F1 News TheFoxPosts.com

The Alpine F1 Team are seeking outside investors to fund their sister road car division's future electrification plans – which include battery-powered Sports car and SUV ranges – TheFOXposts.Com can reveal. Such expansion is contingent upon the Renault sub-brand raising external capital, and hence the search for investment. The funding strategy was outlined in a capital markets day (CMD) presentation held recently under the "Renaulution, now Revolution" banner. Crucially, the Alpine segment included the clauses "Alpine is set to expand globally with half of its future growth outside of Europe [by] leveraging commercial partnerships and investor support. Alpine is open to capitalise on the financial valuation of its F1 Team assets." In plain language, this means that the Renault Group are open to investment offers for their wholly owned team, in turn earmarking the proceeds to fund future growth. Asked to comment, an Alpine F1 Team spokesperson stre...

The Formula E Gen3 cars have hit the track for the first time as testing gets underway ahead of the 2022/23 season. Just weeks before the debut race of the campaign in Mexico City on 14 January, all 11 teams and 22 drivers have been getting familiar with the new generation of cars on the first of a three-day test in Valencia. The debut session got underway at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo on 13 December, and it was Maserati MSG Racing's Maximilian Guenther who set the fastest time in the morning before going on to again top the timesheets in the afternoon session, with a quickest time overall of 1:26.221. It was a decent showing for the TAG Heuer Porsche squad too. Pascal Wehrlein ended the day in second, while teammate Antonio Felix da Costa claimed third. While Guenther's fellow Maserati driver Edoardo Mortara took P4, reigning World Champion Stoffel Vandoorne – who joins DS Penske for the new season – slotted into fifth. Vandoorne's teammate and fellow champion...

Esteban Ocon says the pace of development at Alpine is the best he has seen throughout his F1 career. Although there were to be no race wins or podium finishes for Ocon or teammate Fernando Alonso in 2022, the two were regular points scorers, helping Alpine leapfrog McLaren to seal fourth place in the 2022 F1 Constructors' Championship. Speaking exclusively to TheFOXposts.Com , Ocon said the pace of development at Alpine was the best he had ever known, and paid tribute to the hard work of the team's engineers and designers. "Producing updates has been awesome this year, delivering parts has been mega," said Ocon. "I've never been in a Formula 1 team where there were so many new parts coming so quickly! "People stayed at the factory during public holidays, and days where they could have been at home, working hard producing floors and front wings. "Honestly, I was super impressed. I went a couple of months ago to the manufacturing ...

Incoming McLaren boss Andrea Stella believes the team must address its aerodynamic deficiencies to rival Formula 1 teams. Stella was appointed as Team Principal following the departure of Andreas Seidl to become Sauber CEO in preparation for Audi's arrival in 2026. Seidl was instrumental in deciding to upgrade McLaren's ageing wind-tunnel at their Woking HQ, which should be available for use in 2023. And while he was keen to highlight the infrastructure improvements being made at McLaren, former Ferrari man Stella pointed out that the squad needs to improve in the aerodynamic department. Viewed by others: Frederic Vasseur The key issues the new Ferrari boss must sort out ...

Daniel Ricciardo admits that he saw elements of his younger self in teammate Lando Norris during their time at McLaren. The Australian struggled to match Norris in both the 2021 and 2022 seasons and the mutual decision was made by Ricciardo and the team to terminate his multi-year contract early, leaving him without a seat on the grid for 2023. Ricciardo's fortunes in recent times contrast to his earlier success in F1 , having claimed three of his eight victories in the sport during his debut season for Red Bull back in 2014 following promotion from Toro Rosso. Looking back on it now, the 33-year-old admits that he was filled with confidence. "I remember I had so much confidence that I was just like, 'If I had the car to win this year, I would have won,'" Ricciardo told the Beyond The Grid podcast. "That was just where I was at. I wouldn't say that was even form, it was just confidence. Obviously I stepped up to the big team, and now I'...

Max Verstappen believes that Red Bull's penalty for breaching the cost cap will "hurt" them, but has backed the team to maintain their momentum. The 2022 F1 season proved to be a dominant one for Verstappen and the Milton Keynes-based squad; Verstappen claimed his second World Championship with four races to spare, while Red Bull clinched the Constructors' Championship for the first time since 2013. However, one potential dampener on the year was the confirmation in October that the outfit would be punished for breaching the 2021 budget cap. Red Bull were ordered to pay a $7 million fine, along with having to forfeit 10 per cent of their aerodynamic development allowance. Despite this, Verstappen feels that his team have the right factors in place to be able to cope with the impact, given their level of competitiveness in 2022. Verstappen assesses impact of cost cap pena...

Red Bull's Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey has suggested that his team's reduction in permitted wind tunnel testing won't have a significant bearing on the form of their 2023 car. After the Japanese Grand Prix, it was revealed that Red Bull breached F1 's 2021 $145 million budget cap by $1.8m. As a punishment, the team are required to pay a $7 million fine and forfeit 10% of their aerodynamic development allowance. Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner has previously said such a sanction could cost the team up to half a second per lap, but Newey says Red Bull simply need to be smarter about how they use their reduced allowance. "The reduction in wind tunnel testing means we can therefore evaluate less different components, less different ideas," said Newey. "If we're really smart and always put on the right things on the model, then of course it doesn't make much difference ." ...

Mick Schumacher has been announced as a Mercedes driver for the 2023 season, following his exit from the Haas F1 team. The 23-year-old was left without a full-time Formula 1 drive after Haas announced that they would sign Nico Hulkenberg to partner Kevin Magnussen for 2023. It was also recently confirmed that Ferrari would be discontinuing their association with Schumacher, bringing their collaboration to an end after four years. Mercedes' boss Toto Wolff, who has admitted his desire to bring the Schumacher name back to the Silver Arrows, has now moved to sign the Formula 2 champion as reserve driver for next season. In the announcement, Mercedes confirmed that Schumacher would be undertaking simulator duties, marketing duties, and be present at all Grand Prix events in 2023. Viewed by others: ...

Toto Wolff has identified Mick Schumacher's "calm and methodical" approach to Formula 1 as a key strength as he joins Mercedes as a third driver. Schumacher lost his seat at Haas just before the end of the 2022 season, and with no other race seat options available in F1 for '23, was forced into looking for a reserve slot. Wolff was open to the idea of Schumacher coming aboard to shadow Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, but said it depended on what the German and his management wanted to do. It was announced shortly before the Mercedes confirmation that Schumacher would be leaving the Ferrari Driver Academy after four seasons, freeing him to sign with the Brackley squad - where his father Michael raced between 2010 and 2012. Viewed by others: Max Verstap...

Nyck De Vries has become the final Formula 1 driver to select his race number for the 2023 season, with the FIA releasing the official entry list. 2020/21 Formula E champion De Vries will make his full-time F1 debut with the AlphaTauri squad, replacing Pierre Gasly who departed for Alpine. During his stand-in appearance at Monza for Williams in 2022, De Vries ran number 45, although this is a number allocated to Williams and not De Vries himself. Instead, the Dutchman has opted for number 21, last used by Esteban Gutierrez in the 2016 season - and has been available for someone else to use since 2019. It means that the AlphaTauri drivers will run consecutive numbers for the second time, with Yuki Tsunoda using number 22. In 2014, Jean-Eric Vergne and Danill Kvyat ran 25 and 26, respectively. Elsewhere, fellow rookies Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargeant have also made their selections, while World Champion Max Verstappen will continue to carry the number 1. ...

The name of Red Bull's power unit has officially been changed on the FIA entry list, pointing to the increased marketing collaboration with Formula 1 engine supplier Honda. It was announced back at the Japanese Grand Prix that Honda branding would have increased visibility on the Red Bull cars from the Suzuka race onwards. A successful Red Bull- Honda partnership officially ended in 2021, with the supplier ending on a high with Max Verstappen's championship-winning finale. Honda had originally planned to back away from F1 altogether, with Red Bull registering their power supply as RBPT (Red Bull Powertrains), albeit with a technical partnership with Honda , for the 2022 season. However, the Japanese company's increased visibility now involves a change to the name of the powertrain make, which will be Honda-RBPT in 2023. With the power unit regulations set to change in 2026, Honda officially registered their interest with the FIA, pointing to a possible F...

Valtteri Bottas ' specially-designed Australian Grand Prix Formula 1 helmet is to be auction ed off in support of Save the Children. The Alfa Romeo driver has teamed up with contemporary Aboriginal artist Ricky Kildea to create two helmets, paying tribute to the Indigenous communities of Australia, who are often disadvantaged. After the event at the Albert Park circuit, one of the helmets will be auctioned off with all proceeds going to two projects. The auction will last between 28 March and 11 April, taking place on F1 Authentics. The Mooroopna Kinder Project supports families to help them put children through kindergarten and early years schooling and those impacted by flooding in 2022. Save the Children will use proceeds from the auction for repairs and restoration of facilities. Kildea chose the second project: Koorie Academy Basketball, a not-for-profit organisation focused on including Aboriginal children in Sports . Viewed by others: ...

Zhou Guanyu has labelled Formula 1 's midfield in 2023 as " crazy " and shared just how much impact a simple mistake can have on a race result. Alfa Romeo are in a clutch of teams in the lower midfield squabbling over position, with the outfit earning four points for Valtteri Bottas' eighth place finish in the Bahrain season-opener. Zhou has 16th and 13th place finishes to his name, and missed out on a Q3 berth in Saudi Arabia by just 0.050s on a strong weekend for him. He believes that the fine margins will be as important as ever given the competitive nature of the midfield in 2023. © XPBimages Zhou explains midfield battle "I mean realistically, we are fighting for P9 to P13 or P14," he explained to media, including TheFOXposts.Com . "Anything can happen and one little mistake or if one little thing goes wrong, you could be compromised from a points finis...

More details have been confirmed on a Formula 1 team that could be a contender to join the grid from 2026, as revealed by TheFOXposts.Com . The 'Formula Equal' project by Craig Pollock will have backing from a "Gulf area country", with speculation that it could be Saudi Arabia. TheFOXposts.Com exclusively approached Prince Khalid, President of the Saudi Motorsport Federation, who stopped short of confirming their involvement in the project: "It is too early to go into these kind of details." Speaking in an interview with CNN , Pollock admitted: "We are in intense discussions with I would just say a Gulf area country. “I’m not really in the position to talk about that and be fully open about it at this present time – that will come out in the very near future. And I just hope it's going to work because it does take a lot of money.” Pollock plans for it to be the "first Formula 1 team that is truly outside of Europe." He ...