Indholdsfortegnelse for 31/03/2016 i Autosport

WHEN RED BULL WAS KNOCKED OFF ITS PERCH BY Mercedes in 2014, it’s fair to say that a lot of those who had long since tired of its four years of dominance revelled in schadenfreude. Doubly so when it could not so much as win a grand prix last year. But now, F1 needs Red Bull back up there. With Ferrari inching its way towards Mercedes to potentially make it a two-horse race up front, it would be even better if Red Bull could make it three. It certainly has the resources and the expertise to be up there, and the possibility of three genuinely great teams (for make no mistake, much as you might not like the way Red Bull does things or its arriviste status, its success earns…

FOR ALL ITS CONCERNS about the performance of its engine, one area Red Bull never lacks confidence in is its drivers. Sebastian Vettel won Red Bull those four consecutive drivers’ titles from 2010-13, and Daniel Ricciardo’s 2014 emergence ensured the team had a capable replacement leader when Vettel left for Ferrari. But 2017 could create a driver-market headache for Red Bull. Ricciardo is hot property – probably the most complete driver outside of the established world champions – and it also has to contend with the ambition of Max Verstappen, whom it worked so hard to sign. Verstappen is understood to have a three-year agreement with Red Bull, and is keen to earn promotion to the A-team for next season. Given Toro Rosso team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr is also doing…

Dear Formula 1 stakeholders, followers and fans, The grand prix drivers would like to state our following position: We drivers love our sport! Since childhood, we dreamed of racing the fastest race cars from the top teams on the coolest tracks against the best drivers in the world. We seek competition and love F1 almost unconditionally, which makes us most probably the people with the purest interest for Formula 1, beside our fans. Formula 1 is currently challenged by a difficult global economic environment, a swift change in fan and consumer behaviour, and a decisive shift in the TV and media landscape. This makes it fundamental that the sport’s leaders make smart and wellconsidered adjustments. We feel that some recent rule changes – on both the sporting and technical side,…

FUOCO FASTEST IN ESTORIL GP3 TEST Trident driver Antonio Fuoco topped last week’s three-day GP3 test at Estoril. The Italian set a fastest lap of 1m27.293s on the final morning, putting him 0.482s ahead of Arden International driver Jake Dennis. Alexander Albon (ART Grand Prix), Sandy Stuvik (Trident), Jack Aitken (Arden) and Nyck de Vries (ART) rounded out the top six. HILDEBRAND LANDS INDY 500 SEAT JR Hildebrand will race a third Ed Carpenter Racing entry in May’s Indianapolis 500. The 28-year-old, who famously lost victory in the 2011 Indy 500 when he crashed at the final corner before finishing second, joins regular drivers Josef Newgarden and Ed Carpenter. PADDON LAUNCHES NEW ZEALAND TEAM Hyundai World Rally Championship star Hayden Paddon has launched a new rally car and team in…

FERRARI AND THE FACTORY AF CORSE team led the way in GTE Pro with the new twin-turbo 488. Gianmaria Bruni’s eventual margin of two tenths over team-mate Sam Bird and seven tenths over Olivier Pla in the best of the Ganassi Ford GTs are meaningless, however. The Ferraris were slower than last year’s 458 Italias at the prologue, just as the solo Aston Martin Vantage GTE was. Yet new rules have given the GTE Pro cars more power and aerodynamic freedoms designed to make them faster. Bruni’s test best of 1m57.808s compared with his 1m57.440s at the prologue last year and the 1m57.116s set by a GTE Am class Aston in 2015. The best Aston time this year was a 2m00.298s set by Marco Sorensen in the team’s solo Pro…

COMPETITORS IN BRITAIN WILL TEMPORARILY LOSE their race licence if diagnosed with concussion, as part of new safety framework devised by the MSA. Autosport revealed last year that the MSA was evaluating a concussion directive, with the Motor Sports Council, Safety Advisory Panel and Medical Advisory Panel working with specialists from the Rugby Football Union to assess the need for new rules governing treatment of the injury. It has now issued a new set of guidelines that restrict competition and activity for any drivers showing symptoms of concussion, including confusion, amnesia, headache and dizziness, after an accident. The new rules state that any competitor diagnosed with concussion must not compete further in the meeting/event and that his/her licence be suspended and retained by the Clerk of the Course before being…

REIGNING RGB CHAMPION SCOTT Mittell will attempt to defend his title in a new car designed by his family company. The MC53 is the third car that Mittell Cars has produced and two will race in the 750 Motor Club category this year. Oliver Hewitt will drive the other for VR Motorsports. There is a third one in build and the company aims to offer kit car packages for the MC53 in the future. Testing of the new car is now under way ahead of the first round of the series at Oulton Park on April 2. “At the end of last year we won the championship but we had already started designing a new car,” said Mittell. “We’ve been working on it for 18 months. We’ve concentrated on the…

GT CHAMPION WILCOX SIGNS UP FOR CUP Former British GT champion Adam Wilcox will compete in the GT Cup this year, sharing an Audi R8 LMS Ultra with Nigel Hudson. The pair made sporadic outings last season, and scored a podium at Oulton Park. BRANDON GETS HARD VW CUP DRIVE Multiple Mini Challenge race-winner Hamish Brandon will graduate to the Volkswagen Racing Cup this year with Team Hard. The Hawick-based Scotsman will handle a new-build Mk6 Golf GTi, having sold his R56 JCW Mini after three years in the Challenge. RADICAL ACES TO RACE LIGIER P3 IN ELMS Reigning Radical European Masters champions Terrence Woodward and Ross Kaiser will team up with James Swift for a campaign in the European Le Mans Series. The trio will race a Ligier JS…

SYLVAIN GUINTOLI, THE 2014 World Superbike champion, took a podium finish on his car racing debut at Snetterton last weekend. Guintoli, who also rode for Yamaha and Ducati in MotoGP in 2007-08, was seventh in Sunday’s opening Radical Challenge race before retiring from the second. But the Frenchman and Radical test driver James Abbott saved their best until last, finishing second in the third race. “I really enjoyed it, a totally new experience for me,” said Guintoli, who is currently fifth in WSB. “I had done some track days in a Radical SR3, so it was logical that I should race one. “I have to learn because I made a good start [and went from] 14th to sixth, but with the cold tyres I crashed on the first lap [of…

THE NEXT GENERATION of World Rally Cars – the fastest in rallying history – will begin testing from next week. Next year’s regulations mean more powerful, more technical (with the return of a centre differential) and much more striking cars will be competing in rallying’s top flight. The five marques are at different stages of development, with only Citroen, Toyota and Volkswagen ready to be running with 2017-specification cars through April. The 1.6-litre turbocharged engines remain, but the restrictor size governing how much air flows into the turbo is increased from 33mm to 36mm. This will take power outputs north of 400bhp for the first time since the end of Group B. There will also be extra aero freedom. Volkswagen has been testing a mule (pictured) since August last year,…

BAHRAIN INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT LENGTH 3.362 miles NUMBER OF LAPS 57 2015 POLE POSITION Lewis Hamilton 1m32.571s QUALIFYING LAP RECORD Michael Schumacher 1m30.139s (2004) RACE LAP RECORD Schumacher 1m30.252s (2004) Themes to watch ROSBERG’S RUN Nico Rosberg has now won four consecutive races and leads the title chase. Another win here would lay down the championship gauntlet. FERRARI’S FORM Ferrari threw away a shot at victory in Australia, and while it was some way off in qualifying, the race-pace gap has closed. Bahrain will offer a better read. BATTLE FOR THIRD Red Bull was best of the rest in Australia, although Williams also scored well, with Toro Rosso quick enough to be a threat. It will be very tight in Bahrain.…

CASTLE COMBE’S TRADITIONAL EASTER MONDAY season-opening race meeting was abandoned without any on-track action taking place. Storm Katie, which dominated the bank holiday weather nationwide, had inflicted the worst of its wrath overnight, leaving major flooding between Quarry and Old Paddock corners. More seriously, the track margins at the eastern end of the became waterlogged. This is marks the first time in the circuit’s history – dating back more than six decades to 1950 – that a meeting has been called off owing to rain. Mini Se7en championship competitors, who were due to be on track first for qualifying at 0830, remained in the assembly area for three hours while marshals and the circuit crew endeavoured to make the circuit ‘raceable’ using a pump. A statement from organiser Castle Combe…

AFTER SIX HOTLY-CONTESTED races in the National Legends Cars Championship, Connor Mills and John Mickel emerged as the standout drivers. Mills dominated on Sunday, claiming a hat-trick of wins to take maximum points from the first three rounds of the season. But Mickel hit back in Sunday’s first two races with a brace of victories, the second after Mills hit a mechanical problem. Mills then bounced back with a dominant win in the final race. Mills, last season’s rookie champion, initially fought with Will Gibson at the front, before a mistake by Gibson left him trawling through the gravel trap at Paddock Hill. This handed the lead to Mills, who cruised to an imperious victory by a five-second margin despite a late safety car. Chris Whiteman and Rod Birley shared…

TORRENTIAL RAIN CURTAILED THE season-opening Britcar Endurance race, handing Phil Hanson and Nigel Moore victory in an unpredictable event. The duo started 11th in their Audi R8, and were aided by a series of early incidents that eliminated the favourites. Reigning champions Calum Lockie and David Mason took pole, but their Ferrari 458 GT3 was out on the first lap when Lockie crashed at Copse. This gave the lead to Adam Wilcox’s Audi R8. Glynn Geddie quickly moved ahead in his McLaren MP4-12C GT3, but the car, shared with father Jim, soon retired, consigned to the pits by electrical gremlins. Holding an early lead appeared to be a poisoned chalice, even when Javier Morcillo took over in the unfancied Mosler MT900. Morcillo’s lead looked comfortable, but threats loomed behind. Darren…

HAVING WON THE XR CHALLENGE FOR THE LAST two years, Michael Heath’s XR2 continued to dominate with another double victory. Steve Poole just had the edge into Old Hall from the start but, having ousted Heath from second on lap two, Ralph Fernihough had the lead two laps later. His advantage was shortlived as he spun off at Cascades on lap five. Poole was back in front but under tremendous pressure from Heath again, before they swapped once more into Old Hall. With a lap to go, Poole had to pit with a broken throttle cable, leaving Heath well clear of Mark Buxton. Heath also led from the start of race two, but Buxton charged ahead as they crested Deer Leap for the first time. They were side-by-side down the…

IN A TIME WHEN SUSIE WOLFF’S Dare to be Different campaign is making headlines, the world of motorsport is talking about the challenges women face breaking into a ‘men’s sport’, with Wolff’s own experience of getting to the cusp of F1 often cited. Cut to the West Bank and the lives of five women who form the first all-female street-racing team in the Middle East and are the focus of Amber Fares’ new documentary Speed Sisters. Living under Israeli occupation, their world is one where they can’t go to the beach without a permit, where schools shut down without warning and where getting from A to B can take between five minutes and five hours. For them, being a woman in a man’s world is the least of their worries…

IT IS DIFFICULT TO ARGUE WITH THE points made by the Grand Prix Drivers' Association in its statement last week demanding reform in Formula 1 (see opposite page). F1’s governance is flawed, and will remain so until the covenants between commercial rights holder Formula One Management, the teams and the FIA expire in 2020. That the drivers are entitled to express their opinions is a given. However, it is interesting to examine the GPDA’s motives for doing so. Only since the body has had a non-active F1 driver in Alex Wurz – appointed in October 2014 – at the helm has it become active in non-driving issues, such as calling for fan initiatives in order to improve ‘the show’. Wurz, who has close links to the FIA Institute and acts…

WHEN SKY SPORTS LANDED THE BRITISH TV RIGHTS for Formula 1 ahead of the 2012 season in a deal that gave it live coverage of all races and the BBC the right to show half of them, it was only a matter of time before it became an exclusive contract. And with the BBC pulling out and passing the remaining three years of its deal to Channel 4 for 2016-18, and a new contract up for grabs in 2019, Sky’s financial might meant it was able to make an offer that Formula One Management could not refuse. The deal runs from 2019-24, and the only race that will be shown live on free-to-air television in the UK will be the British Grand Prix. It remains to be seen via which…

WHAT DID THE WORLD LEARN FROM LAST WEEK’S OFFICIAL World Endurance Championship test at Paul Ricard? Not a lot more than we already suspected and certainly no definitive answers. Porsche was strong with the revised version of last year’s championship-winning 919 Hybrid, but then we expected that. Toyota closed the gap with its turbocharged TS050 HYBRID, which it was surely going to do after its torrid 2015. And Audi was behind the game – but probably catching up – after a difficult winter test programme with its all-new R18 e-tron quattro, again something we suspected. The heavily uprated 919 Hybrid headed each of the five sessions over the two days of the so-called prologue. Brendon Hartley ended up with the fastest time, a 1m37.445s set on Saturday afternoon that narrowly…

After hearing that Formula 1 will only be shown on Sky from 2019, I’m sure there will be many, including myself, who are disappointed that our beloved sport is going behind a ‘paywall’. Was it not one of Mr E’s priorities to keep F1 on free-to-air channels such as C4? What sort of audience is Mr E and the commercial bosses trying to reach out to? The casual viewer? Not with this move for 2019! The viewer who doesn’t have Sky Sports? How on earth are they meant to draw in new fans if they have to pay for the privilege of watching F1? Thank goodness for ITV4 and their coverage of the BTCC and Formula E! Both are excellent series, and shown on free-to-air telly. S Yates By email…

PREMA POWERTEAM Lance Stroll (pictured) should lead the team’s attack. Not only is he quick, but the Williams F1 protege has the advantage of actually contesting all the races, something that team-mate Nick Cassidy won’t be doing because there is one date clash with his Super GT programme in Japan. Maximilian Gunther should prove as rapid, while Italian Formula 4 champion Ralf Aron has tested impressively. CARLIN No obvious title contenders, and you’d probably look to Alessio Lorandi – a bit of a rough diamond in 2015 – as the likeliest to bag a win. Ryan Tveter and Raoul Hyman need to switch their speed on consistently, while Peter Li will be happy to get in the points. VAN AMERSFOORT Similar story to Carlin. Callum Ilott is brimming with talent…

THE FIRST ROUND OF BRITISH Formula 3 for 18 months took place at Snetterton last weekend after a late agreement that is set to align national formula championships in the UK. Autosport previously reported (March 10) that such a move was likely after a recent meeting of the World Motor Sport Council paved the way for regional F3 championships to return. A deal was struck between the FIA, MSA and MSV chief executive Jonathan Palmer to rebrand BRDC F4 in time for the series’ curtain-raiser, with the category called BRDC British Formula 3. The introduction of a new 230bhp Tatuus-Cosworth car puts the series close to existing F3 regulations and significantly faster than FIA F4 series. “It’s great for the championship – it’s the right title for the performance of…

MULTIPLE MG TROPHY CHAMPION Chris Bray will return to the series this year after a one-year sabbatical. Bray spent 2015 operating his Finishline UK team, but will returns this year aiming for his fourth overall title, following on from his successes in 2009, 2012 and ’14. He will race in the top ZR190 class. Bray is hopeful that he will be able to fight for the championship and has targeted the second meeting of the year at Brands Hatch as the place he can begin his charge.…

AS STORM KATIE BATTERED THE UK, very different forces hit Snetterton. Three BRDC British Formula 3 drivers put in riproaring performances to devastate the opposition. First, and most ferocious, was Storm Lando. To begin, Norris grabbed pole. Then he dealt the field a massive blow by ending the first lap of the race with a four-second lead. Next lap it was 7s. By the end, on a tricky wet track, the gap to Aleksanteri Huovinen was almost 20s, with Enaam Ahmed 28s back in third. “The conditions were really tricky, there was a bit of oil down so it was very slippery,” said Carlin driver Norris. “It was hard to push but I built a base and controlled the race. I couldn’t have started in a better way.” However, like…

ON A WEEKEND WHEN ADVERSE AND CHANGEABLE weather conditions led to disruption across Britain, the British Truck Racing Championship stormed into Brands Hatch to contest its opening meeting of the season in its brand new, 10-race format. The new organiser of the series, Truck Sport UK, has divided the two classes into separate contests and any concerns that the revised race format would lead to a reduction in the quality of the racing were quickly allayed. The five Class A races featured four different winners. After Mat Summerfield won the opener, which was red-flagged twice before a racing lap could be completed, Ryan Smith and David Jenkins joined him in taking to the top step of the podium. Stuart Oliver claimed two race wins and a further podium to cap…