Lewis Hamilton warns new F1 season will present biggest challenge of his career
Lewis Hamilton has emphasised the scale of the challenge facing drivers and teams as Formula One enters a new season with a regulation reset that the British driver described as the biggest of his career, as his Ferrari team look to a new start after a disappointing 2025.The Scuderia launched their new car, the SF-26, with Hamilton driving it at the team’s test track at Fiorano for the first time on Friday.He was optimistic, having been involved in the development of a Ferrari for the first time but acknowledged that a huge task lay ahead.“The 2026 season represents a huge challenge for everyone, probably the biggest regulation change I have experienced in my career,” he said.“Being involved from the very start in the development of such a different car has been a particularly fascinating challenge, working closely with the engineers to help define a clear direction for it.
“It will be an extremely important year from a technical perspective, with the driver playing a central role in energy management, understanding the new systems and contributing to the car’s development.”The scale and complexity of what the teams are building, including entirely new engines split 50-50 between combustion and electrical energy and the use of active aerodynamics, was made strikingly clear on Friday when Williams, who finished fifth in the championship last season, announced they were not ready to take part in the first test in Barcelona, beginning on Monday.Williams said they would instead run a virtual test-track programme next week and expect to make the second test in Bahrain, but it is an inauspicious start to what will likely be a frenetic championship.Indeed, the Ferrari team principal, Fred Vasseur, emphasised that he expected the new cars to be developed at a furious rate as the season progresses and also highlighted how the drivers would have to adapt extensively to driving them.“The biggest challenge will include the integration of all the systems together, including the drivers, it will be a full reset for them on their approach,” he said.
“They will have to change completely the way that they approach the weekend.Even the way of driving will probably be a bit different.This also for them will be a challenge and part of our job will be to give them the good tools to be at their maximum.”Ferrari was one of the teams, alongside Audi and Honda, who had written to the FIA, the governing body, expressing concerns that Mercedes and Red Bull had gained an advantage in their engine design by using thermal expansion of components to increase their compression ratio.The row over the design will almost certainly now carry on into the season, after a meeting between engine manufacturers and the FIA on Thursday did not resolve the issue.
The question over when the compression ratio is measured, currently when the car is “cold” and not running, against on track when thermal expansion can be exploited is central to the argument.However with no agreement reached – perhaps understandably from Mercedes and Red Bull – if they do have an advantage that might amount to as much as 0.3seconds a lap they will carry it into the start of the season.Enrico Gualtieri, the Ferrari power unit technical director, maintained that they remained in a dialogue with the FIA.“We are still discussing with them,” he said.
“We are going to have an additional meeting in the next days,We are trusting them for managing the topic in the proper way, going through the procedures and the governance that is in place by regulation,We completely trust that the process could come in the next days and weeks,”
Starmer stands up to Trump at last and has chance to make case for Europe
“Serious, calm, pragmatic, behind-the-scenes diplomacy” is how No 10 has been describing Keir Starmer’s approach to the chaotic world of Donald Trump’s administration.That may have been how the week started – and tiptoeing around Trump’s volatility has been the hallmark of Starmer’s relationship with the president for a whole year. But the president’s two major digs at Britain, first over the Chagos Islands and then, more seriously, his claim that UK troops did not pull their weight in Afghanistan, have finally provoked Starmer into a furious rebuttal.Starmer’s demand for an apology over the “insulting and frankly appalling” words from an unrepentant Trump marks the worst week for US-UK relations since the president took over last year.The prime minister’s two televised press statements this week are a sign of his exasperation with Trump’s remarks about the UK – and he appeared ready at last to draw a line in the sand about what is unacceptable to say about an ally
Can Andy Burnham calm the anger in a Manchester seat Labour fears losing?
When leaked WhatsApp messages sent by former minister Andrew Gwynne were published last year, Stuart Beard was astonished at the scenes outside his office in Denton town square.“There must have been about 60 pensioners with placards,” he said, referring to local anger over Gwynne’s derogatory texts, which included one saying he hoped an elderly woman who didn’t vote Labour “croaked it” before the next election.“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Beard. “It was like a riot – it was quite funny in a way.”The circus will return to this diverse Manchester constituency after Gwynne’s resignation triggered a potentially seismic byelection that could pave the way for Andy Burnham’s much-hyped return to Westminster
‘We have a clear agenda’: the teenager who broke news of Tory MP’s defection to Reform
Andrew Rosindell had been tipped as a potential Reform recruit long before his defection from the Conservatives last weekend took Westminster by surprise.Yet as he and Nigel Farage basked in the spotlight outside parliament on Monday, more than 200 miles away in the town of Whitby, North Yorkshire, a 15-year-old schoolboy was also savouring the moment.Incredibly – at least to those unfamiliar with the rise of his burgeoning media enterprise – Charlie Simpson appeared to have scooped all other media by predicting on the evening before that the Essex MP would join Reform.“EXCLUSIVE: MP Andrew Rosindell has reached an agreement to defect to Reform UK,” Charlie tweeted on Saturday, prompting derision from other users of X and pressure from Rosindell’s office to take down the tweet.But the following day, Rosindell, who was a shadow Foreign Office minister under Kemi Badenoch, announced on X he had quit the Conservative party “with sorrow” after 25 years and had decided to join Reform “following a conversation with Nigel Farage earlier in the evening”
‘Risky’ Tories, ‘drama queen’ Jenrick and Farage’s Trump problem: voters’ verdict on the battle for the right
Boris Johnson’s election victory in 2019 was so sweeping you could walk from Land’s End to Hadrian’s Wall without ever leaving a Tory constituency. You could also have walked between two constituencies where More in Common ran focus groups with 2019 Conservative voters this week – Warrington South and Godalming and Ash. These are two seats that tell the story of the breadth and collapse of the Conservatives’ 2019 coalition.Warrington South, a north-west marginal that has flipped between Labour and the Conservatives, sits just outside the “red wall”. It voted leave in 2016, backed Johnson in 2019 and swung to Labour in 2024
Union boss warns against Labour ‘control-freakery’ over Andy Burnham
The boss of Britain’s biggest union has warned Labour to ensure a democratic process in the Gorton byelection, amid signs a “Stop Andy Burnham” campaign is under way to prevent him posing a threat to Keir Starmer.Andrea Egan, the general secretary of Unison, who started in the job on Thursday, appeared to stand against the prospect of a stitch-up in the contest as she warned against “control-freakery” in the party.The byelection was triggered by the resignation of the independent MP Andrew Gwynne on medical grounds, paving the way for a possible return for Burnham, who is currently mayor of Greater Manchester.The Guardian reported on Thursday that allies of Starmer were trying to prevent Burnham’s return amid fears he could challenge for the leadership.Multiple members of the party’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) predicted it would be impossible for Burnham to make it through the selection process given the number of Starmer loyalists on the body
Starmer’s allies launch ‘Stop Andy Burnham’ campaign to block parliamentary return
Keir Starmer’s allies have launched a “Stop Andy Burnham” campaign to prevent the Labour mayor from returning to parliament after the resignation of a Manchester MP triggered a byelection.Multiple members of the party’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) predicted it would be impossible for Burnham to make it through the selection process given the number of Starmer loyalists on the body desperate to avoid a leadership challenge.The Labour party machine sprang into action after the Guardian revealed on Thursday that Andrew Gwynne was planning to quit due to ill health, with officials and MPs warning about the financial cost and political risk of a subsequent mayoral race.However, allies of the Greater Manchester mayor suggested there would be significant disquiet among MPs, the unions and party members should the leadership try to block him from returning to parliament, where he served as the MP for Leigh from 2001 to 2017.Burnham has made no secret of his ambitions
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