Piastri has arrived at his home race in Melbourne in a much stronger situation than was the case on his debut last year, when the Australian GP was only his third F1 start and the Woking team was struggling with an uncompetitive car.In his rookie season he also adopted a strategy of playing himself in on Fridays and building up his pace over the course of a weekend.This season he has been pushing ... Keep reading
Monterey County, which owns the track, signed a long-term concession agreement with the non-prot organisation Friends of Laguna Seca (FLS) in July last year to secure its long-term financial future.On 12 December last year, a group called the Highway 68 Coalition filed a lawsuit against Monterey County, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors and the Friends of Laguna Seca, alleging nuisance ... Keep reading
Albon suffered a big accident in Turn 6 during Friday morning's first free practice session, which prompted a chassis change for the Anglo-Thai driver.Because Williams didn't have a spare chassis at its disposal, the Grove team has decided to let Albon use team-mate Sargeant's car, meaning the American will sit out the rest of the Melbourne weekend."While Logan should not have to suffer from a ... Keep re
The Silver Arrows camp arrived in Melbourne optimistic about taking a huge step forward, with Lewis Hamilton defending the W15 as an amazing car and not being an evil sister.This followed driver complaints that the team was falling back in the opening races of the new year, with Mercedes starting strongly in free practice only to regress in qualifying and the race.But Mercedes ... Keep reading
Morbidelli was forced to miss the entirety of pre-season testing in February after a serious crash while training on a production bike at the Algarve track left him with a concussion.On Friday at the Portuguese GP, Morbidelli crashed going into Turn 8 when he braked on the white line, but walked away unscathed from the incident.Speaking to the media afterwards, he says it was good to have a ... Keep reading
With RB having been relaunched this year under new management, owner Red Bull had hoped the team would deliver progress on track to fight nearer the front of the field.But a difficult start to the campaign, with RB fighting in the second half of the pack, has left both Tsunoda and Ricciardo unable to finish in the top 10 so far.And, with both having come into the year hoping to put themselves in ... Keep reading
The team does not currently have a spare chassis, so following the Thai drivers huge crash in FP1 in Australia on Friday the decision was taken to switch him to Logan Sargeants car, leaving the American on the sidelines.Team principal James Vowles has confirmed that the third chassis is still so far behind schedule that rather than fast track its completion the team will instead repair the ... Keep reading
Only moments before, Verstappen had pipped Carlos Sainz by 0.057s as the Ferrari driver spent much of the hour on top owing to his performance on the medium tyre earlier on in the session.An interesting thread within FP3 concerned the rapid degradation of the soft tyres over a single lap, and impressive first sectors for those trying the red-walled C5 often were unable to retain that level of ... Keep reading
With Albons original car being damaged beyond repair following a crash in opening practice at Albert Park, and Williams having no spare chassis on hand, the team had to withdraw one of its entries.But rather than it leaving Albon on the sidelines, it took the controversial choice to give him Sargeants car instead forcing the American out for the remainder of the weekend.While Vowles said ... Keep reading
Hadjar took the second victory of his F2 career with a dominant drive at Albert Park as he skilfully navigated two safety car restarts to win by over six seconds.But the result carries a significant asterisk, with the stewards set to investigate a start-line incident that resulted in Pepe Marti and Gabriel Bortoleto retiring after only travelling a matter of metres.Unaware of the fast-starting ... Keep reading
Verstappen took pole position with a last-gasp 1m15.915s effort, bettering a still-recovering Carlos Sainz by 0.170 seconds.Sergio Perez will start from third with Lando Norris the highest-placed McLaren driver in fourth.Charles Leclerc had been the pacesetter in the early stages of the weekend but an error on his final lap scuppered his chances to start from the front, leaving him fifth. He ... Keep reading
Ferrari SF-24 technical detail Photo by: Giorgio Piola A small but interesting feature was added to the rear wing pylon on the Ferrari SF-24 in Australia, as the team employed a winglet on either side of the assembly. It's somewhat surprising that we haven't seen teams do this before, given it is clearly allowable within that box region. Red Bull Racing RB20 technical ... Keep reading
Off the back of some impressive pace on the opening practice day for the Australian GP, Leclerc feels that his Ferrari squad is in pretty good shape with the performance of its SF-24.And while he is under no illusions that Red Bull still holds an advantage at the front of the field, Leclerc believes that Ferrari can target a much better showing than it managed in the first two grands prix of the ... Keep reading
The dusty conditions that affected the morning session had improved significantly for second practice, with lap times improving by over 1.5 seconds.Bastianini set the best pace on his factory team Ducati with a 1m38.057s, leading the way by 0.118s from KTMs Jack Miller.Marquez completed the top three despite suffering his first race weekend crash of the year on the Gresini Ducati, when the ... Keep reading
The championship leader bagged his third pole of the season, denying Ferrari and Carlos Sainz a chance to lead the field away on Sunday despite the Spaniard heading both Q1 and Q2.Verstappen had struggled with the balance of his RB20 throughout the weekend so far, but incrementally drew closer to the front as Red Bull dialled the car in to the peculiarities of the Albert Park circuit.Continuous ... Keep reading
After Matt Payne snatched pole position by a tiny margin of 0.0073 seconds in morning qualifying, Cam Waters won the start and Payne snuck past after a lap.But, before that lap ended, and under pressure from Broc Feeneys Chevrolet Camaro, the two Mustangs clashed at the final corner.Tickford Racings Waters ended up climbing out of his Mustang that was wedged against a concrete carrier while ... Keep reading
Reigning world champion Bagnaia looked set to cruise to a first sprint win since the Austrian Grand Prix last year having led by just under a second at the start of lap nine.But the Ducati rider made a mistake under braking and flew off track at Turn 1, dropping to fourth and releasing Vinales into a slender lead over Pramacs Jorge Martin.Martin hounded Vinales over the final few laps, but the ... Keep reading
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri qualified fourth and sixth respectively, but both will move up a spot after a three-place grid penalty for third-fastest Sergio Perez.While Piastri couldn't wring an optimal lap out of his MCL38 in Q3, Norris' four-tenth gap to Red Bull''s polesitter Max Verstappen is the smallest it has been this year, while he was only a tenth and a half slower than Carlos Sainz in ... Keep
After every F1 qualifying session, Autosport assesses each squad's qualifying record in terms of team-mate duels.This record is based exclusively on qualifying results so that grid penalties don't alter the statistics.When a driver can't put in a representative lap time due to a technical issue or an incident, this will be mentioned in the table.READ ALSO:F1 Australian GP: Verstappen takes pole ... Keep readin
Verstappen will start ahead of Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez after the one-hour qualifying session, which was split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.Australian Grand Prix grid: Verstappen on pole from Sainz Cla N Driver Car - Engine Time Delay 1 1 Max ... Keep reading
Having topped Fridays running at the Algarve International Circuit, Bastianini carried that into Saturday to take a first pole since Austria 2022 with a 1m37.706s.The five-time grand prix winner fended off a late charge from Aprilias Maverick Vinales to take pole by just 0.082 seconds, while Pramac Ducatis Jorge Martin completed the front row.Reigning world champion and current points ... Keep reading
Having looked good in Fridays practice sessions, Leclerc was less happy in Saturdays FP3 session and in qualifying he struggled with his front tyres.Having been fourth in Q1 and second in Q2, he tried a front wing change for his final run in Q3 in an attempt to find more performance.However, it didnt pay off and having abandoned the run he had to settle for fifth."To be honest, I think ... Keep reading
Champion secures 35th pole, with Carlos Sainz taking second Lewis Hamilton 11th in final Melbourne Grand Prix for Mercedes Max Verstappen continued the form that has seen him dominate the new Formula One season by claiming an assured pole position at the Australian Grand Prix. While the world champion shone in the Melbourne sunshine, Lewis Hamilton was left in the doldrums, bemoaning an inconsistent car as he failed to ma
Max Verstappen supports teams handling of Horner complaint World champion dampens speculation over Mercedes move Formula One world champion Max Verstappen has backed Red Bulls handling of a complaint against boss Christian Horner and said the saga has had no impact on how he feels racing for the team. Verstappen started the season by winning both races so far, but those victories at Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have been over
Still dominant on the track, still in disarray off it, Red Bull are likely to find their travails in the spotlight again in Australia After weeks of turmoil at Red Bull Racing, theteams beleaguered principal, Christian Horner, had issued a plea at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, more in hope than realism, that it was time to draw a line under the controversy that had surrounded him and his team. However, what followed in Fo
