Formula One champions Ferrari have lightened Kimi Raikkonen's load by giving the Finn a new slimmed-down car for Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix. Ferrari said the 2007 champion, whose last win was at the Circuit de Catalunya a year ago, would get a lighter chassis than Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa for the start of the European season.
Australian Oscar Piastri roared back from season-opening disappointment in his home race by winning the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix from pole position in a McLaren one-two with championship-leading teammate Lando Norris on Sunday.
Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said the 'circus' track of the Singapore race and the use of the safety car had been humiliating for Formula One.
Ferrari's Felipe Massa took pole position at the Turkish Grand Prix for the third year in a row on Saturday. Brazilian Massa, who has won at the Istanbul Park circuit for the past two years, will have McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen alongside him on the front row in Sunday's race.
India's foreign ministry condemned Ferrari on Friday for putting the Italian navy flag on their cars at the Indian Grand Prix in what was seen as a political gesture of support for detained sailors.
Charles Leclerc crashed at the end of qualifying for his home Monaco Grand Prix on Saturday
Vettel, who won all four of his world championships with Red Bull, has gone 16 races without a victory and made some costly errors, while Hamilton has won 14 of the last 20.
'I don't think the departure of Schumacher or (technical director Ross) Brawn will change much,' said the Toyota driver.
'I think we're disappointed with it as F1 fans...All the drivers that I'm talking with, we're disappointed with what's going on with the cars, the lap times, it's just not stimulating for the drivers'
Ferrari agreed on Friday to end legal action against McLaren over last year's spy scandal for the good of Formula One.
Michael Schumacher led the team to a one-two victory in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
Formula One may have to wait a decade for a return to screaming V10 or V8 engines and jettisoning the next generation V6 due to be introduced next year is simply not feasible, according to F1's former chief technical officer Pat Symonds.
Fernando Alonso will start Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix from the pit lane after wrecking his Ferrari in final practice for the showcase race of the Formula One season.
'I am very happy that you have finally found someone with whom you really feel that you feel very comfortable and secure...I am 100% behind you dad and wish you all the best and congratulations.'
Lewis Hamilton emphasised his loyalty to Mercedes while leaving open the possibility that he might one day be tempted to race for Formula One glamour team Ferrari.
Ferrari's underwhelming pace was a surprise to their rivals and to Hamilton, whose quickest lap in the final qualifying session (Q3) was nearly nine-tenths of a second slower than Norris's.
Formula One's more cynical participants have long joked that the letters FIA really stand for Ferrari International Assistance rather than International Automobile Federation.
Ferrari CEO Amadeo Felisa expressed disappointment over seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher's defection to Mercedes-Benz, but said it will not affect their vehicle sales.
Mercedes have signed 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli to replace Lewis Hamilton next year.
Ferrari would not swap Brazilian driver Felipe Massa for McLaren's Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton, president Luca di Montezemolo said. Hamilton, 23, who became the youngest world title-winner after he edged Massa by snatching fifth place on the final bend of November's season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix, said last week that he would never leave McLaren.
Fernando Alonso said he planned to see out his Formula One career at Ferrari after the Italian team announced on Thursday that they had extended the double world champion's contract to the end of 2016.
Schumacher retired at the end of the 2006 season but returned to the race track this month in a test that Ferrari described at the time as "half for pleasure, half for technical reasons."
Twice Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso made his first public appearance with his new Ferrari team at an event in Valencia, Spain on Sunday.
Sebastian Vettel was Ferrari's first choice to stay and partner Charles Leclerc in Formula One next year until the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything, team principal Mattia Binotto said on Friday. The four-times World champion, who won his titles with Red Bull, will now be replaced by Spaniard Carlos Sainz who joins from McLaren at the end of the season in a decision announced in May.
Force India has agreed to release Giancarlo Fisichella, who earned the team its first podium finish in Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix, and the Italian will join Ferrari, sources said on Thursday.
Ferrari's Formula One championship leader Fernando Alonso crashed out of the Japanese Grand Prix seconds after the start on Sunday.
Last year team orders forced Rubens Barrichello to move over and let Schumacher win at Spielberg.
Ferrari and Fernando Alonso are back as Formula One title contenders despite leaving Germany with a $100,000 (64,658 pound) fine and the threat of further punishment hanging over them.
The Briton's latest victory, in a Tuscan Grand Prix that was twice red-flagged and re-started, left him one shy of the Ferrari great -- a record once held up as a milestone to withstand the test of time.
The racing scenes in Brad Pitt's new F1 movie are impressively authentic but the filmmakers have also made much of how the sport's past is woven into the plot -- with a hefty slice of Hollywood artistic licence.
The pitstop fire provided the main talking point at Austria after Schumacher had taken his third win in a row.
World champion Michael Schumacher was only 15th fastest in free practice for the Spanish Grand Prix.\n\n
'Ferrari know how to accept defeat, just as they know how to celebrate victory,' Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said.
Felipe Massa delivered his eagerly-awaited verdict on Ferrari's new Formula One car after the first day of testing on Tuesday, with sighs of relief likely to be heard around Maranello.
