Formula 1
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The psychological breakthrough behind Russell beating Hamilton in F1 2024 quali
George Russell puts his comprehensive Formula 1 2024 defeat of former Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in qualifying down to being “psychologically in a really good place”.
The 26-year-old ended the 2024 season with a 24-6 qualifying record against Hamilton, with all sessions including those that set the grid for sprint events taken into consideration.
This compares with their 8-12...Keep reading -
How McLaren’s rear wing push changed the game in F1
McLaren surpassed even its own pre-season expectations in 2024, taking its first Formula 1 constructors’ championship title for 26 years.
Whilst the team clearly had a couple of major waypoints in its development cycle that improved the general operating envelope of the MCL38, a standout feature of its campaign was how it honed its car to the varying circuit characteristics.
These updates...Keep reading -
Alpine F1 turnaround proves Enstone reorganisation was the "right thing to do"
Alpine Formula 1 team boss Oliver Oakes says the team improving its fortunes over the second half of the 2024 season has shown that streamlining its Enstone operation was the right way to go.
Hitech junior team chief Oakes was brought in alongside advisor Flavio Briatore by Renault boss Luca de Meo to help steady the ship at Alpine after a rocky first half of its 2024 campaign.
As part of De...Keep reading -
F1 2025 driver line-up: Who’s on the Formula 1 grid next year?
‘Silly season’ is a common term in F1 referring to the time of year in which many teams announce their driver line-up for the following season.
It usually takes place during the summer as that’s when the market is at its most frantic, with driver changes causing doubt over the futures of others.
But, silly season started a lot earlier this year due to Lewis Hamilton announcing his move...Keep reading -
Who is Racing Bulls' new F1 driver Isack Hadjar?
Having been signed by Racing Bulls for the 2025 Formula 1 season, Isack Hadjar had very much been in and out of the conversation as speculation surrounding Sergio Perez’s Red Bull future mounted. With Liam Lawson always viewed as the most likely candidate to step up and replace the Mexican after he took Daniel Ricciardo’s RB ride midway through 2024, the opportunity for new blood presented...Keep reading -
Hadjar to partner Tsunoda at Racing Bulls for F1 2025
The Racing Bulls Formula 1 team has announced Red Bull junior Isack Hadjar will partner Yuki Tsunoda in 2025, as the starting grid for the new season is now set.
Hadjar will take up the seat vacated by Liam Lawson, whose own move to the main Red Bull squad as Sergio Perez's replacement was announced on Thursday.
Hadjar was the runner-up in the 2024 F2 season with Campos Racing, ceding the...Keep reading -
Binotto on Audi's F1 reality check after finding team "frozen" with no plans
When former Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto accepted the call to head up Audi's Formula 1 operations earlier this year, he knew it was going to be a tough task.
It is one thing honing an established team as he did at Maranello into fighting for world championship glory; it is quite another building something up from the back of the grid.
But even he admits that the Audi challenge has been...Keep reading -
Why F1 must find a solution to its wasted tyres problem
While Formula 1 continues to make good gains in improving its sustainability, one of the most obvious areas of wastage clearly still needs addressing.
With the quest to reduce environmental impact being all about marginal gains rather than delivering a silver bullet solution, it is quite remarkable that F1 finds itself left with so many unused tyres over the course of a season.
The reality...Keep reading -
Bottas rejoins Mercedes as 2025 F1 reserve driver
Valtteri Bottas has been re-signed by Mercedes to be its reserve driver for the 2025 Formula 1 season, after he missed out on keeping his seat at Sauber.
The Finnish racer scored 10 grand prix wins for the Silver Arrows squad in a 100-race stint between 2017 and 2021 when he was partnered with Lewis Hamilton.
He was dropped from the team ahead of 2022 as team boss Toto Wolff opted to promote...Keep reading -
Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #49 Esteban Ocon
On the face of it, Esteban Ocon’s second-place finish in the Brazilian Grand Prix might be doing a lot of heavy lifting here, but it’s easy to overlook a handful of other impressive moments in a difficult final season with Alpine.
Ocon led a decent portion of that Interlagos race, and this performance was supplemented with 10th in Miami – with a still-awful car – and ninth at the...Keep reading -
Russell: Ben Sulayem needs to tell F1 drivers what the FIA’s goal is
George Russell has implored FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem to “express what his goal is” with motorsport’s governing body, amid the ongoing tension between the Emirati former rally driver and Formula 1 racers.
The 2024 F1 season finished with the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association still awaiting a formal response to its request for its members to be treated as “adults” in a...Keep reading -
Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #46 Yuki Tsunoda
Despite continuing to be overlooked by Red Bull’s lead Formula 1 team, Yuki Tsunoda showed great maturity over 2024, with three seventh places the highlights of his year in Australia, Miami and Brazil.
He also managed his best F1 qualifying result to date with third on the grid in slippery conditions at Interlagos, and over the season outscored both Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson to assert...Keep reading -
Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #39 Alex Albon
“Messy” is how Alex Albon sums up his third season with Williams.
Problems came from both sides; his crashes in Melbourne and Brazil were awkward since they led to missed races (in Australia for Logan Sargeant), but Williams’s car-build issues also meant he was competing with a long-hidden weight penalty and reliability kept undoing him too.
Albon was excellent in qualifying, reaching...Keep reading -
Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #37 Fernando Alonso
Aston Martin regressed over 2024 as upgrades did little to improve its competitiveness in Formula 1, but the evergreen Fernando Alonso still squeezed every drop from his car.
The Spanish veteran’s consistent points-scoring exploits in the opening rounds of the season, spearheaded by fifth in Jeddah, laid the foundations for Aston’s run to fifth place in the constructors’ championship, and...Keep reading -
Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #27 Lewis Hamilton
Back to winning ways in 2024 after 946 days without gracing an F1 podium’s top step – Lewis Hamilton’s emotional Silverstone victory was the highlight of his season, but he was excellent in qualifying and on the orthodox two-stop strategy at Spa too.
Hamilton’s in-race tyre management remains top class, as his pace while rising in Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi showed, plus how he held off Max...Keep reading -
Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #23 Nico Hulkenberg
Nico Hulkenberg led the line admirably for Haas as the American team stepped up its performance for 2024.
Brilliantly consistent in the first 10 races, all but one of his finishes in those were inside of the ninth/10th/11th bracket, then he took advantage of Haas upgrades to finish sixth in the Austrian and British Grands Prix.
The German scored points in all but one of the last seven rounds...Keep reading -
Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #21 Pierre Gasly
Alpine’s struggles with an overweight and undercooked car at the start of 2024 hurt Pierre Gasly but, when the A524 started to improve, the Frenchman shone.
A stretch of four points-scoring finishes from Monaco to Austria gave Alpine hope that it could reverse the arrears, but it was in a series of late-season improvements where Gasly’s year picked up.
He followed team-mate Esteban...Keep reading -
Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #13 Oscar Piastri
Oscar Piastri enjoyed a great second F1 season and made a valuable contribution to the end of McLaren’s long wait for a constructors’ title.
With a slight race pace disadvantage to Lando Norris last year, Piastri picked up his game and claimed his first grand prix victory in Hungary – albeit with a bit of a team orders muddle.
His second win in Baku came in much more salubrious...Keep reading -
Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #11 George Russell
Qualifying was where George Russell gained an important edge at Mercedes in 2024, which he put down to his confidence rising in situations where the pressure is on. He ended up with a small but still significant 0.148s advantage over a driver with 104 F1 poles in Lewis Hamilton.
Their head-to-head split ended up as 24-6, with only Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas having better. From strong...Keep reading -
Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #6 Carlos Sainz
A classy year for Carlos Sainz in difficult circumstances, in knowing that first, his Ferrari seat was going to Lewis Hamilton in 2025 and second, in losing a race to appendicitis. The Spaniard bounced back from the illness with a fine victory in Melbourne, and his victory in Mexico was perhaps his most dominant in F1 to date.
PLUS: Ranking the top 10 Formula 1 drivers of 2024
Although...Keep reading -
Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #3 Lando Norris
Undoubtedly, his best Formula 1 season to date – with the statistics proving so. In 2024, Lando Norris finished as championship runner-up (his previous best finishing position was sixth in 2021 and 2023), he took four wins in breaking his GP victory duck (along with a sprint win too) and took his F1 career pole tally to near double figures when he’d had just one coming in.
But it can’t...Keep reading -
Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #2 Charles Leclerc
If 2024 was a year when Ferrari made it clear exactly how much Charles Leclerc means to the team – signing him to a new contract and leaving Carlos Sainz exposed when Lewis Hamilton became available – then he too showed how much the Prancing Horse means to him.
The disappointment at Ferrari of losing the constructors’ battle to McLaren in Abu Dhabi on a day when Leclerc had risen from...Keep reading -
Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #1 Max Verstappen
“A Schrodinger’s season for Max Verstappen. Concurrently his best and not his best.” That’s how we’ve described the world champion’s campaign in our Formula 1 driver rankings. And that’s because there are two ways of looking at Verstappen’s performance over the past months.
One is that his success in winning the title again with immense performance peaks against the background...Keep reading -
Why Red Bull's Lawson pick renders its Ricciardo experiment a waste of time
Let's recap the saga of Red Bull's second seat alongside Max Verstappen, shall we? It's a saga that, by all accounts, is gratuitously long and ends in a resolution that would be entirely predictable for a team with a 'normal' approach to the driver market.
Carlos Sainz became unexpectedly available for 2025 when his Ferrari seat went to Lewis Hamilton. The Verstappens did not want Sainz in the...Keep reading -
A hope and a prayer: Are there enough reasons to justify Lawson's Red Bull deal?
It's somewhat explainable how Red Bull ended up here. You don't necessarily have to agree that Christian Horner and Helmut Marko have made all the right decisions regarding their team's driver line-up over the past year and a half, but you can still find some logic in how they came to the point where they had to replace Sergio Perez with Liam Lawson.
It's fairly easy to say now that it was a...Keep reading -
Lawson promoted to replace Perez at Red Bull
Liam Lawson will step up to Red Bull as Max Verstappen’s team-mate in Formula 1 next year, it was announced on Thursday.
Just a day after the Milton Keynes-based squad revealed that a deal had been reached to part ways with Sergio Perez, it confirmed that it had elected to promote RB youngster Lawson.
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Formula 1The 10 F1 2024 moments that cost Perez his Red Bull...Keep reading -
Ferrari first to reveal 2025 F1 car launch date
Ferrari has become the first Formula 1 team to reveal the date of its 2025 car launch.
The Italian outfit posted on social media a teaser image above the 19 February date, with the message "Get ready to meet our 2025 challenger".
While no further details were offered, the outfit has traditionally held such launch events at its Maranello base.
The Ferrari reveal will take place the...Keep reading -
The complications and negotiations behind Perez’s Red Bull exit
It had been pretty clear for a while that Sergio Perez would not be a part of Red Bull’s future in Formula 1 off the back of his troubled 2024 campaign.
However, what was not so obvious was exactly how the parting of ways would play out because of the complications caused by him having a firm contract.
That was the result of the decision made by Red Bull in June to hand Perez a two-year...Keep reading -
Autosport Podcast Q+A: Perez leaves Red Bull and the Tsunoda-Lawson conundrum
On this week’s episode, we react to the news that Sergio Perez is leaving Red Bull after a very disappointing campaign for the 34-year-old.
The Mexican finished eighth in the Formula 1 drivers’ standings, while team-mate Max Verstappen clinched a fourth, consecutive crown and finished 285 points ahead of Perez.
So with that news now confirmed, Alex and Kevin discuss which driver will be...Keep reading -
The 10 F1 2024 moments that cost Perez his Red Bull drive
Sergio Perez’s Red Bull career haul now ends at five wins, three poles and 932 points. That he only added to the last of those three categories in the 2024 Formula 1 season is one of three key reasons why he’s finally been cast off as Max Verstappen’s team-mate.
The other two are firstly how it’s thanks to Perez bringing in just 35% of the world champion’s points total that Red Bull...Keep reading -
Perez leaves Red Bull with immediate effect
Sergio Perez has announced his exit from the Red Bull Formula 1 team after four seasons with the squad.
As widely expected, the Mexican will vacate the seat alongside world champion Max Verstappen after a tough 2024 campaign in which he struggled for performance and dropped to eighth in the drivers' championship.
That lack of form had long left his future in doubt, despite him originally...Keep reading -
Verstappen on F1 future: Mercedes talk constructive, but I like where I am
Max Verstappen sees no reason to change Formula 1 teams before his current Red Bull deal is up in 2028.
Verstappen and Red Bull went through a turbulent first half of the season both on and off the track, marked by power plays behind the scene behind team boss Christian Horner and advisor Helmut Marko, who enjoys the support of Verstappen's entourage.
Horner survived calls from Verstappen's...Keep reading -
Discovering and developing young talent is at the heart of Williams F1 comeback plan
Williams is on a “mission” to return to the top of Formula 1 – and at the very heart of that assignment lies the team’s early careers programmes.
Whether it is a graduate programme, an industrial placement, apprenticeships or work experience, the platform to launch a career into F1 with the team based in Grove has never been more accessible.
Add to that a scheme such as the...Keep reading -
The old-school F1 obsession that Aston Martin is having to shake off
Formula 1’s current ground-effect cars are unlikely to go down as fond favourites for the engineers and designers who have worked with them.
Running ultra low to the ground, with super stiff suspension to keep ride heights at their optimum, they are tricky beasts to keep in the perfect balance window – as many teams have found out to their cost.
But there is another truth that has...Keep reading -
The management culture that has helped McLaren’s push to F1 title glory
McLaren CEO Zak Brown thinks a management team that is “constructively critical” of itself has been a cornerstone of his team’s success in Formula 1.
The Woking-based squad ended a 26-year wait for constructors’ championship success this year with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri securing the crown at the season closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
For Brown, the success is the culmination of...Keep reading -
Colapinto: Williams F1 stint still a "dream come true" despite difficult end
Franco Colapinto has labelled his nine-race Formula 1 cameo as a "dream" despite his tough end to the 2024 season with Williams.
Colapinto was drafted in by Williams to replace the underperforming Logan Sargeant after the Dutch Grand Prix, making his debut at Monza in September.
The 21-year-old shone on his first couple of races with the team, scoring five points with an eighth-place finish...Keep reading -
Verstappen: People who criticise me crossing the line don't have a champion mentality
Max Verstappen has insisted he will keep crossing the line racing in Formula 1 if he has to and suggested those who do not understand do not have the "world champion mentality".
After a dominant start, Verstappen and Red Bull came under pressure from McLaren and Ferrari in 2024 and the Dutchman was challenged for the drivers' title by Lando Norris throughout the second part of the...Keep reading -
Red Bull eyes wider operating window for new RB21 F1 challenger
Red Bull thinks that improving its car balance, rather than simply delivering more downforce on its RB21, is key to its Formula 1 title ambitions in 2025.
The Milton Keynes-based outfit faced some struggles throughout this season after an early advantage was wiped away by its main rivals from the Miami Grand Prix.
And although Max Verstappen ended the year as drivers’ champion, thanks in...Keep reading -
How 2026 F1 rules will help avoid identikit designs
The FIA published a new set of renders showcasing the changes that are set to be made to the 2026 Formula 1 regulations.
The ruling body is still looking to better balance the performance envelope of the cars before the teams start work on their designs at the start of the new year.
Discussions have been ongoing regarding how the car's aerodynamics can be better utilised to meet the various...Keep reading -
Tsunoda claims he "impressed" Red Bull in key test ahead of 2025 F1 driver call
Yuki Tsunoda reckons he "impressed" Red Bull with his technical feedback in his recent Formula 1 test for the team – knowing it is an area the squad has doubted him on.
The Japanese was handed his first proper run in a Red Bull car at the recent post-season Abu Dhabi tyre test, at a time when the Milton Keynes-based outfit is deciding what to do with its driver line-up for 2025.
But while...Keep reading -
Alonso: Abu Dhabi repaid Stella for our 2010 F1 title miss
Fernando Alonso says McLaren's Formula 1 title in Abu Dhabi has repaid team boss Andrea Stella for Ferrari's title loss in 2010.
Stella was Alonso's race engineer at Ferrari when the Spaniard went into the 2010 season finale with an eight-point lead on Red Bull's Mark Webber and an 15-point lead on Webber's team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
Vettel led the race from pole while an early pitstop for...Keep reading -
Ben Sulayem finds ally in swearing clampdown in Mercedes boss Wolff
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s push to drive swearing out of Formula 1 has received unlikely support from Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.
While Wolff does not see eye-to-eye with Ben Sulayem on every topic in F1, he thinks the efforts to clean up the image of drivers is something worth fighting for thanks to a personal experience he had recently.
Amid an ongoing debate about drivers acting...Keep reading -
Albon: F1 2024 a "missed opportunity" for Williams
Alex Albon says the 2024 Formula 1 season feels like a "missed opportunity" for Williams as it dropped to ninth in the standings.
Williams started the season on the back foot with an overweight FW46 and while a lot of effort went into taking the weight out again, that also impacted its update schedule. The Grove-based team only added one significant two-part update to the car right after the...Keep reading -
The remarkable tale of F1’s unlikeliest team 'boss'
It was one of the more bewildering sights of the 2014 Formula 1 season, as Finbarr O’Connell took his place in the FIA team principals’ press conference at the Abu Dhabi GP. O’Connell was working for insolvency firm Smith & Williamson, who in turn had taken on the administration of Caterham Sports Limited.
O’Connell arrived, dressed in white and green Caterham kit, after the team raised...Keep reading -
Ferrari to improve every pillar of performance in 2025
Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur says his team will have to improve "every single pillar of performance" to catch McLaren in 2025.
Ferrari just fell short of beating McLaren after an up-and-down campaign in which the Scuderia returned to the championship fight and its drivers, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, registered a combined five wins and 22 podiums.
For the Maranello squad, 2024 was a...Keep reading -
JA on F1 Podcast: What will happen in F1 in 2025?
Who will win the 2025 F1 Drivers' Championship? Will Lewis Hamilton score more points than Charles Leclerc? What impact will the struggles of car manufacturers, especially Europeans, have on F1 next year? How might geopolitics impact on F1, for example in the Middle East and Asia?
For our final podcast of the year, we thought that rather than looking backwards with yet another Season Review –...Keep reading -
Why McLaren thinks it can overcome its 2025 wind tunnel deficit
McLaren believes that the reduction in wind tunnel time that it faces as a result of winning the Formula 1 constructors’ championship will not be as big a handicap as some think.
The Woking-based outfit’s triumph in last weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix helped to secure its first teams’ title since 1998, handing the team a good boost in commercial rights income.
But one of the...Keep reading -
FIA governance restructure given the green light
Changes to the FIA statutes have been granted at the General Assembly in Rwanda, affecting the roles of the ethics and audit committees at motorsport's governing body.
Under new plans, the responsibilities of the compliance officer would mean that power would be handed over to the FIA president and the president of its senate.
It would also remove the power of the audit committee to...Keep reading -
Rwanda launches official bid for F1 race at Wurz-designed track
Rwanda has formally announced its bid to hold a Formula 1 race at a new track close to the planned Bugesera airport near Kigali.
The spectacular circuit, which will make full use of the hilly terrain where it is to be constructed, is being designed by former F1 driver Alexander Wurz.
Autosport understands Wurz's company has been working on the project with the government and local...Keep reading -
The 2025 design ideas behind RB's last update of 2024
RB introduced a new nose and front wing assembly at the last Formula 1 race of the season in Abu Dhabi last weekend.
But while the team did briefly use the latest design during practice on Friday, the team quickly reverted to its regular specification for the rest of the weekend.
The car ran with a large Kiel probe rake attached behind the front wheels, with both front wing and nose designs...Keep reading
