F1

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell will run with different floor configurations in practice for Formula 1's Bahrain Grand Prix as their Mercedes team chases ...

You have to do it analytically. Or this might be you know, another three, four or five months of work to truly understand this. Mercedes W13 floor

"I think that to be honest the trust is already there," Domenicali told Sky Sports F1 pundit and former racer Martin Brundle at Bahrain's Sakhir circuit. "We had last week, a meeting with all the promoters and all the broadcasters and all the partners.

"Race direction has to be an entity organised in the proper way. "Almost all the places we are going are sold out. That means that Formula One has not that problem," the Italian added.

Max Verstappen says Formula 1 does not need to see the FIA's full report into the 2021 Abu Dhabi controversy, but hopes the championship can improve ...

"But yeah, it's important to at least have the big lines and know the conclusion of it is. "Of course always every year it's good to discuss about happened in the year before. It will probably be too long.

Reigning Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen was fastest for Red Bull in Bahrain Grand Prix practice on Friday, ahead of the opening round of the 2022 ...

Alonso then briefly took over the top spot on softs, with 1m32.877s, while Sainz lapped 0.188s off that after running wide at the final two corners. Leclerc responded with 1m32.023s on his second push lap, just 0.087s slower. Valtteri Bottas jumped to fourth for Alfa Romeo, bouncing back from a troubled first session due to engine issues, ahead of a late-running Perez. He led an early Ferrari 1-2 from Sainz, with Alonso third ahead of Alpine team-mate Ocon. Pierre Gasly was fastest in the slower FP1 session for AlphaTauri, before Verstappen set the quickest time of the day – under the floodlights in FP2 – at 1m31.936s. From the start of FP2 under the floodlights, Leclerc set the benchmark at 1m33.121s – already a second faster than Gasly’s FP1 time – on mediums.

'We're not bluffing': Hamilton and Ricciardo cop nightmares in season's first F1 practice.

“But I think compared to the quickest cars, at the moment we are just looking for some overall grip. So, we’ve got a bit of work to do.” “It’s all about lap time, and we’re certainly not where we want to be,” he said. It came after AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was something of a surprise leader in the opening practice session, using soft tyres to lay down a 1m 34.193s lap. Mercedes’ George Russell was fourth while Fernando Alonso was fifth for Alpine, with Daniel Ricciardo 17th and 18th in the two practice sessions. “And we’re a long way off the pace off Red Bull, Ferrari – even the likes of AlphaTauri, Alfa Romeo are seemingly on our pace or even quicker. “It appears as though this will be a long-term fix and not one for the short term, but our mindset is to be the best we can be – it’s not ideal, but we will pull together to try and fix it.” “I think we’ve made a bit of progress solving some issues, but the pace just is not there at all at the moment so we need to really go over the data tonight to understand why we’re both struggling a little bit with the car. “If you look at the Red Bulls, they are a long, long way ahead, in the region of eight to nine tenths, and Ferrari are half a second to six tenths ahead. “We have had small problems in the past, but we are faced with much, much bigger problems this year and everything we do to try and fix it doesn’t really change that. “I’m just realistic and, at the moment, like I told you last week, we are not going to be in the race for a win,” said a downbeat Hamilton. Verstappen led Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by just 0.087s in the second practice session of the day, and the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz half a second back.

Lewis Hamilton added to calls Formula 1 should be transparent with the FIA's findings from the Abu Dhabi season finale investigation after a “good meeting” ...

And it's important that - the issue that we faced it was in the past, we obviously do need to move on - but it can't just be swept under the carpet. Driver opinion has been split over the ongoing investigation. “Obviously the events that unfolded in Abu Dhabi were not to the standards that all of us expect, all of us F1 fans, drivers, teams,” Russell said.