Innholdsfortegnelse for 25/04/24 i Autosport

A dramatic few moments that removed leading contenders, a rain shower that changed the course of the event, and a masterclass from one of the all-time greats. Last weekend’s motorsport featured all of the above – and that’s before we get on to Formula 1’s return to China. As Tom Howard describes on page 40, a three-way contest for Croatia Rally honours was settled in the space of just a few minutes, World Rally legend Sebastien Ogier emerging victorious. Ferrari qualified 1-2-3 for the World Endurance Championship encounter at Imola (above) but made the wrong calls amid changeable conditions. Gary Watkins was there to see Toyota play all its cards correctly to win (p30), while James Newbold reports on how the same showers impacted the hard-fought LMGT3 battle (p36). Scott…

FORMULA 1 Formula 1 teams and bosses are to discuss a change to the jumped-start rules in a bid to tidy up a grey area. The definition of a jumped start is entirely based on whether any movement is detected by FIA-supplied transponders before the start signal is given. There have been several occasions where it has appeared that cars did move before the red lights went out but were not sanctioned because the sensors did not detect it, most recently Lando Norris in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Norris incident triggered the debate in recent weeks about whether the regulations should be updated, with changes to be discussed at this week’s F1 Commission. One option is to include video evidence in addition to the current sensors. It is…

WEC Ferdinand Habsburg could be back in action with the Alpine World Endurance Championship Hypercar team in time for the next round at Spa in mid-May. Team boss Philippe Sinault dropped some heavy hints at Imola last weekend that the Austrian’s recovery from back injuries sustained at Motorland Aragon last month will allow a quick return to the cockpit. “We are expecting good news from Ferdy this week,” said Sinault. “We hope he can be with us as soon as possible. His environment, the personal one and the medical one also, is very good.” Asked specifically whether that meant it was likely that Habsburg will rejoin Charles Milesi and Paul-Loup Chatin in the #35 Alpine A424 LMDh for the Spa 6 Hours on 11 May, Sinault suggested that a decision…

The best action in last Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix – brilliant, determined racing between Lance Stroll and Kevin Magnussen, the two drivers who had produced the most cack-handed errors of the main event – concerned last place. Up front, race winner Max Verstappen had basically nothing to do in claiming his 58th GP career victory. But as the third season of Red Bull’s latest dominant streak unfurls, there is now no uncertainty. The rules reset, heralded as the start of a new era of brilliant racing, has half-failed. Or half-worked, for some. Half-worked in the sense that the performance gap between the whole field is smaller than in the previous ultra-high-downforce era, and following the car in front is easy, even as the dirty air factor swells again. Half-failed in…

Much has changed in the Formula 1 landscape since the championship last arrived on Chinese shores in 2019. The long-awaited end to that hiatus, extended by the lingering effects of COVID-19 restrictions enforced in the nation, offered a fitting period of introspection to consider how F1 has moved on since. Very different cars aerodynamically now grace the field, while F1’s last visit also coincided with the start of its modern-day boom and entrance into the cultural zeitgeist, rather than sitting on the fringes as a niche sporting discipline. Empires have fallen and risen in that five-year span. The Lewis Hamilton-led Mercedes hegemony feels like a distant memory, compared to the contemporary dominance from Max Verstappen and Red Bull. Case in point: Verstappen had never won the Chinese Grand Prix before…

WRT believes that it didn’t have the fastest car in the World Endurance Championship’s LMGT3 class at Imola, but superb race management delivered a first series win for its BMW M4 GT3 as Augusto Farfus, Sean Gelael and Darren Leung led a team 1-2. Their #31 machine, qualified fourth by reigning British GT champion Leung, didn’t hit the front until lap 139 and led for a total of just 46 laps – 72 fewer than the championship-leading Manthey-run PureRxcing Porsche that finished third. But at several junctures in the weather-affected 6 Hours, WRT got the critical decisions right. First of these was the timing of Leung’s second pitstop on lap 57, when he handed over to Gelael. It came seconds after completing his 1h45m minimum driving time, having been ordered…

Scott Dixon is inevitable. At least that’s how it often seems, and how it was after the 43-year-old New Zealander delivered a masterstroke performance that combined massive fuel saving with mindful defence and pace to win the Grand Prix of Long Beach. The 27-car field was divided into two groups on opposing strategies after the caution came out on lap 15 of 85 when rookie Christian Rasmussen’s Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara-Chevrolet spun and collided with the wall in Turn 4. That set up an option for race leader Will Power to head a small contingent of drivers down pitroad two laps later. The group featured Dixon, 2023 race winner Kyle Kirkwood and Marcus Armstrong, among others. In turn, Josef Newgarden, Power’s Penske team-mate, was promoted to the race lead and…

TCR WORLD TOUR VALLELUNGA (ITA) 20-21 APRIL ROUND 1/7 Hyundai Motorsport’s BRC Racing Team customer squad took pole and won both races with its newly upgraded Elantra N TCR at Vallelunga, with reigning champion Norbert Michelisz converting pole to victory in race one, before new signing Nestor Girolami turned the reversed-grid pole to a race two win. Michelisz left it until the final moment in qualifying to pull out a time 0.2 seconds clear of Lynk & Co Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher to snatch pole, which the Frenchman said he’d not have been able to beat. Heavy rainfall in the afternoon meant the field started on a slippery track, but dry enough that all opted for slicks. Michelisz didn’t get away well and fell behind Ehrlacher, but then drafted past…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB Autosport’s Porsche Carrera Cup GB season preview last year began with the words: “There have been some incredibly close Porsche Carrera Cup GB title battles over the years and the 2023 contest could be another to add to that list.” Yet that’s not how it played out. Instead, Adam Smalley steamrollered his way to glory, and several of his expected rivals departed the series after tough starts to their campaigns. But there are even more signs that things really could be very close this time around. For example, an influx of British Touring Car race winners has ensured plenty of interest in the championship for 2024. Dan Lloyd, George Gamble and Stephen Jelley have all been Porsche frontrunners in the past and have been tempted to…

MINI CHALLENGE A guest car powered by sustainable fuels will be introduced into the new JCW Sport class of the Mini Challenge this year, the first step towards the category’s goal of moving entirely away from traditional petrol by 2028. The car will run on products featuring an ever greater percentage of renewable sources. It will be operated by series bosses and available for drivers seeking to sample the new JCW Sport class – designed to help bridge the gap between the existing Cooper and JCW divisions – as well as those looking to highlight their green credentials. It is due to be raced by Hannah Chapman, who last competed in the JCW category in 2022, in this weekend’s Donington Park season-opener. “Sustainable fuels are going to be a key…

BOXSTER CUP Nick Wallis, father of newly selected Porsche Carrera Cup GB Junior driver James, made his racing debut in the Boxster Cup at Donington Park last weekend. It turned out to be a dramatic debut, after a blown engine in testing necessitated a change of car for race day. Things then went from bad to worse for Wallis. After being involved in a collision in the opening race, he was a non-starter for the sequel. “With James now sorted for this year, I had time on my hands and always fancied having a go myself,” said Wallis Sr. “I hadn’t even sat in the car before qualifying, then got taken out in the race by one of the leaders [who was later excluded]. So now I am on the…

MASTERS HISTORIC RACING While Hesketh was celebrated at Silverstone last weekend with a demo of 308-1, Oli Webb caused a sensation when he won the second leg of the Masters Racing Legends season-opener at Paul Ricard in a sister car. From a record 40 entries in a Monaco GP Historique warm-up for some, Irishman Mike Cantillon won Saturday’s race – centrepiece of the GP de France Historique event – in his Williams FW07C. Cantillon was chased home by Belgium’s Werner d’Ansembourg (Brabham BT49), American reigning champion Ken Tyrrell (Tyrrell 011) and Christophe d’Ansembourg (FW07C). Jamie Constable (011) and Webb won their divisions in fifth and seventh places respectively. From 11th on Sunday’s reversed grid, Cantillon threaded through the pack to lead by lap 10 of 13, but contact with a…

HISTORICS British Hillclimb Championship contender Alex Summers drove his father Richard’s Lola T140 Formula 5000 at Silverstone last Sunday. Summers took part in the F5000 demonstration sessions during the Vintage Sports-Car Club race meeting and was only able to do so because the opening British Hillclimb round at Prescott, scheduled for the same day, had been postponed due to the waterlogged venue. Summers last raced the car in the Aurora Trophy final at Silverstone in October 2021, but has since kept his focus on hillclimbing in his DJ Firestorm. “It’s a lot of fun to drive,” he said of the early wingless Lola. His father Richard has also raced the car, but only occasionally due to their hillclimbing commitments, having purchased the machine in 2007. At the same meeting, another…

DONINGTON PARK MSVR 20-21 APRIL Mercedes, Porsche and Lotus machinery all came out on top as the GT Cup season got under way last weekend with four races at Donington Park. It was a dominant win for Richard Neary and his Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the first of the contests by more than 27 seconds, while Tom Rawlings retired his Lamborghini Huracan from second after just eight laps, which left the Lotus Evora of Jay Shepherd chasing Shamus Jennings (Porsche 911 GTR GT3). Shepherd eventually moved ahead around the outside at Redgate on lap 13 of 23, while Jennings retained third from the duelling Lamborghinis of Warren Gilbert and Paul Bailey. Former British GT champion Ian Loggie, sharing the Mercedes with Neary, made a flying start in the second race, while…

PATRICK LINDSAY MEMORIAL TROPHY Nicholas Topliss (ERA R4A) SILVERSTONE TROPHY Michael James (Riley 12/4 TT Sprite) FOX & NICHOLL TROPHY Christopher Mann (Alfa Romeo 8C Monza) HGPCA PRE-1961 GRAND PRIX CARS Races 1 & 2 Geraint Owen (Kurtis 500C) HGPCA PRE-1966 GRAND PRIX CARS Races 1 & 2 Charlie Martin (Cooper T53) 500OA F3 Races 1 & 2 Alex Wilson (Cooper Mk10) FAST SCRATCH FOR PRE-WAR CARS Theodore Hunt (Frazer Nash TT Replica) SLOW SCRATCH FOR PRE-WAR CARS Nigel Dowding (Riley Brooklands) GP ITALIA & LANCHESTER TROPHIES Patrick Blakeney-Edwards (Frazer Nash Super Special) FAST HANDICAP FOR PRE-WAR CARS Charles Goldspink (Frazer Nash Acedes) SLOW HANDICAP FOR PRE-WAR CARS Sara Kelleway (Riley 12/4 Special) RICHARD BELL MEMORIAL/HAWTHORN INTERNATIONAL TROPHY Martin Hunt (HWM, below) For full results visit: theresultslive.co.uk…

A gridful of high-downforce Formula 3 Dallaras, spanning F398 to F311 models, made a sensational sight as triple-headers opened the Monoposto Racing Club’s 66th championship season in style. With Mercedes HWA, Mugen-Honda, Renault, TOM’S Toyota, Toyota (one a Piedrafita Euroformula version), Vauxhall, VW Spiess and other VW engines on parade, plus three Moto 1400 Dallaras with Suzuki Hayabusa engines and a Tatuus FRenault, quick lappery was assured. George Line (ex-Carlin F308-VW Spiess) grabbed pole with 1m08.398s (104.42mph), eight tenths quicker than Tony Bishop in a similarly powered F308/11. Line rocketed clear in Saturday’s first race, outrunning James Williams (F311-VW) and Ashley Dibden (F307-Toyota), who pushed Bishop back to fourth. Dean Warren (F305-VW) and Jason Timms (fastest of the Moto 1400s in his Dallara 301) completed the top six. Sunday’s first…

The 1972 Monza 1000Km really should have been a cakewalk for the trio of works Ferrari 312 PBs driven by Jacky Ickx (#1, sharing with Clay Regazzoni), Ronnie Peterson (#2, with Tim Schenken) and Brian Redman (#3, Arturo Merzario), as they led the notably thin field away, but the sopping conditions meant proceedings were far from straightforward – at one point a GT-class De Tomaso Pantera was up front. Ickx and Regazzoni did manage to bring their misfiring car home for the win, Peterson and Schenken were third, nine laps down, while Redman/Merzario had earlier aquaplaned out. For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

FORMULA 1 Fernando Alonso’s contract renewal at Aston Martin has appeared to kick Formula 1’s silly season into another gear, with the focus now shifting to fellow Spaniard Carlos Sainz. Aston Martin could have been a possible avenue for the on-the-move Ferrari star. But with Alonso staying put, that means the options are narrowing for him. Sainz is understood to have had a firm offer from Audi on the table for some time, but has also been exploring other options as Red Bull mulls over whether to renew Sergio Perez’s expiring deal or make a change in the seat alongside Max Verstappen. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko confirmed that the squad has been holding talks with Sainz regarding a possible return to its fold, but revealed that Audi has made…

WEC Toyota is evaluating an expansion of its presence in the World Endurance Championship – and not just for the Le Mans 24 Hours. The Japanese manufacturer has revealed that an additional GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar, run under a different banner to the two Toyota Gazoo Racing factory entries as per series rules, is already under discussion for a full championship campaign. But it wouldn’t happen until 2026. It is already too late to press the button on an extra car for next season. “We see what Ferrari is doing with its customer or satellite car, and we like that,” said Toyota race director Rob Leupen. “Clearly running an extra car gives you more possibilities, so it is is something we are looking into. We are reviewing it.” But…

The recent Otago Rally in New Zealand, which kicked off the Asia Pacific Rally Championship, was won by local Jack Hawkeswood in a Toyota GR Yaris. But as a wild guess we reckon our readers would prefer to see a picture of none other than Kris Meeke in a Ford Escort RS1800, which he drove to seventh overall and first in class. The rally covered 276km over 16 gravel stages around Dunedin on the South Island. PORSCHE APPEALS Porsche has lodged an appeal against the exclusion of Antonio Felix da Costa from his victory in the Saturday leg of the recent Formula E double-header at Misano. The Portuguese was thrown out for an ineligible throttle damper spring. NO IRELAND FOR WRC Ireland’s bid to join the World Rally Championship calendar…

I was never a small boy – I was Mr Round, I was huge, I was so big I couldn’t fit in a kart! Tillett, who made the seats, couldn’t make one big enough for me to fit in. So I started off drifting Ford Escort Mk2s at eight years old, and at that age we went with family friends to Brands Hatch to watch the British Touring Car Championship. I absolutely loved it. We sat with a picnic blanket to the side of Druids where you can see the cars coming down through Paddock Hill. I remember seeing someone punt someone off into the gravel and thinking, ‘This is brilliant – there’s always crashing, it’s always exciting to watch’. At that age you get nervous even thinking about driving…

Red Bull completed a century of F1 pole positions through championship leader Max Verstappen, who prevailed in more standard conditions relative to Friday’s sprint qualifying to assert his authority over the field. His first lap of Q3, a 1m33.977s, would have been good enough to cement pole anyway, although he admitted that the drop in pace relative to his Q2 best was “confusing” and suspected the wind was to blame. Regardless, he stepped up his efforts later on with a final 1m33.660s to put the front-most grid position under lock and key. The battle over second was much more thrilling as track condition peaked at the end of the session. Fernando Alonso had provisionally occupied the other front-row slot after the opening array of laps, before the second-place slot machine…

Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll were left frustrated for different reasons following their crash at the first restart of the Chinese Grand Prix. The Aston Martin hit the back of the RB, lifting it up and eventually causing its retirement with diffuser and floor damage. Stroll was hit with a 10-second penalty after the stewards decided that he “was predominantly to blame for the collision” for failing to anticipate “the pace of the cars in front, particularly car #3, and should have prepared to brake accordingly”. The Canadian served this at a fourth pitstop, where he went back onto hard tyres – he had run this compound earlier before pitting following the collision for a lengthy front-wing change. The incident undid his pursuit of points following a positive early start.…

Toyota triumphs in a World Endurance Championship race. Nothing unusual in that, of course. Yet the Japanese manufacturer didn’t so much win the Imola 6 Hours as Ferrari lost it. The home marque was in the ascendent up the road from its factory last Sunday, only to throw it away. When rain arrived it got its strategy spectacularly wrong and its sparring partner nailed it spot-on as Mike Conway, Nyck de Vries and Kamui Kobayashi took an against-the-odds victory. Deep into the fourth hour, Ferrari was sitting pretty in 1-2 at the top of the leaderboard, James Calado in the #51 Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar ahead of Miguel Molina in the #50 sister factory car. Just after the clock hit four hours, the two factory cars and the satellite…

At a time of uncertainty over the technical rules for the World Rally Championship next year, the intense fight for victory on Rally Croatia provided a great advert for the series. Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier emerged victorious from a tense and dramatic three-way fight with title contenders Thierry Neuville and Elfyn Evans, to become the fourth different winner of 2024 from as many events. To continue the numerical symmetry, this was Croatia’s fourth appearance on the WRC calendar. It will, however, forever be associated with the death of the much-loved Craig Breen in a testing crash and, one year on, the talented Irishman was in the thoughts of the WRC fraternity, while Hyundai paid tribute by adding the Irish colours to the front and roof of its cars. While Croatia triggers…

AUSTRALIAN SUPERCARS TAUPO (NZL) 20-21 APRIL ROUND 3/12 Andre Heimgartner and Will Brown shared the race wins in two completely different races on Supercars’ return to New Zealand for the category’s maiden event at the Taupo International Motorsport Park circuit. In diabolical conditions in Saturday’s opening race, Heimgartner vaulted to the lead after a slick opening pitstop by the Brad Jones Racing pitcrew and stayed there, despite enormous pressure from Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert. When the WAU Ford Mustang shed a wheel after its second stop, Heimgartner took his first win in three years in his Chevrolet Camaro, ahead of Dick Johnson Racing Ford duo Will Davison and Anton de Pasquale. Both Triple Eight Chevrolets struggled with tyre pressure problems, but on Sunday they put that to rights. Broc…

Seven stars from the 2024 British Touring Car Championship turned up a couple of weeks ago to do battle at the Goodwood Members’ Meeting, but one of its most celebrated didn’t, even though he’s a regular at the Sussex circuit’s retro extravaganzas. For four-time champion Colin Turkington, Goodwood was one event too many in what has been an intense warm-up around the UK’s humble clubbie scene. No public-school-type house points this time for the down-to-earth Northern Irishman; instead it’s been a diet of Mazda MX-5 Supercup at Silverstone, Classic Sports Car Club BMW action at Donington, a Mini Se7en outing also at Donington, and back in the MX-5s at Snetterton. Goodwood was wedged in between BTCC official tests at Croft and Donington Park, and the 42-year-old Northern Irishman also has…

SPRINT The third annual Sandown Sprint attracted 90 entries to the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight last weekend to compete on a course totally made up of closed public roads. Damien Bradley retained his title as the overall winner for the second year running in his highly developed Subaru Legacy, which features a 2.2-litre engine and a huge AET turbo that produces up to 800bhp. He set the quickest run on both days, with the overall result decided by the fastest run from Saturday and Sunday. Bradley’s 34.91s time on Saturday was the event best on the course that begins on Fort Street before turning east for a long dash down Culver Parade on Sandown’s seafront road, split up by a couple of chicanes and a trip around…

HISTORICS The Hesketh 308 Formula 1 car in which James Hunt won the 1974 BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone was given a 50th anniversary demonstration run during the Vintage Sports-Car Club meeting on Saturday in the hands of Historic Formula Ford champion Callum Grant. After making their F1 debut in 1973 with a March 731, Hesketh and Hunt were victorious the following year in the non-championship race at Silverstone with the Harvey Postlethwaite-designed 308, despite the gear-knob coming off mid-race. “Until the gear shift broke, it was the easiest race we’d ever had,” recalled team founder Lord Alexander Hesketh as he watched the demonstration at Silverstone. “It’s wonderful because my wife, my children and my grandchildren have never seen it going out.” Hunt famously went on to score the squad’s…

VSCC Former vintage MG racer Tom Hardman achieved a long-held dream by racing an ERA at Silverstone last Saturday. Hardman got the chance to race ERA AJM1, one of the two cars owned by his friend Ben Fidler, and contested the Patrick Lindsay Memorial race. Hardman, who most recently raced the MG Belle Vue Special, has hillclimbed AJM1 over the past two years but had never raced an ERA before. “I saw them racing as a boy and this was a 25-year dream to get to race one,” said Hardman, who finished the contest that commemorated ERA’s 90th anniversary in seventh place. “My first time on a track in an ERA was in testing at Silverstone on Friday morning, and I’m continuing to be very cautious.” SCOTTISH LEGENDS ENGINE A…

KNOCKHILL KMSC 20-21 APRIL Knockhill’s 2024 circuit racing season started in entertaining fashion last weekend, with a packed Scottish Motor Racing Club schedule boosted by additional Knockhill Motor Sports Club Super Lap Scotland, Modsports and Scottish Legends contests. Healthy grid sizes were a fitting tribute to the Fife circuit’s 50th anniversary year, with the changeable weather doing little to dampen competitors’ enthusiasm, despite myriad safety-car interludes. The mood around the Scottish Legends paddock was particularly buoyant thanks to a bumper entry of 30 cars – a record for the series – with Saturday’s first round featuring Stewart Black, Daniel Clark and Steve Whitelegg locking out the podium places in each of the three races. The weather changed for the worse for round two on Sunday, with inclement conditions facing the…

GT CUP Race 1 Richard Neary (Mercedes-AMG GT3) Races 2 & 3 Shamus Jennings/Greg Caton (Porsche 911 GTR GT3) Race 4 Jay Shepherd (Lotus Evora) PORSCHE CLUB Race 1 Mark McAleer (997 C2S) Race 2 Simon Clark (997 Carrera S) CNC HEADS SPORTS/SALOONS Races 1 & 2 Andrew Southcott (MG Midget Lenham) PRODUCTION GTIs Races 1 & 2 Henry Riley (below, right) FOCUS CUP Races 1 & 2 Lewis Clark BOXSTER CUP Race 1 Ryan Charters Race 2 Wayne Gregory TRACKDAY CHAMPIONSHIP John Lyne (BMW E36) TRACKDAY TROPHY Justin Roberts/Nicole Drought (Honda Civic Type R) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

SNETTERTON HSCC 20-21 APRIL Sunday’s Road Sports contest, in which Australian Justin Murphy almost sprang a formbook upset, was among the highlights of last weekend’s Historic Sports Car Club season-opener at Snetterton. For five years, the Milano-Holden and Ginetta G4 graduate has spasmodically attempted to tame his Historic Bolwell Nagari. This time he howled the five-litre Ford V8-powered Aussie stunner past Antony Ross’s TVR 3000M from the 70s set and outsprinted it on the straights. But there would be no dancing on the streets of Mordialloc, Victoria – where Campbell Bolwell made the car – as, having hit the front on lap two, pulling 131mph over the timing line, Murphy dropped it at Riches two laps later. “I’m such an idiot,” he rued after kissing the inside barrier. “I’d backed…

LIVESTREAM BTCC British Touring Car Championship fans around the world will have the opportunity to watch races live on TikTok this season thanks to a world-first agreement between series organiser TOCA and broadcast partner ITV Sport. The deal, which will complement existing free-to-air live coverage on ITV4, means that every race in the 2024 season will be streamed live and in full via the ITV Sport TikTok channel with no global restrictions. “It’s absolutely in line with our strategy, not just with social media but also with our entire broadcast strategy, of always putting the BTCC in front of as many ‘eyeballs’ as possible,” said BTCC chief executive Alan Gow. “That’s why we have never put the BTCC behind a paywall, for example. “Whatever we can do to introduce new…

Gordon Shedden has spent much of his career in Honda machinery, so it’s no surprise that his favourite car comes from the Japanese manufacturer. But it’s not the 2006 Integra in which he scored his first British Touring Car race win or the Civic with which he took his maiden crown. The three-time champion swiftly picks the first Team Dynamics-built Type R version of the ‘Next Generation Touring Car’ Civic that arrived in 2015. “It probably has to be the first Civic Type R, with the RML spec parts,” he says. “It was mega, really nice.” Shedden took four wins and seven other podiums to take a comfortable lead into the Brands Hatch season decider in 2015. Drama in race two meant Jason Plato was a real threat, and Shedden…

FORMULA 1 Mercedes protege Andrea Kimi Antonelli has completed his maiden Formula 1 test at the Red Bull Ring in the 2021 W12. Antonelli, who is competing in Formula 2 with Prema Racing this season, is being readied by Mercedes with a view to potentially replacing Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton in 2025. The 17-year-old Italian is set for a rigorous testing programme in two-year-old Mercedes machinery at a variety of European circuits. Antonelli’s run-out in Austria (above), in which he completed 500 kilometres over two days, was an acclimatisation test before he is thrown into the Brackley squad’s more relevant but flawed 2022 ground-effect car, which is trickier to drive. “It’s been an incredible experience,” said Antonelli. “It was great to feel the power and downforce. I loved every second of…

FORMULA 1 A proposal to change Formula 1’s points system looks on course to get the support it needs to go through, with top teams making clear that they will not block it. As exclusively revealed by autosport.com ahead of last weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, F1, its teams and the FIA are to discuss a revision at a meeting of the F1 Commission this week to offer rewards down to 12th place for 2025. It comes amid concerns that the effective current lock-out of the top 10 positions by the leading five teams leaves so few opportunities for the midfield sqiads to score. The current allocation of points for the top seven positions will remain unchanged, but eighth to 12th would score 5-4-3-2-1. This means that it should offer little…

WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP The FIA is not at war with manufacturers over the 2025 World Rally Championship technical regulations, with harmony not far away, according to FIA road sport director Andrew Wheatley. The WRC is facing uncertainty over its technical rules for next season after the FIA proposed changes that have been strongly opposed by manufacturers. While teams have been largely supportive of the majority of the FIA’s vision, Toyota, Hyundai and M-Sport Ford collectively wrote to the governing body requesting that the existing Rally1 technical rules remain in place until the end of 2026. The tweaks to the rules for 2025 include the removal of hybrid power, a reduction in aero via a modified rear wing, and a smaller-diameter air restrictor. Manufacturers believe that the FIA should focus on…

BTCC The British Touring Car Championship finished its pre-season testing programme at Donington Park last Tuesday ahead of this weekend’s opening round at the same venue, with reigning champion Ash Sutton topping the times in his NAPAliveried Alliance Racing Ford Focus ST. Sutton (right) had popped in a lap 0.098 seconds clear of team-mate Dan Cammish when a thunderstorm with an hour to go forced the competitors to scurry for the refuge of their pit garages for the remainder of the day. “The times are a little bit irrelevant, we’re just going through changes to the car like everyone else,” said Sutton. “Is it the perfect car to go into qualifying with? No, but I’m still pleased that we’ve shown strong pace.” The Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N team occupied…

Warwick’s finest and Herbert’s favourite Very good stuff in the 11 April issue. My particular favourites are Derek Warwick’s greatest races and Johnny Herbert’s favourite car. The Lotus 107 was a great little car in all its forms – the original in ’92 was beautiful in green and yellow, the B in red, white, green and yellow with the trick active… who remembers the surfboard at the pit stops?! The Mugen 107C was good, but the 109, when it eventually arrived, could have saved Lotus in my opinion… that and Eddie Irvine knowing what a brake pedal was at Monza! Chris AdamsBy email Confidential information In Autosport 18 April on page 63 you mention the “mysterious driver ‘Rollo Tomasi’”. There is an American author of this name but, perhaps more…

The elements conspired to rain chaos upon the sprint qualifying session in Shanghai; a sparkinduced flame scorched a patch of parched grass at Turn 7 before a deluge burst through the smoggy clouds at the end of the second qualifying phase. Could that, and the resulting jumbled order in a rain-affected SQ3, really stop Max Verstappen? Not on your life. Instead, the seas parted on a more serene Saturday morning, even though Verstappen had three quality drivers on the grid standing between himself and a sprint win. Lando Norris, whose pole lap was erroneously deleted prior to a hasty reinstatement, was shaded at the start by countryman Lewis Hamilton and the two drew into the opening corner side by side. Hamilton held the inside of the winding corner complex and…

Zhou Guanyu was left to reflect on an “emotional journey” to becoming China’s first Formula 1 driver and the first to race in his home grand prix. The Sauber driver was up and down the results through the weekend, but made it a positive ending with a series of passes following a late stop for soft tyres in the GP. He said Sauber thought he’d “be able to keep the position we were in if we didn’t stop, so we gambled”, but he only ended up 14th, having pitted from 13th. His left-front-wing endplate also blew off as he passed Kevin Magnussen during his charge, evoking memories of a similar incident in Melbourne qualifying. In the other C44, Valtteri Bottas was chasing Nico Hulkenberg in the battle to make the…

A couple of points for the heavily revised Peugeot 9X8 at Imola may not sound like the kind of result the French manufacturer was looking for on the car’s debut. Not after it missed out on second place with the original iteration of its Le Mans Hypercar at Qatar for the want of a few litres of fuel. But it reckoned that it had got the most out of the car on Sunday, at least the #93 entry shared by Nico Muller, Mikkel Jensen and Jean-Eric Vergne that chalked up a score with ninth position. “I think we maximised what we could do with the pace of the car,” said Peugeot Sport technical director Olivier Jansonnie. “On the positive side we are quite happy with our strategy when the rain…

Nikolay Gryazin ignited his WRC2 title hopes with a dominant run to victory as Citroen scored a 1-2 with its upgraded C3 Rally2 car. Gryazin and co-driver Konstantin Aleksandrov were never headed across the 20 demanding asphalt stages, taking a comfortable 38.2-second victory from DG Sport team-mate Yohan Rossel. Gryazin and Rossel proved to be the class of the field, opening up a gap of more than two minutes to third-placed Pepe Lopez. Gryazin was even able to ease off across Saturday afternoon after Rossel lost 35s to tyre damage. A first victory of the season has hauled Gryazin into third, three points behind tied championship leaders Rossel and Oliver Solberg, who chose not to compete in Croatia. “It feels really nice, especially with all the work we did before…

IMSA SPORTSCAR LONG BEACH (USA) 20 APRIL ROUND 3/11 Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande employed the perfect blend of speed and strategy to score a finely judged victory last Saturday in Long Beach. It was the second time in three years the Franco-Dutch pairing had emerged on top on the unforgiving California streets for Chip Ganassi’s Cadillac Racing IMSA SportsCar Championship team. Curiously, it seems to be a case of feast or famine for Bourdais at the legendary venue. He won three of five outings for Newman Haas Racing in the CART/Champ Car days, taking the chequered flag consecutively from 2005 to 2007, but had only one second-place finish to show from 10 IndyCar Series starts between 2011-21. Two years ago, Bourdais won from the pole on his…

NASCAR CUP TALLADEGA (USA) 21 APRIL ROUND 10/36 A late-race pit strategy by Toyota teams went wildly awry, but that didn’t prevent Tyler Reddick giving the manufacturer a NASCAR Cup Series victory last Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway. With 36 of 188 laps remaining, the seven Toyotas made their final green-flag pitstop in an effort to stay together and decide the race’s outcome among themselves. Just four laps later, however, four of them were taken out of contention in a wreck. Reddick remained unscathed and got pushed into the lead on the final lap before he was passed by Brad Keselowski and Michael McDowell entering Turns 1 and 2. Coming through the tri-oval towards the chequered flag, McDowell twice tried to block Keselowski’s advance, but the second time his Front Row…

BTCC CALENDAR SUTTON: WINNERS COULD COME FROM OUTSIDE TOP 10 Along with the changes to the push-button boost regulations and qualifying format, new tyre rules for BTCC 2024 have fallen somewhat under the radar. But they are significant enough for reigning champion Ash Sutton to believe that there’s a very real chance of the winner of race two on a Sunday coming from outside the top 10 on the grid. For this season, anyone finishing in the top 10 in race one must use the hardest available tyre compound from their allocation for race two. That won’t impact Donington this weekend, where only the medium Goodyear is in use. But it will come into play for round two at Brands Hatch, where it’s the medium with the soft as the…

OBITUARY Alan Minshaw, whose racing career spanned six decades, has died aged 88, having been in declining health for some time. Only by suffering a heart attack at his beloved Oulton Park’s Gold Cup event, where expert medical care was at hand, did he enjoy several bonus years. A natural salesman, Liverpudlian Minshaw identified a lucrative niche market for mail order go-faster equipment and racewear. Having founded Demon Tweeks in 1971, he built a trusted brand empire from a one-man band, pioneering an industry, and put more back into grassroots motorsport than anybody else. Minshaw started competing at Aintree in 1958, in a Morris Minor convertible, before moving on to a Downton-tuned Mini, which enabled him to sample a wide range of sporting disciplines while providing road transport in his…

GB3 FIA Formula 3 race winner Martinius Stenshorne and young Australian rising star James Wharton will make their GB3 Championship debuts this weekend at Silverstone. Stenshorne was runner-up to Andrea Kimi Antonelli in Formula Regional European last season, and as an F3 rookie claimed victory in the Australian sprint race last month with Hitech GP. But the 18-year-old Norwegian will drive for Chris Dittmann Racing at Silverstone. “Silverstone is one of the most famous tracks on the calendar, but also one of the toughest, and getting experience will be really valuable to take forward to the future,” said Stenshorne, whose father Martin competed in the World Rally Championship. “It’s going to be a learning experience, with a new car and a new track, but I’m confident we will get a…

VSCC Tom De Gres and Hans Ciers drove a rare and possibly unique Citroen C4 Roadster in the Vintage Sports-Car Club meeting at Silverstone last weekend. The stripped-down special is a faithful replica of a car that went to Le Mans in 1930 and 1931 but failed to qualify. The replica was built by British racers Celia Stevens and Antonia Loysen as a way of getting an entry for the Le Mans Classic, and it has been a regular in the Classic for several years, more recently in the hands of sometime Formula Junior racer De Gres. The VSCC outing may well have been the car’s first race appearance in the UK. It finished 14th in the slow scratch race for pre-war cars.…

HISTORICS The Historic Sports Car Club is expecting an influx of Formula 5000 machinery from Australia and New Zealand this year, for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic, with the cars joining its revamped Derek Bell Trophy. The series caters for high-powered single-seaters and is reverting to its previous name, having run under the Aurora Trophy moniker in recent seasons. HSCC CEO Andy Dee-Crowne believes around a dozen Antipodean F5000s are set to make the journey to the UK to compete in the category’s headline Brands Hatch Superprix and Oulton Park Gold Cup events in July and are due to be shipped over imminently. “We used to entertain cars from New Zealand and Australia every year,” said Dee-Crowne. “Obviously, that stopped when we went through COVID and this is…

SILVERSTONE VSCC 20-21 APRIL The Vintage Sports-Car Club is entering its 90th year in 2024, and it wasn’t the only anniversary being celebrated as the club’s new racing season got under way with two days of action at Silverstone. It’s also 90 years since English Racing Automobiles unveiled its first chassis – the R1A – at Brooklands. An ERA-themed Patrick Lindsay Memorial Trophy race was held to toast the occasion, and it didn’t disappoint. Less than a second separated VSCC vice-president Nick Topliss (R4A) and Ian Baxter (Alta) throughout, with Topliss taking the win while Mark Gillies (R3A) finished behind the pair in third. The Silverstone Trophy Race for VSCC specials was initially a three-way affair at the front before Theodore Hunt was forced to pit when the water cap…