Indholdsfortegnelse for 22/11/18 i Autosport

Without doubt one of the coolest cars to hit a race track in 2018 was the Porsche 919 Evo. Neel Jani captured the imagination when he took this unrestricted sportscar around Spa quicker than Lewis Hamilton’s 2017 Belgian Grand Prix pole time, then Timo Bernhard recorded a scarcely believable 5m19.5s lap of the Nurburgring’s fearsome Nordschleife. When Porsche offered Autosport the chance of a behind-the-scenes look at the incredible car and to talk to the engineers and drivers involved, it was an easy decision to make. The World Endurance Championship-winning 919 Hybrid was a good place to start and the Evo is a fitting tribute to the car that won the Le Mans 24 Hours three times. As well as explaining why and how the car came to life, Tom…

MACAU GRAND PRIX Formula 3 European Championship racer Sophia Florsch underwent nine hours of surgery on Monday following her horrific accident in the Macau Grand Prix. The 17-year-old Van Amersfoort Racing driver miraculously sustained no life-threatening injuries in the 170mph crash at Lisboa. She had cannoned into the car of Japanese F3 champion Sho Tsuboi, launching her above the barrier, through the top of a safety fence and into a photographers’ stand, before crashing down to the ground. A bone splinter that was dangerously close to her spinal cord was removed in the surgery. Her team principal, Frits van Amersfoort, told the BBC World Service: “We are extremely happy that she is now recovering and that everything went extremely well. There’s no fear of paralysis whatsoever.” Tsuboi was also taken…

TYRE ALLOCATION TRACK STATS THEMES TO WATCH CAN VETTEL BOUNCE BACK IN THE FINALE? Sebastian Vettel has had a torrid time since August, finding himself facing the wrong way on too many occasions. Ferrari doesn’t have the best record in Abu Dhabi, but this weekend would be a timely return to form ahead of new challenges in 2019. BOTTAS v VERSTAPPEN Valtteri Bottas won last year’s Abu Dhabi GP, while Max Verstappen could have won last time out in Brazil had it not been for the clash with Esteban Ocon. Bottas leads the Red Bull man by just three points. Can he do enough to hold on to fourth place in the drivers’ championship? SAUBER TO GRAB ONE MORE SPOT? Sauber’s revival this season has taken it to within six…

Porsche’s withdrawal from the World Endurance Championship ended a great period for sportscar racing. Some of the battles against Toyota and Audi between 2014 and ’17 were epic, and Porsche’s exit – following that of Audi – put the championship at a crossroads. Dissatisfaction with future regulations, which Porsche felt “simplified” the high-tech hybrid class, and a new focus on its Formula E entry in 2019/20, contributed to that decision. But that wasn’t the end of the 919’s story, which includes three drivers’ titles, three manufacturers’ crowns and a trio of Le Mans 24 Hours successes. Despite not racing, the 919 made the 2018 headlines – perhaps more than any other sportscar story, with the exception of Fernando Alonso’s ultimately successful Le Mans bid – with two laps, one at Spa…

It was the first time we had the car on track. It had run at Weissach (Porsche’s base) a little bit, but at Weissach you cannot go fast. The car was bouncing in the runs and it could not go any quicker than 340km/h (approx 210mph). We did Eau Rouge at 325km/h already. Michelin were on the safe side with tyre pressures, we ran super high. At the beginning it was a little tricky to drive because you know high tyre pressures make the car feel a little bit light. The sidewall and construction were for a load with more downforce, so we had to run a lot more tyre pressure, which made the car – not let’s say super-easy – and it didn’t help performance either. What is interesting,…

Chinese entrant Jackie Chan DC Racing notched up a hometown victory in Shanghai with another solid performance from Ho-Pin Tung, Stephane Richelmi and Gabriel Aubry. It would be wrong to say that the winning crew in the Jota Sport-run ORECA-Gibson 07 had a faultless run, they just mounted a more coherent assault on a difficult race than their rivals. Tung struggled initially with incorrect tyre pressures, which explained an early stop to hand over to Richelmi. It resulted in the team taking the lead when the DragonSpeed ORECA that Anthony Davidson had propelled to the front during the opening stint came into the pits. Richelmi established the car in a lead it held for the majority of the race, despite a gearbox glitch and misting problem in the cockpit. Aubry…

GT WORLD CUP MACAU (PRC) NOVEMBER 18 Schnitzer Motorsport is a 13-time winner of the Macau Guia race under Charly Lamm, so it was only fitting that he ended his spell as team boss by winning the GT World Cup with Augusto Farfus and BMW. But while Lamm’s presence will be missed, his imminent departure provided a race that otherwise featured a thin entry and a decided lack of overtaking with a suitably stirring narrative. As events go, this was about as processional as they come – just three on-track overtakes were completed in the main race – but that shouldn’t take anything away from Farfus’s performance. The Brazilian announced during the weekend he would step away from his DTM commitments with BMW to focus on GT racing, and vindicated…

VNUK Let’s get one thing straight. Motorsport isn’t clear of the potential doomsday scenario represented by Vnuk, the interpretation of which threatens the future of the sport in the European Union. But last week we witnessed a step towards the light, common sense and an extended future when, for the first time, a body of importance within the EU suggested motorsport be spared. The 2014 Vnuk court case set a precedent that all vehicles should have insurance, even if they are being used on private land. That would mean all cars competing in motorsport events in Europe would need to be insured, and any crash between cars would be treated as a road traffic collision. Most insurance firms have confirmed that this would make motorsport uninsurable. But the European Parliament’s…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB The Porsche Carrera Cup GB will head to Barcelona for the first time next year after making a number of changes to its provisional 2019 calendar. The series had originally pencilled in a round at Spa or Monza when its draft schedule was unveiled in September. But since then, an opportunity to race at the Circuit de Catalunya in support of the European Le Mans Series has arisen and organisers have elected to go to Spain in July instead. This in turn has had a knock-on effect with the rest of the calendar. The series will still feature at seven of the 10 British Touring Car Championship events, but instead of skipping Donington Park and Thruxton it will now not compete at Knockhill and Snetterton. That…

BRANDS HATCH BARC NOVEMBER 17-18 Two wins at Brands Hatch were enough to earn James Hedley the 2018 Ginetta Junior Winter Series title, but thoughts of such success were a long way from his mind last Saturday evening. A heavy crash in the eventually cancelled second race put the Elite Motorsport driver on the back foot as red flags and big accidents developed into a theme of the weekend. There were seven stoppages across the two qualifying sessions and four races. Ruben Del Sarte was the favourite, competing in his third winter series and having finished fifth in the Ginetta Junior standings this season. But it was Douglas Motorsport drivers Gus Burton and Lorcan Hanafin who were initially the ones to beat after locking out the front row for race…

QUIZ WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN? WHO IS THIS? This crash-prone emperor of a golden era set an unenviable record. Having conquered all at ground level, he made a big move abroad and fell just short of glory. With backing from flavour (sic) country he joined forces with a future giant as it was beginning its journey. A reputation was forged with some erratic showings, belying his endurance success. Colours were reversed as he travelled home for his best chance in the big time, but bad luck and a short-fuse denied him. By a journeyman par extraordinaire, there would be the occasional moments of brilliance to keep the fans entertained. After finally calling time, he vanished from the scene to make lots of money. He was tempted out of retirement to…

FORMULA 1 Expectations are high that Formula 1 racing will be closer and more spectacular next season. The sport’s stakeholders promise a noticeable impact from 2019 rule changes designed to make it easier for cars to follow each other. Simplified front and rear wing regulations will be introduced next year with the aim of improving on-track action by reducing the front wing sensitivity in turbulent air and minimising the difficulty of following another car closely. The FIA believes the changes will reduce the effect of running in ‘dirty air’ by one third, while F1 sporting boss Ross Brawn says simulations suggest a “tangible” effect on overtaking. However, leading team personnel have warned the changes may have a limited impact. Williams performance chief Rob Smedley raises FIA single-seater head Nikolas Tombazis’s…

FORMULA RENAULT EUROCUP Fernando Alonso’s FA Racing team will step up to the Formula Renault Eurocup in the 2019 season, as the series introduces a new car. The two-time Formula 1 champion’s squad already competes in Spanish Formula 4, karting and Esports, but will now expand into its most high-profile championship to date. The Eurocup competition has confirmed the 10 teams that will take part next season, and FA Racing is one of three new outfits on the list. “It’s a real honour to have FA Racing by Drivex pre-selected to participate in the 2019 Formula Renault season,” said Alonso. “This series has provided some of my toughest competitors in F1 and this highlights its very high competitive level. “After karting, Esports and F4, Formula Renault is for FA Racing…

You had to have a strategy, with all the crests. We didn’t know it all because no-one had done that speed at that track. How to attack or not attack the kerbs and the crests. With this track and this speed, there is no safety net. If you have the wrong line or hit a kerb, you can’t get the car back. The first section Hatzenbachbogen is very slow and becomes quite quick and you have a lot of direction changes. We decided not to run the kerbs. Over the crest before Flugplatz there is a little bit of movement at the braking point. The two right-handers were flat. It was here I opened the DRS for a spell and just tapped the brakes just before Schwedenkreuz and then closed…

Aston Martin might have claimed a first pole with its new-for-2018 GTE Pro contender last time out at Fuji, but it ended up nowhere in the Japanese race because it got its tactics wrong and the second-generation Vantage GTE didn’t look after its tyres. Those wrongs were righted at Shanghai to enable Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim to notch up victory number one for the car at only the fifth time of asking. The Vantage was the fastest car in the race in China, one that looked after its grooved Michelin rubber much better than its slick tyres a month ago. The Prodrive-run Aston Martin Racing squad also got its tactics right this time around. At Fuji it had left its two cars out too long on wet tyres as…

Dan Ticktum is now a two-time Macau Grand Prix winner, and the manner of his victory last weekend on the famed Guia circuit was crushing, whereas in 2017 it was rather less so. “The best way to describe it would be to say ‘less surprising but more enjoyable’,” he reflected in the wake of his latest triumph. “I don’t want to sound overly cocky, but it’s been a pretty perfect weekend on my part and the team’s part.” That’s not cocky at all – it’s a perfect summation of the event. No-one had an answer to the pace of Ticktum or, once he’d got up to second place, his Motopark team-mate Joel Eriksson. As it had done in 2017, the German squad had the edge through qualifying and the two…

WTCR MACAU (PRC) NOVEMBER 17-18 ROUND 10/10 For the best part of an hour, around 40 people stood crowded around the BRC Racing garage in the Macau Grand Prix car park ‘paddock’ between the final two World Touring Car Cup races on Sunday morning. They weren’t clamouring around the car of a new world champion, though – they were waiting to see if Gabriele Tarquini would even make it out for the season finale. Tarquini headed into the Macau Guia weekend with a 39-point cushion over nearest rival Yvan Muller, but by the end of the meeting’s second race that lead had been slashed to 18 points – with 30 on offer in the final race. Tarquini’s weekend hadn’t started too badly, but it was in danger of unravelling by…

MOTOGP VALENCIA (E) NOVEMBER 18 ROUND 19/19 An Andrea Dovizioso and Ducati victory in wet conditions would appear nothing out of the ordinary, but this race was anything but. As rain lashed the Ricardo Tormo Circuit, the final chapter of MotoGP 2018 proved to be its most spectacularly dramatic. On a grid almost unified in its choice of soft wet rear tyre, world champion Marc Marquez was the only one to opt for the medium option. Inspired, so very nearly. While the track was wet, the rain stayed away as the start time edged nearer, and echoing a strategy that Honda stablemate Cal Crutchlow used to perfection at Brno in 2016, betting against Marquez seemed folly. Not least because he had recovered to within 0.130 seconds of pole in qualifying,…

TCR UK TCR UK will have an overseas round for the first time next year as Spa joins the calendar for the category’s second season. An exact date for the trip to the Belgian Grand Prix venue in June has yet to be confirmed, and more details about the event should be announced soon. The series will also visit Snetterton in 2019, while both Castle Combe and Knockhill drop off the calendar. Oulton Park, Croft, Brands Hatch and Donington Park retain their places in the seven-event schedule, while the Silverstone fixture will use the Grand Prix circuit next season because the championship will appear on the support bill of the International GT Open meeting in September. As with the inaugural season, there are no date clashes with the British Touring…

INTERNATIONAL MOTORSPORT Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Formula 1 World Championship Rd 21/21 Yas Marina, United Arab Emirates November 25 TV Live Sky Sports F1, Sunday 1130. Channel 4, Sunday 1200 Formula 2 Rd 12/12 Yas Marina, United Arab Emirates November 24-25 TV Live Sky Sports F1, Saturday 1430, Sunday 0930 GP3 Series Rd 9/9 Yas Marina, United Arab Emirates November 24-25 TV Live Sky Sports F1, Saturday 0825, Sunday 0805 World Rallycross Rd 12/12 Killarney, South Africa November 24-25 Super TC2000 Rd 12/12 Cordoba, Argentina November 25 Asian Le Mans Series Rd 1/4 Shanghai, China November 25 Australian Supercars Rd 16/16 Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia November 24-25 UK MOTORSPORT Rockingham BARC November 24 Super Send Off Meeting: Saloons, Sports/GTs, Single-Seaters, One-Hour Race, demonstrations…

Good news that Formula E will be on the BBC What wonderful news it is that Formula E will be broadcast on the BBC next year! Yes, I know there’ll be cynics out there saying that it’s only on the red button, but it’s still a good move when you include the BBC’s online platforms and the fact that the races will be on iPlayer for a month after the chequered flag falls. If the BBC follows up on FE’s promise of at least one race to be broadcast live on BBC One or BBC Two, then I believe it will receive the exposure it deserves. Oh, and don’t forget – advert-free broadcasts! Well worth your licence fee… Joshua KerrKidderminster, Worcestershire Mercedes’ long-term winning pedigree Edd Straw (‘How great is…

WEIGHT Porsche saved 39kg by removing the air-conditioning unit, lights systems, windscreen wiper, several sensors, race control-related electronic devices and its pneumatic jack system. The removal of endurance elements no longer needed for a record run was important, because the reinforced power-steering and suspension added weight to the 2017-spec 919 Hybrid. Including the driver, the 919 Evo lowered the car’s weight from 888kg to 849kg. AEROKIT Porsche created three aerokits last year: high-downforce, Le Mans and the Evo. The Evo is by far the most dramatic, offering a 53% increase in downforce. “The idea was to start with the Le Mans 2017 car [driven by Nick Tandy, Andre Lotterer and Neel Jani],” says Porsche’s leading LMP1 aerodynamicist Matthew Jacquemont. “[There were] very little elements from the [planned 2018 car] because even…

Another race and another dominant one-two for Toyota. But there was as much good news as bad for the World Endurance Championship last weekend in Shanghai as it attempts to retain interest – and perhaps even credibility – through an hour of need also known as the 2018/19 superseason. The Toyota trio behind in the points, Jose Maria Lopez, Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway, pretty much lucked in to a victory over team-mates Sebastien Buemi, Fernando Alonso and Kazuki Nakajima to reduce the gap at the head of the championship. More importantly there was evidence – albeit largely circumstantial for the moment – that the privateers are edging closer to the one manufacturer left standing in LMP1. On top of that, SMP Racing finally had a clean run on the…

A dramatic finale provided a fitting conclusion to one of the hardest-fought World Rally Championships ever. Toyota could argue it had the fastest car in 2018 and Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville led the points standings for much of the way, but in the end the title went to the man who has been here before. Sebastien Ogier secured a historic sixth crown in his final outing aboard an M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC. Not since 2003 had three drivers arrived at the final round with a chance of the championship crown, but the three crews in question had little interest in the past. It was the immediate future that interested them more. Following a near-perfect penultimate round in Spain last month, Ogier was back in front and busy telling everybody that it…

For all its usual domination of the Formula 3 European Championship, Prema Powerteam occasionally has an off-colour Macau Grand Prix, and that’s what it experienced in 2018. Unfortunately so, because title sponsor Theodore Racing is next-to-sacred in Macau, and the Italian team’s pit is a hive of media activity throughout the event. European champion Mick Schumacher was the team’s best finisher in fifth, but apart from in free practice – he topped both sessions – he didn’t look like repeating the Macau victories of dad Michael and uncle Ralf. To be fair, Prema did seem to have good pace through Thursday and Friday, and it was a minor Schumacher incident that adversely affected almost the entire team’s bid to qualify up near the front for Saturday’s preliminary race. Schumacher touched…

NASCAR CUP HOMESTEAD (USA) NOVEMBER 18 ROUND 36/36 Few would have expected NASCAR’s regular season-dominating ‘Big Three’ of Martin Truex Jr, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick to be back facing the media while Penske’s Joey Logano celebrated his maiden Cup series title after victory at Homestead. Logano had anticipated it, declaring in the build-up that he was the favourite, even though he had only scraped through to the final four thanks to a last-lap victory at Martinsville last month. Truex, enraged at being shoved out of the way by Logano in that race, had warned he would battle Logano “differently” if he was in front of him at Homestead. And that was what transpired after Joe Gibbs Racing’s Daniel Suarez picked up a puncture that caused a caution and set…

BRDC BRITISH F3 Leading British Formula 4 squad JHR Developments will expand into the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship in 2019. It is understood that two cars will be entered for British F3 next season, but no drivers have been confirmed. The team has powered Sennan Fielding (2016) and Ayrton Simmons (’18) to runner-up spots in the F4 standings, having previously fielded cars in a variety of tin-top and sportscar series. JHR had been evaluating a move into F3 for a number of months and is set to become the first new team to enter the series since the category adopted its current regulations in 2016, after a proposed Stratton Motorsport entry failed to materialise this season. “We’re very happy to be joining the BRDC F3 Championship,” said team principal…

SILVERSTONE CLASSIC Single-seaters of the 1970s will play a central part in the 2019 Silverstone Classic as standalone Historic F2 makes its debut at the historic racing festival, joining Historic F1 and Classic F3 in celebration of international-level single-seater racing. Alongside the regular races for the FIA Masters Historic Formula One Championship, the Historic F2 and Classic F3 categories from the Historic Sports Car Club will feature. The addition of the Silverstone Classic date is another major boost for the Historic Formula 2 FIA International Series, which is enjoying unprecedented levels of support for the 1600cc and two-litre cars from 1967 to ’78. The short-lived rival series run by Peter Auto has been dropped for 2019 due to lack of support. Formula 2 grids during 2018 were regularly between 25…

Simon Rudd and Tom Barley guided their Ginetta G55 to a one-lap win in the two-hour ‘Into the Night’ Britcar finale at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit last Sunday, beating the SEAT Cupra of Ashley Woodman and Martin Byford. Rudd and Barley took charge after the Sprint competitors finished their involvement with slightly less than half of the Enduro completed. Sam Randon, sharing a Toyota Avensis with aspiring touring car driver Michael Crees, suffered the embarrassment of beaching his car on the way to the grid. He started from the pits and made it into the lead before making way for Crees. The Avensis lacked a rapid refuelling system and dropped well back, and then during his recovery charge Crees picked up a drivethrough penalty for a pitstop offence. Crees…