F1 is waiting anxiously to see if new regulations can end what feels like a period of stagnation. Most of all, the sport would like to see Mercedes face stiffer competitionLewis Hamilton looked pretty pleased with life as he spoke at the launch of his new Mercedes Formula One car on Thursday, but it was hard to know whether his relaxed, chatty demeanour was caused by good feelings resulting from a few exploratory laps earlier in the day or by the need to put on a cheerful face for the 50,000 fans tuning in to the Instagram feed from his iPhone, which was propped on a nearby table to provide live monitoring of the press conference. Related: Fernando Alonso reveals...
The Spice Girls launched a new era for McLaren 20 years ago. In contrast next week’s event will be low key but hopefully it will herald a change in fortunesTwenty years ago this week McLaren celebrated a new look for their F1 car with positively decadent abandon. Five thousand guests were at Alexandra Palace to be entertained by the Spice Girls and Jamiroquai and to watch the unveiling of the MP4-12 and the new silver and black livery that would replace the red and white that had become synonymous with the team over the previous 22 years. Related: F1 to return to France in 2018 as McLaren say Fernando Alonso happy at team Continue reading...
Changes aim to produce faster cars offering other teams the chance to close the gap on Mercedes but Mark Webber and Patrick Head inject a dose of realityDuring the period of inventive speculation that characterises Formula One’s pre-season before the first test in Barcelona, there has been a sense that the new rules for 2017 really might reinvigorate the competition after three years of dominance by Mercedes.Step forward then on Tuesday Mark Webber, with a reminder of some of the stark realities of the new era – that power, the cornerstone of the German marque’s success, remains paramount. Related: F1 needs brains, not just Brawn, to end Ecclestone-induced malaise | Richard Williams Related: Why F1 must fight to restore the...
One of the most iconic – and challenging – race tracks in the world, the Nürburgring needs bringing back by F1’s new owners, as a new film makes clear“No race track ever built is as challenging and there is no greater race to win,” offers Sir Jackie Stewart with the conviction of a man who has faced down that challenge and won. He is talking about the Nürburgring, specifically the Nordschleife – 14 miles and 160 corners when Stewart was driving – which soars and dips through 300m of elevation changes in the forests of the Eifel mountains, as brutally unforgiving as it is awe-inspiring. It was Stewart, a winner three times between 1968 and 1973, who dubbed it “The...
Bernie Ecclestone left many problems when he was removed as Formula One chief executive but most pressing is the need to improve the actual racingLet’s face it: anything is better than Bernie Ecclestone, who used to say that money didn’t matter but was “just a way of keeping score”. Nobody believed him. The cash he extracted from Formula One over four decades of close involvement paid for the vast ski chalet in Gstaad, the villa on Sardinia’s Costa Smeralda, the ranch in Brazil, the executive jet, the lifestyles of his remarkable daughters – one living in a £75m house in Kensington Palace Gardens, the other in a $85m mansion in the hills above Los Angeles – and a £740m divorce...