F1 news

In this week's F1 Gossip column, Sergio Perez is considering a switch to Alfa Romeo for 2021 while the Spanish Grand Prix could be under threat...

This week's F1 Gossip sees Valtteri Bottas move front and centre of the silly season, plus financial turmoil at Renault and a change of leadership at Aston Martin

- The big news coming out of Saturday in Sochi was confirmation of McLaren’s switch from Renault to Mercedes power units from 2021, following the emergence of reports through Friday.

- Lewis Hamilton closed out Friday’s running in Singapore quickest for Mercedes, edging almost two-tenths of a second clear of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen under the lights in FP2.

- Media day at the Marina Bay Street Circuit brought about two driver announcements for 2020. Haas started the day by announcing that it would be retaining Romain Grosjean for next season alongside Kevin Magnussen, extending the Frenchman’s stint with the team into a fifth year.

- The motorsport paddock reconvened still mourning the death of Anthoine Hubert last Saturday at Spa in the Formula 2 race. Hubert’s team, BWT Arden, will enter just one car to this weekend’s F2 round.

- The Spa-Francorchamps paddock returned to action on Sunday in Belgium following the tragic death of Formula 2 driver Anthoine Hubert on Saturday at the age of 22. The planned F2 Sprint Race was cancelled, but the Formula 1, Formula 3 and Porsche Supercup races went ahead as planned.

- Ferrari swept to a one-two finish in both FP1 and FP2 on Friday at Spa, showing the might of its engine and straight-lined speed advantage over the field. Sebastian Vettel led from Charles Leclerc in FP1 before they swapped for FP2.

- Max Verstappen claimed the first pole position of his Formula 1 career in qualifying on Saturday in Hungary, edging out Valtteri Bottas by just 0.018 seconds in the final stage of qualifying.

- Max Verstappen claimed the seventh victory of his F1 career in style as he capitalised on mistakes for a number of his rivals to win a wet-dry thriller at Hockenheim.

- Mercedes kicked off the weekend celebrating its 125 years in motorsport by fully unveiling its revised car livery for the weekend.

- The day in Austria started with a meeting between F1, the FIA, all 10 teams, Pirelli and a number of drivers to discuss a possible change back to the 2018 tyres after a number of complaints in the early part of the team.

- Lewis Hamilton took the 86th pole of his Formula 1 career in dominant fashion on Saturday at Paul Ricard, heading up a front row lock-out for Mercedes.

- The FIA-appointed stewards held a hearing for Ferrari’s request to review the penalty given to Sebastian Vettel at the Canadian Grand Prix that cost him the race win.

- Lewis Hamilton topped both FP1 and FP2 on Thursday in Monaco for Mercedes, marking the first time he has led a session around the streets of the principality since opening practice in 2017.

- Valtteri Bottas took the ninth pole position of his Formula 1 career on Saturday in Spain after topping qualifying for Mercedes, setting three laps good enough for P1.

- Valtteri Bottas arrived in Spain on Thursday leading the F1 drivers’ championship once again after his victory in Baku, but rejected the suggestion Mercedes’ results flattered its performances so far this year.

Recapping all of the news and notes from the Albert Park paddock on Friday, here is Michael Lamonato's notebook.

For the first time this year, Crash.net brings you its daily round-up of all the news, updates and added tidbits of information from the paddock after Thursday’s media briefings ahead of the Australian Grand Prix.

- Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has been linked with a return to the sport to help solve rising tensions between race promoters and Liberty Media ( T

- Sebastian Vettel has backed new Ferrari junior Mick Schumacher to be an F1 star of the future, though he has urged people to “give him time” ( Sky Sports )

- Daniel Ricciardo has revealed more details about his decision to leave Red Bull for Renault and confirms he turned down McLaren because he felt the team was "just not there yet" ( RACER ) 

- Mick Schumacher, son of seven-time Formula 1 world champion champion Michael, has joined the Ferrari driver academy, sources close to the team say ( BBC ).

Ex-Formula 1 driver Karun Chandhok believes racing should be decided by a “natural penalty” to avoid “messy” post-race punishments that affect the outcome of a grand prix.