Races and Competitions

Jacques Villeneuve has joined Bernie Ecclestone in admitting his opposition to the Manor team.   In Bahrain last week, when asked if he is happy the former Marussia team resurrected itself over the winter, F1 supremo Ecclestone admitted: "Not particularly."   Now Villeneuve, the world champion of 1997, has admitted he also doubts Manor belongs at the pinnacle of motor sport.   "No, of course not," he told the Spanish sports daily AS, "when their car is five seconds off the...

McLaren has denied reports Jenson Button lost his temper with the team's situation after the Bahrain grand prix.   The 2009 world champion had a horror weekend of unreliability in the island Kingdom, and then could not even take his Honda-powered car to the grid on Sunday.   "The chances of it (the energy recovery system) failing were quite high so we decided it was better not to run it," McLaren supremo Ron Dennis said.   Britain's Mirror newspaper claims Button, 35, then "failed to...

Bernie Ecclestone has put plans for a grand prix in Qatar on the back burner.   In February, the Arab country's highest ranking motor racing official said: "We are about to sign contracts to organise a formula one race" in 2016 or 2017.   That was despite F1 supremo Ecclestone earlier saying he could not organise a Qatari race unless organisers in nearby Bahrain agreed.   "It's not for us (to say)," Bahrain circuit boss Sheikh Salman bin Isa Al-Khalifa said last weekend. "It's for the...

Sebastian Vettel thinks Ferrari could be his last stop in formula one.   The 27-year-old switched to the fabled Maranello marque for 2015, and is believed to have signed at least a three-year contract.   But the German, who won his four world titles with Red Bull, thinks he could now stay in red for a long time.   "Yes, definitely," said Vettel when asked if it is possible Ferrari will be his last team before retirement.   "At the moment I'm not looking that far ahead, but I am not...

Designer James Allison was a key to Kimi Raikkonen's 2014 resurgence, the Finnish driver's manager admits.   Raikkonen struggled notably to match former teammate Fernando Alonso last year, bringing into serious question his future at the Maranello team.   But the 35-year-old is returning to form this year, and on Sunday he ended a long podium drought in Bahrain and almost challenged Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes for victory.   It revived memories of 2012 and 2013, when Raikkonen shone at...

Will Stevens is looking forward to getting at the wheel of an all-new Manor, so that he can race against more than one rival.   Currently, the former Marussia team is struggling alone at the back of the grid with a 2014 car hurriedly cobbled together to comply with this year's rules.   "We have no rivals," Briton Stevens was quoted as saying on Thursday.   "The only person I am fighting is my teammate," he explained, referring to fellow rookie, Spaniard Roberto Merhi.   Manor is...

Mercedes' race drivers were dealing with very different dramas in the quick-fire hop between China and Bahrain.   For championship leader Lewis Hamilton, it was the manner of his celebrations on the Shanghai podium that drew negative attention.   Anti-sexism campaigners objected to photos depicting the reigning world champion spraying champagne into the face of an uncomfortable-looking podium hostess.   But F1 legend Niki Lauda, who is Mercedes' team chairman, told Bild newspaper on...

Lewis Hamilton has urged his teammate to get into the "racing" spirit and try to take him on next time around.   Rosberg, now 17 points behind in the championship standings, ended the Chinese grand prix complaining about his fellow Mercedes driver's tactics as he controlled the pace from the front.   "I don't know what there is to talk about, man," British reporters quoted reigning world champion Hamilton as saying between the Chinese and Bahrain grands prix.   Rosberg argued that he...

Jules Bianchi's father has admitted he is angry about the investigation into his son's horror 2014 crash.   More than six months after that fateful day in Japan, 25-year-old Frenchman Bianchi remains in a coma in his native Nice.   His father, Philippe, said he agreed to a new interview with the local Nice-Matin newspaper "out of respect for all the people who continue to send Jules their beautiful wishes, encouragement and affection every day".   But he admitted there is little to...

It was after the chequered flag flew that the real fireworks began in China between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.   Rosberg, beaten in Shanghai, re-fired old tensions with his Mercedes teammate by accusing Briton Hamilton of deliberately spoiling his race.   Rosberg had been heard during the race asking strategists to push Hamilton's pace, as he fended off the increasing threat posed by Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.   Indeed, Hamilton was even told on the radio to speed up.   But...