Fernando Alonso and McLaren’s shock failure to qualify for the 2019 Indianapolis 500 prompted immediate questions about what could have gone so badly wrong. While Alonso was a contender for victory on his first attempt at the great race in 2017 until his Honda engine failed, his second visit to Indianapolis could hardly have gone
A South African Grand Prix at Kyalami could rejoin the Formula 1 calendar amid interest from championship bosses and a desire from the redeveloped circuit to host F1 again. South Africa has not been part of the F1 calendar since 1993, the last of Kyalami’s 20 F1 races. Kyalami hosted the FIA Sportscar finale three
Hockenheim wants to host the German Grand Prix in 2020 and has funding in place, but the venue is reliant on Formula 1 to approve an extension within its contract. After last year’s race, Hockenheim signed a one-year deal for this season, helped by backing from Mercedes. However, the contract also includes an option for
Sebastien Loeb will replace beleaguered Hyundai World Rally Championship driver Andreas Mikkelsen on next week’s Rally Portugal. Hyundai announced its decision to bench the Norwegian in favour of nine-time WRC champion Loeb for the second time in four rallies on Tuesday. Mikkelsen, who was previous dropped for April’s Corsica round, is due to return to
Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and several Formula 1 and motorsport personalities are among those to have paid tribute to three-time world champion Niki Lauda, who died on Monday. Lauda won two of his titles with Ferrari before claiming his third with McLaren after coming out of retirement. More recently, he served as the Mercedes team’s non-executive
MotoGP rookie Fabio Quartararo has revealed that he turned his bike engine settings into qualifying mode during the French Grand Prix in a bid to recover from a poor start. Quartararo had been one of the quickest drivers in the build-up to the race, topping the first practice session and the warm-up before gambling on
Red Bull thinks its early 2019 Formula 1 performance has been hit by the aero rules overhaul and a change to tyres simultaneously hurting areas that were its strengths. Although the team is now making good progress with its car, and Max Verstappen is the Mercedes drivers’ closest challenger in the world championship, Red Bull
Former Force India deputy team principal Robert Fernley has left the McLaren IndyCar outfit in the wake of Fernando Alonso’s failure to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. Fernley was announced as president of the McLaren IndyCar project last November, some three months after he left his Force India role following the takeover of the Formula
Honda MotoGP rider Jorge Lorenzo feels being able to compete with the satellite LCR bikes at Le Mans demonstrated his progress, even if his result was not a major improvement. Lorenzo finished Sunday’s race 15 seconds behind race-winning team-mate Marc Marquez in 11th, which was one position better than his previous best result with Honda.
The Monaco Grand Prix has traditionally been a happy hunting ground for the Red Bull Formula 1 team, but has it already been consigned to playing second fiddle this weekend? The low-speed nature of the street circuit means engine performance is less of a differentiator, and also places a heavy emphasis on chassis performance –
Kevin Harvick said his Stewart-Haas Racing team “shot both of our feet off” with poor pit work in NASCAR’s All-Star race. Harvick finished second to Kyle Larson in the non-championship race for a $1million prize, but had to come back through the field after a slow pitstop and then an additional stop to sort a
McLaren’s 2019 IndyCar return has gone from a planned full-season with proven champions targeted as Fernando Alonso’s team-mates, to failing to qualify for a one-off Indianapolis 500 appearance. This is the timeline of how the project unravelled. September 2018 Alonso makes his first IndyCar outing since the 2017 Indy 500 as he tests an unbranded
Pramac Ducati MotoGP rider Jack Miller says he fell out of the French Grand Prix podium positions because he “got carried away” racing Marc Marquez and damaged his tyres. Miller started on the front row in third place after Saturday’s wet/dry qualifying at Le Mans and twice managed to pass reigning champion Marquez’s Honda in
Fernando Alonso says he did everything he possibly could to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, but the McLaren IndyCar entry was simply never fast enough. The double Formula 1 world champion and his team, which was running largely independently bar an alliance with Carlin, ended up among the six entrants fighting for the final three
McLaren has ruled out getting Fernando Alonso into the Indianapolis 500 by buying a rival IndyCar team’s entry, following its shock failure to qualify for the race. A troubled practice and qualifying week for the team, which was running independently for Alonso’s second Indy 500 bid bar an alliance with Carlin, culminated in its double
Simon Pagenaud gave Penske its first Indianapolis 500 pole for seven years in qualifying for the 2019 edition of IndyCar’s premier race. The ‘Fast Nine’ pole shootout ran straight after the shock events of the last row-setting session in which Fernando Alonso and McLaren were bumped out of the field by Kyle Kaiser and the
Fernando Alonso and McLaren failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, as they were bumped out of the field by Kyle Kaiser and the cash-strapped Juncos Racing team. A fraught week of practice and qualifying meant Alonso ended up one of six drivers fighting for the three spaces on the back row of the grid.
The six drivers fighting to get onto the Indianapolis 500 grid got only 20 minutes of practice on Sunday morning before rain, and Fernando Alonso had a major set-up issue. Alonso and McLaren were only 31st fastest in Saturday’s first qualifying session, leaving them up against Max Chilton and Patricio O’Ward from the affiliated Carlin
Lewis Hamilton says it is “very difficult” to see himself leaving Mercedes despite discussing the appeal of a Ferrari move with his Formula 1 team boss Toto Wolff last year. When Hamilton was negotiating with Mercedes to stay with the team beyond 2018, Wolff said they talked about Ferrari’s appeal because “probably it’s in every
Andrea Dovizioso says he had no qualms about his Ducati MotoGP team allowing Danilo Petrucci to fight him at Le Mans instead of deploying team orders like “in Formula 1”. Dovizioso was running second behind eventual race winner Marc Marquez in the late stages of the French Grand Prix, but came under pressure from team-mate
Danilo Petrucci was “very, very scared” of hitting his Ducati MotoGP team-mate Andrea Dovizioso while attacking him for second in the French Grand Prix at Le Mans. Dovizioso had to defend from Petrucci in the late stages of the race, with the latter making a couple of attempts to pass and even briefly edging ahead
Reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez eased to his third victory of the campaign at Le Mans, extending his lead in the championship. Marquez, who had lined up on pole, fought off the Ducatis of Danilo Petrucci and Jack Miller early on before assuming full control of the race and cruising to his second successive Le
Formula 1 must have a German Grand Prix if Mick Schumacher follows in the footsteps of his seven-time world champion father Michael, according to Hockenheim circuit chiefs. The German GP’s future remains under threat as it continues to negotiate an extension to the one-year reprieve it earned for 2019. Hockenheim is seeking a multi-year agreement
As Mercedes Formula 1 team-mates Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas’s title battle develops, there has been a special focus on how they get off the line differently. More than once this season they have swapped places as grands prix begin, with each of them winning and losing on the run to the first corner. Bottas
Ryan Newman called Clint Bowyer “embarrassing” after a fight following NASCAR’s All-Star race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Roush Fenway Ford driver Newman clashed with Stewart-Haas Racing’s Bowyer multiple times on the slowing-down lap, culminating in Bowyer making contact with the outside wall. Bowyer then approached Newman’s car in the pitlane and threw a series of
Fernando Alonso says failing to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 would be “what we deserve” if McLaren cannot find more speed in Sunday’s ‘Bump Day’ session. Double Formula 1 world champion Alonso fell 0.02mph short of guaranteeing a place on the grid for his IndyCar return during first qualifying on Saturday, his 227.224mph average from
Kyle Larson stormed from the back of the grid to win NASCAR’s non-championship All-Star race and earn and $1million, fending off late pressure from Kevin Harvick at Charlotte. The surprise result came amid a tough season for Ganassi driver Larson, who has not won a Cup championship round since September 2017. That meant he had
The first French Grand Prix in 10 years thrilled last year, so Motorsport Live delves into the stats to explain why a Formula 1 race at Paul Ricard is simply unmissable and considers the key action areas on the track What’s a Grand Prix without action? Overtakes, crashes, safety cars and a lack of retirements
Ed Carpenter Racing’s Spencer Pigot edged Penske’s trio of drivers to top Saturday’s qualifying session for the Indianapolis 500, as James Hinchcliffe and Fernando Alonso missed the cut. Under the Indy 500 qualifying format, all 36 entrants are permitted a four-lap run of the 2.5-mile circuit, and then had the opportunity to improve on their
Le Mans MotoGP pole-sitter Marc Marquez said that his qualifying crash was a consequence of his strategy, as he fell on the lap where he went all-in. Due to rain ramping up, track conditions during qualifying gradually got worse, meaning the early laps in the session proved decisive in the pole battle. Marquez recorded what