Innholdsfortegnelse for 02/05/24 i Autosport

It’s very easy to use the phrase ‘transcended the sport’, but in the case of Ayrton Senna there is no doubting the accuracy of what can often be a trite cliche. It’s hard to believe that it’s 30 years this week since the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix tragedy took him from the world. Even in an era of swashbuckling heroes, the brutality of his sudden loss sent shockwaves around the world far beyond the motorsport fraternity. He meant so much to so many people. And he still does. Senna was already becoming active in charitable work at the time of his death, and the Senna Institute lives on in his name three decades later. As part of our tribute, James Allen talks to Senna’s niece Bianca on page 17…

FORMULA E Formula E unveiled its upgraded Gen3 Evo machine ahead of last weekend’s Monaco round. The car, which features a significant performance boost, will be used from the start of next season. Among the modifications to the current Gen3 car, which has been in use for the past two seasons, are the bodywork and tyres, as well as a more efficient use of power. A 0-60mph time of 1.82 seconds is faster than that of the current F1 cars, while general performance has been improved by around two seconds for a lap of Monte Carlo. Most significantly, the car will now make use of the front powertrain. This has been an unused part of the Gen3 machine since its launch, and will mean Formula E becomes all-wheel drive for…

FORMULA 2 Just as it did the week before in Formula 3, Campos Racing led the way in last week’s three-day official Formula 2 test at Barcelona as teams gear up for the season’s European stage. Each car was allowed five sets of hard Pirelli tyres and three sets of softs, and the teams largely used the morning sessions on Wednesday and Thursday for ‘qualifying’-type runs. On Wednesday, Pepe Marti led the way for Campos from Victor Martins (ART Grand Prix). But times fell on Thursday, when Isack Hadjar (above) outpaced team-mate Marti by a clear 0.410 seconds, followed by MP Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto and Martins. Frenchman Hadjar, who won the feature race last time out in Melbourne, said: “If we look at raw pace I don’t think we are…

GT WORLD CHALLENGE EUROPE Maro Engel is relishing a return to the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup after a two-year absence. The long-time member of the Mercedes-AMG GT roster makes no secret of his desire to add the Sprint Cup title to his CV ahead of this weekend’s series opener at Brands Hatch. As a winner of the Endurance Cup leg of the GTWCE, the Nurburgring 24 Hours and the GT World Cup at Macau, the Sprint Cup is one success that has eluded Engel in the GT3 arena. He was runner-up in 2019 with Black Falcon and 2021 with Toksport, and aims to go one better aboard the Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 he shares with Lucas Auer this time. “When I won Endurance in 2018 with Black Falcon…

On track, the IndyCar Series offers the most competitive open-wheel racing on the planet, including one of its greatest races in the Indy 500. Off track, it’s rather more problematic and its appetite for self-harm has reached a new level. The storm that blew up around Team Penske last week is just the latest in a string of dysfunctional mishaps to roll your eyes at. While exploiting grey areas in the rulebook is part and parcel of this sport, Penske’s gold standard has been smeared by this scandal, railroading through the push-to-pass overtake system, which (regardless of intention) gave the opportunity for its drivers to gain an advantage over their rivals by illegally using it at starts and restarts. IndyCar officials only tripped over this when they failed to enable…

What are your memories of Roland? When did you first come across him? David Brabham As we were coming up through the ranks, he was ahead of me – he was older than I was. Obviously, I knew of him because he was doing well wherever he was going, whether it was sportscars or single-seaters [including winning the 1986 Formula Ford Festival], touring cars. I think everyone loved his story because he had nothing, he had no support from the family, they were dead against it. That didn’t deter him; he would sleep in his car because he couldn’t afford to stay somewhere. He put everything into his racing, and his dream was to get to Formula 1. If you saw the way he went about his racing in the…

The British Touring Car Championship dodged a bullet at Donington Park last Sunday. Heavy rain during April is hardly unheard of in the East Midlands, yet people queued for over an hour to enter the boggy venue. Those lucky enough to arrive before the scheduled 9.05am kick-off for support race action became the unfortunate ones, and had to endure four and a half hours of delay until the BTCC itself became the curtain-raiser – two hours after its scheduled start. After 30 seconds of action, the field trundled around behind the safety car for over 23 minutes while the tyrewall was rebuilt on the Craner Curves after a predictable first-lap shunt – and a marshal who had fallen over while working on that task was tended to by medics.…

DTM OSCHERSLEBEN (DEU) 27-28 APRIL ROUND 1/8 Versatile Briton Jack Aitken kicked off his second season in the DTM with the Emil Frey Racing Ferrari squad with a win in Saturday’s opener at Oschersleben. But he went from hero to zero on Sunday with an unfortunate early exit. Both of the races were nearly decided by drivers pitting in anticipation of a Full Course Yellow, circumventing a new regulation in the rulebook that prevents any cheap pitstops during caution periods. It was BMW ace Marco Wittmann who timed his stop to perfection in the first race, with Schubert Motorsport calling him into the pitlane just seconds before the FCY was deployed after Ben Dorr came to a halt on the start/finish straight with a wheel missing from his McLaren. This…

BRITISH GT The return of the Ferrari brand to the British GT Championship was short-lived last weekend, as Alexander West’s crash in first practice prevented the car from running in the Silverstone 500. West touched the wet exit kerb at Aintree in the final minutes of the session, causing his 296 GT3 machine to spin into the barrier and damage the car’s rear subframe. It meant the Tempesta team was unable to run the car, which would have been the first GT3 Ferrari to compete in a British GT race for four years after AF Corse contested much of the 2020 season with a 488. “It’s sad,” said team founder and West’s co-driver Chris Froggatt. “I like Silverstone and I like the championship, so it would have been nice to…

GB4 This year’s Ginetta Junior champion will receive £50,000 towards their budget for a season of GB4 in 2025 as part of a new scholarship prize jointly offered by the single-seater series’ organiser MotorSport Vision and Ginetta. Since Ginetta’s departure from the British Touring Car support bill last season, both categories feature at British GT events and several teams – including Elite Motorsport, Fox Motorsport and Preptech UK (their cars pictured above) – compete across the two championships. Two of this year’s GB4 frontrunners, Alisha Palmowski and Finn Harrison, have also previously raced in Ginetta Junior. “Ginetta Juniors has a long history of being the junior championship where drivers serious about trying to make it to the highest level learn and put themselves on the talent map,” said MSV chief…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB Will Martin made a winning return to the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Donington Park last weekend after striking a late deal with the new Race Drive team. Martin finished third in the 2022 standings, before switching to the equivalent North American series last year. He won three races en route to third in the points, but said attracting the necessary sponsorship to continue racing Stateside proved a challenge so he opted to return to UK motorsport. He became the fifth driver for Dino Zamparelli’s squad and qualified third, despite only shaking down the car a few days before the Donington event. Martin then went on to win the sole race in Leicestershire. “We got a great opportunity with Eden Race Drive – I knew some…

HISTORICS Britons Ben Barker and Gordon Shedden, driving a 26R-spec Lotus Elan, overcame more powerful opposition to win the three-hour pre-1974 GT and touring car feature race at last weekend’s 16th Spa Summer Classic event. Shedden, a three-time British Touring Car champion, has a growing historic racing CV, which already includes two Spa Six Hours victories. Another British Elan crew, John Tordoff and Andy Jordan, finished third in Sunday’s race, in which four teams finished on the lead lap. The three-litre Porsche 911 RSs of Lars Rolner/Pierre-Alain Thibaut and Annette Rolner/Michael Holden were second and fourth respectively. Germany’s Rhea Sautter and Briton Andy Newall (Jaguar E-type) won their class in fifth overall, while Michael and Kallum Gray (E-type) and David Smithies/Chris Clarkson/Mark Pangborn (Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe) finished eighth and…

Optimum Motorsport boss Shaun Goff claimed that the “race was ours” after his team dominated from pole to take GT4 victory at last weekend’s Silverstone 500. Jack Brown and Zac Meakin finished a staggering 1m40s clear of runners-up Jamie Day and Mikey Porter having impressed all weekend aboard their McLaren Artura GT4. Mahiki Racing’s Ian Duggan and Gordie Mutch trailed the Forsetti Aston Martin Vantage by just 3.2s to give Lotus its first podium since returning to British GT this year. “We came here with a great car and the drivers have done a fantastic job,” said Goff. “We as a team have executed wins in this race multiple times, so we enjoy the three-hour races, which sort of separate the men from the boys.” The team didn’t endure a…

GB3 Race 1 (both 10 laps) 1 Tymek Kucharczyk; 2 McKenzy Cresswell +7.855s; 3 Will Macintyre; 4 Louis Sharp; 5 Gerrard Xie; 6 Ugo Ugochukwu. Fastest lap Kucharczyk 1m53.367s (116.24mph). Pole Kucharczyk. Starters 22. Race 2 1 Macintyre; 2 Ugochukwu +0.180s; 3 Kucharczyk; 4 Cresswell; 5 Sharp; 6 Jarrod Waberski. FL Kucharczyk 2m05.572s (104.94mph). P Kucharczyk. S 22. Points 1 Sharp 122; 2 Ugochukwu 113; 3 Macintyre 112 (below); 4 Cresswell 101; 5 Kucharczyk 92; 6 John Bennett 90. For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

LEGENDS CARS ELITE CUP Jack Parker, Will Gibson and Andy Bird were the standout drivers from a weekend of frenetic Legends racing, although Gibson, in particular, endured some wildly contrasting emotions. Parker appeared happiest after Saturday’s bouts, having won the first two on the road but was demoted to fourth in the opener after shenanigans at McLeans. His heat two win followed the top four entering the chicane together on the last lap, with Parker emerging ahead from Robert Barrable. Bird and Gibson were beneficiaries of Parker’s penalty but, while Bird soared up to third in heat two, Gibson was sent out. However, the reigning champion’s fortunes improved in the final as he rocketed from 18th into the lead on the opening lap and never looked back. Gibson was again…

VIDEO GAME REVIEW MOTOGP 24 Available on PC, PlayStation, Switch and Xbox RRP £59.99 Following 11 successive years of MotoGP game development, you would think by now that Italian developer Milestone had learned how to create a perfect motorcycle simulation. Yet, while the new MotoGP 24 video game adds several fan-requested features, the execution somehow means it feels like a retrograde release. Included are the riders, teams, tracks and rules from the current real-world season. Prior novelties such as flag-to-flag races, ride height devices and competitive online multiplayer features transfer across. They are joined by a fresh stewarding system that hands out penalties to the entire field and a rider transfer market in the main career for the first time. The surfeit of content, modes and challenges is ample, making…

Adrian Fernandez wasn’t short of top quality team-mates during a successful career in US open-wheel racing. But it’s from his later chapter in sportscars that he chooses his favourite team-mate. The Mexican singles out compatriot Luis Diaz after three years together in the American Le Mans Series culminated in the LMP2 title for his own Fernandez Racing operation in 2009. That year’s success in the Acura ARX-01b, against a slim field as the global financial crisis took its toll, isn’t the key factor in Fernandez’s choice. He regards his time with Diaz as “probably the three most fun years I have ever had in racing”, with Diaz central to that. Fernandez recalls that Diaz, 14 years his junior, was a team player who was willing to listen and, helpfully for…

FORMULA 1 Red Bull design legend Adrian Newey could be blocked from joining rival Formula 1 teams until 2027 unless a deal is reached to release him. It emerged last week that Newey had expressed his desire to leave Red Bull to some members of the Milton Keynes-based squad. While it remains F1’s dominant force in 2024, with Max Verstappen lining up a fourth straight world championship, Autosport sources have suggested that Newey has become disillusioned with the fallout of the battle that erupted earlier this year for control of the team. Red Bull is still embroiled in an ongoing internal power struggle between the Thai side of the business, which supports team principal Christian Horner, and the Austrian side, including team advisor Helmut Marko. The issue came to a…

WEC Peugeot will run just two drivers in both of its revised 9X8 2024 Le Mans Hypercars at the Spa round of the World Endurance Championship next week. It is not bringing in replacements for either Jean-Eric Vergne or Stoffel Vandoorne when they are competing for sister marque DS and Penske in the clashing Berlin round of the Formula E World Championship on the same weekend. It means that Nico Muller and Mikkel Jensen will race the #93 Peugeot as a duo, and Paul di Resta and Loic Duval likewise in the #94 Hypercar class entry. Peugeot has passed up on the opportunity to give Malthe Jakobsen, who was signed as the WEC team’s junior driver last May, a first race outing in the 9X8. It was not considering anyone…

BTCC The British Touring Car Championship’s modified ‘push-to-pass’ boost regulations received a thumbs-up after last weekend’s opening round at Donington Park. Series organiser TOCA’s technical team clearly got their sums right in effectively doubling the boost surge to an estimated 60bhp from a combination of the electric hybrid and engine turbo. Ironically, it also assisted in scotching TOCA supremo Alan Gow’s aim of preventing the same driver winning races one and two from pole, when Tom Ingram used the boost to pass fast-starting Jake Hill for victory in race two. The new rules added a ferocity to the action at the front, particularly between the top three from the 2022 and 2023 series – Ash Sutton, Ingram and Hill. But Excelr8 Motorsport’s 2022 title winner Ingram believes it could trigger…

Miami Length 3.363 miles Number of laps 57 UK START TIMES Friday 3 May FP 1730 SPRINT QUALIFYING 2130 Saturday 4 May SPRINT 1700 QUALIFYING 2100 Sunday 5 May RACE 2100 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC RADIO 5 LIVE TV Highlights CHANNEL 4 0130 (Monday) TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS Drivers Constructors MIAMI STATS Previous winners Miami podiums 2023 POLE POSITION Sergio Perez 1m26.841s POLE LAP RECORD Sergio Perez 1m26.841s (2023) RACE LAP RECORD Max Verstappen 1m29.708s (2023)…

Ayrton Senna meant a lot of things to a lot of people around the world. In his home country, Brazil, he stood as a symbol of potential. However great the challenges, he showed that it is possible to overcome them and to succeed. Shortly before he died in 1994, Senna and his sister Viviane sketched out the idea of creating a foundation to give something back to Brazil through education. He had launched his iconic Senna ‘S’-branded merchandise, and often wore one of his T-shirts at the racetrack. The cartoon character ‘Senninha’ (‘little Senna’), based on a child who overcomes challenges, was already popular in Brazil before his death. The revenues from these, plus public donations, would fund the charitable activities. Later that year, as the family wrestled with their…

Next month, at 9.03am CEST on 8 June, it will be exactly 10 years since the opening round of the 2014 Italian Formula 4 Championship kicked off at Adria International Raceway. What few could have foreseen was that, at this dullest of circuits, the landscape of single-seater racing had changed irrevocably. This was the first race for the FIA’s new entry-level category, one that would spread around the world. In 2024, there are 15 FIA-certified F4 championships, on nearly every one of the continents of the globe. And this year, the Formula 1 grid contains six graduates of F4. While that doesn’t sound like many, it should be remembered that the remaining 14 were already in F1 or competing at a higher level of single-seaters at the time F4 began.…

While Tom Ingram was the toast of the Excelr8 Motorsport garage at Donington Park, his 22-year-old team-mate Ronan Pearson added further proof that he is a BTCC star of the future. First, the Scot did a fine job to make it through to the ‘Quick Six’ qualifying pole shootout, where he ended up fifth. He retained that position in the opening race, and his Hyundai was putting Colin Turkington under serious pressure in the sequel before the power-steering failed at Coppice, sending him for a rather watery trip through the grass. Somehow the glitch cleared in the pits, and Pearson rejoined one lap down – and set the fastest lap of the race. Sadly for Pearson, the same issue afflicted him in race three, adding further woe to the non-Ingram…

NASCAR CUP SERIES DOVER (USA) 28 APRIL ROUND 11/36 If anything, Denny Hamlin is true to his word. Earlier in the week on his podcast, the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota star said he could win on any or all of the next three tracks on the schedule – Dover, Kansas Speedway and Darlington. And he kicked off that stretch on Sunday with a convincing victory at Dover after fending off a fierce challenge from Kyle Larson in the closing laps. Hamlin, who led all but 11 of the final 147 laps, got beaten by Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet on pitroad when the two made their final green-flag pitstops of the race, but reclaimed the lead on the ensuing restart. Although Hamlin initially moved out to a big lead, Larson was…

MOTOGP JEREZ (ESP) 27/28 APRIL ROUND 4/21 “Just like old times,” Marc Marquez beamed as he reflected upon a maiden MotoGP grand prix podium with the Gresini Ducati team, while showing off rubber marks left on him by Francesco Bagnaia. After starting from pole position, the rider of the #93 bike couldn’t convert this to a first win since 2021. But he came very close in a Spanish Grand Prix battle with factory Ducati ace Bagnaia that will go down in history as one of the best staged at Jerez. The sprint race on Saturday was chaos: 15 riders crashed across 12 laps as unsighted damp patches wreaked havoc. Those to fall included Marquez, who was leading at the time, while Bagnaia was tangled up in an early collision with…

BRITISH GT Dan Harper has already conceded that a defence of his British GT crown appears unlikely after a difficult start to the season. The Century Motorsport driver finished 17th at last weekend’s Silverstone 500, leaving Harper and new co-driver Michael Johnston on just two points from the opening three races. It means they are 57.5 points behind championship leaders Shaun Balfe and Adam Smalley, while Century BMW team-mates Carl Cavers and Lewis Plato are point-less. “The lack of speed is something we need to figure out,” said Harper, who won last year’s Silverstone 500. “We’ve tried a lot of stuff, went different ways with both cars to try and find something that works, but nothing has. “We haven’t had a good start to the year and we’re miles off…

MINI CHALLENGE Former Mini Challenge champion Ant Whorton-Eales made a surprise return to the category for its season-opening round at Donington Park last weekend, describing it as being “like a school reunion” as he was back in action for the Jamsport squad. Whorton-Eales won the Mini title with the team in 2018, but last raced a JCW in 2020. He was immediately on the pace at Donington and won the first race on the road before being demoted to second after contact with fellow Mini conqueror Dan Zelos out of the final chicane. Whorton-Eales then finished fifth in race two. “On Thursday evening, Mini Challenge said the Millers Oils Repsol car was available and asked if I wanted to drive it,” he said of the late deal. “I love my…

BRITISH HILLCLIMB The 77th season of the British Hillclimb Championship is due to get under way this weekend at Craigantlet in Northern Ireland, after waterlogged car parks and camping areas at Prescott meant the start of the campaign was delayed, as reigning champion Wallace Menzies bids to earn a place in hillclimbing history. Menzies has won four titles on the bounce in his Gould GR59 and goes into the 2024 season as the favourite. If he can make it five, he will claim the record for the greatest number of consecutive titles, topping the four straight crowns taken by Ken Wharton in the early 1950s. Though a fifth title would be an incredible accolade for Menzies, he argued that’s not his main motivation. He said: “I’ve hillclimbed for 25 years…

TCR UK TCR UK runner-up Alex Ley is weighing up a partial campaign in Britain or Europe alongside his primary programme in TCR Italy this year. Teenager Ley won six races in two TCR UK seasons aboard a Hyundai i30 N. The Essex racer will now switch to the newer Elantra model run by crack squad Target Competition in TCR Italy, which begins at Misano this weekend. “I’ve had a great time in the UK for the last couple of years,” said Ley. “But we’ve got some support from Hyundai to do Italy and it’s another step forward to my goal, which is being able to race in the TCR World Tour. We’ve had a few test days so far, and the pace has been good.” Ley still has his…

SILVERSTONE BRSCC 27-28 APRIL Ginetta Junior served up three spectacular contests at Silverstone, each producing a different winner, with Preptech UK’s Henry Joslyn prevailing in a race-long battle to win the opener. He held off Isaac Phelps early on before eventually conceding the lead at Abbey, while Charlie Hart also tried to join his Elite team-mate in the fight before dropping behind Chase Fernandez. Joslyn reclaimed first at Copse and, after squeezing back up the inside at Stowe, Phelps was tapped sideways from behind by Fernandez and lost ground. Hart reclaimed second as a sideways moment from Joslyn on the final lap gave him a sniff of victory, but Hart had to settle for his fourth runner-up spot of the season as Fernandez completed the podium. The first part of…

BRITISH F4 Deagen Fairclough was the star of the opening British Formula 4 round with a victory and a reversed-grid second place. Rodin pair Alex Ninovic and James Higgins topped qualifying with a pole apiece, but Fairclough speared in between them at the start of the opener and built an ever-increasing lead. Only amid a brief sprinkle of rain did the superb Fairclough lose any ground, and his Hitech car took the flag over five seconds clear of Higgins. Australian Ninovic dropped to fourth behind Hitech’s Reza Seewooruthun early doors, but a trip onto the grass exiting the chicane for the Dorset driver promoted Ninovic and Yuanpu Cui (Argenti). Ninovic will have to wait for a later event to take up his pole, with rain causing the postponement of race…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB (22 laps) 1 Will Martin; 2 George Gamble +3.242s; 3 Angus Whiteside; 4 Charles Rainford; 5 Andrew Rackstraw; 6 Josh Malin. Fastest lap Martin 1m06.392s (107.31mph). Pole Matthew Rees. Starters 23. Points 1 Martin 13; 2 Gamble 10; 3 Rainford 8; 4 Rackstraw 6; 5 Malin 4; 6 James Wallis 3. MINI CHALLENGE Race 1 (7 laps) 1 Dan Zelos; 2 Ant Whorton-Eales; 3 Jamie Osborne; 4 Tom Ovenden; 5 Bradley Gravett; 6 Lewis Selby. FL Gravett 1m14.359s (95.81mph). P Marlo Cordell. S 20. Race 2 (16 laps) 1 Selby; 2 Zelos +22.257s; 3 Ovenden; 4 Dominic Wheatley; 5 Whorton-Eales; 6 Osborne. FL Selby 1m16.457s (93.18mph). P Ovenden. S 20. Points 1 Zelos 94; 2 Selby 90; 3 Ovenden 80; 4 Osborne 78; 5 Gravett 68;…

CADWELL PARK BARC 27-28 APRIL Three-time Mini Se7en champion Jeff Smith denied Ben Colburn a first Mini Miglia victory in a thrilling contest on Saturday at Cadwell Park, where Sunday’s action was hit by heavy rain. Colburn hung on around the outside of polesitter Smith through Coppice, then capitalised on the inside line for the long right-hander at Charlies. The duo traded the advantage with almost identikit passes at Park on laps three and four, before exchanging the lead another three times. They ran side by side on the final lap before Smith got ahead into Gooseneck. Colburn was ready to strike back but Smith’s defence – which earned a warning from the clerk – held sway. Ian Curley initially ran third before an excursion dropped him back, handing Aaron…

FORMULA 1 Nico Hulkenberg has sealed a switch from Haas to Sauber for the 2025 Formula 1 season and into the Swiss squad’s new era of Audi ownership. Hulkenberg was out of contract at Haas and was long known to be on Audi F1 CEO Andreas Seidl’s shortlist. The 36-year-old has committed to a multi-year agreement with the Hinwil team, which will still be known as Sauber in 2025, one year ahead of Audi’s official F1 entry in 2026. For the German, who raced for Sauber in 2013, being part of the Ingolstadt marque’s arrival as a factory team was too good to turn down. “I have fond memories of the strong team spirit in Switzerland,” said Hulkenberg. “The prospect of competing for Audi is something very special. When a…

INDYCAR David Malukas has been released from his contract by Arrow McLaren after missing the opening IndyCar races of the season. The 22-year-old American, who impressed with Dale Coyne Racing in 2022 and 2023, required surgery to his left wrist after injuring it in a mountain bike accident, less than a month before the season started on 10 March. Arrow McLaren cited his release as being “due to him being unavailable for the entirety of the season to date, with no confirmed return date”. Callum Ilott, who switched to the World Endurance Championship for 2024 after parting ways with the Juncos Hollinger Racing IndyCar team at the end of last season, drove at the season-opener in St Petersburg, the non-points $1 Million Challenge at The Thermal Club and the Indianapolis…

MOTORSPORT GAMES The Ferrari Challenge is the latest discipline to join the FIA Motorsport Games. The long-running series will represent single-make racing at the third edition of the Olympic-style event at Valencia in October. The one-make race for the new 296 Challenge has become the 27th event on the schedule of the five-day games for national teams centred on the Spanish city’s Circuit Ricardo Tormo. It comes in alongside the GT Sprint, introduced at the 2022 games at Paul Ricard, for pro drivers in GT3 machinery, and the GT Cup open to Pro-Am line-ups. Stephane Ratel, the architect of the games, said “the best Ferrari Challenge drivers from across the globe competing for medal glory under the colours of their nation’s flag will be quite a spectacle”. A 30-minute qualifying…

Formula 1 will soon be wrestling with the next stage of its constant business evolution. That’ll play out against the boring backdrop of predictable race results. It’s such a familiar part of the championship’s history, but, really, the first such example on the commercial rights-holding watch of Liberty Media. Liberty made its mark with the (delayed) switch to ground-effect cars from 2022 but, given the scale of failure in anyone else matching Red Bull and Max Verstappen’s dominance, F1 is back to old ground, stumping around to improve its racing spectacle. Liberty’s decision to allow Netflix in to capture the Drive to Survive docuseries, plus its massive expansion of F1 social media use, has rather changed the landscape. There’s a growing debate on how much DTS has actually swelled F1’s…

THE INDYCAR PADDOCK A Brazilian great was testing at Michigan Twice a Formula 1 world champion and Indianapolis 500 winner, Emerson Fittipaldi became one of Senna’s closest friends in racing. He first met him as a 14-year-old karter, who he invited into the Copersucar Fittipaldi garage during a test at Interlagos: “He was extremely shy, very polite but very quiet.” From there, Fittipaldi became his guide and, later, his confidant. “When I first came to Britain to race in 1969, my F3 mechanic was Jim Russell’s brother-in-law, Ralph Firman [who went on to co-found Van Diemen, the most successful Formula Ford chassis builder in history]. So, when Ayrton wanted to race in England, like I had done, I called him: ‘Ralph, I have a guy who’s going to win the…

INDYCAR BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK (USA) 28 APRIL ROUND 3/15 Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin withstood rotation of strategies and team-mate Will Power on a late restart to find Victory Lane at Barber Motorsports Park. In a race that had everything from full-send hip check collisions, a trio of split strategies among the 27-car field, and even a mannequin falling on the track, the New Zealander wasn’t to be denied from making it back-to-back wins at the 2.3-mile, 17-turn picturesque road course. It was also the fifth win of his IndyCar career. After starting on pole, McLaughlin pressed on with an aggressive three-stop strategy that allowed him to extract maximum pace from his Dallara-Chevrolet for all 90 laps. He led a race-high 58 laps, including the three from the final restart, and…

INDY NXT BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK (USA) 28 APRIL ROUND 2/12 Polesitter Jacob Abel went flag-to-flag to capture his breakthrough Indy NXT victory at Barber Motorsports Park. The Kentucky native fended off a couple of challenges from Nolan Siegel, the winner of the opening round at St Petersburg. Siegel had qualified his HMD Motorsports car on the front row and put the pressure on, but Abel was cruising in control at the front until a late caution due to a spin into the gravel for Jamie Chadwick at Turn 1, as she attempted a pass Bryce Aron for seventh place, brought a premature end to the race. For Abel, who drives for his father’s Abel Motorsports team, the maiden win in IndyCar’s developmental series comes in his 30th start. He is…

DRAG RACING An Estonian racer leads the Motorsport UK British Drag Racing Championship for the first time, after last weekend’s Santa Pod opener was disrupted by rain. Andres Arnover and his turbocharged Pro Modified Mustang upstaged Bobby Wallace’s opening defence of his 2023 crown as the wet weather meant that qualifying positions alone determine 2024’s early championship standings. Wallace’s unblown, nitrous oxide-boosted Camaro exhibited noisy muscle, but tyre shake left him marooned down the leaderboard. Instead, the race emerged as a tale of two turbo Mustangs. Arnover’s and Jon Webster’s 1967-model machines are superficially alike but different under the skin. Arnover’s is American-built while Webster’s is a product of his own Webster Race Engineering workshop located next to Santa Pod’s main gateway. Most racers will ease their new machines in…

C1 ENDURANCE SERIES Organisers of the C1 Endurance Series have announced that this year’s 24-hour event at Anglesey has been cancelled. The British Racing & Sports Car Club-administered series has held a 24-hour race for several seasons, originally beginning at Rockingham before switching to Silverstone in 2019. Anglesey was set to host the event for the first time this year on 11-12 May but it has now been cancelled due to low entries. A statement from C1 Club organisers read: “We have taken this extremely difficult decision due to the entry numbers being much lower than hoped. “Although we were confident of seeing some late entries, a few recent withdrawals have taken us to a level where the C1 Club could not financially run the event.”…

SILVERSTONE BRITISH GT 27-28 APRIL Garage 59 claimed a shock Silverstone 500 victory as various British GT teams were left ruing what might have been with costly errors preventing them from winning the three-hour event. Shaun Balfe and Adam Smalley rose from fourth to take the chequered flag with their McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, just 5.3 seconds ahead of fellow Silver-Am runners Richard and Sam Neary, the father-son pairing having started 15th. Another Silver-Am crew crossed the line third, but Simon Orange and Tom Roche were then given a post-race penalty promoting Chris Buncombe and Jann Mardenborough, on his return to British GT, onto the podium. “[It was] all a bit of a blur,” said Balfe. “The priority was to be well placed in our category, so it was a…

SILVERSTONE GB3 27-28 APRIL Hitech GP duo Tymek Kucharczyk and Will Macintyre both scored victories on a weekend of challenging weather conditions for the GB3 field at Silverstone. Kucharczyk took a double pole in a damp qualifying and the Polish racer led the opening contest while his team-mate Macintyre lost second at the start to Elite Motorsport’s McKenzy Cresswell. Kucharczyk pulled out a two-second advantage by the halfway stage and then romped further clear to take a maiden GB3 victory by almost 8s, as Cresswell faded with graining front tyres in the cold temperatures, but still finished 1.5s clear of Macintyre. “I’ve been waiting for it since last year, there’s no better way than to get my first win by that kind of margin, it proves it was worth the…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB When just a quarter of a second separated the top 10 in Porsche Carrera Cup GB qualifying, it was clear that some close racing was in prospect at Donington Park. But things got a little too close for comfort at times during a dramatic season-opener. Single-seater convert Matthew Rees laid down a marker by topping that tight tussle for pole and the Team Parker man just about maintained his lead at the start, fiercely resisting series returnee (see News) Will Martin’s attempts to get by. However, the man on the move was former British Touring Car racer George Gamble, who propelled his Century machine from sixth to third. Gamble sought to continue his progress after a caution period as he dived down the inside of Sid…

RADICAL CUP UK There was no disputing who the pacesetter from the Radical Cup UK opener was as Chris Lulham marked his return to real-world racing with two dominant victories. The Valour Racing driver is part of Max Verstappen’s Esports team but was back in real-life action for the first time since a 2019 British Formula 4 outing. However, Lulham did not have things all his own way in race one. Jason Rishover dived between front-row starters Lulham and Kristian Brookes into Redgate and proceeded to defend from Lulham, who admitted he did not get his Hankook rubber to temperature on the green-flag lap in the freezing cold. Eventually, Rishover’s robust defences were breached on lap eight of 27 as Lulham surged ahead as they encountered traffic in the Craner…

BRANDS HATCH 750MC 27-28 APRIL Different victors across F1000 and BMW 116 triple-headers and new Hot Hatch and Clio Sport winners were highlights as the third tranche of 750 Motor Club championships kicked off at Brands Hatch in bitterly cold and, on Saturday, exceedingly wet conditions, which inevitably triggered stoppages and safety cars aplenty. Following a sea change in the racing tyre supply landscape, the motorcycle-engined Jedi F1000 chassis are on American Hoosier slicks this term, leaving teams to get on top of narrower fronts, wider rears and taller profiles, requiring ride height and gearing changes. Another complication is that competitors are still relying on dwindling stocks of Avon wets. Despite heavy precipitation on Saturday afternoon, then overnight, remarkably all three races were dry. And they were crackers! Five drivers…

MINI MIGLIA Jeff Smith CLASSIC & HISTORIC THUNDER Race 1 Josh Lawton (Honda Civic EG) Race 2 Nick Vaughan (Audi A3) BOSS/PRE-’93 & PRE-’03 TOURING CARS Race 1 Piers Grange (Ford Escort Mk2) Race 2 Stuart Waite (BMW M3 E36) PRE-’83 GROUP 1 TOURING CARS Race 1 Stephen Primett (Ford Escort Mk1) Race 2 Nick Williamson (Rover SD1) PRE-’66 TOURING CARS Ian Thompson (Lotus Cortina) COUPE CUP Races 1 & 2 Mark Ridout JUNIOR SALOONS Race 1 Harry Smith Race 2 Jonathan Moore MG OWNERS’ CLUB Steve McDermid (ZR 170) 2CVs Race 1 Kris Tovey (below) Race 2 Andrew Bull BRITISH SUPERKARTS Races 1 & 2 Lee Harpham (MS Kart-Harvey VM) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…