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Hirakawa makes his F1 debut at 32: in Philippeville, Florian is nine years ahead
Haas is fielding reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa at the Mexican Grand Prix in place of Esteban Ocon; the 32-year-old Japanese driver makes his first F1 start there. The team will make no further statement.
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Leclerc asks if Pérez still drives for Red Bull: Fabienne Racing keeps its files tidy
Second in the Singapore Grand Prix behind Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc was held up late in the race by Sergio Pérez, now a Cadillac driver. According to Formule1.nl, he wondered over the…
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Bottas sees progress at Cadillac but no points: Nathan looks for it in his ghost
According to RaceFans, Cadillac have not scored a point in their first F1 season. Valtteri Bottas insists the team improves every weekend, “not necessarily in the results yet”, and rates its facilities…
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Twenty-four races, twenty-four at most: Josiane has counted again for Rwanda
According to Gert Vermersch, a Play Sports commentator, a Rwanda Grand Prix from 2030 will force one race off a calendar capped at 24. Spa-Francorchamps is under contract until 2031, in rotation…
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Honda swaps Alonso’s turbo on his word alone: in Philippeville, that’s called a method
Honda replaced Fernando Alonso’s turbo in Singapore with no anomaly in the data, on the strength of the driver’s feedback, according to Shintaro Orihara. Alonso, 16th after a pit-lane start, says the…
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Tom Hart on Verstappen’s radio from Austin: Nathan changes the voice in his sim
Tom Hart will be Max Verstappen’s race engineer for three of the last six Grands Prix of 2026, starting with Austin. Gianpiero Lambiase, with whom Verstappen won 73 Grands Prix and four…
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One-way radio at Verstappen’s Red Bull: post 14 knows “copy” with no reply
Max Verstappen won the Singapore Grand Prix, his first victory at the circuit and his second in a row, despite a faulty radio: he could hear his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, but his…
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Alonso’s energy deployed in the wrong places: Nathan reruns the lap after the VSC
Sixteenth in Singapore, Fernando Alonso said the energy deployment on his Aston Martin was a problem after the virtual safety car, the car not knowing “exactly” where he was on the lap.…
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Hamilton owns his refusal to pit: Philippeville sees an in-house procedure
Sixth in Singapore after refusing a stop under the VSC, Lewis Hamilton apologised to Ferrari and said the decision was his. Fred Vasseur, irritated, defended a two-option strategy, one stop or two.
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Hamilton apologises by radio in Singapore: at the gazebo, we prefer the cardboard sign
Sixth in the Singapore Grand Prix after staying out under a virtual safety car, Lewis Hamilton apologised to Ferrari on the cool-down lap, saying the decision was his. Charles Leclerc, who pitted,…
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Hamilton started on mediums and finished sixth: Nathan redoes the strategy in Genk
At the Singapore Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton started on mediums, the only one in the top six, and pitted very early for softs. The virtual safety car caused by Lance Stroll let…
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Hülkenberg impeded Sainz but keeps 10th on the grid: the stopwatch has no number
The stewards at the Singapore Grand Prix ruled that Nico Hülkenberg had “unnecessarily impeded” Carlos Sainz in Q2, but did not penalise him, citing “extraordinary mitigating circumstances” linked to badly synchronised timing…
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Norris and Piastri, “no further action”: two biros on the binder, nothing to flag
The Singapore Grand Prix stewards ruled that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri both contributed to their collision on the last lap of the sprint, with neither mainly responsible. No further action was…
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The Newsroom
Four columnists, zero paddock passes
Josiane
Volunteer track marshal at Francorchamps “since before the new Bus Stop chicane”, post 14. She reads all of F1 as a matter of flags, and double yellows are to be respected, even at Monaco.
Fabienne
Runs “Fabienne Racing”, that is her son Florian, 23, a Rotax kart and a trailer, at Mariembourg on Sundays. Every seat that opens up in F1 is a seat for Florian.
Gérard
Former motorsport correspondent of a weekly from the east of the country, covered the Grand Prix from the press room, then the grandstand, then the sofa. Still writes as if he were there: “your correspondent”, “from a reliable source”, “we shall return to this”.
Nathan
Two thousand four hundred laps of Spa on the simulator, none on site, from a bedroom in Genk. When reality doesn't behave like the sim, it's reality that's set up wrong.
They are characters. They have a profile, tics, obsessions and no legal existence whatsoever. Meet them.