Formula One Vault

This Grand Prix – Emilia-Romagna

Hello, Max Verstappen won the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix beating Lando Norris by seven-tenths of a second. The Dutchman held Norris off from the start but as the race progressed it became clear that Red Bull were not able to pull away by as much as he would normally do. Despite that win, things didn’t look comfortable with McLaren on the heals of Red Bull so are we looking at a much closer fight/

General News

Logan Sargeant and Sergio Perez have led calls for a review into the “joke” penalty points system. Under the current system which is similar to the UK system drivers must not get twelve points in twelve months before an automatic race ban.  But the application of points across varying types of penalty has raised concern amongst drivers.

Kevin Magnussen’s recent spate of punishments has seen the Haas driver move perilously close to that mark, with ten points the latest of which were added after the Miami Grand Prix. Sargeant was slapped with two penalty points at the Chinese Grand Prix after being deemed guilty of a safety car infringement, having been marginally behind Nico Hulkenberg at the Safety Car 1 line as the Haas emerged from a pistol.

he Williams driver believes that, with more serious driving infringements not being punished with license points, the system has become a “joke”.

Asked by Motorsport.com whether he felt the penalty points system needs changing, Sargeant replied: “I think mine [in China] was extremely frustrating. The penalty is one thing. To get penalty points for what it was, was a bit of a joke. I think a lot worse things happen throughout the weekend that you just get reprimanded for.”

“I’ve had people in qualifying slow down in front of me, nearly have huge crashes, and nothing happens. But then when I cross the line at the same time as someone else and you can’t even see it, you get two penalty points and I think it’s not a great direction to be heading in.”

Before Magnussen’s run-ins with the Miami GP stewards, Perez was at the top of the penalty points leaderboard. Giving his response, the Red Bull driver explained: “I think that already the penalties, sometimes you already pay the consequences for that and to add some penalty points, and given that we have now more races, it’s something that definitely should be looked at.

I don’t see how these rules can be changed and since they were introduced no driver has been hit with a race ban, but when one is then I think we will see how might impact as a deterrent as it is yet to lead to any driver receiving the points to the point of being banned

The Sunday Times annual Rich List says Lewis Hamilton is 350^th richest person in the UK with a £350m fortune. The seven-time champ was the only active sportsperson in the top 350 of the respected ranking, which the Sunday Times describes as a “definitive guide to the wealth of the UK’s richest people”.

The Mercedes driver is named as the UK’s 350th richest person, and ninth on the forty under forty on list £10m more than Ed Sheeran.

However, Hamilton’s wealth is not at the level of Bernie Ecclestone, the only other F1-related inclusion to the list. Ecclestone family wealth is said to be worth £1.844bn.

Last week, Verstappen was named ahead of Hamilton in Forbes’ list of the highest-earning athletes in 2024. Their list has Verstappen as the 17th biggest-earning sportsperson in the world with a total of $81m.

 Weekend Recap

FP1 saw Charles Leclerc go fastest with a 16.990 a tenth faster than George Russell who managed to split the two Ferraris after he was three hundredths faster than Carlos Sainz. Sergio Perez was fourth seven thousandths faster than teammate Max Verstappen. But the three-time champion at stages looked unsettled in the RB20, complaining about a lack of grip in the middle sector.

FP2 Leclerc continued to set the pace eight hundredths faster than in the earlier session, as he was almost two-tenths faster than Oscar Piastri. Yuki Tsunoda was third for RB ahead of the team’s home race he was almost two-tenths behind the McLaren. The Japanese driver a hundredth ahead of the two Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton going a hundredth and a half faster than teammate George Russell.

FP3 saw Piastri lead a McLaren one-two with a 15.529 on soft tyres going three-tenths faster than teammate Lando Norris. The fastest times came at the end of the session in a scramble to get out on the softs after Perez crashed with under ten minutes to go. Sainz was third almost a tenth and a half faster than his former teammate while Charles Leclerc was two hundredths behind.

Qualifying saw Verstappen back in front he set a 14.746 to take his eighth consecutive poles, matching Ayrton Senna’s record on the thirtieth anniversary of his death, and of Roland Ratezenberger. Verstappen was faster than Oscar Piastri who beat his teammate Lando Norris by nearly two hundredths, in one of the most competitive sessions of the season.

Verstappen held off Lando Norris in a thrilling fight to win by seven-tenths of a second. The Dutchman held Norris off from the start but as the race progressed it became clear that Red Bull were not able to pull away by as much as he would normally do. But Norris was not able to close the gap enough in the closing stages to try and get the move done to take the victory.

Leclerc was third seven seconds behind Norris returning Ferrari to the podium for the first time at Imola since 2006. Leclerc split the two McLaren’s as he finished a comfortable nearly seven seconds ahead of Oscar Piastri while his teammate Carlos Sainz was fifth

Red Bull

Adrian Newey has said for the first time that he expects to join another team following his decision to leave Red Bull. The sixty-five-year-old announced earlier this month his decision to leave his role as Red Bull’s chief technical officer after nearly two decades was announced earlier this month.

His latest comments come in an interview with his manager Eddie Jordan, the former F1 team boss, in a marketing video for a yacht company that has been released on YouTube. In which he said, he was “seriously considering changing teams, going somewhere else and doing another four or five years or whatever”.

Newey added: “I feel a little bit tired at the moment, but at some point, I’ll probably go again.”

As part of his exit from the team he has agreed he would not need to take a period of gardening leave, which would allow him to join a new team early in 2025 that will give him time to have influence on the design of that team’s car for the new F1 technical regulations that are being introduced in 2026.

Following Friday’s practice sessions, Max Verstappen admitted that Red Bull were “severely off the pace.” Throughout the day the three-time champion complained repeatedly about the handling of his RB20, it looked as if the more technical middle sector was upsetting the handling of the car and was causing him to lose time in the middle sector.

The triple world champion ended first practice in fifth and slipped to seventh in the second, over half a second behind Ferrari’s pacesetter Charles Leclerc. His team-mate Sergio Perez was next up in eighth another tenth behind the Dutchman.

Verstappen frequently vented his frustration over the RB20’s recalcitrant behaviour and unpredictable balance on the team radio Verstappen told F1 TV, “A difficult day. Just difficult to get a good balance and just not really feeling comfortable in the car, moving around a lot. It’s very easy to lose the car, so we have a few things that we have to look at because today definitely…. just bad, just not comfortable.

“Also the long run was really bad, so definitely a few things that we have to improve if we want to be competitive tomorrow. Today we were just severely off the pace that we need to fix.” Red Bull are likely to be able to fix the issues as these look to be balance issues rather than a wider technical issue, but they could be able to resolve those issues.

Following the race, Verstappen felt like he was “driving on ice” on the hard tyres in the Grand Prix, saying he “almost ended up in the grandstands”. I think that sums up his weekend as the car never looked comfortable, which could of open the door to Norris taking another victory.

The three-time champion explained he couldn’t keep the hard tyres in the operating window, which led to a lack of grip that he says nearly saw him crash at the Tosa hairpin.

Verstappen said after clinching his fifth grand prix win of the season, “On the mediums it was very good. But then as soon as I swapped to the hard tyres, maybe not the first five to 10 laps but after that, I was like: ‘I’m not sure I can bring this to the end’.”

“The tyres just fell out of the operating window and it was just like driving on ice, really snappy. At Turn 7 I almost ended up in the grandstands, for my feeling, at some point. So, it was just very difficult, really weird lines that I had to take.”

I think that the Red Bull isn’t as on rails as we saw last year as he wasn’t able to pull away despite any issues the team had with tyres like we saw in Singapore last year and at the last race in Miami. But what may also have helped him was the fact that Imola is difficult to overtake.

Norris never made it into DRS range of the Red Bull, but closed to seven tenths at the finish.

Mercedes

George Russell says he would be “all for” having Max Verstappen as his teammate should the world champion leave Red Bull to join Mercedes. While Verstappen is on paper committed to Red Bull until 2027 recent scandals and the internal power struggle at the team has raised questions about the Dutchman’s future.

Toto Wolff has openly admitted that he would want to have Verstappen but his comments drew criticism from Red Bull managing director Oliver Mintzlaff, who said Wolff’s public flirting with Verstappen showed a lack of respect. Although an early move to Mercedes for Verstappen looks unlikely, Russell says he would welcome the challenge of having the three-time world champion racing alongside him.

Russell said, “You know, coming into Mercedes in 2022 off the back of Lewis’s legendary years and victories, that was a huge task for anybody jumping into a team where he’s been for so long. I believe in myself, and you need to go up against the best in the same machinery and show what you have goT.”

“I feel that having Lewis as my team-mate for the past three years… He’s been a hell of a team-mate, such a great driver. And we push each other every single week and I think it’s fair to say that, so I will welcome Max, I want to go up against the best. Everybody wants to prove what they’ve got, so make it happen.”

Wolff has warned that it will take “several races” to significantly improve the W15. Mercedes has been overtaken by McLaren in terms of performance with the car both lacking downforce as well as some undesirable handling characteristics baked into it.

On Thursday he said, “The first six races have not been straightforward, but we have built a clear understanding of where we need to improve and shaped a clear path forward to tackle that. It will be several races before we see this bear fruit, but everyone is working hard to bring them as soon as is possible.”

However until then as the team always wants to maximise the package and hopes the upgrades for this weekend pushes them to maximise the package. It also believes the variety of circuits in the opening races has highlighted the underlying things that it needs to change.

Hamilton admits he “couldn’t reach” Russell’s level during qualifying, the seven-time champion was eighth two places behind as Yuki Tsunoda spilt the two Mercedes. Hamilton has been out-qualified by Russell in 11 of the last 12 races as he continues to struggle over one-lap with the W15.

Reflecting on qualifying at Imola, Hamilton admitted he “couldn’t reach” the level of performance Russell was able to, who qualified within a tenth of the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.

He said after qualifying “I think George’s lap was the maximum pace-wise of what our car could do. I couldn’t reach that today. Yesterday was looking strong. But good, positive, to see us pace wise a little bit closer.” The mystery is, that Hamilton admits they don’t understand why they are good on Friday but then can’t carry that into qualifying.

Hamilton described Mercedes as being in “no man’s land” despite the teams strong result with sixth and seventh for Russell. He believed that finishing higher than sixth wasn’t possible.

he said, “We got points, that’s a positive. We’re in the middle of no man’s land. But that’s a strong finish, in general, for us. I don’t think there was much more to get.”

Russell after the race said he was “not going to sulk” over losing P6 after Mercedes radio swap request. The Englishman was the only driver to do a two stop race because of the concerns about their tyres making the end of the race when he was running sixth, four seconds ahead of Hamilton.

Russell’s pit stop meant he was beaten by Hamilton, although he was able to pick up the fastest lap thanks to the fresh rubber. When stopping for fresh rubber, Russell asked Mercedes whether Hamilton would give him the place back at the end of the race – a request which was denied by Mercedes.

He told Sky Sports, “You are never going to be happy with a P6 and a P7. At the end of the day, as a team, we scored an extra point. I lost my position to Lewis. But, I am not going to sulk over losing a P6, to be honest.”

“This is where we are now. A little bit in no man’s land behind the Ferraris and the McLarens, and ahead of the midfield.” This has been the teams worst start to the season since 2011 despite the significant upgrades to the W15.

Ferrari

Ferrari has confirmed the signings of Loic Serra and Jerome d’Ambrosio from Mercedes to bolster its engineering and management teams. Serra will take on the role of head of chassis performance engineering role at Ferrari on 1 October, after joining Mercedes in 2010 taking on a series of vehicle dynamics roles at the team before being promoted to performance director.

Motorsport.com earlier this year, ex-F1 driver d’Ambrosio also leaves Mercedes to join Ferrari – where he is also set to start on 1 October – as deputy team principal to Fred Vasseur, thus exiting his role at Brackley as driver development director.

A driver at the Marussia Virgin Racing team in 2011, d’Ambrosio also competed in one race for Lotus in 2012 as a replacement for the banned Romain Grosjean at Monza, in addition to his reserve role at the team. The Belgian then took a brief stint in GT racing before switching to Formula E for the all-electric championship’s maiden season, driving for Jay Penske’s Dragon outfit. He then retired in 2020.

He then became deputy team principal of the Venturi squad to Susie Wolff, and was promoted to the team principal role when Wolff moved upstairs into a directorial role.

After Maserati entered into a partnership with the team, d’Ambrosio left to join Mercedes in a directorial role to work alongside Toto Wolff at the team, and with driver development guru Gwen Lagrue. D’Ambrosio will reunite with Lewis Hamilton when the seven-time F1 champion joins Ferrari in 2025.

Charles Leclerc says the decision to change his race engineer was made by the team. After Miami the team announced that his  long-time race engineer Xavi Marcos was being moved on to a new role, although it is not clear at the moment what position he will take.

Marcos is being replaced by Ferrari’s current performance engineer Bryan Bozzi, who has been with the team for 10 years. It is understood that this is the first time Ferrari has implemented a mid-season race engineer change like this since Rob Smedley was brought in to work with Felipe Massa from the 2006 European Grand Prix as replacement for Gabriele Delli Colli.

Asked by Motorsport.com to explain what prompted the change, and how much of a risk it was to be done amid an ultra-close fight with McLaren and Red Bull, Leclerc said: “Obviously it’s very, very tight in the front and everything makes a difference. However, the decision was made between the team and Xavi. They’ve had other plans in mind, I guess, and it was communicated to me right after Miami.”

“But having said that, Bryan, who will take the role of Xavi from now onwards, is a person I have been working with since I arrived in Ferrari. He’s always been my performance engineer, so he knows exactly how everything works. So, it’s not like I’m starting from zero and it’s going to be a complete readaptation.”

Ferrari has not said why it has made the change, but says that Imola was the right place to make the change saying that Leclerc and Bryan have “a very, very good technical collaboration. They rate each other very highly.”

After Qualifying Leclerc conceded that McLaren and Red Bull “hid their game a bit more than we thought” after Ferrari slipped from the top of the practice timesheets to a low-key fourth and fifth during qualifying in Imola. He was fastest on Friday in both sessions but the team struggled to find the same pace as Verstappen and both McLaren’s.

I think it highlighted how fine the margins are between Ferrari and McLaren, as well when it really matters Verstappen can pull it out the bag in qualifying. McLaren I think are going to be a problem for Ferrari when it matters but their didn’t, as Leclerc admitted seem to be that bit more in qualifying.

He said “I think they hid their game a bit more than what we thought. That ended up by just having not enough performance in the car to do better today. It’s a shame, because when you have upgrades on the car, when you are at [Ferrari’s] home, you obviously want to do really well, but today was the best we could do.”

As for what’s possible on race day, he continued: “The car is definitely good in terms of race pace, however it’s one of the most difficult tracks to overtake on. Also, I don’t quite understand why the DRS [zone] is shorter this year, which is going to make overtakes a bit more difficult.”

Sainz added that he was not surprised by McLaren’s pace while also explaining a deficit of almost three-tenths of a second to teammate Leclerc in the decisive Q3 phase.

Ferrari returned to what Leclerc said was an “incredible” podium for the first time since 2006 at Imola. After starting on the medium tyre from P3 on the grid, Leclerc seemed to pick up pace after his pit stop for the hard compound, which allowed him to chase down Lando Norris for P2 as the race headed towards its latter stages.

Here is what he said after the race, “At least it’s a podium. I’m only very happy when I win and today we didn’t quite make it. We were very fast at the beginning of the stint on the hard [tyre]. I started to push to try and put some pressure on Lando [Norris], but later on they were incredibly quick. All in all I think the race pace today was quite strong.”

The plot which emerging is the team are in this quite tight battle with McLaren, I think they on the right path to be regularly fighting behind Red Bull, that has been the theme this season.

McLaren

Lando Norris went into the weekend delighted to prove the doubters wrong and expects more victories to come after securing the maiden win in Miami. Norris took his first win two weeks ago, and believes this is just the start for both him and his team.

He told Sky Sports “I  said at the beginning of the year we could win races. A lot of people doubted what I could say and the fact that I said that; I think they doubted that McLaren could win races, they doubted that I could win races, but I was confident.”

“Deep down I knew that we had our time coming, so the team have done an amazing job. We weren’t even into Q2 here last year, so now the fact we’re on top, we’ve won a race, the team have done an insane job to kind of go from where we were to where we are now – and we’ve chipped away, especially the last couple of months.”

But he suggested that the team still needed to keep its head down to keep pushing forwards then he was sure that they could be winning more often. Prior to his Miami victory, Norris had finished on the podium fifteen times in his six seasons racing in F1 including eight-second places.

He added “Probably last year I would have thought of it, but this year I’ve been much better with just kind of keeping my mind focused and focusing on my job. I’m doing a good job. I’m fast and I’m executing things exactly how I want to do. I’ve improved on a lot of my weaknesses and all that hard work has paid off.”

Following practice Oscar Piastri was confident that they converted their strong practice form into an equally competitive qualifying display. In FP2, the Australian was P2 behind Charles Leclerc by nearly two-tenths, it is believed that from the win in Miami that the team is on the upwards trajectory.

He said on Friday, “I think honestly it’s been an encouraging day for us. The pace has been good, both in the qualifying runs and the race run, so I’m feeling pretty happy. I felt pretty comfy with the car from the moment we got on track so yeah, [we’ll] try and find a bit more overnight and see what we can do tomorrow.”

Asked about his expectations going into qualifying, he said, “Hard to know; it is very tight out there. Red Bull have looked a bit up and down, which is a bit unusual for them. Ferrari have looked quick, Mercedes looked quick as well at points, but I think we are definitely in the fight. We’ll try to find a bit more tomorrow, but where we were today is not unrealistic.”

Norris also appeared to be encouraged by the teams performance, despite a messy day, where he had a few technical gremlins in FP1 and an abandoned soft-tyre run in FP2.

he reflected, “I think on the whole a pretty reasonable day. A little bit of a messy FP1, we had the rakes on the car as we were doing some aero testing, then we had a couple of issues with the car after that, so not the most clean and straightforward day.”

Piastri was second in qualifying but started the race from fifth following a three-place penalty for impeding Kevin Magnussen in Q1 through Tamburello. That ultimately cost the Haas driver a place in the next part of qualifying and McLaren their first front row at Imola in two decades. The Australian got in the way of Magnussen at Turn 2 and Turn 3, ruining the Dane’s lap completely.

The stewards released the following explanation when announcing Piastri’s penalty. It read “The Stewards accepted the explanation of Piastri that because of the layout of the circuit at that location, he could not see Magnussen until it was too late, at which time he tried to accelerate away in order to get clear of Magnussen as quickly as possible. Magnussen acknowledged that it was difficult for drivers to see cars behind in many portions of the track, including here.”

The encouragement continued on Saturday, before the penalty, Piastri was three-quarters of a tenth behind Verstappen. He said, “A little bit of a scruffy last corner, but I think around here it’s so, so difficult to do a perfect lap. I’m really happy, I’ve been really comfortable with the car since the moment we put it on track yesterday.”

“It’s so, so close to pole, but I’m very happy. It’s been a little while since I’ve been up here, so I’m very happy with how this weekend’s going so far.”

Norris was also satisfied with his own qualifying, having noted the fine margins between McLaren and the Red Bull of Verstappen. But admitted the team had a good day when they were not far behind but warned that it would be close in the race on Sunday.

Adding “To be ahead of Ferrari is also a nice result for us. It’s going to be close, it’s going to be a good race tomorrow, hopefully it’s an exciting one to watch, also an exciting one in the car, but tough, especially when the lap times are so tight.”

Norris was again one of the stars of the weekend finishing second behind Verstappen by under a second, but despite the Englishman hounding Verstappen in the closing stages, he might have lost out because of his disadvantage on the tyres during the first stint in the race.

In the second half of the race, Norris truly started reeling Verstappen in over the last 15 laps but just failed to get within DRS range heading into the final lap. Norris ended up less than a second behind at the line as the Dutchman clinched his fifth win of the 2024 season, and felt he could have made a move with “one or two more laps”.

Team principal Andres Stella wasn’t so sure as overtaking proved extremely difficult at Imola and “it is Max Verstappen” Norris was up against. Stella told Sky Sports, “Well, 63 laps is already many laps. Many times you say you would like one lap more. It is what it is and also it is Max Verstappen, I am sure he was a bit in trouble but he managed to get the most out of what he had, so well done Max and well done to our two drivers, second and fourth.”

Norris says losing ground to Verstappen in the first stint on mediums is what ultimately cost him a better chance at a second consecutive win, two weeks on from taking his maiden victory in Miami. Something last achieved by Leclerc five years ago at Spa and Monza in 2019, it would have been the third time in a row that consecutive maiden and second wins would have been achieved since 2007.

Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso was a surprise early casualty in qualifying, the crash in FP3 appeared to caused an undiagnosed issue forced him into the pit lane and thus knocking him out in Q1.

Aston Martin managed to repair his car in time for qualifying but Alonso continued to struggle, having another off-track moment. Reflecting on qualifying, Alonso said: The team was incredible today. It was nice to witness that, the hours before qualifying, both teams together, (Lance Stroll) and (Alonso’s cars) working flat out to put my car in qualifying. We managed to do so. So that was big thanks to everyone.”

“Unfortunately, yeah, it was difficult to guess but we did fuel for the whole session, and then just doing some pit stops just to give me a little bit more laps into practice. And I set the best lap time in qualifying in the first attempt, and I think we have a lot of fuel in that moment of the session.

Lance Stroll fears the upgrades the team has brought to Imola haven’t been enough to keep pace in the fight behind Red Bull. This weekend the team brought their first big upgrades, however they struggled to close the gap to Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes and Stroll was knocked out in Q2 started from P12.

Aston’s Imola spec includes a revamped floor, as well as a new front wing and diffuser as part of what technical director Dan Fallows described as an “aggressive” in-season development programme to make its car better suited to different circuits.

But just based on the evidence of Imola qualifying, Stroll doesn’t feel like the car upgrades are anywhere near enough to keep pace with the teams ahead. The evidence backs that up with their nearest rivals looking as if they have gone backwards

Williams

Alex Albon has signed at least a new two year contract with Williams until the end of 2026. The British-Thai driver has been with the team since 2022, and previously had a contract that expired at the end of next season. Williams have not confirmed the length of the new deal but say it is “multi-year contract extension” that takes Albon into the new regulation period, which starts in 2026.

Albon said, “This is a long-term project that I really believe in and want to play a key role in which is why I have signed a multi-year contract. The journey will take time but I am confident we are building the right team to move forward and achieve great things in the years to come.”

Meanwhile there are reports that Logan Sargeant has been told he’s “at risk” of losing his seat as James Vowles open talks with other drivers. Sargeant continues to underperform, which led to speculation that he  could be replaced mid-season by Mercedes junior Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

Vowles told Sky Sports after FP1, “We’ve had a direct conversation which is a very hard conversation. The simple matter of fact is he’s at risk. That’s a matter of fact. He has to perform above what he is. It’s meritocracy. I’m helping him on his journey and want him to be successful. In the meantime, we are talking to a few other drivers because we have to, to get our 2025, 2026, 2027 line-up correct.”

But confirmed there is no intention to replace Sargeant in the “next few weeks”.

Sauber

Defacto team principal Alessandro Alunni Bravi has revealed “important upgrades” ahead of this weekends race. The team went into the weekend yet to score a point, given the tight battle in the lower half of the table with Haas and RB scoring points.

Both Guanyu Zhou and Valtteri Bottas have shown glimpses of form behind the wheel, their efforts have largely been hampered by persistent issues at pitstops linked to new equipment introduced over the winter. These issue have cost the team and in Melbourne they were fined for an unsafe release.

Bottas revealed the team had apologised for the issues and added: “We’re in this together. “I was disappointed, but the whole team was disappointed because these things shouldn’t happen. So, we’re definitely taking it seriously and it is a priority now to get that sorted.”

In Miami, while they didn’t have the performance to trouble its rivals despite escaping any issues in the pits, even with Zhou attacking after a safety car period on a set of soft tyres. Alunni Bravi added, “I  think that the strategy to put soft was correct one, we didn’t have tyre degradation. He was able to score his fastest lap at the end. But we were struggling for most of the race behind [Alex] Albon – also with the DRS to not be overtaken, benefiting from a better top speed than us.

“So we tried everything in terms of strategy, in terms of tyre compounds, but simply it didn’t pay. Again, we need to bring upgrades, we need to do an extra step in the performance, because what’s been done so far, it’s not sufficient.

Haas

Haas has announced its suing its former team principal Guenther Steiner for trademark infringements in his “Surviving to Drive” autobiography. Just a few days after it emerged that Steiner was taking Haas to court in North Carolina for non-payment of commissions he says he is owed, it has become known that Haas has launched its own legal action in California.

court papers lodged in the Central District of California, Western Division, Haas argues that Steiner and his publisher Ten Speed Press acted unlawfully in publishing images that it believes breached trademark rules.

Haas’ document alleges: “In 2023, without permission or consent from Haas Automation, Steiner authored, marketed, promoted, sold, distributed, and profited from a publication titled “Surviving to Drive” (the “Accused Product”), which unlawfully used and displayed, and continues to use and display, the Haas Automation Trademarks and the Haas Automation Trade Dress for Steiner’s personal financial gain and illicit profit.

Haas is seeking damages from the defendants and has asked the court for a trial by jury over the matter. Fair use does permit individuals and publisher to use other’s trademarks without consent for a variety of purposes, including commentary, criticism, news reporting and comedy.

Facts and stats (F1.com)

• Max Verstappen ties Ayrton Senna’s F1 record of eight consecutive poles, on the thirtieth anniversary of his death at Imola. He also ties Alain Prost’s record of seven consecutive poles at the start of any F1 season.
• Oscar Piastri was second in qualifying and was set for his second career front-row start for a Grand Prix after Suzuka in 2023. That was until a three-place grid penalty post-session for impeding.
• Yuki Tsunoda bagged his highest start of the season with seventh, as his RB teammate Daniel Ricciardo bagged his first Q3 appearance of the season.
• Verstappen matches Michael Schumacher in winning three consecutive Imola races. It’s his 59th Grand Prix victory, and his 49th since the start of 2021.
• Norris took his third straight Imola podium, on what was his 17th career podium finish. He also grabbed a third consecutive ‘Driver of the Day’ accolade.
• Leclerc was third, for Ferrari’s first podium finish at Imola since Michael Schumacher won here in 2006. It was Leclerc’s fourth podium finish of the season, as he moves into second in the drivers’ championship.

Results Summary

Championship Standings