Michael Schumacher’s home town facing demolition due to mining

In brief

Schumachers’ home town to be demolished

The expansion of the massive Hambach surface mine to the north-west of Kerpen-Manheim has led to the abandonment of the village where the Schumacher family once lived. The mine is a source of lignite, regarded as one of the most polluting forms of ‘brown coal’ used for power generation.

German media reports claim as few as a dozen people are left in the town. Excavations are due to begin next year.

Some notable local landmarks will be spared demolition. They include the Kerpen karting track once owned by Schumacher’s family, where in 2001 he raced against his fellow future seven-times champion and Mercedes F1 team predecessor Lewis Hamilton.

F1 announces new Paramount partnership

Paramount+, the catch-up streaming service owned by American media conglomerate Paramount Global, has signed a deal to become an official partner of the Formula 1 world championship.

F1 already has deals with broadcasters across the world, for live coverage and bespoke on-demand featured such as Netflix’s Drive to Survive series. Its multi-year promotional deal with Paramount is a follow-up to a deal between the company and F1 last year that centred around a “sports and entertainment collaboration.”

Now the focus will be on Paramount providing content that will be consumable from within the F1 paddock during race weekends. F1 claims that from now on it will have “Paramount+ hit series, blockbuster movies and beloved characters taking centre stage inside Fan Zone areas”.

Paramount sponsorship will also be visible at multiple tracks on the calendar, including on the pit lane side of the pit wall.

F2 stars untroubled by limited practice

While George Russell believes Formula 1 drivers have too much practice time compared to their Formula 2 and Formula 3 counterparts, the junior racers aren’t convinced.

“It’s not easy in F2 when you have only 45 minutes to learn a track,” said Sauber junior Theo Pourchaire during the most recent round in Melbourne, a new addition to the F2 calendar. “But that’s part of our job.

“We can see some qualities in some drivers. I’m sure there’s a big, big step between F1 and F2. They have a three free practices, we have only one of 45 minutes. But it’s like this, we need to adapt ourselves. It’s tough, but as I said we can see where are the good drivers. You need to adapt quickly to every condition, so it’s not easy. But it’s good.”

Ayumu Iwasa, who starred in Melbourne by taking pole position and winning the feature race, largely agreed with Pourchaire. “I think it’s really good format at the moment,” said the Red Bull junior driver. “That’s what I’m feeling. Having quite small free practice is I think it’s showing quite a lot of differences…