Fabio Quartararo believes Marc Marquez’s exit from Honda last term “woke a lot of people up” at Yamaha, prompting him to renew with the Japanese MotoGP team. Quartararo put pen to paper earlier this month on a contract extension that will see the 2021 MotoGP World Champion remain with Yamaha through the 2025 season. Despite Yamaha’s struggles persisting into 2024, the Frenchman has remained committed to the manufacturer that provided him with his MotoGP debut seat in 2019. Marquez, who had been with Honda his entire premier class career, elected to make the switch to Gresini Ducati for this s ..read more

Ferrari is set to welcome HP as its first title sponsor since 2021 next season, in a deal comparative to Oracle’s lucrative backing of direct Formula 1 rival Red Bull. Sports Business reports that Hewlett Packard (HP) will become Ferrari’s title partner in a deal worth in the region of $90 to $100 million to be announced in Miami. The deal, which will also see the two brands enter into a technological partnership, will begin at the same point Lewis Hamilton completes his switch to the marque. Ferrari last had a title partnership with Mission Winnow following the signing of an agreement with U ..read more

Mick Schumacher was the strongest Alpine Endurance driver pace-wise in the 6 Hours of Imola, teammate Nico Lapierre told MotorsportWeek.com. “In Imola, I have to say, [Schumacher] did a super strong race,” said the veteran French sportscar driver. Driver Average lap time Vaxiviere 1:35.8s Schumacher 1:34.5s Lapierre 1:35.5s Milesi 1:35.1s Chatin 1:35.3s Gounon 1:36.0s Data gathered from http://fiawec.alkamelsystems.com/. “He had a very strong pace, probably the strongest pace from the six Alpine drivers.” Some data analysis of the lap times completed across the two Al ..read more

Red Bull boss Christian Horner is certain Sergio Perez would have “smashed” the one-stoppers on a two-stop without the Safety Car in Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix. Perez had dropped back to third on the opening lap behind Fernando Alonso but recovered the place on the fifth lap and ran in second until his first pit stop on Lap 13. However, the Mexican would end up behind both Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc when the race was neutralised and allowed that pair to pit with a reduced time loss. Red Bull elected to ensure its two drivers would not be at a disadvantage and also boxed with a slick ..read more

McLaren Formula 1 boss Andrea Stella has revealed the damage Oscar Piastri nursed on his car from contact under the Safety Car in China was worth “four-tenths”. Piastri, who had qualified inside the top five, trailed home in a distant eighth place in the race, over 42 seconds behind team-mate Lando Norris, who claimed second. The Australian struggled to maintain pace with Norris on his maiden visit to the Shanghai International Circuit, but his hopes had been compromised at the mid-point. As the cars prepared to return to racing at the end of Lap 27, Lance Stroll failed to brake for the Turn ..read more

Arrow McLaren announced Tuesday morning that Theo Pourchaire will driver for the team for a second race this upcoming weekend. The 2023 F2 champion made his IndyCar debut last weekend at the Grand Prix of Long Beach, impressing his team and competitors with a strong drive. The 20-year-old had not piloted an IndyCar before the timed sessions of the race weekend, with a single simulator session and video review his only forms of preparation. Despite that lack of experience, Pourchaire climbed from 22nd to 11th in the race. He finished as the highest placing rookie, and also gained the most posi ..read more

Max Verstappen admitted the revised Formula 1 Sprint format for 2024 was an improvement but said more weekends with Sprints “will take their toll on everybody”. The new format was tested for the first time during the Chinese Grand Prix and saw the schedule altered to have the Sprint sessions take place before qualifying. On Saturday morning, the Sprint race was run, followed by a reopening of parc ferme to permit setup tweaks to the cars before GP Qualifying on Saturday afternoon. As ever, the Grand Prix took place on Sunday and after a dominant victory, Verstappen gave his verdict on the new ..read more

Ferrari has announced that shades of blue will be incorporated into the liveries of its two 2024 Formula 1 cars throughout the upcoming Miami Grand Prix weekend. The Italian outfit will run the tweaked design to celebrate the 70th anniversary of its presence in the United States when it ran a white and blue scheme in two races. Although Ferrari is not supplanting its iconic Rosso Corsa red for that combination as it did in 1964, the marque is reviving select blues that hark back to its heritage. Ferrari will first adopt a lighter shade of blue known as Azzurro La Plata, which is the national ..read more

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes the team’s current standing is a consequence of the recent struggles seeing it lose out in a “relative game” to its Formula 1 rivals. The German marque’s woes continued last weekend in China as George Russell finished sixth and Lewis Hamilton recovered from a Q1 elimination to salvage ninth. Russell wound up 25 seconds behind McLaren’s Lando Norris in second position, with Mercedes now 44 points behind the Woking-based squad in the championship. Wolff has noted that Mercedes hasn’t regressed pace-wise with its revised W15 car but rather the competition has fo ..read more

After a week recovering from the craziness of Misano, FIA Formula E is back, and Motorsport Week has you covered for everything you need to know ahead of Saturday’s Monaco E-Prix. Formula E arrives in Monaco amid talk of pelotons, mid-season driver tests and…throttle damper springs? It was so many hours after the race that Antonio Felix da Costa was disqualified, the overalls in which he took a celebratory backwards flip into a nearby swimming pool were already dry. The hearts of everyone went out to da Costa, who might not even be clad in Porsche overalls come next season, especially given t ..read more