Author Archives: PressBox

Aston Martin endured a miserable weekend at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, with both cars retiring after a race that underlined the team’s poor pace and reliability. The team qualified on the back row and was more than three seconds off the pace in Q1. Lance Stroll retired on lap 5 after losing third and fourth gears, and the team told him to stop to avoid further gearbox damage. Fernando Alonso started from the pit lane after adding power unit elements to his pool, ran a longer stint, battled Cadillac’s Sergio Pérez, then retired after a battery failure and stopped on the grass after his pit stop.

Chief trackside officer Mike Krack apologized directly to fans after the double DNF, saying he was sorry for supporters in green shirts and disappointed the team could not give them anything to celebrate. He said Aston Martin had expected a difficult event, but not one as severe as Barcelona, and said the team lacked both reliability and performance. Krack added that the lack of progress was weighing on everyone and that morale was hard to keep up while rivals continued to improve.

Aston Martin is now relying on a major upgrade package that is expected around the Belgian Grand Prix in mid-July, or later in the season around the summer break. The team chose to hold back smaller updates in favor of the larger rollout, with changes expected on both the chassis and power unit side. Alonso said the team needed to stay united and keep hoping for gains in the second half of the season, while noting that the upgrades still have to prove they can make the car faster. Aston Martin remained in Barcelona this week for a Pirelli tire test, with reserve driver Jak Crawford taking part alongside Ferrari and Cadillac.

Ferrari introduced a major eight-component aerodynamic upgrade package to its SF-26 at the Barcelona Grand Prix aimed at boosting performance and closing the gap to Mercedes. The package was the largest of any team at the weekend and represented a broad aerodynamic revision rather than a single targeted tweak.

The upgrades centered on an evolved front wing and a redesigned nose with a raised lower surface, and included a revised footplate with different vane placement plus a new dive plane on the endplate. Ferrari also revised the floor, diffuser and sidepods as part of the set. The team said the changes were intended to improve aerodynamic load distribution, cut turbulence over the front tyres, increase downforce and make the car easier to balance by managing airflow, reducing wake and directing cleaner flow to the rear.

Ferrari introduced the package at Barcelona after an encouraging performance in Monaco and as a follow-up to a previous development step at the Miami Grand Prix in early May, which had not stopped Mercedes maintaining an early-season advantage. Barcelona was treated as an important development benchmark because its mix of low, medium and high-speed corners and the weekend’s three practice sessions on a permanent circuit allowed teams to compare new parts. Several other teams also brought updates, including Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren, Williams, Racing Bulls, Haas and Cadillac. Lewis Hamilton said, “Ferrari’s innovation has been encouraging.”

Formula 1 has appointed Fever as its new ticketing operator in a five-year partnership beginning in 2027, giving Fever responsibility for a revamped global ticketing platform designed to modernize how fans search for, buy and manage tickets. The new system will launch with the 2027 season and run through 2031 on Formula 1’s website and digital channels.

F1 said the platform will cover general admission tickets, venue-specific hospitality and the series-wide Paddock Club. Chief commercial officer Emily Prazer said the deal is intended to make the consumer journey more seamless and improve the fan experience, and F1 said the overhaul reflects a renewed focus on digital ticketing infrastructure as its global audience continues to grow. F1 also said only a small portion of its supporters will ever attend races in person.

The move ends Platinium Group’s run as F1’s ticketing operator after more than a decade and marks the first major ticketing operator change for the series in more than ten years. Fever said the agreement expands its presence in racing and builds on existing work with Formula 1, including its involvement at the Spanish Grand Prix and a separate agreement tied to Ifema Madrid through 2035. Fever also works with E1, SailGP and LIV Golf.

Formula 1 said it remained on track to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2030 after cutting its carbon footprint 35% from its 2018 baseline. The latest verified sustainability report put total emissions at 148,805 tCO2e in 2025, down from 168,720 in 2024 and 228,793 in 2018. The figures cover F1 operations, team factories, race operations and travel.

The sport said the gains came from a mix of changes across freight, logistics, broadcasting, race operations and energy use at factories and facilities. Emissions at team factories were down 64% from 2018, logistics emissions fell 29%, and event-operations emissions dropped 6% even as the calendar expanded to 24 races. F1 said travel-related emissions declined by more than 21,000 tCO2e, and emissions from factories, facilities and offices fell by more than 37,000 tCO2e after teams moved to renewable energy. Renewable power has now been used at all European races for paddock operations, and the 2026 cars are running on fully sustainable fuel while using roughly one-third less fuel per race.

F1 also said its sustainability push has included greater use of sustainable aviation fuel, the first deployment of sustainable maritime fuel, reduced freight and more remote operations. CEO Stefano Domenicali said the results reflected collective action across the sport, and head of ESG Ellen Jones said the Future Race Operations Program and calendar rationalization were key to further cuts. F1 expects more reductions from regional hubs, calendar changes beginning in 2026 and a plan to move half of broadcast-related freight out of air transport by 2030, with more than half of current broadcast and related freight expected to shift off air transport by then. The championship said its net-zero target still depends on at least a 50% absolute emissions cut from 2018 levels, with remaining unavoidable emissions to be offset.