Indholdsfortegnelse for 07/03/19 i Autosport

Eight days of running, 10 new cars and 8774 laps. We’ve had a lot of data to sift through since the second pre-season Formula 1 test finished last Friday (March 1) and now it’s time for our traditional, bumper season preview. As Edd Straw points out in our testing analysis (see page 18), you can never be entirely sure how all the teams stack up until the serious competition begins. But there seems little doubt about who is currently ahead: Ferrari has the edge over Mercedes. It’s not just the pace of the SF90 that has impressed – though Sebastian Vettel did top the times (see p25). The poise of the car and atmosphere in the team, under new head Mattia Binotto, also seem to be a great deal better…

FORMULA 2 Ferrari junior Mick Schumacher enjoyed the perfect start to his Formula 2 season when he topped the first test of the season at Jerez last week with Prema Racing. The reigning Formula 3 European champion (top pic) headed the order on Thursday morning, when the field went on qualifying-spec runs, to beat Jack Aitken (Campos Racing) and Louis Deletraz (Carlin). While new ART Grand Prix team leader Nyck de Vries – who has switched from Prema – was fifth in the quickest session, he had topped the two previous days of testing, racking up the highest number of miles with the team that steered F1 newboy George Russell to last year’s title. “The tests don’t mean much – it’s nice to start the season well but we don’t…

AWARD’S NEW ERA Aston Martin is the new official partner of the Autosport BRDC Award, which will now have a £200,000 prize fund. The Award was started by Autosport’s Peter Foubister and then-McLaren boss Ron Dennis in 1989 to support up-and-coming UK drivers and find the next British Formula 1 world champion. It crowned 30 winners (see right) before McLaren withdrew at the beginning of 2019. Now Aston Martin has stepped in to create the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award. As well as a yet-to-be confirmed share of the prize fund, the winner will receive a test in a Red Bull F1 car at Silverstone and a run in Aston Martin’s Vantage GTE World Endurance Championship challenger. The basic format of the Award will remain…

There’s some optimism in the air as we head towards the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. It looks like we have a great fight for the world championship in prospect, and there are plenty of new driver combinations down the field. However, there’s an elephant in the room. We’re just over two years into Liberty Media’s ownership of Formula 1, and yet there is still no clarity on how the series will look in 2021. Everything is still up for grabs – the technical and sporting regulations, cost controls, how the money is distributed between the teams, and the governance that will determine how change is managed. Business as usual, you might say – but you’d be wrong. The complication for Liberty is that in theory, as things stand, its F1…

When the Williams FW42 finally rolled onto the track on the afternoon of the third day of pre-season testing after a delayed build process, it had plenty of catching up to do. By the end of running, it had notched up 567 test laps – plus 100km on a filming day between the two tests – and set a fastest time more than half a second off the back of the field. It ended its meaningful running early after abandoning a race run for the second consecutive day, and heads to Australia expected to bring up the rear. An internal review into the lateness of the car is ongoing, and understood to encapsulate every step of the process, from the design office releasing drawings through to manufacture of the components.…

As usual in Formula 1, pre-season testing at Barcelona has thrown up as many questions as answers. That, however, is part of the fun and intrigue as we look ahead to a new racing season. The paddock has been full of people trying to dissect short and long runs while applying all sorts of fuel and tyre corrections. Ultimately, as the saying goes, when the flag drops the bullshit stops, and it will all shake out when we get to qualifying in Melbourne on 16 March. But in the meantime, I’m going to try to put some sort of order to the 10 teams based on their pre-season performance. First off I must say that on the whole, the cars do seem easier to drive than before. Right from the…

AUTOSPORT How has pre-season gone so far? MAX VERSTAPPEN I think in general it’s been pretty good. We could have done even more, but compared to what we’ve had over the last few years it’s been pretty positive for us in terms of reliability. We are very happy about that. It’s a very positive atmosphere in the team and working with Honda in general. So far, I’ve really enjoyed it. They are incredibly focused and calm; I was really impressed by the way they are working. AS How does it compare to what you wanted? MV Well, everything they’ve promised is there. So, I’m happy about that. It’s been different the last few years. They are very open and honest. What they say, they deliver. That’s fair. AS How excited…

F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP RACE WINS FERRARI 235 McLAREN 182 WILLIAMS 114 Behind Ferrari in the list of Formula 1’s most successful teams since the start of the world championship in 1950 stand McLaren and Williams. Yet both head into this season off the back of six winless years and after unsuccessful 2018 campaigns. Based on winter testing, McLaren is towards the back of the very tight midfield pack, which looks good in comparison to a Williams team that was late for the start of running and has yet to show it has the speed to join the bunch. So what’s gone wrong for two teams that fans expect to be fighting for glory year in, year out? First and foremost, it’s important to note that it’s not the 1990s anymore.…

A third driver graduating to F1 from Formula 2 in 2019 is Alexander Albon. The 22-year-old finished third behind George Russell and Lando Norris last year and will make his debut with Toro Rosso. Albon was born in the UK but races under a licence from Thailand, the country his mother hails from. He took four victories for DAMS in 2018 – his second season in F2. But in contrast to his fellow rookies, Albon has significantly less F1 experience, and his first opportunity to drive an F1 car was during Toro Rosso’s shakedown of the new STR14 at Misano, a week before testing. “I think compared to myself and Lando, Alex will be in a tricky position because he’s been thrown in out of nowhere,” says Russell. “No sim…

STARTS 189 | FIRST GP FRANCE 1954 | WINS 87 | POLES 101 | FASTEST LAPS 66 | 2018 1ST Mercedes could do something that has never been achieved before by making it six double championship wins in consecutive years. But pre-season testing suggests it is just behind Ferrari and may have been thrown a curveball by the change in the front-wing regulations. It’s not a bad car, but it may take a little time to fix and that could give Ferrari the chance to get some wins early in the season and put the pressure on. Even the best teams don’t know everything about what makes their car work, and there can be problems that don’t seem to be issues until something changes – such as the aerodynamic regulations.…

STARTS 362 | FIRST GP BRITAIN 1977 | WINS 35 | POLES 51 | FASTEST LAPS 31 | 2018 4TH Renault has poured a lot of money into this team and expectations are high. As a works team, it has to be compared with Ferrari, Mercedes and, although not a manufacturer-owned team, Red Bull. Last year, despite finishing fourth in the constructors’ championship, it only had the fifth fastest car. To justify the large investment, Renault needs to take a good step forward this year. Otherwise, some in France could be asking exactly why they are throwing all of this cash at it. The Renault looked good in testing, although it won’t be until we get to Australia that we know for sure whether it’s stuck in the midfield battle…

STARTS 9 | FIRST GP BELGIUM 2018 | BEST FINISH 5TH | BEST QUALIFYING 3RD | FASTEST LAPS 0 | 2018 7TH After its financial problems really hit home in the middle of last year, what was previously Force India now has the funding and the opportunity to climb up the order. What’s vital is that the ownership understand that there’s a right way to do this: things must not be done too quickly or expectations for instant success set too high. These things have to be done step by step. If Racing Point does this and avoids getting too distracted by things like the new factory, it’s got a very bright future. When you’ve got cash to invest, it can lead to you taking your eye off what matters.…

STARTS 706 | FIRST GP SPAIN 1977 | WINS 114 | POLES 128 | FASTEST LAPS 133 | 2018 10TH At the start of the hybrid engine era, Williams was a regular podium finisher and twice finished third in the constructors’ championship. But by last year all that had been thrown away and it was at the back in what was its worst season. It’s hard to understand what has gone wrong, especially with what went wrong prior to the start of testing. The new car was late and missed the first two and a half days of pre-season testing. Time is always tight for building a new car, and Williams wasn’t the only team that struggled, but it was the only one that was late. If pace can be…

Since the major aerodynamic rule changes of 2017, the bargeboard and its surrounding area have become hugely complex. Although the intention seems to have been to reintroduce the sweeping, one-piece bargeboard pieces seen in the previous decade, today’s bargeboards are a collection of intricately positioned fins, cutouts and slots to aggressively condition the airflow off the front wing, guide tyre wake away from the opening of the floor, and turn the airflow around the sidepod undercut to bring it into play further down the car. The bargeboards are even more important than ever this year. Racing Point technical director Andrew Green suggests that under last year’s formula they contributed about a quarter of the car’s performance, while 2019’s bargeboard packages have “probably got to be worth around a third of…

Trevor Carlin won’t take this the wrong way because he’s a realist, but the biggest news regarding his team’s second season in the IndyCar Series will be the technical partnership with McLaren for the Indianapolis 500. Fernando Alonso’s second attempt at the Memorial Day Weekend classic will have the added allure of being the last of the three ‘crowns’ he’s seeking to achieve, for since his Indy debut two years ago the two-time Monaco Grand Prix winner has also conquered the Le Mans 24 Hours. Then, of course, there is McLaren’s rich heritage at the Brickyard, and in US motorsport in general. But rather than casting the Carlin team into the shadows, the Alonso-McLaren link-up should elevate its status on that side of the Atlantic, as this is a significant…

AUSTRALIAN SUPERCARS ADELAIDE (AUS) 2-3 MARCH ROUND 1/15 Scott McLaughlin gave the new Ford Mustang a perfect, 300-point debut on the streets of Adelaide to open the Supercars season and his title defence. It was a dominant weekend for Ford’s 2019 racers, particularly those painted in Shell colours. DJR Team Penske duo Fabian Coulthard and McLaughlin split the pole positions, while McLaughlin romped to a pair of wins without a serious challenge. The key concern during Saturday’s 155-mile race was the heat. With temperatures north of 40C, keeping drivers cool proved challenging. Some later admitted to using their left foot on the throttle to stave off burns from the pedals, while Cam Waters – in contention for a podium – was forced out of the race by Supercars’ driver welfare…

HSCC The life of Tom Pryce will be celebrated at the Anglesey circuit in North Wales in mid-July, when the track’s first dedicated historic race meeting is named in memory of the famous Welsh Formula 1 racer. The Historic Sports Car Club’s Tom Pryce Memorial Race Meeting will honour the popular driver, who had a meteoric rise to fame and a flourishing F1 career before losing his life in the 1977 South African Grand Prix. In July, the first major historic race meeting to be held in Wales will honour Pryce with a programme that includes the inaugural standalone races for Formula Atlantic as a period category. Pryce was a star of Formula Atlantic during his rise to F1, and the pair of races will be run for the Tom…

Older enthusiasts of historic racing will be aware that, in many cases, cars are quicker today than they were in period. Take Ashley Sutton’s fastest lap in the St Mary’s Trophy from last September’s Goodwood Revival as an example – that was more than five seconds faster than Jim Clark managed in a theoretically similar Ford Lotus Cortina in 1964. Austin A40s have also come a long way, but just how much? The first A40 racer built by the Jordan Racing Team, formed by British Touring Car Championship race-winning father-and-son pairing Mike and Andrew Jordan, has been successful around the UK. It’s been an outright winner in Historic Racing Drivers Club events and taken on the bigger-engined Jaguars at Goodwood. So when Autosport heard that JRT had just got hold…

INTERNATIONAL MOTORSPORT Rally Mexico World Rally Championship Round 3/14 Leon, Mexico 7-10 March TV Live BT Sport 3, Friday 0200, BT Sport ESPN, Saturday 1700, BT Sport ESPN, Sunday 1800, Red Bull TV, Saturday 1650 TV Highlights BT Sport 2, Saturday 0500, BT Sport 3, Sunday 0500, BT Sport 3, Monday 0530, Red Bull TV, Saturday 0400, Red Bull TV, Sunday 0400, Red Bull TV, Monday 0400 Live coverage on wrc.com. All live service via WRC+. MotoGP Round 1/19 Losail, Qatar 10 March TV Live BT Sport 2, Sunday 1630 TV Highlights BT Sport 1, Sunday 2330 Formula E Round 5/12 Hong Kong, China 10 March TV Live BBC2, Sunday 0700, BT Sport 3, Eurosport 2, Sunday 0730, BBC Red Button, iPlayer, online Jaguar I-PACE eTrophy Round 3/9 Hong Kong,…

WHO IS THIS? This sly old dog is still at the top of his game two decades after the switch that defined his career. He followed a tried-and-tested domestic route as he first hit the track, before making an unexpected detour to win a foreign national premier category. This led to a disappointing switch to its international counterpart and the end of the road in that direction. A return home in an ultimate driving machine was instantly rewarded and plotted a fresh course. There was a successful return to a happy hunting ground, where he tamed a mythical beast to become a household name. It was a springboard to world domination with some auto emotion, before he dressed in a bowtie and carried on the trend. Having had to give…

FORMULA E “It’s coming home.” Two years after the Three Lions song of David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and the Lightning Seeds enjoyed a chart comeback inspired by the exploits of a young, energetic and engaging England football team at the 2018 World Cup, it’s most famous chorus phrase will apply to motorsport – specifically, to the ABB FIA Formula E Championship. Unless Brexit changes things, the electric championship has always called London home, with Formula E Operations based in Hammersmith in suitably stylish tower block offices (recently refitted and also to be the base of Extreme E). Much of the championship’s successful birth was plotted from the city, and all the pre-launch testing in 2014 took place at Donington Park. It was only the calls of warmer climates and more…

WEC A group of manufacturers is pushing for changes to the hypercar concept prototype regulations due to come into force for the 2020-21 World Endurance Championship. Costs are at the forefront of their agenda, and it appears that on those grounds they want to be allowed to develop contenders under the new rules out of real hypercars. Details of what is being proposed by the group that includes McLaren, Aston Martin and Ferrari aren’t clear. The manufacturers aren’t talking publicly about their revised vision for the hypercar concept, and nor is the WEC willing to comment. But the three carmakers are known to have met with the FIA and WEC promoter the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, who jointly write the rules, late last month to voice their opinions. They are…

FORMULA 3 British single-seater ace Enaam Ahmed has become the latest to join the European exodus to Japan, where he will race in the country’s national Formula 3 championship this season. The 2017 BRDC British F3 champion, who took two wins in the F3 European Championship last season and briefly led the standings, will race a Tomei-engined Dallara for ThreeBond Racing. “In Europe things were getting really expensive, and it was very unrealistic to try to stay there,” Ahmed (below) told Autosport. “I couldn’t get the backing, so I decided to become a professional driver at the age of 19 and take the offer from ThreeBond Racing. “This will be something I’ll look back on in 10 years’ time and be glad I did it. ThreeBond approached me in December,…

Can Formula 1 recapture past magic? I loved the picture of Rene Arnoux and Patrick Tambay chewing the fat sitting on that glorious Ferrari 126C3 (From the archive, 14 February). Two great old-school racing heroes and a proper Formula 1 car. Comparing the 1983 Ferrari with its 2019 successors shows all that is wrong with 21st-century Formula 1. The 126C3 looked wickedly fast standing still – squat, edgy and aggressive. The current-generation cars look like lumbering lorries, far too long and out of proportion, or similar to what a six-year-old would make out of Lego. The 2019 cars might well destroy the lap times of the 1980s racers, but I know what looked more exciting and harder to drive on the edge. Those shorter-wheelbase cars looked the business, but I…

One thing that hasn’t changed from last year is that the midfield pack is nowhere near the top three. The margin looks to be a good three quarters of a second, perhaps a little more. What looks to be another ‘Class B’battle now comprises two groups of three teams, with a slight gap in between but all tightly packed. In the first group are Renault, Haas and Alfa Romeo. It’s difficult to choose between Renault and Haas for the lead of this part of the field. Renault has had to take a cautious approach to testing owing to a shortage of spares, and it’s fair to say we haven’t seen either Nico Hulkenberg or Daniel Ricciardo truly let off the leash. On paper it’s expected to lead the way and…

Can Ferrari outgun main rivals Mercedes and Red Bull to win the 2019 World Championship, ending a 10-season drought that dates back to its 2008 constructors’ title? That’s one of the biggest questions on the minds of fans worldwide as we approach the first race in Australia, and the start of a season in which the Maranello team celebrates its 90th anniversary. Barcelona testing certainly suggested that Ferrari is in good shape. Sebastian Vettel and new team-mate Charles Leclerc were able to run quickly and consistently in all conditions with the minimum of fuss, while Mercedes at times appeared to be scrambling around. A heavy crash for Vettel, caused by a wheelrim issue, was the only major setback, costing half a day’s running. It certainly looks promising, but don’t forget that…

Max Verstappen is not the most emotional character in the Formula 1 paddock, but when something draws his ire he is hardly backward in coming forward. Verstappen usually needs a trigger to set him off, which makes his ‘positive and excited’ default setting in pre-season testing quite telling. You can read Verstappen’s verdict on Red Bull’s early days with engine supplier Honda in our interview (page 46), but for now we must interrogate his enthusiasm. McLaren had it before with Honda, after all, and it amounted to nothing more than broken dreams and a broken marriage. The Japanese manufacturer has still not even scored a podium finish since its return to F1 in 2015. Red Bull looked barely ahead of the midfield and nowhere near Ferrari or Mercedes on lap…

Daniel Ricciardo’s permasmile makes it all too easy to imagine that he never gets stressed about anything. But ask him to reflect about the weeks before he committed to making the switch from Red Bull to Renault for 2019, and he admits that there were a few sleepless nights. This was the biggest career decision he’d had to make. The choice was clear: play it safe, keep on with Red Bull (albeit alongside the precocious Max Verstappen), and hope that the team’s switch to Honda engines could pay dividends quickly? Or break free – become his own man at Renault, maybe take a competitive hit in the short term, but then open up the possibility of building a manufacturer team around him just like Lewis Hamilton has done so successfully…

Robert Kubica returns to race in a Formula 1 dramatically different to the one he was unwillingly forced away from eight years ago. The 158 races he’s been absent for have brought Pirelli tyres, V6 turbo hybrid engines, Mercedes domination, DRS overtakes and the halo. The 2008 Canadian Grand Prix winner, justifiably regarded as a potential world champion before the rally accident in February 2011, is now returning as a very different driver – a pseudo-rookie, if you like – at the age of 34. That accident had a profound impact on Kubica’s life on and off track. As he puts it, he’s now driving “70% left-handed”, and has had to overcome multiple surgeries, a long and painful recovery, and the psychological impact of having his life change so dramatically.…

For the first time since 1992, the Formula 1 grid will no longer carry the Sauber name. After sponsoring the Swiss team last year, Alfa Romeo returns to grand prix racing as a fully fledged entrant for the third time (the last was a winless streak between 1979 and 1985). Under the ownership of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Alfa Romeo enjoys a close technical and political allegiance with Ferrari. Italian Antonio Giovinazzi, a former reserve driver for the Prancing Horse, is joined by the last man to win the world championship for Maranello: Kimi Raikkonen. Raikkonen’s two-year deal to continue in F1 (he’s now 39) has been welcomed by his fans, who will relish his conduct now he’s no longer bound by the corporate responsibilities of Ferrari. His victory in the…

STARTS 969 | FIRST GP MONACO 1950 | WINS 235 | POLES 219 | FASTEST LAPS 248 | 2018 2ND Ferrari could have won the world championship in 2017, and it should have done last year. Failure is not an option at Maranello and, after a strong pre-season, the expectation is that the decade-long title drought since its 2008 constructors’ crown will finally come to an end. There have been changes over the winter, with Maurizio Arrivabene leaving his role as team principal and Mattia Binotto taking his place. Binotto was very successful as chief technical officer, and it’s not a given that it’s the right choice to move him out of that role into his new one. Will it mean he is distracted from the technical side by all…

STARTS 62 | FIRST GP AUSTRALIA 2016 | BEST FINISH 4TH | BEST QUALIFYING 5TH | FASTEST LAPS 1 | 2018 5TH Testing suggests the Haas team’s form last year was no fluke. It again appears to have produced a quick, consistent and easy-to-drive car that will be there or thereabouts at the front of the midfield. By capitalising on taking as many car components as it can from technical partner Ferrari, Haas can focus more resources on its Dallara-run aerodynamic programme that uses the Maranello windtunnel. Some rival teams may not like it, but that combination produced a solid, predictable car last year and it seems to have done the same this year. By making the most of what the rules allow in terms of taking non-listed parts from…

STARTS 110 | FIRST GP BRITAIN 1950 | WINS 10 | POLES 12 | FASTEST LAPS 14 This was the most improved team of last season, and things have only got better over the winter with the transformation of Sauber into Alfa Romeo and the arrival of Kimi Raikkonen, who started his F1 career with Sauber in 2001. This team was a race winner and almost a title contender under BMW ownership back in 2008, although it has gone through some tough times since then. But with fresh investment, on top of an excellent windtunnel, it’s back on the way up. The start to last season wasn’t great but it became stronger as the year went on. That’s a very encouraging sign and suggests it’s a team that understands the…

WHILE FORMULA 1 BIDES ITS TIME and waits for the radical overhaul of the regulations planned for 2021, a series of aerodynamic tweaks has been made this year with the intention of increasing overtaking. Focused on four key areas – the front wing, brake ducts, bargeboards and rear wing – the objective is to reduce the sensitivity of cars to turbulent air and allow them to follow more closely, hopefully promoting better racing. Unfortunately, the changes, which are focused specifically on reducing the aerodynamic outwash that aims to push the airflow outside of the front tyres, are not having a significant impact. While downforce levels have been briefly reduced, as expected, teams have already made significant progress clawing back the downforce and regaining the outwash effect. “We’re already a long…

1 AUSTRALIAN GP Melbourne 17 March Start time: 0510 2 BAHRAIN GP Sakhir 31 March Start time: 1610 3 CHINESE GP Shanghai 14 April Start time: 0710 4 AZERBAIJAN GP Baku 28 April Start time: 1310 5 SPANISH GP Barcelona 12 May Start time: 1410 6 MONACO GP Monte Carlo 26 May Start time: 1410 7 CANADIAN GP Montreal 9 June Start time: 1910 8 FRENCH GP Paul Ricard 23 June Start time: 1410 9 AUSTRIAN GP Red Bull Ring 30 June Start time: 1410 10 BRITISH GP Silverstone 14 July Start time: 1410 11 GERMAN GP Hockenheim 28 July Start time: 1410 12 HUNGARIAN GP Hungaroring 4 August Start time: 1410 13 BELGIAN GP Spa 1 September Start time: 1410 14 ITALIAN GP Monza 8 September Start time: 1410…

1 WILL MARQUEZ PUTS HIS ‘GOAT’ STATUS BEYOND DOUBT? As reigning champion and winner of five out of the last six MotoGP titles, Marc Marquez starts as favourite for 2019 practically by default. While the off-season hasn’t been an easy one for the 26-year-old, who had to undergo surgery on his shoulder in December, there is still every reason to think he’ll be a factor at the front from the very get-go. Qatar, venue for the season-opener this weekend, is often a useful bellwether for Marquez’s form, perhaps because it is traditionally so ill-suited to Honda. Last year he finished a close second to Andrea Dovizioso, and then went on to win the title comfortably, and the only time he’s won the curtain-raiser – 2014 – was his most dominant…

NASCAR CUP LAS VEGAS (USA) 3 MARCH ROUND 3/36 The preceding NASCAR Cup series race at Atlanta provided the first look at the series’ new-for-2019 technical regulations, which strengthen the aerodynamics but limit horsepower. And in Las Vegas, where the new rules were first tested properly in January, NASCAR finally unleashed the full package – Atlanta’s high rate of tyre degradation meaning the use of front air ducts had to wait until last weekend. As with any new rule change in motorsport, the aim was to foster closer, more intense racing, but for large swathes of the 267-lapper at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway the predicted glut of action was in short supply. Polesitter Kevin Harvick dominated the opening stage, leading 63 of the 80 laps and only relinquishing position…

RADICAL CHALLENGE Two-time Walter Hayes Trophy winner Michael Moyers plans to move into the Radical Challenge this year and will also race an Austin A30 at the Silverstone Classic. Moyers, 34, has spent the majority of the past decade racing Formula Ford machinery but now wishes to broaden his experience. He has enjoyed two successful tests in a Radical SR3 and plans to contest a part-season in the Radical Challenge, alongside the Silverstone Classic race. He will also compete in the Formula Ford Festival and Walter Hayes Trophy. “It’s not like I’m calling time on Formula Ford, it’s just having won the Walter Hayes Trophy back to back, I feel it’s an ideal time to expand our options,” said Moyers. “It was quite strange – after winning the Hayes the…

“I OFTEN HEAR VERY FUNNY rumours of how much money we have spent on our white A40 and all these trick bits that are on it. We have built this grey one to the exact same spec and there are really no secrets to getting it going so well. We see so many people crawling underneath them, maybe looking for three-way gas dampers, and probably very disappointed when they find the standard lever-arms dampers as specified in the rules. “I believe our A40s go so well because we put a good amount of prep into them, have raced them now for six years and we never really change the set-up, apart from maybe the front rollbar for different circuit layouts. It’s just a case of building a car well and…

FORMULA 1 Fernando Alonso will test for McLaren in 2019 as part of a new role as team “ambassador”, following his decision not to race in F1 this season. Alonso had already been confirmed to race for McLaren in this year’s Indianapolis 500, but his much-speculated involvement in the F1 team’s testing programme has now been firmed up too. He will drive at “selected tests to support the development of MCL34 and MCL35 for 2020”, McLaren has confirmed. There will be four official test days during the season. Two of them must be completed by rookie drivers who have not competed in more than two grands prix, but Alonso would be free to drive on either of the other two days. The team says Alonso will also advise McLaren’s F1…

LE MANS 24 HOURS What do you need to do to get a couple of entries for the Le Mans 24 Hours? Results in the big race, and support of series run by race organiser the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, are specifically mentioned in the entry criteria. Which goes a long way to explaining the disappointment and surprise of the United Autosports squad at landing only one firm spot for this year’s race. The Anglo-American LMP2 team made it onto the class podium last year, having finished in the top six overall on its Le Mans debut in 2017. Last season it also ran cars in both the European and Asian Le Mans Series, plus the Michelin Le Mans Cup on the ELMS undercard, and in January announced that it…

McLaren grabbed headlines during pre-season testing out of proportion to its place in the overall competitive order. That wasn’t just because it regularly cropped up near or – on one day – at the top of the timesheets, or for its illustrious history, but also because of the appearance of Fernando Alonso. Or, as we should now call him, Ambassador Alonso – charged with preaching the good word of McLaren worldwide as part of his ongoing association with the team. It was a similar story last season. Once McLaren had firmly established itself as deep midfield fodder, the main attraction was either speculation about Alonso’s future or his latest must-hear utterance about what he had just done with the recalcitrant machine. Confirmation that Alonso will definitely test the McLaren later…

Were a qualifying session and grand prix to be staged this weekend, the evidence of pre-season testing suggests Ferrari would triumph from pole position. Ferrari has won the testing war. Emphatically. All the usual caveats apply. There won’t be a grand prix at Barcelona – scene of the pre-season tests – until May; there is a week to go before the phoney war turns into something real; and teams will have upgrades to deploy for the Australian GP on 17 March. We also can’t be entirely sure about fuel loads, engine modes and exact run plans. But every single indicator, whether it’s short runs, long runs, trackside impressions or paddock gossip, points in one direction: Ferrari is fastest. Straight out of the box, the SF90 has looked like a well-balanced,…

Mattia Binotto’s rise to the top job at Scuderia Ferrari is hardly an overnight sensation. It’s taken him 24 years, he’s experienced a lot of highs and lows along the way, and he’s worked under four team principals, as well as three chairmen/CEOs. In the highly politicised world of Maranello he has managed to remain in favour with all of his bosses, and has constantly been upwardly mobile, quickly moving from one position of responsibility to a greater one as vacancies opened up. Although the 49-year-old has spent his working life in Italy, Binotto has Swiss roots and an international outlook, having obtained his engineering degree in Lausanne. While that may suggest a privileged background, during his university years he stayed with an uncle who was (and still is) a…

Two years ago, Pierre Gasly was a frustrated GP2 champion preparing not for his big Formula 1 break, but a campaign in Japan’s Super Formula. But after his graduation to F1 was deferred – he made his debut late in 2017 during a stellar season in Japan that might have netted the championship but for a typhoon at Suzuka – Gasly has leaped from Toro Rosso to Red Bull’s big team in just 18 months. Having earned his place in the big league with a 2018 season during which he turned in several high-class drives, albeit with some of the inconsistency you’d expect from a driver in his first full F1 season, he now has to deliver in the intense pressure of a top car. What’s more, he’s up against…

When Renault pulled off the biggest coup of last year’s driver market merry-go-round in signing Daniel Ricciardo, it knew there would be added pressure in 2019. Having someone of Ricciardo’s calibre on board meant a poor season could not be tolerated. As McLaren so painfully found out with Fernando Alonso, when competitive promise exceeds what can be realistically delivered then it only leads to frustrations bubbling up. That risk of a dream marriage turning sour could have been reason for Renault to think that signing Ricciardo was too early in its rebuilding. Not so, says its Formula 1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul, who believes the team would have made a grave error if it had turned down the opportunity. “Try to think the other way around: imagine seeing the opportunity…

When the grid forms up for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on 17 March, two drivers will renew their rivalry on the biggest stage. Having graduated from Formula 2 together, George Russell and Lando Norris make their debuts to continue their quest to be the next top British driver in F1. Twenty-one-year-old Russell enters his rookie season as the reigning Formula 2 champion, having taken seven wins with ART Grand Prix en route to the crown last year. Norris, 19, was runner-up, with just a solitary win for Carlin on his Bahrain debut. As they enter the next phase of their careers, they’ll race for two of the sport’s grandee teams: Williams and McLaren respectively. But the fading fortunes of these once-illustrious winners means they won’t be close to Lewis…

The Dadford Road factory opposite Silverstone’s main entrance is buzzing once again after a few years of financial uncertainty. With Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll taking over ownership of Force India from Vijay Mallya and relaunching the squad in Toronto last month as the Racing Point F1 Team, the influx of investment is a welcome injection for this well-run operation. Like much of the staff, Mexican Sergio Perez is a stalwart and he is starting his sixth season with the squad. He has managed to haul a Force India onto the podium in four of the past five years, and has rebuilt his reputation following an ill-fated year with McLaren. In 2019 he’s partnered by Stroll’s son Lance (below), who will find Perez a sterner test than his team-mate at Williams…

STARTS 265 | FIRST GP AUSTRALIA 2005 | WINS 59 | POLES 60 | FASTEST LAPS 60 | 2018 3RD After five years struggling with Renault power, and constantly moaning about it, Red Bull has taken the plunge and teamed up with Honda this season. In 2018, the car was strong and it should be again this year, as you’d expect for anything Adrian Newey is involved in, so the Honda side will decide if Red Bull can challenge for the championship or is just facing another season of picking up a few wins. Communication will be important. From my experience with Honda, it is very good at getting things done, but you have to be very clear with what needs sorting and what you are trying to achieve. If…

STARTS 842 | FIRST GP MONACO 1966 | WINS 182 | POLES 155 | FASTEST LAPS 154 | 2018 6TH After heading into last season full of confidence that getting rid of the Honda engine would allow the strength of the McLaren chassis to show, the team’s optimism proved to be misplaced. Sixth place in the constructors’ championship was better than the car deserved. It was based on what was Force India losing its points from the first half of the season and Fernando Alonso driving the wheels off the car. McLaren’s management is now saying all of the right things and is avoiding making any big predictions. The expectation is that the lessons from last year have been solved but, while McLaren has identified what the problems were with…

STARTS 247 | FIRST GP BAHRAIN 2006 | WINS 1 | POLES 1 | FASTEST LAPS 1 | 2018 9TH Toro Rosso probably hasn’t delivered on its potential in recent years, even though James Key, who has now left his role as technical director to join McLaren, did some very good work with the car. What has changed is that there’s been a push to use as many parts as possible from the main Red Bull team. While that limits what you can do in certain areas of the car, it does allow a smaller team to focus its resources on performance elsewhere. After spending last year basically as Red Bull’s Honda test team, it’s back to business as usual for Toro Rosso. During testing, the car looked fine and…

There aren’t many things that Scott Ronald Dixon has never achieved in IndyCar. He has five championships, 44 wins, 26 pole positions, and he’s conquered the Indianapolis 500. He’s triumphed on every type of track, started from pole on every type of track, won races from the front, won them from the back, won in the wet, the dry and changeable conditions. And then there’s his – and Chip Ganassi Racing’s – party trick of salvaging strong results from seemingly hopeless situations. But what Dixon has never done is win the championship in consecutive years, simply because the series has always been so competitive, so he’s always fighting an array of fellow aces in star teams. And it’s also fair to point out that, despite being surrounded by trusty Ganassi…

One-lap speed is one thing, but sustaining that pace over 22 laps is quite another. For example, Danilo Petrucci and Alex Rins were only ninth and 11th on the final day of running in Qatar, but both clearly showed they have the rhythm to be among the contenders for victory in the opener. Analysing the 20-lap averages from the penultimate day of testing, it’s Petrucci who comes out on top, narrowly ahead of Maverick Vinales, Rins and Marc Marquez. All four had an average well into the 1m55s bracket. Next up we find Andrea Dovizioso, Fabio Quartararo, Franco Morbidelli and Joan Mir, whose averages were all in the low 1m56s. The last day of the pre-season was marked by cool temperatures and high winds, so the numbers should be treated…

BRITISH GT JRM will make a full-time return to motorsport competition in British GT this season with a new Bentley Continental GT3 driven by 2017 series champions Seb Morris and Rick Parfitt Jr. The long-time Nismo technical partner, which won the 2011 FIA GT1 World Championship with a Nissan GT-R, last completed a full season in the 2013 Blancpain Endurance Cup prior to the death of technical director Nigel Stepney. Having focused on growing JRM’s advanced engineering business alongside racing the Mini World Rallycross car, managing director Jason King has now decided to return the squad to racing in British GT for the first time since a one-off outing in 2017. “It’s the first year as a customer car, but I know M-Sport did a lot of development on it…

WILLIAMS JOINS F4 WITH JHR National Formula Ford 1600 podium finisher Carter Williams will switch to British F4 this year, driving for the JHR Developments squad. The 20-year-old American had a slow start to his first season of racing outside the US last year, but claimed a podium in the final round of the National season in a Don Hardman Racing Ray. AMERICAN JOINS OLDFIELD Leading Formula Ford 1600 team Oldfield Motorsport will run 2017 Team USA Scholarship driver Aaron Jeansonne this season. Jeansonne competed part-time in the US F2000 Championship last year before funding problems curtailed his campaign. He will now compete in the National series, driving the Van Diemen JL13 used by Josh Smith to win the 2018 Festival. RECORD-BREAKING MINIS A record-breaking entry of 60 Pre-’66 Minis…

FORMULA 1: DRIVE TO SURVIVE NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY SERIES £7.99/MONTH SUBSCRIPTION Throughout the 2018 Formula 1 season a film crew was granted unprecedented access to eight of the 10 Formula 1 teams. They even interviewed drivers in their homes and hotel rooms in the course of creating a new 10-part documentary series. The show, Formula 1: Drive to Survive, will be released on 8 March exclusively on Netflix, the on-demand streaming service. Netflix ‘drops’ all of its episodes in one hit, so there’s no waiting a week for the next part. Each one varies in length from 26 to 40 minutes – totalling 5.7 hours. Its release has been timed as a precursor to the new F1 season and it doesn’t disappoint. This isn’t a documentary that tries to explain what…

Three Tyrrell-Ford P34s nestle under the team awning in the Osterreichring paddock at the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix. Jody Scheckter and Patrick Depailler qualified 10th and 13th respectively, and both were eliminated from the race by front-suspension failures, although Scheckter did lead briefly. This scene’s backdrop of Agip posters featuring home hero Niki Lauda adds an air of poignancy, as the Ferrari driver was at the time still in hospital being treated for the horrendous injuries suffered during the previous round at the Nurburgring. For 1970s Formula 1 DVDs, head to dukevideo.com/F1 For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…