Indholdsfortegnelse for 04/01/18 i Autosport

NIGEL MANSELL WAS ONE OF FORMULA 1’S MOST exciting performers in the 1980s and early ’90s. He was also an outspoken figure and still can be, even out of the limelight. Mansell keeps an eye on developments today – not least through his role as a driver steward – and has some firm views on the current state of F1. Ahead of his appearance at the Autosport International show next week, Mansell opened up about Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Ferrari and some of things about the sport he doesn’t like. It’s unlikely you’ll agree with everything Mansell says (page 16), but it’s clear that he still cares. And he also believes Hamilton could do what most people thought was impossible just a few seasons ago: surpass Michael Schumacher’s record of…

A MIX OF SINGLE-SEATER ACES AND DTM stars will be the main attention-grabbers in Formula E’s first test for ‘rookie’ drivers after next week’s Marrakech race. While the 2017-18 FE race drivers nurse an after-party hangover on Sunday January 14, many of the 20 testers will be getting behind the wheel of the electric single-seater for the first time. Renault e.dams (Mitsunori Takaboshi/ TBA) Nissan will take over its automotive partner Renault’s factory entry in FE from 2018-19 and as part of its learning process Japanese Formula 3 champion Mitsunori Takaboshi will become the first driver from Nissan’s current roster to sample an FE car. Renault is yet to confirm its test entry, although Formula 2 racer Alexander Albon has also been linked. Audi Sport Abt (Nyck de Vries/Nico Muller)…

EUROSPORT EVENTS CHIEF Francois Ribeiro says as many as 20 drivers will be in contention to win each race in the new World Touring Car Cup. The World Touring Car Championship will cease as an FIA world championship from 2018 and become ‘WTCR’ as part of a two-year deal to allow it to adopt TCR rules. A 26-car limit has been imposed on full-season entries, with priority for those places given to teams from the WTCC and the TCR International Series, which was canned as part of the WTCR deal. Balance of Performance will be determined by the FIA alongside TCR technical officials, and Ribeiro said getting that right would allow the majority of the grid to be in contention for race wins. “There won’t be any proper factory teams…

When Sebastien Ogier signed for us at the end of 2016, everything changed. Overnight, we once more became a real force in the World Rally Championship. Through the testing we’d done with our 2017 Ford Fiesta WRC, we really felt we had a good car. It was impossible to predict what was coming, but certainly we weren’t afraid of anything that anybody else had done. And when Seb and Julien Ingrassia tested the car and said yes, they wanted to join us, that was a real shot in the arm. The Ogier effect Ultimately, the biggest ‘Ogier effect’ came in points and prizes, but it went way deeper than just scoring those goals. I’ve worked at this team for 10 years and, with the greatest of respect to the other…

ASTON MARTIN RACING WORLD Endurance Championship duo Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen will join TF Sport’s attack on this year’s British GT Championship. The Danish drivers will share a pair of Aston Martin Vantage GT3s with returning amateur racers Derek Johnston and Mark Farmer. Sorensen, 27, will share with Johnston in the 2016 championship-winning car, replacing the Optimum Motorsportbound Jonny Adam, while Thiim, 28, will partner Farmer in the sister chassis. Jon Barnes, who also raced with the team last year, is in search of a new drive. The deal means that both Thiim and Sorensen will return to UK racing for the first time since their respective Formula Ford programmes a decade ago. Thiim raced at the Formula Ford Festival in 2006 in a factory Ray, while Sorensen competed…

RICHARDSON CHASSIS ENGINEERING will return to Ginetta Junior this season, with support from GT racer Tim Sugden. The squad last competed in the series in 2015 with Will Tregurtha, who was racing in his maiden Ginetta season, but is now planning a two-car comeback. Tregurtha, who went on to win the championship in 2016, will be a driver coach for RCE. Team boss Dave Richardson said: “Tim’s knowledge and contacts in the BTCC paddock together with our expertise developing and competing in spaceframe race cars provides junior drivers with the experience, equipment and environment to start racing.”…

@jackbenyon WHEN YOU’RE BARREL-ROLLING into a gravel trap at upwards of 100mph, and your head pops out of the window, it doesn’t normally lead to good things. Andrew Bourke was incredibly lucky: in the short-term it gave him just bruises, and in the long-term it helped deliver a championship title. The weekend before the huge crash at Brands Hatch’s Paddock Hill Bend in 2016, Bourke had just taken his best finish of third in his class in the British Racing and Sports Car Club’s Alfa Romeo Championship. Then the crash changed everything. “I had no brakes,” explains Bourke. “As I went to turn in there was a car there; I clipped the car and that sent me into a roll. It was about 120mph and a violent roll. I was…

A dmittedly this isn’t a typical Have-a-go hero entry, but an exception has to be made for Alex Stone and his titanic efforts in rallying last year. Stone, 19, competes with his father John and won his first championship in 2017, the three-round Three Sisters Challenge at the Wigan-based circuit. The hero element of this is that Alex has Down’s Syndrome, and isn’t able to communicate verbally. Down’s Syndrome is a genetic condition that typically causes some level of learning disability – different for each person – and certain physical characteristics. People with Down’s Syndrome also have different personalities and abilities. “Lots of people with Down’s Syndrome are, unfortunately, stuck in a corner in front of the TV,” says Ford Fiesta S2500 driver John. “Alex’s speech is incredibly poor. But he…

SEBASTIEN LOEB IS TO RETURN TO THE World Rally Championship on a part-time basis with Citroen this season, but the nine-time champion’s comeback will deprive the team’s Craig Breen of what could have been two of his best opportunities for a maiden WRC victory. Loeb will drive Citroen’s second C3 WRC in Mexico, Corsica and Spain, and the two European rallies were target events for Breen in 2018. Kris Meeke, who leads the Versailles team in its second season with the C3, will start all 13 rounds of the series. Loeb, who tested with Citroen twice last season, had been expected to start this month’s season-opening Monte Carlo Rally before the logistical challenge of getting back from the Dakar Rally became clear. His first WRC return since leading on a…

Series newcomer Charouz Racing System has recruited Antonio Fuoco and Louis Deletraz as its drivers for 2018. Both will carry the logo of the Ferrari Driver Academy on their new machines with the Czech team, which won the final Formula V8 3.5 drivers’ and teams’ titles as Lotus. Fuoco finished eighth in the 2017 F2 standings as team-mate to Charles Leclerc at Prema Racing, while Deletraz ended the year in 17th after switching from Racing Engineering to Rapax. “I’m thrilled to welcome Louis and Antonio into our team and keen to work with the Ferrari Driver Academy,” said team principal Antonin Charouz.…

This year is definitely going to be a bit trickier; for us it’s that difficult second album, isn’t it? The first one went better than we could ever have dreamed and now we’ve got to follow it up. We start the season with real expectations. Not since the start of 2007, as the factory Ford team, has M-Sport defended the world championship, but that year went well and we won back-to-back titles; but this time we’re defending both the manufacturers’ and drivers’. It’s going to be tough, but we learned so much through the first season with Sebastien Ogier; we’re in very good shape. One thing there’s zero chance of is complacency. The last round of 2017 was just about our worst event of the year. So much went wrong…

@gazzasportscars There were four distinct phases to the 2017 World Endurance Championship, and Toyota had the advantage in three of them. Yet it was Porsche that collected all the big prizes on offer. It claimed the drivers’ title with Brendon Hartley, Timo Bernhard and Earl Bamber, and the manufacturers’ crown, as well as Le Mans 24 Hours glory with the same trio. And it was that win in France that provided the foundation to its successful pursuit of the end-of-season silverware. Porsche won a topsy-turvy Le Mans in which all five of the factory LMP1 prototypes hit problems. It then followed up on its 19th victory in the 24 Hours with a short burst of dominance (phase three) after the arrival of the high-downforce version of the 919 Hybrid. Only…

TWO TEAMS STOOD HEAD AND shoulders above the rest in the battle for the championship in the new era of more powerful and faster LMP2 machinery. Rebellion and the Jackie Chan DC Racing squad run by Jota shared out the victories in seven of the nine races over a closely fought title battle that was still raging deep into the Bahrain finale. Rebellion, which like Chan DC and all the other P2 WEC entrants ran the ORECA 07 chassis with the spec Gibson V8, had the momentum over the second half of the season, the best of its two cars – shared by Bruno Senna, Julien Canal and Nicolas Prost – winning three times in the four races leading up to Bahrain. That allowed them to overhaul the points lead…

Leicestershire venue Donington Park will undergo a multi-million-pound transformation ahead of the 2018 season. The takeover of the track was completed by MotorSport Vision in August last year and several major improvements will now be made to the circuit’s facilities. This includes a new grandstand on the outside of Hollywood corner, a new restaurant, bar and cafe, and the existing paddock entrance will become the circuit’s main entrance. The toilet blocks in spectator areas will be demolished and replaced with bigger and more modern facilities and a new circuit office will be added, as well as internal roads being improved for easier access. The changes are due to be completed by March.…

THE BMW CAR CLUB GB WILL LAUNCH a racing series in 2018 for a wide range of the German marque’s cars. The BMW Car Club Racing Series has revealed a 14-race provisional calendar, shared with the 750 Motor Club, Aston Martin Owners’ Club and Castle Combe Racing Club. The organisers have deferred championship status until 2019. The new series will share four events – Silverstone, Croft, Donington Park and Snetterton – with the 750MC and hopes to attract entrants from the existing M3 Cup and 330 Challenge. These drivers will be offered a discount on the entry fee as an incentive to compete. The classes, aimed at production-spec vehicles, will use a power-to-weight-ratio system to even up the competition. Tyres are open but must be treaded, with the intention of…

THRUXTON TO HOST HISTORIC SERIES Three major historic race series from the Motor Racing Legends organisation will be central to the Thruxton 50th Anniversary Celebration meeting on June 2-3. The Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy, the Stirling Moss Trophy and the Historic Touring Car Challenge will take many cars and drivers to the Hampshire track for the first time. Grids of pre-1956 sports cars, pre-’61 sports-racers (above) and pre-’91 touring cars will be major attractions. NEW, IMPROVED TYRES FOR CLIO CUP The Renault UK Clio Cup will introduce a new Michelin tyre for this season. Michelin returned to being the series’ tyre supplier last season following several years of using Dunlops, and the new tyre is expected to lead to even faster lap times in 2018 after a number of…

A RACE SERIES SOLELY FOR pre-1966 Porsche 911s has been launched by French historic race promoter Peter Auto, and there are already plans to expand the three-race series in 2019 by adding a race in England. To be called the 2.0L Cup, the inaugural season will take in races at Peter Auto events at Spa, Dijon and Paul Ricard. UK-based Porsche specialist Lee Maxted-Page is behind the project and he believes there is sufficient demand to support standalone races. Despite spiralling values for the two-litre short-chassis 911s dating from before 1966, the target is to have 40 cars per race, and that some notable former Porsche racers will share cars in the 90-minute enduros. To date, the only previous race exclusively for early 911s was the John Aldington Trophy race…

ANDRE LOTTERER IS CALLING time on his Super Formula career in Japan after 15 consecutive seasons. The German has had to relinquish his drive with the TOM’S team courtesy of his programmes in Formula E and the World Endurance Championship with the Techeetah and Rebellion teams respectively. It brings to an end a career in a series formerly known as Formula Nippon that yielded the title in 2011, a further nine top-three positions in the championship and 24 race victories. “It will be sad to call time on something I’ve been doing since 2003,” said Lotterer, who raced for TOM’S in 12 of his seasons in the Japanese single-seater series. “It wasn’t something that I did for the money; I did it for fun. It was awesome racing and nothing…

Autosport, and others, keep referring to Mercedes’ Formula 1 double titles in 2017 as the first time a team has defended its double championships across a major change to the regulations. This is patently untrue. From 1988 to ’89 the regulations changed hugely, going from a 1.5-litre turbocharged to a 3.5-litre normally aspirated engine formula, and of course chassis regulations changed hugely as a result. Yet McLaren-Honda successfully defended its double championships across this huge change from 1988 to ’89. So it is simply not true that Mercedes is the first team to do this. McLaren-Honda did it in the past, and spectacularly so. Peter Dick By email Absolutely, although it is probably fair to say that Mercedes is the first to do so across a major aero rule change…

@Nauckas The 2018 motorsport season will get under way in Birmingham with the annual extravaganza that is the Autosport International Show, which will take place at the NEC. On January 11-14 a host of the sport’s personalities will arrive for Europe’s largest indoor pre-season motorsport show, which will be packed full of on-stage interviews, displays and live driving demonstrations. As usual, the first two days of the event are dedicated to the motorsport industry itself, as companies and personnel present their latest offerings. Then, on Saturday and Sunday, the doors of the NEC are opened to the public. Here’s a short selection from the feast that you can expect to see. THE SHOWSTOPPERS The centrepiece for Autosport International in 2018 is a feature created in conjunction with Ferrari. It will…

@ gazzasportscars The privateer is back. Back as an important component of the premier LMP1 class at the Le Mans 24 Hours and in the World Endurance Championship. And, quite possibly, back in the hunt for outright victories against factory opposition. This had been the avowed intent of the rulemakers, most pertinently the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, organiser of Le Mans and promoter of the WEC, as it strived to resurrect LMP1 privateer participation that slumped to a one-car low at the 24 Hours last year. The efforts to revive interest among independents have proved successful. Rules the ACO has put in place together with the FIA are attracting a growing band of privateers ready to step up to the plate to take on Toyota at the front of the…

AMAZING CONSISTENCY ALLOWED Ferrari to come back from a disappointing – disastrous, even – Le Mans 24 Hours to take the GT drivers’ and manufacturers’ crowns newly afforded with full world championship status in 2017. Title winners James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi only notched up a single point in the French enduro, but three victories and a further four podiums allowed them to secure the title at the end of a closely fought GTE Pro campaign. The factory AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTEs were competitive everywhere in the new era of the automatic Balance of Performance, a system based on pure maths and designed to remove the politicking and bickering that blighted the old procedure. That consistency set the Italian cars apart from their rivals in a season that…

FOX MOTORSPORT HAS BECOME THE first team to enter a new Mercedes AMG GT4 in the British GT Championship this season. The squad has secured an entry for the all-new machine, which will be driven by GT Cup graduates Michael Broadhurst and Mark Murfitt. Fox, which is run by racer Paul McNeilly, last competed in British GT running a Ginetta G55 GT4 for sporadic outings in 2016. The team has also run a Ferrari 488 GT3 in recent years. Murfitt entered GT racing as an amateur last year and competed in both GT Cup and Britcar in a G55 alongside Broadhurst. Broadhurst has a long history with British GT, having won the first-ever GT4 race at Oulton Park in 2008 alongside Joe Osborne. The team is scheduled to take delivery…

RGB SPORTS 1000 FRONTRUNNER SCOTT MITTELL will not compete in the championship this year, since his eponymous team has built a new car aimed at the Bikesports and OSS championships. Mittell, who finished second in the RGB standings last season in a Mittell MC-53, won’t commit to a single championship in 2018, but will instead dovetail the development of the new car, the MC-41, between Bikesports and OSS. “It’s all designed and the chassis are made, we’re just having the fuel tanks made at the moment,” said Mittell of the new design. “It will be similar to the RGB car, just with a few differences.” The MC-41 will feature more pronounced aerodynamic devices and a central driving position, which isn’t allowed in RGB. It will keep the 1000cc engine used…

DAVID PORTER AND DAVID HARVEY shared Plum Pudding Sports Car victories in front of a large crowd at Mallory Park. Porter’s Radical SR3 has in the past been sluggish off the line, but in the first race he converted his front-row start into the lead at Gerard’s Bend. His most likely rivals started at the back of the field – by virtue of having placed late entries, as the grid for race one is decided in order of receipt – but brothers Paul and Jon Woolfitt, as well as Harvey, charged from the back in various motorcycle-engined machines. Paul Woolfitt’s pace was most impressive – his fastest lap was quicker than Porter’s – and he took second from Jon Curry’s Caterham 310R at the exit of Gerard’s on lap three.…

It’s not often a book titled A Life in Pictures sets out to capture your attention with an opening chapter entitled ‘Once upon a time in Montona’. That line sounds as if it could have been lifted from a fairytale or a children’s book, but Mario Donnini’s tome on Mario Andretti is far from either. The dual-language book – Italian and English – covers Andretti’s racing career and provides an insight into his life both on and off the track. The book was released ahead of the 40th anniversary of Andretti winning the Formula 1 drivers’ title in the seminal Lotus 79 in 1978. And it runs through his career, covering it all: grand prix racing, the Daytona 500, Le Mans, success with Ferrari – and even his missed F1…