Former F1 driver and team boss Wilson Fittipaldi dies aged 80 

Wilson Fittipaldi Jr, who raced briefly in F1 and owned the Fittipaldi Formula 1 Team, died in his homeland in Brazil earlier today, aged 80. He had been hospitalized since suffering a cardiac arrest back in December 2023.

Although Fittipaldi scored a podium finish in a non-championship race, he could never repeat his fate during his career in the sport. He gathered a total of six career points, which he scored in 1973 with Brabham.

In 1966, Fittipaldi made his way to Europe to race in the Formula Three championship, but conflicts with the team destroyed the opportunity. Upon his return to England four years later, in 1970, he raced in British Formula Three.

During that year, he also raced with Niki Lauda, who would be a three-time F1 world champion in the future and had the opportunity to race against James Hunt the same year.

He owned the Fittipaldi Formula One Team between 1974 and 1982, following which he involved himself more in the family business. His son, Christian, chose his father's career path and became a racing driver. In 1996, Wilson Fittipaldi started to manage his son's racing career.

He was the older brother of two-time F1 world champion, Emerson Fittipaldi.

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Charles Leclerc leads the 2024 F1 pre-season testing to an end

The final day of the 2024 F1 pre-season testing was halted much earlier in the morning hours when Sergio Perez's Red Bull hit a loose drain cover on the track. Following this, the one-hour lunch break was skipped and the session ran throughout the length of the day.

Charles Leclerc of Ferrari led the pack with a laptime of 1:30.322 and a total of 74 laps. He was followed by the Mercedes of George Russell, +0.046 seconds slower, and Zhou Guanyu in the Sauber in third place, +0.325 slower.

At the end of the day, Alex Albon had set the most number of laps than any other driver (121) because Williams had not swapped their drivers, unlike the other teams.

Daniel Ricciardo was at the bottom of the chart with a whopping 70 clocked laps, completing a race simulation on the RB. His teammate Yuki Tsunoda put in a 1:30.775 to take the fifth fastest place on the timings chart.

The 2024 Formula 1 season is set to start with the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix scheduled to take place from February 29 to March 2.