Indholdsfortegnelse for 31/01/19 i Autosport

McLaren’s 2050 Formula 1 concept imagesisn’t the first example of designers trying to imagine what the pinnacle of the sport could look like in future, but it is the most extreme. It is, of course, unlikely that F1 machines of 2050 will actually look like the MCLExtreme but, as Scott Mitchell and technical expert Jake Boxall-Legge show in our cover piece on page 16, much of the technology incorporated in the design is closer to fruition than you might have thought. Perhaps more importantly, it also shows how different F1 could be if those involved were prepared to be more radical. Many fans have had enough of minor changes that make little difference to the racing, so the much-heralded 2021 regulations will need to do a lot more than fiddle…

FORMULA 1 More than 200 ex-Caterham Formula 1 employees have been paid a small sum as the long-running legal saga following the team’s collapse finally nears its end. Caterham went into administration in 2014 amid a dispute between founder Tony Fernandes and a group of investors who had bought the team that summer, and the team died early in 2015. Autosport has learned that earlier this month, administrator Smith & Williamson was able to pay 216 employees who were transferred to their control under TUPE regulations from Caterham. It is claimed that the reason it took so long was because of the time taken to convert various assets into cash and complete the relevant tax affairs. While the specific amounts are unknown, last year the administrator reported it had received…

RED BULL X2010 OK, this isn’t strictly a Formula 1 prototype, but it set the tone for contemporary concept cars. Linking up with Gran Turismo producer Kazunori Yamauchi, Adrian Newey was offered the chance to design “the fastest racing car on Earth” without the restriction of regulations. The wheels are covered, with a long canopy and tight bodywork to minimise air resistance. A gas turbine drives the car with almost 1500bhp, while Newey implemented a “fan” at the back of the car akin to the Brabham BT46B for added downforce. It first appeared on Gran Turismo 5, enabling Sebastian Vettel to lap the Suzuka circuit virtually in 1m11.540s – more than 20s faster than his 2009 pole time. Designed: 2010 MCLAREN MP4-X McLaren has delved into the world of imagination…

Sebastien Ogier put his head back and yelled. Yelled. What did he shout? He doesn’t remember. It doesn’t matter. The words weren’t important. It was a release. A physical act. A celebration. Now there is nobody in the 108-year history of this event he adores more successful than him; he sits on seven wins with countryman Sebastien Loeb. On a weekend that marked Loeb’s first outing with a factory team other than Citroen, Ogier’s success brings a 100th World Rally Championship win for the French firm. The irony wasn’t lost on anybody that Loeb had dug the foundations for success in Versailles, scoring 79 of those 100 victories. Loeb is history as far as Citroen’s concerned. Ogier is the future – at least for the next two years. But it…

BMW DIDN’T LOOK LIKE ONE OF THE FAVOURITES for GT Le Mans honours for much of the Daytona 24 Hours. The best of the German manufacturer’s M8 GTEs was never out of contention, but Porsche, then Ferrari and finally Ford all looked to have a better shot at the win over the course of the race. But by the time the race was ended prematurely, Augusto Farfus, Connor De Phillippi, Philipp Eng and Colton Herta were at the front. That had a lot to do with the talents of Farfus, a late replacement for Tom Blomqvist, who had failed to obtain the necessary visa. Farfus starred in the wet and then pulled off a phenomenal move on James Calado in the Risi Ferrari 488 GTE in the closing minutes. The…

BRITISH F4 Ginetta Junior runner-up Louis Foster will switch to British Formula 4 for 2019 with the frontrunning Double R Racing squad. The 15-year old was one of the standout drivers in Ginetta Junior last year, winning nine races in his rookie campaign. He actually scored more points than champion Adam Smalley, but was hit with a hefty 27-point deduction for various offences during the season. Foster, son of former British Touring Car Champi0nship driver Nick, admitted that he had not planned to move into single-seaters, but was unable to progress into senior racing because of his age – he doesn’t turn 16 until July. “I couldn’t move on to British GT, for example, and doing another year in Ginetta Junior wouldn’t really develop any other skills as I had…

Ronnie Peterson (Lotus-Ford 76) tries to find somewhere to sit for the drivers meeting at the 1974 South African Grand Prix. The Swede had a difficult qualifying at Kyalami, starting from 16th place on the grid, and on the opening lap of the race a stuck throttle punted him into the back of team-mate Jacky Ickx. Peterson rejoined the action, but broken steering forced him out a lap later. A pall had been cast over the weekend by the death in pre-event testing of Peter Revson (Shadow-Ford DN3A), prompting the withdrawal from the grand prix of the Shadow team. For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

WRC There were no surprises when the covers were pulled off this particular Citroen – a Red Bull livery; quelle surprise. Then things got interesting. The other side of the car was from the future. It was white and green. Welcome to the C4 WRC Hymotion4. Welcome too to the Paris Motor Show, although that ‘future’ was 10 years ago last October. That was when we saw the fruits of the labours of a few of the more insightful folk at Citroen Racing, who in 2008 had decided to do the job of the FIA and predict the direction of a sustainable future for the World Rally Championship. The C4 WRC Hymotion4 ran a KERS system feeding a 125kW electric motor-generator bolted to the rear differential, with a pack of…

FORMULA 3 Reigning Formula Renault Eurocup champion Max Fewtrell has secured a plum seat with GP3 dominator ART Grand Prix in the new FIA Formula 3 Championship. He’ll line up alongside main 2018 rival – and fellow Renault F1 protege – Christian Lundgaard plus late-season ’18 GP3 form man David Beckmann. That’s a tough pair of teammates, so how does 19-year-old Fewtrell view his prospects? FEWTRELL… ON ART The environment is really similar to R-ace GP [his Renault team]. That was a nice shift over to ART, it didn’t feel like a big change for me. It made me feel comfortable and really confident for this year. I’m really excited in that department. I like how the team works. The drivers they’ve had before have all gone on to do…

Don’t forget motorsport’s other living legend As a Juan Pablo Montoya fan, I’m a little frustrated by the fuss Fernando Alonso is getting in his quest for the ‘triple crown’. Montoya has been one piece away from winning the triple crown since 2003 when he won the Monaco Grand Prix. Along with his Indy 500 victories in 2000 (right) and 2015, he is in a very strong position to achieve the triple crown, especially when in my opinion the Indy 500 is the hardest race to win because the competition is so high – ask Michael Andretti. Now with Alonso scoring a superb victory at Daytona [see Gary Watkins’ race report on page 38 – ed], everyone is getting very excited; but remember Montoya earned this victory at his first…

Of the 11 teams on the current ABB Formula E Championship grid, eight have been victorious in at least one race since the series’ inception four and a bit years ago. Out of those teams yet to taste the champagne – or non-alcoholic variant thereof – on the top step of the podium, one was a corner away from doing so in the series’ first-ever race, one is a brand-new team, and the other has a pole position to its name. It’s fair to say that FE is certainly more open compared to its other top-level counterparts: Formula 1’s leading triumvirate continues its monopoly; KTM and Aprilia still have work to do in MotoGP; and variety within the World Endurance Championship is limited to whether both Toyotas retire – or…

Fernando Alonso ticked another box with a deserved but, as it turned out, slightly fortuitous victory in the Daytona 24 Hours last Sunday. The Spaniard and Wayne Taylor Racing team-mates Jordan Taylor, Renger van der Zande and Kamui Kobayashi had led much of a rain-affected race, and yet they had only just sneaked back in front when a second red flag brought what turned out to be an early halt to proceedings with two hours to go. The WTR Cadillac DPi-V.R with Alonso back at the wheel was running second to Felipe Nasr’s identical Whelen Engineering Action Express Racing car in dreadful conditions with over two and a half hours left, and worse still had to make an unscheduled pitstop to replace an incorrectly inflated right-front tyre. The safety car…

Series organisers generally like record-breaking events, but the new standard set by the ABB FIA Formula E Championship’s second visit to the Chilean capital of Santiago meant the race turned into a car-breaker. Unseasonably high temperatures got close to the city’s official January record – they peaked at 37.9C according to FE’s official timing noticeboard, although tyre supplier Michelin cited 40C. That meant the relatively cool 35C from Putrajaya in 2015 was obliterated. OK, in contrast to muggy Malaysia, it was a blazing, dry heat in Santiago, but what it did mean was worries about how the new Gen2 machine would cope. During the race, the asphalt of the 1.45-mile Park O’Higgins track melted and broke up, the cars physically carving rough lines at the most severe corners. It was…

CLASSIC FF1600 Tim Harvey, the 1992 British Touring Car champion, will return to the wheel of a single-seater this season after buying his original racing car – a Van Diemen RF81 Formula Ford 1600. “I loved Formula Ford,” said the 57-year-old, who is now planning take part in as many races as he can in 2019, including the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch and the Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone. “Along with karting, it’s the purest form of racing that you can get and it was a launchpad for me. “I WANT TO RACE IN THE FORMULA FORD FESTIVAL AND WALTER HAYES TROPHY” “I started off in the Champion of Brands series in 1983 with a car that was two years old because it was all I could afford.…

SILVERSTONE CLASSIC Fifty years of the Ford Capri will be marked at the Silverstone Classic with a special award from one of the greatest ever Capri racers, Gordon Spice. The 78-year-old will present the one-off Gordon Spice Trophy to the first Capri home in the Historic Touring Car Challenge race at the July event. Spice was the most successful Capri racer in the British Saloon Car Championship for five seasons between 1976 and ’80, lifting the class title each time. He also regularly drove Capris in European events. “The Capri was by far the easiest car I ever raced,” he said. “There was absolutely nothing complicated about it – the rear-drive chassis was simple to tune, so it handled really, really well. It was just a brilliant motor car.”…

WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN? WHO IS THIS? Blessed by Saint James, this one-of-a-kind racer’s career ended up being defined by one fateful moment. Having made the pilgrimage to hallowed racing ground, he slotted in straight away and flew the flag for his nation with a move into the big time. He wheeled his way into the points a year later, but it was a mismatched clash with a heavyweight champ that brought infamy. He managed to ram his way into a final season, but economic crisis back home forced him to lower his ambitions. Tailored fine fabric helped him take an endurance shot, but a move north earned greatest success as he steered a prancing horse to glory. This led to a single-seater return as he joined the oval side…

W SERIES W Series has selected the 28 women who will continue onto the next stage of its selection process for its inaugural season. The all-new, all-female championship hosted three-days of assessment at the Wachauring in Melk, Austria last weekend, where the successful 28 were picked from an initial field of 54 by a panel of judges that included advisory board chairman David Coulthard, series director Dave Ryan and former IndyCar driver Lyn St James. Alexander Wurz also served as a judge, with the assessment programme using the ex-Formula 1 star’s Test and Training International programme, also employed for the FIA Institute’s Young Driver Excellence Academy from 2011-15. “The 54 drivers who we’ve assessed over the past three days have all been committed and ambitious, and that’s been great to…

For the pinnacle of motorsport and high-speed racing, Formula 1 can sometimes move at a glacial pace. That often happens when it involves considered, fundamental change. Then, as time runs out, that considered, fundamental change gives way to rash, kneejerk decision-making. Little is improved, and the cycle starts again. The impasse over F1’s 2021 regulations, which are meant to be a major overhaul, is a good example of this. The one-year anniversary of Liberty’s original major pitch to teams is fast approaching, and little has been confirmed. That threatens to undermine the whole thing. So, as a general rule, the sooner F1 tackles what its future looks like, the better its chances of getting it right. Last week, McLaren took that principle to a new extreme. The quiet months between…

As is often the case in motorsport, the FE teams are vehemently clutching their cards close to their respective chests, reluctant to let any of their secrets slip out. Of course, there are a few things that can’t be hidden, one of which is how many gears this year’s teams are using for their powertrain package. The number has steady fallen over the past four seasons, and each of the 11 teams is using just one gear to drive their wheels through the motor. “Some of the spread you get with the power and torque curves against speed flattened out very quickly,” explains Jaguar’s Phil Charles. “So as we’ve gone on it’s quite clear that the number of gears reduces. You’re limited on power so you have a flat section and…

IT WOULD BE FAIR TO SAY THAT STEPHEN Whitford (below, right) is not a man who usually has to put up with this kind of pressure. ‘Weavie’ is one of national rallying’s genuine characters and a top bloke. But as he walked out of service on Thursday night, he was a man under the cosh. The gravity of what he was doing weighed heavy. Along with top national co-driver Derek Brannigan, Whitford was charged with driving through the stages an hour before the competing cars to find out what the conditions were like. The pair would then call Kris Meeke and Seb Marshall and let them know what they’d seen. But there’s no broad brush here. Any hopes of a report along the lines of, ‘When you turn left at…

LATE SPINS FOR ITS RIVALS HANDED THE Grasser Lamborghini squad a second consecutive Daytona 24 Hours victory in the GT Daytona class. The Austrian team’s new evo version of the Huracan looked as though it was going to miss out on victory this time around. Then Daniel Morad and Luca Stolz went off course in their respective Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3 and Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 as the conditions worsened in what turned out to be the death throes of the race. It had been an up and down ride for Grasser drivers Mirko Bortolotti, Rolf Ineichen and Rik Breukers – three quarters of last year’s winning line-up – and former factory racer Christian Engelhart. They lost time early in the race with a stop-and-go penalty of more…

FORMULA E HAS, UNDERSTANDABLY, always tried to avoid comparisons with Formula 1. But a penchant for needlessly complex and poorly communicated rules is something both series share. It must have been immensely frustrating for many fans who watched Lucas di Grassi produce “my best lap ever from my Formula E career” to claim first on the grid in superpole by a whopping 0.526 seconds, only to return for the race and see his Audi starting last. The reason for di Grassi’s exclusion from qualifying, what he called a “very harsh penalty for something which does not make any difference at all”, stemmed from an amendment made to Article 27.9 of FE’s sporting regulations. The amendment was filed by FE chassis supplier Spark ahead of the race in Santiago regarding brake…

BRITISH GT HHC Motorsport will switch its allegiance from Ginetta to McLaren after signing a multi-year partnership to run the marque’s 570S GT4s as an official McLaren Customer Racing team in British GT. The Yorkshire-based team, which won British GT4 at the first time of asking in 2017 with Will Tregurtha and Stuart Middleton in a Ginetta G55 GT4, will enter two 570S GT4s in the championship this season. There is also potential for a parallel programme in European GT4. Rockingham race winner Callum Pointon will remain with HHC and will be partnered by Dean Macdonald, who raced alongside GT4 champion Jack Mitchell at Century Motorsport for the final three rounds of 2018 and has previous experience of McLaren from racing with Garage 59 in 2017. The second pairing is…

Motorsport was back in a big way last weekend. Early signs suggest the 2019 World Rally Championship has kicked off exactly where it ended last season – with three drivers from three different marques fighting for the crown. Fernando Alonso delivered a mesmeric drive to secure Wayne Taylor Racing victory in the Daytona 24 Hours deluge, plus Formula E resumed in Chile. After a racing detox over the winter, it was fantastic to have the off-season banished in such emphatic style. And through WRC+’s All Live – the championship’s in-house broadcast of every single stage – it should have been nigh on impossible to miss the action. It’s now a full year since All Live launched, so how has it fared? Well, on a number of levels, and particularly in…