Innholdsfortegnelse for 09/11/23 i Autosport

We’ve become accustomed to Red Bull and Max Verstappen breaking records this season, with the Dutchman’s 2023 grand prix wins tally now up to 17 and the team’s score at 19 following the Interlagos event last weekend. Notwithstanding Fernando Alonso’s brilliant efforts to deny Sergio Perez’s faster car a place on the podium, the result in Brazil was never in doubt (see page 16). And that’s now the norm. While the brilliance of Red Bull and Verstappen cannot be denied, it’s hardly made for a classic Formula 1 season. That has made some ask whether something needs to be done about Red Bull’s domination, so this week we take on that very question (p30). We look at previous eras of F1 domination, rule changes that helped mix things up (or…

FORMULA 1 Mercedes chief technical officer Mike Elliott has left the eight-time constructors’ champion team and will take a break from Formula 1. With his contract due to expire soon anyway, his decision to depart comes after swapping roles with technical director James Allison earlier this season amid the team’s ongoing ground-effect struggle. Elliott, who joined the Brackley squad in 2012, said: “It has been one of the great privileges of my career to be part of this Mercedes team. Although the last two seasons have not seen us winning races in the manner we aspire to, they have tested us in many other ways – and forced us to question our fundamental assumptions about how we deliver performance. During the past six months, I have enjoyed developing the technical…

WEC Plans to increase the size of the World Endurance Championship grid to 40 cars next year have been put on ice. The maximum capacity has been set at 37 cars for 2024, one up on the full-season entry this year. But series organisers the FIA and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest have stated that they are still working on the idea. WEC boss Frederic Lequien said: “The goal is to increase the grid in 2025.” Plans for an enlarged grid next year were centred on demanding some or all of the field of two-car teams in the new LMGT3 class run both their entries out of a single garage. Lequien explained that there were still hurdles to overcome with regard to the refuelling of the cars, which for the…

INDYCAR Romain Grosjean admits that he feared for his IndyCar future after being dropped by Andretti Autosport at the tail end of this season, before finding refuge with Juncos Hollinger Racing for 2024. Ex-F1 racer Grosjean, 37, split from Andretti after a strong start to 2023 was ruined by a dramatic tailspin of results that led to friction between himself and team owner Michael Andretti. Grosjean has since filed arbitration proceedings against Andretti. The Swiss-born Frenchman says his late exit left him little time to find a seat elsewhere, with the JHR talks only starting ahead of the Laguna Seca season finale: “Yeah, there was some fear. Especially in a situation where I didn’t talk to any other team until very late in the season. Most of the teams by…

Japanese racing has a new hero and, after a stellar 2023 season in which he won titles in both Super Formula and Super GT, there’s no doubt he’s ready to go global. World Endurance Championship fans, and especially Toyota fans, had best get used to the name Ritomo Miyata. While it’s not official just yet, it looks like he’ll be one of the two pro drivers assigned to the Toyota-blessed ASP Lexus effort in the new LMGT3 class next year, and if all goes well he’ll become a member of the marque’s Hypercar squad in due course. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Miyata’s Super Formula form took a turn for the better after he was chosen as a Toyota WEC Challenge driver, which was only announced in May but is…

A deluge in the darkness brought Q3 to a premature end. The final phase of qualifying began as a convocation of dark clouds sat upon the brink of the Interlagos circuit, but they held off from delivering a session-ending burst of rain until all 10 drivers had completed their grid-deciding laps, with Max Verstappen judging the conditions the best. He, like his other pole-chasing rivals, had to deal with a shift in conditions during Q3 even if the rain was not immediately forthcoming; instead, a flip in wind direction changed the balance. A moderate southbound tailwind along the start/finish straight reversed and intensified, ensuring that the middle sector was particularly tricky to navigate because the ideal braking points had moved. The Aston Martins, both in Q3 for the first time…

Australian duo Daniel Ricciardo and Oscar Piastri were effectively twice eliminated from contention by the fallout from the start crash at the Brazilian Grand Prix. When Nico Hulkenberg’s pinch between Kevin Magnussen and Alex Albon ended up with Albon being speared into Magnussen, the Dane’s wrecked Haas then collided with the rear end of Piastri’s McLaren, which was left with rear wing, floor and rear brake damage and out of the race in the pits. Ricciardo was in a similar situation after Albon’s flying left-rear tyre smashed his AlphaTauri’s rear wing. After the red flag was called, McLaren and AlphaTauri made hasty repairs but, because the pair had not completed the second lap behind the safety car, they were a lap down for the restart, which they had to take…

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll scored his best grand prix finish since Australia in April with a battling drive to fifth at Interlagos. At the start, he struggled with “a lot of wheelspin and very little traction”, which meant losing ground to Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in the first getaway, for which he had lined up a net second after Charles Leclerc’s formation lap crash. He then lost out to George Russell and Sergio Perez at the restart. Stroll was trapped in Hamilton’s DRS train while Alonso escaped ahead, but he eventually battled past the two Mercedes in the second stint, having resisted Carlos Sainz’s close attentions in the first. From there, mirroring the most common tyre strategy, he chased Perez from a distance, closing as the Red…

Changes to tyre rules for 2005 A curious case, this one. There can be no doubt that Formula 1 enthusiasts and stakeholders were getting sick of the metronomic success of one team and one driver – in this case the early-2000s superteam domination of Michael Schumacher and Ferrari. F1 had been regularly tinkering with its qualifying format and, from 2003, points allocation with a brief to improve the spectacle. But the move to endurance tyre use for 2005 – one set permitted per car for qualifying and the race, with changes allowed only for considerable damage or punctures – is more complex a case than the rule changes deliberately setting out to curb Ferrari’s title run from 2000. Bridgestone supplied Ferrari plus minnow teams Jordan and Minardi, with the rest…

Changes to rear-floor rules for 2021 By 2021, Mercedes had clinched seven successive world title doubles. During that run, the squad had some of its most significant developments banned: what Lewis Hamilton had dubbed its “party” qualifying engine modes; and dual-axis steering. Mercedes had also successfully negotiated a whole aero ruleset change brought in, although poorly conceived, for 2017 to improve the show it was dominating. But nothing had the impact on Mercedes’ form like the rear-floor rule tweaks introduced for 2021. This led its W12 successor to 2020’s W11 – F1’s fastest ever car – to be beaten by Red Bull’s RB16B in the 2021 drivers’ championship. Although that ending still required the Abu Dhabi officiating debacle to occur… “We lost the 2021 drivers’ championship for many reasons,” says…

Is it time to slow down Red Bull and Verstappen? “Wanting to slow Red Bull this year shows a massive lack of knowledge of the history of Formula 1. I could imagine someone who has only been interested in F1 for three or four years thinking [the domination] is unusual. But that’s bollocks. It isn’t unusual at all.” Those are the words of famed F1 engineer Frank Dernie, scotching an argument gaining ever more traction with every Max Verstappen 2023 victory – that Red Bull’s relentless march is too tedious, that something must be done. In short, changing F1’s rules to try to ensure competitive parity. “Is it time to slow down Red Bull and Verstappen?” That question is being asked in these pages precisely because it’s being done so…

This looked like a wasted opportunity for Cadillac to finally make it onto the podium in a regular World Endurance round and restore the momentum that has drained away since Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn and Richard Westbrook did get a top three at the Le Mans 24 Hours in June. There was every reason to believe that the Ganassi-run V-Series.R would return to form in Bahrain, before it all went wrong at the first corner. Lynn had put the Caddy third on the grid, a season’s high qualifying position. The Brit had achieved that on the Michelin hard tyre, the Toyotas ahead of it on the faster medium as they squabbled over the all-important point for pole. A significant chunk of the seven-tenths deficit could be put down to a…

SUPER GT MOTEGI (JPN) 5 NOVEMBER ROUND 8/8 TOM’S Toyota pair Sho Tsuboi and Ritomo Miyata were crowned champions in a dramatic conclusion to the Super GT season at Motegi. Tsuboi and Miyata only needed to finish second in the final race of the season to guarantee themselves the title, even if their nearest rivals in the championship, NDDP Nissan duo Katsumasa Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi, won the race from pole. That looked like a virtual certainty for most of the race, with poleman Chiyo storming away from the field and Takaboshi then leading comfortably, with Miyata running second but being chased by the NISMO Nissan of Tsugio Matsuda. But the arrival of rain late in the race threw a spanner in the works, and eventually led to Takaboshi spinning…

TOCA More details have been announced about the new TOCA Junior series set to be introduced in 2025, with it due to feature a rear-wheel-drive saloon and be operated by the organisers of the successful Junior Saloon Car Championship. While the new British Touring Car support series is still awaiting Motorsport UK approval, amid tight restrictions around the number of junior racing permits, TOCA was keen to reveal more information about the proposed championship ahead of a planned launch next spring. The car is then due to be on display at BTCC events throughout 2024. A bespoke chassis has been created by JSCC coordinator Dave Beecroft and his team, while the rollcages will be built by Custom Cages – which has worked on the Ford Focuses that have been the…

HISTORICS The Derek Bell Trophy is returning to the Historic Sports Car Club’s portfolio next year, with organisers reverting to its previous name after running under the Aurora Trophy title for the past five seasons. The series will continue to cater for high-powered single-seaters, including Formula 5000, F2 and FAtlantic machinery, while it will also be a home for Classic F3 and Classic FF2000 cars. A six-event calendar – including the HSCC’s Brands Hatch Super Prix and Oulton Park Gold Cup fixtures, alongside visits to Snetterton, Donington Park, Croft and Silverstone – has been revealed, and there will be additional hospitality on offer for drivers next year. “The Derek Bell Trophy is a wonderful series for some of the most spectacular cars in historic racing,” said HSCC CEO Andy Dee-Crowne.…

GB4 Successful Praga squad Idola Motorsport is set to move into single-seater competition next year and plans to join the GB4 grid. The team claimed the Praga Cup UK title last year with Jimmy Broadbent and Gordie Mutch and is now seeking to expand from its traditional background in prototypes. It has worked closely with single-seater squad Arden in the past and has placed several of the team’s single-seater graduates into Pragas. It has now bought one of Evans GP’s Tatuus machines and has begun a testing programme ahead of its planned GB4 entry in 2024. “We spent the last year evaluating the next step for the team, and felt that a single-seater approach was the best solution as we hope that the application of principles in aerodynamic-dependable prototype racing…

MONDELLO PARK Hollywood film star Michael Fassbender was the focal point of last weekend’s Mondello Park Fiesta six-hour race, where he teamed up with ex-Formula 1 drivers Tommy Byrne and David Kennedy. It was former double winners Team Barrable, comprising newly crowned Fiesta champion Michael and his two sons Rob and Peter, who annexed pole position. The Fassbender/Byrne/Kennedy car could only qualify 17th, before Byrne had to take avoiding action with a spinning car on the opening lap and they eventually finished ninth. “This race was always on the list to do,” said European Le Mans Series driver Fassbender. “I have been trying to get here for the last four years, when I met Tommy in Daytona, but I was always busy!” In the closing stages of the race, the…

CIRCUIT RALLYING Mark Kelly and Richard Scarborough were dominant winners of the Neil Howard Stages at Oulton Park, the opening round of the 2023-24 Circuit Rally Championship, in their Skoda. Their Fabia R5 was fastest on six of the eight stages, but suffered a spin and stall on stage five at Knickerbrook. Reigning champions John Griffiths/Emma Morrison (Ford Fiesta R5) lost an early second place to a 10-second penalty after hitting a chicane, which promoted the Fiesta Rally2 of Michael Igoe/Will Atkins. This pair had been delayed on stage one by hitting a bale, Igoe being forced to reverse after stalling. Igoe was also penalised on stage five, leaving his second place under pressure from Steve Simpson/Chris Williams with their Fiesta Rally2. While Kelly sealed his win, Simpson ousted Igoe…

Three years after his horrific crash during the Walter Hayes Trophy, which left him with life-changing injuries, Colin Turner was back out at Silverstone and competing in the event for the first time since the incident. At the wheel of his Merlyn Mk20A, Turner – who had both legs amputated following the 2020 crash – competed in four races across the weekend with Sunday also marking his 73rd birthday. The Scot had attended the 2022 edition of the event and completed demo laps in Nigel Grant Racing’s Merlyn used by Callum Grant, and has since competed in several races this season including at Croft, Anglesey and Silverstone. “It means a lot [to be back racing here] because these are the people that looked after me,” said Turner, who still uses…

BRANDS HATCH BARC 4-5 NOVEMBER Ryan Smith was crowned British Truck Racing champion for the eighth year in a row at last weekend’s seasonal finale, but the heavy mob did not cover themselves in glory at Brands Hatch. They lost two of their five planned contests to crashes, including one that ended the meeting early and cost the Legends drivers their last race. Wet qualifying and a muddled, unrepresentative grid was followed by a shambolic first Truck appearance on Saturday, which ended with two red flags, a single racing lap and no result declared. Stuart Oliver’s faint Division 1 championship hopes were dashed when he collided with Division 2 title contender Paul Rivett, and the rerun only lasted until lap two. Oliver was out for the day with damage, but…

GB4’s sophomore season was a one-sided affair, with Tom Mills taking the title in crushing style for family team KMR Sport. Mills was the only driver in the field who continued from last year, and he used that experience to record 10 wins across the first six events, beating outgoing champion Nikolas Taylor’s 2022 tally, to seal the crown with a meeting to spare. The first race of the season proved to be an outlier, with Mills pipped to victory by team-mate and series debutant Jeremy Fairbairn after a thrilling dice between the pair. Mills responded by winning a wet race two to claim the championship lead, which he would ultimately not relinquish. “I’M MUCH MORE MATURE NOW. LAST YEAR SOME OF THOSE RACES I PROBABLY WOULDN’T HAVE WON” Despite…

Through his work as Top Gear’s ‘Stig’ between 2003 and 2010, Ben Collins experienced some of the greatest roadgoing machinery on the planet. But in his day job as a racing driver, the 48-year-old was hardly starved of incredible technology either. There is one racing car that stands out above the rest as his favourite – and no, it’s not the BMW 330d from Top Gear’s 2007 Britcar 24 Hours adventure. “That’s easy, the Ascari LMP1, or LMP900 it [the class] was called,” says Collins at his long-awaited British GT return last month. “The two years I had with the fastest car in the world almost. It was an F1 engine with huge downforce. “On a bumpy track in the dry, you had wheelspin in first, second and third from…

FORMULA 1 Formula 1 organisers and teams are evaluating yet more tweaks to the set-up of sprint race weekends amid ongoing complaints that six further ‘trial’ events in 2023 have often proved dull and revealed flaws in the rulebook. The landmark format change was introduced in 2021 and, initially, a Friday qualifying shootout preceded an irrelevant practice session before the result of the sprint contest determined the grid for the full grand prix. That drew criticism when drivers appeared to duck out of overtaking moves in the second half of the sprint to protect their starting position. In response, the timetable was adjusted to the current system whereby a Friday qualifying sets the GP grid and Saturday runs as a standalone, with a separate qualifying shootout deciding the sprint starting…

WEC Peugeot will undertake what it is calling a significant revision of its 9X8 Le Mans Hypercar for next year. It will involve a major change in the concept of the car, one that will almost certainly result in it running a conventional rear wing – or something approaching it. Peugeot Sport boss Jean-Marc Finot made the announcement at last weekend’s Bahrain World Endurance Championship finale, describing the planned changes as a “big evolution”. He confirmed that the upgrade will definitely involve a move away from the same size wheels and tyres all round to the narrower fronts and wider rears run by both Toyota and Ferrari. On the subject of the rear wing he was noncommittal, though it is understood that the car will have more conventional rear-end aero.…

AUTOSPORT AWARDS A new section of the prestigious Autosport Awards will recognise the achievements of stakeholders in the motorsport and sponsorship industries alongside the traditional driver, team and car awards. The Promoter of the Year category will be awarded for the second time at the annual celebration, held at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel on 3 December. Making its debut is the Brand Partnership award, to honour sponsors and agencies who created outstanding activations or campaigns in 2023 using motorsport as a platform. These sit alongside the traditional Pioneering and Innovation Award. A judging panel for these business awards has been drawn up, comprising former Alpine and Aston Martin/Racing Point/Force India F1 team principal Otmar Szafnauer, ex-director of Hospitality F1 Kate Beavan, former World Endurance Championship CEO Gerard Neveu, motorsport sponsorship…

BTCC Former World Touring Car champion Rob Huff’s bid for a full-time return to the British Touring Car Championship in 2024 has stepped up with a test at the wheel of a Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla. The 43-year-old, currently runner-up in the TCR World Tour standings, had a run-out recently at Croft before heading to Australia, where he took TCR victory at Sydney Motorsport Park last weekend. Huff was much in evidence in the BTCC paddock at the end of this season following his one-off outing in a Team Hard Cupra Leon at Knockhill in August, and made no bones that he is seeking a first full BTCC season since his rookie tin-top campaign with SEAT in 2004. Speedworks head of racing Danny Buxton reiterated that the team’s priority is…

FORMULA 3 It’s something of a tradition, in the weeks leading up to mid-November, for the pages of Autosport to carry news of drivers returning to Formula 3 from F2, the DTM, sportscar racing or Japanese motorsport to tackle the Macau Grand Prix. Not so for a driver from the IndyCar Series… But that’s exactly what 2023 IndyCar Rookie of the Year Marcus Armstrong is doing, the Kiwi swapping his Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda for one of MP Motorsport’s F3 weapons. It will be his first time in an F3 car since the 2019 Macau GP, the last time it was run for the category before the COVID-19 crisis effectively closed the event off to international participation for three years. Armstrong’s F3 career was spent with Prema in 2018 and…

Use sprint races to give young talent seat time I think most people would agree that making the ‘sprint’ a standalone element of sprint weekends hasn’t worked – it’s too detached from the grand prix on Sunday, and doesn’t add much to ‘the show’. We also lament that young drivers do not get enough seat time or opportunities to show us what they can do. So, if the sprint format is here to stay, why not use it as a test bed for future talent? If we have six sprint weekends a year, each team will have 12 ‘berths’ to fill; why not spread these berths equally across three drivers (the two regular drivers plus a designated ‘young driver’ – however that might be defined)? That way, not only do…

Victory was decided as early as the first corner in the final sprint of 2023. Although Lando Norris and Max Verstappen had largely matched each other in their initial getaways from their grid slots, Norris found himself unable to keep up during the ‘second phase’, which allowed the Red Bull to build up speed on the inside line and take the prerogative into Turn 1. And when Verstappen takes a lead, he rarely relinquishes it. To compound Norris’s first-lap misery, the McLaren driver was “caught sleeping” by a fast-starting George Russell, who had already dispatched Sergio Perez to move up to third. Russell made a snap decision to bleed off the brakes and charge down the inside of Bico de Pato and was met with surprisingly little resistance. It fleetingly…

Mercedes was left to rue what team boss Toto Wolff described as a “totally baffling” Brazilian weekend performance. Its struggles in the grand prix and the sprint reversed its recent form as podium and even possible victory contenders. Mercedes started strongly in the main race when Lewis Hamilton carved past the Aston Martin pair. George Russell, meanwhile, leapt ahead of the slow-starting Carlos Sainz, and at the restart he jumped Lance Stroll and briefly raced with Fernando Alonso. But when Hamilton locked up while fighting Lando Norris, this allowed Fernando Alonso to forge ahead of him at Turn 4. Things then went rapidly downhill for the Black Arrows squad. Hamilton could not keep pace with Alonso as he slid around in fourth place, uncomfortable in the wind. This had an…

“They had the idea if you removed sliding skirts, they would suddenly start doing all the winning” The ban on skirts for 1981 The ban on sliding skirts was a flashpoint in the battle for the control of Formula 1 that could have split it right down the middle. A breakaway series looked a real possibility at times during what became known as the FISA versus FOCA war of 1980-81. Ranged on one side were FISA, the sporting arm of the FIA, and the grandee manufacturer teams, including Ferrari and Renault. On the other was FOCA, led by Bernie Ecclestone, and the garagistes. There’s an argument that banning skirts for 1981 was driven by the grandees who had the ear of FISA president Jean-Marie Balestre. At least it’s one pedalled…

Mass dampers banned in 2006 “We won the championship, even if they didn’t want us to.” That’s how Fernando Alonso feels even 17 years on from the biggest argument of his 2006 title-winning campaign for Renault: the mass-damper saga. Here the political manoeuvring is much clearer cut, following a 2005 season in which the Spaniard and Renault had stormed to the front of the F1 pecking order at Ferrari’s expense. The device – a weight inside a tube with a spring on either side – had been pioneered by Renault late in 2004 and used during the 2005 campaign. It improved car stiffness sensitivity and therefore pace, and was later copied by rivals including the resurgent Ferrari and newcomer Red Bull. But Renault’s competitors were struggling to fine-tune the system…

How Indycars became a spec formula In the halcyon days of the CART World Series, constructors such as Chaparral, Galles, Lola, March, Penske, Reynard and Swift did battle from 1979 until the early 2000s. Cosworth, Chevrolet, Mercedes, Honda and Toyota were among the title-winning engine manufacturers. Several years after the 1996 split that divided Indycars into two series came the beginning of its route to spec chassis when, in 2003, Indy Racing League boss Tony George demanded new rules for less-expensive cars and production-based engines. Dallara and G Force were the only two manufacturers to build chassis (Falcon was approved but the project never got going), and over time the Italian marque prevailed. The subject is clouded by the split and reunification of Indycars. Technically, the last non-Dallara IndyCar victory…

There wasn’t really much doubt in Bahrain that Toyota was going to seal another World Endurance Championship drivers’ crown to go with the manufacturers’ title it took last time out at Fuji. If there was a question mark, it was over which of its two crews was going to make it five in a row for the Japanese manufacturer. The shame for a championship that hasn’t quite delivered the intended spectacle in the maiden season of its so-called golden age, the Le Mans 24 Hours excepted, was that any uncertainty was pretty much removed at the first corner. As Sebastien Buemi accelerated out of the opening sequence of corners and up the hill to Turn 4 at the start of last Saturday’s Bahrain 8 Hours, he could see mayhem in…

The all-female Iron Dames crew finally notched up a first GTE Am victory at the last time of asking. Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey took a narrow victory aboard their Porsche 911 RSR in the final race for the class before it is superseded by LMGT3 in 2024. No one begrudged the achievement for a trio that had been knocking on the door of a victory since the back end of 2022, but there was an element of good fortune about the narrow triumph for their Iron Lynx-run Porsche. The crews of the Aston Martin Vantage GTEs that finished second and third both left Bahrain in the knowledge that this was a race they might have won. The TF Sport-run D’Station Aston shared by Liam Talbot (a late…

NASCAR CUP PHOENIX (USA) 5 NOVEMBER ROUND 36/36 Ross Chastain interrupted the 2023 NASCAR Cup championship battle to win last Sunday’s season finale at Phoenix Raceway as Ryan Blaney claimed his first series title and second consecutive for Team Penske. Chastain, who was eliminated early in the playoffs and led just one lap in the previous nine races, turned out to be too tough for the 2023 title contenders. He dominated most of the race, the Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet leading 157 of the 312 laps, but lost his lead during the final round of green-flag pitstops. Chastain passed Kyle Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports Chevy on a wild restart with 30 laps to go to reclaim the lead, and held off a late charge from the Ford of Blaney to earn his…

KARTING A new low-cost electric karting initiative designed to “democratise” motorsport on a global scale has been launched by former Ferrari Formula 1 engineer Rob Smedley. Global Karting League aims to cut the cost of aspiring racers’ karting careers by up to 96%, enabling a 1000-fold increase in participation. It seeks to create 50 national ‘hubs’ worldwide, the first being already operational in the UK. Youngsters aged 6-17, who may have tried indoor leisure karting, can take their first steps into motorsport with a training plan leading to rookie and then national contests. Once more hubs are established, international championships will be a final step on the ladder before graduation to cars. Run on an arrive-and-drive basis, each category uses identical 48-volt electric karts with drivetrain and battery designed in-house,…

CLIO CUP GB A championship for the latest specification of Clio Cup machinery is set to run in the UK for the first time in five years next season after MotorSport Vision Trackdays announced plans to launch a new series. There has not been such a category since Renault UK withdrew its backing of the British Touring Car-supporting Clio Cup at the end of 2019 and the proposed replacement from Renault Sport Racing was canned amid the coronavirus pandemic. But now the current fifth-generation machinery is to make its UK debut in a new Clio Cup GB series, provided it gets approval from governing body Motorsport UK. A provisional calendar has been released, comprising seven events with two races and qualifying all held on a single day in a bid…

FF1600 Walter Hayes Trophy victory contenders Michael Eastwell and Michael Moyers have disagreed over their crash while battling for the lead of last weekend’s Silverstone final. Eastwell led all seven laps of the main event in his KMR Spectrum until it was red flagged to recover stranded cars. At the restart, Moyers moved into the lead at Brooklands before Eastwell pulled back alongside exiting Luffield. The pair then headed side-by-side into Copse before they collided, with the Simon Hadfield Motorsport-run Medina Mk2 of Moyers sent into the gravel and retirement, while Eastwell was able to continue after losing several positions. Moyers, the event winner in 2017 and 2018 with KMR Sport, believes that Eastwell should have conceded the position into the corner. “I was on the outside where the grip…

WALTER HAYES TROPHY A late call-up at Silverstone provided James Clarke with the chance to forget about a difficult end to his successful Clubmans Sports Prototype season after a stub axle failure during the Brands Hatch finale. After taking pole for Saturday’s Pumpkin Smash race on the support bill of the Walter Hayes Trophy, Clarke was initially held to account by the Radical SR10 of Alastair Smart until Smart lost all traction, which allowed the Phantom PR22 driver to ease to victory by over half a minute. Elsewhere, not even the marshalling error that forced George Line to take the restart of the second Monoposto race from the pitlane could halt the Dallara F308 man’s dominance in the Tiedeman Trophy. Frankie Wilde’s stunning ex-Team Rosberg Audi R8 looked set to…

SILVERSTONE HSCC WALTER HAYES TROPHY 4-5 NOVEMBER Chris Middlehurst cut a forlorn figure just two weeks ago at the Formula Ford Festival, where the Team Dolan driver was left bitterly disappointed having shown strong pace at the blue-riband event – but, once again, just missed out on the grand prize. Despite having never stood on the Walter Hayes Trophy podium since his first outing in 2010, there have been chances of victory over the years at the Silverstone event as well, and last weekend it finally came together for the 28-year-old. On paper, Middlehurst finished just 0.366 seconds ahead of Michael Eastwell, both having started on the front row for the scheduled 15-lap finale and having led at various points. But, as ever with the Walter Hayes Trophy, the raw…

WALTER HAYES TROPHY Heat 1 Michael Moyers (Medina Mk2) Heat 2 Jason Smyth (Ray GR14) Heat 3 Michael Eastwell (Spectrum 011C) Heat 4 Rory Smith (Medina JL18, above) Progression race Andrew Rackstraw (Spectrum 011C) Last Chance race Andrew Rackstraw (Spectrum 011C) Semi-final 1 Chris Middlehurst (Van Diemen LA10) Semi-final 2 Michael Eastwell (Spectrum 011C) Final (9 laps) 1 Middlehurst; 2 Eastwell +0.366s; 3 Rackstraw; 4 Josh Fisher (Van Diemen RF99); 5 Joey Foster (Firman RFR20); 6 Logan Pacza (Ray GR15). Class winners James Clarke (Van Diemen RF90); Joe Ahrens (Royale RP26). Fastest lap Rackstraw 1m08.154s (86.65mph). Pole Eastwell. Starters 36. JANET CESAR MEMORIAL TROPHY Pre-final Callum Grant (Van Diemen RF91) Final James Tucker (Swift SC92F) CARL HAMER TROPHY Pre-final & Final Joe Ahrens (Royale RP26, below) HSCC ALLCOMERS CLOSED-WHEEL Race…

After impressing as a single-seater rookie last year, Callum Voisin remained in the GB3 Championship with Rodin Carlin in 2023 with the sole aim of winning the title. And, while the 17-year-old delivered on that expectation, he was pushed all the way by British Formula 4 graduates Alex Dunne and Joseph Loake. Fast but error-prone in 2022, Voisin entered his sophomore campaign with a steelier approach, and it was his improved consistency that proved key, only failing to make the podium at one of the eight events. “That was probably the main focus compared to last year, just staying consistent,” points out Voisin. “The highs were really high last year but then the lows were way too low. I think we’ve done that relatively well.” But it was Loake who…

DOCUMENTARY SERIES BRAWN: THE IMPOSSIBLE FORMULA 1 STORY Released: Disney+ 15 November The story of Brawn GP is possibly the biggest fairytale in the history of Formula 1, with Honda selling the team to Ross Brawn for £1 before it went on to win both the drivers’ and constructors’ world titles in 2009. Disney and Keanu Reeves tell the story perfectly in the new four-part series Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story. In the winter of 2008, the Honda team was seemingly dead and buried, but 12 months later the squad was world champion. Remarkably, Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story manages to do justice to this tale and then some. Since launching in 2019, covering the previous year’s campaign, Drive to Survive has been widely credited as being a…

FORMULA 1 FIA Formula 3 runner-up Zak O’Sullivan will make his public F1 debut at this month’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix when he takes over Alex Albon’s Williams for FP1. The 2021 Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver Award winner will help the Grove team satisfy the demand to run a rookie in each of its cars during the season. O’Sullivan, who joined the Williams academy at the start of this year, will then remain in the United Arab Emirates to participate in the official F1 young driver test before graduating to FIA F2 next season with ART Grand Prix. The 18-year-old Briton will share testing duties of the FW45 with Argentinian F3 hotshot Franco Colapinto, who makes his F2 debut with MP Motorsport over the Abu Dhabi weekend, direct…

WEC Antonio Felix da Costa will not return to the World Endurance Championship with the Jota Porsche Hypercar squad in 2024. Porsche has pulled rank and demanded that he concentrates fully on his campaign in the Formula E World Championship next season. Porsche motorsport boss Thomas Laudenbach explained the decision followed an analysis of its 2023 FE campaign that yielded the squad four race victories, including one for da Costa, and fourth place in the teams’ championship. “As long as there is room for improvement, we need to look at everything,” said Laudenbach. “And one of the things you can do is to give the driver the possibility to focus 100% on one main job.” The decision will preclude him staying at a team with which he claimed LMP2 honours…

WEC Ferrari is eyeing an expansion of its assault on the World Endurance Championship with a satellite entry for a third 499P Le Mans Hypercar next year. The entry would be billed as a customer car but likely run under the umbrella of the AF Corse factory squad. Ferrari sportscar racing boss Antonello Coletta outlined an intention to increase the marque’s representation in the Hypercar class with “a potential third car”, which he said “should be an option” for next year. “We consider that our knowledge is OK to manage another car,” he said. “I don’t know if we will have a third car but we are ready to make [enter] another car. But it’s not confirmed if it will be 2024 or 2025.” Coletta raised the prospect of AF…

OBITUARY Graham Eden, who has died at the age of 88, held the unusual distinction of racing and running a team in Formula 1 but never at world championship level. After making his name in sportscars, West Midlander Eden stepped up to F1 in 1961 with a two-year-old Cooper-Climax, claiming fifth in the Lewis-Evans Trophy at Brands Hatch and sixth in the Pau Grand Prix. By the mid-1960s he was racing the Cooper mostly in Formula Libre events, and later became a customer of Chevron. After Eden retired from the cockpit in 1971, Cyd Williams took over driving duties of his Chevron B18C and finished as Formula Atlantic runner-up in 1971 and 1972. There was more success in 1977 when Tony Rouff took Eden’s F2 Ralt RT1 to an overall…

OBITUARY Erich Zakowski, the man behind a line of talismanic Ford Escorts and Capris and less successful Formula 1 cars from his Zakspeed stable, has died at the age of 89. Zakowski’s family moved from Prussia after World War 2 and eventually settled in Niederzissen, near the Nurburgring, where he trained as a mechanic and set up his own garage and racing team. From the start Zakspeed was closely associated with Ford, winning six titles in the DRM from 1972-81 with Hans Stuck, Dieter Glemser, Hans Heyer and Klaus Ludwig. Zakspeed’s Ford links led to the works C100 sports-racer, which was supposed to be the successor to the legendary GT40, with designer Len Bailey providing a direct link between the projects. First seen at the 1981 Brands Hatch 1000Km and…

“If I was going to have one opportunity, it was going to be there and then.” Lando Norris hadn’t exactly raced out of the blocks on the Brazilian Grand Prix’s second standing start, but he had gathered momentum after waving away a sniff of an attack from Lewis Hamilton as he gave chase to inevitable race leader Max Verstappen. It produced a showdown that was as fleeting as it was intense. During the infant laps of the 71-tour race at the famed Interlagos circuit, a venue that has hosted more than its fair share of iconic F1 moments, Norris intended to fight Verstappen. The Red Bull driver was not given the opportunity to perform his usual trick of running off into the distance, at least, not until much later, as…

There’s a lot of undulation packed into the short Interlagos lap. Pick your point just right and, from ground level, you can view the drivers plotting their assault through almost the entire circuit and its array of mixed-radius sweeping corners. It’s already pretty special to stand trackside at one of F1’s most famed venues, the scene of so many of its greatest moments, and that’s before the cars even leave the garage. We start at Turn 6, perched upon a bank that allows a full vista of the cars departing the Descida do Lago to begin the climb through the ribbon of tight corners that pockmark the second sector. Daniel Ricciardo flashes through, picking an early apex for Turn 6 and allowing his AlphaTauri to get wide. He picks a…

CHARLES LECLERC FERRARI DRIVER What happened on the formation lap to cause you to crash? I went to the corner, I lost the power steering first and then the engine cut off for safety reasons. And then the rear wheels locked up and that made me spin. So, I had no control over the car to any point. Hydraulics, that is what I felt. But at the end, I don’t think that is the issue, after speaking with the engineers. We know what that is, but I cannot go into details. Was the car too damaged to continue? I moved the car again – only the front wing was damaged. But apart from that, nothing else. I started again, I got the hydraulics for 15 seconds, but then exactly the…

The electronics ban for 1994 As the growth of technology accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s, the influence of driver aids in Formula 1 began to expand in tandem. Active-suspension developments had been explored in the 1980s by Lotus, but swelled in popularity as the championship entered its next decade. Once traction control and anti-lock brakes had been added into the mix, by 1993 the cars had hit a peak of technological advancement. Williams had been the biggest adopter of driver aids at the start of the 1990s; its 1991 FW14 featured early versions of traction control and a semi-automatic gearbox, before the FW14B of 1992 came with active suspension installed along with refinements to its other software. Although other teams followed suit, the FW14B was crushingly dominant in Nigel…

Mosley’s plan for two-tier F1 in 2010 Formula 1’s modern-day inclusion of a cost cap has redefined the battle lines, with the intention of compressing the field through the resources the teams have at their disposal. But the current $135million plus add-ons dwarfs the FIA’s early attempt to introduce a cost cap for the 2010 season, which was pegged at a lowly £40million. This was entirely optional, with bonuses granted to those teams that aligned with the cap; they could expect unlimited testing and more technical freedom, with what was effectively a proto-DRS earmarked for the front and rear wings, along with the removal of rev limits for their engines. This came amid a tender process to welcome new teams onto the grid, tempted by the reduced spend offered by…

The WEC’s BoP through the back door Someone from the Automobile Club de l’Ouest once said that there would never be Balance of Performance in the top class at the Le Mans 24 Hours. This writer is certain of it. When it was said and by whom, he isn’t sure, though he has a good idea of the latter. But a good 10 years on, the BoP is an integral building block of the Hypercar class at the French enduro and in the World Endurance Championship. It’s arguably even the foundation stone of what we are trumpeting as a new golden age. The BoP allows cars built to different rulesets to race together in the WEC and, potentially, in the IMSA SportsCar Championship. But it wasn’t the announcement of the…

Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz and Rui Andrade never looked likely to lose their hold on the LMP2 championship lead after arriving in Bahrain 33 points clear. But the WRT crew didn’t appear likely winners of the race, either. Yet they ended up celebrating the title with their third victory of the season courtesy of some bad fortune for their rivals, most pertinently their team-mates in the sister WRT ORECA-Gibson 07. Deletraz inherited the lead at the final pitstop when there was an issue with the left-front wheelnut on the car driven by Sean Gelael, Ferdinand Habsburg and Robin Frijns. The team couldn’t get the airgun on the nut: it first swapped guns before the replacement was given an almighty whack. More than 20 seconds were lost, and with it a…

TCR WORLD TOUR SYDNEY MOTORSPORT PARK (AUS) 4-5 NOVEMBER ROUND 7/9 After local hero Will Brown had won the first two races, Rob Huff claimed the finale as the TCR World Tour joined forces with the Australian series at Sydney Motorsport Park. Comtoyou Audi driver Huff’s high-scoring weekend puts him just a point behind Hyundai’s Norbert Michelisz with two rounds remaining. In a wet-to-dry qualifying session, a switch to slick tyres at the right moment put the GRM Peugeot of Ben Bargwanna on pole ahead of Brown’s Audi, with Hyundai’s Mikel Azcona the best of the international drivers in third. In the first race, Brown quickly dispatched Bargwanna for the lead and bolted, before an early safety car for a stricken car reset the field. The green flags flew again…

Classic Team Lotus holds a unique place in the world of historic motor racing. Established in 1992, it overlapped the active years of the original Team Lotus and, with Clive Chapman – son of marque founders Colin and Hazel – at the helm, it provides a direct link between today and the glory days of the Hethel squad. The spirit of the ‘garagista’ still pervades CTL, with 22 team and privately owned cars (11 of which were to be raced) in its care at the Goodwood Revival earlier this year. Normally, the operation would run six to 10 cars at this kind of event, but 2023 is a special year. The Revival was celebrating 75 years of Lotus with a parade of examples representing the company’s ‘Colin and Hazel’ era,…

HISTORICS Ecurie Rosbif Hyett – Ross Hyett and sons Nick and Charlie – scored an eight-lap victory in last weekend’s annual VdeV 24-hour race at Paul Ricard in a Sports 2000 Tiga SC83 prepared by Trevor Foster’s Pegasus Classic Engineering. For Hyett Sr, 70, second and third in Group C2 at Le Mans in 1989 and 1990, the achievement was special. “For a father to do that with his boys, against very strong opposition, sharing a car powered by a 135bhp [Ford Pinto] engine, was a fantastic team result,” he said. “We had everything thrown at us. Low cloud, torrential rain, and an hour behind a safety car with a Chevron B16 and a Porsche RSR chucking perishing cold water all over me. We led from the eighth hour and…

FF1600 Walter Hayes Trophy debutant Jason Smyth is targeting a full season of Formula Ford 1600 competition next year. The 17-year-old, son of 2010 Kent Formula Ford Festival winner Neville Smyth, was one of the frontrunners at this year’s Silverstone event despite it being only his sixth ever race meeting. He claimed victory in a wet heat – his first win – and was battling in the leading pack in the semi-final before being involved in a collision with reigning Festival winner Rory Smith and Josh Fisher, which eliminated Smyth. “We’ve just bought a Van Diemen JL12,” said Smyth. “Wayne Boyd drove it in the Hayes, so me and dad are planning on rebuilding that and doing [a full season] next year with Bernard [Dolan’s team].”…

BRX Reigning British Rallycross champion and European series contender Patrick O’Donovan won twice at the final round of the 5 Nations BRX series at Lydden Hill last weekend to secure a second-straight crown in dramatic style. In arguably the strongest field of the season, which included one-time World Rallycross event winner Sebastian Eriksson and returning British star Liam Doran, O’Donovan dominated the first of last weekend’s counters in torrentially wet conditions. The 19-year old topped qualifying and won his semi-final from the front, before leading the final race throughout. Not present in that final was Jack Thorne, the series leader heading into the weekend who spun out of his semi-final after contact. While O’Donovan’s victory moved him into the points lead, newcomers Mikko Ikonen and Eriksson completed the podium. Ikonen’s…

Reigning Formula Ford Festival winner Rory Smith and sensational Walter Hayes Trophy debutant Jason Smyth both had their weekends cut short following a crash in the first semi-final. Smith had started from pole in the 12-lap bout, courtesy of winning his heat – when he finished ahead of eventual 2023 Walter Hayes Trophy victor Chris Middlehurst. The Medina JL18 driver led until the halfway point of the semi-final before Middlehurst moved to the inside heading into Copse and took the lead. The loss of momentum brought Smyth and Josh Fisher into the mix heading down into Maggotts, as Fisher’s Van Diemen RF99 made contact with the rear of Smyth’s Team Dolan-run Ray GR14 on the straight. The contact pitched Smyth broadside and into the side of Smith on the left,…

While the main focus over the weekend was on the grand final of the Walter Hayes Trophy, the Janet Cesar Memorial Trophy once again proved to be a fitting support act and arguably provided the pick of the racing at Silverstone. Come the end of the 12-lap contest, James Tucker was the victor but Alex Ames pushed him all the way until the chequered flag, the winning margin of only 0.058 seconds underlining how competitive the racing had been. Tucker was only able to line up fourth on the grid, a position he earnt by occupying the same spot in Saturday’s wet pre-final. He, like everyone else, had given best to Callum Grant’s Van Diemen RF91 after he climbed from sixth on the grid and passed Ames for the lead…

1 Won fewer races than his main rivals but had fewer off days, making no major errors while accumulating the most poles and podium finishes. Strongest of the title contenders when it mattered at the Donington decider, which is why he edges Dunne into number one spot. 2 Took the most wins of anyone, and was untouchable at Spa and Zandvoort, but couldn’t deliver those peaks elsewhere. Some average qualifying performances and incidents not entirely of his own making proved costly in the end, despite his efforts to recover ground at the final two events. 3 Exceeded even his own expectations by fighting for the title from the start, winning twice as many times as Voisin and often putting his team-mate Matthew Rees in the shade, but was also inconsistent…

Lotus mechanics take stock, and refreshment, examining and readying for recovery Jim Clark’s abandoned Lotus-Climax 25 during the closing stages of the 1963 Monaco Grand Prix. Entering the shot is the BRM P57 of reigning champion Graham Hill, who’s heading for victory in the opening round of the Formula 1 championship, staged well into the year on 26 May. Polesitter Clark had been deposed by Hill and team-mate Richie Ginther at the start and was obliged to battle hard, particularly with his fellow Briton, to regain the lead. Clark then pressed home his advantage, looking well in control until a seized transmission brought his race to an abrupt halt at three-quarters distance, allowing Hill to take the first of his famous five wins in the principality. For classic motorsport downloads…