It’s been a mixed season for Romain Grosjean, with some standout moments tempered by a few wild on-track incidents. And now, after receiving two penalty points for ignoring blue flags in Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix, the French driver is just three points away from a potential one-race ban.

Grosjean was battling hard in the Marina Bar race with Williams’ Sergey Sirotkin when race leader Lewis Hamilton came upon the scrapping pair. Rather than pulling to one side and letting Hamilton and the fast-approaching Max Verstappen by at his earliest opportunity – as the rules state he should – Grosjean continued to attack Sirotkin.

Hamilton and Verstappen eventually made it through, but race-winner Hamilton made reference to the incident – which cost him around five seconds, allowing Verstappen to close up to him – in post-race interviews. “These guys were moving around… and they wouldn’t let me by,” he said. “It was definitely close and my heart was in my mouth for a minute.”

Speaking after the race, Grosjean apologised to Hamilton for holding him up.

“I’m sorry if I blocked anyone, it was not my intention,” he said. “I believe I did my best. I was fighting with Sergey, who was doing a little bit of go-kart racing out there. I couldn’t really slow down. Pierre [Gasly] was on my gearbox and Sergey was on my front wing. I passed him, then as soon as I passed him, I let Lewis by.”

The stewards took a dim view of the situation, however, duly endorsing Grosjean’s Super Licence with two penalty points to take his current tally to nine. Twelve points in a 12-month period result in an automatic one-race ban.

Grosjean accrued one point at the United States Grand Prix on October 29, 2017 to begin his current run of penalty points, meaning that if he adds another three between now and October 29, 2018, he’ll receive the ban.

Grosjean will therefore need to keep a cool head and a clean nose at the Russian, Japanese, United States and Mexican Grands Prix in order to avoid what would be the second ban of his F1 career, the first having come after his spate of incidents in 2012 that culminated in the enormous first-lap crash at Spa that year.

After Sunday's Singapore race, an unimpressed Charlie Whiting, the FIA's Formula 1 Race Director, explained his reasoning behind issuing the penalty points to Grosjean.

“I think Romain just completely forgot the golden rule of blue flags, and that is if you’re in a battle, you’ve got to forget about your own battle and move over,” he said. “I’ve drilled that into them many, many times and I think he just completely forgot about it. He was so intent on his battle with Sirotkin, the light panels were flashing with his race number on them and Lewis was much, much faster.

“It was probably one of the worst cases of ignoring blue flags that I’ve seen for a long time.”

In total, nine penalty points were handed out to three drivers by the stewards at the Singapore Grand Prix, all of them for incidents all involving Sirotkin. Apart from Grosjean, Sergio Perez received three for driving into Sirotkin after getting held up behind him for a number of laps, while Sirotkin himself received two for forcing Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley off the track at Turn 14.

Behind Grosjean, Sauber's Marcus Ericsson currently has the second highest 12-month penalty points tally with seven, while Sirotkin’s latest misdemeanour takes him to six, the third-highest.

Formula One is often lauded as the pinnacle of motorsport. A quick search on the Internet reveals everything you need to know: articles, forum threads, and lengthy comparisons to other racing series to further establish that F1 is the top racing series in the world. And I might be inclined to agree… except for the fact that F1 doesn’t race on an oval.

Don’t hit the comments just yet. Bear with me, folks. Hear me out.

F1 is at a level of technological advancement that other racing series could only dream of. It takes years of development and millions of dollars just to find a competitive edge in that series because it’s world class. The best engineers and designers congregate in the shops that send these beautiful pieces of machinery to tracks around the world for eight months out of the year in order to fight for recognition. It’s called a World Championship for a reason.

And, importantly, it’s international. Drivers are required to show their talent in all kinds of weather conditions at different tracks around the world. Sure, you might be a fiend for the blazing heat you’ll find in Singapore, but can you also master Spa on a cold rainy Sunday?


So, why doesn’t F1 race on an oval?

Yeah, yeah. I know oval racing has A Stereotype. Mention the word “oval” to a die-hard F1 fan and you can just about see the horror in their eyes as they imagine a sultry Tennessee evening spent drinking cheap beer watching thirty-odd cars go in a circle for hours on end. No sir, no ovals for us, we are well contented to not be associated with the connotations of NASCAR.

But how can you claim to be a series that produces the most well-rounded, competitive drivers if you’re discarding an entire category of racing?

Oval tracks produce their own set of challenges. As much as people like to shrug it off as “just turning left”, teams and drivers have to be prepared in a much different way. The skills you used to win at Monaco aren’t going to work at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Ovals produce an aerodynamic challenge unlike anything else you’ll see in sports: how to deal with banked turns, competition that can slingshot around you at any moment, exhausting G forces, you name it. It’s a whole different world.

And it’s one that F1 needs to tackle.

While I love IndyCar dearly, I can easily recognize that they’re not on the same level of F1 in the slightest. It’s not a series run on a global scale with the same amount of money. But I do think they do one thing better than F1: they test a driver’s overall skills in ways you don’t see across the pond.

Road courses, street circuits, and ovals are three tracks that often end up sanctioned and utilized in the same way—which is why I’m not suggesting we take an F1 car out to Rally Sweden. I’m suggesting that F1 needs to capitalize on all the different types of paved courses it can in order to prove the versatility and respectability of their drivers as opposed to anyone else’s.

Not to be That Guy, but I could easily believe that a driver like, say, Scott Dixon could hop in an F1 car and be comfortable racing at each stop on the F1 calendar without any prior seat time. It’s harder to see Lewis Hamilton jumping in an IndyCar and understanding how to navigate Gateway. I’d argue that, to truly be able to call yourself an open-wheel champion, you should be capable of tackling any paved course and the challenges it brings.

That’s not to say F1 drivers can’t be good drivers without an oval race. But you’re likely to be far more impressed by the artist who can paint just about anything than the one who makes a pair of hands look like a dried up tree branch sticking out of a floppy coat. You can still be an awesome painter, even if suck at painting hands. It’s just that no one is going to be able to call you a master of portraying a realistic human body.

It seems disingenuous, then, for F1 to claim they produce the best drivers in the world when they’re ignoring a very large contingent of racing.

Back in the day, F1 drivers could compete in the Indy 500 as part of the Grand Prix championship. The oval track at Monza was frequently used in the 1950s as the home of the Italian Grand Prix. There’s a history of F1 drivers taking on ovals as they headed across the pond to compete in an IndyCar. And, probably even more interesting was the fact that, around then, IndyCar drivers were heading over to Europe to compete in oval racing at Monza.

The Race of Two Worlds, held in 1957 and 1958, was intended to actuallyget F1 and IndyCar (then, USAC) drivers competing in the same field. It was rare that an F1 driver would actually head to Indianapolis, and The Powers That Be figured it would be easier to get F1 drivers to compete on European soil, with USAC drivers making the trip over.

F1 teams built their own special cars for the event—and they got their butts handed to them by the USAC drivers both years running. It was hard to turn a profit for that kind of racing on European soil, so the Automobile Club of Milan went back to using Monza’s oval for F1 races only.

There’s not much tradition here to back things, sure—but it’s something. It’s not impossible. And, since we’re not asking IndyCar drivers and F1 drivers to race head-to-head in their own unique machinery, it would be a little more of a fair fight as everyone navigates their understanding of an oval for the first time. I have a feeling that breaking tradition would draw a lot more viewers in this era than it did back in the late 50s.

See, if there’s anything motorsport needs right now, it’s a kick in the ass. We’re constantly monitoring viewership and trying to find new ways to attract new fans, but things have been pretty stagnant for a while.

Why should we close off avenues of potential viewership? There’s something of a rivalry between the European and American contingents—there’s a tendency to view each other as snobby or rednecky, respectively. That’s usually based on some relatively unfounded stereotypes. NASCAR has been taking on road courses: why shouldn’t F1 experiment with an oval?

Listen. This isn’t going to happen overnight. Oval racing is a much different beast to road or street racing, given the fact that, to conquer a banked oval, you have to have a staggered car setup, entirely different aerodynamic properties—you name it.

I hear your argument that forcing F1 teams to develop an entirely new million dollar car for a single race of the year is, potentially, a Really Bad Idea. Trust me. As a former Manor-Marussia fan (may they rest in peace), I’m very conscious of the fact that racing costs a hell of a lot of money, and if you’re not drinking out of the Ferrari legacy, you’re pretty unlikely to just be able to snap your fingers and make some cash appear.

Here’s my compromise. F1 runs a flat oval.

Banking is one of the significant obstacles on many oval tracks. It’s also the reason NASCAR and IndyCar teams stagger their tires. Get rid of banking, stretch out the track, and boom. It’s Formula One ready. Make the straights wide enough for cars to slipstream and run side-by-side, trying to be the first one in the turns that force them to race single file.

The problem is, there isn’t a circuit quite like that out there yet.

Jalops, we’re at a bit of an impasse. Someone either needs to spend the money to build a flat oval, or F1 teams need to spend the money to build an oval-ready car. But I have the confidence that, if The Powers That Be in Formula One expressed their interest in running an oval in the near future, then someone somewhere would purpose-build them a track.

Yes, it’s still something of a pipe dream, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t happen. F1 should constantly be searching for ways to be more competitive, to be on the forefront of aerodynamic exploration and technical innovation. Right now, doing the same things they’ve always done, F1 hasn’t quite shown that they’re doing the work they should be to maintain their position as the pinnacle of racing.

Formula One should, one day, race on an oval.

Max Verstappen will need to take an engine penalty after the problems he had in Singapore, with “Sochi being an obvious place”.

During the whole Singapore Grand Prix weekend, the Dutchman had been suffering from his Renault engine cutting out and giving him false neutrals.

He said that he had been “shaking with anger” after qualifying, when the problem had denied him of a proper shot at pole position.

Verstappen then survived two scares during the race. His engine first cut out behind the Safety Car, causing the RB14 to almost stop.

Then, it went again as he tried to exit the pit box. Luckily, he managed to drop it back down to first gear and get out of the pits ahead of Sebastian Vettel.

Red Bull’s team boss, Christian Horner, has confirmed that Verstappen will need to change the engine because of the issues he faced at Marina Bay.

“We accepted the risks when we took this engine. It has delivered a bit more power and it has been a bit rough around the edges,” Horner said after the race.

“But with the increase in power from it that helped get on to the front row yesterday and helped to achieve a second position today.”

Horner was asked about the probability of Verstappen taking the penalty in Russia, to which he replied:

“We need to look at it, but the likelihood is probably Sochi being an obvious place.”

The Red Bull team boss was full of praise for the Dutchman, who will turn 21 on the day of the Russian Grand Prix.

“I think since Montreal, he has driven extremely well, and again it was another very mature performance by Max,” he added.

“He fought hard to keep Sebastian off and then he fought hard to attack in on the pit exit.

“The only moment of excitement was when they came across the back markers, with [Romain] Grosjean and [Sergey] Sirotkin having their own battle.

“He got pretty close to launching one up the inside, but that was about as close as he got today.”

Verstappen sits in P5 in the Drivers’ Championship, and has a 22 point lead over his team-mate, Daniel Ricciardo.

Force India will impose team orders that prevent Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon racing each other on the opening lap after colliding at the start of the Singapore Grand Prix.

Ocon was attempting to pass Perez around the outside of Turn 3 but the two Force Indias touched, with Ocon being launched into the wall as a result. Perez claimed he was not aware his teammate was alongside him at the time, but team principal Szafnauer says there is no excuse for not leaving another space for the other car.

“It’s unacceptable for them to come together like that in an area there’s no run-off room,” Szafnauer told Sky Sports. “They’ve got to leave each other room. The team is more important than any one individual and we’ll have to go back to the rules we instilled on them last year.

“If that’s what they’re going to do we’re going to have to take control from here. Once they’re in the car it’s hard to control what they do but prior to that we can control them.”

“You say to (Perez) that it’s unacceptable. There’s enough room on the left-hand side as I can see and you’ve got to give your teammate enough room. If it’s somebody else, if it’s not your teammate then it’s a racing incident but if it’s your teammate you’ve got to give room.

Force India previously imposed orders on the pair after they came together in Azerbaijan and again in Belgium last season. Not only is Szafnauer planning on returning to those previous rules, he suggests there remains the option to stop them racing each other at any stage.

“It’s been over a year since it happened and it was in Baku last year that we installed the rules. It was after Spa, if you remember, and from Spa until here it hasn’t happened so we are back to the old rules.

“We allowed them to race on lap one whereas in the past we didn’t allow them to race on lap one and now we can remove that. If they continue to do this, even on lap one, then there’s other ways to separate them which we hope that we don’t ever have to employ.”

Paying the big bucks for Daniel Ricciardo is an expense that Renault can fully justify.

That is the view of Alain Prost, a Formula 1 legend who is now an ever-present special advisor for the French carmaker's works team. He told the Guardian newspaper he is "very happy" with his current role.

"Every time I can see something that is needed, then I am there," said Prost.

Prost, a quadruple world champion who is now 63 years old, said Renault is an "interesting" challenge that is different from anything a top team like Mercedes could offer him.

"Mercedes, they're at the top, and I don't think I would have the motivation," he said. "Now it's so difficult to get back to the top that I find it very interesting."

Prost said the goal is to help Renault not just win the world championship by 2020, but to be a top team that is then "always a top team."

But Renault is determined not to become a Mercedes or Ferrari-style spender, he insisted.

"We are not going to spend money unless we know that it is worth it. Mercedes and Ferrari may have a different philosophy."

Snapping up Ricciardo at the end of his Red Bull contract, for example, is an important signing for Renault.

"Daniel is more expensive than other drivers," Prost concedes. "When you need that to help the team, we did it. Money is not a problem, but it has to be justified.

"We have two top drivers, maybe one of the best lineups in F1 today," he said, also referring to Nico Hulkenberg. "They are Renault drivers, not owned by Red Bull or Mercedes.

"It shows everybody outside and inside that we want to do the best, the right choices at the right moment."

There could be two comeback stories at Toro Rosso in 2019 with Pascal Wehrlein rumoured to replace Brendon Hartley.

Daniil Kvyat is set to be announced at the Russian Grand Prix with contracts reportedly signed over the weekend in Singapore after twice being ditched by the Red Bull junior team in 2017.

Now another ex-F1 driver in Wehrlein could be drafted back in from the cold after Mercedes said they would part ways with him at the end of the 2018 season.

And Wehrlein himself has confirmed that he is in talks over a Formula 1 return.

“I am looking for new challenges and opportunities, and am currently talking to other teams about a seat for next season,” Wehrlein revealed.

Both Sky Sports and French outlet L’Equipe believe that Toro Rosso are the team ready to give him another chance after he lost his Sauber drive to make way for Charles Leclerc.

This is not the first time Wehrlein has been linked with Toro Rosso, with the 23-year-old one of the first drivers linked with Hartley’s seat when the team were actively looking to replace the New Zealander during the 2018 season.

Honda are reportedly ready to roll out a significant engine upgrade in Russia which would produce more power than Renault.

According to analysis from Auto Motor und Sport, based on the latest GPS data, the current Honda engine produces 715 horsepower which is 15 fewer than what the Renault power unit can generate.

The Japanese engine manufacturer had pinpointed the United States Grand Prix in October to unveil their new Spec-3 engine – but Dutch outlet Ziggo Sport believe they could be in a position to introduce the new power unit two races earlier than planned.

Auto Motor und Sport reckon Honda’s upgraded engine would boost them to 750HP and take them 35HP ahead of Renault.

The report claims Ferrari have the most powerful engine with 790HP, with Mercedes operating at 780HP.

If Russia is the place for Toro Rosso to fit a new, upgraded power unit, then Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley will be hit with engine penalties after already surpassing their use of power unit elements for the 2018 season before penalties are introduced.

McLaren is considering running with a more extreme Monza-style set-up on its car at the Russian Grand Prix in a bid to improve its straightline speed performance.

The team's progress this year has been hindered by a car that has more drag than its rivals, plus a gear ratio choice that is not ideal for long straights.

While the gear ratio issue cannot be sorted because teams are stuck with them for the season, McLaren still thinks it can make top speed gains through aerodynamic changes.

Following some encouraging results from a more aggressive setup choice to reduce drag that was trialled in practice at the Italian Grand Prix, the team is ready to give those ideas another run at Sochi.

Fernando Alonso said: "Some of the ideas we tested in Monza where we improved on the Saturday were more for drag reduction, so will be implemented.

"Hopefully Russia will be the first opportunity to revisit those setups."

Sporting director Gil de Ferran suggests a final decision on its plans for Russia have not been sorted, but says the success of the new setup in Italy means it likely it will be used.

"I won't get into details obviously," said de Ferran when asked by Autosport about the plans. "We always try to do the best we can and step forward.

"We're trying to bring a little bit of aero developments every race but that's not the only thing: we're exploring different spaces.

"Like Fernando said, in Monza we decided to take a completely different direction and it worked well for that type of track, and maybe we'll explore a similar direction again in Russia.

"The work hasn't stopped. We're full-on on next year's car but we come in to every weekend trying to do a little bit better, fight for points, and improve our position in the championship."

Alonso is currently eighth in the drivers' championship standings after his seventh place finish in the Singapore Grand Prix, while McLaren is sixth in the constructors' standings, 18 points behind Haas and 26 ahead of the 'new' Force India, which has only been eligible for points since the Belgian Grand Prix.

The team's progress this year has been hindered by a car that has more drag than its rivals, plus a gear ratio choice that is not ideal for long straights.

While the gear ratio issue cannot be sorted because teams are stuck with them for the season, McLaren still thinks it can make top speed gains through aerodynamic changes.

Charles Leclerc will join Ferrari for the upcoming Pirelli tyre test that the Italian squad will carry out alongside Mercedes at the Paul Ricard circuit.

It will mark the first time Leclerc is at the wheel of the Ferrari SF71H since having been announced as a race driver for the Maranello squad next year.

The test, which will take place on Thursday and Friday, is key for Pirelli as the F1 tyre supplier approaches the conclusion of its 2019 development programme.

Although a couple of sessions remain on Pirelli's schedule, this week's running is regarded as important, not least because it is being undertaken the two top teams and thus the fastest cars on the current grid.

In addition, it is the last test before next year's constructions have to be signed off with the FIA.

Both teams have already conducted 2019 wet test days for Pirelli, but this will be the first time that they have run the slicks.

Valtteri Bottas will be present for Mercedes, while Leclerc will join Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari.

"We are testing at Paul Ricard for two days," said Pirelli F1 boss Mario Isola.

"We are still developing the product for next year. The test is as usual blind for them. We are evaluating a number of constructions, and we are evaluating also some new compounds.

"In terms of construction we are at the end of our development, because October 1 is our deadline to supply the data for the new construction, so it's final validation.

"We tested different constructions during the year, converging towards the final one for next year.

"We still have to test some new ideas and constructions, and obviously from this test we have to define the 2019 tyres. To have the two top teams is important to ensure that the validation is successful."

The remaining tests, with Renault after the Japanese GP and Sauber after the Mexican GP, will focus on compounds.

The definitive tyres will then be run by all teams immediately after the Abu Dhabi GP.

"To be honest, it's good that we have all the teams attending sessions, because we don't want to design a tyre that's just for the top teams," Isola added.

"The fact that we have all the teams involved means that we can understand on different cars how the tyres are working. It's always the best solution."

Formula 1 should embrace a reduction in downforce next year and in 2021 even if recent regulations were introduced to make the cars faster, says Ross Brawn.

New regulations were introduced in 2017 to deliver wider cars with significant aerodynamic influence, resulting in increased cornering speeds and faster lap times. The remit at that time was to make the cars more challenging for the drivers as well as to look more aggressive, but 2019 will see a simplified front wing in order to try and allow cars to follow each other more closely.

With concepts for 2021 released last weekend, Brawn says the next significant regulation change will slow the cars down but wants the quality of racing to be the primary focus.

“I think it will be less than where we are now,” F1’s managing director of motorsports said. “The cars are pretty impressive now but if they continue to develop at the rate they are developing then I think we will need to pull it back. I think next year’s regulations will be a step back again. There will be an adjustment back, but as inevitably happen in Formula 1, that will creep up again.

“The absolute downforce will probably be less, but I think it’s the type of downforce and how it behaves which is more critical than the absolute levels.

“It’s interesting that in IndyCar they have reduced the levels of downforce substantially, and at least on the road courses the drivers are very positive about the style of racing. They have some issues on the ovals, but that is a pretty unique environment. But on the road circuits it is a pretty positive feedback from the teams and drivers, even though they have substantially less downforce than they used to have.”

The current cars lose up to 50% of aerodynamic performance behind another car, while the 2021 concepts are targeting a reduction of that number to just 20%. Brawn says the changes next year will allow F1 to gauge how accurate those estimates are and understand more about future tweaks.

“In doing this project we recognized features that immediately gave some benefit in terms of the sensitivity between the cars. The benefits come from the nature of the flow that comes off the car in front and the sensitivity of the car behind.

“So, next year’s car has a step in the right direction and I think it is a very important barometer for us to see how much impact it has on the ability for cars to follow. The numbers I am quoting are not just numbers from our analysis, they are numbers from the cars because obviously we can measure the loss of performance and the numbers that we are seeing on real cars.

“Next year we will be able to measure the impact and so it’s the first step and it will be a very interesting check on making sure we are going in the right direction before we do the bigger change.”

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown believes there is every chance Fernando Alonso could return to Formula 1 after a year off in 2019.

Alonso announced he will not race in F1 next season during the summer break, and clarified in Belgium that he sees his departure as a retirement from the category. At present there is no confirmation of any extra seats for Alonso aside from his ongoing Toyota drive in the World Endurance Championship, and Brown thinks we might not have seen the last of the Spaniard in F1.

“It is very exciting,” Brown told Channel 4. “Fernando is an unbelievable talent. It will be a shame not to see him in F1 in 2019, but I would not rule out the future. You know what Fernando is like — he definitely is not done racing.

“And Stoffel (Vandoorne), I hope he ends up in a F1 car — he deserves to be in one. We’ve had a difficult two years with our race car, which has made it difficult. We changed both drivers and I’m very excited. Carlos Sainz is young yet experienced, and Lando Norris whom we’ve had under watch for a few years now. He is young, I’m sure he will have a rookie mistake here and there, but we are very confident about our future line-up.”The promotion of Norris comes just four years after the 18-year-old won the karting world championship and Brown concedes McLaren needs to ensure it doesn’t expect too much from the teenager, having seen the likes of Kevin Magnussen and Stoffel Vandoorne fail to fulfill their potential with the team.

“Lando has been outstanding in everything he has done since the first year, starting with winning the world karting championship. Some of these drivers go on and blossom late. Some go early, so we have to be very careful to manage our expectations on Lando.

“He is fast, a great racer, but in F1 there is a lot of tough talent out there. We are confident or we wouldn’t have put him in the car. But we gotta just be patient and recognize that these things take a little bit of time.”

Charles Leclerc says he will try not to be too demanding of Ferrari when he joins the team in 2019, and will instead try to learn what is required to be successful.

The 20-year-old will move to Maranello from Sauber next season in place of Kimi Raikkonen, with the Finn going in the opposite direction. Driving alongside Sebastian Vettel, Leclerc has already stated he will not be taking on a number two role, but he is also wary of making too many demands given his relative inexperience in Formula 1.

“For now, I will just come in and take it easy,” Leclerc said. “It’s still a long way away and I’m fully focused on this season, and then next season we will see. But for sure I will not arrive and there and act like I am the king and say ‘I want this, this, this and this’. I will just get there and see how things are.

“Apart from Thursday being quite a bit different [in Singapore] because the media session was a bit more full, after that everything came back to normal. The main importance for me is to focus on this year and really not be distracted with what will happen next year. Obviously it will be a dream come true but I need to stay fully focused on this year.

“I just want to do the best job here for now. It’s quite natural for me not to think too much about next year. I want to keep learning and trying to do the best job possible with the car that we have.”

Raikkonen will return to the team he started his F1 career with, and with the 2007 world champion signing a two-year deal, Leclerc expects Sauber to continue making clear progress during that time.

“Obviously I’ve been very lucky to start with Sauber this year,” he said. “They gave me a car to at least show my potential. If you look at the last two or three years of the team it was definitely not easy, and not only from a team point of view, but also for the driver. To arrive here and to be so far back, it is difficult to show your potential.

“This year I am in a lucky position where they gave me a car where I can at least show what I can do, and for that I will be forever grateful. I think they really have potential. There’s a plan for the future of the team and they have grown massively from the first race until now. I have complete belief that they will continue to grow in the next seasons.”

He's got arguably the most famous surname in motorsport – but will Mick Schumacher ever follow his famous father Michael and Uncle Ralf onto the F1 grid? The 19-year-old's chances are looking increasingly promising, after some storming performances in Formula 3 this year have caught the attention of several F1 team bosses – not least Ferrari’s Maurizio Arrivabene…

Schumacher enjoyed a dominant weekend at the recent Nurburgring round of the European F3 championship, winning all three races to trail Red Bull junior Dan Ticktum in the drivers’ standings by just three points, with two rounds to go this year. Winning the title would see Schumacher emulate recent champions Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll and 2019 McLaren driver Lando Norris, and strengthen the young driver’s case for eventually making it to Formula 1.

The fairy-tale, in many people’s eyes, would be Schumacher Junior joining forces with Ferrari, the team with which father Michael famously won five of his record seven F1 crowns between 2000 and 2004. So could a link up with the Ferrari Driver Academy, which nurtured the talent of newly-announced Scuderia driver Charles Leclerc, be on the cards?

“The recent results were very, very good and I wish to him a great career,” said Ferrari Team Principal Maurizio Arrivabene when the question was put to him in Singapore.

“But let the guy have fun. I always repeat this: [young drivers should be] focused, concentrated, but at the same time have fun and grow up slowly but certainly. Then we will see about the future. How can you say no, in Maranello, to a name like this?”

Over the course of his dominant Nurburgring weekend – during which Schumacher brought his win tally up to six for the season, the most of any driver – the young German also sampled a Mercedes DTM car, with Mercedes’ young driver programme – currently consisting of George Russell and Esteban Ocon – another potential option, given that his father (who was lured out of F1 retirement to race for the Silver Arrows between 2010 and 2012) remains an ambassador for the brand.

However, when asked whether he would consider incorporating Schumacher into his own team’s plans, Sauber Team Principal Frederic Vasseur sounded a note of caution about the teenager's future.

“Honestly, I think there is a huge step between F3 and F1,” he said, “and with the small number of test days we have during the winter, I think it’s… I don’t want to say impossible because we will see, but it’s quite difficult to do the step.

“It will make sense probably for him to do Formula 2 or something like this. But he could have a link with a Formula 1 team, he could do some FP1s. There are many ways to prepare for F1.”

The world watches on with interest...

Red Bull remain the only Renault-powered team on the grid to try the French firm’s more powerful Spec C power unit this season – including Renault themselves. But despite Max Verstappen using the extra grunt to net a strong second place in Singapore last time out, the team are set to revert back to the less highly-strung Spec B for this weekend's Russian Grand Prix.

Having first tried the Spec C unit at Monza, Verstappen then spent the entire Singapore weekend suffering with driveability issues. Despite that, he still managed to qualify second – although he felt he could have been on pole without his engine issues – before driving to second in the race, finishing just nine seconds behind Lewis Hamilton’s clean-running Mercedes W09.

“The amount of problems I’ve had today – even in qualifying – with the engine, and not having a smooth run, to be second is unbelievable,” was Verstappen’s review of the weekend, with the Dutchman also revealing that his team had to detune the engine to get it working more reliably. “It just shows we have an amazing car.”

Because of those issues, Red Bull have decided to put the Spec C experiment on ice, instead opting to fit fresh Spec B units to Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo’s cars in Russia – a move which will entail grid penalties for both drivers.


“We’ve got the previous specification going in for the next race, so Sochi is going to be a tough weekend for us,” said Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, adding that the team will give the Spec C units another chance at the Japanese Grand Prix.

“We accepted the risks when we took this [Spec C] engine. It has delivered a bit more power and it has been a bit rough around the edges.

“I think the [Red Bull mechanics] actually did a good job to tidy it up as best they could on the mapping within their parameters. With more time and more optimisation, it would only be better.”

With several long straights, the Sochi track is not best-suited to Red Bull’s 2018 challenger, hence the reason for sacrificing both drivers' Russian Grand Prix weekends. But Horner is still eyeing up at least one big result for the team before 2018 is out…

“I think realistically this year, Mexico is probably the only shot we’ve got left [of a win] under normal circumstances,” he said. But if Red Bull are going to repeat their 2017 victory at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, they’ll be needing their TAG Heuer-branded power units to run like clockwork…

Williams is hopeful Formula 1 owner Liberty Media will provide a more level playing field in the sport after announcing a loss for the first half of 2018, having made a significant profit over the same period a year ago.

Williams Grand Prix Holdings PLC — the holding company that includes Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited and Williams Advanced Engineering Limited — announced the Group’s interim results on Monday for the six months up to June 30, 2018, which saw overall group revenue drop from £85.9 million ($113.03m) in 2017 to £82.6m ($108.68m) this year.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the Group resulted in a loss of £2.7m ($3.55m), compared to a profit of £10.4m ($13.68m) for the same period in 2017. Central to this was a drop in EBITDA for the F1 business from £10.1m ($13.28m) last year to just £0.2m ($0.26m) this. F1 revenue also dropped from £65.5m ($86.19m) to £60.7m ($79.87m).

Williams finished fifth in the constructors’ championship last year, and while it is currently bottom of the standings in 2018 it adds its EBITDA result “is largely driven by a non-recurring one-off item received in the first half of 2017.”

The Group’s chief executive officer Mike O’Driscoll says the current on-track performance is having an impact on financial results, but points to the budgets of the bigger F1 teams as something that also needs addressing.

“We have delivered a solid set of financial results in what has been a challenging half year for our Formula 1 operations, whilst continuing to demonstrate growth in our Williams Advanced Engineering Business,” O’Driscoll said.

“Revenue and EBITDA in Formula 1 reduced in the first half of 2018, reflecting the challenging financial environment we operate in as an independent team. We are enduring a tough 2018 season on track, which has demanded additional investment to tackle performance issues, and we have been working through these while also turning significant attention to the design of next year’s car.

“There continues to be a large gap in competitive expenditure between the leading teams and the rest of the grid, and we remain hopeful that the future of the sport under Liberty Media will bring about a fairer, more level playing field for all teams.”

Lance Stroll believes that Williams's underperformance this season has concealed his development as a Formula 1 driver, but that he is still a long way from fulfilling his potential.

Stroll has finished in the top 10 at just two grands prix this season, scoring six points, and made it through to Q3 only once.

By this point last year - 14 races into the season - he had scored 28 points from five top 10 finishes, including one podium at the chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

"I'm still only 19 so I think I'm far from reaching my potential as a driver," he said.

"I still have so much to learn and I gain so much experience every time I get in the car, I still feel I'm learning.

"So there's definitely a lot more to come. But at the same time, when I reflect on where I was last year I think I've come a long way as a driver with seat time and experience."

Last season Stroll was outqualified by his veteran team-mate Felipe Massa 17 times, whereas this year the contest between Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin is much closer.

In terms of pure pace, in dry qualifying conditions Sirotkin has been on average 0.09 seconds faster and outqualified Stroll seven times to five, discounting penalties and races in which one or both drivers were unable to set a lap time.

But such comparisons are rendered problematic by the well-documented underperformance of the troublesome FW41.

"Unfortunately it's been a challenging year with the car and the team," he said, "so I haven't really been able to demonstrate that to a certain extent, but I do believe I've got better in that area [qualifying pace]. "I feel like I'm a lot more on top of the car.

"I know that from a position [results] point of view that doesn't show because of where we are as a team. But I definitely do feel that I'm getting a lot more out of the car, and I'm much more on top of things in qualifying and the race, strategically, my starts, all those aspects.

"Now it's just about carrying on improving on those details and building myself as a driver. In racing, like in any sport, you never stop improving."

Stroll continues to be the focus of speculation regarding a possible move to Force India, which was recently acquired by a consortium of investors led by Stroll's father Lawrence.

While he declined to comment on such rumours, he said he has had little significant input into the ongoing restructure of the Williams team operations recently revealed by Autosport.

"I've been involved to an extent," he said.

"But I really just involve my technical group of people, the people that I work with, engineers, strategists, tyre people, and then the rest is management - above my pay grade."

Kimi Raikkonen’s manager Steve Robertson has opened up on the Finn's decision to prolong his Formula 1 career by signing with Sauber after his Ferrari exit.

Raikkonen, who turns 39 next month, put pen to paper on a two-year deal with the team with which he made his F1 debut back in 2001.

Robertson says that Raikkonen's passion for F1 meant that he was not ready to stop or try another category just yet, even though he was left with no options at the front of the grid after losing his Ferrari drive.

“Kimi wants to drive F1 cars, he loves it,” says Robertson. “People are surprised because having driven for Ferrari for so many years most people expected him to retire, sit on his yacht, and enjoy the rest of his life.

“But he loves driving F1 cars, he gets a buzz from that. Kimi loves being on the edge. If he’s not doing this he wants to ride motocross, but this is the pinnacle for him.

“And once we knew that it wasn’t going to happen at Ferrari, he wanted to do a deal.

"I think you have to look at the situation of Sauber as well. They have some backers now.

"Two years ago, would he have gone there when the team was hanging on? Firstly they couldn’t even have afforded him, and secondly it was a ship that was sinking.

“Now they’ve taken on Kimi, an A-lister in F1, a world champion, and it shows their intent, where they want to be.

"They could have taken a driver that brings in money. At the end of the day two parties want the same thing. He wants to help them."

Robertson is convinced that Raikkonen won’t grow frustrated over the next two seasons by not having a car that is at least capable of challenging for wins.

“Personally I don’t think that will happen. Because at the end of the day he will work with the team to try and improve things.

"He knows realistically what he’s going into. He doesn’t have to do it, he does it because he feels he can help them.

“I think you have a different mindset. I would say now the gulf to the bigger teams has widened. If you could say right now, 'take seventh places [in the standings] for the next two years' – I’d sign for it. Because that would be the absolute best.

“You’ve got to be realistic as well, and he’d take pride in that, to help them grow. He realises that the wins, unless it’s an absolutely freaky race, are not going to happen. But in terms of development, he’s got a lot to offer them.

“He knows it’s a different role from Ferrari. Kimi’s know-how, his focus on development, he can really help them to get to where they want to be in a much quicker way.”

Robertson compares the Sauber situation with that at Lotus, where Raikkonen was given more freedom than he experienced at McLaren or Ferrari.

“People told me that they felt Kimi was the most relaxed then. I remember Eric Boullier at the time said: 'We don’t put many demands on Kimi, we realise what makes him happy and what doesn’t, and we let him be.'

"Then he feels he can be more him. In teams like Ferrari there is more of a corporate structure there, and it’s different.”

Toro Rosso's Formula 1 drivers will receive the updates they have been "craving" at next month's United States Grand Prix, with the team preparing a new front wing and floor.

The Red Bull-backed team has slipped down the competitive order as it has not introduced major updates since the Austrian Grand Prix, where its new front wing failed to perform as expected.

Toro Rosso ditched the front wing as a result but it has been overtaken in F1's ultra-tight midfield battle and failed to trouble the points finishers in the last race in Singapore, which was viewed as one of its best opportunities.

Hartley admitted during the Singapore weekend that "we are definitely craving another update", although neither he nor Gasly knew exactly when it would arrive.

Motorsport.com has learned that Toro Rosso is preparing a new floor as well as a new front wing that has been developed from the problems of the previous upgrade.

They will be introduced for the United States GP in late October, which means the team must do without for the upcoming double-header in Russia and Japan.

"The next package we produce will be a front wing update and floor update," said Toro Rosso deputy technical director Jody Egginton.

"Some of the parts we've developed there are the result of what we learned from the front wing update that we didn't actually race.

"The correlation and the changes in the way we've developed the car have been guided in some respects by that front wing.

"It is sort of a follow-on even though that front wing didn't become race spec. It's been incredibly useful in terms of developing the car further."

Egginton explained that Toro Rosso did register a load benefit with the previous front wing upgrade but the part did not make enough progress with yaw and ride-height sensitivity.

As the team had only produced limited quantities for the wing's debut it opted to drop it and avoided wasting resources on a potentially limited parts.

However, it was happy with the reduction of aero sensitivity recorded by other elements of the upgrade – the floor, bodywork, front and rear brake duct and chassis winglets – and proceeded to use those components.

Toro Rosso's chassis upgrades should coincide with a performance boost from engine supplier Honda, which is preparing for its home grand prix in Japan one week after this weekend's race in Russia.

Gasly scored the team's best results this season with fourth in Bahrain, seventh in Monaco and sixth in Hungary, but said Toro Rosso should not target repeats even with new parts.

"We need to not have the same expectations as we had at the beginning of the year," said Gasly.

"We think we are going to be competitive and we're not, and then sometimes we are more competitive we thought.

"Hopefully the upgrades coming, the engine and the car, will make us a bit higher in the ranks because we have not had an upgrade for a long time and we have paid a little bit."

Antonio Giovinazzi will be promoted to a Sauber race seat for the 2019 Formula 1 season, as teammate to Kimi Raikkonen.

A Sauber statement said the decision to take 24-year-old Italian Giovinazzi fitted the team's "tradition of discovering and nurturing young talents" and "is particularly significant in the scope of the project" with title sponsor Alfa Romeo.

"This is a dream come true, and it is a great pleasure to have the chance to race for this team," said Giovinazzi.

"As an Italian, it is a huge honour for me to represent a brand as iconic and successful as Alfa Romeo in our sport."

Giovinazzi, who was runner-up to 2019 Red Bull Racing driver Pierre Gasly in the '16 GP2 title race, raced for Sauber twice last season as stand-in for the injured Pascal Wehrlein.

This year he is carrying out a programme of Friday grand prix practice outings with the team, and has also tested for both Haas and Sauber.

His 2019 F1 deal will be his first full-time racing chance since his GP2 campaign two years ago.

Ferrari is able to nominate one driver for Sauber through its technical partnership and Alfa Romeo tie-up, and placed Raikkonen's 2019 replacement Charles Leclerc there this season.

Team principal Frederic Vasseur intimated that Giovinazzi had taken the 'Ferrari' seat at Sauber, and that Raikkonen's deal was independent of Maranello.

"We first signed Kimi Raikkonen, an extremely experienced driver who will contribute to the development of our car and will accelerate the progress of our team as a whole," said Vasseur.

"Together with Alfa Romeo, we are delighted to welcome Antonio Giovinazzi, who will take the place of Charles Leclerc.

"We have already had the opportunity to work with him in the past and he has proven to have great potential."

Ericsson departs the Sauber race line-up after four seasons, having joined from Caterham in 2015, having initially been thought likely to stay on due to his links with the investors behind the team.

Sauber said Ericsson would be kept on in the role of "third driver and brand ambassador" alongside Raikkonen and Giovinazzi.

"I am thankful for the past five years of my career which I have spent racing in Formula 1," said Ericsson.

"I am proud to have represented Sauber for four of those years, and for having raced for such an iconic brand as Alfa Romeo this season.

"I would have loved to continue on this path, but having a driver like Kimi Raikkonen on board is a great opportunity for the whole team.

"Going forward, I will continue contributing to the development of the team as I have always done, with full dedication and all of my support."

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has indicated that Esteban Ocon and George Russell may find themselves without an F1 drive in 2019, and that he is not willing to enter into a bidding war for the remaining seats on the 2019 grid.

Both Ocon, who is currently driving for Force India, and Russell, who is leading the F2 championship, are on long-term young driver contracts with Mercedes, but do not have seat in F1 confirmed for 2019. Ocon is set to lose his drive to Lance Stroll -- the son of Force India's new owner Lawrence Stroll -- in 2019, while F2 regulations will prevent Russell from completing in the category for a second season if he wins the championship this year.

Wolff insists the two junior drivers have the potential to win F1 races for Mercedes in the future, but with Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas contracted to the team in 2019, it's looking increasingly likely that at least one will have to sit out of next season.

"There are many good drivers who merit a drive in Formula One, both young ones and more experienced ones, but at the moment cockpits are a limited commodity," Wolff explained. "Both Esteban and George certainly deserve to be in Formula One; we are still working on options and will carefully decide what's best for them. If that means having to play the long game, then we will continue to prepare and develop them."

Russell has held talks with Williams about a drive for 2019 and is a strong candidate to replace Stroll when he moves to Force India. But such a deal is likely to hinge on a wider engine and gearbox agreement between Mercedes and Williams and the possible discount that will come with it. But if Russell does get the Williams seat, it would result in a scenario where Mercedes has no options left for Ocon.

However, Wolff said such a scenario would not mean Mercedes is allowing Russell to skip the queue ahead of Ocon and that the next step in the two drivers' careers look quite different.

"I think because the two of them are at very different stages in their career, George is still in the fight for the F2 championship and it's not done, and he clearly has the talent and would merit a go in Formula One.

"He's not in as tricky position as Esteban. I don't think the two of them will... how do you say, stumble across themselves or get in each other's way."

Wolff also made clear that he would not broker deals for Ocon and Russell to race in Formula One at any cost. Ultimately, Ocon could be a candidate for a Force India drive in 2019 if Mercedes was willing to better Sergio Perez's financial package, but Wolff said he could not lose sight of where Mercedes should be applying its resources in F1.

"We are all keen in finding the next superstar but as Mercedes our core objective is to run our racing team and have the best possible driver in the car to win races and compete for championships," he said. "You can see that for most of the other junior programmes, if you're lacking either a partner team like Red Bull has with Toro Rosso or contractual relationships like Ferrari has with Sauber, Haas, then it's very difficult to find the right place for young drivers and all our resource or 99 percent of our resource goes into running the team and a young driver, beyond the emotional aspect, also needs to make commercial sense.

"If you continue to just open the floodgates to pay for young drivers to place them in Formula One then it's not what we want to pursue. We supported Pascal [Wehrlein] for two years and we did with Esteban for two years, and we've obviously helped George to come to where he is now, but at a certain stage the business case doesn't make sense and then this is not for us."