Honda has produced “everything” it promised over the winter, according to Red Bull Formula 1 driver Max Verstappen. Red Bull enjoyed a promising two weeks of pre-season testing at Barcelona with its new engine partner and did not suffer any notable reliability concerns. It only lost significant mileage because of two separate Pierre Gasly crashes,
Dan Ticktum is targeting a test in Red Bull’s 2019 Formula 1 car this year to prepare himself for a possible graduation to the category in 2020. Ticktum was in line to take part in the in-season test in Hungary last year, only to be denied the chance as he didn’t have the required superlicence
Hyundai’s World Rally Championship team principal Andrea Adamo says Dani Sordo’s retirement from the fight for the lead of Rally Mexico is unacceptable. The Spaniard, making his first WRC start with the Korean manufacturer this season, was 4.6 seconds behind leader Sebastien Ogier when he retired with an electrical fault on the way to the
Honda’s motorsport boss Masashi Yamamoto will move into a newly-created, Formula 1-specifc role this year to boost its programme with Red Bull and Toro Rosso. Yamamoto was already in charge of the sporting side of Honda’s F1 programme, and struck the deal to supply engines to Red Bull this year as part of his role
Sebastien Ogier leads Rally Mexico after a disastrous Friday for Hyundai left Thierry Neuville the lowest placed World Rally Car and its other two cars sidelined from the lead fight. Reigning world champion Ogier was a class apart compared to title rivals Neuville and Ott Tanak on Friday, winning three of the full-length gravel stages
NASCAR Cup Series drivers Daniel Suarez and Michael McDowell became embroiled in a fight in the paddock during qualifying at Phoenix on Friday. Stewart-Haas driver Suarez approached McDowell, who drives for Front Row Motorsports, following the first round of qualifying – in which both had been eliminated. A violent altercation then immediately broke out between
World Rally champion Sebastien Ogier has inherited first place on Rally Mexico after Friday morning leader Andreas Mikkelsen was forced to retire on the El Chocolate stage. Mikkelsen had briefly stopped his Hyundai i20 around 8.5 miles into the first stage of Friday’s afternoon loop, losing around a minute and a half. Though he continued
Robert Wickens says racing in IndyCar again remains his primary “dream” following the severe spinal injury he suffered in his Pocono crash last year. Wickens has been rehabilitating and documenting his fight to walk again since sustaining multiple injuries in the horrific crash in August 2018. This weekend in St Petersburg he is making his
Reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez admitted he was surprised by new Honda team-mate Jorge Lorenzo’s speed during Qatar Grand Prix Friday practice. Lorenzo was second in the daytime opening practice session at Losail, trailing only Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi. Although Lorenzo then slumped to 11th in the evening practice two session, Marquez named the three-time champion
Ryan Hunter-Reay put Andretti Autosport on top of the St Petersburg IndyCar practice times with the first one-minute lap of the weekend on Friday afternoon. Ed Carpenter Racing’s Spencer Pigot joined him in that bracket as all teams got their first taste of the softer-compound Firestones. Hunter-Reay’s team-mate Marco Andretti had been the early pacesetter
The 2019 MotoGP season-opening Qatar Grand Prix will stick to its planned start time, after riders’ final attempt to push through a late schedule change on safety grounds was rejected. The start time for the Losail race had been moved an hour later compared to 2018 but many riders called for this to be reversed,
Andreas Mikkelsen has taken an early lead on Rally Mexico over World Rally champion Sebastien Ogier, while Mikkelsen’s Hyundai team-mate Thierry Neuville suffered a puncture and is only ninth. Stage wins on both El Chocolate, the longest stage of the rally, and the short Leon city stage handed Mikkelsen a 1.6-second advantage over second-placed Ogier,
Australian racer James Davison will pilot a third entry for Dale Coyne Racing in this year’s Indianapolis 500. Davison, 32, will reunite with the team with which he contested the race in both 2015 and ’17 for this May’s 103rd running in association with Jonathan Byrd’s Racing, Hollinger MotorSport and Indy Lights squad Belardi Auto
Ganassi’s rookie signing Felix Rosenqvist was fastest in his first official IndyCar session in opening St Petersburg practice, while fellow Swedish newcomer and Formula 1 convert Marcus Ericsson was third. Rosenqvist was the first driver into the 1m02s bracket, as the rookies – who are granted an extra set of tyres for the weekend –
The Haas Formula 1 team has put “a lot of emphasis” on its pitstop preparation to prevent a repeat of its costly errors in last year’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix. Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean were running fourth and fifth in Melbourne last year but retired from the race in quick succession following
The FIA has underlined its push for standard parts in Formula 1 from 2021 after the World Motor Sport Council approved the issuing of further invitations to tender. Last month, the FIA asked for interested parties to bid on the supply of a standard gearbox cassette to be used by all teams from 2021-24. Thursday’s
A low-key pre-season dogged with niggling reliability problems and a lack of mileage would usually risk setting alarm bells ringing inside a team. While losing more than a quarter of the available track time unsurprisingly left Williams as the least-productive team at Barcelona, its dramas helped keep another team away from major scrutiny. Williams completed
Honda MotoGP test rider Stefan Bradl will make his first race appearance of the 2019 season in May’s Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez. Bradl contested a total of five races last year, two as a Honda wildcard – at Brno at Misano – one as a stand-in for Franco Morbidelli at the Sachsenring and two
Toyota chief engineer Tom Fowler says the sensor failure which spoiled Ott Tanak’s Rally Mexico shakedown on Thursday is not related to the overheating problems experienced previously by the team. Tanak’s Yaris WRC was halted on his first run at the three-mile shakedown stage, but because the championship leader was not blocking the road, the
When the sun sets, darkness falls and 1600 floodlights powering up the Marina Bay Street Circuit come alive – the Home of Formula 1® night race sparks into action with man and machine going wheel-to-wheel on the meandering mean streets in the ultimate pursuit of victory. It is three days of pure gripping action that
World Rally Championship crews have been left fuming about a “dangerous” jump on the opening stage of Rally Mexico on Thursday. A jump was added near the end of Thursday night’s Guanajuato street stage – the severity of which threw the rear of the cars into the air, with organisers later calling a halt to
Esapekka Lappi currently holds a 0.1-second lead over his World Rally Championship rivals on Rally Mexico, but the opening Guanajuato superspecial was curtailed early due to a damaged jump. An aggressively angled artificial jump was placed by organisers just before the flying finish of the 0.7 mile city sprint, but several drivers had violent nose-heavy
The Formula 1 organisation wants all 10 teams on board for the second Netflix series about the championship, which is currently in the planning stages. The first series of Drive to Survive is launched worldwide on the streaming service on Friday. Originally only eight teams agreed to be fully involved, with Ferrari and Mercedes opting
Reigning Indy Lights champion Patricio O’Ward will contest 12 IndyCar rounds with Carlin this year, including the Indy 500. The 19-year-old made his IndyCar debut with Harding Steinbrenner Racing at the Sonoma season finale last year, impressing by reaching the ‘Fast Six’ qualifying shootout at his first attempt, before finishing ninth in the race. He
The Williams Formula 1 team is modifying part of its front suspension and its mirror design to ensure the car is legal for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. Its unconventional wing mirrors and part of the suspension were among the standout features on the Williams FW42 when it finally arrived at Barcelona for pre-season testing.
Cal Crutchlow says he fears this year’s Honda MotoGP bike may have sacrificed the manufacturer’s traditional “weapon”, its front-end strength. LCR rider Crutchlow said during both pre-season tests that he was struggling with the front-end of this year’s RC213V, and on the eve of the new season in Qatar the Briton reiterated those concerns. Crutchlow
Andretti Autosport does not head into the 2019 season as title favourite despite its resurgence last year, according to the team’s chief operating officer Rob Edwards. Alexander Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay finished second and fourth respectively in the championship standings last season, taking five wins and four pole positions between them. Team-mate Marco Andretti added
MotoGP riders will continue to push for an earlier start time for the opening race of the season in Qatar, believing a change would make for a better and safer spectacle. The race at the Losail International Circuit is set to start 8pm local time, an hour later than last year, and riders remain concerned
Praise for a new boss who has brought back the feel-good factor has been a fundamental part of the Ferrari Formula 1 team’s pre-season. New team principal Mattia Binotto has swiftly eliminated the air of misery that seemed to dog the Maranello team as its latest title bid turned to rubble in 2018. With a
Marcus Ericsson is preparing for his IndyCar debut this weekend after joining Schmidt Peterson Motorsports from the Sauber Formula 1 team. Here, he describes the main differences between the championships. You’ve done five days in an IndyCar – or four-and-a-half days because of rain at Laguna Seca. Do you feel underprepared compared with your F1