| By Ben Anderson | Friday, February 28th 2014, 14:36 GMT |
Sergio Perez set the pace for the second consecutive day, as Ferrari and Red Bull showed signs of improvement during the final pre-season Formula 1 test in Bahrain.
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| By Jonathan Noble | Friday, February 28th 2014, 15:28 GMT |
Formula 1 teams have approved plans to tweak the qualifying format for 2014 in a bid to spice up the spectacle of Q3
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| By Edd Straw and Sam Tremayne | Friday, February 28th 2014, 15:51 GMT |
Lewis Hamilton has played down Mercedes's 2014 Formula 1 'favourite' status, saying he is still wary of traditional rivals Ferrari and Red Bull
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| Thursday, February 27th 2014, 15:19 GMT |
Andrea Dovizioso tried an Open class specification Ducati at Sepang on Thursday, with just one day to go before the deadline to choose the category for the 2014 MotoGP season.
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| By Glenn Freeman | Thursday, February 27th 2014, 15:27 GMT |
Sergio Perez believes Force India made a "great step" as the team topped the times on the opening day of the final Formula 1 pre-season test in Bahrain.
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| By Sam Tremayne | Thursday, February 27th 2014, 15:42 GMT |
Nico Rosberg says the problems that curtailed Mercedes' afternoon running shows just how on the limit preparations are for Formula 1's season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
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| Wednesday, February 26th 2014, 12:41 GMT |
Jorge Lorenzo fears that Bridgestone's 2014 MotoGP tyres are going to prove troublesome for Yamaha.
The double world champion was already concerned that Yamaha was struggling to adapt to this year's fuel regulation changes and their impact on electronics.
After the first day of the second pre-season test at Sepang, Lorenzo said the latest Bridgestones were now the biggest headache.
"The new rear tyres, both the soft and the hard, are not working properly on our M1," he said after going fifth quickest.
"We tried many things but for the moment we haven't found any solutions. Tomorrow we are going to try something different with the electronics that worked last year to try to improve a little bit because we are not so good today.
"The tyres don't give me any confidence in the corner entry, in the middle of the corner and on acceleration.
"It seems Bridgestone will not be providing different tyres this year so we have to adapt to the situation."
But team director Massimo Meregalli believes Yamaha is already making progress with the tyres.
"We are still focused on making the new tyre work properly on our bike and we found something interesting compared to the last test that needs to be adjusted," he said.
"I think we are in the right direction to fix this problem. We have two more days so we expect by the end of the last day we will provide a good performance."
Lorenzo's team-mate Valentino Rossi, who was two places behind the Spaniard in seventh on Wednesday, shared Meregalli's confidence.
"We have a problem with the 2014 [tyres] so we have to concentrate to take the maximum benefit from them but already at the end of today it was not so bad," said Rossi.
| By Edd Straw | Wednesday, February 26th 2014, 12:47 GMT |
Formula 1's final pre-season test kicks off in Bahrain on Thursday, giving teams and drivers their final opportunity to prepare for the 2014 season.
With just four days of running left before Friday practice at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on March 14, the teams in best shape are aiming to focus on upgrades, car performance and race simulations.
So far, only Mercedes-powered teams have attempted race simulations and with the 100kg-per-race fuel limit placing a premium on efficiency, there is still uncertainty over how races will pan out.
This means that any team that has not completed a proper race distance will head into the Australian GP blind.
Ten things we learned from Bahrain F1 test
With most teams launching a relatively basic car specification to allow work to focus on understanding the new 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 engines, there were relatively few major upgrades in the previous test meaning that most squads are planning car changes for Bahrain.
Those able to run reliably will be best-placed to evaluate aerodynamic upgrades as well as continuing to refine the way that the engines run to achieve the best car balance.
So far, Mercedes-powered teams have led the way, although one of the major talking points of the test will be Ferrari's progress as the Scuderia has yet to show its hand publicly and appears to be lagging behind the Mercedes works team.
RENAULT QUESTION MARKS
A litany of problems with the Renault engine has restricted running, with Red Bull, Lotus, Toro Rosso and Caterham logging only 4019km between them during the first eight days of testing - compared to the 3073km achieved by the Mercedes team alone.
Other than Ferrari-powered Marussia, the four Renault-engined teams are the least prepared heading into the final test.
Renault made changes to its energy store, both on the hardware and software side, for the last Bahrain test and also supplied two stages of control system software, the first a very conservative version designed to allow the cars to run as reliably as possible, and the second a more aggressive version for improved performance.
As Renault is adamant its hardware is up to scratch, the focus will be on software and the way the engines are operated when testing gets underway.
Light at the end of the tunnel for Renault
"We have made some good headway in terms of PU [power unit] performance and operation in the car, we are now in a situation we could have accepted mid-Jerez," said Renault Sport F1 deputy managing director Rob White after last week's test in Bahrain.
"We are not back on schedule but we are moving in the right direction - the running we have done is very valuable.
"The challenge is to improve the rate of progress, because the gap to where we wanted to be at this stage remains substantial.
"We remain confident in the PU and its sub systems, we are just not at the level of operation and performance we want to be.
"The immaturity of the PU combined with the time lost to incidents means the chassis work to prepare for the season is also behind schedule.
"From this point on we must pursue and accelerate an upward curve."
NO RACE SIM YET
No Renault team has yet completed a race simulation, although Lotus was hopeful of being able to attempt one in Bahrain.
The team enjoyed an encouraging final day in the previous test and is confident that it can close the performance gap to the front.
"That will be one of our priorities next week, to try and do a race sim so maybe second day you will be looking at that," said Lotus technical director Nick Chester.
Gary Anderson predicts 2014 F1 pecking order
"There is a lot of progression yet to come. It would be brave to say we could take all 5.4 seconds out [compared to last test pacesetter Nico Rosberg's time] but there are a lot of areas where we will make a lot of progress."
Chester even talked up the possibility of emerging as the lead Renault-powered team this year and with the reigning world champion team struggling throughout testing so far, Red Bull's progress in Bahrain will be one of the stories of the coming four days.
Follow the final Bahrain test as it happens from 6am UK time with AUTOSPORT Live.
| By Ben Anderson | Wednesday, February 26th 2014, 14:35 GMT |
Valtteri Bottas says Williams has a real chance to score some strong results early in the 2014 Formula 1 season, after continuing its excellent pre-season testing form in Bahrain.
The team only managed to set the eighth fastest time across four days of testing at the Sakhir circuit last week, but devoted one day entirely to pitstop practice with the FW36.
Bottas drove more laps in a single day than any other driver on day two (116) while Williams completed more running than any other team (323 laps) in Bahrain.
"If we have more of these kinds of days and if some other teams continue struggling then for sure we have an advantage, and I think a big thanks to this is the Mercedes," said Bottas.
"The work with them has been very good so far; the engine side is working well. We did the amount of laps of two races without any problems, which is very important."
Gary Anderson predicts 2014 F1 pecking order
The Mercedes-powered runners have dominated the timesheets during the two days of testing held so far, and the Finn reckons his Grove team will have an advantage early on if non-Mercedes teams continue to struggle.
"At this point compared to last year is it's looking better for us, and that's definitely our goal to make a good step from last year, because it was not where we should be," added Bottas.
"But we're not getting too excited yet. We've no clue what the others have been doing. Looking at the lap times it's still very difficult to know, so let's wait a bit and see.
Does Williams hold the aces?
"I think Ferrari is also looking strong [with a] strong engine. [Their] reliability is also not too bad, and we'll see how much Renault can improve.
"I think we should not underestimate anyone, but we are hoping we will be in this top 10 group and my feeling, at least at the beginning of the season, is that it could be Mercedes-powered cars [at the front] but let's see.
"I think the field could actually be quite tight - especially the top 15."
| By David Evans | Tuesday, February 25th 2014, 14:37 GMT |
M-Sport's facelifted Fiesta RS WRC will run for the first time competitively in next week's Rally Mexico.
The new look has been seen in pre-event and development tests throughout the early part of this year, but next week's first gravel rally of the season will give fans their first glimpse the 2014-spec Fiesta.
M-Sport managing director Malcolm Wilson said: "We're quite restricted on what we can do with the cars this season, but Mexico will be the first event for the facelift.
"There are a few small bits and pieces which we've done on the car and we will keep doing through the year, but there's really nothing major coming for this season."
The Fiesta R5 was homologated with the new front, but this is the biggest change to the exterior of the RS WRC since it was introduced in 2011.
| By Kevin Turner | Tuesday, February 25th 2014, 13:00 GMT |
British Touring Car champion Andrew Jordan wants to add GT outings to his programme after testing a GT3 Aston Martin at Portimao last week.
The 24-year-old, who took the BTCC crown in his Eurotech-run Honda Civic, drove the Beechdean Vantage V12 that took Andrew Howard to the 2013 British GT title.
Jordan told AUTOSPORT that although touring cars remained the priority, endurance events were appealing.
"I said to Andrew I'd like to do some GTs around my touring cars, and he said come and do a test," Jordan told AUTOSPORT.
"I'd not driven a GT3 car before and it's an impressive piece of kit.
"The test was great so now we need to sit down and see if we can do some long-distance races. I'd like to do the Spa 24 Hours, but it depends on the driver gradings.
"I really like the GT and [Aston regular] Jonny Adam was really open. Testing at night was really cool too."
Jordan, a former Rallycrosser, admitted that many other forms of motorsport appeal to him.
"I just love driving," he added. "I'd love to do the odd rallycross event or 24-hour race around the BTCC. It's all building experience for the future."
Jordan will also compete at this year's Goodwood Revival in September, sharing the family Austin A40 with father and Eurotech team boss Mike Jordan in the St Mary's Trophy for 1950s saloons.
| Tuesday, February 25th 2014, 14:41 GMT |
Honda insists it will not rush Marc Marquez's comeback from a broken right leg, despite the disruption to the Spaniard's preparations for his MotoGP title defence.
Marquez suffered the break while riding a dirt-track bike in Spain last week.
He will be forced to sit out the forthcoming three-day test at Sepang, which starts on Wednesday February 26, and is also a doubt for a three-day run at Phillip Island in early March.
Honda though downplayed the potential cost of missing out, saying Marquez's pace and feedback had already established a strong platform for his 2014 campaign.
The 21-year-old was quickest on all three days of 2014's opening test in Malaysia earlier in February.
"On the one hand it would be good for him to be on the bike again before the start of the season," Honda team principal Livio Suppo told MotoGP's official site.
"But on the other hand I'm already totally confident in him because we saw at the first Sepang test that he was already immediately very fast.
"He was already able to choose the new parts of the bike, so we're not in the middle of any big changes.
"The priority is always the rider's body (health) and especially at the moment as we don't have any drama on the technical side."
Suppo added that the team would delay a decision on whether Marquez will travel to Phillip Island for as long as possible.
"Marc is doing his rehabilitation and tomorrow morning he will visit the doctor again, so then we'll try to understand what to do for the next test."
"We have to ship the bike one way or another, so we still have three full days to understand."
The team expects Marquez to be fully fit in time for the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix on March 23.
