Indholdsfortegnelse for 27/12/18 i Autosport

Few things create more debate at Autosport HQ than putting together our top 50 drivers of the year list. Comparing people racing (or rallying) vastly different machines in different parts of the world is almost impossible, but the 2018 edition is our 17th consecutive try. When putting the list together, we take into account a range of criteria, including the competitiveness of the championships involved, the quality of the machinery at each driver’s disposal and the level of experience of those behind the wheel. Lewis Hamilton has now topped our end-of-season list ‘only’ four times, compared to his five Formula 1 world titles, but that puts him ahead of three-time winners Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. As Edd Straw explains on page 42, putting him first this year was an…

DTM Will Williams Formula 1 refugee Sergey Sirotkin race in the DTM with Audi next season? That was the series’ burning question last week when the Russian unexpectedly joined the rookie test at Jerez. Sirotkin joined the fray with WRT, the Belgian squad that is entering a pair of Audis in the DTM next season in addition to the six works cars. Formula 3 European Championship podium finisher Jonathan Aberdein is thought to be almost a cert for one car – and the South African, whose father Chris was a works Audi driver, racked up more than double the number of laps of any other Audi tester. Ferdinand Habsburg was to be the other WRT pilot in the test, but he switched at the last minute to the HWA Mercedes…

Sort out the single-seater ladder So the FIA has set up its new F3 series while still awarding superlicence points to European Masters and Euroformula Open (‘Business as usual for old F3’, December 13). If the intention was to concentrate rising talent on one ladder, would it not have been better to award no or very few points to EM and EO? As it is, talent is likely to be spread across all three series. Maybe a better solution would be to dump FIA F3 and continue with ‘old’ F3, amalgamating EM and EO into one super-strong series. Perhaps it might begin to come close to the one-litre and 1600cc F3 series I remember from my youth… Tim Barrett Hardingham, Norfolk Nipping at Hamilton’s heels You wouldn’t want to bet…

It’s 10 years since Joey Logano first arrived in the Cup field aged just 18, having not even done a full year of the then-Nationwide-branded feeder series but already carrying the nickname ‘Sliced Bread’ (as in, the best thing since…) because he was so highly rated by the likes of veteran Mark Martin. He’d won in only his third Nationwide start and in June 2009 he became the youngest-ever Cup race victor too. But by the end of 2012 he had lost his Joe Gibbs Racing drive and was being branded “overrated” and lambasted because he “didn’t pay his dues” before getting his big break. HE WAS RUSHED INTO A HORNETS NEST WITH NO REPELLENT In reality, he was rushed into a hornet’s nest with no repellent. “You come in…

“The whole weekend, we knew Rene [Rast]’s pace in the race was going to be strong but we knew we had a good qualifying car. I said at the start of the weekend I just had to keep Rene in my sights. On Saturday I was second on the grid, just behind Lucas [Auer], and I hadn’t done a perfect lap, so I knew we had a car quick enough for pole. “And then on Sunday, on the first run I had a big lock-up at Turn 6 and lost quite a few tenths there. And we were still in P4, I think, so I was feeling pretty confident going into the second run, and I was just losing a little bit in the first sector. ‘I PUT IT P3…

THERE WERE ONLY 12 JAGUAR I-PACEs on the grid for the first round of the eTrophy, but it only takes two cars to make a race. In the event there was a three-way fight for the win, and it made for entertaining viewing. Heavy rain meant qualifying was an unexpected washout and handed Simon Evans – older brother of Jaguar Formula E star Mitch – pole by virtue of his free practice time. The Kiwi held the lead off the line and defended from Bryan Sellers, then later on rebuffed a late attack by the charging Sergio Jimenez to score a landmark result. Jimenez pulled off a sweet move on Sellers on the penultimate lap and, although he homed in on the leader, he didn’t quite get close enough to…

WTCR In year one of the new World Touring Car Cup era, it was both surprising yet somewhat predictable to see two of the most prodigious names from the tin-top scene duking it out for the inaugural crown. World Touring Cars’ rebirth attracted faces new and old, but the frenetic pace of the Hyundai i30 N beneath Gabriele Tarquini and Yvan Muller, plus the wealth of experience acquired from 20-plus years at the top of the ladder, gave them the edge. Old dog Tarquini found his stride first by winning two races from three at the Marrakech season opener – perhaps of little surprise given how well prepared he and his BRC Racing team were, having assisted the development of the Hyundai. The 56-year-old made it three wins from six…

SUPER GT The headline news was that Jenson Button claimed the Super GT title in his rookie attempt at the series. But in reality it was the best driver on Honda’s domestic roster of talent, Naoki Yamamoto, who put in the hard yards to claim Team Kunimitsu’s victory as the NSX-GTs returned to prominence after a period in the wilderness. Honda made a lot of progress on its engine over the winter, and Yamamoto and Button were second in a Honda 1-2 behind the Real Racing NSX of Koudai Tsukakoshi and Takashi Kogure in the Okayama opener. Once the series’ weight handicaps kicked in, it was a case of maximising points wherever possible, with the eventual champions putting themselves right in the title picture thanks to a victory at Sugo.…

BLANCPAIN GT SERIES Mercedes scored the big prizes in the Blancpain GT Series in 2018. Its drivers claimed the Endurance Cup, Sprint Cup and overall crowns, but it would be wrong to say that it in any way dominated either leg of the championship – the Mercedes-AMG GT3 won only three of the 15 races across the 2018 BGTS schedule. The German marque owed its Endurance Cup title, notched up by the Black Falcon crew of Maro Engel, Yelmer Buurman and Luca Stolz, to consistency and a victory under pressure when it mattered at the Barcelona finale. Its Sprint Cup triumph, meanwhile, had a lot to do with the talents of Raffaele Marciello in the Auto Sport Promotion Merc he shared with Michael Meadows. Marciello’s strong run across the two…

Now that the Top of the Pops Christmas special is no more, you’ve no reason not to do our quiz A FORMULA 1/SINGLE-SEATERS IN 2018 1 Of those who led a Formula 1 grand prix in 2018, who was in front for the fewest laps? 2 Which F1 race driver from 2018 scored the highest finish in the Macau Grand Prix, and when? 3 Who was the second-highest-placed son of a former Stewart F1 driver after two rounds of this year’s world championship? 4 In which single-seater series were the eventual top four placed 13th, seventh, 10th and 16th respectively after the first weekend of racing? 5 Who was the highest-placed Australian-born driver in the IndyCar Series final standings? 6 Who were the drivers standing on the podium with the…

10 2008 JAPANESE GP FUJI RENAULT R28 (1ST) Following his troubled first season at McLaren, Alonso returned to Renault. The R28 was not a championship contender, but won two races – the crash-scandal Singapore Grand Prix and the Fuji contest two weeks later. An error from Lewis Hamilton, embroiled in a title fight with Felipe Massa, at the first corner provided an opportunity. Beaten away by Kimi Raikkonen, Hamilton tried to retaliate down the inside, but locked up, ran wide and took Raikkonen and Massa with him. Robert Kubica’s BMW Sauber – up from row three – emerged in the lead, chased by Alonso. The duo took control, though Heikki Kovalainen’s McLaren remained a threat. Kovalainen was fuelled for a longer first stint, so had the chance to jump them.…

MICHELIN CLIO CUP The Michelin Clio Cup Series will be opened up to a wider range of models next season following the addition of a Sport Series class. Previously the category only allowed third-generation Clios split between its Race and Road Series classes. Now the extra division will allow second and fourth-generation cars to compete – with Renault Sport-built Clios and road-car conversions, limited to 220bhp, eligible. This is significant given that the 2019 season marks the final one with the current fourth-generation car in the Renault UK Clio Cup, so those cars can now be rehomed in the Michelin series when they are replaced in the top Clio series, which supports the British Touring Car Championship. “The aim of the new Sport Series is to give the many fans…

WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN? WHO IS THIS? This celluloid racer was a Grand Prix star who battled with triumph and tragedy on and off-track. After enjoying assumed success with some of the biggest names in the sport, he was forced to take a chance with an unknown quantity as his star had dimmed. With no option but to throw in his lot with an ambitious newcomer, initially it appeared that the gamble had failed, that the cultural divide was too much to bridge. At a time when danger lurked around every corner, he played a key role as a soap opera unravelled around him, but all the petty feuding was cast into perspective when his fiercest rival paid the ultimate price. This led to his thrilling climax, where he prevailed…

WRC The unthinkable has happened: Sebastien Loeb has left the PSA Group and joined another manufacturer. Actually, the unthinkable came when he was shoved out of Citroen three years ago as an unwanted World Touring Car Championship driver. But now, with no PSA contract in his pocket, he was forced to go out and find work. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long. Loeb, a man as fiercely French as any Alsatian, will be driving a German-built South Korean car in next year’s World Rally Championship. He’s signed for Hyundai Motorsport until the end of 2020, when he’ll be nearing his 47th birthday. Not since he nearly joined Volkswagen in 2011 has there been such ruffling of French feathers. Seven years ago, such a move was laughed off as impossible. Just hours…

FORMULA 1 Monza is weighing up the removal of its chicanes and a reprofiling of the second Lesmo corner as part of a proposed €100million revamp to mark the Formula 1 circuit’s centenary in 2022. Ahead of discussions to secure the Italian Grand Prix’s future beyond next year, Angelo Sticchi Damiani, the president of Italian racing federation the ACI, has revealed a host of desired changes. According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Damiani wants a new circuit configuration that will make the track faster and secure its claim to the ‘Temple of Speed’ tag. An initial suggestion is to remove one of the three chicanes – most likely the second – and open up the second Lesmo, as it was before its 1994 modification. The track would be widened, while the…

“What,” said Martin Brundle, “are the two most evocative Mercedes-engined cars on the grid?” A trick question, I supposed, and I was right. “I’ll tell you – the safety car and the medical car! If EV and EQ and all that are so important hybrids, why do we have a double-supercharged V8 at the front and back of the grid? On Ferrari’s website the cars are categorised not by spyder, coupe or whatever, but by V12 and V8. Which company in Formula 1 sells a 1.6-litre engine? I suppose, to be fair, Renault probably do, and maybe Honda – but all Mercedes’ new engines are straight-sixes! My point is, in Formula 1 what are we selling – and to whom? If it fails down the road, the beginning of the…

…on ending a five-year win drought “It hasn’t really been a big deal for me. It’s been a much bigger deal for other people. If it comes it comes, if it doesn’t it doesn’t change my life one bit. The biggest difference is how people look at you. I just proved some people wrong.” …on being dropped by Ferrari and returning to Sauber “People don’t understand I’m actually very happy with where I’m going. I have had my time with Ferrari, I won the championship with them and many races with them. For me, as a driver, I want different challenges. I want different things. I wasn’t really at any point disappointed with the decision. I’ve been in F1 long enough to know it doesn’t matter if you have a…

After Lewis Hamilton won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix it was a surprise to see him, immediately after the race, run through the paddock at a time when protocol demanded he head straight to the podium. It turned out he was seeking out team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who’d suffered a puncture with three laps to go that cost him victory. Hamilton felt it was Bottas’s race to win, and went to commiserate. Some believed this was a show of false modesty, but it was sincere. Hamilton believes there’s a right way and a wrong way to win. And that’s an aspect that has elevated him and his performances in 2018. In recent decades, the trend has been to venerate ruthlessness in the star drivers. Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher all stepped…

Seeing the end of an 11-year career looming on the horizon can be an incredibly motivating force. Just ask Jan Kopecky (or Dani Sordo, obviously…). Kopecky came into this season not really sure what his year was going to look like. It ended up being his best yet. So often in the past, the Czech star has been forced to play second fiddle to the next big thing coming through in a Skoda. But, having served his time in the Asia Pacific and European Rally Championships, Kopecky was finally given a shot at the big one; Skoda sanctioned his assault on the R5’s biggest prize: WRC2. Kopecky repaid that faith with a remarkable campaign that delivered five wins, a second place and the title. Once again, however, the WRC2 battle…

SUPERCARS For the second Supercars season in a row DJR Team Penske and Triple Eight staged a thrilling title battle. And for the second season in a row, it was decided in ‘can’t script this’ circumstances on the streets of Newcastle. This time around it was Scott McLaughlin’s turn to come out on top, the Kiwi breaking through for a well deserved maiden title. His stats read like a typical championship-winning season. Thirteen poles, nine wins, and just a single finish outside the top 10 – a 15th at Albert Park only through a poor decision to pit for wets in changeable conditions. However, it was in no way that simple. Triple Eight and its lead charge Shane van Gisbergen provided stiff competition. For starters, the new Holden Commodore ZB…

SUPER FORMULA You can’t deny that, with three wins from six races, Naoki Yamamoto deserved his second Super Formula title. But equally, it was a weird points-system change, a fogged-off race and a truncated one that denied one-time winner Nick Cassidy – plus the small matter of 0.654 seconds by which he lost the finale. Three bonus points were awarded to the winner of that climax at Suzuka, and after claiming pole Yamamoto knew that victory would overhaul Cassidy’s series lead. The Honda-powered Team Mugen car of Yamamoto remained in control, but New Zealander Cassidy made a late pitstop to switch to soft Yokohamas, and charged his Toyota-engined Kondo Racing car onto Yamamoto’s tail in the closing stages. It was a gripping fight. Cassidy was fifth in the penultimate round…

IMSA The battle for top honours in all three classes of this year’s IMSA SportsCar Championship went down to the wire. Formula 1 refugee Felipe Nasr combined with 2016 champion Eric Curran to claim the flagship Prototype spoils by a slender three-point margin aboard an Action Express Cadillac DPi-V.R. Veterans Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia limped to the GTLM title for Corvette despite not winning a race all season and a rare error from Garcia at the Petit Le Mans finale. GTD was equally hard-fought, with the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow edging Katherine Legge’s Acura NSX GT3 by just four points. It was the kind of year where there was virtually nothing to choose between the leading contenders. There were seven different overall winners during…

ELMS The TDS-run G-Drive Racing squad romped to a third successive European Le Mans Series LMP2 title in 2018, with team owner Roman Rusinov and Andrea Pizzitola easing to drivers’ honours. They were joined by Jean-Eric Vergne for their triumphant campaign, but Vergne missed out on the title because he skipped the opening race due to a Formula E clash. Once he came on board for the second round in Monza, though, the #26 ORECA-Gibson was unstoppable. Victory in Italy was followed by further wins at the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone, before the G-Drive trio sealed the deal with a round to spare at Spa despite a nightmare race in mixed conditions. G-Drive’s closest challenger was Racing Engineering, which also campaigned an ORECA and won first time out at…

Wailing V10 Formula 1 engines; the sweet-shop mix of turbocharged flat-sixes and atmo V8s and V12s from Group C; the fire-breathing Group B monsters of rallying. Halcyon days, but motorsport in the current era is all about smaller powerplants, economy… and comparative lack of noise. But there’s always an exception. Those four-wheel-drive Group B machines were banned from rallying in 1986 and taken up by rallycross, and today’s Supercars are arguably the closest breed to their ancestors of any motorsport discipline – notwithstanding the planned switch to electric cars in 2021. Due to the intrinsic value of period Group B racers, seldom do opportunities arise to sample what drivers of the 1980s and early ’90s would have experienced. How would one of those cars from a generation ago compare to…

MOTORSPORT UK Motorsport UK has revealed its first major change to help competitors and volunteers after its rebrand from the Motor Sports Association. Chairman David Richards stated at last month’s relaunch of British motorsport’s governing body that “we are going to behave differently from now on”, and promised new benefits. Motorsport UK’s new membership programme is part of its plan to offer incentives to people signing up to take part in motorsport. Discounts on personal accident cover (via JLT) and competition and road-car insurance (Adrian Flux), plus deals at Halfords, Protyre, DFDS Ferries, Grand Prix Racewear and outdoor retailer Ellis Brigham have been confirmed. All 2019 competition-licence holders will be automatically enrolled in the programme. “Perhaps in the past we have been guilty of not doing enough to put our…

HISTORICS British Touring Car Championship racer Jake Hill will dovetail a season in a Lotus Elan 26R with his other commitments after making an impressive appearance at the Silverstone Classic in July. BRDC Rising Star Hill has been invited to share the same Elan he took to a memorable victory in the Gentleman Drivers’ race at Silverstone as he fended off the best AC Cobras, TVRs and Jaguar E-types. At the time the Lotus was owned by Richard Wheeler, and now its new keeper Rob Fenn has asked Hill to share the car in the 2019 Masters Gentleman Drivers’ series. Fenn is switching from the Lotus Cup UK to race the car under the wing of John Danby Racing. “I got a call from David Fenn [Rob’s father] a few…

FORMULA E ABB FIA Formula E Championship CEO and founder Alejandro Agag is switching roles to become the series’ new chairman. The announcement was made ahead of last weekend’s inaugural Ad Diriyah E-Prix, and a new CEO will be appointed in the coming months, with Agag remaining in that position “until the new person joins Formula E”. Autosport understands that Agag (above, right) will remain heavily involved in the key FE decision-making processes and is expected to continue as its figurehead. “It’s sort of a way to enforce the whole management team,” Agag explained. “I think there is the opportunity now to divide roles between a chairman and a CEO that would make an optimal management team – better than we have today. It’s a really good solution to really…

For those among us who like statistical symmetry – and there’s nothing wrong with being a bit of an anorak – a Mick Schumacher victory in the Macau Grand Prix would have been ideal. After all, it was his second visit to the Guia circuit, and his father Michael and uncle Ralf both took two attempts to triumph there. Michael Schumacher actually won the first heat from the sixth on the grid on his first visit in 1989, but failed to finish the second part. Ralf was fourth overall on his ’94 debut. And Mick set fastest lap in 2017 following a spin and a gearbox glitch. So, they all impressed on their first visits… Michael’s win in 1990 is one of the most famous in Macau history, coming as it did…

Dan Ticktum had endured a disappointing end to his Formula 3 European Championship title challenge, but the month’s break between the Hockenheim finale and the Macau Grand Prix appeared to make all the difference. Ticktum: “It was the highlight of my year – 100% it was very special. Nothing surpassed that. That was what was so important to me about it. The championship was not ideal, so it was important to try to end the season on a high, and that was what happened. I couldn’t have asked for more. There was a lot of work behind the scenes from the team at Motopark. For everyone to be as dominant [on pace] as that – not just me, but Joel Eriksson and Juri Vips as well – made it a…

Thierry Neuville could have. Ott Tanak should have. Sebastien Ogier did. In terms of vintage, this year’s World Rally Championship was right up there with the bottle of Chateau Petrus the Frenchman shared with Malcolm Wilson to celebrate it. That the cork came so close to remaining in the bottle only served to further improve the taste. With three of the season’s 13 rallies remaining, Ogier was the outsider. Sitting in third place, 23 points down on Neuville after Rally Turkey in September, a comeback from here was hard to picture. Even for Wilson’s lead M-Sport Ford World Rally Team driver. Ogier’s trip home from Turkey was a quiet one. The day before his departure he’d experienced every emotion imaginable. Saturday’s opener had done for championship leader Neuville, leaving Ogier…

PORSCHE SUPERCUP Michael Ammermuller’s path to a second consecutive Porsche Supercup title was tediously efficient. And that’s not meant as a criticism, merely a reflection of a points system that privileges consistency over flashy results. By winning the Barcelona season opener, then following it up with sustained strong finishes, Ammermuller played it to perfection, even though there were times when it was frustrating to watch him playing the percentages sat behind another driver. Ammermuller led the points from start to finish, with his sole victory backed up by a further six podium finishes. But he did have to wait until the final race of the season, the second of a double-header in Mexico City, to make sure of it thanks to Nick Yelloly staying in the hunt. Yelloly won twice…

NASCAR CUP NASCAR’s 2018 season was meant to be about the next generation deposing veterans, as championship bosses hoped it could steer through the choppy waters created by the exit of star names such as Dale Earnhardt Jr. Instead it was the ‘Big Three’ that stole the headlines, before Penske’s Joey Logano pinched the title. Logano may have won the restrictor-plate randomiser at Talladega, but he was one of a few drivers able to sneak a victory while Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and defending champion Martin Truex Jr combined to win 17 of the 26 regular-season races. Their dominance was such that Austin Dillon, going into the playoffs, joked: “If we just wreck the Big Three the next several weeks, we’re going to have a much better shot going to…

Will Gollop was one of the first to bring a Group B car into rallycross, shortly before the sport became awash with the redundant rally machines in the late 1980s. “It was a works-spec international 6R4 with a few modifications, which I drove for the first time in October 1986,” says Gollop. “I think Mark Rennison got a Ford RS200 at about the same time, so we had a bit of a battle for the first season. For the Grand Prix we were seeking more publicity, so we asked Martin Brundle to drive a car of similar specification to mine. He said he would have loved to, but he was burnt out that year. Tiff Needell was the next call. “THAT DAY IN THE FOG AT BRANDS, YOU HAD TO…

The final laps of the Rockingham Motor Speedway were completed last Thursday (December 13) as the circuit prepares to close at the end of the year. IndyCar driver Max Chilton and 2019 McLaren Formula 1 recruit Lando Norris both took to Carlin GP2 machines and performed donuts and burnouts on the start/finish straight, while the new-for-2019 Revolution Prototype, driven by James Abbott, also circled. The venue will now be closed to motorsport as it becomes a car-storage facility, a testing venue and auction site.…

GULF 12 HOURS Ben Barnicoat is confident that the new McLaren 720S GT3 will shine in customer hands next year after a starring performance on its debut in the Gulf 12 Hours in Abu Dhabi last weekend. The McLaren factory driver has been developing the successor to the 650S – which was a race winner in British GT – with fellow factory drivers Joe Osborne and Rob Bell. Barnicoat was chosen to partner former McLaren GT regulars Shane van Gisbergen and Alvaro Parente in a works-entered car for the season-ending enduro. The 720S was leading at Yas Marina with two hours to go when a minor right-front damper problem resulted in a long pitstop for repairs that cost it four laps and demoted the crew to eighth. Barnicoat said McLaren…

AUTOSPORT VISITS MOTOR & SPORT INSTITUTE The Teo Martin Motorsport name will be familiar to followers of the GT Sport package – the team competes in International GT Open and the supporting Euroformula Open single-seater championship. Wind the clock a little further back and Teo Martin was the outfit that bought the DAMS squad’s Formula V8 3.5 assets, competing in the series until its 2017 demise. Before that, it ran cars for the Sevilla, Roma and Sporting football clubs in the shortlived Superleague Formula series. History lesson over; the team exists today as much more than an operation running BMW M6 GT3s and Dallara Formula 3 machinery. That’s because the grand vision of the outfit’s eponymous founder was completed in October, when the Motor & Sport Institute opened its doors…

Nigel Mansell (Williams-Honda FW11B) and Michele Alboreto (Ferrari F1-87) wait to join the track in the busy Jerez pitlane at the 1987 Spanish Grand Prix. Mansell qualified on the front row, just over half a second behind team-mate Nelson Piquet, but the battling Briton got ahead on the first lap and dominated the race from then on, finishing 22 seconds ahead of Alain Prost’s McLaren-TAG MP4/3. Alboreto started from fourth on the grid but was forced out with engine problems after 67 laps of the 72-lap race, although he was classified 15th. For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…