F1 news LIVE: Lance Stroll to race in Bahrain grand prix as Button shares Lewis Hamilton’s retirement theory

Two-time world champion Max Verstappen has challenged Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes to up their game and give him the championship fight that Formula 1 needs.

Verstappen walked away with last season’s title, winning 15 of 22 races, to secure his second championship with four rounds to spare. Hamilton, on the other hand, had the worst year of his career in his underperforming Mercedes as he failed to win a race and finished 214 points behind.

But addressing the prospect of renewing his rivalry with Hamilton, 25-year-old Verstappen said: “In the interest of the sport you always want the teams to be super close.

“I think it was close last year, but as a team we did a lot of things better than the others and that’s why the points difference was so big.

“I never felt, except for two or three races, that we absolutely dominated. But for the general interest of Formula 1, everyone wants a multi-team title fight.”

The Bahrain Grand Prix will be broadcast live Sky Sports in the United Kingdom – and ESPN in the United States.

Sky Sports subscribers can watch pre-season tests on the Sky Go app. If you’re not a Sky customer, you can grab a NOWTV day pass here to watch without a subscription.

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The first race of the 2023 Formula 1 season will take place this weekend, where the teams will examine how well their cars are developing after months of development.

Max Verstappen and Red Bull will aim for more World Championships, while Mercedes and Ferrari try to close the gap on their rivals.

They are rookie drivers this year and the team is swapping for old heads like Fernando Alonso. All in all, it promises to be another exciting car racing year.

Lance Stroll missed three days of testing on Aston Martin’s new car due to a wrist injury and his absence left the team going into the test in Bahrain with the back foot, according to team-mate Fernando Alonso.

“It hurts a lot.” explained Alonso: “I think we miss him because of some of my comments and feelings with the car, we never know if it’s just me in a new team and a new car or was [it] maybe an Aston Martin thing Lance could recognise: brake pedal feel, power steering?

“I don’t know if this is a legacy of the team or new to this car so we can’t do it without him. So I hope he can come [back] Very fast.

“The car felt good all three days, we experimented a bit with very different routes on set-ups, and we always found positives on these new routes, so there is a clear indication that we need to change the philosophy in a lot . things on this car compared to last year’s car.

“And that is of course a concern in a way because we will need a few races to optimize the package and it is clear that now is the time to start.

“We need to make the car as soon as possible for Race 1, but we feel there’s a lot more coming out of the car that we haven’t had time to test yet – just three days – but step by step the team has been working extremely hard.”

The first race of the season, the Bahrain Grand Prix, will take place from Friday March 3 to Sunday March 5 at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir.

Free practice 1 will take place at 11.30am (GMT) on Friday morning, with the second practice at 3.00pm.

After the third training session on Saturday morning at 11.30 am, qualifying starts at 3 p.m (GMT) with Sunday’s race also at 3 p.m (GMT).

When Netflix first premiered Drive to survive in 2019, an attempt by Formula 1’s new owners, Liberty, to broaden the dark horizons of the sport, it was up to you Hamiltons, your Vettels and your Verstappens to bring in that untapped audience. Like any serial drama, you need a protagonist. But there can only be one star of the show.

Few people thought it would be Guenther Steiner.

“It’s all about the underdog story,” says the 57-year-old The independent, when asked why the Haas-centered episodes thrill viewers with each show’s release. A show, he likes to add, he’s not watching.

Speak against The independent2009 F1 world champion Button – who was teammates with Hamilton at McLaren for three years – speculated the Briton may have doubts as Mercedes languishes behind their rivals.

“Drivers get bored if they’re not fighting up front – that’s normally why they retire,” says Button. “Even when they are still at their best. That’s why I retired and others left, including Kimi [Raikkonen] and Fernando [Alonso] when he initially left.

“When you’re winning it’s easy to keep going because it’s always great. When the going gets tough, you think mentally and physically, “Do I have another season in me?” It could be that way for Lewis too.”

Hamilton failed to win a race in 2022 – the first time he has gone a season without a podium – and there are concerns about the 38-year-old’s future with his contract of £40 million per year expiring. expires at the end of the season.

Hamilton won six of his seven world titles from 2014-2021 with Mercedes, but the team languished behind Red Bull and Ferrari last year after a rule change and the Silver Arrows’ unusual philosophical approach to their car’s design.

“Drivers get bored if they’re not fighting at the front – that’s usually why they stop,” said Button The independent.

Stroll injured his wrist in a cycling accident and missed the three-day pre-season test in Bahrain, with F2 champion Felipe Drugovich filling in alongside two-time world champion Fernando Alonso.

However, the 24-year-old has recovered enough to race in Bahrain this weekend, although Drugovich and fellow test driver Stoffel Vandoorne will be on site for Aston Martin.