Hamilton and Raikkonen lead as tests end

The four day tests at Jerez and Bahrain concluded on Friday, with the Bahrain running resumed after a two day sandstorm, and all teams starting to set some competitive lap times. In Spain, Sebastian Bourdais set a 1:17.472 in his 2008 car, whilst Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso battled it out for the fastest time [...]

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Jerez test continues and Bahrain test haulted

The four day test at Jerez continued into Thursday, with newly re-signed Sebastien Bourdais taking over the running of Toro Rosso’s 2008 car and, of course, setting the fastest time. Reigning champion Lewis Hamilton was back in the cockpit and only just managed to keep the McLaren MP4-24 ahead of the other ’09 cars by [...]

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Sandstorm hits Bahrain as testing continues

The four day test in Jerez and Bahrain continued on Wednesday as, to nobodies surprise, Sebastien Buemi took to the top of the time sheets in his 2008 Toro Rosso at Jerez as he completed a full race simulation, whilst Heikki Kovalainen improved the pace from the previous day, and set the fastest time in [...]

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McLaren launch MP4-24 at Woking

McLaren became the third team to reveal their 2009 car on Friday. The MP4-24, which Lewis Hamilton will use to defend his drivers championship, was launched in a small press gathering at the teams headquarters in Woking, a contrast to McLaren’s large scale launch events at Valencia in 2007 and Stuttgart in 2008. Having clinched [...]

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Dennis to step down as McLaren team principal

Ron Dennis has announced at the launch of McLaren’s 2009 car that he will step down from the team principal role he has occupied for 27 years. In that time he has helped Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Aytron Senna, Mika Hakkinen and Lewis Hamilton to world drivers titles and become an influential figure in Formula [...]

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Vettel demotes Buemi at final test day of 2008

The final testing day of 2008 took place on Wednesday at both Jerez and the new Algarve circuit, with all the teams in action developing or starting to develop their 2009 car in preparation for the first car launches next month. At Jerez, Sebastian Vettel finally beat Sebastien Buemi to the fastest time for Red [...]

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Testing continues at Jerez and Algarve

Testing continued at both Jerez and the new Algarve circuit into Tuesday, with Red Bull and McLaren remaining on top as times improved from Monday. Sebastien Buemi was once again on top in an RB4, setting a best lap of 1:17.029 during his extended running, after stepping in for the injured Mark Webber. He was [...]

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Testing underway at Algarve and Jerez

The final test session of 2008 got underway today, with teams split between the location of the last test, the Jerez ciruit in Spain and the Internacional do Algarve in Portugal. The Algarve circuit, which was completed in October, held it’s first ever F1 test day. Only McLaren and Ferrari were in action at the [...]

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Force India switch to Mercedes engines

Force India have dropped the Ferrari engines used by the team this year and by Spyker in 2007, in favour of Mercedes engines and a technical partnership with McLaren. As well as engines, they will also be using the same gearbox, KERS and other technical equipment used by the British team in 2009. The scale [...]

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Hamilton becomes champion in epic last moments

Lewis Hamilton has won the 2008 Formula 1 World Championship in remarkable circumstances, after passing Timo Glock at the final corner of the final lap to secure fifth place, and finish just one point ahead of Felipe Massa in the standings. Hamilton becomes the youngest Formula 1 champion in the sports history, beating Fernando Alonso’s [...]

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