Credit: Sauber AG

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.”

Frédéric Vasseur, new team principal, who has joined the team at a turbulent time, it seems, says: “I am very pleased to confirm that we’ll continue to work with Ferrari as our engine supplier in the form of a multi-year agreement. The shared experience between Sauber and Ferrari has built a strong foundation, which will allow us to move forward swiftly and efficiently.”

Meanwhile, Honda have said the deal with Sauber fell through because once Monisha left, the squad changed their attitude towards collaboration, ie. Having a Japanese driver, or sharing facilities for development. Honda say they are in talks with other teams instead.

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Credit: Sauber AG

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:

He says: “The situation moved a lot compared to the beginning of the decision a couple of months ago, we had to take a decision and I think it was a good one… It always the target, we have to be quicker and quicker. The engine is a part of the deal, not only on the engine but also on the gearbox, potentially on the drivers, we have to consider all aspects of the discussion and I think it was the best decision.”

Vasseur himself is only a few days into the job, replacing Monisha Kaltenborn who departed last month. Having previously worked at Renault, Vasseur now has his work cut out for him steering Sauber into calmer waters.

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Credit: Getty Images / Red Bull

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.

The statement says: “With the support of the teams, certain features of its design will be further enhanced. Having developed and evaluated a large number of devices over the past five years, it had become clear that the Halo presents the best overall safety performance.”

Autosport report that their sources say nine out of the ten teams were not in favour of the halo, but with other devices falling short – the most recent innovation, the shield, left Vettel feeling dizzy – then the FIA are pushing forward with the Halo on the grounds of safety.

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Credit: Pirelli S.p.A.

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.

It’s also worth noting that Daniel Ricciardo finished fifth, just behind his teammate, and more importantly, 14 places higher than where he started.

Elsewhere, Daniil Kvyat crashed into his teammate on the first lap, knocking Sainz out of the race, picking up a drive through penalty and making himself distinctly unpopular within the team no doubt. There were several inter-team clashes on track, but Force India managed to get to the chequered flag with both drivers in the points once more.

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Credit: Daimler AG

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.

Daniel Ricciardo, who also had a gearbox penalty hanging over him, stopped out on track during Q1, which ended his running and also brought out the red flags whilst his car was recovered. Drivers had started their runs on the intermediate tyre, but a hardy few switched to the dry compounds – Fernando Alonso did that, narrowly beat the chequered flag as he crossed the line and continued to set the fastest lap time of Q1. Of course that only got him into Q2, and he has heft penalties to take once again this weekend, but boy, the crowd loved to see him at the top of the timesheets.

Elsewhere, Kevin Magnussen dropped out in Q1, whilst Romain Grosjean dragged his Haas into the top ten. The Williams pair dropped out early, but Stoffel Vandoorne impressed with ninth place, and Nico Hülkenberg also shone with sixth.

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Credit: Pirelli S.p.A

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.”

Giovinazzi made his debut for Haas in place of Kevin Magnussen for the morning session only, leaving Grosjean to struggle with a power loss and generally carry on hating his car. Wehrlein had gearbox issues in the morning, whilst it was spins all round in the afternoon – Räikkönen, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Sainz, Palmer and more all at one point or another ended up facing in the wrong direction.

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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.

Frank Arthofer, who is the new Head of Digital and New Business for Formula 1, also revealed this is just the start of their plans to open up and expand the previously quite limited social media strategy. He said: “Right from the start, we have said we want to work with partners to bring fans closer to the amazing show that is Formula 1, an incredible mix of technology and individual talent – and Snap fits that bill. We need to continue to bring new fans to the sport – by reaching out to them on social media platforms with behind the scenes, fun and engaging content.”

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Credit: Mason/Getty Images

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.

Almost all of the drivers were on hand to drive their cars, walk through the streets and shake hands with the crowd, or appear on stage. Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button also made an appearance. It was live-streamed online and on TV, and, whilst not perfect, it generally did a great job to get everyone excited for the weekend ahead.

Lewis Hamilton was the missing driver from the line-up, preferring to take a break from what he calls an intense season so far, but championship rival Sebastian Vettel said it was “really, really special… It’s great fun going so close to the people and you can see them cheering and waving.”

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Credit: Sauber AG

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.

He begins his duties at Sauber just after the British Grand Prix weekend, and is excited about the opportunity, saying: “I’ve been impressed by the facilities in Hinwil and by the talent and ambition of the workforce, and I very much look forward to complementing the team with my experience and determination… I am convinced that all together we will achieve ambitious targets.”

Sauber split with Monisha due to “diverging views of the future of the company” so have presumably found in Vasseur a like-minded soul. There is still speculation over whether their engine supply deal with Honda will go ahead, but in the meantime, they are shoring up their squad for the rest of the season.

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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.”

They have activated a break clause in their current contract which allows them to halt hosting of the race following the 2019 season. Grant says: “Our hope is that an agreement can still be reached, so that we can ensure a sustainable and financially viable future for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone for many years to come.”

F1 bosses at Liberty Media have expressed their regret at the timing of this issue, particularly as the break clause doesn’t come into effect for three more years. But they also add they will continue to negotiate, as they too want Silverstone to remain on the calendar.

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