Why Mercedes wants Antonelli to ‘grow into’ F1 and ‘make mistakes’
On the face of it, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff giving an interview to Auto Motor und Sport carefully downplaying expectations surrounding rookie driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli seems like a typical piece of off-season ‘noise’. Very little of it would provoke angry debate in the sanctified halls of the Oxford Union.“IfContinue Reading
Red Bull ahead of schedule with new F1 wind tunnel
Red Bull has said it is ahead of its initial schedule with the building of its new Formula 1 wind tunnel.Red Bull Racing currently uses an outdated wind tunnel compared to its main rivals, with its facilities near Bedford being over 70 years old.The wind tunnel has been labelled “aContinue Reading
Bagnaia: My 2024 MotoGP campaign is level with Marquez’s 2019 without sprints
Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia believes his performance in MotoGP last year was on level with Marc Marquez’s championship-winning 2019 campaign, if sprints are excluded from the equation.Bagnaia impressed with his blistering pace on the factory Ducati in 2024, winning 11 out of 20 grands prix and scoring five more podiums inContinue Reading
Gelael and Leung move to McLaren to contest WEC with United Autosports in 2025
World Endurance Championship class race winners Sean Gelael and Darren Leung are moving from BMW to McLaren for a second LMGT3 campaign together in 2025. The winners of the Imola WEC round last April aboard a WRT BMW M4 GT3 shared with Augusto Farfus, will race a McLaren 720S GT3 EvoContinue Reading
Dakar 2025: Toyota edges out Ford and Dacia as Lategan wins Prologue
Factory Toyota driver Henk Lategan beat Ford rival Mattias Ekstrom to take victory in Prologue at the start of the 2025 Dakar Rally.The 47th edition of the world’s biggest cross-country rally kicked off with a short 29km special in Bisha in the south west region of Saudi Arabia, with aContinue Reading
Loeb ‘not obsessed’ with winning Dakar after multiple near-misses
Sebastien Loeb says he is ‘not obsessed’ with winning the Dakar Rally after coming close to clinching the top prize on several occasions.One of the greatest rally drivers of all time with nine titles in the World Rally Championship, Loeb has found it hard to emulate the same success inContinue Reading
Why Albon says Williams “can’t be relaxed” in F1 2025
Alex Albon has warned Williams not to “be relaxed” for the 2025 Formula 1 season, despite not having to repeat painful 2024 efforts to improve critical car design and build processes. Williams started the 2024 campaign with its car significantly overweight – to the extent it estimated it was losing upContinue Reading
FRM signs Zane Smith as its third driver for 2025 (with a little courtroom help)
Front Row Motorsports (FRM) has put its recent triumph in court over NASCAR to good use, signing Zane Smith as the team’s third driver for 2025.Last September, FRM and 23XI refused to sign the 2025 Charter Agreement, and instead filed a suit against NASCAR alleging monopolistic practices — putting theContinue Reading
Sainz predicts “strange” tactical battle in Dakar Rally
Carlos Sainz believes that “tactics will be more important than ever” in this year’s running of the Dakar Rally.After claiming his fourth victory in the iconic rally raid last year with Audi, the Spaniard has switched allegiances to Ford this term as the marque enters its new Raptor developed inContinue Reading
The familiar names Rovanpera will face on 24-hour race debut
As preparation for the Monte Carlo Rally goes, heading for the Middle East to contest a 24-hour race is on the unconventional side. But the news announced shortly before Christmas that Kalle Rovanpera will make his endurance racing debut in next week’s Dubai 24 Hours only underlines that he is indeedContinue Reading