FIA announces shock return of Rao as advisor to Ben Sulayem
Shaila-Ann Rao has returned to the FIA after the world governing body for motorsport confirmed her appointment as a presidential advisor. It marks another post for Rao, who previously worked for the FIA as legal director between 2016-2018 and as interim secretary general for motorsport for a five-month spell in 2022. Her initial return followed […]
Mexico Grand Prix extends F1 contract until at least 2028
Formula 1 has signed a fresh three-year contract extension with promoters of the Mexico Grand Prix to keep the race on the calendar until 2028. The 2025 edition of the race at Mexico City’s Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is the last one of its current contract, with promotor CIE having to negotiate new terms with F1. […]
How Ratzenberger beat the odds to realise his cruelly short-lived F1 dream
This article was initially published on 30 April 2024 Gorianstrasse is a small, dead-end street in Salzburg’s Riedenburg neighbourhood, around halfway between the old city nestling at the foot of the Hohensalzburg fortress and the airport on the western outskirts. There, in a new-build block, Roland Ratzenberger bought a two-storey apartment with beautiful views of […]
Ferrari set for car upgrades in Imola to turn around poor start to F1 2025
Ferrari may have achieved just one podium finish in the 2025 Formula 1 season so far, courtesy of Charles Leclerc in Jeddah, but it expects much more to come in the next few months. The Maranello-based outfit is counting on the FIA’s stricter front wing tests, which will be introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix […]
F1 signs PwC as official consulting partner from Miami GP onwards
PwC has become Formula 1’s official consulting partner meaning it will offer its services to the series in exchange for branding opportunities from the Miami Grand Prix onwards. One of the United Kingdom’s «big four» accounting firms, PwC — also known as PricewaterhouseCoopers — has signed a multi-year deal with F1 and will provide ‘strategic […]
What is behind Aston Martin’s struggles in F1 2025?
It’s 2023, and five grands prix in, Aston Martin has already secured four podium finishes and 102 points in the standings, establishing itself as the second-best team on the grid behind Red Bull. Two years later, and again, five weekends in — that tally has more than halved, with the British team earning a measly […]
The factors that make F1’s 2026 engine rules a major political battleground
In Bahrain, many in the Formula 1 paddock were focused on a high-level meeting about the future engine formula and the 2026 regulations. The meeting was held after a media session with Nikolas Tombazis in China, in which the director of the FIA’s single-seater commission raised two major questions. First of all, what does F1’s […]
Where Lawson and Tsunoda stand three races into their Red Bull/Racing Bulls switch
For the reasons previously explored in this writer’s column last week, the RB21 has performance available to be extracted — but largely in a certain, admittedly narrow, window. When comparing how the drivers occupying Red Bull’s rotating second seat had got on, it was evident that was something that Liam Lawson struggled with, while Yuki […]
Should Vettel replace Marko as Red Bull’s young driver boss?
Succession planning trips up many business leaders. Captains of industry, along with politicians and monarchs, naturally see themselves as irreplaceable – and, indeed, regard potential successors as threats to their eternal dominion. For many years in Formula 1, anyone identified by the media or insiders as “the next Bernie Ecclestone” immediately needed to keep their […]