Tag: ferrari

‘Not easy being a son of Michael Schumacher’: Rosberg warns Mick ahead of F1 debut | Racing News – Times of India

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BERLIN: Nico Rosberg, himself the son of a former world champion, has warned Mick Schumacher to expect huge media attention when he makes his Formula One debut next week to follow in the footsteps of his father Michael Schumacher.
“It’s not easy to be the ‘son of’. And with Mick, it is 10 times more difficult, because Michael’s era was not so long ago and he was much more successful,” Rosberg, 35, told website Sport1.
Mick Schumacher, who turns 22 on Monday, makes his Grand Prix debut for American team Haas at the season-opening race in Bahrain on March 28.
After winning the Formula Three European championships in 2018 and then the Formula Two title in 2020, Schumacher junior made the step up to Formula One this season.
The German carries one of the most famous surnames in motorsport as the son of seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, who has not been seen in public since suffering brain injuries in a skiing accident in 2013.
To add to the pressure, Michael Schumacher won the Bahrain Grand Prix in its inaugural Formula One race in 2004.
Schumacher senior went on to win 91 races for Benetton and Ferrari, with five of his world titles coming in the famous red colours of the Italian marque.
Britain’s Lewis Hamilton only surpassed Schumacher’s total of race wins last year with the Mercedes driver bidding to capture an unprecedented eighth world title this season.
Rosberg, 35, retired after being crowned 2016 Formula One world champion, 34 years after his father Keke achieved the feat.
Nico Rosberg predicts Schumacher will have to reckon with media attention in his first year of Formula One that will “probably be even greater than Lewis Hamilton” experienced.
“I hope Mick can put that aside and concentrate well on his job because otherwise it takes a lot of the fun away.”
If the media does not give him time to settle in Formula One, Mick Schumacher “has to take it himself”, advises Rosberg.
“You need time and patience. After all, I had to wait seven years to win my first race and 11 years to win the (Formula One world) title.
“You have to keep that in mind if you want to rate Mick this year.”

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Full list of Teams and Drivers line-up for 2021 F1 Season

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The 2021 Formula One season will be the 72nd year of the Formula One World Championship and it will have 23 Grand Prix held around the world where the drivers and teams will compete for the World Drivers’ Champion and World Constructors’ Champion, respectively.

This year’s calendar consists of twenty-three races, considering the reinstatement of the suspended Sao Paulo Grand Prix contract and of course, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which hampered the championship in a big way last season. The first race of the season is set to be the Bahrain Grand Prix at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir on March 28 and the last is supposed to be the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.

There have been some changes to teams too, with McLaren moving to a Mercedes engine from Renault. Team name changes include Racing Point becoming Aston Martin and Renault will now be known as Alpine.

With loads of team and driver changes, we take a look at the final line-up of the 10 teams and 20 drivers taking part in this year’s competition:

MERCEDES

Lewis Hamilton – 44

Valtteri Bottas – 77

Last year’s constructors champion will continue with the same driver line-up of Britain’s Hamilton and Finland’s Bottas as they chase another successful season at the top. Mercedes won their seventh Constructors’ Championship last year, thus, breaking the record for most consecutive constructors’ championships.

Hamilton won the championship last season, his sixth with Mercedes and seventh overall, while Bottas came second.

RED BULL

Max Verstappen – 33

Sergio Perez – 11

Red Bull finished second last year in the constructors championship and will now look to improve on their performance and give Mercedes a run for their money this season. They have made one change in their line-up with Mexico’s Perez coming in place of Alex Albon.

Verstappen was very fast last season and will look to go head-to-head with Mercedes boys again, while Perez, who was dropped by Racing Point, finished fourth behind Max.

FERRARI

Charles Leclerc – 16

Carlos Sainz – 55

Big and bold changes were made by the Italian giants as they decided to let go of their long-serving driver in Sebastian Vettel and pursue with two youngsters in Monaco’s Charles Leclerc and new boy Carlos Sainz of Spain. Ferrari finished a lowly sixth last season.

While Leclerc showed enough promise to lead for Ferrari, he finished eighth last season while Sainz, who was racing for McLaren, was sixth on the charts.

MCLAREN

Daniel Ricciardo – 3

Lando Norris – 4

This will be a fun team to watch with both Ricciardo and Norris being good drivers. McLaren had a sensational season last year and finished third behind Mercedes and Red Bull and will look to do the same with two fast exciting drivers.

Britain’s Norris, who is in his third season in the grid, was ninth last year, while Australia’s Ricciardo was fifth on the driver’s standings.

ASTON MARTIN

Sebastian Vettel – 5

Lance Stroll – 18

Racing as ‘Racing Point’ last year, the rebranded Aston Martin team will look to better their fourth place in this year’s championship. For this, they will have a newly acquired four-time drivers champion from Germany — Sebastian Vettel and Canada’s Stroll.

Vettel, who was with Ferrari last season, had a torrid run and finished 13th, while Stroll was 11th in the standings.

ALPINE

Fernando Alonso – 14

Esteban Ocon – 31

Another rebranded team. Known as Renault last year, they are lining up with the returning two-time world-champion from Spain Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon of France. Alpine finished fifth last year and will look to go up from here instead of staying in the midfield.

Ocon finished 12th last season in the standings, while Alonso is returning to the grid once again after 2 years. He left the grid in 2018.

ALPHATAURI

Pierre Gasly – 10

Yuki Tsunoda – 22

AlphaTauri finished seventh last year and will be represented by France’s Gasly and the young Japanese Tsunoda, who was promoted from Formula 2 by Red Bull.

Gasly finished 10th last season in the standings, while Tsunoda will be having his first season at the top level.

ALFA ROMEO

Kimi Raikkonen – 7

Antonio Giovinazzi – 99

The team based out of Switzerland has made no changes and will be going into the season with the same line-up for the third season in a row. They finished 8th last season.

Finland’s Raikkonen and Italy’s Giovinazzi finished 16th and 17th respectively last season.

HAAS

Nikita Mazepin – 9

Mick Schumacher – 47

Haas, who finished ninth last season, will have more eyes on them because of Mick Schumacher, who is the son of seven-time world champion and F1 legend, Michael Schumacher.

Haas has dropped both their drivers of last season (Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen) and will now go with the Russian Mazepin and German Schumacher — both graduating from Formula 2.

WILLIAMS

Nicholas Latifi – 6

George Russell – 63

Canada’s Latifi and Britain’s Russell will be racing for Williams for the second season in a row, despite them finishing at the bottom of the pile last year.

In the driver’s standings, Latifi was 20th, while Russel finished 18th.

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Max Verstappen Fastest in Testing, Mercedes Have Work To Do

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Formula One teams wrapped up three days of pre-season testing in Bahrain on Sunday with Max Verstappen fastest for Red Bull and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda close behind in a one-two for Honda-powered cars.

Mercedes and seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, recognised they had plenty of work to do before the season starts at the same Sakhir circuit on March 28.

Mexican Sergio Perez, Verstappen’s new team mate, had been top of the morning session with a best lap of one minute 30.187 seconds on soft tyres. Verstappen took over after lunch and produced a best time of 1:28.960.

It was the second time he had topped the end of day timesheets after setting the pace on Friday.

“In general I would say the car feels good and I’m looking forward to going racing,” said Verstappen, winner of the last race of 2020.

The Dutch youngster said before he got in the car that he thought Mercedes were still the favourites but, if so, the dominant champions of the past seven years were hiding any advantage.

Hamilton was only fifth fastest and just quicker than compatriot George Russell who did nearly three times as many laps in the Williams — 157 to Hamilton’s 54. Sunday was Russell’s first day in the car.

The older Briton seemed to struggle to get a stable lap together, spinning late on.

“We’ve had issues in recent years with pace in winter testing and managed to make good progress before the first race but we may have our work cut out this time,” said Mercedes trackside engineering head Andrew Shovlin.

He said the car was more predictable on high fuel loads but “we can see from the data we’ve collected over the last few days that on race pace, we’re not as quick as Red Bull.”

EYE-CATCHING TSUNODA

Tsunoda was the name that caught the eye with the Japanese rookie just 0.093 slower than Verstappen as he completed 91 laps for the Red Bull sister team.

Ferrari, gathering strength again after their worst season in 40 years, had Carlos Sainz third overall despite an hydraulics issue after Charles Leclerc was second in the morning. The pair managed 159 laps between them.

“When we were here last year in Bahrain for the race and for qualifying we have been very slow on the straights,” said Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto.

“Now… I think at least on the straights the speed is alright. It doesn’t seem to be such a disadvantage as it was last year.”

Kimi Raikkonen, in the Ferrari-powered Alfa Romeo, did more laps than anyone — 165.

Valtteri Bottas opened the session for Mercedes and was seventh fastest when he handed over to Hamilton, with 84 laps completed.

The Finn felt the team had made up ground after a difficult opening Friday when he had managed only six laps due to a gearbox problem.

“I feel like we made a decent recovery,” Bottas told reporters.

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F1: ‘Different animal’ Verstappen tops F1 testing as Tsunoda makes mark | Racing News – Times of India

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SAKHIR: World champion Lewis Hamilton saw Max Verstappen top the times in Formula One testing on Sunday and predicted the Dutch star’s Red Bull team will be “a different animal” when the season starts in two weeks’ time.
Verstappen, who was third behind Hamilton and the Briton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas in the 2020 championship, timed a best lap of 1:28.960 on Sunday.
That proved to be the fastest time of the three-day session.
However, rookie Yuki Tsunoda, the first Japanese driver to compete in Formula One since Kamui Kobayashi in 2014, also laid down a marker.
His time on Sunday of 1:29.053 in his AlphaTauri was the second best overall of the week.
Verstappen had also topped the charts on Friday on the opening day at the dusty Sakhir circuit which will also stage the season opener on March 28.
“They are looking strong,” said seven-time champion Hamilton.
“They’re going to be a different machine or animal this year with, I think, a really good, strong line-up for two drivers and a really good car.”
However, Hamilton insisted he was unconcerned as Verstappen had won the last race of 2020 in Abu Dhabi and had momentum on his side.
“Having seen them winning the last race you can only assume they’re going to be right there if not at the front, at the first race.
“It’s going to be a great, long battle with them through the year,” he added.
Verstappen, too, was keen to douse expectations that this could be the year that Red Bull break Mercedes’ stranglehold.
“I don’t think we are the favourites,” Verstappen said.
Carlos Sainz, in a Ferrari, Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen and Hamilton rounded out the top five on Sunday in what also proved to be their top times of the week.
Third and final day times:
1. Max Verstappen (NED/Red Bull-Honda) 1:28.960 (64 laps), 2. Yuki Tsunoda (JPN/Alpha Tauri-Honda) 1:29.053 (91), 3. Carlos Sainz (ESP/Ferrari) 1:29.611 (79), 4. Kimi Raikkonen (ITA/Alfa Romeo-Ferrari) 1:29.766 (166), 5. Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes) 1:30.025 (54), 6. George Russell (GBR/Williams-Mercedes) 1:30.117 (158), 7. Daniel Ricciardo (AUS/McLaren-Mercedes) 1:30.144 (76), 8. Sergio Perez (MEX/Red Bull-Honda) 1:30.187 (49), 9. Fernando Alonso (ESP/Alpine-Renault) 1:30.318 (128), 10. Charles Leclerc (MON/Ferrari) 1:30.486 (80), 11. Lando Norris (GBR/McLaren-Mercedes) 1:30.661 (56), 12. Pierre Gasly (FRA/Alpha Tauri-Honda) 1:30.828 (76), 13. Esteban Ocon (FRA-Alpine/Renault) 1:31.310 (61), 14. Nikita Mazepin (RUS/Haas-Ferrari) 1:31.531 (67), 15. Mick Schumacher (GER/Haas-Ferrari) 1:32.053 (78), 16. Valtteri Bottas (FIN/Mercedes) 1:32.406 (86), 17. Sebastian Vettel (GER/Aston Martin-Mercedes) 1:35.041 (56), 18. Lance Stroll (CAN/Aston Martin-Mercedes) 1:36.100 (80)

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Formula One Season Kicks-off This Month with Mercedes, Ferrari Unveiling New Cars

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Formula One season is set to kick off at the end of this month with Bahrain Grand Prix. Following the postponement of the Australian Grand Prix, which was scheduled for March 21, the focus of the new season is firmly on Bahrain with testing due to run from March 12 to 14 with the opening Grand Prix of the 2021 season taking place there on March 28. However, before the start of the first race of the season, there are plenty of launches to look forward to.

Here is how the F1 calendar is March looks like:

March 2: Mercedes and Alpine Launches

March 3: Aston Martin Launch

March 4: Haas Livery Reveal

March 5: Williams Launch

March 10: Ferrari Launch

March 12-14: F1 Testing, Bahrain

March 19: Drive to Survive Season 3

March 26-28: Bahrain Grand Prix

Mercedes, who have been ruling the roost in both the Drivers and Constructors Championship, will be the first to launch their car for the upcoming season. While there are three more launches in between, the next big thing will be Ferrari’s launch on March 10.

Also on March 19, the third season of the popular web series on Netflix ‘Drive to Survive’ will be released. The first season of the show was a 10-part series focussing on the 2018 World Championship.

The series was so popular that Netflix launched season 2 with focus on the 2019 World Championship. And now the 2020 World Championship will be in the limelight when the third season comes out.

Ahead of the Bahrain GP, the country offered to vaccinate all teams and personnel against Covid-19 when they arrive for pre-season testing this month. However, according to an AFP source within F1, the offer will be rejected.

“The vast majority of participants will be present in Bahrain for a three-week period ahead of the race,” Bahraini organisers of the Grand Prix said in a statement on Sunday evening. “This, in turn, allows a unique opportunity to provide additional protection for those who wish to take up the opportunity in the form of vaccination (Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine).”

(With AFP inputs)



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Ferrari’s F1 Chief Mattia Binotto Hoping for Revival in 2021

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Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto conceded on Thursday that however the upcoming Formula One season pans out, “we know that we need somehow to do better in 2021” after last year’s disastrous campaign.

Binotto was speaking at the team’s virtual launch on Friday ahead of the unveiling of their new car next month.

With Carlos Sainz replacing Sebastian Vettel alongside Charles Leclerc, Binotto and all the Scuderia’s legion of fans are anticipating a marked upturn in the team’s fortunes.

“Certainly last year was a big, big disappointment,” Binotto said of Ferrari’s worst season since 1980, when they mustered a mere 131 points compared to over 500 in 2019, and came in an embarrassing sixth in the constructors table.

“We know that we cannot repeat such a bad result,” said the man whose job it is to lead the famous F1 name out of the doldrums.

“That is what I’m expecting,” he added, “so I think it’s really a matter of mentality: team mentality, drivers’ mentality, and as Team Principal, no doubt I’m fully aware of the responsibility I’ve got, being part of such a team.

“I feel… not pressure, but I feel the responsibility, as well the pride, and I know that, as I said, initially we simply need to do better, and that’s part of my first responsibility.”

Ferrari’s hopes to turn the corner rest in large part on the SF21 car, which will be fitted with a brand new power unit and is due to be unveiled on March 10, two days before pre-season testing at the Bahrain International circuit ahead of the opening grand prix in the Gulf kingdom on March 28.

But Binotto was careful not to raise expectations, with Ferrari’s last win coming back in Singapore in 2019.

“What I think will (lead to our recovery) is our will to win,” he said.

“I’m not saying that we will win –- I think that we need to be realistic.

“There are cars (champions Mercedes for instance) that have been very, very strong last year, and with the car (development) being partially frozen, they will be certainly very strong again in 2021.”



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Former F1 Driver Mika Salo Accidentally Reveals Penalty Handed to Ferrari for 2019 ‘Cheating’ Scandal

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Ahead of the 2020 Formula1 season, as many as seven Ferrari’s rivals, namely McLaren, Mercedes, Racing Point, Red Bull, Renault, Alpha Tauri and Williams teams demanded a “full and proper disclosure” over the months-long investigation into Ferrari’s 2019 engine as there were rumours that the Italian team had been involved in cheating. Now, a season later, former Formula One driver and current F1 Stewart Mika Salo has revealed the secret agreement that caused a massive loss in power which was one of the main reasons why Ferrari and its customer teams have such a massive drop off in performance in 2020.

Salo told Finnish rally driver Kristian Sohlberg that the agreement with the authorities predicated some penalties on the great Italian team. FIA punished Ferrari and its customer teams by forcing them to use less fuel which was one of the main reasons behind the loss of power.

“They suffered from Ferrari’s cheat last year because they had Ferrari engines and were forced to use less fuel, so I think so Alfa Romeo may be in a good position if they can perform at their best in the race this season,” said Salo while speaking about the chances of Alfa Romeo F1 team which will be using a new Ferrari power unit.

“I don’t know if it’s a new engine but they’re allowed to use it to its full power. They were not allowed last year because of Ferrari,” Salo clarified when asked if Ferrari is getting out a new engine this season.

Reports suggest that Ferrari is indeed bringing an all-new power unit in 2021 and possibly in 2022 too. Alfa Romeo boss Fred Vasseur and Ferrari chief Mattia Binotto have already stated that Ferrari will have a competitive power unit in 2021 which will not be the worst on the grid.

FIA had then announced that it had concluded what it described as “a thorough technical investigation” into Ferrari’s 2019 engine.

In the statement, the FIA said it was “not fully satisfied” that nothing untoward had taken place, “but decided that further action would not necessarily result in a conclusive case due to the complexity of the matter and the material impossibility to provide the unequivocal evidence of a breach.”

It added that it wanted to avoid the risk of a drawn-out legal process and had “decided to enter into an effective and dissuasive settlement agreement with Ferrari to terminate the proceedings.”



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Formula One: Ferrari and Shell Extend Partnership Till 2030

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Ferrari and Shell who have been associated since 1929 have extended their partnership till 2030, meaning they will be partners for over 100 years when this new contract ends.

“The relationship between Scuderia Ferrari and Shell dates back to 1929, the year our team was founded,” said Mattia Binotto, Ferrari Managing Director and team principal.

“In that time we have produced so many victories together. We are delighted therefore that our collaboration is now set to go on even longer.” The partnership has resulted in 10 constructors’ F1 World Championships and 12 drivers’ titles.

“We share many common values, not least excellence, passion for racing and teamwork, which have made this partnership unique in the history of motorsport”, Binotto added.

Shell, meanwhile in the release added that they will continue to work together to improve the team’s V6 turbo-hybrid power unit, which already has a thermal efficiency of close to 50%, making it one of the most efficient engines in the world.

The two companies will also work hand-in-hand to define how fuels can be developed for the future, including advanced sustainable biofuels and synthetic liquid fuels, both of which are being explored to help meet Formula 1’s goal of fully sustainable fuels in the cars.

“This new chapter of one of the longest partnerships in motorsport will see the Scuderia and Shell working together not just in search of wins on the track, but also in defining the regulations relating to the power units of the future.”

This comes at an important time for Ferrari who had their poorest season in F1 in 40 years where it came just 6th in the constructors. It hasn’t won a drivers world title in 13 years since Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 and hasn’t won the constructors in 12 years.

In 2021 it will introduce a new engine followed by another innovative engine as per reports in 2022 which will be set in stone till 2024 due to the engine development freeze. From 2024 onwards, sustainability and performance will be a huge factor and Shell as the fuel supplier will have to play a huge role in the success of the team.



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