Valtteri Bottas makes his debut for Alfa Romeo this season after leaving Mercedes at the end of the last campaign.

The star says he feels “responsibility” for his new team as he has been named a team leader for the first time in his career. At Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton took the reins.

“Alfa Romeo has a great heritage in the automotive industry and also racing, so driving for the brand is a big responsibility,” Bottas told Motorsport.com, “and actually, for the first time in my career, I’m the more experienced driver of the team, I think it’s about time because I’m starting my 10th season.

“So, I definitely feel like I have the responsibility to guide the team and help the team and giving everything I have.”

Lewis Hamilton is known to be heard complaining about his tyres only to go on and race the fastest lap. But he is treading a fine line as his tyre bluffs could potentially confuse his team.

The seven-time champ has spoken about the issue. “Sometimes, the worst thing if you bluff your own teams. So you’ve got to be careful,” he told CrowdStrike’s YouTube channel.

“In the past, there have been times where it’s worked in benefit but it’s a very, very, very fine line. The other teams are listening to what you’re saying, so everyone is listening out to who’s pitting when.”

It will be interesting to see if he changes his tactic this season or if there will be a tell to determine when he’s bluffing.

Formula 1 have made the decision not to race in Russia in the wake of the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

They have said in a statement: “The FIA Formula 1 Championship visits countries all over the world with a positive vision to unite people, bringing nations together.

“We are watching the developments in Ukraine with sadness and shock and hope for a swift and peaceful resolution to the present situation. On Thursday evening Formula 1, the FIA and the teams discussed the position of our sport, and the conclusion is, including the view of all relevant stakeholders, that it is impossible to hold the Russian Grand Prix in the current circumstances.”

For more on this breaking story, click below:

Lewis Hamilton’s accusations of possible bias among race stewards has provoked a quick response from the FIA.

The Mercedes man spoke on Wednesday about a lack of diversity in the stewards’ room, calling for more female representation among those in the hotseats, adding that it “would be awesome to have a male and female as the two race directors.”

“We need to make sure we’ve got non-biased stewards,” he said. “Race drivers, some are very, very good friends with certain individuals, some travel with some individuals, take a more keen liking to some.”

But the FIA rebutted his claims and backed the “independent” approach taken by all officials who partake on race days.

“The FIA is proud of its global stewarding pathway that connects and develops the most talented stewards from across motor sport,” the organisation told the Press Association.

“This has resulted in a strong, independent and experienced group of officials who carry out their work with impartiality and the utmost professionalism.”

Here’s how everyone stands as we close in on the third hour of day three testing.

Despite a slow start George Russell leads the pack with Max Verstappen behind him. Haas have had a suspected oil leak and so haven’t been able to put out the laps they would have hoped for.

But there’s worse news for Alpine who are out. They said in a statement: “After further investigations in the garage following Fernando Alonso’s on-track stoppage earlier this morning, the team can confirm the issue was a problem with the hydraulics. A minor sealing issue led to a fire in the back of the car.

“The team has successfully completed 266 laps during the three days of the Barcelona shakedown. Repairs on the car will continue, and as a result we won’t be running for the remainder of the day. We look forward to be back in action at the next test in Bahrain.”

Here are the results as they stand:

Russell (Mercedes) 1m19.233s, C5, 63 laps, Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m19.756s, C3, 55 laps, Vettel (Aston Martin) 1m19.824s, C4, 45 laps, Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m20.092s, C3, 41 laps, Latifi (Williams) 1m20.699s, C4, 5 laps, Norris (McLaren) 1m20.827s, C3, 51 laps, Alonso (Alpine) 1m21.242s, C3, 12 laps, Zhou (Alfa Romeo) 1m21.939s, C3, 39 laps, Gasly (AlphaTauri) 1m22.469s, C2, 40 laps, Albon (Williams) 1m22.652s, C2, 21 laps, Mazepin (Haas) 1m26.229s, C3, 9 laps

There are so many press conferences happening and I’m trying to stay on top of them! This update is from McLaren where team principal Andreas Seidl has spoken about whether the F1 will hold a grand prix in Russia.

The boss said: “As you know Formula 1, FIA and the teams, we all met last night, which was a productive meeting, an open discussion where we as McLaren made our position clear that from our point of view the Russian GP is untenable under the current circumstances.

“Please understand that I cannot disclose any more regarding those conversations but we can expect F1 as well making a statement imminently.”

The testing session is also now back underway after a red flag was raised for Zhou.

Gunther Steiner has not said if Mazepin will stay or leave Haas ahead of the 2022 season. The driver is Russian and the questions have arisen due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In his press conference, Steiner said: “It needs to be resolved. There are governments involved and I have no power over them and we need to see how the situation develops in Ukraine.”

He added that the team will continue in the F1 after questions were raised over their financial situation with their sponsor also Russian.

Steiner said: “The team are not affected by this. I spoke to them yesterday and told them there is nothing to worry about. We took the right decision to send a message to everyone.”

The team have been driving without the sponsor’s branding on the cars on day three of testing.

Aston Martin could be one of the teams to cause an upset this season and driver Sebastian Vettel says he is trying to “tame” his new car.

“In all honesty, there’s still an awful lot to understand,” said Vettel, quoted by Motorsport.com. “It’s a completely different animal and it wants to be tamed in a different way. That’s driving the car but also operating, in terms of set-up.

“We’ve tried a couple of things. There are some major challenges like others are also facing, and problems. So we need to find solutions.

“There’s still a lot to learn for me with a car that wants to be driven in a different way and I’m playing with driving styles, what I can do. Equally we are playing with the car, trying to solve some of the problems we have, the challenges we face, find solutions. There’s still a lot to do.”

Haas’ team boss Gunther Steiner has been asked if the team have a contingency plan in place as their sponsor is based in Russia.

He replied: “We haven’t been planning for this. We monitored the situation, we’re not sat there ignorantly waiting.

“But I have never experienced something like this so I didn’t know how it would go down.”

He has also said the team have been making decisions on whether to remove Uralkali, the Russian sponsor, moving forward. They will not release a statement until next week.

He was also asked if they will be sticking by Nikita Mazepin, who is Russian, and he said: “There are legal issues we have to go through and then we see what comes out.”

We will bring you more from that as it comes.

Gunther Steiner has started his press conference by apologising for having to withdraw from taking questions yesterday. He says it was down to “urgent issues”.

We will bring you more updates from that presser when we have them, it will be interesting what he says about their sponsor.

Back on the track there’s been another red flag and this time it’s Alfa Romeo’s Zhou. It only took five minutes for another to be shown after the testing restarted following Gasly veering off the track.

Zhou had set a personal best in the second sector but has now stopped in the final part of the track