Formula 1

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Sunday, December 5, 2021, was fraught with penalties and confusion and produced an incredibly exciting result that means this season has one of the tensest endings of any Formula 1 season.

The holidays can be exhausting. Family, 5 pounds of turkey in your gut, and black Friday shopping can take a lot out of you. So relax and re-cooperate this week and weekend with TopSpeed’s list of the best car-themed movies and shows on Netflix.

We like to believe that Formula 1 is the pinnacle of motorsport, where those in charge are more dedicated to making the racing faster and more intense.

Bob Bondurant who left an indelible legacy in American and international motorsport, died last weekend on, Friday in Paradise Valley, Arizona, at the age of 88.

Max Verstappen managed to fend off the threat from Mercedes and a charging Hamilton at yesterday’s US Grand Prix, held at the Circuit of the Americas, in Austin Texas.

Sausage curbs aren’t very old in F1. For those of you wondering what they are, sausage curbs are the little ramps on the sides of the track. These curbs are there to discourage drivers from running wide, but lately, they’ve been under the scanner for not being particularly safe. Many people are in favor of it, but there’s also a large chunk that believes sausage curbs need to go. So, is it really a boon or a bane to drivers?

Lewis Hamilton becomes the first driver in Formula 1 history to win 100 races. This win though came with some luck as the rain gods opened up the heavens in the final stages of the 2021 Russian Grand Prix. Mercedes for once took the right call in bringing Hamilton in and switching him onto intermediate tires.

After that, it was just a matter of hunting down race leader Lando Norris who was dominant all weekend to clinch the win. Having been in the sport for the better part of 14 years, the seven-time world champion looks relentless and now is aiming for an unprecedented eighth title, as the man continues to break records.

Netflix is looking to cash in on F1’s recent boom in America with their new documentary Schumacher. It makes sense they would make a full-blown movie as the streaming service has seen massive success with their original show Drive to Survive.

The wait is finally over. The documentary ’Schumacher,’ is finally out and is now live on Netflix, and examines the life of the seven-time Formula One world champion. It gives us an insight into the life of the F1 legend, who was involved in a skiing accident, back in 2013 that left him in a coma.

Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton’s rivalry took an ugly turn – quite literally – when the former’s car ended up landing on Hamilton’s head. The two collided at Monza’s tight first chicane. If not for the halo – the protective titanium hoop – things could’ve gotten very ugly for the Mercedes driver. Well, the good thing is at least he’s safe and alive.

Sunday, September 5, 2021, saw the un-official restart of the 2021 season at Zandvoort in The Netherlands. Orange smoke clouded the circuit almost all day as the Dutch crowd went crazy whenever their hometown boy flew past in the RedBull race car. It all started with the best un-official season restart ever, with Max Verstappen landing a three-second gap ahead of Hamilton early in the race.

Bad weather always has to throw a wrench in everyone’s plans. It managed to do that on a massive scale in Belgium on August 28th for the restart of the 2021 Formula 1 season.
However, there is a silver lining behind all of this - the next ten races could have some of the best racing we have seen in a long time.

The Japanese Formula 1 Grand Prix was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Depending on what the race series decides to do, it could change the tide of the war raging between Max Verstappen piloting the Red Bull and Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes.

More than 60 years have passed since Aston Martin raced in Formual 1 so the news that the carmaker is making a comback in the Big Circus can be counted as a major reason to celebrate. The new F1 car is called AMR21, which is obviously an immense step forward from the 1960 DBR5 named after David Brown but closely related to the Valkyrie.

Five years old as of 2019, the Land Rover Discovery Sport is the company’s oldest product on the market. As a result, the British firm rolled out a mid-cycle facelift. A bit late to the party given that modern vehicles have a shorter life span, but the update is rather consistent and includes new technology and notable design changes.

So, Formula One appears really close to being sold. That’s a pretty big deal considering that Formula One remains the pinnacle of motor sports racing. It may not be the most popular at this point in time, but it still holds the biggest sway among all racing series on a global scale. Yes, I know NASCAR and Indy 500 are the two most popular ones in the US, but F1 takes the cake on a global scale. It’s a “football vs football” comparison, only on four wheels.

Ok, about that sale. It’s worth pointing out that the reported “number” in the sale is $8 billion. Personally, I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing when you take into account the fact that the Ultimate Fighting Championship was just sold for $4 billion to a group led by talent agency WME-IMG. Considering the status and exclusivity of Formula One, I’m led to believe that either that group overpaid for the UFC or Liberty Media is getting a bargain with the $8 billion price for Formula One.

In any case, it’s going to be interesting to see how this transaction closes and the details that will come out of it. In the mean time, the pending transaction does provide us with the time and opportunity to talk about what might happen in Formula One if it does end up changing owners as it’s being widely reported. On the surface, don’t expect any drastic changes because the current 2016-2017 is on-going.

But moving forward? That’s where things become interesting, especially if the owners are as pro-active as I expect them to be in addressing some of the issues plaguing the sport these days. In light of this, I’ve come up with a mix of predictions and recommendations on what I think is going to happen once Formula One is sold to Liberty Media.

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Formula 1 looks set to be sold to a U.S. media company in an $8.4 billion (£6.3 billion) deal – and the move could herald the departure of long-standing F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

Formula One could find itself with a new owner very soon after multiple reports have declared a pending sale by controlling firm and private equity group CVC Capital Partners to U.S.-based media empire Liberty Media Corporation for an amount believed to be in the neighborhood of $8.5 billion.

The deal has yet to be finalized and other parties looking to make a play in acquiring the racing series are still in the hunt. That said, there’s growing momentum that CVC is on the inside line in the long-rumored acquisition of Formula One. The full parameters of the sale, according to The Financial Times, comes with an initial deal revolving around Liberty Media acquiring 10 to 15 percent of Formula One with an agreement in place to take full control of the series in the future. CVC Capital currently has a 35 percent stake in Delta Topco, the company that owns the Formula One Group.

Other parties are also in the running and there have been suggestions that CVC is in separate negotiations with some of them, including investment company RSE Ventures, which owns the Miami Dolphins. Likewise, a Qatari consortium is also in the mix, as is another private equity firm whose identity has yet to be revealed.

In the event a sale to Liberty Media pushes through, there are expectations that a change in leadership will follow. Sky Sports reported that current F1 chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe will be replaced in his role by media executive Chase Carey with Brabeck-Letmathe staying on the board as a non-executive director. Then there’s the status of Bernie Ecclestone, the sport’s face for the better part of four decades and himself a minority owner in Formula One. No specific details have been revealed regarding Ecclestone’s fate if a sale is made, but senior F1 figures believe that he’ll remain on board in some capacity even if the sale pushes through.

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Lamborghini may have Stefano Domenicali at the helm as its new chief executive officer, but even having the man who once took charge of rival Ferrari’s Formula One team isn’t enough for the Italian automaker to consider entering motor racing’s highest level of competition. Domenicali himself said as much in a conversation with AutoWeek, saying that Formula One “is not a priority” for the Italian automaker.

The new CEO’s statements are not different from his predecessor, Stephan Winkelmann, who also shut down any possibility linking Lamborghini back to Formula One for the first time in 20-plus years.

Sure, it would look cool to see Lamborghini return to Formula One, but there are a multitude of reasons that can be tied into its refusal to make the jump. Domenicali talked about “other priorities” and that’s true, both from a manufacturers and motorsports perspective. Right now, the biggest and most important priority is to expand its production capabilities with the impending arrival of the Urus SUV, which is projected to be the biggest volume model of the automaker. Having the facility and the resources in place to accommodate the SUV’s production is important for Lambo to continue functioning to its normal capacity. That also ties into its two existing models – the Aventador and the Huracán – as well as the multitude of special edition models it routinely creates.

Then there’s Lamborghini’s motorsports priority. It’s easy to overlook the company’s absence from Formula One and dismiss its motor sports credentials. That couldn’t be further from the truth though. Lamborghini is heavily invested in the sport. It builds GT3 race cars for competition. It has its own single-make series (the Super Trofeo). It also has an in-house driver development program that goes all the way to the grassroots level, specifically the recently launched Kart Driver’s Program.

Based on all of these, Domenicali does offer a fair assessment of what Lamborghini’s priorities are and how those priorities take precedent over any ambition to enter the chaotic world of Formula One.

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The 2017 Formula One season is shaping up to be a watershed moment for the entire sport as sweeping changes are in order to make the races more competitive. Sure, we won’t be seeing the controversial halo protective device anymore, but the overall makeup of the actual race cars that will be competing next season will be dramatically different from the versions being used in the current season.

Sky Sports recently took a close look at the major changes for the 2017 Formula One cars and their respective tires. Basically, the cars have been designed to look faster and more aggressive and so, rules have put in place to extend the track width of the cars from the current requirement of 1.8 meters (almost 6 feet) to 2.0 meters (a little over 6.5 feet). F1 teams achieved that by having wider front and rear tires to reduce understeer and improve mechanical grip that will be needed to cope with the increased cornering speeds. The front wing for the 2017 F1 cars will also be wider by 0.50 feet and will feature in a swept back profile to make it less sensitive to the difficult racing conditions that lie ahead. Likewise, the rear wing will also look markedly different as they will be lower and wider. The new size of the wing will be able to better complement the larger diffuser and the bigger barge boards to increase downforce throughout the car.

With these changes, the 2017 F1 race cars are expected to be faster around corners than they have been since the mid 2000s. The changes do come at a cost of adding almost 50 pounds to the weight of the car, making them more than a handful to drive. But since we’re talking about some of the best racers in the world competing in the pinnacle of motor sports, I don’t think that’s going to be too much of an adjustment for these guys. At the very least, we should see some more entertaining races next season, especially around those corners where speeds are likely to pick up, allowing for more of those breathtaking overtaking opportunities that have become rare in recent reasons.

Last week, we reported that Bernie Ecclestone’s mother-in-law, Aparecida Schunck, was abducted near her home in the Interlagos neighborhood of Sao Paulo, Brazil. In exchange for her return, the kidnappers demanded 120 million Brazilian Reals, or roughly $36.5 million, to be paid in pound sterling separated into four individual bags. Now, it appears as though the kidnappers won’t be getting anything but cold, hard justice, as Brazilian police have apparently freed Ms. Schunck completely unharmed.

Bernie Ecclestone, the billionaire chief behind Formula One, is one of the richest men in sports, and has been the target of kidnapping and extortion in the past. The $36.5 million ransom was reportedly the highest ransom ever recorded in Brazil, a country notorious for kidnappings.

According to a report from the BBC, police managed to trace phone calls between the kidnappers and the victim’s family, pinpointing her location to a house in Cotia, a town just outside Sao Paulo. Police then executed “a major” operation to free her, which was successful. No ransom was paid, and two suspects were put into custody.

Further developments revealed earlier today allege that Jorge Eurico da Silva, a helicopter pilot with a history working for Ecclestone’s family, was responsible for coordinating the kidnapping.

Upon her release, Ms. Schunck told media, “I only ask for these bandits to be jailed so they can’t abduct anyone else in Sao Paulo.”

Ms. Schunck was abducted July 22nd and was held for nine days.

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After two disastrous showings of the new qualifying format, Formula One teams have unanimously agreed to go back to the qualifying system from the 2015 season. The change will be made with immediate effect, which means that the old format will return as early as the Chinese Grand Prix on April 16, 2016.

The change was made after all the teams collectively railed against the current format, which Formula One thought would jolt some much-needed excitement back into the qualifying sessions. But the exact opposite has happened as teams have been reluctant to go all-out in qualifying, opting to preserve their tires and engine for the actual race. As a result, the latter parts of the qualifying sessions have become devoid of any action whatsoever as the checkered flags were waved on empty tracks. It happened in Melbourne and again in Bahrain.

Turns out, the teams have had enough of it and it seems that Formula One management has agreed to jump ship as well, at least for the remainder of the season. The proposal now falls on the desk of the F1 Commission, which is expected to approve it in the coming days as teams begin their preparations for the Chinese Grand Prix.

That said, proposals for different ideas are also being welcomed and if the world championships are settled well in advance of the last few races of the season, the remaining qualifying rounds for the subsequent races could be used as testing sessions for different qualifying formats. But for now, it’s back to the 2015 format, something everybody seems to be in favor of.

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When Formula One decided to dramatically alter qualifying sessions for the 2016 season, many thought it would jolt some drama back to a format that had already become too predictable, according to some. Turns out, after just one round into the new season, the new qualifying format has been thrown out and the old system will be brought back in time for the next round in Bahrain. To say that the new format was a disappointment would be a massive understatement. The words “sham,” “disastrous,” and “rubbish” were used and even then, none of those words could probably encapsulate the awkwardness brought by the new format.

Here’s what happened: the new elimination-style format was supposed to feature exciting wheel-to-wheel racing because of the rule that a driver is knocked out of the session after every 90 seconds during the three timed sessions. To be fair, the first session was actually exciting because all 22 cars got in some laps. But as the field whittled down, the excitement left with it. Less cars on the track meant less action and with four minutes left in Q3, it was just down to the two Ferraris and the two Mercedes cars. But Ferrari – smartly – decided not to send out its cars knowing that Lewis Hamilton’s fastest lap would be hard to beat. Instead, they opted to park their cars and save up their tires for the race. Without Ferrari, Mercedes did the same thing, leading to a completely empty track in the final minutes of the session.

The whole format was immediately and roundly criticized by just about everybody involved in the series. The drivers hated it. The teams hated it. Fans hated it. Even Bernie Ecclestone, the driving force behind the new qualifying format, couldn’t even find any silver lining to hang his hat on. And just as soon as the new format was introduced, it was thrown to the trash just as fast. F1 team bosses met after during race day and unanimously decided to ditch the new system. As such, the previous system will be re-introduced for the Bahrain Grand Prix on April 2, 2016.

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Fernando Alonso is lucky to be alive. The Spanish driver admitted to such after a horrific crash at the Australian Grand Prix. The debacle left his McLaren race car completely obliterated. Alonso was engaged in a heated duel with Haas Racing driver Esteban Gutierrez in the 17th lap of the race when his right tire clipped the back of Gutierrez’s car. That contact sent the number 14 McLaren-Honda race car straight into the wall where it smashed to pieces before flipping multiple times and flying all the way to another wall at the end of the run-off area. The car eventually rested upside down in a smoldering heap.

Alonso miraculously walked out of the crash as soon as the car came to a rest, drawing huge sighs of relief from his family, team, and everyone who saw the incredible crash. Watching in real time, it’s easy to see why a lot of people were worried about Alonso. The car not only smacked the wall at high speed, but the momentum of that crash caused the car to flip over multiple times in the air before crashing violently into the dirt.

The crash immediately brought out the red flag, causing the entire race to be stopped temporarily. It eventually resumed with Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg taking the checkered flag ahead of teammate and defending world champion Lewis Hamilton. But with respect to the two Mercedes drivers and third-place finisher Sebastian Vettel, Alonso’s crash has become the main talking point from the race as it has once again put a spotlight on the Formula One’s move to improve the safety conditions for its drivers during race weekends.

Alonso was quick to give credit for the advancements the sport has made with regards to the safety of the cars themselves. Anybody who saw the crash likely counted on the worst before seeing Alonso walk away unhurt. The crash also brought flashbacks to the accident that led to the death of Jules Bianchi. It may have been different circumstances, but seeing such a wreck makes people think of the worst-case scenarios. Alonso said so himself, so if there’s anybody who knows how lucky he is to still be alive, it’s definitely him.

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