The Australian showed touches of real quality to win in Shanghai but Max Verstappen is still making mistakesDaniel Ricciardo’s skill at overtaking was never in doubt but his remarkable performance in China was confirmation of just how far he is willing…
• Comments come as plans emerge for inaugural women-only series in 2019 • Wolff says event is ‘giving up on the mission’ of women competing in F1Toto Wolff, the Mercedes F1 executive director, believes a single-gender motor racing championship would “u…
• Williams technical officer insists the sport is hamstrung by financial disparity• ‘There are two completely different races going on,’ he saysThat both Formula One titles have already been decided should not detract from what is usually the glorious …
• Massa forced to withdraw before qualifying because of illness
• Di Resta’s last Formula One race was for Force India in 2013
The British driver Paul di Resta will replace Felipe Massa in the Williams for the Hungarian Grand Prix after the Brazilian had to withdraw because of sickness. It marks a return to Formula One for the Williams reserve driver whose last race was for Force India in Brazil in 2013.
Related: Charles Leclerc tipped to be next shooting star of F1 | Giles Richards
The 18-year-old Williams driver must win points soon to silence the critics who believe he should justify his place on the grid beyond his father’s billions
“The haters will always hate,” says Lance Stroll with a passivity that almost certainly belies the fact he knows there is more weight to the phrase than its throwaway juvenilia suggests.
The 18-year-old Canadian rookie is already under intense pressure and about to face his toughest test on the streets of Monaco. How he comes through it will determine whether he can give his critics reason to reassess.
• Herbert urges Liberty Media to stand up to threats by big teams to leave
• ‘You need distribution of payments across the board,’ says former driver
Formula one’s biggest teams should not be allowed to bully the sport’s new owners into financial arrangements that hurt the smaller squads, according to the former driver Johnny Herbert.
Related: Why F1 must fight to restore the Nürburgring to the calendar | Giles Richards
• Lowe set to join Williams as a group technical director
• Former Ferrari technical director James Allison to replace Lowe
Paddy Lowe has left his role as Mercedes executive director, the Formula One team have announced.
Related: Silverstone alternatives steer clear of bids for F1 British Grand Prix
• Brazilian would make move if Valtteri Bottas departs to Mercedes
• Williams hinted last week that they could let Bottas join Mercedes
Felipe Massa has reportedly agreed to come out of retirement to rejoin Williams next season, if Valtteri Bottas departs to replace the retired Nico Rosberg at Mercedes.
The 35-year-old Brazilian announced his retirement in September and brought the curtain down on his 14 years in Formula One at the end of the 2016 campaign, but now seems set for a U-turn.
• Former world champion not keen on Fernando Alonso reunion
• Williams now open to Valtteri Bottas’s exit
Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes must consult him on who should replace Nico Rosberg next season but warned them against signing a big name like Fernando Alonso.
Mercedes have identified Valtteri Bottas, currently under contract at Williams, as their preferred choice to replace the recently retired world champion, Rosberg, but the team’s head of motorsport, Toto Wolff, admitted Hamilton’s former McLaren team-mate Alonso – with whom he endured a frosty relationship in 2007 – should be considered.
• Former world champion not keen on Fernando Alonso reunion
• Williams now open to Valtteri Bottas’s exit
Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes must consult him on who should replace Nico Rosberg next season but warned them against signing a big name like Fernando Alonso.
Mercedes have identified Valtteri Bottas, currently under contract at Williams, as their preferred choice to replace the recently retired world champion, Rosberg, but the team’s head of motorsport, Toto Wolff, admitted Hamilton’s former McLaren team-mate Alonso – with whom he endured a frosty relationship in 2007 – should be considered.
• Hamilton says team are going to be stronger after talks
• Mercedes make Valtteri Bottas No1 target to replace Nico Rosberg
Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff have declared their partnership will be stronger than ever next year at Mercedes.
The former world champion and Mercedes’ head of motorsport seemed to be at odds at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as Hamilton defied team orders in his attempt to snatch the Formula One drivers’ title off team-mate Nico Rosberg.
The former team principal, responsible in his day for 20 F1 world titles, is working with Liberty Media and would be receptive to an approach offering a full-time role to help revitalise the sport which has made up a big part of his life
“The process of improving Formula One tends to be done on a crisis-by-crisis basis – rather than as a continuous plan,” Ross Brawn says as he considers the possibility of returning to the struggling sport he loves. Brawn played an integral role in winning 20 world championships – including 10 constructors’ titles for Williams, Benetton, Ferrari and Brawn GP, and a matching number of drivers’ championships during a 40-year career.
“That success has been because of a methodical approach which asks: ‘Where do we want to be next year – and in three years?’” the former team principal explains. “I identify the objectives and put together the teams to achieve those aims. For me, Formula One has never had that vision. It’s never done the analysis to understand what spectators want. A complex series of demands are made on the sport but the enthusiast is at the core. If we don’t make it exciting, and we don’t have the fans tuning in or going to the races, we haven’t got much of a sport. But there is no strategy to develop Formula One.”
• ‘He’s had a tough time but is making a recovery,’ says Williams chief executive
• Daughter Claire is not at Mexico Grand Prix but at her father’s side
Sir Frank Williams, team principal and founder of the Williams Formula One team, is in hospital recovering from pneumonia.
The 74-year-old, who established Williams as a grand prix constructor in the 1970s, has guided the British team to seven drivers’ titles and nine constructors’ championships. He is recognised as the world’s oldest surviving tetraplegic following a car crash in 1986.
• Di Resta takes up role behind Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa
• Scot to combine Williams role with touring car racing series
Williams have announced that Paul Di Resta will join the team as official reserve driver for the new Formula One season which gets under way in Melbourne this weekend.
The 29-year-old former Force India driver takes on the role behind drivers Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa and he will initially spend time getting fully accustomed to the controls and procedures of the Williams Mercedes FW38.
Mercedes and Ferrari have both impressed but smaller teams such as Force India and Manor are set to make things more competitive further down the grid
Watching testing in Formula One is akin to being trapped in the middle of a speech by Donald Rumsfeld. The former US defence secretary, who might be described as pellucid when placed beside the politicians who infest F1, talked about known knowns, known unknowns and then unknown unknowns – things we don’t know we don’t know. Quite.
Testing is a smokescreen multiplied by 11 teams, a sleight of greasy hand, a noisy dissimulation, a study in agonistic behaviour. When it is all over, few people are any wiser.
• FW38 features fresh sidepods and air intakes
• ‘Only winning will ever be good enough’ says Frank Williams
Williams, the cruiserweight Formula One team that consistently mixes it with the heavyweights, reckon they have solved their problems coping with wet conditions and slow-speed corners.
The Grove-based team, which on Friday became the first F1 outfit to reveal details of their new car, think they have addressed their weaknesses of recent seasons.
Silverstone gamble pays off as circuit bucks trend to pull in a crowd, Williams finally join the F1 party and Aston Martin look for a way backThe Silverstone race is not only one of the biggest occasions in Formula One but also in the entirety of sport…
Superb drives from Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas at Silverstone signalled that Williams are on the verge of becoming serious players again
The British fans at Silverstone had the winner they wanted in Lewis Hamilton but they were treated to one of the best races of the season largely courtesy of the resurgence of another much-loved home-grown racing operation in the form of Williams. For a time it even looked like the world champion would be denied his third victory here by the team that have not won the British Grand Prix since 1997 – also the last year they won the title.
When Felipe Massa made a blistering start and passed Hamilton and Nico Rosberg from third on the grid and his team-mate Valtteri Bottas claimed second after Hamilton had overcooked it trying to pass Massa following a brief safety car period, the unthinkable had happened and there was a Williams rather than a Mercedes one-two at the front of a Grand Prix in 2015. It was the shot in the arm the sport so needed and for 20 laps the glory days of the Oxfordshire-based team, which has won seven drivers’ world championships, were suddenly stronger, sharper memories. Although the two Mercedes were keeping them within arms length, the chance that they might claim a memorable home win seemed truly possible.
