Formula One has long been the established championship at the pinnacle of motorsport racing, but that is now all changing in the eyes those involved in another series. Alejandro Agag is chief of the Formula E championship which is now in its ninth season, running a third generation all-electric racecar. Over the weekend, the famous streetrace of Monaco hosted the ninth race of 2023 - just past the midway point in the campaign - and Agag feels the new vehicle is perfectly suited for such an historic and prestigious track. Moreover, Agag says the championship as a whole has progressed to such an extent over the past couple of years that it can now lay serious claim to being a requirement for the best drivers to conquer, the Independent has learned. “It’s a car made for the streets of Monaco. This Gen 3 really takes Formula E to another level,” Agag said on TalkSport’s On Track show. “It takes it to a level where strategy is key. “I think we’ve put it in a place where if you really want to call yourself the best driver in the world, you really need to win Formula 1 and Formula E.” That is a view which has been echoed by several drivers on the FE grid, who feel the added strategy and control required makes it the real pinnacle of motorsport. Dan Ticktum, a British driver with NIO, told the Independent in March that F1 drivers could be picked up on factors including nationality and financial backing - whereas FE drivers were simply there on talent. “All the drivers are here because we’re good. It’s all merit-based,” Ticktum said. “You very rarely get signed because of a nationality. In Formula 1, a lot of people are being signed now who are not actually good enough in my opinion, it’s just where they are born. Formula E doesn’t pay attention to any of that. “The best drivers rise to the top – merit only. There are very few championships in the world where every driver is paid to do their job; from a fans’ point of view I would like that a lot – it’s the best drivers in the world going head-to-head.” At present, the only past Formula E champion currently involved in F1 is Nyck de Vries, in his debut season with AlphaTauri. Several of those on the FE grid have previously been in F1, but the claim would suggest Max Verstappen, F1’s current champion and leader in this season’s championship, would need to also make the switch to unify the titles, as such. ::The On Track show - the only dedicated weekly motorsport show on UK national radio - airs from on TalkSport at 1pm on Tuesday and repeats at 9pm. Read More FIA face scrutiny after Norris almost drives into official in another near-miss Where are Mercedes and Ferrari? Frankly, you don’t want to hear the answer George Russell takes aim at ‘distracting’ razzmatazz before Miami Grand Prix

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Two new studies have found conclusive links between the consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) with increased cardiac disease risk, including heart attacks and strokes. The research, presented at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology in Amsterdam, found highly processed food sold in stores across the world, such as fizzy drinks, cereals and ready-to-eat meals, may lead to an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases and hypertension. Henry Dimbleby, the UK government’s former food tsar, said the findings should be a “wake-up call” for the country. “Britain is particularly bad for ultra-processed food. It is storing up problems for the future,” he told The Guardian. “If we do nothing, a tidal wave of harm is going to hit the NHS.” One of the studies, conducted by scientists from the Fourth Military Medical University in China, conducted a review of 10 studies that included 325,403 participants and 38,720 cases of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events, including heart attack and stroke. It found a conclusive association between UPF and heart disease risk. Scientists found that a 10 per cent increase in UPF consumption in daily calorie intake is linked to a 6 per cent rise in heart disease risk. Researchers also observed that the lowest risk was at a less than 15 per cent per day of UPF consumption out of total calorie intake. However, heavy UPF consumption “was significantly and positively associated with increased risk of cardiovascular events,” scientists noted. The other research, also presented at the world’s largest heart health conference, assessed the link between UPF intake with CVD and hypertension in a population of middle-aged women in Australia. Scientists, including those from the University of Sydney, assessed health data of about 10,000 women aged 46-55 years who were recruited into the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health and followed for 15 years. They assessed the contribution of UPF in the daily dietary intake of these women as well as their self-reported heart disease and stroke, and/or hypertension incidences. The women included in the study had an average UPF intake of 26.6 per cent of total food dietary intake. Over their 15 years of follow-up, scientists found 1,038 incident CVD and 4,204 hypertension cases. Among the middle-aged women, scientists observed that a higher UPF intake was associated with higher risk of CVD and hypertension. “These findings lend support to minimising UPF intake as a component of a heart-healthy diet,” scientists wrote in the study. Taken together, the findings hinted that the harm caused by UPF may be more than just due to their high salt and fat content. “If there is something inherent in the processing of foods that is harmful, then that is a disaster,” said Mr Dimbleby. Read More First-of-its-kind study finds laughter is indeed good medicine, especially for the heart How many steps a day can cut risk of early death (and it’s not 10,000) Weight loss jabs improve heart failure symptoms in obese patients – study First-of-its-kind study finds laughter is indeed good medicine How many steps a day can cut risk of early death (and it’s not 10,000) ‘Boy moms’ called out for dubious logic behind teaching their sons to cook

Elon Musk has posted a series of explicit tweets about Mark Zuckerberg, including This week, Mr Musk tweeted that “Zuck is a cuck”, and followed it up with a post in which he proposed a “literal dick measuring contest”, alongside a ruler emoji. On Monday, he then responded to a post in which another user speculated that Mr Musk would lose such a contest. “This would so inappropriate & lacking in dignity … let’s do it!!!” Mr Musk wrote in a reply. It is just the latest in Mr Musk’s often intense responses to the launch of Threads, a Twitter competitor launched by Mr Zuckerberg’s company, Meta. He has also threatened to sue Meta over the similarities with his app, suggested that it is falsely joyful, and boosted posts that suggested the launch of Threads had actually helped the launch of Twitter. Mr Musk has also attempted to suggest that Twitter is both free of censorship and the pressure to be happy. “You are free to be your true self here,” he wrote in his most recent post on the topic. He has also promoted a post from Twitter’s chief executive, Linda Yaccarino, in which she suggested that Threads’ success had actually helped Twitter’s growth. “Don’t want to leave you hanging by a thread… but Twitter, you really outdid yourselves!” she wrote. “Last week we had our largest usage day since February. There’s only ONE Twitter. You know it. I know it.” It is not clear how much the launch of Threads has boosted or hurt Twitter’s usage. But external estimates suggest that the site’s usage is “tanking”, according to experts. Meta’s Threads surged past 100 million signups in its first five days, according to Mark Zuckerberg. In doing so, it became the fastest online platform to hit the milestone, overtaking ChatGPT. The app has been setting new records for user additions since its launch on Wednesday, with celebrities from Jennifer Lopez to Kim Kardashian joining the platform seen as the first serious threat to the Elon Musk-owned microblogging app. Twitter has responded by threatening to sue Meta over the app, alleging that the social media behemoth used its trade secrets and other confidential information. That claim, legal experts say, could be hard to prove. Threads shares some resemblance to Twitter, as do the numerous other social media sites that have cropped up in recent months. It allows posts that are up to 500 characters long and include links, photos and videos of up to 5 minutes. The app’s sprint to 100 million users was much faster than the two months OpenAI-owned ChatGPT took in January, which had made it the fastest-growing consumer application in history, according to a UBS study. Still, Threads has some catching up to do. Twitter had nearly 240 million monetizable daily active users, according to a company statement in July last year. Additional reporting by Reuters Read More Twitter gets strange endorsement from Taliban over rival Threads Tucker Carlson’s Twitter show is haemorrhaging viewers, reports says Twitter traffic ‘tanking’ after record-breaking Threads launch SpaceX smashes reusable rocket record as Elon Musk makes bold Starship claim Twitter restores TweetDeck’s old, ‘better’ version – but for how long? Account tracking Elon Musk’s jet is now on Threads after Twitter suspended it

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