Formula 1

More than half of the Formula 1 grid has brought upgrades to the third round of the season in Australia.

Improved flow control has been on the mind with Williams bringing several updates to Australia. The smaller spec cover has been specifically designed for Albert Park as cooling isn’t a high priority with temperatures being quite low. There has been plenty of chatter as to what upgrades will be coming to Mercedes. A new front wing leads to the component additions along with rear wing endplates. McLaren’s start to the season has been a disaster and in an attempt to be in the mix for points they’ve brought a new engine cover to Melbourne. They have brought a new floor to Albert Park which features new vanes to the floor edge.

And there was disappointment in Formula 2 qualifying as Jack Doohan, the son of Aussie motorsport great Mick, couldn't capitalise on leading all comers in ...

Our cockpit is too close to the front. Alex Albon, Williams (+0.976) “Car setups, they’re only fine-tuning most of the time from the moment you arrive on the weekend. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes (+0.433) Everyone in the garage they love this stuff - find out data, painting your sidepods, great time to learn soemting about your car. It still allowed the reigning champion to post a fastest time of 1:19.278. I’m going to have to find a black cat, I’m going to have to sort it out.” “I thought I could smell something down the back straight, I was like: ‘that’s weird’ ... Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes (+1.436) Pierre Gasly, Alpine (+1.319) Esteban Ocon, Alpine (+0.838) Some cars continued to run on the dry tyres but failed to improve their times at all.

The drivers and teams report back on all the action from Friday practice at the third race of the season, the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix 2023...

It started raining shortly after the start of FP2 in the afternoon and that complicated the picture even more, as it wasn’t possible to carry out the long runs needed for a full assessment of the tyres. We don’t know exactly where we are compared to the rest of the field, but we will concentrate on what we have to do as a team to be able to put it together for tomorrow. “We showed some progress from the first to the second session, both in terms of feeling with the car and of pace. It was not a smooth day in terms of being on-track due to the red flag in the first session and then the rain in the second session, so we definitely have a lot of work to do ahead of tomorrow and we will need to be decisive in the car set-up. I think we're in a decent place and I felt very happy with the car during FP1. We had some good preparation and feedback from the car, and I was able to try the new updates which seem to be a step forward. There was a little bit of confusion when the GPS didn’t work therefore you can see Kevin at the end of the classifications because he couldn’t put a proper lap in – Norris was out there, and Norris didn’t know we were around, and we didn’t know Norris was around. I was a bit surprised in the damp conditions that I couldn't get a good sense of the track, but in the dry it was great and the car felt good. “It was great to be out on track here in Melbourne and see all the fans. We are pushing hard to maximise everything and I look forward to the rest of the weekend." “There were some issues with the GPS in FP1 and it felt like a lot of us still had issues with it in FP2. The car was feeling good and we used FP1 to test various new parts which gives us plenty of data to look through this evening as we continue to learn about the AMR23.

The question of a potential night race around the Albert Park circuit was posed to Westacott during an appearance in the Sky Sports commentary booth during ...

[PlusPlusFormula 1 ](/f1/news/the-cycle-of-f1-upheaval-williams-must-end-to-rediscover-past-glories/10449257/) [PlusPlusFormula 1 ](/f1/news/how-f1s-new-era-has-exposed-the-downside-of-its-most-important-rule/10449931/) So be open minded is probably the simple answer."

Following the week that Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicalli caused a storm in a teacup by suggesting free practice sessions should be removed, the teams and ...

The Spaniard is the last of the brakers, again highlighting the impressive nature of Aston Martin in the corners. There's a very small chance Alonso and Aston Martin will be able to provide a challenge in qualifying. A difference of 7km/h to Mercedes, and a difference of 9km/h to Ferrari is staggering. This is more reminiscent of the technical sector two in Bahrain. Perez and Verstappen are significantly ahead of the rest of the field. [Max Verstappen](gpblog.com/en/f1-drivers/max-verstappen)'s Red Bull set the fastest sector time.

The F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has announced that the F1 Academy, the first-ever all-female driver category, will be a part of F1 weekends in 2024.

Of course, not everywhere, but that will be part of the plan to promote the F1 Academy. Susie Wolff will lead this plan and this programme, and in the next couple of weeks, we will announce what is beyond the track. The F1 Academy calendar will be aligned with Formula 1 in 2024 – Domenicali said on Friday: “We haven’t yet started the 2023 F1 Academy season on the track, but I can confirm with you that next year, F1 Academy will be on the racing weekends with Formula 1.

PART ONE - TEAM REPRESENTATIVES Otmar SZAFNAUER (Alpine), Guenther STEINER (Haas), Mario ISOLA (Pirelli) Q: Guenther, let's start with you.

CH: The reality is it’s absolutely ludicrous to be doing the first sprint race of the year in a street race like Azerbaijan but I think from a spectacle point of view, from a fan point of view, is probably going to be one of the most exciting sprint races of the year. We always have run two cars since we entered the sport in 2005 and we always want to have the best two drivers that we can in the car and I think it's great to see Checo doing certainly a great job now. But we also must not forget, we have a huge gap to close and we have to also anticipate and respect that they will also not stand still in the time because they still have some time. I think it's something that we need to respect if it's a pure safety directive, and if that is the rule, then we will comply with it and if someone doesn't, then we will pay the fine. And for us, it’s just positive to have him in the team, contributing to the team, to the drivers, to the engineering team. This is also taken often as a reference, you know, like when we see where we are now, but compared to finishing seventh, I think we were better than that at the end of last year, but the result is just what is on paper. We don't know how we do it and if we do it, so I think once we have done that, instead of FP2 on a Sprint event on Saturday morning, we do a qualifying and then we are in a situation to evaluate whether one FP, which would be FP1, enough to get out what we want and go from there and then decide what is next in making the free practice session more interesting for the spectator, because that is what we need to make it. Do you think this is the best version of Checo that you've seen at Red Bull in his two and a bit years at the team? So we are on this journey, as I said, and we have to wait a little bit and see what is going to happen on that. We know how important it is to go in this direction of sustainability, and we are also working on the slick tyres and after the race in Barcelona, we have the next test session where, for the first time, the baseline will be a tyre without blankets. We are happy to play our part in the sport, as I said, and to follow the requests that are coming from drivers, teams, FIA and F1, to have a sport that is even better, if it is possible. I think Bahrain, we were not good, I must say it – but we knew why and I always said I think Jeddah is a different place, and in Jeddah, we were pretty good, I would say, for where we are at.

Max Verstappen leads driver standings with 44 points - Anadolu Agency.

[Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Carlos Sainz (Spain): 20 Sunday's race will start at 0500GMT.

SportsLine's model analyzes Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and the rest of the field's chances at the F1 Australian GP 2023 race.

So who wins the Australia Grand Prix 2023? Before analyzing the 2023 Australian Grand Prix starting grid and making any Formula 1 picks, His teammates Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg and Valtteri Bottas have gone on to win six times at the Australian GP while Hamilton has only won twice. The 2023 Formula 1 season will continue on Sunday with the 2023 Rolex Australian Grand Prix at the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit in Melbourne, Australia. It nailed both of Leclerc's wins in 2022, and at the 2021 Mexican Grand Prix, the model was strongly backing Verstappen as its top pick. The 2023 Australian GP will begin at 1 a.m.

Max Verstappen headed the practice times on Friday at the Australian Grand Prix, his FP1 best quicker than Fernando Alonso's session-topper in a ...

The teams suggest no more rain is forecast right now, but it's worth noting several of them didn't expect what fell this afternoon to be as much or as heavy as things ended up being. Ferrari concentrated on trying to fix the race tyre management issues that plagued it in Bahrain and Jeddah during FP1 – a shrewd move given it can rival Red Bull in qualifying. Aston Martin tried a variety of set-up changes in FP1 regarding ride heights and wing angles, which is what Alonso meant when he said "we concentrated on some test items and ran through our programme smoothly" in that session. Therefore, if Red Bull doesn't make the right adjustments and continues to have wild moments tomorrow, there's the chance of an upset in qualifying. Expect them to dry and gather as much qualifying and long-run data as they can in the final 60-minute session to replace their Friday night predictions. Then Perez never got to try another flier as the rain rolled in and stopped the drivers improving. In FP2, Sainz and Verstappen exchanged early benchmark times at the top of the order before Alonso forged clear on a 1m18.887s – the trio running the medium tyres. With a few minutes of FP1 remaining, Logan Sargeant stopping coming out of Turn 11 due to an electrical meant the session was cut short. This occurred when Verstappen climbed hard onto the kerbs exiting Turn 4 and nearly speared into the track's inside wall in a manner similar to the incident where Sebastian Vettel crashed out of last year's race here for Aston Martin. This led to several near-misses between cars on different run plans that were going slowly and quickly at different times, so FP1 was red-flagged for nearly 10 minutes. In FP1, the pack had to contend with two invisible factors that set the story of that session. While there was less for the teams to go on than usual after Friday's disrupted running, unseen practice factors may perhaps offer Red Bull's rivals a glimmer of hope in Melbourne

Max Verstappen topped the combined times on Friday for Red Bull ahead of the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix. Here's how and when to watch qualifying. Haydn ...

[PlusPlusFormula 1 ](/f1/news/how-f1s-new-era-has-exposed-the-downside-of-its-most-important-rule/10449931/) The temperature is set to be 15 degrees Celsius at the start of qualifying. For the entire 2023 F1 season, Channel 4 will broadcast highlights of every qualifying and race of each event. In the United Kingdom Channel 4 is broadcasting highlights of qualifying for the Australian GP at 11:15am BST on Saturday morning. Sky Sports can also be accessed through NOW with a one-off day payment of £11.98p or a monthly membership of £34.99p. Live streaming through NOW is also available in the UK.

Best drivers in the world will roar around Melbourne's Albert Park on Sunday with two-time defending champion shaping as the man to beat.

Leclerc wrote himself into the history books on his way to taking the chequered flag last year. Dutch driver Max Verstappen, who has claimed the last two drivers’ championships, sits atop the standings after the opening two rounds on 44 points, holding a slim one point lead over Mexico’s Pérez. It takes an estimated 290,000 man hours to assemble the circuit every year. Great Britain’s Jenson Button won three times at the track in 2009-2010, and 2012, with Germany’s Sebastian Vettel doing the same in 2011 and 2017-18. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc put a smile on fans’ faces at Albert Park last April with the Australian Grand Prix returning for the first time since 2019 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The total race length is 306.124 km.

This piece of jargon decides F1's winners and losers, but the meaning behind the term is surprisingly human.

So concepts become an arms race between F1 teams to establish a daring baseline, then develop the car around that concept, with total faith that the ideas behind that concept will come good. But rather than give up entirely on the concept, Mercedes doubled down for this year's W14, mitigating porpoising with a reinforced floor section and hedging the extreme aero approach with slightly more bulbous sidepods, in hopes that the long-term vision would come good. Mercedes’s Zero-Pod concept is an example of the latter. Drastically shrunken sidepods created room for an ultra-wide floor on the car, leveraging far more surface area on the top side of the aero package than any other design on the grid. Take, for example, the concept concerning most modern pundits: Mercedes’s “Zero Pod” design, which premiered on last year's W13 chassis. In just its fourth race, the 1976 Swedish Grand Prix Jody Sheckter put the P34 on pole and led a Tyrrell one-two finish. Optimizing that relationship between drag and downforce remains the central challenge for F1 designers. Pick a bad concept—even for a single year—and it’s enough to torpedo your season. Pick a good concept for your F1 car; you’re immediately competitive, one of few teams able to fight for a championship. In some cases, when a huge rule change shakes up the known formula for success in F1, a bad concept can bring about dramatic failure. That decreased frontal area would in turn reduce drag on the car. Formula 1’s ecosystem of pundits and commenters have recently latched on to “concepts” as a major topic of discussion.