| By Jonathan Noble | Tuesday, February 3rd 2015, 13:07 GMT |
McLaren has been forced to cut short Fernando Alonso's running on the penultimate day of pre-season Formula 1 testing at Jerez thanks to further Honda engine problems
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| By Glenn Freeman and Jonathan Noble | Tuesday, February 3rd 2015, 12:29 GMT |
Valtteri Bottas says Williams is a totally transformed team from how it was last year as it sets sights on Formula 1 wins in 2015
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| By Victoria Ganeeva | Tuesday, February 3rd 2015, 14:02 GMT |
The Lada World Touring Car Championship team will skip the official pre-season test at Barcelona later this month to maximise development time on its new Vesta
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| By Glenn Freeman | Monday, February 2nd 2015, 12:01 GMT |
Sebastian Vettel set the pace on the second morning of Formula 1 testing at Jerez, going faster than his day one-topping time for Ferrari
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| By Jonathan Noble | Monday, February 2nd 2015, 12:32 GMT |
Red Bull has promised an "even stronger" livery for the new Formula 1 season, following the positive feedback for its camouflage testing colours
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| By David Evans | Monday, February 2nd 2015, 14:23 GMT |
The Tour of Corsica is expected to reclaim its slot as the World Rally Championship's French venue following the funding problems for the previous Strasbourg event
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| By Jonathan Noble | Sunday, February 1st 2015, 09:43 GMT |
Mercedes says that it will only decide on how to use its engine development tokens once Formula 1's pre-season testing is finished.
The FIA told teams in December that in-season upgrades were now allowed, following a challenge from Ferrari that the regulations had failed to specify an exact date for delivering them.
The clarification means that manufacturers no longer have to ensure they have done all their work by the season-opening Australian Grand Prix - as had been the original idea.
Despite the fact that there is now more time to bring upgrades, Mercedes says that its 2015 plan remains unchanged - and that it will only commit to its programme when it knows how pre-season running has gone.
Mercedes engine chief Andy Cowell said: "This decision hasn't altered our development strategy for 2015, which was always to gather the necessary data from pre-season testing in order to define and submit the engine specification for the opening race.
"However, it does offer the opportunity to exploit this interpretation for further gain later in the season, should we choose to do so."
Mercedes could choose to hold fire on a number of potential improvements if it feels that it has enough of an edge early on. That could help deliver a bigger performance boost for the crunch phase of the title battle.
The team began proper testing of its new W06 at Jerez in Spain on Sunday, with Nico Rosberg setting the early pace.
Follow every winter Formula 1 test as it happens with AUTOSPORT Live
| By Glenn Freeman | Sunday, February 1st 2015, 12:22 GMT |
Mercedes picked up where it left off in 2014 as Nico Rosberg comfortably led the first morning of 2015 Formula 1 pre-season testing at Jerez on Sunday.
The Mercedes F1 W06 was the first car on track when the pits opened, and Rosberg set about logging more laps than anyone else by some margin as he quickly got down to long-run work.
Prior to that, the 2014 runner-up set a best time of a 1m23.106s, putting him 1.5 seconds clear of Daniel Ricciardo by the time most teams stopped for a short break around lunchtime.
Ricciardo completed a series of short runs in the camouflage-liveried Red Bull, but by the afternoon he only had 22 laps to his name and his last run had ended with smoke from the back of the car (pictured below).
New Sauber signing Marcus Ericsson set the second-highest number of laps on his way to being third quickest on a morning where very few cars completed significant running.
Lotus's E23 only started its journey to Spain this morning, while Williams, Ferrari and McLaren's lap tallies were in single figures by lunchtime.
Ferrari sent four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel out early to get his first taste of the new SF15-T, but despite completing a handful of short runs in the morning his outings were sparse as the day went on.
Williams made a late start with Valtteri Bottas due to carrying out "double checks" on the new FW37, while Fernando Alonso made sporadic appearances on track with the Honda-powered McLaren.
In a step forward from McLaren's first test with the Japanese manufacturer last year in Abu Dhabi, the car completed a handful of single-lap runs before Alonso set one timed lap that was 17 seconds off the pace.
His fellow Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr completed 20 laps for Toro Rosso, with the F1 rookie mainly focusing on short runs and practice starts.
TODAY'S TIMES SO FAR: Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m23.106s 80 2. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1m24.641s +1.535s 22 3. Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1m24.804s +1.698s 30 4. Valtteri Bottas Williams 1m25.167s +2.061s 9 5. Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m25.764s +2.658s 9 6. Carlos Sainz Jr Toro Rosso 1m26.081s +2.975s 20 7. Fernando Alonso McLaren 1m40.738s +17.632s 6
| Sunday, February 1st 2015, 08:16 GMT |
Red Bull's 2015 Formula 1 car emerged for the first time in a camouflage livery as Jerez testing began on Sunday morning.
The four-time champion team chose not to carry out any form of official launch or car unveiling for the Renault-powered RB11, instead heading straight out of the garage in the surprise colour scheme without ceremony.
Daniel Ricciardo is behind the wheel for the first day of running at Jerez. Toro Rosso graduate Daniil Kvyat replaces Ferari-bound Sebastian Vettel as his team-mate for 2015.
Red Bull's chief engineering officer Rob Marshall, who has stepped into the new role following Adrian Newey's change of emphasis, said that the majority of changes from the 2014 would be hard to spot, but that significant steps had been made.
"There are some changes that affect the shape of the front of the car but beyond that most of the changes are under the skin," he said.
"We've identified the areas where we can make improvements and we've worked hard on these.
"There won't be a lot that's visible to the naked eye but a lot of hard work has gone into the bits that are hidden."
There had been suggestions in the build-up to the test that Red Bull was struggling to be ready in time, but the team confirmed to AUTOSPORT on Saturday that the final crash tests had been passed, and it was among the first to hit the track on Sunday morning.
Team boss Christian Horner had previously admitted that Red Bull had opted for its tightest-ever car build programme in order to ensure that maximum developments were on the RB11.
| By Gary Watkins | Saturday, January 31st 2015, 12:27 GMT |
The Japanese SARD team, runner-up at the 1994 Le Mans 24 Hours, is set to return to the international arena for a World Endurance Championship LMP2 campaign with Morand Racing
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