Tag: One

Formula 1 returns to the legendary Interlagos Circuit on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil, in part three of the triple header across the Americas, and even if they are tired, the teams and drivers will be arriving with a bounce in their step and smile on their face.

Why the optimism, we hear you ask?

Sao Paulo has a knack for delivering surprises, shocks and a sprinkle of that Senna magic.

We looked back at seven of our favourite moments from one of F1’s best Grand Prix.

1991: There was only one Senna

Sport is an integral part of Brazil’s culture, and while football and Pele are No. 1, F1 and Ayton Senna are a close second in terms of legacy.

To say that Senna was special would be an understatement – a hero on and off the track, he was more than capable of winning more than the three world drivers championships were it not for his tragic death at Imola in 1994.

Despite being the home favourite, even Senna struggled to tame the beast that is Interlagos, where anything can happen, and it usually does.

By 1991, Senna was in his eighth season, looking for his first victory at home despite already being a two-time F1 champion.

He qualified on pole position, and it looked like he’d finally do it the easy way as he pulled out a lead.

But Senna – as you sense with Lewis Hamilton in this era of F1 – never did things the easy way.

His McLaren’s gearbox had jammed, and he was stuck in sixth gear, taking the Brazilian to a new level of difficulty in an era with no power steering, which massively increases the exertion on the driver’s upper body.

In 2023, a driver would usually have retired the car, and it was the same situation on this day.

But Senna is not usual – while he wanted to stop, his desire to win the race and raise the flag for his people gave him a hero-like inner strength to take him to the chequered flag.

When he got the job done, the relief and emotion came flooding through on the radio in the form of screams, audible sobbing and the words “I can’t believe it”.

Before he could return to the pit lane to celebrate, Senna passed out at the wheel due to the immense muscle spasms.

While he could not find the strength to eventually lift the trophy, he could raise the Brazilian flag to the delight of his fans – “there could only be one result”, said Senna following the race.

2008: Magnanimous Massa loses out to last-gasp Lewis

Brazil’s hopes of championship success returned when Felipe Massa headed into the 2008 finale needing to win the race with his rival Lewis Hamilton in sixth position or lower – a challenging task – but the home crowd believed.

They especially believed having seen Ferrari’s other driver Kimi Raikkonen beat title rival Hamilton a year earlier.

On the day, Massa did everything he needed to do, winning the Grand Prix in perhaps his most dominant performance – but sometimes even a heroic drive is not enough in F1.

The Interlagos Circuit has a microclimate, allowing rain showers to arrive unexpectedly.
On this day in 2008, a downpour of rain came with just a handful of laps to go.

A young Sebastian Vettel overtook Hamilton for fifth place, putting Massa on course to be champion.

The home crowd erupted.

They thought their driver had done it.

However, another young German called Timo Glock had elected to continue on his dry tyres on the wet track while others had pitted – a risk that nearly paid off.

In a frantic finish matched only by Abu Dhabi 2021, in the final corner of the last lap of the final race, Hamilton took the position he needed to become champion.

Massa, Ferrari and the Brazilian fans thought they had won, but they were wrong.

The news filtered through, and despite losing out, a hurting Massa put on a brave front, sharing love with his people, beating his heart and pointing to the fans.

A genuinely gracious gentleman had become an eternal hero in his city despite losing on the day.

The McLaren garage, on the other hand, were breathless, bouncing around as they had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat at a track where they had lost out in gut-wrenching fashion just a year earlier.

Hamilton and team Woking were the away team, and looked to have lost out, but in the against-all-odds fashion that we have become used to in Hamilton’s career, he had become the youngest-ever world champion (at the time).

The first of many titles for the now honourary Brazilian.

2012: Vettel matches Senna – the hard way

While 2008 was a fight for two drivers’ first, 2012 saw the titans of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel take one another on to become a triple world champion.

Becoming a triple world champion in Brazil is extra special – this is the number of titles Ayrton Senna managed.

And irony would strike when Vettel was tagged by Senna’s nephew, Bruno, on the first corner, leaving the German, who was leading the championship by 13 points, facing the wrong way and last.

Things got even better for Alonso when he slipped past team-mate Felipe Massa and Vettel’s team-mate Mark Webber to take third position – the Spaniard was in place to win the championship.

Vettel, though, was not in the mood to give up, and despite the damage he had sustained, somehow had made his way to eighth position by lap eight.

Things were thrown up in the air again when leaders Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton collided on the ever-slippery surface, moving Alonso into second position.

But it wasn’t enough to beat the might of Vettel, who passed his hero Michael Schumacher on his way to emulating Senna, crossing the line in tears to secure the title.

While Vettel was the winner, like 2008, it was the runner-up and his thousand-mile stare that will live on as some of F1’s most iconic content.

2016: Senna-esque through the ‘Senna S’

Max Verstappen returns to Sao Paulo this weekend for the first time since matching perhaps one of F1’s most famous triple world champions in Senna, and the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2016 rubber-stamped just how special a talent the young Dutchman was.

This race came towards the end of the third and final episode of the Silver Arrows’ internal tussle between Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

The race began beneath the safety car due to some of Sao Paulo’s spectacular rain – but six laps later, conditions were deemed safe enough to get under way.

Hamilton led away from lights to flag, keeping his title chances alive. While this was an impressive drive, Verstappen had all of the attention.

First, the 19-year-old pulled off a daring move up the inside of Kimi Raikkonen into the first corner, finding grip that other great drivers, including Raikkonen and Vettel, could not.

This was exemplified again as Verstappen moved into second position with a jaw-dropping move around the outside of the eventual 2016 champion Rosberg.

The youngster showed his inexperience and raw talent in a flash when it came to lap 38 – his car looked as though it was destined for the barriers, but Verstappen’s supreme car control allowed him to do what the experienced, local Massa could not.

Massa crashed out of what he thought would be his final Grand Prix, leading to an emotional walk back to the pit lane, greeted with applause from the Mercedes and Ferrari garages before reaching the arms of his wife in the paddock – while it had been raining hard, this was a moment which ensured no dry eye.

Back on track, Verstappen pitted for fresh tyres, dropping to the lower reaches of the points.

That gave us the gift of watching him fight back, including an uncompromising move on Vettel, which we have become accustomed to.

Hamilton had finally won in Brazil – an emotional moment for him as a fan of Senna – but Verstappen’s drive had captured F1’s attention, and he has only improved since.

2021: The villain becomes the hero

Formula 1 arrived at Sao Paulo with Lewis Hamilton needing some magic – Verstappen had reached the moment in the battle where another win would seriously dent Hamilton’s title defence.

In short, Hamilton needed to win, but this was at a circuit where the fans had good reason to think of him as the pantomime villain.

This was the season that had everything, including, for the first time, Sprint weekends, and in the other two weekends, Hamilton and Verstappen had come together in major flashpoints.

But this was something the Mercedes driver could not afford.

Things looked to be going swimmingly as Hamilton dominated Friday’s only practice session before qualifying comfortably on pole position by almost half a second for Saturday’s Sprint.

But this is F1, so things could hardly go the easy way – the sport’s governing body, the FIA, discovered that Hamilton’s rear wing had broken and his DRS (drag reduction system) had opened 0.2mm wider than was legal, so he was disqualified and sent to the back of the grid.

Anything can happen in Brazil, but nobody would have predicted the sort of comeback Hamilton would need to produce – this would need to be Senna-like if he wanted to keep his championship alive.

The seven-time champion wasted no time in Saturday’s Sprint, slicing through the field to take fifth position, meaning he could start 10th in Sunday’s Grand Prix after his already-scheduled five-place grid penalty.

Again, Hamilton made light work of the majority of the field, but his final target was his rival, the leader, Max Verstappen.

Verstappen made his car as wide as possible – at times, taking Hamilton off the track in what Sky Sports‘ Martin Brundle described as a ‘professional crowd’.

But like Senna, Hamilton thrives when his back is against the wall.

The Briton found a way through, boosting his championship hopes, and celebrated with the fans with parallels to Senna in 1991, with the Brazilian flag raised.

While Hamilton was dominant in 2016, 2021 was the year in which Hamilton became a legend in the Brazilian hearts – and eventually, an honorary citizen.

Another race like no other in this place like no other.

2022: A weekend of firsts

If you want proof that anything can happen in Sao Paulo, 2022 brought you a Haas pole position.

Like in 2021, qualifying for Friday set the grid for Saturday’s Sprint, which, in turn, set the starting order for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

Friday night saw a dose of challenging rain – the final session saw the top 10 drivers rushing out as the rain intensity increased, and it was Kevin Magnussen first across the line with the fastest time.

Max Verstappen was in second position on the timing screens, followed by the Mercedes’ of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton – but nobody could set a quicker time because Russell went straight on at turn four, getting stuck in the gravel.

This brought out the red flag, and when Magnusen was told of his position, the response was, “you’re kidding”, along with several expletives – similar to the reaction you would imagine from Gunther Steiner.

The Dane was on pole, and the scenes in the garage from Magnussen, who thought he was out of F1 in 2021, were something to behold.

In the Saturday Sprint, the Haas fairytale faded, but the magic of the Brazilian weekend had not ended.

This season, we have been used to the sight of Verstappen taking the lead by lap four, but when that happened in the Saturday Sprint in 2022, it was the Dutchman who then struggled.

Russell passed the Haas of Magnussen and swarmed around the back of Verstappen’s Red Bull like an angry wasp.

He was determined too – Verstappen put up a fight almost as firm as the one he had had with Hamilton a year previously – but Russell slipped through, crossing the line fine to start the Grand Prix from the front.

The Mercedes both looked quick, but it was Russell who snatched the Silver Arrows’ only opportunity to taste victory in 2022.

It was a mature drive, too – it would have been easy for the younger Brit to make a mistake with Hamilton breathing down his neck with just a handful of laps to go at a Grand Prix, which feels like and is technically Hamilton’s second home race.

It has been a year since Mercedes’ last win in F1.

It now appears to be Russell on the backfoot compared to Hamilton.

Mercedes and Russell hope they can use the positivity of last year to do their talking on the track to answer what will be many questions regarding the departure of Mike Elliott as chief technical officer.

Hamilton will also enter the weekend with victory the target – he is returning home following an excellent performance in Mexico, which his engineer Peter Bonnington referred to as feeling “like the old days”.

The immense support and the Sao Paulo magic will also help him and his team dream.

Find out what surprises are in store at this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix, live on Sky Sports F1.

Lewis Hamilton produced a brilliant drive to finish second to Max Verstappen in Mexico City; George Russell was hampered by a brake issue as he came sixth; watch every session from the final Sprint event this year in Sao Paulo -starting this Friday live on Sky Sports F1,

Lewis Hamilton hailed taking an “amazing” second place in the Mexico City Grand Prix after coming from sixth on the grid to finish behind Max Verstappen.

Hamilton was left disappointed on Saturday as Mercedes struggled to get their tyres into the optimal working window in qualifying, but found a more satisfactory balance in the W14 in the race.

The result reignited Hamilton’s hopes of denying Red Bull a first ever one-two in the drivers’ championship, with his deficit to second placed Sergio Perez reduced to 20 points after the Mexican retired from his home race.

“Honestly, I just wasn’t expecting that. It’s just always a great feeling when you are just putting one foot in front of the other and progressing,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1.

“The weekend had been really difficult compared to the last race where we had just hit the ground running. This weekend I was really digging deep to try and get the set-up right and I think we did a great job.

“Qualifying was a bit tricky and to be far behind the Ferraris, we need to finish ahead of them to keep the constructors’ [position] so that’s what I was pushing for today.

“To have progressed so well through the early phase of the race and be challenging for a podium and then a second place is amazing. I am really happy with the race.”

Hamilton gained a spot at the start when Perez was forced to retire after colliding with Charles Leclerc.

He overtook Daniel Ricciardo for fourth after 10 laps but got stuck behind Carlos Sainz, who had just enough pace to keep the Mercedes driver at bay.

Hamilton undercut Sainz, so was in third place when the race was stopped by a red flag after Kevin Magnussen’s big crash at Turn 8 at the halfway point of the Grand Prix.

Mercedes bravely put Hamilton on medium tyres for the restart, whereas the other leading runners were on hards. It paid off though as the seven-time world champion made a daring move on the inside of Leclerc, briefly putting two wheels off the track to get past the Ferrari driver and take second place.

Expanding on where the W14 had improved from Saturday, Hamilton added: “I think the car is just quite peaky in qualifying on light fuel, but when you put a load of fuel in the car, it just feels nicer to drive and I think we struck a really nice set-up this weekend and particularly today for the race.

“Other than that, just really good tyre management. I generally enjoyed it. It’s not the most physical of races, being that you can’t push all the way, you’re saving, you’re doing 200 or 300 metres of lifting and coast to keep the car cool and stop it from failing.”

Wolff: Brilliant drive from Hamilton

It was the second successive event where Hamilton has shown strong pace, after he pushed Verstappen close for the win in Austin, only to be disqualified for excessive plank wear.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was impressed by Hamilton’s performance, especially on the medium tyres in the second half of the race as the 38-year-old set the fastest lap of the race on his final circuit.

“The smile on our face is because the car was strong. Once Lewis was in free air, we had so much margin in the medium. The lap times were good and fastest lap at the end,” Wolff told Sky Sports F1.

“It’s been a few weekends now where we say we ‘could have’ but didn’t. I think we need to qualify better. Probably with the straight line speed we wouldn’t have been so competitive against Max, but who knows, the pace is there.

“It was a brilliant, brilliant drive from Lewis. We have these oscillations in performance and we don’t really know sometimes if the tyres stick. Just a few degrees of track temperature and you are out of the window.”

Russell explains ‘terrible’ end to race

George Russell, in the other Mercedes, had a frustrating race as he found himself on the back foot when stuck behind Oscar Piastri in the opening stages stint.

Russell wasn’t happy about the timing of his first pit stop as he came out in traffic and was seventh when the race resumed following the red flag.

He overtook Piastri and Ricciardo but couldn’t find a way past Sainz, who defended well to hold onto fourth place.

During this battle, Russell overheated his brakes and lost a position to a charging Lando Norris and only finished half a second ahead of Ricciardo at the chequered flag to take sixth.

“The last 20 laps were terrible,” Russell said.

“The pace was really strong after the red flag. I felt really good in the car, I was right behind Carlos and just couldn’t quite make the overtake, then my brakes overheated and we were concerned we wouldn’t make it at the end and I had to back of.

“As soon as I did that, I lost all the temperature in my tyres and I could never recover it and it was like driving on ice.

“I was lucky to finish in P6. Story of the weekend – another difficult one and it’s a shame because the car was performing well.”

F1 heads straight to Brazil for the final leg of the Americas triple header and the last Sprint weekend of the 2023 season. Watch every session from the Sao Paulo Grand Prix live on Sky Sports F1 from Friday, with Sunday’s race at 5pm. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW

Very few people expected Ferrari to lock out the front row for the Mexico City Grand Prix but Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz performed when it mattered most at the business end of qualifying.

The Ferrari duo got their tyres into the optimal working range as Max Verstappen admitted his Red Bull car got away from him as he pushed a little too hard.

But, given Red Bull have only been beaten once on a Sunday all season, world champion Verstappen inevitably remains favourite for the 71-lap race – which starts at 8pm live on Sky Sports F1 – when he will aim to beat his own record of 15 wins in a single campaign

Much of Ferrari’s hopes will likely rest on the race’s opening seconds and holding one-two formation on the long run down to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez’s first corner.

In 2019, Leclerc started from pole alongside then-Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel and they kept the field at bay after the 811m charge to the opening right-hander. But, it can get very feisty there as Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen showed in that same race when they made contact just behind the leaders.

In 2021, Verstappen made a stunning move late on the brakes to overtake the Mercedes of Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, so don’t be surprised if we see a three-wide moment going into the first corner.

“It’s a very difficult race. Everything can happen, especially with the cooling. Whichever car is behind can do a bit more management, so it can play in our favour but for that we need a good start,” said Leclerc.

“Starting first here is always tricky to keep that position into the first corner but we have had pretty good starts here, so I’m confident we can keep that place.

“This year Max has been extremely strong on the race pace so at the moment we still have a lot of work to do to match them with our race pace.

“It’s a very special track for strategy, especially with high altitude, tyre management will be a huge thing. We will have to be on top of this. For the strategy, we will adapt on the go to try and keep that first place.”

How might Ferrari play the start to keep Verstappen behind?

If all goes to plan for Ferrari, Leclerc should immediately move over to the right hand side from pole to tow team-mate Sainz down to Turn One and leave Verstappen with no slipstream, potentially leaving the Dutchman vulnerable to Daniel Ricciardo – who qualified a superb fourth for AlphaTauri – or the Mercedes’ of Hamilton, sixth, and George Russell, eighth.

Then, Sainz should go to the outside of Leclerc in the braking zone and not race his team-mate too hard so the Ferrari pair can retain their one-two positions.

Asked by Sky Sports F1 if the team-mates can work together at the start, Sainz said: “If we can of course. But it’s impossible to predict whether we will be able to do so. A few metres better start than Max or Charles and suddenly we cannot play with slipstreams anymore.

“I will just try and do the best possible start because I am starting on the dirty side so my start will be weaker than Max and Charles, then we can see where we are at.”

Will Ferrari be able to manage their tyres?

On paper, strategy shouldn’t be too difficult for the Mexico City Grand Prix because it’s a low degradation track, so a one-stopper should be the way forward.

The only big threat Ferrari will face if they are one-two is from an undercut or overcut. It’s likely that Verstappen will have to overtake one, or both, of Leclerc and Sainz on the track – perhaps in a similar fashion to Monza back in September when he overcame both to win.

It’s tyre management where Ferrari could be vulnerable compared to the usually exceptional wear Red Bull have had this year. Keeping the tyres in the right window will be just as important as the wear though given the altitude of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, which is 2.2km above sea level.

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur suggested that there could be other factors that come to play due to the nature of the track.

“On the long stints we mainly focused on cooling (on Friday), like Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull. Everyone will be more focused on the brakes and engine,” said Vasseur.

As for Sainz, he may have to play rear-gunner behind Leclerc in order to keep Verstappen behind and he is not too optimistic about his chances.

“It will be very difficult because of the race pace they have. Normally one way or the other, or by simply offsetting their pace with a tyre advantage, they can finish ahead,” admitted the Spaniard.

“Given their race pace, at one point or another he will have a chance to overtake us and it will be up to us to manage the strategy and situation to keep him behind.”

As for Verstappen, he didn’t have much to say post-qualifying and appeared to be quietly confident about his chances of winning as long as he can get through the opening corners unscathed.

“I always learned that you can never repeat the same start,” said Verstappen in response to a question about whether he could repeat that surging Mercedes-beating getaway from the same position on the grid two years ago.

“Of course you can look at it. Depend on how good your start is, the line into the first corner, track conditions.

“It’s more just an instinct and once you do your start you make your mind up on what you want to do. It’s a long race. It’s not won or last at the first corner.”

Asked about his confidence of winning he said: “Good. Yep. I also have two hard tyres. Nobody else has them around me, so that could be an advantage.”

Ferrari certainly caused a surprise on Saturday and victory for them on Sunday would be a shock going by Verstappen’s calm manner.

When to watch the Mexico City GP live only on Sky Sports F1

Sunday
6.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday Mexico City GP build-up (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
8pm: The MEXICO CITY GRAND PRIX (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
10pm: Chequered Flag: Mexico City GP

F1 is in Mexico for the middle leg of the Americas triple header. Watch the Mexico City Grand Prix live on Sky Sports F1, with Sunday’s race at 8pm. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW

Max Verstappen topped both practice sessions for Red Bull on Friday; Lando Norris second as Lewis Hamilton off the pace in seventh; watch Practice Three live on Sky Sports F1 at 6.30pm on Saturday, followed by qualifying at 10pm

Max Verstappen completed a Friday practice double at the Mexico City Grand Prix as Lando Norris emerged as the world champion’s most likely pole challenger.

Verstappen, who is seeking a record 16th victory of the season, gave Red Bull a perfect start to the weekend by setting a 1:18.686 to top McLaren’s Lando Norris by just over a tenth of a second.

Charles Leclerc took third for Ferrari, while Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez, urged on by the hugely supportive crowd at his home race, was fourth.

Either side of him there were surprise successes, with Valtteri Bottas fourth for Alfa Romeo and Daniel Ricciardo sixth for AlphaTauri.

Having finished 11th in first practice, Lewis Hamilton was once more unable to fulfil his hope of being able to challenge Red Bull as the seven-time world champion was seventh.

His Mercedes team-mate George Russell was only 10th, having earlier been one of five drivers to sit out first practice as teams took the opportunity to fulfil their obligated young driver sessions.

While Mercedes may be disappointed not to have shown more speed following their upgrades last weekend in Austin, the uniquely high altitude of Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez means there are likely to be significant overnight adjustments which could alter the pecking order.

Also out of position was Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who was only 11th having also missed the opening session.

Further back, Aston Martin endured a torrid day as Lance Stroll finished 18th and Fernando Alonso 20th, with the Spaniard spinning off as he struggled in a car that has regressed since appearing to be Red Bull’s biggest rival during the first half of the season.

More to follow…

When to watch the Mexico City GP live only on Sky Sports F1

Friday
8:45pm: The F1 Show
10:45pm: Mexico City GP Practice Two (also on Sky Sports Main Event)

Saturday
6.15pm: Mexico City GP Practice Three
9pm: Mexico City GP Qualifying build-up (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
10pm: Mexico City GP Qualifying (also on Sky Sports Main Event)

Sunday
6.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday Mexico City GP build-up (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
8pm: The MEXICO CITY GRAND PRIX (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
10pm: Chequered Flag: Mexico City GP

F1 is in Mexico for the middle leg of the Americas triple header. Watch the whole Mexico City Grand Prix weekend live on Sky Sports F1 from Friday, with Sunday’s race at 8pm. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW

Max Verstappen and Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez say there is no “rivalry” between them; watch the Mexico City GP live this weekend on Sky Sports F1, with practice up first from 7.30pm on Friday. Sunday’s race is at 8pm

Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez have dismissed suggestions of a rivalry between them as false, amid concerns over the world champion facing a hostile atmosphere at his Red Bull team-mate’s home race in Mexico this weekend.

Verstappen faced some booing after winning last year’s race in Mexico and was once more on the end of apparent hostility after triumphing in last weekend’s United States Grand Prix, with some suggesting Perez fans were responsible.

The organisers of the Mexico City Grand Prix earlier in October launched a ‘Racepect’ campaign promoting tolerance and respect for all drivers, which was accompanied by a statement saying that “insults and unpleasant behaviour cannot go unnoticed, nor be allowed to continue”.

Asked by Sky Sports F1 whether he feared unsavoury scenes this weekend, Perez said: “Not at all and I think it’s important that we give this message [of respect] because media likes to create these sort of rivalries outside the track.

“We are a great sport and we are a great example of a lot of young generations and we should just be focused on the sports side.

“Whatever happens on track should always stay there and that’s the best message we as a country want to give to the rest of the world.

“There is nothing else going on, the most important (thing) is everything stays on track.”

The relationship between the team-mates came under major scrutiny at last November’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix when furious messages were exchanged over radio after Verstappen refused an instruction to allow Perez past him on the final lap.

Since that flashpoint there has been little public friction between the pair, with Verstappen’s dominance while cruising to his third successive drivers’ title diffusing any potential tension.

Asked about a rivalry between the pair, Verstappen said: “That’s made up.

“Checo and I, we get on really well. For us, I don’t think there is any rivalry.

“Of course, as a driver on track you always try to be first or faster, but we have a lot of respect for each other and we appreciate each other’s performances.”

When to watch the Mexico City GP live only on Sky Sports F1

Friday 27 October
7pm: Mexico City GP Practice One
8:45pm: The F1 Show
10:45pm: Mexico City GP Practice Two (also on Sky Sports Main Event)

Saturday 28 October
6.15pm: Mexico City GP Practice Three
9pm: Mexico City GP Qualifying build-up (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
10pm: Mexico City GP Qualifying (also on Sky Sports Main Event)

Sunday 29 October
6.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday Mexico City GP build-up (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
8pm: The MEXICO CITY GRAND PRIX (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
10pm: Chequered Flag: Mexico City GP

F1 is in Mexico for the middle leg of the Americas triple header. Watch the whole Mexico City Grand Prix weekend live on Sky Sports F1 from Friday, with Sunday’s race at 8pm. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW

Mercedes technical director James Allison says the team were left “embarrassed” by Lewis Hamilton’s disqualification from the United States Grand Prix for a breach of technical regulations.

Hamilton and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc were excluded from second and sixth places respectively four hours after the end of Sunday’s dramatic race after wear levels on the planks underneath their cars were found to have exceeded limits set out in F1’s regulations.

The seven-time world champion’s disqualification means that instead of closing to within 19 points of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez for second in the drivers’ standings, his deficit grew to 39 points with just four rounds of the season remaining.

Speaking in Mercedes’ post-race debrief, Allison said: “Of course the disqualification is a significant blow. It’s a miserable feeling. It hurts and, everybody here feels it.

“Everybody is upset, embarrassed to a degree as well because we absolutely don’t like being on the wrong side of the rules, and just lamenting the lost points.”

After Mercedes brought a final significant upgrade of the season to the W14, Hamilton produced a hugely impressive weekend which saw him narrowly lose out to the other Red Bull of world champion Max Verstappen for victory.

Allison said that the progress made in terms of performance will help the team get over the disappointment of the disqualification.

He added: “Give it a day or two and that will start to wane and be replaced by the much happier feeling, which is we moved our car forward this weekend and that it’s hard to do that.

“But we did it and we did it by a decent amount. And with four races left in the championship, four races where I am pretty sure we will stay on the right side of the skid block rules.

“The initial feeling of hurt, and disappointment and frustration of ourselves will pass to be replaced by the sunny optimism of knowing that the car looked bright on this upgrade package and we’ve got four more races to show what we can do with it.”

‘We made a mistake’

Allison also gave a detailed explanation of how Mercedes fell foul of the regulations, accepting that the team had made “a mistake” by failing to leave enough margin.

“The disqualification had everything to do with the setup and the bumpiness of the track, amplified by the fact that it was a Sprint weekend,” he said.

“At a sprint weekend, you are under much more pressure, you have just a solitary hour at the very front of the weekend.

“After that one hour basically, you have cast your die, you have chosen your setup and you have then got to run the rest of the weekend with the bets you placed in that one hour of running. That means much, much less time to assess things than normal and much less time to make corrective action ahead of the remaining sessions later in the weekend.

“Austin is a track which has a very bumpy surface and therefore you are a bit more vulnerable to bumping the car on the ground. We just simply didn’t take enough margin at the end of Free Practice 1.

“When we had done our setup we checked the plank and everything, all looked fine, really untouched after the FP1 running. But the results of the race speak for themselves. We were illegal at the end of the race so clearly, we should have had our car set a little bit higher up to give ourselves a little bit more margin.

“It’s of course a mistake, it’s an understandable sort of mistake in a sprint weekend where it’s so much harder to get that stuff right, especially on a bumpy track. But a lesson for us in the future to make sure that we take more margin, especially at a track like that with all its bumps.”

How Hamilton strategy gamble fell ‘crushingly’ short

The pain of disqualification could have been even more extreme for Mercedes had Hamilton ended a near two-year wait for his 104th F1 victory, which very nearly happened.

The Brit was closing on Verstappen rapidly in the final laps of the race but could have already been in front of the Red Bull if it weren’t for a poor strategic call from Mercedes.

With Hamilton running second behind Lando Norris and in front of Verstappen, Mercedes chose not to react to Red Bull bringing the Dutchman in, opting to attempt to implement a one-stop strategy as opposed to the two-stopper the other contenders had committed to.

Hamilton’s tyres fell away a couple of laps later, by which point he had lost track position to Verstappen and then had to fall back onto a less optimum version of the two-stop strategy.

Their respective pace for the remainder of the race, with both comfortably faster than Norris’ McLaren, suggested that Hamilton would have had an excellent chance of victory had Mercedes reacted immediately to Red Bull’s stops.

Allison explained that Verstappen’s dominant performance in Saturday’s Sprint had left Mercedes convinced that Hamilton would not have the pace to beat him on the same strategy.

“We should have pitted Lewis, we should have kept ahead and we would have given ourselves a better chance of the win had we done so,” Allison said. “But it’s good to understand where we were coming from, and also understand a bit more of the strategists’ dilemma.

“We knew that we had been pretty pacy during the Sprint race the day before, but we also knew that Max just had the edge on us.

“Austin being the sort of track where generally speaking the track sort of tends to deal out the cars in pace order by the time the chequered flag falls at the end of Sunday, so we didn’t actually think we were in exactly the same race as Max.”

Given that belief, Mercedes believed their best chance of victory was by running an alternative strategy, and they thought a one-stop was possible as Hamilton maintained strong pace late into his first stint.

“We left Lewis out there and waited to see what would happen, hoping that the flat lap time progression would continue,” Allison said. “A lap went by and we’d effectively been undercut and then we were just crossing our fingers to see whether the pace evolved as we hoped.

“But, rather crushingly, within a very short period of time after we had lost the ability to protect against Max, after a long period of flat lap times with Lewis, his lap times turned south on us, and we experienced the same degradation as everybody else, turning us into a two-stop car along with everybody else, but having surrendered the position to Max in the first instance as a result of that false optimism that we could make this one-stop work.

“Whereas we definitely would have been better to cover him off because actually the raw pace of the car was good enough to compete on equal terms with him and if we had just done a two-stopper against his two-stopper, it could have been a different race.”

When to watch the Mexico City GP live only on Sky Sports F1

Thursday 26 October
9pm: Drivers’ Press Conference

Friday 27 October
7pm: Mexico City GP Practice One
8:45pm: The F1 Show
10:45pm: Mexico City GP Practice Two (also on Sky Sports Main Event)

Saturday 28 October
6.15pm: Mexico City GP Practice Three
9pm: Mexico City GP Qualifying build-up (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
10pm: Mexico City GP Qualifying (also on Sky Sports Main Event)

Sunday 29 October
6.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday Mexico City GP build-up (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
8pm: The MEXICO CITY GRAND PRIX (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
10pm: Chequered Flag: Mexico City GP

F1 heads straight to Mexico for the middle leg of the Americas triple header. Watch the whole Mexico City Grand Prix weekend live on Sky Sports F1 from Friday, with Sunday’s race at 8pm. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW

Max Verstappen picked up a hard-fought 50th win of his F1 career but didn’t get a friendly reception on the podium at the United States GP; watch every session from the Mexico City GP this weekend live on Sky Sports F1, beginning on Friday

Christian Horner has described any booing for Max Verstappen as “water off a duck’s back” after he was jeered by fans at the United States Grand Prix on Sunday.

Verstappen took his 50th F1 win to go one behind Alain Prost, who is fourth on the all-time winners rankings, and his third consecutive victory at the Circuit of The Americas.

However, he was booed as he lifted his trophy up by some of the spectators in Austin, a venue where Mexico’s Sergio Perez, Verstappen’s team-mate, has traditionally had strong support.

Asked about the booing ahead of this week’s Mexico City GP, Horner said: “I don’t think Max is going to get the warmest reception in Mexico! But that’s water off a duck’s back. One year you are the villain, the next year you are the hero.”

It was far from an easy race for Verstappen as he nursed a brake issue from the opening lap and crossed the line only 2.2 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

Verstappen was still able to make big moves on Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris though on his way to a record-equalling victory number 15 of 2023.

“We changed the brakes after yesterday and it was not good. I had no good feeling under braking and I couldn’t really get on top of it for the whole race, so this is something we need to understand,” he told Sky Sports F1.

“Of course, around here when you are not very confident under braking, you just don’t have the nice feeling under braking when you come off it. It can cost you quite a bit of lap time and it was a bit more difficult than I expected it to be. I normally never really struggle with braking so far in my F1 career, but it was definitely a bit of a problem.”

Verstappen comfortably undercut Hamilton at the first round of pit stops as Mercedes, perhaps wrongly, went long with their driver.

He chased down Norris on the mediums in the second stint and overtook him at the halfway point of the race. The Dutchman says his pace was a lot closer to the others compared to other races and he was not as confident compared to normal.

“Once I was in the lead, I think the gap was OK. But with a few laps ago there was some backmarkers and my tyres were not feeling that great,” said Verstappen.

“The hard tyre was not very good today. But I think the gap was just big enough and not too many laps left.”

Horner: Verstappen and Lambiase’s ‘marital bliss’ continues

Verstappen also had some fiery team radio exchanges with his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, known as GP, during the race in Austin.

The 26-year-old, who has a very straight-talking relationship with Lambiase, repeatedly told him to not speak in the braking zones.

Lambiase said on the radio that he would see Verstappen on Friday – when practice for the Mexico City Grand Prix begins live on Sky Sports F1 – which Horner explained.

“There marital bliss continues! Max is complaining about his brakes and GP is asking about his front wing offset,” said Horner.

“GP was always scheduled to go back to the UK after this race, so that’s why he had a plane to catch, which is why he said ‘see you on Friday’.”

Verstappen added: “We still won the race and that’s the most important thing. When you are struggling under braking and not that confident, I politely asked to not be spoken to. I said please when I asked!”

F1 heads straight to Mexico for the middle leg of the Americas triple header. Watch the whole Mexico City Grand Prix weekend live on Sky Sports F1 from Friday, with Sunday’s race at 8pm. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW

Reports claimed that Red Bull driver Sergio Perez could announce his retirement at the Mexican GP; watch the full United States GP weekend live on Sky Sports F1, with qualifying on Friday at 10pm , the Sprint on Saturday at 11pm, and then the Grand Prix at 8pm on Sunday

Sergio Perez says he has been “laughing” at rumours suggesting he could announce his retirement from Formula 1 at next weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix, and insists he is “100 per cent” sure of remaining with Red Bull next season.

Following the latest disappointing performance – at the Qatar Grand Prix – of what has been a hugely disappointing campaign for Perez, a report claimed the 33-year-old could announce the end of his career at his home race.

Perez is contracted to Red Bull until the end of the 2024 season, but his world champion team-mate Max Verstappen’s total domination over him has resulted in speculation over whether the team could opt to replace him at an earlier date.

“I also read that,” Perez said of the report, ahead of this weekend’s United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.

“I’m just laughing at it. There’s nothing I can do. I’m fully focused on the job.

“That really sums up my season. A guy says something about me, then all of a sudden it becomes true.

“But I have a contract for next year, and no reason to not complete that contract. I’m going to give my very best to it, I’ve done a commitment.”

Asked about his level of certainty at remaining with the team next season, Perez said he was “100 per cent” confident of being retained, citing conversations with team principal Christian Horner and Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko.

“I have a contract, and the conversations with the team as well,” he added. “There is no reason for me not to fulfil that contract.”

‘Red Bull contract not my last in F1’

After making a strong start to the season in which he shared two wins apiece with Verstappen in the opening four races, Perez has fallen 209 points back from his team-mate, a margin which means the Dutchman has sealed his third successive drivers’ title with five rounds to spare.

Perez admits his deficit to his team-mate has been challenging to deal with but insists he has not even considered retiring.

“It is difficult, of course. It’s not ideal when you go through a difficult patch in your career,” Perez said.

“But I just love the challenge of getting back at it.

“The easiest thing would be to just walk out of it, but that’s not me, that’s not who I am, and I will not give up.

“I have zero doubts that I will be back to my best level, and that is my only target I have in mind.

“I do not even think about retirement or anything like that, because that’s just the easy route.”

Perez also said that his current contract with Red Bull would not be his last in F1, but refused to confirm his openness to driving for another team.

“I’m not thinking on that (driving for another team), but I’m just enjoying it at the moment,” he said.

“I’m loving the challenge of getting back out of it. I’m 33, I think I’ve got some good years ahead of me, so I think as an athlete you want to maximise your career. That to me is important, and that’s my focus.

“I’m with Red Bull and I want to stay with Red Bull, but obviously it has to work out for both sides.”

When to watch the US GP and F1 Academy finale live only on Sky Sports F1

Friday October 20

• 2.15pm: F1 Academy Practice One
• 6pm: US GP Practice One (Session starts 6.30pm)
• 7.55pm: F1 Academy Practice Two
• 9pm: US GP Qualifying build-up
• 10pm: US GP Qualifying (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
• 11.30pm: F1 Academy Qualifying
• (Saturday) 12.30am: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook

Saturday October 21

• 3.30pm: F1 Academy Race One
• 6pm: US GP Sprint Shootout build-up
• 6:30pm: US GP Sprint Shootout
• 9.15pm: F1 Academy Race Two
• 10pm: US GP Sprint build-up
• 11pm: US GP SPRINT (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
• (Sunday) 12.30am: Ted’s Sprint Notebook

Sunday October 22

• 3.30pm: F1 Academy Race Three
• 6.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: US GP build-up
• 8pm: THE UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
• 10pm: Chequered Flag: US GP reaction
• 11pm: Ted’s Notebook

Watch Formula 1 return to Texas for the United States Grand Prix and another Sprint weekend live on Sky Sports F1 this weekend Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW

As Lando Norris and George Russell head to their 100th Grand Prix weekend, Sky Sports F1 look back at what has been a hugely entertaining start to the careers of the young Brits.

The pair came onto the grid as the next generation of British talent for when the great Lewis Hamilton retires, but now all three are competing at the front.

While they have been on their own journeys, following in the steps of and filling Hamilton’s boots are a recurring theme in both of their careers.

Norris the shining light McLaren needed

Norris arrived at McLaren to help turn the ‘GP2 engine’ frowns into papaya-soaked serotonin hits, and his injection of youth, speed and star power was precisely what McLaren needed to lead their climb towards the front of the F1 pack, where they belong.

McLaren were in a dark place in the late 2010s as they publicly fell out with their engine supplier Honda, with world champions Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso losing patience and leaving the sport entirely.

While they were not struggling quite so much when it came to car competitiveness, a fresh-faced Lewis Hamilton walked into a political storm as McLaren imploded with Alonso and then team boss Ron Dennis grating and ‘spy gate’ scandals – like Norris, Hamilton was the young shining light that gave the team and the fans a reason to cheer and believe.

This experience for both Hamilton and Norris forced them to mature quickly – they have been the team leader despite the arrival of more experienced big names such as Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo, and they are better drivers for it.

The other similarity to Hamilton that Norris has is his natural, quirky but genuine persona, engaging a global audience – he is a superstar by being himself.

Hamilton was a superstar in the early stages of his career because of the barriers he broke and the people he spent time with, however, he didn’t have the surroundings and confidence to be himself until he moved to Mercedes.

Norris, meanwhile, has entered F1 at a time where expressing your individuality is celebrated – thanks in a large part to Hamilton – which means that he can be his unreserved self, making him so appealing.

While the car helped, Hamilton’s ability to express himself arguably allowed him to unlock a new level of performance.

The fact that Norris has done this earlier in his career than Hamilton may allow him to grow more quickly as an individual and as a racing driver in the next 100 races.

Russell waiting in the wings for ‘too long’

Russell is impatient, he says he wants things “yesterday”, and that is because he knows he has the ability to mix it with the very best and he has had to be patient for most of his career.

Like Norris, he was quickly forced into a leadership position as the then Formula 2 champion joined struggling Williams alongside drivers that could not match his level – as much as he appreciated Williams, Russell quickly outgrew the team.

Russell maintains that he drove for Williams for “too long” – an assessment that Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has since admitted.

The reality is that Russell would normally have been in the car after one season, like Max Verstappen at Red Bull and Charles Leclerc at Ferrari – but Mercedes were going through a far from average period.

As the Silver Arrows and Lewis Hamilton dominated F1, one of the winning formulas was the partnership between Hamilton and the reliable, diplomatic and likeable Valtteri Bottas.

Hamilton has continued to maintain that Bottas was his favourite team-mate. So, as long as the championships came, the champion’s calls to keep Bottas were heeded.

In 2021, though, Russell’s talent was too glaring to ignore for Wolff, welcoming the King’s Lynn man to Brackley for 2022.

Russell will have understandably expected to at least have been picking up wins as he supported Hamilton in the fight for the eighth title, but things didn’t exactly go to plan.

Team-mate tensions on the horizon for both Brits?

Instead, Mercedes have had two years trying to find their way, taking away winning opportunities but allowing Russell to grow in experience and confidence – he is just as ready to fight for titles as Hamilton.

Arguably, Russell had his greatest season in 2022, outscoring Hamilton and winning whilst the seven-time world champion failed to do so for the first time in his career.

Only one team-mate can win the driver’s title, and that’s why Christian Horner says he wants to avoid having two alpha drivers – they take points away from one another.

If they can get into the position to fight for race wins, Mercedes need a clear driver to back, as shown in Qatar.

McLaren have a similar issue in the form of the superstar Norris and the raw but exciting Oscar Piastri.

Does Zak Brown back Norris, with whom he seems to have a very special relationship, or Piastri, for whom he fought so hard to sign?

Piastri and Russell will only get better as they look to assert themselves on their team-mates.

Norris obviously has youth on his side and will continue to blossom himself, but how he reacts to being challenged by his team-mate, something he hasn’t had since Carlos Sainz in 2020, will be fascinating to see, especially as McLaren appear to be the team closest to the almighty Red Bull machine.

Russell will be disappointed with this season’s results after such a positive 2022 in Mercedes.

However, on qualifying pace, he is matching Hamilton and heads into Austin 9-8 up – Russell also arguably came the closest to winning in Singapore.

The youngster is taking risks while he has nothing to lose, learning his limits for when a title is on the line – that is a dangerous challenge for Hamilton who is undoubtedly in the latter stages of his career.

There have been a few moments this season when the Mercedes pair clashed, but Qatar’s first corner shenanigans were by far the most explosive.

Mercedes will hope to keep a lid on it and McLaren will hope their drivers don’t get any ideas.

Both Norris and Russell have made impressive starts, but they have challenges to overcome if they want to become champion in their next hundred races – not least, on the other side of the garage.

How do Norris and Russell match up?

Let’s be clear – Russell’s three years in a Williams which rarely scored points will impact the head-to-head data.

Nevertheless, the numbers do point to the respective strengths of the drivers.

Norris nor Russell have had as much success in F1 as they would have liked, with Russell the only one to have tasted victory after his win in Brazil and those painful final laps for Norris in Sochi.

But sometimes winning is not everything, and this is very much the case in an era of F1 that has been dominated by Hamilton and now three-time world champion Max Verstappen.

The data points to Norris’ consistency being his greatest strength.

Norris has only failed to finish a race 10 times in 99 Grand Prix, scoring points an impressive 74 times.

For context, Russell has retired 16 times, Hamilton, one of the most consistent finishers in F1 history, retired 12 times in his first 99 races and Verstappen more than double with 21 times.

Of course, mechanical failures are not in the driver’s control, but Norris is rarely caught up in a crash, keeps his nose clean and generally delivers the best result possible in the car – that is invaluable for a team.

He also has one more podium than Russell, with 11 – five P2s and six P3s compared to Russell’s one win, two P2s and seven P3s.

Norris has yet to get his first win, but if he continues to maximise results, he will take the top step when the opportunity arises.

While Russell can be slightly less consistent, his ability to grab an opportunity shines through.

Whenever things are up in the air, who is the driver first to risk it on slicks on a drying track or call on his team to try an aggressive strategy?

Russell loves to go for it, and that has been the nature of his career in the uncompetitive Williams or Mercedes, desperate to overcome the might of Red Bull.

No wonder Russell snatched the opportunity to secure pole position and win in Brazil last year. Were it not for a puncture, he would have also clinched victory when parachuted into a Mercedes in Sakhir 2020.

This ability to snatch a chance with both hands is why Russell is beating Norris in the critical statistics of Grand Prix wins, pole positions.

Norris and Russell head into their hundredth race in Austin, having established themselves as two of the best on the F1 grid.

They are ready to take the baton from Hamilton as the top British driver, but they may have to wrestle it from the seven-time champion for longer than expected.

Watch Formula 1 return to Texas for the United States Grand Prix and another Sprint weekend live on Sky Sports F1 from October 20-22. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW

The 2023 Formula 1 season enters its final stage with a triple-header coming up; watch all sessions from another Sprint weekend at the US GP live on Sky Sports – Qualifying is at 10pm on Friday, Sprint at 11pm on Saturday and lights out for the Grand Prix at 8pm on Sunday

There might be no titles left to be won in Formula 1 2023 but there are still five race wins up for grabs, beginning with the United States Grand Prix this weekend.

Max Verstappen sealed the title last time out in Qatar, so attention turns to whether Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez can beat Lewis Hamilton to second place.

Pressure is increasing on Perez, who does have a contract to stay at Red Bull for 2024, after another disappointing weekend saw him retire from the Sprint and finish only 10th at the Qatar Grand Prix.

He holds a 30-point lead over Hamilton, who will be looking to bounce back from his collision with Mercedes team-mate George Russell.

Mercedes will bring a new floor to the car in Austin but are not expecting to make big strides in their bid to get close to Red Bull ahead of 2024.

Ferrari are only 28 points behind Mercedes in the battle for second in the constructors’ championship and McLaren got within 11 points of Aston Martin in the fight for fourth, thanks to another double podium for Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in Qatar.

For the first time in F1, there are consecutive Sprint weekends on the calendar so there will be competitive sessions for all three days on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

• Qualifying begins at 10pm on Friday, with build-up from 9:30pm
• Sprint Race starts at 11pm on Saturday, with build-up from 10pm
• United States Grand Prix gets under way at 8pm on Sunday, with build-up from 6.30pm

Watch F1 Academy finale live on Sky

Sky Sports F1 will also have live coverage of the F1 Academy finale from the Circuit of the Americas, where three races will decide the title.

Marta Garcia is the big favourite as she leads the championship by 48 points from Lena Buhler, with Hamda Al Qubaisi 56 points behind.

There are 67 points left up for grabs and you can practice, qualifying and every race alongside the F1 action this weekend.

• Qualifying begins at 11.30pm on Friday
• Race 1 is at 3.30pm on Saturday, with Race 2 at 9.15pm
• Race 3 takes place from 3.30pm on Sunday

When to watch the US GP and F1 Academy finale live only on Sky Sports F1

Thursday October 19

• 8pm: Drivers’ Press Conference

Friday October 20

• 2.15pm: F1 Academy Practice One
• 6pm: US GP Practice One (Session starts 6.30pm)
• 7.55pm: F1 Academy Practice Two
• 9pm: US GP Qualifying build-up
• 10pm: US GP Qualifying (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
• 11.30pm: F1 Academy Qualifying
• (Saturday) 12.30am: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook

Saturday October 21

• 3.30pm: F1 Academy Race One
• 6pm: US GP Sprint Shootout build-up
• 6:30pm: US GP Sprint Shootout
• 9.15pm: F1 Academy Race Two
• 10pm: US GP Sprint build-up
• 11pm: US GP SPRINT (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
• (Sunday) 12.30am: Ted’s Sprint Notebook

Sunday October 22

• 3.30pm: F1 Academy Race Three
• 6.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: US GP build-up
• 8pm: THE UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
• 10pm: Chequered Flag: US GP reaction
• 11pm: Ted’s Notebook

Watch Formula 1 return to Texas for the United States Grand Prix and another Sprint weekend live on Sky Sports F1 from October 20-22. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW

Max Verstappen will be looking to celebrate his 2023 title triumph with his 14th win this season at the Qatar Grand Prix.

Verstappen starts on pole position for the second ever F1 race in Qatar but will face a big challenge from the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell at the start.

It’s a long run down to Turn 1 and the Sprint showed the cleaner, left-hand side of the grid is where you want to be to get a good launch.

With Hamilton starting in third (on the left) and Russell in second (on the right), it could be the seven-time world champion who gets into the slipstream of Verstappen and goes for it in the first couple of corners, reminding us all of those feisty 2021 opening race exchanges.

“I’m battling the guy to the right of me for sure (Verstappen),” said Hamilton after qualifying on Friday at the Losail International Circuit.

“I’ll give it everything to try and fight him. Maybe like George said, maybe he will just disappear like he does in most of the other races, but maybe we’ll be able to fight. I’m trying to win the race. It doesn’t matter who I’m fighting against.”

However, he was less optimistic following Saturday’s Sprint when discussing his targets for the race.

Hamilton told Sky Sports F1: “I hope we can hold position. That would be amazing as a team. I think it will be difficult to beat the Red Bull. The goal is to keep the Ferraris behind and if there is any way of keeping the McLarens behind, we will do that. But it’s going to be a long race.”

Russell also suggested Hamilton and himself “are going to have to work together to make sure we get a strong result for the team”.

The last two events in Singapore and Japan have showed both Mercedes will race each other hard, so they need to ensure they don’t throw too many punches on the opening lap if they want to be ahead, or stay within touching distance.

Tyre degradation is going to be a big problem too – even without the FIA mandating three pit stops (more on that later) – so Mercedes will have two cards to play with up front.

Surprisingly, there were three Safety Cars in the Sprint, so Mercedes could split the strategy and some fortune for Hamilton or Russell with the timing of an accident could put Verstappen under a lot of pressure – if they keep him within sight.

F1 teams wait on FIA tyre ruling

In a throwback to the 2005 Indianapolis Grand Prix, tyres may become a major storyline in the race due to safety concerns over tyre wear.

Following analysis of the tyres used on Friday, in what was meant to be the sole practice session of the Sprint event, there were concerns from Pirelli over the impact the Losail International Circuit’s ‘pyramid’ kerbs are having.

In an attempt to reduce the impact, track limits at Turns 12-13 were revised, with the white line being moved inwards by 80cm, and an extra 10-minute ‘practice familiarisation’ took place ahead of the Sprint Shootout on Saturday.

Pirelli and the FIA have analysed tyre data from the Sprint, when the majority of drivers started on the medium tyres. Depending on the analysis, the FIA could enforce a mandatory three pit stop rule for Sunday’s 57-lap race, along with a maximum limit of 20 full laps run on any single new set of tyres.

The consensus from drivers is safety comes first although some think, including Russell, that it should be up to the teams to take a risk on pushing the limits of a tyre.

“At the end of the day, we all have the data. If you to a circuit like Barcelona, which is already a three-stop naturally, nobody would attempt a one-stop because we have the data to tell you a one-stop won’t work,” Russell told Sky Sports F1.

“Going into the Sprint Race, nobody had the data because we only did nine laps in a row in free practice. Now we have all got the data and it’s going to be clear what’s possible and I think it should just be down to the teams to judge and take the risk and the reward.”

In the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix in 2021, four drivers suffered punctures – Valtteri Bottas, Lando Norris, Nicholas Latifi and Russell himself.

Pirelli won’t want to see a repeat of that and the way the race goes will be critical for how things pan out.

Can McLaren fight through the field?

But what about McLaren? Friday setbacks leave Sprint stars with work to do.

As evidenced by their win and third place in the Sprint, McLaren’s strong form of recent races has absolutely transferred to Qatar’s Losail circuit but setbacks from Friday qualifying have left a sting in the tail for the start of Sunday.

Norris and Oscar Piastri had initially qualified second and fourth for Sunday’s grid but were eventually relegated to 10th and sixth respectively for separate track limits infringements in Q3.

Team boss Andrea Stella acknowledged they had “a lot of work ahead of us” to make up lost ground but were nonetheless “encouraged by the performance of the car”.

Norris, while unhappy with his own form so far this weekend following several untimely mistakes, believes the podium might not be out of the question from the fifth row.

“I just need to stay out of carnage. The first couple of corners are pretty sketchy. Depending on what tyres we start on, and so on, but the main thing is staying out of harm’s way the first few laps,” said Norris.

“We have the pace. I think we have reasonable degradation, maybe not the best, compared to the Red Bulls, but reasonable degradation. So, we want to score good points.

“I think we have pace to be on the podium but whether we can do it or not from P10 is going to be the question. So, it’s a long race, we don’t know what rules and stuff Pirelli are going to make us do with the tyres and things like that yet, but we’ll find out soon.”

Starting grid for Sunday’s Qatar GP

1. Max Verstappen, Red Bull
2. George Russell, Mercedes
3. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
4. Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
5. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
6. Oscar Piastri, McLaren
7. Pierre Gasly, Alpine
8. Esteban Ocon, Alpine
9. Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo
10. Lando Norris, McLaren
11. Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri
12. Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
13. Sergio Perez, Red Bull
14. Alex Albon, Williams
15. Nico Hulkenberg, Haas
16. Logan Sargeant, Williams
17. Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
18. Liam Lawson, AlphaTauri
19. Kevin Magnussen, Haas
20. Zhou Guanyu, Alfa Romeo

Sky Sports F1’s live Qatar Grand Prix schedule on Sunday

Sunday October 8

• 4.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Qatar GP build-up
• 6pm: THE QATAR GRAND PRIX
• 8pm: Chequered Flag: Qatar GP reaction
• 9pm: Ted’s Notebook

Watch Max Verstappen’s first race as a three-time world champion in the Qatar GP on Sunday live on Sky Sports F1. The race starts at 6pm with build-up from 4.30pm. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW for £21 a month for six months

Max Verstappen beats Mercedes duo George Russell and Lewis Hamilton to pole; Verstappen needs three points in Saturday’s sprint to seal drivers’ title; watch the Sprint Shootout live on Sky Sports F1 at 2pm on Saturday before the Sprint at 6.30pm

Max Verstappen took pole position for Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix in a dominant start to the event at which he appears certain to seal a third successive world championship.

Verstappen, who can clinch the drivers’ title with just three points in either Saturday’s Sprint or Sunday’s full-length contest, was comfortably clear of Mercedes duo George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in second and third, respectively.

McLaren’s Lando Norris appeared to be the only driver with the pace to challenge Verstappen, but the Brit exceeded track limits on both of his Q3 flying runs to end the session without a time and in 10th.

His team-mate Oscar Piastri was initially promoted to third by Norris’ demotion, but was then also found to have exceeded track limits on his final run and dropped to sixth.

Along with the Mercedes cars, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso benefitted to jump to fourth, while Charles Leclerc took fifth for Ferrari.

Leclerc’s team-mate Carlos Sainz’s strong form came to an abrupt end as the Spaniard made a surprise Q2 exit to qualify 12th, while Red Bull’s Sergio Perez’s disappointing campaign continued as he finished a place further back.

Qatar GP Qualifying result
1) Max Verstappen, Red Bull
2) George Russell, Mercedes
3) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
4) Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
5) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
6) Oscar Piastri, McLaren
7) Pierre Gasly, Alpine
8) Esteban Ocon, Alpine
9) Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo
10) Lando Norris, McLaren

More to follow…

Will Max Verstappen wrap up his third world championship at the first attempt at the Qatar GP? Watch every session of the Sprint weekend live on Sky Sports F1. Stream F1 and more with NOW for £21 a month for six months

Jessica Hawkins has opened up on her F1 test with Aston Martin, which saw her become the first woman to drive a Formula 1 car for five years; download and subscribe to the Sky Sports F1 Podcast via Spotify, Apple and Spreaker

Jessica Hawkins has spoken of her pride at helping advance opportunities for female drivers in motorsport after her recent test in Aston Martin’s F1 car.

Aston Martin’s driver ambassador and former W Series driver drove the team’s 2021 car in 26 laps at Budapest’s Hungaroring on September 21, becoming the first woman to test modern-day F1 machinery in five years.

Hawkins, who is playing a role with Aston Martin’s entry into the all-female F1 Academy series when all 10 F1 teams become involved next year, believes opportunities for female drivers are growing.

Speaking on the latest episode of the Sky Sports F1 Podcast, Hawkins said: “I often get asked why there are no women in F1. There are probably a variety of reasons but one of the main reasons is a numbers game.”

“If 5000 kids start karting across the world and only 10 of them are women, and people drop out along the way for many reasons like budget or they are not good enough, not passionate about it, or find other interests, by law of averages, of course you are not going to see a woman racing in F1.

“But what I think this will do is give visibility to the younger generation that we deserve a space and can do it, we are capable.

“I’m not just passionate about women in motorsport, but passionate about people being happy and following their dream.”

In an interview with Aston Martin’s website, the 28-year-old former British karting champion added: “Sometimes, I wish I was 20 years younger and starting out because I feel like there’s far more opportunity now, but I’m so happy that things have changed to give younger generations that opportunity.

“When I was a child, if I turned on the TV and watched F1, would I have come away thinking that women can drive F1 cars? Probably not. It’s all about visibility. If you can see it, you can be it.

“I’m proud to be driving female representation in motorsport forward. I hope that seeing me behind the wheel of an F1 car inspires future female racers and inspires people, male or female, to follow their dreams no matter what. Nothing should ever stop you from doing what you want to do, what you’re passionate about – what you love doing.”

“There are still things I want to achieve. If I can make it easier for future generations, help break down barriers and pave the way for them, then I’ll be happy.”

Although a handful of female drivers have driven in Grand Prix weekends since F1’s inception, most recently Susie Wolff in Friday practice sessions in 2014-15, only two have started a race. The last was Italy’s Lella Lombardi in 1976, who made 12 starts in total with a best result of sixth at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Hawkins has worked with several drivers during her time at Aston Martin including Sebastian Vettel, Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso, Felipe Drugovich and Stoffel Vandoorne.

The 28-year-old says all the drivers she’s worked with have been very helpful and enabled her to learn a lot during race weekends.

“It’s things they think about when they are on track and being clever, thinking outside the box. Their brain capacity is huge,” said Hawkins.

“Fernando has been doing it a long time and I feel like when you have driven any car for that amount of time, you have so much space for other things.”

Listen to more from Jessica Hawkins as she discusses breaking a world record, her short football playing career and more. Don’t miss an episode of the Sky Sports F1 Podcast. Subscribe now on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Spreaker

Will Max Verstappen wrap up his third world championship at the first attempt at the Qatar GP? Watch every session of the Sprint weekend live on Sky Sports F1 from October 6-8. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW. Cancel anytime

“I’m sure he’s got something they’re working on,” says Christian Horner of Toto Wolff’s Mercedes, who want fightback against Red Bull in 2024; Max Verstappen set to clinch F1 drivers’ title in Qatar, with first chance in the Sprint this Saturday at 6.30pm on Sky Sports F1

Red Bull boss Christian Horner envisages his Mercedes counterpart and rival Toto Wolff “plotting” how to get his team back to the front of Formula 1.

Speaking about Wolff in an interview with Sky Sports News, Horner said: “For me sport is about rivalry. It’s great to have rivalry.

“There has to be a respect, but sport isn’t sport without rivalry.

“Obviously we haven’t seen much of him the last couple of years but I’m sure he’s plotting. I’m sure he’s got something that they’re working on.

“They’re a great team. They are a big team. They have got great drivers. They’ll be looking to fight back.”

Red Bull have supplanted Mercedes over the past two seasons as F1’s dominant force.

Fresh from clinching the Constructors’ Championship last time out in Japan, Max Verstappen is poised to wrap up his third successive drivers’ crown at this weekend’s Qatar GP – most likely as early as Saturday’s Sprint, which starts at 6.30pm live on Sky Sports F1.

Before last year and F1’s big rules reset, Mercedes had won eight successive constructors’ titles in an unprecedented run of success.

They currently find themselves in a fight with Ferrari for second in the Constructors’ Championship with both giants having scored less than half of Red Bull’s points this year. Mercedes have however promised major changes for their 2024 car and Wolff, who will return to the paddock this weekend after not traveling to Japan due to knee surgery, said in Singapore they were “really looking at the results with an encouraging perspective” from the wind tunnel.

Horner saw Red Bull’s first wave of title success in 2010-13 brought to a shuddering halt by Mercedes nine years ago at the dawn of F1’s new hybrid turbo engines and, having taken time to recover to title success, he said: “It hurts when you’re losing and if it doesn’t hurt then you shouldn’t be doing it.

“We had a long period, six to seven seasons, of hurt, of being the bridesmaid. But we never lost sight of where we wanted to be. We were the team to break that [Mercedes] domination, and everything goes in cycles.

“At some point somebody will beat us.

“Now, whether it’s Mercedes, or Ferrari, or McLaren, or Aston Martin, or whoever, we don’t know. But all we can control is what we’re doing. So that’s what we’re focused on, is ourselves.”

Verstappen set for Saturday title win | Horner: ‘He’s proud of what he’s doing’

For now, there appears no stopping the Red Bull juggernaut.

They followed up their sudden slump in form and first Sunday defeat of 2023 in Singapore with one of their most impressive showings a week later at Suzuka, where Verstappen swept to his 13th victory of the season and the team’s 15th.

Verstappen is set to be crowned 2023’s champion in Qatar with the Dutchman requiring just a sixth-place finish in Saturday’s 19-lap Sprint to be sure of wrapping things up even before Sunday’s Grand Prix.

Asked how he felt about the unusual prospect of winning a title on a Saturday, Horner said: “We don’t care when we win it – as long as we win it.

“It’s about getting that trophy, getting that third title to his name. The fact that it’s done in Qatar on a Saturday evening would make Sunday even more enjoyable to go into that grand prix, if he achieves it, as a three-time world champion. So I don’t think it really matters.”

Asked if Verstappen, who turned 26 on Saturday, had the potential to eventually set a new record for F1 title wins, Horner stressed that “eight is a huge amount of distance away”.

He said that while Verstappen is proud of what he achieving, he is always focused forward and on the short term.

“There are not many drivers with more than three [titles]. You’ve got Sebastian [Vettel], Alain Prost, [Juan-Manuel] Fangio, Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton,” said Horner.

“It’s a pretty select club he’ll enter when he wins his third world title.

“For him, he’s just an out-and-out racer. I know he’s proud of what he’s doing and achieving, but he’s forward-looking. He’s not rearward looking and I think that for him it’s about the next race.

“There is still six races to go this year and I know he’s motivated to try and win all of them.”

When to watch the Qatar GP live only on Sky Sports F1

Thursday October 5

• 4pm: Drivers’ Press Conference

Friday October 6

• 2pm: Qatar GP Practice One (Session starts 2.30pm)
• 5pm: Qatar GP Qualifying build-up
• 6pm: Qatar GP Qualifying
• 8pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook

Saturday October 7

• 1.30pm: Sprint Shootout build-up
• 2pm: Sprint Shootout
• 5.30pm: Sprint build-up
• 6.30pm: SPRINT
• 8pm: Ted’s Sprint Notebook

Sunday October 8

• 4.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Qatar GP build-up
• 6pm: THE QATAR GRAND PRIX
• 8pm: Chequered Flag: Qatar GP reaction
• 9pm: Ted’s Notebook

Will Max Verstappen wrap up his third world championship at the first attempt at the Qatar GP? Watch every session of the Sprint weekend live on Sky Sports F1 from October 6-8. Stream every F1 race and more with NOW for £21 a month for six months

Max Verstappen claimed a dominant victory in an otherwise action-packed Japanese GP as Red Bull were crowned constructors’ champions for a sixth time.

After narrowly holding onto the lead ahead of Lando Norris at the first corner, pole-sitter Verstappen eased to victory by 19 seconds.

Verstappen’s 26 points mean that Red Bull can no longer be caught by Mercedes and Ferrari and are the first team to wrap up the Constructors’ Championship with six races remaining.

Norris finished second ahead of McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri, who secured his first podium finish in Formula 1.

Charles Leclerc was fourth for Ferrari for the third consecutive race ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who twice battled wheel to wheel with Mercedes team-mate George Russell and did a brave overtake on old rival Fernando Alonso at 130R.

Carlos Sainz was sixth in the other Ferrari ahead of Russell, who had to settle for seventh having attempted to make a one-stop strategy work but slipped back in the closing stages.

Alonso was eighth for Aston Martin while Alpine secured a double points finish with Pierre Gasly ninth and Esteban Ocon 10th.

While Verstappen single-handedly delivered Red Bull their world title, it was a miserable afternoon for team-mate Sergio Perez who twice had to pit for new front wings after contact with Hamilton and Kevin Magnussen and then twice retired from the race.

Perez’s failure to score points means Verstappen now holds a 177-point lead at the top of the Drivers’ Championship and could be crowned world champion in the Sprint race at the Qatar GP next time out.

Japanese GP result
1) Max Verstappen, Red Bull
2) Lando Norris, McLaren
3) Oscar Piastri, McLaren
4) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
5) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
6) Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
7) George Russell, Mercedes
8) Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
9) Pierre Gasly, Alpine
10) Esteban Ocon, Alpine

How Verstappen ensured Red Bull wrapped up long-expected title

At lights out pole-sitter Verstappen immediately moved across to cover Piastri but that created an opening to give Norris a glimpse of the lead from third but Verstappen just had enough grip to hold onto the lead through Turns 1 and 2.

After acing an early Safety Car restart, Verstappen was never threatened as he cruised out front to win comfortably by nearly 20 seconds.

While Piastri had at one point reclaimed second place by being able to pit under a Virtual Safety Car, McLaren told him to let Norris by to see off any threat of the one-stopping Russell.

It has long looked a formality that Red Bull would be back-to-back world champions with the RB19 in a class of its own throughout the season.

Verstappen’s win at Suzuka was the 15th by the team this year, with last week’s race in Singapore the only blemish on the otherwise unbeaten record in 2023.

The 2023 season has seen Red Bull surpass McLaren’s 1988 record for most consecutive wins – setting new benchmarks of 14 straight wins within a season and 15 consecutive victories overall.

With six races remaining, Red Bull will now be looking to surpass Mercedes’ record for most wins in a single season which stands at 19 from 2016.

Verstappen meanwhile will have his first opportunity to wrap up his third consecutive world championship at the Qatar GP, with the Sprint weekend next up from October 6-8.

Perez’s travails means Verstappen could be crowned champion on the Saturday of that weekend. His contact with Hamilton had been a cause of the opening lap Safety Car and after further damage when making a desperate overtake attempt on Magnussen, the Mexican first retired on lap 15.

He re-emerged briefly on lap 39 in order for Red Bull to let him serve his five-second penalty for the Magnussen collision, before exiting the race again on lap 42.

Hamilton offers thrills as Russell left unhappy

Perez and Hamilton had touched while going four-wide with the two Ferraris into the first corner, while Alex Albon’s Williams was sent briefly airborne by an Alfa Romeo at the start.

On the first full lap of racing, Russell got past team-mate Hamilton at the final chicane to take seventh place but back came the seven-time world champion and despite losing parts of his car after the earlier damage, Hamilton reclaimed the position at Turn One as the two Mercedes nearly touched.

On lap 16, the Mercedes pair duelled again after Hamilton went wide at Degner Two allowing Russell to close back up to him.

They were alongside each other through Spoon corner and nearly touched wheels again as both ran wide but Hamilton held on, prompting Russell to ask “are we fighting each other or the others?”.

While Russell opted for ‘Plan B’ of a one-stop, Hamilton soon pitted and then produced a brave overtake on Alonso at 130R before swooping past Ocon’s Alpine at Turn One as he made his way forwards again.

Russell’s strategy saw him holding onto fourth with eight laps remaining, but Leclerc pulled off a brave move around the outside of Turn 2 before Mercedes asked the Brit to move aside for team-mate Hamilton.

Russell wanted to wait until the final lap, but duly let Hamilton through at Turn One with four laps to go before complaining his team-mate was not helping him defend against Sainz. “If you want to play the team game…he pushed me off the track earlier,” Russell said on the radio.

Sainz duly overtook Russell a lap later but ran out of time to take fifth off Hamilton.

What’s next?

After a two-week break, Formula 1 returns to the Losail Circuit for the second-ever Qatar Grand Prix from October 6-8.

The Sprint weekend offers Max Verstappen his first chance to wrap up the Drivers’ Championship and become a three-time world champion.

The Dutchman requires an advantage of at least 146 points to be crowned champion in Qatar.

Will Max Verstappen wrap up his third world championship at the first attempt at the Qatar GP? Watch every session of the Sprint weekend live on Sky Sports F1 from October 6-8. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW. Cancel anytime

AlphaTauri finally confirm both their drivers for F1 2024, with Daniel Ricciardo staying alongside Yuki Tsunoda; Liam Lawson misses out on race seat; watch the Japanese GP on Sky Sports F1 this weekend, with Saturday qualifying at 7am and Sunday’s race at 6am

Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda will continue to drive for AlphaTauri next season.

Liam Lawson, who has impressively filled in for the injured Ricciardo at the last three grands prix and remains in the car in Japan, will be reserve and simulator driver for both of Red Bull’s F1 teams and “attend all the races full time”.

AlphaTauri announced the news ahead of Sunday’s Japanese GP, Tsunoda’s home race, and means there is just one seat left up for grabs on the 2024 F1 grid, at Williams.

Tsunoda will continue at the team into a fourth season, while Ricciardo will have a full season back on the grid as he bids to achieve what he already acknowledged as his “dream” of moving back to the senior Red Bull team in 2025.

“I’m stoked to be driving with Yuki again next year and continuing the journey with Scuderia AlphaTauri,” Ricciardo said of his new deal.

“Following the progress we have already made and the plans for the future, it’s an exciting time for the team. We are building and it is a great feeling. There is a lot of work to do, but we are heading in the right direction and there is a lot to look forward to. Bring on 2024!”

Tsunoda said: “I’m looking forward to continuing to fight and collaborate with the team and Daniel. Obviously, I’ll push as much as possible for the rest of the season and beyond, to progress as a driver. I’m grateful for Red Bull and Honda, for continuing to support and believe in me, and very happy and thankful to continue the partnership.”

Ricciardo returned to AlphaTauri at the Hungarian GP after Dutchman Nyck de Vries was axed just 10 races into his rookie season.

But the Australian broke his hand during a crash in practice at the Dutch GP from which he is still recovering from and won’t return until at least the Qatar GP in two weeks’ time.

The following race after that is in the United States on October 22 and, speaking at Suzuka on Friday, AlphaTauri engineer Jonathan Eddolls said that “we are still talking a while away” in terms of when Ricciardo returns.

Red Bull junior Lawson has put in three impressive drives in Ricciardo’s absence, securing his first points in F1 with a ninth-place finish at last week’s Singapore GP – AlphaTauri’s best result of the season.

Tsunoda currently sits 17th in the Drivers’ Championship with three points from three 10th-place finishes this season.

The Japanese driver has failed to complete a racing lap in the last two Grands Prix after pulling over to the side on the formation lap of the Italian GP and then retiring on the opening lap of the Singapore GP after contact with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.

AlphaTauri CEO Peter Bayer said: “We are in a privileged position, where we have access to multiple great talents from the Red Bull world.

“Both Daniel and Yuki have not just shown fantastic race craft but are also great global ambassadors for our team and our sport. Liam put himself in the spotlight of F1 in only three races and I am very happy that we can continue to prepare him for his future.”

AlphaTauri are bottom of the Constructors’ Championship with five points with seven rounds of the 2023 season remaining. They are five points behind ninth-placed Alfa Romeo and seven points behind eighth-placed Haas.

The team will have a new name next season and work more closely with reigning world champions Red Bull.

Laurent Mekies, formerly Ferrari’s sporting director, will become AlphaTauri’s team principal next year.

The only other opening remaining on the grid for 2024 is at Williams where Alex Albon’s team-mate has yet to be confirmed.

Watch every Formula 1 race live on Sky Sports F1. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW. Cancel anytime

George Russell left to reflect on “heart-breaking” end to his charge for Mercedes’ first win of the season at Marina Bay; Mercedes say ceding track position and going for the win on fresher tyres was the right way to go in attempt to break Singapore strategy stalemate

A visibly-emotional George Russell said he felt as though he had “let myself and the team down” after the Mercedes driver’s thrilling late pursuit of victory ended with a crash into the barriers on the final lap of a dramatic Singapore Grand Prix.

In a breathless end to the race as four drivers vied for victory – including both Mercedes’ after second pit stops for newer tyres – Russell was hounding second-placed Lando Norris but tagged the wall on the entry to Turn 10 and went straight on and out of the race.

The Briton’s ultimate sights had been on the next car ahead, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who was staging an expert rear-guard action out front but would have been vulnerable to losing the win to the Mercedes man had Russell got past Norris in time.

“I think we were half a car’s length from winning the race,” Russell told Sky Sports F1.

“Had I got past Lando when I had the opportunity, I think we would have been able to get past Carlos.

“Then just the last lap, a millimetre lapse of concentration and game over. So just sorry to the whole team.

“It was a really challenging race, the tyres were dropping off and you are pushing the limits. That’s how racing should be, you make a small mistake and you are bitten for it.

“It’s heart-breaking after such a great weekend – the car has felt great, qualifying was great, the race was great, we were bold with the strategy.

“I feel like I let myself and the team down. It’s tough but we will come back.”

Mercedes have no regrets on strategy gamble | ‘We took the risk’

Having qualified on the front row next to the polesitting Sainz, Russell dropped behind the other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc at the start – and also briefly behind his own team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who had to give the place back for going off track – but regained his grid spot after a Safety Car triggered the first round of pit stops.

Russell then ran close behind the Ferrari until Mercedes used the appearance of a Virtual Safety Car to cede track position with both their cars and gamble on switching to the new sets of medium tyres they had kept back from earlier in the weekend.

On their return to the track in fourth and fifth, Russell and Hamilton were immediately much faster than the leaders, quickly re-passed Leclerc, and then caught up the closely-matched top two to set up a stunning chase over the closing laps.

And while the strategy ultimately didn’t even result in regaining the second place that Russell had vacated, Toto Wolff said the team had been right to go on the attack for what would have been their own first victory of the season.

“Super that Lewis is on the podium. He had a brilliant race and and had pace at the end,” said Wolff to Sky Sports F1. “Just a shame for George because he worked hard for that.

“It was so difficult to win the race if we were just static. So, we said let’s go for it and we just went for it and in the end it’s a podium for Lewis and that’s great,” he said.

“I don’t think we would have been able to win (by staying out during the VSC), that’s why we took the risk. We knew worst case it was third and fifth, best case the win.

“When we came out with several laps, it (the data) showed first and second.”

Get ready to set those early alarms as Formula 1 now heads to Suzuka for the Japanese GP. Watch all sessions live on Sky Sports F1 from September 22-24. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW. Cancel anytime

Toto Wolff says Mercedes “are looking from the sidelines with curiosity” at Felipe Massa’s legal challenge over 2008 world championship; Massa is seeking to get 2008 Singapore GP result annulled due to the Crashgate scandal; Massa lost out on the 2008 title by one point to Lewis Hamilton

Toto Wolff says Mercedes are following Felipe Massa’s legal case around the 2008 world championship “with interest” as the outcome will “set a precedent”.

Massa lost the 2008 title by one point to Lewis Hamilton, who drove for McLaren at the time, and the Brazilian is developing a legal case arguing that the result of that year’s Singapore GP should be annulled due to the ‘Crashgate’ scandal, whereby Renault told Nelson Piquet Jr to crash intentionally to benefit his team-mate Fernando Alonso, who eventually won.

Massa sought legal advice after former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone was quoted in March as saying he and former FIA president Max Mosley knew in 2008 that Piquet’s crash was deliberate but had not acted.

F1’s regulations state that the season’s results are final once the world championship trophy is handed out at the end-of-season prize-giving awards.

Speaking on Friday, Wolff said the case was “interesting to follow” for Mercedes.

“Clearly not something that anybody saw coming,” Wolff said in Singapore.

“The rule is pretty clear in Formula 1. There’s a civil case behind it, it will certainly set a precedent whatever it is.

“We are looking from the sidelines with curiosity.”

That curiosity is how the outcome could influence any action from Mercedes over Lewis Hamilton’s controversial title loss to Max Verstappen in 2021.

Hamilton lost the title on the final lap of the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP after race director Michael Masi contravened F1 regulations with his handling of the late Safety Car and his allowing of one final racing lap between Verstappen and Hamilton.

Masi called the Safety Car back into the pit lane without it having completed an additional lap as required by the Formula 1 Sporting Regulations and only allowed the five lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to unlap themselves and not all lapped cars.

Verstappen, on fresh tyres, subsequently overtook Hamilton on the race’s final lap to claim the race win and world title.

Mercedes withdrew their appeal against the race result ahead of the 2021 prize-giving ceremony, with Verstappen subsequently confirmed as champion.

In March last year, the FIA confirmed “human error” was a factor in the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP title controversy, but said race director Masi acted in “good faith” and the results from the race and championship are “valid”.

Pressed on his curiosity and race management influencing a race result and whether the 2021 title outcome could be reopened if Massa’s case proved successful, Wolff replied: “The FIA commented on the 2021 race with a clear statement.

“So that is why we are looking at it with interest.”

Speaking on Thursday, Hamilton said of Massa’s legal case: “I’m really not focused on what happened 15 years ago or two years ago.

“I’m focused on right now and how to help my team build towards winning another world championship and the future.”

Sky Sports F1’s live Singapore GP schedule

Saturday September 16
10.15am: Singapore GP Practice Three (session starts at 10.30am)
1pm: Singapore GP Qualifying build-up
2pm: Singapore GP Qualifying
3.45pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook

Sunday September 17
11.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Singapore GP build-up
1pm: THE SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX
3pm: Chequered Flag: Singapore GP reaction
4pm: Ted’s Notebook

Next up for the F1 circus are the stunning streets of Singapore under the lights. All sessions from the Singapore GP will be live on Sky Sports F1 this weekend. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW. Cancel anytime

In 2021, Mercedes controversially lost the drivers’ championship for the first time in eight years; Max Verstappen went head to head with Lewis Hamilton in one of the most dramatic seasons in F1’s history; watch the Singapore GP live on Sky Sports F1 starting this Friday

Toto Wolff has suggested the 2021 Formula 1 regulations were made to hurt Mercedes, which was one reason why they lost the drivers’ championship.

Mercedes entered 2021 on the back of a record-equalling seventh world title for Lewis Hamilton but soon realised they would face a big fight with Red Bull and Max Verstappen.

In mid-2020, changes to the floor regulations were announced for the 2021 season which saw limits to the floor in a bid to slow down the cars and reduce downforce.

These changes appeared to hurt the low-rake cars the most, including Mercedes and Aston Martin. Hamilton controversially lost the drivers’ title on the last lap of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to Verstappen following a late-race safety car.

“We lost the 2021 drivers’ championship for many reasons. One was the final race. But we also lost it because those regulations were set in place in order reduce the advantage we had,” explained Wolff.

“2020 had been a super dominant year for us. I think it was the best car we ever had. Then, towards the end of the season, they changed the regulations by cutting the floor and that was to stop us.

“We saw the results in 2021, we were not as competitive as Red Bull was but at Silverstone we unlocked more potential of the car and got ourselves back into the championship. These regulations were targeted to reset the pecking order.”

Wolff: F1 can’t be WWE

Mercedes were the last team to beat Red Bull – at last year’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix – and since then, the Milton Keynes-based outfit have won an unprecedented 15 races in a row.

Verstappen is setting new records himself as he is on course to set new benchmarks for the most wins and podiums in a season. He has already made history with the most consecutive victories for a driver and is looking to add to his 10 straight wins this weekend at the Singapore Grand Prix – live on Sky Sports F1.

Mercedes went through their own dominant seasons between 2014 and 2016, plus 2020, when they were clearly in a league of their own.

Wolff says it is up to Mercedes to catch up, rather than rules being changed to slow down a dominant team.

“As a team principal, I don’t want to jump on the bandwagon that others have done in the past of saying ‘we need to change the regulations because we can’t continue with the dominance of a team’,” he said.

“If a team dominates in the way Max has done with Red Bull then it’s fair dues. This is a meritocracy. As long as you comply with the regulations, technical sporting and financial, you just need to say ‘well done’. It’s up to us to catch up and if that takes a long time, then it takes a long time.

“I remember people crying foul when it was us. Entertainment follows sport and not the other way around. We can’t be WWE, with scripted content. We don’t want to be scripted content.”

Sky Sports F1’s live Singapore GP schedule

Friday September 15
10am: Singapore GP Practice One (session starts at 10.30pm)
1.45pm: Singapore GP Practice Two (session starts at 2pm)
3.30pm: The F1 Show

Saturday September 16
10.15am: Singapore GP Practice Three (session starts at 10.30am)
1pm: Singapore GP Qualifying build-up
2pm: Singapore GP Qualifying
3.45pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook

Sunday September 17
11.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Singapore GP build-up
1pm: THE SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX
3pm: Chequered Flag: Singapore GP reaction
4pm: Ted’s Notebook

Next up for the F1 circus are the stunning streets of Singapore under the lights. All sessions from the Singapore GP will be live on Sky Sports F1 from September 15-17. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW. Cancel anytime