Racetrackmasters

The former Mercedes teammates have renewed their rivalry by becoming owners of new Extreme E teams. Rosberg’s car won the first race last weekend in Saudi Arabia. Nico Rosberg has revealed that Lewis Hamilton has not called to congratulate him on his maiden Extreme E victory. The two F1 greats have both entered teams into the inaugural off-road event, reigniting their rivalry that frequently spilled over throughout the early 2010s. Between 2013 and 2016, the pair were Mercedes teammates, leading to some memorable clashes and battles on track. Both are now setting their sights on taking home silverware as Extreme E team owners, although it seems as if they still aren’t on speaking terms just yet. “No, but he probably would if he had my number,” Rosberg told German outlet Sport 1 when asked if Hamilton had called him after the Extreme E race. “Still, how cool is that we are now competing against each other as team bosses and are also first and second in the championship? It’s funny that the duel now continues here.” After Hamilton had won the F1 world championship in 2014 and 2015, Rosberg finally got the better of his old friend in 2016 – retiring in the immediate aftermath. Since then, he has gone on to champion several sustainable projects, with Extreme E being one of the German’s most significant endeavors. Rosberg Xtreme Racing Team won the opening race of the season in Saudi Arabia, while Hamilton’s X44 came in third. “Our teams were in duels all weekend. Sometimes his team was first, sometimes mine. It was a really big duel and in the end we were able to swing it our way, which made me very happy,” Rosberg concluded.

Formula One is poised to trial sprint races at three rounds of the 2021 calendar, after all ten teams agreed a financial package for the proposal with Liberty Media. As per the deal, Liberty Media will pay each team a one-off payment of $500,000 to cover their costs of competing in the three trial sprint races this year. The $145 million budget cap will be raised by the same amount, and teams will also be able to apply for additional compensation if their cars suffer damage during the trial sprint races. This year’s British, Italian and Brazilian grand prix have been earmarked to host the three trial sprint races, though there are doubts about the viability of the 2021 Brazilian Grand Prix due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the severity of the crisis in the country. The sessions, which will officially be monikered “Sprint Qualifying”, will have a 100km-race distance and will take place on the Saturday morning of a grand prix weekend. So, for the three rounds during which sprint races will be trialled, Free Practice One (FP1) and qualifying for the sprint races will take place on Friday, while Free Practice Two (FP2) will take place on Saturday afternoon after the sprint race. The outcome of “Sprint Qualifying” will dictate the order for the grand prix – which will remain the main event of the weekend and will continue to take place on a Sunday – and only the top three finishers will score points in this new session. If the trial goes well this year, sprint races could become a permanent feature of the F1 calendar from 2022 onwards. The proposal still needs to be ratified by the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) but it is looking highly likely that the sprint race trial will go ahead this campaign.

Formula 1 is closing in on a $30 million per team annual budget cap to specifically limit spending on drivers. According to Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport and other specialist publications, the FIA and Liberty Media are poised to circulate the proposal among F1 teams. “According to rumours,” wrote correspondent Luigi Perna, “they have come to defining a figure. Each team, in the coming seasons, can spend a maximum of $30 million for the two drivers plus reserves. “Bonuses and personal image rights would be excluded,” he added. The measure would immediately affect Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who is paid about $45 million per year, while high earners like Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc may also be unhappy. Ferrari driver Leclerc is quoted by Corriere della Sera: “I have an opinion on the matter, but I prefer to talk about it with the FIA rather than in public. “But I do want to point out the risks that we take on the track,” he said.

Romain Grosjean’s wish of having one final outing in a Formula 1 car looks to be happening with news that he has undergone a seat fitting with a mystery F1 team. The Frenchman was involved in a terrifying crash during the Bahrain Grand Prix, just weeks before he was told he wouldn’t have a seat for 2021. That meant he was forced to miss the final two races of the season, with the crash his final memory in F1. That prompted Grosjean to publicly plead for one last outing in an F1 car before calling time on his career in the top class. “If I don’t [race in Abu Dhabi], I’ll call every single Formula 1 team and see if anyone would offer me a private test in January to jump back in the car and have 10, 15 laps for myself,” he said. That caught the attention of Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, who said he would be open to the idea. Whilst it’s not known if Mercedes is the team with which Grosjean underwent a seat fitting, the 34-year-old, who will race in IndyCar this year, hinted at that during a livestream. “I’ve had a phone call with Toto, and we are finalising the plan,” he said. Now it’s been revealed that Grosjean’s seat fitting has gone ahead, as revealed by executive producer of Netflix’s Drive To Survive docu-series. “We were filming with Grosjean for a seat fitting today,” James Gay-Rees said on the ‘In The Fast Lane’ podcast. “He’s having one last spin with a team.” If the test is with Mercedes, it’s likely it will take place at the Silverstone circuit and will be in a car that is a couple of years old.

Renault needed change at the very top as the F1 team transitioned to its new identity as Alpine for 2021. That is the explanation of Renault CEO Luca de Meo, as he responded to rumours that Cyril Abiteboul was ousted as team boss due to the team’s poor performance. However, RTL quotes de Meo as insisting that Alpine simply needed the change. “This question is a little complicated,” he said. “With this new story for us, it would have been difficult,” he added, referring to the former leadership structure under Abiteboul. “If they needed support (from Renault), they got it, but their comfort zone was to stay outside. Now Alpine is absolutely integrated into the mainstream strategy of the Renault Group. “So you need people who are part of the small, agile unit, but who also have a connection to the other side at the same time,” said de Meo. He said Abiteboul did good work for Renault, “starting in 2016 or 2017 and saying goodbye with a few podium places. But we have to look ahead”.

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko believes Sebastian Vettel should have taken a year off from Formula 1 in 2021 instead of joining Aston Martin. After being dropped by Ferrari last year, four-time F1 world champion Vettel explored a number of options before ultimately signing with the rebranded Aston Martin squad for 2021. Vettel endured a difficult debut for Aston Martin in Bahrain. After being knocked out in Q1 and receiving a grid penalty, the German driver finished 15th after a clash with Esteban Ocon that landed him a 10-second time penalty. Aston Martin struggled to battle at the front of the midfield in Bahrain as it did throughout last year, with the team believing the updated regulations had hurt its low-rake car concept. Asked about Vettel’s struggles, Marko said he had not changed his view that the former Red Bull driver should have taken a year out before returning under the new regulations in 2022. “I was of the opinion, I told you that too, that he should take a year off, sort himself out, ask himself what he wants,” Marko said in an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com’s German language sister site Formel1.de. “I believe that a lot is possible within Formula 1 next year. He didn’t do that. Now he sits in the Aston Martin, which of course suffers similar to the Mercedes [with low rake]. “They are very similar cars. And this race was far from being the one that could have brought relief.”

The FIA announced last year a change in floor regulations for the 2021 season. The decision suited Red Bull Racing well, because the Formula 1 team is equally closer to competitor Mercedes this season. Otmar Szafnauer- team principal of Aston Martin- thinks this was the reason for the change. Seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton conquered no less than seven world titles in recent years, which makes the dominance of Mercedes abundantly clear. According to Szafnauer the FIA wanted to reduce that dominance by making changes to the floor. “There was never a vote on the decision”, he said to Formel1.de. “There was only one trial vote with all the chief technology officers on the technical subcommittee.” If the vote did take place, Szafnauer says the decision would be most likely to have turned out differently. “You have to keep in mind that only two teams rely on the low rake concept. Only a third team would have voted against it as well. Then there wouldn’t have been the necessary super-majority.” Szafnauer therefore thinks there is more to it than that. “I am not an expert on tyres, but immediately after the changes were decided, Pirelli announced that they would also come up with a new tyre construction.” Szafnauer, however, cannot be certain of the unfairness of the decision. The team of Aston Martin this season consists of Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll. With these drivers, the team hopes to score high points in 2021, but it didn’t quite work out in Bahrain. Where Stroll scored a point, Vettel finished in P15.

Daniel Ricciardo has opened up about his main motivations behind his move to McLaren in 2021 after two tricky seasons at Renault. The Australian had made his move to the Enstone outfit in 2019, now known as Alpine, in the hope of building a team around him to challenge for the World Championship. Ricciardo’s move to McLaren caused ructions among the grid when it was announced following Carlos Sainz’s impending switch to Ferrari, meaning his future had already been decided before the 2020 season had got underway. While he did achieve two podiums with Renault in 2020, it showed that the return on investment of his move did not live up to his expectations when he had joined the team. Now in his 11th season in Formula 1, he explained why he has made the move to F1’s second-oldest team. “When I signed the contract, it was really just the step [McLaren] made in 2019,” he told the official Formula 1 YouTube channel. “I think they kind of turned heads in the whole paddock and it felt like they’ve gone through those few darker years of trying to sort themselves out to rebuild the team. “And it felt like in 2019 they really put everything together. It was like okay, they’ve laid everything out all the all the pieces together, it’s now just building and executing for the next few years.” After finishing P3 in the 2020 Constructors’ Championship, McLaren got the new season off to a solid start in Bahrain, earning 18 points with Lando Norris finishing P4 and Ricciardo bringing his damaged MCL35M home in a creditable P7. With the Woking team’s performances in recent years showing that their cars are arguably the most upwardly mobile on the grid, Ricciardo hopes to capitalise on their improvements by challenging for podiums, while talking of his hope to mount a title challenge as early as 2022. “Obviously, I signed at the beginning of 2020, but during 2020 they showed you a further step,” he continued. “I just think they had the most promise out of the rest. I like what I saw and felt like, yeah, everyone feels pretty comfortable at McLaren. “When I say comfortable, don’t mistake that for complacent. We’re ready to get on with it.”

Brad Binder has responded to Valentino Rossi’s words of ‘riders’ like Binder ‘not caring about their rivals in races’. The South African endured another tough day for KTM on the opening practice day ahead of Sunday’s Doha MotoGP Grand Prix. However, speaking after his day on track, one of the discussion points was centered around his race battle last weekend against Rossi, who was not happy with Binder following their second moment on track following contact in Austria last season. Rossi spoke earlier in the week about the incident saying ‘respect’ was missing from certain riders. However, Binder was quick to say that it was a non issue for him as there was no contact during the overtake. “I’ve had two moments with him. One time in Austria we both went completely off the track which is understandable so I think a second time is normal to be upset!,” said Binder. “But to be fair I didn’t touch him at all. Maybe he is a bit sensitive. I don’t feel that I did anything wrong. “I went in next to him. He released the brake and he wanted to close the line, I released the brake too, end of story.” It’s been a tough start to the 2021 season so far for KTM with the bike not suiting the Losail circuit at all. And while the overall position doesn’t look good, Binder is feeling like the bike is more competitive this weekend. The former Moto3 champion said: “It is definitely a bit more positive. All the guys did a good job this week and I feel that my bike is working better. “I feel a lot more confident with some of the changes they have made.” Binder had a few issues pop up late on which affected his attempts to get into the top ten, with debris getting stuck in one of his tyres. “Problems were out of our control in FP2 and it was like riding on ice. My other tyre had a chunk in it! It was very weird. We hope it will be better next time,” added Binder. “I really felt ready to do a good job but those issues were out of our control and that really hurt me, or at least my chances of trying to get into Q2.”

Sir Lewis Hamilton is gunning for a record-breaking eighth World Championship this year – and it has been speculated he might retire at the end of 2021. Former F1 racer Mark Webber is certain that Sir Lewis Hamilton is nearing retirement, with him expecting the seven-time World Champion to remain in Formula One for only another year or two. Hamilton inked a contract extension with Mercedes in February after his previous deal expired at the end of 2020. The fact he only signed a one-year deal raised speculation about his plans to retire at the end of the year. The Brit, for his part, has said he is yet to make up his mind about his future and insisted that whether or not he wins an eighth title this year won’t be the deciding factor. His 2021 campaign got off to a great start at the season-opener in Bahrain last weekend, with him taking victory despite Red Bull’s Max Verstappen appearing to have the edge over Mercedes. Webber said he believes Hamilton still has a few more years left in him, but admitted it would be “brave” to suggest that he will race in Formula One for another three seasons. “He’s definitely on the home straight, there’s no question about that,” Webber said. “You’d be a brave man to say he’s going to race for three more years. Two, maybe. One, yes, and then there’s a high chance, it makes a lot of sense. There’s new rules in 2022. “[I’d say] go long, even Lewis at eight and a half out of 10 is still dangerous. Go a bit longer, you don’t have a great deal to lose in my opinion, when you’re that amazing. “I still think he’s got more in him,” the former Red Bull driver added.

Williams F1 driver George Russell expresses confidence that Alexander Albon will be making a return to Formula 1 on a full time basis. Albon, who was driving for Red Bull back in 2020 was under pressure throughout the season as rumours constantly went round regarding his future with the Formula 1 team. As the 2020 season came to an end Albon lost his seat as Red Bull opted to replace him with Sergio Perez for the 2021 season as he remained to be the reserve driver for the team instead. At the age of 25 though, with a number of seats set to become free next year, he has plenty of time to find a way back into the sport permanently, and Russell is sure that he will do so. “I’m in contact with Alex all the time, he is one of my closest mates,” the Williams driver told inews.co.uk. “Alex is a great driver who had a very tough time at Red Bull for a number of reasons. But he’ll be back in F1 I’m sure in the near future.” Alongside being Red Bull’s test and reserve driver, Albon will also be driving in DTM in 2021, partnering Liam Lawson at Italian outfit AF Corse. ADVERTISEMENT Russell thinks that competing in the category will be a huge challenge for him given how different it is to single-seater racing and F1 in particular. That being said, he thinks his friend is good enough to do well in it. “DTM is an incredibly tough championship,” Russell added. “It is very different to Formula One. And those guys are top of their game in what they do so he’s actually got quite a tough challenge on his hands because he’s having to learn a new discipline. “It’s almost like asking Roger Federer to go play badminton or squash. It’s still a racket and a ball, but it’s completely different. I’m sure he’ll do well but he’s got very tough challenge on his hands.” Albon has previously stated that while his first choice is to return to F1 with a seat at Red Bull, he’d also take one at AlphaTauri or even outside the Red Bull family. With Russell in with a chance of joining Mercedes, his seat at Williams could become free and be an option for him.