Showing posts with label Formula 1. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Formula 1. Show all posts
Friday, 11 September 2026
SIR LEWIS HAMILTON VS. MICHAEL SCHUMACHER | STATS | FORMULA 1
Two different eras, but the same incredible number at the top: 7 world titles each. 🏆🏆
Michael Schumacher set the standard for dominance in the 1990s and 2000s, winning 91 races and setting records that stood for years.
Lewis Hamilton spent the following two decades chasing those numbers and eventually matching Schumacher’s seven championships, while going on to surpass him in wins, poles and podiums.
Their careers even briefly crossed in 2007, when rookie Hamilton raced against Schumacher during his comeback. What looked like a simple meeting of two generations would eventually become one of F1’s greatest statistical battles.
Different eras, different rules, different points systems. But the same level of greatness. 👑
#F1 #Formula1 #HamiltonVsSchumacher #Ferrari
- Tiara Pane
Thursday, 10 September 2026
Monday, 7 September 2026
Sunday, 6 September 2026
Saturday, 5 September 2026
Friday, 4 September 2026
Thursday, 3 September 2026
LANDO NORRIS UNVEILS BRAND NEW F1 FEEDER SERIES TEAM CALLED 'LN4 FUSION'
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| Norris announces new Motorsport Venture |
Reigning Formula 1 World Champion Lando Norris is looking toward the future of Motorsport, co-founding a junior single-seater team and development programme called LN4 Fusion.
It’s been a big week for Norris, with the Briton announcing a contract extension to remain with McLaren until at least 2030, as well as launching a new pathway to help young racing talent on their way to the coveted F1 series.
LN4 Fusion is currently participating in a unique British Formula 4 testing programme, hoping to secure a grid spot in the coming seasons. Additionally, the team has entered the F2 team selection process ahead of the 2027 season.
But the British team has already secured entries into some of Motorsport’s most coveted Feeder Series. In the coming season, LN4 Fusion will feature in Italian F4, the Formula Regional European Championship and even Formula 3. Crucially, the team have acquired select assets of the current AIX Racing team, ultimately securing its place on the grid until the end of 2027.
Ahead of its inaugural season, LN4 Fusion has secured some of motorsport’s most exciting names. Leading the charge is Rene Rosin. The Italian has had 40 years of Motorsport experience, most well-known for his involvement with the iconic PREMA Racing team.
Meanwhile, Dan Hazlewood will lead LN4 Fusion’s UK operations. Hazlewood has successfully led the Fusion Motorsport Karting team in recent years, serving as a crucial figure for the upcoming team.
Alongside the new team, Norris is launching the LN4 Legacy Programme, an independent and fully funded driver development programme operated by ADD Management. Julian Rouse will lead the programme. It aims to identify and support outstanding young Motorsport talent, giving them access to elite coaching, mentoring and career support, all of which Norris deemed crucial on his journey to becoming an F1 World Champion.
Reactions from the LN4 Fusion team
When reflecting on the team, Norris highlighted the importance of this project to him. Emphasising that whilst Motorsport is a difficult path to follow for many, he hopes this new venture can create ‘new opportunities’ for the next generation.
“I’ve been really lucky to have some amazing people around me throughout my career, and I know that getting to Formula 1 takes so much more than just talent,” Norris explained.
“You need the right people around you, the right support and the right opportunities at the right time. That’s what these two projects are all about. LN4 Fusion is about building a race team that can compete with the best in junior motorsport, with great people and a great environment for drivers to develop.
“The LN4 Legacy Programme is about helping talented young drivers get opportunities they might not otherwise have.
“For me, they naturally fit together. I want to help create opportunities for the next generation, both on and off the track, and hopefully make a real difference to young drivers coming through the sport.”
Team Principal Rosin explained the importance of Norris’ involvement in the new venture. Claiming he is excited to build the team in the right direction.
“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute my experience to an independent, vision-driven sporting programme with strong backing, a clear long-term vision and the resources required to build it properly.
“Having Lando on board adds a further dimension to this project. He has come through the junior single-seater ranks and understands its demands. His involvement will make a real difference to the team.”
- Tiana Soans
Tuesday, 1 September 2026
SEBASTIAN VETTEL TO MAKE FERRARI F1 RETURN IN MICHAEL SCHUMACHER MONZA CELEBRATION
The four-time champion will return to the Formula 1 track this weekend in Ferrari colours.
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| Vettel in conversation with Ferrari drivers Hamilton and Leclerc |
Sebastian Vettel is set to return to the track this weekend as Ferrari celebrates Michael Schumacher's legacy at the Italian Grand Prix.
Four-time champion Vettel has taken to the track in historic machinery on a number of occasions since retiring from Formula 1, most notably driving Nigel Mansell's 1992 Williams at Silverstone and Ayrton Senna's 1993 McLaren at the 2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
He will add to this experience on Sunday ahead of the 53-lap Monza race, when he gets behind the wheel of seven-time champion Schumacher's dominant Ferrari F2002.
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| The F2002 is one of Ferrari's most iconic F1 cars |
Across that season, the legendary German finished outside the top two just once, a third-place result in Malaysia, and scored 11 wins from 17 races. Of the races not won by Schumacher, four were scored by team-mate Rubens Barrichello, with Williams and McLaren each achieving success once.
Schumacher's lasting impact on F1 is being honoured at Monza this weekend, with Ferrari revealing special race suits late last week, and a special livery based on the 1996 Ferrari that 91-time grands prix winner took to victory on Ferrari's home soil.
Vettel, who has always held Schumacher up as his idol, will complete a single lap in the 900bhp Ferrari V10, which is capable of screaming to 19,000rpm.
On his previous demonstration laps, Vettel has used sustainable fuels, and this will be no different. The demonstration will be run via Ferrari's F1 Clienti department, and the manufacturer has confirmed the F2002 will use an “advanced sustainable fuel developed specifically by Shell, drawing on the know-how acquired this season to create the fuel being used in 2026.”
Fans only attending on Saturday will also get a chance to hear the now 24-year-old car scream through the park, with Barrichello getting reacquainted with the F2002 ahead of qualifying.
As well as the 2002 car, Schumacher's first and last Ferrari F1 cars will be on display - these are the 1996 F310 and the 2006 248.
- Sam Hall
Friday, 28 August 2026
WHAT NEXT FOR ASTON MARTIN, ALONSO AND HONDA
Aston Martin has, as Fernando Alonso pointed out, found three seconds over two Formula 1 race weekends.
Alonso himself scored points for only the second time in 2026 in the Netherlands as he took the team's best finish of the season.
Plus, Honda says its new engine that arrived at Zandvoort hit its key target. Sounds promising, right?
Not entirely. Lance Stroll still says the car is a lottery to drive, and both drivers, plus team principal Adrian Newey, named the exact same problem with the engine after the race that is now a priority to fix.
The Race has spoken exclusively to Honda's F1 chief engineer Shintaro Orihara to hear the inside story of what has been done with its new engine, what's still not working, and why taking the next step could turn out to be incredibly difficult.
How good is Honda's spec 2 engine?
From Honda's perspective, there were reasons to be encouraged by the evidence of the Dutch Grand Prix as Alonso took a best result of the season in ninth.
The revised power unit didn't have any reliability problems over the weekend and Orihara was happy that "everything was working as expected" with the cooling and lubrication elements of the revised engine.
In terms of extra power, Honda was not revealing much - although it is likely to be somewhere in the range of 10-30bhp so far.
"We achieved our internal target from the dyno and then we have confirmed the same improvement trackside," said Orihara.
However, he accepted Honda is "still far away" from F1's top manufacturers and that there is one big fix that's still needed.
It’s something the drivers, Newey and even Honda itself are aligned on.
As Orihara said: "We know that there is room to improve our driveability and this remains paramount for us looking ahead to the next races."
What exactly is Honda's driveability headache?
Driveability is a pretty generic term, but The Race has learned about the specifics behind what is happening at Honda and why the drivers need more.
In simple terms, when F1 figures talk about driveability it is about the engine responding in line with what the driver requires.
The most common assumption is that this revolves around making sure that the engine delivers power in a predictable way when a driver gets on the accelerator. But it's not just that.
Driveability also counts for corner entry, too, because engine braking is a critical element of performance, so manufacturers have to carefully manage how things operate off-throttle.
Ever since F1 became a hybrid formula - first with KERS and most recently with the turbo hybrid engines - driveability has also included how the engine braking works in conjunction with the MGU-K and energy harvesting.
The new challenge is that, when the driver lifts off the throttle or brakes, the engine switches from powering the rear wheels to acting as a generator (via the MGU-K) to feed the battery.
It's a complicated process because there needs to be an incredible amount of synchronicity between the engine feeding the MGU-K, being able to have the perfect amount of engine braking through the right combustion, plus how this interacts with the brake-by-wire adjusting how much is required of the rear brake discs.
Plus you need to add on top of this the impact of downshifts from the gearbox.
To further increase the challenge, when the battery has reached 100% capacity, or has hit a charge limit for a particular corner that the team does not want to go over, then the engine has to instantly stop harvesting - which removes a big deceleration force.
This transition phase, as the engine returns to normal engine braking behaviour, needs to be carefully managed.
As Orihara revealed: "If the driver lifts off the throttle, there is engine braking, but then the MGU-K is harvesting 350kW so the operation point is almost double.
"Then the MGU-K power is decreasing, and engine torque is also decreasing, but the driver demand is 0N. To achieve 0N it is very complicated.
"It is communication between the engine, combustion, and MGU-K control. That is one of the areas we need to improve, how we organise this combination."
If any of these driveability elements are out of kilter, then it can result in the kind of issues that Alonso and Stroll have repeatedly experienced.
The engine braking may be too harsh and that creates instability, the battery may not harvest enough, the engine could push the car into understeer, or the seamless shift gearbox may reject a downshift as it does not have the synchronisation to engage a lower gear.
The difficulties of mastering all these driveability challenges have also escalated hugely with the 2026 regulations.
This is down to two factors. The first is that the increase of the battery influence to almost 50% of the power available has meant that it is even more critical to ensure that the harvesting phase is done as well as possible.
Plus, the loss of the MGU-H - which generated energy from the turbo - has robbed manufacturers of a very valuable tool that assisted with harvesting.
This is because electrical energy could previously be sent from the two MGUs - therefore bypassing the battery totally.
Achieving good driveability requires the right software configuration, plus the right combustion characteristics for the engine not to deliver power while the driver is not on the throttle.
This is something that Honda has struggled with during 2026, not only under braking but also under acceleration. As Orihara said: "Sometimes our combustion is not stable."
The change of power unit rules for this year, as well as Honda working with new fuel and lubricant suppliers, Aramco and Valvoline, means it has not been achieving all that it wants in this area.
So there are clear gains Honda can find from improving combustion on both acceleration and deceleration.
Bringing all this together, until Honda's driveability is sorted then neither it nor Aston Martin will know what the true potential of its engine is because only then will the full power be unleashed.
That is why Alonso said it was hard to judge just how much better the spec 2 engine was.
How Honda is fixing the problems
A fix for the driveability issues requires Honda improving its calibration and introducing revamped software to ensure that the internal combustion engine is doing exactly what the drivers want.
Following the first day of track running at Zandvoort, Honda used the data to work on improvements at its Sakura R&D base overnight.
A new calibration was introduced for qualifying on Saturday, and this did produce a step forward. But more is needed.
Orihara admitted this was "still not enough for the drivers" but it has at least confirmed progress is happening, and further work will be done to make gains for the Italian GP.
There will be no miracle solution that solves all of the driveability headaches instantly, but it will be a case of Honda working hard on the dynos during this fortnight between Zandvoort and Monza.
It then has to continue chipping away at its understanding as it faces tracks with different corners, different energy and engine braking demands, and different surfaces.
Alonso felt there are "a couple of tenths" to come if Honda optimises the package which, based on when things went right at Zandvoort, will push Aston Martin right into regular points contention - as his ninth-place finish in the Netherlands, though well-executed, still owed plenty to an opportunistic one-stop strategy.
However, it is fair to say the overall performance of the Aston Martin-Honda upgrades has thrown up some encouraging results.
Having started the year 3.1% off the benchmark pace in Q1, Aston Martin slumped to more than 4% adrift at Barcelona, the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone, as rivals developed their cars.
It finally closed the deficit in Hungary, reaching Q2 with its upgraded chassis, but it was never closer to the front than at Zandvoort last weekend when the new Honda engine arrived.
Even with Aston Martin messing up its execution in qualifying when Alonso got stuck behind Esteban Ocon on his outlap, his Q1 time was just 1.4% adrift of the benchmark.
Highlighting that Q1 pacesetter, McLaren's Oscar Piastri, was only 1.3 seconds ahead, and referencing the many times Aston Martin had been more than four seconds off, Alonso said: "We improved three seconds in two races. This is amazing."
If Honda's progress does bear fruit (although there still may be struggles at power-sensitive tracks such as Monza) this will almost certainly be enough to convince Alonso to stay as he weighs up his future.
Right now, we still don't know if he actually wants to stay in this team, or in F1, in 2027.
Alonso was seen deep in conversation with team principal Newey in the Aston Martin motorhome on Sunday night after the Dutch GP, and will likely be holding talks with owner Lawrence Stroll in this gap to discuss his future.
There is a lot riding on Honda making gains - both the team's results this year and what Alonso does next.
- JON NOBLE
Wednesday, 26 August 2026
FIA CONFIRMS THE RESULTS OF THE FIRST TWO AUDO ASSESSMENT PERIOD
The FIA has confirmed the results of the first two Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) assessment periods for the 2026 Formula 1 season, with no Power Unit manufacturer receiving any additional homologation upgrades following the second review.
ADUO was introduced for the 2026 regulations as a mechanism designed to help manufacturers whose Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) performance falls significantly behind the benchmark. Rather than acting as a traditional Balance of Performance system, the mechanism gives eligible manufacturers additional opportunities to develop their power units, alongside increased Cost Cap and dyno testing allowances.
The FIA evaluates the ICE performance of each manufacturer during three defined periods of the season. The assessment is based on an ICE Performance Index incorporating factors including input shaft torque, engine speed, MGU-K power and the impact of power sensitivity on lap time.
A manufacturer becomes eligible for ADUO when its ICE Performance Index is at least 2% behind the best-performing ICE.
Mercedes, Audi, Ferrari and Honda benefited from first review
The first ADUO assessment period was originally intended to cover the opening six races of the season. However, changes to the 2026 calendar resulting from the disruption in the Middle East meant that the period was adjusted to cover the first five races, ending with the Canadian Grand Prix.
The FIA subsequently confirmed that Mercedes fell within the 2-4% performance deficit window. As a result, the German manufacturer was granted one additional homologation opportunity for 2026 and another for 2027.
Audi, Ferrari and Honda were found to be more than 4% behind the leading ICE during the first assessment period. They therefore received two additional homologation opportunities for 2026 and two more for 2027.
All four manufacturers also received corresponding increases to their Cost Cap and dyno testing allowances.
No manufacturer qualifies after the Hungarian Grand Prix
The second ADUO review covered races six through 11, from the Monaco Grand Prix through to the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Following its analysis, the FIA confirmed that no Power Unit manufacturer was granted any additional homologation upgrades during the second period.
The governing body has not disclosed the individual performance figures behind its decision, citing the confidential nature of the data and the intellectual property of the manufacturers.
This means that none of the manufacturers accumulated a new set of ADUO upgrade opportunities as a result of the second review.
The FIA has nevertheless stressed that its analysis was extensive and that it has a high level of confidence in the results.
“The FIA has undertaken thorough and exhaustive analysis as part of our ADUO review process,” FIA Director of Single Seater Nikolas Tombazis said. “With the release of the findings of period 2, we are confident that, based on the quality of the data, its analysis is incredibly robust, giving us a high level of confidence in our findings.”
Tombazis added that 2026 is the first season in which ADUO has been implemented, meaning that some aspects of the system could be refined in future years through discussions with the Power Unit manufacturers.
What exactly does ADUO allow?
ADUO is not designed to artificially equalise performance on track. Manufacturers do not receive additional fuel flow, ballast adjustments or other direct performance advantages.
Instead, the system provides additional financial and development freedom to manufacturers that are sufficiently behind the leading ICE.
A manufacturer between 2% and 4% behind the best-performing ICE receives one additional homologation opportunity in the current season and another in the following season.
If the deficit is at least 4%, the manufacturer receives two additional upgrades in the current season and two more in the following campaign.
The financial allowances also increase according to the size of the performance gap. Manufacturers between 2% and 4% behind can receive up to $3 million outside their Cost Cap calculation, while the allowance rises to $4.65 million for a 4-6% deficit, $6.35 million for 6-8%, and $8 million for 8-10%.
For a manufacturer at least 10% behind, the allowance can reach $11 million per ADUO period. In 2026 only, such a manufacturer could also bring forward up to $8 million of Cost Cap allowance from future periods.
Upgrades are not limited to the ICE
Although ICE performance determines whether a manufacturer qualifies for ADUO, the additional upgrades themselves are not restricted solely to the combustion engine.
The regulations allow eligible manufacturers to make changes to a broad range of Power Unit components, including certain ICE elements, the exhaust system, turbocharger and wastegate or pop-off systems.
Eligible areas can also include electrical components and sensors mounted to the ICE or exhaust, the Energy Recovery System and its cooling systems, the MGU-K and Control Electronics. Certain hydraulic functions, fluids and ballast are also covered by the regulations.
This gives manufacturers considerable freedom in deciding where additional development resources can have the greatest performance impact.
The opportunities are not simply carried over
ADUO upgrades are also subject to strict timing rules. Additional homologation opportunities granted for a particular season must be used during that season. Any unused opportunity expires at the end of the relevant campaign and cannot simply be carried over indefinitely.
There is, however, an important exception when opportunities for the following season are awarded. If a manufacturer qualifies for ADUO again in the subsequent season, unused opportunities awarded from the previous year's assessment can potentially be combined with the new allocation.
This means that a manufacturer could, under the regulations, introduce four upgrades in a single season if it received two opportunities from the previous year's ADUO assessment and another two from a new assessment.
Final 2026 assessment still to come
The second review may not have produced any new opportunities, but the ADUO process is not yet complete for 2026. The third and final assessment period will cover races 12 through 18, beginning with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort and ending with the Mexico City Grand Prix.
The results of that review will determine whether any manufacturer falls at least 2% behind the leading ICE and therefore qualifies for additional development opportunities.
For Mercedes, Audi, Ferrari and Honda, the first-period allowances remain available according to the rules governing their respective 2026 and 2027 allocations. No new allowances were added after Period 2.
The final assessment will therefore be closely watched, particularly as manufacturers continue to develop their 2026 power units and the competitive picture evolves during the second half of the season.
With ADUO being introduced for the first time this year, its final 2026 review will also provide an important indication of how effective the new system is at giving struggling manufacturers additional development freedom without turning Formula 1 into a conventional Balance of Performance championship.
- Balazs Szabouu
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