5/09/2025

SPORTS FRIDAY | SEPT 5, 2025

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Ferrari hoping for Monza spark Prancing Horse to celebrate past triumph amid present woes F ERRARI will celebrate past glory, and hope to speed on from current woes, when they close out the European given their fans a campaign full of pain. Ferrari have yet to win this year – something lower-ranked rivals Red Bull and Mercedes have managed – and the home return comes hot on the heels of both cars crashing out in the Netherlands last weekend.

Sainz makes bold F1 claim Ű BY SCOTT HUNT

help Williams on that. “I see everything back at base, back at the factory responding and everything is going the way I want it to go. “It’s a matter of whether we can deliver it or not obviously but I feel like it’s still the right place for me for the future.” Last week’s Dutch Grand Prix was typical of Sainz’s season. He qualified a solid ninth but a mid-race collision with Liam Lawson – for which the Spaniard was furious to receive a penalty – saw him finish 13th. His teammate Alex Albon finished an impressive fifth to take his season tally to 64 points. “From my side, if I use Alex as a reference, I feel like speed has been there from the beginning,” Sainz added. “We’ve been very closely matched in outright speed, which is normally the thing you struggle the most when changing teams. So I’m

CARLOS SAINZ (pic) remains convinced he can become Formula 1 world champion with Williams. The Spaniard joined the British team ahead of this season after being unfortunate to lose his seat at Ferrari when the Scuderia opted to sign seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton. His debut campaign with the Grove-based team has not gone as smoothly as Sainz would have liked, with a combination of inconsistency, misfortune and strategic errors meaning he only has 16 points from the first 15 races. But the 31-year-old has seen enough to remain confident that he joined the right team. Asked if he believes he can become champion with Williams, Sainz said: “Yes. If there’s one thing I’ve taken over from Ferrari

McIlroy doesn’t understand Garcia’s exit RORY MCILROY admitted to being confused over Sergio Garcia’s decision to withdraw from the Irish Open after the latter was not selected to represent Europe’s Ryder Cup team. “No, I don’t (understand),” McIlroy said Formula One has a remarkable record of pulling rabbits out of the hat at emotional moments and on special anniversaries and that will be one straw at least for the fans to clutch at. “For the entire team, being surrounded by the passion of our tifosi is an incredible motivation to put our hearts into everything we do,” said Vasseur. – Reuters SHORTS second place but the Briton was on pole at Monza last year and also set fastest lap. Sunday could see Piastri add to his 34 points lead or Norris claw back a fistful with eight races and three sprints remaining in the Asia, Americas and Middle East legs to come. “It’s almost a big enough gap now that I can just chill out about it and just go for it,” said Norris last weekend of the battle ahead. Ferrari fans would love it if their drivers could write another narrative and team boss Fred Vasseur saw some positives amid the debris of the Dutch weekend, despite saying Friday was the team’s worst in three years.

Formula One season with their long suffering home fans at Monza this weekend. Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix marks the 50th anniversary of late Austrian triple champion Niki Lauda’s first title, secured at the circuit with Enzo Ferrari’s team in front of a huge and passionate crowd. The cars now raced by seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, last year’s winner at the Pista Magica , will pay tribute with a special red and white retro livery harking back to the 312T of 1975. Ferrari fan favourite Jean Alesi, a one-off winner in Canada in 1995, will drive that year’s V12-powered Ferrari 412 T2 for a noisy blast from the past around the super-fast track on Sunday morning. It will all be a welcome distraction from present realities for a team that have not won a title since 2008 and, despite still being second overall, have

To make matters worse, Hamilton – record winner of 105 races who had the fans at fever pitch when he joined from Mercedes in January – will make his first Monza appearance as a Ferrari driver with a five-place grid penalty. The 40-year-old has yet to stand on the podium in 15 starts in red and the sanction makes that even less likely at the “Temple of Speed” for the five times winner with McLaren and Mercedes. McLaren meanwhile will be chasing their sixth win in a row and 13th in 16 races and are a whopping 324 points clear in the constructors’ standings with Australian Oscar Piastri and Britain’s Lando Norris in a two-horse title race. The odds have shifted in Piastri’s favour after Norris retired with a smoking car in Zandvoort while in

and my other experiences, it is that I know that with the right people around me I can develop a competitive car and team. “I get a lot of

relatively happy and proud of that adaptation process. “But unfortunately we didn’t manage to get points on the table, or as many points as we should have, for the speed that I have in the car.” – The Independent

confidence from that, from knowing that I know how to guide a big organisation to go in the right direction, what the car needs to perform, what is the right structure for a team, and I’m keen to

Sept. 26-28 at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York. Donald to lead Bethpage scouting trip WITH 11 of the 12 players he will lead later this month at the Ryder Cup set

to play next week’s BMW PGA Championship in in Virginia Water, Surrey, Luke Donald will be predictably thorough in his preparation for the matches. Much like the way his team prepared for the Ryder Cup in Rome two years ago, the European side will make a two-day scouting trip to Bethpage Black following next week’s tournament near London. The team, Donald and support staff will take a charter flight from London on Sunday following the final round of the DP World Tour’s flagship event and spend two days practicing and preparing at Bethpage. Every member of this year’s team except Sepp Straka is currently committed to play the BMW PGA and then head to the United States for the scouting trip, including Rory McIlroy who confirmed his participation to GolfChannel.com . Following the scouting trip, the team will remain in the United States until the Ryder Cup to help rest and acclimate to the new time zone. The European team made a similar trip two years ago to Marco Simone in between the Irish Open and the BMW PGA Championship. The US Ryder Cup team is also starting its preparations early, with 10 of the 12 players currently scheduled to play next week’s Procore Championship in Napa, California. Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau are the only two players not currently

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Sergio Garcia. – REUTERSPIC

yesterday, one day before the start of the Irish Open at The K Club in County Kildare, Ireland.

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“I mean, it would have been great for the tournament if Sergio played, but obviously, he was trying to keep himself sharp, I guess, if he did get a pick. “He has the right to

enter and pull out of whatever tournaments he wants to. As I said, Luke (Donald), has assembled a very strong 12 players, and I think the right 12 players, and I’m sure he’s disappointed. “But you know, at the same time, I’m sure he wishes Europe well and wants us to win.” Garcia withdrew from the DP World Tour event on Tuesday, one day after Donald revealed his six captain’s picks. Garcia – a 10-time Ryder Cup selection – was not among them. Garcia, 45, plays in the LIV Golf League, which hampered his ability to earn rankings points toward an automatic qualification. The Spaniard is the all- time leading point scorer in Ryder Cup history. The 45th Ryder Cup will be played

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committed to the PGA Tour’s first event, and DeChambeau would not be allowed to participate because he is a member of LIV Golf.

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