Fernando Alonso will join Aston Martin from 2023, clearing the way for Oscar Piastri to make his full-time debut next season.
Alonso made the shock announcement on Monday, confirming the switch on a multiyear deal starting in 2023.
The two-time champion said he was convinced the team, currently ninth in the standings with 20 points, less than half his own current tally, was capable of success during his contract term.
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“This Aston Martin team is clearly applying the energy and commitment to win, and it is therefore one of the most exciting teams in Formula 1 today,” he said. “I have known Lawrence [Stroll] and Lance [Stroll] for many years and it is very obvious that they have the ambition and passion to succeed in Formula 1.
“I have watched as the team has systematically attracted great people with winning pedigrees, and I have become aware of the huge commitment to new facilities and resources at Silverstone.
“No-one in Formula 1 today is demonstrating a greater vision and absolute commitment to winning, and that makes it a really exciting opportunity for me.”
Alonso had signaled he wanted to stay with Alpine for at least two more seasons, but the French team was reportedly prepared to offer him only one more year before shifting his to sportscars to avoid losing Aussie junior Piastri to a rival constructor.
The Spaniard, who said he returned to the sport last year to fight for a third championship, said he wasn’t prepared to give up on his long-held goal.
“I still have the hunger and ambition to fight to be at the front, and I want to be part of an organization that is committed to learn, develop and succeed,” he said. “I intend to win again in this sport and therefore I have to take the opportunities that feel right to me.”
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‘He f****** hit me’ – Dan & Stroll crash | 00:32
His defection paves the way for Aussie young gun Oscar Piastri to be promoted to his seat alongside Esteban Ocon next year.
Piastri will be the second full-time Australian driver on the grid alongside Daniel Ricciardo.
The team has been agonizing over Alonso’s future knowing that the Mark Webber-led Piastri was determined to see the reining F2 champion in a competitive seat as early as possible.
As recently as last week the team was talking publicly about loaning Piastri, most likely to backmarking the Williams team. Webber was meanwhile rumored to be attempting to engineer a switch to Ricciardo’s McLaren seat despite the senior Aussie being under contract.
Alpine is yet to comment on Alonso’s announcement.
Leclerc burnt by ANOTHER Ferrari blunder | 01:14
Aston Martin team owner Lawrence Stroll said Alonso’s signature was a vote of confidence in his team’s plans to move forward on the grid.
“I have known and admired Fernando for many years and it has always been clear that he is a committed winner like me,” he said. “I have set out to bring together the best people and develop the right resources and organization to succeed in this highly competitive sport, and those plans are now taking shape at Silverstone.
“It seemed natural therefore to invite Fernando to be part of the development of a winning team, and we very quickly established in our recent conversations that we have the same ambitions and values, and it was logical and easy to confirm our desire to work together. .”
Alonso is replacing four-time champion Sebastian Vettel, who announced his end-of-year retirement from the sport last week.
Wins don’t come much more emphatic than from 10th on the grid at the Hungaroring.
Max Verstappen’s against-the-odds victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix was only the fourth time someone’s won in Budapest starting further back than the front two rows. Not only was it a clear underline on Red Bull Racing’s superiority in the 2022 championship race, it was also a neat encapsulation of the entire season to date as the sport heads into the mid-season break.
It featured a wildly slow then unexpectedly and inexplicably fast Mercedes that threatened to win the race but ultimately couldn’t manage it.
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It featured Ferrari somehow fumbling what should’ve been an unimpeachable pace advantage early in the weekend to finish off the podium and denying it lacks operational sharpness.
And as its centrepiece it featured Red Bull Racing executing most effectively, Verstappen seizing his opportunities and both ending Sunday with enhanced points leads.
You almost don’t need to have seen any other race this year to understand where the championship stands and predict where it’ll head when racing resumes at the end of August after the mid-season break.
REMINDER: FERRARI TARGETED TO ONE-TWO
There’s no team that needs the mid-season break more urgently than Ferrari, which contributed yet another way to ship more points to Red Bull Racing and Verstappen in an already bleak title campaign.
All this despite having explicitly targeted a one-two finish just days earlier.
It won’t shock you to know that the team’s embarrassing loss came mainly from the pit wall.
Slow pit stops meant it took longer for Leclerc to pass pole-getter Russell than it should have, and it cost Sainz the opportunity to pass the Briton at all.
It then made the fatal error of swapping Leclerc onto the unfancied hard tire for his final stint in a hasty attempt to cover the undercutting Verstappen — despite the fact every other car that had used the tire was struggling badly for grip.
Not only did it cost him the lead, but he was forced into making a third stop that left him an almost unbelievable sixth at the flag.
Ferrari protested after the race that the problem wasn’t its strategy but the car, which in the cooler Sunday conditions wasn’t exhibiting the dominant edge it enjoyed during Friday practice.
Leclerc burnt by ANOTHER Ferrari blunder | 01:14
“Certainly we didn’t have the performance we were expecting,” team boss Mattia Binotto told Sky Sports. “Whatever the tyres, somehow the performance of our cars was not as expected.
“Today the car was not behaving well, I think that’s the point.”
Binotto isn’t wrong to make that argument, but he is exaggerating. Ferrari was slower than it was on Friday, but it was still the fastest car on track.
We can make a like-for-like comparison between Leclerc and Verstappen on the medium tire in the middle of the race, Even accounting for the Dutchman’s older rubber, the Monegasque was still quicker, or at least quick enough to take him on directly.
But the team let itself be spooked by Verstappen’s second undercut attempt with 32 laps to go. Rather than race to its own pace, run deep and switch to softs — which it did with Sainz — it brought Leclerc in immediately for the hard tire and suffered the consequences.
“I felt very strong on the medium. Everything was under control,” Leclerc told Sky Sports. “I don’t know why we needed to go on the hard.
“I said on the radio I was very comfortable on the medium and I wanted to go as long as possible on those tires because the feeling was good. I don’t know why we made a different decision.”
So really there are two key mistakes here. One is coolness under pressure in reading the race, and the other is misunderstanding the hard tyre, which the team thought would warm up after 10 laps but which in reality was never going to be effective. It’s not the first time it’s committed either foul this season.
Leclerc left Budapest with a whopping 80-point deficit to Verstappen and Ferrari is now 97 points adrift of Red Bull Racing. More worrying still, the team’s just 30 points ahead of Mercedes.
And with performance like that, would you be willing to back Ferrari to hold second?
Max & Lewis chuckle at Ferrari’s tactics | 00:33
MAX VERSTAPPEN PUTS ONE HAND ON THE TROPHY
If Charles Leclerc’s solo crash at the French Grand Prix effectively decided the destination of the title, Verstappen’s slick victory in Budapest gave him a chance to put one hand on the trophy.
An 80-point advantage is more than three clear race victories. He can now afford to finish second to Leclerc at every race, including the sprint in Brazil, and ship the point for fastest lap and he still won’t lose the title lead before the end of the season.
Before the mid-season break he’s been able to put the fate of the drivers championship completely in his own hands. No mean feat.
After last season’s down-to-the-wire blockbuster finale, you’ll be concerned to know we can start counting down the points needed to win the championship.
With nine rounds remaining, Verstappen can win the championship with just five more victories even if Leclerc finishes second to him in all of them. That puts him on track to claim the crown at the Japanese Grand Prix.
And perhaps Verstappen winning the next five races is unlikely — he’s yet to win more than three in a row this season — but with Mercedes potentially in the mix, he may have a team to pick points off Ferrari and Leclerc, in which case just finishing with one or two cars between him and the Monegasque regardless of their finishing position would probably be enough to get the job done.
The weekend wasn’t perfect of course. A power unit problem was part of the reason he qualified poorly, and a clutch issue spun him around in the race, temporarily costing him the lead. He’ll also need to serve a penalty for a new power unit at some point in the second half of the year, having installed his third and final motor this weekend.
But the gap is easily wide enough to absorb that pressure, and with Leclerc needing at least one more round of power unit penalties, it’s extremely difficult to imagine a scenario in which Verstappen doesn’t win the title with at least two rounds to spare
Max spins but still wins in Hungary | 01:11
MERCEDES UNEXPECTEDLY FAST BUT UNSURE ABOUT PERMANENCE
Mercedes arrived in Budapest in the brace position, appeared to be justified by its lackluster Friday performance, but by the end of the weekend it had collected its first pole of the year with George Russell and a second straight double podium.
Lewis Hamilton had even been on a late an unlikely charge for victory that team boss Toto Wolff said could’ve ended in success had he qualified higher up the grid rather than suffer a DRS failure in Q3.
What’s more, the Hungaroring layout should have been a struggle circuit for the car, which tends to prefer faster tracks — Hamilton almost won at Silverstone, both drivers showed good pace in Austria before crashing out of qualifying, and the team got both cars onto the podium in France.
Wolff, however, said it was less a case of not understanding the reasons for its speed in Budapest but rather figuring out if those reasons applied universally or only to the specific characteristics of the Hungaroring.
“It’s not that we have no clue why the car has been fast,” Wolff said, per The Race.
“We had directions during the season where we believed it would unlock the potential of the car, and it didn’t.
“So here we have another direction, and that was very quick on the stopwatch.
“But I don’t want to have another false dawn and we come to the realization tomorrow and Spa that it didn’t reap the benefits that we were hoping to have.
“In that respect, let’s just wait and see where this is going.”
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In that respect Mercedes must be frustrated to have to wait three weeks to try to validate its progress, though the triple-header comprising three distinct track types will be the ultimate test of its solution.
The team is long out of championship contention, but the W13’s fortunes are still relevant to the title outcome.
Potentially now quick enough to contend for regular merited podiums and perhaps victories at some tracks, how well Mercedes does on any given weekend will decide three things: how soon Verstappen wins the title — or, if you’re extremely optimistic, whether he wins the title; where Ferrari will finish in the constructors standings; and whether Leclerc will finish second in the drivers standings.
George Russell is now just 20 points behind Leclerc in the battle for a second, with Hamilton 12 points further back, and the team is now only 30 points short of Ferrari in the teams title battle.
It’s too late for the major prizes, but the minor placings are still very much up for grabs.
McLAREN STILL IN TOUCH FOR FOURTH DESPITE RICCIARDO PENALTY
The battle for best of the midfield is similarly still very much alive, with McLaren maintaining its four-point deficit to Alpine in fourth on the constructors title table.
Ricciardo pulls off epic double pass | 00:46
This was an improved weekend for Woking, one week after it introduced its major upgrade package at the French Grand Prix. Not only did Lando Norris again outqualify both French cars, but this week he retained his place ahead of them despite a slow first pit stop, ensuring maximum midfield points with seventh place.
He had Alpine’s unlikely one-stop strategy to thank in part. Alpine did n’t have a second set of medium tires for either driver, having burnt through them during practice, and so he had little choice but to go long, meaning he neither could challenge the leading Briton.
Daniel Ricciardo was the only weak point for McLaren. The Australian had been marginally off Norris’s pace through the race but quick enough to be running behind him before the first stops, even makingthat excellent double pass around the two battling Alpine drivers to hold the place.
But his struggles really started during his final stint on the hard tire and intensified once he was lapped, costing him precious tire temperature each time he was waved a blue flag.
The lack of grip on the white-walled tire was also behind him running wide and into Lance Stroll at turn 2, earning him a five-second penalty, when he was trying to let the Canadian by.
It left him out of the points, allowing a superb drive by Sebastian Vettel to be rewarded by one point, the German having recovered from 18th by avoiding that troublesome hard tire.
World champion Max Verstappen fully exploited another Ferrari flop to pull 80 points clear of Charles Leclerc in this year’s title race with an emphatic Red Bull triumph in Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Just a week after his crushing win at the French Grand Prix, where Leclerc crashed out of the lead, the 24-year-old Dutchman scored his first win at the Hungaroring, his eighth this year and the 28th of his career.
Starting from 10th on the grid, after engine problems in qualifying on Saturday required a new power unit, he sliced through the field to finish 7.8 seconds ahead of Mercedes’ seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, who had started from his maiden pole position.
That was despite a 360 degree spin on lap 40 from which he managed to recover from.
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‘LET’S F***ING GO!’ Ricciardo nails insane double overtake before penalty drama strikes
“When we woke up this morning who would have thought we would win this race?” said the Dutchman.
With Russell on pole and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Leclerc second and third on the grid, pre-race forecasts made the Italian team favorites to control and win with some ease as the Red Bulls were 10th and 11th.
But a combination of poor tire management, slow pit-stops and questionable strategy saw them finish fifth and sixth, behind Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull, who started 11th, after looking likely winners.
“I was hoping I could get close to a podium, but it was very tricky out there,” said Verstappen.
Max Verstappen is running away with the championship.Source: AFP
“But we had a really good strategy, we were really reactive, always pitting at the right time.” Hamilton, who started seventh was seeking to increase his record haul of eight Hungarian wins, registered his fifth consecutive podium and a successive second position.
“I was definitely struggling at the beginning, but bit by bit I got more comfortable with the balance,” he said.
“I had a really good start so I want to acknowledge my team. We’ve had a tough year and for both cars to be on the podium is an amazing way to go into the summer break.
“The other guys have an edge, but we are clearly closing the gap. Hopefully, we can bring some more into the second half of the season and start fighting with them.”
It was an up-and-down race for Daniel Ricciardo who executed a stunning double overtake on both Alpines and yelled “let’s f***ing go”, but had his race ruined after an incident with Lance Stroll.
Ricciardo made contact with the Aston Martin and was handed a five-second penalty for causing the collision. He also struggled with the harder tire and continued to slip down the field, eventually finishing in a lowly 15th position.
His teammate Lando Norris finished seventh.
– ‘I was confused’ –
Russell, who led for 30 laps, said he had a strong first stint, but that he struggled on the medium compound tires and lost temperature in the closing laps.
“But it’s been an amazing job by the team to have pole position and a double podium – we are definitely making progress. I am really proud of the work everyone has done.”
Both Sainz and Leclerc were disappointed by their results.
“I felt very strong and very comfortable on the mediums,” said Leclerc who led the race and looked likely to win before a pit-stop to switch unexpectedly to hard tyres.
“I wanted to stay out and I don’t know why I was called in. I was confused by that.
“I lost the race on the hard tires and I don’t know why. We need to speak about this inside the team.”
He added: “Honestly, the pace on my side, I was pretty happy, the only thing is that everybody will remember the last part of the race where it was a disaster for me, especially the hard – that’s why I lost the race basically .”
Sainz said he felt he was slower than expected.
“It is what it is,” he said. “We struggled as a team and in the lower temperatures the track changed and the car and the tires did not perform.
“We need to analyze this to see what we did wrong and, after the summer break, come back with a better package. We have to speak about it inside the team to get to do this better.” Ferrari team chief Mattia Binotto defended the team’s decisions.
“We didn’t have the performance we expected and the car was not performing well in the cooler conditions,” he said. “It’s the first time this season.
“We did not have the edge today. We believed we could do it, but it did not work out as we were expecting. Sometimes, we can make mistakes, but I fully support the team.”
HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX RESULTS
1. Max Verstappen (NED/Red Bull) 1hr 39min 35.912sec
2. Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes) at 7.834sec
3. George Russell (GBR/Mercedes) 12,337
4. Carlos Sainz (ESP/Ferrari) 14,579
5. Sergio Perez (MEX/Red Bull) 15,688
6. Charles Leclerc (MON/Ferrari) 16,047
7. Lando Norris (GBR/McLaren-Mercedes) 1:18.300
8. Fernando Alonso (ESP/Alpine-Renault) 1 lap
9. Esteban Ocon (FRA/Alpine-Renault) 1 lap
10. Sebastian Vettel (GER/Aston Martin-Mercedes) 1 lap
11. Lance Stroll (CAN/Aston Martin-Mercedes) 1 lap
12. Pierre Gasly (FRA/AlphaTauri-Red Bull) 1 lap
13. Zhou Guanyu (CHN/Alfa Romeo) 1 lap
14. Mick Schumacher (GER/Haas-Ferrari) 1 lap
15. Daniel Ricciardo (AUS/McLaren-Mercedes) 1 lap
16. Kevin Magnussen (DEN/Haas-Ferrari) 1 lap
17. Alexander Albon (THA/Williams-Mercedes) 1 lap
18. Nicholas Latifi (CAN/Williams-Mercedes) 1 lap
19. Yuki Tsunoda (JPN/AlphaTauri-Red Bull) 2 laps
20. Valtteri Bottas (FIN/Alfa Romeo) 5 laps
Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes) 1:21.386 on 57th lap (average speed: 260.580 km/h)
Daniel Ricciardo’s nightmare season has only gotten worse, with the Australian finishing 15th in Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring.
Despite starting in 10th position on the starting grid and spinning on Lap 40, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won his eighth race of the season to extend his lead in the drivers’ standings ahead of the mid-season.
It was a remarkable day for Verstappen, but the same certainly couldn’t be said for his former teammate Ricciardo.
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The McLaren driver was on track for a potential points finish before a collision with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll on Lap 48 ruined his race.
Ricciardo and Stroll were battling for position before the 33-year-old’s tires locked up and he understeered into Stroll as they went around the outside of Turn 2.
The Canadian spun around and Ricciardo was handed a five-second penalty for causing a collision.
Nothing went right for Ricciardo after the incident, slowly slipping down the order on the slower, hard tyres.
He was overtaken by Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda before eventually finishing 15th, behind Haas’ Mick Schumacher.
Earlier in the Grand Prix, Ricciardo was celebrating a stunning double overtake that elevated him into the points.
The Australian, who started ninth on the grid, was down in 12th following an early pit stop, but managed to swoop past both Alpine drivers in a matter of seconds on Lap 24.
While Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso were skirmishing on Turn 2, Ricciardo went wide and slipped down the inside on the next corner.
It was arguably his best moment of the season to date.
“Let’s f***ing go,” the Perth driver yelled on the team radio.
There were few scary moments throughout Sunday’s race — AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda went for a spin on Lap 35, while Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas retired on the penultimate lap, forcing a late virtual safety car.
Rain also started falling on the track with a couple of minutes remaining, meaning Verstappen had to tip-toe his way towards the finish line.
But the reigning world champion kept his composure and got the job done, winning his eighth race of the season and 28th of his career.
“I was at first hoping that I could get close to a podium, but very tricky conditions out there but we had a really good strategy,” Verstappen said.
“We were really reactive and always pitting at the right time, I thought we had some good out laps, and at the end – even with the 360 – we won the race.
“It was a crazy race and I’m of course very happy that we won it.”
The F1 season will resume at the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday, August 28.
Axed Formula One race director Michael Masi Sunday revealed he was bombarded with “vile” abuse and death threats after his stunning call that cost Lewis Hamilton an eighth world title.
The 44-year-old was removed from the high-profile job over his management of the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last year and quit the sport’s governing body FIA this month to return home to Australia.
I have told The Daily Telegraph he feared for his life after the sequence of events that led to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen passing Hamilton to deprive the Mercedes star of another crown.
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Vettel to retire at the end of the season | 01:32
“There were some dark days,” Masi said in his first substantive interview since.
“And absolutely, I felt like I was the most hated man in the world. I got death threats. People saying, they were going to come after me and my family.
“I still remember walking down the street in London a day or two later. I thought I was OK until I started looking over my shoulder,” he added.
“I was looking at people wondering if they were going to get me.” Masi called in the safety car for the final lap in Abu Dhabi, then controversially allowed the backmarkers between race leader Hamilton and Verstappen to unlap themselves.
That led to a one-lap shoot-out between the Briton and the Dutchman, who with fresh tires on his Red Bull car had a huge advantage which he exploited to pick off Hamilton and seal the title.
F1 LIVE: Mercedes young gun eyes maiden win after stunning pole, Mad Max meltdown
Michael Masi, removed as Formula One race director over his management of the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last year, left The FIA, the sport’s governing body. (Photo by Nhac NGUYEN / AFP)Source: AFP
Mercedes and Red Bull had both put pressure on Masi to make decisions which would have helped their driver, with the former left incensed as they believed he followed their rivals’ suggestions.
They threatened legal action with Hamilton so disillusioned there were fears he would walk away from the sport.
Masi can’t talk about the decision due to non-disclosure agreements with the FIA, the newspaper reported, but he said the following months were hellish.
“I was confronted with hundreds of messages,” he said.
“And they were shocking. Racist, abusive, vile, they called me every name under the sun. And there were death threats.
“And they kept on coming. Not just on my Facebook but also on my LinkedIn, which is supposed to be a professional platform for business. It was the same kind of abuse.”
Michael Masi opened up on the ordeal. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
The Australian said he tried to ignore them, but they impacted his mental health.
“I didn’t go and talk to a professional. With the benefit of hindsight, I probably should have,” he said, adding that the FIA was aware of the abuse, “but I think I downplayed it all to everyone including them”.
Masi decided to leave the FIA a fortnight ago after three years as Formula 1 race director and safety delegate following his appointment after the sudden passing of Charlie Whiting in 2019.
“It took me a while to process it all,” he said of the Abu Dhabi fallout. “But at the end of the day I thought it was best for me to come back home and be close to my support network.” Since the Abu Dhabi race, the FIA announced measures to ease the pressure on the race director and also altered the mode of communicating with him.
