F1 Formula 1 Gossip

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Williams technical chief Paddy Lowe says Red Bull outcast Daniil Kvyat has joined the list of drivers under consideration for a 2018 seat alongside Lance Stroll.

Liberty Media has revealed details of how it intends to reduce the costs associated with competing in the sport.

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen wants to dominate F1 rather than have to battle for positions.

McLaren staff were surprised when Lewis Hamilton was promoted to F1 for the 2007 season.

 

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F1 champion Lewis Hamilton 'avoided' VAT on his £16.5m private jet using Isle of Man offshore structure being investigated by UK tax authorities, new Paradise Papers reveal

 

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Wednesday, 8 November

Sebastian Vettel remains confident he can win a world title at Ferrari, despite the team not having a winner of the drivers' championship since 2007.

Daniel Ricciardo says he holds "a few cards" for his negotiations with Red Bull regarding a Formula 1 contract extension beyond 2018 and will not "rush" his decision.

Red Bull say they will give driver Daniel Ricciardo, who has been linked with a move to Ferrari or Mercedes for 2019, time to decide his future. Team principal Christian Horner says if the Australian "takes another six months, then so be it".

Fernando Alonso was "very close" to making a switch to Red Bull back in 2009 for the 2010 season but no deal came together, according to Red Bull boss Christian Horner.

Red Bull has a car capable of winning the final two Formula 1 races of the 2017 season, according to team principal Christian Horner.

Max Verstappen remains cautious about Red Bull's chances of success next season.

Jacques Villeneuve says Lewis Hamilton "fell asleep" in response to the easy challenge from his new team-mate Valtteri Bottas before Sebastian Vettel "woke" him up.

Valtteri Bottas has been impressed by Mercedes team-mate and four-time world champion Lewis Hamilton's work ethic and says the Briton "is a nice guy" who has "good manners, good respect and doesn't play any games".

 

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World champion Lewis Hamilton says it was former team principal Ross Brawn, not chairman Niki Lauda, who convinced him to join Mercedes from McLaren in 2013.

Valtteri Bottas, 28, says he has no intention of being "number two" to Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes.

Having wrapped up both the constructors' and drivers' championships, Mercedes plan to use the last two races of the season to test new ideas and parts for 2018.

Jos Verstappen says Red Bull's ability to turn their fortunes around over the course of the 2017 season was the main reason that his son, Max, signed a contract extension with the team.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner has questioned proposals to remove Friday practices from grand prix weekends.

 

[5harp3y]

Do we reckon max can win an Wdc at Red bull?

 

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Do we reckon max can win an Wdc at Red bull?

Doubt it.

 

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Lewis Hamilton says he was "upset" by news that personnel from his Mercedes team were robbed at gunpoint in Sao Paulo on Friday night.

A van of Mercedes workers was held up on the road away from the Interlagos track. No-one was hurt in the incident.

Hamilton said: "Gun shots fired, gun held at one's head. This is so upsetting to hear.

"It happens every single year here. F1 and the teams need to do more. No excuse."

Hamilton added: "Please say a prayer for my guys, who are here as professionals today even if shaken."

A Mercedes spokesman said: "Valuables were stolen but most importantly everybody is safe and uninjured."

Other F1 personnel had near-misses on the same road, which is notorious for robberies.

 

[t-tony]

Team's know it has happened and is most likely to happen again so why do they allow their staff to leave the circuit, after all they have staff on hand to cater for all the VIP' s who visit their pots etc.

Tony.

 

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No real reason why Formula One racing can’t return to Zandvoort: report...​

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There are no insurmountable organisational, technical or logistical reasons why Formula 1 racing could not return to the Zandvoort race track, according to research carried out on behalf of the town council and the track owners. The last Grand Prix was held at the track, in the heart of the coastal dunes, in 1985 and was won by Niki Lauda. The town council voted in 2015 to try to bring the race back to the Netherlands.

Read more at DutchNews.nl: No real reason why Formula One racing can’t return to Zandvoort: report http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archiv...a-one-racing-cant-return-to-zandvoort-report/

 

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Lewis Hamilton: Formula 1's three-engine limit for drivers 'sucks'

Drivers are limited to four engines this season before incurring grid penalties, and the rules are cutting that back in 2018 to reduce costs.

Hamilton said reducing the number of engines would mean drivers were able to push hard in races less often.

"I don't like the idea of going to three. That sucks. Sprinting is what we are missing in F1," Hamilton said.

He said increasing the need to manage engines in races to extend their life combined with the weight of the cars - which is going up next year because of the introduction of the 'halo' driver cockpit head protection system - made racing more unappealing.

 

[smiffy]

Other F1 personnel had near-misses on the same road, which is notorious for robberies.

Errrr... use a different road maybe?

 

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Errrr... use a different road maybe?

Use a different driver?

 

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Michael Schumacher's final Monaco Grand Prix-winning Ferrari, the F2001 (chassis number 211), has become the most expensive modern-era F1 car ever sold at auction, going under the hammer for more than £5.5m at a Sotheby's auction in New York. The car took Schumacher to his fifth and final Monaco win in 2001 and also claimed victory at that season's Hungarian Grand Prix, clinching the German the fourth of his seven world titles.

 

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Friday, 17 November

McLaren reserve Lando Norris says he basically "went to Brazil for a bath" after the scheduled tyre test at Interlagos was cancelled. "I had just got to the hotel in Brazil and was having a nice bath," said Norris. "Then I got the call that it got cancelled."

Plans to bring F1 racing back to the Zandvoort race track for the first time since 1985 contain "too many uncertainties", says Dutch sports minister Bruno Bruins.

Australian Grand Prix bosses have decided against a bold plan to change the current Albert Park layout to help create another overtaking spot.

World champion Lewis Hamilton says he would like to drive in Nascar at some point in his career.

Nico Rosberg says he would like to rekindle a friendship with former Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Former Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo warned the Scuderia not to get carried away by victory in Brazil at the weekend, claiming Lewis Hamilton would have won if he started from pole.

Scuderia Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost felt he had to defend his team after Renault suggested the way they operated their power units contributed to a run of recent failures.

 

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Wednesday 22 November

Dutchman Rudy van Buren beat 30,000 fellow gamers to win McLaren's ground breaking eSports competition and become the team's official simulator driver.

The FIA return Manor Racing's entry fee of $522,322 for the 2017 F1 World Championship in a "gesture of goodwill" to help pay the company's debts.

The integration of the halo cockpit safety feature is proving "quite difficult", according to Williams tech boss Paddy Lowe.

Red Bull Formula 1 boss Christian Horner hopes that engine supplier Renault doesn't have a "Scrapheap Challenge" task on its hands in Abu Dhabi to solve further reliability problems.

Lewis Hamilton told Sebastian Vettel they would have "problems" if the Ferrari driver ever repeated his controversial car chop from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the world champion has revealed.

Fernando Alonso says Lewis Hamilton will not win his fifth championship next year, as he backs himself to win the title.

Two-time Formula One champion Emerson Fittipaldi believes Lewis Hamilton would have been a superstar in any previous era of the sport's history.

 

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• As Formula One fans prepare for final weekend of the racing season, the drivers will be sat in super safe cars

• But it wasn't too long ago that stepping into a Formula One car was an act either of bravery or recklessness

• In the mid-twentieth century, an average of two drivers died each season - and even spectators weren't safe

• Between 1952 and 1970, a staggering 32 drivers died during Grand Prix races, many in horrific circumstances

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...es-old-dangers-Formula-One.html#ixzz4zMU1QNJZ
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

 

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'I feel responsible' - Newey emotional on Senna death

• 24 Nov 2017
• From the section Formula 1

Adrian Newey says he feels "responsible" over the death of Formula 1 legend Ayrton Senna, who was killed at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix in a Williams car he designed.

 

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Gossip: No halo diet for Hulkenberg.....

Nico Hulkenberg has told his Renault team that he will not diet ahead of the introduction of the new halo protection device in Formula 1 next season, after it was found to add weight to the cars.

As the halo comes in, the shark fin has been ruled out for 2018, after McLaren failed to back plans to retain the fin on the engine cover.

New microphones will be tested at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to improve the sound from the cars on television coverage.

 

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Formula 1 is planning to introduce 360-degree onboard cameras onto each car from the 2018 season, as part of Liberty Media's ambitions to enhance the spectacle for worldwide television viewers.

Formula 1 will no longer feature full-sized shark fins in 2018, after McLaren opposed a planned retention of the aerodynamic plane for commercial purposes.

The engine cover, first pioneered in 2008, fell out of use after 2011, but made a return this season, under new aerodynamic regulations.

 

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The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix ended the Formula 1 season with a whimper rather than a bang, and perhaps that was appropriate for a year that for a long time was building into a classic, only to fizzle out when it mattered.

Lewis Hamilton did not have quite enough to pass Bottas on a track where racing has always been notoriously difficult, and had to settle for second behind the Finn, as the world champions sealed a result that was about as perfect for the team as it could have been.

Waiting to go out on to the podium afterwards, Hamilton expressed what everyone had been thinking: "Impossible to pass here, man," he said to Bottas and third-placed Sebastian Vettel. "I was like, 'Where are all the friggin' back markers?' I think they've got to change this track."

It was a grand prix that once again underlined the flaws in holding the final race of the season at a place that has a lot going for it as a pleasant destination where everything works and the weather is reliable, and not much as a venue for a great motor race.