George Russell has changed race engineers ahead of his second season driving for Mercedes.
Claire Cottingham's articles on RaceFans
Claire has worked in motorsport for much of her career, covering a broad mix of championships including Formula One, Formula E, the BTCC, British GT and W Series. In doing so, she has worked for an extensive list of companies including the BBC, Channel 4, Formula One, 5 Live, Eurosport, BT Sport and ITV in a variety of roles - including lead presenter, writer, pitlane reporter and a historic role as the first female motorsport commentator on terrestrial TV. Claire’s extensive experience goes far beyond motorsport however, and has seen her cover a wide and varied selection of sports on a local, national and international level - ranging from reporting on county cricket matches through to being part of the Olympic Broadcast Services team for both the Olympic and Winter Olympic Games in Beijing.
Paddock Diary: Bahrain pre-season test
Paddock Diary
Posted onRaceFans’ Claire Cottingham headed to Bahrain International Circuit for the first chance to see the new cars of 2023 in action and hear from the drivers and team bosses.
Vettel could be ‘Plan B’ for Aston Martin if Stroll can’t race in Bahrain
2023 F1 season
Posted onSebastian Vettel could make a shock return to Formula 1 following his retirement last year if Aston Martin require a replacement for the injured Lance Stroll.
Alpine introducing ride height tool and ‘visible upgrade’ at first race
2023 F1 season
Posted onAlpine will have two updates ready for its new A523 in time for the first race of the season next week.
Red Bull ‘very strong’, Ferrari ‘struggling in corners’ with lower-drag car says Leclerc
2023 F1 season
Posted onCharles Leclerc says Ferrari have “got some work to do” and rivals Red Bull look “very strong” ahead of next week’s season-opening race.
“Dangerous, pointless” ban on tyre warmers will cause a crash – Hamilton
2023 F1 season
Posted onLewis Hamilton has strongly criticised F1’s plan to ban the use of tyre warmers next season, which Charles Leclerc also raised concerns over.
Mercedes still have some of last year’s “balance limitations” – Hamilton
2023 F1 season
Posted onLewis Hamilton says that the Mercedes W14 retains some of the “balance limitations” of its predecessor from last season.
“Strange” Drive to Survive editing “made me look happy with eighth” – Ocon
2023 F1 season
Posted onEsteban Ocon insists he “never said” a radio message which he is heard uttering during the French Grand Prix in the new season of Drive to Survive.
Vowles finds Williams a “stark contrast” to Mercedes after taking team principal role
2023 F1 season
Posted onThe scale of operations at Williams is a “stark contrast” to Mercedes, its new team principal James Vowles has admitted.
McLaren “need to pick up the pace” in 2023 – Brown
2023 F1 season
Posted onMcLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown says the team needs to rebound quickly having fallen behind its development targets for the start of the season.
Fighting Red Bull for Bahrain GP win “will be a stretch” for Mercedes – Russell
2023 F1 season
Posted onGeorge Russell doubts Mercedes will be able to fight Red Bull for victory in the season-opening race, but expects they will gain on their rivals later in the year.
Haas free up $250,000 for car development by shrinking pit gantry
2023 F1 season
Posted onHaas has moved to a three-person pit gantry set up to save money that they can invest into car development.
Gasly has “the best feeling I’ve ever had going into a season” after first Alpine run
2023 F1 season
Posted onPierre Gasly sees real potential to bring Alpine closer to the top three teams after joining them from AlphaTauri.
Three days’ testing is “ample” and could be cut to two – Horner
2023 F1 season
Posted onFormula 1 team principals see no need to increase the amount of pre-season testing despite complaints from some drivers that three days of running is insufficient.
Drugovich not guaranteed F1 debut if Stroll doesn’t return for Bahrain GP
2023 F1 season
Posted onAston Martin reserve driver Felipe Drugovich says both he and Stoffel Vandoorne will be on standby next weekend in case either is called to replace the injured Lance Stroll.
Mercedes had “no bouncing” with W14 during first 69 laps of test – Wolff
2023 F1 season
Posted onThe bouncing problem which severely compromised Mercedes’ start to last season has not recurred so far with the team’s new car.
De Vries’ complaints after first AlphaTauri test were a “wake-up call” – Tost
2023 F1 season
Posted onNyck de Vries “complained a lot” about AlphaTauri’s 2022 car, which persuaded the team to make major changes for this year.
Faultless three days “important” for Alpine in sole pre-season test
2023 F1 season
Posted onAlpine technical director Matt Harman says it is important their new A523 runs “faultlessly” when pre-season testing starts tomorrow.
Alpine “very ambitious” despite fourth-place target for 2023 – Ocon
2023 F1 season
Posted onEsteban Ocon says Alpine aims to take a step towards Formula 1’s top three teams this year but isn’t expecting to repeat his 2021 race win.
Alpine “look forward to racing those guys” as ATR limit bites F1’s top teams
2023 F1 season
Posted onOtmar Szafnauer says Alpine are looking forward to rivalling F1’s top teams as the series’ performance-balancing rules increasingly affect the competitive order.