FIA Archives

F1 (Round 2): 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Highlights & Results

The second round of the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship saw reigning champion Max Verstappen starting from 15^th after driveshaft failure forced him out of qualifying, and Charles Leclerc in 12^th after taking a 10-place grid drop for using more than his 2 allotted ECUs for the season,

Verstappen’s team mate in Red Bull Racing, Sergio Perez, had a poor start from pole position and was passed by a forceful Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin. However, the Stewards would give Alonso a 5-second penalty for incorrect starting location.

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F1 (Round 2): Preview & Starting Positions Of 2023 STC Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

The 2023 Formula 1 World Championship continues in the Middle East after the opening round in Bahrain with Round 2 at the seaside resort and port city on the Red Sea where the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix is being held this weekend. Situated 30 kms from Jeddah, the is the third time that the city is hosting a round on its Corniche street circuit.

Like the Bahrain GP, the Saudi Arabian GP will also be run at night on the 6.174-km circuit, the second longest in the 2023 calendar (after Spa-Francorchamps). Designed by Carsten Tilke, the son of the famous F1 circuit designer, Hermann Tilke, this is the fastest street circuit in the F1 calendar at the moment. Speeds on simulators have averaged over 250 km/h around the track which has 27 turns, the most of any circuit this year.

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Hypercar Category Of World Endurance Championship Explained

It’s difficult to say which was the first hypercar the term itself refers to a car with extremely high performance, beyond the normal performance limits of supercars. It could be based on a minimum power output, say 800 bhp, or it could be dependent on the era as technological levels have constantly advanced.

The Bugatti Veyron launched in 2005 with 987 bhp (1001 ps) could be a candidate for the first hypercar. In any case, there are now a number of models which produce in excess of 1000 ps and therefore qualify as hypercars.

The appearance of hypercars has inevitably led to the creation of a category in motorsport which has seen the first racing cars competing this year. The Hypercar category, a joint project of the FIA and the ACO, envisaged as the new top class of the FIA World Endurance Championship, has attracted a number of carmakers with 13 full-season Hypercar entries from 7 manufacturers.

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F1 (Round 1): 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix Race Highlights & Results

As the lights went out to signal the start of the first round of the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship, Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen pulled away from the field cleanly. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc sneaked by Verstappen’s team mate Sergio Perez in pursuit of the world champion. .

Red Bull would be aiming to win at Bahrain for the first time since 2013 while Lewis Hamilton would hope that he could add one more win to the five previous ones that have made him the most successful driver at this circuit.

Although Fernando Alonso started from P5 and his team mate in the Aston Martin team was in P8, they somehow came in contact as the pack went through Turn 4. It appeared that Stroll was eager to get past Mercedes-AMG’s George Russell who had started from P6 but instead caused Alonso to drop to 7^th. The Stewards considered the Aston Martin incident and decided that no action was necessary.

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F1 (Round 1): Preview & Starting Positions Of 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix

After much anticipation over the past few months, a new Formula 1 season has started. Bahrain again has the honour of being season-opener where it used to be towards the end of the season and it was Australia that started the season.

Apart from the new cars, there are also three new faces – Oscar Piastri with the McLaren F1 Team, Logan Sargeant with Williams Racing, and Nyck de Vries with Scuderia AlphaTauri. While the first two drivers are making their debut in F1, de Vries (who also raced in Formula E) actually made his unplanned debut last year at the Italian GP. He took over Alexander Albon’s place in the Williams team when the Thai driver had appendicitis and could not race. 27 years old then, the Dutch driver did well to ninth position, scoring points on his first F1 outing.

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Aston Martin To Supply Official FIA Safety And Medical Cars for 2023 F1 Season

Since the 2021 Formula 1 season, the Official FIA Safety Car and Medical Car have been from two different companies, instead of just Mercedes-AMG as in earlier years. The other company has been Aston Martin which, like Mercedes-AMG, also has a team taking part in the F1 World Championship.

Aston Martin will again provide the Official FIA Safety Car and Official FIA Medical Car for the 2023 season. The Vantage will again be used for Official FIA Safety Car functions but for the Official Medical Car, Aston Martin is providing a new and very powerful SUV, the DBX707. It replaces the DBX used previously to transport medical personnel quickly to the site of an incident during the race.

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Formula E: Da Costa Collects First Win With TAG Heuer Porsche Team In Cape Town

After racing at a brand new track in Hyderabad, India, for Round 3 of the ABB Formula E World Championship, the drivers headed southwest to another new venue – Cape Town in South Africa. While not the first Formula E event in Africa as previous events have also been run in Marrakesh, Morocco, since 2016, the Cape Town circuit is the fastest of this 16-race season.

The 2.921 km circuit is around the DHL Stadium, skirting the coastline with the famous Table Mountain as a backdrop. The surface had bumpy braking zones, a tight chicane at Turns 4, 5 and 6 and a pacy, narrow section midway around the lap that would challenge the GEN3 racing cars.

Antonio Felix da Costa drove a storming race from 11th on the grid to his first win for TAG Heuer Porsche in the event, after producing a carbon copy of one of the best moves you’ll ever see for the lead, on two separate occasions. The Season 6 champion returned to form last time out with third in Hyderabad but this was something else in a properly attritional race with just 13 drivers finishing the knife-edge encounter.

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Jean-Eric Vergne Wins First-Ever Formula E Race in India

DS PENSKE’s Jean-Eric Vergne held on to his lead to win the first-ever ABB FIA Formula E World Championship race in India. His victory was cheered by a sell-out crowd of over 25,000 people which included a host of dignitaries, Bollywood celebrities and sports stars. The last time Verge was on top of the Formula E podium was in April 2021 at the Rome E-Prix.

The 32-year old French driver, who has been in the all-electric single-seater championship Formula E since 2014, Vergne fought hard in the final third of the race to stay ahead of Envision Racing pair Nick Cassidy and Sebastien Buemi. Although Buemi finished third, a post-race penalty dropped him further so it was Antonio Felix da Costa (TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team) who inherited his position.

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FIA Confirms 6 Power Unit Suppliers For Formula 1 From 2026 – 2030

As the teams begin their phased unveiling of the new cars for the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship, the FIA has also confirmed that 6 manufacturers have registered as Power Unit Suppliers for the 2026 – 2030 seasons of the championship.

The manufacturers that will supply the F1 power units are Alpine Racing, Audi, Ferrari, Honda Racing Corporation, Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains and Red Bull Ford. It’s interesting that Honda has signed up to be an engine manufacturer after 2025 when Red Bull Racing, which will use its engines until then, will switch to a new power unit jointly developed with Ford (and so will Scuderia AlphaTauri).

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Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein Moves Into Formula E Lead With Two Wins In A Row

Pascal Wehrlein of the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team steered his 99X Electric GEN3 car to two wins over two days at the 2023 CORE Diriyah E-Prix, once again pipping Avalanche Andretti Formula E Team driver Jake Dennis to the line, while Rene Rast secured a first podium for NEOM McLaren in Formula E.

Qualifying in fifth rather than ninth in the first day’s race (Round 2), Wehrlein made things easier on himself ahead of Round 3 under the bright lights of Diriyah, venue of the street circuit in Saudi Arabia for the all-electric Formula E series. This year, the more than 35,000 fans who attended the race weekend saw the Middle-Eastern debut for the all-new GEN3 car – the world’s fastest, lightest, most powerful and efficient electric racing car.

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FIA

F1 (Round 2): 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Highlights & Results

F1 (Round 2): Preview & Starting Positions Of 2023 STC Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

Hypercar Category Of World Endurance Championship Explained

F1 (Round 1): 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix Race Highlights & Results

F1 (Round 1): Preview & Starting Positions Of 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix

Aston Martin To Supply Official FIA Safety And Medical Cars for 2023 F1 Season

Formula E: Da Costa Collects First Win With TAG Heuer Porsche Team In Cape Town

Jean-Eric Vergne Wins First-Ever Formula E Race in India

FIA Confirms 6 Power Unit Suppliers For Formula 1 From 2026 – 2030

Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein Moves Into Formula E Lead With Two Wins In A Row

F1 (Round 2): 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Highlights & Results

F1 (Round 2): Preview & Starting Positions Of 2023 STC Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

Hypercar Category Of World Endurance Championship Explained

F1 (Round 1): 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix Race Highlights & Results

F1 (Round 1): Preview & Starting Positions Of 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix

Aston Martin To Supply Official FIA Safety And Medical Cars for 2023 F1 Season

Formula E: Da Costa Collects First Win With TAG Heuer Porsche Team In Cape Town

Jean-Eric Vergne Wins First-Ever Formula E Race in India

FIA Confirms 6 Power Unit Suppliers For Formula 1 From 2026 – 2030

Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein Moves Into Formula E Lead With Two Wins In A Row

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