implications for the sport. The first of these broke today with changes to the now, well established qualifying format. What replaces the tried and true system is a gimmicky scheme that surely has Bernie Ecclestone rubbing his hands with glee. QualifyingRead More

By Adam Tate, Managing Editor The FIA World Motorsport Council has formally ratified the calendar for the 2016 Formula One World Championship. Only one change was made over the provisional calendar, the Mexican Grand Prix will be moved forward one week to October 30th, giving the teams back to back races with the U.S. race set to take place on October 23rd. There is still doubt over the U.S. race due to funding issues between Circuit of the Americas and the state of Texas. The season begins and ends in theRead More

Porsche returned to the top of the timing screens at Bahrain this morning as the teams took part in a final hour of Free Practice running before the important qualifying sessions later today in preparation for the Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain tomorrow. Brendon Hartley laid down an early lap of 1m40.917s in the No.17 Porsche 919 Hybrid and the New Zealanders effort, which was 1.2s faster than Marcel Fassler’s best from last night’s session, was not bettered in the 60-minute session this morning. Making it another Porsche 1-2, theRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief The Williams F1 team has decided to drop its appeal on Felipe Massa’s disqualification from the Brazilian Grand Prix. Massa finished eighth in his home race, but had the result thrown out by the FIA after his tires were found to be over the maximum temperature allowed on the grid. “Following detailed consideration the team has concluded that despite not agreeing with the exclusion and believing it has sufficient evidence with which to successfully contest the ruling, it will not formally appeal the decision as aRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Rebellion Racing’s Nick Heidfeld will miss this weekend’s World Endurance Championship finale in Bahrain due to an injury. The former F1 driver took to social media, announcing on twitter that he will not be taking up his seat in the lead Rebellion R-One AER in the LMP1 privateer class as a result of damage to hand ligaments sustained in the second round of the Formula E Championship in Malaysia earlier this month. Heidfeld was previously set to return to the Rebellion Racing line-up alongside Nicolas ProstRead More