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      Ferrari looking to add two major upgrades to F1 car in last-ditch bid to stop Max Verstappen cruising to world title

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      FERRARI are reportedly looking to add two major upgrades to their car as they bid to stop Max Verstappen cruising to the world title. The Dutchman has an enormous 116-point lead in the Driver’s Championship and it now looks inevitable he will claim his second straight F1 crown.
      After fighting tooth and nail for last season’s championship, Max Verstappen appears to be waltzing to victory this yearCredit: Splash
      Ferrari’s season has largely unravelled but the team remain hopeful of being competitiveCredit: Rex
      Verstappen has won the last five races and pulled away from a floundering Ferrari who have been plagued by mechanical issues and strategic mistakes.
      But the famous Italian team are still fighting for every point and will be hoping to at least delay Verstappen’s coronation.
      The 24-year-old can win the championship as early as the next race in Singapore if results fall in his favour.
      But Motorsport report Ferrari are set to bring upgrades to their car to give themselves a lift.
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      The racing site says improvements will be made to the floor and the wings ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix.
      Both elements are crucial parts of an F1 car as Ferrari attempt to claw back some ground on Red Bull before the end of the season.
      Chiefs at the team see the race as a “great opportunity” to end Verstappen’s winning streak as the sport returns to the Marina Bay circuit for the first time since 2019.
      Motorsport say there could be a further update to come later in the season from Ferrari, with Mexico earmarked as the target race.
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      While much of the team’s attention has turned to their 2023 car, the Prancing Horse are still hopeful of being competitive over the remainder of this season.
      Charles Leclerc won two of the first three races this season but Red Bull have pulled ahead of their rivals and proven increasingly difficult to get close to over a full race distance.
      But qualifying has remained a positive for Ferrari with the team landing pole in over half of this season’s races. More

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      Lewis Hamilton given hope of winning F1 race this season despite Mercedes ace’s fears he’ll go without after tricky year

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      LEWIS HAMILTON has been given hope of a first race victory of the season – despite the seven-time world champion fearing he could end up winless. The Mercedes driver, 37, holds the extraordinary record of winning at least one Grand Prix in every F1 season since his 2007 debut.
      Hamilton has had to come to grips with an underperforming car for much of the season but has been given hope of landing a win in SingaporeCredit: Rex
      But with his Merc car inconsistent and Max Verstappen dominating the championship, Hamilton’s hopes of retaining his record appear slim.
      He also only has six races left to break his duck, starting in Singapore next month.
      But his hopes have been given a boost after one Mercedes chief shared a positive update.
      Technical director Mike Elliot says the layout of the Marina Bay circuit in Singapore could play into their car’s hands, similar to previous races in Hungary and the Netherlands.
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      The twisty-nature of the street track and the lack of long straights could work in favour of Mercedes and allow them to be competitive.
      Elliot told Mercedes’ YouTube channel: “I think when you look back at the learning we’ve gathered over the season, we expect Singapore to be a bit more like what we’ve seen in Budapest and Zandvoort.
      “It’s a bumpy circuit, which is going to provide its challenges. But in terms of the nature of the corners, we think it will be better for our car. So hopefully we’ll have a good result there.
      “As always, we’ll do all the pre-simulation work we need to do, we’ll maximise our learning in the practice sessions and hopefully we can turn that into a good result on the weekend.”
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      Hamilton did not appear nearly as hopeful about the team’s chances as he branded his former title rival Verstappen “almost unbeatable”.
      The Dutchman has won the last five races as hopes of another tight championship battle quickly came to be dominated by the Red Bull driver.
      The 24-year-old has won 11 of 16 races so far this season and is closing in on another F1 record.
      Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher hold the title for joint-most wins in a single season with 13.
      Given Verstappen’s form, he will be hopeful he can break the record.
      His latest win came with ease at the Italian Grand Prix – but he was helped by a controversial late safety car. More

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      Mick Schumacher and Nyck de Vries among four drivers to take part in Alpine F1 testing to determine 2023 driver

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      MICK SCHUMACHER and hotshot Nyck de Vries are among four drivers to take part in Alpine testing for a spot on the team for the 2023 Formula One season, according to reports.Alpine will lose two-time F1 world champion Fernando Alonso to Aston Martin at the end of the season following the retirement of Sebastian Vettel.
      Mick Schumacher’s Driver Academy contract at Ferrari expires at the end of this year and he is set to leaveCredit: Rex
      Nyck de Vries will test for Alpine alongside Mick Schumacher and two others in Hungary ahead of the Singapore GPCredit: Alamy
      The French owned F1 team also dropped the ball with Oscar Piastri, who rebuked their offer of a race seat in favour of replacing Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren.
      And according to Racing News 365, in a bid to spare their blushes, Alpine will be holding a test as part of an in-season programme, which was meant for Piastri using a 2021 Alpine A521.
      Schumacher, 23, and De Vries, 27, are two of four drivers who will drive at the Hungaroring just days before the Singapore Grand Prix on October 2.
      The son of seven-time F1 world champ Michael, is reportedly set to leave the Ferrari Driver Academy at the end of the season when his contract expires.
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      Schumacher is currently in his second season at Haas and has shown signs of promise, scoring 12 points this term.
      De Vries, meanwhile, stole the show at Monza, securing a points finish in his first F1 race after finishing ninth behind a safety car at the weekend.
      The Mercedes reserve took the wheel of the Williams as a substitute for Alex Albon, who was receiving treatment for appendicitis.
      Other drivers named in the report who will be involved for the test in Hungary are F2’s Jack Doohan and IndyCar driver Colton Herta.
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      Doohan is a contender for the 2024 race seat, but that could be pushed forward a year following a strong campaign in F2.
      Soon-to-be retired four-time F1 world champion Vettel was also rumoured to have held talks over racing for Alpine.
      However, the German will NOT be involved in testing.
      Despite announcing his retirement, Vettel says “time will tell whether I get bored” of watching F1 from home.
      Vettel said in Monza: “Time will tell what you know, [if there] will be something that is possible to do if there is an offer of any such nature or not.
      “Then I will see how I feel like at the moment.
      “I’m quite happy to spend more time on other things and look forward to seeing the kids more and stuff like that.
      “Time will tell whether I get bored within three months or three years or I don’t know.” More

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      Ex-F1 champ Jacques Villeneuve blasts Daniel Ricciardo’s career claiming that almost half of it has been ‘terrible’

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      DANIEL RICCIARDO’S Formula One career has been blasted as “terrible” by former champ Jacques Villeneuve – or at least, half of it.The Aussie finds himself without a seat for next season after being ditched by McLaren – and replaced by Oscar Piastri – with a year remaining on his contract.
      Daniel Ricciardo has endured a difficult 2022 seasonCredit: Rex
      Jacques Villeneuve slated Ricciardo’s performancesCredit: Splash
      Ricciardo, 33, has won eight races during his time in F1, but is just 14th in this year’s driver championship with only 19 points.
      But racing legend Villeneuve, 51, is anything but surprised the former Red Bull driver is yet to be snapped up by another team, telling F1 TV: “Why would he be?
      “He had two terrible years at Renault and two even more terrible years at McLaren. That’s four years. Almost half of his Formula One career was bad.
      “Alpine have no reason to take him, especially when he’s driven there before.
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      “The modern cars just don’t seem to suit his driving style.
      “He was impressive at Red Bull. He showed amazing overtaking manoeuvres. He was ahead of Max at the beginning. But in the end Max started to get a handle on him.
      “Then he switched. And after the switch something seems to have happened that he never managed to get a handle on. He never recovered from that.”
      Ricciardo achieved two third-place championship finishes with Red Bull. Since leaving at the end of 2018 has come ninth, fifth and eighth.
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      Despite links to Haas and Williams, speculation has grown that Ricciardo could take a one-year sabbatical from the sport – but Villeneuve thinks this would be a bad idea.
      He added: “It could make him lazy.
      “You can take a year off if you’re an Alonso, a Schumacher, if you’ve been world champion and won a lot of races, if you know in the paddock that you’ll always be at your best, no matter what season.
      “After four bad years, don’t do that. You take what you can get. If you have an offer to drive in Formula One, then you take every cockpit.
      “In public you will say you don’t want to drive for one of the back teams, but if that’s the only contract you can get, then you’ll sign it.”
      Last weekend, Haas team principal Guenther Steiner appeared to play down the likelihood of his team moving for Ricciardo.
      He said: “I’ve talked to most of the potential drivers, which is my job.
      “There’s nothing concrete yet, but we only want to take the smallest risks for the development of the team. You can take a big risk which is great when it works, but it’s bad when it doesn’t.
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      “There are none of those [experienced drivers] who are currently on the market. Except maybe Daniel.
      “But his form isn’t great at the moment and we don’t know what he’s going to do. Maybe he’ll sit out a year.”
      Guenther Steiner played down Haas’ interest in Daniel RicciardoCredit: Getty More

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      Lewis Hamilton’s shock F1 title loss at Abu Dhabi GP unlikely to happen again after safety car rule change in Italy

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      LEWIS HAMILTON can sleep easy knowing he’ll never lose the Formula One World Championship because of a safety car controversy ever again – thanks to a rule change.Max Verstappen edged the British seven-time champion to the crown in the final race of last year’s season in Abu Dhabi in shambolic circumstance.
      Lewis Hamilton is yet to win a race this season following his 2021 heartbreakCredit: PA
      Red Bull’s Max Verstappen looks set to make it two titles from the last two seasonsCredit: AP
      The 24-year-old overtook the British legend on the last lap after a restart following a crash gave him the chance to catch up.
      But under different rules in the Italian GP last weekend, Daniel Ricciardo crashed towards the end of the race.
      And a decision was made that there would be no restart in the order the drivers were in – meaning Verstappen remained near the back of the queue behind the safety car after lapping opponents.
      He could then not be overtaken by George Russell in second place as he was at the front of the queue of cars stuck behind the safety car.
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      Mercedes boss Toto Wolff praised the FIA’s choice not to restart under the conditions seen in Abu Dhabi despite the decision being criticised by fans and other team principles.
      He also aimed a dig at ex-race director Michael Masi who was in charge during the controversial end last season.
      Wolff told Sky Sports: “I’m really satisfied to see that there is a race director and colleagues that apply the regulations against the pressure of the media and the fans to just be in breach of the regulations.
      “So at least Abu Dhabi in that sense gave the FIA more robust confidence to apply the regulations.
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      “There was a car on track, there were marshals, a crane out there, that’s why they didn’t let anybody overtake and then there wasn’t enough time to restart the race once all cars caught up.
      “If one is not happy with the regulations and you want to have a big bang show and two laps of racing and mayhem, I’m absolutely up for it. But then we need to change the regulations.
      “So I don’t think we need to complain about anything that happened because this is the rules.
      “I think we should all sit down and say ‘is there something we do better?’. But what happened is in the regulations book and that’s why it was applied.”
      Hamilton himself commented on the contrast in decision comparing last year’s finale to what happened in Monza.
      He said the weekend’s race brought “memories back” of what had happened.
      The seven-time world champion also said: “Only one time in the history of the sport where they haven’t done the rules like that today and that’s the one where it changed the result.”
      Christian Horner of Red Bull was less happy with the rules despite his man winning in Italy.
      He said: “We don’t want to win a race under a safety car. It’s something we’ve talked about for many, many years, that they should finish racing.
      “There was enough time to get that race going. I think they picked up the wrong cars, picked up Russell.
      “We had the faster car and we would have liked to win the race on the track, not behind the safety car. We share the disappointment of all the fans, because it took away a grandstand finish.”
      Daniel Ricciardo’s car caused the issue in MonzaCredit: The Mega Agency More

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      Italian GP raised ‘painful’ F1 issues with Max Verstappen’s win ‘unacceptable’ behind safety car, slams Martin Brundle

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      MARTIN BRUNDLE says the high number of grid penalties made the Italian Grand Prix “painful” to watch at times.The respected Formula One pundit also believes the race’s “low speed” finale behind the safety car was “not the FIA’s finest event”.
      Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is now closing in on retaining his F1 title after winning the Italian GPCredit: The Mega Agency
      Nearly half of the field were hit with pre-race sanctions ahead of Sunday’s race on the Monza circuit.
      It led to calls for the governing body to change some of the rules which saw so many drivers penalised.
      In his latest Sky Sports F1 column, Brundle said: “With seven cars choosing to, or mostly forced to, take penalties for new power unit components and other misdemeanours, for the second time in three races the grid didn’t remotely represent the qualifying order.
      “This is an unacceptable situation because when the fans turn up trackside or switch on their TV sets to watch qualifying, they should reasonably expect that they’re watching the race grid being formed.
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      “Instead we waited for several hours for the tortuous and complex process of how penalties were applied.”
      Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the race to strengthen the defence of his title.
      Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton battled back from starting 19th to earn an excellent fifth-placed finish.
      Brundle admitted it was “painful to watch”, and added: “For only the 13th time in F1 history, a race was ended at low speed behind the safety car.
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      “It was not the FIA’s finest event.
      “It’s such a short race there anyway due to the high average speeds, and the fans would have deserved a thriller at the restart.” More

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      Lewis Hamilton slams ‘waste of space’ part of Mercedes F1 car after heroic Italian GP performance saw Brit finish fifth

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      LEWIS HAMILTON has revealed he secured his brilliant fifth-place finish at the Italian Grand Prix with a damaged car. The Brit started 19th on the grid but battled through to pick up a useful ten points at the iconic Monza circuit.
      Lewis Hamilton soaked up the sun at the Italian GP’s Monza trackCredit: Splash
      And now the Mercedes star has revealed a “waste of space” part on his W13 car was damaged in the opening stages of Sunday’s race.
      The much-maligned vehicle took a small knock on the front after hitting a piece of debris on the track.
      After the dust had settled on championship leader Max Verstappen’s latest win, Hamilton explained he was unsure whether the early hiccup had slowed his race pace.
      The seven-time world champion also admitted he did even not know what affected part does.
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      Hamilton told Sky Sports F1: “I don’t remember having any contact.
      “I avoided collision but there was something definitely damaged.
      “I think I hit a bit of debris as it came off another car and damaged the little fairing on the tyre.
      “I have no idea [if it affected the car’s performance]. I mean the grip didn’t feel that great, it was flapping around.
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      “I don’t even know what those things are for – waste of space.”
      Hamilton has been critical of his new Merc car all season and is now sixth in the overall standings and 167 points behind Red Bull’s reigning world champion Verstappen.
      Earlier this month he said the car’s changing level of performance is “like a mood swing” which leaves him with “no idea” how it will fare at every race. More

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      Ben Hunt: Rift between F1 and sport’s governing body getting wider and wider… and Monza shambles won’t help

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      THE FIA’s handling of the Italian Grand Prix can only have driven a bigger wedge between Formula One and the sport’s governing body.It is a curious relationship where they both currently need each other to function — but there is a growing feeling that a divorce is on the cards.
      F1 and the FIA are heading in different directions and the Monza GP won’t helpCredit: Getty
      A little bit of background: the FIA were founded in 1904 and have their headquarters in Paris.
      And unlike Fifa, who oversee just football, the FIA are responsible for all motorsport categories.
      They ensure the rules are in place and adhered to, issue racing licences and are responsible for the safety of drivers and spectators.
      F1, meanwhile, are owned by American company Liberty Media, who own the licence to stage the championship, generating profit from deals with circuits, sponsors and TV companies.
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      They are responsible for paying the teams their prize money.
      However, the relationship between F 1 and the FIA has become increasingly strained, despite being bound together in a deal that was struck with their previous chiefs.
      In 1995, ex-F 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone agreed a 100-year contract with then FIA president Max Mosley to acquire the F 1 commercial rights from the FIA.
      Those rights have since been sold to Liberty Media, who are now bound by those same legal terms agreed by Ecclestone and Mosley.
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      Yet it is not currently a happy marriage.
      The stench from the end of the 2021 season and the FIA’s bungling of the outcome to the championship in Abu Dhabi was embarrassing for F 1.
      Liberty have worked hard to encourage new fans to follow the sport but the poor handling harmed the sport’s reputation.
      The weak result of the FIA’s own investigation — published on the eve of the Bahrain GP — was equally unhelpful, despite replacing Michael Masi as race director.
      There is also the curious relationship between the F 1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali and new FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
      The latter has put himself on the podium more times than Lewis Hamilton this season and is always front and centre of every presentation, unlike predecessor Jean Todt.
      His tough stance on banning jewellery threatened to overshadow F 1’s new Miami Grand Prix earlier in the season.
      Even more annoying for F 1 was his resistance to their proposal to introduce sprint qualifying races.
      The short-race format on Saturday’s to determine the grid is a hit with fans and promoters, while the teams are supportive, too.
      But the president has dug his heels in over the matter and is widely believed to be seeking compensation from F 1.
      For the time being, F 1 have not found an exit in their legal contract with the FIA but with teams now adding their weight to the strained relationship, maybe Liberty Media will be forced to start rethinking their options.
      In their defence, the FIA have been trying to apply the rules as they see fit, using a book of regulations that have been amended and changed over the years to suit.
      The best thing they could do now would be to rip up the old rulebook and come up with a new one in time for next season.
      As for Ben Sulayem — who insists on being called ‘Mr President’ — he is obviously enjoying himself and the associated power.
      He surely needs to put the vanity aside and focus on getting his house in order.
      Otherwise, there could be no other option but for teams to force a breakaway series under a new name.

      BRIT KID BEARS SCARS
      BRIT whizkid Oliver Bearman was denied a Formula Three title shot in Monza because stewards stopped the finale with under five laps to go.
      Bearman, 17, had battled into second when the red flag came out — and the race never resumed due to scheduling.
      Ironically, the stewards could have allowed it to play out in the time they decided the outcome of the championship, which eventually went to Victor Martins.
      The Frenchman was crowned, despite a five-second time penalty for four track limits violations in Italy.
      Prema Racing hotshot Bearman had been chasing Zane Maloney for the victory, which would have secured him the title but the  premature end to the race saw him end the season in third place.

      NAKED TRUTH
       POOR Sky F 1 Germany presenter Sandra Baumgartner stumbled into a naked Dutchman in Monza.
      A group of Max Verstappen fans had built a makeshift grandstand out of some scaffolding.
      But circuit chiefs moved in to confiscate the structure and, when Baumgartner arrived on the scene, she was greeted by a man in the nude and his inflatable bath.

      ROSSI SEES RED
       ALPINE chief executive Laurent Rossi is fuming at missing out on signing Oscar Piastri — despite admitting his team bungled his contract.
      The Aussie joined McLaren for next season after Rossi revealed he was “leaving the door ajar for him”, which Piastri walked through and negotiated a better deal.

      REMEMBERING HER MAJESTY
      THE MotoGP World Championship will observe a minute of silence in memory of Queen Elizabeth II during the Aragon Grand Prix in Spain on Sunday.
      The race at the Motorland circuit takes place the day before Her Majesty’s state funeral in London from 11am. More