#F1: As part of an effort to reduce the number of tyres that are brought to grands prix, at two races this year an experiment will take place for a new qualifying format.

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in May has been chosen as the first venue to feature the trial. 🧵 The number of tyre sets available to each driver for the weekend will be reduced from 13 to 11 and at these two trial events the compounds will be mandated.

Drivers will be forced to use hard tyres in Q1, mediums in Q2 and then softs in Q3.

#BahrainGP 🇧🇭: Mike Elliott: “Toto already said we’ve got a different bodywork coming; it won't be the same as other people’s and it won’t be the same as we’ve got, it’ll be different. It’s part of the normal development.” “We have got a very different sidepod coming – I say very different, a different sidepod that’s coming. I think Toto said that in the press. But it takes time to bring that. It takes time to make the bits, it takes time to change the bits that go underneath the bodywork to fit.”

#F1: Mercedes has hired one of Red Bull’s former senior figures – Jayne Poole – as a special advisor to help drive improvements at its Formula 1 team. It is understood that she will work closely with Wolff and be involved in evaluating the current infrastructure at Mercedes, plus offer advice on any potential changes that can be made – especially as teams adjust to life under the cost cap.

#BahrainGP 🇧🇭: Upgrades brought by Mercedes:

1. An introduction of small flicks on the front wing end plate for local load.

The flicks help focus the vorticity shed from the wing tip vorticity, improving performance over a wider range of front ride heights. 2. The upper rear wing’s tips were lifted for performance – local load.

Offloading the tip of the wing has shed drag efficiently - this is important for Bahrain and a number of circuits in the early part of the season.

#BahrainGP 🇧🇭: Lewis Hamilton on whether he believes he can fight for the championship this year: “We’ll find out over the next couple of days what’s realistic, but I mean, that’s what I prepared myself for. I prepared myself for a championship battle.” 1/4 “But, whether or not we have the equipment to fight for the championship, we’ll find out. I do believe I’ve got the team still, that are championship worthy, it’s just for us to keep our heads down.”

#BahrainGP 🇧🇭: Lewis Hamilton once again dismisses quitting/retiring rumours:

“People creating rumours without facts is never helpful. You would have thought that they would both know me by now.” Lewis Hamilton: “I still believe I’m able to put the car in places that perhaps others are not able to and I love that challenge. Of course I wish that we start the season with a great car but it’s the journey that really counts.”

#F1: Toto Wolff: “Nevertheless, we are confident we have got a car we can work with and are in a stronger position than 12 months ago. More importantly, we are relishing the challenge.” 🧵 “This championship will be fought over 23 race weekends, and each one will give us an opportunity to improve.”

#SpanishGP 🇪🇸: Happy race week! We are back to Barcelona this weekend, and Pirelli have chosen their tyres! The teams will have in their bank the Hard C1, Medium C2 and Soft C3. 🧵 The hardest range of compounds, a pretty straightforward choice for Pirelli (same as last year, albeit using a brand-new family of tyres) with the demands of the Barcelona circuit being extremely well-known from testing and previous races.

#F1: In a track that should’ve, on paper, favoured McLaren, Ferrari came out with one of their strongest performances against McLaren – the first valid comparison since the introduction of the upgrades. While Verstappen and Hamilton may remain out of reach for Ferrari, the SF21 was faster than the MCL35M on every tyre compound at COTA. Leclerc was able to drive away in a clean race with a medium gap of over 3 tenths/lap over both McLaren cars.

#F1: Anthony Hamilton on his thoughts about Lewis Hamilton continuing to race after 2023. The seven-time world champion has outlasted many of his rivals though, and is still battling at the front after 15 seasons in F1.

He re-signed, for the first time, a two year contract, keeping him with the Mercedes as Formula One enters a new era of regulations next year.

#F1: Lewis Hamilton’s father, Anthony Hamilton, has dismissed any suggestions of hatred between his son and title rival Max Verstappen, telling talkSPORT it’s all part of the competition. With Hamilton and Verstappen currently battling it out in one of the greatest title fights Formula One has ever seen, their duels have also seen multiple stunning crashes, which led people and media outlets to speculate about their rivalry.

#F1: Mercedes trackside engineer Andrew Shovlin says they are going to arrive in Mexico with a car that is performing at the best of the car’s ability regardless of it being a track that historically favours Red Bull and the Honda PU. The Silver Arrows don’t seem to have their spirits down after the #UGP, in fact, they took is as a big positive as they were able to push Red Bull at a race weekend where they had the competitive edge, and finish just 1.333s behind.

#F1: Mark Hughes takes a look at next week’s Mexican Grand Prix and the chances of it being a Red Bull favoured track ‘again’. 👇🏽 Mexico is just under 2,200 metres above sea level, easily the highest altitude of any circuit on the calendar, that means the air is less dense by around 25% (less oxygen) than at sea level and it always has a profound effect on the performance of the cars.

#F1: 2021 United States Grand Prix Tyre Analysis. An intensely tactical race, won by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen Max Verstappen with the preferred two-stop strategy, having started from pole. After losing the lead to Lewis Hamilton at the start, Verstappen made his first pit stop from medium to hard compound on lap 11,

#F1: Post-US Grand Prix, Helmut Marko explained Verstappen’s miss at the start was a result of the pressure point of the clutch not being optimal. He also mentioned that they’ve noticed how Mercedes is “not so competitive with full tanks,” which they [Red Bull] assume is an issue Mercedes have with their engine power (Mercedes denies this)

Notwithstanding the bad start from Verstappen, his early pit call on lap 11 helped him gain track position because Mercedes’ data did not give them a window to react [that early], hence Hamilton running longer on the

#F1 #USGP Big work going on Pierre Gasly’s car 15 mins before lights out. Not looking too good. 👀 Work in progress on Gasly’s. Nothing’s been reported yet!

#F1: Three hours to go for the #USGP and we sit on some gambles from the top teams.

In spite of the amazing pole position, Red Bull are facing a few concerns in their garage. In an attempt to counter the technical superiority shown by the Mercedes during FP1, RB decided to risk sending out the RB16B’s with a lower ground clearance - in comparison to the W12 - but this is coming with serious damage to their rear wing.

Keeping the car this low and crawling over the bumps caused small subsidence/cracks on

#F1: Possible strategies for the #USGP Current showers at the track but with the high temperatures and high abrasion at COTA, a two-stopper looks optimal this evening/afternoon, especially as the warm weather is expected to remain for the race.

#F1: Red Bull is adamant that Mercedes has found more power since Red Bull’s France-Austria dominance of being able to match them on the straights. Before Istanbul, the track sequencing meant there were sound reasons to believe what we were looking at was just a continuation of an evenly-matched performance between Red Bull and Mercedes, varying from one layout to another.

#F1: The W12 now requires a different approach, since it has never had a rake as high as it arrived in Turkey. The car got a little faster, but it’s now with a rear trend that did not exist before.

Bottas hasn’t totally gotten used to this higher rear - so much so that his car has its rear about 1.5 centimetres lower than Hamilton's. But is staying faithful to the simulator.

Hamilton has adapted to this change, he never hid his reluctance to use the simulator but the current battle for the title against Verstappen is so tight that the simulator seems

#F1: Mercedes running with a heavier internal combustion engine (ICE). The team remade its engine mappings after Silverstone, making them much more aggressive. The maps of the PUs introduced from 2014 are incomparably more complex than before, since the internal combustion engine has to work in