Lewis Hamilton is set for a five-place grid penalty at the Bahrain Grand Prix as the result of a gearbox change. The FIA revealed on Friday night that Hamilton’s car would be fitted with a new gearbox from Saturday’s final free practice session. With this change coming before the mandatory six events are up, it
Month: April 2018
Marc Marquez topped the second MotoGP practice session in mixed conditions at Termas de Rio Hondo, as championship leader Andrea Dovizioso ended up last. Only seven minutes into the session the rain flags were waved, which significantly reduced track activity for the next 20 minutes. With light rain falling for a short period of time,
Three-time MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo has accused his Ducati team-mate Andrea Dovizioso of trying to intentionally “undermine” his morale, both currently and throughout their MotoGP careers. Lorenzo, who enjoyed a famously difficult relationship with his previous team-mate Valentino Rossi at Yamaha, is currently in his second year alongside Dovizioso at Ducati – with both their
Daniel Ricciardo believes his Red Bull Formula 1 team can be “a lot better” at the Bahrain Grand Prix than it looked during a subdued showing in second practice. Ricciardo topped the first session in the daytime, beating the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas by three tenths, but was only sixth and nine tenths off the
World Rally Championship leader Sebastien Ogier will head into Saturday with a lead of 33.6 seconds over Thierry Neuville, after winning three out of four stages in Corsica on Friday. Although he started the afternoon loop with a lead of 21.2s, Ogier said he drove the first stage of the afternoon – the second pass
Honda rider Dani Pedrosa topped first practice ahead of the second race of the 2018 MotoGP season, which is taking place at Argentina’s Termas de Rio Hondo circuit this weekend. Pedrosa shot up to the top of the timing screens in the final seconds of the 45-minute session to lead a Honda 1-2 with LCR
A frustrated Sebastien Loeb will return to the Tour de Corse tomorrow following his early exit from his home round of the World Rally Championship on Friday morning. The Frenchman, on the second event of his planned three-rally WRC return, retired from the opening day after sliding off the road close to the start of
Sebastien Ogier stormed into an early lead of the World Rally Championship’s first full asphalt rally of the season in Corsica, while Sebastien Loeb crashed on the second stage. Nine-time champion Loeb’s hopes of victory in the second of his three planned 2018 outings with Citroen came to an abrupt end on the second stage
Liberty Media has unveiled a five-point plan for the future of Formula 1 after 2020, following a presentation to the teams at the Bahrain Grand Prix. The five key areas discussed were revenues, governance, sporting and technical regulations, power units and costs. Liberty intends to make the cars more raceable and improve overtaking, while putting
Jorge Lorenzo says he can no longer pull off the same strong starts with Ducati’s 2018 MotoGP bike that he was capable of last year. During his subdued first season with Ducati in 2017, one of Lorenzo’s strongest points was managing consistently good race starts – but this was not the case in this year’s
The FIA will meet with technical directors from all F1 teams in Bahrain to discuss ways of urgently increasing overtaking opportunities for the 2019 season. The gathering is a direct response to the lack of passing moves seen in the Australian GP, albeit at a track that rarely sees much action. There is some urgency
Citroen driver Kris Meeke says he will not get carried away by his stunning shakedown time at the Tour de Corse on Thursday. Meeke blitzed the opposition on the 3.38-mile shakedown stage, beating his nearest rival – Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen – by 2.2 seconds. Meeke’s team-mate Sebastien Loeb was 5.8s down on the sister C3
Mercedes believes Ferrari’s Formula 1 engine is now its equal with it in terms of power, according to Lewis Hamilton. Speaking on Thursday ahead of this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel claimed Mercedes had a pace advantage of up to 0.4 seconds at the start of the season. Mercedes has been F1’s
Haas has reshuffled its pit crew and introduced an extra fail-safe system to try to prevent a repeat of its Australian Grand Prix pitstop blunders. Botched pitstops for both Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean cost Haas a likely double top-six finish in the first race of the new F1 season, and team boss Gunther Steiner
Despite not competing on Corsica for a decade, Sebastien Loeb’s World Rally Championship rivals say the Frenchman starts among the favourites for victory at this week’s Tour de Corse. Loeb made a storming return to the WRC by leading last month’s Rally Mexico before a puncture ruled out him out of the race for victory
This year’s Formula 1 eSports series will include an official entry from nine of the 10 world championship teams, with Ferrari the only outfit that will not participate. F1 launched its first eSports series last year and will continue to use the Codemasters-developed F1 2017 video game for this year’s contest. The format of the
MotoGP brake supplier Brembo says it has “identified and resolved” the problem that caused Jorge Lorenzo to crash out of last month’s season opener in Qatar. Ducati rider Lorenzo was forced to dismount his bike at Turn 4 on the 12th lap of the Qatar race while running 10th, and said he was “really lucky”
The origin of Haas’s 2018 Formula 1 car came under fire during the Australian Grand Prix weekend, as critics queried the validity of its technical relationship with Ferrari. Force India and McLaren called for an investigation into the Haas-Ferrari collaboration to ensure the restrictions put in place on aerodynamic development are being adhered to. However,
A regulation change to stop World Rally Championship crews taking a tactical approach to powerstages has been ratified by the FIA. Crews delayed checking into the final stage on Rally Sweden and Rally Mexico so they could start further down the order, benefitting from improved grip on the roads after cars ahead had swept loose
Both Toro Rosso drivers will use updated Honda turbocharger and MGU-H components in the Bahrain Grand Prix after Pierre Gasly’s engine failure in the Formula 1 season opener. Toro Rosso’s partnership with Honda began well with strong reliability in testing but its competitive debut in the Australian Grand Prix was hit by an early engine-induced
The NASCAR Cup series has released its 2019 calendar. Its dates are almost identical to last year’s calendar, with a minor change coming as the Easter break takes place on April 20-21 next year. It means that the season will open with the Daytona 500 on February 17 and end at Homestead-Miami on November 17.
Mercedes has explained how its Formula 1 engine’s different power modes work after it “proved a particularly hot topic” during the Australian Grand Prix weekend. Lewis Hamilton joked before the start of the season that the Mercedes engine’s qualifying specification “should be the party mode”, which triggered plenty of debate in Melbourne. Ferrari and Red
Penske’s Juan Pablo Montoya will not make a sixth Indianapolis 500 appearance in 2018, Autosport has learned. Montoya currently drives for Penske in its new-for-2018 Acura IMSA SportsCar championship programme, having been replaced in the squad’s IndyCar team by Josef Newgarden ahead of ’17. The former Williams and McLaren Formula 1 driver had been keen
Renault’s progress since its return to Formula 1 as a factory team has been “a remarkable turnaround”, according to Williams deputy principal Claire Williams. The French manufacturer took over the struggling Lotus outfit ahead of the 2016 season, and scored just eight points in its comeback campaign to finish ninth overall. It improved its tally
LCR rider Cal Crutchlow says Honda’s MotoGP bike remains “by far” the hardest to ride on the grid despite recent gains made by the Japanese manufacturer. Honda enjoyed a strong off-season in testing and its four-time world champion Marc Marquez finished a close second in the Qatar season opener last month, indicating the manufacturer had
Stewart-Haas Racing believes it needed time to get over “growing pains” in order to have the upturn in form it is currently enjoying in the 2018 NASCAR Cup series. SHR’s switch from Chevrolet to Ford for 2017 took time to get to grips with, with the current iteration of SHR having previously had its engines
Upgrade for free today You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. The Sauber Formula 1 team has bolstered its technical department with the addition of former Toyota, Ferrari and Audi man Jan Monchaux as head of aerodynamics. The Franco-German studied at the French aeronautical and space institution Supaere and latterly Imperial College.
Williams is in a “difficult phase” without an “easy solution” and should be braced for a difficult 2018 Formula 1 season, according to Motorsport.tv’s pundits. The British team failed to score a point in the Australian Grand Prix, with Sergey Sirotkin retiring early on and Lance Stroll getting beaten by Charles Leclerc’s Sauber. Stroll blamed
Gene Haas’s attitude during his Formula 1 team’s dips in form has been crucial in keeping his drivers’ confidence up, according to Romain Grosjean. Haas made an instant impact in F1 when it scored points on its debut in 2016, but has also suffered up-and-down form through its first two seasons. Grosjean said his team
Johann Zarco has defended his race strategy in the MotoGP season opener, where he slipped down the order in the closing stages after leading most of the race. The Tech3 rider led the first 17 of 22 laps at Losail, having set a record lap to claim pole position, before gradually falling back and finishing