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Belgian Grand Prix practice - radio & text
Belgian Grand Prix practice - radio & text

BBC News

time25-07-2025

  • Automotive
  • BBC News

Belgian Grand Prix practice - radio & text

Update: Date: 11:21 BST Title: Coming up Content: There's just the one practice session this weekend because the Belgian Grand Prix features a sprint race. Here's today's key timings (all BST): Practice session: 11:30-12:30 (BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra 2, BBC Sounds and smart speakers) Sprint qualifying: 15:30-16:14 (BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra 2, BBC Sounds and smart speakers) Update: Date: 11:18 BST Title: Norris feeling 'more of a threat' Content: Andrew BensonBBC F1 correspondent at Spa-Francorchamps Lando Norris says he feels 'more of a threat' to McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri after progress made in his understanding and feel for the car in recent races. Norris comes to the Belgian Grand Prix on the back of consecutive victories in Austria and Britain, albeit he inherited the Silverstone win after Piastri was penalised for driving ing dangerously behind the safety car. 'Do I feel more of a threat now? Yes,' Norris said. 'But am I happy enough still with where I'm at, where the car is and my harmony with the car? It's still not to the level that I want.' A new part in the front suspension of the McLaren - which was introduced to help Norris feel the front tyres more, but which Piastri does not feel he needs and is not using - has helped Norris, but he has also worked on his driving with the team behind the scenes. Yet he says he still does not feel quite back to the the level he was at last year, when he was consistently the fastest McLaren driver. 'I certainly feel happier. Austria was a place I felt the happiest, even happier than I was in Silverstone. With the car, with the knowledge of where I can push, how I can push and all those things. 'We're still trying to work on things to give me more from the car in order to allow me to unlock that more often, like I was doing last season,' said Norris. 'The most positive thing from those two weekends was just that the pace was better from the off and I was more comfortable with the car and in understanding how to get the most pace from it. At times that brings more of a smile to my face than just winning the race itself. Because it's progress, it's seen progress and that's always a very good thing, it's a very rewarding thing.' Update: Date: 11:15 BST Title: Title battle heating up Content: Things are heating up in the title race as we move into the second half of the seaosn. After winning the past two grands prix, Lando Norris has narrowed the gap in the drivers' championship to his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri to eight points. Will Norris complete a hat-trick of race wins at the Belgium Grand Prix this weekend?

Verstappen sets Canada pace after Leclerc crash
Verstappen sets Canada pace after Leclerc crash

Yahoo

time13-06-2025

  • Sport
  • Yahoo

Verstappen sets Canada pace after Leclerc crash

Max Verstappen is one penalty point away from a one-race ban after his collision with George Russell in Barcelona [Reuters] Canadian Grand Prix Venue: Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal Dates: 13-15 June Race start: 19:00 BST on Sunday Coverage: Live commentary of first practice, third practice and qualifying on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra 2, with FP2 on Sports Extra. Race is on BBC Radio 5 Live; live text updates on BBC Sport website and app Advertisement Ferrari's Charles Leclerc crashed in first practice at the Canadian Grand Prix as Red Bull's Max Verstappen set the pace. Leclerc misjudged Turn Three after locking his brakes going into the corner and collected the barrier as he speared across the grass, just under halfway through the session. He was fastest at the time but ended the session 10th. Leclerc tried to cut across the grass after locking his brakes on the entry to the difficult right-left chicane but collected a barrier and destroyed the left-hand side of his car. "I'm sorry," Leclerc said to the team over the radio. "I locked up and should have gone straight. I thought I could make the corner but I hit the wall." Advertisement Verstappen set the pace from Williams' Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz. The four-time champion was 0.039 seconds quicker than Albon and 0.082secs ahead of Sainz. Charles Leclerc walks back to the pits after crashing his Ferrari during first practice [Reuters] Mercedes' George Russell was fourth fastest, from Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar and McLaren's Lando Norris on a track that was obviously slippery and dirty. Championship leaders McLaren appeared to struggle. Norris had a number of moments around the demanding Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and finished up 12th. The Briton's team-mate Oscar Piastri, the championship leader, was 14th as McLaren tested a new front wing and front suspension. Advertisement The wing is a test item that is not expected to be used after Friday, but the suspension is aimed at curing the 'numb' feeling in the car's front axle that has particularly affected Norris this season. But Norris went off track on the exit of Turn One and came close to losing control at the hairpin a number of times. Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson, Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Leclerc completed the top 10. Gasly's team-mate Franco Colapinto had an early spin at Turn Two without harm and ended up 19th. Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda was 11th, 0.734secs behind team-mate Verstappen, and Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso 12th.

Should McLaren focus on one driver in title battle?
Should McLaren focus on one driver in title battle?

Yahoo

time10-06-2025

  • Automotive
  • Yahoo

Should McLaren focus on one driver in title battle?

Canadian Grand Prix Venue: Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal Dates: 13-15 June Race start: 19:00 BST on Sunday Coverage: Live commentary of first practice, third practice and qualifying on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra 2, with FP2 on Sports Extra. Race is on BBC Radio 5 Live; live text updates on BBC Sport website and app Advertisement Formula 1 heads back to North America this weekend for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal. There is now some daylight at the top of the drivers' standings between the McLaren drivers and the rest with Oscar Piastri 10 points ahead of team-mate Lando Norris, and Red Bull's Max Verstappen a further 39 points behind Norris. Before the race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, BBC Sport F1 correspondent Andrew Benson answers your latest questions. Should McLaren be focusing on one driver for the title? We have seen other teams be dominant at the beginning of a season and slip back later on. - Luke This debate is an interesting one. Advertisement On one side, teams often receive criticism when they impose team orders and favour one driver over another. On another, the same can happen when they have two evenly matched drivers, both in a title fight, and they split the points between them against a rival who is the only driver challenging from another team. The second is clearly the case this year. For parallels in history, one can look back, for example, to 1986, when the Williams was the fastest car but Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet made a pair of warring team-mates and McLaren's Alain Prost drove a wonderful season to slip through the middle and claim the title in a dramatic final race in Australia. Advertisement Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are - so far - very much not Mansell and Piquet. Relations between them are good and the intra-team battle is being conducted in a way for which all teams would wish. McLaren don't really have a choice at the moment but to conduct this season as they are so far doing. Norris and Piastri have contracts that guarantee them equal treatment, and as a team McLaren's philosophy is to allow free competition between their drivers. The one proviso is that they remember they are driving for a team and that, from time to time, they may be asked to do something that maximises the team's interests but perhaps not their own. Advertisement McLaren are approaching this with a philosophy of openness. Keep talking. Don't let anything go unsaid. Be honest. If an issue comes up, it'll because no one had thought of it. Not because of any attempt to conceal. They accept that the drivers are likely to clash, but they believe that, because of their approach, they will be able to handle that, too. So far, it's working. They accept that Max Verstappen is a real threat, even that there is a risk he could 'do a Prost'. But as Piastri put it in a BBC Sport interview in Monaco: "It is a possibility, yes. But, on both sides of the garage here, we want to win because we've been the best driver, the best team, including against the other car in the team. You always want to earn things on merit and you want to be able to beat everyone, including your team-mates. Advertisement "So that gives Lando and I the best chance of our personal goals of trying to become drivers' world champion, while also achieving the main result for the team, which is the constructors' championship. "If we do get beaten by Max, of course that would hurt, but we would know that we both had the same opportunity, we were racing everybody out there and that's just how it panned out. "For us it's the most straightforward, the fairest way of going racing and that's what we've asked for." Has the Franco Colapinto swap at Alpine backfired? He does not seem to have been much of a step over the less experienced Jack Doohan. - Tim It would be going quite far to say that it has backfired after just three races, but it's true to say that it's hard to discern any major difference between Colapinto's performance and Doohan's before him. Advertisement When executive adviser - and de facto team boss - Flavio Briatore brought Colapinto in, he said he wanted him to "be fast, not crash and score points". So far, the Argentine has failed to meet that target on every level. Colapinto had a significant crash on his debut weekend at Imola. In his three qualifying sessions so far, he is 0.392 seconds on average slower than team-mate Pierre Gasly, compared with Doohan's 0.366secs over the first six races. And, like Doohan, he has scored no points. Colapinto has another couple of races before he reaches the five Alpine's statement announcing his elevation to the race seat said he would have before the situation was reassessed - a deadline Briatore immediately rejected as soon as he spoke in public about the swap. Advertisement What happens next is anyone's guess. Why is the last chicane in the Canadian Grand Prix so difficult, causing many drivers to hit the 'Wall of Champions'? - Christopher The concrete wall on the exit of Turns 12 and 13 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve earned its nickname after Damon Hill, Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve all crashed there in 1999. Many others - including Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button - have since followed suit. It's tricky because it is approached from very high speed, drivers have to bounce over the kerbs to be fast, and if they misjudge that, there is a wall waiting to collect them on the outside, with no run-off area. Advertisement Put that combination together, and it's no wonder drivers crash there. Donington Park hosted the 1993 European Grand Prix, a race won by Ayrton Senna in one of his greatest performances. It was the last time a circuit other than Silverstone staged an F1 race in the UK [Getty Images] With Spain likely having two races next season and Italy having had two for the last few years, I find it odd that the UK hasn't had more than one at different tracks in a season since 1993. Considering the majority of the teams are based here, the massive F1 fanbase that Britain has and the very good attendances Silverstone gets every year, why do you think the UK has not been considered to host more than one? - James Two reasons - money and circuit specification. Imola returned to the calendar in the pandemic year of 2020, and a way was found to keep it on afterwards because the local region of Emilia-Romagna and the Italian government saw its promotional value and found the sanctioning fee. Hence the event's rather convoluted and inelegant official title. Advertisement Of course, it didn't hurt that F1 chairman Stefano Domenicali is from Imola and was keen for the race to continue. In Spain, Barcelona has kept its place next year because it has a contract through 2026, while Madrid is entering the first year of its new contract. Again, state funding is involved in both events. Britain has two issues. One, while the country has many terrific race tracks, only Silverstone meets modern F1 standards. And there is no money for any of them to pay F1 to host a race. Making the British Grand Prix work on a financial basis is difficult enough for Silverstone as it is. On top of that, slowly but surely the idea of countries hosting more than one race is likely to die away, so it's highly unlikely there would be any appetite for another country to have two. Advertisement Apart, that is, from the USA, where there are three races, in Austin, Miami and Las Vegas, because it is such a large and important marketplace for the sport's commercial rights holders, Liberty Media. Would competition be more level across all teams, and expenditure lower if rules existed for longer periods without change? - Matthew Expenditure is set by the budget cap. It makes no difference what the rules are, teams will spend to that limit and no more. As for keeping the rules in place for a longer period, yes, everyone accepts that the field closes up the longer a set of regulations remains in place. You can see that this year, when the field is probably more compact in terms of time from front to back than it has ever been. Advertisement But it is part of the DNA of F1 to change the rules every few years. Often it's because there is a feeling the cars need to be slowed down, or changed in character in some ways; sometimes it's because it has been perceived that the engine formula needs to change. For 2026, it's all of those reasons. The new power-unit rules were conceived as a way of simplifying the engines and attracting the VW Group into F1. After Audi committed, Ford and General Motors followed suit. Having created a new power-unit design, with a much greater proportion of its performance derived from the electrical part of the engine, the chassis rules needed to be changed to ensure the cars worked holistically with that engine, and also to iron out some issues that were perceived to have arisen with the existing ones. Advertisement The process of refining the 2026 chassis regulations has not been without its difficulties, to say the least, and there are questions as to how successful the new rules will be. But that at least is why they're being introduced.

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