F1 news -Toto Wolff snubs Ferrari rival as FIA grants Brundle wish

Mercedes: What’s gone wrong at the F1 and can they recover?

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The dust may have settled on F1’s on-track action with Max Verstappen picking up his second title. However, news last week that Ferrari team boss Mattia Binoto would resign from his role has sent the paddock into a frenzy.

Toto Wolff has stressed he would not look to hire Binotto despite his experience of almost 30 years at one of Mercedes’ biggest rivals. The FIA has also made alterations to the cost cap rules for next season while George Russell has opened up on his 2022 advantage at Mercedes.

Express Sport takes a look at the biggest news stories from the F1 world over the past week.

Toto Wolff won’t hire axed Ferrari chief Mattia Binotto

Mercedes team principal Wolff has admitted he would not be interested in signing Ferrari’s Binotto after the Italian was axed last week. Wolff stressed the pair had their moments in the past which would make it difficult to form a working relationship.

Wolff said: “I think there was too much porcelain broken between us over the last few years that this would be possible. With the other teams. I can’t say.” He added: “Mattia and I had our moments, it’s not secret over the many years, but we consolidated that in 2022.

“We are in a much better place, but it was always clear that he was under tremendous pressure.” Binotto and Christian Horner are understood to have hit back at Mercedes’ calls for rules changes after Lewis Hamilton suffered severe back pain at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

It has also been reported the two rival bosses were involved in a heated exchange with Wolff in Canada in front of Netflix cameras.

FIA make changes to F1 cost cap rules for 2023

Teams will be given double the amount of money for sprint races in 2023 in a slight change to the budget cap regulations. Constructors will now be given £244,000 ($300,000) on sprint race weekends compared to £122,000 ($150,000) in 2022.

The number of sprint races increases from three to six with shorter races set to feature in countries such as Belgium. Austria and the United States. However, the changes come just weeks after Red Bull were handed a fine and sporting penalty for breaching the 2021 allowance.

Christian Horner opens up on Ricciardo Red Bull move

The Red Bull boss has claimed Daniel Ricciardo “did something stupid” by quitting the team for Renault for 2019 after a lack of success since. Ricciardo struggled at the French manufacturer and McLaren, scoring just one win in the past four seasons.

The Australian lacked behind team-mate Lando Norris in 2022, losing out to the Briton on 17 occasions. Horner explained at a PokerStars event: “He had some great success here winning some great Grands Prix with us and then he did something stupid and went to drive for a couple of other teams where it never went as well.”

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George Russell explains edge over Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes star George Russell has opened up on his psychological advantage which helped him beat Lewis Hamilton in his first season at the Silver Arrows. Russell admitted he had to re-programme his mind to accept he would not beat Hamilton at every race weekend despite dominating his previous team-mates.

He explained: “Psychologically, you need to set yourself up for small failures. I’m not going to beat him every single session, every quali, every race, that’s just absolutely not going to happen.

“But having a year like we’ve had this year, I don’t know what the numbers are, but it probably is 55/45, roughly. And that’s an incredibly successful year, and almost equivalent to maybe what the 95/5 was for me previously.”

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