All-female competition folded after three seasons, but it changed perceptions and prompted F1 into actionThe all-female W Series had grand plans to change the landscape of motor racing, all bold and ambitious, but, just over a week ago when it was placed into administration, the championship was all but over. Out of money and out of time it foundered to halt, an ignominious end to worthy aspirations. Yet across the three short seasons it ran the W Series left its mark on racing. It may be gone but it undoubtedly made a difference.In 2019, at the Brands Hatch finale of the inaugural season, it was impossible not to notice the impact of the nascent championship. The paddock thronged with families...
Podium finishes for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell could be the first step in team’s return to the title pictureThere was deserved elation at Mercedes after taking a double podium at the Spanish Grand Prix, the tension etched into the faces of some team members draining away. But as the team heads back to Brackley they are more than aware that they have only reached basecamp. The mountain lies ahead.With Lewis Hamilton taking second place and his teammate George Russell third in Barcelona, it was their best result of the season and indeed the outstanding performance of their car in terms of drivability, pace and balance. Hamilton called it the best performing car Mercedes had built since he last challenged...
The Frenchman has admitted he’s ‘taking a lot of risks’ as he wrestles with a car lacking Red Bull’s paceWith the Formula One championship already beyond them, this is surely no time for a conservative approach from Ferrari. For the sake of the sport, the Scuderia, it must be hoped, will resist a tendency to stifle the instincts of artistry in the form of Charles Leclerc and his dance on a knife-edge with a recalcitrant car.The inclination at Maranello would probably be to have him play the percentages, to consolidate. Yet instead why not let him have full rein and indulge his aggressive determination such that we can at least enjoy a driver pushing to the very limit? Is it...
Despite finishing second at Albert Park, Toto Wolff’s team have a mountain to climb and must pursue a new design directionThere can be no illusions for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes as to where they stand in Formula One’s pecking order despite returning their best finish of the season at Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix. Melbourne was their first celebratory moment thus far but that they revelled in a second place is indicative of the mountain they have to climb. For a team that has dominated F1 for so long this is perhaps their greatest challenge yet.Hamilton is no stranger to battling with an uncompetitive car, but for the team this season will truly test their mettle. On a roll of eight...
A new documentary charts the Canadian’s rivalry with his Ferrari teammate Didier Pironi that ended tragically in 1982If the death of Gilles Villeneuve at the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder in 1982 left Formula One traumatised, it was infinitely harder on his wife Joann. More than 40 years on and the emotion still runs high as she recalls the controversial events of that season. So raw have been the wounds, it is only now she has felt able to address them and time has not assuaged the strength of her feelings.Villeneuve, his wife and family and his former Ferrari teammate Didier Pironi are the subjects of Villeneuve Pironi: Racing’s Untold Tragedy, the newly released film on Sky Documentaries and Now...