Formula One

It looks like he's grasping a snowflake with really big tongs.

FORMULA 1 ARAMCO UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX 2022



The Circuit of The Americas, designed by Hermann Tilke in collaboration with American architectural firm HKS, endured something of a nervy start, with construction suffering several setbacks. It was well worth the wait, though, when 1978 F1 champion Mario andretti opened the track on October 21 2012.

If the corners at COTA seem familiar, they should be. Turns 3 through 6 look not dissimilar to Silverstone's high-speed run through Maggotts/Becketts or the S Curves at Suzuka, while Turns 12 through 15 mimic Hockenheim's stadium section. Meanwhile, the uphill run into wide, wide Turn 1 – hey, everything’s bigger in Texas, right? – has provided some fine overtaking action in the track’s short life.

Pirelli tyre allocation for the United States Grand Prix

Pirelli is bringing the C2, C3 and C4 tyres from its range to Austin for the US GP.

Championship Possibilities

Max Verstappen will head to Austin as the 2022 champion having wrapped up his second consecutive F1 title in Japan a fortnight ago.

However, the constructors' championship is still to be decided, with Red Bull currently sitting 165 points clear of Ferrari in the standings.

There is a strong chance that Red Bull will secure its first constructors' title since 2013 at Austin this weekend having been unbeaten in the second half of the season. Its last defeat was recorded in Austria prior to the summer break.

United States GP: Max Verstappen equals win record with late Lewis Hamilton overtake
Max Verstappen fought back to pass Lewis Hamilton to win a dramatic United States Grand Prix and equal the record for victories in a season.
Verstappen's 13th win this year equals the record for wins in a season, held by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, and was sufficient for Red Bull to clinch the constructors' title for the first time since 2013, securing a double after Verstappen clinched the drivers' title last time out in Japan.

FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE LA CIUDAD DE MÉXICO 2022



In 1959. The father of Mexico’s most famous racing brothers, Ricardo and Pedro Rodriguez, was an advisor to Mexican President Adolfo Lopez Mateo, and had a word in his boss’s ear about building a racing circuit in Mexico City’s Magdalena Mixiuhca sports park using the existing internal roads. El Presidente liked the idea, and work on the track was completed in under a year.

Formula 1 cars arrived in 1962 for a non-championship race, returning the following year for a proper, bona fide Grand Prix. That 1963 race was won by Jim Clark, while for the next few years, Mexico’s fiesta vibes meant it became the traditional season-ender for Formula 1. Mexico was welcomed back onto the F1 calendar in 2015.

The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez sits over 2km above sea level, making the 4.3km lap a breathless experience. The track still largely follows the outline of the original 1959 circuit, the main difference being that the spectacular – and spectacularly scary – Peralta corner is now bisected, with the circuit instead winding through the old Foro Sol baseball stadium, providing one F1’s most unique vistas.

Pirelli tyre allocation for the Mexico Grand Prix

Pirelli is bringing the C2, C3 and C4 tyres from its range to Mexico City. These are the same tyres that were used in Austin last weekend.

Mexico City Grand Prix: Max Verstappen wins from Lewis Hamilton


Max Verstappen wins record-breaking 14th race of the season at Formula 1’s Mexican Grand Prix
It moves the Dutchman clear of Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, who won 13 races in 2004 and 2013.

FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN GRANDE PRÊMIO DE SÃO PAULO 2022



Building work began on what ended up being called the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace – but what is more commonly referred to as Interlagos – all the way back in 1938. The track designers took their inspiration from three main circuits: Brooklands in the UK, Roosevelt Raceway in the USA and Montlhery in France.

Like many pre-World War II tracks, Interlagos features banked corners, with the drivers beginning their lap on a sort of half oval – in fact, between 1957 and the track’s return to the F1 calendar in 1990, Interlagos could be run as a giant oval. After wiggling through the Senna S and down to Turn 4, the drivers then go through a snaking in-field section with some challenging camber changes, before slinging back up the hill and through the banked final turn.

Pirelli tyre allocation for the Brazilian Grand Prix

Pirelli is bringing the C2, C3 and C4 tyres from its range to Sao Paulo. The same compound used in the previous two races

Sao Paulo Grand Prix: George Russell beats Lewis Hamilton to first full Formula 1 win



George Russell took a maiden grand prix victory - and a first for Mercedes in 2022 - as Max Verstappen was penalised for a collision with Lewis Hamilton in Sao Paulo.

"I was pretty impressed how quickly I started crying," Russell said. "It was literally by the time I got to Turn Two tears were flooding. It's just been such an emotional roller coaster and journey for all of us."

FORMULA 1 ETIHAD AIRWAYS ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX 2022



In 2006, plans were announced to develop Yas Island, located just to the east of Abu Dhabi, into a new tourist destination, with a major part of the plans centring around a 5.5km race track. The diggers rolled into what would become the Yas Marina Circuit in May 2007, with the project completed by October 2009, debuting as that year’s Formula 1 season finale

Yas Island was a blank canvas for developers to turn into a tourist attraction, and 11 years and $40 billion later, they’ve nearly finished doing just that. Seven hotels, Ferrari’s indoor theme park, a mall, a water park, a golf course, a beach, a concert arena and a nightclub, all framed by perfect Emirati weather. What more could you want?

The Hermann Tilke-designed track is dominated by its 1.2km straight between Turns 5 and 6 – which, with slow-speed corners marking its beginning and end, makes it a honeypot for overtaking moves. Other highlights include the tricky run through Turns 10 and 11 into 12, which forces the drivers to brake hard with bags of lateral load still on the car. Track modifications ahead of the 2021 race, shortening the lap slightly to 5.28km, have only added to its excitement.

Pirelli tyre allocation for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Pirelli has nominated the three softest tyres from its range for Abu Dhabi, namely C3 (hard), C4 (medium) and C5 (soft).

This weekend the 2023 F1 World Championship begins in Bahrain.

World Champion Max Verstappen will hope to carry on the form he had last season, as he attempts to defend his title again.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc will hope to emulate the start he had to last year where he got a 43 point advantage over Verstappen (due to car reliability problems) in the opening 3 races. And Ferrari will hope they can learn from last year where driver and team errors cost them points, and the development of the car over the year didn't keep up with there competition

Mercedes will hope to recapture their form in the hybrid era, where they had won every constructors championship previously. They will be expecting to be more competitive than the one victory for George Russell in Brazil, but whether they have done enough to fight for wins consistently and challenge for a title is yet to be seen

There will be three rookies this season:

-2021 Formula 2 Champion, Oscar Piastri (Australia) who will be driving for McLaren. He spent the last year as Alpine's reserve driver (the program he joined in January 2020 when it was the Renault Sport Academy)

-2020–21 Formula E World Championship and the 2019 Formula 2 Championship, Nyck de Vries (Netherlands) who will finally get his chance with Scuderia AlphaTauri. After being a member of McLaren young driver programme from January 2010 until May 2019, he became one of Mercedes reserve drivers, resulting in a number of test and practice outings, and his debut in September 2022 as a substitute for Williams at the Italian Grand Prix, where he impressed with a points finish (the first for the team that season) that have given him this full time opportunity.

-2022 Formula 2 fourth place finish Logan Sargeant (USA) for Alpine. He will become the first American Formula One driver to compete since Alexander Rossi in 2015 with Marussia and the first to compete full-time since Scott Speed in 2006 with Toro Rosso.

FORMULA 1 GULF AIR BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX 2023



You can usually expect great racing and decent amounts of overtaking in Bahrain, while the drivers have to contend with wind, racing under floodlights and the difficulty of finding a decent set-up with the wide temperature fluctuations between sessions. The track’s most challenging point is the tight, downhill, off-camber Turn 10 left-hander, while the fast run through Turn 12 is another highlight, allowing the racers to really feel their cars coming alive.

Bahrain Grand Prix: Max Verstappen leads Red Bull one-two as Fernando Alonso finishes superb third

Red Bull's season got off to a great start with a 1 2 finish in Bahrain. Max Verstappen led from lights to flag in a commanding victory, followed by team-mate Sergio Perez, who managed to make up from a poor start, and show the speed this year's car possess

Ferrari's season didn't get off to the start they hoped for, as they lost the final podium place they looked to have secure for most of the race, first with an engine failure of Charles Leclerc on lap 41, promoting team-mate Carlos Sainz, before he was overtaken by the charging Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso.

Alonso's third place showed the speed the Aston Martin team have developed this year, backed up by Lance Stroll in 6th place. This result nearly didn't happen when on the opening lap at Turn 4, Stroll hit the rear end of Alonso, but both survived with no damage

Mercedes had to settle for 4th best car with 5th for Lewis Hamilton and 7th for George Russell

On the other end of the field were McLaren who had technical problems with both cars, Oscar Piastri’s F1 debut ending in the pits with an electronic failure, and Lando Norris had a pneumatic issue which required multiple pitstops to recharge the system and he finished last.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon also had a day he'd like to forget, starting with a 5 second penalty for not lining up in his grid slot correctly and needing a new front wing after damaging an endplate. The steward's ruled that he didn’t serve that penalty correctly in his pitstop and gave him another 10 seconds to serve for his next stop, and then yet another 5 seconds for speeding in the pitlane, and he later retired. The feeling probably didn't get any better when the sister car of Pierre Gasly crossed the line 9th after starting from the back of the grid.

The other points finishers were Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas in 8th and Williams' Alex Albon in 10th

FORMULA 1 STC SAUDI ARABIAN GRAND PRIX 2023



The Jeddah Corniche Circuit is, you won’t be surprised to hear, a temporary street circuit (albeit adorned with some permanent sections), located on the Corniche – a 30km coastal resort area of the ancient Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah.

The circuit was designed to be fast. Very fast. Average speeds are around 250km/h (155 mph)– thats quicker than those at Silverstone, and second on the calendar only to Monza – aka ‘The Temple of Speed’. It is, quite simply, the fastest street circuit ever seen in Formula 1 – while the track also features the most corners on the calendar with 27, many of them quick, sinuous bends as the drivers wend their way along the Jeddah waterfront.

Red Bull's showed the speed they have over the other teams with another 1-2, but this time other way around to the first race.

Sergio Perez was overtaken at the start into the first corner by Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso, but retook the lead position into that same corner on lap 4, the position he kept to the end of the race, his first win since Singapore last season.

Max Verstappen didn't have the easy weekend he was expecting, after a driveshaft failure in qualifying meant he went out in Q2 and started the race from 15th place. But a good start to the race, and a safety car that helped him close up the time gap, meant he was up to 4th for the restart, and 2nd by lap 25. He couldn't manage to catch up to his team-mate in the rest of the race, but the fastest lap he got on the final lap gave him an extra point that keeps him just above his team-mate in the championship

Aston Martin showed the pace they had in Bahrain wasn't just a fluke. Fernando Alonso, got off to a good start taking the lead at the first corner (his first lead since Germany 2012) but was soon told about a 5 second time penalty he'd received for being too far left of grid box at the start of the race. He took the penalty during his pit stop, which like a large percentage of the field, was taken under the safety car caused by his team-mate, Lance Stroll, who stopped his car at Turn 8 after his team told to stop the car because of a technical problem. When the race restarted Alonso was soon overtaken by Verstappen, but managed to keep his place on the podium till the end, what would have been his 100th podium finish, but not long after receiving the trophy he had to hand it back, as a post race 10 second penalty, for not serving his origial time penalty correctly, enough time for him to fall one place to 4th.

That final podium position instead went to Mercedes' George Russell. Who along with team-mate Lewis Hamilton, gave the team some hope that the car in race's might have the speed to challenge Ferrari and Aston Martin. Hamilton was able to make up some time at the restart, being one of the few drivers on medium tyres, and challenged Russell, but as the tyres lost there advantage, he fell back, missing out on demoting Alonso a further place by 0.3 second, finishing 5th

Ferrari bad start to the season didn't get much better. Carlos Sainz fell back to 6th, with Charles Leclerc a place behind in 7th, who started in 12th place, after a 10 place gird penalty for already using the third ECU

The other points were taken by Alpine's Esteban Ocon 8th and Pierre Gasly 9th. Followed by AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda and Haas' Kevin Magnussen fighting over the last point. The Dane came out on top with a few laps to go giving Haas there first points of the season

The only other retirement than Stroll, was Williams' Alex Albon who went into the pits on lap 27 with a braking problem


Later Alonso's penalty has been reviewed and reinstated on the podium ahead of Russell. Basically because only the rear jack touched the car, and not a mechanic working on it (which I always thought was the rule anyway)

FORMULA 1 ROLEX AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX 2023



Create using a mixture of the existing roads around the city’s Albert Park – mainly Aughtie Drive and Lakeside Drive if you fancy driving it yourself – with a little detour through the Lakeside Stadium’s car park.

As a temporary facility, Albert Park can be quite bumpy - though resurfacing for 2022 will no doubt improve matters - while the circuit at the start of the weekend is often slippery, rubbering in as the sessions progress. It’s also a circuit that requires a well-sorted chassis, with several spots on the track where the drivers require a reactive front end to allow them to chuck it into a corner. Melbourne is also one of the faster tracks on the calendar, with Lewis Hamilton’s 2019 pole lap set at an average of over 235km/h.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen continued his good start to the year with another win, in a race that had three red flag stoppages.

Verstappen dominated most of the proceedings despite losing the initial lead from pole, and a brief ran off the road at the penultimate corner part way through the race. While his team mate Sergio Perez's charged from a pitlane start, providing most of the action during the main part of the race, as he put in pass after pass on slower rivals into the fast Turn 9/10. He had reached seventh by the second red flag but was very lucky to end up 5th as he had been attacking AlphaTauri's
Pierre Gasly in the third restart chaos and went deep into the gravel and fell to the rear of the pack before being boosted back up by the FIA's ruling.

Mercedes' George Russell and Lewis Hamilton both managed to get ahead of Verstappen at the race start, but there fortunes changed when Williams' Alex Albon crashing out putting debris and gravel across the road. Russell pitted under the safety car, coming out 7th, but this turned out to be the wrong decision when the red flag came out, allowing his competition to change their starting tyres under the stoppage (without loosing any time or position). The race resumed with a second standing start with Hamilton in the lead, but was soon overtaking by Verstappen with DRS assistance. Behind Russell started a charge to get back up to the front, but was stopped by his engine busting into flames at the end of the lap 17.

Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso got the final place on the podium again. Which looked like a very comfortable position, until with about 6 laps to go, everything in the race changed. Hass' Kevin Magnussen ran off the track exiting the second corner, striking the nearby wall with his right rear, leaving debris on the straight towards Turn 3 and stopping his car inside Turn 4. Causing the second red flag, to clean up, and allow for a two-lap sprint to the finish. On the restart Alonso followed the cars ahead (of Verstappen and Hamilton) into the first corner but was tagged by Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and spun, loosing many positions. As he rejoined he came across the chaos this incident had helped to cause, and his team-mate Lance Stroll, who had slid into the gravel at Turn 3 while fighting Sainz, which appearing to have destroy Aston Martin's previously excellent positions. But after the race was suspended, crucially before Verstappen had passed the first sector timing line, It eventually decided, that the previous grid restart order would be used minus the cars that could not take a fourth and final restart, a safety car rolling start that meant no overtaking, and so Alonso was restored to 3rd, and Stroll 4th.

One of the major loser of the final lap incident were Alpine, as first Pierre Gasly locked up hard behind Sainz and went off at Turn 2 along with several other cars and as he rejoined he took out team-mate Esteban Ocon, ruining what had looked to be a very strong result.

The rest of the finishers were McLaren's Lando Norris and Haas' Nico Hulkenberg who had a thrilling battle through the race, ending up 6th and 7th, ahead of Melbourne local Oscar Piastri. Completing the top 10 were 9th Alfa Romeo's Zhou Guanyu and 10th AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda, with the other Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas missing out on the points.

The only other finisher was Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, who crossed the line 4th, but was handed a five-second time penalty for hitting Alonso, so fell to 12th. It also wasn't a happy day for his team-mate Charles Leclerc who retired in the Turn 3 gravel on the first lap after turning in and finding Lance Stroll on his inside and getting turned around.

FORMULA 1 AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX 2023



A mixture of wide and open and tight and twisty. The lonnnnng main straight along the Baku shoreline is a slipstreaming mecca, and with cars able to run three abreast into Turn 1, the action often looks more IndyCar than F1. However from there, the track loops around into the city’s narrow, winding Icheri Sheher old town, dramatically wending past Baku’s medieval city walls. As in Monaco, slightest mistakes are punished quickly and severely, while set-up wise, the teams are forced to choose between downforce for the twisty bits and less drag for the straight.

The weekend will also be the first to host a Sprint Race this season, using new rules with a separate qualifying for the sprint and main race

What’s a Sprint Race? How does that work?

It’s half a race and the order they finish is the start of the main race, I think, plus you get points which get added on to the main race

yeah that's about right, it's 100km race, which is about a 1/3 of the main race distance (so no pit stops), the top 8 get a point (from 1 for 8th to 8 for 1st) and this year they have a separate qualifying on the Saturday morning for the sprint race in the afternoon, while qualifying for the main race (on Sunday) was on Friday evening