1679146113F1 LIVE: FP3 coming up! We’ve got third practice coming up live from the Jeddah Corniche Circuit!
Can anyone topple Max Verstappen and claim top spot under the beating sun in Saudi?
Kieran Jackson18 March 2023 13:28
1679145764F1 LIVE: Toto Wolff speaks to the press… Toto Wolff is honest about how Mercedes approached last year’s change in regulations… and persevering with the same philosophy this year.
Kieran Jackson18 March 2023 13:22
1679145344F1 LIVE: Lewis Hamilton ranks Mercedes’ prospects of win in Saudi ArabiaMercedes, so dominant in Formula 1 from 2014-2021 with eight Constructors’ Championships, had a season to forget in 2022 as new regulations caught them out and they finished third in the standings.
The Silver Arrows endured a disastrous start in the opening race of 2023 in Bahrain, with Toto Wolff insisting they will have to ditch their unique “zero-pod” philosophy in order to be competitive again. Hamilton finished fifth, while team-mate George Russell came home a lowly seventh.
And Hamilton – who last won an F1 race at the Jeddah track in December 2021, 24 grand prix ago – admitted it was a “shock” when he first drove the W14 car last month, acknowledging that three teams are currently ahead of them.
“Once I drove the car for the first time, you start to do that [re-assess goals] with the challenges you’re facing,” the 38-year-old said.
“It’s a similar situation to last year – it’s a shock when the car isn’t where you want it to be but you have 100% faith in the people you work with. We’re not where we want to be and we need to keep working on it.
“We need the Red Bulls and Ferraris not to finish the race, maybe the Astons too, to be winning [ourselves]. It doesn’t mean we can’t catch them up…”
Kieran Jackson18 March 2023 13:15
1679144984F1 LIVE: What is the race schedule this weekend?(All times GMT)
Saturday 18 March
Free Practice 3: 1:30pmQualifying: 5pmSunday 19 March
How can I watch it online and on TV?
The entire race schedule will be broadcast live on Sky Sports F1 in the UK, with the race on Sunday live on Sky Sports Main Event too. It will be broadcasted on ESPN in the United States.
Highlights will be aired on Channel 4; for qualifying at at 8:50pm (GMT) on Saturday and for the race at 10:15pm on Sunday.
If you’re not a Sky customer you can grab a NOWTV Day Pass here to watch without a subscription.
Kieran Jackson18 March 2023 13:09
1679144264F1 LIVE: Martin Brundle evaluates Mercedes’ tough start to the F1 seasonHaving produced a car similar in design to 2022’s troubled challenger – with a unique “zero-pod” approach – Toto Wolff admitted that he is set to ditch this breed of car after seeing the roughly second-a-lap deficit to Red Bull in Sunday’s grand prix.
Lewis Hamilton finished fifth in Bahrain, overtaken late on by Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, and the seven-time world champion later stated that the team “did not listen” to his concerns after he recommended changes following last year’s winless season.
“It seems to me that Mercedes went the wrong way in 2022 and refuse to turn around,” Brundle said in his Sky Sports column.
“Even Lewis and Toto were openly expressing their disappointment at certain points of the weekend, and normally they only sing the praises of the teams at Brackley and Brixworth. It must be tense at the team right now, the quality is there, it just needs direction and oxygen to calm heads.”
Kieran Jackson18 March 2023 12:57
1679143364F1 LIVE: Verstappen vs AlonsoHere’s a fascinating side-by-side of the two fastest laps in FP2 last night!
Who’s your money on this afternoon?
Kieran Jackson18 March 2023 12:42
1679142704F1 LIVE: Sky add ex-McLaren and Aston Martin strategy guru Bernie Collins to their F1 teamSky Sports have added former McLaren and Aston Martin strategy chief Bernie Collins to their Formula 1 punditry line-up for the 2023 season.
Collins, who was a performance engineer at McLaren and head of race strategy at Aston Martin, will first feature on Sky in the paddock at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this weekend.
Sky say she will feature at other races throughout the year, as well as at Sky Studios, and is the first addition to the Sky F1 team since Johnny Herbert and Paul di Resta left in the off-season.
“I am really excited to begin this new chapter with the Sky Sports F1 team and want to thank them for the opportunity,” Collins said in a Sky press release. “After many years on the pit wall I’m keen to embrace this new role within F1 from a viewer’s perspective and enhance their experience of racing.”
Collins’ role will “help explain and demystify all things team strategy and engineering for Sky Sports F1 viewers old and new.”
Kieran Jackson18 March 2023 12:31
1679142164F1 LIVE: Verstappen arrives in paddock! Double world champion has arrived in Jeddah!
Kieran Jackson18 March 2023 12:22
1679141744F1 LIVE: Ted Talk! F1 cult hero Kravitz on pit lane secrets and… cheeseExclusive interview by Kieran Jackson
Ted is talking about cheese. For a Formula 1 pit lane reporter functioning in a world of tyre compounds and floor specifications, Ted often finds himself talking about cheese. Usually at pre-season testing. A bizarre synonymity, some might say, and readers not drooling in the daily churn of digital F1 content may be a little lost already. Don’t worry, you’re forgiven.
Sky Sports’ ever-present pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz – of BBC and ITV before that – has a style of presenting so inimitable that the man himself has formed a devoted following of his own, hate it as he might. Ahead of his 22nd year of pit lane reporting and 27th working in the sport he loves, Ted’s methodology of fan interaction is constantly evolving. This year, forget TikTok: it’s all about TedTok. So, back to the cheese.
“TedTok was just too good for somebody to steal,” the 48-year-old tells The Independent, in the unusually formal setting for him of an office at Sky Studios. “So I’m just going to put nonsense about doing stuff with cheese on there.
“I put up a video of me and Anthony [Davidson] choosing the perfect cheese in Bahrain to carve away the venturi tunnels of the car to the floor edge… it’s harder than you think.
“You could have got a block of cheddar, but then it would’ve just crumbled away and the whole shoot would’ve been a disaster. This was 20 minutes and Anthony was quite right in choosing the right type of cheese… gouda!”
Kieran Jackson18 March 2023 12:15
1679141084F1 LIVE: Can Mercedes even build a ‘Plan B’ car in time to salvage season?Comment by Kieran Jackson
Never mind waiting for the first race of the Formula 1 season. A weekend of testing, three practice sessions and qualifying in Bahrain has told Toto Wolff everything he needed to know.
No sandbagging. No magic fix. No hiding. Mere hours into the 2023 campaign the Mercedes boss – once the unflappable executive titan of the sport – cut a despondent figure speaking to the press in the late hours on Saturday. Acknowledging that his team’s persistence, bordering on stubbornness, had been a mistake, he revealed a change of tack is already in the pipeline.
Speaking after George Russell and Lewis Hamilton qualified sixth and seventh respectively, the Austrian stated: “I don’t think that this package is going to be competitive eventually.
“We gave it our best go over the winter and now we all just need to regroup, sit down with the engineers, be totally non-dogmatic and ask what is the development direction we want to pursue in order to be able to win races.”
As sporting U-turns go, this is pretty seismic. Race weekend No 1 of 23: rip it up and start over.
Kieran Jackson18 March 2023 12:04
