Innehållsförteckning för August 2023 från AUTOSPORT

All other factors being equal, the best driver in the best car will usually win in Formula 1. We should therefore view periods of domination as an inevitability rather than weeping, wailing and lamenting as if they were plagues visited upon us unexpectedly. That being said, Max Verstappen’s current run of success is so unopposed that even he is struggling to get excited about each victory. The radio traffic on the slow-down laps is so humdrum – Max sounds like a stage magician who has just produced his 11,000th rabbit out of a hat and is struggling to remark upon it. This state of affairs is partly the fault of the (lack of) opposition, hence our focus on Charles Leclerc this month. Given equal machinery, he’s quick enough to take…

For all that the podium ceremony is orchestrated so that nothing can go wrong (even the sparkling wine bottles are partially uncorked to avoid scenes of drivers being unable to pop them open), the unexpected can and does happen. Lando Norris had a brilliant race and he knew it. So did Lewis Hamilton and you can see the warmth here. It was a proper battle between them after the restart. After this shot, Lewis gave him a congratulatory slap on the shoulder. Before it there was an amusing scene when Lando did his ‘bottle slam’ and caused Max’s trophy to fall off the podium – fortunately not the RAC’s golden one! Where Silverstone, UK When 4.38pm, Sunday 9 July 2023 Details Canon EOS-1DX MkII 600mm lens, 1/1600th @ F4…

Another occasion where being in the right place at the right time delivered the goods. It was a frustrating Friday in Montréal after a number of delays: FP1 had barely started when Pierre Gasly’s Alpine broke, followed by the circuit’s CCTV system. Very sensibly the FIA cancelled all track activity until race control could have eyes on everything. FP2 was extended to 90 minutes but half an hour in there was another red flag as Nico Hülkenberg’s Haas broke down. I heard the engine let go as he accelerated onto the main straight. Then it was just a case of waiting for him to do the ‘ERS jump’, a precautionary measure in case the car is ‘live’. Where Montréal, Canada When 4:58pm, Friday 16 June 2023 Details Nikon D6 180-400mm…

THE JOY OF SIX: IS THE ENGINE FUTURE BRIGHT? Honda’s decision to switch the volume control on its on-off Formula 1 strategy back up to full in 2026 raises interesting questions. Given Aston Martin’s impressive form this year, will it be an Aston Martin-Honda that breaks firmly into the winner’s circle in the new era, winning championships and ending the duopoly enjoyed by Mercedes and Red Bull? A domination which, with Brawn-Mercedes included, is now 15 years old. The Japanese company has learned much since remarrying McLaren in 2015, divorcing three years later, then decamping to Red Bull where it started winning races and world championship titles. However, the competitive landscape within which Honda will partner Aston Martin in 2026 is rather different to now, or indeed the one in…

Alpine has secured a new investment from a group which includes Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds. How exciting is that? I think it’s fantastic. I was extremely lucky to be able to chat with Ryan, we exchanged a couple of WhatsApp [messages]. He told me I was invited to the set in London for the Deadpool [3] movie. So I’m definitely going to be going! And he also said he was very much looking forward to learning from our world, seeing how things work. I’m a massive comics and Marvel fan in general, and a massive Deadpool fan. And he’s just someone who is really inspiring in what he does. Also outside of his acting world, I think he’s an extremely talented businessman as well. One of the benefits of this…

You probably knew the voice before you saw the face. Soft-edged but empowered by the weight of authority, and destined to lap the Formula 1 internet for all eternity: “Valtteri, it’s James…” James Vowles joined what was then known as British American Racing in 2001 as an engineer, one of the hundreds of F1 personnel the casual TV viewer might never see. He remained there through its several incarnations and built up its strategic facility from zero to a highly effective fighting force – but even then he remained relatively low-profile unless you were one of the select group of journalists invited by Mercedes to one of his fascinatingly detailed briefings. That changed in the Liberty era, when greater deployment of team radio in ‘the show’ led to a more…

Art My dream, when I retire, is to go back to university and study art. My passion is Caravaggio, the Italian Renaissance and Baroque artist. I admire his paintings, especially those from his time in Sicily. If you’re in Rome, go to San Luigi dei Francesi. It’s a little church near Piazza Navona, which might not be on the standard list of tourist destinations, but there you can see the Trittico di San Matteo, the three paintings by Caravaggio, which are amazing. And if you go to Syracuse in Sicily, you should stop by Santa Lucia, a little church decorated with his paintings. For me, art is something that helps us to evolve as human beings, to develop our personality. It’s not just a matter of culture, it’s a matter…

F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 9 THE CANADIAN GP IN 5 KEY MOMENTS 1 Verstappen equals Senna’s 41 wins After the race, Max Verstappen was talking numbers. The victory in Montreal was the 41st of his career (tying him with Ayrton Senna), as well as his Red Bull team’s 100th. Red Bull has joined an elite club that previously included only four other teams: Ferrari, Williams, McLaren and Mercedes. So questions about these milestones were inevitable in the post-race press conference, especially as most of the other topics had been covered before the weekend. On Thursday, the usual F1 media day, Max had to reiterate that he’d welcome more competition from his team’s rivals, and once again denied that winning all the races bores him. If anything, he’s probably more bored of…

F1 23 Price from £59.99 (PC, PS5, Xbox) ea.com If you want to drive the new Las Vegas circuit before any F1 cars turn a wheel there for real, look no further than the latest version of the official Formula 1 game franchise. There’s a new narrative thread to enjoy in the Braking Point soap opera mode, introduced in 2021. Another new feature is F1 World, which is in effect a development of the F1 Life mode introduced in F1 22. Rather than progress through a championship, players can engage in daily, weekly or seasonal challenges to earn rewards in the form of car upgrades (as in FIFA, these can also be obtained via in-game purchases) Driveability is much-improved over last year’s cumbersome cars, particularly when using a traditional controller.…

ALEX KALINAUCKAS Alex address the tricky question of Charles Leclerc’s future and what his options could be if he decides to leave Ferrari (p30) OLEG KARPOV Oleg sat down with Alex Albon to find out why Williams are on the up and what it’s like having a team built around him for a change (p62) JAKEBOXALL-LEGGE Autosport’s F1 writer has deciphered what’s different on Mercedes' B-spec W14 and whether the changes have worked (p42) MAURICE HAMILTON With Williams reaching the 800 GP mark this year, Maurice has taken a look at some of the team’s best, worst and just plain ugly cars (p66) Thanks to Rebecca Banks, Connor Bean, Jess Borrell, Dominique Heyer-Wright, Will Hings, Stuart Morrison, Fabiana Valenti, Richard Wiseman, Tom Wood NEXT ISSUE ON SALE: AUGUST 27…

Although you build up a collection of images from a race weekend during practice and qualifying, you always have to be on the alert to capture shots which tell the story of what’s going on. Even when you’re out on the circuit it’s worth keeping an eye on the big TVs in case there’s an incident. I was working in the pitlane on race day in Montréal. George Russell was the first to hit a wall – at the Turn 8/9 chicane – on lap 12 and took the nose off his Mercedes as well as cracking a wheel rim. I saw it on TV and positioned myself to get him coming into the pits. The zoom lens gave me added flexibility and, as a bonus, his tyre popped off…

01 WHY RED BULL IS FIGHTING 2026 ENGINE RULES While there hasn’t been much of a sporting battle for either of Formula 1’s major titles this season, a fierce confrontation is brewing on its political stage – and the 2026 regulations are the chosen battleground. The frontmen are familiar faces. Christian Horner and Toto Wolff have never needed much prompting to initiate a verbal altercation but, in this case, there is a tangible cause: nothing less than the fear that a new generation of F1 cars will become “technical Frankensteins”. Such was the definition used by the Red Bull Racing boss (erroneously – as enshrined in The Economist style guide, “Frankenstein was not the monster, but its creator”) to describe the challenge facing engine manufacturers and teams as they prepare for…

WHY LECLERC IS DUE A RESET IN SPA Spa-Francorchamps is a rollercoaster, not only in topographic terms. Descending into Eau Rouge and climbing steeply through Raidillon then rolling downhill from Les Combes to the base level out of Pouhon, the sections give drivers a physical sense of the ups and downs of motorsport. But it’s also a track which has seen emotional highs and lows for many drivers; Charles Leclerc is a key example. Charles began his single-seater career in Formula Renault in 2014 and raced at Spa on subsequent weekends in two different championships. The first was a downer: he qualified out of the top 20 for both Eurocup races, with a best finish of 26th. Less than a week later he achieved two podium finishes in the Alps…

As Formula 1’s summer shutdown enforces a three-week break from Max Verstappen and Red Bull’s domination of the current campaign, rivals will have much to ponder. One such is Charles Leclerc, for whom the prospect of winning the world championship has grown even more distant after another error-strewn season. The choices he makes in the coming months are likely to define his career, especially the question of his ongoing relationship with Ferrari. While clear fractures have developed between Leclerc and the team, there’s no doubting the power of the almost mystical connections tying him to Ferrari. Think back to last October’s Singapore Grand Prix, a rare slip-up for Max when Red Bull cost him a front-row start by under-fuelling him in qualifying and Verstappen then botched the recovery. While Sergio…

“I’m of the belief that this car is now a solid baseline. There’s no more talk about changing regulations, raising the floor edges, and the bouncing is a non-existent topic. It is from there now we can seek performance and downforce.” It’s taken long enough. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has spent the past 18 months enduring the consequences of his team’s single-minded pursuit of a radical, nearly sidepod-less design direction. One of the key questions now is whether the most successful team of the past decade can now make up for that lost time. At launch, 2022’s W13 seemed like a typical piece of swagger from a team confident in its engineering capabilities; instead, Mercedes spent much of that season tinkering with the car simply to get it to stop…

ON THE TUESDAY FOLLOWING the Canadian Grand Prix, Alex Albon received a call from his new boss. James Vowles dialled his driver’s number to let him know his Sunday effort was “a drive of champions”. It was easy to see why Albon’s faultless drive, holding back four of his rivals in seemingly faster cars to bring home six points for seventh place, impressed. But that kind of praise, from someone who over the past 20 years had worked with Jenson Button, Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, isn’t something you hear after a race that is merely quite good. “It’s always nice to receive positive feedback,” Alex smiles when GP Racing asks about that call. “We’re also interested to hear the negative feedback too, but it’s always good to…

IF ANYONE MOANS ABOUT cosmetic damage to a front-wing endplate during early scuffles in the British Grand Prix, they should be thankful John Surtees is no longer around to tell them what happened to him 50 years ago. The former world champion and team owner had all three of his cars written off at the end of the first lap in 1973. To make matters worse, it happened before his very eyes. Surtees was not alone in being horrified by one of the most spectacular multiple collisions to mar any GP. F1 team members, watching from the elevated pit road at Silverstone, felt severely winded by the scene exploding beneath them, the sight of one car thumping into another acting like relentless punches in the solar plexus. The pit straight…

F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 13 BELGIAN GP 28-30 July 2023 Spa-Francorchamps THE MAIN EVENT Magnificent Spa-Francorchamps, one of the greatest racing circuits even in its truncated modern form, has coped with many threats to its existence. Shaky promoters, threats of driver boycotts, a few skipped years owing to the ban on tobacco advertising – it’s survived them all while adapting to modern safety standards, including a massive project to expand the run-off at Raidillon. The only factor that’s constant is the fickle Ardennes weather which can make racing treacherous. F1’s new sprint format is perfectly suited to this environment. The sprint itself and the ‘shootout’ which defines the grid happen on Saturday, with qualifying in the late afternoon on Friday. Surely it can’t rain every day? 2022 RACE RECAP It…

@mattkewF1 facebook.com/gpracingonline IS DOMINATION IN THIS NETFLIX ERA GOOD FOR THE SHOW? Red Bull was punished for busting the cost cap in 2021 by having its aerodynamic testing allowance slashed. This could have stunted the team’s in-season development. But it has started 2023 so strongly as to massively mitigate this kneecapping: the RB19 doesn’t require aggressive upgrades to stay ahead. As a result, given its current potency and the plan to keep the regulations stable until 2026, a whitewash between now and then might well lie in store. That potential hot streak would be far from unprecedented in Formula 1, which has bounced from one ‘superteam’ to the next. A second spell from Red Bull, to go along with its 2010-2013 clean sweep, would arrive hot on the heels of…

One of the bonuses of the Red Bull Ring’s compact layout is that you can shift vantage points and get to another part of the circuit pretty quickly. Max’s home fans are keen travellers around European races so I was expecting some hysteria if, or rather when, he won. Having captured a shot on the cool-down lap of Max big in the frame, waving to the flags, I ran to another spot to get him going past the ‘Oranje Army’. Tehnically it wasn’t difficult to shoot but the devil was in the correct framing and focal length. In future years images like this will look pretty cool, much as we look at old shots of Michael Schumacher in his pomp now. Where Spielberg, Austria When 4,29pm, Sunday 2 July 2023…

It’s a classic Silverstone image that puts you in mind of the video to Kate Bush’s hit Cloudbusting – an accumulation of cumulus, if you like. You can get all four seasons in one day here, even in summer, thanks to the circuit’s location on a windy plateau (that’s the reason they built an airfield here originally). Friday at the British Grand Prix had the best forecast and was indeed bright and sunny, but even the fairweather cumulus clouds can look threatening when they gather in this density. I took advantage of the brightness of the sky to play with the exposure a bit, darkening off the clouds and circuit to make for an atmospheric image. Where Silverstone, UK When 4:46pm, Friday 7 July 2023 Details Nikon Z9 24-70mm lens,…

HOW PROPER POSITION PREVENTS POOR PERFORMANCE Ergonomics, the study of how design features improve people’s efficiency in their working environment, isn’t a word often associated with motorsport. It is however a fundamental part of the process of designing a vehicle. It sits alongside packaging as the starting point for what is popularly known as the architecture of the vehicle. The modern Formula 1 car is certainly a triumph of packaging. The complex power unit and all its associated systems are contained within extremely narrow confines so as to allow the engine cover and the diffuser ‘boat tail’ to be pulled in as far as possible to enhance the aerodynamics. The position of many elements are largely dictated by the regulations these days but this hasn’t always been the case. In the…

THE GOOD FW07 The car that made the Williams name. It could hardly have been otherwise when an underbody tweak suddenly had the FW07 lapping Silverstone more than 1.5 seconds faster than anyone else – and on its way to the team’s maiden win with Clay Regazzoni in the 1979 British Grand Prix. Ground effect might have been pioneered by Lotus in 1977 but Patrick Head advanced the principle even further. The Williams technical director produced the neat and light FW07 for 1979 but teething problems affected the first few races. The car’s potential was suddenly released when, along with aerodynamicist Frank Dernie, Head tidied up the airflow around the base of the Ford-Cosworth V8. It was something they had been meaning to do for a while – but never…

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