Latest news with #FirstGear
Daily Mirror
6 days ago
- Automotive
- Daily Mirror
F1 summer report as Lewis Hamilton woe hurts Ferrari and sleeping giant awakens
After 14 rounds of the Formula 1 season, the summer break is here and Mirror Sport has taken the opportunity to have a closer look at how all 10 teams are getting on It has been another Formula 1 season dominated by a single outstanding outfit. But this time it has been McLaren wiping the floor with the opposition, rather than Red Bull. And yet there remains plenty of excitement about what the final 10 events of the year might hold. When Max Verstappen was dominating the sport, not even his team-mate could get close to him. But this year we have two evenly-matched superstars in Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri who are putting on a real show. They won all but three of the Grands Prix held so far and, while it's a shame that no other team has been able to put up a real fight, this has all the makings of a title race to remember. Just nine points separate them, Piastri on top but Norris piling on the pressure having won three of the last four races. The only thing missing has been some needle – they are getting on extraordinarily well for two team-mates fighting for individual glory, even quickly forgetting Norris bashing into the back of Piastri in Canada. Surely, as the trophy gets closer, things between them will get more tense. But even though they've resisted the urge to take chunks out of each other, it's been a thrilling duel up to now and will be a great watch for the rest of the year. For those behind them, it's all about the race to be second best. Ferrari are currently winning that fight, though Charles Leclerc has done most of the work so far with Lewis Hamilton still struggling to adapt. He hit the nadir of his Ferrari career to date last weekend when he called himself "useless" and suggested the team might be better off replacing him. Hamilton desperately needs to find some confidence in the next few months to take into what could be his final F1 season next year. READ MORE: Lewis Hamilton and his Ferrari turmoil – the dream F1 move quickly becoming a nightmare Elsewhere, George Russell is shining for Mercedes despite all the speculation over his future this year, while Verstappen is helplessly watching his Red Bull team fade. And the midfield is delightfully tight with all of them, except perhaps Alpine, in points contention at most races. Here's how each of the 10 teams on the grid have got on so far this term: McLaren - 559 points The teams' title basically sewn up, 299 points clear of Ferrari, and drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in a two-horse race for the drivers' crown. It couldn't have gone much better for McLaren who could break the all-time points record if they keep up their current pace. Top Gear: Seven one-two finishes puts McLaren in with a shout matching Mercedes' record of 12 in a season. First Gear: Norris' crash into the back of Piastri in Canada set back his title bid. Ferrari - 260 points Lewis Hamilton's struggles have cast a dark cloud over Ferrari as that dream partnership threatens to go horribly wrong. But it's not all doom and gloom with five podiums for Charles Leclerc, while they are second which is the best anyone other than McLaren can hope for this year. Top Gear: Lewis' surprise Sprint win in Shanghai was one of few bright spots for the Brit so far this year. First Gear: Just a day later, Ferrari saw both their cars disqualified for the first time ever in a Grand Prix. Mercedes - 236 points Started strongly with George Russell on the podium in four of the first six races, and rookie Kimi Antonelli finding his feet quickly in F1. But upgrades have not improved their car and Antonelli has suffered a crisis of confidence amid a barren run of one point scored in seven European races. Top Gear: Russell won while Antonelli got his first podium on a red-letter day in Canada. First Gear: They left Monaco empty handed after a qualifying disaster left both outside the points. Red Bull - 194 points Christian Horner was shown the door, Max Verstappen's title streak is going to end and now even the Dutchman is struggling to get their wretched RB21 to perform. Add to that the ongoing crisis in their second seat and whispers that their 2026 engines may struggle to compete, and new boss Laurent Mekies has quite the job on his hands Top Gear: Successfully keeping Verstappen for another year amid interest from Mercedes was important. First Gear: Just 10 points scored by Yuki Tsunoda in the second seat is an abysmal return. Williams - 70 points F1's sleeping giant is stirring into life under James Vowles who has got this grand old team performing again after years at the back. Alex Albon has stepped up another gear since Carlos Sainz was recruited and is a target for top teams again, though the Spaniard's slow start has been disappointing. Top Gear: Albon fifth and Sainz eighth at Imola where the former outpaced the Ferrari of Leclerc and Russell in the Mercedes. First Gear: June saw Williams suffer a reliability nightmare and score just one point in three races, losing ground to their midfield rivals. Aston Martin - 52 points Testing suggested it would be a tough year for Aston and their start to the season proved it, though they have found more pace with upgrades in the European season. Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll have contributed evenly with 26 points each, though the real focus at this team is on what Adrian Newey can cook up for them next year. Top Gear: Fifth and seventh in Hungary last weekend catapulted them up to sixth in the championship with by far their best haul of the year. First Gear: It took double F1 champion Alonso NINE races to get a point on the board. Sauber - 51 points The surprise package of the season so far. New boss Jonathan Wheatley has had a massive impact since starting work in April after 18 years as sporting director at Red Bull. They made a slow start but have scored points in each of the last six races with veteran Nico Hulkenberg leading by example and rookie Gabriel Bortoleto turning heads. Top Gear: Hulkenberg's first ever F1 podium at Silverstone, at the 239th attempt, was one of the feel-good stories of the year so far in all of sport. First Gear: Seven pointless races in a row between China and Monaco had Audi fearing the worst about the team they formally take over next year. Racing Bulls - 45 points Strategy calls and bad luck have cost them at times, but Red Bull's second team has had a good car for most of the year and has been in points contention at most races. Liam Lawson has found his feet since he was brutally axed by the top Red Bull team, while Isack Hadjar has a strong case for rookie of the year so far. Top Gear: Sixth place in his first Monaco F1 race earned Hadjar plenty of admirers. First Gear: Both drivers showed their inexperience by crashing out early on in difficult conditions at Silverstone. Haas - 35 points They may be second-to-last, but there is a buzz again at Haas under Ayao Komatsu after things turned sour towards the end of Guenther Steiner's long reign. Their car has been wildly inconsistent but new team leader Esteban Ocon has usually delivered when he can, while British rookie Oliver Bearman is quick but still very raw. Top Gear: Ocon made a swift impact with fifth in China, just his second race with the team, while Bearman was also in the points. First Gear: Their car was by far the slowest in the Melbourne opener thanks to a design flaw and fixing it set back their upgrades plan for the whole season. Alpine - 20 points Renault's disastrous F1 project continues to tread water until 2026 when they hope Mercedes engines will power them further up the grid. Pierre Gasly is doing the best he can and has scored all their points, with Franco Colapinto floundering since replacing the pointless Jack Doohan. Top Gear: Gasly saw his opportunity amid the Silverstone chaos and steered his Alpine to sixth. First Gear: Ferrari's double disqualification in China masked the fact Gasly was also kicked out of the race because his car was underweight.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
NASCAR Through the Gears: Kyle Larson sinks, Ross Chastain rises, Tom Cruise kicks the tires
Think we can slow the roll on all that talk about Kyle Larson being the planet's best race-car driver? While a lot of guys make it look easy sometimes, some of the guys make it look easy all the time. Kyle had always been one of those "all the time" guys. Is he still? Advertisement Let's just say, there won't likely be a lot of talk about teeing up another attempt at the Indy-Charlotte double next year. Is all that fair? Probably not. Everyone in every sport has a bad day. And/or a bad night. Sunday, Kyle had both, when he lost the wheel and tested SAFER Barriers at both Indianapolis and Charlotte. It was that kind of day, and night, for Kyle Larson. Sounds like Kyle needs a good cleansing of the palate. Barring changes in his schedule, he'll get one Friday when he returns to Indiana for some short-track sprint-car action on the dirt at Lawrenceburg. From there, it's south toward Nashville for the next NASCAR stop and, thankfully, a flip of the calendar to put May behind him. Advertisement On the other hand, there's Ross Chastain. He'd been putting together a solid season free of too many clankers, but hadn't been leading many laps and therefore was kinda/sorta off the radar. Guess what. Sunday night at Charlotte, he put together a solid night, free of issues, but remained in the shadows without leading laps … until everything changed. INDY'S WILD WEEK Kyle Larson isn't big story as Indy 500 nears. Roger Penske, others driving news cycle First Gear: William Byron dominates Charlotte, Ross Chastain wins In eight of 12 starts before Sunday night, Ross the Boss had finished between second and 12th, but had only led laps in two races and was 11th in points, with no stage wins and therefore no playoff points to carry into the postseason. Advertisement Everything changed late Sunday when Chastain's fresher tires helped him pass William Byron and hang on for his sixth career Cup victory. Billy the Kid was in no mood for consolation, but he won the first three stages to collect a few more bonus points, and 65 total points (to Chastain's 50) to increase his overall points lead. That could pay off in a regular-season points championship and the 15 playoff bonus points that come with it. And we say all that because we all know how such things can pay off in September and October. Chastain has now won races in each of the past four seasons, so Sunday was no big surprise or upset. But if they offered bonus points for 'degree of difficulty,' he and his No. 1 Chevy team would be rolling in 'em after this past weekend. Advertisement A crash in pre-qualifying practice was bad enough to force Chastain into a backup car, which would start dead-last in the 40-car field. The 'Boys in the Shop' put aside any need for sleep to put their driver in a good race car. It doesn't usually pay off, much less in such a big way. But it's good to know it can. Some team wins are more teamy than others. Second Gear: Amazon Prime Video reviews and non-reviews Well, NASCAR's first Cup race on Amazon's Prime Video has come and gone, and the reviews couldn't produce a bigger gulf. For better and worse, the best way to check the pulse on such things is to peruse 'social' media. And man, what a weirdly mixed bag. Advertisement On one side, you have the Prime lovers. They loved having Junior Earnhardt back in the broadcast booth and loved seeing Carl Edwards back in their lives. And frankly, if you didn't enjoy Prime's NASCAR theme, courtesy of John Fogerty and Eric Church, I can't help you. Maybe even better, they loved the near-disappearance of full-blown commercial breaks (they only arrived at stage breaks). And were overjoyed at watching those last 55 laps without even those mildly irritating side-by-side ads that let you continue watching the race on half the screen. Makes you wonder how we survived all those years on our 19-inch Zenith. Advertisement You want numbers to back things up? Here you go, courtesy of the CawsNjaws website: Sunday night featured just nine minutes of traditional commercial breaks (again, during stage breaks) and 42 minutes of the side-by-side stuff with the commercial and race on the screen together. The most recent regular-season Cup race, at Kansas, had 39 minutes of old-school commercial breaks and just six minutes of side-by-side. So it probably depends on what you hate more (or less) — total breakaways or that side-by-side spoonin' action. On the other side of the reviews, there basically are no reviews. Those folks don't have Prime, will not be forced to get Prime, and frankly, might quit Amazon altogether and start going back to Winn-Dixie to buy their Folgers and Quaker Oats. Third Gear: Tom Cruise is kicking the NASCAR tires Man oh man, those were a couple of tall gears, so let's make shorter work of the next two. Advertisement Tom Cruise, whose long-awaited 'Top Gun' sequel was a huge hit a few years ago, is ready to give the same treatment to his 1990 stock-car effort, 'Days of Thunder.' OK, maybe Tom isn't all-in on a NASCAR-themed reboot. But it appears to be on the table, considering what he told the 'Today' show last week. 'All of these things we're working on … we're discussing 'Days of Thunder' and 'Top Gun: Maverick.' There are numerous other films that we're actively working on right now.' In Hollywood, everyone is always 'talking' about future projects. So there's that. But also in Hollywood, not everyone is Tom Cruise. Fourth Gear: Brad Keselowski doesn't fall apart! Yes! Maybe the racing gods were focusing their negative mojo on Kyle Larson this past weekend, but they certainly, and finally, took their boots off Brad Keselowski's HANS Device. Advertisement Kez did something Sunday night he'd done 155 previous times in his long Cup Series career. He finished fifth for his 156th career top-five. Should be no big deal, except this top-five came after the worst run of racing (and luck) Kez has dealt with in a career dating back to 2008. And it appears he used a different strategy, though obviously not intentionally. In recent weeks, Kez had been running fair-to-excellent, only to get derailed by a broken this-or-that or a dreaded wrong place/wrong time situation. Sunday at Charlotte, he kept quiet throughout, didn't even post a top-10 in the first three stages. Advertisement But he worked his way from 13th after Stage 3 toward the front, and even led five laps during some pit cycling. Afterward, he said, 'I feel like if we could have gotten to the lead, we could have won the race.' Well, yeah, that's generally the way it works when it does work. But take the top-five and hold tight to that sliver of momentum. The much-needed fifth saw Kez leapfrog from 33rd in the standings all the way to … um … 32nd. But still, progress. — Email Ken Willis at This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR: Kyle Larson hates May, Prime hates ads, Tom Cruise drops hint
