Patrick Head Q&A
Williams went to Suzuka just three points behind Ferrari in the constructors' championship, and yet for the first time this season the team failed to get either car into the top eight. Juan Pablo Montoya looked like a good bet for victory until a hydraulic leak took him out, while Ralf Schumacher had a crazy race that involved a string of incidents at the chicane, and could not better 12th place. It was an extremely frustrating end to what has been a very good year for the Grove outfit, although obviously all kinds of disappointments in earlier races also contributed to the near miss. However, the team has to be regarded as a serious contender in 2004. Adam Cooper talked to technical director Patrick Head
"Well, these things are not actually bad luck, although you'd have to say the rain affecting Ralf's grid position, there's not much you can do about that. Obviously we've got to do is look at it and try and understand why it's happened, and put it right for next year."
"He was in very good shape, and was in line for a good result. It looks like the problem was in the clutch actuator, but it's too early to be specific about it. He just lost hydraulic oil and that meant no pressure and that meant no systems."
"No, that was the driver pushing the wrong button in the cockpit. It didn't affect his race result."
"He was fast and furious, and ultimately to finish 12th was not a very good reward for the day. So it's disappointing."
"The first few laps were quite good, but there were just too many incidents."
"Obviously we intend to start next year in a much stronger position than last year, and that's very important for us, so we've got to work very hard over the winter and make sure that we correct these problems."
"We certainly intend to be, but you don't know until you actually go out at the beginning of the next year."
"Very impressive. Quite clearly he's been the driver of the last 10 years, and has been absolutely outstanding. Ferrari provide him with a very fast car but a very reliable car, and he makes absolutely maximum use of it."
"I think the points system has a habit of keeping things a bit closer, and not letting anybody run away."
"A little bit, but it's the same for everybody, apart from when you get the weather differences mixing it up."
"There are some changes, but none of them are earth shattering, really."
Norris had to adjust to 2022 McLaren F1 car that was "very unsuited for me"
Lando Norris believes he has done a “reasonable job” adjusting to the 2022 McLaren Formula 1 car that is “very unsuited” to his driving style.
Top 10 Arrows F1 drivers ranked: Hill, Warwick, Fittipaldi and more
No Formula 1 team has started more races without winning one than Arrows, although it came close on several occasions. Twenty years on from the team's demise, Autosport takes on the task of ranking its best drivers
How Storm Eunice delayed Mercedes' F1 porpoising alarm
Mercedes only got a full grasp of how severe its porpoising issues were in Formula 1 pre-season testing after Storm Eunice impacted its first 2022 car shakedown at Silverstone.
When Indycar conquered F1 - Monzanapolis
Imagine a race between the best of Formula 1 and Indycar drivers.
The under-fire F1 driver fighting for his future
Personable, articulate and devoid of the usual racing driver airs and graces, Nicholas Latifi is the last Formula 1 driver you’d expect to receive death threats, but such was the toxic legacy of his part in last year’s explosive season finale. And now, as ALEX KALINAUCKAS explains, he faces a battle to keep his place on the F1 grid…
The strange tyre travails faced by F1’s past heroes
Modern grand prix drivers like to think the tyres they work with are unusually difficult and temperamental. But, says MAURICE HAMILTON, their predecessors faced many of the same challenges – and some even stranger…
The returning fan car revolution that could suit F1
Gordon Murray's Brabham BT46B 'fan car' was Formula 1 engineering at perhaps its most outlandish. Now fan technology has been successfully utilised on the McMurtry Speirling at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, could it be adopted by grand prix racing once again?
Hamilton's first experience of turning silver into gold
The seven-time Formula 1 world champion has been lumbered with a duff car before the 2022 Mercedes. Back in 2009, McLaren’s alchemists transformed the disastrous MP4-24 into a winning car with Lewis Hamilton at the wheel. And now it’s happening again at his current team, but can the rate of progress be matched this year?
Why few could blame Leclerc for following the example of Hamilton’s exit bombshell
OPINION: Ferrari's numerous strategy blunders, as well as some of his own mistakes, have cost Charles Leclerc dearly in the 2022 Formula 1 title battle in the first half of the season. Though he is locked into a deal with Ferrari, few could blame Leclerc if he ultimately wanted to look elsewhere - just as Lewis Hamilton did with McLaren 10 years prior
The other McLaren exile hoping to follow Perez's path to a top F1 seat
After being ditched by McLaren earlier in his F1 career Sergio Perez fought his way back into a seat with a leading team. BEN EDWARDS thinks the same could be happening to another member of the current grid
How studying Schumacher helped make Coulthard a McLaren F1 mainstay
Winner of 13 grands prix including Monaco and survivor of a life-changing plane crash, David Coulthard could be forgiven for having eased into a quiet retirement – but, as MARK GALLAGHER explains, in fact he’s busier than ever, running an award-winning media company and championing diversity in motor racing. Not bad for someone who, by his own admission, wasn’t quite the fastest driver of his generation…
Could F1 move to a future beyond carbonfibre?
Formula 1 has ambitious goals for improving its carbon footprint, but could this include banishing its favoured composite material? PAT SYMONDS considers the alternatives to carbonfibre and what use, if any, those materials have in a Formula 1 setting