F1Minute - Bitesize Formula One News

One day after confirming they would not be going ahead with their technical partnership with Honda, the Sauber F1 Team have revealed they will continue with Ferrari power. The team currently use Ferrari’s engines, and have been partnered with the Italian manufacturer since the late 1990s. Their current partnership involves them running last year’s engine but the new deal looks set to run “the latest power unit specification as of 2018.”

The Sauber team continue to go through plenty of changes as they adjust to life under new management, and now they’ve revealed that previous plans to partner with Honda for engines for the 2018 season and beyond have now been cancelled. Their statement was relatively brief, but brand new team principal Frédéric Vasseur has expanded on what has been going on.

The FIA have revealed some findings from a meeting between the FIA, team representatives, and the strategy group, and they’ve decided to go ahead with the halo device for enhanced cockpit protection, despite the fact the majority of reports about the device have revealed little support. In February, the FIA admitted opinion from the drivers was split 50/50, but now they say it’s the way forward.

Lewis Hamilton took a comfortable victory in front of the home crowd at Silverstone, and with Sebastian Vettel finishing seventh, he has closed the gap to the championship leader to just a single point. Vettel suffered a puncture on the penultimate lap which dropped him down a handful of positions, whilst Kimi Räikkönen also had a tyre failure one lap before that. Kimi managed to finish third, though, so still getting on the podium, with Bottas taking that crucial second position.

Lewis Hamilton was comfortably quickest around the Silverstone track as he secured his fifth British GP pole position. He was half a second up on next best Kimi Räikkönen, who in turn had a couple of tenths on Sebastian Vettel. Valtteri Bottas was fourth, with a five place gearbox penalty to take.

Free Practice Friday at Silverstone was free of too much drama, and it was Valtteri Bottas who was fastest in both morning and afternoon sessions. Sebastian Vettel had other things on his mind, , as he and the Ferrari team tested out the new shield cockpit protection prototype. He only had the windshield style device on his car for a few minutes, however, before stopping the test early because it made him feel dizzy. He said: “I think it’s because of the curvature, you get quite a bit of distortion.”

Quite famously, last year, Lewis Hamilton caused a whole heap of trouble by quite blatantly using Snapchat during a dull press conference. Fast forward just ten or so months later, and the new bosses in charge of F1 have fully embraced the Snapchat revolution. I’m not sure there will be bunny ears as part of the new deal, but F1 has agreed a partnership with Snap Inc to share content on Snapchat of F1 events.

It’s not a sight you see very often, but on the Wednesday before the British Grand Prix, nineteen drivers turned up for an event in London, with several cars participating in a street demo around the iconic Trafalgar Square. There was a stage, where musical performances took place, interviews with drivers occurred, and Valtteri Bottas sprayed the crowd with champagne.

Sauber have only been parted from ex-team principal Monisha Kaltenborn a few short weeks, but they have now found a replacement in the form of Frederic Vasseur, who was previously with the Renault team. Vasseur spent one season with Renault, but has plenty of experience in other racing categories.

Formula One is gearing up for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, the midpoint of the 2017 season, but circuit organisers are looking beyond this year and are having doubts about the future of the event. Chairman of the BRDC who own Silverstone, have revealed huge losses for the past two years, and they’re expecting more loss this year. Chairman John Grant says: “We have reached the tipping point.”