The 2023 Formula 1 season is here and the new campaign has seen Red Bull pick up where they left off in 2022. This year sees 23 races held in a record-breaking calendar, as Max Verstappen looks to make it three in a row following back-to-back World Championship triumphs. Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes team have found further improvements so far this year following a disappointing 2022 season. Meanwhile Ferrari are struggling to match their strong start to 2022. There are new faces on the grid too - such as Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargeant - and all 20 drivers will be itching to get back on track after a three-month break with the official pre-season test in Bahrain before the first race of the season a week later. This year’s biggest shake-up so far came mid-season when AlphaTauri driver Nyck de Vries was dropped almost immediately after Silverstone as he failed to impress the higher-ups at Red Bull. He has been replaced by returning favourite Daniel Ricciardo. Here is everything you need to know. What is the 2023 F1 calendar? ROUND 1 —BAHRAIN Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir - 3-5 March ROUND 2 - SAUDI ARABIA Jeddah Corniche Circuit - 17-19 March ROUND 3 - AUSTRALIA Albert Park, Melbourne - 31 March-2 April ROUND 4 - AZERBAIJAN (sprint weekend) Baku City Circuit - 28-30 April ROUND 5 - MIAMI Miami International Autodrome, Hard Rock Stadium - 5-7 May ROUND 6 - EMILIA ROMAGNA CANCELLED Imola Circuit - 19-21 May ROUND 7 - MONACO Circuit de Monaco - 26-28 May ROUND 8 - SPAIN Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya - 2-4 June ROUND 9 - CANADA Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal - 16-18 June ROUND 10 - AUSTRIA (sprint weekend) Red Bull Ring, Spielberg - 30 June-2 July ROUND 11 - GREAT BRITAIN Silverstone Circuit - 7-9 July ROUND 12 - HUNGARY Hungaroring, Budapest - 21-23 July ROUND 13 - BELGIUM (sprint weekend) Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps - 28-30 July ROUND 14 - NETHERLANDS Circuit Zandvoort - 25-27 August ROUND 15 - ITALY Monza Circuit - 1-3 September ROUND 16 - SINGAPORE Marina Bay Street Circuit - 15-17 September ROUND 17 - JAPAN Suzuka International Racing Course - 22-24 September ROUND 18 - QATAR (sprint weekend) Lusail International Circuit, Lusail - 6-8 October ROUND 19 - UNITED STATES (sprint weekend) Circuit of the Americas, Austin - 20-22 October ROUND 20 - MEXICO Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Mexico City - 27-29 October ROUND 21 - BRAZIL (sprint weekend) Interlagos Circuit, Sao Paulo - 3-5 November ROUND 22 - LAS VEGAS Las Vegas Street Circuit - 16-18 November ROUND 23 - ABU DHABI Yas Marina Circuit - 24-26 November When and where does the 2023 F1 season start? The first race of the season, the Bahrain Grand Prix, takes place from Friday 3 March - Sunday 5 March at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir. Qualifying on Saturday 4 March starts at 3pm (GMT) with the race on Sunday also at 3pm (GMT). When is pre-season testing? Pre-season testing takes place at the Bahrain International Circuit the week before the first race, from Thursday 23 February - Saturday 25 February. Running will take place between 7am and 4:30pm (GMT) on each of the three days. There will be an hour’s break midway through each session for lunch. Each driver will have one-and-a-half days worth of time in the car. How can I watch it online and on TV? The Bahrain Grand Prix, as well as pre-season testing, will be broadcast live on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom. Sky Sports subscribers can watch pre-season testing on the Sky Go app. If you’re not a Sky customer you can grab a NOWTV Day Pass here to watch without a subscription. We may earn commission from some of the links in this article, but we never allow this to influence our content. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent. What has been said? Max Verstappen has challenged Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes to raise their game and provide him with the championship battle that Formula One needs. Verstappen ran away with last season’s title, winning 15 of the 22 races, to secure his second championship with four rounds to spare. In contrast, Hamilton, in his under-performing Mercedes, endured the worst year of his career as he failed to win a race and finished 214 points adrift. But when addressing the prospect of renewing his rivalry with Hamilton at Red Bull’s season launch in New York, Verstappen, 25, said: “In the interest of the sport you always want the teams to be super-close. “I do think it was close last year, but as a team we executed a lot of things better than the others and that was why the points gap was so big. I never felt, apart from two or three races, that we absolutely dominated. But for the general interest of Formula One, everyone wants a title battle with multiple teams involved.” What are the driver line-ups for 2023? RED BULL Max Verstappen Sergio Perez FERRARI Charles Leclerc Carlos Sainz MERCEDES Lewis Hamilton George Russell ALPINE Esteban Ocon Pierre Gasly McLAREN Lando Norris Oscar Piastri ALFA ROMEO Valtteri Bottas Zhou Guanyu ASTON MARTIN Fernando Alonso Lance Stroll HAAS Kevin Magnussen Nico Hulkenberg ALPHATAURI Yuki Tsunoda Nyck de Vries WILLIAMS Alex Albon Logan Sargeant *italics represents new addition to the grid/change of team Read More F1 makes South African Grand Prix call for 2024 calendar George Russell sends stark warning to F1 bosses: ‘There will be crashes’ Eddie Jordan makes bold Max Verstappen prediction: ‘He will be the greatest’

Canada midfielder Quinn made history when they became the first transgender and non-binary person to appear at either a men’s or women’s World Cup, playing 90 minutes in the 0-0 draw with Nigeria in Melbourne last week. The Ontario native, 27, is already a gold medallist for their country, part of the side that triumphed at the Covid-delayed Tokyo Olympics in summer 2021 and has designs on going all the way in Australia and New Zealand too. Hailing from a sporting family – Quinn’s father and mother played college rugby and basketball respectively – the midfielder quickly took to football as a child, rejecting all other after-school pursuits in favour of the beautiful game. They played at youth level for North Toronto, Richmond Hill and Erin Mills Eagles and briefly for Toronto Lady Lynx in 2013 before heading due south and enrolling as a biology major at prestigious Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. There, Quinn played for the Duke Blue Devils, making 69 appearances and scoring four between 2013 and 2017. Turning professional after graduation, they signed first for Washington Spirit in 2018 before a short-lived stint with Paris FC in France followed. Quinn subsequently transferred to OL Reign in Seattle in 2019, where they have played alongside US Women’s National Team greats Rose Lavelle and Megan Rapinoe ever since – outside of a brief loan spell with Swedish side Vittsjo GIK in 2020. For the Canadian national team, Quinn made their debut for the under-17s in 2012 and subsequently played for the under-20 and under-23 sides before graduating to the senior squad in 2014, subsequently picking up 89 caps and scoring five, as well as a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Quinn became known by the mononym in 2020 after coming out as transgender and non-binary, opting for gender-neutral pronouns. They were granted permission to continue playing professional women’s football based on a sex-assigned-at-birth basis. “I want to be a visible figure for young trans folks or people questioning their gender, people exploring their gender,” Quinn has said of their decision to come out. “Because unfortunately when I was growing up, and even going through that process of figuring out myself in college, I didn’t have those people in the public sphere to look up to. “There are several trans athletes and several trans people in media and politics, but I just think those faces are not common enough. “I want to be a visible trans person succeeding in my job, so that younger trans folks could see that they did have an avenue to go and that they would have a future and a career ahead of them.” Read More Women’s World Cup 2023 LIVE: Spain and Japan through before Ireland vs Canada Women’s World Cup TV schedule: How to watch every match today Tuesday at the World Cup: Philippines stun New Zealand as Norway are held New Jersey Governor keen to host Premier League and Champions League matches Vera Pauw ‘a bit concerned’ about Louise Quinn fitness for Republic-Canada game Denise O’Sullivan hails ‘unbelievable’ Ireland fans at World Cup

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Erik ten Hag says Manchester United must use the pain of their narrow FA Cup final defeat to Manchester City to improve and eventually catch their dominant neighbours. The eyes of the footballing world were on Wembley as these rivals went toe-to-toe in a major cup final for the first time on Saturday afternoon. Ilkay Gundogan opened the scoring with a stunning volley after 12 seconds, with Bruno Fernandes’ penalty cancelling out the quickest goal in FA Cup final history. But City regained the lead through another Gundogan volley to seal a 2-1 win, giving them a chance to emulate United’s 1999 treble heroes in next weekend’s Champions League final. Many United fans had started the long, train strike-impacted journey home when their rivals lifted the trophy, but Ten Hag and his team watched those celebrations. “First of all, show respect always,” the Dutchman said. “But, yeah, of course, it’s a motivation. “You have to feel it in your stomach. This hurts and it has to be fuel. You have to feel it in your stomach. This hurts and it has to be fuel Erik ten Hag “We want to be there and our team, my players, deserved it, but you have to grab it and that is the next step we have to make.” It was a galling end to a promising first season under Ten Hag, who is proud to have overseen a third-placed finish, Carabao Cup win and narrow FA Cup final loss. “I want to congratulate City for winning the FA Cup, but I think it was very narrow, it was head to head,” he said. “We played very competitive out of a very good organisation. “We didn’t allow them out from open play against probably the best team in the world in this moment. “We fought back after going a quick goal down and I think we are the only team in the world who is capable of fighting back against this team from City. “So, yeah, I was happy with the performance of my team.” David De Gea’s role has been debated all season and his part in City’s second goal has been called into question, leading Ten Hag to be asked whether he was comfortable having him going into next season. “In this moment, I don’t want to talk about such issues, about criticism because we played all a great season, including David De Gea,” he said of the goalkeeper, who has yet to extend his contract beyond the summer. “He played a fantastic season. If you consider that City and us before today both had 42 wins. “Now they have one win more, so the difference was made today. Then you can tell we played a fantastic season and it’s more than we could have expected before. “We were third in the league, we are qualified for the Champions League, and we won a trophy and we were in another final. “So, yeah, I’m really happy with the performance from my team all over.” Ten Hag bemoaned “soft goals” after a loss and season where the lack of quality and depth compared to treble-chasing City has been clear. United have work to do in the summer but the interminable takeover process continues to hang over the club as the Glazer family drag the process out. Co-owner Avram Glazer was at Wembley for the final and ignored questions about the takeover as he left through the interview area. “I think in this moment I don’t want to discuss that,” Ten Hag said when asked about the takeover and summer improvements. “It’s about finalising the season. We have to be quiet, analyse the season, go into the depth, then set the right conclusions and then take action. It’s about that. “Of course, during the season you continually make your considerations and already some actions are into process. “But, yeah, now the season is finished and the conclusion all over is we played a brilliant season.” Asked if he has different plans for whether there is a takeover or not, Ten Hag said: “I have only one plan and that is to improve this club and to improve this team. “I will fight for (that). I have my ideas and I already talked with the club about what we have to do for that. “But also what I said, yeah, I have to work with my staff, with my players to be better in next season.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Mirra Andreeva feared French Open disqualification for ‘really stupid move’ Casper Ruud and Holger Rune close on French Open rematch after third-round wins Hugo Lloris contemplating Tottenham exit as he has ‘desire for other things’

It didn't look good.