Oct.8 (GMM) Nico Hulkenberg on Thursday confirmed he will not be defending his Le Mans title next year. That is because Bernie Ecclestone’s re-jigged calendar for 2016 features a controversial clash of the inaugural grand prix in Azerbaijan and the fabled 24 hour endurance sports car race. “I’m disappointed,” the Force India driver said at […]
Silverstone chief says F1 ‘sh*t’ and ‘not saleable’
Oct.8 (GMM) Silverstone chief Patrick Allen has launched an unprecedented attack on formula one, describing it as a “sh*t product”. It is an echo of an earlier story in 2015, when Bernie Ecclestone reportedly told a French media outlet that F1 is a “crap product”. The F1 supremo, however, denied saying it, insisting he was […]
Ecclestone comments trigger retirement rumours
Oct.8 (GMM) Bernie Ecclestone has tongues wagging in the F1 paddock after declaring that formula one is set to be sold within three months. F1 legend and Mercedes team chairman Niki Lauda told APA news agency he has “no idea” why the F1 supremo has gone public with the news now. “In principle, a sale […]
Mateschitz wants engine crisis solution in October
Oct.8 (GMM) Dietrich Mateschitz has now set a target for the end of Red Bull’s current engine crisis, and it is looming fast. “Sometime in late October,” the owner of Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso declared to Speed Week, the Red Bull-linked German-language publication. Early this week, team boss Christian Horner hinted that although […]
Coulthard thinks Alonso could quit McLaren-Honda
Oct.8 (GMM) Former long-time team driver David Coulthard says he can imagine Fernando Alonso quitting McLaren at the end of the season. Spaniard Alonso backtracked after slamming Honda’s current power unit as no better than a “GP2 engine” at Suzuka, but Coulthard said he can understand the frustration. “I don’t know,” he told the Spanish […]
Podium ‘impossible’ for small teams now – Kaltenborn
Oct.8 (GMM) When asked by the German publication Sport Bild how things are going at Sauber, the Swiss team’s boss replied: “I can’t complain.” Monisha Kaltenborn, however, is very much complaining about the governance of formula one, having joined Force India in lodging a formal complain to the European Commission. “Because the process has been […]
F3 leap not ruled out for Mick Schumacher
Oct.7 (GMM) The immediate leap from Formula 4 to Formula 3 for F1 legend Michael Schumacher’s son is not being ruled out. 16-year-old Mick, having graduated to single seaters this year, has just finished his first F4 season – the ADAC German series – in tenth place overall. “He has become a strong guy in […]
Bottas’ career could stagnate at Williams – Kovalainen
Oct.7 (GMM) Valtteri Bottas risks watching his F1 career stagnate at Williams, fellow Finn Heikki Kovalainen has warned. Earlier this year, the now 26-year-old Bottas was a strong candidate to replace Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari for 2016. The Maranello team, however, ultimately re-signed the 35-year-old Finn, leaving Bottas to spend his fourth consecutive season in […]
Lotus hits back at Sochi lock-out ‘rumours’
Oct.7 (GMM) Lotus on Wednesday hit back at what it called “paddock rumours”. Earlier reports suggested that, just like at Suzuka, the troubled Enstone team was locked out of its hospitality area at Sochi ahead of the weekend’s Russian grand prix. Indeed, paddock photos on Tuesday depicted a deserted garage and black and gold-clad staff […]
Lotus now locked out at Sochi
Oct.7 (GMM) Lotus’ travelling staff are once again locked out of the struggling team’s designated paddock building ahead of a grand prix. Amid the Enstone team’s obvious financial trouble as negotiations with Renault continue, staff had no access to the Lotus-reserved hospitality tent at Suzuka recently because the bill was not paid. Now, as the […]
Wolff denies Red Bull engine talks back on
Oct.7 (GMM) Toto Wolff has hit back at Red Bull counterpart Christian Horner’s claim that negotiations about a supply of engines for 2016 are back on. Horner told the Red Bull-owned Austrian broadcaster Servus TV this week: “There are two competitive engines in formula one — Mercedes and Ferrari. “There are talks with both.” Earlier, […]
Todt defends F1’s Le Mans clash for 2016
Oct.7 (GMM) FIA president Jean Todt has defended a controversial clash on next year’s F1 calendar. A re-jig of the Bernie Ecclestone-authored schedule for 2016, mainly to reinstate a long summer break, has resulted in the mid-June clash of the inaugural grand prix in Azerbaijan and the fabled sports car endurance race at Le Mans. […]
Lauda worried about Sochi’s Singapore-like track
Oct.7 (GMM) Niki Lauda has admitted he is worried about this weekend’s Russian grand prix. Earlier, we reported that Mercedes is indeed nervous about Sochi, despite dominating recently at Suzuka. Suzuka took place just a week after Singapore, where Mercedes’ surprising slump handed victory to Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who with his 59 point deficit remains […]
Ecclestone expects sale of F1 ‘shortly’
Oct.7 (GMM) Bernie Ecclestone said on Tuesday he expects formula one to be sold “shortly”. Earlier this year, multiple media reports suggested current owner CVC was eyeing a sale to one of several interested parties. They included the Miami Dolphins’ Stephen Ross, Qatar’s sports investment arm, Sky and international telcom Liberty, the Canadian billionaire Lawrence […]
Next F1 owner must be committed – Wolff
Oct.7 (GMM) F1’s next owner needs to be fully committed to the sport. That is the view of Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, after F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone revealed that CVC is likely to sell its majority stake “shortly”. Among those reportedly interested are the Miami Dolphins’ Stephen Ross, Qatar’s sports investment arm, Sky and […]
Haas’ F1 and Nascar budgets are similar – Gene Haas
Oct.7 (GMM) Gene Haas says the money he will spend on formula one is comparable to his four-car operation in the American tin-top series Nascar. Californian Haas has partnered with Ferrari and Dallara to enter F1 next year with a team to be spearheaded from the cockpit by current Lotus driver Romain Grosjean. The approach […]
McLaren-Honda must look ahead to 2016 now
Oct.7 (GMM) McLaren-Honda is having to look beyond the final five races of 2015. At Suzuka recently, the Anglo-Japanese collaboration looked set to unravel, amid Fernando Alonso’s radio outbursts and Jenson Button’s questionable commitment to the struggling team and F1. But after Japan, McLaren re-signed Button, a chided Alonso’s anger subsided and team supremo Ron […]
Mercedes wary of ‘Singapore slump’ repeat in Russia
Oct.6 (GMM) A slightly nervous Mercedes is preparing for this weekend’s Russian grand prix. Actually, the usually utterly-dominant German squad can wrap up the 2015 constructors’ world championship this weekend at Sochi. But although the silver cars finished easily first and second at Suzuka, the points gap between Lewis Hamilton’s lead and Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari […]
Ferrari plays down Sochi hopes
Oct.6 (GMM) Ferrari is not counting on having another Singapore-like showing this weekend at Sochi. Just over two weeks ago, Sebastian Vettel put himself back in the championship reckoning by dominating in Singapore, where Mercedes famously ‘slumped’. But the silver team was back at its dominant best a week later in Japan. Still, there are […]
Mercedes’ huge F1 loss ‘priceless’ – reports
Oct.6 (GMM) Mercedes lost millions as it dominantly won last year’s world championships. Writing in the Swiss newspaper Blick, the veteran F1 journalist Roger Benoit says the German carmaker spent $360 million on its grand prix venture in 2014. But Bild am Sonntag, the major German Sunday newspaper, says that when Mercedes secures the 2015 […]