Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Renault signing Daniel Ricciardo for the 2019 Formula 1 season made its staff as upbeat as they were during the title-winning Fernando Alonso era, says Cyril Abiteboul. Ricciardo’s switch from Red Bull to Renault was one of F1’s biggest shocks
Month: January 2019
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Valentino Rossi says if Yamaha wants to win again in MotoGP it must match the effort Ducati and Honda are making with their staff levels “closer to Formula 1”. After a disappointing 2017 season, Yamaha endured an even worse campaign
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Toyota starts 2019 chasing back-to-back World Rally Championship manufacturers’ titles for the first time in 25 years. It already has its rivals worried with a raft of developments for this season, as David Evans explains When Toyota brought a four-wheel
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Daniel Suarez has signed for Stewart-Haas Racing and will replace Kurt Busch at the NASCAR Cup series team for 2019. The 27-year-old has spent the last two seasons in the Cup series with Joe Gibbs Racing after winning the Xfinity
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Maurizio Arrivabene is to be replaced as team principal of the Ferrari Formula 1 team by its technical chief Mattia Binotto, senior sources have confirmed. Ferrari has continually denied that it was considering a major management reshuffle after its failed
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Mercedes’s Formula 1 non-executive chairman Niki Lauda has returned to the AKH Hospital in Vienna after contracting a flu infection during the Christmas break. Lauda was on a family holiday in Ibiza when he became ill. It is understood that
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Ross Brawn say he is “impatient” to revamp Formula 1, but insists that the slower process of consulting teams on changes is the right thing to do. The championship winning technical director and team boss was drafted in by F1’s
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Aprilia MotoGP boss Romano Albesiano says his team has “no excuse” not to do better in 2019, as Andrea Iannone and Bradley Smith will join the team. Aleix Espargaro was paired with rookie Sam Lowes and then Scott Redding over
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa must capitalise on the opportunity to claim a milestone first Dakar win for the Japanese marque in 2019, says team manager Glyn Hall. Toyota Hilux cars finished best of the rest behind the dominant Peugeots
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Carlos Sainz Sr says the Mini X-raid team’s lack of Dakar Rally experience with its current buggy leaves him with reliability concerns ahead of the 2019 event. Sainz won last year’s edition of the rally with Peugeot, but the manufacturer’s
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Lance Stroll believes he improved the consistency of his Formula 1 performances this year, although his progress was shrouded by the lack of competitiveness of the Williams team. Stroll, who has moved to the Racing Point team for this season,
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Toro Rosso’s use of a complete Red Bull rear end in 2019 will be a “big advantage” for Honda as it prepares to supply two Formula 1 teams again. Red Bull is switching to Honda engines next year after its
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Chip Ganassi Racing is closing down its NASCAR Xfinity Series team on the eve of the 2019 season. The team had already signed race-winner Ross Chastain for a full-season programme that will now not go ahead. Ganassi had won six
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Red Bull must ensure Honda is connected to the reality of Formula 1 and has its priorities in order if the engine manufacturer is to succeed again, says Ross Brawn. Honda has convinced Red Bull it is capable of producing
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Renault says the gains it expects from its 2019 Formula 1 car and engine are the biggest it has ever made over a winter. The manufacturer ended the 2018 season at the front of the midfield, finishing fourth in the
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Valtteri Bottas must perform at the same level as Lewis Hamilton in the 2019 Formula 1 season to keep his Mercedes race seat for next year, says boss Toto Wolff. Bottas had a disappointing 2018 campaign where, despite a strong
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Racing Point team owner Lawrence Stroll wants his outfit to use Formula 1’s planned 2021 overhaul to become “one of the greatest teams in the paddock”. Stroll led a consortium that bought Force India’s assets in the summer, following the
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Robert Kubica says it was “not easy” to say no to Ferrari’s offer of a Formula 1 development role in 2019. Kubica was understood to be in talks to take up a simulator position with Ferrari following the departure of
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Getting one person into Formula 1 is a memorable achievement for any family, but some families have had two or even three of their fold on the grand prix grid. While the Rosbergs and Hills produced father-and-son world champions, in
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. The NASCAR Cup Series calendar was one of last year’s biggest talking points as leading drivers criticised it, but demands for action must wait – major changes cannot come before 2020. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kurt Busch was the most critical in
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Formula 1’s push to make races less predictable included the suggestion of stopping teams from testing different tyres in Friday practice, Williams technical chief Paddy Lowe has revealed. Last year’s United States Grand Prix suffered from heavy rain on Friday
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Nine-time World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb says he will approach his first Dakar Rally as a privateer with humility when the marathon event starts in Peru on Sunday. Peugeot’s withdrawal from cross-country rallying left Loeb with little hope of returning
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff has described Michael Schumacher as the “founding father” of his team’s huge Formula 1 success, on the seven-time world champion’s 50th birthday. Schumacher came out of retirement to join the relaunched works Mercedes project in
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Formula 1 teams have made a concerted effort to ensure the 2019 aerodynamic rules do not leave any loopholes that can be exploited, according to Williams technical chief Paddy Lowe. As a first push in Liberty Media’s bid to increase
Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Sauber’s “spiral” of good news over the last year in Formula 1 was key to giving Kimi Raikkonen the motivation to join the team, reckons Frederic Vasseur. In the summer of 2017 Sauber cancelled a planned Honda engine deal and
Four-time IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti says Felix Rosenqvist’s wide-ranging experience of driving multiple types of cars leaves the Swede well-placed to quickly adapt to IndyCar with Chip Ganassi Racing. Rosenqvist will replace Ed Jones – the driver Franchitti mentored during a challenging 2018 campaign – and will partner reigning champion Scott Dixon this year. The
Jorge Lorenzo has revealed he feels “safer” on Honda’s MotoGP bike because it is more “compact” than the Ducati he has been riding. Lorenzo tested the Honda RC213V for the first time in post-season testing last year, after Ducati gave permission for him to ride the bike while under his existing contract with the Italian
Lewis Hamilton’s off-track endeavours have taught Formula 1 managing director of motorsport Ross Brawn “a lesson” in how a driver can behave out of the car. Hamilton, who clinched a fifth world championship in 2018 alongside launching his own clothing line in collaboration with major US brand Tommy Hilfiger, has been criticised at times for
Hyundai Motorsport has replaced its World Rally Championship team principal Michel Nandan with its customer racing manager Andrea Adamo for the 2019 season. Nandan had spearheaded Hyundai’s WRC efforts since January 2013, and during that year was responsible for the development of the team’s Alzenau factory base and its i20 for its top-level rallying return.
Ducati will benefit from the “simplification” that will come with fielding fewer MotoGP satellite bikes in 2019, reckons its technical chief Gigi Dall’Igna. Six privateer Desmosedicis competed alongside the works Ducatis last season, with Nieto and Avintia both running 2016-spec bikes in addition to year-old GP17s. Nieto will vanish from the grid in 2019, replaced