Formula 1 Tag

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 Adam Tate, Associate Editor Mercedes released a statement today confirming the widely held belief that their technical chief Paddy Lowe is leaving the team he helped steer to three consecutive championships. As we first reported one month ago, Lowe is bound for Williams, but contractual and financial negotiations have been complicated by Valtteri Bottas’ talks with Mercedes over Nico Rosberg’s vacated seat, and Felipe Massa’s potential return to the Grove based squad. Such news formally coming to light indicates that some manner of solution has been found at the crowded negotiation tableRead 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

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor With recent news out of Ferrari it looks like Formula 1 will once again be flirting with the 1,000 horsepower threshold soon. Mercedes comfortably hit 900 plus horsepower with their 2016 power unit and the old V10’s also broke 900 hp, but the last time F1 engines produced over 1,000 hp was during the peak of the original turbo era in the mid-80’s. According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Ferrari’s 2017 car, code named 668, is an all out attempt by the prancing horse to reign inRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Mercedes will officially launch the W08 Hybrid, their 2017 Formula 1 car, on February 23 at Silverstone. The reigning Constructors’ Champions unveiling comes a day prior to rival Ferrari running their new car for the first time at Fiorano. The overhaul of technical regulations will put a greater emphasis on the shakedown process for the teams when they go to Barcelona on February 27. The German squad will use the revealing for a filming day while at the British-based circuit. The team has yet to nameRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Roughly three months away from the start of the 2017 Formula 1 season and there is still just as much unrest as there was when Nico Rosberg announced his retirement just days after winning the championship in Abu Dhabi in late November. But uncertainty is a good thing. Now, it appears that longtime Williams driver Valtteri Bottas will finally get his shot with a top team as Rosberg’s replacement (although nothing has officially been confirmed). A variety of rule changes still have the teams looking atRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief A return to Manor was in the mix for Rio Haryanto, but recent events have put a major hit on a chance for a race seat for the 2017 Formula 1 season. The 23-year-old Indonesian’s main backer Pertamina, a state-owned oil and natural gas corporation, has decided to pull its sponsorship, leaving the country’s first F1 competitor without substantial funding for next season. “This year there will not be a continuation of participation by Pertamina in F1,” spokeswoman Wianda Pusponegoro said in a statement. “Of courseRead More