| By Ben Anderson | Saturday, November 8th 2014, 21:51 GMT |
The Williams Formula 1 team says a fuel pressure problem compromised Felipe Massa's final run in qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix
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| By Jonathan Noble | Saturday, November 8th 2014, 21:10 GMT |
Formula 1 teams have failed to reach an agreement on a lifting of the engine freeze after talks collapsed in a meeting at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Saturday
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| By Jonathan Noble | Saturday, November 8th 2014, 21:28 GMT |
Bernie Ecclestone has promised Formula 1's smaller teams that he will speak to the sport's owner CVC about their financial problems
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| By Jonathan Noble | Friday, November 7th 2014, 20:49 GMT |
Sergio Perez is staying at the Force India Formula 1 team next year, his team boss Vijay Mallya said on Friday
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| By Mark Glendenning | Friday, November 7th 2014, 20:11 GMT |
Delaware police are investigating a domestic assault claim involving NASCAR driver Kurt Busch
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| Saturday, November 8th 2014, 01:08 GMT |
Denny Hamlin will start from pole position at Phoenix for the final race of the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase Eliminator round after resisting a late charge from Brad Keselowski
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| By Ben Anderson | Thursday, November 6th 2014, 19:33 GMT |
Romain Grosjean hopes to announce his 2015 Formula 1 plans during the Brazilian Grand Prix, saying he is "close" to confirming a deal
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| By Jonathan Noble | Thursday, November 6th 2014, 18:58 GMT |
The FIA is continuing to monitor developments at Caterham and Marussia to ensure they will be capable of a Formula 1 return, as both appeared on the 2015 entry list
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| By Jonathan Noble | Thursday, November 6th 2014, 19:54 GMT |
Lewis Hamilton says he holds 'no fears' about the prospect of losing the 2014 Formula 1 world championship through double points
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| By David Evans | Wednesday, November 5th 2014, 17:27 GMT |
The World Rally Championship-leading driver must run first on the road on the first two days of every 2015 WRC round, the FIA has confirmed after a Wednesday afternoon vote
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| By Glenn Freeman | Wednesday, November 5th 2014, 18:32 GMT |
Nicholas Latifi topped the final day of post-season Formula Renault 3.5 testing at Aragon on Wednesday.
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| Wednesday, November 5th 2014, 23:50 GMT |
The Sauber Formula 1 team has signed Williams test driver Felipe Nasr to a race deal for the 2015 season
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| By Ben Anderson | Tuesday, November 4th 2014, 17:18 GMT |
Fernando Alonso reckons the Ferrari Formula 1 team must raise its game over the final two races of the season to avoid getting dragged into a fight with McLaren
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| By Glenn Freeman | Tuesday, November 4th 2014, 14:33 GMT |
Formula Renault 3.5 race winner Oliver Rowland is interested in staying in the series for a title push in 2015
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| By Glenn Freeman | Tuesday, November 4th 2014, 18:19 GMT |
Matthieu Vaxiviere kept the Lotus team on top in this week's Formula Renault 3.5 test at Aragon as he comfortably set the pace on Tuesday
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| By Glenn Freeman | Monday, November 3rd 2014, 20:17 GMT |
McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award finalist Alexander Albon set the pace on the first day of Formula Renault 3.5 testing at Aragon on Monday
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| By Ben Anderson | Monday, November 3rd 2014, 17:10 GMT |
Ferrari Formula 1 boss Marco Mattiacci says Kimi Raikkonen is under "positive pressure" to raise his game, after another disappointing race in the US Grand Prix
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| By Mark Glendenning | Monday, November 3rd 2014, 21:41 GMT |
Jay Howard will make his first IndyCar appearance in four years at the Indy 500 next May after securing a drive with Bryan Herta Autosport
You have viewed over 15 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Jonathan Noble | Monday, November 3rd 2014, 01:00 GMT |
Nico Rosberg has revealed that an ERS error was key to allowing Formula 1 title rival Lewis Hamilton to overtake him for victory at the United States Grand Prix
You have viewed over 15 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| Monday, November 3rd 2014, 01:07 GMT |
US GP: Post-race press conference with Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Daniel Ricciardo
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| By Ben Anderson and Edd Straw | Monday, November 3rd 2014, 01:03 GMT |
Jean-Eric Vergne has lost his ninth-placed finish in the US Grand Prix after being penalised for colliding with Formula 1 rival Romain Grosjean
You have viewed over 15 free stories this month. Why stop there? Click here to find out how to continue reading.
| By Jonathan Noble | Saturday, November 1st 2014, 22:49 GMT |
Formula 1 championship leader Lewis Hamilton will change managers next year, after deciding not to renew his deal with Simon Fuller's XIX Management company.
Hamilton confirmed on Saturday that discussions with Mercedes over a fresh deal beyond 2015 would likely be handled by somebody else.
When asked about the situation, Hamilton said: "There is not really much to say. The contract expired and I am going to be doing something different.
"I don't know what yet, but I will decide at the end of the year."
Hamilton signed up with XIX management at the start of 2011, having previously had his career looked after by his father Anthony.
XIX played a key part in helping secure Hamilton's move to Mercedes at the start of 2013. His current deal with the team runs until the end of next year.
DRIVERS
1 - Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
2 - Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
3 - Valtteri BOTTAS (Williams)
TV UNILATERAL
Nico, a very strong pole position, a big margin for you. How do you feel about that? And hings are really hotting up, I guess now, with just three races to go?
Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, great day, very happy. It worked out really well, you know. Together with my engineers I really arrived at a car in the end in qualifying that I was happy with, the balance was good. Because it was quite a challenge, because the wind was changing and then this morning the conditions were quite different, a lot colder, so the track was changing all the time and it wasn't that easy to get everything right but in the end we got to a great set-up, a great car, so I'm pleased with that. So first place of course today is awesome but you know the race is what counts, so I still need to focus fully on tomorrow and to to bring it home.
Well done. Coming to you Lewis, fastest in practice, fastest in Q1, but from Q2 onwards it seemed to be a bit of a troubled session for you, particularly with braking, in Q2 and again in Q3 I think?
Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, absolutely. Obviously, Nico did a great job today. I really struggled with braking, yeah. When you look at the brake temperatures, the left brake was always around 100 degrees less than the right front brake. It just kept catching. No matter what I did, even if I braked earlier and tried to save it, it would still lock. So that was perhaps where I was losing a lot of the time. But even if that wasn't the case I think Nico was perhaps too quick today.
Is that an issue for you for the race, with that set of tyres?
LH: Potentially, yeah, so I need to try to see... maybe they can scrub them down or something and try to fix it overnight.
OK, thank you for that. Coming to you Valtteri: your sixth time in the last eight grands prix that you've qualified in the top three. That's some run of form.
Valtteri BOTTAS: yeah, a pretty god qualifying again. I'm really pleased with the couple of good laps I got in Q3 today actually. It's been a difficult weekend from my side for some reason, to get to a good rhythm and then finally during the qualifying I could really trust the car, like you should do. Really happy for us as a team, again, we locked the second row. It's a good starting position for tomorrow's race because we have still important three races to try to keep a good position in the constructors' championship.
Very well done. Coming back to you again Nico, this track, particularly from the start, one of the characteristics here at the Circuit of the Americas has been the difference between the clean side and the dirty side off the grid. You must be pleased you're on the right side of that tomorrow?
NR: I haven't thought that far yet, but if you say it then yes, that's great, another extra advantage for the clean side of the grid, you know, starting first. Of course the start is going to be important, need to make the most of that and stay ahead.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: So Nico, that, I think, is the sixth Mercedes front row lock-out in a row, which is certainly a statement about the dominance you've got in the car and the way you continue to stay ahead of everybody. Margin of nine-tenths to Valtteri today, it was four-tenths in Sochi - but you too haven't been immune from brake problems this weekend, have you? Is this something worrying you at all going into the race?
NR: We've had a few issues in general on the car this weekend, on both cars and so yeah, we need to try to get it all right for tomorrow - but personally I'm not worried about that at all because if I would start worrying about that, it's not going to be good for performance. So I'm very confident the team's going to get the job done and just concentrate on what I can influence on my driving. I'm not worried.
Q: Lewis, I don't know if you know but tomorrow is six years to the day since you won your world championship: November 2nd 2008. So I'm sure you'll be hoping to channel the Interlagos spirit into tomorrow's grand prix - but how much is that vibration on those tyres going to cause you a problem? Can you drill down a little bit more into that for us?
LH: Well the vibration isn't that bad. It's a minor flat spot. They'll rebalance it and hopefully won't feel too much with it. The issue is just locking. If I can't fix that left brake, then that will be a continuing issue throughout the race. And obviously flat spots lead to blistering so I've got try and make sure we can fix that this evening.
Q: Coming to you Valtteri, you got your first points in Formula One here 12 months ago. Tell us about the race in prospect for you and also why you were behind Felipe pretty much the whole of today and how you managed to nail him when it got to the business end of qualifying.
VB: Yeah, it should be an interesting race. I think especially the guys behind us are going to be really quick and we're now in a good position in the team's championship and it's going to be an important race for us to get good points with both cars. It's not going to be easy. So we will really need to try to get everything right tomorrow. Really look forward to the race here, it's always good fun. In qualifying and in general from the practice, I managed to improve myself a lot during every session and really got the car to a good setup only just before the qualifying and for the qualifying - so I could really trust the car a bit better in the qualifying and get those lines right and get every corner right. I knew that Q3 is the one which is going to matter, and I needed to get everything right and be on the limit and then that's when I tried to squeeze everything that there was - and I feel I managed to do so.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Paolo Ianieri - La Gazzetta dello Sport) Nico, where did you also find those tenths that you found in your Q3? Quite impressive pace after always being behind Lewis during the practice.
NR: What was the reason? I finally got there on setup, together with my team. We just continued to improve the car all the time and just got it right and I felt comfortable in the end. I was able to push and it felt good balance. Nailed the lap, got the lap really well, so it all worked out.
Q: (Dan Knutson - Auto Action / National Speedsport News) To the two Mercedes guys, when you have troubles like you did today, little troubles, does it frustrate you or does it motivate you in a way, to say 'I'm going to beat this and get on top of it and go even faster'.?
NR: Neither of the two really. It's always a bit frustrating to have something like that in the moment but then, I've learned to move on to just accept and concentrate on the things that I can influence and just keep on it. That's what I tried to do today and it worked out well.
Lewis?
LH: The same.
Q: (Ian Parkes - Press Association) To all three of you, you may or may not be aware that there is a very real threat tomorrow - It's not speculation, it's not hearsay - of three teams, Force India, Sauber and Lotus, opting to boycott this race. What impact do you feel that would have on Formula One?
Nico?
NR: No comment. Because I have not heard anything about this and it would not be the right thing for me to even comment on something like that.
Lewis?
LH: Same.
Valtteri?
VB: Same. No comment really. I don't know anything about this situation so I can't really say much.
| By Jonathan Noble | Saturday, November 1st 2014, 22:38 GMT |
Bernie Ecclestone says top Formula 1 teams are going to have to make sacrifices to solve the cost crisis, and admitted financial structures he had put in place were wrong.
In a surprise confession that commercial arrangements agreed with teams had contributed to F1's current woes, he said that only assistance from the big outfits could now help him sort matters out.
"The problem is there is too much money probably being distributed badly - probably my fault," said Ecclestone in a lengthy media briefing at Austin on Saturday.
"But like lots of agreements people make, they seemed a good idea at the time."
When asked if he regretted the deals in question, he replied: "If the company belonged to me I would have done things in a different way because it would have been my money I was dealing with.
"But I work for people who are in the business to make money."
REDISTRIBUTION OF MONEY
One idea Ecclestone mooted is for the big teams to contribute a share of their prize money towards a fund for the smaller outfits.
"We have to open the eyes of those people in a position to turn the lights on and off to what they need to do," he said.
"I wouldn't want to be in a position where I was too strong, F1 disappears and someone says it is because of you it disappeared.
"I said to people getting a chunk of money that I would like to take a percentage of their performance-related payment.
"I would put that money together to divide among the three or four we know are in trouble but are not going to run away with the money, and then I will put in the same amount of money."
However, Ecclestone admits that getting such a fund together would not be easy because F1 rules allow teams to block such changes.
"We have to decide the best way to sort this whole thing out. Frankly, I know what's wrong but don't know how to fix it.
"No one is prepared to do anything about it because they can't. The regulations have tied us up.
"We can't all sit back nicely relaxed and think the problem will go away. It's not like having the flu and taking a few tablets and it will disappear.
"I think the situation is such that if enough people want it resolved, we can resolve it. It's a case of the people that are involved in the sport will have to want to look after the sport and be prepared to make some sacrifices.
"I would tear all the contracts up. Take all the money, pay all the teams' debts that should be paid so people haven't suffered because of Formula 1."
NO BOYCOTT THREAT
Ecclestone denied there was a threat of a boycott this season, even though Force India's Bob Fernley repeatedly suggested it was an option.
"Forget all that crap," Ecclestone said. "I promise they will be racing. They will be racing, I give you a guarantee - but I worry if they will be racing next year."
He also played down the possibility of three-car teams.
"Forget third cars," he said. "Nobody can afford two cars."
