Source: BBC Sport
The official website of the Kataeb Party leader
Security & Justice
Captured Hezbollah Operative May Have Been Israeli Double Agent, Report Suggests
The alleged senior Hezbollah operative abducted by Israeli special forces last week in Batroun may have been operating as a double agent, according to a report by The Telegraph.
Monday, November 4, 2024
Lebanon’s Probe into Israeli Raid Expected to Take Days as Security Officials Weigh Theories
Lebanese authorities are ramping up investigations into an Israeli commando raid last week in the northern coastal city of Batroun, during which Imad Amhaz, a Hezbollah official, was snatched.
Monday, November 4, 2024
Opinion
The Emptying of Baalbek Is a Moment to Take Stock
“Large numbers of people continue to flee their homes every day, as Israel’s military operations in Lebanon have been going on unabated.” These disturbing words could be from almost any news report about Israel’s invasion of its northern neighbour over the past month. However, they can be found in a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre issued on July 27, 2006.
Saturday, November 2, 2024
A Future Without Hezbollah
At the end of September, when Israel’s campaign to destroy Hezbollah was reaching its height, I met one of the group’s supporters in a seaside café in western Beirut. He was a middle-aged man with a thin white beard and the spent look of someone who had not slept for days. He was an academic of sorts, not a fighter, but his ties to Hezbollah were deep and long-standing.
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Sports
Tottenham Forward Son Heung-min Crowned Asia’s International Player of the Year
Tottenham forward Son Heung-min was crowned as Asia’s International Player of the Year for the fourth time by the Asian Football Confederation at its annual awards ceremony Tuesday.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Real Madrid Launch Investigation into Racist Insults After El Clasico Defeat
Real Madrid has launched an investigation into racist insults directed at players during Saturday’s 4-0 home loss to Barcelona in LaLiga, it said on Sunday.
Monday, October 28, 2024
Tuesday 13 February 2024 18:35:16
Ferrari Says New SF-24 Formula 1 Car 'Must Be a Consistent Frontrunner' from Start of New Season
Ferrari says their new Formula 1 car "must be a consistent frontrunner" when the new season starts next month.
Team principal Frederic Vasseur said at the SF-24 launch on Tuesday that the team "must start where we left off at the end of last season".
Charles Leclerc took pole position at three of the final five races in the 2023 campaign.
"I expect the car to be a step forward in several areas," said an optimistic Leclerc.
"From the impression I have formed in the simulator, I think we're where we want to be."
Ferrari started last season far from their expected level, with an uncompetitive and vicious car.
But they improved it progressively over the year to the extent that in the second half of the season, their qualifying pace was a match for that of runaway world champions Red Bull.
However, Red Bull retained a significant advantage in the races, which Ferrari hopes they have reduced, although Leclerc was unlucky to miss out on a win in the penultimate race in Las Vegas as a result of the timing of a safety car.
Leclerc added: "The SF-24 ought to be less sensitive and easier to drive and that's what you need to do well.
"This season the aim is to be frontrunners all the time and I want to give our fans plenty to cheer about, by dedicating race wins to them."
Leclerc's team-mate Carlos Sainz, who in Singapore last year became the only non-Red Bull driver to win a race in 2023, said: "I'm looking forward to driving the car to see if it correlates with the feeling I had from the simulator, which is that it's the step forward we all want.
"The aim is to have a car that's more driveable and therefore able to run at a consistent race pace, as these are the basic requirements to fight for wins.
"We drivers have done our very best to give the engineers precise feedback and I'm sure the workforce in Maranello will have listened to our needs."
Vasseur said the team had also worked on further improving its operational management, a weakness in recent years on which a significant step was made under his guidance last year.
The Frenchman said: "The longest-ever Formula 1 season awaits us and Charles, Carlos and I all agree we must be more clinical and effective in how we manage the races, making bold choices, to get the best possible result at every Grand Prix."
What about the car?
The new Ferrari is a "completely new platform", according to chassis technical director Enrico Cardile, who said that "every area of the car has been redesigned".
Cardile added: "Our starting point was the development direction we adopted last year which saw us leap forward in terms of competitiveness in the final part of the season.
"We have taken on board what the drivers told us and turned those ideas into engineering reality, to give them a car that's easier to drive and therefore easier to get the most out of and push it to its limits."
The pictures released by Ferrari, which are likely to disguise key design areas of the car that the team wants to keep under wraps for as long as possible, show a redesigned nose and front wing and extensively reshaped bodywork as the team seeks to find the consistent, predictable downforce that was often elusive for them last year.