Gossip: Juve eye Man Utd defender, Spurs target ‘Baby Mourinho’

SPORTING REASON TO FLOG FERNANDES 
After an almost Bruno Fernandes-free October, the hype is being ratcheted up a notch or two in recent weeks as January creeps closer.

At the weekend, Fernandes spoke of his ‘dreams to fulfil’ while this morning, O Jogo tells us that Sporting Lisbon are ready to sell the midfielder in the new year.

Apparently, Sporting see Fernandes as their ticket to clear around £57million of debt off their books. Though no club yet has demonstrated a willingness to cough up, Manchester United and Tottenham are linked because that’s just how it works.

 

SMALLING INTERESTS JUVE AND INTER
United could raise a third of the Fernandes fee by selling Chris Smalling. The centre-back is currently on loan at Roma where he is reminding everyone that he isn’t the lumbering lummox he is made out to be.

So much so, Juventus and Inter Milan are said to have taken note of Smalling’s fine form. That’s according to Corriere della Sera, at least.

United are said to want a fee in the region of £20million, which is hardly unreasonable, though Roma were thinking of a figure closer to £13million.

 

SPURS TARGET ‘BABY MOURINHO’
Many of the other whispers around this morning focus on managerial changes. West Ham are still sweet on Rafa Benitez while the London Stadium burns around Manuel Pellegrini, but most of the noise is centred on Tottenham and Mauricio Pochettino.

The Telegraph says the Spurs manager held talks with Daniel Levy over the last week about his position, with his players exchanging messages while they psyche themselves up for a change. The Daily Mail goes a little stronger, declaring that it is now not ‘if Pochettino’ leaves, but ‘when’.

The Times says something similar, though it is suggested that both parties will tolerate each other until next summer. That would give Spurs the opportunity to recruit their preferred replacement rather than one now on basis of being available.

Apparently, Julian Nagelsmann is high on Levy’s list of candidates. The 32-year-old only took over at RB Leipzig at the start of this season so tempting him away five months after he started the job could be tricky.

 

AND THE REST
Willian will reject a new deal at Chelsea to join Barcelona on a free… Neymar won’t renew his PSG contract… Paul Pogba would prefer to rejoin Juventus than go to Real Madrid… Chelsea are tracking Genk midfielder Sander Berge… Arsenal will watch RB Salzburg midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai… West Brom will sell Nathan Ferguson in January if he doesn’t sign a new deal… Man Utd are among the clubs monitoring Reading’s Danny Loader.

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Rashford believes England’s ‘frightening’ attack has put Europe on notice

Marcus Rashford believes the “frightening” attacking prowess shown by England throughout Euro 2020 qualification should put the continent’s best on notice.

The Three Lions finished Group A with a 4-0 win in Kosovo on Sunday afternoon to finish with 37 goals from their eight qualifiers.

Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling accounted for 20 of those while Rashford and Jadon Sancho also weighed in with a combined total of five.

While the level of opposition could be questioned, Gareth Southgate’s side largely blew away anyone they came up against other than a surprise 2-1 defeat in the Czech Republic last month.

The victory in Pristina confirmed England as top seeds for next summer’s European Championships and Rashford has warned their rivals that the attacking players can run roughshod over the finals, too.

 

 

“I think all of these games are just gearing you up for the summer and if we go into the summer anywhere near the sort of form we have been in recently then it will be a successful tournament,” the Manchester United forward said.

“We have got a couple more games leading up to the summer and take them to improve as a team and just sharpen up now for the tournament. We want to go and give it our best shot at winning.”

Asked about his work alongside Kane and Sterling in a front three, Rashford replied: “I think it is obviously a good combination but we have played games without that particular front three and it is frightening what we can do as a group of attackers.

“You have to use it to your advantage and maybe it isn’t working in one game for that three and someone has to come in and make the difference – we have to use that to our advantage, 100 per cent.”

Despite still being one of the youngest members of Southgate’s squad, Rashford has already tasted international tournament football on two occasions.

He was part of Roy Hodgson’s squad at Euro 2016 which ended in a shock defeat to Iceland at the round of 16 and then played his part in taking England to the World Cup semi-finals in Russia last year.

That experience leaves Rashford with a decent knowledge of what it takes to get anywhere near the success the country craves and he feels the number of attacking threats means Southgate can keep his artillery loaded for the entirety of the summer.

“I have been in two tournaments now and the squad is so important and, with the qualities that every individual has in this team, it is something we have to use to our advantage,” he said.

“People are going to be playing at different moments but when you are on the pitch you have to do your best and try and come up with the goods.

“But it is good competition, we really do have that kind of environment when we are in the camp together and it is positive.

“To be honest, I feel like I have experienced a lot in the game. Hopefully there are more big occasions to experience as well, while I am still young I have experience in big, big games that people of my age don’t usually experience.

“I have to use that to my advantage and try and help the team, at the same time it is about winning games. That is what we came to Kosovo to do and I’m looking forward to the tournament now.”

Rashford is currently enjoying a fine run in front of goal, scoring nine in his last 10 games for club and country and the 22-year-old puts it down to playing more consistently.

“It has been a good month and a half but you take it a game at a time and just try and keep improving,” he added.

“It has been a tough period and now I’m sort of getting consistent games and playing week in, week out and as a forward that has huge importance, especially with chances.”

 

Eric Boullier is out and Gil de Ferran is in at McLaren!

Eric Boullier, McLaren’s racing director since 2014, has resigned from the team with immediate effect.

In the wake of persistent under-performance this season and on the eve of the British Grand Prix weekend at Silverstone, McLaren Racing Chief Zak Brown has accepted Boullier’s resignation and announced changes to the Woking-based outfit’s leadership structure.

Simon Roberts, COO of McLaren Racing, will oversee production, engineering and logistics. Andrea Stella is appointed Performance Director, responsible for trackside operations.

Gil de Ferran takes up the new role of Sporting Director, to maximise the effectiveness of the team’s racing package.

    Magnussen sad to see McLaren’s ongoing struggles

The poor results achieved by McLaren’s 2018 MCL33 despite it’s switch from Honda to Renault power led to the demise earlier this year of chief technical officer Tim Goss.

Rumors of a staff revolt at Woking which emerged recently likely also enticed McLaren to undergo changes, with Boullier becoming the odd man out despite the Frenchman’s insistence last week that McLaren was void of any “toxic” atmosphere and that he had no intention of resigning from his role at the helm of the team.

In its press release on Wednesday, McLaren said: “These changes are the beginning of a comprehensive programme of positive changes to the technical leadership of McLaren’s racing organisation. The team will invest to retain and attract the best talent, internally and externally, to return McLaren Racing to the front of the grid.”

“The performance of the MCL33 in 2018 has not met the expectations of anyone at McLaren, especially our loyal fans,” added Brown in the release.

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“This is not the fault of the hundreds of committed and hard-working men and women at McLaren. The causes are systemic and structural, which require major change from within.

“With today’s announcement, we start to address those issues head on and take the first step on our road to recovery.

“I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the entire team to thank Eric for his service and contribution to McLaren and wish him well in his future endeavours.”

Eric Boullier said:
“I am very proud to have worked with such a brilliant team over the past four years, but I recognise now is the right time for me to step down.

“I want to wish everyone at McLaren the best for the remainder of the season and for the future.”

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Past mistakes tell Vettel he is his own worst ‘enemy’

Sebastian Vettel offered a surprisingly blunt assessment of his situation ahead of this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, insisting he is his own worst enemy when it comes to fighting for the title.

The German driver is once again locked in a title fight with arch-rival Lewis Hamilton, but despite the benefit of having at his disposal a car that was superior to his opponent’s Mercedes, Vettel regularly threw away crucial championship points over the summer following a series of mistakes and crashes.

The Ferrari driver now trails Hamilton by 30 points in the drivers’ standings and knows his margin of error has evaporated.

“I think it is pretty straightforward for me, I think the biggest enemy is me,” admitted a candid Vettel.

“I think we have a great car, I have something to play with and we have all the chances to do it in our way.

    Bold Leclerc sets world title with Ferrari as 2019 target!

“Obviously he [Hamilton] is the leader at the moment, he’s the one ahead and he is the one to beat, but I think we have all the chances and how much we could be better by now and so on is a different question.

“We still have a very good chance, and as I said, we will be our first enemy and not him as a person or them [Mercedes] as a team.

“I think we need to look after ourselves and if we do that we have a good chance to do well and win races and things look good.”

Vettel underscored his blunder in Germany, when he was caught out by the rain and crashed out of the lead in the late stages of the race, as his most painful error.

“I think it is normal that you do a lot of races and some you feel you should have done better for different reasons,” he said.

“I think there were also other races where we shouldn’t have done so well and we did, but for sure the worst one was Germany.

“I think most important thing is that I know what happened and I can explain it and then everyone is free to have their own views on what happened.

“I would have loved to win in Germany, for sure, but I’m not too bothered and I’m generally looking forward and not focusing on what we all could have done differently to avoid what happened.”

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Red Bull’s Verstappen ‘very surprised’ by front-row spot

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen confessed to be surprised by his runner-up performance in qualifying on Saturday, but admits he’ll need a good start and perhaps favourable circumstances to have a chance of winning on Sunday.

While everyone marveled at Lewis Hamilton’s stunning effort to secure pole, Verstappen’s display around the challenging Marina Bay circuit in Singapore was perhaps as equally impressive. The  Dutchman has now out-qualified team mate Daniel Ricciardo nine consecutive times!

Red Bull didn’t exactly hit the ground running on Friday, but set-up work and progress gradually brought the team’s RB14 up to a decent level of performance by Saturday evening.

Still, with Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel the designated favourites for the session, and Mercedes always a force to be reckoned with, Verstappen was cautious going into qualifying.

    Hamilton seizes sizzling Singapore pole as Ferrari falters

In the end however, Vettel was left behind while the Dutchman – a bit amazed by his feat – will line up alongside Hamilton on the front row of tomorrow’s grid.

“Very surprising actually,” said Verstappen when asked how he felt about his performance.

“It was a good lap, the car was working actually really well, we made a really good step from all the practice sessions into qualifying and how we were setting up the car.

“Even with the problems we had – the car just falling into neutral, weird things with the engine when I was going on power it was cutting out – even in Q3 I had that problem.

“Very weird but very happy to be still second.”

Earlier in the day, in the final free practice session, a frustrated Verstappen was heard complaining about his Renault power unit’s functioning almost every other lap.

“So far they don’t know what’s going on , but in the race it should be better because you’re not running on full power. We’ll see tomorrow,” he said.

Asked about his prospects for the race, the 20-year-old rated his chances as good as his start

“It all depends on the start. If you can take the lead, for sure you have a good chance,” he explained.

“And also it depends on the safety car that are coming in but starting second gives you a better opportunity than fifth or sixth.”

The Red Bull charger admitted that his fate in last year’s race, when he was involved in the first lap chaos brought on by a clumsy Vettel, wasn’t on his mind.

“Those things happen in racing, they can happen at every track and it was just a very unfortunate situation. Everybody learns from them and you just go on,” he said.

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Bottas beats Hamilton in Mercedes-dominated qualifying

Valtteri Bottas denied Lewis Hamilton his expected pole position in Sochi, with a brilliant performance in the final round of qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix.

Bottas’s final round time of 1:31.387s was 0.145s faster than his team mate and was enough to give the Finn his sixth career pole position in Formula 1. The Mercedes pair were in a league of their own in the session, leaving Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen consigned to an all-Ferrari second row.

Although one of the fastest teams in qualifying, Red Bull will start at the back of the grid because of power upgrade penalties.

2018 Russian Grand Prix – Qualifying times

Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3

1
Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes
1:32.964s
1:32.744s
1:31.387s

2
Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
1:32.410s
1:32.595s
1:31.532s

3
Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari
1:33.476s
1:33.045s
1:31.943s

4
Kimi Räikkönen
Ferrari
1:33.341s
1:33.065s
1:32.237s

5
Kevin Magnussen
Haas
1:34.078s
1:33.747s
1:33.181s

6
Esteban Ocon
Force India
1:34.290s
1:33.596s
1:33.413s

7
Charles Leclerc
Sauber
1:33.924s
1:33.488s
1:33.419s

8
Sergio Pérez
Force India
1:34.084s
1:33.923s
1:33.563s

9
Romain Grosjean
Haas
1:34.022s
1:33.517s
1:33.704s

10
Marcus Ericsson
Sauber
1:34.170s
1:33.995s
1:35.196s

11
Max Verstappen
Red Bull
1:33.048s

12
Daniel Ricciardo
Red Bull
1:33.247s

13
Pierre Gasly
Toro Rosso
1:34.383s

14
Carlos Sainz
Renault
1:34.626s

15
Nico Hülkenberg
Renault
1:34.655s

16
Brendon Hartley
Toro Rosso
1:35.037s

17
Fernando Alonso
McLaren
1:35.504s

18
Sergey Sirotkin
Williams
1:35.612s

19
Stoffel Vandoorne
McLaren
1:35.977s

20
Lance Stroll
Williams
1:36.437s

Broadly blue skies over the Sochi Autodrom circuit allowed the sun to raise the track temperature nicely ahead of the start of qualifying, with Mercedes looking favourites to dominate and Ferrari struggling to match their rivals for raw pace.

Q1: Mercedes in charge as McLaren and Williams eliminated

First out on track sporting hypersoft tyres were the two Williams of Lance Stroll and local favourite Sergey Sirotkin, together with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean. Toro Rosso were also quick to take to the track even though both Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley know that they will be starting from the back of the grid due to power unit penalties.

First honours went to Magnussen who set the initial flying lap time of 1:34.078s, which remained top until Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel made his first tour which clocked in a full half a second faster than the Haas. Kimi Raikkonen duly took up the shotgun position moments later, which he swiftly upgraded with his next effort putting a tenth ahead of his team mate.

Mercedes bided their time before emerging from pit lane, but then got straight to work with Valtteri Bottas going top with a fearsome first effort of 1:33.170s. Lewis Hamilton looked set to go even faster before coming up on slower cars in the final sector which forced him to back off and left him only 10th fastest.

The Briton continued to circulate and finally went top with the first sub-1:33s lap ever seen at Sochi, ultimately ending up hald a second ahead of the latest improved lap from Bottas and almost a full a second faster than both Ferraris, confirming Mercedes’ performance advantage that had developed over the previous practice sessions.

Saddled with grid penalties of their own, Red Bull left it late before showing up to the party. When they did, they proved a point with Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo going into the charts with a bullet in third and fourth place respectively, both of them comfortably ahead of the two Ferraris.

Sauber’s Charles Leclerc ended up best of the rest, a tenth faster than the two Haas cars of Grosjean and Magnussen who were themselves a couple of tenths faster than the two Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon.

The two Renaults of Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg narrowly avoided elimination. On the other side of the cut line, Brendon Hartley missed out on Q2 after suffering from vibrations. Also out were the two McLarens of Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne who had been off the pace all weekend.

Both Williams likewise failed to progress, Sirotkin ending the session with a brief spin although he was able to gather the FW41 up and get going again after sparking a brief period of local waved yellow flags.

Q2: Tyre strategies and grid penalties dominate second round

The main challenge for the top teams in the second round was to set their fastest laps on the slightly slower ultrasoft compound without risking their place in Q3, as these would then be the set of tyres they would start Sunday’s race on.

Even on the slightly harder compound, Hamilton was able to punch in a flying lap of 1:32.595s which was 0.149s faster than Bottas. Vettel and Raikkonen settled into third and fourth, after which there was a big gap back to Leclerc, Grosjean, Ocon, Magnussen, Perez and Marcus Ericsson after their first runs.

Penalty-hit Red Bull decided to save tyres and engine wear by sitting out this round, as did Gasly in the Toro Rosso. Surprisingly, the Renault team also concluded that there was no real chance of their progressing into Q3, and so they too opted to sit out the round which gives them a free choice of tyres for the start of the race.

With the identity of the five cars in the drop zone now known, it was a surprise to see anyone out again, let alone Mercedes and Ferrari. They opted to come out to play on hypersofts, Hamilton coming perilously close to bettering his earlier time. He was seven tenths up at one point before easing off dramatically in the final sector to ensure the team’s tyre strategy for tomorrow remained in place.

Q3: Bottas snatches pole ahead of Hamilton in all-Mercedes battle

Nine cars were quick to head out on track for the final round top-ten pole shoot-out, with only Ericsson opting to hold back. Ocon was the first man to set a time, but Bottas punched in a lap that was almost a full two seconds faster. That was too hot for even Hamilton, who was four thousandths of a second off the Finn’s powerful performance, which was circuit Bottas had won at in 2017.

The rest of the field simply wasn’t in it: Vettel was over six tenths off the pace off the two Mercedes, with Raikkonen a little further back in fourth. Ocon narrowly held on to the ‘best of the rest’ spot by 0.006s ahead of an inspired Leclerc, followed some way back by Magnussen, Perez and Grosjean.

There was time for everyone to make one more run, and the key question was whether Hamilton would be able to find the extra time needed to pip his team mate to the top spot. The Briton had a substantial advantage in the first sector, but it disappeared in the second as he struggled through turn 7: while Bottas extended his advantage at the top to 1:31.387s, Hamilton aborted his final effort and pulled into pit lane instead.

Despite this last minute upset, Hamilton’s front row spot was never at risk. There was nothing that the rest of the field could do about the Silver Arrows’ advantage, with Vettel maintaining third from Raikkonen.

A late charge put Magnussen up to fifth ahead of the closely-matched Ocon and Leclerc, with Perez in eighth ahead of Grosjean and Ericsson.

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Schumacher ignores poor loser Ticktum, thanks Ferrari

Mick Schumacher dismissed the controversial comments from his European F3 rival Dan Ticktum, who sought to undermine the German driver’s recent achievements and five-race winning streak.

After enduring another painful defeat at the hands of Schumacher last weekend at the Red Bull Ring, and watching his championship hopes slowly drift away, Ticktum resorted to silly innuendo, qualifying his opponent’s sudden winning surge as “interesting”.

The Brit took to social media to vent his frustrations, saying he felt “robbed” of a championship, adding “I am fighting a losing battle as my last name is not Schumacher.”

    Red Bull’s Ticktum casts doubt over Schumacher’s sudden wins

The wiser and more mature Schumacher simply shrugged off his rival’s silly outburst.

“I do not listen to something like that. The car is terrific to drive. We’ve evolved as a team, while others may have stopped at one point,” the 18-year-old told Speedweek.

“I wish him good luck that he stays in the title fight. But I focus on myself, that’s my key.

“Everyone evolves during the year. We never stop working and learning. After my win at Spa it was not easy, but we managed to be consistent, especially in qualifying, with good lap times.”

The son of F1 legend Michael Schumacher also had a few thankful words for Ferrari’s Maurizio Arrivabene who praised Mick’s results in F3 this season, saying he would always be welcome at Maranello.

“It’s nice to see that my performance is recognised, and if it’s by a team like Ferrari, that’s very nice. But to just be mentioned generally in the world of Formula 1 is positive,” he said.

Formula 1 is undoubtedly Schumacher’s final destination, but a passage next season through the ranks of Formula 2 will likely be the next stage in the young man’s promising career.

“The focus right now is clearly on Formula 3. We are discussing it, but at the moment there is nothing fixed.”

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Sergio Perez’s deal for 2019 is done and dusted!

It’s a done deal for Sergio Perez for next season, although the Mexican stopped short of revealing the identity of the team he’ll be racing for in 2019.

Speaking to the media after Saturday’s qualifying session for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa – in which Perez qualified P4 – the Force India driver was reluctant to provide any details but said they would come soon enough.

Obviously, a not-so-wild guess would be an extension of Perez’s deal with Force India, or the new Force India, where he is expected to be paired with Lance Stroll next season.

    ‘Exceptional’ Ocon needs to be in a top car – Hamilton

“For me I already know what I’m doing next year, but I cannot communicate it yet,” he said.

“I don’t think it’ll be long from now. We are not in a hurry, I think,” he added, speaking to Motorsport.com.

Earlier in the day, right after qualifying, TV cameras eavesdropped on a conversation between Sebastian Vettel and Perez’s team mate, Esteban Ocon.

Vettel queried the Frenchman on his plans for 2019, with Ocon telling the German that his “seat is taken” at Force India – by Stroll. Vettel than inquired about the other seat, referring to Perez.

“The other one brings money,” said Ocon, spilling the beans!

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Vettel admits he’ll be sad to see Raikkonen go

Sebastian Vettel has admitted that he’ll be sad to see Kimi Raikkonen leave Ferrari at the end of the season.

It was announced earlier this week that Charles Leclerc will be heading to Maranello next season on a reported four-year contract, while Raikkonen will return to Sauber where his Formula 1 began in 2001.

Vettel and Raikkonen have enjoyed a strong working relationship over the past four years, unusual for team mates in the pressure cooker environment of F1. But not even Vettel’s support could swing another season for Raikkonen at Ferrari in 2019.

“It’s sad to know that Kimi is not there anymore because I think we get along even though we are different,” Vettel said in Singapore.

“I think the most important thing if you are teammates is the respect that you have for each other, or the degree of bullshit going on between each other

“With Kimi it has been zero from the start, and I don’t think it will change until the end,” he added. “As I said, we have this mutual respect for each other.

  • More to Raikkonen’s return to Sauber than just driving – Salo

“Obviously it’s always a change, but to be honest right now nothing changes. So I’m more focused on the next races rather than next year,” he pointed out. “For now it’s not that important, it’s more important for next year.”

Vettel said that he hadn’t even had a chance to catch up with Leclerc since the announcement was made on Tuesday.

“I don’t have his number,” he said. “But in these days I’m sure he was very busy anyway. If I get to see him then I’m sure that I’ll find the right words. By the sound of it we’ll have enough time to exchange our phone numbers in the future.”

“It’s a great chance for Charles,” he acknowledged. “It’s a great opportunity for him. He’s been in the junior programme of the team for a long time, so it’s good to see there’s progression.

“It’s great that he gets the opportunity to race in a big team, and then we’ll see. We’ll do our best to work on him, we want to work together as a team.”

Vettel didn’t expect it to be difficult to exchange one veteran team mate for a much younger driver who is currently still in his maiden season.

“Age I think is not relevant,” he insisted. “If you are fast and talented then the age doesn’t matter. You can be fast and talented also when you are old on paper.

“I think Kimi is probably the best example, so you have two good examples.”

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F1 fans, place your bets thanks to new live betting deal!

Race fans will soon be able to indulge in live in-race betting thanks to a new partnership just announced between Formula 1 and Interregional Sports Group.

The agreement – potentially worth $100 million to F1 over a five-year period, according to the Financial Times – will see ISG develop live in-race betting through a series of sub-license partnerships.

“As part of the deal, ISG will have the right to sub-license betting partnership rights to select betting brands around the world, subject to regulations,” the Formula One Group said in a statement.

    Bratches wonders how Ecclestone managed to run F1

The Financial Times‘ report says that ISG would pay a fee upfront to F1 and then sell access rights to selected gambling companies.

Sportradar Integrity Services is also involved in the deal and will help ISG and gambling companies manage the data to create markets but also eventually decipher any suspicious betting patterns.

“F1 is delighted to partner with ISG, which has demonstrated its impressive global capabilities through working with the likes of Serie A and La Liga,” said F1’s commercial director Sean Bratches.

“We are also hugely excited to work with ISG and Sportradar on making the most of the data which is generated at every Grand Prix.

“Data and sponsorship partnerships like this are common practice across almost all premium sports and this is the latest step in our mission to make Formula 1 the world’s leading sports entertainment experience.

“This deal allows us to develop new and exciting ways for Formula 1 fans around the globe to engage with the world’s greatest racing spectacle, while ensuring integrity with best practice oversight from Sportradar.”

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