Valtteri Bottas Tag

Sebastian Vettel edged team-mate Kimi Räikkonen to head a Ferrari one-two in a busy final practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix. Valtteri Bottas was third for Mercedes, almost four tenths of a second adrift of Vettel. Vettel’s best lap of 1:33.336 came 20 minutes from the end of the session and put him over a second clear of Räikkönen. The Finn then responded with a lap of 1:33.389, just 0.053 behind the German. Ferrari’s supersoft pace set a tough benchmark for Mercedes to beat and when the team’s driversRead 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

Sebastian Vettel took his and Ferrari’s first win the Singapore Grand Prix of 2015 beating Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas to Australian Grand Prix victory after a strategic slip by the champions allowed Vettel to inherit the lead midway through the race at Albert Park. Pole sitter Hamilton was in control of proceedings ahead of Vettel until his first pit stop on lap 17. After taking on soft tyres, the three-time champion emerged behind the slower Red Bull of Max Verstappen, as Vettel took the lead. Hamilton could findRead More

Sebastian Vettel set the fastest ever lap of Albert Park to top the FP3 timesheet in Melbourne, ahead of Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton. The session ended early when Lance Stroll crashed out with ten minutes left on the clock. After a slow start to the weekend, Ferrari ramped up the pace in final practice, with Vettel and team-mate Kimi Räikkönen making the running from early on. The German set the early pace but with 25 minutes remaining Räikkönen vaulted to the top of the order. His run onRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Before we discuss some of the changes hitting Mercedes, let’s take a look at some of what was accomplished under the old regulations. First off, they enter 2017 as the defending champions as a constructor, and as a driver’s champion with the Nico Rosberg.  The past three seasons have seen the German outfit capture three constructor titles, which were matched equally with driver’s championships, along with 51 victories. However, the stunning retirement of reigning F1 champion Rosberg put the team in a bit of a scramble.Read More

Lewis Hamilton went quickest in the first practice session of the new Formula One campaign, finishing more than half a second clear of new team-mate Valtteri Bottas at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. The three-time world champion ended the session at Melbourne’s Albert Park Circuit with a best time of 1:24.220, set on ultrasoft tyres, to beat Bottas, who moved to Mercedes from Williams at the start of this year, by 0.583 seconds. Apart from the Mercedes pairing, no other driver ran with the purple-banded Pirelli tyres during the sessionRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Ferrari saved their best for the last day of preseason testing at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as Kimi Raikkonen blitzed the field en route to the fastest time of winter and the second fastest lap ever recorded at the track. His 1:18.634 very nearly reached the 1:18.243 Fernando Alonso set while testing slick tires on the Renault R28 in preparation for the 2009 season. Of far more importance to Ferrari, Raikkonen’s time is seven tenths of a second faster than Mercedes’ best lap and eight tenths better thanRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor It was all thumbs up for Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari today. The four time champ looked absolutely unassailable as he set the fastest time of testing so far and completed a day high 156 laps. His 1:19.024 on ultra softs bested the Mercedes duo on the same tires by three tenths of a second and Felipe Massa’s Williams by four tenths. So confident was Vettel that he visibly slowed on the final straight for most of his fast laps, an ominious sign for their challengers that theRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Just as many began to doubt Mercedes’ pace, the silver arrows struck back with Valtteri Bottas who set a scorching 1:19.310 lap of Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The new Mercedes man only used the super soft tires to set the best time of 2017 thus far, and looked very comfortable behind the wheel of the W08 where he stayed for 70 laps today. Williams man and yesterday’s pace setter Felipe Massa kept him honest with a strong 1:19.420 for the ultra soft shod FW40. Both of their timesRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Felipe Massa and Williams surprised the field by topping the time sheets for the opening day of the second pre-season test from Barcelona today. The Brazilian veteran clocked a solid 1:19.726 in his FW40 on the super soft tires and logged a massive 168 laps around Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Daniel Ricciardo got Red Bull close to Massa’s time with a 1:19.900, but had to run the ultra soft tires in order to do so. The Aussie ran 89 laps for a solid if most unspectacular dayRead More