Indholdsfortegnelse for 02/01/20 i Autosport

Just over a year ago (13 December 2018), we asked you to tell us when Formula 1 was at its best – and had our experts put forward arguments for each of the six periods we identified. As we explained in the 14 February 2019 issue, the winner for magazine readers was 1974-82 (interestingly, the online vote went to 1994-2005, with 1983-93 finishing second in both). We identified this as the era after Jackie Stewart retired and before the turbos began to clean up, swiftly followed by the Alain Prost-Ayrton Senna rivalry. And this issue digs deeper into your favourite F1 age. John Watson started more world championship grands prix than anyone else during the period and he kicks things off on page 12 with his top 10 drivers. The…

WORLD TOURING CAR CUP The World Touring Car Cup’s mid-December finale at Sepang may have provided the fitting conclusion the series deserved, but its organiser faces a slog to replicate its 2019 field after a third car builder cast doubt over its participation in 2020. Volkswagen and Audi have already pulled their backing of programmes in the series, and now the Romeo Ferraris Alfa Romeo squad is expected to do the same after committing to the new E TCR formula that will launch this year. The Giulia E TCR (above), which was revealed in December, is being built with support from engineering firm Hexathron, while Romeo Ferraris’s current TCR challenger is based on the 10-year-old Giulietta model. Though Romeo Ferraris does not have any backing from Alfa Romeo, it is…

DTM Williams Formula 1 refugee Robert Kubica is edging closer to a future in the DTM, with BMW still yet to reveal the name of its sixth and final driver for the 2020 season. Kubica tested a BMW M4 DTM at Jerez in December, days before the manufacturer began to shuffle its line-up. Out have gone 2012 champion Bruno Spengler and one-time race winner Joel Eriksson, but only ex-Mercedes driver Lucas Auer has been named as a newcomer. Kubica has openly discussed his ambition to combine a DTM race seat with an F1 simulator role, with Racing Point seeming to be a likely destination. He then joined BMW factory GT driver Nick Yelloly for a trial in the M4 DTM, which ran with upgrades planned for 2020 after a difficult…

DAKAR RALLY Some time next week, Fernando Alonso will understand the true meaning of endurance. The Le Mans 24 Hours, no doubt, is a genuine test of stamina and fortitude. But a tough Dakar Rally is on another level. And according to those in the know, this year’s Saudi Arabian event, which starts this Sunday in Jeddah, is going to be one of the toughest. A couple of late landings back in the bivouac followed by a handful of pre-dawn starts, interspersed with back-to-back 300-mile stages through the desert; changing punctures in sinking Saudi sand while the blazing sun bakes you into your Nomex at 50 degrees… Dakar is a proper motorsport workout. Since its African days, the Dakar Rally has been west to South America and now crosses the…

McLaren ran a third M23 in 1974, a Yardley-sponsored car alongside the Marlboro-Texaco machines of Emerson Fittipaldi and Denny Hulme. Driving that until his career-ending German Grand Prix crash was Mike Hailwood, the nine-time world motorcycle champion and (ultimately) 14-time Isle of Man TT winner. Hailwood switched to four wheels after being paid by Honda not to race bikes for any of its rivals. He finished third in the 1969 Le Mans 24 Hours with David Hobbs in a Ford GT40, and won the European Formula 2 title with Surtees in 1972. Awarded the George Medal for bravery, for pulling Clay Regazzoni out of his burning car in South Africa in 1973, Hailwood was renowned for getting wound up before a race. But he found a novel way of staying…

Silent movies missed out on Luca Montezemolo, a striking young Roman who speaks as much with an ever-changing variety of facial expressions as with words. He is an intelligent, ambitious, intense individual consumed by a burning enthusiasm for whatever he happens to be doing at any given instant. The intensity seems to be permanently switched on. At 25, having graduated from law schools in Rome and New York, he joined Ferrari as right hand man to the Commendatore, an occupation that must enjoy similar career potential to the man who puts his head in the lion’s mouth at the circus. Montezemolo has made it a success. He almost pleads that Niki Lauda didn’t win the World Championship for Ferrari after 11 arid summers simply because he, Luca Montezemolo, was manager…

ICKX CV HIGHLIGHTS 8 world championship Formula 1 wins 37 world sportscar championship race wins 2 world sportscar drivers’ titles 6 Le Mans 24 Hours victories 1977 Bathurst winner 1983 Dakar Rally winner 1972 10 GERMAN GP NURBURGRING FERRARI 312B2 1ST Ickx was in dominant form on the occasion of his final grand prix victory. On pole by more than a second, he just made it through the first corner in the lead and was never headed over the course of the 14-lap race. His Ferrari 312B2 was three seconds clear by the end of the opening lap and he finished 48s ahead of team-mate Clay Regazzoni. Along the way, Ickx set a sequence of laps below the lap record. “I was always comfortable at the Nurburgring,” he says. “There are…

RENAULT CLIO CUP UK Successful Clio Cup UK squad Team Pyro will return to the category this season. The squad was a frontrunner in the championship for a number of years – Pyro drivers won the title eight times between 2008 and 2017 – but did not compete in 2019, which was set to be the category’s final season after Renault UK announced it would withdraw its backing. Now that Renault Sport Racing has stepped in, the series will continue with the new fifth-generation car and move across from the British Touring Car Championship support bill to featuring at British GT events. “We didn’t do it last year mainly because Renault announced they were pulling out,” said Pyro boss Mark Hunt, who has placed an order for cars. “We thought…

This year, Autosport is 70 years old and as part of the birthday celebrations we’ll be picking out some of the stories, drama and special moments that we’ve covered in that time. The first issue of the magazine came out on 25 August 1950. After briefly outlining the publication’s aim to devote space “to every aspect of the sport, from Grandes Epreuves to the most unambitious of local club events”, founding editor Gregor Grant looked ahead to the hotly anticipated debut of the BRM V16, the first ‘serious’ post-war British attempt at producing a grand prix car. Although Autosport felt a win for the new car was unlikely first time out, it did hope the appearance at the BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone would “demonstrate the race-winning possibilities of the…

FORMULA E Formula E has always made sure its car technology carries a message. Gen1, from the series’ inception in 2014, was about proving that electric vehicles could race. Gen2, introduced in 2018, is tackling range anxiety fears and demonstrating development. Gen3, it seems, is going to be the most ambitious story yet. Shortly before Christmas, the FIA released tender documents, inviting interested parties to apply for the separate contracts relating to the chassis, battery and tyres needed for the Gen3 car (the Gen2 equivalents are held by respectively Spark Racing Technology, McLaren Applied Technologies and Michelin). This is set to take to the track for FE’s 2022-23 campaign, with a planned three-season lifespan. Buried in 176 pages of technical and sporting requirements were the following headline targets. The Gen3…

INDYCAR SERIES Super Formula star rookie Alex Palou is on the move again – he will this year contest the IndyCar Series, driving for Dale Coyne Racing in a link-up with 2004 Le Mans 24 Hours-winning squad Team Goh. Spaniard Palou was on a DCR shortlist that included ex-Schmidt Peterson Motorsports driver James Hinchcliffe – left without a seat after the team in its new guise of McLaren SP opted for an all-new line-up – and Formula 2 race winner Sergio Sette Camara. After a season in the Formula 3 European Championship in 2018, Palou was a title contender in his rookie year in Super Formula with Nakajima Racing last term (below), and also raced a GT3 McLaren for the revived Team Goh in the GT300 class of the Super…

LE MANS 24 HOURS Qualifying for the Le Mans 24 Hours will undergo a massive shake-up for next season. The traditional format of six or eight hours of qualifying will be replaced by a new system dubbed ‘Hyperpole’. The cars will still take to the track as normal on the Wednesday and Thursday of race week next June, but only two short sessions will determine the grid. After a 45-minute session from 11.15pm to midnight at the end of the Wednesday running, the top six cars in each of the classes will go forward to the 30-minute Hyperpole Session starting at 9pm on Thursday. Each of the 24 cars will be allowed just one run, with no pitstops. Pierre Fillon, president of race organiser the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, explained…

Two things had already dawned on Jacques Laffite when he climbed out of the brand-new Ligier JS11 after a short, first test run. He now understood how the dominant Lotus 79s had done what they did during the season just finished, and he realised that for the season ahead he might have a car good enough to win the world championship. His pace in the French team’s first ground-effect Formula 1 contender through the fast Signes right-hander at the end of Paul Ricard’s long Mistral Straight convinced him on both counts. The Frenchman communicated his thoughts to team owner Guy Ligier and technical boss Gerard Ducarouge after completing only a handful of laps at Ricard in December 1978 aboard the Cosworth-engined machine. “I was flat through Signes on my second…

5 BRABHAM BT49 The BT49 was one of the best cars of a controversial era in which some Cosworth DFV runners tried all sorts of tricks – ‘water-cooled’ brakes and trick rideheight systems – to combat the turbos. Gordon Murray’s design lasted from 1979 until 1982 and reached D specification, taking seven wins and a drivers’ title with Nelson Piquet. 4 LOTUS 79 Compared to the other cars on this list, the Lotus 79’s period at the top was brief. It arrived at the sixth round of the 1978 season, won six races and then quickly became obsolete. But during its reign it moved F1’s goalposts by harnessing ground-effects and, on raw pace, had the biggest advantage of any F1 car during this period. 3 WILLIAMS FW07 This was the car that put…

It would be wrong to describe Jacky Ickx’s foray into the world of rally-raids as a second career. He was, after all, a true all-rounder who notched up multiple victories in Formula 1, sportscars, touring cars, Can-Am and Formula 2. But 14 starts in what was then known as the Paris-Dakar Rally, encompassing a victory and two seconds, had a profound effect on him. “I am not the same person anymore and the change happened when I did the Dakar,” he says. “I am more pleasant now! Before I was what I call monorail: my life was all about winning races. “I had a limited angle of view on the world, but when I started doing the Dakar in 1981 I passed from a narrow angle to a wide angle.…

Two years ago, in the course of an interview before practice for the Indianapolis 500, Autosport asked Roger Penske somewhat facetiously if he had any plans for retirement. His reply confirmed what most of us had always suspected. “They’ll have to carry me out of here in a box,” he said with a little smile. “[Retirement] is not something I even think about.” Which is why, at the age of 82, he’s sealed the greatest deal of his life. Financially it may not be the biggest, but for a man steeped in Indycar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway history like Roger Searle Penske, this was the sweetest purchase imaginable. And it took just six weeks. The Speedway’s long-time steward was the late Mari Hulman George – daughter of the wise, determined…

SPORTS 2000 The Sports Racing Car Club has joined forces with MotorSport Vision Racing for this season, with each of the four Sports 2000 categories now running with MSVR. The Sports 2000 classes have previously been standalone series appearing at a variety of meetings, but this is the first time they have formally been part of another organising club. A provisional calendar has been released that includes a support-race slot when the GT World Challenge Europe series – formerly Blancpain GT Series – races at Brands Hatch in May. “We have always operated as a standalone club and frankly never thought we would find a series organiser who would be able to both organise our championships and promote our brand of sportscar racing,” said SRCC competitions director Colin Feyerabend. “However,…

FORMULA FORD The Champion of Brands Formula Ford 1600 series will race on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit in 2020 as a support event for the late-August British GT/Formula 3 round. Champion of Brands boss James Beckett recently released a provisional six-round 2020 calendar containing two dates marked as to be confirmed. He has now said that one of these will be at the British GT/F3 meeting on 29-30 August. Champion of Brands is open to all Kent-engined FF1600 cars, and was brought back to the schedules by Beckett in 2010 after an absence of several years. It usually runs on the Brands Indy circuit, so the GT/F3 meeting appearance will be a rare opportunity for FF1600 cars to use the full Brands layout. The round will also be…

FORMULA 1 Red Bull star Max Verstappen has said that stewarding in Formula 1 is the same as refereeing in football, because personal interpretation will always play a key role in decision-making. Verstappen was at the centre of a clear shift in policy from the FIA last season to allow for harder racing, after his aggressive last-gasp overtake on Charles Leclerc to win June’s Austrian Grand Prix (above) was investigated without punishment. At the next race in Britain, Verstappen and Leclerc went wheel-to-wheel again in another fierce fight that ended without either driver being penalised. New race director Michael Masi, who replaced the late Charlie Whiting on the eve of the season, also reintroduced the black-and-white flag as a ‘yellow-card’ warning, but in 2019 this was only used once –…

BTCC British Touring Car Championship race winner Jake Hill has switched to an AmD Tuning Honda Civic for the coming season. The 25-year-old drove an Audi S3 in 2019 for Trade Price Cars Racing, which ran under the umbrella of AmD. Hill finished 15th in the points, claimed fourth in the Independents’ Trophy, and took his maiden win at Knockhill in September. Now he steps into one of AmD’s FK2-spec Civics, with which the squad won the Independents’ Teams Trophy in 2019, Rory Butcher won the Independent drivers’ title, and both Butcher and Sam Tordoff won races overall. “I had a fantastic year with Trade Price Cars Racing, and am hugely grateful to [team boss] Dan [Kirby] and the whole team,” said Hill. “I have worked alongside the AmD guys…

WATSON F1 STATS 1974-82 Starts: 135 Wins: 4 Poles: 2 Fastest laps: 4 Best championship: 1982 (3rd) 10 CARLOS REUTEMANN 1974-82 WINS 12 In 1981 in Las Vegas, Carlos drove that grand prix doing something I’ve never seen a driver do. He drove that race in his mirrors – he never once looked forward. He got passed left, right and centre. Nelson Piquet didn’t win that championship in 1981 at Las Vegas (below); it was Carlos who blew it. He was probably the most psychologically fragile of all the drivers we’re including here. A very talented, quick guy, overanalytical probably – every gear ratio change, spring change, rollbar change, he’d write it down. A very good driver, but not a racer. He was unusually quiet for a Latin American – probably…

Jacques Laffite flew out of the blocks at the start of his first near-miss in the Formula 1 World Championship in 1979. Two years later, he and the Ligier team started slowly but came even closer to the title. He again finished fourth, but this time fell just six points short. Laffite actually thinks that the 1981 campaign aboard the Matra-engined JS17 was his best chance to win the title. Or rather it would have been had his team sought to circumvent the new rideheight rule introduced in the wake of the ban on sliding skirts in the same way as the British garagistes. Ligier wouldn’t come up with its own dual-spring system until part-way through the season. Designer Gerard Ducarouge initially insisted that the systems devised to allow the…

WORLD CHAMPIONS DRIVERS For 1974-82 period STARTS John Watson (above) 135 Jacques Laffite 123 Carlos Reutemann 121 Mario Andretti 109 Jean-Pierre Jarier 108 Jody Scheckter 106 Emerson Fittipaldi 102 Jochen Mass 102 Niki Lauda 100 Alan Jones 96 Patrick Depailler 93 Clay Regazzoni 89 James Hunt 85 Riccardo Patrese 81 Ronnie Peterson 76 Hans-Joachim Stuck 74 Vittorio Brambilla 74 Didier Pironi 70 Gilles Villeneuve 67 Rene Arnoux 64 WINS Niki Lauda 19 Carlos Reutemann 12 Alan Jones 12 Mario Andretti 11 Jody Scheckter 10 James Hunt 10 Nelson Piquet 7 Jacques Laffite 6 Ronnie Peterson 6 Gilles Villeneuve 6 Emerson Fittipaldi 5 Alain Prost 5 John Watson 4 Clay Regazzoni 4 Rene Arnoux 4 Didier Pironi 3 Patrick Depailler 2 Jean-Pierre Jabouille 2 Jochen Mass 1 Riccardo Patrese 1 Vittorio…

HISTORIC TOURING CARS An overlooked period in tin-top racing will be opened up this season in the new Sixties Touring Car Challenge from Motor Racing Legends. The traditional cut-off date for historic touring cars has long been set at 1966, but MRL is opening up the new series to Group 1 and Group 2 cars raced in the European Touring Car Championship from 1966 to the end of 1969. The new five-race series will include the existing U2TC grid for pre-’66 cars and accommodate late 1960s two-litre, four-cylinder cars including the Ford Escort Mk1, Lotus Cortina Mk2, BMW 2002, Lancia Fulvia and Alfa Romeo GTA variants as well as later Minis. Duncan Wiltshire of Motor Racing Legends said: “Late-1960s touring car owners have suffered from a real void of racing…

BRITISH GT Newly announced McLaren factory driver Euan Hankey and two-time Pure McLaren GT Series one-make champion Mia Flewitt will share a Balfe Motorsport McLaren 570S GT4 in the British GT Championship this season. Hankey, 32, is a race winner in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB and class victor in the European Le Mans Series, and has made three Le Mans 24 Hours starts in a GTE-Am class Aston Martin. His last British GT appearance came in 2018 in a one-off at Silverstone in a Track-Club McLaren GT4, and he also shared a Von Ryan Racing McLaren 650S in the GT3 class during the 2015 season. Hankey has also coached Flewitt to her 2018-19 Pure McLaren titles. Flewitt contested three British GT rounds with Balfe last year, and finished second…

BMW CAR CLUB RACING The BMW Car Club Racing championship is to introduce a turbo class for the 2020 season, aimed at models such as the M2, M4, 135, 335 and Mini Cooper. The move was confirmed by a drivers’ vote and will be carried out initially on an assessment basis. The new class will use the same power-to-weight ratio of 300bhp per tonne as fellow 750 Motor Club championship Club Enduro’s Class A, and the turbocharged engines used should be those originally fitted to that model. BMW Car Club Racing already had a turbocharged car competing in some 2019 rounds, with Steven Schweikhardt driving an E46 in the Invitational class. “We’ve got to acknowledge that the modern cars are coming,” said championship boss Neil McDonald. “So we’ve got to…

Maurice Trintignant (Cooper-Climax T51), leads Stirling Moss (BRM P25) and Bruce McLaren (Cooper-Climax T51) in the 1959 British Grand Prix at Aintree. The race was dominated by Jack Brabham (Cooper-Climax T51), who started from pole position (his first) and led all 75 laps, finishing 22 seconds ahead of Moss, who pipped McLaren to the runner-up spot by just two tenths. The Kiwi had the consolation of taking his first podium finish and first fastest lap (shared with Moss). Trintignant was fifth and a lap down, behind the BRM of Harry Schell. For classic grand prix DVDs head to dukevideo.com For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…