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...
A predicted understudy role would take the pressure off the Finn but with the F1 drivers’ market opening up at the end of 2017, he is likely to come out fightingWith 10 years in Formula One and three world championships under his belt there is little that will unnerve Lewis Hamilton, even entering a season which brings the biggest rule shakeup for two decades. But while taking the wheel of a new car is a challenge the British driver will relish, adapting to his new Mercedes team-mate, Valtteri Bottas, may be more of a concern. Related: F1: Valterri Bottas joins Mercedes to replace Nico Rosberg Related: FIA approves sale of F1 to Liberty Media with takeover expected in March Continue...
The technical director Paddy Lowe’s departure hard on the heels of world champion Nico Rosberg leaves the British driver as the team’s senior figurePre-season preparations took a back seat on Tuesday to Formula One’s equivalent of the transfer market as Mercedes announced the long‑expected departure of their technical director, Paddy Lowe, who is predicted to re-emerge at Williams in a management role. The loss will be felt – Lowe has been ever-present as a key part of the Mercedes team during their three dominant years in F1 – but not as keenly as might be expected.More intriguingly, however, it may be a factor in creating a scenario that will present a career-defining challenge for Lewis Hamilton: the chance to forge...
The German never earned acclaim in his homeland like Michael Schumacher but the Mercedes driver was diligent and intelligent and was rewarded with a world championship title after a 10-year battleFor a driver who strove with such fierce diligence to win the world championship Nico Rosberg has given up its fruits very quickly; champion on Sunday, retired on Friday, he was not even a six-day wonder.For many years he has been one of the more anonymous of Formula One’s leading drivers. Now, finally thrust into the spotlight of glory, it is almost as if he could not stand the glare. Related: Nico Rosberg has called quits on his F1 career at the right time | Richard Williams Related: Nico Rosberg...
Mercedes dominated the season with 19 wins from 21 races, while Max Verstappen and Jolyon Palmer enjoyed breakthrough years. Rio Haryanto, less soIn terms of extracting the most from himself, Nico Rosberg. No driver worked harder than the champion in 2016, both with his team and with himself – changing his diet, his sleeping patterns, his gloves, turning his mobile phone off for two weeks and emptying his mind of all distractions. Daniel Ricciardo was also superb and consistent. Everyone knows that Lewis Hamilton is the best driver out there, but apart from those technical setbacks he failed to always get the best from himself, was way off form in Singapore and took a long time to get over his...