Formula 1

New regulations, a one-two finish from Ferrari, and a resurgent effort from Haas headlined the Bahrain Grand Prix. But it remains to be seen whether ...

That’s not what Vettel, Lando Norris, and Daniel Ricciardo—all of whom want to be in the championship picture in the near- to medium-term future—want to see. A year ago, Fernando Alonso debuted a helmet camera during practice for the Belgian Grand Prix, and it was awesome. And both cars were so slow it’d be fair to wonder whether they were carrying a piano in the trunk. But he and Russell just hung around and ended up in the right place at the right time.withwith Speaking of trying too hard: Mercedes switched back to its traditional silver livery this year after two years of running mostly black cars—only it’s not just silver, because the Merc has a black floor, plus green and maroon accents for its Petronas and Ineos sponsorships. Ten laps from the end of the race, Red Bull looked to be in good shape. Kevin Magnussen qualified seventh at Bahrain and finished fifth, while Mick Schumacher was in the top 10 at the final restart and came home a career-best 11th. The occasional ludicrous qualifying performance or podium finish in an uncompetitive car was not enough to keep him front of mind while Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton were engaged in an all-time championship slugfest. This vintage of Leclerc—can we get the nickname “Ground Effect Chuck” to stick in honor of the new cars? Plus, that action was mostly clean; the only penalty the stewards gave out was a five-second demerit to Alpine’s Esteban Ocon for a first-lap incident with Mick Schumacher of Haas. No debates about rules, no lobbying about track limits, just fun, clean racing. This winter, Formula 1 introduced a new set of aerodynamic regulations aimed at making the cars easier to race. For the second straight Grand Prix, the Formula 1 flying circus came to the closing stages of a race on the Persian Gulf with results more or less already decided.

The rivalry between British Lewis Hamilton and Dutch driver Max Verstappen 2021 will resume in the 2022 Formula 1 World Championship, and the racing season ...

All races will be broadcast live on ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC, as well as on the ESPN app. The Rolex Belgian Grand Prix, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, 9:00 a.m., ESPN or ESPN2 Hungarian Grand Prix, Hungary, 9:00 a.m., ESPN or ESPN2 French Grand Prix, Circuit Paul Ricard, 9:00 a.m., ESPN or ESPN2 The season ends on November 20 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Austrian Grand Prix, Red Bull Circuit, 9:00 am, ESPN or ESPN2

The drivers and teams report back on all the action from the opening race of the season, the Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix 2022...

So, we’ll just feedback everything we can to the team and obviously, we knew it was going to be a tricky day, but we got both cars home and have lots to look at. We’ve been lacking pace, struggling with overall grip, balance and tyre degradation, so we need to work out how we extract more out of the package we have now and have a real push to react as soon as possible to bring some more speed to the car. We knew that today was likely going to be the most difficult day in the car for that reason, which proved to be the case. The competition in the midfield is looking very tight, and with the first weekend under our belt we now have a clearer picture on where we need to focus our attention to improve the AT03 in the coming events. It is a day I will never forget and I will enjoy the moment for a while, but then it’s all attention to Jeddah: there is a lot more we want to achieve.” We then decided to go for a three-stop strategy, so on lap 29 for his second stop we moved to the Softs. He was able to overtake Alonso and had a good fight with Ocon, and even if after the safety car he wasn’t able to overtake him, Yuki drove a really good race, without any mistakes. The race went really well, with the exception of the start: I got a lot of wheelspin and was basically a sitting duck for the first lap, just trying to avoid contact. We had a little more degradation than we would’ve hoped for on the first set of tyres, but I also got passed a few people that were faster than me on the first lap and I didn’t really know whether to keep them behind or let them go. “Obviously we are hugely disappointed to lose the chance of podium finishes today, but congratulations to Ferrari on their one, two finish and a return to the front. This allowed us to play a bit with the strategy, moving quite early to a three stop with Lewis. Our priority has to be to get on top of our current performance issues; we don’t have a car to fight for pole or race wins and that isn't something that we can tolerate for long if we ambitions to win the championships. Of course it was unfortunate for the other two drivers but we did the best we could and we are grateful for these points. Whenever I had a bit of margin behind me, I felt in control of the race and was managing the gap well.

Formula 1 racing can be formulaic. Each year, Mercedes wins the Constructors' Championship. Almost every year, Lewis Hamilton is the Drivers' Champion.

Aston Martin has a lot of work to do to be competitive, and might suffer with the same Mercedes engine that had Hamilton ‘s car looking relatively slow. The goal for that grand prix should be to get the hell out of there as quickly as possible. It’s one of those with a Ferrari engine, as is the one that powers the cars for Alfa Romeo, which also got two drivers into the top 10. Williams is fun to root for as F1’s foremost family-run team, so long as you pretend that a shadowy investment firm with anonymous ownership did not buy the family out in 2020. Team owner Gene Haas is a criminal of the financial rather than war variety, which is much better. The Red Bull and AlphaTauri cars are the only ones using Red Bull engines, and three of four didn’t finish the race. Mazepin crashed out on the first lap of his first race, and things got only mildly better after that. He left Red Bull after 2018, when it was clear he was second fiddle to Verstappen. He left Renault after 2020, looking for a faster ride at McLaren. But now Alpine (which is what the French automaker now calls its F1 team) looks to have a faster car, with Esteban Ocon finishing seventh and Fernando Alonso ninth. The last few days of testing were concerning, as the car struggled in corners and its brakes stayed way too hot to slow the thing down. And if all that wasn’t enough, three teams (covering six drivers) use the power unit Ferrari designs, and all of those drivers finished in the top 11 out of 20 racers. In the last few laps, both Verstappen and teammate Sergio Perez were poised to finish in the top three or four. Millions are on the line every time a car pulls out of the pit lane.

If the battle between Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen is any measure of the season to come in Formula 1, it is going to be quite a year.

Hamilton was also able to stick with Perez for a surprisingly long time early in the race. The drivers agreed that it was perhaps a little easier to follow more closely behind another car. And Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff also shrugged it off: "The importance of the race in Abu Dhabi was greater than the importance of this race here as the opening of the 2022 season. The new rules were introduced to bring the field closer together and to make racing and overtaking easier. "It is going to be such a hard battle," Hamilton said. The new rules make it advantageous to run the cars low but this can trigger the problem. "I don't think there are big differences in the power unit but clearly Ferrari made a big step forward because last year they weren't totally competitive and it looks at this single event as if they've out-performed everyone else." And then there was the mysterious problem that ended the races of both him and team-mate Sergio Perez. For one, Verstappen had cooked his brakes in the fight and needed to "let Charles go" to cool them down. He beat Verstappen to pole by just over 0.1 seconds and had a small but ultimately decisive advantage in the race. A safety car threatened to undo all the good work, but Leclerc handled the restart consummately. That was saved for the final three laps, when both Red Bulls retired with the same problem - something to do with the fuel system, the team said - and lost second and fourth places.

Let's take a look at all three. Formula 1 offseason storylines: No. 1 – Lewis Hamilton retiring? For much of last offseason, there were only 19 drivers ...

But did all of them turn out the same way? However, once again, he is set to return. Despite the entire 2021 Formula 1 season having happened between the last two offseasons, three of the headlines that were discussed at length during the offseason between the 2020 and 2021 seasons resurfaced during the offseason between the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

SAKHIR, BAHRAIN — After the season of all seasons, and the controversy of all controversies, Formula 1 is finally back with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc the ...

10:20am: One man who doesn’t need any sympathy today is Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari man is in pole position for the 10th time in his career. 11:19am: And the commentator's curse strikes, as Perez overtakes Hamilton! The Mexican is back into P4, where he began. 11:21am: Verstappen is again on the radio, telling his team he has "zero traction". Meanwhile, rival Hamilton is in the pits already! Carlos Sainz does the same, and is in P5. 11:27am: Verstappen is in the pits. He's also told not to push too hard on the out-lap. Verstappen fumes that he's "never, ever" going easy on the tyres in an out-lap again, as he feels he could've taken the lead if he was more aggressive. Red Bull going for the three-stop, while Leclerc will surely stay out on his current mediums for the last 13 laps. 12:26pm: Verstappen is suffering with steering issues, but the team confirms via the radio he will not need to come in - no reliability issue evident. Hamilton is P3 and Russell on his (second) Mercedes debut is P4. Magnussen is P5. Yes, a Haas is in the top five! With Valtteri Bottas taking P6, it's a double for the usually-lowly Alfa Romeo, showing the capability of the Ferrari-powered engine in this new generation. After complaining of tyre degradation early on, then steering issues, then a battery problem, he was forced into the garage with three laps left.

It was a season where Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso diced for the title and while the veterans still feature today, Sportsmail looks back on the ...

Two more seasons at the team followed before he was dumped to make way for the incoming duo of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen. With his F1 avenues closed, the 31-year-old has proven his class in Formula E after joining the sport in 2014, winning the title in 2018 and 2019. Timo Glock - Timo Glock was a decent F1 driver at his peak, collecting three podiums including two second places during his Toyota days but he will always be known as the driver Hamilton passed at the final corner in Brazil to win the 2008 title. After two years at Renault he joined McLaren last year and won the team's first race for eight years with a one-two finish in Italy. Once again the 32-year-old will line up for the Woking outfit this term. 'Checo' then spent the next seven years at Force India/Racing Point rebuilding his reputation and grabbing a handful of podiums before winning his first race in 2020 at the Sakhir Grand Prix. His comeback was effectively completed after joining Red Bull in 2021 and having won in Azerbaijan remains with the team as a reliable back-up to Max Verstappen. Has the unenviable records of driver with the most starts without a podium (179) and also the most points without a win (521). After spells with Sauber and Renault, he lost his F1 seat in 2020 but returned with Racing Point (formerly Force India) for three races as cover the same year. Romain Grosjean - Like Raikkonen, Grosjean was also making his F1 comeback with Lotus having ended the 2009 season with the team in its previous guise as Renault. His first two years with the team were the pinnacle of his career, and he took three podiums including a second in Canada. However, he did also cause a multi-car pile up at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix, leading to a €50,000 fine and the first-driver to pick up a one-race ban since Schumacher in 1994. Kimi Raikkonen - After two years of rallying, the 2007 world champion made a big return to the grid in 2012 and showed he had lost little of his magic after an impressive season at Lotus that saw him take the team's only victory at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix near the end of the campaign and a third in the championship. Michael Schumacher - Having initially retired in 2006, Michael Schumacher was in his third and final year of what proved to be a disappointing F1 return with Mercedes. While 2012 saw him produce his worst season in F1 with just 49 points and a 13th place in the championship, the seven time world champion set the fastest lap in qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix before taking his only podium for the Silver Arrows with a third in Valencia before again calling time on his career at 43-years-old. The German had the speed, he took a fastest lap in 2012 in Singapore, and just missed out on a podium in Belgium with a fourth place. He won the world endurance championship in 2019 having won Le Mans twice before securing a surprise return last year with current team Alpine where the two-time world champion picked up his first podium in eight years at the Qatar Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton - Arguably the lowest ebb of Hamilton's career was his last two years at McLaren where a combination of personal struggles and team errors beyond his control saw the 2008 world champion lose faith in the Woking outfit. However, he met his match in Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes in six years at Maranello - with title charges fading away badly in the second half of 2017 and 2018 - before joining Aston Martin last season where the 34-year-old remains.

Ferrari's Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were first and second in the season-opener, with Lewis Hamilton third after the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Pérez had to ...

The fight remained close to the final stages as the teams searched for an edge through the stops. After the first stops the pair went nose to tail and Verstappen flung himself up the inside with DRS on the straight. For Ferrari, their car is, on the form of this opening weekend, one of the best they have produced since they last won the drivers’ title with Kimi Räikkönen in 2007. “This is the best result we could have got, we did the best we could and are grateful for these points,” he said. Verstappen’s duel with Leclerc had been an enthralling, joyous affair but his car’s demise was a moment of bitter disappointment for driver and team, when he retired having lost power with three laps to go. Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez both retired at the very death, allowing Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes to capitalise with an unlikely place on the podium.

SAKHIR, BAHRAIN — After the season of all seasons, and the controversy of all controversies, Formula 1 is finally back with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc the ...

11:21am: Verstappen is again on the radio, telling his team he has "zero traction". Meanwhile, rival Hamilton is in the pits already! 10:20am: One man who doesn’t need any sympathy today is Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari man is in pole position for the 10th time in his career. Carlos Sainz does the same, and is in P5. 11:19am: And the commentator's curse strikes, as Perez overtakes Hamilton! The Mexican is back into P4, where he began. 11:27am: Verstappen is in the pits. Hamilton is P3 and Russell on his (second) Mercedes debut is P4. Magnussen is P5. Yes, a Haas is in the top five! Verstappen fumes that he's "never, ever" going easy on the tyres in an out-lap again, as he feels he could've taken the lead if he was more aggressive. Red Bull going for the three-stop, while Leclerc will surely stay out on his current mediums for the last 13 laps. He's a full four seconds ahead of the reigning champion. 12:26pm: Verstappen is suffering with steering issues, but the team confirms via the radio he will not need to come in - no reliability issue evident. 12:15pm: No such problems for Red Bull, with Verstappen in and out the pits again. Reigning champion Verstappen trailed Leclerc throughout Sunday's encounter in the desert, save for a total of six corners in which he edged ahead.

'What the f*** is this?': Max fumes in Red Bull disaster as Ferrari ends 910-day wait.

Once the race trophy was in his hands, Leclerc said: “I’m so happy. When racing resumed, Sainz attacked Verstappen for second place but the Dutchman’s race ended in bitter disappointment as he appeared to lose all power on the 55th lap and had to limp into the pits without a point. Leclerc had started on pole and in a furious early part of the race, he exchanged the lead with Verstappen several times under the floodlights in the Gulf. The race was disrupted when the safety car came out on the 51st lap after Pierre Gasly had to jump out of his Alpha Tauri before it burst into flames. For Leclerc, who started the race on pole and faced a battle for the lead with Verstappen in the opening laps, it was pure delight. George Russell, in his first race since replacing Valtteri Bottas at Mercedes, took fourth place to give Mercedes a score of 27 points that they could not have dreamed of in the middle of the race.