Latest news with #KimiRaikkonen
CNA
24-07-2025
- Automotive
- CNA
Hamilton in 'big, big push' to speed up Ferrari
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium :Lewis Hamilton said he refused to be another name on the list of Formula One champions who failed to win a title for Ferrari, and was making "a big, big push" back at the factory to help boost the chances of success. The seven-times world champion and record race winner, who moved from Mercedes to Maranello this season, has yet to stand on the podium after 12 races with the sport's oldest, most glamorous and successful team. Ferrari has not won a drivers' title since Kimi Raikkonen in 2007. "I see a huge amount of potential within this team. The passion - nothing comes close to that. But it's a huge organisation, and there are a lot of moving parts," Hamilton told reporters on Thursday at the Belgian Grand Prix. "And not all of them are firing on all the cylinders that they need to be. That's ultimately why the team has not had the success that I think it deserves. "So, I feel that it's my job to challenge absolutely every area, to challenge everybody in the team - particularly the guys that are at the top who are making the decisions." Hamilton named Raikkonen, seemingly forgetting that the Finn won his sole title with Ferrari, along with multiple world champions Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel on a list of those who ended up frustrated with their stint in red. "I refuse for that to be the case with me," said the 40-year-old Briton, who wants an eighth title but knows time is not on his side. "So I'm going the extra mile. "I think if you take the same path all the time, you get the same results. So I'm just challenging certain things. They've been incredibly responsive. We've been improving in so many areas." Hamilton said he had been busy at the factory since his home grand prix at Silverstone, where he finished fourth, holding meetings and going over everything that he felt needed to change. He has called meetings attended by leaders from various departments as well as principal Fred Vasseur. "I've sent documents... after the first few races I did a full document for the team. Then during this break, I had another two documents that I sent in, and then I come in and want to address those," he said. "Some of it's structural adjustments that we need to make as a team in order to get better in all the areas we want to improve. "And the other one was really about the car - the current issues that I have, some things that you do want to take on to next year's car, and some that you need to work on changing." Hamilton is sixth in the standings, 16 points behind fifth-placed teammate Charles Leclerc. He has so far beaten the Monegasque only twice in regular grands prix. The Briton won in Belgium last year, his 105th and most recent win.
Reuters
24-07-2025
- Automotive
- Reuters
Hamilton in 'big, big push' to speed up Ferrari
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium, July 24 (Reuters) - Lewis Hamilton said he refused to be another name on the list of Formula One champions who failed to win a title for Ferrari, and was making "a big, big push" back at the factory to help boost the chances of success. The seven-times world champion and record race winner, who moved from Mercedes to Maranello this season, has yet to stand on the podium after 12 races with the sport's oldest, most glamorous and successful team. Ferrari has not won a drivers' title since Kimi Raikkonen in 2007. "I see a huge amount of potential within this team. The passion -- nothing comes close to that. But it's a huge organisation, and there are a lot of moving parts," Hamilton told reporters on Thursday at the Belgian Grand Prix. "And not all of them are firing on all the cylinders that they need to be. That's ultimately why the team has not had the success that I think it deserves. "So, I feel that it's my job to challenge absolutely every area, to challenge everybody in the team -- particularly the guys that are at the top who are making the decisions." Hamilton named Raikkonen, seemingly forgetting that the Finn won his sole title with Ferrari, along with multiple world champions Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel on a list of those who ended up frustrated with their stint in red. "I refuse for that to be the case with me," said the 40-year-old Briton, who wants an eighth title but knows time is not on his side. "So I'm going the extra mile. "I think if you take the same path all the time, you get the same results. So I'm just challenging certain things. They've been incredibly responsive. We've been improving in so many areas." Hamilton said he had been busy at the factory since his home grand prix at Silverstone, where he finished fourth, holding meetings and going over everything that he felt needed to change. He has called meetings attended by leaders from various departments as well as principal Fred Vasseur. "I've sent documents... after the first few races I did a full document for the team. Then during this break, I had another two documents that I sent in, and then I come in and want to address those," he said. "Some of it's structural adjustments that we need to make as a team in order to get better in all the areas we want to improve. "And the other one was really about the car -- the current issues that I have, some things that you do want to take on to next year's car, and some that you need to work on changing." Hamilton is sixth in the standings, 16 points behind fifth-placed teammate Charles Leclerc. He has so far beaten the Monegasque only twice in regular grands prix. The Briton won in Belgium last year, his 105th and most recent win.
Telegraph
27-06-2025
- Automotive
- Telegraph
Toto Wolff admits Mercedes are in talks to sign Max Verstappen
Pressed on Russell's comments, Wolff said: 'We are going into territory I don't want to discuss here. People talk, people explore and, most importantly in our organisation, we are transparent. But it doesn't change a millimetre my opinion of George, his abilities or anything else. 'I like what George says and I am supportive of the driver. We are transparent in the team as to what we do and how we plan and we have been like that since I was in charge so that is not the issue. At the moment, clearly, we need to explore what is happening in the future. 'But it doesn't change what I think about George, or Kimi or the line-up that I am extremely happy with.' When asked whether he has held 'tentative talks' with Verstappen's representatives, however, he said: 'Yeah. You make it sound like we have been asking, 'When do you want to join and what are the terms?' That's not how it is and how it works. I want to just have the conversations behind closed doors, not town halls.' Verstappen break clause could be key to future Verstappen as good as told Telegraph Sport in May that he would stay at Red Bull for 2026, revealing he had 'told his team' that he would stay. But if the four-time champion has since lost confidence in the team ahead of next year's huge regulation changes, all bets are off. Verstappen is rumoured to have a performance clause in his contract, which could be triggered if he is not in the top three in the drivers' championship by the summer break. His father, former F1 driver Jos Verstappen, also has a strained relationship with Horner. Verstappen's own strained relationship with Russell is one possible fly in the ointment. The pair have clashed on many occasions. Verstappen has also traditionally had a defined No 2 next to him and would probably prefer to partner Antonelli. Asked whether he could imagine a Russell-Verstappen pairing, Wolff smiled. 'I can imagine every line-up,' he said. 'I had [Nico] Rosberg and [Lewis] Hamilton fighting for a world championship so everything afterwards is easy. There are pros and cons having two drivers fight each other hard and we have seen examples where they have functioned and others where they didn't.' Asked whether he was back to flirting with Verstappen again, and whether something had changed to make him do so, Wolff again smiled. 'No, nothing has changed, there is no flirting in that sense. It depends how you categorise that. You can flirt, or you can have conversations.'
Top Gear
06-06-2025
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Formula Legends' ‘F1 across the eras' is so good, you wonder why nobody did it already
Gaming With a playable demo out now, TG checks in with one of our most anticipated racing games Skip 10 photos in the image carousel and continue reading Formula One's best asset isn't the Netflix show or the upcoming movie. It isn't even the audio library of Kimi Raikkonen's best team radio lines, which will surely sustain the next century of meme creation. It's the heritage. The 75 years of history, iconic machinery, immortal heroes and feats of unfathomable bravery. Odd, then, that indie simcade racer Formula Legends is something of an outlier for encapsulating the sport's various historical eras in one experience. When we first saw the reveal trailer and digested the concept – an accessible, cartoonised take on circuit racing featuring unlicensed takes on F1 cars from the 1960s to present – we got quite excited. Having taken a deeper look at the game, which now has a playable demo live on Steam from 6 June, that excitement is now veritably bubbling. Advertisement - Page continues below The first thing that stands out about the racing is the quality of AI opponents. They jostle with each other in braking zones and take varying lines through turns, which really shouldn't be a rarity in the modern genre but somehow is. 3D Clouds founder Francesco Bruschi explains: 'We don't have a learning AI. It's very simple, but very tuned for the feeling that the player's in a real race. What you've seen is our first pass at that, we're not at the finish yet. I want a clean race with maybe some [AI] mistakes and different strategies. My first priority is to bring my racing experience to our development.' You might like And that might be the secret sauce that makes Formula Legends stand out: this isn't a studio having a stab at what the community might want from a game like this. It's members of that community making the game they want to play. This might be a friendly and approachable looking title, but it's the hidden depths like tyre wear and pit strategies that elevate it, and they've found their way into this game because Bruschi has been modding racing games since the days of the venerable Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix 2 in 1996. He's also a former racer who's competed against Sebastian Vettel in Formula Renault, among other accolades. Advertisement - Page continues below Structurally, it works like you'd imagine. Career mode takes you from the cigar-shaped deathtraps of the 1960s right through to modern energy-harvesting machinery, all in unlicensed but very recognisable form. There are over 100 different vehicles to span those seasons, and their liveries are instantly recognisable nods to their real-life counterparts. Likewise the drivers, whose names have had their letters jumbled in early '90s console racer style, but remain easy to decode. Each era of vehicle has its own handling behaviour and is built around a different physics model. The older cars will step out around corners and prompt your brain to provide a quick supercut of your life before the tyres find traction again, while the modern ground effect cars will reflect the greater downforce and turn-in speed. You really notice the sound differences between historical eras, too. The turbos sound like turbos, with that same musical roar that soundtracked many a Prost-Senna tussle. Details like that all contributed to Formula Legends ' warm reception when it was revealed, and that reception confirmed what Bruschi's team suspected: there's a gap in the genre for this exact experience. 'About a year ago we were thinking about Art of Rally ,' says producer Francesco Mantovani, 'which is our main reference at this point. Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Look out for your regular round-up of news, reviews and offers in your inbox. Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox. 'It has received a big response from the market, and we wondered why nobody made this kind of game about the F1 world. We started working on it, we had some doubts along the way, but when we first saw the first prototype we realised there was something huge there.' That positive reception at reveal also spurred 3DClouds on, and fuelled the team's motivation to create a playable demo before launch. 'When we shared the trailer, says Bruschi, 'I knew that we had something good in our hands. We caused all sorts of praise and discussion, everybody was enjoying this game. We'll share something new in the next month, and also the demo.' Of course the hands-on experience will make or break Formula Legends , but with the team's experience on and off the track, it stands a better chance than most.
Reuters
31-05-2025
- Automotive
- Reuters
Ice Boy? No thanks, says polesitter Piastri
BARCELONA, May 31 (Reuters) - Oscar Piastri has acquired a reputation for keeping cool under pressure, and even after winning, but just don't call him "Ice Boy". The Australian, leading the Formula One championship for dominant McLaren, was offered the nickname after taking pole position with a mighty lap in the heat of qualifying for Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix. A reporter suggested Piastri could be the progeny of Finnish "Iceman" Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion for Ferrari, such was his nonchalant attitude. "I'm not sure I want to go under the name 'Ice Boy'," replied the Australian, raising a laugh from others in the room. "I think the emotions are different each time. Certainly, there's been qualifyings and races where it's not been nonchalant and there's been a lot of emotion behind them. "But then there's others where you go out and you know that if you do a good enough job, you can achieve the result you want. "Don't get me wrong, it's incredibly satisfying, but I think I'm just not a particularly emotional person. That's just how I am, really." Piastri added that he could have his emotional moments but he also knew that Saturday was only part of the job done and the real celebrating could wait until after Sunday's race. The 24-year-old, born in Melbourne and schooled in England, has won four of the eight races this season and Saturday was his fourth pole of the campaign. He is three points clear of teammate Lando Norris, who won from pole in Monaco last Sunday to close the gap, but has shown no sign of feeling the pressure. "It's a nice thing to have, starting on pole, but it's not the end of the weekend. The points are tomorrow. After the races, it depends a bit on the race," said Piastri. "If you've had a battle with someone the whole race and then you win, then yeah, you're pretty pumped up. But if you've got a bit of a gap, then you kind of know with a few laps to go that it's going to go your way, and then it doesn't spill over so much."
