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It's official. We've hit the 'sit and reminisce about the tiniest, least important details of the season' part of the winter break. Hey, at least that's more productive than finding a new hobby - we could never! First on the agenda is helmet designs. A driver's helmet is often a way of showing off their personalities, interests, sponsors or, in some past instances, political stances. And for the fans, it allows us to learn more about the driver and more than likely end up with a tiny scale model of said helmet in our bedrooms. So, here are some of
It can be an emotional time saying goodbye to your loved ones... especially if that loved one has provided you with 19 out of 23 wins in one year, helped you break an excessive amount of records and guided you through one of the most dominant years in F1 history. Yeah, we would be emotional too 🤭 It's no doubt that Max Verstappen was the driver of the year, achieving the unthinkable. 19 wins, 12 pole positions, 21 podium finishes, over 1,000 laps led, six hat-trick wins and 575 points scored. Though this dominance doesn't lie entirely in the hands of
While there were slim pickings for Toto Wolff to choose from when asked which race he felt was Mercedes' best of the season, you'd have thought that ANYTHING ELSE would have been a better choice than this, right? But you know, Wolff may be onto something. He chose... drumroll please, the US Grand Prix. Austin. You know, the one they were disqualified from. Lewis Hamilton finished a strong second in COTA, just behind Max Verstappen, despite the team pondering strategy for a little too long, which brought him out behind Lando Norris in P3 at the start of his final stint. But
THE FIRST CAR LAUNCH DATE IS CONFIRMED! Thank you, Ferrari, for giving us the best Christmas gift of all: a glaring reminder that the 2024 season really isn't as far away as it seems! Yes, it has become the first F1 team to confirm the launch date of its 2024 car, which will be unveiled on February 13th. We guess Ferrari won't be our Valentine next year, then! 💔 They are yet to unveil the name of the 2024 challenger or any actual details about the launch, but in a recent appearance with media, including The Race, team principal Fred
Admit it. We've all sat on the sofa on a Sunday after watching an F1 race and thought: 'That... was not that exciting.' So then the cogs start turning, and you fantasise about what you would do to improve the sport if you were the sole person in charge. 'WE COULD BRING ONE-SHOT QUALIFYING BACK! WHAT ABOUT REFUELLING? EVERY TEAM SHOULD RUN THREE CARS! LET'S MAKE F1 A SPEC SERIES?!' Then, unfortunately, you wake up from your daydream. But it turns out we're not the only ones who dream of what F1 could change in its rules and regulations. Three
One of the more intriguing F1 off-season news stories was what was going to happen with the artists formerly known as Alfa Romeo, after its sponsorship deal with Swiss team Sauber was finishing up at the end of the season. Alfa Romeo is leaving F1 altogether - it is evaluating a potential World Endurance Championship entry instead - leaving Sauber without a title sponsor. Until today! We can now reveal that Sauber’s 2024 team name will be… *drumroll*... Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber, with the Gambling and Streaming giants respectively both featuring in the team name and the chassis name
You know what they always say, records are made to be broken - and while 2023 will ultimately be remembered most for Max Verstappen’s total dominance, there were still plenty more records notched up by the other drivers and teams, too! In case you missed them, we’ve already covered the records that Verstappen has broken here, but as gathered together by VegasInsider, here are the other records set in F1 throughout 2023! LEWIS HAMILTON Most Career Points In F1 - 4,639.5 Most Points-Scoring Races In F1 - 290 Most Laps Led In An F1 Career - 5455 Most Distance Led
The 'Road To F1' is definitely a bumpy one, as many F2 champions have learnt over the years. Theo Pourchaire clinched the 2023 F2 title in the Abu Dhabi finale, but the lack of promotion to F1 leaves him as the third successive champion without an immediate F1 drive. He succeeded Felipe Drugovich, who both took their F2 titles in their third years in the category and have gone on to take reserve driver roles with Formula 1 teams. The previous year, in 2021, Oscar Piastri went from winning the title in his rookie year to sitting on the sidelines
Christmas truly is the most wonderful time of the year, and nothing says Merry Christmas more than an actual F1 car in your garden as part of your decorations. No, we're not joking, and yes, we're jealous. A house in California somehow got a McLaren show car made mostly of older parts but laced in Lando Norris' 2023 livery and just popped it out in their front garden as part of their Christmas decoration display. There's even a Santa Claus figure in it, which makes us wonder how many super license points you get for driving a sleigh once a year. https://twitter.com/ScenarioSeven/status/1733790624829038907?s=20
So much has happened since it was announced that Daniel Ricciardo wouldn't see out his contract with McLaren and that Oscar Piastri would replace him for the 2023 season. In only 16 months, Daniel has gone from a full-time drive with McLaren to having no drive for 2023, to being offered a seat with Haas, turning them down, going back 'home' as a third driver for Red Bull and then getting a full-time drive with AlphaTauri at the expense of Nyck de Vries. Phew. Apart from his victory at the 2021 Italian GP, Daniel struggled with the McLaren car and
We're in full F1 winter break mode now with this story! Apparently, a fan in attendance at the FIA Prize Giving ceremony in Baku claims to have been gifted Lewis Hamilton's third-place trophy. Wild, right? As expected from the top three drivers in the championship, Lewis flew to Azerbaijan to attend the annual award ceremony and was called up on stage towards the end of the evening to collect his trophy for finishing third behind both Red Bulls. But after the ceremony, it was reported that Hamilton left his trophy behind. And then the plot thickens even more. Hello. I
Everyone has an embarrassing story to tell, it's what makes us human. But whether they tend to involve a full-on police investigation is another matter. This was the case for a story Zak Brown told everyone on a podcast - and yeah, it's pretty embarrassing! Brown, CEO of McLaren, plays quite a visible role with the team. You'll often find him on the pit wall on race weekends, and he has developed a very good relationship with his drivers. He's almost like another team principal. So, it's no surprise that he has some interesting stories from his travels around the
The FIA may have said their investigation into the conflict of interest allegations made against Susie and Toto Wolff was over, but if you thought that would be the last you hear of this situation, you were very much mistaken 😳 The FIA released a statement just yesterday evening revealing they were no longer looking into Toto and Susie Wolff, confirming they were satisfied that F1's compliance management system was robust enough to 'prevent any unauthorised disclosure of confidence information'. Susie's first response: 'Is that it?' This came after there were concerns raised over what information was being shared between
You would think seeing the adoring fans at your home race and the fast cars you once drove on track would be quite a defining moment in your eventual F1 comeback, right? Wrong. Well, if you're Daniel Ricciardo. After two disappointing years with McLaren, apart from his 2021 Italian GP victory, the team chose to end his contract early and replace him with Oscar Piastri for the 2023 season, leaving Ricciardo without a drive. Ricciardo struggled to get to grips with the McLaren car and admitted it just wasn't suiting his driving style. Ultimately, it cost the team valuable points
NO FURTHER ACTION! Is what the FIA would typically say after an investigation during a race weekend. Though the wording of this statement from the governing body is slightly different, you get the gist. It's been quite the rollercoaster ride over the past few days. The FIA announced it was looking into an alleged conflict of interest allegations between 'an F1 team principal and a member of FOM personnel' after concerns were raised over what information was being shared between them. While the FIA chose not to name them, an unsubstantiated report from a media outlet published prior to the FIA
The sprint races for 2024 have officially been announced, but the biggest thing to come out of the report is that F1 is still deliberating over a change to the current sprint format. This could be something as simple as moving Sprint qualifying back to a Friday and the sprint race taking place on Saturday before qualifying for the grand prix later that day - something that has had the overall support from teams. OK, that's great, but what about reversed grids? It's been a huge talking point this year, and almost everybody brings it up when asked how F1
Off-season? What's that? Yesterday, the FIA announced it was looking into an alleged conflict of interest allegation between an F1 team principal and a member of FOM personnel after concerns were raised over what information was being shared between the pair. The FIA chose not to name them, but one unsubstantiated report from a media outlet published prior to the FIA statement claimed that it was Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff and F1 Academy Director Susie Wolff. Later in the evening, Mercedes, F1 and Susie Wolff all released damning statements in response to the shock investigation, wholly denying the allegations
The 2023 season will likely go down as a difficult one for Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. Criticisms over his poor qualifying, as well as overall results, as teammate Max Verstappen would go on to achieve a record-breaking season stood out. There were obvious lowlights in Perez’s 2023 season, including nine Q3 misses across the season despite driving in the sport's best car, as well as external pressure on his job due to Red Bull bringing back Max’s former teammate Daniel Ricciardo to sister team AlphaTauri halfway through the year. “Qatar was really the worst weekend I remember in a while,
Anniversaries are normally milestones to celebrate in life but for Lewis Hamilton, the end of the 2023 season and a typical end-of-year tradition gave the seven-time World Champion pause - and reason to reflect on one of the causes he’s championed in the second half of his career. At the end of the season, you normally see the entire track team gather around for a yearbook-style photo alongside the cars. For Lewis, seeing the 2023 photoshoot reminded him of a similar shoot from four years ago, and one of his inspirations to push for greater diversity within F1. Hamilton has
Earlier today, the FIA announced it was looking into an allegation of an alleged conflict of interest between an F1 team principal and a member of FOM personnel after concerns were raised over what information was being shared between the pair. While the FIA has chosen not to name the pair, a recent unsubstantiated report from a media outlet claimed that it was Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff and F1 Academy boss Susie Wolff. The FIA's statement said: 'The FIA is aware of media speculation centred on the allegation of information of a confidential nature being passed to an F1
F1 and the FIA are keen to make Sprint events work despite them dividing fan opinion. But we must say, now we know the list of venues hosting them for 2024… it’s certainly piqued our interest 🤔 So far, Sprint events have been held at circuits like Silverstone and Monza, as well as the Red Bull Ring, Imola and Interlagos. This year, they threw Baku, Spa-Francorchamps, Qatar and Austin into the mix, which all caused chaos in different ways. Four of this year’s sprint hosts will again feature the format in their 2024 races. But the FIA have added two
Picture this - you're an F1 driver who's just competed in the highest level of motorsport for 22 weekends out of the year. It's finally winter break, what do you do? Nope, wrong answer. You go karting, apparently 😂 Yep. The racing season wasn't quite over for Red Bull and AlphaTauri drivers Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda, who, over the weekend, took part in the Honda Racing 'Thanks Day' karting event. At the very least, you think they would take it much less seriously than their day-to-day jobs, right? Wrong again! https://twitter.com/leclercsletters/status/1731126794160357723?s=20 As they took to
Hey folks, how about one bonus D.R.E (Dre’s Regular Editorial) for the road? Dre’s back with another chat about some of the more under-appreciated stories of 2023! And just like that, the 2023 season is over. I’ll be honest, it probably won’t be going down as a classic but there was still many a cool story to tell over the year if you searched hard enough. Let’s talk about some of the hidden gems of the past year. Andretti - Yes, one of the bigger stories of the year I still think wasn’t talked about enough. Why? Because I think
Congratulations, you've made it to the first Sunday without F1. If you're like us, we already have severe F1WS (F1 withdrawal symptoms), and just like a bad cold, it's something we suffer from every single year during the winter break. But don't worry, there are some ways to cure it. Or, you can cry into a pillow and count the days until Bahrain in 2024. Up to you. READ A BOOK A motorsport-themed book, of course. There are literally thousands of F1 books to choose from, including autobiographies from Jenson Button, Mark Webber, Niki Lauda and even Adrian Newey. Take
It’s hard not to have at least some degree of respect for Red Bull pulling off arguably the greatest F1 season ever achieved in 2023. Even their fellow competitors were tipping the hat to them, including the last man to hold a vicegrip on the sport, Lewis Hamilton! Lewis has had many a dominant car in F1 himself, one of them being the Mercedes W11, a fan favourite and possibly the best car Lewis had in his run of dominance. Lewis won six world championships in seven years between 2014 and 2020, but the W11 of 2020 was arguably his
We here at WTF1 are big fans of Alex Albon - especially after this season on the track, as he carried Williams to a seventh-place finish in the constructors' championship. He even earned a driver of the year podium spot with us. But it’s easy to forget it came following a horrible time at Red Bull before joining his current team. Recently, Alex sat down with former BBC F1 and TNT Sports Anchor Jake Humphrey on his High Performance Podcast, and on it, Alex opened up on his struggles when he got his big break at Red Bull just 12 races
We don't think we have ever seen so many F1 fans agree on one topic. But the 'what was the best race of the season?' question seems to have brought many of us together to all share the same thoughts. Across our social media channels, the clear favourite was the Singapore GP. For many reasons, it was the one race this season that Red Bull was finally taken from the top step of the podium, as Ferrari's Carlos Sainz executed his win brilliantly with a clever and calm approach. Fans loved how he helped former McLaren teammate Lando Norris stay
If you’re an F1 fan, you probably already know about arguably the biggest flashpoint of Lewis Hamilton’s F1 career and the way he missed out on the 2021 world championship. Lewis took an extended hiatus from social media and mainstream life after that title-losing heartbreak and in a sit down interview with a small group of journalists including Mark Hughes at The Race, the seven-time champion opened up about that downtime, and why he was openly considering retirement. “There was so much going through my mind during that period in time,” said Lewis. “But one of the worst things you
Welcome back to another edition of our weekly series, Hot Takes Wednesday: Extra Heat 🌶️ As you may know, Dre hosts Hot Takes Wednesday on the WTF1 Podcast Network! On the show, we take your spiciest F1 takes, and we rate them on a scale of 1 to 5 – 1 being that we strongly disagree and 5 that we strongly agree. On this week’s show, Dre was back with WTF1 Talent member Josh Marsh! Together they sat down and discussed your takes! If you want to listen to the show in full, the episode is down below, and don’t
It’s a December miracle! The 2024 F1 grid has been set for a little while - with one glaring exception: Williams. But they have finally confirmed that Logan Sargeant will be staying with the team for next season! 👏 As the 2023 season drew to a close in Abu Dhabi, whether Logan remained with Williams and on the grid was still a mystery. Though James Vowles's post-race radio message certainly led to speculation that a deal had been closed. He told Sargeant: “Your contribution this year has been excellent. It’s really a proud moment that you’ve grown so much during
We bet Valtteri Bottas is feeling rather peachy right now 🍑 He's revealed just how much his 'Bottass' calendar to help gather funds for his Movember campaign has raised! We can't believe how many times we've seen photos of Valtteri's bare bottom, some would argue perhaps a little too much. But not us. We love how he's never afraid to bare all, and the release of his 2024 calendar proves that fans love to see it, too! It began when a picture Valtteri shared of him lying in a river in Aspen went viral (which became even more iconic when he gifted
A sentence we never thought we'd hear, let alone say! But it's true - you could get your hands on a pair of Alex Albon's own brand of shoes, as worn by Sky Sports F1 presenter Ted Kravitz. Just what every F1 fan needs! 🤭 In September, during the Singapore GP weekend, Alex launched his new footwear brand, Alex Albon Athletics, stylish sneakers designed by Alex himself that sold out almost immediately. Many drivers have their own apparel lines, but no one has specialised in shoes yet - until Alex. Talking to Tatlter, a publication that focuses on fashion and
Hello and welcome to the WTF1 End Of Season Award Ceremony 🏆 It's just like the FIA Prize Giving awards, but less fancy. All you have to do is sit on the sofa in your pyjamas with a cup of tea (or any drink of choice) and enjoy the show! We're going to go through a number of categories in relation to the 2023 F1 season and announce who we would award the imaginary trophy to. Feel free to let us know who you would give each award to in the comments. NOTE: If you're looking for Driver Of The
As Michael Schumacher and many others have said through the ages, records are made to be broken. And if you’re Max Verstappen, well, he certainly did that in spades in 2023! 🏆 So much so that we here at WTF1 Towers decided to trawl through the record books ourselves and list all the records Max has broken in his ridiculous 2023 season. Be warned, this is not a short list! We’ll also add the previous holder for some extra context! Most wins in a season - 19 Previously 15, Max Verstappen, 2022 Highest Win Percentage In A Season - 86.3%
This is possibly one of the most beautiful things we have ever seen. Imagine waking up every day and accessorising your outfit with a bracelet that was made from the tyre of Michael Schumacher's 1996 Monza-winning Ferrari? Created by Monegasque company Mongrip, which specialises in turning pieces of motorsport history into fashion accessories, they have now come together with the Keep Fighting Foundation, which was set up in 2016 by Schumacher's family. A quote from Schumacher in 2007: 'I've always believed that you should never, ever give up, and you should always keep fighting even when there's only a slight
In a world where Red Bull has dominated the last two seasons of Formula 1, it's hard for anyone to imagine that 2024 will be any different. In fact, it could remain this way until the 2026 revamp. We know it, you know it, and Lewis Hamilton knows it. After rounding out the season in P9 in Abu Dhabi, Hamilton was feeling a bit glum after the race, despite clinching P2 in the constructors for Mercedes and finishing P3 in the championship behind two rocketship Red Bulls. All work redirects itself to the 2024 season, and while every driver hopes
Alright, no one likes to be handed a bill, but this is just... woah. While we're sure Red Bull has enjoyed its incredibly dominant 2023 season, we're not sure it will enjoy the hefty entry fee it needs to pay the FIA to enter the 2024 season. We always thought the saying was 'pain is the path to success', but in Formula 1, it seems it's the other way around! In 2013, a revised Concorde Agreement came into effect, which included the FIA ruling that entry fees for each team were based on the number of points scored in the
It's time for the WTF1 Season Reviews to begin! Over the course of the winter, all of us here in the team will be reviewing the best and the worst of the 2023 F1 season, and in this piece, we’re taking care of the big one - driver of the year! We are going to break down our four best drivers of the 2023 season and why we ranked them where we did! Why four, we hear you ask? Well, Max Verstappen was so obviously going to take up the top spot of all of our rankings, so we've handed
Welcome to the season finale edition of the Tier List! It’s the written version of the show where we rank all the drivers’ performances in a race and for the final time this season, it’s for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix! 🇦🇪 The WTF1 Wrap (Powered By Moneygram) is on Facebook and YouTube, and on our final show of the year, we were joined by the YouTube star, Josh Revell, check him out! Together, we watched the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and ranked all the drivers’ performances! Max Tier? Max Verstappen - As a joke on the final episode, I
It turns out Carlos Sainz isn't the only Ferrari driver who likes to dip into the pool of bizarre F1 strategies every now and again! Charles Leclerc attempted a pretty risky move in the closing laps of the Abu Dhabi GP, and it caught the attention of a certain Mercedes boss 👀 The battle for P2 was on between Ferrari and Mercedes in Abu Dhabi, with just four points separating them heading into the final race of the season. Both teams started on pretty equal playing fields, with Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton in the bottom half of the grid