2024 Formula 1 Preview & Review.

‘A small mistake with a huge consequence’ – Hulkenberg on his black flag in Brazil.
Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg was out of the Sao Paulo race after receiving the black flag for getting a push from the marshals when he beached his car in the gravel trap.
3 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site (Video)

‘Black flag’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/a-...23325248598624


Hulkenberg makes unusual claim about F1 marshals after disqualification
Nico Hulkenberg became the first F1 driver in over 17 years to be disqualified during a race in the Sao Paulo GP.
5 Nov 2024
Jake Nichol & Aaron Deckers
RacingNews365

"We were going okay, it wasn't dreadful but wasn't amazing either, but just after a pit-stop, our race finished pretty quickly," Hulkenberg told media including RacingNews365.

"[The marshals] came out, they pushed me off and they were really happy with themselves, they were partying and pushing me on and saying: 'Come on, let's go, the race isn't finished!'.”

"At that moment, you don't really think, you don't care, you just continue and deal with the consequences later."

'Come on, let's go, the race isn't finished!';

https://racingnews365.com/hulkenberg...squalification


Hulkenberg: Brazil GP marshals "partying" after rescuing Haas driver before black flag
Hulkenberg was disqualified after getting illegal aid following a spin
Nov 6, 2024
Ewan Gale Oleg Karpov
Motorsport.com

Nico Hulkenberg has revealed how the marshals at Turn 1 for the Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix were "partying" after illegally helping the Haas driver rejoin the race after an off. The German spun out in difficult conditions at Interlagos and although he failed to reach the barriers at the first corner, he became beached on a crest in the run-off area, with his rear wheels in the air.

This led to the use of the virtual safety car - one which brought race-defining pit stops - but instead of Hulkenberg retiring, he was pushed off the ledge and continued. But the use of outside assistance contravened F1 regulations and saw Hulkenberg disqualified - the first driver shown the black flag since the Canadian Grand Prix in 2007.

Having made it to the pits under the red flags before being told of his disqualification, Hulkenberg dealt with the worst of the weather and insisted: "Definitely amongst the toughest conditions that I've raced in. "Incredibly low grip, a very, very narrow window, very hard to make no mistakes. It was very tough."

"Partying";

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/h...flag/10671033/


Nico Hulkenberg: Marshals celebrated aiding Haas driver before Brazil black flag
8 Nov 2024
Harry Whitfield
Motorsport Week

Hulkenberg had ended up on a crest off the track with his rear wheels in the air, needing assistance from the marshals to move his car. However, once the 37-year-old was freed, he continued back onto the track thus resulting in his disqualification from the race for receiving assistance from the marshals.

The Haas driver found out whilst the race was paused due to a red flag brought out by Franco Colapinto’s crash amid the extremely wet conditions.
Reflecting on his race, he said: “I think it was going OK on the inters actually; I was in a train with Pierre [Gasly] and Fernando [Alonso] for a long time, before we pitted,” he told media including Motorsport Week.

‘Brazil black flag’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2024/...il-black-flag/


Nico Hulkenberg causes McLaren team orders confusion in unearthed Brazil GP footage
05 Nov 2024
Oliver Harden
PlanetF1.com

Hulkenberg pulled to the side of the track to retire on Lap 20 of 24, with the incident upping the urgency for McLaren to make the swap happen before the Virtual Safety Car – under which no overtaking is allowed – was deployed.

The sight of Hulkenberg’s stationary car resulted in Piastri’s engineer Tom Stallard instructing his driver to swap places with Norris. Stallard said: “Oscar, if possible, swap position with Lando.”

However, television pictures then showed Hulkenberg’s car crawling at low speed in the run-off area, potentially removing the need for a Virtual Safety Car, with Stallard quickly backtracking on his request. “No, Hulkenberg is getting going,” Stallard added. “Do not swap position. Do not swap position.”

‘McLaren team orders confusion’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/mclare...zil-gp-footage


Former F1 team boss can't understand it: 'I'd choose Schumacher'
7 Nov 2024
Matt Gretton
GPblog.com

Former F1 team boss Franz Tost believes Sauber (soon to be Audi) have missed an opportunity to sign German driver Mick Schumacher for the 2025 Formula 1 season. On Wednesday, Sauber confirmed they will put Gabriel Bortoleto alongside Nico Hulkenberg in 2025. Tost himself would never choose Bortoleto because he is "a risk factor".

Tost, who was a longstanding team boss at Red Bull's sister team, explains why they should've gone for Schumacher. "Mick is still young and has won both crucial junior classes, something Bortoleto has not yet achieved. In addition, he is very fast, has constantly improved during his two years with the Haas team and now, in his role as a test driver, has a lot of mileage experience with the current Formula 1 cars," Tost said. Bortoleto won the F3 title in his debut season, and currently leads the F2 championship as a rookie.

‘Can't understand it’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31183...bortoleto.html

Colapinto “very sad” after crashing twice on dire day for Williams.
Williams suffered a dire day at Interlagos as they endured what team principal James Vowles called “three incredibly large crashes in just a few hours.”
3rd Nov 2024
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

Franco Colapinto did take the start but suffered another heavy crash during a Safety Car period. He said afterwards he was “very sad for the team. They did an amazing job to put the car back on track on the race and I destroyed it again,” he told the official F1 website. “So I’m very sorry for them.”

“It was a very tough day for us, honestly, things didn’t go our way today. I think we had a quick car and we boxed to put the inters on and there was a lot of rivers. I was pushing to get the tyre temps up and I just lost the car on that big river. So not a good day for us.”

“Very sad”;

https://www.racefans.net/2024/11/03/...-for-williams/


Colapinto apologises to his team after race-ending crash in the Sao Paulo GP
3 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site (Video)

Williams rookie Franco Colapinto had a second crash of the day on Lap 32 of Sunday’s Grand Prix to end his race and bring out the red flags.

‘Colapinto apologises’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/co...22629602347096


'Very clear': Peter Windsor tells people why they need to ‘be careful’ about Franco Colapinto
5 Nov 2024
Rory Mitchell
F1 Oversteer

Peter Windsor compares Franco Colapinto to Carlos Sainz. Colapinto will not have a seat at Williams next year, owing to the team already deciding to employ Carlos Sainz alongside Alex Albon for the 2025 season. Windsor believes the recent run of races for Colapinto should remind people that the Argentine is still a rookie, despite making an impression in his first couple of races.

“We need to be careful here with Colapinto because he’s good, but at this stage of his career he’s nothing like what Carlos was at this stage of his career,” said Windsor. “It was very clear that Colapinto is a Liam Lawson-type driver. He’s an oversteer and reflex-type driver, and we saw a lot of those guys who are not short corner drivers all making quite serious errors where if you touch the white line with load, you’re off.”

‘Be careful’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/pet...nco-colapinto/


Brazilian GP: Toughest of days for Williams Racing
Nov 4 2024
Williams Racing
WilliamsF1 Supporters

James Vowles, Team Principal: "The nature of Formula 1 is that you can have some of the most incredible feelings and results, as well as some of the lowest moments that you can feel within a sport. I think it's fair to say this weekend is the second of those two.”

“We've had three incredibly large crashes in just a few hours from one another and have a tremendous amount of work to get ourselves back on top of our spares situation before we go to Las Vegas in just a few weeks’ time.”

‘Toughest of days’;

https://www.sportnetwork.net/main/s107/st206573.htm


Report: What James Vowles was seen doing on Williams pit wall after Franco Colapinto crash at Sao Paulo Grand Prix
6 Nov 2024
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

The Sao Paulo Grand Prix was perhaps the worst weekend of the year for Williams. They’ve had plenty of scoreless races in 2024 – including the previous round in Mexico – but this was uniquely damaging. ESPN Deportes have offered a glimpse of what happened behind the scenes at Williams when Colapinto crashed out on lap 31 of the race. The accident was highly unusual because it came under safety car conditions.

However, Colapinto had been involved in a ‘radio dispute’ with the team beforehand, asking for full wet tyres rather than new intermediates. However, Williams ‘ignored him’, having seen frontrunners George Russell and Lando Norris favour new interest. Colapinto lost control of his car on the ascent towards the start/finish straight, spearing into the barriers. With Albon already sidelined, Vowles duly left his post on the pit wall and headed for the engineering office.

At the back of the Williams garage, Colapinto’s managers ‘leaned on the trolleys’ that carry the tyres and ‘stared into space’. The mechanics ‘hid their faces behind their hands’ as they faced yet another repair job. The bigger concern for James Vowles is that Williams racked up a seven-figure damage figure in Brazil. That will make it considerably harder for them to meet F1’s budget cap at the end of a crash-filled season.

‘Vowles duly left his post on the pit wall’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/wha...lo-grand-prix/


Franco Colapinto’s manager got ‘angry’ after what he said about Williams merchandise
7 Nov 2024
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Franco Colapinto has rapidly become one of the most popular drivers on the Formula 1 grid. The combination of immense pace on track and charisma off it makes him a highly marketable athlete. Will Buxton says Colapinto’s support was ‘astounding’ in Sao Paulo last time out. It was by far the closest race to his homeland Argentina, and legions of his fellow countrymen flocked to the circuit.


Franco Colapinto receives a ‘scolding’ for telling fans to buy fake Williams merchandise. One reason fans have embraced Colapinto so quickly is his authenticity. In a sport where so many drivers stick to the media script, they feel he shows his true personality. At times, of course, this can be to his own detriment. Speaking to Corazon de F1 last month, he joked that ‘not even Cristiano Ronaldo can afford’ the merchandise prices set by Williams’. To avoid ‘eating rice for two months’, they should ‘buy the fake stuff’. Realising this was ill-judged, Colapinto said ‘Williams are going to kill me’.

In an interview with Carburando, his manager Maria Catarineu admitted that she had to ‘scold’ him for these remarks. It wasn’t an effective rebuke, because Colapinto knew she agreed with the sentiment. “There, I have to say, yes I got a little angry,” she said. “I scold him, but he’s not very convinced that I am scolding him because he says I share it and I understand the reason why he says it.”

‘Not even Cristiano Ronaldo can afford the merchandise prices set by Williams’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/fra...s-merchandise/

'Unsustainable' run of damage leaves Williams uncertain of car spec for Vegas.
Williams is evaluating its spares situation after series of crashes has left it short after the Brazilian GP.
Nov 7, 2024
Jonathan Noble
Motorsport.com

Speaking in his regular post-race review on the Williams App, Vowles said that work at the squad was still ongoing to finalise what shape it would be in for Las Vegas.

Asked about the spares situation in light of the crashes, Vowles said: "There's no team on the grid that can cope with five major accidents in two race weekends. Simply the matter of spares we carry are not sufficient to carry that amount of attrition.

"Vegas, I have high hopes for. We were fast there last year, and I'm confident the car will work well in those conditions. So we will do our absolute utmost to get two cars to the best specification they can be, with sufficient spares around us to make that happen.”

'Unsustainable';

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/u...s-gp/10671331/


Williams ‘hurting’ as team counts the huge cost of three Brazilian GP crashes
6 Nov 2024
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Formula 1 recorded its biggest crash damage bill of the 2024 championship in Brazil, the grand total standings at over €5 million, and almost half of that belonged to Williams. Causing over €800,000 worth of damage according to F1Maximal.nl, Williams did not have the time to fix Albon’s “extensive damage” and he was forced to sit out the race.

The team did repair Colapinto’s car in time but alas his race ended on lap 32 when he crashed while the field was running behind the Safety Car. He lost control of the Williams in the wet, spun and hit the barrier with the front left of his car.

His tally went from one front wing and nose, rear wing, front suspension, rear suspension to double while the FW46’s sidepods were also damaged. All in all, approximately €1,490,200. On a weekend in which the entire field racked up a reported €5,030,800 in repair bills, Williams’ alone was €2,296,800.

‘Biggest crash damage bill of the 2024 championship’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/willia...ilian-gp-crash


‘On the table’: What Alex Albon left ‘on the table’ with Williams driver’s ‘expensive’ Sao Paulo GP crash
5 Nov 2024
Luke-John Buckle
F1 Oversteer

Williams endured a difficult weekend at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix after neither Franco Colapinto or Alex Albon saw the chequered flag. The rain over the weekend caused qualifying to be moved from Saturday to Sunday morning before the Grand Prix.

This put added pressure on the drivers to not crash and force their mechanics into repairing the cars, risking not starting the race. Albon was incredibly fast in qualifying and made it into Q3 before crashing at the Senna S and destroying his Williams. His teammate Colapinto also hit the wall in qualifying and Williams would only get the Argentinian’s car ready in time for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

‘Expensive’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/wha...aulo-gp-crash/


Where another brutal F1 crash streak leaves Williams
Nov 8, 2024
Josh Suttill
The Race

With the biggest damage bill of the season and its relatively small - if ever-expanding - size, it's feeling the effects worse than any team in the paddock. One possible scenario is that Williams will focus on building up Albon’s car to the latest specification and then see what parts are left to get Colapinto up to the as close a spec as possible.

But the team’s still working out what’s feasible and the three-week gap to Las Vegas has come at a handy time, even if shipping the cars back out again to North America means it's not a full three weeks, and the cars and parts also had to travel back from Brazil. If Las Vegas would have been the weekend after Brazil, it seems near impossible that Williams would have fielded two cars at the latest spec.

Handing Colapinto’s car to Albon on Sunday morning for the grand prix was never an option after Albon crashed in Q3. The team would have needed to swap in all of Albon’s engine components and with only a few hours between the end of qualifying and the grand prix, this wasn’t impossible even if Williams had wanted to.

‘Brutal F1 crash streak’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/w...aves-williams/


Williams reveals scale of repair work after Brazil F1 crashes
5 Nov 2024
Taylor Powling
Motorsport Week

Williams boss James Vowles has revealed that the crippling blow has granted the team an uphill task to have the repairs sorted in time for the next race in Las Vegas. “The nature of Formula 1 is that you can have some of the most incredible feelings and results, as well as some of the lowest moments that you can feel within a sport,” Vowles said.

“I think it’s fair to say this weekend is the second of those two. We’ve had three incredibly large crashes in just a few hours from one another and have a tremendous amount of work to get ourselves back on top of our spares situation before we go to Las Vegas in just a few weeks’ time.”

“We must go to every single one of these weekends now and deliver everything possible, whilst making sure we are still looking ahead towards 2025 and 2026 because that, as I’ve said all along, is where our goal is truly set. It’s all about getting the foundations right as we go towards that ‘26 region. That doesn’t make today any less painful. Far from it, I’m hurting right now.”

‘Scale of repair work’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2024/...il-f1-crashes/


Williams counting 'brutal' cost of five major accidents in 10 days
Williams cars were decimated in Mexico City and São Paulo. The financial burden 'no one can sustain on the grid'.
7 Nov 2024
Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

"The Brazilian weekend was probably the most brutal that I can remember across my entire career," said Vowles, speaking on his post-race debrief, the 'Vowles Verdict' on the Williams website.

"In the space of seven days, a little bit more than that, we had five major accidents. In Brazil alone, between qualifying and the race, three. That's an amount that, near enough, no one can sustain on the grid, and it hurts as a result of it."

Williams assessing spare parts for Las Vegas. It leaves Williams counting the cost, estimated to run into the hundreds of thousands of pounds, and piecing together cars for the next race in Las Vegas that spearheads the season-concluding triple-header, with grands prix to follow in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

‘Brutal';

https://racingnews365.com/williams-c...nts-in-10-days


Williams scrambling to recover after devastating F1 crash run
08/11/2024
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Williams has been left reeling after a crash-laden two-week run in Mexico and in Brazil that has decimated the team’s reserve of spare part, leaving it in a race against time to rebuild and prepare its cars for the upcoming Las Vegas Grand Prix. Vowles’ task has now shifted to ensuring the team can bring both of its cars to Las Vegas with enough replacement parts in reserve while also running them within the optimal specification.

"So we will do our absolute utmost to get two cars to the best specification they can be, with sufficient spares around us to make that happen. What that looks like is difficult to predict. We're still getting the items back from Brazil and determining what we have to do in terms of construct and build in order to give ourselves the best possible scenario."

Beyond the logistical pain of damage control, last weekend’s events in Brazil also delivered a psychological blow to the team. Albon’s Q3 crash, which occurred just as the car was showing promising pace in the wet, was particularly hard to take. Adding salt to the wound, Williams' hard-earned position in the Constructors' Championship slipped, as Alpine took a double podium finish in Brazil.

‘Scrambling’;

https://f1i.com/news/524225-williams...crash-run.html

‘We know what we want to do’ – Magnussen issues update on talks over still working with Haas after 2024.
Kevin Magnussen has given an update over potential plans to continue working with Haas after his impending exit from the race team at the end of 2024, with the Dane admitting that he and the team “know what we want to do” going forwards.
13 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site

Team Principal Ayao Komatsu voiced his hope that the two parties could “find a way to keep working together in some capacity”, citing Magnussen’s “special relationship” with the team. Asked during the recent triple header of races if there had been any progress on this front, Magnussen responded: “Yeah, we’re still working on [it]. “We’re not really stressing – in a triple header it’s just busy, you’re trying to do your best on track. Since there’s no stress and we kind of know what we want to do, it’s no rush.”

When speaking later about what his racing future might hold, the 32-year-old – who was forced to miss the Sao Paulo Grand Prix due to illness – admitted that his focus is currently on maximising the remaining races in 2024 and helping Haas to stay ahead of their rivals in the constructors’ championship.

“It’s a tight battle with our main competitors in the championship and it can swing around quickly, so we really need to stay focused and do a very good job to beat [RB],” said Magnussen. He continued: “I’m thinking about this championship, finishing as high as possible for the team and focusing race by race. I know in this sport it only matters how well you do on track.”

‘We know what we want to do’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...QtC8ZW1dLUwfQD


Why Kevin Magnussen regrets putting Oliver Bearman forward to replace him in Brazil
9 Nov 2024
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Kevin Magnussen missed his second Formula 1 race of 2024 in Brazil. He was present for Thursday’s media duties, but then became ill overnight. Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu duly turned to Oliver Bearman. Bearman had replaced Magnussen in Azerbaijan, when the Danish driver was banned for accumulating 12 penalty points in the space of a year.

Kevin Magnussen would have raced in Brazil if he knew a rainstorm was coming. Magnussen revealed on his ‘Debrief’ show for Viaplay Denmark that he’d actually put Bearman forward for the Brazil weekend. When he felt too unwell to race, he urged Komatsu to turn to the youngster.

He showed formidable pace on a dry Friday, outpacing Hulkenberg and reaching SQ3. However, he struggled in his first wet F1 outing, making a series of errors in the race after a Q1 exit. Magnussen says he would have been more inclined to race if he knew that it was going to rain so heavily. This isn’t necessarily a slight on Bearman; he’ll see it as a missed opportunity for a big result.

‘Regrets’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/why...him-in-brazil/


Kevin Magnussen reveals previous talks with Sauber over 2025 F1 seat
11 Nov 2024
Taylor Powling
Motorsport Week

Outgoing Haas driver Kevin Magnussen has revealed that he had contact with Sauber over a potential Formula 1 switch for 2025 when Andreas Seidl was at the helm.

However, the Dane has admitted that discussions with Sauber over a possible move hadn’t taken place since Mattia Binotto replaced Seidl in charge over the summer.

“When Seidl was there I heard from them, but I haven’t heard from them since,” Magnussen told media including Motorsport Week in Brazil.

‘Contact with Sauber’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2024/...-2025-f1-seat/


'Yelling and screaming': Kevin Magnussen loved ‘awesome’ Max Verstappen move that left the FIA ‘crying’
9 Nov 2024
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Max Verstappen has received support from some of his fellow F1 drivers amid recent criticism over his driving style. The reigning world champion was involved in three controversial incidents in the triple-header. Kevin Magnussen was delighted by Max Verstappen’s Mexico lunge on Lando Norris.

Kevin Magnussen has now joined Ocon in publicly defending Verstappen. He was speaking on his Viaplay ‘Debrief’ show in Denmark. The Haas driver is known for being one of the most aggressive on the grid. In September, he became the first to receive a race ban under the penalty points system after racking up 12 in the space of the year.

Rewatching footage of Verstappen’s turn-eight move on Norris in Mexico, Magnussen called it ‘awesome’. He delighted in the backlash that the 27-year-old had received. He said: “The reason why I think it is awesome, is because it is p*****g off so many people, they are yelling and screaming, and the FIA is crying about it. Relax.”

'Yelling and screaming';

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/kev...he-fia-crying/


Magnussen offers FIA a solution for clear racing rules
10 Nov 2024
Ludo van Denderen
GPblog.com

No doubt everyone within Formula 1 agrees with Magnussen's perception of the current racing standards. "I think it's pretty messy, the way things are at the moment. I think the FIA is aware of that and looking to make changes. They can see that it’s not great at the moment. There's too much room to exploit these guidelines. They need to rethink it a little bit, go back to basics," he states.

Is there even a solution? Magnessun shares his view, "The tracks make it incredibly hard because there's all this run-off and you don't even feel you go outside. So racing each other, it's too easy to just hang on to the outside and then you try and have your front wing ahead at the apex and again at the exit. Then try to make it look like you got pushed out. So it's all like it's not real. You're trying to make it look certain ways rather than just trying to get past."

Magnussen knows the solution. This the root of the problem, according to the Danish driver, "If you don't get far enough ahead, the inside car will have the natural power to push you outside. Whereas if you get ahead enough on the braking and into the apex, he just won't be able to push you outside. He will damage his front wing and stuff. So there is a natural dynamic to racing that I think should excel and take the lead in this case. Whereas now, because of the tracks, we have to put all these different guidelines and rules in place and I just think that's a shame."

‘Solution’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31223...to-basics.html

Horner Gives Go-Ahead For Perez Sponsors In 2025.
Powerful commercial interests look set to cement Sergio Perez in place at Red Bull Racing for 2025.
12 Nov 2024
F1 Chronicle

Already this week, it is rumoured that one of Perez’s sponsors, which also backs the team, has organised a TV series that will focus on the 34-year-old’s 2025 F1 campaign. “That’s one of the reasons why they are still persisting with him,” said Dutch racing driver Renger van der Zande on Ziggo Sport.

And now, according to the Spanish sports newspaper Marca, multiple “new sponsors for 2025” have now signed up with Red Bull. In response, team boss Christian Horner is said to have just given the green light to start production of 2025-spec team clothing and merchandise featuring the new sponsors’ names.

“The name of the new sponsor is not yet known, but it would join Claro, Telcel and Infinitum, all of which are part of Carlos Slim’s group, as well as Interproteccion, a global brokerage firm that has been with the driver for years,” said correspondent Marco Canseco. Other Perez-linked sponsors are Banorte, ESPN, Jalisco and Uber.

‘Powerful commercial interests’;

https://f1chronicle.com/horner-gives.../?nowprocket=1


Sergio Perez: Sponsors could help secure 2025 Red Bull seat
Nov 12, 2024
Jaden Diaz-Ndisang
Last Word On Sports

Red Bull could retain the status quo. According to a recent report from MARCA, a fresh wave of sponsorship could help Sergio Perez stay at Red Bull in 2025. The Spanish outlets suggests that Perez brings $30 million of sponsors to the team – a massive figure. Although this will not be the only factor Red Bull are taking consideration, finances certainly play a role.

‘Status quo’;

https://lastwordonsports.com/motorsp...red-bull-seat/


Sergio Perez has told Red Bull how much it would cost to buy him out of his contract before next season
13 Nov 2024
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Red Bull Racing driver Sergio Perez is insistent that his time in Formula 1 isn’t about to come to an end. N Sergio Perez has had a glittering F1 career spanning more than a decade.

A report from F1 Insider has now shared how much Perez would demand if Red Bull were going to buy out his contract. Alongside the cost of finding a replacement and the loss in value from his personal sponsors, it makes an already difficult decision even harder.

Sergio Perez to demand £15.7m fee to walk away from 2025 Red Bull contract. Perez will want to concentrate on the final three races of the season as much as possible, knowing that a sudden upturn in form could help Red Bull in their quest to win the Constructors’ Championship.

‘£15.7 Million’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ser...e-next-season/


Horner has clear message for Perez: "We need Checo, he recognises that"
12 Nov 2024
Nicole Mulder
GPblog.com

Christian Horner once again underlined that Sergio Perez has to improve his performance at the end of this season. That is not only for himself or to help Max Verstappen in his quest for his fourth title, but also for Red Bull Racing to have a chance at winning the constructors' championship this season.

"Formula One, as we know, is a results-based business. And Sergio is very, very aware of that. And he's not happy with how the season has gone for him, as you would expect. So, yes, he's big enough and old enough and wise enough to recognise that," the team principal told talkSport.

"We need Checo”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31244...gio-perez.html


‘The truth is’: Sergio Perez has ‘laughed at’ what he’s read about his future at Red Bull in ‘European media’
13 Nov 2024
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Sergio Perez laughs at European reporters for ‘inventing’ Red Bull stories
Speaking to Banorte, one of his sponsors in Mexico, on Instagram, Perez addressed the speculation over his future. He repeated his accusation that members of the European press lack professionalism. Perez ultimately accepts the scrutiny that comes with his position. But he also ‘laughs’ when he reads ‘invented’ stories.

His camp have been consistently bullish. Perez’s father has hinted that he’ll stay at Red Bull, while the driver himself has maintained that Horner and Marko will honour his contract. Perez said: “With humour, the truth is, I laugh at everything that is invented, what is said. Some, the truth is, I think not all, there are very professional journalists who do their job very well.”

“In the end, [some] understand it, you have a bad career and you have to talk about it, and as an athlete sometimes it is difficult to understand it, but you also have to be honest and know that perhaps you did not have the best career, not everyone is going to make the best decisions. But there is also an excess of, let’s say, a lack of professionalism in many European media.”

‘The truth is’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ser...uropean-media/

Williams could be forced to miss 2024 Las Vegas GP.
Crash damage has gone beyond cash allocations at Williams.
13 Nov 2024
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

Williams could be forced to miss the 2024 Las Vegas GP as the team struggles to find the parts needed for Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto’s cars following a series of crashes at the Mexico GP and Brazilian GP in Formula 1’s triple header. Albon found the barriers at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez twice, firstly in FP1 and again on Lap 1 of the Grand Prix, before adding a huge shunt in Sao Paulo during qualifying that ensured he could take no part in the race.

Whilst Colapinto also found the wall in qualifying at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace (Interlagos) before adding a significant crash under safety car conditions on Lap 32, ensuring his afternoon was done too. And although the British racing team are known for being low budget, James Vowles revealed the damage has gone beyond cash allocations and is now a simple case of logistical issues as he declares no other competitor on the grid would be able to take that hit.

‘Williams could be forced to miss the 2024 Las Vegas GP’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-...-crash-damage/


Williams reveal Las Vegas spec conundrum with spare parts shortage
11 Nov 2024
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Five big crashes in 10 days have Williams facing a conundrum ahead of Las Vegas as the team has yet to tally their remaining spare parts and could be forced to mix and match.

Williams have had a crash-strewn run in the last two races, Mexico and Brazil, with three crashes for Alex Albon and two for Franco Colapinto.

The run of crashes has not only hit Williams’ pocket hard, but also their stock of spare parts. It had team boss James Vowles revealing they don’t yet know what specs either FW46 will feature at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

‘Conundrum’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/willia...parts-shortage


'I remember': James Vowles shares what he did during the Sao Paulo Grand Prix after Franco Colapinto’s crash
4 Nov 2024
Rory Mitchell
F1 Oversteer

Williams was the only team not classified at the end of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix after a dismal day at Interlagos. The team suffered an early setback when Alex Albon threw away a potential front-row start in qualifying when he crashed at high speed heading into the Senna ‘S’ section.

James Vowles watched the rest of Sao Paulo GP despite Williams double retirement. Vowles said he was ‘hurting’ after the race, especially considering Alpine’s result now drops them down to P9 ahead of pointless Sauber in the standings.

'I remember';

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/jam...apintos-crash/


Williams issues 'frustration' plea after series of F1 crashes
Williams has endured a difficult handful of weeks with multiple on-track incidents and falling to ninth in the constructors' championship.
13 Nov 2024
Fergal Walsh
RacingNews365

“I came here to win races with Williams,” Vowles said. “I came here to watch Williams, a championship team that is the second most successful team in the sport, come back to the front. So a weekend like this is a blip.”

“It's part of a journey, but it is not our destination. I said all along that 2023, 2024 and 2025 don’t have the material impact on us as a team. 2026, 2027 and 2028 do.”

“It's a long way away, but it's investment in the future, and it's making sure we're doing the right things for the continued success of the team rather than one race weekend.”

‘2026, 2027 and 2028’;

https://racingnews365.com/williams-c...se-frustration


'Unsustainable' run of damage leaves Williams uncertain of car spec for Vegas
Williams is evaluating its spares situation after series of crashes has left it short after the Brazilian GP
Nov 7, 2024
Jonathan Noble
Motorsport.com

Williams has admitted that the five major shunts from the last two Formula 1 race weekends have caused an 'unsustainable' run of damage to leave it short on spares.

The run of incidents has burned through Williams' spare parts and team principal James Vowles has admitted that it is now facing a race against time to work out what can be done to put it in the best possible shape for the race in Las Vegas.

The team will not only need to ensure it has enough spares to get through the weekend but also that it is running with its car in the best possible configuration of upgrades.

'Unsustainable';

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/u...s-gp/10671331/


Colapinto Red Bull move will ‘destroy him’, says F1 pundit
The Argentinian racer has impressed in his first races for Williams
Nov 10, 2024
James Fiorucci
FormulaNerds

Sky Sports F1 commentator Karun Chandhok believes that Colapinto shouldn’t join Red Bull if he has any regard for his future. “If they put him in a Red Bull alongside Max, it could destroy him, I think it’d be too soon,” concluded Chandhok.

The television pundit offered an alternative career path for Colapinto, that would allow him to gain further confidence before joining one of the faster teams on the grid. He continued: “I think it’s too early, I think if they were talking about putting him in an RB, I think that’ll be a good, sensible choice and a career progression for him.”

‘Red Bull move will ‘destroy him’, says F1 pundit’;

https://www.formulanerds.com/news/co.../?nowprocket=1

Axed F1 race director accused of deliberate move to hamper Max Verstappen title bid.
Niels Wittich, whose exit as Formula 1 race director was announced by the FIA this week, has been accused by Eddie Jordan of deliberately using a red flag to hamper Max Verstappen.
15 Nov 2024
Daniel Moxon
The Mirror

Eddie Jordan asserted Max Verstappen was not given "a fair deal" as he accused former Formula 1 race director Niels Wittich of trying to hamper the Dutchman in his title fight with Lando Norris. The FIA announced this week that Wittich has been replaced as F1 race director. The governing body's statement to the media suggested the German has chosen to leave his post, but he refuted that claim soon after and insisted he did not resign.

While several other cars had the time to finish the flying laps they were on, the Red Bull racer was one of those who did not and it meant he suffered an early exit which consigned him to 17th on the grid. With title rival Norris on pole, both Verstappen and his boss Christian Horner were furious.

You know the gods are in Lando's hands. They want Lando to win this championship. But he is not going to, because Max has outfoxed him. That is it." Coulthard replied to say he was not sure whether he agreed that was true, prompting another retort from Jordan. The Irish businessman said: "The red flag was wrong, it was a mistake - he f***** up, didn't he?"

‘Deliberate move to hamper Max’;

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formu...ttich-34115114


Eddie Jordan launches attack at FIA over hindering Max Verstappen deliberately in Brazil
"Was he dealt a fair deal when the red flag came out six cars, seven cars later?"
15 Nov 2024
Connor McDonagh
Crash.Net

Ex-F1 team boss Eddie Jordan has launched an attack at former FIA race director Niels Wittich over his handling of the red flag in qualifying at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Coulthard started the discussion by saying: “I think it’s kind of found its natural place now where the luck of where the Safety Car comes out is the luck of the racing gods. “We have to assume that the race director never looks at things like where cars are as to whether…”

Jordan quickly stated: “Of course he does! Of course he does! Are you telling me that Max was dealt a fair deal? Was he dealt a fair deal when the red flag came out six cars, seven cars later? Come on David, don’t be stupid.”

‘Eddie Jordan launches attack at FIA’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/106005...n-deliberately


Jordan backs Verstappen: 'They want Norris to win from him!'
15 Nov 2024
Cas van de Kleut
GPblog.com

Jordan defends Verstappen: When Coulhard, in the Formula for Success podcast, raised the idea of banning a pit stop during a [virtual] safety car, Jordan reacted indignantly: "Are you telling me that Max was dealt a fair deal? Was he dealt a fair deal when the red flag came out six cars, seven cars later? Come on, David, don't be stupid. You know the Gods are in Lando's hands. They want Lando to win this championship, but he's not going to because Max has outfoxed them. That's it."

‘Jordan backs Verstappen’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31288...-comments.html


Perez under the impression FIA Race Director Wittich was "sacked"
15 Nov 2024
Matt Gretton
GPblog.com

Sergio Perez believes former FIA Race Director Niels Wittich was sacked. In an announcement earlier this week, the FIA thanked Wittich for his work as Race Director in Formula 1 after he himself decided to take up a challenge elsewhere. The German seemed to suggest he was sidelined, and now Red Bull driver Perez seems to be under the impression that Wittich was sacked.

A story on Wednesday said Wittich's poor relationship with the drivers was the reason for his departure. For instance, he reportedly insisted on severely punishing drivers who swore, talked about fireproof underwear, and were not allowed to wear jewellery. These issues were also reflected in the GPDA's statement, which was published as an open letter. Perez gave his thoughts on the open letter.

"I think that’s [GPDA statement] good. The truth is that we are making it more public because in the end we are in a generation where we understand how important we are. We are, in the end, only 20 drivers in the world and it is important that we are heard as drivers. Formula 1 has grown a lot. Everyone is looking out for their interests and, in the end, they have neglected the driver a lot," Perez made his thoughts clear on the issue.

‘Sidelined’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31283...as-sacked.html


Villeneuve stands up for Perez: 'Stop saying that!'
14 Nov 2024
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

Jacques Villeneuve is known for not shying away from saying what's on his mind about Formula One. The 1997 world champion now stood up for Sergio Perez, saying that the Mexican has a contract signed for next season.

According to Jacques Villeneuve however, Perez will remain at the team for the 2025 season. "Colapinto deserves a race seat. But there might not be one available. It's very simple. Everybody is saying he will take the Perez seat. But Perez is there and he's under contract. It’s been 10 months now that people have been saying Perez is out at the next race. Stop saying it. He has a contract," he began to Grosvenor Sport.

Villeneuve believes there is no reason to let Perez go, given everything the Mexican brings to the table. "He brings sponsorship, and stability to the team. Verstappen is happy with him. And who knows how much of the difference is because Perez is a bit lost right now, which can happen or just Verstappen being so amazing."

‘Villeneuve stands up for Perez’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31277...pen-happy.html


'Unless something crazy happens': Growing confidence Sergio Perez will stay at Red Bull because of one ‘weird’ issue
15 Nov 2024
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Sergio Perez’s ‘weird’ contract extension should keep him at Red Bull. Perez came into 2024 approaching the end of his contract. Had Red Bull stayed patient, it’s highly likely that they would have parted with the Mexican at the end of the season.

But, to quote Saunders, they made the ‘weird’ decision to extend his contract in June, just a third of the way through a 24-race season. While they hoped that clarity would benefit Perez, they’ll surely regret their premature move at this point. “Honestly, the more I talk about it, the more I’m convinced Perez will stay next year,” Saunders said. “Unless something crazy happens at the end, I think that Red Bull backed themselves into a weird corner by signing him to a new deal.”

Without a specific break clause, Red Bull could face a huge payout. They would also lose out on some of F1’s largest commercial incentives. Telmex have pumped £103m into Red Bull since Perez joined at the start of 2021.

‘Growing confidence’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/gro...e-weird-issue/


Perez explains retaliation to F1 retirement speculation
Sergio Perez has detailed why he responded to F1 retirement speculation with use of a pop culture reference on social media.
14 Nov 2024
Samuel Coop & Aaron Deckers
RacingNews365

Sergio Perez has explained his now-infamous use of a clip from The Wolf of Wall Street to disavow the rumour he would announce his retirement from F1 at the Mexico City Grand Prix. "Well, I just felt like it's been every year for the last two years or so that someone creates this rumour," the six-time grand prix winner told media, including RacingNews365.

"Then everyone picks it up, and then all my fans - I was very conscious that there was a lot of people coming to support me at the Mexico City Grand Prix, and they probably might have been expecting something that is not true."

"I felt the need to just say, 'Look...'," he added. "It's just not correct to spread rumours like this without knowing the facts."

‘Why he responded’;

https://racingnews365.com/perez-expl...tirement-drama

Norris’s 12 errors which cost him far more than his 62-point deficit to Verstappen.
The fight for the Formula 1 drivers’ championship is all over bar the shouting. Unless Max Verstappen suffers a series of bizarre misfortunes akin to Montgomery Burns’ all-star baseball team, his name will go on the trophy for the fourth year in a row.
14th Nov 2024
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

What makes it so unlikely Verstappen will let his shot at the title slip is he has been so effective at gathering the maximum points available when his car hasn’t been quick enough to win. There have been few occasions when Verstappen finished lower than his car looked capable of, and not once has his team mate Sergio Perez finished in front of him.

The same cannot be said of Verstappen’s closest championship rival, Lando Norris. The McLaren driver has had a breakthrough season, claiming his first three grand prix wins. But more often than not points have slipped through his fingers.

Sometimes he’s been plainly unlucky. On other occasions his team have slipped up. And Norris has squandered points through his own mistakes as well. But can any of these be singled out as the main reason why his championship bid is set to fail?

‘Norris’s 12 errors’;

https://www.racefans.net/2024/11/14/...to-verstappen/


The key ‘five races’ that really cost Lando Norris the World title
15 Nov 2024
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Although Brazil 2024 will go down in F1’s annals as the day Lando Norris lost the World title, Karun Chandhok says one has to look at the first five races of the season and McLaren’s deficit for the real cause.

McLaren admitted before the start of the 2024 championship that some of 2023’s weaknesses remained, team principal Andrea Stella saying: “There were a few projects that we had started, that had potential, but just we couldn’t finalise them in time to have it on the launch car, so they will very likely become updates for the early part of the season.”

But while the team nailed those with their Miami Grand Prix upgrades as the MCL38 emerged as the car to beat, by then Norris was 62 points off Verstappen’s lead. It’s a deficit that at its highest grew to 81 points and at its lowest dropped to 44. McLaren may have lost the World title but they are still on track for the Constructors’, up on Ferrari by 36 points with Red Bull a further 13 off the pace.

‘Five races’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/key-fi...f1-world-title


McLaren’s slow start pinpointed as moment Lando Norris lost 2024 F1 title
16th Nov 2024
Taylor Powling
Motorsport Week

Ex-Formula 1 driver Karun Chandhok has claimed that McLaren’s deficit in the opening five races will be the reason that Lando Norris‘ title bid comes up short in 2024.

“I think realistically, they could be proud of the season he’s put together,” Chandhok told the Sky F1 podcast. “The championship battle wasn’t lost on Sunday in Brazil, it was lost in the first five races.”

‘McLaren’s slow start’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2024/...2024-f1-title/


‘Very odd’ McLaren ‘said the weirdest thing’ after Brazilian GP defeat
14 Nov 2024
Thomas Maher
PlanetF1.com

Jacques Villeneuve believes McLaren’s championship claims after Brazil are “very odd”, and questioned the team’s winning mentality. McLaren boss Andrea Stella responded to Max Verstappen’s dramatic win in Brazil by stating that, for his team, the result changed nothing because “the Constructors’ Championship was always our priority.” 1997 F1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve, who reflected on the dramatic weekend in Brazil during an interview with Grosvenor Sport.

“Lando Norris’ luck turned halfway through the race in Brazil because of what happened with the Safety Car (in Brazil),” he said. “There’s a flaw in the regulations and he paid a heavy price and that was extremely bad luck – there was nothing he could have done with that. Then the pace that Verstappen had in the second half of the race came out of nowhere which was incredible. It’s not in Lando’s hands anymore. All he can do is race hard and fast and hope that the Red Bull doesn’t score. That’s all.”

“McLaren said the weirdest thing after Brazil, and that was the team’s priority, which was not the Drivers’ Championship but the Constructors’ title. That is very odd. That’s what teams that don’t win say,” Villeneuve said. “Ok, the Constructors’ title brings you money. But nobody cares about the Constructors’. People only remember who the World Champion driver was and the team was linked to that world champion.”

“That’s what teams that don’t win say”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/jacque...ian-grand-prix


Lando Norris has scrapped one hobby that stopped him sleeping on F1 race weekends
14 Nov 2024
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Lando Norris rather suddenly became a Formula 1 title contender this year. While that bid looks destined to end in failure, it has no doubt taught him a great deal. Norris spent the first two years of his career in the upper midfield with McLaren. By 2021, they were on the periphery of the frontrunner status.

Lando Norris no longer plays video games when he’s at a Grand Prix. Norris has always been an enthusiastic gamer. He was involved in the coverage of Formula 1’s E-sports series (pictured below) before he joined the grid and his Quadrant brand is also part of that space. During his early years in F1, Norris would bring his PlayStation to race weekends and play for ‘hours’. That, in turn, would cost him much-needed sleep.

Speaking to tech YouTuber Austin Evans, he revealed that he’d now left this hobby at home. It’s part of his efforts to be more ‘disciplined’ and focused on racing. He said: “I used to have the PlayStation. I used to carry that around with me everywhere. I would play on flights and I would spend hours and hours. The thing is, I wouldn’t sleep because I love doing these things so much. I would spend too much time doing that, I wasn’t disciplined enough. I probably think I am now.”

‘Scrapped one hobby’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/lan...race-weekends/


Ex-F1 star reveals Verstappen and Norris are no longer friends
The pair have been involved in bitter F1 2024 title fight since the Miami GP in May.
14 Nov 2024
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

Ralf Schumacher has cast doubt on whether Max Verstappen and Lando Norris are still friends as the ex-Formula 1 star suggests their intense battle for the 2024 F1 season may have fractured their bond following a series of controversial incidents.

The former Williams driver, and brother of Michael, pointed to recent behavioural changes and tense on-track incidents as signs of a growing rift between the two drivers as the pair no longer fly to Grand Prix races together.

“I’m not at all sure that the friendship really exists even now,” Schumacher told formel1.de.com. “I was surprised. They used to always fly together, but that’s stopped recently. I can understand it, though. It’s hard to stay friends when you’re fighting for the championship and top positions as fiercely as they are.”

‘It’s hard to stay friends’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/ex-...onger-friends/

'Far outweighs': McLaren may have used an ‘old school trick’ to develop race-winning F1 car this season.
The MCL38 started off the season as second-best to the Red Bull RB20, but key developments have enabled the team to win more than one race in a season for the first time since 2012.
11 Nov 2024
Rory Mitchell
F1 Oversteer

McLaren has been on a big recruitment drive which has led to some key personnel members from rival teams join them, including Red Bull aerodynamicist Rob Marshall. The MCL38 has drawn attention from some rivals, with Red Bull recently leading a protest of their rear wing design following their win at Azerbaijan. They are employing an ‘old school trick’ when it comes to car development according to F1 technical journalist Matt Somerfield when speaking on the Missed Apex podcast.

McLaren has been able to use a new wind tunnel facility that came online last year, and they have put it to good use with their front wing designs according to Somerfield. “They [McLaren] might have started out with the high, medium and low downforce wings that they will never use again because they’re from the first family and now they have a better configuration with the second family,” said Somerfield.

“Their development on that side of things far outweighs any team on the grid. This makes you question their development and understand how to get the best out of these regulations because in reality, that’s more of an old-school trick we used to see, whereas we haven’t seen that trick through this regulation set. Only Red Bull had done it in the early phases through beam wings rather than rear wings.”

‘Old school trick’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/mcl...r-this-season/


This surprising F1 stat shows how Lando Norris' chance slipped away
16 Nov 2024
Cas van de Kleut
GPblog.com

It is clear that the Red Bull car has long since ceased to be the car it was. At the beginning of the season the team was still winning races comfortably. At times, the McLaren car won by a large margin. Verstappen, however, managed to limit the damage as much as possible.

After the summer break, it became clear that Red Bull's problem was really big. At Zandvoort, Norris won overwhelmingly, and in Italy, too, the RB20 was simply not fast enough. Red Bull has since improved Verstappen's car's balance.

Norris failed to make gains: Yet Verstappen managed to limit the damage. Since the summer break, Verstappen has scored 116 points. That is only 16 points less than Norris. This means that the Briton made up an average of just 2.29 points per Grand Prix since the summer break. Leclerc scored 130 points since the summer break, meaning he made up an average of only 2 points per race weekend.

‘Norris failed to make gains’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31274...mer-break.html


Lando Norris given extra motivation as Las Vegas GP chiefs plan Max Verstappen party
Lando Norris has a chance to be the spoiler this weekend.
Nov 14, 2024
Harry Smith
Daily and Sunday Express

Lando Norris has the chance to spoil the party - literally - at the Las Vegas Grand Prix next weekend, with organisers planning a celebration event should Max Verstappen confirm his fourth World Championship.

Renee Wilm, CEO of the event, told Autosport: “I'm sure that we would be able to pull some ideas out of our hat, maybe pre-arrange some pretty exciting opportunities. When you consider the properties on the Strip - Wynn and Encore are second to none in terms of the highest class of hospitality.

“Then, of course, you have the Bellagio further down the Strip, with those iconic fountains, and the level of VIP service that the Bellagio offers. There are so many opportunities to highlight the drivers, and particularly if we actually do have the benefit of being able to get a champion [crowned].”

‘Chance to spoil the party’;

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/f1-a...gas-Grand-Prix


Lando Norris admits he's 'split' after Max Verstappen question as tensions rise
Tensions have reached boiling point between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen this year.
Nov 16, 2024
Fraser Watson

Speaking to Will Buxton on F1 TV, the 25-year-old was asked if the pair’s relationship had been affected. “I don’t know, I’m split,” he replied. “In some ways, you kind of think how someone can be personally and how you can get along with people can be so different to how you are on track.”

“It’s such a different world there on the track to here doing this in the paddock. It’s my first time being in this situation, and time will tell how that changes. But for now I still respect Max, I think he respects me, but maybe ask me again at the end of the year.”

‘Tensions have reached boiling point’;

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/f1-a...Red-Bull-title


Herbert expects McLaren driver dynamic to ‘swap over’ in 2025
14/11/2024
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

Ex-F1 driver and current FIA steward Johnny Herbert believes the 2025 season will bring a thrilling shift in McLaren’s internal dynamics, with Oscar Piastri free to challenge teammate Lando Norris head-on for supremacy. When asked about Piastri’s potential to fight Norris for top billing within McLaren, the former Grand Prix driver was unequivocal, noting that the young Aussie has proven he’s more than ready for the challenge.

“If we go to Abu Dhabi and the championship is done and it is not possible for Lando to win [the drivers' title], that will already have changed," Herbert told Vision4Sport. "That will be letting Oscar be allowed to go out there and win the race if he can. The whole dynamic will swap over very quickly this year and will continue into 2025."

‘McLaren driver dynamic’;

https://f1i.com/news/524556-herbert-...r-in-2025.html

Vasseur issues Ferrari instruction to end F1 title drought.
Ferrari is currently in second place in the standings, 36 points behind McLaren and 13 ahead of Red Bull with three rounds and 147 points remaining on the board.
17 Nov 2024
Jake Nichol & Aaron Deckers
RacingNews365

Ferrari is challenging for a first F1 world championship in any form since 2008 with the constructors' fight against McLaren. Frederic Vasseur has told his Ferrari team that it must look back at its failures in the F1 season if it wants to capture the constructors' championship.

"I don't think we've lost so many points on the strategy, but for sure, you have frustration when you look at the complete season," he told media including RacingNews365. "We made mistakes as a team, had some issues, but I think that is true for everybody.”

"If you look at that, everybody can say that: 'if I didn't do this or this and at the end, with the kind of fight with three or four teams where it is close, everybody can be world champion'. But the most important thing is to avoid racing with 'if', because everybody can win races, but we need to focus on what we are doing to try and improve.”

‘Ferrari instruction’;

https://racingnews365.com/vasseur-is...-title-drought


Ferrari success shows it has taken ‘right approach’ in F1 2024
15 Nov 2024
Taylor Powling
Motorsport Week

Asked whether Ferrari had given up time in qualifying in 2024, Ferrari Senior Performance Engineer Jock Clear told media including Motorsport Week: “Yes, I think so. I think we’ve mentioned before that this year we had changed our focus a little bit.”

“It was clear for people to see that certainly two, three years ago we were the kings of qualifying and really struggled on a Sunday. But even last year, the balance was not quite right.”

“I think this year, the encouraging thing is that wherever the drivers qualify, they sort of get out of the car at the end of qualifying and think, ‘yeah, but I know that I can race tomorrow’, which for the drivers is a really strong mentality.”

‘Right approach’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2024/...ch-in-f1-2024/


Ferrari: Focus on race day competitiveness fueled 2024 success
16/11/2024
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

Ferrari senior performance engineer Jock Clear says the Italian outfit’s strong performances this season are the result of the team switching its focus to improving its race day competitiveness. At the heart of Ferrari's turnaround lies a conscious strategic decision to move away from its historical emphasis on one-lap pace, as Clear explained.

“I think we’ve mentioned before that this year we had changed our focus a little bit,” said the British engineer, quoted by Motorsport Week. “It was clear for people to see that certainly two, three years ago we were the kings of qualifying and really struggled on a Sunday. But even last year, the balance was not quite right.”

‘Focus on race day competitiveness’;

https://f1i.com/news/524653-ferrari-...4-success.html


‘Going to be difficult’: Charles Leclerc admits Ferrari decision could make the Las Vegas Grand Prix ‘difficult’
15 Nov 2024
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Charles Leclerc took pole position and fought to win the debut Las Vegas Grand Prix, but he concedes Ferrari might have made life more ‘difficult’ for themselves in 2024. Ferrari were quick to adapt to the unique circumstances that greeted the Formula 1 field for the inaugural Las Vegas GP in 2023. A local start time of 22:00 on the Saturday night made it one of the coldest events on the calendar, causing extremely low levels of grip all weekend.

Early forecasts offer lows of 41-42°F (5-5.5°C) for the air temperature in Las Vegas over the Grand Prix weekend. Leclerc is not convinced Ferrari are as well-equipped to deal with lower temperatures as they were at the 2023 Las Vegas GP having refined their tyre management. “I think on paper it’s a track where we should be performing well,” Leclerc noted, via Marca.

“However, the fact that we’ve improved a lot in tyre management this year probably means that on a track where it’s so cold, it’s going to be difficult to get the tyres into the right temperature and in the perfect window. But, on paper, it still looks positive – maybe not as positive as last year. But, still looking at how close everything is, I think we’ll have a chance to win it.”

‘Going to be difficult’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/cha...rix-difficult/


Ferrari ‘expected’ to make surprise move for Zhou Guanyu – report
16 Nov 2024
Thomas Maher
PlanetF1.com

According to Italy’s Corriere Della Serra, Ferrari could turn towards current Sauber driver Zhou Guanyu next season. The Chinese driver has been with Sauber for three years but will not be part of the Swiss squad’s driver line-up for next year, as the team has signed Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bartoleto for its final year before evolving into Audi.

Signing Zhou would strengthen its position in the market, enabling Ferrari to use the popular driver in its commercial strategic marketing and attempt to address this slump. “After Ollie Bearman’s move to Haas, Ferrari is expected to bring in Chinese driver Zhou (dumped by Sauber) as a reserve for next year,” read a short report in the Italian newspaper.

‘Surprise move for Zhou Guanyu’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/ferrar...er-role-report


F1 News: Zhou Guanyu in talks to become Ferrari reserve driver
Nov 16, 2024
Jaden Diaz-Ndisang
Last Word On Sports

Zhou has been exploring alternatives for some time. As the 25-year-old explained earlier this year, staying active in the F1 paddock is his priority: “At the moment, I don’t want to be in other series yet,” he explained in Monza.

“Because I feel like I’m still in a period that if I can stay in F1, or make a comeback if I don’t have a seat. There will still be chances to show what I’ve got.” Zhou Guanyu is understood to be negotiating with Ferrari to become their reserve driver from 2025. A new report from Corriere.it reveals that Fred Vasseur’s team could welcome the Chinese driver into their ranks next season.

Considering that it was Fred Vasseur who signed Zhou to Sauber in 2022, there is already a strong platform for negotiations. Even as securing a Sauber contract extension became increasingly unlikely, Zhou was confident that other options were at his disposal. In this sense, it is not a complete surprise there is clear path forward has been established.

‘Ferrari reserve driver’;

https://lastwordonsports.com/motorsp...eserve-driver/


Sainz handed early Ferrari release
Carlos Sainz has been allowed to leave Ferrari ahead of his contract expiration at the end of the year.
16 Nov 2024
Mat Coch
Speedcafe

The Spaniard has been cleared to drive for his new team, Williams, at part of the post-season test in Abu Dhabi next month. Sainz will join Alex Albon at Williams next season after Ferrari opted to sign Lewis Hamilton alongside Charles Leclerc.

“Williams Racing is pleased to announce today that Carlos Sainz will join the team for the upcoming Abu Dhabi end-of-season test, marking the first steps in his preparations for the 2025 season,” Williams confirmed.

‘Early Ferrari release’;

https://speedcafe.com/sainz-handed-e...rrari-release/


Ferrari to release Carlos Sainz early for Williams testing in Abu Dhabi
NOV 16, 2024
The Straits Times

LONDON - Carlos Sainz will get a jump start on his transition to Williams, with Ferrari agreeing to release the Spaniard early from his commitments with the team so Sainz can participate in the end-of-season test at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit.

“This early opportunity will allow both Carlos and Williams to begin building their relationship,” Williams said in a statement. “The test session will provide a valuable chance for Carlos to begin integrating into his new team environment, and he will drive the FW46 for the first time.”

‘Integrating’;

https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/f...t-in-abu-dhabi

Hamilton looks forward to GP in Las Vegas: 'It will be even better than in '23''.
“One of the cool things is, I feel like I maybe play a tiny role in these races that appear," said the Mercedes Briton.
16 Nov 2024
Ludo van Denderen
GPblog.com

The 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix was one that has gone down in the history books. Of course, there were the problems on the opening day, when covers came loose and destroyed Carlos Sainz's Ferrari, for example. Only deep into the night and with no fans could FP2 be completed. But that was offset by a great Grand Prix on Sunday, with Max Verstappen winning.

According to Hamilton, lessons were learned after the first edition. "I think what happened with the fans and I can't remember exactly, but it wasn't the smoothest of weekends, but the race was incredible. And so going back now, I think they would have made so many changes and it would be even better. But yeah, definitely dancing under the nightlights was just incredible."

‘Cool’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31292...las-vegas.html


Report: Why Mercedes has blocked Lewis Hamilton from taking part in post-season test with Ferrari in Abu Dhabi
13 Nov 2024
Rory Mitchell
F1 Oversteer

With Lewis Hamilton switching to Ferrari for the 2025 season, the possibility of him running for the team in a post-season Abu Dhabi test lingered. Beyond a filming day, a run in a 2025 or 2024 car outside of official tests is forbidden to F1 teams prior to the test in Bahrain next year.

Ferrari had plans to run Hamilton in one of their cars to bed himself in the team before making his full race weekend debut, however, this looks set to be postponed after Mercedes decided to block the seven-time world champion.

According to a report from Autosport, this looks set to happen at the start of next year with an appearance in the Abu Dhabi post-season test also ruled out. This means Ferrari will need to wait until next year when it plans to run him in a 2022 car as part of the ‘Testing of Previous Cars’ rules set out in the regulations.

‘Mercedes has blocked Lewis Hamilton’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/why...-in-abu-dhabi/


Mercedes announce special Lewis Hamilton livery plans for final race together
14 Nov 2024
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

Mercedes are giving fans the chance to have their name on the W15 driven by Lewis Hamilton as he contests his final race with the team. 150 fans to have their name on Mercedes W15 of Lewis Hamilton

‘150 fans’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/merced...n-names-livery


Mercedes drop hint of what’s next for Valtteri Bottas after Sauber axe
Bottas has been a part of the team since 2022 but will leave at the end of the 2024 season
15 Nov 2024
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

What’s next for Valtteri Bottas? But he may not be out of the sport for long with a move to back to the Silver Arrows potentially on the cards as a reserve and development driver to offer some vital experience and technical input that the 26-year-old Russell and 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli may lack.

And it seems as though the link could be true, as Mercedes drop a cryptic hint on social media of a reunion with the man who helped guide them to five consecutive constructors’ championships between 2017-2021.

‘Mercedes drop hint’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-...er-sauber-axe/


‘Not good enough’… The moment Toto Wolff felt ‘embarrassment’ as the team principal of Mercedes
12 Nov 2024
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

The 2023 Formula 1 season didn’t go to plan for Mercedes and team principal Toto Wolff. After winning the Constructors’ Championship in 2021 but cruelly missing out on helping Lewis Hamilton win his 8th title in Abu Dhabi, Mercedes set about tackling the next era of regulations in F1.

Author Matt Whyman followed the Brackley-based team for his book Inside Mercedes F1 and shared what happened in the briefing after pre-season testing in Bahrain. He shared what Wolff told the team ahead of the campaign and the ‘embarrassment’ he felt when comparing Mercedes’s performance to their rivals.

After pre-season testing, Mercedes are debriefing ahead of the season’s opening race. Hamilton’s race engineer Pete Bonnington said: “It wasn’t long ago that we were kings of winter testing, It feels like we’ve slipped.” Wolff injected and said: “This is just not good enough. We need to feel a certain degree of embarrassment here. We blame the problem not the person, but nevertheless…come on!”

‘Not good enough’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/not...l-of-mercedes/

Slow Car Led To Dan Fallows’ Aston Exit.
Dan Fallows lost his job at Aston Martin because of the team’s performance struggles, according to Ralf Schumacher.
Nov 18, 2024
Media
F1 Chronicle

Fallows only started work as the Silverstone-based team’s technical director in 2022, having been poached from the ultra-successful Red Bull. Aston Martin had a meteoric start to the 2023 season, but car development then stalled. The team also started quite strongly this year, but Fernando Alonso now thinks Aston Martin has one of the slowest cars of all.

1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve picked up the theme in conversation with Grosvenor Sport: “It is no surprise that Dan Fallows is leaving Aston Martin, if you look at the development of that car. It just gets worse and worse,” he said. “Fallows left Red Bull to claim this better role, but I can imagine that it was not a good fit between him and Aston Martin. And now Adrian is arriving.”

Schumacher admits he isn’t sure if Newey, who worked closely with Fallows at Red Bull, asked for his former colleague to be ousted. “I don’t know what happened,” said the German, “but I will ask Adrian when I see him next.” Indeed, Schumacher and Newey both often spend time in South Africa along with Eddie Jordan.

‘Slow Car’;

https://f1chronicle.com/slow-car-led.../?nowprocket=1


Aston Martin outline F1 direction after major team restructure
Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack has detailed how the Silverstone squad is addressing the development of its team, outlining a preference for longer-term thinking.
17 Nov 2024
Samuel Coop & Aaron Deckers
RcingNews365

Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack says that re-building the Silverstone squad is a task that must be assessed from a long-term perspective.

When speaking to media including RacingNews365, Krack was asked if the internal structure at Aston Martin had become too complex and if that has led the team from punching above its weight to punching below it. "You have a team to develop, and you have a car team," he replied. "And you must be careful not to mix them too much.”

"When it is the car is very short term. We speak [in] zero to eight, or 10 or 12 weeks; when you develop a team, [it is] maybe months and years. You need to isolate them, not mixing them too much, because very often you can be influenced by a bad result, but also you can be influenced by good results."

‘Re-building’;

https://racingnews365.com/aston-mart...am-restructure


Alonso relentlessly driven by ‘hope’ amid Aston Martin’s struggles
17/11/2024
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

Fernando Alonso says his belief that his experience and feedback will help Aston Martin turn around its fortunes is the main fuel powering his motivation as his team navigates its way through a difficult period.

Speaking to the media recently, Alonso reflected on what keeps him motivated even when competing for positions far below his aspirations. “It's the hope that is always there,” he said, quoted by Motorsport Week. “Obviously, in terms of positions and efforts, you will say that it's not worth fighting for P12,” he admitted.

“But if that P12 gives the team any insight into what we are missing, if you are fighting with other cars and you see some weaknesses, some strengths, you can feed back to the team and you can improve for the next race or next year.”

‘Relentlessly’;

https://f1i.com/news/524697-alonso-r...struggles.html


How Aston Martin went from podium to slowest in only a year
Nov 17, 2024
Scott Mitchell-Malm
The Race

Few would have imagined, even when the peak of Aston Martin’s stunning podium-laden start to 2023 had long since passed, it would have the slowest Formula 1 car at some point in 2024. Its decline since has been persistent and is best illustrated by having the slowest car at the 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix, just 12 months on from its most recent podium finish - although the reality of that podium was more an opportunistic, well-executed race weekend by Aston Martin and some Fernando Alonso heroics than the car being genuinely that fast by the end of 2023.

But it is important that whatever Aston Martin is able to get right in 2025 doesn’t just repeat the cycle of developing well with a good lead time for a new season and then slipping back once it begins. Especially as 2025 will mark the arrival of two major recruits: Enrico Cardile as chief technical officer and Adrian Newey as technical managing partner.

Such arrivals are the elephants in the room where Fallows is concerned. There are two people already slotting in above where he was in the food chain, and that’s without factoring in Andy Cowell recently arriving as Group CEO and Bob Bell joining earlier in 2024 as executive director - both with much wider remits than the day-to-day technical leadership.

‘Podium to slowest’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/a...ear-explained/


After sacking its technical director, Aston Martin is all out of excuses in pursuit of F1 greatness
Nov 15th, 2024
Michael Lamonato
Fox Sports (Australia)

It’s an unusual time for a team to be making big personnel changes with the end of the season so near on the horizon, but Aston Martin has no time to wait.

It’s why it released technical director Dan Fallows, once heralded as a defining acquisition from the clutches of Red Bull Racing, via a no-fuss press release this week with just three rounds to go for the season.

“I would like to thank Dan for his contribution to Aston Martin in the last two years,” Aston Martin group CEO Andy Cowell said in an extremely brief statement. “Dan led the team to the success of the AMR23 which secured eight podiums last season.”

‘Out of excuses’;

https://www.foxsports.com.au/motorsp...8fb7d1222d83a3


Why Fallows' farewell at Aston Martin was already in the air
12 Nov 2024
Ludo van Denderen
GPblog.com

How many captains can you have on the same ship? Aston Martin apparently came to the conclusion that there are now too many bright minds to head the technical departments of the ambitious British team. Dan Fallows has fallen victim to this, with news emerging earlier on Tuesday that the Brit will leave his post as technical director this month.

The departure of Fallows - who will take up another, as yet unknown, position within the Group - is certainly not unexpected. A few months ago, Aston Martin announced that Enrico Cardile was coming over from Ferrari to take up the role of chief technical officer, meaning that Fallows would report directly to the Italian.

Lawrence Stroll, the (co-)owner of the Aston Martin F1 team, has never made a secret of aiming for the highest goals with his team, looking for Grand Prix victories and even championships. Apparently, Fallows was not seen as the man who could bring that next step to the team. The current season did not help his cause either, with a brilliant 2023 season in which Aston Martin seemed a regular on the podium becoming a failed 2024 season, unable to capture a single trophy.

‘Already in the air’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31249...martin-f1.html


The ‘superteam’ of geniuses Adrian Newey will lead at Aston Martin
Adrian Newey will form part of a 'superteam' technical department when he joins Aston Martin in F1 2025.
12 Nov 2024
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Adrian Newey will work with several esteemed F1 figures when he joins Aston Martin’s technical line-up.
Andy Cowell: One of those is former Mercedes engine mastermind Andy Cowell, who will join Aston Martin as their new group chief executive officer on October 1.

Enrico Cardile Another major coup for Aston Martin was the signing of Enciro Cardile - a key pillar of Ferrari’s F1 technical team.
Bob Bell: The capture of Bob Bell marked another highly experienced signing for Aston Martin after the F1 veteran left his advisory role for the struggling Alpine team earlier this year.

Tom McCullough: Unlike the above arrivals, Tom McCullough has been a core member of Aston Martin’s technical department for years, having initially joined the team under their previous Force India guise a decade ago.
Luca Furbatto: Former Sauber chief designer Luca Furbatto was signed by Aston Martin as their new engineering director ahead of the 2022 season

‘Superteam’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/105527...d-aston-martin

Jeremy Clarkson delivers free Hawkstone to Alpine F1 team.
And this week he congratulated Mr Gasly in person when he turned up at the team's Enstone headquarters, a few miles from Diddly Squat Farm, with a sports car full of crates of Hawstone.
15 Nov 2024
Miranda Norris
Oxford Mail

Jeremy Clarkson has delivered a fresh batch of beer to the Oxfordshire-based Alpine F1 team to celebrate their success in the Brazilian Grand Prix. French drivers Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly finished second and third respectively in a rain-soaked, chaotic and crash-strewn race in Sao Paulo.

The two drivers scored more than twice as many points as in all their previous 20 races. Alpine is based in Enstone. Mr Clarkson, who lives in nearby Chipping Norton, publicly stated after the race: "Brilliant work from Alpine in Brazil today.

"Fantastic result for the Chipping Norton people." While inspecting cars in the team's HQ, he said: "While the entire Alpine team is distracted by their free Hawkstone beer I thought I'd give their car a new sponsor."

‘Crates of Hawstone’;

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/24...lpine-f1-team/


Briatore urges underpowered Alpine to field ‘better car’ in 2025
18/11/2024
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

Alpine executive advisor Flavio Briatore has made clear to the French team that it must develop a significantly improved chassis for 2025 to compensate for its Renault engine’s current three-tenths-per-lap power deficit.

To bridge this gap, Briatore emphasizes the need for a significant improvement in the car's aerodynamic performance and tyre management. “In the wet the discussion relating to engine power is reset, so even in 2025 we will have to make up for these three tenths that we are missing by making a better car,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“We must not worry because we know that it is like this, and we will have to try to do well using better aerodynamics and studying the tyres. Without feeling sorry for ourselves.”

‘Aerodynamic performance and tyre management’;

https://f1i.com/news/524766-briatore...r-in-2025.html


Clarkson’s beer run: A malty Alpine tradition
17 Nov 2024
F1i.com

The occasion? Celebrating Alpine’s sensational double-podium finish in São Paulo.

This malty tradition began after the Monaco Grand Prix in 2023, when Clarkson marked Esteban Ocon’s podium with the delivery of 1,000 pints to the team, vowing to repeat the gesture for every Alpine top-three finish.

True to his word, the former Top Gear UK star shared a celebratory toast with Pierre Gasly—because nothing says ‘team spirit’ like beer and banter. If Alpine keeps up its Brazilian form, Clarkson might need to trade his trailer for a tanker!

‘Double-podium finish’;

https://f1i.com/images/524706-clarks...tradition.html


FIA could not 'twist Renault's arm' over 2026 F1 quit decision
Renault has become the first 2026 power unit supplier to withdraw from F1.
16 Nov 2024
Jake Nichol & Aaron Deckers
RacingNews365

FIA single-seater technical chief Nikolas Tombazis insists it would not "twist somebody's arm" to stay as an F1 power unit manufacturer after Renault's withdrawal. Tombazis feels that despite the work Renault had put in to help design the rules, the FIA could not make it stay in F1 if it wanted to leave.

"We discussed when we defined the registration process that the registration was intended to cover the FIA costs of policing the PU manufacturers in creating these regulations," Tombazis told select media including RacingNews365. "But they are not intended to twist somebody's arm to continue to work in the sport.”

"It is 120, 130, 140 million and taken over five years, it is approaching a billion, and I don't think the FIA would ever constrain an OEM to having a $1 billion investment because they've registered and paid a small registration fee. It was always possible for anybody to pull out, and we want people to stay because they want to, not because we are forceful."

‘$1 billion investment’;


https://racingnews365.com/fia-could-...-quit-decision


Alpine ready to fire Jack Doohan to land Franco Colapinto
Doohan’s Formula 1 career could be over as few as five rounds into the 2025 season.
14 Nov 2024
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Briatore is not sold on the ex-Formula 2 driver and reports suggest his contract includes a five-race probationary period, allowing the team to make a swift change if his performances fall short of expectations

Alpine are said to be ready to fire Jack Doohan just a handful of races into the 2025 Formula 1 season to land Franco Colapinto, as Flavio Briatore remains unconvinced by the 21-year-old Australian driver.

His interest in Colapinto stems from the Argentine driver’s impressive late-season performances for Williams, where he replaced Logan Sargeant, and scored points twice in six races as he mirrors the pace of Alex Albon.

‘Five-race probationary period’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-...nco-colapinto/


Alpine confirm Mercedes F1 engine deal from 2026 season
Team to stop producing engines at end of 2025 having manufactured power units at French base since 1977.
Nov 13, 2024
Cian Brittle
BlackBook Motorsport

The Alpine Formula One team have confirmed their long-rumoured engine supply deal with Mercedes from the 2026 season. Mercedes will supply the Enstone-based outfit with power units until the 2030 season and the agreement also includes a supply of Mercedes gearboxes from the 2026 season.

It won’t be the first time that the Enstone-based outfit has been supplied by Mercedes engines, having agreed a one-year deal back in 2015 when the team ran under Lotus branding. Ultimately, it is hoped this move will provide significant cost savings for a team that saw profits fall 70 per cent to UK£7.8 million (US$10.4 million) in 2023, which will likely drop further when its 2024 financial results are confirmed next year.

It also makes Alpine a more attractive proposition for a sale if Renault Group executives lose patience with the entire programme, although de Meo previously ruled this out in June.

‘Manufactured power units at French base since 1977’;

https://www.blackbookmotorsport.com/...november-2024/


Alpine being prepared for F1 team sale says Plooij
Dutch F1 journalist Jack Plooij thinks Alpine is clearly being prepared for sale.
NOV 18, 2024
GrandPrix.com

“The Alpine team is going to be transferred to Hitech”, Plooij predicts to Ziggo Sport. “There was a lot of unrest, and it is clear that something is happening, thanks to Flavio Briatore”, he added, suggesting Alpine will now be much more attractive to buyers and investors.

Dutch GP boss Jan Lammers agrees. “It looks like Renault are slowly preparing an exit”, he said. “They're not leaving all at once, but first the team switched from Renault to Alpine, now Alpine is getting a Mercedes engine. This exit is happening in a filtered way.”

‘Being prepared’;

https://www.grandprix.com/news/alpin...ys-plooij.html

Komatsu: Haas has to “regroup” after losing place to Alpine.
Haas Formula 1 boss Ayao Komatsu says his team has to “regroup” and “refocus” after a frustrating weekend in Brazil saw it lose a place in the constructors’ championship lost to Alpine.
17 Nov 2024
Adam Cooper's F1 Blog

Komatsu accepted that a big score for a midfield team in a chaotic race was always a possibility. “This can happen any time,” Komatsu told me. “Of course, I wasn’t expecting a double podium from any of our rival teams, as in Alpine, RB and Williams. But it happened, so it is what it is.”

“We’ve got three races left, we’ve got to really regroup and refocus, and then just try to do the best job we can for the last three races. So congratulations to Alpine, they were quick, really quick.”

“Regroup”;

https://adamcooperf1.com/2024/11/17/...ace-to-alpine/


Romain Grosjean lauds Ayao Komatsu for Haas revival: ‘The team is back to a better level’
"It almost makes me feel like I want to race for them again!"
15 Nov 2024
Connor McDonagh
Crash.Net

Ex-F1 driver Romain Grosjean has hailed Ayao Komatsu for the job he’s done as Haas team principal in 2024. He told F1’s official website: “I’m so proud of Ayao and what he’s been doing with Haas, bringing the team back to a much better level – just making the most of it and working as he does.”

“I was lucky to know before the official announcement [that Komatsu would become Haas’s team boss]; I got a text from Ayao. I told him that I was very proud of him, very proud of everything he’s done, and very happy for him.”

‘Better level’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/106007...k-better-level


Haas hits out at planned customer team clampdown
NOV 18, 2024
GrandPrix.com

The boss of F1's smallest team, Haas, has hit out at a proposal to limit the way the outfit operates. And according to Auto Motor und Sport, a proposal in the 2026 regulations is that when 'customer teams' like Haas and RB finish fifth or higher in the constructors' standings, that team then has three years to become a full F1 constructor.

The rule is not set in stone, but it is expected a majority vote will push it through. “It would be a killer for the small teams”, Haas boss Ayao Komatsu insists. “If Formula 1 wants as many teams as possible to be competitive, then we will all reject this rule. What better thing could happen to the sport than David winning against Goliath?”

‘Not set in stone’;

https://www.grandprix.com/news/haas-...clampdown.html


Report: Toyota secured key clause in Haas deal putting Bearman and Ocon under instant pressure
16 Nov 2024
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Toyota returned to Formula 1 after 15 years by securing a technical partnership with Haas, which also puts Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon under immediate pressure. Toyota can veto Haas’ future driver moves after securing a technical partnership.

The American-owned squad will unleash a new driver line-up for the 2025 season after Haas signed Bearman and Ocon to replace Nico Hulkenberg plus Kevin Magnussen. Both agreed to multi-year contracts as the Briton graduates to F1 and the Frenchman joins from Alpine.

But for how long Ferrari Driver Academy prospect Bearman and one-time Grand Prix winner Ocon stay at Haas could be up in the air following the team’s partnership with Toyota. That’s because Formu1a.uno reports that Toyota also secured a veto on Haas’ future driver moves.

‘Veto’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/toy...tant-pressure/


No rush to decide non-racing Haas role for Magnussen
NOVEMBER 18, 2024
18 Nov 2024
GrandPrix.com

It is emerging that Valtteri Bottas, having lost his Audi-Sauber seat for 2025, may return to Mercedes next year to be reserve driver and special advisor to Toto Wolff.

Magnussen, not retained by his current team Haas, could have a similar role at the Ayao Komatsu-led outfit. In July, the Haas boss admitted he was looking to “find a way to continue working together in some way.”

Four months on, Komatsu is quoted as saying by France's Auto Hebdo: “Yes, we are still working on it.”

‘No rush’;

https://www.grandprix.com/news/no-ru...magnussen.html

VCARB make major Red Bull change ahead of Las Vegas Grand Prix.
VCARB will be running with an updated rear on its car for the final three races, taking on components from Red Bull’s RB20 for the rest of the season.
11 Nov 2024
Thomas Maher
PlanetF1.com

With Red Bull and VCARB becoming more closely technically aligned, the VCARB01 will receive the rear suspension and gearbox from the Red Bull RB20 for the final three races of the F1 2024 season.

With VCARB having had a season of sporadic form in 2024, the final trio of races represents the last chance for the Faenza-based squad to secure sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship – a formidable challenge as Haas and Alpine are each within five points, and ahead of VCARB.

For the final triple-header, VCARB will repeat last year’s assimilation of current Red Bull components. Known as AlphaTauri in 2023, the AT04 received the rear suspension of the dominant RB19 from the Singapore Grand Prix – with an uptick in form immediately ensuing.

‘Updated rear on its car’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/vcarb-...gas-grand-prix


Tsunoda reveals life event happened between races in Brazil and Las Vegas
18 Nov 2024
Matt Gretton
GPblog.com

Yuki Tsunoda reports he has moved house between the Brazilian Grand Prix and the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Formula 1 had two off weekends, separating the two triple headers, which will end the 2024 F1 season. The Japanese driver has also explained how he worked on the simulator to prepare for the upcoming Las Vegas Grand Prix.

"The slightly longer break since Brazil means I’ve had time to move house and I also had a couple of simulator sessions to prepare for this final triple-header of the season," Tsunoda said. "It’s an unusual track, very long for a street circuit, with mainly slow corners, so the car set-up is a compromise between having enough downforce to help with heavy braking at the end of the three long straights and to have good traction out of the turns, while also not having so much drag it affects your top speed on the very fast straights," the Japanese driver continued.

‘Couple of simulator sessions’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31315...-f1-races.html


Yuki Tsunoda: Red Bull promotion unlikely, despite strong results
Nov 9, 2024
Jaden Diaz-Ndisang
Motorsport Week

For several seasons, the Japanese driver has performed at a consistently high level for VCARB. Even before comfortably dispatching of Nyck De Vries in the first half of 2023, Tsunoda was already matching Pierre Gasly in their second season as teammates.

The 24-year-old’s progression is difficult to dispute. His outstanding P3 result in Brazil qualifying (followed by P7 on race day) is the latest evidence of his growth. However, none of this information is relevant in Red Bull’s current perception.

Even at the beginning of this season, when Tsunoda was regularly outperforming Daniel Ricciardo, the disparity between the two drivers was not seen as a triumph for Tsunoda – but instead a failure on Ricciardo’s behalf. In a similar way, Yuki Tsunoda finds himself in a lose-lose scenario against Liam Lawson.

‘Red Bull promotion unlikely’;

https://lastwordonsports.com/motorsp...trong-results/


Yuki Tsunoda gives verdict on Red Bull’s Franco Colapinto interest
14 Nov 2024
Taylor Powling
Motorsport Week

Yuki Tsunoda has admitted that Red Bull’s interest in Franco Colapinto is not a “surprise” amid rumours the two could become team-mates in Formula 1 at RB in 2025. “I mean, he’s definitely doing a good job,” Tsunoda told media including Motorsport Week. “To be honest, I don’t know much about those things. I didn’t see much.

“If it’s not an option, I’ll be surprised, right? Because he’s doing well and he don’t have a seat so far for next season. And if he’s fast, I’m thinking for all the teams he will be an option who don’t have selected a seat yet for next year. So yeah, I think so.”

‘Verdict’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2024/...into-interest/


'Don't know what game': Juan Pablo Montoya criticises Liam Lawson approach that might impact his Red Bull chances
10 Nov 2024
Rory Mitchell
F1 Oversteer

Liam Lawson drew some attention to his Formula 1 comeback when he got into a few on-track skirmishes with Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez. The 21-year-old first got into a heated battle with Fernando Alonso on track during the US GP weekend, which led to a moment in parc ferme between the pair.

Lawson would next get into a battle on track with Sergio Perez at the Mexican GP, whereby the Red Bull driver made contact with him and damaged his sidepod. This effectively ruined his race, with Perez voicing his anger at Lawson over team radio. Juan Pablo Montoya has criticised Lawson when speaking on W Radio Columbia, outlining why he thinks it was not a smart move to race Perez hard.

Juan Pablo Montoya says Liam Lawson is costing Red Bull points. “I don’t know what game Liam plays. I understand that he wants to show that he is better than Checo, but the only thing Liam is doing is taking points from Red Bull,” said Montoya.

'Don't know what game';

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/jua...-bull-chances/

Williams masterpiece: How were their two cars rebuilt in record time?
The cars had to be brought back to the UK, and now they have to be shipped to the US. In such a short amount of time, Williams worked day and night for five days.
19 Nov 2024
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

The last Grand Prix, which was hosted in Sao Paulo, did not go as planned for Williams. Over the course of that Sunday, Alexander Albon and Franco Colapinto have both completely destroyed their cars, that the team had to rebuild in extremely short time. In a video, the team now show the enormous work that has been completed to repair their cars.

In large crates, the pieces were returned to Groves, where mechanics examined each part and decided on what could be reused, and afterwards, the new parts had to be manufactured at their factory. Just in time, the team finished ahead of the Las Vegas GP, that is scheduled to be hosted this weekend. A report of five days of hard work was posted by Williams' YouTube channel.

‘Williams masterpiece’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31328...sao-paulo.html


Here’s How Williams Rebuilt Two Trashed F1 Cars In Time For The Las Vegas Grand Prix
Both Williams Formula 1 drivers suffered enormous crashes in Brazil that destroyed their races, now the cars have been repaired and are ready to race once again
19 Nov 2024
Owen Bellwood
Jalopnik

The team has lifted the lid on how it repairs and rebuilds cars that are destroyed on a race weekend. The process begins with crates and crates of parts arriving at the Williams base. From there, the fragments of F1 car are sorted into piles of parts that can still be used and parts that belong in the trash. Mechanics haul hastily packed fragments of carbon fiber out of a huge crate, and others hold up exhaust pipes to show the damage they sustained. From an outsider’s perspective, it looks like almost everything is destined for the trash.

That’s not the case, though, and engineers sort through the piles to uncover components that can be checked over and returned to the car. Other parts are also put to one side to be repaired before they can race in anger once again. “We’re trying to separate what can be salvageable just to help us until the end of the year,” says Rob Clayton, car assembly supervisor at the team. “That’s where we come into our own.”

While the salvaged parts are sorted, serviced and made ready for the next race, the two crashed chassis are also inspected to check that they are safe to run once again. To do this, teams remove all the damaged components from the frame, such as suspension arms, and the crash structures are thoroughly inspected. To complete this task, Williams engineers have just three days as once it’s signed off as safe it has to be fitted with the gearbox, fuel cell and seat ready to go racing in Las Vegas.

‘Rebuilt Two Trashed F1 Cars’;

https://jalopnik.com/here-s-how-will...ime-1851702613


Williams clarify participation at F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix amid crash damage rumour
Crash damage is felt but Williams set the record straight
17 Nov 2024
James Dielhenn
Crash.Net

Williams have rejected claims that they could miss next weekend’s F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix. “I’ve just chatted to Williams,” F1 reporter Lawrence Barretto confirmed on social media. “They tell me there’s no truth to the chatter they won’t be in Vegas after sustaining massive damage via three crashes in Brazil.”

“They say they’ll have both cars ready to race in Nevada. That’s an incredible effort from the team and suppliers.” Commentator Will Buxton added: “Seems James Vowles’ honesty in the knock on effects of the Brazilian GP have been taken to some ridiculous extremes over the past few days. “Team won’t miss Vegas. Team will have both cars.”

‘Williams clarify participation’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/106026...-damage-rumour


'All night': Williams chief makes Las Vegas claim after damaging ‘nearly all parts’ in Brazil
18 Nov 2024
Rory Mitchell
F1 Oversteer

Williams chief mechanic claims they are in a better position for Las Vegas despite crashes Rumours suggested that Williams might have to skip the race in Las Vegas amid a shortage of spare parts, however, it has turned out not to be the case. Williams staff have worked around the clock to make repairs to parts that were damaged in Sao Paulo, while their composites department has made a new chassis for Colapinto in time for the final triple-header.

“We got the chassis back out from composites last night. All freshly painted, new bits on there which are all done. The guys in composites have worked all night to get the chassis for Franco ready. It’s been crazy. After last week, it was a bit daunting as we damaged nearly all the parts that we had and it wasn’t realistic to get everything ready,” said Howard. “But it’s been amazing, the bits that have turned up, we’ve had an abundance of them, and everybody has worked throughout to push the boundaries. I think we will turn up in Vegas in a better state than we did in the last event, so it’s credit due to everybody.”

‘Worked around the clock’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/wil...rts-in-brazil/


Williams F1 team suffered $161.6 million loss in 2023
19 Nov 2024
Balazs Szabo
F1 Technical

Williams have reported a huge financial loss in 2023, but the company’s financial director Matthew Savage confirmed that the company’s losses have increased compared with 2022, but it has not been surprising.

The lower revenue and the higher costs translated into a gross operating loss of AUD $153.95 million (£80.298) and a post-tax loss of AUD $161.59 million (£84.286m). It was significantly higher than what Williams recorded the year before as it was only $34.31 million in 2022. (£17.894m).

The British company also reported increased payments due to creditors, with liabilities of AUD $127.94 million the sharpest increase was due to accruals, which totalled AUD $76.64 million (up from AUD $38.1 million in 2022). Despite the significantly higher loss, wage costs increased by 10 percent, with the squad’s average salary rising from £78,000 to £85,500.

‘$161.6 million loss’;

https://www.f1technical.net/news/25586


Williams reveals reason it missed out on Adrian Newey F1 return
19 Nov 2024
Taylor Powling
Motorsport Week

While Newey’s track record indicates recruiting him guarantees success, Vowles has insisted that Williams does not possess the facilities to maximise his talents. “It has nothing to do with the money, even if there was a bidder competition at the end, in which we did not want to participate,” Vowles told Auto Motor und Sport.

“I want people who believe in our project. Williams wasn’t ready for someone like Adrian yet. We still need to do so much reconstruction before we can provide the right environment for one of his class.”

“He would have overwhelmed our team, and that could have achieved the opposite effect. He would have been frustrated in the end. Furthermore, I do not want to build an infrastructure that depends on a person. Williams is not about me, a driver or an engineer.”

“We did not want to participate”;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2024/...wey-f1-return/

How Sauber lost “greatest opportunity” to end points drought in Brazil.
Sauber team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi admits that the chaotic wet Sao Paulo GP represented the “greatest opportunity” that the Swiss Formula 1 outfit has had to score points this season.
17 Nov 2024
Adam Cooper's F1 Blog

“It’s very difficult to say and to admit, but I think we lost the greatest opportunity that we had this season to score points,” Alunni Bravi told me. “Because of the excellent qualifying session done by Valtteri, and the position that was a P9 for us at the start.”

“Unfortunately, we didn’t have the pace to keep the position. The biggest problem for us was to have proper temperatures in the tyres at the beginning of each stint. And this, of course, jeopardised all the opportunities and the possibility for Valtteri and Zhou to defend and attack any position.”

“We have seen in the second part of each stint that the situation was improving, and when the tyres were working in the correct range of temperature, we were competitive. But this doesn’t cancel the big disappointment, because it was a very tough day for us. Of course, we have mixed feelings, qualifying was very positive, especially with Valtteri. But at the end what matters are points, and the race result on Sunday.”

‘ “Greatest opportunity” lost’;

https://adamcooperf1.com/2024/11/17/...ght-in-brazil/


Binotto on Sauber's difficult choice to boot Bottas: 'Young driver needed'
12 Nov 2024
Corwin Kunst
GPblog.com

In 2025, Valtteri Bottas will no longer be in action for the Stake Sauber F1 Team. The team chose Gabriel Bortoleto as his replacement. The young Brazilian currently leads the F2 championship and will be taking the 10-time F1 winner's seat. Speaking to RACER, Mattia Binotto explained why it was chosen not to renew Bottas' contract.

The former Ferrari team principal has since explained his choice to replace Bottas: “We know that the next one will be a difficult season as a team, as a journey towards the Audi F1 transformation. It’s a long journey. I think on the duration is where we mainly reflected together a lot, and it’s where I came to the conclusion that maybe we will need to have a young driver with us.”

“More than that, I would like to underline I think he has certainly been a very strong candidate. I know he’s very fast. I know that he has proven to be very fast until today, very fit, he knows the team. Certainly, he is very highly rated here, and he’s very highly rated in the paddock." The Italian concluded

‘Difficult choice’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31239...ot-bottas.html


"What's next?" for Bottas; Finnish driver teases future after F1
16 Nov 2024
Ben Stevens
GPblog.com

Bottas started these social media posts three days after the announcement, with the first captioned "In-villa-ironman. What's next?" with the accompanying video showing the Finnish driver, who has 10 Formula One wins, completing an ironman from his house. This includes a 3.9km swim, a 180.2km bike ride, and a 42.2km run.”

The second post Bottas shared was of him and his partner Tiffany Cromwell in front of a Noah's Ark sign, with the simple caption of "What's next?". The next showed Bottas and one of his friends getting a tattoo together, captioned once again with just "What's next?". The most recent bared the same caption, and showed Bottas cycling through some rocky hills.

"What's next?";

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31295...rmula-one.html


Report: Mattia Binotto told Sauber staff he wasn’t hiring Mick Schumacher for bizarre reason
12 Nov 2024
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

The report from F1 Insider says that Binotto ‘explained internally’ that Sauber went with Bortoleto over Schumacher as their second driver as he thought having two German drivers would be ‘too many’.

It’s a strange reason not to bring in a driver and hardly makes sense given how Audi are keen to be a truly German team in the paddock. Teams have regularly used two drivers from the same country – such as Alpine and Mercedes this season – but other factors might be at play in this call from Binotto.

‘Too many’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/mat...izarre-reason/


Binotto divulges Alonso influence in Bortoleto F1 decision
Gabriel Bortoleto will join the F1 grid next year, partnering Nico Hulkenberg at the Stake team ahead of its transition to Audi.
16 Nov 2024
Fergal Walsh & Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

Asked by media including RacingNews365 about how involved Alonso was in talks, Binotto replied: “The answer is very easy: Very little, if nothing. I know very well Fernando from past experience. We met in the paddock but he never influenced [the decision].”

“He never tried really to come to me with a convincing argument because I think what convinced me was Gabriel, nothing else. So not with Fernando. Yes, I had one chat, but really, very, very little.”

“Very little, if nothing”;

https://racingnews365.com/binotto-di...to-f1-decision

Verstappen outlines main focus for Las Vegas GP.
Max Verstappen believes tyre management will play a critical role at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, given the low temperatures expected at night in the desert city.
19 Nov 2024
Samuel Coop
RacingNews365

"[Las] Vegas is the start of the final triple header of the year so this is the final push for everyone," the 62-time grand prix winner said. "We performed well here last year and it is a really fast circuit, with long straights and a lot of opportunities to overtake and go racing.”

"Once again, the temperatures look quite low so it will be about managing the tyres. We are taking each race as it comes and are looking forward to the final races of the season."

"Brazil was an incredible race for us and a really special moment for myself and the team," the three-time F1 drivers' champion reflected. "It was great to see us back to the form we were before; the team did an amazing job and we are hoping to continue this into the next few races."

‘Main focus’;

https://racingnews365.com/verstappen...r-las-vegas-gp


Lando Norris brutally waves off Red Bull threat ahead of crucial Las Vegas GP
20 Nov 2024
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

After Lando Norris saw his F1 2024 title hopes likely crushed in Brazil, the title chase goes on for McLaren in the teams’ standings with Norris abruptly playing down Red Bull as a threat. “After Miami, I already said back then our challenge is not with Red Bull, it’s with Ferrari,” said Norris.

“I’ve said it many many times since, and it was very clear, for a long time, that Ferrari were going to be our biggest contenders over Red Bull. So no, there’s almost no focus on Red Bull. There’s focus on executing our own programme, executing our own potential, the rest should take care of itself.”

The ‘focus on ourselves’ approach may come across as a little cliché, but Norris questions what there it to gain focusing on others. “But people get hung up too easily on teams,” he continued. “What can you do? How can focusing on a team change anything? It doesn’t.

“Challenge is not with Red Bull, it’s with Ferrari”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/lando-...tructors-title


Why is the Las Vegas Grand Prix on a Saturday? The reason behind the change of day as Max Verstappen can wrap up championship this weekend
Las Vegas Grand Prix will take place at 10pm local time on Saturday
Max Verstappen can wrap-up the championship should he finish ahead of Lando Norris in the points
European fans will have an early wake-up call on Sunday morning should they want to watch the race
20 Nov 2024
SONNY COHEN
MailOnline

It will be the third race this season to take place on a Saturday after the season-opening Bahrain and Saudi Arabian races were moved due to Ramadan. But the race in Vegas has been moved for a very different reason, as they look to capitalise on the surroundings. Wanting to accommodate as many viewers as possible as well as their desire to see the track lit up by the Las Vegas strip. Due to the latter, race organisers have decided the race should take place at 10pm local time.

As a result, Saturday night was chosen in the hopes that they can accommodate both their American and European audiences as F1 aims to grow their base in the USA. There are a number of ways that Max Verstappen can wrap-up the World Drivers' Championship in Sin-City. The simplest method would simply to be to finish ahead of title rival, Lando Norris with them both scoring points.

That would be enough to see the Dutch driver lift his fourth-consecutive title in what has been a historically dominant spell. F1 officials in Las Vegas are tentatively putting together plans in the event the 27-year-old seal the title.

‘10pm local time on Saturday’;

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...-Saturday.html


Las Vegas Grand Prix looks to win over locals after rocky start
20 Nov 2024
The Straits Times

"We had eight months building a circuit and lining the barricades and all that, and so it was an amazing accomplishment what Liberty Media and the Formula One folks did," said Steve Hill, CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. "But it was tough on the city."

The installation of the vast grandstands along the route that block iconic views like the Bellagio Fountains began later this year, and traffic lane disruptions did not start until early October as opposed to mid-April last time.
Organizers have also responded to complaints that the race was pricing out locals by adding more than 10,000 general admission tickets, while also launching community outreach events.

"It just wears you out after a while, but this year is not last year. We've really not heard concern," he said. "It needs to work for everybody. It needs to work for the businesses, the sponsors of the race, the resort community and it needs to work for the community itself. This year I think we are much closer to that balance than we were last year.”

‘Looks to win over locals’;

https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/f...er-rocky-start


Las Vegas GP Is ‘Not That Great’ – Marko
Nov 20, 2024
Media
F1 Chronicle

“Things are actually not looking too bad for us,” Red Bull team advisor Marko told Osterreich newspaper. “Our car was fast in the dry in Brazil, although Max was in a class of his own in the rain.”

“If we win the title again this year, it will be mainly down to Max. With his exceptional driving skills, he has covered up the phases in which the car was really not good.”

When asked if Red Bull will have ‘world champion t-shirts’ on standby just in case, the 81-year-old smiled: “Knowing him, Max’s manager will definitely have them in his luggage. I’d gladly accept the extra hustle and bustle in Las Vegas for that.”

“Not looking too bad for us”;

https://f1chronicle.com/las-vegas-gp.../?nowprocket=1


Las Vegas Grand Prix: How to Watch, Full Schedule and What to Expect
19 Nov 2024
Zach Koons
Sports Illustrated
Rock Hill Herald

Las Vegas still does follow a rather unorthodox schedule due to its position in the Pacific time zone and the desire from race organizers to have the event take place at night. Instead of the actual Grand Prix taking place on Sunday, the race will begin on Saturday night in local time-the only such event to do so on the calendar this season. That means the race starts very early on Sunday morning on the east coast of the United States and between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. local time for the bulk of the European audience.

‘Unorthodox schedule’;

https://www.heraldonline.com/sports/...mainstage_card


Start time for the 2024 F1 Las Vegas GP
From Friday, November 22 to Sunday, November 24, the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix will take place. Check here for all the F1 start times in Las Vegas.
20 Nov 2024
RacingNews365 Staff
RacingNews365

The schedule of the F1 GP in Las Vegas is automatically adjusted to your time zone.
Timetable Las Vegas GP

Session Date Time
Free practice 1 Friday 22 November 03:30 - 04:30
Free practice 2 Friday 22 November 07:00 - 08:00
Free practice 3 Saturday 23 November 03:30 - 04:30
Qualification Saturday 23 November 07:00 - 08:00
Race Sunday 24 November 07:00 - 09:00

‘Start time’;

https://racingnews365.com/start-time...1-las-vegas-gp


What time is the Formula 1 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix and how can I watch it?
19 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site

‘Global Race Start Time’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...bllajddZD3dEnT


Las Vegas Grand Prix weather forecast: Cold conditions on the way
The Las Vegas Grand Prix is hosting its second race around the Strip Circuit this weekend - but what weather conditions can we expect?
20 Nov 2024
RacingNews365 Staff
RacingNews365

Our friends at WeerOnline.nl state the conditions will reach as low as 11°C or 12°C during the practice sessions that take place on Thursday evening/night. The temperatures will drop from the mid-20s that are expected during the day.

On Friday, the day during which qualifying is held, the all-important grid-setting session is predicted to see a temperature of 9°C - making it one of the coldest qualifying outings of the year.

The grand prix itself is set to be somewhat similar, with temperatures of 9°C - however, with increased cloud cover during the day, it could sit slightly higher at 11°C.

‘Weather forecast’;

https://racingnews365.com/las-vegas-...ons-on-the-way

How Max Verstappen Can Win His Fourth F1 World Championship at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen has been under immense pressure in 2024, but after a breathtaking win at the Brazilian Grand Prix, he has firmly planted himself at the top of the Formula One drivers' standings.
Nov 20, 2024
Zach Koons
Sports Illustrated
The Fresno Bee

86 points remain up for grabs for the drivers across the final three race weekends. To achieve maximum points, a driver would need to win the Grands Prix in Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, post the fastest lap time in each of those three races and win the sprint race in Qatar.

Given that Verstappen already has a 62-point advantage, he doesn't need to be perfect down the stretch. In fact, all he needs to do is beat Norris head-to-head in Las Vegas and he would retain his world title.

Additionally, if Norris is unable to outscore Verstappen by at least three points at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, then the Red Bull driver would still win the championship. That includes a scenario in which Verstappen fails to score, meaning that Norris would need to finish eighth in the race, or ninth while also earning the point for fastest lap.

‘Beat Norris head-to-head in Las Vegas’;

https://www.fresnobee.com/sports/art...mainstage_card


'A process': Las Vegas Grand Prix chief explains ‘new protocols’ to prevent another Carlos Sainz drain cover incident
21 Nov 2024
Rory Mitchell
F1 Oversteer

F1 will be keen to avoid any further disruptions to the race weekend this year, after identifying that it was a loose water valve cover that caused significant damage to Sainz’s Ferrari. While the Las Vegas GP promoter changed the timings of practice and qualifying this year, Miller explained that new protocols are in place for this year to prevent any similar problems from disrupting the weekend.

“Due to what occurred last year, we do have, in fact, a protocol and a process that we’ve gone through over the last five months to secure the lids, even to the point where we will do three or four visual checks of what’s going on in the roadway before and after a race event,” said Miller.

“You can never guarantee that nothing is going to happen. But you can certainly have the mitigating efforts in place to reduce the risk, and that’s what we’ve done.”

‘New protocols’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/las...over-incident/


‘Unwritten guarantee’: John Watson’s Las Vegas Grand Prix prediction for F1’s ‘unwritten guarantee’ is set to come true
20 Nov 2024
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

The inaugural Las Vegas GP marked the penultimate round of the 2023 campaign but F1 had already crowned both champions. Max Verstappen lifted his third drivers’ championship in a row at the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix after Red Bull also won the team’s title at the Japanese GP. So, Watson predicted F1 would want a Las Vegas title decider before the maiden running as the 2023 race lacked tension. Instead, a drain cover destroying Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari in FP1 dominated the headlines before Verstappen overcame a penalty and won the Las Vegas GP.

Yet just a year on from Watson’s bold prediction about F1 seeking an ‘unwritten guarantee’ for a title decider at the Las Vegas GP, the Briton could see it come true as Verstappen is on course to win the title again. He is 62 points clear of Lando Norris and must leave 60 ahead.

“Those races in 1981 and 1982 had the advantage of being title deciders. This one doesn’t,” Watson told the Daily Mail ahead of the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix. “It was decided three or four races ago. So, it means the event does not quite have the same spotlight on it. They love blood, sweat and tears in America, certainly tears and joy. And if I were Formula 1, I’d have an unwritten guarantee that the world championship is decided in Las Vegas.”

‘Unwritten guarantee’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/joh...-to-come-true/


Perez to finally be given ‘Verstappen upgrade’ by Red Bull
Sergio Perez is to finally be able to race Max Verstappen on an equal-footing from the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
21 Nov 2024
Jake Nichol & Aaron Deckers
RacingNews365

Sergio Perez will finally receive Red Bull's floor upgrade in the Las Vegas Grand Prix - putting him on an equal footing with Max Verstappen. "I will be, as far as I know, going to the spec that Max has had in the last few races with the floor," Perez told media including RacingNews365.

"I'm going to that spec for this weekend, and it makes me feel confident that going onto the different spec of floor, we can be in the mix for the weekend. At the end of the day, the team knows exactly what they get out of me, they have so much data and information, it is as simple as that and there was a reason they renewed me in the year.”

"The season has been quite difficult, we took different parts and had a difficult period, but that is just part of racing and hopefully we can close these final three races on a high."

‘Equal-footing’;

https://racingnews365.com/perez-to-f...de-by-red-bull


Toto Wolff renews Mercedes commitment to Lewis Hamilton on eve of Las Vegas GP
20 Nov 2024
Oliver Harden
PlanetF1.com

Speaking ahead of the resumption of the F1 2024 season in Vegas, Wolff insisted that Mercedes are still determined to end their time with Hamilton on a happy note.

He said: “We head to Las Vegas ready to tackle the final three races of the season. We are focused on ending this year as strongly as possible and providing some more highlights as we close out 2024.”

“We are looking forward to the races ahead, to ending our incredible journey with Lewis on a high and to building momentum for 2025.”

‘Mercedes commitment to Lewis Hamilton’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/lewis-...olff-statement


Williams rebuild effort for Las Vegas proves ‘what team is made of'
20/11/2024
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

Williams sporting director Sven Smeets has hailed the team's herculean effort to rebuild two wrecked cars in time for this weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix, calling it a testament to what the Grove-based squad “is made of.”

Against the odds, the cars were rebuilt and shipped to the US in time for this weekend's round of racing in Vegas, the first event of the F1 season's closing triple header. “Everybody has worked day and night to get us back into a good position for the last three races of the season. “It shows what this team is made of.”

“We are looking forward to racing in Las Vegas where we should be competitive,” the Belgian added. “It's a track that gives plenty of opportunities, and we are sure that both drivers will be very motivated to fight for points.”

‘What team is made of';

https://f1i.com/news/524883-williams...s-made-of.html


F1 Driver Yuki Tsunoda Nearly Denied Entry Into The United States For Las Vegas Grand Prix
NOV 21, 2024
CLAY SAUERTIEG
BroBible

Formula 1 driver Yuki Tsunoda made a surprising revelation on Thursday when he told members of the media that he was nearly denied entry into the United States for Sunday’s Las Vegas Grand Prix. Tsunoda said that he had no issues when F1 came to the U.S. earlier this season for the Miami and United States Grands Prix in Austin.

Tsunoda, 24, said that he was traveling alongside his personal trainer but that the two were separated when going through customs. He then said that he was taken aside for individual questioning which included several rounds of discussions.

“And suddenly he [the official] just put me in the room and when I had a conversation I was like: can I bring the person that I’m going to travel with? Maybe he can help a little bit to explain a bit more about myself and the situation in Formula 1? But they didn’t allow me to bring them or even call anyone. I wanted to call the team as well, or maybe F1 so they can help me. But in that room, you can’t do anything.”

‘Surprising revelation’;

https://brobible.com/sports/article/...as-grand-prix/

HIGHLIGHTS: Hamilton and Russell lead the field ahead of Norris in slippery FP1 for Las Vegas GP.
Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets in a tricky first practice session for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, leading the way from his Mercedes team mate George Russell and McLaren's Lando Norris.
22 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site

Following a disheartening Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Hamilton set the pace with a time of 1m 35.001s as he got the better of Russell by just under four-tenths of a second.

Norris found himself even further back as Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz narrowly slotted in behind – the latter temporarily went fastest but had a close call with the Williams of Franco Colapinto.

The lower half of the top 10 saw Fernando Alonso ahead of Oscar Piastri, with Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez rounding it out after setting their quickest laps on the soft tyres.

‘HIGHLIGHTS’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...2ZFdlhJWanaydZ


Las Vegas GP: Free Practice 1 Results
Full results from Free Practice 1 from the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix at Las Vegas Strip Circuit.
22 Nov 2024
Mat Coch
Speedcafe

Full results from Free Practice 1 from the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix at Las Vegas Strip Circuit.

Pos Num Driver Team Laps Best Diff
1 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 25 1:35.001
2 63 George Russell Mercedes 28 1:35.397 0.396
3 4 Lando Norris McLaren 26 1:35.954 0.953
4 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 26 1:36.007 1.006
5 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 24 1:36.038 1.037
6 55 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 26 1:36.218 1.217
7 14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 24 1:36.262 1.261
8 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren 25 1:36.451 1.450
9 10 Pierre Gasly Alpine 23 1:36.478 1.477
10 11 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing 24 1:36.536 1.535

‘Full results’;

https://speedcafe.com/las-vegas-gp-f...ice-1-results/


Hamilton leads Mercedes domination in Las Vegas dustbowl
A show of intent from Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton.
22 Nov 2024
Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and George Russell surprisingly dominated the first practice session of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Hamilton's final lap in the closing seconds was a 1:35.001s, still a second slower than the leading time in practice from last year, set by Russell.

But the fact Hamilton was 0.953s ahead of third-quickest Lando Norris in his McLaren was a real statement of intent from a Mercedes team that has been off the boil since F1 returned from its summer break in late August.

‘Mercedes domination’;

https://racingnews365.com/hamilton-l...vegas-dustbowl


Mercedes dominates opening Las Vegas GP practice
Nov 22, 2024
The Race

Mercedes was comfortably fastest in first practice for Formula 1's Las Vegas Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton's pacesetting 1m35.001s lap nearly one second faster than the best non-Mercedes.

The caveat to its performance is that the first Thursday night session on a dusty track may not be especially representative for the rest of the weekend.

But in practice one at least, Mercedes held a 1-2 for most of the session, only really losing it when others went for soft tyres and regaining it when Hamilton and George Russell did likewise.

‘Mercedes dominates’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/l...des-dominates/


Las Vegas GP: Norris keeps title hopes alive as Hamilton tops FP1
22 Nov 2024
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Lewis Hamilton set the pace in a Mercedes 1-2, a whopping 0.4s up on George Russell in Practice One for the Las Vegas GP where drivers struggled with low grip. Meanwhile, the deck may be stacked against Lando Norris in Sin City as he trails Max Verstappen by 62 points, but he kept his hopes alive as he finished P3 with the Red Bull driver fifth fastest.

Making the switch to the soft Pirellis, Leclerc went quickest followed by Carlos Sainz before Lando Norris pipped the Ferrari team-mates with a 1:35.9. Verstappen went sixth, 0.8s down. He upped his pace, closing the gap to Norris to six-tenths but remained P6.

Hamilton came through with a late lap to take P1 with a 1:35.001 with Russell second. As for the title rivals, Norris was third while a late burst from Verstappen saw him finish P5, but only 0.08s down on Norris.

‘Title hopes alive’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/las-ve...024-fp1-report


F1 2024 Las Vegas GP – Free Practice 1 Results
Lewis Hamilton leads the way at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit on Friday, November 22 but what is the gap to the rivals around him?
22 Nov 2024
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

Mercedes proved to be the team to beat in FP1 at the F1 2024 Las Vegas GP as both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell looked strong whilst Max Verstappen found himself miles off the pace as Lando Norris looks to have the chance to claw some points back in the title battle. Here are the results from the session.

The Silver Arrows set a very tough time to beat on the medium tyres, even good enough to repel Ferrari‘s first efforts on the softs, before the 39-year-old Hamilton laid down a strong warning to the rest of the grid with a 1:35.001 to clear his teammate by just shy of four tenths around the Strip Circuit.

Known for preferring the cooler temperatures throughout 2024, Toto Wolff‘s team look like the only outfit who have turned up for the Grand Prix weekend after clearing McLaren‘s Norris in third by almost a second, as well as a similar margin to Charles Leclerc and Verstappen with the trio looking closely-contested as they duel for championship position.

‘Lewis Hamilton leads the way’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/f1-...ice-1-results/

Hamilton sets Mercedes a challenge after shock turnaround.
Lewis Hamilton has… …called on Mercedes to work overnight to ensure it can maintain its pace.
22 Nov 2024
Fergal Walsh
RacingNews365

Speaking after running on Friday, a buoyant Hamilton reflected positively on his efforts. “It's the first time that I've actually had a day like that this year. So the car was feeling really good in FP1 - FP2 less so,” he said.

“So we've got some work to do overnight, but it's difficult to know exactly where we are or why we are where we are. But I’m really enjoying driving the track and we'll see if the car is still the same tomorrow.” Hamilton conceded his race pace was lacking, making him wary over his chances of a strong result on Sunday.

“Hot conditions are a little bit worse for us but the race pace is not that great,” he said. “So the work we've got to do overnight is to try and figure out how we can have better race pace without losing actual pace throughout the lap.”

‘Work we've got to do overnight’;

https://racingnews365.com/hamilton-s...ock-turnaround


Las Vegas GP: Free Practice 2 Results
Full results from Free Practice 2 from the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix at Las Vegas Strip Circuit.
22 Nov 2024
Mat Coch
Speedcafe

Full results from Free Practice 2 from the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix at Las Vegas Strip Circuit.

Pos Num Driver Team Laps Best Diff
1 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 24 1:33.825
2 4 Lando Norris McLaren 24 1:33.836 0.011
3 63 George Russell Mercedes 28 1:34.015 0.190
4 55 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 28 1:34.105 0.280
5 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 27 1:34.313 0.488
6 10 Pierre Gasly Alpine 29 1:34.651 0.826
7 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas 19 1:34.686 0.861
8 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren 25 1:34.798 0.973
9 27 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 23 1:34.818 0.993
10 22 Yuki Tsunoda RB 22 1:34.997 1.172

‘Full results’;

https://speedcafe.com/las-vegas-gp-f...ice-2-results/


Hamilton narrowly fastest in frosty FP2 as Verstappen struggles in Las Vegas
Lewis Hamilton remains the man to beat in Las Vegas after the first day of F1 action
22 Nov 2024
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

Mercedes continued their good form through the opening exchanges of the F1 2024 Las Vegas GP as Lewis Hamilton topped a frosty FP2 by 0.011 ahead of Lando Norris and George Russell, whilst Max Verstappen struggled for grip and pace under the bright lights of the iconic Strip.

Hamilton was living dangerously in Sin City by kissing the wall with his rear-left tyre he continues to drive like he personally has a point to prove after Toto Wolff recently suggested he is losing his touch, seemingly part of why he leaned towards hiring Kimi Antonelli for 2025.

So the 39-year-old was pushing to the limit ahead of his move to Ferrari, and perhaps senses the chance for a final Grand Prix victory with the Silver Arrows, who looked extremely strong through both the long runs and qualifying simulations to build on a successful FP1 on November 22.

‘Toto Wolff: “Losing his touch” (Not!)’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/ham...-in-las-vegas/


Las Vegas GP: Hamilton continues on top in second practice
22/11/2024
Andrew Lewin
F1i.com

Lewis Hamilton put Mercedes on top of the timesheets for the second time in Las Vegas, pipping McLaren's Lando Norris to the top spot by a slender 0.011s in the nighttime FP2 session.

George Russell was best of the rest in third ahead of Ferrari pair Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, with a strong performance from Pierre Gasly putting Alpine up in sixth place by the end of the hour.

Max Verstappen was down in 17th after drifting wide on his one flying lap attempt before the session was briefly red-flagged for Alex Albon coming to a stop with a fuel system issue on the Williams.

‘Mercedes on top of the timesheets for the second time’;

https://f1i.com/news/525043-las-vega...-practice.html


Lewis Hamilton bounces back with exciting practice double at Las Vegas Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton completed an impressive practice double at the Las Vegas Grand Prix as the Mercedes driver bounced back from his Brazil horror show.
Nov 22, 2024
Philip Duncan
Daily and Sunday Express

Hamilton, set to join Ferrari next season, confessed he considered ending his 12-year stint with Mercedes, which has brought him six of his seven world titles, after a challenging race in Brazil.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff acknowledged Hamilton's emotional response, saying: "We all know that Lewis wears his heart on the sleeve. It was such a bad experience for him, that whole race weekend in Brazil, and particularly the Sunday, he said something that wasn’t, in a way, unusual.”

"Now, this time was probably particularly bad. There are three races to go. He announced at the beginning of the year that he was joining Ferrari, and I am proud how we have achieved to maintain the professional relationships and we have given him a tool that is not good enough."

‘Lewis Hamilton bounces back’;

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/f1-a...gas-Grand-Prix


2024 Las Vegas GP FP2: Albon stops on track to trigger red flags
Nov 22, 2024
Formula One - Official Site (Video)

Alex Albon was kept in the garage until almost 40 minutes had passed of FP2, only for his Williams to grind to a halt and stop out on track as soon as he left the pits.

‘Albon stops on track’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/20...06201293833394


Lewis Hamilton paces both F1 practices on opening day of Las Vegas Grand Prix
22 Nov 2024
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MailOnline

"I didn´t really want to come back," Hamilton said in Las Vegas of his Brazil performance, where he struggled with the handling of his car, called it "undriveable" and "the bumpiest ride ever" after finishing 10th. "If this is the last time that I get to perform, it´s a shame it wasn´t great, but (I´m) grateful for you," Hamilton said on his team radio after the race.

Hamilton clarified those remarks in Las Vegas, explaining how frustrated he was by the Brazil performance. "In the moment, that´s how I felt," he said. "I didn´t really want to come back after that weekend, but I think that´s only natural.”

“It´s frustrating when you have a season like this, which I´m pretty sure I won´t have again, or at least I´ll work towards not having again. It wasn´t a great feeling in that moment but I´m here, I´m standing strong, and I´m going to give it absolutely everything for the last few races."

"In the moment, that´s how I felt";

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap...rand-Prix.html

Mercedes 'have failed Lewis Hamilton' claims Toto Wolff at Las Vegas Grand Prix.
"I have clearly remarked he’s the greatest driver of all time and if we’re able to give him a quick car he’s going to be able to win," said Wolff. "He’s able to fight for a championship but we have failed in doing so."
Nov 22, 2024
Archie Griggs
Daily and Sunday Express

Toto Wolff believes Mercedes have failed Lewis Hamilton in his bid to win an eighth Drivers' Championship title. The 39-year-old has only won two races in the last three seasons, with the Silver Arrows no longer the unstoppable force they once were. Though he still bullishly added: "We finished third two years ago, we finished second last year, bearing in mind we haven't won a race, and we won three this year. So that is not all a failure. That was a pretty good spell for Mercedes and for Lewis.

"And we will be trying to do it better. We are trying to do it better every single day, every single weekend. And the same will be next season and then the big one in '26." It remains to be seen if Hamilton will finally win his eighth title at Ferrari. They look set to be one of the fastest teams on the grid next year, having come on leaps and bounds in recent campaigns.

‘Mercedes have failed Lewis Hamilton’;

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/f1-a...gas-Grand-Prix


Las Vegas GP data: Huge Red Bull RB20 loss discovered as big unknown identified
22 Nov 2024
Pablo Hidalgo
PlanetF1.com

After a very cold and low-grip night in the US state of Nevada, Friday practice for the Las Vegas GP has left us with several clues for the rest of the weekend including an apparent ‘wrong’ choice of rear wing spec for Red Bull for this race.

Helmut Marko’s comments have set alarm bells ringing about Red Bull‘s performance for the rest of the weekend in Las Vegas. And it’s true that Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez have looked out of sorts in the first two Free Practice sessions.

Marko revealed after FP2 that the team had made the wrong choice with their rear wing spec for this race and that a different configuration with less downforce would not arrive in time for qualifying – something that certainly on the fast Las Vegas circuit can be key in determining the overall performance of the car.

‘Huge Red Bull RB20 loss discovered’;

https://www.planetf1.com/features/la...l-rb20-unknown


Red Bull admit to huge blunder at F1 Las Vegas GP as team stuck with WRONG car part
Red Bull superstar Max Verstappen could clinch the Formula 1 world title this weekend.
22 Nov 2024
Marcus Chan
SPORTbible

As reported by Auto Motor und Sport, the Red Bull cars are losing more than half a second on the straights due to the blunder. The team's senior advisor, Helmut Marko, was asked whether they would fly in a new version before qualifying, he said, as per Planet F1: "No. We don't have another rear wing, a smaller rear wing, as we see it on our competitors. It would be more helpful, for sure."

Speaking about the car's overall performance, Marko added: "On the short run we didn't go out with a soft tyre, and the long run was only partly good. Some laps were competitive, but then the rear tyres were disappearing. There were flashes of speed. We just have to get consistency into it."

He continued: "We need more balance. On the single lap we can improve. But on the long run, the tyre wear is a problem at the moment. Tomorrow is a different day. You maybe saw it a lot of times. People will be fastest on Friday or Thursday, but it doesn't mean that they are fast in the race. We will, for sure, make a reasonable step."

‘Huge blunder’;

https://www.sportbible.com/f1/red-bu...23881-20241122


Max Verstappen told to stop ‘whining’ after fresh Las Vegas GP complaints
22 Nov 2024
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

“The problem for me is mainly the time difference between Vegas and Qatar,” Max Verstappen told Motorsport-Total.com. “If we do triple-headers, we have to make sure that they are a bit closer together. That would make more sense to me.”

“At the end of the season you are simply tired, and you can easily catch a flu. The long flight does not help with that.” Verstappen’s comments did not drum up much sympathy with former Caterham F1 driver Giedo van der Garde, who argues that the drivers are not the ones worst affected.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said on De Race Show. “If you’re immediately World Champion, you’re not interested. You’re going to sleep for 18 hours on the plane. Come on man. You can just whine about it. It’s too cool to race in Las Vegas. It’s more a tough one for the mechanics, who really goes into the last weekend with bags under his eyes.”

‘Whining’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/max-ve...-van-der-garde


‘Lot of pain’: David Croft worried about Fernando Alonso after he made one Aston Martin request at Las Vegas Grand Prix
22 Nov 2024
Luke-John Buckle
F1 Oversteer

Fernando Alonso has endured a frustrating season at Aston Martin as the team have continued to flounder in the midfield. The Spaniard has struggled to score points since the summer break, as the midfield is incredibly competitive. Alonso said: “I think you need to change the setup, a lot of bouncing.” Before Croft added: “For a man who was in a hell of a lot of pain in at Interlagos with the bouncing in his Aston Martin.”

Aston Martin are in no man’s land in the Constructors’ Championship as they sit fifth in the standings behind the top four teams. They are a distant fifth and should have enough of an advantage over Alpine with their 37-point lead with three rounds to go. A fifth place finish in the standings will provide more prize money than sixth although it is a step backwards from last season.

“Need to change the setup”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/dav...as-grand-prix/


Danica Patrick tells James Vowles to look away as he’s shown brutal Williams footage at Las Vegas Grand Prix
22 Nov 2024
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Vowles sarcastically thanked the British broadcasters for forcing him to relive the weekend. The former Mercedes strategist took over at the start of 2023 and this was perhaps his biggest setback yet. Pundit Danica Patrick told him not to ‘look’ lest it bring back those emotions. But on a more serious note, Vowles expressed his pride at the team’s rebuilding job back at the base.

“Thank you for playing it back to me!” Vowles said. “I feel done now. Oh good, you’ve got all of them.” Patrick joked: “Don’t look!” Vowles added: “What I’m so proud of is Williams pulled together. Proper kicks in the stomach – you can see every single one of them here. And the team in Grove – the race team – just pulled together to build two cars at the right spec.”

“I feel done now”;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/dan...as-grand-prix/


TECH DEBRIEF: Ferrari ditches experimental floor at the Las Vegas Grand Prix
22 Nov 2024
Balazs Szabo
F1 Technical

Ferrari had been expected not to introduce any new parts in the remaining three races of the season, which meant that it was surprising to see the Scuderia submit a new upgrade before the action kicked off at Las Vegas with the first practice session.

Commenting on the changes, Ferrari noted: "Not event specific, this update features reworked front floor fences targeting an improvement of the losses travelling downstream. The front floor body volume has subsequently reoptimized, together with the floor edge loading and vortex shedding into the diffuser."

Speaking of the changes, Ferrari senior engineer Jock Clear said that motivation for Ferrari to run a new floor is to test windtunel-to-track correlation. “It is literally [for] FP1 so it will come off [after]. We’ve only got one of them. It doesn’t bring performance, it’s just a very localised test. It’s just with a view to correlating the tunnel. Obviously, that has implications for ’25 because that’s the tool you’re developing everything on but it’s very much a correlation process," concluded Clear.

‘Experimental floor’;

https://www.f1technical.net/news/25852


Driver hit with five-place grid penalty at Las Vegas Grand Prix as F1 nightmare continues
Changes are already being made to the Las Vegas Grand Prix starting grid.
Nov 22, 2024
Harry Smith
Daily and Sunday Express

Valtteri Bottas has been hit with a five-place grid penalty for the Las Vegas Grand Prix after taking a new energy store. This new power unit component breached the FIA’s allowance for the season, landing him a handicap for Sunday’s race.

Four other drivers made changes to their cars as Sergio Perez and Alex Albon applied new exhaust systems, along with the VCARB duo of Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson. However, these new components fell within the teams’ allocations for the season, so no penalties were handed out.

This news comes as another blow to Bottas, who is still trying to show off his talents to prospective new employers for the 2025 season. The Finn’s departure from Sauber was confirmed after the Brazilian Grand Prix, along with team-mate Zhou Guanyu.

‘Five-place grid penalty’;

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/f1-a...x-grid-penalty

Las Vegas GP: Russell keeps Mercedes on top in final practice.
George Russell upheld Mercedes’ dominant Las Vegas form in FP3 on Friday, the Briton topping a session that was cut short by a late red flag triggered by Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.
23/11/2024
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Russell outpaced McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by 0.215s while Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was third, but once again, the cool low-grip track conditions were a handful for drivers.

Behind the leading trio, championship rivals Lando Norris and Max Verstappen rounded off the top five, with the Red Bull charger lingering at the bottom of the timesheets for most of the session until an improved set-up and a late flyer on the soft tyre propelled him into the upper tier.

‘Mercedes on top’;

https://f1i.com/news/525191-las-vega...-practice.html


Las Vegas GP: Free Practice 3 Results
Full results from Free Practice 3 from the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix at Las Vegas Strip Circuit.
23 Nov 2024
Mat Coch
Speedcafe

Full results from Free Practice 3 from the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix at Las Vegas Strip Circuit.

Pos Num Driver Team Laps Best Diff
1 63 George Russell Mercedes 17 1:33.570
2 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren 13 1:33.785 0.215
3 55 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 15 1:33.918 0.348
4 4 Lando Norris McLaren 13 1:34.008 0.438
5 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 16 1:34.137 0.567
6 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 16 1:34.341 0.771
7 23 Alex Albon Williams 14 1:34.407 0.837
8 43 Franco Colapinto Williams 14 1:34.723 1.153
9 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas 13 1:34.883 1.313
10 10 Pierre Gasly Alpine 14 1:34.905 1.335

‘Full results’;

https://speedcafe.com/las-vegas-gp-f...ice-3-results/


Las Vegas GP: Mercedes secure practice hat-trick in a red-flag interrupted FP3
23 Nov 2024
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

George Russell wrapped up the practice hat-trick for Mercedes in Las Vegas, guaranteed the P1 by a late red flag as Lance Stroll’s AMR24 shut down with the Canadian coming to a halt on the side
of the track.

After a busy Thursday night, it was a slow start to Friday’s final practice with only one driver setting a lap time in the first 15 minutes. That was Sergio Perez, who got the timesheet rolling with a 1:41.1, but reported that the track conditions were “miles off” compared to yesterday. Liam Lawson had the same complaint as he returned to the VCARB garage after a single lap.

Several teams, including Mercedes, Aston Martin and VCARB, sent their drivers out for a lap or two, potentially to scrub tyres for the race. Max Verstappen was the second driver to post a time, but was slower than Perez after a lock-up on his out-lap and a moment at Turn 14 as he struggled for grip. Getting heat into his tyres and finding grip, Verstappen went quickest on the medium tyres. Worryingly for Red Bull, he reported that his front was “dead” after just six laps.

‘Mercedes secure practice hat-trick’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/las-ve...024-fp3-report


FP3: Russell leads Piastri and Sainz in final Las Vegas GP practice
23 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site

Mercedes driver George Russell led the way during Friday’s third and final practice session for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, slotting ahead of McLaren rival Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz before a late red flag. In similarly cold and slippery conditions to Thursday practice, a handful of drivers emerged in the early stages to build up speed and get back into a rhythm – albeit with Sergio Perez reporting that his first run was “miles off” given the low levels of grip.

Mercedes then wound themselves up for another run on softs, bringing a 1m 34.475s from Russell and a 1m 34.341s from Lewis Hamilton – restoring their early-weekend one-two formation as times edged closer to the 1m 33.825s benchmark in second practice. Meanwhile, Verstappen’s troubles rumbled on as the Dutchman reported that his car was “only getting worse” and becoming “undriveable”. Running harder tyres, and referencing a problematic left-front, he added: “I can’t drive it. I’m going to crash.”

‘Russell leads Piastri and Sainz’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...eHZygC7eHRyFe5


George Russell tops final practice for F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix ahead of Oscar Piastri
George Russell was fastest in final practice for the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
23 Nov 2024
Connor McDonagh
Crash.net

George Russell made it a clean sweep for Mercedes in practice for the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix as he set the fastest time in FP3. Russell’s 1m33.570s put him just over 0.2s ahead of Piastri ensuring Mercedes have topped all three practice sessions ahead of qualifying in Sin City.

Mercedes are surely the team to beat, with Lewis Hamilton showing strong pace earlier in the session. The seven-time world champion failed to improve on his second set of tyres, leaving him sixth in the order overall.

Carlos Sainz completed the top three for Ferrari, although he was around four-tenths off Russell’s pace. Ferrari were fastest in the race runs in FP2 - but their one-lap pace seems to be lacking relative to Mercedes.

‘Clean sweep for Mercedes’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/106059...-oscar-piastri


Max fifth in final practice for Las Vegas GP
23 Nov 2024
Misha van der Kroon
Verstappen.nl

Max Verstappen concluded the third and final free practice session for the Las Vegas Grand Prix in fifth position. While grip was initially hard to find on the slippery Las Vegas circuit, Verstappen seemed to improve in the closing stages on soft tyres.

With an outside temperature of 15 degrees, and a track temperature of 17, it is cool at the start of the third free practice session at the 6.201-kilometer long Las Vegas Strip Circuit. Zhou Guanyu, in his Sauber, is the first to head to the track, soon joined by Sergio Perez, who sets the first timed lap.

As the track conditions get betters, Verstappen progressively improves his lap times. However, while other drivers are significantly faster on the soft tyres, Verstappen struggles with an undrivable car, expressing his frustration over the team radio. Eventually, he returns to the pits. At that moment, he is at the bottom of the leaderboard.

‘Max fifth in final practice’;

https://news.verstappen.com/en/article/5663/


Norris: ‘I could drive a road car quicker’ at Las Vegas amid low-grip surface
The McLaren driver was left unhappy with his team's long run pace, struggling to deal with the low-grip track conditions
Nov 22, 2024
Nathan Hartley
FormulaNerds

Lando Norris was unhappy with McLaren’s long-run pace, claiming he could drive a road car quicker in the low-grip conditions. The 25-year-old was left frustrated after the opening two practice sessions of the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Despite finishing third and second in FP1 and FP2 respectively, the Briton described McLaren’s long-run pace as “shocking”.

The second practice session saw Norris finish only 0.011 seconds behind Lewis Hamilton at the top. However, his frustrations vented towards his team’s high fuel pace, despite the low fuel being competitive. The low track temperature caused many drivers to lock up their front tyre and go deep into a corner. Norris said that he had been struggling with front graining, which is impacting his long-run performance. The McLaren driver said:

“It’s just very difficult, super low grip. “I feel like I could drive a road car quicker than we drive at the minute… “I think the low-fuel stuff has been okay,” he explained. “The high-fuel, that was shocking. So, yeah, plenty of things to look into. This kind of combinations of things, and when we struggle with the front graining and stuff like that, I’m just not very good at it. So it’s always a bit of a struggle for me. But we’ve a good amount of time to work on it. So yeah, two halves really. Good low-fuel and difficult high-fuel.”

‘I could drive a road car quicker’;

https://www.formulanerds.com/news/no.../?nowprocket=1

George Russell on pole for Las Vegas GP, Max Verstappen qualifies ahead of Lando Norris.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will claim the drivers’ championship title if he finishes the race anywhere ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Nov 23 2024
The Irish Times

George Russell put Mercedes on pole for the Las Vegas Grand Prix as Max Verstappen moved a step closer to a fourth successive Formula One title by qualifying ahead of Lando Norris. Red Bull's Verstappen, who will retain his crown with two rounds to spare if he beats Norris on Saturday, secured fifth place on the grid with his McLaren rival sixth.

“We are still in front of McLaren, which for me is a bit of a surprise but I’m quite happy with how qualifying went and my laps,” said Verstappen. Norris must score three points more than the Dutch driver in Sunday’s race to continue the title battle in Qatar next weekend.

‘George Russell on pole’;

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/202...-lando-norris/


Las Vegas GP: Qualifying Results
Full results from Qualifying from the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix at Las Vegas Strip Circuit.
23 November 2024
Mat Coch
Speedcafe

Pos Num Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Diff
1 63 George Russell Mercedes 1:33.186 1:32.779 1:32.312
2 55 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:33.484 1:32.711 1:32.410 0.098
3 10 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:33.691 1:32.879 1:32.664 0.352
4 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:33.446 1:33.016 1:32.783 0.471
5 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:33.299 1:33.085 1:32.797 0.485
6 4 Lando Norris McLaren 1:33.592 1:33.099 1:33.008 0.696
7 22 Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:33.789 1:33.089 1:33.029 0.717
8 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:33.450 1:33.024 1:33.033 0.721
9 27 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:33.920 1:33.114
10 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:33.225 1:32.567

‘Full results’;

https://speedcafe.com/las-vegas-gp-qualifying-results/


George Russell claims dramatic pole for Las Vegas Grand Prix - but it's a dark night for Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton - as champion-in-waiting Max Verstappen finishes fifth
• Russell put in an inch-perfect lap while the seven-time champion finished 10th
• Franco Colapinto delayed qualifying with an enormous smash-up in Q2
23 Nov 2024
JONATHAN MCEVOY
MailOnline

George Russell took a blistering pole position for the Las Vegas Grand Prix – but it was another dark night for Lewis Hamilton. The tale of the old and the new, the young and the old, saw Russell put in an inch-perfect lap while Hamilton made two errors to qualify a bleak 10th.

Hamilton was 15.7sec behind Russell – a distorted figure, because the much-garlanded multiple world champion failed to set a time, but a wounding one. Some excessive hoopla celebrated Hamilton’s first places in practice yesterday as they were the Second Coming rather than a hopeful flicker of a possible upturn after a puzzlingly poor string of form.

When it came down to it, Hamilton ran wide on his first flying lap of Q3 and then another error in the decisive final blast. ‘I didn’t do the job,’ Hamilton admitted. ‘The car felt different in Q3 and stability was not there for some reason. I had stability before. But, ultimately, I didn’t put the laps together.’

‘George Russell claims dramatic pole’;

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...rand-prix.html


Daring George Russell takes Las Vegas GP pole as Ferrari take advantage of McLaren woes
George Russell waited until the last possible moment to take pole at the 2024 Las Vegas GP
23 Nov 2024
Adam Dickinson
Total Motorsport

George Russell snatched pole position for the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix at the last possible moment, edging out Carlos Sainz by less than a tenth in qualifying while Pierre Gasly will start a heady third after splitting the Ferraris.

Lando Norris knows he must beat Max Verstappen by at least three points to keep the Formula 1 drivers’ championship alive and starts alongside the Dutchman on the third row of the grid but behind his rival by just 0.014 seconds.

However, it was a desperately disappointing for Lewis Hamilton who topped FP1 and FP2 but fell apart in Q3, locking up on his first run and also failing to set a competitive time to take the chequered flag, finishing 10th.

‘Daring George Russell’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/dar...illiams-shunt/


Verstappen chasing down the title, and a wide open battle for victory – What To Watch For in the Las Vegas Grand Prix
23 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site

From a wide open race at the front to the potential crowning of a world champion, and from Franco Colapinto’s recovery from a heavy crash to unusually low temperatures for drivers to be racing in, here are five things to watch out for under the lights in Las Vegas on race day…

1. Anyone from the top six taking the win
Ahead of qualifying, Christian Horner said that any driver on the front three rows would fancy their chances of winning on Saturday night, and there’s little reason to disagree with him after the session.

‘Verstappen chasing down the title’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...iUyiRM9JZ1rTxR


Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying delayed after Franco Colapinto's nasty crash leaves track covered in debris
23 Nov 2024
JAKE FENNER
MailOnline

Towards the end of the Q2 session, Colapinto was making his way through turn 16 on the Las Vegas street circuit when he lost control of his car in the left side wall.

Colapinto's car then skidded across the track colliding with the opposite wall before continuing to slide down the circuit before coming to a complete stop. The 21-year-old driver was able to get out of the car completely fine - telling his garage 'I'm ok'.

The wreck left plenty of debris all over the track as carbon fiber and one of Colapinto's tires were left behind him. Additionally, the impact of the wreck forced marshals to examine the barriers for any damage that might have needed repairing.

‘Qualifying delayed’;

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...rand-prix.html


Franco Colapinto participation in jeopardy after 50G Las Vegas GP quali crash
23 Nov 2024
Thomas Maher
PlanetF1.com

Franco Colapinto has escaped serious injury in a frightening crash in qualifying for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, but isn’t certain to race. The Williams driver was involved in a heavy crash at the end of Q2 in qualifying for the Las Vegas GP.

Colapinto was attempting to escape the elimination zone at the end of Q2 and was approaching the end of his final flying lap when he turned in slightly too early for the high-speed Turn 15. Realising his error, Colapinto briefly turned away before recommitting to the apex, but was still too early – he glanced the inside wall and knocked off his front-left wheel.

The impact was enough to throw Colapinto into the wall on the outside, enduring a heavy impact with onboard replays showing Colapinto’s head bouncing around the cockpit. The car skittered down the track minus all of its corners, with Colapinto unable to bring it under control as he waited for the Williams to dissipate its momentum.

‘50G Las Vegas GP quali crash’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/franco...gas-grand-prix

Mercedes, McLaren, Red Bull or… Alpine? Carlos Sainz picks Ferrari’s biggest threat in 2024 Las Vegas GP.
No driver got within a quarter of a second of the front row of the grid in the 2024 Las Vegas GP as George Russell and Carlos Sainz set the pace for Mercedes and Ferrari
23 Nov 2024
Adam Dickinson
Total Motorsport

Carlos Sainz predicted Ferrari will be fighting Mercedes for victory in the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix, though didn’t rule out any teams in the top six after a hectic qualifying delivered shocks up and down the grid.

The Silver Arrows have led every session of the weekend so far and George Russell took pole position ahead of the two Ferraris sandwiching Pierre Gasly, while the last two remaining title contenders line up together on the third row of the grid led by Max Verstappen.

Mercedes have had a track record of overperforming in free practice compared to the competitive sessions in 2024 but while Lewis Hamilton fell to last place and 15 seconds off the pace in Q3, Russell showed no such qualifying dip in Las Vegas.

‘Mercedes, McLaren, Red Bull or… Alpine?’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/mer...-las-vegas-gp/


George Russell admits 'my body is all over the place' after Las Vegas Grand Prix pole
Nov 23, 2024
Philip Duncan
Daily and Sunday Express

The first attempt saw Russell clipping the wall at Turn 5, resulting in a need for a new front wing. However, undeterred, the English driver – who impressively leads Lewis Hamilton with a 17-5 qualifying advantage this season – composed himself and on his second try, edged past Sainz by a margin of 0.098 seconds.

Crossing the finish line at exactly 11:24pm local time, Russell later disclosed: "I got 45 minutes sleep before qualifying. The body is all over the place. I sleep when I can and I listen to my body.

"I normally try and meditate as opposed to sleeping. I close my eyes and listen to waves crashing against the sea, or do breathing exercises, box-breathing, it relaxes my mind and takes the pressure off. It is challenging working what is an effective night shift so sleeping when I can is working for me."

‘0.098 seconds’;

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/f1-a...rand-prix-pole


I should have taken pole, winning is “out of the question” now – Hamilton
23rd Nov 2024
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

Lewis Hamilton said his chances of winning the Las Vegas Grand Prix are non-existent after he qualified 10th on the grid for tomorrow’s race. “Things didn’t work when it mattered,” Hamilton admitted after the session. “I tried, it didn’t come off. I should have been on pole,” he told the official F1 channel. “But at least I’ve got pace, which is a good showing over the weekend, that’s the positive to take away.”

Hamilton does not believe he can get into the fight for victory from the fifth row of the grid. "Not really, I think the race is kind of done,” he said. “Obviously the win is out of the question. But just a great job from George.”

“Non-existent”;

https://www.racefans.net/2024/11/23/...-now-hamilton/


Vasseur wants to avoid 2023 scenario: 'I want to win!'
23 Nov 2024
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari's team principal, is determined to be have one of their cars on the top step of the podium at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. A scenario like last year is out of the question, according to the French team principal.

When Vasseur was asked about the SF-24's race pace on Sunday, the Frenchman joked: "Yes, I hope that we won't be the faster on Sunday" (in Las Vegas, the Grand Prix will begin on Saturday local time), he told F1TV.

He then continued on a more serious note. "It's true that from the beginning of the season we had the probably a better car on the race pace, and not the qualifying pace. It's probably the consequence of what [we did] last year, that we put a lot of effort on the race pace and you have always a downside to everything, it means that we have to make some compromise on the qualifying."

'I want to win!';

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31430...erstappen.html


Pierre Gasly hails ‘incredible’ Alpine turnaround to qualify third for F1 Las Vegas GP
23 Nov 2024
Dan Lawrence
Motorsport Week

“Yeah, it’s absolutely incredible, you know, as a team,” Gasly exclaimed. “Exactly as you mentioned, we started Bahrain on the last row with both cars, and all of a sudden, the last few weeks have been quite a change.”

“I’m really happy and pleased with the work the team has been doing in a season where everything looked impossible, just to still stick together and put some more performance in that car.”

“Going into qualifying today, I must admit we never thought we’d be in a position to actually you know get in that top three, but yeah, I managed to have a very special lap at the right time on that last set in Q3 and uh yeah it’s a it’s a very nice surprise.”

“It’s absolutely incredible”;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2024/...g-performance/


Gasly credits “aggressive” set-up for Alpine’s best performance this year
23rd Nov 2024
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

In the last five races, the team has produced three of its strongest performances in terms of one-lap pace. They’ve been 0.92% off the pace on average over that time, a huge improvement over the same five-race spell at the beginning of the year, where their deficit stood at 1.97% – more than twice as much.

“It’s absolutely incredible,” grinned Gasly after qualifying today. “We started Bahrain on the last row with both cars, and all of a sudden, the last few weeks have been quite a change. I’m really happy and pleased with the work the team has been doing in a season where everything looked impossible, just to still stick together and put some more performance in that car,” Gasly continued. “Going into qualifying today, I must admit we never thought we’ll be in a position to actually get in that top three, but I managed to have a very special lap at the right time on that last set in Q3 and it’s a very nice surprise.”

He credited the result to the team’s set-up for the high-speed circuit. “We went with a pretty aggressive package in terms of downforce, so we are running very little downforce around this track,” said Gasly. “We try to maximise the straight lines, we obviously make our lives slightly harder in the corners.”

‘Running very little downforce’;

https://www.racefans.net/2024/11/23/...nce-this-year/


Horner expects exciting race in Las Vegas: 'The top eight can win!'
23rd Nov 2024
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

It was an interesting qualifying session for Red Bull Racing in Las Vegas. While Sergio Perez got eliminated in Q1, Max Verstappen managed to outqualify his title rival Lando Norris and finished in P5. Team principal Christian Horner reacted to qualifying in Las Vegas, where the Dutch driver could secure his fourth F1 title in less than a day's time.

"A tricky qualifying," Horner began after the session, Red Bull report. "The low temperatures and track are challenge with our tyres. Our performance has been improving with each session and we are starting to find where we have lost but the window for the tyres is still quite small," he then continued with the challenges the Las Vegas track causes for his team.

"Max managed to lay down a good time and I know he was hoping to be higher up the grid but this track, you can definitely overtake at and the way the tyres behave between qualifying and the race are totally different challenges, anybody in the top four rows can win this race and it will be very exciting to see how it plays tomorrow," Horner concluded.

'The top eight can win!';

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31430...ualifying.html


Horner explains Red Bull rear-wing issue: 'We did not forget'
It seems the cost cap has a lot to answer for.
23 Nov 2024
Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Horner said: "I don't know quite where it came from. We don't have a specifically designed wing for very low downforce, which is potentially here and Monza.”

"The money involved in creating that within the cost cap, you've got to pick and choose where you're going to spend it. The wing that we have, you end up trimming the wings to achieve a top speed, and that's what many of the teams have done. But we didn't forget our rear wing."

'We did not forget';

https://racingnews365.com/horner-exp...did-not-forget


Reviewed: Williams' painful multi-million dollar crash list
23 Nov 2024
Jake Nichol
RacingNews365

Williams' recent crash misery in F1 has continued with a heavy accident for Franco Colapinto in qualifying for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. It is the seventh major incident for the team since the United States Grand Prix.

With a damage bill now totalling millions, RacingNews365 takes a look at every crash sustained by the team in 2024, whilst estimating that the total stands at around the $20 million mark, if not more.

‘Multi-million dollar crash list’;

https://racingnews365.com/reviewed-w...lar-crash-list

George Russell cruises to Las Vegas GP victory ahead of champion Max Verstappen and resurgent Lewis Hamilton.
George Russell led an unlikely Mercedes 1-2 at the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton stormed from tenth to the podium, while fifth-placed Max Verstappen clinched his fourth consecutive world championship with a calculated drive.
24 Nov 2024
Adam Dickinson
Total Motorsport

The Dutchman joins an elite group of just five other legendary drivers to win more than three Formula 1 titles, and held the net lead over his only rival Lando Norris throughout the race.

But the race itself was all about Mercedes, who recorded their first 1-2 since the 2022 Brazilian GP with Russell barely challenged aside from a brief push from Leclerc in the first stint.

With the hard tyre going unused in free practice, heavier graining than expected turned it into a two-stop that put Verstappen into second at one stage, before Hamilton and the Ferraris surged in the final stint with the Dutchman focussing on his championship battle.

‘George Russell cruises’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/geo...ewis-hamilton/


Las Vegas GP: Race Results
Full results from the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix at Las Vegas Strip Circuit.
24 Nov 2024
Mat Coch
Speedcafe

Full results from the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix at Las Vegas Strip Circuit.

Pos Num Driver Team Laps/Diff
1 63 George Russell Mercedes 50
2 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 7.313
3 55 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 11.906
4 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 14.283
5 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 16.582
6 4 Lando Norris McLaren 43.385
7 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren 51.365
8 27 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 59.808
9 22 Yuki Tsunoda RB 62.808
10 11 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing 63.114

‘Full results’;

https://speedcafe.com/las-vegas-gp-race-results/


George Russell cancels flight and shares Las Vegas Grand Prix party plans with Toto Wolff
George Russell won the Las Vegas Grand Prix and plans to celebrate in style.
Nov 24, 2024
Jack McEachen
Daily and Sunday Express

George Russell announced that he would be cancelling his flight out of Las Vegas to celebrate long into the night, having taken the race win with Lewis Hamilton behind in a Mercedes one-two. The Brit won his second race of the season in relative ease, as attention was drawn elsewhere with Max Verstappen holding Lando Norris off to claim a fourth consecutive title.

There will be two parties in Sin City tonight, one led by Russell and he promised to include Silver Arrows team principal Toto Wolff after axing his schedule to leave hours after the Grand Prix. "I was planning on flying in a couple of hours," he said in his post-race interview. "But I'm definitely not getting on that flight! I will enjoy this evening with all my team. It's been a dream of a weekend. I don't know how I've been so quick but I'm just enjoying this ride right now.”

‘Cancels flight and shares Las Vegas Grand Prix party plans’;

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/f1-a...Mercedes-party


Verstappen captures 4th F1 championship after Mercedes sweep of Las Vegas Grand Prix
23 Nov 2024
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MailOnline

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Max Verstappen cruised to a fourth consecutive Formula 1 championship on Saturday night by finishing fifth in the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Verstappen needed only to finish ahead of Lando Norris of McLaren to give Red Bull a fourth straight driver championship. The Dutchman started fifth but was already up to second by the 10th lap around the street circuit that includes the famed Las Vegas Strip.

He ended the race up 63 points over Norris with two events remaining this season. "Max Verstappen you are a four-time world champion," team principal Christian Horner said on the radio. "That is a phenomenal, phenomenal achievement. You can be incredibly proud of yourself as we are." Verstappen, only the sixth driver in F1 history to win at least four titles, sounded unusually emotional on the radio. "Oh My God, what a season. Four times. Thank you, thank you guys," he said. "We gave it all."

‘Historic fourth F1 drivers' title’;

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap...mpionship.html


George Russell wins F1 Las Vegas GP as Max Verstappen ends Lando Norris title hopes
Max Verstappen needed to finish ahead of Lando Norris to secure the championship at the Las Vegas Grand Prix though both started a few places back from pole-sitter George Russell
24 Nov 2024
Daniel Moxon
The Mirror

George Russell dominated the Las Vegas Grand Prix to take victory on the day Max Verstappen secured his status as a four-time F1 champion. Russell qualified on pole and led the race from start to finish. And Mercedes pulled off a strategy masterclass to help Lewis Hamilton cut through from 10th on the grid to finish second, ahead of Carlos Sainz.

It was also a red-letter day for Verstappen who only finished fifth but it was a result good enough to secure his status as a four-time F1 champion. Lando Norris finished one place behind in sixth which was not good enough to keep his slim title hopes alive.

The Red Bull racer joined the top three finishers in a special car ride from parc ferme round to a specially-constructed podium in front of the Bellagio hotel, which put on a lights show using its famous fountains to celebrate the end of another entertaining Las Vegas race.

‘George Russell wins’;

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formu...esult-34175329


2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix: Max Verstappen clinches title number four under the Las Vegas lights
• 24 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site (Video)

Max Verstappen crosses the line in fifth place to seal his fourth consecutive drivers’ title.

‘Title number four’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/20...88871133004980


2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix: Perez pulls off brilliant double overtake to take two cars in one corner
24 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site (Video)

Sergio Perez pulled off a superb move on Lap 38 to overtake Liam Lawson and Kevin Magnussen in one corner, to move up to P12 for Red Bull.

‘Perez pulls off brilliant double overtake’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/20...87664485120540


Brad Pitt 'faints' on track at F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix as remarkable footage emerges
A-List actor Brad Pitt was at the Las Vegas Grand Prix to film scenes for his new movie about Formula 1 and footage has emerged of the 60-year-old 'fainting' while on the track
23 Nov 2024
Matthew Cooper
The Mirror

Hollywood star Brad Pitt 'fainted' while at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, with the actor filming scenes for his new Formula 1 movie ahead of the race. George Russell sealed pole position for the race in Vegas, Pitt was out on the track to film a scene as his character Sonny Hayes.

In footage captured by fans at the circuit, Pitt was seen hobbling away from the scene of a crash before collapsing onto a padded mat on the ground. APX GP, the fictional team Pitt's character drives for, even released a mock statement addressing the crash. "During qualifying, Sonny sustained a significant impact requiring immediate medical evaluation," it read.

"Incidents of this magnitude are always taken seriously, and Sonny's health remains our top priority. While Sonny is otherwise stable, he will not participate in tomorrow's race as he focuses on recovery. The entire team stands behind him, and we'll provide updates when available. Joshua [Pearce, played by Idris] will race solo tomorrow, carrying the team forward."

‘Remarkable footage emerges’;

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formu...vegas-34175017

Max Verstappen pays tribute to Red Bull as ‘I’m still hungry’ vow made.
Max Verstappen paid tribute to the Milton Keynes-based squad which has made him a quadruple World Champion.
24 Nov 2024
Thomas Maher
PlanetF1.com

“It’s been a long season,” Verstappen said after the chequered flag. “We started off amazing, it was almost like cruising but then we had a tough run. But, as a team, we kept it together.”

“We kept working on improvements, and we pulled it over the line. I’m incredibly proud of everyone, what they have done for me. To stand here as a four-time world champion is something that I never thought was possible. So I’m just feeling relieved, in a way, but also very proud.”

“I mean, we have been through a lot together, and all these highs that we are achieving right now is just very, very special to do that with all the group of people that we have here at the track and back at the factory that they’re continuously pushing flat out to give me the car to fight for a title and to do that four times in a row is very special.”

‘Tribute to Red Bull’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/max-ve...gas-grand-prix


Domenicali congratulates Verstappen on world title: 'He is a great man'
24 Nov 2024
Sandy van Wijngaarden
GPblog.com

Max Verstappen won his fourth world title in Las Vegas. Immediately after the Grand Prix, the Dutchman was congratulated by Stefano Domenicali, Formula 1's CEO.

Verstappen finished fifth, but beat his closest rival to become a four-time world champion. The Formula One CEO had some nice words for the Red Bull Racing driver in a statement. "I want to congratulate Max on an incredible season and his fourth world title," Domenicali said.

"He is a true great of this sport and has so much more to look forward to in his impressive career. This season has been thrilling and 2025 looks set to be even closer. Congratulations Max and congratulations to all the team at Red Bull," the statement concluded.

'He is a great man';

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31454...rld-title.html


‘They had’: The ‘lovely’ Lando Norris and Max Verstappen moment in the media pen after the Las Vegas Grand Prix
24 Nov 2024
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Lando Norris and Max Verstappen share touching moment at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Norris finished one position behind Verstappen but did clinch the fastest lap for McLaren which could prove pivotal in the Constructors’ Championship.

As Norris didn’t finish on the podium, he only saw Verstappen in the media pen and F1TV journalist Lawrence Barretto shared the moment they met on social media. He said: “Lovely moment in the pen when Norris came in to congratulate Verstappen. They had a hug and a little chat.”

Verstappen then spoke about that moment with Barretto and said: “It’s very nice that he came back into the pen to congratulate me and I think that’s how it should be. “We’ve had a lot of moments together and of course, these things we discussed already, I told him your time will come one day, you have to be patient.”

‘Norris came in to congratulate Verstappen’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/the...as-grand-prix/


Verstappen relieved to seal fourth world championship
Max Verstappen was relieved to claim his fourth Formula 1 world drivers’ championship after finishing fifth in the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
24 Nov 2024
Mat Coch
Speedcafe

Needing to cede fewer than three points to Lando Norris to wrap up the title in Vegas, Verstappen instead outscored his rival to seal his fourth crown. It’s a result that comes after a strong start to the year in which he netted seven wins from the opening 10 races. However, he then went winless from the Spanish Grand Prix in June until the Sprint at the United States Grand Prix in October.

“It’s been a long season,” said Verstappen, who secured the title at Round 22 of 24. We started off amazing, it was almost like cruising, but then we had a tough run. But as a team, we kept it together. We kept working on improvements.”

“I mean, got to be proud of everyone, what they have done for me. To stand here as a four-time world champion is, of course, something that I never thought was possible. So yeah, at the moment, just feeling relieved in a way, but also very proud.”

‘Relieved’;

https://speedcafe.com/verstappen-rel...-championship/


Norris left in awe of Verstappen: 'He has no negatives'
24 Nov 2024
Matt Gretton
GPblog.com

Lando Norris is in awe of Max Verstappen, who can't find a way to fault the Dutchman. The Red Bull driver secured a fourth (consecutive) World Championship by beating Norris in the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The Brit claims Verstappen's season was "relatively easy".

"Massive congrats to him. He's deserved it. He's not put a foot wrong really the whole year. That's a strength of his. He has no downsides. He has no negatives. When he's had the quickest car, he dominated races. When he's not in the quickest car, he's still been just behind us and almost winning the races anyway. He's just not had a bad side to him. He's not had any bad races the whole year. He's just drove as Max has always driven, which is perfectly, and can't fault him anyway," Norris told GPblog and others in Las Vegas.

'He has no negatives';

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31456...title-win.html


Heartbreak for Gasly: Engine breaks and ruins chance of a good result
24 Nov 2024
Matt Gretton
GPblog.com

Pierre Gasly expected a positive result with a P3 start in qualifying, but he was let down by his Renault engine, which broke just before the halfway point in the Las Vegas Grand Prix. A puff of smoke was seen coming out of the Alpine car, and that was met with a frustrated radio message from the Frenchman.

Gasly became the first driver to retire from the race. The Alpine driver started from P3 and looked set to score crucial points in the 'Sin City'. Alpine lifted themselves up to P6 after a double podium in Brazil but face stern competition for the prize money. Gasly's teammate, Esteban Ocon, is sat firmly outside the points after 20 laps in the United States.

‘Heartbreak for Gasly’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31448...rand-prix.html


Toto Wolff calls for car understanding after ‘crushed everyone’ Las Vegas victory verdict
24 Nov 2024
Henry Valantine
PlanetF1.com

“It’s really nice if one would understand these cars, because today we really crushed everyone, dominant,” Wolff told Sky F1 after the race.

“We could have gone easily faster. We were at times two seconds quicker than everybody else, and I’m really happy – the team deserves it. We’ve worked so hard in Brackley and in Brixworth and here at the race team, so that’s a great day.”

When asked if that meant Mercedes did not understand why they were so fast in Las Vegas this weekend, Wolff replied: “No, we do, I think it’s just when you design a car and you put it on track, generally, you try to have it good at every track.

‘Car understanding’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/toto-w...e-las-vegas-gp


Lance Stroll blighted by unusual problem at F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix
Lance Stroll and Aston Martin forced to react on the fly
24 Nov 2024
James Dielhenn
Crash.Net

Aston Martin and Stroll were forced to react on the fly when it became clear his communication tool was not functioning. “I don’t know whether the transmission didn’t work. I am sure that the helmet was fine,” Kravitz said.

“But Lance didn’t have radio for the whole race. That was a bit of a problem when you consider that he started down the grid, and needed to get back. They had to communicate with Lance with the old way - with a pit board, to tell him when to come in and change various buttons that they needed him to change.”

‘Blighted by unusual problem’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/106071...gas-grand-prix

Why Verstappen's 2024 Title Success Is His Greatest Yet - F1 Las Vegas GP Analysis.
Max Verstappen is your 2024 Drivers's Champion! Following a tough start to the weekend for Red Bull, Max fought hard to claim his 4th consecutive title from Lando Norris, whilst Mercedes finished in Las Vegas in style claiming a 1-2 finish, closely followed by Carlos Sainz.
24.11.24
Motorsport.com

But what makes this title Max's greatest one so far? And what does this mean for the rest of the F1 2024 season?

‘Greatest Yet’;

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/video/...alysis/657157/


F1 - 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix Post-Race Press Conference Transcript
24.11.24
FIA (Press Release)

Q: There's no better place to celebrate a big win than Vegas. Any plans tonight? George RUSSELL: You tell me! I'm sure where you're going, it's going to be a good party. So I was planning on flying in a couple of hours, but I'm definitely not getting on that flight. And I'm going to enjoy this evening with all my team. It's been a dream of a weekend. I don't know how we've been so quick, but I'm just riding this wave right now.

Q: Lewis, obviously yesterday, it was a tough one to swallow, I'm guessing. You've been quick all weekend. But then starting P10, chasing down George at the end, it was fun. We were biting our nails. There was some action out there. Lewis HAMILTON: That was great. Well, firstly, I've got to say a big congratulations to Max, winning the championship, still with several races to go. And if I'd done my job yesterday, it would have been a breeze today. but it's OK, I had fun coming from the back, coming from 10th and the team did a fantastic job. We don't know why we were so quick this weekend but that's the nice. That's the best the car has ever felt, so I'm grateful to have been a part of getting it to that point.

Q: Carlos, congratulations. That looked like an interesting race. We didn't really know what was going on with the tyres. I'm guessing it was just as difficult for you guys, graining on both sets of tyres. The unusual pit entry, not pit entry. How did it end up for you? Carlos SAINZ: Yeah, it was a bit of a shock, you know, the Mediums. I was expecting to be quite strong on this tyre, but I think it lasted something like eight, nine laps on me. And then from there onwards, it was just a damage limitation race. You know, I was not comfortable with the car, not strong today. I wish I would have been a bit quicker and would have been fighting with George for the win, but we just simply didn't have it in ourselves today. So we came back with a P3, a podium that is not enough for what we expected, but the maximum that we could do today.

Q: Time for the world champion, Max Verstappen. Listen, first of all, you know, you were my introduction into F1 in Budapest, and I'm hooked forever. And how does this feel, man? I mean, this great accomplishment you've done today. Talk to us right now. Max VESRTAPPEN: Yeah, it's been a long season. And of course, we started off amazing. It was almost like cruising, but then we had a tough run. But as a team, we kept it together. We kept working on improvements. And yeah, we pulled over the line. I mean, incredibly proud of everyone, what they have done for me. And to stand here as a four-time world champion is of course something that I never thought was possible. So yeah, at the moment, just feeling relieved in a way, but also very proud.

‘Press Conference Transcript’;

https://www.fia.com/news/f1-2024-las...nce-transcript


Las Vegas Grand Prix in pictures: Late nights, champagne, glitz & glamour
Nov 24, 2024
ESPN

LAS VEGAS -- After weeks of controversy, angry local feedback and even criticism from reigning world champion Max Vertstappen himself, the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix produced the best race of the 2023 season. Not only that, it delivered the most financially lucrative weekend in Sin City's long and storied history, eclipsing even February's Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium.

The eye-watering numbers were historic. A Clark County report issued in April totaled the economic benefits from the first race race at $1.5 billion, while $77 million was generated in tax revenue. To give those staggering figures some context, Super Bowl LVIII totaled overall economic impacts at $1 billion, with $33.6 million generated in taxes.

Outdrawing America's biggest sporting event was not something F1 had dared predict 12 months ago. It was a massive vindication on a project that cost the series an estimated $400 million. Most impressive to those on the Las Vegas side is that the debut race managed to do something previously considered impossible: generating big bucks the weekend before Thanksgiving, traditionally the leanest on the calendar in terms of revenue.

‘Most financially lucrative weekend in Sin City's long and storied history’;

https://www.espn.com/racing/f1/story...p-deliver-more


‘Magnificent’: David Croft loved ‘vintage’ Sergio Perez moment during Las Vegas Grand Prix amid Red Bull pressure
24 Nov 2024
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

The Las Vegas Grand Prix was another tale of two drivers for Red Bull Racing. Max Verstappen secured his fourth consecutive championship by finishing ahead of Lando Norris and giving his Red Bull colleagues an excuse to enjoy Las Vegas on Saturday night. Unfortunately, teammate Sergio Perez had another difficult weekend as he snuck into the top 10.

As Perez was trying to make his way through the midfield, he came across a battle between Liam Lawson and Kevin Magnussen. Perez and Lawson have had run-ins before, but on this occasion, he used the slipstream from both drivers going into turn 11 to pass both drivers. Reacting to the move, Croft said: “There goes Sergio Perez, down the inside, three into one corner doesn’t normally go, it does this time!”

“Thank you, Sergio Perez, that was absolutely magnificent! That’s what we want to see from you, he’s up into 12th place ahead of Lawson and ahead of Magnussen and Alonso ahead of Ocon a little bit earlier. That was vintage Sergio Perez there!” Brundle replied: “Tremendous driving yeah, they were busy squabbling and he just eased off the brakes and went up the inside and kept it together. Lovely driving from Sergio Perez.”

‘Magnificent’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/dav...bull-pressure/


Real reason behind why Brad Pitt ‘fainted’ on track at F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix
F1 fans saw Brad Pitt 'collapse' at the Las Vegas Grand Prix
24 Nov 2024
Anish Vij
LADbible

All has been explained after F1 fans were shocked to see Brad Pitt 'faint' on the track at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. A number of Hollywood A-listers and celebs attended the highly-anticipated showdown on Saturday (23 November), which is a pretty normal thing at big sporting events. But after George Russel secured the top spot in Vegas, the 60-year-old made his way out on to the track and seemingly fell over.

However, the actor was indeed only acting for his new F1 movie. The Fight Club star has attended multiple races this year, taking on the role of fictional driver Sonny Hayes. APX GP, the fictional team Pitt's character drives for, even released a statement following the 'incident'.

"During qualifying, Sonny sustained a significant impact requiring immediate medical evaluation," it read. Incidents of this magnitude are always taken seriously, and Sonny's health remains our top priority. While Sonny is otherwise stable, he will not participate in tomorrow's race as he focuses on recovery. Fans were concerned for the actor (X) "The entire team stands behind him, and we'll provide updates when available. Joshua [Pearce, played by Idris] will race solo tomorrow, carrying the team forward." The upcoming movie will be led by Joseph Kosinski, known for directing Tom Cruise's Top Gun: Maverick.

‘All has been explained’;

https://www.ladbible.com/entertainme...87390-20241124


“Extreme” changes cured McLaren’s lack of race pace – but it was too late
24th November 2024
Keith Collantine

The Las Vegas Grand Prix looked like being McLaren’s least competitive outing since the Japanese Grand Prix back in April. Two-thirds of the way through the race, at which point the front-runners had all completed their first two pit stops, the leading McLaren of Lando Norris was already the best part of half a minute of eventual winner George Russell in his Mercedes.

But Norris’s third stint was significantly more competitive. Within a few laps he was quicker than Verstappen and he was soon gaining on the Ferrari drivers as well. As the stint wore on Norris was the fastest driver on-track at times. Team principal Andrea Stella said McLaren tried some drastic changes when Norris replaced his hard tyres, which paid off.

“Coming to Vegas we expected it to be a bit of a struggle,” he told Sky after the race. “This concern materialised in qualifying and in the race. In the race, in the first two stints, we were just fighting front graining. There was no way that we could stop this phenomenon happening.”

“Extreme”;

https://www.racefans.net/2024/11/24/...-was-too-late/

Horner thanks Red Bull for late nights after Verstappen's fourth title.
"I am incredibly grateful for all the work and late nights that went into this success and everyone back in Milton Keynes can be proud of their hand in this championship.” Christian Horner
25 Nov 2024
Balazs Szabo
F1 Technical

Commenting on Verstappen's fourth F1 drivers' title, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said that the Dutchman has impressed him by how he worked together with the engineers to try to find a remedy for the RB20's issues.
"This marks the culmination of an epic campaign and a fantastic win for Max. Not just today but throughout an uncompromising year and at times without the necessary tools at his disposal. He has inspired in the cockpit but out of it also. The way he has conducted himself and the way he has worked with the engineers and wider team has been phenomenal.”

"Together with 2021, this was one of the toughest years the Team have experienced. But Max has once again elevated himself to another level of exceptionalism. He’s won more than double the races of any other driver, mounting a formidable campaign and at times having to overcome insurmountable margins. On the days when we didn’t deliver a win or when he had everything thrown at him, he has still delivered points. He has been extraordinary.”

‘Incredibly grateful’;

https://www.f1technical.net/news/25892


Horner feared Verstappen's fourth F1 title was slipping away in Monza
September's Monza weekend was Red Bull's lowest point of 2024, before Max Verstappen stabilised his lead over Lando Norris
Nov 25, 2024
Filip CleerenRonald Vording
Motorsport.com

Red Bull Formula 1 team boss Christian Horner admitted he felt Max Verstappen's fourth world championship was looking like a tall order by September's Italian Grand Prix, in the face of McLaren's resurgence. When asked if he agreed with Verstappen's assessment that, for 70 percent of the year, Red Bull didn't have the quickest car, Horner replied: "I would say it's about right. Since Miami, I would say that was a turning point.”

"The car was very difficult to drive, but he was able to adapt and get the most out of it. I think we've improved it in latter races, but certainly around Monza time, it looked like the championship was slipping away. There was still a long way of the championship to go, and we had a significant disadvantage to McLaren, Ferrari and even the Mercedes at that point."

"The engineers have worked tirelessly, and the men and women behind the scenes have worked long hours, early mornings, weekends to keep getting performance to the car," he said. "For me, a real turning point was Austin, getting a sprint race victory there, getting on the front row for the grand prix, the podium that he scored there. And then, of course, Brazil…”

‘Monza weekend was Red Bull's lowest point of 2024’;

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/h...onza/10676298/


Dutch media showcase Verstappen: 'A Dutch hegemony in Formula 1'
Nov 25, 2024
Estéban den Toom
GPblog.com

The Algemeen Dagblad: "And that's four!" the Algemeen Dagblad wrote. The front page of the sports section features a Verstappen holding a large gin and tonic. The morning newspaper first starts with a quote from the Red Bull driver himself and then explains the photo. "Not bad eh? Max Verstappen toasts his fourth world title and puts his grand achievement into words with great sense of understatement. A Dutch hegemony in Formula 1, what a wealth."

De Telegraaf: De Telegraaf also published the Monday newspaper with Verstappen prominently on the first page. "Max celebrates fourth!" was the headline on the front page. Below that, the text continued about the Dutchman in the top class of motorsport. "World champion! For the fourth season in a row, Max Verstappen leaves no doubt who the best driver in Formula 1 is: the 27-year-old Limburger from Red Bull Racing."

The Volkskrant: De Volkskrant also had Verstappen on the front page in its sports section. "Four in a row," the odds headline read. "Max Verstappen made history on Sunday by becoming world champion for the fourth consecutive year in the most important racing class, Formula 1. Why was it unexpectedly difficult this year?", referring to the sports section article.

‘Dutch media showcase Verstappen’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31476...ng-papers.html


Dutch Royal Family issue statement after Max Verstappen wins another F1 title
Max Verstappen has received some royal praise after his crowning moment.
Nov 25, 2024
Harry Smith
Daily and Sunday Express

The Dutch Royal Family issued a statement in the wake of Max Verstappen’s title-winning moment at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, congratulating the 27-year-old on his fourth Drivers’ Championship crown.

In a statement released on social media, the Dutch Royal Family wrote: “With great pleasure, we congratulate Max Verstappen on the fourth consecutive world title in Formula One!”

“Despite a difficult start this weekend in Las Vegas, he drove a solid race and stayed well ahead of his closest competitor. Together with his team, he showed experience and quality. With two races to go, he has already extended his world title. Congratulations again on this impressive achievement!”

‘Dutch Royal Family issue statement’;

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/f1-a...oyal-Family-F1


'A beast': Gianpiero Lambiase highlights one thing that F1 rivals must find ‘frightening’ about Max Verstappen
25 Nov 2024
Rory Mitchell
F1 Oversteer

Reflecting on their fourth title-winning year together, Verstappen’s engineer Gianpiero Lambiase has highlighted one thing that his rivals will find ‘frightening’ when speaking to Viaplay. Lambiase, who has worked with Verstappen since he joined Red Bull in 2016, has highlighted why he thinks his rivals will find it tough to beat him when the field converges even more in 2025.

“This is the problem for the other drivers, about Max, he is a beast that just keeps on improving year on year,” said Lambiase. “Just when you think he’s reached his peak he takes another step. That must be frightening for everyone up and down the grid.”

'A beast';

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/gia...ax-verstappen/


'Emergency measures': Red Bull used ‘crude solution’ to help Max Verstappen win the F1 title at the Las Vegas Grand Prix
25 Nov 2024
Shay Rogers
F1 Oversteer

Red Bull completed rear wing ‘bodge job’ in Las Vegas. Faced with the prospect of losing up to six-tenths per second every lap on the straights, Red Bull brought a dramatic solution to the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Due to cost cap reasons, Red Bull doesn’t have a low downforce specification rear wing, which is important at a circuit like Vegas.

They decided to cut parts of their normal rear wing off to reduce drag, at the cost of less DRS efficiency and downforce, which The Race’s Scott Mitchell-Malm went into more detail about on their YouTube channel. “It came with an unusual bodge job on his car,” he said. “Red Bull has been on the back foot a lot over the second half of 2024 and performed plenty of on-site troubleshooting across many races.”

“But, it took emergency measures to a new extreme in Vegas with a crude solution to the glaring rear wing problem it encountered on the first day of practice. Red Bull’s rear wing was too big for the demands of the track layout.”

‘RB20B… …B for ‘Bodge’!’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/red...as-grand-prix/

McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull battle for F1 constructors' championship with two weekends to race.
With two grands prix and one sprint race remaining in the longest season in F1 history, there are still three teams in contention for the world championship.
25 Nov 2024
Michael Doyle
ABC Online

McLaren holds a 24-point lead over Ferrari... While Stella has confidence the final two rounds — in Qatar and Abu Dhabi — will be favourable to their car, the competitiveness of this season between McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes, which picked up a 1-2 in Las Vegas, means nothing is certain. "Qatar and Abu Dhabi should be more suitable ground for the MCL38 but there are four teams in contention for victory all of the time," he said.

"That's great for Formula 1 but it means we have to be performing at our absolute best if we are to win the constructors' championship." There is a maximum of 103 points a constructor can win in the final two race weekends. Qatar will hold a grand prix and a sprint race this weekend, before Abu Dhabi's season finale grand prix the following weekend.

‘24-point lead’;

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-...ship/104645274


Piastri concedes Ferrari’s Las Vegas points haul is ‘not ideal’ in tight constructors’ battle
25 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri has admitted that Ferrari’s strong showing in Las Vegas wasn’t what the team were hoping for in the tense fight for the constructors’ title, but believes that “it could have been worse”.

“We knew that this would probably be a trickier track for us and we expected Ferrari to be strong,” Piastri explained after the race. “It’s of course not ideal that they’ve gained some points on us but I think we expected it could have been worse. Let’s see – it’s obviously going to be tight to the rest of the year but hopefully Qatar’s a good weekend for us.”

‘Not ideal’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...KFRV9vzWB5GG2j


"It could have been worse" - Oscar Piastri expected bigger Ferrari gain in Las Vegas
"It’s of course not ideal that they’ve gained some points on us but I think we expected it could have been worse."
25 Nov 2024
Connor McDonagh
Crash.Net

Oscar Piastri felt that McLaren would have lost out more in the F1 constructors’ championship to Ferrari at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Ferrari were only able to finish third and fourth amid Mercedes’ surprise return to form in Sin City. Mercedes took a dominant 1-2 finish with George Russell controlling the race from pole position.

For Piastri, it was a tough weekend. He was out-paced comprehensively by Norris in the race, although his chances of a better result were thwarted by a five-second penalty for a false start. “I didn’t think I was that far forward but clearly I must have been. I don’t think it changed much,” he added. “Yes, it made the early part and the middle part of the race a bit more difficult, but I don’t think it affected the result. We just weren’t quick enough, so some things to look at for sure.”

‘Gained points on us’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/106074...gain-las-vegas


McLaren "thanks" Mercedes for holding Ferrari off in Vegas
McLaren escaped a major blow to its constructors’ championship hopes in Las Vegas...
Jonathan Noble
Mark Mann-Bryans
Motorsport.com

McLaren says it is thankful Mercedes dominated the Las Vegas Grand Prix, as that prevented main rival Ferrari from slashing too much into its constructors' championship lead. McLaren boss Andrea Stella said: "It's disappointing that we lost 12 points in the championship."

"But at the same time, considering how much we struggled this weekend, somehow, we really have to thank Mercedes for having performed so strong and secured the P1, P2 position. Otherwise, Ferrari would have been an even bigger threat in the constructors' championship."

"Thanks";

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/m...gas-/10676380/


Sainz expected better performance in Las Vegas race
24 Nov 2024
Balazs Szabo
F1 Technical

Carlos Sainz had high hopes of challenging for the victory at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, but he was left disappointed after unexpected tyre issues in the early stages of the 50-lap race. "Considering the pace Mercedes had today I think we maximised the team's points, and even without the misunderstanding at the pit entry on my second stop I don’t think we would have been able to stay ahead of Lewis.”

"I was expecting to be more competitive after what we had seen in practice but we struggled quite a lot with graining today.Considering the pace Mercedes had today I think we maximised the team's points, and even without the misunderstanding at the pit entry on my second stop I don’t think we would have been able to stay ahead of Lewis.”

‘Expected better’;

https://www.f1technical.net/news/25908


Leclerc unleashes f-bomb rant after Vegas frustrations
A frustrated Charles Leclerc unloaded on his race engineer, Bryan Bozzi, following the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
25 Nov 2024
Mat Coch
Speedcafe

“Carlos has been told to not overtake but it is really close, you might be just in front,” Bozzi told Leclerc over the radio. He has been told to not put you under pressure. So just take care of your tyres.” However, Sainz soon passed Leclerc, prompting a sarcastic response from the Monegasque driver. “Maybe try in Spanish,” he said.

Following the race, Bozzi issued some standard cooldown lap instructions, including reminding Leclerc to pick up marbles.
That quickly descended into a profanity-laden rant from the 27-year-old.
Bozzi: “Pick up please.”
Leclerc: “Yes, whatever you want, as always.”
Bozzi: “Charles, you did your job. Okay. Thank you.”

Leclerc: “Yeah I did my job. But being nice f**ks me all the f**king time. All the f**king time.
“It’s not even being nice, it’s just being respectful, I know I need to shut up but at one point is always the same so…
“Oh my f**king god.”

‘F-bomb’;

https://speedcafe.com/leclerc-unleas...-frustrations/


Sainz denies any tactics against Leclerc, and cities "graining" as the Monegasque's biggest enemy
24 Nov 2024
Balazs Szabo
F1 Technical

Following his on-track misunderstanding with his team-mate Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz has denied that he deliberately acted against what the Scuderia asked from him after the last round of pit stops. Sainz said that it was down to "messy" radio communication.

"We just simply didn't execute in general. We just didn't execute a very good race. I think we stayed out one lap too late on Mediums, two laps too late on Hards. And by the time I was going to pit, we had this messy radio communication in the pit entry, which probably made me lose that lap that I was completely grained and I had to let pass Charles plus the two or three seconds that I lost in the pit entry.”

"That means a lot of race time that maybe would have meant we could have ended up fighting Lewis. But yeah, it just shows that in this sport, you need to do things perfectly week in, week out. We've been doing things really well in strategy and on race management all year around. But today wasn't our day. We just didn't do things well and we will have to learn from it and make sure we come back in Qatar stronger," concluded Sainz.

"Graining";

https://www.f1technical.net/news/25902


New Ferrari data helps uncover true culprit in Leclerc v Sainz war
25 Nov 2024
Pablo Hidalgo
PlanetF1.com

Ferrari exploded again in Las Vegas at a key moment of the season for the Italian team, which has not won a title since 2008. Unexpectedly out-paced by Mercedes, the race management with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc was also very poor which triggered the Monegasque’s brutal anger against his teammate without the Spaniard really being guilty of anything at all.

Sainz did what was asked of him over the radio to help Charles when he could within a competitive logic and took another podium finish without indulging in the submission that many people expect of him both inside and outside the team.

A submission that when he has it is always criticised for lack of competitiveness and when he doesn’t have it it is also criticised because he is considered a bad teammate. It seems that whatever he does, Sainz will never be judged in a positive light unless he has a perfect weekend like he did in Mexico or Australia.

‘Uncover true culprit’;

https://www.planetf1.com/features/fe...rlos-sainz-war


‘He’s damaged’: Martin Brundle stunned by what Charles Leclerc did at the Las Vegas Grand Prix that ‘ruined’ his race
24 Nov 2024
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Martin Brundle criticises Charles Leclerc’s tyre management at the Las Vegas Grand Prix Talking about the Monegasque driver, Brundle said: “Karun [Chandhok] telling me at race control that Leclerc’s been told that he’s got to stay out longer, he’s damaged the tyre, but you can’t come in yet. We don’t know how far the hard compound tyre will go. So, too aggressive from Charles Leclerc. He either needed to make that move instantly or settle back behind George Russell. It’s ruined, certainly the first part of his race.”

‘He’s damaged’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/mar...ined-his-race/

Alonso aiming for ‘revenge’ in Qatar after just missing out on points in Las Vegas.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso says he and his team “deserved” points in Las Vegas, after he came home in P11.
24 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site (Video)

‘Revenge’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/al...93642466150177


Alonso expects more “pain” in final races as Aston Martin are slowest in Las Vegas
23rd Nov 2024
Keith Collantine
RaceFans

Aston Martin’s downward spiral is continuing at the Las Vegas Grand Prix where they are Formula 1’s slowest team for the first time this year. “It was tough, but no surprise,” Alonso admitted. “We’ve been struggling the last four or five months with the performance of the car and sometimes we managed to make some progress in Q1, sometimes we don’t. Today, unfortunately, we didn’t.”

Aston Martin began last season in great shape, Alonso taking six podium finishes from the first eight grands prix. However they have slipped back since then, and prior to this weekend’s race announced technical director Dan Fallows had parted company with the team.

Alonso sees little prospect for any improvement in the team’s performance tomorrow or over the remaining rounds at Losail and Yas Marina. “It’s a tough race in front of us,” he said. “We are 17th and 20th and we want to improve, but I think this year it’s unlikely.”

“Pain”;

https://www.racefans.net/2024/11/23/...-in-las-vegas/


Stroll reveals he lost team radio on Lap 1
24 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site (Video)

Lance Stroll finished 15th in Las Vegas for Aston Martin, but explained after the race that he’d run the entire Grand Prix without a working radio.

‘Lost team radio on Lap 1’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/st...90864252510388


Alonso makes 'gold' claim as Aston Martin struggles continue
Fernando Alonso has failed to score a point in the last four Formula 1 races.
26 Nov 2024
Nick Golding & Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

Fernando Alonso has claimed that "every point is gold" for Aston Martin currently, with the team continuing to struggle on a consistent basis.

Aston Martin have endured a challenging campaign, with Alonso wanting to reward the team for its efforts by scoring points. When asked by select media including RacingNews365 whether his frustration to lose a point summarised Aston Martin's season, Alonso answered: "Yeah, definitely.”

"I think every point is gold for us at the moment, even if we are not fighting for many important things, I think it's good to give something back to the mechanics and to everyone in the team, after all the struggles. Only two races left this year, but there is a lot of trust in the team, and a lot of new people and new ideas that will come in the future. So, yeah, looking forward."

"Every point is gold";

https://racingnews365.com/alonso-mak...ggles-continue


Adrian Newey Can Help Fix Aston Martin ‘Mistakes’ In 2025
Nov 26, 2024
F1 Chronicle

Aston Martin is eagerly looking forward to the arrival of Adrian Newey early next year, team ambassador Pedro de la Rosa admits. Although the team’s performance has utterly collapsed since a strong early start to 2023, Lawrence Stroll is still investing heavily in Aston Martin.

“That’s what we’re here for,” team ambassador Pedro de la Rosa, a former F1 driver, told DAZN, “to change the future a little, to improve with the 2025 car, to improve many of the mistakes that have been made in the design of this car. Above all, we are looking forward to the addition of Enrico Cardile and Adrian Newey,” he added.

‘Arrival of Adrian Newey’;

https://f1chronicle.com/adrian-newey.../?nowprocket=1


Alonso vows to learn from Verstappen: 'He was the best'
25 Nov 2024
Estéban den Toom
GPblog.com

Max Verstappen has become Formula 1 world champion for the fourth time in a row. The Dutchman is receiving congratulations from his rivals for his achievement, including from Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz and Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso. The Spaniards speak highly of the Red Bull driver's performance in a car that often wasn't the fastest.

"Congrats. I think he's driven for four years now at an incredibly high level. I think this year he just dominated whenever he had a dominant car, and then he didn’t do mistakes and maximised the points that he could get with a less performing car and just did whatever he had to do in every race and congrats because he clearly deserves it," Sainz said.

Alonso also complimented the number-one driver. "Big congratulations. This one has to feel very special to him, I imagine, because the car is not maybe as dominant as last year. I think he did an incredible performance this year to put the car in a position that it was not maybe realistic. The best example is Brazil one weekend. This is all down to him, I think this year and he was the best. Always things to learn from a driver like him in this kind of performance this year," Alonso said.

‘Alonso vows to learn from Verstappen’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31481...erstappen.html

Hulkenberg ‘very pleased’ as Haas reclaim P6 while Magnussen left to regret Las Vegas strategy calls.
Nico Hulkenberg’s eighth place finish in Las Vegas was all Haas needed to take P6 back from Alpine in the constructors’ standings, but it was a “very challenging” race for the American team as they struggled to maximise their tyre performance.26 November 2024
26 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site

Pierre Gasly’s devastating retirement after qualifying in P3 for the Las Vegas Grand Prix helped Haas to eke out a one-point advantage over Alpine as Hulkenberg finished in the top 10, with Kevin Magnussen down in P12.

Like most of the grid, the pair struggled with tyre degradation affecting their race pace, but nevertheless now have 50 points compared to their French rival’s 49 points in the increasingly tight battle for sixth.

Although Hulkenberg managed to pass Yuki Tsunoda in the latter stages of the 50-lap race, RB are still firmly in the mix, just four points behind Haas – with every point crucial for the three teams in the remaining races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

‘Very pleased’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...bzFKLYcvVyibvB


Hulkenberg hails Haas’ Las Vegas GP performance
The German driver finished in the point scoring positions for the fourth time in five races on Sunday
Nov 27, 2024
Freddie Cotton
FormulaNerds

Ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix earlier this month, Haas sat sixth in the World Constructors’ Championship Standings, ten points ahead of seventh place RB. However, astonishing podium finishes from both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly in Interlagos meant that the American outfit were leapfrogged in the standings by Alpine who claimed an impressive 35 points over the course of the weekend.

To make matters worse for Haas, it looked as though the French team were on course to put further daylight between the rivals in Nevada as Gasly qualified P3 for Sunday’s grand prix. On the contrary, Hulkenberg and teammate Kevin Magnussen had only set the ninth and 12th quickest times respectively in Saturday’s session. However, following Gasly’s race retirement on lap 16 due to an engine failure, fortunes quickly changed for the American team.

“I’m very pleased. P8 I think was the best we could achieve today – fifth best team so very happy about that. Clean race, good execution. As expected, it was very challenging on the tyre side with graining on the front axle especially, so I think that kept everyone occupied and busy. We came through that well and offset ourselves a little bit to our main competition. I think that worked well and the pace was also decent.”

“P8 I think was the best we could achieve today”;

https://www.formulanerds.com/news/hu.../?nowprocket=1


‘It was good and fair racing’ – Hulkenberg relished fight with Tsunoda for P8
24 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site (Video)

Nico Hulkenberg ultimately got the better of Yuki Tsunoda to seal a P8 finish for Haas in Las Vegas.

‘Good and fair’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/it...93063826261792


Magnussen rues one stop strategy after missing out on points
24 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site (Video)

Kevin Magnussen said it “didn’t feel like we got the best out of it” after finishing 12th for Haas in Las Vegas.

‘Missing out on points’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/ma...89930909792798


Las Vegas Grand Prix: Race Recap
Nov 24, 2024
Haas F1 Team - Official Site

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: “I think that’s the best P8 we’ve ever achieved. It wasn’t an easy race to manage, but what I’m so happy about is that nobody panicked, and everyone stayed calm. Everyone, including the team back at the factory, did their bit, and to have that strong two-stop race with Nico to get P8 is great.”

“With Kevin, after the first lap was losing position etc. the only way we could get him back into the game was one-stop. His team did as well as they could in that scenario, nearly getting back to P10. I think it was a huge team effort, and back up into P6 in the Constructors’. After that terrible result in Brazil, it’s been an amazing reaction, and it gives people confidence, so I couldn’t be happier.”

‘Race Recap’;

https://www.haasf1team.com/news/las-...x-race-recap-0


Hulkenberg praises Verstappen: 'What a guy, huge respect for that'
26 Nov 2024
Kada Sarkozi
GPblog.com

While Max Verstappen somewhat stole the show in Las Vegas with winning the drivers' championship. Nico Hulkenberg also scored important points for Haas in the battle for P6 in the constructors' championship. With the German finishing in P8, they have now overtaken Alpine in the standings. Hulkenberg also congratulated Verstappen in the 'Sin City'.

"Incredible. What a guy!", Hulkenberg first reacted to Verstappen winning his fourth title. "He's just so strong, so quick all the time regardless of the temperature, the conditions. Hardly makes any mistakes and always just maximises what he can, even if he doesn't have the winning car or the best car. Huge respect for that, and many congratulations to him. He did incredibly well again," he told GPblog among others.

"You never know, but every point is important," Hulkenberg said of how important that overtaking move on Tsunoda could be at the end. "You never know, but every point matters for sure. For now, just happy that we maximised the opportunity today. We had the pace, but it was certainly a tough and challenging race with the tyres and with graining."

“Always just maximises what he can”;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31493...rld-title.html

Gasly says Las Vegas retirement after stunning P3 in qualifying ‘a tough one to take’.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly lamented a disastrous Saturday evening at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, with the Frenchman retiring from the race after qualifying a stunning third 24 hours previously.
24 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site

“It’s a very tough one to take because we had such a high yesterday,” said Gasly, “and obviously today it was the [worst] outcome possible. I think we did well, we knew the cars around us at the start were faster, so Max [Verstappen] and the McLarens, Norris and Hamilton got past us.”

“But then I think we were on for a good fight with Yuki [Tsunoda] for best of the rest, to fight for some important points for the championship. It’s just very disappointing from one day to another to have this happen.”

Asked if there were positives he could take from his strong pace at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit, Gasly replied: “I’m pretty pleased with the performance. Right now it’s more frustrating, but obviously it’s been very, very positive yesterday. “Today as I mentioned, we were in the fight with Haas and [RB] and hopefully we can carry that on into Qatar.”

‘A tough one to take’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...KlgA6AQfJbbyGa


2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix: Gasly forced to retire after losing power
24 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site (Video)

Pierre Gasly was one of the heroes of qualifying after he took P3 on the grid, but his race was over on Lap 16 when his Alpine lost power and he was forced to retire.

‘Alpine lost power’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/20...91771599018802


Gasly: Vegas DNF ‘a tough one to take’ after career-best qualifying
26/11/2024
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Pierre Gasly’s Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend was a rollercoaster of emotions, beginning with a career-best qualifying performance with Alpine and ending in frustration and disappointment after an early race retirement due to an engine failure.

“It’s a very tough one to take because we had such a high yesterday,” commented Gasly. “And obviously today it was the [worst] outcome possible. I think we did well, we knew the cars around us at the start were faster, so Max [Verstappen] and the McLarens, Norris and Hamilton got past us.

“I’m pretty pleased with the performance,” he said. “Right now it’s more frustrating, but obviously it’s been very, very positive yesterday.” He expressed hope that Alpine could build on their current pace and carry it forward. “Today, as I mentioned, we were in the fight with Haas and [RB], and hopefully we can carry that on into Qatar. Now we just need to get out of this place, and we’re already focused on next week.”

‘A tough one to take’;

https://f1i.com/news/525699-gasly-ve...ualifying.html


Gasly: Las Vegas retirement “a slap in the face” for Alpine
26 Nov 2024
Adam Cooper's F1 Blog

Gasly had to retire early after a PU issue: Pierre Gasly says his retirement from the Las Vegas GP was “a slap in the face” for his Alpine Formula 1 team after he stunned the pitlane by qualifying third. The Frenchman lost places to quicker cars in the early laps, but he was still set for a healthy haul of points.

The team is still investigating the cause of the PU issue. “We need to review exactly,” said Gasly. “But for me, it was pretty clear when it happened. I just lost all the power, I could not achieve downshift. I don’t want to go into too much detail because I’m not too sure, but when we know how important these points are, especially in the championship, it’s going to cost us big time today.”

“A slap in the face”;

https://adamcooperf1.com/2024/11/26/...ce-for-alpine/


'Didn't issue': The ‘particular scenario’ that led to Esteban Ocon’s bizarre extra Las Vegas Grand Prix pit stop
25 Nov 2024
Rory Mitchell
F1 Oversteer

How it played out on Esteban Ocon’s team radio. Team radio transcripts from the incident appear to show Ocon was suffering from tyre degradation towards the end of the stint and wanted to pit. His engineer, Josh Peckett, appeared to confirm they were ready for him in any scenario on the lap that he initially came in (Lap 11) but Ocon was left to drive through the pits.

Driver Engineer
Peckett: “Okay, Esteban, how are the tyres, please?”
Ocon: “Degrading. A little more each lap.” Peckett: “Copy that. Esteban, box this lap. Opposite Hulkenberg in front. Box this lap, opposite Hulkenberg in front.”
*Ocon pits but no mechanics waiting for him*

Peckett: “Okay, Esteban, I need you to clear errors, please. double-press ‘OK’.”
Ocon: “F—… what happened? I didn’t see the board?”
Peckett: “It’s okay, mate. Just drive through. Drive through.”
Ocon: “F—— hell…” Peckett: “Okay mate. Okay. It’s alright. Settle down. So car behind Tsunoda, at the moment.”

It was a disappointing end to Alpine’s weekend after a strong Sao Paulo GP, as the double non-points finish put him behind Haas in the Constructors’ standings. Each spot can be worth approximately £8 million, meaning that could impact them at the end of the season in the prize money distribution.

‘Bizarre extra Las Vegas Grand Prix pit stop’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/the...prix-pit-stop/


‘It’s a shame’ – Ocon frustrated after pitstop mix-up rules him out of points contention
24 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site (Video)

Esteban Ocon finished 17th in Las Vegas – but reckoned he could have been in the fight for points had there not been a mix-up with his Alpine crew around his first pit stop.

‘It’s a shame’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/it...92097910649453

'There is no point': RB boss admits what’s ‘frustrating’ about Yuki Tsunoda’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Yuki Tsunoda scored Visa Cash App RB two crucial points in the Las Vegas Grand Prix but team principal Laurent Mekies found one part of his race in Sin City ‘frustrating’.
26 Nov 2024
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

The Las Vegas GP could have gone even better for RB as well had Hulkenberg not overtaken Tsunoda in the closing stages. Mekies admits it was ‘frustrating’ to lose P8 to Haas with five laps left as two extra points in the constructors’ championship slipped through their fingers.

Tsunoda went defensive into Turn 14 to try and hold Hulkenberg back on Lap 45 of 50 in the Las Vegas Grand Prix. But the German had too much pace with the aid of DRS for the Honda junior star to retain eighth place. Hulkenberg went on to finish the race three seconds clear.

Mekies noted after the Las Vegas GP: “After a very solid qualifying performance to start P7, Yuki had a busy race with some great overtaking moves, battling with our rivals all race long. “Of course, it is frustrating to lose a place with just five laps to go. But, overall, he showed a good race pace in bringing home two very important championship points.”

‘Frustrating’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/rb-...as-grand-prix/


Tsunoda left ‘pretty annoyed’ despite points finish in Las Vegas
24 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site (Video)

RB’s Yuki Tsunoda finished ninth in the Grand Prix – but was frustrated to have been passed for P8 by Nico Hulkenberg in the Haas.

‘Pretty annoyed’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/ts...90821420379090


Tsunoda left frustrated at ‘annoying’ Las Vegas race that saw Haas extend constructors’ advantage over RB
26 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site

Yuki Tsunoda drove well in Las Vegas to score two points for his team with a ninth place finish, but it wasn’t enough to prevent RB slipping further behind Haas in the constructors’ championship. Despite starting ahead of rival Nico Hulkenberg, Tsunoda finished one place behind the German in Vegas as Haas climbed up to sixth in the standings.

“It wasn’t an easy race today but we maximised all that we could, and I think as a team we made such a good step forward throughout the weekend,” said Tsunoda. “Obviously, I’m happy with finishing in the points today, but at the same time, it is pretty annoying as we lost a few points for the constructors’ championship. I was feeling good and confident in the car, which is important, especially in a circuit like this, so I’m definitely happy with that and with the strong race pace we showed.”

‘Tsunoda left frustrated’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...jspPUbFCLcDEcu


The potential role Yuki Tsunoda played in Pierre Gasly’s Las Vegas Grand Prix engine failure
26 Nov 2024
Rory Mitchell
F1 Oversteer

How Yuki Tsunoda may have played a role in Pierre Gasly’s retirement. Gasly was running directly behind Tsunoda’s Visa CashApp RB fighting for P15 having made his first pit stop of the day. The Alpine driver was entering the slipstream of the Japanese driver, when he reached speeds of up to 224mph in the DRS zone.

According to the data, Gasly’s power unit reached 12,937rpm in eighth gear and then lost all power. Cut to the camera shots of smoke coming out of the back of his Alpine just moments before he retired. While it’s not a definitive answer, it gives some insight into what might have happened given teams were close on cooling due to the long straights and not wanting to sacrifice straight-line speed.

‘12,937rpm’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/the...ngine-failure/


Formula 1: Liam Lawson has near-miss with teammate Yuki Tsunoda during practice session in Las Vegas
23 Nov, 2024
NZ Herald
New Zealand Herald

During the final practice session ahead of qualifying this afternoon, Lawson was heard complaining about Racing Bulls teammate Yuki Tsunoda getting a little too close for comfort during the session – in which the pair were among the five slowest times posted.

“Mate, Yuki just about rear-ended me,” the Kiwi could be heard telling his race engineer over the team comms. Addressing the moment on the broadcast, former Formula 1 driver Karun Chandok said Lawson had to take some of the blame, but suggested the team itself was at fault.

“You were dawdling on the racing line,” Chandok said after Lawson’s complaint. Actually, I blame the team. You should never have that situation between your two cars.”

‘Near-miss’;

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/mot...P5G5Q6IN4575I/


Formula 1: Liam Lawson’s Red Bull hopes take a hit – what we learned from Las Vegas Grand Prix – Alex Powell
24 Nov, 2024
Alex Powell
Online Sports Editor·NZ Herald·
New Zealand Herald

When Red Bull do make their decision as to who partners newly-crowned world champion Max Verstappen next year, Kiwi motorsport fans should hope the Las Vegas Grand Prix doesn’t hold too much weight.

While Liam Lawson has impressed on his return to Formula One in , Nevada wasn’t as kind. A 16th placed finish aside, Lawson struggled for pace all weekend…

‘Red Bull hopes take a hit’;

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/mot...AA4CWBBK3JFTY/


Lawson nonplussed after ‘tough’ run to P16 in Las Vegas
24 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site (Video)

Liam Lawson finished 16th in Las Vegas in a race that he said was always going to be difficult given he started well out of the points in P14.

‘Lawson nonplussed’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/la...92699140024595

Williams Could Be Down To One Car In Qatar, Abu Dhabi.
“The team has suffered eleven total car write-offs this season,” reported Auto Motor und Sport. “Four each for Alexander Albon and Franco Colapinto, and three for Logan Sargeant.”
Nov 24, 2024
F1 Chronicle

Williams is at risk of not being able to field two race cars at the final two grands prix of 2024 in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Even before Franco Colapinto’s huge Q2 crash in Las Vegas, initially putting in doubt his health for the race on Saturday, the team struggled to put two complete cars together for this weekend.

Team boss James Vowles admits that one more crash could limit Williams to a single-car operation. “We can’t rebuild another car this late in the season,” he said. “We are already fully focused on the 2025 car.” He also confirmed that another problem is that Williams simply doesn’t have any money left in the budget cap for more serious repair damage.

“The situation is a real problem for us,” said Vowles. “There are other teams that have also had more accidents than expected this year and are perhaps in a similar situation to us,” he added. “To cushion something like this, I think every team should be allowed two major accidents within the cost cap. I think everyone would agree with that.”

‘Williams is at risk’;

https://f1chronicle.com/williams-cou.../?nowprocket=1


Colapinto: Vowles “wasn’t very happy” after huge Vegas Q2 crash.
“He wasn’t very happy, but he has been always very, very supportive,” he said.
NOV 28, 2024
Adam Cooper's F1 Blog

Franco Colapinto admits that James Vowles “wasn’t very happy” after his huge crash in Q2 in Las Vegas – but says that the support of the Williams boss helped him to bounce back on race day. Colapinto had his third crash in two race weekends when he went off in Q2 while trying to break into the top 10. He was able to start the race from the pitlane in the spare chassis, and had a solid race to 13th place at the flag.

The crash added to the strain on resources that the team has experienced with the high level of crash damage this season, and Colapinto concedes that it wasn’t easy to face Vowles afterwards. “I always take out of every bad moment very positive things, and it’s every time because of James, his thinking and his mentality and his way of moving forward as a team leader and as a team.”

“Wasn’t very happy”;

https://adamcooperf1.com/2024/11/28/...egas-q2-crash/


Colapinto admits Vowles ‘wasn’t very happy’ after Vegas Q2 crash
28/11/2024
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Franco Colapinto’s young career in Formula 1 hit another rough patch during last weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, as the young Williams driver endured his third brutal crash in two race weekends.

Starting from the pitlane in a spare chassis on Saturday evening, Colapinto prioritized a clean race, focusing on recovery rather than outright performance. However, his struggles were evident early on. “The idea was to have a clean race,” he said. “I think it was not ideal after such a big crash to go straight in the race. And I wasn’t feeling so comfortable in the first stint there."

Colapinto detailed his struggles with car balance and tyre management during the opening stint. “I was really, really struggling with the balance. I had a lot of oversteer, very difficult to manage the tyres. And just not in a good window. I think as the car kept running and the track also kept getting a bit better, it came a bit more towards us."

‘Another rough patch’;

https://f1i.com/news/525798-colapint...-q2-crash.html


Colapinto reveals Vowles' reaction to latest Williams smash
Franco Colapinto has detailed James Vowles' reaction to his latest smash at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
27 Nov 2024
Jake Nichol & Ian Parkes
RacingNews365

After a strong effort to rebuild both cars for Vegas, Colapinto accident was the 15th big accident suffered by Williams this season as crash damage repairs sky-rocket for the team. After admitting that facing his Williams mechanics was "the hardest part" of the accident, Colapinto detailed Vowles' reaction.

"Well, he wasn't very happy, but he has always been very, very supportive, and I take out of every bad moment some very positive things," Colapinto told media including RacingNews365. "And this is every time because of James and his thinking, his mentality and his way of moving forward as a team leader and as a team, and I think I learned a lot from him.”

‘Vowles' reaction’;

https://racingnews365.com/colapinto-...williams-smash


Alex Albon left Vegas frustrated after another point-less weekend
Williams suffered through another difficult weekend with Colapinto's qualifying crash and Albon's DNF.
Nov 27, 2024
Fleur Rogerson
FormulaNerds

Alex Albon expressed his frustration with the results of the weekend, telling F1TV: “I feel like we’ve had a terrible, terrible time of it as of late. It’s just frustrating. I was excited about the race, I felt like [we could score] great points hopefully.”

Although Albon was disappointed with the result, he admitted that the pace had been good across the weekend. He noted, “I was kind of – not cruising, [that] would be the wrong word – but I was a little bit and had a strong pace advantage to the cars around me. We were fighting through the field, we made a lot of positions up but, yeah, anyway.”

‘Frustrated’;

https://www.formulanerds.com/news/al.../?nowprocket=1


Unseen Zhou Guanyu overtake on Franco Colapinto leads to expletive radio message
Zhou Guanyu made his feelings clear over team radio at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Connor McDonagh
27 Nov 2024
Crash.Net

Zhou Guanyu pulled off an impressive overtake on Franco Colapinto in the closing laps of the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix. Unsurprisingly, given it was P13, the battle wasn’t picked up by the TV cameras as Max Verstappen clinched his fourth F1 drivers’ championship.

The Sauber driver was pumped up by the overtake, saying over team radio: “See you fucking later Colapinto”. It’s unclear whether Zhou was simply feeling the adrenaline of his awesome last lap pass or Colapinto’s comments in the media caught the attention of the Chinese driver.

In an interview with his sponsor Quilmes, Colapinto insinuated that Zhou is perhaps the worst driver on the grid. Colapinto said: “I don't care who I have next to me [as a teammate], whether it's Verstappen or Zhou, I want to beat them and be ahead of them.” Both drivers are without a seat for next year.

‘Expletive radio messa’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/106078...-radio-message

‘I was able to fight’ – Zhou pleased with improved Sauber speed in Vegas.
Zhou Guanyu wasn’t able to break Sauber’s points duck in Las Vegas, but he was encouraged by the team’s improved pace as he finished P13.
24 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site (Video)

‘I was able to fight’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/i-...90763496015030


‘It’s been a while’ – Zhou praises encouraging signs for Kick Sauber after upturn in Las Vegas
27 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site

Zhou Guanyu was left feeling more positive after delivering one of his best drives of the season in Las Vegas, though Kick Sauber are still yet to score in 2024.

“Today was a good race for me,” Zhou said post-race. “It’s been a while since we fought in the mid-pack near the top 10, and today, I feel we finally had a real chance. I believe we maximised the result we could have had with our pace, especially considering there was not a lot of drama happening ahead.”

“It's encouraging to be back where we were this weekend. It’s a step forward and it gives us confidence; things are looking more promising as we head to Qatar for the next round.”

‘Encouraging signs’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...QmQaOyOGjEcyBO


Valtteri Bottas confirms 2025 drive after being axed by Sauber
Valtteri Bottas was not offered a contract extension by Sauber
Nov 27, 2024
Daniel Moxon

Valtteri Bottas, who recently lost his spot on the Formula 1 grid, has signed up for next March's Race of Champions. Sauber has replaced the Finnish driver with an entirely new line-up for 2025, featuring rookie Gabriel Bortoleto and veteran racer Nico Hulkenberg.

Despite losing his seat, Bottas will still be seen in racing action next March in Australia. A week before the F1 season kicks off in Melbourne, he will be competing at the Race of Champions in Sydney, approximately 500 miles to the north-east.

The team event is scheduled for Friday, March 7, followed by the individual competition the next day. The 35-year-old won't be the only big name vying for the 'Champion of Champions' title. Retired four-time F1 champion Sebastian Vettel, who will once again represent Germany alongside Mick Schumacher, has also been confirmed for the competition. Schumacher, like Bottas, missed out on a seat on the 2025 grid.

‘2025 drive’;

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/f1-a...5-drive-Sauber


Valtteri Bottas nears a return to Mercedes as F1 reserve after Mick Schumacher leaves
28 Nov 2024
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MailOnline

Valtteri Bottas says he is nearing an agreement to return to Mercedes as its reserve driver for next year after Mick Schumacher, son of seven-time champion Michael Schumacher, announced he was leaving. "We're talking and it's going well. Still a bit of work to do but we're talking," Bottas said ahead of this weekend's Qatar Grand Prix.

"If I end up there, I think I would have a lot to give for a rookie driver who has not raced in Formula 1 yet," Bottas said. "That would be, for sure, one part of my role, to give my input and try to share my knowledge as much as I can."

‘Return to Mercedes as F1 reserve’;

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap...er-leaves.html


Bottas set for homecoming as Mercedes reserve in 2025
25/11/2024
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

F1 veteran Valtteri Bottas, who heads into his final races with Sauber, looks set to rejoin Mercedes as the Brackley squad's reserve driver for 2025. While no deal has yet been finalized, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff clearly cast a positive view on Bottas' potential homecoming.

“Nothing is signed, nothing is done, but if we were to have him back in the family, we would all be full of joy,” the Austrian told Viaplay last weekend in Las Vega. “I mean, what you can say is that if you have the opportunity in having a driver like Valtteri back in the Mercedes family, with his ability, with his most recent experience of these modern cars, you can call yourself super lucky.”

‘Homecoming’;

https://f1i.com/news/525660-bottas-s...e-in-2025.html


'First and foremost': Nico Hulkenberg gives main ‘benefit’ he can bring to Audi over rookie driver
27 Nov 2024
Rory Mitchell
F1 Oversteer

Nico Hulkenberg will be joining Sauber next season in anticipation of their switch to Audi for the big regulation changes that will hit F1 in 2026. The German driver will be entering his 13th full-time season in F1 having spent the last two with Haas, in which he stands a chance of achieving a highest place of 10th in the Drivers’ Championship this season.

Nico Hulkenberg says experience most important factor in Sauber drive. The German is one of the most experienced drivers on the grid along with Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, which means he will have a lot to offer Audi when they take over the Sauber project and become a full works team.

Hulkenberg will also be paired with F2 rookie Gabriel Bortoleto, who will be making the step up following a strong season in the feeder series. His experience will no doubt be an important asset to the Brazilian among other factors. “But I think experience brings a whole range of benefits, when you talk about team building, car development, setup work, and it’s just something I have. That’s certainly a benefit over some rookies.”

'First and foremost':;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/nic...rookie-driver/

The ‘sick’ Max Verstappen prediction that’s now been proven right as Nico Hulkenberg misses Qatar GP media day.
Max Verstappen deserves an apology after being told to ‘stop whining’.
28 Nov 2024
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Nico Hulkenberg has had to withdraw from his media day duties ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix. The Haas team say their driver is nursing a cold ahead of the race. They have called it a preventative measure, indicating that they still expect him to race. Oliver Bearman will be on hand if needed.

Max Verstappen predicted F1 drivers would get ‘sick’ before Nico Hulkenberg Qatar Grand Prix illness. While Hulkenberg’s illness doesn’t sound like anything serious, it justifies Max Verstappen’s concerns. The world champion was critical of the decision to run Las Vegas and Qatar as back-to-back races. It takes around 18 hours to travel from Nevada to Lusail. Verstappen was worried drivers would get ‘sick’ due to the resulting fatigue.

‘Deserves an apology’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/the...-gp-media-day/


FIA's embarrassing crisis deepens ahead of F1 Qatar GP
Nov 28, 2024
Scott Mitchell-Malm
The Race

The embarrassing saga engulfing Formula 1 regulator the FIA has deepened with fresh significant exits adding to an exodus of senior personnel from the FIA, tied to president Mohammed Ben Sulayem. FIA F1 race director Rui Marques, who only replaced Niels Wittich in the role for last weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, will have to manage Formula 2 sessions in Qatar alongside his F1 responsibilities.

The high-pressure double-up is a result of Marques’ successor, Janette Tan, being stood down before she even performed the F2 race director role. The Race has been told this relates to Tan’s role as director (race operations) for the Singapore Grand Prix. It has emerged at the same time Tim Mayer, a long-serving FIA contributor as an unpaid steward and delegated in the US, was told by text message his services were no longer required.

A drivers meeting is due to take place on Thursday evening in Qatar with FIA race control and stewards, for an annual review that will also include a follow-up conversation to the discussion in Mexico regarding adapting F1’s controversial racing guidelines. The news of further turnover in the FIA ranks is an escalation in a concerning public narrative for the organisation and its president. It is exacerbated by Mayer’s decision to go on the record with a candid interview with the BBC.

‘Crisis’;

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/f...f-f1-qatar-gp/


IT’S RACE WEEK: 5 storylines we’re excited about ahead of the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix
27 Nov 2024
Chris Medland
Formula One - Official Site

Fresh from the lights of Las Vegas, it’s time to switch continents for two more night races in the Middle East. Off the back of another thrilling race on Saturday night, there are plenty of talking points that are likely to come up as the paddock arrives in Qatar.

Max Verstappen might have tied up the drivers’ championship with his fifth place in Las Vegas, but the battle to be constructors’ champions remains as close as ever.

Three teams enter the penultimate round of the season separated by just 53 points, and with it being a Sprint weekend in Qatar there is a maximum of 59 on offer across the two races. That means any one of McLaren, Ferrari or Red Bull could be leading by the time the chequered flag falls on Sunday.

‘5 storylines’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...vF4N9TkI3C2YPS


Perez gives big compliments to Verstappen: 'Made a huge step'
28 Nov 2024
Estéban den Toom
GPblog.com

"This is the best Max I have seen, the way he pushed the team and how hard he worked during this year. There were a lot of periods during the year where we looked really far [away] and he would push the team in all the areas, in all the aspects. I think Max has made very big steps out of the car. I think his talent and his speed has been there since day one, but how he reads the races, how he works with the team, how he pushes the team, I think that's the biggest step that he has done in these past years," Perez told the press conference before the Qatar Grand Prix.

"We’re working as a team, especially the last few months we've had similar issues with the car, so we're pushing in similar directions to try and improve the car, and at the end of the day, we are working as a team. The team knows exactly what we've done, where we are, and I think we're working well together," he concluded.

‘Big compliments’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31534...erstappen.html


Vasseur hands Ferrari unusual instruction ahead of key Qatar GP
Ferrari is in the mix to win the constructors' championship - and Fred Vasseur has a rather unusual instruction for his team.
28 Nov 2024
Jake Nichol
RacingNews365

Looking ahead to the weekend, Vasseur just wants Ferrari to fully focus on delivering performance at the sprint weekend instead of using its abacuses to evaluate the points situation.

"The Qatar GP is the last Sprint weekend of the year which, as always means the work the teams carry out back at base takes on greater importance than usual, as there is only one free practice session," Vasseur explained. "There are 59 points up for grabs, but this isn’t the time to start doing the maths. All we can do is execute everything perfectly to ensure that Charles and Carlos can squeeze every last drop of performance out of the SF-24.”

"We have seen, especially in recent races, that Formula 1 as a whole is operating at a very high level right now, with the slightest detail often making the difference, turning the accepted status quo on its head. It’s time for one last push over these next two weekends and our drivers, engineers and everyone in the team, both at the track and in Maranello are ready to give it our best shot."

“It’s time for one last push”;

https://racingnews365.com/vasseur-ha...f-key-qatar-gp


Mercedes are 'cautiously optimistic' for another victory in Qatar
28 Nov 2024
Ludo van Denderen
GPblog.com

Mercedes technical director James Allision believes a second win in a row is possible at the Qatar Grand Prix. After last week's dominant Las Vegas one-two, the Brackley-based team has touched down in Qatar, where the penultimate Grand Prix of the season is taking place. A great result wouldn't be turned down by Mercedes this weekend, but Allison highlights that his team have instead been focusing future for a while.

Mercedes' technical director, Allison, says his team has been focused on next season 'for ages'. The last update for the current car was introduced in Austin at round 19 in October. "The lion's share of our efforts have been on next year for some time. A growing amount of our efforts are even looking further afield to 2026. But these last two races are important, nevertheless, because they teach you things," stated Allison, who's using these last races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi to learn for 2024.

'Cautiously optimistic';

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31522...-qatar-gp.html


FIA and Pirelli make changes to avoid repeat F1 Qatar GP fiasco
28 Nov 2024
Dan Lawrence
Motorsport Week

The FIA and Pirelli have collaborated to avoid a repeat of the tyre fiasco that plagued the 2023 Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix.
Last year’s F1 return to Qatar brought with it a tricky tyre conundrum. A series of sharp 50mm raised surfaces on kerbs, colloquially referred to as pyramid kerbs caused microscopic separations on the sidewalls of the F1 Pirelli tyres.

The high-speed corner configuration of the layout meant F1 drivers were attacking kerbs more than usual, and an 18-lap maximum stint length was brought in to ensure the safety of all involved. While this did introduce an intriguing three-stop GP, it is a situation that F1’s governing body has sought to avoid.

What makes things tricky is the fact that the Lusail International Circuit in Qatar is homologated by the FIA and FIM for both four and two-wheeled racing, so any changes must be a compromise to suit all series. Pirelli has revealed that the 50mm raised edges of the pyramid kerbs have been rounded off at Turns 4 and 10 as well as Turns 12 through 14.

‘FIA and Pirelli make changes’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2024/...tar-gp-fiasco/


What time is the Formula 1 2024 Qatar Grand Prix and how can I watch it?
27 Nov 2024
Formula One - Official Site

It's almost time for the final Sprint weekend of the season, as the F1 circus heads to Qatar for the penultimate race of 2024.

The event will begin with FP1 and Sprint Qualifying on Friday, November 29, followed by the Sprint itself and qualifying on Saturday, November 30, and then the 57-lap Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday, December 01.

‘What time’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...OivIvAv0Ns22xH

F1 - 2024 Qatar Grand Prix - Thursday Press Conference Transcript.
PART ONE – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari), Pierre GASLY (Alpine), Fernando ALONSO (Aston Martin).
PART TWO – Sergio PÉREZ (Red Bull Racing), Zhou GUANYU (Kick Sauber), Alex ALBON (Williams).
28.11.24
FIA (Press Release)

Q: Charles, perhaps we could start with you. Very good to see you. Now, you cut a frustrated figure after the race in Las Vegas at the weekend. What were your main frustrations? Charles LECLERC: I don't want to go back to what happened in Vegas. Yeah, I mean, last two races of the season and we need to do absolutely everything in order to get that Constructors' Championship. That's all that matters. And whatever happened in Vegas, we discussed about it and we are all good, which is the most important thing. I had no doubts about that because we've always had a really good relationship with Carlos and we've had races where sometimes things don't go exactly the way we want, but the most important thing is that we discuss about it and we go forward.

Q: Alright. Charles, thank you for that. Pierre, let's come to you now. Disappointing end in Vegas, but let's look at the positives, that brilliant P3 on the grid. Do you and the team understand where that performance came from now? Pierre GASLY: Yeah, it was a pretty nice qualifying. I think, overall, the last few weekends have been… We've been in a better shape since Austin. We brought some new parts, we've managed to get to Q3 the last four weekends and it seems like we found quite a nice flow. I think in Vegas we just made the best out of the conditions. It was quite tricky, street track, very cold. Got in a nice place with the car. And when we got to Q3, we had a single lap, but we really managed to put everything to it. And yeah, it put us in a great place. So it was a great achievement, especially looking back at Bahrain, first race of the year, I lined up in 20th, you know. We were absolutely nowhere. So when you look at all the evolution and development, it definitely shows we're heading in the right direction and it's definitely positive.

Q: Fernando, let's come to you. Talking of building foundations, something you said before the summer break was that you wanted to use the second half of 2024 to put the foundations in place for a better ‘25. Do you feel you've done that? Fernando ALONSO: Yeah, it goes up and down for everybody. Difficult to be sure of that, but I think we didn’t manage to improve the car much throughout the season. So we started quite strong, but we are now in a position that we're struggling to be in Q3 on some occasions. But yeah, at the same time, all those difficulties, I think, probably are teaching us a lot of lessons, which we will apply into next year's car. And that will be probably the biggest positive aspect of the second part of the year, you know, that even if we didn't succeed in putting much performance on the car, I think it's well understood what we are struggling with at the moment. So that will be applying in 2025.

Q: Alex, you're closest. Now, it's been a tough couple of races for Williams. Just how tough? Alex ALBON: Yeah, not smooth for sure. I think being especially tough more for the mechanics and for the people at the factory. Obviously, we had a few crashes, not always our fault, but in the end, they add up. And testament to everyone who's worked so hard to get them back, we still got two cars that are at the track that are more than capable to score points and back to fighting fit, at least the cars are. It's been tough, but everyone's been very strong, very optimistic, and I think that's Williams. I think everyone's very optimistic.

Q: Zhou, let's come to you. Great to see you back in Q2 at the weekend. Was it track specific or do you think the upgrades are really making a difference? Zhou GUANYU: For me, I think it's more about the upgrades. These upgrades, I think, we wanted for a while now. And, obviously, finally to have that for both cars for the first time in a while as well in Vegas, that was a pretty good step on the team. And, yeah, it's clearly, we saw in terms of numbers, it's probably the biggest one we had this season for all this new stuff we had. And it's clearly worked like we hoped. Is it enough or not? We will find out a little bit more this weekend and also Abu Dhabi. But I think it's clearly a very positive step in the right direction. Tried them in FP2 had a good comparison from P1 and everything just seems to be working in the right direction. and yeah had a good weekend I think after a very difficult last couple of weeks.

Q: Checo let's come to you. Now, you said after the race in Vegas that you feel close to turning things around. Vegas in particular, where do you feel the car made improvement? Sergio PÉREZ: I think in Vegas mainly the main issue we had was qualifying. We were out in Q1. Straight away after qualifying we understood why. We saw it, it was very clear in the data. But then we were on the back foot and then going on to the race, with the degradation that we had, we were not expecting it to be so severe, especially in the beginning. So we went for the Hard tyre. which I also degraded the Hard tyre and that meant that I had to spend quite a lot of the race on the Medium, so it compromised the race a lot, but we did have some good pace during the race.

‘Press Conference Transcript’;

https://www.fia.com/news/f1-2024-qat...nce-transcript


Start time for the F1 Qatar GP sprint qualifying 2024 today
Today, the sprint qualifying for the F1 Qatar Grand Prix will take place, determining the starting grid for the sprint. Check here for the start time of the sprint qualifying session.
29 Nov 2024
RacingNews365 Staff
RacingNews365

The schedule of the F1 GP in Qatar is automatically adjusted to your time zone.
Timetable Lusail GP

Session
Date Time
Free practice 1 Friday 29 November 14:30 - 15:30
Sprint qualifying Friday 29 November 18:30 - 19:14
Sprintrace Saturday 30 November 15:00 - 16:00
Qualification Saturday 30 November 19:00 - 20:00
Race Sunday 1 December 17:00 - 19:00

‘When is the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix’;

https://racingnews365.com/start-time...ing-2024-today


Piastri reveals major threat for Qatar GP
Oscar Piastri expects McLaren’s greatest challenge to come from Mercedes at this weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix.
29 Nov 2024
Mat Coch
Speedcafe

McLaren heads the constructors’ championship from Ferrari with two rounds remaining, the two operations split by just 24 points. And while they’re both expected to feature towards the top of the timesheets, Mercedes has emerged as a renewed threat.

“Definitely a good one,” Piastri began when asked how great an opportunity Qatar will be to put some points on Ferrari ahead of Abu Dhabi next week. “I think it’s a circuit that we were strung out last season. It’ll be interesting to see who’s quick this weekend. I think Mercedes will definitely be in the picture, for sure.”

‘Major threat: Mercedes’;

https://speedcafe.com/piastri-reveal...-for-qatar-gp/


Mercedes chief optimistic for Qatar Grand Prix after what he saw in Lewis Hamilton and George Russell data
28 Nov 2024
Rory Mitchell
F1 Oversteer

Can Mercedes repeat their Las Vegas feat in final two races? The final two races of the 2024 F1 season see the championship jetting off to the Middle East for the Qatar Grand Prix and Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The circuits shouldn’t really favour the W15 as the Mercedes prefers higher tyre temperatures in much cooler conditions, but track temperatures will likely reach season highs this weekend.

Allison is hoping that the high-speed nature of the Lusail circuit, which features several sweeping corners that run into each other, will play to Mercedes’s strengths. “The corner we were mighty in Las Vegas was Turn 3. There is a lot of Turn 3-type corners in Qatar and there isn’t a huge amount of slow stuff so we should be able to get the car in its window. But we’ve been wrong before, so we’re going there cautiously optimistic,” said Allison.

McLaren and Red Bull are likely to be strong while Ferrari was unexpectedly off the pace in Las Vegas due to the tyre graining, they should bounce back in the final two rounds. A lot is at stake for the top teams as they are fighting for the Constructors’ Championship, with McLaren leading the way from Ferrari by 24 points.

‘Optimistic’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/mer...-russell-data/


Max reflects in Doha: 'So many people have meant something to me in my career'
28 Nov 2024
Stefan Meens
Verstappen.nl

“Last week was incredible”, beamed the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver. “It was a great season with a lot of difficult moments, so it was great to win the title in Las Vegas. I’m really proud of what we achieved, and I never thought I would win four championships. It was always the aim to be world champion, but to win it four times is something I’m really happy with.”

The Dutchman received a lot of plaudits and congratulations from not only those in Red Bull, but also from the rest of the Formula 1 paddock and further afield. “It’s incredible, so many people have meant something and contributed to my career. To receive messages from them, other drivers, team mates, team bosses, families and friends is all special in their own ways.”

“Last week was incredible”;

https://news.verstappen.com/en/article/5673/

Leclerc strikes the first blow against McLaren by topping FP1 in Qatar.
Charles Leclerc has topped the first and only free practice session for the Qatar Grand Prix. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri both threatened to trouble Leclerc's time but couldn't beat it.
29 Nov 2024
Matt Gretton
GPblog.com

A few drivers dipped tyres in the gravel and runoff areas, with turn five being a common place for an adventure. But it never caused any serious problems for the drivers, as they experienced clear running in the first 30 minutes. Leclerc topped the timesheets but used harder tyres than the rest of the field, which indicated an unrealistic pace picture. He was nearly two-tenths faster than second-placed Verstappen.

Leclerc and Sainz continued to push on the hard tyres, while others were happy to continue using mediums. The Spanish driver moved up to P2 with 25 minutes left on the clock and soon after took P1 from his teammate. Norris moved up to P3, and Sergio Perez was impressed. The Red Bull driver stated over the radio: "That McLaren is flying". Red Bull are trying to hunt down McLaren in the Constructors' Championship, but face an uphill battle with Ferrari also in the fight during the final two weekends of the season.

‘The first blow’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/31551...-in-qatar.html


Qatar GP: Free Practice 1 Results
30 Nov 2024
Mat Coch
Speedcafe

Full results from Free Practice 1 from the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix at Lusail.

Pos Num Driver Team Laps Best Diff
1 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 29 1:21.953
2 4 Lando Norris McLaren 23 1:22.378 0.425
3 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren 25 1:22.425 0.472
4 55 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 29 1:22.535 0.582
5 22 Yuki Tsunoda RB 26 1:23.045 1.092
6 77 Valtteri Bottas Sauber 28 1:23.064 1.111
7 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 23 1:23.099 1.146
8 63 George Russell Mercedes 26 1:23.160 1.207
9 23 Alex Albon Williams 27 1:23.161 1.208
10 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 25 1:23.188 1.235

‘Full results’;

https://speedcafe.com/qatar-gp-free-practice-1-results/


Qatar Grand Prix: F1 Free Practice 1 Results
Nov 29, 2024
Nathan Hartley
FormulaNerds

Verstappen quickly snatched the top spot, setting a 1:26.338 on th medium tyre also. The Dutchman’s team-mate Sergio Perez set a time 1.117 seconds behind him on the same compound. However, the four-time world champion was not happy with his helmet, saying “a lot of air was coming in”. The Dutchman suggested that a helmet change was necessary.

Tsunoda responded to Verstappen’s time. The Japanese driver set a 1:25.970 with the medium compound – the first driver into the 1:25’s. Back-and-forth time was occurring between Verstappen and Tsunoda. The Red Bull driver went quickest, setting a 1:25.612.

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc then went to the top. The Monegasque set a 1:25.486 on the hard compound tyre. Mercedes driver George Russell then beat the Ferrari driver’s time, setting a 1:24.901 on the medium compound – Norris slotted into second, only 0.076 seconds behind the Mercedes driver on the same compound of tyre.

‘F1 Free Practice 1 Results’;

https://www.formulanerds.com/news/qa.../?nowprocket=1


Qatar GP: Charles Leclerc P1 as Ferrari take first blood in McLaren Constructors’ clash
29 Nov 2024
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

Charles Leclerc and Ferrari put down the first marker in Qatar on a crucial weekend in the Constructors’ title race. Leclerc’s 1:21.953 blitzed the McLaren competition in FP1, giving Ferrari the advantage as they continue their bid to deny McLaren the Constructors’ title.

On his first flying lap since becoming a four-time World Champion, Verstappen put down a 1:26.3 as the early benchmark for rivals to chase as the sun set in Doha, though the Dutchman promptly requested a change of helmet with too much air getting in, while Valtteri Bottas found himself stuck in “traffic paradise”.

The pace continued to ramp up and with 20 minutes gone, Leclerc was out front, his 1:23.702 putting him a shade under two-tenths up on Verstappen with Pierre Gasly continuing to impress in P3. After the opening runs mostly took place on the Pirelli medium tyres, that compound remained the go-to as the next push laps began with the session at its halfway point. Leclerc’s P1 time withstood the test, Norris settling into P2 and Piastri P3, before the Monegasque made a statement by increasing his buffer to four-and-a-half tenths.

‘Ferrari take first blood’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/qatar-...024-fp1-report


Why Ferrari suspects Qatar GP will be ‘biggest challenge’ to late-season F1 charge
29 Nov 2024
Taylor Powling
Motorsport Week

“On paper the biggest challenge that we’re going to face since I think we’ve introduced these upgrades to the car that have made us perform better,” Sainz told media including Motorsport Week.

“Look at Mexico Sector 2, Austin Sector 1, Vegas Sector 1: whenever there’s been high-speed corners in a sector we haven’t been, out of the top 4 cars, we’ve never been fast. So if you join the fact that this track is smooth, it’s cold and it’s only those kind of corners then on paper we should struggle.”

“At the same time, one thing is to struggle on performance one thing is the amount of points that you come out of the weekend and we need to make sure we maximise that. It could still be a tough weekend in terms of performance but then it could be a good weekend in terms of points.”

‘Biggest challenge’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2024/...son-f1-charge/


'Got quite emotional': Ted Kravitz explains why Lewis Hamilton got ‘teary’ in interviews before Qatar Grand Prix
29 Nov 2024
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Lewis Hamilton became emotional as he recapped conversation with Mercedes engineer Peter Bonnington. According to Sky Sports F1 presenter Ted Kravitz, Hamilton became ‘teary’ during his media duties on Thursday. It’s just over a week until he bids farewell to Mercedes at the Abu Dhabi GP.

Hamilton lifted the lid on a conversation with engineer Peter Bonnington where it dawned on him that the end was near. He got ’emotional’ as he recounted this conversation to the press. “Lewis getting quite teary actually talking about how it’s his last two races with Mercedes,” Kravitz said on Ted’s Podbook. “He sat down with Peter Bonnington, his engineer, today and said ‘oh this is it Bono, last two together’, and actually got quite emotional when he was recounting it to the media.”

'Got quite emotional';

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ted...ar-grand-prix/

2024 F1 Qatar Grand Prix - Sprint qualifying results.
Lando Norris secured pole position for the Qatar sprint, at the Lusail International Circuit. The Briton set a mighty 1:21.012, to top a McLaren one-three.
29 Nov 2024
RacingNews365 Staff
RacingNews365

Oscar Piastri was just under two tenths adrift in third, behind George Russell who completed the front row in second.

It was a disappointing sprint qualifying for Ferrari, as Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc secured fourth and fifth, respectively. Four-time world champion Max Verstappen claimed sixth.

Sergio Perez will start the Qatar sprint from 16th, following yet another exit in the first part of a qualifying session.

‘Sprint qualifying results’;

https://racingnews365.com/2024-f1-qa...ifying-results


Qatar GP: Sprint Qualifying Results
Full results from Sprint Qualifying from the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix at Lusail.
30 Nov 2024
Mat Coch
Speedcafe

Full results from Sprint Qualifying from the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix at Lusail.

Pos Num Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Diff
1 4 Lando Norris McLaren 1:21.356 1:21.231 1:21.012
2 63 George Russell Mercedes 1:22.021 1:21.488 1:21.075 0.063
3 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:22.218 1:21.548 1:21.171 0.159
4 55 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:21.838 1:21.809 1:21.281 0.269
5 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:22.156 1:21.818 1:21.308 0.296
6 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:22.033 1:21.784 1:21.315 0.303
7 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:22.151 1:21.734 1:21.474 0.462
8 10 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:22.586 1:22.352 1:21.978 0.966
9 30 Liam Lawson RB 1:22.705 1:22.393 1:22.082 1.070
10 27 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:22.569 1:22.318 1:22.088 1.076

‘Full results’;

https://speedcafe.com/qatar-gp-sprin...fying-results/


Qatar Grand Prix: F1 sprint qualifying results
Nov 29, 2024
Rhiannon Temporal
FormulaNerds

Final classification of sprint qualifying: Norris secures P1 for the sprint race tomorrow, with Russell, Piastri, Sainz, Leclerc, Verstappen, Hamilton, Gasly, Hulkenberg, and Lawson rounding out the top 10. The RB driver had his lap time deleted at the end of the session, which dropped him to the end of the top 10. With the constructors’ championship on the line, its advantage McLaren going into Saturday, but the two Ferraris aren’t too far behind. Red Bull will be fighting with one hand tied behind their back with Perez down in P16.

‘F1 sprint qualifying results’;

https://www.formulanerds.com/news/qa.../?nowprocket=1


Impressive Lando Norris pips George Russell to Qatar sprint pole
Lando Norris dominates Qatar GP sprint qualifying to take pole ahead of George Russell.
29 Nov 2024
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

McLaren’s Lando Norris pipped Mercedes’ George Russell to claim pole position for the F1 Qatar Grand Prix sprint race. Norris, who saw his title hopes end last time out in Las Vegas, was in peerless form in sprint qualifying as he topped all three sessions on his way to edging Russell to pole by just 0.063 seconds.

McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri was third, 0.159s slower than Norris. "It’s tough, because it’s so quick around here," Norris said. "It feels like the quickest circuit of the year. I mean, the final sector just feels like you’re hanging on.”

"Great qualifying today, especially to bounce back from where we were last time out in Vegas, it’s a nice thing to do. Happy, it was a decent lap, I made too many mistakes on my second. But we were coming here to get pole, and we did that, so job done for today."

‘Lando Norris dominates Qatar GP sprint qualifying’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/106091...ar-sprint-pole


F1 team-mates' qualifying battles: Qatar GP
Here's how things stand in 2024 team-mate duels following sprint qualifying at Formula 1's Qatar Grand Prix.
Nov 29, 2024
Ben Vinel
Motorsport.com

‘Qualifying battles’;

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f...r-gp/10677506/

FYI: Due to other commitments, both the Sprint Race Results and the Qualifying Results will be posted LATE on Saturday.