Is Raikkonen’s Ferrari seat safe from Leclerc?

Red Bull Racing confirms Gasly for 2019

Lando Norris has impressed when testing for McLaren. Now the iconic team’s reserve driver will get his first taste of Grand Prix weekend action when he drives the orange car in place of the departing Fernando Alonso in Belgian Grand Prix first practice at Spa on Friday...

Norris was in action for McLaren when he tested the MCL33 during the post-Hungarian Grand Prix earlier this summer. And as the F1 season resumes after the summer break this weekend in the heart of the Ardennes Forest, McLaren say Norris will get more time in the car with a run in the opening 90-minute session.

Sporting Director Gil De Ferran also hinted Norris could get further opportunities later in the season, with eight races still to go after Spa.

“This weekend will be the first time that our reserve driver Lando will drive the MCL33 during a race weekend, as he steps into Fernando’s car for FP1 on Friday,” said De Ferran.

“This is not only part of his ongoing development, but also the evaluation and performance evolution of the car. We’ll be taking a strategic view race-by-race at where else this might be beneficial for us over the coming grands prix.”

McLaren are currently evaluating options for their 2019 driver line-up, following double world champion Alonso’s decision not to race in F1 next season. Renault's Carlos Sainz will pilot one of their cars, but the other seat hasn't been locked down.

Will Stoffel Vandoorne be retained? Could Norris be promoted? Or will the team recruit externally?

Mexican Formula 1 driver Sergio Perez says his deal with Force India is on course for a prompt renewal now that the team's future has been secured.

Perez has been racing for Force India since 2014, scoring five grand prix podium finishes in that time, but admitted earlier this year that his future with the outfit hinged on whether it would overcome its “critical” financial situation.

And now that this situation has been resolved, Perez – who had been linked with rival F1 teams, most notably Haas - has told Latin American network Fox Sports that he is close to extending his Force India stay.

“I think it's a great opportunity to continue with the team,” he said. “When you don't have a chance at Ferrari or Mercedes, I think Force India is a very attractive option.

“We are almost there [for 2019]. In fact, it's just a matter of days or weeks. It's just about clearing up the situation with the team.

“My contract doesn't need signing. The renewal [option] is there and it's just about seeing what position the team is in to continue.”

Perez played a major role in Force India's recent takeover as it was his backers who took legal action that sent the outfit into administration, with the aim of protecting the team from the threat of winding-up order.

The team's future was swiftly secured as the administrators accepted a bid from a consortium led by fashion mogul Lawrence Stroll.

Stroll's son Lance, who has been driving for Williams since 2017, is now widely expected to make the switch to Force India for next year.

“It was a very complicated situation, where I realised I was in a position I never expected as a driver and I had to act,” Perez recalled. “There were 400 jobs at risk.

“Fortunately everything has been rescued and everything looks great.

“It looks like an incredible future for the team, with a good investment that above all gives the team a lot of stability, which is what it struggled with during the past years.”

A likely Stroll-Perez line-up at Force India would force Perez's current teammate Esteban Ocon to look for a new team, the Frenchman's options for 2019 having seemingly dwindled as of late despite solid performances on track.

Ocon, who was expected to move to Renault before the manufacturer's shock signing of Daniel Ricciardo,has recently been linked to the second McLaren seat alongside new recruit Carlos Sainz.

Vergne says he's been approached by F1 team for 2019

RED Bull chief adviser Helmut Marko has accused Daniel Ricciardo of contract treachery in the final days before his bombshell announcement to join Renault next year.

The Red Bull driving line-up kingmaker has opened up on his team’s seismic moves since the start of the summer break, which began with a bang when Ricciardo’s two-year deal with Renault was announced.

Marko told Austria’s Servus TV that Ricciardo informed him he would sign a new contract with Red Bull just days before he signed with Renault.

According to Marko, Ricciardo led the team to believe that he would sign his new deal with Red Bull on the final day of the testing event at the Hungaroring (Wednesday, August 1 AEST).

Instead he signed with Renault the following day and began telling Red Bull colleagues on Friday (AEST) when the story broke.

Marko said he suspects Ricciardo’s decision to leave after 10 years with Red Bull and Toro Rosso could only be as a result of the money Renault was able to offer — or the uncertainty surrounding Red Bull’s move to Honda power units from next year.

“I cannot understand the change. That was a very strange story,” Marko told Servus TV.

“The negotiations were difficult but Wednesday before the Austrian Grand Prix we were talking for two hours and came to an agreement.

“During the weekend, we were talking and renegotiating again.

“In Hungary, he told (Red Bull owner) Mr (Dietrich) Mateschitz and me that he was OK with everything and that he was going to sign during the test on Tuesday. But he didn’t.

“On Thursday, he then called and told me he was going to Renault. I can only assume that maybe he doesn’t believe in the Honda project or that Renault offered him a lot of money.”

ESPN reports a member of Ricciardo’s camp has since denied Marko’s claims that Ricciardo had agreed to re-sign.

Marko went on to suggest Ricciardo has made a mistake gambling on Renault’s ability to develop into a top Formula 1 outfit.

He said of Ricciardo’s trademark Shoey celebration for grands prix wins: “I think with Shoeys it will be hard for him in the near future.

“He said he needed a change of surroundings. I can understand that, but it’s a pity because he is one of the strongest drivers.

“His overtakes are great. They come out of nowhere and sometimes his opponents don’t even realise they are being overtaken.”

Red Bull earlier this week revealed Toro Rosso driver Pierre Gasly will be promoted to partner star driver Max Verstappen next year.

Skysports.com reports Gasly was “shocked” when Marko informed him he’d been promoted to the senior Red Bull outfit.

The 22-year-old Frenchman first learnt of his promotion in an unexpected phone call from Marko.

“Dr Marko called me first of all to tell me that Daniel was leaving for Renault and that they would be making their decision on the 2019 driver at a later date,” Gasly told the Red Bull website.

“So he told me to just enjoy the summer break and that they weren’t in a rush.

“So I just continued to enjoy my holidays, that time I was in Greece. After that holiday I came back to the south of France with my friends last week and he called me back.

“He said ‘just to let you know we’ve made our decision and we’d like you to race alongside Max in 2019’.”

Gasly continued: “When Helmut started the call with me I was in my underwear...When the call ended I ran around the house shouting to my mates and they all jumped in the pool straight away!

“There were a lot of emotions as well and I was just so shocked. I didn’t really know what I was saying to my mates, so I jumped in the pool and celebrated with my mates and family.”

Who will fill the remaining F1 2019 seats?

Haas says it will retain banned Formula 2 racer Santino Ferrucci as part of its Formula 1 driver development programme despite his recent troubles.

Ferrucci was heavily sanctioned by the FIA, and later sacked by his Trident team, for a series of incidents over the Silverstone weekend in July that included a deliberate collision with his teammate and fellow Haas protege Arjun Maini.

Haas said in the wake of what happened it would be considering Ferrucci’s position at the team, but has ultimately decided that it will keep him on board for now.

Since being dropped in F2, Ferrucci has agreed a deal to race with Dale Coyne Racing at IndyCar's Portland and Sonoma rounds.

Speaking ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, Haas team principal Gunther Steiner said: “I think we keep him for the time being on the programme. We will see what he is going to do in IndyCar and stay with that one.

“The guy is trying to make a career and in the end we don’t want to pull the rug under his feet.”

Race line-up

Haas has not yet confirmed either of its drivers for 2019. And although Kevin Magnussen is almost certain to stay, the future of Romain Grosjean is not guaranteed after his difficult start to the current campaign.

Steiner said that he was hopeful a decision would be made soon.

“We are making progress and are just going through the motions,” said Steiner. “We did a lot over the break but we haven’t come to the complete conclusion.

“Nevertheless we are in a good place and I cannot say anything yet as we are working on a few bits and bobs. We are in a good place and happy with the progress we are made. It is not far off.”

Force India could run under a new identity within this season if the FIA is satisfied that its relevant legal issues have been properly addressed – but it's not yet clear whether it could happen as early as this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix.

It's understood that the team may be allowed by the FIA to run under its usual name and identity at Spa, if the situation with the new entry cannot be resolved in time.

An unexpected situation arose last week when plans for a consortium led by Lawrence Stroll to take the struggling Silverstone team out of administration could not be completed within the two-week deadline, mainly because of the legal problems of shareholders Dr Vijay Mallya and the Sahara Group.

Consent from 13 Indian banks was required for the deal to go through, while it's understood that there was also a lien (a right to keep possession of property until a debt is discharged) from drinks company Diageo in relation to a loan made to Mallya.

Losing rival bidder Uralkali suggested yesterday that the sale process was flawed, noting that "despite expiration of the deadline set by the Administrator, no rescue plan was submitted to the court for approval, which confirmed Uralkali's view that the rescue option was not achievable in the timeline and under conditions proposed by the Administrator."

Instead, late last week Stroll switched strategy and bought the assets of the team, which means the cars, the Silverstone factory, the equipment and everything required to go racing – except for the actual entry, which still in theory belongs to Force India, which remains in administration, but now has no physical assets.

The entry is usually regarded as a valuable element of any team sale, but the move by Renault, McLaren and Williams to block the transfer of commercial rights to Force India's new owners, meaning in effect the team would not get the prize money accrued by the team's performances over recent seasons, had already created a stumbling block. In other words, making a fresh start was not as much of a penalty as it would otherwise have been.

What the FIA regulations say…

Although the FIA Sporting Regulations specify that teams have to enter for the following season by November 30th, Article 8.1 does appear to leave the door open for changes at a later date.

It reads: "Applications at other times will only be considered if a place is available and on payment of a late entry fee to be fixed by the FIA. Entry forms will be made available by the FIA who will notify the applicant of the result of the application within thirty days of its receipt."

Clearly a space is available as the 'new' team will simply replace itself, and in the context of the overall deal a late entry fee will be a minor consideration for Stroll.

The process of creating a new entry from an existing team is clearly a complex one, with the Concorde Agreement to be considered as well as FIA regulations. One of the legal complications is that an F1 team entry has to be submitted via an ASN, which previously meant India.

Today, Force India logos and references to Vijay Mallya's companies Kingfisher and UB Group were stripped from the trucks and from signage in the Spa paddock.

What Liberty says…

Formula 1's owners are keen to ensure that the team remains on the grid, and is supportive of Stroll's ownership.

"I think it's very important for the sport," F1 commercial boss Sean Bratches told Motorsport.com earlier this week. "And not only from a competitive standpoint on the grid – they're the team that came in fourth in the points last year – but also from the perception standpoint of the sport.

"We are trying to create value across the board, and to have teams go into administration with no successor, it doesn't portend well, so I'm glad this is behind us.

"We're encouraged about the ownership group and the ownership structure, and we're optimistic that they will be able to compete at the levels that they have historically."

Bob Fernley is no longer associated with the Force India Formula 1 team following the purchase of its assets by a consortium led by Lawrence Stroll.

Long associated with Vijay Mallya, Fernley held the role of deputy team principal since the former Jordan, Midland and Spyker team was rebranded under new ownership in 2008.

He was in effect in charge of the team on race weekends when Mallya - who has been unable to leave the UK for the last couple of years - was not in attendance. He also dealt with matters related to the FIA and the F1 organisation.

It's understood that Fernley was informed by Stroll last week that he would not be part of the revised team structure. Chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer is currently heading the management team.

Meanwhile the team is in the process of changing its identity and in effect becoming a new entry, although it's not yet clear whether the paperwork will be completed for this weekend's Belgian GP. An announcement is expected soon.

With Renault currently third in the engine pecking order behind Mercedes and Ferrari, customer Red Bull have been searching for gains in other areas such as fuel. And their supplier appears to have delivered...

They reckon their new fuel is worth 0.15s per lap around Spa-Francorchamps, the venue for this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.

It’s common that fuel suppliers will introduce a new fuel ahead of a season and then roll out upgrades throughout the season. Red Bull received their first in-season boost in Hungary, with the new fuel set to be fully utilised on the high-speed Spa circuit, where 70% of the lap is spent at full throttle.

“On this track, we feel our new Esso Synergy race fuel worth is about 0.15s per lap,” ExxonMobil Global Motorsport Technology Manager David Tsurusaki told Formula1.com. “In the world of adding a new fuel, that’s significant.

“The other area we focus on for fuel is the energy content of the fuel and how much you can push the engine settings and how far you can get it without getting high pressure knock. We think our fuel is yet to be pushed at the maximum limits, but we don’t get to set that.”

To quantify that fuel gain, it would have been worth a grid slot at Spa last year when Max Verstappen missed out on fourth in qualifying by just 0.11s to Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

Red Bull has followed the Ferrari inspired-idea of hollowed out rear view mirrors, in a bid to boost its straightline speed performance at the Belgian Grand Prix.

The team's RB14 car has appeared in the garages at Spa-Francorchamps with the new mirror design, which is aimed at helping improve airflow.

The idea is that by effectively opening up the face of the mirror, a channel can be created through it to help better manage airflow over the rest of the car. The air can then be directed to a specific place along the sidepod area.

Ordinarily the mirror is considered an interference and a source of drag rather than performance improvement – which is why teams have always tried to find ways to minimise their disturbance on the rest of the car.

Ferrari was the first to introduce the hollow mirror idea on its SF71H at the start of the season, while Red Bull's sister team Toro Rosso followed suit by running them from the British Grand Prix.

Red Bull has also fitted an aggressive low-drag rear wing to its car which it hopes will allow it to minimise straightline speed losses.

Formula 1 may be better off delaying the introduction of new engine rules planned for 2021 so it can be sure to attract new manufacturers, says the sport's managing director of motorsport Ross Brawn.

F1 owners Liberty Media and engine manufacturers have been working for several months on putting together a package of rules to revamp power units for 2021.

The hope was that the louder, cheaper and less-complicated regulations would attract new entrants – with Porsche, Aston Martin, and Cosworth all considering projects.

However, with delays in framing the specifics of the rules, and a push back from the current manufacturers to keep the current MGU-H, the interest from the outside partners has fallen away.

With fading hopes of new car makers coming in, Brawn has suggested that it may now make better sense to delay the rules overhaul.

"We want to try and create a set of technical regulations on the engine, which are appealing to new manufacturers coming in as well as consolidate our existing engine suppliers," said Brawn, in an interview published in the Belgian GP race programme.

"And I think we just need to think of our timing on that, whether 2021 is the right time to do that, or whether it's better to keep that powder dry until we can be certain that major regulation change will bring fresh blood into the sport."

While a major technical shake-up may be delayed, Brawn says there could still be scope to make changes in the sporting rules to level the playing field more.

"My feeling is that there's still quite a lot we can do on the engine side in terms of sporting regulations such as limits on dyno test time, number of upgrades during a season, consistency of specification to all customer teams etc," he added.

"On the engine, we need to decide if now is the time to have a revolution or an evolution."

Cost cap trial

Brawn is clear that other changes being planned from 2021 – including new chassis regulations and a cost cap – are still being pursued.

And he has suggested that a plan is in place for a 'soft' cost cap trial to be introduced from next year so problems can be ironed out ahead of a proper introduction in 2021.

"The good news is that with the FIA and in consultation with the teams we are progressing well on the economic initiatives," added Brawn.

"Work on the mechanism of a cost cap is going well. At the moment we are looking to introduce it in a soft form, with dry runs in 2019, and 2020 and then it will be become regulatory in '21.

"I would say that barring some last-minute discussions that's pretty much finalised now."

There is also likely to be more use of standard parts to bring down costs.

"Why don't we all have the same transmission, at least the core parts of it – the same shafts, the same differentials," explained Brawn.

"That would have quite a significant economic impact. And the effect on this on the perception of the competitiveness of the sport would be negligible.

"For a marginal gain, the individual costs spent by each team are significant. If you are developing your own transmission, I'd estimate you are spending between $5-10 million a year – and no one sees it."

Instead, late last week Stroll switched strategy and bought the assets of the team, which means the cars, the Silverstone factory, the equipment and everything required to go racing – except for the actual entry, which still in theory belongs to Force India, which remains in administration, but now has no physical assets.

Alonso rejected Red Bull offers for 2019

Date published: August 23 2018

Fernando Alonso has said he turned down the opportunity to replace Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull next season.

Alonso was top of a lot of wishlists as Ricciardo’s replacement when the Aussie announced he would be leaving for Renault at the end of the 2018 campaign.

But the Spaniard would instead announce his retirement from Formula 1, while Red Bull boss Christian Horner said that the two-time World Champion has a habit of bringing “chaos” to a team.

“I’ve got huge respect for Fernando, he’s a great driver, a fantastic driver,” Horner recently told the official Formula 1 podcast.

“But I think it’d be very difficult to see. He’s tended to cause a bit of chaos wherever he’s gone.

“I’m not sure it would be the healthiest thing for Fernando to join the team.”

Alonso laughed off the speculation on Twitter, but the hashtag he used now indicates that he had already turned down Red Bull rather than the other way round.

“From one of the top three teams, l had the offer a couple of times this year,” Alonso told Sky Sports in the Spa paddock.

“It was not the case for me to join that adventure and at the moment Formula 1 is not giving me the challenges I’m looking for.

“Outside Formula 1, I’m discovering different series of motorsport that give you different challenges and makes you a more complete driver and that’s what I’ll try to find in 2019.

When asked if he was referring to Ricciardo’s seat at Red Bull, Alonso replied: “Yes.”

Alonso also reiterated that he is not completely closing the door on returning to Formula 1 in the future.

“Life changes very quickly,” Alonso said earlier in the Drivers’ Press Conference in Belgium.

“For me it is a bye bye, but who knows – things change quickly. I am leaving the door open as I don’t know what will happen in the future.”