Indholdsfortegnelse for December 14, 2017 i Autosport

SENNA JOINS DI RESTA AT DAYTONA World Endurance LMP2 champion Bruno Senna has completed the United Autosports line-up for next month’s Daytona 24 Hours. Senna joins the already confirmed Paul di Resta, Hugo de Sadeleer and Will Owen in one of United’s Ligier-Gibsons, alongside the sister car of Fernando Alonso, Lando Norris and Phil Hanson. LOTTERER AND JANI FOR LMP1 RETURN Porsche drivers Andre Lotterer and Neel Jani are set for an immediate return to LMP1 in the World Endurance Championship with the privateer Rebellion squad next year. WEC LMP2 champion Rebellion was scheduled to announce its switch back to P1 with a new ORECA design and a driver line-up including LMP2 frontrunners Thomas Laurent and Gustavo Menezes this week. CLIO KING BUSHELL BACK TO BTCC Renault UK Clio Cup…

Reece Barr may be a relatively new name in the word of circuit racing, but he’s certainly going places. The 17-year-old Irishman is rapidly climbing the ranks in tin-top racing, and will next year move into European competition with a campaign in the German ADAC TCR Championship with reigning champion team Target Competition. It’s a big move to jump straight into such a competitive series, especially on foreign soil, but Barr has more than proved his ability in his maiden season in the Mini Challenge JCW Championship. Already a multiple Irish karting champion, Barr tackled his first year of car racing in an Excelr8 Motorsport-run JCW this term, and proved a revelation. After just four races, he’d already secured his maiden victory, and was leading the championship after the opening two…

1 Daniel Ricciardo 2 Lewis Hamilton 3 Max Verstappen 4 Sebastien Ogier 5 Nico Rosberg 6 Fernando Alonso 7 Sebastien Buemi 8 Lucas di Grassi 9 Simon Pagenaud 10 Carlos Sainz Jr 11 Gianmaria Bruni 12 Sebastian Vettel 13 Valtteri Bottas 14 Will Power 15 Kyle Busch 16 Pierre Gasly 17 Jimmie Johnson 18 Kris Meeke 19 Neel Jani 20 Scott Dixon 21 Nico Hulkenberg 22 Sergio Perez 23 Brendon Hartley 24 Marco Wittmann 25 Antonio Giovinazzi 26 Joey Logano 27 Rene Rast 28 Shane van Gisbergen 29 Timo Bernhard 30 Robin Frijns 31 Jose Maria Lopez 32 James Calado 33 Edoardo Mortara 34 Pascal Wehrlein 35 Charles Leclerc 36 Lance Stroll 37 Kimi Raikkonen 38 Mark Webber 39 Sam Bird 40 Pipo Derani 41 Mattias Ekstrom 42 Gordon Shedden…

THE HYPE AROUND THIS YEAR’S WORLD RALLY Championship was extraordinary. The new cars, the open competition, the returning giants. And it delivered on every level. Now, here’s the thing: next year’s going to be even better. The teams have a far fuller understanding of what to expect from the cars, and the drivers know what’s coming. Or do they? How, for example, will Ott Tanak manage at Toyota? He’s only ever known M-Sport, and the family atmosphere engendered by the Cumbrians is unlikely to be replicated. But does he need it? He will be surrounded by Finns, including Jari-Matti Latvala and Esapekka Lappi, but history has shown Finland to be only too aware of what an iron-willed Estonian can produce from the far side of the Baltic Sea. Providing Toyota…

JAPANESE FORMULA 3 Mitsunori Takaboshi GERMAN FORMULA 4 Juri Vips ITALIAN FORMULA 4 Marcus Armstrong SMP & SPANISH FORMULA 4 Christian Lundgaard JAPANESE FORMULA 4 Ritomo Miyata US FORMULA 4 Kyle Kirkwood INTERNATIONAL GT OPEN Giovanni Venturini MICHELIN LE MANS CUP LMP3 Alexander Toril/Jean Glorieux MICHELIN LE MANS CUP GT3 Emanuele Busnelli/Fabio Babini PIRELLI WORLD CHALLENGE Patrick Long ITALIAN GT Alex Frassineti/Michele Beretta BLANCPAIN GT SERIES ASIA Hunter Abbott EUROPEAN RALLY CH’SHIP Kajetan Kajetanowicz BRAZILIAN V8 STOCK CARS Daniel Serra EUROPEAN TOURING CARS Petr Fulin ADAC GT MASTERS Jules Gounon INDY LIGHTS Kyle Kaiser…

HARRISON SCOTT DOMINATED Euroformula Open in 2017, and even ended his season early to concentrate on being a McLaren Autosport BRDC Award finalist. Scott won both openers at Estoril for RP Motorsport, then duly signed with the team for the full season. From here on, he would miss out on victory in just two races and take his season tally to 12 out of 14. He lost to Ameya Vaidyanathan (Carlin) in the first race at Spa, while a track-limits infringement in Hungaroring qualifying scuppered Scott, with the race won by Campos Racing’s Thiago Vivacqua. None of these drivers finished as runner-up. That went to Nikita Troitskiy, the Drivex School-run Russian taking nine podiums. With Scott absent, Devlin DeFrancesco took a win at the Barcelona finale (the other went to…

AFTER A DRAMATIC FINALE ON THE ISLE OF Man, the British Rally Championship was won by a tenth of a second and a single point in favour of now four-time champion Keith Cronin. The Irishman – in a Ford Fiesta R5 – didn’t take his first win until round four (the series’ first trip abroad, to Ypres in Belgium), and then added the Ulster and both legs of the Isle of Man to take the title ahead of Fredrik Ahlin. The returning Ahlin won the first two rounds on gravel in his Skoda Fabia, but struggled to match M-Sport driver Cronin on asphalt. A retirement with a broken radiator on the last stage while leading the RSAC Scottish Rally proved to be the difference. David Bogie won that event. Matt…

SACHA FENESTRAZ TURNED A LARGE deficit into a 69.5-point advantage with a string of podiums in the second half of 2017. Initially, the 18-year-old Josef Kaufmann Racing driver’s consistency was not enough to stay in touch with his main rival, R-ace GP’s Will Palmer, who began the season with two wins in the first four races. But after Fenestraz scored his first win of the season in Monaco, he unleashed his full potential, taking a further six wins and, across the whole season, only missing the podium four times in the races he finished. He lucked into a win at the first Spa race due to a red flag for foggy conditions, which rescued him from a broken exhaust, but lost what surely would have been another win at Paul…

SELECTING THE CARS FOR THE MAIN list was tricky, but it’s not difficult to pick the top team that never scored a world championship victory. With nine podiums and a pole, Arrows should have scored several wins. Only BAR and Toyota recorded more podiums and poles without winning, but BAR became Honda, which did win, while Toyota was a giant operation that underperformed. Arrows was longer-lasting than either and was an F1 regular from its debut in 1978 until its demise in 2002. Even its first car – the controversial FA1 that landed the team in court due to its similarity with the Shadow DN9 – could have been a winner. The FA1 suffered from a fuel-system problem that meant it had to run more fuel, but that didn’t stop…

@davidevansrally A part from a little more salt-and-pepper in the stubble, Sebastien Loeb hasn’t changed a bit. Behind the contractually placed sunglasses, those blue eyes still seek one thing: coffee; espresso. Short, punchy, powerful – that’s the fresh-roasted Kenyan beans as much as the nine-time world champion. Loeb looks as ready as ever to take on a new challenge. Nineteen years on from his first manufacturer involvement in world motorsport, he’s back for another season-long, factory-backed title shot. Back then it was Citroen and rallying. Now it’s Peugeot and rallycross. The 43-year-old has been competing in World Rallycross for the past two years with Peugeot Team Hansen, but now everything’s changing. Now Peugeot is really coming to the table. Peugeot CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato outlined the Parisian firm’s intentions in October,…

BRDC BRITISH FORMULA 3 CHAMPIONSHIP runner-up James Pull is heading to New Zealand in January to contest the Toyota Racing Series. The Singapore-born Briton has joined M2 Competition, which has previously carried Nick Cassidy, Lance Stroll and Lando Norris to title success in the five-event series. “I’ve heard great things about the championship from fellow drivers in Europe and so I can’t wait to get out on the track,” said Pull. “Now my attention is fully focused on TRS with M2 and, like all the drivers that will be there, I want the title and will be pushing hard.” Among the other drivers confirmed to date for TRS are Ferrari protege and Italian Formula 4 champion Marcus Armstrong, regular TRS leading light Brendon Leitch, GP3 racer Juan Manuel Correa, and…

SEB MORRIS WILL NOT RETURN TO defend his British GT title alongside Rick Parfitt Jr after confirming that they will go their separate ways. Morris and Parfitt landed this year’s title sharing a Bentley Continental GT3 run by Team Parker Racing. Morris, 22, has now confirmed that a return to British GT is not his aim, and he will instead chase race opportunities in continental Europe. “After a lot of thought, and following two incredible seasons together in British GT, Rick and I have decided to go our separate ways for 2018,” said Morris. “Having won the British GT3 title this year there isn’t much more we can achieve together in the championship, coupled with the fact that I now want to progress and challenge myself against the best in…

@nauckas First off, a confession: the 2013 British Grand Prix was my first experience of live motorsport. I can feel my editor’s inevitable crushing disappointment as I write this (I think I can cope! – ed), but a lack of interest from my friends and family, cash and wheels meant there wasn’t a lot I could do about it until getting my first proper job after leaving university (and I still had to get there by public transport). So, after saving up for a seat in the Becketts grandstand, making it through a journey comprising two tubes, a train and an eye-wateringly-expensive bus, I arrived at Silverstone. In a way, the journey is continuing – since that joyful weekend I have been lucky enough to cover many excellent events around…

FERRARI PROTEGE MARCUS Armstrong will race in the Formula 3 European Championship next season with Prema Powerteam – that was confirmed last week, and should trigger a flurry of announcements over the next few weeks for what will be the final season of F3 as we know it, before the new International F3 rules are introduced for 2019. Italian Formula 4 champion Armstrong will also return to his New Zealand homeland to contest the Toyota Racing Series, meaning a driver who is very highly rated in some quarters will be well prepared for his rookie F3 season. No sooner was the Armstrong story out than Carlin confirmed Canadian Devlin DeFrancesco – no surprise there, after he contested the final two Euro F3 rounds of 2017 and the Macau Grand Prix…

@autosport CONTRASTING VIEWS LAST WEEK FROM THE TWOworld championship protagonists of 2017: Lewis Hamilton said there was no excuse for Formula 1’s producing less spectacular racing than Formula 2, while Sebastian Vettel suggested that those unhappy with the lack of overtaking should stop complaining, and accept that some grands prix will always be boring. It was perhaps Abu Dhabi that prompted Hamilton to say what he did, for while the grand prix was beyond tedious, the two Formula 2 races provided excellent racing, and relatively unsophisticated ‘aero’ had much to do with it. “Even with DRS, in 200 miles Seb was unable to put a move on Lewis” I can’t take issue with Vettel’s contention that ‘overtaking should be an achievement, and not handed to you’ – of course it…

On the right track with circuit changes I was very pleased to read that Liberty Media is looking at revising tracks to help with closer racing. In all the years I have followed and competed in motor racing, it has always been clear to me that increasing the number of lines through a corner helps with passing strategy. However, this will not be provided by only increasing the width of the track. I believe the best solution is to vary the camber across the track in critical corners preceding straights and after braking places to allow similar speeds to be achieved with a number of optional lines. This could be easily calculated by computer modelling and amended to work properly on site. Generally this would entail negative camber on the…

5 Nico Rosberg RETIRED 9 Simon Pagenaud 2ND IN INDYCAR SERIES 11 Gianmaria Bruni 10TH IN IMSA GTLM 17 Jimmie Johnson 10TH IN NASCAR CUP 19 Neel Jani 4TH IN WEC 24 Marco Wittmann 5TH IN DTM 25 Antonio Giovinazzi 22ND IN FORMULA 1 26 Joey Logano 17TH IN NASCAR CUP 28 Shane van Gisbergen 4TH IN AUSTRALIAN SUPERCARS 30 Robin Frijns 1ST BLANCPAIN SPRINT 31 Jose Maria Lopez 6TH IN WEC 33 Edoardo Mortara 14TH IN DTM, MACAU GT WORLD CUP WINNER 34 Pascal Wehrlein 18TH IN FORMULA 1 36 Lance Stroll 12TH IN FORMULA 1 38 Mark Webber RETIRED 40 Pipo Derani 9TH IN IMSA SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP 41 Mattias Ekstrom 2ND IN DTM, 2ND IN WORLD RALLYCROSS 42 Gordon Shedden 4TH IN BTCC 44 Christopher Mies NURBURGRING 24…

Lewis Hamilton is a global superstar, as well as an extraordinary Formula 1 driver, thus managing his time properly can be diffiicult. Rather than attempt to control this process, Mercedes has increasingly allowed Hamilton to follow his own nose, invest more of his own time in the things he wants to do, to train his own way, structure his life on his own terms, and both parties have reaped the rewards. Hamilton is conscious of the need to balance his time properly between F1 and his other interests, and not allow these other aspects of his life to become a distraction. Outside the car he is still pushing as hard as ever, but also doing things more on his own terms. “I just wanted to go back to my roots…

@davidevansrally New motor. Different threads. Same story. Sebastien Ogier wins another World Rally Championship, and the high-five is done with one round to spare. Nothing had changed – but everything had changed around it. Ogier, his co-driver Julien Ingrassia, and the whole M-Sport World Rally Team did a quite brilliant job this year. The Cockermouth-developed, built and run Ford Fiesta WRC won more rallies, set more fastest times and led for longer than any of its rivals through 2017. Watching the team celebrating, fittingly, at its home round of the world championship, it was impossible not to notice the look of slight bewilderment being passed around along with the bottles of champagne. ‘How the hell did we do that?’ pondered the collective voice. It’s a fair question. Rewind nine months…

1 SEBASTIEN OGIER He wasn’t the fastest. He didn’t lead for the longest. He didn’t win the most rallies. So what, you might ask, is he doing at number one? Simple. Ogier was still the best driver across the spread of the season. Yes, the pack has closed up considerably, but still he was the best. Points came consistently and wins were there when the opportunity arose, but most importantly the mistakes were kept to an absolute minimum. That is the mark of a champion. And that’s why Ogier still tops this table. 2 OTT TANAK Last year you still didn’t know, still didn’t completely trust him. Yes, Tanak had the natural ability to be faster than anybody on his day, but it remained a 50:50 gamble if he’d win…

NICK CASSIDY AND RYO HIRAKAWA pipped Super GT talismans Ronnie Quintarelli and Tsugio Matsuda to the title as youth triumphed over experience. Key, as ever, to a successful bid was keeping the results rolling in as success ballast mounted over the season. TOM’S Lexus pair Cassidy and Hirakawa were only once outside the top six – despite reaching as high as 84kg ballast. Then, with ballast halved for the penultimate round and eliminated for the finale, they took a win and a second. The NISMO Nissan of Quintarelli and Matsuda beat the new champions to the flag in the Motegi finale for their first win of the season, but they fell two points short. Andrea Caldarelli and Kazuya Oshima were also very much in the picture going into the final…

ROBERT DAHLGREN CLAIMED HIS MAIDEN title in 2017, 11 years after his series debut. The championship’s switch to TCR regulations meant Dahlgren’s former Volvo squad was missing for the first time since 2012, and another of its ex-drivers, Fredrik Ekblom, pushed him all the way. Dahlgren got off to a great start with two wins in his PWR Racing SEAT at Knutstorp, but then the Kristoffersson Motorsport Volkswagen squad got in on the act. There were wins for Ekblom as well as Johan Kristoffersson, who in between his World Rallycross title-winning commitments did a part-season in STCC and scored five victories in a row across Alastaro and Solvalla. A jumped start at Solvalla, a puncture while leading at Falkenberg and a controversial clash with Dahlgren’s team-mate Daniel Haglof at Anderstorp…

Send your answers via email to autosport@autosport.com and include Christmas Quiz as the subject line or send in your answers on a sheet of paper to: Autosport Editorial Autosport Media UK Ltd 1 Eton Street Richmond TW9 1AG ENTRIES CLOSE Friday January 5 2018 In the event of a tie, the winner will be drawn by random from the correct entries YOUR DETAILS Must be completed (block capitals please) If you would like to receive emails from us containing news, special offers and service information please include your email address above TERMS AND CONDITIONS No entries will be accepted from employees of Autosport Media UK Ltd or their families, or any other companies associated with this competition. The judge’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. There…

ONE MORE GORDON MURRAY innovation could have made the Brabham even better. The BT45 had introduced carbon brakes to F1 racing in 1976, but cooling problems and a big crash for Carlos Pace at the Austrian GP meant they were generally confined to testing thereafter. John Watson was nevertheless impressed when he tried the material, which showed the future of F1 braking. “The difference was mega straight away,” he recalls. “You couldn’t believe the difference. At the end of the straight at Kyalami I was so much later on the brakes with carbon that it looked like I wasn’t braking. It was a whole new world – ridiculous! “You couldn’t believe the difference – ridiculous!” “When you get an advantage like that you are reluctant to give it up, but…

A SIXTH WORLD RALLY Championship title had just been clinched, yet all anybody wanted to talk to Sebastien Loeb about was Abu Dhabi and the chance for him to make his competitive Formula 1 debut. Having tested a Red Bull, Loeb was invited to drive a Toro Rosso vacated by Sebastien Bourdais at the final race of the 2009 season. Ultimately, the powers that be wouldn’t allow it and declined Loeb a superlicence. But, even if the paperwork had come through, Loeb admits he still wasn’t keen. “I wasn’t prepared to drive a car which wasn’t capable of winning,” says Loeb. “I didn’t have a specific ambition. “I’m not sure that would have been the best thing. Without the full preparation, it’s not easy. You see today with a lot…

SERGEY SIROTKIN HAS emerged as the favourite to drive for Williams in 2018, with Robert Kubica no longer in the frame. Williams has spent the past week evaluating data gathered from the recent Pirelli test at Yas Marina, where it ran Sirotkin and Kubica. Kubica had been favourite to make a sensational return to F1, with the team impressed by his feedback and the way he fitted in and built up strong relationships. But it has emerged that performance data suggests Sirotkin is the stronger candidate. Williams has insisted throughout the process that its decision on the driver to partner Lance Stroll next season will be based on performance. Talks with the 22-year-old Russian, who has performed reserve duties for Renault this year and was third in GP2 in 2016,…

FELIPE MASSA WILL CONTEST the opening round of Brazil’s V8 Stock Car championship next season, while Nelson Piquet Jr has signed up for the entire series. Massa will share with five-time champion Caca Bueno at Cimed Racing in the one-off two-driver race at Interlagos on March 10. “I am honoured by the invitation and will be very proud to make my debut in Stock Car with the greatest champion still active and my great friend, Caca Bueno,” said Massa. Piquet, 32, will join Full Time Racing for the entire 2018 season, when he will team up alongside Rubens Barrichello and Ricardo Mauricio. The programme is possible for Piquet (below) because there are no clashes with his campaign in Formula E, where he was the inaugural champion in 2014-15. Meanwhile, factory…

LAST WEEK THE FIA GAVE FORMER Lotus Formula 1 development driver Carmen Jorda a position on its Women in Motorsport Commission. And, understandably, women in motorsport are kicking up a fuss about it. Jorda, who proved uncompetitive in three seasons of GP3 from 2012-14, has previously advocated a separate Formula 1-style series for women, claiming that they are unable to compete on an equal footing with men. Coincidence or not, but could recent reports that there are plans for a women-only championship to get under way in ’19 be linked to the Spaniard’s appointment? British IndyCar racer Pippa Mann has spoken eloquently in the past that women must race on equal terms with men, and took time out from her bid to put together a deal with Dale Coyne Racing…

@ScottAutosport AN ELECTRIC-RACING SERIES NOT GETTINGmanufacturers to build their own batteries? That sounds a bit fishy. Especially for a championship that prides itself on being a development hub for electric vehicles. No surprise, then, that news of Formula E pushing back battery competition into the middle of the next decade – at the earliest – has been met with scorn and derision from some. But what may appear as a stagnation that calls into question the premise of FE as a technological hotbed is really the series avoiding the blind pursuit of a technology path that could lead it to oblivion. The manufacturers are unified in not being fussed about building their own batteries, but it’s valid to ask why, given the importance of battery technology. If FE went ahead…

50 Dane Cameron 2nd in IMSA SportsCar Championship NEW ENTRY He didn’t manage to retain his title, yet Cameron emerged from the 2017 IMSA SportsCar Championship with arguably an even bigger prize - a drive for next season with Penske Racing in one of its Acuras. It was a fitting reward for one of IMSA’s consistent top performers who arguably drove better than ever this year. There was only one race victory for Cameron in the #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R he shared with 2016 co-champion Eric Curran, but there were some sterling drives on the way to second place in the points. Most pertinently, however, he was the fastest on the race averages of all Prototype drivers across the 10 IMSA rounds in 2017. Cameron is an elbows-out…

Lewis Hamilton has consistently been among Formula 1’s most outstanding performers for a decade now, but 2017 was arguably his best season yet among a very impressive bunch. Nico Rosberg’s shock retirement at the end of last year allowed Hamilton to reset his mind and achieve a fresh equilibrium within Mercedes coming into 2017. New team-mate Valtteri Bottas was stunned by Hamilton’s work ethic, and it seemed that a renewed threat from Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel drove Hamilton to new levels of excellence. It was impressive enough that he equalled Vettel’s tally of four world championships, vanquishing his rival with two races to spare, breaking Michael Schumacher’s record for F1 pole positions in the process, and surpassing Jackie Stewart as Britain’s most successful grand prix driver in terms of titles…

Monte Carlo 1 Sebastien Ogier 2 J-M Latvala 3 Ott Tanak Ogier makes a dream start, taking a fourth straight win in the French Alps, his first in a Ford Fiesta WRC. Early leader Thierry Neuville retires after he damages the suspension on his Hyundai. The Korean squad suffers a tough event, with Hayden Paddon withdrawn after a spectator is killed in his SS1 crash. Sweden 1 J-M Latvala 2 Ott Tanak 3 Sebastien Ogier Again, Neuville leads but retires with steering damage on the superspecial. Jari-Matti Latvala takes Toyota’s first win with the Yaris and also the championship lead. A double podium for M-Sport strengthens an early advantage in the makes’ race. Citroen is nowhere on the snow. Mexico 1 Kris Meeke 2 Sebastien Ogier 3 Thierry Neuville Meeke…

G-DRIVE RACING USED ITS TEAM operations move from Jota to DragonSpeed as a springboard to claim its second consecutive title. G-Drive’s Leo Roussel and Memo Rojas (with Ryo Hirakawa, who missed the Austrian and French rounds) finished second best to title rivals Filipe Albuquerque, William Owen and Hugo de Sadeleer of United Autosports at the Silverstone season-opener. But a win at the Monza 4 Hours was followed by three second places, capitalising on poor races for United at Paul Ricard and Spa. That meant Roussel and Rojas ultimately secured the LMP2 drivers’ title, with G-Drive taking the teams’ prize, with fourth place at the Algarve season finale. United had some joy as it claimed the LMP3 title with Sean Rayhall and John Falb, while Jody Fannin and Rob Smith walked…

IT WAS TYPHOON LAN THAT DECIDED the outcome of the Super Formula Championship. Fans and drivers were denied a dramatic end to the season when the double-header at Suzuka was cancelled after qualifying, leaving Cerumo-Inging’s Hiroaki Ishiura champion, and Red Bull junior Pierre Gasly no opportunity to beat his rival. Despite a tricky start to his rookie season, Gasly became a championship contender after taking his maiden win at Motegi, which was quickly followed by his and Honda-powered Team Mugen’s inspired use of the newly introduced soft tyres to claim victory at the next round at Autopolis. At Sugo, the 2016 GP2 champion nearly made it three on the bounce, trailing Yuhi Sekiguchi by a mere 0.24 seconds across the line. His run of form seemed set to continue at…

JAMIE WHINCUP HAD TO WAIT until the final lap of the Supercars season to secure his seventh title. The Red Bull Holden driver spent the season locked in a pulsating battle with DJR Penske Ford man Scott McLaughlin. It was McLaughlin who enjoyed the car-speed advantage throughout the season too – the young Kiwi took a record-breaking 16 poles for his new team on his way to eight wins. Whincup managed just two poles and four wins in comparison but, thanks to McLaughlin’s hit-and-miss conversion rate from pole, and Whincup’s consistency, it all boiled down to an epic final-day battle on the streets of Newcastle. Ultimately, it was all decided on the last lap when McLaughlin eased Whincup’s team-mate Craig Lowndes into the wall while fighting over the 11th place…

Many good Formula 1 cars got their day in the sun, even if they weren’t the benchmarks of their time. But there are other deserving machines that were prevented from crossing the line first by bad luck, poor timing or unusual circumstances. There have been some very good F1 cars that failed to win a world championship grand prix, and it was a tough task to finalise this top 10. To do so we took into account many factors, including the overall level of the contenders, how close they came to winning a grand prix, and what stopped them succeeding. We also spoke to some of the key figures involved. Here is the verdict… Q&A PATRICK HEAD WILLIAMS CO-FOUNDER 10 WILLIAMS FWOB BEST RESULT 2ND 1978 UNITED STATES GP BEST…

MINI CHALLENGE STAR Reece Barr will graduate to the German ADAC TCR championship next season. The 17-year-old has agreed a deal to join back-to-back TCR Germany titlewinning squad Target Competition. Barr recently tried out the Honda Civic usually driven by TCR Germany champion Josh Files in a two-day test with the team at Adria in Italy. He was runner-up in the Mini Challenge JCW Championship in his maiden season of car racing this year, and won the series’ rookie title. He was formerly Irish karting champion. “It feels great to get this deal done early, and of the options we had this feels like the right move for me,” said Barr. “The Civic TCR was a great car. It was quite easy to drive and more comparable to a British…

@AS_National VARIETY COLOURED MY 40TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON of writing for Autosport, as you will discover. Other than time and wherewithal to attend special events I’ve not yet managed to squeeze into my calendar – and the opportunity to race again after seven years out – I wouldn’t have it any other way. As ever, during a 30-meeting season, there were highs and lows. The joy of reporting and commentating at every round of a sensational Historic Formula Ford championship, which immortalised the class’s golden jubilee year, was tempered by the ghastly accident at Zandvoort that ultimately claimed French Historic F1 racer David Ferrer’s life. Taupo Historic GP Being in at the start of something new and exciting was very special. The inaugural Taupo Historic Grand Prix at the Bruce McLaren…