The Monegasque driver topped both practice sessions at Imola, edging McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by 0.192s in the second session, on a strong day for Ferrari following the arrival of its upgrade package.Yuki Tsunoda impressed in FP2 by shooting up to third place for RB, ahead of both Mercedes drivers LewisContinue Reading
Verstappen’s frustration boiled over throughout both practice sessions as his upgraded Red Bull RB20 proved hard to control on the technical Italian venue’s second sector.The triple world champion ended first practice in fifth and slipped to seventh in the second, over half a second behind Ferrari’s pacesetter Charles Leclerc. HisContinue Reading
Leclerc continued as the frontrunner through the early stages of the day’s second 60-minute session, after he had also led Friday afternoon’s FP1 action, when the cars were split across the medium and hard tyres.When they switched to the softs for the mid-session qualifying simulation runs, Leclerc set the bestContinue Reading
O’Ward, who set the pace on Thursday courtesy of a “pretty fat tow lap”, is looking forward to the extra turbo boost that becomes available in today’s so-called ‘Fast Friday’ practice in preparation for the weekend’s qualifying sessions.“When the boost comes up, the speed is so different,” said O’Ward. “It’sContinue Reading
Autosport has learned that Mercedes has begun an internal reshuffle of its aerodynamics department with Vino departing following six years at the team.He had been principal aerodynamicist from February 2018 until October 2022 when he moved into his current role.The change in aero personnel comes ahead of the earlier-than-expected arrivalContinue Reading
But the current generation of ground-effect cars are trickier beasts to make fast, and the challenge involves nailing the right compromise between high-speed and low-speed performance.Throw on top of that the desire to make sure that the car is not too peaky and that drivers have confidence in it soContinue Reading
Red Bull opened up for first practice at Imola on Friday afternoon with Tom Hart acting as the voice in Verstappen’s ear instead of Lambiase, who is also Red Bull’s head of race engineering.The team explained to Autosport that the temporary situation is being enacted to provide Hart with additionalContinue Reading
Red Bull opened up for first practice at Imola on Friday afternoon with Tom Hart acting as the voice in Verstappen’s ear instead of Lambiase, who is also Red Bull’s head of race engineering.The team explained to Autosport that the one-off situation is being enacted to provide Hart with additionalContinue Reading
After his stunning surprise debut in place of the appendicitis-addled Carlos Sainz at Ferrari in Jeddah, Bearman is now finally starting the main challenge of his season in the top categories of single-seaters.Imola marks the first of six FP1 appearances with Haas that were earmarked into his deal as theContinue Reading
Leclerc set the session’s best time – a 1m16.990s – aboard the updated Ferrari shortly after the one-hour FP1 action was stopped by Alex Albon’s Williams shutting down after he hit a kerb hard and ran down the Imola track from Piratella to Acque Minerali, where he stopped on theContinue Reading