Innholdsfortegnelse for 17/10/24 i Autosport

How much does it cost to follow Formula 1 these days? It’s a complicated question with multiple variables, including where you live and how you like to enjoy your sport, but it’s one we have taken on in this week’s special investigation (page 18). Grand Prix editor Alex Kalinauckas has crunched many numbers to see how things have changed since our last assessment of costs to F1 fans, in 2015. We thank all those, including the venues, who provided information. What do you think about the results? Please let us know by emailing autosport@autosport.com. Elsewhere in this issue, three-time GP winner and Le Mans victor Johnny Herbert helps us select the 10 best drives of his eclectic and illustrious career (p26), we meet the competitors who will represent the UK…

FORMULA 1 Michael Andretti’s decision to step back from the day-to-day running of his Andretti Global race team will have no immediate bearing on its Formula 1 bid. The former F1 and IndyCar racer has handed the keys of his motorsport empire to fellow shareholder Dan Towriss, taking a reduced advisory role at the team. But Autosport has learned that plans are still going ahead to gain approval to race in F1 from 2026. Andretti’s Silverstone factory continues to recruit staff in a bid to have a full 2026 chassis ready before the new year, and the team is working 16-hour days in Toyota’s wind tunnel in Cologne as it designs parts for the new regulations. Despite FIA approval, Andretti failed in bids for his team to enter F1 with…

IMSA Richard Westbrook has called time on a career in which he drove for multiple manufacturers, claimed a pair of Porsche Supercup titles, class victories in the Daytona and Sebring enduros in North America and two overall podiums at the Le Mans 24 Hours. Last weekend’s Petit Le Mans 10-hour round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship at Road Atlanta was his last race, he has confirmed. Westbrook has hung up his helmet with a year to go on his contract with the JDCMiller MotorSports Porsche GTP squad. The time was right, he said, to call it a day at 49. “You can’t do it forever and at some point you have to be honest with yourself, say you’ve had a good run and pass on the baton,” said the Briton.…

INDYCAR IndyCar will return to Texas in 2026 with a new street track in the city of Arlington in a collaboration between series owner Penske Entertainment, American football giant the Dallas Cowboys and the Texas Rangers baseball team. The 14-turn, 2.73-mile layout has been designed by IndyCar’s long-time street track architect Tony Cotman. It features a 0.9-mile straight, as well as a ‘horseshoe’ carousel that makes up Turn 6. A double-sided pitlane, similar to the Detroit street race, will be used. The track will go underneath hospitality and suites in two different areas. Two-time champion Josef Newgarden, who attended the unveiling in Arlington, told Autosport: “It’s kind of got everything. It’s got the typical low-speed sections that you would find on a street course, but then it has some complex…

Austin Length 3.426 miles Number of laps 56 UK START TIMES Friday 18 October FP 1830 SPRINT QUALIFYING 2230 Saturday 19 October SPRINT 1900 QUALIFYING 2300 Sunday 20 October RACE 2000 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC RADIO 5 LIVE TV Highlights CHANNEL 4 0050 (Monday) TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS Drivers Constructors AUSTIN STATS Previous winners 2023 POLE POSITION Charles Leclerc 1m34.723s POLE LAP RECORD Valtteri Bottas 1m32.029s (2019) RACE LAP RECORD Charles Leclerc 1m36.169s (2019) Podiums…

CIRCUIT TEAM CAPTAIN/GT CUP CHRIS FROGGATT Froggatt did not have a conventional route into racing via karting and single-seaters, and first competed in the European Ferrari Challenge. He’s become a GT racing regular and won the 2021 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Pro-Am Cup and the Bronze Cup in the same series two years later, both times with his long-term team Tempesta Racing. Food poisoning meant Froggatt missed out on competing at the 2022 edition of the Games, even though he was present, but he returns aiming to make his mark with Team UK. This year he will be partnered with James Cottingham in Tempesta’s Ferrari 296 GT3 to test his mettle on the 2.5-mile Circuit Ricardo Tormo, as well as leading Team UK. GT CUP JAMES COTTINGHAM A competitive…

Tom Kristensen’s Estoril foray wasn’t the first opportunity he got this year to sample one of Zak Brown’s cars. The first came a few weeks earlier at the Red Bull Ring aboard something a bit more up to date and not from Brown’s personal fleet, when he got back behind the wheel of a contemporary Formula 1 car after an absence of a quarter of a century. The opportunity of a short run in a 2022 McLaren-Mercedes MCL36 came as part of the British team’s Testing for Previous Cars programme that more usually allows it to give young drivers experience of near-contemporary F1 machinery outside the strict rules on testing. The outing at the Red Bull Ring (above) came at Brown’s suggestion after a random interjection at the end of…

PETIT LE MANS ROAD ATLANTA (USA) 12 OCTOBER IMSA SPORTSCAR ROUND 11/11 Last Saturday’s 27th edition of Petit Le Mans, the 10-hour brainchild of the late Dr Don Panoz, was truly a classic. It had everything: a record-sized field (and crowd), intense competition, excitement aplenty, precious few yellow-flag interruptions, and a thrilling climax as Renger van der Zande performed a spectacular pass on Nick Tandy’s Penske Porsche in Turn 1 with 15 minutes remaining to secure an incredible come-from-behind victory for Chip Ganassi’s Cadillac Racing team. There was plenty of trepidation as a total of 53 cars lined up on a gorgeous autumn morning, especially given the context of last year’s race, which ended behind the safety car after a record 12 cautions. But after a trio of relatively minor…

NASCAR CUP CHARLOTTE (USA) 13 OCTOBER ROUND 32/36 Kyle Larson was a dominant force from the start of Sunday’s Round of 12 elimination race at the Charlotte roval, passing polesitter Shane van Gisbergen early and later besting another road course ace, AJ Allmendinger, in the final stages. From there, he held back Christopher Bell to collect his series-leading sixth win of the 2024 season in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. But the real story was around the playoffs’ elimination zone. Tyler Reddick needed a right-rear toelink replaced during the second stage after colliding with fellow Toyota driver (and his 23XI Racing boss) Denny Hamlin at Turn 7 in an impact that sent Reddick’s car up off the ground. On fresh tyres, he made a heroic charge in the closing laps, going…

BRITISH GT Mercedes factory driver Maximilian Gotz is planning to continue in British GT in 2025 despite a mixed debut campaign this year. The 2021 DTM champion finished seventh in the GT3 standings alongside 2 Seas Motorsport co-driver Kevin Tse having won at Spa and Snetterton. But the pair finished outside of the top five in the other seven races, with such inconsistency denying them a title challenge. The final two rounds even featured non-scores after Tse was involved in opening-lap collisions at Donington Park and Brands Hatch. Gotz is hoping for a more successful return in search of the fifth title of his career. “We’re in discussions for next year,” said the German, who has also won Formula BMW, ADAC GT Masters and Blancpain GT Sprint Series crowns. “My…

GB4 Luca Magnussen, son of ex-Formula 1 driver and sportscar legend Jan, is on course to begin his car racing career in the UK next year. Magnussen Sr has revealed that he is targeting a GB4 Championship campaign in 2025 for his 15-year-old son, who this season is competing in the Italian-based ROK Cup kart series after winning the Danish X30 senior title in 2023. “At the moment we’re talking to GB4 teams to come over, hopefully soon there will be a test and plan is to do GB4 next year,” said Magnussen of his younger son, half-brother of Haas Formula 1 driver Kevin. “GB4 is more economically viable than doing F4 in Britain or wherever, and there is lots of testing and some great tracks. I think for year…

TCR UK The latest version of Cupra’s successful run of TCR touring cars made its UK debut at Silverstone last weekend. TCR UK race winner Steve Laidlaw and son Sam have acquired two examples of the Cupra Leon VZ that the Spanish marque introduced earlier this year to replace its second-generation Leon Competicion. Laidlaw Sr had taken his first series win in the older Leon at Thruxton last month, while Laidlaw Jr previously raced the Hyundai i30 N in which his father had made his category debut The pair, who are both now running with Area Motorsport, debuted the cars at TCR UK’s 2024 season finale ahead of a planned full campaign next year. “Both Sam and I agreed that we wanted to be a part of TCR UK for…

Five years after a jump-start penalty cost him the Mini Se7en title, Joe Thompson finally laid the ghost to rest by clinching the crown, having also finished second or third in the standings every year since – barring the pandemic-disrupted 2020 season, which he spent largely on the sidelines. A run of six wins in 13 races since mid-May put Thompson out of Ross Billison’s reach following Saturday’s Cadwell Park replacement race – with two 20-minute contests on Sunday still remaining. He had finally emulated father Paul, who twice took the Mini Se7en title before adding a Miglia crown in 2010. “We got close [in 2019] but then my mistake, I literally gave the title away,” said the 24-year-old, who won the novice title in 2017. “The most satisfying thing…

DONINGTON PARK 750MC 12-13 OCTOBER Several champions were crowned as the 750 Motor Club tackled Donington Park’s Grand Prix loop last weekend amid changeable weather that caught out many drivers. One of the most dramatic races of the weekend was undoubtedly the opener for the Sports 1000 brigade, where championship contenders Clint Newman and Ryan Yarrow clashed with explosive results. Newman led the early running and looked set to win until a safety car drew the field together, allowing Yarrow a chance to overtake at Redgate once racing restarted. Newman covered the line and heavy contact ensued, with Yarrow trying again at McLeans, but again Newman shut the door hard, with both Spire cars half spinning on the exit of the corner. Yarrow was spat off onto the grass but…

VIDEO GAME EA SPORTS WRC UPDATE Update price: £17.99 Full game including update: £44.99 If you are not fortunate to have the budget to go rallying for real, then blasting through narrow asphalt roads and gravel forest tracks in the virtual world is the next best thing. EA Sports WRC does this job brilliantly, and now there is an update bringing the delights of the 2024 WRC to your living room. So if you have a yearning to pilot Sebastien Ogier’s black Toyota GR Yaris or pretend to be Hyundai’s Ott Tanak or M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux, now you can. The game was originally released last year, produced by British studio Codemasters, which created the seminal Colin McRae Rally series in the late 1990s. This helped take rallying to the…

Formula E enjoyed its first big birthday last month, so it seems only appropriate that as the all-electric world championship turns 10, it should get a new toy to play with. Although the Gen3 Evo may not look enormously different, the difference it will make when the new campaign begins in December with the Sao Paulo E-Prix will be profound. As Stefan Mackley outlines in the cover feature (page 10), a package of alterations headlined by the onset of all-wheel drive will radically impact how races in Formula E play out. Among the changes to anticipate will be the arrival of new Lola/Yamaha powertrains with Abt. Starting from scratch, there will be a steep learning curve as it seeks to challenge rivals with mature programmes, but in Formula E’s most…

Prodrive’s preparations for the 2025 Dakar Rally got o¨ to the perfect start last week in Morocco when its new Sandrider claimed a 1-2 in the Rallye du Maroc. Nasser Al Attiyah secured his third World Rally-Raid Championship title by leading team-mate Sebastien Loeb with a 5m10s margin. The Sandrider, which replaces Prodrive’s Hunter T1+ in which Al Attiyah had won two of the past three rounds, immediately showed promise when the Qatari won the first test. Loeb was fastest on two stages after a disastrous Prologue in which he incurred suspension damage that meant he began the rally proper from the rear of the field. Reflecting on the performance of the three-litre twin-turbo V6-powered car, which uses synthetic fuel, Loeb said: “It’s important to do a rally like this…

RODIN INVESTS IN NEW SIM Leading Formula 2 squad Rodin Motorsport has purchased a new DMG-1 simulator supplied by Dynisma. The new rig’s arrival would be “a game changer” in Rodin’s preparations for 2025, its F2 team manager Benn Huntingford said. In addition to driver training “it allows us to really look at our car set-up and evaluate things in a landscape where testing just isn’t possible.” KVYAT VERSUS AI Ex-Formula 1 driver Daniil Kvyat will be part of a ‘man versus machine’ exhibition race organised by the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League at Suzuka next month. The A2RL development driver will race an autonomously driven Super Formula Dallara SF23 on 9-10 November in the second event it has staged following an AI showcase at the Yas Marina Circuit in…

Synonymous with motorsport and not short on glitz or glamour given its picturesque Mediterranean coast location, Monte Carlo played host earlier this year to the unveiling of Formula E’s newest challenger – the Gen3 Evo. A traditional step change that’s come at the midpoint of the four-year cycle for all generations of Formula E car so far, on the surface the Gen3 Evo appears no different from its older brother, which has been used for the past two seasons. As ever, though, the devil is in the detail and a closer look at the bodywork reveals noticeable differences. The general shape of the car has been refined and the sidepods pulled in tighter around the cockpit to give it a sleeker appearance while not impacting the tub’s integrity or compromising…

FORMULA 1 The Haas Formula 1 team has announced a technical partnership with Toyota Gazoo Racing, the motorsport division of the Japanese manufacturer. While the deal does not represent a fully fledged F1 return for Toyota, which was last active as a works team in 2009, it means it becomes the official technical partner to Haas and will share knowledge and resources. Toyota Gazoo Racing will provide design, technical and manufacturing services to Haas, which will offer its own expertise and commercial benefits in return. Toyota drivers, engineers and mechanics will be involved in Haas F1 tests, helping them all understand the challenges of modern grand prix machinery. Furthermore, Toyota staff will assist Haas with aerodynamic development, design and the manufacturing of carbon fibre parts. Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu,…

INTERNATIONAL GT OPEN Rubens Barrichello may be entering this weekend’s International GT Open finale at Monza in a GT3 Lamborghini Huracan rather than a DeLorean, but the Formula 1 veteran will be winding the clock back 32 years as he reunites with the Il Barone Rampante team. The Brazilian finished third with Giuseppe Cipriani’s squad in the 1992 International Formula 3000 championship, a consistent rookie season netting four podiums in a Reynard 92D. Barrichello graduated to F1 in 1993 and took 11 grand prix victories before bowing out at the end of the 2011 season with 322 starts. Two Brazilian Stock Car titles later, Barrichello will resume his affiliation with 59-year-old Cipriani, who has already clinched the Am class title in GT Open and will step up to the Pro-Am…

World Rally Championship event winner Hayden Paddon has become European Rally champion for the second successive season. The Kiwi, together with co-driver John Kennard, led last weekend’s Rally Silesia in Poland in their Hyundai i20 before surviving a brief off-road scare and settling for third. Skoda driver Andrea Mabellini took his first ERC victory, with Northern Irishman Jon Armstrong claiming a maiden podium in the series thanks to claiming second place in his M-Sport Ford. YELLOLY SPLITS FROM BMW Nick Yelloly has parted company with BMW after six years that encompassed victories in the 24-hour GT3 classics at the Nurburgring and Spa in 2020 and 2023 respectively, and the first IMSA win for the M Hybrid V8 at Watkins Glen last year. The 33-year-old Briton’s plans for 2025 were due…

There’s a Taurus-shaped hole in Alex Albon’s Formula 1 CV. It’s why he wasn’t celebrating reaching 100 grand prix starts along with his fellow 2019 rookies Lando Norris and George Russell this time one year ago as they headed to the United States Grand Prix. Like so many Red Bull juniors, Albon wouldn’t be at this point without the energy drink giant. In a parallel universe, the glittering constellations are shining down on a smart, successful, polite and engaging Formula E driver. That’s had Helmut Marko not come calling again ahead of the electric championship’s Valencia preseason test in late 2018. Back then, the late great Jean-Paul Driot – whose e.dams squad Albon was essentially refusing to race for to make his F1 dream finally a reality – wondered if…

It takes 161 laps to win a Bathurst 1000. In the 2024 edition of the Great Race, Brodie Kostecki did much of the heavy lifting to take his maiden Bathurst win in the space of 161 seconds. On Saturday evening, Kostecki used 125.5 of those seconds to plant Erebus Motorsport’s Chevrolet Camaro squarely on pole position for the second consecutive year. On Sunday morning, he leapt away well enough to lead the field up Mountain Straight and, 30 seconds into the race, turned in at the circuit’s second corner, Griffin’s Bend, firmly in the lead. Before the end of the lap, Kostecki had to shrug off a half-challenge from Richie Stanaway at The Chase but, from that point on, he and co-driver Todd Hazelwood hit their marks and watched as…

GT WORLD CHALLENGE EUROPE SPRINT CUP BARCELONA (ESP) 12-13 OCTOBER ROUND 5/5 Maro Engel and Lucas Auer triumphed at the Circuit de Catalunya to secure GT World Challenge Europe title honours in a weekend where atypical Spanish weather wreaked havoc for the opening race of the much-vaunted championship showdown. Engel and Auer arrived in Spain two points behind triple Sprint Cup champions Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts, whose Team WRT-run BMW M4 GT3 struggled for pace in qualifying. Vanthoor could only manage 18th whereas title rival Auer bagged third in the Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo and the usual Balance of Performance grumbles began. The BMWs were given an adjustment for the opening race, shedding 15kg, but the benefit wouldn’t be seen as over 50 minutes of the hour were…

GB3 Reigning British Formula 4 champion Deagen Fairclough will graduate to GB3 next season with the Hitech GP squad. The 18-year-old claimed this year’s F4 crown with Hitech in dominant fashion and with an event to spare after taking a season-record 14 wins from 30 races, all of which helped earn him a spot in the final four of the Silverstone Autosport BRDC Young Driver Award shootout later this month. Fairclough’s bid to race in single-seaters came after he won the 2022 edition of the ROKiT Racing Star Esports competition, for which the prize was a fully funded season in British F4 for 2023. After finishing third with JHR Developments, Fairclough moved across to Hitech for this year. Fairclough, who joins Nikita Johnson in Hitech’s GB3 line-up, said: “I’m thrilled…

RACE OF REMEMBRANCE A special launch event to mark the 10th anniversary of the Race of Remembrance was held at Thruxton last week and also provided the chance for those involved with charity and organiser Mission Motorsport to come together. The 12-hour endurance race has been held at Anglesey since 2014. It was set up by Mission Motorsport founder James Cameron and circuit manager Jon Earp, both members of the military, to offer a means of support for servicemen and women, as well as their families. The race, which had to be run virtually in 2020 due to COVID-19, will celebrate its decade when it is held on 8-10 November at the Welsh circuit, and a record 56 entries are expected. The Thruxton event allowed nearly 200 people to learn…

HSCC Nova Motorsport, the new company that acquired the assets of Avon, has been appointed as the official tyre partner of the Historic Sports Car Club from next season and will provide a range of Avon products for several championships. Nova-manufactured tyres will be used in the Historic and Classic Formula Ford 1600 series as well as the Derek Bell Trophy, which it will also sponsor. HP Tyres has been appointed as Nova’s distributor for the HSCC. “We are delighted to welcome Nova Motorsport as the official tyre partner to the HSCC,” said club CEO Andy Dee-Crowne. “The speed with which the brand has returned period-correct Avon Motorsport products to manufacture is highly commendable. The preservation of the supply of Avon Motorsport products ends a period of uncertainty for the…

SILVERSTONE INTERNATIONAL BRSCC 12-13 OCTOBER Carl Boardley successfully retained the TCR UK title with three measured drives on the Silverstone International circuit, while his closest rivals Callum Newsham and Brad Hutchison split the wins. Bouncing back from a heavy accident at Thruxton last month, Newsham might have taken a hat-trick but for clutch failure on his Hyundai i30 N in the finale. Polesitter Newsham inherited the opener after Adam Shepherd’s recurrent fuel-pressure problems slowed him on the final lap. The pair then duelled in the reverse-grid race, each passing debutant Ryan Bensley’s leading Lynk & Co before Newsham ran wide. Shepherd’s Cupra Leon surged ahead, only to expire. A relatively long hold on the lights in race three precipitated Newsham’s clutch disappointment and Shepherd’s seemingly inevitable retirement then let in…

SILVERSTONE NATIONAL HSCC 12-13 OCTOBER Second on the Historic Formula Ford 2000 grid, Graham Fennymore was “dead last into Copse, having stalled, then got so much wheelspin” on the damp track, but on Historic Sports Car Club Finals Saturday an incredible recovery enabled him to grab victory at Silverstone from Ben Glasswell and title successor Samuel Harrison. Fennymore hit the front on lap 16 of 19, the Reynard drivers subsequently three abreast down the Wellington Straight. “That was just stunning, the best race I’ve had in 10 years,” said Fennymore. Runnerup Glasswell was on a high, too. “It was difficult finding grip, but my first time leading on merit,” he reflected, as Harrison secured his third different club title in three seasons. “It was great watching close-up, but I preferred…

SPORTS 1000 Race 1 Ryan Yarrow (Spire GT-3) Race 2 Dan Clowes (Mittell MC-53) FORMULA VEE Race 1 Dan Polley (WEV) Race 2 Matt Harbot (AHS Dominator) F1000 Races 1, 2 & 3 Tom Gadd BIKESPORTS Race 1 James Keevill (Radical SR3 RS) Race 2 Shane Stoney (Radical PR6) ROADSPORTS Scott Parkin (Audi TT TDI) 5CLUB RACING MX-5 CUP Races 1 & 2 Ben Short TOYOTA MR2 Race 1 Shaun Traynor (Roadster, below) Race 2 Adam Lockwood (Roadster) 116 SPRINT TROPHY & 120 COUPE CUP Race 1 Anthony Seddon (120i) Race 2 Rob Carvell (120i) 116 TROPHY Mack Priestwood CLUB ENDURO Claire Norman/Alan Blencowe (SEAT Cupra TCR) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

A crossover in technical regulations for the World Rally Championship and World Rallycross Championship in 2027 is being investigated by the FIA. The world motorsport governing body is in the process of forging the 2027 technical rules for the WRC, which will be presented to the World Motor Sport Council in December. According to FIA chief technical and safety o. icer Xavier Mestelan Pinon, the regulations could o. er the prospect for manufacturers and tuners to develop a car that would be eligible to compete in both the WRC and World RX. Internal combustion engines, hybrid and EV powertrains remain on the table for discussion for WRC, alongside the possibility of some form of Equivalence of Technology if various approaches are permitted simultaneously. The FIA is working to reduce costs,…

Skoda Motorsport unveiled an all-new electric racing car concept last week that incorporates technology from its World Rally Championship Rally2 car. Based on the Czech manufacturer’s road-going Enyaq SUV, the new Enyaq RS Race has been developed in-house by Skoda Motorsport since 2023 with the aim of creating a performance-purposed EV that closely matches the handling of its Fabia RS Rally2 challenger. The car can generate 340bhp and a top speed of 180km/h from two electric motors married to an 82kWh battery, taken from the production car. Inside, the car features a rally-specification rollcage and hydraulic handbrake, while the pedal box is taken directly from the Rally2 car. Biocomposite components that incorporate flax fibres in the interior and body have contributed to a 316kg saving, and could point to Skoda’s…

One of the longest running sagas of Formula E’s Gen3 era has surrounded fast-charging pitstops, which could appear later this season having been tested extensively during the off-season. The concept, where drivers would be required to pit during a race for approximately 30 seconds and receive a charge of power equal to 10% of the battery, was initially slated for the start of the Gen3 era in 2022. This was pushed back by a year due to the introduction of the new machines, which put a strain on available parts and the general Formula E infrastructure, with testing of the technology taking place at various points last season in official practice sessions. The technology, which could eventually have a huge impact for consumers if successful, is yet to be implemented…

There are few more unsettling feelings for a driver than arriving at a corner and being unable to trust that the brakes will slow them down. A long pedal that means apexes cannot be attacked with appropriate vigour carries a clear lap time penalty, and over a stint such inconsistency can make all the difference between victory and mid-pack anonymity. “Front-wheel-drive performance is all about your brakes and how you can manage them to load up the front axle, keep the weight over the nose and control the balance,” explains Aron Taylor-Smith, the British Touring Car Championship’s Independents’ title winner in 2024 with the Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall squad. But braking systems are a package deal. Disc and pad wear isn’t the only brake-fade catalyst. Even the best pad/disc combination…

After more than 50 years, Trevor Foster remains engaged in the business of making racing cars go quickly through his Pegasus Classic Engineering concern, specialising in historic vehicle preparation. This latest venture only adds to the impression that there’s little he hasn’t encountered across two spells in Formula 1 with Jordan and stints with Shadow, Tyrrell and Lotus, while also tasting Le Mans and Formula Ford glory. Yet even after filling every conceivable role in racing organisations – from mechanic to team owner, race engineer, team manager and managing director – Foster retains an open mind. “You have to come to work with a view that ‘I don’t know everything, I’m still learning’ and I explain that to my guys,” he says. “You have to be willing to learn and…

FORMULA 1 Mick Schumacher has emerged as a late contender for a seat at the Audi-owned Sauber team in what could be his last chance to return to Formula 1. The German has acted as a reserve for Mercedes for the past two seasons after losing his drive at Haas at the end of 2022. He had hoped to get the nod at Alpine for its vacancy next year, after racing for the French manufacturer in the World Endurance Championship, but the squad elected to take rookie Jack Doohan instead. That appeared to leave Schumacher with little hope of an F1 comeback, but it has been revealed that Audi’s new chief Mattia Binotto now has him on the radar for 2025. Sauber is still on the hunt for a team-mate…

AUSSIE SUPERCARS Australia’s Supercars series is to introduce a NASCAR-style Finals format to determine its 2025 champion. The championship will switch to a three-stage split season, starting with the opening eight rounds counting for a Sprint Cup, and then the two endurance races – including the Bathurst 1000 – determining an Enduro Cup champion. Should those be two different drivers, both will be seeded into the final three events along with however many others are needed to make 10. From then on, drivers will be eliminated until four are left to vie for the title at the final event, the Adelaide 500. All 10 Finals qualifiers will go to the first event at Surfers Paradise reset to 3000 points, then 4000 for the next race at Sandown. Any driver who…

FORMULA 3 DAMS, the French team that has been a stalwart of Formula 3000, GP2 and Formula 2 since the 1980s, is to expand into the FIA Formula 3 Championship for 2025. The team, which was taken over by ex-F1 driver Charles Pic in 2022, has taken the place of Jenzer Motorsport, which withdrew after an unbroken 15-year stint in GP3/F3 to focus on its other programmes, including its F4 teams. It represents a return to the third tier for DAMS, which competed in GP3 in 2016 and 2017 while still under the control of its late founder Jean-Paul Driot. F3 introduces its new car for 2025, and Pic (below) believes this is the ideal time to enter the series. “This is a logical step for us as we’re already…

FORMULA E The ERT Formula E team has new owners, a new name and new powertrains for the upcoming 2024-25 season. The team has been acquired by US-based investment firm The Forest Road Company, via additional capital from Ares Management, and will race under an American licence as Kiro Race Co. It will retain its base at Silverstone and has announced a new technical partnership with Porsche to run the manufacturer’s 99X Electric powertrain, which has been renamed the 99X Electric WCG3. The unit will undergo an upgrade ahead of the new Gen3 Evo era, but will essentially be an older spec than those used by the factory team and customer squad Andretti, while Porsche will be the only manufacturer to supply three teams on the grid. “This is truly…

Unfinished business. That’s what the FIA Motorsport Games are for me. But to understand why, we need to look at what the Games are. The FIA’s Motorsport Games is a three-day, multi-discipline motorsport event covering everything from karting to Esports to GTs and even – new for 2024 – truck racing. It’s essentially a motoring-oriented equivalent of the Olympics, with a plethora of events taking place and, crucially, drivers competing for their countries. That swap to countries over teams makes it a very different prospect – both for drivers and for fans. For fans, it’s almost the perfect gateway into other forms of racing. It showcases some of the best motorsport you’ll see, with simplified versions of the different categories. It’s a purer approach, where it’s racing at its most…

It’s been done since, and on more occasions than you might think, but the Porsche 935 that Kristensen drove at Estoril did it first! That accolade was winning the Daytona 24 Hours and the Sebring 12 Hours outright in the same year. JLP-3’s successes in 1982 explain why a car that helped John Paul Jr to the IMSA GTP title has a place in Brown’s collection of 40-odd racing cars. That roster of machinery once included a 1979 McLaren-Cosworth M28: it was what then team boss Ron Dennis offered a dozen or so years ago when Brown suggested he needed a McLaren F1 car in a stable now looked after at United by Paul Haigh. “It’s one of the reasons why the M28 went,” says Brown. “I also had Michael…

An irony of Bathurst 2024, the fastest 1000 in history with a single retirement, was the amount and severity of crash damage prior to the race. Within the space of 24 hours on Thursday and Friday, Scott Pye, David Reynolds and Will Davison crashed hard in either practice or qualifying, prompting their teams to perform late-night (or all-night) repairs to badly damaged cars. While those drivers were not alone, what was notable was that all had more than a decade’s experience. So why were they crashing? A common thought seemed to be the combination of the Fords and Chevrolets and the current Dunlop control tyre. The Gen3 cars are intentionally designed to have far less grip and in-car adjustability than their predecessors so they are, by definition and specification, both…

SUPER FORMULA FUJI (JPN) 12-13 OCTOBER ROUND 6/7 Sho Tsuboi put himself in the driving seat for this year’s Super Formula title with a double victory last weekend at Fuji. TOM’S driver Tsuboi arrived at Fuji 14.5 points behind championship leader Tomoki Nojiri, and seized the initiative by becoming the first driver to win two races in a single weekend since Andre Lotterer in 2011, making it three victories from three at Fuji this year. He therefore goes to the Suzuka finale next month 14.5 points clear of nearest rival Tadasuke Makino, with Nojiri third, a further two behind. In Saturday’s opener, Tsuboi battled his Toyota-powered Dallara forward from seventh on the grid, doing much of the hard work in the first three laps to fight his way up to…

BRITISH GT British GT driver John Ferguson has received a racing ban for his behaviour towards race director Peter Daly at the end of the Snetterton weekend in July. The RAM Racing driver and owner received a six-week ban with a further six weeks suspended, which started on the 26 September, and meant Ferguson missed the Brands Hatch season finale last month. The punishment came after he and co-driver Max Hesse, as well as RAM’s GT4 entry, were disqualified from both Snetterton races following team members arguing that another competitor should have been penalised for lapping traffic under safety car conditions in race two. Had the car – driven by Maximilian Gotz and Kevin Tse – been penalised, the RAM GT3 pair would have taken victory, but “Ferguson’s manner was…

GINETTA Fred Green, the nephew of DTM ace Jamie, has been selected as the next Ginetta Junior scholar after being chosen from a record-high number of entrants. The 15-year-old impressed in a series of driving, media and fitness tests held at Blyton Park last weekend and was joined by Rocco Coronel, son of tin-top ace Tom, Andy Consani, Lewis Goff and Noah Wolfe in making the final. Green will now receive a fully-funded season in the Ginetta series next year. “I’m so happy to get given such a good opportunity,” said Green. “It’s massive for me to start my car racing career. The scholarship has been such a competitive event and you can never be too confident with how good everyone was, but I feel my hard work paid off…

CSCC A first visit to Zolder is among an expanded Classic Sports Car Club calendar for next year that also features returns to Castle Combe and Cadwell Park. The club’s season is due to kick off at the start of March on the Silverstone International circuit and includes other popular tracks such as Brands Hatch and Donington Park. Its Thruxton fixture (above) is back to a two-day event in September, while the CSCC will also race on Silverstone’s National layout but has elected not to use the Grand Prix configuration amid high circuit hire costs and the need to amalgamate multiple categories. The Belgian Zolder circuit also appears for the first time, with the CSCC’s Open Series due to visit in July. “We’re running at the Spa Six Hours but,…

TCR UK Races 1 & 2 Callum Newsham (Hyundai i30 N) Race 3 Brad Hutchison (Cupra Leon Competicion) FIESTA ST240 Race 1 Zach Lucas Race 2 Gary Miller Race 3 Alastair Kellett FIESTA JUNIOR Races 1, 2 & 3 Jenson O’Neill-Going (Mk6 ST) AUDI TT CUP RACING Race 1 Bradley Burns Race 2 Matt Luff Race 3 Adam Blair MINI MIGLIA Race 1 Aaron Smith Race 2 Andrew Jordan Race 3 Endaf Owens CIVIC CUP Race 1 Max Edmundson (EP3, below) Race 2 Alistair Camp (FN2) COMPACT CUP Races 1 & 2 Steven Dailly MINI SE7EN Races 1 & 3 Joe Thompson Race 2 Ross Billison CLUBSPORT TROPHY Phiroze Bilimoria (VW Scirocco) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

JAMIE SHARP & RORY SMITH 2021/2023 FORMULA FORD FESTIVAL WINNERS 10 There’s no denying that Formula Ford is now past its heyday, but these two are shining examples of how it can still provide the best racing. In 2021, Jamie Sharp put two battle-scarred seasons in British F4 behind him (against the likes of Oscar Piastri and Jack Doohan) to deliver a virtuoso performance of attack and defence and lead a train of six across the line with just over a second between them. Following a washout in 2022, Rory Smith did likewise last year. The grid for the final featured an all-BM/Medina front row (Smith, then Sharp), and an all-Dolan/Van Diemen second row (Niall Murray then Chris Middlehurst). What happened next was 20 laps of magic. Murray piled on…

Jonny Kane could never have imagined that A1 Grand Prix biofuel testing might provide the origins of his favourite team-mate partnership. But a fruitful collaboration at Strakka Racing with Danny Watts, best remembered for a famous LMP2 class victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2010, began in 2007 when the duo had been team-mates of sorts away from the public eye. Kane, selected by A1GP general manager John Wickham as a trusted pair of hands, was tasked with a “fairly full-on” schedule to put miles on the World Cup of Motorsport’s Lola-Zytek. “The first lot of fuel did something to the seals of the engine, or the fuel tank lining, so I had to keep repeating it,” the 1997 British Formula 3 champion recalls. “Those cars were very…

A state-of-the-art wind tunnel previously used by Lola Cars has been put up for sale after recently undergoing a £500,000 upgrade. The moving road wind tunnel, which is scaled at 50%, was first opened in 1998 and acquired by Lola Cars from British Aerospace, where it was used for the motorsport company’s in-house research and development and also included work from several Formula 1 teams. Following a three-year lease to Lola Cars, which was re-formed in 2021 by businessman and racer Till Bechtolsheimer after the original company folded in 2012, the wind tunnel has been put up for sale by owner Peer Group plc. The facility includes an array of supporting workshops as well as a seven-post chassis rig, with a guide price of £2.5million. Peer Group managing director Howard…

Ansible Motion is to move to MotorSport Vision’s new Innovation Park in Snetterton from its current base in Hethel. The company, which supplies Driver-in-the-Loop simulators to leading teams and manufacturers across multiple racing series, will become the first tenants of the 13-hectare site adjacent to the MSV-owned Snetterton Circuit. Ansible managing director Dan Clark said the move would “connect us with a broader growth ecosystem”, and described its relocation as “an excellent fit for us”. The new Snetterton base will be double the size of the existing facility it has used since 2009, Clark said, and would “allow us to house all our research and development, design and manufacturing under one roof”. The company also plans to expand its current workforce from 55 staff to around 90 within the next…

IN THE BEGINNING The Phantom story dates back 51 years to 1973, when Jaguar engineers Chris Greville-Smith and Richard Cresswell built their first Clubmans car. Cresswell won his class in the 1974 Silverstone-based Tricentrol championship, but CG-S – who subsequently transferred to Ford – continued the project solo, racing and developing his chassis and building a handful more, among them the ex-Kimber Crossley/David Childs P79 still raced by Steve Chapman. Arguably the most consistent challengers to Mallock’s offerings over the period, Phantoms were subsequently created by several firms, including John Maguire Racing in Coventry, before being taken over by Jan Nordgren in Sweden, from whom Alex Champkin acquired the project. Greville-Smith still engineers cars, helping recent Brands Hatch race winner Michelle Hayward in Tom Commander’s Zetec-engined P82TR. THE CURRENT ERA…

The crash at the Druids hairpin looked nasty, especially when fire broke out with the driver stuck inside. But, for those who believe that all things happen for a reason, it was validation. Ray Mallock’s new company, Ray Mallock Limited, was in its first year of operation when it pitched up at the 1984 British Grand Prix meeting at Brands Hatch to compete in the Thundersports support race with its Ecosse C284. RML had been running the Ecurie Ecosse programme on behalf of the team’s patron Hugh McCaig in the world sportscar championship while, in parallel, Mallock himself was driving for the Nimrod-Aston Martin team. At Brands, Mallock was having a rare outing in the Ecosse, leading the race and about to hand over to David Leslie – the start…