Category: Formula 1

Every Formula 1 driver has their own race engineer who plays a key role in ensuring that their driver is aware of the race strategy and any decisions being made by the team. They are pivotal in creating an open line of communication to the driver whilst the car is on the track and relay messages which can help with improving performance or even helping to manage the vehicle. 

Some engineers even become household names, such as Lewis Hamilton’s engineer ‘Bono’ and Max Verstappen’s ‘GP’. Many drivers will form a close relationship with their race engineers and will retain them for multiple seasons as a sign of trust. 

What is an F1 race engineer and what do they do?

The role of an F1 race engineer is to be the key communicator between the team and the driver during the race. They are sat on the pit wall and have to deliver messages from the driver to the engineering team and vice versa.  

An engineer must know their driver extensively in order to translate any feedback about the car back to the rest of the team, who can then make any necessary adjustments. They are also responsible for ensuring that their drivers remain motivated whilst they’re on the track and providing any feedback on how to improve their performance. 

A race engineer also needs to clearly communicate between the team and their driver, as well as understand the engineering of a car to ensure information is correctly communicated. The trust between a driver and their engineer, means that many will stay together for multiple seasons. 

Following any session, the race engineer will look through driver comments alongside relevant data to figure out where they can make improvements for future races. 

Here’s everything you need to know about each driver’s race engineer:  

Max Verstappen – Gianpiero Lambiase 

• Team: Red Bull 
• Years together: 7 
• Engineer’s years in F1: 18 

Gianpiero Lambiase, Red Bull Racing engineer

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Gianpiero Lambiase – also known as GP – has been Max Verstappen’s race engineer since the current world champion made his move to Red Bull in 2016. Team principal Christian Horner has likened the pair to an ‘old married couple’ due to the engineer’s straight-talking nature with the Dutchman following his on-track outbursts.  

Verstappen has frequently praised his race engineer’s direct nature and honesty, adding: “And he’s also a guy who doesn’t talk too much. I don’t like someone who’s talking just to talk, giving me more messages – because for me, that is just not working. And he’s exactly the same, so he likes that as well.”

Lambiase started in Formula 1 in 2005 where he spent 10 years with Jordan, who rebranded to Midland, Spyker, and Force India, during his time with the team. He became a performance engineer for Giancarlo Fisichella in 2008, helping the Italian driver to Force India’s first podium at the 2009 Belgium Grand Prix. 

He then worked with Vitantonio Liuzzi, Paul di Resta and Sergio Perez, before moving to Red Bull Racing in 2015. Lambiase became Daniil Kvyat’s race engineer and retained his role when the Russian driver was replaced by Verstappen just five races into the 2016 season. 

Lambiase was promoted to Head of Race Engineering at Red Bull in 2022, replacing Guillaume Rocquelin, but has also continued in his role as race engineer for Verstappen. 

Sergio Perez – Hugh Bird

• Team: Red Bull 
• Years together: 3 
• Engineer’s years in F1: 11 

Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing talks with race engineer Hugh Bird

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Hugh Bird has been working with Sergio Perez as his senior race engineer since the 2021 Formula 1 season. The pair have claimed five race wins in three years, as well as finishing second in the 2023 drivers’ world championship.  

Bird started in Formula 1 in 2012 when he joined Red Bull Racing as a simulation and analysis engineer, before moving to be a simulation performance engineer from 2015 to 2017. He was then appointed Max Verstappen’s performance engineer in 2018, where he spent three years helping the driver score his seven race wins and two consecutive third places in the 2019 and 2020 world championships.  

Sergio Perez has spoken highly of his engineer and after a difficult mid-season in 2023, told the Talking Bulls podcast: “We never lose faith in each other, we’re together and we[’re] always looking forward to the next target. I think that’s something [that] make[s] us very bulletproof because we’ve had some tough times in our history of three years but we always somehow managed to get out of it with a lot of success, so I think it’s a good dynamic in that regard.” 

Lewis Hamilton – Peter Bonnington 

• Team: Mercedes  
• Years together: 11  
• Engineer’s years in F1: 19 

Peter Bonnington, Senior Race Engineer, Mercedes AMG, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG, on the grid

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

Peter Bonnington – known by many as Bono – is one of the most familiar race engineers on the grid. He joined Jordan Grand Prix in 2004 as a data engineer, working alongside Giorgio Pantano and Timo Glock. 

Bonnington then moved to Honda as an understudy to race engineer Andrew Shovlin, which saw him progress into his role as Jenson Button’s performance engineer. He remained with the team when it transitioned into Brawn GP and worked alongside the British driver as he won his 2009 drivers’ world championship. 

He then became Michael Schumacher’s performance engineer for the 2011 and 2012 season with Mercedes, before the German driver announced he would be retiring. Bonnington moved to the role of senior race engineer for Lewis Hamilton in 2013, where he has remained to this day.  

Bonnington has worked alongside Hamilton to help secure the British driver six out of his seven world championships. He is also known for coining the phrase, “It’s Hammer time”. 

Following the news that Hamilton will move to Ferrari in 2025, it is yet to be announced if Bonnington will move with him.  

George Russell – Marcus Dudley

• Team: Mercedes  
• Years together: 1 
• Engineer’s years in F1: 17 

Marcus Dudley joined George Russell as his senior race engineer at the start of 2023, having previously worked as a performance engineer for Mercedes since 2013. Dudley has spent a decade with the Brackley-based team, stepping in to replace Bonnington at the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix and 2022 Austrian Grand Prix. 

He started his career in F1 as a Mathematical Modeller in 2006 before becoming a GP2 Performance Engineer at Arden International Motorsport. Before joining Mercedes, Dudley spent a season and a half with Marussia F1 Team as a Junior Performance Engineer. 

Charles Leclerc – Bryan Bozzi

• Team: Ferrari 
• Years together: 0
• Engineer’s years in F1: 12

Charles Leclerc will work with a new race engineer for the remainder of the 2024 season after Ferrari announced that Xavier Marcos will move into a new role on other programmes.  Marcos has been with Ferrari since 2018 and was previously the race engineer for Leclerc’s predecessor Kimi Raikkonen.  

A statement from Ferrari read: “Scuderia Ferrari HP announces that, as of Monday 13 May, Xavi Marcos will bring his valuable experience gained as a race engineer with the Formula 1 team to the development of other important company programmes.” 

Leclerc performance engineer Bryan Bozzi will move into the role as his race engineer starting in Imola next week. Bozzi has been with the Maranello-based team for 12 years, where he started as a wind tunnel R&D engineer in 2012.  

Carlos Sainz – Riccardo Adami

• Team: Ferrari 
• Years together: 3 
• Engineer’s years in F1: 21 

Riccardo Adami has been Carlos Sainz’s race engineer since the Spaniard joined Ferrari in 2021. He was previously the race engineer for Sebastian Vettel and moved from Toro Rosso to Ferrari in 2015.  

Adami started his career in 2002 with Minardi, working in several positions before becoming a race engineer. He stayed with the team when it was acquired by Red Bull at the end of 2005 and worked with multiple drivers including Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Sebastien Buemi and Vitantonio Liuzzi. 

This is the last year that Adami will work with Sainz, after it was announced that Hamilton would join Ferrari in 2025. It’s not yet known if Adami will become the British driver’s race engineer when he joins the team. 

Lando Norris – William Joseph

• Team: McLaren 
• Years together: 5 
• Engineer’s years in F1: 13 

Lando Norris, McLaren, on the grid with his race engineer

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Will Joseph has been with McLaren since 2010 and has been Lando Norris’ race engineer since his rookie year in 2019. Before moving into the role, Joseph worked as a race team performance engineer alongside Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Perez, Kevin Magnussen and Fernando Alonso. 

Joseph spent the first year of his motorsport career as a race engineer for Cobra Racing with their GT2 and GT3 cars. 

Oscar Piastri – Tom Stallard

• Team: McLaren 
• Years together: 1 
• Engineer’s years in F1: 15 

Tom Stallard has been with McLaren since 2008 and has been a race engineer for multiple drivers including Jenson Button, Stoffel Vandoorne, Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo. He became the race engineer for Oscar Piastri in 2023, with the Aussie joining Formula 1 for his rookie season.  

Stallard is also a former Olympic medallist, after securing silver at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing as part of the Team GB rowing team. 

Fernando Alonso – Chris Cronin

• Team: Aston Martin 
• Years together: 1 
• Engineer’s years in F1: Unknown 

Chris Cronin has worked as the race engineer for former world champion Sebastian Vettel and more recently Fernando Alonso. In 2023, he helped the Spaniard secure eight podiums, the highest results for the driver since 2013.  

Before working with Sebastian Vettel, Cronin worked as the race engineer for Sergio Perez. Cronin has discussed the importance of building up a strong relationship between a race engineer and a driver and how this came quickly with Alonso, who is one of the most experienced drivers on the grid.  

He said: “When Fernando arrived, he immediately said, ‘This is the sort of thing that I like and this is what helps me go fast.’ Having this kind of direction shortcuts the familiarisation process, whereas with younger drivers it might take a bit more time to find out what they need,” 

Lance Stroll – Ben Michell

• Team: Aston Martin 
• Years together: 3 
• Engineer’s years in F1: 10 

Ben Michell has been Lance Stroll’s race engineer since 2021, but has previously also worked as a senior performance engineer with the team.  

He began his career as a race and development engineer for Dunlop in MotoGP before moving into F1. Michell has spent the last decade in Formula 1 after starting at Caterham F1 Team as a trackside tyre engineer, before moving to Toro Rosso where he stood in as Pierre Gasly’s race engineer at the 2017 Malaysian and Japanese grands prix. 

Pierre Gasly – John Howard

• Team: Alpine 
• Years together: 0
• Engineer’s years in F1: 13

The Alpine team on the pit wall

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Pierre Gasly will be paired with John Howard for the 2024 season, after his previous engineer Karl Loos was promoted to deputy of trackside engineering for the team. The pair briefly worked together during the last few races of the 2023 season after Loos was promoted, with Gasly saying he was “very happy” with his new engineer. 

Howard has been with Alpine for the last thirteen years, starting as a mechanical design engineer and working his way up through other roles including an engineering coordinator and senior performance engineer.  

Esteban Ocon – Josh Peckett

• Team: Alpine 
• Years together: 4 
• Engineer’s years in F1: 10 

Josh Peckett and Esteban Ocon were reunited at Alpine in 2021 after previously working together for Ocon’s F1 debut with Manor Racing in 2016. Before joining the Enstone-based team, Peckett spent four seasons with Renault working as both a race and performance engineer.  

He started his Formula 1 career in 2013, where he started as a junior performance engineer for Marussia before moving to Manor Racing as a race engineer in 2015.  

In 2021 Ocon shared that Peckett had played a “massive role” in his performance, adding: “We are making an excellent team altogether, which is motivated, young, and hungry for the same aim as we have, which is performing, extracting, and doing the best we can with what we have in hands.” 

Alex Albon – James Urwin

• Team: Williams 
• Years together: 2 
• Engineer’s years in F1: 9 

James Urwin has been the race engineer for Alex Albon since 2022, but has been with Williams since 2014. He started in Formula 1 as a performance engineer, before moving to become a race engineer for Lance Stroll, then George Russell and now Albon. 

Before his career in F1, Urwin worked as an engineer in GP2 for Super Nova Racing and then Caterham racing, as well as a mechanic for the European Le Mans series and British Touring Cars for Taurus Sports. 

Logan Sargeant – Gaetan Jego

• Team: Williams 
• Years together: 1 
• Engineer’s years in F1: 4 

The Williams team on the pit wall

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Gaetan Jego has worked in Formula 1 for the last four years but has over two decades of experience working in Motorsport, including working for ART Grand Prix as its LMP1 and DTM technical director. He joined Williams in 2019, working as the race engineer for Nicholas Latifi before becoming the senior race engineer for Logan Sargeant for his rookie season. 

Daniel Ricciardo – Pierre Hamelin

• Team: RB 
• Years together: 1 
• Engineer’s years in F1: 13 

Pierre Hamelin will be Daniel Ricciardo’s race engineer for the 2024 season, after working together for the last half of the 2023 season. Ricciardo was brought back to the team after the British Grand Prix, when RB – then AlphaTauri – decided to axe newcomer Nyck de Vries. 

Ricciardo praised his race engineer following the 2023 season, saying: “As much as I believe in myself, I can’t underestimate my engineer, Pierre. He worked with three drivers this year and he’s trying to set up the car for each driver. 

“What we like, what we don’t, it’s not easy for him as well. So, I really look forward to a proper off-season and pre-season and I think 2024 is going to be exciting for us.” 

Hamelin joined Toro Rosso as a performance engineer and has worked with the team through its last two re-brands. He previously worked as Pierre Gasly, before the French driver moved to Alpine.  

Before moving into motorsport Hamelin worked in aerospace engineering, focusing on aircraft wing de-icing, but then moved to join Lotus in 2009. 

Yuki Tsunoda – Mattia Spini

• Team: RB 
• Years together: 3 
• Engineer’s years in F1: 12 

Team members of the Visa Cash App RB F1 Team on the pit wall

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Mattia Spini has been with RB – formerly AlphaTauri – since 2012 and has worked at mentoring the Red Bull junior team’s drivers. He is currently the race engineer for Yuki Tsunoda, but previously also worked with Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat.  

Before taking on the role as a race engineer, Spini worked within the team as a DIL simulation engineer and then a performance engineer for a host of drivers, including Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz. 

Valtteri Bottas – Steven Petrik

• Team: Sauber 
• Years together: 0
• Engineer’s years in F1: 9

Valtteri Bottas was given a new race engineer ahead of the 2024 Miami Grand Prix. Steven Petrik has replaced Bottas’ previous race engineer Alex Chan, who had been with the Finnish driver since he joined Sauber – formerly known as Alfa Romeo – from Mercedes in 2022.  

Petrik has previously worked with Ferrari, starting with the Maranello– based team in 2015 as part of their engineering academy. He then spent eight years working as a race performance engineer and most recently worked alongside Carlos Sainz. 

Bottas said he was left “surprised” by the “sudden change” to his race engineer going into the second sprint weekend of the season but refused to answer if the move had his blessing. 

Zhou Guanyu – Andrea Benisi

• Team: Sauber 
• Years together: 0
• Engineer’s years in F1: Unknown 

Andrea Benisi will step into the role of Zhou Guanyu’s race engineer for 2024 after being promoted from a performance engineer. Zhou had previously worked with Jorn Becker, who had been with the Chinese driver since his F1 debut in 2022.

Kevin Magnussen – Mark Slade

• Team: Haas 
• Years together: 2 
• Engineer’s years in F1: 30 

Mark Slade made his return to Formula 1 in 2022 to become the race engineer for Kevin Magnussen at Haas, after leaving the sport at the end of 2020. The veteran engineer spent the first 18 years of his career as a race engineer for McLaren, moving to Renault, Lotus and Mercedes before going back to Renault to work alongside Esteban Ocon in 2020. 

He has previously worked with Michael Schumacher, Nico Hulkenberg, Kimi Raikkonen and Mika Hakkinen.  

Nico Hulkenberg – Gary Gannon

• Team: Haas 
• Years together: 1 
• Engineer’s years in F1: 12 

Gary Gannon joined Formula 1 in 2011 as a reliability engineer for the Marussia F1 team before moving to Haas in 2015. He became a race engineer, working previously with Romain Grosjean and Mick Schumacher.  

Gannon previously spent a decade with Honda working with their CART and ALMS teams as an engineer.

Marcos has been Leclerc’s race engineer since he joined from Sauber at the start of 2019, getting the role after his working as a factory-based engineer when Carlo Santi had been race engineer for Leclerc’s predecessor Kimi Raikkonen in 2018.

This followed long-time Ferrari driver coach and esteemed race engineer Jock Clear working to implement Leclerc’s engineering team for his first season with the Scuderia.

On Thursday, Ferrari announced that Marcos will step down as Leclerc’s engineer from the start of next week and the build-up to the Emilia Romagna GP, as he is being moved to work on “other important company programmes”.

The full Ferrari statement reads: “Organisational update: Ferrari announces that, as of Monday 13 May, Xavi Marcos will bring his valuable experience gained as a race engineer with the Formula 1 team to the development of other important company programmes.”

More to follow

The Australian’s difficulties dashed the momentum of him being considered for a 2025 Red Bull seat, but in recent races, he has been working his way back to competitiveness.

In Miami, Ricciardo qualified and finished fourth in Saturday’s sprint to score his first points of the year, employing a stout defence against intrinsically quicker cars over the 19-lap contest.

Team principal Mekies said that performance didn’t come out of the blue as Ricciardo had been making improvements in recent races without a result to show for it.

“I’m sure it was a huge weight [off his shoulders] because the US is nearly his second home race,” Mekies told Autosport.

Daniel Ricciardo, RB F1 Team VCARB 01

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“In fairness, we had seen signs of improvement before, but it was very difficult to explain it to the world.

“Saudi was a better performance than Bahrain, Australia was better than Saudi, Japan was better than Australia and China was better than Japan.

“It had been coming in many, many small steps and we think there is more steps we can do in the next few races to help suit the car better to him.”

When asked if there was a definitive answer on why he struggled, Mekies said: “Let’s just say that we identified stuff he was not happy with and took away quite a lot of the speed.

“We have tried to tick all the boxes to erase these limitations and there are a few more we would like to see ticked over the next few weekends.

“It was always planned to introduce a new chassis before race six. It was a nice box to tick on our issues with Daniel to make him more comfortable and he did better straight away in China and Miami.

“It’s a big value for a team to be able to understand and analyse what is happening with the drivers and it’s not always visible on the data.

Daniel Ricciardo, RB F1 Team VCARB 01, Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24, Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

“We are still trying to understand what it is that was disturbing him before, and it’s a work in progress.”

Ricciardo endured a much tougher main grand prix, being eliminated from Q1 in 18th and finishing in a train in 15th. According to Mekies, that swing of results shows how easy it is to be bumped out of a tight midfield pack if drivers or teams get the tiniest thing wrong.

“You have to nail every single aspect of the weekend at a top level. If we don’t do it, we are out of Q1 straight away,” he explained.

“We had a fantastic performance with Daniel in the sprint quali and in the sprint itself. And then in the main quali, we were a little bit out of the tyre window, a little bit of a mistake there, and suddenly you’re out and that’s the reality.

“That’s what I like about racing. It’s 10 or 12 cars fighting, but it’s certainly a very intense pressure on the team.”

Brown stated that he had seen an increase in applications from those currently employed by Red Bull in the wake of the allegations and power struggle surrounding both team principal Christian Horner, and between the Austrian and Thai shareholders of the parent Red Bull company

Horner refuted those comments, stating that it was “inevitable” that other teams wished to capitalise on the situation.

Verstappen agreed with his team principal, noting that Red Bull’s successes had made many of its staff targets for other teams seeking to improve their own fortunes in F1.

“He obviously wants to stir things up. For us as a team we can’t do anything with comments like that,” Verstappen said.

“From his point of view, I understand it of course, because everyone is trying to attract our people and that is completely normal in the world of Formula 1 as well.

“But I’m not really interested in those things either. I see the headlines, but I don’t even click on them.”

Verstappen added that many of Red Bull’s key staff were subject to long-term contracts with the Milton Keynes squad, although admitted that there were “human aspects” that had to be taken into account.

The Dutch driver is contracted to Red Bull until the end of 2028, but has been targeted by Mercedes as a potential replacement for the Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton in the event that Verstappen becomes dissatisfied at Red Bull.

He felt that he was in a similar position to those at Red Bull bound by long-term deals, and that those contracts were not a “100%” guarantee that people would stay on if they were not happy.

“In life you can never guarantee everything. It’s also possible that I won’t wake up tomorrow morning, so in the end you never know things 100 percent for sure in life anyway,” he said.

“A lot of agreements are made, but in the end it’s also about everyone being happy with their work and feeling appreciated within the team. There are a lot of human aspects involved as well.”

After 110 grand prix starts and 16 podium finishes, McLaren driver Norris won his maiden F1 race on Sunday after he benefitted from a safety car period following a collision between Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Williams driver Logan Sargeant.

Norris was running fourth when his main rivals began to make their first and only pitstops, which they made before the safety car was deployed.

The McLaren driver, leading after his rivals had stopped, was able to pit and rejoin still in first place thanks to early leader Max Verstappen being slowed by the safety car.

Ferrari’s Sainz was another of the drivers who did not benefit from the safety car, and he felt he “could have won” the race had he pitted a lap later.

But according to the Spaniard, the “lucky” circumstances did not detract from Norris’s victory, as the Ferrari driver felt the Brion was fully deserving.

“I think luck comes to the guys who deserve it,” said Sainz. “Lando is one of those guys that deserved a little bit of luck this weekend to win his first race.

“Between us drivers, we know who deserves to win races and who is driving at the level to win races. And we all know Lando has been driving to win races. And when he gets finally won we’re all happy for him,” Sainz added.

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Sainz, who was Norris’s team-mate at McLaren during the 2019 and 2020 seasons, said his friend and rival had been driving like a race winner for some time now.

Norris had finished on the podium twice this year, including a second-place result in the Chinese GP.

“In F1, there’s just this luck factor that Lando got and won a race,” Sainz said. “But he’s been driving like a race winner for many, many races in a row now. And he just deserves that win. Luck no luck, doesn’t matter.

“He’s a race winner. And it was about time that it was coming for him.

“And people just need to accept that when you don’t have the best car, sometimes you need a bit of luck.”

Norris himself admitted in the post-race press conference it would have been difficult to win the race without the free pitstop: “It would have been tough. I would have had to overtake two Ferraris, a Red Bull, Oscar [Piastri].”

Three-time champion Verstappen, who was second behind Norris in Miami, interrupted the Briton to add: “I mean, it’s always if, if, if, right? If my mum had balls, she would be my dad.

“So, yeah, it’s how it goes with racing. Sometimes it works out for you, sometimes it doesn’t.”

Speaking exclusively to Autosport during last weekend’s third Miami GP at the Hard Rock Stadium, Epp said that the advent of a third grand prix in America – last November’s Las Vegas GP – expands the scope to distinguish them from one another.

As a result, this means they can differentiate themselves – rather than be in competition with each other – and pursue their own types of fans to maximise attendance and revenues in a massive sports market.

“We had dinner with the Las Vegas crew last night, and we talked a lot about this,” he said. “We exchange a lot of information with them, and a bit with Austin as well. 

“I think the great thing is that Formula 1 not only allows but they encourage us to operate differently. They want us to represent the communities and the cities in which we live.

“And so the experience in Austin is quite different than the experience here in Miami, which is quite different experience in Vegas. So, credit to Stefano [Domenicali, F1’s CEO] and team for giving us the freedom to execute at that level, so we don’t necessarily feel the competition.

“In fact, if it’s anything, it’s how do we work together to continue to give this growing US F1 fan base what they want.”

Miami ran a sprint weekend format for the first time in 2024, mirroring Austin’s move last season, even though Circuit of the Americas chairman Bobby Epstein revealed that it did not result in a bigger audience for Saturday as he’d anticipated.

Esteban Ocon, Alpine A523

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Epp believes that Miami GP Saturday tickets on the secondary market – where they are resold after originally being purchased from the venue’s vendor – built some vital late momentum to ensure that the event was sold out.

“If you had asked me this question a month ago, I would have said we haven’t really seen the impact – I’m not sure the value is there,” said Epp. “I have to tell you, the last couple of weeks we have seen our Saturday activities really driving our value.

“We see that on the secondary market, where the tickets get split up. All of a sudden there was a market building for Saturday and I think that’s partially to do with the sprint race, and I think we need to embrace that.”

Epp added that the midday start time of the sprint didn’t help its cause, but the fact it was a race rather than a practice session was key: “Is it perfect? Probably not.

“Are there opportunities for us to make it better? Yes, but I think the fact that we’re scanning as many people [on Saturday] before noon so that they come in here, and they’re in their seats for the beginning of the sprint race today, I think that says something.

“This is a late crowd. If we didn’t have the sprint race and we had FP3 and then quali, I would tell you the chances of us having 50,000 people sitting in the stands at noon would not be very likely.

“And we had a really great crowd by the time the sprint race started.”

Lando Norris scored his maiden F1 victory on Sunday for McLaren, the team’s first since the 2021 Italian Grand Prix.

The turnaround from the team’s position last year has been heralded, with developments allowing McLaren to leap ahead of Aston Martin and Mercedes in the pecking order and, on occasion, challenge Red Bull and Ferrari at the front.

Pointing to this as a source of inspiration for Mercedes, Russell conceded that his team needs to “make changes quick” in order to recover from a disappointing start to the season.

“McLaren qualified P17 and P18 12 months ago in Miami, and [on Sunday] they won. So it shows what’s possible when they get things right,” Russell said after the race.

“But right now we don’t have things right.”

Mercedes, whose last win came at the 2022 Brazilian GP thanks to Russell, endured another difficult weekend in Miami, failing to score in Saturday’s sprint after Lewis Hamilton was penalised for a pitlane infringement.

On Sunday, Hamilton finished down in sixth, while Russell had to settle for eighth place.

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Asked if the problems in Miami were down to tyres or something else, Russell said: “I don’t really know, to be honest. You know, on a good day we’re P5. On a bad day, we’re P8 and today [Sunday] was a bad day, and we finished P8.

“I think we have to accept that we are the fourth-fastest team at the moment. The lap times don’t lie. And the championship doesn’t lie. This is where we are.

“And as I said, I think we’re fighting for the P5 to P8 region week in and week out now.”

The result left Mercedes 80 points behind McLaren in the constructors’ championship, but team boss Toto Wolff also saw positives in his rival’s victory.

“They have made such a massive step since last summer and they won fair and square and this is with a Mercedes engine and that is so important for all of us to see that you can make these steps if you’re bringing the right upgrades and do the right work, so I see only positives,” said Wolff.

While its W15 car showed some signs of progress earlier in the season, Wolff conceded it has been a “painful learning curve” for the team.

“The car is very strong in high speed, the ride is better although not on the level of the other ones,” he said.

“The car just doesn’t turn in low speed and you don’t want to have a car that is either good in low speed or in high speed, you need the two of them and that’s why they point us in some of the right directions.

“It’s been a painful learning curve and it’s still not satisfactory, but the situation is more encouraging now.”

Mercedes introduced several upgrades in Miami, including a new floor and edge wing arrangement, in what Wolff labelled an “all in” effort from its design office.

Additional reporting by Mandy Curi.

In June 2022, the Advanced Technologies arm of Red Bull’s Formula 1 team revealed plans to launch its own £5 million hypercar, penned by Newey.

The car will feature a two-seat carbon fibre monocoque chassis with a V10 engine and a carbon fibre gearbox. The car has been produced entirely in-house by Red Bull and only 50 will be manufactured.

The RB17 will be presented on Friday 12 July in the Cathedral paddock at Goodwood and be on display across the entire event.

The hypercar will fit into the lineage of the F1 cars produced by the team, after the RB17 moniker was skipped when COVID-19 forced a carryover in parts that meant the 2021 car was called the RB16B.

It will also mark Newey’s final car for Red Bull, having announced he will leave the F1 team in early 2025.

PLUS: Why Red Bull’s RB17 hypercar can help its F1 team

“We are excited to debut the RB17 to the public for the first time and couldn’t think of a better world stage than Goodwood Festival of Speed,” Red Bull boss Christian Horner said.

“The RB17 exudes rarity and engineering excellence. We’ve channelled everything we know about racing into making the ultimate performance car and can’t wait for the public to see the result.

“I’m also just as thrilled to be bringing such a remarkable selection of cars and drivers to the iconic festival and look forward to celebrating our 20th season in front of such passionate motorsport fans.”

Alongside Horner and Newey at the launch at Goodwood will be 13-time grand prix winner and former Red Bull driver David Coulthard plus former Minardi F1 driver and Red Bull’s longest-serving exhibition driver Patrick Friesacher.

Red Bull will also display a series of F1 cars from its history as part of its 20th-anniversary celebrations, with several set to take part in the hillclimb event.

“I am delighted that Oracle Red Bull Racing will be joining us at the Festival of Speed this summer to celebrate their 20th anniversary,” Goodwood Festival of Speed founder Duke of Richmond added.

“In such a poignant year for the Formula 1 team, I am honoured they have chosen the Festival of Speed as the venue to unveil the much-anticipated RB17 for its global public debut, and I know our fans will be hugely excited for the team to bring a multitude of their championship-winning cars and drivers to the event this year.”

Photos from the test showed Charles Leclerc’s brother Arthur driving the 2023 Ferrari SF-75 with fully covered front and rear full-wet tyres. The guards include two holes in front but are fully covered at the back.

The Italian squad’s reserve driver Oliver Bearman ran behind Leclerc in a 2024 car to check the visibility.

Formula 1’s ruling body, the FIA, had run the first version of the spray guards during testing at a wet Silverstone last year as it attempted to find a solution that would improve visibility for the following cars in rainy conditions.

Although no actual images of the test were shared, the FIA did offer some 3D renders of the solution, which consisted of partial wheel covers on both the front and the rear tyres.

The test was carried out by Mercedes’ reserve driver Mick Schumacher, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri used as a control running behind.

The conclusion from the first test was that the system made no significant difference to the levels of spray produced by the cars.

“What was done at Silverstone, with the help of Mercedes who created parts and McLaren [who ran a car to get feedback on spray] was perhaps too optimistic an experiment,” the FIA’s single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis told Autosport last year.

“The spray guards covered too little of the wheel. I was quite sceptical and imagined that we wouldn’t see important results.”

Arthur Leclerc, Ferrari F1-75 with spray guards, Oliver Bearman, Ferrari SF-24

Photo by: Alessando Stefanini

As a result, the FIA promised a more aggressive solution, which Ferrari took to the track on Thursday at Fiorano.

Tombazis explained last year how complex it was to find a solution that would work successfully.

“Having started this project towards the end of last year, and done quite a lot of CFD simulations, we did understand quite soon that it was not quite as simple as just put something on, off you go, and you’re done,” he said.

“We didn’t want to lose too much performance of the cars and mess up the aerodynamics too much, although some of it is inevitable.

“And the actual aerodynamic load on these big mudguards or whatever you call them, if you have a complete cover, that would have quite high dynamic load. And therefore their support on the uprights would have to be fairly robust to not fly off at 300km/h.”

On Friday, Ferrari will use a filming day to shake down the new aero package for next week’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Arthur Leclerc, Ferrari F1-75 with spray guards

Photo by: Alessando Stefanini

“I regard Lando as a fabulous prospect,” Brown said at the time. “He blew the doors off his rivals in not one but three highly competitive race series last year, then capped that by establishing himself as the clear winner of the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award.”

The race went haywire for Norris after a botched strategy call cost him a likely maiden win, and it was long unfairly used as a stick to beat Norris with, allegedly a sign of him buckling under the pressure on those rare occasions when the highest prize came within reach.

Brown and Norris’s team bosses – first Andreas Seidl, then Andrea Stella – consistently waved away any criticism on their golden child, even though a self-critical Norris was often the first to slate himself for various mistakes in qualifying over the past two seasons, singling out his consistency as a key weakness he addressed over the past winter.

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Erik Junius

“Lando definitely stands together with them,” Stella explained before the start of this season. “It is the same category of world championship material, the underlying talent, the mindset, the work ethos. It’s all ready to go.”

That’s why McLaren was so adamant to ensure it would complete its shared journey with Norris to the top, handing him generous contract renewals to fend off frequent interest from Red Bull, with his latest extension in January this year tying Norris to the squad “beyond the 2026 season”.

“Yes, this feels a bit personal. This feels really special. He’s been with us from day one. He’s had so many second places, it’s good to get this one done,” Brown told broadcaster Viaplay.

While McLaren never doubted its faith in Norris and is starting to repay it, conversely Norris would have had several reasons to look over the fence and deeply consider Christian Horner’s repeat advances.

The start of 2023, however, was McLaren’s true nadir, turning up with a car that it already knew had sent it up the wrong development path.

Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team, 1st position, celebrates with his trophy

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Following 2022’s lack of progress, Brown had already appointed Stella to take over from Seidl as team principal, with technical director James Key replaced in March 2023 by a three-pronged leadership structure as it awaited other infrastructure projects coming to fruition.

It was a lean period that seriously challenged Norris’ belief in McLaren being the team that could fulfil his ambitions. And while it was thought unlikely that he would leave the team he called his home for money or other non-sporting reasons, at some point McLaren would have to come good on its on-track promises.

“It’s tough because I’m a competitive guy and I want to win. Of course, at times you think what could you do in order to get into the position earlier,” Norris said at the start of 2023 about exploring his options.

“But also, I’m very comfortable with where I am right now. I have definitely not lost faith in the team that I’m part of and I’m very happy to be part of the journey to hopefully getting back to winning championships and winning races.

“I have the patience to wait out those few more years.”

McLaren’s rapid – if not unprecedented – progress towards the latter half of 2023 vindicated Norris’ belief in Brown and Stella to turn things around, but the prospect of a free Red Bull seat in 2025 again tested their bond last winter.

Still, Norris turned down the best seat in the paddock for 2025 by re-signing in January, giving McLaren another vote of confidence that it can be as well equipped as anyone to come out ahead of the 2026 regulations changes.

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

“It’s the thing I’m happiest about with getting the contract out,” Norris said. “They are now even more assured that I’m committed to the team and that I’ve picked McLaren over, Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes, whatever team, it could have been.

“Where am I most confident that I can actually achieve a world championship? If you asked me at the beginning of 2023, maybe it wouldn’t have been McLaren.

“But now I think I’m more confident than ever in saying it’s going to be McLaren.”

A landmark Miami win for Norris and McLaren may have come with some caveats, and it is still some way of regularly challenging Red Bull, but it is the latest sign their mutual faith is starting to pay off.