Sebastian Vettel said a switch to a two-stop race seven laps from the end of the Canadian Grand Prix was the right call after a gamble on a one-stop programme failed to yield dividends. Vettel, who started from pole but finished fourth, tried to stay out on degrading soft tyres, along with then race leader Fernando Alonso, after McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton had relinquished the lead to stop for a second set of soft tyres. However, when Vettel’s and Alonso’s times began to fall away dramatically, […]

Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time in third practice for the Canadian Grand Prix. Just 0.006s separated Vettel with Fernando Alonso, with Friday pacesetter Lewis Hamilton behind them in third place. Vettel was heading for a faster lap time but caught traffic at the final chicane and was forced to back off. One man who could be at a disadvantage for qualifying will be Nico Rosberg. The German had to park his Mercedes at Turn 5 after reporting a clutch failure on his installation lap. […]

The widely-reported 'floor holes' were not the only technical feature on Red Bull's 2012 car to have caught the FIA's attention recently. The reigning world champions were told by F1's governing body after Monaco that its floor design does not comply with a new directive issued by Charlie Whiting. But Auto Motor und Sport reports that the energy drink-owned team has had to make yet another modification. "The FIA has discovered another illegal detail on the Red Bull," the German report said on Friday. The […]

Was Monaco the turning point in Sebastian Vettel's so-far meteoric F1 career? "Not at all," Mercedes' Norbert Haug told the German news agency DPA on Wednesday. Almost two weeks ago in the famous Principality, it was Vettel's teammate Mark Webber who broke through with victory, meaning the Red Bull duo is now level-pegging in the championship. They are just 3 points from Fernando Alonso's lead. So does Webber's new form represent the turning poing for Vettel? "Sebastian did not win two world championships by fluke," […]

Red Bull sees this weekend's Canadian grand prix as a chance to set its almost perfect record straight. Of the 20 circuits on the 2012 calendar, the energy drink owned team has won at all of them with the exception of newcomer Austin -- and Montreal. Sebastian Vettel came close a year ago, succumbing to Jenson Button's challenge only on the very last lap. "I led every lap until part of the last one," the reigning world champion ruefully recalled. Team boss Christian Horner told […]

Sebastian Vettel will appear on David Letterman's famous New York talkshow 'Late Show' next week. The reigning and back-to-back world champion's appearance will be on Monday, the day after the Canadian grand prix in Montreal, a spokesman for the Red Bull team confirmed. The first US grand prix since 2007 will take place in November at the new Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Takuma Sato, a former F1 driver, drives for the Indycar team co-owned by Bobby Rahal and Indianapolis-born Letterman.

Formula 1’s governing body the FIA have declared the floor of Red Bull’s RB8 illegal, after the technical fiasco which took place throughout the Monaco Grand Prix. After the race in Monaco, the teams chose to not protest Mark Webber’s victory, however for the Canadian Grand Prix the floor must be altered to comply with the clarified rules. The original design of the RB8’s floor consisted of holes in front of the rear wheels, a design which caused much disapproval from the other teams’. Sauber […]

The small teams are continuing to heap pressure on Red Bull, casting the energy drink company as a barrier to reducing costs in Formula One. On Monday in Monaco, the teams got together with Bernie Ecclestone and FIA president Jean Todt, with cost-cutting a headline subject of discussion. Germany's Auto Motor und Sport reports that Todt indicated that the Paris based federation is willing to police cost cutting as part of the formal regulations in 2013 and beyond. Ten of the 12 teams are pushing […]

Mark Webber has dismissed claims he 'backed up' his rivals in Monaco so that Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel could catch up. Australian Webber won Sunday's race in the Principality with the other podium challengers, Nico Rosberg, both within a chasing gap of less than a single second. Next up was reigning back to back world champion Vettel. But when contemplating the 'backing up' theory, Webber insisted in his BBC column: "That is absolute rubbish. "You always get bitten on the bum when you get […]

Former Australian World Champion Alan Jones believes Mark Webber should consider a move to Ferrari if the opportunity to replace Felipe Massa arises. After taking his second Monaco Grand Prix victory last weekend, the Australian driver showed his worth to any top team on the grid. “Mark has already done one of the two things that most Formula 1 drivers would like to do, and that’s win Monaco.” Explained Alan Jones, in a podcast put together by the organizers of the Australian Grand Prix. “The […]

Five races in, F1's cleverest brains are still yet to decode the mystery of the bizarre and fascinating 2012 season. As was the case when he utterly dominated last year, Sebastian Vettel is still leading the drivers' points chase. But, before last weekend, if he had been told that Williams' Pastor Maldonado would be the winner of the Spanish grand prix, the German admitted: "Well, I would have put a lot of money on them! "I think the odds weren't bad," he smiled. Indeed, the […]

Sebastian Vettel remains in control of the Formula Drivers’ Championship, despite enduring what the Red Bull Racing driver called a “hard day at the office” at the Spanish Grand Prix. Vettel started seventh and climbed to sixth but dropped to ninth when he was hit with a drive-through penalty for failing to heed yellow flag in the wake of an accident involving Michael Schumacher and Bruno Senna. The defending champion was also hindered by a long regulation third stop when he took on a new […]