Indholdsfortegnelse for 19/04/18 i Autosport

Daniel Ricciardo’s victory in last weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix was brilliantly taken and involved the sort of racing – with three teams involved – we’ve been waiting for. Yes, the safety car and Red Bull’s smart strategy made it happen, but Ricciardo still had to get the job done, and his move on Valtteri Bottas for the lead was as close as it gets. Max Verstappen also demonstrated how good Ricciardo’s drive was. That the 20-year-old is a star in the making is no longer news, but he needs to learn from his mistakes – and the way Ricciardo picked his moments. Trying to overtake a top driver such as Lewis Hamilton around the outside of a high-speed corner is always likely to end in failure. And, in this particular…

WORLD RALLY The streets of Llandudno were quieter than expected earlier this week. The World Rally Championship’s planned visit to the north Welsh coast had been cancelled. Instead of launching this year’s Wales Rally GB to the sort of fanfare deserving of such a thoughtful and revolutionary route, the bunting was quietly taken down, press releases recycled and disappointed council members returned to the daily grind. All that remained in Llandudno on a misty Tuesday morning was the air of uncertainty. Rally GB organisers had sought to break the WRC mould by offering five bonus points for a powerstage taking the crews on a five-miler around the headland-hugging, all-asphalt Great Orme before diving into Llandudno town centre for a dash through the streets and finishing on the seafront. Such a…

LE MANS 24 HOURS BMW may be making its Le Mans 24 Hours return this year in GTE Pro, but it has hinted that it could one day again challenge for outright honours. Not with any ordinary prototype, but a zero-emissions racer powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. The overall winner at Le Mans in 1999 believes that it is already possible to build an LMP prototype powered by a fuel cell. Developments in the automotive industry will make it an attractive route for manufacturers in the future, it claims. “We have seen from a study point of view that it is feasible,” said BMW Motorsport boss Jens Marquardt. “It would be a technology to consider in endurance racing and it is something we could look at in the future…

FERRARI’S SECOND CONSECUTIVE FRONT ROW LOCKOUT, with Sebastian Vettel on pole from Kimi Raikkonen by 0.087s, was no surprise. What wasn’t expected was that Ferrari was effectively unopposed, since Mercedes was struggling for tyre temperature. The gap was over half a second to Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton on the second row. “I’m surprised by the gap to Mercedes,” admitted Vettel. “I don’t think anybody, including ourselves, expected that.” This rendered the battle for pole an all-red affair, and it seemed destined to be won by Raikkonen after he set the pace both in Q2 and on the first runs in the Q3 top-10 shootout. In fact, it wasn’t until the long drag to the hairpin up the back straight that things swung decisively in Vettel’s favour; Raikkonen was ahead…

An on-track collision between one of the frontrunners and Max Verstappen is not unfamiliar territory. What was unexpected about the incident in which Verstappen nerfed Sebastian Vettel out of podium contention in the Chinese Grand Prix was that it ended with Vettel praising his rival post-race. Verstappen caught Vettel’s third-placed Ferrari 13 laps from the end of the Shanghai contest, owing to a strategy in which Verstappen took on fresh tyres during a safety car period. Verstappen made a mistake at the Turn 14 hairpin while trying to pass the Ferrari, tipping Vettel into a spin, but unlike his minor war of words with Lewis Hamilton after their Bahrain clash,Verstappen immediately said“of course it was my fault” and apologised to Vettel. “He came up straight after, he realised that he…

Renault driver Nico Hulkenberg won Formula 1’s ‘best of the rest’ battle behind the big three teams in both qualifying and the race in China. He lined up seventh on the grid and held position in the first stint, committed to a twostop strategy. The safety car timing allowed him to take the second stop for free, although he did have to repass Kevin Magnussen’s Haas after the restart to reclaim seventh place. He then capitalised on the damage sustained by Vettel to take sixth on lap 44. Hulkenberg also fell just 0.616 seconds short of jumping Max Verstappen for fifth once the Red Bull driver’s 10s penalty was applied after the chequered flag, thanks to setting his fastest lap of the race on the final tour. “There is this…

IMSA LONG BEACH APRIL 14 ROUND 3/12 Split strategies are the smart way to tackle the IMSA SportsCar Championship’s shortest and most frantic race, and the Action Express team played the game to perfection to win at Long Beach with Filipe Albuquerque and Joao Barbosa. But you need a fast and consistent car too, and perhaps surprisingly, that is not (yet) a description which can be applied to the Acura Team Penske ARX-05s that had looked so strong in qualifying. Juan Pablo Montoya took pole position and led away, chased by Action Express’s other Cadillac, piloted by Felipe Nasr, while behind them Helio Castroneves jumped Harry Tincknell’s Mazda to grab third in the second Acura. At this point, Barbosa bided his time in fifth. But while Montoya and Nasr edged…

CSCC Keith Ahlers celebrated 25 years of Morgan +8 ownership with his 98th and 99th Morgan Challenge victories at the Classic Sports Car Club’s season opener at Snetterton earlier this month – but it wasn’t an easy run. Cautious away from pole in race one, he blasted into the lead down the Bentley Straight only to spear off down the Esses Complex escape road. “I missed my braking point,” he admitted later. Ahlers rejoined in fourth and pushed on, eventually overhauling Andrew Thompson for the win. Local racer Ian Everett only briefly relinquished the lead of the Group 1 Swinging Sixties race during the pitstop phase before reclaiming the top spot in his BMW 1502. Daniel Williamson (Chevrolet Corvette) headed Group 2. Alan Tice led the early Classic K laps…

MONDELLO PARK IMRC APRIL 14-15 Polesitter Des Bruton dominated the opening Irish Stryker race in difficult conditions, but interest centred on Nicole Drought’s determined charge from 14th on the grid to cross the line in fourth. In race two Bruton led early on but was deposed by the charging Andy Dalton. Greg Kelly also eased by in the closing laps, and in their wake Bill Griffin came out on top of a cracking battle with Stephen Ross and Roger Welaratne to take fourth. Mark Johnston took his first Ford Fiesta Zetec victory in the opener, winning from Owen Purcell. William Kellett came home third, though his engine was down on power. Purcell completed the Fiesta double on Sunday, working his way from sixth in a thrilling third race of the…

“THE EDITOR PUSHED INTO MY HANDS THE KEYS TO A MOTORBIKE, A MOBILE PHONE AND A FERRY TICKET” Since good magazine craft dictates that pictures must accompany (and match) words, regrettably we must spool forwards 20 years from my actual first motorsport memory, a grasstrack event somewhere in what was then known as North Humberside (I was five years old at a push, and my father now has no recollection of taking me). That’s what fired my passion for motor racing – although, what with one thing and another, it would be the aforementioned two decades before circumstances enabled me to attend a race in person. And what an introduction it was. The now-defunct car/motorbike/lifestyle magazine I worked for was ‘sponsoring’ Hugh Chamberlain’s team in the FIA GT Championship –…

WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN? WHO IS THIS? This versatile Teuton swapped the slopes for the stages and ended up on top of the world. He found a four-star home from home in the Principality, but initial success was handbuilt by robots over the border. He was a pure gem when it was two against four, but his picky ways didn’t always endear him to his bosses and he could have had at least one more crown if only he’d changed his ways. He was top of his class when he took a long day’s journey into night and back again, while after a grand tour he went back to his roots. He blitzed his way through some spikey dust in record time and was a dab hand on the sealed…

FORMULA 1 The concern over modern Formula 1 pitstops reached peak intensity last week as calls to reduce the complexity and speed of one of grand prix racing’s most intricate processes grew. McLaren’s unsafe release of Stoffel Vandoorne during practice for the Chinese Grand Prix was the sixth pitstop incident across testing and the three GP weekends this year. It followed another McLaren problem in testing, both Haas drivers retiring from the opener in Australia, and two unsafe Kimi Raikkonen releases in Bahrain, where a pit crew member had his leg broken during the race. Over the Chinese GP weekend F1 was urged to consider the unsafe releases by luminaries within the paddock and by FIA president Jean Todt, who called F1 pitstops “too complex” and “something we need to…

WORLD TOURING CARS DTM champion Rene Rast will switch tin-top categories for one weekend when he contests the World Touring Car Cup round in a wildcard slot alongside his drive in the Nurburgring 24 Hours next month. The factory Audi driver will pilot an RS3 LMS during the three-race third round of the WTCR season that will take place on the first three days of the 24 Hours weekend. He will join team regulars Jean-Karl Vernay and Gordon Shedden at WRT. In accordance with WTCR rules, Rast will carry an additional 20kg of ballast, which is assigned to all wildcard entrants, throughout the weekend. His participation also means three reigning touring car champions will be on the grid for the Nurburgring Nordschleife event, as Rast will race alongside last year’s…

MERCEDES SHOWS TEETH Mercedes tested a small vortex-inducing tape strip on the underside of its rear wing in China. This is believed to be in preparation for the next race in Baku. This strip, with the saw-tooth facing rearwards, is placed just behind the throat of the wing where the airflow is starting to get a little lazy. The small vortices this sawtooth sets up will re-energise the airflow, making the main plane of the wing perform more consistently when the DRS is opened. It will also help to get the airflow to reattach faster to the flap section when the DRS is closed. This is vitally important to get driver confidence in the braking areas when you are running reduced downforce levels. Mercedes tried something similar in 2016, but…

Red Bull shows the right racing mentality Wow! What a race from Red Bull. The application of a logical thought process and aggressive strategy displayed a true racing mentality. Other teams really should take note, as this is what the fans want – well, this fan at least. Meanwhile, Mercedes instructed Valtteri Bottas to stay in the lead, which he did not, and failed to pit Lewis Hamilton at a crucial moment. Oh and Ferrari sacrificed Kimi Raikkonen, so Sebastian Vettel had a better shot at victory (they missed). At the time of writing (Sunday morning), Red Bull was in ‘protracted talks’ re Daniel Ricciardo’s contract extension. As far as this fan is concerned, less talk, more action. OK, Red Bull has a plethora of young drivers on its books.…

AT THE REMOTEST CORNER OF THE Shanghai International Circuit sit a row of grandstands nobody ever goes in, and which are now covered with red mesh. It’s unfortunate, because these monuments to China’s thwarted ambition to draw a huge crowd offer a view of a critical part of the track few ever see with their own eyes. Turns 11-13 catapult the cars onto the longest straight in Formula 1, the long drag down to the hairpin. So any loss of time here impacts exit speed, which costs you time all the way down the 1170-metre straight. The entry to this sequence is a slow left-hander, which quickly transforms into the entry to a long right-hander. The key to a quick lap time is to be able to attack Turn 11…

With three different title winners from its first three seasons, it’s fair to say that Formula E certainly has that prized motorsport trait: success diversity. And as the electric championship heads into the business end of its fourth season, it’s looking increasingly likely that a fourth different champion will be crowned. While the first three FE title winners – Nelson Piquet Jr, Sebastien Buemi and Lucas di Grassi – have struggled to find success in the latest campaign for various reasons, three other drivers have been racking up the points and podium visits. Heading to Rome for FE’s first visit to the Eternal City – with a pre-event personal blessing from the Pope, naturally – Techeetah driver Jean-Eric Vergne enjoyed a 30-point lead over Mahindra Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist, while Sam…

There were tales of woe and what might have been up and down the paddock after last Sunday’s 44th Grand Prix of Long Beach. But the truth is that they were all – the realists, anyway – ruing missed opportunities to finish second. The winner was never really in doubt. Only a shunt or an ill-timed caution period could have thrown Alexander Rossi off course. Had the race gone caution-free, he would have won by an even greater margin. The Andretti Autosport-Honda driver led every session bar Friday morning’s, and looked completely unruffled in the nine-lap shootout at the end when he came under attack from Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Will Power. Having taken pole by 0.35 seconds, Rossi wasn’t going to let it all slip away in the deciding laps. While…

ELMS PAUL RICARD (F) APRIL 15 ROUND 1/6 Formula 2 exile Racing Engineering made a winning return to the European Le Mans Series as Olivier Pla, Norman Nato and Paul Petit led home an ORECA sweep of the top seven at the Paul Ricard season-opener. On its first outing in an ACO-sanctioned event since the 1000km of Estoril in 2001, the Spanish squad capitalised on drama for early leaders DragonSpeed to beat Matthieu Vaxiviere, Loic Duval and Francois Perrodo’s guesting TDS Racing ORECA by 4.8 seconds. Nato ran second behind DragonSpeed’s Nicolas Lapierre in the first hour, before a puncture for Lapierre towards the end of his second stint promoted Racing Engineering to the lead. DragonSpeed then retired after Henrik Hedman tangled with Duncan Cameron’s Ferrari 488 GTE, bringing out…

WORLD RALLY CROSS BARCELONA (E) APRIL 14-15 ROUND 1/12 After a controversial clash with Petter Solberg at the first corner in the final brought the attention of the stewards, Mattias Ekstrom was stripped of victory in the opening round of the World Rallycross Championship at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, handing the win to reigning champion Johan Kristoffersson. Ekstrom was judged to have forced PSRX Volkswagen’s Solberg off the track at Turn 1 (above) and was disqualified. That handed Kristoffersson his 10th career victory, and the points lead. Ekstrom kept his points earned for the qualifying races. PSRX Polo driver Kristoffersson gained ground at the start after the Turn collision, and pressured Ekstrom’s EKS Audi throughout, moving into the lead when Ekstrom took his compulsory joker lap. Kristoffersson took his joker…

@AS_National @AutosportNational BRDC BRITISH F3 Jordan Cane will return for a full campaign in BRDC British Formula 3 this year with Douglas Motorsport after deciding not to compete in the Formula Renault Eurocup series. The 16-year-old was scheduled to race with Fortec Motorsports in the series, which began last weekend at Paul Ricard, but has amicably parted company with the team. “I won’t be doing Eurocup this year due to a lot of things,” he said. “You want to be confident that you have got the gear to be competitive, and the reason I made the decision is because we didn’t have an equal chance. “THIS SEASON IS ABOUT GETTING AS MANY WINS AS POSSIBLE” “Both sides left it on a good note, but it’s just unfortunate it’s cost us…

TCR The Triple Eight name will return to racing and could do so in a TCR championship, according to team owner Warren Scott. Scott runs the Team BMR Subaru Levorg programme in the British Touring Car Championship, but took on the Triple Eight Racing name, which was running the two works MG cars in the tin-top series two seasons ago. Since then MG has pulled out as a manufacturer and the cars have been sold. The MG6s are being run this season as private entries driven by Tom Boardman and Rory Butcher under the AmD Tuning banner. Triple Eight Racing is the most successful touring car championship team in the UK, and won nine manufacturers’ titles with Vauxhall and MG, six teams’ titles and six drivers’ crowns under the leadership…

GT CUP Mike Saunders will return to the GT Cup this season aboard his TVR Cerbera GT, which was last raced in 2013. The 1996-built car suffered an engine failure in its last outing, but has been repaired and serviced ahead of the opening GT Cup round this weekend at Donington Park. Saunders was a regular in GT Cup and took an outright victory with the car in 2011 at Spa-Francorchamps. “The GT Cup – the best I can describe it is it’s a challenge, hard racing but with a friendly atmosphere,” said the 31-year-old, who will run the car alongside his father Tony. “I think sometimes other series are maybe not quite as competitive in my experience, and I do like the competitive side, I like the challenge. “The…

BOOK JIM CLARK: THE BEST OF THE BEST In any discussion of who is the greatest racing driver of all time, Jim Clark invariably features. Both Jackie Stewart and Ayrton Senna conquered all others on the way to becoming triple champions and yet both revered Clark. That in itself speaks volumes. Clark died 50 years ago this month, during the opening round of the 1968 European Formula 2 Championship, but his legacy lives on. Evro Publishing’s Jim Clark: The Best of the Best captures the Scot’s life through his formative years and racing success to his untimely death. Written by renowned journalist David Tremayne, author of over 50 books including Donald Campbell: The Man behind the Mask, it’s an unexpectedly personal biography. At first this sits somewhat uncomfortably on the…

EUROPEAN FORMULA 3 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner Dan Ticktum says “we’re in a pretty good place” as he gears up for his Formula 3 European Championship season, after topping last week’s two-day test at Misano. Macau Grand Prix winner and Red Bull Junior Ticktum was the pacesetter on the second morning of the test, when all but one driver set their overall best time, while his Motopark team-mate Juri Vips headed two of the four sessions and was the quickest driver on day one. Hitech GP’s Alex Palou was the other to top a session. The Misano test followed sessions at the Hungaroring and Red Bull Ring. “At the first two official tests it was difficult to say 100% what the other teams were doing in terms of sandbagging…

BRITISH TOURING CARS Reigning champion Ash Sutton topped the British Touring Car Championship test at Thruxton last week in his Team BMR Subaru Levorg, and his performance has hinted at record-breaking pace in Hampshire this year. The 24-year-old clocked a 1m15.717s lap around the 2.356-mile circuit, which hosts its meeting on May 19-20. Eight of the drivers were underneath the qualifying lap record of 1m16.040s, which was set by Matt Neal last season in his Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R. Sutton said he was stunned by his lap. “I wasn’t even going for a time,” he said. “We were here to work through a programme and we did that, so to clock the fastest time is a real bonus.” Sutton, who is fifth in the championship after the opening…

DANIEL RICCIARDO HAS AN UNCANNY KNACK FOR IMPECCABLE TIMING. HIS CHINESE Grand Prix victory was a masterclass in judging the moment – make that moments – to perfection like no-one else. Give him a sniff of victory and he nails it with a ruthless efficiency. This was pure killer instinct. The razor-sharp timing rubs off on those around him too. Whether it was nailing his overtaking moves as he surged from sixth to first in just nine laps, the decisive call to stop under the safety car, or even making it out of the pits in time in Q1 to avoid starting from the back of the grid after repairs following his turbo’s messy demise in practice, Ricciardo and those around him were bang on the money. Six drivers could…

Sebastian Vettel questioned the timing of the Chinese Grand Prix safety car, which denied him and race leader Valtteri Bottas the chance to stop for tyres without losing significant track position. FIA race director Charlie Whiting called for the safety car to be deployed after a collision between Toro Rosso drivers Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly left debris on the track, deciding against a virtual safety car because it was necessary to create a gap in traffic to allow marshals onto the track. The yellow flag period was confirmed just after Bottas and Vettel had passed the safety car line on lap 31, which meant that they could not duck into the pits. When they reached the end of the pit straight the safety car was already waiting for them,…

The Haas team came away from the Chinese Grand Prix with just one point for Kevin Magnussen’s 10th place thanks to the timing of the safety car. Magnussen was waved passed team-mate Romain Grosjean as they ran ninth and 10th in the early stages, with both planning to make one pitstop. They took the restart running seventh and ninth, but as those making stops under the safety car did not lose time, both were vulnerable to attack. Both struggled for tyre temperature and Grosjean quickly slipped back to 12th before stopping for a new set of tyres, while Magnussen hung on to 10th after being passed by Nico Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz. “We were on the way to get seventh,” said team principal Gunther Steiner.“The safety car came…

Back in 2012 Rome was announced as the first European city to join Formula E’s preliminary calendar for its inaugural season in 2014/15 – alongside an appearance by the series’ initial show car at the Colosseum. The race never happened for that campaign, but last weekend Rome became the 18th urban centre to host a race, with mayor Virginia Raggi and a host of stars – including actor Sienna Miller, up-and-coming cyclist Gianni Moscon, Flavio Briatore and Giancarlo Fisichella – in attendance. Felipe Massa also appeared to reiterate his desire to find an FE race seat. “Rome was the first [European city where Formula E intended to race] and that’s a fact,” said FE CEO Alejandro Agag. “There were a lot of press there, we did a press conference five…

IF YOU COULD TEAR YOUR EYES AWAY from the Alexander Rossi v Will Power duel at the front, or anticipating what fate might yet hurl at Sebastien Bourdais and Ryan Hunter-Reay, one of the most entertaining battles during the closing stages in Long Beach was that between Chip Ganassi Racing’s IndyCar sophomore Ed Jones and the Andretti Autosport rookie Zach Veach. Each had a fairly anonymous weekend in the St Petersburg opener in March. Jones ran in the top five at Phoenix in round two but then shunted, so both arrived at the third event needing confidence boosts. “I’ve been happy with my race pace,” said Veach, “but I’m giving myself too much work to do because of where we qualify. I’m getting my qualifying laps 80% right at the…

EURO FORMULA OPEN ESTORIL (P) APRIL 14-15 ROUND 1/8 Felipe Drugovich marked himself out as the early Euroformula Open championship favourite with a dominant lights-to-flag victory in the opening race of the season, followed up by second place in race two. The Brazilian teenager won the final race of last season in a cameo outing with RP Motorsport and showed it was no fluke by converting pole position into a comfortable six-second victory over compatriot Matheus Iorio. Iorio’s Carlin team-mate Cameron Das came through from sixth on the grid to complete the podium, narrowly fending off GP3 refugee Marcos Siebert. Siebert had more joy in race two, profiting from a mistake by poleman Petru Florescu at the Turn 6 hairpin on lap seven of 19 to take a lead he…

MINI CHALLENGE The grandson of motorsport legend John Cooper will contest the full Mini Challenge season this year and aims to move up to the top-flight JCW category within a few months. Charlie Cooper (right) made his motorsport debut at last weekend’s Cooper Pro class season opener at Donington Park, racing one of the naturally aspirated 1.6-litre machines with Excelr8 Motorsport. He is the grandson of John Cooper, who founded the Mini Cooper performance variant of Alec Issigonis’s original Mini design. The family’s tuning legacy has continued under the John Cooper Works moniker, which was founded in 2000 by John’s son, Michael Cooper. Charlie, 37, from London, will act as a brand ambassador for Mini through his maiden season, which is expected to culminate in an outing in the 255bhp…

MINI SE7EN A leading name from Formula Ford 1600 racing in the 1980s, Rick Shortle, is set to challenge for a championship again after a break of 25 years when he joins this year’s Mini Se7en grid. Shortle was a successful racer in the Kent-powered single-seaters, notably in the Champion of Brands series in the mid-1980s. He then raced a selection of saloon and sportscars, but stopped racing full-time after appearances in the 1993 Honda CRX Cup. The 69-year-old will now make a full return at the wheel of a Mini Se7en, running in the S Class. His car will be backed by Geoff Mason, the head of Fusion Events, and he will race to promote the Motor Sport for MS charity, which has been set up by Noel Wilson.…

ROCKINGHAM BARC APRIL 14-15 Reigning Super Mighty Minis champion Scott Kendall continued his solid start to the new season with a commanding race one win last Saturday at Rockingham. Neven Kirkpatrick narrowly denied Jo Polley the victory spoils in a thrilling second encounter on Sunday. Despite being beaten off the line by the fast-starting Dave Rees, Kendall was able to snatch the lead around the outside of Tarzan on the opening lap, romping clear to a comfortable victory. “On a circuit like Rockingham, it’s easier to win if you are lucky enough to break the tow,” Kendall said. Both Kirkpatrick and Connor O’Brien passed Rees to take the remaining podium positions, while Silverstone winner Polley recovered from a sluggish start to fifth. Polley made no such error in race two,…

OULTON PARK 750 MC APRIL 14 Six bewinged BMW E46 M3s in the top 10 in qualifying for the wonderfully diverse 43-car Club Enduro on nearby Aintree’s Grand National day would have got punters long odds on rivals for the postponed 750 Motor Club season-opener at Oulton Park. But the BMWs were beaten in an extraordinary two-hour International Circuit race, however, leaving Guy Colclough a deserving winner in his SEAT Leon TCR. Andy Marston and Luke Sedzikowski led at the start with Colclough (on solo duty, with team-mate Tony Rodgers unwell) chasing the M3s. All pitted together during a safety car interlude – during which Rob Meredith’s M3 was tugged out of the Knickerbrook gravel bed – whereupon Porsche pair Steve Cheetham (Boxster) and Matt Faizey (968) took up the…

DONINGTON PARK MSVR APRIL 14-15 The Lotus Cup built up to a thrilling climax at Donington Park as Craig Denman continued his fine form by completing a dominant second consecutive hat-trick. Starting 10th in race three after two faultless lights-to-flag efforts, Denman made steady progress and passed Joe Taylor’s Exige as rain fell. Taylor had climbed six spots from eighth with a lightning getaway, but could only add a second to his brace of third-place finishes. Kyle Reid’s winning streak stretched to five with two Mini Challenge Pro victories. Having taken a clean sweep in the Scottish championship’s Knockhill visit a week earlier, he grabbed pole in race one and romped to victory. “I feel awesome,” said Reid, who is unable to partake in a full season owing to work…