Indholdsfortegnelse for 10/10/19 i Autosport

You won’t have failed to notice the unprecedented price increase of Autosport magazine this week. Like all publishers we are facing the harsh economic realities of our audience shifting to digital, combined with the increasing costs of maintaining a print product. We know many of our readers and supporters value the print publication and we think it has significant value given the broad coverage – from Formula 1 to club racing via rallying and endurance events – and deep analysis, some of which is not offered elsewhere. If you believe the print version is now too expensive then we do have a great value alternative in Autosport Plus, for which there is currently a seven-day free trial (see left and page 70). A lot of the content in the magazine,…

INDYCAR The aeroscreen that IndyCar will adopt in 2020 is stronger than the halo used in Formula 1 and other single-seater categories, according to developer Red Bull Advanced Technologies. The aeroscreen, which also features a halo-like structure, was tested on track for the first time last week at Indianapolis by IndyCar champions Scott Dixon and Will Power, who suggested it was ready to race. The halo that F1 introduced for 2018 is tested with a load of 112 kilonewtons on the car, and can take a reported maximum load of 125kN in total, but the aeroscreen is capable of withstanding 150kN, according to Red Bull Advanced Technologies commercial development officer Andy Damerum. IndyCar will conduct three more aeroscreen tests before the 2020 season. Dixon and 2019 champion Josef Newgarden will…

WEC The life of the current LMP2 formula has been extended for an additional season. The move means the existing breed of P2 car will race on in the World Endurance Championship until the end of the 2021-22 season and in the European Le Mans Series until the climax of the 2022 campaign. The extension comes at the same time as WEC promoter the Automobile Club de l’Ouest has suggested how it will slow the P2 field for next season, 2020-21, when the new hypercar division replaces LMP1. “We came to the conclusion that it would be silly to modify the cars for the arrival of hypercars next September and then change them again one year later,” said ACO sporting director Vincent Beaumesnil. “We understood in our discussions with the…

SUPER GT/DTM Jenson Button will not compete in the DTM and Super GT joint races at Fuji next month, while fellow ex-Formula 1 racer Kamui Kobayashi has been named as part of the BMW line-up for the event. Button and his Team Kunimitsu Honda NSX took the best finish of the guesting Super GT racers in last weekend’s first link-up between the two series at Hockenheim, when he claimed ninth position in the wet on Saturday. But it is expected that Naoki Yamamoto, with whom Button won the 2018 Super GT title, will take the wheel for the Fuji ‘Dream Race’. It is unclear whether the DTM or Super GT will attempt to find a solution for Button to compete at Fuji after all, but the event clashes with the…

UK START TIMES Friday 11 October FP1 0200 FP2 0600 Saturday 12 October FP3 0400 QUALIFYING 0700 Sunday 13 October RACE 0610 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC RADIO 5 LIVE HIGHLIGHTS CHANNEL 4 1425 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP Drivers 1 Hamilton ………………………….. 322 2 Bottas ……………………………… 249 3 Leclerc …………………………….. 215 4 Verstappen ………………………. 212 5 Vettel ………………………………. 194 Constructors 1 Mercedes…………….571 2 Ferrari……………………409 3 Red Bull………………..311 4 McLaren……………….101 5 Renault…………………… 68 RACE STATS Previous winners Suzuka masters…

Time to disconnect from road relevance Reading the hand-wringing about where F1 engine rules will go in the near future flags some Brexit-style traps – total impasse. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t… Any decision made now that tries to be ‘market-related’ may look very foolish in a few years’ time! This is such a rapidly moving target that imagining five years in advance for engines that’ll still be around in a decade is a mug’s game. Much as I am an EV enthusiast, I feel that F1 should just disconnect from road-transport tech for a while to see which way the wind will blow. It would be a safer option to go for simple, noisy, naturally aspirated (cheaper?) petrol engines in lighter cars for now. The car…

After an up-and-down start to the season, Charles Leclerc has asserted himself as Ferrari’s strongest driver. Not since the seventh round of the season in Canada has he been outqualified by Sebastian Vettel, a run of nine consecutive races. Since Canada, on the seven occasions when both have finished Vettel has been ahead just twice – and one of those was in the Singapore Grand Prix, where he jumped Leclerc thanks to a surprisingly powerful undercut. It’s been a fascinating battle to watch, with 21-year-old Leclerc fighting to assert himself over Vettel, 11 years his senior. While Leclerc has the edge on performance, he has also shown himself willing to go the extra mile to seize an advantage. At Monza, amid the kerfuffle on the out-lap, Vettel got ahead of…

Kalle Rovanpera’s fifth win of the WRC 2 Pro season was a crucial one. The Skoda driver (below) took his first victory since Finland in August ahead of team-mate Jan Kopecky and wrapped up the title in the process. Mads Ostberg and Gus Greensmith each made Rovanpera work on Friday, but both drivers fell back when technical dramas struck their Citroen C3 and Ford Fiesta R5 machines. While Ostberg was stranded with an oil leak, Greensmith was able to get going, but damaged suspension on Saturday wrecked his chances for good. Hayden Paddon had a difficult return to action. As Paddon readjusted to an R5 car, the rear of the M-Sport Fiesta snapped on him on Dyfnant, pitching him into a spin, with a heavy front-end impact the end result.…

motorsport.tv Relive this race at Motorsport.tv Toyota dominated the Fuji 6 Hours. Or rather, one of its TS050 HYBRIDs dominated the second round of the 2019-20 World Endurance Championship last Sunday. The new system of success handicaps introduced for the LMP1 class ensured that the #8 Toyota shared by Kazuki Nakajima, Brendon Hartley and Sebastien Buemi had a clear advantage over the sister car on a day when the privateers weren’t in the picture. That explained why Nakajima and co led every lap of the race on the way to a 34-second winning margin that by rights should have been much bigger. The gap would have been larger – certainly well over a minute and perhaps a full lap – but for a drivethrough penalty handed out to the winning…

TCR SPA 500SPA (BEL)5 OCTOBER Endurance racing is far from new at Spa, it being 95 years since the circuit’s first 24-hour race took place. This was, however, the inaugural TCR Spa 500 – a 454-lap, 23-hour race run by TCR promoter World Sporting Consulting and Dubai 24 Hour organiser Creventic. It was the first touring car endurance race held at the Belgian track since 2000, and for some drivers and teams it was their first exposure to both an endurance contest and TCR machinery. The opening hour was more fitting of a sprint event at the front of the field, although the battles were clean and well fought. The top four were separated by just two seconds after 45 minutes on a drying track. With a mixture of professional…

MOTOGPBURIRAM (THA)6 OCTOBERROUND 15/19 Ahead of the second Thailand Grand Prix, Marc Marquez needed to outscore his only remaining rival, Andrea Dovizioso, by two points to become MotoGP champion for a sixth time. Given his form – he’d finished in the top two in all but one of the previous 14 rounds – this looked a foregone conclusion, and was widely expected to materialise at Buriram last weekend. But when he crashed in the opening practice on Friday, the coronation looked likely to be at least postponed, because it was clear right away that this had been no ordinary crash. Marquez had eased off the throttle while going through the Turn 7 right-hander on an out-lap and locked the rear as the engine brake kicked in. He and the bike…

CASTLE COMBE AUTUMN CLASSIC The death of competitor Marc Swaffer cast a shadow over last weekend’s well-attended Castle Combe Autumn Classic meeting, which concluded the Wiltshire circuit’s 2019 racing season. Swaffer, 61, a company director from Surrey, was racing his Austin A40 Speedwell in the Historic Racing Drivers’ Club’s Allstars event when it veered right exiting Bobbies, left the circuit and entered the adjoining maize field, disappearing from the sight of spectators and marshals on adjacent posts. No other competitor was involved in the incident, following which the race was stopped. Marshals who went to Swaffer’s aid immediately summoned the circuit’s chief medical officer. Although doctors and rescue crews reached Swaffer and transferred him to the medical centre, they were unable to save him. An investigation has begun. Castle Combe…

BRITISH FORMULA 4 Karting graduate Frederick Lubin and Roberto Faria are the first two drivers to sign up for British Formula 4’s 2020 season. Lubin, 15, has four years’ karting experience and will join Arden for next season after graduating from the Young Racing Driver Academy (YRDA). “I want to go to Formula 1 so F4 is where you start, it’s the next jump from karting on the single-seater ladder,” Lubin said. “We want to be at the front [next year], we’ve put in the hours, so it’s all there. “Arden have a very long history and to be part of that is very special. And to have help with YRDA, I’m really grateful that I have been given that opportunity and hopefully next year we can deliver.” Lubin so…

750 MOTOR CLUB Four-time Toyota MR2 champion Shaun Traynor made his debut in the Mk3 version of the car at Oulton Park last weekend, taking two top-five finishes. The Winchester-based driver, who has taken all of his titles in a Mk2, borrowed Tom Malings’ car to evaluate whether to make a full-time switch for 2020. “Qualifying was the first time I had sat in the car – I don’t know the track and I haven’t tested, so it was all new,” he said. “It is totally different. I said to Graham [Malings, who ran the car] that it was really loose but he said, ‘It’s not like the Mk2, just keep your foot in!’” Traynor revealed he was coming under pressure from his family to make a change. “Even the…

MORGAN CHALLENGE Newly crowned Morgan Challenge champion Tony Hirst plans to defend his title next season. The former Hollyoaks and Coronation Street actor began racing in 2012 after competing in a Morgan celebrity race at the Silverstone Classic. Since then he has contested the Morgan Challenge and won the AR Motorsport Trophy for the driver scoring the most points outright – before dropped scores are applied – last year, then sealed the 2019 overall crown at Snetterton last weekend. “This was the first race where I’ve had to drive with my head and not my heart,” said Hirst, who has been a life-long motorsport fan and used to marshal at Oulton Park. “I was listening to the car and heard every nuance. “The trophy I get for winning the championship…

It all bodes very well. The last two occasions when two drivers in a British Touring Car Championship support series entered the final weekend of the season tied on points, the ensuing denouements were among the most dramatic, entertaining and controversial in many years. The most recent was the 2017 Porsche Carrera Cup GB finale. Charlie Eastwood and Dino Zamparelli entered the Brands Hatch event equal on points – and they left Kent still tied on points. A battle over fifth place between Eastwood and fellow Redline driver Tom Oliphant – with no team orders – proved decisive in a nailbiting final contest: Eastwood claimed the silverware on account of scoring one more victory than Zamparelli. Before that, Ash Hand and Ant Whorton-Eales entered the 2015 Renault UK Clio Cup…

KNOCKHILL SMRC 6 OCTOBER Finlay Brunton edged out Minimax teammate Ryan Smith to clinch the inaugural Scottish C1 Cup title following a pair of sensational races at the Scottish Motor Racing Club season finale at Knockhill. Three drivers entered the finale in title contention, with Brunton holding a seven point cushion over Smith and sitting a further 40 ahead of Kieren Preedy. Heavy rain in the morning meant race one started behind the safety car, which initially benefited polesitter James McCracken until Smith seized the lead around the outside of Clark’s on the first racing lap. Brunton also snuck past as McCracken faltered on the exit, and swapped the lead with Smith several times either side of a barrel-roll for Kyle Grant exiting the chicane. McCracken, Smith and Brunton each…

WOW WALL ART FROM £85.00 One of many overused phrases in motorsport is, ‘If it looks right, it usually goes right’. But arriving at a consensus about what actually makes a good-looking (let alone successful) race car is no easy task. “When you just walk around the paddock, you ask, ‘Why does a [Ford] GT40 look so good?’” says Charles Freestone, the founder of Wow Wall Art. “Is it the bonnet, front wing, the door? I want to recreate that.” Whereas most motorsport artwork or photographic prints view cars as a whole, Freestone enjoys details. Wow Wall Art sells Foamex panels that can be mounted on an office or garage wall, and which depict just a small section of a particular machine. “A car has got to have a detail…

After Matt Neal impressed in his battle with Rickard Rydell and Jim Richards for victory in the 1998 Bathurst 1000, Volvo came calling. An underwhelming season for its second driver Gianni Morbidelli in the British Touring Car Championship meant he’d exited stage left and there was now a vacancy alongside reigning champion Rydell at the TWR-run team. But Neal instead remained at independent squad Team Dynamics and from there created a BTCC behemoth. “I got the call but it was no-earner for me – it wasn’t one of the big paid drives,” Neal recalls. “I’d been testing with the Nissan [Primera] over the winter at Albacete and then I got the nod to test at Jerez with TWR. I went and thought, ‘I can’t drive this thing’. I was two…

It was apt that Petter Solberg finished off his stellar career with a WRC 2 victory on Rally GB last weekend, the same event where he beat Sebastien Loeb in 2003 to clinch his only World Rally Championship title. That day in Margam Park will forever be one of the high points of the popular Norwegian’s life, but for defeated adversary Loeb – who lost out by a single point – it was an experience that spurred him on to stamp out any left-over weaknesses and begin a streak of nine world titles between 2004 and 2012. Only twice, in 2007 and 2009, did Loeb come under serious threat, and even in 2006 when injury ruled Loeb out of the final four rallies, Marcus Gronholm’s crash in Australia left the…

Colin Turkington’s recent comment that his ultra consistent British Touring Car Championship title-winning campaign in 2018 was “not the sexiest way to win a championship” was a fascinating insight into the mindset of racing drivers and the value they place on how they achieve success. The Northern Irishman secured his third title in an attritional season that produced 17 different winners; he took to the top step of the podium only once in an elderly BMW 1 Series that was permanently laden with ballast and sluggish through the speed traps. But he relentlessly collected points and extracted the best from his package week after week. “I had 10 podiums, but with one win you don’t necessarily feel like a champion driver” “People would say to me at the end of…

FORMULA 1 In the space of a few hours, a prospective new Formula 1 team went public last week with surprise plans to join the grid in 2021, and the championship responded by saying there were “no serious discussions” to admit a new entry. The Campos Racing-linked project already seemed doubtful, at best. F1’s statement underlined that feeling. What is purporting to be a Spanish team, backed by a Monaco-based Swiss businessman, wishes to run ex-Manor and Sauber driver Pascal Wehrlein plus star Super Formula rookie Alex Palou and use UK-based companies to develop a car that is yet to even be fully defined by concrete technical regulations. But the Monaco Increase Management-backed project is not the first to go public with plans to race in F1 in 2021, after…

FORMULA 1 Super Formula star Naoki Yamamoto will make his Formula 1 weekend debut with Toro Rosso tomorrow (Friday) in the Japanese Grand Prix’s first Friday practice session. Honda works driver Yamamoto, who is fighting for a second SF title in a row, will replace Pierre Gasly, fulfilling Honda’s desire for a local driver to take part in the event the company supports financially. He has driven Toro Rosso’s simulator and spent time with the team at European races earlier in 2019 to get to know its engineering staff. Usually a driver who wants to take part in FP1 would apply for a free practice-only superlicence and complete 300km in an F1 car. But as reigning SF and Super GT champion, Yamamoto comfortably satisfies the requirement for an outright F1…

EXTREME E The first full test of the ODYSSEY 21 car for the Extreme E electric off-road SUV racing series is taking place this week. XE has taken its prototype to the Chateau de Lastours test venue near Narbonne at the foot of the Pyrenees – the same facility used by Peugeot when it had a works Dakar Rally programme – in conjunction with Continental, the championship’s tyre supplier. As well as gaining performance knowledge of its car package, the test is aimed at helping Continental assess its XE product in off-road conditions for the first time. Continental test driver Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky is set to complete the four-day test to provide feedback on the tyres. For the first day of the test, World Rallycross Championship leading lights Timmy and Kevin…

DTM A new Russian circuit has completed a five-year deal to host the DTM, but speculation that it would host the Russian Grand Prix has been quashed. The DTM had previously announced nine of its 10 rounds for 2020 and teased a “very exciting” final addition as the series worked through its final European race options. It settled on Igora Drive, which is around 80 kilometres north of St Petersburg towards the Finnish border. Construction of the circuit was only completed earlier this year. The move raised eyebrows, since the DTM’s previous visits to Russia – at Moscow Raceway (below) between 2013-17 – failed to gain much in the way of attendance or media presence. The DTM had been working on a return to Russia as early as last year…

What’s in a name? When William Shakespeare posed the question rhetorically in Romeo and Juliet the message was that a surname, with all the historically familial enmities it entails, is independent of the person. When it comes to Formula 1 teams, it’s a little more complicated. A name really can transform the way one is perceived, even when it remains fundamentally unchanged. Take the plan to rename Scuderia Toro Rosso as ‘AlphaTauri’. This is in deference not to a long-forgotten science-fiction B-movie, but Red Bull’s clothing line. For those unfamiliar with it, this “creates apparel with the same dynamic innovation that inspired the creation of Red Bull”. Clearly AlphaTauri will be the same team as Toro Rosso. It has the same ownership, the same factory, the same personnel – it…

Six weeks ago, Ferrari’s 2019 season could be generously described as bitterly disappointing. Less charitably, given the form it showed in pre-season testing – when those inside the team, at Mercedes and in the rest of the field all expected it to set the pace come the Australian Grand Prix – it was disastrous. In the opening 12 races, Ferrari either squandered the pace it had in its car or couldn’t hold a candle to Mercedes, to the point where Red Bull ended the first half of the season as the biggest threat to the Silver Arrows. Things have changed since. Dramatically. Since a humbling defeat in the Hungarian Grand Prix at the start of August, when Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc finished just over a minute behind the victorious…

The Racing Team Nederland squad claimed an LMP2 class victory that had looked unlikely when 2019 Formula 2 champion and new Mercedes Formula E driver Nyck de Vries climbed back aboard its ORECA-Gibson 07 with two hours to go. The Dutchman was a lap down in fourth, but a phenomenal run over two and a half stints to the end of the race yielded victory for the car he shared with Giedo van der Garde and Frits van Eerd. De Vries overhauled Anthony Davidson in the Jota Sport ORECA co-driven by Antonio Felix da Costa and Roberto Gonzalez with 25 minutes of the race to go and pulled out 25 seconds before the chequered flag. It helped that one of the two stops de Vries had to make was only…

DTMHOCKENHEIM (DEU)5-6 OCTOBERROUND 9/9 The record books will show that the two 2019 DTM title rivals, champion Rene Rast and Audi stablemate Nico Muller, shared the victories at Hockenheim. But that underplays the significance of a weekend that yielded the first meaningful link-up of Class 1 regulations between DTM and Super GT as the Japanese series completed its ‘fact-finding’ mission ahead of the true Fuji ‘Dream Race’ next month. It was hardly low-profile, considering Super GT’s three-manufacturer contingent could boast the presence of 2009 Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button. But Button mastering the wet to win in his Honda NSX was never likely, and the Super GTs were usually consigned to the rear. Still, there was time for a virtuoso performance from Button on Saturday, even if it was…

FORMULA RENAULT EUROCUPHOCKENHEIM (DEU)5-6 OCTOBERROUND 9/10 The Formula Renault Eurocup title will go down to the wire at Abu Dhabi, with championship leader Oscar Piastri and Victor Martins set to fight head-to-head. Piastri, who left Hockenheim with a 13.5-point lead over Martins and helped his R-ace GP outfit wrap up the teams’ title, was boosted by a late clash in the wet finale between Caio Collet and Martins, with the pair coming together on the penultimate lap to allow Piastri to surge to second behind winner Alexander Smolyar. “I knew the duel between Victor and Caio had the potential to be aggressive, but I didn’t expect it to end the way it did,” said Piastri. “This shows that anything can happen in a race and I was rather pleased to…

MG CAR CLUB Former MG Trophy champion Andrew Ashton will return to racing next year driving a Rover 216 GTi in the MG Cup amid a push by the championship to attract more examples of the car. The MG Car Club’s MG Cup is poised to broaden its eligibility to make it easier for standard production Rovers and MGs to race in the category, with the focus on attracting machines from the former Dunlop Rover 216 GTi racing series. The changes will be voted on at the championship’s AGM next month. “We’re trying to widen the scope for quite standard entry-level race cars,” MG Cup chairman Peter Burchill explained. “We’re bringing back the Rover 216 GTis. We’re trying to persuade a couple of people with Maestro Turbos to bring them…

750 MOTOR CLUB Dave Hodkin, the 2013 750 Formula champion, returned to the category for the first time in six years at Oulton Park last weekend, driving his new car, the HRD Mk2. Hodkin had originally planned to appear at Cadwell Park in July, but a mechanical failure in testing delayed the debut of the car, which he was keen to establish as a 2019 model to guard against future regulation changes. Crank-sensor issues in testing meant that he fitted a distributor for qualifying, which led to a misfire, and he failed to finish either race after experimenting with a different engine management system. “It has been five years in the making,” he said. “I had a year relaxing after I won the championship and then decided I was bored…

CASTLE COMBE CCRC AUTUMN CLASSIC 5 OCTOBER Jonathan Abecassis punched the air ecstatically from his Austin-Healey 100 as the chequered flag signalled victory in a tough FISCAR Historic Intermarque race, which was among many highlights of last Saturday’s eighth Castle Combe Autumn Classic. Sixty-four years previously to the week, Abecassis’s distinguished grandfather George had triumphed in the Redex Trophy race at Combe in his works HWM-Jaguar XPE 2, beating 1950 Le Mans winner Louis Rosier (Ferrari 750 Monza) by two tenths. From fourth on the grid, 0.655 seconds from polesitter Robin Pearce’s time in his AC Ace-Bristol, Abecassis shot through to reach Quarry first, via the gap created when second-placed qualifier Nick Taylor’s Kellison-Chevrolet J4R was pushed clear by marshals having extinguished a dramatic engine bay fire. Having staved off…

SNETTERTON MGCC 5 OCTOBER Four drivers entered the MG Car Club’s Snetterton season finale with a realistic shot of claiming the BCV8 title. And yet all four drivers endured mechanical issues, making for a bizarre conclusion. First to suffer was Russell McAngus, who pitted with engine trouble at the end of race one’s first tour. Over the next few laps it was clear that all was not well for Neil Fowler’s MGB either, as he slipped back with struggles to get fourth gear. Then it was James Wheeler’s turn. While hot on the tail of points leader Jordan Spencer, smoke began pouring from his car. A rock had gone through the radiator and he had to stop. Their woes meant Spencer was sitting pretty in the Class C lead, but…

Jackie Stewart gives team-mate Graham Hill the thumbs-up after handing over the Rover-BRM during the 1965 Le Mans 24 Hours. Hill jokingly responds with an entirely different gesture. The innovative and adventurous gas turbine-powered car was first developed at short notice for the 1963 race, where it ran as an unclassified ‘experimental’ entry in the hands of Hill and Richie Ginther. The car was rebodied and re-engineered for 1965 but temperature issues forced Hill and Stewart to run at reduced pace. They came home in 10th place. For classic Le Mans DVDs head to dukevideo.com/Le-Mans For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

There can’t be many drivers who have raced in the Indianapolis 500, USAC Silver Crown midgets and Historic Formula 1 all in the same season, but James Davison’s career has been anything but ordinary. The 33-year-old Australian admits that, had everything gone to plan, he would have been happy to race in nothing other than full-time IndyCar over the past 10 years. After all, he was runner-up to JR Hildebrand in the 2009 Indy Lights series, ahead of now-established IndyCar racers James Hinchcliffe and Charlie Kimball. But despite an impressive family lineage in Australia, he faced a perennial struggle to find the backing to get onto the grid – “The Davison name is not Brabham” – and it wasn’t until 2013 that he got his IndyCar chance with a two-race…

BTCC British Touring Car Championship title protagonist Dan Cammish will remain at the factory-backed Team Dynamics Honda squad for two more seasons. The 30-year-old, who is just 16 points off the summit going into the final round of the BTCC at Brands Hatch this weekend, joined the team in 2018 after switching from the Porsche Supercup. He won two races in his maiden season on his way to 10th in the standings. Although Cammish has won only one race in 2019, he has scored 11 other podium positions to take the battle to points leader Colin Turkington in his WSR BMW 330i M Sport. The two-time Porsche Carrera Cup GB title winner was a sought-after property on the driver market, but says he is delighted to have re-signed with the…

FORMULA E The 2019-20 Formula E driver jigsaw is nearly complete, with pre-season testing just around the corner. Jaguar has completed its line-up by recruiting Ferrari World Endurance Championship star James Calado alongside Mitch Evans. It is a return to single-seaters for ex-Force India Formula 1 free practice driver Calado, who finished second in the 2011 GP3 Series and third in the 2013 GP2 Series before joining Ferrari’s AF Corse sportscar squad. His first public outing for Jaguar will come in next week’s group test at Valencia on 15-18 October. “This was one of the most sought-after seats in FE and I’m extremely proud to have been offered it,” said Calado. “Jaguar’s motorsport history is iconic and to be a part of this team in FE is a great opportunity…

‘Stronger’. It’s only a word. But, crucially, it’s Tommi Makinen’s word. And it was attached to a sentence containing two words to warm the hearts of rally fans around the world: Kris Meeke. Meeke’s popularity comes courtesy of a swashbuckling style rarely seen since his mentor Colin McRae was treading the same tracks. But last week in Wales was different, just as September’s Rally Turkey was different – and August’s Rally Germany. The Northern Irishman’s fourth place in Rally GB could be pivotal when the post-season game of musical chairs begins. With Ott Tanak reckoned to be staying with Toyota and Kalle Rovanpera stepping up to join him, seats will be in short supply. And doors aren’t exactly wide open elsewhere. Citroen and M-Sport will field unchanged two-car line-ups next…

Remember the start of Formula 1’s 1.6-litre V6-turbo-hybrid era in 2014? Then, Mercedes led the way while Ferrari struggled having started its project too late. In 2015 the team took a massive step forward, and over the past season and a half the Ferrari has emerged as the benchmark power unit in F1 in terms of outright grunt. Estimates vary, but in qualifying trim the Ferrari engine package has an advantage in the vicinity of 30bhp over Mercedes, with Renault a similar amount behind Mercedes and Honda perhaps a further 15bhp down. In the races this spread is much tighter but, at power-sensitive circuits such as Spa, Monza and Sochi, the Ferrari engine has been its trump card. At Sochi, this was worth just over 0.7 seconds on the straights…

Lights out, locked up and heading towards a tree, Ott Tanak could have been forgiven for thinking that the opening stage at Oulton Park was little more than a continuation of his Rally GB curse. Let’s not forget that the last time we saw him in these parts, he was lying on his back in Sweet Lamb, broken Toyota Yaris WRC alongside him. Fortunately for the Estonian, he gathered the Thursday night slide, relit the fire and kept it burning until Sunday afternoon. Last week was nothing like the sort of all-conquering performance we saw from him in the first half of last year’s rally. He finished what he started in 2018, but the job was much more workmanlike. His moment in the dark on the opening night cost him…

The second-generation Aston Martin Vantage GTE took its third GTE Pro victory at the weekend, but it was a significant one – probably the most significant yet. The win for Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim was the first for the car in the dry, proving that Aston now has a contender for all conditions. The Aston Martin Racing squad was pretty much in control of the race from late in the opening hour. Once Sorensen got past Gianmaria Bruni in the pole-winning Porsche 911 RSR, one or other of the Vantages was at the top of the class leaderboard for the remainder of the race. The second Aston, shared by Maxime Martin and Alex Lynn, got ahead on strategy in hour two before Thiim outbraked Lynn. The Danes then led…

NASCAR CUPDOVER (USA)6 OCTOBERROUND 30/36 Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle Larson ended a 75-race streak dating back to 2017 without a NASCAR Cup race victory by winning at Dover. Larson’s Chevrolet was the early challenger to the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Denny Hamlin, who was celebrating his 500th Cup start. Polesitter Hamlin convincingly won the first stage and was dominating the early stages of the second. Larson faded slightly in the middle of the 400-lap contest, with Martin Truex Jr becoming the main challenger to Gibbs tean-mate Hamlin, before Larson came back into the frame towards the end of the second stage. That was, in part, due to Hamlin struggling to get past Joey Logano. The Penske Ford of Logano was running more than 20 laps down after missing the…

FORMULA REGIONAL EUROPEANMUGELLO (ITA)5-6 OCTOBERROUND 7/8 Frederik Vesti was crowned as the inaugural Formula Regional European champion with a round to spare thanks to two classy Mugello wins. The Prema Powerteam-run Dane utterly dominated the two races on Saturday, meaning that fourth place in Sunday’s finale was easily enough to claim the spoils. His team-mate and closest title rival, Ferrari protege Enzo Fittipaldi, never really got on the pace and could do no better than a pair of fourths followed by a sixth. Fittipaldi did run second to Vesti in the opener, but was passed by David Schumacher (US Racing), and then lost third to guesting FIA Formula 3 racer Jake Hughes, who was having an outing with the Finnish KIC Motorsport team. Vesti opened an advantage of over 15…

BRITISH GT Phil Keen and Adam Balon will remain in the British GT Championship next season in a Barwell Motorsport-run Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo, the team has confirmed. Lamborghini factory ace Keen and GT4 graduate Balon won twice at Snetterton, and led the standings heading into the final round at Donington Park, but early contact with a GT4 car resulted in a broken toe-link which put them out of contention. Speaking at Donington, Balon told Autosport that he would have stayed on regardless of the outcome. “Whatever happened, I said to the guys ‘I’m going to do another season’, because I feel like I’m still learning a lot,” he said. “If I stop learning, then it’s time to do something else, but there’s definitely another year of me in this.”…

HISTORICS After racing his VW Corrado for 20 years in various series, Ken Lark has decided to stop driving the car so he can concentrate on new projects. Lark’s final races in the coupe ended with a double Classic VW Cup win at Cadwell Park last weekend. “It’s been a great car, but I think it’s time for me to stop racing it and look at other things,” he said. “I have a Ford Falcon Sprint, a genuine US car that I’ve been rebuilding for 10 years. It would be nice to race that in European historics, as I did a bit of that a few years ago in an Alfa Romeo GTA.” Lark added there is a chance the Corrado could remain in action with inaugural Classic VW champion…

HISTORICS The Chevron B45 made famous by Jim Crawford in Formula Atlantic will return to racing in the UK during the Historic Sports Car Club Silverstone Finals meeting next weekend. Chassis number 4 went to Fred Opert in the US when new in 1978 for Keke Rosberg and Eje Elgh to race in Formula Atlantic. It has recently been acquired by Scottish speed eventer George Coghill and will be raced by Steve Worrad. Its final race for Opert’s team was at Macau with Rosberg but it failed to finish due to a punctured radiator. The car then went to the Chevron factory and was raced by Crawford in the 1979 British Formula Atlantic Championship, finishing second in Plygrange colours. The Chevron was subsequently raced by several drivers in the UK…

OULTON PARK 750MC 5 OCTOBER Graham Gant secured his first Formula Vee championship with a second-place finish in the opening race at Oulton Park, before taking a bizarre victory in the second contest. Danny Hands took the lead of the opener from Gant at Hislop’s on lap one and went on to take an unchallenged victory in his GAC, with Gant and his WEV following him in a position that was good enough to make his title points lead unassailable. “It’s quite different not driving for a win,” said the Buckinghamshire man. “I’m glad it’s all over – it should have been done at Donington Park.” Hands was pushed into the pitlane from the race-two grid, but Gant then jumped the start and collected a 10-second penalty. Tim Probert was…

SILVERSTONE AMOC 5 OCTOBER The rain stayed at bay and the grids were full as Equipe GTS once again starred at the Aston Martin Owners Club St John Horsfall meeting. Mark Holme won another Equipe Pre-’63 race in fine style in his Austin-Healey 3000 MkII, quickly making his way past the Healey of James Haxton and Jack Rawles to sit and wait in second. The Haxton/Rawles car had started on pole, but was passed by the very rapid Richard Woolmer in an Elva Courier. Woolmer built up a sizeable lead, but lost out at the pitstops to Holme. The Elva then developed an oil leak from an axle and slowed, allowing Holme to cruise in the lead unchallenged, using his signature consistent approach. Haxton/Rawles fought back later on, lapping much…

1) Who, what, where, when? 2) Who is this? This stand-in made the most of a lucky break that came from tragic circumstances. He was a long way from home when he made his name, starring in the fading embers of a once great series. A former star of that championship gave him a chance in his own declining team, before he found a cuddly toy to play with for the rest of the season. Two seasons spent with a giant that had lost its way yielded little and he returned to crossing the borders. A familiar home gave him a way back before a national institution came calling. Having been left standing when the music stopped, he was a default replacement for a would-be champion. He helped steady a…

Testing is commonly labelled as being the most boring element of a racing driver’s job. But in an age when the opportunity to test is greatly reduced, the driver’s ability to crank out consistent lap times and provide quality feedback is perhaps greater than ever. RML boss Ray Mallock recalls BTCC champion John Cleland fondly as a racer from his time running the factory Vauxhall team, but found that the Scot lacked the discipline and motivation needed to be effective in testing. “It’s no secret that I was not a big fan of John’s testing and development,” says Mallock. “He was a good example of someone who was a great racer but was not analytical enough or consistent enough. I think he just got bored with testing, and in a front-wheel-drive…

It’s the middle of Betws-y-Coed late on a Wednesday morning of Rally GB week and Sebastien Ogier is waiting patiently in traffic. Curiously, the six-time World Rally champion is moving through this most beautiful of Welsh towns totally unmolested. Nobody’s given him or his motor a second glance. Let’s face it, in this rally friendly part of the world, there’s nothing enormously unusual about a bloke wearing a Citroen T-shirt driving dirty-white Subaru WRX STI. And why should anybody notice him? He’s not coming until the end of the week. It’s not rally time yet. Except it is. This is the bit you and I don’t normally see. This is the recce. For the uninitiated, the recce (short for reconnaissance) is a two-day tour of the roads the cars will…

Standing on the banks overlooking Eau Rouge, a future world beater fancied his chances at taking to the track. But a twist of fate had Thierry Neuville following Bruno Thiry into rallying, instead of fellow Belgian hero Marc Duez into circuit racing. Neuville has since established himself as one third of the World Rally Championship’s trio of leading lights, finishing as runner-up in each of the past three seasons to Sebastien Ogier and again in the thick of the fight headed by Ott Tanak this year. But the hunger to race on a track has never left Neuville, despite his rally success, and his tie-up as Hyundai’s lead WRC driver awards more than just a substantial paycheque. Earlier this year, he got the chance to make his racing debut in…

Nine tenths of a second. The Silverstone National circuit might be far from the longest track on the British Formula 4 calendar, but that tiny gap was the difference between the fastest and slowest driver in qualifying at the venue last month. That’s particularly impressive when you consider that one of the drivers was making their debut. When the entire field is that close and you are up against single-seater powerhouses like Carlin, Double R, Arden and Fortec, you need to be at the top of your game and use all the tools you can to help find those crucial tenths. And that is exactly what the JHR Developments squad has been doing this season. It doesn’t have the decades of slicks-and-wings success that some of those other outfits boast…

James Davison’s family history is indelibly linked to motorsport. His grandfather Lex Davison was a four-time winner of the Australian Grand Prix before it formed a part of the world championship, his father Jon was a Formula 5000 racer and promoter of motorsport events at Sandown, while cousins Will and Alex are a two-time Bathurst 1000 winner and versatile two-time Le Mans 24 Hours starter respectively. Davison’s grandmother Diana was one of the first female racing drivers in Australia. After Lex’s death in 1965, she married Second World War Spitfire ace Tony Gaze, who in 1952 became the first Australian to start a round of the World Drivers’ Championship: the Belgian GP. Davison recalls Gaze, who died aged 93 in 2013, talking about his experiences of being shot down over France…