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But these, plus some tricky track characteristics, point towards Red Bull being on the backfoot and a fight between Ferrari and McLaren for which team can grab the spotlight at this year’s Imola Grand Prix.After the opening series of pan-continental flyaway rounds, the Formula 1 circus returned to its European heartland and descended upon Imola. One of F1’s returning classics after a lengthy …Keep reading
Verstappen’s frustration boiled over throughout both practice sessions as his upgraded Red Bull RB20 proved hard to control on the technical Italian venue’s second sector.The triple world champion ended first practice in fifth and slipped to seventh in the second, over half a second behind Ferrari’s pacesetter Charles Leclerc. His team-mate Sergio Perez was next up in eighth another tenth behind …Keep reading
Charles Leclerc set the pace in Friday practice, making Ferrari the favourite to take pole position on home turf.Red Bull, meanwhile, suffered with the updated version of RB20, with reigning champion Max Verstappen finishing the two sessions in fifth and seventh.What time does qualifying for the Imola Grand Prix start?The qualifying for the Imola Grand Prix, also known as the Emilia Romagna Grand …Keep reading
After he had also led Friday afternoon’s FP1 action, Leclerc continued as the frontrunner through the early stages of the day’s second 60-minute session when the cars were split across the medium and hard tyres.When they switched the softs for the mid-session qualifying simulation runs, Leclerc set the best time benchmark at 1m15.969s, before using a second set of the red-walled rubber to blast to …Keep reading
Motorsport.com has learned that Mercedes has begun an internal reshuffle of its aerodynamics department with Vino departing following six years at the team.He had been principal aerodynamicist from February 2018 until October 2022 when he moved into his current role.The change in aero personnel comes ahead of the earlier-than-expected arrival of two key staff from Ferrari – including the …Keep reading
But the current generation of ground-effect cars are trickier beasts to make fast, and the challenge involves nailing the right compromise between high-speed and low-speed performance.Throw on top of that the desire to make sure that the car is not too peaky and that drivers have confidence in it so that they are able to take it to the limit without fear of going over it and spinning out.Teams up …Keep reading
After his impressive surprise debut in place of the appendicitis-addled Carlos Sainz at Ferrari in Jeddah, Bearman is now finally starting the main challenge of his season in the top categories of single-seaters.Imola marks the first of six FP1 appearances with Haas that were earmarked into his deal as the team’s reserve driver for 2024, along with his similar duties as a Ferrari junior.In this …Keep reading
Red Bull opened up for first practice at Imola on Friday afternoon with Tom Hart acting as the voice in Verstappen’s ear instead of Lambiase, who is also Red Bull’s head of race engineering.The team explained to Motorsport.com that the one-off situation is being enacted to provide Hart with additional experience working as a race engineer – as he also did during second practice for the 2023 Abu …Keep reading
Leclerc set the session’s best time – a 1m16.990s – aboard the updated Ferrari shortly after the one-hour FP1 action was stopped by Alex Albon’s Williams shutting down after he hit a kerb hard and ran down the Imola track from Piratella to Acque Minerali, where he stopped on the inside.Leclerc’s time was set with a second set of soft tyres and pipped Mercedes’ George Russell by 0.104s …Keep reading
The rear wing’s tip section has been completely overhauled as part of the redesign, with the team having already switched to a semi-detached layout for 2024.Based on what was revealed in the Imola pitlane on Friday, it has now pushed its variant in a new direction.The tip section still sits proud of the endplate as a small bracket raises it clear of the lower element.However, the tip section now …Keep reading